J.Pate's Legal

It's official, Jenny is 21!! now we have someone to sneak us into clubs in vegas, buy us booze(If we drank), and a reason to celebrate. Which still needs to be crossed off the to do list this coming weekend since we couldn't all get together last weekend. Now that she's 21, I need to turn 21 before we go have our adventure in Houston Texas this summer(since she's decided to ditch out and leave state for the entire summer, while I'm actually going to be in Provo). Anyways happy birthday to the amazing, awesome, gorgeous, mechanical engineer, and my best friend Jenny Pate! Love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pin-cushion Practice

My roommate candice is in the nursing program here and two weeks ago she needed someone to be her dummy for an I.V start pass-off so of course I agreed. She was really nervous seeing as how this was her first time poking someone with a needle, let alone starting an I.V. I wasn't nervous until we got down in the actual nursing lab, signing the waiver that I realized the risk I was putting myself(basically signing my life away to a nursing student). But it went great and even though I think she poked through my vein a little I didn't bruise until a few days later, plus she passed. So now she is going to be able to start IV's at clinicals next semester. Way to go candice!
Being stuck with an IV and watching her do it got me excited for when I'm on the other side of the IV doing it to someone. I am very excited for nursing school! Which reminds me...I've officially finished my pre-reqs! I'm applying to the program in February so wish me luck!

Here we are post-IV stick, she's proud and I'm alive : )

Big T's 17

Taylor is officially 17 as of...yesterday. Holy cow I know this is another family member birthday post but tis the season for my family to be getting older. So Happy belated birthday to big T! I know Tay would probably kill me if he knew I was posting this, but I do love him and he seriously sets such an example to me and I look up to him(literally too. he's super tall!). And since he is probably the least photogenic person in our family here's two pictures of him, unfortunately none are from his birthday dinner because I had to miss out on his this year.


Happy 17th Bud!!!

Tagged by J.Love

My Best friend, the gorgeous Jessie McKinley has tagged me to list 5 random/weird things that most people don't know about me so here they are revealed:

1. I am afraid of throw up. I hate it with a passion. The sounds, the smell, the look! ew everything about it. Weird I know coming from a nursing major but seriously the only way I can tolerate it is when I'm at work and it's one of my patients.

2. No matter what the season my bed has to be loaded with blankets. Possibly some kind of security thing but I can't sleep without them. (currently on my bed and has been this way all through summer: sheet, fleece blanket, and two quilts)

3. I remember the weirdest things, mostly what cars people drive and even recognize their license plates numbers, creepy I know. Also I can remember lyrics to songs like nobody's business and usually know pretty much every word of a song that comes on a radio.

4. I'm addicted to sweet mint gum. No joke it's like smoking to me and I go through about a pack a day. I usually have to get a new piece in my mouth every half hour to the hour. I gotta have my gum.

5. I love to write things down. I love making to do lists, jotting down things in my planner, make little reminders for myself, and write in my journal. Also this love even extends to taking notes in class, I love to have pen in hand attempting to capture everything my professor is saying in class ( talk about a hand cramp!!). I love it.

well there's a little insight into my weirdness. It's now time for Ash, Jacqui, and Jennifer's turn to share : )

attitude of gratitude

The past two years now the week of Thanksgiving has become a hard week for me because since I've been in Cedar I've had to worry about which holidays I'm going to get off each year, so once again I chose to work Thanksgiving to be able to go home for Christmas (which is a bigger holiday in my family anyways), but it still gets hard on the last day of classes to watch everyone leave and head home knowing I'm not going anywhere. This year though I've been trying really hard to stay positive and not get too down about having to stay over the break, so I came up with a list of things I'm grateful for to help remind me what this week is really about. I'll share it with you all : )
I'm grateful for...

1. My Family!! Hands down these people mean the most to me. They have always been there for me no matter what. They've seen me at my worst on multiple times and still love me.

2) My Parents: Now I know it's seems like cheating to list them separately right after family but my mom and dad are so awesome! They give me so much support, always encouraging me to do my best as well as making me feel like I can do all that I want to do. Their always there to listen to me complain and gripe about how hard I think my life is, then remind me to suck it up and give advice on how to make things better. They are such great examples to me on how to live life and I'm so grateful for them and all that they have done for me and continue to do for me.

3)The gospel: Holy cow this is a big one! I've never been as grateful to have the church in my life as I have been the past year, I'm so grateful to have had and to continue to have such a source of peace, comfort, direction, and most importantly forgiveness. I'm grateful as well for everything that makes up the church such as: modern revelation, scriptures, missionaries, atonement, and all the other great and amazing things that make up this true church.

4)Great Friends: now not to single anyone out because I have soooo many great friends but specifically the past couple weeks I've been thinking about Jenny, Jessie, and Jeni. Those three have seen me through some pretty rough and tough times in my life but were always there for me reminding me to live life and help me laugh. I'm so grateful for all the many memories I have with each of them.

5)My job: even though this is the one thing that can stress me out beyond belief I am so grateful for it. I love the people I work with so much but even more I love the residents I work for. Goodness they mean so much to me, I've adopted them all as my own grandparents. I'm grateful for how they always make my day and make me smile, and remind me to stay healthy and always live life to the fullest. And my awesome co-workers as well!

6) School: Also a big stressor but I'm grateful for the opportunity I have to go to college. This is already my 3rd year of school and I love the chance to be here and to learn more and more in order to meet my goal and dream of becoming a nurse one day.

7) The Sunshine! No matter how bad my day may be, whenever the sun is shining I can't help but smile more which always makes my day go a little better by improving my mood.

8) Laughter! Definitely one of my favorite things, if not my absolute favorite thing to do. I love it! There's nothing like laughing so hard it hurts, but still continuing to laugh because you just can't stop.

9) The Cornwells family: This family is sooo amazing and I'm grateful for their friendship and love they always give. I'm grateful for their kids, especially the two boys, because even though they make me so baby boy hungry sometimes, they give my parents a chance to be "grandparents" and for me to see just how awesome of grandparents their going to be one day. As well as see how my brothers are seriously going to be the cutest uncles ever! I just love this family so much!


10)Roommates: I could never ever live alone and would die without my roommates. Yes we sometimes have our days that just happen when living with a lot of estrogen but their awesome for helping keep my life interesting, and keeping life fun.

11)Pictures/photographs: Okay yeah it's a little weird thing to be thankful for but oh man where would I be without the ability to be able to capture moments & memories. I love being able to look back on the crazy good times I've had and I'm grateful that I'm able to do it.

The Big 50

My mom's 50 today!! Holy cow she's so awesome! I admire and appreciate all she does even in her "old age" haha. But really my mom is the greatest and to celebrate the big 5 0 we surprised her over the weekend with a birthday lunch at her favorite restaurant. It was quite sneaky seeing as how my mom somehow manages to know and find out everything. Channy and I made the drive up friday night and stayed at Ash & Jake's house so she wouldn't know we were in town, then saturday morning us kids all dressed in black for the solemn occasion,as well as tied black balloons to the chairs. Dad had the hardest part of getting her to the restaurant, and we later found out that it was at this point when she started to suspect something fishy. As they walked into the banquet room we sang happy birthday and then crowned her with her birthday crown(funny enough she had also dressed in black without even knowing what was going on). I am so happy it all worked out and that we were all able to make it, including Taylor who came while on his lunch break. I'm also glad that we were all able to keep a secret and have it actually be a surprise. Happy Birthday Mom I love you!!

On the move for Alzheimers

Sunshine, St.George, free t-shirts, lots of purple, awesome co-workers/friends, bagpiper, a mile walk, and a great cause were all things that made up up the Memory Walk 2008-On the move for Alzheimers.My work had been advertising it for a couple months now and when the sign up sheet came around I was excited that I could actually go. However, seeing as how our whole staff can't leave and some actually have to stay and take care of our residents, we were small in numbers so I recruited my friend Brook to come with us as well. It was way fun, and I'm not going to lie my favorite part was probably the free t-shirt. The foundation made thousands of dollars from the donations to go to helping people with this horrible disease and I mean horrible! I've been working with Alzheimers patients for about 3 years now and I've witnessed how it affects the patients, and the family members. It's such a scary disease, a slow onset and then just as their aware they are starting to lose their memory, some are suddenly forgetting family members, how to talk and some even forget how to eat. Alzheimers currently has no cure, only a way to help prolong the worse. I just pray that I never get it, or more importantly my parents and siblings get it. On a happier note here are some pictures of the Emerald Pointe crew in action at the walk : )

Great 8's Tag and I'm it

8 TV Shows I Like To Watch...
1.Dancing with the stars
2. ELLEN
3. House
4. CMT: top 20 countdown
5. Rachel Ray
6. Extreme makeover home edition
7. Trading spaces
8. The Office

8 Things That Happened Yesterday...
1. Went to class
2. Finally got a flu shot
3. Ate lunch at Subway
4. Got called into work
5. Went to Chem Lab
6. Ate Dinner at costa vida
7. Went to the b-ball game
8. Hung out with friends at Chili's after the game(yeah I ate out a ton yesterday!)


8 Favorite Places To Eat...
1. CAFE RIO/Costa Vida
2. Panda Express
3. Perks
4. Chili's
5. Wendy's
6. Red Robin
7. Pizza Factory
8. My Parents house

8 Things I'm Looking Forward To...
1. Going home next weekend to surprise my mom for her birthday.
2. Finally finishing SUU's nursing pre-reqs!! Wahoo!
3. Ash & Jake's sealing
4. Dog niece sitting Reina for a week
5. Friends weddings
6. Christmas!!! I love this holiday and all my family's traditions that go along with it.
7. movig back up north...whenever it's ends up working out to be
8. Turning 21!! (okay so it's still months away but I'm getting super excited for it!!)

8 Things On My Wish List...
1. Get my car paid off
2. Get into nursing school, and finish within reasonable time
3. That Obama can somehow pull off a miracle and fix our country's problems, without making things worse.
4. That winter won't be too cold this year
5. Million dollars to buy all the things I want
6. That everything works out the best for my fam....
7. Move back up north
8. For life to continue to get better and better everyday

8 People I Tag..

1. J.love
2. Jenny Pate
3. Brittany Whimpy
4. Michelle Quilter
5. allison Tucker
6. Herdman
7. Jacqui shields
8. and anyone else who feels so inclined to waste some time : )

Halloween Festivities

Holy Cow Halloween was a B-Last this year!! My roommate and I had decided a couple months ago(at the smash mouth concert haha) that we were going to be rockstars for halloween. So the costume preparation started and before we knew it things were coming together nicely. Then about a week before my little sister asked if she could come hang out for the weekend, and I of course said yes. Plans were made to go to the Howl, which I had never been to before mostly because of the bad rep it's portrayed to have, but my roommate was confidence that you can still go and have fun and get away from the nastiness. So I was about to buy our tickets the day before when the ticket office was closed, so I figured no big deal I get them the day of and still save money. Then that night at work one of my medaides at work informed me that she was going to be unable to work her graveyard shift on Halloween and couldn't find anoyone to take her shift, It was my weekend on call, and knew if there was no one to cover the shift I would have too, so of course I started freaking out! I suddenly saw all the plans we had made flashing before my eyes and was about to be incredibly depressed when 4 hours later she text me to tell me that someone had agreed to take the shift. Long story short, our plans worked out perfectly! Channy was able to come up, our group of girls had absolutely amazing costumes and we rocked the howl till 2 A.M! then we took our amazingness to Denny's where we stuffed our faces full of food. Then depressingly enough, at 3:30 A.M I went into work to finish my MARS for the next morning while everyone else went home to bed. Nonetheless, I had a blast and I'm pretty sure I burned about 12,000 calories at the dance. Thanks for the amazing night girls!!
Here are some pictures from our adventures that night, in our awesome costumes!!














However, before halloween a group of friends and I went to St. George to celebrate my friend Mindy's birthday, as well as get in the spirit of Halloween. We started by going to dinner at a great new place in St. George called Slice, a cute little pizza parlor. Then it was off to Tuacahn theater! I had only been there once before which was years ago with my family, so of course I had never seen there Halloween production of Thriller. I didn't really know what to expect at first, I guess I figured it would be a play but instead it was a bunch of random dances, mostly halloween movie themed. Okay so it's hard to describe in words but seriously it was amazing and I'm pretty sure I'll have to go again next year. The night was even better when we finished it with a pit stop for ice cream (I LOVE my ice cream!) at Iceburg before making the drive back to cedar, yeah they hated us for showing up right as they were closing but we still enjoyed ourselves : )

Shoutout to Channy

My little sister is 19 today!! holy cow that makes me feel so old to say that but it really is so crazy how time flies and how fast she is growing up. Even though today's her birthday, we celebrated her birthday two weeks early, while both of us were home for a weekend, and she chose to go to Macaroni Grill for her birthday dinner. Personally, I love macaroni grill for the idea of being able to color on the tablecloths, but when it comes to food I would eat at Olive garden over it anyday. Don't get me wrong though, it was still delicious and like usual I had a blast being around and hanging out with my family!





Happy Birthday Sis!! I love you!!