Life Changes

 After about 5 years, and a lot of craziness, hard work, some frustration, and a lot of good times, I graduated from nursing school! I have to say, I loved learning, and have enjoyed the one on one help I can give to patients. 

My husband was my #1 support throughout this whole process. There were many times I thought about taking a break, or lowering my goals from RN to LPN or CNA, just to be done, but he always believed in me, and encouraged me. I know I wouldn't have accomplished this without him.

Out to dinner after graduation. Steve, Dave & Marcia, Jessica & Chris and Avery all joined us.

Very dark picture, but this was at the pinning ceremony. (Proof that I was there!)

 I graduated on December 15th, and took the NCLEX to get my license on January 30th, and PASSED! I had been so worried about actually finding a nursing job, I have had several friends who have had their RN license for 6 months to a year and haven't been able to find any jobs. I applied to every hospital in the Salt Lake and Tooele Valleys, with no luck. I probably put in 100 applications, and kept getting rejection letters. Then I decided maybe a hospital wasn't the way to go yet. I looked for nursing jobs that were outside of the hospital and started having luck. In fact, the week I got my license, I was so surprised, I got 4 phone calls on my resume's. Three of them asked me if they could interview me, the fourth one wanted to interview, but I wasn't able to return his phone call on time. Within the next week, two of the interviews offered me jobs. I was completely shocked, and thrilled.

I accepted a job as an RN for a retina clinic. I work as a surgical nurse helping with procedures for Macular Degeneration, retinal detachment, retinal tear, and things I haven't even heard of yet. They are licensing me in 3 other states, because we travel by private jet on day trips to satellite offices to perform procedures and surgeries at least once a week. I feel like I have found my dream job, and am so blessed.

First day of work! Wearing my new uniform.

Life has been crazy, but so good!

Guests and Job interviews

My parents came in to town on Wednesday, and brought Tera and her kids (from Germany!). Erick is on leave from Afghanistan for two weeks, and came to Utah as well. So we have had a lot of fun seeing everyone. Today we all got together for a family, Sunday dinner. Erin, Tera, and I all had to sing in church in Erin's ward. It was actually Bubba Palmer's mission farewell. He is going to South Africa. On Wednesday.

 I had an interview at a rehabilitation center. Basically helping people recovering from strokes, total hip and knee replacements, things like that. People that aren't sick enough to be in the hospital, but are too sick to be at home, or don't have the support at home. I went in to the interview, and they hired me on the spot. I was so surprised! I actually have another interview lined up for tomorrow, but didn't tell them that. They said they needed to do a background check and that it would take a few days, so while we're waiting for that, I will still interview for this other job. But, either way, I am actually working as a NURSE!!! I'm so excited!

With my parents in town and Tera and Erick, my family had our annual Iron Chef Wright competition. Our secret ingredient was potatoes. Steve had stake conference, and Chris had to work, so Jessica and I were partners. We made Purple Potato Pizza. It was pretty cool to look at, but didn't taste very good haha. We also had cupcake wars, and Jessica made a lemon cupcake with blackberry filling and frosting. That was so yummy!!! We still didn't win, but had a lot of fun as a family.


I got an awesome job!! I am a nurse for a retina surgeon! I work on weekdays, during the day, and have the weekends off. I have all bank holidays off, like President's Day. On one day a week, I will fly by private jet to sattellite offices to perform retina surgeries. We will travel to places like Cedar City, St. George, Lander Wyoming, Billings Montana, etc. It's a private practice, and the people are SO NICE!!! I'm so excited to finally be a real nurse, and learn a specialty!!

One more funny story.

So a young man in our stake returned home from his mission this week. You know how crazy Kaylea is. Well, this RM and his dad were sitting on the couch talking to me and dad, when Kaylea and Tyler walked in, just coming home from school. Kaylea walked over an shook his hand, and talked a bit... a little uncomfortable with her boyfriend right there. Then Steve walked him into his office to release him. They talked for 5 minutes or so, and he came out with his name tag in his hand. Kaylea came running over to him and said, "Yay! now that you're released, I get to be your first GIRL hug!!" And just wrapped her arms around him in a big bear hug. (With Tyler there.) She can be so awkward!! Anyway, it was pretty funny.

Costa Rica

I'm sitting at the Holiday Inn Express in San Jose, Costa Rica. Steve and I will be flying home in the morning, and it's been a great week!
 
 Steve had to come for a CEO conference at the Marriot resort here named Los Suenos, which means the dreams. It is absolutely breathtaking! The hotel is right on the ocean, surrounded by a golf course that is surrounded by a rain forest.

 There are bright Makaws (giant parrots) and iguanas everywhere. We have seen monkeys, sloths, frogs, some huge fish that the local people were catching, they were bright orange, I'm not sure what they are.

We swam in the ocean, which was so warm, probably close to 80 degrees. We rode zip-lines through the rainforest and saw some toucans. Those are black birds with a huge beak like on the fruit loops box.

  I got way too much sun. I look like a lobster... but played a killer game of volleyball in the pool with some of the other wives, while our husbands were in meetings.

 
 Our trip here was pretty frustrating. We left really early in the morning and flew to Atlanta. We had to wait 4 hours before our flight was scheduled to leave for Costa Rica. So we left the airport at around 6 pm. As soon as we got in the air, it hadn't even been an hour yet, the captain came over the speaker and said, "We have a level 1 security alert. We will be landing in Florida and police will meet us at the gate to deal with an unruly passenger." I didn't know what was going on. Steve was in first class, and apparently he was sitting right by the unruly passenger. It was a man from Germany and his wife. He had asked for a beer before they ever took off. The flight attendant told him he would have to wait until the plane was in the air. He got very frustrated. Steve said he was grumpy with his wife before the flight ever took off.(He was wishing Steve Jr. was there to translate some of the things he was saying, he's on a mission in Germany.) Well, it continued to escalate, and he kept saying he wanted to talk to the captain. Pretty soon he got up and started to go toward the cockpit. He had been warned at least 4 times that they would have to land the plane if he didn't settle down.

Once we were on the ground, the police escorted him and his wife out of the plane. We had to stay there for 2 hours while the captain and flight attendants gave a report. Filed a new flight plan, and refueled. They interviewed all the passengers around the couple. We were all stuck on the plane, and I guess someone couldn't handle waiting so long, and went to the back of the plane in the bathroom to smoke. Which delayed us another 1/2 hour. The flight attendant got on the speaker and said, "Will you passengers just BEHAVE??" We were supposed to get into Costa Rica at around 10pm. We landed at 2am, and we were another hour away from the resort, so we got in at 3 in the morning... VERY LONG TRIP! We're glad we made it. Had a great week. Steve golfed 3 times... he was happy. And now we are going home.

Christmas Eve

We have a tradition of going to Steve's parent's house every Christmas Eve. We usually have a nice dinner. The grandchildren put on a nativity, which is always fun. Then we open presents to each other and from Grandma and Grandpa.  This year was a little bit unique when it came to the gifts.

We had a few funny stories I wanted to mention. It was quite hilarious yesterday... well, not that funny. When we got there, we were all just sitting around talking, and Douglas, one of the cousins,  came up to Chris. Chris leaned town to talk to him and Douglas spit right in his face!  Of course, Chris is too nice to say anything to Todd or Denise, but he was really surprised!.

Grandma and Grandpa were passing out presents to all of the aunts and uncles, one by one. When they got to John and Molly, Molly opened a gift for her, and it was some clothes. Then they realized that they COMPLETELY forgot about John. There was no gift under the tree for him. Grandpa ran upstairs and grabbed some money, and gave it to him... Later on facebook, John wrote, "Nothing says I love you like the phrase, We forgot about John!" It was pretty funny.

Then if you look at the picture of Conner, they gave him a nice BYU hoodie. They bought one for Jake, Cameron, and Conner. When Kelton opened his gift, it was a pair of gloves... wow, he just sat there looking around like it was a joke... it wasn't. Pretty funny year at Grandpa and Grandma's house.

Carving Pumpkins

I've had my dad staying with us, and he will be here until November 9th. My mom is traveling in the Middle East with Uncle Lee.  It's been nice having him here. Tonight we had dinner, Erin's family came and then we played games. After they left, we carved jack-o-lanterns with Grandpa. It was a nice evening. We didn't get done with the pumpkins until about 11:30pm. Crazy!

The kids are all out of school tomorrow (Halloween Day) and I have two tests and a lecture. So it will be interesting. They will be here alone all day with Grandpa. (Dad's in Georgia this week.)

Kaylea took a trip to Rexburg last week to visit BYU Idaho. She said she really loves it there, and wants to apply to go to school there. I hope she can go there. It's a great atmosphere. I can't believe she will be 18 this month! And going to college at the end of this year. My house will be so quiet with just Conner. (well, maybe not, he's quite lively.)

Juvenile Court

 

 

On Thursday, Stansbury and Grantsville had their first football game together, they're in the same region now. Both teams were 4-0, and we were really expecting it to be a huge game. The Freshman game was on Wednesday, and they didn't do too well, 47-6 for Stansbury, but Conner said he expected that. But the Varsity game is another story. Well, Grantsville was a whole lot of talk and they just didn't play, they were blown away, 44-3. Very sad. Kaylea was thrilled. Conner, not so much.

Kaylea ran her Region XC race. The Ogden team is AMAZING!! I think every person on their team came in before any other school. And the girl who came in first was 17 minutes! Kaylea was more like 21 minutes and came in 16th place, but Stansbury came in second place and Grantsville came in third place, so both teams will be competing at state. Jessica and Avery came to watch the race with me. It was really nice, we got to sneak away afterward with Kaylea and go to lunch, and shopping. It was a nice day, except Jessica locked Avery in the car. We had 2 police cars, and a fire truck with 4 fire fighters come and save the day, and we were sufficiently embarrassed, and Jessica was pretty upset, to say the least. And after a pretty good day, went home in tears...

 
On Friday, I had to check Conner out of school to go to the courthouse in Tooele. He had to talk with a probation officer for Juvenile court... I was extremely frustrated. Right after Conner got his cast on, he called and asked for a ride home from school. I was in Tooele, so I told him to just get a ride from a friend. Conner rode on a Ranger with a friend. A ranger is like a 4 wheeler, but the seats are side by side, and Conner and his friend were both wearing their seat belts. Well they were pulled over because they weren't wearing helmets. Conner got a $47 ticket, and then a week later we received a letter stating we had to meet with an officer of the juvenile court... (This has been a rough month.) Anyway, when we to the courthouse, the probation officer said he shouldn't have gotten a ticket, and just warned Conner to wear a helmet in the future. They waived the fee as well...thank goodness.

I threw a bridal shower for Anna Tuckett yesterday.  She is marrying Kreg Sattler. They're getting married next Friday, and Steve will perform the wedding. She was one of my Mia Maids when I was in the YW presidency, and a neighbor of ours for many years. Our families are really close. I was happy I was able to help her get started in her new life with Kreg.

General Conference

So it was general conference this weekend.  We had Jessica and Chris come over for the Sunday afternoon session. It was nice hanging out with them again. We also had our neighbors behind us come over for lunch between the two Sunday sessions. Their son is on a mission in Everett Washington. He's coming home on Halloween day, Oct 31st. We ate barbecued halibut, it was SO good!

I worked in the Neuro Critical Care unit on Friday. Taking care of those who have had strokes, or brain, or spinal injury/surgery. It's amazing how quickly a person's life can change. Someone who was completely normal, gets drunk, falls down some stairs, and causes bleeding in the brain, suddenly can't comprehend anything for weeks and weeks. I don't know how people with such extensive injuries can recover...maybe they really don't. It was a good day though.

Conner got a hard cast on Tuesday, now he can mow the lawn and do chores, that he wouldn't do last week. I forgot to take a picture of it. It's red, and all his friends have already signed it. Kaylea medaled in a race on Friday. She was first on her team, and 7th overall. She told us the race was in Park City...it was in Orem...silly girl. Steve is in Florida, you'd think with all of his traveling there, he'd have a pretty good tan by now... :)

Best of times, and worst of times

For Kaylea, this has been the best of times. Kaylea was voted 1st attendant for the Homecoming royalty. Tyler, the boy she's been dating was also voted 1st attendant. The girls got to be in the Homecoming parade...the boys didn't.

I wasn't able to watch the parade, but Steve, Aunt Erin, and Kaylea's cousins came to see her. Erin said her daughters were disappointed that Kaylea wasn't dressed in her princess dress for the parade.

During Half-time at the Homecoming Game, the dads got to walk their daughters out on the field. It was so cute to see Kaylea and Steve interact. I think she looked like a princess, I hope she felt like one.

Great, great high school memories!

For Conner, it's been the worst of times. Conner went with his dad to the BYU/Utah football game on Saturday. It was a horrible, depressing, blowout. 54-10.  On Tuesday evening, I was shopping for a Homecoming dress in Salt Lake, when I got a call. Conner was hurt, we're positive his arm or wrist is broken. We have called an ambulance.

I met the ambulance at the hospital. Conner was in pretty good spirits. Aunt Erin came over to the football field from her house and was with him until the ambulance took him away. I think that was a comfort to him. Steve was in Florida on business.

This is in the Emergency Room.

If you look at the bend in his "wrist", that's not exactly where his wrist is supposed to be. Apparently he broke the growth plate completely off of his radius.

Because the growth plate is such a sensitive area, they called in an orthopedic surgeon to look at it, and even thought about sending him to Primary Children's hospital. The Surgeon said they could set it, but were worried that Conner might flinch, or bump it, and traumatize the growth plate more. They decided it would be best to take him to the operating room and put him to sleep before they set the arm.

He was happy, he didn't want to be awake while they were setting it. He'll be out of football for the season.  Conner was riding home from a football game on a four wheeler with his friend. They were pulled over by the police and given a ticket for not wearing a helmet. (It was a Ranger, and they had seat belts on.) Conner came home, gave me all the money in his wallet, along with the ticket, and said, "This is the worst week of my life."

Fun Times!!

This week has been full of excitement. Kaylea was nominated by the Student Government to run for Homecoming Queen. Kaylea is a very fun-loving girl, with such a positive attitude. She was really fun to watch in the pageant.

 The pageant was on Wednesday, then they narrowed the contestants down from 19 to 6. Kaylea was in the top 6. After the pageant, I took this picture of Kaylea and some of her friends. It's pretty funny, because these three girls ended up being Homecoming royalty. Tali, in yellow is Queen, Kaylea, in blue is 1st attendant, and Rebekah, in purple is 2nd attendant.

 Little problem with this situation is that Kaylea wasn't planning on going to Homecoming because the cross country team has a race in Boise, ID that weekend. She and Tali will have to juggle their schedules a bit to make it to the Homecoming game this Friday.

 It was kind of sad, Kaylea didn't have a lot of family make it to the pageant. Her dad has been out of town, and had to be at the stake center that night. Her Grandma and Grandpa Collings were out of town on vacation. Conner and Jessica were both unable to make it. Thankfully, she had a great fan there. This is Tyler, Kaylea kind of likes him. And, of course, I was there. She did an amazing job.

 On Thursday, the Freshmen had their homecoming football game. They really fought hard, and I think Conner had one of his best games of the season. It was sad that they didn't win.

 Conner made two touch-downs, and received several passes. He does a great job.

 It was fun to have Aunt Erin and Conner's cousins there cheering him on. He was disappointed he couldn't win for his fans. Maybe next week. Corban was so cute in this picture, this was during half time. Corban was told he couldn't go on the grass, but he listened to all that the coach had to say to the team, and I think he wished he could be out there with them.

Friday was the Varsity homecoming game, and they won!!! What a great week!