Our latest adventure

This past week sure has been adventure. Zac and I had just finished finals and were getting last minute Christmas gifts and packing to go to Spokane. Zac woke up Friday morning with intense pain in his stomach. We both brushed it off as a stomach ache from something he ate. He suffered through it all day. Finally, around 10p.m. I convinced him that we should call our home teachers and have them give him a blessing. About an hour after the home teachers had left, we decided that I should take Zac to the ER. Luckily, we didn't have to wait too long. The doctor ordered a CT scan and about 20 minutes after the CT scan, he told us that Zac had appendicitis. He immediately admitted Zac into the hospital and scheduled the surgery for the next morning.

Poor Zac, I have never seen him in so much pain. Thanks to modern medicine, he was able to get some pretty strong pain relievers. The surgery only took about 30 minutes, the recovery/ wake up time took a little longer. :)   The surgery went really well. The surgeon came out and spoke to me. He told me that Zac's appendix was three times the size it should be and that there was three stools stuck in it. They no longer have to cut a long incision to take out the appendix. They cut three little holes, then they pump your abdominal cavity with air so they room to work in there. They try to get all the air out in surgery, but they can't get it all so it takes a while for the air to diffuse out.

Zac is now feeling much better, just really sore. He made the trip to Spokane in one piece. And now he is getting spoiled by his family.  They let him have control over the remote whenever he wants. He even got Paul to make him eggs and bring them to him while he lounged on the couch watching soccer. Even in the airport he got special treatment. He got wheeled around in a wheel chair and got a pre-boarding pass.

Even with all the special treatment, Zac and I will both be really happy when Zac can do normal things again. For now, he is not allowed to lift anything heavier than 10 lbs. Which means a lot of lifting for me (hopefully, I will get some extra muscle out of it ;).

 All in all, Zac and I are feeling very blessed. Something like this couldn't have happened at a better time. It was well before Christmas. It happened right after Zac had finished his finals. His appendix hadn't burst so we were still able to fly to Spokane for Christmas. We have great ward members who immediately offered to make us dinner or to help out in any way as soon as they found out what had happened. We are incredibly blessed.

Oh the life of a college student

I know, it has been a looonnng time since I last posted. But I have good reasons for not posting....school. I probably say this every semester but this is my busiest semester ever. It's a great semester I love my classes, but I am ready for it to be over. So like any good college student, I am not working on my final projects and instead I am blogging. Anyways, here is an update of the Vidmars....

Utah had some beautiful leaves this year. Zac is such a great husband and always takes me on drives in the fall to look at the leaves.

We celebrated Thanksgiving in Kanab this year. It was great to get out of Provo and enjoy some great weather, food and family. We also got to see Kanab's light parade, with a whole four floats! :) My favorite part of Thanksgiving was going through the Temple with Lindsey. I am so excited for her! She is going to be the best missionary. I just don't know how I am going to live without her for a year and a half.  Until I came to BYU Lindsey and I had never been apart longer than a week. But the people in England need her more than I do.

As you can see I put our little 3ft Christmas tree up! I love the Christmas season!

Other happenings in the Vidmar house:

• I am officially ready for Graduation in April!!!!
• Zac has submitted all his grad school applications! Now we just have to wait until February or March to hear back. He has applied to: UCSD (University of California of San Diego), Berkley, University of Washington, Texas A&M, Notre Dame, and BYU. (His favorites are the ones in California and Washington, I don't really have a favorite, just hopefully not BYU) 
• I am in love with my Internship!!! 
• My Intramural soccer team made it to the elite 8
• And Zac got another TA job for next semester so we can buy food. 

Fall Fun

This past week was good but busy week. It is amazing how much reading your scriptures everyday can make life so much better. :)  I haven't have nearly the stress level I usually do all because I have been consistently reading my scriptures everyday.

On top of that, I have a pretty great husband! He still loves me even when I am grumpy and mean. ;) On Friday night, Zac took me out to dinner then to the Homecoming dance. It was so much fun! Then on Saturday I watched Zac play soccer, ate BYU blue pancakes and watched the Homecoming parade. This is my fourth year in Provo and the first time I have ever watched the parade. 

Zac and I all dressed up for the dance!

On Saturday night while we were watching the football game, Zac found our wedding cake in the freezer!  It has been in there for over two years! We had to try it before we threw it away. Yes, it was very freezer burnt and kinda gross. ;)

I just hope it warms back up so I can go look at all the beautiful fall leaves before they fall off. :) Hopefully, next week I will have some more pictures. 

The Lessons You Learn

Well folks I am still here. :) Life has been a tad bit on the crazy side lately. Most of the time I feel like this.....

But Zac and I have had some time to still have some fun...

We went to the Utah /BYU game. It was pretty sad to watch but we still had a good time. 

Last weekend we ran the Dirty Dash! It was super fun. It was a 10K through obstacles and mud pits. As you can see by the pictures below, Zac and I had a great time in the mud. :) 

Then this past week was great! Except for the fact that I got a cold. I love general conference. I always feel that they are speaking right to me. This conference was especially good. There were so many talks that answered prayers and concerns. I was chastised and comforted. My favorite talk was by Elder Anderson. He talked about the importance of having a family. I am almost finished with school so this subject has been on my mind a lot lately. I know I made the right decision by waiting so I could finish my degree. But soon I will be finished. And that thought scares me. Elder Anderson knew exactly what to say to take away all those fears. I know that I am supposed to mother, and I know that I will have my heavenly Father right there with me every step of the way when that time comes. I am so grateful to belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I would be lost without it. 

The past couple of week have taught Zac and me some valuable lessons.

1. Never leave your bag unattended at a race. 

2. Remember to pack a lunch or else you are going to be very hungry.

3. Doing your homework on Fridays is a good idea.

4. Trying to pick Zac up from school on a football game day is always a bad idea. 

5. No matter how busy you are always make time for the people you love the most. :) 

Oh School You Came Too Soon

I am slightly sad writing this post because this means that my wonderful summer adventures are officially over. I am now completely immersed in school. ugh. But on the bright side.....I only have one more year until I GRADUATE!!! Yay! Of course, it is going to be pretty crazy getting there. This semester I am taking 15.5 credits, working 8 hours a week at my new internship and trying to get 20 hours a week at Imaging. I don't think the last one is going to happen very often. My internship is my favorite part about this semester. I love it! I am- interning at Y-Be-Fit on campus. It is so awesome getting to use everything I have learned the past three years to help people improve their quality of life! These first couple weeks will be hard just because it is always hard doing something new. I love feeling like I am doing something important, something of worth. Well, that's all for now. I have to go do my reading. blah.

Coming to a close

I am on my last week here in Vienna. And I have mixed feelings about leaving. I am excited to go home and get back to normal life. I really miss America and the English language. I am excited to not have to pay to use the bathroom, be able to to read billboards, go to Macey's past 7:00p.m., drive my car and sleep in my bed in my own apartment.  But I am really going to miss Vienna, the street performers, the food, the buildings, and the green!

This last week is crunch time, not only are we trying to fit in all the things we still want to to see, but we have two chapters left in German, a German final, and a Humanities final. It is going to be a really crazy week.

We got back to Vienna from Dorfgastein on Saturday. So on Sunday after church, Zac and I took a bus to Kahlenburg which is a mountain that overlooks all of Vienna. It was really cold so we didn't stay too long.

On Monday, I went drendal shopping with the sister missionaries and the other girls. A drendal is a traditional Austrian women's dress. I just went a long for fun, not really excepting to find one. But I did find one that fit me perfectly for only 11 euros! So of course I had to get it. Sorry, I don't have any pictures of it yet. On Tuesday, Zac and I walked around town, visited some of our favorite parks and did a little souvineer shopping. On Wednesday, we visited this LDS woman that makes violins! That was so cool! She showed us some of her tools and some of her completed violins. She learned the skill in a Violin making school in Italy. I didn't even know they had those. It was pretty amazing.

After German class we went to the Albertina which is another big art museum here. They had a lot of Contempary and Modern art. It was definitely interesting to see. On Thursday morning, we went to the Vienna Cemetery. All I know is that I want to be buried there because it is the most beautiful cemetery I have ever seen. Beethoven is even buried there. It is one of the largest cemeteries in the world, wit hover three and a half million people buried there. Each headstone is a piece of art. I will just have to let the pictures speak for themselves.

There was even a little Mormon section 

 We ended the day with dinner with our whole group. It was so much fun!

Thursday was also a little sad. Our host mom, has been in the hospital the last couple of days because she has high blood pressure. We visited her yesterday and said our goodbyes. That was sad and really weird. One step closer to this experience being over and that is sad.

Here and There and Everywhere

Salzburg view from the fortress 

Yes, I know it has been a terribly long time since I have posted. It is just that there is so much to do and so much to see in so little time. This past week we have been traveling around Austria experiencing Austrian life.



We started our little journey last Friday in Salzburg. This city, as many of you know, is where the Vontrapps lived and where the filming of the Sound of Music took place. We started out with a walking tour of the city so we would be able to find things. :) That day we went and saw Mozart's birth house, which turned out to be much more interesting then I thought it would be. They had actual artifacts from his life. On Saturday we went to a fortress! It was massive. It sits on top of this rocky mountain overlooking all of Salzburg. That same day we went to this palace that is on the outskirts of town. The palace itself isn't that impressive but the grounds are so fun! The grounds have many natural springs on them so they turned part of grounds into this beautiful little path with fountains, streams, and pools. But the best part was that this pathway was also full of trick fountains that the our guide had control of. He could turn them on and off whenever he wanted. So needless to say we all got pretty wet. Also on those grounds is the famous gazebo from the Sound of Music. Yes, I got  a ton of pictures! ;)  Saturday night was the opening of the Salzburg festival. It was so neat to watch. The people of Salzburg dressed in traditional Austrian dress and did the candle dance around the center fountain in town. It was beautiful. Everyone in the dance had a candle, then at the end of the dance they all threw their candles into the fountain. Sunday was a lot of fun as well. We all went to a Catholic Mass. But it wasn't a normal mass because first, it was in a Baroque cathedral and second, it was Mozart Mass. That means that for the majority of the Mass they had an Orchestra and choir that performed Mozart pieces. It was some of the most beautiful music I have ever heard.

On top of the fortress 

Sorry, I couldn't resist not getting a kissing picture in front of the Gazebo 

Our next stop on our journey was Hallstatt. It is this beautiful little town nestled between the Alps and a glacier lake. We chose this town because it is home to the world's oldest salt mine. It is 7000 years old. To put it in perspective, people were mining salt here before the pyramids even existed. We took a tour of the salt mine. We had to dress up in the most attractive clothes, if I do say so myself. They were similar to what the actual miners wear. In the salt mine we got to go down these wooden slides that miners used to get from one floor to the other. I think the mine has been Zac's favorite part of this whole trip because he got to see all the mechanical stuff that they use to do the actual mining. Afterwards,we got our little sample of salt! Yea! The night before we left Hallstatt, we had to do the polar bear plunge into the glacier lake. Oh boy was it cold! But I had to do it or be an outcast forever. Just kidding.

See, aren't the outfits for the mine just great! 

Us on the slides

Our last stop, which is where I am right now, is Dorfgastein. This town stop is meant to be a relaxation stop before we have to face the craziness of our last week in Vienna. This is the most beautiful little town ever. It is tucked away in the green mountains and meadows of the Alps. Every house has planter boxes in the windows. I wish I could just live here! Yesterday, we hiked up to an Alm (farm house) where they make cheese. It is way up on top of a mountain and is the only house up there. Then today we hiked up to another Alm where they make bread. This little place reminds me a lot of St. Johns in a way.  Yes, it is a billion times more beautiful then St. Johns, but it is quiet and slow paced like St. Johns. I miss that a lot. I miss being able to be alone, I miss small towns. I guess that is why Dorfgastein might be my favorite part of this whole trip.

The Cheese Alm 

The hills are alive with the sound of music....

That is Dorfgastein in the background