And so begins the waiting...

Several things to tell you today. I'll start with the bland stuff.
1. Work was okay. Still in orientation, so lots of sitting. Lots of computer work. Tomorrow at least we get to demonstrate our IV skills. We're learning the computer charting system. So far, I really like it. I hope I can still say that after a couple of months. I should be on the floor by next Tuesday. Not the whole day, but it is a 12 hour day.
2. We got our ATT today!! What is an ATT you ask? Authorization to Test. That means I became eligible to schedule my state boards. We've been waiting for this email to come through--and it finally did.
3. I am scheduled to take NCLEX--next friday, June 5 at 8am. I called Emily from the hospital and had her get into my email to get all the stuff. So she's actually the one who registered me. I wanted a good date and time and didn't want to wait to get home and do it. She was all to eager to help me. So I told her what I wanted and she did it. So now I have this huge knot in my stomach!!! I'm about to take the biggest test of my life! Now I have to get off the computer and start studying!!

Stay tuned...

Quite the boring day.

Today was general orientation for my new job. I feel like I signed my name a million times. Do you want insurance plan A, B or C? Do you want short term disability? Long term disability? Additional life insurance? Which dental plan? Do you want vision? Who are your beneficiaries and what percentage do they each get? I didn't think it would ever end. I heard more on corporate compliance than I ever cared to (I know its an important topic, but wow, that was dry). Up side--I got paid just to sit there and listen. I can handle that!
So nothing exciting to report. I got my badge today, so I kind of feel official now. Tomorrow those of us in patient care areas begin training. Not on the floor, but in the education department. I'm excited about it!
Hopefully I'll have much more wonderful things to report tomorrow.

Stay tuned...

It feels like the first day of school

Tomorrow I start my job at the hospital. When I say "start", that means orientation. We're there from 7:45 to 4:30 and its general hospital orientation. After tomorrow, I don't know what happens. But I know I'm excited. It really does feel like the first day of school tomorrow. Kinda cool. All that nursing school is finally ending at this point--job! I'll let you know how it goes!

Stay tuned...

Love these kids!

One of my goals for my trip to Emily's was to get new pics of her kids. Now that I have my handy-dandy camera, I figured I should put it to good use. Emily agreed, so we picked out clothes for the kids and then let them in on the "plan". They were super tolerant of me and seemed to have a good time. Jacob wasn't too eager to have his picture taken barefooted, but he got over that pretty fast.

I wanted some candid pictures, but one of the kids, not naming any names (Anna), loves to pose for the camera. You'd better have a speedy shutter finger to catch her in a candid shot. Here are some of my favorites.

Do you know how hard it is to get 4 kids to smile and look at the camera at the same time?

I love this picture of Thomas. I must have gotten 50-60 shots of him and in most of them, he's making a funny face. This one is my favorite though.

Anna would let me take pictures all day. Bless her heart. She's such a ham! I love her for letting me practice my photography skills on her though.

This is kind of a weird shot, but for some reason, I like it.

And last, but not least. I think Jacob honed in on his Spidey-skills!

Hangin' with the kids

I'm at my sisters for the week hanging out with her and the kids before I start work next week. I flew in last night and we were up bright and early for a doctors appt and a trip to the zoo. The doctor's appt was for Thomas--his yearly neurosurgeon visit. He got a good report--hooray! Then off to the zoo. I love hanging with the kids for lots of reasons, but one of my newest reasons is because they are wonderful practice for me and the camera. Just want to share a few with you. My posts have been devoid of pictures lately, so maybe this'll make it up to you.

Ask and ye shall receive.

FREEEEEDOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!!!!!!
I graduated from nursing school today! Did you ever think this day would arrive? I sure didn't. But here it is. The graduation ceremony was very nice. I now have a pin that says I graduated from nursing school. I can do nothing with that achievement until I pass boards though.
So, we were at graduation and I was waiting to line up when I saw the HR Nursing recruiter (from the hospital I interviewed with Tuesday) come in. I smiled and said hello and that I was glad to see her. She told me she needed to call me because she had good news for me!!!!! Translation: I got the job at Forrest General!!!! I have a job!!!!!!! I'm going to be a real nurse in a real hospital!!!!!!
So here's the facts:
- It is on a med surg floor but we get the pre and post heart cath patients (if you don't know what that is, you'd probably be bored with the details).
- It is a night job so 7p to 7a, here I come! (I wanted nights so I'm thrilled)
- I don't know when I start, she's supposed to call tomorrow and we'll set everything up.

More info to come, but I wanted to let you know that I've matriculated and have a job!

Stay tuned...

More job news (will this ever end?)

Got a call today from my second choice hospital (which is now my first choice hospital since my former first choice rejected me). The position is on a med-surg floor. I never dreamed I'd be excited about a med-surg position, but at this point, beggars can't be choosers. I've been starting to kind of panic. I'm very tired of graduating from school and not being able to get a job. God always provides and I'm still trusting Him to do so this time too.

I'll keep you informed about it.

Our friend Eddie, missionary in Africa, is here now. He's home for the summer and stopped by to see us (and the church). He's by far the easiest house guest ever. A little Nesquick and the Wii and he's happy. He's just so used to the Africa temperatures, that he likes it WARM in the house. Our back bedrooms have their own thermostat, so it's pretty nice. He can have it warm and we can keep the front cool.

1. My final is Monday. I can make a 27 on it and still pass this semester. I have to make better than a 90 to make an A in the class though. So, looks like I'm going to have to settle for a B. Who cares--I just want to pass N-CLEX.
2. Dave is now 30. The big 3-0. This means I'm not far behind--scary.
3. You can get cherry coke at Cracker Barrell.
4. We took an NCLEX predictor again today and I have a 99% chance of passing boards on my first write! That's really encouraging.
5. I desperately need to clean house--but don't want to.

Am. Idol Spoiler Alert

For those of you (Sam) who may not have watched American Idol yet, this post contains the name of the contestant being sent home.

I was so super excited! I was hoping for this top three. I think Allison deserved to go home. But that may just be because I'm not a Janice Joplin fan. Granted, Danny's song was really bad, but overall, he's awesome! I have no problem with any of them winning now! They're all great!

Okay, it's late and I'm beat.

Stay tuned...

Some job news...

Got home today and there was a letter from my first choice hospital--a rejection letter.
Bummer.

In all the excitement...

My post yesterday was geared toward all the drama of "not graduating". Now that things have calmed down...

I sent off my application to take NCLEX (state boards) on Thursday. It's finally real to me now. Until now, nursing school has only had that theoretical goal of passing boards. Now, we're getting to the nitty-gritty. For those of you who don't know the process, let me explain it to you. I have submitted an application to the state of Mississippi Board of Nursing. I also submitted an application to the National Board of Nursing. Once I graduate, the school sends my transcript to the state. When they receive it, they will process my application and submit my eligibility to test to the national board. The national board will then contact me and set up a date and location for me to test. Not exactly sure what the turn around time is once my transcripts have been submitted, but I think its pretty quick. So, now, I'm playing the waiting game.

Speaking of waiting. I called my first choice hospital the other day and let them know I got my background check letter back and asked what I should do now. I knew that I didn't need to do anything, but I wanted to get some information from them and that seemed like the perfect little cover story. They said calls for employment haven't been made yet, but should be soon. At my interview they said three weeks. My three weeks will be up next friday.

Next week at school, we have our NCLEX review class. It will be from 8-4ish Monday thru Thursday. I really enjoyed the review I did over Christmas break. This will be the same company, but a different instructor, so I'm hoping to reinforce the learning that I did over break. Then Friday we take another mock NCLEX predictor.
I'm trying to tie up my loose ends on assignments now. We received a print out of the topics we missed on the last mock NCLEX and have to do some work to remediate on those topics. Several people are groaning and complaining about it, but I think it's pretty smart. If I missed it once and don't fix it, Murphy's Law says: Those will be the topics on my NCLEX test. So, remediation, here I come. I have no intention whatsoever to take boards more than once.

Stay tuned...

Some sobering news...

So, today I went to the business office to submit my application and fee for graduation. The lady kindly asked me my student number to verify my records. I thought--no big deal, as many hours as I have, and all the classes I've taken--I should have no problem. So, you can imagine my surprise when she told me, "You're not eligible for graduation. You're missing a class."
You could have knocked me over with a feather. WHAT! One class--what class could it possibly be? I'm so glad you asked. I am missing a one hour credit in....wait for it...freshman orientation.
How big a joke is that! But she was serious. She denied my graduation application because I never took freshman orientation at this school. It doesn't matter that I have almost 150 undergraduate hours (and a degree) or that I have 31 more graduate school hours on top of that (plus another degree), it doesn't even matter that I made it to the end of the nursing program without having an orientation class.
So, the student records lady ever so sweetly sent me back to the dean of nursing, to whom I explained my predicament. After she picked herself up off the floor, she texted the dean of academics (who was in the middle of the school golf tournament fund raiser) to get him to okay the waiving of freshman 0rientation for me. And we waited....
And we waited....
And we waited....
Finally, I decided to go home. He did text back and told her that he'd talk to her monday.
I couldn't believe it! I was being denied graduation! Craziness!

Okay, so now the rest of the story (its very short).

The dean of nursing texted me once I got home and she had worked everything out with the academic dean--I will graduate after all! Hooray! Don't let me sound surprised. All day long, Ive been saying, "I WILL graduate". It was going to take wild horses to keep me from it. So my blood pressure is back down now. I'm geared up for a busy weekend.

We had our last test today in class. I did okay on it, but not superb. I could just about flunk it and still pass, so I'm not too worried. I do like to do well though.

Stay tuned...