Summer...finally

Things have been a little busy around here lately.  I did go to Nashville for the nursing conference.  Because of this, I had to work a lot before and after.  I haven't been getting called off for low census lately, so that is good.  But it makes for a tiring week when you actually have to work your scheduled days.  :)  I have been scheduled a lot of Sundays recently, which kinda stinks because then I usually don't go to church because I'm sleeping to prepare for work.  I am already sleep deprived working the night shift, so I cannot afford to lose any sleep before working.  I have to be mentally alert when I'm dealing with patients.  I have been trying to get a day position, but there haven't been too many of them.

I also have been doing a lot of things lately.   Jamie and I attended the NKOTBSB concert in Grand Rapids.  This was amazing!  I have been to BSB concerts before, but this was intense!  The way they kept switching between NKOTB and BSB songs was phenomenal.  It always kept you out of your seat.

Most recently, we took Ilana, Alex and Isabel to Lansing to a book signing with a few Young Adult Authors.  We were so tired by the time we got to the signing.  The signing was on Saturday, but we left Friday so we could do a few things in Lansing while we were there.  We saw the capital building.  At first, we were in a tour with a class who looked to be about fourth or fifth grade.  The tour guide asked them a bunch of questions about Michigan and they knew the answers!  I was impressed.  Jamie was wondering how she could sign Ilana up for that class. 

At the capital building.  This was taken from the 4th floor

We also went to MSU because Alex wants to attend there after high school.

Standing in front of Spartan Stadium

We were so excited by the time that the authors came out.  The authors were: Ellen Schreiber, Aprilynne Pike, Josephine Angelini and Veronica Roth.  There were two other authors there to get their books signed by the four above.  They were Courtney Allison Moulton and Aimée Carter.  It was fun-filled day.


I have a couple of doctors appointments coming up.  With the merger of our hospital with a bigger one, we got new medical insurance and had to get new doctors.  This means that I had to get a new neurologist also.  I also have an appointment with an allergy specialist because I have been getting hives recently.  At first I thought it was due to something at work, but then it started happening when I wasn't at work.  I'm at a loss.  I haven't tried anything new and I just cannot figure out what is causing them.  My co-worker said that stress can cause hives...maybe...


I haven't been keeping up with my Project 365 blog.  This is harder than it looks.  I have had some health issues that I have been dealing with that have made it difficult.  I have to give Kudos to Allison for keeping it up for the second year.  I need to get back to doing it.  


The weather here has been crazy.  One day it will be in the 90s and the next we'll have 70s and rain.  Mother Nature just cannot make up her mind what she wants to do.  They always say that if you don't like the weather in Michigan, wait five minutes and it will change.  I guess that is true.

January

January has been a weird month for me so far. I cannot believe the month is almost over! I have been sick a lot this month. With silly little things like pharyngitis. A house supervisor commented that I've “caught everything floating by.” I don't normally get sick this often. I think exposure to germs on almost a daily basis boosts my immunity somehow. I don't know why this year is so different. My doctor (which I did have to change, by the way) asked me if I've been exposed to anyone who's been sick recently. I just smiled and told her at least 3 days a week. ;) She laughed and said “oh yeah.”

My car is finally fixed—new windshield and tire. I didn't like spending that much money, but it was necessary. I'm hoping to get four new tires when I get my tax refund. I also need a front-end alignment, so I think I want to get all the work done at the same time.

I'm hoping to go to this nursing seminar at the end of April. It is in Nashville. It will give you 20 CEUs. As nurses, we need 25 CEUs in two years to renew our license. That will basically knock out most of my need for education for the next two years. I could be more selective on the classes I take. Take classes I WANT to take rather than just take classes to fulfill the educational requirements.

I'm tired of the snow; I'm tired of cold; just sayin'…

Yesterday was plain awful...

So, yesterday was not a good day for me.  It was the first day I had been back to work in over a week.  It started when I went to clean the snow off of my car and the little plastic piece that holds my windshield wiper broke.  My windshield wiper fell off into my hands.  I was getting ready to leave for work, so I had no time to go to the store and get new windshield wipers.  So, I went to work minus one.  Not fun when it is snowing, let me tell you.

Then, when I got to work, I noticed that there was tear in my scrub top.  I pinned it with a safety pin and hoped that would hold until morning.  I jammed my fingers and broke my nail down to where it really hurts.  When I went to print a census for the morning crew, the printer in ICU was out of paper.  ICU being closed, everything is locked up, so I went over to the joint unit to print them.  (They don't print on our unit for some reason.)  Well, the joint unit computer needed a password to sign onto windows.  Neither I nor Lidy (who normally works there) knew what it was, so I stole some paper and went back to ICU.  Well, the printer jammed in ICU while printing the census.  Did I get the page I needed?  NOO!  So, down to Rehab I went.  Finally after visiting almost every floor in the hospital, I got the census.

All in all, it was a crazy day.  But, I made it to and from work safely (with only one windshield wiper, I might add.)  All my patients were safe and as far as I know, we didn't have any catastrophes.  Plus, my friend Danny sent me this really funny you-tube video.  Here it is:

It's definitely summer!!

We have had a “heat wave” here in Michigan this last week…or so the meteorologists say. Yes, it has been 90-100 degrees outside the past few days, but it IS summer. When it is hot, I want it to be cooler. When it is cold, I want warmer. I obviously live in the wrong spot because seasons in Michigan are vastly different. I should move to a place where it is 60-70 degrees all year long. If I did that, what would I complain about then?

I have been enjoying my orientation in my new job. Last night, I was the unit clerk. I haven't done that in 6-7 years. It was good to learn the computer system though. I will be on orientation until the end of July. There are two other nurses orienting with me.

I applied for a dayshift position that opened when my ex-roommate/good friend Melanie, took another job. They called me today & told me that the position was re-evaluated and was made a part-time position. Do I want to go from full-time to part-time to get off nights? Hmm…I lay here now in bed contemplating that while I listen to “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel and writing this blog post.

Pros-I have an EKG class in the morning and it would be so much easier if I worked on days. I really want to finish my BSN. It would be easier to accomplish things on days off rather than sleep.

Cons-It is part-time. This means 48 hours a pay period instead of 72 hours. I would have to get up at 4 am to get ready for work. I know I would get used to it, but it just sounds exhausting.

Enough of my ramblings…I should finish this post so I can go to bed so I can get up at 6:30 for class. (I know that doesn't SOUND early, but I am used to going to bed at that time.). Here are some pictures on my phone:







This is my John F.Kennedy rose that I got last year. (I love taking pictures of nature!)







A pretty weed. :)

Location:Bangor,United States

It is warm today!!

It got up to 92 degrees today! It was muggy too because we are supposed to get thunder storms all around us. If it cools down a little later, we are going to try to mow the lawn. I'm sure today would count as an “ozone action day” if they were doing that already. I'm not complaining though…

We busted out our super fan because Padme was getting too hot. I'm sure she has some congestive heart failure from having heart worms. She cannot tolerate anything above 75 degrees. We usually install the air conditioners earlier for her more than for mom and I. She also cannot tolerate the cold due to a fracture or something before I got her. She has major arthritis in her legs.

That's the price you pay for a shelter dog. I wouldn't trade her for anything though.


The white dog is Padme aka “pretty girl” or “leafy-butt.” (she likes to sit and wag her tail) She is a sheltie-mix. The pure-bred is Anakin aka “pretty boy,” “sir poops-a-lot” or “stinky boy.” This photo is out in their pen.

You have a shortage of what?! Are you serious?

I worked the last few nights and we had more than our usual obstacles. We were running out of IV morphine. We called pharmacy because our patients were receiving 2 mg and they had us using 10 mg syringes. Which is annoying first of all, because we have to have another nurse witness the waste. Sometimes they put larger doses in by accident. They told us that they are no longer going to carry morphine.

One of the other nurses asked them if they were serious and "isn't this a hospital?" Morphine is probably the second-most used narcotic pain reliever. It is even in the acronym for treatment of chest-pain—MONA. (That stands for morphine, oxygen, nitroglycerin and aspirin.) Pharmacy then explained that they were joking—they never joke with us and frankly with 7-8 patients each, we weren't in the mood.

Pharmacy then explained to us that their supplier has a back-order on morphine and they didn't know when they would get some in. (Immediately my mind goes to a drug dealer…only one that is legal…without the shady transactions.) Then I'm thinking that if they don't know when they are going to get more morphine in, why are we "wasting" 8 mg each time we need two? Sounds crazy! Also, what are we going to tell the doctors when we run out? "Um, sorry doc but we ran out of morphine." We'd get laughed at!!

In all reality, we probably wouldn't totally run out, but the possibility of it was just too much not to share.

I was getting ready for work yesterday in the locker room and I was telling another nurse a story in which I said "oh stink." the other nurse asked me "did you just say 'oh stink?'" I replied in the affirmative and one of the dayshift nurses said she says it too. He asked us if he could start saying it and the dayshift nurse told him we'd be honored. :)

We have had our fair share of float pool nurses recently as we've been so busy. The float pool nurses say that they love coming to our floor because we are so helpful and don't treat them like they are a pariah that has an über-contagious disease that spreads by smiles or conversation. We welcome the help! Help us! We'll thank you for it!!

Padme, my dog, is the hunter of my two dogs. This afternoon when I woke up, she was steadily barking at something while she was in her pen. I went out there and she was barking at a frog in the yard outside her pen. I thought I'd help her and the poor frog. Well, I went to grab him to move him to another spot in the yard and he jumped into the dog pen. Oh snap! Sorry frog, I cannot help you when you go into her territory.

I really like the word "rediculicious." (I'm impressed that my iPhone had it in it's vocabulary.) I don't know why, but I do. I want to use it a lot, but it's not always appropriate.

It's really warm today. 84 degrees and sunny right now. Not that I'm complaining or anything…

I'm so excited because I got our tickets to see Eclipse. We are going to the triple feature. It was was only $20 for those tickets and $10 for just Eclipse. How can you not go to the triple feature? So far, there are seven of us going…

Is it really May?

I cannot believe it is May already. It has been cold these past couple of days. By "cold," I mean 40s-50s and rainy. I'm not sure I like it, but everyone says I'll appreciate it in the summer. I don't want to appreciate it then, I want to appreciate it now. Then I am reminded of a quote by President Uchtdorf that I received in my in-box today about patience. Funny how those things work, huh?

My sisters and I took our mom to lunch on Monday to celebrate Mother's Day. It is a rarity for all four of us to get together. We had a blast! Here we are in my car getting ready to leave.

I had to work the weekend, so we decided to go out on Monday.  This weekend was not a good one at work.  We have been terribly busy for the last couple of months and has been draining.  Saturday night was going okay until I got poked by a dirty needle after I gave a shot.  Never fun.  I was alright until I had a chance to sit down and talk to a co-worker about it.  It didn't help that the employee health nurse wasn't calling me back and they are supposed to return my call within 1 hour.  We also had a patient buy us pizza on Saturday because she said that we were "awesome."  We had a staff of 11, so that is quite a lot of pizza to be bought!  We sure appreciated it though!  :)

I am excited for warmer weather and summer to come!!  Yay!

Didn't make it to work

I was supposed to work last night. My sister called & said visibility was bad. She works in Watervliet & I work in St. Joseph. Sometimes it can be vastly different, so I attempted to drive to work.

It took me an hour to drive 11 miles and I wasn't even half-way there. I called & said I couldn't make it in. They weren't too happy, but what could I do? I couldn't even see my hood.

When I got home, mom told me that the police said to stay off of I-94. That is where I was heading & didn't make it.

I'm supposed to work tonight, we'll see what happens...


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New Year

Hi all. A new year has come upon us. I haven't been on the computer that much in recent months, so that is the reason for lack of posts.

For my birthday (way back in October), we went touring around Michigan on a genealogy expedition. That was quite fun. I might make it a yearly event.

More recently, for the Christmas Holidays, it was just mom & I here. I had to work during our family Christmas party, so that was disappointing.

We've got lots of snow here & it's supposed to keep snowing. I don't really like the snow. I was going to see about positions in FL, but I have to stay in MI until I get all my medical tests & things figured out.

I am seeing a neurologist about my epilepsy & migraines. I've had epilepsy all my life & have been on the same medication for 10-15 years. They want to change my medication because it's not good to be on that for that long. It's kinda scary, but I understand their reasoning.

I hope everyone has had a wonderful Holiday season & a Happy New Year!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

I haven't posted in awhile...

It's been awhile since I have posted on here. With being a little sick (just normal colds and stuff) and having to work, I just haven't found the time. I am still on Medical Oncology. Human Resources called me in to a meeting and told me I was "on hold" to move and that I was still going to move. Our manager, Lori, said that I might not have to because now we are short-staffed. We have two people coming from days and we still have people floating to us. It is weird. The last few weeks have been crazy in the hospital. We have been testing everyone for the flu and it is insane. Even people without flu symptoms, we have been testing. This wouldn't be a problem except for the fact that we have to put them in isolation until the flu is ruled out.

The weather here has been okay. Not too cold, in the 40s-50s mostly. I love the colors of fall in Michigan. They are so pretty. This is a picture I took from my car while coming back from the store. (Yes, I stopped the car. I don't take pictures and drive.) This picture is all yellow, but we have oranges and reds. Just beautiful. :)

I changed the layout of my blog. Most people would say that it is too early for snow. But I love snowmen. I don't like the snow, but they are one of my favorite things!

This past month or so, I have been to so many classes for work it is not funny. We got new IV pumps, so there was a class for that. We are getting electronic medication records, so another class. I took basic dysrhythmia, which is a total of ten classes. Then I had a TB class and had to renew my Basic Life Support. Whew! It's been a busy month and a half! I have until December for my next round of classes, so I am glad for that!

I have some time off this next week and I am grateful for that! I definitely need some time to relax. When you work overnight, you rarely get time to relax because it takes two days to do anything. I think I'm going to try and get my father's birth certificate, which would involve a trip up north. It would be a pretty drive though. This time of year is the best for Northern Michigan. We don't have to go to the Upper Peninsula, but it is a ways away. Genealogy trips are always fun and exciting!

Weather, gardening, cooking...

It has been an unusual summer here in Michigan. The average temperature for the last couple of weeks has been in the 60s. Everyone has been saying how it has been an odd July and mom was saying that maybe that means that winter will not be as harsh. I told her it probably means we are going to have a cold winter. Who knows?

We haven't gotten much rain to speak of, although it is raining as I type this. We have had to water the garden more often than usual. With the weather being cooler, it has stunted a lot of the growth in the garden. We have gotten one ripe tomato, a few zucchini and cucumbers, but things haven't really taken off yet. We didn't get very many beans because the critters got in the garden and ate them. Every other year, our neighbors have planted soybeans, so the critters have left our measly beans alone, but this year he planted corn. We have gotten quite a few of the dragon beans this year. They must not like those! We went to our local farm market and bought a bushel of green beans to freeze for the year. Nothing like fresh green beans!

This is a tree that we have in our yard that I frequently take pictures of. It has never had flowers before in the three plus years that I have owned my house. After some research, it was discovered that it is a basswood tree and produces the best honey. It was literally buzzing with bees. You could hear it all over the yard! It now has "fruit" on it that they said the birds like. It was very fragrant with all the flowers on it. We kind of stayed away from it for awhile because I counted four different types of bees and it was hard for me to take a picture without a bee in it.

Since we were surrounded by corn fields this year, I took some photos of my nieces and nephews "Children of the Corn" style. They were asking me about the movies and I told them that we would have to rent them sometime. I gave them some garden tools and told them that they couldn't smile. That was really hard for them!! When I finally told them to smile at the end, it was less than enthusiastic. It was fun for them though and I got some great pics!

I've been trying to do more natural cooking. I started things slowing because it takes awhile for mom to adjust to things. We used to make homemade soup and use everything canned, but I've slowly changed it and now we use everything fresh (or frozen if we cannot get it fresh). Even cutting out the canned tomatoes and dicing them ourselves. It tastes so much better this way! This week I am going to try to make chili from scratch. I have some beans that I am going to cook and cut up some tomatoes and stuff. Hopefully it will work out well. If it does, then we are going to make some for winter and can it. Nothing like canned homemade vegetable beef soup and homemade chili when it is cold out!

I am excited to do some canning this year. I want to can some tomatoes definitely, but also some apples. I am looking for a recipe to try tomato sauce. I really like it when I can then because we use 1/2 the amount of salt, so it is a bit healthier. Plus, it just gives you satisfaction knowing that you did it yourself!

I did my first IV chemo at work this week. It went pretty well. We have been floating to Cardiac Telemetry a lot lately and it has been crazy busy there. The last time I floated, I only had 5 patients (as opposed to the 7 the time before) and we were doing trivia. It ended with me trying to think of a question, but I couldn't come up with one. Did you know chickens have ears? I didn't. I also learned this week at work that battery acid does not eat through scotch tape. Okay, I don't really believe that, but for some reason, we have to tape batteries before we dispose of them. I don't know...I just smile and nod.

This week...

This week has been an interesting one with all the thunderstorms & power outages. My two sisters and my power went out. The only one who had power was my grandmother, meaning if we wanted to shower for work, we had to go there. I was at work when the first thunderstorms hit and the power flashed there and I'm not sure if it was the generator coming on or the power coming back on, but it was scary! I don't like being in the hospital when the power goes out. Scenes from horror movies from my youth come flashing back to me.

I have also been working on some little tweaks with my blog and working on the computer a lot. There isn't much else to do when it is wet outside!

We have some little tomatoes in our garden. I'm so excited! We also have the beginnings of beans, zucchini, and cucumbers. Our fruit trees are still doing well.

I haven't really done much else on my genealogy this week. I'm kinda at a standstill until I get more information. That means either going to Gaylord, MI or Pennsylvania. Neither is a terrible distance, it is just a matter of doing it!

On a lighter note, the sun is shining today. It is in the 80s. Hot, hot, hot. So, I am going to go and enjoy the sun!

Will the rain ever end?

Okay, it has been raining, raining, raining...and we haven't been able to start anything in the yard yet because everything is flooding. (The rain has been good for my fruit trees, however, and the blossoms are pretty!) My mom wants to 'till the garden a couple of times, but hasn't gotten the opportunity yet because of the constant rain. Our yard is a soft, wet yard, anyway. We have gotten all kinds of things stuck in the yard...trucks, backhoes, etc. One thing that is going for us is at least it is not snowing! I had to laugh because my sister Jennifer said "April flowers bring May showers" because we are wondering when it will be over! The forecast isn't looking so good!

I have worn my pedometer at work this past week or so and the average that I walk in a night is 8 miles when we are busy (which is like 95% of the time) and 3 miles when we are not. Both of them are not too bad. No wonder my feet hurt when I get home!

I must say a thank-you to Busi, a fellow nurse who works on nights with me. I had an interesting experience last night (Wednesday) where a pain medication rolled off the counter and into the trash in the med-room. (It was in a tube.) Busi helped me find it in the trash can. Luckily, they had recently emptied it. Now that's teamwork!!

Physical Therapy is going well and I have noticed some increase in strength in my back. Kudos to Courtney and Lyn for helping me.

This week I start my chemotherapy class so I can be certified to give it. I am kinda excited and nervous at the same time. It's something new, but there are a lot of good people on the floor who can help me out. I was going to sign up for a statistics class this term, but I just cannot afford it right now. I have to work on getting my house ready for winter. (I know it's crazy to already be thinking about winter, but it takes so long to remodel!)

Tomorrow, we are off to Wal*Mart again because mom needs to buy new wipers for her truck that she got at the slasher sale. She really hasn't been able to drive it because the wipers have no rubber and it has been raining ever since. She got a 1991 Ford F-150 that runs really good.

This week...

This week has been a crazy one. I got low census on Monday at 11 p.m., which normally would be a good thing because that means that I get to go home, right? Well, it threw my sleep schedule all in a tizzy and then I got headaches and a sinus cold. Not fun!! I'm still a little sick, but I got some Tylenol cold and sinus and things are looking better. It hadn't had a headache, the med room hadn't smelled like plastic balloons, and the kitchen hadn't smelled like sewer, I probably would've stayed on Monday because I had really good patients.

I just don't know what to think about the weather here. They say (and I don't really know who "they" are) that Michigan weather is hard to predict. I don't know if it is the same as other places and they just like saying or what. We are supposed to be getting a severe snow storm today. When I took the dogs out at 2 a.m. (yes, I was up at that time), it was raining. I just don't understand it. Maybe it's the going from warm to cold in a week that gave me my cold in the first place. (When I say warm, I mean above freezing.)

My mom got seven teeth pulled on Monday, so she hasn't exactly been feeling the greatest either. In four more weeks, she has to get nine more pulled and then dentures after that. It's a good thing though.

We had the dedication for our new building in church this week. It was pretty neat. The Stake President was there to do the dedication. Our branch has been waiting for a new building for a long time, so it was nice to finally get it. It is a beautiful building.
I took this picture from Brother Osbon's page. I haven't taken one myself. :) They had mentioned how during the construction there was a sign that said the future site of the "South Haven, Michigan Ward" and how that is a possibility. It was pretty neat.


I hope that everyone has a good rest of the week!!

Work...

Okay, so I was officially on my own on Sunday night. My third night working. The third night is always the most tiring and exhausting. I was wondering why my boss chose that night as my first on my own, but oh well. It was a good night overall. Half of my patients were confused and trying to get out of bed. Okay, only two of them were trying to get out of bed...Thankfully, the rest were actually able to rest. (I do work the night shift where people never sleep.) Anyway, I don't think the night went all that badly. The good news was that I wasn't too tired for 45 minute drive home and nobody fell on my shift.

Other than that, nothing new has happened except for that it is unusually warm. It was over 60 degrees today. Wahoo! It was nice. I'm waiting for spring to come! :) The other thing that surprised me was that I got my state tax refund deposited today. It only took a week. That is crazy! I went to Sam's Club and stocked up on some much needed supplies. So it was an exciting day.

I Wonder...

I have been working a lot these past few weeks, or at least it seems that way, and I have been having some thoughts about what has been going on at work, and just in general.

I wonder...

Why it is that the weird patients are the ones who hit on the nurses...the patients who are married and priests or who are married priests.

Why it is that patients think that nurses "owe" them and that it is okay to them like garbage.

Why I tend to hurt myself at work. I hurt myself doing stupid stuff like getting my hand stuck between the door and the wall. Both were always there, but I manage to make an incident out it.

Why do I get stuck in the driveway a lot. I got stuck again today. Jazz doesn't like the snow and cold as much as I don't.

Why do I get stuck in the driveway when I don't have to work, but can get out just fine when I have to work and leave at 6 a.m.

Why do people think that you can turn around in a driveway (or the yard, rather) where it hasn't been plowed and the rest clearly has. Needless to say, the garbage man got stuck in my flower garden.

Why the dogs can sleep all day and night and I have trouble just sleeping six hours straight.

and lastly...I wonder why I don't live someplace warmer. :)

Crazy, crazy week...

So, I have been working a lot lately. Linda (one of my preceptors) told me yesterday that whenever she works with me, it is crazy. Hehe, I told her that last week that it is crazy everytime I work. We didn't get to leave at 7:30 last night, we had to stay until 8:30 to help the next shift. Not fun, after working 12 hours, you want to leave.

Other than that, it has been dang cold here. This was the temp when I got in the car at 9:45 this morning:

That is cold. It was -11 this morning before I got up. (After getting home at 9:30 last night, I slept in a little.) The cold doesn't do good for my "achy breakies" as I call them. I had some serious pain this week, and luckily, it happened when I didn't have to work because otherwise, I don't know how I would make it through 12 hours of work.

I also was attacked by my cat this week. He is our "scared cat" who is afraid of everything. Well, the dog was barking at nothing and scared the cat who tried to springboard off my face and cut my lip. (Which is a feat since he only has back claws.) I thought I was going to have to go and get stitches because it would not stop bleeding. Luckily though, it stopped and I didn't have to get stitched. Crazy animals anyway.

Our kitchen water froze one day. Then the next day, mom was cooking dinner and needed to add more water to the pan and shattered the pyrex dish in the oven from the cold cold water. It was in pieces and our dinner was ruined. I just said, "I cannot wait for spring."

I have to work the weekend, which I really don't like, but what can you do? This will be the third weekend that I haven't been to church because of work and being ill. On February 2nd, I start on the night shift. 7 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. Hopefully, it will be better for me with my wacky sleep schedule.

On a lighter note, we're supposed to get 30 degree weather this week. Hurray!! That is almost above freezing. Who ever thought that I would be happy about 30 degrees. At least there is less of a chance that I will get stuck in the driveway.

Yep, that is my car stuck in some serious snow, and yes, I take pictures of everything. :) Photography is one of my favorite hobbies.

I hope that everyone stays safe and warm!!

Yeah for Friday!!!

This will be the first weekend that I have to work. The last few days that I have worked, it has been crazy insane. I explicitly remember asking my preceptor when the craziness will end. I will be on days until the end of the month and then I will be orienting on nights. I will be glad to go to nights because getting up at 5 a.m. has been a little hard on me.

It has been cold here...dang cold...and I am not liking it. I wish that it would just stay warm. Is that too much to ask? Or have a short winter. Not four to five months. I know that I should just move, but I would rather mother nature change than do that. :)

Other than that, I recently re-joined the gym now that I am working. It feels good to go and exercise. It's kinda funny because I've seen this paramedic there every time that I went and he is so nice. He always waves to me because we got to know each other during my stints in ER. I always wonder if he remembers that I backed into his new truck when I had my driving permit. Knocked the front bumper clean off. I never want to bring that up though because he is so nice.

Something happened to the layout on my blog, so I had to spend the day fixing it. Ugh. It is frustrating when things disappear!!

Anyway, I have to work 48 hours in the next 5 days, so I should get some rest.

I am blessed...

I have to say that I would seem very ungrateful if I didn't mention how blessed I feel right now. My mom and I have been concerned about how we are going to heat the house this winter. Well, my grandpa called us this morning and said that he had found this guy on the south side who had a ton of free wood and he spoke to him about it and he would save it for us.

So, my mom called my cousin and he rushed right over there to get it for us. It took two load with his trailer and his brother's truck, but they did this for us willingly. So, needless to say, it has been a good day. Who knew something like wood could make the day so bright. :)