What!?

I know, that's what you all exclaimed mentally when you saw that I'd finally posted something new.

This has been a pretty fun semester, so sorry I've not been posting much about it. It's been great because my nursing clinicals have been in obstetrics and pediatrics. I was more excited for the latter, but really ended up loving labor and delivery. It's amazing being there to help people at such important points in their lives! My favorite is working with new parents and watching their reactions as they look into the eyes of their child for the first time. There's the affections toward a baby they realize is THEIRS and the onset of the biggest responsibility ever I've seen on the faces of fathers and mothers. Peds has been fine, just not as amazing as L&D. Mother baby (post-partum care in the hospital) just seems boring, though. There is good opportunity to teach mom before going home, though.
Unfortunately, I still don't really have a clear idea as to what direction I'd like to go with nursing. I know what I really love is teaching. I love empowering others with the information to improve their lives, or feel more prepared to face the challenges of the future. I don't want to teach as a professor or anything, though (at least not anytime soon). I've thought about becoming a lactation specialist or diabetes educator, but I really don't know. I'd be fine working anywhere, I think, just because I will look at the positive and choose to be happy, but I want to do something I'll love, because it is apparent to others. Another thing I know I want is to be able to see people progress. That's what takes away the appeal of endoscopy (which would offer normal 9-5 hours) or ER work, because I want to get to know people and help them at a more personal level. We'll see what happens. I'm not really worried about it.

Upcoming finals, though, are a little disconcerting. I haven't lowered my standards because of impossible Peds tests, but I would say I've decided not to stress when I put in the time I can studying diligently, pray, and still don't get the score I wanted. You can only do so much. Even if I do fail Peds, I'm pretty sure I won't mess up your kids (no guarantees on mine, but we don't need to worry about that just yet, either.) I do think it will be pretty ironic if the worst grades of my life are in home ec (jr. high) and peds, considering I want to be a mom. hahaha

Other than Nursing, I am very blessed with amazing roommates. Megan, Katie, Beth and Kristy. There are 5 of us here in P5, all returned missionaries and BYU students. I need to give credit to the inspired stake presidency for counseling and encouraging us all to have apartment prayer and scripture study. We do (even though the study is more like sharing a verse and then a discussion) and it makes a difference. There's no drama. Whenever someone walks in the door, those who are already home will cheer, rush up to greet with a hug, or just yell a friendly greeting. We would all love to just stay like this, but the apartment owner is not sure he will get the place re-approved, and we can feel change coming. Things will work out, though.

Another awesome aspect of this semester is dinner group. I was telling some of the staff at the hospital about it this morning and they decided they wanted the same deal in their lives. There's 9 of us-my apartment and 4 boys from the ward. Thus, Kristy and I share a day (we're pretty much twins and share food anyway) and it works out that we each cook once every other week. However, we receive a great home-cooked meal for 7 more days. We have it Mon-Thurs so people can still have their family and weekend plans without a problem. If you have class or something comes up, you can stop by later to eat or your roommates will just bring home leftovers for you to eat later. It's great. (Kristy took this pic, so you can see Steve, Beth, P. Mike, Mike, me, Katie and Megs. I think Jim was visiting family. Yes, we are checking eachother's pulses...we have random conversations.)

On more specific, recent events, we spontaneously decided to celebrate Pi day (3.14) after Stake conference several weeks ago. Steve (from the ward, and dinner group) and I determined to have a party around 3pm. However, I, being unwilling to subsidize freeloaders, made the requirement that people needed to bring a pie to come party with us. Javich kindly picked up some of the amazing applie pie filling mom had made from Lioness's house. I busted out the good old pie crust recipie, and Mike and Steve came over with their pineapple to make their pie. I taught them how to make the crust as I did so. We had 3 scrumptious pies (2 apple, one pineapple) to enjoy with vanilla ice cream (I let my home teacher, Mike, get away with just bringing that to contribute). Unfortunately, we forgot to take pictures during the event. Fortunately, we did have some leftovers to enjoy a bit, so that's what you get to see. We also watched Charade in late celebration of Friday the 13th. Luckily we obtained two copies, so when midnight rolled around, we could kick out the boys and send them with a copy to finish watching as we girls did the same from our couch. I'd say it was a success.
P.S. Mom, some people seemed nervous about the apple pie filling when they saw me putting it into the pies before cooking. Yet, when they tasted it in the finished product, the comment was, "Your mom sure knows how to can!" It's true. My mom's supermom.

You may also notice the slightly black eye I have on my right eye. That's from ultimate frisbee. I promise I still caught the frisbee. Usually I don't even slow it down with my face, first. It was the first shiner I could remember, so I was pretty excited. (except for the embarassing story....)

Some of us (several thousand people) went down to the Hare Krishnah (Hindu) temple the other week for the Festival of Colors. Traffic was terrible, but Katie and I made it in time to be attacked by some ward members. We did not suffocate in the cloud of colored powder or leave looking like rainbow brites, though. That's a good goal for next year. I really liked how Rachel's hair looked afterward. Megan had a hard time getting her teeth white again. (those are the two with me shown here.)

Even more exciting, we had a ward temple trip down to the Manti (LDS) temple.The mouldings, colors and paintings inside are so beautiful. It was my first experience down in the Manti temple, so it was pretty neat. I had to think of early saints out here and their handmade sacrifices to prepare such a House of the Lord. The live sessions always bring out new things and help me learn different principles.

I should probably start studying for my final (a standardized one) I have on Monday, or preparing for the group presentation on Tuesday, or work on visual aides for our Ecuador trip, or a bunch of other stuff. One at a time....