Less than 3 months

Less than 3 months and we're done!!!!!!

3 down 1 to go

I took my last final today for my 3rd semester!! So happy to be done and be that much more closer to graduating. This was my best semester yet and my favorite so far thanks to peds. I loved my peds clinical! So sad that it's over but happy to be done with med-surg.

Last week we had a Touro baby shower for Jace and Hollie. It was fun to hang out with everyone and eat yummy food and of course ooh and awe over cute baby things.

4 months from tomorrow will be our pinning ceremony (graduation). I'm the chair for the pinning committee..aka graduation party planner!! I'm excited to get planning and have a fun graduation. Kind of crazy talking about being finished with school. I can't wait!

No words necessary

Pool Party

I have the best study group. We like to eat a lot, play ping pong and basketball, give professors cartoon names, give each other care bear names, not study, and have pool parties. After one of our ridiculous tests we had a pool party/birthday party for Micah. It was so fun to just relax and act like we 10 years old again. My favorite part of tests are the parties we have before and after. :) Here are some pics from the party...

IV

(This blog might get pretty boring now if you're not into nursing stuff or even if you are :)....just fyi!)

I put my first IV in a baby last week. It was really nerve racking hearing the baby scream the entire time and with 2 nurses holding him down.

But I got it in my first try so I still have a 100% success rate with placing IV's!

Can I just say how happy I am every Thursday cause I'm in peds? I used to dread clinicals cause of my dislike of old med surg floors but peds makes me so happy. I actually look forward to going to the hospital. Finally I get to take care of babies!

I was in the ER last week and I loved it. It's totally different than being on the floor. I love the adrenaline of it and the fast paced work you have to do when someone comes in from the ambulance. Might be something I could enjoy and get used to...

Want to hear some great news??? It's now August which means I am done in 6 months! Hallelujah. I hope I can make it these next few months.  

New blog and new last name

Jen Chatwin ---> Jen Patterson

Still getting used to the new name as well as the new title of "wife"

and calling Dylan my husband.

But I love it!

I am starting a new blog that will be the "married blog"

http://dylanandjen.blogspot.com/

We will probably go private so send me your email address!

This blog will now be my nursing journal which will probably be pretty boring for some of you, so....check out our new blog!

Half way

I took my last final today which means I'm 50% a nurse. I'm halfway there I can't believe it! And let me just say that planning a wedding in 5 weeks and wrapping up a semester of nursing school is probably the craziest thing I've done in awhile. I haven't slept in weeks and I want nothing more then to just be married and in Hawaii right now. Only 10 more days!! So crazy! The wedding planning has been fun and it's totally doable to do a wedding in 35 days!I didn't think it was possible without cutting corners but it is. I don't feel like I've had to compromise on anything. I'm very lucky and blessed that my parents, Dylan, and his parents are doing all they can to help make our day special. And now all that's left is little last minute things. I can't wait for June 24th so I can see how everything is going to turn out. Having a wedding planner is like the best thing ever! Less stress on my mom and me and I just get to show up to my own party! Love it.

We started moving into our new place last week. We are renting a cute townhome For the next year till I finish school and then we will see where we end up. Our place is super close to my school and about 10 minutes from my parents house. It has an awesome view of the strip and is in a nice area thats close to a lot of restaurants and cute shops. We love to entertain and have an extra bedroom so visitors are always welcome! I will post some pics once we get everything situated. We were lucky to receive some furniture from someone in my parents ward so we are having fun painting it all and putting things together. The furniture is a little outdated but so far the painting is working and i think it will turn out good. I'm excited to see how it all comes together.

Sooooo about 2nd semester....I'm so happy it's over! This semester was tough. I learned a lot and got to see some awesome things like a total knee replacement surgery and open heart surgery. I need to post about that sometime so I don't forget about it cause it was so freaking cool! Probably the best thing about semester 2. My mental health clinical was very interesting and just made me grateful that I'm normal and don't have those kinds of problems. It was really sad sometimes listening to them talk about their experiences and all that they have had to go through. Once again another experience that has made me thankful for all that i have and for my healthy mind. Nursing school has been a humbling experience. I've always known that I'm very fortunate to have the family I have and the life and health that I have but every week I'm reminded how lucky I really am. I'm looking forward to semester 3 cause I'll be in peds finally!!!!! I've missed working with the little kids so much. I just can't wait!

Well, 10 more days left of being a fiancee and then I'll be a wife. It's still a very surreal experience and I'm just so happy. Just 4 weeks ago this wasn't a thought in my mind and now I'm just 10 days away from being a married woman!

Happy Birthday

Today is Dylan's 28th birthday!

I had a test this morning so I woke up super early to study and then made him waffles before I headed off to school. 

After my test we looked at some apartments and townhomes and grabbed lunch at Panera.

And now we are getting ready to go eat dinner at the Mandalay Bay buffet! He's really excited and I'm excited for him. Buffet's make money off me and lose money on people like him so we even out.

Yesterday my family celebrated his bday and I made him a cake. French vanilla cake with strawberries and homemade chocolate frosting in the middle and on top. It was delish! 

My sweet little niece Emma wanted to give him a present so she wrapped up one of her princess doll houses with her pink blanket and then had her belt wrapped around it. Pretty creative I thought. But in the doll house she had some plastic Easter eggs that was Dylan's present. She was pretty happy and proud of her self. It was really cute.

18 more days and he'll be my HUSBAND!!!

Happy Birthday Dylan!

I'M ENGAGED!

May 20, 2011 Dylan proposed to me at the Las Vegas temple!! I can't believe it! Definitely the biggest surprise and shock of my life.

Just 6 weeks earlier we broke up and it was devastating for the both of us. We didn't talk or communicate the whole time so you can imagine my surprise when I saw him standing there at the temple with beautiful flowers in hand with a ring! I was in complete shock! I didn't even know what to say or do. I don't even know if I was breathing the whole time. But it was perfect. I can't really remember what all he said but he wrote it down for me thankfully.

Here is the story from my perspective....Friday afternoon I got a call from my dad asking if I could go to the temple that afternoon to do some baptisms to help out a family in the ward, and I of course said yes I could go. So when I got home from school I was getting ready to leave and kept asking my mom, 'why do they need me if there's a family doing them?' I kind of knew something was going on, but never in my wildest dreams did I think Dylan would be there. So my mom just tried to brush it off and say she didn't know any details and she just told me to put on a cute outfit! (haha umm...I woke up at 6am that morning, was in the lab all day in my scrubs practicing trach care, foley insertions, and central line dressing changes, and didn't even think about fixing my makeup since I was going to do baptisms so....yeah. Had I known what was going to happen I would have looked a lot cuter then I did!) My mom, dad and me get in the car and start driving up to the temple and I was studying in the backseat so I was in my own little world. So we pull into the parking lot and right when we are getting out of the car my dad says under his breath, 'well, this should be interesting'. I remember thinking why would this be interesting? It's just baptisms...

We are walking up to the door and then my dad said he wanted to show us something in front of the temple so we walk around and I'm just looking around and out of the corner of my eye I could see my mom keep looking at me and finally my parents stop walking and I look forward and there was Dylan standing there in his suit with flowers. I turned to my parents and mumbled something (I have no idea what) and started to tear up a bit and immediately my hands and knees starting shaking. We both started walking towards each other and he gave me a kiss and a hug and walked me over to where he was standing. This is where I think I might have stopped breathing cause everything after this point is a little fuzzy to me. I don't think there's a word to describe how I was feeling at that point. It was just perfect. He talked for a minute or two and then got down on one knee and asked me to marry him and I said YES!!

So a big question in my mind was...what the heck did he say to my parents for this to happen?? Well, turns out Thursday night he was trying to get a hold of my dad as he was driving down to Vegas from Provo and in order for me to not be around when he was trying to call my dad, he had our friend Jake call and talk to me so I would be occupied. He got a hold of my dad and asked if they could grab lunch the next day. My mom and dad went to lunch and Dylan just was very sincere and just told them everything that had happened and that he wanted to marry me. Now, my family has always loved Dylan but didn't love the back and forth, on and off relationship that we've had so it was hard for everyone when we broke up just cause they all liked him. But whatever he said to my parents worked!

I can't even explain how I feel right now. This was such a surprise and I've never been this happy. This is just the best feeling ever!! He has been my best friend for years now and I can't imagine marrying anyone else. It took him a little longer to get to this point but it was all worth it. I don't think I would change anything about our relationship roller coaster cause it's just what needed to happen in order for us to get to this point. It's all happening so fast but it's just so much fun! My family has been so amazing and supportive and I just feel so grateful for all the love that people are showing us. I'm marrying into such a wonderful family and I can't wait to be a Patterson!

We have pictures of when he was proposing and some other fun ones I'll have to post soon. I'm just still trying to catch my breath and not fail out of nursing school. Of course this would happen during the hardest semester of nursing school and at the busiest time...3 weeks before finals but I love it! It just makes it that more exciting. And I'm so glad it's a short engagement! I have 3 weeks off the end of June and won't really have any long breaks till the end of the year so everything is working out perfectly!!

I'm so in love with Dylan and I just can't believe that I'm the lucky girl that gets to be with him forever! I can't wait to marry him!

Pop Tarts

I made homemade pop tarts this weekend. I don't know why I waited so long to make them.

So easy and so delicious! Just pretend there's sprinkles on top.

I found the recipe here.

Idol Love

Love Haley and love this song

I love everyone on Idol this season. It's hard for me to pick a favorite they're all sooooo good.

But one thing I could do without is the camera guy always getting the up the skirt shots on the girls. Seriously every week someone always has a tiny dress or skirt on and those people in the front row (and all of America) are seeing a lot of leg!
No thanks.

Spring Break

Technically I'm 98% closer to spring break. I just have to make some final revisions for my theory paper and hit submit and start spring break 2 days early!

I think the people who came up with stupid nursing theories are lame and what's even more stupid is that we have to learn about these theorists for a full semester. Seriously? dumb!

So speaking of spring break, I can't wait to get tan, paint my nails, not wear scrubs, do my hair, go shopping, be normal, and sleep! I just want to be normal again and look cute and get dressed up and wear heels! A new obsession I have is eyelash extensions. Oh how I wish I had a job and I didn't have negative money so I could have long and beautiful eyelashes. I'm thinking about making a stop by Sephora tomorrow and buying fake/cheap lashes just to fulfill this obsession till I have money again...like in a year...sad. Oh that day when I  get my first big girl paycheck as a nurse is going to be joyous. In the meantime I'm going to wait till I get my tax return back, which is going to be waaayyyyyy more than I expected (woo woo!! and now I don't have to get a job next semester thank goodness!) so I can purchase a ticket to Mexico. Who's coming with me?

Took a test on Monday. Seriously thought I was going to bomb it. Like a 30%.

Got my grade and shockingly got an 87%.

And it just went up again to a 92%! Thanks to a crazy and confused old teacher we like to call Big Bird.

Best news of the week. It's going to be a great weekend.

General Conference

Another Conference weekend gone. I love Conference weekend and I always look forward to it. It always helps me get through the next 6 months of my life. I loved so many talks but one that I absolutely loved is by Elder Kent F. Richards called The Atonement Covers All Pain. Here is the little section that is my favorite:

I have noted that children are often more naturally accepting of pain and suffering. They quietly endure with humility and meekness. I have felt a beautiful, sweet spirit surrounding these little ones.

Thirteen-year-old Sherrie underwent a 14-hour operation for a tumor on her spinal cord. As she regained consciousness in the intensive care unit, she said: “Daddy, Aunt Cheryl is here, … and … Grandpa Norman … and Grandma Brown … are here. And Daddy, who is that standing beside you? … He looks like you, only taller. … He says he’s your brother, Jimmy.” Her uncle Jimmy had died at age 13 of cystic fibrosis.

“For nearly an hour, Sherrie … described her visitors, all deceased family members. Exhausted, she then fell asleep.”

Later she told her father, “Daddy, all of the children here in the intensive care unit have angels helping them.” 

To all of us the Savior said:

“Behold, ye are little children and ye cannot bear all things now; ye must grow in grace and in the knowledge of the truth.

“Fear not, little children, for you are mine. …

“Wherefore, I am in your midst, and I am the good shepherd.”

Everytime I read that I get a little teary eyed. Probably cause I'm just a crazy emotional person even though I never used to be like this! I don't know what happened to me but anyways...working at Primary's was the best experience ever. Kids are so amazing and resilient and it's amazing how many miracles happen everyday with them. I couldn't agree more that all those sick kids have little angels helping them. 

I seriously can't wait till next semester when I'll be in peds again! It's crazy that I've been in school for 6 months already. Time is flying by and I'm so happy for that. I hope these next 10 months go by just as fast. I'm already half way through 2nd semester and things are finally starting to slow down a bit, thank goodness! I can actually take a day off now and not feel guilty. But I'm sooooooo looking forward to Spring Break in t-minus 7 days!! All that's on my agenda is laying out and enjoying the sunshine!

You Tube

Hearing little babies laugh is probably the cutest thing ever to me. I can't get enough of this little guy.

(Thanks Cami!)

TGIF

I went on a perfect Friday date night tonight with these 3 sweethearts.

Yes, It's 8:30 pm and I'm already home but it was a very busy and an exciting night. We watched 2 movies, Curious George and 101 Dalmatians, ate pizza, played Candyland and snuggled. Sweet David is such a snuggler. Whenever I sit down he immediately comes over and sits on my lap. Tonight he kept saying "I'm glad you're here". He knows how to make his Aunt feel good.

And I of course didn't go over to their house empty handed. It's an excuse for me to bake so I made these delicious Colorburst Cupcakes from Our Best Bites. The colors I used were purple, lime green, orange and teal and I made my own cream cheese frosting. Delicous!

Read Some Books...

I miss reading normal books. Some days I wish I could just sit down and read anything but a textbook. When I worked at the hospital I could read a book a week and yes, I even read a book in 1 day. Thanks to 1:1's, I sat for 12 hours straight in front of patient's rooms and read and night shifts went by a lot faster when I had a book. It was lovely. I've never been a big reader until late and I wish I would have picked up this habit sooner cause I really want to expand my bookshelf. Here are some of my recent favorites that I've read in the last year...

Hunger Games Trilogy. Loved these books! Mocking Jay was the book I read in 1 day. I couldn't read these books fast enough. I've heard rumors that they are making movies out of these books and I can't wait! Although movies usually never do books justice.

Ok, I thought this book was so funny! This should be on everyone's list. I might re-read this one soon cause there are so many funny lines. I don't think the author intended it to be that funny but the way they talk is hilarious and I always read it with a Southern accent and I even had a dream one time that I had a thick Southern accent. It was a funny dream and a great book. I always recommend this one to people.

I read this book long before there was even talk of the movie just to make that clear. I really liked the movie and I thought the book was pretty good. The Italy part was my favorite just cause she talked about food all the time.

I read this book the Summer I lived in DC so it's been awhile since I've read this one but it was really good and interesting. I've also read The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell and that was pretty decent also. Sometimes it's nice to read a book other than Fiction and one that makes me think. And no, not a textbook. 

Twilight? Yes! I didn't start reading them till after the movie came out and then I read them all within a matter of weeks. I honestly didn't even know what they were about before I saw the movie. I remember sitting in the theatre and watching it and thinking "This is so weird. Why are people going crazy over this dumb movie". But that same week I went and saw it again in the theatre. That's all I have to say. And I don't find Edward attractive at all and I can't decide if I'm Team Jacob or Team Edward.

I heard lots of good things about this book so I was so excited to read it but I got soooooo bored reading it. In fact I still haven't finished it. I think I have like 100 pages left. Some parts I loved and others I found myself skipping. And it doesn't help when I can't pronounce 75% of the words on the page. All those mountains and villages were so frustrating to keep straight. Maybe I'll read the kids version :)

This was similar to The Help but definitely not as funny but it was a quick read!

Ohhhh 12 more months then I can start another collection. I'm taking requests!



1st Semester...check!

I did it! I survived my first semester of nursing school. Boy, what a crazy couple of months. And now I get to enjoy a nice week long break and do NOTHING! The thought of picking up a textbook right now and studying makes me feel nauseous so this is a much needed break. 

Here are some pics of my lovely study group

Happy Valentine's Day

It's Valentine's Day!

And it just so happens to be finals week and that means lots of diet coke for me!

1 down 3 to go (finals)

6 down 17 to go (diet coke)

Waffle Wednesdays

A few years ago my cousin and I started a little tradition called Waffle Wednesdays. It consists of eating Waffles on Wednesdays. Simple as that. And watching American Idol of course. So now that Idol is back on I get to look forward to Wednesdays and eating these delicious things...

So American Idol...I'm loving Steven Tyler. I actually don't mind that Simon isn't there anymore. I love Wednesdays and Thursdays!

Back to Nursing

So the reason I started this blog was so I could document my journey through nursing school. I'm not good about writing in a journal so I figured this was an easy way to do it. But I've been horrible about giving updates but I'm hoping to change that. This post might not be that interesting just FYI!

I can't believe how fast the weeks go by. I take my first semester finals in 5 weeks! Kind of crazy since I feel like I still don't know a lot. I just hope I can pass all my classes...errr. I love learning about nursing! This might sound shocking but I kind of enjoy studying. I like it cause I'm learning stuff that is going to be useful and I'm trying to retain as much information as possible. Taking all the pre-reqs for nursing wasn't my favorite. I liked learning about Anatomy and Physiology and all the other classes but I was so ready to be done with those classes and finally be learning about things that is going to be applicable to my career. Not that A/P isn't applicable but it just wasn't geared towards providing care to patients. I'm so happy that I have had my CNA experience cause it has helped me so much this semester! I would be totally lost if I wasn't familiar with hospitals and certain procedures. But I am missing my job at Primary's. I miss taking care of little babies. I loved it there. Despite all the yucky CNA stuff I had to do, I always found myself saying how much I loved my job and I knew that being a nurse is what I wanted to do. Just thinking about it makes me happy. I love taking care of people (preferably little babies and kids. I really dislike old people). I feel good about myself and feel like I'm accomplishing something when I'm helping others. Ohhhh life is good. I have no complaints right now. I'm so lucky to have a healthy body and my family is all healthy. I know that isn't always the case for some and it truly is such a blessing.

Ok back to Semester 1. I'm starting to enjoy my clinicals a little bit more and it's fun being able to deligate the yucky stuff to someone else. :) I like my classes, I don't like all of my instructors, I like my friends, I like learning new skills, I don't like all the clinical paperwork, and most importantly I like that in almost 13 months I'll be done with nursing school! Holy cow, I never realized how taxing this was going to be. I'm looking forward to having a normal life again.

Insanity

I started Insanity this week! And I've been really sore. Like I can barely walk up and down the stairs. My body isn't made to do this much jumping so I'm just hoping that I don't break my ankle doing this like my sister in law did (3 weeks after she had a baby and with a 4 and a 2 year old). Poor girl! Wish me luck.