Busy

Well I started back to school finally! I can't believe I'm already two weeks in!! This is my first nursing semester and so it's super busy. I love my nursing classes, but some mornings really hate the drive all the way to rexburg... Anyways I don't have much time to update my blog right at this moment because I'm almost off shift and then I'm going home and going to bed :] But I will try to update in the next couple days!!

Christmas 2011

This was our first Christmas as husband and wife! That is the best present I could ask for :]

This year we had alot of things planned. Christmas Eve we went our to the Morris Family Christmas Party for lunch, but we couldn't stay the whole time because I had to work a 4 hour swing shift. While I was at work Brandon visited his grandma.

Christmas morning was the best! We woke up and opened our stockings. We both got stocking stuffers for each other... haha good thing I bought extra candy though cause my stocking had gum and socks (although they were aero socks, so I can't complain!) Then we opened our presents to each other.

I got Brandon body wash, Tim McGraw collogne, a few movies, and a new wallet.

Brandon got me everything I asked for! A new fuzzy robe, pajama pants, and a beautiful necklace. I bought us a few games to play together, so I let Brandon open those... Phase Ten, Uno, and Monopoly! We had a relatively small gift exchange, but that is because our big present was our tv we bought on black friday!!

I just had to buy a big sparkly bow! It made us remember that this was our big present :]

After opening our presents we got ready for the day. We headed over to Brandon's dad's house and visited for a while. Then we headed over to my parent's house.

Katie, my 18 year old sister, had come over for a while, so we wanted to catch her before she had to leave. JJ, my 12 year old brother, and Emily, my 8 year old sister had already opened most of their gifts and were already playing with their new toys. We exchanged gifts with my family and then while Brandon played with JJ and Emily; me and my mom did the finishing touches on Christmas lunch. My mom made a yummy ham. We finished up the mashed potatoes, stuffing, corn, deviled eggs, and set out the vegtable tray. Once it was all done we sat down and had a wonderful meal together. After dinner we played several rounds of Jenga with JJ and Emily, Brandon played video games with JJ, and we just enjoyed their company. Eventually we all ended up taking a nap~Gotta love holiday food! 

At 7 we loaded up in the car (Brandon, me, JJ, and Emily) and went over to get Brandon's grandma so we could go look at all the Christmas lights around town. We took his grandma last year and she absolutely loved it, so we figured we would make it a tradition and try to take her every year. It is so fun to drive around and look at all the decorations while listening to Christmas music on the radio :] 

 

We eventually dropped Brandon's grandma home and brought JJ and Emily back home. And then we too headed home. We had so many gifts to put away that night. My parents bought me a new stainless steel pan set and they got Brandon a power drill :] After everything was cleaned up and put in it's place we headed off to bed and fell asleep watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

 

This one of my most favorite Christmases yet! The best part wasn't the gifts given or recieved... No, it was being able to spend time with the one's we love most! I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas this year! 

Baby Blanket for Megan :]

A few weeks ago I went to my friend Megan's baby shower! I couldn't decide on what to bring for a gift. I was looking at Walmart in the craft section and saw the cutest fleece pattern fabric! Then the idea came to me that I should make her a baby blanket. I figured she could never have too many blankets :]

Super cute fleece fabric I found!

Step 1: place two pieces of fabric together. (wrong sides together)

Step 2: Cut two and a half inch strips along all sides

Step 3: Tie bottom and top strips together. I used a double know, so it wouldn't come undone.

Step 4: Continue to tie strips around the entire blanket!

It's as simple as that! And your blanket is finished :]

Back and front of my blanket completed!

  

I put it in this super cute bag! I also found her some cute onesies :]



I am so excited for Megan to have her little baby boy! She is going to be a great mom. Going to that baby shower got me kinda excited for when I will have the chance to become a mom too! And one day I will be makin my babies blankets :]

Reaching for our dreams isn't easy, but it's worth it!

Brandon has been doing reserves training for Jefferson County for the last 4 months. He passed all the tests except one. He needed to be able to run a 1.5 miles in 17.5 minutes. When he did it back in August he was at like 21 minutes. He began running at the gym and training and when he tested in early November he had shaved his time down to 18.5 minutes. That was an improvement, but just wasn't enough! The training was coming to an end and the sheriff wanted to swear the reserves in before Christmas. Brandon trained himself nearly every night. And when his final running test day came around he finished his 1.5 miles in 17 minutes and 4 seconds! Such a relief to hear he passed the test!! That meant he was going to be sworn in as a reserve deputy! :] On Monday, December 12, 2011 Brandon was sworn in by the Sheriff of Jefferson County as a Deputy! I am so proud of him!

As a reserve deputy, Brandon has the same authority as a regular full time deputy- just he doesn't get paid. Brandon has to volunteer a minimum of 120 hours a year to remain a reserve. Basically reserves are volunteer police officers who help ht ecounty out. BUT Brandon wants a job not a volunteer experience... Well when a position opens up for a deputy position the Sheriff asks for names of reserves who have put in extra time and gone above and beyond in helping out. If Brandon puts in the time and effort he will get a job there in the near future. It could take up to a year or so, but he has his foot in the door :] This has brought himone step closer to getting his career started. I love him and can't wait for him to have his dream job. And if I do say so myself, he looks good in uniform ;]

Who Cut the Cheese?

November 28th was one I will never let Brandon forget!

I went to work at 6am and got off at 6pm. When I got home I decided to make a nice dinner for me and Brandon before I snuggled up on the couch to watch some more Christmas movies. :) Well I just finished making the twice baked potatoes and was just about to throw them in the oven to let the cheese melt when Brandon came home. He asked if he could help with anything. I told him to get the country fried steak out of the freezer and put it on the pan, so I could throw it in the oven with the potatoes. He did that and then I thought he was done helping. Just as I turned to get something out of the fridge I hear him yelp. Next thing I know Brandon is over the sink saying he cut himself. My first instinct was to go get the box of band aids. I brought the box into the kitchen and he's crying. I didn't know what was so wrong. I assumed it was a little paper cut or something, but no I looked at his finger and blood was just gushing out! I grabbed a towel out of the drawer and told Brandon to apply pressure cause we were going to have to take him to get stitches! It was so deep. I threw my shoes and coat on as fast as I could. Brandon was freaking out because he knew we couldn't afford a doctors bill and I was like "okay you get in the car or I cut the whole finger off now!" Let's just say I've never seen him get out to the car so fast. And in the car he was starting to panic and hyperventilate. I drove him to Readicare. We went in and the receptionist told us to have a seat and fill out the paperwork. Brandon couldn't fill the paperwork out so I did it and realized that I knew none of his information! Luckily he calmed down enough that he was able to tell me the information I needed. We had to wait almost and hour in the waiting room. His finger didn't quit bleeding and had soaked right through the towel, so the receptionist got me a ton of gauze. People in the waiting room looked at us like ~ "Shouldn't you be in an emergency room." And it was while we were waiting that I realized that I looked like a freak in my pajamas and fuzzy socks sticking out of my brown dress shoes. haha oh well! We finally got back to a room and the nurse took his vitals and then had him put his hand in a tub of sterile water. After a while they put a tourniquet on his finger to cut off the blood flow so it would slow the bleeding. Turns out Brandon has good circulation! His finger still gushed out blood. The Nurse Practitioner finally came in and started to stitch up the finger. It took 8 stitches total! I was completely fascinated at how they did stitches and was kinda excited about watching it done ;] Around eleven we were finally able to go home. Once we were home I noticed that in all the rush we had left dinner out on the counter, so I threw it in the oven real fast and cleaned the blood out of my kitchen sink. In case you were wondering- HOW did he manage to cut his finger so deep? Answer: He was trying to cut a piece of cheese and instead of cutting down onto the cutting board, he cut it sideways and lost control of the knife and it cut right through his thumb! Gives a whole new meaning to cut the cheese hahaha lol :] The next day I went to work at 6am and Brandon came in at about 9. Everyone asked him what happened cause he had a huge bandage covering his thumb. I think he got to tell the story to nearly everyone at work!

If you are grossed out by blood don't look at the pics below...



Things I learned:

- Brandon does not do well with blood or injuries

- I am glad I have some nursing skills and remembered to tell him to apply pressure and to remain calm and try to breath because I wouldn't be able to carry him in if he had passed out

- I need to know Brandon's information in case of a medical emergency

- Don't allow Brandon to use our sharp knives

- We now have a new understanding of the saying I cut the cheese :]

My Birthday :]

It's been a while since I had the time to blog, but let's start with my Birthday!
Spent it exactly how I wanted :] Got home from work at 6 am, slept most of the day away and missed church. When I woke up it was dinner time and Brandon took me out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse.When we came home we set up and decorated our Christmas tree! And decorated the apartment! My grandparents stopped by to wish me a Happy Birthday and visited for a while. When they went home we finished our decorating and cuddled up on the couch to watch Christmas movies :]

Brandon putting ornament hangers on the ornaments!

Decorating the Tree :]

All done :]

Beautiful Angel

Nutcrackers!

Window Clings (I have them for almost every holiday!)

Merry Christmas

Fun placemats!

I love the roses Brandon got me for my Birthday!

                           

I found this reindeer magnet at the dollar store and thought it was so cute :]

Merry Christmas!!

Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and 20th Birthday all within 4 days!

Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays! I love that it gives me an excuse to over eat lol :] This was me and Brandon's first Thanksgiving since we've been married. My parents invited us over for dinner and of course we weren't going to pass up that offer! No cooking or cleaning up the mess woohoo!

So my mom was cooking all the main things that morning and was just starting the potatoes when she accidentally set her hand on a burner that was turned on! OUCH!! She burnt her hand pretty bad, but was okay. Nevertheless, my dad got stuck finishing up the cooking... haha he basically can only make rice pudding jk ;] I will give him credit he did a pretty good job. Me and Brandon went over at about 3 and had a wonderful dinner with my family. After dinner we looked through the newspaper ads... AND then we found it! A 40 inch TV at Walmart for $248. We weren't going to do the whole black Friday thing, but this sale changed our mind.

We left my parents house at 7:30 and figured we go stalk out Walmart to see where they had the TVs located. When we found the place there was already a line. At 8 we asked a Walmart worker how many TVs they had and how many people were in line. The guy said his manager was counting right then and that they only had 50 TVs! We decided to stand at the end of the line to see what number we would be. When he got to us he said 49! We were second to last! Guess we weren't leaving anytime soon if we wanted one! Brandon had a few things he needed to do that night, so he left and I stood there. Got to know the people around me pretty good. The girl behind me was really nice and we chatted for about an hour or so. BUT the lady in front of me was driving me up the wall! She had about 6 energy drinks during the 4 hours we were in line.... Holy Cow that lady needed to calm down! Anyways Brandon finally came back at about 10 and stood in line while I went to find a cart. Had to go all the way out to the parking lot to get one. On my way back to our TV line I picked up some awesome Rubbermaid containers (which I really really wanted to get while they were on sale) :] Anyways that last two hours seemed to go by pretty fast, but people kept trying to get in line behind us. And that crazy energy drink last was gettin all worked up that they might beat us up to get our TV! What a nut! haha and plus I had Brandon to fight off anyone tryin to steal our TV from our cart lol We finally got our TV in the cart and headed towards the checkout. On the way we scored some movies for 2 bucks. We checked out in like 10 minutes which was a surprise to me. Then we headed home.

Brandon and I decided this was our big Christmas present to both of us and we didn't wanna wait till Christmas to use our TV. So that night we swapped out the old one. I couldn't believe how big it looked in our living room! Even though Black Friday is crazy it was so worth it!

Thank you Santa for coming early, now me and Brandon can cuddle up and watch Christmas movies :] (which I plan on doing tomorrow)

Speaking of tomorrow... It is my 20th Birthday! I plan on going home from work at 6 am (I'm working a long night shift), sleeping a few hours, getting up for church at 9, and coming home and sleeping a few more hours. THEN Brandon and I are going to set up our Christmas tree and decorate the apartment! I am so excited to have all the Christmas stuff out!! Once that is all done I wanna cuddle up on the couch with a big cup of cocoa and watch Christmas movies :] Ahh that sounds like a perfect day to me!

As a little side note: I plan to start putting craft projects on my blog and new recipes I try out also, so keep an eye out for them :]