Happiness Comes From Hard Work

Today was such a wonderful day. I finally got through my wild ride on my first crazy rollercoaster. This semester was the hardest, stressful, most difficult, never ending, sleepless, extremely emotional, frustrating, and rewarding semester ever. I have hated and loved every minute of what I have learned and studied and the time that it took to get where I am today. I look back at this first semester and think of what an accomplishment I have made, how wonderful the teachers have been to help me get me through and the best part about this whole thing is the wonderful, caring, and supportive friends I have made. We are all behind eachother, guiding, and encouraging eachother the whole way. We want eachother to succeed and will do anything to help someone take one more step to get a little farther because we are the only ones that know what we are going through. We can't explain it to anyone else but we all had eachother. That was the best part. We unfortunately lost 5 girls this semester which was very devastating. It was so difficult to see them work so hard and sacrifice so much and not be able to get through. I just hope I can get through the next three semesters. I worked my butt off this first semester and I know what I have to do to get through the next three. I did think and wonder everyday if I was going to get through.
I am so lucky to have such a wonderful and supportive husband who has supported and encouraged me the whole time. He was always willing to listen to me when I came home from school and vent my frustrations and he would always have a positive attitude and help me see that I can do it and I will do it. He had double duty with both me and Caitlin coming home and telling him our frustrations. They say this program brings you and your spouse closer or farther apart and it has definitely brought us closer because Cody is so wonderful and patient. I have not been able to see him very much this semester because I would wake up before him and usually go to bed after him. I couldn't have done it with out my family's support and talking with Amber everyday and hearing her words of encouragement and also Lizzy jenkins and her great words of encouragement.
I am so excited for these next five weeks to spend some fun quality time with Cody, to sleep in, clean my house,relax, spend good quality time with my family, and enjoy all of my time off. I know this is a long post but I just wanted to finsh off the end of my semester with what I went through and how this first semester was. I know it is only going to get harder, but I know I can do it.

Our first day of school. We have no clue what the road before us is leading to.

Last day of 1st semester!!! We have been so excited for this day to finally come!!!

Some of the girls in the program!!! Today was a happy day. I have some of the greatest friends!!!

Jen, Mandi, and Glecy

Becky, Erin, Victoria and Katie

The threesome!!!

Jen, Sara Beth, and Caitlin

Cookin' Machine

Cody was on a role tonight. He made amazing turkey stuffed sweet peppers and two sweet potatoe pies. He has been wanting to make a sweet potatoe pie for the longest time and he finally did. It was amazing. There is nothing sexier than my handsome husband working in the kitchen making delicious food!!!!

STOMP it UP!!!

Tonight we got to see the most entertaining show, STOMP!!! Cody has wanted to see Stomp forever and he was able to get tickets half off!!! We couldn't pass it up. I absolutely loved the show because of its entertaining and hilarious dancers. It wasn't just a dancing and music show but it was pretty funny. They got the audience involved and were so creative with everything. I loved every minute of it. Then of course we walked across the street and watched the water show at the Bellagio, My fav!!! WE only have three more weeks of school and are so excited. WE are too excited that we can't seem to find motivation to do all the work that is due next week.

The best thing about this week is that Caitlin and I had our huge Exit Exam for clinicals and we PASSED!!! It is such a relief. Now we know that we will get through our first semester!!! Now we can not stress out so much and enjoy the next week and Thanksgiving with our families. Caitlin gets to have her parents come and gets to see her dogs for Thanksgiving while Cody and I get to go to his brother's house in St. George with his whole family. We can't wait!!! Then I get to go home on the 18th of December!!! Yay!!! We are happy!!! This picture turned out blurry but it is the only picture of the three of us. Boooo!!!
We loved it!!! I would definitely recommend this show!!!

I love my wonderful husband. He is the BEST!!!

What a coincidence!!

Since we have been down here we have had so many fun visitors. One of my best friend's Debra was down here visiting her sisters and we got to meet up with her for a little bit to have lunch at the Fashion Show mall. We found a yummy crepe place and I couldn't decide if I wanted a dessert crepe or a lunch crepe so of course I got both!!! They were so good. I love crepes!!!

As you can see in the picture Debra and I totally match and this was not done on purpose. We met at the mall and found eachother wearing the same exact outfit including black pointy shoes. Crazy!!! And both of our shirts were only 5 bucks and our jeans were Gap. We always make a joke saying how we are the same person, and this just confirmed it. Love It!! Jen, Caitlin and Deb

Quote of the Day!!!

So after I had a rough clinical testing day I called my best friend Lizzy and told her how I was so afraid to fail and she said this quote to me.....
"People who fear Failure never get anywhere because they are too afraid to fail."
She is always so positive and always has great advice. I love this quote!!!

St. George, Hair cuts, Pizza Factory, Tooth Carvings, and a bunch of girls = Complete fun!!!

Today was a good day. It started out by Caitlin and me driving to St. George to get our hair cut at my sister-in-law's salon. We had so much fun on the drive and absolutely loved being in St. George. After we had a great time getting our hair done and chatting with Katie we walked over to The Pizza Factory (which is my fav) We have to go there everytime we are in St. George. They have the best salad bar, bread sticks and of course their pizza is deep dish amazing!!!! I find myself craving their salad bar and their runny ranch quit often. I love runny ranch!!! We had such a blast and really enjoyed our little getaway!!! When I got home I met up with some girls from school to carve our molar. We only have 2 more teeth to carve and we will be good to go. It is so fun to get together with the girls and chat and carve. I have made some amazing friends in this program. We all really do have a great relationship. It is so wonderful that we all get along. We got to the house about 7 and carved our teeth for 6 hours. I finished mine and am pretty happy with how it looks, then I helped Sarah Beth out. We had so much fun!!!

L->R Nichelle, Blaike, Sarah beth and Erin all carving away at the teeth. There were about 10 girls that showed up. It was a full house but we all loved it. We got our work done while having fun.

L->R Me, Erin L., Amanda, and Alma Carving at the table

We all were a little tired after carving our teeth for 6 hours so we decided to have a little fun and mess around with the camera.

All the girlsafter some of them went home. Party poopers. This is at one in the morning. Everyone was a little loopy.

We were definitely having some fun. I left around 1:30 and most of the girls were still there.

About time for an Update!!

A little Update on what has been going on down in Vegas. I figured that I always want updates of other people so I should probably update myself. School has calmed down just a little bit because we are focusing more on projects now more than tests everyday. It is nice but I feel like I am slacking and should be doing something. It will speed up within the next couple of weeks come finals. Tuesday we had the day off so we only had to go into the clinic and practice for a couple of hours and the rest of the day was ours. Cailtin and I wanted to go up to Mt. Charleston and see what that was like. It was a great little drive and we felt like we weren't in Vegas anymore. It was cold up there, the air was fresh, it was great to see some greenery, and there was even snow. There were some people up there building snow men. It was so great to have that little break away for a little bit. We are doing well in school. We have two more clinical tests to take and we will know that we passed our first semester!!! That will be a big relief. All in all everything is going great. Cody is doing great at his new job. I don't know if I blogged about him getting a manager postion at US Bank!!! It has been such a blessing. He is in training and is doing great. It has been nice to see him a little more often since school has slowed down just a tad.

A couple of weeks ago Geoff and Lizzy Jenkins came down to visit. It was so fun. We did so much and enjoyed eachother's company. We went to H & M and then Lizzy introduced us to the best yogurt shop ever called Yogurt Land. It is self serve frozen yogurt and you can pick whatever toppings you want. They have fresh fruit and large raspberrys and blackberries. Oh my gosh it is great!!! Then we went and watched Geoff and Cody hit Golf balls and of course went down to the strip to watch the water show at the Bellagio. We had such a fun time!!! Me and Caitlin on our little Drive up to Mt. Charleston
My first picture in front of the Las Vegas sign.

Outside of yogurt land. See how happy we are!! Im telling you it is amazing. Caitlin and I went there the other day and we were caught in traffic for an hour but it was well worth it when we got there.

Cody and Geoff outside of yogurt land

While at H & M Geoff found a hat that makes him look like dopey.

Lizzy

Inside the Mac store. Lizzy was going to buy an iphone but it didn't work out. :(

Watching the boys hit golf balls

Water show at the Bellagio. We also ate crepes in the Paris!! They were great. I liked them but cody wasn't very happy with them especially for what we paid for them

Geoff and Cody's Dollar bills telling them to REPENT!!!

Lizzy always makes everything more exciting and fun!!

Cody has been able to golf down here quit a bit. He found a course that is only 15$ after 1 but the light runs out on him. That is ok though. It is worth what he gets to play. Better than nothing, Right?

Geoff just started getting into enjoying golf. Hopefully he will like it enough to where he would play with Cody.

We had such a great visit with Geoff and Lizzy!!! Thanks for coming guys