Lately has been kind of just the same, but I thought I would update anyways...

Probably the most exciting update is that Eric and I have booked a trip to Hawaii! The trip is planned for October 9th through the 16th, and we are going to the beautiful island of Kauai, which is where Jurassic Park and South Pacific were filmed. I can't tell you how much I need this vacation! This year has been pretty hard on me, and I need to recuperate. We are going to rent a Jeep and drive to all the beaches on the island, I can't wait to get windblown and suntanned! Now, if I could only stop eating sugar and lose some weight between now and then... McKenzie, I may need your help with this...

Eric continues to work for Access Development, and was just offered a job in a different department because his reputation had preceded him! There is a hiring panel in October for Air Traffic Controllers nationwide, and Eric has applied to Colorado and California as Utah is not hiring new controllers. We are really hoping either state will hire him, so that he can be doing what he wants to be doing. But we are willing to go where we are needed, even if that means waiting another year...

We are moving into a new apartment in a couple weeks, right across the hall from our good friends, the Townsends! We can hardly wait to see more of them and their little kids, and hang out with some good people from Tennessee again! We just can't stay away from Tennesseans, maybe I'll get a little of an accent back...

Work for me was going great, I even had the audacity to tell myself I may be getting the hang of this. Then the nursing gods came down and said, "Don't get too confident, Stephanie." I had my first "code blue" a couple nights ago. Now, this event is not a fun one for nurses, because we usually like our patients to live through the night. My patient had just gotten back from surgery, and had a history of COPD and renal failure, kind of a double wammy for coming out of anesthesia. I kept checking on her during the night, and was never quite comfortable with how things were going. Then at about 2:00 am, the alarm for her oxygen saturation began to go off, and when I tried to wake her up, she was unresponsive. She continued to have a pulse, blood pressure, and heart rhythm, she just wasn't breathing. So she was intubated and ventilated, and transferred to the ICU. I didn't sleep very well for the next few nights (or days, since I worked nights). But Eric was the honey of a man he always is, and sat on the couch next to me and kept Pride and Prejudice playing so I could actually sleep before going back to work, because there was no way I was sleeping by myself in the room! I couldn't ask for a more supportive husband! But, as a resolution to the story, I stopped by ICU yesterday and had a good chat with this patient, and she is doing as well as she was before she went to surgery, I believe!

Since I have been a nurse, I have seen God's hand in my work. Not necessarily huge miracles, but small mercies like prompting me that something isn't right, blessing me with peace while I work, and being able to have valuable learning experiences without anything truly terrible happening. I can relate to Peter when he walked to the Savior on the water; though I fear the waves around me, the Savior is ever constant in his support and guidance. I have so, SO much more to learn, and its kind of daunting to think of how far I have to go, but I have faith that I will be led to where I need to be, and where I will excel in serving my Father's children. At the start of this job and nursing altogether, I kept telling myself, "Just make it to six months of being a nurse, and it will be better!" Well, it will be six months on August 1st, and that is a good feeling!