Lucky Girl

Getting my diploma in the mail for my Associates of Science in Nursing made me think about all the work that went into that degree.  The past two years have been crazy.  I have had a lot of people tell me that I'm crazy.  I just wanted to express my gratitude to the people that helped me get through nursing school.

Tacy was born 5 days before I started nursing school.  She was actually due the second week of nursing school, but after talking with my doctor about school and trying to have Tacy on a weekend or something, my doctor offered to induce me 3 weeks early if her lung functions were great.  Tacy was obviously very ready to come because her lung functions were 10x better than what they needed to be and she weighed 7lbs 15oz.  Thank you Dr. Harrison for helping me to have this little girl early, helping her to be healthy and helping me to have a great pregnancy and delivery with no problems.  Gosh I'm gonna miss my doctor when we move to NC.

The first few weeks, probably months of nursing school were hard.  I had school Monday-Friday from 8:30-3:00.  I had a new baby who I had to leave behind in the care of family.  I'm grateful my mom helped us out that first week of school.  I'm so grateful Brad's job was flexible with his work schedule so he could be with Tacy every morning and that Jody could watch Tacy every afternoon.  I'm really grateful for all the help Jody was watching Tacy during nursing school so that Brad could go to work and I could go to school.

I could not have gotten through these past two years without Brad.  Seriously, he was amazing.  I probably cried on a daily basis that first month.  I was so stressed with school, a baby, trying to study and trying to be a good mom.  I felt like a horrible mother and worried Tacy would have no idea who I was.  Brad was there to listen to me, calm me down, and take care of Tacy in a different room while I studied or did homework.  I quit my job the day I went to the hospital to have Tacy and didn't work again until I finished my first year of nursing school.  So for 9 months Brad was the sole provider for our family.  He worked hard, helped to manage our budget, and found alternate ways of making money to help us buy gifts (thank you surveys for amazon gift cards).  That first year was really hard, but we made it.  Brad is a great Dad and a terrific husband.

I'm so glad Tacy was a great baby.  She sleep trained at 4 months, she was happy almost all the time, and did not care what bottle she drank from.  Tacy is a great kid, and only throws her tantrums for Mom and Dad, so people who watch her love her.   I'm also really glad we have been able to be with my in-laws so we have had a lot of family close by to help with Tacy.  Plus, Tacy loves all of her family so much.

Finally, I'm so grateful for Heavenly Father.  I know He helped me so much to get through school, handle being a new mom, and helped us so much with finances and helping ends meet.  I know that without Him I would not have done so well in school or passed my boards.  

We have been truly blessed these past two years.  Life may not have been ideal, but we got by and are happy.  Now hopefully we can continue to be blessed and survive Brad's PA program.  One day Tacy won't have a parent going to school :)

East Coast Here We Come!

Brad started the application process for PA school again because after receiving a 'no' from every school but one (who put him on the wait list) we decided we should start up everything again for next year's programs.  So once again, Brad set up times to go shadow one of the PAs I used to work with.  Monday (June 16th) he went to do a day of shadowing, while Tacy and I hung out at home.  I had just worked three days in a row after coming back from a trip to California to see my family/be at my sister's baby shower.  So I was tired.  Around lunch time Brad calls me up.  What does he tell me?  He just got a phone call from Campbell University telling him that someone had dropped out and asking if he was still interested because they had an opening for him in their program!  Granted Brad was in shock when he was talking to me so he had no emotion in his voice at all.  For a second I thought he was just not excited about this.  But Brad said he was shaking so bad and trying to get over the shock of the phone call. 

So what does this mean for us?  Well it means that Brad starts a 27 month PA program in Buies Creek, NC on August 7th.  It means that we have 6ish weeks to plan and get already and moved to North Carolina.  It means that we are now hunting for housing across the country and I'm applying for multiple jobs a day.  It has been a crazy week!  We have at least gotten a moving truck booked (and for a great deal thanks to Brad's Dad).  We will be towing our Honda behind the moving truck and I will be driving the Mazda with Tacy.  So a fun drive for our family.  Some of Brad's family might be able to drive with us so we can have help (I'm mostly concerned about keeping Tacy entertained).  The nice part of the drive is that we will be going through St Louis (where Brad served his mission) so we can stop and see some of his old friends. 

Basically we are planning on splitting the 32 hour drive up into 4 days of driving (with 1.5 days in St. Louis area).  So right now we will leave the end of July and get to North Carolina that weekend.  We are going to try and drive the longest the first two days and then drive shorter amounts the last two days (when I'm sure Tacy will be done being in a car).  St. Louis will be a great break point so Tacy can run around at the St. Louis zoo, play, whatever with people Brad knows before we finish our trek.

Brad is flying out to NC in 2 weeks to go house/apartment hunting.  We have looked online and found some places we really like.  But I still want at least one of us to see them before we sign a contract.  It's cheaper for just one of us to go, and well I make more working right now than he does.  So he is going while Tacy and I stay here waiting for his calls and pictures.  It's all very crazy and overwhelming.  We feel very blessed to have the opportunity for Brad to get into PA school.  I will be putting off my BSN for a little (since you have to live in the state of Utah to be in Weber's program).  Hopefully I can get into a program out in NC or an online one so I can get that (as most places really prefer nurses with BSNs (sorry a bachelors of nursing). 

That is the current crazyness of our lives.  We are trying to spend time with Brad's family since we now only have a month left here.  I know that Tacy will miss all of her aunts, uncles, and cousin (plus the 2 on the way that we could possibly completely miss).  We are going to throw an early birthday party for Tacy since we are moving right before her birthday.  

We are excited for this new chapter of our lives.  I'm excited to go back to NC since I haven't been there for 15 years.  We joke that by the time Tacy is clearly speaking english she will have a southern accent. 

Frozen the Life Saver and other stories

Let's see, what has happened to us since last post.  Well, I graduated!  I passed all my last tests, I walked at my graduation, and Brad and Tacy cheered me on.  Granted, the graduation was a little lame (we didn't walk across a stage when they announced our names...just across the floor in front of the graduates.  I love pictures of what we do, but I am horrible at actually taking them, mostly because I chicken out (yes, I get worried that people will be bothered by me requesting that we take a picture).  Lame, I know.  It was so nice to graduate though, to think of all I have accomplished these past two years and to sit with so many friends.  That was the best about nursing school, I became so close with so many people!

After graduation, I started working full time (3 days a week).  Then my grandmother passed away.  She was 99.5 so it was not unexpected. It was actually a happy thing for our family.  I love my grandma so much, and I do miss her, but she was so ready to go.  She has been ready and waiting ever since Grandpa passed away December 2009. Luckily she passed away at a good time for us, it was the monday after graduation, and I had three days in a row off.  So I got one of the co-workers to take my Friday shift, then we drove out to California (in our nice new Mazda CX-5) Friday and spend Friday-Monday there with my family. My sister and I sung "I Am a Child of God" together at the funeral.  It was great singing with Katie, it's been over ten years since we last sang together.  We enjoyed the time with my family, and we went out to eat a lot (we can't go to CA without going to BJ's and my parents took us out for my birthday as well to this place called Farrell's which is a ice cream/burger diner place).  We had fun and ate lots of yummy food.

About our new car, so we have been looking for a while, or I guess more talking about a new car for a while.  We loved our civics, but Tacy and a toddler car seat sure do make a civic feel small. Then only question was which civic would be get rid of.  Well, after our trip to St. George in April (10thish) our blue civic over heated.  We spent over 2 hours in Cedar City on the drive back at a mechanics having the car looked at.  They replaced the radiator cap and couldn't find a leak.  We drove home, but the car was still getting hotter than normal. We took it to our mechanic the next day and turns out the head gasket was warped, so exhaust was leaking into the radiator fluid, which in turn was heating up the engine instead of cooling it down.  Because of the mileage on our car they recommended a new engine.  The best deal they found on a used engine would have cost as much as the car was worth.

So we seriously began looking at cars.  We test drove the Nissan Rogue, The Honda CRV, and the Mazda CX-5. We worked out a great deal with Mazda and got the CX-5, traded in our blue civic and drove home in a brand new white CX-5.  Exciting stuff.  We did look at used cars, but for low mileage vehicles, they weren't much cheaper than brand new.  Now the Mazda is Brad's baby (well it's Tacy's car, but Brad has done so much to protect this car - all weather mats, seat protectors to protect the seat from the car seat and protect the driver seat from Tacy's feet).

cuddling with two animals

Next was my birthday and Tacy turning 21 months.  I worked the day before my birthday and the three days following my birthday (including mother's day).  For my birthday, Tacy and I slept until 8, we watched a movie, Brad came home and we went to brunch at Sill's and ate delicious breakfast: scones, pancakes, eggs, and sausage! We went shopping (I only got one shirt, but it was still fun), we went to coldstone, and we went to Dickie's because I'm addicted to their beef brisket.  The day ended with me scheduling my NCLEX-RN (nursing boards to get my RN).

Mother's day, I worked, came home at 7, and ate pie to celebrate my birthday (with all of Brad's family).  The apple pie was delicious. Mother's day was well, not really special when you work.  But Tacy did hug me.  This is a big deal because Tacy had a faze where she was not good at hugging the parent who worked all day.  I came home pretty emotional that day because Tacy hadn't hugged me the night before, I worked all day, was tired after working 3 days in a row, and Tacy cuddled up with an aunt instead of hugging me.  But I did get a hug by bedtime, and I calmed down.

Other than working, I have been studying for the NCLEX. Maybe not studying as great as I should be, but I have studied.  I have a week until the test and I'm nervous about passing but excited to get it over with. So I'm trying to study, and work, and still be a good mom and wife. Brad is working 3 days a week now.  He has been carving sling shots in his spare time, and made some delicious shish-ka-bobs yesterday.  We are still waiting to hear about Campbell.  In the mean time, he has started the application process again for next year.

the yummy shish-ka-bobs

Tacy is wild and crazy, her hair is getting so long, and she is loving the warm weather which lets her play outside a lot.  She can say quite a few animal noises, we are still working on jumping but she is getting closer, and she will now watch lots of different disney movies (Frozen is still her favorite).  Oh yeah, Frozen is the only thing that calmed her down during our drive out to California.  It's a long drive for a toddler. She started screaming to the point of throwing up.  We spent a long time in Winnemucca trying to clean her and the car up, as well as eating and buying drugs. Having Frozen on the tablet and being able to let her watch it was our lifesaver.  Granted, we watched that movie 3-4 times just driving to California and back, and after that trip she has wanted to watch it every day....but it makes her happy. I have since gotten her to watch Brave, Little mermaid, mulan, and toy story. I think Brad might have had her watch Lion King. We also like watching Mister Roger's neighborhood.  But Frozen is what she requests and sings to.  Let It Go is not my favorite song but Tacy loves it. She even sings and dances to the music during the intro to the movie. Brad and I can quote almost the whole movie and performed a couple duets during our car rides.

'fixing' the chair with her toothbrush

tempter tantrum under the piano bench

After my NCLEX next week, we will then head back to California for my sister's baby shower.  Then we will work. Tacy never ceases to amaze me with how big she is getting.  She can wear 24 month shirts now.  she put on her jammie pants almost all by herself last night (granted they were backwards so they were a little tight on the bum and lose in the front...but we celebrated her success and I didn't want to break her heart to take them off and fix them). Tacy now helps me put my own shoes on, and she likes to wear daddy's.  She also loves sun glasses, granted we had to buy her cheap dollar glasses that are much to big for her head because she broke her $5 kid sun glasses.  I love this little girl so much.  We have been reading 2-4 books a night before bedtime. And this week has been a big stuffed animal loving week.  She is carrying around one of them all the time or sitting and cuddling with one constantly.  She currently has three in bed with her.  I love when she carries over her big Sully who is as big as she is (he read with us tonight). So adorable.

My hairstylist decided to add some light brown to my hair today - I love it!

The Whirl wind of Life

Seriously, I don't know where the time goes sometimes.  It's April, getting close to Easter already (I feel like it was just March and Easter felt like forever away so I had not put any easter decor up until yesterday when I realized it's in 2 weeks), and I'm graduating in 3 weeks.  What keeps us so busy?  Tacy, school, work, Tacy, sleep, Tacy...ok so maybe not a lot of things, but enough to keep time going by.

First of Tacy: She is officially 20 months tomorrow!  I'm excited because she is old enough to like Easter and kind of get what is going on, so we bought her a basket.  She had her 18 month follow-up on her her 19 month day and she weighed 22.8 lbs and was 32 inches long.  Crazyness cause she is half my height!  Tacy still screamed at the doctors.  Poor kid has not forgotten that she gets shots there.  At least her next appointment won't be until August so maybe that will be a long enough time to forget.

Tacy's funny personality keeps developing.  She still loves technology, she loves to dance and sing (especially during quiet moments in church), she loves pushing her baby stroller and shopping cart, but she also loves turning them funny ways and carrying them or sitting in them.

Tacy loves yogurt again, she LOVES salsa.  Oh man, so we went to a mexican resturaunt and they had no high chairs, so Tacy got a booster seat (meaning no seat belt to hold her in the seat).  Tacy loved this idea because she stood the whole time which allowed her to reach the chips and salsa.  She dips chips in the salsa and sucks the salsa off the chip, then re-dips.  I have to remind her to take bites of the chips.  She got to the point of using anything to get salsa (crayons, forks) until she grabbed the salsa and tried to drink it from the dish.  Needless to say, I didn't eat much of my meal because I was a little busy trying to keep Tacy sitting and from drinking salsa.  But it was very funny.

This was acutally at Outback when she kept sucking all the butter off her bread

My mom got Tacy an easter dress and it is very puffy and adorable.  Tacy had fun twirling around in it (very much like her Aunt Katie used to always do in her dresses).

Tacy is getting good at counting, granted she always skips number 3 but she loves 1,2, 4, and 5.  We count the stairs when we go up and down them.  We are working on colors still.  Tacy loves trying to put her pants on.  Pretty funny because she is good at getting one leg in, but then she will take them off and start to put a leg in again.  She also can now push/pull everything out of the way of her closet which she then likes to "hide" in and ask "where'd go" and then pop out laughing.    Funny kid.

In the mean time, I have three more tests until graduation.  I decided that I would walk since my nursing degree is a pretty big deal and a big accomplishment for me.  I'm even graduating with honors (yup I've gotten my best grades since becoming a mom and having no time/focus...).  Brad and Tacy will be there to cheer me on.

At the dinosaur Park in Ogden

Brad still works at his job, I still work a night or two a week.  We still aren't sure where exactly we will be going after I graduate since we are still on the waiting list for the PA program in NC.  Who knows.  I'm just hoping we can find out soon so we can start planning.

Dancing Queen

Tacy loves to bust a move but trying to get it on record is tricky.  Here is a video I managed to get the other day.  I take no credit for the dance moves.

Counting the Days

I finished my preceptorship/Capstone for school!  Hooray!  Now, I just have class 1 day a week and graduation is April 25th.  So less than 2 months.  I'm so ready to be done.  Tacy is ready too because she is not happy when I'm trying to study/do homework/not paying attention to her.  

I'm just ready to have more time to be a mom.  Some days I feel like I can't do it with my crazy/busy toddler and school and lack of sleep from work.  It can just get crazy and demanding.  I'm surviving, but Brad unfortunately doesn't always come home to a happy/smiley wife.  Yesterday I told him that maybe we could have another child when Tacy is 10.  I understand why some people only have 1 kid and I'm constantly amazed by all the moms with multiple children.  

Tacy kept reaching over me to get popcorn instead of standing on the other side of me

As for Tacy, she is a little spitfire (thanks Grandma Taylor - she always told us that she hoped we had a spitfire).  Tacy runs around like a crazy kid, climbs on everything, keeps trying to climb over the couches (she fell yesterday over the back doing that) etc.  Busy busy busy.  I'm better at accepting that our place is just a mess of toys, random nick-nacks, paper, pens, etc until Tacy goes to bed.  I keep thinking "just keep swimming, just keep swimming" and having "Let it go" play through my head.  

morning hair

Tacy keeps learning new words which is so fun.  I swear she is always saying "bite".  She is such a bottomless pit sometimes.  She is good at saying please however we are trying to teach her that just saying "Please" doesn't mean she gets everything she asks for (like the tablet or our phones).  Brad and I tried putting lock screens on our phones.  It seemed like a smart idea.  Sometimes giving Tacy your phone is the only way she will hold still while changing her diaper.  Unfortunately the lock screen has an option for emergency calls.  Tacy called my parents a lot!  And Brad.  

However, she also called 911.  So much fun explaining to the operator that everything was fine and that my toddler was just playing with my phone.  Kaysville emergency response is really fast (good and bad)!  One night i was changing Tacy's diaper and she had my phone.  She likes to pretend call all the time, so it's hard to tell when she really has called someone (especially when she is good at preventing you from getting your phone back).  By the time I got my phone back from her I had a message from 911 asking me to call them back to let them know everything was ok and that they were sending officers over.  I called them back and as I was speaking to the operator the door bell rang and I got to talk to 2 officers.  Everyone was very nice and understanding.  But that took place in maybe 5 minutes.  

Other than 911 calls, Tacy is getting better at putting socks on her feet.  She can always get them on her big toes, but not always on the rest of her toes.  It is very cute to watch as she tries to mimic Brad and my actions of stretching out the sock over all the toes.

Tacy is obsessed with buckles.  She will stand and try to click together and undo buckles for a while.  So Brad went to DI, bought a lot of dollar fanny packs, cut off the buckles and attached them to a board for Tacy to play with.  She loves it.  She also likes dancing on it.

Brad's most recent project is fixing a jogging stroller.  We got a used one for free (it is very well used).  He just fixed all the tires last night (they all had at least 2 holes).  Now he is going to work on attaching new straps because it had none left on it.  Like I said, very used, but it was free.  He loves having little projects to keep his mind busy.

Tacy and I have been enjoying as much of the warm weather we get as we can.  She loves going outside!  Tacy now loves swinging, going down slides, and of course seeing all the animals.  Today she laughed so hard while touching a horse (she would only poke his nose with one finger but she thought it was so fun).  She really loves the chickens and is great at making chicken noises.  And she still loves all dogs.

Here is to hoping we get more warm weather with Spring just around the corner!

17 months and one tired mommy

I can hardly believe that Tacy is 17 months already!  It's crazy how fast time has gone.  Brad and I just went through a bunch of old Tacy clothes and seeing all her little 3-9 month clothes was crazy.  I keep looking at her and remembering what was happening a year ago - she couldn't even sit up alone last January.  

Tacy is one cute but crazy kid.  She loves climbing up on everything!  She can get pretty frustrated when she finds a piece of furniture that it so tall for her to climb up.  She is so funny to watch climbing up on things because she uses mostly her arms and belly to pull and wiggle her way up.  She lift a leg up for things that are to tall to just use her arms.  

Tacy continues to love to dance in her little circles.  She will put her arms behind her back and do a little spin.  If it's not that dance move she still does the bouncing squat.  So fun to watch, but still hard to try and get on camera.  

We are really trying to work on animal sounds with her.  Tacy has "meow" down.  Brad taught her cock-a-doodle-doo last Thursday, but since then she struggles to remember to say "doo-doo-do" when we ask what a rooster says.  Last night she was neighing like a horse.  But her go to sound for an animal is ding ding ding...thank you "what does the fox say".  Oh well, we are working on them.  She can Moo really good though even if she doesn't always remember that cows are the ones who moo.  

Tacy is also learning a few more words like cracker.  She also says a few more phrases like 'let's do it'.  She still understands a whole lot more then she speaks (in english anyways).  But she will carry on long conversations in baby gibberish.  

Tacy now will throw things away in the trash, which I love, except when she starts throwing away paper I actually want (like coupons).  However, she still loves to pull things out of the trash.  Brad caught her eating a reeses' wrapper the other day (the paper lining).   

Thank goodness Tacy loves bathes so much!  Sometimes she just will keep on playing when I tell her to come downstairs with me or come to her room, but if I say "lets go take a bath" she will stop what she is doing and hed straight for the bathroom.  She loves bath time!  

My crazy story of being a tired mommy:

So I work nights and during Christmas I was working full time hours.  I worked the 26,27, 29, and 30th.  So a crazy few days.  Well Friday morning (the 27th) I was exhausted.  I had fed Tacy and we had been playing but I fell asleep in a chair.  I don't even remember sitting in the chair.  But the next thing I knew I was awake in the chair and across the room Tacy was standing in the computer chair, dancing, laughing and having so much fun.  Vanilla wafers were all over the computer desk and the floor.  Tacy had chocolate all down her jammies and her face.  So much that was on the shelves around the computer was pulled out on the desk and floor.  Oh my goodness it was a mess.  Tacy had grabbed Brad's toblerone bar and eaten through the foil wrapper.  She ate the tops off almost all the pieces.  The thought in my head was "Oh crap".  I got up, grabbed Tacy and stripped her down, gave her a bath, and laid her down for a nap (because it had been 4 hours since she woke up by this time).  Then I tried to clean up the mess.  During this process Brad came home (he only worked a half day so I could get some sleep before going to work again).  Brad walked into the room and just started laughing.  Then he asked if I had taken a picture.  I hadn't.  Taking a picture was the last thing on my mind.  Brad told me to check my blood sugar and go sleep.  Turns out my BS was 50, so I was running low which on top of my lack of sleeping the night before probably caused my sudden loss of consciousness.  At least Brad was laughing even though the room was a mess and his chocolate was all eaten by Tacy.  Tacy had fun, Brad laughed, and I finally got some sleep and can laugh about it all now.  Now I am very sad I didn't get a picture.