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a few photos

its been a while

i promised myself that i'd keep up my blog and i haven't been lately... i'll blame it on lack of sleep and lots of schoolwork : )

everything is going well here. i'm still *trying* to adjust to the weather. last week it was 40 degrees one day, high 60's, then torrential rain, and a freak snow storm. last night we had wind advisories and i was convinced that there was a tornado outside... it was SO LOUD!!! its pretty frigid today because of the windy weather but supposedly its spring because a red robin was spotted! warm weather COME QUICKLY!!!

enough about the weather. classes are pretty intense but there is no place i'd rather be. saturday night i shadowed a nurse in the emergency room from 7pm-12am. i can't describe the feeling of just how right it felt to be in there. i would have stayed an entire shift if i didn't have to get up in the morning : ) i loved everything about the ER. the adrenaline rush, the sense of impending chaos at any moment, people who truly are depending on you in that moment. definitely where i want to be!!

spring break starts friday and man i am READY!!! i am really really really looking forward to seeing my brother, james next week in omaha while visiting grandpa irv. i miss james so much and i'm really thankful that he's coming out. i need a little time away from school...

life is going good. i'm becoming involved with my church (cedar heights baptist) and i feel like they have become a family to me. i'm actually becoming a member on sunday! kind of crazy since i've only been here 3 months, but i feel that this is exactly where i need to be.

also, randomly i'm attempting to learn how to knit... so far, i'm a domestic failure. its on the verge of epic fail but not quite. i haven't completely given up yet despite ripping out every attempt thus far. i'll keep you updated : )

oh well that's a little glimpse of what is going on right now... i'm off to meet grandma and some of her friends for lunch : )

Winter...

 

some pictures from my drive to the farm...

new experiences

this past weekend was full of "1sts" for me...

friday i was driving to the farm and i saw this lovely field that i thought i'd take a picture of. i'm out on the country road and think that the snow is covering part of the road, (not a ditch) so i pull over. next thing bruce and i are sideways in a ditch. : ) good times. i call AAA to come and rescue me and while i'm on the phone my knight in shining armor for the day pulls up in a ginormous white truck (instead of on a white horse) to save me. he was super nice and drove me to my grandparents house so i wouldn't have to wait for AAA in my freezing truck. thank God for him. it would've been quite a walk or quite a freezing 45 minute wait. i didn't want to bug my grandparents as i knew it was nap time! so that was a fun experience...

saturday night my housemates and i went to my very 1st hockey game! i really enjoyed it as i had absolutely no idea what was going on but hey it was really exciting. and there were a bunch of fights and everyone pretty much goes for the fights so it was a good game i guess. i'd definitely like to go again  : )

sunday at church we had the director of frontier missions come and talk to us about mission opportunities in northern iraq and it was really eye opening about the needs there. i never thought about going there before but i'd love to participate in medical trips there hopefully in the future. i also went to a super bowl party with our college group and i think it was the most of any football game i've ever watched. good times : )

now back to the grind of school... its going well. lots of information that i'm trying to cram into my head. we're learning about how to draw up medications for injections right now in pharmacology which is pretty exciting! we're going to be "practicing on oranges" next week. kind of random but its fun.

that's all for now.. kind of rambling on but i must go study for a medical terminology quiz for tomorrow...

another day

its been almost a month since i've moved here to iowa. i can honestly say i'm thankful to be here and i'm really enjoying my time here thus far.

here a few of my favorite things about being here:

1) being close to grandma milly & grandpa marv

2) being in a bachelor's degree nursing program

3) having to get out of my comfort zone and actually be "the new person". not having all of my friends that i love "down the street" has been stretching but its been a good experience for me on a lot of different levels...

4) having my own little place (even though i share it! : )

5) not having to sit in traffic

6) cooking a lot more

7) having a coffee shop other than starbucks that is insanely amazing

mind you i really miss people from back home... not so much california (except the sunshine!). i'm learning a lot in so many areas its a little overwhelming. school, life, who i am, where i want to be...

oh and side note: i have to share my new favorite breakfast:

lavender oatmeal. don't say gross, i think everyone should try oatmeal with lavender flowers, flaxseed, slivered almonds, and agave (or honey) on top. : ) i made it up yesterday and i'm stoked about it. its my attempt at domestic-ness.

in case you missed my face...

i'm alive and well : )

morbid moving sale...

its crazy that i'm starting week 3 of school on monday... time is flying. i had a really good week which included going to wednesday night college group close to UNI, meeting a girl from church for coffee at my favorite cafe <3, and spending time with the grandparents.

 

weird thing- i'd never been to a "buy out" before. i know my grandparents go to these things a few times a week on a regular basis. basically its when someone dies (usually the case) the guardians of the estate hire a company to sort through and sell the deceased's belongings. grandma & grandpa took me to a buy out this morning and seriously it was the CREEPIEST feeling EVER to be looking through all this stuff of some dead person! i'm sure i am the ONLY one who thinks like this but please if i die, donate my stuff or give it away. every piece of furniture i was trying to imagine what this person was like and i was getting way too involved for a "moving sale"....

missing

i really miss my dogs. i mean, i miss a lot of things of course but i saw the cutest puppy tonight when i was driving out of UNI... i asked the dude walking the dog what kind it was, and it was an alaskan eskimo puppy. (i'm fully aware of the fact that he only had the dog to get chicks and i'm sure its working for him. he looked way to manly to have an adorable little white puppy)

 

i miss pixie and pumpkin...

roots market <3

i just wanted to share my sheer and utter joy of finding roots market today. its the closest thing here to a trader joe's/organic market and my heart is officially completely happy.

FRESH HUMMUS/TOFU/ORGANIC GOODNESS = HAPPINESS.

towed by a tractor

i bet not too many of you can say that you've been towed out of a snow drift by a tractor. well, i now can! after the BITTER frigidity of last week, i decided to head to the farm to escape the indoors and for a change of scene. i can't say how happy i am to spend time with grandma milly and grandpa marv on a weekly basis. i spent the night out there friday night and planned on leaving saturday early evening. saturday i "attempted" to "set" grandma's hair. (epic fail). i know that i was never destined to be a hair dresser. haha. hey i tried.

anyways. grandma needed to run into town for an errand and asked if i would drive her. we hopped into grandpa's ford 500 and started driving into town. (let me tell you that the wind had picked up early in the AM and the snow piles had started to drift all over the roads...) this was making me EXTREMELY nervous as we drove down the country gravel roads and the drifts across the road were growing larger... we made it in to town safe and sound, and an hour later we were ready to head back. can i tell you that the entire time we were in town i was having partial panic attacks just thinking about how bad the roads were going to be on our way back to the farm. i have my 81 year old grandma in the passenger seat and i'm praying that we make it. well, 3/4 the way there... we hit a white out. "white out = you can't see anything". i'm driving about 3 mph desperately trying not to go into a ditch that i can't see because its covered by snow, but i know its there. directly in front of me on the road is probably at least 6 inches of snow because of the wind picking up and i know we aren't gonna make it. surprise surprise, we can't make it through. we are now stuck in the middle of a country road in a white out. thankfully the farm is about 1/4 mile down the road and grandpa marv is home. we call him on the cell to ask him to please rescue us. grandma thought he'd bring the truck and just steer for me and take us out of this mess. 15 minutes later we see a huge john deere tractor pulling up through the whiteness. SWEET. i'm going to get pulled out of the snow drift by a tractor. that made my day. grandpa chains us up to the tractor and pulls us out. : ) we make it home safe and sound and i immediately get bruce and drive home. thank heaven for 4x4.

i found an amazing church last week that i visited, "cedar heights baptist church" that i visited today as well. it feels like home and i'm really thankful to be there. the people are super nice and i think i've found my home church.

not too much else going on. its MUCH warmer today, high of 28!! tomorrow i'm participating in the martin luther king jr. day service challenge through school so that should be cool.

off to read some pharmacology...

when you feel so tired but you can't sleep

its official. week #1 of nursing school is over. : ) i've survived thus far. yes, i know i still have QUITE a long way to go but hey step by step, right?

its 10:40pm and i never am up this late... i was working on some online assessments for pathophysiology and i felt like i was staring at the same questions for 20 minutes. finally finished thank heaven.

i decided to take a little break from the land of studying and watched this movie called "the grocer's son." i really enjoyed it. it was a french film about a guy getting a grip on life and learning to appreciate people for who they are and the impact they have on you. gotta love the foreign films.

its -21 degrees out tonight. lovely night for a walk. haha. i'm actually really looking forward to going to the farm tomorrow to hang out with grandma milly and grandpa marv... i need to get out. its been too cold to go anywhere and i'm not used to this whole idea of "being inside". yay for weekends.

"wind chill warnings"

i am learning so many new things and seeing many things that i've never seen before.

today for example. waterloo is having a "wind chill warning". i had no clue what the meant, so i headed over to weather.com for the 411. i will share it with you : )

"COLDER AIR WILL CONTINUE TO PUSH INTO NORTHERN IOWA OVERNIGHT WITH TEMPERATURES FALLING TO 20 TO 27 BELOW ZERO. EXPECT WIND CHILL VALUES AS COLD AS 35 TO 45 BELOW ZERO OVERNIGHT. BITTERLY COLD CONDITIONS WILL PERSIST ALL THE WAY THROUGH FRIDAY MORNING.

A WIND CHILL WARNING MEANS THE COMBINATION OF VERY COLD AIR AND STRONG WINDS WILL CREATE DANGEROUSLY LOW WIND CHILL VALUES. THIS WILL RESULT IN FROST BITE AND LEAD TO HYPOTHERMIA OR DEATH IF PRECAUTIONS ARE NOT TAKEN."

first of all. HOLY CRAP. its cold outside!!!!! i'm trying not to be bitter as i see the high 80's weather forecast for back home : ) ENJOY THE HEAT EVERYONE!!

while i'm on this kick of sharing all the new little things i'm learning...

1) your car might not start in the morning due to the cold.

2) give yourself PLENTY of time to "find your car" if necessary. i'm really thankful my truck is blue so i can see it peeking out of the snow drifts.

3) layer clothing.

4) never go in the freezing cold with wet hair. you will have icicles hanging off your head.

5) don't let your legs touch the side of the truck when getting into the car or your pants will be covered in dirty snow.

6) warming up your car is a necessity unless you want to sit in your car staring at your breath while driving due to the frigidness.

7) you determine how far everything is not depending on traffic, but depending on if the streets have been plowed.

8) school gets canceled because of the snow!!

9) when your car is sliding through the grocery store parking lot due to the ice patch you didn't see... don't brake.

10) be thankful for 4x4 drive.

nursing school starts today

the fun begins today! its a little overwhelming to think about but at the same time i'm beyond excited. my mom left for california yesterday, which was hard to see her leave but at the same time i know this is where i'm supposed to be.

i love my little place <3 my housemates are super sweet and we all get along really well.

1st class today in nursing skills which is the equivalent to a CNA (certified nursing assistant) class. most of the girls out here got their CNA license in high school (which isn't a requirement in CA). basically it teaches you basic patient care skills including: feeding, bathing, dressing, etc. good times : )

 

more later!

roadtrip flashback

i'm now blogging from my new home here in waterloo, iowa. it has been such a whirlwind week! this year i've already been in 8 states since taking our road trip. my mama and i left california early january 2nd to head to iowa. 1st stop was in utah where we stayed in st. george. driving can be exhausting and we were thankful for the stop over. from utah we headed to idaho springs, colorado where my parents 1st met and later got married. its the cutest little mining town cradled in the looming mountains all around. i loved it there : ) we were able to visit with some family friends that my parents knew from the commune where my mom lived. honestly i felt like i was in a movie. we stopped in this little restaraunt that my mom used to go to 30 years ago and the same lady owned it and recognized my mom. 30 years later! pretty crazy. in idaho springs we saw the first snow of the trip and this is where the freezing began : )

after idaho springs we headed to boulder, colorado because its my favorite city in colorado and also to visit my mom's cousin patty.

(side story- in the hotel we stayed there was a fireplace and i thought of course i know how to start a fire! many camping trips and campfires, piece of cake. um yeah. well hannah has never lit a fire in a FIREPLACE and of course forgot to open the damper. its about a high of 11 degrees outside and i'm freezing. we get back to our room after an amazing organic dinner at sunflower in boulder with cousin patty, and i am already starting the fire. the fire is going great and my mom walks in the room and asks why its smoky in there. bright one i am, responds "its a fire, its supposed to be smoky." yeah not so much... my mom calls downstairs because i was convinced i had done everything right... he asks if i had opened the damper. what's a damper?? mom found the damper and proceeded to open it. problem solved. smoke has now engulfed our little suite and i'm rushing to open windows to let the "fresh mountain air of 11 degrees" into our room. the smoke alarm is now going off. i'm fanning the smoke alarm, trying to open windows, and trying not to fall over from laughter : ) negative points for the domesticity of hannah...)

after our rather eventful evening, we woke up early for the most DREADFUL drive ever to omaha. 8 hours of absolutely NOTHING. it was pretty intense... and i was so thankful to get to my grandpa's house in omaha, nebraska. catching up with grandpa and being able to spend time with him was really great. i'm hoping to spend spring break at his house to spend some quality time with him.

omaha to iowa! we finally made it. we drove straight to my new home here in waterloo. my room is quite big which is amazing and i really love my little house. my 1 housemate is really sweet and i meet the other one on saturday. both girls have been very helpful already and i think its a good fit for me here. i've been able to spend a lot of time with my grandparents at their farm which is only 14 miles from my house. i've never had the opportunity to be this close to my grandparents and i'm very grateful for this chance.

i have to run to my orientation!! classes start monday but i will blog more about driving in the snow and other such fun : )