Nursing Application

This is my application for the Nursing Program. I picked it up in February, but have decided not to do too much with it until I was back from Nebraska.

Now I'm back.

So today I started working on it for real.

Today, I signed up for a CPR class. I already have the American Red Cross CPR/AED for Professional Rescuers certification. But... they require the American Heart Association's Basic Life Support for Health Care Providers certification. So I have to redo it... Hopefully it'll be easier since it'll be the third CPR class I've taken in just over two years.

I also ordered a copy of my ACT scores. (If I submit verification of an ACT score over 21, then I don't have to take a college placement test... Since my score was over 21 I'm going with that route). If you aren't still in High School, it's kind of a lame deal to get your test scores. I have to pay $17 just for them to LOOK for my scores in the archives! With no guarantee that they will find them! That is in addition to the fee for them to send them! How silly!

Tomorrow, I need to send my Utah CNA license back to the licensing people... I need it corrected... Right now it says "Mary A. Herrington"... but last time I checked my middle name wasn't "Alizabeth"... I figure maybe I should make sure it matches the name on my application when I submit it.

I still have to round up some verification of paying my application fee, High School Diploma, etc. and sign up for my essay and the standardized entrance exam I have to take. But great progress is being made!

Safely Back in Utah!!

I made it safely back to Utah!!

I flew out of Omaha late Wednesday morning. That's my plane up there. The first flight was rather uneventful, BUT there was some excitement during my 3 1/2 hour layover in Denver!!

I ran into my best friend from when I attended Kindergarten/First Grade in Wyoming - Rickay Pillen!! I haven't seen her since we moved to Nebraska. It was fun to catch up with her and get to meet her new daughter Paetyn. It sure can be a small world.

After getting to Salt Lake, we found out that my bags had taken a different flight from Denver than I had and that they'd been temporarily misplaced. We hung around the airport and eventually they located them - on a delivery van in Park City! We did get them that night AND the airline gave us a $50 travel voucher for our troubles!

Jake treated me to dinner at the new Sizzler's in Orem on our way home (I told him I didn't want to cook!). It was great!

Now I'm safely back at home and VERY excited to be back with Jake.

Norabel's Wedding

I flew out to Nebraska last Thursday. One of my best friends from growing up - Norabel Martinez - who was the Maid of Honor for my wedding (see below) got married on Saturday!!

My camera hasn't been quite the same after it took its trip down the Provo River last summer... so despite having JUST replaced its batteries, it decided to die on me. Consequently, these were the best and only pictures I wound up with.

As I side note, I feel like I was cheated out of this shot at my own wedding. Everyone I know who has been married at the Winter Quarters Temple has been able to take the staged "coming out of the temple doors" picture. But the day we tried to do it, one of the temple ladies got all mad and kept saying that we weren't allowed to take the picture and that no one was ever allowed to take that picture.... despite the fact that *evidently* I still haven't let go of that, I am glad that Norabel got the picture.

After attending the sealing in the morning, we got to go to the reception that evening. It was great, good food, good music, the whole deal. (I was particularly impressed by the DJ's decision to play Single Ladies during the bouquet throw! Win.)

They also had the neatest mementos on the tables at the reception! Bookmarks with the basic theme of "Love Grows", and a part of the design was a detachable segment with seeds in the paper. So you're supposed to rip it up, plant/water it, and then you get a lovely plant that will grow like their love!! Awesome. Perhaps I shouldn't admit this on the internet, but I raided some of the empty tables as we left and took home a couple extra. I thought it was the best wedding idea yet!

Here's the picture of the two of us from her reception. In my defense, I was diagnosed with strep the day before and spent the rest of the night after the reception sick in the bathroom. So I'm not looking my best, but she is beautiful!!

Olympics

Okay... So its been forever since we posted... But.... Oh well. Life gets crazy.

Jake and I have had fun watching the Olympics. And my favorite at the Winter Games is always the ice skating. So I made a fun little video tonight!

Hospice Volunteering

Remember last month, how I wrote about finishing my training as a Hospice Volunteer? Well, I've finally been assigned to a patient! And I got to meet her today!

She's not *actually* a patient. Her husband was the patient, and recently passed away. But they also offer bereavement services for I think up to a year or so. So my visiting her is part of her bereavement services.

But anyways, her name is Bluette. She's from Switzerland and is spunky as all get out! And her favorite color is... you guessed it!... Blue! :-)

I'm excited to get to know her and spend time with her! I hope we have a lot to offer each other!

Omaha Steaks

YUM!!

Last week, we got a BIG styrofoam cooler full of Omaha Steaks goodness! Steaks, and burgers, and steaks, and potatoes, and all sorts of yummy things! They filled up almost half of our freezer!

Tonight, we grilled up some of the burgers for dinner. And OH MAN were they good! A great dinner after a day full of classes and frustrations with financial aid, etc. :-)

Batman vs. The Giant Robot Monster

Last night, Jake and I got to go babysit Mike and Karen's two kids so they could go out on a date. We had a lot of fun.

We brought our Wii with us. So the evening started out playing a few games with Ethan. He really like the boxing games.

Halfway through a game of blocks, the Giant Robot Monster attacked and entered into epic battle with Batman!

I told Ethan to make his best "Giant Robot Face"... this is what I got!!

What a handsome superhero I married!!

And Emma was a cute adorable baby, as usual.

Trip to Salt Lake

Jake and I took a trip up to Salt Lake this evening! It had two parts.

PART #1

So.... I've been working on getting my Phlebotomy Certification for... about a year now. I enrolled in the six week course last January. I finished that at the end of February. I also had to complete a 40 hour externship. The only place around the valley that I could find that accepted externs was the BYU Health Center. Because of this, they were booked solid until September. So, in September through the middle of October, I worked at the health center and had a blast! So I've been DONE with all of my requirements for about 3 months now. We've just been dealing with a ton of drama trying to get my certificate from the Phlebotomy School. They have been trying to feed me some line about how the envelope they use to send them sometimes doesn't get delivered by the Postal Service. Whatever the reasons were that I wasn't receiving it, I got tired of them. And we finally told them that we would just drive up to Salt Lake and pick it up ourselves! And we finally got it!!

So I am now an official Phlebotomist!!

PART #2

Since the phlebotomy office is only open in the evenings, we obviously had to make an evening trip. Which meant that we were gone during dinner. I happened to find out that there was a Crown Burger restaurant only about 5-6 blocks from the office! And I LOVE Crown Burger! All the yummy pastrami goodness on a burger!

These burgers are so huge and yummy and filling!!

We also tried sweet potato fries for the first time! They were good. But every time I had one, my mouth had this strange transition to go from pastrami burger to sweet potatoes. haha. So... I would definitely eat them again... but maybe in a different meal combination!

Bringin' Home the Bacon

As I have previously discussed on this blog, I work as a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) at a rehabilitation center in Orem (the next town over from Provo, for those of you unfamiliar with Utah Valley geography). It's a small facility, with a maximum capacity of 16 patients. We took a big drop in patients during the holidays, and for a long time were down to only 4 patients. So a lot of the CNAs took some big cuts in their hours. Up until we got back from our vacation, I hadn't worked since Thanksgiving. But... we got back the 30th and since then I have been working like crazy!! It's good, because right now this is our only source of income and we could use the money.

Here is my schedule for the last little bit:

Thursday, Dec 31: 7 AM - 7 PM (12 hours)

Friday, Jan 1: 7 AM - 7 PM (12 hours)

Saturday, Jan 2: 6 AM - 6 PM (12 hours)

Sunday, Jan 3: 4 PM - 12 AM (8 hours)

Monday, Jan 4: 7 AM - 7 PM (12 hours)

BUSY BUSY BUSY!!

Note especially that between Sunday night and Monday morning, there is only a 7 hour break! I stay till midnight and come back by 7 AM!

So far, I've survived. It's been tiring. But we could use the income and I really do love my job. Besides, after Monday I get the whole week off! And since I don't start classes until the 12th, I have a whole week to get things done around the apartment, play on the Wii Fit Plus that we got for Christmas that I haven't been able to explore yet, etc, etc, etc.

Only two days left!

Happy New Year!

We got back from Nebraska the evening of December 30th. So we were able to celebrate our first New Year's Eve as a married couple together in our apartment!

We still hadn't been grocery shopping. So rather than cooking, we ordered pizza. Which I was excited about. I LOVE pizza!! Possibly my most favorite food EVER!

We had picked up some sparkling cider before we left after finals. So the "bubbly" was on hand and chilled! I picked up the hats and glasses at Walgreens on my way from work. I worked a twelve hour day shift, which is why I look so tired/out of it.

The stems of the glasses lit up and changed colors. It did fun things with the bubbles, but its hard to capture that in a picture...

We watched a show on Discovery while we ate and then played a new Wii game for a while.

I had to be back at work by 7 AM on the first for another twelve hour shift. So we did our countdown and New Year's kiss at 10 PM instead of midnight. But it was a lot of fun and worked out just about right for us!

We are excited about this upcoming year and all it will bring for us!

Our (Short) Visit to Nebraska

We got to Nebraska about a day later than we originally planned (Thanks to the snowstorm). We arrived early the afternoon of the 26th. After some rest time, we had another Christmas present opening session with my family. Sunday evening, we headed out to the cabin my family had rented in Mahoney State Park by the Platte River.

I think this is such a funny picture! Jake took it from the backseat of the van as we drove to Mahoney. Laura and I just look so much alike!

The fireplace in our cabin. Kept us nice and toasty warm! I even got to light the fire one night.

This is the living room/dining room area in the cabin. It was a lot of fun. And mom made prime rib on Tuesday in honor of our last night there and an early celebration of her birthday (which was on Wednesday).

This is the view from the balcony of the cabin!

One night while we were there, Laura and I went ice skating.

It was a fun visit. And although it felt way too short (especially since we lost a day having to rearrange our travel plans for the weather), I'm really glad we got to go!

Christmas in Minnesota

After a sledding trip on Christmas Eve, we spent the ACTUAL Christmas Day (Dec. 25) in Minnesota with Jake's family. Because of the blizzard that hit the midwest the night before, we were unable to fly down to Nebraska until the 26th.

With over 20 people there for Christmas morning, there were WAY too many presents to all fit UNDER the tree... so we settled for them being near the tree.

Waiting for everyone to arrive. (Jake and I wore our footie pajamas)

Butch and Patty got a recordable storybook for each family with kids. As the kids open each page, they hear their grandparent's voices reading them the story. Here, Nathan and Daniel (two of Dave and Jocelyn's sons) are trying it out.

I held Emma (Mike and Karen's daughter) for most of the morning. She was such a good cheery baby through the 2 1/2 hours of present opening!

This is my favorite picture of the morning! Jake and I in our footie pajamas holding two babies in their footie pajamas. I'm holding Mike and Karen's daughter, Emma. Jake is holding Dave and Jocelyn's newest son, Asher.

Christmas Eve in Minnesota!

Well, we are partway through our travels for the Christmas break! After finishing finals last Friday night, we left our apartment at 8:30 on Saturday morning for the airport! We got off to a rocky start - I left my cell phone on the shuttle to the airport, and Jake tripped getting off the shuttle (while trying not to trip over the small children from the family we shared the shuttle with). But we made it there! We got through security about 3 hours before our fligh left, so we had some breakfast, watched a TV and played a game together on the laptop. We had a layover in Denver, but it was a short one. We basically just played on the computer again. But this time we had some internet access, so we spent a lot of it checking grades (I got a B- in Anatomy!). We arrived safely in Minnesota around dinner time.

Since then, we've been having alot of fun doing things with Jake's family (all five of his siblings and their families are in town for the holidays this year). We had a "party" on Sunday for Mike's birthday. Jake and I got him some of his favorite soda and candy bar, but wrapped them and put them inside a box... which we wrapped and put inside ANOTHER box, etc etc. The kids loved it! They thought it was the funniest thing ever!! Yesterday was spent finishing up some last minute Christmas shopping.

We've had a big snowstorm come through. It started yesterday evening and last I heard we'd gotten about 5-6 inches of snow. It's gorgeous and really helps to set the holiday mood, but we're hoping that it stops by tomorrow, as Jake and I are supposed to fly down to Nebraska around 1 PM.

Here's hoping the airport doesn't close!!

Trip #1 to the Airport, and End of Finals

Thursday evening, we drove up to the Salt Lake Airport to meet Jake's cousin as he flew in from Jerusalem. Josh has spent the semester at BYU's Jerusalem Center, so he has spent the last three and a half months on the other side of the world! We decided that his return merited the car ride! So Jake, Carsey, and I all piled into Sasha to start the journey around 9:15 PM (Josh's flight arrived around 10:30 PM). Bear in mind that it is the middle of December... and Sasha's defroster doesn't work... or at least not unless we drive over a big bump. So the car fogs up effortlessly, requiring that we drive with the window rolled down. This gave Carsey and I NUMEROUS opportunities to snuggle in the backseat while Jake drove!

While we waited in the airport for Josh's flight to arrive, we were vending machine browsing! We found one that served warm meal things! Pizza, buffalo wings, grilled cheese sandwiches, etc. Now... you must understand that I LOVE pizza! And I had just finished a Microbiology final before we left, so I hadn't eaten dinner yet. We weren't expecting Josh to arrive for another 40 minutes, so Jake allowed me to buy a pizza from the amazing machine!

I was so excited to take it out!!

It was the most ADORABLE pizza EVER!!!

I finished my pizza right as we found out that Josh and his parents were at the baggage carousels. We met up with them and then drove to Saratoga Springs and hung out at Jake and Josh's grandparents house. There, we were fed even MORE pizza and stayed until around 2:30 AM chatting and catching up.

After sleeping in today (for me at least, Jake got up to help his home teaching companion and his wife move. But he brought me donuts. So it was good), today was the last day of finals!

Jake and I are both officially done with the semester! We are still waiting on our official final grades. I have a few classes that - as far as I can calculate - are right on the border between letter grades. So crossing my fingers and praying for the higher one! There may be some emails to professors to see if persuasions can be made.

Anyways... We are leaving tomorrow morning at 8:30 for the airport and should arrive in Minnesota by around 6:30 PM! Hooray for Christmas break!!

The Start of Finals Week!!

Finals week has begun! It is a time of such contradictions... Caring so much and yet so little... So much stress and also so much relaxation... Late nights, early nights, early mornings, and early nights... Procrastination and Responsibility... No wonder so many people get sick after they finish this week!

Jake and I have such different schedules for our finals this semester!

Jake has four finals to take this week. One of them is available all week through the testing center, and three of them are at specific scheduled times. Unfortunately those scheduled times are all between the hours of 7 AM and 7 PM on Tuesday! So that will DEFINITELY be a stressful day for him. But, he is likely to be done with his finals by Tuesday or Wednesday depending on when he takes his Physics Exam.

At the beginning of finals week, I had already taken 2. (Both my anatomy and microbiology lab classes have already administered their finals). That left me with four finals to take during the official finals week. My Chemistry exam was at 11 AM this morning. So I'm already halfway done! Three down and three to go! My Anatomy and Human Development finals are available all week. And my Microbiology exam is scheduled for Thursday evening. So I plan on spreading my exams out throughout the whole week and dealing with just one at a time.

So... for this finals week... Jake is the sprinter and I'm the marathoner. :-)

The report so far on my Finals?

Anatomy Lab: I did 20% better than on my midterm. AWESOME improvement!

Microbiology Lab: I got a B on the final, which gave me an overall grade of an A for the class!

Chemistry: Was a lot easier than I expected based on her study guide. Waiting on the grade.

Good luck to everyone else who is studying and taking exams these next few weeks! And to those of you who are all grown up and don't have to do this anymore... Congratulations!

Reading Day!!

Between the last day of class and finals, BYU gives us what they call "Reading Days". Instead of having a whole dead week - like most universities - we get a Friday off. (They also call Saturday a Reading Day... but I refuse to acknowledge that one. Because in my opinion, Saturday was always my day, and not the university's to give to me).

So anyways... this is how we are spending our reading day. :-) First, we slept in. Right now, we just finished eating green french toast and sausage... while wearing footie pajamas!

Jake enjoyed a break with the Wii while I cooked breakfast!

Here's our green french toast! I was originally going to make it blue for Jake... But blue food coloring + yellow eggs = green. So I just went with it!

Cooking cooking cooking!!

And the grand finale..... *drumroll*..... the last of our sausage links! We each got 3 1/2.

Yesterday was our last day of classes. And was also a good day! It was the one year anniversary of Jake's proposal. And we had lots of good things happen! Jake got a good grade on his last Organic Chemistry Exam and I found out that I'd gotten an A for my final grade in my Microbiology Lab!

Our Christmas Kickoff FHE

This week our FHE is in preparation for Christmas!! We are finally getting around to sending out the Christmas letters.... unfortunately I accidentally deleted it... So we had to wait a little bit until I rewrote it. But we have almost all of them printed, enveloped, and ready to go! Most of them will mail out tomorrow. So look for yours in the mail! (Or, facebook me your address if you want one and I don't have your address.)

While I was getting the next batch of envelopes ready, Jake made me dinner! Because he's an amazing husband. We had hamburger... err... Turkey Helper. And he dressed it up with some green onions, red peppers, and yummy toppings.

Now, while we are eating we are watching one of my most favorite Christmas movies of all time- The Year Without a Santa Claus. Jake has never seen it and I am all kinds of excited to share it with him!

Snow!!

We finally got some snow! Just as I was wishing!! This is what we woke up to today!

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas...

Christmas is coming! We only have 5 more days of class left! Then finals. I've already put up our Christmas decorations. We put Christmas chocolates in our candy jar. I'm listening to Christmas carols every chance I get. It's even cold enough that I wear scarves and gloves... But it doesn't seem like Christmas still. BECAUSE THERE'S NO SNOW!! I realize that Utah Christmases are not as snowy as those in Nebraska and Minnesota... but I'm ready for at least a little snow!

Hospice Training

I completed my training today to become a Hospice Volunteer! I'll just be doing some little group stuff this month until my background check is completed - delivering Christmas goodies and caroling and such. Then, when we get back from Christmas break, I'll be assigned to specific patients that I'll visit on a regular basis.

I'm kind of nervous and scared about starting my visits. But... also excited. I'm sure it'll be a great experience and that I'm going to learn a lot from it.