6 Wonderful Years!!

Today is my 6 year dating anniversary with Brian! :D To celebrate, we had our first food and cake tasting for a potential wedding caterer. The food was absolutely amazing and the people were soooo nice. It was fun to have a fancy dinner for free and we left stuffed!
Although this picture was not taken today, it is a recent picture of us. This was taken on my birthday when we went for a day out on my dad's boat. I used my new camera that Brian and my nursing school friends got me - I love it!! :) Thank you to all those who contributed - it truly meant a lot to me!!

Re: 1st Night Shift

Well, I think I have finally recovered from my 1st night shift, but it did take a few days. I wanted to let you know that it went very well and I had a great experience - this whole externship will be a wonderful experience! I really like my preceptor, Kelly; she is really nice and always willing to teach. I told her at the beginning of my shift that I wanted to just observe to just get the feel for things again, but before I knew it, I was giving meds, charting, taking vital signs, etc. So, I think my instinct just took over and I jumped right in, which was good and I am glad I did! Being there and doing so much really helped regain my confidence in myself. I actually like the night shift a lot since it is so calm (without a lot of family, doctors, therapists, etc constantly in the room), but I just need to work on figuring out my sleeping schedule a little more. Anyway, it was a good night and I am looking forward to the next shift on Tuesday. :)

1st Night Shift

Sorry it has been so long since my last post! Since then, I finished summer session and started my fall semester and I turned 26 (and got a new camera!). Other than that, not much is new. I am doing an internship (we call it an externship) this semester at St. Jude in the oncology unit. Tonight is my first night shift ever and I am looking forward to it (although my body is a little thrown off). It is a class that we get credit for and it is an unpaid position (I will be working with a nurse), but I am just excited to get back in the hospital since I haven't had clinical since early December! I will let you all know how tonight goes!! :)

Marriage Prep

We "graduated" from our "Marriage in the Lord" workshops that we have been attending every Tuesday night during July. Brian and I LOVED these classes and are sad that they are over already. We are looking forward to attending retreats or workshops like these in the future. They really spark up a whole new/deeper level of communication and really brought the two of us even closer together. We had the largest small group and had a lot of similarities among each other. One girl is in nursing school (a LVN to RN program) and her and another girl both have Dutch fathers, just like me! :) And our moderator couple goes to San Antonio too. All in all, it was really neat hearing from/about other Catholic couples; for instance, I enjoyed hearing about what traditions their families have had and what they would like to keep/start with their new family. These classes were very beneficial and I think all couples preparing for marriage should go through something like this!!

Help Fight Hunger #2

I love going to thehungersite.com and taking about 10 seconds to help others just by clicking each of the "click here to give" under each tab (hunger, breast cancer, child health, literacy, rainforest, and animal rescue). I encourage you to try to click daily - it only takes a few seconds out of your day.

Another great site is http://bhookh.com/, which will donate a cup of staple food to a chronically hungry Indian.

Gordie Brown

I received the pictures from Kimi's camera, which had most of the pictures from our Vegas trip, so I thought I would post this one from when we went to the Gordie Brown show.
He is really talented (comedian, musician, artist) and we had a blast, especially since Kimi was the highlight of his show! We were able to go backstage and meet him, which was so cool, but we did feel a little weird about it too. Anyway, this was the picture we took with him.

Where did July go!?

Wow, I can't believe today is July 22! I noticed that I haven't posted much in a while, so I thought I would write a short update.

• School is school and it is crazy busy as usual. I cannot even wait for this semester to end, but after registering for the fall semester, I am not looking forward to starting that. I am looking forward to my externship in the fall though, which will be at St. Jude's. :)
  
• I went to Vegas over the weekend with a few girlfriends which was loads of fun. (Kimi turned 21 earlier this month). It was soooo nice to get away for the weekend and relax and have a good time. I'm not a big gambler, but I played some slots and won a whopping $7! :) Hey, it's better than losing, right?
  
• I'm currently housesitting 2 puppies in Anaheim Hills (till tomorrow). The family has only had them for about 2 weeks, so I have found myself spending much of my time training and cleaning up after them. It is not fun to come home to some nice "puppy presents" everytime I leave and I sware the 2 of them team up on me on purpose. Anyway, they are really cute dogs and I have enjoyed having my own place for the week. :) I will try to attach a picture soon.
  
• My dad was in the hospital for a few days for a bowel obstruction, but he went home this afternoon. I visited him a couple times and realized how much I would probably hate to have him as a patient! He actually told the student nurse that she could not take out his NG tube and that he had seen a little too much of her! Poor girl! I probably would have cried. :P Glad he is home though.
  
• Lastly, my grandfather was diagnosed with stage 1 prostate cancer. He is turning 81 on Sunday and as of right now, he will not be getting any surgery or treatments because of his age. Please keep him and my grandmother in your prayers.

I think that is really all that's new. Also, please keep my friend Tiffany in your prayers - she lost her husband today.

Reception Site

Today Brian and I booked our reception site. It was very exciting for us and we are very happy about it. After much searching, we are glad we found the perfect place that represents both of us (although, this was the first place we looked at). I can't wait to celebrate our big day at the Fullerton Arboretum.

Help Fight Hunger

About a year ago, a friend of mine from school told me about this site. It's a fun way to help fight hunger around the world!! Check it out...and have fun! (Warning - it can easily become addicting) :)

Housesitting in Ladera Ranch

I just realized that I haven't really posted anything for a month! Sorry about that, although there really isn't much to update you on.

I'm in week 4 of summer school and it is keeping me busy, as usual. We are starting our "thesis project" this semester and I will be doing mine on Fibromyalgia symptom management. I am looking forward to it, but I know it is going to be a lot of work. However, it will all pay off in the end right? Less than a year until I graduate...and almost a year until our wedding!

Speaking of wedding...we are in the process of finding our reception site. It has already been fun checking out a few places with Brian, but we have several more to go. Other than that, not much else is going on. We start our marriage classes in July (every Tues night for 4 weeks). We are looking forward to going.

Right now I am housesitting for my sister in Ladera Ranch. Lily, my sister's dog, is one of Sade's puppies from her 2nd litter and she is very close to me. She is so cute and such a sweetheart (minus the 3 am wake up barking and potty trip this morning). Also living in my sister's apartment is her cat Shadow, hamster Lionel, and fish. Brian has been hanging out with me here and it has been sort of a little vacation for us (obviously not really since we are working on school stuff constantly). We watched "Taken" Monday night and last night watched "Doubt" - both were great movies. Oh, today and yesterday I took care of my other Ladera pet buddies. I walked from my sister's to the house where Max and Rose are and hung out, walked, and fed them. It is so nice being able to walk somewhere! I also walked to the grocery store and probably will run to the gym sometime soon too. Everything is pretty close by. I will be here until Sunday morning and I am looking forward to having my "own place" for a few more days.