Tales by Shells

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

videos of Raelee

Here's some videos we took of Raelee in the last few weeks. The slide video is from today. Today's the first time she's climbed it by herself.

Friday, May 13, 2011

     Last week I found out that I was my departments nominee for nurse of excellence 2011. What!!! I was shocked! Now I know that I am an excellent nurse, not being conceited just true, but I'm more the quiet, fly under the radar kinda coworker. I work with some awesome women, who have taught me soooo much. I still view myself as the newbie, but I've been working there 6 years now, and trained probably half then nurses there now. Anyway, I was surprised, but happy that my coworkers felt that way. The hospital had an awards ceromony last Friday afternoon to kick off nurses week, and they announced of the nominees of every dept. It was so fun. It worked out well that my dad is an RT at the hospital cause he was able to hold Raelee while the awards were being handed out. And Raelee was a hit!!! She was hamming it up, clapping and cheering, so cute!
     Last night was the banquet. All the big places in town that employee nurses were there to announce their winners of their facility's nurse of excellence. It was held at the University Club, which was super nice. I started getting nervous as the winners were announced and were giving speeches. I wasn't told about that part! Anyway, CRMC's winner was TBA, I think there were 17 nominees including me. I didn't win, but thats okay, it was still nice to be the winner of my dept.and to have a night out with Brad.
     We actually had two date nights in a row. The night before was our 5 year anniversary. Crazy that we've been married that long! My dad watched Raelee and we went out for dinner at the outback, and then went to see Thor after. Pretty good movie AND we found out that Governors Regal Cinima has movie's mon-thurs for $5.00. Pretty good deal! It was kinda weird though because the actor who plays Thor looks alot like Heath Ledger, the way he smiled and talked. It made us sad that Heath has passed on. A Knights Tale is one of our fave movies. Anyway, back to happy, I was sooooo surprised that Brad bought me a Pandora bracelet! I love it! I only have one charm bead to start with, it's a shell with a little gold star fish on it. Brad picked this one cause he calls me shell and because I LOVE the beach so much. I have been wanting the bracelet for awhile, but never said anything to Brad about it, but one of his coworkers told him he should buy me one and he was like, "Shelley would love that!" and I do! It'll be fun to add charms for occasions in life :)
   So its been a very fun week, but sooooo tiring too! I worked Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and I'll be working this weekend. FYI I work 12 hour shifts, they make for very long and tiring days. Wed and Thurs I was able to leave early to celebrate our anniversary and the banquet, but I still had to wake up at 5am those days. I am sooooo tired today! I probably would have slept all day if not for Raelee. Thankfully she slept in unitl 9am today. Thank you baby!

This is how we found Rae in her crib Monday night

Anniversary!

Rae in her carseat getting ready to go see Grandpa

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Tomorrow is here!!!

Tomorrow is the day Brad and I have been waiting for since 2006. Brad is GRADUATING!!! I am so so so excited!!! We were talking tonight about all the changes in our lives since he started college and I though I'd share:
1. Brad was the manager at ChuckECheese's and I started working as a nurse(RN).
2. Brad started working at Mathers Electric as an apprentice electrician. 3. We got married!
4. Brad cut his hand at work and almost lost a finger. Had surgery and lots of stitches and couldn't work for three months while his hand healed. Big time blessing from the Lord that it did heal, the surgeon wasn't sure if the surgery would work.
5. A few months after starting back at Mathers, Brad decided that the risk of injury wasn't worth it, and started working at Nature's Finest as a Pest Technician.
6. Brad was in a wreck that was a hit and run( he was okay), but from this we decided to buy our Honda CR-V.
7.We bought a house!
8.Our house flooded and we had to move in with my parents for almost 2 months while it was being repaired.
9. Brad tore something in his knee playing baseball and almost had another surgery.
10. Brad was promoted to manager at Nature's Finest.
11. We became parents.
12. Brad started working as a Financial Accountant at Canopy Oaks Elementary School.
13. Leaving Grad rehearsal Brad was hit by another car on Capital Circle. Had it happened less than an hour earlier during rush hour there would have been injuries for sure. Thank you Lord that Brad and the other driver are okay and that Raelee wasn't in the car with Brad. Oh and that he was driving his beat up car and not the CR-V.
      Also in during this time, Brad's dad had two heart bypasses done and many other surgeries on his heart. We had deaths in the family. Two of my siblings got married. Our well broke. Our AC unit for our house was stolen. Friends came home from missions. We went on a cruise. Our BFF's had babies...I could keep typing all night I think!
     Quote by Brad "All in all, it's been an awesome experience"
     I just want to say how proud I am of Brad. He's the first in his family to go to college and it wasn't really something that he had planned on when he graduated high school. I am so proud of all he has juggled during this time. He has been an amazing husband and friend. He is a great father. I am most proud of Brad because he has worked full time all these years, and for most of them he was also taking a full time load at college. That was not easy. We've felt bad cause we've had to tell family and friends over and over again, "we can't do (fill in the blank) cause our schedules are too busy". We weren't just saying that, they really were! We're excited to start on this new chapter of our lives and be able to spend more time with family and friends. Congrats Bradley!!!xoxoxo

Sunday, April 24, 2011

     I'm trying to be better at cooking and one of my co-workers inspired me last weekend and gave me some yummy recipes! Thanks Kristy! Sooo last Monday night we had pork tenderloin seasoned with brown sugar(sooo yummy) with maple syrup mashed sweet potatoes. It turned out so good! Except... it was a 15 min prep time and a 15 min cook time, that ended up taking me 1 1/2 hours! hahaha, at least it was still hot when Brad got home. He was super surprised A) that I cooked and B) that it was a new recipe. Then the next night I had awesome intentions, but ended up super tired when it came time to cook dinner, so we ended up with pancakes. BUT i did use a different recipe and they were WAY more yummy than my normal pancakes. AND I found out that Brad can't cook pancakes, so he was happy to have some yummy ones. Yay for me lol! My last cooking of the week was homemade banana pudding. I learned how to double broil(thanks dad). The pic I took was taken the next day, so it's not as pretty looking as it was right after I made it. Still tasted good though, so I'm three for three.
     Easter weekend was fun. I've worked the last 2 weekends and the last two Easter's, so having this weekend off was awesome. We went to the ward Easter egg hunt and dinner Saturday night, both sets of Raelee's grandparents were able to come watch her hunt eggs, so that was awesome. Brad's parents were able to stay for the dinner too, it was good to be able to spend that time with them. Raelee did awesome finding the eggs, she totally got what she was supposed to be doing. She found five eggs, and she thought it was soo cool when she figured out she could open the eggs.


We gave Rae her basket this morning before church, maybe not such a good idea. She only had two bites of chocolate, but she was CRAZY at church. Brad surprised both of us, he did Easter shopping on his own one day last week and last night after I put the basket together, he added his surprises for Raelee and me. He bought Raelee Bambie and me a Reester Bunny! mmmm yummy! When we got home from church Raelee was playing with her basket and we went upstaires to change. Raelee babbles all the time now, so as long as I can hear her I don't get worried. Well she got quiet, too quiet. I called her name and she wasn't answering, so I went downstairs and found that she had ripped open the wrapper to a kit-kat bar with her teeth and was eating the chocolate. When she saw me, she said "mmmmmm". Too funny! Then she was so hyper she wouldn't take a nap.
We went to my parents for dinner tonight. Lindley and I had fun dying eggs. Raelee even did one. Then the boys hid the eggs and us girls hunted for them. Man those things were really hidden. Lindley won, she found 35 eggs, I found 32, and Rae found 4. BUT Lindley's basket ended up being infested with ants, so maybe I did win lol.


watching Bambi with Daddy

Raelee's egg

all the eggs I did

with Lindley's favorite egg she dyed

Raelee with her egg

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Whew the last few weeks have been CRAZY busy!!! Is it really the 13th of APRIL already? I can NOT believe how fast this year is flying by. I was complaining at work the other week about how tired I was, and one of my co-workers was like "Shelley, of course you're tired. Look at how much has been going on in your life!" So true! Anyway, two weekends ago I was able to be part of an amazing event. It's something I am involved in multiple times everyday when I go to work, but having it be my BFF was an awesome experience. She had a BABY!!! I don't even have words to explain how awesome it was. Go here for amazing pics by my other BFF LindseyLou.

I've know Marquesas for 11 years now! She is such a fun and loving person. I was sooo impressed with the strength I saw in her as she did NATURAL childbirth. Again, I've seen more deliveries then I can count, but she truly handled it like a pro. I was super impressed, you would have thought it was her 6th child haha. I've now known her husband Drew for 10 years and Lindsey for 9 years. and of course Lamay since I met Marquesas. This was such a fun memory to add to the years of memories. Thanks Blimes's!!! And thanks for letting us keep Miles one night, it was sooo fun once he was happy :)
Saturday was our stake softball tournament. I've been going to these as long as I can remember. This year was kinda sad, cause not that many peeps showed up. Still, we were there from 8am to 4ish for the men's portion of the tourny. The women only had two teams, so we were finished pretty early( 2nd wards team won, my ward, whoohoo). 1st ward mens team won, this is the team my dad, brother and , bro-in-law were on. 2nd ward men's team came in second, this was hubby's team. At that point in the day, Brad didn't care if they won or lost, he was was sooo tired poor thing. Oh and to our ward members, we weren't at church the next day cause I was at work and I took Brad's keys with me accidently. Oh and he pretty much couldn't move lol. Brad and I decided AGAIN, that our baby is awesome! She did so good. She sat in her stroller while I was playing, took a nap in her stoller between games, and never fussed! All day! She wore great-grandma out following her around for one game, it was cute.