A Test of Skill and Patience

After we got married I quickly informed Sterling that date nights are not necessary, saving money is. My wonderful accommodating husband let me have my way while we were in Utah but since our move to Iowa we have agreed to do one date-like activity each week. The dates increase the quality of time we spend together as well as our creativity.

Thinking of dates that fall within our allotted budget can be quite difficult. The following are some of the dates that we have done so far. We have found that watching a movie that we already own and buying or making a small treat is something we enjoy and can afford. Another date was spent walking, talking and discovering what parks, schools, walking paths, libraries, etc. are near our apartment complex. We went to watch the women's volleyball team which was free for Sterling and $1 for my ticket. A good and often chosen option is playing Settlers, Scrabble or a sport together and those keep us both humble, because everyone has to lose sometime.

Where am I going with this story...let me get to the point. One of our first dates in Iowa was a trip to the mall to see what stores were there and to do a bit of window shopping. We happened upon a sporting goods store called Scheely's or something like that and there we found these weird Frisbees for disc golfing. We decided that it might be fun to try that sometime and we left it at that.

Nearly two months later we (or should I say I) gave in and we purchased the discs for a date to the disc golf course. We had been to the course previously as a result of our neighborhood meanderings and from the looks of the first hole I didn't think it would be that difficult. In the middle of a wide open field there is a patch of cement where you tee off and then somewhere in the distance there is the cage type thing that you have to throw the Frisbee into. It couldn't be that hard could it?

Well first of all I have to say that throwing a disc is much different than throwing a Frisbee. Our first throws were a little crazy and both of the discs landed in the rough and when I say rough I mean it. We actually had to spend a couple of minutes looking for them because the grass was knee-deep.

So as you can see from the picture at the first hole Sterling's form is a little questionable but it can't matter too much when the course is nothing but wide open space. Well that is not his real form I just made him pose like that for the picture. But now you kind of get the idea of the cement platform from where you throw the disc and if you look closely you can also see how much smaller the disc is than a Frisbee.

Anyway we both did fairly well on the first hole. I made it with four throws and Sterling made it with five. The map of the course then lead us down a small hill, across a road and finally to the second hole which looked a little something like... A FOREST.

I'm not going to lie, I felt a little deceived by the ease of the first hole and thought that the creator of the course should have at least eased me into the forest scene. This picture is taken from the what I like to call launching pad and if you can't see the thing you are supposed to throw the disc into, neither could we.

So as you can imagine the trees add a little bit of a difficulty factor and test what skill you might have of throwing the disc. I don't know how many times we actually threw the discs straight into a tree. I would usually try to have some sort of strategy and every time I tried to miss a tree I would hit it causing my disc to return to my where I had just thrown it making me upset.

The forest continued to double as a disc golf course until the 11th hole where it was wide open spaces again. I was excited because finally I might be able to make it to the hole in less than six throws. It was my turn to throw first and I put all that I had into that throw. I carefully watched where it landed and then Sterling threw his disc. It of course went much further than mine and though I was a little distraught who was I kidding, it had been that way all day.

We quickly found Sterling's disc but locating mine was a little more difficult. In fact we walked around in the rough for about 45 minutes looking for that stupid disc. I think I would have given up after five minutes if I didn't care so much about leaving $11 lost in the bushes.

As I walked around looking for the disc I kept getting more and more angry. On top of getting angry I was blessed with the opportunity of walking into some poisonous bush which created large red welts all over my arms and hands and the best blessing of all, I pulled my groin. But in my stubborn determination I was going to find that disc if it took all day. I could barely walk through the deep brush but I wasn't leaving without it.

Sterling on the other hand nonchalantly wandered through the rough looking for the disc and without getting upset. In fact he managed to find two other discs that other disc golfers had lost. He stayed positive and even tried to move on to the next hole since we now had three discs but I couldn't, I wanted to find that disc so badly.

After complaining about my groin and not being able to find the disc for the final time, Sterling turned around and patiently starting looking again. He decided to start kicking the deep grass hoping that it would turn up somehow. I was watching him thinking "What is he doing? Does he actually think that is going to work?" when all of a sudden he said, "Here it is." Didn't I feel foolish.

Unfortunately because of my groin condition we were unable to finish the last seven holes so I can't tell you how the game turned out. What I can tell you though is that after nine holes Sterling had 50 throws and I had 51.

The disc golfing incident was a test of our skill but the test of patience was only for me.

DON'T BE JEALOUS OF OUR MAD SKILLS!

Daddy's Little Boy

We haven't posted for a while and for a very good reason I might add. Lately our lives have been quite boring and we assume that none of you want to hear about that. Recently however we had been blessed by a visit from Sterling's dad. He happened to be in business for the weekend and luckily enough we were able to spend some time together.

When we left Wyoming we thought that the next time we saw either of our families would be when we traveled home for the holidays or for the summer. So far we have seen my brother and his family and now we have been fortunate to have dad come and visit us. Who will we see next? Let us know if you want or have to visit the Midwest and we will make it a point to see you!

Anyway our time together was short but extremely enjoyable...at least for us. Being new to the area and having limited monetary resources we weren't able to show dad a good time but the time we spent together good. We started the evening with a homemade meal and followed it up with a field trip to the clinic at the school. Sterling showed his dad around the clinic and then explained to him the different equipment he uses to test hearing and some of the things he will be doing in the future.

It was both exciting and satisfying to see Sterling explaining to his dad the things he would be doing in just a couple of years when he finishes school. It was also touching to see how proud his dad was of him. I could see it in his dad's eyes and almost feel it as he watched Sterling and paid attention to all that Sterling had to say. I realized then, like I have never realized before, that no matter how old Sterling gets he will always be his daddy's little boy. I finally got a glimpse of what it means or how it feels for a parent to see their children progress and succeed.

The best part about the weekend was the trip to the airport. In a small town about 15 minutes away there is an international airport. Sterling and I had never been there before and instead of taking the risk of not finding the airport in time I decided to Mapquest the airport. It took me a while to find the address to the airport but with my determination I found the address and got directions to the airport.

I didn't read the over the directions before printing them I just trusted that Mapquest wouldn't lead us astray. We went to church that morning and right after sacrament meeting we were on our way. I sat in the back seat and would randomly shout out exits that Sterling should take or mileage before he should turn right or left and this is how we progress for most of the way. Then we came to a portion of the directions that seemed a little shady but we couldn't turn back, could we? The directions indicated that we should take Exit 10 toward Shueyville and CR F-12. No where on the exit sign did it show an airplane indicating that we were headed in the right direction. I tried to remain calm and sound confident that we were going the right way but I had my questions. I frantically read to the end of the directions and noticed that the airport I had mapquested was not the name of the airport that we needed to be headed to. I continued giving directions and the final direction I gave put us onto a dirt road. At this point I was sure that we were going to end up in the middle of Farmer Joe's cornfield and that Sterling's dad was never going to catch his flight in time. My only hope was that I could see a windsock in the distance and though that doesn't necessarily mean an airport is near, I could only hope.

Sterling seemed to slow down a little bit as we continued on the dirt road. I could feel the hesitation in the way that he maneuvered the car but I couldn't let him think I had gotten directions to the wrong airport when finally he said, "I noticed that you got directions to the Iowa Municipal Airport and we are supposed to be going to the Eastern Iowa Airport." I remained silent hoping that my silence would make them believe I hadn't done such a thing but in reality I think it did the opposite. Both of them started this nervous laughter that made me realize they were on to me when all of a sudden out of nowhere we spotted a UPS plane.

However the comment about the directions to the wrong airport that Sterling had made minutes earlier remained. We still didn't actually know if we were at the right airport but it was in fact an airport and for now that was good enough (for me at least). In the end we did actually arrive at the Eastern Iowa Airport we just happened to arrive in a way that not many, if any, people take.

We are assuming that he got on an airplane and made it back to Utah for we haven't heard from him since. If you know of his whereabouts please inform us.

From Tree to Pie

This my friends is determination! Sadly however, the picture is staged and we didn't even keep the apple he grabbed.

So the question is, why are we picking apples? Don't worry it was not some sort of service project, I would have never agreed to that. It is still a little too hot for me and after this past summer I have realized that manual labor is not for me.
The reason that we found ourselves in this apple orchard is because Sterling wanted to make an apple pie and I wanted to eat one. Actually Sterling heard about it twice at school and I heard about it at church thus we figured it must be a place to visit. So last week Saturday right before our weekly grocery shopping trip we went to the orchard to get some apples.

So this is how it works. You grab a bucket, look at the map of what type of apple you want and then you start walking. Easy enough, or so you would think. Now come the complications.

When it comes to types of apples I like, there is one and it is Gala. Sterling on the other hand likes certain varieties more than others but is at least willing to try others. As you can see then, our picking agendas were different. I was "only" interested in going to the rows of Gala apples while Sterling was open to roaming the orchard looking for any apple that looked edible. It is not that easy though, apples have certain periods of time when they are ripe for the pickin'. For apple novices like ourselves how were we supposed to know?

Well the apple experts were thinking ahead and labeled each of the rows with the name of the apple and when that type of apple is ripe. So think of how I felt when we read the first sign which said that Gala apples are best in the beginning of September. Did the word devastated come to mind because it should have. I didn't want to act like a two year old and throw a fit but that is exactly what was going on inside my head. The fact that I don't really like apples to begin with caused me to be a little more upset when the only kind I do like was out of season. Don't worry though, the fact that I was devastated was unnoticed by Sterling and he simply proceeded to the next type of apple that was ripe.

We walked around gathering apples (now I say gathering because we didn't actually pick a single apple from a tree, all of our apples were gathered from the ground) for about 45 minutes before we were satisfied with our pickings. Out of the 15 apples that we bought I believe that only one of them was a Gala which is fine because even though I can't remember what type of apples we ended up picking I do remember that Sterling made a dang good apple pie.

What's in Nebraska?

So you might ask what is in Nebraska and we would respond...nothing, absolutely nothing. In fact it is quite similar to Iowa there is corn, corn, and oh did we mention corn. However this past weekend we were in Nebraska visiting my brother and his family.

While we were in town Sterling became both a Cornhuskers fan and a gangster as you will see in the following pictures.

The main reason that we went to Nebraska is because we aren't sure how often we will see our families and therefore anytime is a good time. For any of you who know my brother you also know that he loves sports and he loves ESPN. Since Nebraska was playing USC, ESPN was there for the morning show and of course he wanted to be there. It was then convenient that one of his friends lives there and that we were able to visit for the weekend.

Generally for us weekends consist of sleeping in, cleaning house, doing the grocery shopping and then whatever else we can think of to fill up the rest of our day. This weekend was a little different. We arrived in Lincoln late Friday night and early Saturday morning Sterling, Waleryan and Judd were on there way to the stadium for the live ESPN game day show. Judd and Waleryan claimed that one couldn't actually go to the stadium without wearing the school colors and so they supplied Sterling with a nice red shirt just so he could fit in.

Well Waleryan and Judd weren't the only ones that wanted to dress up Sterling. Kaili and Keona love Uncle Sterling and generally want his attention whenever he is around. Kaili's new thing is to play pretend. Picture Sterling sitting on a coffee table with Kaili as she sings "Row Row Row Your Boat" and pretends to row. And only seconds later they were pretending they were "Daddy" and both Kaili and Sterling took turns putting on Waleryan's vest and hat. Here is what I was able to capture. Kaili evidently thinks her dad to be normal, while Sterling seems to think Waleryan is a gangster.

It was freezing in Nebraska and luckily I was able to stay at the house with the mothers and the children while the dads went out to play. Kaili discovered the fun of the camera and I was thus forced to pose for a picture with every toy in the toy box. I was not alone in the photo shoot; she also recruited Deena and Kellianne but both have asked for their pictures to be kept in a confidential file called "the garbage." In fact I believe that I can quote Deena as saying, "If you put me on your blog I will kill you."

Kaili turned out to be quite the photographer after about five pictures. It took some time for her to realize that she couldn't put her hand over the lens but as soon as she learned that, there was no turning back. The best picture in her portfolio at this time happens to be this picture of me and the rabbit. Many of the other pictures, though artistic in nature, did not compare.

Updates

Up to this point Sterling has had four different clients and unfortunately I cannot remember the details for every client but the few that I can remember I will relate. One of his first clients was an elderly lady that was having some problems with her hearing aids, they just weren't working as well as they used to. Upon further inspection Sterling found that the ear wax that was once in her ear was now lodged in the hearing aid causing a decrease in proper hearing aid function. He said he had to remove which sounds absolutely disgusting to me. I hate removing my own ear wax and I definitely don't want to be dealing with somebody else's. Apparently the appointment was fine and both the clinician and client were satisfied.

The only other client I can remember was a man that had a significant hearing loss in one of his ears and had to wear an outside the ear hearing aid. He prefers to not wear the hearing aid in social settings and would like to get an in the ear hearing aid for that reason. Due to the extent of hearing loss in that ear an in the ear hearing aid is not the best option but as Sterling said, "you kind of have to give the client what he/she wants." So to make a long story short, the hearing evaluation lasted about two hours after which the man was frustrated because all he really wanted was to go to the clinic and be fit for new hearing aids. However he was not so frustrated that he denied a return appoint to be fit for the type of hearing aids that he wants.

As for me, the first two weeks of work have come and gone. The first week of work was mostly paperwork and training while the second week was actually work. So for all of you that are interested in what I actually do, let me explain. First picture a bunch of geeks in lab coats playing with chemistry and DNA bases and you will have a fine picture of my work environment. I work four days a week, ten hours a day in a lab creating and testing synthetic strands of DNA which are used for research. Some common uses for oligos (short strands of DNA) include diagnostic tests for genetic diseases, like breast cancer or cystic fibrosis, diagnostic tests for infectious diseases, like Hepatitis or AIDS, research to discover new drugs or treatments for a variety of diseases and producing safer and more plentiful agricultural products.

That's all of the excitement in our lives, it's not that exciting but it is our life.

Pursuit of Knowledge

If you are wondering what I do all day, glance at the picture to the right and be enlightened. I do homework all day at school, and sadly at home too. Yes, my life is unfortunately that boring. We still have no friends here; we are not sure if it is because we are antisocial or if people just think we are weird. Probably a bit of both.


This week is going to be a big week for me at school. I have my first two clients coming in on Tuesday, and I begin my research for my assistantship. Life is only going to become busier.
Cylynn has her first day of work tomorrow. She is a little nervous, I don't know why. She is going to do great. She has a job for Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT) doing mass spectrometry. If you want to know what that means don't ask me cause I have no idea. We are excited. It will be a great job as it is in her field of bioengineering and the benefits are wonderful. The job is a wonderful blessing for us; she is going to be making some buco bucks. She's my sugar mama.


This week's big news is a trip to the Nauvoo Temple. On Friday we drove to Illinois to the temple. We were assigned to be part of the cleaning crew that night. We made it down in time to be part of the final endowment session, and then helped clean afterwards. It is wonderful to be this close to so much of the church history and to have the Nauvoo temple as our temple. It was special being inside that temple and imagining all the sacrifices of those early saints.

Enjoy the crooked picture of the temple and the Joseph and Hyrum statues. Remember to pray for Cylynn as she starts her new job and for me as I see my first clients. We will let you know how it goes.

Maquoketa Cave Excursion

Let us take you on a journey to one of Iowa's most unique state parks. Inside this park there are caves, limestone outcroppings and rugged bluffs which provide opportunities for visitors to explore geological formations created thousands of years ago. If you plan on going into any of the caves; two flashlights, old clothes, shoes and a helmet are required.

WELCOME TO

So how do you say the name of the park, don't worry we were wondering the same thing. The name of the park is pronounced ma-ko-ka-ta not ma-kwo-kee-ta which is how we were initially pronouncing it. Luckily one of Sterling's peers was kind enough to correct his pronunciation and we can now share this bit of knowledge with you.
We must admit that we are deeply indebted to this peer of Sterling's for he also informed us that many of the caves double as a popular habitat for the BROWN RECLUSE! There is a chance that this information saved Sterling's life for in our attempt to create a "Kodak Moment," Sterling encountered not one, but two of these flesh eating arachnids. However I did manage to capture the following picture as Sterling did his best to vacate the premises.

Classic Sterling moment and for any of you who know the terminology he "bumbled" his way out of there quite gracefully.


(Sterling takes over as narrator)

Okay so the truth is there are in fact brown recluses in many of the caves but I didn't actually hit his head on that protrusion while trying to avoid a deathly spider bite. However you must concede that the bit of spice makes our story more engaging.

We did follow the counsel of carrying a flashlight, wearing old clothes and shoes but sadly I grew out of my helmet in fifth grade. It would have been useful in a couple of different instances not only for myself but also for Cylynn. Shining the flashlight on the ground to ensure proper footing takes precedence and your head pays the price; those stalactites (or stalagmites) can be a bugger.


We found the most intriguing cave the park has to offer masquerading a large rabbit hole. Cylynn and I had to climb approximately 15 feet straight down into the ground. The hole then flattens and opens into a large room. The best thing about the caves was how cold it was inside them compared to the exhaustingly hot day outside. Inside most of the caves we took advantage of the cold atmosphere to relax and cool down, but Cylynn had a different idea inside this most intriguing cave below the ground. We were not two minutes inside the large room before she instigated a vicious game of king of the mountain, and I most unfortunately admit that she won the battle.

We had a lot of fun at these caves. It was wonderful to step out of our mundane lives and enjoy the beauty of the earth God created for us. We hiked around in the trees for a few hours relishing the time together without a care in the world.

Tune in next week for a trip to the Nauvoo temple.

Iowa...Land of the Rolling Hills

We arrived in Iowa on August 20, 2007 knowing that we chose Iowa against what seemed to be our better judgment. The tuition is expensive, Iowa City is small and offered few job opportunities for me, and we weren't quite sure how we were going to make ends meet.

The 22nd was the start of our new life; Sterling started orientation for his program and I started the job hunt. We were both a little nervous for what lie ahead but we could never have anticipated as much. Sterling was informed that he received a research assistant-ship which, besides our health and well-being has been an enormous blessing. Instead of paying out-of-state tuition, we will pay in-state tuition, he receives a monthly stipend that will pay a great deal of our monthly bills, and best of all we are relieved of the stress of how we are going to make it.

The job hunt on the other hand, was not going as well. I searched for a couple of days with little hope of finding something even related to engineering. Then one day after orientation activities, Sterling informed me that IDT, a biomedical company near our home was hiring. I visited their website and found a couple of jobs that would be interesting to me as well as meet our needs. I just interviewed with the company this past Monday and will hopefully hear from them soon informing me that I have been awarded a position.

Perhaps the rolling hills of Iowa are not what we picture when we imagine our future but for the present they beautiful. For in those hills we have found safety, happiness, peace and a grand display of the love of God.

January to August in a Nutshell

There is a lot of time to cover and yet not enough space or words to do it justice.

January 1, 2007 will forever be known as the day of Cylynn's unwise decision. We arranged an afternoon of playing games at the church house near Sterling's home which would result in a suggestion to have a basketball game between the Sheffield's and the Wisniewski's, "just for fun" of course. For the record, let it be known that the game did not get extremely competitive until the announcement, "first team to 11 wins." Perhaps this isn't the best way to start off a marriage, especially when the bride and groom are on different teams.

A fierce elbow from Josie and a flagrant foul from myself against Sterling would only slightly demonstrate the competitiveness of the Wisniewski's. Luckily the game was over shortly after both of these uncalled for acts as my foul almost ended the marriage before it began. Luckily Sterling has a forgiving disposition and is willing to look beyond my shortcomings.

For any and all that are interested, the Wisniewski's did win the game but only by a small margin. The next game is bound to be interesting...that is if there is a next game!

On January 2, 2007 Sterling and I were sealed in the Bountiful Utah Temple. I wish that I could explain the feelings we experienced that day but words would not suffice. The decision to marry Sterling was definitely the best and wisest decision that I have ever made.

The next morning we were on a cruise to the Bahamas for our honeymoon. Some of the activities that we enjoyed were snorkeling, swimming with stingrays, riding bicycles along the beach, plays, good food, sea sickness and the pleasure of each other's company. It was nice to spend the days following our wedding together as we would soon be thrown back into the real world to experience life together.

Sterling went back to school the day after our honeymoon and I continued working at Costume Craze, a fabulous Internet retail company. At the end of the semester we had to make the decision to continue living in Provo (and if you know me well, you know I was against that) or moving somewhere else where we could work and save money for graduate school.

We decided to move back to Rock Springs and work for my dad. Since we have been here we have been able to spend a lot of time with my family which I believe has been nice for Sterling and me and luckily we have remained closed enough to Sterling's family so that we were able to return for birthdays, vacations and other family gatherings.

The next step in our life is the move from Rock Springs to Iowa City where Sterling will attend school at The University of Iowa. He is pursuing a Clinical Doctorate in Audiology (AUD) which will require at least four more years of hard work and dedication. Due to the fact that a career in Bioengineering would require a round trip journey of 150 miles, I myself will be pursuing a job doing whatever it takes to meet our needs.

All in all, seven months of marriage has been good to us. We enjoy each day as it provides us with both challenges and blessings that help us to realize that we are not perfect yet we are still loved.