Happenings...

I am really bad at this blogging gig. I am surprised that they don't kick people off who don't update their blogs after months.

4th of July was held and Bradford's parents house in Virden once again and it was filled good BBQ pit meat, firearms, and fireworks.

Before school started Troy and Whitney and their little girl Evie took a trip out to Bonita Creek to grill some burgers and enjoy the EXCELLENT weather we have been having. Our swimming idea was ruined by recent rains making the river look like hot chocolate there was so much mud and it was running at about 30 mph and I didn't feel like becoming a piece of cheese run over the cheese grader rocks.

We also were invited to attend a U of A football game by friends of ours Ryan and Jade. Ryan and I went to nursing school together so it seemed when we were able to hang out so was Ryan and Jade. Convenient. Ryan's dad has season tickets to the U of A football games and they are DIE HARD U of A fans. We went down that Saturday and shopped around a little and then went to the game. I have never been to a "professional" football game. When I say professional I mean a football game other than high school or my alumni EAC, so this was a whole new experience for me. I was not prepared for the amount of standing I was going to do. Pretty much the entire game we stood and cheered and yelled and boo'd. My knees were the size of cantaloupes by the time we left and I am sad to say the Brown bad luck curse proved real. U or A lost 27-29 but I am happy to say that the reffing was AWFUL and I know my lack of luck was not the only thing affecting the outcome of the game. All in all it was an AMAZINGLY fun weekend and it was nice to just get away even if it was just to Tucson.

This semester is the first semester in quite some time that not only one but two of us are out of school. Bradford finished his last set of classes over the summer and was getting his paper work together to apply for the nursing program. Thankfully he got everything in order and turned in his papers about 2 weeks ago and we are hoping for good news this month or hopefully by the end of November. We are saying lots of prayers and crossing our fingers. We have been able to attend the Temple here in the Gila Valley a couple of times and it's always a good feeling to be able to have calm and serene moment during all the rushing and running of our daily lives. To be able to sit and admire the beauty and soak in the peace you feel being there. It's hard to describe the sheer peace that the Temple holds for me. I am so thankful and feel so blessed that I am able to attend the temple and remember those covenants I made to my Heavenly Father. That is true serenity.

The week before Halloween a SPOOKTACULAR PARTY was held at the Bigler household. We had SEVERAL of our friends come over and the only requirement was that they must dress up. There was food, games, and of course FUN!!! The line-up included:

- Matt and Rhianna (I don't even know what these little creatures are called but I LOVED them!)

- Heather and Brandon (They switched careers for a night and were a correction officer and a nurse.)

- Troy and Whitney (Pancho Via and her trusty steed Troy!)

- Trevor and JanaRae (Hard rocker Brett Michaels and Oprah)

- Stefani and Guy (I just CAN'T get over Stef's face in this picture but they were the cutest old couple ever!)

- Tyler and Taylor (Teacher and disobedient student who received a pencil to the head.)

- Bradford and Val (Dog the Bounty Hunter and his SMOKING HOT wife Beth!)

- Jason and Alissa
(Fierce and fabulous pirates)

Thank you for being so patient with me when it comes to blogging. I was at a friends house and she was going over her blog friends and said, "we won't look at yours because you never update." I will admit, I'm AWFUL!!! I swear to it I will get better. The holidays are coming and I know there will be plenty of stories to tell. MUAHAHAHAHAHA! Stay tuned!!!

May

Let me start out with a little tale...

Once upon a time it was in the wee hours of the morning (2:06 AM to be exact). There was a B-E-A-UTIFUL princess and a handsome prince who were snuggled sleeping in their bed. There little pet doggie had to take a tinkle and jumped up on the bed to wake them up. The princess (who looks amazing for it being 2 o'clock in the morning) wakes up to take the sweet puppy outside. Upon opening the door to let the doggie out she sprinted outside and didn't even stop and leaped over the fence and out into the wide open world. The princess was afraid for her poor puppy so she put on her royal robes and stepped outside into the cool night air to retrieve her lost dog. She called and walked and called again and her sweet puppy was no where to be found. She climbed into her royal chariot to hunt for her lost friend. After searching for 30 minutes with no luck in retrieving her puppy she turned into the wicked witch of 2nd street and started calling and yelling for the BEAST to come home. Finally her luck would turn. She had trapped the aweful beast in a neighbors garden and with her laser pointer in one hand and a biscuit in the other she was sure the beast's capture was inevitable. The princess called and coaxed and begged the beast from HELL to come to her but with a blink of an eye the beast and lept over the bushes and was back on the run. With fire in her veins the princess stormed back into her castle and called for the prince to go and capture the beast. The prince awoke with a fright and assured the princess he would capture the beast and bring it home to be locked in the dungeon. Within 5 short minutes he had captured the beast and locked her in the dark and dreary kennel to spend the night. The time of capture was 3:15 in the morning. That afternoon the prince and princess set out to find a way to contain their beast. And this is what they found....

An electric fence. Not just any electric fence, an invisible fence. It can be buried in the ground so it is safe for people. The evil beast now wears a collar that has a little conductor on it that sends a little shock when the beast tries to get too close to the fence therefore preventing the beast from ever jumping it again. Now I am not a cold hearted person so I went ahead and shocked myself and Bradford to make sure we weren't turning her into fried chicken and it wasn't really anything more than a static electricity shock. But the problem of the fence jumping dog: SOLVED!!!

The beast cowering under the porch swing after being shocked two or three times. MUAHAHA! (Notice the little black box on her neck aka the solution to my problem)

On a happier note, Bradford and I were able to get together with the Kerby's for a night on the town and some sweet bowling. Unfortunately Taylor and I only beat the boys once ONLY because they acted like they couldn't bowl for the first game. Liars and cheats!

Despite the fact I swore I wasn't going to walk at graduation, the closer and closer it got to being time to graduate I got an itch. I wanted to have the experience and by-golly I was going to. So, I walked at EAC's graduation in May even after I had officially graduated in December. It was short and sweet and to the point.

Whitney, Dustynn, and I all sat by each other but when it came time to have our picture taken this FLK in front of us leaned in just enough to cover Whitney. You can barely see her waving hand behind his head. Stinking kid!

I called my parents a week before graduation to tell them I was going to walk. They reluctantly came down and supported me. Thanks mom and dad!

We are officially gardeners! We planted corn, watermelon, and tomatoes. This picture is from a while ago because we have already picked a couple of ears of corn and ate them and they were YUMMY!!! We haven't had that much luck with our watermelon. Everytime one starts to get bigger than a volleyball they crack open leaving all of its goodness out in the open to the elements. I hope we get one good one out of the bunch we have growing. Our tomato plants haven't faired so well either. They have bloomed like crazy but not a single tomato until today! I noticed one little green marble sized mater looking awefully delicious on the vine! MMMM MMMM!!!!

April...

A lot has been happening in the month of April. Mostly filled with get togethers and many trips to Ice King have a sweet, smooth ice cream cone on the warmer spring nights. As soon as the month started, the parties started.

On Friday, April 2nd Bradford was in HEAVEN! A couple of friends of ours Ryan and Jade were tempted in by Bradford and I to go to Globe to the casino for their all you can eat crab leg night. Jade and I aren't much in for seafood so we didn't get to enjoy it as much as Ryan and Bradford but they ate enough for the both of us and got our money's worth. The rest of the food at the buffet wasn't too great so I was craving a greasy burger about 10 minutes after the boys were done. We gambled away every last nickel, dime, and quarter left in our pockets because we are all so poor we couldnt afford more. HAHA! I think between the four of us we spent $20 and walked away with NOTHING! Not a habit I think I could ever catch on to. I am WAY too cheap. When we got home I realized how bad the casino smelled. I swear I developed COPD just from sniffing my clothes they were so smokey. YUCK!

Bradford turned 30 on April 13th and it's hard to believe that I am married to a 30 year old! We had a party/ BBQ on the Saturday before at our house. We invited a bunch of friends and just hung out. Being the amazing person I am I totally charged my camera battery before the event to capture this once in a lifetime opportunity but much to my avail I managed not to take a single picture of that night. All I can describe to you about that day is the weather was perfect and the food was good.

That next Tuesday was Bradford's actual birthday and we celebrated with his family at our house. It is nice to be able to get the whole family under one roof just to hang out and chat. Our nieces and nephew ran in and out all night and I did manage to snap a picture or two of them.

Mason wasn't very interested in paying any attention to me while Brailynn wanted all the attention. Lauren doesn't usually look so....strange...she wanted to show me her missing teeth.

The weekend of the 16th and 17th we took a trip down to Surprise to visit my side of the fam-dam-ly. My dad's birthday is the 16th so we went out to dinner and got on one anothers nerves for the weekend. Saturday was full of garage sale-ing and Garrett had a baseball game that evening. They got creamed but I was impressed to see he was THE best player on the team. And when I say the best player I mean he is the ONLY player that had touched a baseball or a bat before tryouts came around. It was ridiculous!

I had to post this picture of my mom. She HATES when I post scary/stupid/not wearing make-up pictures of her for the whole world to see. (Refer to Christmas post for a GREAT picture of her on Christmas morning) LOVE YOU MOM!

April 23rd was the first day of the open house for the Gila Valley Temple. What a special experience it was to be able to walk through the new temple in our valley and see all the hard work and details put into it. I have never been to an open house so it was special for me to be able to just walk through and stare at every last feature on the walls, the colors, and especially the GAZILLION shiny crystals hanging from the chandelier in the Celestial Room. AMAZING!!! We are so blessed to have a temple so close to us now and I am so so so very happy that we don't have to make a 3 hour trip anymore to receive those blessings. We can see the temple from right down our street!

The Gila Valley Temple

(sorry the picture isn't that great, I took it on my cell phone)

The Kenneth Bigler family reunion was on April 24th at Bradford's Aunt Sharon's house in Safford. Kenneth Bigler is Bradford's grandfather that passed away when Bradford was really young. Grandpa Bigler was married three times and has about 500 kids! Ok, not really that many but it seems like it. They all get together once a year to gab and eat. It was really fun and got some cute pictures of the kids.

Julia aka The Firecracker

Bradford's cousin Adam. We spent the summer after we got married with them in Connecticut.

Emma. I wish that Adam and Kayla would let me take her home with me. She is a doll.

My niece Lauren

Hannah held onto that Mountain Dew the whole way down the slide and didn't spill a drop. HAHA!

That night we took the older girls to Ice King (we like to get the addicted while they're still young). They were so funny and I was laughing so hard at some of the things they said. Oh to be that age again where you didn't have a care in the world other than the color your rainbow sno-cone makes when you mix it all together.

I have more to post but the hour is nigh and it's bedtime for old fart Val. Goodnight until next time. FAREWELL!!!

A year of accomplishments...

Well, I don't mean to brag but I consider myself lucky to have accomplished some of the things I have in the past 2 1/2 months of 2010. First off, I passed HESI. That in and of itself is a great accomplishment for me.

About of month after that I took my state boards. I will say that I have never been so nervous in my entire life! After 265 questions and 4 hours of pure torture I finished the NCLEX exam. That lead me to the WORST weekend of my life! You don't find out if you passed immediately after the test so the whole weekend was filled with a sick feeling in my stomach. Needless to say, the 3 1/2 years of school, traveling back and forth to Phoenix for clinicals, hours of studying for tests, and countless tears cried, nothing can beat the feeling of being COMPLETELY and TOTALLY done with school! I PASSED NCLEX!!! I never-ever want to take that test ever again! TORTURE I tell you, TORTURE!!!

Last but not least, after two failed attempts, I have noticed, FINALLY, the grass is growing!!!

Amid the manure grows green grass, not weeds like the previous two times...real grass! AMAZING!!! Now, if I can only get a garden growing. Any pointers?

If I could I would...

Lately, I have been thinking about how I would LOVE to just walk away and be done with all the studying and sleeping through DVD's. Bradford is probably tired of me being grumpy...though i must say that I think I have improved since school has been out. A round of applause to the bain of my existence....

After conquering HESI (also one of my least favorite things) and have moved on to hacing my head stuck in this book studying for my second least favorite things. I feel like I will not be officially done with school until that stinking test is over. I cannot express in words how much I HATE this test! If I could pay my way out of it, I WOULD!!!

Though, a plus side to the constant studying and awefullness is that once in a while you get to take a break with a little weekend get-a-way.