Prepare for a long entry!!

Ok. The last thing I wrote on my blog was concerning my horrific experience with English 2020 online. After I finished that journey I had enough time to do whatever I wanted; luckily, an old couple from the Webb Schools (the place where Mike did his internship) was looking for someone who could take care of their dog Gracie. When Mike asked me I could not believe someone would let me play with their dog limitless hours, I said yes without even asking what kind of dog, where, when or anything. If you know me you would know that I would have done it for free, but the couple offered to pay me. So, it was even better, I got to live in a beautiful home, play with a dog all day and I got paid to do it. That was the beginning of my career as a dog sitter for the rest of the summer. Her name was Gracie and it was a lot of fun, I would say she is fat, but her owners like to call her a full-figure girl. I loved her and I miss her a lot.

She is a mix of Chow and Golden Retriever; she loves bacon treats, chase squirrels, and run through her mom bushes.

While we were taking care of Gracie Mike got an email from a French teacher who was also looking for someone to take care of her dog while she was on vacations in Europe. I immediately instructed Mike to say I would do it, but somebody else wrote her first..;( We left Gracie’s house on a Sunday, the same Sunday I lost my wallet with the money her parents had given me in advance!! Oh well, didn’t I say I would have done it for free? The next morning Mike woke me up saying that the people who were going to take care of the French teacher’s dog could not do it anymore and she needed to drop off the dog that same morning. I was so happy!! That is how we met Luna, our favorite dog of all time; we believe she is a mix between cocker spaniel and a golden retriever. She went to obedience school so she was almost the perfect dog, I said almost perfect because she doesn’t chase balls, other than that we absolutely love her, she was a loving, fun and obedient dog. I miss her too.

Luna looks like a puppy but in reality she is 9 years old, every time I would take her for walks people would compliment my beautiful puppy, then I would tell them the real age. One day we forgot to take her out to the bathroom and she peed on the floor and mike yelled at her, she was so sad that she went to hide behind the toilet. I felt so bad, she was a sensitive doggie.

She would sleep in between mike and me, she has nightmares and she also snores a little bit.

Luna is needy, but not too much

As some of you may imply, somebody else heard about me and Mike. Another family asked us to take care of their black Labrador. This time we had to take care of Luna and the new doggie Raven at the same time for one week, but they were really nice to each other. Moreover, Raven is so old that she can barely walk and she didn’t care about Luna at all. Raven is a black lab, she is 12 years old and she has problems with her hips and her skin. I thought I was going to be bored if I could not play with her, but after a couple of days I decided that I was going to make her life better no matter at least for two weeks. Because her hips were so bad, she constantly uses her elbows to stand up or to lay down. I noticed that she was leaving blood marks on her deck so I decided to wrap her elbows with flexible wrap and using women’s pads as cushion (Mike thinks this is disgusting, but they were new). Her family had a big container in the back of their house for her to drink water, but as I was observing her I realized that she had a hard time walking up to it, so I decided to fill a little bowl with water every day right next to her, she drunk the whole bowl every day. Her owners told me that she liked one egg on top of her dog food every day, and that she probably would not eat the first days. They had some wet food for her in case she didn’t eat enough. After the first day I started feeding her wet food, dry food, AND her daily egg and she would devour everything. I know some of you are going to think I am one of those people who is a little bit too over the top with animals, but I really enjoyed serving this doggie and meking her feel a little better.They, too, have age pains and loneliness. By the time we left I knew she was grateful, she would walk up to my window every morning and stared at me, and when I would change her bandages she would give me kisses, or maybe I am just crazy. I miss Raven too.

Raven likes people to talk to her, she listens carefully ;)
After we finished taking care of Raven we only had one more week in California. On our last day with Raven Mike got ANOTHER call from someone needing dog sitters, I could not be happier. This was a very wealthy family with two old dogs. Scottie and Katie

These doggies came with super specific instructions, they had special food and each of them eats different amounts, they take medicine twice a day. I really enjoyed taking care of them because I realized that there are a lot of people like me that sees their pets as members of their families and treats them with respect and consideration. Scottie has a bad shoulder but he loves chasing the ball, so I would throw the ball at him five times and then we would swim in the pool so his shoulder would not hurt. Katie is the pack leader, she is very serious and she like her food a little wet, she does not like her medicine in the bowl of her food because she likes her medicine dry. Scottie doesn’t mind, I would put his stuff all in the same bowl. I miss playing with Scottie in the pool.

I had a great summer, it was very difficult at the beginning and as you know I had a hard time taking a class online, but after I got done with that I enjoyed spending all day with all these wonderful friends.

Almost at the end of the summer I received an email saying that I was the recipient of the College of Humanities Language Dean’s Merit Scholarship. This is very important for me because when I first got into UVU every time I wanted to apply for scholarships people would tell me that scholarships are given to people who are actively “involved” in the college community. However, the people I knew had scholarships were people who were always at the parties and social events and they did not have good grades, they were only social people. I was discouraged because for me it was most important to spend time studying. You all know English is not my first language, thus I have to spend more time studying than a regular student. That is why I am so happy I was given this scholarship. I do think that it is important to be ivolved in the community so you can gain experience, but at the end the most important thing for me is studying (you have no idea how nerd I am). This scholarships was given to me because my academic standing and it will cover half tuition this fall semester and also spring 2012. I am so grateful.Now that I ot the scholarships I feel more confortable with my grades and my progress so I decided to spend some hours volunteering, I am currently working in a certification to be a spanish translator-interpreter and so I will be volunteering at parent-teacher conferences,parent-teen mediation sesions, and small court claims. I am excited to serve.

Mike did a great job this past summer, his boss and the people he worked with loved him. They would come up to me and say, “Is Mike your husband? Because he is a great boss, we love him; he is very nice to us” I am so proud of him. He would probably hate this so don’t tell him this but I am going to share with you pieces of the letter of recommendation his boss wrote for him.
“”Mike Anthony has finished his 14 week internship with us here at The Webb Schools. After understanding one another’s goals and expectations, I put together a meaningful packet listing goals and other opportunities. I do have to say that Mike did an amazing job and is a great problem solver!
After Mike presented a plan of action for each of these goals, I released him to move forward with the problem solving process. One of these problems was our custodial crew’s lack of willingness and overall understanding of team cleaning. Mike created forms and systems while working with our custodial supervisor to ensure she was the owner of this change. He called and held meetings to ensure the custodial crew was being communicated with. He let them provide advice and helped them feel that they were part of the process. He found videos on the internet that helped explain the process and even found videos of crews who went through the exact same thing, experiencing the exact same growing pains.
He taught them about engineering standards and the importance of why. When the crew was in disbelief about some of the standards, he setup mock bathroom cleaning sessions and showed them it was possible. He also played their advocate and was able to get the crew some more efficient cleaning tools and other resources in order for them to meet the engineering standards.
Having gone through the process, he was finally able to create laminated schedules for each of the custodians and went through a practice session. We will finally start team cleaning next week!
Mike’s accomplishment was reported to many of the board members and they couldn’t have been happier with our progress! I reported being able to save approx. 200hrs. / year using this program.
Another one of Mike’s projects was to design and bid the front entrance to one of our dorms which sits towards the front of our entrance. He was able to work with our CFO on the project and even get a little advice from our campus architect and campus landscape architect. He did a great job and came away with a project that has been approved. We weren’t able to get approval quick enough for it to go out to bid so we plan on starting this project during Christmas break (see attached).
There were a few other things that he did for us but it was easy to see that Mike had many strengths. He was hard working, he kept on task and met the deadlines he was required to meet. He was willing to try just about anything and wanted to learn. Mike was an innovator and figured out how to make it work.
All in all, Mike was a great hire and he proved himself well. The client appreciated yet again, another great BYU intern. Our campus loved having Mike and his wife on campus as they made a very good impression.
I would definitely recommend Mike for hire in the near future. Mike will make an excellent manager and may have been my best intern yet!
Mike left here to go to one more semester at BYU but he enjoyed SDX and hopes that Sodexo will have a position available where he can continue to grow and build a solid foundation.””

Mike is busy with school and work and he is also being a teacher assistant to the director if the facilities management program at BYU. He has had several talks with at least five companies and most of them have expressed interest on hiring him. I pray to our heavenly father that we may use wisdom when choosing Mike’s first job. He wants to get a master’s degree from Georgia Tech, so we will be watching for jobs there. Wish us luck!!

In March of 2010 I went to the UVU health center to get a physical exam in order to get insurance. While the doctor was conducting the study she felt a large mass in the right side of my neck. She sent me to get an ultrasound which results said it was an enlarged thyroid gland. I was sent to an endocrinologist and she told me that it was a MASIVE goiter and that it needed to come out. At that time I did not have insurance of course and I could not have the surgery done. I was already engaged to my beloved husband and after we got married we both enrolled in the BYU student health plan. To our disappointment they told me that they could not cover my thyroid treatment because it was a pre-existent condition, so we had to put it on hold one more time. Months went by and Mike decided to try again before we left to California, they said I could be covered (why? I do not know)so we decided to get a second opinion since I was concerned about paying for surgery. The second endocrinologist did ultrasounds and a needle biopsy, which I do not wish for anybody, she also recommended surgery. Uncle John told us about a doctor who is an expert in thyroid surgery and we decided to try with him. I went into surgery the 26th of August, it was one of the hardest things I have been through but I am almost 100% recovered. I am so grateful for my husband who took care of me, he would feed me, hold my head, give my medicines, help me shower, comb my hair, he even cooked me soup. I had no idea how often I use my neck muscles.Three week after my surgery I got the pathology result and the enlarges thyroid was not an enlarged thyroid, IT WAS A 5 cm. TUMOR!!! It was benign, so no cancer!! I feel good that all that is behind me now. After four days I felt ready to go back to school and work. The first day I went to school I decided to ride the bus back home and I was ready to cry and get off in the next stop, every time it stopped I had to hold my head back and every time it started going I had to hold my head again. It was very painful. It is amazing all the little details that we ignore about our bodies.