George Strait...aka the King of Country....

What a fantastic show! It was the third time I've seen George Strait and I think this may have been the best yet!

The show was down in Des Moines this past Friday night. My sister and I went in together to get tickets for our mom and the two of us for Christmas.

Martina McBride opened for George and she was amazing! I've never seen her in concert before  and I'm so glad I had the opportunity! She can sing! And she's beautiful and seems to be down to earth and humble.

Our seats were fantastic! Very similar to where Kate and I sat for Lady A back in January, but about 15 rows closer. We were not sitting in with a bunch of people who kept getting up for beer, which was fantastic!

We've been listening to Geroge Strait forever! The man has like 60 Number One hits, so he has a lot of music to choose from! He played some of his new stuff but also mixes in A LOT of his old stuff.
I got to hear 3 of my favorite songs! My sister got to hear some of her favorites and I think my mom just loved it all.

He played for about 2 hours and it goes by so quickly. What a fantastic, awesome time and so worth the money!

job searching....

I had an interview for an RN position last Monday at a senior care facility over in Nevada.
I was pretty nervous, since I hadn't been on a job interview in over 6 years!
I'm still waiting to hear back.

I have submitted a lot of applications this last week. Some positions are at the same place so I'm able to apply for more than one job at a time, which is nice.

Today, I got a call to set up at interview at Mary Greeley over in Ames. This is where I have submitted the most applications and where I really, really want to work!

For now, I'll keep my eyes open and keep on submitting applications!

Oh my goodness, I passed my boards!

I PASSED MY BOARDS! I'M AN RN!

I'm still in a bit of shock, surprise and awe that I ACTUALLY DID IT! I was so nervous going into them.
Monday, the 6th, I left my house around 0745 and picked up my sister in Ankeny. She took the day off to head to Iowa City with me.

We stopped in Williamsburg to do some shopping beforehand and then traveled on over to Coralville, where we proceeded to have lunch at Steak & Shake. (YUMMY!) We ended up with some time to kill and found this awesome consignment store and browsed and bought there. Then the time came to find the building where I was to take my test. 

Kat dropped me off and I headed inside. I realize as I'm getting on the elevator that I had grabbed the wrong paper. Luckily, she hadn't left the parking lot yet! 

I get upstairs to the room and have my photo taken, my thumb scanned and both palms scanned numerous times. Then it was time....

The facilitator got me into the video-taped and audio-taped room and got me settled at a computer. After a brief overview of the way the test works, I went to work. 

I closed the clock on the screen as it made me nervous. I ended up answering 75 questions and my computer turned off. 75 is the minimum for the RN NCLEX exam. I was surprised and scared. 
I got logged out/signed out and called my sister to come back for me. She was surprised, as it was only about an hour and a half since she dropped me off. 


Afterwards, we drove down to the University of Iowa and drove around a bit and saw the football stadium and where the Hawks play basketball. Then we started our drive back west.
Kate and I had supper at Panera then I headed home. 


Today, I could log on and get "unofficial" results by paying $8. So, I did around 2 pm....and it showed I passed! HOORAY! Now I can really get serious about my job search!

Unsettled...

Do you ever get that unsettled feeling? You know, the one that feels like something isn't quite right in your world?

I've been feeling like that lately and I just can't put my finger on it.

I'm bustin' my bottom studying for boards (coming up soon!), trying to eat better and exercise more, get more sleep, have some time for fun. Maybe it's stress rearing it's ugly head in a different format than what I"m accustomed to.

At times, I feel somewhat restless. I feel that I should be out doing something, anything just to not be where I am at the current time (whether it be home, in the car, grocery shopping, etc). At times, I'm bored. Normally, reading is what will cure the boredom but lately, that hasn't appealed as much. Oh, I've read books, but just because.

I have plenty to do. I don't find the motivation to do it. I'm hoping once my boards are behind me, this "fog" lifts and I can get the house in order. My plan is to go through each room and clean and declutter.

This isn't depression. It's just a funk. Seems it finds me every winter...eventually. Ready for spring or better yet, SUMMER!

"I'm Just Here For a Good Time"

Last Saturday night, my sister and I went to see Lady Antebellum in concert down at the Wells Fargo Arena (Des Moines).
What a great show! I bought her the tickets for Christmas, with implied 2nd ticket being mine. We had talked about going but when tickets went on sale, their ticket service had a glitch and was showing tickets available in the 300 sections....which is like the nosebleed section. No thanks.

I was a bit bummed, but since we hadn't "officially" decided to go, I emailed her and told her those were the only seats available. She told me it was probably a glitch, because tickets had only been on sale for like an hour. So, I tried later....Section108! Much better!

The tickets came just in time for Christmas. I wrapped them up in a gift card box...then wrapped it. And wrapped it AND used masking tape to tape it all up! Needless to say, Kate was E X C I T E D!

We ate out at PF Chang's before heading back downtown to park and get inside. We parked at kate's old work and walked across the Pedestrian Bridge. A little workout as we had to go uphill...

Thompson Square and Darius Rucker (former frontman for Hootie and the Blowfish) opened. Both acts were fun and I really, really enjoyed Darius. Lots of fun and he did a few Hootie songs! Memories!

Darius Rucker!

Sisters!

Lady A was rockin'! I love most of their music so it was awesome to see. I was a bit disappointed in their stage show, as it was mostly just lights and stuff up on screen. But then they said it's their first headlining tour, so I forgave them.

The Main Act!

They rocked out! They dedicated a song to a cancer survivor, brought a little girl up on stage to sing and just rocked the house.

While our seats were not spectacular, they were pretty good. We were straight back from the stage and had a good view. (We've had better seats there, but these were good!) We had a great time!  Now we're looking forward to George Strait and Martina Mcbride in 3 weeks!

Before Lady A came out...

LADY ANTEBELLUM!

Dave rockin' the guitar

Hilary Scott