When I grow up. In June.

I've really enjoyed the last 18 months in nursing school, but it hasn't been until this quarter that I've really been giddy with excitement about what I am learning and doing. This quarter is mother/baby and pediatrics. I knew I would enjoy it, but I didn't really think I wanted to go into either area of nursing. (Don't ask me why--I thought I had my reasons but it took about a week of lectures to realize those reasons were ridiculous.) My clinical rotation at Seattle Children's hospital has been my favorite rotation so far, and it only partly has to do with the 3 week-old patient I had my first week. I enjoyed caring for the 17 year-old every bit as much as the newborn. Kids are fun. They are much cooler patients than grumpy adults. And they'll agree to just about anything for the right color of popsicle.

I still have my labor and delivery/NICU/mother-baby rotation to do, but I am feeling happy to know that I want to go into either pediatrics or maternal health when I graduate in June.

But here's the kicker: if I want to do pediatrics, I'm going to have to keep going to school. And as much as I loved pediatrics, every time I've tried to get myself to fill out the application for University of Washington's RN to BSN program, I feel like barfing. I cannot bear the thought of another five quarters of school right now. Ugh. See I just barfed a little typing that up.

Anyway, that's what's been going on around here. I've had a very crazy schedule this month, and I'm looking forward to a much calmer February. I hope I can be nicer in February, because guess what? I'm not very much fun to be around when I'm busy and stressed out. I don't even like my company. Date night tomorrow night, so maybe Nice Jami will show up. (And I just need to reread this paragraph to know that another 18 months of school should not be up for consideration right now!)

When inspirational posters go wrong

Have you seen this poster? Isn't it motivating? What an amazing story of bravery and survival, right?

That poster hangs in the gymnasium where my daughters have PE and lunch every day. So when I said, "Hey, I'm signing us all up for surfing lessons!" while we were in Maui, can you guess what ran through Amelia's mind? "I'm a fan of both of my arms, thank you very much. Surfing is not for me." And she could not be convinced otherwise. Since snorkeling occurs in the same ocean where surfing occurs, she looked at us with the same "you must be crazy" expression when Kolby suggested snorkeling. She was okay with anything in the ocean that allowed her to keep her feet on the ground (wave jumping, sand castle building, boogie boarding) but not anything that required a swim that would surely also involve sharks. You could just use your own damn arms for shark bait if you were so inclined.

Despite that, we had a great time with surfing lessons and our snorkeling trip out to Molokini Crater and Turtle Town. Amelia was a trooper and tried getting in the water at Molikini to snorkel, but you know when you were a kid and your mom asked you to get a can of corn from food storage in the basement and you'd be okay at first, but on the way back up the stairs you'd get that arched-back-racing-heart-can't-get-up-the-stairs-fast-enough-because-the-boogey-man-is-after-you feeling? That's about how her first, and only, trip into the water for snorkeling went. It might have lasted 1.2 seconds.

But then she sat on the deck and flirted with the completely adorable blond surfer boy who worked on the boat, winning t-shirts for herself and Madeline for saying Humuhumunukunukuapua'a.

The girls got an early Christmas gift from us--a waterproof video camera. They had a lot of fun playing with it in the pool and ocean (until I broke it surfing...luckily it was under warranty).

Learning to surf has long been on my list of things to do before I die. I can't say I learned to surf, but I did learn to catch a wave and stay upright on the board for a period of time.

But given enough tropical vacations, maybe I'll start looking as cool as Maddie on the surfboard?

Just do it

Go see it:
Read it:

Bake it and eat it:

Raspberry Almond Thumprints

You can thank me later.

First taste of Maui

For several years after moving to Portland we spent the week between Christmas and New Year's in Sunriver with our friends, the Nelsons. Last year, with my school schedule getting in the way of a long trip to Utah for Thanksgiving, we decided to head home to Utah for the Christmas holiday instead. And so the Nelson's went to Hawaii.

This year we joined them. We pulled the kids out of their last week of school, and spent nine amazing days in Maui. (On Maui?) I felt myself decompress instantly upon arriving, and stayed in that amazing "chill" mode for the entire trip. It probably would have had a nice afterburn effect, except our re-entry into the world after vacation was brutal. More on that later.

For now, let's remember the good times. Here's some pictures from our first day or two.

View from the lanai on the Nelson's ground floor unit

Maddie and Mason

Mia and Cooper

View from our condo on our first morning. I could see this view from our bed. We slept with all the doors open and listened to the waves all night.

FROGS!!! Hawaii rules!

Aaaah. See? Now I'm all relaxed again. Stomach flu, head injury, car repairs, it's all like it never happened and I'm on the beach with sun on my back again.

Christmas

Okay, well I failed at that little exercise, didn't I? When I pictured 12 Days of blogging I thought I'd be waking up in my bed in Maui, writing a blog post each morning to get caught up on life, all the while fooling would-be house robbers that I was actually home. But guess what? I didn't really feel like it, and I kind of stopped caring if someone stole all my stuff because being a beach bum sounded much better.

So now it's really time to get my blog on. I'm starting with Christmas because it just happened yesterday. And since I spent much of yesterday working on photobooks of Maui, I'm kind of tired of looking at those photos.

We had so much fun last year, we decided to make Chinese food and the lights at the Botannical Gardens our Christmas Eve tradition. The kids really enjoy the lights--I remember freezing my butt off in the crowds at Temple Square every year, but this is a little less of an undertaking. It's only a couple miles from our house and takes about 20 minutes to walk around the gardens, and the kids have a little scavenger hunt sheet to find the animals in the exhibits. It was rainy and muddy, but even that isn't too miserable at 48 degrees.

Then we headed to the chinese restaurant we discovered last year: Spiced Truly Chinese Cuisine. They have a new menu this year with photos. Photos of things like "Fish head soup," "Pickled chili chicken claw" and "Sliced pig ears." Dishes are rated by two kinds of spiciness: hot spicy and numbing spicy. Despite those horrifying options, it really is the best Chinese food we've ever eaten. (We choose "zero" on both numbing and hot spicy, because even zero ranks a 3 or 4 on our wimpy tongues.) But right after ordering, Madeline decided she needed to puke. And since Kolby had puked earlier in the week, I don't think it had anything to do with the photos of chicken claws in spicy sauce.

So Christmas Eve and Christmas day ended up being very mellow for us. We hung out at home in pajamas and watched movies, played Wii and the new Kinect, and talked to family and friends on the phone. The only puking episode was on the way home from dinner Christmas Eve. Maddie got to enjoy her Chinese leftovers while we ate ham, brussels sprouts, and sweet potatoes for dinner last night. She couldn't have been more pleased with herself.

Swedish pancakes for breakfast

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! I'm going skiing with Amelia today, and I'll be back to blogging tomorrow. I really will this time.

We are family

I know you are all sick of hearing about our cats. But maybe if I just explain a little bit, you're attitude will improve.

You see, we have the best cats in the history of cats. This after having a cat who was a tyrant for 14 years. I can't tell you how many times a day I hear from members of the family, or exclaim loudly myself, "I love these cats so much!"

At first I thought it could just be that our family was just in the honeymoon phase after getting out of an abusive relationship with Lucy, our ex-cat. But it's been 18 months, and our kitties get kinder, cuddlier, and cuter every day. We still take pictures of them sleeping. I can hardly walk by either one of them without picking them up and rubbing my face in their fur. I can't help but laugh when I hear Willow's fat paws lumbering down the hallway. We all sleep in ridiculously uncomfortable positions when Mango is snuggled up with our legs because we don't want her to leave. In the morning whomever she chose to sleep with that night brags about it for as long as possible.

These kitties bring so much happiness to our house. I can't imagine not having them around to keep me company. Sure, they bring in dead animals and take naps in the Christmas tree. But they make up for it with their cuddles and cuteness. And so now you see why I must continue to talk about the cats. I'm glad you understand.

12 days of Blogness (Day 1)

It seems I've been neglectful, and really not for any good reason other than I was feeling lazy and uninspired.

But I'm on break from school, so I'm going to commit here and now to blogging TWELVE times between now and Christmas. I can't promise it'll be quality blogginess, but it'll be something. So come back! I've not abandoned you!

So for Day One, I'll share a few pics of the snow days the kids had the week of Thanksgiving. You'll laugh at the amount of snow that earns us two days home from school.

While the kids were outside playing in the snow, I was inside baking and cooking and decorating and refilling countless mugs of hot cocoa and apple cider. My own version of enjoying a snow day.

Something I've been wanting to do for a long time is an art wall with the kids' projects from school. I've been saving their artwork for a couple of years, but buying the frames and actually hanging those frames (remember that li'l issue I have?) has been holding me back. I finally decided to just tape them to the wall. (I've since had to use thumbtacks because the tape didn't hold. So now there's 64 holes in my wall. And here I am, still breathing, still walking. It's incredible.)
That self-portrait of Mia on the bottom has been replaced with a really fantastic self-portrait she brought home yesterday. No photos to show yet because my laundry room is piled high right now.

There you go. Day one.