Frightful Events

Last month was full of fun, and frightful events. I can officially say that I am a full blown RN, well I've been one since February but I feel that after being completely on my own with three to four patients that I am legit now! I had my first two shifts on my own last week and they were both very crazy, busy, and a little bit poopy too. I learned a lot and love my job even though I feel completely overwhelmed. Thankfully there are lots of people to help, one of those wonderful people was my good friend Katie, without whom I wouldn't have survived nursing school or that second day of work! It was just so crazy that we had made it all the way the way through school and now we are working together.

Even though I called my Mom complaining about my day, I learned from my patients that I wasn't the one having the rough day at all! Even though my feet ached from running from room to room at least I had feet to walk with or even the ability to do so. Even though I was starving from not eating all day, at least I had only been starving for just one day and not several being told I wasn't allowed to have anything by mouth. I learned a lot about charting, procedures, medications, etc. those two days but I also learned a lot about gratitude and the need to implement that feeling in my life (perfect segway into Thanksgiving month).

October was a great month full of weddings, friends visiting, and everything pumpkin! I also ran the scariest and therefore fastest 5k of my life! It was a zombie run, so I was being chased by zombies and that really got my sympathetic nervous system into gear and finished in 23:40 (still not faster than my 60 year old dad though!)

Making Sarah's owl cupcake cake

Picking apples for FHE activity

Beautiful fall drives up the Alpine Loop

My fun roomies

conference with ship mates

Two of my favorite girls in the world!

Sunday night football complete with a TV dinner

At Sarah's incredible Junior high Choir concert

Bowling with Marcel 

Wedding day for Princess Margaret

With Katie Wilk

What is happiness without a temple going goat

exploring the Olympic museum with Krystal and Marcel

A creepy night complete with creepy treats from subzero

chillin with the shipmates of casrec

our magnificent pumpkins... this is halloween!

crazy photos with Krystal and Kayla

Our creations from Colour Me Mine

Sebastian likes to stay up late and party with the family on google hangout

Pumpkin carving FHE activity

Our magical, lit up, 3-D, pumpkin carriage, yeah beat that!

C is for cookies

So I have a new hobby these days of making short video montages! They are so fun and easy to make after I discovered a bit how to do it on my computer. Still have a lot to learn but here is one I made recently with my friend Brad.

Working Girl

My cute little hospital

I started working at Orem Timpanogos Regional Hospital and I love it! I love being in the hospital again and all the people I work with. I am still training and trying to get the hang of things, which means I make lots of mistakes (Don't worry no life threatening ones, mostly just computer charting type stuff!) I love learning new things everyday though and everyone is very helpful. All of the Doctor interactions I've had have been great as well, hopefully I don't jinx myself on that one! There are still days when I want to break down and cry because I wonder if I will ever get the hang of it all, but over all I leave feeling satisfied and so thankful that I chose nursing as my career. I try to remind myself of the honor I have of going into my patients rooms and that I get the chance to be in their lives for a "short" 12hr shift. I've had some great patients who have made my day and have been so fun to get to know as well. So far this job has proven to be a miracle and I will continue to treat it as such!

At lake Powell with some friends                                

First 5 am shift as an RN

We met Jeff from the bachelorette!

Our (britters my extreme hiking buddy) hell hike on Mt.Olympus

Half the Sky

Towanda! A familiar phrase of women empowerment from the film "Fried Green Tomatoes" (great movie but not funny as my tongan friends can attest to). Well today I used that phrase as I finished a powerful book on the oppression of women world wide called "Half the Sky". The authors write bluntly about the stories of women they encountered world wide who face challenges unfathomable to me and my cushy life style. It is not a happy read either but a hopeful, enlightening, and most importantly an empowering read.  It addresses issues of maternal mortality, human trafficking, sexual violence, and gender discrimination. It also talks about what tools need to be implemented to combat these, what seem impossible tasks to tackle, through education, family planning, microfinance, etc!

To be honest it was overwhelming reading this book, going through stages of guilt, and helplessness.I just wanted to jump on a plane and go help people somewhere! The problems are so complex and need creative and cultural sensitive solutions. They won't solve everything but there are solutions. It was an eye opening  read though and maybe I am not going to save the world right now but I can make small contributions. For me that starts with the here and now of people around me whom I fail to care for enough. We need to help each other. (plug for visiting teaching really)

The book also gave me so many ideas of how I can help humanity and how any one can overcome their circumstances. We are not limited in our potential. In many places through out the world women are neglected, unequal, or merely seen as sexual playthings, but Women are powerful assets to society and the contributions they make can change it for the better. And they do by overcoming the most dire of circumstances!

 I would bore you with more insights but just go read the book it will change your life and maybe you will help change thousands of other women's lives because it made you want to act.  If you think you aren't going to read it then at least consider on some things you can do to help right now!

Websites to check out:
http://www.heifer.org/

http://www.globalgiving.org/\

Sponsor a girl or woman through Plan international, or Women for Women international.

Sign up for email updates on about women's issues at http://womensenews.org/

http://www.care.org/

http://www.risingstaroutreach.org/

Eat more chocolate?

Yes go ahead and indulge in that chocolate bar you have hiding in the back of your cupboard! I just finished this book called "The Chocolate Therapist: A user's guide to the extraordinary health benefits of chocolate" by Julie Pech. I've never been much of a chocolate fan but I think its because I was not eating the right chocolate, and now I am a chocolate snob. Chocolate can be healthy but usually only if you look at what is really being put in your chocolate. Some top tips in buying good chocolate include seeing if sugar or cocoa is the first ingredient. Obviously you want cocoa to be the first. Also make sure  they keep the good cocoa butter fat in it and not the hydrogenated oils. Also you don't want the fake vanillin stuff you want the A game in your chocolate so look for vanilla.

It is true that dark chocolate is the best because it has the most cocoa in it and provides all the wonderful antioxidants that chocolate can provide. I know you are thinking I can't give up my milk chocolate or go to the dark side, but you can do both! Chocolate has different percentages telling you how dark it is so if you are not a dark fan go with a 30-40% but above 55% is really the best. Also I learned that I was just not eating my chocolate correctly. You need to savor it, smell it, and slowly let it melt in your mouth and really indulge in that piece of chocolate. Also if you need help going to the dark side start milky and gradually up the percentages. I think the highest I've gone is 88% and have really enjoyed it without the dirt taste.


Some fun facts: the louder the snap of a chocolate bar the higher quality it is. There is only 5-30 mg of caffeine in chocolate which is less than a cup of decaf. There are endless benefits from eating chocolate because of all the antioxidants, good fats, vitamins (lots of magnesium) and increased serotonin when one enjoys some chocolate!

Because I am concerned for your health, please go be adventurous and try some gourmet or crazy chocolate :) My favorite so far was the cherry chillies! Not a huge fan of the lavender blueberry though.

Hello Seattle

 As excited as I was to be back on land and welcomed back to Utah with fireworks, I still had the itch for some adventure. I also felt like I needed some actual vacation time and to be somewhere exceptionally green. Choice of destination: Seattle, WA. I was able to go visit my friend Brittany (from school and the ship) and my roomie Darcy. My first day there I was able to go on a hike amongst all the beautiful pine trees that were incredibly tall and thick! Lots of the hikes we went on looked like something out of a fairy tale and was just the kind of environment I needed after staring at the inside of a ship for so long. We had some really pretty days there but I also got to experience the rainy, cloudy typical days of Seattle. Of course we had to make a little trip over the border over to Victoria, Canada. We took a little ferry over because we just missed being on a ship ya know! We went to visit our friend John who we met on the ship during quarantine.

Mustering is something we are pro at now!

In front of the beautiful parliament in Victoria. There was a little band of children who were playing on the steps when we got there, it was perfect. I loved all the French inspired architecture and everyone was very friendly. Definitely a quaint little city but still really fun, with lots of hidden treasures.

John is really into horses and we got to meet some of them!

With our friend John in front of where they filmed X-men

We met his partner Paul too, both were so kind and treated us like Princesses the entire time showing us around and being hosts to us.

I look like a pioneer here. On a hike where we didn't get much farther than the ranger station because of the freezing cold fog.

Beautiful, clear view of crescent lake, but do not be deceived we could not see a thing once we got to top of "storm king" Mt.

Chasing waterfalls.

Sending our friends back on the ship a little message in a bottle

Sticking my gum on the gum wall in downtown seattle

Space needle and Olympic park.

Something I saw on one of our runs one day.

There is this troll underneath the Aurora bridge in Seattle that even grabbed a car off the road in its hand!

At the flower garden with Darcy

Ever seen the film "10 things I hate about you"? Well this is the Stadium High School where they filmed part of it! 

We went on several hikes, which unfortunately ended up in a very foggy view. When we hiked with the Miamaids on their campout I was afraid the same thing would happen again for our group, especially because it was the first hike ever for a lot of the girls. The hike itself was probably one of the most gorgeous hikes I've ever been on walking along a stream and intermittent waterfalls, which then turned into a rocky cliff with wild flowers everywhere. A lot of the girls had a hard time carrying their gear so Britt and I loaded up like pack mules, but thankfully we had prepared our quads with our previous hikes and ship stairs! The night we spent up there was the coldest hiking experience ever as well. The next morning they wanted to hike up to the top before it became clouded over. As we hiked up the last half mile the view was starting to become foggy and I had a really bad attitude. Thinking to myself this is so dumb we are hiking up here we are not going to be able to see a thing when we get up there. When we got to the top though there was a different view I hadn't anticipated we would see in another direction. The was a vast mountain range, unfortunately my phone had died so I have no 3x5 so you will just have to imagine it. Once I got there I thought ok touche God, I get it, I had a certain expectation, my view was limited, and I complained the whole time but really He was leading to me somewhere even better than I had imagined. I believe that is continually what He is trying to do for me. Helping me love the climb and the experiences along the way and come to realize His full potential for me because it is so much more than I have envisioned for myself. 

I am trying to trust in God as I keep climbing and waiting for things to happen... learning patience more and more everyday!