Frosty 5K

Today was great, I got to run a 5K with my son Michael.  That means I have run a race will all my kids but Kellie, I am going to have to work on her.  It wasn't as cold as I thought it was going to be, and Michael was kind enough to stay back and coach me-that helped me to set a new PR.  Up to this point I have been stopping to walk for a few seconds every 1/2 to mile, last time I walked for about 20 seconds at about mile 2.  This time I ran non-stop start to finish.  We met up with a lady at mile 2 that kept me going, I wanted to talk to her, so I had to keep up with her.  After we broke off from her Michael encouraged me to sprint to the end.  I had told him I had no more left, I was already pushing myself.  He didn't buy it, and thanks to his encouragement I seriouslly sprinted the last part, coming in with a time of 35minutes 16 seconds.  4 minutes and 27 seconds better than the St pattys 5K, which is the same route.  That was my first 5K, so I was kind of holding back, not sure how I would do, this time I gave it my all.  Michael said if I felt like I was going to puke just before I finished then I truly gave it my all, and while I never actually puked, I defninatley felt like it.  Thanks Michael, it feels good to know I truly did my best today.  I also have to say thankyou to vaughan and Amy Nelson for letting us carpool with them,and waiting for us at the finish line.  It was a lot of fun, and I was shocked to see that we were in the car on the way home by 10am, quick, easy and fun.  Great way to start out the day.

I finished my stat's class this week,  HALLELUIA!!!!!  Never ever will I take that class again.  It was a tough one, but I pulled it off.  Now I just have 2 eight week sets of classes left and I am done with my BSN, That is going to be awesome.  But before then, I get a little break to enjoy Christmas with my family in Utah, I am so excited, less than a week away now, til we fly down.

I'm floating to a new unit at work, it definately takes me out of my confort zone, so it is a bit more stressful, but it is something new and different, which is nice now and again, even when you are a little more stressed.

Hope everyone has a great holiday, and Merry Christmas!!!

Our Love Hate relationship with Christmas

In our house we have a love hate relationship with Christmas, my husband hates it, and everyone else loves it:)  Since Bob works in retail Christmas to him means long hours, busy days and lots of stressed out customers and just a lot of work in general.  He gets tired of hearing Christmas music (which is piped in overhead constantly while he is working) and in general looks at Christmas as just a lot of extra work.  The commercialism of Christmas has worn him down, his favorite Christmas movie is "How the Grinch stole Christmas"

The rest of us, however, LOVE Christmas and all the happiness and joy that comes with it.  There are a lot of extra things I do at Christmas, but I pretty much enjoy them all.  Everyone is so full of love and kindess and giving and willingness to help others out, it is great.

 This year, since we will be spending it at Greg's house we went minimal with the Christmas tree, we have an artificial one that is pre-lit, and there will be no outside lights or extra decorations.   When the kids were little I used to force them out for hours looking for the right Christmas tree. Some years we went to stores, others to farms and sometimes to the local lot.  It was a family activity with a lot of memories.  I swore I would never have an artificial tree.  Then I bought one, wow!  Michael and I put it up in an hour then we were able to relax and enjoy each others company, what a difference!  The smell isn't the same, but I think I can find some freshener for that, I don't plan on going back to a real tree, ever!

Michael and I started on Candy Making and he is going to have a bunch of his friends over in the morning to help me finish...it's time for the traditional plate of Northrup candy, if I missed you let me know and I will make sure you get some!  I sure as heck don't need to eat all the leftovers.  Bob doesn't make candy,but I know he loves eating it.

I had a blast doing black Friday shopping with Kevin and Michael last week, we started at 3am that day and were shocked by how many people were up and at it, but that is completed,  and there is something exhilarating about knowing I got a really good deal on the presents I bought.  Yeah!  feels great, I can relax and not worry about gifts.  I do keep a few small extra wrapped presents around, just in case I missed someone.  Bob was involved with black Friday too...just on the other end.

Next is the Christmas cards, or should I say letter.  It is kind of cliche, but it lets everyone in our life know what is going on (because very few of them read my blog), and I think it is a little more personal than just a card. 

Another thing I love is the music, I need to did out my Manheim Steamroller Christmas CD, but as I mentioned above, I can only listen when Bob isn't around, so I think I'll put it in my car.

Finally, my very favorite Christmas tradition, pretty much the only Christmas tradition Bob loves too, acting out the Christmas story, since the children got older we went to just reading it, instead of acting it out.  When they were little we had to go through it 5 times so everyone would get to play every part.  It was a lot of fun.  This year we will be with our grandsons, and so I will get to see it actually acted out again.  I am so excited for that! 

That's my Christmas for this year, yeah, there is still work and school, but I plan to enjoy all the excitement up til Christmas and I am counting the days til we are all together again as a family for Christmas.  I hope you get to spend it with family and have a great one too!

HE'S HOME!!!!

Michael got home last week, yeah! It has been fun listening to him talk about all the adventures he had in Nicaragua.  I am very relieved that the airport reunion is over.  It is incredibly hard to sit and wait, well, for me it's hard to wait at any time, but waiting for something so huge is almost unbearable.  I have decided I need to drive in the "slow" traffic lane more often on the way home from work to teach myself patience, but I digress.....Michael's plane was delayed so it was almost 9pm before we saw him walking up the long hallway.  I don't think he could have walked slower if he tried...when I encouraged him to hurry he told me that "you've waited 2 years, you can wait a few more seconds to see me".  I did have the presence of mind to cover my face partly while I was crying this time so my mom wasn't able to get an awful picture of me like she did at Kevin's homecoming.   Noone looks good when they cry. 

It has been crazy busy since he got here, I just want to spend a bunch of time catching up with him, but alas, life goes on, and that includes work and school, not just him...so I have to share him with other people.  He has been diligently looking for a job, and complete his application to BYU-I and looking for ways to serve others and even helping quite a bit around the house, he is working out at the gym with us, and he has even touched bases with some old friends, I think he is adapting very well.

PACU is a little short staffed right now, and we are a little overstaffed, so I oriented to daysurgery and PACU 2 so I could float down there, it was really fun, and they seemed to like me....maybe there is a change in my future????  I don't know though, the people are all really happy there and they have been there for a very long time, so I am not so sure that will happen any time soon.  But I will not give up hope,another benefit... people in that area have Sunday's off, they just have to take their turn being on call, I could handle that.

I am half way through my statistics class...and I am still passing...YEAH!!! I see a light at the end of the tunnell and it isn't a train!  However I need to be careful not to speak too soon, there are only 16 out of 31 students left in the class....it really is a tough one.

I am scheduled to work on Thanksgiving, but I am hoping to get cancelled so I can participate in the Turkey trot 4mile run and spend the day with family.  But it isn't all bad, I have had to work so many Thanksgivings that Bob is now very proficient at cooking a turkey.  Happy Turkey day everyone!!!!

A new look

I decided I didn't like the color of my hair, I dyed it last week and it didn't turn out well at all, so I headed to Fantastic Sams for highlights and lowlights.  I think they turned out pretty good, but it is definately a lot darker than I have been for a while.  Not sure if I want to pay the money to keep getting them though.  Time will tell.

I am working on my statistics class, 2 weeks down, 6 to go, only a quiz this coming week and homework, good thing because MICHAEL COMES HOME ON THURSDAY!!!!   I am just  a little excited. 

I didn't do hardly anything I planned today, including running (bad me) but I still got a lot of other things done, so I am good with that, but now I need to clean like a maniac before Michael comes home.  I need to hem the curtains I bought for the guest bedroom, not so sure that one is going to happen unless I get low censused.  Good news, UPS called to arrange a drop off time for the desk I ordered, I am hoping that the new bed Bob ordered from Costco gets here before Michael does, otherwise he gets an air matress....hey, it's got to be better than anything he has slept on in the last 2 years:)

Time to get to work and get something off my list done, so I can't say I TOTALLY procrastinated today, (I only procrastinated some of the stuff)

new class,new car, only 11 days left!

This has been a big week,
I started my statistics class this week, and so far I understand what I am doing, although this class has more homework than any class I have ever taken in my life, literally.  One week down, 7 to go!

On wednesday on my way to work our altima, which has had a terrible high pitched screaching noise off and on for weeks changed to a terrible grinding noise.  It figures, you make your last mission payment and everything starts to break that has been held together by the blessing of having missionaries (our heater is making funny noises too).   I decided we could wait no longer to make our decision, that was the day we needed to get a new car.  Bob has been looking for quite a while, originally we were going to buy an almost new car, so he was prepared for that, but I decided I would rather have a couple older cars, than just one new car, because I don't think his car is going to make it much longer either, so he had to switch gears.  We found a 2002 Honda Accord Coupe that is in excellent condition.  It has all the extras and only 70000 miles.  It is a little older than we were looking at, but I fell in love with it when I saw the inside, it is very comfortable and it drives well.  It's a little sportier than I like on the outside, but what I see is the inside, not the outside when I drive, so I'm good with that.  I have heard Honda's last a really long time, so we'll see how it goes.  There was a litttle bit of buyers remorse, I think that is natural anytime you spend thousands of dollar on something, but I feel good about it now.  We got it for just under Kelly blue book, so I think that is fair.

Michael only has 11 days left ( I say 11 because he doesn't come home until 7:45 on Thursday the 11th, so we have to wait that entire day too).  I am really excited, I have started crying on a regular basis.  The emotions with a return missionary are huge.  I am scheduled to teach the Sunday he gets home, so I have asked several people to help give parts of the lesson, because I expect to be very emotional and cry a lot that day.  I want the sisters to still have a lesson:).

Its official

It's official!  I passed my algebra class, I hope I never have to do that ever again.  I am now moving on to my statistics class, should be interesting.  It's just 8 weeks, and then I get to take my vacation down to Utah to be with my family for Christmas, it will be the first time we have all been together for a long time, and I am so excited.  It will be an awesome break.

Had an awesome weekend with the ward party in Friday night, temple day on Saturday, after lunch with Steven, and then the primary childrens program in Church this morning followed by Choir and the farewell open house for the Cramers.  Awesome, someday Bob and I hope to be able to do the same thing together.  All in all a pretty good week, and only 18 days until Michael comes home.  YEAH!!!!

Bob had a dream he was going to die while Michael was on his mission, so I am really relived that we are coming to the end and he is still with me, obviously it was not an inspired dream, but sometimes it's hard to tell the difference. 

I am looking forward to starting my new class tomorrow, and to get back in to running regularly, I did run on Saturday, after spending hours looking up motivational quotes to get myself out the door. 

I am a runner, and I want to remain a runner, so I need to do what runners do and run!  It would really help if I had a race coming up sooner than next summer, a little extra motivation to prepare for. I need to do a little searching. 

We are also looking for a new car,  not my favorite task, but I love it when it is completed!

I do believe I passed!

I do believe I passed my Algebra class, I don't want to celebrate prematurely, because I don't have instructor confirmation yet, but YES!!!  I have never been so glad to get a B in my whole life (they don't allow C's, it is B or fail).  I still need to conquer my Economics final, but I have a good feeling about that one too. It was nice to come home to that news, cause today turned out to be a pretty crummy day, it actually wasn't terrible until I sat in traffic for an hour and a half thinking about it.  By the time I got home I had a serious headache and a serious case of self doubt.  Bob took me to Applebees for dinner, which was awesome, because they have the 550 calorie dinners, so I didn't totally blow my calorie intake out of the water like I did last  night.  Looks like tomorrow is a run day though, because I missed it tonight.  I turned in my application to the ANCC for the volunteer position, any prayers sent my way would be appreciated.  It would be an awesome experience to participate in something like that that is at the national level. Even if I don't get the position I now have a great CV ready for when that perfect position becomes available.  You know, the one where I don't have to work Sunday's anymore.  I am really beat, gonna head to bed.

PS.  Happy Birthday to Michael on the 10th, Kevin on the 15th, and Steven on the 19th!

I see the light at the end of the tunnel!

I see the  light at the end of the tunnel and it doesn't look like a train.  Yipee!  I passed the quiz and test for the final chapter today, now all I have is my final tomorrow and I will be done with Algebra.....a sweet victory, however short lived because I am on to statistics in 2 weeks.  I just have my final left in Economics too, it will be a relief to have school off my mind, even if it is just for a few days. 

I am preparing to apply for a volunteer position with ANCC and I thought I had everything ready to submit but the essay,  but when I went to pull up the application I couldn't find it, so now I need to do that part all over again.  Guess I have to add it to the list for tomorrow, since the deadline is the 15th.  I don't know why I want to do this so badly, it just sounds like a lot of fun to me.  I don't think they would accept that sentence as my essay saying why I think I should be the one they hire. 

Time seems to be creeping slowly right now, I think it is because I am so looking forward to Michael coming home.  I think I worry about his safety than I did Kevin's, because even if it wasn't always the best in the baltics, he was reasonably safe.  Nicaragua can be a different story, so when I have him back in my arms again it will be a big sigh of relief. 

Kellie and Marks visit this weekend was great, I love that they can come visit randomly, it's awesome.

I bummed out on visiting teaching tonight to go to relief society, and then my lecture went late, so I didn't make it to that either, dang.  My goal is to be more invovled in the relief society activities, and  let's just say I am not currently meeting my goal, although I did go to part of super saturday. 

I really enjoyed the nice weather today, went for a run, I figured it will probably be one of the last runs in nice weather for a while.  Oh well, life goes on...

I did it! Now on to the next unit....

I did it!!! after contacting my instructor, who gave me the sage advice to "slow down"???? I contacted the tutor source at Devry and someone named Depak (not sure if it was a person or a computer) helped me figure out enough of what I was doing wrong to pass my quiz, and then my test.  I have one more unit to complete in 2 weeks, followed by the final.  It's going to take a big push to get it done, but it will feel so great when I do.  I asked for a low census the last couple days at work, and the time has really helped.  I actually spent yesterday catching up on my economics class and I was able to turn in my final assignment this morning.  Now pretty much all I have in that class is the final, only 1/3 of the grade:( 

  Day before yesterday Bob and I were able to go to my dads for a BBQ-it was a nice dinner, and the left overs were just as great the next night.  Thanks dad!  I tried to make a pot roast yesterday in the crock pot, but apparently I didn't put it in early enough, because it was no where near ready when it was time to eat, hence the left overs.  I left it in the crock pot over night and it is now awesomely tender and ready for lunch, yum. 

I have added walks to the days when I don't run, to try and increase my endurance, and to help keep my stress level and weight under control.  Something about a nice walk outside, even in nasty weather that clears my brain.  I teach this sunday, so I need my brain nice and clear:)

Kellie and Mark are coming up this weekend...YEAH!!!!  I am looking forward to seeing them, which is another reason I wanted to get my schoolwork done so badly, so I could spend time with them while they are here and not have to be at the computer all day.

I'm off to Shopko to check out their curtains, they have a great sale, and the ones we have are pretty old and getting tattered, dirty and faded, especially against the new paint in some of the rooms.  I will of course have to modify them because we have old extra long windows that they don't sell curtains for anymore....oh yea, and I better pick up the stuff for Super Saturday while I am out....lots to do....ttyl

Not again!

Dang!  I took another math quiz tonight, worked on it for 3 hours, and I did worse than the previous 2 attempts.  I think the longer I think about the questions the more I confuse myself.  Kevin and Steven (2 of my sons that happen to be excellent in math) were both busy so they couldn't help.  My score is going the wrong direction.  I e-mailed the instructor and I am going to contact the tutor center in the morning to see if I can get some help.  The time is winding down in this class, only 3 weeks left out of 8 and I am getting behind. I will not quit, and failure is not an option.   I hope I get low censused at work so I can have some extra time to work on it.  I am thinking I need to get someone that knows math really well to sit down with me while I take the test.  Not to tell me the answers, but to tell me if I got it wrong, so I can work the problem again until I get it right.  How did I cope with the failure?  I went shopping!  Yeah, retail therapy...only problem is all of the stuff I bought was junkfood (candy, cookies, icecream, cheetohs).  I didn't eat it all, but I gave myself permission to if I wanted to.  Just knowing I could somehow made it so I didn't need to eat it all, does that make any sense? 

I got a letter from Michael today (my son on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints in Nicaragua).  He is starting to think about the time he will be released and have to leave the small branch he is currently leading. He wants to donate to them all the money he has to help them out. They are helping a young man prepare for his mission.  Since it is Michaels birthday this week he will be receiving money, and he plans on donating that to them, and we will add some extra.  We also forwarded his message to some of our friends.  His letter didn't just bring tears to my eyes, it made me cry.  It is amazing to see the growth in him during his mission.  Before his mission he never would have dreamed of giving away all his birthday money, let alone asking others to donate.  His mission has changed him, and I am very happy for that.  Not that he wasn't fantastic before, but I am glad he has picked up some selflessness along the way.  It will do him good in life. 

If you are interested in learning more about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints please check out  mormon.org (or you can go to lds.org, but that is more geared for people that already know a lot about the church).

Dang, missed it by one!

I am totally stressing out over school right now.  I am in the Chamberlain RN to BSN program, which requires I take statistics.  In order to take statistics I have to take algebra ,again, for the 3rd time because the other classes were too long ago.  You would think I could remember it and just breeze right through it....nope!  I had to take math 92 (pre algebra)  That finally clicked and I passed with an A.  I thought I was on a role and could roll right through math 114 (algebra).   I did pretty well on my first test, passed the quiz the first try and got 100% on the first test.  It may have left me a little over confident....I failed the 2nd quiz earlier this week and I took it again today and I failed by 1 question,  ONE QUESTION!!!!  It took me 2 hours to take the quiz, if only I had taken a break and come back and checked one more time....I knew I had some wrong that I just couldn't figure out, but I was fairly confident I had enough to pass so I took a gamble and hit the submit button.....dang missed by one.  Just goes to show you gambling isn't good in any venue.  My impatience cost me 2 hours of my life....and I still haven't passed the quiz.  I was really frustrated and overwhelmed because I had an economics paper that I hadn't even started.  I laid down to rest for a few minutes and I looked up and saw the medal I received for running the Rock n Roll half marathon and thought, if you...the person that couldn't even run to the end of the block 18 months ago can run a half marathon, you can pass this stupid class!  I got up and started working on my economics assignment, took a short break to read scriptures with Bob and came back to the computer and knocked out the paper.  Yea!  Tomorrow I am going to pass that stupid algebra quiz! 

House for sale

Tonight I smelled something dead, I don't know how I missed it earlier, perhaps the humidity of the day made the smell worse.  When I pulled back my dishwasher I screamed and shuddered, there was a dead rat behind it.  It was so big I thought it was a squirrel, except for the foot long horrible tail.  I made Bob get rid of it, btw he screamed when he saw it too.  He got a shovel and removed it and I cleaned up the mess, but I couldn't get rid of the smell, when I pushed the dishwasher back in place I felt my foot brush something and when I looked down there was a dead mouse!   AAAHHH!!  I screamed again, bob said "another rat"  I said no just a mouse this time, he said "good, I can't handle another one of those big ones tonight".  He got the shovel and scooped that one up too....That is so gross, I would say we need a cat, but I am so allergic to them it's not an option.  Now I keep feeling things touching my legs and my feet and I keep jumping thinking there is another mouse....there's not, but my mind is playing games.  I am sure tonight will be a night terror night, where I wake up screaming, wake myself up, realize what I am doing and go back to sleep.  It doesn't bother me much, but it tends to be a little unsettling to those that hear me screaming in fear at the top of my lungs.  I appreciate that we have a home, with a roof over our head to protect us from the elements and lots and lots of space, but it is falling apart, and it has mice, rats and big spiders so I would sell it in a heartbeat, just not to a friend, because I know what a lemon it is.  Thinking of this experience in a positive way....I am really thankful they were dead when we found them and that they were not in my bedroom, and they hadn't climbed up in to the back of the refrigerator to die like the last one, and my husband was here to get rid of them for me.  There are blessings in everything if you look at it from the right perspective. 

Getting started

This is the first time I've written a blog, and I am not sure where to go with it, but I do know I want to keep a record of the things that I am doing, because there are a lot of them.  My picture is from my daughter Kellie's Wedding in May-I'm the mom.  We are missing one son as he was still serving his mission in Nicaragua.  We expect him home some time in November, although we havent' received official notice yet. 

Last June I completed the Rock n Roll half marathon in Seattle, my time was 3:08 not bad considering it was my first time and I spent 15 minutes in line for the porta potty.  I am recruiting family members to run with me next year, I am toying with the idea of running the full marathon this year.  I think that's a pretty big goal for a 47 year old woman that just picked up running last year.

I am going to Chamberlain College of Nursing, working on my BSN and I am currently struggling with my Algebra class, I used to love it, but I just don't learn the same way I did when I was a kid.  It has been 14 years since I was last in college, that is a long time to forget stuff.  If all goes well I should graduate in April or May.

I work pretty much full time in a local hospital, it is  extrememly stressful at times, but also very rewarding, most days I love the people I work with.

I am a lifelong member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints.  As a child I went because it was a peaceful place where people were friendly to me.  As an adult I have learned the importance of the atonement made by Jesus Christ and how it applies to my life.  I really need it, as does everyone, because noone is perfect.  I am really good at pointing out my own inperfections.  My husband and I were sealed in the Seattle Temple in 1983.

I think that gives you a pretty good idea of who I am, or at least it is a start for now.