Nursing School

Well, I am one week, two assignments and two finals away from finishing a Registered Nurse Program. It has been a LONG road. I decided I wanted to be a nurse in the fall of 2002, yes, that was almost 17 years ago! Then, life happened and just kept going. I put school on hold for so many other things--saving money to go back, getting married, changing jobs, and most importantly--having four darling children.

Three years ago, I felt strongly that it was time to go back to school. It has been an emotional roller coaster, for sure! I am so grateful to be this close to the finish line! I feel I am now walking proof that if you keep doing your best and never give up on your dreams--eventually they do come true. You just have to be patient and keep putting one foot in front of the other. 

My pinning is in a week and a couple days. My class wants a prayer, so I get to be the one to offer the prayer. I feel weird about pre-preparing a prayer to offer... but I have written down what is in my heart. Now I just need to edit it and shorten it a little. I will share my nursing student prayer in a separate post.

Never Give Up!

Well, I am ashamed I have gone a whole year without posting a single thing.
I will admit: I am better at typing than I was a year ago.
I am in my second semester of nursing school. Last semester I typed my very first 17 page paper. I have struggled with typing since I lost feeling and some movement in my left fingers, (fall 2010). It has been a long struggle. I think I am finally figuring out how to maneuver my fingers on a key board and bumping minimal extra keys! Yay!!!

Last semester, my first semester of nursing school, the focus was on the Fundamentals of Nursing and the Nursing Process. I practiced assessing people a lot. This semester I started my clinical rotations at the hospital. I thought I was pretty fast at assessing a patient. I shadowed a nurse last Saturday and realized I am as slow as cold tar in the middle of winter in Wisconsin. I need more practice! I also realized how nice it would be to have feeling in both of my hands... that is worth a prayer and some faith. :) I know miracles can happen! It truly is a miracle that I am still alive.

My point to this post is a reminder to never give up! I gave up typing for a while, but when I rallied and worked at it a lot, the skill is finally getting easier and coming back to me! After 15 years of dreaming of becoming a nurse, I am finally in a program! I almost gave up. I am so grateful I am married to a wonderful man who sometimes picks me up, puts me back on my feet, and encourages me to keep going. Life is a learning process. It is important to never give up!

The Power of Prayer

This evening Ryan and I took the kids to move 16 large metal panels (they kind of make a quick, easy, and mobile fence wherever you align and build them...) from one location to another. We had all of them loaded in a trailer, them preceded to set them tightly side by side. This way, Ryan could use a fork lift attachment on a tractor to pick up all of them and move them at one time. That was the original plan... So, we put them all nicely together, then Ryan turned to me and said, "Hun, can you hold these while I go and grab the tractor?"
I replied, "sure!"
I proceeded to the center of the stack of panels, got what I thought was a good hold, then Ryan let go and walked off. As he let go, the weight forced me into a sitting position on the side of the dump trailer. After a few minutes my arms started shaking because the weight was so great, and Ryan still had not yet started the tracter. Around the time I heard the tractor finally start, I started really wondering if I would be able to hold the load until he got there, because I could hear him having tracter issues. Well, I bent one arm and started using my back, but it didn't last long. I started praying at the beginning of this experience, and asking for additional strength to hold this. I kept telling myself I am strong, I can do this, Ryan will be here soon! After a while I realized I would not be able to hold the weight because the tracter was taking too long. I just prayed that I would be okay... I knew I could not bail out of the dump trailer and the only option was to let them crash on my pregnant body. I am still not sure how it happened, but as I felt my body give out totally, my left arm got pinched/caught between a couple of the top panels, and the panels firmly pinned me to the side of the trailer right between my lower hips... Just below where my baby is. I don't think it could have landed any lower than it did because I was so far down holding the panels to being with. If it had been any higher, it would have hurt my baby. If my arm had not been caught in the upper panels, I would have been hanging off the side so much that I would have pulled muscles. I screamed for Ryan and he came running over. He lifted up the panels and helped me out, then made sure I was okay. I was startled, but I know that Heavenly Father heard my prayers and somehow helped me tangle up just right to keep myself and my little baby safe in that situation tonight. I am so grateful for the knowledge I have of prayer. I find great peace of mind in my life knowing that I have a Father in Heaven who knows me, listens to me, and loves me! Thank you dear Lord for helping me so much tonight!

Our Foreign Exchange Student

Well we had a foreign exchange student for about two weeks. He just went home last Saturday. We had him from August 13-25th. We were supposed to get him on the twelfth, but his flight was delayed. He was a fourteen year old boy from Japan. It was an interesting experience. I now know how to make Miso Soup (a simple soybean based soup that Japanese people eat for breakfast). If you want the recipe I used, click here. My student's name was Reo. He and one of his Japanese friends ate some, they liked it and said it tasted pretty close to what they eat in Japan.
While he was here Ryan took him boating at the local Sandy Reservoir--He LOVED that. I got a "Thank you" phone call around eleven o'clock that night from Japan. His "Auntie" called to tell me they were really nervous to send him, and they were so happy to hear that he was placed in a good home. We also spent one of the weekend nights up on Kolob Mountain at my husband's family cabin. We repaired fences on our farm one night (the boys kicked around a ball while I helped Ryan). Ryan also took Reo to play indoor soccer one night (Reo is in a soccer club in Japan). We made a few trips to Walmart, he LOVED jumping on the trampoline with my two little boys. One night they got out the hose and soaked each other all over. Brycen kept spraying Reo (which Brycen usually does to Tucker), so Reo took the hose and SPRAYED Brycen back. It was about time fro Brycen to have an "older brother" figure pick on him a little for a minute. All in all, it was a pretty neat experience. I am not sure if I would do it again, if I do, I think I will ask for a girl (just to spice things up a little more). . .

Facebook

Over the last year to year and a half I have started thinking that maybe I should get a Facebook account. I have put it off because computer activities are toward the bottom of my totem pole of priorities. Well, I am in charge of my twenty year reunion, in nine more years. Today I decided is the day to get an account. I believe Facebook will be a useful tool in my life, so I have finally "bitten the dust".

For those of you interested look for me on Facebook now. :)

Cleaning our "Farm"

 In my previous post I mentioned that my husband and I made a recent purchase of some land. We bought about ten acres of land south of the town we live in. While we were in the process of the purchase, my husband showed me the land twice. . . at dusk. He also mentioned there were a few animal carcases on the property. So, the day we closed I finally saw it in day light. A few was an UNDERSTATEMENT. There were probably thirty to forty animal carcasses in one area. Mostly sheep, there were also a few calves and I even found remains of a couple of coyotes and I think someones pet dog.

After the purchase it took us a few days to come up with the best plan for the dead animals. We decided to spread them out and till them in. The day came, Ryan spread them out with a tractor and then took the kids for a tractor ride on the other side of the "farm". While they were gone I cleaned up all the garbage so we could disc the ground. Among all the garbage there was a lot of bailing twine. Some of it was buried, so I had to pull a little harder. This is what came with the twine (enough times that I finally thought, "this is gross, I should take a picture to remember this grossness!")

 
 Most everything was decayed enough that the smell was not too bad. There were a couple of times I saw a plastic ear tag on a calf, so I went to pick it up to throw it away and the dried up ear came with the tag.

All in all, ti was a disgusting, but successful day of work. Ryan and my dad went out a couple days after that and disced/plowed everything in. It is a nice dirt patch now. :)

We tell our kids that Grandpa Bramall has a big farm, and we have a really little one now.

Our next adventure will be putting up a fence once we have enough money saved to buy the materials. I'll keep you posted.