MIA

The beautiful weather, work, friends, family, or a certain boy in my life lately could be some of the many excuses I could use as to why I haven't posted in a while or let alone even talked about my awesome trip to Tennessee, but instead I'll just take the blame. Life has been a blast lately and I have some pictures to prove it and show what I've been up to these days... 1. got in a fight with a fan at work, and won minus a few nicks here and there. I surprisingly didn't lose any fingers.



2. Hiked the Y

3.Got a tour of the Salem fire department and tested out my skills

4. Finally attended wings night, aka 40 cent Tuesday's at Buffalo Wild Wings with the crew 

 5.Went boating for the first time this season, it was awesome even when Russ got stuck in his wake board.

6.Went to the showdown fights @ UVU and watched Jan represent Helper in a total knockout

7. Hank got a lil mud on the tires, and Russ got a lot of mud on his face.

8. Morgy got married and we road tripped it to Helper for the reception. (also side note I finally bought some colored skinnies, see pic below)

9. Shopped at city creek and enjoyed catching up with Jeni munching over caramel apples, in front of the fountains.

10. Got a pretty awesome doorstop delivery

11. Ran out of isolation gowns at work and I got to wear patient gowns instead.

12. Talked to the Mexican Missionary on Mothers day. So good to see him and hear him laugh.

13. attended this lil bro's seminary graduation

14. went 4-wheeling/dirt biking up by midway to Cascade springs, and Brook and Chris tagged along : )

Well that pretty much sums it up for now, well at least according to the pictures I have on my iPhone. Happy Spring time! Jacqui's home in T-28 days and rodeo season is a month away. yee-haw!! 

lately.

there's a new word in my vocabulary this month: Budget. I don't use that word much, nor do I like the word but it's been a wild ride lately and for the rest of the month I'm gonna use the words relaxed budget. Because in the last 2 weeks this is what I've been up to....

1. Got a lift, new rims, and new tires on my truck (Finally!), but while they had him up in the air they found some problems so add oil change, 4 new brake pads, and the big kicker of a new fluid pump to the grand total.

2.I bought a bed! A queen size bed so I can finally actually fit in my bed!

3. I MOVED!!! I found an awesome new home that's recently been remodled and I love it. all hardwood floors throughout the whole house, etc... it's definitely an upgrade. but nonetheless with moving came the first months rent + deposit!
4. I haven't sold my old contract yet so paid rent for the month of april again. Not to mention utilities for a place I'm not even living in...
5. I went on vacation to Tennessee! more details on that to come but I had a blast..

I think that's all that comes to mind right now minus some minor things here and there but it was a major purchases and big spending couple of weeks.
I've been up to more things besides spending money lately...
1.hanging out with work friends. For example had a house warming party/dinner at my new place last night followed by dancing at the Madison.
2.brookie and I are gonna start a new photo album entitled eating with Britt because we've been trying out some new places lately such as me finally eating my first JDawg.
3. I went night longboarding for the first time with some new friends. and I only wrecked once where the only injury I suffered was to my ego : )
4.I'm loving the weather! and I randomly got scheduled a whole week off work so I plan on enjoying it a lot more this coming week.
5. Attended one of my best friends wedding where I gotta see Brynn marry her dream man.
6. Hung out with the Shields family, man I'm excited for 58 days to be here and I can hang out at that house with Jacqui once she finally gets home!
Life is grand. and Summer is coming which means rodeo season is right around the corner! cheers to that.

interesting.

I know I talk about Grey's all the time but really it's such an amazing show and to me really similar to real life! I've been re-watching some episodes lately and there's one where Meredith aka the narrator talks about how much health care workers get so much more out of their patients sometimes when we're the ones supposed to be helping them. once again just like real life : )
January was the worst month ever especially at work and I really struggled wondering if nursing is what I really wanted to do anymore, and if I had gone through all this school and hard work for nothing! Seriously almost quit my job one day, but I held out and somehow the light at the end of the tunnel came and January was over(hallelujah!!). During that time I was desperate for support so if you were one of those I was constantly whining and complaining to my deepest apologies. One of those poor people ended up being my brother one day, when I hadn't wrote him in a while he wrote me saying he wanted to hear about what I've been up. My depressed self vented to him a lil more than I should have but his response was just what I needed to hear. He told me to remember the reason why I chose nursing! he told me reasons why he thought that I was good for nursing and told me to do the same. thank you lil bro!
Long story short I began to look at patients every shift and find reasons to be glad I was a nurse or find the moments in the shift to make my day better. I began learning a heck of a lot more from my patients then I'm sure they were getting from me and I even started laughing at work again, which at the time seemed like a miracle.
Well work has started being a lil more like January lately and in order to maintain the hope that I'll not hit that questioning bottom again I've began keeping a "journal" of these patients and moments so when discouragement hits I can be reminded.
However, besides this little book of stories, life itself seems to remind me lately that there are SOOO many reasons to be grateful and to smile, as well as to not take life for granted. There was a news story recently about a teenage girl being murdered and dumped into the Jordan River-I actually work with that girls dad and that night it all happened I was at work and as co-workers began talking about it I realized the horror my friend must be going through. I was instantly grateful to know that all my family was safe and sound.
When you work in a profession where one day you may see a patient and the next day they may be dead it makes you realize a lot of the things people take for granted. So while I still don't love my job, and life still has it's downs I've really been trying to be happier lately.
so here's to my super awesome family, some great friends I have, my superb drives in my truck, country music, and warm weather : )

ps. I found a new home. It's beautiful and if everything works out I could be moving as soon as Saturday : ) : ) : ) : )

on my mind.

1. i REALLY don't want to go to work tonight. I have this fear that work is slowly turning into January and that's the last thing I want...
2. I'm so excited for this weekend, post working tonight of course!
3. spring is in the air and nobody has spring fever like this girl.
4. Hank is getting surgery sometime next week, once mama finishes some decision making, and I'm so excited to see the finished product.
5. House hunting is also in the air, and is not so fun. but the idea of being SharBear free is so exciting!
6. drives are still my favorite thing. I forget this some in the winter when I never want to leave the house but nothings been better lately than a drive with the windows down cruising around town or up the canyon with brookie and/or my lil sis by my side with the tunes just a jamming.
7. I love playing pranks, I may or may not have brought back the nursing class april fools joke 2011 to work the other night and got my aide REAL good (hehe). Also this RT that always gets me, has a lil something headed his way from yours truly real soon...
8. my co-workers rock. They've become my best friends the past couple months and I wouldn't survive without them some nights. Plus they are great outside of work too.
9. I'm super excited for my upcoming trip to Tennessee next month. It's almost here and I can't wait!

that is all for now.... my sinus infection is inhibiting my thinking skills leaving not much more room for thoughts on the brain....

back to business.

I had a fantastic trip to TEXAS!! so fantastic I didn't want to come home.
Jess has been married for about 4 years now(I think it's 4??), and we went on a bachelorette trip before her wedding and that was the last big thing, and the most time the three of us have spent together since. It was so nice to take off and be with my besties!!
*I"ll try to keep my synopsis brief with minimal photo overload...
My highlight of the trip of course was the Houston Rodeo. It was held in Reliant stadium, which I learned was originally built for the superbowl, so think of how many people go to the superbowl and that's how many rodeo people were crammed packed in there. it was awesome : ) Houston knows how to rodeo and they kept things running smoothly and there was never a dull moment. After the rodeo the concert that night was Lady Antebellum and they are also amazing. They sound just as good live!
I could have stayed and lived at the rodeo grounds but there was more to see : )
That weekend we went shopping at the Galleria, drove to the woodlands and stayed in a hotel for Kyle to run his marathon the next day. Then cheered him on as he ran an amazing 3:05:44! we hung outside the medic tent as kyle got checked out. Then drove home to lay by the pool and get ready to go get dinner. Roamed around awesome stores, and hung out the chocolate bar where every hour is happy hour! I also ate a Texan size chocolate covered strawberry. Had a lazy day Sunday. ate jenny's delicious dinner, played with cute friend max, walked around Hermann park. played games, made treats, and went wild over "Get up off of that thing! Shake it till you feel better!" and almost became YouTube sensations...Beach day Monday turned into Poolside Monday for J.Love and B.da.Bomb following a slight mishap : ) hours later with sunburns a blazing we found out the hard way that Houston shuts down on Monday nights and was later eating our frustrated emotions out on Vietnamese food, and topping it off with Krave cupcakes and Bluebell ice cream over a redbox movie. Prior to heading to the airport Tuesday found us back at the Livestock show on the rodeo grounds. We found ourselves gone full circle as we strolled around the masses of shops and checked out(okay I checked them out, not jess) the mass amounts of cowboys! Bought souveniors, and ate THE BEST bbq sandwich I'd ever had. J.Lo aka J.Thug dropped us off at the airport and we started the longest flight back to utah. Great trip! did I mention how much we ate?? BBQ, Mediterranean, Italian, TexMex, American, and Vietnamese etc...
It was so good to just be our goofy selves and be careless. Did I mention how much we laughed?? Thanks Kyle and Jenny for being amazing hosts! Thank you Texas for being awesome, and warm during our visit. Thank you Jessie for being a superb travel partner. Thank you Kyle for putting up with 3 crazy girls for a week, and for being our free photographer. Thank you Danny for letting Jess have a getaway. Love these girls! until next time. #bestiesreunite2013:)