it's been awhile

Hello? Anyone there?

*sigh* It's been awhile since I've posted anything on here. As usual, every time I think about blogging I tell myself I'll just do it another day. So here I am at 1:30 in the morning blogging because I've been doing clinicals from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. (yes, you read that right) and I just can't fall asleep right now. And I don't feel like doing anything school related because not only have I lost my blogging motivation, but I've also lost my schooling motivation. December can't get here soon enough because I'm tired of school. Just let me take the NCLEX and slap that RN after my name so it can all be over! I just read a post that I never posted about how going to nursing school and being a nurse scared the bejeebies out of me. Well, I've got news for you. It still does. I question my decision just about every day. Luckily, I've almost survived the school part. I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm very quiet and reserved and non-assertive, and none of those things seem to be synonymous with nursing. I don't feel prepared at all to go out into the nursing world, but I don't really think anyone is when they're done with school.

I've been doing my clinical this semester in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) and I've been learning a lot. I've really enjoyed my time there, even though my shift has been in the middle of the night (I almost fell asleep in one of the big, comfy chairs for the moms one night...shh, don't tell anyone). It's still very intimidating to me because some of the babies are so tiny (our smallest is about 1.5 pounds) and hooked up to so many things. There is so much to learn. It can also be very sad and very frustrating at times since many of the babies that are in our NICU are there due to bad decisions the mother made while pregnant. Perhaps if you are smoking crack you should be using birth control. Just a thought. It makes me so sad that some of these babies start out their lives addicted to drugs and have to leave the hospital to go live in crappy homes. Some don't even have family come to visit them. It kills me.

Anyway, I've been meaning to put some pictures on here from my short break in between semesters so here they are. My parents came to visit for a weekend and then Jeff's mom came to see us so we racked our brains to come up with some fun things to do in good ol' Northeastern Tennessee and various and sundry (sundry is a weird word) close-by states.

Music on the square in Jonesborough, TN. Yes, that is a washboard that she is playing.

Laurel Falls, TN (part of the Appalachian Trail overlaps the trail to the falls)

Roan Mountain, NC (part of the Appalachian Trail goes through this area also)

Farmers' Market--Asheville, NC

Monell's restaurant in Nashville. It is in a cute little house and they seat you at a big table with other people and just keep bringing out the southern cookin'. Yum.

Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. We saw Vince Gill, Martina McBride, Emmylou Harris, Amy Grant, and some others that I can't remember.

Gotta love southern humor.

Prince's Hot Chicken Shack in Nashville. If you ever want some spicy hot chicken, this is the place to go. Jeff ordered the extra hot and the lady at the counter flat out told him no, he didn't want the extra hot. We were sweating by the time we left.

Wild Horse Saloon in Nashville. Jeff doesn't look too happy, but that's probably because we made him line dance (hooray for trying new things!).

We love the mountains. We love the rolling hills.

Mennonite-made donuts at the Johnson City Farmers' Market. Worth every penny.

more love

Love this one too:



One more week of school (is it December yet?) and then maybe we'll actually have time to do something fun. Actually I know we will because we have visitors coming to see us and a trip to Nashville planned!

Things that matter most

Love this:



"We would do well to slow down a little, focus on the significant, lift up our eyes, and truly see the things that matter most." -Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Definitely something I need to work on. Read the full talk here.

R&R

Zen

So it turns out that even after we go on vacation, albeit a very short one, we still only have pictures of our dog. But she's so dang cute and lovable, who could resist?

Semester three out of five is now complete! Hooray! Hold your applause because I start summer semester on Monday. That's right folks, only 10 days off and then back to tests, tests and more tests. I have a feeling that 17 credit hours crammed into two-and-a-half months is not going to be a fun time, but once December rolls around I'm sure I'll be relieved to be finished (except for a very large licensing exam looming over my head).

So with another semester complete, we decided to skip town for the weekend to hang out at the beach in Charleston, SC and get some much needed vitamin D.

This is what happens when you take a coonhound to the beach. She didn't like when Jeff tried to fill in her masterpiece and went to work again.

Sandy nose.

Is it weird that I only post pictures of our dog? We need some human children.

oh dear

Don't you hate it when someone doesn't update their blog for, oh I don't know, three-and-a-half months and whenever you click on their blog you see the same picture over and over again? Yeah, me too. Oh wait....

Heaven help me, I've lost my blogging motivation!! Our lives are just your regular, everyday work and school lives and really not so interesting or blog worthy. And seriously, how in the world did April sneak up on us? This semester is almost over and hopefully December will be here soon! Not that I would ever wish for winter because, let's be honest, winter is basically the bane of my existence, but I'll be done with school!! I'll still have to take my licensing exam but at least school will be done!

So this semester hasn't really been that eventful as far as hands-on experience and I probably should have counted my blessings for that because you know when everything is ho-hum that something "eventful" is bound to happen. When you're in nursing school the experience you get really depends on the patient you get assigned, the nurse you're with, the place you're at, etc., so not everyone has the same experiences. We are in our pediatric clinical right now and along with working at the children's hospital, we get to go to a health department and a school and yesterday I got to go to a clinic that serves the uninsured, underinsured, etc (I have a professor that adds etcetera after every sentence and I think I've picked it up). Well, up until yesterday I had never given an intramuscular injection (most immunizations are intramuscular), so I was pretty excited to get the experience. Seriously, any experience while in school is jumped on 'cause you don't want to look like a complete idiot when you get out of school. Would you want a nurse who didn't know how to give a shot? Needless to say I got a lot more experience than I really wanted. To keep an already long story short, TWO of the children I gave immunizations to ended up having allergic reactions and had to be given epinephrine and benadryl (two more shots) and were sent to the ER. Thankfully, both the reactions were limited to a rash moving up the body and didn't involve the airway. Both were observed at the hospital and were sent home just fine. The nurse practitioner said the odds of that happening were slim to none and reassured me that there was nothing I could have done to cause the reactions. She also told me I might want to look into cleaning up my karma (I might just look into that). Hopefully yesterday's experience isn't an indicator of my nursing career.

My clinical in February was in the labor and delivery unit at the hospital and I got to spend a couple days in the NICU. I actually found the NICU fascinating, although definitely heart-wrenching. I also got to see the birth of twins (by C-section) which was neat. In March I was at the psychiatric hospital--for clinical, not as a patient (although at times I felt like I fit right in). I find psych interesting, but I think if I worked in that area I might just become one of the patients. I have already diagnosed myself with all sorts of different disorders.

Jeff is still putting up with me and is working hard as usual. And since no post is complete without pictures, here are a few.

We visited family in January. Jeff might not like that I put this picture on here, but I just think it's cute. He had a straw in his mouth and both of our nieces copied him.



Riley likes to ride shotgun on long car rides, except I'm usually the one in that spot, so she ends up on my lap instead.



Okay, that's really all I've got unless you want to see more pictures of Riley 'cause apparently she is all we take pictures of anymore. I think we need a vacation.