My Graduation: June 2013

I realize that this post is long overdue, but better late than never, right?

I unofficially finished school in November 2012 when I finished my final clinical placement at the Foothills Hospital. After that, I studied for my CRNE (Canadian Registered Nurses Exam) and wrote my exam on February 6th. I found out about a month later that I had PASSED!

I officially graduated on June 7th when we had my convocation ceremony at Mount Royal University. I was only allowed to invite four people to the ceremony so I was planning on inviting my parents, Jared of course, and Jared's mom. Jared had told me he was going to talk to his mom about it and let me know. 

My parents had driven to Calgary for the ceremony that day. We had planned to carpool it with them to the university to save money on parking. As Jared and I were walking out to my parent's truck from our house, my sister Erin popped out from behind the truck and surprised me! It was awesome! Apparently she had been planning this for a while with my parents and made the trip from Utah to be at my graduation. She had done the same thing at my High School graduation so I think it made it extra special. I was really glad she was able to make it. 

The ceremony was pretty good; long but not too long. I walked the stage, got my diploma and then we took some pictures outside. My dad was very thoughtful and bought me some roses.

After my graduation, we went to Jonathan and Amanda's house for a barbeque. Jared's family came over as well to celebrate. We had some delicious bacon-wrapped pork that Jonathan prepared and cooked and a lot of good salads and sides. Afterwards, my family had arranged to go to Drumheller for the weekend to spend time with Brian and Sarah as Sarah was due any day with Carter. In Drumheller, they were having Dino Days so they had a bouncy house and a slide at the waterpark for the city. It was a lot of fun and we had a great weekend spending time together as a family. 

Anyways, that was the graduation weekend! I have now been officially graduated for five months!

Spruce Meadows Christmas Market

Today, I had the opportunity to go to the Spruce Meadows International Christmas Market in Calgary. My friend, Emily, invited me to go along with her and her friend Jason to look around and get some ideas for Christmas this year.

We did a LOT of wandering, mostly just browsing at the different items being sold in the market. Some things that caught my eye were antique keys made into necklaces, pocket watches, and some pretty wooden bowls. Mostly, I just enjoyed being there with all of the colorful lights, holiday music, and the exciting Christmas bustle in the market. Christmas, by far, is my favoritie holiday.

Despite my lack of sleep after my night shift last night, I'd say it was worth going out there today even if I didn't end up buying anything.

Roller Skating & Reminiscing

Every month, the youth have a stake activity organized by the various wards in the stake. This month, the youth activity was rollerskating at Lloyd's roller rink in Calgary. Because I am in the Young Women's presidency, I was able to go and support (more like play) with them while they skated. It was a fun activity and a bit nostalgic at the same time.

I know Lloyd's has been around for a long time but I only really knew of its existence about four years ago when my friend Jessi and I went for the first time together. I'd heard it was 80's themed (or stuck in the 80's) so I curled my hair and combed it out so it was huge and wavy. I also put on my brightest t-shirt and layered on the blue eye-shadow. If only I had pictures, folks. Either way, Jessi and I had a blast that night and enjoyed doing something we had never tried before.

Just like most things, I was pretty awful at rollerskating at first. It took a few embarrassing near-falls before I was able to confidently skate around the rink without flinching. Being at Lloyd's reminded me of all the fun I used to have with my friends in high school and the crazy (or at least crazy to me) adventures we would go on. Although I mainly skated by myself on Tuesday, it was fun to reminisce and bask in the flashing colourful lights and pop music. Definitely an enjoyable night. 

 

Diaper Cake

Two weeks ago, on November 9th, my friend Emily and I attended her little sister, Sarah's, baby shower. For her present, we both wanted to give her something useful but also creative. Since Emily is such an amazing cake decorator, we thought it might be an interesting idea to fashion a cake out of diapers (which all babies need obviously). Diaper cakes are nothing new as you will find out with a simple internet search, but they were definitely new for us. Neither of us had made anything like it before, especially Emily as she is used to working with real cake, not poop collectors.

Since Sarah is having a girl and the colors she chose for her nursery are mint green and purple, we decorated the cake with ribbons in those colors. We also added monkeys since Sarah calls the baby a monkey. Strange but true. I looked up some YouTube tutorials on how to fold washcloths so we could add some of those as well in an interesting way.

Here is the end result:

Emily was also creative enough to make some cupcakes that matched the diaper cake that we made. She's really creative and a managed to make monkeys out of fondant. 

After the shower that day, Emily and Sarah were telling their 90-something-year-old Oma about the diaper cake on the phone and she asked, "Who would want to eat that?" I don't think she quite grasped the concept of what we were going for and it was pretty funny, but I think it looks good either way! 

Hooray for new experiments!

Sight Night 5k

So I understand that, including this post, 4/7 of my posts will have been about running. I promise that I do other things! It's just been really great to have found a love for running lately when it has previously been a struggle.

On Saturday, my running buddy (Laura) and I ran the Sight Night 5k race in Prince's Island Park and along the river pathway to raise awareness of blindness and vision problems. It was cold to say the least (about -13 give or take a few degrees) and not very fun at the start, but once we were warmed up and running, all was well. It was snowing that night but everyone was so happy to be there, it was hard not to enjoy the run. I was really impressed by how many people turned out despite the weather. I noticed a few little families that brought their kids out for the run, which in retrospect might have been a little nutsy due to the chill, but I was impressed by their dedication. Laura was great and kept talking to me even though I didn't always have the oxygen to talk back.

As we ran across the finish line, our apps on our phones alerted us that we had not completed the full 5 kilometres that we had set out to run. Because of this, Laura and I decided to run a little more so that we could accomplish our goal of 5k. I wanted to run the entire 5k and get my money's worth!

As we entered the mall afterwards, we were greeted with an assortment of delicious post-race treats. They had Papa John's pizza, oatmeal cookies, bananas and water bottles, all of which I grabbed for the trip home.

All in all, I think we had a successful run and I feel a sense of pride for actually going out there and running despite the cold. My body, however, thinks otherwise...

On top of the cold I already had coming on, I think the cold weather exasberbated my sickness. On Sunday, I started losing my voice which wasn't helpful as we were having dinner at the Johnson's. By Monday, Jared could only catch half of what I was saying as I pitifully tried talking to him. My voice is back now for which I am very grateful and I am getting better every day. I have tried to take it easy this week in terms of exercising but I am anxious to get out there again.

Anyways, here are some pictures of our run (compliments of Laura):

Change to Charge

Lately, I've been feeling as if I'm at a standstill in my life. I have a great family, great friends, a great job, a great calling, and great health, but I feel like I'm not really progressing.

I have been thinking a lot about this today. I envy those who are able to fearlessly take chances and jump into new and scary situations in order to become better people and enjoy life. The people around me are fantastic; they are motivated, driven to succeed, and wanting to better those around them at the same time. I want to be one of these people, but I am scared. I'm normally a creature of habit, never wanting to stray too far from the familiar and the comfortable but lately I've been yearning for a change.

Today, we had some nurses on our unit that were shadowing us, getting the feel for what goes on in an adolescent mental health unit. To my surprise, I was assigned one of these nurses to show them the ropes. I doubted myself at first but remembered that I was doing the best I could and was helping others. I realized that I am more capable than I realized.

Because of this, I've had what I might call an epiphany about what I need to do. I need to take those leaps of faith, despite the chance that I might fail. I need to get into the mindset that I am more powerful than I know, that I just need to believe in myself and great things can happen. Because of this, I've decided that the first step I am going to take is to ask to be made a Charge Nurse. This is a big step for me, although it won't be without the wonderful support of my co-workers. I will start out by being Charge on night shifts and then eventually work up to the more daunting day and evening Charge. I know I can do it, I just need to work hard and believe in myself.

I want to end this with a quote that has always been one of my favourites. 

I hope that I can continue to inspire myself and others as I progress throughout my life. I hope that I will continue to be presented with challenges that scare me but give me the opportunity to be courageous and be the person I need to be.

Cool Runnings

On Wednesday, November the 6th, I had the opportunity to get another run in with Laura. This was the first time I had been out running since my last run with Laura (the previous Wednesday) so I really needed it.

I took the train downtown to meet Laura at Prince's Island park. It's surprising how early it gets dark these days. Despite the chilling weather and the darkness, I think the city always looks prettiest at night. Here's a picture from my walk there.

Once I met Laura at the park, we started our run down along the Bow River. It was cold that evening, but it felt really nice once we got moving and started warming up. We moved a bit slower than we did last time which gave us the ability to talk while we ran. Here's Laura being all touristy. 

While on our run, we came across a monument for our fallen soldiers. This was a great reminder for me, especially this time of year with Remembrance Day right around the corner. I think it's important that we remember those brave individuals who gave their lives so that we could be free and live in such an amazing country. I'm glad I took the time to read some of the quotes that were written. 

Near the end of our run, Laura and I decided to take a little photo-shoot break and snap some pictures of us on the Peace Bridge. Don't mind how blurry the jumping pictures are, we obviously couldn't time the jumps right! We even had an older couple stop and offer to help with our jumping pictures. Sadly, even they had no luck. Oh well, here are the Peace Bridge beauties.

I feel so "High School Musical" in this picture.

Two cheesy smiles from two cheesy ladies. 

Finally, when we reached the top of the hill after an awful 30 foot stair climb, we were rewarded by this amazing view. Like I said, Calgary is even prettier at night. The view seemed almost magical and one that I definitely needed after a long day.

The Calgary skyline at night. 

At the end of the day, Wednesday was great. I'm so glad I've finally found a running buddy! I've been running by myself for so long that it's nice to have someone to motivate me and have some fun with. Laura's great for taking pictures so I hope that this will also inspire me to take out my camera more often and document some memories (I have a camera in my phone for goodness sakes!). I look forward to my next run!

Running Buddy

One of the things I've been trying to do more of is run. Running hasn't always been fun for me, but I find the more I do it, the better I get at it and the more I enjoy it. I usually run alone whether it's outside or at the gym, but this week I had the special privilege to have a running buddy!

My friend, Laura, and I decided to go downtown on Wednesday and run beside the Bow River. It was chilly, but still a beautiful day. Laura whipped my butt! The first mile, I ran as fast as I think I have ever run before voluntarily haha. I ended up running my fastest mile during the first mile of our run. To top it all off, we ran (more like crawled) up this enormous staircase that took us back to our vehicles at the top of the hill. Man, I was huffing and puffing.

Here are some pictures of our run:

Some cute little ducks. 

 

The Bow River.

A view of the general area that we ran.

Laura and I after our run. Still smiling!

A panorama of downtown Calgary. This picture was my favourite from the whole run.