Teeny Boppers & Biofilm

Dental Convention

Brittany, Heidi, Janelle, Amy, Kris

The Annual Dental Convention was today and will continue tomorrow at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake. All the students at our school are required to go every year. The Dental Convention brings in all sorts of different speakers, and you can choose what classes you want to go to at what times. Some of my friends decided to carpool to the convention, which is a lot better than going by yourself!

We went to a continuing education class called, "Are you numb yet? The Anatomy of Local Anesthesia." I think it's ironic that we are going to continuing education classes even though we are already in and continuing our education at my school, haha, oh well. The teacher was very good and knowledgable, but it was funny because as us five girls were sitting there listening, we realized we weren't hearing anything new. Everything the teacher said, we had already learned because our awesome instrutor Dr. Allan had gone over it so many times. So it's always fun to feel smart, haha. The classroom ended up getting packed. We got there early, but by the end it was full to capacity, 350 people! That was just one class, there were many others to choose from.

At the dental conventions, they always have the Exhibit Hall, which is one of my favorite parts. A ton of different dental or dental related companies comes to try to sell you on their merchandise, service, etc. I wanted everything there, I think that's what they want haha. One particular item they had was particularily awesome. It was this amazing clinician chair, the lumbar support would glide and follow you, keeping you perfectly supported and comfortable the whole time you were sitting in it. It was like $700 something dollars, I told Truman that if a dentist I worked for really loved me, they would buy me this chair, haha.

Something that I did buy though, was 2 instruments which I'm really really excited about! I got them for an awesome deal, only $7 dollars for each! Since all 5 gals I carpooled with wanted them too, we were able to get a great deal, and also because we were students. One is called the Montana Jack and the other is the 204 SD, I can't wait to use them! I know it means nothing to anyone reading this, but I guess you have to be a dental hygienist/student to be excited about dental hygiene instruments ;).

Something even more fun about the Exhibits is the FREE stuff! ...Floss, toothpaste, Opalescence teeth bleach, paper pads, water bottles, magenents, pens, ear phones, candy (yes, candy at a dental convention), and different product samples: Xylitol gum, mints, and nasal spray, & these new orthodontic flossers. And who doesn't love free stuff? I'm going to return tomorrow and double my loot.

Tomorrow will be more classes and then my friend Heidi, Jill, & me will be a part of the exhibit as all the groups from my school and other schools present their Community Health or Research Projects. Until then...I'll be playing with my new trinkets.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

"I Heart Truman"

Presents from Truman

This is the "Love Jar" I made for Truman. I filled it with 25 reasons of why I love Truman so much.

Truman really outdid himself this year, he did such a great job getting me some darling gifts. Truman really stepped it up and wrapped my gift this year and had a card, very impressive! Truman bought me this cute hot pink robe. I am always cold in the mornings when I go to eat breakfast or do homework, and am always grabbing a sweater or jacket in the evenings, so this robe will be perfect to have to be all comfy and cute. Truman got me an "I Love You" balloon too! He said he didn't want to get me one that said Happy Valentine's Day because it's not about Valentine's Day, it's about the fact that he loves me, aww cute. A few weeks ago, Truman bought me some pink primroses which I have loved and enjoyed taking care of. He was going to get me a cute pot for them for V-Day, but they haven't been doing so well lately :(, guess I don't have the green thumb. Instead he got me another darling potted plant of some Red Parade Roses. I am so excited about them! They are absolutely adorable, and he picked out a pot for them that I can plant them into. I don't think I could have picked a better pot myself, it is so cute! Once again, I'm going to have to call my Mom of how to take care of this one. I smile everytime I see them, Truman said he wanted to give me something that would last, grow, and get prettier. To top it off, what would any Valentine's Day present be (to Amy anyway) without chocolate? haha. He got me some Butterfinger bites and some Russell Stover chocolates, which I was very excited about.

 Then we went to my favorite place to eat to have a romantic Cafe Rio dinner. I got my traditional pork barbacoa salad!

We had some movie tickets from Christmas from my Mom, and Truman was dying to see the movie 'Taken', so we went to go see that at the real theaters! Ooo luxury! The movie was great, and Truman and I seemed to be talking about it the rest of the evening. We highly recommend it!

It was a wonderful Valentine's Day! I did some service in the morning at Give Kids A Smile day that was held at our school. Dentists, hygienists, and dental assistants came from all around to volunteer to work on kid's teeth. It was really fun to help out, I was at the education booth for most the time teaching them all about their oral health. We even got cool shirts. It's the red one that I'm wearing in one of the pictures above. After that I went to go visit Truman at work for a while, when he came home from work, we took a nap, and then the festivities began! So it was a great, fun, and relaxing Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Enrichment Activity

These were the different crafts that we made at our awesome Enrichment Activity, it was so much fun! I'm the Enrichment leader, but unfortunately I cannot take credit for any of these haha. Katie, the Enrichment Counselor knew a lady who designed these cards for us that we could copy and assemble. Mackenzie on our committee came up with these darling "Love Jars". They were baby food jars that we painted the lids black, she printed off different labels we could cut out and put on top, and then we used mod podge to seal it. We tied ribbons and made tags, and they were so cute. You could fill it with candy or whatever you wanted. When I got home I wrote 25 different reasons of why I loved Truman and put them on little slips of paper, and used those instead of the candy. Also, Katie and her Mom made home made caramels, and we pacakged them in cute little bags and ribbons as part of the activity.

Card making station

Enrichment Gals

Step Kardio Fusion Class

When Truman & me were driving home from Christmas Break, my friend Cassidy got in touch with me and wanted to know if I wanted to do an excercise class at BYU with her and my other friend Jill. I of course said yes, and we found a class that worked for all of our schedules! I really enjoy excercise classes because it gives you that much more motivation to work-out, and it's like you feel a responsibility to go haha. What makes it even better is that I have it with two of my best buds from high school! Cassidy, Jill, & I all went to Ponderosa High School in Shingle Springs, California. We all eventually came out here for school, so this class is a really fun way to keep the contact going, hang out, AND excercise! All of us are really enjoying the class, it's a mix of step aerobics, kick boxing, turbo, free weights, and a little bit of yoga and pilates. It's fun to joke around, laugh, and excercise with them three times a week. We have it every Monday & Wednesday evening and Saturday mornings for an hour. Another funny part about this picture is that I'm wearing a PHS Link Crew shirt and Cassidy is wearing a PHS Grad Night '05 shirt haha. What can we say, they make great work-out shirts? Go Bruins! haha.