Flat Stanley...

William's cousin that lives down the road from his dad mailed us a project. It is called Flat Stanley. You are suppose to take Flat Stanley places with you and take pictures with him and then send it back to the student. So we did...

Flat Stanley has on a Wal-Mart blue shirt with Razorback red collar and sleeves.


William & Flat Stanley at the 5 and dime in Bentonville.

William & Flat Stanley in front of the Walmart Home Office sign.

William & Flat Stanley in front of the Arkansas sign coming from Missouri

Flat Stanley at the Fish Hatchey in Centerton

Flat Stanley & I infront of Old Main at U of A in Fayetteville.

William & Flat Stanley in front of Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, AR

Flat Stanley & I infront of Bud Walton Arena on U of A campus

Flat Stanley rooting for William at his first softball game of the season.

Flat Stanley with Jack & I in the backyard.

Finally home...and picture dump!

I finally made it home! I am exhausted. All 3 of the people on the bus from NWACC randomly won $25 gift certificates to Wal-Mart from door prize drawings. Wow, aren’t we lucky! Here are all the pictures from my trip:

These are backwards because I don't know how to post correctly.


Cheryl, Me & Amy with of WM gift cards we won

Me, Cheryl & Amy on our last night at the Rainforest Cafe.



My very first auction!

Most of the Arkansas students at convention

Everyone from NWACC who attended convention at The Aquarium

Me, Cheryl & Amy on the 2nd day

Me on the first day, no I don't have tape on my glasses, it is the flash.

Cheryl, Amy & I on the bus from Arkansas

Last Day of Convention...

I can’t believe today was the last day of convention! Where has it gone? Now it’s time to get back to reality and finish this semester up. We met for the closing House of Delegates today and then we had 2 sessions to go to. It was fun, but I was sleepy and couldn’t stay awake. After the closing ceremony was over around 6ish, Amy and I went to our hotel and packed all of our stuff in 5 minutes, which was a challenge, and made it back to the Opryland hotel where we were spending our last night with one of our classmates to catch the bus back home in the morning. We went to the Opry Mills Mall just beside the hotel and ate at the Rainforest Café. I love it! Every 30 minutes there was thunder and lightning and all the animals made noise like it was really a storm.

Day 3 of Convention...

Today we spent most of the day in the House of Delegates voting on by-law changes and resolutions. We didn’t get to leave the Convention Center until after 9:30. This morning everyone from Arkansas met in one of the rooms for the candidates that are running for National office to come speak to us. Afterwards we all got together for a group picture; somehow I ended up in the front. I got to go to my first auction today; it was a lot of FUN!

Day 2 of Convention...

I finally got some sleep! After sleeping 9 hours last night I feel marvelous! Yesterday we got to here lots more about why you should be a BSN, MSN or PhD nurse verses an ADN and that everyone should have to be a BSN to go into bedside practice. I feel very differently about that, but so far it’s just talk to get that changed and it has been for the past 15 years so there is nothing to get all worked up about yet. The Career Expo started today, all I really cared about was all the free stuff like pens and such that I could get. My pens always seem to disappear at the hospital. Maybe next year it will be more important to me, since I will be closer to graduating. I attended a session today about “Acing Nursing School Exams”, the nice thing about going to this one is that I already use at least 75% of what they told us to do, so if I use the other 25% then I should definitely be making A’s. Towards the end of the day at convention we got to hear some of the Resolutions that other members recommended for NSNA. After finishing for the day at 6:30 we were off to the Aquarium to eat dinner under the water. What a fun experience! After dinner, a few of the girls wanted to go “clubbing” in downtown Nashville. Since I have not toured this city before I figured what the heck and went along for the ride. I enjoyed getting to see places like the old “Grand Ole Opry”, The Titans Stadium and the At&t building that looked liked it belonged in Gotham City. We didn’t get back to our room until after 1am and I had to be up at 6am, so going out was not a good decision on my part….haha

Exhausted....

First and for most, I am not really sure why I am blogging instead of sleeping, insanity maybe. I have pretty much been awake since 5 am on Tuesday morning, minus a few cat naps on a 55 passenger bus that had 40 people on it. I am not really sure how well you can sleep on a bus like that, plus they were blaring movies over the TVs on the bus. So we left Fayetteville at 7 yesterday evening, and arrived in Alma around 8 but had to wait until 9 for all of the people to be there, then we arrived in Little Rock at 11:30 and had to wait until 12:30. After everyone got settled we made our journey back on 40 heading to Memphis.
The first hour or so we played Taboo and Mad Gab, which were pretty stinkin funny! By the time we got to Alma we were all ready to read so from Alma to maybe Russellvilleish I read, until my book light got broke. After picking up in Little Rock the bus driver made a Wal-Mart fun in Forrest City, I think we were the only people there, seriously! I purchased a new book light which I hope lasts more than just this trip....they are kinda expensive. We finally arrived to Nashville this morning around 7:30 am. We got our luggage and caught a cab to come to the hotel that we are staying at, which was an experience to say the least. My first cab ride, ever! So we showered and got Driving Ms. Daisy shuttle to come get us and return us to the Gaylord Convention Center, where we got credentialed to be delegates. So, it's about 11ish and we have a session to be in at noon and since we have no ride we have to heat at the Convention Center.....big mistake. I got a burger from this place called Stax, the burger was fabulous and came with fries well that was $10 and than $3.50 for a milk shake. So I am good and full after that. I got thirtsy laster in the day to figure out that their are no water fountains and that a 12 oz botle of soda is $2. Needless to say I will be bringing my water bottle with me tomorrow! So we decided after the opening House of Delegates that we were all too tired to stay for the opening ceremony and the conuntry Jamboree. We all, 6 of us, went to Applebee's for dinner and came back to our hotel, and of course my tooth has been hurting and once I took the meds it makes me where I am not so sleepy. So here I am blogging instead of sleeping...I did finish my first of 3 chapters on Respiratory, so some progress is better than none. I do have some pictures from today but I will post them tomorrow, the cord to my camera is in my room and I am in the lobby so my room mates can sleep.

Convention time....

I leave for Nashville shortly and I am so excited! I am missing 3 days of lecture, but I think it will be ok. I will be back on Sunday evening. I hope to post somethings before then.

Please remember me in your prayers, I still have an infection. After taking a round of antibiotics before my root canal my tooth is still hurting and the dentist said that only happens when there is an infection around your nerve. So needless to say, no fun! I started the 2nd round of antibiotics last night and am not feeling much better yet, but hope to soon! I feel feverish right now so I hope the meds work soon so I can enjoy this trip.

Also, I got a call today and I go for an interview for a Patient Care Assistant job at Northwest Health in Springdale on next Wednesday. I am excited about this, so hopefully I can get into what I will be doing and get some experience and get more comfortable with what I am doing, it's just a tad bit nerve racking with an instructor standing over your shoulder all the time.

Well until next time....TOODLES!

My baby boy turns 2!

My little Birthday Boy

Jack will be 2 on Thursday, but I will be out of town for the National Student Nurses Association Convention in Nashville as an alternate Delegate for our school. So, we went yesterday to this dog bakery in Rogers and bought him some pupcakes. He loves them! William got him his first pig ear, which he demolished and he just finished eating a doggie moon pie. So many fun treats for doggies. He also got a Kong Frisbee for his birthday, and Rylee(sister) got a light toy it's funny to watch her chase it.


Jack's pupcakes


My sweet little boy

Today was also the 1st of 6 Easter services that our church was offering between CPH and FBC. It was amazing! I hope they put the play from the 3 weeks on DVD, because I will sure buy it. It makes my heart hurt to think about how my Jesus was treated and then he died for my sins. What an AMAZING man! After church we went and ate at Mimi's Cafe, the last time we went there was just after they opened. I love their food! Afterwards we went and walked around the mall where we ended up buying William a Suit Jacket, I am so excited. He has never had one since I have known him. He didn't even wear one when we got married. I am excited! I will post a pic when the tailor finishes it and we get it back.


Our annual Saturday evening Easter picture, FYI the last time I wore a dress was the day we got married.


More of my new dress.

I passed both of my tests for sure but I don't know my exact grade, I will post them as soon as I know.

I got my root canal on Friday and over this weekend I have just about confirmed that the other tooth that broke in January needs one too! So, between all of my teeth problems and my colonscopy Murphy is eating us up!

We leave from Fayetteville on Tuesday night on a 55 passenger bus heading to Nashville and we will be back on Sunday evening. I will try to post pictures while I am there permitting I have time.

When the iron meets the rug...

I wasn't home when it happened, all I know is I couldn't stand looking at it so I bought a new rug.

This is the old rug



and this is the new rug. Hopefully Jack won't chew the corners of this one up!

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY LILLY!!!

My niece Lilly is one today, I can't believe it's gone by so far. WOW! She is having a party tonight and we aren't going to be able to be there. We have both saw her quiet a few times over the past 2 weeks. I can't believe how much she has grown.

Here are some pictures from my trip home this week:



This is the face that I got everytime I asked for a smile.


My new hair and my cousin Kali

My aunt Hope, Granny & my mom

Can I get some form of good news?(LONG POST)

This week has been eventful to say the least! I drove back to West Memphis on Saturday evening because I wanted to visit my uncle Lee's church Sunday morning. So, Sunday we drove to Joiner Arkansas and went to church, then I drove to Mississippi to pick up some things William had left behind when he was at home. I had a blast, I got to eat some grilled dear meat and see most of the Lewallen family and play with my niece Lilly for a little while before I left. I love that little girl so much!!!! She will be one tomorrow, I can't believe it! Monday moening about 7:30 my middle brother Joseph arrived here from Canton, OH. It was so good to get to see him! The last time I saw him he was 17 years old, in high school and hadn't been to the Marine's yet. So on to Tuesday, I spent the morning at the hospital with my granny and papow getting his bloodwork done for his heartcath on Wednesday, then we spent the afternoon at the Dr. with my cousin. On Wednesday I was up at 6am to be ready so I could go to the hospital with my granny and papow at 7:30. We just had to be at Crittenden here in West Memphis, so it wasn't too bad of a drive. After getting there at 7:30 they got my papow all prepped and ready to go but didn't come get him for his heartcath until 11:30, are you kidding me, he is a diabetic! Well, besides that I had left to head to Jonesboro just after they took him back for his procedure and asked my granny to call me when she knew the results. I wasn't even out of West Memphis before she called and told me that he had 90% blockage and they were talking him to Methodist University Hospital in Memphis by ambulance to do an emergency surgery. So, off to Jonesboro I go, for an hour drive. I get there and get lost 3 times trying to find St. Bernard hospital, and then just around ran into 3 cars in the parking garage. Well, I suprised my grandmaw when I showed up there. My mom had sent me a text earlier in the day when I was still in West Memphis telling me that she thought it was my daddy's birthday so I called him and asked him and he told me that he was turning 49! WOW! I didn't even know, my mom is 44. Shows how much I know! Well, while I was on the phone with my dad he told me that my grandmaw was having some more stents put in so I definitly wanted to go see her, because I knew she already had 4 stents. So, I got to the hospital in Jonesboro and found out that they didn't have to do any more stents they just did a little roto-rooter job on one of the stents she already had. So I stayed with my grandmaw and got her back to her house and resting before I headed back to West Memphis. I got to West Memphis at 5:30 where I had no key to any house around here. Not my moms, grannys, or aunts. So after calling everyone's phone 2 times I got an answer from my aunt and went to her house to wait on everyone to get there so we could head to Memphis to see my papow. Four years ago I would have told you that I would never forget my way around Memphis, haha, unless it's just off the interstate I can't find anything anymore! So we got to the hospital at 7:30 to see my papow and didn't end up getting back to my moms until 10. Boy was I exhausted.So, today I am going to take me and my brothers to WalMart to get some cheap pictures made, because the last picture that my mom has of all of us is from 1999.

I will post some pictures from this week, but will have to wait until I get home since I forgot my cord.

Here's our family picture from 1999: I was 13, my mom was 34, Joseph(back) was 8, and Jesse(front) was 7.

Spring Break!

Yesterday at 1pm I offically started Spring Break....WOOHOO!!! I am exhausted! I got over half of my to do list done today of things that I have been procrastinating on. Yesterday we offically paid off our last Credit Card....FOREVER! We also paid off the rest of Nursing school and I still have a year left, what a huge PRAISE! We were suppose to be leaving yesterday afternoon to go home and visit but since William just got back home on Wednesday evening we aren't going. He goes back to work on Tuesday and I will get up and leave for West Memphis when he leaves for work and stay for a couple of days. I hope to get some reading done and rest while I am there. I need to have all of my reading done before I go back from Spring Break because we will only have 5 weeks of class left plus 1 week of finals. 4 of those weeks I will have clinicals on Monday and Tuesday plus I think we have 2 tests thrown in there somewhere, a concept map for my Older Adult class and a Teaching-Learning project for my Adult I class. BUSY BUSY! I have applied for a summer internship at Mercy....I don't know how I feel about it. I am so undecided if I want to work this summer or just enjoy my time off so I have prayed about it and am leaving it in God's hands because he so knows what I need. I never realized it before until recently how much better he knows what I need than I do. We had our 2nd older adult test on Wednesday and all I can say is PRAISE THE LORD that I passed! I made a 82, which is a C. The class average was 77 which is a D. Not good! Well I am off to watch TV with William, I cherish these moments because their aren't many of them with the busyness of school.

It's been a while....

Well, it's been busy. I am so ready for Spring Break, only 11 days! Today is my Teaching Learning day from clinicals, I don't actually have to do anything today because we do our project at a later date, I just get my time back on today. Tomorrow I am going with a Hospice nurse. I think I will really enjoy it, I think I can see myself being a Hospice nurse someday. I have gotten myself into a bad habit of procrastinating and it is starting to catch up with me, which makes me stress. It's not bothering me too much because I am stressing less than I did last semester.

Jack got a haircut on Thursday, I cut William's hair on Saturday and I went and got a haricut yesterday. BIG MISTAKE! I usually go to a place in Centerton that only charges $9, it is called True Colors Salon. I really like it there, but they don't have any stylist in on Sunday, so since it was really the only day I had time to get my haircut I sucked it up and went to Smart Style at Wal-Mart. I asked for a 1 inch trim and I ended up with a bob kinda cut. I will post before and after pictures, it is growing on me, all I had to do was blowdry my hair and it looked great today, though I will be straightening it for sure!

This weekend we are leaving for a quick trip back home to Mississippi. A very close friend of the family passed away on Saturday and the funeral isn't until this Saturday so we will be there for that, plus William has a 10 year reunion meeting. The reunion isn't until July, this is the 2nd meeting already, much more organized than I thought. Then on Sunday morning we will turn right around and come back to Northwest Arkansas in time for will to teach group. I have clinicals on Monday & Tuesday in the OR a test on Wednesday and then we are leaving again on Thursday night to head back to Mississippi to celebrate our niece's 1st birthday. It shold be a fun and eventful 2 weeks!

My cat, I am either going to kill her or give her away, neither of which I really want to do but she is really making me mad. She peed on the carpet AGAIN! Not in the same spot as before, but just beside it so now I think I just going to take all the carpet up in the corner where her litter box is and Kilz that whole corner.




The above are the before pictures that were taken after my last haircut on January 31, the below is my haircut that I got yesterday, so my hair actually was a little longer than in the picture. So you can see why I am a little frazzled over my haircut!

Happy 28th William!

So, What a BIG weekend! Friday night we went to Cold Stone to get William's free birthday ice cream. Saturday I spent the day with my sweet Valentine. We ate dinner at Chick-fila in Bentonville. They had a candle light dinner and provided free ice cream cones. Sunday after church we went to Red Robin because William got a free burger for his birthday. Then at group on Sunday night I suprised William with a chocolate cake from Rick's bakery. Thanks Katie for helping me out! William's grandmother used to make him a chocolate cake every year for his birthday, I usually make him a heart shaped one but since we are trying to lose weight he told me earlier this year he didn't want me to make a cake, so I didn't. So when he saw he cake he was shocked that I did that, and actually suprised him. He is very hard to suprise with anything!

Today I validated trach care, suctioning and wound dressings.

I am including a few pictures from the past few weeks.



William's birthday cake from Rick's

My sweet birthday boy, I can't believe he's 28, he was only 19 when I met him!

Me and my sweet Valentine before our HOT DATE to Chick-fila!

Our niece Lilly

Blood on the first try....

YEAH! I validated IV insertion today and got blood on the first try. I feel so honored because my instructor said that there wasn't a thing that she could tell me to do differently, she said it was perfect! How awesome is that as my first time! :) We also validated inserting a Nasogastric tube on a manikin. I passed both of these.

I do need to prayer, we have our first test on Wednesday and over half of the test is on Fluids and Electrolytes and I am just now starting to study, but I am just now on surgery. Pray for my sanity and that I do well on my test. A 78 is passing!

Lots going on...

I have been so busy since the icr storm, dang storm threw our school schedule way out of wack! The Friday before last we had a Girl's Night Out at Johnny Carino's and went to see "New in Town" at the movies. By the way, it was a GREAT movie!



Girl's night out at Carino's

On Wednesday I attended a scholarship luncheon at school. I got to meet the donors of my scholarship. They were definitly some very nice people!


The Percell's, Lainie & I at the scholarship luncheon
On Thursday we had 2 tests, count it....2! I have never done that before. I didn't think I would do very well. I made a 100 on the calculation assessment and a 88 on the Pharmacology Evaluation. WOW! What a suprise to me!

Yesterday William left to go home for the weekend to visit. His 10 year high school reunion is coming up soon and he attended a planning meeting to get some more info about everything. I finally got to get my crown put on, since it iced last week I couldn't go get it put on, I just pray that my gums feel better soon!

On Monday I have to validate inserting a IV and an NG tube. Not together. I have to start an IV on my partner and she has to do the same too me, we do the NG on a manikin.

I also just found out yesterday that I will be running for Vice President for our local Student Nurse Association at our school. We will be nominated on the meeting this coming Wednesday and will be voted in at the March meeting. I will let you all know how it goes, plus I am going to need to prayer for this!

Ice storm...

No school today, YIPEE!!! We got out of class at 1 yesterday instead of 4 due to the weather already starting. I am glad to have a day off but need to be studying for my pharm eval that we will take on our next day back at school. I have been out and taken quiet a few pictures. So far we still have power but some of my friends that don't live too far are without power or have been without power. The weather is suppose to continue through the day and I think some more in the morning. Who knows, I just hope it doesn't get TOO bad.


This is from the first week of school, William asked me to wash the clothes and he would do the rest, so I did as he asked and this is what it looked like, I can't believe we have so much laundry between the 2 of us for 1 week!

William's desk for the snow/ice day.

The frozen grass in the front yard on Tuesday morning.

Our frozen shrubs, I am glad that i trimmed them down before school started or I would have a mess on my hands.

Our driveway on Tuesday morning.

Happy New Year....

WOW the changes a year can bring!

In January - I got saved and baptized, we started FPU February - William turned 27, March - our first niece was born, April - our sweet little dog Jack turned 1, May - William finished Joshua's Men, we finished FPU, June - I got into Nursing School, July - I turned 23, August - We have been married 4 years and I started nursing school, September - I'm sure something happened I just can't think of it:), October - I got inducted into Gamma Beta Phi, I got a scholarship for school, November - Our crazy cat Rylee turned 2, December - I finished my first nursing course, we started leading our own homegroup, William gets a trophy for winning one of his fantasy leagues(this it a BIG deal).

What a big year! Lots to be Thankful for! I am excited to see all the new things that God presents us with in the next year!