Nebraska Rhymes With Awesome

Hello, loyal readers! It's been awhile since we last posted. Janelle usually does an excellent job of keeping our blog more up to date, but lately we've been pretty busy. I noticed it had been awhile, so I'm attempting to update our blog for the first time.

As most of you know, we moved to Hastings, Nebraska at the end of August. In case you were wondering, we really like it here. Janelle was accepted into an accelerated nursing program that allows her to graduate as a Registered Nurse in just one year! Look above! She's going to make a very beautiful nurse, wouldn't you say? It's a perfect opportunity, because my graduate schooling won't start until next year anyway, so this way we are able to make the most of the meantime.

We are loving Nebraska. I admit, I had reservations about moving here, but this place is actually really nice. The people are very friendly and Hastings is really a quaint and inviting town. Our ward has been very welcoming, and even helped us move in. There's a lake nearby, the State Fair was just down the road in Grand Island, and we even went to a rodeo. They love the Cornhuskers here, and since Nebraska is currently ranked in the Top 10 in the college football standings, everyone is showing their Big Red pride. We just might have to catch a Cornhusker game one of these times. I hear Memorial Stadium is quite the experience and perhaps the toughest place to play in all of college football due to all the crazy loud NE fans.

As for nursing school, Janelle is very busy, but doing wonderfully. She's well on her way and is very excited to be "Nurse Warnick" in less than a year. I get to be her "guinea pig" at times while she practices taking blood pressure, vitals, etc. I'm not particularly looking forward to the IV lesson. I might have to hide during that week. As far as work, I didn't know what to expect when we moved here, but I was able to find a good job in town and have started working, so that is a blessing. The weather has also been excellent and the fall colors are starting to turn.

We want to thank all of our friends and family who helped us with the move, especially my parents for letting us use their horse trailer. You have no idea how much money that saved us. We look forward to seeing you all during the holidays!

belize, gautemala and more

DAY ONE: flew into belize city. took a boat to ambergris caye. found a hotel for $40/night. this was a big score because online the hotels were like $160. went to the beach and relaxed. explored the little town.

DAY TWO: took a boat to ambergris caye early in the morning. found another cheap hotel room for $20 (even better!). hung out and explored the island. this island was so cool. i loved it. everyone used golf carts to drive around. we also went to the most amazing restaurant ever: red mangos. so delicious and nutritious.

DAY THREE: woke up. found the least expensive snorkeling trip available and went on a snorkeling trip to "shark ray alley". coolest snorkeling of my life. there were nurse sharks and sting rays EVERYWHERE. i mean everywhere. i was on rich's back most of the time because it freaked my out when the sharks and rays brushed up on me. we also saw eels, a barracuda and a bazillion other amazing fish. again, that was the best snorkeling ever. belize has an awesome barrier reef. definitely want to go back again super bad.

DAY FOUR: woke up early. packed and took a boat back to belize city. then we went to their bus station and paid like $4 for a bus ticket to go to placencia. placencia is pretty much all the way across belize, so this was an amazing deal. however, we had no clue why it was cheap. after the bus ride, i now know why. it was an old school bus (from pleasant grove, ut! funny!), and in these school buses they pack like 3 people per seat, and then people stand in the rows for hours, so it sucks if you don't get a seat. luckily, thanks to rich's fast moves, we got a seat. the other reason why this bus is so cheap is because they pretty much almost kill you. we now call the bus ride to placencia the jungle coaster because it was like a roller coaster--but scarier! imagine this: you are in the middle of the jungle in a bus driving on a single one lane old road with pot holes, and are going up and down hills, passing cars/trucks/semis/other school buses while going up hills, going over broken bridges, and then imagine that this bus is going about 80 mph. i seriously thought we were going to die for the first hour. i just hid my head under the window because i could not watch. i remember reading that the biggest cause of death in belize is traffic accidents, and i now know why. this was a jungle coaster going out of control. after the first hour of the hell ride, i decided that if i was going to die, i wanted to at least have fun, so i finally stopped hiding and just enjoyed the ride with rich. when we go to placencia, we got a hotel room for $15. the prices were seriously amazing.

DAY FIVE: we wanted to go explore the jungle, so we did! it was such a cool trip. we went with this local guy who did tours. i'm glad we went with him because he had a machete. we saw howler monkeys (scariest noise to hear in the jungle), manatees, crocodiles, other monkeys, tons of cool birds and jaguar tracks!

DAY SIX: took a bus to gautemala. the border crossing was super shady, but we eventually got over the border. we then took a bus to this little island called flores and got a hotel for $20. we explored the little island and had lunch, and then went swimming.

DAY SEVEN: we went to tikal. tikal was amazing. it is like the largest mayan archeological site, and the place was amazing. we climbed up so many temples and there were monkeys everywhere too! loved it. got a hotel room for $12. again, the prices were amazingly inexpensive.

DAY EIGHT: took a bus back to belize city and flew home. got home around midnight.

DAY NINE: woke up early, finished packing up our apartment and then drove to omaha, NE. we got into omaha at like 2am.

DAY TEN: woke up at 6am and went to my orientation. rich dropped me off, then drove to hastings to look for an apartment. (we hadn't gotten one yet). he hadn't found one yet, so we got a hotel room. unfortunately, the prices were not as inexpensive as they were in gautemala.

DAY ELEVEN: i went to school and rich found an apartment. i love our apartment. then we moved in! home sweet home! ...we are a little crazy...

let the journey begin!

they have these little water hut things everywhere. so cool!

hey hottie ;)

rich found a coconut, so he made coconut juice. it was tasty!

coconut!

a whole lobster for $6? yes please.

the belize city bus station

placencia

this is the daughter of the guy who took us on the jungle tour. she was so cute too.

one of our sweet hotel rooms and rich's sweet muscles.

i would never want to be alone in the jungle at night.

the jungle boat. there were crocs everywhere!

GO JAZZ! ahah!

the beginning of the jungle coaster (this is before it started getting crazy).

gautemala is sooo pretty!

JUNGLE COASTER!!! (seriously, i got the roller coaster butterfly feeling everytime we went down a hill because the driver was on roids).

cutest little girl ever. she was my jungle coaster buddy.

so happy to find this atm..we never carried too much cash, but one time we cut it a little too close, and they don't take visa...

tikal!

pink shirt!

us being so happy. it was really cool because at the top of the temple, you could see tons of other temples. the pics don't really show it that well, but trust me.

i love jungles!

this monkey was pretty much begging to be held

my warrior man

princess janelle ;)

mayan temple

i'm not scared of heights, but those steps were intense! they were also probably not in the best condition of their life.

us in flores. coolest little island ever! it felt like we were in italy.

us packed in a minivan with 36 people. yup. 36 people. we counted. we know. ahah! wow. good times. just so my mother knows, when we got in the minivan...there were only four of us.

You Better Belize It!

So so excited. Rich and I are going to Belize for our anniversary. I cannot wait. Especially after this summer it will be such a nice break. This summer has been hard. I've taken 14 credits (Biochemistry, Microbiology, Psychology and Nutrition) this summer, so I have spent a lot of it indoors. Rich has also been working like 60+ hours per week, so we are both ready for a break, and we will get one soon! August 12-13 we are going with Rich and his parents and extended family to their cabin and going boating. I'm super excited about that, and Rich is too, and then we are going to Belize the next day for a week. We only have to survive finals, working 2 jobs, packing, apartment searching and other stuff, etc. 16 days left. YEA YA!!!!

Rich and Jellystone!

NOTICE the grizzly bear. He wants Rich. I know it.


Rich and I went to Yellowstone with Britt and Marc over the 4th of July weekend. It was rad. Yellowstone was awesome. I haven't been there since I was like thirteen, so it was fun to see it. There were so many animals! Buffalo, "moosen," deer, foxes and we even saw a grizzly bear!

We froze the first night because we were "smart" and only packed one sleeping bag and some blankets. It was 90 degrees in Provo, and we were lazy (we didn't want to drive out to Mapleton and get his bag), so we thought we would be fine. Wrong! It dropped down to 31 degrees the first night....we ended up going to our car and blasting the heat...ahahah. Good times! We now have more experience and two sleeping bags, so we are ready!

Dreams

I remembered this quote a little bit ago, and I wanted to post it because I love it so much.

~A dream is a wish your heart makes when you're fast asleep. In dreams you will lose your heartaches. Whatever you wish for, you keep. Have faith in your dreams, and someday, your rainbow will come smiling through. No matter how your heart is grieving, if you keep on believing, the dreams that you wish will come true~
~Cinderella

Scooter Time

Motorcycles, scooters and bikes rock my world... :)

4-H and Fishing

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Rich and I went fishing with the kids that we mentor in 4-H. It was super fun. Dylan for sure had fun. I hope Alicia did too. She is not a huge out-door fan, but she did try casting a couple times. Rich took us to the Trout Farm or as Dylan called it, "Instafish". It was a cool place because you catch a fish the moment you put your pole in. I love the 4-H program. It is really fun to plan activities with these kids, and it is awesome to get to know them. They are moving in May, but hopefully we can keep up with the program. I will have to find out if Hastings has the same program. Oh, and Dylan told me that John Adams wanted the turkey be the national bird, but they chose the eagle. Rich said it is a good thing we chose the eagle. If we hadn't, most American' would be eating the national bird every Thanksgiving. Dylan and Rich are both pretty smart and funny. :)