Bull Down.....

This all started last June with one phone call from my dad I will never forget.. He told me I had drawn for a big bull elk tag!!! I started to cry I was so excited.... I have been dreaming of this tag since I was little. I have hunted with my dad since I remember so this was HUGE! My dad was so excited... it has been so cute watching how excited he has gotten all over this hunt. So my tag was on a CWMU tag on the Fish Lake unit called the BAR J. It is an awesome place! One of the most beautiful places ever. ( no lie)
So my hunt was September 27th-October 1st. During the rut... perfect time! My dad and Nate and gone up every morning they could for weeks to scout. It drove them nuts being on the out side of the fence and not hunting, but patience men!!! So trying to fit this hunt in with nursing school was crazy... but it all just fell into place. I was supposed to have a Pharmacy test the second day of the hunt, but turned out it got moved to the next week, then the rest of the week was really slow so it was perfect.
The opening morning of the hunt Nate woke up countless times asking if it was time yet... it was pretty funny! But see I had Pass Off's that day... go in pass off a skill and chart and all this. So I didn't hunt opening morning. But I finished early and we headed up at about noon. I got home to change and Nate had me packed , my back pack ready, camelback filled, camo out, he was like a little boy! So we got up there and hiked down into the ranch, as soon as we stepped into the ranch elk were all around us non- stop. I thought we were going to get trampled, they were seriously running all around us, bugling non-stop, fighting, all sorts of action going on. We saw about 30 bulls that night, but nothing we loved! It was so awesome... Nate now LOVES elk hunting! He can't believe how awesome it is...
The second day.... We got up on the hill about 3 due to school and got ready to hunt that night. Once again the elk were going crazy.. we didn't know which bugle to follow there were so many. We finally just started walking. We got into a bunch of elk and trying to catch up with a group we heard. We had seen a quick glimpse of a big one, but couldn't ever keep up with them... Those things can move!! It was all up hill.... Then we were walking and I saw a bull feeding and I told my dad, we got down on the shooting sticks, My dad and Nate looked down in the bino's and said it's not the big one, but he's a good one so shoot if you can. Well I shot.. he just stood there... so my dad said shoot again, so I did, and he dropped!! I remember seeing it in the scope and it was so awesome! I fell to the ground shaking!! I can not believe the adrenaline rush, and of course again started crying! It was such an awesome moment. My dad and Nate were so excited, my dad gave me the biggest hug. He was so happy! I loved it.
It is something I will never forget... I will never get over the adrenaline rush it was. I loved every minute of it. I love hunting because of all the memories I have. My dad has told me so many stories while we have been hunting. I have been my dad's hunting buddy since I can remember. When Nate asked to marry me, my dad made him promise to keep me hunting and to come back and hunt with him. Awwww.... Cute! So sharing this moment with my two favorite men was priceless. Thanks DAD!! I love you!! I am so sad me and my dad didn't get a picture up on the hill... we were in such a hurry to get it out we totally spaced it! Something I regret! We got one at the truck, but just not the same.
PS... getting a full sized bull elk out of the back country... not recommended! longest night of my life!!!

The Best Time of The Year!!

It's finally fall!!!!! This is our favorite time of the year... although Nate says it means winter is around the corner and he HATES winter, but I told him to just enjoy right now! We are in Richfield now and we love it. Every weekend we have been either fishing, hunting, riding horses, or riding four wheelers so it has been great living back home and close to the mountains. Nursing school is going great!! I love it... although it is so busy and non- stop homework. I have already learned so much and just can't to get it finished. We have learned how to draw and give immunizations, how to pass medications, how to scrub in for surgery and LOTS of charting and I am sure more I have forgotten... But I love it all!!!
We also love the fall because of Nate's birthday!! His birthday is on September 24th, the perfect time of the year! For his birthday I wanted to really do something fun and surprise him. So I knew he had wanted to go fishing and go looking for elk so I just combined it all :) On Friday night I made Nate a fish cake! With only a few hours to do it, I was happy with it! Nursing school takes up every minute of my life so I wasn't able to spend much time on the cake....and I am not very creative, but he loved it and I was happy with it. Then me and my family gave him him presents... some camo and then I got him new binoculars that he loved! So the day of his birthday we went up and listened to elk and got all excited about the hunt, then that afternoon my family and Nate headed up to Fish Lake! I had rented a platoon boat all day to go fishing on... it was the best day! We caught lots of fish and had such a great time! So his birthday was a great success!! :) HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATE!! I love you!!

Summer Time....

Well I have to admit I am pretty bad at this blogging... We are now out of school and in Kanab for the summer both working. Nate is working for the BLM again and loving it, and I am at Shilo Inn just doing front desk again! We both work full time and I swear opposite hours so we don't get as much time together as we hope, but we somehow find time for each other! :)

We will be going up to live in Richfield next year, I got into the Snow's nursing program up there so I am excited for a new change. I don't know how excited Nate is about it..... :) I drew out for a big bull elk tag and we both drew out for deer so that should keep us busy!
We celebrated our 1 year anniversary also! We stayed down in St. George in my grandparents condo and had a great time. We had many great meals, swimming, and lots of fun at fiesta fun surprisingly! It doesn't take much to entertain us!!

We also were able to go to Phoenix to the Braves and Diamondbacks baseball games! Nate was in heaven... His parents, little brother, and Nate and I all went and had a great time!!
Well I will try to keep this updated a little better, so for now I will just post some pics of the the last few months to catch ya up!! Little Nixon and me!! :) Deployment of the 222nd!!! My brother in law Dustin left!! God Bless the Troops!

The 2 new BoYs in our lives.....

March is a great month for Nate and I!! I am applying to nursing school, we get taxes back, but the best thing about this March is the 2 new little boys that we get to be an aunt and uncle too.

Krista and Brock just had their first today on March 10th weighing in 7ilbs 11 oz and 19.5 inches long. He is a big boy!They named him Kash Brock Rasmussen. Dark hair, and chubby cheeks!

THEN.... In a few weeks if she makes it that long, Brittney and Danny are going to be the 2 proud parents of Nixon!

We are so excited to have these 2 little boys in our lives and can't wait to watch them grow up. They are such blessings to have!! We are now just waiting on little Nix to get here :) We have a few exciting weeks ahead of us.

Diagnosis: Atrial Septal Defect

Well the surgery is finally done and I am getting back to normal. I had surgery on December 21st up in Murray and can I just say thank goodness it is over.
We went up to Salina the day before surgery and of course all that night it snowed and we had 20 inches of snow. Luckily my procedure wasn't until 3 so we had plenty of time to get up there. Can I just say how much I love my amazing in- laws? They drove all the way up from Kanab that morning in all that snow to come up and be there for me. I love them so much, I am so lucky to have such great in-laws. They truly are a blessing.
I got up there checked in, got my cute robe on, I've started and I was just ready to get it over with. They took me back about 5 or so and the procedure took an hour. I remember talking to the guys wheeling my bed back and I kept telling him, " Please make sure I am out" I was so nervous. I got in the room and my heart started racing. They sterilized me, covered me with all blue sterile sheets and started pushin the drugs haha! The man said I am going to give you the Sedatives and I told him please give me a lot. Well I wasn't going down with out a fight. Ten minutes later he asked so are you feeling the medicine, and to be honest I wasn't so I remember him putting more in my IV and that's about it. I love it!! I swear I remember waking up and asking it was done and seeing everything, but all very blurry. Then the next thing I remember was waking up in the room and it was all over.
So I guess the problem all along was called an Atrial Septal Defect. We thought it was a PFO, but they couldn't tell until they got it there. An Atrial septal defect is a congenital birth defect and is very uncommon. My cardiologist said he doesn't know how I did sports and never passed out. He said I was running with oxygen stats of 70's when they should be higher 90's. So I guess i got lucky there!!! :) He also said that about 1/3 of my blood was flowing through the opening unoxygenized. So he said we were very lucky to find it. So instead of there being a hole all that all of us have and closes, my actual septum in my atrium never grew. So it was wide open. They had never detected it because he said they wouldn't hear a murmur because the opening was too big and to much blood was going through the opened septum so you wouldn't be able to hear it. So I had a wonderful stay overnight up in the hospital and the longest ride home the next day to Salina.
It took me about 4-5 days to finally feel like myself and get back to normal. My leg where they went in was the worse part, just sore and very bruised! I am now on Plavix, a blood thinner, and 2 aspirin a day for 3 months. So I am getting better!! I am just so blessed for technology, they said 6 years ago it was open heart surgery, so if they would have found it when I was born I would have had open heart surgery. So I feel so blessed to have the amazing technology we have now.
Nate and I went down to Kanab on the 29th and of course when I was down there I had a complication. On New Years Eve I got up and was in the shower I all of a sudden I got dizzy and my aura I get when I get my normal migraines. I went a laid down and thinking I could rest, but I was wrong. I layed there a few hours and it was only getting worse. I finally got 1/2 a loratab in me and that usually fixes it with a good nap, but nope!! I finally got to the point I could barley say the right words, my head was hurting worse than ever, and sick to my stomach. After calling my cardiologist and primary physician we headed to the Kanab ER. We got in there did some blood work, CAT scan, and tons of morphine and nausea medicine and 3 hours later I was feeling better. I went back home and slept 6 hours!! I am so grateful for medicine and once again my in-laws and my wonderful husband for helping me. I had never been so sick. It was horrible.
So we had to go back up to my cardiologist because of this uncommon migraine, get more blood work and an echo. But I am ok. He thinks a platelet got attached to the device in my heart and it triggered the migraine. My body is not use to it yet. I was on shots twice a day for 5 days in my stomach, but everything is looking good and we are all hoping I don't get another migraine!! Now I just have monthly check ups up north! Lots of driving, but so worth not having a stroke. I am just being careful, no lifting over 30lbs, and no sports, but only for a month.
I am so thankful for Nate, he has helped me so much through all this. I am so lucky to have him and and so grateful for everything he does. :) Also my wonderful parents and all their help. They are truly so good to Nate and I. My mom worries a lot now and rides my back about my pills, but I can't help, but love that motherly love. Also mom and dad thanks for the insurance!! haha :)

Our First Christmas Tree Hunt

Our first adventure to get our Christmas tree will be one we will never forget! I have always thought it just wasn't right to put up Christmas until Thanksgiving was over, but this year I let it slide. I was scheduled to work Thanksgiving day and then that Friday and Saturday. So we decided to get our Tree and decorations up early. About a week before Thanksgiving Nate realized we could go cut our own tree this year which means he could buy him a saw! All week he kept reminding me and planning out when to get it, where to go, and where to put it in the apartment. It was so funny to see him like this, he was like a little boy! So we decided to go Monday, the day before the BLIZZARD OF 2010. I was getting ready and Nate was laughing at me because I was getting all my snow stuff and gloves and boots. He thought for sure there would only be a few inches up there. Well I just have to say I WAS RIGHT!! We got up on Cedar Mountain and there was so much snow! We couldn't even pull off the road anywhere because they plowed all the snow up and well they were closed for the winter. We got up there and started searching, we finally decided to pull off the road and just go hike a little. Well with snow up to our hips and Nate in Levi's we didn't go to far found one! Packing that tree out was a workout. We get back to the truck and we could not find our tag anywhere. We finally figured we had our receipt and if we got pulled over that is what we would show them. We did not get all the way up there and hike that much in the snow to not get a tree!! The whole way home we could not stop laughing and talking about it. We got it home and it was perfect!! We got a big thing of 101 Christmas balls, well long story short we didn't even use 50! There is nothing better than coming home to a bright little tree and knowing the great story behind it. This tree has given us memories we will never forget! Nate said next year all summer he is going to start scouting for a tree so we have some idea where to go next year! He is so funny, and felt like such a man which his $10 Home Depo saw! I just love him so much!
We got so into the Tree business we went and got Nate's parents a tree the next day! It was a lot more work than our little tree, We had to hike quite and bit and it took us I bet 45 minutes to get back to the truck because of all the snow! We helped Shirley set it up and it looks great! We are looking forward to next year already! We might as well go into the Christmas tree business!

Good and Bad News.......

Well I will start with an update on mine and Nate's life...... We are still just working as hard as ever trying to survive school and still in love as ever! Some great news is I GOT A JOB! Wahooooo! I work @ Kolob Regional Center. It is a care center/rehab. We have long term residents and then short term patients that are recovering from surgery's and need to be watched for a few weeks. When I did my CNA clinicals I never wanted to return to a care center, but Kolob is very nice and clean and organized, and what can get better than the elderly people! That was the bonus of the job was getting to spend time with the elderly. I absolutely LOVE "old people" every where we go I some how always find the cutest old people. So this job is great. I have worked a week, and already it is much better than clinicals were. So I now tease Nate that I am his " Sugga Momma". :) It's the truth!! Some other great news about this last month was Taylor Swifts new CD came out!!! Nate and I are huge fans so we counted down the days for it. If you haven't gotten it WE highly recommend it! Also we are going to be a new aunt and uncle to not just 1 but 2 little boys!! Brock and Krista are expecting a little boy on March 15, and then Danny and Brittney are expecting also a boy on March 30th!!! We are so excited for both of them to arrive.
Well now some of the many fun times that we have had lately............. spike hunting, deer hunting, family time, friends, Halloween, and many more!!


Now the not so good news..... Well long story short, I was on birth control this spring and summer and during that time I would get terrible knock me out migranes. Now when I was young I would get the occasional 1-2 a year, but at nothing like this. I would have at least one a month and then it got to every 2 weeks and then toward the end of July it was getting as bad as once a week!! Every Wednesday or Thursday I could count on a migrane which would cause me not being able to see well, black in one eye, numbness, and so dizzy I could barley walk. I would just have to lay down and sleep for hours, and the day after it felt like I was hit by a bus. After so many my mom finally believed me that there was something wrong and figured it had to be the birth control. So I immediately got off birth control. This whole time my grandma Phyllis was sure I had a brain tumor, so my mom turned into doctor mode and figured out I needed an MRI and now they do an echocardiogram of the heart to make sure that the Patent Foramen Ovale(PFO) An opening in the right atrium of the heart that is open when your a fetus, but is suppose to close after birth.) They are now testing for this becuase they are linking migranes to being some how related to this opening in the heart. It sends deoxygenized blood up to the brain which they think triggers the migranes. So after many tests they came to the conclusion that I had a small PFO or Atrial septal defect in my heart. So on November 8th we had a cardiologist appoitment up north to see how bad is was and if I needed to get it fixed. Well after getting tests once again they found out it was much bigger than they thought. One of the tests like I said earlier is an echocardiogram with a bubble test study. Through an IV they send thousands of little bubbles to your heart and you are suppose to only see them in the right atrium, well nope not with me. There are just as many or double flowing into the left atrium. ( not good). My PFO is rated 5+/5 which is the worse, and the highest risk of a stroke with a PFO. 10% of the population have a PFO. So yes that means surgery!!! One of the nurses said well I have some good news and bad news. Good news is your heart looks healthy, bad news is that there is a hole in it. GREAT!! So after talking to the cardiologist he explained that the birth control was enhanching my hormones and enough estrogen that was really causing problems and triggering all these migranes, and I was throwing little blood clots up to my brain. All my migrane symptoms were serious stroke symptoms. He said If I would have gotten pregnant I would have had a 60% chance of having a stroke, even with 2 shots a day of heparin. After all of this of him saying how bad it is he asks, " So do you want the surgery or do you want to talk about it?" Ugh... well you pretty much said I will have a stroke without it so DUH YES I WANT IT! We laughed about that for hours after! So I will be having surgery December 21st, not the Christmas I planned, but no school and time to relax. It's not open heart surgery any more luckily! They will put me out and put a catheter up my femoral artery and go up to the heart, see how big it is and then they but a little device in it that looks like an umbrella to cover the hole and hopefully heal me up!!! I only have to stay in the hospital over night and then take it easy for a month so I will take that rather than a stroke!! :) So for now I am taking things easy and keeping a good attitude about this so called hole in my heart! I am just blessed they can fix it, and the technology they have now a day's. I find my self to be pretty lucky to have been on birth control and nothing too serious happened. I hope this fixes everything!! Below they show how they fix it... the device! Bottom Picture.....