What a yummy day!

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you all have lots of things to be thankful for--if you think about it for half a second, I'm sure you could come up with one or two hundred!
Dave and I got to wonderful Tuscaloosa, AL (Go Bama!) yesterday and will be here for Thanksgiving lunch. Then we'll head north and hit my mama and papa's house!
I will be SO stuffed after today!

I'm enjoying my break from school. I've been a little sewing demon! I've made lots of clothes--for my sister. Emily is great at coming up with sewing ideas--for me and mom. Seriously, she's great at ideas. Mom and I discussed it and we think it's because she has no idea how hard (or easy) things are, or how expensive it could be. So she kinda comes up with no holds barred ideas. They usually turn out pretty good too.

Not much to report. Stay tuned...

Coffee should be its own food group.

I've become addicted to coffee. (Like mother like daughter) When I was a little girl, I remember my mom sitting in her recliner drinking her coffee. I always helped her drink it and thus at the ripe old age of 2 or 3, began drinking coffee. I've always like it, but haven't always been motivated enough to make it in the mornings. Until nursing school. Now, I set my coffeepot the night before to make coffee for me when I wake up. I love that Chinet makes 16oz. disposable travel coffee cups with lids, and after all...Nothing stands up to Chinet. I love that I can get individual sized liquid creamer that doesn't have to be refrigerated and makes my coffee French Vanilla or Hazelnut.

My DirecTV man came today to fix our satellite. For some reason, CBS East was showing the NFL channel and CBS West was showing Toon Disney. Several other channels were messed up too. He was supposed to be here between 8:00 and 12:00 noon. He got here at 11:55. It wouldn't have been that big a deal except Bama had a vet appt at 1:15 and I had to call and move it later because our lines, and box and everything had to be replaced. The repairman finally left at 1:30. Why do we have to rearrange our whole morning schedule for someone to come fix something. It is very frustrating.

My last day of clinical (for Nsg 4)

I said at the beginning of the semester that I didn't want to be a L&D, Post-partum or Peds nurse. Now that I have been through the semester and had experience in each of these areas, I am only that much more confident that I WILL NOT BE A MATERNAL/CHILD NURSE!!! Today stunk. It was boring, but okay to start with. Then everything went bad all at once. Long story short, custody with children is a big issue and one that I'm not sure I want to have to deal with often. At least with (most) adults, you don't have to worry about who makes their decisions. Children are minors and most of them are not able to make decisions on their own. So who makes the decision? And what if someone else in their life doesn't like that decision. Now what?
I will be SOOOO glad to get back onto the med-surg floors again.

Tonight is my next to last class in Micro--I can hear the choir starting to warm up to begin the Hallelujah Chorus! Really, I have loved the class. I have even liked that I had it at night, one night a week. I like getting lots of information all at once rather than small snippets over 3 days per week. I don't like that it is on Wednesday night. I miss going to church. My final is on Monday, so next Wednesday is my last night to miss. Yeah!

I have only 6 more days of nursing class (which includes the final exam) and the tension is so thick that you'd have to cut it with a knife! Many people are borderline passing or borderline failing. Others are losing hope of passing. Others (including me) are just trying to keep our noses clean, pass the next unit test and final and move on. This semester has been tough. I'm not even sure that I can say just why. The instructors are phenomenal--I have enjoyed each one. Clinical has been fairly easy. The papers weren't bad and were few. However, tests were a booger and somehow we always had one more thing to do, which kept our adrenaline up and tires us out.
This brings me to my next issue....
Why, when we are not good at something or we don't excel at it to the level we desire, do we try to find someone, other than ourselves, to blame? Why when the test is hard do we blame the instructor for writing bad questions or not teaching correctly or blame the book for being hard to read? Why do we always pass the blame, rather than admitting something like 1) I didn't study enough, 2) I didn't study the right stuff, 3) maybe I just messed up or 4) maybe I'm just not good at this. Over the past few weeks, I heard so many gripes from people in the class and I have had to bite my tongue to keep from saying something--oh wait, I did say something. I was tactful though, mom.
This week, I heard someone say to an instructor that she doesn't understand why they test on stuff that isn't in the book. You could have knocked me over with a feather! I have never (and I mean never) thought that the instructors tested on anything other than what was in the book. Granted, they do not always test on the things they stress in class, and maybe they don't mention some things in class that will be tested on, but the test ALWAYS comes from the assigned reading material. If I know the reading material--I can pass the test. I heard someone say that we've been told there are just things we're supposed to know. I can't imagine one of our instructors saying that unless it is the synthesis of information from prior semesters or prior tests. Technically, we're supposed to learn those things for good, not just for the test.
I know my posts lately have been ranting quite a bit, and I apologize. I just want someone to hear me say that I believe this program that I have invested the last 18 months in and plan to finish in another semester has been fair. The instructors have showed me concern and caring and have invested significant time into me as well. I want someone to hear me say that I believe these women are doing everything they can to make me a safe and competent nurse and help me pass NCLEX. Thank you for listening to me--I feel better now.

1. Gas is 1.79 at a gas station here in town. Who'd a thunk?
2. I got a new pair of nursing shoes because I washed my old ones and they fell apart. I had to have white shoes and New Balances were the only ones I found that were white enough. I've always tried on NB's when I shoe shopped, but never bought any because they don't fit my feet right. I prefer Nike's. I still prefer Nike's. I'm hoping these break in better than they have so far. We'll see...
3. I'm so sleepy. I really just want to go home. I want to go to sleep. Tomorrow is my off day, but I have to take Bama to the vet for his last round of shots and the DirecTV man is coming to fix our confused satelite box. No rest for the weary.
4. One more school day until Thanksgiving break.
5. When I get out of school, I don't ever want to see another pair of maroon scrubs again! I used to think scrubs were cool and though wearing them would be so great. I'm so tired of them. It's like eating a PB&J sandwich at every meal for 2 years. Blah.
6. Got another test tonight, so I must go study.

Stay tuned...

A few tidbits

1. Tomorrow is my first dressing (or stuffing, if that's what you call it) of the year. I love my mother-in-law's dressing and am making it for our church Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. I'm sure I'll be burned out on it before Thanksgiving is over, but who cares!
2. We got our actual tests back Friday and due to a keying error and vague question, we got 4 more points added to our test grades, so I made an 86 rather than an 82! Good news!
3. Fall is finally here. I took the dogs to the pond to play today, but the wind was howling and it was just down-right cold. I went inside and visited and the dogs played outside without me. It was nice though. Sam, tell your dad to go to the doctor.
4. We only have two more weeks of school. Those two weeks are separated by 1 week of Thanksgiving break. I dread the final, but all I have to do is pass!
5. I have no #5.

Stay tuned...

A kind of off day and some rantings...

Today is my off day. Why does my off day get filled with things I don't really want to do? I feel absolutely horrible for saying this, but it's the truth. Today is the church blood drive. As a nurse and concerned citizen, I am 110% in favor of blood drives. I just don't want to run them. This is a project I seemed to have inheirited as pastor's wife. I only have to do it 2 times per year, so it really isn't that big a deal. I think I'm making it a bigger deal (think mountains and mole hills). I don't need any of you to tell me that I should suck it up and drive on--I already know. I'm just not in the greatest spirits about it since, at 7:45 this morning, my blood drive rep misunderstood something I said to her yesterday and so, this morning at 7:45, she called me this morning at 7:45 AM (did you catch that she called me at 7:45AM) to tell me that we had to cancel the blood drive. I corrected the misunderstanding and assured her that the blood drive would go on. But for real--7:45 on my off day. NO ONE SHOULD CALL MY HOUSE AT 7:45AM WITHOUT A LIFE OR DEATH EMERGENCY!!! Personally I think it is just rude. If she had waited until 8:00, I wouldn't accuse her of rudeness, just bugging me. But 7:45--really.

Okay, I'm done with that little out of body experience.

I have a friend who wrote on her blog that law school = high school with a case book. I think I could plagerize her and say nursing school = high school with a stethoscope. Seriously, in the last couple of weeks, the back biting and na-na-ing and cattiness of some of these girls has really come out. I'm content to let them do their thing and just work on keeping my nose clean, but some of them should be cowboys--they are good at roping everybody in. Not to participate in the misbehavior, but roping them in by talking ugly about them to other people. Unfortunately, my name came up this week. Not for something bad that they thought I did, but for something that just happened. It was of no consequence to them at all. But they got upset by it. I labored over how to handle it and finally decided that I should not just let it go, I needed to confront this particular person.

***And here's the point of the previous paragraph.***

Do you realize how hard it is to confront someone? Some of you "non-confronters" really do, but I (by nature) am a confrontational person. Or so I thought. I really wanted to talk to this girl without getting any mud on my own face. The Bible says to first talk to this person alone, one-on-one. So that's what I determined to do. I didn't bring up anything that I didn't hear myself or experience myself from her, yet she denied everything. She apologized for giving me any false impressions. I guess now I just let it go. Following the Biblical model, if the situation isn't rectified, I take other people back with me when I talk to her, but although I feel she lied to me, she still apologized. I don't feel that I have any reason to go back to her about this. The ball is in her court. It still bugs me though.

1. We have one more week until Thanksgiving break. I'm ready for the break, but at the same time I dread it. I always have trouble getting my motivation back after break. School is always harder after having a break.

2. Ladies, can I just put in a push for a particular article of clothing that I feel is very under-used. The slip. It's just a flimsy, silky item that no one ever sees. But it is SO important. Although no one ever sees it, it keeps others from seeing things that they just shouldn't. So, here's to you, Ladies' slip maker! I remember my own mother being a slip checker every Sunday morning before church. Thanks mom.

3. My Microbiology teacher is making me a bacteria-phobe. Sour cream, cake batter, eggs over easy--I'll sure miss you!

4. I made an 82 on my last test. It was apparently harder than I thought. An 82 isn't failing, for which I'm thankful, but it wasn't the grade I thought I was going to get. Bummer. We only have one more unit test and the final.

5. I've had a wonderful opportunity this week to sew. I've missed sewing over the last few semesters. I just wish I had more time. I'm working on some skirts (church clothes) for me and Emily both. I don't have time today (remember, the blood drive), but maybe Saturday.

6. And what's a post without a picture...

Bama watching the big kids play! I think he's pretty close to getting in on his own (on purpose).

Stay tuned.....

A day on the lake (or maybe just in the pond)

Today I took the boys to the pond. Dave and I went over on Thursday and gave Bama his second swimming lesson, which he (Bama) cried about for the rest of the day. Today was pretty chilly, so I decided it would be mean to throw him in. Trevor on the other hand wouldn't stay out of the water. I've heard that Labs love water and Trevor proves it to be true.

We've been playing with the Wubba toy that I got them lately. It is a Kong toy made to teach your dog to fetch ducks. I got it so they had an actual dog toy. It has been well worth the money. I need to get another one as Bama gets older.

Trevor is obsessed with fetching in the water. If he even thinks he sees something out on the water, he jumps in after it. Today we were sitting on the deck and looked out and Trevor was swimming out in the pond after nothing at all, just swimming.

I'm working on getting some video up for you to see him, but my SLOW internet connection is making it difficult. Keep checking for some great video clips. But for now, some pictures.

Trevor swims FAST! Used to, we had to hold Katie back so that Trevor had a chance, now we have to hold Trevor back so that Katie has a chance. If Katie gets to the Wubba first, Trevor swims out and takes it away from her so that he can bring it in. Big Bully.

Bama got the Wubba toy for just a second before Trevor took it away from him again.

Look at those beautiful eyes!

How many sticks?

Do you remember the commercial for Tootsie Pops? How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop? Well, how many sticks does it take to get good at IV's?
I got another opportunity to start an IV today. I missed. It was a hard stick though. There were patients today, but we were doubling and sometimes tripling up on them. That made today a SLOWWWWWWW day. I'm so tired. I just want to go home and go to bed. But I have Micro tonight and another test in there. So here I am, waiting for 5:00 to roll around.
It's too hot outside to try and take a nap in the car.

1. Election--no comment, except--the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, Gives it to whomever He will, And sets over it the lowest of men (Daniel 4:17). Praise God that He is still on the throne.
2. Why do people think that if they dislike someone that everyone else should too? Today someone tried to convince me to dislike another person. Her reasons for disliking this individual had NOTHING to do with me. They were very personal. I have my own reasons to LIKE this same person. Why do we feel wronged if another person disagrees on our personal likes and dislikes? I honestly think she was offended that I didn't jump on her bandwagon.
3. For whatever reason, I have been losing sleep lately. It seems like a different reason every night. It's getting old though. I'm ready to just sleep until my little heart is content.
4. My dogs are getting big! Trevor is big enough to jump into the bed of the truck on his own now. Bama has stopped crying all the time. Now he just cries most of the time. Trevor still thinks Bama is his toy, but Bama has started fighting back now.
5. When I leave the hospital after clinical, I smell hand sanitizer in my nose all night. I'm tired of that smell.
6. Dave's sister and brother-in-law are in Canada (Fort McMurray, north Alberta, specifically) doing mission work. They are ultimately trying to start a church there, although right now they are focusing on relationship building. Clay told a story in his mission report that I want to tell you all. A head-on collision took place on the 2-lane hwy that runs into their town. The driver of one car was killed instantly, the two people in the other car were pinned in. For 90 minutes, no one would stop to help them. The way his report read, people passed by, but no one stopped. I take for granted living in the Bible belt and around all the "good 'ole boys" who would immediately stop. Last year, we had tornados in our area and I (stupidly) was out on the roads. I hydroplaned and ended up in the ditch. I wasn't hurt, the car wasn't hurt, but before the wrecker could get there (about 30 minutes), so many people had stopped to make sure I was okay, I was mad. Every time they stopped, I had to get out into the rain to tell them that I was fine. I was drenched. I feel grateful now--they could have just driven by. Apparently there are people who would have.
Incidently, there are Good Samaritan laws in almost every state (possibly every state) to protect you from lawsuit if you are the first on the scene and stop to help in an emergency situation.

Stay tuned....

You can't have clinical if there aren't any patients.

We got to the hospital this morning for clinical only to be sent back to school because there weren't enough patients in the hospital. To be exact, there was 1 baby in the nursery, 3 women on post-partum, 3 kids on Peds, but one was being sent home and 1 lady in labor. There are 31 students there to do clinical--you do the math.
We ended up watching videos all day. Some were good, some were...not so good.
When I got home, Dave and I went to the polls to vote. There was no line in our little teeny tiny voting precinct, so it took all of 5 minutes start to finish.

This evening, Dave has been watching the election results and getting more and more concerned as the night goes on, and I've been putting a puzzle together. I've listened out of one ear, but am choosing not to get stressed out tonight. I cast my vote--that's all I can do.

1. Gas is $1.98. I didn't think I'd ever see that again!
2. I've thought a lot tonight about how things will change over the next four years. Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus.
3. Did you know that Pepto-Bismol contains aspirin? I didn't. Did you know that children under 19 years old (yes, 19), should not take aspirin or products containing aspirin? The general consensus in class--we were all given "the pink stuff" as kids.

That's all for tonight. I have to get my scrubs into the dryer and get some sleep--I'm beat.

Stay tuned...

My pitiful scrapbooking efforts.

I'm choosing to share my scrapbooking efforts with you. Please no laughing. I know that there are much better scrappers out there. I'm just learning.
I'm putting a book together of Emily's kids. These are the pages I have done so far.


This is Anna. Emily's second child and only daughter. The caption reads, "Sometimes you wear a halo, but other times.... We love you though."

This is Jonah. These pics were taken just the other day on a field trip.

Thomas. The caption reads, "You love having your picture taken, but you close your eyes in anticipation of the flash."

This is Jonah with his hero, Gage, the son of some of Emily and Tyson's friends from church.

I love these pics of the kids playing in the sprinkler this summer.

A productive weekend!

I had a really productive weekend. When I got home friday, Dave met me at the door and suggested that we go ahead and get the house clean. We had a missionary coming on Sunday, so it was nice to go ahead and get it done and then not have to stress on Sunday afternoon. Once we got the house clean, we started putting up blinds in our front living room. That project had been in the works for a while. We've slowly been putting up plantation blinds through the house.

Saturday I had a meeting in Hattiesburg, so I took a truckload of stuff to the Salvation Army. I was glad to get it out of the house!

I also got a lot of sewing done this weekend. It feels like I haven't sewn in forever. I got a bunch of Taggies done and also this quilt top.

If you can tell from the picture, the solid squares are shimmery. Not sure what I think of this quilt yet, but I'm going to go ahead and follow through with it. It'll be functional if not pretty.

I also got some cooking done and laundry too! It was a nice feeling to do something other than school work.

Stay tuned...