School Pictures

We decided not to buy the kids' traditional school pictures this year. They are overpriced and I am usually not very happy with the quality. Most of the time the kids look like they just got done with P.E. or recess when their pictures were taken.

Instead, my friend Liz was nice enough to take a few pictures of the kids in her studio. I love, love, love how they turned out.

Here are a few for your enjoyment.

Isn't She CUTE?

Five Little Pumpkins

Since first sight of our little pumpkins, Tommy has been asking to pick them.

Every day I would get, "Mom can we pick the pumpkins now?"

Today I finally gave him the okay.

He picked the only five that were ready.

It made me think of a poem that Logan had to memorize in preschool.

Five little pumpkins sitting on the gate.

The first one said, “Oh, my it’s getting late.”

The second one said, “There are witches in the air.”

The third one said, “But we don’t care.”

The fourth one said, “Let’s run and run and run.”

The fifth one said, “I’m ready for some fun.”

Ooooo! Went the wind, and out went the light.

And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight!

CNA

I had to take a Nursing Assistant/Home Health Attendant class this summer. Which when finished with the course I became a CNA. The class is required for all students wanting to get into the Nursing program that do not have previous experience in the medical field.

The theory and lab portion of the class was approximately 5 weeks, then we had to do 3 weeks of clinicals at a rest home. Oh the stories I could tell of the things I saw, heard and smelled. I will spare you all the details. Your Welcome.

While it was the worst experience of my life, it was also the best. I got to help some amazing people there. Some of these people really touched my heart in ways I can't explain. After every shift I would get in my cry and want to cry for them. There was a 99 year old lady that I really took a liking to. She made me smile every day and although she had dementia she said some super funny things. She would hold my hand and tell me how much she loved me.

The picture below is of the group of us that went to clinicals together.

Toni, Me, Monique, Micha (our instructor), Robin, Dina, Nell

Every one of these girls is amazing to me. They were all so willing to jump in and help one another in the crappiest situations, literally.

Dina and I were partners in lab a lot, we made sure of it. We became good friends and not a day went by that we didn't laugh our butts off about something. I am gonna miss our half hour lunch runs together.

Nell was the first person I met in class and wouldn't you know, her husband was Logan's teacher last year and Karli's teacher this year. What a small world. Nell is 2 semesters ahead of me in the nursing program. She has given me plenty of tips about the program. I think Nell gave more showers than anyone else. She just seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when Micah was looking for people to do shower duty.

I still feel bad about sticking Robin with a HUGE poopie clean up job. I didn't do it on purpose. Monique and I walked into a man's room and he was a MESS!!! We went out to get supplies to clean him up and Robin nicely offered to help. We had to use a lift to get him out of bed and when the CNA came in she told us there were to many people in the room. Robin was on the opposite side of the bed and Monique and I were closest to the door and we bailed, leaving Robin to clean the rest.

Toni had worked in a rest home before so she knew what she was doing. I always wanted to do vitals with her because she could do a persons blood pressure in 5 seconds. It would take me a little (maybe a lot) longer and the elderly do not have patience when the life is being squeezed out of their arm. As I was taking the vitals of one elderly lady she bald up her fist to take a swing at me. Luckily, Toni was there to stop her.

Our instructor, Micah, was amazing. She really wanted us to know learn and never let us off easy. I have a feeling I will run into her again when I start the actual Nursing program in May 2011.

I am gonna miss these girls.

The Fruits of our Labor....

Back in March when our friends, Mike and Renae, were visiting, Renae "helped" (she did most of the hard work) Karli and I plant a garden. This is the first time in my married life that I have attempted a garden. Growing up, my dad always had a garden and us kids were always roped into helping him plant, weed, and harvest. At the time I hated it. Now, I wish I had payed more attention to what my Dad was trying to teach us. I do not have a green thumb. Luckily, Renae does.

We even managed to turn our gardening into one of Karli's Young Women's value projects.

I thought I would do a little post to show Renae what has become of our little garden.

Some squash:

I don't remember planting pumpkins but for some reason we have a very large vine of mini pumpkins growing. Weird. I know.


We planted green beans and spinach but none of them survived. After talking to other people in the area, I was told green beans and spinach are hard to grow here. Oh well.

What got us most excited were the carrots.


They made for a yummy Sunday dinner with our pot roast and potato's. The kids were so excited to eat something that we grew ourselves. I have to admit, so was I.

Thanks Renae!!!

Hangman

Saturday was the all day Stake Activity Day. So, being the Activity Day leader I got to spend all day with 90 girls from the ages of 8-11. Yay me!

For one of the activities the girls got to play hangman using words from the Articles of Faith. Our primary president, Sandy Vasquez, would ask the girls what to do you want to hang? The girls would reply with an elephant, a dog, a giraffee and so on. Well, one of the girls yelled out, "Lets hang Sister Skinner."

Luckily, I didn't get hung. But here is the finished picture:

The resemblences is striking, No?


The picture looks more like Darla if you ask me.

Sandy kept saying, "Why are you sleeping?"

She Must Have Been Really Tired.

I went into Madison's room the other night to make sure she was getting ready for bed and this is what I found:She fell asleep in her chair. I ran to grab my camera, came back and snapped and picture and the flash woke her up.