hangin at the hospital

so we're all chillen in room 510 waiting for the baby to be born. it's gonna be awhile before chellie gets her induction meds so it's gonna be a looooong night! i can't wait until baby rowley gets here... pics will be up as soon as he comes out!

27 hours later....
he's here!!! Kyler Rhet Rowley, my amazingly cute nephew, was born at 8:07 weighing 7 lbs 15 oz. on Saturday May 23,2009. here's a pic of the happy family!


p.s. thank you cliff for skyping me all day and keeping me busy while i waited!!

Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Yesterday afternoon, Erica and Katelyn thought it would be a good idea to take a trip to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Why, you ask? Because we live in Rexburg, Idaho and sometimes you have to outsource for fun. So, we gathered up some friends and drove an hour and a half to Wyoming. This is what we saw when we got there:





We hit up some shops after we took pictures and saw a lot of dead animals hanging up on the walls and chillen outside on the side walks:



After we walked around for awhile, Cliff, Brandon, Tom, Katelyn, Erica, Vickie, and I decided we were hungry and we went to BUBBA'S BBQ! (it was delicious...but it still doesn't compare to Virginia!)


After dinner, Cliff, Brandon, and I went back to the arches and played some hacky sack. It's my new hobby, and I'm getting better at it... I promise!


It was an eventful day. We tried to take pics of the Wyoming sign on our way home, but it was really dark and Erica has shaky hands. Once we got home, the boys and I watched a few episodes of 24. I'm hooked on it, and I'm actually watching the second episode of the day as I write this.



oh, and I almost forgot... this sign was posted on a stop sign and it made me laugh. Usually you see lost dog signs on posts like that, but not in Wyoming... this is what I saw:

PLASMA CENTER NIGHTMARE!

A “quick and easy” way to make a few extra bucks around here in Rexburg is to go to the local plasma center. You “donate” plasma, but it’s not really donating because they pay you to do it. I figured since I donate blood all the time, that the plasma thing would be no big deal… WRONG! I made an appointment yesterday morning to go in and get my physical and to donate. While I was getting asked a million questions in the physical room, my right contact popped out of my eye! I should’ve known that was foreshadowing of the events to come. Sooo-I get through all the questioning and the physical and I’m called back to get poked with the needle. First off, that man jabbed that thing into my arm so hard I thought he punctured all the way through my vein! It hurt! The procedure of it all goes like this: they suck out your blood, separate the plasma, put the blood back, and repeat until they get all the plasma they want. I was on my third and last rotation of this and all of a sudden I started getting really hot and really sweaty. (and when I say really sweaty, I mean Kobe Bryant at the end of the fourth quarter during a playoff game sweaty!) My vision started getting a little more weird…remember it was already weird because I was a contact down at this point… and I started getting some hearing loss. So I shouted out to one of the workers that I was going to pass out, and he came over and reversed the blood process to put some blood back into my body. They elevated my legs and put an ice pack on my neck, so I sat there and waited a few minutes and then I finished up. I stayed lying down for a few minutes and drank some water, but as soon as I sat up I got nauseated and had to yell out to another worker to get me a trash can! I threw up three times! What a nightmare… but it wasn’t over there. Finally I felt good enough to drive home, and when I got home I had a headache and I had some really bad chills. I took a nap with 6 blankets and a comforter on top of me and I STILL couldn’t get warm! I texted a few of my friends to let them know what a nightmare I had experienced, so after my nap Cliff and Brandon came over to make sure I was alright. They asked me if I needed anything and wouldn’t leave until I told them something they could go buy for me. I told them to pick me up a candy bar because Erica had already gone to Horkley’s (the gas station down the street) to buy me a Powerade. So Cliff and Brandon went to the store and when they got back they had picked me up a funny card, some kit kat bars, an apple (because an apple a day keeps the doctor away) and a carrot (to help with my vision since I couldn’t see after I lost my contact). They are so sweet! I thought it was really funny and it really cheered me up! I still felt crappy all day and I missed two of my classes, but I did make it to the third. I had a headache all day and I never could get warm, but today I’m feeling much better and I’m deciding that all of that misery was not worth the $25. If I go again I get $35, but that’s not gonna happen!

Lesson learned.


this is my arm after two hours.... those jerks...

Welcome back to my life!

I’m going to make it a goal to write on my blog at least once a week from now on! And I will start back up with a few brief recaps of what has been going on during the last few weeks.

ICE CAVES!

Last weekend I got to experience going to the Ice Caves, which were absolutely amazing! The cave floors are covered in ice all year round, so it’s very slippery. I had fun army-crawling and getting on my back to push myself through the tight spots in the cave. If you make it to the end of the cave, there’s an ice slide at the end, and naturally I had to go down it! My clothes were really wet when I got back out of the caves (which was really hard to do because you’re trying to climb up ice hills… not that easy!). A large group of people went to the caves that night, so we had a bonfire and hung out before we called it a night. The funniest part of the night was off-roading to get to the caves. I’m almost positive every jeep and truck got stuck on the way down there. It should’ve taken us 20-30 mins to get there, but it took my crew over an hour because we had to keep towing people out and then we needed towed and no one could help us! It was fun, but I don’t know if I got more bruises climbing through the caves or from hitting my knees on the dashboard! I wish I would’ve brought my camera because I could’ve taken really cool pictures in the caves… oh well. Hopefully I’ll get to go back there again before I leave Idaho.

MESA FALLS!

I went to the Ice Caves last Saturday, and Sunday after church the same friends were adventuring up to Mesa Falls and invited me to come along. Cliff packed a picnic lunch for the two of us, which we ate once we got up to the falls. I got some pretty pictures while I was up there, so I’ll let those do the talking!

This is me in front of the waterfall and pictures of the scenery around it.