Monday, December 22

What We've Been Up To

Well, school is done. I'm pretty sure I passed. I know I did fabulous on my nursing final and my independent case study, which I'm very proud of myself for. My stupid government class (I think that's the official name) is questionable, but I'm about 90% sure I passed that one. So now I just have to wait forever until grades are posted and I find out for sure.

In the meantime, we've been terribly productive setting up The Ultimate Distractor. Definitely what we needed in life. I was on my way home from work at 6 AM on black friday, stopping by a few stores to see if there was anything worth buying. I found something.


Our baby. Our brand new 60 inch HD DLP television. It's pretty sexy. And it actually clears up a lot of space in our living room, compared to our previous DI behemoth. For comparison purposes...

Before:









After:









(Please excuse the messy living room. We can't seem to keep it clean for more than a day.)

Brit managed to get all our systems AND the computer hooked up to it. He's useful like that. I'm enjoying a day of vegging in pajama pants watching useless tv while a blizzard rages. Good day.

What I've learned so far from HD: Hugh Laurie has a scar on his neck. Did you know that? I didn't. HD is sexy.

Tuesday, December 16

Going in a new direction

I have been busy lately. And I still am. I'm almost done with school, but once that's over, I have to catch up on all the things I've been ignoring. For now, I'll leave you with this wonderful piece of news:


See that? Yeah. That's gonna be me. Except... probably not as pretty. But I *will* be the nurse working with little babies! That's right, I got a job at Primary Children's Medical Center, in Infant Med/Surg. The preem-o children's hospital of Utah! It's a fabulous career move, and I'm incredibly excited. And scared out of my mind, when I realize that I've now taken a job that REQUIRES me to pass the NCLEX the first time. AAAAH! But I can't think about that now. Right now I have to pass my Government final. So I guess I'd better go study.

BE EXCITED FOR ME!

Tuesday, December 9

A comment, a post, whatever

Kristina P. said...

Jen, where have you been, you busy girl?!?

One word: Finals.

Ok, a few more words: it's the last week of MY LAST SEMESTER OF NURSING SCHOOL. I finished my last class today. But now I have 48 hours to finish my big last case study and my clinical journal, and then a few more days to study for both class finals on Monday/Tuesday. And I just finished a lot more last-minute paperwork and stuff. Don't worry, we'll be back to our regular programming next week.

But boy I feel loved. :)

Monday, December 1

"What the...?" Product of the Day

Designer hospital gowns for women in labor : http://www.laborlooks.com/prin.html

Cute? Yes. Functional? Maybe. Smart? Well, that depends if you've ever seen a delivery. If you knew what got on your hospital gown and sheets during the labor and delivery process, and even afterwards until you go home, I don't think anyone would ever spend $50 on something to wear during the process. My goodness. I'm 90% sure that their only customers must be first-time moms who have no idea what they're getting themselves into.

Friday, November 28

Thanksgiving: A Recap

Ah, Thanksgiving. A time of year traditionally given to turkey, cranberries, stuffing, and mashed potatoes. Mmm, carb-fest. Unfortunately, I am a young wife not particularly given to cooking at all, let alone feasts. I am also a night-shift LPN working both holiday shifts-- Wednesday night and Thursday (tonight). So, no beautifully garnished turkey with homemade cranberry sauce for us. Instead, I got home at 7, slept until 2, snuggled my husband a whole lot, and worked on homework. My husband, on the other hand, was kind enough to make a wonderful Thanksgiving feast for both of us! The menu: breaded chicken fingers (frozen), three cheese macaroni with shells, barbecue chicken bites (frozen), and white rice. And honestly? It was delicious. We even adhered to the Thanksgiving tradition of football, by watching Leatherheads while we ate dinner. I was almost as full as after a standard thanksgiving feast, except without all the leftovers. And, sadly, I only had an hour to nap before getting ready for work. But I'm pretty happy with our homey little holiday.

The REAL celebration took place last friday and saturday, at my in-laws. We went to colorado for a weekend, and managed to fit thanksgiving AND christmas into those short 2 days. Friday night was thanksgiving, and we had all the standard meal items, plus homemade rolls and jam and cinnamon honey butter. That may have been my favorite. Along with everything else. It was completely delicious, and we shared things we are thankful for. I am thankful for a wonderful family-in-law willing to bust their butts to celebrate a holiday around our stupid work/school schedule.

After dinner we decorated the christmas tree, and Saturday morning we had a scaled-down christmas. Personally, I got way more than I ever expected. Including a brand new crockpot, with a timer. Perhaps I'll actually be able to cook dinners now! It was hard to remember that the rest of the world did not think saturday was a holiday; that's how real it felt. It was amazing.

Sunday afternoon we took family pictures, and packed up and headed home. We miraculously fit all of our stuff onto the plane, and now I'm trying to find places to put all the cute decorating things I got. It would probably help if I cleaned my house. Maybe in 2 weeks. But probably not any earlier.


Saturday, November 22

The Obligatory Twilight Post

I have important things to write about, but I'll wait until I get pictures (which I hope I'll get eventually).

Today, I saw Twilight with my husband, his brother, and two of my sisters-in-law. Here is my review, bulleted for your convenience:

The Good
  • Some (emphasis on some) of the cinematography was fabulous, and the colors vivid and beautiful
  • There were some cute one-liners, and some funny dialogue
  • It was nice to see the books I love brought to life, and compare the images with what I saw in my head
  • Bella was wonderful
  • Emmett was nicely done, and funny
  • I like the soundtrack
The Bad
  • The movie was, in short, completely awful. Besides those good points.
  • Nearly all of the Cullens were strange and not very good-looking. Bella was the most pale, and the prettiest of them all without even trying.
  • The most climactic points of the movie (excepting the scene in the ballet studio) COMPLETELY fell flat. There were points in the movie that should have been exciting and adrenaline-producing, and they were simply disappointing.
  • The dialogue was incredibly corny throughout most of the movie.
  • The vital first-meeting of Edward and Bella, in Biology class, was laughable. Edward looked constipated/nauseated. It would have been easy to use the fabulous cinematography they SHOWED they know how to do, and focus in on his eyes.... make it less real-time... basically fake the intense emotions and hatred Bella felt emanating from her lab partner. Instead, it was hysterical, and Edward looked more ill than angry. Terrible.
  • The MOST IMPORTANT scene of the book, of the whole Twilight universe, the scene based on the author's dream that started the whole thing............... it didn't even happen. It was weird, disjointed, the feelings were all off, it happened nothing like in the book (and I know a lot of things were edited, but of all the things to chop up, you could have at LEAST left that important scene untouched)... And yet, there were other RANDOM parts that they took straight from the book that didn't even add to the story
  • ... which made the whole thing a little forced and, again, very disjointed. It was like they were trying to shove certain things in where they just DID NOT fit. Like a square peg in a round hole.
  • At the very end, the whole prom scene... well, the whole thing was disappointing. Bella wasn't all dressed up and gorgeous like she was supposed to be, but more importantly, they just ignored a perfect opportunity for a gorgeous choreography scene. I thought he was supposed to be an accomplished dancer?
  • Many random points in the film made no sense. Like the other vampires being in town from the beginning... there was NO sense of danger or concern from the Cullens. And there was a scene at the end where Victoria was close by, and Edward did not even react. I don't believe that the vampires Stephenie Myer established would not be able to sense a vampire so close, especially Edward.
I can't believe Myer was actually excited about this film. It butchers her wonderful books completely. Doesn't even begin to do them justice. I'm not sad I went... it was fun, and I enjoyed it... but I would never see it again, never buy the movie, and never recommend it to anybody who hadn't read the books already. It was amusing, and that was all.

Wednesday, November 19

The BEST Conversations!

I just had a telephone conversation with the cutest little girl on the whole entire planet. Can I tell you how smart she is? This little 2 1/2 year old sang Baa Baa Black Sheep, Twinkle Twinkle, and her ABCs. She counted to 10, she told me her favorite pizza, and that she likes ice cream. And she told me her brother goes to school. I swear, she has the cutest little voice. I said "Isabelle, do you know you're the cutest little girl in the whole world?" And she said, "YEAH!!"

Seriously. Melts my heart.

Monday, November 17

My Repressed Mother

I had the funniest dream last that I just remembered. Well, to be fair, I did just wake up. Anyways, to summarize, I dreamed that my family and a bunch of extended family (the extended family was made up, i didn't recognize any of them except in-dream) took a trip to the "heartland" (I'm not sure what to call it... some dumb central state like Ohio or Iowa). We were going to some show, in addition to staying for a while and visiting. There was a baby involved that I was mothering, but that is a recurring theme in my dreams. And my mother, in total motherly fashion, was fretting about "Do we have enough food for everybody? What do we have left? What about the weed? Is there enough left for everyone for the show or did we use it all already? Oh, I wouldn't even know where to get more out here..."

It made total sense, while I was asleep.

Wednesday, November 12

I've been tagged!

I feel so special. I've been tagged by my cousin, Amy.

8 TV shows I love to watch
I watch hardly any of these any more, what with the utter lack of cable, but this would be my TV wish-list...
1. The Office
2. Scrubs (is it really over? Cos if so, LAME!)
3. House
4. Heroes
5. Ugly Betty
6. Doctor Who
7. Eli Stone
8. Lost

8 Favorite restaurants
1. Jason's Deli
2. Outback
3. Carraba's (but only if Kelly is working there, because otherwise it's just too expensive)
4. Red Lobster
5. Macaroni Grill
6. Panera Bread (does that count as a restaurant? I think it should)
7. Chili's
8. Mimi's Cafe

8 Things that happened yesterday
1. I took a shower
2. I forgot my sweatshirt in the rental car
3. We spent too much money on Cinnabons at the airport (but they were soo good)
4. I finished a supposedly "challenging" sudoku puzzle from the Sky magazine
5. We watched a movie on Brit's iPod on the plane (and were amazed that the battery lasted through the whole thing)
6. We got the amazing 1st row exit row seats for the 2 hour flight from FL to Atlanta
7. I got zipped up in 2 sweatshirts while we waited outside for Bruce and Kelly to pick us up (it was COLD! And we were being very silly.)
8. I snuggled my kitty to pieces cos i MISSED HER.

8 Things I'm looking forward to
1. Christmas in November
2. Graduating in December
3. A cruise that may or may not happen with my brothers next year
4. Not caring about my body or my diet for the next couple of months
5. Getting into really great shape starting next year
6. Having a baby in... a really really long time :(
7. Getting a job in the hospital
8. Buying a house. Several years away, granted, but still, I look forward to it.

8 Things on my wish list
1. A house!
2. To not have to work on thanksgiving
3. A wireless printer
4. A crockpot with a timer on it so i can pretend like i'm domestical
5. A good desk chair
6. A puppy
7. My dream job in Labor & Delivery or Mother/Baby or NICU. Or all three.
8. More friends

8 People I'm tagging
1. Emilia
2. Heather
3. Kari
4. Natalie
5. Alia
6. Cassie
7. Bekah
8. Brittany

I am still planning an update about my vacation brother's wedding. I need to go to work and get my paycheck and schedule, though. It would be awfully nice to know if I was working tonight...

Wednesday, October 29

The Good Life

I had to wake up at 7:30 this morning. Far too early for anyone to wake up, ever, but that's a different story.

When I did wake up, 5 minutes before my alarm went off, it was to a kitty sleeping on my bum and a husband snuggled up close slowly rubbing my back.

I'm pretty sure life doesn't get any better than that.

Except for the fact that it was 7:25 AM. Ick.

Saturday, October 18

Secrets that aren't secrets

I worked a 16 hour shift yesterday. I got home at 6:30 AM. I slept (off and on, there's only so much you can do with an east-facing window) until about 1 PM.

I should be sleeping. Or if not sleeping, working on homework, since I have 2 papers due tuesday and a midterm and a research paper i have to catch up on eventually and 100 more NCLEX practice questions I'm supposed to do by tuesday as well....

Instead, I'm reading new comments on Kristina's blog, and.... another blog. And waiting for my internet tv show to load. And I think I may or may not go download mods for the new WoW patch.

Yeah. I'm pretty much screwedawesome.

Friday, October 17

Being Political

I have been far too political this election season. I think it's partly overcompensation for 22 years of not caring, and 4 years of not voting. But whatever it is, I've been conversing with politically minded friends, having lively "conversations," and watching debates and sometimes news about the candidates and their platforms.

Today, I saw these links from one of those political friends. It is FABULOUS. Never once is "95% of Americans" mentioned, or heroism as a POW. It's just funny. Both candidates spend 15 minutes poking fun at themselves and each other. A real breath of fresh air at this time. Watch it, and giggle:

McCain, Part 1:


McCain, Part 2:


Obama, Part 1:


Obama, Part 2:

The "Squee" Factor

Or, Little Things in Life That Make Me Disproportionately Giddy

("Squee" being the sound you make when you're excited. Obviously.)

  • Clocking out of a shift and knowing that I don't have to be back for several days
  • Clocking out of a noc shift and knowing I have nothing to do all day but go home and sleep my butt off
  • Hearing my favorite song on the radio
  • Peeing after REALLY having to go and having to hold it for a REALLY long time (seriously, it's euphoric)
  • Arranging my uber-fluffy down comforter and millions of pillows to get into bed
  • Diet Squirt. Or any soda in a big tall fountain cup with lots of ice. Except diet coke. I'm so done with diet coke.
  • Clocking out before the CNAs. (That NEVER happens. Except it did this morning. That was the fastest report in the history of ever, and it made me happy deep inside.)

Monday, October 6

Post Script

Because I love good writing, and perpetuating ideas I wholeheartedly agree with...

Sunstone article, "When Virgins Collide"

the fun stuff

I am shocked and appalled at myself. Not updating for almost a month? For shame. And it was a fun two weeks, too! I could have sworn I'd already shared my Colorado trip, but I guess I've been putting it off because I have no pictures. So this feels like a lame update. But still, it's better than whining about my school drama (don't worry, I'll do that later), so I'll just keep it short.

Last weekend I was planning a trip. Because I wanted to. I had the days off work... Brit has consistent 3-day weekends... I only have class on Tuesday... why the heck not? Originally we were going to go to California, but about the middle of the week I started really not liking that idea. So we went the other way instead.

Late thursday night we showed up at my in-laws house in Colorado. My brother- and sis-in-law knew we were coming, but the parents had no idea. Cynthia had already gone to bed, so we said hi to Gary and retired. Friday morning we appear in our pajamas as Cynthia is getting the kids' breakfast, all "Hi what's for breakfast?", and she predictably flipped out. I do wish I had a camera for that expression. There was hugging and crying and "What are you doing here?!" It made me very warm and fuzzy inside. I love surprises!

We spent the weekend just hanging out a lot. We went to the zoo on Friday with Cynthia, Cassie, and the kids. The zoo is always much more fun with little ones. Saturday we bought fabric for making scrubs (for me), and went to Women's Conference. Sunday we went to church and ... didn't do much else, actually. It was a very relaxed weekend.

I LOVED seeing everyone. I love my in-laws so much. I'm glad I can at least have SOME family close enough to go visit on a moment's notice. We'll have to do that again sometime. But maybe we'll tell them next time.... Or maybe we'll show up on Emilia's doorstep, instead....

Wednesday, September 17

The best secret ever!

I have discovered the secret to losing weight. And it is (drumroll please)....... NOT going to the gym!

I've noticed a distinct pattern in my weight loss efforts. And that is, when I'm super good about working out, I lose VERY slowly. As in, maybe .5 lb / week. Then when I've been super lazy about going to the gym, like these past couple of weeks, I suddenly drop 1-3 lbs without even trying.

I know in my head it's muscle weight and all that crap, and I should remember that I will eventually look fabulous despite the numbers on the scale, but numbers on the scale are something you can SEE. I don't see myself looking fabulous at all. I see myself hardly able to walk I'm so sore, not having any time because the gym takes my whole morning, and NOT LOSING WEIGHT.

I probably should stop whining about it and just go to the gym. /sigh

Monday, September 15

A Room for Improvement

I guess it's no secret-- anybody who knows me at all should know I'm jonesing for a baby. Pretty much have been since I got married. But Brit is keeping me in check. Lately, we've had an ongoing--er, "discussion" about whether that should happen sooner or later.

I'm pretty sure I'm losing.

But in the meantime, Brit makes a very good point (I hate to admit) when he says he doesn't think I'm ready to be a mom. There are a lot of things I need to work on, so I'm going to start right now while I wait for him to come around. I could have a lot of time to work on these things......
  • First, and most important I think, is my spirituality. Or at least, spiritual habits. As in, I don't have many good ones. I need to start making those habits NOW before I'm responsible for the teaching of a whole little person. Those things don't magically appear when the kid's a toddler and it's time to start enforcing nursery lessons.
  • Brit's biggest gripe, and it is a problem, is my temper. I have one. I tend to get out-of-control angry and moody at little things. A lot of this I pin to the hormones in birth control, but I don't think that will get any better when I'm pregnant. Or going on 3 months straight of broken sleep. So I need to learn to control it now so it will be easier later, when Brit won't be nearly as calm and forgiving either.
  • I noticed yesterday, as I went from playing World of Warcraft to reading to taking a nap, that I waste a lot of time in the day. Housework and productive things mostly go undone because I'm "tired and stressed" from work and school. And then I realized that when I have a baby, and am probably still working full time, it's only going to be a million times worse. So I'm trying to fill most of my hours between work and school with doing productive things, like keeping the apartment clean and actually making dinners, and limit my "down" time. I'm hoping this will train some of the inherent laziness out of me. And we're off to a good start, blogging about it first thing in the morning. :)
These are probably good habits to get into regardless, and it will keep my mind occupied with goals until it's time. And that makes the waiting seem not nearly so bad.

Tuesday, September 9

Just Some Things

Coming to you today from Jen's brand new computer! Isn't it spiffy? That's the stock picture at the top. And yes, it is sunshine yellow. It makes me happy. I finally decided it was time to retire my 5 year old laptop. It's still functional for web browsing and writing documents, and I'll probably sell it to my sister-in-law so she can use it until it dies, but it's nice to have a somewhat up-to-date machine in my hands again. I can actually play games! Not that I ever take time away from studying to play games...

School is still going well. It's hard getting back into it, remembering that I have assignments to do. My days are mostly filled with work and school and clinicals; today is one of my few days off. I started my clinicals yesterday-- it was boring. Nothing to report. Work is down to 3 days/week, and I've started bunching them all together so I work 6 days in a row and have 8 off. I've put in a request for time off at the end of the month... nothing that should interfere with my regular days off, I just thought it would be fun to have a long weekend and take a trip. I don't take enough trips. Brit disagrees, but I like them. It would be nice if I knew my schedule, though. Our supervisor has been getting it out..... well, maybe an hour in advance lately, it's been causing problems. I'll go in and talk to her today.

Well that was a lot of randomness that probably wasn't very interesting. Enjoy another picture of my awesome new computer:

Friday, August 29

Skool!

It's been a long time since I've had to forcibly drag myself out of bed before I was good and ready to get up. I'm not sure I'm a fan.

School has begun again for me. My first day was Wednesday, and that was nothing exciting. Just the standard class orientation, going over the syllabus and calendar, meeting our clinical instructors. The nicest thing about it was having the afternoon off. The saddest thing about it was realizing that I have terrible, terrible people skills, I don't know hardly anyone in my class after 4 semesters, and when we go into groups I'm always the one left trying to wriggle into a group of close-knit friends that I don't know.

Thursday we had "orientation" at Utah State Hospital... it was interesting. I convinced myself that it started an hour later than we were clearly told, so I showed up an hour late to my extreme embarrassment. Luckily the instructor was very nice about it.

Right at the end of this orientation, we had the creepiest, most mentally disturbing little project I have ever experienced in my life. We simulated the schizophrenic "voice hearing experience" through CD players and headphones. Before we started, I was very cockily thinking "Ha. It's a voice on a tape player. How bad could this possibly be?" Well, it was bad. Something about having it so loud in your head.... saying those awful things... while you're trying to pay attention to what people are trying to do... Ugh. It was awful. Demonic. Click here for a small sample of what it sounded like (Rated PG-13 for language and creep-factor). I can't even describe what it really felt like... even listening at first, I wasn't really bothered, but afterward, as time went on, it bothered me more and more. I came home and sobbed for 10 minutes trying to get it all out so I could go to work without feeling emotionally frayed. It worked. Sortof.

I'll have Community Nursing clinicals at Baby Your Baby until October, then my Preceptor clinicals at American Fork Labor & Delivery until December. Very exciting. I'm happy I got BYB for the Community Nursing clinical, because it's rather special to me. I'm hoping I can really talk to some of these young struggling moms on a personal basis and really help them.

This morning we had another orientation at the Utah County Health Dept... and for the most part, it was the driest and most boring thing I've ever attended. Most of the speakers spoke in quiet, monotone voices, the slides were in muted colors, we got handouts of fabulous statistics... ugh. I'm so glad that's over. I'm probably spoiled by IHC orientations, where they almost always feed us. They didn't even have vending machines at this place.

Work today, and then I go down to 3 days/week. I'm excited to have more time to myself, which is what I tell myself even though i know most of it will be taken up by school. Oh well. It's gonna be a good semester!

Monday, August 18

The Kardashians?

For a while now, I've been hearing about the "Kardashian Sisters" in the popular media. And for the longest time, I thought people were referring to the fictional characters referred to in Star Trek: Voyager (and probably other Star Treks as well, but that's the only series I've watched).

The Kardashian Sisters are from some sort of reality TV series. I don't know what warrants them a TV series, but that is NOT Star Trek.

I'm off to work, but I leave you with this video to warm the cockles of your heart:


Friday, August 15

Vacation Update, Part 3: Family Reunion

Well, I haven't done anything all day today. May as well continue the tradition.

The day after we got home from Lake Powell was our family reunion. Technically it was Thursday, too, but we were busy getting home from Lake Powell. Friday morning we went to Seven Peaks Water Park, and me and brit were 10 kinds of lame about the water slides. We went in the Lazy River with my nephews for a bit (which was really a lot of fun)... went on the halfpipe ride (which was really pretty scary)... and went on the "toilet bowl" ride next to it (which was really pretty lame). And we were done. By noonish the concrete BURNED my feet, and I hated walking anywhere. We just hung out with the family under the pavilion and ate their food. And played with my nephews. Especially Charlie, who got STINKING CUTE since the last time I saw him in NJ. My dad convinced me to go on one more ride in a double-tube with him, but that was it for us. It was still fun.

We left by about 4, and went home to take naps and shower (my first shower in a week! BLISS!) before dinner with the whole family again. We went to Canyon Glen park, had hamburgers and hot dogs and chicken, took lots of family pictures, and watched a slideshow. It was fun. Although I think the highlight of my evening was stopping by Costco on the way to the park and watching Emilia buy 12 giant boxes of Ghiradelli Chocolate Brownies.

Some fun pictures from the weekend (sadly, I didn't start taking pictures until after Seven Peaks):
Brit, with my really cute niece, who has a pretty freaked out expression on her face....



Brit and Uncle Val, doing their Guy Thing with computers


The picture of us with my grandparents I didn't get at my wedding. Which I'm pretty mad about.


Benjamin, getting acquainted with Khianna


The effect of the weekend....

Thursday, August 14

Whine Fest 08: Why My Job Sucks!

... but only for one day.

Last Friday was well and truly a day to remember. And that's being pretty nice. I started out the day by getting report, as always, to discover that a patient had a fall that morning and had to be on neuro checks every 2 hours. So I had to keep my eye on her. As we were winding down report (and this is my favorite part) the nurse goes "Hmm... and there was something else.... Oh yeah! You have a new admit today." ARRGH! New admits are my ABSOLUTE LEAST favorite thing in that job, when I'm the one who has to admit them. It means a crapton of paperwork, assessments, sorting through the piles of things and meds and papers people give you, doing every little thing by hand, and that's all on top of the everyday work you still have to do. Not 10 minutes later another patient comes walking down the hall, looking like she's about to fall over. And oh no, this isn't someone you can just gently lead to bed and have her rest until she's stronger and won't be in danger of a fall. She has very little idea of what's going on around her, and will by golly walk herself right into her grave if she could. And if you try to get her to lay down, she's getting up 10 seconds later going "Where's my shoes? Get me my shoes!" And with much more colorful language, besides.

So while I'm keeping an eye on Fall Risks #1 and #2, sorting through my paperwork and trying to get things ready for my new patient, a CNA comes up to me and says "Umm... I know you're busy... but I just took I.C.'s blood pressure and it was 90/60." And yes, he double checked. So I had that to worry about and hand-check myself and look up what his history is and decide if it's a risk, on top of a new patient, a patient that looks like she's gonna fall over and won't sit down, and a patient who's fallen (I think this was her second time, actually) and needs to be personally checked on and vital signs taken every 2 hours. AND THEN, very soon after I receive the news about the blood pressure situation, a patient's family calls and wants to talk to me.

And I proceed to be yelled at for about 10 minutes because their family member was at the doctor when someone came to visit, and nobody knew she'd gone to the doctor (because we don't make a habit of notifying family about routine appointments), and why did she even need to go to the doctor anyway was something wrong? Well, of course I didn't know, because I hadn't made the appointment and nobody had even deigned to tell me this person was gone. So I did some sleuthing, looked it up in the appointment book, and figured out that she had an appointment to "get new eyeglasses." I told the woman this, and proceeded to get yelled at for another ten minutes (all the while not being able to attend any of my other mountains of work for the day) about how she didn't need new glasses, she has three pairs, why would they make her an appointment to get new glasses, she's an old lady who has no idea what's going on, what must this experience have been like for her, etc etc etc etc.

It was about that point that I just lost it. I hate crying at work, where I can't escape the eyes of patients, family, and coworkers. It makes me feel ridiculous and weak. But I could not handle that day.

It's days like that which make me really question whether I'm cut out to be a nurse. Nurses need thicker skin than what I have.... they deal with this kind of stuff all the time. And the area I want to go into is naturally stressful and riddled with obtrusive family. On top of individual days like this, I'm starting to feel like no matter how fast I go or how hard I try, I can never quite catch up with everything I want to do in the day. There's just so much! And with the amazing morning nurse who did EVERYTHING and ALL the paperwork and whatever she could possibly do to take the load off my afternoon now gone, I feel like it's just piling up. I can no longer afford hour-plus breaks... I should probably stop taking breaks altogether if I want to get my charting done before 10. I still get most things done, and I feel accomplished, but it leaves me wondering what I'm doing wrong that I'm still running my tail off all day.

Oh well, enough whining. I still love my job, even when it's busy, as long as those days like Friday are few and far between. Even though I secretly hope I get more days like that while I work here so I can develop the tough skin I'm gonna need as a nurse. But don't tell anyone I said that.

Monday, August 11

Vacation Update: Part 2, or Lake Powell!









On the road!

Saturday night we caught up with the rest of the Christensen Caravan on the highway and headed down to Lake Powell. We stopped in... somewhere... at 10 or 11 at night to sleep in a little motel for the night. Our room-- us and Jordan and Cassie-- did not sleep AT ALL. Well, the babies slept, like babies in fact, but come morning the adults consulted and realized that, independently, every one of us was awake 3-4 times/hour checking the clock and simply NOT SLEEPING. We should have gotten up and played cards.

Sunday morning found us down at the lake, loading the houseboat and shipping off. We camped only a little ways out from the marina (is that what it's called?), in sight of all the houseboats tied up to their buoys. It was a good place to camp, even though the water was a bit choppy most of the time. The majority vote was in favor of being so close to "civilization," so a trip to get ice or water (or ice cream!) took only about 15 minutes round trip. And considering how the experience is rapidly changing with all the babies around, I think most trips in the future will be similar.

Powell was tons of fun, as always. We took a day trip to Rainbow Bridge, which made the babies pretty unhappy, but it was fun. I advanced my skills in boat driving. I tried too quickly to advance my skills in wakeboarding and had a few pretty bad falls, which resulted in me being terrified of the wakeboard for most of the week. I was barely starting to get over it as the week ended. We did tubing, which also scared the crud out of me. I don't remember it being that hard to hang on last year! I was flying all over the place! But the second time we went (after letting Heather and her sister go for a while) I had a lot more fun.

The rest of the week consisted of the standard day-to-day Lake Powell activities. Brit almost lost his wedding ring once-- I grabbed his hand and it slipped off and fell to the bottom of the lake. But we found it! Or he found it. I tried to exercise every morning by swimming out around the campsite before breakfast.......... that actually happened twice. The rest of the time, we lounged about and read our books and jumped in the water when it got too hot. A successful week, I'd say. I'm just sad it had to be cut short AGAIN.



Colby, a regular sailor















The true spirit of Lake Powell









Me, on the wakeboard, probably looking terrified. I can't tell.














Rainbow Bridge.... also the background of the picture of Me and Brit currently on the left-hand side of the page.









After I started getting used to the tubes.... and before I started trying to kick my husband off of his.













Me, looking all captainy, driving my father-in-law's boat.
















Brit, looking all sexy and in charge of Little Boat for our day trip.








It took me a few days to get my "land legs" back. I kept on feeling like I was on a rocking boat. We made it back home by about 11:30 Thursday night, visited with my Brother and Sister-in-law who were crashing our apartment for the family reunion, and went to bed. Family reunion update still to come. And maybe a whine-fest about my job somewhere in there.

Wednesday, August 6

Vacation Update, Part 1

I've realized I kindof fail at this whole blogging thing. I think I'm updating regularly, then I look at the archives and see I'm averaging maybe 2-3/month. Whoops. My apologies. I know you're all missing me dearly.

Three separate updates are forthcoming, both about or last week of pure vacationy goodness. I'm separating them partly to keep from overwhelming you all with one gargantuan post, and partly as an out because I'm sure I'll get distracted sometime before I finish.

Friday was my first day off work (after a very long, rather stressful no-break stretch) for my nephew's blessing. We went up to Salt Lake for the big family event. It was fun seeing so many of Brit's aunts and cousins, even if a little overwhelming. The baby bore it well, until right after the blessing when all the cameras came out and he FREAKED. Can't say as I blame him. He was stinking cute, though. Much more interactive than the last time we saw him. His new favorite thing was blowing spit bubbles, and I about died every time.

After the blessing was finally done (an event which attempted to be as succinct as possible, but failed spectacularly (the whole event, that is, not the blessing itself which was beautiful)) we all headed out to a park for dinner and visiting. I wasn't much in a visiting mood, and it was hot, but the food was good and the babies were cute, and it was a good experience.

Blythe and Paul, Brit's favorite aunt and uncle, FINALLY showed up just as everyone was leaving. We went back to Jordan's house to visit some more with them, and of course Jordan and Cassie, and Ryan and Heather, and Brit's parents and grandparents. That was a small, fun group. We really had a good time, even though I was exhausted. And it made me excited for the coming week at Lake Powell with the family. Spending time with them is non-stop entertainment.


Saturday, July 12

Amusement in Parks

I had Tuesday and Wednesday off this week, oddly enough. I was THRILLED, though, because with Brit's newfound freedom, this meant we could actually hang out with some of our favorite married friends who we never get to see anymore (he works at Walmart, she's a waitress, so weekends off are non-existant for them). We made plans to go to the zoo and then Lagoon, but only Lagoon happened cos we were running late.

I haven't been there in forever. It was a little disappointing, compared to a place like Six Flags, but we still had tons of fun. I felt bad for Brit... we left him behind a few times, because he hates roller coasters, but that was only for a few rides. We spent a good chunk of the day in the water park, and he had fun there. We goofed off, ate lots of junk food, took silly pictures, and just had a grand old time. I'll stop boring you with detailed descriptions and just get to the silly pictures. :)












I love this picture the best... It was the mural at the entrance to the TerroRide. Big scary monsters... mummy, werewolf, skeletons and.... a black guy? o.O

Saturday, July 5

Breaking Dawn

The obsession reaches new heights...

Stephenie Meyer's new book Breaking Dawn comes out August 2nd. To my immense surprise, while at Costco the other day, I found that the new "Special Edition" copies of Eclipse include a first chapter preview of the new book. So of course I proceeded to spend the next five minutes wandering around Costco with my nose buried in the back of the book, squealing and skipping like a school girl. Ben and Jessie mocked me. About halfway through the chapter, I felt bad that I was ignoring my friends who were shopping with me (or rather, I with them), so I reassured myself that the chapter would be posted online and set the book down.

Well, it wasn't. I rushed home and rushed onto Stephenie's official website, to be met with an announcement that they were waiting for the release of the book to publish the preview online. WHY?! I googled and googled, but they were efficient at upholding their copyright and taking down anyone who tried to share the goodness. So what do you do in a situation like this?

A normal person would resign themselves to wait until the book came out and read the whole thing.

I got up and drove 2 blocks to Barnes & Noble just to finish the chapter.


And it was good.

Friday, June 20

A Study in Procrastination

I realize that my last post may have been a little long for anyone to really sit through. I would apologize, but I think Brit enjoyed reading it, and that's all that matters. :P

In honor of my midterm paper that's due tonight, I decided to make the LONG-overdue post about our trip to Ohio.

We went to stay with my brother and sister-in-law over Mother's Day Weekend, and it was WELL worth the hassle. I love seeing my nephews. I cannot emphasize that enough. I adore them all. And we got to meet the new nephew on Brit's side, who is also adorable (if not totally interactive yet). We went to the gym (we being myself and Emilia, as I don't think I could get Brit to the gym if I paid him), we went swimming in the TOTALLY RAD community pool, we worked on their garden and mowed their lawn (we being mostly Brit, as I wimped out pretty quickly), we went to the Farmer's Market on the only gorgeous day all weekend, we went to the (inside) family picnic at the Hippie-Commie preschool (and I was shocked by the overwhelming majority of tofu/vegetarian/vegan/organic dishes... my goodness! hippie preschool indeed!)... we had SO MUCH FUN!

We spent the afternoon/evening after the Preschool Picnic hanging out with Brit's brother and sister-in-law and adorable new baby. It was nice to catch up. We made plans and followed through with dinner all together at my brother's house, where we had fun, listened to screaming kids, and then put them all in bed and played Cranium and ate ice-cream sandwiches late into the night.

I have very fond memories of that trip, even if my sweet little nephews turned into sleep-deprived monsterlets by the end of the week. In fact, I think that's one of my fondest memories... listening to them whine/scream on Sunday morning and thinking "Ah yes, we're going home today, and we're not parents yet." :)

I love you, Todd & Emilia, and Ryan & Heather!! I hope we can visit again soon. I'm glad I managed to drag Brit along.




Sunday, June 15

50 things

Fifty things I love and adore about my husband, the future father of my children:

1. He's cute and sexy. :)

2. He's so good with computers and everything to do with them. Brilliant. He knows more than his teacher about the java class he's taking now.

3. He loves his family, especially his mommy.

4. He's so cute with his nephews. And niece. I love to watch him play with them and think about what a good father he'll be.

5. He is so patient with me, even when I get all crazy and PMSy and freak out over nothing. I don't know how he puts up with me, but he does every day, and sometimes with a smile.

6. He is SO creative. He collects the most random junk, and with it suddenly creates a wonderful practical invention.

7. I'm convinced he can fix anything.

8. He's really good at a lot of video games. I find that sexy.

9. He's good about taking out the garbage and helping me with chores around the house (often being the only one to do them), even though he has little more time than I do.

10. And he does it without me having to ask, most of the time

11. He's so patient about our present lot in life. Yeah, it kinda sucks that we never get to see each other, and it kinda sucks that he's going to be in school non-stop for the next 2 years, yet he keeps pushing through, going to school every day then to a crappy job he hates then home to do homework. He is superman.

12. He keeps me in check when i want to run off and indulge my wild fantastical whims, like running off to California, or having a baby. He is my level-headed better half.

13. He's good at being romantic, when he wants to be. Like when I thought I'd failed my LPN and he bought me flowers and a present, or his awesome birthday evening surprise, or when he brought me breakfast in bed on mother's day.

14. He rubs my feet and my ankles when they hurt whenever I ask without complaining. What a gift.

15. When he gets in his silly moods, he gets SO SILLY. And we start wrestling and I end up laughing so hard it hurts.

16. He is SUCH a good cuddler!!!

17. He's good at talking me down out of my pity parties.

18. He takes care of me when I'm sick.

19. He forces me to smile when I'm grumpy.

20. He's a worthy temple-going priesthood holder who will be a wonderful head of the family.

21. Even though we just got married, he's had very little interaction with my family, and he has every reason to be scared of them, he went to Ohio with me and was really good at interacting with my brother and sister-in-law and just naturally integrating into my side of the family. Which is great, because family is hugely important to me.

22. He's good at reminding me to say dinner prayers.

23. He makes me want to be a better person, so I can feel like I deserve him.

24. He fully intends to be with me forever in the Celestial Kingdom.

25. He's great at taking care of Whisky and Khianna.... which I neglect more often than not.

26. He's all sorts of cute and manly in a jeep.

27. And speaking of cars, he lets me drive the nice new Sonata, and drives the cruddy old Alero without complaint.

28. He's really supportive of me in general and my life goals and makes me feel better when I
feel like I'm a bad nurse.

29. He's also supportive of me not killing myself getting to those life goals, even if it means working less while I'm in school and not making as much money.

30. When I was looking at jobs a few months back, he encouraged me to take the job that would really make me happy and pay less, even though this meant he'd have to stay longer at his awful job.

31. He's so adorably indignant of the fact that I subtly orchestrated his proposal by dropping hints about the beach being "the most romantic place on earth." He honestly thought up until a few months ago that I had NO idea the proposal was coming.

32. I say a lot about him indulging me, but he really knows when to put his foot down, which is actually very important for the longevity of our relationship. I am spoiled rotten, and really need someone who knows how to put boundaries on me. Brit knows just how to do this, and I respect him for it.

33. Even though he knew the answer was going to be yes, he was still nervous when he asked me to marry him.

34-39. ((Censored))

40. He's actively trying to be friends with my friends, so we can all hang out together.

41. He creates World of Warcraft characters and levels them to 70 just because he thought of an awesome name.

42. He gets giddy over the geekiest things.

43. He tries my cooking and gives his honest opinion, even though he's a very picky eater.

44. He gets all cute and pouty when I mock him.

45. He knows how to tease and mock me. And does it in the most loving way possible.

46. The love he has for ICW is just.... beyond words. I love how supportive he is of that decision, the way we can talk about it..... everything.

47. He gets all excited about popping my (rare) pimples. It's cute. And a little weird. But he's somehow sucked me into the excitement, too...

48. His vast collection of movies. A little lame to be on the list, yes, but still... very useful. And it ties back to that whole techno geek thing. Which also applies to anything electronic... like wiring our whole surround sound system... which technically is probably a seperate point, but I'm running out of numbers.

49. He loves me exactly the way I am, in every little way. My crazy quirks, my attitude nuances, my chubby belly. And even so, he's supports me when I want to change.

50. He has no idea that his REAL present is waiting in our checking account . . . ;)


Saturday, June 7

The long-awaited apartment tour!

With the apartment cleaned and beautified, I finally found the energy to hang up pictures in the living room and finish the whole "decorating" thing. I'm pretty stinking proud of myself with that, too. As I got ready to take pictures, though, I realized the apartment is just too big to get a real sense of it through pictures (poor us, right?), so I settled on a video tour! Welcome to the 21st century!

No sound is required for this video... I did one with me narrating the tour, decided that sounded lame, and redid it as a silent walk-through. Silent except for the sound of my breathing and the perpetual fan we have going in the bedroom. >_<

Right near the end you can see our fabulous brand-new bed... It's so BIG! And squishy! I love it to itty bitty pieces. The laptop has even moved into the bedroom because it's so much comfier to blog from the bed. Other than that, the bedroom is completely unfinished. That'll probably be the last to get done.

And lastly, some close-ups of the wall decorations that you couldn't really see in the video (and can't really see here, either, because of glare)... I'm just so prideful about this. I've never really been a decorator, but I'm happy with the results here (with some help from a friend of mine... I can't really take full credit...)

The picture in the middle is one of me and Brit in front of the temple. Then on the left is a collage of his family, and on the right, a collage of mine.


This is one of my favorites. The top frame has our marriage certificate from the temple, and the dried flower we used in our engagement photos (it doesn't look much like a flower anymore, but still... sentimental value and all that....). The bottom one has the Family Proclamation layered over top the picture you can mostly see.



In this last one, the pictures you can't see are just a few professional photos from the wedding in our "Family" frame. Then those two boxes on top are Brit's chinese shadow boxes that say "Love" and "Happiness."



The overall effect is nice, i think. It makes me smile every time I walk in my living room, anyway, and I'm pretty sure that's a good thing. My house is finally starting to feel like a home.

More blogs to come later... for now, I have to rush off to work.