Woo-hoo, 22!

Wow, I'm 22, 203 days away from graduating college, and my friends are getting married!  Since my last post, I turned 22, decided to full lease a horse, Ruger, from Wisconsin; have spent entirely too much time at school, and my best friends Liz and Ian got married!!  

I celebrated my birthday by going to dinner with friends from school at Westwoods Lodge, it was low-key and perfect!  That Friday I went out to Boondocks with a couple friends from the barn... After Ruger came!! He is a 4 year old mutt (appaloosa, thoroughbred, warmblood) who looks like a paint.  The little guy is already winning me over!

Nadia, Rachel, Jason Michael Carroll, and I after his concert!

Ruger

Little man can jump!

Liz and Ian tied the knot October 7th!  The wedding was two years in coming and I was so thankful that I got to be there!  We had a Wyoming reunion in Maryland for the wedding- Ian, Liz, Bea, McCabe, JJ, Wade and I all went to school out there!  It was one fun weekend that will go down in history until the next wedding!

Ice Cream is a pre-wedding essential!  McCabe, me, Bea, Lauren, Liz, and Elzabeth!

Girls- all dressed up and ready to go! Bea, Me, Liz, Jackie, Lauren, and little Clare!

Possibly the most fun wedding party in history... Kevin, Brian, Bea, Clare, Jackie, Liz, Ian, me, Lauren, Wade and JJ!

 I cannot wait for Christmas break and some time off from school- my courses this semester are not my favorites... but work is going very well!  I am hoping I can move home after graduation, but I won't know till later, so keep those fingers crossed!

Hope all is well where you are!

May, June, skip a few, now we're in September!

Holy guacamole, it has been a busy few months!  I went home at the end of July/beginning of August for my roommate, Brittany's wedding!  It was a great time and a perfect excuse for all of the UW crew to get together!  Only problem was that there is never enough time for all the things I want to do in Colorado... Oh well, I'll be back in December!

Landi-Lu is a big boy now that he is 5!

A pretty good turn-out from the UW equestrian team at Brittany's wedding!  Weston, Katie, Liz, Kaela, Brittany, Kenzie, me, and McCabe!

Back to life in Illinois... 

I truly got to experience the fair this year, living right across from a pretty busy gate!  It was a blast!  I consumed way too many corndogs, fries, shake-ups, and tom-thumb donuts; enjoyed time with the family, attended two concerts, and just soaked it all in!  

Colleen and I grabbed Vose's corndogs after the Eric Church concert!

I braved the odds and had 7 cousins for a sleepover during fair week... it was a blast!

I am a tech on 2e-Oncology/Hematology at Memorial Medical Center.  I work as needed so anywhere from 4-24 hours a week.  I am really enjoying my time there, but in the future still have my heart set on working at Children's Hospital in Colorado... whether that be soon or in a few years!  I am back in school and busy as ever.  I am taking a Complex class with clinicals on the cardiac unit, intermediate medical center, and oncology unit at St. John's Hospital.  I am also taking a Community class with clinicals at the public health department, home health services, and a variety of "experiences" throughout the county.  Also, as of today, there are 234 days until graduation... but who is counting? :)  

My last first day of school!  This is a picture from our day at the Chiara Center with Tori, Shannon, and Lexy.

I have been spending as much time as possible at the barn... I need a sanity break!  I absolutely love getting away from town and out to my own little world!  There are quite a few critters out there now, too!

Ruby really wanted to help me drive the Kubota

Chickens... farm fresh eggs, anyone?  I found 57 last time I had "bird duty!" 

While we're talking about birds... Anyone interested in a fresh turkey for Thanksgiving? These guys are HUGE!

We also inherited two baby bulls somehow... Memories of WRR dance in my head!

 Saving the best for last... I went to Notre Dame for the Purdue game, and had a blast!  My friend Lexy, from school, and I drove down to meet up with Maggie (who I've known since kindergarten!).  We had a great weekend, and so far ND's record is 3-0!  Maybe I need to go to a game every year...  

I can check doing crowd push-ups off my bucket list! 

GO IRISH! with Lexy and Maggie 

Walking around the "Holy Land"... had to show off the jerseys!

I hope everything is going well for you!  I can't wait to "get my life back" after graduation and NCLEX so I can go on more trips and catch up with people!

I have absolutely no idea where June went!

So the "mountain therapy" I referenced in my last post was a month ago, I cannot believe it is already July!!  I hope everybody's summers are going well!  Here is an update from my last post!
I went to Colorado for a week or so and enjoyed every minute!  I made it up to Winding River and got to meet the new barn girls and a few of the new work campers.  I got to ride the two new horses- Moses and Cowboy (Rootbeer II).  We invented a new dessert- bacon smores... you can feel your cholesterol levels rise while you eat them!  And Mitch is finally taller than me... who knew the kid would grow like a weed?!  I water-skiied for my first time, nobody told me how sore I would be the next day!  It was a great time seeing friends from all over both in the mountains and closer to the city, and as always WAY TOO SHORT!  

Carmel Apples are the perfect snack after pedal-boating... and of course fried zucchini later :)

Little Sienna is growing up slowly but surely!

Katie, Kay, Sara, Amanda and I watching Jerry's favorite comedy show (we had to initiate the girls!)

Mitch is growing up- yikes!

Water skiing Cherry Creek Reservoir with the Deas!

After I got back in Illinois, I started my internship on the oncology floor at Memorial Medical Center.  Talk about an experience!! I have seen codes, rapid responses, deaths, patients going home, and all kinds of new things.  I am happy to have the experience and am sure it will help in school next year!  I typically work three eight hour shifts (3-11pm or 11am-7pm) and one twelve hour shift (11am-11pm) a week, which for most people would be plenty of work and the rest of the time saved for sleep and relaxing... well, we all know I have the horse bug, so that is not an option! 

I started working/assistant training/riding at Capitol Stables in Sherman, Illinois almost three weeks ago.  I can work to ride, and hopefully will start teaching some lessons soon!  It is a great barn full of friendly faces and some pretty nice horses :) I am loving it, and get made fun of for smiling while mucking stalls and spending five hours at the barn before eight at the hospital... I guess it is good to be young and not need too much sleep!!

 Last weekend I went to Florida to catch up with some friends from Wyoming.  I fell in love with a barn out there (cheapest horse was "only" $125,000.00).  Liz is barn manager there so I helped her with some chores, went to the beach, went bowling on base, had a bacon party, and just enjoyed a break!  I can't wait for their wedding in October!  

Aubrey Hill in Pace, Florida... my dream barn!

 

Swimming in the gulf with Ian... tropical storm Debby made the water look gross!

Friends! I can't wait to live close to them again!

Done done done!

Hooray!!  It is finally summer, I successfully completed my junior year of college, this means just one year and passing NCLEX until I am a BSN Registered Nurse!!  I cannot believe that in just one year I'll be graduating, watching the seniors was a great reality check!

Dave, Elysia, Lauren, Kelsey, Emily, Nicole, Jessica, Kayla, Sarah, Eryn, Alecia, Brittany, Maridon, Kathryn, Morgan,  Seth, and I after a lunch celebrating survival of our first year of nursing school!

Kat, Emily, and I modeling the Meconium Happens shirts... inspired by Forrest Gump!

I had a blast this year, and really think I may be a pediatrics nurse in the future, but summer is welcome!  I am going to Colorado/Wyoming tomorrow thru the 30th and can't wait to see all of my friends and the critters back there.  After that is back to Illinois for an Oncology internship starting June 1st!  I will keep you all updated on how my first summer in 4 years with temperatures consistently above 90 and humidity goes, I am thinking I will spend a lot of time swimming!

Lucia stopped in Springfield for milkshakes!  Crazy how we met in Colorado and both are in Illinois!

I hope all is well with you, where ever you may be!  I will be sure to post another update after my "mountain therapy session" :)

One Month To Go!

Quick update!

I'm going to do March for Babies for Walk of Dimes this Saturday, a few classmates and my cousin Maria are going with me to try to raise money for NICU babies.  If you would like to donate, the money goes to a great cause!

I will have a new classmate starting in the fall, Jenna took a year off for cancer, but is in remission now- hooray!  She had a rockband party at her house a week ago that was a lot of fun!

Jenna, Kelsey, Shaylee, me, Maria, Lauren, Angela, Brittany, Rebecca, Randi and Kaitlyn in for a night of rockband!

I also got suckered into helping my friend Kathryn sell Thirty-One stuff... here is a picture of us at a fundraiser for Justin Smith, a friend with colon cancer.

Kathryn and I all dressed up to sell Thirty-One... I'll stick with jeans and boots :)

I hope everyone is doing well, just one month until summer is here!!  I will be working as a nurse intern on the oncology floor at Memorial Medical Center in Springfield... I can't wait!

April Fools!

Happy April Fool's Day!  I hope everyone had a fun day of jokes on friends.  I was able to convince my brother I bought a horse.  I also went 50/50 on convincing 8 friends that I would be transferring back to UW in the fall (I wish!)  Back to catching up...

I went back to Colorado for Spring Break in the beginning of March.  I skiied with the Dea's and on my own- we even had a powder day!  I got to meet my friend's 6 week old twins, ride Landi, and to see the new condo in Grand Lake.  Then I went up to Wyoming and the fun continued!  I rode six horses, saw countless numbers of friends, and was reminded why I may end up living in a state where it gets to negative fifty with wind chill on a regular basis... people are so nice!  I had a wonderful time and cannot wait for a reunion with friends in May!

Baby Brenna is back home and healthy right now!  Her mom is still updating the blog with updates and she is getting cuter everyday!  My latest pray-for-person is Justin Smith, he is the brother of a girl I met at a friend's and has stage 4 cancer, I went to a benefit for him this weekend and it was really successful, so here is hoping he fights it off!

School is busy as ever, the seniors are wrapping things up and we are all ready for summer!  At spring break my clinicals switched.  Now I am on the cardiac floor as well as the pediatrics floor.  Cardiac is not as exciting as I hoped, so it is on the only work there if I have to list.  I absolutely love the pediatrics floor so far, so that is bumping up the list as an option for a future career!  I've also had the opportunity to shadow a NICU nurse and observe in an OR during clinical.  I enjoyed NICU, but OR is not my thing, the gutty part is cool, I just do not feel a need to memorize the names of a billion different pieces of equipment, some with multiple names depending on their brand!  It was quite the scenario though, my nurse said it was the most complicated hysterectomy she had ever seen... so great experience!  

In the fall I will only have 2 classes!! Unfortunately they are 8 and 6 credit hours a piece for a total of 14.  It should be a nice change from 19 though :) Then I will wrap things up with 13 credits in spring of 2013, and no big changes in my life pending, will graduate!  It is a so-close-but-so-far dream right now, so I will continue the "nursing student schedule" of living literally week by week to ensure assignments are in on time and I am fully prepared for each week.  

I hope everything is going well for you!  If you are in Colorado/Wyoming, I will be visiting May 16-30th and would love to see you, if not, send me an email or call to catch up :)

Prayers Please!

Baby Brenna has been a NICU patient since she was born with a rare skin disease: Harlequin's Ichthyosis. She finally went home around three weeks ago, and things were going great.  Unfortunately she appears to have a stomach virus and is back in NICU.  This sweet little girl could use your prayers!  I have attached a link to Brenna's blog and thank you in advance for your prayers!


http://blessedbybrenna.blogspot.com/


**Brenna is home and doing much better, Thank you for your prayers!

Insert Thanksgiving Through January Here

Wow, I just realized this had not been updated since early November!  Oops!  To all of you who are wondering, yes I am alive!  Last semester ended in a flurry of prep-forms, papers, tests, finals, and a farewell to Illinois for a month. :)

End of semester celebration dinner with Morgan, Sarah, Rachel, Eryn, Alecia, & Emily

The view near our house...
You may be from Colorado if just seeing blue skies and mountains can make your day complete!

I spent winter break in Colorado and enjoyed every minute!  It was great to reunite with friends from UW, Regis, Grand County, and the barn!  I rode horses multiple times a week (Landi is still a big dork and Grigio is headed to California to find himself a new home... we'll miss him) and skiied even though there was hardly any snow until the day before I left (got to love that irony)! 

Hunter and Mater... I can't let this Christmas go by without an animal in a santa hat!  

Skiing with Kaela & Brittany- a roommate reunion!

Kay turned 21! A ton of our friends from Regis got together to celebrate!

Sara & I even made it to the National Western Stock Show
(Thanks, United, for changing my flight!)

 School is back to taking a full-time role in my life.  I will have a total of 4 clinical locations this semester: Neurology, the Birth Center, Pediatrics, and Cardiac.  So far I absolutely love the birth center- I guess I have my family genes for loving babies, and all those years of babysitting have sure paid off; I never realized some people have never changed a diaper in their whole lives!  School is a ton of work this semester (even our teachers call it the hardest), but I am still enjoying it! 
I cannot wait for Spring Break in early March for round two of skiing... keep the snow dances coming until then!  
I hope that you all had a Merry Christmas and are off to a great start to 2012!  To all the conspirators about the year ending: it better not, I have been putting in way too many academic hours to not have them pay off!