Life After Graduation

So So So much has happened since Graduation!!  I have not posted in so long but believe me I have been BUSY!  I will do my best to sum it all up in this post.

Maggie and I started studying for boards on December 4th and believe me we hit the ground running and didn't stop.  We would meet at the library around 8-9 AM and would study together until 5.  Around 5ish we would head home to eat dinner and continue to study on our own until it was time for bed.  There was definitely no goofing off.  Even if I tried I would immediately get anxious about our upcoming board exam and my nose would be right back in the books.  Dave continuously told me I was pushing to hard but I knew the amount of material I was supposed to know up, down, frontwards, backwards, and sideways so I just kept going no matter what.  I will admit I had a few breakdowns and freak out moments but all in all I felt that the systematic system Maggie and I put into place worked. 

Maggie and I went through everything together during whole program and in true Maggie and Brittany style we took our boards sitting right next to each other in the testing center, (December 21st at 8am) and of course we PASSED!!!!  Maggie finished about ten minuets before me so as soon as I came out of the building she came running up to me and we hugged and screamed and were on cloud 9. 

My grandpa unfortunately landed himself in the hospital after a fall and I spent the day I passed boards in Louisville visiting with him.  It was great to be with members of my family that day, because I could see how proud, and happy everyone was for me.  Luckily my grandpa was D/C before Christmas! 

I was smart and I did most of my Christmas shopping online before graduation knowing I would be consumed by studying during most of December.  Almost all of the presents I had bought were sitting in our house in Amazon boxes just waiting to be wrapped.  

The Holidays for Dave and I were great!!!  Christmas Eve Eve day we spent at Dave's mom's house with just the immediate family opening up gifts.  I hope this will be a new tradition for us since I feel like we don't usually have time to do a small family Christmas at Peggy's house.  

The first party we attended on Christmas Eve was spent at Dave's aunt Mimi's home.  This was her first year hosting Christmas Eve and she did a wonderful job.  I only wish we could have stayed longer but we still needed to go to the Kaiser family Christmas at Dave's grandma's.  The Kaiser family Christmas was crazy, and fun as usual.  I spent most of the night talking to Andrea about her pregnancy.  =)  

Christmas morning we awoke at my parents house and had our family Christmas in my parents new addition.  It was so nice and so cozy!!  My mom baked a bunch of cookies this year that tasted AWESOME!!  My waist line is definitely proof of that! 

Next, we headed down to Carrolton to have Christmas at my grandparents house, where we were all so thankful that my grandpa was able to be home and out of the hospital!  We opened presents, ate great food and spent the rest of the day together.  This Christmas gathering was the only place I remembered to take pictures. 

The next Christmas party took place in Florida with my other grandparents.  Unfortunately Dave and I had to miss the annual Florida trip this year.  We just knew we would be to busy with me trying to start at the hospital before the 1st of the year, trying to fix our house up to be sold and packing stuff up to move.  Hopefully my grandparents in Florida will agree to come up to nKy in the early spring. ;)

So anyway, I think that catches everything up.  I hope to start blogging a bit more often now that the holidays are over.  Tomorrow is a big day for me.  My first day at work as a CRNA. I am excited and nervous.  I will definitely post a HIPPA friendly version of my first day sometime this week.