London!!!

Some big news that I haven't shared with my readers yet is that I will be going to London in the Spring on my study abroad. I talked about earlier here. I did not get into Ecuador which was my first choice (I can't remember if I ever said that). What I never told you was that there was a group of 8 going to London, that I didn't think I would really have a chance for, but I wanted to go there also! Well sure enough, I am one of those 8! Yes ladies and gentlemen, I am going to London for 5 weeks this coming May-June!! I am SOOO EXCITED!!! This is a NURSING study abroad program so I'm going to still be doing clinicals but only about 3-4 days a week and the rest of the week we play! Weekend trips to Spain and to Italy :) so excited....We will work in regular public health clinics, urban hospitals, rural areas, and all over. We'll get an idea of a different health care system, and the way nursing care is different there. HOORAY!!!! I'M GOING ABROAD!!!!

me = bigtime blog slacking

Contrary to popular belief I have not been off vacationing in the Caribbean, spending away a fortune on Fifth Avenue, or saving the orphans in Romania. (All of which would be pretty cool...) I have just totally slacked off on my blog so now that papers, finals, traveling, relaxing and Christmas are all over and done with I will finish and at this point reflect on my very favorite things about this wonderful holiday season.

I love the Christmas decorations! My mom always does such an awesome job doing up the whole house! It brings cheeryness and the Christmas life into the home with all the awesome stuff up. I love the lights too! Chrsitmas lights are awesome!

FOOD!!!! OH the homemade food! I could die and go to heaven after eating mom's mashed potatoes :) Mmmm!!! I love being home because mom treats me so well and will cook the best ever while I'm here for the holidays! She always does, but I know she puts in extra effort while I'm home, THANKS MOM!!!

Ok, I'll admit it, getting presents is a favorite part :). Mom made me an awesome quilt this year! That's number 3 for me. It's a movie watching quilt, completely movie themed (a popcorn pattern for the back). I also got movie popcorn and candies, The Emperpor's New Groove on DVD--my favorite Disney of all time! (we only had the VHS before), and cool popcorn holders to go with it!

Celebrating Christ's birth is at the center of the season. He is what it is all about! Christ was the ultimate example of giving and through Christmas we try to emulate that example. I love playing Santa. It's much better than getting things from Santa! Giving to people is so awesome, being secret, helping take care of Miss Julie [even though it's just SUCH a burden ;) ], helping mom around the house, playing and talking with Claymeister, giving dad a shoulder massage, I LOVE IT! It makes me feel warm and fuzzy and so good. The feelings is contagious too. It's easy for people to forget and get stressed and frustrated this time of year, but when we are serving and excited, people around us get to be that way too!

I love to be home with my family. Mamacita, Daddy0, Claymeister, Janelle, Ben, and Miss Julie. Miss Julie is 110% the center of attention and loving every second of it for sure! And we love her right back! She is happy about 95% of the time and is so smiley and playful and cuddly. I am so glad that I get to spend tiem with her this Christmas! It's nice to have Janelle here as well as we have not seen each other for well over a year. I love spending time with everyone, talking, snuggling, cooking, shopping, working around the house, lounging, just being together!

PICTURES SOON TO COME...I mean it this time!

My favorite things--Day 11

Today is another easy one! I LOVE SNOW!!!!!! Today was the first day that it has snowed all season. It's really late for Utah, but I knew eventually it would get here. It snowed all morning, but nothing stuck. I've been in the library for a while, so it may have started again and I can't see it. But it was beautiful this morning. I'm excited for there to be enough to play in :). I really hope that is snows while I'm home, because then I'll have time to enjoy it!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

My favorite things--Day 10

Today is easy. One of my favorite things about the Christmas season is The First Presidency Christmas Devotional. It's a time to listen to the prophet speak and encourage us all to remember the true spirit of Christmas and to hear beautiful music by the tabernacle choir and orchestra. Tonight I watched it from the comfort of my own living room, but it is always wonderful to hear those men speak!

My favorite things--Day 7,8,9

Sorry I fell behind. I was in a bit of a funk this week. But I'm better now, no worries. I'll catch up my favorite things about Christmas in one post.

Day 7-I love cold weather. I am much more of a winter than a summer person. In the cold it's always easy to bundle up and drink hot chocolate, while in the summer it's hard to cool down. It's getting colder and colder here in Utah (even though we haven't gotten ANY snow yet) and I love it! I am starting to wear my long coat, which I love :) and I am patiently waiting for it to get cold enough to wear scarves because I love them too!

Day 8-I love Christmas movies. Many of my favorite movies are Christmas movies, such as the Miracle on 34th Street, White Christmas, and The Polar Express. They always make me feel warm and fuzzy and welcome in the season so well! I have already watched this year: The Miracle on 34th Street (twice), the Santa Clause (it's been on TV a bunch), Joy to the World, and The Polar Express.

Day 9-I love Christmas parties. Tonight is my ward's Christmas party and it will be especially needed as I have spent the entirety of the day in the library.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!
...only 13 more days till I come home!...

"There's a bite out of this!"

I have a funny story that happened last night to me. My roommates and I went to Carl's Jr. because Cha (my roomie) said she was in need of greasy food for the evening. We got there and I ordered the 6 dollar guacamole bacon burger (MMMM so GOOD!!!). I get my food and I sit down and take a bite of the burger and got a mouth full of mustard, ketchup and pickles. In my defense, the burgers are pretty big and wrapped in white paper so you can't really see what's inside them unless you unwrap and such, and I didn't I just dug in. So I take the bite and it's obviously not the burger that I ordered. So I went back up the counter and said, "I'm not sure what kind this is, but I ordered the Guacamole Bacon burger and this isn't it." The manager doesn't say anything to me, she just takes my burger and then a couple minutes later she hands me and new one and says, "here you go." A couple minutes later, I'm sitting down at my table and I hear someone at the counter really upset saying, "I've never seen this before! There's a bite out of this burger! This is insane! Yes, there's a bite out of it!" At first I was horrified and felt like dashing out of there before someone came and got me. I knew it was mine. But then I realized, I didn't really have anything to do with it. If someone hands you back a burger, isn't it the manager's responsibility to LOOK at it!?! And especially not give it back out to the public. What if I had laced it with anthrax or something? We all sat in the back kind of snickering at the whole thing and then left. It was pretty funny. Surprisingly enough the woman who got my burger and her husband still stayed. I think if that happened to me, I would boycott the restuarant.

OR Magic

Remember when I posted a couple weeks ago about my extra OR day when I got to see open heart surgery? Well here's some fun pictures from the changing room before the day started. :) I LOVE OR!!Jessica, Kim and I: couldn't get through school without these girls!

We were a little wound up and excited for the day :)

Me, Jane, Karen, Jessie, Kim, Robyn and Jessica! The OR strong!!!

My favorite things--Day 6

Today I love this time of years because it is the end of the semester. Today I had the "we're almost done!" feeling all day. Luckily this year, my finals load is going to be super easy. Mostly because the profesors were so mean during the semester. But it really is almost done!!!!

My favorite things--Day 5

Today I love new releases! Christmastime always brings new releases of books and movies and other things right in time to give as gifts. Prince Caspian, the second Narnia movie, came out today and I went and bought it and watched it this afternoon. I saw it in theaters this summer and I loved it so I knew I wanted it! =)

My favorite things--Day 4

Today I love good company. Christmas always seems to be a season when more people are in your house, parties are happening and everyone is in good spirits. Tonight was family home evening at my apartment. It was fun to sit around and make snowflakes and just laugh and talk with one another.

Back to reality

After a much needed week off, I am back to the reality of school, but only for 2 more weeks and then finals and then HOME!!! I cannot wait for this semester to be over, I have learned a lot but I am just so done with my classes, I've lost interest, and am quickly losing motivation. But the end is most definitely near!

I realized that I forgot to tell everyone, I did not get into the Ecuador study abroad group. I am really okay with it though, I forgot about it right away which is why I probably didn't let everyone know. For some reason, and I not sure why yet, the Veteran's clinical is calling to me. I really feel like that is where I am supposed to be. I just hope the instructors think so too when I interview. I don't think those interviews are going to happen until after Christmas break though, so I'll keep you posted.

My favorite things--Day 3

Today, I love Christmas hymns! We started singing Christmas hymns today at church. They always bring a smile to my face, for multiple reasons. People always sing Christmas hymns louder than they do regular hymns, maybe because we know them so well, maybe because we are excited for the season, maybe because what they are about. Christmas hymns are a favorite part of the season!

My favorite things--Day 2

The Reason for the Season, Greg Olsen


This is a painting that I absolutely LOVE. All the commercial Christmas surrounds the children but they look into the snow globe that shows the real reason for this season. My family has a copy of the painting that we put up in the family room every year, I just love it.

My favorite things--Day 1

During the month of November, my sister Janelle did a "things I am thankful for" each day leading up to Thanksgiving. During the days leading up to Christmas I am going to do "My Favorite Things." These will be all-things-Christmas. The song from The Sound of Music, My Favorite Things has some how found it's way into the Christmas world, which is okay I guess seeing as it is giving me a good title for posts for the next month.

My favorite things today are REAL Christmas trees! I'm sorry if anyone feels differently but it is against my religion to have a fake tree. I need the adventure of going out and finding one, arguing over if it's straight or not and what angle the big ugly hole should be at, smelling pine all season and then burning the crackly pine needles sometime during New Year's. I love CHRISTMAS TREES!!! Today, Breanne and I got a REAL one for the apartment. Tomorrow we will work on decorating and I'll put pictures up.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Playing hookie

Let's just pretend like last week didn't happen. It was one of the hardest weeks I've had since being in college, so let's just ignore it and put it behind us.

Thanksgiving week is going to be pretty awesome though! I have decided to start it early: today. I slept in and didn't go to my class. Probably not a smart idea, but it sure feels good. :) And I have to say, in three years of school this is the first time that I have ever skipped classes just because I felt like it. There have been other times when I forgot to set my alarm, or I HAD to finish a project or a paper, or I was at the hospital doing nursing things. But today I am for real playing hookie for the first time, in three years.

Last night I was over at a friends house and there were a bunch of people there. They had white paper and scissors out and people were cutting out snowflakes. Let me tell you, I have never for the life of me figured out how to do this. My snowflakes always come out terrible! Or in eight pieces, or looking like a hot dog or something. I cannot cut out snowflakes. But I can make the 3D snowflakes, the ones that look like this:
And everyone kept staring at me so I taught people how to make them. It really easy. This is what I tend to do with my time when I want to procrastinate. It is therapeutic too, just doing something with your hands. Here's how you make them. I like to make red and white ones too because it looks like a peppermint. But mostly I'll make white ones, or baby blue. It would probably be cool if you had sparkly scrapbook paper or something then they would glitter. HAVE FUN MAKING THEM!!!

17 pages later

I just finished writing the longest paper of my whole time in college, it's 17 pages and all about one patient that I took care of this semester. Pretty crazy, huh? But it's a pretty good paper if I do say so myself, I spent a lot of time on it and I think that my patient, if she knew I was doing this, should feel pretty special right now.

I had my interview for Ecuador yesterday. It was pretty hilarious. I haven't spoken Spanish in so long, add that to being nervous, and you get the worst Spanish ever. When they asked me what I ate yesterday (testing my vocab, which is totally gone!) all I could think of was leche y cereal, un sandwich, y helado (milk and cereal, a sandwitch, and ice cream). I was so annoyed with myself too because I came out of it and I rehearsed in my mind everything that I said in English that I couldn't think of in Spanish at the time, and of course I remembered how to say everything after the fact. Oh well, come what may. They said I'd find out before Thanksgiving...cross your fingers!

Hold that thought....

I know I've been excited for Christmas and had the blog all decked out, but Christmas is now on a week and half hiatus. Thanksgiving is next week, and I am looking forward to it for sure!!!! Christmas will be back after Thanksgiving is over.

Translation to my previous post of "test your nursing knowledge"
The LOL in the ER had the following s/s: SOB, \/ CO, EJ of 15%, O2 of 85% on RA, and chest pain. The MD ordered a EKG, MONA tx, a CXR and recommended the pt for a CABG and a LVAD in the OR.

The little old lady in the emergency room had the following signs and symptoms: shortness of breath, decreased cardiac output, ejection fraction of 15%, Oxygen saturation of 85% on room air, and chest pain. The doctor ordered an electrocardiogram, morphine, oxygen, nitroglycerin, aspirin treatment, a chest x-ray and recommended the patient for a coronary artery bypass graft and a left ventricular assistive device in the operating room.

I am grateful for abbreviations, otherwise our charting would be 300 miles long.

CABGs and LVADs

In nursing we use all sorts of abbreviations. It's a whole 'nother language. Just for fun, let's see if anyone can translate this hypothetical situation, test your nursing knowledge:

The LOL in the ER had the following s/s: SOB, \/ CO, EJ of 15%, O2 of 85% on RA, and chest pain. The MD ordered a EKG, MONA tx, a CXR and recommended the pt for a CABG and a LVAD in the OR.

I bring this up because this week I watched a CABGx5: coronary artery bypass graft x5, in English: a quintuple bypass surgery! I requested to watch an open heart surgery on my OR day because I just really wanted to! I have taken care of lots of post-op patients that have had bypass surgery and now I can REALLY understand why they are in so much pain after. I won't share all the details, because you don't want to know but it was so amazing to watch. I saw a LIVE BEATING HUMAN HEART!!!! I felt this rush of adrenaline hit me as soon as he cut the pericardium (the sac around the heart). I have really loved working the heart this semester, seeing it in surgery, working with the patients that are post-op from heart surgeries, and I even loved watching the angiogram (they squirt dye into the heart to see the path and size and shape if the coronary arteries) I saw earlier in the semester. I know I still have two more semesters of new materials (Pediatrics/Labor and Delivery and ICU/ER) but specializing in cardiology is a definite possibility for me. :)

This is a diagram of a CABG x3

In clinical this week we also had a nurse specialist come in and talk to us about about LVADs, Left ventricular assistive devices. These are for patients that are in left heart failure and are basically bad enough to be on the transplant list. It is a titanium pump that is implanted just below the heart. One end of the tube is inserted to the left ventricle (the last place in the heart that pumps the blood to the body) and so the blood fills the machine instead of the left ventricle and then it is pumped through the machine out into the exiting tube which is sewn into the aorta, the main vessel exiting the heart into the body. Patients receive these devices because the left side of their heart can't pump the blood by itself.

AMAZING!!!!!

Friday versus Monday

Again, turn the music off on the sidebar so you can hear the video.



Look familiar?

It's been a while

I'm sorry I haven't updated everyone on my life in a long time. School has been absolutely insane. I feel like I don't have enough time to breath half the time. Things are busy, but all is well. I have been learning SO much and loving school and have been leaving time to have fun, don't worry.

NURSING SCHOOL UPDATE: Next spring term (April-June 09) my whole nursing class and the semester ahead of us (128 total) are going to have an experience called "Global Nursing." There are three study abroad groups going to Australia, Ecuador, and Taiwan. There are also many groups that stay closer to home and have the experience of working with populations different than the regulars we see at the hospitals: AIDS patients, the Navajo reservations, the public school systems, and veterans. I am keeping my fingers crossed to go to Ecuador. There are 16 spots and 8 of them have to be fluent Spanish speakers (which I'm not), I have my interview next week. If I don't get into the Ecuador group I won't be completely heartbroken. I am really interested in the veterans clinical. We would work at the VA in Salt Lake a few times a week, and then during the term we would take a week long field trip to Washington DC to work at the flagship VA hospital there and see some other things. That is my second choice. My third choice is Navajo Nation down in the four corners area because that one only lasts 3 weeks (everything else is 6 weeks) and I would have a longer summer vacation. :)

Clinicals, my experiences in the hospital once per week, are going really well. I was having a really difficult time this semester as I was kind of bored. I didn't feel like I was doing that much and there was so much downtime during the day. Recently I have had a few rotations on the cardiovascualr floors and I have fallen in love! I have had great nurses that are such great examples to me of what I want to be like when I "grow up." The patients that I have had I have not only learned a lot of nursing skills on (I'll spare you the graphic details) but also have been able to connect with and really take care of more than just getting pain pills for them. I can't believe that I only have three clinical days left! The semester is winding down fast, I go home in 38 days...not like I'm counting though.

This week, I have the opportunity to go to the OR again. I enjoyed it so much the last time that I asked my instructor if there was anyway that we could get an extra day. He arranged it for us, we have to do it on our own time, but I am excited! My goal for the day: see an open heart surgery!!!!

HAVING FUN: Changing gears, I had an awesome weekend this past weekend. I went to my first concert ever! Matt Nathanson is an artist that is still up and coming. He has two songs on the radio right now that you maybe will recognize: Car Crash and Come on Get Higher. It was such an AWESOME time!!! I went with some friends, and we stayed after for a while took pictures with the band and got some autographs.

The group: Cara, Alicia, Chris, MATT, and me =)

During the concert. I grabbed my camera on the way out the door and hadn't charged it, so the battery was really low. I took this picture on my phone so that I could save the camera, so they are a little poorer quality. We were in the front row because we got there so early, it was SO awesome!
At the end of the concert, we reached up on the stage and grabbed the setlist of what they were planning on playing during the concert. After, the band all signed it for me =)

Numa Numa Song, Just for Laughs

You'll have to turn off the Christmas music on the sidebar for this one. Just press the pause button. So this first video has been circling the web for a couple years and it pretty much makes my life. This guy is just so funny, you have to watch. Feel free to dance along :)


I just recently discovered this video which made me laugh even harder!

Top 10 reasons why I'm excited for Christmas!!!!

First of all I am usually one of the those people that don't start going Christmas-crazy until after Thanksgiving. But this year is different. I just can't wait until Christmas this year and here's why:

10) I am that much closer to graduation.
9) I haven't been to Connecticut since last Christmas (with the exception of 36 hours in May).
8) I want to see the house! New landscape outside and the decorations! My house is the best at Christmas!
7) Mom's cooking.
6) A possible trip to New York.
5) FREE TIME!!! To sleep, watch Christmas movies, go shopping, cook, visit, play in the snow.
4) Sleeping next to the Christmas tree with my Clayton and Janelle. That will never get old, no matter how much we grow up.
3) See Janelle, I haven't seen her since last summer (at least 18 months).
2) Meet my niece, Julie.
1) BE WITH FAMILY!!!!!

Ideas for tonight?

Sorry I haven't updated you on my life in a while, but I promise there isn't anything exciting going on. I do need help though. I am in charge of Family Home Evening tonight and it's going to be close to about 25 people. Any ideas for an activity?

Insane Week + Tagged!

It has been an insane week for more reasons than one, but it's all boring stuff so I won't bore you with it. However Brianne tagged me so here I go:

Three things I love (besides my family...that's a given!)
1. Mint cookies and cream ice cream
2. Watching the stars on super clear nights when I'm in the middle of nowhere so there are no lights around to take away from the beauty
3. Christmas time

Three things I did today:
1. Homework
2. Watched half of The Emperor's New Groove
3. Went to church

Three things I would love to do eventually:
1. Graduate and pass the NCLEX
2. Own a big screen TV
3. Travel the world visiting as many temples as I can along the way

Three things I could not live without (besides my family ... that's a given):
1. The gospel
2. Garlic
3. My roommates

Three things that scare me:
1. Alligators
2. Getting a progressive terminal illness
3. Tim Burton

You're tagged if you want to be =]

Soaking up the Sun

This weekend I had some major soaking up the sun, but it snowed here, so just run with the metaphor. Friday I slept 11 hours :) I love not setting an alarm clock for that one day of the week. It's awesome! Saturday I did do some homework in the morning but only for a little bit however it was a very productive little bit. Saturday afternoon was the football game. We played against New Mexico which should have been a gimme-game but our defense must have had some bad burritos or something for lunch because they just were not playing up to snuff. This was the first game all season that BYU has actually been behind. NM scored the first field goal to come ahead 3-0. We ended up beating them 21-3, but we really should have played better. Good news of the game: two of our touchdowns were scored in the end zone that I sit in, FINALLY! The whole season the team's been scoring down on the other end of the field, yesterday was good though. The game was also great because it was cold out and it finally felt like fall, actually it was more like winter. But it was the first game I came home to drink hot chocolate instead of apply aloe vera. The football game this upcoming week is on Thursday night so it's going to be difficult to catch, but I'm going to try. The deeper we get into the season to more confidence I have that we'll make it into a BCS bowl. A friend of mine made a good point yesterday: If Utah and BYU are both ranked in the top 10, and both undefeated, the winner of that game OUGHT to play in the BCS championship bowl. Undefeated and in the top 10, it's only fair. We're ranked 9 right now and Utah is 14. Saturday night I watched Walle with some good friends. I hadn't seen it yet but I really liked it! I recommend it. After Walle I migrated to another friend's house and we watched Hercules. She had a bunch of people over and that was fun. Afterwards we sat down at her kitchen table where they had started a puzzle and Kim and I talked for about two and half hours while working on the puzzle. It was great! I miss having downtime.

Happy Halloweird!!

To my readers in Connecticut

The post previous to this, now applies to my friends and family in Connecticut. The Supreme Court ruled today the homosexual couples MUST be granted the right to marry. In November we have the opportunity to take a step toward reversing this ruling, but it is going to be difficult. Odds are working against those in support of upholding the traditional marriage institution. In the election, I invite everyone to vote YES for a Constitutional Convention. If this passes, Connecticut residents will have the ability to vote on amendments to our state's Constitution. This opportunity only presents itself once every 20 years! Why some may ask is this important if homosexuals already have all the rights and privileges of a married coupled?

Taken from www.preservingmarriage.org:
1) Over time, greater acceptance of nontraditional marriage will be demanded of all people. This could impact the ability of any religion to teach and practice its beliefs.
2) If gay marriage remains legal, public schools will put it on equal footing with traditional marriage. Children will likely receive “age appropriate” information about sexual relations within heterosexual and homosexual marriages.
3) The court’s decision will inevitably lead to conflicts with religious liberty and free speech rights. Society will become more and more hostile to traditional beliefs about marriage and family.

PLEASE spread the word to neighbors and friends about this important vote so that the voice of the people in Connecticut will be heard and the divine institution of marriage can be preserved.

A helpful website: http://www.ctfamily.org/convention.html

To my readers in California

You may have already seen the ads running for the campaign to support Proposition 8 in your state. To my family and other readers in California, I ask you to please register to vote, and vote YES to proposition 8 to preserve the definition of marriage as between a man and a woman!



preservingmarriage.org

General Conference

This weekend was the 178th annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was AWESOME!!! Every stake in the world gets sent tickets to these proceedings but obviously some of the tickets go unused because those stake members are too far away to attend in Salt Lake. Connecticut is one such place. I got tickets from my home stake sent here to Utah so I was able to attend conference in the Conference Center on Saturday and Sunday mornings. The church's website has uploaded the entirety of the October 2008 conference, you can even go to a specific talk or song. Go take a look, rewatch a talk each day. On the tab that says "other videos" they have uploaded last April's conference, the General Relief Society broadcast from a couple weeks ago, the Young Women's broadcast, a video about President's Monson's life, and lots of other great stuff. It's so awesome to be able to rewatch it all right away! I love technology!

Watch here!

Some more summertime

Keep in mind that my summer vacation was only three weeks because I was in school but it was an awesome three weeks! I already put up some pictures that I had from my camera, but I just got the ones from my mom's camera.

We found this cool waterfall on the side of the road, so we pulled over and Clayton and I climbed it. We are waving just to the right of the top of the falls. My shoes are still muddy. I haven't washed them yet from this ordeal 4 Corners: Utah, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico

I got the whole world in my hands










Dad thought he was pretty funny posing for a picture, I was funnier :)

BACK TO PROVO:
Jolysa and I were Y-group leaders together for freshman orientation.

Mom still likes to take 1st day of school pictures. Even though this wasn't the first day, we'll just pretend.













My stylish nursing uniform

The many sides of Clayton Rountree

Today is my brother's 16th birthday, whom I so loving call Claymeister. Here is some of the sides of my totally awesome brother, who is now totally datable :)

The "get the camera outa my face" side

The uncle side

The brother side

The scout side

The "I can't decide which team to support" side

The stud side

The "I can't smile for the picture unless you make me laugh" side

The cute side

The even cuter side

I love ya bud! Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!!

Practically 36 hours of freedom

I just got back from the hospital from picking out my patient and there's a voice message on my phone that says I don't have clinical tomorrow, I also got an email. This means no homework tonight and no 12 hour class tomorrow. I don't know what to do with myself. Any ideas?

My day

In college we never take tests. We take midterms or exams. I don't understand why they call them midterms, they aren't in the middle and we have like 3 or 4 of them...oh well.

Today I had my first midterm of the semester. It went surprisingly well. It was my test for Med/Surg, my 8 credit class, so if I don't get at least a B+ I lose my scholarship. It was easy, which makes me nervous and makes me happy. Nervous because things can only get harder, happy because I did well.

I also picked out a new blog layout. Janelle, my sister, picked a new one out this week too so being the annoying little sister that I am I copied :). But it was time for a change anyways.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO MY PARENTS!!!!! They have been married 30 years today!

My Politics

Here are a few political issues and where I stand, some things I've thought about more than others, and some things I don't know as much about as others...

War in Iraq: No one cares at this point if you originally voted that we should enter the war or not. That's ancient history, the question now is what are you going to do about it? And my view on the war: a timetable is a bad idea. A goal would be good but locking ourselves into a date is dangerous. We need to finish what we started.

Universal Health Care: absolutely not. You think there's a nursing shortage now...

Abortion: This one's tricky. I think that it should be legal and here's why: if it were illegal, women would still find a way or a quack doctor to have it done and end up screwing up their bodies and potentially causing great harm to themselves. I don't agree with the decision to get an abortion, but I think it needs to be legal.

Energy: people need to get over their fear of the word "nuclear." Let the scientists do their research so that they can find ways around oil. I want to preserve as much of the beautiful lands in America (which are probably full of oil) as we can, but I also want to drive my car. It's a catch-22.

Stem-cell Research: again people need to get over their fear of the term and learn what it actually is. Scientists aren't killing babies. This research needs more funding so that we can find the cure for cancer and other deadly diseases which is killing more people the war in Iraq.

My dilemma with this election: I was truly gung-ho for McCain from the beginning, even while Romney was running, but then he picked Sarah Palin as his VP. If McCain were to win, I would feel really good but if he were to die in office, we'd be screwed. Palin is not even close to being ready to be our Commander in Chief. Russia's in my backyard...give me a break. On the other hand, Obama scares the crap out of me. I think the terrorists would love having him voted into office because he's a softy. Also I hate hate hate the idea of universal health care. I also feel like he talks and talks and talks and that's it. Not visiting the middle east at all until a few weeks ago also troubles me.

A week in the life of...

So it's been a few days since I last posted anything, and the it was just pictures. I am starting to finally settle into the semester, as much as I would like to still be on vacation. My typical week this semester goes like this:

Monday: I wake up at about 7 and am to class by 8. At 9 I head to the library to do my Church History reading, but usually end up falling asleep. I go to church history from 11-12 and then I'll eat lunch and settle in for a long night. I do my nursing reading until about 7 when I break for dinner and Family Home Evening. Then it's back to the library until I finish my homework for nursing the next day, which is usually midnight.

Tuesday: I have med/surg from 8-11, devotional from 11-12, hurry and study for pharm from 12-1 and Pharmacology from 1-4. By the end of Tuesday's I am ready to run 17 miles because I have literally been on my butt ALL DAY! Last week I played tennis with a friend after class, the week before I cleaned the kitchen.

Wednesday: Again the Doctrine and Covenants and then Church History routine, at noon when I get out of class I speed walk back to my apartment and scarf down lunch. At about 12:20 two fellow nursing students and I head to the hospital, about a 40 minute drive. I go to the floor that I will be working on the next day and look through all the patient charts and pick a good one (meaning lots of tubes, and pathologically interesting diseases, someone I can learn a lot while taking care of them). We usually get back to Prove at about 3 and I start the pre-assessment. What this means is I research the diagnoses of the patient I just picked, look up all their meds and write out important things about them, plan what I'm going to do for them, and review the labs and interpret high/low values. This usually takes me till about 7-8pm. At 7 I try to go to 80's movie night and just sit in the back and finish homework if I'm not done. I crash as soon as I can.

Thursdays: Wake up at 5:30 and head up to the hospital. Work with my patient, follow my nurse, learn lots of stuff till about 4pm and head home. I usually am so exhausted that I sit around for a while and procrastinate doing my homework for the next day. Maybe around 8pm I'll start it and then get to bed by 11 or 12.

Friday: I have nursing lab from 8-10 and we learn valuable nursing skills like how to put patients through pain. Just kidding, but seriously it is good to be able to learn skills and practice on each other or the mannequins before we do it on real people. Friday I usually study for a test, do reading for next week, or work on a paper. A group of us get together on Friday afternoons to work out case studies for the following week's nursing classes. I usually veg out with the roommates on Friday nights, which includes going groceries.

So a day in the life of Candice Rountree is always different depending on which day you chose to spend in my life. Thursday's tend to be the best but the most overwhelming also. Friday's are the most relaxing. Tuesday's are the hardest to get through. But I have learned that Sunday's are the days that I look forward to the most for lots of reasons: feeling the Spirit at church, I can think about something other than nursing, I spend time with my roommates, I have large chunks of time that I can talk to family, I can write in my journal, update you on my blog, I have time to cook, and I can take naps.

Other happenings: BYU(#8) has passed USC(#9) in the rankings this week (just had to mention it, sorry Clayton and Grandpa Rountree) and we didn't even play--we're just that good, my mom had a big birthday this week, my parent's 30th wedding anniversary is tomorrow, and I got tickets to go to General Confernce next weekend, and I watched the debate on Friday night and am scared out of my mind for this country! But I don't feel like discussing politics right now...

Nursing kills, I mean Skills

Here are some pictures that we took the day we learned to give IV's and scrub down for surgery. Like almost all our other skills, we practiced IV's on each other.

I don't know why I'm so excited here, but it's a pretty crazy picture :)




Prepping for IV's, Megan's scared



I hadn't actually poked her yet.

Trying to smile through the pain. My first IV try was unsuccessful. When I poked Megan, I missed the vein so I had to go fishing for it, Debbie (right behind me) basically guided it into the vein for me. Poor Megan was shaking it hurt so bad. I practiced again on Saturday and got it in right away.

I had never gotten an IV before that I can remember. They hurt!

BYU rocks

Um, BYU just beat UCLA 59-0. Nuff said.

My September 11th

There are very few days in a person's life that they will remember absolutely every detail of. Baptisms, weddings, births of children/grandchildren, and tragedies. I think (and hope) the September 11, 2001 is a day that we never forget. Here's my story of this day 7 years ago:

I was 13 years old and had been living in Connecticut for a grand total of 15 days. I knew nothing about the east coast except that New York and Washington DC were both located on it. I was in Mrs. Keeler's science class when the first plane hit. We however didn't have the TV on so we didn't know anything was happening until the bell rang about 15 minutes later and the buzz through the hallway spread like wildfire. I remember being so confused. People were telling me the Pentagon had been hit. I remember asking someone what the Pentagon was, I didn't know. I didn't know what the World Trade Center was or had even ever heard of it. Five minutes of passing time goes by and I'm sitting in Miss Tozzo's drama class. We are all gathered around the TV watching the news coverage. They are showing a live feed of the burning WTC, then all of a sudden...a plane comes in from the side of the screen and crashes into eh building. The reactions in the room from a bunch of 8th graders were mixed as you can imagine. Some laughed because that's what people sometimes do when they don't know how to react. Some people weren't paying any attention because the were too busy messing around doing whatever 8th graders do. I was awestruck and dumbfounded. I didn't know what to think, I didn't know what was going on and what people were talking about, and I remember being absolutely mortified by the people laughing. People were saying that the terrorists could be headed for Haddam (the town of my high school) because of the nuclear plant there. I realized after a few minutes that my dad was supposed to be flying out that morning on a business trip. I called from school (I can't remember if I talked to my mom or dad) and found out that he hadn't left and obviously wasn't going anywhere for a while. Miss Tozzo turned the TV off a little while after and then the loudspeaker came on instructing us that we were to resume with the normal day's activities. I can't remember the rest of the day until I was out of school. We were still living in a hotel at the time and so I wasn't taking the bus home from school yet, my mom was picking me up. Waiting at the door, my mom was a few minutes late, I talked with a high schooler. He told me that all their classes for the day were cancelled and they sat and watched the reports. I remember being jealous because our teachers had kept us out of the loop so much for the whole day. Mom showed up and jumped out of car. As we embraced it was the first time that I cried the whole day. I was scared. It was hard being the new kid, new to the east coast, new to everything, and feeling like we just moved into a war zone (I didn't know the distance to NY). Back at the hotel room that afternoon I remember doing homework and laying the bed with my mom watching the TV screen, watching the replay of the plane hit the building again and again. Saying out loud, "what have moved to? What did we get ourselves into?"

It was an impressionable day and will be with me always. I am so grateful for the men and women that are protecting the country. Thousands have given their lives to fight against the injustice that was done here, one of which attended my high school. Remember them in your prayers, and please don't forget what happened 7 years ago.

Nursing, football, nursing, tennis, nursing, church, nursing, nursing....

This first week of school has been the most ridiculous few days. I use that word ridiculous because there has just been so many words to describe everything, I can't possibly pick one! Let's go day by day since my last post.

September 2nd: The first day of school. I was talking to my roommate, Cha who is just starting the accounting program here at BYU. She described it well. It feels like we are starting freshman year all over again in a way. Completely new classes and new people that we HAVE to get to know because they are going to be with us for the rest of our college career. Granted I do have a semester of nursing school under my belt it certainly didn't feel like it on this day! I kind of feel like summer was a complete joke, not really but definitely not serious nursing stuff. But now, it feels more real than ever! I have six hours of lecture on Tuesdays, three in the morning and three in the afternoon. It is so draining.

September 3rd: I had my Doctrine and Covenants class. I'm going to love it! The guy teaching it isn't a religion professor. He's the head of the Biology Dept at BYU and teaches the evolutionary biology classes on campus. He said that sometime during the semester he would give a lecture on evolution and the gospel and I'm really excited. Sometimes BYU students annoy the crap out of me with how close minded they are about things mostly because they don't know what they're talking about so hopefully he'll be able to instill in the minds of some students that God and science can and DO coexist.
I also had my church history class. Susan Easton Black is my professor. I am so lucky to have gotten into her class. She is one of the greatest church historians there is. She's written over 150 books or something. She's hilarious too!
Wednesday afternoon I had a front load lab for nursing. What that means is in these first two weeks of school as nursing students we have 4 hours of lab each week to learn the skills absolutely vital for us to know before we hit the ground running in clinicals. Wednesday we leanred how to scrub down from surgery and prepare a sterile field. We also gave each other IV's. They HURT!!! I had never gotten one before and those are definitely no fun! My friend Megan took pictures of the IV's but I haven't gotten them from her yet. Here's a picture of me all sterile ready for surgery :)



September 4th: PHEW!!!! WHAT-A-DAY!!! This was my first day at the hospital. I started at 5:00am. We got the hospital at 6:45am. The days events: we sat and talked about the semester and assignments for about an hour half (which just confused me more from Tuesday's full day of nursing stuff). We then proceeded to take and 3 hour tour of the floor we would be working on. OR (Operating Room) was by far the coolest! We went into the locker room and had to put on the hospital issued scrubs, booties, and hair covers to go through this part of the hospital. We stopped at one OR and the nurse came out and explained what the surgeon was doing. We cold see the incision up on the screen from outside the room and were watching him open the patient. Unfortunately we had to keep moving but we almost got to see the heart! We continued our tour with the Medical/Telemetry floor, Oncology, Transplant, Trauma, Cardiovascular, and Cath/Endoscopy labs. Then we learned how to chart on the computers. Can I just say I LOVE TECHNOLOGY!!!! Charting by hand on paper over the summer in the nursing homes was just a pain in the behind. I will definitely get used to this whole computer thing :). After that our instructor split us up all over the hospital to shadow a nurse for a couple hours. I was on the Trauma floor. That was interesting. Nothing too thrilling happened, actually it was kind of boring. Hopefully I'll get to see some more action this week!!!

September 5th: Okay, I can breath. I had the day off. And I definitely took it! I did get some new scrubs because my old ones are baggy and boring and I didn't like them. The ones are got are much comfier and more fitting so I don't look like a potato sack.

September 6th: FOOTBALL!!!! My friend Chris has access to a projector through his major and he basically just has it all the time. He came over and we set up the game in my apartment so it was really big up on the wall. My apartment is bigger than his and figured a lot of people would come so we had it in my apartment. It was awesome! Talk about a way close game, TOO close. You've probably heard about the call at the end that Washington was called out for "unsportsmanlike conduct." I thought that was stupid, but whatever. Even if they hadn't been called and we didn't block the kick, Washington only would have tied us, not won like everyone said they were going to. The game would have gone into OT and we would have had possession. So pretty much BYU would have won anyways, and we did. :)
The US Open was this weekend too, although there was some bad weather interruptions that went on. Saturday Federer beat some guy (can't remember the name) to advance to the finals. And Serena Williams also advanced to the finals. Andy Murray and Nadal played the first half of the match before they got rained out on Saturday too.

September 7th: Stake/Regional Conference in the Marriott Center. President Uchtdorf (spelling?) and President Packer both spoke. Sister Dibb who in the general young women's presidency and daughter of President Monson also spoke. It was a great meeting! US Open: Serena won and became #1 in the world again. Murray beat Nadal in the semifinals to play Federer in the finals.

September 8th: Class again :P. This was the first Monday of classes. I finally got myself together and did my homework for all the nursing classes tomorrow. Although today after going through everything is when I realized that I need a secretary to organize my life. I still don't know what I'm doing. On the up side, I got home in time to see the final point of the game in the men's final. I literally turned the TV on as he was serving the last point. Federer won!

I guess after all this what I have to say that I maybe didn't clarify too well is that I'm ok but under a lot of stress and pressure right now. I am having windows of fun but they are short. I am generally a low stress person and can handle things well but right now I am kind of freaking out inside, so keep me in your prayers please. LOVE YOU ALL!!!