Graduation!!

After six years of college, I finally graduated:) Thanks to Troy's parents, Heather (plus James) and Troy for being there to cheer for me. I have to say that it was rather an anticlimactic event. I mean I enjoyed the ceremony and it was nice to walk across the stage to get my nursing pin and I did get slightly choked up as we walked in with everyone standing. However, I wish I was more excited about it. Maybe if I was actually getting a job or I didn't have to think about the NCLEX, I would feel like graduating was more significant. However, I did get to share this day with some of my favorite people and I'm grateful for their friendship and support during our 2.5 years of nursing school. We shared countless 6 am study sessions prior to tests, phone calls to check how our grades turned out, late nights doing care plans, plenty of frustrations but also hours of chatting and laughing, learning and accomplishing things and becoming great friends. 

Our study crew

Troy and Phil looking handsome

Christina and I plus two baby boys soon to arrive. Christina's due date is 2.5 weeks after mine:)

Amanda and I

Heather was a champion and endured the ceremony with her 14-month old son.

Unfortunately, the picture of Troy and I didn't turn out well and I didn't get a picture with Troy's parents.  We celebrated by going to Texas Roadhouse and eating Ben& Jerry's. Of course, I was ready to go to bed around 7 pm because the heat of the day just sucked all the energy out of me. I did stay up until 11 pm, so I wasn't completely lame college graduate:)

From One Pile of Books to Another One

So school is over. It was such a nice feeling to take the last final and realize that I wasn't going back in August for more. I know I will miss school eventually and I hope to go back in few years. However, studying is not over for me. Now I get to start studying for the national boards to prove that I know something about being a nurse:) 

These will be my books for the next 4-5 weeks

I also wanted to showcase the amount of books that I had to buy for just nursing school. This doesn't include few research books and ethics books that I gladly sold back the moment I was done with the classes. Also it does not include the books from the 96 credits that I have from Pima and BYU. The average book cost at least 50 bucks, so textbook companies sure have profited from my education:) Troy has refused to sell many of his books back because "he might want to read them later on". I find it interesting since 90% of the time he barely read them when he was actually taking the class;) I kept my nursing books since they are a good reference for later on and I actually have read them over and over again. What does everyone else do with their books?

Now we just hope that all of that information somehow made it to my brain and sticks there until I actually start practicing:)

How did I become "One of Those"?

I have become an one minded blogger---everything is about the pregnancy and while that will soon end, I feel like I need to branch out a little bit from the wonderful world of strollers and nursery colors plus weight gain issues. 

Troy has a new toy; a sweet Canon Rebel digital camera arrived few days ago to our home. The last toy he got was his iPhone, which I have named affectionately as his "mistress". We will go to bed and I think we are sweetly cuddling and going to sleep until I realize that he is watching a TV episode, playing a game or listening to an audiobook on his iPhone in the dark. So this new camera really is for both of us to capture the important events coming up; however, the truth is that it will most likely be way too fancy for my skill and patience. 

So as Troy took a break from studying and working this weekend, he played with his new toy and made a white chocolate raspberry cheesecake for Mother's Day. It was delicious and his pictures captured some of the details that our old camera wouldn't be able to.

I think this cheesecake will make an appearance at our future parties and I will not even tell you how many calories each slice has because you would eat one anyway and then feel guilty:)

What a Beautiful Day

Sometimes all you need is some special time with your husband and a change in your look to make you feel better. I have been feeling rather funky for the past week; kind of sick, not really sad but not happy either and this weekend helped me to feel more energized and excited about the following weeks. What a blessing it is to have a husband who tells me that he thinks I'm beautiful, even when my waistline is growing about one inch a week, though he does also tell me that my feet really stink and he would prefer not to have them on his lap while watching a movie:)

Six weeks until due date and six days until graduation! 

Sweetness of Lullabies

For the last day and a half, my house has been filled with lullabies from the CD "Baby Mine". I even listened to them as I went to sleep last night.  I love how my little guy responds to music. I am still amazed as I watch my belly move all over the place as he kicks and turns in there. My favorite is when Troy puts his face on my belly and gets a sweet kick in the face:) Last week, my friend surprised me with a ticket to Mamma Mia and my belly didn't stop moving for 2.5 hours. The musical was great, though I am such a wimp nowadays and staying up until 11 pm took all the energy out of me. The only other time that I stay up that late is when I get together with few of my girl friends and sew. A friend of mine (from school) couldn't help but to poke fun of me when I said that I didn't get home until midnight from my sewing group. Yes, I am quite the party animal now:)

Here is a picture of the nursery. We decided to go with two colors and do a chair rail to divide the colors. I love it. The green is pretty light, but I think it works well with the brown. Also I wanted to say thank you, thank you, thank you to all of my wonderful friends who came to the baby shower on Saturday. I'm sorry that I didn't even get to talk to most of you; however, your presence was noticed and so much appreciated. Thank you for spoiling my little boy:) And I do have to give a special shout out to Janae who wanted to make my first baby shower so special and fun! She sure succeeded!! Also thank you for those who sent presents even though you couldn't make the trip to Arizona:)

To highlight something non-related to baby, I am graduating in two and half weeks!! I have one last class on Friday and then just one final. I have to say that the fact that I am graduating and not looking for a job feels so weird. I know that it is the right thing to do to stay home for now; however, I can't help but to worry about much I will forget and if I will be able to be a competent nurse when I do look for jobs. There is so much I want to accomplish academically; I would love to become a nurse practitioner or a midwife(and in my wildest dreams, I would want to become a OB/GYN), BUT I also feel so strongly about being home with our children and want to have our children close together. I guess this is when I just have to trust that Heavenly Father will direct me in the way that He has planned for me. 

Wow, this post is pretty random and long; however, since this is my "journal", I want to make sure I keep a record of my thoughts as well as the events in my life. 

Comparison of the Baby Bumps

So I remember worrying about my "fat roll" at 17 weeks and debating if it was  baby belly or just belly. Now that I look back (why does this always happen with old pictures), I just cant believe that my belly was so small when it felt so big:)

Fast forward 14 weeks plus some days and here I am with 31+2 day belly. I am 40 inches around.  I am absolutely exhausted because I get up about 4-5 times a night to go to the bathroom. Also I can't sleep on my left side because it causes weird, sharp pain on top of my uterus, so I can only sleep on my right side since you aren't supposed to sleep on your back. I shouldn't complain though, since that is the only "pregnancy discomfort except for continuous calf cramps. And I do not even have kids to entertain and take care of during the day. After baby sitting for Monday morning, I have a new respect for moms with small kids who are pregnant! You guys are awesome.

I am ready for this little guy to come. It's not because I hate being pregnant; more so because four of my friends had their babies in the past week and I just want to be able to cuddle up with my little baby boy. And I am totally convinced that I will go past my due date since I want to do everything as natural as possible...

I Have Fallen in Love...

Our stroller is here. And how cute is my hubby as he was pushing an empty stroller from the store to the car:) As we were getting everything into our car, few older ladies walked by and gave us the "how adorable" look and smile as we excitedly tried to fit everything into our little Scion. I like it even better than I thought I would. So now we just need our little guy to come so we test drive it with a passenger:)