Gratitude

You know when you have a crappy day?! Like it's going all smooth and you're thinking it's a great start to a new week and then you just get hit with everything? Then you have a debbie-downer of a day and are so busy that six hours go by in what seems like a blink? Well, write down ten things you're grateful for and you start to feel better...

That's my advice for the day.

Things I'm Happy About

I stole this title from a blog I read....but I thought it was a good idea. I hope she doesn't mind. ;)

-Today is Jon's last day of studying!!!! I can't believe that we have reached this point. His last final is tomorrow morning and then GRADUATION on Friday. I think I might be a little more excited than he is but I think he's pretty excited as well. What a milestone!! I'm so proud of him.

-My space heater that keeps me warm since my office is absolutely FREEZING.

- There is a new episode of Grey's Anatomy on this week. I love new episodes!

- I'm all caught up on work stuff. The doc is out of town so I've had plenty of time to play catch up. P.S I LOVE my job!!

- I tried a new recipe last week and it was a total success. I think I will try another one sometime soon.

- I'm FINALLY updating my blog. I really apologize. I haven't even been busy or anything...just haven't gotten around to it.

- I have successfully kept my room clean for three days straight! That's a real big deal in my household.

- The show 'New Girl'...it's hilarious!!

- My new mug that I got for free....hopefully it will help me drink as much water as I should be during the day.

- I actually went running - MIRACLE!

- My family is so great and I love spending time with them - immediate and in-laws.

- Compliments that I get - they seriously make my day.

- I get to babysit my niece and nephew tonight. Best. Thing. EVER!

- Going out for dinner on Friday for Jon's Graduation....big hooray.

- I turned in my library books on time. And even though I didn't read three of them, I did read one.

- I went shopping...for me, for Jon, and for both of us!! :)

- Surgery tomorrow and I'm off on Friday. So technically, tomorrow is my Friday.

- Hulu...need I say more?

- I've been making a list of things I love about Jon. He's the best and so is it. Even on the worst of worst days, I can take a look at it and can't help but smile.

There's much more to be happy about. So many things going on and so many little things to be grateful for. I think I will try to make this a weekly occurrence. That way I will always feel like I have something to write about. :)

Thank you Pioneers!

I was in much need of another long weekend!! :) But seriously....I really am so grateful for the Pioneers and what they went through for their posterity. All I need to say is the movie 17 Miracles. One movie. 17 miraculous stories (and probably more, I didn't really count). And one sobbing girl in the theater. Nothing will put life into more perspective than sitting down and watching that one. I definitely couldn't have done it but I will always be in debt to those who did.

As for the weekend. WOW!! Loved it. We went to the lake and enjoyed great weather and even greater company. It's so fun to spend some quality time with family and I'm lucky enough to be able to spend it with some extended family as well. Since Friday was just work and travel our weekend didn't really start until Saturday. Jonny got up early with dad and John and had an early morning boat ride (boys only!!). They had a good time and just like the good wives we are, we had breakfast ready for them when they pulled up. Then the real fun started. Water, boats, sun...mmm....yes please! We literally played all day and only took small breaks for potty and drinks to make sure we didn't get dehydrated. :)

Check it out....This...

Coupled with this...

Could life get any better?! I submit that it could not!!

Then Sunday came. We had to get up super early in order to make it to the early session of church. It was good and then we mostly relaxed. Bear Lake on a Sunday is the most relaxing place ever. It's still beautiful to look at and just so peaceful. We were in charge of making dinner and I, unfortunately, burned my arm on the oven trying to fit all of the ginormous Costco potatoes in with a pot of ribs. Bummer!! It wasn't too bad though. Not really any pain and it didn't even break the skin.

Sunday came and went and we were on to Monday. My dad had to go back to work so we were missing him terribly. However,mom, Jon, and I were able to tag-a-long with Kev, Karen, Kara, and Kolette and we sure had a blast. We went skiing, wakeboarding (I even short-started off the dock), and then we attempted to quadruple wakeboard and kneeboard but a terrible wind came up and it only lasted like 20 seconds with all of us up at the same time. They tried to get some pics but my mom and aunt are terrible with the camera. Ha! ;) Can I just say...man does my body hurt!!!! Since it's been a couple of days, I'm beginning to recover but every time I moved I was reminded of how good the weekend was. The only bad thing about Monday is the fact that because I was in the water all day, the burn on my arm became soggy and my skin peeled off. So now it's an open sore. And it's right in a place where no matter how I place my arm, I can't seem to not hit, scrape, or touch it. I have a feeling that it will take awhile to heal. I just hope it doesn't scar.

Groaning because we didn't want to leave, we were finally on our way home. Since my dad left early Monday morning we had the treat of my mom coming with us! We had a good couple of hours just chatting and made it home in enough time to see a great show of these....

Thanks Johnny P for being a pyro and getting us front row tickets to your shows!! It was great fun!

Although the weekend was fantastic....all good things usually come to an end. Tuesday I was thrown into orientation for work. For all of you out there who hate orientation, I'm right there with you. First, why does it take literally eight hours to say stuff that could be said in less than four? Plus, since I have been an employee of the U for five years now, I pretty much know all they talked about. Who's idea was it to have me go for formality purposes?!....you stink!! Worst day ever but at least a good raise came out of it, right? ;)I'm really excited to start the next chapter of my working career. I love my job and can't wait to add some more opportunities to learn and grow.

Jon is still in school and enjoying his religion classes. He is just cranking away and no longer wants to study at night since I don't have to. Although I try to be good and try to keep myself busy or not bug him, it usually doesn't happen. It makes for a crazy morning before classes for him but he says it's worth it. :) Needless to say, we are both excited for him to be done.

That's pretty much it for now, I think. Oh, I got a new purse and am absolutely loving it!! Call me crazy but I love purses. Your whole life is jammed into one cute little (sometimes not so little) bag. This one is a little bigger than my previous one so hopefully it won't start falling apart because it's being stretched so badly. Ha! Oh the simple pleasures of life.

We have a couple of exciting adventures coming up over the next couple of weeks so I will try to be good and take my camera to capture the image of our lives. But for now that's all I have. :)

Story of the night!

So this great little story occurred on Wednesday night. Jon and I had walked down the street to one of our neighbors houses to give them some ice cream for their birthday. We stayed and chatted for a little while and then decided, despite the wind, that we would go for a little walk. Jon still had some homework to do and I wanted to get back to my book (I have finally found a good one to read) so it was just going to be a quick one so we could get to bed on time. When we made it back around to our house, we realized we didn't have the key to get in. We were literally locked out of our house!! It was completely my fault because earlier that morning I had taken the house key off of the car keys because I had forgotten something in the house after I started the car and, of course, I didn't put it back on the key ring. Unfortunately, Jon grabbed those keys before leaving the house. The other thing that made this a complete bummer was the fact that the car that was outside the garage (we only have a one car garage) was not the car we had the keys to. So we basically couldn't get in our car to drive to get another key!

I called my mom and she came to our rescue. She drove out to our house to pick us up to take us to our cousins house who had the key. Normally, it's my mom that has the spare key but she had given it to our cousins when they were doing some remodeling. Luckily, he lives in Riverton so it wasn't too far away. We drove out and got the key, came home, and guess what?!.....It WASN'T our key!!!! We were at a loss! It was almost 11 at night and we were hoping we weren't going to have to sleep at someone else's house that night. Luckily, we called our other cousin (who works with the first one we visited) and he said he might have it. He lives in Saratoga Springs so we met him halfway and after seeing the keys I was quite skeptical if any of them were ours. We had wishful thinking though and took the one we thought might be ours. We drove home and luckily, it was it! We finally got into our house and went to bed! So much for studying....OOPS!

Moral of the story....when you take the house key off your key ring, put it back on. (Or have a keypad on your garage, or call the locksmith instead of drive all over the valley to find one measley little key.) Pretty much....do anything you can to avoid the situation we were in on Wednesday. Although we were laughing about it (and still are) it really wasn't a fun thing to be put through. :)

Victory at last!!

Those words have been a long time coming. I have actually passed the NCLEX-RN!! I can't believe I am actually saying this. It truly is such an amazing feeling and I'm so glad to be completely done with my undergraduate degree. Thanks to all the friends and family who has been so supportive through these past five years....I honestly wouldn't have made it without you. I appreciate all of your thoughts, prayers, and words of encouragement.

Baby info has come...

Baby Olivia Zoe Petersen (Zoe pronounced Z-O not Z-O-E). She was born June 8, 2010 at 4:30 a.m. at 6 lbs. 8.5 oz. and 21 inches long. Isn't she a beauty!! We love you and welcome to the fam. :)

Updates...

So I have been a HORRIBLE blogger lately. You think being out of school would make my life a little more exciting...but NOPE!! I have continued to go to work everyday and still absolutely love it. I have been so blessed to have fallen into such a great position. I am looking forward to being hired as a nurse and being able to do more with the doc (plus the nice raise that will come with it as well). I, unfortunately, have to wait until I take the dreaded NCLEX...However, that is coming up in 2 weeks from TODAY! I can't believe it and I'm starting to freak out. This test is what my entire college education has been about. I hope I pass....Please pray for me.

Other than work (and the continued studying for this test), I haven't been up to much else. We were able to go up to the lake this past weekend and I enjoyed getting some rays from the sun. Man, am I in need of a tan or what?! It was so nice to start the summer season out right and I can't wait to go up there again. We had another great night of bunco. I feel that the overall feeling of the night was a little sad and that's most likely because Lindsay is leaving us all to go to PA school. I am so proud of her and think that it's great she is going. I'm going to miss her like crazy but I know she is doing what she needs to do. We had a great goodbye BBQ on Saturday which was bittersweet. I came straight from the lake so I don't have any pictures. I was hoping someone would have added some to facebook by now that I could snatch but that hasn't happened. This is a little shout out to Smartie.....Good luck girl! I hope you made it safely and I wish you the best! Can't wait to talk to you about it. :)

Jonny takes the GMAT on Saturday. I attribute our not exciting life to him and this upcoming test (plus the fact that he is also in school). He is so devoted to studying and doing the best he can. I'm amazed at how much that man can study! Our nights have mostly consisted of me playing solitaire on the ipad on the couch while watching t.v. and Jon upstairs in the study trying to increase his score on practice exams. As he gets closer though, we have begun to branch out a little. We actually went and sat on the porch and ate ice cream and chocolate chips this past Sunday. ;) It was great fun! Aren't we terribly exciting?! I'm hoping we start doing more fun things once this test is off his shoulders. However, then it will be even closer for me with the NCLEX so we might have to wait until that is off my plate as well.

On an exciting note, another new baby has arrived in our lives. Jon's sister Natalie had her second child last night/this morning. I don't have a name or any pictures of the baby yet but we can't wait!! I was emailed this picture last night with the description that baby number two was on the way.

That is sweet little Lauren in the background excited to meet her new sister. I received another email this morning around 6 a.m. that the baby had been born at 6 lbs. 8 oz. They live in California so it's not like I can rush to the hospital to see the little babe so that's all I know so far but I will update further when I get more info.

I think that's all for now. I wish I had more pictures to post about our lives so I will try to be better in the future. I will also try to post more often. I can't stand when other people don't update more than they do so I will at least try to do a post once a week and more when exciting things start happening. :) Thanks for listening...