The Beginning of the End... of School!

My final semester of college began last Wednesday, and I'm now officially on my way to graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing!

I cannot believe that I've already finished four years of college. I truly can't comprehend it! I feel like I was just a little freshman last week, but somehow time has passed much faster than I ever thought imaginable, and I am now a super senior.

I always thought it would be fun to tell people that I'm a "super senior." I'm actually kind of glad that it's taking me 4 1/2 years to graduate just because I get this really cool title as a result!

I'm also having a lot more fun on campus this semester because I actually know people now! Thanks to studying abroad in South Africa, I now have 52 close friends on campus that I bump into all the time! It's great!

Even though I'm going to be reading constantly for my critical care nursing class and my American lit class (probably shouldn't have taken them together), this is still going to be a fun final semester! Plus, I get to do clinicals at this place again:


Huntington Hospital!

I was awestruck once again when my clinical group met in the lobby this morning. I seriously felt like I was in a hotel rather than in a hospital.

Of course, this feeling changed quickly once we toured the ER and heard about a really "exciting" trauma patient that had just been brought in with a fractured skull. Our professor says that this patient will be transferred to the ICU floor that we'll be working on, so it may be one of my patients next week!

It's going to be a challenging clinical, but hopefully I'll feel like a real nurse by the end of it!

Vacation

My favorite part of summer is usually a family vacation. This summer started off with one, and it was wonderful!

At the beginning of June, my parents and I flew to Niagara Falls, New York. We spent a couple hours admiring the falls from the American side.

Then we picked up my sister (who had flown in from Puerto Rico), and we all drove across the border to Canada! It was my first time ever going to Canada, and I was really excited!

We stayed in a hotel in Niagara Falls on the Canadian side, and spent a couple days exploring the area and admiring the falls from that side.


Jen's friend, Laurie (who lives in Canada), joined us for those couple of days.

When we were done in Niagara Falls, we drove 8 hours to Nashua, New Hampshire to see my brother's new home! We stayed with him in his apartment for the rest of the week.


We had a lot of fun playing games and spending time with him.

We also drove into Boston twice to see the city.

I had always wanted to visit Boston, and now I finally got to! I loved it!


The trip was wonderful, but the best part about it was just getting our whole family together again. You can't beat that!

Baby Landon

Another wonderful thing I got to do this summer was meet Baby Landon!!!

My cousin Dana had a baby on May 31, but since she and her husband live in Virginia, I wasn't able to meet their son until he was 11 weeks old. Dana, Carl, and Landon flew back here for Carl's sister's wedding in August, so I was able to meet Baby Landon then.

Dana and Carl with their precious son

Me talking to Landon

My mom with Landon- he can already do "the eyebrow" that his mama is famous for!

Landon Kyle is absolutely adorable, and I enjoyed every moment that I got to spend with him! I only wish he lived closer so I could watch him grow up. Next time I see him, he'll probably be walking already. But for now, it was wonderful to get to meet him while he's still small and cuddly!

Universal Studios

Another thing I did this summer was go to Universal Studios! My cousin Felisha's boyfriend, Mike, turned 21 last week, and he wanted to go to a theme park to celebrate. It was only $20 more to buy year-long passes than a day-long ticket, so all 5 of us that went ended up buying passes! We weren't planning on doing that originally, but it seemed like the better value for our money.

I hadn't been to Universal Studios in many years, so it was all new and exciting to me. We've only gone once so far, but it was quite fun! It happened to be the same day that the Teen Choice Awards were being filmed, so we saw lots of celebrity limos driving past us. We never did see the stars that arrived in them, though.

It was great to just get to hang out with Tracie and Felisha again, since I haven't seen them as much lately.

And of course, their boyfriends are a lot of fun too. I look forward to using our passes again soon!

Weekend at Quaker Meadow

As I mentioned in my last post, I spent the weekend helping out at Quaker Meadow again. There was a Presbyterian family camp with about 120 people up there, and only 10 staff members instead of the regular 23.

I worked in the kitchen again, but I didn't burn myself at all! No cuts either! I was so proud.

And now, here's a couple pictures that represent an afternoon on staff:

Mikaela and me putting the meat slicer back together

Matt excited to do dishroom

Quincey and Missy dancing in the kitchen

Becky made me a ring out of foil

Group huddle to stay warm in the cold air

Once again it was another wonderful time spent in one of my favorite places on earth. I can't wait to do it all again next weekend!

Camp!

One of the things I got to do this summer was go up to Quaker Meadow!!! My church hosted a family camp over Fourth of July weekend, and I got to help run the children's program! It was so fun!

I went up later on for a week to help out the staff. I worked in the kitchen again, my home sweet home. Then I came home for a while, and then went back up for another week of helping out. Working at camp is what I love to do most. It makes me feel like I'm actually doing something productive with my summer!

I'm going back up to camp again today! I'm actually packing for the trip right this minute. I'll be leaving in less than an hour! I can't wait to be back up there!

Last time I was there, I got 3 new burns on my left arm. Hopefully I won't add to my burn collection this weekend!

I'm Back!

I realized today that I haven't blogged in a very, very long time, and I've decided to change that.

Nothing super exciting is happening for me right now, at least compared to the excitement I experienced in South Africa, but I can at least tell you about the ordinary things happening in my life.

I start school in 2 weeks, and I can't believe that it's going to be my last and final semester of college!!! I'm a little scared, but also looking forward to graduating. My books came in the mail today, which brought me back to the reality that I'll be reading them and writing papers very soon, so I need to enjoy the last couple weeks of summer that I have left!

This summer has flown by way faster than I expected. I thought that it was kind of a boring summer, but when I looked back on it, I actually realized that a lot of things happened! I'll post pictures and tell you all about it tomorrow!