Whatta week

And I didn't even have school on Monday!!!!!!!

Tuesday classes started at 8 a.m. where I facilitated my small group for my class that is aptly named "Working with Groups".  Probably going to be an easy A for everyone but time is so short these days it is hard not to find the development of group norms and roles and blah blah blah a bit unnecessary.  Especially as someone who has some experience in the evangelical subculture of small groups.  We practically wrote the book on it!  Then an exam in Women's health on Pregnancy.  No I didn't study more than about 30 minutes of rereading notes.  Got a 98.  Glad to know that I know as much as I think I know about pregnancy.  Say that 10 times fast.  That was followed by a lecture on something but I can't remember what at the moment.  Then an hour break for lunch and another pass/fail math test.  Passing is 100, anything else is failing.  Passed it but rumor has it that I was one of 12 who passed.  There's about 100 people in my class.  Scary!

Wednesday was 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. on labor and delivery.  Learned how to use the terms that describe the position of the baby's presentation.  Knew the terms before but didn't know how to look at a baby in the pelvis and apply them.  Again, as much I love the subject I don't think I want to review anything I already know for 7 hours!  Have noticed that the L&D nurses i've met so far (which represent the best of their profession cause they are teaching the subject!)  all have very very long fingers.  Now if you've ever had a baby and experienced that lovely thing called "getting checked" you might see why long fingers would be a good thing.  I definitely do not have long fingers.  Hoping my desire to be an L&D nurse and midwife isn't as doomed as my one time desire to be a fighter pilot (I have +5.5 correction in both eyes!).  

Thursday - skills lab.  Learned a little about neonatal resuscitation.  Cool.  Measured the fundal height on a real pregnant woman.  Kinda cool.  Practiced tracheostomy care on a mannequin.  Kinda cool but mostly lame.  Pretended to start an I.V. on a disembodied arm.  Do not feel any more competent to do that now than I did before I butchered the disembodied arm.  Learned how to hang an I.V. bag and run the I.V. pump.  Very practical and I thin I could replicate it with supervision without killing anyone.  

NExt week orientation at the hospital.  

Pray that I experience a growth spurt in my finger length.

Update to the to do list updated again!

I joined the ranks of crazy runners.  I ran 4 miles...2 of that in the rain.  It just wouldn't quit and I just really didn't want to run on the treadmill so I went out in the rain.  It stopped about mile 2.  By then I was quite soaked so much so that I could feel the weight of the water on my fleece under my rain jacket.  But running in the rain is extremely motivating to get one's booty in gear and run FAST!  So I did the four miles in 41 min (this is fast FOR ME, but I realize that there are many out there that could walk 4 miles faster than that!)  And I earned 5 activity points!  Yeah ME!  Rained allllllllll week here.  Got in a 3 mile run Monday and 4 miles today.  Have you noticed that i am over 25% of the way to my 100 mile running goal and it isn't even the end of January!  WOW!!!

Got the checkbook straightened out but didn't get the bills paid.  Must do that tomorrow.

NEver even took my pants out of the closet.  Got the pants shortened on Monday but haven't picked them up yet.  Next week.  Probably aren't ready anyway!

Got oldest her make up.  Just finished putting it on her.  She asked for help!  Yippee!  I was going to be bummed if I didn't get to help but totally expect that I wouldn't.  Lovely surprise.  And let me tell you, put some mascara and eyeliner on a red head and SHAZAAM!  She's transformed.  She looks like she has on false eyelashes!  And she knows she looks good.  I think that's the best part!  

Got half of the assignment for Tuesday done.  The second half is a "journal entry" which means no outside reading required!  So that should be easy enough.  Got that done and have finished this Tuesdya's assignment as well!  Whew!

Didn't completely accomplish everything on my list but I still feel like I had a pretty productive day!

It's raining, it's pouring...

So today I finally have a day off from school after all week of sitting in class listening to lectures.  I got up early so that I could get in a nice long run before everyone got up.  Just as I was finishing my coffee and getting ready to head out, guess what I hear tap tap tapping at the window pane....That;s right it is raining.  Now some very dedicated runners would go anyway, I suppose.  But it is windy, raining, dark and about 45 degrees.  I'm not that dedicated.  

Maybe I'll hit that YMCA after everyone goes to school.

Today's to do list....

1. YMCA workout.  I don't like running on the treadmill, BORING but I want activity points (a weight watchers thing...)

2.  Balance my checkbook and pay necessary bills.  That needed to be done earlier this week but there just wasn't any time.  

3.  Do some school work. I have an assignment due Tuesday I'd like to knock out today because I also have two tests on Tuesday: a medication calculation exam (no pressure, it's like the one last semester pass/fail. passing is 100, failing is everything else) and an exam in women's health over pregnancy (not too worried about that one.  After 7 hours of lectures yesterday I learned approximately one new thing, the stretchiness of fertile cervical fluid is called Spinbarkheit.)

4. Purchase oldest daughter's first real make up.  Let me say that again. Purchase oldest daughter's first real make up.  Which she is allowed to wear tonight to her first school dance.  And just so this sinks in too...Which she is allowed to wear tonight to her first school dance.  Aiyiyiyi  I learned all about fetal development yesterday in class but I still have no idea where the last 11 years went.  

5. Take my new jeans to the tailor. I got two pairs of jeans about 2 weeks ago with a Christmas gift card but haven't gotten them shortened yet so I haven't been able to wear them.  If you aren't short you don't understand what that means but basically when you buy clothes as a short person the pants are ALWAYS too long.  And not too long like they look cute dragging a little behind you but like you have 6 or more inches cut off the bottom.  If those pants happen to have  a little boot cut action going on, by the time they are shortened, they are pretty much straight leg.  Sometimes you can find short pants off the rack but at 5'1 those are often still too long unless I wear really high heels.  My new jeans were not available in short s they are unwearable until I get them over to the tailor.

I'm sure there's more I need to do so I'll try to add to this as I think of it.  Lists always help me stay on track!

traffic, clinical placement dreams and disappointments and weight watchers insights.

I wish I could blog while I'm sitting in traffic.  I know I thought of something that I could blog about this morning on the way to school but I sure can't remember what it was....

Well, I got my clinical sites.  I compromised on my dream sites: the large county hospital that delivers a zillion babies a day and M.D. Anderson Cancer Center  to avoid being assigned to a site that was very very far away form my house.  (One site is, no kidding, 60 miles away.  On the best of traffic days it would take me at least an hour to get there. No thanks!)  so I am at Clear Lake Regional Medical Center  for OB and back to the same placement I had last semester for Med/surg. I think I am most disappointed about the OB placement.  It is a private hospital and just not what I wanted.  But the reality is can a nursing student really go wrong? The fact is I have a lot to learn so it really doesn't matter where I am I will still learn a lot!  Right?  I'm trying to make my self feel better here.  And for sure Clear Lake is better than commuting practically to Dallas and back once a week!   

This week has just been tremedously busy and looonnnggg hours of lecture time.  I really wanted to run this morning but there just wasn't time despite getting up at 5 a.m.  Hopefully I can get some miles tomorrow.  I have been able to stay faithful to my weight watchers points all week.  It is amazing to me how little food I get during the day.  It isn't that I am starving or anything just that at my size, I only have enough points for three small meals and three small (healthy) snacks.  I'm not hungry all the time but I'm never stuffed and when it is time to eat I am very hungry!  It is amazing how good food tastes when you are really hungry and not just eating because it is time.  I hope that this process will help me get into the habit of learning that my food needs are significantly smaller than my eyes think and that I will not starve to death just because I am hungry before a meal.

New semester

Started the new semester yesterday.  It was soooooo nice to have that first day not hanging over my head any more.  It was fun to see my friends and catch up on how everyone is.  One of the ladies I was in clinical with last semester asked me if I had lost weight!  HA!  As a matter of fact I had, I just didn't know how much at that point.  BUT last night after all my classes I weighed in and had lost 4.6 pounds.  I was VERY pleased.  It made the fact that on Saturday  I ordered a grilled chicken sandwich at a great little burger joint worth it!  

The first day of the semester is always a little crazy with the faculty seeming to find the LEAST efficient way of doing administrative things and then complaining that we just don't have enough time to get through the material for the semester.  Computer problems abound.  The lab is packed with everyone in the entire building trying to print out ever piece of paper for the entire semester at the exact same time.  But at the end of the day the fact is that despite all the problems, I am back in the swing of things.  Another semester!  I'm pretty excited!  I'll have two clinical days this week (actually maybe even one clinical day and one clinical night, I could end up with a 3p-11p shift, which I think would be just fine.) and one of my clinicals is in Women's Health which translates into OB!  It will be interesting to see if there is really anything new to learn beyond memorizing a few sets of normal values.  Honestly, I'd be surprised if there is...

Gotta make school lunches (including one for your truly!)

Hungry

I'm hungry, like gnawing stomach, dull headache hungry.  I want to eat volume.  Like a lot of something.

So I'm eating a very large bowl of vegetable soup from Progresso that has zero points.  i like soup a lot.  And this one has a nice spicy, southwestern flavor.  I'm also making soup for dinner.  Thai Chicken Chowder for 4 points/ bowl.  I'

ve never made it before bt the recipe looks good.  We'll see.  

oh here's a picture of what I made Saturday night for dinner.  A copykat version of California Pizza Kitchen Thai Chicken Pizza. It was soooooo good and tasted exactly like the real thing.  No telling how many points it has!

Before measurements

Waist: 31.5

Hips: 41

upper arm: 11

thigh 21.5

So far the day is going well.  I have been very intentional about wen I eat and what I eat.  I went to the store and got the healthiest $98 of food that I have ever seen!  I have menus planned for the rest of the week and most of the ingredients to make stuff.  

So far so good!

Survived my first meeting

I went to Weight Watchers last night and no one laughed at me for being a cliche which is good.  Ruins the whole supportive atmosphere thing if the laugh at you!  I think I want to lose about 12-15 pounds which compared to a lot of the folks in there, well, most of the folks in there,  is not much.  But I guess I belong there as much as they do.  

So today I am going to go buy my books for school, visit a friend in the hospital (who thankfully is going to be fine but scared me to death on Dec. 30 that we were going to mess up a good streak for 2007 and probably into 2008) and spend some time meal planning and grocery shopping.  that should take the majority of the day I think!

Stay tuned for before photos and measurements...

New Year's cliche

I HATE being a cliche'. Hate it hate it hate it.  I was the anti-label snob in high school.  When everyone was spending their babysitting money on Guess jeans I declared I wouldn't be caught dead in a pair.

(Actually I did have a pair.  I got them on sale at Neiman Marcus.  I think they were something like $11.  They were actually plaid!  Loved those jeans.  They were the epitome of anti-label snobbery!)  

So anyway, I hate being a cliche and yet, I am about to be the ultimate New Year's cliche.  Today I am joining Weight Watchers.  Along with half the world.  I am excited to finally actually DO this.  But also nervous about failing.  I don't have a lot of weight to lose.  Certainly 5 holiday pounds.  Probably 15 pounds beyond that to be the weight I was when I got married.  

(This weekend i cleaned out my closet and got rid of a dress that I remember wearing when we were engaged.  It was a black velvet Anne Klein cocktail dress.  Very simple but very elegant.  My mom had a friend who was a personal shopper.  She found this dress on deep clearance because someone had bought it, had it altered by the store and then didn't like the alterations.  I think it was a couple hundred dollars marked down to like $35.  The person who bought it had a big butt so the alterations were weird.  Anyway, I've been holding on to it all these years because it was the perfect "little black dress".  Make that the perfect TINY little black dress.  And it was TINY!  I know it was altered again when I bought it so that it would fit me but man, who was that teeny tiny person who wore it?  And seeing as how that person was me, why didn't I EVER appreciate being so skinny back then.  I was just as concerned that I was FAT then as now.  Sorry for the reminiscence.  Back to the post....)  

 Not sure that is realistic or necessary.  But I'm curious to see what I look like 5,10, 15, 20 pounds lighter.  Well, I can really not imagine myself 20 pounds lighter.  I have been on all sorts of diets before, but I have never had to pay for them and I have rarely lasted beyond the initial couple weeks thrill of doing soemthing new.  The fact is, though, that hubby needs this more than I do and the only way he will be successful is if I am doing it too.  (Being the chief cook  and nutritionist in the family.)  Everytime the church deteriorated (see previous post) hubby added 5 pounds of the weight of the world.  Now he wants to lose some weight and I want to be supportive so here we go to weight watchers.  I'll keep you posted....

Reflections on the New Year's past

As hubby and I rang in the new year (sans kids, they were at grandparents!) we reflected on 2007 and decided it had been a pretty good year.  And it has been a long time since we have been able to say that the year past was a pretty good year.  Most of our New Year's lately have been Good Riddance.  Those readers that know me know that I am optimistic to a fault.  I have been accused of bouncing into a room and ruining a good "bad day". So it is particularly disturbing for me to look back at several years worth of "Bad years".

2003: Moved to Houston.  That was good but certainly a huge transition.  Within a couple months of getting here the situation at church deteriorated and it became clear that all was not what we expected when we took this Call.  I turned 30 and started running.

2004: Ran a half marathon on January 18th. Major accomplishment!  Church continued to deteriorate.  Hubby was more and more stressed by it.  As a couple we grew closer but life was hard on us.  Found out middle daughter had some serious problems with her bladder and chronic UTIs.  The medical merry-go-round started for her. 

2005:  Ring in the New Year! with an ectopic pregnancy. Quote of the moment when the registration lady at the hospital asked me if we'd met our deductible yet ON JANUARY 9th! Given middle daughter's issues the year before the ectopic pregnancy was about 10 days too late for that part to go right.  Things do not improve at church but hubby gets a big raise and a promotion. At least if work stinks he gets paid well for it! By May I had a second ectopic.  Although unplanned (it happened in that unsafe time after a vasectomy), it broke my heart more than any of my 3 previous miscarriages.  

2006: Ring in the new year ready for things to get better. January 18th a plane crash and our world crashed around us.  While the ectopic pregnancy broke my heart, Frank's death took it out and stomped on it and devastated people I love.  Church deteriorates further until it becomes almost intolerable. Hubby looks at employment ads and starts asking around about going back to Geology.  Again, our life as a couple and a family seemed to be strong and even strengthened it just wasn't a good way to get there.

2007:  Church improves dramatically all at once and almost like there was a plan all along.  Hubby is rewarded for his faithfulness simply by knowing he stuck it out.  I got into nursing school.  Dealt with some minor medical issues with the girls but they were easy to deal with and actually seemed to fix the problems they were designed to fix.  We did a lot of stuff to our house that we had wanted to do for a long time.  Major improvements in our living space.  Maybe that is shallow but it was soooo nice and represented stability!

2008: Who knows....but I feel pretty certain we can handle just about anything.

Now I've gone and done it!

I have jumped ship, changed teams, defected to the other side.  I have joined the Mac world.  

Yes, I am now the cool guy on the MAc commercials and no longer the geeky PC guy.  I can sit in Starbucks with my laptop and overwhelm you all with my coolness.  I can laugh at the PC world trying to figure out which virus protection to buy.  My ipod, and my computer can look cool together, like they are at a family reunion.  On the practical side, my laptop now has a battery that has life in it, a click pad that works, and it takes about 2 seconds to load a webpage (my PC was having issues and took about 20 seconds or more.)  And for the first time in a long time I have a really REALLY nice computer, not last year's model that was refurbed and on clearance.  

I'l let you know when I create a number one single on Garage Band.  You can say you knew me when I was merely a PC!