First Day of School!

Well as most of you know, Monday was my first day of nursing school.... It went well... Despite having several minor heart attacks worrying about traffic, I made it there in only 30 mins and was plenty early enough :)  Most of the day was spent listening to different faculty members introduce themselves and tell us about different aspects of the school and program.  We had a long lunch hour which I spent wondering around campus with a group of classmates. It was a very hot and sunny day, so it was nice to be outside for a bit. 

Tomorrow our first real class/lab happens, its from 8-noon and 1-5.  We'll see how it goes!  

Time to find my stethoscope and watch with a second hand (we're doing vital signs tomorrow)

Oh and if you couldn't figure it out, the picture is of me on my first day of school, couldn't let my mom down who was sad to not see me off on this adventure - you got to watch me leave for almost all my other first days though!   

A Month Later

July was a fun month - it flew by though!   August has been flying by as well - I can not believe it is already the 20th... I start school in like 4 days on Monday the 25th!   I am sooo nervous, and excited at the same time.  As I have mentioned to some of you, it is already a tough program, I already took two mini quizzes online and have another two due the first week of school!   I guess thats what I get for doing a full BSN/RN program in a year :) 

So, what have we been up to lately?   Just trying to make the most of our days, most days. Sometimes its best just to be lazy and hang out by the pool, or at the apartment watching the Olympics....

*We definitely have Olympic fever!  I have stayed up almost every night until midnight watching the coverage -- my favorite being the girl gymnasts and my swimming phenom. Michael Phelps!  He was amazing!  We actually were at a bar right down the road (trying to watch the Seahawks vs. Bears preseason NFL game - which was NOT on any channels here in the midwest) when Phelps won #8.  It was great, everyone in the whole place, including the cooks who were NOT in the kitchen, was cheering the relay on... Very cool atmosphere! 

We also took a quick trip back to Forest Grove, Oregon thanks to Jeremy's parents (THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU AGAIN).  The first part of the trip we spent camping near Bend.  Despite a little bit of resistance (and a tiny tiny bit of crankiness) I managed to reach the summit of South Sister... what a hike!   Actually, more like climbing a mountain!  It was both a physical and emotional challenge.  Jeremy, his younger brother Matt, his parents, and myself, were climbing for about 9 hours - it was around 6.5 miles up.  Needless to say, I was VERY sore then next two days!   Jeremy was a little sore, his mom got a bit sunburnt, his dad broke his hiking shoes,

 and well, Matt didn't even notice we had done a hike!   Ah well, I got some good pictures so check them out on Shutterfly soon....    

After the couple days of camping, we got to spend the rest of the vacation just relaxing at the house in Forest Grove.  I finally got to meet some good friends of Jeremys that he grew up with it at a little BBQ we held at his parents. Lynn and Geoff came down from Redmond, THANK YOU AGAIN AS WELL, it was great to see you both!   Congrats on the baby bump being a girl ;)     

One disappointment was that we did not get to visit my family (and parents) who were in Boston while we were in Oregon. I was, and am, thinking of you all and miss you lots! 

Okay well, that about sums up the last month or so. I hope that everyone is well.... Here in the midwest everyone is heading back to school now - back home you all have a little while, so enjoy the rest of summer!     Lots of love!

Behind...

I'm way behind on the blogging right now, I wish I had a good excuse but I don't really :)

I did add quite a few pictures to my shutterfly site, but not fully up to date... Check out all those pictures here: www.msaunders.shutterfly.com

Thanks to everyone for the birthday cards, text messages, emails, etc. Very much appreciated! It was a great 24th birthday.. Jeremy took me to Worlds of Fun and Oceans of fun in Kansas City, Missouri. Its like a big, better version of Wild Waves! Again, I'll post pics of that soon.

A Wedding in Redding!

Jeremy and I recently returned from Redding California where we attended Lynn and Geoff Radtke's wedding. It was a gorgeous ceremony despite the chance of rain and the smokey-ness from the nearby forest fires. The wedding went off perfectly!  Lynn made a beautiful bride, and Geoff was a perfect groom who got a little teary eyed, but held it together the whole time. You should have seen the smiles on their faces as the pastor announced them husband and wife! So precious!   Here are just a few pictures, I will be posting the rest to my shutterfly site and will post the link here after I do!  Enjoy :)

bridesmaid pictures before the wedding! 

"You may now kiss the bride...."

More pictures... after the wedding!

Love this picture :)
   

Clouds and College Baseball

Just another quick update, in picture form of course!

*driving along Dodge.... the clouds were too amazing not to take a picture of!

College World Series game, at Rosenblatt Stadium!

Florida State vs. University of Miami

Rosenblatt.... not crowded yet- Florida State warming up

Jeremy and I in the hot hot sunshine

Had to cover my shoulders because I was getting so fried! Love the sun though :)

Cool statue outside the stadium

again, early, but nevertheless...

dear dad:

thanks for everything you do!

TORNADO

Late Saturday, or rather early Sunday, a tornado hit down right near our apartment complex.  Both Jeremy and I were fast asleep when I woke up to a strange noise as well as my cell phone ringing. I quickly jumped (literally) out of bed realizing it was the tornado sirens!  The person calling my phone was a co-worker from Red Robin that knew how nervous I was about the crazy weather. Anyways, after sleepily trying to get dressed and turn on the tv (and convincing Jeremy to wake up and get up too) we realized there had been a tornado spotted in our area. The sirens turned off after about 5 minutes, but came back on about 15 minutes later.   So despite the sirens going off a couple of times we never went to the shelter, but we were being cautious and ready if needed.  The storm moved quickly passed us and thankfully never did any damage to our apartment complex - however, I stayed up watching the news for another few hours just to make sure :)  On the news I found out that a tornado hit a neighborhood about fifty blocks away - but did some damage to areas ALL around us... Check out the news story here if you want: http://www.ketv.com/weather/16541636/detail.html