The Weekend

After a rather uneventful week for Jon and me, we had a few noteworthy things happen on the weekend. I would say exciting instead of noteworthy, but exciting has a positive connotation, and not all that happened this weekend was positive.


The weekend started with Jon actually going to campus on a Saturday. It was a shock, but he has a big test coming up, and needed to go into the lab to study.


When Jon came home we had a date to "Panera," which has become one of our favorite places to eat in Toledo. I don't know that they have "Panera"'s out West, I can't remember ever seeing one. It is a sandwich place and is one of the better fast food restaurants in the area (of course that is my opinion). We brought our delicious sandwiches home to enjoy while we watched the BYU vs. Michigan St. game. Our TV guide told us the game was going to be on Verses, but it wasn't. Sad! We watched/listened to it on the Internet. It was a pretty big game. The number 20 (BYU) against the number 9 (Michigan St.). At half time, BYU was up by 10. Then in the second half, Michigan St. ended up getting a head and winning. It was sad that the final score did not reflect how the game really was.


Toledo had a amazing ice storm this weekend. It was really cool! The roads, however, were not very cool. I took some pictures off the web of various ice storms that happened around the US this weekend and some from others blogs (thanks Leisy and Julie). From Julie's blog:From Leisy's blog:I however was not able to get out to take any pictures yet. The reason I will now explain.


Sunday morning, I wake up with some pain in my abdomen. I figured it was maybe a something I ate, which my digestive system was not enjoying as much as my taste buds did. There was evidence to support that, but we won't get into that because that is gross. Church was good, and the pain didn't get any worse.


By dinner time, the pain was getting worse and was hurting in my back too. Weird, I thought, but proceeded to make dinner. By the time our food was ready, the thought of it made me sick. If you know me at all, this is a serious sign that something is wrong. I ate some vegetables and fruit so I could take a prescription pain pill and not throw it back up. Then I realized my kidney was swollen. Yep that is right, another kidney stone. This one or these ones are the worse one(s) I have had in about a year and a half. It also seems that my body is looking to start it's own tradition. This week last year, I past 3 small stones. What a pain literally.


I did want to thank those who brought by Christmas treats. It was really nice. I was medicated at the time a feeling good by then. This morning, I felt okay when I first woke up. A little sore, but okay. My workout was a joke since my body feels wasted. Then, the pain started again. So I'm either passing another stone, or the other one hadn't passed yet. So, here I am another pain pill, and feeling a little loopy. This too shall pass.

19 Days until Christmas!

This morning as I was getting out of bed, I thought wow it is colder in here than usual. I turned up the heat and turned on the computer. Weather.com said it was 9 degrees outside, but felt like 2 degrees. The coldest morning since we have moved to Ohio. I love it!

Yesterday morning, Jon and I woke up to about an inch of snow covering the ground. Jon was worried about driving. He has not had much practice driving in the snow, where he grew up in the Seattle area. He asked me to check and see if there were any driving restrictions or anything. I didn't find anything, but did see that most of the elementary schools in the area were delayed an hour or 2. Sorry Katie! Jon wished his school was delayed. He did make it to school without any incident. The roads actually aren't too slick right now, just our little road that doesn't get much traffic.


Oh how I love the snow and cold!

Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

Sunday morning, it was great to wake up to white covering the ground. Sadly It melted before the day was over. Jon and I went out walking while it was coming down Saturday night, but when we were in it, it wasn't really snow, but freezing rain. It was so fun to see it covering the newly fallen snow, and leaves, and us in a thin later of ice. I love snow! All I can say is, "Let it snow. Let it snow. Let it snow."

CNN Story

This article caught our attention, as these are the things we deal with as well, everyday, with Keriann's allergies. We appreciate your attention to her needs, but of course there is always room for improvement. Hopefully this article is an eye-opener to just how serious a problem this is.

Click here to view article. Keriann's Allergies.

This is amazing!

My mom saw this on the news in Idaho Falls and sent me the link. I thought it was great! Merry Christmas! Only 25 more days.

This is a house in Chubbuck, Idaho. 9,000 lights! Can you imagine? Click here for the full story and a video of the news story.

No More Walking Group for Keriann

Sadly, I have had to give up walking group since we now walk in the mall. Last Friday I had a weird reaction to the smells of the season while grocery shopping. I think it was the boxes of gingerbread house kits. They are not even open and I can't go near them! Here is what happened.

Jon and I stopped at a Meijer in Michigan to see if they had our cheese for our Christmas dinner this year (see previous post about Raclette Cheese). The Meijer that we always go to decided this past week not to carry it any more. They almost ruined our Christmas. Anyway, we found some Raclette at a Meijer in Michigan. We bought some since the date on it is May '08. It's cheese. It will last.

Then we decided to get something for dessert to eat on the drive home. So we walk around a bit and settled on sour gummy bears. YUM!

About the time we drove over the border, I was having trouble breathing. It was not Anaphylaxis, but seemed more like asthma. I haven't had problems with asthma for almost 15 years, and I was just sitting in the car. On Saturday, it got worse. Watching the BYU vs. Utah game was awful for me. I was so tired and if I got excited it got worse. I wasn't getting enough oxygen, and I was taking as much benadryl as I could. The benadryl was not having any affect. It was a little scary.

I stayed home from church because I didn't know if going to nursery was such a great idea. I slept most of the day. By Sunday night I was feeling a lot better and I could take a deep breathe without it hurting.

The only thing Jon and I could think of as causing this reaction was the boxes of gingerbread house kits that we walked by at Meijer. This year has been the hardest to stay away from having a reaction to something. So, I had to make the decision to stay away from these things happening again. At the Southwick mall, things are really dying, but there are enough stores that sell smelling things that float into the halls where walking group exercises. No more ward functions with food. Even when the word is spread, people forget, or don't get the message, or they have a candle burning in their home. This might seem extreme, but breathing is more important to me. If you are having problems wondering what this is like, wrapping a plastic bag around your head and trying to breathe would have the same affect, but I would not encourage it.

Until the weather warms back up and walking group moves back to the park, I will just have to do some TaeBo. Sad, but ...

Adventures in Ann Arbor

The day after Thanksgiving, Jon and I decided to do a session at the Detroit temple. We normally try to get dinner before the 6:30 session. We have really missed Panda Express since we moved to Ohio, but upon looking for close locations, we found that there was one in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Since we go through Ann Arbor to get to the temple, we thought this would be a great place to have dinner.

Every time we have gone to the temple here, it has been an adventure. We got lost trying to find the temple. We got stuck in traffic and missed our session. Just stuff like that. Well, this time the adventure was in Ann Arbor.

The Panda Express is on the campus of the University of Michigan. We finally found where it was located, but there was nowhere to park. Also, since it was the day after Thanksgiving and it was a university campus, the building was closed. It was a very sad realization. We drove aimlessly around the campus and city looking for something else. We came across this restaurant of Greek and Mideastern Food. It's called Ahmo's Gyros and Deli. They had some of the best gyros (it's said: eur-os, not the Americanized: gi-ros) that Jon and I have tried, and we had tried a few around the United States. We have tried them at Burger Supreme in Provo, the Pita Pit, a cafeteria for an industrial park near the Salt Lake Airport, a place in Pike's Place Market in Seattle, and in the Chicago Midway Airport. They are lamb meat that is cooked on a spit and has this amazing seasoning brushed on while cooking. The lamb meat is shaved off and put with onions and tomatoes onto a flat pita. Then smothered in this delicious cucumber garlic sauce and rolled up. It looks like the picture above. It was a great find!

It was also fun to see Ann Arbor and the campus of the University of Michigan. The city and campus reminded me a little of Seattle and the campus of the University of Washington. Jon agreed. That's probably why we liked the adventure to Ann Arbor so much. The temple of course was good, too. It always is.

Thanksgiving

32 days until Christmas! Yesterday was a pretty good day. Jon and I had Thanksgiving dinner/lunch with a bunch of other members of our ward that were in the same boat as us. There was a ton of food, and lots of great people. I took a few pictures, but as is the story, no digital camera. They were of most of the kids that were there. I think having lots of kids around makes the holidays better. After we went and played "Settlers," the "Cities and Knights" expansion with the Ericksens, a family in our ward. Jon learned that he was thankful he did not go to the football game that morning. Eric Dockter tore his ACL during it, and Jon had worried that he might do the same thing or something similar. It sounded like a pretty rough game.

Class of 1998 10 Year Reunion

This summer will be my ten year high school class reunion. I cannot believe that I have been out of high school for ten years! Jon asked me when I got so old (since I am older then him). High school was great, but I don't think I would ever go back if I was given the chance. Here are some things I learned and accomplished at Skyline High School around ten years ago.


1. If you didn't have the right last name, you didn't play on the sports teams.

2. I graduated in the top ten percent, if it weren't for English, I would have been a valedictorian.


3. If you don't write the paper the way the teacher wants, you won't get a good grade.

4. If it wasn't for the math portion of the ACT's, I would not have been able to go to college. I got a 17 on the reading comprehension, and a 31 on the math.

5. A student can teach AP Calculus by reading the book (the teacher had no idea what he was talking about, and other students would come to me for clarification). Sadly, I received a 3 on the AP test(I was really sick that day). Others in my class thanked me, because they said they never cold have gotten a 5 without my helping them understand the material.

6. When you decide you are headed down the wrong path it is hard to change your junior year of high school and still have friends.

7. Snow made everything better. It quites the world and covers it in a white blanket. It's wonderful!

8. I received my driver's license. Also got in my first and only wreck that happened with me driving. That black ice on highway 20 (between Rexburg and Idaho Falls) can be awful!

9. I started dating. It is a lot of fun to group date and to not date the same person all through high school. There were not very many that I went on more than one date with. My first date wasn't until I was 17 however.

10. My allergies in the fall were too bad to run cross-country.

11. When you have a broken tail bone, trying out for the tennis team (especially when you have never played tennis) is not the best idea.

12. After high school more of your class mate will talk to you then did during the years in high school.

Well, that is all I can think of for now. My high school education has served me well, but not necessarily in the way it should have. It has been interesting to look back at high school and laugh.

How Do You Get Into Heaven?

So I got this forward from my mom (thanks!), and it reminded me of nursery and the years previously that I have been in primary. It made me laugh, so I thought I would share it with everyone, but not by forwarding it.

HOW DO YOU GET INTO HEAVEN?

I was testing the children in my Sunday school class to see if they understood the concept of getting to Heaven. I asked them, "If I sold my house and my car, had a big garage sale and gave all my money to the church, would that get me into Heaven?"

"NO!" the children answered.

"If I cleaned the church every day, mowed the yard, and kept everything neat and tidy, would that get me into Heaven?"

Again, the answer was, "NO!"

By now I was starting to smile. Hey, this was fun! "Well, then, if I was kind to animals and gave candy to all the children, and loved my husband, would that get me into Heaven?" I asked them again.

Again, they all answered, "NO!"

I was just bursting with pride for them. Well, I continued, "then how can I get into Heaven?"

A six-year-old boy shouted out, "YOU GOTTA BE DEAD!

Game Night

It seemed everyone in our ward had the same idea last night. Jon and I received two invites to play games. It was kind of funny since that does not happen often. We did have fun playing some new games we had never played before. How many have heard of the "Farming Game"? I actually had played it before. My cousins that live in Rockland, Idaho have the game. It was about 20 years ago, and I'm not sure we followed the rules really well. It is a mix between "Monopoly" and "The Game of LIFE." Jon really liked it too, so that might be the next game we hunt out to buy. We did miss out playing "Settlers" with the Ericksens, but hopefully we will get another chance to play.

Only 39 Days Until Christmas

I don't know if it was inspiration from Jill Lau, or just that I love the Christmas season so much, but I pulled out my big box of Christmas decorations yesterday. Jon laughed when he came home to Christmas. I waited until he got home to decorate the tree, even though, he never helps. It was a lot of fun. Christmas to me is celebrating the birth and life of my Savior, and I think that is something to be celebrated year round. These are pictures of our tree last year, but it looks much the same. Different background.


It hardly feels like Thanksgiving is less then a week away. Maybe it is the weather. Or our not being able to spend the holidays with family. Whatever is it, our families should be happy to know that we were invited to spend Thanksgiving with the other med. students and residents that are also staying in Toledo. It should be fun, and I have been assured that there will be no ginger, so I won't have to go to the emergency room. There was ginger at cooking group this week, and while it was kept covered, I still broke out in hives. I guess it wasn't air tight. Oh, well.


Jon and I also helped load a truck of things for the "Interfaith Nativity Festival." Jon was asked to help move stands for the festival. When we arrived at the warehouse, we were amazed at all the things there were for this event. It is going to be amazing! I guess they do this every year and it is a huge event. I am really excited to see how all the stuff we moved will come together.

November at Last!

Hello all. I'm not as dedicated as Keriann at keeping people updated on my activities. I'm grateful that we do just about everything together, so therefore, her updates and blog entries suffice for me too.

However, she isn't with me all day at school, which she is very grateful of, so I decided I should give a med school update.

I have been in school now officially 92 days (orientation included). The first block of classes is complete, and November ushers in a new block. I was very happy with my first block grades, especially with as much time as I was able to spend at home (the work load and study time are definitely less than what I had with chemical engineering), and am loving the things we are learning. The first block consisted of Biochemistry, biology, and genetics. It was quite fascinating, especially since the biochemistry stuff was brand new, and human genetics are definitely more interesting than plant genetics (Keriann doesn't agree with me). Now I am totally excited to start gross anatomy.

We've been having anatomy lectures for just over a week now, and starting tomorrow, we will spend our first day in the lab. The program here is amazing. We are arranged in groups of four and given a cadaver to use for the next three months. Tomorrow we will begin dissecting the back and will continue on until mid-March dissecting and studying all of the regions of the body. Very fascinating stuff. I hope none of you are totally grossed out by the picture here... But I thought it was cool, as it demonstrates a little how complex our bodies are and perhaps gives a brief glimpse at the majesty of Heavenly Father's greatest creation.

As for my other classes that I've mentioned to some of you, they will continue throughout the year. They include an integrated pathophysiology course (where we are presented with real-life case-studies and are tasked with researching symptoms, tests, test results, and treatments), and also a fundamentals of clinical practice course (which includes a variety of topics, like medical ethics, patient communication and literacy, medical legal issues, business, and even spirituality).

6 Things You May Not Have Known About Keriann Brower Felt

1. I had a heart attack when I was 6 years old. I had a rare disease that is only supposed to afflict Asian children under the age of 5. Obviously, it was very rare in the United States. I'm in the medical books in Idaho Falls for being the first in the city to have this disease. Also besides the heart attack and being hours away from open heart surgery, this disease caused a heart murmur. I was in the hospital for 2 1/2 weeks. The hospital, which was next to the temple, was torn down a few years later. There is now a stake center in its place.

2. I had never flown in a plane until a year after high school. This was only made possible because of a Religious Education Trip with Ricks College. It went to Navuoo and the surrounding church sites on a four day weekend trip. I didn't fly again until 5 years later, after Jon and I were married.

3. I have had many medical tests. These include: 3 MRIs, 5 CT scans(CAT), 5 Echocardiograms, 3 Glucose tests, 2 HIDA scans, an EMG, a nerve condition study, a bone scan, a colonoscopy, an endoscopy, literally hundreds of X-rays, more than twice as many blood tests, and a partridge in a pear tree. A good deal of these tests were done within a two year time period. If you wonder what some of these tests are, I can explain in further detail. Now, you probably don't wonder why I'm uninsurable.

4. The date on my mission call is September 11, 2001.

5. I was born in the same hospital as my mother. The doctor, mother and baby all had the same last name. However, we are not closely related to the doctor. He came through a different wife of my polygamist great-great grandfather. This hospital is the same one talked about in #1.

6. I am related to President Hinckley. I can remember my grandmother telling stories about cousin Gordy and what an unruly young man he was. The Hinckely family also had a "family reunion" of sorts, where the family gave Cove Fort to the church. I was in attendance.