Last summer I put a pond in the backyard and have loved it.  Unfortunately, I had no money so I used old (free) lining and it sprung a leak and was no longer functional.  This last weekend I spent two days moving rocks, shoveling out gravel, and made other improvements and put in brand new lining.  No leaks and the pumps are running great!  This is the upper portion containing 11 gold fish that overwintered and are getting quite large, cat tails and water lilies. 

This is the whole thing.  The middle section I used to frame in the flower bed, and I want to put moss on the bricks for a softer look.  I put water hyacinth in the bottom part today, which multiply rapidly, have attractive purple flowers, and will hide the pump!  

I love the sound of the flowing water and it makes sitting in the back yard that much more relaxing and gives a feeling of an oasis escape.  I love it!  It was alot of fun to build/create and it was easier and more rewarding than I even thought it would be.

This is my little garden, just some peas, raspberries, watermelon, cantaloupe, and sunflowers along the back fence.  I saw the first pea flower today and I can't wait for fresh peas!!  I had to take off one of the milk jugs covering a cantaloupe because the plant was outgrowing it.  

The milk jug trick was something that I learned from my parents garden.  I wanted to experiment though so planted three hills of cantaloupe and placed a milk jug over two of them and left the third uncovered.  Below is the hill I had to uncover today because it was outgrowing the milk jug.
This is the hill that was left uncovered.  Once it was obvious the milk jug made a significant difference, I placed a 2 liter pop bottle over the top just three days ago, hence the funky picture looking through the bottle neck at the small cantaloupe sprouts.  Guess I never should have questioned my parent's wisdom haha!

I love the U

This is a picture I took today with my phone... would have looked better if I could zoom!  This is the Marriot Library on the University of Utah campus.  I had to run up there to print off my last paper on "human environmental impacts and human health" for my last class of my undergraduate.  It feels so good to be officially done and graduated!  Today though I took some extra time to walk around campus as I felt a tinge of sadness about leaving.  I have really enjoyed the U and felt at home here.  My professors have been amazing and I feel I have learned more during my time at the U than I have anywhere else.  I feel a little bit cheated that I was not able to do my entire undergraduate here and almost wish I had another year.  I'm really going to miss the U, Salt Lake City, and the people I have grown to love and respect.  It really felt like I had found my niche and it will be hard to leave.  I have not had my fill of hikes up immigration canyon,  tennis at East High, wrestling alligators, eating at Maza, concerts at Saltair, and playing in the yard.  As much as I would love to stay here, the U medical school did not accept me and I must leave to continue my education.  I am excited for Phoenix and hope to feel as much at home there as I have in Salt Lake.  

Just some spring time photos I have taken.  This is a flowering almond tree on the walk to TRAX.

Still, months later, these pansies just amaze me!  They are thick and beautiful and just covered in blossoms.  They make me happy everytime I see them and it makes me feel good that my fall planting of them was very successful!

The apple tree in the back yard was just covered in blossoms this year.  As if it didn't produce enough apples last year!

This has to be my most favorite spring flowering tree, the eastern red bud.  Just beautiful!

This is an old eastern red bud on campus.  I was fascinated by all the blossoms coming right out of the trunk and had to take a picture!

Finally!!! After 4 years of hard work in undergrade, a summer of studying for the mcat, six months of essay after essay after essay, and flying across the country for interviews, I finally got an acceptance to medical school!! The school is Midwestern University in Glendale Arizona. It is only about 10 years old so the facilities are very nice. The parent University is in Chicago and was established in 1900 so the institution and programs are tried and tested so it won't have the kinks alot of the new schools can have. The interviewers, staff, and students were very nice, campus was beautiful, and it was nice to see people playing sand volleyball on campus... maybe I will have a life in med school haha. Only downer is they seem technophobic. No wireless internet, pretty sure that is a crime in 2009. I have not heard back from Western University in LA yet but should this week. I am wait listed in Florida, which is rough because that is my number one choice from the schools I interviewed at. That means I can be accepted there up until school starts and any money I pay to another school to hold my spot is lost. Man, what a money game! But I'm excited to know that I will be starting medical school in August. It is a fact. Yay! Feels good to know I don't have to apply again and that all my efforts were not futile!

I love Spring!

Yes, because I am Tyson you have to deal with looking at more posts that involve plants and the garden I spend way too much of my time tending to.

These hyacinth smell absolutely heavenly! They are next to the front door and their aroma greets my nose every time I go outside.

Since I got back from florida, it has been nothing but snow storm after snow storm and it was rather depressing. Finally, it feels as though spring has sprung! A little fertilizer and the grass is greening up nicely! These two pictures of the house I live in were taken only 2 weeks apart, after above, before below. Amazing what two weeks can do in the spring!

I really hate it when the snow crushes the daffodils!!

Fort Lauderdale

This is the main medical building at Nova Southeastern University where I interviewed last Thursday in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Overall i was impressed with the school. The facilities were very nice, labs modern, individual patient rooms, huge library, huge exercise facility, and a huge OUTDOOR swimming pool... and everyone was very friendly. I got the impression that they have a strong commitment to the students which impressed me. From what I saw of the school I would love to go there. My interview though just went okay. There was an older gentleman and a middle aged women who interviewed me at the same time. It was hard for me to understand the man who was from Asia and he asked specific questions that where to me, subjective, such as "who is the leader of the Foundation?" Well turns out the Foundation is an LDS humanitarian organization and in his opinion I should have known that since I went to BYU. Both interviewers thought I was still at BYU which made me frustrated and gave me the impression they only glanced over my application rather than really read it. That was the most negative aspect of the day. The Dean was awesome though, and had done incredible things in his career and is a powerful force for the school. I should know in another week whether or not I am accepted.

Pier at Dania Beach

Ocean Side Dr in Fort Lauderdale

A little bay opening along the inter coastal water way in Hollywood just south of Fort Lauderdale
The same Bay
Ocean Side Dr. and my toes

A home I liked with a their boat parked out back. Much of Fort Lauderdale is interlaced with these salt water canals causing most of the homes to have a water front in there back yards with access to the ocean. It was absolutely beautiful! Fort Lauderdale is nicknamed the Venice of America for this reason.

Just another canal
And a large bay connecting many of these canals in Fort Lauderdale with freaking amazing homes surrounding it!

Standing on a bridge over a canal looking toward downtown. I really thought these waterways were beautiful!

A street view of the homes, the canals are on either side in their back yard.
Sadly I did have to spend some time in the Hotel doing homework :(

This sign was at Dania Beach... was this meant to be a funny joke or is this for real lol, I cracked up for at least an hour!

The first Jelly Fish I have ever seen!!! There were quite a few stranded on the beach. They felt just like plastic. They were pretty though.

Standing on the inter coastal water way searching for alligators. I really wanted to see one but never did :(

Doing what I love best. Just laying on the beach!

Pine trees from Australia that are taking over Florida and killing off endemic species. Kinda cool looking though

Coconut trees and the beach, life couldn't get much better.

The man pictured here is Dr. Koshrow Semnani. He came to speak to us in my Introduction to Medical Professions class. I was deeply impressed with his presentation, his words, and what he has done. Dr. Koshrow Semnani grew up in Iran and came to America on a scholarship and didn't speak a word of English. He taught himself English as he attended Weber State University and graduated at the top of his class in Biochemics. He then attended the University of Utah medical school and has sense established the ONLY free medical clinic in the Salt Lake Valley. There is one other free clinic but to qualify, you must be homeless. The clinic Dr. Koshrow Semnani established is called Maliheh Free Clinic, and is aimed to treat the non homeless without insurance in Salt Lake. Every doctor and person that works there are volunteers and are paid nothing. Supplies are donated or paid for by donations. Check out the website at http://www.malihehfreeclinic.org/ One of my favorite things he said was when he read a Muslim proverb about a man praying to God asking how to best praise him. God then replies to him, "you can sing praises to me all night, or give away all your money, but the single thing that pleases me the most is when you open the door to someone who is hopeless." His efforts are highly commendable and in my mind, helped establish a standard against which I can measure myself and what kind of doctor I want to be. I want to be opening doors to the hopeless, and give them new hope and a better life... and in my case a more colorful one :)

For my international health class I had to pick a disease and country to study and write three researcher papers on during the semester. The topic I chose was cataracts in Indonesia where 4 million people are blind due to cataracts. The paper I was working on this week was about what Indonesia or other organizations are doing to prevent and treat the disease. While doing research I came across this incredible story of a man named John Fawcett, an Australian potter from Perth. He is clinically dead and comes back from the dead with amnesia and doesn't remember his wife or anyone and was given one week to live. I don't know the full story because I have not seen the documentary, but he gets this uncanny drive for humanitarian work and sets off to Bali to treat cataract blind. He converts an old bus into a mobile medical facility and gets an ophthalmologist to come perform surgeries. Bali has an endemic genetic problem with children born with cataracts who, if they don't receive surgery before 6 months of age, are permanently blind. John has to overcome strong religious beliefs that cataracts are curse for those who sinned or that the person is possessed by evil spirits and convince them that it is in fact a curable disease. To date his organization has given sight to over 25,000 cataract blind! WOW! What an amazing person. Check out the site at www.balieye.org Learning about him and what he has done makes me want to be an ophthalmologist right now and fly over and volunteer and perform surgery for thousands of people and give them there life back if old, or give them a life full of sight if young. Giving them sight will make them productive members of society, influence the economy, and help a struggling Indonesia overall. I can't think of anything else I would want to be more apart of and the tangibility of it makes my desire to study medicine and become and ophthalmologist even that more fierce. And if I get to sail around in a yacht to remote islands of tropical Indonesia to perform surgeries.. all the better :)
I am truly grateful I have chosen a profession where I can serve others and make a significant impact in the lives of others and even improve our global community. I have interviews in Ft. Lauderdale, LA, and Phoenix this month and should hear back from the U medical school. I hope I am accepted somewhere!