Rfamily

R Family is Growing

2011-11-14T15:33:00.000-08:00

Well... the news is finally out there. We always knew we would keep it a secret for awhile, but we had no clue we would keep our secret for so long...

Anyway, back in July I began to think that there might be a baby growing inside of me... I waited for a little while before I took the pregnancy test... Mostly, because I was scared to know. After I graduated (in December) we had stopped "preventing" it and just figured that it would happen when it was "meant to." But neither one of us dreamed that it would take so long for me to land a job so we were both uninsured when we found out. This was scary for both of us. And honestly, it made us feel like we were so irresponsible.. But so far things have all seemed to work out just fine... After awhile I just knew that we needed to do something about the whole situation so I told Gary to talk to his boss... Well he did and Scott totally hooked us up. He talked with his friend Dr. Iriye who is a perinatologist and he agreed to see us for free... All we had to do was pay for the pricey labs... Honestly, we are so lucky. He is a great Dr. and we feel so blessed for his kindness.
Soon after all this, I had the interview for the Nursery at Valley.. But then it took a few weeks before I heard back from them and then even after they offered me the job it was another month before I started orientation and another month on top of that before my benefits kicked in.. So now we are insured and Dr. Iriye is covered by my insurance, but I have to have a referral for him... So we are trying to figure something out. My pregnancy has been totally healthy and I honestly feel a little guilty that it has been so easy.. So there really is no reason for me to see a specialist other than the fact that I WANT to keep seeing him because I have seen him for the whole pregnancy thus far and he is an awesome man.
Being new to my job, I have been too nervous to tell them. I did talk with one of my co-workers about it all last week. (She happened to also be pregnant when she started about 5 years ago). So i picked her brain to see how she went about breaking the news. She only worked for 4 weeks before she told them... But she says they were super nice about it all. I am hoping that it goes smooth like that for me... I wanted to finish orientation before I told them. I passed that point and now am debating about whether to tell this this week or to wait another 2 weeks until my "90 days" are up. Its kinda a wierd situation because my boss (the lady that I should tell) only works the weekdays and I work the weekend nights, so we dont ever see or talk to eachother... so i will kinda just have to drop in and hope that she has a few spare minutes to listen to my news...

Aside from all the little details...
This little BOY will be joining our family in MARCH...

We were lucky to find out the gender at 12 weeks. We both hoped to have a boy first- I just liked the idea of my other kiddos having a big brother.

This is how we broke the news to Tanya (she loves Halloween so we just told her that we had made her a little Halloween craft.. she was completely clueless):

We told my family a few days later... We had planned all sorts of other things, but my family doesnt ever quite cooperate or follow through with plans so we had to keep modifying and changing our plan... In then end we ended up making a card for my little brother, who was leaving for Germany the next morning. (we wanted him to know that he would be an uncle before he left). So this is the card we made him:

Honestly... it took my brother and dad awhile to figure it out... They kept asking what it was an ultrasound of... Gary and I were thinking.... Come on?? What else do people take ultrasound pictures of??

In the end.... They were all pretty excited about the news. It took a little while for some of them to warm up to the idea, but now... I think everyones is excited.

Here is my belly last week (at 23 weeks)

Everyone at church keeps informing me that it has "popped"

And well... here is his little hand:

I just love this picture.. I dont know why, but maybe its because he is constantly giving me and Gary high fives (honestly, if either one of us put a hand on my belly he will hit it and if we moveours, he'll move his too"

2011-10-14T12:58:00.000-07:00

Although it was a long and frustrating wait to finally get a job.... I am convinced it was worth the wait.. With the exception of a few crappy nurses on the day shift and adjusting my body between days and working the night shift... I am totally in love with my job... Working with the sweet newborn babies has got to be the best! I feel so lucky to have landed this job and skipped putting "time in" working medsurg. I really know I would have been miserable there. It just goes to prove that Heavenly Father really does know what is best for us... I just have to keep working on patiently waiting for things to happen according to His timeline.

Me leavin for my 1st night of work

OKLA(I want to go back to my)HOMA!!!

2011-05-29T11:12:00.000-07:00

Last week I went on a LONG roadtrip from Vegas to Salt Lake to Albuquerque to Tulsa... To visit my step-dad's parents. It was his father's 90th Birthday (so my step-"grandad" as he prefers to be called). I spent a majority of my time talking with my momma and playing with the kiddos... I did have some good times, but I surely did miss Gary :( Luckily I knew that he was working like crazy- it was a tournament weekend, so I wouldn't have seen him much had I been home anyways. And it just made coming home to him seem so grand! Everytime I leave without him I swear that I won't do it again, but then I somehow get guilted into taking family trips without him again.

A quick family group picture infront of PF Changs

All the Girls: Hanna, Me, Addison, Jenni, Momma and Jackie

SPRING TIME- a LONG post brought to you by Gary :)

2011-05-10T22:37:00.000-07:00

Boy has it been a busy spring season!!! We finally decided to do something about our desolate dirt backyard. When we started this project we had a pretty good idea of the design and layout, one thing I did underestimate was the amount of WORK and TIME that it would take. Thankfully our families were pretty good about helping us out when they could.

This whole project began presidents day weekend back in February. I had that Monday off of work and school so we thought we should go up to Brianhead to do some snowboarding. But, instead of enjoying the crisp mountain air and playing in the snow, we decided to stay home and take advantage of the long weekend and get some work done around the house.

First things first, was to level out the entire back yard and get rid of some excess dirt. I began shoveling on the north side of the yard and figured that it wouldn't be too bad: get rid of a couple inches here, 6 inches in the back...... Well come to find out we needed to go down another 3or 4 inches everywhere!!! The first 2 inches of shoveling was a cinch, but the next few were terribly hard!!! We were running into rocks like crazy and the ground was nothing but type2 with huge rocks. So, we ended up renting a small excavator to tooth up that hard ground, only to encounter even larger rocks. We used that for half a day, and then traded it out for a bobcat so that we could load the trailer. We moved probably 5 or 6 trailer fulls of dirt, tons and tons of dirt and tons and tons of rock too.

Middle of March and we finally got things leveled out and stacked all the pavers across the East and South walls for our garden! By this time all our shoveling muscles are tired and sore from the work, but we knew we still had a bunch to do. We bought 4 tons of top soil mulch to put in our garden, how ironic, we take tons of dirt out just to put more dirt back in. Well at least this stuff was good dirt and ROCK FREE.

Next we put all our bubbler system together so that we could get our fruits and vegetables growing in our garden before it became too late in the season. After its all hooked up and we turn it on to test it out, we find out that we had bought the wrong bubbler, when really we wanted SRUBBLERS. So another trip to StarNursery and some "sore-er" fingers before that project was completely correctly.

We got all sorts of stuff planted: 5 types of lettuce, spinach, crooked necked squash, carrots, zucchini, 2 kinds of cucumbers, egg plant, red bell pepper, green peppers, banana peppers, pepperocinis, 4 types of tomatoes, waxbeans, celery, parsley, basil, cantaloupe, strawberries, a nectarine tree, peach tree, apricot tree, and lastly an apple tree!!!! Some of them from seed, and some from little plants. WHOLLY MOLLY!!! For beginning gardeners we sure are going for all or nothing.

Now that the garden was going we needed to decide between putting in grass or fake grass. Weighing all advantages we decided we really wanted REAL grass:) With our minds made up on real grass we knew we had MORE work ahead, SPRINKLEES!!! We began shoveling once again, by this time we are almost professional shovelers:) We made about a 10 foot trench and decided that spending the hundred buck to rent a trenchers was a smart investment. We ran into soooo many more rocks and boulders. We are now into April and we are piping out the sprinklers. Once they were in and set, we bought some sod. We decided to go with the emerald tall fescue. And the best part about the sod was that we bought it on a busy work weekend so i wasnt even the one that laid it! Chanell and her dad and brother got the privilege of that:)

It really has been a lot of work, but it is rewarding too. Its the first week in May and we have already seen good signs in our garden. Everything we planted from seeds have sprouted and are growing. We have about a dozen strawberries (which we already ate one), about a dozen small tomatoes starting, and a few green peppers. Soon enough we will be able to start making our own salads and salsas from our garden!!! We are super excited about it and are loving enjoying the beautiful 'fruits'of our labors (literally and figuratively-picnics, BBQs, laying on the grass to read a book, and even having a lawn to mow).

It's kinda hard to believe that this is what it all came from:

DECEMBER

2011-01-24T15:37:00.000-08:00

With the exception of cold weather...

December has got to be the best month of the year...

And this December seemed to be even more spectacular than normal...

1st: The month started with mine and my mom's BIRTHDAYS

2nd: There were FINAL EXAMS.. Normally they would be a down-side to the month, but Gary and I both did well this time around so we're adding them to the +s

3rd: I GRADUATED... so with the exception of studying for the NCLEX and continuing education hours, I am done with school!!!

4th: THE FORGOTTEN CAROLS... Definately a fun Girls Night with the family

5th: FAMILY GATHERINGS.. Some may be a little wierd and others have their issues, but thats what makes families so interesting and fun

6th: Christmas EVE... After the Robinson Christmas Party and visit from Santa... We headed to Grandma Sally's for one last Christmas at the Lake... It sure wasn't the same without Grandpa, but we still had plenty of fun... We even slept on the floor like little kids (I'm not sure how much sleep we actually got, the floor was much harder than we remembered, but the memories were well worth it)

7th: CHRISTMAS!!!- What could be better than twinkling lights, treats, decorations, treats, carols, treats, presents, spending time with family and eating more treats???

8th: Playing in the SNOW... Well this time happened to be more of shoveling the deck than playing, but with my dad, grandpa "lets" and Ricky Bean making fun of Cheryl we laughed so hard we cried

9th: CRAFTING with the CRICUT...Gary did a good job with this gift

10th: BRASIL!!! Yup... That's right we went Brasil...and it was wonderful.

So wonderful that it will get its very own post

I guess someone was thinking when they planned to finish off the year with the best month of them all :)

2 down...2 to go

2010-12-09T15:31:00.000-08:00

Exit exam......... Check
CC. Hesi..........Check
2 exams down... 2 more finals to go :)

It’s wrapping up…..

2010-11-17T13:19:00.000-08:00

It’s wrapping up…..

And I can hardly believe it. It has been school year after school year and semester after semester for the past 18 years and now it is about to come to an end. Just a few more weeks of projects and test and then it will be all over. (I guess in reality it is never over, there will be NCLEX, job searching, continuing education hours, and the list will always go on, but in terms of graduating college, it will finally be here)

So, I finished up my critical care preceptorship last week which means I gained an extra 26 hrs each week. Although I know I should be devoting that time to studying and preparing for my exams, I am struggling to force myself to open my books. I guess its just part of senioritis. Other than fantasizing about what crafts to make and trips to take, starting a career has been on my mind… Below is a mini summary of my brain’s battle in choosing a path in the nursing world. Feel free to throw out your input (esp. Meghan, Kendra, Ashly, and others who have experienced life in a hospital)

The job market is not looking too promising, but I'm still hopeful that eventually I will get hired somewhere and I’m still debating over where to apply. Sadly I think I might end up taking whatever I can get just so that I will have job and gain that first year of experience that so many places require. And somehow along the way, I have confused myself about where I really want to work anyway.

In the beginning I was sure I wanted to do pediatrics, then my first semester I had this bright idea to be a school nurse. But then after doing my community nursing rotation at the same elementary school I went to for 3^rd and 4^th grade, I have decided that I don’t want to jump straight into school nursing (it just seems too easy and I want to master my skills first. Not that I'm giving up on being a school nurse, I just think it would be a better job for when I have school-age kids).

My second semester I loved OB. Come on, what is not to love about holding a newborn baby. And although I know it does have its super sad times, overall, it is the only time you have patients that are happy to come to the hospital. My peds rotation was great too. I had a lot of very young patients and I loved doing teaching the parents and kids about what was going on in their bodies.

Last semester I absolutely hated CPCU (the chest pain unit) so I know I do NOT want to wind up there and I'm not a big fan of having 6-8 patients on a medsurg floor either.

And this semester, I really did enjoy giving total pt care in ICU, but I sometimes got sick of having patients that couldn’t even talk because they were sedated and ventilated, etc.

So the question still remains… if I could work on any unit…. Where would I choose? I guess it is good that I have a couple options, just means I have to tweak my resume and cover letter so I can apply to different areas. And I guess the nice part about nursing is that if you don’t like where you’re at… there are always a ton of different options. It will be interesting to see where I end up.

Grandpa

2010-09-11T11:07:00.000-07:00

Growing up my sister and I talked about how the Lord prepares us for funerals.. He starts taking the ones that you arent so close to and with time, He seems to call home the ones that are closer and closer to your heart. Up until a few months ago I still had great-grandparents living, so I was no where ready to start saying good-bye to my grandparent, but I guess it wasnt my choice and Im just glad to know that Heavenly Father is the one in charge, and that He really does know what is best. Anyway... after fighting cancer and struggling to recover from surgery and all its complications, my grandpa passed away. Although he spent his last few months in the hospital and his body was so worn out and weak, he still was playing games and making jokes just like he always did.

And even though Im going to school to be a nurse, I still dont always enjoy spending more hours in the hospital (I mean... they are dingy and smelly and the people are all so unhappy, so who would really want to be there in their free time?), I really am glad that I got to spend so many of his last days with him. He was in no way a perfect man, but there are so many lessons he taught me and I have so many fun memories of spending time with grandpa.

My purple truck that grandpa rebuilt

He is the one that insisted it be purple

He did it!!! Now its my turn...

2010-08-09T10:00:00.000-07:00

Horray!!! Gary is all done with summer classes and Best of ALL. He got an A. He was killing his lecture class, but his lab quizzes really brought him down so we got a little nervous about keeping the A. He had to get an A on the final or it would have been another B... But he did it! He got a 93% on the final even though he skipped reading the directions and missed out on the extra credit. Hopefully this summer school will pay off... The dental school says to keep taking classes and raise his GPA so thats what hes been doing. In the meantime we are just hoping and praying that this little game doesnt go on forever cause summer school is NO fun :(

As for me... Things are not looking as promising. Im now 2 tests down, but still have 4 more to go. Unfortunately, it will not be so easy to pull off As for me. Ive calculated it out and in MedSurg, it is impossible. Research should be an easy A and Psyche... well Ill have to study my butt off. Im debating if it is worth it or if I should relax and just settle for the B. I guess time will soon tell. 2 more tests tomorrow and then a long weekend of my face burried in books followed by 2 more tests... Then a fun little trip to Utah :) I can hardly wait :) Mishay and Jaymers get ready for some FUN!!

Until We Meet Again

2010-05-28T08:17:00.000-07:00

The gospel brings us so much peace when the death of loved ones comes.

Im so glad for my testimony of eternal life and families.

How blessed we are with temples where we can go and do temple work for those who have passed on.
Grandma Sophie: Im so glad we stopped to see you. Glad you are home with those who have passed on already. We love you!

Flowers

2010-05-23T08:20:00.000-07:00

Yeah!!! We finally got our little flower garden in... It was quick to do; just took awhile to find the time to do it. My grandma and grandpa came over and helped us. The bright colors are so happy to look at. Im sure they will look even better once they start to grow and fill in a little better.

The boss on her butt

grandpa "lets" workin his magic

Gary was incharge of the bubblers

(Yea for automatic watering)

twenty-six

2010-05-22T10:45:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Gary's B-day 2 days... Friday his mommy and my mom, step-dad, and brother came over for a BBQ dinner and cake & ice cream... Afterwards we went to the South Point to watch our friend Jaymie ride in the college regionals. It was fun to go and cheer for her. Then Saturday morning he got breakfast in bed. Then we worked on our planter cause my grandpa had said he was coming over. Then Gary had to work. Afterwards we enjoyed another night watching Jaymie. But this time with my dad and Cheryl.. While I do love my dad despite all his craziness, I certainly can not say the same things about her. Lets just say Gary and I were very glad she spilt wine all over her shirt... That way she was atleast 1/2 way covered up... (I dont believe any 50 year old lady should walk around with such small amounts of clothing on, no matter how good she thinks she looks). Anyway.. we had a fun time.. It may not have been the best B-day ever, but I know he glad he wasnt at school taking finals.

Opening presents

Gary got a tackle box, nail gun, and stuff for his bike (new tires, seat, and pump)

Me and My Love at the Rodeo

Fun Diego

2010-05-16T10:40:00.000-07:00

I got a week off between semesters and Gary managed to get 2 days off (back-to-back) so we took a short trip down to California. It was so nice to get away and not have to worry about school. We had fun shopping, eating (way too much), laying on the beach, going for walks, playing shuffleboard, and visiting my great-grandma. Sadly we didnt take many pictures, but here are a few we do have...

The 2 Sealions our hotel rescued. They are both blind

The first place Gary and I ate way too much food.

Note to self: Dont ever let Jay make our dinner reservations, or fast the entire day before.

After being overly stuffed from lunch we had dinner here. It was delilcious, but the food just kept coming and coming.

Me and my Great-Grandma Sophie

Playing Parents

2010-05-16T10:03:00.000-07:00

2 weeks ago Gary and I played parents to 3 kiddos and 3 dogs while his Scott (his boss) and Tracy went to the Kentucky Derby. Other than Avery getting sick, Colton ragging on Avery about how stupid and worthless she is, and Graycen constantly asking questions the kids were great. The dogs... well lets just say.. I dont ever want three small, but fat yappers.

Friday the kids had school and Graycen went to the babysitters so I was able to clean a little around our house. The rest of the day we just hung out. Saturday was more playing. When Gary got home we packed a lunch, loaded up the bike, and rode to the park for a picnic. Then it was back home for more hanging out. Thats when Avery got sick. Fever and all. After a LONG evening I managed to get all the kids and Gary to sleep. Sunday was full of more entertaining and cooking for me. About 11:30 at night Gary picked the real parents up from the airport and we were free... They called the weekend "Birth Control," but I think it was just a little glimps of what parenting 2 teenagers and a 2 year-old might be like.

So HAPPY :)

2010-04-28T17:15:00.000-07:00

WOW!!!! So many exciting things are going on.
Here's a list of just a few:

Level 2 is OVER and I PASSED!!! Hooray!!! Actually I did even better than just passing. I managed to get an A, B+ and B. Sadly there were others that just couldn't pull it off and so I will leave a few good friends behind. Our group that started out with 8 has now dwindled down to 3 :(
We have a pantry!!! The counters are now clear of the towering cans and cereal boxes

The tile is almost completely finished!!! We just have a little more grouting and sealing to do
There is actually a place to sit downstairs!!! Monday Craig's family was over and we moved the stove and fridge back into the kitchen and the couch downstairs from the master bedroom

I have a whole week off school!!! No books, studying, lectures, clinicals... I hardly know what to do with all the free time...Not... I'll be cleaning (but I'm actually happy about that)
Counter tops are coming soon!!! I talked to granite yesterday and he is checking out the pricing and should be calling me today

Most of the weeds are gone!!! Our front yard was beginning to look like a field of weeds. With all the rain they were springing up everywhere like crazy. Now it is time to finish the planter box so I can plant some flowers
Gary got 2 days off in a row and we are going to California!!! Beaches here we come :)

Can see why I am So HAPPY???

Tile Time!!!!

2010-03-27T09:51:00.000-07:00

Finally I have some time off school!!!! So we started the tile... The first bit of it sure sucked. We painted months ago and since there was no flooring down we imagined it didn’t matter if the paint sprayed on the floor... Wrong were we :( My dad told us we needed to scrape up all the paint so that we could RedGard all the floors (its a waterproof and antifracture membrane) We honestly didn’t think it would be that bad, but wrong were we again... It was terrible.. No fun at all and a lot of work... So after days of monotonous scraping and grinding and banging, trying all sorts of ways to scrape the paint off we finally gave up and called it good enough... So out comes the mop... and with little effort at all..... the paint just mops right up... PISSED was I. We had wasted so much time to find that it rubs right off with WATER!!! But knowing that it could come up we had to spend a few more hours mopping up the remaining paint and then rolling on the RedGard... Craig came over after he got off at like 12:30 and after just a couple more hours the prep-work was done and we finally got to sleep (like 3:30 in the morning)

Three hours later we were up again excited to finally get to the cutting. The 3 of us worked on it for a few hours and managed to use up one 50lb bag of thinset. Then Gary had to go to work :( but Craig and I kept it going and managed to finish off another bag and cut most of the edge pieces for the living room. Gary has to work again today, but the plan is for me and my dad to finish…oh wait he just called and said he is going to Cedar today instead... :( well hopefully we can find more time to work on it. My goal is to have it ALL done before Spring Break is over and I have to go back to school.

Cutting the first Tile

Me and Craig laying more tile

2 Bags Worth

P.S. Thanks for all your help Craig.... We wouldnt' have got near this far without you

Our New Friend......

2010-02-19T15:27:00.000-08:00

So the other day Gary informs me that we have a new friend at the house... after about 20 guesses: mouse, rat, spider, bug, bird, groundhog......and on and on...... finally I am right with my guess of a gofer!!!! Gary kindly snapped a few pictures for me to see.

While I was working on school stuff today I got to meet him. He only comes out when the sun is shining and he sits in the same spot right outside his hole until the sun goes behind a cloud, at which time he returns down into his little sand home. I was satisfied with Gary’s classification skills, but then today my dad says hey, you have a squirrel...

So which he is, I don’t really know. Gary says a gofer based on his tail, but my dad says a squirrel based on his eyes... Maybe someone else knows little rodents better...Until I hear otherwise... Ill just say our friend is a squirfer or maybe a gorel sounds better????

Fun with my Love

2010-02-19T15:10:00.000-08:00

Since Valentine's Day was Sunday, we broke it up and celebrated some each day. Originally we planned on going up to Mt Charleston and playing in the snow, but then the weather was way too nice here to pass up. Friday night Gary and I babysat for Jason and Amanda. We didn’t get home till after 3 in the morning so our plans for getting up early were postponed... Gary slept in till 11 and woke up to Breakfast-in-Bed and a collage. We then spent the rest of the day working on Bill. After 6 months of being torn apart, he is finally put back together. There are still a few little things but hopefully all the air conditioning kinks will be worked out before it gets much hotter.

Sunday Gary had work and then we went to church. After we came home, ate, and relaxed to a church movie. Monday we woke up and took a little trip to Big 5. Gary and I both got new baseball gloves. He packed us a picnic and we took my little brother to the park to play catch with us. After that Gary and I went out to play some golf. It was my first time ever actually playing (I have been to the driving range maybe 4 times total) Gary was positive and kept telling me how I was better than a lot of the lady members, but I somehow still don’t believe him. I really had no clue what I was doing. And every time he would tell me it was a good swing. I think by good he meant that I actually hit the ball and it got up off the ground because the majority of them landed everywhere they weren’t supposed to: trees, shrubs, water, sand, wherever the ball was not supposed to go..... I think I took me more strokes for one hole then it took Gary took all together, but hey, that just leaves me room for improvement right?

All in all we had a lot of fun. The weather was absolutely wonderful and nothing beats spending an entire day with my Love.

Back to the Books

2010-01-30T17:56:00.000-08:00

Well its back to the books for me and Gary... He thought he had escaped the studying since he graduated, but that only lasted for a month. He enrolled in the Kaplan DAT course so he has class T and R nights. It sure was spendy, but if it helps enough to get into Dental School, it will be worth it. The class will go till March and then he will take the DAT again.
As for me... more reading and studying than I have ever done before. My OB class is definately forcing me to retain every bit of information. Our teacher prides herself with her hard tests, but in all fairness, they do pay off in the end. Our school has wonderful stats on the OB part of the NCLEX exams. Even though it is a lot of work, I am really enjoying it. Something about bathing tiny newborn babies makes it all worth it.
Last week I had 2 first exams and I got Bs on both :) I dont know what happened cause I really should have had a C on my gero test. Im thinking he dropped a few questions, or accepted more than one answer, which is good because some of the questions were completely bogus. Gero clinicals at Spring Valley are a completely different story. My first week was good - my pt was incredible, she had lots of interesting stories about traveling the world and even working with Mother Teresa. But this week... I absolutely hated it. Things started off on a bad note when we went to get our assignments and info about our patients. Thursday morning I tried to have a more positive attitude, but that went down the drain fast. We had 2 patients and both of mine were bed ridden. One has so many diseases processes going on that all she can do is try and breathe, to even say a sentence wears her out. I felt bad cause there wasnt much I could do for her. She wouldnt even eat because she was too tired from breathing. My other patient had a stroke a few months ago and came in because her family couldnt handle taking care of her. I admit, initially I was judgemental of them, but after about 15 minutes I could see where they were coming from. She suffers from expressive asphagia and she doesnt understand that. She thinks she is saying normal sentences, but all that comes out is Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.... She also completely paralyzed on her right side. Her left-hand coordination is severly lacking so evertime I went in the room I had to change her gown and blankets because she had spilt syrup, soup, bread, water, whatever she was eating. It really was a sad picture and I bet you are thinking that I should have fed her so the food would actually land in her mouth, but she wouldnt let me. She was super stubborn. She wouldnt even try to use the spoon for her soup, instead she insisted on using her fingers. I guess I am just venting out my frustrations. It honestly was the first time I havent enjoyed my hospital experience so I guess I didnt know what to do. And hopefully I dont have another day like that anytime soon. Had it not been for the other girls helping me out, I think I would have went crazy. I guess it made me appreciate being able to talk, and to hear other people talk too. No matter how annoying someones yapping might sound, it has got to be better than hear YEAH, Yeah, yeah, YEAH!!! all freaking shift...
So other than that, school isnt really too bad. I just take it one day at a time and try not to get overwhelmed.

End of Semester

2009-12-31T09:38:00.000-08:00

It was a tough semester for Gary with dental application stuff, work, a house, and school... But he did well. After countless hours in the library, class, and studying in the bathtub, He GRADUATED! Instead of taking additional classes next semester he is going to sign up for the Kaplan course to help him better prepare for the DAT. He took it once over the summer and scored average, but he needs/wants to do better. Hopefully it will help and he will do better this next time around. - my camera was dead and Gary had his so I didnt get any pictures at graduation, Im still waiting to get copies from Amy... but if you want to see you can look at Samantha's blog: http://nana-kids.blogspot.com/2009/12/gary-did-it.html

It was a busy first semester of Nursing school for me, but I managed to pass all my classes with As and Bs. Now on to bigger and harder things. I have heard from many people that level 2 is the hardest. That is where most people fail out. Im going to try and start off really well so that I dont have the pressure of making it up.

It sure is nice to have a break from school. I know 3 weeks isnt nearly long enough to do all the things we want, but hopefully we will get some work done on the house.

Cardinals Game

2009-12-29T12:41:00.000-08:00

One weekend in Novemeber we made a little trip down to AZ to watch the Cardinals play. P-Man from Gary's work got his parents tickets. We drove down Saturday after the boys got off work. We stopped at the ChuckBox for dinner.. It was scrumptious, but I guess it didnt sit well in Ben's tummy... We now call it the UP-chuckbox. We stayed the night at Cherida and Tims and then went to the game on Sunday. They didnt start off to great, but turned things around and walked away with a win... We had a blast!!! It had been so long since I had time to even watch football on TV that I forgot how much I loved it! Thanks P-Man for a wonderful weekend.

PAINTING

2009-12-29T12:00:00.000-08:00

We finally got time to paint downstairs... It was Gary's first time using a sprayer and he did great! If you look really closely at the ceiling you can see a faint line from the overspray, but he did way better than I could have so I guess I cant complain. Thanks Tanya for coming in to help!

The pool is the place

2009-11-20T17:37:00.000-08:00

Wow!!! Dustin jumped into the married world. And the funny thing is... they met at the pool. Seems to be the place to meet your spouse.. Cherida met her husband Tim while working in Mesquite... Gary and I first met at the Overton Pool and now Dusty married a girl he met working at Mandalay Bay... I guess I am the od-ball because I wasnt the one guarding and my spouse isnt from another country... but I am more than happy... Married life is wonderful. The end of this month will mark 6 amazing months... Here are a few pictures from Dusty and Monique's wedding...

R Halloween

2009-11-01T17:53:00.000-08:00

Well... Sadly we didn't dress up or even get to carving/painting a pumpkin. With school, the house, and Gary's work we don't seem to have much time for anything. So Halloween was a little different. We slept in a bit and then got up to work on the house. Gary textured the closet while I made breakfast. Then it was already time for him to leave for work so I did the clean up. We are both ready to just start the painting, even if there are a few flat spots here and there. Right as Gary was leaving his dad showed up to give us a fan. It was one he had replace in his house. It still works so we are going to hang it either in the master bedroom or living room. While Gary was working I stayed home to clean. Thing are slowly looking so much better. Now that Dusty moved down to Arizona we have our guest room back. So I washed the sheets and moved everything around to make it look more like a room. I also washed the walls going down the stairs and scraped the paint off the glass things. Now it stinks like bathroom cleaner, but looks so much better. When Gary got home we ate dinner and then hung out giving away candy to the trick-or-treaters. We both had been looking forward to it, but were quite disappointed. Of the 100+ kids that came only 4 had impressive costumes. 1- the mom dressed up as Cruella with her son as a dalmatian 2- the little witch with warts that said to me "thank you... Happy Halloween My Little Pretty" in a cute, but evil voice 3- the homemade monster 4- the little Carebear... Other than that... the kids were really lame. Most of them were WAY to old to be trick-or-treating and the others didn't even dress up at all... Really kids knocked on the door in their regular clothes holding out a pillowcase... Didn't even have fake blood, or a mask... They were "lame-os" but we still had fun.

Making Messes

2009-09-09T09:33:00.000-07:00

Everything went through with the house and we got the keys on Friday.... Since then we have been busy cleaning, making messes, and cleaning more... Sometimes it gets worse before it gets better, but things really are looking so much better... We are so glad we were able to start Friday cause it left us a 3 day weekend to work. Friday we changed the locks, air filters, and starting cleaning the rooms upstairs. We took a little break for Skyler's game and then worked on till 2 in the morning. Saturday it was more of the same thing... We ripped up the carpet downstairs, totally cleaned the second room upstairs, and changed out all the lights. With Tanya's help we got a lot done. We took the day of Sunday. We were so excited to go to our own ward, only to find out that the map online has the wrong boundary for our ward, so we weren't even in the right place.. Good news is our building is even closer. After church we went out to my grandma's for dinner and to spend time with some of my family. Then we headed to Tanya's to load up her truck with lots of our wedding goodies that had been stored there. It is like Christmas all over again. We can hardly wait to get the kitchen cleaned up so we can start using the gadgets. With so many helping hands we accomplished a lot on Monday. Gary and I ripped up the pad, tack strips, and linoleum before anyone else got there. Then Mom and Tanya cleaned all day while Dad, Chris, Gary, Skyler and I made messes downstairs. We tore out part of the silly divider wall, closed in the box, opened up the closet, hung a new garage light, busted up the tile entryway, pressure washed the outside,went to the dump, made several runs to Home Depot, swept over and over, and much more... It was amazing to see both my dad and stepdad work side-by-side... Two carpenters that don't care for each other working together... It was almost a miracle. It could only have happened out of love. We really are so excited to have our own home... There is still a lot of work to do, but it will look great when we are done.

Mountain fun

2009-08-14T12:01:00.000-07:00

Since we didnt make it up last week, we decided to give our new tent a shot. Wednesday night we stopped off at the grocery store and then headed to Mt Charleston. We have a cabin up there, but we didnt want to waist the time going to get the key so we decided to rough it. Even though we pitched our tent on the grass, the ground was still so hard. Our tent was a lot flimsier than we expected too... All in we enjoyed our time together in the mtns.

Could it have been better?

2009-08-11T09:48:00.001-07:00

Last week was incredible... First off... Dr. Kingsley, the head of research at the dental school wrote Gary an AMAZING letter. Honestly... It makes Gary sound even more wonderful than he is... I think it will make a huge impact on his dental application. Dr. Kingsley is one of the 3 admission members. Since he wrote Gary a letter, he can not interview him, but he can put in a word with the other 2 members and they can clearly see that Gary has his approval already :)
I finished my last day of Chemistry! Yeah! The final was much easier than I anticipated so I maybe even pulled out an A. I have no clue when I will find out cause our teacher doesn't post grades online or anything. I might just have to wait until it shows up on my transcript. Either way, I am glad it is over.
Thursday we planned on heading up to Mt Charleston to try out our new tent, but we got side tracked with some Amazing news. Gary had left to go over to the dental school and pick up the paper he had "co-authored" on HPV. Really all he did was help with the lab part, but it sure looks huge for him. He co-authored an article on HPV for a science journal. I tried reading it, and I was successful in pronouncing most of the complicated science words (thanks to my numerous science classes), but I didn't really understand a lot of it. All sort of steps and factors and abbreviations and things I have never heard of. Gary tried to explain some of it to me. All together, in plain simple English, it mostly says "folate impacts cancer cell division." OOPS. I need to back track. While Gary was waiting to get let in the building, he got a text from Di our realtor. She had tried calling him earlier, but he didn't answer (NORMAL). The text said to call her husband Steve because the bank had accepted our offer on a house! Gary called and gave me the good news! At first I was shocked and didn't know what to think. I wondered if this was really the one we wanted or if there was still a better one out there, if we could really afford it, if there was other problems (other than cosmetic) and all sorts of things along those lines. But while he was in getting his paper I looked it up online and went through the pictures and description and everything again and got so excited. So that night his mom came in and we signed the paper and went to dinner. And by the time we were home and in bed, I was so excited I couldn't even sleep. All I could think about was the house, how we would paint, do the flooring, decorate,organize, and on and on... Finally after a long time, I managed to wear my brain down and fall asleep. So yes! as you can tell Thursday was AMAZING...
Friday was pretty normal. That night when Gary got off work we went out to the valley and helped Ryan with the tile in his basement. It was a good learning experience for us. It will certainly be beneficial when we do our tile. We got to sleep super late, but Gary had Saturday off so we slept in a little. Sat morning Gary mowed the lawn while I made Blueberry muffins and got the stuff together to go to the lake. Finally about 11:00 we go out on the water with Ryan and his kids. The boat wasn't running as good as normal, but we had a blast. We saw bighorn sheep, donkeys, snake skins, spiders, a coyote, a lizard, caught fish, but the best part was definitely the swimming, skiing, wake boarding, and eating. Kinzi even skied and wake boarded for her first time. Somehow forgot the cameras, so all we have are crappy phone pictures.
We got home from the valley late so Sunday was a day of church and rest.
Yesterday was Gary's day off again. It was great to spend the whole day together. We slept in and then went over to my dads to work on his jeep. After sweating, grunting, and bleeding, we got it back together and came home, cleaned up, and headed over for the inspection. I was nervous that they might find some "spendy" problems, but really there's not much more than the cosmetic stuff we had already seen. My dad met us there, which was helpful cause he could talk the carpenter language better than us. He volunteered to let us borrow his tools and drink a soda while we do the work. It would be nice to have some muscle out of him, but I guess something is better than nothing... There really is work to do, but I think it will be great when we are done. Gary and I are looking forward to it! I'm especially excited for the painting and decorating. Its not super big or fancy, but I think it is great for our first home!

Nursing School Here I Come

2009-08-06T11:30:00.000-07:00

Its official... I've finally finished all my pre-reqs and am heading on to the BHS building... Ooh there is so much money to spend, tests to take, shots to get, things, to buy, etc, etc.... But finally I am moving onward and upward. They registered me for my classes, but conveniently forgot to put the days and times on the labs and clinical, so I don't really know my class schedule... Somehow I believe it wont really matter cause Ill end up spending everyday with my books regardless. My scrubs came the other day... Lucky me, I get to look like a huge, fat, boxy tomato... Honestly, do they think every girl is a total box. You can buy S,M,L. I think that should somehow affect the wideness of the 2 cut out squares sewn together... I mean its not like they were cheap or anything.. Oh well.. Im not alone, we will all look like the same fat tomatoes. I got my drug and background tests out of the way and completed the first step of the TB test, but there is still so much to do. Proof of immunity to the chicken pox, second part of TB, physical, new phone, books, stethoscope, ALL white shoes (they cant even have a colored stripe or emblem,they kinda go overboard on making sure we all look exactly alike)... I think you get the point... Im out of school yet still have a ton of things to do for school. Joy joy :) Then to top it all off tuition increased a grand (yeah that's right $1,000) in the last 3 months. How can they honestly do that? Meghan keeps reminding me to just look at it all as an investment. I think that's about the only option I have... Why is it that we have inflation and other things that raise prices, yet we don't get any additional money for the things we do.. On the positive side I do have scholarships to help out. Until this point I had always walked away making money, unfortunately that will not be the case anymore... Good thing I have a savings account and a husband that pays the bills. Oh yeah... Paying for insurance is going to cost a lot of pretty pennies as well.... Its all just money right??? And although we need it for everything, in the end it is really worth nothing.

UPDATE:On it All

2009-07-28T12:24:00.001-07:00

Things are looking on the "upside."

Tutoring: Shi is so easy. He has got to be one of the most obedient kids ever. And things with the girls are progressing. Take away the pictures completely and Ryan can manage to sound out the words. Well she still gets stuck on the ones that are more than 2 syllables, but hey it is progress. And I have learned better how to work with her so it is getting much easier. Sadly, I still haven't seen any money from Boo and Liz. I cant say I am too surprised.. Hopefully it will come one day, but if not I can say I have learned a lot and will be a better tutor to my own kids (when I have them that is).

Gary: He took the DAT and reached his goal of scoring over the national average. That doesn't mean its over yet. He still has a few essays to write, and letters to get from professors before he can submit his application. He also started doing the summer research on HPV with Dr. Kingsley over at the dental school. Just another way of showing his face and getting his foot in the door. He also has been getting in more overshadowing hours. He really does love the dental world. I'm glad it makes him happy. Just hopefully he can get into school and get it all over with. It will be a long tiring road, but well worth it in the end.

Me: I got into Nursing school at UNLV and will begin in September... Overall I am excited, but there is so much garb to get done in the mean time... Just more complications complement of "Un LuV" (as Gary and I call it). Chem is looking up as well.. I managed to get an A on my last test. :) I do much better with the biochem then the ochem. That and her test was much easier than she could have made it. I think she realized she has to do something or more than half the class would fail... I don't know that an A is possible, but I should walk out with a B no problem.. It is funny to think that I would have died if I got a B in high school, but now I am perfectly happy with one.

House sitting: Jay is going out of town again so Gary and I will make money sleeping at his awesome house again.. It sure is a great deal for us. Feed the 2 chinchillas and dog, have fun, sleep, eat, swim, get cash... and Jay thinks he is the ones getting the deal ;P

Bill: I think he gets sad when Gary doesn't give him much attention so he decided to run "not so well" in order to get that attention. (You know kinda like kids do. Bad attention better than no attention). Well the water pump has been kinda wearing down the last few weeks... Then the alternator went out which caused the battery to die also.. It sure was a run around vegas to try and get that taken care of.. Stupid Lazies at Autozone... Anyhow... We got the new battery and shiny chrome alternator... Gary put the blinger in this morning without too much difficulty. Hopefully he goes awhile longer before his next demand for attention and money... Bill never goes cheap.

Other than that not too much is going on in the Robinson world...
No news on a house yet, but well meet up with Di again tomorrow. Maybe well have better luck now that she's back in town

TUTORING...What was I thinking???

2009-07-09T14:41:00.001-07:00

So... After way too many months of claiming student as my occupation I landed myself 3 jobs tutoring.... It was kinda crazy how it happened... I had looked and looked and applied and applied more, but nothing ever seemed to work out... Then in the same day 2 different people asked me to tutor their kids. One my cousin's friend, the other my uncle... Last night I was super excited about it all. I thought it would be the perfect way to pass some of the long hours while Gary works as well as earn a little extra cash... I wasnt going to start until next week, but then I got out of lab early today and figured I should just jump into it. I went over to the furniture market to work with Devon and Ryan... I knew Ryan was behind, but I had no clue so far behind. She is one of those spoiled little girls that manages to get her way with everything. We started off with a little talk about learning so she could be "the smartest girl." She was all agreeable until the books were opened. She has not learned to read. She knows her letter, but has managed to fool everyone by memorizing the books or guessing from the pictures. I put an end to that quickly by covering everything but the single line of words... I had no clue a 25 page Barbie book could take so long to get through. Over 2 hours later we finally had sounded through each and every word. We still have math to go over. I hope it goes a little faster. And then when Devon gets back from the ortho... Its more math with her. At least she actually will pay attention and try to learn the stuff... At the current rate, I doubt they will learn a whole year's worth of material in 2 short months... If we are lucky we will get Ryan past the kindergarten material (she should have learned 2 years ago when she first went to kindergarten). Needless to say... I definitely am not too impressed with private school!!! So much money and their kids dont even know their stuff. Maybe it is more of a lack on the parent/at home part. I just hope things go better with the other boy next week :)

Summer School....What a Drag

2009-07-06T16:59:00.001-07:00

UGH..... My entire life I have lived for the summers... I know it sounds crazy to most people who hate the heat, but I am a total desert rat and I love the sunshine... Growing up summers were always the best, swimming, munching, and more swimming, it really couldnt get better than that. But now that seems to be so long gone. Thanks to UNLV and their ridiculous scheduling... Yes, they purposefully do thing to make us students go longer and spend more money. Anyway... Im in summer school (Chem111) and hating it. It is the very last pre-req I have. My application for Nursing school is already submitted and hopefully I will be hearing something anyday now... But either way I have to pass this class with at least a C. (which our non-native English speaking teacher doesnt decide what % is what grade until the end of the semester, so you really have no clue how you are doing unless you are above a 90% A or below the 60% F). Anyway... Since 8th grade I have never had to go to the same class back to back, and I sure loved that... This having class and homework everyday is driving me crazy... Its a good thing this class is only 7 weeks.. Otherwise I dont think I could handle it. So yes... Today we had our first test and I really have no clue how I did. I woke up after a terrible nights sleep early to finish the homework. Being a holiday weekend and all I surely struggled to force myself to study... Not to say I was completely unsuccessful, but I definitely slacked off more than I ever have before, which was a terrible thing... It seemed that I either knew the question or had no clue... Im hoping for a low B.. and hoping to know soon... Gary has also been studying like crazy for the DAT... Today it was actually a good thing cause he kept me at school so I got some reading in. I need to be better this week cause we have a test again next Monday.. Yes.. she is cramming in 2 chapter is 3 days... I dont know how we are supposed to memorize and understand all this stuff when there isnt anytime for it to sink in... UGH... I guess the frustrations are coming out... But Gary is done with his test so hopefully we can go home and do something fun for FHE!

We're Married!!!!

2009-06-24T13:21:00.001-07:00

Horray!!! After almost 2 years of dating we jumped into the married world. It was a short lived engagement, but neither one of us saw the point in dragging it out. Once we were both sure we wanted to be with eachother for the rest of our lives and then more we figured we should just go for it... Also we had this belief that the longer we were engaged the more money we would spend on wedding things that really didnt matter... I have to admit that we were successful at staying within the budget we set... And couldnt be happier about it. In the end we made more money than we spent... Thanks to all the wonderful people (their time, help, and awesome gifts) There were a few things that didnt go as planned, but it the end... we were sealed together and thats what the day was all about anyways :) For those who didnt squeeze part of our fun into the day, you sure missed out. Ill post some pictures, but even if they are worth a thousand words, they cant make up for the feelings felt.

HaPpY bIrThDaY bUn!

2009-05-08T09:49:00.001-07:00

Today Gary turns the big 25... Too bad there is a tournament so he will be stuck at work all day.. I didn't even get to see him yesterday either.. I'm trying to think of something I can do to surprise him, but I haven't found the right idea yet.. Tomorrow's not looking any better either.. Just more work, work, work.. I guess if I just get lots accomplished then it leaves less for him to do.. Hopefully somehow I can make it a special day for him. Cause he sure is special to me

School's Out

2009-05-08T09:42:00.000-07:00

I had my last day of Spring semester yesterday so once I got home from running errands I just wanted to watch TV or do something totally relaxing. Instead I helped grandma make and clean up dinner. It did feel good to know that there wont be any assignments, quizzes or papers to write for another month. I browsed the Internet for awhile and decided that maybe it was time to join the bloggers.. It looked fun and informative.. I'm not sure how long it will last, but for now I'm kinda looking at it as a little journal. Well see where it goes.. So I stayed up waiting for Gare to call after work and then today I slept in... But now I need to get moving cause there are so many things I need to do... We are running so behind on our wedding checklist... I sure am not much of a shopper, especially when I can't find the things I am looking for.. Who woulda ever thought that ties and necklaces would be so difficult... Really they are just little things and shouldn't even matter that much... I don't know why I cant just stop caring sometimes... Although it gets stressful, we really are excited. With a break from school we should be able to get much more done. Well either it gets done or not cause there isn't that much time left. May 30th is coming up real fast.

Gary&Chanell

2009-05-07T22:29:00.001-07:00

Meeting you was fate, becoming your friend was a choice but falling in love with you I had no control over