This last week, two of my most favorite people in the whole world came to visit us in Rexburg! Jenna and Lydia (sisters 3 and 7 if you will) arrived in Rexburg on Saturday night and then Jordan and I finally got to see them Sunday night when we got home from Utah. It was great! They came over to our apartment for the first time, Skyped with the other five family members in Richland, ate a good amount of our food haha and then went back to Grandma and Grandpa's to sleep. And they definitely needed it for the crazy week ahead!
Monday
Jenna and Lydia came over after Jordan and I got home from work and school, and then Ashlee met us so we could all take a short road trip to Idaho Falls. We ate lunch at Chick-fil-A since Jenna and Lydia had never eaten there. Whaaaa? I know, right? Then we did a little shopping at the mall, rode up and down the escalator since it's irresistible, and drove home since Lydia wasn't going to last much longer. Then after I did a little homework (which was the last thing I wanted to do with family in town), we played mini golf at Fat Cats and ate dinner at Gringo's. Lydia absolutely LOVED their chips and salsa. I'm pretty sure she only ate one bite of her actual meal because she couldn't get enough. But who can blame her?! We finally ended the day with watching American Ninja Warrior. Talk about a great day!
I didn't have class on Tuesday so Jenna and Lydia slept over Monday night. We pretty much spent the morning sleeping in, getting dressed, eating breakfast and cleaning up a little. Once Jordan got home from work, we met Grandma, Megan and baby Cort at the hospital to eat lunch. I know that sounds weird but they have GREAT food there for a reasonable price. You can't beat it. So to anyone living in Rexburg, I dare you to eat there once and tell me you don't like it. Anyway, we then proceeded to go bowling at Fat Cats and spent quite a bit of money at the arcade haha. But it was really fun and we got to play with a baby so it was totally worth it. The girls and Jordan played some Nintendo while I studied nursing and then we made spaghetti for dinner and watched America's Got Talent. It was a great week so far.
Our activities that day started a little later because of classes and work but we still had fun! Jordan went fishing with Grandpa, the girls and Derek and Kyle while I stayed home to study and do homework. Apparently the fish didn't feel like biting very much that day but that's fishing for you. So we decided to go to Pizza Pie Cafe for dinner and stuff our faces with delicious food. But since Lydia isn't a big fan of pizza, she decided to just eat a salad composed of spinach, boiled eggs and ranch haha. Isn't she cute? It was good to just sit, eat, talk and laugh with family and get away from the stress of work and school. Great end to a great day.
Well this was probably my least favorite day for two reasons:
1. I had a twelve hour clinical so I pretty much spent all day at the hospital. And even though I really love working there, it was a little frustrating because I wanted to be spending time with my family.
2. Jenna fell off a horse and got a mini concussion. It was one of the scariest moments ever. But we'll get to that.
After I got home from clinical, Jordan and I met everyone at Porter Park for Beehive's annual picnic. We watched Lydia and Megan try to knock each other off pedestals and then went over to Grandma and Grandpa's to ride horses. Ashlee, Stephen and their dog Roxy even came over to join us! But it was all fun and games until Jenna's horse decided to start trotting and then bounce her off. It was terrifying to see her faceplant into the ground and not move for a second. At that moment, every possible worst scenario was running through my mind. But fortunately, she only came away with some sweet bruises and scrapes and a few sore muscles. We aren't sure, but we think she got a mild concussion because she couldn't remember anything about the accident and her head hurt pretty bad (no pupil changes or loss of consciousness though which was good). She was pretty shaken up by everything, especially by the fact that she couldn't remember anything. So I asked her if she would like a blessing of comfort and healing and she said yes. Jordan blessed her that everything would be fine, she would be at peace and that she wouldn't suffer any serious or future problems from the accident. It was a really sweet moment and I could tell Jenna felt much better from it. We decided to go get some food to eat and then went back to our apartment and watched "Dumb and Dumber" and basically pee'd our pants laughing. Too much info? Well if you've ever seen the movie then you can agree it's one of the most hilariously stupid movies out there. You can't help it because it's a classic. Looking back at everything that happened, it's obvious that God and a few others were looking out for us. And for that I am extremely grateful.
For the first part of the day I was extremely stressed and nervous. But once I took my nursing test and realized I had passed, all was well with the world! Haha I know that sounds pathetic but I can name probably twenty people who agree with me. Anyway, we ate lunch at Arctic Circle (since there aren't any in the Tri-Cities), played some Nintendo, watched some Office and suffered through the drenching rain to walk around campus. After getting a few things at the bookstore, we played a little pool and ping pong at the school! I think they really enjoyed that. Then we decided to eat dinner at Wingers (which I think was Lydia's tenth chicken meal for the week? What can I say, she loves chicken) and hung out at Grandma and Grandpa's for awhile. The girls decided to spend the night at our apartment and end the day with watching YouTube videos while I studied pathophysiology. Our great week was unfortunately coming to an end.
After sleeping in a little, I took Lydia and Megan with me to the school while I practiced a few nursing skills in the lab and took a test. They wanted to come with me because they really wanted to play pool while I took my test haha. Might as well take advantage of the free stuff, right? Then we went home, watched more of The Office and ate my homemade Mexican casserole for lunch. I had to do more homework stuff so Jordan played Nintendo with them. Now that I'm actually writing this out, all of the days are starting to sound the same haha. But I guess that happens during the summer. Anyway, we met the rest of the cousins to go fishing and actually caught some! Megan caught one, Derek caught a couple, and Lydia even caught one. It was a proud big sister moment cause I just know she got her awesome skills from me. After packing all of their stuff up, we ordered pizza at eleven at night and watched one last Office episode before going to bed. It was hard because I didn't want the week to end and I didn't want to say goodbye in the morning.
*If you want to learn more about that, you can read "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" at https://www.lds.org/topics/family-proclamation
Today's society offers a lot of distractions that tend to compete with family time. Many people think that they need to spend hours and hours at work trying to make money so they can have nice things and go nice places with their family. Ironically, they end up spending most of their life away from their family. But in my opinion, this world would be a lot better off if more people understood that it's even more important to focus their time and energy on spending a balanced amount of quality time with their family. At first, I kept telling myself that my sisters chose the worst possible week of the semester to visit since I had two major tests, clinical and competency to prepare for. But now I realize that their timing was perfect because their company was exactly what I needed to get through the stress. They made the week much more enjoyable and manageable; they helped me learn how to balance my time and remember what's important in life.
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