Just a day in the life of a Veterinary Technician

I have been given one of the greatest opportunities for my career - even at the beginning of my career! I have been hired at a veterinary clinic that works with, not only cats & dogs, but with exotics as well. Parrish Creek Veterinary Clinic. There are very few clinics around Utah that do not specialize in exotics.... What exactly determines if an animal is exotic? Well let me tell you:

• Birds and lots of them - there are so many clients out there who have a large variety of pet birds. Conures, macaws, parakeets, cockatiel, african grey, chickens etc... the list goes on and then within those lists there are different kinds and colors. So a lot of people own birds that need medical care to a clinic that specializes in them. We are the only clinic that has both Utah Board Bird Specialist... So I guess you can say we are pretty special :) Not only do we see birds from people, but we see birds from Tracy Aviary from SLC, which means even more species!

• Small Pets. Where do I begin? Well we see hedgehogs, chinchillas, rodents (rats, hamsters, mice...), sugar gliders... All these cute little creatures!

                                 

• Reptiles. You know what this means - snakes! and of course iguanas, bearded dragons, turtles/tortoises, etc...

• Wildlife - the wildlife rehab will bring their animals when they need medical attention. Such as eagles, beavers, etc.

• Lagoon - Remeber taking the train ride around the pond when you were a kid. And when you get to the other side there are animals. Well sometimes we get to work on those cool guys. Since I've been working there, because I am new, I haven't had the chance to see any from Lagoon come in, however I have been told on occasion they come in. They told me they got to work on a kangaroo. How awesome!

So I am loving the clinic thus far. I do miss and wish I am able to work with more farm/large animal. I miss being around horses but I still have such a large variety I am loving it. I am sure I will get to see more new animals come in and will learn a lot about different species. It has been a wonderful blessing to have such a wonderful opportunity as a veterinary technician to help out all of mother nature's creatures. They all are so cool in their own unique way and truly make this world amazing!

Be vewwy, vewwy quite. . . . I'm hunting antlers.

First Deer Shed

Ever since I was a little kid I have wanted to go shed hunting. It has something I always thought would be fun and would love to collect but I never had the resources to be able to go. Now that I have a horse to carry my butt up the mountain, a wonderful husband who is patient and adventurous to my crazy ideas, and tracking elk, this is my first year into it. I must say.... it is addicting and gives you quite an adrenalin rush when you hike all over and turn around a corner and there it is. A beautiful, big antler lying there on the ground.

Lola

It has been quite the learning experience, but it has been a fun experience. There are so many perks to shed hunting.

Mo

• I get to ride my horse - isn't that the best??

• Definitely get a good workout in - I'm pretty sure hiking up a steep mountain multiple times in one day sheds some pounds! Yay!
• Quality time with the hubby - sure I get grumpy when I'm not finding 20 sheds all lying within 10 feet of each other, but its been a great experience spending it with each other, fighting over the binoculars and trying to decide who has to carry the antlers up to the horses.
• Running into elk - the bad thing about elk sheds is.... you can't get them until they have fallen off. I wish I could rope them off of them, but if that antler isn't ready to come off, well I can't take it home. So I definitely have learned some patience. But the cool thing is I have been able to see some cool elk (one where the right antler was growing straight down) and its always neat to be able to watch them on another hill grazing (or running away from you). Wildlife is amazing!



Curly

• Other critters - It might not be lions, tigers and bears but its always fun to scout out other wildlife like the deer and moose.
• The dogs love running around the mountain.... if only Mo was trained to find and bring sheds back she would be perfect because she covers the entire mountain. 

My Traveling Pal

This might be the start of a new, and addicting, hobby for me. Its been fun to get up in the mountains and outdoors, now that the snow is melting and spring is here. People keep asking me what I plan on doing with my treasures. Probably decorate and make cool things out of them of course!!

First Elk Shed

More Crafts!! Winter Charger Plate - Mouse-trap Magnets - HorseShoe Necklace Holder

Don't you just love craft time? Here are a few ideas that are way easy to do!

Since it is still winter time and Christmas is over, here is a cute DIY home decor for the season! Winter time charger plate! I love making these plates cause they are so easy!!
 Michael's and Tai Pan Trading have way cute charger plates. Red/Gold/Blue/White/etc and you can do any theme. I wanted something that I can have all winter instead of just at Christmas time so I did a snow theme! Let It Snow sled and a snowman. I also found some snowflake jell stickers to add to make it a little more festive. Now I just put it on an easel and let it sit on my kitchen table until spring!



Need more magnets on your fridge to hold up those Christmas and New Years greeting cards from friends and family? How about mouse trap magnets? They can hold up your cards without having to cover them with a magnet. Just take off the trap and leave the spring. Paint, decorate and glue a magnet on the back. With my mouse trap magnets I had some lace ribbon and I cut and placed on top of them for a little extra cuteness! They sure have been handy to hold up those cards and pictures!




Ok so for quite some time now I have desperately needed a cute jewelry holder. I  am in still need of something for my earrings (which I have plans to complete in the near future) but I recently made such a cute necklace/bracelet holder. I love it and how cute it is especially for those cowgirls! I got a pallet board, cut it to the size I wanted and sanded. I then painted the board a turquoise color and for a more rustic look added a little stain here and there. A secret to the stain is rub most of it off of your brush with an old cloth and then just brush it along the board here and there. If you add too much just wipe some off or even add some paint back to it. Then I added 4 horseshoes. Each horse shoe has 8 nail spots and to keep the horse shoes on the board I nailed in 2 nails all the way through and left the other 6 half way out so I can hang the jewelery on them. Add a wire for the back to hang up and wa la - your cowgirl necklace holder! Cute!

Oh Christmas Tree

Well this post is a little late.... Christmas came and went quickly this year. I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday season. It was our first Christmas as a married couple for Hutch and I. We had a great one! I think we even started our own Haslam Christmas tradition that everyone thought was way cool. A sagebrush Christmas tree! Sure the thought of it to people was thinking "cheap", "redneck", and "dumb" but once people saw what I had planned for it, the tree turned out way cool and beautiful!
Growing up I remember my aunt had a sagebrush tree one year and ever since then I thought it was cool and I wanted one. So our first year married I told Hutch and he thought it was a good idea too. At the time we were the only ones who thought it was a good idea. We went on a ride on our horses in search of the perfect sagebrush. It had to be big and full. It was an awesome ride, spotting tons and tons of deer and beautiful views. And then we found it and brought him home and got it decorated.We decorated it with lights, red ornaments, berries, bells, and Indian ornaments. Turned out better than I imagined!

Indian Ornaments

Berries

Rustic Bells

I absolutely love my sagebrush Christmas tree. In fact Its almost the middle of January and I still have it up! I think it definitely will be a tradition from now on :)

I also made a Christmas tree craft. I made it out of clay pots and buttons, ribbons and wooden stars. Simple & Easy! Just get your different sizes, paint, glue and then decorate! This would be such a fun craft for kids too!

To Wine

I have been collecting quite a few bottles because I have so many cute craft ideas using them. Since its the Christmas season I wanted to make a little Christmas decor. I got some yarn, hot glue, pom poms, bells, beads, felt, etc and made me 3 Christmas characters. A snowman. A reindeer. And a Santa Claus. Easy to make and turn out cute!!!

A few old shelves

I have had some old shelves that needed a little touch up. I first was just going to re-paint them, either just black or something colorful, but then I found MOD-PODGE... and decided I wanted to experiment... this little project could either turn out not that great and I wasn't out of nothing much, or it could turn out really cool. so if you decide you want to spice up some of your wooden shelves here is what you need:

• old shelves or frames
• paint - paint brushes
• mod podge
• scrapbook paper or fabric 

 And of course you can't forget your little helper!  

  

 Well I first started by cleaning off the shelves really well and letting them dry. I then painted the area where they were not going to be mod podged. For my shelves, I am painting the insides and mod poding around the outside. I painted a layer and let dry, and ended up doing a few layers.

 After the painting, I cut out the pieces of my scrapbook paper to fit the areas where I wanted them to be on my shelf. I then put a thin layer of mod podge onto the shelf. ( I didn't place the mod podge onto the paper first so it wouldn't get too soft to work with). After putting the mod podge around the area on the shelf, I placed the scrapbook paper down, pressing firmly to get any excess mod podge out and to help it all stick evenly onto the shelf.

 Continue to put all the pieces where you want them and continue onto the next shelf if you have more than one

 Let dry for at least 24 hours

Then hang and decorate!

Happy Mod Podging!

Craftiness

Ok.... so its about that time of year when people are starting to make crafts for the upcoming holidays, and I jumped on the bandwagon. Here are a few crafts I have recently made, and I have tons more ideas of other crafts I hope to make in the future (Pinterest and Michael's have made me very craft crazy)  So I plan to blog about all the different crafts I do and if you like them you can do them too! Let me know how they turn out!

So my first one I got the idea as I was walking through the store Michael's, they had a few examples their employees created and didn't look very hard to make, so my mom and I bought supplies brought them home and I went to work. Decorative plates for the fall season!

Mine - - I just love my little owl I put in it

My mothers I made for her

 


 Then I made a fall ribbon wreath.... It didn't turn out the way I wanted it in my head but I still like it. Now I just need to hang it up on my door!

I recently bought a heart shaped wreath and thought I would put an "H' on it for Haslam :) (cute right!) so I found some burlap leftover from my wedding and put it around it, then painted a wooden letter "H" and hot glued it on. I think it turned out pretty cute!






Well more crafts are on there way. The joy of being a college graduate with some spare time!

Proposal Story

Well here it is......

Wed. Dec 19 Hutch took me to go get a Christmas tree up Line Creek on our horses. It was fun, I've never went to get a live tree for christmas before, so it was a new experience for me. We found one, that looked to be alright and we cut it down and carried it out back to the trail. Hutch then put the tree on the ground and wanted to keep riding and we'd come back for it on our way back. So we took off again on our horses heading up a hill. We got on top and tied the horses up. He put his coat down so we could sit down on it, drinking hot coco while looking over the Morgan valley. We kept looking for some elk, and on our way up had saw a big bull off in the distance, so Hutch kept looking for more.

 After some time of drinking our hot coco and talking, with the dogs snuggling up next to me, Hutch stood up and walked a little farther on top and went to the other side of the hill, facing more of the mountains rather than the valley.  He stood there for a few minutes and called out to me saying he wants to show me something. I get up and headed toward him thinking.... more elk to see..... I get up to him and he holds me in his arms pointing to a clearing in some trees off in the distance and asks do I see it. At first I am scanning everywhere for elk but in the clearing of trees there are the letters "A + H" (our initials) he had made out of tree branches earlier that morning. He then turned me around as he kneeled on one knee and asked me if I would marry him. And they lived happily ever after.

Engagement Ring:

Isn't it perfect!!!

<3 It! Its gorgeous!

 Why a pearl ring???
I told Hutch I wanted a pearl engagement ring then a diamond ring when I am married. He went and picked out the engagement ring all by himself and I absolutely love it. I must admit I was a little worried what he would pick but he did a great job. Its a pearl with 6 diamonds. 3 on each side of it. 

22nd Birthday! Living Planet Aquarium

For my 22nd Birthday Hutch took me to the Living Planet Aquarium followed by dinner and shopping in Salt Lake. I've wanted to go to the aquarium for quite some time now so he humored me and took me. I loved it. Not sure if he had as much as as I did but we both had a good time. There is one section there about Utah and all the fish that live in Utah and he knew a lot about all the different types and info about them. I was impressed about all the fish he knew about.
There was also different sections of the world with different of their species.
There was ocean animals such as:

• Giant Pacific Octopus
• All types of SeaHorses
• All types of Jelly Fish
• All types of Star Fish
• All types of Sharks
• Sting Rays
• Sea Turtle (rescued from gulf oil spill)
• Colorful Fish

Sensitive to Flash (oops)

Can grow to 16 ft. Some of the largest ever recorded have been up to 30 ft.

Jelly Fish

This guys was awesome. In real life you couldn't differ from him and the corral behind him. The picture made him pop out so much more than what him and his surroundings look like

He was so still. Never saw him move, not even a twitch

Sea Urchin - did not know they had eyes!!!! It even blinks! Freaked me out first time I saw this

Beautiful aquarium with gorgeous colorful saltwater fish!

Strangest starfish I ever did see

Now thats JAWS!

 There was a South American Section that had animals such as:

• Anaconda (13 feet long) - feeds on frozen guinea pigs
• Tarantulas
• All sizes/kinds of cockroaches
• Alligators
• Giant fish
• Piranhas
• Eels
• All kinds of frogs



Glittery Piranhas. Touchy! Touchy!

Anaconda swimming

There was an Artic Section with penguins.
There was another section with all sorts of animals including:

• Green Tree Boa
• Weird/unusual creatures
• Glow-in-the-dark scorpions (glowed lime green)
• Hissing Cockroaches



Green Tree Boa - I want one!

 

This is what the green tree boa sees - thermal

I was very easily entertained, learned lots, and saw a lot of different types of creatures I never knew even existed. It was such a wonderful birthday. Couldn't have been happier!

<3 Him!

Yupp... I was in Heaven.