Mycoplasma Pneumonia

The name sounds scary, but trust me...The symptoms are way worse. On Sunday night I almost lost my voice completely. Of course, this doesn't slow me down, I worked in misery all day Monday & Tuesday. Today I woke up and decided I couldn't take the sore throat, coughing, and malaise anymore, so I went to work to tell them I was sick, ended up seeing my first 2 patients, went home and passed out for 3 hours, then it was off to the doctor. They can't positively identify what I have until the blood test results come back in 5 days, but due to the symptoms and the prevalence in the community, my doctor is pretty certain it's Mycoplasma Pneumonia, also knows as "walking pneumonia." The good news is that I was only contagious for the first 48 hours, the bad news is Dave has already contracted the illness. So for now I'm on antibiotics and Tussin Pearls to help with the coughing. I miss feeling healthy.

Thanks Brittany!!

My sister-in-law Brittany took all of these pics of my nephew Charlie on Friday. I tried to pick my favorite one to post, but I love them all! Thank you so much Britt for the fun times and great photos. You're the best!! The last pic is my sister Marianne holding her sweet little baby.

Dark Knight & Mamma Mia

A week ago we went and say The Dark Knight & Mamma Mia. I loved both of these movies.


I'm wasn't really into Batman movies, but I'm converted. Heath Ledger played an amazing Joker. He totally creeped me out. Although the movie is 2 1/2 hours long, it went by fast. The plot was really good and it kept me entertained the entire time.

Mamma Mia is just so funny. Every time they break out into song and dance you can't help but laugh. I loved the music. I didn't really realize until someone pointed it out to me, but the main girl in the movie was the ditzy friend on Mean Girls. She looks totally different to me.

San Fran June 2008

Dave surprised me by booking a trip to San Francisco as an early anniversary gift. Since we met at a blind date to Kenny Chesney it is a tradition that we go to his concert every year. Unfortunately, Kenny wasn't with us on that plan because he decided not to come to Utah this year, Boo. It turned out alright though because we got to go see Mar, Josh, & Charlie and go to the concert. Mar & Josh are awesome hosts and showed us all over the city. They introduced us to cool new restaurants and took us down the curviest street (Lombard Street as shown below). It was such a fun vacation!!The concert was ok, but I have to say that concerts in Utah are much better. Dave saw someone smoking weed for the first time in his life. It was funny because no one really seemed to care at first that he just lit up in front of everyone at a busy concert. We saw a crazy girl fight. All of the toilets at Giants Stadium were out of order so everyone was just going without flushing, yuck!! We had awesome seats that were really close to the cat walk so we got to see Kenny up close. Kenny Chesney is a good performer, he totally plays to the crowd.

Lava Hot Springs July 4, 2008

So for the 4th of July this year we headed to Lava Hot Springs to swim and tube the river as we traditionally do. This year was extra fun because the Hall's (Dave's sisters family) joined us. We swam in the big pool the first day. Dave, Nick, and Brittany all went off the highest platform, Dave even did a gainer. Scary. I don't dare do stuff like that. We camped out that night and had lots of fun talking and playing. The next day we tubed down the river which is always a family favorite. There were so many people there this year, it was out of control, but fun. Even my niece Bailey (6) and nephew Owen (2) went down the river. They were little troopers. Of course it's all fun and games until someone gets hurt. Unfortunately for Brittany, she's the one that got hurt. There's a dangerous spot in the river that you usually fall off at unless you're holding on to someone's tube. We were all holding on to each other, but somehow Britt tipped over backwards and hit her head really hard. We all jumped out of the river ASAP and Dave went for help. We ended up not being able to find any medical personnel so we had to call 911. They ended up taking her to the hospital 25 minutes away via ambulance. 3 staples and lots of morphine later, she was ready to go home. Dave & Joni

Christy & Kenny

Owen

The Story Of My Sweet 4 Runner

So, I'm trying to be good about keeping this blog as a journal of milestones in my life, but I'm really bad at it which is why I usually blog about a year after an event occurs. I'll try to get caught up so that my posts will be more current.



















One milestone event in my life is when I got my brandnew 4Runner. Dave and I had been talking about what I wanted to drive once I graduated. We had planned to get me a sweet car for graduation and since Dave is in the car business he loved to talk about what kind of car I would get. I decided a year before I graduated that I would want a 4Runner upon graduating. So back on March 8, 2007 Dave told me to come into the dealership to look at different colors so that I could start deciding which color I liked best. When I got there he showed me a silver 4Runner on the showroom floor with a big bow on it. He was like, "What do think about this one?" I of course loved it, but there was a big sold sign on it so I said, "I don't want to get in it if it's sold." He assured me that it was fine. I told him that it was my dream car and that I would probably want one just like it in a year. That's when he showed me the key chain that said "Joni's 4Runner." Dave has a long history of playing tricks on me, such as the time he gave me huge "diamond" earrings for Christmas complete with an official appraisal from Fred Meyer Jewelers and told me they were real, so there was no way I could believe he bought me a brand new 4Runner.I know I pretty much look gorgeous in this pic, but notice how happy I am because I still thought they were real. Silly me. Don't worry, I got Dave back the next Christmas by giving him my charm bracelet and explaining how each and every charm was thoughtfully picked out just for him. He didn't know what to do because he hated it but didn't want to hurt my feelings. Ha Ha!
Anyway, I tried not to be excited about the 4Runner because I figured all of his coworkers were in on it and I didn't want to look too stupid like I do in the picture above. I was finally forced to believe Dave as I went into finance to sign all of the papers and the finance manager assured me that she wouldn't have gone to all of this work for a silly prank. So a year and a half later, I'm still driving and loving my 4Runner. So much for waiting for graduation. That husband of mine is the greatest, I love him so much!

Dam Days

Sweet little nephew Owen!! Not really a fan of the water, but he sure loves his mom. By the end he was riding on the waverunner just to be with his mom and away from me.
Trinity (my sister-in-law) and I. We had so much fun. She's a boater at heart, crazy on the tube. Me? Not so much, but I do enjoy riding on the boat.

Christy wasn't able to join us due to work, but I'm glad Kenny came.

The Powell family is so great. I'm so happy that I married into such an amazing family. I couldn't have dreamed there was such a great family out there that could match the greatness of the James' fam.

Sweet niece Baily. It took all of my air to blow up this silly water wing, but I told her I would do it to show her how much I love her, which is a lot! She is seriously the sweetest girl ever. I think I'm going to let Brittany raise my kids so they can be so polite. Good job Britt. Thank goodness Trinity was there to blow up the other one like 10 times faster.

We went to the dam last week (twice) and it was so fun!! Thanks Holly for bringing your sweet boat. Thanks Becky for bringing the sweet treats. And thanks mosquitos for the 10 sweet bites that are now scabs all over my arms and legs, Boo!

On Achieving Goals

So, I've worked since I was 14 to become a Dental Hygienist. Well, 10 years later, I'm 24 and I'm a Dental Hygienist. I can officially say my name and title: Joni J. Powell, BS, RDH. It's crazy to think how hard I worked to get to where I am today. Would I do it again? No. Was it totally worth it? Yes.
I can't even think about what it would be like to have to study for another test or try to find another poor schmuck to let me clean their teeth without having a major panic attack.

My School Story:

I started at WSU in August of 2002. I took a series of random general courses such as economics and accounting just to make sure that I really did want to be a hygienist. Sure enough, hygiene was for me. I worked as a dental assistant for Dr. Talbot for 3 years prior to starting hygiene school. I worked full time by day and went to school full time by night. Upon starting hygiene I had to quit in order to focus ALL of my time and ALL of my efforts. Everyone says that hygiene will break you down to tears frequently, but I thought I was too strong for that. I guess I was wrong, it only took a month for me to be completely humbled by school. I feel like I was totally blessed the entire way through school; otherwise, I wouldn't have made it. I met so many cool new friends while in school who taught me a lot about real life and about myself. I met some of the best people I've ever known and I've met some of the worst kinds of people I've ever known. Both types have taught me life lessons. I hate life lessons!! Through all of the joy and tears I was able to accomplish my ultimate goal of becoming a dental hygienist. I found out while on my cruise that I had passed the clinical board and I was officially qualified for licensure. On June 2, 2008 my dental hygiene license became active and I started work on June 4.

I work full time, which in the dental community means 4 days a week, for Dr. Talbot. He is so great, he held a couple of days for me since September 2007 and the other couple of days since March. I'm so thankful that he is so kind and generous. The 1st month working was ridiculously hard! I pretty much hated my life. I went from having 3 hours at school to see one patient, to having 40 minute appointments booked solid with no break from 7am-1pm and then from 2pm-4pm. That's 13 patients in 8 hours. It makes me tired just thinking about it. I have to just take it one patient at time to avoid becoming overwhelmed. It's been 6 weeks and I think I finally have a handle on things. As long as I don't get behind on a morning appointment, I should be fine the rest of the day. Getting my first paycheck was awesome! That's the moment I said to myself, "Ok, I guess it was all worth it."

Dear Brodie & Stacey,

Thanks for not inviting me to view your blog. I set out to post just for you Brodie, but now this is all you get.