Flood waters

I'm not sure how many of you are aware, but there is currently a lot of flooding happening in Nebraska. As I was flying out of Omaha today, I was shocked by just how much water there was! I took a couple of pictures from the plane.

Here you can see from the flooded trees just how much the river has risen.
Okay this picture is ridiculous. On the right side is Iowa, and there are a bunch of casinos right on the riverfront. So up near the top you can see a big square area of water. Yeah... that is a flooded parking lot! Also, you can see all the trees that are flooded on the Nebraska shoreline.

This isn't the best picture, but you can see all the water north of the city.

It's kinda scary to be driving through town and see all the sandbags. Even in the middle of Counsel Bluffs there will be a bunch of bags around electrical boxes, and other things like that. Funny thing is I actually live right next to the river. However, I'm clear up on a hill, which protects me from the flood waters. That is more than I can say for a lot of people, though!

The plane actually flew directly over my neighborhood, so I snapped a picture. It goes river, road, bunch of trees (that is actually part of the Botanical Gardens), and my neighborhood! I wish I could edit the picture and put an arrow pointing to my building.

Harry Potter Fans

So I'm not a total Harry Potter psycho, but I do enjoy going to see Harry at midnight! Despite having clinic the next morning, me and my friends Zach and Dave went out to the Counsel Bluffs theater on Thursday. Honestly, the best part was watching all the crazy people who showed up!

For instance, there was a person dressed like Dobby! Yeah, for those of you who don't speak HP, that is the creepy little elf dude who runs around in a towel. So this person was wearing this random little toga with a full-on mask. It was terrifying and hilarious! You know those socially awkward moments when you see someone who looks really weird or is wearing something really ugly, but you don't stare, and you keep a straight face? Yeah, with this dude I couldn't even keep it together! Anyways, props to those who dressed up, it was highly entertaining. As for the movie, it was awesome, and I'll totally go see it with you again!

National "blow-things-up" Day!!!

Happy Independence day!

Here's a bunch of pictures from the 4th. Some friends of mine managed to drag me out of bed by 7 am (a feat all in itself), and we drove out to Ashland, Nebraska. While there we decided to check out some random airspace museum. It was pretty cool to tour all these military planes, including old WWII bombers, on the fourth of July. It made me happy! I was probably most excited about this B17 bomber because my Grandpa Jones flew these during WWII. It made me grateful for those serving in the military, and it made me proud of my Grandpa!

This is a Blackbird. Apparently they're really fast, and really fancy... and big!

I'm totes ready to fly...

Hugging Mitchell!!! (If this makes no sense, my little brother's name is Mitchell.)

Finally, we took a horse ride at Mahoney state park. It was fun to be on a horse since I haven't been since last summer. However, these horses are so well trained you basically just let them do their thing. Also, these pictures reminded me why I never wear baseball caps. However, I'm totally patriotic with my red, white, and blue (without even realizing it)!

I had a lot of fun, but it was ridiculously hot (and humid) and all I wanted to do was take a nap! A friend of mine came over later that night, and we watched a movie, ate ice-cream, and lit off some sweet sparklers!

Identity Crisis

This is what my car is supposed to look like (pictured above).
My car is very confused right now... Apparently my loyalties are split. No seriously, I'm a Utah Girl, but this is what happens when you live in the same neighborhood as a whole bunch of BYU hoodlums! Actually this is some payback for putting Utah stickers on a friend's car. I didn't even notice this sticker until I was driving somewhere. Also, I'm too lazy to scrape it off - plus I think it's funny. So I'll probably just leave it until I get around to doing something about it!

25 Birthdays

Yesterday was my birthday, and it was pretty much awesome! Even though I had clinic and class all day, my awesome dental school buddies made it a pretty good day.

That night we went out for sushi at Hiro. That is one of the things I love about Omaha - they have pretty good sushi! (However, compared to what is available in Cedar, almost anywhere would have better. Haha.)

Ever since freshman year of college, I have loved sushi. It's my very favorite "snob" food. I was so excited they took me for sushi!!

Dave, Armando, Diana, and Fatima with our "boat" of sushi! Yes, we ordered so much sushi that it required a boat.

Fatima, Brandon, and Anne.

Me and Kaiyra. Yes, I received some birthday balloons. And yes, one has Elmo on it!

Thanks for the awesome birthday dinner!!!!

Danger under the water

For some reason I keep injuring myself. Also, it's a little sad that I don't have much else to talk about on my blog other than my random injuries! Ha ha. Anyways, apparently it is birthday season because last week two of my friends had birthdays the same day. A big group of us from the dental school celebrated Qi Qi's birthday on Wednesday by going out to Lake Manawa in Iowa. A friend had two jet skis, so we had a blast zipping around on the brown water of Manawa. I did take the opportunity to toss my friend Armando off the jet ski... poor guy. However, he did almost toss me off when it was his turn to drive! I like his style, ha ha.

However, when we were coming back into shore I was going shoe-less on account of the thick black mud that acts like quicksand. That's when my foot encountered a broken beer bottle under the water... Ouch! It actually wasn't too bad of an injury, but I had a bunch of mini-dentists trying to help me (including myself)! Luckily I can still walk fine, but if you see me limping, now you know why!

Evil wildlife

I walk out my door this morning to find this:

I used to have a bunch of beautiful, multi-colored flowers planted in this box. I was so totally confused, because I couldn't figure out what had happened to them! I was trying to decide if it was incredibly windy, or if a hail storm had destroyed them during the night. Then I looked down to discover these:
Stupid deer!! Seriously, why the heck are the deer eating my flowers? I have decided that the wildlife around here is pure evil. What with the black squirrels, and the raccoons that hide in the dumpsters to terrify me. Honestly, can you buy deer repellant for your plants?!