Ouch, 12 days.

I know I haven't posted anything in 12 days...this month has been so busy it's unreal. I last posted the day before my final clinical day. Final clinical day went well, I had 4 patients, got my semester review which was beautiful!

Then went on to enjoy my weekend. I spent that weekend in Orlando. Spent some time with Phillip's family which was nice and studied. We went to Sea World that Saturday which was awesome then had a wonderful dinner at a restaurant called Hot Olives, we are taking our parents there to meet one another for the first time on June 13. Dinner was fabulous and we spent Saturday night playing Wii with a bit of alcohol and Sunday laying around and studying.

I went home on Sunday night and studied my rear off Monday after class...I also went to visit my fabulous boys. I loved spending time with them, and with Shelley and Bill. It was great. I miss seeing them all the time. I need to get over there sometime this week...maybe Wednesday of next week after my final, I will then be watching them for a week from May 4-10.

Tuesday I skipped class (I know, end of the semester, my bad!) solely to study. I went in for the test at 12:30 and ROCKED it!!!! I got a 90, which is my highest grade of the semester (I got a 90 on test 3 but it was nice to get it again). I then went home and packed for nationals, I actually went to see the boys on Tuesday, not Monday, but whatever, it's all the same.

We were up at about 0345 to leave at 0415 for the airport. It was so early. We landed in Nashville at about 0800 their time and went to the hotel/convention center. We stayed at the Gaylord Opryland hotel. It was beautiful. We were there from Wednesday until Saturday, nationals was awesome. I believe there were 3000 nursing students there, it was cool. Some of the breakout sessions were lame, some of the breakout sessions were amazing. It was worth it; however, when Saturday rolled around I was very ready to go home.

Phillip and I went to dinner with his parents on Saturday night, we went to yummy Las Margaritas...yum! Then went home, he has had a really bad sinus infection, we were both asleep before 2300. Then Sunday morning I got up and went to get the Super and putzed with Gail a bit then went back home to see Phillip. We decided to go to the mall for lunch and then we went and looked at engagement rings! It was quite fabulous, we looked at them for a bit over an hour. Sparkly sparkly!! Since then we've been talking a ton about weddings and getting married. He is trying to save money for a ring but has given me the go ahead to start planning. We are looking at June 26, 2010. Nice even number. Yay for weddings...yay for a hubby. I love him so much and cannot wait to be his wife!

That's about everything. I don't have much time to be all up on blogger until after test 8 and my final next week. I'll be back though...promise.

1 more clinical day...

Can you believe it, tomorrow is my last clinical day of the semester! Tomorrow I will have finished my clinical experiences for the first two semesters of nursing school. I am so excited. I actually love clinicals, but one more last day means one day closer to graduation.

Today I had my three patients, two of them were post ops, and one was waiting to be discharged on hospice's service. They were good patients, easy patients. I think I'll have all three of them again tomorrow which will be nice, it makes my life a lot easier when I have the same patients again the second day in the week. I am really going to miss this floor, miss these nurses. Today I had a nurse named Teresa and she graduated from SFC's program just last May, so she's a newbie on the floor. She was actually a LPN for something like 12 years before she bridged to get her RN. She's good.

I just don't know how long it is going to take for me to get good. I feel like I am just not there, there is so much for me to do, to learn. My nurse today, pulled up lab values on a patient and she asked me what I saw...I don't freaking know! I was able to identify which lab values were off, but I had no idea which ones mattered. You know some of the lab values can be off by a point or two and it doesn't matter and this patient's sodium was 128, apparently that's a big deal...when will I get it?!?

Tomorrow my focus is going to be on physical assessments, I, if I'm being honest, didn't do a single thorough physical today. I mean I listened to things here and there, changes dressings other places, etc, but never did a head to toe on a single patient. I need to make sure I start getting that done. That is my goal for tomorrow, let's keep our fingers crossed that I start to get my bearings, start to put all the pieces together.

Tuesday.

I am writing this post while watching American Idol from tonight that I have DVRed (is that even a verb? It is now, lol). Today I had class, way for finishing up our liver lectures, I am about sick of yellow people and ascites. I went straight from class to get my hair cut, oh how I love Ciao Bella Salon. All I did today was get it trimmed up, I am trying so hard to keep it long. I every now and again get the urge to cut it short, but I resist. Just being able to tie it up when I'm running or in the hospital makes my life much easier.

When I got home this afternoon I took a bitty nap and then headed to Shelley and Bill's to hang out with Max since they are in Disney for the week. I did most of my case study while hanging out with her and then putzed for a bit. I came home, had Moses dump an entirely full bowl of water all over the kitchen...thank you sir Moses. I also uploaded all my pictures from this weekend and I will post them below. I guess that is all that I have going on. I might skip my urinary lecture tomorrow and get an outline together for my test this coming Monday...we'll see. Anyways, here are some pictures.

The first set is my Jackson boy when I was watching him last Friday night. He is such a sweetheart! I love him!


Then, without further ado...here are some pictures from my fabulous birthday zip-lining!

Birthday!!

It's my birthday!! Well, yesterday was my birthday but I am one of those people who thinks April is my entire birthday month. :)

I am going to give a super quick synopsis because I have major studying to do.

Friday night, I started celebrating by spending time with the boys. I had a great time. Like I wrote earlier, Brooke took the big boys out for a bit and the baby and I got to just spend some time together. We had so much fun and had a long bath time so he played and we practiced kicking. He had fun. I had fun. (I have some cute pictures that I will post tomorrow). Then the big boys came home, the baby was in bed and I gave the big boys a bath and played some Mario Kart with them. We had fun, I had fun. I then spent about an hour and a half just hanging out with Bill when he got home and we just chit-chatted. It was nice, I miss being able to just talk to him and Shelley. I miss them.

Then Saturday morning I drove down to Orlando. Phillip and I had a wonderful day. We got there and headed to lunch together and to the mall. Phillip got me some super cute flip flops from J.Crew, panties from Vickies, a new running shirt and running hat from New Balance. We just enjoyed spending time together. As soon as we got home it was a turn and burn, we had to get dressed to meet him parents to go to Macaroni Grill. It was nice to spend time with just Phillip's parents, just the two of us and the two of them. After dinner we headed back to Jessica's house and played taboo, it was fun. We had fun together.

Then Sunday...we went Zip-lining. It was awesome! I can't really describe it, I'll post pictures tomorrow. Yay for birthdays!

Thousand Word Thursday

I really am in a better mood today, well, I'm at least trying. I thought searching through my billions of pictures would bring a smile to my face, and it did. :)

Here is my Roman Noodle, growing up! (Some of the quality is crappy, but they are still super cute!)

Are you kidding me?!?!

Are you kidding me?!?!

I've have had a terrible day. First, I BOMBED my stupid freaking test. I got a 74! Then I say whatever, the questions were terrible, considering I got 7 questions wrong from the same teacher. You think just maybe Trudy's questions suck?! Anyways, I moved passed this. I got my wallet and bought doughnuts. Doughnuts make everything better, right, apparently not.

I was emailing back and forth with Shelley and she tells me that stupid Brooke is taking my big boys out on Friday night and will bring them back at 8:00pm, once again, on three, 1...2...3...are you kidding me? I haven't seen my boys in maybe 5 weeks and the stupid (not nice word) is taking them. Seriously?!? She has them between 45-55 hours a week, all I wanted was 3 hours on Friday night. Now mind you, babysitting on Friday wasn't easy for me. I have clinicals all day, then was going to go home and rest, then head to babysit, then when Bill gets home at 9:30, I was going to head home grab myself and my dogs and drive the 2 hours to Orlando. I was doing it all for my boys, I just miss them.

Well after hearing all that, I decided the most productive way to deal with this aggression was to run. I headed out and hit the pavement in the rain. I just rain, and kept running until it started raining heavy. I got back, called Phillip and he told me that it isn't too bad, it's not all her fault, etc. Well I was pissed, whatever. I then came up with a compromise. I will leave the hospital at 1:00pm and head straight to the boys. I am making Brooke leave and she can come back at 5:30pm to pick them up to take them wherever. With that plan, I didn't get any rest and made my day 4 and a 1/2 hours longer, but I'd get to see them.

Good, I solved my problems. I then was in a good mood and got online to shop for Phillip's boss' baby (she's due on May 26). Oh, it just kept getting better. Phillip and I got into an argument. On Sunday I asked him to name one thing that he likes doing or one thing that makes him happy, he gave me a big fat GOOSEEGG. So today, I revisited the subject and got in big trouble. He told me that he didn't realize he had homework to do (seriously with the answer he gave me on Sunday, did he not think this was going to come back up?) He was pissed. Whatever. We got off the phone.

I then putzed on the computer and about a quarter to eleven decided to get up and let the dogs out their last time...well I found pee on my bed from a cat. Obviously it was kiwi, no other cat does that. I can't figure out if she did it because I pushed her away from me when she was trying to lay with me or is it because maybe she has a UTI. Roman has one, I put him on Clavamox yesterday, don't know what it is, but maybe she has it--so I didn't over react, I just stripped the bed and brought it to he washer. It happens, let's move on.

I got back to my room put on clean linens and got ready to watch ANTM. Went to get my phone and couldn't find it. As soon as I realized I couldn't find it, I got a pit in my stomach and realized it was in the washer. I sprinted to the machine and it was completely filled with liquids, I tried to pull out one of the blanket but it was too heavy-I switched the washer to spin, let it spin and pulled out the comforter, guess what?!? Out came my cell. Sh*t!!!! This is when I freaked out. I pulled it a part, but there was no saving it. I used the blow dryer, but no good. I then found my battery for the home phone, pulled it in, and stuck it in the charger. When it had some charge I called Phillip to ask him to sign online. He said that he was laying in bed, and wasn't on his computer. Seriously? I need support right now. If I was standing on the ledge, him laying in bed would have pushed me off.

I said whatever and hung on. He called me back and said he was signing on. We got to talking and we fought. He was made that I was pissy on the phone and said that all I was doing was bitching, I really wasn't bitching, I was just upset. I was just upset, that's all. Well after I was going on and on about how terrible my day is (see all the above paragraphs if you are just tuning in) and I didn't know what I had done to deserve this I got crap. First I said that I can't believe I have to pay $50 to replace it, he told me that at least it wasn't hundreds of dollars. I am a student with no job, $50 is a lot of money. There goes my crappy babysitting money on Friday. Whatever. I was also telling him that I can't believe all this happened in one day, that if any of them happened individually that would be a crappy day, but all in one?!? He then proceeds to tell me that he found out that his dad had cancer and it was terminal all in one day, I corrected him, letting him know that it was a Friday and a Sunday. I specifically told him that I was not belittling how terrible those days were, just correcting him. He told me fine, he was just trying to give me some perspective. I told him that I understand that everyone has bad days and yes someones would always be worse than mine, but a little support wouldn't hurt. He then threw in to end the conversation fine whatever...a little perspective on your day wouldn't have hurt you, yes it was a bad day but it could have been much worse. Ouch!

I just wanted support--that's all, just a little support.

Wednesday's Walk

For whatever reason I have a baby thing going on, not quite sure why--I rarely get baby fever, but I have it. A girl in my class Jamie was due to have her baby today, she was at our test this morning, so I am guessing she's not in labor. Also, Shelley's sister Ashley had her baby Finn yesterday. Phillip's boss is pretty pregnant so I have been looking for a baby gift for her, I guess this is where all the fever is coming from. Needless to say, my Wednesday's walk is about a baby. I going to tell Jackson's birth story.

Shelley had a scheduled C-section 3 weeks early on October 17. I went to class that morning and then picked to boys up from school. They were both really excited, but we had to go home before we could see Shelley and Bill at the hospital so Coop could nap. Well he barely took a nap that day, I think he was just really excited to see his new baby brother. We piled into the car to swing by Publix first, I wanted to pick up flowers for Shelley, so I picked out a bouqet in a pretty purple vose and let each boy pick out a rose for Shelley. Robbie picked a red one and to know surprise of ours Coop picked out a yellow one, once they were paid for we were on our way.

The boys were so excited to see Shelley, but Jackson was in the NICU. I dropped the boys off with Shelley and Bill and headed into the NICU. I just signed myself into the NICU as their Aunt (whatever, lol) and loved on that baby boy. He only spent one night in the NICU and then headed to Shelley's room. Both Shelley and baby Jackson came home from the hospital on October 19, Bill's birthday.

Here are a few of pictures, one from the NI and then two from the day he came home: