Monkey See, Monkey Do

Liam loves to teach Izzy things. And she loves to learn and do 'big kid' things as well. Trying to ride the scooter is a good example. She looked too cute trying to ride it like a big girl.

Unfortunately, the things he teaches, aren't always good. ;) Jumping on the bed, for example.

"Come Izzy, JUMP!"

At least they were having a good time, right? That's what big cousins are for, I guess.

Hopscotch

Liam has recently really gotten into playing games with other kids. He's been learning all sorts of new games at school, games that Wes and I played as children: Duck, Duck, Goose; London Bridge; Ring Around the Rosies; Shark Man (this is a newer game); freeze dance; freeze tag, etc. His favorite game has been hopscotch. Now that we've been outside more, he's been able to play it more. He is finally getting the hang of hopping on one foot. He still doesn't quite have it all down, but he's getting there. He looks so cute concentrating so hard on doing it right.

Little Old Ladies

I thought it was time for a little 'knitting update.' We have been busy! We decided to expand our horizons from dish rags, and now we are on to a new project. The story is pretty funny and Erica did a fabulous job recounting the experience, so I stole her post from her blog. So this is the story of the beginning of our blankets in her words.


I have mentioned before that my friend, Holly, taught me how to knit. We had just been knitting dish rags but Holly called one day and asked what our next project should be. She had found a pattern for a blanket and thought we should give it a try. They were over to our house one evening and we decided to go and get our supplies so we could get started and figure out if we would be able to do it or not. We left the hubbies with the kiddos and set out on what we thought would be a short shopping trip at Michael's.

We got to Michael's, pattern in hand, and started searching for the brand and type of yarn they recommended. We found the brand and then tried to determine what constituted "one ball" of yarn. We had no idea. We found some yarn that looked like it might be what we were looking for and it looked about the size of a "ball" to us so we then spent probably the next 30 minutes or so trying to decide what colors we wanted to go with, double checking dye lots to make sure our yarn matched and then second guessing ourselves a gazillion times. We finally decided on our blankets and bought our supplies.

I happened to be short one color for my blanket so we decided that we would run up the hill to Wal Mart really quickly and see if they had what I was looking for. We got there and walked in to see none of the yarn we had just chosen. There was the same brand but it was in bigger packages (if someone knows what a bundle of yarn is called I would be interested to know.) and a different texture, I guess you would call it. Upon further examination we discovered that this was the exact yarn they suggested in the pattern. We then stood there for awhile trying to decide if we should go with what they recommended or if we could make our yarn work. We decided that as novices it would probably be best to go with what the pattern suggested. Plus the yarn we bought at Michael's was in much smaller packages and we would have needed twice what we had already bought. With that decision made we started our process all over again and spent another long while trying to pick out colors, match dye lots and plan out our blankets. I was still short a color however, as this Wal Mart did not have enough.

We decided we had better go home and feed our families and then we would venture out again since the area boasts a total of 5 Wal Marts. We thought surely we could find what we were looking for. Our husbands were a little shocked that we would have to go out again considering how long we had already been gone, it was just yarn after all. We ate and left on the rest of our search, and believe me, we were fully prepared to visit the 4 remaining Wal Marts if that is what it took. We lucked out though and were able to find the color I needed at our first stop and back home we went to start our blanket.

When we got back to the house we dumped out our yarn to see where we needed to start. It was quite the sight and the hubbies got a good laugh at our expense. We had a good time though and that is all that matters right? That and we are going to have fantastic blankets when all is said and done!

Adding, we actually, obviously, don't need all this yard for our projects. The pictures has both stores worth of yarn purchases. haha. And the explanation of the title is that Jake and Wes think we are little old ladies with our knitting needles and yarn. Oh well, we don't care. We're having fun, old ladish or not.

Father and Sons Campout

This was Liam's first year on our Ward's Annual Father and Sons Campout. Wes and Liam went with Jake and Ethan and they had great time. I was a little worried because of our unsuccessful camping attempts last year, but everything went well.

Here's the crew on their way! Excited Boys!

I stole some of these photos from Erica, but this one is so funny, because if you enlarge it you can see the worried look on Ethan's face.

I think this is such a cute photo. The look like they are having such a good time. :)Enjoying breakfast together.And Jake with Erica's poor muddy car. :( I think she made him wash it though. At least they had fun driving through the mud, right, Erica? ;)

Happy Boy

Liam found a stick, put on his rubber boots, and set out to find the 'Island of Sodor' (those of you who have kids who love Thomas the Train will know what that is) in our backyard. I love watching his creative little mind at work.

Creativity and imagination has definitely been his theme lately. Every object has at least 27829478957 different uses and jobs. For example, the tennis racket can become an ice cream cone. Who knew? And did you know that there are giants lining the streets? No worries, they are nice giants. What about the rocket ships in the sky? We keep our eyes out for those constantly.

He's also very inquisitive. We have a nest in our backyard with a robin and her babies. He loves to watch her out the window and see her find food and fly it up to her nest to feed her babies. It's been really neat to watch him and see how interested and concerned he is for the mama bird.

I'm so blessed that I have such a happy, free-spirited little boy. :)

Wiped Out

Yes, I know. I'm way out of order on my blogging. My camera has been uploading pictures weirdly, so I lose them and then find them later. These are some cute pictures of Liam after his first day of school. He never falls asleep like this, so I had to take a pic, plus he looked so cute. :)

You can almost see the drool. haha.

Moving Forward!

I'm officially a Level III Nursing Student! Most people say if you finish and pass Level II, you pretty much have passed nursing school because it's supposed to be the most difficult semester. Not only did I pass, but I got straight A's! I was proud of myself for finishing the hardest semester of my life and doing it well. It's kind of funny that I've gotten my best grades in my hardest semester.

I ended the semester with my Maternal-Child Rotation. I had a really enjoyable clinical experience, but it was interesting to say the least. I loved NICU, postpartum, and Newborn Nursery. I didn't love my L&D experience, but I had some interesting preceptor RNs that tainted the experience. I'm not giving up on that dream because of a few bad nurses, though!
This is a picture of our second rotation Level II clinical group with our instructor who is a CNM (Certified Nurse Midwife) like I am hoping to become.

So, what now, you ask? I started Level III and we are all over the place during this rotation because it is community and mental health combined. For the first half of the summer, I am doing hospice care with Circle of Life hospice agency. We go on home visits to care for patients that are in the last 6 months of their lives. I had my first day last week and it was so much more than I expected. I really enjoyed my experience and the veil to Heaven seemed very thin. It is very much an honor to care patients in such an intimate, personal, and difficult time in their lives. It is also just as much about caring for the family as it is caring for the patient.

Then we are also doing home visits in a retirement community on one other day of the week. I have my first visit this week and I'm really looking forward to it.

The second half of the summer I'll be at a Pediatric and Adolescent Mental Health Facility. I'm really excited to work with this population. It should be interesting.

And, last but definitely not least, I was hired as a Student Nurse Intern at a local hospital! I'll be working one, 12 hour shift per week. I work under an RN, but do most of his/her duties with his/her supervision. It will be GREAT experience and will make the transition to RN after graduation go much more smoothly. The program lasts until graduation and for the first half we get to work on a different unit each week. After that, we talk with our preceptors and figure out which floor would be the best fit for us to finish out the program on. The best part of this is that I'll already be employed by this hospital and so the chances that I will get hired on as an RN after graduation go up! Our school workload has decreased to 4 days a week, so it won't even cut too much into our family time.

Things are moving along and time is flying! December 4th (convocation) and December 5th (graduation) will be here before we know it!