CRAFTS AND BIRTHDAY!

 So...I've been working on my worthiness to call myself a member of the Leue and Packard families by developing my craftiness...its a slow process, but just wait a few years and I'll get a little better...

This was a medium wood...sanding, painting...
 BEAUTIFUL KEY HANGER!!

How to Train Your Dragon in 3-D!

kinda nerdy...

going to have some fun on my birthday!

He gets lighter-fluid-happy!

Yummy BBQ!!

"Nervous and giddy" about going up to Squaw Peak for the first time...

But it turned out okay

Last present for the day - sleepover in the living room...kinda comfortable, kinda not...

BIG OUCHES

So I'm preparing my lesson for my youth Sunday School class when someone calls Phil's phone. Bishopric. Wants to meet with me before church. Gulp. A FOURTH CALLING? On top of teaching, the activities committee, and greeting Relief Society (which I'm always late for, because I'm teaching right before...), what more could they give me? I'm booked! But then again, I have been pawning off all requests for service during the last four months with the line "ask me after April" so...it's possible, I supposed. So I went.

Relief Society Secretary/Third Counselor. Gulp. Deep breath...okay, maybe not so bad, I could do this... But then comes the line "Normally we'd be able to keep you at your other calling, but since..." and some more words that summarize to "you're going to be WAY too busy." Perfect. Then the almost-tears start coming. I fight them off because he's in the bishopric and I hate being "that girl." Immediately I start this prayer in my head. "Heavenly Father, you KNOW we've been busting our butts for the past month trying to sell our contract and to find a place to live in the ward because we LOVE the youth in our ward and they love us and we felt SO strongly that we needed to stay for them. Now we're staying and you're taking me away ANYWAYS? ARE YOU SURE?" (in a very humble, you-know-what's-best, kind of way, of course)

We all have those moments when those nice-sounding church principles we've talked about our whole lives are suddenly smack in front of us, and we realize that NOW is the time to practice them. This was mine. Maybe the reason we felt so strongly to stay in our ward was for THIS calling, not my previous one. Maybe there is something I'm meant to do or learn or...something! Maybe, just maybe, there isn't ANYTHING about this new calling that is going to change my or anyone else's life, but I need to do it to show myself and the youth in my class that it's more important to be obedient than to be comfortable. Maybe. So I found a little comfort, and was able to stifle my tears until Sacrament Meeting when they did the official "All those in favor" part. Then I lost it. :)

So that was a fun Mother's Day. OUCH number one.

Then last night Phil and I are making dinner, and decide to make some deep-fried mozzarella sticks. Phil loves 'em, so why not? Oil starts heating up, and starts doing this bubbling thing that we hate, so I pick up the pan off the burner to let it settle a little bit, and Phil decides it would be a good idea to blow on it to make the bubbling go down, and a little bit splatters on the burner, ignites, which scares me, and I flail a little to avoid death-by-fire, and the oil splatters EVERYWHERE, including my left foot/toes. OUCH number two. No worries, I still love him, but it hurts. I have to say though, Phil's ice-in-a-bag-in-a-sock-on-my-foot idea worked pretty well...

THE "WALK"

And then I was done! I just have to make a shout out to the most amazing and supportive husband I could have asked for! All the test I passed, the patients I survived...best husband ever!

Thanks to Mom and Dad for your support and love!

Working Woman, Here I Come!

It's done. My boards are DONE!! I flew down to California two weeks ago to meet my board patient, 31-yr old Sean, and make sure he qualified, then flew down a week later to actually take my test at the USC dental school. Holy smokes, PERFECT BOARD PATIENT! Could not have been better. In any way. Sent him back to get approved, which was the scary part, because I didn't have a back-up, coming from Utah and all. Waited, waited...he walks back with the "good" blue paper. (insert freaking-out-happiness here) Got him numb, cuz I passed that test last month, and just went to town! Came off super easy, went through super quick, and submitted him for approval in just over an hour! (we're given 2 1/2 hrs) First one done in the room, and then I just had to sterilize instruments, clean up my chair, and then sit around and wait for an hour for them to check everything,

Totally passed. I haven't gotten my results yet, but it's like going back to third grade to take those multiplication/division tests, and not getting your score yet, but being pretty darn sure you knew what you were doing and that you would pass. So I'm feeling good, especially after taking the national board exam yesterday!! So now I'm DONE!! One or two more small papers to write, and then it's cap and gown for me!

Yes, I've already thrown away all my papers and old stuff from school. Pretty much all of it. Packing will probably start tomorrow (not that we know where we're going, we just know we gotta get out of this tiny place) and then in a few weeks I'll get my license!! Then I'll be making the big bucks!

Wait, I need a dentist to work for...shoot.

ENDURING TO THE END

I finally understand it. Live the gospel til your dying breath. I always thought, "Why would some old person want to stop trying to live the gospel? They're so close! Why not just keep going until you're ACTUALLY done?"

I'M THAT OLD PERSON.

Laugh. Laugh all you want. I know a lot of you have done what I'm doing and maybe more. But let me tell ya. Ugh...it's hard to endure.

Boards. Start in 4 days. End in 5 weeks. Holy crap.

Thursday is Local Anesthesia. I get a person numb for no reason other than to show I know where to put the sharp pointy needle and how to squirt it out so they talk like a retard. Okay, so that part I'm kinda excited about. Oh wait, the 50-question written test about it...not so much.

Then mid-April I fly down to California (USC) and clean a quadrant of a complete stranger's mouth (THANKS UNCLE MARK!!) and get graded on that... let's not even get started on how stressful that is..."should i drive/fly out there before the test to meet him and make sure he meets the criteria? what if he doesn't meet all the qualifications? what if he's...? what if he has...?" the possibilities are endless, and not knowing the answers (and being the control-freak-of-a-Packard-who-HAS-to-have-all-the-answers that I am) for my $1000 test is...well, let's call it...unnerving.

Then just four days after THAT...the eight-hour, 300/400 question national board exam. studying pretty much every spare minute I have. taking practice tests. failing them. studying more. hard to remind yourself you actually DID learn something during the last four years of your life. YOU DID! they just don't want to ask you those questions...the ones you DO know the answers to... no, they want to ask when you're supposed to cure the gold crown...when it's red-hot, prickled, or back to its original shade...WHEN AM I EVER GOING TO CURE A GOLD CROWN?? I just want to make money cleaning people's frickin teeth! Ask me whether the Gracey 11/12 is for the mesial or distal surfaces, I can tell you that! AND show you how!

Needless to say, I'm neglecting my husband. Good thing he loves me.

INSPITE OF MYSELF...

Okay fine. You win. And when I say "you," I really don't know who "you" are, (or is) but I'm ready to stop stick-it-to-the-man-ing. At least in this part of my life. Don't get too excited - I'm still not ready to finish the Harry Potter series I stopped reading when I was 14, and I'm still not going to start Twilight. I'm still not going to try EggNog for the first time (even if it's "just an ice cream flavor"), and I still have no desire to bring table centerpieces to my Sunday School lesson each week, just because "it's what you're supposed to do". So don't jump out of your seats; just because I finally started a blog doesn't mean I'm going to get all mainstream now. Baby steps. So I'm blogging. We'll just have to wait and see where this goes.