something funny

I still have more catching up to do on my blogging, but I had to share this really quick. Today I took a test on legal & ethical issues in nursing...not fun. However, there was a funny test answer. The answers choices (you could only choose one answer, by the way) went something like this...

a. _______
b. _______
c. a & b only
d. b only

Anyone else notice something a little off about those choices? If we want to choose "b only", why can't we just choose b?? Oh well. Two more weeks. :-)


P.S. Our class is now down to 14 (from 22 at the start of the semester). I'm hanging on for dear life!

catching up...

I've got lots of blogging to do! I've been meaning to post pictures from Harding's Homecoming a few weeks ago. More of our family was together for Homecoming than we were for Thanksgiving, haha. The bigger kids were running around all over the place, and I wasn't in the mood to chase them...thus, I only have pics of the little ones.

A rabbit at the petting zoo scratched her on the cheek, but she didn't care because she was getting to hold a rabbit.

Pretty typical Ave...hovering over Chase.

Mom and Jared are so excited to be at Homecoming!

sisters/cousins

the best ones ;-)

happy Chase
Again...Avery hovering.

He's nice sometimes.

Happy Thanksgiving!

That's all. Just happy Thanksgiving. I'm at home enjoying time with my family and hope everyone I love is getting to do the same!

Oh, and I heard on the radio today that the average Thanksgiving meal has 7,000 calories. I made a pumpkin pie tonight, and Mom made a chocolate chess pie. And Tekia and Rumi made chocolate chip cookies. We're obviously not concerned, and you shouldn't be either. This is how we show we're thankful for food & family, among other things.

P.S. Speaking of Thanksgiving, keep your eye out for our little friends in the St. Jude Thanks & Giving campaign ads. Mom and I saw Maddie (not sure if I've mentioned Maddie before, but we go to church with her and her family) and Taylor (& Marlo Thomas) all over Ann Taylor the other night! I also found them online here. And I've seen Maddie in multiple ads on facebook and other sites. :-)

"Put that camera down and help me!"

says the neighbors' cat...

And here are some other cute photos of Avery (& Hunter) at our house a few weekends ago. I love this one of her in Jamal's Halloween costume. Who wouldn't want to kiss this?

nursing, nursing, and more nursing

These past couple of weeks have been nothing but nursing school, and I finally feel like there's an end in sight! Last Tuesday was our critical care simulation & clinical final. As some of you may know, if you don't pass those with a C, you fail the whole course, no matter how great the rest of your grades in clinical or theory have been. And that has happened to me before. Our class of 23 students has dropped down to 16 since the beginning of this semester, so, needless to say, I was very nervous that I would be next. I cried tears of relief on Wednesday when my teacher told me that she couldn't give me my grade over the phone, but she could tell me that I had reason to celebrate. :-) My closest friends and I all passed simulation, but one of our classmates did not. :-( We should be used to this by now, but it just makes us so sad every time it happens.

The day before simulation, my friends Katelyn, Kari, and I went to the park in an attempt to make studying fun...but we took a camera just in case we got bored. We missed you, Lea.

This weekend Mom was here with me and she helped me with my big, fat nursing portfolio that was due today. I don't think I've ever had to so much work to get done in one weekend! I wrote a 7-page paper, a 23-page paper (that one I just did last night and today), a few other random 1-pagers, and I put together my portfolio with samples of my work from the last two and a half years. It was crazy. Thank goodness Mom was here to help me stuff pages in page protectors and make my portfolio "pretty" with lots of cute nursing stickers and cardstock. Mom and I rarely get to spend time together without kids around, so we had a good time and enjoyed getting to eat somewhere other than McDonald's. Thank you so much, Mom!

And here is the finished product! I neglected to get a picture of the title page, which is Mom's favorite part (sorry, Mom). I didn't have time to take pictures at all really; I just snapped these with my phone as I was on my way to turn it in!

And here is the aftermath. My poor room. The first thing I did after turning all my work in (well, after eating) was clean it up! All those papers and notebooks were making me sick to my stomach!

Now I'm off to catch a few hours of sleep before I have to wake up at 4:30am for clinical! Ohhh, this will be over soon.

Hunter

I rarely get the chance to take pictures of my eldest nephew, mainly because he has way better things to do than hang out with his Aunt Callie (especially when Aunt Tekia is around). But I was out with the kids when I was home last weekend, and, for some reason, Hunter refrained from making faces at my camera. He wouldn't just smile, of course (that would've been way too easy), but I got some cute shots while we were talking. I love these because they are so Hunter! (or maybe so Jared, ha)

Don't think he was smiling at me in that last one...he was smiling because he was playing "water golf" (a game he invented where he swings a stick into the water in our ditch) and he had just gotten his sister wet. As I said...so Hunter.

one more Halloween post...

I can't believe I forgot to post a picture of the Searcy pumpkins! Pictured above are our pumpkins at our apartment, which Rachel and I carved last week. Aren't they cute? Mine is the cat. :-) And we were also feeling very Martha last week...we made roasted pumpkin seeds, candy pumpkin seeds, and pumpkin pancakes!

And below are pictures from Hatfield church (Bible study @ Rachel's family's house) last night. We had hot dogs and popcorn balls, carved pumpkins, and had a few visits from little trick-or-treaters.

Rach and I with our cat-in-a-window pumpkin

the finished products