6 Month Update almost complete....I went to Haiti

This section of the update deserves the most amount of time of all but I want to post about it all when I have collected the photos from all the other team members from our trip. For now I will sum it up quickly.

I went to Haiti with a medical team out of Tyler, Texas called Mercy Works. It was the most eye opening and rewarding experience. I have been waiting to go on a medical mission trip since I was 16 years old and it was the main reason I wanted to study something in the medical field when I went to college. Now 9 years later I was able to go, RN license and all, and the experience has only made me want to do medical missions throughout my life. Here are only a couple of photos from the trip.

Some serious packing...the sleeping bag never made it to Haiti.

I like to think someone really needed it.

Our trusted ambulance that took us to our mobile clinics each day.

One of the last families I triaged on my final clinic day.

This little girl loved her bubble bee gift.

One of the tent cities in St. Marc

I would like to thank Preston for his unfailing support. My mum for helping me gather needed supplies, her master packing skills, and for watching the boys. For Ky's mum, Kris, in lending me needing supplies, thank goodness for scouts back in the day and for Fred and his backbacking supplies. Many thanks to family and friends for keeping me in their thoughts. A big thanks to Stephanie Morgan, Preston's cousin, for going first and then telling me over and over again that I could do a trip like this.

I promise to share more as I gather photos and edit the video clips from the trip.

6 Month Update....Belated birthday celebrations in April

For my birthday this year, Preston surprised me with a hot air balloon ride. I was so excited and we were scheduled to go two weeks after my birthday. Well Tucson decided to have rainy weather on almost every day we had off together and we had to keep canceling. So with much anticipation we were so excited to go in April and it was well worth the wait. It was so much better then I could have imagined. I thought the ride would be rocky and that the basket would sway all over the place, but it was nothing like it at all. The ride was so smooth and you couldn't even tell you were moving. It was a a beautiful day and you could see all over the city of Tucson.

Our hot air balloon being blow up.

Getting bigger and bigger.

It was an early morning.

The beautiful view over Tucson.

I was so thankful for my awesome birthday gift.

Lake views (man made) and all.

The shadow of our balloon... getting closer to the houses on our descent

As I mentioned above, the whole ride was smooth sailing and pretty uneventful until....we went to land. I didn't know this but there isnt an exact way to steer a balloon. As we are flying a ground crew follows us and helps us to land. I had imagined landing in this large open field of some sort, similar to what we took off in. I sure was surprised as we started to descend in a residential area and seriously came so close to the roof of a house I thought we were going to knock off the antenna. We landed in the middle of a street in a residential area and all of the home owners came out to see what the noise was. They were sure surprised to see a hot air balloon in front of their house. The male passengers had to get out and help walk the balloon to a bigger section of the road so that the balloon could be deflated

It was a great experience and an awesome birthday gift.

6 Month Update....March Madness

To celebrate our good friend Kylee's birthday we had a little birthday surprise at Olive Garden.
Shane, Ky's husband, had been doing a college bracket for the days leading up to Ky's birthday. Each day she would have to choose between two teams and her gift would depend on the team she chose. On her birthday, Kylee had to choose between her alumni school, Utah State, and Shane's current doctoral school, the Univ. of Arizona. It was a hard choice to make, the Aggies vs. the Wildcats.

The fateful envelopes...

Final answer....Utah State!

And the gift....Grand Canyon trip with the Otte's in the fall.

The Otte's and the Thompsons + May trying to eat some Olive Garden

6 Month Update....Forget May flowers, we get them in March

March was an awesome month. We went to Catalina State Park just as the desert wild flowers were blooming. We took the puppies and they had a blast. With the snow that was melting from a top the mountains we found some water in these natural pools that the boys had a blast in.

Mexican Poppies covering some of the hillside.

Wilson and Charlie actually following a stay command as we got a photo.
(Dont mind Char's awkward wide stance...you take what you can get)

They were such good dogs on this day. Poor Charlie got caught by a Cholla cactus right in his face. No worries though, we got it out with the help of a fellow hikers pliers.

6 Month Update....February Fun

In February Preston and I went to the Accenture Match Play Tournament. The tournament was played at the Ritz-Carlton only about 15 minutes from our house and two courses up from where Preston works. Preston was in golfing heaven. I was able to take photos on one of the practice days and I even got to shake Padraig Harrington's hand.



Anthony Kim...or AK (so silly)


Padraig Harrington


Angel Cabrera

6 Month Catch Up Continued….December 2009

December was a great month. We went down to Mesa with Shane, Ky and Maylen to look at the beautiful Christmas lights.

We enjoyed some Café Rio, great ice cream and best of all some great company.

We were able to spend our Christmas in Burley with the Preston's family. We were so lucky to be able get away from work and really enjoyed the time away.

We got to spend time with our beautiful nieces who are getting just so big. I got to be Santa Clause and they were the reindeer driving my sleigh all over the house.

Preston was very honored to give Olivia and Alexis a special blessing, it was a great day.

6 Months of Catch Up…starting with October 2009

Here is a quick little catch up of the last 6 months in the Otte household.

We'll start with October 2009.

Preston went to Florida to test for PGA Level One and we are proud to say he PASSED!

I passed my boards late September, on the first try, thank goodness and was so lucky to get a job at UMC. It was a rocky road after graduation as far as the job market goes but was so relieved to be hired on to 3NE, an adult medical surgical unit. I started working mid-October and it was definitely a steep learning curve! I had a great preceptor named Serah, who thankfully was very patient.

To round out October, Preston and I went to an awesome Halloween party at our good friends Shane and Kylee's.

In honor of our friends who love The Office, Dwight and Angela came to their party and to our awesome surprise, Shane and Ky dressed up as us.

It was awesome and my mouth dropped when they opened the door.