a NEW kind of sewing...

...the other day in FNP school we learned how to suture/stitch/sew...whatever you want to call it. We practiced this skill using pig's feet. Basically, we took a scalpel and made an incision on our pig's feet. Then we numbed him up with our fake lidocaine (saline) and completed the suturing. We did this process over and over for a few hours. It was awesome- not poking people with needles, but that I know how to suture someone's major cut!

Sunny Moab

This weekend we went down to sunny Moab, UT for the half marathon. It was gorgeous! The weather was perfect and it felt so good to get some sun.
Note: Skip this and the next paragraph if you don't want to hear details about running. The race was a success! My love for running has been restored because of this weekend. The conditions were prime. Overall, the race felt super fast. It went by so quick and people were just fast pace. It was like one minute we started then the next it was mile 8 and soon enough we were finishing. I think it partly went by so fast because I felt good for mainly the entire time. I went in planning to run no faster than 10 minute miles for a few reasons 1) I have not run more than 9 miles at once in the last 6 months 2) I only ran those 9 mile runs twice 3) with 2 weeks left until race day I got pretty sick and didn't run for 10 days straight and 4) my total weekly mileage over the last 6 months had not exceeded 20 miles.

Needless to say, my goal for this race was to have fun and finish. So I started out really slow and just enjoyed the scenery. At about mile 5 I really warmed up and started picking up the pace. At mile 8 I realized that I felt pretty good and picked up the pace again. At mile 10 or 11 I knew I was almost done and still felt good so I picked up the pace once again. I ended up finishing in 1:52 (one hour and 52 minutes). That is far from my personal best, but I was still pretty happy with my time considering my lack of training.

Pre-race

At the finish

After the race, we went up the canyon along the Colorado River and did a 4 mile round trip hike out to an arch in Negro Bills Canyon. It was a really nice hike along a stream. We had so much fun being in the outdoors. Here is a bunch of pictures...

Talent

I took some pictures of the drawings Brandon did when he was in HS. He had to pull them out the other day for the ward talent show display. He is an amazing artist, but sadly he really wants to bury the talent because he just does not enjoy it. He says he is too much of a perfectionist with his drawings and loses the patience to complete his work.
The last two are kinda washed out because of the camera.
This last one was actually auctioned off for $22,000 in the Houston Livestock and Rodeo Show. Brandon received a small percentage of the moola and the rest went to scholarships. Cool huh!