I lost a month... part 1

In the 6 1/2 years that I have had a blog I never once missed one month of posting... until last month! I don't even know what happened (but I know a lot happened) and I still feel like it still should be May. I feel like I lost an entire month! It was an extremely busy month, starting with my birthday and graduation from the Bachelor's in Nursing program at MSU. My parents came for the weekend to support me and we had a blast!

The morning after they arrived, my parents took me birthday shopping while we waited for Jared to be home from school. My sweet dad pushed Shad around in the stroller while my mom and I searched for a dress to wear for my graduation.

We ate lunch at McAlister's Deli

Then we drove up north to Mackinaw City and stayed in a beautiful hotel on the beach, but unfortunately it was still in the 30's outside and ice was still floating in the lake. Still beautiful nonetheless.

The next morning we took the ferry over to Mackinac (also pronounced Mackinaw-something about the French pronouncing it that way but the English writing it the way it sounded....) Island. It was totally deserted, probably because the high for the day was 39 degrees! Most of the shops were closed, but we did go up and walk in the Grand Hotel.

It was super cold, and Shad wasn't too happy about it

                                      

Shad really loves his grandma and grandpa, and I love these pice of them!

The next day was my birthday and graduation. I could hear Shad in the audience the whole time saying, "Cars! Weeoo weeoo!" I love his sweet little voice!

My mom snapped this one of me and Shad walking down the stairs and him holding my "diploma"

My awesome supportive parents. Love them!

The two loves of my life

After graduation my parents took us to a local sushi place. I cannot get enough sushi rolls! 

Then that night we had pizzas on the Traeger and cake and ice cream to finish up the celebrations. I was so spoiled and felt so loved all day!

This is the end of part 1... I don't have the energy to post anymore tonight!

Too School for Cool

.... Or not.  Yes, it's true. I love school. Call me crazy, but there's something about going to school and learning new things that just makes me happy inside. Maybe it's just because it's been a few years since I've been in school. Ask me at the end of this semester and maybe I won't be as enthusiastic. Ha ha. I wouldn't be asking Jared any time soon though. Poor kid, he's been so burned out lately. This weekend was the longest time he has had off and hasn't needed to study for something since Christmas break, so we tried to make the most of it.

Friday night we stayed at a hotel in Ann Arbor and stayed up late like we did when we were dating. (Even though at 10:30 we were both exhausted and just wanted to lay in bed and watch tv) but we pushed through that funk and went out on the town and had a good time. So we went out and walked around town and ate pizza outside at midnight.

It was so much fun and the pizza was REALLY good! Then we went back to the hotel and chilled in the Jacuzzi that was in our room.  It was so nice to just be "us" again.

The next morning we drove home early to get a start on the "rib-off" that we had with our neighbors.

Jared was pretty disappointed because he wanted to try a new way that he's never done before with different flavors and a different way to cook them, and then realized that they weren't nearly as good as his previous stuff. So then he hurried a couple hours before it started and got another rack and used his old recipe, and we entered them as "my" ribs. They didn't have as much time to cook as they normally do, so they still weren't as good, but at least a good contender.

The contenders and their ribs

Del and Jess figuring out who the won

There were three categories for the scoring: appearance, tenderness, and taste. Sadly, the three boys who were the most serious about this (Jared, Skyler and John) didn't even place in the overall best ribs. The winners were: 1st place-Liam (whose were wrapped in bacon), 2nd place-Doug (who made a realy good bourbon sauce), and 3rd place- Bob (who made some pretty good boneless ribs). Jared's did tie for third in appearance, and "my" ribs were 2nd in taste. Even still, we all had a good time and there was a lot of good-natured "trash talk" going on (although most of it was before the winners were announced...) We will definitely be doing this again in the spring!

Last night we decided to camp out in the backyard with our trailer.

It was so much fun. We had a campfire and roasted mallows, and we had  a movie on the projector on the side of the house for the kiddos. It was so nice to just chill and hang out with everyone.

This week is back to school for both of us though. So long short summer, we'll miss you!

Tribute to the Graduate

Jared graduated last week with a major in Spanish, and minors in Art, Chemistry, and Zoology. He has worked his butt off for this, especially this semester. Not only was he the student body vice president and had several activities to plan this semester, but he also played hockey through the end of February along with his 20 credit hours and 3 hours a week of research. Talk about burn-out! He ended up with a 3.5 this semester to top it off! I have to say, I'm pretty dang proud of him. He's kept a level head through it all.

*Note: all of these pictures were stolen from my sister-in-law Kendra's blog. I accidentally packed up our sd card that goes in my camera so I wasn't able to take any. Thanks Kendra!


A picture with the handsome graduate


President Monson was given an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities at the graduation ceremony that morning. Pretty dang cool. Jared got to sit on the floor with all of the important people because he was a student body officer.


After the ceremony, Jared had his two cute nephews come down with him on the floor to meet President Monson. They both got to give him a "high-five". How cool is that?

I am so proud of my husband for all of his accomplishments. Congratulations babe, you did it!

It's official!

I know most of you already know by now, but I passed my RN boards last week and I am now officially a registered nurse! Here's the proof:

Graduation!

I graduated last night from nursing school. What a relief to finally be done! It still seems pretty surreal to me, but I'm sure it will sink in next week when I realize I don't have to go to school. I do still have to take my RN boards, but I can't even sign up for another month or so, so right now I'm just enjoying not having to worry about studying or homework. All of my family came to support me, including my grandparents and my aunt Carrie, who is also an RN. I am so grateful to have such a loving and supporting family.

Carrie got to "pin" me since she is also an RN (even though it wasn't my pin, I didn't buy one, a lot of us boycotted them because they were $32 and way ugly. Oh well)


She was so sweet to come and support me, what a cool aunt I have!


My awesome sisters who I am so excited to spend more time with now!


My cute grandma who came to support me


My amazing supportive hubby who helped me get through it all.


My sweet Grandpa who has always called me his "favorie cashier" and I will probably always be known to him as that, even though I have long since moved on. (I worked at Golden Corral as a cashier about 6 years ago, and he used to come visit me.)


My amazing parents!


Getting my diploma(the cover anyway, the real part will come in the mail in a few months, which is what I have to wait for to be able to sign up for the NCLEX... LAME)



My awesome friends Tori, Amanda and Kelly. We had a blast together in our little corner in the back, we all helped each other get through this. I'm going to miss seeing them all the time, but we'll definitely have to get together often. I'll probably go through withdrawals. ;)

Schoooooool's.....Out, For, the Summer!

So I finished my last final this afternoon, and I am proud to say I passed all my classes with fLyInG cOlOrS! (yes, I know, that's so clichè.) I have so many things I want to do this summer. Some of these things include scrapbooking Jared's mission pictures and our WEDDING pictures, reading as many books as I can, and taking a few little trips. Somehow I need to fit that all in between working full time and my Patho class (which may be slightly time-consuming). I guess I'd better get started!

Stressed? Who's stressed?

What a week! Tomorrow after 12:30 (when my clinical is over) I can finally relax. This past week has been way stressful. Last Thursday and Friday I had my clinicals (which start at 5:30 am in Bountiful), and over the weekend, asside from working, I had to type a 15 page paper about my clinical due on Monday, AND study for two huge tests, Fundamentals of Nursing on Tuesday, Pharmacology on Wednesday. Needless to say, I made it through it all, passed my tests with flying colors, and I am still alive to tell the tale. I just have to keep telling myself it will all be worth it when I'm finished. It really is fun and I am so excited to be a nurse! Today was the first day of clinicals that I got to do everything by myself while the nurse supervised. I didn't get to give any shots today though. :( maybe tomorrow. Well, I better start on my next 15 page paper due Monday again. I hope you all have a great week/weekend!

Finals are over!

Today Jared and I had our last finals. Jared also had a grueling four hour testing for his Fed Ex training. So he went straight from Salt Lake to take that, to Weber to take two more hour and a half finals for his autocad classes. Poor kid, he had a long day but it's finally over! Now we can party! Tonight we're celebrating at La Ferovia. Woo hoo!