Christmas Decorating

Today we put up our Christmas decorations and nothing is more magical than a house decorated for Christmas. I love it. It makes me happy. It brings back so many memories and family traditions. I cannot wait until we have a home of our own and can put up Christmas lights outside. The only thing missing now is our tree- which we will pick up after Thanksgiving!

Bryan and I make it a family affair. We both decorate the house while watching a Christmas movie and eating Christmas cookies. It really puts us in the Christmas Spirit and gets me excited for the next month.

This Christmas might be a little different this year because I have to stay in Florida to work while Bryan get to be with his family in California. Now I will get to have the Christmas week off but not the whole month like a student. It is making me treasure every moment we get to do family things and holiday celebrations together.

Working Woman

I GOT A JOB!!!!! Most of you know that already but I want to journal the story of my first RN job!

I graduated Nursing school in July and took the state boards in August. I have never been so nervous in my life to take a test. It was much easier than I thought it was going to be. Once I got my official RN license I started drafting my resume. After about 2 weeks of drafting, much peer review, and attending a resume class I finished it. It was now time to apply to jobs. I started applying to every RN job within 30 minutes of my house. I applied to over 300 jobs and in 10 different hospitals. After about 3 weeks I started getting discourage and scarred. I would call the nursing recruiters at different hospitals and they all said call back in January or some would not even speak to me! SO I applied to nanny jobs... I will be honest i had no intentions of ever being a nanny but just applying to the jobs made me feel better. I thought about applying to some retail positions until I get my RN job. I would spent 5-6 hours a day finding and applying to jobs. I was determined to get hired.

The next week I get a call from a home health agency wanting to hire me. I will be honest I have no idea how they even got my resume. I was so EXCITED. I always said I would never work in home health, but someone wanted to hire me. It gave me a lot of confidence. SO in the beginning of October I started working for a home health Agency as an IV nurse.

Even though I was working I kept applying to hospital jobs. I enjoyed the home health job way more than expected but my dream has always been to work in a hospital. One day I called Palmetto General Hospital's recruiter and we had a great conversation. I asked him if there was anything I could do to help get my foot in the door and find a job. He took time to talk to me. He said call back in a week and I did. I called back and he asked me about working on the telemetry unit. I said I would love that. A couple of days later I get a call from the Director or Nursing for the telemetry unit asking to come in for a interview. Later that week I go in for the interview. I was so nervous. Bryan and I practice all morning my interviewing skills.

The interview was on a thursday. I had to work all day and rush down to Miami afterwards. I left work late and was so nervous I was going to be late for the interview. I really think God got me to my interview on time. I thought I answered every question great. Then, they started asking me medication questions and I got nervous. I answered them to my best ability but left the interview thinking well I didn't get that job. On my way home I called Bryan to see if I answered the questions right. I DID. That experience taught me to trust myself more. I always tell myself oh I am a new graduate I don't know much. But the truth is I do know a lot. The very next day I get a phone call form the recruiter saying they loved you and want to hire you!! I almost cried. I had to get some things in order but I got my dream job!!

2 weeks later I signed the contract. Its a full time job with benefits for a 2 year contract. I got a great sign on bonus and so excited to finally put all my schooling to work!! I feel so blessed and truly believe Heavenly Father helped me get this job.

Pumpkin

I love Fall. The colors, the weather and PUMPKINS. My whole house is decorated with pumpkins. Here are some pictures.

The Fall colors I love
5 Pumpkins on my entertainment center
My favorite Pumpkin.

Pumpkin center piece, pumpkin napkin holders and pumpkin table cloth.

I kick off fall with my mother's pumpkin bread. I add chocolate chips to it and sometimes make a cream cheese buttercream frosting to ice with. We love it and Bryan craves it all the time. Here is the recipe.

In one bowl add

3 1/2 C flour

2 1/2 C sugar

2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

In another bowl add

1 tsp nutmeg

2 C pumpkin

1 C oil

4 Eggs

Mix liquid with dry ingredients. Pour into 2 greased loaf pans and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. I start checking it at 50 to 55 mins.

Golf

Lately, we have been really into golfing. Bryan has been playing since he was 14 but the other day we both went to the driving range. I borrowed some of his clubs and hit some balls. I loved it. It was nice to get out the house, a break from applying to jobs and do something together. We tried road biking together and that was a disaster!! Even though we are on different levels we can be next to each other talking and playing. Its a good marriage sport!!

SO after we went to the driving range Bryan said lets go to the golf store. We did and he wanted me to look at clubs. I was not prepared to buy any clubs so was only looking at the cheap ones. I did not really like them. I could tell neither did Bryan. I just felt like after I get semi decent I would be able to tell they suck! About 1 hour later after looking at different clubs and deciding I don't want any, I randomly picked up a set, played it and loved it. I said these are it. They are high end but I only got 1/2 set. Instead of getting 14 clubs I got 7 (something like that)

During this whole process Bryan was not saying a word. It was driving me nuts. Later he told me he wanted me to make the decision not him. So about 2 hours later we left the store with a set of clubs and the cutest bag ever. We have been golfing together as much as possible ever since. Its a great stress reliever for Bryan and time spent together. Now we are looking at golf vacations...

This is my golf bag and clubs.

Where Dreams Come True

My Brother's family went to Disney World again this year and we drove up to vacation with them. We love vacationing with them and LOVE disney world. This was Bryan's first and he was impressed. He loved it. While we were there he kept talking about our next trip!!

Saturday it RAINED all day, but that did not stop us from playing. We did Hollywood Studios all day but around 5PM we got too cold and too wet to go on. So that night we went to the Pent house and watched the firework show from there.

The view from the penthouse during the fire work show.

Estella and Me.

The girls hanging out. Logan and Lauren drove over as well.

Loving Disney in the rain!
Bryan and I at Epcot.
US with my Brother's kids. We love them!

Can't wait for my next Disney Trip!! I hope it soon.

I Love Music

I love music. It makes me so happy. Ever since I was little I would sit on my bed and just listen to music. I would fall asleep to it, clean to it and study to it. I sometimes look forward to cleaning because I know I will be listening to music as I clean. I rarely take a shower without my radio blasting. I also love listening to morning shows on the radio. I look forward to the traffic report. I don't even drive in the morning and always listen to the traffic report.

Music moves me. I can listen to a song over and over again and love it more each time. I have been listening to Taylor Swift everyday since October and I still can't get enough of it. Certain songs instantly put me in a memory that I love. When I am in the car I turn up my radio and sing and I am happy.

I don't know where I am going with this besides the fact that I LOVE MUSIC.

Back to Reality

I feel like my summer is over and I am starting my real life again! I was on vacation for almost of month. First we went to California and hung out with Bryan's family. We went to Mammoth for the weekend. It was beautiful and relaxing. We mainly fished which I truly enjoyed. It reminded me of my being young and going fishing with my dad. Those were times I loved and always remember. I caught so many fish. Bryan and I had a contest. Who ever caught the most fish would win a prize. I WON. He got me an XBOX kinect but I felt like it was too much for us and we would not use it a lot so we returned it. I was just happy I finally beat Bryan at something!!

Bryan Fly Fishing.
The biggest fish I caught. Bryan wanted to keep it. So we had it in the boat but then the fish started gasping for breath and I could not watch and started to cry so Bryan put it back in the water.
Bryan fishing.
I caught the first fish of the trip. It was tiny.

Right after spending time with my Bryan's family I flew to Utah to help my sister with her new baby. She had a baby boy Noah and he is the cutest thing ever. He loves to be held and cuddle so I would hold him all day long. I felt like I was not much help because I could not get Ava away from Marissa. So I took care of the baby, which in the end was the best!

Ava and Noah. She loved him. She would say, "My baby."

Ava happy because she was getting ice cream.

I returned home from Utah and immediately starting packing up our house to move. It was a stressful and hard move but worth it in the end. We are finally settled in and I can actually relax now. I also signed up for my NCLEX-RN test. It is the state boards for nursing and once I take this test and pass I can get a real job!! Bryan got me the Kaplan review course and I am so grateful. They have a 93% pass rate and I think I really needed it but was too scared to get it. I am glad Bryan surprised me and got it for me!

I feel like my life is back to normal. I don't know if that is a good thing or not. I liked being on vacation for a month and spending time with family. I got home Sunday night and Monday night I was ready to leave Florida to hang out with my family again. I have a count down to my NCLEX test because afterwards I am flying to New Jersey to see family again! I CAN'T WAIT!!!