Summer time!

Summer is almost here! Which means it's about time to go buy a pool pass for the kids and myself. This will be the first time we will have to buy a pass. Last year we didn't buy one because we could go swim for free at the apartments that my grandma lived in. Now that she moved, if we want to swim, we need to buy a pass. Looks like they are 10% off through Monday, so looks like now is the time to get it!

Count Down!

What a long day today! I'm counting down the hours I have left with my preceptor. I have one more 13 hour day on Saturday, then I will only have 4.5 hours left to get in. I haven't decided if I will go ahead and stay the full day on Monday, or if I'll just stay until around lunch time. I talked to my preceptor about it today and told her I could stay the whole day if it would be easier for her. She said it didn't really matter to her either way, so I'm seriously considering taking off after a half day. Any extra time I put in doesn't do me any good, so I might as well.

Looking forward to having a day off tomorrow, even if I do have to do some studying for a test I have Friday.

Heck to the YES!

I took my RN HESI exam today, which is the exit exam for nursing school. We have 2 chances to pass it. If we fail both times, we have to retake the class. Today was our first real attempt at it. We took a practice test last quarter, but that didn't count, pass or fail, but today it counted.

In the past, the score would either show up immediately when the test was complete, or the proctor would give you your score in the hall. This time, they decided to email our results to us.

So, after having all my classmates announcing that they got their emails and they either passed or failed, I still didn't have my email. So I started panicking, thinking I was going to have to live with a knot in my stomach until tomorrow because certainly all of my teachers have gone home for the day. I finally decided to check my old email address. Nothing was in my inbox, but I had over 400 messages in my junk mail. Fortunately, I looked in there because there were my results. I passed!! Yay! It is such a relief to know that I don't have to worry about taking that again before I can graduate!!

Feeling better

Yesterday, I was not feeling too great at all. I woke up with a sore throat and by the afternoon, I was feeling rather nauseous. I was not looking forward to having to sit in class all day today and then work all day tomorrow feeling like that. Thankfully, I am feeling much better today. I still don't feel like sitting here in class (I am crazy bored) and I'm not really looking forward to getting up at 5:15 on a Saturday morning, but at least I don't feel sick!

Aww!

Puppy hugs!

Seven!

I can't believe my baby is 7 years old today! It seems like he was just born! He is such a sweet little man, too. Here he is opening up some of his birthday presents:


Lava lamp! (He asked for this). And his "boring clothes" behind him that he'd already opened.


Legos Star Wars III game. He has the 2nd one and LOVES it! He has been asking for this one for a while, so he was quite excited! He also got a Nintendo DS and a Legos Star Wars game to play on that. He's a happy birthday boy! :)

Blahhh

My stomach is not happy right now. :( I am super tired, too. Last week wore me out. I worked 12.5 hours on Monday, then between 8-9 hours each Tuesday through Thursday, and then had class all day on Friday. Of course I couldn't sleep in much this weekend either. Both yesterday and today I woke up too early and couldn't get back to sleep. It was better than getting up at 5:15 am though! Back to that again in the morning! I should seriously just go to bed right now.

So, uhh...

Can we agree that it is incredibly rude to not return emails or phone calls, especially in the professional setting? I am tired of being blown off! Not only have I had 2 emails to my teacher completely ignored, I have left 2 voicemails for the nurse manager of my preceptor trying to confirm my starting tomorrow morning. I was told Friday, by my teacher, to be there Monday-Thursday starting this week, so unless I hear otherwise, I am planning on showing up at the hospital at 6:30 in the morning. I will be extremely pissed off if I get there and have to turn around and come home!

On a more pleasant note, I am loving the weather today! It is currently 82 degrees, though a little windy. Took Bella to the dog park this afternoon, and now sitting here with the windows open in the house enjoying the breeze!

Okay, this is getting a little ridiculous...

So, as I mentioned yesterday, I received a call from my teacher letting me know that she was switching my preceptor and I would be working night shift at a certain hospital. I found out this morning that it is actually a different hospital from what I was told yesterday, but still night shift. Alright, I preferred the first hospital, but whatever. Then by this afternoon, I was told that I will actually be working 7a-3p M-Th. OMG, seriously? How many times are they going to change this around on me? Guess I'll have to wait and see if it changes again before I'm supposed to be there at 6:30 Monday morning! ARGH! I am so ready to be done with this school!!

Updates

First to update my earlier post: 1) I decided to go ahead and blind people and wear the skirt today. 2) I stopped at Walmart to buy some of the Olay lotion on my way home but for some reason, they didn't have it. So, I decided to try out a similar product by Neutrogena. It smelled decent in the bottle, but I used it when I got home, and it definitely has that self-tanner smell to it. I'm not a fan of that, so I think I'm going to return it and go somewhere else to find the Olay.

The other update is regarding my school schedule: 1) I had my Friday times incorrect, I'll actually be at school from 10:30-6:00, not 8:30-4:00, like I'd originally said. (I went back and changed my post to make it correct). 6pm kinda sucks for a Friday, but whatever. 2) I got a voicemail from my teacher today informing me that she is switching my preceptor. I was quite surprised by this after how adamant she was in telling us that there would be NO changes once the assignments had been made. Alas, she is switching me to be with someone in a Hospital working the night shift. I do not, however, know what unit I will be on yet. I will hopefully find that out tomorrow.

So, now I have no idea what my schedule will be over the next couple of months other than the fact that it will be nights. It is very possible that my schedule will change from week to week, as nurses in Hospitals don't always work the same days of the week every week. So, I'll have to wait and see on that. But, at least I will get to try out this whole night shift thing and see how I like it.

It's about that time

I need to start using some lotion with a self tanner in it. I was thinking about wearing a skirt today because of the nice weather, but my legs are rather pasty, so, I may reconsider that decision. We'll see.

There are a couple of products that I like because they actually smell good (a lot of self tanning lotion stinks!), and they don't turn you orange. They look really natural and aren't streaky. Mostly, I think, because they aren't a straight-up self tanner, but rather just lotions, with self tanner in them.

One that I've used and liked is Dove Energy Glow. However, when searching for it just now, I found out that Dove is no longer making it. :(

The other is Olay Touch of Sun. This is just as good, and smells good, the problem is that it's a little more expensive than the Dove.

So, it looks like I need to pick up some of the Olay lotion next time I'm at the store! :)

One more day

Tomorrow is my last day of Spring break, then it's back to business on Friday. I got my preceptor assignment last weekend. I'll be doing in-home hospice care. I'm not exactly thrilled about that, but hopefully it will be fine. My goal is to work as much as possible to get in all of my required hours (which will mean working 8-5 Monday -Thursday, then having classes 10:30-6:00 on Fridays) and having the last few weeks of the term to focus on studying for finals and the hesi exam. So, for at least the first 5-6 weeks of this quarter I will have a nice, full-time schedule. I hope it goes by quickly!

Another lazy day

Slept in this morning then watched New Moon with my oldest. Now I'm watching my son play his Legos Star Wars game on the wii. The kid LOVES this game. Gotta love lazy PJ days at home! :)

Boom!

I just figured out who I think Lauren Alaina on Idol looks like. The chick that plays Sookie on Gilmore Girls. At least in her face.

My break

I got to shadow a friend the other night who is a nurse in a NICU. I really liked it. That is definitely a unit I would love to work on! Right now my first choice is still labor and delivery, but NICU is a close second. I have a feeling I'm going to have to end up taking whatever I can get to start off with though.

As for Spring break, I'm enjoying it. However, I am quite ready for my kids' break to be over! They are getting to the point where they are starting to really get sick of each other and are fighting over everything. I think it's just about time for me to make that kidless trip to the store I mentioned before...

Wake up!

I had a difficult time getting to sleep last night. I don't know why, I just could not fall asleep. Finally, around 2:00 am, I was just about there when I heard the doorbell ring twice followed by someone banging on the door. Hmm... It took me a few seconds to decide if I really heard it or not then decided that I had, so I got up. I woke up Pete, because I wasn't about to open the door to anyone at 2 am. We looked out the window there was a cop car parked on the street at the end of the driveway. Hmm again...

Well, this certainly brought back some unpleasant memories. So, my heart started racing. What on earth could be going on? My phone had been by my side the entire night. So, I stood at the top of the stairs as he opened the front door. Turns out, it was just a cop that was driving around in our neighborhood and noticed our garage door was up and wanted to let us know because we "probably want to put that down overnight".

Well, thaaank yooou, officer! While I am glad to know that our neighborhood is being patrolled at night, it really didn't help my already sleepless night.

Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday!

(Ok, not sure why that's my title, but 1) I have a hard time coming up with titles, 2) That stupid, annoying song is in my head right now, and 3) well, I say Friday in this post a couple of times so, why not?)

One week of my break is almost over. :( It's going by too fast! Next week my kids will be on Spring break. Fortunately, my oldest is almost 14 so I can leave them home for a little bit for some mommy time! Sometimes, I just need to take a trip to the store without any little people with me, ya dig?

I'm not sure yet how my first week of Spring quarter will play out. I haven't yet heard who my preceptor will be nor where I will be going, so it's possible I won't even be able to start getting those hours in until the second week. If that's the case, then I'll have almost another week off since I will only have classes on Fridays!

On another note, I'm trying to decide what to do with my hair. It has been a looong time since it's even been trimmed and it really needs some work. My roots are getting a little out of control, so color is in order too! Just gotta make a decision by next Friday...

Last clinical DONE!

Today I had my last clinical. It's kind of exciting and kind of scary. Next quarter I'll be working one-on-one with a preceptor. I'll likely be working 2-3 twelve hour shifts per week for a good portion of the term and then having classes all day on Fridays. I'm kind of hoping for night shift. It is what I am thinking I want to work, so it would be a good chance to get a taste of it to see if I can really handle it. Weekends would be nice, too, because that would leave most of my weekdays free (and without kids) to study. However, I have no choice in the matter. I have to take whatever they assign to me and work whenever my preceptor works.

We left clinical today at 11:00 and went to bd's Mongolian Grill for lunch. It was only the 2nd time I've ever been there. It was yummy! We hung around there for a while and then most people left but my instructor wasn't ready to go home yet, so she and I went and did a little shopping at NY and Company and then she introduced me to Whole Foods. Ok, so I've heard of Whole Foods before, but had never actually been inside of one. We literally spent about an hour just walking around in there. She's seriously the best (and coolest) instructor I've ever had. Love her!

Now to enjoy my Spring Break!

I passed!

Phew...Finals are over and I'm movin' on to next term! Looking forward to my time off!!

Focus Pocus

I am having serious issues with trying to focus tonight. I see the words in front of me, but I keep finding myself thinking about other things instead of comprehending what I'm reading. Grrrr! It doesn't help that I'm sleepy. Stupid time change!