Mom2threePKs

Come see my new blog

2010-01-21T20:05:00.000-06:00

Hey all, yes, you probably figured out that this blog has been neglected and abandoned. But I'd like to invite anyone out there (do you hear the cavernous echo?) to come visit my new blog Running with the Baby-Mama Drama. See you there!!!!

I PASSED!!!!!

2009-07-08T06:01:00.002-05:00

Sorry to leave everyone in the blogosphere in suspense about my fate as a nurse but i was in suspense too!

Here's how NCLEX works. You sit at a computer and start answering questions. The test is designed to determine where you are competant to practice nursing with in a 95% accurace range. So you answer questions and as long as you are getting them right they get harder and harder until you are answering questions above that competancy level. Once you have answered enough to establish competancey (or they are pretty sure you are likely t kill someone) the whole exam shuts off. The minimum questions is 75, max is 260. So if the exam shuts off after 75 you probably passed or failed miserably. After 48 hours you can pay another $8 to the exam company (you've already paid them $200 for the priveledge of taking the test) to get your unofficial exam results. Official results come from the state board of nursing when you get your lisence in about a month.

So I took my test on a Thursday afternoon. Should be able to get my results Saturday afternoon. Look on line, look on line. No results. Finally find a place on the website that says 2 business days, not 48 hours. Everywhere else says 48 hours. So start looking Monday afternoon. No results. No results. Maybe Friday wasn't a business day afterall. Maybe the testing service took that as a holiday for 4th of July. Look Tuesday afternoon. FINALLY!!!!!! At this point I seriously considered not getting the unofficial results just because of how long I'd had to wait and I was pretty confident that I had passed. But I can only resist "Your exam results are now available" for about 30 seconds. Paid my $8 and say those four lovely letters PASS!

Now all I have to do is wait for my Texas lisence so I can apply for a transfer to a state of Georgia lisence!!! Whew!

So mine shut

This close to the finish line...

2009-07-01T19:40:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow is NCLEX, the licensing exam for nurses. This is the last step in this two year journey called nursing school. (Oh yeah, there's also the job thing...) Tomorrow, 4 p.m., somewhere between 75 and 260 questions. One more hurdle. I don't think I'm nervous. Well, maybe a little nervous. More like ready to get it over with.

Tomorrow. 4 p.m.

What a crazy trip this has been...

Perfection is impossible

2009-06-30T09:03:00.003-05:00

So my new house is pretty close to perfect. Land, Pool, view, teenager has her own bathroom. But nothing is perfect. So here are two slight issues that interfere with perfection.

First, Bugs. We have a new scourge of bugs to learn to live with. Houston has its bugs but they were pretty much two varieties. Giangantic cockroaches and mosquitoes. The former were pretty easily dispensed with by spraying highly toxic chemicals around the house inside and out about 5 times per year. I'd know it was time to spray when I'd find dead ones in the house. This meant that the perimeter shield was compromised and the interior shield was still effective. Yes, killing cockroaches in Houston is serious business because I HATE COCKROACHES. I'm pretty sure the chemicals we used have the potential to cause my grandchildren to have two heads. Ah well, more cheeks to kiss!

So anyway, here in Georgia, I think we have smaller cockroaches which is a good thing. We just have a larger variety of other bugs. More ants, more random flying bugs. HUGE green grasshoppers that look like leaves. And spiders. Lots of very large spiders. Like this one below. I would bet that legs and all it was about 3 inches in diameter. It was in my pool hanging on to the hose for the polaris. So I scooped it out and what did I discover???? Hundreds of baby spiders hanging on to its back. Lovely. I'd rather have spiders than cockroaches but it was still creepy.

And the other less than perfect thing about my neighborhood is the running situation. Our street is about a mile long which makes for a nice training distance. You can run laps like a track on it and know how far and how fast you ought to be going. However, it looks like this....

Yes, that is a hill and another hill beyond it. Truly the picture doesn't do it justice. You have to stand at the top of the hill and contemplate running up it to fully appreciate the sweat and heart rate increase involved. I have run these hills four times now and it is a completely different workout experience than running on the flats of Houston. Yowza! I better have an incredible looking backside by the end of the summer given how much said backside hurts after running up and down that!!!!!!!

The inside story...

2009-06-19T07:40:00.005-05:00

So Ihave a few pictures of the inside of the house. When you walk in the front door there's a huge room with big windows which is what you see in these three pictures. It provides a perfect home for hubby's hunting trophies.

I love the fireplace!!! I t has a woodburning insert that will help heat the house in the winter. The previous owners also left us their wood pile which i think has enough wood to keep us warm for the 2009-10 season and beyond. One of hubby's first purchases was a riding lawn mower. The second was a chainsaw!!!!!! (Insert Home Improvement grunting here...)

This is apparently referred to as a "Baptist Bar" because it has doors that will close it off from sight when the church members come over!!!! That cracked me up!

This is probably the biggest negative of the whole house. The master bathroom leaves a little to be desired. You can see the sink is actually in the bedroom. Next to the sink area is a pocket door for the toilet and shower. It is definitely a project for the future. I have emailed on of the production companies at HGTV/ DIY to try and get on a renovation show. It would be an awesome renovation!

If my kitchen is clean later today I'll take a picture of that too!!!

My new digs...

2009-06-18T06:56:00.006-05:00

So this is my new house!!!!! We love it!

This isn't my field but it is the field next door and it is what I see everytime I drive up to my new house. I think it is absolutely gorgeous. It reminds me of where we went on vacation last year in New York.

This is my field or as we like to call it "The Far Meadow" because we also have a "Near Meadow". I can't believe I have enough property that we have names for the different areas!!!!! COOL! The woods beyond it are also ours and have trails already cut through them. The girls are a little intimidated by the woods still but I am having major childhood wish fulfillment. I ALWAYS wanted woods. It's like "Bridge to Terabithia" back there - minus the drowning and the head trauma....

This is the garden with grape vines, blueberry bushes that are almost ripe, a banana tree that is just for show, too cold here to produce and a few blackberry vines. There's also room for veggies but I think that is a project for next summer! Beyond it is the "Near Meadow."

This, my friends, is the pool. I love the pool. It keeps my children happy, it is lovely to jump in after gardening and it is just a dream come true!!!!!

Tomorrow interior shots...

Lesson learned: Move your refrigerator frequently

2009-06-18T06:27:00.004-05:00

So I'm not the world's greatest housekeeper. As the kids have gotten older, I've gotten better but truly what is the problem with sweeping stuff under the rug once in a while. I can't see it, you can't see it and I didn't have to find the dust pan to make it so! I like a tidy house but I don't need a spotless house. The little extras of housekeeping really escape me. Like I don't get the draw of buying no-iron sheets, are there people that really iron their sheets to begin with? Or Martha Steward's admonition that properly folded fitted sheets are essential to a neat and tidy linen closet, (read that in a doctor's office once.) Or my own mother's yearly trek around the house with a bowl of soapy water and a rag cleaning the baseboards. But upon moving i learned one thing that really ought to be cleaned every other year or so...
A view under my fridge...

Not only was there stuff under there but the freezer was defrosting too and leaking water all over the floor. Now we added slimy to the distgustingness. The driver of my moving truck had his 15 year old son with him. When I was dying of horror over what was under my fridge he said, "yeah, my mom cleans under our fridge now cause of what we see under other people's." Thanks buddy, that helped...

In my defense, the cat loves to play with most of the stuff you see under here and probably batted it under the fridge while playing in the kitchen. He especially loves to play with clothes from the girl's Polly pocket dolls. He also loves to play with hair elastics. However, i found hair elastics and barettes EVERYWHERE! Now I know where they go when we can't seem to find any. Under the beds, in corners, on doorknobs and certainly under the fridge...

I just had to include a close up of the Christmas card since a couple of my readers will recognize it. Think of it this way, although it eneded up under the fridge, at some point it held a place of honor ON the fridge.

Famous last words...
From now on I will clean under my fridge more frequently than every 6 and half years.

The last supper

2009-06-01T15:22:00.003-05:00

The last supper at this house...

I have created a menu that should allow me to use up a significant portion of my refrigerator/freezer inventory.

For your dining pleasure:
1. Curry Chicken Salad (HA! TAKE THAT YOU LEFT OVER MANGO CHUTNEY!)
2. Hot Dog or Chili Dog
3. Boca Burger
4. Pasta - Choice of red sauce or olive oil and parmesan Cheese
5. Chicken Corn Chowder (compliments of Campbell's)
6. Spagettios
7. Cold Cereal
8. Old Fashioned Oatmeal

There you have it. My last evening of cooking on a gas cooktop. (I'll have electric in Atlanta).

Packers come tomorrow. Remind me to put my sanity in the "DO NOT PACK" cabinet...

I still have plenty of mango chutney

2009-05-31T12:16:00.002-05:00

So we went and picked up the kids from one more sleep over at the grandparents and Natalie was sick, sick, sick. Fever, very sore throat, upset stomach. Hurled on the way home. Called the doc and got amoxicillin called in for Strep throat. That meant one less kid spending the night and one less kid to drink the salad dressing. (Oh yeah, she's feeling much better. Nursing school definitely gives you the advantage of being abel to describe the symptoms of Strep to the pediatrician so convincingly that she perscribes an antibiotic over the phone!)

The girls just don't understand that you can't just throw away the mango chutney because what if you decide that you absolutely must have curried chicken salad. What would you do then, huh?????

O-kay. Deep breath. We will move. Everything will be fine. Heck, I got through nursing school with three kids and a husband, I can handle a cross country move!

(Karen - we are moving to the Atlanta area!)

Moving is hard

2009-05-30T08:55:00.002-05:00

That is seriously the name of a children's book that someone gave us the last time we moved. It's got this blond haired kid on the front clutching his teddy bear with tears in his eyes. Yes, thank you who ever gave that to us. It was comforting to our small children!

But yes, we are moving. Am I ready? No! At least i don't feel ready. i am not packed because we have movers that do that. (People keep asking me that and it adds to my feelings of not being ready tremendously.) I haven't used up all the food in my refrigerator. But tonight we have 4 or 5 little girls spending the night so they should make a pretty good dent in the food. Do you think they will be okay eating Mango chutney with a spoon? I also have a supply of salad dressings I need them to eat straight.

Despite the logistical side of moving, we are very very excited. The new church is fabulous. The new house is very cool. The new town is gorgeous.

Now if we can just get through the next 5 days...

I finished nursing school today

2009-05-11T19:15:00.002-05:00

And that's why I haven't blogged in almost two months.

Let me say it again, i finished nursing school today. I took my last two finals. I am done!!!!!!!!!

I'm so relaxed I hardly know what to do with myself....

I just can't believe it. I did it!

My $5000 gift to my daughter

2009-02-27T08:42:00.004-06:00

We all have those days. Like, I feel fat days, bad hair days, My head hurts days, I'm ugly days, I have nothing to wear days, etc. And when you are 12 and in seventh grade you have more than your fair share of those days. And you can add the No one likes me days, I have no friends days, Edward Cullen isn't real days, I can't do math days, I hate my life days, and of course, no one understands me days.

But for all those days there is one thing that my daughter can always look in the mirror and say, "That is perfect."

Braces came off yesterday. The world's most perfect smile....
And yes, my friends, braces really do cost about $5000. If I ever see her asleep without a retainer in her mouth cover your ears because what comes out of my mouth won't be pretty!

Oh to have my problems, seriously...

2009-02-26T11:48:00.002-06:00

What is a girl to do when the painters show up the same day that the housekeeper is scheduled to come?????? Yes, I have a cleaning lady and I'm not ashamed (too much). I love her and she keeps me from having the EPA declare my house a superfund site. Cleaning is not my deal: I'm not good at it, I don't like it and I have no problem letting someone else do it. But today, the painters showed up. You gotta love the Hispanic concept of time.

Scene: Saturday, I'm at clinical. Hubby is supposed to get an estimate from the painter.

Hubby: Sounds good. When can you get started.
Javier: Hmmm, like maybe next week.
Hubby: Like early in the week, Monday.
Javier: Yeah, or maybe later.
Hubby: Like before the weekend, maybe Friday?
Javier: Yeah like that or maybe Saturday.

Hubby (reporting to me): Yeah, I hired Javier. He's going to paint the house. Don't have any idea when.

So Javier is painting in my dirty house. The cleaning lady is not coming. And if I stay in the paint fumed house any longer I am going to be unfit to drive a motor vehicle...

Adios. I'll be back to blog maybe tomorrow, or like maybe next week. Yeah I'll come back then. Seeya!

What are the signs and symptoms of pretzel withdraw?

2009-02-23T05:50:00.003-06:00

Some things you should know about me. I am addicted to pretzels. The saltier the better. When I was in college Rold Gold had a different formula for their pretzels than they do now that included a lot more salt. My roommates used to brush the salt off because they were too salty. Not me. Loved them. Those were the days. I eat a lot of pretzels. Especially in the evening. Like while watching T.V. If you eat pretzels while drinking cheap white wine, the white wine tastes better because of the salt from the pretzels! If you drink diet coke with pretzels the diet coke tastes better too. But diet coke tastes best when consumed with Fritos. But I digress. Or actually maybe I don't. So eating pretzels is a way to eat something that is crunchy and salty without eating what I'd really like which is Pringles or Fritos or Salt and Cracked Pepper Kettle Chips.

Number two thing you should know about me....I don't usually give things up for Lent. No real reason just never been motivated. This year I am giving up pretzels. Why? Becuase I want to see if I can. Because it would be a real sacrifice. Because I think they might make me retain a little water. (My fingers are a little tight this morning after the pretzel fest last night.) Becuase I think I eat way too many of them!

So I put this in my blog to make myself accountable. I'll update you as the season progresses!

If I end up in the fetal position rocking myself in the corner of the pantry muttering, "Rold Gold, Rold Gold, Rold Gold." I'll get Madeline to take a picture...

June Cleaver's secret life? You decide...

2009-02-22T06:58:00.003-06:00

So one of my favorite blogs to read is June Cleaver after a Six Pack. It's linked right over there... She is just really really funny and not at all Pollyanna! (Read her blog, you'll get it...) Anyway, she used to have a picture of herself on there that I just looked for but it isn't there any more. Which means that this post isn't going to make nearly as much sense. Oh well, that's o-kay. Six pack fans will get it.

My point - the other day my friend was over and saw this picture of me. She suddenly said, "Hey, you look just like June Cleaver in that picture!" How many people get compared to their favorite blogger????

June - If you read this, I am sad to say that although I looked like you in that picture I gave up on staying blond. I hope that doesn't make me a traitor to the cause. Cheers!

Sad Week

2009-02-22T06:43:00.002-06:00

So last week I kept wanting to blog but it was just a sad week and I blogging seemed like a massive pity party. Since I got through the week now I'll blog about it. It is still a sad week but I dunno, now I choose to blog.

So first there was our friends whose 16 year old was killed in a car accident. You can read about their family here. Who has their life's tragedy profiled in Reader's Digest only to have their life sustain a second tragedy the same week???? It is suffering on the scale of Job. Hubby did the memorial service and it was amazing. I was very very proud to be the Reverend Dr. Mrs.

Then one of my babies (nurses have their own language in the NICU - any baby that you take care of on a regular basis is "my baby") from the NICU died. I knew he was not long for this world. I knew he was much much better off in the arms of Jesus than in anyone else's arms. He was never going to get better. He was in incredible pain. But he was a sweet little baby and when he had a good dose of morphine going he would interact a little and I just liked him. So when I read the email that he died I was very sad. I should have been glad he had a new body and was done suffering but I was just sad.

And lastly, we talked to a realtor about listing our house and it ain't pretty. (Well, duh, Magan, have you read the news about the imploding mortgage market and the economic crisis?????? Yes, thank you very much, but I don't have to like it!) If it sells, we will lose a little equity to get to closing. Bummer. Sigh. Could be a whole lot worse. A whole lot worse. And I have gotten some perspective on it given that the equity that we have came from selling a house that wewere able to buy because our church gave us a down payment that we repaid out of the profits and then had profit left for our next house. Just a little whine, a small whine given other people's housing situation. On the plus side I found a very cheap painter who is going to freshen up a bunch of stuff and fix some hurricane damage for $1300. Maybe I'll get another Siesta picture to add to my collection!

Sort of good news on the kidnapping case

2009-02-06T18:37:00.002-06:00

They still haven't found the woman but the press is reporting that they think she knew her kidnappers and probably went willingly. In other words, she's mixed up in something yucky. The Brazoria County Sheriff described the men they think are involved as "Mean as hell." So I hope she's o-kay but I'm really relieved that masked men aren't snatching random women out of parking lots.

There are three men asleep in my front yard...

2009-02-05T13:59:00.003-06:00

Good news! We are getting our new roof today! Bad news! The roofers are literally sleeping on the job. I wish I could take a siesta under a tree on a beautiful day. Sigh... I suppose that would mean being paid minimum wage for a dangerous job that involves working on rooftops and the possibility of falling off and dying. I guess nursing it is...

Too close for comfort

2009-02-05T05:43:00.003-06:00

This happened in my part of the world.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nb/pearland/news/6245052.html

"An expanded search begins on Thursday for Susana De Jesus, who was abducted at gunpoint Monday night as she left the Pearland-area clothing store where she worked.

As police Wednesday released a photo of a possible suspect, they said they don’t know why she was targeted.

De Jesus, 37, of Houston, was abducted about 9:15 p.m. Monday as she and a co-worker walked to their cars after leaving their jobs at Catherines Plus Sizes."

I was at the shopping center where this happened in the afternoon that this woman was kidnapped. That is scary. Scary scary scary. News reports of violence and whatnot are sad but thaey don't usually freak me out because I figure the chances fo it happening to me are infiitesimally small. This, though, feels way to close to home. I'm a little freaked!

This last part of the newspaper article makes me feel a little better. No way any one could mistake my 10 year old minivan with 130K miles on it for an impressive new car...
"Miller said single women driving impressive new cars — such as De Jesus’ Cadillac — sometimes become targets.

“I don’t believe this was just random,” Miller said of the kidnapping. “I would anticipate he’d seen her over a few days or few weeks.”

Brief updates...

2009-02-01T07:00:00.002-06:00

So once again blogging is suffering as the schedule starts to get kind of crazy but here goes on some updates. (Particularly because I can't see to catch Teri at home!)
1. We are getting a new roof!!! Yippee!! The materials for it are sitting in the drive way and we expect the installation this week. Thank you very much Texas Windstorm Insurance Association.
2. My fingernails are short again. Isabella gave me a manicure for Christmas and for about 2 weeks they were so pretty and even and relatively long. But chop chop and they are short again.
3. Graduated from physical therapy with newly developed abs and significantly less pain in my back. The pain came back early this week and I was able to get everything back in alignment doing some maneuvers they taught me in PT so that was good. I will never neglect strength training again. (Famous last words!!!)
4. I got my clinical assignment for the semester. I'm going to the NICU at Texas Children's Hospital. I'm excited. Very excited. But I never expected to go to the NICU. There are so many people in my class that would kill for that it is just surprising to me that I got NICU. I know I'm going to love it and I'm probably going to be very good at it. I guess I'm surprise I got something that good!
5. No, I don't know what area I want to go to when I graduate. It is worse than being a senior in high school when everyone makes conversation with you by asking where you want to go to college and what you want to study. I like lots of stuff and I don't know where I'll end up!
6. My eldest daughter is taller than me. How did that happen?????? She is also a very good writer and has a wicked sense of humor.
7. My checkbook no longer balances to $4242.42. The fear of bill collectors forced me to pay up.
8. I am totally inspired reading about Teri's half marathon training. Being injured I got out of the routine of running but when I go, I really love it. AND being stronger in my core has made me faster. I'm running three miles in under 30 minutes. (29:49 counts as under 30 minutes!)
9. I'm still working on Christmas weight. I know what the problem is. I know how to fix. I just haven't done it consistently. I need to count every point and quit eating so many carbs. There I said it. Now I just have to do it!
10. Don't really have anything for #10 but it seems like a good place to end a list...

What are the chances of this...

2009-01-28T20:51:00.002-06:00

My current checkbook balance is $4242.42. Seriously. How likely is that????? It is almost a shame to pay the bills because it will mess up my pretty balance. Unfortunately when the bill cllectors start calling I don't think they will take "But my check book was so pretty, I just couldn't pay the bills. So sorry 'bout that!" And the truth is that MY checkbook balance is $4242.42. But the bank's balance is actually $17.36 less than that. Bummer. In a perfect world, my checkbook balance would be $4242.42 and it would match the bank balance. AND (since this is the perfect world and all), I would have already paid the bills, not just sitting down to pay them...

More on nursing school and elephants....

2009-01-17T07:30:00.002-06:00

After my first week of nursing school I wrote this post about how overwhelming it all was and how I was going to take it like eating and elephant ... one bite at a time. (On my site meter I get fairly frequent hits to that post from people googling "Mom and nursing school". You could leave a comment you know...) So Tuesday starts the last semester of nursing school. I can hardly believe it. In some ways it feels like i am sitting down to the last juicy wonderful steak of the elephant. In other ways it is still overwhelming to think about all that has to be done this semester. 240 clinical hours at two different sites. Hoping that I get a good clinical placement when most of the school placements (We are in public schools this semester for our community health experience) are at LEAST and hour's drive from my house. (Please pray that gas continues to be under $2/gallon and that half of Houston decides to go all green and quit commuting and while your at it add some prayers for a flying car, no, no skip the flying car, let's pray directly for someone to just "Beam me up" to my clinical sites. Let me know if you get any answers to that one.) Then there's that little issue of getting a job...It's not that I'm worries about landing a job, its just one more area of unknown. How do you get a job as a new nurse?????? IT will all work out and all that it is just more unknowns and if you haven't figured it out yet from my blogging I have a small amount of control issues. Very small. Microscopic actually. One more semester... one more semester....

Madeline speaking!!!

2009-01-11T13:55:00.004-06:00

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
that would be ME!

Hello people of the blog world!!! Let me introduce myself, i am magan's oldest, most amazing, wonderful, and perfect daughter in every way. The names madeline. I like to spend my free time texting, listening to screamo music on my ipod, and going on my myspace. It sure is an exciting life... im in 7th grade and im 12 years old. So im trying to think of something to type on this blog thing of my mother's, and i think im gonna tell u the good things and bad things about my mom. (everyone has the right to be informed!!!)

BAD
1. my mom is having a sudden obssesion with cleanness( is that a word?). Everyday after weve gotten all ready for school and were about to relax for a bit, she makes us CLEAN! Now i think u have to agree that that is INSANE! And to believe it or not she started this obsession AFTER she took our house off the market, when we DONT have to keep it relativley clean for showings!!!

2. She is a crazed bargain shopper! Everything has to be on sale or a good price to buy it! I mean would it kill her to buy me a pair of $50 jeans every once in a while!

3. Now heres a pretty basic one. She dosent understand me at all! And she even claims to have once been in junior high!!! She sits on a throne of LIES!!!!

4. My mom is a strong believer in the "if your bad, i take your phone away" philosophy! I mean, what if, she had taken my phone away and i had gone on a walk around the neighborhood and all of a sudden a blood thirsty murderer had shot me!! As i lay withering on the ground, DYING, i wouldnt be able to call and ambulance to get some basic medical treatment!!! SHE IS RISKING MY LIFE FOR DISCIPLINE!!! Sheesh!

5. SHE REFUSES TO GET $700 JAPENEASE PERMANENT STRAIGHTENING FOR MY HAIR!!!!!! 'Nuff said.

GOOD
1. She has a FABULOUS taste in books! We are both MAJOR twilight fans! But one thing she will never top, is my love for Edward Cullen. -sigh- Maybe thats what happens when u get married, u stop loving fictional book characters...

2. My mom's pretty chill about my grades and education. She not one of those "send an email cussing out the teacher cause they gave they're precious child an F on a worksheet" type of mom or the classic "in your child's free time, give them extra work so they can keep on on they're grades" type of mom. I could go on.

3.Its also good that she isnt like a crack head or a child molestor or like beats me for accidently bumping in to her...

4. Shes also a good cook.(for the most part at least, PLEASE NO MORE HOME MADE SPRING ROLLS!!!!) Its not like our everyday meal is takeout or frozen dinners. She actually COOKS! Thats definently a shocker these days! Her homemade pizza is super de duper good!

5. And last but not least, shes just a loving and wonderful mother in every way! (Yes, i knew i needed to add a sappy one on the list...)

Pistol packing Momma

2009-01-09T16:50:00.003-06:00

So hubby and I went to the gun range today and I got to get a little target practice in with my gun. This is our second time out and apparently I am a pretty good shot! Imagine that! As strange as it sounds it really is a lot of fun. I hope to take the ladies only handgun class at the range in February. I'm sure there's a lot of have to learn and it would make me feel safer with my gun. Any way, the point of this post is to show my pictures that prove my pistol packing status!

This is me with hubbys Glock 22 .40 caliber. It is a bigger gun than my 9mm and i was a little scared to shoot it at first. But I really liked it after I got used to it. And as you can see form the target that went with it at 8 yards (about 25 feet), I was pretty good with it! If you look carefully at the shot with me holding the gun you can see the shell being ejected. That's pretty cool!

This is with my 9mm. It was behaving strange and jamming up today. That freaks me out a little. I don't lke my equipment to let me down. But I got over it and figured out what to do when it misfires. I stil don't like it though. My target wasn't as good with this one. I was practicing bringing it up and firing quickly and my accuracy suffered a bit as a result.

Happy Hunter

2009-01-07T11:45:00.002-06:00

Is this a happy man or what???? This is a 9 point Mexican white tail. Assuming he can get over the border he will grace our wall in a couple months.

More Christmas Reveiw

2009-01-06T12:32:00.002-06:00

Yeah, that's right, More Christmas. More of me to go around! But honestly, a whole lot less of me than was going around last year a this time! And the small weight gain was worth the cookies!!!!! hehehehehe

I went back to Weight Watchers today. I quit weighing in sometime around Ike which means even though I am below my goal weight I had to PAY! Bummer! But I only gained a little weight over Christmas. I am back to following points pretty carefully because I feel like I need to get back into the good habits that I learned last year. So I'm back to tracking and trying to eat less and better!

On a bright note, I've been running a little again. And it feels sooooooo good! I go back to PT tomorrow so I'll be anxious to see whether my pelvis is in alignment or not. It doesn't hurt so I feel pretty confident that things are getting better! I got an exercise ball for Christmas that I LOVE but haven't used much because everyone else in my family loves it as well!!!

Christmas in Review

2009-01-05T22:22:00.005-06:00

Well, first what was given and what was gotten...
I gave hubby...

When he opened it, he had a bit of a puzzled look on his face, kind of like, "Why did I get this?????" About three days after Christmas, he was rocking out to Aerosmith and turned around and said, "This is sooooooo much fun!" I knew he would like it! SCORE! (And truth be told, I really like it too!!!!)
We gave the two younger girls...

They seem to have lost interest in Barbie but when they saw the dream house on T.V. they REALLY wanted it! So in hopes that it might keep them little girls for just a little longer we got them the Barbie Dream House for Christmas and my mom got them some new Barbies (can't have a new dream house with Barbies who have had multiple haircuts!)

Oldest daughter got a cell phone this summer and ran it through the wash in October. TRAUMA!!!!! You haev no idea. I had an upgrade coming so I bought myself a new phone and gave her my old one. MORE TRAUMA! The horrors of having mom's OLD phone. Grandparents to the rescue... They didn't even know phoen couldbe upgraded and in my mom's words "Why would I want a new phone I just figured out how to use this one!" So the LG Shine joined our family
And for mom...Heavy metal...

Yes, I got a gun and jewelry. Hubby admits that the jewelry was a CYA just in case the gun didn't go over well. Good thinking! But after a trip to the gun range on New Year's Day, I like my gun.Shooting is a lot of fun. I'm pretty good at it and there's something just cool about knowing how to handle a 9mm. Hubby says he's going to put my practice target in the window (like a security company decal) with a note that says, "This is my wife's target practice. She aims low."

The smushed rolo pretzels

2008-12-23T17:01:00.001-06:00

Apparently Teri doesn't like not knowing how things turn out so for her....

Cookie Decorating!

2008-12-23T15:07:00.003-06:00

Few Notes about cookie decorating before photos...
1. I tried several different cookie recipes for this and did not find any that I really liked so I'm still looking for the perfect cookie cutter cookie recipe.
2. The plan was the make cookies and give them to our neighbors, ya know, to be neighborly. We ended up with a grand total of 33 cookies after 6 kids and 2 adults finished almost 2 hours of decorating. I think more were eaten than were decorated!
3. The rolo pretzles were excellent. THanks, Teri, for the idea!
4. The adult cookie just looked weird. The kids cookies were totally cute.
5. A good time was had by all and that's really the point!

Why I love Physical therapy

2008-12-23T10:34:00.002-06:00

So I saw the orthopedist for this annoying pain in my hip and she sent me to Physcial Therapy to figure out exactly what was going on and how to fix it. So at PT it was determined that my pelvis is shifting in and out of alignment. The two sides of the pelvis are not fused but are connected with soft tissue. This allows the pelvis to move independently when you walk and to stretch when you have a baby. If the pelvis is out of alignment then the muscles in the back, butt and legs have to try and compensate and eventually some get weak, others get strong and others just cramp up. That's what happened to me. I also remembered during all this that I fell while running in August and landed on that hip really hard. So during PT my therapist can manually put me back in alignment and then massage the muscles that are hurting (love that part), stretch me out (passive stretching is almost as good as massage) and then supervise a program to strengthen my weak core which will help prevent my pelvis from shifting around so much. The work out part is really cool. Basically, I am getting personal training with my insurance company paying for 80% of it. The bummer part is that my pelvis is still unstable so I need to keep going. But on January 1 when my deductible resets it will get pretty expensive! But I want to get back to running and I want to be pain free sooooooo I guess we will figure it out. In the meantime, I can tell my core is getting stronger and it is really cool to have someone tell you when you are doing the exercises right!

Hurricane Ike Slide show

2008-12-19T06:21:00.002-06:00

So this wasn't in my preview but I just saw this on the Houston Chronicle website and thought I'd share. it is a slide show of their photos from the Hurricane. Look HERE
We also got our insurance check yesterday. It was very disappointing. As a comparison, my parents had similar damage (they had some water leak into an upstairs bathroom and stained the ceiling which we did not have) and their check was 3x ours! It all depends on the adjuster and how he writes up your damages. I haven't gotten the explanation that says what it is covering but based on how much it is I don't think they totaled our roof. I think they expect us to patch it. This is really bad news. First of it it just doesn't seem fair. EVERYONE around us is getting new roofs. Secondly, we are trying to sell this place. Who is going to buy a house with a patched roof when every other roof is new????? ARG! I think the worst part is the anticipation of having to fight with the insurance company and all the phone calls and all the hassle of trying to get what we deserve. So I'm going to pull a Scarlett O'Hara (truly my hero from middle school) and think about this tomorrow!

The big reveal

2008-12-18T06:06:00.003-06:00

I have been a blond for a bvery very long time. I was naturally a blond up until about 4 years ago when my hair started getting darker and darker and requiring more and more color to remain the blond I knew I was. Well, I got tired of having to keep up the color. I get busy and I don't like going to get my hair cut and I don't like having to pay for it. So my roots grow out and I try and justify that they don't look that bad, but who am I kidding. They are roots and even Madonna looks bad with roots. So yesterday I told Tim (my hair guy) to color everything the color of my roots and I am now truly a brunette....

Before...

After...

PReviews....

2008-12-17T06:43:00.001-06:00

Stay tuned for a stimulating posts on
1. my laundry

2. My new hair cut and color (how dark will she go????)

3. The hip report or why I love physical therapy

Wrapping paper

2008-12-17T06:29:00.004-06:00

I love wrapping paper. I said it in my Christmas email post, but the colors, the ribbons, the whole thing, I love it. I really think there is a frustrated designer or something in me because wrapping paper and fabrics speak to me. Either that or I'm just psycho because wrpaping paper and fabrics speak to me. Hey, it is 8 days before Christmas, aren't we all a little psycho by now???? Usually though, I am such a Scrooge that i buy it after Christmas then look at it all year, then finallyget to use it a whole year later, at which time the specialness of it has worn off a little. I often have 6 or 7 rolls of Christmas wrapping paper sitting around from my after Christmas sale forays. I also try to find non-Christmasy chrstmas paper so that I can use it for other occassions. Probably one of those things where I think I'm being oh so clever and the person who gets a Birthday present wrapped in red paper with silver polka dots (nothing OBVIOUSLY Christmas on it) thinks, "I guess she was out of regular wrapping paper and had to use Christmas paper." BUT this year, I went to my trusty wrapping paper bin and there was only one roll of Christmas paper!!!!! (Insert horror movie sound track here!!!) Off I went to Hobby lobby like the rest of the poor shopping souls to to buy my paper at merely 50% off. So here is my paper for the year....

The blue with brown deer is especially for hubby who is actually deer hunting at the moment. The deer on the paper are velvet! VERY fancy. Notice that three of the four could be used in the off season! Pretty clever!

I just want to explain why there is Fairly Odd Parents Christmas wrapping paper under my tree...Because really who would EVER buy anything lisenced Fairly Odd Parents let alone Christmas wrapping paper???? It was in the grab bag selection of a school fundraiser wrapping paper deal. You got three rolls of wrapping paper of their choice for cheap but you didn't get to pick them out. Go figure, they had some Fairly Odd Parents paper left over! My kids love it and I console myself that it ties in the blue from the deer and the red and green from the other papers...It's a stretch but work with me here, it is FAIRLY ODD PARENTS!

The Wise Women...

2008-12-17T06:22:00.004-06:00

Here you are Teri, the Wise women up close and personal....

Christmas email

2008-12-12T15:57:00.004-06:00

So I promise Teri that I would do the email by Thursday night and I didn't quite make it. But I'm less than 24 hours behind AND mine includes photos!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Paper. I love wrapping presents and I love seeing all the colors of the paper and coordinating the ribbons and the trim! I hate gift bags except for the most awkwardly shaped gifts!

2. Real tree or artificial? Real. Our fake one broke the year after we moved to Houston and we’ve been real ever since. Every year we talk about going to a tree farm and cutting down a tree and we never quite seem to get there. Maybe next year…

3. When do you put up the tree? As soon we get over to the lot to buy the tree. Some years that’s right after Turkey day some years it isn’t until a couple weeks before the big day.

4. When do you take the tree down? Around New Years. By then I’m tired of looking at it!

5. Do you like eggnog? No, I hate it. And I hate that it looks so yummy, like melted ice cream, and then it has that nasty nutmeg flavor. So I hate it for being deceptive and for just being gross.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? Hmmmmm. I got a China doll one year that was a family heirloom that I loved and played with for years and years. Hubby thinks it is totally creepy and will kill us in our sleep.

7. Hardest person to buy for? My dad.

8. Easiest person to buy for? My kids.

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes. I was given a Nativity Scene by a friend of the family as a little girl and it was my favorite Christmas decoration. I still have it and I still love to put it up each year. I also have a nativity scene that was made by an Indian tribe in New Mexico that I got when my grandmother moved into assisted living. That one is really unique. My favorite part is that the wise men are wise women!

10. Regular mail or e-mail Christmas Cards? Usually they are Epiphany cards because I can’t get them done before Christmas and they are mailed. I skipped last year so I really need to get those out this year.

11. Worst Christmas gift that you ever received? I wanted cowgirl boots. My brother got cowboy boots, I got navy blue, zip up the side, dress boots. Yes, I’m still a little bitter.

12. Favorite Christmas movie? ELF!!!!! The best Will Farrell movie and the best Christmas movie EVER!

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? When I get done with school.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? You betcha! It is my greenest activity!

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Cookies, bring em on!
16. Lights on the tree? Small colored lights. It is a compromise. Hubby like giant colored lights, I would love little white lights.

17. Favorite Christmas Song? Hmmmmm, I don’t know. I love them all. I love singing them all. I can’t pick. Maybe, if I really had to, O Holy Night.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay at home? Considering it’s a work day, we stay put.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Probably but don’t grade me on it.

20. Angel on the treetop or a star? Star. Got our star on clearance when we were newly married and it is very sentimental related to starting our own traditions.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or Morning? Christmas morning.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Traffic

23. What theme or color are you using to decorate? Don’t have one.

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Beef Tenderloin with Bearnaise sauce.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? I wish I had a good list. It would be helpful to those I live with!

It snowed in Houston...Global Warming must be a hoax...

2008-12-11T08:19:00.005-06:00

So yesterday, it snowed in Houston! Really snowed. Like big beautiful flakes that swirled around in the street lamps, beautiful snow. (Didn't stick but who cares!) The kids had soooooooooo much fun! I pulled down my giant rubbermaid bin of snow clothes from when we lived in California and managed to find gloves and hats for most of the kids on our street! Now mommy has such a dirty house from all the in and outs with wet feet!

I'M DONE!!!!!!!!!

2008-12-10T17:32:00.002-06:00

For the semester that is! Ahhhhhhhh!! What a sweet sweet feeling! I am done with three out of four semesters of nursing school. I only have one to go then I will be a real live nurse!! WOWOWOWOWOWOW. I can't believe that I am so close. But honestly, right now I just so glad to be done for an entire 5 week break that I hardly know what to do with myself.

Guess, I'll go outside and enjoy the SNOW!!!!!!!

Oh the pies, the pies, the pies!

2008-11-28T17:39:00.001-06:00

I LOVE the food at Thanksgiving. I love the potatoes, the turkey, the gravy (oh the gravy!) the stuffing (Love love love the stuffing). But the best part is the pies. I love pie. Ya know, now that I think about it. The pies would eb even better if we didn't eat them ON Thanksgiving. Then I could eat more stuffing and gravy without even considering having room for dessert. We could wait and eat pie the next night and spread Thanksging over TWO days. Now THAT'S a plan! Check in next year to see if I convinced the rest of the world...

Pie Making at our house. The mess is worth it!:

Apple Pie hot out of the oven:

Sugar Cream and Pecan:

Cookies made out of the trimmings from the pie crust. YUMMY YUMMY YUMMY!

Natalie likes the cookies too!

We think it's muscular...(which means it's not cancer!)

2008-11-27T07:38:00.003-06:00

That's the verdict. I have a bunch of muscles on my right side that have decided a great way to be is in knots. The other possibility is that the membrane that lines the hip socket, the labrum, has a small tear in it. Can't see that with an x-ray only with an MRI. The fix for that is an orthoscopic surgery to trim out the tear. Since an MRI is quite expensive and the doctor is leaning toward the muscular explanation, I am going to Physical Therapy twice a week for the next month to exaust the muscles so they will calm down and stop being so irritated. I'm also taking 600 mg of ibuprofen 3x per day. AND NO RUNNING. I need to cross train. I hate cross training because I like to run. But I probably injured myself from running too much so I know this is the right thing to do but no other exercise appeals to me that much. I could go to the YMCA and do the eliptical or the bike. Or I could swim. I could get the tires fixed on my bike and bike around my neighborhood (that's more appealing than going to the Y.) I could rollerblade, which I really like but honestly it scares me a bit because if you wipe out on blades the concrete is going to end up with a significant portion of your skin. I don't know about walking. Anyway, after 4 weeks of PT if I'm doing better we go with the muscular explanation. If I'm not better we do the MRI and look for that tear. I'm very very hopeful that the PT folks think that massage is a vital portion of my recovery. (Fingers crossed!) By the way, that's not my hip up there just a google image. Although my hip looked pretty similar to that one!

Going to the doctor

2008-11-26T07:54:00.002-06:00

So today I have an appointment with my friendly orthopedist. I saw her about 2 years ago for foot pain that was dxed plantar fascitis. I did 2 months of physical therapy and was as good as new. Now I've been having this really annoying pain in my right hip. It's been going on for several months and I can't seem to get it to go away. If I take 600mg of ibuprofen twice a day I'm pretty pain free. It just doesn't seem like that is a good long term strategy. And with the holidays I need to be able to run ALOT so that I can eat ALOT! I'm very curious to see what she says...I'll update later.

Creativity rears its head

2008-11-23T07:07:00.009-06:00

I am not the most creative person. Crafty stuff and I don't get along well. I can't draw or paint. I don't have a hobby that invilves making things. I don't scrapbook...you get the picture. Occassionally though, the small amount of creativity that I do have comes bursting forth like the pent up energy of a geyser. Friday was Character Dress Up Day at my two youngest girls school. The kids are supposed to dress up like the character from a book. And I must say, the creativity burst forth and we had some seriously cute costumes....

So first we have Natalie as Fancy Nancy. Now Natalie wanted to look EXACTLY like Fancy Nancy which required me
to add a felt poodle to the skirt she already had. That is seriously creative!

Next was Isabella as Junie B. Jones is a Party Animal. The pajamas were new because she didn't have any warm PJs but we had the elephant, the hair wrap and the slippers were already had. We also bought the feather boa because really with a house with three girls a feather boa comes in handy!

Surprising self discovery from nursing school

2008-11-18T15:53:00.003-06:00

I have small hands and short fat fingers. Not a value judgement just a fact. And I have always tried to grow my fingernails out because I thought it would make my fingers look longer. Problem is that when my fingernails get long they bend and look very very odd. They are also pretty thin so they are never long all at the same time. When I started nursing school they told us we had to have short fingernails in the clinical areas. I sadly cut off my fingernails. Guess what?!?!?!? I love having short fingernails. They look so much better. No amount of growing my fingernails out is going to make my fingers look longer. And having short finernails that aren't all twisted and funky looking is much much better than what I had before! Here's a couple pictures, and actually, they are a little on the long side compared to what I've been doing. Off to happily clip and file!

My Violet

2008-11-16T21:53:00.002-06:00

On the window sill behind my sink, I have a violet (and a scrubber brush and my drain cover, there was no editing for this picture!). I got the violet at a charity auction at least three years ago. The kids that the charity helps painted clay pots and they were about $10 at the auction. Seeing as how most of the other stuff started in the three digits we were happy to support the cause by buying a hand painted pot. In the pots were these violets that were barely hanging onto life. They were decrepit. I'm guessing they were donated but the nursery that donated them didn't remove their stickers from the plastic pots before they gave them away so we all knew which nursery had fobbed off their dying plants on the children's charity. Anyway, I brought home this little violet and totally expected it to die because I have a propensity to kill plants. But it didn't! In fact, as long as I watered it on a fairly regular basis it thrived! And it grew and it bloomed these beautiful purple flowers! Eventually it outgrew my hand painted pot and had to be transplanted to a bigger home. I love my violet because when I look at it I remember how sick it was and that somehow, I made it better. And that is just amazing to me!

So, Mom, how do you want to die?

2008-11-15T21:54:00.003-06:00

This is the question I was asked by my 7 year old in the car today. It was just the two of us which is pretty rare. But that is definitely a question you don't expect. So i told her something pretty boring (If I'm young I hope it is cancer so I have time to say good-bye and if I'm old a massive stroke would be pretty good.) So after a little discussion (Apparently, my mom said she'd like to die eating ice cream out of the container with my dad. Love that!) I asked her, how do you want to die? "I want to go for a walk at night in a beautiful place with my husband." Isn't that awesome? I asked if I could come too because it sounded good to me. Sure, she said. Then a few seconds later, "But Mom, I think you'll already be dead by the time I'm old." Moment over, but I hope I remember that forever.

Only two clinicals left for the semester!!!!!

2008-11-12T08:42:00.002-06:00

So part of the reason why I was so absent for the month of October was the mess that Ike caused with our clinicals. I was in the precepted group which means that instead of going to the hospital a certain day of the week with a group of 10 students, I was assigned a nurse and I scheduled my clinical times according to her schedule. Since I had three clinicals this semester, that meant three sites and three nurses. This has a lot of benefits in keeping my schedule flexible and because I work with the nurses schedule I work 12 hour shifts which means I work fewer days to get my hours in. However, when Ike hit, we lost two weeks of clinical time. AND the instructors for those precepted clinicals hadn't really gotten them completely organized before Ike. So after Ike they were trying to get our classes back on track and get preceptors for all of us at the same time that the hospitals were trying to get back to normal. THEN, if that weren't enough we knew before the sotrm that there was some kind of problem with our site for our ICU clinical. But our instructor assurred us it would all work out and we could work on our other clinicals while she straightened it out. After the storm we found out that the hospital we were supposed to go to had a major administrative shake up and no longer would accept precepted students. Uh oh! Now we are behind AND we have no clinical site. This is not good. Our other clinical sites were still good but the instructors were still working on getting precetor information to us. Another lost week goes by. Finally we got our info for the other two clinical placements and got started. In order to make up for lost time, I worked four clinicals a week for a couple weeks, which meant including school and clinicals I was putting in 50-60 hours a week. It was brutal. My family was holding it together but barely. At one point working 7 a- 7p two days in a row meant I didn't see my kids for 48 hours! I was cranky and exhausted. And i was mad at a system that set us up for this my having such little organization. The storm wasn't anyone's fault but not having our clinical sites set up before Sept is just inexcusable. And this has been a theme throughout the nursing school experience. Sometimes I wonder if the disorganization and last minute expectations of us showing up for required stuff is part of the training to accept that nurses have huge responsibility and low independence.
So anyway, I haev two days left and I am going to be soooooooo glad to be DONE! Over all my clinical experiences have been great. All my preceptors were wonderful. I learned a lot and I got to see some pretty cool stuff (especially in the cardiovascular recovery room!). I'm sort of getting a sense of what I want to do after graduation (that's a topic for another post). And most importantly, I made it through!

Hurricane Ike update

2008-11-10T18:19:00.002-06:00

So last we heard I was ready for things to get back to normal....

Well, I guess we are at a new normal but there are soemthings that are just interesting consequences of the storm. (That's what people 'round these parts tend to call it, just "The Storm")
First, traffic was completely crazy for about 6 weeks after the storm. It took longer to get to school in the mornings, there was traffic in places that there hadn't been before and the afternoon traffic started up earlier. Then last week, suddenly, it was better. I guess some of the relief workers went home or something. I'm glad it is better, very very glad but it was weird!
Second, there is this gigantic pile of tree trimmings in an empty field on the highway I use to get to school. I would take a picture of it but I think there wouldn't be enough perspective to appreciate how big it is. I would bet it is about the size of a football field and about 5 stories tall! It is slowly being turned into mulch but it is a site to behold!
Third, insurance.... Wow. Until you actually have to use your homeowner's insurance for a disaster claim, you will never understand why all those Katrina people complain about insurance companies. It is a pain in the BUTT! There are all sorts of rules and regulations and you have to document in 47 different ways and then you get an offer but you might need to renegotiate the offer if you don't think it is fair. The roofing company will "work with" you insurance company to get you a good settlement which feels alittle like you are being ripped off except that the insurance company really prefers it that way because they don't want to climb up on your roof. it is all very overwhelming and scary because you are talking about thousands of dollars!
Lastly, when our fence was down, we talked to our neighbors and felt all neighborly and had this little community going. Lacked a little privacy though! Then the guys all bought materials together and built the fence together and it was great and neighborly. And now we have fences again and we never talk to each other. I liked it without the fence....

A day in the ER

2008-11-10T06:09:00.003-06:00

So yesterday I spent the day in the ER of a tiny little community hospital where one of my instructors works as a nurse practitioner. I got clinical hours and I got to experience another aspect of nursing so that was cool. I just really like the ER. I like trying to figure out what's wrong with people. I like the fact that you get to talk to people but they are in and out, it isn't long and protracted. I like that there's alittle bit of everything, trauma (not like gun shots and car wreck trauma , this is a little community hospital, but like sliced my hand open trauma), pediatrics, geriatrics, minor illness and serious illness. I like that there's downtime where you can get to know your coworkers (and work a cross word puzzle - a drunk group of opera fans is a "juiced box") but that when it is busy the time flies by. I got to give a couple injections - just a note to big strong guys with tattoos, lots and lots of tatoos, the 7 year old boy made less of a fuss over a much bigger injection than you guys did. How can you whine over a shot when you have tattoos all over??????

O-kay alarm went off late gotta shower and go to school and take an exam!

Can someone please invent...

2008-11-08T08:26:00.002-06:00

A device that allows me to post on my blog through oral dictation while sitting in traffic. Seriously, I could be prolific blogger if I could post while in traffic. I have all sorts of erudite, insightful thoughts in traffic. For example,
"I wonder what would happen if health care were delivered as a traditional fee for service model with -- GET OVER YOU IDIOT! THAT DUMP TRUCK WILL CRUSH YOUR PRECIOUS PRIUS!!!"
or
"I should totally blog about how antiquated nursing education is. When your model for education harkens back to the days nurses were educated in hos-- NO NO NO NO NO!!!!! IT IS 9:22 a.m!!!! THERE IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE TRAFFIC AT 9:22 a.m! RUSH HOUR IS OVER! GO HOME!!"
or
"We have a black president. Wow, wow, wow. I don't even think my children can understand what an amazing -- WHY ARE YOU DRIVING 27 MILES AN HOUR IN A 45 ZONE?!?!?! DON'T YOU HAVE A JOB OR SOMETHING IMPORTANT TO DO???? MOVE!!!!!!"

Doesn't that inspire you to get on with your inventing?????

I have a blog and I'm not afraid to use it

2008-11-08T08:15:00.002-06:00

I just might choose not to for like, oh, six weeks at a time. Sometimes when you have let something slide it becomes harder and harder to get back on track because of the embarassment factor because of the length of inactivity. For example, thank you notes. If I haven't written a thank you note within two weeks, I probably am not gong to do it. Not because I forgot but because I'm too embarassed to follow up so late. The worst is when I have totally put off going to the dentist or get my well-woman exam. They've sent reminder cards, called to remind me and now I'm months overdue and I just have to suck it up and make the appointment. Do they care? Probably not. Probably not...what am I saying, of course NOT!

Anyway, so here I am posting on my blog after a six week absence that was extended by the shame of going back to something after that long. (That and the fact that seriously, like two people read my blog and I absolutely perform better with an audience.) Do I promise to be better? Nope. But I'll try and post often enough to avoid shame based extended absence. And get some therapy for my neuroses related to thank you notes and doctor's appointments...

I'm ready for things to get back to normal...

2008-09-24T09:55:00.003-05:00

And I have power so I probably shouldn't even think about complaining....

But, alas, we humans are creatures of habit and lack of normalcy makes us feel really uncomfortable.

I'm ready for the kids to be back in school. On Friday we will hit the two week mark with no school. I'm beginning to feel like our district is considering an all-homeschool model. We would be the pioneering district in the country! Thanks but no thanks. Mom is back to school but the kids aren't. That makes things a little challenging, schedule wise. And I know that the kids were just beginning to get into the school routine when all this happened. I can't even imagine being a teacher and having to start classroom management from scratch plus deal with all the reaction kids will behaving from the storm.

Speaking of school...Mom was just beginning to get into the swing of school. I had a schedule within my grasp. (Hadn't gotten it yet, but had promises of it!) and now we are back to where we started. Don't know nothing! And one of my clinical sites apparently lost their roof so who knows if/how that is going to pan out. Gives me a headache to think about it. I have two tests next week to try and get back on schedule with my classes and hubby is out of town so that makes shcedules with kids and finding study time even harder. I crave normalcy.

Next week, the insurance adjuster is coming out. I have no idea how that is going to go. I wish I could get a roofer to come and look at the roof before they come so that I can get a sense of what needs to be done. Even the little things that need to be fixed are overwhelming, how to schedule the repair people, who to call, when will they get to us, how to avoid getting ripped off. Whine, whine whine. I have it good compared to sooooooooo many people. But it is still reasonable to whine just a little!

Oh and one more thing...

The eye missed my house by about 20 miles. Still on my list of natural phenomenon that I'd like to experience I'll just move where I want to experience from my house to someone else's home in Florida.

General announcement to Wal-Mart

2008-09-21T16:54:00.002-05:00

Thank you so much for being open after the hurricane. I'm sure it is hard to staff your store and keep things running right now. One little suggestion. If you have a store that is running on generator power and therefore does not have any fresh food (no dairy, eggs cheese, frozen, meat, deli or produce) please post that on a very large sign at the front of the store. This way if a person has a huge grocery list and starts on the side of the store with toiletries and housewares, she doesn't get to the grocery side with a half-full cart and realize that she can't get ANY OF THE OTHER THINGS ON HER LIST on this trip. In the post-hurricane world, THAT MAKES ME CRANKY!!!!!!!!!

Thank you for your support.

Hurricanes: The good, the bad, and the ugly

2008-09-19T07:55:00.002-05:00

The Good:
1. Everyone around here is saying this...We met our neighbors! It is amazing what happens when you have no fence. You meet those people on the other side of it that have lived there for 3 years. Donnie and Tami are now our firends and we have plans to go out to dinner together when life gets back to normal.
2. I went 10 days without spending any money! (Well, that's not quite true. I spent $10 on amoxicillin for Natalie's ear infection but I treid to treat it with what we had on hand for 4 days before that!) No Wal-Mart, no grocery store, no gas, no nothing. This, my friends, is the true reason for the "economic meltdown" that apparently took place while Houston was storm shocked.
The Bad:
1. No school for a week or longer. I can't imagine what kind of torturous schedule the nursing school faculty is going to devise for us to catch up after missing a week of school. Aiyiyi....
2. While we didn't sustain the huge damage that some people in our neighborhood did, we have soemthing that we will have to fix. And our deductible (this is what they do to you when you live in a hurricane prone area) is $4500. I'm hoping there is unseen damage to the roof. I want a new roof...
3. It just breaks my heart to see people's lives piled up on the street outside their homes. When you ceiling caves in during a storm it is just devestating. Insulation is wet and everywhere, drywall has to be ripped out, then there's carpet and carpet pad, light fixtures that fell out of the ceiling, stuffed animals, mattresses, it just goes on and on. There's a family around the corner from us with a daughter who is a ventilator dependent quadriplegic (think Christopher Reeve). Their house was decimated. The debris from inside covers the entire front of their house piled up about 3 trashbags high.
The Ugly:
1. Many people lost all the food in their refridgerators. Thus, the garbage that is out at the curb is horribly stinky. Trash bags upon trash bags of rotting food. I actually ran outside and yelled "Thank You" when the trash truck showed up on Wednesday.
2. The storm debris that is piled up along the street is absolutely incredible. Hopefully we'll see the trucks out picking it up in thenext couple days.
3. Things just smell weird. I think it is a combination of rotting vegetation from flooding, rotting food, rotting fences, toxic off gassing from the damaged petrochemical industry along the coast (maybe not that...). Then every once in a while I get a whiff of the frier going at the donut shop around the block. Now that is yummy!!!!!

Just some pictures

2008-09-16T07:50:00.002-05:00

Above is a before and after picture of an area called Crystal Beach. This is on the Bolivar Peninsula which was obviously decimated by our friend Ike.

Several fires burned on Galveston Island during and after the hurricane, mostly caused by transformers blowing out. The fires were left to burn themselves out. Our favorite restaurant and Houston landmark, Brennan's burned down during the storm. How's this for irony. Brennan's in Houston is owned by the same family that owns Commander's Palace in New Orleans. Commander's was devestated by Katrina and many of their employees were hired on at Brennan's in Houston. Since then Commander's has rebuild and has already said they will hire on some of Brennan's employees.
This is in my neighborhood. It is someone's trampoline that was picked up and dumped in the front yard. Judging from the damage in the neighborhood and some of the noises we heard in the storm we think there were lots of little tornados that touched down here and there during the storm.
This is my backyard. We didn't lose our tree but we lost several very large branches out of the tree. We also lost our fence. Our neighbors behind us had their swingset blow over. Ours is original to the house. Very Old and sort of decrepit looking...still standing!
More of our backyard. James has gotten it all cleaned up but it truly looked like a war zone after the storm.

Thank you poop!!!!

2008-09-14T22:33:00.002-05:00

WE HAVE POWER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And it is all thanks to poop. Apparently, our section of our neighborhood is int he same grid as teh sewage treatment plant for our city which is probably a mile from our house. Sewage is considered a priority power user. And once the priority is on, the whole grid is on. Thank you thank you thank you poop. We are cool, dry, and comfy. My parents are still without power but are spending the night. We have tried to get word to other family and friends that there is cool, a/ced space available but communications are still sketchy and tonight my parents are our only guests. I honestly feel a little guilty about having power while other are suffering. A little. Just a little.

I know I said it twice last night but I'll say it again tonight. We were sooooooooo lucky. Neighbors had their houses detroyed as their roofs peeled away and the rain water poured in on thier homes. Those that escaped immediate destruction are now faced with throwing away hundreds or thousands of dollars in food that they can't keep cool. FEMA hasn't shown up. Ice is in very very short supply. Two grocery stores are open with 3 hour waits to get in the door. Gas is non-existant. I don't know why we have been blessed but i would feel a while lot better about our good fortune if our hose were full of cool, sleeping bodies tonight. God be with Houston right now....

SURVIVED

2008-09-13T22:53:00.002-05:00

Well, we survived the hurricane. We have no power. Our fence is gone. Our backyard tree lost huge limbs. BUT we were very very pucky. Our roof held. Water came in under the front door and will probably require some repairs on the floor. BUT we are lucky. We have neighbors that have it much much worse. We have no power and it is so hot and humid it is gross. Thank you thank you God that our friends close by have power and invited us to spend the night. More later.

Its gettin kinda windy...

2008-09-12T19:52:00.004-05:00

And Ike is still about 100 miles away. The gusts are pretty strong. Everything is battened down and now we just wait it out....
Here are some photos that I found around the local news stations from earlier int he day. The flooding is not from rain but from the storm surge that IKE is pushing onto the coast. Basically, the wind and energy from the storm is pusshing a wall of water in front of it, like a tsunami almost that the pushing the ocean up onto what was previously dry land.

Here comes IKE

2008-09-11T17:17:00.003-05:00

So here we are preparing for IKE. Looks like we are going to take a direct hit. I have to say I'm a little excited. Remind me of that on Saturday at 2 a.m. when 120 mile an hour winds are buffetting my house and my kids are hysterical! Truly, if the eye of the storm passes over my house I will have marked a significant thing off my list of things I'd like to experience. It is op there with floating on the dead sea (done that, it was awesome) and seeing the Northern Lights (still on the list.)

These things I know are true....

2008-09-08T12:56:00.002-05:00

1. If you are approximately 8 months pregnant and there is an able bodied man in the front seat of the car while you fill up the gas tank at Wal-mart, you are hanging out with the wrong people. (Yep, saw that...)
2. If you are trying to sell your house, comments from showings like "You were in the top three but they bought another house" don't really make you feel much better. In housing the bronze medal isn't an honor!
3. If you are the youth director at a church and you can't find the pastor's kid after a youth event, calling the said pastor (and your boss) to see if she has already been picked up is PAINFUL.
4. If you are a nursing instructor and trying to introduce the idea of non-physical discipline to a class repeatedly using words like "Violence" "Hitting" and "abuse" isn't the best way to get your point across.
5. If you are the president of a student organization and are holding your first meeting of the year, way over-buying on the lunch is a really good strategy to avoid speaking to a bunch of hungry, pissed off students.
6. If you are a twelve year old girl it is entirely possible to have a clothing crisis after spending $150 in birthday money on new clothes. (That one is probably the most bizarre statement I have in my list!!!!)
7. If you live along the U.S. Gulf Coast, late August and September are a great time to ignore the T.V. weathercasters and just look out the window occassionally. If it is really windy and humid pouring down rain you might want to get to high ground.
8. If you are a competitor to Apple, don't even try to compete with the I'm a Mac, I'm a P.C. ads. (Jerry, I love you but that was just pathetic.)

Back to School

2008-08-29T16:22:00.002-05:00

Well, here we are..the first Friday of the new school year. It couldn't have come sooner in my opinion. I am exhausted, but exhausted in a good way I suppose. I have been in class everyday from 9 until afternoon (some days 1 p.m. some days until 5.) I have pediatrics, ICU nursing and mental wellness this semester. I got my clinical site choice which is really great!!! I will be in a precepted clinical which means that instead of going to a hospital on a certain day and time with a group of students and a member of the faculty, I will be assigned a nurse at the facility and I will work according to her schedule until I get all my hours in. I like the idea of the flexibility that offers and I know I learn really well from watching another person and asking questions.

It is funny how anxious I was all weekend about starting school. I just felt so wigged out and it showed in the way I treated my family. I was just dreading starting school again. But once I got back here and saw my friends (and I have some really great friends in nursing school) and got back in to lectures and learning about this nursing stuff I was totally energized and glad to be back. The mind is such a funny thing!!!

I think I am going to have some really good faculty this semester as well. I really like the instructors I have met so far. The instructor for the ICU class is actually from the town in New York that we visited this summer and trust me that is a very very small town!!! Pretty amazing coincidence. Compared to soem fo the instructors from previous semesters I just have a much more sincere sense that they want us to succeed and are interested in hearing us out. Everyone likes to be listened to!!!

And to end on a very happy note, I jsut found out that I passed my math test. Thsi si the pass/fail test that we take every semester. Passing is 100 and failing is anything else. It is very stressful to have that kind of pressure on a math test. This one I wasn't at all sure of after I finished it. While I was checking my work I found a huge error and that scared the pants off me about what I might have missed!!! But I passed, Hallelujah!!

I am ready for the 4 day weekend!

More pictures from vacation

2008-08-21T08:03:00.002-05:00

Yes, we did have to eventually return from vacation. As we got on the plane from Syracuse we all said good-bye to 75 degrees with tears in our eyes. Truly this was one of the best vacations we've ever had. Loved it!!!!!!! Read a lot...if you like historical fiction check out World Without End by Ken Follett. It is the sequal to his book about building a medieval cathedral - Pillars of the Earth. It was over 1000 pages which for someone who reads at lightening speeds was wonderful. Also read a couple brainless chick books by Jennifer Crusie. Seriously brainless. Went to Niagara Falls and The Baseball Hall of Fame. Met some really nice people. Yankees really aren't all that bad. We toured William Seward's house in Albany New York. He was sec of State during the civil war and was responsible for the U.S. buying Alaska - Commonly known then as Seward's Folly. Amazing piece of history in his home. We also saw Harriet Tubman's grave and her home. That was a little sad. As much as little girl's do reports on Harriet Tubman when they are in 3-5th grade, her home is a pretty pathetically preserved place. The museum that goes with it looks like it was collected from all those 3-5th grade reports. I wonder if Oprah is aware of this????? Ate A LOT of good food including ridiculous amounts of ice cream at a little drive in right on the lake. Because of the previous, I ran a lot and on hills. Can I go back now please??????

Ah Vacation

2008-08-21T07:52:00.002-05:00

So we are in the middle of our 10 day vacation in Western New York in an area called the Finger Lakes, about ½ an hour from Syracuse. We have a friend who has a house on a lake up here and we decided to go for it and fly up here for vacation. In Houston, it is probably 95-99 with 80% humidity, MISERABLE! I have just about had it with Houston Summers. Here in western New York it is currently 58 degrees with a predicted high of about 75. It almost makes me giddy. On the agenda for this morning…a nice run. I’ll even do hills considering that it is under 80 degrees. Beyond the weather we are having a great time. Very relaxing, absolutely beautiful countryside. Tempting to never come back.

Things I Didn’t Do Over Summer Vacation

2008-08-21T07:47:00.002-05:00

1. Review any of my notes from any of my classes last semester.
2. Sell stuff that I wanted to sell on ebay. (There’s still time!!!!!!)
3. Gain weight (However, I am on vacation and once again, there’s still time!!!!)
4. Sell my house. Sigh….
5. Go broke on air conditioning, although it was close… (One month my bill was over $600 because I was out of contract with the electric company I had been with and my planed switch to another provider hadn’t taken effect yet. PAINFUL!!!! I wonder how that compares to home heating oil bills up here in the north?)
6. Go to the Apple store for more personal training on my Mac. I really wanted to do that. Just didn’t get around to it. Bummer…
7. Sing in the summer choir. I always intend to do that. I did it one summer and then sang with them, for the fall. It just seems like getting to church even that half hour early is almost impossible!!!

Finished Harry Potter

2008-08-01T09:07:00.001-05:00

Sigh...I'm sad it is over. What a great read! To Harry, Ron, Hermione and the gang...Thanks for taking me along on your adventure. It was a trilling ride!!

More on dorky number obsession

2008-07-25T08:26:00.002-05:00

So now I know I'm not the only one who finds odometer readings interesting enough to document I thought I'd share some of my other number obsessions. I think when random numbers turn up that happen to have meaning to me, it is incredibly cool. I don't think it has any global meaning, its not put there by God as a sign, I just think it is cool. Humans are hardwired to look for patterns, that is how we make sense of our world so to see patterns in randomness is really as much a part of being human as emotions and relationships!

I love license plates. You can find all sorts of random patterns in license plates. One time I was at a stop light and the two cars in front of me had license plates that were one number different. Exactly the same except for one number. How weird is that!!!!!! I am currently a little obsessed with the letter pattern TLT on license plates. They are everywhere if you start looking. I bet I see at least one of those per day.

Phone numbers: This is not my cell phone number so don't try to call it. But let's say my cell phone number was 252-2419. I was giving my number to a friend and when she gave me her number it was 525-2419. How weird is that!!!!!!!

And Kristen is right on about meaningful totals at the grocery store. Even numbers like $40 exactly. Always makes me say something to the clerk who always looks at me like I'm kookoo. And number that sound like years, $14.92, or $19.41 I usually have to comment on something that happened in that year. Now the clerk doesn't just think I'm kooky she KNOWS it!

Oh and I won't even get started on birthdays because there's a whole complicated post about how all the birthdays in my family are related. But the basics are I have two children born on the 26th of the month and myself and the other child on the 2nd of the month. One child was born at 4:14 p.m. another at 1:44 a.m. (just rearrenge the numbers there) and the last one at 12:10 (1+2+1=4 which is very prominent in the other times!)

O-kay that is enough insight into my weird little brain for one morning!

Harry Potter Rules!!!!!

2008-07-23T06:01:00.002-05:00

I am now on book six of the Harry Potter series. Let me just say that I have thoroughly enjoyed them. What an amazing world J.K. Rowling has created. I highly recommend for children and adults alike!

Doesn't everyone take pictures of their odometer?

2008-07-23T05:58:00.003-05:00

I know I'm a dork so let's not actually add that to the comments section, o-kay. This is my odometer on my 2000 Honda Odyssey on the way back from Mo Ranch. If you notice it says one two three four five six. Not only is that a LOT of miles for one car, it is also just really cool.

Vacation vacation

2008-07-23T05:35:00.003-05:00

We have been vacationing fools the last two weeks. First we went to our church family camp at Mo-Ranch which is in the hill country outside of San Antonio. We go every year and it is a highlight of the girls summer (and their parents!). My hubby has been going to Mo (as the experienced Mo-Ranchers say) since he was about 5 years old! The Guadalupe River runs through the middle of the property and provides both a deep riverfront with a giant slide and rope swing and a shallow area with rapids and natural "hot tubs". We keep the sunscreen companies in business that weekend because we are outside for hours and hours at a time. Below is a portion of the rapids area.
Isabella is in the red and blue shirt. I LOVE swim shirts! Less burn = happier kids.
This is the first year that our eldest has not stayed in our room with us. She has graduated to staying with the Youth group. WOW! how did that happen. That's her below sprinting through the obstacle course of the annual Mo-Mania event. We hardly saw her on the weekend. Well, actually, we saw her but she rarely acknowledged us. Teen years are bearing down on us and I'm NOT READY!!!!!!!

Following Mo we had 36 hours to wash clothes and pack for the trip to Orange Beach, Alabama. We went with my parents and by brother and his family. It was a very nice time, got really tan. I know tan = bad but man does it look good! We took a family portrait on the beach while we were there and below are a couple pictures I got before we left. The dress code for the day was light blue or white. Madeline (my eldest) had gone ahead to help my brother with my 4 month old nephew and 4 year old niece so we didn't get any pictures of her. Mostly, I wanted a couple pictures of myself for the family album because if I die they will all mourn that there are no pictures of me! I'm always taking them, I'm NEVER in them!!!!!!!

Go ahead, ask me what time it is...

2008-07-23T05:31:00.002-05:00

Because after a month without my trusty wear-it-everywhere Timex ironman watch, I got desperate enough yesterday to change the battery myself. It took several google searches, the best being from this site, the pictures were very helpful, and borrowing my 8 year olds glasses (She's got bifocals... there's this whole tiny world out there that she gets to see everyday!!!!). Add a $4 battery and I have my watch back! I'm so happy! I haven't actually gotten it wet so I don't know it is still waterproof. But that's a whiney post for another day.

July 4 photos

2008-07-08T06:37:00.004-05:00

Spent July 4 weekend down at hubby's brother's vacation house. I blogged about it here, calling it the Redneck Riviera. We had a lot of fun. The weather was nice, not too hot but a little overcast, which isn't all bad when considering how hard it is to keep sunscreen on children who are in the water all day long. Couple pictures...

S

The next question is: Can we afford braces and therapy?

2008-07-02T06:39:00.003-05:00

Karen may have 19 baby rats but I have an 8 year old who thinks playing Goth is fun. You should see her teeth too. Seriously, braces are going to be a necessity but if she keeps up with this stuff therapy is going to be a close competitor. Oh for the days of Princesses....

Paid for!

2008-07-02T06:36:00.003-05:00

Isn't that attractive? The answer is yes, because as of yesterday those suckers are paid for. One mouth of near perfect teeth only two to go. I'm never going to get a new car....

Thoughts on my trip (in list form)

2008-06-25T07:50:00.002-05:00

1. I struggled a bit at first with what we were actually accomplishing in providing such stop gap medical care to these people. We couldn't do anything that would realy fix any of the their problems. We could just but very insufficient band aids on. But after a lot of prayer and journaling, by the middle of the week, I realized that even if our efforts only provide momentary relief, these people still deserve that. So the little girl with lice deserves a week without an itchy head even though her environment means she's probably start reinfesting within moments of finishing her shampoo. Everyone deserves to have a month without a stomach ache even if the water supply is so contaminated that they will get parasite all over again. Everyone deserves to have their headache treated even if it is caused by chronic dehydration from working in the dump.

2. I was never scared where we were working even though I had a sense that while things were o-kay in the moment it wouldn't only take a little provocation for things to get out of control fast. Men high on glue are unpredictable to say the least. Does not being scared mean I'm stupid or brave????

3. To take the parasite meds or not, that is the question.... I have a three day course of meds that will kill most of the things that are living in my intestines just in case. Everyone says it won't hurt anything but I haven't taken it yet. I'd really like to know I have something before I take it not because I am scared of the meds but so I can claim a really good war wound. If only proof of a parasite didn't involve a stool sample. (GROSS!!!!)

4. Despite feeling like I ate my way through Honduras (The food was delicious!) I didn't gain any weight. I was seriously worried there for a while!!!!

5. One of the people on the trip warned me that when I got back people wouldn't ask for details of what we did and what we saw because they instinctively know that the details will be overwhelming. I didn't believe him! But I've been with Hubby's family twice since I've been back and no one has gone beyond "Did you have a good trip?" and "Are you glad to be back?"

6. Other folks from church have taken their kids on this trip ( preteens and teens). I would take my oldest (almost 12) but my little ones, not yet. I don't think they have the perspective to be able to process what they'd see.

7. I LOVED the medical stuff!!!!! Loved it. This is my calling.

8. My Spanish is pretty abyssmal. I had a very hard time understanding other people and don't think well on my feet to make myself understood. Practice practice practice.

Pictures pictures pictures

2008-06-25T07:05:00.004-05:00

An excellent processing/ debriefing method is to use your mac to make a slide show of you mission trip on iphoto. Not only do you lean some new software shills but you get to see your photos in 17 inches of glorious LCD glossy loveliness. (I expect Time magazine to call and ask to run some of my photos any minute). I can't upload the whole things to my blog (I don't think) but imagine Bob Marley's "Redemption Song" playing in the background.

This first on is from the neighborhood where we did home medical visits for the Micah Boys families after church on Sunday. The conditions ranged from horrendous to clean and tidy but still deep poverty. Most of the boys aren't orphans, they were just absorbed on to the streets when their parents own poverty or addictions made parenting impossible. I think this woman looks like she is in jail thanks to her poverty.

This is our church staff person for missions (Mary) giving a good bye hug to Wilmer one of the boys. Wilmer is 14 and has been using drugs and living on the street for a long time. He came to the Micah Project a year ago and has been in and out since. He just disappears for weeks at a time. The last time he ran away a decision was made not to go get him but to let him decide whether he wants to come back. He came back the day our team arrived. Mary is telling him to please stay at he house and don't leave any more.
These are the Micah Boys! We brought them all soccer jerseys with nicknames for each guy on the back. They are all so darn cute!
This is the dump where we did an afternoon of medical clinic and VBS type activities. The trucks come in and dump their loads and people run over to pick through the trash to find anything that might be usable or recyclable. Joining the people are the flies (it was thick), stray dogs, vultures and later in the day, cattle. I had a woman come an ask me for something for her nervousness. It was quite a contrast to the kind of people who are on meds for general anxiety here. A woman with three kids who eeks out a living picking through garbage vs a woman with three kids who finds traffic annoying. We had nothing to offer her.
Below is our surgeon with a man who showed us a huge ulcerated skin cancer on his chest. This is the kind of skin cancer your and I would go to the dermatologist and have taken off when it was the size of a mole. His was so big it was unremoveable (certainly in the field but I'm not sure anyone could have removed it.) The face on picture grosses my kids out so I didn't post that one.

Yours truly with a couple Micah guys after our good-bye dinner.

258

2008-06-19T17:24:00.002-05:00

258 is the number of patients that we saw in our two days at the more formal clinic in Villa Linda Miller. We actually saw more patients than that because people would comein for their kids to be seen by the pediatrician and we would end up seeing the parents as well without any paperwork. The families that actually live in Villa Linda Miller are poor but because of the consistent work of the medical mission teams they are relatively healthy. We still passed out a lot of vitamins and parasite medicine. Actually anyone that came in got parasite meds and vitamins. We also saw some very desparate people from the surrounding area that came in including one little boy who was pretty malnurished, not walking at age 3 with spindly legs and a head that appeared too big for ihis body. The story was hard to decipher but it sounded like the woman who had brought him in wasn{t his mother but had taken him in when his mother abandoned him at her house. It was very vyer sad. We were able to hook tham up with another ministry in the area to get them some extra food to try and catch this little guy up. Hopefully that all works out. We also saw a young woman about 13 who said she had a sore throat and body aches. Almost everyone who comes into the clinic says that but tuned out she had tonsillitis and probably felt pretty cruddy. After she trusted us a bit she shyly asked if we had anothing that could help her face as she had pretty severe acne. As a matter of fact by choosing one antibiotic over another we were able to give her one drug that would help her throat and clear her face up. It might not keep her face clear but it felt good to be able to even help with a vanity issue!
Our hardest day so far was the afternoon we spent in the dump. Yes, that kind of dump. the poorest of the poor live in the dump and pick through the trash looking for something to recycle or sell. It is horrendous. Truly hell on earth. There are children that work the dump as well. A couple years ago a man from Villa Linda Miller started a school for the children of the dump and it has been tremendously successful. He{s gotten 150 kids out of the dump until noon everyday and in school. Despite that the dump is a desparate place. We passed out parasite meds like candy, cleaned out incredible dirty wounds, I listened to lots of hearts and lungs and gave out lots of tylenol and advil. We treated as much as we could but the conditions are just so awful. It was heartbreaking.
One more story and then I gotta run. the first night we were here a woman showed up at the Micah project house with her 10 year old son. He{d been running fever and was lethargic and refusing to walk because his joiints hurt so bad. Our team of doctors (which includes a neurologist and a pedi ER doc) checked him over and even called collegues back in the states for ideas of what to do. Our ER doc discovered during the exam that his hip was where most of the pain was. They decided that there were way too many things it could be and without x-rays it was impossible to say but agreed with the mother that she could go home that night and they would call her the next day. The next day he was worse, higher fever, worse pain, etc. So our team insisted that the mother needed to take him to the hospital. Sure enough he had an infection inhis hip joint that required surgery. Had he not gone to the hospital the infection could have spread to the bone and that is very vyer serious.
Oh, I lied, one more story, yesterday at the clinic we had a mom of a 15 day old baby come in with.......yes, a breastfeeding problem!!!! Fixed her right up! She had a pretty severe plugged duct so I gave her all the home care advice and some antibiotics to take if it turned into mastitis.

We leave Tegucigalpa tomorrow and will be home Satruday. Great trip, would definitely come again but Im ready for my own bed, hot showers and hugs from my girls!

Hola from Honduras

2008-06-15T19:22:00.002-05:00

Hi blog readers! I{m in Honduras on a medical mission trip. Been here for two days now. Seen quite a bit. I{m working with a ministry here in hondras that reaches out to street kids particularly boys. They have a residential facility for about 12 boys that works toward getting them off of yellow shoe glue (the highly addictive very cheap drug of choice for street kids) and getting them an education. Several of their boys have graduated from the homeschool they provide and are in college in central america and in the states. Some of their boys have gone back to the streets. But being with the boys has been a real highlight so far. They are extrodinary young men ywho have been through more suffering in their short lives than I can imagine. Yesterday we went to the bridge where lot os the street kids hang out and did a very rudimentary clinic. We saw lots of rotten teeth and untreated wounds. One guy came up having just been in a knife fight with a pretty good laceration on his hand. Unfortunately we had a surgeon but no sutures so we cleaned it out (cleaned by your favorite nursing student!!!) and literally put a bandaid on it. Most of the kids were sniffing yellow glue and were very very strung out. Unreal! Tomorrow we are doing a more formal clinic in a planned community for folks who were displaced after hurricane Mitch. Folks from outlying areas come in whne the clinic is open so we{ll probably see lots of people. Overall, the trip is going really well. I{m enjoying the medical aspects. I{m speaking more Spanish than I thought I could. Understanding very little that is said to me but a smile and a hug seems to go a long way here. It is hard to see such massiv eneeds and know the only thing we have is a pack of vitamins and some anti parasite medicine. When I get back I{ll ppost some pictures....

Adios.

Pray for China

2008-05-26T16:25:00.004-05:00

Yesterday I was driving to church and heard a story about some of the foreign aid that is reaching China in the wake of the devastating earthquake that hit almost two weeks ago. Hubby and I went to China three years ago and spent two weeks meeting with church leaders and other officials and were profoundly moved by the experience. Anyway, in this NPR piece they quoted a Chinese fire and rescue official saying that China was very thankful for the help it has gotten but that China is a strong country and they would be o-kay materially. China, he said, needs spiritual help. And if people want to help China spiritually they will go to church on Sunday and pray for China. I think the story is linked here. Makes me tear up just typing it. I'm not sure which is more miraculous, that a Chinese official would have the guts to ask for prayer to an American journalist or that NPR translated it. So pray for China. Pray for China.

Summer reading must read!

2008-05-24T07:39:00.003-05:00

So I've started on my summer reading list a little early because Spanish class didn't require a lot of studying! (Got a 98.75 on the final with out studying kind of class). I finished The Shack by William Young last week. WOW WOW and WOW. It was great! It is the story of a man who suffers a terrible tragedy and three years later spends a weekend with God asking questions and getting his theology straightened out. I am pretty picky about theology. I think good theology is the key understanding Scripture and understanding our relationship with God. I was VERY skeptical when I read this book because often these kinds of books have terrible theology that if you follow the line of thought behind it either ends up with a works based faith system, karma (as in if you do good things, good things will happen to you) or a severely limited Deity in favor of human free will. The theology in the Shack is really good, well explained and the story is pretty good too. Bring the kleenex though! Given that at least half of my readership is Catholic, I would also add that nothing that I read is at all anti-Catholic. My cursory understanding of Catholic theology doesn't see anything blatantly against Catholic theology. If any of my Catholic readers take a stab at it, I'd love to know what you think! The Shack is worth your time, your book budget and the kleenex!

School's out for the summer!!!!!

2008-05-24T06:53:00.003-05:00

WOW! Two semesters down, two semesters to go! I am done with school for the summer and I couldn't be happier. I finished my medical spanish class yesterday. I am excited to try it out when I go to Honduras. I didn't like Spanish much when I was in high school but I took it for 4 years! I really liked this class. I like the challenge of trying to figure out ho to say what you want to say with the words you already know. Unfortunately we didn't get a whole lot of time to practice talking and listening which is definitely where I am weak. I think I can say most of what I want to say but I'm not at all confident that I can understand the answer! Quiero ir a Honduras hoy dia y practico mi espanol y trato ayudar los pacientes. Oops switched over to espanol there!

The girls still have two weeks of school left. I've got to figure out what I need to do before they get out. I haven;t had this much time on my hands in a long long time! I've got some clothes I'd like to try and sell on ebay. I may get some of those listed today. I'm sure I can come up with some projects around the house that need to be done. I mean really can you ever declutter enough! And I can get back into my exercise routine! As it gets hotter and hotter outside the idea of running becomes less and less appealing. With my clase de espanol at 8 a.m. these last two weeks, I haven't gotten in as much running as I would like. Even getting up at 5 a.m. I only have time to run 2-3 miles at the most before I have to leave for school and it is too hot after school to go. We are planning to use part of our stimulus check to buy a treadmill (good Americans that we are, we will be spending much of it!) I haven't used our YMCA membership much lately but I can see going in the summer more. Maybe I'll give swimming a try...

Movie Reviews

2008-05-14T07:44:00.003-05:00

Hubby and I have watched two very good movies of late. The first is Feast of Love. Little indie movie with a big cast: Morgan Freeman is in it and another guy whose name escapes me a the moment but I'll figure it out and add ti back. It is a little slow but I think ti serves the story well to be slow. It follows the lives of several people in a college town and asks the question, if you knew love would break your heart would you love anyway? It takes a while to get to the question and you can imagine the kind of relationships we see that beg us to ask the question. It is the kind of movie that doesn't have you hanging on every word because the plot is so intriguing but the kind that afterward you think about it a little and realize you are a better person for having seen it. Very deep, I know.

The other we watched last night. Juno. Great little movie. But aiyiyi, maybe Teri can help me sort this one oneu. As much as I think adoption is just an amazing thing it it just breaks my heart., Watching the birth scene and the aftermath, I have such a hard time seeing the creation of a family and get really sucked into the broken heart of a mother. I told hubby last night that I think if I do end up on L&D, i will do better as a nurse to a family who is having a stillbirth than a a nurse for an adoption. That sounds awful but I think the conflicting emotions would be just overwhelming and taumatizing in an adoption.

Gotta go to espanol!!! Adios!

Where has the last 3 weeks gone????

2008-05-13T13:38:00.003-05:00

So here we are. It's been three weeks since my last post and I know the blog world is clamoring to know what happened to me. HA! Not quite...

Can I do an update by bulletpoint?

Finished the semester with all As. Got an A in my med/surg class by the skin of my teeth. Literally. Got a 90.22. Works for me! I like getting A's. I didn't study much for any of my exams because I really didn't need to but I think I learned that I like getting A's more than I had admitted to myself. I'll study a little more next time.
I'm taking medical spanish for the next two weeks. I think it has potential for giving me a very weak base of being able to communicate with spanish speaking patients. Weak base simply because its only a two week class and I last took spanish about 15 years ago when I was in college.
I'm going to Honduras on a medical mission trip in June. The plan is to practice my spanish and practice some skills and hopefully help some folks in the process. I'm very excited about that and honestly can't really believe it is going to happen.
I have maintained my weight for the lat four weeks. Two weeks to go and I'm Lifetime at weight watchers. It has definitely gotten easier. I don't have to track every point. I don't have a desire to overeat as I used to. I still have trouble believing I am so much smaller than before. I went to Old Navy to try on jeans today not because I wanted to buy any (yes, I am sick) but because I wanted to see what size I wore there. Shockingly, I wore a 4 in old navy jeans just as I have been buying size 4 at Marshalls and Ross. My size 6 Levis that I bought in March are on the baggy side. NEVER would have expected that in a million years. I still have trouble believing it.
Diagnosed an MRSA skin infection on my dear sweet hubby. MRSA is the superbug that everyone is so scared of these days. He had it a year or so ago and after every doctor in church declared it poison ivy or contact dermatitis, his wifey said why don't you actually go to your doctor and don't get too close to me with that stuff. It cultured MRSA and he was on Bactrim for 1 month. Looked over at him last week and saw little bumps on his knee. I shrieked and said, "Get that away from me!" Just kidding. I calmly said, "Your MRSA is back, call the doc and get another round of bactrim and get ointment bactroban this time because the cream isn't generic." Always thinking of his and our pocketbook's well being.
Ran another 5K that was associated with the elementary school carnival. The course wasn't well marked and the runners including your truly got off course. So the 5 k was actually about 2.8 miles. I was on track to finish under 30 minutes though!
Almost finished Christ the Lord Road to Cana by Anne Rice. It is just amazing to me that someone who was so hostile to Christianity, so lost, could return to the faith and write about Jesus like that. I heard her say in an interview that she might write one more vampire book but only if she could figure out how to save Lestat. Wouldn't that be amazing! And just let me say that I read many of the Vampire books and liked them! They're just very very dark.
Gotta figure out what to have for dinner tonight. What's the vote? Can you still have soup for dinner when it is about 80 degrees outside? I love soup and I don't usually serve it in the summer but i wish I could!

summer reading....

2008-04-24T16:54:00.003-05:00

Please feel free to give me suggestions for my summer reading list. If I don't work on a list now, I will be clueless when I actually have time to read something for fun. I like all kinds of books but I particularly love fast paced brainless suspense books for summer. I also love good historical fiction. Can you tell I'm a student at the end of the semester? Perhaps I should be focused on finishing the semester rather than what I'm going to do when it is finally OVER!!!!!

I can't believe I did it

2008-04-23T21:25:00.003-05:00

I made my Weight Watchers goal on Monday night! I have lost 14.8 pounds which is almost 10% of my total body weight. I am officially within the normal weight category for my height using the BMI, although I'm at the very top of it. People ask me regularly if I've lost weight or say I look great etc. That is very satisfying. I've noticed though they also ask what I did. I usually shrug and say, "Sounds crazy but I ate less and exercised more. Weight watchers helped too." They often look disappointed when I say that, like they really wanted me to give them the magic secret vitamin. Whatevah! I am a weight watchers believer now. I am so happy with my new size that it is just crazy!!!!

I also have a definitive understanding of my cholesterol issues. I have a VERY strong family history of high cholesterol. My mom was in the first group of people to go on cholesterol lowering meds because her cholesterol was over 300. At the time, she was the Jane Fonda of Dallas, teaching exercise classes every day and weighing in at about 110 pounds. So the deck is stacked against me. Eighteen months ago, when I was heavier, my cholesterol was 229. My cholesterol last Thursday, with a 10% body weight reduction, significant dietary changes and a steady exercise program I have dropped my cholesterol---- drum roll please---15 points!!!!!! Pretty lame. Guess I get to blame it on my genetics for real. My midwife says I can wait another year to decide on taking meds because my triglycerides are good and my ratio is pretty good. I know I'll have to take them eventually, I just want the eventually to be as far away as possible.

I wish I had before pictures but I never got around to taking them!!!!! Oh well!!

Oh One more thing

2008-04-18T18:27:00.002-05:00

Watched this movie last night...

Here's a trailer for it...

GREAT MOVIE!!!!!! Captures all the ranting about birth I've done over the last 10 years in one well photographed 90 minute documentary. How convenient. If you watch it pay attention to the difference on the faces of the women who birth with no drugs vs the woman who sees her baby for the first time from the c-section table. WOW!

Kinda got me fired up about L&D and all nervous again. I can't imagine not giving L&D at least a chance as a nurse. I know that I could make a difference at least for the families I work with.

What song do you love that everyone else hates?

2008-04-18T18:16:00.001-05:00

How embarrassing to even admit this but I have always loved the song "My Heart Will Go On" from the movie Titanic. didn't even like the movie that much. But I can't help it, I really like the song. I know it is whiney and obnoxious. Still like it. What is your most embarrassing fav song?

Wrapping up the year in nursing school

2008-04-17T16:54:00.002-05:00

Well, the light is definitely bright at the end of the tunnel but there is still soooooooo much to do before the year is over! I finished clinicals last week. That turned out well over all. I was very discouraged by my med/surg clinical at the beginning of the semester because it was sooooooo boring and I thought my instructor was going to be really difficult. But by the end of the semester I found myself figuring out things to do and actually be productive on my thursday nights and I came to really appreciate my instructor. She had an air of aloofness about her but she was a good instructor. She balanced throwing us to the wolves with micromanaging us really well. On my last night the nurse I was following around wrote that I was "to be trusted" on my evaluation. That's pretty high praise!

OB was difficult as you can see above. My last day there I was in L&D and saw all the things go wrong with hospital maternity care that possibly could and still have everyone at the end say, "All that matters is a healthy baby!" It is hard to describe what happened that day because when I write it down it sounds, well, typical. And in some ways it was. But when typical leaves me crying and unable to sleep for 24 hours, something just ain't right. I still think L&D is a likely place for me to end up after graduation but I'm more open to other options than I was before. I know that I could make a difference for the families I care for, I'm just not sure how much "typical" my heart can take. On a high note, when I was talking to my instructor about what happened she said I was by far the best student she's ever had. I love affirmation!!!!!!

Still lots to get done, 2 projects to present next week, research assignments, an 8 essay take home final, and of course regular finals! Then when all that's done I'm signed up for a 2 week intensive medical spanish class. Oy Vey! One day at a time. Remember the elephant!

Oh the irony

2008-04-09T15:48:00.003-05:00

How in the world is it possible that a person who is a bit of a birth junkie, who has delivered two babies of her own with out drugs, has read many many books on the subject, is seriously considering a career as a midwife, has looked forward to her OB clinical since before nursing school started, has test grades of 98, 96,90, & 95 in her OB lecture, how is it that this same person can get through an ENTIRE OB clinical and never get to see a vaginal delivery. How How How?????!!!!!!!

So Teri and Sarah thank you for letting me be your doula because with out you two I would have never seen a delivery EVER!!!!!!

(I'm a little frustrated and disillusioned with L&D nursing and this is my quick attempt to get it out before carpool driving!)

I found a week!!!! A whole week!

2008-04-04T12:23:00.002-06:00

So I thought that the last module (which is like four written assignments and a quiz) for my internet class on The Aging Adult was due next thursday. BUT Its not!!! Yippee!!! It is due the next week!!! So I have a moment to tell my blog friends my happy happy news. You really have no idea how happy. AND I got one of the assignments DONE before I realized my mistake so now I'm ahead (a little). Before I start on either the research assignment due Thursday (definitely this thursday) or my OB care plan which is due Wednesday or to study for my OB test which is Tuesday. You can begin to see why not having a major project due this week would be a HUGE relief. (Happy dance happy dance!) But all will be preceded by lunch because it is pointless to try to focus on an assignment when you are thinking about food!

Rumors of a recession are greatly exagerrated

2008-04-01T04:15:00.004-06:00

AT least if the stimulus package I pumped into the economy last week has anything to say about it. I've now lost about 13 pounds. I am .6 pounds from my Weight Watchers goal weight. I'm running like a fool, about 15 miles a week or more. You've seen my measurements so I've changed my shape pretty dramatically. All this adds up to the fact that my clothes were looking a little ridiculous. I had a few things that were really tight before that look good now but almost nothing to wear to church. So my mom and I went shopping. I stimulated the economy to the best of my ability. Man, was it fun to have to ask my mom to get me a size 4 because those darn size 6s were just too big! I got two new pairs of jeans

(on sale at Macy's whoo-hoo) Levi's size 6 petite and they don't need to be shortened! Love it. I got a couple outfits at White House Black Market for church.(I had a gift card there from Christmas that i was saving for just such an occassion). It really was a lot of fun.

I still have this nagging fear that all the weight is just going to magically appear back on my thighs. I think part of it is that I've got some new habits for eating so it doesn't seem like i am following the plan as much because it has gotten easier to do without thinking about it so much. I also don't get a ravenously hungry anymore which makes me think I must have over eaten at the last meal. However, the scale keeps showing lower numbers each week so I really think it m

ust just be in my head. On Sunday I took the girls to IHOP for breakfast and ordered a spinach

and mushroom omelet made with egg beaters without hollandaise sauce. I only ate half of it and at one pancake from my stack of 3. It really wasn't hard because honestly, as hokey as it sounds that old Weight Watchers saying is true for me. Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels. Some goopy hollandaise and a plate load of syrup and butter just wasn't even close to being worth it!

Seen in the neighborhood

2008-03-28T13:32:00.002-06:00

So my neighbor got her drivers license in November. We've known her since we moved in 5 years ago and have watched her grow up into this teenager! I guess it happens to all little girls eventually. Anyway, she's had a few run ins between stationary objects and her car...the side of the garage, etc. So Wednesday was trash day. On the curb next to the household trash at her house was the BUMPER TO HER CAR! All smashed up but good! Now that is an inspired parenting move. Want to shame your teenager? Put the bumper to the car out on the street for the trash men to pick up! I laughed all the way to school!

Easter Pics!!!

2008-03-26T20:24:00.006-06:00

Easter pictures! My girlies are on top all decked out in their Easter finery. It is hard to believe that just last year they had matching dresses from The Children's Place that included just a little bit of petticoat under neath and this year one is wearing fashions from the Hannah Montana line! It was a very nice day.

Life in the ER

2008-03-14T14:41:00.002-06:00

Ahhhhh, remember ER when George Clooney and Juliana Margulis were on it... I haven't watched that show in YEARS but used to be a devoted fan.

Anyway, my evening in the ER wasn't quite as glamorous but it was a lot of fun! It was busy and the time flew by. Compared to how time creeps by on Med/surg it was great! I got to do stuff to. This is very very important in nursing school. I even STARTED AN I.V.!!!! How cool is that! The first one I tried I didn't get in the vein. It rolled away when I tried to get in. The second one I got in even though it was a small vein on a lady who has had LOTS of I.V.s in her life (She was a kidney transplant patient. Not sure what was wrong with her last night but I think it was congestive heart failure on some level.) It was a little nerve wracking to think I was going to subject someone to my inexperience but it has to be done! I also got to start a Foley catheter. That was much easier than I thought it would be. It was on a sweet old lady who was very confused and complaining of fulness in her abdomen. The doctor thought she was very dehydrated and wanted a foley to see if she had any urine at all. Within a few seconds of starting the foley we drained about 350ml from her. No wonder she was uncomfortable. Poor thing. I also hung a bunch of I.V.s, hooked them up to the I.V. pumps, gave I.V. push medications and gave a suppository. Not as yucky as I thought it would be. Another thing that was cool was seeing various disease processes that we've talked about in class play out in real live patients.

Overall, it was a huge relief to experience a form of nursing that i found interesting, exciting and challenging because my clinical experiences so far have rarely met those criteria.

First Goal attained, on to the next 100 miles

2008-03-13T12:19:00.004-06:00

Did you see my ticker?????? As of Tuesday I hit my first one hundred miles of 2008. I may just keep that ticker there and just add a new one for the next one hundred miles. It would be terribly sad to finally hit the one hundred mile mark just to reset it back to zero. I like my little guy at the finish line!!!!

Later I will have to add a cool picture to this post. Right now I'm at school and don't want to spend a bunch of time looking for a good picture.

Tonight I get to spend my clinical time in the ER. It has potential to be really interesting or really boring. The hospital I'm at isn't a trauma center so the ER isn't necessarily a hopping place. The hospital also often closes it due to lack of bed. I was in radiology last week and it was completely DEAD! Nothing going on!!!!! Luckily the nurse I was with was a lot of fun. Hopefully I'll have a fun nurse tonight AND a lot of interesting stuff to do. Might I even start and I.V. I will hope yes and then pity the patient who is my first stick!

31:35

2008-03-08T15:30:00.002-06:00

I ran my 5K today and finished in 31:35 which I thought was pretty darn good. It was a lot of fun. The day was pretty cold for Houston but beautifully clear and no wind! Yesterday was so windy stuff was blowing all over the place. The kids had a great time at the event afterwards, bounce houses, a climbing wall and food! I would definitely do a 5K again and am itching to try a 10K. That would require a little more training I think!

2008-03-07T06:22:00.002-06:00

HAve you seen my running ticker????? I am seven miles away from my 100 mile goal! How cool is that??? Saturday I run in a 5K, my first real race since I ran in a half marathon on January 18, 2004. I'm really excited! I don't really have a time goal because I'm running with a friend and I just don't know how fast we will be together. I think if I were by myself I would expect to come in around 30-32 minutes at the fastest but that is just a guestimate. I'll keep you posted!

The cliche checks in (Or what the world looks like with ten pounds less of me)

2008-03-04T17:42:00.002-06:00

I blogged here about how much I disliked being a cliche but I was joining weight watchers in January with all the rest of the cliches.

So now, eight weeks later, the cliche is checking in....

before measurements:

Waist: 31.5

Hips: 41

upper arm: 11

Thigh: 21.5

Ten pounds lighter:

Waist: 29

Hips: 39

upper arm: 10

thigh: 19.5

Looking at it from a perspective of inches all in black and white, I have to say I am impressed with myself. I tried on some clothes at Kohl's yesterday and size 6 jeans fit very comfortably and a size 6 skirt was WAAAAY too big. Didn't even think to bring a 4 back with me. (Just typing "a 4" is a little freaky.)

When you are ten pounds lighter you suddenly run faster. I just finished 4 miles in about 39 minutes. That's really fast for me. When you are ten pounds lighter, clothes that you have avoided suddenly make it into the comfy clothes section of the closet and the comfy clothes look ridiculous. Being 10 pounds lighter also makes me feel quite a bit sexier. Hubby has enjoyed that!

Being ten pounds lighter and really liking that also makes me a little anxious that the weight is just going to magically appear back on me one morning. I'm going to wake up and realize it was all a dream, I didn't just lose that weight. It is really an odd feeling to have such an obvious fantasy like that creeping into my conscious. I am also conscious of my pride about it. I don't want to be vain but it is nice to look in the mirror and feel good.

I can see a difference in my stomach first and foremost. It is flatter and wrinklier. Being plump hides the loss of elasticity in the stretch marks. But that doesn't bother me at all. I like my wrinkly belly button. I can feel a difference in my arms. The muscles are more defined. I can tell a difference in the way my bras fit (which is a bummer for hubby but having smaller b*0*0Bs when you started at a full C isn't a bad thing in my book! Today I think I can tell a difference in my face a little. I think my eyes look bigger. Is it possible to lose eyelid fat?

I have three more pounds to lose to be at the top of the acceptable range for weight watchers goal weight. Which is definitely where I will declare my goal to be. It will be interesting to see how I do at maintenance....

I didn't die and I didn't kill anyone in the hospital

2008-02-29T10:30:00.002-06:00

I swear someday I will blog again. School is a lot busier this semester. I don;t think it is really harder but there's more written work to do. Studying, i can take or leave, (most of the time leave!) An assignment that has to be turned in, well, you just have to sit down and do it.

Topics to blog about (hopefully they will actually be transformed from topics to posts)

1. The cliche checks in (or what the planet looks like with 10 pounds less of me)

2. What really happens to your baby when it goes to the nursery after birth...

3. My celebrity soul mate

4. What's on my ipod (cause I wanna know what's on yours!)

5. My first real race since the half marathon four years ago (coming March 8)

6. School updates, what I've learned, what I've done!

That's it for now I think. Gotta shower. Just ran 4 miles in 41 minutes. When there's ten pounds less of you to cart around you actually start to run faster!

I've been tagged!!!

2008-02-01T16:56:00.000-06:00

My first tagging!!! Thanks Kristen!

The Rules!

Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more (no cheating!)

Find page 123.

Find the first five sentences.

Post the next three sentences.

Of course, the only book I have near me is a book for nursing school so I fear this may be a tad dry...

From Gerontological Nursing by Charlotte Eliopolous

"A family leave law is passed. The local hospital issues a circular informing the community of new services for senior citizens. A nearby church sponsors a caregiver support group."

You're now just dying to take a class on Aging huh!

Whatta week

2008-01-26T10:24:00.000-06:00

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!

2008-01-18T18:42:00.000-06:00

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!