Stupid Weekend

This is a stupid weekend--a really stupid weekend. Phillip and I don't get to spend the weekend together. This was supposed to be my weekend to drive to O-town but I have a ton of crap to do so I am staying put. I have to study for my psych exam which is on Monday, I have to finish putting Keri's bridal shower invitations together (there is still a ton to do with them) and I also have to do some studying for the NCLEX. I am trying to study on a weekend basis to get some of the information under my belt so when May comes around I am not knocked on my nursing butt.

I am a bit bummed that I don't get to see Phillip, it kind of sucks. When I put the computer away I am going to finish cutting out the inserts for Keri's invitations and then I will also try to finish making note cards on another chapter (stupid, stupid psych) that will be on my exam. Wish me luck.

I just wanted to enclose a picture of Super. Roman gets a raw marrow bone for dinner a couple of times a month. Unfortunately Super cannot eat them because she has a super (hehe) sensitive stomach and anything outside of her normal bland diet will give her diarrhea, which obviously is something we try to avoid in this house. Well when Roman finishes off the meat and marrow I let Super back in and she gets to gnaw on the bone--it is the highlight of her life! Here is a picture of her fabulous life.





(I am well aware that the rug doesn't match the new decor, however, when you have a dog who will be turning 10 this year it is more about practicality. She can't walk well on the new floors, so the rug helps her out. Eventually I will replace it with one that matches better.)

Well I hope you all have a superb weekend--I'll have a productive one (boo).

Wordless Wednesday

Here is just a picture of a thrown together inspiration board of some wedding ideas. There are things I randomly like from each of these images. Remember though, my colors will be hot pink and hot orange. You can see a combo of the colors on our website: www.phillipandmeghan.com

PICU

The PICU was awesome. It was a fantastic experience and I cannot wait to apply for a position as a PICU nurse. I will let you all know when that is so you guys who pray can say a special prayer for me!

We were at full census yesterday, all 24 beds full. We also had 3 children waiting to be brought in. It was impressive that we were able to either discharge or transfer patients. We moved one to the burn unit and d/c'ed one home. The three waiting were a girl in diabetic ketoacidosis, a boy who had a stroke secondary to a sickle cell crisis and lastly was a person who coded twice at a near by hospital and we wouldn't take because she was brain dead.

I got to do some stuff and it was really cool. I didn't realize how many kids we see on a regular basis with genetic diseases, we had some with Marfan syndrome, a kid with De George syndrome, one with trisomy 13 as well as one with Pompe disease. Pompe is the disease that the new movie Extraordinary Measures is based off. Other than genetic diseases we had two in the unit with AML (acute myelogenous leukemia), a kid who got a heart transplant on Saturday as well as our little boy with a Berlin Heart.

Tomorrow, I have to suffer through a couple of peds lectures and then Meghan is coming over to study psych. We have a psych test on Monday--yuck! So we are going to study, the way we study together is she asks me random questions out of our notes and I answer. While we will be doing questions tomorrow I will also be working on Keri's bridal shower invitations--I really need to get that done.

I hope you all have a great week/

Lovely weekend.

Phillip and I had an incredibly unproductive weekend and it was fab! Friday night we went to dinner at Chipotle, then we went to Verizon and got Phillip the new Droid--he was stoked! After Verizon we headed to Barnes and Noble and bought a few books, one was a new NCLEX study book, a Nicholas Sparks book and also Golf for Dummies. See, before Phillip and I started dating I enjoyed golfing but Phillip was adamantly against it. He went out with me and my Dad once, he rode in the cart.

Well over the last three years I have worn Phillip down, he said he would go to the driving range--mind you, Phillip is a lefty so he knew there wouldn't be clubs there for him. Brat! So Phillip has this beautiful, lovely and smart fiance who went on Craigslist and find him his own full set of lefty clubs. Believe it or not, he was less than thrilled, but promised he would try with me because he said he would, have I mentioned lately that I <3 him? Well I do. :)

Anyways, Saturday we woke up and I took a practice NCLEX test and then we went to the driving range. Well we went yesterday and sucked it up--Phillip forgot the book. I think he didn't want to look stupid at the driving range with this Golf for Dummies book. Whatev. Anyways, we sucked it up yesterday. Then we went back today with our book in hand and we did so much better!! SO MUCH BETTER! Phillip actually enjoyed himself. This is something we will be doing together and getting better at together. :) I am so proud of Phillip for trying.

Basically that was our weekend, we spent last night with some of our friends. We went to Macaroni Grill and then back to their house to watch the Jersey Shore final. You know, quality TV. That is about it. There is nothing else exciting that went on here this weekend.

Tomorrow I am shadowing a nurse for a 12 hour shift in the PICU--it'll be a long day, wish me luck!!

BC

No not birth control, but the dreaded breast cancer. One of the bloggers that I follow mentioned today that she has been dealing with her Mom's breast cancer and the trials that go along with it--reading her post made me realize it is something I haven't really talked about on here.

In September 2006 my Mom got diagnosed with breast cancer, it was incredibly scary. It was something that you never thought you'd hear about your own family member. My mom went in for a routine mammogram and they saw something in her left breast. She then went the next day and had it biopsied and found out probably the day after that it was in fact breast cancer (one of the many privledges of working in health care is that you can expidite these types of things). She had her surgery scheduled and had a lumpectomy basically right after the diagnosis.

The lumpectomy went fine, she came out of the surgery with flying colors. She stayed in the hospital for two nights and had two different friends, one stay with her each night (they are both nurses, hell, a hospital is a scary place. I'd want a bulldog if I were there also). She recovered pretty quickly and planned on returning to work after only missing a couple of day, but she had to go in for a PET scan (I'm pretty sure that was the scan, this was before I was in nursing school, so I honestly didn't pay attention to much of this stuff) to see if her breast margins were clear (which means they removed all the cancerous cells that they thought were in and around the tumor), however she had a mass on her thyroid as well.

The thyroid was biopsied and it was determined that it was cancerous. After recovering from her lumpectomy she basically went in immediately for removal of her thyroid. This surgery was not nearly as "easy" as the breast surgery. They split her throat completely from the left side to the right side and then removed her entire thyroid. She had to take 6 weeks off after this surgery. Her vocal cords were tramatized so she couldn't speak and when she regained the ability to speak a few weeks later, she sounded like Minnie Mouse for the next 18-24 months--it is something we can joke about now.

My mom went back to work and had radiation for her breasts during her lunch time. She was a trooper though that, she did have a wicked sunburn on her boob and armpit--take if from someone who is really pale, if you haven't had a bad sunburn you don't want one. As far as for the thyroid she had to have what is called radioactive iodine tests where she had to spend about 3 days in the hospital to check for thyroid cancer cells that may be growing around. Having her thyroid out messed with her hormones big time!! She gained a bit of weight, was tired all the time, was hot and cold while they were trying to find the right dosage of sythroid for her to be on, but by the time she was done with her radiation it was only Jan and we were psyched that cancer was and still is a thing of the past.

Don't get me wrong, we are always still worried when my mom has to go in for her yearly or biyearly exams. We probably always will, she will always have to be on a form of hormones to act as her thyroid, but this is the new norm.

With anything like this you have to find and accept your new norm--our new norm is something we've embraced. This whole ordeal made pink my signature color, I was never a pink girl before this--see, embracing your new norm. :)

This a picture almost a year exactly after she finished treatment and we ran a breast cancer half marathon--let me tell you, that was the most incredible experience.

Ta-Da!!

I am finally sitting down in bed--it feels amazing. Phillip, my parents and myself have busted our asses this weekend. Last weekend I painted the ceiling, the kitchen walls, a couple of the living room walls. While I was painting last weekend Phillip was ripping up the carpet and the baseboards. Then during the week, in between classes, studying, labs, a check off and a little bit of sleep I painted the rest of the living room.

On Saturday we got started, the boys started installing floors while my mom and I went to home depot and got stuff...it was just a lot of stuff. We helped the boys lay some floor, then we realized that we had done it wrong and had to rip up a good amount of it and re-lay it. After we finished the living room we went to dinner (after showering of course, because we were nasty!) at Gator Dockside and watched the Gator basketball game and the Colt game, oh and enjoyed a few cold beers (they were super tasty). After we got home I feel asleep within 30 minutes.

Then came Sunday...we met at breakfast and came home and got started around 11. We were afraid we didn't have enough flooring so my mom and I drove about an hour and a half to Jacksonville to get another box of flooring (it was a great thing we did because we used ALL of that extra box). We got back and the boys hadn't gotten too much done because there were all there little funky corners--unfortunately there were a million of them down the hallway. Well the boys got cracking and the hallway looked awesome, they got to the last two pieces and couldn't finish it--the corners were just too odd and they were exhausted. We brought back pizza, enjoyed it and Phillip took off to Orlando--his asshole of a boss took away his Monday off to work.

Today my parents got here at 8, and we got cracking. We had a terribly hard morning, those last two pieces of flooring took my Dad over two hours to get all those little turns right. They had initially planned on leaving at 12, then we started the transitions, it was also terribly hard, then the time they would leave changed to 2, then we started trying to get the baseboards up and my parents finally left at 5:30 this evening! They rock, both of them have to work tomorrow and they still had a four and a half hour drive tonight to get home.

Oh...after I cleaned my floors I realized Kiwi was missing. I was scared to death. She must have gotten out while my Dad was going in and out. I looked for about an hour like a crazy woman and then finally found her. She was eight houses down sitting on a driveway squished up against their garage door. Thank GOD I found her. I was literally scared shit less. I was devastated when I was looking for her. I have never lost one of my kids--I always find everyone's lost, lol. Losing her for the hour I knew she was missing (I honestly couldn't have told you when she actually got out) reminded me why I always stop when I find a missing pet and try to reunite them with their owners, because I pray someone would try to find and reunite me with any of my babies if they ever disappeared.

Anyways, without further ado...here are some pictures!!

Before:






After:















And little Ms. Kiwi:

Overwhelmed!

I am a bit overwhelmed right now, scratch that, a lot overwhelmed right now. My house is still completely destroyed (though as of today, the painting is DONE), I have an exam next week and haven't even looked at the material on it, I have a skills checkoff tomorrow and haven't looked at the material on it and my cat Kiwi peed on the bed when I was out. We were expecting her to do this, because she generally does it when something goes out of place (she doesn't handle change well)--but I don't know why she did it today. I mean the house has been destroyed since Saturday and she waited until this evening. It is really weird and I am hoping that this was the one and only time she is going to have a reaction to all of this. (Fingers crossed.)

I cannot wait until this weekend when everything is done and put back together, it'll be amazing!! I also can't wait to post pictures for everyone, I am stoked to see it all done--it is a huge change. The color is actually growing on me, Obama beige is gone, I will post you all one picture as a hint to see what will be!



That's your one clue. I can't wait to show everyone--I am going to need some help with window treatments once this is all said and done (cheap window treatments because I am poor after all this, heck, I was poor before this!).

This exam next week is our first peds test (which is so much more pressure for me because this is my area), it is on...congenital heart disease, diabetes type I, GI diseases, respiratory diseases and fluid and electrolytes (which is like a million different topics under that category). Sounds easy enough right?!? Not!

I guess I should go and spend some time studying...good night all!

Tired like woah!

This is just going to be a super quick update because I am beat. Between today and yesterday Phillip and I put a total of 20+ hours on home improvement projects! Crap we’re both beat and poor Phillip is stuck driving two hours back to Orlando. (Let’s keep him getting a job up here on the top of prayer lists!) I am going to hold back from posting picture so I can just do a big reveal next weekend when everything is ALL DONE!

Currently, my house is in disarray, my kitchen is completely painted with the exception to on top of all my cabinets—I am going to have a hard time finishing it, because I am a bit too short to tape up the crown molding. Worst case scenario I will paint as close as possible to the crown molding and then wait for Phillip to tape it up next weekend and then I will get even closer. We also had to paint the ceiling, that was the biggest pain in the butt! Who the hell paints the freaking ceiling to begin with?!? The lovely person who lived here before us painted all the walls as well as all the ceilings what Phillip calls “Obama Beige,” so they beige is out and we painted the ceiling white, my freaking neck was killing me from staring straight up at the ceiling all day. As far as the ceiling goes, I still have to trim up some areas around the crown molding, around the high hats, and also around the dining room light. I still have 2 different halves of walls to paint our main color and then we are painting one accent color—I still have that one to do.

Woo-hoo!! My parents are coming up to GVille next weekend to lay floors down in the living room and the hallway. Phillip and my Dad will be laying floors down and my mom and I will be doing odds and ends. I still have to make all of Keri’s bridal shower invitations, 50 of them…I definitely should have just ordered them, but I really wanted to put my heart into for her, because she’s my bestie!

Wish me luck this week, besides all the stuff around the house, I’m guess there is about 6 hours worth of work left to do, I have a dosage math test on Tuesday morning…a skill check off on Wednesday or Thursday, they haven’t posted it yet. Oh and I really need to get my house clean! I try to have it as clean as possible when my parents come so they know I appreciate my house and everything they have done to help provide for me.

Oh, quick question?!?!? I really want to get my parents something special for my graduation which is in 3 and a half months, you know, a thank you present for everything they do/have done to provide and support me. Any ideas?

I’ll try to get back on sometime soon—no promises though, because, clearly as stated above…this will be a crazy week!

Thoughtless Thursday

Not thoughtless as in unkind, but I am playing off the tradition Wordless Wednesday. I had a cute picture post and nothing real to say, so in turn, welcome Thoughtless Thursday.

Here is one of the five kitties, this is Maximus, he was number 2. He is a scardy cat so he is rarely seen, even by us. Since it's been cold he's been cuddling more, I got a cute photo op out of the cold weather (something good had to come from it!).

Woo-hoo for the PICU!

Today was my first day in the PICU for my shadowing experience--it was amazing! I obviously cannot go too into detail because of HIPPA violations and such, but I will give a bit of an overview where, fingers crossed, I'll be working! Shands has a 24 bed PICU, usually at least half of the beds are composed of heart patients because we have an outstanding congenital heart center. We are usually at census (which means we are at max capacity), which is a good thing and can be a bad thing.

Shands is a University hospital so we get a ton of cutting edge patients, which is amazing! I am someone who is constantly craving something new and challenging. Today I got to see both a Berlin Heart and an ECMO machine.

Basically a lay explanation for a Berlin Heart is an external heart, there are tubes implanted into the heart and then the blood circulated into both the pulmonary system and the circulatory system solely via this machine. This machine is a last resort, children who are put on this machine are done when their hearts are basically dead and the only other option is a transplant. The Berlin Heart gives them extra time, I think the longest we have had a kid on it stateside is just over a year. It is pretty fascinating.

The lay explanation of an ECMO machine is a heart-lung bypass. This machine provides both cardiac and respiratory support oxygen to patient's whose heart and lungs are so severely diseased or damaged that they can't function anymore (source). This is a machine that a patient can come off of unlike the Berlin Heart without a transplant.

Anyways, Phillip will call this blog "Science talk with Meghan." So there it is. :)

Whose nuts?!? This girl!

Most people would relax and enjoy their last night without school work looming over their head, but nope, not me! CG inspired me to declutter, why tonight...who knows? I feel like if I slowly tackle one area a night my house will be stunning by the time my parents arrive in 11 days. I want my house to be spotless when they come because they helped me buy this house and I want them to know that I appreciate and respect the house! So I cannot believe I am going to post this embarrassing before pictures, but you can't get a grasp on all the work I did tonight unless I do. So, without further ado:











After:





















I also made a box of clothing so I could give it away to our local women's shelter. I have Roman in the picture so you can get the size of the box with it's overflow of clothing. Inside this box we have...2 pairs of female sneakers, 1 pair of male sneakers, 2 pairs of female flip flips, 1 pair of black heels, 9 female sweaters, 2 female jackets, 1 male jean shorts, 1 male sweatshirt, 17 female shirts, 2 skirts, 3 pairs of female jeans, 1 pair of female scrub bottoms, 11 female shirts, 3 pairs of female shorts, 1 pair of female PJ bottoms, 1 kid sweatshirt, 6 bras and a partridge in a pear tree. :)



I also organized Roman Noodle's clothing:



Wish me luck tomorrow--getting rid of clutter feels great...jump on board!

It's coming...

School, t-minus 1 day. I have one day of freedom left and how will I spend it? I will most likely spend it getting ready for Tuesday, lol.

I got some of my schedule and it looks like I will be ridiculously busy...at first, it then looks like our schedule dramatically slows down come Feb. I have my peds and psych classes the first half of the semester and then I have my transition (which is our fancy word for internship) the second half. My floor request for transition was the PICU, I still have my fingers crossed because they haven't posted them yet. We were able to put our highest requests, my order went PICU, pediatric oncology, NICU and lastly a normal peds class. I honestly would be happy if I get any of my top three, I am paving the way for a job on either the PICU or pediatric oncology--I am working with the PICU's nursing educator now.

That's enough about school, a bit about the house. I am not sure if I mentioned this, I don't think I did, but we are about to go under a bit of renovation. When Phillip comes to town next weekend we will be ripping the carpet in my livingroom and hallway up as well as taking off the baseboards and then the following weekend, my parents are coming up and Phillip and my Dad will be laying down laminate floors. I am so freaking stoked. This is something I have wanted since I started house hunting over two years ago. Next month will mark my two year anniversary in my cute little house! Just with the dogs and the cats, laminate in more practical, it is easier to clean, it is easier to keep clean, overall, it is just easier. I will definitely post pictures from before...and after.

That's what I have going on, I hope everyone has had a fantastic weekend!

101 in 1001

Everyone has been talking about these lists so I decided to make one too! Here goes nothing. Sorry in advanced if I repeat myself, a list of 101 things is a lot!

Start date: January 2, 2010
End date: September 28, 2012

Travel

1. Visit the Caribbean.
2. Visit the Grand Canyon.
3. Visit 3 states I haven’t been too.
4. Convince Phillip to go skiing (snow).

Food

5. Start cooking more often so people stop making fun of how undomesticated I am…I can be domestic, I just choose not to.
6. Bake cupcakes or cakes for each friend whose birthday happens.
7. Start making and taking lunch with me to school or the hospital whenever I am there over the lunch hour.
8. Make sure Roman gets a raw marrowbone at least once a week.
9. Make a dish to bring to someone’s house whenever we are invited over for a meal.
10. Once the floors are done have friends over for dinner.
11. Make Super one homemade meal a month.

Bettering

12. Beat last years total of money raised for Relay ($900).
13. Start speaking kindly to the people closet to me.
14. Work on lowering my electric bills each month ($270 was the high for the last 12 months, my home is only 1200sq. ft.).
15. Read my assignments the textbooks on the subjects BEFORE they are taught in lecture.
16. Send a card once a month just to make someone smile.
17. Start drinking water when at school or the hospital, bring a reusable water bottle with me daily.
18. Go to the grocery store at least once every 10 days.
19. Bring cloth grocery bags with me to Publix, Target, PetSmart, etc.
20. Floss daily.
21. Read a novel biweekly once I am out of school
22. Be more forgiving of stupid mistakes.
23. Judge less.

Family and Family.

24. Do something with my friends each month that doesn’t involved eating out.
25. Take the dogs for a walk at least once a day.
26. Try to make amends with my sister and accept her for who she is.
27. Figure out what to give my parents as a thank you for our wedding.
28. Go on dates once a week that does not involve eating out.
29. Get Phillip to run the 5k with me on Feb 6.
30. Rock Keri’s bridal shower and bachlorette party for her.
31. Do something special for both Caity and Keri for being my MOHs.
32. Do something to thank Phillip and my Dad for installing the floors in my house (fingers crossed, they should be going in two weeks from today!)
33. Make a list of all the birthdays, anniversaries and special card days for everyone in my life.

Money

34. Consolidate my loans.
35. Once I am allowed to work overtime, donate $250 to Animal People a month.
36. Put away an overtime shift’s pay into savings every month.
37. Create an emergency fund…do not touch it!
38. Create a spending account for everything but bills.
40. Live within if not below our means.

Arts and Crafts

41. Work on purchasing handmade gifts for family and friends.
42. Make a scrapbook for Keri’s Bridal Shower.
43. Make a scrapbook for Keri’s Bachlorette Party.
44. Make a scrapbook for our engagement.
45. Take more pictures, make the goal, 50 pictures a month + post processing 25% of them.
46. Enter at least 3 photography contests in Gainesville.
47. Take pictures for friends and family just for fun.
48. Post process the pictures for friends and family and put the pictures on a disc or in a small photo pamphlet.
49. DIY at least 3 projects for our wedding.

Just because

50. Have a dip party.
51. Have a girls weekend with Keri and Caity once I get a job and after Keri returns from her honeymoon.
52. Enjoy Florida weather more, go outside, open up windows.
53. Join Oprah’s book club.
54. Listen to my iPod more.
55. Send flowers to my mom and Phillip’s mom twice a year.
56. Get more blog followers.
57. Take more pictures of Phillip and I, not always dressed up, can be just hanging out.
58. Order our 2009 Christmas ornament before we get our 2010 tree.
59. Listen when people talk/teach me.
60. Send out Christmas cards.
61. Get our wedding thank you cards sent out before the end of 2010.

The House:

62. Paint the inside of the house.
63. Get the carpet ripped out and get floors laid down.
64. Plant a flower garden in the backyard.
65. Work on keeping the house less cluttered.
66. Hang pictures up on the wall, both pictures of Phillip and I and my prints.
67. Keep the flowers out front trimmed more.

Myself:

68. Start working out at least 3 times a week.
69. Start toning myself.
70. Lose 10lbs before the wedding.
71. Feel great in a bikini.
72. Train for races, 4 5ks and 1 half marathons.
73. Feel good about cooking.
74. Start an I’m thankful journal, write in it daily.

Blog:

75. Blog at least 5 times a week, even when I am in school.
76. Comment on more people’s blogs daily.
77. Participate in at least 2 blog carnivals a week.
78. Write one post a week on a social issue.

Misc (anything that didn’t get placed in the right section…can’t mess up the numbering):

79. Go to at least one garage sale a month.
80. Make a new craft project once a month.
81. Take Meghan’s baby pictures, in the hospital, 3 days old, 2 weeks, 2 months, 4 months, 6 months, etc.
82. Take both dogs to the beach twice over the summer.
83. Go to the beach at least once a month once it’s nice.
84. Go to a concert 3 times a year.
85. Get a new outfit once a season.
86. Purchase a new DSLR.
87. Go on a graduation trip.
88. Work with Meghan on little baby Whitaker’s nursery.
89. Go see at least two MLB games in stadiums we’ve never been too.
90. Cook more meat options for Phillip.
91. Set a weekly budget for food eaten outside the house.
92. Create a bucket list.
93. Find a faster way to do my hair.
94. Do not miss anymore then 1 lecture a month.
95. Volunteer for 1 weekend a season at Camp Boggy Creek.
96. Get a birthright trip set up.
97. Figure out a wedding favor that gives back.
98. Get Phillip to start golfing with me.
99. Get out to the driving range at least once a month until Phillip starts golfing with me.
100. Have a movie weekend, one with Phillip and one with Keri.
101. Complete this list.

I hope I can do these. It is a beautiful day here in sunny Florida and I hope everyone has a spectacular weekend!