Progress!

Feeling Crafty

Today was the Superbowl, but my mom and I have never been very interested in football, so we decided to go craft shopping instead!

I have been wanting to try quilting for the past few weeks, so I was looking for different fabric options today. My mom has been wanting to start a new cross-stitch project, so she was looking for patterns. Although she didn't find any patterns she liked, I found some fabric!


Since I've never made a quilt (or anything close to it) before, I'm going to start out small by making a pillow. If I like it, then I might tackle a full quilt later on.

I'll be making a quilt square from ohfransson.com (where my cousins and aunt got their pattern from as well) as the pillow front. Since it won't take a lot of fabric, I just got a quilter's bundle with 5 different patterns.

I'll need to go back later to get the backing and pillow form, but I was excited to at least have something to start with this week!

I'll keep you updated on my pillow's progress as I begin to work on it. I'm really excited about it, so I hope it turns out well!


P.S. I also found this super cute cross-stitch pattern of an African woman with her child, and I fell in love with it. Even though I tried, I just couldn't pass it up! I'll be making it eventually to add to my African art collection.

Bethany Johnson, RN

I took the dreaded NCLEX last Friday, January 28.

It was awful.

I felt like I didn't know the answers to any of the questions, except for one.

I finished in 75 questions, which is the minimum. (I was so relieved that I didn't have to take all 265!)

I was the first one done in the room, which made me sure that I had rushed through the questions too quickly and failed.

But no matter how horrible I felt, I couldn't stop smiling once I left the testing center because it was all over with!

Four days later my name was listed on the Board of Registered Nursing website with an RN license number next to it.

That means that I passed the NCLEX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And today, this came in the mail:

I am officially a Registered Nurse!!!!!

It's 2011 Already?

I cannot believe that time has flown so quickly! It's already been 2011 for almost a month now! How did that happen?

Well even scarier to me is that today marks one year exactly since I arrived in South Africa. Wow! How is it possible that it's already been a year?! I feel like it was just yesterday that I was in that beautiful country. My experience there has truly impacted everything about my life, and I can't even imagine the person I would be right now if I hadn't gone to South Africa.

When I think about the coming year, 2011, it makes me wonder what new experiences I'll get to have. I'm sure nothing will quite compare to living in another country, but I'll be getting a lot of new professional experiences this year as I become an RN and (hopefully) start working full time at a hospital! That will definitely impact my life in big ways.

I've been thinking about things that I want to accomplish this year, and I figured I would put a few of my goals on here so I can look back on this post next year and see if I've accomplished any of them!

So here we go- some goals for 2011:

1. Read the Bible in one year
(I got The Message version of the bible for Christmas, so I'm excited to read it cover to cover just like a book!)

2. Pass the NCLEX!!
(I'll be taking it in exactly 5 days, 15 hours, and 26 min!)

3. Get a nursing job
(I'd be happy with anything to start out with)

4. Go to Disneyland more
(I want to make better use of my pass this year- I only went 5 times in 4 months last year. And I've already gone 3 times this month so I'm making progress!)

5. Wear nicer clothes
(I'm tired of wearing jeans with holes in them and shirts from high school)

6. Keep my room clean
(which I'm definitely failing at right now)

7. Follow a budget
(I'm anticipating making a lot more money this year once I get a real job, so I want to be smart about how I spend it)

8. Go on a trip somewhere
(anywhere!!)

9. Sew something
(I'm thinking of making one of those really neat quilts like my aunts and cousins have made)

10. Gain some weight
(most people want to lose weight, but I'm determined to gain some!)

11. Finish all my 2009 books
(remember that post that I made in '09 about all the books I was reading at once? Well I've only finished Kaffir Boy so far, but I'm determined to finish the rest this year!)

12. Exercise more
(hopefully at least twice a week- yikes!)

13. Blog more!
(My plan is to blog once a week, but we'll see if that happens...)

So there you go. 13 goals for 2011. I'm determined to stick to these and accomplish at least 10 of them this year. Wish me luck!


Random fact: One year ago today, I was eating a chicken burger with monkey gland sauce.

Graduation Pictures

I'm done with school forever!!! (Or at least for a while.) It still doesn't seem real yet, but I know it'll start to sink in pretty soon.

I just want to share some pictures from my nursing pinning ceremony and my graduation ceremony. Both were very fun for me, and they represented the end of a long and difficult, but exciting, journey through college and nursing school!

PINNING CEREMONY ~ FRIDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2010

Saying the nursing pledge

My clinical instructor, Prof Ronga

My study buddy, Kelsey

The South African nurses, Chelsea, Tony, and me

Some of our South Africa friends who came to support us

My closest friends, Sarah, Damaris, and Becky!


GRADUATION ~ SATURDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2010

Getting seated

President Wallace spoke and gave us our diplomas

I got to wear an international stole showing the countries I had been to




Becky and I got to graduate together! It was wonderful!

Too Busy!

I'm sorry I haven't posted anything in a long time. This semester has been the busiest I've ever had! Thankfully, once it's over in 2 weeks, I'll never have another semester of school again!!

Even though graduation is only 2 weeks away, it still doesn't seem real to me yet. I have so many end-of-the-semester projects and big presentations in every class that I have to get through before I can even begin to think about graduating.

Plus, I just went on a missions trip to Mexico over Thanksgiving weekend, and I can't stop thinking about it! It was incredible and I really miss the people I met and became friends with over there. I miss my teammates too!

I'll post pictures and tell a few stories about my trip once I find the time. But for now, I have to get back to my project for my leadership class...

South Africa from A-Z

I had been planning on doing this post while I was still in South Africa, but I never got around to it.

Lately, I've been missing the country and the people who live there a whole lot, so it seemed like a good time to remember all the funny phrases that South Africans use.

You would think that because they speak English, it would be easy to communicate and understand what they're saying. But don't be fooled! They say a lot of funny phrases that I had never heard before, and a lot of times I had no idea what they were telling me!

For your enjoyment, and in case you ever travel to South Africa and want to be able to communicate, here is a list of South African-isms from A-Z...

Air con= abbreviation for air conditioner (instead of "AC" or just "air")

Braai, bakkie= Braai means "BBQ" (very popular meal), "bakkie" means "pick-up truck"

Chips, cutlery= Chips mean "French fries," cutlery means "silverware"

Drinks: cold drinks, appletiser= cold drinks mean "soda", appletiser is a type of delicious soda

Eish= used simililarly to "wow," but can mean anything you want it to mean

Flushing toilets= couldn't think of a phrase for F, but random fact about flushing toilets: the handle to flush the toilet is on the right side of the tank (and it's really hard to get used to!)

Granny= grandma (they refer to any and all grandmas as "granny")

Half past, howzit?= Half past seven means "7:30," howzit? means "how's it going?"

It's a pleasure= you're welcome

Just now= in a few minutes (the hardest phrase to get used to since it has a completely different meaning in the US)

Keen= who's keen on going? means who wants to go?

Lekker= cool or great

Matric= Senior year of high school (short for matriculation)

Now now= right now (the opposite of just now)

Oh shame= that's too bad

Petrol, packet= Petrol means gas (petrol station= gas station), packet means bag (like grocery bag)

Queue= line

Rubbish bin, robot= Rubbish bin means "trash can," robot means "traffic signal" (like you have to stop at the red robot)

Slip, SMS, sharp sharp= slip means "receipt," SMS means "text message," sharp sharp (sounds like shop shop with their accents) means "cool" or "I understand"

Toilet, take away= toilet means "restroom," take away means "to go" (like ordering to go at McDonalds)

Umgungundlovu= the name of the county we were living in (means Place of the Elephant in isiZulu)

Vervet= type of monkeys that terrorized us every day

Woza= Come (in isiZulu)

X click= they use a click for the letter x in isiZulu

Yebo, yoh= Yebo means "yes" (in isiZulu), yoh means the same thing as eish

Zed, zebra= Zed means the letter "Z" (they pronounce it zed instead of zee), so zebra is pronounced zeh-bra instead of zee-bra