<3 Sparks

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Sunshine...

It's far too hot here. It is miserably hot, we are doing nothing and still sweating. I am ready for the GVille weather, I wont be home until Monday. I think this might be the longest...no wait, December was the longest I had ever been away from my home. Well I miss my home, I miss my space.

Speaking of my space, I have decided on my spring cleaning projects. First major project that I am going to start...next Wednesday after my exam, is flip-flopping my house. I am going to move all my furniture from my study into the living room and vice versa. I think if I've watched TV in the living room a handful of times that would be a high estimate, so better use of the biggest room in the house would be to turn it into the study/dog room. I am going to move my bookcase with my books into the living room, along with my desk, the dogs crates...that might be it. Oh and I am going to get some kind of pleather couch for Super. Then...I'm going to move my couch, TV stand and TV into the study--that way it will be a little den. Also, when I have guests, which isn't very often they will have a TV in the study where they are sleeping. Oh yeah, my other spring cleaning project will be cleaning out my garage. There is a ton of crap in there and it needs to find a home.

Well today I didn't do much of anything, oh the joys of spring break. I had a doctors appointment this morning, I then played around on Blogger catching up on everyone's lives, hung out with Caity, we went to Bagel-Bagel for--you guessed it, a bagel, we then headed to BlockBuster and PetSmart. Roman needed to get his nails done today.

While hanging around at the house I got some pictures of Ms. Rummy-Bummy, a couple of her with Caity and one with her and Noody sunbathing.








Oh and here are some from our adventure to the park yesterday afternoon. We took Roman, Rummy and little pain Bella. Oh what good puppy control puppy sitting is.







Sleepy, sleepy puppies.

Friends

Lynnette has a great blog and she has started this blogger getting to know each other thing. I think it is fabulous. I joined and am going to make a concerted effort to visit at least the bloggers she features and if time allows me (which I am able to foresee with this being spring break) I'll visit others that have posted their interest in getting to know one another. Join in.

Coconut Creek

I have finally made it down for Spring Break. It is nice to be home, it is nice to have no real responsibilities. Yesterday I got home, played with the neighbors new puppy (more on her later) then hung out with my parents. We didn't do anything exciting. I went to the grocery store with my mom, came home and wrote my OR paper, had Quiche for dinner and was asleep by 9:15. I am trying to finish Confessions of a Shopaholic so I can see the movie soon (since we all know how often I see movies).

Anyways, my parent's neighbors, the Gentiles, asked if Caity and I could watch sweet baby Bella while they went on vacation for 3 days and of course we said yes. Puppy sitting is a lot like babysitting in the respect of good birth control. It is super fun to have a puppy around and it is even better when you get to give them back. I just wanted to include a couple of pictures of Ms. Bella.

Quick, quick, quick!

I am going to just post a quick update and will post more later on since it's SPRING BREAK!

Last night I went to the digital photography meeting, it went well. March's assignment is "Nightlife," I posted a few shots up from NYC. (They are ordered from my least favorite to my most favorite.) I have every intention of shooting some nightlife stuff when I am home on break. My camera will not feel neglected after this week.












Today I had my OR rotation. I thought it was pretty boring, but I guess it isn't for everyone. I saw two total knee replacements, it is definitely a brutal surgery. Note to self (or all of you), avoid having a total knee replacement if at all possible. It was an excruciatingly long day, I couldn't sleep last night, but up for about an hour at 4 something and then my alarm went off at 0600. I went through the normal routine, including a bagel stop, and headed to the hospital. I was there from 0730 until 1500 when I got out early. The nurse I worked with today wasn't thrilled to have a nursing student at first, but she warmed up to me (thank God, could you imagine a 7 and a half hour day with someone who wanted nothing to do with you?). After that it was a mess, getting to PetSmart to get my cat food, to head home to pick up the dogs and feed the cats, to then head back to PetSmart to drop off the Super and get on the road. I didn't get to Orlando until 2030. I sat in traffic for who knows how long because I was bright enough to decide to leave GVille the same day everyone else left for Spring Break...not so smart.

Anyways, I'm here. All is good, I am heading down to South Florida tomorrow morning sometime and will enjoy a very nice week with my family.

3 more days

It is almost spring break and I honestly am so excited! Today I didn't have to be in school until lab at noon, so I spent the morning cleaning out my car for the drive home. I then spent a few hours in lab learning about wound dressing changes, woundvacs, and staple removal. It was actually a fun lab. Our last check off for the semester will be in 2 weeks on wet to dry dressing changes.

After lab Meghan and I headed to Tires Plus and dropped my car off to get it's oil changed. I was about 2k miles past due and thought it would be smart to get it done before the 5 hour drive home on Friday/Saturday. While we were waiting for the car to be ready (we had a couple of hours to kill) we headed to Las Margaritas for queso and a drink...oh yeah, and to do our cancer sim lab. We got that done, enjoyed a tasty beverage and then headed to d'lites for a bit of ice cream...YUM! Needless to say, we had a yummy day.

I did a load of laundry today, which is my last load needed to get done before I can start packing tomorrow. I cleaned two dresses to take home in case we head out to a nice place. I know we have a trip to the beach on the schedule for Friday, pedicure scheduled on Thursday, a vet appointment for Rummy on Wednesday, a doctor appointment for myself on Tuesday, a dentist appointment for myself on Monday...seems like all my days are full. It should be nice though, all those are things that I think will be fun. My mom's birthday is on Saturday, which is the day I'm going to leave. I've already gotten my Mom one present, and will probably try to get her something else fun. I'm thinking about getting a couple of pictures framed of the family from this past summer with Uncle Leo and Aunt Mimi. I think she'll appreciate that.

Oh yeah, I am going to help photograph for the program called Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep. There is a photographer in town named Wendy who is one of the volunteers with the program and I am going to do some of her cases with her. I am very excited about getting involved with this, if you have a chance to check out the site please do.

Other than that, I am making a huge attempt to get back into photographing regularly. I desperately miss doing it, I have joined the meetup group in town. I also ran into Ray (my photo teacher from school) yesterday and he asked me if I would be willing to be a mentor for the photo club at Santa Fe and head out on the field trips, of course I said yes. I can't wait. The other day, a friend from school made mention that I do so many extracurricular activities besides school and they didn't understand how I can do that. I just reminded them that school is only 20 months of my life, I will need to have a life to reintegrate into after graduation.

I'll definitely be taking pictures over spring break and posting them up. Keep your fingers crossed for me in the OR on Friday, I'll post a bit about that this weekend.

Failed...

So I failed at the posting 3 times a week, but at first you don't succeed try, try again. And that is what I will do. This last week or so has been something out of a horror story. Last week, I had lecture Monday, lecture and check off Tuesday and then a test Wednesday. Well I passed my check off on IV meds, but then got a 78 on the test. I was so upset about that; however, I have heard now that the class average was a 66...I guess I'll consider myself lucky and take the 78. I think it is assinine that the class average is so low and there is no curve or no questions thrown away. When the average is that low, it is a reflection on the teacher...of course that is just my opinion.

On Thursday I had clinicals, which consisted of yet another NPR, so I left the hospital about 1900 and worked on my NPR until 2300--then was back at the hospital at 0645 on Friday. I haven't worked anymore on my NPR since last Thursday night and will obviously have to complete that this evening. Stupid school. I have 2 days of lecture, 1 NPR, 1 sim lab, 1 lab (wound care), an AA meeting followed with an AA paper, MOW followed with a MOW paper and then my OR rotation, and you guessed it, followed with an OR paper-yes, it looks like a week from hell, and it pretty much is, but then on Friday right after the OR I am dropping Super off with Gail and heading to Orlando for the night. Then on Saturday morning bright and early I am finishing my drive to Fort Lauderdale where Roman and I will stay a whole week, well that is the plan. I will miss the kitties and Super, but I haven't gotten a break since before nursing school started because of everything with Wilson. I fully intend on collecting a bunch of novels and just laying around, possibly on the beach, with my Roman and my books.

I have another stupid test on Wednesday when I get back from break and a paper due that Tuesday I get back, but will get to that eventually. I will probably write the paper the begining of the week and then start studying for the test the later half of the week, but it just sucks. It sucks that I have to study and do school work on my Spring break, but there is nothing I can do about this. I only have 1 year 2 months and 3 days until graduation...please make it go by as fast as possible.

I'm going to get off the computer, let the kids out back to potty and then take a nap because it is Sunday and I can. God bless the weekend.

Clinical Day 5.

I have stayed home the last two day from school because I felt terrible. I then started to feel a bit guilty about missing two days of lecture, but I woke up this morning feeling SO much better; therefore, missing class...definitely worth it. I really enjoy clinicals, I feel like without question I learn the most while I am there, and today I get to take on 2 patients again like I was doing last semester. I'm excited about that.

We had been told last week that Phillip's dad (Wilson) would be having surgery on March 11. Based on this surgery and treatment plan for following the surgery he would have a 30-40% of being alive in 5 years. We were as expected so very excited. Phillip and I had talked about how with those statistics Wilson would most likely be here to see us get married, he might even be able to see us have our first baby. We were so excited. Well last night we found out that he is no longer a candidate for the surgery. The physician from Texas called and said that another biopsy's results came back showing that he does have biphasic mesothelioma. There are two different types of pleural mesothelioma, there is epitheliod and then there is sarcomatoid, then you have biphasic which basically means both. In finding that it is biphasic, it determined that he is no longer a candidate for the surgery because the cancer is too agressive. Needless to say, this news just killed us. It was like Phillip said, a swift kick to the gut. Now we are basically going through the same grieving stages as we already did once before, we've basically had the rug pulled out from under us.

I need to head out and get ready to get ready to go to clinicals. Scrubs are drying and I need to jump into the bath, then I have to head to the mall to get Z some new gator pjs and I guess I need to go get another freaking pen light. How the heck have I lost another one? I guess I really am just that good. :)

More later.

Seriously, sick again?

Yesterday I started getting all stuffed up. Then during the afternoon the sneezing started, then last night it all kicked in!

Today I'm home...sick. I just got over strep throat. How can I possibly be sick again. I barely get sick and now I have been sick twice in 3 weeks. I think this is a bit ridiculous. I have been taking Tylenol day and night cold stuff and still I haven't felt better. I took a decent 2 hour nap this afternoon but it didn't help enough.

We also have an NSA bakesale tomorrow morning and I made chocolate cherry cookie cakes. They seem tasty enough. I tasted one and it is yummy. Hopefully we will make some money for National Convention. I still haven't decided whether I am going to go yet. It is far, but I think it would probably be fun; however, I don't want to be gone for 4 days. Eh! Who knows.

I am getting hungry and need to head to the kitchen and find God only knows what for dinner. The hunt is on.

Try again...

Ok, I am really going to make an effort to get multiple posts up a week. My goal is...3, yeah I think three sounds reasonable.

School is going well. This semester is going fast, there is just so much going on. We have an exam every other week, we have two clinical days weekly, NPR, papers, med days, then there are lectures, labs and check offs. Oh the joys of nursing school. Honestly though, I am really enjoying myself. I am on an oncology floor this semester, which is ironic considering what happened this break (I'll give a quick synopsis on that later). This week I will start taking on two patients and have been apparently receiving compliments on my work, this time it most recently came from the charge nurse I took report from last Friday. Hey, I'll take it, anything to boost the moral is always appreciated. I actually have a nice relaxing week this week. I had 3 hours of lecture on DM today then I watched Jodi's kids for 4 hours or so. Tomorrow I have 3 hours of class, then a NSA meeting followed by nothing, Wednesday I have only 3 hours of lecture and that's it! Yay. Of course Thursday I have clinicals from 1300-1900 and then Friday clinicals from 0700-1300.

This weekend I am heading to Orlando...again. I will have spent 3 out of 4 weekends in the last 4 weekends there. But, this weekend is special. Aside from of course the ever so exciting studying for my Wednesday test, we are going to see Sister Hazel on Saturday night! I can't wait. We desperatly need something fun to kind of lift our spirits.

So, here is the quick synopsis of winter break. Phillip's dad was admitted to the Hospital on Dec 11, after passing out the night before. I then had my final on Wednesday, on Friday we found out he had cancer then on Sunday we found out it was terminal. Phillip and I flew up to Michigan that next day and spent a week with them. We basically helped around the house and get things together, to close up the house and move them to Florida. Then that Friday we left Michigan and drove to Tennessee where we spent 2 nights checking on the property and the status of the house, then finished the drive to Florida on Sunday. Needless to say, we stayed with his family for the holidays. I saw my parents for a day, which sucked, but it is understable why we stayed with his family. Ever since the dx our relationship has taken an obvious backseat, but we need your prayers. We were in such an amazing place before all this, and now we are just hanging on by a thread. We are going to make it work, because that is what we do, but if it could be a bit easier that would be wonderful. Oh yeah, and for the icing on our cake, while my parents were in NC (with Caity for Christmas) and I was in Orlando, we get a call on the 23rd that Yori is sick. Don't really feel like getting into it, but Keri and Oscar took her to the vet that night and Jim put her down. It was terrible. Don't get me wrong, having 14 years with a golden is amazing in every sense, but it is always sad. Keri's cousin Sarah then brought Rummy up to me the next day and she spent the holidays with us until my parents drove back down. .

Little update on the kids, everyone is doing wonderful! Roman is happy and healthy. He is a continuous light in my life. He is just wonderful. Super is doing great. I can tell she is starting to move a bit slower, which is sad, but she is still full of life. Moses, oh Moses, he is my little fatty who loves me, Maximus and Kiwi (most the time) everyone else, whatever in his mind. Maximus is my scaredy cat, but a sweetie. I wish I could see him more often, but I value every time he comes up for some loving. Kiwi is such a little trouble maker. She is into everything, picking on Gibbly, tearing through the house, etc. That is just Ms. Kiwi. Revol and Gibbly are both sweet as pie. They are just little love bugs, they like to snuggle up, make pancakes and purr. Love it! Needless to say, the kids are great! They make me smile.

I guess that's it for now. I'll be back (at least twice again before the week is up)!