It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas (Break)

Today was a good day. I did only 150 practice questions for our HESI today and got a 96.4%!! WHOA! This left a good taste in my mouth as the next HESI I take will be the real one that I have to pass in order to graduate from TWU's nursing program. Boy, I hope that goes well.

Yesterday was a good day, too. I did well enough on my Pediatrics HESI that I do not have to try on nor study for the final exam. This frees up a lot of study time for the other two final exams on which I will both have to study prior to and try during.

I leave for a cruise to celebrate the marriage of Seth's cousin in 11 days. I am excited because we are departing from Florida and I have never been to Florida or been on a cruise. Seth and I will also be taking our first flight together on the way back from Florida! Lots of firsts in the next couple of weeks. :)

AND we got our Save-The-Dates today! I was a little surprised to see that they are the consistency of photo paper, but I can't be upset as they were pretty much the price of photo paper. :) We are VERY happy with them!

The end of this semester is in sight. And then I will only have one semester remaining in my undergraduate career. This is both frightening and wonderful at the same time. :)

P.S., We finally got decaffeinated coffee, which is wonderful because I can satisfy my desire for coffee without the addiction/jitter. :) Great things are happening, people.

So close....

So it has been a while since I blogged last. The semester has gotten pretty rough since the last time I wrote. I have 5 tests & no classes left until the end of the semester. And I'm pretty sure that I am done with 6 hour lecture days (until Grad school, that is). There is so little time until the semester is over and I remember knowing that this semester would both fly and last forever. Here are some random facts from my thoughts at this moment:

1) 11 days, 20 hours, and 10 minutes until I complete the last of my finals.

2) I have to try harder on these finals than every before to fight for As.

3) I realized that I am very blessed to be fighting for As instead of struggling to pass. I still want the As just as bad.

4) I turned in my capstone (the Honors project we have to complete to graduate from the TWU Honors program. It was that 25 page monster I have mentioned many times before).

5) I get to see Seth in 17 days and 2 hours. At this time, we will be meeting his family for a cruise where we will celebrate the marriage of his cousin Amber.

6) We ordered our Save-The-Dates the other day and I realized just how sad I am that I cannot invite everyone that I want to.

Advice of the day: Don't book your locations until you really think about who you want to invite.

7) This semester has come very near sucking most enjoyment out of my life and I feel like I have gotten more and more bummed out by the second.

8) Next semester will be my last semester of regular college EVER.

9) I have officially decided I want to be an ICU nurse. :)

10) I get to marry my favorite person in the whole wide world in 183 days!!

*Sigh* How can I be so excited for somethings and feel so bummed about others at the same time? Becoming more and more responsible sucks.

I can't wait for retirement.

Six Months

I would like interrupt this study session to inform you all that today marks 6 months until graduation!!! :)

I wish I could share all of the details from the sermon at church today. It was over grace. A take away quote that I would like to share is "Grace justifies sinners. Grace does not justify sins." Basically, the message Mr. Brandenburg was trying to get across is that grace is not our get-out-of-jail-free card. It does not mean that you can keep sinning and use your "grace card" each time to get out of it. And we, as Christians, should not use it that way. He preached out of 2 Samuel 9 where we find a man whose life was shattered when he was 5 years old as his father was killed and his grandfather, Saul, committed suicide. King David showed this young man grace (whereas if he followed the historical suit of the Old Testament, he should have killed him as he was the family of his predecessor).

We are completely undeserving of this grace. Ephesians 2:8 tells us that it is by grace THROUGH faith that we have been saved and this is the gift from God. We are completely undeserving and our faith has little to do with it. This grace is for all and is equally offered to all. All we can do is accept this grace and live how God would call us to live. We should share this grace, just as David did, with all of those around us.

I just love this church. I guess it is really hard for me to truly feel like I belong there as I just recently started going and know that I probably will never go again after May 31st. Seth will NEVER live in Dallas, this I am sure of and I don't think I would ever be motivated to drive to Dallas from wherever we might end up. I hope that this isn't how I feel until we get out of the military. I know that I should feel at home in any church since God is there, it is just tough. Especially in such a large church! If you are ever in the Northpark Mall-ish area of Dallas, I strongly encourage and even invite you to come to Fellowship Dallas. It is a great church!

Ok, back to studying shock, burns, head trauma (and other intracranial disorders and altered level of consciousness), complex endocrine disorders, and solid organ transplants. Phew.. It is even hard to list.

Have a blessed day!

Are you in need of an inspirational video??

Well I sure have the trick for you!

Inspirational Video

I hope this helps you out today! I know it made me smile.

Love Is All You Need

"Too often we reduce the Christian faith to a mixture of commands to obey, duties to observe, or laws to endure. Instead, the God-life is a lover’s responsibility. God wants you to love Him, serve

Him, trust Him, and fear Him, with all your heart. Heart love reveals first-love, priority love."

I'm a little confused of who said this. My preacher this morning introduced it from Ramesh Richards. This exact quotation is from a sermon by Dr. Roger Williams at Woods Chapel.

Whoever said it, this is incredibly true of Christians. It is so easy to get wrapped up in the "rules" of being a Christian, when all he wants for us to do is love Him. The rest will fall into place if we truly love Him. A verse that proves this if any one verse does is that of Luke 10:42. It is preceded by verse 41 saying "And Jesus answered and said to her, 'Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things (41). But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken from her (42).'"

I'm sure many know this passage. Jesus has came to visit and Martha is so busy preparing the meal for him and all of his entourage (which was huge). She asks Jesus to rebuke her sister, Mary, who is listening to Jesus speak and kneeling at his feet. His response is one that should teach us the one true important thing in this life, love Jesus through true worship.

Doesn't that make everything else in this world so simple? If all we have to do is love Him, I think we have pretty blessed lives.

Now I must begin studying for my Pediatrics test because, although love for God is all we need to guide our lives, I think all of you would like for the nurse caring for your loved one to be knowledgeable. Have a blessed week.

Hello Lazy Friday...

Today I have been completely and utterly lazy. I did lots of planning (for things completely unrelated to school) and came to the conclusion that I could have provided my children a nice inheritance with the money we have spent on plane tickets in the past 3.5 years. Other than that, nothing has been done today. Yay for that! Maybe motivation will come as the sunset approaches, maybe not. I'm not really going to force it.

Here is the breakdown of the rest of my semester (38 days, 19 hours, 45 minutes):

9 regular 3 hour lectures

8 tests

6 clinical days

4 random assignments

2 simulation days

2 projects

That is all that stands in my way of being in my last semester of college.. GOODNESS!

Some of my greatest friends...

are adopting from Ethiopia. The fundraiser that they are doing to raise money for this adoption is amazing and was recently featured on the local news in North Carolina, where they live. Please go watch this! It brings a whole new level to SERVICE!

http://www.digtriad.com/video/default.aspx?bctid=659458387001

And here is Kirstin's blog if you would like to follow their story.

Have a great week!

"Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world." James 1:27

Dear Fall 2010...

I am so over you. This semester started with me being eager to learn and excited about the topics that you would include. Now I am tired, drained, and full to capacity.

You are making me fat with your excessively full schedule, teachers who hand out candy in class, and unlimited hours spent on my butt studying. If I die of any disease related to poor nutrition, stress, and lack of exercise, I'm blaming it on you; even if it is when I'm 84.

You are full of interesting information, but I have no more room. I'm beginning to think I am going crazy and belong in the mental health textbook which is currently lying open on my floor.

Please, please, please let the next 42 days, 21 hours, and 52 minutes pass quickly. I have never anticipated the end of a semester this bad and cannot wait for it to be here.

Hate,

Kaelyn

Wonderful Water

So today is the Blog Action day in order to raise awareness about the outstanding and horrifying number of people in our world who, to this day, do not have access to clean drinking water. You can go to change.org in order to read about this cause. While you are there, sign the petition in the link on the right to help support the UN in their goal of halving the number of people in this world without access to clean water by 2015! What an amazing goal!

My friend Kirstin wrote an amazing blog about this issue and she does a great job of tying a personal element to the cause. Read her blog here.

Please do your best to cherish the water we have access to and understand that this is a blessing that not all humans are granted with.

October 14, 2010

Lessons from the day:

Productivity will go as far as you let it.

It is never too late to ask for forgiveness.

It is officially Fall in Texas now that we are halfway through October (58 degrees right now).

If you allow yourself to dwell on one negative moment of the day, you will soon find that the one moment now has company.

Senior year truly does fly by (even when you are not quite ready for it to do so).

The outcome of the day is 100% based on your perception.

Stressful moments truly do sit in the shadows and gain strength in numbers before pouncing.

Sometimes success can be measured simply by keeping your head above the water (no matter how close to the water that head might be).

Deep breath. Handle each obstacle as it comes. Keep going.

Acceptance

So my friend Kirstin always has the most wonderful and serious posts. They are in the process of adopting from Ethiopia and I always come out of reading her posts knowing just a little bit more about myself and feeling like I just got a distant hug from my friend in North Carolina. The family blog is titled Our Journey to Africa and if you are one of those people who just love reading interesting blogs, this is a great one to follow!

So her most recent post made me think about who I am. I actually figured it out a little more yesterday during my Mental Health clinical as I sat in an outpatient group therapy session where we talked about Passivity, Aggression, and then Assertiveness. I never realized it, but I sit in the passive role far too much and take on even the negative traits listed in this section. I can become assertive, but only if I see the situation needs a leader or if my friends are getting trampled over. And I can be aggressive, but it takes me quite a while and quite a bit of anger/frustration to get me to that point.

Back to passivity. I say "sorry" all the time. I came by this naturally. My mother is a chronic apologizer, and so I am too. I never really saw this as a bad thing until I realized that some people get really confused; especially if they don't know me. Very few times are things that I apologize my fault and a lot of times it didn't even bother the other person. I need to get over this and stop apologizing for things I can't control (but I hope I always remember the right time to say "I'm sorry that this happened to you"). I also am a venter. I don't talk smack about people. That is not my intention by far. And I don't want my close friends to think badly about the person I have to vent about. Most of the time I end it with "He/she is a fantastic person, this trait about them just get on my nerves." (realize now that I'm getting into things that are really hard to say, but that I have to say).

You see, the underlying fact with this issue is that I am really bad at accepting people for people. I'm not going to like every quality in everyone but I generally really love all of the people I'm surrounded by. I'm not a gossiper, please don't confuse what I'm saying with this. I have a handful of close friends who I really trust enough to vent to. And I generally am seeking advice when I talk with them. This is a big trait of passivity, not being able to say something directly to a person. I need to work on this. I am honest with people, but I have a hard time saying things to them about tendencies that bother me. I don't want to change someone; that is the last thing I want. It is really easy to fall into a spiral with this. The things pile up and pile up and before I know it, I am too annoyed with someone to be around them and I try to avoid them all together.

I know that this is not a Christian trait. I know that we should be loving and non-judgmental towards everyone. That is why the issue I would like to fix in me is acceptance. I need to accept people for being people. We all have our quirks and I need to better realize that just because something someone does makes me cringe, doesn't mean that I need to let it evolve to a point where I don't want to be around them. I need to accept them for being their own person and go on living my life while not letting that little thing bother our relationship.

Please don't think I'm a horrible person (another trait of passivity, needing others to understand you). And please don't be worried that I think bad things about you. It takes me being around someone for entirely too long and in repetitive sessions for this to happen. If you have any room left on your prayer list for an entirely superficial prayer, please pray that I learn acceptance better. Thank you so much!

P.S. Seth and I are taking our engagement pictures tomorrow!!! :)

HONEYMOON!!

I REALLY need to be studying for my Adult test on Tuesday (is that the story of my life, or what?) but I just booked our honeymoon and Seth is in Mexico and we have a limited number of texts and NO calling so I just must let off some excitement on my blog!

It is at the beautiful Excellence Playa Mujeres All-Inclusive resort! 6 nights! And we get to tour The (El) Chichen Itza Mayan ruins!!! I can't believe how excited I am about this. I hope I was this excited when Seth asked me to marry him ;)! (I know I was!)

Ok.. I guess that is all. I should really start studying as I was on the phone with Orbitz and USAA all morning trying to get this booked! Today is a GREAT day! I had a good run this morning and our honeymoon is booked! :)

I hope you are all having a great day, too!

Oh, rain....

We are on our second full day of rain. Yep.. Rain all day yesterday and now it's going to rain all day today. In Blum (my hometown), as I hear it the roads are all closed going into town. That is insanity. My great friend Lindsey is having to stack furniture in her house to prepare in case the Nolan River floods over and they become submerged. That is so frightening. It would take The Great Flood kind of rain to put my parent's house under water. Not only is it on a hill, but it is on quite a bit of cement, too (which gives it a couple more inches of security).

It is so funny to me how strange it is for some parts of the United States to handle the weather that is normally found in other regions. Like when it snowed crazy amounts this past March. Everyone freaked out but in the North it is very normal. Or this rain.. I wonder what Seattle would think of this. Whatever the case, I just hope that everyone stays safe driving and that damage is kept to a minimum and is repairable (I know that this is already not the case for many families.)

So my third semester of nursing school (and my 7th semester of college.. CRAZY) is not as frightening as I thought. My clinicals are all generally short. My clinical for Child Health is at Scottish Rite and I think I'll love that! The drive to my Mental Health clinical in Arlington will prove taxing, I'm sure, but I think it will be way worth it! It is altogether do-able. I may be singing a different tune the 27th & 28th as I take my Child health exam on Monday morning, have clinical through Monday evening, and then get up to take my Mental health exam Tuesday afternoon after sitting through Adult health class Tuesday morning. I won't be a happy camper, but then I'll be done with my first round of tests for my Senior year!

I get to go home this weekend! AND I get to go pick up my wedding dress on Friday!! I'm so excited to see it! I know it is dumb to have emotions for an object and that we shouldn't, but I'm pretty sure it is me displacing my emotional excitement about getting married to Seth and being done with school and not any real attachment to material. It will also be a blast to be at home (that is, if home doesn't sink before then) for a couple of days!

Seth is also leaving for Mexico on Saturday and is getting to spend an entire week there! Lucky dog! He is getting to see the Aztec ruins!!!!!!! I'm WAY excited for him (and a little jealous if I can admit that)! Hopefully, we'll get to see them sometime together!

Ok, so my post is totally shallow and all about me, but if you want to read a really great blog that gets better and better with each post then you should check out my friend Kirstin's blog! She and her family are currently in the process of adopting their son from Ethiopia. They are in the waiting stage but will hopefully get a referral soon! I love to read her blog because I love her and her family, but it is an amazing blog that includes a lot of wonderful spiritual insights and great stories about her kids! You should check it out!

No really, THE dress this time...

So I decided last week (well before that, but made the announcement to my unsuspecting mother last week) that I had chosen the wrong wedding dress. After several long conversations ALL ending in "All I know is that I don't love that dress and I don't want it. You don't have to go with me to look again but I'm going" (wow that makes me sound like a spoiled brat). Preceded at some point by "You were right, Mom. I shouldn't have bought the dress that day. I should've listened to you." Any who, we went yesterday to try on dresses again.

David's Bridal is amazing, in my opinion. They have a ton of dresses and the people at the store by the Hulen Mall in Fort Worth are so hospitable. The best part (in my case) is that they allow exchanges for 90 days. Most wedding dress stores do not allow exchanges. Perfect for me.

I found a dress that has everything that I want. I'm not allowing myself to get excited about it so as to keep a level head and not make a decision via excitement fuel. It is entirely more me than any other dress I have tried on. It's gorgeous and I love it. But I'm not getting excited about it. :)

I go to New York first thing (and I mean first thing.. before the sun) Thursday morning!! Seth gets his West Point ring (I mean bling) on Friday. And I get to dress up in a beautiful yellow satin gown on Saturday for dinner. We may go into NYC on Friday (I've never been.. except when landing and taking off in an airplane) for dinner!! I get to stay until Monday around lunchtime!

I hope you all are having a great summer. It's almost over so soak it up!!

A Catch-Up Post

I don't know if I actually have anything interesting to say. I figured this would be a good way for me to remind myself of what I did the past two weeks.

Two weeks ago I ventured to David's Bridal with my bridesmaids and they got to try on their dresses. I'm not sure what they all thought of them. My sister is shaped one way(not that others are abnormally shaped, just different), so I didn't really think anything about the dress that we picked. I thought that it was flattering on everyone, but I'm not sure if everyone thought that about themselves. We went and ate at Razzoo's and I gave them all bag tags that I had gotten my friend Kirstin to make. She makes them and they are WONDERFUL! And the best part? She makes them to raise money for their upcoming adoption from Ethiopia!

I then thought I would be leaving to go pick Seth up but boy was I wrong. We had a big run-in with Air Tran and them changing his flight and flight cancellations and it ended with the statement "We will never fly Air Tran again." I don't know if this is true because they're so dang cheap, but it was sad.. But then the next day at 11:30am he flew in!

We did lots of fun stuff while he was here. We booked our wedding DJ and went to Schlitterbaun. We had big plans to go to a Ranger's game but we got confused with schedules and went to a Fort Worth Cats game instead. We also went and at at Joe T. Garcia's in Fort Worth. I had just recently been and loved it and was happy to find that Seth loved it, too! Great restaurant with a wonderful atmosphere!

We did a lot of other fun things like take our first trip to Whole Foods. It is BY FAR my favorite store in the whole world. And it's dangerous because it's less than a quarter mile from our apartment.

He is back at West Point now and I'm in the revision stage of my capstone, but I'll go up next weekend to see him. He is super excited because next Friday he gets his West Point ring. And he got his saber (sword) today, which I think is really cool! I guess there are a lot of cool things in store for him his Senior year!

Ok. Guess I didn't have anything profound to say. I hope everyone has a great week!

EXCITEMENT!!

Ok, this is so lame I feel like I can't post it on Facebook...

I just turned in my first draft of my Capstone!!!

25 PAGES over preeclampsia DONE!

I'm so excited! I had set this goal to get it done before Seth got in tonight and I can't believe I actually met it!!

:)

That is all.

11 Random Facts About Me

As I'm trying to make myself write my capstone (I'm 7 pages in! 18 more to go!), I've been itching to write a blog post. Not that I have anything interesting to say (because I never do) but just because it's something that is not my capstone. So I thought that I would make myself thing a bit and come up with a random list of things about me. :)

1. Breakfast foods are my favorite. Not sweet things like doughnuts, I could never eat them for breakfast. More like eggs and pancakes and waffles (hold the butter and just a little syrup). I'm not really big on the meat involved with breakfast but I love to have bacon every now and then.

2. I'm really not a big dark meat person (I mean like beef and pork... as if you couldn't tell from #1). My family makes a living off of growing cows so that beef can be made, but I don't really like it. I like chicken ok and turkey sandwich meat and I like fish a lot, but that's as far as it goes.

3. If you give me spaghetti, you better have milk. For this reason, I rarely order anything with marinara sauce on it at restaurants.

4. I am the World's Best at procrastination. I always get stuff done by the time it needs to be done, but I push it to the last minute.

5. I cannot sleep when I'm uncomfortable. Funny thing is, Seth is the opposite: if he's uncomfortable, he sleeps. Last summer we went camping in July. I stayed up and thought about how miserable I was all night long while he snored away. I feel bad about this because Seth loves camping. Thank you Texas heat.

6. I motivate myself with restrictions, not positive goals. (i.e. I run so I don't get fat, not because I want to be healthy. When I need to study, my goal is to not get on Facebook or blog, not to get through my notes X number of times.)

7. In my free time, I would much rather spend time with people than watch movies, read a book, or other solitary-ish things. For this reason, I always want to talk during movies (not in the theater) and I don't really try to start books. Also, there are a lot of movies/books that I haven't seen/read. I promise that I love to read, I'm just a very social being.

8. I am a planner to the core. I'm constantly thinking about organization or booking our next plane tickets. It is good in a lot of instances (because plane tickets are generally cheaper early on) but I have 4 calendars, so it may be an addiction.

9. I struggle hardcore with what people think of me. It is strange because I actually feel comfortable with who I am, but I am always looking for ways to improve in areas in which I'm weak (like communication, judgement, being positive). So I look to the judgement of others, not because I want to be who they want me to be, but because I want to see if I'm improving in these weak spots I've identified. Kind of like opposite day. :)

10. I'm terrible at truly forgiving. If someone lies to me, hurts me, or angers me, I will never let them reach the level that they were once at in our relationship. I can be civil and still be friends with them, but I will never truly trust them again. This is one area that I've been praying God will help me with. I know how important it is to forgive as a Christian and I'm just not quite there.

11. I hate shopping. Pretty much all of it. I hate spending money and more than anything I hate the kind of shopping where you just look. It just makes you want things and then you don't get them. I think this violates some girl rule.

There you go! 11 random things about that you probably would never need to know but now you do! I guess I could add a #12. I blog way too much and too long. But I think that goes with out saying (which is why I just said it).

I hope you all are enjoying your summer! Only 5 1/2 weeks left if you are a TWU-er so live it up!

Build-Your-Own-Adventure Invitations

Oh how I love wedding planning! Well, sort of...

It's fun to choose things. I get so excited. It's our dream becoming a reality and it's amazing. But it sure can get frustrating!

One adventure that we will be participating in shortly involves our invitations. I was going to order invitations from David's Bridal. But stumbled upon Hobby Lobby during a 50%-off-wedding-stuff sale. They have beautiful "Do-It-Yourself" invitation kits and the sale made 150 of them come to a grand total of $40.59! Of course we cannot forget that printing is not included in this price. So if you are gutsy enough to try to print them at your desktop, it's really cheap (but scary!). We're going to have them printed. But even after doing so, it will be cheaper than ordering invitations!

So grand wedding tip #1 from me: Do-It-Yourself Invitations!

The part of this that I'm REALLY looking forward to is the cake tasting.. YUM!! Sadly, that won't take place until around Spring Break so I'll have to find joy in the other thrills of planning!

Really I just can't wait to see my groom! :) It's been too many days (30) since I saw his face last and it seems to be too many days (13) until I see it again . I'm going to need lots of consoling when he's gone on deployments. He told me the other day that I was not built to be an Army wife. I think it's the truth but obviously God has a sense of humor! :)

Happy Saturday!

What is nursing school?

Revised: 2/4/11

I have revised my nursing school document as I am now in my last semester!

Note: This will feel completely overwhelming if you don't know anything about nursing school yet. If you feel overwhelmed by it, save it or bookmark it. You'll want to look at it again once you start getting close to these semesters.

First Semester you are known as J1s (Big secret: Junior 1 students.. :) )

• You have 2 clinical sections. One is in concepts and one is in assessment. You are sectioned into these clinical groups by the nursing school's whim (as far as we could tell). We're pretty sure it was completely random, so no luck getting to pick where or when you'll have clinical!
• The concepts clinical is around 6 hours long. We started it in our 4th week (But some other sections were in lab for the first half of the semester and then were in clinical for the 2nd half). In the weeks leading up to starting going to the hospital, you have concepts labs where they will teach you what to do. In this clinical you give bed baths, do assessments, take patient histories, and learn the basics of patient care. You give medications with the assistance of your instructor once you have passed the medication exam which we took in our 5th week. We had 6 clinical days scattered throughout the semester. When we didn't have clinical in a week, we had a lab or a check off (which is a test of skills, basically).
• Assessment class is mixed in with assessment labs. So your class/lab day for assessment is one big day. Ours were scheduled for Wednesdays from 800-1530. Assessment is all about learning how to do a physical assessment on someone. We had a check-off in the 4th week, 8th week, and 14th week. Scattered in there were 3 clinical days which are 4 1/2 hours long.
• For both Concepts and Assessment, you also have simulation days where you get to work with these cool dummies that breathe and stuff! They aren't scary!
• Along with the Assessment class/lab/clinical and Concepts lab/clinical, you also have the Concepts class and Pharmacology. These are both on one day (our's were on Tuesdays) and you'll have one of them for 3 hours in the morning, an hour for lunch, and the other for 3 hours in the afternoon.
• For me, Assessment was way easy, Concepts was challenging in part, and Pharmacology was the most challenging of all (because I'm bad with words). With Pharmacology, the teacher Dr. Tapler tells you or gives you everything you need to know. So just pay attention. I didn't use the Pharmacology book during the Pharmacology class, but I used it quite a bit in my second semester to understand the inner-workings of the drug classifications.

[Note: This is how they ran our Assessment class. I have heard that they now do it online without a clinical component.]

2nd Semester-- J2

• Your two big classes this semester are Women's Health and Adult I. They are both clinical courses, as well. The lecture portion of these classes share a day. So on Wednesdays we had Adult in the morning from 900-1200 and then Women's in the afternoon from 1-4. In your second week you have a skills lab for Women's health and clinical orientation for Adult I. Adult I handles the basic disease processes that adults go through. Women's health is another way of saying Labor & Delivery and all things leading up to it and away from it.
• We started our Adult I clinical in the 3rd week. It's a 7 1/2 hour clinical day (which included the time spent in post conference talking about your day). We had 8 total clinical days. These were mixed with simulation days, labs (to learn the stuff), and check-offs to make sure you know your stuff.
• For Women's you go to clinical for 12 hours every other week. So we had 5 total clinical days. On your off weeks, you don't have clinical!
• If you are starting nursing school in the fall, you'll also have 3 online courses that go a long with this semester. They are Aging, Research, and Groups (well some people have groups in class, others online).
• Aging is a wonderful experience. There is minimal work involved each week. You have an interview with an elderly person you know who you aren't related to and an 8-10 page paper about the experience. You have a midterm exam and a final exam.
• I took Groups online. It involved quizzes and discussion board posts. My roommates took it in class and enjoyed it. They also offered an accelerated form of Groups where you were done in the first 2 weeks of class. I know this made the first 2 weeks harder, but then you were done and didn't have to think about it!
• Research was a disaster for our class. The instructor didn't tell you what she wanted you to do for the assignments and it really seemed like she tried to make it close to a graduate level course. I made a 78 on the midterm (And that is not anywhere near the ballpark of the grades I'm used to making). Apparently people cheated on the midterm so we had to take the final at the school. The tests are opened book, which seems like it would make it easier but most of the questions cannot be found on one single page of the book. There are like 5 critical thinking components in each question so you have to have read and know the book. I ended up getting an A in the course and that's what others who have gone before us have said: It sucks to take the course, but you end up getting about a full letter grade about what you think you will.

3rd Semester-- S1 (Senior 1)

• There are 3 big classes. Adult II, Child Health, and Mental Health. On Monday we had Child Health from 9-12 in the morning and on Tuesday we had Adult II from 9-12 and then Mental Health from 1-4. For the first 2 weeks, we had labs on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Then you begin your clinical rotations.
• For 11 of the 15 class weeks, I had an activity for Child Health. I had 3 inpatient days at my child health hospital (6.5 hours/day), 4 alternative site(about 5 hours each), and 2 simulation days (about 3 hours each) PLUS the labs/orientations the first 2 weeks of school.
• For Adult, 9 clinical weeks where you are actually in clinical at your hospital for 8 hours each clinical. You also have simulations/labs for 4 other days during the semester. So you have a clinical component for 13 of the 15 regular class weeks.
• For Mental Health, 11 out of the 15 weeks of school you are in clinical or lab. My clinical days lasted for 5.5 hours.
• When you look at this, it looks like you have something just about 5 days a week for most of the weeks of the semester. I had my pediatric clinical on Mondays after pediatric class. This made for a long Monday, but I had 3 days a week off instead of 2.

• Adult II is the critical care stuff of adults. I had half of my clinical days in a Medical Surgical setting and then half in different ICU settings.
• Mental Health is the interesting class that most people fear. It was a good experience. The hospital I was at did not have acutely ill patients, only those with chronic conditions. With that being said, I was not ever afraid in the clinical setting and mental illness was not something I was comfortable with prior to starting this rotation.
• Child Health is pretty self explanatory. You learn about pediatric nursing and what it entails.

• This is an INCREDIBLY busy semester! You feel like you have NO time, but you need to learn how to function this way in order to be a good nurse. Figure out how to stay organized & you'll make it through.

4th Semester-- S2
This semester, you have Leadership & Management, Community Health, and Critical Competency Integration. Community Health and CCI have clinical attachments, Leadership & Managment does not.

• Leadership & Management is mostly online. We will only have in-class lecture 5 times this semester. There are 3 tests (one is the final). You learn about the laws of nursing in Texas and about the details of management in nursing like staffing & other things.
• Community Health is for learning how to think about health in a community setting (surprise, surprise). It is WAY different than how they have thought you to think about health in the case of an individual patient. You have 2 major projects in this class: A 10 page paper called a Windshield Survey and a Community Assessment Group Project. There are also 3 tests in this class (one of which is the final).
• CCI doesn't really have a classroom component. You have Case Study days where you sit through lectures about certain diagnoses, but you don't have a set day that you go to class.
• Community Health clinical has you precepted by a school nurse. You have clinical activities (either with your school nurse or at school) every week except for the week of HESI.
• CCI clinical involves you having either a preceptor (a certain nurse with whom you complete 120 clinical hours) or a group clinical experience where you have a set day of the week where you go to clinical like normal, still for 120 total hours. If you are precepted, it is up to you to get in your total number of clinical hours, you make your schedule based off of the schedule your nurse works.

• I cannot say for certain yet, but I think the trouble this semester comes from a mixture of strange things that happen this semester:

1. Studying for HESI (because you're scared to death of failing it. Ours is March 28th).
2. Looking for, applying for, and interviewing for jobs.
3. Senioritis.

Also...

You will take a HESI placement test each semester, and two in Senior I (Med-Surg & Pediatrics). The HESI you take in Senior II is the Exit HESI and you get 2 chances to pass it before graduation. You must pass this test to graduate. If you don't pass it in 2 chances, you take a remedial course & take it one last time. If you pass it this time, you graduate but with the next graduating class. If you fail it... I'm not sure what happens. I don't know if they have ever mentioned it...

Some closing words??

1. Nursing school is much more challenging than the prerequisite courses.
2. It is emotionally draining, but completely doable.
3. Each semester I take a look back and say "Oh that wasn't that bad."
4. To keep from being overwhelmed, figure out what your detox will be. Mine is Seth, my fiancé. He reminds me that it's not that bad. I make sure and set aside enough time to talk with him.
5. One thing that I'm going to try to do better this semester is give myself more days at home with my parents. It is so easy for me to say that I'm too busy to go see them and then 2 months go by.
6. If you have good time management skills, you will do great! I need to work on it!
7. I suggest making a word document that has all of the assignments/tasks you need to get accomplished each and every day at the beginning of the semester. If you want an example, let me know!

Oh Summer...

My summer has been amazing! I have rested and I'm almost to the point where I start getting bored with not doing much each day.. Almost.

I have to go back to Dallas tomorrow to officially start on my capstone. It's a 25 page research paper over preeclampsia. I'm due to turn it in September 30th but technically have like 40 weeks since I only have to turn it in a couple of weeks before my graduation. I'm going to try to have it done before August 30th so I'm not messing with it during the semester. We'll see.

Tomorrow I officially start shadowing (somewhat) a midwife. She was my Women's health teacher and is amazing. She is going to be on call at a birthing center every-now-and-then. So if a lady goes into labor during her call shift, I'll get to go! {Fingers crossed!}

I can't believe how much wedding stuff I have gotten done! It amazes me how many decisions I can make if I just put my mind to it! :) Hopefully it will keep moving smoothly! I'm trying to make myself realize that the tiny details will not matter. The most stress-free I keep this thing, the better! All that matters is at approximately 7:30 on June 3, 2011 I will be married to my best friend!

I also splurged on some new running shoes that I hope to try out tonight in the heat! I've been somewhat of a lazy bum these past couple of weeks and need to start running more days in the week. Hurricane Alex kept me from running.... Well I let him because I was too lazy to find non-muddy ground around here. When I get back to Dallas I'll have no excuse! Concrete doesn't get muddy and rain should never keep someone from running (but lightening should!).

18 days and 6 hours until Seth is home!

THE dress!!

So most of you have me on Facebook, too. But because I'm just way too excited: I BOUGHT MY WEDDING DRESS!! And a little warning: This is an extremely long post about my search for my wedding dress. It's boring unless you are me and really excited right now. So don't expect anything more than that!!

If you had asked me Wednesday night if I would find a dress that was obviously "the" one, I would have told you absolutely not. Wednesday my sister and I went to a bridal store in West, JoAnn's, which is amazing. I had been there before with my parents and found a dress that I liked a lot. Well this time I tried that dress on again and was less impressed with it and found another dress that I liked more. Then we went to David's Bridal and I found 3 that I liked a lot, but left the store frustrated with the fact that I could not figure out which one I liked the most (Not even after having my mother, brother, sister in-law, and father come to the store to tell me their opinion).

We went out for my brother's 23rd birthday dinner with me feeling sorry for myself (how dumb) at the fact that I had gone dress shopping 5 times and tried on 35 dresses and could not find the dress. I was convinced that I wasn't the type of girl to find "the" dress.

Thursday, I woke up a little more hopeful. I had to go to Denton and my sister and mother were coming along so that we could go look at Bridal Co. It's a store in Denton that has really beautiful dresses for really cheap. Needless to say, it was a bust when it came to what I want. NOTHING appealed to me.

You see, for some reason I really wanted to find the dress before Seth came back from his summer detail. That is 35 days away at this point, so there is no rush. In fact, my wedding is... I guess 50 weeks away, so there is no rush.

But I decided that I liked one of the dresses at David's Bridal and only needed to get a broach to go with it as my only complaint was that it was too simple. We stopped by Sam Moon's in North Fort Worth and bought a broach and were on our way to the David's Bridal in Fort Worth. I tried on the dress and liked it. Staring at what I thought was my dress. Then the consultant asked me if I wanted to try on a dress that she thought would look beautiful on me and be just what I wanted.

I consented and fell in love. It is nothing like what I thought I wanted. In fact, if you told me the details of this dress a week ago, I would have told you that a dress like that would never be for me. The feeling i got when I looked in the mirror at my reflection was one that I have never felt, and one I'll never feel again. I found it and it's mine and I love it.

Now the hard part will be to keep it in the bag in my closet until it's time to take it to get the bustle put on it in preparation for my bridal pictures. :)

So far..

Man it is crazy to think that tomorrow will mark the one month anniversary from my last final of Junior year. It seems like Summer has been here for so long!

Seth left this morning. He is off to training to learn how to train others. :) He will be a Platoon Leader at Buckner which is the training that transitioning Yuks (between Freshman & Sophomore year of West Point) have to go through. He'll be there until July 22nd which is exactly 41 days and 10 hours away at this very moment. I can't wait until he is back home! But we had a blast while he was here. We spent some good days with both of our families and went to TWO Rangers' games!


Oh and (drum roll)........... We bought our wedding flowers!! They are absolutely beautiful! I think this is the way I have to make decisions.. Just quick and painlessly. We went to a wholesale silk flower market on Harry Hines just to look and found these beauties and we bought them! Another decision DONE. :)


Next Tuesday, Sabrina & I are going to see Wicked!! I love plays, so I'm excited! Oh and I might just get to assist/watch at a birthing facility during the month of July!! How fantastic would that be???? :)

I have a new sister!!

I don't have any pictures, :(, but man was my brother's wedding beautiful! I thought I packed my camera when I left from Dallas on Thursday, but I was really wrong and so I couldn't take any pictures... But just trust me!

And the makeup lady did airbrush makeup, and it was AMAZING! It was so light weight and if you have never had it done, I really suggest it! It came off very easy, but not until I wanted it to! It might be the most perfect makeup I've ever encountered!

It was a wonderful day that went by too quickly! The wedding was absolutely stunning and the reception was so wonderful! I just can't say enough good things! And now they're married and heading to Jamaica today! How exciting!

Seth is coming home WEDNESDAY!!!!! I can't wait to see him! Today he got to go see a former KGB training facility from during the Cold War! I love having an itinerary!!

My friend Melanie, her mom Paula, and I went and saw Sex and the City 2 last night. I always watched the show on Channel 27 (reruns of course) so it was the PG13 version. And I guess I saw the first movie in PG13 form, too. So this movie was in rated R form and it was different from what I was used to seeing. The camaraderie of the characters was awesome but I could have done without seeing some stuff. There are some great parts that you can't help but love. And the overall plot is great! But if you don't want to see the sex portion of the title, rent it in PG13 format! Then we had Taco Bell and the world was innocent again! :)

I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe Memorial Weekend!

I love Summer!

I just realized how awesome summer is. Here I am, at 1103, eating breakfast. I got up without an alarm, went and had a wonderful run at the lake, took a relaxing shower, and made breakfast. Summer is great!

Days like today make me happy that I don't have a career yet. :)

Levi (brother) and Rachel are getting married tomorrow! Rehearsal and rehearsal dinner tonight! Get excited!

May 25, 2010

Warning: This post was written in boredom.

I just thought you guys should know that you get what you put into something. So if it was written from boredom, it's probably not going to be interesting AT ALL!!

I'm sure there is something that I should be doing right now. I'm in Dallas because I'm in week 2 of my 2 week class which is titled Spanish for Nursing and the Health Profession. It has fallen short of what I expected. We learn really interesting stuff, but the class moves at a horribly slow pace. I'm glad it's almost over. It's an easy course; but I don't know if I would take something challenging over being bored. Stupid nursing classes. They've programed my mind to crave intense lectures.

Today in class we are to learn the Musculoskeletal System in Espanol and about the governmental aspect of the healthcare system (I'm not sure if it's in Latin countries or in the U.S. as it pertains to the Latins... AH HAH some suspense added to my day). My book The Latino Patient came in the mail today. I'm on Chapter 5. It's about providing culturally competent care to the Latino population. Pretty interesting thus far. I sat outside by the pool for a little while reading it and trying to fix my horrible tan lines. I would definitely suggest it if anyone is looking for a book like it!

Grace is at work. That's another reason I'm bored. I don't have anyone to distract. Seth is still in Eastern Europe. I haven't gotten to talk to him much. So I'm sure that's contributing to the mood.. Really, I'm not in a bad mood. Just disinterested with the day. But tonight we are going to El Jacalito in Balch Springs for my field trip #2. I'm sure the food is going to be fantastic! Hopefully the day will get more interesting!

My big brother is getting married on Friday! Thursday and Friday are going to be jam packed! I have class at 4 and then my final exam at 6 and then I'm scooting to Azle to take part in the rehearsal which is set to begin at 7pm and then the rehearsal dinner. Then on Friday we're to be at the facility at 2pm to get ready! Then wedding and reception later that night! Yay! Weddings are fun!

Then next Wednesday, Seth comes home!!! YAY! I can't wait. I miss him so much! We're going to go to a Rangers game with Sarah and Derek on the 5th and hopefully just hang out the rest of the time!

I warned you guys that this post was going to be boring and you got exactly what you paid for :)

I hope you all have a great week!!

And it begins.. :)

It is officially summer and has been for the past week! YAY!

Our trip to NC was AMAZING! We just love Rob and Kirstin and are really looking forward to Rob marrying us in a year and like 15 days! And their children are AMAZING. They are a wonderful family and great examples that we will have in our life FOREVER.

Seth left for Lithuania, Latvia, Finland, and Estonia yesterday. He got to call a little while ago and let me know that he's ok and having fun! I know I'm so blessed to get to talk to him and see him as much as I do. But every now and then I have to take a deep breath and admit to myself that being in a long distance relationship is hard. We're 3/4 of the way through West Point and then we'll get between 1-2 years together and then he'll be deployed. It's never comforting when people say "Oh I know someone who hasn't seen their husband/boyfriend/fiance in 6 months." We're heading there. We'll do our time. It's funny to me how some people think it's comforting to name something worse. Being away from someone you love for 2 days is hard (in some degree) to everyone who loves someone. We're blessed right now that we see each other every month and we know that we'll be able to handle it when we can't talk to each other for weeks or see each other for many months. I'm not complaining. I just have to take a deep breath and give us some credit sometime. The past three years have not been a walk in the park. For the first year we saw each other about every 3 months and I'm so thankful that it is more often now. I'm so proud of Seth for choosing West Point. I know that we've learned a lot from going through this and we're far more in love than we were in the beginning.

My Spanish class started on Monday. It's a two week course that is every day for 3 hours. I like it a lot so far. It is so much less stressful than semester classes. Yesterday we learned terms to use for the circulatory system and the importance of spirituality in lives of many Latinos and today we'll learn about the respiratory system and more general concepts about the Latino patient. I like this class because we're learning vocabulary; but more importantly we're learning about the culture.

On the agenda for today: 1) Write a paper about El Pollo Regio, a restaurant we went to for a field trip. 2) Order Senior I books off of half.com. 3) Plan a presentation for a career day at my high school that is on Friday. 4) Class.

Running Away

So don't tell anyone I'm on here. I should be studying.. But I have to share something from this morning. And by the way, this is completely about me and kind of boring (I'm sure) if you're not me.

I think some of you know this about me, I love running. Over the summer I was running 4 miles 6 days a week. It was always at a <8 min pace. However, nursing school hit and I stopped doing so many 4 miles but my pace stayed up. Then In December I hurt my foot. I'm still not sure how or doing what.. But I couldn't run on it. So I took 2 months off of running. Starting back in February, I was slow. I mean slow. I was at an 8:30 pace, which seemed horrendous to me. So since then I've been working. School has stood in my way a lot but slowly I've been getting faster. I have consistently been around an 8:15 for a couple of weeks now. That's running 3 miles (which is what I'm currently running) in 24:45. I've been ok with that. It's progress and my workouts have been really getting me.

Until today. This morning when we went to the lake to run it was 60 degrees. The wind was like 100 mph out of the South.. (well maybe not 100.. probably closer to 30.. idk wind speeds..) The wind was hard out if the South. It was perfect conditions, except for the wind. I caught the wind on my way back (I run down 1.5 miles and then come back) and was able to push through it and keep a good pace. In fact, after the wind, running took very little effort at all. I wasn't trying excessively hard to run a fast pace, I was just doing what felt natural. I started getting tired with a quarter of a mile to go, but pushed through it.

When my british lady in my Ipod said "congratulations, you have reached your goal of 3 miles" I pushed "end workout" to hear my report of my run. To my astonishment it said a 23:27. That's a 7:47 minute pace according to my Ipod! If you run, you know that cutting 30 seconds off of your pace is incredible!

So I'm proud of myself. There I said it. I know pride isn't a desirable characteristic in a person, but I'm happy that I made that pace today. Now whenever I run next, I'm sure it won't be at that pace. I'm sure I just ate all the right things and drank just the perfect amount of water yesterday. And subconsciously I was probably intending to run away from finals... But whatever it is, it was a huge confidence boost and put me in an incredible mood...

:) I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Wedding Fever trumps Nursing School Fever

So I woke up this morning to find myself with wedding fever instead of finals fever as I had hoped. I guess it's just not meant to be. It's funny that I found myself this way. I haven't really thought about the wedding for a little while and I guess it was getting kind of jealous of nursing school.

My sister was pinned last night. Pinning is to nursing school as graduation is to regular college. So my sister has officially graduated from nursing school. She is an RN now!! My big sister is really a huge inspiration for me to continue and not find myself in a nursing school induced coma. She has a 7 year old, a 4 year old, she works doubles on the weekend (a 12 hour shift on Saturday and another on Sunday), and a husband who owns a business. Goodness. She's a busy woman. Did I mention she's incredibly smart? She never studies and still does great in school. In fact, she took a test that told her that she has a 99% chance of passing the NCLEX (giant nursing test that gives you your license). My sister is pretty much awesome. :)

I get to see Seth on Wednesday!!!!!! It's funny to me that I was used to only seeing him every 3 months and now I have to see him every month. I guess it's all relative. He found out today that he can't branch into Aviation (some technical difficulties) and instead he is going to go Infantry. I'm so proud of how well he's taking the change. He is being so positive about the fact that God has a plan for us and obviously it's not Aviation. Which means we won't be going to Alabama anymore. The good news..... WE MIGHT GET TO POST HAWAII!!!! How cool would that be?? I'm not getting my hopes up (no, of course not) but there is a chance and if the opportunity is there we're taking it!

Also, I've come to the realization that I am going to officially be a senior on Wednesday. Wow. Time has flown. This past year has without a doubt been the fastest year of my life. It is amazing to think that in just one more year I'll be graduating and be a nurse. Especially considering that only 2 years ago I had completely different plans. Those plans including being a doctor (blah). I know where I'm supposed to be and that's incredibly exciting (and hopefully includes Hawaii..)!!

Boring Adult health is calling my name. I have to do a module for integumentary disorders and skin is the one thing that grosses me out terribly. Warts, stand back. Ewww....

And something that is definitely worth some thanks to God: I did very well (a 90%) on my HESI yesterday. I don't normally talk grades on the internet, but this is exciting because it means that I'm actually learning the things I need to be learning. I have this horrible, constant fear that I'm not retaining anything and then this test came along and proved me wrong. Yay!!!

Ok guys, as you were. Good luck for everyone who has finals and Happy (almost) Summer for all!!!

Labor and Delivery

On second thought, I think I should have told my brain that I would be done with the semester at the beginning of June. It's starting to depart from me. I think if I went outside and around the corner, I would find it lounging by the pool sipping on a margarita.

I love labor and delivery. I went for an extra day today and was definitely happy that I did! Did you know epidurals slow down the process of labor and drop your blood pressure (which makes your baby get less blood flow)? I know I didn't know that before taking this class. I think that's why I want to work in Women's health. It is so very broken. Most nurses (and definitely most doctors) encourage women to get epidurals. Why??? Because they're more relaxed. You tell them when to push (because they only feel pressure, no pain). It makes the delivery room scream free (pre-baby that is). It's not better for mother or for baby. It prolongs labor, which increases the time mom will be pushing. It increases the baby's chances of have decelerations (which means the baby's heart rate goes down with contractions) which means the baby isn't being oxygenated as well during that time. AHHH.. Labor and delivery is so broken. That is why I want to work there. I want to help fix it. Really, my plan is to work in labor and delivery for a couple of years and then become a midwife. I want to work in a place where I can coach mom through her pregnancy and teach her all of the things that are best for the baby during labor. I know I didn't know these things, and there's a decent chance that most pregnant women don't either.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if birth were a natural thing again? Wouldn't it be wonderful if our maternal mortality rates weren't higher than most of Europe and part of Asia? Shouldn't a "WORLD POWER" be creating stronger, healthier mothers?

While pondering these things, I'm skipping out on studying what you do when the baby comes out. I guess I should learn that part, too....

Last stretch!

The semester is almost over! In fact, in 15 days I will be done with it. 6 tests left.. And I'm choosing to attend an extra labor and delivery clinical because I really, really love labor and delivery. It's my calling. I just know it. I love that clinical. I have dreaded all of my other clinical days, but I love labor and delivery.

And I found out today that I have a group project to do. We have to watch a movie (fun) and answer questions. I hope this whole group thing goes ok. I usually get frustrated by group projects, but how bad could it be? Watch the movie, answer the questions, done! :)

I'm getting so excited about this wedding stuff!! My boss is getting married on May 22nd! And my brother Levi is getting married on May 28th! And my cousin Colt is getting married on June 25th!! WEDDINGS! They're so beautiful! I'm excited! Seth called and popped the question to the preacher that we are going to use, so that's done! It's my youth minister from my early teen years (I can't remember exactly how old I was). Seth hasn't met him yet. We're going to meet him and his family (his wife, Kirstin, is one of my favorite people EVER) in May! They live in North Carolina and we've never been there so that in and of itself is exciting! Not to mention the fact that I get to introduce Seth to two of the most influential people in my life! I'm nervous but Kirstin has reassured me that they have no intentions of torturing Seth. Phew....

C'mon semester. Hurry up and be over. It's Summer's turn!

And breathe....

So I have to admit that I came off of my test Wednesday with a huge sigh of relief and mental exhaustion. In fact, I remember saying the words "I'm emotionally drained" even before finding out how the test went. God is so amazing at meeting me halfway when I ask for his help with tests. Tuesday night before the Adult test I read Matthew 6:25-34 to my roommate, Grace, who needed it more than I did at that time. My favorite verse from that passage, verse 34, says "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." I know Jesus was talking about deeper things than nursing school, but boy does this hit home. It was a wonderful comfort to have this passage on my mind Tuesday night/Wednesday morning as I was doing some last minute cramming.

My 21st birthday was last Monday before my Women's test. Grace and I were inducted into Phi Kappa Phi, an honors society, that evening. My parents came to see me, which made the day even more special!!
Then, we went to Razzoo's with Sarah and I got to have my birthday drink. The night was cut short because we had a 12 hour clinical the next day and then a test to study for on Wednesday, but it was a great night and I'm so thankful to have those two wonderful girls in my life!

The get-up my Mom gave me for my birthday!

Two of my favorite girls and my first legal drink!!

This past weekend was when I got to go see Seth fight for a national championship. My flight from Philadelphia to Newburgh, NY was delayed and we pulled in to the parking lot at the fights to find that Seth had just finished his fight. He won his semifinal fight and advanced on to the finals on Saturday night. He was so pumped and excited and it made it hard to be sad that I missed seeing him fight Friday. So Saturday came around. We slept in and took a really long nap and then headed to the fights so that he could get ready and focused. We got there at 3:30 and he didn't end up fighting until 10.. WHOA! It was good because I studied and then played with a 7 year old sister of one of the boxers on Seth's team. She was so fun to talk to! I was afraid that I would be afraid to see him fight, but it wasn't scary. Sorry that picture is blurry. Action shots are hard. I'm sure my camera has a setting for that...

I couldn't yell for the other boxers because it made me hold my breath to watch them fight. But when it was Seth in the ring I yelled constantly. The guy he fought was 35 lbs heavier than Seth and a lot slower. Seth ended up coming in 2nd. But 2nd in the nation in heavyweight boxing when weighing in at 208 isn't bad at all! I'm insanely proud of him and feel so honored that I was able to take part in that moment with him.

After he got his medal! Look how bloody the tape on his hand is!

Sunday we went and ate breakfast at Cracker Barrel. I'm not sure if everyone knows this, but Cracker Barrel has the best breakfast EVER! And then we hung out a little bit and spent some quality time together. Then got some Chinese food and headed to West Point for a picnic by the Hudson River. It was so fantastic!

Then we had to head up to Seth's room so that he could get ready for formation (to make sure no one had escaped over the weekend). We got to spend a little more time together that night and then a couple of hours before I had to fly away. It was a very relaxing weekend and just what I needed before the next 2 days of studying hardcore. I wish Seth and I didn't enjoy each other so much... Not really. I freaking love that man. But it would make being apart a lot easier.

There are a lot of things I should be doing instead of blogging. Like writing my care plan from my clinical yesterday. Or getting ready for Day 2 of our 3 days of hosting the nationals meet for gymnastics. Or possibly catching up on online class work. That seems to be happening a lot lately. However, I feel that blogging is soothing to the soul and right now, that's more important.

I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend. I hope that Springtime shows out for you, wherever you are.

And an exciting update: 1 clinical, 6 tests, and 26 days until the semester is over!!!!!!

Countdown: 5 Weeks

So there are officially only 5 weeks of school left in this semester!! It feels so amazing to type that out! 5 WEEKS! Next week, I'm going to NY to watch Seth fight for a National Championship! He won his Regional fight and fights on Thursday night, the 8th, and if he advances he'll fight Friday night and Saturday night, too! I'm so excited for him! I will get there at 3:14 on Friday, so he pretty much has to win his Thursday fight so I can see him box! So if you just happen to have a random moment on Thursday, April 8th and think of Seth, say a prayer that he does his best!!

Lots of wedding planning happened on Monday (the 29th). My mom, sister, and I went to Fort Worth and booked the Marquis on Magnolia and the Celebration Community Church for Friday, June 3, 2011!! It's official now! Seth and I couldn't be more excited! Then, we went over to a flower market off of 7th street in Fort Worth and picked out the most beautiful roses. They are called blush roses. They are a red-pink color and fade down to cream at the bottom. I once thought I hated fading roses, but my mother picked these out and they take my breath away. So we went and picked up a mock vase from the Dollar Tree and made up a trial centerpiece and a trial bouquet. The only problem is that the flower people said that they don't see this rose very often, even though two of their growers are offering it right now. They don't know if it will be there next year at this time and said that we'll pretty much have to wait and see. However, I'm pretty sure that if they don't have this one, they'll have something between a pink and a red that I can live with!Oh and I got to assist with a birth! The mother did so well and it ended with a beautiful, healthy baby! Maybe labor and delivery could be my thing? I'll keep my mind open!

The next two weeks are busy: Phi Kappa Phi Initiation, 21st Birthday, labor & delivery clinical, Women's Health test, Simulation (which means fake patient + skills), NY to see Seth win Nationals, Adult Health test, and 4 gymnastic meets in 3 days!! Whoa.. I should sleep now while I can!

I hope everyone has a great Easter!!

:( Spring Break

Spring Break is officially over. :( At this point, I can't think of anything more depressing.

So, back to life. My Spring Break was pretty great! Seth got to come home, we found our wedding venues, and I got to visit with my family a little bit. I was planning on knocking out my Capstone (25 page honor's graduation requirement) over Spring Break but called a truce by calling my faculty member and asking if we could extend the deadline to August. I was a little gutsy by thinking I could get it done this semester. It's not due for over a year and I have an entire summer that may include ONE class. It will all be ok! That took a lot of stress off of my Spring Break and allowed me to go home for Saturday night and Sunday. I guess those were the only days I got to really be at home. I miss it a lot. I wish Seth's family lived in Blum, too so that we could visit both families without having the hassle of driving back and forth.

Seth won his fight!! He is a Regional Champion! I'm so stinkin' proud of him. Friday night he saw his opponent a 6'5" 257 lb giant. Seth is 6'4" and weighs 212lbs soaking wet. Friday night (after seeing the guy) he told me "I'm going to beat him tomorrow." This was a big confident statement for Seth. He hasn't REALLY wanted to win a fight this year until this massive guy stepped in his path. And he pulled through! I'm so proud of him and so excited because it means that I get to go to West Point April 8th-11th to see him fight for a NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP!!! I've only seen him fight once. It was at Plebe Parent Weekend 2 and a half years ago. It was a demonstration for a required boxing class at West Point. He has gotten so much better since then and I'm so excited (and a little nervous) to get to see him fight for a National Title belt!

Over the weekend, my mom help me settle on the choice of using silk florals instead of real ones. I'm pretty sure I'm going with White Daisies and I know that we will save a lot of money going with silk flowers. PLUS they won't all die the next day and we can put the centerpieces together before the day of the wedding and take that much stress off of everyone! Now, I need some help deciding something.... I have to set up the scene:

White table linens, white napkins (or they could be blue, what do you think?), white china.. With a centerpiece of:
Cobalt blue vases with white daisies
or
Clear vases with a blue ribbon tied around the center and white daisies

I know it shouldn't be that big of a decision, but it seems so stinkin' important. The reception wedding coordinator said that if we buy cobalt blue vases, they will buy them back from us. But they already have clear vases and blue ribbon would be very cheap. If I go with clear vases, should I also get blue silk doilies to go under the vase? Or should I use the mirror that the reception place provides to put under the centerpiece? Should I try to get blue napkins? Or should I find out how much extra it would be to get them to do blue table cloths? I bet that would be pretty.....

So many decisions that probably don't matter a lick but seem so important right now. I should probably just go buy a cobalt blue vase, a clear vase, some blue ribbon, and some daisies and see it for my self. Goodness.....

PLEASE, please help me decide this. I'm terrible at making decisions.

Thank you in advance. :)