Black Friday!

My sister and I have a long standing tradition of going Black Friday shopping.  This year was no different, even though I worked Thanksgiving Day.  However, the stores did things a little differently this year by opening on Thursday evening.  We took advantage of that.  :)   

So, we hit up Target at 9PM.  The line was twice as long as last year, so we were all the way back behind the store next to Target!  There were a lot of punk teenagers there this year, just making things harder for serious shoppers like ourselves.  haha.  The line to check out was even longer than the line to get in the store!  It wound through 2 columns of grocery aisles! 

My favorite deals from Target:

RCA 9 in. portable DVD player - $55 (normally $119)
Graco baby doll accessories (stroller, high chair, carseat, changing mat) - $25 (normally $40)
Firepit - $30 (normally $60)
Infinity scarves - $8

Then, we went to Kohls at midnight.  Their checkers were moving soooo sloowww, and that line took 90 mins.  It was a very interesting tactic though because I ended up buying about 10 more things than I originally went in for.  haha.

My favorite deals from Kohls:

400 ct. cotton sateen sheets - $40 (normally $120)
Down alternative comforter - $27 (normally $109)
Superhero men's t-shirts - $10 (normally $24)
Fast-drying Croft & Barrow towels - $4 (normally $12)
Snowflake earrings - $4 (normally $10)
Snowflake pin - $4.80 (normally $12)

Then, we went to Best Buy. I didn't buy anything there, but my sister got a Dyson pet vacuum for $69. 

We called it a night since we didn't really see anything we wanted at the stores that opened at 4,5, and 6 AM.  My head hit the pillow at 3:30AM.

The next day at noon, I went out with my mom to Wal-Mart.  Nothing really jumped out at me there, but of course I bought stuff anyway. 

Next stop was Harbor Freight.  I bought Charles a hydraulic 3 ton jack for $70 (normally $140) since he bought a new-to-him Camaro SS a few weeks ago, and he wants to put a bigger engine in it to make it faster than it already is.  Boys and their toys!  I keep asking him where he thinks he's going to drive it that fast, and he hasn't really given me a straight answer yet!

I also went to Shopko.  I got some popcorn tins for $5 each.  And they have an Angel Tree there to buy gifts for kids around here that are under-privileged.  I chose a 3 yr. old little girl that wants Disney Princess stuff.  Just like my niece!

So, all in all, another successful Black Friday, except that it started on Thursday.  I cannot pass up a good deal, so I definitely spent more than I planned on.  But I saved soooo much more than I spent!  (Do you like my justification? haha)  

I hope your holiday shopping is as low-stress as possible! 

Kitty Litter Cake Tutorial

I'm at my mom's house and was looking through pictures she had uploaded from her camera.  I totally forgot I was going to do an awesome tutorial on Kitty Litter Cake!!!  I heard about it from a fellow pet-lover at work and decided to make it to celebrate Ginny's 1st birthday the last week of June.  (Very important note: This should not be fed to any animals of any kind!  It contains chocolate!)

Ingredients
White cake mix
German chocolate cake mix
Vanilla instant pudding
Vanilla sandwich cookies (the ones that look like Oreos but are vanilla)
Green food coloring
A few long Tootsie Rolls
A brand new litter box

Directions
1. Bake both cakes according to the directions on the boxes.

Step 1A - Taste test to make sure they're good.  :)

2. Crumble them up into little pieces!  So much fun!

3. Crush all the sandwich cookies.  This is easiest to do if you put them in a ziploc bag and roll them over with a rolling pin.  Set aside about 1/4 of the crumbles for later.

4. Make the vanilla instant pudding according to the directions on the box, and mix it with the cookie crumbles in a separate dish.

5. Add the cookie-pudding mixture to the cake mixture, mixing it all together in the litter box.  It will all still be very crumbly, but that's what kitty litter is like! 

6. Take the 1/4 of cookie crumbles you set aside and put them in a small ziploc baggie.  Add a few drops of green food coloring.  Now it looks like the "carbon crystals" in kitty litter!

7. Spread the green cookie crumbles over the mixture you have in the litter box, so that they are sitting on top.

8. Melt your tootsie rolls just soft enough so they can be worked with and formed into, well, you know.  Poopies.

9. Bury some tootsie rolls in the cake, and drape a few over the sides of the litter box.  You can make it as gross as you want!  And... you're done!  For best reactions, dish it up with a pooper scooper!

Side Note: It is a very crumbly cake, even with the pudding.  It would be good served over some ice cream since it doesn't really hold good form.

The cake that looks gross, but tastes great!!!

Ginny even got to try some of the white cake!  Lucky dog! 

3 YEARS!!!

Wow!  Charles and I have been married for 3 years.  And what a rollercoaster it has been.  I'm going to be honest - it's not all puppies and rainbows everyday (although a puppy is a huge part of our everyday lives!).  In fact, it's a lot work!  We didn't date for very long before we decided to become engaged, and then our engagement went pretty fast.  I dated other boys a lot longer than I did Charles, and I guess I didn't really know him as well as I thought I did.  Don't worry, he's not a serial killer... although he does keep a knife on his bedside table.  Hmmm.... JK!  It's just been a huge learning experience for me, for us.  I think I have trained him well on shutting cabinet doors, not using a thousand paper towels for every little spill, and other things such as these.  And I'm getting better at keeping our table free of junk mail.  But more importantly, we understand each other a lot better.  We know how to argue better and more effectively.  We know how to make the best of the limited time we have together.  We know what each other really wants from a relationship.  I have a feeling our fourth year of marriage is going to be the best one yet.  :)

I got sooo lucky and someone actually wanted to work my Saturday day shift for me on July 7th, so we took advantage of my extra day off and we went to Vegas!!!  We had a blast!  We went all out since this is our vacation for the year.

We have always wanted to try this.  Peppermint, orange, mountain wild berry blend of oxygen!

We went to an AMAZING magic show.  I remember watching him on TV with my grandma. 
I have been obsessed with magic ever since (Harry Potter).

Anniversary Dinner at Serendipity.  I was so excited because my chicken nuggets were supposed to come with celery and carrots, and all we had eaten so far was grease and fat.  But apparently I had to order them buffalo style.  :( 
The Oreo Frozen Hot Chocolate really cheered me up!

The view from our hotel room in the New York New York. 
I didn't want to go to bed, it was so captivating to watch out our window.

We went swimming and then hot-tubbing in 110 degree heat. 
I decided Las Vegas pools aren't really made for swimming... the deepest point was 4 feet!

We went to the Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay. 
This tunnel was pretty cool as sharks were swimming all around us, and we had a stingray that befriended us.

I love this guy!!! 

I gave him a Memory Photo book I spent months making on Mixbook.com.  It had everything from our first picture together to our Waterfall Canyon hike we did 6 weeks ago. 
 He gave me a cute picture frame and put in 3 of his favorite pictures of us together.


I love you, Charles!!!






  

    

      

Faith #1

The first principle of the gospel is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Learn about faith from the scriptures and living prophets. Read Hebrews 11; Alma 32:17–43; Ether 12:6–22; and Joseph Smith—History 1:11–20. Read two general conference talks on faith. Exercise your own faith by establishing a habit of prayer in your life. Begin by regularly saying your morning and evening prayers. After three weeks of following this pattern, discuss with a parent or leader what you have learned about faith and how daily personal prayer has strengthened your faith. In your journal express your feelings about faith and prayer.

Of course we all know what faith is, but wow, this experience really strengthened my testimony of this principle and reminded me of some things I had forgotten.  We need to constantly be working on building our faith so that when trials come (because they definitely will!), your faith is strong enough to sustain you.  What do we need to have faith in?  The Atonement, life after death, repentance, that Heavenly Father knows what is best for us.  It's easy to talk about these things, but to practice them is a different story. 

My experiment of diligently and genuinely saying morning and evening prayers for three weeks went very well.  My normal "please bless my family with the things they need" became a lot more of pleading with Heavenly Father to please bless them individually with what they are struggling with right now.  And I saw a huge difference!  Probably the most awesome miracle that happened was on Day One, a Sunday.  I had a special fast through Facebook for one of my best friends, Jackie.  She was very sick and having crazy imbalances within her body because of her disease process and was in the ICU on that previous Friday.  I prayed all day for her and fasted for two meals, along with about 20 other friends.  She was able to be discharged that very night after being in the ICU just two days before!  Faith really does bring about miracles.  I also noticed so much more change in my family members, pertaining to things I was praying about.  Not only did this strengthen my faith, but also my relationship with Heavenly Father to be talking with Him twice per day everyday.         

One of the talks I read was "Faith - The Choice Is Yours" by Richard C. Edgley given in April 2010 General Conference.  He said he hasn't ever actually seen a real mountain move because of someone's faith.  But he has seen mountains of despair, doubt, fear, sin and pain removed when one's faith was strong enough.  Pretty cool analogy. 

Integrity #3

Integrity #3
The Savior is the perfect example of integrity; He did what He promised the Father He would do. Read 3 Nephi 11:10–11. Study the lives of other individuals in the scriptures who lived with integrity. Read Genesis 39; the book of Esther; Job 2:3; 27:3–6; Daniel 3 and 6; Acts 26; Doctrine and Covenants 124:15; and Joseph Smith—History 1:21–25. In your journal identify the ways these people demonstrated integrity. Think of a time when you had the courage to show integrity, especially when it was not easy or popular. Share your experience and your feelings about it in a testimony meeting or lesson or with a parent or leader.

3rd Nephi 11:10-11 - Christ did the will of the Father's, not his own.  He suffered because he did the right thing, and then he was blessed for it.
Genesis 39 - Joseph was highly favored of God and Potiphar recognized that.  Joseph was punished for something he didn't do, but the Lord remained with him and eventually rewarded him.  He had moral strength to say no!
Esther - She had the courage to stand up to the king and tell him that his servant was plotting to kill Jews, even though she could've been put to death. She protected her own people.
Job 2:3 - Job had integrity even when Satan tried to have great power over him.
Job 27: 3-6 - He would rather die than lose his integrity.  He refuses to speak wickedness, utter deceit, be unrighteous or reproachful.
Daniel 3 - Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego were willing to die rather than deny their God and worship a graven image.  The king gained a testimony of God as a result of their integrity.
Daniel 6 - Daniel wouldn't stop praying to his God and he was persecuted.  The king gained a testimony of God.
Acts 26 - Paul persecuted the Saints until he saw the Lord, then he changed his ways forever.  He knew he had seen the Lord even though people said he was mad.
D&C 124:15 - The Lord loves Hyrum Smith because of his integrity.
JS History 1:21-25 - Joseph Smith knew he saw a vision and couldn't deny it, even though everyone thought he was crazy.

I've had integrity when I've made little mistakes at work that don't have very noticable outcomes, so no one really knows but me.  But I know they must be resolved, so I admit my mistake and talk to the charge nurse, doctor, or pharmacist for advice about what to do.  It's embarrassing, but I know it's something I must do to make it right for the patient and to feel better about it within my own heart and mind.  

Personal Progress (Virtue #1)

In my last post, I said I wanted to got my Young Womanhood Medallion by the time school starts again in the fall.  I think it's totally doable since leaders don't have to do as much as the girls!  I decided to keep my Personal Progress journal here (for the most part) in order to hold myself accountable to more people than just myself!  So, here we go...

Virtue #1
Virtue is a pattern of thought and behavior based on high moral standards. It includes chastity and purity. The power to create mortal life is an exalted power God has given His children. He has commanded that this power be used only between a man and a woman, lawfully wedded as husband and wife. Study the meaning and importance of chastity and virtue by reading Moroni 9:9; Jacob 2:28; “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” (see page 101); and the section on sexual purity in For the Strength of Youth. Also read Article of Faith number thirteen and Proverbs 31:10–31. In your journal write the promised blessings of being sexually clean and pure and your commitment to be chaste.

Moroni 9:9 - Chastity and virtue are most precious and dear.
Jacob 2:28 - The Lord delights in the chastity of women
Proverbs 31:10-31 - If... you have virtue, Then... you are valued; trust is built in virtuous relationships; a woman should be a hard worker, have strength and honor, wisdom, kindness, not idle away her time, revere the Lord, give freely of herself... and her child shall call her blessed and her husband shall praise her. 
The Family: A Proclamation to the World - Marriage between man and woman is ordained of God, gender is an essential characteristic, we must have ordinances or the temple to return to God (and be worthy to receive those ordinances), procreative powers are meant to be used only between a husband wife who are lawfully married, celestial marriage is essential to His eternal plan, children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony and are to be reared by a father and mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity.  Those who violate covenants of chastity will stand accountable before God.
For the Strength of Youth - Sexual Purity - Physical intimacy is beautiful, sacred, ordained of God for two reasons: to procreate and to express love.  Listening to promptings will give you protection from spiritual, physical and emotional damage.  Pay attention to the promptings of the Spirit before it withdraws from you.  The Spirit will let you know when you're at risk and give you strength.
Article of Faith #13 - We believe in being chaste and virtuous.  We seek after virtuous things. 

Blessings: Peace of mind, heart, and body.  Trust.  Good relationship.  Favored of God.  Don't have to worry about legal situations, unwanted pregnancies, being caught, possible divorce, diseases.  True happiness.

My thoughts: This was something that I personally struggled with in my dating years.  I had a very strong testimony, I was extremely involved in church, I loved firesides, I went to EFY at ages 16 and 17, and I considered myself very spiritual.  But, I loved my boyfriend, too!  And there is a reason the prophet says not to steady date before missions.  I sent my boyfriend off to England worthily, but there are many things I would've changed about our relationship and my other relationships that followed after that one ended.  If I could've seen the bigger picture (or payed attention to the promptings I repeatedly felt in my heart and mind), I would've known that playing with fire isn't worth it - you will get burned.     
Fast-forward to 2008 - My sister's marriage all but fell apart when my brother-in-law's poor choices regarding chastity and virtue were revealed in a very public way with the police involved and a story in the newspaper.  He broke her heart.  He lost her trust.  He's been sitting in Utah State Prison since September 2009.   
Being married, I can appreciate what physical intimacy really means.  It's something that only a husband and wife can give to each other in times of need and to feel as close as you can possibly get to each other.  It is not something to be used as a "want" or a bargaining tool; it is sacred.
My commitment: I promise to Heavenly Father, Charles, my future children, and myself that I will remain chaste and virtuous, and I will totally and completely honor the covenants I have made in the temple.

Summer 2012!!!

Feeling much better now that the semester is over!  And I'm pretty sure I got a 4.0 for my first semester of the BSN program, so that's even better!  I'm just waiting for my final grade in that darn power/policy/politics class.  Thanks to those who offered support and encouragement during my many breakdowns.  It really made a difference.  :)   

I'm kind of sad because this is the first year of our married life that we won't be going on a cruise in May. I know, super depressing, right?! Charles should be getting a week of vacation, and we will probably use it sometime in December.  That means we need to make the most of every summer evening we have together!   
So, without further ado, LET SUMMER BEGIN!!!  Woohoo!

Here's my bucket list (so far):

1. Reread "Mockingjay," the 3rd Hunger Games book, and actually finish it this time.

2. Make a mixbook for Charles for our anniversary.

3. Catch up on Vampire Diaries (at least it's not a guilty obsession if Charles watches it with me!).

4. Hike up to Ben Lomond peak.

5. Hike to Waterfall Canyon (preferably with Ginny!).

6. Go to and enjoy myself at Girls Camp.

7. Get my Personal Progress award as a leader.

8. Read and finish the Book of Mormon, which is part of #8.

9. Have a BBQ in my backyard with my high school groupies.

10. Get Ginny trained to be a good dog with the help of Petsmart.

11. Do something awesome for our 3rd anniversary,

although I'm not sure what can top skydiving last year.

12. Paint the walls going down the stairs to the basement.

13. Plant and maintain a garden.

14. Go to Lagoon.

15. Be more positive, less judgmental, and more willing to serve in all areas of my life! 

I have a feeling it's going to be the best summer yet!

Uncut and Uncensored

I'm just going to complain for a few minutes here, and I know that plenty of people have things so much worse than I do, but sometimes life really stinks.

School is insanely hard.  The assignments are actually extremely time-consuming, and I sit at the computer hour after hour on my days off, just trying to come up with something to say on my papers that sounds somewhat intelligent.  And there are soooo many big and little papers, I feel like I have written an entire textbook this semester.  Why did stupid Weber State put the two block classes during the same seven week period?!  Not smart, people!  And to what end am I doing this?  Not a pay raise, that's for sure.  More stressful positions/support roles?  No thank you.

Young Womens is really hard for me.  The girls, as much as I want to love them, are difficult.  I started out as the Personal Progress Specialist.  Ever heard of it before?  Yeah, me neither, cuz it was a made up calling.  The previous presidency was too dang lazy to do it themselves.  I use my own money (heaven forbid I touch the budget) to buy the supplies for the girls to make awesome stuff.  The only thing I ask, is that they go home and write something in their journals to make it "personal" progress instead of "group" progress.  Do they do it?  Nope.  Some have lost their books three times, despite me making church binders for them.  When we have activities in which I ask them to bring their books, and I call/text/facebook reminders to them, do they bring their books?  Nope.  When I ask if I can take them home to get it, they laugh in my face and go lay on the floor in the foyer.  It makes me so angry inside that I am far away from feeling love for them.  They are so clique-y, too which is unfortunate because the nicer girls are those who don't have much.  Enter in the second YW presidency I've worked with - super snotty president who is my age.  What?  You can't handle that some of the girls come from broken homes and have no money?  You can't work with people who aren't good enough for you?  See ya later!  Enter in the third presidency within 7 months.  I got promoted to MiaMaid advisor, and now I'm the Laurel advisor.  Now I have more say in helping the girls plan mutual.  Sew?  Cook?  Craft?  Scrapbook?  No way, that's not cool at all!  I give up.  When I teach, I'm just glad the leaders respond to my questions.  Here's a tip: never ask teenagers to look up a scripture.  Out come the phones, facebook time.

Work is wearing me out.  I've never called in sick so much these last few months.  I worked my extra mandatory on-call shift this past month, and I have another one coming up next week that I will most likely work.  I would love to go part-time, but then benefits would cost so much more.  I've floated to infant unit, medical, and NICU multiple times in the past month!  That's ridiculous!  I'm sick of being around sick kids!  If I'm going to go work, I just want to stay on my unit with my brain-injured children.

Marriage is a lovely thing, but for the past year since Charles has been at Firestone Tires I have felt like I'm still single.  It's my own fault that I choose to work 2 nights per week, so I only sleep with Charles 5 nights each week.  The other nights, he is so exhausted and mad at his boss that he has no energy to do anything, and frankly, neither do I.  His stupid previous boss at Firestone in Roy accused him of something he didn't do.  When Charles showed him the proof that he wasn't guilty, his boss just laughed him off.  No apology.  Then, his boss hurt his back and randomly missed work for physical therapy and doctor's appointments.  Fine, but then the workload was put directly onto Charles.  He was transferred to Firestone in Bountiful, which is a little better because he gets every Sunday off now (thank you, Bountiful for being mostly LDS!), but his boss there hurt his back yesterday(!), and so Charles doesn't get a day off this week.  Instead, he gets to work 65+ hours, which will make for a great paycheck.  But I don't care about the money.  I just want my husband back.  The one that used to laugh and be spontaneous, the one that wasn't constantly stressed, the one that isn't exhausted from waking up at 5 and going to bed late every single day.  I think it would be safe to say that excluding sleeping hours, we have spent more time apart than we have together in our marriage so far. 

Babies.  I want one.  But I can't imagine having a baby and basically being a single mom, on top of working and school.  I think it was a mistake to go back to school.  There's no point to it.  I only did it so I can be a better nurse, but it wasn't necessary.  And babies wear normal people out.  I am worn out every single hour of every single day.  I don't know how we would do it, and would a baby tear us further apart?  More arguments happen when people are tired, which could be why we aren't very happy right now.  I love Charles with my whole heart, but our priorities are just all wrong.  But I feel like if we concentrate on anything other than work, our world will come crashing down. 

A vacation would be nice.  But wait, Charles is using his one week of vacation that he earned after his one year of service to go visit his family at Christmas.  I understand that, and I would do the same if I were in his shoes.  Besides, I'm working both December 24th and 25th this year.  But sometimes, a couple just needs to go to Disneyland or Harry Potter World to regroup and reconnect.

My family is just kind of in a weird situation right now.  But I can tell you that my sister is not coping and could use some therapy for her and Benji Boy.  He is 6 years old; you can't expect the world from him.  I can't take seeing him cry every single Sunday.  And then there's the issue of the sentence being 3 years to life.  Well, the 3 years is up this September, but then there's that "to life" part.  Who knows what will happen?        

The house is a disaster.  I never cook; we have instant meals every night.  Ginny whines and barks at me all the time to play.  But I have no energy.  I can't keep up with life.  It just doesn't seem to have a point to it.  Work, school, homework, not enough sleep.  Day after day.

That's all for now.  I'm sorry if I'm being whiney, but I just needed to get my feelings out somewhere. 

          

      



              



 

BSN Program is just BS!

Everyone always talks about how the Associate Degree Nursing program is difficult, but the Bachelors program is on a whole different level!  The ADN program had 3x/week classes, weekly 10-hr. clinicals that started at 4:45 AM (free slave labor), extra clinicals for specialized classes, unit tests, finals, group presentations, labs, and don't forget the NCLEX!!!  But the BSN hybrid program is seriously making me question why I ever wanted to go on with school.  I haven't seen the sun, my husband, or my dog since January!  And I'm getting pressure sores on my bum, but don't worry - they still blanch!  haha.    

In January, I started with Nursing Research (3020) which is really not as bad as I thought it would be.  I really appreciate the work that nursing researchers do!  Did you know that only about 5% of what we practice is based off research?  Scary, huh?  I also started Nursing Assessment (3030) in January, which is really interesting!  My professor is a pediatric Nurse Practitioner, and she's so knowledgeable!  I finally know all my cranial nerves by heart!  But, I feel like I would never have time to do that in-depth of an assessment on my kiddos at work.  So, if you ever need someone to check out your nasal turbinates or check for a torn ACL, call me!  I'm an expert!

Halfway through, I added on Nursing Ethics (3045) which I really like.  It's been interesting to see what direction the most trusted profession for 9 years in a row - nursing, is heading.  Drug abuse, not honoring patient's wishes when they are in a comatose state, etc.  Scary.  I've also learned more about the simple things we sometimes do at work that we wouldn't consider outwardly cheating until you think about them more.  Policy, Power and Politics in Nursing (4030) is my other add-on which is going to be the death of me.  The professor is a nice, old lady who just needs to retire!  She makes politics 1000x more confusing than they already are!  At least the visit to Capitol Hill was very helpful, and I've learned that nurses really can influence legislators' decisions.  We have a voice!  Nurse Power!

Those last two classes have 15 weeks worth of content jam-packed into 7 weeks, so as you can imagine, I have been the worst wife, dogowner, daugher, friend, aunt, housekeeper, YW leader, and whatever else I'm responsible for.  I've never gone to school FT and worked FT in my life.  I've never dreaded my weekly commute of 6 hours to work at PCMC.  I'm seriously questioning my coping capabilities.  So many meltdowns.  Charles has been my rock through it all.  His birthday was ruined when I lost my 8-pg. politics paper into cyberspace, but he held me and then sat by me doing his own thing while I tried to recall and retype.  I am so grateful for my support system (and no kids!  J/K - I still very much want a baby, but I'm not stressed about it now!). 

My Spring Break started Wednesday night and ends tonight at 9 PM.  These 2.5 days have been pure bliss!  I hope you are enjoying the sun as much as I am!