So where did I leave off last?

Oh yeah, nursing school.

I am officially a student nurse! (as of a week ago...)

I even have a badge to prove it!

So at first, I was like...

All Nemo-style.

But after I walked into my first class with a syllabus that was half-an-inch thick, I was feeling more...

ACK! (btw, picture from goofing off with Photo Booth, but it summed up my feelings perfectly.)

We've hit the ground running.

My buddy (from the class above ours) presented me with a nursing school survival kit.

 It included such essentials as:
-Airborne (bump up that Vitamin C)
-Goldfish crackers (because they are the snack that smiles back)
-Sour Patch Watermelons and Peanut M&Ms (because they're awesome)
-Monster (caffeine, for sure)
-Pencils (pens are verboten in skills lab)
-Notecards (for learnings, of course)
-and Purell. Because hand washing is the best way to prevent the spread of infection! (x infinity)

She also wrote a really sweet note. Definitely brought a smile to my face.

So, it has begun. We (as a family) have signed up for two and a half years of insanity, but it will be so, so worth it in the end.

In family news, little miss J can officially be called a toddler!! She took five consecutive steps yesterday.

She's been flirting with the walking idea for two months now, at least, but would take a step and then chicken out and drop to her knees (always with a huge smile as we would try and encourage her to take a few more steps). But yesterday, when I set her down on her feet, she stayed stable for a few minutes and then stepped cautiously toward me while I encouraged her. When she fell into my arms, she had the HUGEST smile as we all clapped for her. So stinking cute.

I can NOT believe she is turning a year next Thursday! The year has just flown on by, and I'm scrambling to plan a small family party for her. As long as there is cake, we're good, right?

Home again

Another successful long drive in the books! We're back home safe and sound and I am reunited with my babies and Michael. 

(Though I already really miss San Diego and my grandparents)

It was a really good trip overall. I was so lucky to be able to celebrate my grandfather's ninetieth birthday (with white wine, his favorite) and spend some quality time with both of them. 

I also managed to make it out to the marina on a run, after an emergency trip to an REI for a replacement sports bra! I love exploring on foot. 

Our hotel was so wonderful too. It was run by the sweetest couple, and the breakfast spread each morning was amazing. The history of the hotel was really interesting too! It was built in the 1930s, Art Deco style, and for a long time it was a rundown flophouse before the current proprietors renovated it completely. 

Best hotel I've ever stayed in because of the personal service. I told the proprietor I'd write a nice review for him on TripAdvisor!

Some neat sights (because I don't feel comfortable posting my family pictures on the interwebs)

Horses just hanging out in front of Murrieta's, where we went for dinner last night. 

This sculpture is titled "The Fisherman"

The trolley!

Down the street from our hotel. There seem to be palm readers all over San Diego area. My sister and I were tempted to stop in. 

The geese at my grandparents' house. They've had them as long as I can recall. 

So tomorrow our family is back to real life. I spent most of the evening cuddling with my little family, and tomorrow is my last free day before the first day of nursing school! Eeeeek! I have so many last minute to-dos, plus working on my organizational projects (in accordance with my New Year resolutions) and grocery shopping.

Good night!

Phew, another whirlwind day here down in San Diego! We're waking up super early tomorrow to get a jump on the road. I can not WAIT to get home and see Michael and the kids. I really really missed them. So, a brief rundown:

*went for a six mile run down to the marina.
*walked with my sister to one of the malls and bought actual makeup (?!)
*celebrated my grandfather's 90th birthday at a wine party
*went out for delicious Mexican and margaritas with my siblings and grandmother. I got the camarrones a la diabla and our margaritas all had extra "vitamins"

It was a good day! Off to bed. I'm going to probably write more extensively from the road tomorrow (gotta remember to charge my phone!)

Pop in...

to share something that I found funny.

You know how a lot of services use your browsing and usage history to show advertisements that are most likely applicable to that particular user? 

I know Pandora is one, and I use it a lot, but especially at night when I'm putting the baby to bed. She likes to hear some soft lullabies, so I had the station still set to "Rockabye Baby" when I started running on the treadmill the next morning. I switched it to the Pitbull station, since it's pretty high energy music, and it immediately showed an ad for Plan B contraceptive.

It amused me because it struck me as a judge-y move. Are they saying that I have bad taste in music and should refrain from procreating further? Or that Pitbull listeners use that on the reg?

Oh, Pandora.

On the road

(I wrote this throughout the long day on little sleep so if it's disjointed, I'm sorry. Perfect to link up with Thinking Out Loud Thursday?)

I love the advent of smartphones. For the first time ever, in the many times that I've made the twelve hour road trip from Redding to San Diego, I can blog and internet (it's a verb, k) from I-5. Amazing.

Though I added the images with Ziggy. The handlink can't handle it.

It has been a long day so far. I got off work a little late and started packing and preparing to leave at five am today. Solid three hours of sleep there, heh, but I had to finish it up because I wasn't able to earlier due to my back-to-back-to-back twelves.

Got 'er done, Whirlwind style!

So at 0500, I said goodbye to Michael and the kiddos (still can't believe that I'm leaving my little Julianna overnight for the first time!) and my sister and I headed out to Sacramento to meet up with our brother. 

I've overly caffeinated myself. My brain is going bzz-bzz-bzz rather than settling down, so blogging it is to spend the time!

We just passed Santa Nella and Pea Soup Andersen's. No stopping at this time (we're trying to make it through LA before peak traffic time) but I hope that we will stop on the way back and recreate a childhood photo op.

Thanks to the Google and their website, I figured out why we probably would have stopped as children: the founders were Danish!

Speaking of my Danish heritage, my mom gifted me my nursing school shoes for Christmas, and I just got them yesterday. They're Danskos, which, as my grandmother informed me, is a portmanteau of "Dansk" for Danish and "sko" for shoe. Literally, Danish Shoes.

They are also really really ugly, but kinda cute in their ugliness? If I start a blog called "Scrub Fashion" (a fashion blog for medical personnel that have to wear scrubs to work?), I think these will be my first purchase:

Or pretty much any other pair besides boring black.

Adding to this entry later:

So I finally fell asleep for a short while, and a long time later, we finally arrived! Phew. Long long drive. The San Joaquin Valley is not known for scenery, but I liked seeing all the little baby cows running around.

However, we finally arrived at my grandparents' house, and saw them for the first time in 2.5 years. Grandma, my siblings and I went out for dinner and reconnected. It was wonderful to see them again, although I'm really missing my kids. I wondering how my little girl is faring without me. Daddy sent me this picture to tell me everything:

Yeah, I think she'll be okay.

Night!

New Year, New Me

"Hey y'all! I haven't seen you since last year!"

That's my very favorite way to greet people on New Year's Day. I get some people chuckling and other people shaking their head. I'm okay with that.

I'm also a sucker for the fresh new start feel of a fledgling New Year.  Everything just feels so fresh and so clean clean, and this January is full of excitement.

Tomorrow, I am heading down south on an impromptu road trip with my brother and sister to San Diego to visit our grandparents. It's not for the happiest reason, but I'm very happy to have this opportunity to spend some time with them. I'm a little anxious about it because I'm leaving the baby overnight for the first time, but overall, I think it will be okay!

Then right after I get back, school starts up again for everyone, which means that I'm FINALLY IN NURSING SCHOOL!! So sorry, I had to use the Caps Lock shortcut for awesome because I am so so  grateful to finally be beginning nursing school. It's been in the works for a long time.

And as the end of January approaches, my little girl is going to have her very first birthday. I can't believe that it's already been a year! It seems like such a long time and also no time at all simultaneously. I need to start planning her party ASAP. I know it's going to be a small family shindig, so no stress. We just need a smash cake :)

So I've made about a billion New Year's Resolutions this year. I always want to be the best version of myself and never stop improving (like the Home Depot). In fact, I'm fulfilling one right now, since I'm taking the time to sit down and write whatever I feel like. Even though it's been a crazy crazy few days in the ER, I'm insisting on taking my breaks and having a little me time to write.

My timer just went off, so I'm headed back to the floor. Only a few more hours left!