Flooding in MidWest

In case you haven't seen it in the news, there has been several floods in the mid-west this past week due to huge thunderstorms! Luckily, nothing happened to our house....however, it was a very close call. Here is a timeline on our close call...

Saturday August 18 - Raining heavily all day.

10:00 a.m. - We go up to the cities with my parents to attend the temple, go shopping at the Mall of America.

7:00 pm - Meet up with Linda and Michael Friedman for dinner.

9:00 pm - Drive back down from the cities. Raining even harder. Visibility on the freeway is very hard to see and some places had a ton of water.

10:45 pm - Stop by Hy-Vee to by some Asian grocery stuff. The Friedman's were joining us for dinner on Sunday and we wanted to make California rolls.

11:30 pm - Leave Hy-Vee and some roads and the parking lot are flooding. Luckily we found our way out and made it home.

1:00 am - I look out the window and our road is flooding. The water is covering about 1/4 of our driveway.

2:00 am - Look out the window and the water is halfway up our driveway. We moved some of the items in the garage off the floor. Luckily we had decided to move our car into the garage. We had just finished painting it and our stuff was in the way, so we moved it to let the car in.

3:00 am - Our backyard is now a swimming pool and the water is withing inches of our garage.

5 am - Andy wakes up and the water is all gone! Our house is saved! :)

Here are some pics...these were taken at about 2 am. I hope you enjoy them.

This was taken the following morning...just to give you an idea of how high the water was.

Full House

We definitely have had a full house for the past few days. Andy's sister (Melanie) and my parents are visitng us..so we've gone from a family of 2 to 5. It's been a lot of fun and I'm glad they were able to come visit. We've had a lot of fun playing the WII and doing some fun out door activities. Last night we went fishing at Willow Creek Reservior and we caught 4 fish...we also inherited 4 fish from the other people who were fishing. It was fun.. :)

My dad has also been kind enough to help "fix" a few things around the house...the biggest thing he did was grease our garage door so it wasn't soooo loud. They also helped service our car...I guess our transmission fluid needed to be changed.

Anyway, it's been fun having family around. I really miss being around family. I'm glad they were able to visit us and that we still have a few more days to hang out with them. Melanie leaves Friday and my parents will leave on Monday....so, definitely will need to make the most of our time together. :)

P.S. Pics to be posted later.

Wrestless Night = Random Post

It's 2 am in the morning and for some reason I just can't sleep....I did fall asleep around 10:30 pm but it wasn't a very restful sleep... so, since I'm awake, I decided to write something...

Anyway, the past two days have been very long days...there's just a lot of information and it's hard to pay attention sometimes...especially when they're discussing worksheets that don't pertain to the pieces I'm responsible for. But it's been good and a lot of good discussions have happened.

Tonight was our MHS dinner..we went to a place called the Granfalloon Bar and Grill. It was a pretty cool place but a little small for our group. But it was fun talking to people. I didn't stay too long since I wasn't in the mood for burgers...so I went for a small walk and got some ice cream from Coldstone. I know I know....not a good thing to eat and I'll get fat from eating it, but it's nice to have a treat. Too bad I have to worry about that kind of stuff.. Anyway, then I hung out with 2 of my co-workers around the pool area.

Well...not much else to write....I guess I better try to get some rest.

Kanasa City Visit #2 - Cerner Design Review

Greetings from Kansas City!! It's my 2nd trip here and we're visiting Cerner this week for our design review. You're probably wondering what exactly design review is so I thought I'd give a little background on what I've been doing...since I haven't done this yet.

Mayo has several sites in the surrounding areas and they are referred to as the Mayo Health Systems (MHS) MHS is a network of clinics and hospitals dedicated to serving the healthcare needs of people in more than 60 communities in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. The physicians and their patients are supported by the highly specialized expertise and resources of Mayo Clinic. I am working with the various health sites on a project that will standardize their electronic medical records (EMR).

Anyway, Mayo and the MHS administration has decided to use Cerner as their EMR system and I am specifically in charge of the following areas:

• CareMobile: A wireless handheld device that can be used to do bedside medication verification and some other simple nursing tasks - such as documenting vital signs.
• Plans of Care: This involved created plans of care from scratch since the system didn't already have standard plans created.
• Meds Process: This area is huge since it involves Med Reconciliation. All I have to say is that it will never go away. You think everything is good but then one little question will set off a whole new string of emails.

So, the past few months, I have been meeting with a set group of people that are from the various health sites to make some decisions on how we would want the system to work. During this design review visit, we should be able to see a little bit of what we've designed to make sure it is really what we wanted. The days will be long and we still have a lot to do...but it should be interesting and fun. Also, it looks like we'll be heading to Kansas City again in October for another visit...

Recipe Blog

I've been wanting to share recipes online for awhile now, but I just never got around to it. I know there are tons of websites where people are sharing their recipes but I decided to still create my own. So, you'll find the link to my favorite recipes under the other links section. I hope you enjoy them!

P.S. I've also been thinking of creating a book blog as well....Stacy has one and I thought it was a very good idea. When I get around to that, I'll put the link under the other links section as well!

**Eaten Alive**

The weather this past week has been PERFECT! Not too hot and not too cold. The only downfall is all the mosquito bites! It seems that every time I'm outside, I get new bites. This past weekend, I got at least 13 new mosquito bites!!...6 on my arm and 7 on my legs...I previously had about 5 on my legs. It's crazy! I'll definitely have to start spraying bug repellent from now on...don't think I can handle all the itching. Luckily I have my Harry Potter book to keep me occupied for now.

Harry Potter Craze!!

This past weekend was a ton of fun! Friday night, we planned on going camping at Chester Wood park..well, the campsite was all full so we just decided to go fishing and BBQ our dinner over the campfire. Anyway, everyone has been raving about how great this place was and how you always caught fish. Unfortunately, we didn't catch anything....:( We've decided that we must not be using the right type of bait. Nevertheless, we still had a great time.

Since we didn't camp, Andy suggessted we go get the final book of Harry Potter! I was excited! I had wanted to pre-order it online so I would get a copy for sure, but Andy wouldn't let me. I was thinking that he had bought it for me...but, I didn't see the charges on his credit card (I always check our accounts to make sure nothing funky appeared) so I thought I was wrong.

Anyway, we went to Barnes and Noble to check it out...there were quite a few people there. And I decided that I didn't want to wait in line too long...I didn't have a reserved book so I would have been near the end.....so, we left. But then I decided to go to WalMart. Whenever we're at WalMart, we always spend at least an hour there. So I thought it would be perfect! Andy got really frustrated and finally he said, "Fine! I reserved you a book already! You don't need to wait in line for so long!" It was funny!! I figured something was up since he wouldn't let me get the book online..but I didn't see any charges so I wasn't sure. So, to make the long story short, we waited in Barnes and Noble for about 1 1/2 hours...near the end, the Whetten's showed up. They had also reserved a copy of the book. We chatted for a bit and finally we got our books! YIPPEE! We've been busy doing other things, so I haven't finished it yet..but I'm getting close. I would have finished it last night, but since we had to work today, Andy wouldn't let me stay up...so I'm planning on finishing it tonight! Hopefully I'll like how it ends. :)

Dragon Boat Festival and Harry Potter

Saturday we spent the day in the cities with the Wang's and Craig. We went early to go yam cha. It was yummy! Then we went to this park to see the Dragon Boat Festival. It was pretty neat. The lake was beautiful and it was fun to see the boats practicing. The real race was on Sunday. Anyway, the festival was pretty low key but it was probably packed on Sunday.

After we got back home, we went to watch Harry Potter with our friends Chris and Rahni. It was really good! Of course, it's been awhile since I've read the book so I really didn't remember much. I'm just really excited for the final book to come out! Can't wait to see how the author will finish up the series.

Camping??

Andy and I have been wanting to go camping again...so, we finally did! Well, sort of. We ended up camping in our friend's backyard. :) Angela and DiPing have a cool firepit and there was plenty of space to set up tents so we camped! The Whettens joined us too, but since Jaclyn had to work the next day, they didn't stay the night. But, we all had a blast! We roasted marshmallows for smores, cooked up some hot dogs, and just chatted.

Later, Andy and I played a game of Swap with Angela and DiPing. It was a pretty fun game..sort of like Uno but you never know who is going to win because you end up swapping hands so many times. Andy was so close to winning then I swapped cards with him. He only had one left and I won the game! :) Then Andy was able to home teach them and then off to bed. The weather was pretty good. It did start to sprinkle a little bit, so we got up to put the rain guard up...we were too lazy to put it up earlier...so lesson learned -- ALWAYS put the rain fly up.

Anyway, we plan on going camping this weekend! Hopefully the weather will hold up.

~Graduate School~

MBA here I come!! Yup, that's right, I'll be working towards getting my MBA degree from the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire. I just learned today that I got accepted. :) I'm so excited to finally have the chance to get my MBA degree. Plus, the program is online so I can do classes wherever I am and the best thing is that Mayo will be paying for a majority of it...basically, I'll just be paying for books. How can you pass on that benefit? In general, I've always wanted to go to graduate school and I'm glad that Andy encouraged me to fulfill this wish. I'm grateful for his help and his support.

Lessons from a Tomato Plant

A while back in Elder's quorum, there was mention of tomato plants....I think they related growing tomato plants to Faith or something (I don't remember anymore). So, Andy decided to plant tomatoes. They've been growing very well and they actually have several flowers on it. :) We were pretty excited. Well, one day, Andy didn't water them..well, they started wilting. He was pretty surprised at how fast they wilted. I had made the comment about how we can't miss saying our prayers or reading scriptures. If we do, our faith/testimony will weaken. Then Andy had made the comment that there was always repentance. I agreed with him and said we needed to see if our plants would survive. So, we went and watered them. Then, a few hours later, we checked on them and they had perked right back up. It was amazing! We were glad we saved out plants. :)

Our comments were made somewhat jokingly, but it just reminded me on how important it is to strengthen our testimony. We continually need to water our seeds of faith/testimony for it to grow and we can do this by following the commandments, reading our scriptures, applying what we learn, praying, attending the Temple, and just always striving to become better people. If we don't do these things, our faith and testimony will weaken. However, they'll be strengthened again once we start doing the things we should be doing.

Also, it also re-confirmed the importance of setting goals. Our goal for our plants is to actually grow tomatoes. So, to meet that goal, we will water it every day. In life, we should set realistic goals. That way, we will have something to look forward to and actually do the necessary things to achieve them. Currently, Andy and I have a goal of saying our prayers and of reading our scriptures every day. Since we've made these things our goals, we've actually been doing pretty well and I've really enjoyed it. It's been fun studying the scriptures together and learning from them. We're always trying to apply the things that we've learned.

Anyway, if you haven't already, set realistic goals...both spiritual and life goals. It will definitely give you more direction and give you the motivation to do things... :)

Beginning Stage:










Blooming Plants:

Visiting Rochester

Yeah! Our first visitors! Since we don't live in a big city, it's not likely that we'll actually have people come visit us. So, it was great when we had friends visit. German, Kitna, Baby, and Kitna's Mom came and visited us as they were making their way to New York. It was fun. They arrived Friday late afternoon so we showed them around Mayo, ate dinner, and then played some tennis. On Saturday, we spent the day in the cities at the Science Museum. It was nice...their baby is soo cute too. She was a very good baby. Also, the weather was BEAUTIFUL! Perfect for getting a nice tan. :) Anyway, here's a picture of all of us in in front of the Mississippi River. We're glad we had visitors and I'm excited for Andy's sister and my parents to come...they'll be visiting next month. :)

Transformer - The Movie!

On the 3rd, we went to watch Transformer with Craig and Jaclyn. It was an AWESOME movie! We all really liked it. The movie was fast paced and the animation was really good. On the way home from the movie, I couldn't help it but make the 'transformer' sound effect when the robots transformed. Okay, that may be a little extreme, but it was just fun making the noise. :) Anyway, I highly recommend seeing this movie.

Fourth of July

So, I know it's been a LONG time since I've posted...I usually am pretty good about updating my blog, but for some reason, I got out of the habit. Anyway, I am no longer MIA. :)

Anyway, Andy and I had an AWESOME 4th of July....we helped out at the ward party by filling up water balloons and helping the activity coordinator set up. We had a great time talking with friends and other ward members. Then, we worked on the flowerbed in front of our house. We added a retaining wall, potting soil, and some red mulch. It looks pretty cool..especially with the one flower that is blooming. We had planted other flowers but they didn't bloom; however, they didn't. I'm assuming they will bloom next year. All in all, I felt proud of our little flower bed.... :) Then, in the afternoon, we went fishing with our friends Craig and Jaclyn. We went to a place called Willow Creek Reservoir. It was beautiful! We spent a few hours there and caught a few little fish. We then went and grabbed dinner and then met up with other friends to watch the fireworks. It was great! The weather was fairly warm but I'm glad we got to be outside and spend time with friends.

Anyway, that's about it for the Fourth. I hope you all had as much fun as I did!

Easter Time!

I LOVE Easter! Andy didn't have class on Saturday so we were able to sleep in.. yipee!! It was really nice to spend the day with my husband. :) Anyway, we didn't really do too much. We were able to provide some service for a family in our ward. We went over to their place to help the kids color eggs and then have an Easter egg hunt. Her husband won't be home for another week or two and needed some help. Then we went over to our friends house to watch the final movie of Infernal Affairs. It was fun.

Friday was really nice to. We stayed up really late. My parents came home around midnight pacific time...so I was up until 2 am wanting to say hi to them. I'm glad my parents are home safe. :)

Andy and our friend Craig were up to 4 am playing 'Age of Empire III'. He had a lot of fun and was glad to finally be able to put his new computer to the test.

Well, that's just a quick recap of our weekend. Nothing too exciting but at least you all know we're still alive. :)

Kansas City

This week I will be in Kansas City Missouri for training on the Cerner Health System. For my job, we will be implementing a new electronic medical record (EMR) for the Mayo Health Systems. Right now, all the Mayo Health system sites uses different programs for their medical records. Some still use paper and some are partly electronic. Mayo has decided to standardize their medical record system and they chose Cerner. So, to help us all better understand their software, we are in Kansas City for a week long training. It has been a lot of fun so far..however, the days have been long...listening to lectures all day is not easy. Plus, I miss being with Andy. I can't wait to go back to Rochester and see him. :)

Taiwan Pictures

My Dad just sent us the files for the pages in our wedding book...we really really liked them. :) If you want to see them, Andy put them on his blog:

http://picasaweb.google.com/kinsio/WeddingPics

I hope you like them as much as we do!

~Reason's why I LOVE my husband~

Happy Valentine's Day!! I just want everyone to know that I LOVE my husband! Isn't he HANDSOME?! Here is a list of 10 things that I love about him:

1. He is a hard worker.
2. He is ambitious and crazy.
3. He makes me laugh.
4. He takes care of me.
5. He is supportive and helps me be the best that I can be.
6. He is very responsible.
7. He watches out for his family and makes sure his siblings do well.
8. He gets excited about almost anything!
9. He is very easy to talk to.
10. He LOVES me!

So there are my ten things. Of course, there are many many more reasons... :) I'm really am grateful for my husband and I love doing things with him...from fixing up our house to traveling around the world! He always says he doesn't know what to get me for Valentine's or for my birthday, but the truth is just spending time with him is enough for me. He's the best!

WII anyone?

Before the PS3 system came out, we were debating on whether or not we wanted one. Then Andy read some stuff about the WII system and thought that it would be better. However, we decided quickly to wait since we didn't really want to spend the money on it. Anyway, Andy's boss got a WII system and told Andy how much fun it was...so, he really wanted to get one. I still didn't want to spend the money, but then I got a job interview at Mayo. So, Andy asked if we could get one if I got the job. I agreed. I figured it would be a good way to celebrate.

So..when we got back from Asia, Andy started on his quest to find a system. He finally got one yesterday at Target. We had a friend that worked there and he was able to get us one during his lunch break. Also, Andy decided to go there after a meeting to make sure he would get one. Talk about a man on a mission. :) Anyway, he was sooo happy that he got one. Last night, we play 3 tennis matches and one game of bowling. It was a lot of fun! Definitely a unique way to play games...I'm glad we got one. So, if you want to come join us in the fun, you should come out and visit us.

I Got Tagged!!!

Ahh!! So my sister-in-law Allison tagged me. I guess I need to list 6 weird things about me... which wouldn't be any fun...but then I get to tag 6 other people! Which is the fun part...so BEWARE! Anyway, here it goes....

1. I love eating pretzels with yogurt...it may sound gross, but it helps to take away some of the sweetness.

2. I have to make myself be outgoing...I am naturally a very very shy person so I force myself to talk to people. Sometimes I still feel like a social retard. :)

3. I would LOVE to travel around the world...but I don't like to fly....

4. I can't run outside...my throat dries up and it taste like there's blood in it.... :(

5. I'm not someone who wants a lot of stuff...so even if I wanted to spend a lot of money, I don't know if I could.

6. Sometimes, I would rather cook and eat at home then go out to a restaurant.

Phew! I made it. Hopefully that works. Now the fun part!! Pauline, Juli, Winnie, Julia, Melissa, and Crystal -- You're IT! Good luck!