"How did you end up here?"

I wrote this post 2 mornings ago on the flight home to Phoenix from Anchorage, bored and exhausted: I’m 4.5 hours into this redeye flight with an hour left before I land in Phoenix. I’m probably past Seattle by now, but “Sleepless Over San Diego” or wherever the plane is isn’t a very good title. I don’t know why I thought I’d be able to sleep. Sleeping upright is not natural. No matter how tired I am, there’s just no way. I bought sleeping pills intending on trying one, but then I realized that I don’t have the 8 hours you’re supposed to allow yourself to sleep with those. I worked all night last night and got in about 3 hours of sleep during the day. Lots of coffee for me tomorrow. I mean today. Shoot. No time to nap! I’ve got people to see and things to do! First off: visit Brynley Elizabeth and be amazed that she was born 2 years ago today! That little nugget continues to make my heart melt every day that I get to interact with her. I missed her “friend” birthday party on Su...

    There's something uniquely special about watching your sibling be a parent. I love my sister so dearly, and now I get to see her love this little girl who loves her back immensely. It's surreal and beautiful. Needless to say, I was beyond thrilled to have them up here for a whole week! It just so happened to be the coldest week of the season yet (lots of snow and -1 degrees at one point!), but we still had the best time together! Ben joined us later on in the week and added even more happiness :) We played in the snow as much as we could, went sledding, ate really well, drank lots of Starbucks, played games, enjoyed the cozy fireplace, and saw breathtaking views that you would NEVER see in Phoenix!   I know how people get really annoyed when people go on and on gushing about their kids, but this is my niece, so it's different. I'm going to gush away.   I was amazed at how much Brynley had grown up since I last saw her in Se...

Cory teased me about the title of this blog when I started it back in June when I moved up here since it was the warmest summer Anchorage has seen in a decade. I was of course very aware that is wasn't actually cold outside (yet). It was more of a way to express the drastic change for a desert rat moving so far north ("North to the Future" is Alaska's state motto, by the way.) A foreshadowing, if you will, of the culture shock I would soon experience. That time is now. The biggest kicker is that it's not even "that cold" yet. It seems that 14 degrees is just the tip of the iceberg. Pun intended. I'm handling it better than I thought I would so far. I haven't spent a ton of time outside yet, and walking to and from my car isn't a big deal. It helps that I splurged for a remote starter so my car is warm by the time I have to get in. I don't regret it one bit! What's worse than the cold itself is driving in it. Besides the fluke we...

There isn't anything major to report since I last posted, but lots of little victories and happy moments have added up to lots of positivity! Work always comes with some level of stress, but I can safely say that I finally feel like a real nurse on a regular basis, and I can almost always walk away at the end of the night feeling proud of my work! I've gained more confidence facing tasks like drawing blood and inserting catheters (I never said it was glamorous), I finish my charting before the end of the shift 90% of the time (and anything left over doesn't take very long), and I even oriented a new employee! She's been a nurse for 2 years, so she actually taught me more than I taught her, but I was glad that the manager trusted me to show her the ropes. I've also been told multiple times from my coworkers that they would never guess that I'm a new nurse and they're impressed by how quickly I learn and how well I fit in. Multiple patients have told me how ...

It happened. It snowed. It snowed back in Aril when I was just visiting, but this was the real thing where it stuck all over the trees and cars and ground. September 23rd, first snow of the season, and I lived! Plus, it had melted by the next day. The mountains are GORGEOUS though! After that random bout of winter, fall took over. It doesn't get warmer than 50, the leaves are changing color and falling, and it's raining more often than not. I'm not gonna lie...I've really been enjoying my new stylish coats and drinking chai tea lattes on a regular basis. Cory and I took a short drive to Birchwood where we explored Beach Lake and caught these views... If only this season would last longer than a month. The freezing cold (aka the age of darkness) is on it's way, but I'm doing my best to take in my surroundings now without dwelling so much on what's to come. I still find myself stopping now and then thinking "Holy crap, I actually live he...

It hasn't even been 2 weeks since I got back from Phoenix, but I miss it terribly. I miss my friends. I miss my family. 6 days there was such a teaser. It wasn't long enough and I didn't quite get to see everyone and do everything I wanted, but I loved every minute of it. God welcomed me back with a lightning show as my plane descended. Flashes of illumination throughout the dark cloudy sky over the city lights. This happens to be one of my favorite things in all of nature. He knows me well :) It was nearly 11pm when I landed and Mom and Joanna picked me up, but we stopped by Laura and Ben's house anyway to see them and Brynley (who was sound asleep, but it was worth it). As I expected, I was very emotional that night. If you haven't guessed, I have a very tight-knit family. I never pictured myself living so far away from them. It was such a relief to be near them again. It felt really good knowing I was missed just as much! My week was not particularly ev...

I’m typing this on my flight from Minneapolis (layover from Anchorage) to Phoenix to visit home for the first time since my big move! It’s a shame that I can’t sleep when I travel because I worked Tuesday night to Wednesday morning, went home to finish packing, then spent time with Cory before he dropped me off at the airport at 11am. Besides dozing off here and there during the first 4 hour flight, I’ve been awake for 27 hours and counting. I just cannot get comfortable enough to sleep sitting up no matter how tired I am. 2 more hours of this flight left. Good thing I’m on vacation!   Never thought I’d be vacationing in Phoenix and looking forward to summer heat! This is the best part of summer for Phoenix though. Thunderstorms and heavy rain that drop the high to a cool 90 something degrees. Although, 60 feels pretty warm to me now. I haven’t felt anything above 85 since May. My fear is that I’m gonna miss the brief fall period in Anchorage and it’ll already be winter when...

Have you ever been so focused on learning something new that you long for something familiar that you're already good at? I've been thinking about that a lot lately. Although I'm getting better at this craft of nursing, I'm still insecure most of the time and constantly striving to keep up with my peers (I can officially take on 5 patients all by myself now, by the way). Even in my free time, the hobby I've chosen to pick up is teaching myself to play guitar. I've barely started and I know this is something that take LOTS of time and practice, but again, it's discouraging at times and much more easily said than done. It's time to do something I'm already good at. Something confidence-boosting that comes naturally. Like singing. This is something that has always been a part of me that I've done my whole life with ease. For the first time, I don't have an outlet for it besides busting out to iTunes in the car. I miss making music with others ...

Hello again! I always find it hard to start off a post by saying something other than "It's been a while since my last post." So...I'll work on that. Any who, I'll just pick where I left off. Work update: feeling much better! That first night was by far the roughest. The following week was a little easier since I only had 3 patients, but they were still difficult. I had lots of help throughout the night but stayed about an hour and a half after each shift to finish charting. It helped to work with one of my preceptors who reminded me that every single nurse started out this way, it will get easier, and I'm doing a good job. I'm so thankful for coworkers who don't "eat their young" like many nurses do. This past week was the smoothest yet since I worked on the med/surge floor with more stable patients. By the third night, I took care of my 4 patients pretty much on my own AND finished my charting by 8am this morning! I felt very accomplish...

It's been a busy 2 weeks since I've posted! Especially with Joanna coming to visit!!! We had such a fun and refreshing week together that flew by too quickly. We got to do a lot of fun activities, but we made sure to spend quality lazy time together just hanging out and watching TV/movies that we miss out on now. On top of that, we hiked in town, visited the zoo, took a cruise tour to view Portage Glacier, hiked to Exit Glacier in Seward (about 2 miles south of Anchorage), explored downtown, went horseback riding, went shopping, and biked along the coast, downtown, and around the neighborhood trails (where we saw a beaver!). Such a blast! We took a lot more pictures on my phone and her camera, so we'll have to just get those onto Facebook. Needless to say, I hated sending her back! I was really tempted to look into a last minute flight to visit home for a few days to see everyone else including my uncles and cousins who are visiting, but...

It's been a hectic week in the best way! I finally got to meet Cory's little sister Autumn when she stayed up here for about a week. I loved getting to know her and seeing how much alike she and Cory are and how much we have in common too! The 3 of us had some great adventures. Hiking, kayaking, visiting the zoo, Despicable Me 2, the indoor waterpark ("H2Oasis" haha) and really good food! Now I'm even more excited to meet the rest of Cory's awesome siblings in (hopefully) just a few months! Here are just a few of the dozens of pictures we took this week...       What makes this week even better is that my little sister Joanna is on a flight to Anchorage as we speak to visit for a week! I'M BEYOND EXCITED!!! I've now been away from home for over 6 weeks which is far past my previous record of 2.5 weeks, so am I more than ready for some family time! I can't wait to share the Alaskan adventures that we will endeavor t...