Addendum

In addition to the recap I posted about the semester, I now have even more exciting news to share. In the nursing program the "A" is set high, 95% pretty much non-negotiable. Almost every class is out of 1000 points, if you get 950 points you get an A, 949 points you get an A-. This irritated me beyond belief during the first four semesters I was in the program. I had to get A's to keep my scholarship. However, the deadline for scholarship applications for next fall was really early this year, like in February, and so this semesters grades were not included. This let me relax a little in these challenging classes, all I needed to do was pass. I was slightly disappointed when my grade in Critical Care ended up being a 94.2%, just shy of the A. Oh well, it doesn't count for scholarships anyway. Also, at some point (like this December) I am going to be done with school and thus must stop measuring my success in life by my GPA.

Completely out of the blue, this morning I received an email from my Critical Care professor:

"After careful review, you were rewarded for the excellence you display and your final grade is an A. Way to go!"

Thank you Ron! You just made my day.

Winter Semester Recap

I am officially done with finals and I seriously can't believe I am done with this semester. I had been dreading this semester of school and during the first few weeks I never thought there would be a light at the end of the tunnel. Now looking back I can see that I learned SO MUCH this semester. My nursing classes were Critical Care (ICU) and Psych Nursing, both of which are very challenging. My other "fill up my schedule so I can keep my scholarship" classes were Islam (totally interesting, I'm so glad I took this one), Mission Prep (has an amazing teacher and it doesn't really matter that I won't be going on a mission any time soon) and Nutrition and the Prevention of Chronic Disease (actually, mostly a waste of my time). Here are the highlights of the semester:

• During my first ICU clinical I witnessed my first code (Short for Code Blue, meaning the person's heart has stopped beating). I watched the doctors and residents do CPR on this woman and push medications trying to bring her back for a good 45 minutes, she ended up passing away. It was actually a very peaceful moment. That changed once they brought her family back to tell them she had passed away. It made me so sad to see this family greiving for their mother/grandmother. I ended up leaving the room because I started to tear up. It was then I decided I probably don't want to be an ICU nurse.
• One of my last clinical days was in the cardiac ICU, which was my favorite clinical day so far. I got lucky to be paired with an awesome nurse who let me do everything all day with him watching and talking me through the difficult parts. It was also amazing that our patient started the day on a ventilator and completely sedated and ended the day breathing on her own and walking around her room. I actually felt like a real nurse that day. It was then that I decided I could be an ICU nurse someday.
• Then my ICU rotation ended and Psych began. I did my Psych rotation at a residential psychiatric rehabilitation facility. Although I did learn at this rotation, it was probably the most boring clinical rotation I've ever had. There was lots of down time and just not that much for student nurses to do.
• The boredom was interrupted by one moment of sheer terror. For an extra clinical experience, I observed court hearings for civil commitment of individuals who are a danger to themselves or society. My instructor is an official court examiner, which means she does an interview with the patients before they go before the judge. After the interview she gives the judge her professional opinion if the patient qualifies under the criteria for civil commitment. I was sitting with her in a tiny (probably 4' x 5') room. The first patient comes in and just by looking at him you could tell he was disturbed. My instructor started asking him questions, which he wasn't really answering, then suddenly he LUNGED AT ME! Of course I screamed. My instructor and the security guards who were standing right outside the door intervened almost immediately. As they tried to get the patient back into his seat and away from me he kept saying over and over "I need to hit her. Please let me hit her." It was terrifying, my heart was beating so fast! His interviewed ended pretty quickly since he was completely fixated on hitting me, and tried to do again, but the security guard kept him under control and escorted him from the room. Thank goodness for those strong security guards!

Ben's semester has gone really well. He takes his last final (Physics) this morning. He's been studying really hard and so far has A's in all his classes. I'm so proud of him! Also, I want it noted that when I told him the above story about the patient trying to attack me he laughed at me. Good thing I love him, despite his lack of empathy for my terrifying experience.

Coronado

I'm pretty sure I'm part of the most fun, crazy, wonderful family ever! My mom's family, the Whites (not a racist thing, that's just her maiden name)are all pretty close. Every other year we have a girls trip with all my aunts and girl cousins. It is such a blast. So far we've been to Memphis, Disneyland, Las Vegas and San Antonio. This year we went to Coronado Island, and let me just tell you, it was AMAZING! We stayed at the beautiful Hotel Del Coronado, and it was three days of laughing, sun bathing, walks on the beach, shopping, staying up late (for the daughters at least) and eating delicious food.

In front of the beautiful hotel. I can't wait to take Ben there someday. Notice the rose petals at the front corner of this picture, we sat on the beach and watched a wedding. Heather (red shirt, 2nd on the right) critiqued the bride's apparent lack of interest in her brand new husband (of two minutes) and we all enjoyed watching the waves. Ruby stopped digging in the sand just long enough to snap this picture.

Sadly, El and I were the only members of "The Hot Babes Quartet" (our exclusive gang, we made up the name in Elementary school). We missed Kelly and Ella so much!

My mom and sister in our hotel room. This place was seriously paradise.

All my fabulous aunts

On the last day there Erin went bike riding on the beach in flip flops. Her foot got stuck in the wheel and basically the bicycle won. We got her up to our hotel room and I started cleaning her foot, but I had basically no supplies. My mom went looking for supplies and the front desk sent their EMT up. The conversation went as follows:

EMT: Hey, want me to take a look at that?
Erin: No, my cousin is a nurse. She just needs some supplies. (Ah! Proudest moment of my life. Well, maybe not of my life, but at least of that trip! Let me clarify, I'm not technically a nurse yet, but I will be in December).
EMT: (Totally accepts Erin's response and starts handing me stuff)
Aunt Georgia (Erin's mom): Court, you are earning all those free dinners (Second clarification, when I have clinical in Salt Lake I stay at Georgia's house the night before, she cooks me dinner and breakfast in the morning. It's a pretty sweet deal).

Heidi piggy-backed her around for awhile and then we found this stray shopping cart. It was a perfect means of transportation for Erin. We got some interesting looks.The Whole Gang! I love you all!

Mariel

For the past year and half I've had a "Friday night job". On Friday nights I would go be a "trainer" to a sweet young girl with a lot of disabilities. "Trainer" mostly means that I would host her friends night (2 or 3 sweet young girls would come play with her, sweetest little girls ever), help her with her social skills, encourage her to use full sentences, help her eat, clean her up afterward, get her involved in activities that would help her mind make a few more connections, administer her medication, and keep her safe while her mom and dad would get one night off.

When I originally took the job I was super busy in school, I was only two semesters into the nursing program and I just wanted a little extra cash. Since then my schedule has steadily gotten fuller and fuller, Ben and I both started working part time jobs on campus, my classes got more demanding, Ben got his bishopric calling, and giving up Friday night with my husband seemed harder to do. However, the time I spent with Mariel was just so amazing. She is the sweetest little girl, she loves everyone immediately. She has cute little catch-phrases that she repeats over and over. After asking me repeatedly every week where Ben was (she's in love with Ben, likes him better than she likes me) I would tell her he was studying. After a few months of that she would just look at me and say, "Ben's studying. Ben's testing." She would always want to call Ben on my cell phone. Once he started talking she would interrupt him and say, "COME OVER!" She is also so cute with her friends, she just loves them and they make her so happy.

The other amazing part about working with Mariel is getting to know her mother, Vivian. Vivian is so strong and is willing to do anything for her daughter. She knows that Mariel will never be able to function at her age level, but her goal is to give Mariel every chance to get better and to let her enjoy as many life experiences as possible. She has truly made the most of a very difficult situation. She is such an amazing example to me of someone who didn't have much go smoothly in life, but is making the most of every day she has with her daughter.

Last Friday was my last night with Mariel and her friends. It was really hard for me to leave. I thought about how much I have learned and all the love I've felt from that little girl, she really just melts my heart. I know I gained more from our time together than Mariel did. I was so lucky to be part of her life for the past year and a half.

On the upside, my husband is pretty excited about me being around on Friday nights....at least until I find an LPN job...

Right now there is nothing going on in our lives that is particularly blog-worthy, school, finals, work... that's about it. So I am going to post about some of our adventures in the recent past.

My Mom turned 50 on Christmas Eve last year. We wanted to do something really special to celebrate this amazing woman. My dad agreed to take us all to Hawaii! We completely surprised my mom. We told her the morning of her birthday and left the next morning for Kauai, Hawaii!

Kauai is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been.

My wonderful parents

Brothers and Sister- got to love Nate's pants in this one

Kayaking through the rain forest

This picture happened when Ben said, "Hey Courtney, why don't you crouch down by those rocks and I'll take your picture" then a wave came in.

Apparently I cave to peer pressure...

This blog is the result of much peer pressure from a few individuals, namely Jana, Kash and Meghan. So I figured, what the heck, I'll try it out. You three are the only ones obligated to read. The rest of you may read as you wish. Welcome to the adventures of our life!