One semester down, 3 more to go

So I did it! I made it through my first semester of Nursing school. I can now officially take vital signs, give injections, make beds (with people in them :) ), give enemas, check blood sugar, do a full health assessment (basically a full physical), feed people, do wound care/packing, put in an NG tube, move people with a gait belt or hoyer lift, do sterile gloving, put on ostomy bags, and give oral medication. Obviously I still need a lot more practice, but I am getting there. Now I have a lovely 2 week break before I start up again for summer. Whew! No rest for the weary! I've really enjoyed Nursing school so far though. It's interesting to me, that at first I thought this was what nursing school is all about, learning the skills. But since I've been in school, the focus has been more on realizing the whole of what nursing is which includes communicating, educating and caring with compassion. It's been really cool, and I've really enjoyed what I've been learning so far. Before I had always just wanted to get through to become a nurse practitioner, now I've realized that nursing really is a cool career. So who knows, I will still probably go on, but I am enjoying this for now.

Look at me in action. I am teaching the class how to perform an abdominal exam


Here is my lovely group, P4. And yes, that is a testicle model that Christy is holding up in front. For our first Health Assessment we had to teach the class we got the lovely topic of Breast/Abdomen/Testicular. Haha. Luckily I got to teach the Abdomen portion

We're Alive!

So I think it's about time I posted again! It's only been 5 months right? Well life's been busy, so that's my excuse, but we ARE alive! And we are living life well. I started Nursing school the end of January and that has been taking over my life. No time for anything else! My typical schedule is 8-4 at school M-F and then come home and spend the rest of the night trying to catch up on all the homework that is due the next day. It's a busy schedule but I'm liking it a lot. I'm actually starting to feel like I know stuff even though it's only been two months! I was watching House the other day (one of our favorite shows) and when one of the guys started crashing and the Dr's were throwing out all these medical terms from what was happening I was like Hey! I know what that means! I know what they're checking for! Haha I was excited :) Anyways, but this week is Spring Break, and a much needed spring break at that! I'm so excited I get to think of something else besides school and relax from the stresses of it! We are going camping this week with friends and we are very excited :)
Randy is doing well as well. Since I had to cut my hours back at work (from 30 to 10) he's been picking up the slack and working full time while he takes online classes. He's also been very supportive and helpful when I need to practice my "nursing skills" on him. I love him so much! He is the best husband I could have ever asked for!
Well I will try to be better about posting, sorry no pictures for now. Like I said we've been boring, but I will try to post some later. My husband is building some beautiful columns in our house that I will need to show off soon. Until then! :)

Disneyland Trip

Halloween Fun

For Halloween, Randy and I dressed up as super heroes Dirty Laundry (Randy) and Static Cling (Me). Check it out, here's us at our friends costume birthday halloween party :)

Putting the House Together

So we've been working long and hard on our house, (well sort of, haha more like slow and steady) and I think it's finally starting to come together! It's been a rough process getting it here though so I thought I'd show you some updates along the way. First, Randy insisted that we put in recessed can lights because it would look SOO much better than a regular lighted fan. Haha I swear he can never do things the easy way. :) So during conference mind you, he took it upon himself to cut out holes in our new ceiling to install these beauties. I must say though, even though it made a mess and looked like a recent snow storm in our living room that he left for me to clean up while he went to priesthood, it actually looks quite nice! We had trouble with the light strobing at first, but now that we've got the right light bulbs, they look awesome and there is no more strobe! Yay! So here's some pics of my handsome husband making a mess. Haha



We also, if you'll notice from the pictures above, had been living with nothing but a chair and lovesack in our front room for like 3 weeks because my husband refused to employ our green couches in our new house. His theory was, if we never brought it in, it would take less time to get a new one! Well he was right, I finally got sick of it and decided we could splurge on a couch. So we were on our way to go get one when Randy's mom called and said their neighbors were having a garage sale next door and they had a sectional out there for $300 that would be perfect! So we went and checked it out, and it WAS perfect! So we bought it and brought it home very excited to have a new couch. That was when we discovered this...




They had dogs!!!!! Boy let me tell you, that thing was covered in hair. When I told mom she said "Gross take it back!" But alas, it was too good a deal, so instead we spent about 20 hours with a lint brush getting off all the hair, vacuuming all inches of it, and then steam cleaning it to get out the stench and dandruff. It was so gross! Randy left some of the concentrated water in the steam cleaner for a day and about died when he opened it to rinse it out.


Ew! We emptied that thing of water just like this about 15 times. Yuck!

Anyways, we got it MOSTLY done, we're just finishing up a few cushions.

Tagged!

Hey so I've been Tagged by my sister Natalie, and am supposed to list 6 quirky things about myself. Here goes, sorry it took so long!

1. I am the worst decision maker EVER! My family had no confidence in me that I would be able to plan my wedding during my engagement period, so my sister Andrea and I started thinking and planning what I'd want it to look like about 3 years before I was even CLOSE to getting married. And then when I actually did get engaged, I changed my mind again and took about 2 months of our 3 1/2 month engagement just to decide my colors!

2. Here's what I like to call my compassionate side lol. When I was younger I hated making others feel sad or letting them know when I didn't like things. Two prime examples: everytime I would play my sister Natalie in Monopoly, when I would be winning by a lot, I would feel so bad that she didn't have any money, that I'd give her some of mine until she'd turn the game around and beat me mercilessly. Haha thanks alot Nat! Second, everytime my mom, or anyone for that matter, would buy me clothes that I didn't like, instead of having her take them back and buy me new ones I did like, I'd tell her I really liked them, then hide them in the back of my closet until she'd find them 2 years later with the tags still on.

3. I hate wrinkled sheets on my feet. I think it drives Randy crazy, but every night I pull the bed sheets and blankets tight across the bed so when I slip in it's smooth against my feet. If it's not just right, I feel like I'm being suffocated and have to get out of bed and pull them tight again.

4. I don't really like being the center of attention and therefore often keep quiet in a crowd. Instead, I get my kicks from seeing others succeed. For example, I felt like I had won Jr Miss Arizona when my best friend Lindsey did I was so excited, and everytime I watched someone get a gold medal during the olympics I would get kinda teary eyed because I just knew that had to be the most awesome experience.

5. My husband is the creative one in our family. How often does that happen in a relationship? He's the reason our house is decorated in the way it is.

6. And finally, most of the time I prefer fruit over chocolate. There's just something about that fresh sweet taste!

We own a Home!!!!

(of course minus all the paper, that's gone now)

So today after 6 months of waiting and about a million different papers with our signatures on it, we are officially home owners! Yay! Our house is beautiful and we are so excited to live there. We got the keys around 4 pm along with a nice house warming gift from Centex. They gave us a nicely wrapped up box of goodies for our house ranging from a role of toilet paper to simple green cleaner to help us get started. They also gave us a gift bag with pretty orange and yellow tissue paper coming out the top. Not sure the protocol on what to do, we decided to wait to open the gift later inside our new home. So when we got there we opened the pretty gift bag to find... NOTHING! (Is that really what she said?) Yes that's what I said! A beautifully wrapped present of nothing but air. Haha, I mean I know the economy's bad right now, but has it really come down to giving people empty gift bags to show your appreciation? Haha we thought it was funny. We're still not sure why we got that, if they forgot to put something inside, or if that's what they meant to give us, but it was funny all the same. :) Anyways, so we move in tomorrow officially and we can't wait to get started living there. Randy already has a million projects brewing in his head that he can't wait to get started on. I have to keep reminding him that it's all in good time. Here a little, there a little. But we're so excited and hope you can all come see our new home one day soon :)

So we're kinda boring right now

Hey Guys

So we're kinda boring right now. Not too much is happening in our lives. Both Randy and I are both going to school and working full time to save up for our house, which officially has a closing date! September 19, 2008 at 12:00 pm! Yay! So at just under 3 weeks, we are surviving living on top of ourselves in moms old sewing room. Yep the tiny yellow room downstairs :) It's been really fun though being at home again. We're really grateful to mom and dad for helping us save some money before we move in.

Anyways, so I thought I'd just put some fun pics on here to update our 2008 thus far. Randy and I had our one year anniversary this year and to celebrate we went to a Resort for the weekend in Scottsdale. We had so much fun!

We also have spent some time up at Randy's parents cottage. It's really pretty up there and we went for a drive and found this really pretty meadow and what would be the coolest hideout as a kid! We also went to the Young parade which was a cute little thing the town put together along with a rodeo.

Other updates are (as if you didn't already know ;) ) we bought a house! We decided we really like hiking, and went a couple of times before Randy hurt his knee while playing basketball. He partially tore his ACL, and had lots of bone bruising and hurt tissue. BUT! He's getting better everyday and we hope he will be all the way better soon so we can keep up with our new goal to exercise three times a week and eat healthier! :)

We also celebrated Randy's 24th birthday, fed some duckies and played at the park, caught some crawdads with Steph and James, Jess and David, went to Mexico for a week, and had our first Valentine's day as a married couple where Randy set up a really sweet dinner for me in our friend's tree house (candle light dinner from Mongolian Grill ;) , roses, and all!)

Needless to say we have had an awesome first year together and are having so much fun being married and in love :)

Look at Our New House!

• Recent additions to our house:
• 
• Light fixtures in all areas of the house
• Tile in all wet areas
• Cabinets in kitchen and bathrooms
  
• Driveway and walkway to door poured
• We're so excited for our new house! :)
  

Randy and Meesh