2011

One of my favorite things to do on New Year's Eve is to reminisce of all the things that happened in the past year. An entire year can pass in a blink of an eye, so I think it's important to be reminded of all God's blessings or the challenges he's helped you overcome. Even though sometimes a year can feel like it's speeding by, mine felt like it was an eternity. But I was okay with that because I had a great year! I had so many things on my "to-do" for 2011 and I almost accomplished all of them. I must say 2011 was definitely my year!

The year always starts out great because I get to celebrate my birthday! But also, I got to celebrate a 2 year anniversary with my best friend. This year would have been a complete struggle without Jeffrey by my side. I am so thankful to have him in my life and he has helped make this year a great one.

As most of you know, elephants are my greatest passion in life. I think God put them on this earth just for me :) So naturally, I've always wanted to ride an elephant! Last year I felt like everyone I knew was traveling overseas and showing me all the pictures of elephants they got to see (or ride). Sadly, I was more depressed than excited for them. But this year was my year to ride my very first elephant! And her name was Dixie. In April, I was taken on a surprise trip by Jeffrey to the Santa Ana Zoo, where they give (secret) elephant rides. I say "scecret" because I have been trying for years to find a place that allows elephant rides and have found nothing. But Jeffrey wanted to bring a smile to my face, and planned this most unexpected surprise. Not only did me make me smile, but he brought tears to my eyes. So I got to ride Dixie the elephant. She was perfect. I think it was love at first sight. My next goal, now, is to feed an elephant!

This year was also filled with my greatest accomplishment. Graduation! I am still in disbelief that I graduated from college. Those four years were a huge struggle filled with sleepless nights. Gradation was so wonderful spending time with everyone I love and hold dear to my heart.

Another thing on my to-do list was to go to a Rascal Flatts concert. This has been a long awaited event, but in Septermber Amy and I both went to our first rascies concert. I'm so glad I could spend that time with my sister because I miss her so much, and we had the best time. And the concert was beyond amazing. I can't wait to see them again. Yes, now I'm getting greedy.

Here are some other events that happened this year: first time in Las Vegas, spending time in Modesto, taking an art class with my grandma, running my 3rd half marathon.

I've really been focusing on the good things that have happened this year. I'm not saying it didn't have it's downs, because it did...a lot of them. But sometimes you really have to focus on what is good to over come the bad. One of the bad things was my cousin passing away in april. It was a very emotional time on my family and God has shown me that He is holding my precious life in his hands. With all of the hardships, God is telling me He is in control.

Of course, I haven't forgotten about getting accepted into nursing school! That was also a difficult time this year when I first heard I was not accepted into the program, but as you can see God knew exactly what He was doing. I cannot wait for school to start and start fresh. It's time to begin a new year. God is amazing!

Nightmare

And so it begins...the start of my nursing nightmares. I had my first nightmare last night, where a series of unfortunate events occurred. I think trying to explain a dream to someone is one of the hardest things to do, but I'll try my best.

I woke up the morning of my first day of nursing school, to look at the clock and see that class started two hours ago. I was in a rush to get over there and was mortified I overslept. So I grabbed my books (which happened to be the wrong ones) and hopped on the bus. The entire bus ride I was in panic mode trying to figure out how I was going to walk into class unnoticed. When I got on campus I walked into a dark classroom, where the professor was giving a powerpoint presentaiton. I took a seat to find that Jeffrey was sitting right next to me. I looked at him and he kept whispering and asking me why I was so late. He wanted to surprise me on my first day, but I was actually embarrassed by the gesture. As I'm trying to explain to Jeff what happened, the professor asks me a question about the lecture and I just had a blank stare with nothing to say. It was awful. After the lecture everyone was handed what looked like a child's play toy (it was one of those yellow boxes with the shape cut outs). We had to push through all the shapes in under a minute and I, of course, couldn't do it. I don't know what that means, but I felt like an idiot.

That was my dream. I'm going to try everything in my power that those events don't happen. I usually have freak out dreams every time I'm nervous about something, so I don't think this is the end of my nightmares.

Jeffrey's in Tucson!

I'm home!!! And I can't believe I'm actually calling it home!

This past week I spent Thanksgiving with the family, minus Amy and Joel. But we did add Jeffrey to the mix. He took time away from his family to spend Thanksgiving with me and mine. The time spent we spent is what will always be our first Thanksgiving together. It's really one of the first holiday's we've spent together, and I was mostly thankful for the quality time we could spend with each other.

I, unfortunately, was getting over a cold, so the week was primarily filled with relaxing. We managed to fit a few fun events though. We really don't have any family traditions for Thanksgiving, but relaxing is what everyone needed anyway. We had a great Thanksgiving day meal, set up the [fake] Christmas tree, went black friday shopping and went on a good ol' Arizona hike.

Black Friday shopping was an event. Jeff had never been black friday shopping, so we decided to venture out. We decided to head over to Kohl's, with nothing in particular in mind. Bad idea! The store was nuts. We showed up a little after 12 am, and justed walked around the store. After about 15 minutes we left empty handed. This was no time for shopping, but our night didn't end there. We stopped by Target to meet up with my dad who had been doing shopping himself. We finally made it home around 2 am. I guess it was better than getting up at 4 am to shop.

But lets focus on nursing....

Concordia has been a little slow with further information, and leaving everyone on their toes. But this past friday I finally signed up for my classes! My schedule doesn't look too bad with 17 units. I have lectures on Monday, Thursday and Fridays, labs on Tuesdays, and clinicals on Wednesdays. What a week! At least I have my weekends free for whatever may come.

Even though relaxing has played a major role in my past weeks at home, relaxing is no longer an option. I'm currently in the process of ordering my books. Eleven to be exact. And reading and homework assignments to follow. Packing will also be squeezed in there somewhere. Oh boy.

Road Trip

My time in Modesto is finally over! I have been here since June and I think it's time to go home. I have loved my time here working at Lifeouch, spending time with my aunt, taking up an art class with my grandma, training for the 1/2 marathon, working on my scrapbook and just enjoying what felt like a stay-in vacation. But I really do want to go home. I miss my family and my house and my cheeto puff. I am leaving for a drive down to san diego to spend some time with caitlin, then I'll finish the drive to Arizona. It will be a long drive, but I will have the best company with me for the second part of the drive (aka Jeffrey).

Last week I turned in my packet for school. Everything is completed, ordered and ready to go! I haven't given much thought about school lately, just been focusing on my running. It's been a struggle this time to put my 100% into training. I had the time, but didn't have the energy or motivation. I wish I would have trained a little harder, but sunday is almost here and I'm just going to give it everything I have. Rumor has it   that it is going to rain on sunday (or says weather.com). That should be interesting. I've never ran 13 miles in the rain. I'm going to have to wear pants and a sweatshirt while I run so my muscles stay warm, and I don't like wearing so many layers. The less the better!

Growing Up

I can't believe I start nursing school in 4 months! It seems so grown up to be starting nursing school and getting ready to have a career. I still feel like I'm still a child and learning the ways of the world. It's kind of embarrassing to admit this, but yesterday I went to the doctor's office by myself for the first time. I went to get my physical to get everything squared away for school and everything went pretty smoothly, but I was nervous. haha.

When I walked into the doctor's office I had some weird sense of deja vu. Then, when I was walking up the stairs I realized that I was in the same building my pediatrician used to be in years ago. The carpet, the lighting, and even the smell was the same. So this experience brought me back to my childhood, reminding myself I'm not ready for school.

My arm is still a bit sore from my flu vaccination and I have to get my TB test checked tomorrow. Apparently I have to get a 2-step TB test. I thought that's that they all were. The first step -  you get the injection. The second step - you get it checked. Well I was completely wrong. A 2-step TB test is getting the test done twice. Why on earth would you need to get it done twice? I guess I should have asked the doctor, but I was just puzzled. He just said it's the new thing. I feel like getting shots for everything is the new thing. Kids don't even get the chicken pox anymore, just the vaccine. So now I'm just waiting for some results and hopefully my major paperwork will be complete.

I ordered one of my nursing books today. It's called Nursing: The Philosophy and Science of Caring by Jean Watson. They recommended to start reading this book early because it is difficult to follow. Seems like a simple title to me, but I'll find out when I get it.

So the next step will be to order my Concordia student scrubs and take my CPR class online. I'm getting excited!

Oh goodness...

As you can see, my writing has been lacking the past couple weeks. So I decided to catch up and write my little heart out about everything that has been going on lately. After 3 days of writing, I finally finished that much overdue post, but will not be posting it. It was erased accidentally when I was trying to edit. So as of right now I am currently annoyed and upset, and not in the mood to write. So here's the beyond simplified version of my life right now.

• Went down to Orange County for my nursing orientation a couple weeks ago
• Only working 2 days a week, which has left me with a numerous amount of free time
• I have been running everyday for my half marathon in November
• Not ready for summer to be over

Yes, I cried

Oh. My. Goodness. I am still in shock, but I am so excited to announce that I am a nursing student at Concordia University! After so much hard work, stressful planning and a rejection, I can  see my future ahead of me! I received an email on Thursday with the title in the subject line "Welcome to the Concordia ABSN Program." So before I even opened the email I knew the good news. I was sitting on the couch and turned my computer toward my aunt in shock saying, "I think I got into the program." Even though I knew I got in haha. She was so excited for me and gave me a hug. The email said that was accepted and should be getting a complete packet in the mail with more information (which I did that same day). I was so excited and started making my phone calls. All day I felt like I was in a dream like state. It didn't really hit me until the next morning, when I woke up crying because I was so happy. I feel so lucky to be accepted into a program, when sometimes it takes years for some people to get in. God has blessed me so much and I am so Thankful. So right now I'm ready to soak up everyday of this new adventure.