Disneyland 2016

Nathan's brother got married in San Diego a couple of weeks ago, so my in-laws being the very generous people that they are decided to take us all to Disneyland while we were out there! It was SO nice to escape and get away from the hustle and bustle of every day life and just enjoy a couple days where your only worry is what ride to get in line for next or when you're going to stop for your next giant pickle or turkey leg!

Here's the whole crew! Nathan's parents were such good sports and were able to keep up with all our tireless energy running from one place to the next! We got there when the park opened and didn't leave until it closed. Hardcore Disneylanding.

Haunted Mansion is my favorite ride ever. I promise I'm not a weird gothic person, I just really love Haunted Mansion. Despite the fact that I go to Disneyland like two times a year I haven't gotten to ride it for almost five years! Devastating huh! It had always been closed for one reason or another or it was the 'holiday' version which is not my fav. So I was very grateful I FINALLY got to ride it in its natural and perfect state!

Also, it rained the entire time. I wish I could say the almost constant down-pour scared away some guests but it certainly didn't. Spring break is always crowded down there, but we had our ponchos and good company so we didn't mind waiting in long lines in the rain (or at least I didn't, maybe I should just speak for myself? What can I say I am a Disneyland fanatic). I've always thought ponchos were so cheesy but I must say I felt very fortunate to have them haha! 

We also went to a Padres vs. Dodgers game in San Diego and that was a real treat. Despite the 7$ diet cokes (yes!! 7$) it was a lot of fun. Nathan served his mission in San Diego so I think he really enjoyed running around his old stomping grounds. One thing I was surprised by however was how many homeless people there around in downtown! They were lined up in tents and sleeping bags on the streets. I have never seen anything like it, it was very sad. But I guess if you have to be homeless San Diego wouldn't be such a bad place to be homeless in. The weather is consistently nice, after all. Still it was very shocking the sheer amount of people on the streets there were.

The weather has gotten really nice here in Utah, so I've been able to ride horses outside instead of in the barn freezing my toes and fingers off! Riding horses is such a relaxing thing for me. When I'm in the saddle I don't feel obligated to think about any of the worries of life and that's quite refreshing.

I have been so exhausted and tired lately, like I've been sleeping 11-12 hours a night on my days off, it's been ridiculous. I think it's a side effect of working such long and crazy shifts. I'm a nurse at a post-acute rehab/skilled nursing facility and I seriously clock in at 0600AM and don't leave until 1030/1100 at night. No lunch break, rarely a pee break. It is absolutely exhausting work, but I find a lot of satisfaction in it. I love being the 'nurse' and taking care of my patients! I just get so worn out by it. I go home and feel almost useless for anything else because I give so much and put so much energy out while at work. I've gotten overtime nearly every single week since I began working there! I won't lie the OT pay is nice but I wish I could get off on time, haha! Maybe it's just the fact that I'm a new nurse and still not at top efficiency, I don't know. But I've found it incredibly difficult to find motivation to work on school because I'm so pooped all the time!

Nathan and I will be moving at the end of the summer and I'm kind of sad, but also excited for it! So many emotions in one. We've lived in our same basement apartment for three years now! But I recognize it is definitely time to move on. I didn't get into the LPN-RN program for this fall, so a little bummed, but honestly also a little relieved about that. So this fall I can just work on some side classes and work while Nathan gets back in school.

Soooo much school! When will it end! *shakes fist at the sky*

Anyway, just a little update on the going-ons of life. Peace out my friends.

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!