Henderson's Whirlwind

On The Road...

This is a very late post! On July 25th, my family and Jordan's family had a delicious farewell dinner at the Henderson's, the last of many. It was bittersweet. I couldn't believe that this would be the last time I would see our family members - our friends who we hung out with every week! Going from being with family so often to every year or so was going to cause some serious withdrawal (of which I am still experiencing side effects).

Jordan and I had gotten the car all ready for the 2,200 mile, 40 hour drive ahead of us. New windshield wiper blades? Check. Alignment? Check. Snacks, pillows, and books on CD? Check. GPS? Check - that thing saved us! We packed four people, their luggage, food, pillows, and cleaning supplies for the new apartment into the tiny Mazda 3!

Many were skeptical. I was a little worried myself, when we all sat in the car. Considering the fact that my dear brother is well over six feet tall, he got a front seat the whole way to Richmond. Lucky!

Welcome to Wyoming...we didn't really take any other pictures of this or Nebraska cause they were kinda boring. We stopped in Omaha to see dear sister Allie, Mitch, and the little boys. It was SO good to see them! We had never seen their home before and they were so accommodating. Allie had made dinner for us and then gave us a place to sleep for a couple hours. She even burned "Catching Fire" by Suzanne Collins for us, which was great to listen to. We love our family!

At about 2:30 AM, after 4 hours of sleep, we all packed up from Omaha and continued to drive through the early morning. We arrived in Missouri to get gas and switch drivers. Lots and lots of fog in the morning here!

We stopped to get breakfast around 7 AM in Illinois (I think).

Cracker Barrel. It wasn't that great (like bacon as hard as a rock). But it was something :) I liked this poster that looked like it was from the 40's. Become a nurse in 10 weeks! Wow, haha!

Kentucky was GORGEOUS!! Talk about lush and green. The country-side was beautiful!

West Virginia was interesting. Hick-ville to say the least. It was slightly scary and we drove out of there fast.

VIRGINIA!!!! We made it! What a beautiful state!

Moving Sale!

On July 17, Jordan and I had our first yard sale. I wish I had taken pictures! We got rid of SO MUCH JUNK. I'm really amazed at the things that we hold onto. GET RID OF YOUR JUNK PEOPLE!!! If it doesn't make you happy or you don't absolutely love it, give it away and bless someone else with it!

We set out signs the morning of. Jordan's mom, Wendy, was so awesome! She helped us set up and we sold a lot of her stuff at the sale too. It went from 8 to 1, and we had a pretty good crowd come. I'm glad to say that it was a success, even though it was boiling hot outside and basically no one came in the last 2 hours. Oh, and around 11, we put up a "Half Off Everything" sign and sold even more things. Yay! We sold about half of the stuff, and then took the rest to DI. This money was going to be our gas money and food money for the trip over to Virginia!

Goodbye Lavon! We're not going to miss anything!

Hyundai Elantra - SOLD!

Because we were going to be moving to Virginia, we had to sell my car. The 2001 Hyundai Elantra had it's run with us, but it was over. The car wouldn't last on the drive over, and it was more than the car was worth to ship it. We posted it for sale on Craigslist and KSL.com. Only a few people called but on July 15, Jordan sold our car to a guy in Mapleton! We made a nice little bundle, enough to pay for our cube to be shipped out to Virginia, and we now own only one car! It's very strange. We have to ask each other to use the car and when I get a job, it will be difficult trying to go to work and school at the same time. We'll see how it goes :)

Last Day at Huntsman

My last day of work at Huntsman Cancer Hospital was on July 16. I couldn't believe it was finally over. I really, REALLY loved taking care of the patients on the 5th floor. These patients were so strong, and had overcome so much. The majority of them were on the road to recovery, and a better quality of life. It was a really good feeling to know that I had, in some small way, influenced their lives for the better. This is really why I wanted to be a nurse - to have that sort of influence. Even if the patients don't always know it, and even if I don't always recognize that influence, it is nice to see the patients to improve by leaps and bounds and you know that you helped. My good friend Victoria, who also graduated from Westminster, took me to lunch at the Bistro (really good food, by the way). The day was pretty weird, because I was orienting someone on my last day, but the end was great. I didn't plan on anyone really caring that I was leaving, but when I was about to walk out, almost all the nurses, secretaries, and aides gathered round and gave me hugs and a loaf of bread and a card. I cried all night! I worked at HCH for three and a half years, and it was really my home. On to new adventures. On to new experiences! Thanks for the memories!

The Dreaded NCLEX

I signed up to take the NCLEX-RN on July 1st. The turning point for my entire life (or so it seemed). It was this test that would determine whether or not I would become a nurse after four hard years of endless tests, clinical work, and papers. I was so freaked out. So so so freaked out. I had a little over two weeks from the time I registered to the time I could take it. The time was spent studying like a mad-woman - I studied my Saunder's NCLEX preparation book and my HURST prep book. In between all the studying I watched BONES, my new favorite TV show, and tried to get ready to move. :) Hey, I needed a little break every now and then!

The day before, I completely did whatever the heck I wanted. I didn't study at all! Jordan and I went and saw Toy Story 3, a great movie by the way, and then went to find the testing center so that my drive wouldn't have any surprises the next morning. There was major road construction (thanks, Utah), so I had to ditch the map from Google and use my memory.

I did everything normal the next morning, getting ready and eating the same breakfast as always. I didn't want to jinx myself. I made it over to the testing center in Draper with a few minutes to spare, so I used that time to seriously pray and get a few last minute studying in. There were 14 nursing students there ready to take the test. The moderators scanned our palms, fingers, took our picture, emptied our pockets, and then gave us a white board to write on, a black dry erase marker, and some ear plugs. It was pretty quiet in the testing center, but I put the ear plugs in anyways plus the headphones from the computer.

With the NCLEX, you can have a minimum of 75 questions up to a maximum of 265 questions. Or anywhere in between. It depends on how you are answering, whether you are above the line or below the line. Even if you end at 75, you don't really know how you've been doing because you could have answered them all bad or all right. You also have 6 hours to do it all in, which gives you a minute and a half-ish for each question.

So I'm going along, going VERY slow, and taking my time to read the question and answers at least 3 times each. I was freaked out. I got all these questions on nursing leadership and how to determine if someone you taught learned what you taught them. It was crazy. I got like one drug question and 3 intake and output questions. Lots of prioritization questions. I took a 15 minute break around question 60 and sat outside and drank some water. Then I came back in, ready to rock and roll! I reached question 75, and when I pushed the "next" button, it kept going. BOO!! I kindof started to speed up at this point, because I mentally planned to get all 265 questions, and I only had four hours left. Then I reached question 90 and the computer just stopped. Stopped!! I was done??!?! Ahh, what does this mean!??? The computer had me do a survey and then I raised my hand and the moderator came and collected my materials.

I WAS FREAKED OUT!!! I was sure I had failed. Absolutely positive. If I failed, then I would have to come back to Utah from Virginia to take it again in 60 days! And I would have to study more and face the dreaded test again! I was not looking forward to this. So I drove myself home and freaked out for a couple more days. Jordan was sure I passed, as well as my mom. I couldn't wait for the 2-day window to pass, then I could check my status online. So, on July 3, I logged into the NCLEX website, and the first word I saw was...

PASSED!!!!!!!!!!!!

WOOOOOO-HOOOOOOO!!

:D :D :D

Ahh what a relief! What a good feeling - I am officially a nurse! Heck freaking yes!

Family Pictures in Mapleland

I don't know how these posts got so out of order so I'm sorry to the confused reader!

In the first week of August, my family got our pictures taken in Mapleton (or Mapleland, as Jordan calls it). The photographer was amazing! She was very gifted. Here are just a few of the many awesome pictures she took...

LOVE THIS ONE!

Jordan looks so good in this picture!

Don't I have handsome brothers?

Wow, I LOVE the effect of this picture!! Can't wait to post more!

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?