Has anyone else noticed...

That now to leave comments on other pages, blogger requires you to type a 6-8 letter non-word scramble?

Gr. I find this highly annoying.

Greetings from the hermit

I did get over my frustration with the Christmas lights and put them up. Here's the finished product. I like it. Beloved says there are a lot of "balls" on the tree. Her family doesn't use balls. I love them. And there can never be too many, I think.

Our last day was Tuesday and I haven't left the house since Wednesday. It's wonderful not having to go anywhere. I'm a complete homebody who's content enough just lounging around with the dogs. I have slowly but surely started getting items crossed off my "To Do" list. All that's left now is to make a grocery list, clean the office, and clean the bathroom. But to be quite honest, I'm already bored. Is that terrible? I love being busy. And when I'm busy, I whine about how I never have time for anything. I think it's because I work best when there's slight pressure to get things done.

Emmie is doing much better. She's got seven staples, I counted them just in case she decided to rip one out. Her incision site looks great and she's back to her old self. She didn't like the way the incision felt when she went outside and refused to move to pee/poop. So I took a little doggy jacket that we had for Graisen and put it on her backwards, so the jacket part protects her incision from the ground, etc. Plus this way she can't lick the incision. I take the jacket off daily to examine the site -- but she likes it best on. She refuses to move and looks kind of panicked without it. Graisen has been wonderful through the whole ordeal. He knew when she came home that something wasn't quite right. He just laid with her gently and napped. I love my dogs. They are hilarious.

Anyways -- I'm looking forward to Christmas next week. I keep forgetting I'm going home which I'm really excited about. I love my family dearly and miss them all the time. The youngest is 5 (almost 6) and I feel like I'm missing out on his life. But I'm being a grownup. So there's some value in that as well. Plus I try to visit as much as possible.

I also went and visited my twin girls on Wednesday. They remembered me! After not seeing them since July, I was happy to see how big they've gotten. They're getting very long -- I think they're going to be tall. I was with them since they were 4 months old. (So, about two years...) I love those girls --- they're like my own family. I was devastated on my last day with them. But they're doing great and I'm so fortunate to be able to visit with them when they're in town.

Final Grades are In!!

And as predicted...I wrapped up my first semester of nursing school with all A's.

I cannot believe it. Mebbe I'm smarter than I thought.

Cheers. I'm stringing lights on my Christmas tree.

I'm Free!

Woohoo to finishing my last exam yesterday afternoon. And boo to my darling Emmie slowly recovering from her spay surgery yesterday. She looks so pitiful.

Anyways -- I thought I'd share how happy I am to be finished for this semester. And it looks like I may have walked away with all A's. (Well, at least three so far...)

The twin girls and their momma are in town for Christmas. So I'm going to visit. :)

Tagged

I'm so excited to get tagged to do a meme. I've never been tagged in my whole 4 months of blogging. Plus it has given me a much-needed break from studying for finals. Thanks, Brain Scramble :)

1.) I am very particular about my note-taking system. I don't really like to take handwritten notes. I much prefer my Macbook. And so far this semester it has included an off-the-wall program that lets me use the Cornell Method of note taking, a program that draws concept maps, and a program for creating absolutely awesome flashcards. I do believe this system will bring me much success for finals.

2.) My most favorite thing to eat right now is Greek yogurt. It's rich, thick, and creamy. I put it on almost anything. Last week it was in my chili (kind of like sour cream.) I also put it in the most amazing turkey and provolone sandwich on whole wheat flatbread with sliced cucumbers and red onions. Delicious!

3.) I have two miniature dachshunds, Graisen & Emmie. We just put up our (real) Christmas tree and Emmie helped herself to a branch. Later on, she pooped said branch completely whole, with the berries on the end and leaves still attached. It was about 4-5 in long. I don't know how she does it.

4.) For a girl who's not super girly, I love me some purses. All kinds of bags. Big ones, little ones, designer bags, trendy bags, functional bags, etc. I have so many that I can rotate which bag I carry. And now that I have so much extra stuff to carry (think: stethoscope, miscellaneous nursing supplies, etc.) I really like the extra space my larger bags have.

5.) When I was a little girl, whenever my mother took me to the drug store, I would go to the lipstick section and turn the lipstick all the way so it would get smushed in the cap. I thought this was the most fun thing of all time. And she never caught me!

6.) I used to smoke. And this is a confession. Especially in nursing school when all we talk about is smoking cessation, blah blah blah. I originally quit cold turkey when Beloved and I started dating. Now I'm glad I quit before nursing school otherwise I would get hounded about quitting all the time. I feel sorry and yet envious for the smokers in my class.

7.) I love pregnant women. I really do. I love labor, pregnancy, trying to get pregnant, birth, post-partum, etc. I love the babies too. I read about pregnancy in my free time. I am such a birth-geek but it truly is my passion (and hopefully my calling.) I'm so grateful that I found what I really love doing.

And so that's a little bit about me. I know some people don't like doing these but I'm going to tag you anyways.

I pick:

Not Nurse Ratched

Minority Midwifery Student

Navelgazing Midwife

Sage Femme

Em

Battle Axe

So many drugs, so little time

I should be studying the 172+ drugs I have to know for my cumulative Integrated Science final on Tuesday. I, however, need a break from learning side effects, drug classes, nursing implications, and indications for drugs. I've been studying so hard that all I dreamt about last night was drugs. Heparin, Digoxin, Nexium, Insulin, etc etc. The list goes on, I assure you.

I did find a very cool program, however, that's called iFlash which allows me to make as many "flashcards" as I'd like on my computer. I can create as many sides to one card as I'd like, so I'm no longer limited to just front/back of traditional 3x5 notecards. Also, I type a whole lot faster than I write. Furthermore, this program will allow me to upload my completed notecard database to my iPod for review! It also allows you to mark a card as "memorized" and therefore it will move it out of your rotation. I feel like such a nerd being so excited for such a simple program. I truly do learn best from flashcards.

I haven't even started reviewing objectives yet. I think I will make a database with objectives and concepts that are complicated and/or need more review. But getting all 172 drugs accurately put into the database for review is an accomplishment.

In other non-news, my final validation went well yesterday. I felt it was kind of redundant, but whatever. I do what I'm told. Monday I have my clinical final exam and my clinical evaluation with my clinical instructor. I'm not too worried about either. Tuesday is the big Integrated Science final exam. And Emmie's getting spayed that day too.

On Sunday, the baby twin girls I used to nanny will arrive in Atlanta for their Christmas break! I'm so excited. Although, I spoke with their mother yesterday and one of the twins has pneumonia (sucks.) But I'm excited to see them nevertheless. It's been since the end of July. (And I used to see these girls 3-4 times a week for the past two years!)

Alright I'm going back to studying. Gr.

Light at the end of the tunnel

This semester is finally finally drawing to a close. Two cumulative finals, an evaluation, and a final clinical validation remain. I can't believe my first semester of nursing school has so quickly come to an end. I'm one semester closer to graduating.

My last week of clinicals in the hospital went well. It was voluntary but I went to the hospital anyway. Caring for patients is more exciting than anything else I do. I ended up getting two patients. Yes, two whole patients. One I had the week prior. Colon CA. But I got to discharge this patient and saw him on his merry way. The other patient reminded me of someone I love dearly, and although this patient was semi-comatose, I enjoyed caring for her the most of all my patients this entire semester. Nothing super new happened -- I helped DC a PICC line. I didn't actually get to pull it out -- as student nurses we don't do that -- but I did get to assist (read: removed sutures!) I already have my assignment for next semester. I will be doing maternity & peds rotation. And I already know who my clinical instructor is -- someone I think I will love -- a CNM who works closely with the doula co-op I'm also a part of.

I just took my last regular exam and think I did pretty well. I did excellent on my Health Assessment final check-off -- I had to do MSK/Neuro. exam. We had group presentations this morning as well. That went alright, minor technical difficulties, but hey...I can't always be perfect.

Speaking of group work...my mentor situation is awful. I know I've written about this previously, but this woman has stepped to a new level of crappy-mentorness. We had a service learning project that we did right after Thanksgiving. Crappy mentor lady had basically taken over the project and determined where/when we'd do our project. So...whatever. Everyone in the group at this point is so apathetic that we will do whatever to just get it over with. She chose a site that is 20-30 mins from school, but we all drove to, 30 minutes early as Crappy Mentor had asked us. Well, 5:30p comes and goes, no mentor. 6:00 comes and we have to get started. We do our project beautifully without Crappy Mentor. She shows up 5 mins. before our project is over (Read: 6:25p --- 1 hour late. Completely missed our project.) She lamely tried to make it up by taking a few conciliatory photos. So whatever. She's lame. She sent out a few emails to see if she could help out with our group presentation. So -- cut to today...she knows today is our presentation. All of the other mentors showed up for their groups presentations, hell, some even helped out! Did ours show up? Nope. But she did have the courtesy to send me an email, hoping that the presentation is going well. What a piece of crap. The worst part? I'm paying to have such a shitty mentor. And all of my peers have great mentors. What do I need to do to get a great mentor? Mentors can open such wonderful opportunities for you -- not to mention provide support and encouragement when needed. I'm overall disappointed in this mentor program -- and hope this woman never has students to mentor. But I'm glad our group overcame her petty crap, rose above it, and did a wonderful job. But she still gets to grade us. Gr. Although, it could have been worse, she could have been my clinical preceptor.

I'm headed to VA the day after Christmas and I'm so excited to go home (again.) I did manage to make it up there for Thanksgiving. Surprisingly, plane tickets are really not that expensive. $150 roundtrip for this trip. (Can't get much cheaper than that !) I'm still way behind on Christmas shopping. I'm not really sure what to get everyone. Beloved and I will be spending this Christmas as our first together, without our families. Last year she spent most of Christmas Eve in the airport and I was with my family without her (sad.) The year before, we went to see her family together but I wasn't with my family (sad.) So this year we're trying to compromise and create our own traditions. It's hard because although we both have been living on our own for several years now, we were very tied to our family's holiday traditions and had yet to form our own. It seems more and more like our life in Atlanta is becoming our life together.

The wiener dogs are doing fine. Emmie will be getting spayed Dec. 18th. I've finally found a vet that I will trust my little blonde girl to. Graisen also has to get his yearly shots. But slowly but surely, we're wrapping up 2007 on a happy note. Alright, I'm off to the test review.