Scholtens Weekend!

Anne (Alec's sister), Rob, and their four boys came to visit us for a Milwaukee weekend!  We used Rob's expertise to install a new shower upstairs, it looks great!  And an added bonus.....doesn't leak anymore!

This was my prep for the weekend, probably the fullest shopping cart I've ever had at Pick n' Save!

They came over on the Lake Express Ferry, it was a pretty rough ride on the ride over.  But they reported that the ride home was much smoother!

 We went to Culver's for dinner the night they arrived.  Here is a pic of all the boys, they sure love their Uncle Alec!

While Alec and Rob were working on the shower on Saturday, Anne and I took the boys to Discovery World.  It is like a children's museum but for older kids.  They really liked it!  We had a picnic lunch before going inside, it was SUCH a gorgeous day.

Cotter and Gage checking out the Great Lakes display:

The walk-through fish tank was super cool, they really like it!

All good things must come to an end :)

Half way there!

We have made it to the half way point of this pregnancy!  

Wow, sometimes I truly can't believe how fast this pregnancy is going.  But then other times I feel like I have been pregnant forever and this is going to be a permanent part of my life.....

Some changes my body has been going through are my belly button is starting to look really weird, it is almost completely an outie, it is half in and half out right now.  I can tell I stand a little bit different and walk just slightly different, with more arch to my back I think.  Speaking of my back.......PAIN.  Back pain has become a staple in my life, I have back pain more times than I do not.  It is especially bad the days I work (which is most days).  Thankfully it is usually relieved by rest and the heating pad, but who has time to sit around doing that for a couple hours.  I talked to my doctor about it Monday, and he said structurally my body is changing and so due that and the fact I am a nurse I will probably be dealing with back pain for my pregnancy.  Lovely.  I tried changing the shoes I wear at work, that just made my feet hurt and my back feel the same.  So I think its just the way it is.  

Overall though feeling great.  I love that I am over the "I'm constantly tired" stage, for now anyways.  I notice a huge increase in my energy level.  I don't feel like I have to go to bed at 8pm anymore, which is great!  I remember when I think I was about 10-12wks I went to bed a few times when the clock started with the number 7.....haha.

Work is going great for both Alec and I.  He is staying super busy with new projects and responsibilities, and of course still traveling a couple times a month to the other offices.  I am half way through my telemetry certification.  Telemetry is the heart monitors that the patients wear and so we have have to become certified in being able to read the different heart rhythms.  Here are two pictures of my studying materials, I sat outside in the 75 degree sunny weather to study the other day.  That made it a little bit more bearable.  

This last picture is from just over a week ago when a storm was coming in.  Crazy!

Family Weekend in Michigan

This past weekend we went to Michigan to visit the families!  We had such a fun weekend seeing both DeLange and DeKruyter families!  Everyone was very excited to see the baby bump, when I saw people for the first time they first had to touch and greet the baby bump, then I was said hello to :)

Baby Girl!!

Well for anyone that doesn't know, Alec and I are expecting a baby!  My due date is October 3.  We are very excited.  

We had a reveal party for revealing the gender of our baby this past weekend.  My friend Leah is a sonographer, so we went into the hospital where I work (and she works) and used the ultrasound equipment.  She scanned me Friday evening and got some great pictures and was able to see the gender.  The baby is still breach so it actually was a bit of a challenge to see those parts of baby!  But she was able to figure it out and actually didn't tell us the gender, she had special cupcakes made that had the appropriate colored frosting inside them and brought them to our reveal party Saturday night.  So we found out along side all our friends here!  The suspense was killing me all day at work that day!  We bit into the cupcakes and there was PINK frosting!  It's a GIRL!!!!

At our 12 week ultrasound the sonographer actually made a prediction by looking at the baby's parts (even though it was too early) and her prediction was girl.  So in my head I had been thinking it was potentially a girl, but still knew it could be a boy.  

Everyone had to place their guesses!

The mystery cupcakes that Leah had made for us!

Anxiously awaiting!

 The guessing sheet!

Conner loved giving Erin hugs....Erin didn't really appreciate his hugs though :)  It was SO cute though.

Everyone about to bite into their cupcake:

Picture is blurry, probably because I was jumping around......but I had to include it because this was our initial reaction!

I had some tears :)

We are having a baby girl!!!

Life after being a student

Its been a while since I have updated. But here are a few pictures that show what we have been up to recently!

I started my new job as a registered nurse! It has been going really well, I am on my third week of orientation on the floor. I will have two more weeks after this one and then I am on my own! Yikes....seriously, do NOT feel ready to be responsible for caring for 4-5 patients all on my own. I am at Columbia St. Mary's (Milwaukee campus) on 6 East, which is a med/surg unit that over looks Lake Michigan. I am such a dork that a took a picture of my badge :)

This past weekend we went to Michigan to celebrate all the DeLange march birthdays and to meet our new niece! While visiting our nephews the youngest, Will, decided he was going to try and show us how he uses the big boy potty. Too funny, he just sits there and reads books. Will requested that Alec put him on it, and instead of taking off his diaper Alec just pulled it down! Oh my.....

The weather was SO nice while we were in Grant so we decided to take the dogs and walk around the nature center. Josie LOVES it there, she gets to run around off leash and does so well. She runs ahead of us on the path and then will keep checking back to make sure we are still with her. She ventured into the river and actually swam around a little bit, she was such a dirty mess after though!

We also were able to meet our new niece, Evelyn Grace. She is such a precious little blessing. She was born at 36 weeks so is a tiny little thing, born at 4lbs 1oz. She is in the NICU dealing with some additional health issues, but we got to go see her and she is just as adorable as can be. Aaron and Audrey are going to amazing parents to this little bundle!

This week Alec and I finally bought a new grill! The old one we had was a JOKE of a grill, pretty much was either on (aka catching things on fire) or off. It was a hand-me-down and is probably older than we are. So we updated in celebration of the nice weather!

Officially an RN!!!

I am so happy to finally be able to say I am a Registered Nurse! I found out this past weekend that I passed the nursing boards, and couldn't be happier!

I kept my test date fairly secret, only a handful of people knew when I was taking it. I didn't want to have to worry about a ton of people knowing I was taking it and all the pressure that came with that. I took the test Thursday morning (Jan. 26th) at 8am. Thankfully I did a drive by of the testing center the day before so I knew right where to go, didn't want to get lost or anything! I actually felt fairly confident the morning of the test, still super nervous, but I knew I had prepared adequately and was ready to take this test.

The way the NCLEX works, you don't know how many questions you are going to get. The minimum number of questions you could get is 75 and the maximum is 265. That is a huge range! The amount of questions you get is partly based on how you are doing. I was really hoping for the minimum, so after I answered question 75 I had my fingers crossed. But then it went to question 76, I was a little disappointed, but stayed focused. Thankfully the test shut off at 100 questions for me, so not too many more.

After the test I felt pretty good, I knew there was a slim chance I failed. How could I really have done THAT bad on just 100 questions that the test shut off because there was no hope of me passing. That was a huge relief, and I just focused on trying to not think about it for the next two days till I got my results!

Saturday morning (48hrs after the test) I knew I could go online and get my results. They require you to pay $7.95 (ridiculous, but at the same time they could charge $70.95 and I'm pretty sure everyone would still pay it!). I put in my credit card information, and this screen pops up:

This small little insignificant 'pass' is what comes up on your computer. It was a little anti-climatic, like I was wondering where the fireworks were! But I was SO relieved to finally be done.

Nursing School Pinning & Graduation!

Wow, my last post was October 5......oops.

Well nursing school is FINALLY done, love being able to say that! I now have the lovely task of 1). Studying for the NCLEX (national board of nursing test) and 2). Finding a job.....

I am beyond thankful for all the support I got over these last 2 and half years, family and friends played such an important role in helping me accomplish this goal.

Pinning Ceremony:

My parents and Alec's mom came for my pinning ceremony. I was so thankful they were all able to make the trip (despite some snow issues) and come celebrate with me for the weekend. We had a great weekend together!

Graduation Ceremony:

For graduation my two brothers (Bryant & Travis) came as well as Alec's brother, Derek. It was such a fun weekend full of celebrations! We went out for Mexican food after the 11am ceremony and then that evening had a party at our house.