Birthday presents!

Mom and Dad helped me buy a new TV! Here is my $5 furniture purchase. Nick brought me this DVD player but we're not sure if it works yet. And you can see part of Lindsey's package laying on top: Pride and Prejudice. They also got me a 6 Qt pot to round out my Farberware set, a puzzle, and a really neat painted bowl.

Carrie sent me Crocs! I really like this style.

These came from Lindsey. She has to be one of the best people at finding things I would like without me asking for that thing specifically or showing it to me. She sent a really neat package and I really really like every single thing that was in the box! Here's the contents: Pride & Prejudice, these shakers, a bookmark, a notepad for my fridge, and B&BW vanilla smelly stuff.

One of the best birthdays on record

Yesterday has to be one of the best birthdays on record in the last few years. I got up in the morning at 6:45 (not on purpose) and went to play the organ, had waffles for breakfast made with my present from last year (thanks girls!), Mom and Dad were here until noon, then went shopping and watched The Greatest Game Ever Played with Ryan and Stephanie. (This is a really good movie, you should all watch it!) Last night we went to Kari Shultz house for the party part. I knew we were going but wasn't exactly sure what was going to go on. So here's a few snapshots...

Yes, they put 23 candles on there and it took me 3 tries to get them all out cause I was laughing. But who cares, I already got what I would have wished for so...

Playing with the wrapping from Hollie's gift

Hollie got me Uno Attack for my birthday. While Ryan and I were making a quick roadtrip for batteries, they were taking strange pictures...


Hey Carrie, I think you too need to apply your self portrait skills and get a picture of you and another Ryan on your blog!

Dave awaits his fate from the mighty Uno card spitter, will it be 0? will it be 6?


Nick made us VERY nervous by removing the object of hours of work from Kari's dining room table.

Weekend fun

Ready for church


Before we all fell asleep...


No Sabbath would be complete without a little organ playing. I pulled out every stop on the organ while Dad was playing. WOW! We all sang hymns to close the Sabbath too, but we toned down the organ a bit for that part. ;-)


Then we went to the bottom of the church for a small party, partially to celebrate my birthday, surprise surprise. The Heilmans brought Mexican Train dominoes. Good job Randy, thanks for keeping MJ and mom honest.


Dad, Stephanie, and I taught Ryan to play the Ford version of Sorry (5 card hand). Everybody was concentrating on taking me out since I was winning. Ryan had been stuck in Start forever so we weren't even paying attention when he quietly won the game! Then we played partners, Stephanie and I vs. Ryan and Dad. Unfortunately it ended up, as dad said, "Men rule, girls drool." In this picture we're trying to teach Ryan how to play Dutch Blitz but... I think he got his piles mixed up. Dutch Blitz takes too much concentration for that hour of the night anyway.


Dad and I boogie with a little Heart & Soul (even in the church, shame on us!)

Pics from Gulf Shores trip

We stayed in the leftmost building. These are all condos, 10 to a floor. Think of how much money they could make in 1 day!

The view from the balcony. Seems like one big wave would take out those beach houses.

The main living area. There were also 3 bedrooms: queen bed, king bed, and two doubles.

Sunset


The meeting room


The gang. All of us are Nursing Education graduate students except the 3rd from the left, she's a new faculty member teaching pediatrics in the AS program next year.

Sigh...

I don't know when I've ever looked forward to a weekend with more anticipation. I've even been losing sleep over it which I hardly ever do.

It's kind of interesting that I should have written that last post because the last day of the conference we graduate students got involved in teaching the teachers how to use technology. I whipped out my thumb drive with my power point from Tech & Ed this summer and was demonstrating to all the people I'd been feeling so young with. I suppose there are some advantages to being young and to taking summer classes with a horrible amount of homework. ;-)

We got back at midnight on Wed. night and I was welcomed by a parking ticket on my car in the VM parking lot. SAU thinks I still live in SV but either way, I wasn't going to walk anywhere with my stuff at 12 AM. So now I have to deal with appealing that. Ryan beat me on the late night trip though. He got back after 3 AM from home in Charlotte. We were both thankful he didn't get put on a case during jury duty.

Thursday & Friday I worked. Needless to say, I stopped at the VM on the way and got a Mello Yellow. That's rare for me. I drank half of it the first morning and half the second. I've had so much on my mind with my parents coming and Stephanie going to live with me for 2 weeks and Ryan being back that I've just felt crazy the last two days. Plus I've been orienting Emily, a new grad RN that I did clinical for in her nursing program. She's really learning a lot and I'm enjoying teaching her how to be a good nurse. (Plus it's nice that I can just guide her and not do the work myself ;-) It's a little scary that I'm teaching someone how to do this when I've only done it for two years!

So last night we had a HUGE storm and when my parents got here my power was out... How wonderful... Luckily my mom found the candles and matches easily. We ended up staying over at the Heilmans last night and here I sit at their computer writing this. Somehow no matter how much you think about something it never quite turns out the way you expected. I was so tired last night I could hardly keep my eyes open. But it's like the peace after the flurry of this week. My parents & Stephanie are here, Ryan is back, I have 6 days off, it's Sabbath, and my birthday is next week. What more could I ask for? Remind me start going to bed at a decent hour and stop being super Jaclyn for a few days...

Feeling very young in Alabama

Have you ever been in a situation where you felt like you had no business being there because you felt so inadequate and young and inexperienced? Where you feel like you're getting to be a part of an experience that you don't merit? That's sorta the way I feel here at this nurse educators conference in Gulf Shores, Alabama. I have to be the youngest person here. There's a 24 year old here with us from SAU but of the 6 of us, I'm the only unmarried person still working at their first nursing job. There are about 40 people here attending the conference done by Sylvia Rayfield. If you know anything about nursing, you know she's a guru in the field. For those of you that remember my AS Nursing days, she's the one that came up with that 3 day review I did in the top of Thatcher South with that book with lots of... what do you call those things where they do a word and each letter stands for something. Anyway, we had to color the pictures and go through that book to help us remember things for the NCLEX exam (what allows you to become a nurse). So I'm in this class with a lot of veteran nurses, all nursing professors so my youngness stands out big time. I can almost feel the stares. ;-) The stuff we are learning is so amazing though! Who knows when I will ever use it since I don't want to teach for awhile yet, but WOW! I've come up against the dilemma of looking at how my life will play out: career vs. motherhood (if that should ever happen). There are so many options and so much I could do!

The lady that did my NCLEX review from their company recognized me today which was kinda nice. I talked to her for awhile and she had a lot of positive things to say. The general consensus I get is "That's so wonderful that you're doing this at such a young age!" or "Wow! You're only 22 and partway through a masters?" To which I think... that's what happens if you go straight through... These women have it so much harder than I do; trying to run a family and take care of kids while they go to school too. I really have nothing to complain about.

We're at The Beach Club in Gulf Shores, AL. Big huge skyrises with condos in them. We're in a 3 bedroom one. I'm sharing a king size bed, how amazingly big it is! Last night we went to a local restaurant where the "all you can eat" part of the meal is fried potatoes (to DIE for!), black eyed peas, okra, and macaroni & tomatoes. They all wear overalls and a big tall black man comes out and throws rolls to everybody. The kids love it, all standing up with their hands in the air. (I can definitely see Carrie working at that job. She would love to get paid to throw food and with her accuracy, they would want to keep her forever!) We spent some time in the ocean today and there are several pools here. It's rained here a lot today, hopefully it will hold off.