Seat Warmers= Happiness

We are getting a new car!! Well, a used car, but you know what I mean. It's a navy blue Honda Accord (nice family car, don't you think?). It has a sun roof! More importantly it has SEAT WARMERS!! I am one of those people who will use the seat warmers in the middle of July just because it makes me feels cozy. There is the most amazing part of this story:

My dear, sweet, handsome, awesome, lovely husband is letting ME drive the new car, and he's going to drive my Civic!! He loves me!! I think that is just precious. He is so good to me. :) I'll post a picture soon.

5 Random Things You May/May Not Care About

1. Once I get more time…I think I will begin my quest as a hard-core couponer.

2. Thanks to the Newlywed Nine (x 2-yikes!) my rings need to be resized! When I wake up my fingers are extra swollen, and I can feel my pulse in my ring finger. Is that normal?

3. I have officially accepted a RN position on 3400 at JCMC. :)

4. Babysitting precious babies makes me want babies.

5. I found out that the GPA that determines if you graduate with honors doesn’t include your last semester. I was right at the lowest GPA for honors, so I was thinking I would have to make an A in my classes this last semester to still graduate with honors. HA! Now it doesn’t matter (as long as I still graduate, of course)! That’s what you call under-achieving while still over-achieving!!!

This Weekend

This semester I have been the ultimate slacker. We finally have our first exam on Wednesday. The focus is more on our 240 clinical hours we have to put in and of course reviewing old material for HESI and NCLEX. HESI is a practice type of test that ETSU requires us to pass before we graduate. It is formatted similar to the NCLEX which is our state boards we must pass to get licensed. Our HESI is coming up like...NEXT month!! Yikes. I feel like I've not put as much time into preparing for those test as I should.

Well anyway, this weekend has been relaxing...and I even got some studying accomplished. Tonight we rushed home from community groups so Brad could watch the Olympic USA v Canada hockey game. Unfortunately our basic cable wasn't carrying it, so we flew over to a sports grill to watch it. There were a few other people watching it and cheering pretty loudly (probably bc they were drunk) but you could tell they didn't really know that much about hockey. Brad was clearly the only overly excited one there. Hehe. It was precious.

This is my little hockey player...down there in the right hand corner. :)

1st Nursing Interview!! Yikes!

So I had my first nursing interview today. I really wasn't as nervous as I thought I would be. It almost seemed like I was interviewing the manager instead of the other way around. She really only asked my two questions about myself. Strange. The unit i interviewed for is considered a step-down (from ICU)...but I consider it med-surg. Eh. If you had asked me a month ago about a medical/surgical floor I would have said a big NO. THANK. YOU. But i guess the possibility of a job (anywhere) is exciting to me, so I can picture myself working on that unit. :/ The nurse to pt ratio is 1:5. yuck. That is a lot of patients. Especially compared to the 1:1-2 for an ICU nurse.

The main thing about this position that like is that it is a day shift. So I have to ask myself: Self, do I want to sacrifice a job that I prefer so that I can work an easier schedule? Or do I want to sacrifice a preferable schedule for a better position? Self says not feeling exhausted all the time matters more. :/

Another thing that excites me about this floor is that it is also used as an overflow for pediatrics and post-postpartum pts. So this unit doesn't always have peds/OB patients, but on occasion I would get to work with some kiddos and mommies :).

Anyway, the manager said she would be in touch with me within the week. At the end of the interview she made it sound like there is more than one person interested in the job, but during the interview she made it sound like I was the only one...so...I don't really know what to think. Hopefully I will talk to the VA during the next week and see what they have to offer.

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All full of questions,
April

Graduation is scary. Very scary. Beyond the aspect of accidentally killing someone, it is scary to think about where I will work and why I want to work there. Will I like it? Am I settling for something less than what I really want? For about a year now I have said I was hoping to start out in an ICU. Here are the questions I am now asking myself.

1.) Why do I really want to start out in the ICU? I think ICU interests me because I know I will learn how to stabilize patients and I will (hopefully) learn how to keep them stable. I guess I feel like that will make me feel confident in my nursing abilities...kind of like I can handle more.

2.) Why do I need to feel that confidence? Because I'm afraid of the feeling that my own lack of knowledge harmed someone.

3.) Will I be disappointed if I don't get an ICU position? Yes. I think. Maybe? I don't really know.

4.) If I don't start out in ICU, will I want to work there eventually? I don't think so...but perhaps?

5.Where else do I eventually want to work? I can definitely see myself in an ED somewhere. I would also like to eventually try out Labor and Delivery! :) yay babies!

6.) Days or Nights? Daaaaays! please, please days!! Nights and I don't function well together!



Sooo... i have an interview TOMORROW on a step down unit! I don't know exactly how i feel about it yet! Kind of excited about the possibility of having a job, but kind of bummed that it's not my ideal starting point. I don't know if I should take this job while it is available...or hold out for a better one.

Must...Touch...Eyelashes

If I were ever to attend a support group this is how I would introduce myself:

"Hi. My name is April, and I have OCD tendencies that involve touching/pulling at/out my eye lashes."

The first step is admitting I have a problem right?!? Ok so seriously I have a problem that involve my eyelashes. It started in high school when I started wearing mascara. The feeling of clumped eyelashes drove me crazy, so I would pick at the mascara until it was practically all off. Anyway, it became a habit and pretty soon I was messing with my lashes even when I didn't have make-up on.
Fast forward to present day. I wouldn't actually say it is obsessive or compulsive, but sometimes it feels like it because when I intentionally try to not to, my hands feel....anxious. And the second I stop thinking about not touching them...my fingers are at my eyeball...squishing/pulling/tugging at my eyelashes. My lashes literally have split ends because i mess with them so much. My theory is that they fall out easier because they are weaker, but the truth is sometimes I do pull them out. :/ Embarrassing. I don't really get mad at myself about it until I have gaps in my eye lash line.

If I ever end up with no eyelashes, you will know what happened. :)

Why I Am Returning Back to My Blogging Days

I blog because I have a bad memory. Like really bad. I remember major events, but maybe not some of the details. I think this is why I scrapbook like an old lady. When I see a picture from a certain day, it helps me remember that day, what I was thinking, how I was feeling, ect. It's funny how a simple picture can do that for me. I guess that's why I like photography so much. One of my favorite things to do is look at my scrapbook pages I have completed. In fact, when my best friend (and scrapbook partner) Amanda and I get together to scrapbook the first hour or so (literally) is spent looking back on all our old scrapbook and laughing our heads off. "Remember that?!?"

ANYWAY, I started blogging (if that's what you call it) back in high school on a site called xanga. www.xanga.com/secondtwinbyaminute That slowly died out when facebook came along. But facebook isn't really a blog, its like a stalking website (which I still use...to stalk people :) ) So I'm blogging again to remind my future self how I felt adjusting to my role as a new graduate nurse, an amateur photographer, and a youth pastor's wife. :)

Me and some of my "nursing friends." Me, Nickie, Joshua, and Dorie

Happy Birthday Sawyer!

I had the amazing opportunity to photography the birth of a beautiful baby boy born to Robby and Amy Franklin. They named him Sawyer. :) It was a wonderful experience, and I was very honored they asked me to do it!

They happy little family on day 2.
Baby feet are so precious:

I can't get over how cute this is:

Look! I made it in this one! :)

Snow Fizzle

I'm back! Who's proud? The snow storm I talked about in my last post was, what my family refers to as, a 'fizzle.' Whereas 4.5 inches is a good amount for around here, when they call for 12 inches for daaaays...it's somewhat disappointing. We had a lot of fun anyway. If you call working on a ten foot snowman for two hours fun. :)

No seriously. It was ten feet!

We did have a lot of fun...and a lot of sore muscles!! Mom took some great pictures that I can't waaaaait to scrapbook. :) On Sunday after church we went sledding with 'our kids'- our youth group from church. It was THE steepest/longest/scariest hill/mountain i've ever sledded down. For a couple of the students , it was their first time ever! I only went down 3 times because the walk back up was putting me into respiratory distress!! I would post pictures of that, but this blog is making me suicidal. It posts the picture to the top of the post then it won't let you cut and paste it to the bottom with the text it belongs to! Geezo.