My Americorp stuff.

I am on a service learning scholarship through Americorp which requires me to do volunteering related to medical stuff. Its cool cause I pretty much get paid to sit in class and go to clinicals and only had to find a few hours of my own stuff to do. I have done two triathlons out at Sandhollow State park, and recently the senior games. I LOVED the senior games. I watched old people play volleyball, basketball, softball, raquetball, and a small triathlon. I was totally inspired. I am not the most active person right now but watching them do things that I could probably not do really put me in my place. There was this one lady that had metastatic breast cancer and should have died. But she miraculously recovered and is now playing volley ball. She is so happy and loving life and is really good at volley ball. She had a real long talk with me and told me I was going to make a great nurse, I really can't put into workds what she told me and how it made me feel but it was amazing. I spent 45-50 hours working as medical support for these different sporting events and never came across one ornery old person. I realized that its because they are active and have a sport that they love so they are having fun with life. Instead of sitting at home bored and lonely and getting grumpier every day. It was amazing to watch these old men that were 70 plus play volley ball. They could hardly walk or stand up straight so I was a little worried. But as soon as they got out on the court they started moving and jumping higher than I ever could and played a wicked game. Wow!! Here are some pics.

Lets get you up to date...

Sorry I haven't posted anything for so long. I have been overwhelmed with school, work, and other normal motherly things in life. But know that my twice a week night clinical shifts are over and the Senior Games are done I have a bit more free time (if thats what you call it). So here are a few pics of things that have gone on over the last little bit. I thought there would be more stuff but I guess I was also slacking in the picture taking department as well.
Ellie, Ava and Ashlee on their way to preschool. I car pool with these two moms and this was my first day taking all 3 of them to school, it was fun to have all of them.

For my dads 50th birthday in Aug, we went to "Cursed Kolob!!" I call it that because every single time I go something bad happens. I think that Kolob actually means something about where God dwells or whatever and I have decided that I apperantly don't belong with Him or something. (I am kidding, but I really want to know why I am punished every time I go. A long time ago when I went there with my family as a child my mom got us stuck in the lake while it was raining and we had to walk from Kolob to Laverkin, It was awful!! Then we went again when I was a kid and my dog got attacked by a pit bull and almost died. My dad had tochoke the pitbull with his hand and pour Coke down its eyes and throat to get it to release its teeth from around my dogs neck.Again Awful!! So then Cody and I go and we get stuck in some mud and gave to get towed out. We went again later with a few of Cody's relatives and I got a $75 ticket for fishing with the wrong kind of bait. Super Awful!! That was the last time we went and it was over 5 years ago. So when my dad wanted to go for his birthday I just knew it was a bad idea. As you can tell from the pics we actually had a blast. Ash loved fishing in the boat and was so hot and wanted to swim. She didn't have any clothes to swim in and I thought she'd be afraid (since she is usually afraid of everything) so I told her she could get in and she did and swam for hours. I was amazed. She really had a great time. It was fun to spend the afternoon with my dad an Lori. We cruised all over the lake in his new birthday boat and just talked. No fish caught of course. I don't think that place is all that good for fishing. Well we get all cleaned up and ready to go and I thought for a second we had made it free and clear but Nope. We had a flat tire..Awful!! and we will not be going there again. I took this pic of Ash while she was checking out these little flowers and was amazed at how cute it actually turned out. I wonder what she's thinking about with that little smile on her face.I forgot I had taken these pics on the 4th of July. This is Ashlee holding my friends 8 month old baby. Her name is Ivey. Ashlee loves her, look how cute she'd be with a baby sister!! (Come on Cody get with the program.)

My Big Preschooler!!!

This is her first school work. She says "my name starts with 'A'

then says ah, ah, ah, ah, ashlee is what it sounds like. Can you see her two little A's she drew. Pretty good eh? Her big cheesy grin..
My famous side ways pics. She is looking both ways as she crosses the parking lot to class.
She is so excited to walk through the door all by herself. Some of the other kids behind us were kicking and screaming and clenching to their moms afraid to go through this strange door.
This is her and her little friend Ava.So today was Ashlee's first day of preschool and she was so excited when she woke up. I think she's been waiting for this day forever. After she got all ready to go, she put all her bracelets on and said she was gonna take them to share with all her new friends. She put her back pack on and then asked if she could walk to school, when I told her no she was pretty sad. On the way there she said "Remember when I didn't go to school last year? Look, I'm growing in the car and now I'm so big I get to go to school."(As she held her hands way above her head.) She practically ran into her class room and immediately found herself at home. She looks so cute sitting at her desk. I couldn't believe how old she looked today all dressed up and wearing her big back pack. It is so hard to believe she is this old. When I picked her up she could not stop telling me about her day.

Major Ulcer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nursing School is officially underway as of Monday. So it's day #2 and I already have an ulcer. I have been planning on a certain clinical schedule which my friend and I requested as it works best for us since we take our girls to the same preschool and babysitter. Then to my surprise at orientation yesterday my whole schedule for the entire semester was completely different than I had planned, and completely different than my friend's. We complained and threw a fit and I got it back to the way it was. That is the first thing. Then for some odd reason my online college page where you get all of your important papers for class and such was wiped out last night so I couldn't print any of my power points or syllabus. This morning when I woke up, it was back up and running but my computer sucks so I had to scamble to work to get everything printed that I needed and not be late for class. (Have you ever tried to hurry a 3 year old? Well it doesn't work!!) I am in the first group of my class that gets to do a presentation which means I have just over two weeks to write a 6 page APA paper and put together a group presentation. YUCK!! I am trying to work full time and do school full time so I am spread so thin. If I don't have class then I am at work. I am in the presidency of the Student Nurses Association, which means I have a lot of extra stuff to do. I am incharge of all our service projects and spend atleast two hours on my computer each night doing stuff for that. My biggest complaint is I have had this trip to Vegas planned for next weekend for months. I have two tests to take right before I go because they are due when I get back, along with my paper due right after. So I am debating on if I should even go. GRRRRR!!! So this is advance notice that my blogging may have come to a halt. Sorry!!

Mommy and Ashlee day

So Ashlee got home last night later than I had anticipated, not til 9pm. (she was gone from Sun @ noon to Thurs night). She seemed like she'd grown up over just 5 days. It was so weird, she looked so big and was talking different, her hair even looked longer and a slightly different color. Ash, daddy, and me had so much fun for the short time before bed that I almost didn't want to put her to bed. After 4 nights of sleeping right next to grandma she did not want to go into her own bed at all. But in she went anyway and we shut the door and she went right to sleep. I woke her up the next morning at the same time I always do (6:30 am, trying to get her back on her schedule). We played together for a while and then we went to feed her favorite ducks. After that we went and did some school shopping for both of us. Her school starts Sept 2nd and she gets to do karate, dancing, gymnastics, music and academics. She is so excited about karate thats all she talks about. She says she gets to wear a kung fu panda outfit. She helped me pick out a back pack for her self. There was dora, all the different princesses, elmo, hello kitty and more. We walked out of there with kung fu panda. Its a cute girly pink one with floweres but still kung fu panda. She must really be excited for karate. Which kinda surprises me. She is such a girl and all, I thought she'd be more into the ballet shoes and tu tu's. But I guess thats waht kids are, ful of surprises. We made it home just in time for her nap and much to my surprise she went right to sleep. I work her up 4 hours later and we went swimming. I was so proud of her, for the first time ever she was swimming all over the pool with her life jacket on. It was great!! She has never trusted that it will hold her up. She was so excited that she was doing it too. It was the most fun we have ever had swimming together. One thing that was so cute is she would get her arms going too and say look mom I'm like the olympics. so it was a wonderul day today, it was good to spend a whole day with her all to myself and just have fun. I'm glad she's back!!!!!

My friend at work has a brother that runs some really cool websites. They have some really good deals, so you should check them out. They have everything from sunglasses to clothes to snowboards.
Here are the sites:
www.steepandcheap.com
www.dogfunk.com
www.whiskeymilitia.com
www.chainlove.com
BEWARE you may break the bank after you get addicted to these sights. Enjoy!!!

Ashlee's coming home today!!

So Ashlee went on her first long trip without mom and dad. We missed her a little but mostly enjoyed the break. The house stayed clean all week, we could watch whatever we wanted on TV (without interuptions), and got lots of sleep. She went up north Sunday at noon with her Grandma Cheryl to visit her two aunts, two uncles, and 2 1/2 year old cousin Nathan. She had a blast, too much fun to sleep and will be way off schedule when she comes home. She should be arriving any minute and I can't wait to see her. I was so excited to see all the pics and have lots to post but I just found out that there was not one picture taken. Grandma forgot her camera and aunt Sarah's doesn't work. I'm a little bummed cause I feel like I missed out on a week of her life and will never get to see what fun she had. Oh well, such is life.