Catch Up

Wow is it really almost July????? Where the heck has this year gone. I've had a couple of people mention that I haven't blogged in awhile so I thought I could catch everyone up on the last 3 months!!

The last time that I blogged was towards the middle of April. I was starting to feel the heat of the end of the spring semester and I was entirely to busy to do anything. We finished the first week of May and on May 10th I kind of "Graduated". Now I mean "graduated" because we had to walk across stage in cap and gown but in reality we were far from done. At that point we still had 2 months of school left!!

The empty Diploma we got with a nice little note saying Ha Ha you're not done!

Towards the end of April I had the opportunity to get away for a couple of days and so I took a wild vacation to Iowa! A whole 2.5 hours away from home! LOL It was nice to just get away for a few days. I didn't have to work, didn't worry about school, and I was alone for the most part. I went up and saw my grandma and aunt and got to do a little sight seeing and some antique shopping. All of which was good for the soul! 

The antiques I got 

The stove I wished I got :(

My aunt and I also took a little road trip and visited Eldon, Iowa. I'm sure most of you have seen the famous painting the American Gothic. Well the house that the painting is based off of is in Eldon. So we got to go see the house and visit the little museum about it. I also got to take a picture with a pitch fork and overalls!

We also learned that there is a lady who lives in the house and guess what she's famous for.....PIE!!! She makes pies and sells them! She wasn't there when we went in April because she was on her book signing tour for the new cookbook she wrote. I bought one of course!! We did however come back over memorial day weekend when she had her pie stand open. We got to go into the house and buy pie! I got a Chess pie and peanut butter. Both were delicious. And I also got my cookbook signed by her. 

          Inside the American Gothic House                               Me, my pie, and Cookbook

Easter was good we had our usual family dinner at my great aunts house. Each year we take a group picture with all of the cousins and I found a picture from long ago and then this years and put them together. We also went to sunrise service at church. This year myself and our minister decorated the church. I did the board out in our lobby and the tables where we ate. 

Most of May was uneventful. We were off from school from the 2nd week of may until June 2nd. I worked and did some cooking and just was lazy. It went by entirely to fast.  Now Memorial weekend was a blast! 

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One of my many jobs was cleaning and helping at a lumber yard. They had their Garden Shed's open house so I helped get everything ready for it.

One fun and kind of sad thing I got to do was go to my Ag teachers final banquet. He is retiring this year and so I wanted to go to his last banquet. He is a great man who made a huge impact on my life for sure. While we were there I got a picture with him and then 4 of the past 5 presidents (myself included) were there so we snapped a picture together. 

My mom and I took off work and went to my grandmas house for 5 days!! It was a much needed break for both of us. While we were there we put flowers on graves, visited my grandma, went to Eldon and ate some pie, brought grandma to her church/house from the nursing home, sorted through some of her stuff and cleaned some closets, and enjoyed a meal with family. It was such a great weekend and I learned a TON of family history that I didn't and I got to see the graves of 5 different sets of my 3 time great grandparents!! 3 of which were in the same cemetery! How neat is that. We also got to travel the back roads visiting the areas where my grandparents grew up and lived. The house and barn my Great grandpa built is still standing and we drove by the house like 4 times and I took many pictures of it all while the lady who currently lives in it was out on her porch. :) Here are just a few of the bazillion pictures I took!

Our trunk full of flowers!

My grandpa

A church some of my relatives help establish (not this exact building but the original church that was here)

One of my 3X Great Grandparents (my 3x great grandfather was a wood cutter) 

Now on to the blur which was June! 

We started the last semester of LPN school on June 2nd. The first week we had class Mon-Thursday and had 2 tests!! What a great start. HA :( The next week I'm entirely surprised I even survived. Saturday the 7th I got to go to Lawrence, Kansas to do a Honey Princess thing. I did a presentation for kids and got to help with the swarm demonstration and handle bees with my bare hands!! Monday I got to go to Camp Quality which is a camp for kids with cancer who can forget their disease and just be kids. I got to fish with them and help them pick out costumes for a dance they were having. Tuesday I had to go to clinicals about an hour from my house. It was a great day and I drew blood 2 times successfully. Wednesday I had to go to Jefferson City which is 4.5 hrs away to watch the bad nurses get in trouble. Then Thursday I had to give a presentation about bees to a local organization at 7:00 am! All in all in those 5 days I traveled over 1000 miles! 

Me Next to the swarm. You can see the many bees flying around my head. No one got stung that day!

The past couple weeks have been uneventful. More school and more work the same old boring tune. Mom and I did help out with VBS last week which was fun. I helped with the snacks and the carnival and mom helped with the music. 

The theme for the night was Jesus Lives. we made tombs with the stone out of doughnuts and doughnut holes

The theme was Jesus Loves so I came up with Jesus' Love bubbles over for you so we had Root beer floats

I've decided i'm gonna quit the nursing gig to be a carney!!! Ha! we had a carnival and the kids got to play games and win tickets.

We just got the schedule of tests for the next few weeks and I might go crazy. We are having tests each week and with being in class only 2 days a week they informed us that they aren't teaching us much and we have to learn it on our own. Then we will have clinicals 2 days a week. But hey guess what 4 weeks left!!!!!!! Then I will be done with the school part but then can't forget boards! Study, study, study, cram, cram, cram, and pray, pray, pray!!!! 

So there is my life in a nutshell for the past 3 months!! Here's to hoping I make it through the next month!