Oh the weather outside is frightful!!!

Derek had 3 tests to prepare for this week...
em>Here he is studying long hours in his office...he didn't want a picture so therefore he wouldn't look at me. I keep telling him that I need to document the tough times:)

Derek has successfully completed his first semester in medical school! So far he has checked off Human Anatomy, Nutrition, Histology and Biochemistry!Next semester he looks forward pharmacology, Human physiology and neurology. He has been learning osteopathic manipulation techniques and I love it when he practices on me. I can't wait until he learns how to manipulate my head to rid myself of the migrains that I often get:)
On friday,shortly after the test we celebrated with our circle of first year friends.

My all time favorite Christmas game, I never get tired of it. It is multiple presents wrapped inside of other presents. Each person must roll dice and get doubles in order to proceed to unwrap the present. A hat, scarf and gloves must be put on before you can open the present




Stewart missed the majority of the game, but somehow he managed to beat us all. Congrats Stewart!



It was great to get together and play games, eat great food and relax. Good thing the party started at noon because by 3pm a supposed snow storm was heading our way. I didn't think too much of it, just last week I walked in my flipflops,coatless to the library.Boy were we surprised when we stepped out the door the next morning. It had snowed 16 inches!





We had so much snow that there wasn't enough plows to go around.I had friends traveling home who were stuck overnight on the freeways and Church was also cancelled on Sunday due to the unplowed snow. I don't think I've ever experienced having to cancel church due to snow. For all you who live in Utah, appreciate the salt. Not only to we lack in snow plows but we also don't have salted grounds.


Skofeild loves the snow, he couldn't get enough of it.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Make a Smilebox greeting

10 Days in Utah

My eldest brother Simi and his wife just had their third son Isaiah Simi Cazeau. My brother asked me to help out, Simi has a busy schedule with work and school and Stacy needed help with Braxten and Audric while she recovered. I of coarse jumped at the opportunity to go home to meet my new nephew and visit with family.



The boys (Audric and Braxten) refer to Isaiah as 'baby Isaiah' they are so cute with him. Braxten is constantly kissing him and Audric always wants to hold him.



The Boys are so energetic, good thing for the movie "UP" I could bribe them to watch a movie rather than play 24/7. I took them on walks a few times to burn energy but that didn't seem to help. When we weren't watching "UP" (which we watched 4 or 5 times) we were playing on the ship aka their bunk beds.
Audric is so funny with grandpa, I guess dads ears are irresistible to a 3 year old. Audric has also taken up shaking his bum around the house, as seen as the picture above.



Almost every morning, if I wasn't up the boys would run down stairs and scream "wake up lazy bum" and jump on the bed. They were my alarm clock in the mornings.



Audric won the contest Jack-o-Cuties, he won 10 tickets to Disney on Ice. Thanks to my BFF Susiane, she heard the announcement on the radio, if she hadn't we probably would have never known. It was the first Disney on Ice I had ever attended. I was pretty impressed at how well the characters skated in their huge costumes.



Simi also invited our first cousin Mele and her two oldest girls. It was fun to hang out with her, she is like one of our sisters.




I met up with my BFF Susiane and enjoyed a session at the temple (temple trips here are 5 hours away). We also visited Alithie in Logan, she just had her first son Emett Mathias Rock. She declined to a picture, so I took pics of her good looking son instead.

My last picture with Susiane, she is such a great friend. I'm blessed to have amazing friends in my life.

I nearly missed my flight because I was confused at the time. As I rushed the around the house the boys thought it would be funny to hide in my suitcase. I offered to take them with me, I promised they could play the Wii as much as they wanted but they refused. It's obvious that they love their family and home. They were so much fun.
I also visited my in-laws, I didn't catch pictures with them but it was so fun reading with little Zoe and hearing Alecs stories about his swords and guns:)

I took a lot of pictures of family, I have an armature photography blog (it needs a ton of work). I figure it's time to learn a practical skill like photography, I've been working on this skill since my mom bought Derek and I a Nikon for our farewell present. Please check it out if you'd like to see more fun pictures of my family. www.Nativarodebackphotography.blogspot.com I've been hesitant to reveal my blog because it's definitely not up to par with many other photo blogs. I figure I need constructive criticism in order to improve my my skills:)

New Orleans Trip

November 1-4, 2009
I was nominated SAA (Student Advocate Association)Historian and so I was asked to travel to the AOA (American Osteopathic Association) Conference in New Orleans. Lauren Rigby (Secretary) and I traveled to her home town in North Carolina to fly out on a cheaper flight.

I had never been to New Orleans so I made sure to take plenty of pictures. As a member of the SAA we were expected to network mostly so had a lot of free time to explore. I thought I'd see a lot of the hurricane devastation but I didn't see anything but the painted X's which meant dead bodies had been discovered at that specific location.

During the conference, a new president was nominated. A traditional New Orleans band played as we made our way to lunch. It was catchy music, the kind that makes you want to dance. I didn't dance, it's hard to do when your surrounded by people who don't dance at all. It was fun to notice all the employees in the hotel dancing around as we walked by.

Supposedly Bourbon street is the partier street, 24/7 partying happens on this street. The bronze and gold street entertainers reminded me of Las Vegas. I thought the buildings were pretty interesting, they called it the French quarters but they building seemed to have a lot of Spanish influence.


This funky car reminded me of Chicago, I always wonder what state of mind the person gluing useless trinkets onto a car is in. I just noticed that the drivers side windows asks for donations. Hmm...


Here is one of the many cruise dinner boats. We were so excited for a meal until I realized it was a buffet. Mass produced food doesn't really sit well with me, I told my husband it's because he's spoiled me and we enjoy qualitiy over quantity. It was really disappointing because everyone raved about Creole food. I was thinking Creole like my Grandma Nativa's cooking, but I've discovered that my Grandma's cooking is more influenced by Spanish rather than Creole French. I miss my grandmas rice and beans and fried plantain yum.





My old roommate from UCLA is from Louisiana so I made sure to call her so we could meet up. She took us to the airport (Thankfully we didn't want to pay another $40 to a crazy taxi driver). Unfortunately we were running so late I didn't get a chance to take a picture with her. I'm still sad about it. This is her son Steven, isn't he so cute? Stephanie and I ended up getting married a week apart a year after we had been roommates. It was fun to catch up with her, it's been almost 3 years since we were roommates.

A book worth reading

Since moving to West Virginia I've taken up reading. We live literally 10 steps from the library so I've tried to check out a couple books a week. One book on CD for the long drive to work and a book to read in bed. When I was a little girl I read so much, but I have yet to find any books that I can't put down. Some books catch my interest but then crude language and other nonessential descriptions drive me to want to burn books. I usually end up returning the book to the library once I discover that it is not worth reading ("This much I know is true" is one of those books).

I've been wanting to read this book "Stolen Lives" since I watched Malika's interview on Oprah in 2001. I never got around to it because I was so busy with college. This book is about the Oufkir family and their lives before and during 20 years in prison. I'm a pessimist by nature but I try really hard to catch myself and be more positive. The hardships the Oufkirs faced were crazy but they were optimistic and I believe that's how they eventually escaped. This book is definitely worth reading, I rate it 5 stars!

Stay tuned to hear about my adventure to Louisiana and my visit back home to Utah:)

October in West Virginia

Did I mention how beautiful the drive is to work is each day? I've been leaving a bit early each day to take pictures. My camera tends to go everywhere with me now. The fog is so thick that I feel like I'm in a dream. Now I understand why there is so much road kill, often people can't see more than five feet in front of them. One day I saw a huge hog (the kind my family would roast over an open fire pit:) in the middle road. I nearly had to come to a complete stop to get around it because it was so big.I think it broke lose from a nearby farm.





The Greenbrier river laces through out Greenbrier County, the fog is so thick that the river is barley visible


This is by far the straightest stretch of the drive into work. I didn't dare stand in the middle of a curvy road.





This is Skofeild, after work he is so worked up to get out of the house. This week he has regressed into chewing things once again. Of course it's always my stuff...another favorite pair of shoes and a library book. For now Skofeild is back in the cage once again, he's pretty miserable now.



We went to a Corn Maze with the Norths, at Union town. It was fun to get away on a double date.




My cute honey bun!

Good News Announcements!

GOOD NEWS ANNOUNCEMENT #1 Derek passed his Anatomy class!!!!!!!!!!!! and has moved on to Bio-Chemistry and Micro-Anatomy. No more gorey details on the extractions of body organs and onto topics that interest me like Nonmendelian genetics or inheritance. I'm curious to know what our children will look like since I'm such a mixture of races myself, who knows what the dominate features will be:)

GOOD NEWS ANNOUNCEMENT #2 I got a JOB!,I GOT A JOB hey HEY hey!!! Por Fin!!! I am the receptionist at the Greenbrier Academy School for Girls(http://www.greenbrieracademy.com/). I know it doesn't sound glorious considering the fact that I never imagined I'd be working as a receptionist after slaving to earn my Bachelors degree. I've had to step back an eat some HUMBLE pie because West Virginia is not Utah and I had reduce my high expectations. I've been job hunting since Derek got accepted to medical school back in January. My main disappointment in my job hunt was the high credential expectations, low pay and no benefits. I'm extremely thankful to say that this job offers benefits, which we can not live with out. The drive is a bit far, but it is so beautiful. Most of the drive I can see the Greenbrier River and the fall leaves are so bright. I'll be commuting 30 minutes to and 30 minutes from the Academy (I haven't done that since I commuted to the University of Utah each day from Taylorsville) so I plan to get a couple books on CD to maximize my time in the car. I'm so excited, it feels good to know that we will no longer have to totally live off our future unearned income.