another jump in the right direction...

ACCEPTED! Do you like Erwin's new tattoos?

That's right. I got into the U. I think everyone knew that it was going to happen anyway, but getting that letter in the mail was still very exciting. And I couldn't have done it without my person. She paid my application fee. I kept talking about school, and she kept saying do it already, and I said, I don't have the money. And she said, screw that you do now... Thank you! You see that? That is why she is my person and I love her.

I promised myself that once I got my official acceptance letter for the University of Utah, I would get the stickers and put them on the back of my car.... Here it is! My family may not like it too much, because they are BYU fans... Not to mention my dad actually works there. But it's the place I want to go. And when I did my first year there, I loved it! I love the feel of the campus.

I kept talking about going back to school and how I needed to work on my education... Nursing school is the goal now. Because I started with this CNA business, I've convinced myself that it is the direction that I wanted to take. When you get excited about taking out someone's foley, or examining a stage 4 bedsore, you know that it's the field to get into. (PS, stage 4 is the worst stage you can get to and it means that the sore has gotten down to the bone... gross. But awesome.)

So now, I'm pretty sure that it's the thing that I want to do. Every once in a while, I'll second guess myself but that happens to everyone, right? RIGHT?

I keep getting positive reinforcement from my patients. They keep telling me...

"You'll be a good nurse..."

"You better be going into nursing school..."

"They need more nurses with your attitude..."

And the best is when I get this kind of reinforcement is the kind I get from my peers and coworkers on my floor. Constantly, I keep getting told that I'm doing a great job, and they keep asking if it's my first CNA job. It feels good.

AND.... An even bigger sign was the thank you note I got from my floor manager in the same stack of mail that my acceptance letter came in. All it said, was that many people have told her that I fit in and work hard. It feels so so so so good.

So, that's the plan.... School will start in the spring and I'm totally on board. My life is still moving in the right direction and it makes me excited to live each day as it comes.

One day, hopefully sooner than later, I'd like to move out. But that all depends on finances. I got the job and started school downtown because that would just make it a matter of time before I ended up in that area. And these days, you have to go where the jobs are. It just makes sense. One day my knight in shining whatever will come sweep me off my whatever and we'll live happily ever whatever. Or something. I would love to raise Tegan downtown, or in the Aves. Maybe by the U. There is just an energy up there that I love.

Tegan has been doing great with everything too. She's sleeping for longer stretches of time, thank you lord, and is getting a huge bundle of personality. She rocks my world. I can't wait to see what kind of person she turns into or what she'll do when she grows up...

Anyway... I'm sleepy. We're doing pretty good with keeping people updated though, right?