My First Month as a Nurse

So I passed my state boards and now I am officially a licensed *gasp* nurse. That title both invokes terrible fear and great excitement in my heart.

The first day they handed me the keys to the nurse's cart was a strange moment for me.

"Errr, are you sure I'm allowed to have these?"

"Yup, good luck with being legally responsible for everything that happens to these 15+ people for the next 12 hours!"

To say I was scared as hell is understating it slightly.

After my second day on the job I drove home sobbing on the phone to my mom, and then proceeded to cry in my car, parked in our garage for a good long while.

I cried a lot in February.

I feel the need to document this however because it's important to never lose sight of where you came from. They say it takes about a year to get comfortable working as a floor nurse, and I sincerely hope in a year that I can look back on this post and smile.

School gives you the very basic information you need, but your education really doesn't begin until you start working. Each shift I complete gives me that much more experience, and those shifts will eventually add up and string together until I finally become the confident, experienced nurse I hope to be.

Life's hard, but that's the nature of the beast. How would we grow stronger if we didn't have to pass through difficult times and trials? Comfort zones are for pansies, after all.

Heavenly Father is wise, he has a plan for all of us, and I know right now this is his plan for me. He won't ever leave ya hangin' though! He always gives you the tools you need to accomplish the tasks he asks you to do. Even if he lets you stumble and fall a little bit, he will always help you back up.

Faith and Such

I graduated from my LPN program at the beginning of this month! I can't believe I am already finished, and am getting ready to take the NCLEX on monday (ahhhh).

My mom is a labor and delivery RN and has been for the past 23 + years. I think she was probably the most happy with my career choice, haha.

This is only about 1/3 of my class but I am so grateful for all the wonderful, talented people I got to meet the past year. At the beginning of my program I seriously said a prayer that I'd make some friends and I am happy to report that I definitely did. I laughed and (literally) cried with these people.

My sweet grandma and grandpa Greene got me some flowers for graduation. They are the awesomest.

I thought for sure once I finished this program I would be ready to have a baby (I mean helllooo we've been married like 3 years) but honestly I've just been getting the impression that I need to continue with school and finish my RN first.... which is ok actually. Hoping to get into an LPN-RN bridge program this fall, so we'll see how that all pans out.

I trust God has a plan for me and have faith that it'll work out, even if it's not exactly the plan I'm envisioning at the moment, haha.

My mom, aunt, cousin, sister and myself went down to St. George a couple weekends ago to run a 5k and just hang it! I have to say it was sooo nice to get out of town for a couple days, and just eat copious amounts of Swig and McDonald's fries.

I could live off of Diet Dr. Pepper and fries. Truly I could.

Pictured above is an insanely cheesy shot of me during the race! I never look up the pictures they take during races but my aunt sent me this one and I thought it was too classic not to immortalize forever by posting it on my blog.

Got to ride horses down by the lake last week, and despite my frozen, numb fingers and toes I enjoyed myself. One of my favorite smells in all the world is that of horses. I mean it's no anthropologie candle but I think it's a fabulous smell and it reminds me of all sorts of good memories.

Anyway I'm experiencing some pretty severe writers block but felt the need to post some pictures so THE END.

An Idaho Christmas (and other stuff).

This year was our turn to go up to Idaho to spend Christmas with Nathan's side of the family.

You know the song, "over the river and through the woods, to grandmother's house we go....."  just turn that song into a picture and that's pretty much what it looks like going to Driggs, ID for Christmas.

You literally pass over a river, and through some woods, and across miles and miles and miles and miles of snow covered wheat fields. Dirt roads, old red barns and a charming small town main street lit up in Christmas lights to boot.

It truly is something out of a storybook. 

The first day of our break we went sledding down a magnificently large hill, titled 'Kay's Hill'. So named for Nathan's grandparents who owned a dairy farm at the bottom of the hill. It's funny, everything in small towns is named after who lives there or by some random event that occurred there. Things like 'Hatch's corner' or 'Moulton Barn'. These landmarks are always used in reference when giving directions, for example: "You'll drive about 10 minutes down the road, passed Hatch's corner and continue on until Moulton Barn" or whatever, just something like that. Directions that make absolutely no sense unless you're from the darn place.

 Nathan doesn't like to open his eyes for picture, apparently. I still love him.

 After the sledding extravaganza we snowmobiled over to 'our tree'. 

What makes it 'our tree' you ask?! Well it has our initials on it, that's why! We carved this over three years ago and here it stands! It has withstood the test of time, just like our marriage. Haha.

Here it is when we originally carved it. Cool, eh.

ANYWAY. Back to Christmas. Here stands my beautiful lighthouse gingerbread creation I made. Do you like? We actually had two gingerbread house making parties this year but I have chosen not to picture my other creation because my grandma Abbott told me it wasn't very good (ha! you've gotta know her). I actually agree with her though, I tried to make a hobbit hole and it kind of just looked like a green blob so we'll leave it at that. I'm proud of this one however so I'll share it with the internet.

My mom sent me with (and Nathan but he refused to wear his) this beautiful, festive Santa Claus headband. I love it and will wear it for many years to come.

One of the best parts of Christmas break was I got to eat lunch with friends 3 days in a row! It was awesome. Unfortunately I did not get a picture each day but these are the friends I see the very least so I had to document this occasion. My dearest friend Cassady has been living in Georgia the past year or so and I've missed her terribly. Also Marisa moved to New Jersey recently and I also miss her dearly. And Shae, dear Shae, if you are reading this you are awesome and I will always appreciate you.

And I can't forget this beauty. My sister in law (who is also named Hannah) and myself had the privilege of riding in plastic sleds pulled by a team of draft horses across a small pasture. That description makes it sounds cooler than it was, all in all it was like a 5 second ride across a small field and back but I thought it was pretty cool, OK?

In conclusion I had a really nice Christmas break, I haven't had a full week off like that since I was in High School. I read a buttload of Harry Potter and almost didn't know what to do with myself and all that free time. It was great.

Disneyland Documentation

Every year we take a girl's trip to Disneyland to run the half marathon! We went in September but I never got around to posting much about it. Yesterday I had some spare time though and made a (very amateur) video.

Disneyland is such a magical place, and you can't know me without knowing that I love going there! I'm not much of a thrill seeker and so the 'total experience' centered Disneyland is perfect for me. I'd rather be people watching on a bench in Frontierland than be riding the world's tallest roller coaster, but that's just me. Who doesn't love the smell of baking croissants wafting out of the shops as you walk down Main Street. The gentle chime of music playing in the background, and the sight of Sleeping Beauty's Castle up ahead? I'm a real sucker for that kind of cheesy stuff.

3rd Anniversary

Happy 3rd (what the heck) Anniversary to my main squeeze, Nathan Hartshorn.

I'll start out by cliche-ly saying I have no clue how the time has flown so fast because frankly it has been going by at lightning speed.

I remember when I first saw you at the BYU-Idaho country dance and thought you were so handsome and wished that you would ask me to dance.

Then you did, and the rest is history as they say.

You are tall, handsome (and getting more handsome every day in my humble opinion), and amazingly smart. You are hardworking, thoughtful and you always let me do whatever I want, and I'm very grateful for that.

I'm proud of you for becoming a diesel mechanic, and I am so happy to see your own dreams coming true.

Thanks for reading Harry Potter finally so that we can discuss it and laugh and Fred and George together.

Thanks for scraping the ice off the car every morning, and for fixing the washer. Those little things mean a lot to me.

And finally, thank you for putting up with me and my quirks because heaven knows I have a lot of them.

You are my best bud forever.

23 and Christmas Trees

 People, today marks my first school-free, stress-free, test-free, assignment-free day and it is absolutely beautiful. Hallelujah, thank you Christmas!

Somehow I managed to complete my very first year of nursing school, and assuming I pass my state boards in a couple weeks I will officially a NURSE! Which I find absolutely awesome but also terrifying. For those of you who don't know how the hierarchy of nursing works, after one year you can choose to take your NCLEX - PN, which will license you to work as a practical nurse, and then after another year you can become an registered nurse or RN. So my nursing school journey is not yet over, but I feel pretty good about completing my practical nursing program to begin with.

Nathan and I went with my family to see the MoTab Christmas Concert on Saturday, which was an absolute delight.

AND guess what I turned 23. AH! 23. That is such an old number, I am practically ancient. We had a gingerbread house making party yesterday to celebrate, per tradition, however I did not snap any photos. But it did happen, I promise.

This month has been jam packed full of awesomeness and I love it. December is the best, hands down. I love the smell of oranges and peppermint and the sight of a glowing Christmas tree and the feel of wrapping paper and the sound Bing Crosby's White Christmas playing in the background.

I take issue with those who do not enjoy Christmas, so if you have anything bad to say about it then let's fight!

Kidding.

Merry Christmas one and all!

Christmas Cheer

Currently my Christmas spirit far exceeds my nursing school spirit which is a major issue considering next week I am going into finals and following that taking my state practical nursing licensure exam (the dreaded NCLEX, ah).

For example last night I put on Home Alone with the good intentions of 'just having it on in the background' while studying. Uh yeah, no. There was no background anything going on. That movie was front and center, and studying got the boot.

My cat loves tinsel and seriously sat in this tinsel nest she made for like 3+ hours without moving. Awesome.

Annnddd.... here's Nathan and I's fantastic Wal-Mart Christmas tree that we absolutely love. Best $25 dollars I ever spent. I decided to go with brown paper wrapping and fancy ribbons this year again. Something about 'brown paper packages tied up with strings' that I just cannot get away from. Maybe next year I'll go back to traditional Christmas wrapping.

We went to Temple Square with some friends this last weekend and it was quite enjoyable. A traditional Christmas activity that must be done at least once a season by all Utahns.

OK my grandma is the most hilarious human. My grandpa asked her if she would come 'help' rake leaves and this is what she did. Stood on the tarp while reading her kindle. Classic.

Here she is again, insisting on dressing her reindeer in their Christmas outfits. I love my grandma.

I've posted about my grandma's Christmas "shelves" on here before but felt the need to document this year's set up. Instead of a traditional Christmas tree, with you know....green branches and other tree like qualities, she has Christmas 'shelves'. This IS her tree, guys, and I get the privilege of setting it up each year. I say privilege in the sense that yes I do enjoy setting up her Christmas decorations each year but these shelves are truly a pain in the butt. I have to thumbtack each piece of tinsel and lights on every square inch of this bad boy and by the time I'm all done I'm shocked I even have a thumb anymore. But listening to the Carpenter's Christmas album while I set it all up seems to make it a pleasant enough experience that I keep coming back every year.

The finished form. Nativities and all.

Hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season and the best of luck to all of you with finals!