Year of the Tiger

Today is the first day of the Chinese New Year...a big day in China. This marks the beginning of the Year of the Tiger. Let's hope it's a feisty one...and one that will bring good things our way.

Today also marks our 44 month LID-versary. 44 months is a long, long time.

So happy Chinese New Year, Valentine's Day and 44 month LID-versary!! I hope everyone has a great day!

Sweating Bullets

Jeff and I both started doing this workout this morning. There are 3 portions and you can assemble your workout however you choose...with core, upper body, lower body or a combo of the 3. I was thinking that I am not as un-exercised as the average person so I tried to do all 3...starting with core. Can I just say that it whooped my ever-loving-rear?!? This workout is definitely not designed for anyone over a size 4 who can not levitate their own body by free will alone. For real.

So I did the "improvised" versons of almost all the core workouts and barely made it through upper and lower body. By the end my heart was pounding out of my chest and my sweat was pouring on to the floor as I stretched out with the cobra and child's pose. In the entire 60 minute workout there were maybe 5-10 minutes of cardio and the rest what I would call "toning" exercises so the heart rate and major sweat are really telling of the intensity. Anyway...I am definitely going to have to work my way up to being a primo Jackie Warner workouter. But, as Brandee says, she has cute hair.

How can I possibly resist?

Cake with a special handle for dipping, chocolate covered glazed, blueberry, lemon creme filled, jelly of all varieties, air-filled crullers, cinnamon twists and more. Birmingham now has one lone Dunkin' Donuts that opened this week. From what I hear, the line is around the block. How long can I really, truly expect myself to resist this?!?

My Shocked Face

Speaking of sequels...here is the sequel to the Shankopotamus. It's pretty dag-gom cute.

Flip Flops: The Sequel

I'm not ashamed to put my feet on my blog. I know they're not cute. As a matter of fact, they are very Flintstone-ish. But still...

If you remember my beloved flip-flops that I had to put to rest when I lost one at my nursing graduation (see here for a reminder), then you had to know it would only be a matter of time before I was pining for their replacement.

And with Mom and Dad's sweet Xmas gift, I was able to prepare myself for the warm weather that will be here in the next few months. Drumroll please.....

Presenting my new Volatile flip-flops. Ready for some cute summer dresses, shorts and capris. All I need is some sunshine and tan feet.

New Hair, Again

My new hair is kinda short, kinda choppy and not all that easy to do. Not sure if I'm loving it this time. Whatcha think? Honestly tho.

Free Time = Crochet Projects

I don't have much free time lately but when I have a few days off, I have been tackling some crochet projects to keep my hands busy. I have made a few slouchy hats, trying to fine tune the amount of rasta-ness that I put in them. I haven't quite made it there yet, but I think they are pretty cute. Here's one on me (ignore my mess of a bookshelf - no excuses for why it's like that).

And I also made this scarf/shawl that is really just a v-shaped loose knit shawl that can be wrapped around the neck for winter time and worn just as a shawl during the spring. Jeff doesn't like it too much but - oh well.

I am going to be making some more kids hats soon and maybe some adult long scarfs. This will be a rough work week though so it might be a while till I get to those next projects.

My Thursday Mornings

I'm ba-aa-ack. And have been loyal to my Weight Watchers heritage since the 1st of December. I finally decided to tackle the 40lbs I have gained since right before I started nursing school. So far I am down 12 pounds...28 more to go. I'd love to be svelte before the summer-time. We'll see.
I have been counting points, trying to work out 2-3 times a week and just resist the urge to stuff myself with reckless abandon. I am feeling better, more in control of my life and my health. Something about being on a good diet does this for me. I hope I can stick with it and reach my goal again. That would be awesome.

Sleep

Sleep these days is no longer my respite from a hard day, time to rejuvenate or the source of happy dreams. Instead it has become a struggle. Trying to sleep during the day is tough. I lay in bed with my cold, exhausted body flip-flopping to find the sweet spot in my pillow which just isn't there, the volume of the birds outside driving me to tears as I psyche myself out of much needed rest that is required if I am going to face another night vital and prepared to grow in my job. I've tried sleeping in my bed with the black-out shades, a sleeping mask, moving to the other bedroom for a desperate attempt at a change of scenery...always just to give up and rejoice if I can manage 5 hours of sleep before the next shift starts. I have made it on less than 2. Not well though.

I am a grump about this. I don't like working nights. But I have to pay my dues as a new nurse and just hope and pray that my boss is being truthful when she tells me that the schedules will be re-done on March 28th and I have a good shot at moving back to a day shift position.

If I could just get the sleeping down, I would really be fine. But without adequate rest, we all know what happens. Not just dark circles and a massive caffeine addiction...

Time to get ready for tonight. I did get my 4 1/2 - 5 hours today so we'll hope it will be a good night. Wish me luck.

Another reason to go to China...

Can you believe this ? China has opened a chocolate theme park in Beijing. As if we weren't excited enough to go to China some day...now I have another attraction to add to our agenda. The news articles describe this place as "Willy Wonka-like" and you know that brings images of Augustus Glupe drinking from the chocolate river and being sucked up the tube to his fate. I'm afraid if there really is a chocolate river, the tube might be my fate as well.

One Day Closer

With my new job, my attempt to adjust to working nights and my quasi-successful shot at some normalcy in this house I have been somewhat distracted. A lot of things have gone to the wayside. The annual termite inspection. Thank you cards. Getting the oil changed in the car. Need I go on?

Regardless of the busy-ness of life, Jeff and I still think about and talk about our baby girl. We hope that this may be our year to become a family. I am not as optimistic about 2010 as I once was but I still have hope.

Just a little reminder that although termites might take over our house and all the cars may break down, we will never forget that we are parents-in-waiting and there is a very special child in our futures. We are building tomorrows for ourselves and for her...each day that passes brings us one day closer.

I'm Official

I made a big step at work this week. I finished my 12 week "orientation" period and am now on my own...with my own patient assignments and my name on the assignment board when I clock in. The first night I freaked out a little bit. Although I have been pretty much on my own for a month or so, the official-ness of it all was a little overwhelming. But I survived. And so did my patients. :)

As you can see, I also now have my own mailbox...although it's empty. It is still a reminder that I am a real person now.
And I also spent a couple days in class last week to get my Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) certification. So that makes me double-ey, triple-ey official. Nicole, RN, ACLS. Well...in actuality I won't put the ACLS but for purposes of my blog I will. It's my blog after all. And I'm official.

RTR!

Since I didn't go to a college with a football team, I am football-spiritually-deprived. However, I now work in Tuscaloosa - the home of the National Champion football team. So I watched the game from start to finish on Thursday night, texting Dad with each goof up that the Tide made in the first quarter. It was a little nerve-wracking but it ended well...with a victory and the National Champions headed back to Bama.

So now my two concerns are:

#1. Will the Tide come back for a parade this evening or tomorrow while I am supposed to be at work?? I can seriously see the school and practice field from the hospital so my commute could be seriously interrupted by any festivities.

#2. Why in the world would Alabama perpetuate the redneck persona by having the Waterford Crystal Championship Trophy on display at WAL-MART?!??!?!?!?!?! Seriously, it will be there in Tuscaloosa from 12-4 today and in Gardendale from 10-2 tomorrow for anyone who wants to stop by and take a picture of themselves with it. Just please tell them to leave the spandex, bandanas and pajamas that they usually wear to Wal-Mart at home for this occasion.

We have joined the smartphone age

Jeff and I are now both owners of our first smartphones ever. We have been trudging along with just normal, only-for-talking phones for this whole era of technology booming around us. We caved. Now we can surf the internet, e-mail, play games, get apps, see our location anywhere in the world, be navigated to anywhere (like the nearest Trader Joe's) and more. We have a huge learning curve ahead of us that has already been close to resulting in a phone-thrown-through-a-window event. Wish us luck. Droid. Hee hee.

My husband has a magical power...

Jeff is magic I tell you. I have found on several occasions in the past that he can miraculously move objects without me knowing. The prime example of this is when I have the remote control and flip the TV on and to some great show like Keeping Up with the Krdashians or The Hills and I turn my head for a milli-second. His magical powers engage and the remote that was sitting by me on the couch beams over to his side of the couch, out of my reach with no sign of any movement. His head straight forward staring at the TV...at a show having nothing to do with celebrity reality people I might add...and me none the wiser. It's magic.

Night Shift...

I was searching for a nice picture to use to post the fact that I am starting the night shift tonight but, needless to say, none of the G00gle images were suitable for publication on my blog. Anyway...I am off to work this Sunday night to work my first 7pm-7am shift and I'm nervous as heck. Last time I worked night shift it wasn't a great experience. Sooo...wish me luck and efficient day-sleeping. :)

Droid here we come

We are about to get new cell phones and Jeff decided what better time than now to junk our old collection... so here is a brief pictorial history of our cell phones over the years. These aren't all of them but they are a good representation of the technology we have incorporated in to our communication montage.

Things I've learned in the last 3 months

• That a compliment from an old-ish person given for absolutely no reason at all can make my day.
• That some times, no matter how much you try to help someone help themselves, they can still resist and give up. And there is absolutely nothing I can do about it.
• That if I walk in to a room with a smile, even when someone is sick and feels like junk, almost always I will get one in return.
• That I will never know all there is to know but I can learn one new thing each day and tear one more brick out of that wall that holds me back.
• That death is a real and inevitable part of life and it arrives at it's own time. Just because you are breathing, laughing and talking today doesn't mean that you will be doing the same tomorrow.
• That no matter how much time you spend making "connections", building a portfolio and becoming a big wig, when you're sick you are the same as the homeless person you passed at Wal-Mart last Tuesday. Miracles aren't given to the affluent any more than to the common.
• That at least half of nursing is how I approach a patient and their family and the level of confidence that I can help them build with me.
• That, in the end, at the worst time of life, when you get horrible news, when all you have is a prayer...that's when you need your family to just be there around you holding on to you and to each other. No one else can take their place.
• That being in the hospital instantly make it ok to show your hiney.

:)

My Healthy Holiday Indulgence

It all started with a trip to Trader Joe's...the discovery of some awesome Candy Cane Green Tea which helped me get over those afternoon hunger pangs that I feel pretty frequently. When we went back this past time, there was none to be found. It turns out that each store only had one shipment for the holidays. Blahhhhh! So, fortunately my Dad uses g00gle very well and found this replacement....
..plus it's holiday companion, the sugar cookie version. Lemme just say that I bought 8 boxes when I found it today just to hold me until February (maybe). I know already that I will be watching for next year's shipment.

Next Christmas...

We WILL have a tree. We have been talking about going after-the-holidays clearance shopping for a few year's now and today, I finally did it. With no plan, just a Target wandering coincidence. I found the last tree with white lights and a TON of silver and red ornaments - all for a whopping 75% off!!
So next Christmas, I may have to work but we WILL have a tree in our house and we WILL be festive. Or else. I can't wait.

My Letter to Myself

When I started my new job as a nurse, one thing they did was have us write a note to ourselves that they would send us in a few months. I was so psyched to have a job that I may have been a little cheesy but I did smile when I opened it and read it after my boss handed it to me last week. Now if I could only have some confidence as I go forward and remember that "cloud nine" feeling I had when I started, I would be golden.

Scenes from Christmas

I was so fortunate (although sleepy and a tad grumpy) to have my sister and brother (not to forget husband and nephew dog) with us this holiday. While we didn't have a fancy tree or Griswald lights we had each other. Barf, I know.

Me with my jingle jammies and coffee cup...which I will be needing in a week when I start the night shift.

Jeff got a certificate for a Nascar driving adventure...8 laps at his track of choice.

Brandee and Leslie will be decorating their very own messenger bags and I am anxious to see how they turn out.

And this little fellow just nibbled on shoelaces and snuggled with all of us.

We did have 3 stockings...one for me, Jeff and Lily...never far from our thoughts.

Let's hope that some day she will be with us to enjoy Grandma B's green christmas tree cookies...

'Twas the week before Christmas...and I feel like crap

Today I was trying to pull together some things for Christmas. (Hint - it's never good to wait until there's only five days left to venture out into the mayhem of shopper-dom) I went to ole' faithful Target knowing that I would be able to find some good deals and a few of the groceries that I need to sustain us through the week. Wouldn't you know I would be standing between the women's and toddler clothes when the worst wave of sadness came over me. I don't know if it was a wave of realization or just a mixture of PMS, stress and the holidays but I suddenly, out of the blue felt a tear running down my face. As I stared at the little red velvet dresses on sale and the millions of people in the toy aisles trying to pick the perfect toy for their little ones, I knew that the reason I can't get excited for Christmas is because I am incomplete. In our entire 4 year wait (and all the years trying to build a family before that), I have never really felt this kind of despair during the holidays. I started to brainstorm how things were supposed to be...we should have our own 5 year old child to spoil and who would be writing letters to Santa and anticipating a sleepless night this Thursday and we should also have our little girl home from China to dress up in these same red velvet holiday dresses, read Christmas stories to and make construction paper rings to count down the days until Santa comes. Life isn't right and I can't make it that way.

So I went up and down the aisles of Target, just wishing that this holiday season would pass without me having a complete breakdown, hoping that I can glean some drop of joy in what is supposed to be the happiest, most filled-with-love time of the year. As we embark on this week of Christmas, I am trying my best to focus on making green Christmas tree cookies, wrapping the little bit of gifts that I can give to those I love and holding back this sadness that wants to overtake me. I know if I let it then it will be days in pajamas for me...and even bigger pity parties than normal.

So give me a little break this year. Know that when I am staring off in to space, I am thinking about the part of me that isn't here. Trying to be grateful for all the blessings I do have. This will pass, right?!?

My Ladybug Story

The strangest thing is going on in my car and, of course, since I'm always searching for hidden meaning in situations I wish to share. About 6 weeks ago, I was driving down the road and heard a buzz and saw a bug flying around inside my car. It landed on the inside of my windshield and, after I was done freaking out about the whole bug-in-my-car thing, I noticed that it was a ladybug. I smiled. Over the next month, I saw that same ladybug once every few days zipping around inside the car. It never left. Jeff and I took a trip to Mississippi and it rode with us the whole way...mostly on the windshield but some times it would find a home on some other part of the car's interior. Of course I made the link between ladybugs and good luck in China and every time I saw it I would think that this must be a good sign about our baby girl waiting for us. Until about 2 weeks ago...

I opened the back door of the car to get my gym bag off the seat and found my little friend....now a be-speckled ladybug corpse laying on the back seat. I don't have to tell you that this caused me to freak out a little bit. If a ladybug flying around the car for a month is a good sign, then a dead one on the back seat HAS to be bad, right?!? Add this to the fact that China skipped referrals last month and that we have been enduring this never-ending wait for our baby and things just felt wrong. Until today...

I was driving home from work this afternoon and I had a little deja vu...another zipping bug flew in front of my face and landed on the inside of the windshield. It was another ladybug who has now made it's home in our car...where I spend A LOT of my time lately. You might just say that we have a little excess of ladybugs around our house that are finding their way to the car but, seriously, I have seen NO ladybugs outside this year. Therefore, I declare some ooo-weee-oooo going on here. I can choose to see myself as a superstitious mommy-in-waiting who is looking for meaning in any and everything or I can choose to see some hope in this little piece of my days. I choose the latter....happily.

The State of the Adoption

I know I haven't blogged a lot about the adoption lately and, honestly, I am not sure what to say. In the past 5 months, China has skipped monthly referrals twice. The last time they skipped, they only did 3 days worth of Log In Dates (LIDs) the following month. You can see in the right sidebar that there are now 75 days of LIDs before they get to us. This may not seem like a whole lot but estimates for our referral are any where from 10 months from now to another 2-3 years. There is no telling what is ahead for us. So here are a few things that we do know:

FACT: We have now been waiting 42 months (as of December 14th) since China stamped our paperwork petitioning to adopt a baby girl.

FACT: We have updated our US Immigration paperwork 3 times at a cost to us of over $1000 extra, un-budgeted each time.

FACT: We are scheduled to be re-fingerprinted (at a cost of $160) on this Friday at the Dept. of Homeland Security for the 4th time.

FACT: The new-found momentum to clear out and decorate Lily's room has now diminished. We aren't in preparation mode right now due to the uncertainty once again.

FACT: We are trying to save up some more money now that I am working to try to make the remainder of expenses a little less horrifying. If we are good with our saving, we may just be able to pick up some nice things while we're in China to give to our baby girl when she grows up.

FACT: This wait continues to be heart-breaking, depressing, torturous, unpredictable and, regardless of all that, part of our journey.

FACT: We are no less in love with the daughter that will be ours some day.

My arms are boneless chickens

Thanks to the new weight machines at the gym (http://www.hoistfitness.com/), my arms are now limp at my sides. I can't even believe I can type but then again, there is no Hoist machine for your fingers so they still work. The machines are actually super cool. The seat moves when you are lifting, pushing, pulling your muscles in to shape so there is a little bit of Disney factor in your workout. Now, if I can just manage to go to the gym more than once or twice a week, my muscles might look less like boneless chickens and more like Jillian Mich@el's...a girl can wish, right?!

Newk's and New Moon

Friday night, Jeff and I went out with Brandee and Leslie for a little birthday bite to eat at Newk's followed by New Moon at the theater. Leslie and I are Twilight readers so we had to convince the others to come along for some Edward and Bella-watching. After this movie, I am really not sure if I am Team Edward or Team Jacob. Regardless, the movie was just ok, the make-up and acting were mediocre and the special effects not-so-special but it really it's not too hard to impress the teeny bopper crowd that swarms.

Brandee sandwich at Newk's...they should add it to the menu.

Breslie


Jicole or Neff - not sure what works

Smiles!

Snow!!

We had some surprise snow flurries on Friday night - see what we woke up to on Saturday...

Not much but it was pretty for the few hours that it lasted. Next time there will be a snowball fight at our place... :)

I'm just sayin....

Why does asparagus make your urine smell like a Goodyear tire?!? You know it's true. I'm just sayin....

I am thankful for...

After Thanksgiving meal naps with my nephew-dog, Archimedes.

The way he wedged himself between me and the couch and was actually comfy there.

Good friends and family to celebrate and be thankful with (including my brother who shall remain picture-less :)). And the family that is miles away but never really far.

And my hubster who may ignore me for Judge Judy, make a million stacks of mail around the living room and eat boiled bologna with toasted butter bread as a snack, but who I am thankful for nonetheless.

I can't believe I ate the whole thing

Last weekend Jeff and I took a little trip to Tunica, MS to feed our faces and such. Who would have ever known that the Paula Deen Buffet at Harrah's has a full day pass that lets you come and go as many times as you want to enjoy the all-you-can-eat gluttony?!?

For real, during our 48 hour stay we worked our way through ribs, fried fish, fried and boiled shrimp, pulled pork with Paula's special spicy and sweet sauces, squash casserole, yams, cabbage, rice, hoe-cakes, cheese biscuits, sugar-free and non-sugar-free pie and cake and more. I seriously enjoyed it but also seriously didn't need it as I already feel my super big scrubs stretching at the seams.



So of course this week I vowed to eat carrots with my home-made lunches and that lasted all of one day until I got super exhausted by the working cycle. And then Thanksgiving was upon us... Needless to say, I am full of cellulite that has GOT to go.

So thanks Paula Deen...I loved your butter-filled food but it can't beat me. And I may see you again some day but not for a long while... Until then, I will dream of hoe-cakes and cheese biscuits.

Weekend HIghlights

1. I'm coughing up my guts. Seriously, I had the swine flu vaccine on Tuesday and Friday I started hacking like crazy. I had a temp of 102.3 on Friday (the first day of my 3 day weekend) which has subsided but my cough remains. I'm going to work tomorrow so I apologize in advance to anyone I hack on.

2. Jeff took advantage of the lazy weekend and watched lots-o-football but gave me a little break in there by watching Crocodile Dundee (not sure if it was 1, 2 or whatever number). He justified it to me by saying it was a love story. Gag.

3. RIP to the dying corn plant that flanked one side of our TV. It is now chopped to bits on the curb awaiting pick-up by our glorious city yard trash pick up people. Now the only jungle that remains in our living room includes one braided ficus and a monstrous corn plant.

4. Judge Judy has stolen my husband. Without fail, we watch an hour of her mean-ness every day. In fact she is on the tube right now. Some of her famous quotes that I have learned include - "If it doesn't sound right, it isn't true." Q: "Can you tell when a teenager is lying? " A: "Their lips move." I could go on but do I need to ?!?

5. I start my 12 hour shifts (hopefully for good) tomorrow. This means I leave the house at 5am, clock in at 6:45 -work, work, work - clock out at 7:15pm, home around 8:45pm... x 3 days. This makes for a tired Nicole (with a hacking cough) but one who is ecstatic to have the remaining 4 days of the week OFF!!

A Nurse's Take on a Crawling Creature

Today I was in a very long, very drawn out, very interactive meeting of new employees at my hospitals. We basically had to learn how to behave, that we should treat each other with kindness and respect (remember kindergarten??) and that we should turn the lights out behind us when we leave the potty. We did have a fun assignment to create a "creature that crawls" with a bunch of foam tubes and stuff. Here is what my table came up with:

I never really got the point of this assignment but it was fun to see a bunch of nurses play with foamy toys.

Touching base

This was a big week. I finished my 3rd week of my new job and Jeff and I celebrated our 8th anniversary. I really can't believe it has been 8 years since that sunny day in November where we pledged our futures. This weekend we went to a funeral for Jeff's sister-in-law who passed away a little over a week ago. It seems like we have a lot of these sad times interspersed with life these days. We were so surprised, however, to see the preacher who married us and his wife at the funeral. Parnell took his first preacher assignment at the little church in the neighborhood where Jeff's parents grew up, where Jeff grew up and where a lot of his family remains. He knew Jeff's mom and dad quite well and, for that and for the fact that he officiated our marriage, we will forever be connected. We haven't seen them in quite a few years and it was really so nice to reconnect with them and assure them that we are hanging in there. We were the first couple that Parnell had ever married and he was truly nervous that day. Since then, he has started teaching marriage classes for his new congregation in Florida. He said he was going to be talking about us this week :). I also asked him and his wife to help us in prayer for our little girl. They were surprised and happy to hear about the adoption. Hopefully the next time we see them, we can introduce them to our little Lily and they can help teach her about the roots of the Massey family.

Mom and Dad also celebrated their anniversary this week...36 years. Woot woot!

I know I have been a bad blogger lately. I have just made a couple posts to mark some things that are going on but haven't had a lot of time to really post like I would like to. The commute and working has been overwhelming and I will be back to whatever normal is soon. Hopefully this will be my last 5 day week and I will be working three 12 hour shifts starting a week from tomorrow.

:)

My 3rd week

I am now in my 3rd week of working as a nurse. I haven't technically worked as a nurse for the entire 3 weeks since I have been in classroom orientation for 2 and have only been working with patients for 3 days/shifts. But for my own purposes, I wanted to just mark where I am right now with my new career and where I stand so that when I get disgruntled I can look back and see where it all started.

I had a hard time with my decision to work where I do...68 miles from home. I also had a hard time choosing between a critical care unit and a specialized med-surg (normal patient) floor. In the end, I knew my heart was in critical care and, with the job market the way it has been, I was happy to have any job...7 or 70 miles from home. This is not to say that I don't question my decision...I wonder if it may have been best to hold out for a job closer to home or in a place in which I am familiar. But in the end, this was my choice and I am going to stick by it for the indefinite future and get as much experience as I can and just hope that I can make a difference along the way.

On some days, while I wake up at 4am and make my sleepy-eyed commute, I feel confident that I am going to be a great nurse. Then I get to the floor, meet new people, try my best to smile, care about them and help them through what is potentially the hardest time in their lives. I have lots of moments of insecurity and I wonder how I will handle it if something non-routine or emergent happens. At these times, I have to tell myself that I will trust my instinct, get help from my peers and have faith.

Right now, I am having a rough time with the 12 hours days of standing on tile floors, my eyelids are heavy from the extra 90 minutes I have to allow for my trip and the search for parking in a massive hospital complex and my southern accent is getting worse by the day from being in the midst of a more rural mid-south town. But, when it comes down to it, I know in my heart that I am right where I was meant to be in this moment (yet again).

Our TV Has Ears

I am convinced that our TV must have ears (and not the antenna/rabbit ears kind)...especially on Saturdays when Auburn is playing. The reason why I am convinced of this odd fact is that my dear husband seriously talks to the players and coaches as if they were playing their little ball game right in front of him. He tells them what plays to make, what to watch out for and he even tells the referees what their flags mean before they announce it. On top of that he says things like, "Good play man." and "No, don't run that way." and when they don't do what he says, he tells them, "Man, I told you that you shouldn't have done that."

The moral of this post is that your TV may not have ears but ours does. And I can prove it.

Reminder

I have been adjusting to being a working gal over the past week plus and it has been a rough adjustment. Seriously, it has been almost 2 years since I have worked and, while nursing school is super stressful and inconsistent, working (especially working in a hospital) is just a different kind of gig.

I have been in the classroom for the past week and one day doing all sorts of tests and skill validations just so that the hospital trusts that I am competent before they throw me to the wolves and make me do actually important nurse-ey things. I am pretty impressed with their standard and have actually had to study and practice things in order to pass and move on to the next phase of my orientation.

Tomorrow will be my actual first day on the unit where I will be working. Hopefully I will have a chance to just shadow my preceptor (kind of like my mentor during my first few weeks of work) and get the idea of what my job will be like once I'm "in the know". The added bonus is that I have to be at the hospital (68 miles from home) at 6:45am and will work until 7pm...repeat times 3 until I am off on Friday. That means up and out of the house by 5am...which prompts the reminder while I'm in my sleep-induced haze on my way to work in the morning...

Smile...every step of the way.

This photo is courtesy of some "nice" person who needed the same reminder before they parked their SUV.

I <3 Archimedes

I love both of my nephew dogs...they are so cute and snuggly. I got to meet the newest addition, Archimedes, this weekend and witness some of his cuteness firsthand.

Isn't he just a cutie patootie?!?
And the snuggle monster doesn't mind being snuggled up with Auntie Nicole...

although he might just rather eat my earring. :)

Scrub Sporters

We are now a household of scrub sporters.

Today was my first day of work. It's just orientation (class room) for the next few weeks but so far it's great! I'm proud that both Jeff and I are not only a health care couple but both heart savers. :)

40 months

Do you know what today is? Yeah, it's Wednesday. It's the 14th of October. And it's our 40 month LID-versary!! Happy 40 months of "official" waiting to us!! Hopefully there won't be many, many more of these reasons before the real celebration is upon us. :)

Laughing at Myself

Today was a pretty big day for me...I had the first part of my pre-employment screening at my new hospital. Phase I was a drug screening, 1 of 2 serial TB tests and blood draw for titers. Phase II will be Friday when I have my physical and TB test read and then I start my new job Monday - woot woot!! Anyway, I digress...I had to get up pretty early this morning because I have a fairly hefty commute from home to where I will be working (60 highway miles - 1 hour 5 minutes). I took a shower, dried and straightened my hair, put on make-up (something I don't do every day these days) and put on some new jeans that I had never worn just to build up my confidence and get myself in a great frame of mind. I thought I was looking pretty ok and I embarked on my morning journey.

I sat through the interrogation by the employee health nurse, walked to and from the potty where I left my sample, whipped out my arm for my TB test ... all the while making small talk and feeling fairly confident. When it was done, I said my good-byes and walked out the door, down the hall, got in the elevator (which was full) and got out on the main level headed to the lab for my blood draw. I took a few steps out of the elevator when I heard a woman's voice saying, "Ma'am, ma'am". I turned around and there was a sweet-faced young woman right behind me. She reached down and ripped the size sticker right off my brand-new jeans.

My first reaction was utter and complete mortification. I had gone through the whole ordeal of Phase I and not a soul in that employee health office wanted to tell me that I had a sticker on my pants. Not a one of those sweet employee health nurses who felt comfortable taking my plastic container of pee would de-sticker me. I just pictured being the butt of some laughter after I left the office...imagining them saying, "Did you see that newbie nurse who wore brand new jeans for today and forgot to take that sticker off? Ha ha ha ha." Let alone the fact that I don't want anyone to actually KNOW the size of my pants.

After a few minutes of mortification and some paranoid thoughts about what this incident means for my coming career the heart-stopping embarassment subsided and I had a very mature thought (which doesn't happen to me very often)...I thought that this incident with all it's momentary horror is really nothing more than something to humble me, to make me laugh at myself. I'm human. I get toilet paper on my shoe, am occasionally caught zoning out, put my foot in my mouth some times and leave size stickers on my new jeans. It's ok. It's not mortification material. Who cares that I will forever be "new jeans girl" in the employee health office?!? Not me, really. All I care about is that I might be fine with the human that I am...even to the point of laughing at myself every now and then.