Every year there is a conference for dental professionals to receive their continuing education credits and meet with friends and product vendors etc. I find most every conference valuable. While sometimes the chairs are hard and the speaker is dry the information is golden. I enjoy learning and re-learning those things that help to make me a better hygienist.
This past week Utah held their conference in Salt Lake City. It was a great time for me to catch up with friends and those women who have helped me in school and out of school become a better practitioner. On Friday I was able to attend a luncheon for hygienists. I noticed that not many RDH were in attendance. I wondered if it was due to the price of the lunch being more than the price for the whole conference. . . .Anyway, the president of the Utah Dental Association spoke to us. He wanted us as RDH to know that he is aware of the unemployment and under-employment of many hygienists. He was shocked to learn that day in the new dentist breakfast that there were 3 (THREE) unemployed dentists in the area. Now I am not even concerned since I know of many more RDH who are unemployed and many more who want more days/hours of work. Plus dentists have the ability to work on their own. RDH's are required to work FOR/UNDER/WITH a dentist, therefore making us incapable of working more unless a dentist will employ us. Again I digress. . . Scott Theurer is the president of UDA and his assessment of the job market for the dental community is bleak. His solution for hygienists is to take less pay! I am not lying. He actually said---you need to be more flexible with your pay. He then changed the subject and discussed the opening of the newest dental school in the area! I was sitting there thinking-nice solution dude-ask me to lower my wage, which is already $10 less than I was making in Oregon and way less than 30% of my production, and to welcome more dental students and graduates to the area. I am irritated. Why not ask the dentist to make less in my production? Why not ask the dentist who already does not pay for health insurance, 401k, vacations, sick days, or conference fees (when he paid for the rest of the office staff-just not me) to pay what I am worth? He asks patients to pay what he thinks a prophy is worth, why not pay me? I am quite irritated with Scott Theurer. He was no help. I understand that I have been out of the dental community loop since I left Utah and now that I am back I have found the hygienist association to be not helpful. I live in Vernal and contacted them about my component so I could be active in that area like I was in Cedar City. I was told my component is Salt Lake City-3.5 hours away. I cannot justify paying for an association who requires me to drive 7 hours round trip to attend a CE for free. I mean I pay more in gas that for the fee of a non-member. I am truly irritated with the attitude of the UDHA and UDA. UGH.
I am not willing to take less wages than I already am. I am not willing to work for less. I get no perks, no benefits nothing. I need a new job-and trust me they are few and far between here in the Basin. I feel under appreciated and under valued and not part of a team.
I miss working for Dr M!
Tuesday, March 05, 2013
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Winter wonders and 1 year mark
First off the Vernal City Library does in fact have an SD card reader for the USB ports. . . I just had to ask several workers to find the solution to getting my pics online. I am so happy now.
My internet withdrawals are ebbing and I think I will survive not having constant recipes, bank balance and email at my fingertips.
This winter has been so cold to me. I know the humidity in Portland made me feel colder than here in Utah, but dang when it is -18 and the sun is not shining it is just plain frigid. Scott has had to work out in the cold every day. He hauls water in the oil field. The pumps bring up crude oil and water. Sometimes there is a device that warms the water and separates the two, other times Scott has to pull the water off the bottom of the tank until he hits the oil layer on top of the water. Then he takes the water to a disposal plant which cleans the water etc. The tanks of water on locations are heated to keep them from freezing-and it helps separation, but Scott's truck is not heated. So he has to hurry from location to disposal and usually the hoses and valves freeze in that time. One day the hose was completely solidly frozen. Thawing out the hoses takes a lot of precious time. One day Scott left the said hose for a later day. So on his day off we went out and got the hose and using a propane torch we thawed the hose. It took us several hours. We stood in the limited sunlight. I would hold the flame and wave it over the hose, so it heated up but did not catch fire and Scott would pound it with a hammer to break up the solid mass of ice. It was quite the experience. Here Scott is holding the torch-you cant see the flame and looking into the hose to see where the block was.
With all the cold and ice and snow there has been plenty of salt and sand on the roads. Here Scott and Suzie are waiting for the car wash-No the temp was not above freezing but the auto wash has a pretty good dryer so we took advantage of sitting in the warm car while the layer of salt crud as scrubbed off.
Suzie is such a puppy. She follows me around constantly. There is not much time in the day where she is not at my heels. Well I went to the temple one day and I came home. As is her custom when I have been gone she sniffs me. She will put her nose right on my pant leg etc to sniff to see if I had been with other dogs or whatever. So she was sniffing my nylons. It was irritating me. I just wanted to change and get warm (toes in nylons is not warm) and she was not letting me do it. So I ended up ruining the pair of nylons. so I put them on her head. She quit sniffing me and I was able to change my clothes and life was great for a minute ha ha ha. I know I am an abusive pet owner and a horrible person and if I had kids they would call child services on me. But since I am not a mom and Suzie cannot tell on me I allowed myself to torture the poor girl for a few minutes.
Scott and I celebrated our first anniversary. It was wonderful! Scott took me to lunch in Roosevelt. There is a local place that is only open once in a while and when it is open it is only open for 2 hours at lunch. It is owned by a polygamist family and serves the usual fast food items as well as homemade bread, cakes and cookies. They serve this taco-I see every one ordering one or two of them. It looks like a soft shell tortilla wrapping a hamburger patty cut in half with lettuce, cheese and a sauce-pretty basic but they sell so many! I may have to try one when I get around to going out there for lunch. This place is always packed and the line is long. The family works together in an organized manner and the food gets out in about 15 minutes. It is fresh made burgers, fries, onion rings etc. The place is spotless! I could eat off the window seals. Never has such a fast food place been so clean. I am such a fan! I wish it was not 30 miles away and open once in a while. I am a huge fan. So lunch here was perfect! I am so glad Scott and I found each other. We were definitely inspired by God to meet and be together. I am so grateful to him and for him.
Valentine's Day was one week later. Scott got me a lovely lovely lovely bouquet of flowers. There were so many closed lilies that today-a week later they are blooming and fragrant and wonderful! Scott also spoiled me with a portable DVD player. I used to do my exercise video on my computer and then I would watch a tv program to distract me a little. Well now that I do not have a computer he got me an alternative. I love it so much! He is simple wonderful to me and for me.
We went to lunch with Scott's Grandma. We were at a local place called The Porch. They serve southern food and for Valentine's dinner they were sporting alligator ribs-but only at dinner. So Grandma got us a gift certificate for dinner and made us a reservation. She is so sweet! I had given her a homemade sugar cookie bouquet earlier in the day and still she out did us! Dinner that night was magical! It was delicious and wonderful. It was my favorite Valentine's Day ever!
I am sickeningly happy.
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Cave Woman!
Well friends, I have decided to become a cave woman. It sounds fun right? What does it entail? Well it means I do not have a computer or smart phone in my house. I do not have any way of getting my online fix at home. I go to the library about once a week. It has been pretty tough for me initially. I mean I did everything online/on computer-my recipes, my banking, my facebook, check movie times, shopping, my email, my blog (I am amazed at how easily I went back to writing in a journal--no pics but my feeling get out). Life is better without the internet. It is a little inconvenient at times and I miss the ease of looking up ward directories online and buying music but there are ways around it.
I am sad that the brand new Vernal library (opened in Aug 2012) has iPad's at the end of the isles for card catalog look up and has all sorts of new stuff, has new computers for public use and they do NOT have SD card slots!!! This became the twelfth reason I hate the Vernal library. I mean how am I supposed to upload pictures? UGH! I really am going to fit in with all the other cavemen in the area!
I am sad that the brand new Vernal library (opened in Aug 2012) has iPad's at the end of the isles for card catalog look up and has all sorts of new stuff, has new computers for public use and they do NOT have SD card slots!!! This became the twelfth reason I hate the Vernal library. I mean how am I supposed to upload pictures? UGH! I really am going to fit in with all the other cavemen in the area!
Sunday, December 30, 2012
The Holidays!
Our little tree and Santa were so cute I had to post them again. Our little Christmas was exactly what I wanted and needed. I am so thankful for Scott and his thoughtfulness and control! Scott spoils me daily and he showed great restraint in keeping our Christmas small.
Notice the long present in the front of the above picture.
That long gift was a 2 quart thermos for Scott. He was thrilled and surprised! Last night Scott had to work a graveyard shift and so we tested this bad boy out. At 8 pm it was -2 outside and we knew it would only get worse as the sky was clear. Scott layered up and I filled up the thermos with hot cocoa (props to cannery cocoa!). Scott got home this morning around 8:30 am and I poured out the remaining cocoa-as I did I touched it and was SHOCKED to be burned! Granted I put boiling water into the thermos 12 hours ago and while the cab of the truck was not in the negatives it was probably 60, I figured that the liquid would have cooled enough to touch. I was honestly expecting lukewarm cocoa. Scott was thrilled to have actual HOT cocoa all night long as he was out in the snow hauling water which frequently freezes between locations so he has to use blow torches to thaw the valves so the water transfer can happen. Here is to Stanley and their thermos making! They sure made a good one!
Scott suddenly got Christmas Eve off. He was supposed to work but thanks to a frack being postponed 4 days he found himself without work for 3 days. Even though it means loosing hours I was secretly happy. One day there was a sale on the big shrimp at the store. I got one pound which was only 13 shrimp. They were monstrous. They have been in my freezer for a while and I decided to try making my own shrimp cocktail. I boiled the shrimp in spices and make my own cocktail sauce. It was so wonderfully delicious! I want to make it again for New Years Eve!
I also treated Scott to a wonderful Christmas dinner! We got a little prime rib roast. We make a rub (salt, peppercorns, garlic, thyme) and cooked it. It turned out quite nice. I was impressed. Scott enjoyed the horseradish and potatoes. I even tried some potatoes with all sorts of good/bad stuff in them and I liked it! It was such a good dinner. It does make me wonder what a REAL good prime rib would taste like. One day I will eat the prime cuts of prime rib that gets sent to New York and Texas and probably cost more than 20 of the ones I can get in Utah. But how happy would that bite be?!? I cannot wait to try it.
After our huge dinner we went with Scott's mom to the movies. We saw The Hobbit. I enjoyed it very much even though I missed my family very much.
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Traditions Continue
Last year when I was visiting Scott in Utah during Thanksgiving we had this amazing date.
We recreated the date again this year. Early in December Scott took me to McGrath's and again we had a wonderful meal! After our tummies were full we walked around Temple Square and enjoyed the Spirit and lights and brisk walk!
We warmed up at Melting Pot for dessert and some sparkling peach juice! Scott secretly called and got reservations for our romantic night. He simply succeeds at impressing me.
A week later Scott had his work Christmas party. As we sat at a table with a couple we knew the wife said 'hey I hope we win that popcorn maker so we can re-gift it and give it to your sister'. So all night we were hoping they got the popcorn maker. As the drawing occurred the couple sadly received the Mag-lite combo pack and Scott received the popcorn maker and 8 pounds of kernels I am in heaven! I love it. It is such a fun novel way to pop corn and fills my salty crunchy cravings.
December 12 marked the day that Ichiban Sushi opened in Vernal Utah. Scott and I had to try it! We went on the third day it was open and while the waiters were running around crazy and unsure of the menu we had an enjoyable experience. We ordered a variety plate of sushi with a spicy tuna roll. It landed on our table in a boat (in the above picture--the rice covered stuff is the spicy tuna roll, then the red is tuna, and white tuna, snapper and yellow tail) the squid has the black belt of sea weed wrapped around it, the shiny looking one was saba and was quite good). It was so fun! Scott is such a wonderful adventurous man. He ate the squid roll while I only ate one bite. I just could not do it. He totally made my night.
As Christmas gets closer our little tiny tree is getting quite the mound of presents around it. I am pretty excited for Scott to see what I got for him. As many of you know it is tricky with online banking to secretly purchase something online without the charge appearing and being spied by both of the account users. The stuff I bought at local stores is easy-cash. But online shopping is harder to hide. I think I might have slipped on a couple gifts but I hid my Amazon orders on our account and I erased all viewing histories so maybe just maybe I will surprise him. Regardless I am really quite pleased with our little tree in a pot and we stayed in our budget!
Suzie loves Scott. There is no butts about it. She lives for the moment he gets home from work. She knows the sound of his truck. She simply unconditionally loves him and this pic shows it! The look in Suzie's eyes says it all!
I hope each of you have a wonderful Christmas and that December has been a wonderful month of tradition and love. Thank each one of you readers! I know who you are even if you do not leave a comment. I appreciate that you visit and wonder how I am doing. I wonder what you are doing as well! Merriest of Christmases!!!!
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Back of the Freezer
TueDec 25
- CHANCE OF SNOW:
- 30%
- WIND:
- NW at 4 mph
This is the weather channel's forecast for Vernal until Christmas. As you can see we are in what I call the deep freeze. I fear we will not see above freezing temperatures until March. It is a geographical downfall for living the in Uintah Basin. I can only hope the lows are not into the negatives.
And while this deep freeze is hard to keep warm being in the deep freeze of a family member is even harder to bear. I have been in this freezer before and know of it's frigidity. For some reason I cannot come to peace with it.
I am really struggling right now with several things and my heart hurts on a daily basis.
I am feeling quite isolated in the back of the freezer.
Thursday, December 06, 2012
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