SPT Challenge- Scavenger Hunt

This weeks SPT was a scavenger hunt with things that started with L. Here was the list:
lips
light
little
laughter
lavender
lunch

Here I am eating my lunch, tuna salad with Light rasberry walnut vinegrette on it, in the light of my lavender candle with my two little boys in the background laughing! There are lips all over that picture- so I got the list all in one picture. But just in case you didn't get enough lips, here is a little more lip action!

Here's to Me

Megan had this to say on her blog:


I have been really thinking about something for the past few weeks. Being a girl is definately the way to go, but it comes with serious drawbacks. One of these is the way that we are WAY too hard on ourselves! Give me 20 seconds and I could give you a page of the ways that I fall short, but I think that there are only a handful of compliments that I have sincerely taken to heart and accepted.

She goes on to state that she doesn't want her girls to grow up like that and wants them to be positive about themselves, so she gives and takes her own challenge to write down a handful of compliments about herself. I can't say that I am very hard on myself usually and it annoys me when people refuse to be in pictures or say that they can't think of one good thing about themselves- mostly because I find it to be false humility! But with everything we are seriously annoyed with, there is usually an element of truth for us in there. I grew up thinking I was ugly, which was perpetuated by some very mean boys. I have mostly gotten over that, but with most things in childhood they persist even if just in the back of your mind. Every once in awhile it rears it's ugly- no pun intended- head! So I am taking the challenge!
1. I am very curious, love learning, and am very good at taking tests. I got out of 5 years of college with a 3.93. The only B's I got were when the men in my life needed a little extra attention.

2. My mother told me one time that she wanted me to be a well rounded person. I have taken that to heart and have gotten pretty ok at lots of stuff. And because of my curious, love to learn nature I am getting better and better at all those things. The only thing my husband gets a little upset about is that I keep picking up new ones to try!

3. I am a good runner- maybe not compared to you, but we are not comparing!

4. You can count on me when I say I am going to do something. (as long as I don't forget:0) I knew a lady that kept inviting me to do things with her and I would tell the kids and they would get all excited and then she would cancel- every time. I stopped telling the kids, but she never stopped canceling. And it was always last minute. I never did anything with that lady. I have had other friends like that, but never that bad. It annoys me so I won't do it to you unless it is an emergency. Of the 7 years I have worked I have never called in sick!

5. I have beautiful legs!

6. I love the color of my hair- it's brown with gold and red highlights.

7. I am fairly relaxed and accepting. I don't get offended easily. I had a friend tell me she was suprised I didn't loose weight while training for my marathon and then told me that I must eat really good. It just made me laugh. I also will listen if you want to teach me a better, faster or prettier way to do something. I am not offended that you think you have a better way than the way I am doing it. If I think it is better, faster or prettier I will use it. So come teach me. I like to learn!

Well, that was more than a handful and since 7 is my favorite number, I will end with that, but because I don't want my daughter to be left out, I am going to give you 5 compliments of her.

1. She is cute. She may be beautiful when she grows up, but right now she is really cute. This worries her father and myself a little.

2. She is really good at sports. She is a natural athlete and makes any team she wants even without trying.

3. She is really generous and giving to her friends.

4. She has great respect for authority and rules. She really loves the people that work to help make her a better person- her teachers, primary leaders, her principal, her coaches.

5. She loves her family, especially her Dad and Mom and is concerned that they are happy. She listens to our conversations and gets mad at people that make us mad and loves the people we love. She tries hard to please us.
6. Her enthusiasm for life is amazing and her energy is unmatchable.
7. She is a little planner and loves to make lists. She is so good at it, I think it may be her calling. She will be the best event planner ever!

Now it's your turn. Consider yourself challenged to write down a handful of things you like about yourself. If not for you, for your daughter's sake!

Mormon Culture

I was reading on Suzie Petunia's blog, who is my sister-in-laws, sister-in-law's sister- yeah, absolutely no relation. She also writes for Marathon Mommies. Anyway, she brought up an interesting subject of Mormon Culture an what we think it entails. I would say, "go watch the Single's Ward and The RM and there you have it!" I love how they make fun of themselves! "Fetch, What the Heck, Special Spirit, the mission Field, Magnify your Calling"- seriously people, what does that even mean? I have been asking that for sometime and not one person has come up with a real answer, yet, but we all seem to know what is meant by it when someone says to us to go "Magnify you Calling." Because seriously, do they want us to make it this grandious thing that takes over all importance in our lives; therefore, making us assume that it should take equal presidence in other people's lives, because that's what people keep assuming it means.
And how about blessing the refreshments (that are brought to every gathering!) to Nourish us and strengthen us. Uh, yeah, I don't think he's going to do that for the brownies and the donuts! I really want to pray that "no ones has a cornonary tonight from all the refined sugar and fat we are about to partake of." My sister-in-law, says, maybe we should bless those calories to just slip on through and not take ahold of our love handles! The last time they asked me to give a blessing on the refreshments I got the giggles and had a hard time finishing. I so badly wanted to say what I thought!
Or how about the "bless us that we may drive home safely and that no accident or injure may befall us" Like it is waiting to fall on us at any moment. "make that accident befollow someone else tonight, Lord!"
Mormon Standard time- that's accounting for all the kids that you have to get ready! It takes a while people, give us a break! And with that many kids, somethings bound to happen even if you are running on time. Someone spills something on themselves and has to be totally redressed, someone invariably has to go potty, someone is touching someone else and therefore you have to pull the car over to the side of the road and ask if they need to get out and walk. It's always something! Kids=15 minutes late!
And Mormon hair. We all have it, so admit it. My friend who's Dad was a very inactive member and who knew nothing of the church once commented on a picture that she didn't know where it was at, but judging from the high content of mormon hair she saw, it had to be a church gathering!
I love the other things in the RM, like the Relief Society lessons- that is so true, isn't it. And Elder's quorum and his interviews with the members about their home teaching record- spot on baby! So what other things do you consider Mormon Culture?

We need Just a little Change around here

It must be my army brat upbringing kicking in or maybe it's just February and I have had it with winter or maybe I am just a complainer right now, but I am in a need of a change! I love my job. I don't want that to change. I love the people I work with in the Primary presidency, I don't want that to change. I love my family- don't change that. Just maybe everything else! Oh, wait, don't change the kids' school either. Ok, so what does that leave us with. Can I take my Primary presidency into another calling- young women's maybe, because goodness knows I don't want to have anything to do with the Relief Society. And can I have another house in another ward and maybe in a different state, but bring the school and the hospital I work at and all the people I work with along with us! Can we do that people? Is that too much to ask? We have lived here for 2 years in April and 3 in the DC area- all of that in a townhouse. I am ready for a move! Three years is enough time to live anywhere, right? And I have never had a calling for more than 2 years. I have been in the Primary Presidency for almost 2 years now. I have been in 3 Primary Presidency's and I am just ready for something different. Don't get me wrong, I love it and I love the people I work with, I'm just antsy right now.
I went to Stake Women's Conference on Saturday. They had several classes for you choose from. You were to choose 3. I chose 2 and then chose to go home and take a nap. One of the ones I went to was about keeping a "commonplace book." She talked about all kinds of commonplace books, but focused more on the spiritual ones that are really our journals. She read from Elder Henry B. Eryings talk this last conference about how he asks himself every day if he has seen the hand of the Lord in his or his children's lives that day and then writes about all the "tender mercies" of the Lord. I love that scripture in 1 Nephi 1: 20
"...But behold, I, Nephi, will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith..." I know that mainly the change has to happen in me and I really believe I need to start a record like Elder Erying and the many prophets who wrote for themselves and so that their children would know that they believed and had hope in Christ. It may not change anything, but I will have a different perspective, maybe!:)

Happy President's Day

Ok, now is the place where I insert: Late entry. Actually performed on Monday the 18th . Deb RN--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We decided to go to Mount Vernon on President's Day, because it is always free on that day- so did everyone else! It was slow going down the parkway, but we were able to find a parking spot without too much difficulty thanks to a teenager who we dubbed the next contestant on "What Not to Wear"! The place was hopping! We took a look at all the cows (Ok, they were sheep, but Max kept calling them all cows!), and the Potomac river, and the forest and the threshing floor. Last time we went, they let us run around the threshing floor and had a guide that told us how it all worked. They had it blocked off this time, but they did have a pile of hay outside that the kids really enjoyed. They even buried Joseph in it. Thankfully none of the kids has hay-fever! Ms. Jodi (one of the friends that came with us) did start getting hives on her legs, though.

Then it started to rain, so we slowly made our way back to the museum- So did everyone else. We decided to just leave and not try to see the stuff in the museum, because of the volume of people, but it was pouring by that time. We waited as long as possible with a bunch of kids that wanted to do something or eat something with a large crowd of people pressing in from all sides. We finally had enough, so we just pushed our way out and walked in the rain to our car. Everyone else stayed where they were, thank goodness, so it was an easy drive to the base where we went bowling. That was a much more fun and relaxing way to spend President's Day. Besides, what's better than a plate of cheese fries, a nacho supreme, rootbeer and a pizza, and a little bowling to say "here's to you dear President's of our past!"

The 8 Ate's

This last Sunday we had Stake Conference. It was our regional conference time, so we had a satellite broadcast. Elder Uchdorf and Elder Russel M. Nelson spoke. We were amazed at how Elder Uchdorf's accent is hardly even disernable, now. I love Elder Nelson. He gave a great talk on making a happy marriage. He told of one man who was a stake president and when they reorganized the stake they put him in as the clerk. He said he was driving home with him and his wife afterwards and the wife started to compliment her husband. "You remember all those records you wished were better, now you can make them that way. You are going to be the best clerk ever, I just know it! I am so proud of you!" He said he noticed as the wife was speaking that the gentleman started sitting a little higher. He talked about how wives just needed to be kind to their husbands and lift them up. Then he talked to the men, but I think both sides could learn from his 8 Ate's.

1. Anticipate - Find the secret desire of your wives heart.

2. Appreciate

3. Celebrate -he said "you have already learned to not forget their birthday and your anniversary, now CELEBRATE it" and then he talked about celebrating your sealings by going to the temple, celebrate your marriage by going on a date at least once a week (that one is a hard one for us. My husband tells me he takes me out all the time, it just happens to be with the kids in tow!)

4. Cooperate- I think this is so important, especially with children. So often I see my friends dump their kids on their husbands the minute they come in the door, every day! I was at a book club the other day and spent way too much time there and someone said, "you deserve it right?" And I thought, "I have something almost every day this week- do I deserve that over my husband. When's the last time he came home from work and said, "see ya, I'm going to book club, or golfing or whatever" Uh, a long long time.

5. Elevate - do not walk into the doors of your home unless you are able to come in and elevate your wife.

6. Motivate - motivate your wife to find her talents and perfect them.

7. Radiate

8. Supplicate - counsel with the Lord, make your home a house of prayer, a house of order, a house of God.

My husband has taught me many things, but one of the best was how to talk with and elevate your spouse. He taught me by example. He made goals to lift me and compliment me and then proceeded to do that. It is so easy for me to do it back to him, now. I think it has definitely made our marriage a whole lot better! I am grateful for wonderful men like Elder Nelson and My husband!

SPT Challenge- Pick Me Up

My husband said I needed to explain again what SPT was. I have heard two different ideas of what it stands for: She Photographs on Tuesday's and Self-Portrait Tuesday's. Since the first one is on the challengers blog, that's what I am going with. It is a way for me to work on my photography and find stuff to blog about that is about me. So often Mom gets forgotten in the telling of a lot of stories, especially if Mom is photographer and historian. So this helps tell my story as well. I love the different challenges that Lelly puts up each weekend for us to work on. I didn't look this week until late last night, though and had a hard time coming up with something. The challenge this week was: What do you turn to when you need a pick me up?
I can't say that I have anything in place when I need a pick me up, but the one thing I can always count on is my husband. After 15 years of marriage my husband is still my best friend, the person I would rather be with in the whole world, the person who understands me better than anyone else and knows how to make me feel better. He is there to commiserate with me, to help me figure out what I need to do, to calm me down when I get all wrapped up in trying to do way too much. He makes me laugh and gives me a break when I need it. Last night I brought the hairbrush down with me while I was watching a movie with my family. I had been out in the rain with them, and if you know anything about wavy/curly hair in the rain, that's a bad thing. I just started brushing my hair and he said, "here, I'll brush your hair for you." He had me get down in front of him and he brushed my hair nicely almost the whole movie. It felt so good. Unfortunately, my husband is military and gone frequently, so if I can't even talk to him on the phone, I can always resort to my other love... Refined Sugar!

Hair cuts and E-mail

This week has defenitely been about catching up with things that were long overdue, like the kids getting their hair cut. I usually do it outside, but it's been so cold I did it in my bathroom. I am sure I will be finding hair in there for weeks, even though I swept, vacuumed and wiped it down with a microfiber cloth. Here are the boys making our ultrasecret lemonade recipe of water, crushed ice, lemon concentrate and sugar. Woops, did I just give away the secret? Max has started saying his name, but can't say the x sound yet, so he asked, after I had poured two cups, "this one Mak's?" Too cute!

I have been ironing and washing up a storm, too. It is amazing how many loads this family can make in just a couple of days.

Yesterday, I went through my e-mail inbox. I had stuff that has been there since June. I finally got it all gone through and even found my brother's e-mail that let me see the pictures his wife took or had taken at our family reunion this summer. I found these cute pictures of us all being silly and just had to have them.It's nice to know that you can order pictures from Snapfish from that long ago. We don't have many pictures of our family. Mom and Dad weren't the "tote the camera around and take a million pictures of our cute kids" kind of people. They liked making the memories, not recording them.

I, on the other hand, have bought all the best camera equipment for a non-photographer and am looking at more- I need one with a smaller apeture (you would think I knew what I was talking about.) of course it could be a bigger apeture- I'm not sure. Anyway, I have one that goes down to a 3.5, but I need one that is closer to a 2. I also just bought the Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0, because it was on sale for a great price and because everyone knows that is the thing you have to have to make your pictures really pretty. Unfortunatly, I don't have the time to take the tutorials it takes to figure out how to use the dumb thing! At least I don't take a million pictures of my cute kids, I just buy all the stuff that looks like I am going to!

PS. One sister is missing in these Photos, she was in California dressed in a metal bra going to a Anima convention. See I don't even know how to spell that, it is so out of my realm!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I have given the kids little gifts each day this week as we approached Valentine's day. I would do something for them, then write a little note on a heart and leave it with the gift on their beds. This was today's gift. It was suppose to inspire them to do nice things for each other, also. I even taught a Family Home Evening lesson on it. Uh- right! So Mom did stuff each day, but no one else did. I know, Mom and Dad, you got frustrated to with your lessons that seemed to go nowhere!

You remember that story you heard growing up of the Dad who kept getting these valentines from his little daughter and finally one day he finds her crying and she tells him that no one has been giving her valentines back. So the Dad feels awful- but I keep thinking, why wasn't the Mom doing something for the little girl? And why didn't she mention to Dad that he should be doing something to. Anyways, He goes and makes her a ton and puts it into her little envelope she has made for everyone. Well, even though I knew that story, I became that Dad a few years ago. My 2nd, Samuel, wrote little valentines for everyone and hid them all over the place. He had such a hard time keeping it a secret and not telling you to look a certain place. I thought these were so cute and loved reading them. Then one day, he comes to me and says, "mommy, don't you want to make a valentines for me?" Oh, wow, I felt about as small as a dust mite. How could any Mom feel worse. I told him that of course I did and went about making him a bunch and hiding them all over the place. Anyway, I just didn't want that to happen this year and besides it was fun! It totally stressed Rob out, though. He finally started to scream. "What do you want? What do you want? I am in a no win situation here now, aren't I?" He was sure that he could never live up to my expectations of Valentine's day after all I was doing for the kids. I didn't do a whole lot for him, but he didn't notice. In the end he bought me flowers, a spice rack and a big, nice salad bowl to try and "live up to my expectations." Unfortunately, he trained me too well. I did nothing for him, except get him a little chocolate heart. I believe Valentine's day is made up by the card, flower and candy companies. Ok, I guess, if you want to be honest all our American holidays have been totally commercialized and we have to see past that!

I had Sam bring last years, not used valentines to school. He didn't notice and hey I was not wasting valuable paper, right. Points for me for thinking about the environment! Emma gave all of her friends, this:We got this trading card idea from Candice Stringham who does photo things for Creating Keepsakes. I think they turned out really well!

Hope you all had a great Valentine's!

SPT Challenge- Love, Me

This week we were to take a picture of what we are going to do for ourselves for Valentine's day. I have never done much on Valentine's day and after marrying my husband who believes that Valentine's day isn't a real holiday, but a conspiracy by the card companies, I still don't do much! But this year, due to some fun blogs I have read and because of this challenge, I decided to do a couple of things. First of all, I love how Kristi at Everything Pink always has food the color of the holiday. So I bought strawberries, and sparkling cranberry/pomagranet juice, Cheesecake with rasberry topping, and this lasagna- all ready to go so I don't have to cook! Now that's a pretty good present to myself!
I also found these amazing spools of ribbon at Costco for $6 and just had to get them. They are to me from me- why thank you, you always know just what I like.
I also need to really make myself one of those cute recipe boxes I keep making for other people, because look at this- my recipe book fell apart. Note to self- make me a really cute recipe box!
And one more thing I have been thinking of doing and that my daughter has been begging for since Christmas and I guess maybe I will just go do it- Get a Pedicure- it's about time, isn't it! Ah me, I feel so spoiled! What will I ever do next year to top this one?

Tales from the Nurses Station

We had a guy into the ED who was complaining about severe Chest Pain. We figured it had to be an anxiety attack, because he had just learned that his wife was cheating on him, but he was so insistant about the pain that for liability we had to send him to get a CT scan to see if he had a clot in his lungs. He ended up having a serious reaction to the contrast dye they use to see things with. We had to give him a boat load of medicine and eventually intubated him. Wow, now that was a really bad, no good day. Moral of the story: If you find out your spouse is cheating on you, turn on Irreplaceable by Beyonce', throw all her things out the window, change the locks on the doors and eat a barrel of ice cream. If you end up having a heart attack because of the ice cream, we can at least fix that!

Catch up!

This last weekend we finally went running together as a team again, sans one person. I had to drag myself out of bed, because I had a cold and was not feeling well at all, but I decided I just had to go: 1) because there comes a time when you have to start running again (longer distances) after a marathon if you want to keep it up and what a better time to start than now and 2) I had heard of the challenge on marathon mommy about running farther than you thought possible in memory of the prophet who was being buried that day. So I dragged myself out of bed and went with the boys running. We ran on solid ice for 8 miles. At one point Dwyne decided to cross crountry ski. It was really hard to get up the hills or pick up the pace since your feet just slipped all over the place. Rob decided we had to go even though it was icy. His reasoning was that there were 3 of us and so the odds were with him that he would not be the one that slipped and fell. We had a couple near misses, but no one went down! I even kicked the paper at mile 3 1/2 because the other two didn't want to take the chances of just being awkwardly on one foot. The paper wasn't going to kick itself, though, so I kicked it for the team!
Saturday night I worked and there was a billion people there. Unfortunately, we seem to always be short doctors these days or the doctors we have are slower than snot, so the nurses all sat at the nurses desk and had an early superbowl party, because there was nothing else we could do, but wait. I felt bad for the patients, though!
Sunday we went to a super bowl party hosted by one of the counselors in the Elder's quorum presidency. The Sunday before they were talking about what kind of activities the quorum would like to do together that year and one of the guys in the quorum piped up and said, "you know 95% of us are going to be watching the Super bowl, so why not just stop pretending and lets have a party." My husband, the President, decided not to run that by the Bishop, but the Super Bowl party was born. Most of the ladies went upstairs and Karaoked with the kids. First of all, I can't sing worth a darn, and second of all, I was getting my back rubbed by my husband, I was having fun conversations with the guys, I was surrounded by yummy food and I was watching guys in tight pants run around, why would I leave? Seriously. I thought about it, especially when one of the guys said something about why wasn't I up there with the women. I made some smart comment about having my fill of women that day- but it was just to get a laugh. I was just really enjoying the time down there, especially being with my husband! I kind of like him!:)
The funny thing about that game was that my husband kept cheering for whoever was not winning at that point. I finally asked him exactly who he was for and he said, "the underdog!"
So this last couple of weeks have all been about catching up- Catch up Patriots, Catch up Deb, Catch up Giants, Catch up ED docs, Catch up Emma (who is having trouble in school again. We just found a tutor for her), Catch up Emma and Sam (we keep missing gymnastics and jump rope classes- now we are doing double duty to catch up! Sam has moved up to intermediates and just got his back tuck!) and always there is Catch up Joseph! (he is our little lagger!) If only I could catch up now. It seems I can never get anything done- laundry, cleaning, valentines projects I meant to do, care packages I meant to send, computer software that hasn't been put on my computer yet, schedules I haven't gotten into my work yet, books I need to get read and back to the library pronto, and on and on. I think I need that 25th hour now!

SPT Challenge

This weeks SPT challenge was to fill in the blanks:
the other day, i was in my _____________, and i noticed this _______________. my only thought was, "why do i still have this hanging around my house?!?"
Here is me filling in the blanks:

The other day, I was in my kitchen, and I noticed this brownie pan. My only thought was, "why do I still have this hanging around my house?!?

I made these brownies for the superbowl party we went to. I knew there were lots of people going to be there, so I made 2 pans full. They ate all but about 6 brownies, but that was 6 brownies left at my house. When I came down from getting cleaned up I noticed that someone had gotten into them and as everyone from a big family knows the rules are, if someone gets into something yummy, you better dig in fast before it is all gone. So there I go, eating as many brownies as possible, before they are all gone!
Ok, the other thought I had was:
the other day, I was in my closet, trying to find some clothes and I noticed this crib. My only thought was, "why do I still have this hanging around my house?!?" My baby is 2 1/2 and if I was going to have another one, he would definitely be out of it by now, but since I am done having babies and since he seems to be content sleeping in there- he hasn't even attempted to climb out like all my other ones did by the time they were 18 months old- we have left him living in our closet. It is rather big, but it does make for quite the squeeze to get past it and find some clothes to wear. We have been looking to get him out of there, but we only have 3 bedrooms upstairs and then one on the very bottom level of a three story house. I won't put any of my kids down there. I have 1 preteen girl and 3 boys, so he would have to move in with the boys. This is fine, because all they do is sleep in there and his clothes are already in there with the other two boys' clothes. We just need to find a trundle to make them all fit and since he seems happy in his closet, we just haven't been actively seeking this! I am thinking he can't stay there the entire time we are in this house, though- another 2 years- so eventually I will have my closet back!

Tales from the Nurses Station

I have been trying to write some of my experiences as a nurse down every Monday, but suprisingly I had a rather boring week, with no fun patients at all. They were generally nice, grateful, calm patients. Which of course is totally not normal for an ED. If you only knew the ED you would think the whole town was full of idiots and lunatics, normally. I tried to tell some friends of mine about the time I had a guy with something stuck in his woohoo- have you seen ER or Scrubs when they talk about the Butt Box. Well, I don't know if they actually have a Butt Box or not, but they do have people that actually do "walk around naked and accidentally slip backwards" on all kinds of things. They didn't "get it" either, so I won't continue. You, my reader, are too naive and that is the way you should stay. When I was in nursing school and they talked about all this sexual stuff, so that we would understand what patients were talking about and then recommended that we rented a few x-rated films to really understand, I decided to stay naive as well! Unfortunately, I now know that there really is a need for a Butt Box out there- uh, yeah gross!
So Anywho- I thought I would write down how I decided to go into nursing in the first place. I loved sports growing up and lettered in 5 in high school. I also was facinated with how the body worked, so I wanted to somehow put those two loves together. I first thought of physical therapy, but then decided I couldn't hurt old people and children, so I didn't want to do that. Now athletes, I had no problem hurting- they needed to just suck it up. So I first went into sports medicine and loved it. The only thing I didn't love was that I did this at Rick's college- when it was still called Rick's. I know- I am showing my age. The perception there was that you were going into Sports medicine just so you could work in the clinic and meet athletes. I had no intentions of getting married while at Rick's and dated very little. I was a double major at the time and took 20-21 credit hours every semester. I was serious about my schooling. The only B I received at Rick's was due to my tragically being thrown off my goals by the unforseen monster called the RM. Yeah- I had to get rid of him! After Rick's, I applied several other places and found that it was actually a very competitive program and that I would have to get even more serious. Enter in the very handsome and ever charming Mormon male. Ah, very distracting! This one wasn't so easy to get rid of, though. He swooped me off my feet and I was history. Alas, he took me back to Idaho- somewhere I thought I was thankfully free from and there I had to finish my edumacation. What's a girl to do when she is stuck in Shelley, Idaho and has already graduated from Rick's. She must go to Idaho State University, silly. Unfortunately, they did not have a sports medicine program. I fought with my husband and complained and finally started investigating this Sports Medicine thing and found out that it wasn't really a very practical major for a LDS wife and sometime to be mother. Really the only thing you can do with it is work for a college or professional team and uh, that means a whole boat load of traveling. So I finally had to come to grips with the fact that I had wasted 2 years of my life and start over again. I got the list of majors that Idaho State had and looked them all over and near the end- which is a funny place for it to have been- was nursing. Now I never wanted to be a nurse. You remember growing up and going to career day. They always had a nurse speak and I never went to that one. I thought nursing was way too girly of a profession. But here, I was stuck without a major and really wanting to do something where I could learn about the human body and what better major could I pick than that. Rob moaned when I said "nursing!" and tried to get me to change my mind. He had tried to date a few nursing majors and he said they were always studying. Well, study I did and the rest is history. I made it through 5 whole years with only a couple more B's and my marriage intact- which was sometimes hard! And found out soon after I graduated that I was pregnant at my graduation- something other people suspected from my all around grouchiness, but that I never did. I now have 4 children and I really feel like I was inspired to choose nursing as a career. Working in the ED is far from girly- in fact most male nurses go into the ED and the women are generally atheltic and smarter than anything! I have never met so many rock climbing, marathon running, belly dancing women in my life than in the ED. They really inspire me to be fitter and smarter. Besides that, I can work when my husband is home, so no need for babysitters. I can pick my hours and e-mail them to my boss, because nurses are in such demand. I don't have to work Sunday's, because I don't have to work full or part time. I get to work what is called PRN- which is an appreviation of a latin term meaning as needed. But really it should say, as wanted- because I get to decide when I want to go in. They give me odd shifts to accomadate my life. A normal shift is 7pm to 7 am. I only work until 1 am so that I can function as a mom the next day- and they let me! This is really one of the greatest jobs out there. Now if only I can remember that the next time someone pukes all over me!

My Joseph

Today's lesson in primary was about choices. Joseph chose to feed the ducks. See him with the bread in his arms. But also notice the little bubbles he drew next to him. He told his teacher he was feeding the ducks, but he was also thinking of space aliens on earth. That's my 5 year old. Definitely an imagination and look at that cartoon drawing. I think he may have found his calling!