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!

Christmas...

We left a week before Christmas to go back to West Memphis and Mississippi to visit our families. It was very busy! Saturday night we went to the Dunn(my extended family)family Christmas party, Wednesday we spent the day with the Meister(dad's side of the family)family, Wednesday night we opened gifts with the Young(mom's side of the family)family, Thursday morning my mom cooked us a big breakfast, Thursday afternoon we ate lunch with William's family and Thursday evening we spent with the Mangrum family. They are our adopted family! We got up at 5am on Friday morning to go to Wal-Mart so I could get some new LED Christmas lights for our house. Well wal-mart opened at 5 instead of 6, when we got there we realized we could have slept in, there was no one hardly even there, much different from here. Two years ago when I got the lights that we had I got there at 3:30 and was already the 5th person in line and had to run to get my lights. CRAZY! Before we left for this trip we decided that we were going to be staying at our house next year for Christmas, I don't think anyone liked the idea, but we have been married 4 years and haven't spent a Christmas at our own house. We had a GREAT trip, and I am so glad to be back in my own house!

Us at Dunn Christmas Party

My mom, brother, and I at Dunn Christmas Party

My aunt Hope and Kali at Dunn Christmas Party

My daddy and me

My mom and me

My brother and me

My granny and papow on Christmas eve

My mom, brother and me on Christmas eve

The young cousins(2 are missing)

William, Jack and me on Christmas morning

Toddler Toes, Final Grade, HFG Christmas Party...

Lots of stuff to post about.

On Friday, I joined a group of ladies from my church and all of their kiddos to go to a local Nursing home and sing Christmas carols. Here's a picture of the group:

Notice I am the only one that doesn't have a kiddo!

I also took my ATI Assessment on Friday which finished up the semester. I made a 90 in the class. Which in any other grading system would be an A, but in Nursing School it is a B. I am happy with it but a little bit burned at the same time!

On Sunday night our new Home Fellowship Group had their Christmas Party, here is a picture of all of us:

School & A trip to Branson...

I had my 5th test this week and I made a B. So right now I have 2-A's, 2-B's and 1-C. We have out final on Thursday and then our Assessment for the class on Friday. After Friday I will be done for a month and then I start the Spring semester. I need to read my new book for the Spring. We will see how that goes, I am beyond burnt out on school right now.

Yesterday we went to Silver Dollar City in Branson, MO for the first time. We have been to Branson quiet a few times but never really had an interest in going to SDC. I am a Christmas fanatic and we had heard so many good things about the lights at SDC at Christmas so we decided we would go. I love the lights! I can't say I was thrilled with the rides. I thought there would be more rides, that's ok though. We will give it another try once it's warmer outside.


Us at SDC



The Entrance to the park


Before the lighting

After the lighting

SNOW!!!

Today we got our first snow of the season! I am so excited. It wasn't cold enough to stick but none the less it was pretty.

I have my last offical class day on Wednesday of this week for a review day for our final. We have test 5 on Friday and then our final exam on the following Thursday and Friday. I can't believe I am almost done with my first class. I do love school, it just really makes this time of year tough, with me not working. It just seems like every year it's something new to make it even harder. I am just a little bored, William sits in the office and watches football or plays on the computer and starting tomorrow I feel like I am not dedicated to my school work if I am not studying for my tests. There's not a whole lot to do, no money, house is clean, no family close. Just alot of things all coming together or falling apart all at once.


William in the snow.

The horses playing in the snow.

Icicles on the Christmas lights.

Not much snow, but enough!

Thanksgiving...

My mom, brother and his girlfriend arrived from West Memphis on Wednesday night for Thanksgiving. Thursday morning William started the Turkey and I cooked all the other dishes. Sometime during the morning while we were cooking lunch someone drove by ans threw a bottle of baby food through my moms passenger window on her car. Thursday afternoon we all headed out to Bella Vista to go for a hike at Tanyard Creek. After, the hike we went down to Fayetteville to see Lights of the Ozarks. Friday we went and got the window fixed on my moms car, got a really good deal on a Christmas present for William and colored my hair RED.

Us at Tanyard Creek



Me at Lights of the Ozarks.

My new RED hair.