Charlotte International

Last Friday, I packed up an overnight bag and drove down to Charlotte, North Carolina, for an International Convention for ACN, my business! It was awesome. I was able to spend time with my friends that I hadn't seen for quite a few months: Melodie from New Jersey, Curtis from Salt Lake, and Kyle from Tooele. We had a blast! Saturday morning, Melodie's husband drove us to the convention center and dropped us off. We found some seats among 40,000 other excited representatives way up in the nosebleeds and got ready for an awesome day!

This picture is not rotating for me, sorry!

Several of my favorite people spoke, including Greg Provenzano, ACN's president and co-founder, Tony Cupisz, ACN co-founder and Vice President, Robert Stevanovski, ACN co-founder and chairman, Simon Abboud, Mindy Deeble, and.... GEORGE ZALUCKI!!! Wow, what a day. I love these events!

I was sad to not be able to stay for Sunday. Donald Trump, who endorses our company, was going to be speaking to the 40,000 representatives there that weekend! For more information about ACN, visit my website here.

Kyle and I

Curtis and I

The. End.

I am finally done with Nursing Leadership and Capstone!!!!!!! HALLELUJAH!!! Now I just have to wait for my final grade to come back. I already know that I have almost 100% with the assignments, I just need to know what the grade for the final was. I really want to have as high a grade as possible. I'm barely hanging on to my 3.501 GPA and want to keep it above water! We got information about graduating and the pinning ceremonies we are going to have in May today. I can't believe how fast time is flying...I can remember my anatomy and introduction to chemistry classes in freshman year, and how HARD I thought they were!

For anyone who is ever considering going into nursing - just be sure that it is what you really want. It is extremely tough work. I'm not one to minimize pain, and trust me, nursing school is painful. Especially in the senior year. Things never get easier in school, hence the reason the classes go from level 100 to 200 to 300 to 400. You have to really love nursing to go through this. It is all for our patients we care for and the work that we do. As a nurse, you have people's lives in your hands. It is intense and scary at times, but is always rewarding.

This spring break I'm going to have some major major major reorganization. I love organizing :) it is one of my favorite things. I recently read a book called Getting Things Done and it was inspirational! Read it - it will give great tips on how to organize your entire life and how to keep it that way. I love it when things are not in disarray.

I'm also going to be hanging out with friends during this week-long break. I have not hung out with ALL my friend for fun since sophomore year, so I think it's high time. Girls nights are awesome! My hubby is probably going to be going on a road trip with his best friend so I will be able to sleep over at my friends house for girls night :) we are going to watch movies and talk and go get breakfast at IHOP. Mmm.

I'm also going to be making some major headway in my business. We just announced that we are going to be able to save people money on their gas and electricity bills at the end of this year! As well as offer digital phone service to small businesses! I'm so excited about these improvements. Imagine getting paid when people flip on the lights...or take a shower...or text their friends. I LOVE my company!! Visit www.melynacuthbert.acnrep.com for details.

I also can't believe that it is the end of February. This year is 1/6 of the way over!! Crazy. Kind of sad too. But I have been able to continue to work on my goals that I set up at the beginning of the year, and that is not something everyone can say. So this year has been fulfilling thus far. Let's all make 2010 the best year ever for us! Anything is possible!! Here are some great scriptures that I read this morning that relate :)

"Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God." - Ether 12:4

"Faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith." - Ether 12:6

"And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." - Ether 12:27

"Wherefore man must hope, or he cannot receive inheritance in the place which though has prepared." - Ether 12:32

Schedules!

Sometimes I love to be super busy. I love the feeling of accomplishing a ton of stuff in one day. If every day was lazy, it would get boring pretty fast. Here is my schedule of this day thus far:

0545 Wake up, eat breakfast, get ready

0700 Clinical at U of U

1500 Make calls for business

1540 Work out

1640 Make more calls

1800 Study

1900 Read books

2000 Dinner

2030 FHE

2130 Shower

2200 Conference Call

2230 Bed!

I don't like looking at my schedule but it really isn't bad when I go through it. This is because I give myself time for things I enjoy - working out, reading, and spending time with my husband. I also manage my time so that I spend the majority of it on items that will help me accomplish the goals I desire...i.e. the Pareto Principle. If you spend the majority of your time on the top 20% goals, you will achieve 80% of the results you desire. This has been proven over and over throughout history. This was a really random post :)

It's Been a Long Time Coming

Meaning this post...I've been so bad these past few months! Here is another quick run-down of what we have been up to since November.

Jordan: Had his second interview at the University of Utah which went very well! He finds out in the end of March/beginning of April about whether he has been accepted there or not. We hope so! He also did good in all of his classes last semester and then had a very relaxing Christmas break playing video games and computer games all day every day :) On January 4th, he had his interview at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond and it went well also! The only thing that was interesting was the hotel he stayed in...it was scary and had a bidet in the bathroom. Random. He was able to see the hospital and the school campus and really liked them both. The interview was TWO hours long! Wow! But he feels good about it. We should find out from Virginia whether he is accepted or not in either February or March. So soon!!! He is taking lots of interesting classes this semester including comparative physiology, p-chem, and something else that I can't remember the name of :) Only 3 more months until we are done with finals and only 4 more months-ish until we graduate! Hallelujah!

Melyn: I was sooo happy to finish Community Nursing last semester. I did well in my classes and am still hanging onto my 3.5 GPA - thank goodness! I found out that my capstone/nursing leadership course clinical would be in the inpatient psychiatric floor at the University of Utah, otherwise known as 5 West. The capstone course is where you spend your clinical time in an area of nursing that you love. My loves in nursing are oncology and psychiatric ;) heck yes. I'm loving my capstone and my preceptor, the nurse I work with the majority of the time, is amazing. Most of the nurses up there are Westminster Alumni, which makes it a little nicer. The course work doesn't seem to be that strenuous for me, although some people have complained about it. I think the reason I think it is easier is because I'm no longer taking and general credits along with my nursing courses. I can focus on just my nursing - not history or art. My teacher is a crack-up and I really enjoy her teaching. I have my first midterm test next Thursday so we are moving through the course quickly. My business has been growing well and I'm set to hit the next promotion this month! That will be awesome :) I've also been working on my goals for this year voraciously and am loving it. I love goal setting and truly believe that any goal can be achieved as long as you do the necessary things to achieve it. It is essential to PLAN for success, not just dream about it. As some of my heroes have stated:

The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it. - Moliere

God does not manufacture junk. Success is your birthright!! - Larry Raskin

Nothing will work unless you do. - Maya Angleou

If you take responsibility for yourself you will develop a hunger to accomplish your dreams. -Les Brown

My will shall shape the future. Whether I fail or succeed shall be no man's doing but my own. I am the force; I can clear any obstacle before me or I can be lost in the maze. My choice; my responsibility; win or lose, only I hold the key to my destiny. - Elaine Maxwell

Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "Press On" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race. -Calvin Coolidge

Christmas was also great this year. We spent Christmas Eve with my family and Christmas Day with Jordan's family. It was so nice to not worry about having to attend every family party and to be able to spend quality time with family and friends.

Oh, and for those of you who haven't noticed, I have been wearing glasses a lot in the past four months. My right contact broke about four months ago and I have had to live with the torture of glasses. This week, the glasses will be no longer. I am soooooo excited to be going to the eye doctor this Tuesday to FINALLY get contacts! I will look like myself again and be able to look at things without squinting (because the glasses aren't even my correct prescription)!

I will continue to update you folks about our lives, and won't let the blog get this far behind again!!

A Break (finally...)

Since Wednesday, Jordan and I have had Thanksgiving break. Ahhh...peace. All we have been doing is simply relaxing and taking a break from everything related to school. Jordan has been playing video games and computer games and I have been watching House :D and lounging. It is such great fun. I love not having to worry about school.

Updates on school: I have only one assignment left which is still about a third of my grade and two tests left. Yay. Jordan says that, "School is ok. Hard, but not bad." He is so smart. He interviewed at the University of Utah about a week and a half ago and needs to do one re-interview because the first one was so weird. Ask me about it if you want details. The interview at Virginia Commonwealth is in the beginning of January and we are just waiting to hear from other schools. Please pray for us :)

Updates on our life: we went shopping today, Black Friday, and got almost all the rest of our wedding things that we registered for that we didn't receive, which was so nice because we have in-store credit so the stuff was basically free! We have just been up to the same - school at Westminster, working at the Huntsman Cancer Hospital, building my business, and trying to magnify our callings as visiting and home teachers, ward building cleaning coordinator, and Relief Society pianist.

That's all for now...not very exciting, I know. I will let you know when our life is better...after graduation in almost 6 months!!!

E-X-H-A-U-S-T-E-D

SCHOOL!!!!! Holy cow, I don't think either Jordan nor myself have ever been so busy with so many things.

Jordan: applying to medical school, taking 16 credit hours at school plus, extra lab time, research twice a week, volunteering at the Road Home, volunteering for Hearts for Hospice, running XC with a meet every other week...ahh!

Melyn: taking 16 credit hours at school, 14 hours of clinical every week, studying 3 hours a day, working my business as much as possible, trying to sleep 8 hours a night, working at least once a week, trying to tie up loose ends with the wedding (grr)...

I know, I know. Jordan is SO much busier than I am, but I feel like I'm going crazy! If it literally were not for the fact that I don't do anything on Sundays besides take naps, go to church, and visit family, my mind would freak out and die.

Ranting is good. Ok, I'm done. For a while :)

Airport Fun

Oh my goodness. I am so sick of this airport in Charlotte!!! Let me tell you the fantastical story of my time here since yesterday at 12 PM.

So basically there was no one staying at the hotel until Tuesday, so I would have to fork out $80 for a lame hotel room for a few hours to wait until my flight left today at 10 AM. Who wants to pay more for nothing? I don't! So I decided (ahem) to sleep at the airport and wait for my flight to leave. So I checked out from the hotel at 11 AM yesterday and waited for the shuttle to take me to the airport at noon.

Then I decided that I was not checking my bags because they can fit into the overhead bins. BUT I forgot that I had shampoo, hairspray, this huge thing of peanut butter in my suitcase. Those all classify as liquids and gels according to the airport security...so I had to throw away all my things. But it was ok, I wasn't worried at that point.

Then I go to my gate and just start sitting. Playing on the computer. Facebook. Watching movies. Emailing. Texting people. Reading. It got very boring very fast. So I decided to walk around and went to the bookstore and (surprise!) sat and read some more! It was about 7 PM when I decided to eat my food. There was hardly anyone in the airport and it was getting awkward between me and the airport people. I mean, they have seen me sitting in the same seat all day long, not doing anything. "What is she doing?" they must wonder. So I just do some more of the same things and around 11:15 PM I decided to put my pajama pants on and lay down on the seats in the airport.

It was freezing and all the lights were on, so of course I could hardly sleep. Besides that though, the airport people were cleaning and vacuuming the entire time. I probably slept for a half hour and would wake up, sleep for a half hour, wake up, and so on. Around 12:45 AM a huge group of people that just got off their flight walked past and were talking very loudly, so I woke up and sat up. I noticed a man dusting and when he got near me, he said, "You are going to have to go downstairs. The security is closing and they are going to come through soon, so if you go downstairs you will see other people that are sleeping waiting for security to open in the morning." I explained how confused I was because I didn't see anyone else sleeping near the gates, but no one stopped me from sleeping either. So I went downstairs.

Then I sat by these teenagers and these young kids who were crying basically the whole night. It was a lot warmer downstairs but I was more worried to fall asleep there because the doors to go outside were right there, so anyone could come in and take your stuff if you were sleeping. I tried to get comfortable and put my suitcase between my legs and my arms and head over my backpack to protect them. Around 3 AM another cleaning man came and woke me up so that he could move the seats back to their original position. I took my things and went to a protected corner in the hall and laid down. About a half hour later the same man told me to move so he could vacuum. It was ridiculous!! I went back to the chairs and just waited, dozing sometimes, until 5:10 AM so I could go back upstairs to go through security.

I got through and I've been awake ever since. I can't wait to get on the plane and sleep. With a blanket!!

INTERNATIONAL!!!

AHH I'm so excited to go to Charlotte, NC for another International Convention! I seriously love these. I don't think anyone understands how I feel, except for those who have already gone. You get the most incredible business training and leadership training. You meet and network with other representatives. You get out of town :) You get to spend time solely building your business and assisting those in your downline to get better, as well as yourself. Probably my favorite day of the international is Sunday, because there is generally a renowned speaker that comes to talk to us about the good our business can do and how much influence we can have. So, as you can see, I love these conventions. Hallelujah for ACN! It has changed me as a person.

Check out www.melynacuthbert.acnrep.com for more information.

The beginning...

Well here I am, trying to do a million things at once...once more!

1. School

2. Wedding

3. The Celebrity Apprentice (probably the only thing I'm REALLY thinking about)

4. ACN

5. Cleaning

6. LDSSA

7. Studying (which prolly falls under school but I'm trying to create a long list :)