Hot, Humid, Houston

I have been completely remiss in my obligation to the loyal fans of my blog.

I am finally here in Texas, it only took 18 months for me to get here from first making the decision. It was a very very difficult first few days but I am doing much better and have suprised myself in looking forward to school starting next week. I am looking forward to having a routing and getting back into a hospital setting where I can give service to my patients and feel good about my work. Tuition turned out to be much much more than I expected and I still haven't heard about the scholarship I have applied for - you think they would make a decision soon but who knows. I am just glad that I am still in the running for the scholarship. It would be an incredible blessing from the Lord to get it. Without it I am going to have to be pinching pennies and working as much as I can to be able to get through the whole two years. I have faith that the Lord will provide, He sent me down here to this hot, humid, uncomfortable place and I know that He will help me to make ends meet, even if not in the most obvious of ways.

I got an apartment pretty close to the school with a city bus right outside my door so it only takes about 15 minutes by bus to get to the hospital which is fantastic. I hope to save tons of money on gas, mileage on my new car, etc. I can't post pictures becuase I forgot the cable to download pictures from my camera to my computer. Now that the place is clean I feel so much better about being here and the bus ride, it is so short it makes me really excited. Being so far away from the people I love is hard but we have internet, Facebook, blogging, Skype, etc. and that makes the distance seem a little shorter. I have decided that when I am finished I really do want to move back closer to home. I was contemplating Boston or some place like that when I graduated but now I don't want to go there. I owe my family so much for enabling me to be here and get this education that is going to almost double my income and I want to share that wealth with those who helped me to get here. We will have to see what life brings however. There aren't a lot of radiation therapy jobs in Utah but at least being on the west side of the country within a day's drive will be good.

I have found one cockroach in my apartment, hopefully I don't get a whole ton more. The heat is bearable too. The worst experience was today waiting for the bus home...moisture just clings to your skin and runs down your face and it is very hot and uncomfortable. I am glad I will be inside most of the time. The moisture does bring out more of the natural curl in my hair though which is good, it will make it easier to do on those days when I am too busy to do anything beyond a ponytail.

I will have to post pictures when I can. My mom is coming out in a couple of weeks with my bed and a few of the things I forgot. I can't wait to see her and whoever else comes with her. Kimberly should be coming to see me soon too and it will be fun to meet my nephew who is now 3 or 4 months old.

Leaving in a few weeks...

I turned in my notice at work this week. I only have 12 days left...I feel kind of sad about it. I am really glad that I was able to come back to work in Salt Lake and that things didn't work out in Dallas back in February.

I still haven't found a place to live in Texas. I don't want to rent something on-line and then have it be a dive when I get there. Hopefully I can find a place and move in within a day or two of getting there. I am debating getting a 2 bdrm or a place of my own. I don't know if I will be able to find a good roommate down there as there aren't as many LDS girls to choose from but maybe I will get lucky. I still need to call the ward as they haven't answered my emails to see if they have people needing roommates.

The house we have been working on looks great! Unfortunately we don't think we will be able to sell it so Christ is going to get a couple of roommates and stay awhile. I wish I could live here and go to school but that is not too be. I will have to post pictures of the house when I get them on my computer.

No, I have not fallen off the planet, just busy.

No pics, no long post. But an update: I am moving to Houston Texas in about six to eight weeks. I got accepted to school, one of the best cancer centers in the world. I was freaking out at first but now I am trying to do what I can and leave the rest up to the Lord since I feel he wants me in Texas.

Christopher and I have been working maddeningly on the house, getting ready to put it up for sell. I will post pictures when it is done. We want to use blogs, Facebook, signs, word of mouth, anything to get it sold, except use a realtor becuase they cost so much. It is looking so great!!!! Better than I would have expected 2-1/2 months ago when we started.

I have been working like a fool at St. Mark's Hospital. I am working full time+. I was even made employee of the month 10 days ago. It was pretty cool. Unfortunately, between work, the house and all the paperwork for school it doesn't leave much time for friends, playing, hanging out, etc. I hope to see everyone before I leave though, but if not, I will have to keep you updated on my in my blog. Hopefully when I am not pulled in so many different directions I will have time to post all of the happenings in Houston. At least, I will make a greater effort to be diligent in my blogging.

Hello Friends!

I have been working!!! Dallas bombed completely so I decided to come home. Three days later St. Mark's called me because one of their techs (Mike) broke his leg and will be out for 6-8 weeks. It is nice to be working again. We don't know if Mike will come back since he was planning on retiring this summer. I will be working regularly for a while and it is great. I got my first paycheck yesterday and it is much needed and makes me feel a lot better about my life. Things are finally looking up.

My application for school is in; it was due Feburary 28. I am not expecting to hear anything until at least April 1 at the very earliest. Right now, having found what could possibly be a permanent full time job I am a little worried about moving to Texas and not finding a job. Everyone is under hiring freezes. If I don't get accepted to school I think I will be okay with it, maybe a little disappointed initially but relieved just to work and make good money, and not have to go to the effort of moving across the country alone.

I am hoping to move back to the east side...at least temporarily! I can't wait. The renters will be moving out April 1st. We are going to fix up the house again and get it ready to sell. My commute to work will be cut down to 5 minutes again and I will be in the neighborhood with all my friends. I am planning on going back to the Winder 14th Ward. I am very nervous that something is going to come up and I won't be able to go back to that house. I have been so conditioned to plans falling through that I don't even want to think about it that much just in case some "miracle" happens and I don't get to go back to the neighborhood that harbors some of my best memories. Of course, it would be better to sell the house right away and not have to worry about it anymore. We will just have to see what happens.

Now I am Bored...and trying to enjoy it.

I have met all of my commitments that I thought would be nearly impossible. I finished my math class with a B, barely, and I am so glad. I really wanted a B to improve my GPA and hopefully improve my score for school. It is over and such a relief. I had the Lord's help sooooo much. I couldn't believe how easy it was to sit down and spend 5-7 hours a day doing math and still spend time with my family in the evenings.

I also got my application in for radiation therapy school. Now all I have to do is wait for a letter to come, hopefully telling me that I get an interview. Last year the deadline was June 1 so I am glad the deadline is sooner, hopefully I won't have to wait forever.

Currently I am sitting in a hotel trying to find something entertaining on TV to watch (not having any luck) so I broke out my desktop computer for something to do. The internet signal is pretty weak so I don't know how much patience I have to deal with a slow connection.

I had an interview today for a mobile x-ray tech here in Forth Worth. I don't know how it went...hopefully I will find out tomorrow. I have been feeling very overwhelmed being completely out of my comfort zone and at this point, if I don't get the job I will be glad to go home immediately. I did find an apartment one or two minutes from work which I will move into if I get the job. It is not as nice as my condo was, but I spent 5 years fixing that up just how I liked it - and then we sold it. Ironic isn't it. (But the new house is good.) I feel pretty discouraged now but hopefully once I get out of limbo and get home, whether that is a new home here or back in Salt Lake, I will feel better.

As I don't have any children of my own, nor is looking like I ever will, I am choosing to be happy living vicariously through my siblings.

Here is a picture of my first nephew. It kind of makes me want to consider being an ultrasound tech so that I could see cute babies. It is like he is saying hi.

My sister and her husband call him
Little Man.

Update on the Evans

It has been such a long time since I last posted. I have been pretty busy with the holidays and math and working occasionally and I just didn't know what to say.

I am almost done with my math class, only six days left! I take my final on Tuesday the 20th. I am so excited to be done. I am sick of worrying about it. When I am finished with math I am going to start looking for jobs in Houston, Texas. While I am not looking forward to the heat and the plethora of bugs down south I am a little excited about getting a new start with life. I had planned on moving last August but then I got a job here in SLC that I felt reallly good about. Nothing ever came of that but if it does come available soon I would be tempted to take it just becuase it would be easier to stay than to leave.

I am not a big one to say "I feel like that is where I need to be" when it comes to moving. My opinion is that wherever we make decisions to go we can have good experiences and learn what the Lord wants us to learn but, now I am eating my own words because "I feel like I really need to go to Texas." When I turned down the position at the school last fall I had planned to apply to several schools across the country, including one in Portland, Oregon, where I would really like to go. But, Texas has the best school with it being the #1 cancer center in the country and also giving licenses in radiation therapy and proton therapy (a new form of radiation used to treat cancer). Mostly though, Texas is calling out to me in a very strong and surprising way, even more so than it did last summer. Moving before I get accepted to the program is kind of a leap of faith and something I feel strongly I need to do.

I am kind of hoping that as I start planning/preparing, things will come together in a way they did not last summer. I wonder if the Lord wanted me to hang around for the past few months becuase I had some things He wanted me to do. I don't know. It has been great to be here. I love not having to go to work in the mornings. I love making meals for my family and spending time with them. It is going to be hard to leave. I think this will be the last time that I will be able to live with them (at 30 it probably better be) and while it has its challenges (my family is not very good at picking up after themselves) there has been quality and quantity "family bonding."

Some things of note:

-The new iPod Ryan and my family got me as a late B-day present had some problems with it - still under warranty - Amazing!!! I was able to exchange it for a new one. Cool!

-We had to put the family dog down, she probably had cancer. She had all these lumps all over her abdomen and she began biting at them at so we finally put her to sleep. It was hard because I had just bonded with her again. Mom, Chris and I would take her for walks all the time out here and she could run in the hills. We miss her.

-Christopher has started his own business. Since he got laid off a few months ago he took the time to ponder and decided to start his own game developing company called Morphosis Inc., LLC, I think that is what it is. We are pretty excited for him. He is working on his first project which seems to be going pretty good.

-Ryan finally graduated from college! He only needed the math class to finish up and with a miracle from above he ended up getting a B in the class. It was wonderful news. Now he can move on with his life. I did see him carrying around GRE and LSAT books yesterday though so it looks like he is planning on going on for something else.

-My sister, Kimberly is finally pregnant. Now that she gets out of the military in 9 months she and her husband finally decided that it was time to have a baby since she would not be able to be deployed after having the child. They have been married for 8 or 9 years. It is a boy and she is due in May.

-My brother, Marcus and his wife just got married in July and they are also expecting their first child due some time this summer.

At 30 I finally get to be an aunt for the first time. It is kind of exciting.

The last couple of years have been pretty rough for the whole family. We are hoping that 2009 will be better. It got off to a rough start but once math is over and my application for school is in hopefully I can relax and start some new adventures.