Job

Look who finally got a job! We were kind of fighting all summer about getting a job.  She finally got a job the "Park Place Eatery".  They  have yummy food.  And of course we had to make aprons for her to wear at work!  I'm super proud of her, and I also think it is awesome that she is learning some kitchen skills.  She's an excellent crepe maker!

Homecoming 2017

 Look at these cute kiddos!  This guy Will asked Emilia to homecoming.  He is the nephew of a good friend of mine so we were all giddy about this date.  Emilia was not super thrilled about me taking her pictures, but of course I had to.  Don't they look cute!

The Little Mermaid

Adele with her bestie Evelyn

Adele loves to act and sing so we signed her up for The Little Mermaid. They practiced all summer. I sewed costumes all summer.  They finally had their performance and it was AWESOME!  There were over 200  kids in this production and they did such a great job.  Adele was a beta fish.

Impromptu Photo Shoot

This summer there was a family reunion in Island Park Idaho.  We got to the cabin before most of the other families and we were just hanging out. Sally is an amazing photographer and I have been wanting to have her take our family photos for a long time. We never have time though because when they visit for Easter there is never time to do it.  So I randomly got the idea and asked her to do it at the cabin.  We didn't plan for it and had to kind of throw some matching-ish outfits together. The kids were grumpy and only semi-cooperative. And the wind was blowing. But we managed to get a few nice pix. So now I don't have to do it again for a long time.

And then there is this photo. Seriously hilarious!  Kent looks ready!

Summer Jobs

This summer I have two jobs, plasma and sewing camp.  Hey, I'm revisiting my inner college student.  I never did the plasma thing before when I was in college so I decided to give it a try.  It's actually not too bad. And it's easy money.  Next summer I will be a nurse so I won't have to sell my blood. At least not this way.  As far as the sewing class goes I am torn about what to do. I may still teach a few students, because I think that it is something that people really want. I and I actually really enjoy teaching.  So I may pick a handful of my favorite students and teach a little bit, depending on how crazy my summer is. 

 

Girls Camp

I got called back into Young Women, which I think is GREAT!  I am Mia Maid adviser. One of the best things about YW is going to girls camp. I am so glad I could go this year, since it is Emilia's last year.  All the youth leaders did a lot of planning and made camp really awesome. I helped Emilia make a Moana costume because the theme this year was Moana. 

Me and my good friend Marlo

Look at all those cuties!

Waiting for it to get dark so the bats would come out

Our bishop and another biologist taking bats out of a net

Measuring bat wings

There was snow at a high elevation in a shady spot

Let's Play Music!

After three years in Let's Play Music Adele had her final recitals and graduated from the program.  She got to play the composition that she wrote. Thanks to Auntie Kathy for being such an awesome teacher!

Magic Flute

I have somehow succeeded in getting Emilia into opera.  She's in love with the Magic Flute.  So in love that she actually got her good friend Ashlyn to love it too.  Now we listen to it all the time, which is fine by me.  Elise, is getting kind of sick of it.  Emilia has been wanting to go see it in a theater for awhile now.  We found out that they were doing a performance at UVU.  So of course we had to go.  (And since I'm a student the tickets were only 5 bucks!)  We drove up to the aquarium during the day (and of course went to Ikea after). 

The Magic Flute was... interesting... they had decided to have the setting be in the 1920s ganfster era in New York.  So that was interesting.  But the music was awesome!  The Queen of the Night was amazing and I could have listened to Tamino forever and ever!  His voice was awesome!

These two girls who don't believe in talking to people really wanted to get their picture taken with the Queen of the Night!

Crash

Someone had an accident. It wasn't me. It wasn't Kent, but I'm not saying who it was. The funny thing was that the unnamed person who crashed actually hit the brother of one of Elise's best friends.  We didn't do a claim on it because it would have ended up costing 3x as much.  So we paid for the repair (and said adios to our Disneyland vacation that was planned for the summer. )  Sad.  Car repairs are a rip-off by the way.

Milk and Grapes

So, at Easter time we were getting ready for Kelly and Sally who always visit this time of year.  We were cleaning up Adele's room and something smelled SO funky in there. I kept asking her if she might have some food in there (cuz, that's happened a few times...). She kept saying "no, no, no, I don't have food in there."  She even looked under the bed a couple of times.  I went in there and looked under the bed.  There was a lunch sack.  With a lunch in there. An OLD lunch.  With chocolate milk and grapes.  The milk had not been opened but it was BULGING.  The grapes were slimy and fermented.  It smelled HORRIBLE and took a lot of carpet cleaner and Febreeze and several days for the smell to go away.  Fun times.

Haircuts

This kid hates haircuts. I always used to bribe him with suckers when I'd give him haircuts.  *Note to self, wait til after the haircut.  Now he's older and he just has to deal with it, but there is still usually a fair amount of whining and complaining.  Someday when he has to pay for his haircuts he may wish I was still around to do it for him.

At least we can smile about it right?

Jungle Book- Children's Theater

Our community has a great children's theater that Adele has been wanting to be involved with.  They do mini-musicals where they practice daily for two weeks. We decided to do this one of the weeks when I had spring break. I decided to sign up Ian too because he needs activities.  He was kind of ticked at first but he ended up having a fun time. He was a monkey and Adele was an elephant.

Cinnamon Rolls

This girl loves cinnamon rolls. She wanted to make sure she knows how to make them so she can make them all the time when she is on her own.  She made these on her own with a few pointers from me.  I think they turned out great!

yum

Level 2

So.  Level 2.  Level 2 is med/surg.  So basically a whole bunch of general stuff.  Lots of diseases, lots of stuff to memorize. We also have mental health, which for me is pretty easy (because I'm so crazy).  And because I have worked in mental health and taken abnormal psychology.  The craziest thing happened though, one day in our mental health class the Dean of the department was there.  We were thinking, "dang it, is she subbing today?"  Turns out she wasn't subbing because she was going to teach the class for THE REST OF THE SEMESTER because our mental health professor quit after 6 weeks.  IT was CRAZY!

So this semester we are super busy with clinicals, learning pharmacology and doing homework, homework and homework. And lots of group projects. Bleh.   Hopefully I will survive.  There are a lot of things that are really interesting though, and I really love pharmacology.  I got to do a clinical in the OR which I thought would be really cool.  There were some things about it that were really cool- but the people that worked there were not super nice to the students.  And really, I thought it would be cooler to be an OR nurse.  Turns out the nurses just help count supplies and sponges, help with equipment (like dropping things onto the sterile field since all the other people in the surgery are all sterile).  The nurses also do a lot of paperwork.  Blah.  The scrub techs are actually the ones that get to do the cool stuff.  They get to hand the dr. the instruments and help with the surgery.  It was cool to see the process though, and see the anesthesia.   And, I got to be all official wearing the surg get-up. So I had to get a pic!

Happy Valentine's Day

Usually I like to have a candlelight dinner or something sort of fancy for V-day.  This year the kids wanted fried chicken.  What says I love you more than fried chicken?  So we went to KFC.  Super non-traditional.  But- Super- because I didn't have to cook.  The posterity wasn't super cooperative for the picture.  Just keeping it real.  This is real.

Funny Cats

Since Kent is allergic to cats the kitties have to stay outside.  When it is really cold we let them in the garage.  Their  new favorite place to cuddle and sleep is on the shelf inside this stroller, under a prickly pine garland.  Weirdos.

Catch-up

Yep.  I have somehow managed to get more than 4 months behind. That's bad.  How could that happen... well...?
Just a note to those of you who actually read my blog (not sure there are even any), I am trying to remediate my slackerness and I am going to be posting some make-up posts several times per week.  Most of them are from last year. If I get any more behind this blog will die.  I don't want it to die.  I have to have something to print for posterity.  The posterity really enjoys reading the blog.

Level 2 (That means I passed Level 1)

Level 2 might not seem so great.  But let me tell you it is better than level 1!  I'm no longer the kindergartner of nursing school.  I survived the first semester, managed to eek out a 4.0 (by no small miracle), and passed onto to level 2.  We started school again yesterday.  Everyone keeps saying how hard level 2 is. I wish they'd stop.  I'd rather go along and make my own opinion about level 2.  Hearing people say it is going to be hard just makes me more stressed.  I think it is going to be fun because we get to learn about pharmacology, which I love. So far my professors all seem cool (And, I'm pretty sure I'm older than all of them.  Which is weird when you think about it, so I will try not to).  The thing I am most worried about is the increase in clinicals.  Most of them are 45 minutes away.  It gets tricky sometimes making sure everyone gets to school and home safely and to all the places where they need to be.  Not to mention the fact that we usually have to be to clinicals at 5:45 am.  This makes it so I have to get up REALLY early.   Again, I think how much easier this would be if I had done it 20 years ago.  Que Sera.  I will survive.  This semester the reward for surviving is a 4 month break for summer vacation. Lookin forward to that.

Still a cat

I saw this shirt and thought the girl looked so much like her.  When she wears it she can still be a cat.  And of course she loves it.

Then

Now

First Date - Homecoming

Emilia got asked to Homecoming!  She and several of her friends went to a shop in town and rented dresses.  (What an awesome idea!)  The dress was so cute.  I did her hair and makeup.  Doesn't she look beautiful?