Biggest Loser!!

So I did It!! I won our biggest loser competition at work!  I lost a total of 21 pounds and won $200 :)  The competition ended on Dec 14th, which was perfect, 2 days before our anniversary and a week before Christmas.  The girls at work said we would start another one up in January after the holidays, which I don't really think is fair, I'll definitely be at a disadvantage.  But that was the push I needed to start taking off the weight I put on after we got married.  I haven't hit my goal yet, but I will get there!!  

Here's our thankful Tom the Turkey we did for Thanksgiving.  

Then I got this text from Dee Dee:

"So Mak just informed me that when we go up to Mom's that she is going to call you guys aunt Bacon and Uncle eggs.  Then when you have kids they'll be called pancake, waffle, french toast, hashbrowns and sausage.  And when she asks if you guys are coming she'll just say, "Is Breakfast showing up?""

Jamaal was surprisingly ok with the idea, probably because he doesn't like being called Uncle Bacon.  So.....here's to Uncle Eggs!!!

 That's his sister's new sweet baby JessiGrace.  She is a cutie.  Together we had 5 baby girls born into our families this year for a total of 30 nieces and nephews.....only one sister is pregnant as of now though.  My dentist asked how I can have so many nieces and nephews and no kids of my own and I said, "with 30 to play with, we don't need any of our own babies!!"  

Had to throw this picture of Shawsh's family in cuz they're so cute!  They came with me to my works Carousel party and got to hang out with Santa and Mrs. Clause, who just happened to be in my single's ward bishopric :)

We celebrated our first anniversary on Sunday!  Here's the top of our wedding cake to prove we ate it :)

After the biggest loser competition I would have eaten anything that weekend, which we did.  Ate and shopped and saw the Hobbit in the IMAX.  And Uncle Eggs got us a free room at the Red Lion again. Woot!

Lastly here is our cute Craigslist Christmas tree.  It was supposedly pre-lit, but it ended up only having lights on the bottom piece, and only one strand of them worked.  But we took care of it, and now there is a gingerbread man Uncle Eggs made in elementary school sitting on the top.  I love it :)

In other news, I got called to be the Primary Chorister, and although it's a lot of work, I really really like it.  The kids are great, we have a huge primary!  And I feel like I'm finally contributing, even if only the kids know it. 

We are pretty much done with our Christmas shopping and things.  We did a lot of homemade gifts this year, a lot with the help of my super awesome MIL.  I'm excited to see if everyone likes them. I'll probably have to get myself a sewing machine soon.

We're trying to head to Missoula for Christmas with my parents.  I hope the weather cooperates since we already are gonna miss little Jon-Jon's wedding in January.  I'm glad I have a full-time job, but sometimes it really makes traveling hard. 

I got my gall-bladder out in October.  It wasn't too exciting except that I had to stay overnight and have a second procedure, but luckily my hospital stay was free so it didn't add too much to our overall bill and now all the stones are gone!!  I can pretty much eat whatever I want, the only thing I've noticed is that if there is too much oil/fat in a meal I have a bad stomach ache, but it sure beats those gall bladder attacks!

The x-ray unit in Cheney is set to get replaced early next year.  It breaks down often, and it's in h budget, I'm excited about having some new awesome equipment!

Otherwise, things are good in Cheney.  We're liking our ward and being close to work and school and having nice set schedules.  Uncle Eggs is all done with his GE's and it's all downhill from here.  Preparing for the GRE and applying to grad schools!

Hope everyone has a great Christmas/ New Years!

Busy Week

This week has been full of stuff.  All sorts of stuff.

First, Please welcome to our family:

VADER

He looks creepy and glowy on purpose, it suits his personality.  His favorite thing to do is to not move a muscle when you try to wake him up, especially when he's hiding his head under some rocks!!  He does it just to scare me. Silly boy.  Getting a fish was just step one in my scheme to eventually get a dog.....Jamaal will come around some day.

I went to the doctor this week and finally scheduled a date to get my gallbladder out.  We're doing it at the end of this month.  Can't wait to finally eat Chinese food again!!

Speaking of food, this is my lunch today.

See all the healthy stuff?  That's because of three reasons. 

1. Gallbladder

2. Biggest Loser Competition

3. Bountiful Baskets

We started a biggest loser competition at the Cheney clinic, so I joined in.  I was coerced....but after paying my $20 buy-in, and realizing that I really needed to lose this marriage weight, haha, I decided to actually try.  So I borrowed Shaush's weight watchers stuff again, got me some yummy chocolate diet shake mixes and started doing the 30-day shred workout videos again.  Well it has paid off so far because after the week one weigh in I'm in first place!!  I lost 4.76% in one week, which was a whole percent higher than anyone else! Woot!  So now I'm super motivated to win the first place prize which is $200 and just a couple weeks before Christmas!  So, 10 weeks to go, wish me luck!

Also, we bought our first bountiful basket this week. We really weren't sure what to expect, whether the food would be good, or whether we'd even recognize what it was, or if we'd be overloaded with way more than the 2 of us could eat, but actually it seems about perfect, especially having enough fruits and veggies for my competition!  We got a big sack of potatoes, a couple red peppers, a cucumber, spinach, lettuce, apples, strawberries, bananas, grapes, tomatoes, and some weird fruit I can't remember the name of.  I think it's gonna be just the right amount for a week or two and it's pretty much all stuff we would buy or eat anyway!  Loved it.  We'll definitely do it again. 

Also, cuz I need to not eat stuff like this anymore

Although I'll admit that was pretty wonderful. 



Last but certainly not least is General Conference.  I love conference.  I have to work today through both sessions, but I can stream it on my computer and listen when I'm not busy.  And I'm so excited about the announcement about the missionary age lowering! Awesome!  Enjoy the rest of your conference weekend!

Mrs. Nesbit

I have a friend. A super happy friend who I love a lot.

She's happy when she rides roller coasters

She's happy when she dances

She's happy when she makes music

She's even happy when she exercises!

She's adventurous

She made a cameo appearance in Twilight

She looks good when no one else does

And she is a great great friend!!

I miss her like I miss making sexy tiger faces

She gets me like no one else does, even when we are far apart and never talk. 

She works hard teaching, I work hard x-raying. 

We suck at calling each other. But we both know no matter what that our friendship is forever.  

Yesterday she sent the most wonderful gift to me full of things I love, things no one else could know that I love so much.  But she knew.  And she loved me enough to put so much thought and effort into it. 

I cried

Good thing Jamaal wasn't home

I love you Mrs. Nesbit!!  Happy Un-birthday to YOU!!!

Best Day Ever!!!!

So. Today I was supposed to commute back to Spokane to work at the main clinic.  That's my normal Tuesday schedule.  On my way there, however, my boss called to ask if I'd go back to Cheney and work becuase the gal who ususally is here Tuesday needed to stay home with her sick kid. I was all for it.  Cheney is a longer shift which is more money, and it's quieter and I don't have to drive so far. 

The day went pretty normal, maybe a little busier than I'm used to, but I like it that way. I sit down for lunch, (they brought us southern bbq today)   and within a minute a nurse comes to say I have an x-ray, but that it's not urgent and I can finish eating.  Fine by me.  Not 2 minutes pass and a receptionist comes back to the lunchroom wondering what to do because there's a couple checking in who don't speak English and their interpreter hasn't shown up.  (We're supposed to schedule and provide interpreters whenever needed prior to appointments, so the interpreting office dropped the ball there) The receptionist was so frazzled, so on a whim I said "what do they speak?"  She looked at me and in a huge sigh said "CHINESE!!"  So I said...."I can speak Chinese." She looked at me like I was crazy and said "Don't bull-s*** me"   HAHA.. So I said I was serious and she hauled me back to the front. 

Longest walk of my life.  My Chinese is terrible, where would I even begin?  It was an older couple with their 20 something son.  None of them spoke English, and actually the older mother was the one who understood me best!  She thought I was the coolest thing since sliced bread and kept saying how good my Chinese was.  Yeah right.  The receptionists and nurses all just stared at me as I spoke to them an explained to them that an interpreter (with better Chinese than me) was on his way in just a few minutes.  They were so grateful and happy.  Everyone else was in shock. 

To avoid all the questions I didn't go back to the lunchroom and did that first x-ray that had been waiting.  Through the halls people kept congratulating me and telling everyone else what I did, I seriously felt like a celebrity.  I sat back down in the lunchroom when I was done and took a bite of my sandwich and a Dr. came back and said she was sorry but she had an urgent x-ray.  Went and did it, sat back down, another Dr. comes back with another x-ray... I'm never gonna get to eat at this point. Oh well. I go look at the name on the order and it's my Chinese friend!!  Woot Woot!!  The interpreter had shown up by this point obviously, but I didn't need him.  Me and the patient went back and spoke Chinese through the halls and through the x-ray and when I dropped her back off in the room she said thanks so much and my Chinese really was good.  (It really wasn't)  Whatever, she had to teach me how to say hold your breath cuz I didn't know how to!  HAHA .  It felt so great though, and gave me an opportunity to tell people about my mission because everyone had to know how in the world I spoke such a weird language.   Funny enough, this is actually the third time since I've been working in Cheney that I've gotten to use my Chinese! There's more of them around, I wonder if they have a club or parties I can go to.....and practice my Zhongwen!!  Oh what a great day.  So glad that my co-worker's kid wasn't feeling good today!  Hope she gets better by tomorrow though :)

Shredded

I'm not sure we can afford a gym membership, or weightwatchers like I thought I would since the cost of living is so high in Cheney (really?!?!?! )  But that's no excuse for not losing this marraige weight, I promised myself I would and I'm gonna.....So.  Day three of Jillian Michaels dvds and I'm about to kill her.  But I'm gonna keep it up if it's the last thing I do dangit!!! 

Native Cheneyans

It's official!  We are all moved to Cheney.  The move went really smoothly thanks to a load of help from friends and family, and even the cleaning of the apartment went quickly with Shaush and the kids helping.  Ella kept saying over and over, "Bacon look how clean it is!  It's so beautiful!"  Thanks everyone for the help! 
  
The new digs are better than I was expecting.  Everything fits very easily and feels like home already.  The only real downside is the small kitchen and lack of a dishwasher. Jamaal compains everyday about doing the dishes, but our apartment sure stays clean!  But other than that I like the layout and the storage.  The morning after the move however, we went to use the bathroom for the first time. I couldn't really inspect it during the walk through because the electricity hadn't come on yet (They said it would be on sometime between 7:30 and 3.......duh)  and so I didn't know till the next morning when Jamaal stepped on a piece of glass in the shower and cut his foot.  Who wouldn't want to wake up that way?  Once he figured out that the water faucet had hot and cold backwards (this was after trying to turn up the heat on the water heater which was impossible to get to)  he also noticed that only about 1/2 of the water actually comes out the shower head, the rest kept drizzling out of the bathtub faucet.  The toilet runs after you flush it unless you jerk it up really hard, and the stopper to the sink was broken so we had to take it out altogether to let water drain out.....besides that the shower doesn't drain very fast and is moldy.....But whatevs.  They'll fix it eventually.  I've only called three times so far.

But really I like it....my favorite part?  I ride my bike to work everyday now!  6 minutes!  I love it!  Of course it might take longer once school starts beacuse the traffic will pick  up. Today on my way in I only saw one other soul on the street, a janitor walking down the sidewalk of the school.  Cheney is like a ghost town between semesters.  So is the clinic.  But I don't care.  It's nice having all the streets and stores to myself once in a while.

The only other problem is our internet. Comcast doesn't service our unit.  And the only other 2 servicers are at least 50 bucks a month for their slowest speeds....which is like turtle slow.  I can't believe how hard it is to not have internet at home.  I had to bring checks to work with me to deposit them through the EWU wi-fi.  And who knows if any of our bills will ever get paid on time.   Expect me to only respond to internet things at work I guess.  It has been kind of nice though.  It's given us time to get settled in, just need to unpack the pictures and decorations now.  And last night we even had time to go to the Cheney city pool, which was oh so reminicent of the Prineville pool.  About the same size, same number of lifeguards, same dilapidated interior and showers.  It was nice I felt like a kid again. Good thing we made it too.  It was the last day of the season and family night price is only $3 per family.....luckily we didn't even have to break the bank because the lifeguards just used a leftover season pass punchcard someone left and let us in for free :)  Made it all worth it. 

Also, if we spread our tv antennas out all the way we can pretty much hear and see most of FOX and NBC on our TV.  It only cuts in and out every few minutes. Woot!

So anyone wanting to come visit the Calkins recidence is now open!  We have and extra bedroom, a super big living room, and 2 airmattresses!!  As long as you don't mind wearing flip flops to protect against the broken shower glass...... :)  We would really love visitors!

What the Heck!?!?!?

I have to give a talk a week from Sunday. 

I'm not surprised, we gave talks the week we moved in, might as well speak the week we move out. 

Except this time it's just me.....further, they didn't call me to ask me to speak, they called Jamaal, and he said that I would.  His reasoning being that I wouldn't have said no, which is true, it still doesn't give him permission to volunteer me. 

What adds fuel to this fire?

Let me share part of my journal entry from last week:


"Me and Adam had a good discussion s couple nights ago...... 
As we talked, I realized I have the same problem.  I hold a lot of hatred and grudge towards some people........
So me and Adam made a goal to pray everyday for charity.......... This is going to be a hard goal to do. "

So what's my topic?
You guessed it.

"LOVE THY NEIGHBOOR"

Jamaal just laughed and laughed......