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....