Our Baby Boy: One Month Old (7.17) & A Dr. Visit (7.19)!

On 7.17.16 our boy was officially one month old. I cannot believe how time has flown. Maybe it's the lack of sleep? ;)

Rhodie is more bright-eyed and playful these days.  He smiles in the mornings and after he nurses and has a full tummy! He still likes dancing in the kitchen with Daddy & usually Mommy's arms can fix a lot of problems.  He still loves Window and Ceiling Fan, car trips, and being carried and walked around, and around, and around. He still eats like a maniac but he seems to be getting a little better. I think the boy just likes to eat! :)

I tried to take some one month pictures, but Rhodes wasn't really feeling it. He was a little on the sleepy side.

We had our 1 month appointment today (7.19..16) and Rhodes surprised us!  We knew he had been gaining weight, you can really tell in his face and his little potbelly, but we didn't know how much weight he had gained! The other night, my mom brought out a scale she had an just set him down for just a second (he was a little bigger than the scale -ha!) it read 11lbs. We thought it might have been wrong, but we knew he had to be over 10 lbs! When I put him on the scale today, I'm pretty sure my mouth fell open. He weighed in at a whopping 12 lbs 0.8oz!!! That means he has nearly gained a full 3 bs in 1 month! I'm definitely not worried about him not getting enough to eat anymore! :) He's a BIG BOY. He's grown in weight, obviously, and his head has gotten a little bigger, which isn't surprising because his Mommy has a big head (lol!). As for the growth charts, he's 92.5% in weight, 53.48% in length, and 97.57% in head circumference. I am so proud of my big ol' boy!

 My mom came with us today because my husband was out of town with work. I'm so thankful to be close with my mom, both in relationship and in physical distance. We live about a minute away from each other in the same town and it has been SUCH a blessing. 

We also finally got to meet our new pediatrician today and she seems really nice! I think it will work out just fine! She was very sweet with Rhodes and easy to talk to. She is also a mom…so, she gets it and that's very comforting.

Our Rhodie also got his 2nd Hep B. shot today and he handled it like a champ! He only cried for a few seconds, but after some snuggles with Mommy, he was calm enough to fall asleep in the car on the way home. I, on the other hand, broke out on a sweat in the office because of nerves and because MY BABY WAS SAD. But he did get a pretty cool Spider Man bandaid to show off too, so I'm sure he thought that was pretty cool. ;)

Our morning consisted of some sweet baby smiles and our afternoon has consisted of sweet baby snuggles.  He deserved it after his big day :) It's been a good day for all…minus the whole shot thing…which I'm still sensitive about.

We love our big Rhodie man! 

I want to get back to snuggling my little guy!

'Tis the Season,
Holly

Our baby boy: Week 2 (7.1.16)

We have made it through another week! Our pediatrician appointment on Monday went well, and we ended up seeing a pediatrician instead of a nurse practitioner, which is what was originally planned. It wasn't the pediatrician who we intended to see, but it worked out well because we go to church with the man we saw! Rhodes passed our appointment with flying colors and weighed 9 lbs 2.2oz! :)

This week was better than last in terms of getting used to our new normal. We've had a few (rare) 4 hour sleep sessions and we praised the Lord for them. We've also had a few (rare) instances where he feels like he needs to eat every 2-2.5 hours, which can wear on a mommy. 

This week Rhodie (what Aaron nicknamed him) is becoming more interactive. He is trying to focus his sweet little eyes on faces and objects (like the living room ceiling fan) and has gone a couple of stretches in between feeds where he is wide awake! It's fun to watch him figure things out. It melts my heart when he studies my face. I just want to kiss all over him!

It's also fun to watch my hubby interact with Rhodes. I love coming into the room and hearing him sing to him (usually something silly and made up) or to look over at them snuggled on the couch. And Marley, our yorkie, isn't usually too far away from his baby brother either.

Rhodie is such a blessing to our lives. He's already changed so much in two weeks! We had our newborn pictures made on Wednesday and I CANNOT WAIT to see how they turned out! I don't know if my heart…or my wallet will be able to take the cuteness! We tried to get Marley to participate in the fun aaaaand it was a borderline disaster. He did NOT want to be in the same space and his new baby brother, which is funny because usually he wants to be right beside Rhodes and whoever is holding him.

Sorry for the shorter post, but he's due to eat in about 5 minutes ;)

'Tis the Season,
Holly

Our baby boy: Week 1 (6/24/16)

Our first week with our son Rhodes is in the books. 

I've already cried about it. Not that I'm even that sad about it. But I am. Or maybe it's the lack of sleep.

We came home on Monday and our new reality set in. I'm trying to nurse every 3 hours (give or take) and let's just say…momma's parts are sore. Yee-ouch! 

Our 10 year old yorkie is adjusting too. The first day we were home, he shook and acted like every little noise freaked him out. Now he gets up and goes with us every time we take "his baby" out of the room or runs over if Rhodes as much as sneezes. 

Our first pediatrician appointment was Wednesday. We might have been late…like 5 minutes after our appointment time (we needed to be there 30 minutes early for paperwork) so, whoops! It ended up being fine. We saw a nurse and she did an assessment and a jaundice check and our boy weighed albs 7oz, which is what he weighed at discharge, so we could tell that he was still eating well! She didn't even want to stick him (thankfully!!) for a bilirubin check because she said he looked great. :) So proud of our boy!

We had a couple of rough nights this week. Thankfully, Aaron has been home all week and we've been able to tag team the diaper changes and holding our fussy baby in the wee hours of the morning. I'm thankful.

On his fourth day of life (6/21) we were trying out our baby swing. He seemed to be enjoying himself.  THEN we heard the noise. If you've ever been around a baby, you know the noise I'm talking about. The dirty diaper noise. Being a NICU nurse, I know that sometimes, you can change a baby when you think they are done with their business, only for them to wreck the next one, two, or four diapers because they are, in fact, not done. BEEN THERE.  So I decided to wait a few more minutes. 

More noises. 

Then my older brother Joshua said "Whew! Rhodie!" and we began to smell the dirty diaper. I walked over to scoop up the baby and while I was standing in the living room, my mom gasped and said the diaper was leaking. 

SURE ENOUGH.

It continued to drip the whole way to the nursery. 

Did I mention we have WHITE carpet in the living room?! WHITE. 

I finally got him changed and came back to the living room to the funniest site. My husband and my baby brother on their hands and knees scrubbing baby poop out of the carpet, my oldest brother Joshua climbing the walls to get away from the mess and the smell and ALL OF IT (ha!) and my mom rummaging through our cabinets trying to find stuff to clean with.  We didn't have much. We moved in at the end of May and I hadn't quite stocked our new house up with everything we needed. My bad ;)

I sat down on the couch and lost it. I laughed so hard it hurt my incision.  My husband was pacing the living room and researching how much it would cost to put in hardwood floors. It was just SO funny! 

Our first week with our baby was eye-opening. I work with babies but it's still so different having your own. I'm sore, I'm tired, and I'm hormonal. BLESS my husband's heart. But we make a good team and I told him it's only going to get better. We are so blessed with a sweet, snuggly baby. We love him so much. I can't imagine life without him now. I look at his little face and thank the Lord for him all day long. Especially during those hard hours from 12am-5am. He doesn't really care for that time of day. :)

'Tis the Season,
Holly

The Final Countdown & The Move

I'm in my final weeks of pregnancy. Everything feels big, I feel extra clumsy, and my 12 hour work days are getting harder and harder to get through.  I worked 3 in a row over Memorial Day weekend…not by choice…and I woke up on Tuesday feeling like I had been hit by a truck. Yee-uck. :(

My mind is starting to race at night too…I guess that's pretty normal when your nerves set in and the fact that you are about to bring a tiny human into this world to raise as your own starts to become more real. My husband has been sleeping like a rock LOL! Actually, he has worked SO hard for us the past few weeks, with the move and baby prep and with his own job, that he deserves a good nights sleep.

I had another weekly check-up yesterday. Still no progress. My mom said to expect that since it's my first.  I was just hoping for SOMETHING. Nothing huge. Just something! But apparently our little nugget is nice and snug with his momma and that's where he wants to stay for the time being :) Hubs said he was already showing his stubbornness that he obviously got from me…rude ;)

We moved about two weeks ago into a new house on the other side of town. I wouldn't suggest it at the end of your third trimester…but for as crazy as those couple days were, I'm so thankful that we did. We love our new house and we are slowly getting it unpacked and settled.  My husband actually walked over to me while I was laying on the couch (which I feel like I do a lot of these days) and kissed me on the head and told me how happy he was. 

Melt my heart :) :) :) :)

I am so thankful for all the family that came to help us move. My mom essentially spent two whole days painting the nursery and didn't even complain even though I knew her back was hurting. My dad, two of my brothers, and my SIL helped pack and load heavy furniture. 

My in-laws came and helped too. My father-in-law's "gift" is service. He wants to fix and hang and repair and put together and build…etc. and it's very good at it. He actually came over the weekend while I was working and put a doggy door in for our little furball. Marley is so pleased that he can come and go as he chooses :)

Hubs and I actually just celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary (time FLIES!) and the first official day of the move was how we celebrated. My husband did not complain one time…although I may have grumbled a bit. We actually took my in-laws to dinner after the longest day ever, so we haven't even had an official "anniversary dinner" yet. We should probably try to squeeze one in before baby boy makes his debut :)

I've spent the past few days I've had off doing baby laundry, hanging up baby clothes, and trying to get our house in somewhat of an order before total chaos begins :)

Side note:  Dreft is the best smelling detergent ever. 

That's pretty much all that is going on these days. It's just a waiting game!

And we are pretty excited about it!!!

'Tis the Season,

Holly

It's A…..

At our last doctor's appointment, they told me that it was safe to schedule our gender ultrasound/anatomy scan. I got a little light-headed when they told me because it finally sunk in how fast time is actually flying!

We decided to surprise our families and let them think we weren't finding out until February at our 20 week appointment. 

We scheduled our ultrasound for 8:30 am on January 12th.  We arrived early and I was a bundle of nerves. 

At our previous appointment, according to my original due date by our 8 week measurement,  I was only 16 weeks and some odd days along.  But according to my LMP, the office had me at 17 weeks and a few days, which is why we went ahead and scheduled our big ultrasound.   They are normally done at 18-20 weeks. 

As we went in for the ultrasound, the ultrasound tech brought up the fact that I wasn't quite 18 weeks and they normally did them from 18-20 weeks. I was fighting the urge to cry because I just knew she was going to tell me to wait another week to get the ultrasound, but then she made the decision to go ahead and do it that day anyways.

I basically held my breathe the whole time we were in the office. 

I didn't really care what gender our baby was, as long as it was healthy. 

EVEN THOUGH, I had been thinking since day 1 that this baby was a girl.

Thankfully, the anatomy scan looked great and our baby actually measured a little further along than everyone thought, at 18 weeks and 2 days. Our due date may actually be bumped up a week, which is totally fine by me! Arkansas summers are no joke!

Oh, yeah, and our baby is a BOY!!! :)

Marley is so excited about his little buddy that's on the way!

I was shocked and it actually took me a few minutes to let it sink in after she told us. 

We got to have lots of cute pictures and he looks absolutely perfect, and not to mention, his  little side profile is very cute :) :) :)

Now we just have to decide of on a name…..no pressure….. lol!

'Tis the Season,

Holly

Lucky 13 & a Cold

I reached my 13 week of pregnancy mark on Dec. 13th, which was also my birthday. 

We had our church Christmas program the same day.

Oh, and also our Sunday school class Christmas party.

We had a full day, which, in all honesty, is fine with me. The "older" I get, the less I care about making my birthday a big to-do. I actually don't know if I've ever really wanted a huge fuss over my birthday. Probably because that's how my family has always treated birthdays.  They are special days, where you definitely feel loved, but it's no parade with fireworks. 

And I'm fine with that. 

Back to Sunday,

We had our Christmas program at church. The day before, my mom had bought us all tickets for The Living Christmas Tree at First Baptist in Little Rock.  It was fantastic and I'm glad that most of our family (minus Logan and Morgan- boo to finals!) was able to come and enjoy it together.  I teared up a couple times - it doesn't take much lately - but the choir was SO good. I am a sucker for the old Christmas classics.

We ate at Chuy's (my pick) after the show.  My dad was the only one that had never been there and I do believe that he enjoyed himself. ;)

My baby brother Clark had to go back to OBU after dinner because he had to study for finals coming up, and when he told me to have a happy birthday and that he'd see me soon, I had to quickly say goodbye because I almost lost it again in the parking lot. 

baby brother

These pregnancy hormones, YALL :| 

Oh, yeah….our Christmas program. 

I think it went well, despite my husband saying that a few of the songs were a little long (insert eye-roll here). We had several testimonies shared…they were tear-jerkers….and I'm not just saying that because I am hormonal, because even grown men in the church were wiping their eyes. 

I was a hot mess by the time the second service ended. A HOT MESS.

I'm sure the video will be attractive LOL!

That afternoon, we had our SS class Christmas party. It's always fun to get together with that group. The only "negative" thing is that our class has grown so much in the past few months, that is hard for me to remember everyones name and what they do and which kid belongs to which family.  I blame pregnancy brain… I think it's a real thing. But our party went well, we played dirty santa/white elephant, and ate some delicious food.

________________________________________________________________

Monday morning rolled around and I did not feel good, but I went to work anyway.

Monday evening came and I was miserable. 

I had "caught" a cold. 

Tuesday and Wednesday were not pretty days. I decided to call into work on Thursday because I felt like I did not need to go in sneezing and with a hacking cough when I have to work with sick babies. SOME people I work with don't care about that, because either they don't want to miss work or they simply can't afford to miss work. But it still irks me because I feel like everyone is just passing it from one person to the next.

But I digress…

As I'm typing this, it's Friday. I work Sat-Mon and so I am praying that I can just make it through the next three days without getting worse and hopefully all this sinus mess will finally go away. I am already feeling like I can almost breathe normally again, so here's to getting well!

I hope the {few} that read this are staying happy and healthy this week!

'Tis the Season,

Holly

12 weeks & a tiny heart beat!

December 10th was our 12 week appointment.

I've been a nervous wreck because ever since I woke up at the start of week 11, my symptoms have decreased significantly. Most people would be rejoicing, but this little momma-to-be is a worrier and so I have fretted a bit. 

We showed up to our morning appointment and I just knew my BP would be high because for about a week and a half, I had been worrying and praying that everything was okay.

It wasn't high, it was perfect!

Our doctor popped in and basically said this would be one of the quicker appointments and that she would be using a doppler ultrasound to listen for the heartbeat.

I held my breath and she searched for what seemed like several minutes, when in reality it was probably just a few seconds.

We heard that precious, tiny, strong heartbeat and I about lost it on the exam table. :')

this was right after we got to hear the heartbeat

I even got the hubs to take a video on his phone, just so I can listen to our baby's heartbeat whenever I want. Best decision ever.

Baby had a heart rate of 150 and it was nice and strong. I'm feeling better than I have in weeks!

We are very blessed!

'Tis the Season, 

Holly

Our {little} Secret: Part 2

Once we went to the doctor for our 8 week appointment on Nov. 12th, we decided to plan to tell our parents the following weekend.

I ordered this SUPER CUTE onesie on Etsy, paid extra to have it rush delivered, and we (mainly me) racked our brains on how we should tell everyone.

I'm sharing the picture again because, I MEAN!

Coming from larger families, we knew that getting everyone together at the same time was not a real option.

We told my family on a Friday night. A few days before our appointment, I got online and did some "research" (my husband's favorite word) and found an adorable book for new grandparents, called "The Gifts of Being Grand."  So I ordered two and had them rush delivered.

My family does a Thanksgiving tree and it's been a tradition for years.  We have colorful, contraction paper leaves and we write various things we are thankful for every year.  So I dug around in our office, found some red construction paper, and made a leaf and wrote Baby Nicholson on it.  I stuck that in a box with our ultrasound picture and then the box in a bag with the book.

Late that night, after we had been over at their house visiting for a while, I stepped out into the garage to grab the bag that we had stashed before we walked in.

I made my family (Dad, Mom, & Joshua) sit on the couch together and asked them to open the box first, before pulling the other gift (the book) out of the bag.  My mom was SHOCKED, Joshua was speechless, and my dad….well…bless him.  I believe his first words were "Oooohhh noooo…." but not in a negative matter, just a totally shocked, never saw it coming way. Or so we think ;)

We told Aaron's family the following morning. When his mom opened the box with the ultrasound picture, she immediately started bawling, as did his sister, and his dad walked over, over-alls and all (you just have to know him) and he said "Well it appears you have a bun in the oven!"

Later that day, we told my baby brother Clark, who had come home from college for the weekend.

The next day, Aaron told his two brothers, and we face-timed brother Logan and my SIL Morgan, and I walked over to the Thanksgiving tree, where we had put up the leaf, and we laughed about some of the leaves that somehow make it back up on the tree every year, and then I casually focused on the Baby Nicholson leaf.

We called our grandparents in the following days and everyone was SO thrilled and SO surprised.

We decided to make our announcement early, after we got a chance to tell some more family and some of our close friends. Considering that we didn't really trust some of our family members to keep it a secret for very long, I think it was a good decision. I am very happy we announced early.

I was so tickled at the outpouring of love and kind words that were showed to us during those first few days. I may have cried a couple times (I DID).

'Tis the Season,

Holly

First comes LOVE...

(This post has been a few months in the making. I know I should have written it at the time everything was happening, but hey, life gets busy!)

"Aaron and Holly sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G.

First comes LOVE.

Then comes MARRIAGE.

(then comes a few years to enjoy said marriage…)

THEN comes a BABY in a baby carriage!"

____________________________________________________________

I feel like life as a young adult is just a constant ache/rush/longing/pressured feeling to get to "the next stage of life." 

Whatever that stage may be.

Aaron and I got marriage fairly young, he had just turned 24 and I was 22. But we were in love and we were ready. I mean, we dated all those years. 

It seems to me, and correct me if I'm wrong (don't, I'm not), but when you are in a serious relationship, everyone wants to know if and when you will get married. 

But then there's a new level of annoyance. Once you are married, people start asking when you plan to start a family.  I believe the first of those questions began right after we returned from our honeymoon. No joke. I think it was my grandparents ;) BLESS.

My mom likes to say, "people mean well" and most of the time I can agree with her. 

Aaron and I have talked about babies since high school. How we hoped they would look like us and what our house would look like.

We've talked about babies for 4.5 years now. Adding to and changing our (ever-changing) list of baby names, what sports they might play, schools, where we might want to raise them, but how we weren't quite ready for them. (I can say that the pressure to actually have a baby increases rapidly each year you are married, from SOME people (it's not your life, folks!), but not ALL people. That's another rant for another day.)

But, we've only REALLY talked about babies for the past several months.  When was the right time to start trying, what about insurance, where would we live, would we have family close, what about new/bigger cars, etc? 

One day my sweet, wonderful, loving, crazy, dreamer of a husband looked at me and told me he thought it was the right time. So we talked about it some more and prayed about it and decided to just see what happened. 

I took a pregnancy test the morning of October 9th, 2015. That was the day we had planned to go look at a car for me (see previous pos: thttp://tistheseasontobeholly.blogspot.com/2015/12/rainfall-scratches-and-growing-up.html). It had been a little while, well a little while is relative, I should say it had been an appropriate amount of time and I thought that if, by chance, it was positive, we could celebrate that day since he already had the day off work and we were going to be together all day.

It was negative. 

I was surprised (at myself) how it actually took me a few minutes to compose myself and to go tell Aaron the news. My first and only pregnancy test I had ever taken was negative, which I knew there was a 50/50 chance it would be, but it REALLY bummed me out.  We knew there was an obvious chance that it could take a while to get pregnant, but just seeing the little word on the stick bummed me out for a few days. 

Thankfully, my awesome husband was encouraging and I was able to bounce back to my old self and change my mind set. Still praying and trusting God through the process.

October 21st rolled around. I had been feeling a little sick to my stomach the past couple of days and I told my husband that I was going to take another test and if it was negative, I was going to the Dr because I believed that I had caught some "bug"(there's always something going around) at the hospital. So the morning of the 21st rolled around, Aaron left for work, and I worked up the nerve to take another pregnancy test. 

I left the bathroom and went into the kitchen to fix breakfast for myself and turned on the TV. Several minutes went by before I could muster the courage to walk back into the bathroom. 

When I finally did and the screen said POSITIVE, I kind of flipped out. My poor dog could not figure out what was going on! (He still can't figure out what's going on actually)

I kept the secret ALL day because I wanted to tell Aaron face to face, but I didn't think that I should tell him he needed to come home early or anything.  We even had dinner with one of our couple friends and I was proud of myself for not slipping up in front of them.  

Once we finally got home, we decided to watch a little tv before we went to bed for the night.  I was just sure my face was going to give me away, but I told him I'd be right back and went and got the pregnancy test.  I was on the verge of (happy) tears, so instead of melting into a puddle in front of him by trying to be cute or clever, I just handed him the test.

The look on his face will be one of my favorite memories. :) We were so excited and in our prayers that night we thanked God for our little blessing.

:) we are VERY blessed

Tis the season!

-Holly

OBU Homecoming & Tiger Tunes 2015

OCTOBER

One of my favorite months of the year. Why? Because October at OBU = Homecoming + (more importantly) TIGER TUNES. 

Tiger Tunes (for those living under a rock who do not know) is an annual event at Ouachita Baptist University where the "social clubs" put on a song and dance show all in the name of raising scholarship money for students.  About three weeks out, the clubs, having decided on their themes at the end of the spring semester, learn the routines and songs and practice practice practice.  Then the shows are performed over a a four day span, Wednesday through Saturday. Awards, like "Theme & Lyric," "Best Costume," and "Choreography," are presented each night and then the winners are announced in the final show on Saturday night. 

It is SO FUN. 

I may be a little biased, because I participated in Tunes for 3 out of my 4 years at OBU.  We try to go to at least one show every year. My husband seems to enjoy it too, unless the Arkansas Razorbacks are playing. ;) 

This year, my youngest brother is a freshman at OBU.  I thankfully had the weekend off so my family made plans to drive down to Arkadelphia and attend the Homecoming game and Tiger Tunes…oh yeah, and to see Clark. (LOL)

Aaron and I got the game a little early because my social club the EEE's have a Homecoming Tea before the game every year. I was able to run into some old sisters and some of my pledge sisters that I haven't seen in a good while! It's always nice to be back on campus, considering that it was my "home" for 4 years. 

I hope that Clark will enjoy his time there as much as I did. But anyways…

Aaron is obsessed with the hamburgers at the OBU games, so he was tickled to get not one, but TWO burgers. Basically his trip was made right then and there. 

me & my cute, little mom

I always "need" to go find my name on the sidewalk on campus

Clarker

Joshua

Love my Dad

It's always fun to see these friends!

we had a great time at the game!

We found my family and sat with them during the game.  It was tough, but OBU pulled out a win over Harding University! We went to a late lunch and then my parents went to the early Tunes show, Joshua went to hang out with Clark in his dorm room, and Aaron and I roamed around campus and posted up in the student center to watch the Razorback game before the late Tunes show started. 

Tunes was wonderful and my EEEs made me really proud! They didn't win, but it was still a great show, and I think the group that won really deserved to win. We didn't get home until 1am but I think we both thought that it was worth it because we had a wonderful Saturday at my old stomping grounds!

BOTH of my pledge sisters are recently engaged!

Just a few of EEE PC '08

Go Tigers! 

-Holly

More catching up!

So my last post was two years overdue and more about what I had been doing. BUT, the past two years have also been exiting times in our families as well!

1) May 31, 2014

Logan & Morgan got MARRIED! They were wed at a church in Benton, AR and had the reception at the brand new event center in Benton. It was a beautiful day.  Not in the sense that the weather was necessarily perfect, or that mini potential disasters did not occur (cue the first dress mishap of 2014), but the day, the family, the celebration of Logan & Morgan's love, was beautiful.

2) Logan graduated from ASU in May 2014! We don't have an pictures, because he chose not to walk, but he has his diploma and I guess that's all that really matters :) #howlyes 

ALSO Logan got accepted into the brand-spankin new OT program at ASU and started a few weeks ago. It's a 3 year program, so there's a lot of hard work ahead, but he is a smart guy and we are all very VERY proud of him! 

3) Clark graduated from Conway High School in May of 2015.  Both sets of grandparents were able to come into town AND attend graduation.  All four siblings were reunited. That was a fun weekend. 

from Senior Sunday at 2BC Conway

Senior Sunday at 2BC Conway

4) Clark made a 30 on his ACT (He's SO SMART) decided to attend OBU in the fall of 2015.   He was very excited about moving off to college. The night before he moved, I ugly cried the the whole way home. I had to work the day that the family moved him in on Freshman move-in day and I fought off tears ALL.DAY.LONG. Not a fun day. I got to love on some sweet little babies and thought about how one day they would grow up and move off to college and break their sister's (and mommy's) hearts….kidding…..kind of….

pre-ugly cry 

5) Joshua. Ooooohhh Joshua…. Joshua has celebrated birthdays, kicked butt in Special Olympic power-lifting, become a little more ornery (haven't we all), shared his view on many topics, become slightly obsessed with psychology (or as he says "Pie-sology"), and is still an active member (he considers himself more of an "alpha-leader") of his therapeutic recreation group. 

about to watch cinderella

hanging out with his furry nephew 

That's about all I can do for now! My day-off duties (aka laundry & housework) are calling my name!

Happy Rainy Wednesday,

Holly

Long time, no see!

Um…hey! It's been about 2 years since I last blogged. TWO YEARS (insert face of horror)?!?

First things first, I'm not dead. I know that an unexplained two year absence is not a good sign, but I am still here, alive and well!

Second things second (that's not a real saying), I have to do a quick run down of the past two years so that I can be all caught up!

1) 2012-2015 = The Nursing School Years

I attended Baptist Health School of Nursing to pursue my dream of becoming an RN. It was the hardest three years of my life. I did the traditional 3 year track, the first year was called "pre-professional" and I kind of dipped my toes in the water, just to see if I was really going to like this whole nursing thing.  The second year included Freshman/Sophomore semesters which brought along tough teachers and (seemingly) increasingly tougher exams and clinicals.  The third and final year, which probably was the longest, most difficult, and busiest year of my life so far, consisted of my Junior/Senior semesters. My junior semester had me enrolled in classes covering Pediatrics, Women's Health, and of course the dreaded Med-Surg. Once I conquered those courses, I knew that I could finish nursing school. Senior semester was a blur, full of Critical care exams, drama, and excitement.

I made some great friends, learned hard lessons, and I think I have changed for the better as a person. 

My girls! 2 CCU RNs, 1 NICU RN, 1 ER RN, & 1 OR RN

2) CONWAY, AR - We bought a brand new house in Conway in December of 2013. We moved in with the help of our families and we love our little house! It's a 3 bedroom/2 bath in a small new(ish) neighborhood in Conway. 

It's cute, no?

3) I graduated from nursing school on June 15, 2015. I had the support of my whole family, including Logan & Morgan who were there in spirit!

4) In April of 2015, I decided to stick my neck out and apply for a night shift RN position at Baptist Health Medical Center in the NICU. I had two friends that were currently working there and they just GUSHED about how wonderful it was. I knew my junior semester of nursing school that I wanted to pursue a career in Pediatric nursing. All my friends cringed at the idea of peds, but I just knew in my heart that peds is where I am supposed to be, for now. So after a few weeks of waiting, I got a call to come in for an interview (EEK!)!!! Before the interview, my mom, brother Joshua, and I came into LR early because I had NO clothes that were business attire, so we did a little shopping. I came in for an interview with the nursing supervisor of the NICU and I felt that I did my best and that it went well! I was asked to come back in for another interview with the night shift personnel in a few days.  That interview went well, despite the fact that they were busy that night and kind of forgot I was coming. 

post-interview #1

So about a week later, I got a phone call while I was in clinical, so I checked my phone at lunch and called the number back…it was the nursing supervisor from the NICU offering me a job!!!! I was ecstatic to say the least.  And the news only got better, even though I had interviewed for a night shift position, she offered me a DAY position!!!! Talk about an answered prayer! 

5) Last but certainly not least, the DREADED NCLEX.  After weeks (felt more like months) of waiting, I finally got my ATT (authorization to test) for the NCLEX.  The NCLEX is the board exam that nurses have to take to become licensed.  I scheduled my NCLEX for August 14th and studied like a mad woman for several weeks.  I prayed and prayed and decided to give it all to God. HE brought me through nursing school and I knew that He would bring me through the NCLEX.  I did my part (the studying) and He brought His peace over me. I sat through that test, in a room so filled with anxiety that a person could literally choke on the air, and prayed before every single question.  I had such peace about that exam.  I mean, yes, I was still very nervous about it because it was a big test, but over-all I was calm. When my test hit question 74, the screen went blue and my stomach dropped for half of a second, until I realized that it was just the 2 hour break that the test gives you the option of taking. I said "no" I did not want to take the break, so I went on to the next question, number 75.  After submitting my answer, I held my breath and the screen went blue again, meaning that my test was OVER. I left the testing center with SUCH a weight off of my shoulders.  I may have even been smiling. Not because I was overly confident that I had passed (although I DID feel pretty good about it), but because I was relieved it was over and that peace that God had laid over me was still very much there. With the NCLEX, you can take 75 questions minimum or up to 265 questions maximum. So taking 75 means you did really well or really poorly, and taking 265 does not necessarily mean that you won't pass.

 I took my exam on a Friday morning, so I thought I might find out over the weekend, but surely by Monday morning, as the testing center says that it takes 48 hours for results to post. Well, after waiting what seemed like FOR-EH-VER, Monday morning rolled around, and NO results had posted. I spent Monday checking all the result sites I could check, every hour, all day long. Tuesday morning at 5 something in the morning, my bladder woke me up, so I grabbed my phone to use as a flashlight and made my way to the restroom.  Normally, I'm not a "take your phone into the bathroom" kind of person, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to check the result sites while I was already up. Wouldn't you know it that I saw my name with the RN License behind it and I was screaming (on the inside) because, again, it was 5 in the morning. The funny thing was, as I was leaving my bathroom, I got a text from my friend Brittany (nursing school buddy) and she was congratulating me on passing! She was already up getting ready for work (she passed her NCLEX at the end of July) and she knew I was still awaiting my results so she decided to check too! I got back into bed, wide awake from excitement, so I decided to nudge Aaron to see if he was awake, and when he opened his eyes, I told him my news. He was so happy, but SO sleepy :) He wrapped his arms around me and said he was so proud of me, aaaand then he promptly fell back asleep. Can't blame him. ;)

So much more has happened, especially this year, but I think this blog post is already long enough on it's own! 

Holly Nicholson, RN

Tis the Season,

Holly

AR State Special Olympics 2013

                 For those of you who do not know, my brother Joshua is as strong as an ox. 

                                                                    No, REALLY.

                My older brother Joshua participated in the Arkansas State Special Olympics on May 25th, 2013.  He has been competing for years but over the past handful of years, he has gotten really into powerlifting. A few years ago, he even got to travel to Ames, IA to compete in the National Special Olympics games as part of the Arkansas team.  They did a whole big thing for all of the athletes and the AR team got to fly there on private planes.  It was legit.  My family opted to drive....but that's a whole other story in itself.  

                                                                  Back to May 25th...

                Joshua competed in the bench press, dead-lift, and a combination category.  He weighed in at only 116 lbs (which is low, even for him) so I was nervous.  I knew my dad had been taking him to the gym and working with him on his weights, but usually Joshua weighs in the 120-range so I wasn't sure what to expect.  There were only two people in his weight group. Joshua successfully completed all of his presses and lifts.  It is amazing to watch all of those athletes compete.  By just looking at some of them, you might think, "Never in a million years could that person be athletic." but you would be SO WRONG.  Some can barely walk, some can barely see, some don't look like they have a clue where they are or what is going on, and some, like Joshua, are tiny. I think Joshua's final bench press was 155 lbs and his deadlift was 195 lbs.  AREYOUKIDDINGME?! One hundred and ninety five pounds.  Did I mention he weighed in at 116 lbs? 

all of the athletes competing in the powerlifting division

saw this awesome shirt! :)

LOOK AT THAT FACE!

completing his last lift of 195 lbs!

running start...

time for a....

CELEBRATORY LEAP!

Joshua with Coach Lee

Joshua with his other coach, our dad :)

with Miss AR and Miss Teen AR

with his girlfriend, Jenni

-Holly