Bragging time!

As you all know, Travis is officially done with his degree... AND... he has been working on projects around the house, just as he said he would. Actually, to be fair, he started a day before he graduated. Just sayin'. This is the scene I came home to Monday night:

Supplies: bead board, white paint/primer, wall-mount electric fireplace, liquid nails, caulk, etc.

I will admit, I was less-than-thrilled about the new chairs being used to rest the tools

Tuesday, I got home just in time to grab the weights from the weight bench to help the mantle set flush with the wall:

Wednesday, the mirror and painting were hung:

The paper + tape on the wall... yeah, that was my crazy idea to center it. It only sort-of worked.

Ta-da!! Isn't he fabulous!

A typical night in our house: studying in front of the fire!

We only ran into a few problems (and by "we", I mean Travis. Let's keep it real here, I didn't do anything):

1. The floor/walls were not completely flat or level so the mantle doesn't sit completely flush with the wall. Travis remedied that with some caulk around the edges.
2. The walls must have been painted at least 20+ times so the painted peeled away with the trim. It is mostly camouflaged now that he repainted it this afternoon:

Whoops. Maybe the molding fairy will drop off some gorgeous, new thick trim? You're right, I'm dreaming :)

Travis,  crammed between the love seat and the wall, painting the trim

When he finished painting the mantle, he took the paint upstairs and freshened up the bathroom trim:

Travis in action

Before: yuck

After: much better!

And baked his own strawberry-cake-mix cookies for the food day at his work:

Finally, after a bombardment of pictures, I have a few more! This week's lunches: cajun meatloaf and mashed taters! The meatloaf is delicious and full of vegetables! :)

This coming week is my last week of anatomy. We will finish studying the "lower limb", take a test Saturday morning, and then begin biochemistry Monday! Enjoy your week!

October is here!

We are loving this fall weather! I am pretty sure we've had the windows of the house opened up for weeks now!

(random picture from the internet)

In school, we have moved on to the torso in anatomy. This high points of this week were looking at the lungs and heart. I really enjoy cardiology. I am not ruling it out, but I don't think it is something I could balance with being an involved mom.

We also have demos in lab from time to time. This week, an ER doctor showed us how you intubate a patient (inserting a tube typically through the mouth, or occasionally directly into the throat). He talked us through the procedures on a cadaver and then we got to try. It was neat to try (mostly because it was nice to get your first try out of the way on someone you can't harm), but it was also neat because he brought the high-tech equipment with cameras so you had a clear view of what you were doing.

This picture is an example of what you see before you insert the tube. (The patient would be lying down, you standing at the head of the bed. So the top of the picture would be by their chin) You are looking at a "windpipe" aka trachea- the tube you use to breath. At the very bottom of the picture (sort of wide and U shaped) is the epiglottis- it flaps down over the trachea when you swallow so whatever you are swallowing goes to your stomach, not your lungs. When someone takes a drink and chokes because it "went down the wrong tube", this is where it went. The smaller V you see in the picture are your vocal cords. Once you get this picture in view, you slide the tube in between the vocal cords. Ta da. You just saved a life!

Outside of school, we battled with car problems this past week. The abbreviated version is that Travis patched his car and we didn't have to buy a new one this week like we were expecting. Yay! My car problems were less severe, I was just in serious need of new tires. It was a little bit of an adventure because I thought the first place I went was trying to take advantage of me because the price was double what I expected. But, it turns out the second place quoted me even higher! My car just has "taller and skinnier" tires that only a few types of cars still use. Oh well, the tires are replaced and my car is safer because of it.

A chunk of this weekend was consumed with General Conference. Simply put, twice a year the top-dogs of our church hold a conference full of speakers and it is broadcasted around the world for anyone to watch. 

An example of one of the speakers.

Its pretty wild. I read this year it was broadcasted in 102 different countries and simultaneously interpreted into 92 languages! It is always an amazing program filled with beautiful music by the choir and spectacular talks. 

The choir from conference a different year

A view of the conference center: the choir is at the right under the organ pipes and the mass of people on the left are the 21,000 members that are in attendance.

Its one of those things where you can't help but walk away feeling uplifted and inspired. 

The top-dogs of the church: Henry B. Eyring, Thomas S. Monson, and Dieter F. Uchtdorf 

Also, just to keep you updated, we are starting another week strong with a fridge full of lunches! Have a great week!

PS- I looked at this blog from your view this week- YUCK. I plan to change some of the fonts/sizes/colors in the near future. Sorry 'bout that folks!