Molly May

[Insert excuse for not blogging for over a year here]

We were blessed this last October with a beautiful baby girl.  Our life has been crazy and hectic ever since, but here is an update about Miss Molly May. Sorry that this is an incredibly long post.

On October 26, I was supposed to work the first of four nights in a row. I wasn't too pleased about it, but had four days off in a row after, which I was planning to get ready for our baby.  I had a horrible migraine all day and finally called off work due to it. I spent the night on the couch, nursing my migraine.  It finally went away around two.  At around four am, I started  having some contractions.  I didn't pay any attention to them, because I wouldn't be 37 weeks until Sunday (this was Saturday morning).  Finally, at 6 am, I told Carl that I was going to bed (he had been sleeping on the couch).  At this point, I was wondering if I was in labor, but decided that if I couldn't sleep, I wasn't in labor.  I slept until about one, when Carl got up (he was working the 2-midnight shift). I told him that I was still having Braxton-Hicks contractions. We joked about how I might be in labor and then he went to work.  I dozed until about 3, still having contractions and finally decided to get up and drink a bunch of water to make my contractions go away.  I made it to the bathroom when my water broke. I paged Carl and then called my mom and told her I thought my water broke.  Carl finally called me back (he had been stitching somebody up when he got the page). I still wasn't timing my contractions (stupid, I know).  We talked for a few minutes about what to do next.  He asked me about my contractions and how far apart they were.  I told him I wasn't timing them, but I had had three in the time we were talking.  He said "Um...we've only been talking for five minutes. I'm coming home now."

While I waited for Carl, I threw some stuff in a bag and called my mom again to let her know I got a hold of Carl. Carl finally came home and, being the doctor that he is, had brought home a pair of sterile gloves and checked me.  I was dilated to a 3. We drove to the hospital and I continued to have contractions about every two minutes. 

We got to the hospital and checked in.  They had me get into a hospital gown in triage and the attending came in. It just so happened that it was the OB I had started my pregnancy with before she went on maternity leave. She checked me and declared that I was at a 4 and that my water really had broken. She also told me that I would need to get the antibiotic for strep because my test hadn't come back yet. They moved me to another room and hooked me up to the monitors.  They told me that because my water had broken, I couldn't get up and walk around. I was disappointed because I had hoped to walk around to help get things moving. 

About a hour later (around 5 or  6), I got an epidural.  The contractions weren't unbearable, by any means, but were starting to get uncomfortable.  When they offered, I took it. Surprisingly, they wouldn't let Carl stay in the room.  They said they had too many dad's pass out. They kicked Carl out the whole time I was getting the epidural.

After they placed the epidural, they waited about an hour before coming in and checking me.  I was at a 5. They said my contractions weren't as consistent so they wanted to start some pitocin on me. They started with the lowest dose.  A while later, they came back in and said they might have to turn the pitocin down because my contractions were coming right on top of each other. The contractions settled down a bit and they ended up not turning down the pitocin.

At around 11, the resident came in to check me before she went to bed.  I was at a 9 1/2!  The nurse ran around trying to get things ready.  Within a half hour, I was ready to push. 

After one push, the monitor quit picking up contractions.  I wasn't quite sure what the contractions should feel like, so I ignored a lot of contractions.  They fiddled with the monitor, but ended up relying on Carl and the nurse to feel my belly contract.  They missed a lot and it took a while for me to figure out when I needed to push. I wasn't trusting my body because the nurse wasn't feeling contractions!

The resident left to go deliver a more complicated delivery and let the nurse keep pushing with me. After a while, the nurse finally decided that the baby would be delivered in the next couple of pushes and told me not to push while she called for a doctor.  That was probably the hardest thing I have ever done. 

When the doctor came in, Molly was delivered in two pushes at 2:43 am on October 28.

She weighed 6 lbs 3 oz and was 17 1/2 inches long.  She was breathing too fast at first, so they wouldn't let me hold her for a little bit.  They finally gave her to me to see if I could calm her breathing down, but told me I couldn't feed her.  That didn't work, so they took her back to keep an eye on her and called the pediatrician. Once the pediatrician checked her out and gave the okay, they gave her to me for keeps.

Getting checked out by the nurses

 

First looks

In the hospital, we struggled with breast feeding. Molly lost too much weight, getting down to 5 lbs 7 oz and we had to supplement with formula.  Her bilirubin levels were too high, so they ended up keeping her for a few days under lights.  It was nice; they let me stay in a room free of charge so I could stay with her. 

Feeding her a bottle

Under the bililights

Carl drew eyes for her Halloween costume

This was a blessing, as our help (my MIL) had just landed in Denver when we told her we were going to the hospital.  Tropical Storm Sandy also hit Cleveland while we were in the hospital. We lost power, but we didn't know for how long and had to throw all our food out.

We ended up leaving the hospital on Thursday, Nov 1. It's been a tough time. Molly never nursed well and we ended up switching to formula.  She also has colic and tough time sleeping (which is why I haven't written this post before this!).  Even with all the trials, we still love our Molly!

Ready to go home!

Finally home!

The aides made an awesome bow out of two hats

Brynn and Mal

A couple weeks ago, we had a very fun weekend with Brynn and Mal. They were our first official guests in our new city an house and we had a blast!! It was a quick trip but we loved having them here!

They flew in on a Thursday and we kicked it off by going to an Indians game. They lost, but we got free t-shirts, expensive hot dogs that weren't that great, cotton candy, and peanuts (sorry Carl!).

On Friday, we got up early and headed up to Cedar Point. It's the roller coaster capitol of the world and is on a peninsula of Lake Erie. And it has some awesome roller coasters! We didn't stay all day, but we hit all the roller coasters, dipped our feet in the lake, ate some very unhealthy food, and had a blast! Here's some pictures of Cedar Point (we didn't take them).


This is the Top Thrill Dragster, a ride that goes 120 mph and 420 feet in the air.

This is a nice view of the park. You can see the Dragster and the Millennium Force, a 310 ft coaster. It's my favorite ride there.


This is the Wicked Twister. It's name always makes me think of Harry Potter and the rock group, the Twisted Sisters, I think. Anyway, this is right on the beach and is another awesome ride!

Saturday was our "theme day". We went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, followed by dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. We saw all sorts of rockin' things, like a Cadillac Elvis bought when he dropped $140,000 on Cadillac's in one day for his entourage, Elvis' famous jumpsuit, Michael Jackson's famous glove, Thriller jacket, and Lady Gaga's famous meat dress. Yes, you read that right. They preserved the meat dress and had it there.

The Hall of Fame is located right on Lake Erie. It was designed by the dude who designed the famous pyramids at the Louvre.
This was just a cool picture.
This was a cool picture too. It looks like it was taken from the Browns stadium, which is right next door.

On Sunday, we went to church and hung around the house. We watched movies, played games, and ate ice cream. On Monday, we had to wake up early to get to the airport for them to catch their flight home.

We loved having Brynn and Mallory here! It's so nice seeing family and we hope to see them here again soon!!

New Town, New House, New Job

This last month, things happened so fast. I'm already up in Cleveland-Carl is not.

After we found out where Carl would be doing his residency at, Carl emailed his residency coordinator (who is kind of like his mom in the program) and asked if she had any contacts for me. She came back with the email of a nursing recruiter.

On Tuesday night, I emailed the nursing recruiter my resume. By Wednesday afternoon, I had an interview set up for the next Monday (the 28th of March). By the next Thursday, I had been offered the job, which started on May 2nd.

I am extremely grateful to have gotten a job so quickly. Nursing in one of the jobs that you can count on there always being jobs available, but politics in the last little while have made jobs hard to find.

The only problem is that I was starting on May 2nd. Carl doesn't graduate medical school until May 22nd. If I waited, the next orientation for new nurses isn't until July. I took the job, knowing I would be up here by myself for a few weeks.

April was a blur. Carl and I went to Honduras (!) for two weeks on a medical mission with the med school (yes, I will do a post about that). We got home with two weeks to pack up and move up to Cleveland while I was still working and he was still in school.

Needless to say, it happened in quite a rush and we really didn't get to say goodbye to many people. Due to us being in Honduras and then being in Cleveland for the last few weeks, we basically showed up to church and said "sorry, we're moving in two weeks!". One of our good friends had a baby while we were in Honduras and I feel horrible that we never made it over to see how they were doing and to say good bye.

We did end up renting a house. It's a nice house, with 3 bedrooms and lots of space. I moved in on the 30th and started work on May 2nd. Carl is coming up on the weekends, but most of the time I'm here by myself trying to unpack, work, and find my way around everywhere!

I am loving where I work at. It is the same hospital as Carl, although not the same department. We will most likely never work together unless I switch floors. The hospital is a Magnet hospital, which is a big deal for nurses. It's one of Cleveland's big hospitals and is the only Trauma 1 center in Cleveland (which is why Carl is going there). It's not associated with the Cleveland Clinic. It's the public hospital in the area, so most of the patients without insurance end up there. This makes it difficult, because of budgeting, the nursing is more primary nursing-nurses doing all the bathing, putting in IV's, blood draws, etc. This is actually great for me to get my skills really down well.

For right now, I'm excited to be living in Cleveland. Of course, it's summer and not winter. :) Sometimes I get really lonely and I have watched way to much netflix the last week, but it hasn't been too bad. I hope some people get adventurous and come visit us!

Clevelanders

Well, we opened the envelope. And we're going to Cleveland! We're excited, although we don't really know a lot about the area. I know it has the Browns, the Cavaliers, the Indians, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, is right next to Lake Erie and an hour away from Cedar Point. And it's cold. That's about the extent of my knowledge. People in Cincinnati aren't big fans of Cleveland, so whenever I would mention that Cleveland was on the list and ranked high (it was third) they would say "You don't want to go to Cleveland!"

We went up this last weekend and looked for places to live. We're still kind of up in the air about what we want to do. The housing market hasn't been that great up there but everybody told us that it's stabilizing. We looked at a bunch of houses and did find a couple that we really liked, but we'll see.

Renting seems to be interesting as well. It's expensive to rent and all the places were kind of dumpy. And I don't really like the idea of somebody else having control over us (raising rent, controlling when and how things get fixed, etc.) I don't know what we'll do.

For now, we're still keeping our options open and are excited about moving up there!

Changes

I'm going to dispense with the excuses and just start blogging.

The last little while have been crazy. I feel like we're growing up all at once. I finally graduating in December with my bachelor degree in nursing from Northern Kentucky University. Just last week, I got my nursing license in the state of Ohio.

Next week, Carl finds out where he goes for residency. It's really nerve wracking. I'll try to explain how the process works.

Carl has decided that's he's going to be an Emergency Room doctor. He applied to about 40 programs across the nation. Most of them where located in the mid-west, with a couple in the west. Some of the programs wanted to interview him and others didn't. I think he went on about 15 interviews. I was able to go on a few on them once I was done with school. We went to NYC city together on an interview, Buffalo, NY, and to PA. Carl also interviewed in Chicago, Cleveland, Toledo, Detroit, Louisville, and other smaller cities.

After interviews, Carl made what's called his Rank List. He put the programs in order, from 1-16, of where he wanted to go. He had a hard time trying to figure out his list. He had to turn in his list on Feb. 23. He had a whole bunch of things he was looking for in a program, from being able to fly on a helicopter, to doing ultrasounds, to how they do the teaching.

The schools also make a list. They rank the students in order of what who they want to come. I don't think they have one student per spot-more like 10 students per spot.

From there, some computer program sticks things together. I'm not exactly sure how it works, but they say it favors the students. It takes the students list and the programs lists and pops out a match. It's like a mission call-where they tell you you're going in where you're going, you can't turn it down.

Next week, on March 17th, it's Match Day across the nation. That's when we're able to find out where we're going. It's crazy to think how our lives can change because of one little thing. I haven't applied for any jobs because I have no idea where we're going to end up at. We're going to be someplace for 3 years and don't really have much of a say in where we're going.

I am happy to go where ever we end up at. It's crazy to find out where we're going. Stay tuned to find out where!

Spain

Some of you already know, but I am leaving for Segovia, Spain on Sunday. I will be there for an entire month, until June 30th. I was originally going to Mexico, but it got too violent. I ended up transferring to Spain instead and moving my trip up a month. I am now frantically trying to get ready for flight on Sunday. You can follow my travels here and also on another blog, A Summer in Segovia. I've added a link on my blog roll so you can find it easy. I had to start a blog to meet my scholarship qualifications, so I will blog frequently!

Oh Christmas Tree!

This semester I had to do my senior project. My partner and I focused on child abuse and for our project, raised awareness of child abuse on Northern Kentucky University campus. We worked with a great agency, The Family Nurturing Center on their activities for National Child Abuse Prevention Month, which is April. Part of our activities included making a Blue Tree, which was decorating a tree in blue (which is the color for child abuse).

So, I hauled my dear Christmas tree to campus. This Christmas tree is only 5 feet tall, but is covered in lights. No, it's not prelit. It's covered in light because our first year our here, I put lights on it for the first time. And I apparently went all out. It took me three days because I kept running out of lights. The 5 foot tree has 900 lights on it. Yes, you read that right. I crammed 9 strands of lights on it. Because it looked so awesome and took me forever to do, I refused to take it down. Instead, I shoved the tree in one of our closets. Definitely makes setting up easier!

Anywho, so I hauled my dear Christmas tree, still covered in lights, to campus. Luckily, the parking lot was close to the nursing building, but I still had a bit to carry the tree.

So, picture this. It's the end of March when I set it up. Beginning of May when I took it down. I'm carrying a Christmas tree across campus, in broad daylight. Yes, I'm sure I look like an idiot. Actually, I know I look like an idiot. That doesn't stop people from making snarky comments.

"Is it December already?" "I must have skipped a few months!" "Hey girl! You got your months wrong!"

Honestly people! Act like college students and pretend to be intelligent. Yes, I know what month it is. Do you think I'm carrying a Christmas tree on campus because I think it's Christmas? Did it ever cross your mind it was for something school related?

I do have to admit....I looked like a complete idiot.

New 'Do

Alright, ignore the crappy picture. And ignore the fact that I haven't posted forever. I promise that I'll post more. I finally did something different with my hair and went blonde! And before you start out on all the jokes, I started out as a blonde, and probably have blonde for most of my life.


Does my nose look slightly like a witches in this picture?

Apparently I've been Stressed

Apparently I've been just a little stressed. I have shingles. Yes, I know I'm young for it. Every time my dad answers the phone, he calls me "Old Women." Thanks Dad. But here's what's been going on to make me so stressed.

Carl started his rotations at the hospital. Right now, he's in surgery, which means he wakes up before 4, gets home sometimes at about 7, still has to study, and get to bed by 9.

I haven't gotten enough sleep lately because I'm a light sleeper. When Carl's alarm goes off at 3:45, I wake up as well. Sometimes I go back to sleep quickly. Sometimes not. The other day, I stayed awake worried about my care plan for school and then realized I had already turned it in.

School ends on the 18th. Yippee! However, that means my time is taken up with papers, papers, and more papers. Oh, and tests. Joy.

My class I'm taking right now is horrible. It's only a eight week test, but they decided to squeeze 5 tests into that. You do the math. That's a test about every 2 weeks. No time to rest in between.

The professors for this class are horrible. Their favorite line is "this is in the book, so I'm not going to cover this." They also lecture incredibly fast, so it's impossible to take notes. Basically, I'm having to teach myself. It's a pain.

I have a mid-curricular exam coming up. They told us about this test this semester and have expected us to study for it on our own. Um...who has time to study for that with everything else? They expect us to pass with a 78% or we have to take an extra class next semester. I really do not want to have to do that.

I joined a gym a couple weeks ago and have been going nearly everyday. So far, it has payed off and I've lost 5 pounds since joining! I'm really excited to lose weight, but it's one more thing on my plate. I'm worried that my current condition is going to cause a setback but I'll do the best I can. However, the gym also causes a problem because I go after work so sometimes don't get home until after 7-7:30, still have to shower, get dinner, and study.

Sometimes I feel really overwhelmed with everything. School, work, gym, and keeping up the house take up my entire life. My house is constantly a mess because I don't have time to clean it. It's fantastic.

Because of everything I've had going on, I've had to cut somethings out of my life. One of these has been blogging. Another thing has been reading. I've read one book in the last couple of months. If you know me, you know this is a tough thing for me. I hope that I will be to catch up on stuff when this semester is over.

Sorry this post was kind of a pity me post. I just had to get some stuff off my chest. Thanks for reading!

Sad news

School started yesterday. Ugh. I was kind of excited for it, at least excited to have some structure in my life and to be doing something. I think it's going to be harder semester for a couple reasons. It's harder material and I'm doing it faster (8 weeks instead of 16), which means longer classes and more studying. They adopted a +/- system for grades, so to get an "A", I have to get a 96% instead of a 92%. We'll see how that goes...

Carl's been back in school for a while now. He's in the hospital and does rotations, were he is in different sections of the hospital for a little bit at a time. So far, he's done radiology, ER, Neurology, and is in Psych for another month.

In other sad news, I found out last Friday that the gym where I work at is closing at the end of September. Not enough money coming in. With the economy, a gym membership is one thing people are cutting out. I'm frustrated with it. It took me so long to find a job and I finally found one that will work with my school schedule and let me do homework/blog/read when it's slow. This job was perfect for my schedule. And now I'm back on the job market. Ah-well. If you hear of anything let me know!

And now I have to go study about kidney problems. Joy.

Yesterday was our 4th wedding anniversary. He got me slippers.

My favorite Christmas present

If anybody spends an extraordinary amount of time with me they soon notice my one (out of many) peculiarity:

I have an addiction to slippers.

There. I said it. That's the first step, right?

When I'm at home, I have my slippers on. I've been known to sleep with them on, mostly while sleeping on the couch. I get quite distraught when I lose one for the slightest second. I get frantic when people hide them from me. I take them to my in-laws house. My MIL has suggested I buy two pairs and just keep one at her house. I once took them to Olive Garden with a group of friends.*

I thought this obsession started when Carl and I lived in our first apartment. It was student housing, with that tile carpet floor. Meaning, no padding underneath the floor. My feet were uncomfortable walking sock-footed on the floor, so I started wearing my slippers all the time.

Recently, a good friend from college sent me a picture of me at Christmas. And there I was, wearing my slippers. That surprised me. I didn't remember wearing my slippers all the time, but there was proof. This made me think long and hard about my slippers. And I remembered when I would take my slippers to work.

Before you start thinking I'm completely nutso, let me explain. I worked at a pool, lifeguarding. This meant wearing flip-flops all the time, even in the winter. This wasn't too bad while I was lifeguarding, but in the lifeguard room it was freezing. This room was only connected to the building by one wall, so had three walls right next to the howling winds of Utah County in the winter. And these three walls were mostly windows.

As you can imagine, this room was quite cold. Which is why I brought my slippers to work. It was much warmer getting back from guarding and being able to put my slippers on my frozen feet, wrap up in a blanket, and try to get some homework done.

I will admit that I am much more attached to my slippers now. I go through a pair a year. Usually, by Christmas, the current pair is trashed. Most of the time, the only thing I can think of to ask for for Christams is a new pair of slippers. Carl knows that if he just gets me a pair, I'm happy.

You're probably wondering what brought this post on. My slippers are starting to die. One side of the right slipper has split open, with the padding hanging out. Soon, I'll have to duct tape it shut. Last year, I think, I sewed them back together. Maybe it's time for me to start getting slippers on my birthday and on Christmas.



*In my defense, I was at Colleen's and she dropped me off at Olive Garden, where I met Carl and our friends. So, I shoved the slippers in my purse. Makes sense, right?

A couple weeks ago, we had to opportunity to go, once again, to Nauvoo. It made Carl jealous: while he was on his mission, his mom never came to see him, but has seen Travis twice on his 3 month mission!

Anywho, the singles ward (yes, you read that right) planned a trip up to the Nauvoo Pageant and because Arlyn and Colleen are a part of the singles ward and so, by extension, we are to, we decided to go with them.

We left on Friday after a test Carl had and drove the 8 hours to Nauvoo. There's no direct route, so we enjoyed miles and miles of corn. And soybeans. At least I think it was soybeans.

We got there a little bit before the pageant. It was kind of fun. They had set up the whole block with games and activities to do before the pageant. That's free. That automatically makes this pageant better than the Manti pageant. :) Of course, along with all the fun and games, this pageant was complete with anti-Mormon protestors. But honestly, would it be a good LDS event without them?

Of course, my of-so-friendly husband talked to the protestors. And talked. And got their tract. And then laughed at their tract afterwards. I wandered around while he engaged the protestors in uplifting conversation.

Before the pageant started, we found my friend David Smith in the lighting booth. He lived not very far from me as I was growing up and, although he's a few years older than me, we were good friends. He was designing the lighting for the pageant. It was nice to catch up with him.

The pageant was, of course, wonderful. It was about Joseph Smith and Nauvoo. It's nice to have a reminder about how much the pioneers sacrificed to get us here today. They turned off the outside lights on the Temple until the very end, then lit it up twice as bright. It was beautiful!

The next day, we drove around Keokuk for a little bit. We found an old bridge that we wanted to go look at. When we got back in the car, the car didn't want to turn on. We tried and tried. We turned off the lights, unplugged the GPS and iPod, and finally got the car to turn on. And then we promptly drove to Ace to get a new battery.

On Saturday, we mostly wandered around with Trav and his companion. They know all the good spots in Nauvoo now, so it was nice. At 4, we had an appointment at the temple to do baptisms with the singles ward. It took forever! We had a big group, so it took about 2 hours to be completely done. It was nice, though. I haven't done baptisms forever and was able to do some family names from Carl's side of the family.

For dinner, we went to Hotel Nauvoo. It is delicious! If you're going to be in Nauvoo, go there for dinner. If it's busy, you might have to get a reservation. (we had to, because of the pageant.) It's a little bit pricey ($15 a person) but it is a wonderful buffet with the best food on a buffet!

The next day we headed home, but stopped at Ken's in Peoria. Michelle and the girls were in Utah, so we took pity on Ken and took him out to dinner. As we all piled in the Cherokee, once again, it wouldn't start. But worse than before. Wouldn't turn over, nothing. So we all piled in Ken's car and went to a Chinese buffet. It was good, but two buffets in as many days propably wasn't good for my diet....

After dinner, we decided that the starter was out on the Jeep and couldn't be fixed until tomorrow at the dealership. I should amend that-the boys decided the starter was out. It only took them a couple of hours in the heat while I stayed inside Ken's air-conditioned house and watched Cake Boss on TLC.

So, Arlyn, Carl, and I all piled in the Corolla and headed for home. We didn't get in too late, but we were excited to hit our beds. Unfortunately, Colleen ended up in Peorio until Tuesday waiting for her car to get fixed.

It was fun going to the pageant; I've never done that before. Seeing Nauvoo is always fun and I'm glad I live so close I can go a couple times a year!

I Love to See the Temple

I had the opportunity on Friday to go to the Louisville Temple. I went with Colleen (mother-in-law) who works in the temple every other Friday, so it took a little bit longer. We left at about 7:20 and didn't get back until after 3! It kind of stinks out here, the temple is about an hour and a half away. Do a session (about 2 hours) and it's an all day thing. I haven't been able to go to the temple very often because it is an all day thing. Plus, the temple isn't always open. It's usually just open either in the morning or at night. They usually only run a couple sessions a day. I usually can't go due to school and work.

It really makes me miss Utah and all the temples. I grew up with a temple 5 minutes away and plenty of others within driving distance. If I wanted, I could do baptisms before school. It was easy to go do a session, it was just a couple of hours. Now, I wish I would have taken more advantage of it. I kept putting it off, because I could always go tomorrow or was too busy. I miss that now. I wish that when I wanted to, I could just drop by the temple. I wish it didn't take up half the day.

I guess what I'm trying to say here is that the temple is a blessing and I didn't realize how blessed I was until I moved out here. And I guess I'm also trying to say to all of you in Utah, you are blessed. Take advantage of it. And now I'll step off my soapbox.

P.S. sorry if the picture is huge. It's of the Louisville Temple. And it's tiny.

Alright, I guess I've procrastinated long enough. It's time to update this thing. So far, summer has been good. Here's the rundown of what we've up to so far:

Finished school (both of us)
Visited Phil and Bonnie in Charlotte
Colleen and I went to visit Ken and Michelle
Went to Nauvoo to visit Carl's little brother (he's on a mini-mission there this summer)
Went to Chicago and saw JoAnne get baptized
I started my summer class (Research, ugh!)
Carl has been studying and studying and studying and studying for his board exam, which is tomorrow
I found a job at started it this week. I'm working at Contours Express, a women's gym.

Umm....I think that's about all we've up too. I can't think of anything else exciting that we did. I'll be better about updating with more detail!

Fun Weekend

We had an action packed weekend. On Friday night, we went to the Reds game against the Braves. My school had a Reds night and we could get tickets for half off. We invited our good friends Dustin and Merideth to go with us, along with their cute little guy. The Reds lost, 4-3, but it was still a good game. We had a lot of fun and I got to eat my ball park hotdog.

After the game, they had some of the best fireworks I've even seen. They shoot them off on the other side of the stadium, so they're close and really loud. Dustin and Meri's little boy was so tired he fell asleep through them!

On Saturday, Travis, Trav's girl JoAnne, Carl and I all went to King's Island. The had their new roller coaster open and it was awesome! I highly recommend it. We had our camera with us, but this is the only picture that got taken.

Can you tell that Carl had the camera in his pocket? It was an action packed weekend that left us exhausted when it was over. Aren't weekends supposed to be relaxing?

December 2010

My experience with school has been frustrating. Not that I don't enjoy it, I do. I love learning about how to be a nurse. What's been frustrating is that I am not set to graduate until May of 2011.

When I transferred to NKU, I was put behind. A lot. I came with 3 years of school and was told it would take me 4 years to get my degree. All of my credits transferred. The reason was that their program is a 4 year program and I wasn't allowed to combine semesters or take anything out of order. This left me with filling up my time with pointless classes so I could still be full time.

This semester, my advisor suggested something that might work. I was to write a letter petitioned the Admission Committe and ask to graduate a semester early, by combining two semesters into one. I wrote my letter, explaining that I have a good GPA, all of my generals are done, and I would love to graduate early.

This week, I found out that I was approved! While graduating just one semester early doesn't seem like a big deal, it'll be incredibly to be working as a nurse 6 months sooner and earning some money instead of paying it out.

I am very excited and even thought it'll be a lot of work, I am thrilled to be able to do this. Wish me luck!

Fingers crossed?

I found this on my sister's blog and I wanted something from her, so I guess I have, I mean get to, do this as well.

Here's the deal:
1. The winners will be the first three people to comment on this post.
2. You will win something made by me. Something good.
3. Now it's your turn to serve someone else. You are supposed to do the same giveaway on your blog.

And no, I don't know what you'll get. And hopefully it will be good. Cross your fingers!

Black, Please!

I had the opportunity to go to Utah a couple of weeks ago to go to my sister's wedding (Pictures to come later!) While I was there, I was blessed to babysit Savy, Amber and Sam's adorable little girl. I got to spend all day Monday with her and part of Wednesday. I don't get to see her very often (she was born after Carl and I moved), so I loved watching her while Amber was at work.

On Monday, we wandered upstairs to do her hair. While in one bathroom, she found fingernail polish. I convinced her to put it down while we went into the other bathroom to do her hair. Once she looking good, she remembered where the nail polish was and insisted I put some on her. She was funny...she held still pretty well and insisted that I put on a top coat of clear fingernail polish! Unfortunately, the color she choose was black...


Here she is showing me her nails all done up.She loved my camera and cheesed everytime she saw it!

She was also quite entertained by my phone. She would sit and play with it forever!

Don't know exactly what she's doing here...maybe showing me the phone?

That wasn't the only time that week she got her nails done. It was hilarious when she asked my dad to paint her nails and he went through 3 different nail polishes until he found one that he liked. He would put on one, not like it, take it off, pick another color, and repeat the entire process. I don't remember he doing that for me!

I'm a litte behind-Christmas!

So, I was finally downloading pictures from my camera and found these pictures from Christmas! How embarrassing... I've decided to post them months late for your entertainment and enjoyment.


This was the big present of the year. Especially if you know my parents. First video game console EVER. It took a lot of sweet talking apparently. As you can tell my little sisters are just thrilled to get it. (It was a surprise for both of them, amazingly enough!) The older sister, not so much. I do have to point out that the Wii Fit was bought on Christmas Eve. I think between my mom, dad, and me we hit up every store in Utah County looking for one.


Here's the amazing Stroman fam rocking out. As Sam told Amber later "I thought you were a bad singer, but then I heard your sisters!" Thanks Sam. We know we are not blessed.

This is Taran, Mal, and Carl. Carl became the most requested singer. Probably because he was the only who could remotely carry a tune and have it sound good. I think my mom requested him to sing so she didn't have to hear the rest of sing wailing...