New Chapter

Yes! I know I know! This poor blog has sat and gathered dust since September! Sad, but true! The last 5 months of my life have been deeply, to say the LEAST, involved in finishing my ASN and graduating Nursing School as an RN! Did I accomplish that task? YES I DID! Does it feel absolutely amazing and surreal? YES IT DOES! At times I am completely SPEECHLESS as to how I feel about this accomplishment. Becoming a nurse doesn't happen over night or with a wiggle of your nose! It involves sweat, tears, serious tears, sleepless nights, possibly a little blood depending on the day, anger, excitement, frustration, thousands of practice questions, hours away from your family to study and quite possibly a Rx for anxiety! BUT when it's ALL SAID AND DONE and the assignments, tests, clinicals, 'pomp & circumstance' and state boards are OVER... I sit down and can actually BREATHE! I know being a nurse is what my heart has wanted since I was a little girl. I have always LOVED people, animals and nurturing both! I'm the girl who left her mother notes on how to take care of the hamster while I was away at church camp for the week!

It looks as though I will be heading into the field my heart most desires in the VERY NEAR future...and that is Oncology (Cancer). My heart and hands can't wait to love on those cancer patients! Everyone says it takes a 'special, strong' person to be able to work in this field. I can't wait to meet and touch the lives of those in it! God opens and closes doors for a reason....His reason. A few doors have closed, but many are now opening...and I can't wait to see what's inside!

In the mean time, here is what's on my to do list with all of my new found free time!

Relax! No more school to keep me stressed 24/7, now it's just a job to stress me, and even then, it's not a job....it's what I love to do!

Read! I am looking for some amazing books to take me far far away from here into the exciting, romantic, action filled life of someone else. If you have suggestions, please post them!

Play! I am making it my goal for the year of 2011 to have more FUN this year! I want to be able to drop things and have a 'girls night'. Or just sit in the living room and play pretend with Aubrey.

Aubrey! Need I say more?

Cook! I have time to plan meals and experiment with new recipes. Cooking is relaxing for me...and my husband is NOT a picky eater, so I have a first hand taste tester in my house!

Enjoy! Enjoy life, enjoy this NEW chapter of my life! I turned 30 last April, soon to be 31. I can't WAIT to see what 30's bring to my life! 20's were insane, fast & furious! I want 30's to slow down and be classy!

Blog! Yes, I plan to fit into the 'relax & fun' time to keep up with this, so you can keep
up with me!

fun sunshades

As many of you know, I've been sharing Mary Kay for a few years now. But at the beginning of August, I took a road trip with a fun bunch of girls to Dallas Texas to attend the annual Mary Kay seminar. At first I was a little skeptical...I thought 'will I really be able to handle thousands of women for 4 days?!' I went with the expectation of GREAT things because when I pulled back into my driveway a week later, I knew I would either turn in all of my inventory and quit or I would buck up and DO something with the company.

Well, a tour through the Headquarters, tour through manufacturing and listening to endless stories of success and encouragement prompted me to move FORWARD with my business. I saw first hand that the Mary Kay company is FULL of compassion and GIVING! That's all they do from the top down! I saw how AMAZING the company is and how PRIVILEGED I am to be a small part of that!

So, these fancy sunshades are a result of me DOING something with my company! I facialed 30 faces in the month of August. Met a lot of new ladies and had SO much fun doing it! My director challenged me and set the reward as a pair of MK Sunglasses. AWESOME!

September...my goal is 50 faces! My inspiration is a wonderful lady from the middle of 'no-wheresville' Indiana. A four way stop town surrounded by cornfields. (Sounds like the same town in Indiana where I grew up...but it's not) In one year this amazing woman facialed over 1,000 women! She was front and center on stage at Seminar. I WANT to be front and center on stage! There are so many women for me to meet and share MK with. I love how wonderful and pampered they feel when they are done being 'facialed'!

And NO, I'm not throwing out my Nursing career. MK is my 'vacation', my 'relaxation'. Nursing is and will be at the forefront of my career!

Git 'er done!

Well... yesterday was the FIRST day of my LAST semester of Nursing School. For the ASN program anyway. (I plan to do online courses to complete my BSN in about a year) But for now...ONLY 15 WEEKS LEFT OF THE SEMESTER! I could not be happier!

Mondays are spent from 8:30-3:30 in the classroom learning theory and how to do 'hands on'. Wednesdays are spent from 6:15a.m. - 5:00p.m. at the Hospital being a Nurse! Plus 1 1/2 hours after that with post conference/paperwork! Whew! My clinical days will be spent on the Cardiac floor. I am nervous as all get out about the heart, but it is intriguing to me at the same time. So, I am ready to learn a lot about it!

Sounds like I have a lot of time off during the week....but there is ALWAYS an Exam or Quiz to study for! Not much down time, but I'm ready to hit it hard and GIT 'ER DONE!

Graduation pictures are next week! It's all coming to a close and I will be official within 6 months! Surreal and EXCITING!

I'll keep you posted as I finish this little journey.

ahhhh summer time!

No, this is NOT a picture of us on the lake in our boat. We have a fun little fishing boat, gets us where we need to go, but it's not the sail boat Justin dreams of! This picture just reminds me of what summer is about. FUN & SUN!

It is near the end of July, my summer is almost coming to a close.
I am very sad about that. School will start back up Aug. 23. It's my last semester, I am happy for that, but I love my summer schedule! In May I thought 'I have the ENTIRE summer to play with Aubrey and clean and sort and just relax'. Well, throw in 3 weeks of camps, 1 week of vacation & 4 days of a seminar...that kind of takes care of the fun and relaxation of the ENTIRE summer. But I am trying to enjoy EVERY moment with Aubrey.

She is getting more fun and more personality by the hour! Everyone told me I would LOVE being a parent. I love it more than I thought I would! Even the rough moments are worth loving.

Lately Justin has been getting Aubrey to call me 'chicky mama' and 'mama cita'. So the other day I asked him what EXACTLY 'mama cita' meant, since neither of us are fluent in Spanish, we figured we should figure out what we are telling our child to call me. We found out it means 'hot mama'. I'll take that! :)

Next week is our last week of kids camp. I feel like I'm 10 all over again, getting ready to pack, sneak in snacks and preparing to sweat my tale off!

I love summer. Maybe not the heat and humidity. But the fun, relaxed atmosphere that we all need some times in our life. I wish summer could last longer!

selling frenzy!

It's been a few weeks since I've been on to blog. Summer is filled with activities to keep us busy! All fun stuff, but exhausting! As mentioned in a previous post, we had a week and a half of Extreme Zone Days (Day Camp) with the kids at our church. Once again, a TON of fun, but EXHAUSTING! So last week we took it easy. Aubrey and I went to the pool with a friend and her mommy, then had them over for mac-n-cheese and PBJ. Fancy I know! I've cleaned out more closets and storage totes than I know what to do with! Re-arranged furniture, SOLD furniture and BOUGHT furniture! It's been a productive week!

A friend of ours sparked a MONSTER in us a few weeks ago. She was having a garage sale and invited us to add some of our stuff to her sale. So we unloaded a TON of items at her house and sold most of it! Including furniture! We decided after 9 years of being married and having nice, but mix/match furniture that 'just' worked, it was time for us to find something we could really relax with and enjoy! So we sold both entertainment centers, both t.v.'s, trying to sell the glider rocker and couch...to obtain ONE t.v. and ONE comfortable couch! This has added so much space to other rooms in our house! IT'S FABULOUS! I want to CONTINUE to clean and sort and toss and sell and re-arrange to make more space! And it ALL began with a little garage sale! :)

my hat rack is full!

When I attended CBC back in the day to acquire my Children's Ministry Degree, I had to take a music class! HA! If you know me, you KNOW I don't have an ounce of music intelligence! But our professor had us read a book about the 'many different hats you will wear in the ministry'. This week, my 'hatrack' was maxed out! Here is a list of the different hats I wore in a 5 day period:

1. mommy

2. wife (celebrating 9 years with my hubby!)

3. children's pastor's wife (this is separate than 'just' wife)

4. counselor for the green team (for day camp)

5. van driver

6. tour guide

7. nurse

8. mary kay consultant

9. dishwasher

10. launderer

11. teacher

12. secretary/receptionist

12! 12 hats this week! I AM EXHAUSTED! Loved every minute of it, but I would like a break next week please!

body guard please!

I have been filling in at the retirement home I used to work part-time with. Just on an 'as needed' basis. I sit at the front receptionist desk taking phone calls, sorting mail, trouble shooting random questions, playing 'banker' for residents and just trying to keep people happy on the front lines.

Residents in the nursing home come down in their wheel chairs and walkers to see the birds or look around. One particular cute little lady with white hair, glasses and weighs not more than 100 lbs came down in her wheelchair the other day to say 'hi' and to look around. While she was down here, a gentleman came in to wait for someone he had an appt. with. He stood around for about 5-10 minutes before leaving for his appointment. I noticed the resident had stopped just on the other side of my desk and set there, not really doing anything, just sitting facing the gentleman and the door.

After he left she wheeled over to my desk and this is how the conversation went:

Resident: Did you know that man?

Me: No

Resident: I didn't think so. I could tell he's the kind who could cause trouble

Me: Oh yeah? Well he was just waiting to meet someone.

Resident: (not hearing what I said) I decided to kind of hang around up here just in case you needed anything. I can tell when someone is up to no good.

Me: Well, I am so glad you did! You could have run him over with you wheelchair if he tried anything huh?!

Resident: -Laughing- 'Yes I could!'

She wheeled past the desk on her way down the hall, looking over her shoulder in a very concerned and matter of fact tone stated:

"Now I'll be down the hall, just around the corner. If you need anything, you holler"

And she wheeled off down the hall, around the corner.

I was SO relieved I had a bodyguard at my beckon calling!

These people make me smile!