Ho Ho Ho!

it's christmas eve and i'm sitting by the fireplace, watching my brother-in-law try to fix the tv. we were planning on watching the movie surf's up, but found out that dish network wasn't working properly, so decided to try to fix that before putting the dvd on. it's quiet here around the house, except for dylan running around with his little golf clubs, madly hitting plastic golf balls all around the house.

it's peaceful here, and i'm sleepy now. i finished drinking hot chocolate a few minutes ago, and that set my body clock to sleepy-time. we went to santaland tonight, which is a christmas light show that you drive through. it was fun to see all the bright lights, and listen to the christmas music playing through the speakers. we got to ride on a trailer pulled by a tractor and freeze in the fresh air. =) anyway, right now, the boys are immitating jimmy stewart in the movie "it's a wonderful life", and we're all just hanging out.

i'm so surprised at how quickly christmas has come this year. this previous year has flown by so fast. this time a year ago, i hadn't yet started the nursing program at southern, and i was scared to death about my upcoming classes. here i am, a year through, with only one year left to go, and i'm anxious to finish. i'm surprised at how well i've done, considering my schedule and how busy i stay. i'm pleased with my grades though, and love learning the new things i'm taught.

anywho..those are just a few of my thoughts regarding the past year. here's our christmas picture from this year. Hope you enjoy it.

The adventures of Mighty Nurse

Here's a comic strip I drew based on true events in my nursing class. enjoy!


___ ok let me add an addendum to this. This didn't actually happen in my class, because we would be sued if it did. However, a classmate asked it if would be appropriate to use fruit juice in an IV line for a client who was hypoglycemic and not alert enough to just drink the cup of juice. Forget having an already prepared dose of glucose, otherwise known as D50...let's be creative here !!!

the outdoors are truly great

Nathan and I just got back from a weekend camping trip, and I feel more refreshed and relaxed than any weekend of sitting around watching tv could ever offer. Besides, there's nothing quite like hot dogs roasted with just a touch of dirt, smoke and ash mixed in.

Camping really is a cheap vacation, and if you bring along a pretty good airbed, it's comfortable too! Unfortunately our queen size airbed was just a little larger than the tent door, and it took quite a bit of grunting and shoving to cram it through. And before you make a smart comment about blowing it up ONCE it's inside the tent, there was no electricity nearby, and we had to carry it over to the bathhouse, blow it up and then carry it back. Apparently our electrical outlet that plug into the cigarette lighter in the car is not made for blowing up airbeds. haha.
Saturday night was a flash back in time though. As I was making Ramen noodles, I looked around and we were surrounded by fireflies. I haven't caught a firefly since I was probably four years old. It was so fun to chase them around and try to grab hold of one. Next time we go camping, I will bring a glass jar along to keep a few in and watch them glow for a while. I tried catching a picture of them glowing, but they never would light up at the right time.

Camping is such a great family activity -- it really brings everyone closer. State parks don't charge too much to rent a campsite, and it supports the great outdoors. So next time your bored and want a cheap way to relax, go tenting!

Life is wonderful

I'm more and more impressed every day with the importance of enjoying every single moment of life and making the most of every memory and time with loved ones. I had a patient die recently, and though I'm getting used to taking care of dying patients, it never gets easy to see death slowly, painfuly take over life. Thoughts race through your mind as you see the last few breaths fade away --thoughts that this person was once a vibrant, beautiful life who loved and was loved. My patient that died was completely alone, except for the nurses taking care of her. I found her still -- the nurse had checked on her only 5 or 8 minutes before and she was still breathing, shallow though it was. Her son refused to visit her once she came to our floor, so for two days, she laid silently in her hospital bed, fighting for air. They say hearing is the last sense to go before you die, and it breaks my heart to think of that poor old lady laying there hearing no one nearby. No family to cry over her, no son or daughter to hold her hand, or tuck her blankets tighter around her, or brush her hair back from her face.

I don't know what the circumstances were surrounding the family -- what hard feelings there were that hadn't been let go, or what caused the son to refuse to see her one last time. But it really made me think about my own life. Whatever hard feelings I might harbor towards someone, family or friends -- they are so insignificant in the grand scheme of things! What grudge is worth holding onto when life is never guaranteed, and something could happen to any one of us at any time? Every day that we stay angry towards another person, it becomes just that much easier to not make amends.

I just want to encourage everyone to live life for every single day. It's not worth getting angry over small things. Life is so amazing and wonderful, don't waste a minute of it!

NURDS

So I've begun creating my own comic strip, based off of antics from certain classmates in my nursing class. I've titled it "NURDS" which is short of Nurse Nerds. This one was inspired from the lead character to has recently been seen running around class taking extremely upclose pictures of everything possible (the back of people's necks, up his nose, his pupils etc...). I'll upload more as they come. =)

...

I'm sitting in my evening class, listening to the teacher talk about third world countries and death rates. It's interesting, but lately I'm having a hard time focusing on lectures and what not. So I figured I might as well blog.

It's been miserable weather lately -- the snow from the other night had pretty much completely melted by morning, but it was pretty while it lasted. I spent the weekend coughing and hacking, and felt a little better on sunday, so Nathan and I went down by the river and tried out our new camera. Unfortunately, it was only about 26 degrees outside, so our fingers froze long before our patience wore out. But we got some pretty good pictures I think.



Anyway -- I hate being sick, but I have enjoyed getting a little more rest these past two weeks, and it's been good for me. I feel a little less stressed about things, and I'm sleeping better. I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful husband who takes such good care of me. He's done so much for me while I've been sick, and he's so caring. I don't know what I'd do without him.

it's a white January 16...

Little late for a white christmas, but we have about two inches of snow outside as of right now...We'll see how much accumulates overnight. I have a fever right now of at least 102*F...I don't know how accurate the thermometer is, because sometimes it reads 96 degrees, and sometimes it reads 102. I can be sure it's closer to 102 because of how bad I feel. This sucks -- I have class every day of the week, and now it looks like I have to miss clinicals tomorrow morning -- no way I'm going out in the snow feeling like this.

Anyway, Nathan is gone to another state, as usual it seems, and I'm lonely. Which is why I'm sitting here watching horrible auditions on American Idol and flipping back and forth to the pilot show of Gossip Girl, which I've seen about five times because they can't seem to keep up with filming and make a new episode every week. O well. ... it beats shivering to death in bed by myself. The one night home alone that I didn't torture myself by watching reruns back - to - back of CSI's and Law & Order, I can't sleep early. lol -- serves, me right, huh?

So I'm sitting here sipping un-sweetened Peppermint Tea and wearing Nathan's old sweater. Sounds like fun, doesn't it? I know -- I'm thrilled =).

But it is nice to have a little bit of snow for this year. Unfortunately we live at the top of a hill, and if the roads ice over, I'll end up in the ditch across from the road. So I hope that there's no ice in the morning...we'll see what happens.