Okay so an update on the nursing jobs. I currently have 3 PRN jobs (well...sorta).

1st: Clinical Instructor: I only do this job twice a year for a few months. It doesn't pay super great but it is SUPER easy and a little extra money just in time for the holidays. PLUS every once in awhile I get to substitute for the high school C.N.A class and that is kind of fun. I am substituting for three days at the end of October so we shall see how that goes..

2nd: Mollen Immunization Clinic: Okay...really this one does not count. This is again a seasonal job and one that I have not been able to do so far with my school and other work schedule. I got $12 to do the training and the call me every weekend to come do flu shots at various different retail locations (Walmart, Sam's club etc..) but I am always doing something when they call. If I didn't have other PRN jobs than I would make this job work because it does pay pretty good and is easy as well. I will probably pick up a shift or two IF I don't get the job I just interviewed for (more on that later)

3rd: Avalon care center. I do the 4 hour shifts 6pm to 10pm once or twice a week. I do some treatments on wounds but mostly pass medications. I mostly work in the Alzheimer's unit because I have a special place in my heart for those residents but occasionally work on the Medicaid rehab hall. I would have been at this job for a year in October but gave my two weeks two weeks ago and am working my last shift tonight.
Avalon started out pretty good...but then we got a new D.O.N....things were going good at that point as well, a few changes but nothing too bad....and THEN we got ANOTHER D.O.N. We had our state and federal evaluation and things didn't go so well. We have had several negative nurses meetings and just overall things weren't going the way I would like them to go. It became a place where I was nervous to work and felt soo rushed to get in and out that I wasn't giving the care I went to nursing school to give. So after talking to BJ we decided it would be best to give my two weeks and I felt really good about it.

I then started looking at different jobs. I found a job that a few friends worked at and loved so I applied there. It is called Pine View Transitional Rehab and is located in South Ogden. This place is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G from the moment you walk in. Their patient load is HALF what I was doing at Avalon and during my interview (yep I interviewed last Thursday) their goals were all the exact same goals I had. It just felt right. The interview went well I think...but this is the first time I have had to wait to hear back so I am kind of nervous. She said if I didn't hear back by Thursday then to call her. So we shall see. But either way. I have learned a lot from the different jobs I have had and learned that I need to ask a lot more questions in my interviews. The next place I work I plan on staying for a looong time. Sure I would love work in a hospital and maybe still go that route but right now I just don't have a babysitter that can watch my kids for 12 hour shifts nor do I want to be away from them that long while they are still so young. So, my thoughts right now is to find a place like Pine View that I can utilize more of my nursing skills (IV's, wound vacs etc..) and when my kids are older and in school then I will go to a hospital.

So....everyone cross your fingers I get a call in the next few days :)

 I can't tell you how much I love summertime with kids. Kaylee and Connor LOVE being outside so we have spent a lot of our summer doing just that.

I took the kids to the North Salt Lake Splash Pad a few times. They do okay but both love going to the playground more than playing in water so we usually end up at the park.




 We had so much fun and can't wait till next season. I got passes along with a few other ladies in my ward. My kids are so finicky in their behavior that I didn't call and meet up with friends very often. It was just easier to pick up and go when they were in good moods. But next year will be a little different because they will be older and will want to play with friends.
 At the beginning of the season and for most of it, Connor would play for a bit but then would take a nap in the stroller while Kaylee and I swam in the big pool. We also mostly spent our time at pirates cove at the beginning of the season. But by the end, I got brave and the kids got more comfortable- so we did everything except the big slides. I felt comfortable taking both kids in the lazy river, the big pool, and occasionally playing in pirates cove. Kaylee would swim on her own with her life jacket so I had free hands to help Connor. Kaylee would also go on the little slide in pirates cove by herself and stay right where I could see her most of the time. I would tell her if she didn't listen or if she left than we had to go home and we did a few times, so she learned and did really really well.

So...I was having a stressful day/week and was feeling a bit overwhelmed and down. BJ said, "we just need a vacation". I gave him a huge grin and said YES we do. So I started looking on line for good deals and found some awesome last minute deals for the next weekend to go to LAX. Since I am not pregnant and I'm not breastfeeding and needing to be with a baby all the time- we wanted to go on roller coasters. It is a huge understatement to say that BJ LOVES roller costers and especially hard core roller coaster at six flags. He used to go to them with his mom and brother. He still remembers going when he was young and his mom and dad (before they were divorced) went on a roller coaster while BJ and JC had to wait for them because they weren't tall enough. Apparently he would cry and cry because he wasn't tall enough (okay I don't know about the crying but he was upset) so as soon as he was old enough to go he would and he has been obsessed ever since.

We were able to get a hold of my aunt Sherrie who was more than willing to take the kids for our fun weekend adventure from Friday night to EARLY Monday morning.

While we were waiting at the airport for our first flight BJ was jumping off the walls- he was so excited. I had never seen him so giddy. It was so cute and made me really excited that we decided to go on this trip!

We go in to LAX Friday nigh, and when I say Friday night..we didn't end up getting to our hotel and settled down till around 1:30 am. Our hotel was about 50 minutes away from the LAX airport and after picking up our rental car, a few detours, and crazy traffic for midnight we finally got there. BJ was a trooper driving and navigating himself because I kept falling asleep.

There was a free shuttle from our hotel to six flags that BJ took advantage of. He dropped me off to get ahead of the line and then he came and met me at the park. Front of the line oh yeah!
We had done our research and decided that we wanted to go on the X2 ride first because it has the longest line. As soon as they opened the door we started running along with everyone else. BJ is so much more in shape than I am and after running a short distance I am huffing and puffing yelling to him "go without me!" like it was life or death. ha ha We made it and weren't too far down the line to ride the ride but had to wait a good 30 minutes to actually get on the ride. This was the best ride to start with because it was so scary. Even BJ was scared for a minute on it and he NEVER get's scared on roller coasters. BJ ended up going on the ride one more time and waited for a few hours so we were glad we went there first.
After X2 we went and purchased our fast passes. We figured we were only going to be there once and wanted to go all out....plus having the fast pass would end up helping me with my knees and preventing standing for long periods of time, because the fast pass would allow you to make an appointment for the ride without having to stand in line. It was SO nice. We would schedule a ride and walk right up to the front. SOO worth the money!


So after riding a few rides I really started to get sick (which I never do on roller coasters) so I would have to take breaks in between rides. I actually even ended up going to a grassy area to relax and ended up falling asleep for a bit which really helped (that was when BJ waited in line for X2 again). I went on a few small rides afterwards while I was waiting for BJ.

This six flags (Magic Mountain) had several really good roller coasters. I was wishing my stomach could handle more all at once because we were having so much fun. BJ was so good and would let me rest in between rides while he ran to re-ride some rides that really made me sick. When he and is mom and brother would go- there was no stopping. They would go from ride to ride to ride to ride. They have stomach's of steel!


This was at the end of the night...NO LINE! Crazy huh. We could have gone on this one over and over and over again but decided to go around and pick some other rides to ride.

We had soo much fun. We were both super tired afterwards though and I was starving so we picked up some take out from Denny's and headed back to the hotel.
Sunday morning we headed to church for sacrament meeting and then caught the shuttle to Six Flags Hurricane Harbor. I know I know it probably wasn't the best thing to do on a Sunday but we were only there for two days and wanted to capitalize on the time we had there...plus I really really wanted to go to this water park!
We ended up getting fast passes to this park as well (they were only $10 each) and it ended up being really worth it. The lines here were half as long as six flags Magic Mountain but went super duper slow.





After two crazy busy days and having our flight leave at 6 am the next morning- we were both exhausted!! So the flight on the way home included a small nap for both of us.


BJ headed to work and I went to pick up our kids. They didn't even miss us! They had so much fun. Guess we will need to go on more couple vacations :)



We also gave them each a smalls stuffed animal. Kaylee still sleeps every night with her tweety bird.
Oh this is a picture of what BJ went on that I REFUSED. It is a 400 ft high drop that goes 85 miles per hour with you looking straight down at the ground (its called Lex Luthor: Drop of Doom).