Christmas Review by Bulletpoint

• Kids got great gifts and were surprised! #1 got an ipod (I'm sure you heard the screams!) #2 got a guitar (I know you heard those screams or certainly heard the strumming over and over and over, "Listen, I think I'm playing 'I Want My Mullet Back'"), #3 got a digital camera.


• The big Christmas secret was a Wii given to the girls by some folks at our church. We've never had anyone do anything like that for us before. They also gave me a REALLLY nice designer purse (I've never had anything like THAT before) and Hubby a new suit. WOW!


• We did not make it to a second church service. Youngest was exhausted by 7:30 and it just wasn't worth dragging her back to church for more churching. Hubby got home at 12:45 a.m. He hasn't had to do the late services in several years so I'd kind of forgotten how hard that makes Christmas morning.


• Ate tamales Christmas night. They came from a proper restaurant and were delicious. I kind of missed the feeling of taking my life into my hnds eating tamales that were prepared who knows where!


• I got some casual jewelry for Christmas (which I asked for) from hubby and my friend and my oldest. Cute stuff to wear with jeans and the like. My mom gave me my great great grandmother's engagement diamond as a necklace. That was a shock! Did not expect diamonds for Christmas! It is beautiful and rather LARGE!!!!! HEHEHEHe.


• Hubby also gave me an FM transmitter for my Ipod (So I can use my ipod in the car) and I gave him an FM transmitter for his ipod. I was expecting mine but I surprised him with his. hehehehehehe


• I also gave hubby a "BUTT-OUT" which is a very useful tool for field dressing a deer. And the look on hubby's face when he pulled it out of his stocking was priceless.




• Went to Dallas with my two youngest and my parents while hubby took oldest deer hunting.


• Stayed up until midnight with my brother the first night in Dallas having the most honest and indepth conversation I've had with him in probably 20 years.



• Took my girls to the American Girls store in Dallas with my mom and my neice. Aiyiyiyi. Very crowded. Insanely crowded. Don't need to do that again!

Returned home to lots of laundry and Christmas that needs to be taken down and put away. Got the laundry done last night but Christmas hasn't even been touched!

Church today, hubby coming home tonight.

• And that's the update!

The Final Countdown

So here we are on Christmas Eve Eve. I have donw my part to keep the economy going for one more year. I think I'm going tohave to brave Wal-Mart one more time tomorrow morning. My plan is to get up early and run, it's pretty chilly here now (probably in the upper 30s in the morning) so I shouldn't be too gross and sweaty and then hit Wal-Mart before 8 a.m. There's an accessory that we need for the double secret classified gift and I am hosting Christmas morning brunch for 15 people and realized that I probably ought to have some OJ to go with the rest of the food. We don't drink OJ so I don't think about it but offering water, milk and coffee is a little limited. I'm also on the hunt for some good tamales for Christmas Day dinner. I think this is the first ime in about a century that we don't have plans for Christmas Day dinner. Last year the big meal was delayed a day because of violent stomach virus that invaded my parent's house. We all liked having that downtime so much that we decided to delay Christmas Dinner until the 26th again this year. Anyway, I want tamales but I think I'm a little late in starting my search. (YA THINK!) There's a little tamale stand out in front of someone's house about 10 minutes from my house that I used to pass when I was going to the community college for my nursing school prereqs. It is worth a stop over there to see if they are open tomorrow. Of course, buying tamales from a stand in front of someone's house is also just asking for the violent stomach illness of '06 to return! I think I actually want the tamales enough to risk it!

Church starts tomorrow at 3 p.m. with the first of the children's services. Two youngest are singing in their choirs at that one so we will attend as a family. Then it is off to my mom and dad's for dinner. Then hubby has to assist at the 9 p.m. and 11p.m. lessons and carols services. I think the girls and I might try to attend the 9 p.m. service. I've never done that with the kids before but I think they are old enough now and it sounds kind of nice. I might take them to look at Christmas lights before hand in the really old weathy neighborhood. How's that for a christmas bribe: "If you will go with my to church at 9, I'll take you to look at Christmas lights on mansions." My kids wouldn't be able to resist!

So that's the plan stan...I'm feeling surprisingly serene given the time of year. It's kind of nice. I think I'll have a cookie.

Christmas secrets abound!!!!!!

Now, I certainly am not naive enough to believe that my children wouldn't happen to see my blog over my shoulder so I will not be divulging any secrets here but let's just say that I am excited because they will be sooooooooo surprised!!!!!!



The shopping is wrapping up. I'm making breakfast gift baskets for the staff at church. They'll get a homemade mix to make buttermilk pancakes, some gourmet coffee and a bottle of maple syrup. I've got lots of presents to wrap but I love to wrap presents so that will actually be fun. I'm not great at the present wrapping thing but I love the colors of the wrapping paper and picking a coordinating ribbon to go with.



Oh and have I mentioned that I have NO SCHOOL FOR A MONTH!!!! Don't get me wrong I really love nursing school. But it is really nice to be done and not studying for now. Oh and did I mention that I got all A's? I'm pretty proud of that!

Tomorrow, I'll assemble gift baskets, make cracker candy and finish up the shopping...

I'M DONE, I'M DONE, I'M DONE

I finished my last final this morning. Now I have a WHOLE month off of school. Yippee!!!!!!!!! So far I have three of four grades and I have A's in all of them! DOUBLE YIPPEE!!! Off to a Christmas party tonight. I am so relieved! Now to tackle Christmas shopping. Any suggestions for my 15 year old neice??????

Halfway there....

I have taken two finals and have two more to take. Not too worried about tomorrow's final. Thursday is going to be a bugger. Pathophysiology. Cumulative over the whole semester. 150 questions. There is a lot that can go wrong with the human body and that translates into a lot to learn, relearn, memorize, and remind myself about.

So far though, the grades are pretty good. I'm getting the grades I need on the final to get an A in the classes. Too bad the final analysis comes down to minimums needed for the all important A.

Study, study study....

25 minutes

I'm almost half way there. This is soooooo painful.

Back to the books....

Accountability

I hereby swear that I am going to study for the next hour. Without stopping to clean, run, talk, surfor calculate. Then I am going to leave the house to do both necesary and unneccesary errands! One hour. Starting.......NOW

Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays: Are you offended?

So the season is upon us and with it comes the blooming controversy over Happy Holidays vs. Merry Christmas. My mother is horribly offended when someone in retail says Happy Holidays to her. She says she ALWAYS replies "And a Merry Christmas to you!"

I honestly don't get it. I don't really care what some retail person says to me. If they don't mean "Merry Christmas" as in "Hey sister in Christ, I'm so happy to remember that Jesus was born to take away the sins of the world", then why would I want them sharing a greeting with me that they find meaningless, when it is loaded with meaning for me? Isn't it a great sign that the holiday is becoming secularlized. Seriously, then those of us that actually celebrate Christmas have the amazing opportunity to standout a little and be a little different. Maybe that will put a little pressure on Christians to behave in a way that reflects our beliefs. MAybe if there isn't a meaningless, Merry Christmas everywhere you go, someone will wonder, what does that really mean, Merry Christmas? And once someone starts wondering....

I dunno. I just don't see how secularization, both of Christmas and of the larger culture, is really a bad thing. I see it as a way to draw a greater distinction between what it means to live as a follower of Jesus and, well, what it means to not live as a follower of Jesus. I see it as a tremendous opportunity for the Church and something we should embrace, not as something we should be offended by.

However, this was sent to me recently and I have to say it is pretty funny... Merry Tossmas

Procrastination

Things that I can do instead of studying...
1. Clean! Always a good productive use of possible study time. I swept the kitchen and den, vacuumed, cleaned the kitchen and folded several loads of laundry.
2. Run! I ran 4 miles this morning. Now generally I am a pretty slow runner but my 4 miles was pretty quick for me at 44 minutes.
3. Surf! There's always the internet to distract one from the books. I did pretty good not spending too much time on that because there's nothing to show for that time. Way too obvious of a procrastination method. Check out the clip of Jenna Bush calling her Mom and Dad unannounced on the Ellen Show. Pretty Funny!
4. Talk! Talked on the phone with Teri for about 30 minutes. I folded clothes at the same time. Excellent use of time!
5. Calculate! My favorite way to procrastinate from studying is to get out the calculator and figure out what grade I need to get on the final to make the grade I want in the class. For example, in my pharmacology class I can be a no-show on the final, take a zero and still pass the class. For my more high acheiving self, if I can squeak out a 64 on the final I'll have an A in the class. I think for my clinical class I need an 86 on the final for an A in the class. I can't remember the rest of them.

So there you see it. Now you know how I spend my time when I really outta be studying!

One less thing to do before I die...

So the mini storage place down the street from me was advertising a public auction on their LCD sign for today. I figured what the heck, there may be some great bargains, expecting that you would see individual stuff from storage units that had unpaid bills on them. Not so much. They auction off the Entire unit! And all you can do is look in you can't enter it before you bid. And you have to have it emptied that day or you pay rent on it for the full month. I watched four units get auctioned. The highest price was around $300. One unit went for $65. I did not bid on anything!

I also found that to look in someone's cluttered storage unit with garbage bags of stuff and broken furniture and whatnot is sorta depressing if you think about it long enough. In one unit right by the door there was a duffle bag that was full of photo albums. Someone's pictures got auctioned to the highest bidder. Kinda sad, ya know...

What would people think if they saw a storage unit full of my stuff? Trash or treasure?

Pringles

I am here to share with my blogging audience (which is said very tongue in cheek because at most I get like 8 hits a day on my blog) that my big weakness in life (o-kay one of my bog weaknesses in life) is Pringles. I love them. I bought a can at school Monday to "share" with my friends at lunch and finished the whole thing off my Tuesday afternoon. (BTW, none of my so called friends helped me out by even eating ONE Pringle so I would be able to say that I DIDN"T eat the whole thing by myself.) So there's my weakness. Now here's the reason why I am telling you this today. Lest night, Hubby brought home a Gallon sized zip lock bag stuffed with Pringles. Seems the children's department at church is doing a craft that required Pringles cans. Rather than beg for Pringles cans for months on end they just went out a bought a case or two and dumped the Pringles out and handed them out to the staff. So now I have a ridiculous amount of Pringles calling me from my pantry. I know I'm not going to be strong. The question really is how dry my mouth will be from all the salt by the time I'm done....

So the guy who has this collection may actually be a bigger Pringles fan than I...

Photo of the week...

Yesterday we all loaded up in the truck for an afternoon of Geocaching and outdoor fun. (If you don't know what geocaching is click the link above, it is a lot of fun!) We headed about 45 minutes south to Brazos Bend State Park. The park's claim to fame is its alligators, 100s of them. Unfortunately we didn't see any gators but we did see this guy...

James isn't really holding it but it looks like he is. Pretty cool. His hand is on the other side of the web to provide a background. The rangers will tell you that these guys are harmless but I maintain that if one got in my hair because I walked into its web, I would be seriously injured as i fell into a lake in my mad screaming fit to get it off and then the gators would have me for lunch! So far, knock on wood, we've seen lots of spiders on our adventures out there but have managed to steer clear.

Things in my mind at 6:45 on Saturday morning...

1. When I caught a glimpse of myself in the bathroom this morning my first thought was, "Huh, I look like Garth today." The other famous person I've been known to look like is Tonya Harding. Still waiting for someone to mistake me for Charlize Theron...

2. I had my last clinical day on Thursday. If I could figure out a gentle way to make every hospitalized person move their bowels predictably and painlessly, I would be a rich woman. Pooping ( or lack thereof) is a major focus of life when people are in the hospital! We can inhibit the HIV virus from replicating on a biochemical level, we can kill cancer cells with radiation, but we can't make a constipated person go without lots of nasty side effects. Never would have guessed that...

3. In celebration of my last clinical day, I have a massage scheduled for this morning! Heavenly. I never schedule massages for myself just because I'd like one. I always wait until somone gives me one as a gift or soemthing like that.

4. Aside from my massage we have nothing scheduled for today, no soccer games, no birthday parties, no errands that HAVE to be run, NOTHING! How delightful. Not sure what we are going to do with our day but it almost doesn't matter. I'm just s pleased to have a day with my family.

5. Sing it sista-friend! Karen gives us some inspired wisdom about the ridiculousness of toys that are available for little girls these days. We currently own a Polly Pockets car race track that is actually pretty cool for a girls toy until you see what the cars are racing for....To get to the MALL. Blech!It makes me wonder....30 years ago, Barbie rode around in her Vette, hung out with her friends, had great clothes and a nice town house. Eventually that got her in trouble so she got a career. Teacher barbie, astronaut barbie, doctor barbie, pooper scooper dalk walker barbie. Now barbie's got an income so she has to spend it so the focus now is consumer Barbie. Is that how we got to a point where little girls only activity in life is to buy stuff? Or perhaps we have so over sensitized people to the political incorrectness of everything that the only activity left that doesn't piss off half the consumers out there is shopping. I dunno, but I HATE it!

6. I ought to be studying. 'Nuff said.

7. I love my morning coffee. I'm not a drink coffee all day sort of person but, man, I love that first cuppa in the morning.

8. Last one, next semester one of my clinical days will be in Labor and Delivery. Yippee!!!! Here's the delimma. Which hospital should I try to go to....Slightly progressive, has a midwifery group that delivers there (major plus), where wealthy white women go to have their babies, (also where i was assigned to clinical this last semester), still accept medicaid patients, plenty of resources vs. county hospital, delivers LOTS of babies (big plus), will probably be able to assist more because of the busyness of L&D, will probably be harder emotionally because of the assembly line nature of it all. Weigh in, dear readers, with your votes....

Patho test!

On my last post I was off to take a patho test. Took it, aced it, went home and enjoyed a glass of wine with my hubby! I got a 95 on the test. I LOVE getting good grades. I'm sure everyone does but getting an A on a test is the same thrill as finding a really great bargain on something that you really needed anyway, or realizing that you've lost weight. It is a thrill that says with me for a couple days. And with the way the nursing school curriculum is about the time that thrill wears off, I've got another test to take! Ha!

I'm getting a lot of questions from my classmates about how I study. And the fact is that I don't study for hours on end, which I'm sure is just demoralizing for those that do study for hours and then barely pass. One thing is that I realized how much I have learned about medicine just from having kids who get sick with normal kid stuff and who have gotten sick with some pretty out there kid stuff (we had a rheumatic fever scare a year ago, turned out it wasn't but I learned a lot fabout rheumatic fever and valvular heart disease in the process). So my new answer is that I have kids and I watch House. I still don't think they believe me! I think the real answer is, I have kids, I watch House (and pay attention to the medical stuff looking up things on the Internet that i don't understand), I have subscribed to the Medscape weekly rundown of exciting new journal articles for a couple years (and I read a couple of them!), I read books about medical stuff just for fun, and friends and family have called me for medical advice for a long long time and I'm usually right in line with what their docs tell them. So I guess that's why I get good grades on the tests!

Oh, and, 6 year old survived her fieild trip just fine without us.

Leave it to a 6 year old to bring you back to earth

So after my cautious post about how wonderful things are going my 6 year old cried off and on for about an hour yesterday that neither of her parents were going on her Kindergarten field trip. Now really, this kid has a flair for the dramatic and I saw a significant lack of tears in all te wailing but I just had to laugh at the irony of it all! And the funniest part is that when I was a full time stay at home mom i couldn't go on field trips with the other girls because I had a baby or toddler at hoem that i needed to take care of!

Karen - Thanks so much for your comments. I soooo appreciate what you said. I was thinking today that it is true that the girls don't need me as much any more. So I guess the balance is that even though I may have been happier working when they were little, they needed me too much. My sense of fulfillment and happiness is easily sacrificed because of their need for me to be there. And because they needed me more being home with them was pretty fulfilling for me too. Now , though, they are older and our needs have balanced out some. And that is why all of this is working out so well.

Off to see what I made on my Pathophysiology test...

True confessions

Yeah, it's nothing juicy so get your mind out of the gutter.

No the tue confession today is about how much I love being in school and how much more settled i feel with more on my plate than I did when I was strictly a stay at home mom. Now part of that is just the nature of being a SAHM when the kids are babies. Somedays it is good some days it is really really hard, especially when you are doing the toddler years for several years on end as several kids move through that phase. I know that staying home was the right thing to do. I have no doubt about that. In fact it wasn't even a struggle to decide to do so. I hardly had an exciting career I was leaving behind! (I worked for a hospital system in PR writing articles for internal publication with a whopping salary of $16,000/ year.) And honestly, I have not had a lot of sympathy for women who say that they "just couldn't stay home, they'd go crazy!" or "I'm a better mom when I'm working." It was really hard for me to understand that on any level. I'd read studies that say that moms who are working feel less stress than moms who stay at home and pretty much blew them off. But let me tell you, the last 10 weeks or so have been so GREAT! I'm doing really well in school so that definitely helps the stress levels. But more than that, I've lost weight, I'm very content and settled feeling, despite the increased activity, and I can't tell you the number of people who have stopped me at church and said things like, "You look wonderful!" or even "Whatever you are doing, keep doing it, I've never seen you look better." And that's LOTS of people, ranging from thsoe who know about nursing school to those that don't.

I've invested so much into my kids over the last 11 years that it makes me feel a little guilty that I like this so much. Shouldn't I be miserable being away from them? Shouldn't I be totally stressed out and sleep deprived? Do my feelings of contentedness now mean that i would have been a better mom if I'd done this long ago? I hope not. I hope that as hard as staying home with little ones was in retrospect that it was worth it. And I hope that as much as I like this now I am not missing the signs that this is negatively affecting my kids. They seem pretty good too. They talk about wishing that i didn't have to go to nursing school oin this day or that day but the fact is that they have to go to school too!

Anyway, that's what I've been pondering lately.

All Saints Sunday

Albrecht Durer "Adoration"

Today at church was All Saints Sunday. We remember all the members of our church who have moved from the Church Militant to the Church Triumphant over the last year. In non-church speak that's all the folks who have died. At our church we sing the hymn "For All the Saints" and after each verse pause as the pastor's take turns reading from the Necrology (Non-church speak: the list of names of the people who have died.) It makes me cry and feel great thanksgiving at the same time. I grew up with hymns in church. Then moved to the more contemporary praise chorus worship. Didn't like the hymns much as a kid. Didn't understand them. As an adolescent and young adult theworld of comtemporary worship music was very very appealing. It was my languarge. Now, though, I have a new appreciation for the complexity of the lyrics of hymns. There is often so much good theology represented in beautiful language. "For All the Saints" is one of the great hymns in my mind. Somehow that hymn makes me feel like the two churches, visible and invisible are connected in one reality at least for a moment.

For All the Saints

1. For all the saints, who from their labors rest,
who thee by faith before the world confessed,
thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

2. Thou wast their rock, their fortress, and their might;
thou Lord, their captain in the well-fought fight;
thou in the darkness drear, their one true light.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

3. O may thy soldiers, faithful, true, and bold,
fight as the saints who nobly fought of old,
and win with them the victor's crown of gold.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

4. O blest communion, fellowship divine!
We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
yet all are one in thee, for all are thine.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

5. And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long,
steals on the ear the distant triumph song,
and hearts are brave again, and arms are strong.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

6. From earth's wide bounds, from ocean's farthest coast,
through gates of pearl streams in the countless host,
singing to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost:
Alleluia, Alleluia!

Drug seeking or in pain?????

So today for clinical day I had a patient who had lots of stuff wrong with him. That's nothing new. Most people who end up on a general medical floor in a hospital for any length of time have lots of issues!

When I met him this morning he was very sleepy but very polite. Answered my questions, said please and thank you, yes ma'am and no ma'am. I bumbled around with the blood pressure machine as I tried to figure out where the small size cuff was and he didn't say anything or even seem to notice.

I don't want to say too much because of confidentiality so I'm trying to choose my words carefully....

After breakfast he complained of pain in his abdomen. Rated it over a 10 on a pain scale. His nurse (the real one, hahaha) blew him off and said to me later, "He's just looking for drugs, did you see him!" Yes, there were some physical aspects of him that one might associate with a wild and crazy lifestyle. But seriously, this guy is too sick to sit up in bed, doesn't live independently and somehow is jonesing for a fix 24 hours out of ICU. And with everything worng with this guy, who cares if he is addicted to morphine! I hope someone gets me nice and addicted if I am ever in the kind of shape he is in. That's what morphine is for!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was appalled. The pt picked up on it too. He said he didn't like her (the nurse) wanted someone else to take care of him. The nurse said she would page his doc and see about getting him something stronger for the pain. 6 hours later the doc showed up for rounds and the pt finally got some morphine.

Now the fact is that the nurse didn't withhold pain meds. He didn't have orders for anything else. But we are nurses. We are supposed to be at least interested in alleviating suffering. Maybe I'm naive but it seems to me that at least being interested and taking a pt's report of pain seriously does something to alleviate it.

Please, readers, if I get to be a nurse and write a post about some drug seeking pt and act all superior because I've judged this pt based on his history or physical appearance yell at me. YOU CAN EVEN USE ALL CAPS!

Happy Birthday Sweetpea!

Here's my girl!

These are copies of prints that I made with my digital camera so the quality isn't great. Back when she was born digital was a poor substitute for film! Above: I think this is the day we came home from the hospital so she's about 24-30 hours old. And sleeping in MY bed!!!!! Honestly, I don't think that child slept again until she was 6 months old!



Baby's first Sunday at church! So she was probably about 10 days old. I look so young! Who is that woman??????
First day of school 2007! You've come a long way, baby! I love you!

Buy Local

So today is my middle daughter's 8th birthday. She's 8. I can't believe it. It only seems like yesterdayI heard my midwife saying, "Come on Magan, push your baby out!" and I realized in that moment that I was the only one that was going to get her out, not my encouraging husband, not my doulas, not my midwife. Just me. I pushed so hard the blood vessels in my eyes hemorraged and I had little red spots in the sclera (the white part). But that push got her under the pelvic bone and I realized a few minutes later I was really going to have a VBAC.

Anyway, that isn't event he point of this post. The point is that I am going to have lunch with the above mentioned baby at school and wanted to bring her flowers just for fun. So I was debating about whether to go to a local florist I've never set foot in or run to Kroger. Went to the local florist but my fear was they would be way more $$$ than I wanted to spend and I'd have to walk out empty handed and embarrassed. On the way in i noticed a computer repair shop next door so I popped in there to ask about the click buttons on my laptop. The guy said he could fix it but it would be around $150 and the easiest thing to do would be to just get an external mouse for about $10 at Wal-Mart. Big DUH! moment for me. That's an obvious fix! But how nice of him to tell me that! So I go into the florist tell her I what I want and shy (chepa premade bouquet or even a single rose for 8 yo b-day.) She's low on flowers because her shipment comes in this afternoon but says she can do a red rose for me. Puts it in a tube of water, wraps it in tissue, adds a bow and says, "You're all set, there's no charge!" WOW! I hope I can give both of these businesses some paying business sometime soon!

Ramblings....

Ramble #1: I don't watch Dancing with the Stars on a regular basis but have heard about Marie Osmond fainting after her Samba or Lambada or whatever she was doing. then I saw her interviewed on GMA this morning. She claimed that she fainted because of her allergies and the smoke in the air from the fires in S. Cal. I know I'm not a nurse yet but I have NEVER heard of anyone fainting because of allergies. She is sooooooooo clearly dealing with a health issue she doesn't want to talk about. Which is fine. She should be able to keep her health issues private but who told her to say it was her allergies? Even "I was so nervous about tonight that I didn't eat and my blood sugar got low" is more believable than my allergies made me do it.

Ramble #2: I get to observe in the OR tomorrow for my clinical day. I'm looking forward to it. The OR is very cool! But the best part is that I don't have to do any of the pre-clinical paperwork today. That is way cool!

Ramble #3: We have a German Shepard named Emma. She is almost 9 years old and we adore her! Occasionally she gets to run around the neighborhood when the gate gets left open accidentally. She always comes back when called pretty promptly. Well last night she got out and, with today being trash day, she came back with a little product of her scavenging. Guess what my brilliant dog brought home..... A STEAK! Yes, she found a steak in someone's trash and brought it home. Cracked me up! No, she didn't get to eat it. Table food makes her barf. But because she is a brilliant dog she dropped it as soon as I said, "Drop it, Em!" Love that dog!

Ramble #4: My laptop click buttons (I'm sure they have a proper name don't know what it is) don't work very well and it is getting very annoying. You click and sometimes it doesn't work. Sometimes you click once and it clicks three or four times. Need to get that fixed. Hope it isn't expensive.

Ramble #5: California Wildfires. Very very sad and scary for those folks. Reminds me of all the evacuation related to Katrina.

Ramble #6: Houston weather right now is absolutely gorgeous. Finally a real break from the heat and humidity. Highs in the 70s and lows in the 50s. Wearing long sleeves and long pants to run in the morning. LOVE IT! By mid October the Houston heat starts to get really really really annoying and it makes me CRANKY!

Things that I find shocking!

1. I recomended a book to a nursing school friend last week, Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler. I assured her it is up to date and the "Bible" of natural family planning/ fertility awareness. Than I got to thinking...the child that we charted and took basal body temperatures to conceive is going to be 8 years old on Friday, which means my copy of that book is about 9 years old. That is SHOCKING!
2. My Mini-van has 120,000 miles on it. It still runs great and I still actually like it as a vehicle but 120,000 miles! Really!?!?! That is SHOCKING!
3. It has been two years since I have seen my friend Teri. I hate that and find it SHOCKING!
4. When I look back at my posting as I started this semester I wonder who is that terrified person who was so freaked out by nursing school? Things are certainly busy and I have to get my work done but this is definitely doable, at least so far.... The fact that i was so off on my assessement of how hard this would be is SHOCKING!
5. That a little boy could get suspended from school for drawing a stick figure with a gun, I find SHOCKING! (And incredibly stupid! Boys have been drawing pictures with gun for a long long time.)
6. The number of people who hit my blog because they are googling stuff about nemas is really quite SHOCKING! (And a little disturing!)

I'm sure there's more but it is time to go off to class, Pharmacology here I come!

pumpkin patch day from a mom of 11 years

I read "Diary of a Mad Housewife" this morning and laughed at the idea that once you've gotten over a few "firsts" of motherhood you stop taking yourself so seriously...

"Eleven years ago, I don't think I would have given a dollar to my DD for a tooth that wasn't even real. The "FIRST TOOTH" would have been too monumental a moment to mess around with and I would have told DD that the tooth fairy knew it wasn't a real tooth.I don't take myself that seriously anymore. I can't. There are too many monumental moments out there waiting for us to mess with them."

So today after a soccer game, I took the girls to a local pumpkin patch and grabbed my camera on the way out the door. I DID NOT coordinate their outfits to go with each other and highlight the gorgeous oranges of the pumpkins. I DID NOT bring a brush with me to make sure every hair was in place for photos, heck, I didn't even make them brush their hair before we left. I DID NOT scope out the best spot for pictures fully framed with grass, blue sky and pumpkins. And I DID NOT get any fabulous pictures. I also DID NOT get freaked out about it. Actually it was kind of funny to see some of the moms of toddlers trying to cajole their little ones into perfect smiles and perfect poses. So here are my little pumpkins!

Made it through my first clinical day...

I stayed very very busy and I got to do some cool stuff. Basic stuff but nonetheless cool. I gave two subq injections, passed oral meds, cultured a wound, saline irrigated the wound and made a hospital bed. See, told you it was basic! I never really expected that I would be totally into med/surg nursing and despite having a good day, I'm still not. It's really hard to see people who are that sick, that might get better from whatever made them sick, but then they'll still have to deal with all their other health issues. For someone who wants to fix things, it just feels a little pointless! Next week we'll try again! In the meantime, lots and lots to do. Paperwork from my clinical day, two tests next week. Soccer game today. Hubby out of town. I'm stressed but should probably be even more stressed!

Going to the Hospital

It's 5 a.m. and I am at least awake, not sure about ready to go, for my first clinical day with patient care. Met my pt yesterday then did an enormous amount of paperwork. Then slept a little. A very little. I kept waking up afraid I had overslept. Now if I weren't used to getting up at 5 a.m. that might not be surprising. But the thing is that I get up between 5 and 5:30 every day!

Gotta go shower. Wish me luck!

Party party party!

Wedding: Check! Wonderful ceremony (of course it was done by MY hubby!) Bride and groom are in their 30s, thrilled to be finally getting married, and there's a bit of a tragic backstory (heart condition, life expectancy under 10 years, getting married anyway and going to make the most of the time they have together. Pray someone in the Texas medical center makes some stunning new cardiac advances very soon,) that made the "sickness and health, as long as we both shall live" leave everyone sniffling. But it was really really nice. My girls loved seeing the bride and all the flowers. Youngest dropped her dinner plate and shattered it into a million glass pieces. But there were so many other children there no one seemed to be too horrified just concerned that she not hurt herself. (She had two tiny little scartes on the top of her foot that were bleeding a bit, I tried to pass them off as spots of cranberry sauce off her plate but hubby blew my cover with, "That's not cranberry sauce." "I know that!" I said, "But cranberry sauce isn't scary!") She was upset until one of the waitstaff dropped a plate and two glasses about 5 minutes later!

Birthday party: That went off very well. Hubby thought the money was WELL worth not having the kids at our house even though out of 20 in the kindergarten class only 4 showed up! I invited 30 when the package price included 25 and was stressing that we might go over. HA! With other friends and cousins we had 12 kids total. Which is fine. I can't stand the mountain of presents that accompanies huge birthdays. So we have spent the morning getting Barbies out of the bondage of their packaging. Anyone with girls knows what I am talking about!

It's been over a week!

Since I posted anything here. Sorry 'bout that my devoted readers...All three of you...Ha!

So I had my first hospital day. It was all orientation. The closest I got to a patient was seeing a guy pushing an I.V. in the cafeteria. I still really like Flo. She's a trip and a half. Turns out her daughter has been a counselor at the camp my kids go to. My kids didn't have her but it is a small little church camp so the chances of that connection are pretty small. Next week, the fun begins. Bed baths, complete health history and vital signs. I really am more excited than nervous. i think the idea of interactingwith the staff makes me more nervous than anything else. Everyone talks about how busy the nurses are on the unit and being polite but assertive if you have questions and don't take a curt answer personally it is only because they are all so busy. That makes me nervous! After my clinical day I have pathophysiology until 9 p.m. I was soooooooo tired on Thursday and I spent a good part of orientation sitting at a computer! I was also the only person in patho in wearing scrubs so unless there were some people skipping I am the only one the nursing school saw fit to schedule a day that starts at 6:30 a.m. and ends at 9 p.m. Who did I piss off to get that assignment?!?!?!?

Other news....
Today we are going to a wedding (hubby is officiating) and then we are having Natalie's b-day party. (Yes, those of you in the know, know that her birthday was Sept. 2, I just couldn't get starting school, and b-day planned in the same month, so sue me). We are having it a a bounce house party place. I have never had a b-day party at a remote location before. We've always done them at the house. When I planned the party life was so overwhleming I didn't care how much it cost I was just thrillled to have it somewhere else! I am thrilled to have it somewhere else still but feeling a little lazy not having it here and spending so much money! But when I really think about it, I would have spent close to the same amount on food, decorations, etc. And now I can enjoy the wedding without stressing about the party that I have to put on afterward. The girls are very excited about the wedding and the party. They don't know the people getting married but just the idea of being invited was pretty cool to them!

Off to shower and get lovely for the wedding!

Week Six

So it is week six of nursing school. Next week i go to the hospital for the first time with my clinical group. Next week we will just be doing orientation but after that I will be responsible for patient care for a 5-6 hour period once a week. We've been practicing skills in the lab for the last 6 weeks but it is a little freaky that someone is going to be subject to my first attempt to give an injection, insert an NG tube and - gasp - administer an nema.





Speaking of nemas...





Just what you wanted to read about on a blog, huh....





Today during lab we had the priviledge of watching an instructional video on how to give an nema. Now, giving an nema is not something I'm looking forward to certainly but if bodily functions totally gross a person out then nursing isn't a good career choice. So I accept the neccesity of doing gross stuff. My issue really is that there is a woman out there who chose to get an nema as part of an instructional video. Who are you???????? How much could MedCom (the company that made the movie) possibly pay you to make you let nursing students watch you get a tube up the hiney inperpetuity? I suppose I should be grateful to you for furthering my nursing education but iyiyi, I just can't imagine!

I've had two more tests and two more A's. I have to thanks Dr. House once again for his contribution to my good grades. Seriously, two things that were on House directly related to stuff we learned about this week. Have I mentioned that I LOVE that show! Anything that reduces the study time, right!

On a happier note, it is a lot of fun meeting new people and making new friends. I've met some really nice people so far!

A baby, Finally!

Teri had her baby!

Details are here on her blog...

All ELEVEN POUNDS of him! Wow! She is my hero. If that isn't evidence that a woman can birth the body she grows 95% of the time, I don't know what is.

Welcome to the world, little guy!

Weekend Update...

It's been a quiet weekend. Hubby went dove hunting so its just been me and the girls. My friend and her kids came over for dinner Friday and Saturday nights for spagetti night and waffle night. I love having breakfast for dinner! The best waffle recipe on the planet is from Heloise, the advice columnist...

Heloise's Waffles

Ingredients:
2 Cups biscuit mix
1/2 Cup oil
1 Egg
1 1/3 Cups Club soda

Mix together and cook on a hot waffle iron. The batter will not keep but you can freeze the finished product.

I've made waffles from scratch with egg whites that are beaten stiff and folded into the batter. Heloise's waffles are much better and are soooooooooo much easier.

Today the girls and I will go to church, come home and I'll probably do some housework, laundry and whatnot, and study some. Pretty boring...

But in just a few minutes, I am going to go run. I probably have time to do about 3 miles before I need to get home and get ready for church. It is cool again this morning and I am going to take advantage of it. My running schedule has definitely suffered since starting nursing school. I miss it and my waist line misses it more. I have some new Kindlings Muse loaded onto my ipod. (The Kindlings Muse is this very cool website with podcast interviews of "thoughtful creatives" as the host calls them usually having something to do with faith and culture. I found it through Katiekind. Thanks!)

Last on my list today is to continue praying for Teri. Baby number 4 is now about 12 days over due and labor is just puttering along. Praying for her stamina and her spirits. Who knows...Maybe there is a baby already and I just haven't gotten a call yet...One can always hope!!

Foley Catheters and Dressing changes

Ya know, when you have phrases like Foley Catheter and IM injections on your blog you get all sorts of interesting google hits. So really, visitors, I'd love to know who you are and what you think. Leave me a note!

Anyway, today I practiced inserting a Foley Catheter on a mannequin no doubt. I'm sure the first time I do a real one it will freak me out but on a plastic mannequin it is no problem! Best tip from my instructor...Give everyone a little peri bath regardless of whether they need it. It gives you time to make sure you have the right hole! I'm so sorry to my non-medical readers. Probably way too much information!!!!!! We also practiced dressing changes which involves maintaining a sterile field. Asceptic technique is a very cool concept to me. Maybe my calling will be in the OR and not in L&D. We don't have a dedicated O.R. rotation so I'm hoping that as I get further along some of our surgeon friends will let me come watch a couple surgeries just for fun. Im such a nerd!

Speaking of nerds...

I got a 97.5 on my Pharm test. The class average was an 88 so everyone seems to have done well. Always a good confidence booster to do well on the first exam. i have another test on Monday in Assessment (which is basically "how to do a physical exam 101) that I need to spend some time studying for. So sinc eI don't have class again until 5 I guess I should get off my blog and go do something productive!!!

I PASSED!!!!!!

Yippee! I passed!!!!! Which means I got a 100 on a math test. Now that is definitely a first!!!!!

AND, more excellent academic news....

Hubby got final, final, final approval for his doctoral project which means come December we can all call him DOCTOR! Now that has been 10 YEARS in the making! What a happy day!

AND, one more thing, afternoon classes were canceled because there was no water in the building! This is good for obvious reasons but not so good because they will figure out a way for us to have to make this up!

Some cool weather!!!

Right around mid-september Houstonians start to get real grumpy cause its been so darn hot for so long. Well, yesterday we had our mid-September taste of December, which means it was only in the 80s with low humidity and a breeze. It was so nice. The girls played outside all afternoon. Hubby put together our new grill (without needing I.V. fluids for dehydration afterwards.) I'm sure it will be blazingly hot and humid again today but we all needed a little reminder that it won't be 95 degrees and 90% humidity forever!

Today's my math test...Dreamed I got to the test, fell asleep and woke up with 5 minutes left. Then I tried doing the problems as fast as I could and the numbers kept changing.

Nursing school: The week in review...

So here are some thoughts about nursing school as I go into my fourth week...

1. Going back to school as an adult is very different than when I did this as an 18 year old. Probably an obvious statement... But what surprises me the most is that I get all hot under the collar when the faculty starts in on being prepared for class and doing the reading, etc, implying that we are all slackers. When I was 18 I would have probably agreed that without some serious shaming I wasn't going to do my work. As I was venting about this to hubby he said, "Now, when people talk to you like that you send them to their rooms!" Very true very true. I'm totally not used to having an adult talk to me like I'm an idiot.

2. Computers have changed things. Again an obvious statement! My organizational method for school prior to this was a spiral notebook for notes for each class preferably with built in pockets for the syllabus and any handouts. Now, we have a virtual classroom on the computer where announcements, the syllabus and all the notes or powerpoint slides are posted. We are supposed to print out the syllabus before the first class and each set of powerpoint slides that go with each lecture. Using the school's computer lab that isn't too difficult, they have high speed printers and unlimited paper! The downside is that I think having the instant download option makes the faculty less organized and less forgiving. So if an instructor doesn't post powerpoints until Sunday for a 9 a.m. Monday lecture, Oh Well, you still need to have it printed. Whine whine whine....

3. I had my first run in with a doctor this week. I was waiting for the elevator to go up to my car in the parking garage and didn't realize it had come and the doors were open (there are two elevators and it doesn't make any noise when it comes). There was a guy in scrub waiting as well right in front of the opening elevator. He SNAPPED at me, as in with two fingers snapped, and then said, "GO!" He SNAPPED at me! I almost sent him to his room. In the elevator I saw his name badge said he was a resident at Methodist. We'll assume he was coming off of a 36 hour shift or something but really, SNAPPING at a person? I MIGHT let Dr. House snap at me, MIGHT!

4. I learned to give a bedbath and to make a bed this week. Must remember to thank my mom for insisting on hospital corners when we made our beds as kids. Making a hospital bed is a snap! Only trick is that you can't flap the linens to get them straight. Too much dust and linen lint gets popped into the air. We gave a bed bath to a manniquin. We'll see how that goes with a real person. Our lab time was delayed by four hours because of Hurricane Humberto (we didn't get even a drop of rain because it veered off at the last minute). And we got chastized by one of the instructors for not watching the videos ahead of time. We were supposed to watch the videos during lab but they skipped it because of the delay. Somehow we were supposed to intuit that it would be a good idea to search around the vitual classroom, find bedbath and bedmaking videos, guess that they were associated with the lab class (because there are at least two different videos on each of those topics) and watch them, because we would just KNOW instintively that they would want to skip that part after the delay. See point number 1 to see how I feel about this.

5. Met my clinical instructor. Her name is Flo. She's probably early 50s, from the East Coast so she has a New Yorkish accent. Really really like her! Very nice.

6. I have my first round of tests this coming week. Dosage calculations which is a math test and pass/fail. You get 100, you pass, you get anything else, you fail. No pressure....And I have a pharmacology test. Learned some cool stuff about pain and pain meds last week. When increased slowly and over time, Morphine has no ceiling, which means that you can give someone huge doses of Morphine without causing liver or kidney toxicity, as long as their dose was increased slowly as their tolerance to the drug increased. And I learned that in an emergency you don't need a doctor's order to use Narcan (the antidote to narcotics).

7. Learned to take a blood pressure. No not using the automatic machine! Using a cuff and a stethescope.

So that's the week in review. Any one need their blood pressure checked? I'm your girl!

Random, oh so Random

I got my Land's End catalogue in the mail today. On the cover were featured 100% cotton No Iron Sheets. Apparently when they introduced the Ultimate No Iron Sateen Sheets last year our response was "We Want MORE!!" So they are proud to offer us the largest selection of pure cotton No Iron bedding ever made available. It never in a million years ever occurred to me to iron my sheets. So who are all these people who are screaming for more No Iron sheets. Really. Who are you? If you read my blog please post a comment. I would really like to know who you are.

Teri's baby...

As you can see from my side bar, I like to watch movies. I have had the priveledge of being somewhat involved in two of Teri's three (so far) births and each of them has had a movie associated with it.

With Cayna, I was there with her acting as doula. Her labor stalled midmorning so I went to get my haircut and grab some lunch. Got back to her house to find someone had dropped off some movies for her laboring pleasure. One was "About Schmidt", Jack Nicholson's midlife crisis movie. Kinda slow, Cathy Bates is the redeeming factor. Just not really a "My friend's having a baby, let's watch a movie" kind of movie. But we watched about half of it and then labor picked up and we "Forgot About Schmidt."

Bethanie came a week after I went out to wait for her birth and hopefully revisit the doula experience. The night Teri was laboring and had been all day, hubby and I watched "Open Water", that movie about the couple who gets left behind by the scuba boat and get eaten by sharks. It was a terrible movie. The wife was so whiney that we were begging the sharks to eat her already by the end. But nonetheless, the theme heightened my rising anxiety about what was going on with Teri's labor. By the time the movie was over I had called both hospitals in Redlands just in case she had transferred. She called before I went to bed with news of a long, hard labor to bring 11 pound 2 ounce Bethanie into the world. Teri became my hero that day!

So we are on labor watch once again. My nursing school schedule prevents even an attempt to make it to this birth, darn it! But I just wonder wonder wonder what movie will be associated with this little one's birthday? Will there be a new girl to love or a boy? How will Teri's labor and delivery go? And, how big will this one be?

Praying for you as you get to the end, my friend!

Nursing school...injections 101...the mannequin didn't complain!

I got to do something nursish (is that a word? The adjectival form of nurse?) today. Learn to give an intramuscular injection. Drew it up in a syringe, and injected it into the arm and butt of a mannequin. Turns out if you don't know what you are doing you can cause nerve damage if you accidently hit the sciatic nerve when giving an IM injection in the backside. Who knew! Good thing I'm paying attention. Everyone's sciatic nerve is absolutely safe under my syringe. I'm sticking with the arm!!!!!

The old homestead is up for sale

My childhood home is for sale. My dad sent me the link to the realtor. My parents sold it in 1992 I believe. Been a few changes since then in the pictures on the listing page but a lot is still the same. My parents bought it in 1979 for $125,000 I think. They remodelled, added a pool, built on a bedroom, gutted the kitchen and multiple paint changes in the time we lived there. It is hard to imagine that my childhood home is now worth that much money!!!!!

Here's a link if you are curious....

Drumroll please...... the long awaited before and afters!

We're mostly done!!!!! Hurray!!! Mostly because there wasn't enough carpet to finish my closet but that's minor enough that we spent the last day or so putting the house back together. It is seriously like moving and unpacking. I'm so pleased with how it turned out! It feels like a whole new house. I keep wondering, who lives here?

Family room before:

Family room after:

Living room before:

Living room after:

Oldest daughter's room before:

And after:

Nursing school and elephants...

So we made it through the first week. It is still overwhelming. I am in class, labs or clinicals 29 hours per week, and then there is studying on top of that. I'm pretty good at academics so I guess I'm not too worried about passing but there's a lot to learn and there's a lot riding on learning it. (If I hear one more instructor say "This is the MOST important class you will take during your nursing education because if you don't learn it you might kill your patients" I am going to quit and become a fireman!) I'm just going to focus on one day at a time, one assignment at a time, one class at a time, and get it done. When I was expressing concerns over how i was going to do this all, my kids' pediatrician, who is also a friend, suddenly stopped me and said, "How do you eat an elephant?" I looked at her blankly then clued in, "One bite at a time!" So that's going to be my new motto, my new brand for myself, the elephant. Helps that I'm generally a Republican! hehehe

One more thing...Thanks Teri and Karen for your cheerleading and support. It really does help me stay on the rational side of life!

Nursing School melt down

So i spent the last three days at orientation for nursing school. I learned CPR (30 compressions, 2 breaths repeat). I got a tour of the buidling. I got my schedule (I'm off on Wednesday and Friday which is great but Thursday will start at 6:30 a.m. with a clinical and end after Pathophysiology at 9 p.m.) I have scrubs, a lab coat, stethoscope and a lab kit complete with a Foley Catheter! I've met some of my class mates. And heard over and over how hard this is going to be but we will get through it!

But I'm still having melt downs. I will not be here when my youngest gets home from her first day at kindergarten and that makes me very sad. Actually, it made me boo-hoo several times over the day when no one was looking. It is all very overwhelming to think about how I am going to run my family, take care of the house, maintain what has been a really good marriage, go to class and clinicals, study for hours on end, try and get good grades and make sure my children still know what I look like. Yes, I know, that any working mother reading this says, "Welcome to my world." I know I will feel better once I get started. For now it is the unknown of it all that keeps me awake at night.

Then, my oldest found out that her two best friends are in her homeroom. I feel a little like I got a telegram from heaven that says, "Don't worry, if I can make the homeroom miracle happen surely I can get you through nursing school."

Where are the after photos?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Teri says she is impatiently waiting for after photos!

Well, guess what? ME TOO!!!!!!!!

The laminate job ended up taking 5 days instead of 2. We still haven't put everything back together because we are doing some rearranging as part of the redo process. The carpet was back ordered (that means I have really good taste right, that everyone wants the same carpet I do) so it won't be in until next week. Today, finally after a week of grossness the house is clean. It was so disgusting. One night we slept here when we really shouldn't have, the dust was so bad. I swear, I coughed for two days and could feel the grit in my teeth as I coughed up all the dust I inhaled that night. My beautiful new bathroom had dressers and chairs and all sorts of crap in it. The bathtub is still filled with stuff. So I'm definitely not ready for the true after shots and with school starting Monday the after shots may have Christmas decorations in them by the time we are done!

So I'll leave you with a little teaser...

In the end it will be worth it...

We are replacing the floors in our house. This is something I have wanted to do since we moved in 4 1/2 years ago. The budget then wouldn't allow it. Well, actually, there was so muchother stuff that desparately needed to be done we ahppily looked at the dark grey carpet and said, "Oh, it's not so bad!" So 4 1/2 years later the 10 year old carpet is disgusting. Seriously, there are places that should be placed in a biohazard bag and incinerated because it has been biologically contaminated by so many animals. So we decided that before I start school we are getting new floors. Laminate downstairs and new carpet for the bedrooms. It is going to look soooooooooo nice. But in the meantime, my living room and dining room furniture is all crammed in the den and there is a fine layer of dust all over EVERYTHING! I'm not a particularly fastidious housekeeper but seeing my house completely destroyed makes me feel a little shaky! I'll publish before and afters when it is all done but for today how about some "in progress" shots.

Random things about me

1. I currently have a dreaded "summer cold". Everyone says summer colds are the worst but I'm not sure why the summer cold is any worse than the winter cold. I feel just as crappy when it is 100 degrees outside as when it is 50.

2. The cold medicine I took last night (tylenol cold and sinus nighttime) leaves me significantly more hungover feeling than a vodka soda.

3. I got a B in my government class which brings my second time around at college GPA down to a 3.9.

4. I'm trying really hard to care about getting a B in that stupid class but the above mentioned drugged feeling is significantly interfering with my ability to feel shame. Or perhaps I'm so glad to be done with that stupid class that I'm willing to take the B without a second thought.

5. When I was a teenager at one point I had 20 or so penpals most of whom I got through the official U2 fan magazine. I wrote a lot of letters! I only ever met one of them.

6. I love fabric stores. I'm not particularly artistic or creative but fabric stores, particularly decorator fabrics like you would use to upholster or make curtains, just bring me great pleasure. The colors, textures and designs are just yummy! I wonder if there's a hidden talent in there that has something to do with fabric and design?

7. I need to go to a fabric store because I want to make a valance for the toilet room in my bathroom. The little window is small enough that I could use a really expensive fabric and only need a little of it! Kind of gets me excited....In fact I'm sure I would be very excited if I weren't still drugged from my cold medicine (see number 2 above).

8. I HATE sponge bob. Having watched a ridiculous amount of T.V. over the last week, I can tell you I hear that stupid laugh ringing in my house and just cringe. I imagine a bunch of nickelodeon execs sitting around going, "Well, we've got kids watching a little girl solve mysteries while her pet monkey wears red books, a blue dog that doesn't talk with a goofy wide eyed guy looking for paw prints -- what else can we do? Twenty bucks says they'll even watch a show about a yellow ocean sponge that wears tiddy whitey underwear."

Look out HGTV...

My bathroom is finally finished! It has been a work in progress for about a year. I wish I had before pictures. It was so horrid! It all started when I got a hankering to strip off the UGLY blue floral kinda Victorian wall paper last summer. It ended with ripping out the grey carpet and tiling the floor. I love it! the paintings are from a trip hubby and I took to China about three years ago. We bought them at a student artist's exhibition and had a really fun time meeting one of the artists. When we got back we were going to have them framed but were quoted about $150 EACH for the six painting we bought. We paid less then that for all six! When I decided I really wanted to do the bathroom around the paintings my mom saved the day by using ready made frames and artists' paper to mount them. Total framing bill for all six paintings was $120.

The paintings to the right and left are the four seasons or the four beauties. You can't really see the detail but they are really lovely!