hApPy HoLiDaYs!

I love Christmas time! I love Christms traditions and being with family and I LOVE watching people open their gifts. We spent Christmas Eve at my grandparents' house, and then stayed the night at my parents and spent Christmas day with them.

In my family all the kids get to open one present on Christmas Eve- snuggly new PJ's. This was always one of my favorite traditions when I was little. But I don't get new PJ's anymore now that I'm an old married lady... except this year! I asked my parents for pajamas fully expecting not to get any. When they handed me a gift Christmas Eve I was totally surprised. It was so fun. I loved it! So here's a picture of me, my adorable sister, and my darling little cousins Kara and Trevor in our new jammies Christmas Eve :) So fun!

On Christmas day Robbie wasn't exactly surprised by his gift from me... but he still loved it, which is what makes me happy anyway (he found out about them like a month ago- I was so excited about what I got him I ended up telling him. I know, I'm fired). Anyway, from me he got some Bose headphones! something he's been begging for practically since we got married :) All day he kept saying "Hey guess what! I have Bose headphones!" He is so cute. I love him!

Our holiday was wonderful and I hope yours was too. It seems the weather has gone crazy just about everywhere lately, so I hope you are all staying warm. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanakkuh, winter solstice, new year, whatever... happy holidays everyone :)

Life - School = Good

Like I said in my last post, life minus school equals good! Wonderful, actually. It's been a whole week and I have enjoyed every second of it :) Clearly, Robbie has too. Notice the clock in the picture? Notice how the PM light is on? And I had just gotten up an hour before. (Hey... don't judge us. We've hardly slept in four months). The last week has been spent sleeping and getting ready for Christmas! How completely great is that? Two of my favorite things! Sleep and Christmas. I've been baking cookies and bread and all kinds of delicious carbohydrates. I must say it's nice to be eating real food again. Not pop tarts and Wendy's :) And I've spent probably way too much time wrapping presents. I have so much fun doing that though. Anyway, can you tell how much space we DON'T have in our itty bitty apartment by how small our tree is and how crammed together all the presents are? lol.

Well, I hope you all have a wonderful holiday. Merry Christmas!

Oh Sweet Freedom, it's Finally Over

I am officially DONE! I've been sitting here for a minute trying to figure out how to explain how FREAKING GOOD it feels to know I don't have to go back to class tomorrow or Friday or next week, and I don't have to be at the hospital by 5:45 Thursday morning.... and I don't have to sit in a class with some of those people ever again!! ah... I feel like I can breathe again. The past four and a half months have seen my "would rather be doing..." list grow exponentially it seems. I am so excited to start working on some of my projects that have just been sitting around being all alone and abandoned. But first things first... now that I've got my roast going in the slow cooker, I am taking a nap. It's going to be wonderful :) *deep breath* Life minus school equals good.

The Light at the End of the Long, Long, Tunnel

I talked my wonderful husband into taking pictures for our Christmas card again this year, and my awesome dad into taking the pictures for us! Unfortunately I looked stoned and Robbie looked like he'd been drinking in probably 75% of the pictures, but here's one of the good ones! Pretty good beard huh? I think he looks like a lion, so I've been calling him Simba. He doesn't like that. Apparently Simba isn't manly enough, lol. He prefers Mufasa. haha. I love you, Love!

Anyway, six days and I am officially done with my nursing program! Today was my last day of clinicals. I was in the NICU again. Last time was okay, but this time I LOVED it! Not that I necessarily saw anything new, but that isn't always what makes a good clinical anyway. I really am leaning towards wanting to work in pediatrics or neonatal care. It just fits me really well.

Anyway, I am almost done and it feels GREAT! I can finally see the end of this crazy year in sight, and I finally feel like I know what I'm doing. I think doing so well on the ATI really boosted my confidence. All that I have left are finals Monday and Tuesday, and then taking my boards. Then I will officially be unleashed on the world. Thats kind of a scary thought, lol.

School Sucks

I DON'T WANT TO DO HOMEWORK ANYMORE!! I do enjoy decorating for Christmas though! Here's a picture of our super adorable Christmas tree, lol. It's in a pot, and it's about 2 feet tall. Maybe. Yay for Christmas!

Week of Insanity

Okay so I had a predictor for my predictor test for my boards this week (did you follow that? lol). And I got a 70! Now I know that sounds bad, but a 62 gives you a 94% chance of passing your boards... so it looks like I'm doing alright. My actual predictor test is the week after thanksgiving. And if I DON'T get a 62 I can't sit for my boards at all. Meaning this entire last year of hell was POINTLESS. But it's looking like I'll be okay- at least I hope I will be.

Clinicals this week were a ton of fun! thank goodness- boring clinicals make me question my reasons for going into nursing. Wednesday was the NICU, and Thursday was same-day surgery. I was in Pre-Op, and I LOVED it. I got to see a couple of nerve blocks done, and it was fascinating! the anesthesiologist was awesome, he explained to me everything he was doing, what was on the ultrasound as he was doing it, etc. Really, it was so interesting! The NICU was fun. I didn't really do anything, but the babies are so cute! Their little NG tubes were so tiny!! there was a set of twins that were two weeks old. They were born at 32 weeks gestation, so they are 34 weekers now. I got peed on by one of them. The second I took his diaper off he peed right on me. Awesome. Sorry I don't have anything more interesting to say about my day in the NICU, I honestly didn't do anything. I loved Pre-Op though.

And then last night, after my crazy week was over, Robbie took me to dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory, which was delicious. And today I saw Twilight!! :) I LOVED it by the way! Robbie promised to take me to see it again (I always go with him when he wants to see his movies over and over...). I am so excited!! It was awesome :)

What I've Been Thinking About

Okay so I haven't been blogging much lately- mostly because school is crazy and I'm way tired, and partly because everything I can think of to blog about has to do with politics. Talking about politics seems to make people mad, and in my effort to not do so, I just decided not to blog. But here I am again, trying very hard to stay awake at work... anyway, here's a few things I've been thinking about lately:

1. Nothing sucks the joy out of nursing quite like nursing school does. This next week is the week I've been dreading all semester- an exam, a quiz, 2 research papers due, another assignment thingy due, 24 hours of clinicals, finishing up a test that will predict how I will do on my boards.... *deep breath*...bring it on, I don't like sleeping anyway :)

2. My Absent Minded Professor (aka Robbie). lol. My wonderful husband, who's so intelligent it's really quite unfair, locked his keys in his car WITH THE CAR RUNNING twice this week. LOL. Seriously!! I wish I had a picture of the police breaking into his car for us the first time, or the look on his face when I came to bail him out the second time at the school. haha. Sorry for telling everyone via the blog my love, but you have to admit it was the highlight of our week (I don't remember the last time I laughed so hard!). lol. But while his paying-attention and common sense skills seemed to be lacking a bit this week, he got a 93% on a test where the class average was a 45%....I love him and his crazy smartness... :) His teacher even put his essay answers online for the rest of the class to learn from him. I'm so proud of my love :)

3. Okay there, I just told you two things I've been thinking about that are unrelated to politics. NOW. Prop 8 absolutely disgusts me. And I hope the rumor that Barack Obama might be asking Hilary Clinton to be Secretary of State is true.

4. This is somewhat related to #1, but I have a rotation in the NICU this Wednesday!! This is the area of nursing that made me want to be a nurse in the first place. This is exactly where I would LOVE to work. Maybe thats why I'm terrified.

5. Robbie took me shopping this week! For shoes! :) Yeah, he's amazing. I got these super sexy way high heels that are black, white, and this pewter/silver color. I love them.

6. Twilight the movie comes out next week. I am way too excited about that!

7. I'm trying really hard not to mention anything else political.

Whoo hoo!!!! Obama 08!

Okay I can't even tell you how absolutely excited I am! Tonight was AWESOME! Robbie and I were talking and we just can't help but feel excited to have faith in America again. Seriously, when Barack Obama gave his speech, I was so happy I cried. That was a wonderful moment for the United States. In January, we will have a president who has a plan to CHANGE things! Just the thought makes me smile :)
Anyway, tonight was so much fun. I can't help but wish I was in Seattle or New York or D.C. where they are celebrating in the streets, but we still had a ton of fun at our own little election party with a friend of Robbie's. It's been a good day for sure.

I Love My Sister!

FUNNY STORY! So my sister Emily's 15th birthday was a couple weeks ago! and I was so excited about the present I got her! I made her a shirt that says "Team Edward" on it(from Twilight, of course) and it turned out way cute. What's funny is that as she was opening her present, she could tell it was a shirt, but not what was on it.... and she looks up and says "IS THIS AN OBAMA SHIRT?" lol. Apparently I talk about the awesomeness that is Barack Obama a lot lately. Anyway, I didn't want to dissapoint her because CLEARLY she was expecting an Obama shirt, so the next time I saw her I brought her one! lol. So this is a picture of my beautiful little sister and me wearing our Obama shirts. I know this is my absolutely favorite shirt, I'm sure it's hers too ;)

May I just say that I am SUPER excited for the election? I'm embaressed at what's happened to our country in the last four years; it's time for change. We NEED it. I think anyone who is informed knows that. And it gives me hope to know that finally, change is coming. As someone in healthcare, I see people without health insurance and therefore without the quality of care they NEED all the time. So often people CAN'T get life-saving treatments and medications because they aren't insured. If a person can be cured, they should be! I work at a treatment center for girls with life-threatening eating disorders. I've lost track of the number of very sick girls who have had to leave treatment early because their insurance has suddenly stopped paying for it. The fact that that happens is outrageous. Sometimes hospitals will just eat the bill- but that's bad for the hospital, which is bad for employee salaries, which is bad for the economy in several ways. Still, I'm glad they do it, but they shouldn't have to. Health care in America is screwed up, and I want a president who is at least going to try to fix it, and in a good way!! Don't get me started on all the ways John McCain's health care proposals will screw the healthcare system up even more. I'm sorry, I'm just sick of watching patient's die because they can't afford insurance. The fact that this even happens in America is disgusting. Universal healthcare would be a GOOD thing- I don't understand why so many conservatives are afraid of it. Anyway. Obama's plan for health care is just one of the reasons I am voting for him.

Okay so I got off on a tangent. But if you know me you're probably surprised I haven't mentioned my political opinions before now, lol. and if you disagree with me, thats okay. This is MY blog ;) have a great day everybody!

I FINALLY had a day off from clinicals! And Courtney had the day off too so we went and visited our friend Shirley! Shirley lives where Courtney and I both use to work, and we miss her!!

Register to Vote!

Okay so I am officially tired and would love nothing more than to take a nap and never study ever again! Why all 4 of my teachers insist on giving exams in the same week I don't know if I will ever completely understand. All I know is I am not enjoying the experience. On the upside, the first is already done (Pharm) and I think it went fairly well! At least I hope it did :)

Robbie is just as busy as I am with school. This semester is a new experience for him- I think he's enjoying learning more challenging material... he does not, however, seem to be enjoying the studying required to learn the more challenging material ;) He's still getting A's on everything (he is, after all, ridiculously smart), but he's studying for it rather than winging it now. lol. I love him and his crazy smartness- I hope our children get his brain.

Now! On to something more important... I hope you all have registered to vote!! The voter registration deadline is Monday here. So, because I am my family's designated political activist, I just thought I'd remind everyone... voter registration deadlines are coming up! I hope you are registered! There's no reason not to register when you can do it online!

Husband Tag

Okay I am totally stealing this idea from Shayna, but I thought it was so cute so I decided to do it too! And, if you haven't noticed, it's getting hard for me to stay awake at work lately... so this is how I entertain myself. lol

1. What is his name? Robbie. I call him love

2.Who eats more? definitely him, until it's oreos. pretty sure I win when it comes to oreos.

3. Who said I love you first? he did

4. Who is taller? I wore 4 inch stilettos to senior prom and he was still taller than me. Man those were sexy shoes...

5. Who is smarter? I am of course. Unless the topic is math. or chemistry. or physics. or probably biology. or philosophy. and probably even history. but me, for sure. LOL.

6. Who is more sensitive? him of course, I never freak out ;)

7. Who does the laundry? 99.8% of the time, me

8. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? he does

9. Who pays the bills? he does, and I am so grateful for that!

10. Who cooks more? um, me. even though I don't actually COOK a lot lately, if I am home he can't remember how to make a sandwich. lol.

11. Who is more stubborn? him for sure :)

12. Who is the first to admit they are wrong? usually me- unless he really does know he was wrong, then he'll admit it right away. If he doesn't think he was wrong, admitting it is never going to happen.

13. Who has more siblings? we both have the same amount of siblings

14. Who wears the pants in the relationship? i'd say its pretty equal. we make decisions together.

15. What do you like to do together? we like to get seasons of our favorite shows on DVD and have Lost-athons or House-athons or Boston Legal-athons; we really just like to hang out be together :)

16. Who eats more sweets? that's a toss up... if it's possible to like chocolate more than your average PMSing girl, Robbie does. lol. I do however eat a lot of candy at work.

17. Guilty Pleasures? honestly... I'm not sure he really has a current one. He's been so busy with school and work lately. But at the moment it is probably Lost. Addicted is a pretty accurate word for Robbie's relationship with that show. lol. (he's not alone, I'm hooked too).

18. How did you meet? We met our freshmen year of high school when my best friend- who happened to be his cousin- brought him to a church dance :) ya... I like that story :)

19. Who asked whom out first? um..... hmmm.... you know, I don't think we ever really had an official first date. If we did it was probably prom. and in that case he asked me. we went to the movies once when we were like 16, but i'm not sure if that was a date. we usually just kind of hung out

20. Who kissed whom first? he kissed me first :)

21. Who proposed? he did!

22. His best features and qualities? He has the best sense of humor in the world. He doesn't take things too seriously unless it needs to be taken seriously- which I need because I tend to make things a little more dramatic than necessary. He's an amazing husband- he pays attention to me and I know he loves me more than anything else in the world :)

10 Things I'd Rather do then Study

1. Read a book (obviously not a textbook)
2. Watch CNN (I haven't been as up with what's going on in the world lately and it's bugging me)
3. Sleep
4. Take a nap
5. Be more active in the Obama campaign (I've been invited to events so many times, I want to actually go!)
6. Take a pilates class
7. Cook - so my poor husband can eat something that doesn't have the words "frozen" or "burrito" in it.
8. Go shopping....
9. Work. Work > School. School sucks.
10. Take another nap.

Life Flight

Yesterday for clinical we went to the Life Flight hanger. It was so fun! We toured the hanger and they talked to us about what they do and what it takes to be a Life Flight nurse. I didn't realize they go into all the surrounding states and even across the country sometimes- way cool. I've decided that being a Life Flight nurse sounds like it is about the coolest and most exciting job ever, but it's not for me. Those people know their stuff though- you'd have to if you were puting in chest tubes and intubating people and running a little mini-ICU in the sky. Or on the sidewalk, or wherever they happen to be. Crazy. They have such an important job- I'm glad there are people who have the guts to do it. As for me, I'm still thinking I'll be just fine in community or hospital nursing :) I took some pictures, however they are on my cell phone and as technologically challenged as I am, I have no idea how to get them onto the computer- sorry!

Okay so we're going a little bit crazy with school. Nursing school might actually kill me, and Robbie is already burned out. Oh well, not much we can do about it unless we want to drop out and live in a cardboard box for the rest of our lives. An option we consider daily.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROBBIE!

Yesterday was Robbie's 23rd Birthday!! We started celebrating with a party on Wednesday (which is why he got TWO chocolate cakes... and why we still have almost an entire cake still sitting in my kitchen).
He got most of his presents on Wednesday, which I know he loved because we've been watching House for the last 24 hours WHILE he's playing Puzzle Quest, lol. (Why make a decision when you can do both, huh?) I decorated our apartment with his presents (magic cards) and on Friday we went out to dinner at Red Robin and spent the evening relaxing and watching House! It was fun! He seemed to enjoy Robbie Day too! :) "Um, love? Do you want to go get me ___? No? But it's my birthday!" ... yeah, he definately enjoyed that, lol. Happy birthday, love!

Robbie's 23rd birthday is this Friday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LOVE! You are an old man. But in honor of his birthday, and because I am trying desperately to stay awake at work tonight, here are 23 of my favorite reasons why I love him!

1. He makes me laugh so hard I could pee my pants.
2. He explains jokes to me when I don't understand them.
3. His opinions. I love the way he thinks.
4. He makes ME think.
5. He challenges me.
6. Sometimes we're the only ones who think each other is funny, and thats just fine with me
7. Even if I do it anyway, I don't HAVE to explain how I feel about something to him, he already knows.
8. He does the dishes to surprise me.
9. Sometimes, he can make me really, really mad ;)
10. But he can always calm me down, no matter what.
11. He respects me.
12. He's brilliant. Honestly, the man is so smart it's almost scary.
13. How no matter what is going on, when he hugs me everything is okay again
14. We can be crazy and silly together and just have fun
15. He isn't afraid to kiss me in front of anyone
16. The first time he fell in love with me, I was a CRAZY 14 year old girl. Granted, he was a 15 year old boy and slightly crazy himself, but that's part of what made us so perfect for each other from the beginning.
17. He loves our together time as much as I do.
18. The way I feel like I'm home when he holds me.
19. The way everything seems to make sense because of him
20. His amazing arguing skills. He's got a gift. I may not like it when he uses it on me, but I can still appreciate the talent.
21. He's really hott.
22. How there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that he loves me completely.
23. How he changed me so completely, and became the most important thing in my world.

Robbie's First Week Back to School

So this week school started for Robbie! Robbie isn't up with the blogging stuff so I shall fill you all in. You are welcome!
From what I hear, he really likes all of his classes this semester. I think he's looking forward to the possibility of finally having a challenge in school. His chemistry teacher is a little crazy in my opinion, but Robbie doesn't mind teachers who tell you that "the only way you will get an A on a test is if YOU teach ME something in your essay" (his tests are all either calculations or essays). I think that sucks but Robbie doesn't care, and it's his grade so good luck Robbie! :) Biology is going well. It seems like he's the only one who answers questions correctly again! I love my smartypants :) He's the only non-medical major in the class and his teacher seems to be impressed already with him for that, lol. his other class, Astronomy, should be good too. It's in a planetarium which is cool. He hasn't had any of his labs yet - those start next week - so hopefully they are as good as everything else so far!
So basically, my love had a good first week of school! He's tired from the lack of sleep too though.... right now he's asleep and I am puting off doing homework. As for me, all I have to say is giving suppositories = gross, and if I don't start sleeping more I am going to go insane. My first exam is next week. yay.

Super Great!

Robbie's been having fun lately with Rockband! And he's pretty freakin fantastic at it... notice he got a 99% on Expert! whoo hoo! Good job love! You are awesome :)

First Week Back to School

So this past week was my first week back to school, whoo hoo. It already feels like sleeping for more than two or three hours at a time is a distant memory. It's the end of week 1 and I'm already exhausted: not a good sign. Other than being tired though, it was a pretty good week! Let's see, this semester is Med/Surg, OB, Peds (all of which have a weekly clinical at the hospital to go along with them), and Pharmacology. Speaking of clinicals, 12 hour shifts aren't as hard as I thought they would be. And guess what I did on Thursday... I yanked about 20 staples out of this woman's abdomen! It was pretty cool. And I've officially decided that giving shots is fun. I'm starting to think it might be cool to work at an immunization clinic or something. And then today, okay I guess it would be yesterday now... I was at the children's hospital where I had a rotation in the infant unit. I LOVED it! I've always wanted to be a NICU nurse, and now after my day there I still think I would like doing that!
But anyway, the countdown is on! Four months and they'll unleash me on the world... not sure if thats a good idea yet or not! haha

Family Reunion #2

Robbie and I just got home from family reunion #2! This one was with my side. It was so fun to see everyone again. We spent a day boating and swimming and relaxing on the beach, which was definately fun, even if I did get an awful sunburn... oh well, I've found a new favorite thing and that is Solarcaine Spray! Lidocaine put into a spray mixed with aloe... it's a beatuiful thing.

We had a ton of fun at the beach though. Robbie looked pretty BA on the boat, and absolutely adorable when he fell asleep on the beach.




I had fun too. I was the one with the camera, however, so the only pictures we have of me are the ones I take of myself. haha.



I love the feeling of squishing your toes in the sand.



And Robbie loves making sand castles. Or piling sand on top of a rock, hehe.



Another "exciting" event was when my sister stepped on a rusty nail and it went straight through her shoe. Poor Em! She was so brave though! And she let me play nurse on her. I cleaned and bandaged her puncture wound before we went to the hospital.

Thank goodness for blue H hospital signs since we had no idea where we were going.


For me, one of the most exciting events was when almost all the women in my family got Breaking Dawn... I've already finished it and yes, it is absolutely fabulous! Oh, and don't make fun of me wearing pajamas... I was in pain. Thank you Sunburn.



The whole trip was a ton of fun! And now it's time to get back to work and... *sigh*... school.... Oh well. It's been a super fun summer!

I got my toes painted yesterday and it made me so happy I thought I'd just share my joy with you all! lol. Try to ignore the fatness of my toes; aren't they cute? haha, so fun!

Family Reunion #1

This past week Robbie and I were at a family reunion with his family! It was so much fun to see everyone again. We're lovingly refering to it as Family Reunion #1 because it is simply the first of multiple reunions this year. I unfortunately did not get a great many pictures since most of the stuff we did was at night and the flash of a camera in the eyeballs at night is apparently bothersome to people. Oh well! I have a few, and some super cute ones from our awesome day in LS! It was only 24 hours but my hair was already softer, my skin was less dry, and we were able to drink water from the tap again. Anyway, we had fun. Not working for a week is always welcome, plus we got to see Robbie's family, whom we hadn't seen for entirely too long. We had a blast, but it feels good to be home too. When the heck did this awful state become home? Ugh. Anyway! Fun times!

My CrazyLove,

I love you so much Crazyness! I'm sorry we've hardly seen each other at all in the last few days. I don't like working all the time either- I'm sorry I picked all of these shifts up during our together time. Thank you for being my super great husband though! You're so patient with my crazy OCDness and I love you for that. Thank you for defending me and lol poning people for me. (Yes I know I don't know how to spell that, lol) I love it when you go all philosophizing on people. It's so much fun to watch when you do that. And thank you for doing the dishes the other night. Even though you deleted the picture I took of it, you make me so happy I could cry :) I know we won't have a whole lot of time after we get back from the reunions before school starts again and I turn back into stressed out, freak out really easily, crazy Ashlee, but I'm going to try really hard this semester not to loose it as often as I did last time; you don't deserve that. I love you. More than all of the things!

Love,
Your CrazyLove

So on Sunday my parents got this adorable little puppy for my little sister. It's a Yorkie-Poo named Charlie and really quite darling. I wasn't about to put pictures of it on here and neglect MY baby girls, however, so here they are too! Someday I will have an apartment where I can bring Lacie and Katie with me (or at least Lacie, Emily might not be happy with me taking Katie too) and someday I WILL convince Robbie to let them come live with us. It will happen.... someday.... :)

4th of July

Happy 4th of July! For the 4th Robbie and I both had to work but for the couple hours in between when his shift ended and mine started, we went to my parents for some 4th of July fun... great food, fire in the sky kind of fun! We had a great time. I don't particularly enjoy holding a stick that's on fire and throwing sparks in all directions, but I did it so that my dad could get his annual picture of me looking ridiculous. And Robbie of course needed his picture of himself making fun of me looking ridiculous. haha. Really though, we had a ton of fun! Happy 4th of July everyone!