May 2012

Man, I love spending time with Spence! We have so much fun together! This was a picture taken of us this weekend. We thought we would get an imprompt pic and Spencer started snapping pics pretty quickly on my phone and this pic was actually taken when I thought we were done and it was my favorite...funny how that happens! I love it because we were basically laughing in it! Good times!!

 Spencer was so sweet and sent me these roses, teddy bear, and card to work for Nurses Appreciation week, so sweet AND definitely made my day!!!

 Here are our doggy dogs!! I love them so much! They were sitting here chilling while I was getting ready and Spencer thought it was cute and took a picture!

 Sash has a surprise!! She is expecting puppies in 3 weeks!! Look at that belly!! We made a blog for her and her puppies at sashandpuppies.blogspot.com   We did it for Paysley and her puppies and it was such a hit, so I wanted to do the same for our Sash!!

 Here is our house on Memorial Day! We finally got our flower garden  AND  veggie garden in!! Yes, veggie garden!! We planted tomatoes, squash, radishes, and carrots. Now, we are just telling you that we will not be surprised if we see Kyndal walking inside with a veggie or two in her mouth! She loves her some veggies! She is just like me! We could sit and eat tomatoes for hours!!

 This past Saturday we got to spend time with Spencer's cousins on the Halford side. We had a blast! They are so much fun! They made us laugh like crazy! I loved their stories!

 Spencer's brother, Shayne, came over to service my car and spend some time with us. Kyndal loves her some Shayne time!!

 We want to CONGRATULATE my big bro, Derek, for graduating from Medical school this month! We are so proud of him! He is going to be a great Dr!!! Yea, for having a Dr. in the family!!!

 I just had to throw this picture in here! It is always a great reminder, right?!?!

Race for the Cure and Neptune Park :)

This past Saturday was so much fun for me!!! I had a blast and here is why...It started off with me waking up 20 minutes before my alarm sounded (5:40am)! I then jumped out of bed and got ready...got ready for what you ask so early on a Saturday morning?! It was for the Race for the Cure in downtown SLC and I was doing it with my mom! I was beyond excited (I guess it hadn't even crossed my mind that I hadn't even ran since the fall...wait, yes, it did! BUT. I didn't seem to care! This girl was excited!) I used the rumble roller on these legs, had my Shakeology and I was off!!

This is my beautiful mom and I right before the race! Can you tell we are excited? It was so much fun! There were so many people there and we loved it!  Right after this picture was taken, the gun sounded and we were off! There were so many people there that we had to make our way to the sidewalk to even run...crazy fun!!!

This is the finish line...usually it is the best thing to see, but not this time. I felt like I could have ran forever...I repeat...forever! My mom is the best running partner! We have the same speed and it makes it so much fun. Plus. it felt like we were in a parade the whole time. There were so many people on the side watching and cheering. This is such an amazing cause. I cannot wait to do it next year!

This picture was not taken while I was actually running. I just have to get that off my chest...whew! Okay, my mom and I were waiting for the crew at the finish line and then after awhile started heading back to see if we could see them. Once we saw them, I tried to encourage them to run to the finish line. After, the deathly grins or the plain ignoring me, I took off running and when Camille threatened me with picture taking, I began running like Phoebe...from Friends! She says she runs like Phoebe and I'm like Monica...anyway, inside joke! Sorry, long story, but I had to tell it even though this running form is probably better than the original :)

And then she had to get a close up...seriously!!!

Don't ask me what Camille is doing :) Her and I have offices across from each other and we have some fun...that's all I'm saying...

This is after the race after everyone crossed the finish line! This is some of my amazing staff I work with at the Hospital! We all had so much fun participating in this together! It was a blast! I think we have committed to doing more of these together this summer.

Don't ask me what Norbis is doing...we must be a close bunch!!!

This is our whole crew that participated in the race! What a fun day!! Side note: We all missed Spencer A TON! He would have done awesome in this race! He seriously would have been one of the first ones to finish if not the first...anyway, he was working on a side job.

After the race, my two nieces, Elle and Abby, wanted to spend the day with me! What better way to play than to play at a park! This is a fun park right by my house! We love it and now so do my nieces!!

 This thing is huge! I believe it is 40 feet tall?! My nieces are the two girls at the bottom left. I had to hurry and take a pic before they got too high

 This is a fun swing and man, can you get some air! The girls loved it!

Here is Elle getting ready to make Abby spin fast in circles!

 Here is another thing that uses your body weight to turn in circles!

Here is a fun thing to climb on. These girls are good!

 I then joined them up top for a picture. This picture makes me laugh and smile. It was windy or maybe a new hairstyle is in store?!

Then we had fun on the good ol' fashion swings!

I must tell a babysitting story...I brought these girls home right after the race, so I asked them to watch the dogs while I got in the shower. When I came out, poor Kyndal was soaking wet and shivering on the couch. A dog toy had been chewed up and shredded all over the living room. When I came out and saw poor Kyndal and the mess, I asked Elle and Abby what was going on and well, they couldn't tell me cuz their eyes were glued to the Disney Channel...gotta love those girls!!!

Life is good...

Waiting is hard, but life is good. I thought a lot about this yesterday on my drive home from work "waiting is hard, but life is good." I felt like I was really treating myself to something special as I left the tanning place and picked up a smoothie yesterday after work! I felt spoiled :) I don't usually do that kind of thing, but lately I have just had this little voice telling me I need some more of "that" time! Life is good, we cannot complain. We have been blessed with tender mercies along our journey that someday I cannot wait to share. They are so personal and dear to our hearts that we know our family is coming some day soon. We are so grateful for everyone who has added our button to their blogs! It means so much to us when we visit a blog and see it there! We appreciate the love and support!

Happy Birthday!!

Today is my hub's birthday and I am so excited to spend the day with him (I surprised him by getting work off :) Spencer is AMAZING in so many ways and I am very lucky to have him not only in my life, but by my side through everything! I thought I would tell you AT LEAST 29 reasons why I love my BIRTHDAY BOY!!

1: He has the kindest heart! He is always willing to do anything for anyone and I mean anything! He is always the first one on the road to pull over when he sees someone with car trouble or he is always helping family out with house work. Last summer he cleaned my mom's garage spotless and when my mom came home, she just cried with gratitude!

2: He is a perfectionist! He will not quit a job until it is absolutely perfect. He worked on a Dr's home a few years back and when we moved, we got a letter in the mail from him asking if this was the right Spencer and if it was, he would love to have him come back to work on his house. This couple definitely tracked Spencer down and we are glad they did :)

3: He is a great cook! He wakes up every morning and makes my shakes and prepares my lunch, but not only that, Spencer makes the best dinners I have ever had! Seriously, he is hard to beat and he knows it, so trying is difficult!

4: He love his dogs! Yeah, some guys do, but not like Spencer! I will be honest and so will he...he was skeptical at first when he came home off his mission and I had a dog (not just any dog, my cute Chade!) and Spencer did not like dogs in the house, but when he saw that I still kept a pretty mean, clean house with them, he fell in love and it has only grew stronger! I was driving into our neighborhood one day as him and Sash were driving out and it seriously was the cutest thing I have ever seen! They are true buddies and I love hearing about their hunting stories!!  I definitely look forward to them sharing that with our little boys!!

5: He loves learning! He is always telling me ways we can save more money and he has done a fabulous job in that area!! We recently just paid off major things like his truck! He also loves school and is doing so well. He amazes me because he can do anything he sets his mind to!

6: He challenges me! I know what you're probably thinking...but I love it! When we workout, it is all out war, lol! I have HIIT or Insanity workouts and it is like the last one standing wins, haha! Wins what? I don't know, but it sure is fun! We also make goals and push each other! It's amazing what we can accomplish when we are cheering each other on or challenging the other, lol!

7: He takes me out every week and boy is this time much needed! We usually go out to eat at his restaurant or mine and then come home and watch tv or a movie, but I love this time! It is my favorite time of the week!!

8: He is our protector. If anyone of us aren't feeling well even in the middle of the night, he jumps right up to help. He does not take time getting out of bed, I mean he is up! It works better than his alarm clock! He also does not like to see me hurting...he is a good, good husband!

9: He does amazing yard work and he enjoys doing it! I have been so blessed to not have a guy that I have to ask or beg to do things. My mom always let's me know I am very lucky cuz there just aren't a lot of guys that are go go go and Spencer is!

10: I thought I would talk about housework here! Spencer has helped me out so much with the house! He knows it makes me so happy to have it clean and he's learned that it makes me smile to see him vacuum! Weird I know, but we aren't talking about me :) Like I said before, he is a perfectionist! I've been told (by people who CANNOT diagnose, haha) that I have a touch of OCD. Well, so does Spencer because where I lack, he picks up. We are definitely the perfect pair!

11: He is so great with kids! I love seeing my nieces and nephews run up to him when we are at my sisters' and if he's not with me, they sure ask why not!! He plays with them and they love that! They love when he throws them on the love sac or build snowmen with them. He is a fun uncle and the boys especially love tackling him!

12: He makes me laugh! We also teach primary in church and he makes the kids laugh all the time. I love it!!

13: He is a great primary teacher, not only does he make the kids laugh, but the spirit is so strong when he teaches the little ones and I love hearing his testimony!

14: He builds the prettiest things! I have such a beautiful headboard for our bed that he built and I love it! Everyone who has seen it loves it; Infact, our caseworker complimented it during our adoption home study and was very impressed when I said Spencer built it!

15: He is very friendly! We can go anywhere and he can make a friend or talk to someone for awhile!

16: He loves his tv shows and he usually only watches them while preparing dinner or right before bed. Right now we are hooked on the show Blue Bloods! Highly recommend it! It is amazing and we cannot get enough! We have been up late several nights because we just want to watch one more!!

17: He loves family! He loves to be around them and doing something fun together and something fun can mean a lot of things to him! He can go hang out at my family's house for hours on end and sometimes he knows more than I do of what is going on!! He definitely love them!

18: He supports me whether I'm in nursing school or going through a big audit, he is there! While preparing for my hospital audit, I was overwhelmed and there just wasn't enough of me to go around! During Spencer's spring break, he typed and formatted over 100 policies for me and had forms reformatted for me! I could not have done it without him!! It was crunch time and he finished them for me the day before the auditors showed up...perfect timing!! He is the best and I cannot thank him enough!!

19: He loves his sports! Right now it is his Jazz games and I love hearing him happy when it is an exciting game and his team is doing well! He also loves playing them! He enjoys playing basketball with our ward!

20: He is a tease! One time I pronounced Omnipotent wrong and he will not let me live it down! Two can play this game and let's just say, we do!!

21: He surprises me at work and will bring lunch, edible arrangement bouquet, smoothie, etc! I think I'm catching on though! He will just have the receptionist tell me to come up front and there may have been times where I'm busy and need a reason to come up front, but I'm always glad when I see my hubs standing there!!

22: He's a fast runner! It does not matter how long I've been working out or what I've been doing, he can kick my butt any day and he does. I love when he told me I look fast, but in slow motion! I love when he takes Sash for a run and they are off!! It makes me smile!!

23: He makes holidays so much fun!! We have come up with our own little traditions that I cannot wait to do with our little ones...our dogs enjoy it, haha!! Funny story, Kyndal, our youngest shih tzu, received some treats and toys for Easter and the next thing we knew she had gotten them all out and put them on the bed and was having a hay day!! Yeah, we love our little ones!! It was so cute!!

24: He loves his tools and he has them arranged so neatly in the garage. When it comes time to buy him something, it usually has something to do with a tool and I think I made the mistake of asking him if I could get something more exciting, haha! To him, that is exciting...he doesn't find shirts for me exciting at least I think?!

25: He starts my car every morning before work...seriously, I am spoiled! He also fills it up with gas. He would rather he go and fill it up at the gas station than I do it! He seriously is a great guy!!

26: He is fun! He is always up for doing something and is never a downer. Those people are hard to be around. If I wanted to go to a movie with friends he would be right there willing to go! Most guys wouldn't be caught dead dancing to Just Dance 3 and some girls have to talk their guy into it, not Spencer...he challenges me and sometimes gets a better score :)

27: He cares for other people's property. If he borrows things, he returns it in better condition. When we take care of someone's animal, he gives it back in better condition. We just had my uncle's dog because we bred Sash! The guys in the fam were thinking it was time for some more hunting buddies!! We gave the male a haircut and Spencer spent time on the dog's kennel cleaning it and washing the bedding. He genuinely cares!!

28: He loves me! He writes me random notes in my lunch or on the fridge. One night I got called in to work graves and when I came home in the morning, there was a one page letter from Spencer telling me how much he loves me and appreciates my hard work and next to it was my breakfast! He is a sweetheart!!

29: He loves the Gospel! I have seen his testimony shine through our recent trial! We have had personal conversations about the premortal life and accepting our trials here on this earth. I know Spencer did because he is strong, caring, and absolutely amazing! I have looked at people going through trials and thought to myself, wow, that is a strong person, but my thoughts of Spencer exceed that!! I am very lucky to know him on such a personal level! He is my everything and I know we are in the right place and right where we belong...no matter the weather, we stick together!!

Happy Birthday, Spencer!! I love you!!

A great post

I went on my friend's blog yesterday and her post was so great and it brought me to tears! You can read "It Hurt for a Reason" at http://glalex.blogspot.com/ She and her husband were blessed with a beautiful daughter, Emme, through adoption. She has been great to turn to through this trial. She is an amazing friend!

They're coming...

is what I heard early Tuesday morning as I was checking expiration dates on our unopened medications in our med 2 room at the hospital. We were anticipating their arrival. We were all dressed up, but their coming was unannounced, so to hear the actual words, "They're coming," hit like a knife. I am speaking about Joint Commission...for our big hospital audit! I and my leadership team had been working countless hours and were exhausted; infact, we had just pulled major overtime that weekend, so we were hoping for an arrival that week. Like I had just mentioned previously, Joint Commission shows up unannounced. We give them a date that we are ready and they can show up on that date or any time within 3 months. We had given them the date the week prior, but the CEO and Corporate just had a feeling they would show up on 3/27 and man they were right. Okay, back to my story...I had heard the news! I walked into report room to let my staff know who were coming on shift. Man, my staff are amazing! They were ready; infact a few of them jumped right up to help me clear things off my floor of my office (nothing can be stored on the floor per Joint Commission.) At this time, some nerves hit me and my charge nurse walks by me as he is hauling one of my boxes out of my office and he tells me, "We got this!" All of a sudden, the nerves leave! He was definitely right! We did have this! We have been preparing since December and working over time since the beginning of February. We did have this :). Me and the Clinical Director were assigned the Audit leads which meant we were with the auditors the whole time...come to think of it we were suppose to come up with team names because she always had one auditor while I had the other, but being too busy we never did, lol! There were 3 auditors that showed up that morning, a nurse, a Dr, and an engineer. The nurse was the lead auditor. Lucky me, she was tough, but I loved it! She challenged every question everyone had. You answered a question and she challenged it. I loved it becaused it made you think and she was great at educating! The first day we did an opening session where the auditors got to know me and my fellow leadership team. Then I went to a rehab group with the nurse auditor. She loved it and so did I. It was great to have her sit in on one of our groups because we run great groups at our hospital and it was on spirituality which is a hard group to conduct, but she gave our therapist kudos on the great job she did! Then we did individual tracers. That is where the auditors pull staff in and ask them questions about the patients etc. They pulled my charge nurse in and he did awesome!! Unfortunately, I was only able to sit in on him with one and he could probably kill me for not being able to sit with him on the others, but he did fantastic!! I am so lucky to have him as my day shift charge nurse!! Then the first day was over!! I was hoping to get off work at a decent time, but I had to check my med room to make sure it was continuing to be up to par and read over some more policies, so my sweet, sweet husband went shopping for me!! I wanted some nice clothes to wear for the next 2 days and he did a fabulous job picking them out. Everyone at work said my husband has great taste...he has been trained very well :)

Jessica T. (my infection control nurse..on the left) Jesse (day shift charge nurse...in the middle) and me (on the right) at the end of the first day making sure our med room shines for day 2!!!

Me in my business suit ready for day 2!! Spencer DOES have great taste!


The 2nd day was HUGE for nursing! I had 2 major sessions...medication management and infection control! I also had 2 major tracers...medication room and medication pass. Me and the leadership team met with all 3 of the auditors in the morning for a daily debriefing to find out how things went the day before...so far so good...AWESOME!!! Then the nurse auditor wants to see our med room. At this point, I feel my heart become a little tachycardic (fast!) We had an audit in 2010 and the auditor found a lot of things wrong in the med room. I could go in to details, but it could bore some people. The audit prior to that also found things wrong in the med room and due to all that, the DON was let go and I was asked to be the DON, so yes a fast heart beat is very understandable. The nurse auditor walks into the med room and starts asking my nurses questions and they do a GREAT job. Then she starts asking to see stuff in the med room and looking around. I am so PROUD to say she did not and I repeat she did NOT find a single thing wrong with that med room!!! Then she watches my nurse do a med pass. Now, the nurse auditor finds what happens next quite comical, but at the time, I could have cried or freaked out...My nurse has the medication in hand with me and the auditor following...we walk down to the patient's room and he is not there. We walk into the group room, he is not there. We walk into the day room, he is not there. At this time, panic comes across mine and my nurse's face. This patient is on a locked unit and the only way he cannot be on the unit is if he went AWOL. We got up to my tech who is checking on the patient every 15 minutes and in the calmest way possible, ask where is the location of the patient...the tech says in his bed. We say, "No, he is not." My nurse, being the great nurse that she is, immediately found this patient in another patients bed!! Now, this all took only about 2 minutes, but seemed like forever AND the med pass went beautifully! The nurse auditor enjoyed the show and when we went back to Administration she just had to share the story. She's been there. She's been a psych nurse and a DON. She loved mentioning our panic stricken faces!! Then I had a med management tracer with the Dr auditor. Everyone said this session was the HOT TICKET because this is probably what we were worried about most! We changed our whole med system around because we are growing and we are in the middle process of bringing in an inhouse pharmacy, so I had to speak to what we do now and we had our wonderful pharmacy consultant to help speak to our inhouse pharmacy coming in a couple weeks. It went FABULOUS! My boss even sat in on this one because seriously, it was the HOT TICKET!! Then right after that I had an infection control session with the nurse auditor. She interviewed my infection control nurse and that went FABULOUS as well. My infection control nurse did such a great job and at the end the nurse auditor asked her why she thinks I chose her to be the infection control nurse, as she answered, we both got teary eyed. Her and I have worked very closely preparing for this audit and she has done such a great job strengthening our infection control program. I am so proud of her. After the audit, I joked with her because she worked out with me with Chalene Johnson the day after Christmas and we talked about how we want to help our hospital pass the audit and then we both want to become fitness instructors so I mentioned to her after the audit that it's time to move onto our next goal, haha!!


The 3rd and final day!! Once again my leadership team and I met with the auditor and talked about the day before. The nurse auditor spoke...well laughed about the med pass experience and said that went great as well as the med room!! Then I had 2 more sessions with them...Leadership and Competence. Leadership was with all of us department heads and they asked us all how we are going to continue to manage our departments as our hospital grows. Then at the very end they asked us to go around the table and tell us one thing we have learned through this process. I cannot remember the exact words that I said, but I was definitely moved to say what I said. It went something like this...I have seen who can rise to the occasion. It has been a tough road, but through this, I have seen who genuinely cares about this hospital and the patients. I also mentioned that we have implemented a lot of new forms (that was also a little joke the auditors had because they've been in our shoes and they know we have been so busy and they see all the new and different forms we have started) and I have seen the patience the staff have to learn and implement them while still taking great care of the patients. After this, I had the competence session. This was where the Nurse auditor met with me, the clinical director, CEO, and HR director and asked us questions about how we train our staff and know they are competent. It went wonderful! Then we let the auditors review charts and do paperwork for a couple hours and they said we would find out the "news" at 1:30pm. I went back to my office to catch up on work for the week. I then received a tender mercy. This tender mercy is so dear and sweet to my heart. I immediately called Spencer and text my mom. There were times preparing for this audit that I struggled. It was HARD. I am sure if you ask anyone in administration they will tell you this is the hardest thing they have every experienced in their career. I am a new nurse and it was tough. BUT, this tender mercy testified to me that I am on the RIGHT path and I am doing what is RIGHT! When I told Spencer and my mom they were amazed as well. The Lord is definitely here for us if we let Him in and He definitely answers prayers!!

At 1:30pm, there was a page overhead for the leadership team to head to the conference room. I was so excited walking down the hall! I knew in my heart what the news was going to be! Well, we all sat together with the audtiors and we heard the news~ You are accredited! Hospital accredited! Before, we were behavioral standards, now we are hospital standards which means we have the same accredidation as major hospitals such as IMC. We are so thrilled. Hard work definitely pays off. I am so proud of my staff and the leadership team! They are amazing!!

Happy Anniversary!!!

Today is our 6 year anniversary!!! 6 years ago I definitely married my best friend and the man I'm meant to be with! Each year has brought us closer and I am so thankful for that! Not a lot of couples can say that. Spencer is always there for me. I love the country song, "God Gave Me You" by Blake Shelton because that is exactly how I feel about Spencer...I could not say it better :)!!! So here's to 6 years and beyond!!! What have we been up to?! Spencer is in school full time for Business Management and just picked up a job on the side...He became a Beachbody coach!! I am so proud of him!! He is doing so well!! I am continuing working overtime preparing for our audit at the hospital, we are reaching the home stretch! They should be coming in the next week or so! I have experienced exhaustion in every aspect, but we keep pushing on because it will be worth it :)!!