Oh goodness, where to start?!
Let's just do a little time-line here to get caught up. Bear with me!
2012
August: After our stay in Uganda, Tyler and I planned a trip to a small island off called Zanzibar, located just off the coast of Tanzania. I had misplaced my passport in Uganda, but I was lucky and the US Embassy in Kampala was able to issue me an "emergency" passport. I didn't realized I had lost it until the morning we were supposed to fly out to Zanzibar, and from the time we first got to the embassy to the time I walked out with my replacement passport was only 2 HOURS! I couldn't believe it. We got to the airport just in time to catch our flight, although getting through security was a little tricky because my passport number didn't match what was in the system, and I didn't have a stamp for coming into the country, haha. One of our favorite places in Zanzibar was the Restaurant on the Rock, rightly named. We had to wade through the ocean to get back to shore after the tide rose while we were eating.
September-December: Fall semester was fairly uneventful. We moved in with a wonderful couple, Howard and Norma, where we lived for free in exchange for me helping get Norma ready in the morning and at night. She had a stroke about 30 years ago and has a difficult time doing most things, but she has the most wonderful attitude. Although there were a lot of days I wished I didn't have to make the sacrifice, I will never forget the lessons I learned from her. I started my "capstone," meaning my least semester of nursing school. I worked at Shriners Hospital for Children in Salt Lake City taking care of post-surgical patients. I really loved that population of patients. For one, the kids were great. Secondly, the families were so appreciative because most of them would not have been able to get afford these orthopedic procedures for their kids. For Halloween, Tyler and I dressed up at characters from the Disney movie "Up." I was Kevin, the big bird, and Tyler was the house. We had a lot of fun putting our costumes together, although they both took a lot more time and effort than we originally planned on! We spent Thanksgiving in Bluffdale with some of Tyler's family, then finished up the semester before heading to Toquerville for a few days, then up to Idaho to spend Christmas with my family. We got big news over Christmas break--We were going to have a baby!!!
2013
January-April: Tyler started his last semester in January and we decided now was as good a time as any for him to go on and get his Master's degree. He applied to a few schools, and we waited and waited to see where he would be accepted. Winter semester was a bit slow for me, as I was graduated, but didn't really have plans to get a job because I knew we might be moving. (It wasn't too unfortunate though, because I was having morning sickness. I was glad I didn't have to try and work through that!) I took the NCLEX (national nursing exam to get my license) in January and passed! Wahoo! In mid-March, Tyler learned he had been accepted to Boise State University's Master of Public Administration program, so we made our plans to move to Idaho. I applied for a nurse residency program at St. Luke's hospital and began the wait to hear if any of the units were taking on new graduates. We both walked at BYU's graduation at the end of April, then immediately packed up our stuff and sent it up to Idaho with my family while we moved our "necessities" down to Toquerville for the summer. Tyler's mom, Angie, was able to marry Clark, the day after graduation in the St. George temple. It was such a beautiful experience, and they both looked so happy.
May-June: Tyler started working for some guys in his home ward who own a logistics company. I still didn't have a job since I knew we would be moving to Boise in a few months, so trying to entertain myself while Tyler was at work was interesting. I took on a few sewing projects, and nearly exhausted the internet, haha. Tyler made a trip to DC (May 15-19) for a BYU Political Science national convention, so I went up to Idaho for a few days. While I was there, I got a call from St. Luke's hospital saying that the med-surg unit was interested in setting up an interview, so I figured that I was as close as I was going to get until we actually moved, I'd better head over and do the interview in person. Unfortunately, I hadn't really packed dress clothes, so my mom and I went shopping to try and find me some maternity pants to wear. We made a quick trip to Boise for the interview and looked at some apartments while we were there. While I was driving back to Utah (a couple days later), I got the call offering me the position! We decided that this was a really good opportunity for me to get my foot in the door in nursing, so we decided I would move to Boise to start working while Tyler finished his commitment in Toquerville. Leighton and Sharon (Tyler's brother and sister-in-law) came down for Memorial Day, and Sharon took some really great maternity photos for me before they left (you can view the rest of the photos at Sharon's blog,
Enchanted Window Photography). My dad and I made a quick trip to move all of our stuff over from Firth to Boise around the 20th of June, and Tyler and I planned to finish moving stuff in the first week of July since I had to go to the hospital to process everything with HR on the 2nd.
Below: My little friends I created while sitting at home
Above: Tyler in front of the White House. Below: The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial
Below: Tyler, Leighton, Me, Liam, and Sharon heading to the lake for Memorial Day. Bottom: One of the many great photos Sharon took for me.
July's happenings will be in the next post. This one is long enough :)
