Happy First Anniversary!

On May 30, Jordan and I had our first anniversary! One year - we made it! Since it was a Sunday, we didn't have anything else to do besides spend time together and celebrate. We went to Sacrament Meeting at church and then came home. First we had lunch outside and played some card games, one of our favorite things to do.

My adorable mom saved our wedding cake! I thought it had been thrown out, but to my surprise, it survived. She is so cute. She wrapped it very well and then wrote on the tin-foil "eat on 5/30/10. Happy Anniversary! :)" I loved it! I set the cake out to thaw after a year in the freezer.

We played some more games and then I made dinner: spaghetti and home-made sauce and veggies. I even got out the special glasses haha. Oh and Jordan picked me some lilacs, one of my favorite flowers. He is so sweet.

Ok, so the traditional one-year anniversary gift is paper (what the heck?) and the modern gift is a clock of some sort. So Jordan got me...money (paper). Clever, eh?

And a watch (clock) for work! YAY! I don't have any working watches and this was going to be very useful as a nurse.

Ok, so I'm sappy and got Jordan a photo album (paper) so I could document our first year in photos.

And I got him a dress watch (clock), because he only has sports watches. Just need to get it resized, the watch is so big!

Time for the cake :D Yummy! Oh it was so delicious. I couldn't believe how good it was after a YEAR in the freezer!

So happy! What a great day, just spending time together. We love each other :)

Am I Finally Grown Up?

May 29 was a full day! Westminster threw a brunch for all the graduates and their families/friends. My parents and dear brother Jordan came to join us for bad french toast and cold eggs. Since my dad and brother really haven't seen the campus, we walked around and showed them our soon to be alma mater. Oh and FYI I made a really sweet graduation announcement and party invitation but can't find them to show you :(

"The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet." - Aristotle

"Only those who risk going too far can possibly

find out how far one can go." - T.S. Elliot

"I'm glad I did it, partly because it was worth it, but

mostly because I shall never have to do it again." - Mark Twain

Giovale Library. Many long and

arduous hours spent here...

"Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready

to pay the price to make them come true." - Leon J. Suenes

Happy to be done!

"I know that attitude shapes our lives; if you want to change,

change your attitude. In the end, success is simple. Climb

the mountain - achieve your dreams." - Darren Hardy

The School of Nursing and Health Sciences.

I lived here, lol.

After the brunch and tour, we went back home and got ready for that afternoon's graduation ceremony. It was held at the E-Center. We got all dressed up and grabbed our caps and gowns, and made the mad dash over there! All the graduates hid behind the stage and we filled out little cards with the phonetic pronunciation of our names. Then we all got in lines and the bagpipes (again!!!) started and we filed out. There were about 800 graduates, I believe, including all the graduate students. Then we sat down. The actual ceremony was...pretty boring. Not going to lie. It was SO long. But walking across the stage was exciting :) We sat with all my nursing friends, and whenever one of our class walked, we screamed for them. All the BS nursing students also screamed for the MSN students, who were our clinical instructors and lab instructors.

"Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it.

Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it!" - Goethe

We took pictures outside and then went home and got ready for our graduation party. So many people came! It was awesome! Thank you all for your gifts and well-wishes! We had a backyard barbecue (and had issues with the propane, sorry everyone). But overall, it went very well.

"Believe that with your feelings and your work

you are taking part in the greatest; the more

strongly you cultivate this belief, the more will reality

and the world go forth from it." - Rainer Maria Rilke

At this point, we still had no idea what the future held for us. I was planning on taking the NCLEX soon to become licensed as a nurse and then working at Huntsman Cancer Hospital. If Jordan got accepted, then we would move! But everything was still up in the air.

"To unpathed waters, undreamed shores." - Shakespeare

We did it! We finally graduated with our Bachelors in Science. Jordan graduated in Chemistry and Neuroscience and I graduated in Nursing. Yay us!

"And then the day came when the risk to remain tight in

a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom." - Anais Nin

Pinning Ceremony

On May 28, the Westminster School of Nursing and Health Sciences had the annual Pinning Ceremony for that year's graduating class. It was an amazing event held in St. Marks Cathedral in downtown Salt Lake City. The family members congregated in the chapel and in a cultural hall of sorts. The students sat in the very front facing the audience. This was really it. I had finally made it! I was so emotional. To think that I probably wouldn't see very many of my friends and acquaintances again after this event made me sad. But I realized that we were moving on, and we had all achieved our dreams - we are nurses! Several of our professors and classmates spoke. There were some good inside jokes passed around, including the fact that Gail Nelson is now "passing the banana" on to one of us to become a nursing professor (Gail hates the smell of bananas and banned them from her classrooms). After the speaking, our names were called and we were pinned by one of our professors. I was pinned by Sherri Tesseyman, an amazing woman who teaches Advanced Med-Surg Nursing and Intro to Nursing. Then we all stood and read the Pledge of Nursing:

I solemnly pledge to practice my profession faithfully

and conscientiously. I will do all within my power to

maintain and elevate the standards of my profession

and to continue to pursue my educational endeavors

throughout my nursing career. Using the knowledge

I have gained, I shall continue to upgrade the quality

of care of my clients. It is with honor that I shall

devote myself to the nursing profession.

We then walked out the way we had walked in, with

bagpipes accompanying us (!!!) I was SO happy!!

"Nursing is an art: and if it is to be made an art, it requires an exclusive

devotion as hard a preparation as any painter's or sculptor's work; for

what is the having to do with dead canvas or dead marble, compared

with having to do with the living body, the temple of God's spirit? It is one

of the Fine Arts: I had almost said, the finest of fine arts." - Unknown

Afterwards, there was a reception in the cultural hall. These are my very close nursing buddies. From left to right, Des Faull, Channa Goodman, Amy Cummings, me, Natalie Sanaty-Nya.

"To do what nobody else will do, a way that nobody else can do,

in spite of all we go through, is to be a nurse." - Rawsi Williams

"Nursing is viewed as a caring practice whose science is guided by moral art

and ethics of care and responsibility." - Patricia Benner

Happy Birthday from Virginia

This is Jordan blogging. I've never blogged in my life. But if there were a reason to, it would be to commemorate my little brother's birthday. If Que had a favorite day of the year (besides Christmas), it would be his birthday. Que loved having his family get together for it. I remember when some years we would go to Lake Powell over his birthday or there would be some other Summer activity and he would be disappointed about celebrating his birthday while on vacation. I didn't understand what was the big deal then (he'd still get presents, right?), but it makes more sense now that I'm away. Though Que liked presents, it wasn't about the presents. It was about the family all being together under the same roof. There's no atmosphere like the home. Melyn and I now have our own little home/apartment (more on that later), but your parents, brothers and sisters are always your family and you still miss them. I miss Que very much, and now I'm missing all my family. But it's only for a brief while. And it will make it that much sweeter when we're all together again.

So Que, happy birthday from your favorite brother ;).

I don't know when Melyn is going to get around to updating our blog. Maybe I'll have to take over.

Pirates of the Caribbean

From June 4-13, Jordan's parents took us all on a cruise to the Caribbean! It was amazing and wonderful :) It was my first cruise and I had the best time. We went with Royal Caribbean on the Oasis of the Seas, currently the largest cruise liner. It was HUGE. This picture doesn't do it justice, but there is another picture later to show you how big it was. Here is what we did, day by day...

June 4, Friday: After working the night shift (smart move, Melyn), Micah and Jordan picked me up at Huntsman and we drove to the airport. Just a little note here about how awful work was that night: About 45 minutes before the shift was over, there was a code on the floor below us. The code nurse and me (the code aide) ran down with a ton of equipment to help in the code. The code got done 20 minutes after shift change, and I still had to give report. And change. And drive to the airport. We're lucky we made it, lol. We took a flight to Chicago where we met up with Mitch, Allie, and the boys. Then we took a flight to Fort Lauderdale. That evening we went to Chipotle (mmm) for dinner and then back to the hotel to sleep.

June 5, Saturday: We ate breakfast and relaxed in the hotel before leaving for the ship. We couldn't board until 2 PM so we just waited. Mitch, Josie, Jordan, and I decided to go to the grocery store to get water and other essentials like Starbursts. It was SOOOO HOT and humid outside! We were all pouring buckets of sweat and had to carry all our stuff back to the hotel. Yuck! We took a shuttle to the port o call and got all situated. I was pretty impressed with the check in process; it went smoothly and quickly. Jordan and I then went to our cabin and explored the ship with the rest of the family. Josie was our cruise director and lead the tour. The ship was so big! There were different areas on the ship like the Boardwalk,

June 6, Sunday: