Our Eventful Thanksgiving

We were able to celebrate our first Thanksgiving with an interesting turn of events.

We spent the day at an aunt's house in Spanish Fork (15 min from Provo). We enjoyed our time with the family eating dinner and pies , playing games, and watching movies. We were really fortunate to have family close by since I didn't have much time off from work. I was more tired than usual that day, but wrote it off to my weird hours at the hospital. We ended up heading home around 10 pm.

When we got home I started to have stomach pains and thought I was just getting hungry again since it had been several hours since dinner. I ate some leftovers we had taken home and we got ready for bed. At 11pm the pain got much worse and I started to wonder if I had gotten some sort of food poisoning even though Skyler had eaten everything I had and felt fine. I tried everything I could think of to relieve the pain without any success. By 1 am I was really hurting, started vomiting, and was curled up in a ball crying. That continued for the next 3 hours and we were starting to get pretty worried. Around 4 am we weren't sure what to do next. I had gone through all the possible scenarios in my head of what it could be, but was sure it wasn't my appendix. We decided to go into the Emergency Room.
We got there at 5 am and it was pretty slow for a holiday weekend. We got admitted right away and the nurse started an IV, took some blood, gave me some anti-nausea medication and morphine while the doctor came in for the exam. By then the pain had localized in my lower abdomen and the doctor decided to run some tests and do a CT scan. Around an hour later he came back to tell us I had Appendicitis and would be having surgery that morning. I started crying immediately! Even with all that nursing knowledge I was completely scared. I know I'll walk away from this experience a more compassionate nurse having been on the other end of things. Skyler signed the consent for the surgery and we waited for the surgeon. Skyler gave me a kiss and then I didn't remember much after that. I remember waking up in recovery and crying because something in my stomach hurt. I also remember complaining about my oxygen being in my nose and my compression boots being twisted. I'm sure my nurses earned their salary that night. :) Skyler came in and slept in a recliner next to me for the next 4 hours
until I woke up hungry and sore.













The recovery process began that night with walking laps around the hospital and trying to eat anything I could keep down. Skyler kept talking about how this must be preparation for the future event of kids with all the nausea, pain, and walking laps. :) He was so helpful that whole hospital stay running on no sleep. I'm not sure what I would have done without him. We ended up getting discharged the next day. The last few days have been a challenge, but if anything good came out of it I've learned how lucky I am to be married to someone who can still tell me I'm beautiful when I haven't showered, can't keep my food down, and I delirious because of pain meds. :) I am so glad I have him.

Power of the Wasatch

As the football season draws to a close, here is a little about my adventure as a Drum Major for the BYU Cougar Marching Band. This all began back in April as I considered my future with the Marching Band. This would be my 5th year in the Band. Two of which as a regular member, two as Saxophone Section Leader and this year an old dream of mine resurfaced. Back in high school I auditioned for Drum Major for my senior year but was passed by. As I considered my options I remembered how I always wanted to be Drum Major and the time seemed opportune to give it one more go. I got all the audition materials and did my best to prepare. Day of the auditions came and through it all, including some rather intense interviews, in the end I was proud to be one of the newest Drum Majors for the BYU Marching Band. This would be the first time in several years that there would be all male Drum Majors as well as some married Drum Majors. Thus began the exciting adventure of the 2009 Marching Band Season.

The months as Drum Major brought many challenges, new experiences and frustrations. Never have my arms been as tired and sore as the first week of band camp when we worked on two songs I was to conduct. We had to learn the marching drill and I was lucky enough to have to direct the whole time. I thought my arms were going to fall off. Luckily they didn't. The season had a lot in store for us. We did the most exciting show I have ever been a part of here at BYU. Great drill and great music, Malaguena and Spanish Fantasy. It made me a little jealous that I wasn't marching the drill.

We were also able to be part of some memorable events. As tragedy struck the American Fork marching band on a trip back from a competition in Idaho we were able to offer our solace with a rendition of Amazing Grace which we had prepared for a previous show. We were also given the honor of an invitation to perform in exhibition at Bands of American regional competition in St. George. That was a fun quick day trip on the bus and it brought back memories of competitions in high school.


















While we had a couple disappointments with the football team it was great to be part of another exciting nail-biter against Utah that ended in their defeat as Andrew George broke a tackle and ran in the winning touchdown in overtime. The year is coming to a close now with just a bowl game left against Oregon State in Las Vegas. It's time to show the Pac-10 again what we're made of. It will be a great close to a very exciting year as Drum Major of the BYU Cougar Marching Band. It has been a lot of fun to be up there directing the band and doing what I can to represent the university. I definitely have not done everything right and even got yelled at a few times by our director but it has been a great year. Being at the front of a 225 piece ensemble will always be one of the most exhilarating things I have ever done.

Pumpkins!

So I claim sole responsibility for the tardiness of our posts. It has been a rather busy couple of months between Tiffany and her work as well as all the stuff I have been doing for school. Here is a quick recap of some of the things we have been up to and Tiffany will be filling in on the rest of our exciting lives.

What we lacked in costumes for Halloween we made up in carving pumpkins. Tiffany looks rather intense in this one as she carves out her masterpiece. I went for the "traditional" approach and expressed my fidelity to BYU and the Cougars. We went to all the hard work of scooping out the seeds, then we dried them out for several days. Sadly however, on Halloween night I made the mistake of leaving them in a little too long and they burned. It was a tragic event. Luckily I love being with my wife and I still enjoyed the evening with her while watching "The ghost and Mr. Chicken." It was a cute little movie. Next year for sure we'll have to get some matching costumes and crash lots of parties. Any ideas?