Happy Easter!

Pretty spring flowers in our home. :)

Saturday night Jim and I went to church for the Easter service. I had to work Saturday night into Easter Sunday morning, so we decided to go to church before my shift that night. When I got to work I found out I was being floated to the burn unit! Ahh I was so scared and nervous. I ended up only having 2 patients because the acuity of the patients are higher on that floor, but I was glad I only had 2 since it was all new to me! One of my patients had so many things going on with him and so many things I was unfamiliar with, I was wondering how I'd ever get through the night... but the other nurses were so helpful and the respiratory therapist taught me a lot. It was good experience, but I am more thankful now for my home floor up on 61. My patients are more stable (for the most part) and I am just more familiar and comfortable with the nursing skills that need to be performed up there. After work, I went home and slept for a few hours, then woke up to make green bean casserole to take to my in-laws for our Easter get-together! We had an Easter egg hunt in their backyard for Colton and Kenzie (Roberta, my mom-in-law, even had an Easter egg for Abigail!) then ate a yummy late lunch/early dinner, then just spent good family time together. I was exhausted when we got home since I only had 3 hours of sleep, so I pretty much passed out after that and now I'm up early since I went to bed so early! Here are some pics from our Easter...

Update! This is going to be a long post....

So much has been going on lately! So much to be updated on... where to begin?! First off, THANK YOU GOD- I was offered a permanent position at my work!!! Our prayers really were answered... I thought they had already hired everyone they were going to hire, but then I asked my supervisor about it since they put me on the work schedule for an additional month when my contract was already supposed to end, and it turns out she offered me a position! :) No more stress about trying to find a job while on maternity leave. :) And I get to stay on my floor and continue to work nights! This works out perfectly because Abigail won't need a sitter or be put into daycare.  *Hopefully* she will let mommy sleep on my days on. I am going to try to coordinate my schedule so I will work only weekends (every Saturday, Sunday and Monday night) so Jim will be home to watch Abigail and I can sleep. But I know a couple weeks in the beginning once I return to work that already won't work out because I am in my good friend's wedding in California (so I'll have to take that weekend off) and the following weekend we are taking a family vacation up to Greer, AZ. (Abigail is going to be such a well-traveled little girl!) But besides those weekends, I am hoping that schedule will work out. At my job, you are required to work 2 weekends of every month, but of course people don't normally like working weekends, so I hope they let me work every weekend. The only problem with that is that Jim and I won't have any days off together and we will have to go to church either on Saturday night before my shift or Sunday morning right when I get home from my long 13-hour shift. Of course this isn't ideal- ideally I wouldn't work Sundays at all, because it's important for us to go to church, spend time with our family and have a day of "rest" but with our situation right now, we believe it is the best option. Prayers to stay committed to going to church even when I'm tired with a newborn and working before and after. We want our children to know that church/God is a priority in our family.

God has seriously blessed us with so much. Today on the radio I heard a great reminder of one of God's promises- the verse Romans 8:28 "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Jim and I feel very blessed and in turn, we try to do our best to bless and serve others any way that we can. I love that our children will grow up in a Christian home where they were learn and love Jesus. God has sent me the perfect mate- he is already the strong spiritual leader of our family and I continue to see him growing daily in his faith in God. :)

So this past Saturday was my baby shower! I felt an outpouring of love from all the ladies that attended. It was planned for outside in our backyard, but of course the temperature spiked up to 90 degrees that day, so be the time 2:00P.M. rolled around we had to go inside because we were so hot! Luckily, everyone fit inside our home too. :) Abigail is such a loved little girl already and she isn't even here yet! I just love how everything we are experiencing is like an image of the love God has for us... I love Jim and Abigail so much, but how much greater is God's love for us?! I cannot even imagine...

A quick pic of Jim and I before he left and my baby shower started :)

For more pics from my shower, view here:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2186580376844.2110223.1017060063&type=3&l=bfc5c12d52

Sunday was another wonderful day... my brother was is town because he was hired to be the photographer at a wedding, so Sunday morning my family and I were able to get together for Breakfast at Mimi's Cafe. Then they went to church with Jim and I afterwards. :) In the afternoon, I met up with Nikki, Kristen and Kelly to buy shoes/accesories for our bridesmaid dresses! I love the color Nikki picked out for our dresses- coral. :) I think it compliments our different skin tones well and goes perfectly for a summer beach wedding. I just hope I will be able to fit and look decent in my dress come time for the wedding! It will be about 8 weeks post-baby! And I also hope Abigail will be a good baby during the car ride to and from San Diego and during the wedding! :/ Anyway, later that evening, our good friend Jered hosted a neighborhood block party on his block! If you remember, our church challeneged us to get to know our neighbors more and Jim and I hosted a neighborhood block party about a month or so ago. The turn out in Jered's neighborhood was awesome!! His neighbors are all so nice and he even got to invite some of them to Easter service this Sunday!

Family picture at breakfast :)

Monday morning we had our Operation: Support Our Schools event. CCV has been collecting facial tissue, copy paper and wet wipes for 300 local elementary schools. This week, we delivered all of the donated supplies to our assigned school and held a teacher appreciation breakfast. The faculty really seemed to appreciate it and started off their Monday morning on the right foot. :) It is crazy how much teachers have to spend OUT OF  POCKET on their school supplies, the continued budget cuts in education, the long hours they put in OUTSIDE of work (unpaid) and the ridiculously low pay! I hope they felt appreciated, because they really are amazing! So THANK YOU all you teachers out there making a difference. :)

Today I discovered the amazing store Kid to Kid. I kept hearing about it from a lot of my mommy friends and today I finally went to check it out! The prices were cheaper than the Once Upon a Child near my home and the quality and selection was much better! I will definitely be going back there. :) I also want to go to Hissyfits sometime... another second-hand baby shop I hear rave reviews about!

We are less than 4 weeks away from our expected due date!!!