3/4 Nurse

Wednesday 12/14

I had my maternity ATI exam and scored a 3! These ATI tests are scored on a 0-3 level, with 3 being the highest. I usually score a 2 (the benchmark). This was my first 3...woohoo!

I came home and planned on studying. Instead, I skyped with Katie for 2 hours. By then I was tired. I felt confident that I knew what I was doing in maternity and decided to put in a solid hour of studying for the comprehensive final. I didn't feel guilty one bit.

Thursday 12/15

I woke up and went to my 9 AM maternity final and got that done with. It wasn't bad, ONLY 80 questions... haha.

I drove home and began packing and doing laundry. I finished everything up around 6 pm and began looking at Peds slides. I was bored out of my mind and Stesha called to ask me to go to dinner. I was all in. 

Once we finished, she forced me to come back to her place to get in around 3 hours of studying. I figured it couldn't hurt. Her boyfriend brought us milkshakes from the Cook Out.

I went home and passed out.

Friday 12/16

I woke up an hour before my alarm clock. I was excited about flying to Texas and nervous about anything going wrong. I'm always waiting for a flight to be cancelled, me missing my flight, them losing my bag, or my bag being overweight. 

I took my Peds final and sped home. I crammed my stuff in the car and drove to Stesha's. She dropped me off at the airport and I was on my way. 

My bag was under the limit and I got to my gate just in time.

The lady who sat next to me on my flight was very interesting and began conversing with me. She is a nanny for a couple of residents at the Duke Hospital and she just had a new neighbor move in who is starting the nursing program in January. I told her about Stesha and how we are both foodies. She loves cooking and gave me her number to get together after the holidays and she is going to cook for us! I'm excited.

I landed in Charlotte on time for the first time ever. I had a bagel sandwich and awaited my next flight. Once I settled in my seat, I had calmed down. I was going to make it to Houston to see my boyfriend for the first time in 2 and half months.

The lady next to me was a hoot. She applied 5 different kinds of lotion to her face and redid her makeup I don't know how many times. She tried to sleep sideways in her seat/on me. She hit me with her jacket every time she tried to reposition herself. BUT, we began talking the last 10 minutes of the flight. She was really sweet and she was from Honduras. She gave me a couple of tips for my trip in March.

The plane landed and I had one more obstacle: getting my bags (they made me check my hanging bag on my second flight). 

They were both there and I headed outside. Lance picked me up and I was so happy to see him. I wished him a happy birthday and we were on our way.

I told him to wait to get his haircut until I could see it because I love long hair. So the first stop was Supercuts. 

We had some errands to run on the way back to the apartment, but we finally made it "home".

This was my first time to see the place and I loved it.

I've been begging him to have some sort of Christmas decorations up when I arrived and he kept blowing off like I was crazy.

Well, when I walked in, a Christmas tree was waiting for me.

Super sweet.

I gave Lance his birthday gifts: 2 Duke LAX shirts and the book, The Prisoner of Trebekistan.

I got ready and we headed to dinner.

Lance had never had Hibachi, so I took him to dinner at Benihana's.

The waitress took our photo and didn't really know why. Lance made a funny smile and so I did too. Except he changed his smile at the last second...making me look crazy.

I got a goofy one of him too though. 

We spent the evening watching Jeopardy (and keeping score) and playing several games of the card game, Speed. 

Saturday 12/17

Lance needed to pack and get ready to head home to Arlington for the holidays. 

We were shooting to leave around 3 pm, but I think we ended up hitting the road around 5.

The Sam Houston Statue in Huntsville was lit up orange to celebrate the Bearkats moving on to the national championship.

We made it to Arlington around 9:30. Lance dropped me off at home and I got ready for the evening. He got to go home and spend some time with his family.

I met up at his house with him and his friends after I was done getting ready.

We went to downtown Fort Worth.

We found a low key bar that had Golden Tee.

Sunday 12/18

Lance and I had dinner with his parents and his sister's family to celebrate his sister's birthday. We went to Texas Roadhouse. My steak was very tasty!

We came back home, let our food digest, and then went for a run.

We ran 2 and then walked the last mile to enjoy some Christmas lights.

We made a late night run to Target to get some Christmas goodies. We bought a gingerbread house to make, Boggle, Jeopardy for Wii, and Golden Tee.

Monday 12/19

Lance, my parents and I watched 3 episodes of Jeopardy and they all got demolished by me (haha, I kid). We all watched a couple of 3D movies. Lance and I keep meaning to make the gingerbread house, but keep getting too sleepy.
I did give him the camera I used to use before I got my new one. He has been enjoying it quite a bit.

Tuesday 12/20

I had a 2 o'clock dental appointment that I was looking forward to. I got to see everyone at the office and catch up a bit. I didn't have any cavities, but I am going to need a graft for the gums on my bottom teeth. I have no gum tissue down there. 

I picked up Lance after my appointment to go Christmas shopping. I pointed out some things that I wanted for Christmas because I'm very hard to shop for. He bought a lot of stuff for his family...and himself ;)

We had dinner at On the Border and watched the Mavs preseason game.

We came back to my place and watched The Social Network. Lance had never seen it and made fun of it the whole time. 

Wednesday 12/21

Lance and I woke up and watched Pulp Fiction before we went for a run around the neighborhood. We took Penny down to the lake. Next time we are going to bring bread and take some photos.

Lance needed a guys night and went out for margaritas while I spent quality time with my parents.

After his friends wimped out on him at 11, he called me to come pick him up and take him to No Frills.

We played a game of Golden Tee and then played poker.

I won the first 3 hands and had the highest amount at the table...and then I lost it all.

Thursday 12/22


We decided to build the gingerbread house and we succeeded!
There were a couple of cracks, but we sealed them with icing.

We watched Elf while we built it and finished the night up with The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. It is one of my all time favorite movies and I got Lance to watch it. I'm glad he ended up enjoying it as much as I did.

Friday 12/23


We went for a walk in the hope of Lance getting some shots of the ducks. We made it down the street before we were freezing our little butts off. We got in the car and drove to the lake.

pro camera man in the making

Here are some of his shots:

We celebrated Lance's birthday with his family at a sushi/Japanese steak house.
I tried non-veggie sushi for the first time. Lance's brother-in-law gave me a choice of spicy or non-spicy and those were my only options. I went with spicy. He had ordered a spicy california roll and I loved it.

the birthday boy with his beer

His neighborhood has a firetruck come around every year for kids to get their pics taken with Santa on the back.
We ran outside to check it out.

We met up with several of Lance's buddies at Bone Daddy's. I had a bit too much beer, but had a good time.




Saturday 12/24
Lance and I had tickets to see the Nutcracker at Bass Hall in Fort Worth thanks to my parents (thank you mom and dad =)).

We had a great time.

That evening was Christmas with my Dad's side of the family.
This was the first time for me to bring a guy to a family function and I was really excited for everyone to meet Lance. They all loved him and he enjoyed himself.
There was plenty of egg nog to go around.

My cousin's kids and their friend put on a dance show for the girls to enjoy.

We came back home and watched a couple of Christmas movies: The Polar Express in 3D and A Christmas Story.
Lance and I dug into the gingerbread house and played Mastermind.

Sunday 12/25 CHRISTMAS

 This morning we had Christmas with my Mom's side of the family.
We watched the Mr. Bean Christmas episode.

I plan on relaxing the rest of the day.
Everyone have a Merry Christmas.