Trying Something New

Lately I have been hearing a lot about how good spinach smoothies are. I'm no the hugest spinach fan so I was a little skeptical. But today i decided to try it and......I LOVED it!! I probably didn't put enough spinach because i was afraid it would taste gross but i honestly think there could have been more spinach in and it would have been good. With the spinach i used bananas, frozen strawberries, frozen blueberries, vanilla yogurt (nonfat) and water. It was a little runny so next time i won't put as much water in but it's definitely something i will make again!!

starting over

I've decided to try blogging again......A LOT has happened in the last year or so!! Just a quick overview: end of july 2010 the fam went to bear lake as per usual. August i moved back in with the parentals and started nursing school(this began the end of my social life, not that it was that great before.) December my second niece, Mckell, was born. January I turned 22 and began the semester from hell. Feb my third niece, Chloe, was born. March i went to the festival of colors with Shantel and had an absolute blast! May school was out and I was free!! I spent most of my summer just relaxing and recovering. July rolled around again and we went to bear lake and then august started school again. I am sure i'm missing out on many many things but that's the gist of things.

Like I said I started nursing school and am now into my third semester. School has been nuts for me. The last two semesters i didn't think i was going to make it through. There have been a lot of long tearful nights. I still haven't put in an IV but i have given many many shots and just recently put in my first catheter (on a female.) I have had such amazing experiences during clinicals. Some really make me want to finish school while others sort of make me want to run in the other direction. I have done most my clinicals on med/surg floors. I did one rotation in the ER and one in Labor and Delivery. Surprisingly i LOVED the ER. They said it was one of their slowest days and nothing exciting happened at all but i really liked the atmosphere there. All the doctors were super great and really seemed to listen to the nurses. Labor and Delivery was sort of boring for the first little while. The nurse i was following wasn't very talkative and she was only assigned to one patient. That patient was getting induced and had an epidural so there wasn't much nursing stuff to do. She never did deliver while i was there. I did get to see a c-section, and that was probably the coolest thing i have ever seen!! For some reason watching a baby be removed from someone made it all very real. It really made me think about the "miracle of life." It was definitely a great experience. I go to labor and delivery again tomorrow so hopefully i get to see a vaginal birth this time.:)

The newest event in my life has left me a little bit overwhelmed and shocked. I have been called as the relief society president in my singles ward. I have no clue what i'm doing or how i'm going to do it. I can't complain too much though because if i'm being completely honest I brought this on myself. It began the weekend of General Relief Society Conference. I was watching the program with my mom and i commented that i didn't understand why we had to have relief society and that sometimes i felt like it was redundant and pointless. I also may have mentioned that i hated visiting teaching. I didn't want people coming to visit me and i didn't really want to go and visit people i didn't know. HUGE HUGE mistake on my part. I feel like i need to insert here that i'm not an awful person, I'm happy to serve others. I just really like to keep to myself whenever possible. I'm not Miss Outgoing (another reason i probably got my calling) and visiting teaching makes me be that. As expected the Lord provided me with an opportunity to learn the reason for relief society.

The day i got the call i bawled the entire morning and then the rest of the week i went through the five stages of grief. First came denial-i kept thinking that this was all a horrible nightmare and that any second i would wake up. Eventually i realized it wasn't a dream and then came the second stage, anger. While i was never really angry I didn't understand what God was thinking putting me in as relief society president. I don't feel at all qualified. There are so many other sisters that would do so great in this calling. To me i have nothing to offer them. My second thought,i'm too busy! I'm working and trying to get good enough grades to graduate. I already felt overwhelmed and exhausted. This is when part of me felt like asking, how can you do this to me? Next was bargaining. I promised i'd go to all the activities i promised i'd do my visiting teaching, etc etc etc. Of course that did not work. The next stage would be depression and i wouldn't really say i was depressed just emotional. Last of all was acceptance. Finally i have accepted the fact that i am president and that i am there for a reason. I can sacrifice what i need to in order to serve the Lord.

I have prayed A LOT this last week and i have come to understand a few things. 1. the Lord won't let me drown in all that i have to do, He'll be there to support me the entire way. 2. I am where i'm suppose to be. I don't know why or what He has in store but i know it's right. 3. I don't need to know everything right now. Line upon line precep upon precep i will know what to do. 4. The Lord loves the girls in my ward and He wants me to help Him tell them that. I have no doubt that i'll have challenges. I know this is going to be hard and exhausting but i also know that it will be one of the best experiences of my life.

Saturday Night Movie

I saw despicable me on Saturday and LOVED it! It was such a cute movie.I highly recommend the movie for anyone that needs a laugh! I honestly havn't seen a good animated movie like this in a long time!(no i have not seen toy story 3, yet)I will warn you the movie's humor is more geared towards adults than kids but i do think kids would like it because of the cute minions, who are completely hilarious! There aren't any really scary parts so again it's very kid friendly :) It's definitly one of those movies i'll want to see again!

7/12/10

Today I had the lovely opportunity to experience a little piece of hell! Okay so maybe it wasn't that bad but today's insanity workout was intense!! I'm on my 5th week so I've started new dvds, which also means longer workouts. Today was only 15 minutes longer but it felt WAY longer!!! My muscles were so tired they were giving out on me! I honestly didn't think these workouts could get any harder but oh my goodness did they ever!! My entire body feels like it needs an ice bath!! Although it was hard, I did feel like I was able to push my self a little further. Cardio-wise i was great but it was my muscles that were just so fatigued! Once I returned from insanity I felt amazing and I realize this will all be worth it in the end. I just hope I can move enough to do tomorrow’s workout...

7/2/10

Todays workout was pure cardio and abs. This workout and I have a love/hate relationship! I LOVE how I feel afterwards but HATE the during. Pure cardio is just that for about 40min it's high intensity cardio. After I do about 15 minutes of ab work. For some reason today was especailly hard for me. I'm not sure why but I felt like I was going to die. I was tired after the warm up!! But I pushed through and feel great!! I am amazed at the increase of my energy since I've started this workout routine. Well tomorrow is plyometric so until tomorrow! :)

INSANITY

So I started this workout about 4 weeks ago and it has KICKED my butt!! The workout is 6 days a week and each are about 40 min. Most of it is cardio so the muscles i'm building are mostly lean muscles. It has been SUPER hard but totally worth it. I've lost about 6 pounds so far and havn't been in this kind of shape in a long time, if ever! Today is recovery day so it wasn't so bad. I've still got 5 weeks left and right now I'm thinking it'll never end but it's been really good for me so i'll keep going. I'll try to keep posting updates about my workouts.

Nurse Staci...Got a Nice Ring to it

I am happy to say that I GOT IN to the nursing program at UVU! I am so excited to get started. It is so nice to finally know what I'm going to do this fall! I have spent the last year bored out of my mind and now I finally get to start real studying again. I'm sure once I start I'll be begging for just a few hours of nothing to do. But for now I can't wait to start! I'm sure these next three years will go by in a blurr so I'll try to enjoy them the best I can. Thanks for everyone's support and prayers!