Family

Family, I think, is one of God's greatest blessings to us. A family loves, supports, encourages, uplifts, comforts and inspires. Families are strong, unique and individual. No one family is ever perfect, mine is far from it, but even though tarnished by sin, we are still a family. My crazy brothers, my amazing parents and each of my aunts and uncles, cousins and dear grandparents. Some are near, some are far, but no matter the distance, we are a family! :)

In May, the whole troop packed up good ole' Harvey (our massive outdated, cumbersome van) and make the 16 hour, 1000 mile (give or take) drive from Iowa to Ontario, Ca. Yup, Dad's Canadian :) For the first time in *years* all of my dad's siblings were together, in the same place, at the same time. Amazing. My favorite night of the entire week's trip. We got pictures. Pictures of the sisters of the family, the brothers, the siblings together and then added the spouses. I think I was the most excited about this rare opportunity to photograph a memory as we are all separated by so many miles
.

All of my dad's siblings. They are standing in order starting with Aunt Ann on the left, then Aunt Audrey, Uncle Andy, Uncle Henk, Aunt Diane, my dad and Uncle Pete.

The three ladies of the family.

There is never a dull moment :)

Better. :) The men.

The spouses included.

Not only did my dad's family get together this summer, but my mom's family did too! My grandparents 50th wedding anniversary is coming up next month and to celebrate, my mom's entire family got together in Sioux Falls and spent 2 nights in a fabulous hotel together. We played games, swam in the 3 foot pool, biked the Sioux Falls bike trail (well part of the 20 miles of it), we shopped, we watched movies and we sat around the bonfire. To top it all off, we had a delicious dinner at a steakhouse in Renner (I'm not sure this little town would even make the map).  I managed to capture a few of the fun memories we made during this weekend.

My momma and Amy enjoying the beautiful summer sun.

Dad, Tanner, Jonathan and David waiting for cake!

It was miss Tara-bara's birthday the first day we were at the hotel. We got to watch her open presents and enjoy cake!

Squinkies!

David and Riley

Grandpa is always supervising :)

Oh so typical...

Tanner and David, impossible to get a normal picture outa these two...

Gotcha :)

Happy 50th Anniversary Grandpa and Grandma!! :)

Most of the grandkids

Aunt Robin and her little ladies-Ellie and Emma

Heather and I

Love this kid. Still my bud even though hes 15 *I mean 10*

"And you shall rejoice in all the good that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house, you, and the Levite, and the sojourner who is among you" Duet. 26:11 (ESV). 

It's about time!

Oh my goodness, I haven't posted since November? Not good. So much has changed in the past 6 months! Where do I even begin?

I have gotten quite used to and have come to love living on my own, and I just love living in Sioux Falls! The convenience of being so close to work, the mall, Scheels and just being in a bigger city has been wonderful. My apartment has become so "homey" as the result of many trips to Hobby Lobby, Target and Gordmans. These trips have produced many creative juices from my momma and I (which neither of us knew even existed).  The result? A cute photo-shelve-vintage looking frame plus home-made vases arrangement on a very lonely and very white wall space.  The creative juices even produced curtains! We made (yes you heard me) we *made* curtains! And we were incredibly proud of ourselves! These burgundy colored curtains match my bedspread perfectly and added a wonderful pop of color to the room. So fun!

These bookshelves were an adventure to build, but thanks to the help of friends, we got them up!

This was a fun project with my mom. It started with a 45 minute rushed trip to Hobby Lobby before it closed and this was the result!

Thank you Target for this adorable cubby and baskets!

As for work, I have been a pediatric nurse for officially 6 or 7 weeks now. I can't even remember when I actually started on pediatrics but I absolutely love it. I can't even begin to explain how much I love my job. Sure, there are still crazy days and stressful days and although it can be emotionally tolling at times, I love what I do. Most every day I leave work after a long day and my heart is smiling because I love my job :) Who wouldn't smile if they got to wear Curious George scrub tops to work every day and cuddle little kiddos for their job?! What an amazing thing that is!

Love these :)

School is going well. I have the summer off and start again in August and then in December I will (finally) graduate! I would say after 6 1/2 years of school this is going to be an accomplishment worth a drive to Iowa City to walk across that stage and receive the much deserved and anticipated diploma. Now, if only December would come quickly, before my brain completely shuts off towards everything and anything school related.

Blessings!

City life

Wow, so much has happened in the last few months, I don't even know where to start! We could maybe start where I left off a few months ago. It is a well known fact by now that I've accepted a position at Avera McKennan in Sioux Falls on the ortho unit. As I wrote about in my last post it was a "part-time" position, however after being on the floor for a week that was changed to "full-time"... eek! Work has been going great though! Busy? Yes. But its so much more than busy, its overwhelming, scary, exhausting, exciting, rewarding, frustrating and so many other things. But do I absolutely LOVE what I do? Definitely. Once I am able to put aside those other things, I come home exhausted but joyful and thankful for where God has placed me at this time in my life. I love my co-workers, my boss and the learning experiences that I have every time I walk through those doors. I just hope the stress goes away in time... which, I'm told it will, so we will see. =]


This week is the beginning of week 7 on the floor. Week 7 out of 12 for the number of weeks I get for orientation. 7 already?! That's only 5 more of orientation and then I have to do this by myself?! Oof. One day, one week at a time. I had been driving back and forth from Sioux Center 3 days a week, and lets just say that after a 13 hour shift, an hour and 15 minute drive is the last thing that I want to do. Not to mention the getting up at 4:30am to get to work on time in the mornings. I'm a morning person, really.... (not). After about 4-5 weeks of that dad and I went apartment shopping! After a long exhausting day, we accepted the fact that living in an apartment is not going to be cheap, and picked an apartment complex that is less than 10 minutes from work. Lovely! And its on a snow route, so I won't have any excuses for not getting to work in the dead of winter- bummer. =]

Its a lovely little apartment, much needing of some decorating skills but fun none-the-less. Its a one bedroom apartment furnished with my $1 couch, free recliner, free table and chairs, $1 coffee table, $20 bedroom set and my mismatched dishes and kitchen necessities. Fun right?! Moving day happened on a Saturday a week and 2 days ago. Thankfully I have a first floor apartment with a patio door making move-in a piece of cake. Dad, Jonathan, David and Mom were my moving crew and while the boys unloaded the big things, mom and I unpacked all the boxes and tried to figure out where to put all the things in my kitchen. It was quite fun =]

Hows living by myself? Well, its lonely at times, incredibly quiet, but I like it, I do! The first night alone here was strange and bittersweet. When my family all left around 7pm, I sat in the middle of my living room (which by the way is dark because I have yet to buy lamps for it) and didn't know what to do. I went to bed. Why not? I didn't have internet yet, so I couldn't do homework, I don't have TV channels because I don't want to pay for cable and I wasn't in the mood for watching a movie by myself so I went to bed. (It's gotten better since that night).

So that's the scoop! Life is busy, but fun. =] I've learned to NOT go shopping for groceries or to Walmart on Saturdays (unless you want a headache). Back to the homework for today and to another stressful day at work tomorrow.

Life is changing... all at once!

I am truly astounded at how God works- in the way that He knows is best. I had an interview for a job at Avera McKennan in Sioux Falls about a month ago. I figured they would let me know either way within 2 weeks, but after almost 4 and I still hadn't heard anything, I pretty well had given up. A friend suggested I call HR just to show I'm still interested and find out if the position is already filled. I put that off because my mom and I were heading out to Iowa City for orientation for my RN-BSN program through the University of Iowa. After a full day of shopping followed by a very full day of orientation classes and an overwhelming amount of information we headed back towards the other side of the state. My mom and I talked about how maybe it will be best if I don't get this full time job at this point because with school starting it would be good to be a little less busy and have more time to figure out this school thing first rather than having to figure out school plus a brand new full time job. Well we got home at about 11:30 that evening and I went straight to bed, I was exhausted. I was planning on calling HR at Avera the next morning when I got up. However, much to my surprise, my phone rang at 9:00am with the area code for Sioux Falls. "Serious?! Are they really finally calling me? After I had practically given up on this job and had accepted waiting for the next one?"  I answered and got a very cheerful "good morning" from the lady on the other side. Essentially what it boiled down to was they were offering me a job- not quite full time (which was perfect) but it still offered the same benefits as if it were full time. I mean really?! Talk about all this happening at one time!

Trust. That is my day to day struggle. Trust.

Where has this summer gone?!

Can you believe it?! It's already July 19... incredible. I think the "older" I get, the faster time seems to fly. Ridiculous. Summer has been a conglomeration of events that have all kind of merged from one to the next. Graduation happened OH so long ago, then came the NCLEX stresser *passed=RN (its about time)* not to mention the 40+ hours a week at the nursing home (which is totally NOT a bad thing) woof, no wonder it's already the middle of July!

The official acceptance letter into the University of Iowa's College of Nursing for the online RN-BSN program has been in my hands for almost 3 weeks now which caused some stress. I am NOT a fan of the unknown, it stresses me out. I like to know exactly what is going to happen, how its going to happen and when its all going to happen. Thankfully I have a face to face orientation in Iowa City on August 11 *um, yup thats a 6 hour drive from home for an /entire/ day of orientation "stuff"* However, its a mom and daughter date opportunity, and I am quite looking forward to seeing the campus, buying some t-shirts that sport the Hawkeye logo and getting some answers to my hundreds  try thousands perhaps of questions. Not to mention the entire day before filled with SHOPPING! =]

Hmm, what else has this summer included? I trip to the zoo, a week with the cousins, surviving desert heat in Iowa, seeing friends, having barbeques, going to weddings, visiting with friends from afar (soon!) and oh, did I mention living at work? Hey, at least I'm making money and have a "full-time" job... which I'm pretty sure is a good thing. =]
Things I should be doing instead of blogging:
Cleaning up my room- I honestly hate it when it's a mess, but I can tear myself off of my bed at this point 1. (5am this morning is kicking my butt- and I have a fun night ahead of me and yet another 5am morning just around the corner- yuck)
2. Helping my mom upstairs- I'm really not that bad at it (but when you don't eat with the family--do you really need to help clean up?-- Ok, ok, I'm going... right after this blog is done (promise). )
3. Make my bed- I absolutely dislike a messy bed- ugh.
4. Find some motivation to print my pictures and get them into photo albums- I'm really not that far behind at all-thanks mom- but keeping up is the trick.

I'm sure I could continue this list... but I'm off to a night with friends.
Blessings.

Prayers

I write tonight asking that many prayers are said in the next weeks for my Aunt Cindy as she and Uncle Kyle head out on a trip to the east coast searching for answers and relief from the chronic pain that Cindy has been experiencing for too long. It's so easy to take life for granted- the little things like attending worship with the body of Christ every week, attending sporting events, the ability to work and even the chance to just sit and play a game with those that you love the most. Perspective is such a huge thing, and it really needs to be a day to day reminder for all of us- not to forget to thank God for the little things.

~To Cindy- you are so loved, and you have an amazing support group of loved ones behind you every step of the way. There isn't a day that you are not in the thoughts and prayers of many of your brothers and sisters in Christ.
~To Kyle the wonderful husband and father- you amaze me in how strong you are, how organized and how incredibly loving. God truly knew what he was doing when he planned for you to be Cindy's husband forever. What an amazing father and role model you are to your children and to all those who are impacted by your loving support and leadership you show to your family every day.
~To the kids- Tanner, Kylie, Riley and Tara--we know this is hard, we know that you don't understand why your mom can't be free from the pain that she has, why she can't just get better. But God is good, and he hears the prayers of his people.
~To everyone else who loves you- keep the prayers coming- our God hears and answers those who call upon His glorious name.

*1 Kings 8:28 "Yet give attention to your servant’s prayer and his plea for mercy, LORD my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence this day" (NIV).

*Psalm 17:6 "I call on you, my God, for you will answer me; turn your ear to me and hear my prayer" (NIV).

*Psalm 54:2 "Hear my prayer, O God; listen to the words of my mouth" (NIV)

*Psalm 65 "Praise awaits you, our God, in Zion; to you our vows will be fulfilled. You who answer prayer, to you all people will come" (NIV).

*Psalm 66: 18-20 "If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; but God has surely listened and has heard my prayer. Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me!" (NIV) 

Life. Without school

It's strange really, finding myself bored enjoying my free time to spend doing what I like! Graduation came and went so quickly it almost doesn't seem real. It's taken nearly 2 weeks for it to all sink in- we're done, graduated, school's over, there is no homework for an entire summer, lovely. =]

We didn't think we were going to make it to the end....

My mom was my graduation day support =]
Thanks for sitting through such a long day for me!

....but we most definitely did!

I love having time to watch David play soccer! [He's on the left]

Our garden adventure:: Dad didn't want us tilling up his backyard,
so we meandered over to Jonathan's-just down the street,
and found the perfect garden spot!

We let dad do the hard work!

Painting the outline of the garden, so we knew where to cut the grass.

Sodding (?) the garden! Whatever it's
called to cut the sod for the garden ;]- [lets
not get too technical now]

Finished sodding (just go with it)....

Now to haul those heavy suckers to the truck! Thank goodness for brothers =]

He looks thrilled doesn't he? ;]

Ready to plant!!

I've even found time to spend with my little friends!

Love this little guy =]

Yup, he's got two older sisters ;]

 I just LOVE summer!