FIRST MONTH OFF ORIENTATION

So I've been off orientation for about a month and a half now and let me tell you I have learned sooooooo much it's insane. The night shifts that I have worked off orientation have been fine, not overwhelming, slow pace, and kind of boring. My first week back on days was quite the opposite. Last week was the week my arms fell off from being pulled in 100 different directions, my feet became numb because they were being stood on for 12 solid hours, and my brain went KABOOM from all of the information being absorbed...it was a great week...HA NOT!!!

I do think that this week definitely taught me about what nurses really go through on a daily basis. I guess the days that I had worked before were busy but this past week was a whole other meaning of that "busy" word.

Oh A.D.D moment...so I found out this past week that I'm getting a puppy for Xmas!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!! she's a long haired black and tan miniature dachshund. I'm going to name her Sally because I figured we should keep the charlie brown theme going on in our family. Eli's dog's name is Linus and he said that if they get another dog they'd name it Lucy...I liked the name sally and she's my favorite Peanut's character, so there you go...

This past weekend was amazing I got to visit all my pals up in Cedar Falls, stay in the double wide trailer I had missed so much...ha, not, I got to see my wonderfully prego friend Jamie and her newlywed apartment. We made these really great cookies, they were pumpkin oatmeal and they were delicious. I got to spoil her a little with some baby stuff, she finds out the sex of the baby today actually :). On Saturday I headed up to no where Iowa and went to my nursing school friend Tesia's wedding, it was so great. I also got to spend some quality time with a few of my other nursing school friends. I love those times when you get together with friends and it's as if you never left each other; you just start up right where you left off. I missed them a ton and it def. made me realize that I need to be a better friend to Tesia who I love and miss and she only lives an hour away. Anyways it was so great to see them all and have fun dancing and swapping new nursing stories and experiences. It's weird how we all have these new lives but are still experiencing what it feels like to be new nurses in new cities.

Then to end the weekend I got to hang with my parents and then they told me I was getting a puppy...THE END :)

OFF THE BAND WAGON

WOW I just realized it's been almost a month since my last post...really not t hat much has happened but I have had a few great weekends this month. A few weekends ago it was the Nebraska vs. Missouri game, it was on a Thursday night and I had to work. Amazing story though, I was working the night shift and I had taken care of this guys on wed. night and he was on end of life cares and pretty unresponsive. Well low and behold Thursday night rolls around and it's football time, this man was wide awake and hosting a husker party in his room!!!! it was so great, he was sooooooo excited to see those huskers play. He stayed up for the entire game and it was a doozy to watch let me tell you, Huskers pulled it out in the 4th quarter in a massive rain storm. This mans story was written about in the Lincoln paper, his family knew how important the huskers were to him and wanted others to know his story as well. He ended up passing on the Sunday afterwards...at least he got to cheer on those Huskers one last time :)

A weekend to remember

So to start off with I am blogging while I work the night shift tonight. 6:30pm-7:30am can I get a WHOOT WHOOT?! It's a quiet night, hopefully it will stay that way. Tonight I am faced with my first end-of-life patient. He's on comfort cares and I'm quietly freaking out about the fact that he might die on my shift. He's a DNR so we don't have to resusitate him but it's just scary to think about having to deal with death. I've never had a patient die or have taken care of a dead person. So pray for the best.

Anyway, this past weekend was amazing. On thursday I headed over to Des Moines for my friend Annie's bachelorette party, we had a blast and it was soooooo much fun to catch up with nursing school friends. We ended the night at the Blue Moon which is a bar with dueling piano's...absolutely incredible and insanely fun. On friday Katie, Mom, and me went and got a well deserved pedicure and Eli and my dad hung out at none other than the Bass Pro Shop. We then met up as a complete family at the best place on earth PANCHERO's I haven't had it since I moved here and boy was it well worth the wait. Later friday night I left to help out my family in Lincoln with my cousin Ryans wedding rehearsal dinner.

Saturday I got myself all gussied up for Ryan and Angie's wedding and awaited the arrival of my family. I was so stoked to get to have Eli and Katie over to my house and show off all my cool IKEA things. Then we went to the wedding and the reception which was so beautiful and so much fun. My mom's side of the family is a blast to hang out with and so we had a great time dancing and laughing. After the reception our family had to haul presents to a hotel for the bride and groom to open. Some how one of us broke the mirrored Horn of Plenty (which is the word my dad used and will now never live down, but for those of you just like me who didn't know what a horn of plenty was, it's just a cornicopia) I think i'll start calling my dad Mr. Horn of Plenty, it was histerical listening to him trying to explain himself. After our delivary was made Eli and Katie came back to my house and we started watching Robin Hood:Prince of Theives and drinking mudslides. We didnt' make it very far through the movie, we were soooo tired.

Sunday we got up bright and early and went over to my Uncle Jim(mom's brother) and Aunt Judy's house for breakfast, again it was just so nice to spend special quality time with my family.


It was a great weekend and I hope I get some days off for thanksgiving so I can spend even more time with them.

This past week was the week of the misfit patient. I have 2 patients who were on a 1:1 status meaning they had such bad dementia that they had to be supervised at all times. SO MUCH FUN!!! One of those 1:1 patients needed to be in isolation because of the flu. That one decided to pull out her IV not 1 but 2 times. and she was a bitter, scratcher, and spitter outer of any medications. I also had a bunch of patients who were just dead weight to move around and in turn killed my back and feet.

Putting aside the misfits this was my last week on orientation. I should have started my first day as an independent RN today but I was put on call!!! That's what I get for being a Newbie, o well I can now spend my day blogging and having coffee and a bagel at my new favorite place. It's Brewster's coffee and Big Apple bagels. When I first visited Brewster's I saw this display cooler with GINORMOUS mounds of something that was absolutely mesmerizing. I thought at first they had to be ice cream but NOOOOOOOOOOO, it was something much better, They were big mounds of homemade cream cheese!!! Amazing.

ANY WHO, hopefully I don't have to go to work today and I can just chill out drinking coffee and looking at huge mounds of cream cheese.

One can only dream right?!

Kitchen Update

This is how I installed the utensil hanging racks, pretty comfortable if I do say so myself!

My beautiful magnetic knife holder and my butcher block

So I hung two tracks underneath my cabinets that hold hooks which hold my utensils. I also bought those 2 white cup things that hold more utensils. I love my new organized kitchen!!

KERI, BAYLOR AND BRODY

This week I got to speak with my wonderful friend Keri. Anyone who knows me has heard me talk and talk and talk and talk about my friend Keri and her 2 beautiful, insane boys Baylor and Brody. I miss them a ton and hate not being within an hour of their house. I have had so many great memories with those 3; I just think about them all the time.

I have known Keri since highschool and she had just met this boy Lonnie, they started dating and wham, boom, pow they got married and had babies. :) That's the really short version but you don't need the details. I was so excited to meet the first baby. I knew I wanted to be a part of his life when he was born. Baylor was born when I was away at college and when I would come home for breaks I always ventured up to Lisbon to visit. I remember the first time I heard him laugh, I think he was laughing at my laugh but we just went back and forth laughing at eachother on the living room floor. I remember going to the pool with them and playing with tuberware and imitating the choo choo as it went by every 5 mins. I remember when I was babysitting him with his gma Kris Kris and we read the BUGGIE book. Baylor was very enthusiastic about the BUGGIE and when we tried to get him to say BERKLEY he would just yell BUGGIE. I took what I could get :) He then was able to say Berkie and thats who I stayed. I love that name. Especially now that Brody is in the picture and calls me that too. I haven't been able to get as close to Brody as I would have liked but I still love to visit him and hear his laugh and get hugs and kisses from him.

Those boys teach me so much about the joys of life, how to play bubble baseball, how to catch rollie pollies and more than I ever wanted to know about Dinosaurs. There so creative and smart and I miss just being with them watching a show about tractors or playing in the park.

I can't wait to see them again, I know they are growing into such great young men, and with a mother like Keri they are going to be the most creative, polite, considerate, God fearing gentleman the world has seen.

WELL HELLO JAMES ARTHER!!!

This week my mom came to visit Mon, Tues, and Wed. We had a blast; we hung up all of my IKEA buys from about a month ago so now my kitchen is uber organized and very posh if I do say so myself. We went shopping and found dresses for the upcoming wedding of one of my cousins Ryan and his fiance Angie. They get married on Oct. 3rd here in Lincoln. I'm super stoked for that weekend because Eli and Katie get to come out and see my apartment and I just love spending time with my whole family. I always love the conversations our family has when we get together; there is always so much insight on God, Music, Movies, Politics, and futures plans we're praying for. I learn something new from each of them every single time we get together.

ANYWAYS BACK TO MY MOM

After we shopped and channeled our inner Bob Vila and drilled a bunch of holes in my walls (some used and some now mysteriously hidden) we ventured out to the James Arther winery. Wine tasting has become something that our family really enjoys and I can honestly tell you that this winery trumps them all. It's on beautiful land with amazing trails that take you throughout the vineyard and up to the top of a hill to unveil these majestic views of the countryside. However the best part was the actual wine tasting. I can with out a doubt say that there wasn't a wine we tasted that I didn't like. They were all ooooooooo so good. Plus she gave us practically a half a glass for each wine, so we felt amazazazing. No truthfully we were totally fine but it was soooooo much fun. After we tasted the wine and bought them out of their entire stock, we took our picnic of grill salmon, baguette, Nebraska Cheddar, and an apple up to the top of the hill and sat on swings and had a wonderful lunch with a beautiful view.

I can't tell you how much that visit from my mom meant to me. I love her so much and she is truly my best friend. I miss both of my parents a ton and was really starting to get homesick. My parents don't know this but I would often cry after I would get off the phone with them. Recently I have just felt really lonely and to have her around to hang out with and do stuff with meant the world to me.


LOVE YOU MOM!!!