Amanda Johnston R.N.

I am so excited!!! I just found out that I passed my state boards and I am officially a registered nurse! I took my test on Tuesday and it was so scary... They take the security pretty seriously there. They scan your hand for prints, they make you show your drivers license, they record you the whole time (so they can see and hear you at all times), they make you turn out your pockets ( they even checked the hood of my hoodie), and you cannot enter or leave the testing room without being escorted by the test administrator. I was prepared to get at least 120 questions but my computer shut off after 75 questions (which is the minimum). The questions were really hard. I felt like I did not know the answers to any of them. I came home and looked up the answers to a few questions that had stuck in my mind and realized I got them wrong so I was kind of freaking out a little but it turned out alright. I am so relieved! It feels so good to finally achieve something that I have been working really hard for for a year and a half. Yay for me!!!!

Nursing school is OVER!!!!

I have finally finished nursing school!! I am so excited and relieved to finally be able to say this. The past year and a half have been quite stressful for me. I have worked so hard and now it's over, thank goodness!! This past week has been so hard for me. At my school we are required to pass an exit exam in order to graduate and we had two chances to take it. The first attempt was last Friday and I failed it. I was devastated. To add to that my parents and two of my siblings went to Mexico on vacation this week without me (Darrell and I were supposed to go to but ended up not being able to because of my school schedule), with my mom being out of town I am babysitting her two dogs (I also have one of my own), my grandma had a major surgery and is in a rehabilitation center (I have been going there every day to check on her), I have had a nasty ear infection and a sore throat, and I have been panicking about my second exit exam attempt. So needless to say it has been a really rough week for me. Today when I passed I had a hard time not crying because I was so relieved! I am so grateful for Darrell for helping me out this week. I have been sick and pretty emotional. He has done everything he could to take care of me and try to cheer me up. I am also grateful for my little brother Clint. He came to my house last night and he and Darrell gave me a blessing. I am so glad, I felt totally calm afterwards and I was able to sleep pretty well. That calm feeling stayed with me today until the last 5-10 questions of my test (I then started getting nervous because I would be getting my score soon). I am also so grateful to both mine and Darrell's families. I truly could not have done it without them!!!

Now I am finished with nursing school I just have to take my state boards to get my RN. Wish me luck! I should be able to pick my test date next week!

Flashback Friday...

This is Darrell and I shortly after we started dating at my brothers wedding. Darrell had such long hair!!!

Halloween!!!

Not sure why this picture ended up sideways but it's still funny!

My mom's Halloween costume she wore to work!

Darrell and I actually dressed up and went to a Halloween party this year! Darrell wore my mom's gorilla suit and went as King Kong and I went as Ann Darrow. It was a lot of fun!

Darrell, me, Matt, Brittnee, and Devin at Matt and Brittnee's Halloween party!
I have always wondered what I would look like as a blonde and now I know I am meant to have dark hair!! While Darrell was wearing this mask and breathing at the same time it would fog up his glasses!

The last few months...

The last few months have mainly been spent doing school stuff. I am now in my last semester of nursing school. As long as I continue to pass I will be done with school in January and able to take my state boards after that. Here are a few pics of other things that have been going on...

My older brother Travis and his wife had their first baby in August!
She is pretty darn cute!!
I turned 25 in August. I was not very excited to turn 25 but my family was and they took me to Buca Di Beppo in SLC for dinner (I have always wanted to sit at the popes head table). Darrell, my mom, and my sister came to my school the day of my birthday and brought me flowers and treats for my whole class and then made my whole class sing happy birthday to me.
This is a picture of a rainbow we saw over fathers day weekend camping at my dad's ranch.

Happy Birthday Dad!!!

(My Dad wearing his ranch hat)

Every year when I wish my Dad a happy birthday he always tells me he stopped having birthdays a long time ago. In spite of this we celebrate anyway. In honor of my dad (and because I have not blogged in a LONG time) I thought I would list ten things I love about my Dad....

1. He is the smartest person I know

2. I don't now of anyone else that has more integrity than he does

3. His bark is definitely worse than his bite

4. He always gives people the benefit of the doubt

5. He is the hardest working person I know

6. He always thinking of how he can make his family's lives better

7. I love when he starts singing "When I was a lad in a fishing town an old man said to me..." (The Mermaid Song by Bobby Bare, check it out and picture my dad singing it!)

8. I love when he says "If it weren't for this glass eye of mine I'd shed a happy tear!"

9. I love how in my nanny days when I would get really homesick I would call my Dad and he would cheer me up.

10. I love his sense of humor

My dad is my hero, Happy Birthday Dad! I love you!

-Amanda-

I feel like an idiot!!!

The last few days have been so stressful! My finals for this semester have started and I have been really stressed out. Darrell and I were out of town all weekend in Reno. Darrell had a conference for work to go to and I went with. I had a lot of studying to do though so I decided to take some of my text books. As we were leaving the hotel on Sunday morning to head for the airport I had Darrell put my psychiatric nursing text book in our suitcase because my backpack was heavy. So on Tuesday morning while I was getting ready for class I was searching for my psychiatric text book and couldn't find it ANYWHERE. I started to freak out thinking that maybe it had gotten lost when they searched our bag at the airport or something. Textbooks are SO expensive and I have a final for this class next week, and I hate showing up to class not having my text books. Anyway, I called Darrell on the phone while I was freaking out (he was at work) to ask him if he had seen it. He of course said no and I yelled at him because I was really worried and frustrated. I still couldn't find the book so I left for school and when I got there a few minutes early I started to pull some stuff out of my backpack to study and there was my psychiatric nursing text book in the back of my backpack. I could not believe it. I guess I stuck it in there before school on Monday morning and forgot about it! I just sat there and laughed at myself. I was really embarrassed but I apologized to Darrell later that night and he laughed at me. I guess I deserved that. 

School is going o.k. right now. I have two take home finals to finish and then two big finals next week I need to study for. I passed my skills lab final on the first attempt yesterday! I was so happy! The lab finals are the worst. I had to demonstrate some of the skills I have learned this semester  with an instructor watching and if you make any mistakes at all they fail you. They give you another chance to try again a second time but if you fail again you have to take the lab class over again the next semester and you would also have to repeat the medical-surgical class and the clinical to because they are all connected. 

I have been a really lazy blogger lately I will try to do better!