is home from the hospital!

I haven't written in awhile. Mostly I haven't felt like I have had anything to say. Last week on Thursday, Matt and I had a day of doctor's appointments. I finally found a doctor. I initially called Dr. Anderson, but he didn't have any appointments for a few months. Next I called Dr. Dewey's office. He wasn't available, but the nurse practitioner was available on Thursdays :) and - she's a girl! I win! So I saw Kelli Parker (I think Parker...). I dragged Matt with me. It wasn't too bad. My uterus and ovaries are normal. She wrote me a scrip for blood work to check my thyroid, which I finally did today. No real indications of anything, just want to make sure - especially if I get pregnant. We decided that maybe my antibiotic could be screwing up my hormones (I didn't know they could do that), so she told me to just take it once a day instead of twice a day. Hopefully that will help. We had a break after that, so we hung out at Matt's parents' house until my dentist appointment at 1pm - then Matt went to his dentist at 1:30pm, then to his optometrist at 2:30pm. We mostly had a lazy day after that.

That morning, my Grandpa Wilson went in for a quintuple bypass. That afternoon, he was finally out and in ICU. We didn't go up to see him that day. Friday he was doing well enough they moved him out of ICU. We went up that evening after Matt got off work. He hurts - it's hard to breathe since they had to cut his diaphragm to get to his heart.

After we left the hospital, we hung out with some of Matt's co-workers. We went up the canyon, lit a fire, and had food... sort of. Bit of a mess and not well prepared. Oh well.

Saturday we both worked then went to Matt's parents' for the tail-end of a family get-together. It was nice to see everyone again :) Sunday we had church, then took a long nap before going down to my parents' to do laundry. My step-sister's family was over visiting, so we had a huge family dinner and talked a little.

Today - there were threats of snow and icky weather not conducive to motorcycle riding. So I took Matt to work then went to the hospital to get my blood drawn. It didn't take long, so I figured I'd visit Grandpa. It was nice. He told me he didn't think anyone would come visit him today, so he was really glad I stopped by. It made me happy :) I love my Grandpa - I'm glad the surgery went well and he is doing okay. He should hopefully get to come home in the next day or two.

In other news, only like 2.5 weeks before we go to Phoenix and will get to actually walk through houses! I'm excited. Matt has already had a job offer at a branch in Carefree. He declined cuz it's far away, but they said to call if nothing comes up and they'll take him. Today he had a phone interview with a branch in Surprise. It would be nice because then I wouldn't feel bad about liking so many houses in El Mirage (at the moment we are trying to target Avondale, Goodyear, and Glendale). It's a very exciting time... now if only I could find some stupid sources for my archaeology paper (which... I've found 0 thus far, and the paper is due on the 9th.... I wonder how much of my grade it is.... I only need a C-....)

Yesterday evening, I drove Matt up to the airport. He is currently in California for another band rehearsal weekend. And I'm here. :( Last night was the first night we have spent apart. It wasn't too bad, but today has been pretty lonely. I got some cleaning done (not as much as I was hoping for, but it's much improved), finished watching The Bachelor finale and after the final rose. That's pretty rough stuff. I knew Jason and Molly were together because I watched ET last night, but I didn't know it ended the way it did. Sad news. However, exciting that Jillian is the next bachelorette! (Thanks, Gloria. I think I'm now hooked on this show!) Now I just need to make it out of the house to go buy bread and milk before tomorrow.

I have not done any homework today (major issue since I'm already behind in the one class, and we have a test on Thursday! eek!) My goal is to do homework tomorrow while I do the laundry. We shall see. I might not take the computer, because it has a tendency to be a major distraction. Like today :) I started my second scrapblog with the pictures from Queen Mary.

Scrapblog is wicked awesome. I have had the intent to blog about it, but I haven't yet - so I guess you just get a snippet right here. Go to www.scrapblog.com. It's free and way easy to use. I love it! Sometimes there are glitches, but the team is pretty good at working them out. You can check my scrapblogs at www.scrapblog.com/anikatrina, however, my wedding one is set to private at the moment. But you can see the pages I have for QM so far! I just finished page 8.

Matt did finally call me today. He was with the drum corps at Marie Calendar's waiting for dinner. Very loud. I was even more sad after hanging up with him. Being alone sucks. I suppose it will be good practice for if Matt moves to AZ before I do. At least tomorrow there is church (which Shawn pointed out will be really at like 8am because of daylight savings :p), then laundry, then Matt comes home at 9pm! I miss him so much.

Speaking of Shawn, he texted me not long after I hung up with Matt, so I called him and we talked for a little while. That was fun. He is home alone too (sorta... his parents are gone this weekend anyway), so he was at Blockbuster finding movies to entertain himself with.

In other news, our Xbox broke. Matt was downloading a demo, and it froze. Then when we'd try to turn in back on, it had three red lights blinking at us. Apparently that usually means there is a hardware problem. So today, I ordered a service repair. Luckily, problems of this nature are covered for three years. They are sending us a box with a shipping label within the next four days. Then we will send our little Xbox off - and they'll fix it. However, I don't know how long that will take. It's sad. And it means I can only watch movies on my laptop. :p

Last item of business - I'm still freaking bleeding. Matt has been begging me to find a gynecologist because he worries about me. I tried one day. The Utah Valley Regional Medical Center Women's Clinic didn't have any openings until May. That's retarded. I tried their midwife clinic in Orem, but it was a Friday, of which they are closed on. So now I've been gathering people's recommendations. So if you have a gynecologist you absolutely adore (or one you really hated), let me know. I've been referred to quite a few, but I like to hear testimonials, not just names. Besides, if more than two people really like one, that only makes me feel better about calling. So please, leave your suggestions.

Today was the farewell address of a high school friend of mine. She will be serving an LDS mission in Nauvoo, Illinois in American Sign Language. This apparently has been a long time coming, with random complications in the past preventing her from going. However, she was able to finally get confirmation of her decision, and get all the necessary paperwork done and approved. She will be an awesome missionary.

The whole sacrament meeting topic was modern day revelation. A good topic. :) Nikki presented the lesson on the restoration. It was very well done. The Spirit was definitely there. The part that moved me the most, however, was the musical number after her talk.

Nikki and a friend signed the song How Great Thou Art while another friend played it on the piano. I started crying at the first chorus, "Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee.." I'm sure it was more poignant by the fact that a lot of her non-hearing friends were sitting in the row directly behind us. Another touching addition to the arrangement, in the fourth verse, the piano cut out - all that was left was the sign language. It was truly beautiful.

This was one of the most spiritual church meetings I have attended in a while. I'm so grateful for the experience and for everything that the gospel provides.

Congratulations, Sister Westwood. You'll be amazing. :)

**warning: ridiculously long post to follow**

We didn't have a cutesy V-day this year (not that it has been a major holiday for us before). However, this year, Valentine's Day and President's day were the same weekend - meaning the Queen Mary Scottish Festival! Matt was planning on soloing there anyway - and then his California band decided to compete there as well.

We left Friday morning, dropped Bhuvan off at Grandma Biggs' again to be bird-sat, then went to Santaquin to pick up Shawn (because heaven knows I can't pipe for my husband lol). Then we embarked on our 9 hour journey. Blah. Seriously one of the lamest drives ever, especially when you do it once or twice a month! We took an early stop in St. George to get gas, have lunch, and pay Matt's car payment before we left the realm of Mountain America Credit Union. Naturally, we got stuck in the stupid construction at Vegas. Shouldnt it be done by now??? However, we did get to see two jets take off from Nellis AFB as we approached Vegas. That was pretty cool. Uncool was the snow in freaking California. I was not too happy to leave snow only to find more of it. However, we managed to make it into Long Beach with enough time to check into our hotel and relax a minute before heading down to the boat so Matt could rehearse with the drum corps.

After rehearsal, it was kind of late - and we were exhausted and hungry, so we drove aimlessly around downtown Long Beach waiting for the GPS to find us (it thought we were in the bay - silly thing) so we could look up restaurants nearby. We went to BK and then headed back to our hotel where we went to sleep pretty promptly since Matt had his solo in the morning.

So on Valentine's Day, we awoke, had breakfast at the hotel (a complete hole, btw), packed the car up, and drove down to the boat. We found Andrew, and he had Matt play his solo drum. So we hung out and watched drum solos most of the morning. After that, we found where the band was hanging out, and hauled all our stuff over there (my shoulders were so sore). JJC didn't have to play massed bands since they were playing for the Drum Major competition both days. While they hung out and got ready for that, Shawn and I decided to shop the vendors. We also picked up Matt's judging sheet. Before the D/M comp started, we hung out with the band, then Jennifer (wife of another of the snare players, Dave) and I went back up to the registration table to pick up Dave and Andrew's sheets. We watched some of the D/M comp, but I could only handle so much. So Shawn and I shopped some more. After awhile, my feet were sore, so we decided to have a sit and listen to Highland Way for a bit before heading back out to watch the D/M competition some more. Once they were finally done with that, we had ourselves some lunch. Overpriced (as expected), but not bad. Then we left Matt to rehearse and prep for competition that afternoon. Shawn and I did make it back to watch all three bands compete in the combined grade 1/2 contest. Then there was more hanging out until the awards were handed out - then we got to go rest back at the hotel. We were all so tired (strange since I didn't do anything...), so we ordered pizza from the local pizza hut, whose number was conveniently located on our hotel key. We spent a nice, quiet evening in. Ian came over and shared our food, and ended up staying with us that night, as well as the following night. (Can I just say that gay men are way more drama than teenage girls? sheesh!) Matt and I found a random movie on Netflix instant play. It was all about babies! *sigh* I want a baby. Shawn wouldn't let me buy any of the cute baby stuff the vendors had. End Saturday.

Sunday was nice. We got to sleep in. We didn't have to be at the boat until 11am. We also decided not to bring as much stuff (like our chairs and my homework) since we didn't use them much the day before, making my shoulder a little happier. Sunday was pretty much more of the same. The band played for the Drum Majors, got lunch, and rehearsed for the MSR competition. Matt didn't compete in MSR with them, so we decided to use our $5 coupon to the Promenade Cafe and have a nice lunch. I consider that (along with the wii, obviously) our Valentine's celebration. We had a little table next to the window on the boat, with a pretty view of the Long Beach coast line. Long Beach actually looks attractive from that angle. After lunch, we went back to watch the band get ready for competition. We did take a slight break to watch LA Scots grade 3 compete, since the SL Scots drum corps is playing with them, and we have friends there (and of course, you too, Ed!). Matt didn't want to watch Oran Mor and LA grade 1 compete, so I hung out with Greg (a tenor drummer)'s girlfriend to watch the competition. Matt and Shawn came over to watch JJC compete. We didn't stay for the awards. Dinner consisted of left over pizza and Cocoa Pebbles (thanks to Shawn and Ian braving the streets to walk to CVS Pharmacy). We watched TV, and Achmed the Dead Terrorist on You Tube. The plan was to wake up early to get on the road early Monday - but we sucked at that.

We left about an hour later than planned. We just thought that would mean getting home an hour later. Silly us. No, no. It still decided to snow in freaking California. Due to this - they closed I-15 at the Cajon pass. We were just past the exit they closed it at - so we spent at least an hour and a half to get to the on ramp of the same exit, where we were routed back up and off the road. Did you know there are no convenient alternatives to get to Utah from there? Because there aren't. We took a potty break and got snacks in the very crowded gas station while we called people to help us find alternate routes or a place to stay the night. We talked to Seumas about staying at his place, but he had to get back to us once he talked to Norma. We did find one road that looked promising, so we headed that direction. We probably should have taken it and got in at 1am, but once we got there, we opted for only a 2 hour drive further into Phoenix, where we stayed with my step-sister.

Phoenix was so nice and sunny. It was nice to hang out with family for a little while. Not only that, but it solidified moving this summer! We stopped by one house on our way out of town. I can't wait until April when we'll actually walk through houses and hopefully make an offer! Anyway - we finally got left for the 10 hour drive back home. Arizona has cool scenery. So we come into Vegas - take a lunch and gas break - and head to the I-15 junction. I-15 is no longer our friend. The junction was closed (stupid construction), so they routed us through town and up. On the plus side, I could see the Vegas temple in the background :). After that, it was smooth sailing. We didn't hit any bad weather - just extreme boredom. We made it home by 8pm Tuesday and then crashed. Long drives suck.