Apply for Nursing School...check!

Yesterday was the day! I submitted my application to the U of U's Accelerated Nursing Program. It is so entirely weird to think it has come and gone. Like always, all night at work tonight I keep thinking I need to work on something huge and then I remember that it's already done. It's actually a little anti-climatic. I guess for the whole year and half I've been preparing, I must have thought when it got to this point my whole life would change at the click of the "submit" button, but life is just the same as ever! Now we just wait! I should find out in March, I will let you know either way. :)

I've probably said this before, but I never knew this decision would bring such a positive change into my life! It was really hard to go forward back then, especially since the actual program wasn't for another TWO YEARS from that time! I was totally stepping into the dark. And now I'm glad I followed my heart because I have experienced so many good things in the last 1.5 years, if it all ended tomorrow with no nursing degree, it would all be totally worth it! I have met people that I hope will be my friends for life, I treasure the knowledge I've gained, I'm grateful to have my job that I love, and I feel like I'm a better person because of it all. It has been very tough at times, but that's what makes it so good, right? If you feel unsettled and want to try something in YOUR life, you should just take the leap and try it! However big or small it may be. And whether or not you succeed, the journey itself is really all that matters.

If I get accepted, I'll start this May and be done next August. Thanks everyone for all your support and encouragement!

Running

In my last post I started talking about running. I thought it deserved it's own post!

I'm at work right now and the reason I'm blogging is because my back and legs are so tired from my run today (followed by no sleep before working) that I needed a little rest from all the walking I do around here!

Despite the fact that this happens, I ALWAYS feel better if I go for a run. I try to go every day except Sunday, unless I'm too hammered. I just try and listen to what my body is telling me it can and can't do.

James gave me a Garmin 405cx in September and it has changed my life forever. I now know exactly what my pace is and how many miles I've run, what my heart rate is and my intensity level, etc. It gives me objective data and now I can continually improve on this data.

I ran 9 miles on Tuesday just because it made me so happy and I didn't want to stop! I had worked the night before and fantasized about a new route all that night at work (from my house to City Creek Canyon) and couldn't wait to run it. Don't worry, I can't always do that and it doesn't always make me THAT happy. Actually, yes it does, but I don't always go that far...for now at least.

The reason I said "for now" is because (and I would never tell anyone this) since my junior year of high school I've wanted to qualify for the Boston Marathon. Thanks to my Garmin and the improvements I've seen, I'm starting to see a glimmer of hope that this goal could actually become my reality! So I might be running some high mileage in the future.

In order to qualify for the Boston Marathon, I would need to run a marathon in 3 hours 40 minutes. To give you an idea of where I'm at, a 3:40 marathon is about 8:30 min/mile pace and I ran that 9 mile run at 10:20 min/mile pace going at an easy rate. So far I can get 8:30min/mile for 3-4 miles with no uphill. That's only 22-23 more miles to go!

I'm thinking it may be a few years until I qualify, but I'm OK with that! That way I can build up my mileage slowly over time and stay injury free.

I am so in love with and addicted to running it's not even funny. It's been with me through the good times and the bad. It keeps me sane and clears my head. Oh yah, and I guess it's good for me! :)

Random

I have thought for about 4 weeks now "what should I blog about??" I decided I've gone too long and just need to post random stuff, I hope that's OK. Here's what's been happening with us!


James just finished his last final last night and I was so proud of him! He really does not like school (because of how much it takes him away from home) and with working full-time, it's quite a sacrifice for him.

We spent a quiet evening at home last night after his final, him playing computer and me catching up on house stuff (dishes, cleaning, cooking, wrapping gifts) and then we hung out together. It was extremely rejuvenating and peaceful. I love when I have time to get caught up on "home" stuff.

While I was doing the cooking and cleaning I listened to Jesus the Christ on my iPod trying to finish up by the deadline for our Bishop's challenge (Dec. 24th). I felt the Spirit so strongly and felt so much love for the Savior last night. I almost feel like I knew him while he was living on the earth. It is truly an inspired book. I like the last chapters the best. (I'll have to admit, I don't always pay attention and some of the information is not interesting to me or it's too over-my-head!).

I work 3 nights a week now -every week- from 7pm to 7:30am (I used to do 3 shifts one week and 2 shifts the next) and I have never appreciated my home so much since I'm gone a lot, but I still love my job.

The 4 nights that I'm actually home are so wonderful to me, especially when I can stay at home and just get in my comfy clothes, clean, cook and hang out with James with NO errands to run, no doing going here and there for this and that. And there's nothing better than getting a full night's sleep every now and again to catch up on missed sleep!

Sometimes the reason I get so little sleep is because I'm addicted to running and I choose that over sleeping before I need to go in for a night shift. There, I said it. I know you could never guess that haha. I said to James the other day "I wonder if running will ever know how much I sacrifice for it."

What we've been up to.

We've shopped at Costco.

We took a picture of our selves in the parking lot of Costco in front of the pretty sunset.

We made the trek yet again from our car to our apartment...and of course James refused to make two trips.

We considered going out of town for Labor Day but decided to have a "staycation" instead. One night we went to Macaroni Grill (yum!).

Did I mention yum?

Another night we went to the Gateway for a dinner and a movie.

We saw The Proposal (loved it).

And then ate at The SkyBox sports grill.

We visited Shay after she had her wisdom teeth out.

And also made fun of her.

We shopped to replace our broken vacuum and refused to get one that was this skinny.

We discovered that Nielsen's accepts debit cards (finally!).

And celebrated the whole way home.

We had an impromptu, self-taken family photo session.

We made our first homemade bread.

We hosted James' brother Dave from Florida for five nights.

And had lots of fun, games and food while he was here.

We made our homemade salsa with tomatoes from my grandparents' garden.

We went to the annual Peacock reunion and stayed at a beautiful cabin.

We went to the annual Smith family reunion.

We made banana nut bread for the first time.

And the smell was intoxicatingly wonderful.

I made a beautiful, yummy, triple-decker club sandwich for the first time before James went to the Priesthood session. So delicious, yet so easy!

We are doing well and just plugging along! Thanks for stopping by. :)

Just call me Teacher.

...Teacher's Aide that is.

I have now wrapped up my first week of being a Teacher's Assistant for Human Physiology taught by Dr. Matt Linton at the U. Let me tell you, it's quite the experience! Monday was my first day and I was completely horrified (I won't mention the fact that all I had to do was stand up in front of everyone for 20 seconds to introduce myself...to my credit...it was a huge auditorium of 200 or so people). I just don't have the "guts" and confidence I used to, you know! But I got through that day. I then got through my first office hour that's held once a week. Then came Friday...the biggie. I had to facilitate an hour long discussion in the above stated HUGE auditorium all by myself....and my laptop...OK and a humongous projector...in front of lots of people. Woo wee! Talk about a nerve-racking adrenaline rush. I think I did pretty good for the most part...I'm trying to not dwell on the many things that went wrong and just focus on the fact that I really did give them good information like my TA had done for me. Now I just need to get past the next 16 Fridays where I'll have to do this all over again (minus a few breaks).

I'm just glad this first week is over with and past me. I had so much anxiety this week! And it didn't help that I slept through the 3rd day of this class due to the fact I forgot to change my alarm to "AM" after getting home from work that morning...and the professor specifically asked that the TA's never miss class! Aaahhh! Since that day I can't sleep very well because I'm so panicked I'm going to miss the class again. Even this morning, being Saturday, James said I woke up at 6am in a panic that we had missed something (none of which I remember). I'm starting to relax a little now the worst is over. And it helped that the professor now calls me "Sleepy Head"...at least now I know he doesn't hate me.


It's been quite the eye-opening experience. Here's what I have learned so far:

• Teachers are awesome. Enough said. Their job is a lot harder than I imagined. -It's easy to take things very personal (like when people leave early, people have a look of complete boredom on their faces and if people are laughing..."are they laughing at me??!?!")
• Teachers pay attention to faces and names and it doesn't take much to get to know the students if the students put forth the effort.
• Teachers WANT people to come up to them and ask questions and e-mail them...anything! They want to be able to help the students in any way.
• I need to give more positive feedback to my teachers and TA's (i.e., "I learned a lot today", "thanks for the help", etc.) because I had the following thoughts running through my mind the whole time I was talking: they all think I'm dumb and want to leave, I'm going way too slow, now I'm going way too fast, do they all hate me?!?!?, are they learning anything?
• Continuing with that same thought, I told the students to e-mail me if they wanted the PowerPoint Presentation I went over in the discussion. Since then, I've received several e-mails and some of them say "Thank you so much for what you said today, it really helped." Oh man! That means the world to me. It helps me not feel so down on myself after the discussion...you just never know how you did, you know????
• It takes a lot longer to prepare for a "lecture" than I ever anticipated! I'm so glad that I was well prepared though. Being at the front of a HUGE room with lots of people does funny things to you!
• Teaching is actually very fulfilling. And they aren't kidding when they say the teacher learns more than the student.

This nursing goal I'm pursing is taking me on paths I never would have traveled on my own! I had no idea what I was getting into when I wrote my "start of something good" post...OK, OK I knew it was going to be involved, but didn't realize the full extent of it, ya know? In order to get into the U of U (quickly), you have to have a lot of leadership and volunteer experience. And even then less that 50% of applicants actually get in. This TA position counts as one of my leadership experiences. I'll write later about my volunteer stuff, too. I'm actually really excited for some of the things I'm involved with.

We're coming down to the wire now! Applications become available in November of THIS year!

Brain malfunctions.

OK, so this is my 3rd post today (they're all quick I promise), I must be in the mood.


Working nights has made for quite the entertainment in our household. I usually don't feel too tired, but my actions sometimes say otherwise. For instance here are some things I have done recently:

• I left a note for myself to check on a "pre-equisting" condition with our insurance. The next day James saw the note and asked what "pre-equisting" meant.


• As I'm typing I often insert words like "quick" instead of "kick" or weird things like that.


• My grammar has gone out the window and has run far, far away! I used to be very good at grammar and spelling...not anymore! (you should have seen how many corrections I had to make to this post)


• Just today James called me on my cell and I answered happily "Hi Seriously!" It was if my brain went through the following thought process: we need a word that starts with S and it has to be one she says a lot... It then blurted out seriously instead of Sweetie.

I never know what day it is since I go into work one day and come out the next. I also can't recall words and stutter a lot then, too. So when I say "I'm retarded" I really am NOT joking!

So that's great..I'm even more air-headish than normal. Oh well! Hopefully it doesn't have lasting effects! I still will probably never work days. Why? I love the down times where there's nothing to do but read or talk to co-workers (I know that sounds incredibly lazy and irresponsible, but it's true!! I usually have all my work done beforehand, don't worry), I love the quiet and dimmly-lit atmosphere and I love the people who work nights. Basically, I just love my job. Here's to more entertainment!

Clean dishes.

So this is what I saw as I walked in the door this morning after work and couldn't help but giggle. Needless to say we got behind on our dishwashing with the start of school and adjusting to new schedules. The picture just doesn't do it justice - you wouldn't believe the balancing and arranging he had going on here (I have no idea how he got it to all stay without falling). As you recall, it probably looked similar to this before it became this:

He is such a great house-wife-husband. Although, he's got quite the high standard to follow being as his brother Rob makes brownies, homemade bread and who knows what else!