Quite the week!

It's been a fabulous week, but a lot going on. All great stuff. So... I think I'll just go day by day since there's a lot. Some I got pictures of, some I didn't. Which I am very sorry about. I'll add pictures I have after the day it belongs too. They're all toward the end of the week.

Sun. and Mon.- wasn't too much. Monday I spent the day studying while my hubby got to spend the day relaxing. He had it off for President's Day.

Tues.- Jared went to work, left a tad early to go to the scout store for me, and was a humongous help with what I needed to get done. I went to school, studied, then took a test. (KILLER I might add. I hate test, especially this class) I immediately went to sit on a lecture and was in lecture from 1100-4:20ish. I normally have lecture from 1-6 but I had to leave early because we had our blue and gold banquet for cub scouts!! The leaders met at 5 to set up and we started at 6. It was a blast!! Sad to report I was too busy and didn't get a chance to pull out the camera. I need a little photographer following me. Any takers? lol

Wed.- Jared had his normal work day. He didn't have scouts because none of the scouts or leaders were able to go. All worked out, I guess. lol I watched our friend's 2 kids- ages 3 and 1. They're great kids!! That night I went to New Beginnings for Young Women's. They had asked me to be their pianist. HECK YES! Love working with the young women. Yeah, should have gotten a picture at New Beginnings and of these cute kids.

Thurs- Jared had his normal work day. He did come home early, which I really appreciated!!! I watched another set of kids- ages 3 and 1 as well. We had a blast!! I'll tell you now, no pictures of them. They're foster kids we watch, so state doesn't allow us to publicly post pictures of them. Anyway~ that night, I went visiting teaching, had my visiting teachers over, and Jared and I went on a date to In & Out for milkshakes. So good!!

Fri.- I had my last high acuity clinical. So grateful it's over!! Love the clinical experience but the paperwork is ridiculous!!! About a 15 page paper on my patient. Oh well. Guess I got to get use to all the paperwork, even if some of it seems redundant. It's over, I passed, and life is good.

this is my fabulous high acuity clinical group... before we began our shift. We don't look so nice after. lol!

Sat.- (I'll put pictures in between sections) Jared hung out in the morning while I had the opportunity to volunteer at a mock drill. What a mock drill is, is people getting trained how to be first responders in the event of a natural disaster. So what was I doing there? They had some of the volunteers act like the victims (broken legs, in shock, they lost their baby, etc.) I was asked to be the first aid nurse that the people being trained brought the victims too. So the trainees would bring the victims to me, tell me what was going on with them. I would have to ask questions, and tell them if/what they did wrong. Hope that makes sense. It was a really neat experience. I'd like to do it again... maybe be a victim next time though. hehe

The trainees getting ready to go out and find the victims

This is some of the supplies they had to work with

When I got home, Jared and I went to the grocery store, came home and ... Jared prep for having pizza that night. I took the chance to finally get finances in order, dishes under check again, and all that fun stuff. Later afternoon we had our trek group over. I'm kind of concerned because it seems to only be the same 5 out of 10 showing up. I hope the other 5 come too!! That night we went to my cousin's eagle court of honor. My granddad said all 5 of his grandsons have earned their eagle now. YAY!! I enjoyed seeing family, being there to support my cousin. Oh, and just FYI... I didn't add all the court of honor pictures here. Go to our picasa account (which you can get to from our picture tab) to view the rest.

My uncle Jim, Aunt Niki, and my cousin Tanner

Our faces are kind of funny in this picture. It's me, my granddad and my oldest sister. We were all 3 laughing so hard about songs Granddad would sing to us when we were little

My beautiful sister and gorgeous grandma

That was our week... in a nut shell! Hope you guys all had as great of a week as we did. Thanks for enduring to the end of this long post!! Love to all

Profile Update!

Our LDS online profile has been updated!!! Click here to see it.... or the link to the right... Love to all!!

Hi!

So I thought I'd write a quick posting and say hi!!

Jared's loving work, loving scouts, and loving life. He went on a snow camp out this week. Personally, I don't know why you'd want to sleep in the snow, but whatever works. Jared didn't actually camp out due to health issues he's being facing, but he was up there a lot. They all went up about 4, Jared got home about 8:30 last night, then he went back up this morning at 5:45 and they all got home about 11. Being the 11-12 yr. old boys they are... one lost his dinner, one thought a change of socks meant wearing two socks and reversing their order in the morning, and one didn't bring a change of socks. Jared said they had a great time though. Oh! I've got to post the pics. of them swimming. I'll see if I can get Jared to do that post :o) If not, I'll do that one next.

I've been doing my high acuity nursing clinical. Meaning, I've been working in the ICUs. INTENSE! All I can say is ICU nursing isn't for me. I admire nurses who can. It's been a wonderful, learning, and growing experience though. Other then school... not much. I feel horrible because I feel like I've been slacking in scouts. Luckily I have a good committee that helps. We have our blue and gold banquet this coming Tues. I'm excited for it. I think it'll be great. I'll have to remember the camera. I will be honest though... February has been a stressful month for me! I think it may be this clinical. The paperwork involved is ... difficult and very time consuming. I probably have been to busy doing that stuff, that I get behind in everything else, including studying for the class. Hopefully I'll be able to catch up soon. I've only got one more clinical left so... We'll see. There hasn't been any ... trials for us really but we've had some friends that have been facing trials. I just worry for them and want to help wherever I can... which is probably another reason why I haven't been liking February this year. I hate seeing my friends and family struggle. Momma bear in me wants to come out and just fix everything for them and make life all better.

Anyway~ enough of my rambling. Hope this finds everyone well! We love hearing for all of you. Love to all!!!

Fun in the Bath Tub

Devin normally updated the blog but today I have a fun story to tell. In the master bath room we have a bath tub. I know that is a little bit of a stretch but yes we have a tub in there. Since we moved in the drain slowly leaks. One of Devin's favorite things to do is take a bath. Since the tub slowly drains Devin was getting very frustrated.

One day Devin and I went out and got some ice cream. Any one who knows Devin will be very surprised to know Devin got Reese's peanut butter cups in hers. I had pumpkin spice something or another. I love trying new things. When we were leaving I convinced Devin to go with me to Home Depot. Luckily it was in the same parking lot. I have a weird obsession with hardware stores. I like to look at things like light bulbs. While we were there I told Devin I could fix the bathtub drain. So we got a kit and went home to start the project.

It was amazingly easy to get the old drain out. I was excited things where going good. I then tried to put the new drain in. There was a rubber seal on the top that just would not seal up. I tried again and again to get the drain down far enough and tight enough to get the seal properly. I tried so hard that I broke the the drain while it was it was screwed in very tightly. I then had a broken piece in the tub with no way to get it out.

The next day I went back to home depot and got a new kit and some tap screws to get a hold of the drain. I worked for 3 hours and finally got the broken drain out of the tub. I thought I would be smart and use a part of the new drain that I was not going to use and get the drain out. I screwed in a piece as a tried to turn out the old drain. The drain did not budge but I did break the piece from the drain. I then got some screws drilled in and used some other screws. I was eventually able to get the drain out with about 3 hours of work. I then tried to put in the second drain but there was a problem. It was to short to reach the drain in the tub. No matter what I did I could not reach the drain. At this time I was very frustrated.

A few days later I went to a plumbing supply store that is near my house and they got me hooked up with a third drain. I also asked them what else I would need. They said plumbers putty. I was excited to hear that I was missing something. So I got some plumbers putty and went home, and for the first time the drain sealed up. I was very excited to share my accomplishment. Unfortunately Devin was working at a health fair for school and I was unable to show her so I put in some green die in the tub and sent her a picture text message.

I am a little embarrassed to tell how I was being a goober and not asking for help earlier. It would have saved me lots of time and money. You always learn either from someone experienced or the school of hard knocks. I learned from the second in this instance. I was laughing later after everything calmed down. I also hope you laughed while reading this as well.

Couple of things

This morning I went with some friends to a charity 5K run. To learn more about the charity, read here. This is the first time I've done something like this. I loved it! It felt good to be out there running... okay so maybe Jessa and I ended up walking like 2 miles worth but it was a great experience. So wonderful knowing we were helping work for a wonderful cause. Thanks so much for staying behind with me Jessa!!

Yeah, sorry my eyes are closed. The sun was WAY bright

Second thing I want to talk about is the adoption retreat. So stinkin' excited. I have a button on the side if you want to go to the website for it (or click here), but I'll tell about it here. I had a comment on my committee post wondering what it is. Anyway~ so the adoption retreat is for anybody and everybody who has an interest in adoption. This can be because you're a birth family, you're a family that has adopted, you were adopted, you're hoping to adopt (like we are!!!), or even if you want to learn more about the "adoption world". Fri. night we're just going to mingle... get to know each other, have fun. Sat. we'll have a breakfast, a couple of awesome keynote speakers (Mr. and Mrs. R of The R House), a birth family panel, and an adoptive family panel. Coolest part??? We're going to get to hear 3 different sides of the same adoption story. I can't remember exactly, but I think it's like birth dad, adoptee, and adoptive dad. There will be a raffle too. Of course child care will be provided. The cost of the event is $40 per couple. If you're wanting to go (which everyone should come!!!) you need to register by this next Fri., Feb. 18. Let me know if you're interested and I'll hook you up with how to register.

Anyway~ I'm still working on Jared to get his blog post up. Don't loose hope! :o)

THEY'RE HERE!!!

Our pass along cards came!!! So excited. I think they are so stinkin' cute. I know I'm biased though. Anyway~ oh! let me start by explaining pass along cards for those who don't know. Pass along cards are business cards that have our info. on them. The pass along cards let people know that we're trying to adopt. We would love help passing them out! If you want some pass along cards to give to friends, family, etc. let me know. We like to leave them with our tip at dinner :o) Anyway~ let me know if you want any, how many, and how you want me to get them to you. Comment mediation is on... so feel free to leave info. there. It won't be published. You can e-mail, call, text, or just talk to me too. I included a pic. so you can see what they look like.

SEE! Aren't the awesome!!!!

coolest committee EVER!

Okay, so maybe I'm biased... BUT I'm apart of a committee that's putting on an adoptive couple retreat. It's been a blast helping plan this retreat. I'm so excited for it. Anybody who's in the area, wanting to know more about adoption should definitely come. Here's a picture of the committee

Heart fair

Today I had the opportunity to volunteer at a heart fair one of the hospitals was hosting. I have NEVER taken so many blood pressures in 5 hours in my life! It was a lot of fun though. I got to meet a lot of nice people. We got these awesome red shirts to wear too. Anyway~ here's a picture of the group of us that took blood pressures.

Sorry about the glare by my head. The girl who took the picture didn't say anything! Anyway~ a little bit more about the fair. It was cool... they had the 8 of us taking blood pressures. They had volunteers checking cholesterol, blood sugars, EKGs (also known as ECG), body fat, life flight tour, ambulance tour, and different lectures you could attend. I think that was it... There was a wonderful turned out. It is nice to know that people do care about their health. To be honest, sometimes I wonder...

oh! as a side note: Jared said he's going to do a couple of post. Hopefully they'll be on here soon.