The Real Storm Arrives

The blizzard earlier this week turned out to be a bunch of nothing, it was really cold, but that's about it! Today we woke up to a few inches of snow and it was still coming down. It has been coming down all day and I took these pictures of the deck this afternoon. I am very grateful all our family headed home yesterday so they didn't have to contend with the snow. I hope everyone else still traveling arrives to their homes safe and sound.

A Week of Thanksgiving part 5

Thursday night the girls stayed the night at my parents with their cousins and my boys slept over at Mike's moms so Mike & I had a nice quiet evening at home. The best part was sleeping in and being lazy all morning. The boys wanted to stay and help grandma put up Christmas stuff and Mike went skateboarding with friends so I went up to my parents for the day. The girls went shopping at Tai Pan (my grandma's favorite store)! Then we went back and ate left overs and relaxed some more.


Later that evening Jenna was not feeling well and threw up, I am grateful (so far) that no one else has gotten sick. Here & I had to miss the drive to see the Christmas lights in Layton. But I got to visit with my dad and Nate while everyone was gone. I love my dad and enjoy just talking with him about church stuff, politics, and whatever.


Here is my dad with Wyatt and Mara. He is the best grandpa! So much fun!


Here is my mom and Wyatt, he actually kept "tooting" on her, too funny!


Here is my cute sister, Sara, with cute Audrey! It was so fun to have them around for a week! I miss them already.

A Week of Thanksgiving part 4

Thursday, the actual Thanksgiving Day, was the best!!! Most of my mom's family gathered together at the Odgen Institute (thank goodness for a big place for all us crazy Higginsons)for the day. We had tons of yummy food (I forgot to take a picture of the feast) and had tons of fun. We played basketball, volleyball, pool, ping pong, air hockey, fuse ball, visited, ate, laughed, watched movies, etc. It was so fun to catch up with everyone and just relax and enjoy one an others company. I think there were 45 of us there. I feel very blessed and am extremely grateful for the incredible family that I am a part of.


Here are some pictures of everyone enjoying themselves doing various activities.





Cole enjoys reading more than Jenna and had to finish his book so he could work on his book report. He didn't sit and read the whole time, he did enjoy some of the activities too. Go UTES!!!

A Week of Thanksgiving part 3

Tuesday I took my 2 tests, did ok. Not as well as I would have liked but SO glad they are over. All I have left is 2 finals!!! There was a huge blizzard predicted for that afternoon and evening and they closed everything down in SLC. Rylee's game was cancelled and we didn't want to risk driving to my parents in the storm so we all hung out at home again and stayed warm. The blizzard came and went without much excitement.
Wednesday the kids didn't have school, but I did and I did not want to go. I had decided not to go even though I hate missing lecture, but I was grateful to find that SLCC had canceled classes for the day due to the icy roads. The kids & I spent the day just hanging out, making treats, playing Wii, and just being lazy. Then my parents, grandparents, a couple aunts and uncles, and my cousin & his cute wife came by for dinner. We had yummy soups and super fresh french bread. It was fun to get to spend some time catching up!

A Week of Thanksgiving part 2

Sunday we decided to stay home and spend the afternoon just the 6 of us all cozied up inside together. It was so nice.
Monday morning I had a BIG test, called the HESI. It was 160 questions and took me almost 3 hours to complete. We had to score at least an 800 to pass and not have to retake it. I was stressing!!! and was very THANKFUL when my score popped up and it was 952!!!
Then I went home to study for my 2 tests the next day, not so thankful for all the tests so close together, but thankful to be almost done!
Then I got to go watch Rylee cheer and perform at halftime. I love watching her cheer and am grateful she has something she enjoys and that is teaching her and instilling so many good qualities in her.
Then we all went up to my parents for another yummy dinner, homemade chili and rolls. My grandparents and my Aunt Nancy and Uncle Jimmy arrived safely from San Diego, another thing to be grateful for. We visited with them for a bit before heading home.


Ry doing a back tuck, I am grateful everytime I see her land on her feet instead of her head!


Here she is cheering, you can tell she loves it!


I am also thankful for my ipod, which keeps Jenna occupied when she starts to get bored at Ry's games.

A Week of Thanksgiving

We were lucky enough to "celebrate" Thanksgiving for almost an entire week this year. It started last Saturday when my sister,Sara, and her cute family arrived from Las Vegas. We got together at my parents that evening for my mom's yummy tacos! It started snowing and my nephew, Wyatt, was SO excited! He wanted to start making snowballs as soon as he saw the first flake and anxiously waited until there was enough snow on the ground to go out and make some snowballs. We all hung out and visited.


Here is my brother in law, Nate, with his crazy hair. It was his idea for them to come for the week so THANKS Nate!!!


Here is Sara & Nate's youngest, Audrey. Isn't she beautiful!?!? She is 13 months and all smiles!


Here is Mara, who is just 7 weeks younger than Jenna and LOVES reading and horses and the Eiffel Tower. I wish Jenna loved reading as much as she did. Oh, well...to each his own, right.


Here is Wyatt looking at us from outside my parents sliding glass doors which he had covered in snowballs. He had a blast!!!

Volleyball

I started playing volleyball when I turned 12 and became a YW. I remember being a brand new Beehive and feeling very shy and intimidated but the older girls were all very nice and inclusive. I learned to play volleyball with them and fell in love with it! I started going to volleyball camps, played throughout Jr. High and High School, and even played on a Jr. Olympic team during my senior year. I have played on some rec teams and even coached a bit. The last couple years I have played on and off with a group of ladies and some guys at a near by church. There are times when my schedule has been so crazy and I feel like I am drowning, but I have to go to volleyball. It is my stress relief and my sanity. This last week we played in the region tournament. We won our game on Wednesday night and played 3 games on Thursday (2 for 3 that night). Then we played on Saturday morning and lost, but it was close and we played great! It was so much fun!!! I love playing especially with these girls. I have been sore since Thursday night though, but a good feeling sore, definitely worth it!

The Monkey Bars Strike Again

Last Thursday I was at work and the kids called me when they got home from school and they said Jenna thinks she broke her arm today. I thought yeah right, the school would have called, and told them I would look at it when I got home in a few minutes. I looked, it looked ok. I bent and moved it, she said it hurt. I figured I'd see how she did the rest of the day and she wouldn't use her hand or arm at all. Since it was her left arm and she is left handed I figured we should probably at least get an xray. I left for work the next morning long before she was awake so I called to see how she was and she said it was ok so I sent her to school. Mike picked her up later and took her to the Dr and sure enough it was broken. I was feeling like worst mom of the year...at least it's not a bad break and she will be fine. She likes all the attention, but I told her no more monkey bars. 2 broken arms a year apart both from monkey bars is not a good record. I don't think it will stop her and I fear with her if it's not the monkey bars it will be something else. She is too crazy!

28 days...

28 days from now I will be ALL DONE with nursing school. The only thing left will be taking the NCLEX and finding a job (which may be more difficult than the last 2 years combined). I had a great last day at the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) for my independent study clinical hours on Sunday. Had a good day yesterday at my RICU (respiratory intensive care unit) clinical, got to do a couple things I had not done before. And I did way better than I was expecting on my test today (especially condsidering how much studying I did,)! 3 more days of class, 3 tests, and 2 finals to go! Some of us were wondering what we were going to do with all our "free" time once we were done. My mom said it perfectly..."get everything done you put off the last 2 years". So hopefully I will find a job soon and can get caught up on my house, my kiddos, my hubby, my self, my life!

The Countdown continues...

5 weeks from tonight I will studying for my last final in nursing school. In 39 days will be my graduation. It all seems so close, yet sooooo far. Today I had my first of 3 clinical days in different ICU's at IMC. It was a good day, I was feeling very overwhelmed and unprepared, but it was all good. These same feelings creep up on me when I think about whether or not I am ready to be a nurse. The nurse I worked with today said something that hit home to me. He said he felt like he learned "nothing" in nursing school and clinicals. He said you get your clinical hours done by following nurses around and doing some hands on stuff a few times but you don't really learn how to be a nurse. Then you get a job and they train you and you get to do tons of hands on over and over and see the same meds or issues over and over and then you know. He said he hated his job the first 6 months he was a nurse and that it took him over a year to really feel comfortable and 3 years to feel like he really knows what he's doing. Our conversation made me realize I need to quit doubting my self and learn what I can where ever I can and that it will all be ok. Where ever I end up working I will learn and I can be a good, no a great nurse!