Chris's First Day of Nursing School!

Doesn't he look excited!

There it is!

 So it happened, the dreaded first day of school for Chris. . . and now our life is over!  Just kidding, only Chris’s life is over ha ha!  He had a good first week and found out that he might like his instructors more than he originally thought he would.  He had met them for an orientation day and told me they were old crabby women, but I think his opinion changed after his first day.  Even though nursing school has changed since I went there, it seems the course load is still the same, way too much and very overwhelming!  I have to say, I do not envy the next 20 months of Chris’s life.  But hopefully with faith and prayers we will make it through!

Our trip to Tucson was so much fun!  However, Tyler decided he was going to be sick and make grammie take him to the doctor for his fever of 102 degrees, which had been running off and on for the last 24 hours.  It was the first time he had to go to the doctor for being sick so I felt really bad that I wasn’t there for him as his mom, but I knew he was in good hands.  Turns out, he probably had strep.  The doctor didn’t run the actual test because they can get false negative results, and he still would have treated him anyway.  So Tyler got his first round of antibiotics.  Luckily, no allergies! 

So while my mom was dealing with my sick child, me and Chris were enjoying ourselves in Tucson.  We checked into the resort on Sunday and just relaxed and hung out.  It is amazing how much better you can talk to each other without a ten month old pulling at your leg every five minutes.  Monday, we slept in and went to breakfast at Schlomovetos (don’t think I spelled it right!) and it was delicious!  I got the stuffed French toast and it was enough to feed someone for a week!  So yummy, my mouth waters thinking about it.  Chris got the grand slam and polished if off and agreed it was one of the best breakfast places he had eaten.

We then went to the mall and wandered around and did some window shopping.  However, we didn’t really buy anything.  Chris said he felt bad buying things when he had spent so much money on school things (scrubs, stethoscope, shoes, books, ect- I think I might be rubbing off on him!).  I did buy a case for my cell phone, which I was in need of since the on mine practically melted of.  After shopping we went to dinner with Chris’s brother Jon and Jessica at the Hub.  It was a new place that opened in downtown Tucson and again, it was very yummy!  We decided if we ever need somewhere to eat, Jon definitely has the best suggestions.  

Mom and Dad met us back in Chandler with Tyler the next day and we were so excited to see him.  Even though we had only been away less than 48 hours, I really missed that kid!  I leave him all the time when I go to work at night, but it was so much harder to leave him with mom and dad.  Not that I didn’t have total confidence in their ability to watch him, but it was just hard to leave.  Not to mention that he was sick with a fever and mom had to take him to the doctor- but he recovered quickly thank goodness.  I have to say that I am so lucky to have such wonderful parents who were willing to watch Tyler while we got away.  I don’t know how my parents do it, but they are constantly helping others and never ask for anything in return. 

Love this boy!

This year was my first mother’s day with Tyler here and it was so much fun!  Chris treated me to my one of my favorite dinners, salmon with squash and quinoa, so yummy!  Him and Tyler gave me some much needed exercise shorts.  We have been more faithful about working out so I have been going through my exercise clothes a lot more frequently, so I was very excited to get this much needed gift!

Tyler is walking and running at times now, and we aren’t far behind!  He is into EVERYTHING!!  He loves to get into the bathroom with me while I get ready and take everything out of the cupboards, or take my brush or climb in and out of the tub.  He has learned that he can open doors, which I am not a fan of lol!  He has locked himself in a room a couple of times and it is too funny to just hear this little voice screaming in the room because he can’t get out!  He is too cute and so much fun.  I love rocking him to sleep and singing him primary songs while he falls asleep.   Just being able to hold him and cuddle him is so fun, I can’t get enough of it.  With Chris being in school four days a week we have a lot more mother and son time and even though I miss Chris being home, I love and enjoy the time I get to be home and take care of him.

 

9 Months Old and Walking!

9 Months Old and Walking, Who Does That??? Oh yeah, TYLER!!

                Yes, out little man is now a terror and walking everywhere and getting into EVERYTHING!!! He started walking right when he turned nine months old and has truly taken off since then.  I literally have a video of him one night taking four or five steps and the next night he was walking across the room as we were FaceTiming with grammie and grampie!  Everyone always told me that they grow up fast but I never believed them because time seemed to pass by so slow as a kid.  But after getting married and having Tyler, time truly does pass you by! 

                Chris will start nursing school in less than a month!  He could tell you exactly how many days, but all I know is that it will be way too soon!  I love having him all to myself and the time we have as a family.  However, once he starts nursing school I have a feeling he will be a little more busy with his studies.  But we are excited for him to start and get through the program.  He purchased his official GCU scrubs and as he put, “I look like a big grape!”  Ha ha, last thing I thought of when he put them on, but that will be his wardrobe for the next 20 months! 

                This Tuesday is my last clinical at the VA hospital, YAY!  It has been a frustrating but good experience.  The first week they didn’t have codes or badges for us, so the students just ran around doing CNA work.  The next week we had to go get our codes and badges which took up half of the clinical day.  The next week went better except that one of my students didn’t have a code and her patient refused to have her take care of him!  I felt bad for her but all we could to was improvise so she tagged along with all the different students.  Last week went well except that one of the student’s patients left the floor the whole time we were there, so again, we had to improvise.  I just count on something not going right this week and that way I won’t be surprised when it happens.  But it has been a good experience and I am glad that I did it.  I do wish that I could keep teaching but I don’t think working full time around Chris’s school schedule would easily allow that.  Plus, that would mean we would have to find a babysitter for Tyler which we are really trying to avoid.

                We are so excited for this weekend!  Chris and I are going on a getaway to Tucson to a resort.  I figured I should enjoy one last weekend with him since the next 20 months I probably won’t see him muchJ  Mom agreed to watch Tyler and she was going to come up here to watch him, but Dad said she needed to bring him down to Safford so he could see him too.  So, we decided a Tucson resort would be fun and we would be able to shop and have lots of restaurants to choose from.  Lucky for us, Chris’s brother Jon has a hookup for everything, so he was able to get us a room at a really nice resort and a very nice price!  We are excited to spend the time together and of course, sleep in!  Tyler has been waking up at 6:30 or 7 now, so a day to sleep in sounds heavenly! 

I am especially excited to go shopping because I finally hit my goal “weight” number!  I have been working toward it since last August after I had Tyler.  Everyone told me that if I breastfed him the weight would just fall off.  And it did to an extent, but I sure had to work for those last 15 pounds.  Chris and I did a round of P90X, and that helped but didn’t get me there.  So then we tried a little bit of the Insanity workouts, and those are literally insane!  Then, we did the Insanity Asylum videos and I was a bigger fan of those, they were harder but not as much cardio.  I have noticed a difference in my endurance and have really enjoyed getting into shape again.

Life as of now

Tyler sure loves the bath!

Love this face!!

      So a New Year does bring new resolutions and I had posted that I was going to bet better about posting, however, life has seemed to pass me by the last few months!!!  I can’t believe how fast time has flown, but I figured I would update while I could.

            Our first and foremost exciting news is that Chris was accepted into Nursing School at Grand Canyon University!!! He will start in May or June (haven’t determined which it is yetJ) and graduate in five semesters, so December of 2013 with his Bachelor’s in Nursing! I am so proud of him for all of the hard work he has done to get accepted into a program and I am excited and nervous for him to start all at the same time.  He is much more level headed and “chill” about things than me, so he will probably go through the program without stressing, unlike me.  It will be a crazy next five semesters to say the least, but we are excited for the adventure.  I have been teasing him about how he is going to handle changing adult diapers, which I don’t think he appreciates, but what kind of wife and nurse would I be if I didn’t try to prepare himJ

      Life with me has been a little stressful and crazy!  I started grading papers for GCU at the beginning of January, thinking they would break me in easy- oh no.  It was literally them telling me on Wednesday that they needed my help, meeting with them Thursday to get the instructions, and then getting the task of grading three different class’s assignments and having them done by Tuesday!  Yeah, it kept me pretty busy on my days off.  The frustrating part is that on the last I graded, the instructor also graded the assignment without telling me, so I wasted four or five hours of my life for nothing.  Oh well, live and learn right??  While in the process of grading papers, I was offered a clinical rotation at the VA hospital in Phoenix.  I was apprehensive about accepting the position, but figured it would be good experience, so my first clinical is the end of this month, wish me luck!!!  Again, the frustrating part of this clinical rotation is getting approved through the VA, apparently since it is a government agency hospital, the paperwork is never ending and to say the least, ridiculous!  I felt like every time I checked my email, I was getting something that was telling me yet another task that I needed to do in order to be qualified for clinicals.  Thank goodness for Chris because he has kept me sane through this whole process and has been so incredibly supportive! Don’t know what I would do without this amazing man by my side!

Another thing I have started to do is run with my next door neighbor and friend, Lisa.  Her and her husband moved into the ward back in August and I didn’t even meet her till January because I was her visiting teaching.  Well, long story short, her experience with the ward was very similar to ours, so I really tried to be better about reaching out and be the friend I needed when I moved it.  I was nervous when she asked me to start running with her, but accepted the challenge and we have been running together the last month and even though I am still not very good, it feels good to be exericising!

Love my boys!

  

Bye By hair!

     

       We, or rather Chris, gave Tyler his first ever hair cut!  We decided to buzz it because his hair was so uneven!  The hair in the back was like an inch and half long, and the front was only 2 cm, so it looked a little funny to say the least.  To match him, Chris cut his hair too, so they look even more alike than they did before.  We were in Costco the other day and this lady was telling me how cute Tyler was, then Chris walked up and she was like “Whoa, he really looks like his dad!”.  So yes, he is a total daddy’s boyJ

Well, Tyler continues to grow like a weed and bring so much joy into our lives!  He has had this obsession with buttons and so Chris got the idea to buy different sizes of buttons and sew them on a blanket for him to play with.  I had to capture the moment of him sewing them on the blanket for Tyler because I thought it was so cute.  

      He is such a good dad, he is always playing with him and making him laugh.  Tyler is starting to babble and say “Ma ma” and “Da da” and “Ya ya”.  Although, he does say “da da” a lot more than “ma ma”.  It is so fun because we will talking with him and ask him a question like “Tyler, did you like your food” and he will respond “ya ya”.  I know he doesn’t understand but it is hilarious when responds appropriately!

     

 For Valentine’s Day this year, we were able to enjoy spending the day together, we went shopping for a high chair for Tyler, and a baby shower present for my friend Claire.  We then went to Target and Sport’s Authority to get our Valentine’s present for each other.  Chris got me another Nalgene water bottle because I had lost one of mine and ruined my other one in the dishwasher, so I was very excited to get another one!  For Chris, I got him an agility ladder for his Insanity workouts.  What can I say, we are original!  Chris also surprised me with waffles for breakfast, one of my favorites and chocolate covered strawberries- so yummy!  I seriously don’t know what I do without him, he is so amazing and every day he continues to do even more! 

Chris making one of his amazing dinners, homemade pasta and then making it into raviolis, yummy!!!

     Well, hopefully I will post on here again before three months have passed by, but who knows how the next few weeks will go with clinicals!  Good news is it is only five weeks, so it can’t be that bad, right???

ChRisTmAs!!

      

      Wow, it's been a while since I last posted on here! But, a new year brings new resolutions and goals and one of mine is to be better about posting on here.  This year, we got to celebrate Christmas with our greatest blessing- Tyler!  I was a little bit bummed because I had to work Christmas Eve, which made me miss putting Tyler in his Christmas pajamas and being home right when he woke up.  Of course he is only 6 months so he wasn't dying to rip open his presents.  After getting home from work, me and Chris each opened a present and let Tyler open one, which took forever!  We then attended our old ward for church, which was really fun to visit our old friends.  We then came home and finished opening our Christmas, packed up and headed to Safford.  I thought with the excitement of Christmas I would be able to stay awake and chat the drive away with Chris, but sleep deprivation took over and I was out! Before I knew it, we were pulling up to my house and enjoyed opening Christmas with my family.  

      We had already done Doyle's Sock the Sunday before, which is probably my favorite part of Christmas.  This year, me, Chris and Tyler, bought teddy bears and donated them to Chandler Hospital for their Resolve Through Sharing program.  These bears would go to the mothers whose babies had died in the hospital or mothers who had babies in special care nursery.  While this is not our usual route of secret acts of service, it was very near to my heart.  This last year, one of my friends Channa, lost her baby when he was only 23 weeks old.  She delivered at Chandler Hospital and her son survived and was shipped to St. Joe's Hospital.  Her experience at the hospital was horrific in the fact that the staff did not treat her well.  She said she felt as if the nurses didn't even acknowledge she was there, let alone what she had been through.  She left the hospital empty handed, without her baby.  She told me that all she wanted from the hospital was one of the mugs there (which I later got her).  This made me realize how hard it must be for mothers to leave the hospital without their babies.  By donating the teddy bears, I hope this would prevent any mother from leaving the hospital empty handed.  After delivering Tyler, I can't imagine leaving the hospital without my baby.  It was our hope that the bears we donated would prevent any mother from leaving the hospital with empty arms.

      We were able to spend a few days down in Safford and pretty much just enjoyed spending the time with family.  Unfortunately, my dad was sick- even though he insisted he wasn't.  After much encouragement from my mom, more like force, he went to the doctor only to find out he had pneumonia.  I have never seen my dad so sick, but thank goodness fro modern medicine and antibiotics!

      After our stay in Safford we drove home and went through Benson to visit with Chris's family and hear about their trip to Disneyland.  I wish we could have gone, but with me working Christmas Eve, that was not a possibility.  But, the stories we made it sound very fun.  I felt so bad though because Irene came home and was not feeling well, and still wasn't feeling well this past weekend when Chris when down to lay her floor in her family room.  We hope she feels better soon because Tyler sure loves his "Gma"!

      Since Christmas we have brought in the New Year, and me Chris have both discussed things we want to improve in our lives.  We both want to be healthy and set a goal to work out together.  Chris was so good and made a calendar of the work outs we do and the first day went fabulous!  Then came the second day, and I broke the mold and didn't work out, ha ha!  But, I did reach my goal of being to my pre-pregnancy weight before Tyler was nine months old- and I reached it by the time he was six and half months!  My mentality was it took me nine months to put it on, I should be able to take it off in the same amount of time.  And yea for me, I did it!  Now, time to work on the goal of getting to my "goal weight" and no, I am not going to say what number it is because for a lot of people, it could be their fat number, but for me, it's my goal! 

      Chris has started his Spring Semester of school and this semester all of his classes are online.  This is so nice for us because it will allow me to work any day of the week without having to make different arrangements for Tyler.  Chris recently completed his TEASE test for nursing school and passed!  We are so excited and hopeful that he will get accepted to Grand Canyon University this summer or fall.  

      I am currently in the process of completing my faculty training for GCU.  I am hoping to teach clinicals for them to keep up my skills, but mostly to get a tuition discount for Chris and nursing school.  I think this will be a great opportunity, and the money couldn't hurt either.  I am loving working in post-partum!  I love the atmosphere and the opportunity to teach the new moms.  I loved every part of my pregnancy and birth experience, so its amazing to be able to share this experience with new moms.

      Tyler is keeping us busy because he is crawling EVERYWHERE!!!  Since our house is mostly Tyler, he looks like Mogley from Jungle Book when he crawls, so that has become his nickname.  He his pulling up to everything in sight, so we now have to have eyes on him at all times.  Today, I was trying to finish a scrap book and he kept trying to pull up to the garbage cans, so they had to go on top of the table, in addition to the water jugs and the recycle can!  He is the happiest baby ever, he is always smiling and laughing.  The kid will eat anything you give him, loves his bath, goes down for naptime and bedtime pretty easily, he is just wonderful.  The only time he gets angry is when he is too tired, or you aren't sharing the food you are eating!  He is such a blessing in our life and we are so grateful for him- we love being parents and the joy it brings into our lives!

Temple Lights

Time Out for Women

Once again, I got to attend women’s conference this year with my wonderful mom and awesome sisters and sister in-laws.  This has become a tradition for our family and I really look forward to it.  This year Hilary Weeks was the performer and I just love her.  She is able to make anything funny, even a topic like laundry.  She really uplifted my spirits and made me feel that the role of motherhood is so important, even though it can feel routine and unimportant.  Sister Belcher was also one of the speakers that really impressed me.  She had a disease that caused her to loose her eyesight and even though she has had many experiences that could make her bitter, she is nothing but positive and optimistic.  She did admit to having her hard days, but she was such an inspiration to me.

One of the fun memories from this trip was us trying to find our hotel.  Mom told us she got a different hotel than last year because it had better ratings.  Well, downtown Phoenix was so smart has to design one-way streets, ridiculous!  When we came out of Time Out for Women, it was raining and cold.  So we hurried to our car (even though strangers tried to get in it with us lol) and tried to find the hotel.  Well, between the one-way streets and my bad navigation skills, it took us over 30 minutes to find the hotel and come to find out, it was the same hotel we stayed at last year!  It was fun to spend the night with my mom and sisters and visit.  I look up to all of them so much and will treasure the memories we made during our time together.