So I have not been very faithful in doing my blog for awhile. Life has jus gotten so busy, sometimes I wonder how I even have time to breath! Anyways, I am sitting at the nurses station at work and I do not have any patients at the moment, so I thought I would take this time to recap 2009, for my posterity :)
January: Ryan and I had just graduated from school with our Associates of Science in Nursing. We had gone down to Arizona to visit my family for Christmas. We decided to stay there until we passed the NCLEX (the national nursing examiniation) and got jobs. (We had noooo clue we would be there until May! It was so neat to spend that time with my family!)
We took the NCLEX. I was so nervous, becuase it took my less than 45 mins to take the test that I had basically spent 3 years preparing for! On January 20, I found out that I passed the NCLEX! I cannot even describe that moment! I was in the bedroom that Ryan and I were staying in. We were on the computer, Ryan pulled up the test results and there it was! All it said was PASS. That was the best for letter word that I had ever seen in my life! I was numb at first, then all of a sudden it seemed like I relived the past 3 years in a few moments. Memories of all the tests, projects, clinicals, lack of sleep, hours of stress, flew through mind and then a voice in my head just said, "It was worth it". Wow, that was incredible!
My joy was short lived, though. A little bit later we found out that Ryan did not pass. Ryan said that he had known that from the begining. It was a very hard time for us. But we knew that Ry would pass when Heavenly Father wanted him to, and this was all part of his plan for us.
Here are some pictures of us enjoying being with the family
February: This month, hours upon hours were spent in the Benson Public Library studying for the NCLEX. We had bought Ryan the Kaplan program. This was recommended by many people. It was so discouraging for us to spend all of these hours in the library studying, but Ryan was so dedicated.
March: Ryan took the NCLEX again... This was the longest hour and a half of my life!! I sat in the car outside of the testing facility and just prayed and prayed. I kept telling myself that if Ryan test turned off at 75 questions then I knew he passed. I had long conversations with Heavenly Father. 5 minutes before he stepped out of the building, I just knew that he passed. I was filled with so much peace and joy. I looked up and saw him walk towards the car. I jumped out of the car and ran to him and threw my arms around him. I was just so excited. I asked him if the test turned off at 75 questions and he said it had. I was celebrating when all of a sudden I realized I was the only one celebrating...I asked what was wrong and he just said, "I know I failed..." He said it with such surety, that it took me back. I knew he had passed, how did he know he failed? I told him he had to be wrong. He was in the mood to disagree. On March 10 we found out that he had passed!!! It was the best day of our lives! Finally we could start looking for a job!
April: By this time we had realized that this was one of the few times in the history of nursing that hospitals were not hiring and some were even firing large groups of nurses in the west. We applied at many hospitals but were told many times that none of them were hiring.
Finally my mom told me about this one website were we could apply for many jobs at one time. Ryan and I applied to over 50 jobs. We soon noticed a trend. All of the hospitals we applied at in Texas were offering us jobs. It did not take long for us to realize we would be living in texas soon. In fact, we heard from a hospital in Abilene, Texas. They wanted us to come and interview around the 26th...So we did!
May: Not really knowing where or what Abilene, Texas was, we accepted the job offers and made our way out to Abilene, Texas. We had our first full time jobs!
We had two weeks of hospital orientation, then we began our jobs. I remember not being able to relax the night before our first day on the floor. Ryan took me to the grocery store, bought some ice cream, and made some brownie dough. That helped settle me down :).
Getting our first full time checks also made our jobs seem more worthwhile!
June: We began to get the hang of our jobs, it was a fun month. We would stress over our jobs at work, but we were able to come home and relax. It was great! So different from school, when the stress is constantly hanging over us! My family drove through Texas on their way to a family reunion in the midwest. Trina got to stay with us afterwards for awhile. We had a lot of fun with her!
Trina and Ryan had a sand castle contest. Of course Trina won!
Don't ask me why but Ryan insisted on trying to bury me in the sand...
I really enjoyed Trina being with us. She is one of my best friends! Ryan took this picture of us, and I really like it.
July: Came and went. We celebrated my 22nd birthday. Ryan bought me a piano from goodwill! It is a Kimball and in great condition!
August: We were nearing the end of our on the floor orientation...I was really ready to be off of orientation and doing things on my own! Ryan was too, he just didn't realize that he was. We celebrated our 1st aniversary by going to San Antonio. We had a blast! We went to the River Walk, the Alamo, Six Flags and the Cowboys Dance Hall! Ryan learned how to two step! It was sooo fun! Ryan was such a great dancer!'s We also celebrated Ryans 26th birthday! He got a manly propane grill.
The Riverwalk was one of the most romantic places I have ever gone! It was so beautiful!
I am a direct descendant of Davy Crockett, so it was really neat to go to the Alamo and learn about one of my ancestors!
We would have made Grandpa Davy proud!
September: We started the first of our last two semesters for our Bachelor of Science in Nursing. For some reason I thought doing full time school and full time work would be simple....So we started the semester off with an 8 day trip to Illinois to visit my Grandparents and my aunts and uncles. It was a wonderful trip, we were so glad we went. My relatives love Ryan. My grandma told me, in reference to Ryan, "Jeni, I think you are going to be spoiled for the rest of your life...but thats a very good thing!" We also got to go to Nauvoo and Cathage with my Grandpa. I loved it! We went to the temple and then Grandpa was our tour guide. I think we kind of wore him out, but he enjoyed himself too.
I really treasured the time we spent with my wonderful grandparents.
This is my sweet Grandma White. I look up to her so much and I hope I can become like her someday!
We are just outside the Nauvoo temple.
This is Grandpa White and I heading into the Nauvoo temple.
This is Ry-guy at the blacksmith's in Nauvoo. He actually got to make his own horse shoe! He is quite an accomplished blacksmith now! :)
October: The reality of just how hard working full time and going to school full time really started to hit us. The stress started to increase. We had a wonderful tender mercy, though. A great couple moved into our ward from Arizona, the Stoners. Little did we know that they would become our best friends and help illeviate our stress!
November: We went to Huntsville, Texas, with my Uncle Drake and participated in an Adventure race. It was the ultimate time of our lives!!!!!!! We want to do it again! It was beautiful. It was a neat experience for Ryan and I too. It seemed to strengthen our relationship. It is so important for couples to have common hobbies and interests. It adds fun and joy and unity to the relationship.
We were also able to begin our clinicals for school. This was such a blessing. We were very stressed but grateful we were able to accomplish what we needed too.
December: In between all the stress with finals and the holidays, december seemed to fly by! Finals came and went and miraculously, we passed!! We then went to Boise, Idaho for the holidays...The trip there was an adventure, but I will save that for later.
All in all this last year was such a growing experience for us! We definitely opened a new chapter in our lives. We are so excited to see what will come about in 2010! Life is so great!
As you can see in this one Ryan is over taken by his love for me, Seth is embarrassed by the blatant display of affection, Trina is shocked but also secretly hoping she will marry someone as amazing as Ryan, and Nick is just content laying across everyone.
We didn't realize a camera was taking a picture...I promised we are not stoned....
It was so fun when we went goofy golfing!!! We all had a blast. In this picture Nick was holding on to Seth so that Seth could try to fish out a lost golf ball.
Seth was celebrating that he was beating me, I think...
I love Trina, she is one of my best friends!
This is Nick coaching Seth on how to get the ball in the whole!
I was randomly scheduled to work 4 nights the week that Seth, Trina and Nick were all here. It was very frustrating. I normally work 3 12 hour shifts. For some reason my boss decided to schedule me for 4 that week though :( when I left for work, I almost started crying because I did not want to leave my family! It was so neat though, because Ryan and the kids went to Wal-mart, got some ice cream and root beer and brought it up to my desk and we made root beer floats. It was really fun to see them at work.
