Every 6 months

I met a wonderful group of girls my first summer at camp. I am really proud to call them my friends. We all are so different and come from many states and yet mesh like we have been friends for years.
It just so happens that we get to see each other every 6 months. It started after Summer of '09, we met up in January and then again summer '10. These amazing ladies made it to my wedding and now we are meeting this weekend for another wedding! So that makes it every 6 months! How ironic! Talia and I didn't plan our weddings around our 6 month reunion. It just happens like that haha. I can't wait to see them!

Chicago watch out for Lower Chipeta Counselors '09!

Patience Pays Off

FINALLY! After 3 months of intense job searching, lots of networking, and tons of patience, I finally landed a hospital RN job! I have been working as a home health nurse but I really wanted to be in the hospital. The job is at Northern Colorado Medical Center in Greeley, CO. It is a Banner facility which are huge in Arizona. I will be working on Medical (general patients)/Telemetry (people who need constant heart monitoring) unit. I am so excited to be working with a lot of different patients and a pretty awesome schedule. I work 3 days a week, 12 hr nights. At first I was a little unsure about working the night shift but when they told me that I would get paid a lot more, I said SIGN ME UP! I have prayed a lot and tried to stay positive when I knew I didn't want to. I had so much support from my loving husband and friends and family who helped me with connections and advice. Here is the hospital and some fast facts:
Northern Colorado Medical Center

Number of patient beds: 398
Number of inpatient visits: 16,234
Number of Emergency department visits: 54,038
Number of babies delivered: 2032
Number of employees: 2,200
Number of physicians on medical staff: 258 active staff physicians including primary care and specialty physicians
Number of volunteers: 435

The hospital is pretty big which is awesome because that means there will be tons of other opportunities down the road if I want to choose a different part of nursing. Geeze I am so excited. Sometimes it just hits me and I say wow, I got the job!!!!!

I am so excited to start this new chapter in life and all the other opportunities that it will bring for me and my hubby!

Next, on the list: donate my hair to locks of love :)

Someday :)

I love my little kitty, Beetle. He is so much fun, loves to cuddle, and loves to play. What more could you ask for??Well.....I really LOVE dogs. And SOMEDAY we will find the perfect one..It might not be for a little while because with the summer coming up and it is Chris's busy season. It would be hard to have to train a puppy with only one parent. But I have dreams that Beetle and our new puppy would look like this: HOW CUTE :)I have a few breeds in mind that would be perfect for our little family. Chris and I have watched this show on Animal planet called Dogs 101 and they go through a certain amount of dog breeds and tell you alot of information about them, along with positives and negatives about their breeds. Since we live on a ranch, there is so much space around here for a dog like this to run around and play!

I can't wait to take him/her on walks, hikes, and to the dog park. Estes Park has a pretty sweet dog park..It backs up to a lake so the dogs can go swimming and they have tons of obstacles like what you see at a dog show (like a tunnel and etc.). It is going to be so fun and we can't wait!!!

Cat...then dog....then baby?????

We shall SEE!( we are taking baby steps)

The Big DAY!

I was finally able to get some wedding pictures back and it brings back so many great memories of our big day. I love looking at pictures and really looking at them. You can really tell a lot about a picture if you just look at it for a second. Look at all the people in the picture, their faces, the background, or the lighting. I have enjoyed looking at them and really appreciate all the hardwork my photographer did. She was actually my matron of honor's mother who I have known since I was 5 and has been taking pictures for as long as I can remember. She was there all weekend taking pictures of my family and bridesmaids at the nail salon, rehersal, rehersal dinner, wedding (of course), and the day after when we had family and close friends over for a brunch. I cant even remember how many pictures she took but it is in the thousands. Here is a few I love:

Life as a married couple is great! I love being with my best friend every day. Everything (well mostly everything) is put away and unpacked. The house was such a mess when I moved with boxes everywhere. So we are glad that we got all of that taken care of. We adpoted a kitten about a month ago named Beetle and we love him so much. He is SO playful and super energetic. He also loves to cuddle and be held and I love that. We decided that we were going to start small (cat) then move up to bigger things (dog, etc.). Chris and I have a lot of exciting things coming our way! Life is good and this year is going to be great! We have a few weddings to go to this year out of state so we are excited for many trips and my matron of honor is having her baby in May so we will be going to visit her out there in Florida. Florida beach in the summer time??? YES please! We are so looking forward to our new life and all that is has in store. I couldn't have found a better man to share this journey with. Being a newlywed is so fun!

Hey 2011! So glad you are here!

Today is such a great day! We just said goodbye to 2010 and hello to 2011! This past year was wonderful and so many great things happened. Just a brief summary of what happened:

2010-

-got engaged!!!!

-graduated from Nursing school, YAY!

-spent a whole summer riding horses and making new friends

-planned a wedding while still in school

-spent a lot of time with family

In 2011:

-I will be getting married in January!!

-Going to the Bahamas for our honeymoon

-Looking for a job in a hospital

-Moving to Colorado! (in the middle of their winter)

-Road trip around Colorado

-Meeting a ton of new people/friends

I am really excited for what this year has to offer and can't wait to spend it with my soon-to-be-husband!

On a different note, here is my new year's eve story....

So Chris, his friend in town, and I were going to hang out at the house and then head over to this restaurant for some live music and dinner. BUT the power went out twice and stayed off the second time. It wouldn't of been that bad if it wasn't their coldest night of the whole winter so far!!!! It was -17 degrees out side, yes NEGATIVE and we had no heat. WHEW! I was a little nervous and my Arizona skin was not prepared for this. We just stayed at the house for a little bit and bundled up. We did not want to start a fire until we got home from the restaurant but even the restaurant was out of power. Luckily they had a little genereator.

Chris's friend works for the town's power company so his boss called him and told him that he needed his help. Poor guy had to go out in that cold weather and work. He later told us that half the town was out of power and it wasn't an easy fix. So Chris and I went into town to get out of the cold house for a little bit and then went to the place to wait for him friend to get done. We waited for a while and he still wasnt done and it was like 930. So we left and got pizza and headed home because the power was back on. His friend did not get to our house until 1130!!!! He was working for about 6 hours outside. We were very thankful though that he got the power back on so our pipes wouldnt freeze!!!

It ended up being a great, fun, and WARM New Years! Thank goodness :)

It is over!

School that is!

I am so excited to say that I am finished with nursing school. No I don't have that dipolma in my hand yet but soon. December 17th at 9am to be exact. This moment is what I have kept my eyes on for the last 2 years, graduation. I have learned a lot about myself throughout nursing school and I have made some great friends along the way. I am very fortunate to have a friend who lives less than 1 mile from me, graduated from the same high school, both spent our freshman year up at NAU (but we didn't know each other), and have the same study habits. We pushed each other through school and I know that I would not have stayed sane if it wasn't for her.

I also have my family to thank for sticking it out with me. I know there were days where I was cranky/stressed and would just shut my door to the world for a little while. They were encouraging through out the whole time.

AND I have to especially thank the love of my life for helping me out as well. He sent me numerous texts/letters/voicemails about how great I am doing and that I am almost done! Everything that a great man would do! I am so glad to be ending this chapter in my life and starting a new one with him!

SO what's next you ask??? Well I am going to start studying for my board exam and looking for jobs. Most places won't hire you if you don't have your actual license so I am kind of stuck for a little bit and it is really hard when your living out of the state you are moving to. Please send good thoughts/prayers for me in hopes of finding a job in Colorado. Also, I will be chugging along with the wedding plans. There are so many details to worry about like who is going to put the centerpieces out or make sure the cake lady knows where to put the cake. I have some minifreak-outs but I have a great mom, friends, and aunts helping me through it.

Life is great right now! I couldn't ask for better and I am excited to see what the future holds for the future Mrs. Schrader.

What a weekend!

This weekend I was able to go to Colorado to spend the weekend with my love! And it was so wonderful as always!!

He welcomed me to Colorado with those BEAUTIFUL flowers! They are our wedding colors too )isn't he sooo good?!) Chris and I went to hike around the lake where we got engaged and took some re-enactment pictures. It was such a nice day and seeing the leaves changing colors were so COOL! It isn't anything I have seen before because it doesn't really happen in Arizona and in Texas, the leaves just fell off and were brown..nothing too interesting in that! We had a day full of movies and popcorn, along with a little studying..Such a nice weekend, just the 2 of us!

On another note, I AM FINISHED WITH MY CRITICAL CARE CLASS! It was a class full of a ton of information, basically telling us that there are a lot of things that can go wrong with the body FAST! It was an interesting class and I did learn a lot but I am glad that it is done...I am heading into my last 7 weeks of college! How crazy! I remember starting nursing school and feeling like it would never end...BUT here I am, almost done! WHEW...It has been a long 2 years but I am so ready to graduate and start my new life with my one and only (i love you christopher!)

So excited for Glee tonight! I'm hooked!