Dracula Part III

I have now completed my right of passage into my senior year of nursing classes. IV Sticks. That says it all. This evening, on my first try, I tapped the blood well on a fellow nursing student in his antecubital vein (aka elbow crease) and it felt good! Not the fact that I was putting someone in a mild bit of pain, but that I was successful on the first try!!! Then, so I knew what it felt like, I got to be a guinea pig for that poor student (who was stuck twice in all, once by me, and another time by another student). So that's it! I can start an IV on you if you ever want one... not that you ever will.

one little weakling

Yesterday in my Concepts of Health and Wellness class, we measured our muscle strength and endurance. I felt like I was in elementary school again, being forced to try to get President's Fitness Stamp of Approval, or whatever it was called. I never made it because I couldn't do a chin-up. Well, my muscles haven't changed much, because after bench pressing, spine crunching (or leg-pressing, however you refer to it), sitting up, pushing up, I have discovered that my muscles are registered in the low muscle strength category. At least I scored average while doing sit ups and push ups. Boy am I feeling it today. I even woke up periodically during the night to turn over and inwardly moaned with pain as I moved my shoulders. I am one little weakling. I better buff up before I have to lift any more patients!

Shopping

My mom and sister would be proud. Last night, Austin and I went to Kokomo for a date, looking for some dress pants for him. We started at one end of the strip and worked our way back and forth, from Old Navy to Kohls... in the end, we found a pair of dress khakis for him. At Old Navy, I purchased a couple things. The reason my mother would be proud is because I bought something that fit me, and my sister would be proud because I found some bargains. I bought a printed thermal shirt for $4, and a cream colored sweater/sweatshirt for $8. It was time for some new clothes, and yes momma, the shoulders fit! Hooray!

Getting back into the swing of things.

This semester is going to be very different. I am taking 12 credit hours. Ten of those are 2 clinical classes that meet only Monday and Friday. Another 1 credit is a health class that meets for half of the semester, and for the last credit, I get to enjoy a weekly piano lesson (involving practicing throughout the week, learning new music, expanding my musical horizons... oh what a pain). I think I will really enjoy this schedule. The kicker is that I get to try my hand at the graveyard shift for my clinical rotations in Critical Care Nursing. We'll see if I can handle it. :)

Once again...

Papercuts. Those are the battlescars of a file clerk. Once again I trudge into the file room at dad's office to make a little dough for next semester's books, gasoline, and the like. I find myself sneezing more, yearning for chapstick and hand lotion, and guzzling more water. The exciting job for today was re-ordering and numbering by hand 359 pages of medical records. Glorious!

In other news, Christmas was a success! We (Mom, Dad, Mich, Jeremy, and me) had fun cooking, opening presents, eating, playing Settlers (which I won by the way) and Sequence, and dancing our lives away on a borrowed DDR game. I especially loved watching my dad get into the moves. Maybe Michelle will post pictures.

Tomorrow, Mom and I are going to pick up my wedding gown-YIKES! I'm going to be a bride! I'm taking the day off, because Dad is not going to the office downtown, and because Austin is coming back Friday night, I will not have had one day with my mom to myself. It will be a great giggling time. Too bad Michelle has to work :(

Last Christmases at Home

It is going to be my last Christmas Season at home this year, and then on to married life. This past weekend, Austin and I along with Gabe and Libby traveled to meet a crew of friends in Milwaukee, WI for Shannon and Josh's wedding. I wish I could post some pictures, but I left the cord to connect my camera to the computer at school. Shannon looked so beautiful, and Josh sang and played to her as she walked down the isle, but he couldn't completely make it through the whole song. We could all tell they were so thankful to finally be marrying one another. Behind them, a beautiful scene displayed through a gazebo of windows of snow gently falling onto everything already blanketed in white. Their reception was wonderful, too.

But all that beatiful snow made it difficult to get to Indiana, where we stayed at Libby's parent's house until we could make it out of first, their driveway, and then their country road. Austin and I then drove the cleared turnpike back home, and came upon the tail end of the snow as we entered Cleveland. It's so nice to have snow here at Christmastime. The last two Christmases have been green, and finally we have another white Christmas.

So today, I have driven Austin to the airport, and he is in the air as I write this, headed to SC for his last Christmas as a single man.

I think that I am starting to feel the growing up period approaching, or maybe it has already begun. But, I know that wherever Austin and I land in the future, we will be together, learning all about how to cleave to each other (do you like that word?) It's a strange time, all this leaving and cleaving business, because it leaves people feeling sad that change is happening, and it leaves me confused, trying to figure out how I need to love all those around me.

I know that time will help me to figure it all out, and the Lord is going to teach me a lot!

Finito!

Classes are done... now some studying commenses. Only three days of finals left, and I will officially be a senior in the nursing program.

Craig's list

My sister forwarded to me a link for some furniture, and that started me on the search for some cheap or free furniture for when Austin and I are married. There is some cool cheap stuff on that there craigslist.com... a lot of junk, kinda like a huge garage sale. But still, I think that we will be able to find some good deals eventually, if we keep our eyes open.

We had a great Thanksgiving break with Melanie, Andrew, and Samuel in Iowa. It was chilly there, as Austin and I predicted, but we were kept warm by delicious food, leftovers, lots of cake, and birthday celebrations as Samuel turned 1 on Sunday. It was a lot of fun to play Settlers, watch movies, take walks and pictures, and play with Sam. He's getting so big!

Now it's time for the last stretch of school before the end of the semester! Only 2 1/2 weeks left. HOORAY!

Brrrr.

It has become cold, once and for all winter, I am guessing. The other day I was trying to remember what it was like to walk around without sleeves (you know, what they call summer clothes... tank tops, shorts, swim suits.) This coming week, Austin and I are going to Iowa to visit his family. We are trying to decide how much colder it will be there than here in Indiana.
In other news, there are only 3 weeks, give or take, left to this semester at school. I am so excited. One more day of clinicals on the Peds floor, and then I move on up to Critical Care nursing. It should be quite a ride. I think I have decided that I really like Med-Surg, because you get to see such a variety of disorders and do a great number of different treatments, and then you know about a whole lot. I think Critical Care will be kinda like that. We'll see.

Attitude is everything.

I have noticed that the people that don't like school or professors are the ones who have bad attitudes about everything, and they are the ones who make big dramatic deals about dumb things. I can get in the habit occasionally of having a bad attitude about things, and that totally taints my view of reality. The end.

P.S. This was not directed to anyone I love... I had a strange conversation with a girl after a class about our prof. YEP.

Friends.

I was sitting at lunch today, with a bunch of friends around me laughing, thinking that this is what college is all about.

Research. Check!

Hooray, my stress level has decreased 100%. This week was nonstop working, and thankfully is over. The main thing that was stressful was completing a research paper on Socialization of Healthcare. There is never a good time to just sit down and write a research paper. I don't know how some people do it, planning to perfection, getting everything done early. There are some students who have their huge assignments done a week ahead of time. I'm lucky to go to bed on time the night before something huge is due. Anyway, this week is done, and I am breathing a whole lot easier. Studying for tests this coming week will seem simple.

Uhh...Pippi Longstocking

For Halloween each year, the school puts on a Harvest Party in the intramural gym for the kids in the community. I think it's really fun! and this year (partially because I was required to attend) I went, dressed as Pippi Longstocking. No one could quite figure out how my hair was sticking straight out. Here are some pics.

Pippi Longstocking is coming into your world.

And for kicks, here is my cute fiance playing "intramural" football in the Backyard Brawl against Taylor...

Girl's Weekend.

Today, my mom and sister are traveling from Ohio to visit me here at school! I cannot wait to see them. So far, I don't have many plans for our big weekend together, but to go see "No Reservations" at the theater on campus. Pretty-girly sounding, so very appropriate. Michelle has been conniving with my girlfriends... planning something I think, which is another reason for her visit. She doesn't mind that I know that she is planning something, but she won't tell me when or where or what exactly. But that is okay because I love surprises.
I think we shall make some banana or pumpkin bread. I made some earlier this week, and they were DEVOURED.
Maybe we'll do some Christmas Shopping. Santa Claus is coming to town... soon... so I better save my pennies. It is officially Christmas Music Season, or at least one of the girls in the dorm said so. No complaints here, I love to listen to the jingling bells and carols.

Earthquake!

Right now, I am sitting at my desk while the walls are shaking intermittently. Sounds like an earthquake. Well it's the most profound earthquake that I have felt, ever, but not produced by shifting plates in the earth's crust, but rather a very large machine (I believe the Indian-ers call it a back-hoe) pounding down onto the concrete sidewalk just outside my living room window. I sat and stared at this process, mildly annoyed, but fascinated that this huge shovel can move large amounts of earth, or concrete in this case, with such delicacy. It is, however, creating a loud reverberation that I can feel, and might upset my plans for a nap this morning. Oh well.

Cleaning...

I love to clean. It's de-stressing... is that a word? Well cleaning definately takes a load off my shoulders. Today I cleaned out the fridge. Or threw away a lot of old food that was collecting dust and other microrganisms. It was a freeing experience. I can breath a little easier knowing the fridge is not being overgrown by mold.
Today is mi madre's birthday! Hooray... Happy Birthday Momma.

(Michelle posted a cute picture of Mom, so I thought I would, too!)

Baby, baby...

Today I was thrilled to watch the delivery of a baby boy during my clinicals in OB. I got choked up just afterward. It is such a neat experience, one that I hope I am able to have someday.

A few things I seem to lose a lot...

Chapstick. The plain kind with the black wrapper and red lines around it is my favorite. It is a staple that I must have or my lips will dry up like the desert sand. Yuck. And I usually lose it. So then I walk around with alligator lips for a while, when I am rescued by finding one in a purse I haven't used in a long time. If that doesn't happen, I love to buy a new one when it doesn't have that hole in the middle yet. Love it.

Sunglasses. I usually lose them or break them. It doesn't matter if they are new or old, I leave them on a table in a restaurant, sit on them in the bus, stretch one side until it breaks, and still use them with one wing on my ear because I don't like the thought of the sunshine burning away my vision. My mom has not usually liked the shape of the glasses I buy, until recently! I found a pair that she favors! And so do I. But I haven't lost them yet.

Nalgenes. I have lost two. One 1000 mL, and a mini one. I don't really know where they disappeared to. I dropped my big green one off a tall overhang onto the concrete to see if it would break, during my spring break trip of freshman year, and it didn't break. It left a mark on the concrete. I have it on video. It has been the subject of a portrait photo session. I did love this Nalgene, my first Nalgene, and I lost it this summer, or last Christmas, I don't remember.


I replaced it yesterday. I had gone long enough without a motivator to consume large amounts of water per day. I bought a grayish black one from my nearby coffee shop. I feel like a real outdoors-woman with this one. It's no fluffy green Nalgene. It's black. It's rugged. It's simple. I think I shall like this new Nalgene very much. And I hope it sticks around for a long time.

Hot, Hot, Hot...

I thought fall was coming a few weeks ago... no, no. Right now, weather.com is reporting 90 degrees here. I don't think I've ever experienced any day October in the midwest with a temperature of 90!

It was good weather for camping though. Austin, Ashton, Kat, Dave, and I went Saturday night. What fun we had. At first, I was nervous to go because of the work that I need to get done before some tests, but once I got there, sitting around the campfire, eating s'mores, drinking cider... I felt like fall could be there, and I relaxed. Oh the magic of the outdoors. Here's Ashton toasting her marshmallows...




In other news, Jess and Blake got engaged this Saturday night! Congrats to them!!! I don't have any pictures, but imagine a pretty ring on a happy girl with a beaming boy holding her hand. That's the picture to remember. She was walking around today with a little hop in her step.

Austin and I are happily engaged, planning our wedding, and a fun trip afterwards. We're thinking the west coast somewhere north: Oregon maybe? Neither of us have been there, so it will be fun to see a new part of the country. Got any good suggestions of where on the Oregon Coast to stay? We're still looking for a good price and pretty scenery.

End of September Review

I have two things to write about today... both happened in September.

First: One Friday night this past month, I went to Walmart and purchased some fabric for one dollar a yard... What a deal! My roommates and I excitedly searched for a sewing machine. With the fabric we made a lovely curtain and tapestry thing for our living room, we are going to add a creative painting to the middle of the arrangement. It's kinda fun... adds some dimension to the wall. We stole the idea from some other girls in the dormitories.



And a curtain for my room with Libby. You can see here a sillhouette of my healthy looking bonsai. The curtain covers the whole length of the window.


Second: This past weekend, Mom and Gram came to Indiana to drop Gram off so she could return to Florida with the rest of her family who was visiting in Illinois.

We ate at a restaurant in Amish country, and then stayed at an inn at Pokagon State Park. It was beautiful! When we got to the inn, we heard there was to be a hoe-down that night. Curious to find out what was going on, or at least listen to some good music, we followed directions down to where there was quite a showing of Indiana-ers... hoe-ing down... or Square Dancing. Mom and I kicked up our heels to the music and stomped away with the other folks. It was so fun, and my legs were quite sore the next day from all the hopping around. HAH!

Mom wanted to take a picture of us by the corn stocks and the fall arrangement. I especially like the straw horses.