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Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Saturday, December 12, 2015

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Soccer!

This little champ played Cub Soccer this year, and he LOVED it! We have a few things to work on, like everything, but he loved the whole atmosphere of it all. He was the smallest one on his team, so he only got to kick the ball like twice, but he loved when his coach let him throw it in to start the game.

I'm too cheap to pay for professional pictures, so I took my own, and I like them way better :)

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Nursing School Graduation

On September 12, 2015, I walked across a stage and received a diploma from Provo College. I even graduated with Honors! I never did that in high school, or any other college. It feels amazing to be finished. The ceremony was kinda long, and even more boring. (Because they always are, right?) I was however, asked to give a 5 minute speech. And when I say asked, I mean my class voted for me to speak.

I couldn't have done this without the help of my amazing husband. He truly made it possible, and took the not only the role and job of husband and provider who works full time, but also the mom, and housekeeper for 16 months. I'm so lucky to have him by my side.

My parents and Buck's parents came and supported me as well. I'm lucky to have such amazing, and supportive family.

Here is my speech that I gave:

Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen, friends, families, teachers, and fellow classmates; I am grateful for the opportunity I have to be able to stand before you today and congratulate my fellow graduates, and hopefully bring a smile to each of your faces at least one last time. As I sat down to write this very speech, I was truly at a loss for any words of inspiration that I might render to you all. So I reverted back to my fine skills that I used all throughout nursing school whenever I didn't know or wasn't sure of something, and Googled it. :)

I think it's safe to say that I speak for most of us when I say that we have looked forward to our Graduation day since the beginning of our education in each of our career fields. We are all happy and excited to move on to the next big step, and chapter in our lives, with more knowledge in our brains, confidence in our steps, and eagerness in our hearts. With that, I would like to talk today, about failure.

J.K. Rowling said, “It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in which case, you fail by default.” Yes, I do understand that we graduates are here listening to this speech today because we did in fact, NOT fail in our classes, and that we are indeed successful and ready to embrace our new careers. However, part of being successful is to have experienced failure. Failure teaches many lessons. Failing defines us, and helps to make us better. Professor Mark S. Lewis, of clinical psychology tells a story that helps explain my point.

The First Tightrope Walker

In 1859 the Great Blondin -- the man who invented the high wire act, announced to the world that he intended to cross Niagara Falls on a tightrope. Five thousand people including the Prince of Wales gathered to watch. Halfway across, Blondin suddenly stopped, steadied himself, back-flipped into the air, landed squarely on the rope then continued safely to the other side. During that year, Blondin crossed the Falls again and again -- once blindfolded, once carrying a stove, once in chains, and once on a bicycle. Just as he was about to begin yet another crossing, this time pushing a wheelbarrow, he turned to the crowd and shouted "Who believes that I can cross pushing this wheelbarrow?" Every hand in the crowd went up. Blondin pointed at one man.
"Do you believe that I can do it?" he asked.
"Yes, I believe you can," said the man.
"Are you certain?" said Blondin
"Yes," said the man.
"Absolutely certain?"
"Yes, Absolutely certain."
"Thank you" said Blondin, "Then sir, get into the wheelbarrow."

Like that man in the crowd, you all know a lot of things. But also like that man, there will be times in your life when knowing things won’t matter as much as how scary the situation is -- and when that happens you’ll have to decide whether or not to get into the wheelbarrow.

Each of us are prepared and ready to embark on our journey into our new career. Do we know everything about what we are getting ourselves into? No. Are we prepared knowledge wise? I hope so,as we are about to receive diplomas. What we need to remember though is we are still learning, and that on occasion, we are going to fail. The important thing, is how we react to our failures, and how we choose to learn, and better ourselves from them. Rahm Emanuel said, “You will have failures in your life, but it is what you do during those valleys that will determine the height of your peaks.”

Failing is a part of life; a part that helps shape who we are. But failure does not always have to be bad, or negative. Even though failure is imminent, there will also be triumphs and successful times in our lives. Adm. William McRaven of the U.S. Navy said, “Know that life is not fair and that you will fail often, but if take you take some risks, step up when the times are toughest, face down the bullies, lift up the downtrodden and never, ever give up—if you do these things, the next generation and the generations that follow will live in a world far better than the one we have today and—what started here will indeed have changed the world—for the better.”

I have one last story of a very successful man, who didn't start out very successful at all. This man had desired to help people all throughout his youth, and when old enough, he attended medical school and became a doctor, as he was a very intelligent man. As he began his career of helping others in the medical field, he found himself disliking his job more and more every day, because he didn't like talking to people, be it his staff, or his patients. He felt like he was failing every day. He later decided to become a mortician, where he finally felt that he got along with his patients, and was able to help them.

Mark Twain said it best with what he called the "Live Frog" principle. Twain used to argue, and quite convincingly, that one should swallow a live frog at the beginning of every day. That way you'd know the worst part of your day was behind you.

Graduates of 2015, congratulate yourselves and be proud—we can do hard things.

My Dirty Thirty!

I turned 30 this year! Crazy that I am 3 decades old. Some of my closest friends made it super special for me, and my other friend who also turned 30 one day before me. We were able to take a quick weekend trip down to Vegas, for tons of buffet food, entertainment, and shopping. It was so much fun!!

We spent the weekend in Vegas, but my birthday was on wednesday, and Buck once again played hookie from work to be with me. My inlaws took our boys that morning for us to have all week for cousins camp up in Idaho. We drove up to the top of the state to meet them half way, and they took us all out to birthday breakfast at Denny's. Then on our way home, since we had no kids, we stopped at the City Creek Mall in Salt Lake and spent the day shopping and seeing what they had there. Buck doted on me, and I felt loved and spoiled. We drove down to Provo, and caught a movie, and then ended the night with dinner at Red Robin, and delicious birthday cake. It was such a perfect day, I loved all of the one on one time with my Buck. Happy Birthday to me indeed! :)

Buck's 34th Birthday

Buck played hookie from work so that we could take him to dinner to celebrate this amazing man for his birthday. We had a few gifts that Kallan had picked out, and ate at Brick Oven. We are so lucky and blessed to have him our our husband and daddy.

These boys sure do think the world of him.

Last Day of Nursing School

August 10, 2015 was our last official day of nursing school. The last time we will ever wear these black scrubs, and last time that we might see some of our classmates. It was bittersweet. I was lucky enough to be able to go through school with my two besties, who helped me through so much more than just school

Kait is the blonde in the middle, and Brittny is the blonde on the Right. These two girls were my strength through it all. It's funny how life still happens even though you're in school and you barely have time for little else. I worked part time and had two little boys at home while I attended Provo College for 16 months. Which was super fast, and even I can't believe it's over. But I'm so grateful it is.

These girls are amazing.

ER Trip for Facial Trauma

We started the month of August off with a little trip to the ER for Kallan. He was in his bed, supposed to be asleep, and he was jumping around being the little acrobat that he always is. He jumped to land face down on his pillow, and I was in the kitchen upstairs when I heard a loud thump, and then horrific scream crying. He ran upstairs to me holding his cheek which was streaming blood. I picked him up and leaned him over the sink, and he grabbed the wash cloth I had just used to clean the counter tops with, and didn't think twice about it. We got the bleeding stopped, and since it was gaping, I took him in for stitches.

Once we got there, my friend and co-worker ER doctor said that it would scar less if we just glued it. So we did, and it looked great!

We left happy. This above pic is how he looked when we left.

This is how he looked the next morning, but I wasn't worried because I figured it would swell. He had quite the shiner!

So two days later I was brushing his teeth for bed when I noticed his cut looked like this. Above pic. That is pus. Ugh it was super infected. I peeled the glue off and it literally spurted pus out like a zit. So then I had to leave it open to drain, and he had to take antibiotics.

We were a little worried about the infection going up into his eye, Periorbital cellulitis, but luckily it drained.

These pics were take the very next day! Just with draining it, the swelling went down a ton. It's all but almost healed now, with a pink little scar. I'm bummed that it's on his face, but we'll get it revised if we have to :)