Timpanogas Caves

Two days after I returned from Taiwan, and was still battling some jet lag, and Dallas decided it would be a good idea to go hike Timp caves. You know, to help my circadian rhythm get back on track. What really happened was that I'd been living at humid sea level for the past month and the 4,549 feet of altitude in Provo didn't get along so well with my lungs. We went with some of our good friends and their 2 kids so luckily I had an excuse to go slow. Also, we took no pictures going up because we were practically dying, so here are some pictures from when we were waiting for our tourguide at the top.

How cute is this kid? Oh, and little O is cute too ;)

I love that little hat

O and his Mom 

This dad loves his little girl!

The tour of the caves was really cool, and Dallas got some sweet pictures featured here:

Alright so he didn't take this one.

Love this adorable family!

One of the other people on our tour thought O was mine...I am NOT old enough to have a 3 year-old...

We had SUCH a fantastic time, even if the hike stank a little bit :)

I'm thinking...Christmas card?

Long Flights and Long Days

I am currently writing this from the iPad, so it will probably be very short and full of pictures, but guess where I am?! TAIWAN. As in that Asian country that used to be part of China. As in someplace where I know absolutely no one and know absolutely none of the language. Thankfully, I am here with 10 other nursing students and two faculty who can at least navigate this place adequately (emphasis on the adequately...not great). We work at a place called Chi Mei Medical Center three days a week and get to play and travel the other four. It's amazing and scary and tiring and lonely and exhilarating all at the same time. We haven't stopped going since we got here after a 14 hour flight two weeks ago, and it has been incredible. 

On our way to the airport 

In Taipei after the 14-hour flight

There are so many scooters here. This is the smallest bunch we saw

We Skype a lot. I miss him. 

First meal! I've eaten so many vegetables this month. 

It's called "schwa-bing" and it's amazing. 

We went to see iron man (in English thankfully) 

We rented scooters in Kaohsiung. I didn't drive. 

It was beautiful 

Those are monkeys. In the wild. 

This is Katie. She is keeping me sane. 

Beautiful city line in Kaohsiung 

That's a dead chicken. In our soup. 

In a tree house

Better picture of the tree house

More Skyping 

At an outdoor mandolin concert

Chi Mei medical center. See not just playing all the time...

I tried some acupuncture. Not super pleasant. 

This is my friend Kelsey getting "cupping" done. 

This is my bruise from cupping. The bruise means I 

have bad circulation there. Apparently. 

Karaoke last night. Soooo much fun. 

Almost There...

I finished my last final for the semester today, and boy did that feel good. Dallas is currently sitting beside me studying for one of his two last finals for the semester. We are so close to being done with this horrible, awful, no good, semester!!!!! (Ten points to whoever knows what I'm quoting there)

Please enjoy this HILARIOUS depiction of finals week by Divine Comedy

This semester has been rotten at times, and absolutely delectable at others. Dallas took nine credits of classes, and worked full-time which meant very late nights and a loooooot of studying time. One of those nine credits was a math class that didn't get started until 3 weeks before it was due. That was a party. I was in my fourth semester of nursing school and had clinical at least 12 hours a week, worked 8 hours a week, and tried to keep a house clean on top of that (I'm pretty sure we all know which of those responsibilities got thrown to the wayside...) On the other hand, Dallas had a full-time job which meant money worries went out the window. I was in my FAVORITE semester of nursing school yet, which also made it seem ten times easier than any other semester. That crazy math class that got procrastinated? My amazingly smart and hardworking husband ROCKED IT. Like rocked it so hard we are still in shock. On top of that we have amazing friends and family that fed us and kept us sane through this whole semester. So many blessings.

A very fitting fortune :)

So at the end of this semester, while I'm glad it's over, and cannot wait for the adventures we have planned this summer, am so thankful for all it taught us. There was lots of patience and hardwork and love that appeared in the Haueter household, and we are both better for it.

He stole my heart....because his beats funny sometimes

Dallas's heart is kind of silly. Sometimes it decides to beat really fast, for no apparent reason. Sometimes it likes to skip a beat. Sometimes it's rhythm doesn't make much sense. So that's why he married me and now has possession of my heart. He wanted to have an extra, you know? Just in case.

Last October(ish...) Dallas told me he had been feeling weird things with his heart lately. Being the over protective student nurse wife that I am, I grilled him about his symptoms. He told me it just "fluttered" sometimes, and then sometimes his chest would just hurt. Now, for Dallas, this isn't a new symptom. In high school, he passed out during a wrestling match, and in the following doctor's appointments, was diagnosed with ventricular tachycardia (VT), which means his heart would beat really fast and irregularly periodically. He had it "fixed" through a procedure called an ablation, where they go in and scar the nerves in the heart that are causing the fast heart rate.

Fast forward 6 years, and these symptoms have come back. I got really nervous and chatted with one of my nursing professors. As soon as I told her he had a history of VT, she got nervous too and told me he should go see his cardiologist as soon as possible. This made me really really really nervous, and we called the doctor's office that day. Luckily, Dallas was able to see the same doctor that had done his ablation 6 years ago, and he remembered Dallas (or at least he pretended to). After about 2 months of diagnostic tests (continuous heart monitor for 30 days, MRI, new medications etc) Dallas's doctor decided it was time for another ablation. When we went in the day after Valentine's day for the procedure, Dallas was cool as a cucumber, and I was still really nervous; my medical background DID NOT help calm my nerves at all.

Dallas's EKG

The procedure took about 3 hours. Which was forever and a day. When he finally came out, I was so relieved that I just bawled and bawled. It was like I could finally let out all the stress and worry I had kept built up inside, and boy did it feel good! Me and my worry-wart mind had been making up all sorts of ridiculous alternate endings to this story. I kept thinking of my mom telling the story of when my dad had an emergency quadruple coronary bypass after going in for a fairly routine heart procedure. He basically almost had a heart attack on the operating table, and I kept thinking, what if that happens to Dallas? Or what if he just dies, right there during the procedure? What would I do? Would I finish the semester? What about all of our plans? How would I keep living? Oh jeez, I'm tearing up right now just thinking about it! Needless to say, the tears shed when I saw him totally ok made me realize just how much I love this man! And how totally lost I would be without him in my life.

Ok. The mushy stuff is over. Promise.

As we got back to the hospital room, and Dallas was waking up, he started to do THE funniest things. He'd start a sentence and then fall asleep mid word and then he'd wake back up and ask me the same four questions he did last time he was awake. Those four questions were
1. How long did the procedure take?
2. What did the doctor say it was?
3. Did the doctor get it all?
4. When are you getting my Jamba Juice?
At first I had really great long and very informative answers, but each time he asked my replies got shorter and shorter. The next morning, when he finally started to remember things, my answers had become
1. About 3 hours.
2. He called it atrial tachycardia
3. That's what he told me
4. ....Don't you remember drinking it last night?

Morning after, about the time when he started to remember things

The absolute funniest conversation we had while he was waking up was this:
Dallas: "I bet we're gonna hafta come back, and we'll just bring all our kids at once, get it over in one lump sum. And then we can walk down the halls with our IV poles, butt naked with tattoos that say 'mom' 'dad' 'child' 'child' 'outcast' 'child' 'infant'"
Kaylie: "Honey, why is one of our children an outcast?"
Dallas: "Because that's the one that went to BYU. No...no....the U. They went to the U."

Worn out

And I apologize for the lack of videos. He told me before the procedure that he didn't want ANY videos, so I obeyed. Then he told me afterwards that he actually did want some videos.... silly boy.

It's been six weeks since the procedure and everything is still great. He only has occasional flutters, and they are getting fewer and farther between, and we're hoping that they will stop soon!

He's Old!

Dallas turned 26 back in February, and while we both know 26 is FAR from being "old", I still like to tease him. It was a fairly simple day, mostly because we both had to work, and had work and school fairly early the next morning. I made a delicious dinner of something (Neither of us can remember what it was... I don't know what that says about my cooking, but I'm going to pretend it means it at least wasn't awful), and his favorite cake which is "tres leches", a Latin desert that uses 3 different kinds of milk in the cake, and then tons of whipped cream on top. It was DELICIOUS. And really rich.

Then he got to open his presents, which I didn't get a picture of except for this one...

So that says "to the moon and more" for any of you who don't read Spanish. It's a super mushy saying that he started using a couple months ago when I would playfully ask how much he loved me. Mostly I'm just proud of the sign. My cousin who lives down the street had some left over flooring from a project and a Cricut machine she let me use. My handy brother sawed the piece into thirds and then I glued them together (I think that was the first time I have ever used wood glue). I used the Cricut to cut out some vinyl in a design that I had drawn on the iPad, and then stuck it on. Pretty much it was the craftiest and cutest thing I have ever made in my life. And I'm kind of proud of it. If you couldn't tell. 

But anyways the day was about Dallas and we had a WONDERFUL day. I'm so happy I married this hunk of a man! I can't wait to keep celebrating his birthday for many more years to come :)

Counting Down

This semester has been a doozy. I'm pretty sure we both almost died at least once. Here is a quick photo diary of some little things we've done over the semester.

I found out what the WILK looks like at 6 am. I have NEVER seen it empty before. EVER. 

 I found my keys that I had lost back in November

Dallas slept a lot

I color coded my planner. It changed my life.

I got to sit in the Life Flight helicopter during my clinical up at Primary Children's

I crashed Dallas's chemistry class and almost died

Dallas thought he was funny

Dallas studied a lot

I found out I'm allergic to amoxicillin 

There is about a month left in this semester and we are COUNTING the days.