COUNTDOWN!!!!!

The planning has begun. We've started making lists for invitations and we're trying to figure out locations for receptions and all those fun details! I don't let myself get stressed or overwhelmed because all the little details don't matter... We just want to get married!!! Here's the official countdown. I can't wait!


Wedding-Countdowns

This is the start of a new chapter :)

I'm really excited about my new blogging adventures. I think I'm going to change this into a Jake and Darcie update page because WE'RE ENGAGED!!!!!!! Here's the story for all of you to read :)

Because it is Spring and we've had some nice weather we've been planning a trip to Palisades Reservoir to take some pictures together. Little did we know that it was going to blizzard the day of and before we planned to go, but we still decided it would be a fun trip to go on. Its only about an hour away from Jake's house, so we drove up there and found a spot that would be nice to take a few pictures at. I set the camera up on his truck and ran back to take the first picture together. Jake wasn't looking so he told me to set it up again and when the camera started beeping he dropped down to one knee and pulled out the ring box. I think I was so surprised that it really didn't register in my brain what was going on until he actually opened the box! I saw the ring and I was SHOCKED. I had no idea that he had the ring! What a sneaky guy! Apparently everyone knew he had it and that he was going to propose that day except me! I am so excited.






We are planning to get married Friday August 13, 2010. I love Jake so much and he is everything that I could ever dream of marrying. He really is my other half and I can't wait to be married to him forever.

July Adventures

We’ve already established that I really stink at the whole blogging thing, but I still like to put them up every now and then. So here are a few adventures in the month of July I thought were worth mentioning: (ordered oldest to most recent)

TACO BUS
I had never even been to a taco van when I stumbled upon this newly opened taco bus. It looked really cool from the outside, so naturally I needed to take a closer look. So a few friends and I drove over one night and checked it out…not only was the food good, but the bus had been transformed into a mini restaurant. All the normal seats have been taken out and two long benches were installed on both sides of the aisle along with little counters (I guess you can call them) under the windows so you have a place to eat on the bus.



FOURTH OF JULY
This year for the fourth of July I decided to stay in Rexburg so that I could see the Idaho Falls Fireworks Show. (Everyone said it was worth seeing…and they were right!) Most of my friends left for the weekend, but I was still determined to have some fun. Cliff left me his Wrangler since the weather was going to be nice and he knew how much I love driving it, and Jake had invited me to go with him to the Rexburg parade. So the morning started out with Jake and I walking all over Rexburg because every time there was a break in the parade we would walk further and further down the street to find the next attraction, which brought us to the fire station where Jake and I hung out with friends who we knew through the EMT program and Jake working at the station. Then we moved on to Smith Park where we watched his grandfather receive recognition for his service in the armed forces, bought a water balloon launcher and shot some balloons off the stadium with Erica, and then we headed down to IF to walk around until the fireworks started.

This is me laughing in front of the IF temple.

Having fun at the stadium and the fireworks :)

DEMOLITION DERBY
The weekend after the fourth of July, the roommates, friends, and I attended the Madison County Demolition Derby. We all, of course, HAD to dress up for the event. It was fun watching cars crash into each other, but I think the most fun came from finding the perfect outfit to wear.

The paramedic on the left was one of my instructors and someone that I really look up to.

These were the outfits, the cars, and Tom helping out with the tow truck :)


BRIDGE JUMPING
This is something I refuse to do. It looks like fun, but I still get nervous about things floating down the river that could potentially leave me paralyzed or brain dead for the rest of my life… that and I don’t really like the idea of getting a mega wedgie from hitting the water super fast when I’m hanging out with a group of guys. Anyways… I still go along for the adventure because I enjoy being in the water. I wouldn’t say that I love swimming or anything; I’m more of the wading type. Here are some pictures of the guys I went with jumping off the bridge:




YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK
Who doesn’t love the word “free”? On July 18, Yellowstone had a free admissions weekend where they waived the $20 fee to get into the park. The park is only 2 hours away from campus, so Erica, John, Jake, and I jumped into a vehicle and headed to the park for a day of adventure. It was really cool to see all the hot pots, wild animals, and Old Faithful. I’m glad I got to go with Erica since she had never been in the four years she had lived out west and now she’s graduated and who knows when she’ll be able to make it back out again.

Sometimes I don't know why he lets me drive.

The weather is FINALLY starting to get nice around Rexburg, so naturally that means it's time to cruise around in the Jeep again. Cliff lets me drive the Wrangler around town ALL the time, and last week I swore he was never going to let me drive it again. Around town the maximum speed limit is 35mph which is perfect for a Sunday stroll, but we had just made a sweet new "cruising jams" cd and when you crank up the tunes you naturally want to crank up the speed! So with Cliff's permission I drove a little ways out of town to Sugar city so that I could get up to 60mph.



Up to this point the drive was going perfectly, but once we got back into town we took a turn for the worse! I turned into a parking lot so I could start driving and the next thing I know the Jeep had mysteriously hit something and it kinda ramped up into the air! I really don't know who was more surprised because neither one of us saw that curb coming, but after the Jeep stopped bouncing around I realized Cliff's Powerade didn't have a lid on it and I was wearing it along with the rest of the car. I thought Cliff was going to kill me, but as you can tell he didn't. We had some good laughs about it and went back and took a picture. That wet spot on my jeans was Powerade... I promise!

i really need to be better at this...

I constantly take pictures for the sole reason of putting them on my blog and then I never get around to posting. Let's see... where do I begin?

Let's start with my 23rd birthday. The original plan was to go to Yellowstone National Park because I had never been there before, but the weather didn't agree with us that day so we went to Fort Hall instead. Fort Hall is an Indian Reservation that has a casino, buffalo burgers, and a trading post with some pretty sweet jewelry and moccasins for sale. Erica, Katelyn, Tom, Cliff, and I spent about an hour playing the slots and after $4 or $5 being lost between the 5 of us,we decided to call it quits. The trading post was the next stop on the birthday list of adventures. I got some copper plated postcards to send to some friends and family, bought a really pretty bracelet, (got another beautiful bracelet from Cliff as a present), and Erica bought a pair of moccasins. Here is a picture of Katelyn trying on some things at the trading post:


Then we all went bowling, where we ran into these dashing young men....


and we all decided to grow mustaches as well...




You'd think after all of this excitement I would have been ready to call it a night, but the fun hadn't even started yet! For the second year in a row, Bubbles the Clown showed up at my birthday party. Last year he showed up at the door; this year he popped out of a closet. What a jokester...
This was last year's meeting:


and this is this year's reunion:



we have some good times.

and who could forget this little gem...

Cliff has modified his old XBox and has downloaded every original and super nintendo game ever made, sega, nintendo 64 and playstation. While we were scrolling through the 900 super nintendo games we came upon Michael Jackson's Moonwalker game. The goal of the game is to save little children and it is HILARIOUS. The theme music is Smooth Criminal and the video wouldn't upload so here is a picture of it:

I'm still trying to be better at this blogging stuff!!!!

Where do I begin? It’s amazing how much (and how little) can happen in a week! I’ll start with last Friday when I went to the drive-in that reopened just a few miles down the road from campus.

It was a double feature opening night, so Cliff and I went to see the new Star Trek movie and The Soloist. Both were really good movies (I still like The Soloist more even though I had already seen it), but they didn’t end until 2 AM and I’m not used to staying up that late anymore. I took a power nap during the second movie, but it got really cold and breezy outside so it was short lived. We were sitting in the jeep with the top down, so I should’ve known I was going to get cold and next time I’ll be better prepared. I had one of Cliff’s hoodies on and a blanket, but I should’ve brought a comforter!

Saturday was really nice out, so I got to bust out my shorts! Cliff, Brandon, and I went to the park (I drove the jeep-and yes the top was off!) and we threw a disc around for awhile. Once we started getting sweaty we went to Horkleys and got one of there super big/super cheap drinks! 60 cents for a 57 oz drink… what a deal. (it might be 55 oz… I don’t know for sure). This is a picture of me driving the jeep… I should’ve put my hair up!


Now for the big adventure of this week!!!
This semester I only have one class on Mon, Wed, Fri., so I usually just sit around and hang out all day after class. Well, this past Monday I was texting a friend and he asked me what I was doing all afternoon. My reply was of course NOTHING, so he asked me if I wanted to volunteer to be a patient for the paramedic student’s scenario they were running that day. After a short phone call, one of the paramedic students told me to wear clothes that could be cut up and to wear a bathing suit or something like it underneath and to meet up at the paramedic room a little before 2:00. Once I arrived, I was told to get in a car so that we could leave. I thought we were hanging out in the paramedic room all day, but the scenario was going to take place in Mesa Falls. (the waterfall place I blogged about a few weeks ago). So Stetson and I immediately got on the road, and the ambulance and the rest of the students were about 30 mins behind us. Once we got to the falls, we scoped out a good place to carry out the scenario. I was a 69 year old woman who was visiting the falls with her grandson (Stetson) and my pacemaker stopped working causing me to fall down a flight of stairs. To make the students really work, we made the fall at the bottom of all the staircases so they would have to carry me all the way back up on the backboard. It was fun to listen to everything that was going on (I was pretending to be unconscious so I couldn’t see what they were doing to me). They picked up really quick on what had happened, and got things going right away. They cut off my pants and shirt so I was left lying there in a tank top and shorts, which wouldn’t have been bad if there weren’t 10,000 mosquitoes lurking around trying to find someone to feast on. Stetson tried to keep the bugs off me, but sitting here 2 days later I’m still a little itchy. The students broke up into two groups-the guys went to the bottom and carried me to the top and the girls waited in the ambulance to take over. The guys tried to get IVs started while we were at the bottom, but someone forgot to pack alcohol swabs in the bag, so they waited until I got in the ambulance to do that. I was attached to an EKG and SPO2 monitor and had a nasal cannula put up my nose, a c-collar put on, and my head was taped down to the rock hard backboard. It was fun to see how they did everything since they have a lot more training than I do in medical emergencies. (for those of you who didn’t know I’m a certified EMT-Basic now). Anyways- I did a pretty dang good job of staying unconscious during the entire scenario, but a few things did make me crack a smile. When the guys were carrying me up all the staircases Stan and Craig were talking about how they were glad I was the patient and not the other guy that was going to volunteer because he weighs twice as much as I do. But jokingly, Craig said “yea, but she’s still heavy.” And Stan replied with “yea, lay off the cafeteria food.” After that comment I couldn’t hold in the smirk. Then Craig mentioned how beautiful the falls were and I think he asked Stetson if he liked it up there, and quickly Stetson responded, “No, I hate this place! My grandma is going to die here!” Again-couldn’t hold in the smirk. Once we got to the top, the backboard was put on a stretcher and the girls got right to work on the IVs. I let them actually try to put the IVs in to let them practice but I was kind of cold at this point because it was cold, rainy, and breezy up at the falls, so I think it was harder for them to get the stick. They missed in both arms, but at least they tried. This is what my arms look like after 12 hours.

It was fun and we stopped half way back to Rexburg to get lunch. I was glad we stopped so I didn’t have to be on the backboard anymore. We ate lunch, got back to campus; I changed my clothes and started to help teach the EMT lab. It was 6 straight hours of medical emergency fun. I really like what I’ve learned and wouldn’t mind learning even more about first aid, but I’m still not sure if I really want to go into the Paramedic program. I figure I have a year until I can apply for the program now anyways, so that gives me plenty of time to figure it out!