Kari's Jibber Jabbers....

After a whole lot of studying.........

2012-01-26T17:52:00.000-08:00

After a whole lot of Studying, Anxiety, & Sleepless Nights......

It's finally happened.......

I PASSED THE NCLEX!!!!!!!

I am now officially a LICENSED....

What more can I say... wanna see for yourself. Here's the link..

https://fortress.wa.gov/doh/providercredentialsearch/SearchResult.aspx

(you should have seen me jumping around when I saw the "ACTIVE"status on the DOH website. I swore I failed it! It was that hard. EJ thought I was NUTS!!)

Cheer!! Time to celebrate...

2011 in our household

2011-12-31T14:32:00.000-08:00

This is our last family photo taken in 2005. I think its times for a new pic! Don't you think :)

This past year was definitely an adventure for the Vastbinder clan. We moved from Maple Valley to the Maple Valley of the north side of Seattle, Woodinville. While kelly green, (Woodinville's school color), is not my favorite green, green is a favorite color. Why did we move? We moved because I now work for Zumiez and the 90 minute drive, one-way, was not my idea of me-time nor was it a stress-reliever.

I do have some good news to share, we were accepted into the Hill Cumorah Pageant this year. After being declined for 3 years in a row, we finally wore them down and our persistence paid off. We most definitely did our happy dances when we found out we were accepted as cast members. (For EJ and TJ, this was most probably practice for the Lamanite dancer scenes which most teen boys participate in. Only small pun intended.) We are headed back to NY for the month of July to participate.

James

With my job at Zumiez, wearing hoodies and torn jeans to work is a requirement. I have not tried showing up with torn pajama pants - which was my outer garment of choice during most of my work from home years. Kari has advised me against an attempt at this. Yes, the crash on Cyber Monday meant I did not sleep that night and instead spent the evening rebuilding our back-end server so it could handle the number of visitors to the site without crashing. I do enjoy working for Zumiez and with this role have moved from Sales/Biz Dev back into the software development world. I am going to start writing for InfoQ.com again in 2012, but they don't allow me the poetic license Kari allows me on her blog. Now I just need to start running again, which is my New Year's resolution for 2012.

Kari

Kari has graduated from Nursing School. With High Honors no doubt!! (thats Suma Cum-Laude to some) She is now an almost licensed RN and we delighted her earlier this year with her favorite sports car, a BMW Z3, as graduation present.

On the 23rd we also picked up a male kitten, which was really a Christmas present for Kari. She'd been slowly wearing me down or warming me up to the idea, depending on how you look at it, for the last six months. Kari is now the First Counselor (if you don't understand what is meant by first counselor, it part of the leadership over the Young Women. There's the president, 1st counselor, 2nd counselor, and secretary for each organization of each ward) in the Young Women's program in our ward and loving working with the girls. While she is a die-hard lacrosse fan for any team our boys are playing on or I am coaching, she enjoys spending some testosterone free time.

EJ

EJ is just months away from securing his driver's license. We look forward to this time with both dread and anticipation. Dread from the amount of increase in our car insurance expense and anticipation to have him drive himself and his brother to early-morning seminary. EJ is doing very well in school and has A's in all subjects except for science. This fall's sport was cross country for EJ. He started off the season with a 22 1/2 minute 5 k and ended the season with a 20 min 15 sec time. He got an hour glass award by decreasing his time by 2 minutes over the season! Congrats EJ. He has decided to follow his father into the computer science field and is learning how to program. He has also achieved Prestige status on MW3 and had achieved Prestige status twice-over before going back to School on January 2nd. (I do not know what that means, but I know he has sat in front of the Xbox for quite a long time to achieve it....)

TJ

Kari convinced him to get a haircut after this pic! :)

TJ played on an elite lacrosse team this past summer for 8th graders and was honored with acceptance into an entering freshman camp for promising Lacrosse players in WA state, Elite 80. He also played inside linebacker for his freshman football team and began his first year of early morning seminary. He has begun attending the youth LDS dances with his brother and just like his brother, does not view the pain of enduring a 5 minute interview with the Bishop as less so than enduring a 15 minute lecture on standards before each youth dance. TJ is able to text on his phone many times faster than on a normal computer keyboard. (I'm not sure of the usefulness of this particular skill, but I would assume his risk for carpal tunnel has been isolated to his thumbs...)

Rae

Against her will, Rae participated in Cross Country this past fall and enjoyed it. This coming Spring she will be playing Volleyball for Leota. She also graduated to Young Womens this past year in church and will be attending the LDS dances with her brothers in only one year. She also began wearing makeup this year, but I still remind her she cannot date until she is 29 years old. She is scheduled for her sweet 16 birthday only 13 years later than her peers. I try to convince her that 13 years go by very quickly as it feels like just yesterday to me when she was born - I still get funny looks from her and a random statement expressing dis-belief or sarcasm. Rae thinks I am joking, I assure you, dear reader, I am not. In fact, I often look at her and see her mother in her, especially the way her hair falls across her shoulders and in her profile view, which makes her almost a twin with Kari. Of course, she has me wrapped around her finger, just not as tightly as her mother does.

I am so very excited that CJ has chosen to play defense in Lacrosse. Already as an 11 year old he can catch and throw with a 6-ft long defensive shaft. I am going to shorten it by 6 inches to make it a little easier for him to use. CJ is our little engineer and can often be found playing with his Legos. He and AJ both attended Lego Club this year, which is a special club hosted by Lego Land and is an after-school program for Elementary schools in this area. He is also our budding video biographer and is often making videos of his Bey Blade battles and super hero shorts with his friends. Next month he will be participating in a video making club and will most probably show up his father's capabilities within the year.

AJ's favorite TV show is Myth Busters and his second is Our Universe. I'm not sure what this says about a 7 year old who favors the antics on Myth Busters over Phineas & Ferb. It does place him above my IQ range, but I do remember my favorite book at his age to be an Astronomy book given to me one Christmas by my Aunt. He also has a good sense of humor and often can be found pulling pranks on his mother. Kari and I both hope this is the year he begins to use his Lacrosse stick for something other than a shovel or a something to lean against on the Lacrosse field. This remains to be seen, regardless, we'll be the loudest cheering parents from the stand.

All in all, this has been a good year for the Vastbinders. We do enjoy our new Ward and have made many new friends. We've slipped right into the Lacrosse community up here and I've even been asked to coach the JV team for Woodinville this Spring. We certainly miss our friends in Maple Valley, Enumclaw and Kent. Our focus is still on squeezing the joy out of all the time we have remaining with our children and try to keep from reminding ourselves we only have 3 years left until Ethan leaves for college. When they begin leaving it will be a sad day indeed.

We look forward with anticipation for 2012 and the many adventures ahead of us. Happy New Year to all of our friends and family.

(And yes, I did give our new kitten a new name that everyone now mistakenly calls him - "Remis". While it is still two syllables like "Cinder", it rolls of the tongue easier for me....)

The Vastbinders

Extra pic:

Our New Home!

Kari's Parents, Shawn and Kari in 1976. We just found this picture a few weeks ago.

My Lacrosse team I coached this past spring. 7/8 Tahoma White.

Eye!!! and more eyes!!

2011-12-28T13:09:00.001-08:00

Genetics.... It's amazing how genetics works in determining eye color. Eye color is not just a simple Bb x BB gene pool. It's more complicated then that. Here is an interesting article over eye color...

http://www.sewanee.edu/chem/Chem&Art/Detail_Pages/ColorProjects_2003/Guttery/index.htm

We have 7 sets of eye colors in our home... I am the only one that does not have a shade of brown, hazel etc... Rae's eye are almost there (she is has green/with brown : Hazel)!! Figured it would be a fun post to see what eye color everyone has in this large family of mine. It's amazing from 2 molds - 5 different unique eye colors were produced. No one got my eye color! Brown really is the dominate color and I have proof. :)

James Eye (brown)

My Eye's Greenish/blue/whatever color they are today

EJ's Eyes...they are like a brown/Yellow.err Hazel

TJ's Eyes-- Brown

Rae's eyes are Hazel with Brown/Green/Yellow: She has the closest to my color!

CJ's brown eyes are the most piercing brown eyes I have ever seen!

AJ's eyes are the darkest Brown in our family!

Christmas 2011

2011-12-27T19:21:00.000-08:00

My "Gold, Red, Brown with a hint of Lime Green" Tree

This years christmas was great for many reasons:

1) My mom and her hubby greg came out to visit for 11 days and was here Christmas morning to see the kids open up presents. My siblings (Brendan and Shawn) and their families came over on Christmas Eve to celebrate and Mom made a nice christmas dinner (actually on Christmas eve) of Ham, scalloped potatoes, green bean casserole and the works!! It was Delicious! Thanks Mom for coming out. We miss you!

Grandma and all the West Coast Grandchildren!

2) I graduated from Nursing school! What more can I say about that :)

Nursing Graduating class of 2011and LOOK I'm in the picture :)

3) The kids got everything they wanted including a XBOX Kinect, and all the little other things like legos, games, and clothes. We are blessed!

TJ playing football on XBOX Kinect - Sports

4) Meet Cinder!! Our new Siamese mixed kitty! Yep the kids BEGGED for a kitty and we kept denying them. Poor kids. He is a little 11 week old playful sweetie, and is potty trained already. What more can I ask! :) James will tell you that he is my present.. hmm maybe so :)

Meet Cinder!

Here are some pictures from the day! Enjoy!

AJ got his pokemon ball!

CJ wanted NERF gun!

Rae wanted Clothes..Bob Marley Rocks!!

TJ got his Lacrosse Stick.. Hi Grandma :)

CJ turns 11

2011-12-23T18:48:00.000-08:00

Of course I am a few weeks late in posting a note about CJ's birthday!! Yep he turned 11. What a big boy he has become. He is now a 11 year old scout and will wear the brown uniform instead of a blue! He is growing up fast. CJ's got a few good items for his bday..... a Nintendo DS 3D, a mario game for it, and a whole case set. He was beaming with joy when he opened up that iridescent red DS 3D. As you can see from the picture I made him a big ice cream cake with chocolate cake, caramel swirl icecream and oreos. yum!! CJ was excited to see Uncle Shawn show up to his small family birthday party. Overall it was a great day. We love you CJ! You are a great boy! Happy Birthday. Love Mom

So whats next....

2011-12-01T22:58:00.000-08:00

When the kids where little and CJ (the baby) was only 7 months old, 2001

AJ at 8 months old, 2004

Decisions, Decisions. Can I just Know what's in store for me? I pray daily to know what is my right path now that I have graduated from Nursing school (ok I graduate on Saturday really!!). :)

My whole ideas have Changed since I started nursing school. I had these grand ideas that I would be working full time at the hospital level delivering babies lol Isn't that what ALOT of female nurses what to do! Not me anymore. I want to work with Kids! As I said before my pediatric preceptorship solidified that for me the first moment I stepped on that nursing floor.

I will be working part time only.... Why? Pictures say it all really.


EJ,TJ, Rae, and CJ on first day of school in 2006. AJ was only 2 1/2 at time.

AJ First day of school 2011. My baby.

My path is different than most and I know it. I am 2 years away from having my oldest leave for college and 3 years for a LDS mission and I see that They are the most important and probably most rewarding path I could follow. I have 4 impressionable boys to get on missions and a daughter that needs a mom in her life to give guidance. I want all my kids to have a good life, marry in the temple, go on missions, have a family. I want this more than anything.

Its not good enough to me to leave them home while I work and become successful. How can I allow them to raise themselves? How can I be ok with leaving them alone after school for a few dollars? I have only 1 chance to get it right and I am taking it! So this new Grad RN will be a mom first and a RN second, hands down. It will never be the opposite! I have too much at stake to allow it to be. I want my kids to remember I cared enough to be at every game, had the time to take them to seminary at 5:30 am each morning, took them to church, youth activities, had family prayer and scripture study on a daily basis. I want them to remember the family movie nights, and family home evenings. I want them to Really now that I love them. It's my duty as a mother. It why we are here to raise family, learn to live happily and teach by the spirit to them.

So next phase in my life... Take that darn NCLEX Test and then start looking for a part time job and most important get back to family life!

OH yah on another note. I should find out any day now if our family was accepted into the Hill Cumorah Pageant. I applied as a RN with my family being cast and work crew Cross your fingers for us. :) Mayber 3rd year of apply will be the charm. I know they like medical staff. :)

Done with school... and a new Driver in the house...

2011-11-21T08:21:00.000-08:00


I'm scared :)

My preceptorship is over at Mary Bridge . What can I say. It is sad in one aspect because I really enjoyed working there but I am glad to be done with school and moving on to find a job. I have 1 more assignment (4 case studies) and a class on the 30th and I am done for the quarter and school permanently if I want to.

Do you see the "want to" part. :) I want to be done but I also know nursing requires constant education. James and I have decided we will be taking a Spanish 101 class next quarter. In fact I am just going to keep taking 101, 102, 103, 201....and so on to become fluent in Spanish. I hate having to use an interpreter phone to talk to patients and think learning a 2nd language will help in my nursing endeavors.

Ok now onto family life since basically I have been missing it this whole quarter being full time at school and working at the hospital.

EJ got his permit about 5 weeks ago. We almost have another driver in the house! 0_0 Mr. EJ is doing great at driving although at times I have to remind him that his mom could have a heart attack if he takes a corner to fast, or doesn't stop soon enough. :)

Good job EJ...

It's Time to get life in order here at the house.

The garage and cars are getting gutted, closets will be cleaning out and organized and chores lists will be assigned. Homework for kids will be caught up and my daily exercising will start again. It is time to get back to life. Yay.

Cult- really people? Christians.. Heck Yes!!

2011-11-19T14:13:00.000-08:00

I received this explanation in my inbox of my facebook page and thought it was great. I had never really thought of it the way this writer, Robert Starling had portrayed the whole, "are mormons christians" and "mormon's are cults" idea. Good job in explaining it Mr. Starling. :) Take a read (sorry, I copied and pasted it from my facebook post, hence why the whole doc is white instead of my my black color. HEY I'm tooooo lazy to figure out how to change it or type it all over again lol)

BY: Robert Starling.....

I’m just one of the millions of people who saw and heard on TV news shows your statements that “Mormonism is a cult” and “not a part of orthodox Christianity”. As a faithful lifelong member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints I felt a strong reaction to those statements, as you might imagine. My remarks here are only my personal thoughts, but I assure you they are heartfelt.

My reaction was twofold. First, I saw your remarks as an unfortunate “below-the-belt” swipe at Mitt Romney in the hopes of advancing your own favorite political candidate. While you certainly have the right to do that, I think many Americans join me in feeling that such a move was beneath a prominent religious leader such as yourself.

Second, as a devoted believer and follower of Jesus Christ I was saddened that you felt the need to speak out against my faith and beliefs. I’m sure there are those who think it was done with malice, but I’ll try to do the Christ-like thing and give you the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps you’ve just been misinformed about “Mormonism” as many others have been.

But it might surprise you to learn that I actually agree with part of what you said, although perhaps for different reasons than you might imagine.

You said that Mitt Romney is “not a Christian” (and by association myself and the other six million-plus Americans who are Latter-day Saints). But I believe you need to be more specific. There are many different kinds or “flavors” of Christians. I agree that the LDS people are not Baptist Christians or Evangelical Christians or Catholic Christians, etc. I will even agree that we’re not part of “orthodox” or “traditional” flavor of Christianity, if by that you mean the post-Nicene church that became the “universal” or “catholic” version of Christendom.

I believe my faith to be the original church of the Corinthians, the Ephesians, and yes, those who were first called Christians in Antioch, - that same church now restored in these latter days. So I call myself a “latter-day Christian", with theological roots that precede the “historical” or “orthodox” version that was the product of the various councils and creeds. That “orthodoxy” eventually became so corrupt and so apostate that the Reformers broke away from it in protest of its having “fallen away” from Biblical truths (2 Thess. 2) and “changed the ordinances” (Isa. 24:5) so that the “faith once delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3) was no longer recognizable as the church that Jesus organized.

There were many enlightened Christian thinkers and theologians in history who, like Joseph Smith, believed that Christianity had become apostate and that a restoration of the New Testament church of Christ was necessary. John Wesley the founder of Methodism wrote:

It does not appear that these extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost were common in the Church for more than two or three centuries. We seldom hear of them after that fatal period when the Emperor Constantine called himself a Christian; . . . From this time they almost totally ceased; . . . The Christians had no more of the Spirit of Christ than the other Heathens . . . . This was the real cause why the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost were no longer to be found in the Christian Church; because the Christians were turned Heathens again, and had only a dead form left.

The Works of John Wesley, vol. 7, pp.26-27

As I’m sure you well know, John Smythe the founder of the Baptists first left his position as a Church of England minister and joined the Separatists, but then dissolved his congregation to re-form it as the first General Baptist church among English expatriates in Amsterdam in 1609. He felt that the “historic” or “orthodox” Christianity of his time had wandered astray, especially with regard to the apostate doctrine of infant baptism. Those first Baptists were considered a “cult” by many Protestants in the “traditional” Christian denominations that persecuted them unmercifully.

Around 1640, Roger Williams of Providence, Rhode Island, founder of the first Baptist church in America refused to continue as pastor on the grounds that there was:

… no regularly‑constituted church on earth, nor any person authorized to administer any Church ordinance: nor could there be until new apostles are sent by the great Head of the Church, for whose coming, I am seeking.

(Picturesque America, or the Land We Live In, ed. William Cullen Bryant, New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1872, vol. 1, p. 502.)

If I understand your words correctly your definition of a Christian (and that of most Evangelicals) is a pretty narrow one, far different from the standard meaning found in most dictionaries. Personally I think anyone who accepts Jesus Christ as the Only Begotten Son of God and as his/her personal Savior who died for our sins and was bodily resurrected on the third day is a Christian. C.S. Lewis described such people as “mere” Christians.

But your narrow definition would exclude anyone who:

1. Does not believe in a closed canon of the 66 books of the Protestant Bible.

2. Does not accept the Nicene Creed as an accurate description of the nature of God the Father, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost.

3. Believes in living prophets and apostles as the “foundation” of Christ’s earthly church.

4. Believes in continuing revelation from God to man.

I could go on. I’m very familiar with the standard arguments against “Mormonism”.

But the Bible says that believers in Christ were first called Christians at Antioch (Acts 11:26). I would respectfully submit that those Christians:

1. Did not believe in a closed canon of scripture. (some of the New Testament had not yet been written.)

2. Did not accept the Nicene Creed as an accurate description of the nature of God the Father, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. (it would not be written for 300 years)

3. Believed in living apostles and prophets as the “foundation” of Christ’s earthly church.

4. Believed in continuing revelation from God to man.

So if you’re going to say that Mitt and I are not Christians based on those reasons, you’ll have to say that the believers in Antioch were not Christians either according to your definition.

You said in your Hardball interview that “Mormonism” is a “cult” because:

1. “Mormonism came 1800 years after Jesus Christ”

2. “Mormonism has its own human leader, Joseph Smith”

3. “it has its own set of doctrines”

4. “it has its own religious book, The Book of Mormon, in addition to the Bible”

Your exact following words were: “and so by that definition it is a theological cult”. You made a weak distinction between a theological cult and a sociological one, but most people will not even notice that fine differentiation. It was obvious to any sophisticated viewer that your main goal was to keep repeating the word “cult”. It’s such an inflammatory buzz word that I’m sure your goal is to use it as often as you can to scare people away from “Mormonism” without seriously considering our theology and our beliefs. It’s a word used to end or avoid discussion, not to foster it. As a Latter-day Saint I welcome the opportunity to “stand ready to give a reason for the faith that is in me”, but those who sling around the word “cult” with respect to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints seek to cut off debate rather than to encourage dialog. It’s as though they are afraid of an open and honest discussion.

But following your own definition of “cult” for a moment, I’d like to respectfully submit that:

1. Roman Catholicism came 300 years after Jesus Christ.

2. Roman Catholicism has its own human leader, the Pope (or Peter if you accept the Catholic claims that he was the first Pope)

3. Roman Catholicism has its own set of doctrines (Mariology, transubstantiation, priestly celibacy, veneration of “saints”, indulgences, etc.)

4. Roman Catholicism has its own religious books (9 deuterocanonical more than those found in the Protestant Bible – also used in Eastern Orthodox churches)

And even your own Baptist flavor of Christianity in some ways fits your definition of what makes a cult;

1. “Baptistism” came 1609 years after Jesus Christ

2. “Baptistism” had its own human leader John Smythe – a Church of England minister (see footnote below from the website of the Baptist History and Heritage Society)

3. “Baptistism” had its own unique doctrines, including the “believer’s baptism” of adults.

4. “Baptistism” was considered a cult by the “orthodox” or “traditional” or “historic” Christian denominations of the time. In fact Baptists suffered severe persecution from other Christians who believed in the “mainline” doctrine of infant baptism prevalent in that era. Thousands of Baptists were martyred for baptizing adults.

One of the dictionary definitions of a cult is that is a small isolated group that is out of the mainstream. That certainly does not apply to my church. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the fourth largest religion in America, and the second largest Christian church in Washington, Oregon, and California (after Catholicism). You mentioned that there are 15 million Southern Baptists. By 2012 at the present rate of growth there will be more Latter-day Saints than that.

Pastor Jeffress, in order to be consistent and truthful you would have to admit that the same definition you’ve used to brand “Mormonism” a cult applies at least in part to Roman Catholicism and “Baptistism” as well. Are you willing to say that on national television? I would hope so. I would hope that you’d want to be totally consistent and truthful.

Thank you for your time. I’m attaching a summary I wrote of what I believe happened to “the faith once delivered to the saints”. There was a great apostacy that fundamentally changed the New Testament church of Jesus Christ into something so different that those Christians at Antioch or Peter or Paul would not have recognized it in the Dark Ages that came upon the earth. (Amos 8:12) That apostacy required the “restitution of all things” prophesied in Acts 3:21 to occur before Christ’s return. That restitution or restoration of original Biblical Christianity was what was looked forward to by Roger Williams.

I testify to you that that restoration has come, and the original Christianity is back on the earth in its fullness as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. If you would like to investigate these claims I’ll be happy to “bring forth my strong reasons” for “the faith that is in me.” I would welcome a thoughtful dialog.

Cordially yours,

Robert Starling

A Latter-day Christian

(footnote to above reference to John Smyth)

BHHS -- Baptist Beginnings http://www.baptisthistory.org/baptistbeginnings.htm

The first General Baptist church, led by John Smyth, was founded in Amsterdam, Holland, in 1608/09. Its members were English refugees who had fled England to escape religious persecution. John Smyth was a minister in the Church of England. As a student and later as a pastor and teacher. … By 1608/09, Smyth was convinced his Separatist church was not valid. Most of the members had only infant baptism, and the church was formed on the basis of a "covenant," rather than a confession of faith in Christ. Smyth therefore led the church to disband in 1608/09 and re-form on a new basis–a personal confession of faith in Christ, followed by believer’s baptism. Since none of the members had been baptized as believers, Smyth had to make a new beginning. He baptized himself and then baptized the others. His baptism was by sprinkling or pouring, but it was for believers only.

The Black Keys - Lonely Boy (First Listen)

2011-11-18T09:40:00.000-08:00

This song has been ALLLLL over the radio this last few weeks. I love it. This video is funny too :) To listen to it click stop on my playlist on the side bar to hear it. :)

Week 7..... Almost there.

2011-11-12T22:38:00.000-08:00

I am done with Week 7. Only 2 days left before I finish my preceptorship at Mary Bridge.

This week I had a tons of new experience, finished my teaching project, got done with most my homework and now ready to finally grow up into a big person and become a big scary "RN". :)

I start my Kaplan course to prepare for the NCLEX on December 12th and hopefully will have the test done by the end of the year. I was going to take the PALS Certification (Pediatric Advance Life Support) but have been talked out of it by the nursing staff and management because they said without more experience I would not understand half to stuff they talk about. I have been advised to take it once I get a job and most likely the hospital will send me to it. I am glad I did not press that "pay" button on the screen when I started to register for it. :) Thank you Mary Bridge staff for steering me in the right directions to secure a job.

I am starting to get melancholy about leaving Mary Bridge after after my preceptorship is over.. I have grown close to everyone and have created a good repoire with them. The nurse manager said they might have a pediatric nurse residency starting at the beginning of the year. I will be applying if a residency opens up. I would love to find a job in Mary Bridge as I am comfortable with how they do things, know EPIC (which is the charting system) and have really built some friendships there.

I plan on monitoring for jobs at Seattle Children's, University of Washington medical, Providence (up in Everett), Northshore school district (and surround districts) and others to try to stay in the pediatric world.

We will see were I end up. I pray I will go were I am suppose to be. It's scary, not knowing were I will be, but look forward to the opportunities that will present to me when they do.

Enough of week 7. Almost there, I am pretty much allowed to be a full fledged nurse at this point in the hospital. I am charting regularly, giving meds (of course with my preceptor right behind me watching and verifying), doing all that are within the scope of what a RN can do. Talking to the doc's are not as scary as it use to be. I feel more confident but still cautious (which I want to be especially with meds), I KNOW pediatrics is the place for me, and I am willing to jump through hoops to stay a pediatric nurse.

IT SO VERY WORTH IT!!! I am grateful for all the wonderful nurses at Mary Bridge that took this little chicklet under their wings to mold me, give me encouragement, correct me, and allow me to learn to fly. I would not have done it without everyone! Thank you!

Week 6...

2011-11-05T13:58:00.000-07:00

This week was a strange week for me...

I am 168 hours (14 days) into my preceptorship at Mary Bridge Children's Hospital . I am grateful for my time working there. You are probably sick of me saying that but I truly am. I feel like I am doing some good out there in this world, if that makes any sense to anyone. This week has been especially tough for me with maintaining my feelings and emotions from "stuff" that happens at the hospital with some of the children.

This week I worked an extra shift (so 3 days) in order to get done with my preceptorship before thanksgiving weekend.

Day 12- Tuesday

Today I took the role of Charge Nurse as my preceptor was charge nurse for that day. Not only did I have to deal with nurses schedules, admits/discharges/ bed placement, transfers etc but drama on the Nurse staff. Being in charge is fun but has it draw backs. I think I will wait a few years to go into management lol.. It was a very interesting experience on Tuesday.

Day 13- Wednesday

My Preceptor changed shifts with another nurse so I got to work with another nurse. At shift handoff and while doing beside report, we realized a patient needed a little extra help (wont go into details of course) so the patient was transferred back to the Pediatric ICU. NO fun! The patient load this day was extremely busy and I was grateful. The day was filled with new experiences and the nurse I worked with was great in helping me learn new things. I did end up doing 2 discharges and 1 admit this day.

Day 14- Friday

My preceptor was charge nurse again. I felt it was better I go back on the floor instead of helping her charge. Yet again I worked with another nurse. The difference was she wasn't too happy to have a student at her side. She would not let me give her patients meds. (ok by end of day she did let me give a tube feeding and give some Tylenol ha!). She was not very comfortable with having a student at all, and to be honest I was a little perturbed about that because I am their to learn not sit around doing CNA work. However, I do understand why she did it. Its her career not mine, the day was busy and she just wanted to do things herself.

I did get a lesson on how to manage your emotions of some sad reasons why kids come into the hospital. :( I won't go into details but it was a good lesson on not allowing my own emotions get to me and cloud my judgement during the day. I did teared up all the way home over the situation and just wished I could do more. The pediatric world is full of wonderful things and NOT so wonderful things. Sadly those not so wonderful things are extremely not so wonderful which saddens me.

Anyways. This week is done. Onto week 7...

Week 7's goals: (Work T, F, S)

-I had my mid quarter review and my preceptor and clinical school instructor said it was time for me to take a full patient load with my nurse just watching and correcting me. :) Sounds good to me.

Goal 1: Take full patient load- YAY!!

Goal 2: Document better

Goal 3; Get my teaching project finished and set up at the hospital (doing it on "the nurses role in therapeutic play for the hospitalize child"

Goal 4: Get my resume finished so I can start applying to jobs. I was searching today and there are a few jobs open in Mary Bridge, Seattle Childrens and some of the other hospitals and clinics in the area.

Goal 5: Finish up all my school work

Beautiful Heartbreak - Hilary Weeks - Every Step

2011-11-03T16:37:00.000-07:00

Great Lesson through a Song!! (push pause on my playlist on the sidebar to view this.)

Lyrics:

I had it all mapped out in front of me,
Knew just where I wanted to go;
But life decided to change my plans,
And I found a mountain in the middle of my road.

I knew there was no way over it,
So I searched for a way around;
Brokenhearted I started climbin',
And at the top I found...

Every fear, every doubt,
All the pain I went through;
Was the price that I paid to see this view;
And now that I'm here I would never trade...

The grace that I feel,
And the faith that I find;
Through the bitter-sweet tears,
And the sleepless nights;

I used to pray he'd take it all away,
But instead it became a beautiful heartbreak.
I never dreamed my heart would make it,
I thought about turning around;
But heaven has shown me miracles,
I never would have seen from the ground.

Now I take the rain with the sunshine,
Cause there's one thing that I know;
He picks up the pieces,
Along each broken road.

Every fear, every doubt,
All the pain I went through;
Was the price that I paid to see this view;
And now that I'm here I would never trade...

The grace that I feel,
And the faith that I find;
Through the bitter-sweet tears,
And the sleepless nights.

I used to pray he'd take it all away,
But instead it became a beautiful heartbreak.

I would never trade...

The grace that I feel,
And the faith that I find;
Through the bitter-sweet tears,
And the sleepless nights.

I used to pray he'd take it all away,
But instead it became a beautiful heartbreak.

Lose it to win - Weight loss challenge...New Challenge Alert

2011-11-03T09:45:00.000-07:00

~~Formally known as MV Biggest Loser challenge or MV weight loss challenge~~

It finally done!! The name change is in effect as of this past week. I am taking the weight loss challenge in a different direction from the past 5 challenges. I saw a major flaw in how competitive people got when money was involved SO I have changed everything and started a whole new chapter in my challenges. :) THIS TIME AROUND, I am making the challenge FREE and very simplified for the holidays, plus the next challenge while the site is getting built. :) The website is under construction at this moment in time.

Here are my changes and goals:

1. Take away the negative competitiveness of the last challenges- money really does change people. Our new challenges reward will be based on satisfaction of losing weight and kudos for a job well done.
2. My goal is to take this global. I am already starting to do this for the holiday challenge. We have participants joining from all over the country. :)
3. Help people start their own local challenges, giving them guidelines, challenge ideas and a whole website base portal were their participants can get all the latest technology of the challenges and go for support.
4. The fee will be cut!! Yes, less for more. Not sure how much yet but it will go in effect as soon as the site goes up.
5. We will be changing up how we do the team challenges. Teams of 3-4 will no longer be apart of the challenges. The reason... if you have a great team that does everything that is fine, but if you have a team member that is not as motivated it can get VERY frustrating. No more worries about your team member disappointing the group. It will be based on individual points now and not the team.
6. We all know men and women are different and think different. We are going to start "Men's Only" challenges on top of regular challenges.

If you are interested in the challenge following the links below to like the public facebook page and ask to be invited to the new group page. The new site (www.loseittowin.us) will be up and running by end of week for a simple forum to post numbers.

Facebook public page: ( please like this page)

https://www.facebook.com/Loseittowin.us

Group page: (ask to join this group)

https://www.facebook.com/groups/mvblc2011/

Week 5 done...

2011-10-30T01:31:00.000-07:00

Wow I can't believe I only have 9 days left. I just finished my 132nd hour today (day 11) preceptoring at Mary Bridge . Yes, my 3 days in a row week plus my class on Wednesday made it a LONG week.

But I can't help but BE GRATEFUL for my experiences I am having at the hospital.

Everyday on my long drive home, I FEEL God's Hand in the experiences I had that day.

The smiles from those SWEET children make my day! The LIGHT in their little eyes make me wonder how much they know.

The cancer patient who looks you in the eyes, holds your face and tells you what beautiful blue eyes you have. SO simple of a statement from a child that is suffering. So ELEGANT. A child like love that SEPARATES a child from an adult.

For 3 days, I helped children feel comfortable, feel loved, and HOPEFULLY made their burdens LIGHTER (including family).

So many of these children are in and out of the hospital. TRYING to figure out what is going on.
Their youth HELPS them deal with things.

I REMEMBER being there once, when my OWN child spend months in and out of hospital recovering from a rupture appendix not caught in time. I so needed my families burden lightened!

SO I try to PAY IT FORWARD and ease their (families also) many burdens....

I hold the babies in the nursing station to relieve TIRED Mommies and Daddies from long hospital stays.

I sit on the floor to play with little children WHILE I monitor them and give them their meds.

I let them help me... Listening to MY heart and taking caps off things are a favorite past time. The blood pressures button is the favorite button to push.

All in hopes....

that they can feel apart of what is happening in their lives, to ease their burden and give good care!

They are my little helpers and for that....

I am extremely grateful

Im a Mormon.....

2011-10-23T09:09:00.001-07:00

The church has asked us to create a "Im a mormon" profile on www.mormon.org, to distinguished/answer myths and bring to light that normal people are Mormon or that Mormons are normal people. Whichever way you want to see it. Maybe "normal people" is not the best way of putting it but you know what I mean. My "I'm a mormon" profile is finally up (took them long enough haha)... Check it out.. Click on my picture below or you can click on the little icon at the side bar too!! :)

Week 4....

2011-10-21T13:17:00.000-07:00

My week 4 at Mary Bridge was just as busy as last week. I am now 96 hours down out of 240 hours needed. YAY!! I am almost there. I am getting more and more comfortable in my nursing shoes. I am glad for the experiences I am having. Working with children has been such a blessing. Seeing the sparkle in their eyes make my day.

Day 7 (tuesday)

My preceptor was not on the schedule and so I assumed that I would be working with someone else. Found out later she was called in to be the Charge Nurse again but that they needed me bad on the floor and so they didn't want me to follow her around charging. I was able to work with a nice nurse who let me take on 2 /4 of her patients fully. I had a very complicated patient and another patient that I was able to discharge. Check a discharge off my list!! :)

Day 8 (Wednesday)

Again I was a float RN with my preceptor for part of the morning. The census was down and 7 people were called off from working. I spend my morning running to every unit and up every stairway helping out other nurses needs, reviewing crash carts, glucometers. My preceptor and I got called to help with a procedure that was way cool after which we got the word that kids were being admitted from the ER and were done being the float and took on the patients. We ended up getting 3 admits all at the same time. YAY!! Another check on the admit part. It was super crazy busy because of it. BUT I am now almost 1/2 way there. :)

1. Chart on the care plans. I really want to be able to chart learning to use the care plans instead of the nursing notes. -Check! I charted on all 3 care plans on wednesday

2. Complete a discharge and admit on my own. -Check did 1 discharge and 3 admits

3. Find more opportunities to give more meds (especially IV meds and I want to hang Solution bags (still have not done that yet this quarter) ).- gave a lot of meds this week and hung many bags of solution.

4. Continue interacting with doctors and answer phones. - Check!

5. Take on 2 patients a day again. - Check!

6. Find 5 new experiences - Check!! i also have some new experience I can't discuss because of HIPAA Laws.

Week 5 goals ( I work thurs, fri, sat)-

1. Chart in care plans

2. Give report on all my patients

3. Take on 3 patients

4. Find ways of giving more meds

5. Have 5 new experiences.

6. Start the process of doing my teaching plan. I am doing a pampthlet on "the nurses role in therapeutic play for the hospitalize child.

Anyways onto week 5.

Week 3.....

2011-10-16T20:58:00.000-07:00

First off, Gotta give my little 7 year old AJ some pats on back. He is such the little photographer and decided to take pictures of me :) Here is just 2 of them.

can't seem to get the color right on this one. It was originally really yellow.
If anyone knows how to fix please let me know.

Anyways..

Here goes my report of week 3 of my preceptorship at Mary Bridge.

Well the week was busy. What can I say. I worked 3 days this week. So I am 72 hours down now. 14 more days left of hospital time. On Tuesday I worked with another nurse as my preceptor was the charge nurse and I didn't feel comfortable doing charge work 4 days into my quarter. The new nurse was a little more cautious with me and pretty much gave me a patient that didn't have any medications due during the shift and wouldn't let me take care of her other patients. So my preceptor kept pulling me to do float stuff until 3. At 3, a new nurse came on and she let me take on all 3 of her patients basically saying I am a 6 level nursing student and its time I did most of it. :) So from 3-7 I gave meds, talked on the phone, took care of everything while she watched! I am thankful she allowed me to take control. :)

Friday and Saturday my preceptor was back. Friday I took on 2 patients and helped with the other 2, Saturday I took on 1 patient that was way more complicated medication wise so I only helped her with her other 2 patients. The 1 patient I had was very time consuming so I am glad she allowed me to focus on this one! Saturdays patients I was able to have a lot of teaching moments which I valued.

So lets see how I did on my goals for week---

1. Answer the unit phone :)------ Check!
2. Call the doctors and other disciplines if needed for my patients instead of my preceptor doing it - Sorta check!! I answered the phone and it happened to be the doc we needed to talk to so I did. :)
3. Document as much as I can to get comfortable - Check!
4. Study up on the meds that seem to be given on the floor a lot and give give give when I have a chance. -Studied up on ondesterone (zofran), Hydrocodone/Acetaminophen, Oxycodone (roxicodone), Insulin (novolog), Levemir (long acting Insulin), plus all the morphines, acetaminophens etc.
5. Organize my day on priorities. It's hard to know which comes first sometimes. - Created a new document so I could organize my days.
6. Have 5 new experiences!! - Check!! Don't want to give to much detail because of HIPAA laws.

Goals for week 4 (work tues/weds)...

I talk to my preceptor about my goals for this next week.

1. Chart on the care plans. I really want to be able to chart learning to use the care plans instead of the nursing notes.

2. Complete a discharge and admit on my own.

3. Find more opportunities to give more meds (especially IV meds and I want to hang Solution bags (still have not done that yet this quarter) ).

4. Continue interacting with doctors and answer phones.

5. Take on 2 patients a day again.

6. Find 5 new experiences

anyways that's everything for week 3. Onto week 4 (days 7 & 8)

Are Mormons Christians?

2011-10-13T09:37:00.000-07:00

With Mitt Romney trying to get the Republican nomination there are so many things going around about the Mormon church from "Mormons are not christian", to "Mormonism is a cult". Both of which are extremely ridiculous notions. Here is a message from Jeffery Holland on "Mormonism and Christianity". I love how this man speaks. He is straight forward, doesn't mince words and asks us to do our best.

I will say I am proud and happy that I am Mormon. :) If you get right down to it, ask this question. Why do people even care that people are mormon? I mean seriously. This is 2011 people!! We are past that whole lets kill and persecute the religious people phase! It just tells me that there must be something to the Mormon faith for people to be so threatened by it's teachings. Right path maybe? :)

Week 2 -

2011-10-06T10:09:00.000-07:00

yes yes I am already done with week 2 at Mary Bridge (3/20 rotations done!, 36 hrs out of 240 hrs needed). This week was a short 1 day week because of my Wednesday class. Tuesday I took on my first patient on my own! (with my preceptor monitoring of course) Yay. It was one of the same patients I had on Friday and Saturday so I knew the history which made it easier to make a plan of care. When I was not taking total care of my patient I was helping my preceptor with the rest of her load.

I am getting more and more comfortable in my nursing skin which I think is the barrier I face right now in my learning process. I am nervous about giving right med doses, nervous about documentation, Nervous about even talking to the intimidating doctors. I am even nervous answering the phones. I think the nervousness is mostly because I do not want to make a mistake and want to do my best.

Next week goals:

1. Answer the unit phone :)
2. Call the doctors and other disciplines if needed for my patients instead of my preceptor doing it
3. Document as much as I can to get comfortable
4. Study up on the meds that seem to be given on the floor a lot and give give give when I have a chance.
5. Organize my day on priorities. It's hard to know which comes first sometimes.
5. Have 5 new experiences!!

This weeks note:

You know I never thought I could handle pediatrics oncology until I worked with these little sweet angels. I can't even describe how I feel. On my ride home on Tuesday, I could not help but feel such love for the patients I was bless to take care of that day. I almost would say that I see heaven through these little one's eyes. The veil is thin for these little souls. I want to be apart of that! I am so glad I got the preceptor I did. Working with little cancer patients has been more rewarding then I thought it would be or what I could actually handle. I think I have found my path. Yes I want to work with kids, and yes I wouldnt even mind working in pediatrics oncology now.

Anyways enough of week 2.

First week of Pediatrics...

2011-10-02T16:35:00.000-07:00

I am through my first week of being on a Pediatrics unit! Phewww! It is always nerve racking to first few days, so much so that I have a hard time sleeping the night before worried I'm going to miss my alarm to get up on time. My days are LONG. I get up at 4 am and don't get home until 9 pm. Those 1 1/2 hours drives down to Tacoma are a killer and leaves me no time to see the kids, exercise, or even breath. :) Luckily I have 20 12 hours shifts to worry about this quarter and I am done (18 now).

Week #1 was orientation week for me and my preceptor. She is a great preceptor and nurse to work side by side with and also graduated 5 years ago from the same school I did. She is also a charge nurse and Pediatric oncology nurse and chemotherapy licensed so my days will be spend with her on the hemat floors for the most part. Hemat floors are the cancer or clean floors. These are floors that can take patients that need chemo, cancer patients, or patient without a infection disease such as bowel resections etc etc.

I spend my first day going absolutely nuts with her because we had 4 discharges to get ready, running from room to room with kiddos in severe pain from surgeries and cancer patients. My preceptor and I where the only nurses on from 3-7 pm so we took on our patients plus others. Very interesting first day.

Day 2 was a little more organized. My preceptor decided that my first day of chaos was not a good thing for a student preceptoring so we took a step back and oriented again. :) She took me through charts and how to do thing things such as discharges, medication administration for kids, and infostructure items. By the end of day I was giving meds with her by my side and doing assessments throughout the day.   And the end of my day, my preceptor said I was ready to take on 1 patient completely on my own (with her help of course) and that we would work our way up to a full load with her standing by making sure I did things right. :)

Pediatrics feels so rewarding!! To see the babies and toddlers smile while playing peek a boo and seeing children happy because you paid attention to them makes my day. It is just me. I so see the pain and all the struggles that family go through while in the hospital because I have been there myself with EJ and AJ.   It is making me a more empathetic nurse. Once who can play both parts, a healer, a advocate and someone who is paying it forward.

Now it is time for me to start applying for jobs! I am finishing up my application to the school district (Im already on there sublist, just need to apply) and also will be putting in an application at Seattle Children's hospital as a Pediatric Nurse. I am also going to look into other options as well.

Anyways enough babbling. I will proofread later, I am just dumping now all my thoughts and will organize when I get more time.   I will post again after the end of week 2 on my progress.

IM GOING PEDIATRICS!!! YAY!!

2011-09-15T07:51:00.000-07:00

I can't even contain myself, I got my preceptorship spot I requested in Pediatrics. I will be working one on one with a nurse on a pediatric unit at Mary Bridge Children's Hospital . No instructors anymore in the clinical setting! :)
The not so fun part of it is that I will be working a 7 am - 7 pm shift according to what my preceptor works. I have to call today to get her schedule. I will have to get 240 hours in to graduate which works out to be 2 12 hour shifts a week at the minimum BUT like I said I have to follow her shifts so if she works 3 12's in a row, I will be doing the same. Maybe if I can work 3 days instead of 2 a week I will get done a little fast then the 10 weeks. We will see.

Now it is time for the family to make plans while I finish. I am already getting carpools set up and working schedules to accommodate me being full time again. I see a end in site now. I am just so excited to be in pediatrics and also to almost be done.

This week has been a very awesome week with a new car, the preceptorship I got and a surprising call into the bishops office on Tuesday to receive a calling at church. Didn't expect the calling I was asked to do which is going to keep me extremely busy! And I am happy to serve the church and my ward in this capacity. It's time I take a leadership role! :)

Anyways... there not much more I can say... this weeks been awesome. James is taking me out to celebrate this weekend. Gotta figure out something good!. :) Chao.

Me and My Midlife Crisis!!

2011-09-12T11:02:00.000-07:00

This is the plates I just ordered for my new car!! I thought it was hilarious and so true in what I say all the time!! :)

What more can I say!! We went out shopping for a 3rd car because our cadi was a piece of crap and EJ will be driving in 6 months, we came back with this SWEET car. It's a BMW Z3 and my dream car I could never justify. and its GREEN! Can't believe we found my favorite car in my favorite color. Yes Yes it's a 2 seater, not very practical, but for a a mother of 5 who will graduate from Registered Nursing school in 10 weeks and with a 3.9 GPA I deserve every penny of this!! Its my graduation present. Looks like EJ will be sporting a sweet car with his dates around town! and also be top dog when it comes to the tundra. And no I did not spend a fortune, I paid cash everyone so don't get all in a tiff lol.

First day of school 2011/2012

2011-09-01T07:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a first for many in this house. First day of a new school district. First day of "official" high school. First day of Junior High. First day of 9th grade. First day hoping that CJ would get on the bus...to no success. Sigh.

-EJ refused to take pic so I snapped one later in the day..I will upload it soon.

EJ is our official high schooler in the the family. I say official because this year really should be his second year because he is in 10th grade but the school district starts high school in 10th instead of 9th. EJ is doing cross country this fall for a sport and has been practicing for a few weeks now. I am glad he is going something to meet others. He has already met a few of his fellow "to be" lacrosse teammates on the cross country team. Yay for him. EJ will also be doing Saturday only Indoor box lacrosse with his Woodinville team. Hopefully he can work his way into his new team quicker this way.

Don't take my pic mom! TJ

TJ is in 9th grade this year which should be high school but not in this school district. He is at the Junior high this year, which to be honest I think is great. It keeps them innocent another year. TJ is playing football for the HS this fall. He is on the freshmen team and has been working out since the beginning of July. He is already talking about hanging out with all the football players at school. LOL It's funny how it is still the same as when I was a kid. The football players rule the school. Out of all the schedule, TJ's is the most busy. He has to go to mandatory Varsity games each week on top of his own games and practice. TJ will mostly likely be doing the indoor box lacrosse with EJ. We will see about him doing it.

Rae

Rae is in 7th grade this year and starts Junior High. She is doing well making friends already and talked about the girls she sat at lunch with today. She is my little social butterfly so it will take her no time at all to make friends. Rae starts cross country next week and will also be practicing everyday after school. Fun Fun. Rae is adjusting well to her new life in this area. She has tons of friends at church and hopefully will make tons at school.

CJ and Mom

CJ is in 5th grade this year. First day of school, Mr CJ didn't get on the bus for the 3rd year in a row. It didn't help that the bus was 20 minutes late and he sat there fretting the whole time getting more and more anxious about getting on that bus. Last night he was already on the "I don't want to go to school" kick, so this morning I might have to use brute force to get him on that bus! Resistance is futile! CJ seemed to do good once I dropped him off yesterday at school. With a little hesitation, CJ walked into class. Hopefully today goes smoother. CJ will doing the Box lacrosse on saturday and has asked to play in the band/strings this year. He is undecided on if he wants to do drums, guitar or violin. I am also hoping to get him into a soccer league since he missed football this year.

AJ hamming it up for the camera

AJ is in 2nd grade this year. First day of school for him went without a hitch. He went on that bus by himself with complete strangers and by the time I got to the school and watch him go to class he was busily working away getting all his stuff for class. AJ will be doing soccer hopefully this year. We are not going to have him do the indoor lacrosse yet as his goal right now in lacrosse is "how deep he can make a hole in the ground with his lacrosse stick" lol.

School starts...crazy life starts (not that it wasn't crazy before lol)...crazy schedules...seminary at 5:50 every morning starts monday! My school preceptorship starts in 3 weeks... Life is going to interesting, busy and fun for the next few months.... Let the fun begin!

Hopes and Dreams....

2011-08-22T15:14:00.000-07:00

I was just thinking today what I about hopes and dreams and what I want for myself now and future. I came to some know realizations of things that I really would like to accomplish or see accomplished within my little world of mine.

First, I will have to say my hopes are that my family stays healthy and live a long fruitful life. I want to see my kids accomplish more then I could have ever accomplish. I want them to go to college, go on missions, get married (in the temple), have a family of their own and live the gospel. I want this more then any other dream I have.

I would love to eventually get my Nurse practitioner degree at either BYU ID or University of Washington Bothell. It might not be right away once I graduate with my RN degree, but within a few years I would love to go back and get that.

I want to use my RN degree to help others. Someday I want to go to 3rd world countries and help the very severly underprivileged. The famine in Somalia just breaks my heart. :( I wish I could go there and volunteer my time and energy to them.

I want to go on Church missions with James! Most likely they will be humanitarian missions with my medical background.

I want to get my butt in shape. I mean not just down to a normal weight but in shape so much that I have a rockin body that is able to sport a HOT bikini (yah right I am to self conscious, even when I have a hot body to sport one lol). REMINDERs, Bikinis should only be worn if you have very toned body!! SPANDEX should NEVER BE WORN!!! So please stay out of a bikini if you have a tire, flab, or a single ounce of fat on you (including myself lol)! Once I graduate to a perfect body, then I will be getting a tummy tuck to get rid of the 5 baby stretch marks! :) Anyways.

Thats about it. My list is BIG but only a few items I really want to do when I grow up. :) Chao!

Weight loss challenge #5 starts....

2011-08-20T12:36:00.000-07:00

Want to make money for losing weight? Looking for a challenge? This Weight Loss Challenge is a team driven and competition style challenge.

We are EXPANDING and starting a new weight loss challenge in the North Seattle area. Originally started in the Maple Valley area.

Maple Valley Challenge #5 and the North Seattle Challenge #1 starts begins in the second week of September.

The Rules:

- Challenge runs 10 weeks, with each week running from Monday to Sunday

- Teams are comprised of 3-5 participants - friends, neighbors, or just a group of random people who all want to lose weight.

- 2 team challenges, comprised of a health and a fitness challenge, (points are awarded weekly based on these challenges)

- Body Measurements are taken into account and at 3 times: Start, Middle, End

- Beginning and End weigh-in at a location in Bothell and Maple Valley - weekly weight loss is "on your honor".

- Find strength and encouragement from team support and designated "cheerleader" during the challenge.

- Individual prize of $200.00 for biggest % lost at end of challenge and

- Shared $400.00 prize for team with the most points at end of challenge (prizes based on 20 + participants, dollar amounts will be adjusted down with less then 20 participants)

- ONLY $30.00 to join.

In the past 4 challenges:

- teams have lost a total of 1476 lbs

- current challenge participants have lost a total of 394 lbs with 2 weeks left to go! Leading participant has lost 47 lbs so far!!

- in Challenge 3 a participant lost 54 lbs over 10 weeks

It works! It's FUN! Come Join us!!

Send this out to all your friends!!

Typical day at our home......

2011-08-15T11:39:00.000-07:00

Yes its very typical for TJ to be messing around with his brother!!!

Rae's a good big sis!

The second momma in our house!

Advice I've been given....

2011-08-15T10:58:00.000-07:00

Over the years I have been given some really good advice, sound advice and some well not so good advice.   I figured I might as well share the advice that has really stuck with me, down deep.

1. First off I want to give my favorite scripture because it says a lot about what has motivated me to be the person who I am. It is James 1:5

" If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him".

I have always been one to pray about most of my decisions. I need prayer, or I go sideways, backwards, or whichever way I go, but definitely I don't go the way I want to go or what my Heavenly Father has planned for me.

2. When I first moved to Maple Valley, the bishop of my church sat both James and I down to talk to us about what matters most. He knew we were a BIG Lacrosse family and would miss sometimes to go to tournaments. He said a prayer with us, then talk to us about making church a priority over sports including the Wednesday night activities. He told us that if we made church a priority our boys would stay active in the church and serve missions. He related to a statistic that has been happening in the church.. that if kids missed church/church activities for sports or other things there was a 90% chance they would be inactive by the age of 17. I have since heard this same statistic, even in this new ward we just moved into. Long story short, we made the decision to put church first. We talked to the coaches at the beginning of the season and James rearranged his team so that we did not have to practice on Wednesday.    The boys missed a lot of Sunday tourney's and missed every Wednesday night practices.   James team was very appreciative of them not having Wednesday practices because surprisingly he ended up having 3 other LDS kids on team ( just by chance) and many other kids that had Wednesday night youth night.   It also did not affect their playing time, EJ was a starting attack and TJ a starting midfielder.

3.   Duck Tape is good, it has many uses, you know like duck taping some mouths shut etc etc ;) Ok I am just kidding, but am I really? :)

4. Always listen to your heart and the still small voice. Stay spiritual. Right and wrong becomes evermore clear when you stay spiritual and listen to the spirit. The blur line gets more black and white. Since I have been a little girl, I have always craved spiritual things.   As a young 10 year old, my journal writings consisted of spiritual matters of the heart. I have always felt things and prayer is not only a one way communication for me. Some people would call me a empath, but the reality is that I just listen better then others and do something about it.

5. Associations and desires dictate priorities, priorities shape our choices, and choices determine our actions. The desired we act on determine our changing, our achieving, and our becoming.   What great sound advice.   So are we taking to much time to work over family? Are we out doing sports more then spending time with the ones we love?   This was great sound advice I have been trying to used (more recently then not) to prioritize my life.

6.   Stay away from having sleepovers!!   (I really like this one lol). Nothing happens good at sleepovers.   To be honest I have always HATED allowing sleep overs at my house. Who really wants to watch more kids plus now that Rae is older and we have teenage boys, sleepover are out. I don't need that type of issues.   Great Sound Advice!!!

7.   I am a go getter. One reference a LDS person has for sound good advice is our patriarchal blessings. Part of the advice I've been give is that I needed to attend school and DO NOT WASTE TIME doing it. Yes it was in bold in my blessing. lol.   It also said that I would be the best qualified person in my chosen profession and that my talents would be in demand.   To me this is very interesting because most people don't get that specific advice in their blessing. My whole blessing is very specific... including the fact I am a good public speaker, which is absolutely true I will admit :) Other things are to personal to share but I do listen and take the advice to heart.

8. Exercise daily, and just do it!!   This one is a hard one for me. I have tons of excuses why I shouldn't exercise. I mean come on who wants to get up at 5 am just to run. Not me! That is for sure.   But I know I need to, hence why I started the weight loss challenge back last year.   It has helped me get off my weight or maintain (as i seems to be doing this challenge).    I also try to sign up for races as much as I can.   My next race will be a 1/2 marathon in November. I am signed up to do the 190 mile ragnar relay race in September but just found out I will be starting school the same time as the race so I am going to have to pull out sadly. :( My training starts today for the 1/2 marathon.   I did 3 miles today and it was NOT fun.

Anyways I have been given a lot of advice but these are the ones that stick out.   You have advice for me. Please give :)

I AM DONE>>>>>>> 0_0

2011-08-02T18:20:00.000-07:00

I can't even believe it!! I am done with all my nursing classes and moving onto my preceptorship. And yes I got a A :) I have put in my request to go pediatrics (Neonatal ICU, pediatric med/surg or pediatric ER) so we will see if I secure it. I will not know until around the time the quarter starts in the middle of September. There was many times during my nursing school I just wanted to give up and quit like the time 4th quarter when I sat through a ER routine saying to myself, "wt heck am I doing here". I also about gave up the ghost during 2nd quarter when I just couldn't work/take care of 5 kids properly and go to school full time all at once. I was getting pressure from outside sources that I wasn't doing enough and maybe I should quit. BUT instead I quit my job, went part time and its been a little easier since.

I am now waiting on a list with my kids school district to become part of their staff as a school nurse. They are waiting for me to graduate and pass my state boards. Yes not a glamorous job at all but its a good place to be with 5 kids, wanting summers off, and a good schedule were my kids will not be impacted. Other opportunities I have will be in a woman's fertility clinic working part time, we will see if that pans out.

Nurse in action... IV therapy

Anyways life is good...

Signed...this soon to be RN :)

Because ….

2011-07-28T23:41:00.001-07:00

It's been a while since I posted anything and Kari bribed me by allowing me to purchase the new Lion upgrade of Apple's operating system. I really like the updates to Mail and iCal.

Not so much with Reminders as I had much higher expectations, I'm still using Things and trying to get my task list to sync across 2 macs and my iPhone. Cultured Code, will you let me into your stinking beta for cloud sync?!?! No goodness yet, but I fall apart without my task list to keep me on track.

I have a new job now, one which I really enjoy. I'm back building large websites and am running a development team responsible for keeping Zumiez.com alive and kicking. The current site is not a representation of my work, but I've managed to change a lot of things on the back-end which have improved the performance and stability of the site. At the moment, we're actually adding 8 new servers to the farm until we make the switch to the Amazon AWS cloud in the October timeframe.

I also enjoy working with Linux and OSX. It had been a long time since I'd lived most of my day in a terminal window and Vim, but it feels like coming back home after spending 9 years at Microsoft. I recall back in 2001/2 feeling like I was on top of my game and I could be proud as I'd architected and lead the development of some of the largest web sites at that time.

But then I took a detour into the Marketing and Biz Dev world working with and mentoring mid-size to enterprise ISVs. Looking back, I loved the work, but I lost my technical chops in the process and becoming a manager of a biz dev or marketing team was not on my Christmas wish list.

I am much happier now. Going 9 months without a stable job was tough, but I landed exactly where I want to be and can excel. I see myself as more of a software development manager/director who still cherry picks projects to maintain my technical skillz. I'd put myself at sub-God or maybe newb Guru status, (who am I kidding I am just a re-treaded wannabe). I tried emacs and reverted back to Vim…. I just feel much more at home in Vim.

I have to admit I was going to go python, but setting up virtualenv vs rvm for ruby was a real pain. I did get code completion working for django in vim, but it is so easy in rails/ruby. I've reverted back to ruby/rails - I'm not quite ready to join the cool kids on that front.

Just to be uber-geeky, I even threw up my .vim and .vimrc on github And here's a cool screen shot, which I grabbed with (CTRL-Shift-CMD-4) - (gotta love apple for this kind of stuf):

Alright, I think that is long enough to put most readers to sleep. Maybe it will even deter Kari from asking me to post for a while. Hmmmh, she could bribe me to post regularly if we bought a new camera with a nice zoom lense or two...

cheers,

James

Likes/Dislikes. What more can I say!!

2011-07-22T17:08:00.000-07:00

So recently I have been thinking about what I like and do not like. I am always just complacent, just doing what everyone else wants to do and get what everyone else wants to get. I have always just dealt with it. So these last few days I have been thinking. What do I really like and don't like? Here are my answers with a few pictures for you to mull over..

I should probably be nice first so here is my like list:

First and foremost...

1. I love my family tremendously. I am glad my older boys dont mind hugging and kissing me in public and love to hang around me (not many moms can say that!!). I am glad my teenagers are very open with me (sometimes a little to open) because it makes it easy to discuss those hard topics that no parent likes to talk about.

2. I love James. Every night I look forward to him coming home from his new job and being with me and the family. The man helps me cook, clean, and actually wants to spend time with me (which doesn't happen that often with most couples). We go out on a date night weekly regardless of how much stuff we have to do, he makes that time just for me!! He doesn't mind if I went out on a huge shopping spree which I rarely, practically never do!! He is always complimenting me nonstop, which I will admit it is hard for me to take compliments!! It's just the way I am. :) He puts up with all my crotchetiness, especially after a LONG day with nonstop torture from the kids (like today). I love that man that's all I can say!! :)

3. I LOVE me some granite. No more formica for me. You will NEVER see me have a wood table top for a kitchen table. Its granite all the way for this house of very active boys!!.

4. I love hardwood floors. Carpet just stinks, although I do love frazee carpet.

5. I love canvas pictures with no picture frame. My favorite is the pictures of the tulips I have from IKEA. Although anything canvas will do as long as it is not well peacockish. :)

6. I Love a house with high ceilings and wainscoting, it makes it look so elegant.

7. I love brick homes!! None of this crap siding you find here in the Seattle area.

8. I love sour candy. Yes, Yes my favorite is sour skittles. I have to get my 200 calorie fill pack every week.

9. I love Starbucks. OK before you get all in a tiff, NOT for the coffee. :) I love it for the hot chocolate and the spiced caramel apple cider.

10. I love Kettle Sea Salt and Vinegar chips. I can finish it down in one sitting. Yep that is a whole bag I am talking about lol. If you didn't know, us Wendts have a big voracious appetite. Hence why I am always watching what I eat. :)

11. I love horses. I use to ride then when I was younger and use to ride in shows, English style. :)

12. I love country music, alternative music, and the current bands. I just love listening to music. You might even see me dancing it up in my den which the kids HATE. lol

13. I love well manicured gardens and a clean house. If my house is a mess I am very crotchety. Ask my kids and James. :)

14. I like having friends around and love running with a running buddy. Not liking this running by my self thing I have been doing while up here.

15. I love my church. There are those that have to have testament to things that are true and there are those, Like me, that just know its true without having constant reassurance its true. I guess its a gift I have. But my life would not be complete without the church in it. I love going every week (ok maybe that not totally true, sometimes it hard to get 5 kids ready and sit through sacrament with crazy kids, but for the most part its true).

16. I love being in nursing school although it is extremely time consuming. It's just that it my thing, not James, not the kids but mine. In the same respect I know I will be happy when it is done (december!! )

17. I love a challenge in all things. I love that a good friend and I started the weight loss challenge together.   We have changed lives. I think the total thus far for all 4 challenges is well over 1100 lbs lost.   Just just week teams have lost over 50 together. :) I am proud of this accomplishment and plan to take this bigger.

18. I love snuggling up in bed watching a good movie or TV series.   I am not one to start a TV series in the middle. I have to start all the way from the beginning to get the full effect.   It was not fun watching smallville from the beginning to find out that the series ended a few months back!! I was almost depressed when I found out it was the finale. lol It would take much to see me wrapped up in my blankets just vegging. :) I love just snuggling in general, right James? :)

19. I love going to a good movie at the movie theatre. I will say though I am sorta getting sick of it and have been more wanting to stay home and watch a good movie snuggled in bed.

20. I love reading a good book especially ones in series. I can hardly put it down when I start reading. Sadly my reading is now nursing books and soon to be NCLEX studying books as I prepare to take the state license exam in December/Jan timeframe.

21. I love throwing parties. I love a good 4th of July BBQ and getting tons of fireworks. I throw good parties, Right Tami? :)

22. I love getting manicures/pedicures. I love freshly painted toes the most. Man I need to go get me a pedicure soon. :)

23. I LOVE my macbook pro laptop. The kids tripped up the stairs with my old macbook pro last summer and so James bought me a new one in the fall. I love it. Window computer just DO NOT compare to a good mac!!! I should include that I love my iphone too and will soon get James Iphone 4 when the iphone 5 comes out in the fall (zumiez has a great deal on them for everyone).

24. Love getting clothes for 1/2 price! Now that James works for Zumiez we get 50% off!! YAY!! BOY HEAVEN.

I can go on and on on what I like. I realize I do like alot of things.

Now here is my "dislike"...

1. I dislike DOGS. Yes I know! I do have my weimaraner Athena. Athena is the best of my dislike category and the kids love her. I dislike dog smells, slobber, tongues, looks, and find it extremely annoying when athena walks around all over the house following me.   I hate dogs near tables when we eat, hate them staring at me when I cook, I just hate having a dog in general.. BUT I can't give Athena up because she the best of the hate list.  Just a reminder, if you have a dog please don't allow it to jump on me or get on my furniture, you will see me twitching and restless! :)

2. I dislike noise. Ok you say to yourself, "how could Kari hate noise when she has 5 kids". Well I do. When someone screams in the house I cringe and my nerves are shot.

Close that dang mouth of yours!!

3. I hate people chewing like cows. Chew chew chew. I hate food coming out of peoples mouth as they chew and talk to. So if you ever are near me you better just keep that mouth closed or you will find me cringing and walking away or moving.

4. I don't like people hovering over me. For example, when I was at the mall a few days ago I was sitting in a mall chair talking to my good friend while AJ sat in my lap, CJ hanging on the arm of the chair leaning into me and TJ hovering over the back of me. My friend could tell I was getting agitated and restlessless. lol

5. I don't like kids butting into adult conversations. There have been many times when I am talking to other adults and my 10 and 12 year old are sitting right there listening to every word I say plus the other adults kids. It just bothers me, GOOOO PLAY Geez!!!

6. I have a sensory issue (as you can tell lol) and get overstimulated easy and don't like to much close contact. I mean yes I dont mind snuggling etc etc but I don't like the hovering stuff. I can get massages but if you rub my arm to long my skins starts to hurt and I start cringing.

YUM!!! You wanna see for yourself what happens
when you drink to oblivion. Well here it is!!

7. I dislike working with adults in the hospital. Hmmm that might be a problem being a nurse dont you think? lol I just find adults whinny, demanding, and rude. From my experiences in the clinical setting, I find that I put on a good face but am really intolerant to stupidity of adults. OK IF YOU ARE GOING TO DRINK TO OBLIVION DON'T EXPECT YOUR LIVER TO BE OK!! GOT IT!!! lol I can't stand seeing all the people in the hospital that shouldn't be there and are there only because of their stupidity. Young adults who are already dying because they couldn't get control of themselves. Kids on the other hand might be whinny, but there kids, you expect that from kids. I dislike the ER, MED/SURG, and most anything to do with adult nursing. Sadly that only leaves me a few options in my nursing career but I am ok with that.

8. I will admit this, I can't believe I will admit this. I am intolerance of certain other peoples children. Depend on the kids, I get annoyed easy. I don't like other kids hovering around me. Now you are saying well how can you be a pediatric nurse and say that. Well the children in the hospital are sick, that why I said "certain" other peoples children because sick kids are not included in that dislike. I can handle my close friends children too. I am not a sleep over fan either. Who wants to watch other kids when you have 5 of you own lol.

WOW my hate list is very exstensive. I am going to stop now. I feeling the hate just writing this lol. Anyways. There is a little about me. I better stop because I really can go on and on all day long. Anyways cheers.

-will proofread later. I am to tired after that long post to proofread. :)

HA! Read this article.

2011-07-19T09:05:00.000-07:00

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/komo/article/How-much-summer-have-we-had-78-minutes-1470646.php#ixzz1SZDIExBv

How much summer have we had? 78 minutes

By SCOTT SISTEK, KOMO NEWS

Does it seem like you can measure the amount of summer weather we've had this year with a stopwatch?

Turns out, you probably can. In fact, head to see the latest blockbuster at the theater and Seattle's accumulative summer would be over and done long before the credits rolled.

I've been curious since most of our warmest days as far as official high temperatures go don't seem to stay warm very long -- for example, the high on Friday was officially 76 at Sea-Tac Airport, but it was 63 a few hours later when the rain arrived. Or on July 2, it was 81 at 6 p.m. but 71 two hours later and 64 at 9 p.m.

So if someone was to someday go back and look in the weather logs, it might have looked like Friday was a nice warm day. But it sure didn't feel like it at the time. Plenty of our other warm days have quickly cooled with the strong evening sea breezes or marine pushes.

That got me to thinking -- just how long has it been *really* warm this summer in Seattle?

While Sea-Tac Airport only reports temperatures on the hour, the University of Washington Atmospheric Sciences Department keeps a minute-by-minute log of the weather station atop its roof on the Seattle campus. And since the UW is in the heart of Seattle, while the airport is more like the lower-left shin, I figure this could be an accurate representation of what a true Seattle person would have felt this summer. The mission: Find out how many minutes it's been at 80 degrees or warmer this year-- what I would call a true warm summer day in Seattle.

The answer: 78 minutes.

Or, breaking it down: 12 minutes on July 2, and 66 minutes on July 6.

(The official Sea-Tac record books say Seattle has had three days at 80 or warmer, the warmest being 84 degrees on July 6. The UW's warmest day was 81 on July 6 with the other day at 80 and the third at 79.)

For those that say: "C'mon, you know 80's a pipe dream around here. I'd say 75 degrees is a more accurate 'summer representation,' "

I'd first reply, "Wow, these past two summers have really warped our perceptions of a normal Seattle summer" but my second reply would be, "can do."

It turns out, we've had a whopping 18 hours and 48 minutes of temperatures above 75 this summer -- hey, it's more than 2/3rd of a day! Never mind that some cities like Dallas haven't been below 75, day or night, since June 23rd.

(On the other hand, Paine Field in Everett has yet to reach 75 this year. Their highest temperture has been 74.)

Actually, much of the rest of the nation has been suffering under one of the hottest summers they've seen in ages. The Pacific Coast has been the only safe haven for excrutiating heat, so maybe staying cool isn't such a horrible thing.

But we realize that there are a lot of sun fans out here who realize hot weather is rare enough in a normal summer, much less this one. So next time the temperature climbs to 80 degrees, run -- don't walk -- to your nearest beach. It might be all you get.

Oh, and bring a jacket if you're out past 8 o'clock.

Watch Your Step Video by Jeffrey R Holland

2011-07-10T10:12:00.000-07:00

This is a great video and so true.. A must see.

TJ turns 14!!

2011-07-08T15:23:00.000-07:00

This is TJ's Justin Bieber look. He loves his hair longer while I dread it.
It's a epic battle in my house. :)

With our move and all I never posted a TJ birthday post.. So here goes: :)

I really can't believe TJ is now 14 years old and going into 9th grade. He turned 14 on June 20th. WOW time has flown by so fast over the years. TJ had the unfortunately/Fortunated birthday of having it on the last day of school :) SO as much as it was great to be out, it was also the last time he would be going to school with his friends. Poor TJ spend his birthday with packed boxes all around him. He was invited that same night to a going away party with his friends so we did not celebrate his birthday for a few days later. Mr. TJ got himself a Ipod Touch (that we had bought months before for the other kids at a great price!!) and got some clothes from Zumiez. We did end up taking him to dinner a few days after his birthday.

I am so proud of you TJ. I love you tons. You are a true athlete and friend.

Here is some pictures of TJ growing up:

TJ is in Blue. This is the earliest pic I have of him,
I need to scan in all his pics when he was a baby

TJ makes the funnest faces all the time. Doesn't he look like AJ. :)

TJ use to snowboard all the time.

TJ loves lacrosse and is very good at it!! He made the select team this year!

I love you T, you have been a blessing in our lifes and I can't wait to see you accomplish some great things in your life!! Hint hint mission, school and marriage :)

School starts, move almost over...

2011-07-08T08:48:00.000-07:00

Our move is finally over and we are still unpacking the garage. It took us 3 trucks to get everything moved. We rented a 26 foot uhaul and a 26 foot penske with a lift gate just to so that we could get our big gun safe on the truck. We had to make 2 trips with the penske truck. That is not the end of it. Our hot tub still needed to be moved plus we ended up with a Tundra truck load of extra crap that we had to get from the house. NO fun. Here are some pictures:

Our new place

Kitchen w/ Granites

Living Room

Dining Room

Foyer/hall

Foyer

Yes we have to have a Lacrosse Net in the front lawn. never go without the Lacrosse net please!!

Gardens of backyard

back patio. no furniture yet, I am waiting for end of summer clearance. Ok so Im cheap!!

Family Room off kitchen

School started again for me this week. I will admit I was a little scared and anxious about going into a real Mental institution this time around. I have done 1 day of orientation and yesterday I had my first day on the Ward I am assigned too. Just the constant "eyes" on me made me very nervous and almost felt I couldn't turn my back for one second. I know I am suppose to be learning something.. like that mental illness is real (which I do believe it is) and that they are people who just need love (which I agree) but its hard to see that when you are constantly looking over you shoulder wondering what's going to happen next. I only have 3 more days at the institution then I am off to Long Term Care for the remainder of the quarter. Not sure if this type of work is cut out for me. I will stick with my pediatric endeavors. lol.

The Kids are off from school and driving me nuts already! Come back school year I need you. :) The kids are pretty bored this summer because we have moved away from all our friends. I keep telling some of the kids to do sports (thats starts now) so that they can meet people but some have refused to do anything. (can you tell who that could be :) ). We still have not made the total transition to our new ward because the MV ward has asked me to speak in sacrament meeting at church on sunday. I am still trying to figure out on what. At first I wanted to speak on Faith but then I keep coming back to the talk Jeffery Holland spoke in conference. We will see what I do.

Anyways. That is a update for now. I have a lot to do this weekend. I have to get 3 assignments done for school and then work on my talk for church plus get the garage unpacked. :)

An Ensign to the Nations- Jeffrey R. Holland

2011-06-22T13:03:00.000-07:00

Jeffrey R. Holland is my all time favorite church speaker. The reason.. he is to the point and says it how it is and brings emotion to his talks. You can believe him because of he is sincere. Enjoy!!
0

Happenings...

2011-06-07T14:33:00.000-07:00

POST UPDATED>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

1. It crazy how time gets away from you. Our anniversary happened to be on May 27th and because of TJ's tournament down in Portland we totally forgot about it. There was no boohoo, someone forgetting, it was both of us who forgot!! lol. On Sunday night we sat around talking and realized the day had slipped away from us. Luckily neither of us were at all upset about it. We just vowed not to do it again and plan a get away sometime soon. James and I have been married for 17 years now. Thank you for all the good years you have given me and the kids. Let go party!! :)

2. As of today, I am done for the quarter in school. YAY!! I ended with a 4.0 in both classes. Woot!! Now I have 4 weeks off and then start my clinical rotation for Western State Hospital on July 5th (orientation). I will only have 4 weeks of school this summer, then will be off until end of September. Now is the time preceptorship requests will go in and I will definitely put in for a pediatrics rotation. Cross your fingers I get it!!

3. My dad and brother Ian will be here today for a visit. Although Ian did come out last summer to watch my kids for me, my dad has not seen us for 6 years. We are all very excited to see him. My dad has not seen the kids in a long time and they have change extremely from little kids to young men and women at this point. I am not sure what we are going to do but we are going to have fun that for sure.

4. James new job has taken a toll on family life and our wallet (for gas), so we have decided to pack up the family one last time (hopefully) and move north of Seattle. We have never lived up north and have always lived in this region of Seattle. This should be a new experience. We will be moving up to Bothell area, but my kids will be in the Woodinville schools (Northshore SD). This should be interesting. We move at the end of this month and will miss this area extremely. I have loved living in Maple Valley and have met so many friends. We will miss everyone.

The new place we getting is a 3200 sq foot home built in 1996 with 1 acre. Yes I vowed I would never get acreage again but this house is nice and in a nice area with neighbors all around. The house does not feel like living in a bat cave like the Enumclaw home did. :) Pictures will follow soon.

5. TJ's PCLC Lacrosse team took 3rd in the Lake Oswego Tournament down in Portland 2 week ago. Congrats to the team!!

anyways..there you go! The Vastbinder's happenings. Fun Fun. :)

Swaying like a Drunken Sailor....

2011-05-18T11:12:00.000-07:00

I am 3 day post Cruise and I am STILL swaying like a drunkin Sailor. It was well worth it though and I would do it again!!! On May 11, 2011 Rae, Angela, Tracy and their 2 daughters went on a girls only cruise up the Pacific Coast. We flew down to Long Beach California and cruised up to Vancouver, BC, Canada.

As we walked off the plane I couldn't help but think we made a mistake not taking that Microsoft Job in California instead of the Job at Zumiez. :) The Sky was crystal blue, the temperature in the low 70's, and perfect sailing weather. It was beautiful!!

Day 1 of the cruise was very smooth and WARM. Day 2 was not so smooth to the point we were swaying the whole day and the wind was horrible. By day 3 the closer we got to the Northwest the colder it got! lol. It was still fun and would do it again!!

Vancouver was very pretty for the most part. I never realized Vancouver was such a big city. We spend all day in Vancounver visiting a Science Center and then hoped on a Amtrak to come back down to Seattle which was also an awesome trip as no one but me at ever taken a train before. :)

We had a great time!! Thank you for the wonderful memory. Love you Rae!!

At seattle Airport

The cruise ship

About to get on the cruise ship!

It was so windy on this cruise day 2

The girls loved the wind!!

Right before getting of the boat day 3

The girls won a contest on who can make a contraption that can get rid of slugs!!

Vancouver

We got upgraded to a suite the night before. The girls had there own room!

This is how bad the boat was rocking on day 2. They had to close the pools. Think about about how we all felt as you see those waves. lol

3 musketeers

Before getting on Train back to Seattle.

TJ made the PCLC Select lacrosse team!!!

2011-05-03T08:36:00.000-07:00

I'm such a proud momma!!! I didn't realize they were having tryouts this past weekend until Friday and registration had closed. I sent and email to the director asking if he could still tryout in which he sent back a prompt response saying they had 170+ kids trying out and that they would not accept another because the competition was to great. Do you think that would stop me? lol No. I sent back TJ stats for the season and they decided to let him tryout as a "walk on" and wanted to see his skills.

There are 3 teams for PCLC : Elite, East Select, West Select. Because we live on the East side of Seattle he could only do the Elite and East Select. He didn't make the Elite team but did make the Select. They only accepted 18 (9 on Elite and 9 on Select) middie positions and TJ secured one of them. :) Again I'm a proud momma.

On top of him travellling to Oregon and California for the PCLC tourney's he will be participating in Tahoma's Summer tourney which also includes a few in this area and one in Portland. He's going to be a busy boy this next few months!! EJ will be trying out for the HS Select team next month. Let hope he makes it too!!

Here are some more pics of TJ and his team from Mt Si red game... TJ's Tahoma white team is 8 and 1, only losing to the top team!!

TJ going again #81 who kept on hurting all the teams players!!!

Oh so close...

2011-04-28T19:30:00.000-07:00

Kari Vastbinder, RN

Just seeing the title behind my name is mind boggling. Right now I have to sign my title as SRN (student RN) in the hospital setting. It will be so nice to drop the "s". I am sooooo close to finishing. I am already half way through this quarter (5 more weeks left- Jun 9th is my last day) and doing very well. This week the program has already asked me for my 5th quarter clinical rotation preference for summer.

My choices...

1) t/w at ALVA -VA hospital for both long term care rotation and mental health rotation - 5 weeks total

2) m/th at Western State Hospital (ok that should be interesting lol a real loony bin!!! ok I should be more respectful :) ) for mental health and then a condensed rotation at Rainier Vista for LTC for 2 weeks. - 4 weeks longs.

Of course I picked the condensed rotation so I hope I get it!!! 4 weeks long seems worth one week of 4 days of clinical.

After this I am DONE DONE DONE!!! I go onto preceptorship in fall where I am going to request a pediatrics rotation. Hopefully I get it. I am so not into working with adults in the hospital AND who wants to get a rotation where I have a 6-8 patient per nurse ratio. Not I. lol Pediatrics is a specialty so I won't have the patient load.

Anyway, had to share in my excitement. Today all the nursing students were talking about it and extremely excited it's almost finally over. It's been a LONG 2 years.

My Nephew Braedan has arrived-- 4/21/11

2011-04-22T09:15:00.000-07:00

My Brother Ryan and his wife Erin had their new baby boy, Braedan Gaige, yesterday!! YAY. That makes 22 nieces and nephews for me with more to come!!!. He was born in the early morning and was 7 lbs 8 ounces 21 1/2 inches long. Congrats to both of you!!!

Mud, a boys heaven.....

2011-04-19T10:40:00.000-07:00

Talk about boy Heaven!! :)

On Saturday James's lacrosse game got canceled (via a forfeit) and so we did a intraclub mix it up scrimmage. The boys threw their lacrosse sticks into a pile and then James just went back and forth throwing sticks to 2 piles to make the 2 teams. Our scrimmage was moved to the MUD field which was the best thing that could have happened. They had tons of pure fun out there slamming each other into the mud on purpose and taking sliding shots, etc. Even the Goalie was getting into it while sinking into the mud pit around the goal. Here are some pictures from the day. The scrimmage got rave reviews and a we got a request to have another intraclub scrimmage for the 7/8 teams.

Tahoma 7/8 team.. TJ hugging the goalie :)

TJ has the ripped up Pinny.

The Visiting Teaching Movie

2011-04-19T09:08:00.000-07:00

These Visitng teaching funny clips might not make you laugh but they make me laugh. lol Have you ever had one of these types of visits from your teaching visitor? Have you felt your visiting teaching was just trying to rush rush rush to so that they had "100%" visiting teaching rate that month. These clips are hilarious, maybe only to the LDS eye because we know what visiting teaching SHOULD be like which is definitely NOT like the clips you will see. You do see what visiting teaching is about by the end at about 6 1/2 minutes into the film lol...

So what is visiting teaching? Here are some spoken word examples of what visiting teaching is : http://lds.org/liahona/2011/03/home-teaching-and-visiting-teaching-a-work-of-ministering?lang=eng&query=visiting+teaching

Its a time to really love the people we visit, to pray about their needs and be a support to the sister and her needs and family needs. Even with our busy lives, it shouldn't be rushed. It takes time to love and help others. My goal is to try to be a better visiting teacher to the sisters I visit that they may feel the love I have for them. Check out this visiting teaching video:

Very interesting article, "Why I won't be seeing the Book of Mormon musical" by Michael Otterson

2011-04-15T13:09:00.000-07:00

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-faith/post/why-i-wont-be-seeing-the-book-of-mormon-musical/2011/04/14/AFiEn1fD_blog.html

Here is the actual article just in case the link goes away after a while:

Why I won’t be seeing the Book of Mormon musical

Reviews of “The Book of Mormon” musical have been all over the entertainment media in the past few weeks. According to the reviews, the play sketches the journey of two Mormon missionaries from their sheltered life in Salt Lake City to Uganda, where their training and life experience proves wholly inadequate to the realities of a continent plagued by poverty, AIDS, genital mutilation and other horrors. While extolling the musical for its originality, most reviewers also make reference to the play’s over-the-top blasphemous and offensive language.
Dealing with parody and satire is always a tricky thing for churches. We can easily appear thin-skinned or defensive, and churches sometimes are. A few members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who have seen this musical and blogged about it seem to have gone out of their way to show how they can take it. That’s their choice. There’s always room for different perspectives, and we can all decide what to do with our free time.
But I’m not buying what I’m reading in the reviews. Specifically, I’m not willing to spend $200 for a ticket to be sold the idea that religion moves along oblivious to real-world problems in a kind of blissful naiveté.
Somewhere I read that the show’s creators spent seven years writing and producing “The Book of Mormon” musical. As I reflected on all that time spent parodying this particular target, I also wondered what was really going on with Mormons in Africa during those same seven years.
So I checked.
•The World Health Organization estimates that 884 million people worldwide don’t have access to clean water. This is a huge problem in Africa, not only because of water-borne diseases but because kids who spend hours each day walking to and from the nearest well to fill old gasoline cans with water cannot attend school. According to church records, in the past seven years, more than four million Africans in 17 countries have gained access to clean drinking water through Mormon humanitarian efforts to sink or rehabilitate boreholes.
•More than 34,000 physically handicapped African kids now have wheelchairs through the same Mormon-sponsored humanitarian program. To see a legless child whose knuckles have become calloused through walking on his hands lifted into a wheelchair may be the best way to fully understand the liberation this brings.
•Millions of children, meanwhile, have now been vaccinated against killer diseases like measles as the church has sponsored or assisted with projects in 22 African countries.
•More than 126,000 Africans have had their sight restored or improved through Mormon partnership with African eye care professionals in providing training, equipment and supplies.
•Another 52,000 Africans have been trained to help newborns who otherwise would never take a first breath. Training in neonatal resuscitation has also been a big project for Mormons in Africa.
•Then, of course, there is the tragedy of AIDS. A couple of weeks ago I attended a dinner where the Utah AIDS Foundation honored James O. Mason, former United States Assistant Secretary of Health. When he was working for the Center for Disease Control in 1984, a project to research the epidemiology and treatment of AIDS was established at the Hospital Mama Yempo in Kinshasha, Zaire. After visiting the hospital and examining the children and adults with AIDS, Mason described the death rate and the associated infections from AIDS as “horrific.” Mason, a Mormon, knows quite a bit about AIDS and a great deal about Africa.
•None of this includes responses to multiple disasters, like the flooding in Niger, where the Church provided clothing, quits and hygiene items to 20,000 people in six inundated regions of the country.
Of course, parody isn’t reality, and it’s the very distortion that makes it appealing and often funny. The danger is not when people laugh but when they take it seriously – if they leave a theater believing that Mormons really do live in some kind of a surreal world of self-deception and illusion.
A couple of weeks ago a review about the musical appeared at the New York Times from a Jewish writer who simply listed himself as Levi. “As someone of Jewish faith,” he began, “I take personal offense at this show….I cannot believe that New York, MY New York, where I was born and raised, would ever do such a thing. Shame on you, New York Times, shame on Broadway, and shame on all of us who stand idly by and do nothing while the faith of others is mocked. Religious and cultural Jews need not support such bigotry.”
Levi’s point was echoed by some reviewers, but by surprisingly few. So why hasn’t there been a huge outcry from Mormons?
In my opinion, three reasons. The first is that in the great scheme of things, what Broadway does with “The Book of Mormon” musical is irrelevant to most of us. In the great sweep of history, parodies and TV dramas are blips on the radar screen that come and go. Popular culture will be whatever it will be.
The second reason is related. Jesus’s apostle Paul put it rather well when he said that Christians seek out the positive and virtuous things in life. His New Testament phraseology was adapted in the early years of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in this formal Article of Faith:
“We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men…If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.”
Finally, if we Mormons really do follow Jesus Christ in our lives and look to him as an example, then it’s hard for us to ignore the injunction to turn the other cheek. There were times, to be sure, when Jesus roundly criticized others, but it was almost always for hardened hypocrisy. He dismissed the criticism he received personally and told his followers: “Do good to them who despitefully use you and persecute you.”
It takes strength of character to do this, but it’s the Christian mandate. Sure, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints pushes back when the record needs correcting or when legal rights need defending, but the world of popular entertainment is more likely to be met with a collective shrug than by placard-waving Mormon protesters.
Meanwhile, what of those thousands of remarkable and selfless Mormon missionaries who opted to pay their own expenses during the past seven years to serve in Africa while their peers were focused on careers or getting on with life? They have returned home, bringing with them a connection with the African people that will last a lifetime. Many will keep up their Swahili language or their Igbo dialect. They will keep in their bedrooms the flags of the nations where they served. They will look up every time they hear Africa mentioned on the evening news. Their associations with the people whose lives they touched will become lifetime friendships. And in a hundred ways they will become unofficial ambassadors for the nations they served.

Michael Otterson | Apr 14, 2011 10:23 PM

My thoughts......
And really people who cares what people think or say. There will always be critics and there will always be people going against the church or anything to do with the church, or poking fun. I agree with this article, despite what people say, actions speak loudly. Let them all talk, and let us be grateful that they are talking because at least they are talking. Right? lol I bet the outrage and even the play will spur people on to investigate the church and become a new member. :) It is always best to turn the other check to things, and defend only when necessary!!!

Whatchamacallit...

2011-04-05T14:43:00.000-07:00

I didn't know what to name this post. Naming it "Life" is way to boring! Naming it "Job" is the same. So why not a odd word lol. MUCH more interesting. :)

First and foremost, I need to spit out our exciting news... I'M PREGNANT.....   HA!! If you thought that was real you have another thing coming!!! That the last thing I want or would think exciting news!!lol.

Ok well I will not delay my play.   James got a job!!   He went in for a interview for a 4 month contract job working for Zumiez ( you know that cool hip snowboarding/skateboarding place) and came out with a full time offer for another job because they loved him so much. He will be managing the whole reconstruction of ZUMIEZ.COM . The only thing is this job is way up in Everett, 50 miles from the town we live in. This means we will have to make some hard decisions after the school year ends. Do we stay or do we move AGAIN.   Is it worth it to uproot the family again to live north of seattle to save money on gas and commute time. A little over 1 hour for good traffic conditions and an 1 1/2 hours for not good traffic (which is the majority of the time) seems overkill. BUT we love our community, love our ward at church, love our schools (top 5 in state). Decisions decisions!! These next few months will include heart felt prayers, a tally of gas charges, and looking into the possibilities of a move. Will we find the same up north (woodinville/bothell area)? Will we find the strong LDS community we have in this town (we have 5 wards in this small town)? Will the kids adjust? Will my son who is in IEP (resource) get the help he needs in another school district? Advice is needed if anyone wants to give some. Just respond to this post if you would like to give me some advice on this.

Moving on.. This week kids are on spring break! EJ and TJ will be going on a canoeing trip at the end of the week while the little ones stay at home with me, and daddy going to his new job.   There is no money to go on a trip at this point. After this quarter for my school we hope to take a trip as a family.

My school is school. What more can I say about it. Talking about death all the time has it's moments probably why I want to go into pediatric nursing instead of other areas (although death is apart of that field also). We are starting to read a book called "Tuesday with Morrie" which I have to admit is a great book on see death through a terminally ill person eyes. Morrie follows a lot of what I believe. I have to say thus far in my Nursing school endeavors, it's been about medical issues with touch of holistic nursing. This quarter is all focused on the mind, spirit, and of course the body. Very interesting. I can't help by tear up reading this book along with my other book I am reading in my End of life class, ' Man's search for Meaning".

Anyways enough of kari rant. Good things, school, and rant all in one post. WOOT!!

Rae Turns 12!!

2011-03-31T10:48:00.000-07:00

Here is my beautiful 12 year old

I can't believe Rae turned 12. She now is old enough to go into Young Womens at church. She is so excited to be with the older girls now!! For her birthday she got a new pair of converse shoes, a ipod touch (we got a awesome deal on it), and of COURSE make up from grandma V. Thank you grandma!!. Because Rae turned 12, she gets to go do something with me one on one. So Rae, me, and a few of her friends and mom's will be going on a 3 day cruise up the coast in May. We will be flying down to LA and cruising up to vancouver. Luckily this was already bought and paid for before James got laid off so we will get to go. YAY!! We will have a girl party sometime soon as soon as James new job pays out a paycheck lol...

Here are some pictures of Rae over the years:

This is my earliest picture of Rae, I took a shot of this from EJ's journal. I still need to scan in alot of pictures from when the kids where young. Rae was about 2 here. She was always a happy little girl. This picture was taken back when we lived in Newark, NY.

This is my all time favorite picture of Rae when she was just barely 4 years old. :) She ALWAYs use to and still to this day loves putting on make-up. She was excited turning 12 and finally able to wear makeup at school and around. The secret she is learning is less is best. A lesson she didnt know when she was 4. HEHE. She is such a beautiful girl both inside and out!!

This is her make up kit she got for christmas when she was 4. :) Like I said she has always been into make up.

Growing up around all boys has it benefits!! Rae can ride our 4 wheeler with the best of them :)

Rae has always been second mom to AJ. He loves her to death and is Always hanging around her!!

Rae loves her Daddy tons!!! Daddy and Rae went to a church hoe down dance last year!!. She is so beautiful!!

I love you Rae, You are a wonderful beautiful daughter. You are the best!!! Happy Birthday!!

EJ turns 15!!!

2011-03-23T19:48:00.000-07:00

Last friday, EJ turned 15!! I can't even believe my baby is 15. It seems like yesterday I was holding my little guy as a little tiny baby. Life and time has flown by. He has only 3 years with us before he goes to college and 4 years until his mission!!! I know it will fly even faster these next 3 years. I told EJ the other day that I was going to miss him tremendously when he goes off to college!! He was like, " MOM>>>>> are you tearing up!!!" and then proceeded to laugh at me lol. He then gave me a hug and said he loved me. Makes me proud to call him my son!!

EJ w/ some of his lacrosse buddies

at 2008 Chumash Lacrosse Tourney

So what did we do on EJ birthday....
EJ had his first JV lacrosse game of the season on Bainbridge Island. So friday night our whole family, plus EJ's friend, went on a ferry ride across the Puget sound to get over to his game. Sadly, we missed the 3:45 ferry by minutes, and the 4:40 ferry ended up being full, so by 5:30 pm (and late to the game mind you, game started at 5:30) we finally got on a ferry to make it across. EJ ended up making it right at the end up 1st quarter when the score was 6-0 with his team on the 0 side of the equation. EJ got right in the game and score the only goal of the game, mind you within 1 minute of him getting in the game!! Good Job EJ. :) The score sadly was 11-1 at end. We then stayed to see the varsity game which was even more depressing when at 1/2 time the score was 16-0, and decide to take off to not see the massacre any more with the promise of a ice cream stop!!!

We got a GREAT deal on a Ipod Touch for him (and Rae for her birthday tomorrow) and he was very happy to open it up in the morning!!. He has been listening to the music plus playing all the apple app game on it since. The boy always has 1 earphone in at all times.

I love you EJ. You are a wonderful son!!! You make your momma proud!!

Here are some more pics of EJ growing up. Most my pictures of him as a little guy are not in digital form so I only have him from 6 on.

Brotherly Love. You will always fine EJ and TJ doing just this!! They wrestle around to this day. This was taken in 2005. EJ is a awesome snowboarding. He is not afraid to go down the double black diamond trails and does them well. He was a Junior Snowboard instructor last year!!

EJ is ALWAYS hanging on the end of my couches even to this day. :) I am always having to yell at him to remove himself from them!!

EJ has been playing lacrosse since 5th grade and LOVES it. He is in 6th grade in this picture.

EJ is very ACCIDENT prone. He has had 2 broken arms since October!!! This time he had to have surgery to put a pin in his arm to keep it in place while it healed.

EJ has had all these weird sicknesses happen to him since he was a little boy. At 5 his appendix burst and was in the hospital off and on for months, at 10, he had shingles, at 11 he had cratched growth plates in his heels, and at 12 (this picture) he is getting his adnoids out!!! Oh not to mention is 2 broken arms this past years!! Not just 1, but both arms!!!

EJ snowboarding in 2005.

The season Starts......

2011-03-15T18:27:00.000-07:00

The Boys took this picture on saturday while I was out on date night :)

Yep, I'm talkin' lacrosse here!!! :)   James is coaching TJ 7/8 team this year YAY. EJ starts JV. Life is busy. TJ first game was against Woodinville on saturday and they whooped them 11-6 Go Tahoma white!!! EJ first game is Friday (his birthday) up in Bainbridge island. Hopefully they do as well as all 3 7/8 grade teams did.
AJ and CJ start lacrosse in 2 weeks. They are also very excited.

Rae was going to do swimming but now we have to figure out something else to do for her.

So whats been happening.. Well good and the bad..

I will start off with the bad to get that out of the way so I can focus on the positive more.

1. Our Cadillac CTS engine died, the timing chain to be exact. The dang car only has 50,800 miles on it, way to soon for the engine to need replacing!!!! We did get an extended warrantee on the car when we bought it 2 years ago, so I hope they cover it. An inspector is coming out to "inspect" it. They wanted oil change info on it. Who saves all their receipts from walmart to show proof of getting oil filters? 0_o Not I. lol, so if they fix it thats great, if they dont that darn car will be sitting for a very LONG time ($6000-7000 dollar fix).

2. James sadly got laid off again last tuesday and his contract is finishing on the 18th. Hmm anyways Who knows what will happen now. Not much more I can say about that, it is what it is.

3. BYE BYE Iphones again!!and we are only keeping 1 kids cell phone too. TJ and EJ are not very happy about that!! I told them both that they can start earning them if they want them now. Hate doing that but what can I do. Oh yes not having an Iphone made it to my bad news list!!! I consider it bad news dont you? :)

What else... well nothing really I mean little things but now on to the positive..

1. My kids are doing so well!!!!! They are happy, healthy, and really good kids. I have been blessed!!   On Wednesday during the last day of my clinical rotation, I sat around with a whole bunch of nurses in the break room as they talked about how much their kids were getting into trouble with drugs, girls/boys, running away etc etc. They where not just talking about 18 years olds but sadly 13-15 year olds. :( I couldn't help but feel grateful that my kids are on the right path. Yes maybe TJ and EJ wants that LONG scruffy hair that I absolutely HATE but if thats the most of my troubles with them I am trully blessed.   I realized why these RN's kids are acting out. They kept saying over and over again how they are working to many hours and can't watch their kids all the time. I have been blessed to be able to be home with my kids to be their for them during this rough time in every person life. I am grateful!!

2. School is done this quarter!!!! I am done with 4th quarter all together and am on my way into 5th quarter of a 6th quarter program. I was not able to get back full time so I officially will be graduating in December instead of August. This next quarter I will be taking a "End of Life" class and my Mental Health nursing/logn term care nursing class. Fun Fun. Not sure really if I want to finish school at this point, not sure even if I want to be a RN anymore but I would be absolutely STUPID to not finish when I will be finishing up in august and starting my preceptorship in September. I know I have no ambition anymore but hey a substitute school nurse is at least something right? lol Maybe I'll get more gumption and work in a pediatric unit at a hospital as per diem but that's it!!

3. I have a house to live in!! What more can I say! I see what is happening in Japan right now and all the calamities happening all over the world and all I think about is how I am very grateful I have a warm house to live in.

4.  Date nights... A night away from everything is so needed!!! Screaming kids, lacrosse, cleaning house, taking kids to and fro has to have a end sometime. Date night gives us that!! So when you are out of a job you have to improvise on date night. James and I decided we are going up to the temple every weekend or at least most weekends and get a dollar ice cream cone at McD's maybe bring a picnic dinner.

5. The scriptures and family/personal prayer- It's surprising how well we are doing read scriptures and having family prayers as a family not to mention family home evening. We just finish Mosiah with the kids last night and starting Alma in the Book of Mormon tonight. Even AJ and CJ are starting to read a verse or 2 now. After scriptures study it is so amazing to see my older boys, especially TJ, get on his knees to wait for our family prayer. I have great kids!!!

5.   Church- I just love being a member of the LDS church. I can't see myself anywhere else or raise my family in any other church. The gospel principles make absolute sense to me, I have no doubt whatsoever about that. I love my ward, the people in my ward, and love the fact there are tons of kids my own kids age. The bishop is a spiritual giant hence you see his example trickle down to the members with his ward boundaries. Our family has been truly blessed being in the ward we are in.

6.  Knowledge- I am so grateful I have overall knowledge.   I am glad I was taught well growing up. I am glad that I am taught well now. I'm just glad!!

WOW alot to be grateful for. With a few negative there are many more positive and I am glad for that!!!

What comes around goes around

2011-02-12T07:22:00.000-08:00

I have been thinking a lot lately about everything.. from school, life, friends, family. You name it and I've been thinking about it. Life is so funny sometimes. It takes you for a spin and when you think things are winding down and the path is clear then BOOM it all gets jumbled up and your world starts spinning again. Thats how I feel, just spinning around and around. You wonder what I am talking about don't you? Well I am talking about many things...

School-- i have come to realize that as much as I have wanted to be a nurse all these years I am finding myself saying is this what I want? Do I want to push meds, do paperwork, and push meds some more. Do I want to be away from my family to work? i thought I wanted to at least a few days a week. Perspective has changed for me. The other nursing students dont understand why I would pay the money and suffer so long in school to not want to work and be home with my family. They just dont understand... I want to save my family that what it comes down too.

Family- I love my family so much. I see such great things in them. I love James so much, I really cant see my life without him. Regardless of our ups and down, my life just not life without him in it. My heart is full this day. What goes around comes around and it has come full circle....

Life-- I see life so different then most. I see life really black and white, with grays that really shouldn't be there and that skew us from living in the white. I just see and feel things that most don't. I don't know why I have been given this gift but I have. It is a blessing and a curse really. Because I feel and see things so deep, i wear my feelings right on my sleeve and it hurts when I see sometimes. I see how much I have grown this past year but also how much more I have to grow to have a real "polished" me. Not fun looking in the mirror and seeing all the things that I need to work on. Then again I am glad I have the insight to be able to realized this in the first place.

EJ- I was so extremely blessed on Sunday to hear for the first time my oldest son bare his testimony and then encouraging my TJ and Rae to go up to. I listened to his sweet spirit and saw the light I have always hoped I'd see in him. It was so brilliant. So very brilliant. I love him with all my heart.

I am blessed!!! I have been given so much. I have been given the knowledge of who I am and where I came from. It helps me and it carries me through.

Find it... find that knowledge....

New Year.. New Resolve

2011-01-10T15:25:00.000-08:00

This picture is from a few years ago of CJ and EJ. We went to the zoo all the kids got their face painted.

So life goes back to almost normal after the holiday. Is that good? Well it would be nice to live in fantasy land with wonderfully decorated trees, presents, lots of food, and no school. But it is also good to go back to normalcy. So back to the grind. The kids are back at school, my semester starts, James is back at work, school and sports events starting soon, and crazy life is never ending. :)

This quarter I am at Tacoma General for my nursing rotations.   I will being doing rotattions in interventional radiology, IV therapy, Stepdown ICU, Cath laboratory, and ER.   This is the quarter where I am a "true nurse" ALMOST :) I am passed off on all my required skills so now I can just be a nurse (with supervision of course).  I will be taking on 3 patients, doing IV's, drawing blood, paperwork and more paperwork. You name it.  It's scary to think I am almost done but its also very exciting.  Being in school has been a long process and had taken its toll on family life.

The Lacrosse Season starts soon. I am the treasurer of the Tahoma Lacrosse Club this season which is great in one respect but also requires a lot of time.   All 4 boys are signed up to play this year. EJ will be on the high school team, which is really exciting.   Life moves forward.

MV Biggest Loser challenge is on it's 2nd challenge.   It starts today and runs for 8 weeks. I am so excited to participate and run the program.  The last challenge the weight loss was around 288 lbs total by end of challenge. It was really exciting to see people so happy and energetic about their loss. This time we have 6 4 person teams.  I hope to get off another 20 lbs or so by end of challenge. We will see.  Weigh loss is a never ending battle for me.   I am not one of those skinny people who can eat a skyscraper and still stay thin. lol   I see a donut and I gain 5 lbs. I have to exercise and I can't go pig out or I gain weight.   James will be joining in on the challenge this time around too, although he is not as excited to do the challenges. lol

Goals for the year:

1. Graduate lol...
2. Go to Hawaii as a graduation present
3. Loss all my weight
4. Run a few half marathon and ragnar
5. Have friday family night each week with the kids consistently
6. Don't go crazy!! :)
7. Relax a little.

Anyways... thats all from me. :)

2010 Round-Up

2010-12-31T19:24:00.001-08:00

The year of 2010 was full of lots of changes for the Vastbinder clan. First we moved from Enumclaw to Maple Valley only to move again 6 months later, just down the street. Needless to say, we had two different opportunities to clean out and reduce "our stuff". Not that I want to move again for at least 5 years.

We really enjoy the Maple Valley area, especially the schools and lacrosse program. This year Kari is the treasurer for the local lacrosse club, so everyone is involved.

James Somewhere in between our moves, I was riffed from Microsoft. Which I'm beginning to understand was a very good thing as I'd grown a bit complacent - something I said I'd never let happen. Since then, I've been writing for an online social news site, Infoq.com, and am back consulting at Microsoft on the SQL Azure marketing team. This allows me to stay platform agnostic and gives me a good start at building my software consultancy, abattre. An idea and domain I've owned for almost a decade now. Scary, but interesting.
In this photo I'm attempting to funderwhack as I pass the Ragnar baton to Travis, but I clearly need to work on my form.

As for my expectations this next year, I'm still holding out for the iPad 2, but daily pine for and annoy Kari for the current iPad.... (Kindle on iPhone greatly extended the length of my bathroom visits this past year.)

Kari
This is my favorite photo of Kari from this last year. I played with it in Aperture until I got it looking right. I know it's not a pseudo-professional shot, but its my favorite. AND she looks HOT!!! I stink at Aperture compared to Photoshop, but I'm trying. Kari is still in Nursing school and since the beginning of the year switched to part-time status. This has her finishing her degree in August 2011, which everyone is looking forward to. Kari, herself, will tell you she is done doing homework and pulling all-nighters studying for tests and quizzes. And, for a short time, Kari was a Cub Scout leader which tested the very limits of her patience and she has since vowed never to experiment with Cub Scouts again... (this is not entirely true lol, ok so a little true about it not being my "thing". lol I am now teaching the sunbeams (3-4 year olds) in primary, which fits my schedule better because of school :) and I love those little 3/4 year olds-- Kari added this)

EJ
I'm putting up this photo of our eldest as this is how 3/4 of all his photos look like. Him, hiding is face from us to keep from being photographed. He turned 14 this last year which meant early morning seminary and Saturday night dances almost any given Saturday in the Seattle area. In true EJ style, he has yet to get his dance card and as such must endure a quick intro seminar on dance standards at every single dance he attends which is several times a month, even the New Years dance tonight. One day soon he may actually expend the energy to request a dance card and endure the 5 minute interview required to obtain it. But the real question becomes, will he remember to bring it with him to the dances....

TJ
TJ was able to play two different seasons of football this year. He played football for his Jr High team in Enumclaw this past Spring and for the Maple Valley Jr High this Fall. TJ plays half-back and linebacker and can always be found where the most action is on the field. TJ loves to fish and evidence of this is literally all over our home. In any given room, there is at least one pole, reel, piece of fishing line, tackle box, or random lure. The dilemma for TJ is keeping it in a single tackle box and obtaining permission from MOM. With the Cedar River down the ravine behind our home, he's snuck away more than a few times to commune with the river against his mother's wishes.

Rae
Rae literally embodies the nursery rhyme definition of a girl, sugar and spice - everything nice - that's what little girls are made of. Everywhere we go she has little friends going out of their way to to say "hi" to her and I swear she's every teacher's pet. Rae is 11 yrs old this year going on 30. This next year she graduates from Primary and can't wait. At least once a month she reorganizes and decorates her bedroom a different way and is a second mother to AJ.

CJ
CJ is our sensitive child. You can always expect a hug from CJ if he thinks you are feeling down. CJ is now 10 years old and reads like a champion. He's a natural leader among his friends and is always willing to help. He's often my sidekick when I'm working on a project, I thought with being a newer home those projects would go away, but at least I have CJ by my side reminding me not to use those 4-letter words of encouragement when I think they'd help things along....

AJ
AJ likes to show off his pearly whites and is always smiling, too bad Santa forgot to bring him new front teeth this past Christmas. So I thought I'd put up this photo of him to remind AJ of a time when he had them earlier this year. AJ is a consummate joker and snuggler. He's picked up EJ's sense of humor and can already tell a joke with a straight face. Most evenings you can find him snuggled up to Kari while we read scriptures waiting patiently for his turn to read a verse or two.

Plan for 2011

We have many plans for the new year, except participating in the Hill Cumorah pageant since they've denied us as participants 3 years running now. We received this most recent denial letter just before Thanksgiving, but we weren't thankful. I may decide to grow up, Kari will finish school, EJ will be able to get his driver's permit, TJ will begin attending Church dances, Rae will join Young Womens, CJ becomes a Boy Scout, AJ's two front teeth will grow in.

Christmas 2010

2010-12-31T13:56:00.001-08:00

Our Christmas tree this year. I only put the lights on. I allowed the kids to decorated how they wanted. They even put on the garland. They did a fabulous job dont you think? :)

Well its the end of the year so first lets take a look to see how christmas went for our crew.

We had lost of fun. Grandma and Greg came out to visit a few weeks ago. They helped us put up the christmas tree along with all the cousins.

The kids decorating the tree with their cousins.

Kids after they decorated.

My mom with athena. Greg loved athena after he got lost in the forest and she stayed right next to him.

Greg and mom wanted picture with athena. Greg called her precious because he had forgot her name when she stayed with him in the forest.

AJ wanted to show everyone he has 2 front teeth missing :) What do you want for Christmas AJ? lol

What what on the kids christmas list you wonder? Well.. it was changing right up until christmas eve but this is what the kids wanted this year:

EJ- Fable xbox controller (check), Call of Duty: Black Op game (check), itunes card (check), renewal of xbox live (check), he also ended up getting a ripstick, clothes from aeropostale, and a whole bunch of stocking stuffers. I will have to say that with our move we had misplaced 3 of his gifts and didnt find them until 3 days before christmas! lol Poor boy would have been going on a christmas hunt instead of opening up presents that day. :)

TJ- automatic airsoft gun (check), airsoft hand gun (check), xbox live renewal (check), itune card (check), money (check), and he too got some clothes for church and from aeropostale, fable 3 xbox game. TJ was very hard to buy for this year because he really didnt know what he wanted. We ended up adlibing and he was happy I hope. :)

Rae- well Rae wanted EVERYTHING. :) Makeup, nails, clothes, you name it. She ended up with: A rock tumbler, nail spray kite, a bracelet maker, clothes, a sitting chair for her room with little cubby holes, a scrapbook maker, a ripstick, more clothes. She was cheaper to buy for so she got more stuff. She was happy but made me promise to get her a whole lot of makeup for her 12th birthday because santa didnt bring her that.

CJ- wanted a yoyo so bad. He has been nonstop playing, looking how to use it on youtube etc since christmas. So he did get 2 yoyo's for christmas along with alot of lego starwars items, some wii games, clothes, remote control cars and lots of stocking stuffers.

AJ- has to been playing with the yoyo alot since christmas. He also got some wii games, starwars items, a remote control car and helicopter, clothes and stocking stuffers.

They where all really happy this christmas. We did well..

We also did a skimpy job decorating our house outside. With us just moving in a few weeks before and my mom in town we did not get to it until last minute. This is what we did this year. Lame? Probably! lol But hey can't have everything perfect each year. :)

See the 1 row of snowflakes lights lol. Thats all we did WOOT.

Last but not least, James spoiled me this year. He got me real pearls. A necklace, earrings and a ring. Plus he got me some Simply Vera (Vera Wong) purses and a pair of slippers to walk around the house in. :)

my stash!! :)

Here is what I got James for christmas. He was SOOOO surprised. :)

His new iphone 4 :)

Anyways, Christmas was great this year. Hopefully this next year brings lots of great things our way. Happy holidays to everyone.

A new addition....

2010-12-27T10:27:00.000-08:00

My little brother Kevin and his new baby girl Grace. Congrats!!

Congratulations Kevin and Sarah on your new baby girl. Yesterday they welcomed in a new baby girl, Grace Ann. She was 4 lbs 15 oz and 19 1/2 inches long. She came 2 1/2 weeks early. :) Congrats. This makes number 15 neice. Grand total of 15 nieces and 6 nephews (3 nephews came into our family in August when Ryan got married). We will be welcoming a new nephew in a few short months (Ryan and Erins baby). Congrats Kevin and Sarah!!

A rare Lunar Elipse tonight.

2010-12-22T11:22:00.000-08:00

A rare lunar eclipse is happening tonight! I have been scrabbling around trying to get pictures all night to no avail. Of course tonight is a cloudy night so my picutres are not so good. Why so rare? Because this lunar eclipse coincides with the winter solstice (the shortest day of the year and the start of winter). It has not happened in 456 years according to the experts and history (but I have seen some say it was only 372 years hmm I should research myself). A lunar eclipse is when the shadow of the earth is in direct position of the moon. The moon will turn a blood read/orange because of this and you will see the moon disappearing during the process. I might have to put some pictures from the internet up too. :) Here are some pictures from the night. I will put up pictures once I find my cord to offload them from my canon camera. lol Here are some pictures from the internet of this years event:

Here is a picture of what actually happened and times.. This is central time (im on pacific time, 1 hour behind)

Photo of the Dec. 20, 2010 total lunar eclipse from Cochranville, Pa. taken by Kevin R. Witman, using a Meade LX50 10" Schmidt Cassegrain telescope and a Canon XS DSLR camera.

Interesting facts I found out later after researching the history of lunar eclipses:

1. The lunar eclipse with a winter solstice has not happened since 1638.

2. The next lunar eclipse coinciding with winter soltice will not happen again until 2094. WOW that would make me well...not alive I guess unless I live to be 120 years old or so. lol

I will post my small tiny pictures of the moon when I get my cord.

Here is some pictures I got off my camera of the eclipse.

This pictures was at around 11:15 pm.

CJ is 10.

2010-12-15T15:17:00.000-08:00

CJ's 2010 school picture

CJ's birthday was a few days ago. Can't believe is he double digits already. Time flies. This year Grandma (my mom) and Greg was visiting during CJ's birthday. Grandpa V also came up to be with CJ to celebrate his birthday.

I can not even believe CJ is already 10. It seems like yesterday he was this little:

Cj the little chubby boy in the middle. He was 30 lbs at 9 months old. He was and is the cutiest little guy. :)

CJ at 4

CJ in 2004 at age of 4.

Here are some pictures from the day:

I'm 10!!!

I got some Mighty Beanz and a lego starwars book

I got a pojostick from Grandma and Grandpa V., and EJ just couldnt stop with the bunny ears!!!

I got some Tech Decks from Grandma D. and Grandpa Wendt

I got a remote control Helicopter, and of Course EJ is giving me bunny ears!!!

Grandma (my mom) with the kids on the 10th. :)

Happy Birthday CJ. We love you tons. You mean the world to us!!!

Breaking of the arms!!!!!

2010-12-13T18:54:00.000-08:00

Ok, so what am I going to do with Mr. EJ. Since October he has broken both arms. Luckily his right arm is not in a cast. I got the radiology report back a few days ago and he had a torus (buckle) fracture in his right arm back in October. This type of fracture is not a complete fracture and so only needed a arm splint.

Then on November 23, he broke his left radius doing tricks with his snowboard down a hill that most people use for sledding. So off to the doctor we go again to get the news that he had a distal radial fracture that has been displace. He then was referred to an orthopedist to see what to do.

Coming out of the orthopedist we learned that EJ's arm needed a pin put in to stabalize it and a painful procedure to put it in place. So on Dec. 2nd EJ had his surgery to put the pin in.

EJ after his Surgery on December 2nd, 2010

Then on thursday, the 9th EJ had his arm checked, so Grandma and I took him to his doctor appt to get his cast put on and see if the pin in his arm was doing it's job . Well Mr. EJ decided to heal up good and the pin went under his skin and the pin was not able to be removed. He will be having another surgery in 6 weeks to remove the pin. grrr anyways. Luckily we have cobra insurance to cover all the cost of this all.

I WANT MY CAST PLEASE!!!

THE PIN WHICH DECIDED TO MOVE

ITS HOLDING MY ARM TOGETHER

YEP PLEASE KEEP MY ARM TOGETHER

Grandma and EJ at Doctors office waiting for splint to be taken off

Here's EJ after he got his cast on... yep he picked orange and green stripes. :) That my son for you.

ZOEgirl-what child is this

2010-11-27T12:46:00.000-08:00

my favorite version of "what child is this"

SNOW on Thanksgiving

2010-11-26T18:32:00.000-08:00

Well its been a whole month since I have written anything. I have been super busy with the last few weeks of school. My final is scheduled for this Tuesday although it might not happen because of this weeks winter storm and all the school closings. Oh well we will see.

Thanksgiving was great!! We spend all day yesterday with my brother Shawn and Brendan and their families. All the cousins had a great time together. Thanks for coming over you all. We love you.

Here are some pictures from a few days before the holidays. As you can see AJ was in warming up instead of being out in the snow. And the kids had tons of fun on the our quad. :)

This boy above(EJ) broke his arm on the 23rd snowboarding down a hill in our neighborhood. He broke his left radius all the way through and it is displaced. So we are off to the orthopedic on monday to see what is going to be done about it. He is in a splint right now until the swelling is down. Poor guy!!!

not a good start to a quarter....

2010-10-23T10:22:00.000-07:00

You've been the 4.0 GPA student and then POOF..you are put in your place in 1 quarter!!! lol. It seems this is just not happening to me but all the 4th quarter students who are in school with me. Students who go from a 4.0 GPA to all of a sudden going to a low 80's high 70's test scores. We all realize we have a long way to go to pass the N-CLEX nursing exam at the end. I wondered why last quarter 4th quarter students decided to start a N-clex study group I never attended because they were on sunday. I am seeing 60 student in "crap" mode this quarter. AND it doesnt get any easier. The now 5th quarter students are not doing any better. OH well just means we all to step up our game and really focus in now that year 1 is up and now we are doing advanced stuff.

On Wednesday my student team did a MI (heart attack) Simulation were we had to save the dummy. If we where out in the real nursing world we would have not only mamed the patient but KILLED the patient lol. "This is the whole point" the instructor said. I am thinking to myself uhmmm not good. We gave some morphine to the patient with a blood pressure under 100 systolic, the heparin drip was titrating way to high at 100 ml/hr and we never caught it. He had a huge hematoma on his leg that was bleeding and we just thought it was bandages that had been reenforced. Of course the dummy complained of numbness and tingling in that leg lol. A classic sign of hematoma. Our group of 5 sat there after sayiing O M G are we cut out for this. The one thing we did get right is to not to administer nitrogylcerin because his BP was so low lol.... YAY for us!!! WE scored. :) Anyways this quarter is showing us that we are NOT ready to take the NCLEX. It is scaring the crap out of everyone including me. We have been thrown in waste deep and expected to be "nurses" now.

Lets see what else is going on...

Football season is almost over for TJ. He hurt himself the first game so its been a slow coming back for him. Next year will be better.

Raes cheer is almost over!!! FINALLY. Its been a long season. She has had so much homework this year that cheer is interfering with her getting it done at a decent hour. We have had many nights of her staying up until 11 pm to get it all done. I finally decided that cheer was out that day if she had to much homework. She just cant do it all.

CJ and AJ are my little readers. I have seen such an improvement this year in their reading abilities I am so very proud of them both.

EJ started seminary this year and what a difference I have seen in him. Spiritual things really do change people. He is excited about doing his scripture masteries and he has been reading without me asking on his own every night. It amazing to see the faith at such a young age. I am proud of him.

Let see what else is going on...

nothing much more just same ol stuff...house, cleaning, driving kids here and there, james and I running etc

OH wait ..Biggest Loser challenge..

James and I both have lost a good amount of weight. I think I am at 16, james at 10. Overall the whole program have lost 200 lbs in 4 weeks. WOOT. I am proud of everyone who is doing it. It is making a difference in people!! I keep hearing the chatter of the challenge all over maple valley lol. YAY!! Next challenge starts in January if anyone is interest.

Anyways.. good day :)

Hiya and Biggest Loser Challenge

2010-10-07T17:16:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to say Hi !!! Things are going good. Been busy with school YUCK I am starting to get sick of it and cant wait to graduated. AUGUST>>>>>> come on come quick lol.

My good friend and I started a Biggest Loser Challenge via Facebook group page 3 weeks ago and things are going GREAT!! The team of 28 people have lost 136.9 lbs together in 2 weeks!!! Motivation? Well Working together as a team and competition always seems to produce numbers IMO. :) It does for me. We are taking it another step. I see a calling in life for me!!! I love motivating to help change lives. So having said that I am going to start a whole program, website, Iphone app, everything after this 12 weeks are up. Ok big dreams huh. Well I see so much good that can come out of a pure competition style weight loss program. I mean if we can down 136. 9 lbs in 2 weeks can you imagine what the results are going to be in 10 more. I want to help change lives!! Phase 1 of this transformation will be creating a website. Thanks James for helping Laura and I with this. :)

My whole motivation is because I am sick of being overweight!!! I see a growing need for a weight loss program that is geared towards teamwork, not just individuals trying to do it alone. I want to be this again.....

This was Jen, Tami, and I 3 years ago at the Seafair race.. those were the days...and I want them back. When I could run a 9 min mile and was all muscles lol

On to big things..

This past week was general conference for church. There was so many inspired talks during this conference. I especially like Bro. Hollands talk about rededicating oneself. Great talk...

Here is a mormon message that I thought was great:

Great Message. Well off to make dinner lol.. I will talk to you later

My 240th Blog post :)

2010-09-16T09:05:00.001-07:00

Wow what can I say. 240 post of insight into me and life. :) What a journey! Reading back over the last 2 1/2 years I have noticed growth, frustration, quirkiness and lots about school lol. Its fun reading back through it all, seeing pictures of the kids when they where younger (2 years makes a difference with the ages of my kids), and much more. I could go on and list 100 things that Im just thinking about as a milestone but my brain hurts just thinking about that mundane task lol.

Well onto life...

Kids started back to school this week. I have 3 different school this year. AJ and CJ are in elementary school, Rae in middle school, and EJ and TJ are at the Junior high although EJ is in 9th grade. I love the fact this school district keeps the 9th graders back in Junior High. One more year of slight sheltering before he gets into the high school setting and all that involves. The school district is smart!! Here are some pics from the first day.. EJ and TJ wouldnt let me take pics so I had to snap it fast lol.

EJ and James

TJ

Rae

CJ and AJ

My school...

Well I start my new quarter on monday. YAH!! I am taking Nursing IV: Acute Problem (ICU, Advance Med/surg, and ER), Nursing Focus IV: Leadership/Management, and Advanced IV therapy. WOOT. My nursing focus class will focus on resume building, delegation, nursing legal issues, Leadership and Management. My advanced IV therapy class is only a 2 saturday class in which we actually practice doing IV starts on each other. WOOT I get to poke someone. My sadist side of me is coming out ;) What can I say? lol

I will not have clinical until January as that is how the part time program works. I cant believe I only have a year left. WOW time has flown.

What else..

I will have to think more.. I am off to go visiting teaching in a moment. :)

Just not the same.....

2010-08-19T15:10:00.000-07:00

This...

LG Neon is SOOOOO not the same as......

my Iphone!!!!!!!!!

Sigh...

Anyways, I am going through Iphone withdrawls even though its only been 3 day since I have not had my beloved Iphone. lol

Ok yes I have been spoiled but both James and I decided last month that we would not be spending the money we where spending on cell phone bills. $300-350 a month was a little steep..Yah think? lol Just by changing our plan and cutting out the $80.00 a month in internet charges Iphone require for 3 phones (TJ, James and mine), we have cut our bill down to under $200 (maybe even less we will see on our next bill) for 5 phones. :) If I could I would get rid of 2 of the phones my kids have but the contract wont be up for another 8 months so..next best thing is to

SACRIFICE..

yes it is a true sacrifice for me, I absolutely loved my iphone lol. So did James.

So bye Facebook for Iphone app

Bye Google maps for iphone app

Bye LDS Scripture App and Runmeter app, oh yah and bookworm..can't forget about that app.

Bye cruel world lol.. Ok so you like my goodbye drama lol. Hey I can have fun can't I? :)

Anyways I'll quite whinning and just deal. :) Have a good day..

Quidnunc...

2010-08-18T20:43:00.000-07:00

Random pic: AJ and CJ at the Museum of flight in June 2010

I love this word!! It so catchy. Do you know what it means? It means, "a person who seeks to know all the latest gossip or happening". Well I do love that lol. I love getting and giving the latest happenings and reading about it.

So here goes a few gossips and latest happenings around here and around the world...

1. So what you think about the Mosque going into downtown NYC near ground zero? Really people who really cares if a Muslim Mosque goes in. That what this country was founded on, religious freedoms. Can't blame the whole muslim religions for some FREAKS who decided to go NUTS and kill tons of people. As a Mormon, I see how much it takes and how much heat and opposition the church goes through when they announce a new locations for a temple, how can I or anyone else do the same for the Muslim people. I am just GRATEFUL I live in this blessed country for having the freedom to be Mormon or any other religion. :)

2. Lindsay Lohan in the news alot. REALLY ? Come on. Why the heck does she take up the news when there's starving people out there. Come on media get your priorities straight please.

3. Bedbugs are in the news.. YUCK... I don't know what is worse bedbugs or roaches. Both make me cringe. Yuck. Here's the link lol.... http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20100818/us_time/08599201150900

4. Ok Family happenings... Last night a big Ol' bat decided to make it unwanted flight in my bedroom. It must have been coming after an insect that flew into our room or something. It couldnt find it way out and was flying all over the dang place flying right towards us. Finally when it landed we saw the larger then normal bat that was circling our room. TJ and his ways came in with a net and wanted to catch it while James opened up both french doors to the balcony and took a broom to get the thing out. Luckily it went out and we had an uneventful evening after. WOOT. A bat loved us last night. :)

5. School is done for me now and I am official a 2nd year advanced nursing student. YAHOO. I have passes off all my skills and will not have anymore labs again the rest of my time in nursing school yay!! I did find out they have no room for me in the Full time program so I will be going snails pace and wont graduate until next December because of it.

6. EJ and TJ have been doing a lot of outdoors stuff for church this summer. Last week they went on a 70 mile mountain biking trek. James went with them as he is a mountain biker and they invited him. Tonight the boys went on a hike. They are keeping busy. EJ still has not decided on either playing school golf or boy tennis for school this fall. I guess we will see what he does. TJ will be playing football for school.

7. Rae started cheer practice last week but found out today that 5 of the 8 games are on sunday hmmm. Sadly she will not be participating in sunday games and I made a commitment that church was more important that sports and would not miss church for a game. It feels good to stick to my guns on this topic even if people have already given me slack about it. Whats more important spiritual things or cheerleading hmm Thats an easy answer for me... spiritual things hands down!! :)

8. CJ decided not to do football so he will be signing up for soccer along with AJ this fall. That will be so cute to watch both boys playing soccer. I always love seeing the little guys playing.

9. I forgot to mention that in June we went to the Boeing Museum of Flight in Seattle on a little trip with our great neighbors. Here is a pic of the kids along with a few up top of AJ and CJ.

Well I am trying to rack my brain right now for more stuff but my brain is to tired at this point to think of anything else. lol

I will write more later just wanted to update quickly. See ya.

-kari

Ragnar done..seafair torchlight Race tonight :)

2010-07-31T15:46:00.001-07:00

This is the view of leg 32 at Admiralty inlet of Anacorte islands. It was so beautiful and LONG run for our 12 person team. BUT we did it. 187 miles, 12 people, 3 times running and we did it in 31 hours. Thats great for being the first time most of us did the ragnar. It was a great but tiring experience. My first leg was leg 12 (7 miles) and I hurt my glut and hamstring. Yuck. I had been milking my poor leg for 6 week and I hobbled into the exchange in a 1 1/2 time, which is not the best but at least I finished. The next few hours I spent icing, stretching and the PT that happened to be on the team did an adjustment to help my hips go back into allignment. YAY!! My second run was over Deception pass in the middle of the night at 3 am. It was the most scariest thing. lol I even had some drunk men approach me over the bridge at deception pass. Not to good. Last leg was my UP THE WHOLE hill run. I did pretty good considering all the stuff that happened. Jame also did great and was a trooper going up those dang hills. LOL. That boy was pulling 8 minute miles his legs which I could not even come close to beating. He was our hill king that is for sure.

Tonight is the torchlight race up in settle. Luckily its only a 8 k so its not a big race. I dont know if I could handle a bigger one at this time. My hips, glut, and hamstring still bothers me and I havent run as much as I should.

Ok well school is almost done. I am in my pediatric unit and only have 2 more weeks left before the end of the quarter. YAY!!... I am done with everything but 3 care maps. yep yep. After this I will be in my official 2nd year of nursing school and could potentially graduate in June 2011 (if I go back full time), which I have thought about recently because I am gettting sick of school. lol

Here is a pic of Rae and her friends. what a cute picture. :)

Kids are doing great. We have been trying to go to parks to swim but our new found fun has been innertubing down the rivers around us. They boys have begged us every day to go. TJ has been begging us to go fishing all summer and we have a few times just not enought to pacify his urge to fish lol. So we will probably be going to do some serious fishing sometime soon. We are waiting till I get out of school to do more things. So photos and updates will happen in a few weeks.

Well that is all for now. James and I are heading out for our race up in Seattle. YAY.

Randoms stuff

2010-07-20T20:06:00.000-07:00

This is a awesome picture of James and Rae from the Activities Day Hoe Down dance a few weeks back. They had great fun.

Well it's 3 days until the ragnar race. I am a little nervous as I had gone 2 weeks without running at all. I finally went last night and my hamstring/glut was hurting just a mile in. Couldn't do more then 2 miles because I didnt want to hurt it. I have 15.2 miles to run over a 24 hr period so I hope I am ok lol. Why have I not run. Well first I have been super busy with school so my running schedule was all off and second I was pure lazy by the time I got home I was way to tired to run. lol. Just Pray for me lol thats all I ask. o_O :)

Let's see what else has been happening. Well this new house we THOUGHT we where going to buy is folding sadly. So it looks like we don't know what we will be doing these next few months. Not cool. I so loved this house tremendously...Anyways... I guess we will have to see what the lord has in store for us. I am just going by the spirit and putting my trust in the fact that the Heavenly Father knows best for my family. :) Things happen for a reason that I am sure.......

Now school.. well school is school. Busy..lots of paperwork..and lots of late nights. lol My Mother/baby and Labor and delivery are over and now I am starting Pediatrics. Fun Fun.. This week I will be at the Ashley House a home for very ill children. After that I will be in the hospital for 3 more weeks down at Madigan Army hospital then I'm done YAY!!!.... Its been a long quarter lol. As Part of my clinical experience this quarter I also got to participate in a Nursing camp for high school students. These are student who are thinking about pursuing a career in nursing. At first I had signed up to demonstrate IV starts (putting IV's in arms) but then I got asked by the nursing staff to do the Noelle Birthing Station. lol I have no clue why they picked me out of 40 students lol. I was a little bummed I will admit but I will say I did learn alot about all the "in and outs" of birth lol. So 10 times I gave a little lecture on stages of labor, all that is required to birth a baby, role of the Registered Nurse and helped our birthing mannequin "Noelle" birth 10 babies. lol Lets just say it was great birth control for the high school student lol.

Well the kids are doing great... We have gone to the lake a few times and have had a fun summer playing with their friends. We hope we are able to go camping this summer but those plan might be put on hold. We will see. We have had some little friends over to play this summer. Here is a pic of AJ's little friend H.

Here is another picture from our 4th of July BBQ with Rae and her friend. :)
And My FAVORITE Picture of all...........

James falling asleep doing something on his laptop :) Hehe..

Enough said.. lol

Update...sorry been a busy girl.

2010-07-08T20:56:00.000-07:00

Most adorable picture. CJ was tearing up over his sunburn back today and we put a wet towel on his back and he fell asleep over the arm of couch just like this lol... couldn't resist taking this pic.

So its been a month lol..dang I am a slacker...lol

Anyways..

Here are some random happenings...

1. I started back to school about 3 weeks ago. Its been bitter sweet. Bitter because I have had to stay up late getting concept maps done (care plans) for my clinical day. Sweet because I feel right at home in clinicals. :) I am in doing my clinical rotation at Madigan Army Hospital down in at Ft. Lewis in the Maternal/child section and will do pediatrics in 2 weeks from now. It's been amazing. The first week I did triage (the first place pregnants moms come to rule out active labor) and then these last 2 weeks I've done Postpartum (after the baby's are born). :) I feel right at home. Passed off my newborn and mom assessments yesterday and did the baby 24 hour blood tests. Poor little thing. Next week I will start labor and delivery. We will see if I like l & d. :)

2. Kids are out of school and been just having fun this summer. We will probably go camping in August sometime after my school gets out. Yay!!! We had a nice annual 4th of July BBQ with tons of fireworks. Our good friends, the Baumgartners, always come each year along with a few others.. Powells, Fletchers and my brother Brendan and his fam. Thank you all for coming. It was a last minute setup but you all are welcome next year. :)

3. Today was a 95 degree day. WOW. Doesnt happen very often. Geez I think just 2 weeks ago the area broke a 200 and something day record of a temperature over 75 lol. Yep it had been like 250 days since we had seen 75 degrees. HAHA.

4. Well the lord has other plans for us. It looks like we might end up on a different path then we ever thought possible. lol. Rollercoasters are great for the soul I guess lol. We'll see what happens...thats all I am saying for now. :) Is there a silver lining in things? Yes I know there is in this one. :) My prayers were sorta answered although not the way I thought they would be answered or wanted this answer lol. ANYways. lol

5. We all meddle from time to time. I am no saint when it comes to it too. lol Found a great website to help in determining if you are crossing the meddling line.. a nice reminder of when advice is good advice or just downright meddling. Check it out: http://blog.dreamthisday.com/2009/02/meddling-5-questions-to-ask-yourself.html

I am not sure I agree with number 4 idea that he gives. I mean if you keep pushing then yes but to ask, have conversations or go door to door I don't think is wrong. :) But that my opinion.

Heres a great quotes from the website: "Often we meddle out of a sincere desire to help another, so how can we know when we have gone too far? We have overstepped our bounds whenever we cross the line from assisting others in getting what they want to believing that we know better than they what they SHOULD want or know."

Anyways...some tidbits from me. :) Have a fun July. ill try to write more.

Feeling grateful for life.. :)

2010-06-07T01:06:00.001-07:00

First and foremost I want to say Happy Anniversary to James. Last week on May 27th was our 16 year anniversary. I am grateful for James for so many reasons.. for providing for our needs, for being a good daddy, for loving me regardless of my flaws (and I have many lol). I am grateful for so very much at this point in my life and want to express my loved for my family and James. :) Happy Anniversary James. :) xoxoxox

For our anniversary James and I took a trip up to Mt. Baker last weekend. It was great just being out in the middle of no where and just relaxing. It was a sigh of relief to just spend time together and just veg out. :) Thank you James for planning our weekend. It was great!!

Our anniversary continued this weekend seeing the Kooza Cirque du Soleil. It was an awesome show. We had a blast last night extending our anniversary get away another night :) Thank you James again. :)

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So onto a little something spirit since it sorta is sunday..uhmm I mean Monday now lol. Oops meant to post this earlier. I was thinking about this YouTube video today and just barely watched it over and thought about how blessed we are. I love the life view Stephanie has in this video. What a pure sense of herself through tragedy. She understands.

http://nieniedialogues.blogspot.com/

Here is the talk by Elder Holland that Stephanie talks about on her blog:

http://speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.php?id=12459&x=55&y=6

well just watching this clip brings tears to my eyes and a sense of gratefulness for all the many blessing I have been given. Thank you stephanie for this wonderful message. :)

My babies growing up.. :)

2010-05-17T09:25:00.000-07:00

AJ did it. YAY.. He was so scared to even try to ride his bike for month now and yesterday he got on his bike and just took off lol. The first think he said to me this morning is, "Mom are you proud of me for riding my bike" I gave him a big hug saying that I was so very proud. :) He such a thoughtful articulate boy. :)

Anyways. I figured I'd update you on my running progress. Saturday was our 2 hour run. WOW. We ran 9.10 miles in a little heat. James and I were burnt by the time we finished lol. It was exilerating I'd have to say. More so because I did it not really the run per say.

Saturday was also a milestone. We finished the beginning program of the ragnar training and going onto the intermediate one.. (click to see the training) We are starting on week of April 4th day because it close to where we are now. Oh boy. lol. My weight is coming off pretty fast. I am down prolly 16 lbs at this point which is really nice and making it easier to run these long mileage.

Kids are doing good. Lacrosse is finally over and we only have TJ's football and Raes volleyball practice to worry about. They are enjoying living in our new neighborhood. We are all happier. Yay. living out in the middle of the woods was hard for a social family like ours.

I start school again on June 21st so I am loving the long break. I just found out that I am most likely doing my clinical at Madagon Military hospital this summer. I will find out for sure in the next few weeks. I gave my first choice as that hospital and they usually are good about giving everyones first choice. I am so excited to be doing my labor/delivery and pediatric clinicals this summer. It the nursing focus I would like to go into. :) Anyway. I better go get my butt running. lol Have a good day and enjoy the small youtube clip.

-kari

Random thoughts....

2010-05-07T12:22:00.000-07:00

So my post have been soooo boring recently because all they talk about are my runs and family stuff so why not talk about some random stuff.. lol

1. When I stood in the garage to put on my shoes to run, my dog, Athena circled and circled me as fast as she could annoying the crap out of me. Do you ever wonder what dogs think? Hmmm. Dug will tell you.. (gotta pause my playlist to listen, duh lol)

2. What can you say to a little boy that plants you a flower for mothers day but strings a line of dirt from the front door to the back. You just grin, bare and love that little boy up although you are thinking to yourself CRAP now that's MORE I have to do lol..

3. What's up with me missing a enzyme to digest something in asparagus? Uhmm who would have known I am a skunk by nature. lol Are YOU missing the enzyme. Smell your PEE, err Urine (I should use proper Nursing terms since I am a student nurse lol) the next time you eat it and you will definitely know one way or another. hehe

4. What's up with hotchie mama on American Idol this past week.. yes I'm talking about Lady Gaga. I was almost embarrassed for the girl. Uhmm put some clothes on please. And what's up with the bees hat lol.

5. My dreams need to change. Another Indiana Jones movie in my head is getting old. hmm maybe its telling me something. Go on an adventure Kari...lol

6. I am still waiting to become famous by getting on the Oprah Show (although I am finding her views on things a little disturbing recently). Ok not on the stage mind you, I'm not that smug, but just in the audience. I'm stilllllll waiting.. hint hint James :)

7. A question? How many couples vacation can you take before you have to go on a whole family vacation? anyone know? Should a couple trip be every quarter, 6 months, 1 year and are you a terrible parent for thinking couple trips are a little more important then family vacations? Although I do think family vacations are important too. Answers please..I need answers.... No means ones too, there's no point in harsh opinions.

8. You pat yourself on the back when you finally think your boys can use the toilet appropriately until you look at the walls and molding and see where really they've been aiming. Sigh...

9. What's up with a coach telling a kid to be more aggressive and then kicking him out of the game because of being TOO aggressive. Which way you want it coach. Lamb or Lion?

10. Where in the world did my kids pick up the term schmeckle.. hmmm :)

11. On watching 24 season 3, what is it with episode 1 that I can't watch it more then 10 minutes without falling asleep. After trying to watch it for 3 days I still haven't finished it. lol

12. For mothers day what I really want the most is to lay in bed and watch TV or read a book and have NO one come near me for 16 hours. Oops did I say that out loud? Does that make me a bad mom? lol

13. Why is it I can diet for 6 months and lose (X) pounds, then when I begin eating normal again I can gain (x-10) pounds in less then 3 weeks. lol I'm not telling you X but substitute any double digit number you wanna add in. HEHE.

14. Why is it I really like cracking other peoples knuckles on their fingers and toes. Oh yah, pinching hair on their arms just to watch someone squirm come close second although I don't do that as much. You will also see me digging at peoples sliver or warts if they have them to get rid of it as fast as possible. Hmm is it the nurse in me? OR is it my passive aggressive side coming out making me a sadist? lol.. I think its more the later....Ha

15. Why is it since moving to Seattle I visit Starbucks at least once a week and I don't even drink coffee. lol (I love my caramel apple cider or hot chocolate) :)

16. When our kids where younger they referred to James as "moddy" pronounce "mah dee". What? Is he half as good as me Or not quite a full daddy? lol.... Poor daddy. (James wanted me to add this one lol)

17. Why do Washingtonians begin most sentences with "SO".. hmmm

18. Its amazing... James can yell loud enough from the football stadium and the boys will listen to what he is telling them to do on the field and will do it, yet when it comes to doing chores at home they suddenly pretend to be deaf. hmmm

19. What's a frigator? Brefast? It's the wendtish way of saying.. refrigerator and breakfast. lol... Ok so we call the Wendt language Wendtish cuz we go around in circles when we talk. Yah know round and round and round all over again...hehe.

20. I often wonder why the heck I couldn't have more then 1 daughter. But when I think about it, she is the only child that I absolutely know that was conceived in the great outdoors. haha. (ok jim convinced me to write this one lol I'm to shy usually to post stuff like this :) )

21. Its hilarious to watch AJ dance to the song "Pump it" by Black Eye Peas. I have no clue why he loves this song so much but every time he hears this song he sits in place and jiggles his body pumping his arms as fast as he can. I need to get my video uploaded lol..

22. Every time I hear the song "Hey Mickey", I think of a time when I was in 6th grade living in NY. I lived in a town called Irondequiot before I moved to Henrietta where I graduated from. There was a boy named Ricky that my friends and I liked and we use to change the word from Hey Mickey to "Hey Ricky" lol.. What a nerd. hehe

23. Interesting fact. Since I switched over from my yahoo 360 blog I have had 13,300 visitors in 2 years 3 months. WOOT. I have it set up to exclude all my computers IP addresses. . :) So that just raw visitors.

I should end this post by adding a pic of my little angels :) Look how little EJ, TJ and Rae are here lol. and you can see CJ's head in the background...I'm not sure how old this picture is but it looks like Rae is about 5 so it been about 6 years..

79 days and counting..

2010-05-03T19:45:00.000-07:00

This is my little cheerleader rae back 3 years ago. She will be signing for the MV squad for this fall. :) YAY

My run are getting easier and easier as the weeks go on. It's amazing how my lungs, heart, and just my body is readjusting to running the high mileage. On saturday James and I had our long run of 1 hour and 40 minutes. WOW. I have never run that long in my life lol. It felt good and we ran without a single break. Oh wait we did take a 30 sec break when we saw 4 bald eagles in a few trees so I could try to take a picture lol. The pics are so blurry you cant even tell they are eagles, so I wont post them lol..

Today was our 65 minute run. We ended up going on the another part of the cedar river trail that was gravel so the whole time I was dumping rocks out of my shoes lol. Note to self: On longer runs go on a path that doesnt have gravel cuz its a pain. Friday is our 45 min run and then our big hour and 50 min run is saturday. Excited? Hardly but I am happy I have stuck to my goal and stayed the course.

I am down 12 lbs now since I changed my eating habits. YAY that is good news. I still have a ways to go but with eating right and the amount of exercising I am doing it should just shed off of me with no problem. By run date I should be down a good amount more. Then I start training for the 1/2 ironman. :) Oh boy...

Ok onto life...

Kids are doing good.. TJ just got clearance to play his sports again Finally. Now with this new concussion law the doctor was very nervous about clearing him for football and lacrosse practice and games. He had to miss almost 2 weeks because he got hit in football and then the same day got hit with a stick in lacrosse practice. Poor kid. His whole football team was so mad that he was out but was very happy on monday to see him back at practice. He is happy. EJ is just happy playing lacrosse and meeting new people in the area

Rae is doing great in Volleyball. They just split the teams up last wednesday so now is on the same team as some of her friends from crestwood. She loves it. This is her first year playing volleyball but she is doing very well for her first year.

CJ and AJ are doing well at lacrosse. CJ is playing 2 games each saturday, 1 for his normal team and 1 for his travel team. If you ask him he wants to forget about the normal team although he has to play that team to play the travel. league rules. AJ is just happy digging in the dirt with his stick and making huge holes. We also have to get on him about using the stick as a weapon lol. He will learn. lol..

I have been soo looking for a chaise lounge on craigslist or anyplace I can find one fore under 500 bucks. So far the style I want has not been found. I hate the flat ones I want a body contour one that is leather either black or brown. I have found rose color ones but no nice leather ones. So I will keep looking until I find the perfect one for my empty Living room. lol. I guess I can start looking for chairs until I find that chaise I want. I am going to be very picky on what I get.

It has to have the contour of this couch...

But the color, legs, back and leather of this chaise..minus the side. NO sides...So think of this lounge that had the above contour and no side lol.. Thats what I want. If you see one let me know..

Anyways..have a good day.. I gotta get some things done around the house before kiddos get home. :)

88 days and "what the Heck" :)

2010-04-26T20:46:00.000-07:00

They look like angels dont they? Or little missionaries...EJ, TJ, CJ my little bulldozers. :) This was taken about 6 years ago. :) Look how cute they all are.

Ok first I will go into the good things today cuz today has been a crazy day and I am just downright tired.

Today was my 40 minute run but we did 45 minutes of hill training instead. I ate something right before I left which was a mistake because I felt I drudged along just trying to finish the whole time. lol Note to self: DONT eat something right before you go out Kari. :) Tomorrow is my easy day with 40 min on the elipitical and then working out with the weights. Sadly I will be by my lonesome because Linda hurt her back. Sigh. Anyways..

This weeks goals. Watch what I eat and drink plenty of water. Also I would like to make healthy meals for the whole family. Yes, Fetticini alfredo and biscuits are great but definitely not on the "lets eat healthy" side. And yes I made the biscuits from pancake mix and altered the the recipe with lots of butter, milk and honey. LOL I should have put some whey protein in it to counter all the carbs but HEY.

Speaking of whey protein. I made the BEST pumpkin cake made with applesauce instead of oil and whey protein put in to balance. They where a hit with some of TJ's friends on his football team today. :) The recipe is found at allrecipes.com and is a great... click on the link above. Remember substitute oil for applesauce and add 3 scoops of whey protein. :)

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Besides that everything has been a little crazy today. Kids not listening. Kids destroying. Kids going behind me with a bulldozer destroying everything I clean. You know the never ending battle. lol So I am happy my little loves are all in bed and I can lay in my own bed with nothing but the TV to stare me down and give me trouble. :) hehe..

Anyways. Have a good night. Venting felt GREAAATTTTT... :)

New Home pics finally.. and day 92. :)

2010-04-22T20:04:00.001-07:00

Here is a slide of our new home.. at least the downstairs..

I figured since I havent shown you my new house I might as well do it in this post. As you can see we have not furnished the living room/dining room yet as we got rid of all the kids destroyed stuff and going to purchase new. This month will be the living room, next the dining room. WOOHOO. I love this house. It the house I can see myself in for good. I'm in love..ahhhh. lol Anyways. Things are going good. We are just having good ol fashion fun in this new area. I love it. Have I said that enough yet lol.

On to day 92. I did my 55 minute run yesterday. It was ok. Again, James and I ran it in the rain the whole time. This time is was just lightly raining so it was sorta refreshing. Today was my easy day at the gym working out with linda. :) That's always a blast working out with Linda. She is a hoot. lol. Anyways. Tomorrow, James and I decided to do our 90 minute run instead of on saturday because of all the lacrosse games. Yay :( I'm already feeling tortured. lol Keeping on track with my meals too. Overall I am doing good with everything.

Gotta run.

94 days and green thingy's

2010-04-20T13:28:00.001-07:00

AJ showing off the "green Thingy's"

Look at me sporting the green thingy's.. So nice looking don't you think... lol

Ok first let me talk about my slippers that I call the "green thingy's". lol You look at these and go WT HECK and who would buy them cuz there ugly. I thoughts the same thing. I saw them at walmart one day and said O M G I will NEVER EVER buy those awful things. Then my hubby James, bless his soul, brought them home one day and I about ripped his head off for buying the most ugly thing that would not work to clean up floors. After all, Kari is all knowing you know. lol You see these slippers have microfiber under then. (you see the tassles lol) and you wear them to clean up the little things on the floor. You can replace the bottoms etc. So onto my jabber.... so they sat underneath my kitchen sink for 2 weeks. On Sunday Rae got them out after I couldn't find the dang receipt to take these ugly green thingy's back. I was mopping my hardwood floors and Rae started using them. LOW and behold they actually worked. My green thingy's worked lol. So now my poor ugly green thingy's get worn every day when I am downstairs on my hardwood floors. Rae will wear them too. :)

Green Thingy's I am sorry I doubted you. I really am. :) lol

Ok onto my update on my running. So yesterday I was suppose to run 40 minutes but ended up running a little more because I wanted to get 3 miles in. YES, I know Im slow right now. lol. I did Hills and it wasn't pleasant, but at least it wasn't pouring down rain. lol Today I went to gym did my eliptical and then did some weight training with my good friend linda. Today was an easy day which I needed to recover. Tomorrow will be another long run which I'm not looking forward too. My eating has been within limits and I feel better everyday now that I am cutting out the junk. I am just not a person who can eat junk food because I become addicted to it and cant stop myself. lol

Anyways.. a last thought. James and I are signing up for a 1/2 Ironman for this fall. So if anyone wants to join us let me know. The 1/2 Ironman includes : 13.1 mile run, 50 mile bike, 1.2 mile swim. Ok so we are adventurous. lol. I should be in good shape after training for that lol.

anyways have a good day..

spiritual thought and 95 days...

2010-04-19T07:53:00.000-07:00

I thought this was a fabulous lesson given by Sister Beck.. What an inspiration to women... Nothing more I need to say for my spiritual thought. She says it all. :)

So I did my 80 minute run on saturday... It didnt go so bad actually. I mean I did run in the pouring down rain the whole time and I was drenched to the max, but besides that it went well. I am surprised I am able to run that far with only 5 weeks of running under my belt. Yes I have been a runner before so it probably has helped that aspect out a lot. The one thing i did realized out of this is I have never ran or exercised cardio wise more then 60 minutes. EVER. I had a cut off limit. I would be at the hour mark and say to myself,"thats enough for the day you got your 1 hour in", and never go further. So I am proud of myself for staying the course and running more.

I am down in weigh a little finally now that I am watching what I am eating. YAY. I will be in such great shape by the time this race happens..or close to it anyways. :) This week my goal for my eating is stay within calorie range and drink water. Shake for breakfast, lean cuisine for lunch, and a sensible dinner plus a healthy snack.

My exercise schedule for this week is...

Monday-40 minutes hills today
Tuesday- 35 min cardio, weight training
Wednesday-- 55 min run
Thursday- 35 min cardio (elipitcal, rower etc), weight training
Friday- 35 min run
Saturday- 90 min run----sigh
Sunday- rest

Family happenings-
Saturday lacrosse games were fun. All the kids team did lose sadly but they had fun regardless. No news on Rae's volleyball stuff yet because her games dont start for another 2 weeks.

Yesterday, we had our friends Linda, Jay and their kids over for Sunday dinner. It was nice to share our sunday dinner with good friends. All morning I was cooking up things before we went to church so that we could have a nice sit down dinner as a family. Love Linda to death. :)

James and I went out on our date night on saturday to see the "the last song". We were both tearing up by the end of the movie. Mylie cyrus did a good job in the movie and I would recommend it if you dont mind sappy. It was a good wholesome film which is very hard to find now a days.

Anyways.. this post is way to long so I will cut my babbles now lol. See ya. I am sure I will find more to talk about tomorrow. I have a mind like a racing horse full of stuff to think about lol. good day..