Nothing Too Exciting Here

I wish I had some great thing to blog about but in all reality, Ryan and I have not been doing anything too fun lately. But I though I'd write a little about our day to day goings on.

Ryan: Most of you know that a while ago, Ryan was offered a "promotion." This basically meant doing the same thing with a fancier title and more money. We'll take that! He likes it though because it seems that he doesn't have people looking over his shoulder so much. Everyone seems to love Ryan at work. He had a work party where we all went to see the new Harry Potter and everyone couldn't tell me enough how much they love him and how he is the best. He wouldn't tell you but I can brag for him, cuz that is my job as his wife. He is way too nice too because I'm pretty sure he doesn't really say no to anyone. It seems like whenever anyone needs something done, they all come to Ryan to have him make a report for them, do slideshows for them, fix their salesforce for them, do a training for them, etc. Last week he had a training every day for different people and one day he did three separate trainings for different people. Wow! He is way too nice!! So needless to say, Ryan has been pretty busy at work. He is also in the running for a fun award that says, "Hey, you're awesome," so naturally he'll get it because he's that awesome, although I'm a little biased.

Andrea: There is really not much going on in my life. I basically just sit around waiting for my mom or Ryan's mom to come into town to visit so I can do something fun with someone! So please come visit, we love it!!! Other than that I am just working from time to time. I am scheduled for three twelve our shifts a week, but most weeks I get put on call because our census is low at the hospital (we don't have enough patients to justify having as many nurses as are scheduled come in, so we get called off). So basically that means I only work twice a week (which is totally fine with me). I also got my manager to let me only work 6am-noon on Sundays now so that I can go to church every week now! I have the best manager. I'm way excited because I was beginning to feel inactive and like I didn't know what was going on because I only got to go every other week. Speaking of church, I also got a new calling. I got moved up from primary to the Young Women. I am the secretary in the YW's presidency. A part of me is totally sad to leave my class! I just love those little kids. I always walk by them still and they get all happy and say "Sister Gardner!" and it makes my whole day! But it is okay because YW is fun too, just way different. It is funny because I really feel like I was JUST there so I feel like more of one of the girls than one of their leaders! I really like the leaders I work with and I love the girls, they are great, so I think we'll have a good time for sure! Back to work--the other day I was at work and I get this call from my manager asking if I would be willing to take a student. I totally feel under qualified to teach someone else how to be a nurse but am totally flattered that my manager would think I was good enough to teach. I feel like just yesterday I was doing my own capstone so I just hope that we can learn from eachother and I can teach her what she needs to know to be a good nurse soon. On days that I don't work, I get really bored because I don't do much else. (Another plea for the mothers to come visit please! Or maybe even move here *wink wink!)

Us: We are still living in Bluffdale, waiting for our apartment to be finished after the flood. They already installed the pumps in our side so they are going to finish the basement this week hopefully. Although I think we're gonna miss the free netflix and treadmill we can use whenever we want and the King sized bed and the great couch. Haha. It has been a pretty good stay, but it will be nice to get all our stuff back and having a normal living situation again.
The greatest news for us is that in about a week and a half we will be heading to HAWAII!! I told my mom last year that we should go to Hawaii in Jan or Feb because I would be in between graduation and starting a job so I had nothing to do. She was all for it until she decided to take the two boys during Christmas while we were all gone. (still can't believe she did that!) But now we are finally making our trip in the first part of February with my parents. We are going to Maui, which I have never been to, so I'm way excited and of course, Ryan is always excited to go back to his mission. So hopefully in about 3 weeks, we'll have a very pretty post!

This turned out to be way longer than I expected. Congratulations if you made it through to the bitter end! Hopefully you don't find our lives too boring!

Promised Pictures

We had such a fun Christmas this year in California. I mean, really, can you get a better Christmas than 70 degree weather and hanging out at the beach with the beautiful water?! Everyone likes to say that Christmas isn't Christmas without snow, but that is just to make themselves feel better because they aren't here with the warmth!! I, for one, LOVE my warm Christmases. They are the best types.
One day, we all went down to the beach and ate a BJ's and then walked down the pier. This pellican came and sat on the hand rails and people were like 5 feet from it taking pictures of it. It didn't care. It started to search the water for fish and when it found one it swooped down got it right out of the water and ate it whole. Don't believe it? Dave got the whole thing on film on his new Flip video camera. It was pretty sweet. The other great thing was that HSS was having a sidewalk sale, which is the best. Us girls had fun shopping while the boys were bored out of their mind! It was great!
The next pictures are of our actual Christmas fun. Cade had a little bit too much fun with the chocolate. I have a feeling she is taking after her Grandma with the love of chocolate. My Grandpa got an I-Pad for Christmas and he was so ecstatic! I was proud that my Grandpa can keep up with all the new technology that comes out. I believe it keeps him young, so keep it coming! Then there is all us girls in our new pajamas. My dad says that now that we are all "adults" that we shouldn't get pj's anymore. Little does he know how much we actually still enjoy it! Good thing Mom understands.
Then there are the pictures of the cute niece as promised. Sadly, I didn't get very many pictures of the little boys this time. But Cade absolutely LOVED her new swing set that is at Grandma and Grandpa's house. She loved the swings, it was adorable. Then there is Cade being 100% Brian as she sticks out her tongue.
Hope you enjoy the Christmas pictures and hope your Christmases were just as fantastic as ours!

Christmas

We had a fantastic California Christmas this year, but we missed our Gardner side too. Once we get back into a normal living situation, I'll put up some fun pictures (but beware, most of them are of some pretty adorable little babies! Love them!!!)

You Won't Even Believe It

You won't even believe where I am writing this post from and more importantly you won't even believe why. I am currently in a Marriott just down the street from my house. I live here for the moment. Why, you ask. Oh, that would be because my house flooded! Belee' dat! :D

On Wednesday night I got home from what seemed like the longest day of work in the history of work. I was so excited to be done with work because the next day we were heading to California for a wonderful Christmas time. I wanted a night full of relaxation (with a little bit of laundry and packing thrown in). I was so happy when I got home and then Ryan said, "You won't be too happy when you go see what is in the kitchen." So I look past him into the kitchen and see water all over the floor and towels laid over it to try to sop it up. Ry said the dishwasher had broken. Bummer. I decided to do more investigation and found there were big puddles in the bathroom too! We did some more investigation and found that the owner's side of the basement was more flooded than our side. I think I would rather have the dishwasher break because the next 5 hours was trying to shop-vac the water up and getting all our stuff off the ground (which meant up to their garage!). We were up till about 1 am tearing carpet up and eventually just letting the water win because we could not keep up. It was rough packing from the garage and finding clean clothes to bring because I had no time or the place to do laundry. It was nice to simply leave to sunny CA and "forget about it" for a couple of days. However, then we came back and not much had changed. Yes, there was no more water but everything is still torn up and fans are drying out the place. So here we are in the Marriott. I think we'll have to go swimming tonight just because we can. Complimentary breakfast is the best too. But my favorite thing about staying in a hotel are the great curtains that keep the sunlight out forever so I can sleep in as long as I want! It's a great thing!!! So we are hoping that our house is fixed soon, but in the meantime, it isn't too bad taking a mini-vacation!

Aspirations

Today I was driving home from work and saw a billboard that said this:

Turn your ASPIRATIONS into REALITY

If you're a nurse, aspiration means something totally different to you than it does here in this billboard. So since I had just spent the last 13 and 1/2 hours thinking about nursing related subjects, I thought to myself, "Why are they talking about aspiration on a billboard? Like a person who could drive a car could actually aspirate!!!" Ya, I've been at work too much lately!!

Quilt Camp

I saw this really cute pattern at the quilt shop the other day and I just knew I had to make it. It was just too cute! I bought the pattern and only then did I realize it was not a blanket... It was actually a table-topper. Oh well, I still wanted to try to make it. I used some of the same fabrics I used in Olivia's quilt (found here) and picked up some new ones too and made this little beauty. All in a day's work too. (Yes, by the end my back and hands were definitely hurting, but I only bled once!) It is a nice little addition to our table, although every time we eat it has to be moved, but it is still fun nonetheless. It is so far from perfect but I kinda like it that way, it gives it character. Maybe I'll make it a seasonal thing and make some for each season. We'll see!

Gavin Turns ONE!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GAV!!
This is Gavin's shy look. He didn't appreciate everyone looking at him. He likes to hid behind his little arms! It is adorable!!

He needed some liquid so he could keep going on his own little cupcake. It took him a while to understand what he was supposed to do with his own cupcake but once he figured out is was actually OK for him to get messy, he was a pro at it!! This is what you get when you tell Gavin to "Give me kisses!" He loves to give us all loves!!!

Smashing that blue cupcake in his face!!! (Like I said, once he figured it out, he was a pro!)

Holding up our present to him. It looks like he is saying, "Hey, look what I got!!"

In his rocking chair made especially for him by Grandpa Gardner! It is so cute, I just might ask for a full-size one for me and Ry! (Just kidding!)

Gavin had such a fun birthday. We were so glad we were able to make it to see him turn ONE!! What a big boy he is becoming! We love you Gav!!!

How 'bout This!!

I showed her this...

and got this...

What do you think?

Sophomore Year Reunion

We had so much fun yesterday with these fun girls! My sophomore year at BYU was one of the best and it was definitely because of these fun girls (plus one who was too busy being pregnant in Ohio to make it... darn it BECCA!). We had the best apartment. It was on the ground level and the window from the living room opened up to the parking lot right outside and we had no screen so people would just knock on the window and jump through to come see us! (Sounds totally weird but when you're in college, it was great). We always had people at our apartment and one of our favorite things to do was to play nertz. It was this year that we would play at least once a week and we would have about 10 teams of people playing (that is 20 people total). It was the best and the games would go by so fast! I totally miss those days. Last night we had so much fun talking about old memories and just remembering fun times. We ate pizookie and played some good old nertz! It was so much fun. I hope we get to see these girls more often! Love them!

The delicious Pizookie!

Lauren is so darn funny, I just love her!

These girls are my favorite!

Apparently the front row only got the memo of making funny faces...

Love them... Brooke, Me, and Lauren enjoying the Pizookie

Tarali Marie

Pizookie with Brooke, Lauren, and Mel

Pumpkins

This year I carved pumpkins with my good friend Rach! Love that girl. It was a really fun time and we got very very creative! :)

Me with my shape pumpkin

Us with our finished products.

You can see in the background what Ryan was doing during our girl party... BASEBALL!

Getting started...

This is where we were pretty creative. We used the cookie cutter to cut the top off of Rach's pumpkin. It was a lot harder than it looks. It required a hammer and a wrench to get the cookie cutter out once we got it in. It was pretty comical.

All in all, it was a great Halloween!

Dad, this is for You!

The Best is Yet to Come

"We can’t predict all the struggles and storms in life, not even the ones just around the next corner, but as persons of faith and hope, we know beyond the shadow of any doubt that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true and the best is yet to come." L. Tom Perry

Confessions

Today, I got off work early, around noon. I headed to Provo to hang out with anyone who would make last minute time for me (thanks Tarali). On my way there, what did I pass? Yes, the ever-craved Krispy Kreme Doughnuts! I felt slightly guilty as I pulled into the parking lot, walked in, watched the doughnuts fry in all that oil, and order my lovely doughnuts. And let me tell you... it was SO worth the wait. Who knew that dreams could be so dangerous at changing your cravings. I hope tonight I dream of broccoli :)

Donuts

Last night I had a dream. We were working on cleaning up a park for a ward activity and when we were about finished, my friend and I went to find some donuts to reward those hardworkers who helped clean the park. So, off we go to find some sort of donut shop. I really wanted to find a Krispy Kreme because honestly, it's the best. Anyway, we walk into this store which I think is a Krispy Kreme, but is really this wonderfully awesome donut shop. It is like all those new cupcake shops that are super cute and totally over-priced but everyone will pay for them because of the funness and cuteness. Ya, except it was for donuts. The glazed were normal and really delicious (Krispy Kreme style) but then they had all these other kinds. They had a chocolate bar that was called "Can't stop." Haha, get it, like you can't stop eating it because it is too delicious. They also had cake like things that you could design yourself. You pick the cake and the frosting and then they put it together and heat it all up. It looked DIVINE! And then they had all this cute paraphernalia and I remember specifically thinking... "I have GOT to bring Ryan back to this place" (he loves donuts).
Needless to say, I woke up hungry and really wanting some Krispy Kreme donuts. If there was a donut shop around, I would be there right now! Mmmm... donuts! I also woke up with a new desire to open a fancy donut shop like this one. Do you think it would survive? Maybe we could call it "Go nutz for Donutz" Ok, fine we could work on the name. But I thought it was such a brilliant idea. Oh the ideas that come from dreams!!

Back to Work

Today was my first day back to work. I was totally nervous about going back to work. I mean, 2 months off may not seem like a long time, but to me, it totally was! I felt like I was gonna go back in and totally not remember how to be a nurse. I was so stressed about it that I slept HORRIBLE last night, which doesn't help with being a good nurse the next day :)
Anyway, it actually turned out to be a really good day. The beginning was a little scary: getting report and not remembering what I was supposed to be asking about the patients. I even got some scary patients that had things that I'd never taken care of before (insulin drips, which are normally only done in the ICU!) Talk about scary. But, I was really surprised how fast it came back to me. I had my rhythm within the first assessment and I was caught up all day long, even having enough time to help out the other nurses on the floor. I was really proud of myself! And I'm happy to report that I actually enjoyed it today. I was totally dreading going back to work, but today made me realize that I have a good job and I work with great people, so I should be more grateful!