Labor and Delivery

In my L&D class we got to try on the "Empathy Belly." And let me tell you, that thing is heavy!

I have found my place in the nursing world. I always thought that I would want to work in the Mother/Baby unit or in the NICU and I never thought that I would want to work in Labor and Delivery because that's disgusting. Haha! Even though I haven't had my rotations on M/B or in the NICU yet, I really think that L&D is where I will be working in the future.

On my first day on the unit, I helped with a medicated birth and I watched a natural one. I used to think that people who chose to deliver naturally were "macho women" who had something to prove to the world, but now I see that there are definitely pros and cons to both sides. Don't get me wrong though, I think I'll still want the epidural when my time comes :) On my second clinical day I watched a C-section. I never knew that the mom was awake through the whole thing. I'm not sure I would like that! Also, how many of you knew that when they stitch up the uterus, they take it out of the mom (still attached to her, of course) and plop it on her belly? Then when they're finished they just stuff it back in. Haha, so weird!

I think I could get used to watching little miracles happen everyday. Watching a birth is the most amazing thing ever, unless you see the mom tear and then I get all creeped out...ouch!

BEST VIDEOGAMES EVER

Growing up I remember receiving the original Nintendo for Christmas. Probably was one a young boys dreams. My friends and I enjoyed hours of that toy. Then I got a Sega Genesis, after I moved to a Nintendo 64 and my last rising was Sega's Dreamcast. Don't lie all of us have one time in our lives loved arcade games and Nintendo games. I wanted take some time to give my top game for every system I ever owned.

Nintendo (Original) - Super Mario Brothers 3. You can't get much better than this game. Highlights include warping to the last level, and flying leafs up into the clouds receiving extra lives and tons of coins. I still remember playing this game and still love to play this game. One of the originals and will always be one of the best.

Sega Genesis - Sonic the Hedgehog Sonic basically made Sega for his perfectly spiked blue hair incredible running ability. One of the funnest games around and the best Sega ever made. Sometimes he ran so fast he went out of the screen and you had no idea what was going on. Definitely one of the best games ever.

Nintendo 64 - NFL BLitz Still and ever will be the best football game ever created. From dropping elbows to picking up a player and chucking him 30 years this game rocked. I remember one sleepover where 4 of my friends each picked 10 teams and played until they all lost. Yes I was the champion I only needed one of my teams to beat all the rest. At college Sean Stanley beat me once in probably 50 games and he celebrated like he had just won the lottery. Till this day I will play anyone, anywhere in this game.

Sega Dreamcast - NCAA FOOTBALL 2K2 The most realistic and enjoyable game made by Sega. The gameplay and graphics were amazing. BYU was really good in the game as well. Playing in Lavell Edwards Stadium and taking your team to the Rose Bowl was awesome. Nate Waddoups and I played the entire season along with the 2002 BYU team. We ended up #1 in the nation and played Florida State in the Rose Bowl. I swear til this day the computer cheated. We lost that Rose Bowl not once but 5 times atleast. We would be about to win the game and we'd fumble or throw a crazy interception. Not to lose the final game we would turn it off without saving and play it over. Probably one of the most rollar coaster seasons of my life.

The reason I write this is my wife has got me addicted to probably the oldest video game in history. PACMAN. That's right PACMAN. How a dot eating cheese head can be so fun has amazed me. Brianne started out killing me in a 10 game serise 10-5. She also held the high score for a week. I perfected my skills and now she bows down to the champion. I have won the past two 10 game series, 10-6, 10-5. My high score is 65,010. If you have some spare time to kill here's the website, but be careful it could take over your life.
http://www.thepcmanwebsite.com/media/pacman_flash/

Deciding to MAKE THE TRANSFORMATION

I remember walking through the mall about 10 years ago when I was 15 years old. My friend Devin and I saw a book on the rack at Walden Books. The book was a diet book with various before and after pictures of people who had completed the challenge. This people were extremely out of shape, but their after pictures were too good to believe. We both actually laughed at them. I don't think we believed one photo.
Nothing came of that day in the mall until my freshman year of college. I had a roommate named Carl Young. I mentioned I wanted to get in shape and he told me of the BODY FOR LIFE PROGRAM. Then he showed the book when we got home. It was the same book with all those fake pictures that I had seen back in high school. I had the same reaction saying, "that is impossible dude, I don't believe that". I learned that day that they weren't fake at all. My roommate had done the program and he showed his before and after picture and I couldn't believe it. I was amazed at what a little healthy eating and exercise can do to your body. If any of you have watched the BIGGEST LOSER also, their transformations are unbelievable also. That show proves anyone and I MEAN ANYONE can get in shapel.
The BODY FOR LIFE program is 12 weeks long and consists of 6 small meals a day with 6 intense workouts a week. I did it off my mission for 8 weeks and was in the best shape of my life (hence my wife married me). Well I've been married for 1 and 1/2 years and after growing accustomed to life, stress from school, and brain surgery I am now in the worst shape of my life. You know that time when you look at yourself naked in the mirror and just say,"alright Jeff its time to change, I know that six pack is in there somewhere". Currently I have gained 35 pounds since my marriage and I have had enough. This week I started the BODY FOR LIFE program. I will check back with you after 3 months to tell you the results.

Skiing!

Ready to go! That's me in the yellow and Jeff in the blue if you couldn't tell. Haha.
EARLY in the morning before heading up to the mountain. Yes, we were all very tired.

Dave, Kari, and I convinced Jeff that we should waste some money and spend half a day skiing. It was so fun! I was the only who had never really skied before (that one time in 8th grade when I traded my friend my snowboard and she gave me her skies and then left me up at the top of a blue without a clue how to go down it doesn't reallly count, haha) but Dave and Jeff were very good teachers and I caught on pretty fast. We went to Pebble Creek outside of Pocatello and I had a really good time...until the wind started blowing so hard it burned. It got to be something like -6 degrees and it was beyond miserable towards the end of the day. But I'm still glad we went! I think I could really get into skiing. But we'll have to wait to start that hobby until we have money and then I think we'll only go in November and March when its less likely that we'll lose our fingers and toes.

Cutest Nieces in the World

We always say that we have the cutest nieces in the world. And we do! (We also have the cutest nephew too, but sorry Collin, this is just a "nieces only" post today :) ) However, we don't ever take pictures with these cute little girls even though we play with them like mad when we're with them. So on our last day in IF we decided we had to stop by Kari and Dave's and get in a few quick pics. Sadee was so funny how she had to pick out a whole different outfit to wear especially because it was a very summery outfit at that. Here are some fun pictures.

Pre-Christmas Dinner

Yes, this is way late, I know. Jeff and I have been lazy bums over the break and basically did nothing productive until yesterday. And so now we will be getting around to posting all the fun things we've done in the past couple of weeks.

So even though this dinner we had was held the Sunday before Christmas, I still really wanted to post something about it because I made an entire Christmas dinner by myself and I'm kind of proud :) and had to post the pictures. We did it because Nick wasn't going to have anywhere to go on Christmas day and I wanted to do something for him. Although, it turned out that that Nick did have somewhere to go because my in-laws (I have the BEST in the world. Sorry everyone, it's the truth!) insisted that Jeff and I bring him up with us for a few days over Christmas. Amazingly nice!

Anyways, we had the basic Christmas dinner: ham, potatoes and gravy, veggies, homemade rolls, blah, blah, blah and then Nick (yes, Nick) MADE an ice cream cake and I made a pumpkin log for dessert. It was way good and way fun. When there's no pressure, I really do like to cook!