So, yes...I am blogging about halloween. I know that i'm way behind, but, at least i'm blogging right? The semester is almost over. We have one more week of regular class and then one week of finals. Yay! We made it. Life has gotten easier. Mid-way through the semester, there was a group of us nursing students staying after class to work on these horrible and ridiculous worksheets that we had everyweek from a nursing fundamentals class. These worksheets took about 3 hours to complete one worksheet, and we were never assigned just one worksheet. Anyway, the nursing director asked us waht we were all working on and so we told her. Then she started asking questions and we told her all about these terrible worksheet. Needless to say, the next time we had our Fundaments class, the teacher gave some lame excuse, and she said that she was canceling our worksheets for that class. We were so excited! The semester got much better after that. I asked the nursing director later if she had talked to our Fundamental's teacher and she said that she had :) Nursing school is still tough, but that definately helped with eliminating those.

I actually love what I get to learn about and what I get to do. I did a clinical in an ER at a hospital. Generally first semester students don't really get these opprotunities but the hospital didn't have enough nurses to proctor so I got to go to the ER! Before the nursing instructor dropped me off there, she basically told me to act confident and to "get in there" and ask to do stuff, so I did. I totally faked my way through removing a few I.V. ports (which I had never been trained to do) and got to give injections, got to see a CT scan of a patient that had a twisted colon, got to see the X-rays of a patient that had a broken foot, got to place a catheter, and the best part was, I got to see an apendectomy! One of our patients was having an appendicitis and the surgical team came to the ER to pick her up and take her to the OR. I asked my nurse that I was shadowing if they ever let student nurses into the OR to watch the surgeries. One of the other nurses in the ER said, "No, they don't let students do that...", but my nurse went and asked anyway. The surgical nurse said that it would be okay. So, I booked it down the hall and caught up with the surgical team, I was thrown into a locker room and was told to gown up. I threw on the hair net, scrubs and shoe covers and went into surgery! The surgoen was so kind and he answered my battery of questions and explained the whole surgical process to me. I got to sit on a stool and watch everything. The nurse anestisist even let me look over his shoulder while he intibated the patient. It was the coolest clinical ever!

Fellow nursing students who actually dressed up, hehe. I'm lame :) I just couldn't muster the energy to throw something together this year, but they looked great!

Our ward halloween party. The girls and Jimmy all matched. Jimmy was a princess fairy and wore pink pants :) He is hilarious!

This was our first Halloween in Utah. Since it is a predominantly LDS community, all the kids went trick-or-treating on Saturday (since Halloween fell on a Sunday) and it was absolutely freezing, windy, and raining on-and-off! So Carley wore this little dress with tights underneath the dress, and then she wore a coat on top of it. Taylor refused to dress up at all- probably because she was cold. We went trick-or-treating in the double stroller and the girls made it to like 5 houses before they were frozen. Then, I saw some other parents and they were taking their kids around in their cars, driving from house to house, and letting the kids run out of the car to each house. What a great idea! I had never dealt with freezing weather for Halloween before, so that is what we ended up doing too. I am learning all sorts of new ideas of how to deal with this crazy cold weather.

The spoils of trick-or-treating!

So, yes...I am blogging about halloween. I know that i'm way behind, but, at least i'm blogging right? The semester is almost over. We have one more week of regular class and then one week of finals. Yay! We made it. Life has gotten easier. Mid-way through the semester, there was a group of us nursing students staying after class to work on these horrible and ridiculous worksheets that we had everyweek from a nursing fundamentals class. These worksheets took about 3 hours to complete one worksheet, and we were never assigned just one worksheet. Anyway, the nursing director asked us waht we were all working on and so we told her. Then she started asking questions and we told her all about these terrible worksheet. Needless to say, the next time we had our Fundaments class, the teacher gave some lame excuse, and she said that she was canceling our worksheets for that class. We were so excited! The semester got much better after that. I asked the nursing director later if she had talked to our Fundamental's teacher and she said that she had :) Nursing school is still tough, but that definately helped with eliminating those.

I actually love what I get to learn about and what I get to do. I did a clinical in an ER at a hospital. Generally first semester students don't really get these opprotunities but the hospital didn't have enough nurses to proctor so I got to go to the ER! Before the nursing instructor dropped me off there, she basically told me to act confident and to "get in there" and ask to do stuff, so I did. I totally faked my way through removing a few I.V. ports (which I had never been trained to do) and got to give injections, got to see a CT scan of a patient that had a twisted colon, got to see the X-rays of a patient that had a broken foot, got to place a catheter, and the best part was, I got to see an apendectomy! One of our patients was having an appendicitis and the surgical team came to the ER to pick her up and take her to the OR. I asked my nurse that I was shadowing if they ever let student nurses into the OR to watch the surgeries. One of the other nurses in the ER said, "No, they don't let students do that...", but my nurse went and asked anyway. The surgical nurse said that it would be okay. So, I booked it down the hall and caught up with the surgical team, I was thrown into a locker room and was told to gown up. I threw on the hair net, scrubs and shoe covers and went into surgery! The surgoen was so kind and he answered my battery of questions and explained the whole surgical process to me. I got to sit on a stool and watch everything. The nurse anestisist even let me look over his shoulder while he intibated the patient. It was the coolest clinical ever!

Fellow nursing students who actually dressed up, hehe. I'm lame :) I just couldn't muster the energy to throw something together this year, but they looked great!

Our ward halloween party. The girls and Jimmy all matched. Jimmy was a princess fairy and wore pink pants :) He is hilarious!

This was our first Halloween in Utah. Since it is a predominantly LDS community, all the kids went trick-or-treating on Saturday (since Halloween fell on a Sunday) and it was absolutely freezing, windy, and raining on-and-off! So Carley wore this little dress with tights underneath the dress, and then she wore a coat on top of it. Taylor refused to dress up at all- probably because she was cold. We went trick-or-treating in the double stroller and the girls made it to like 5 houses before they were frozen. Then, I saw some other parents and they were taking their kids around in their cars, driving from house to house, and letting the kids run out of the car to each house. What a great idea! I had never dealt with freezing weather for Halloween before, so that is what we ended up doing too. I am learning all sorts of new ideas of how to deal with this crazy cold weather.

The spoils of trick-or-treating!

I started nursing school about 3 weeks ago. Man, I can't believe that it has only been three weeks! I feel like I have already been in school an eternity! I am so happy to be there and I love the things that we get to learn about. The intensity of it all kinda kills me though. I don't know how I can do this for another 2 years. What a daunting thought! I know that it isn't just me that feels that the program is intense, just about everybody feels that way. I think the first week we all wondered how we were going to get through all of this, but we have survived the first 3 weeks and we will keep plugging away.

One day, I had a quiz, a 5-7 page paper, a power point presentation, a homework assignment, and a huge packet of worksheets (about 12) that were all due in one day. Needless to say, the night before, I did homework from about 2pm to about 12:00 am straight (I did go to the bathroom and eat some food, but you get the idea) to finish it all up. And this week, we had 2 huge tests (amongst other things), one of which we as students had been studying for weeks to prepare for it. We all killed ourselves to study for it and the highest grade in the class was a 76%. Wow....

So, right now, I haven't really folded or put away the laundry for about 3 weeks now and we pick up the house on the weekends. Dinner is always an adventure and life is just crazy. I do feel like I am getting more into the groove of things. I asked one of my teachers the first week if this was the workload that we could expect for the rest of the semester and she paused, thought for a second, kinda frowned and said, "um...yeah...this is about right." But then she said, "but it will get easier because YOU will adjust to the program." She was right. I guess that you just adapt to accomplish the things that you have to. Thank heavens for Jimmy's help, for crockpots and for Costco's frozen dinners. Sometimes I throw things in the crockpot before I leave in the morning (but then it cooks from 6:15am until 4:30 pm, which is kinda a long time), and sometimes I boil frozen raviolis or heat up other things from costco's frozen section :) ...so, I guess we do adjust.
Jimmy's life is crazy too because he is going to school, working and trying to survive getting around since I have the car during the day. He commutes downtown to the University of Utah and to work by either catching a ride from a friend, borrowing a scooter from the people we live with, or by catching the bus and tracks.

But I don't want you to think that I'm miserable, because I'm not. It is so exciting to think that I am actually on the path to becoming a nurse and this crazy time in our life is kind of an adventure. We have been blessed through all of this and everything has fallen into place perfectly. My girls also love being at their grandma's house a lot (she watches them for me while i'm at school) and it makes it easier for me to have someone else watching them since they like it. It would be hard to drop them off at the babysitters if they were crying about it everytime.

I started nursing school about 3 weeks ago. Man, I can't believe that it has only been three weeks! I feel like I have already been in school an eternity! I am so happy to be there and I love the things that we get to learn about. The intensity of it all kinda kills me though. I don't know how I can do this for another 2 years. What a daunting thought! I know that it isn't just me that feels that the program is intense, just about everybody feels that way. I think the first week we all wondered how we were going to get through all of this, but we have survived the first 3 weeks and we will keep plugging away.

One day, I had a quiz, a 5-7 page paper, a power point presentation, a homework assignment, and a huge packet of worksheets (about 12) that were all due in one day. Needless to say, the night before, I did homework from about 2pm to about 12:00 am straight (I did go to the bathroom and eat some food, but you get the idea) to finish it all up. And this week, we had 2 huge tests (amongst other things), one of which we as students had been studying for weeks to prepare for it. We all killed ourselves to study for it and the highest grade in the class was a 76%. Wow....

So, right now, I haven't really folded or put away the laundry for about 3 weeks now and we pick up the house on the weekends. Dinner is always an adventure and life is just crazy. I do feel like I am getting more into the groove of things. I asked one of my teachers the first week if this was the workload that we could expect for the rest of the semester and she paused, thought for a second, kinda frowned and said, "um...yeah...this is about right." But then she said, "but it will get easier because YOU will adjust to the program." She was right. I guess that you just adapt to accomplish the things that you have to. Thank heavens for Jimmy's help, for crockpots and for Costco's frozen dinners. Sometimes I throw things in the crockpot before I leave in the morning (but then it cooks from 6:15am until 4:30 pm, which is kinda a long time), and sometimes I boil frozen raviolis or heat up other things from costco's frozen section :) ...so, I guess we do adjust.
Jimmy's life is crazy too because he is going to school, working and trying to survive getting around since I have the car during the day. He commutes downtown to the University of Utah and to work by either catching a ride from a friend, borrowing a scooter from the people we live with, or by catching the bus and tracks.

But I don't want you to think that I'm miserable, because I'm not. It is so exciting to think that I am actually on the path to becoming a nurse and this crazy time in our life is kind of an adventure. We have been blessed through all of this and everything has fallen into place perfectly. My girls also love being at their grandma's house a lot (she watches them for me while i'm at school) and it makes it easier for me to have someone else watching them since they like it. It would be hard to drop them off at the babysitters if they were crying about it everytime.

There was a free fair that was called "The Green Jello Festival" that was put on by our stake. It was Aweome! I was so impressed that they could have an activity that was on this large of a scale. There was cotton candy, snow cones, 3 bouncy houses, a dunk tank, face painting, rock climbing, and more! The best part was that everything was FREE. My favorite kind of fair. They even provided dinner.

Carley climbed up the rock wall twice all by herself. She made it almost to the top of the wall both times. She is quite the climber. I was throughly impressed.

We waited in line for Carley to get her face painted FOREVER! It was so funny because these little girls were coming away from this booth with all of these elegant face painting and then when we almost got to the front of the line, they opened up a new table for the face painting because it was taking too long. Instead of the real face painter, Carley got a Young women that was like 11 years old who volunteered to paint, who painted Carley's face. I just smiled, because to a 4 year old, it didn't matter and she was just happy to have a butterfly face.

Taylor playing in the toddler area.

There was a free fair that was called "The Green Jello Festival" that was put on by our stake. It was Aweome! I was so impressed that they could have an activity that was on this large of a scale. There was cotton candy, snow cones, 3 bouncy houses, a dunk tank, face painting, rock climbing, and more! The best part was that everything was FREE. My favorite kind of fair. They even provided dinner.

Carley climbed up the rock wall twice all by herself. She made it almost to the top of the wall both times. She is quite the climber. I was throughly impressed.

We waited in line for Carley to get her face painted FOREVER! It was so funny because these little girls were coming away from this booth with all of these elegant face painting and then when we almost got to the front of the line, they opened up a new table for the face painting because it was taking too long. Instead of the real face painter, Carley got a Young women that was like 11 years old who volunteered to paint, who painted Carley's face. I just smiled, because to a 4 year old, it didn't matter and she was just happy to have a butterfly face.

Taylor playing in the toddler area.

Camping in California for the 4th of July. It was aweome to be there will all my siblings and their kids. The cousins had so much fun together. It was great to be by the ocean again.

Camping in California for the 4th of July. It was aweome to be there will all my siblings and their kids. The cousins had so much fun together. It was great to be by the ocean again.

I got in to nursing school! Yay! I was one of 24 students that made it in! I start this month. I already had a financial aid meeting and it looks like the pell grant is going to cover my costs too. I feel like all of this has been such a blassing and that now is the right time for me to go back and finish my nursing degree. It is amazing what can be accomplished with Heavenly Father's help.

I got in to nursing school! Yay! I was one of 24 students that made it in! I start this month. I already had a financial aid meeting and it looks like the pell grant is going to cover my costs too. I feel like all of this has been such a blassing and that now is the right time for me to go back and finish my nursing degree. It is amazing what can be accomplished with Heavenly Father's help.

Sorry it has been so long that I have blogged. Jimmy and I miss Hawaii terribly. I miss the weather, I miss my friends, and I miss the culture. I tried to blog a few weeks ago, and I accidently deleted 4 months of photos on my camera and memory card. I was so sad and I was a little sick to my stomach when I realized what I had done later on. But, there is nothing that I can do now, so I will blog the pictures that I took recently.

To give you update, there are enjoyable things aout being here. It is fun to be around my brother and my mom. She is so wonderful with my kids, she helps out so much with the kids and is a good friend to me...however, I have decided that we can't settle in Northern Utah. The weather up here in the winter is terrible. I don't know why people live like this! I don't appreciate the cold like so many people do up here and don't think that I ever can. It is just now warming up and I know that people back in Hawaii have been enjoying perfect weather this whole time that I have been enduring the cold.

Jimmy got a job aat Granger elementary school. He works with kids that are academically low -acheivers. He works under the curiculum developer for the school. He likes aspects of the job, but it isn't a career job.

I have been busy too. One day I was talking to my cousin and she was telling me about the nursing school that she is attending. I decided to research it and it turns out that I have almost all of the pre-reqs, they don't charge out-of-state tuition, and they will accept all of my trasfer credits (even though they are old). I also found out that I still had time to make the April nursing application deadline for starting the program in Fall. So, needless to say, my life has been a whirlwind since I decided to go for it and try to apply for fall. I hurried and got my T.B. shot, signed up for an accelerated CNA course (my CNA license in Hawaii was expired :( ), took a math klep test, got all my transcripts and sent in my application. I made it before the deadline. Now, all I have to do is take a math class over the summer and take a chemistry lab class before the nursing program starts to still qualify for the nursing program. I should find out if I get in by May 26th, so wish me luck! The timing would work out perfect if I got in, because my mom said that she would be willing to watch the kids for me while I was in the program. I couldn't ask for a better babysitter.

The girls making Jimmy fly them around in the airplane that they made.

Sorry it has been so long that I have blogged. Jimmy and I miss Hawaii terribly. I miss the weather, I miss my friends, and I miss the culture. I tried to blog a few weeks ago, and I accidently deleted 4 months of photos on my camera and memory card. I was so sad and I was a little sick to my stomach when I realized what I had done later on. But, there is nothing that I can do now, so I will blog the pictures that I took recently.

To give you update, there are enjoyable things aout being here. It is fun to be around my brother and my mom. She is so wonderful with my kids, she helps out so much with the kids and is a good friend to me...however, I have decided that we can't settle in Northern Utah. The weather up here in the winter is terrible. I don't know why people live like this! I don't appreciate the cold like so many people do up here and don't think that I ever can. It is just now warming up and I know that people back in Hawaii have been enjoying perfect weather this whole time that I have been enduring the cold.

Jimmy got a job aat Granger elementary school. He works with kids that are academically low -acheivers. He works under the curiculum developer for the school. He likes aspects of the job, but it isn't a career job.

I have been busy too. One day I was talking to my cousin and she was telling me about the nursing school that she is attending. I decided to research it and it turns out that I have almost all of the pre-reqs, they don't charge out-of-state tuition, and they will accept all of my trasfer credits (even though they are old). I also found out that I still had time to make the April nursing application deadline for starting the program in Fall. So, needless to say, my life has been a whirlwind since I decided to go for it and try to apply for fall. I hurried and got my T.B. shot, signed up for an accelerated CNA course (my CNA license in Hawaii was expired :( ), took a math klep test, got all my transcripts and sent in my application. I made it before the deadline. Now, all I have to do is take a math class over the summer and take a chemistry lab class before the nursing program starts to still qualify for the nursing program. I should find out if I get in by May 26th, so wish me luck! The timing would work out perfect if I got in, because my mom said that she would be willing to watch the kids for me while I was in the program. I couldn't ask for a better babysitter.

The girls making Jimmy fly them around in the airplane that they made.

My mom's 62nd birthday get-together. It is finally warming up enough that we could sit outside for a while. It makes me happy that it is getting warmer. To celebrate, we had a BBQ.

The weird thing about being here, is that the sun doesn't go down until about 8:30pm or so, and apparently in the summertime, it doesn't get completely dark until almost 10:00pm! So, it is light in this picture, and, yes, Taylor is wearing her pajamas. We have had to push the kids' bedtime back to 8:00 because it is too hard to put them down when it is completely light outside and still won't be getting dark for a while.

My mom's yard has a zip line in it. Isn't that fun? The kids love going on it.

Carley is such an animal lover and is so desperate for a pet (that I just can't bring myself to buying for her) that she has started to mother my mom's little baby chickens. (At least it isn't the lizards that she used to catch for pets in Hawaii) She takes that chickens out of the cage and plays with them everyday. She loves them and they will tolerate her making beds for them and covering them with dolly blankets, carrying them around in little sand pails, and carrying them around on her shoulder. These are the most docile chickens now because of her handling them all the time. She is really cute with them.

Some of the Easter booty! The kids had an easter egg hunt inside this year, because it snowed the day before Easter.

My mom's 62nd birthday get-together. It is finally warming up enough that we could sit outside for a while. It makes me happy that it is getting warmer. To celebrate, we had a BBQ.

The weird thing about being here, is that the sun doesn't go down until about 8:30pm or so, and apparently in the summertime, it doesn't get completely dark until almost 10:00pm! So, it is light in this picture, and, yes, Taylor is wearing her pajamas. We have had to push the kids' bedtime back to 8:00 because it is too hard to put them down when it is completely light outside and still won't be getting dark for a while.

My mom's yard has a zip line in it. Isn't that fun? The kids love going on it.

Carley is such an animal lover and is so desperate for a pet (that I just can't bring myself to buying for her) that she has started to mother my mom's little baby chickens. (At least it isn't the lizards that she used to catch for pets in Hawaii) She takes that chickens out of the cage and plays with them everyday. She loves them and they will tolerate her making beds for them and covering them with dolly blankets, carrying them around in little sand pails, and carrying them around on her shoulder. These are the most docile chickens now because of her handling them all the time. She is really cute with them.

Some of the Easter booty! The kids had an easter egg hunt inside this year, because it snowed the day before Easter.

The snow is an adjustment. According to the people that live here, this winter has been a mild one! Isn't that crazy? These pictures were taken in March! When I would get stir crazy, I'd bundle up the kids and take them outside. They really liked it, but they don't last out there too long. Snow is neat, and I love to watch it snow, but after a few weeks of the cold, i'm done with it. At least the kids have a good attitude for the most part.

Taylor is getting better at wearing her snow suit. When we first showed up, she would just cry when I would put it on her.

My mom's backyard. It is pretty, but it is cold too!

The snow is an adjustment. According to the people that live here, this winter has been a mild one! Isn't that crazy? These pictures were taken in March! When I would get stir crazy, I'd bundle up the kids and take them outside. They really liked it, but they don't last out there too long. Snow is neat, and I love to watch it snow, but after a few weeks of the cold, i'm done with it. At least the kids have a good attitude for the most part.

Taylor is getting better at wearing her snow suit. When we first showed up, she would just cry when I would put it on her.

My mom's backyard. It is pretty, but it is cold too!