Happy Birthday to Me

Today is my 29th birthday, and it has been a wonderful weekend. Yesterday we went to a place called Corbett’s Glen. It is just off the freeway about 15 minutes from our house – a place that you probably would not even know was there just by looking. There is a trail that goes through a tunnel that was dug back in 1882, next to a river. There are 3-4 small waterfalls along the way. We wore swimsuits and found a spot just below one of the waterfalls to swim. The water was a little colder today compared to last week, but we had so much fun playing in the water.

Steph and I rented a movie to watch last night, The International. It was not very good – I just couldn’t follow the storyline. Oh well, we still had fun together.

Today I got to open my presents. Steph had an area walled off in the garage with our canvas tarp. When I removed it today, there was a giant outdoor gas grill. I was so excited. It has the main area to bbq, with a cooling tray above it, and a side burner. There is also a spot to put plates, etc. on and a drawer underneath for grill utensils. It has a device that can be used as a spit for rotisserie chicken, and another container for kabos. She also got a cover to put over when not in use, since it will be staying out on the back patio. We get to use it tonight for dinner – hamburgers, asparagus, and mushrooms!!
The family also got me an automatic Belgian waffle maker. Then my parents sent me some more controllers for the Wii. Thank you!!

This week was another good one for me at work. I continue to learn so many things and am having a great time. I really enjoy the people I work with and all the things I get to do each day. We tend to see a lot of acne, eczema, psoriasis, warts, mole checks, and skin cancer checks, but we also see some really odd things that we need to biopsy to figure out what is going on. I am getting better at doing the biopsies. I just love the variety, going from seeing a patient, to doing a scraping to look for fungus or scabies under the microscope, to injecting botox, and so much more. It’s great.

Steph and the boys continue to have lots of fun here in the home and the neighborhood. Kolby met some boys from the neighborhood and they took turns playing at the different houses. It will be so much fun when he starts kindergarten to get to know some of the others in his grade and class. I can’t believe he starts in a month. Steph and the boys went to a few playgroups this week and had fun with other girls from our church with their kids. And Steph and the boys are starting a tradition of visiting weekend garage sales. They have found lots of books and clothes for really great prices.

Thursday night we were invited to a dinner at Tapas, a restaurant downtown, for the birthday party of one of my coworkers. Steph called around and found a teenage babysitter from the ward. It was the first time we have used a teenager to babysit, so I was a little nervous. But she and the boys had a great time together and she did great. Steph and I had a great time with the people from work and want to do that some more.

Since I am the new scout committee chair for our ward, I was in charge of getting an Eagle Court of honor ready for Saturday. This is my first time doing this, but luckily I have a wonderful committee that helped get everything ready. About 40 people showed up and it was a neat ceremony for the new eagle scout.

Courtland continues to grow up. He reached 6 months this week. We no longer have a newborn in the home. He has tried several other baby foods – squash, sweet potato – and loves them all. He is turning himself over all the time now.