Driving the grocery cart car

Yesterday I started a post and then it was deleted.  I hate that.  It annoyed me enough that I wasn't motivated to restart it again so now I'll just start a new post today.  Life I crazy.  That pretty much sums it up.  This week I had two skills validations (where we are tested on things like blood pressure, setting up a sterile field, moving patients, etc.), a research exam, a Physio-pharm exam, and a drug calculation exam.  Oh, and a paper due.  It was a stressful week, to say the least.  I got 100% on my drug calculation test though, so that was good.  You had to get 100% to pass and the first time I took it I forgot to round 0.25 to 0.3 so got one wrong.  Very frustrating!  This time I triple checked and did each question three times.  I did NOT want to have to take it again.

Even with all that studying we had a small amount of time to do some fun things on the weekend.  Evan got to drive his first grocery cart car!

He thought it was the best experience ever.  He turned that wheel with complete enthusiasm the entire time, along with beeping the horn every ten seconds.  Also, take a close look at his feet.  Notice how he has no shoes?  Yup, he chucked them out of the car at one point and I spent ten minutes going up and down the lanes looking for them.  We did eventually find both of them.

I also babysat my cousins for a short while on Sunday in the afternoon.  I brought Evan over with me and he fell asleep for three hours.  I was only supposed to watch them for 40 minutes but I stayed and studies while he slept.  I tried to escape to the basement and set up a comfy work space in peace and quiet but I am not sure that that concept exists at my sister's house!

I set up at the toddler school table and tried my best to get some studying done but not too much was accomplished.  My nieces decided they wanted to be nurses too so they kept trying to have appointments at the table.  Then they were bringing their baby dolls in for appointments and then they wanted me to play house.  My character was allowed to study but not as much as I needed too.  It was very adorable.  It may be less adorable when I get my exam grade back.  In the end they both decided that they didn't want to be nurses anymore because it was just too much studying. 

And you remember that car my coworker gave me.  It didn't pass the state safety inspection.  The main problem is that the exhaust manifold is broken and they don't make that part anymore and they can't find anyone that is still selling it.  I went through all these hoops and ladders and finally found a used piece in Connecticut and they mailed it to me...only to find out that the car place doesn't install used parts.  I guess I should have checked first but it really didn't occur to me.  They agreed to look at it though so it is at the shop today, but I am a bit nervous.  The only other option is to find a welder that can weld it back together (it is cracked).  Please keep your fingers crossed that this works.

So those are the main updates.  I have another test on Monday so I will probably be studying again this weekend at odd times like 1am, but that's life.  I pretty much had to give up running for the next few months because there was no way to fit it in my schedule.  It made me sad because I was in such a great routine and I was having good runs and feeling strong.  A few months off isn't the end of the world though so I will just try and focus on school and family and worry about exercise later.  That means no more PiYo either.  I have hopes that I can do the two months again in December/January.  We shall see.

And as always, Evan is the cutest thing in the entire world and I love him to pieces.  Off to the football game tonight.  It's getting cold outside and I will soon be ordering hot chocolate.  Yum!!!

Hope you had a great week and that your weekend is looking spectacular!

Nursing School Update!

Ok, so maybe this blog will turn into a once a week thing!  Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays are super packed and busy and I scheduled study time on the bus those days so there is absolutely no time to blog.  There is barley time to breathe.  Sometimes I go the entire day and never have a chance to grab my lunch to eat.  It's stressful.  I guess that's what school is supposed to be though, right?  Classes are interesting and fun but they are less fun because everything is focused on skills evaluations so then the fun stuff becomes stressful.  So far I have learned how to prepare a sterile field, take blood pressure, take vital signs (blood pressure, pulse, respirations, temperature), give a patient a sponge bath, change bed linens, brush teeth, and move a patient from the bed to a stretcher.  Seems simple ng ought but not when you are being graded and evaluated and it's pass/fail.  Any tiny error makes you fail.  Not fun.  I have been going to open lab to practice almost every day this week and I still mess tiny steps up or touch my sterile gloves to my unsterile wrist by accident.  Next week I have skills evaluation in two classes, an Physio-pharm exam, a research exam, a paper due, and a med calc quiz.  It's gonna be crazy!!

In the mean time I have been trying to spend as much non-studying time with the family.  Parks, playgrounds, sticking acorns down the manholes, kicking the soccer ball, hitting golf balls, etc.  the normal stuff.  And football games, since football season started.  

In the meantime Ivan's been teaching Evan how to finish his soup.

Slurping it down.  He actually drank every last bit...except for the chicken.  He always picks out the chicken pieces but eats the carrots.

Evan had his two year appointment last week.  He's still a little munchkin weighing in at 22 pounds and standing 33 inches tall.  He seemed pretty healthy otherwise, minus his lack of vegetable consumption.  So I am now trying to incorporate some extra veggies in things like tomato sauce.  Or spinach in grilled cheese sandwiches.  Or spinach in smoothies, which is what I made him today.  It was a spinach, banana, strawberry, peach, mango, milk, flaxseed smoothie.  He ate one over the weekend, so hopefully he'll eat another one this morning.  We'll see!  Sometimes what he eats with me is not what he eats with my sister, and vice versa.  How do you get your kiddos to eat veggies??  Please share!

Other than that news I don't have too much to report.   I miss blogging more consistently and I I miss having more time!  Hopefully things will smooth over soon and I'll be able to breath.

Funniest thing you've done this week?  Share so I can live vicariously through you!

 - Going for a run/playground outing on Sunday.

Last thing you had to study for?

 - Med calc quiz that I ended up failing.  It was pass/fail and I I got one wrong.  Wanna know why?  Because the answer was 0.25 and we had to round to the nearest tenth space and I accidentally left it like that instead of rounding to 0.3.  Ugg, so frustrating!!  Now I have to take it again next week.  Please send some prayers my way!!

First Day

I survived my first day of school.  I feel like it was a huge accomplishment because it was not very fun.  It should have been really easy because two of my labs were canceled so I only had one class.  No, it was mega stressful and I got a headache early in the day and it didn't go away until 10pm.  It was manageable until I was sitting in lecture, then it got worse, and then it got even worse when I got home.  I took two Motrin at school and they didn't help at all and so I took two Aleve when I got home and those finally helped a few hours later.  Yikes, let's hope the rest of the days aren't quite as horrible.

I'm not even sure what was so bad.  I hung out with a few people I met all day.  We got a table in the library and studied for a few hours before lecture.  I did some work-work for about two hours and then switched to reading for my lecture class.  It took me a bit longer to read because I was interested in the stuff and didn't just want to skim through it.  Then I decided I wanted to go for a run before lecture.  By the time I changed, headed out, and got back I only had 15 minutes before class so I had to change super quickly (while I was still sweating) and run to class.  The class was pretty good but they went over so many different things for lecture and lab and community clinicals and exams and quizzes that I was pretty lost.  It was a bit intense. 

Here are some observations I had throughout the day:

1) When people around you stress out, it makes you feel worse.  I need to surround myself with more people who have positive energy because it was not helpful that the people I was sitting with were stressing over everything.  I am really trying to approach school the same way I did work and that is with a positive attitude and with a calm outlook.  I can stress or I can not, and I will be in the same place and still have the same amount of work.  I would prefer to not stress.  We'll see how long that lasts.

2) A lot of people are already friends and I feel like an outsider. Not the best feeling, but I hope I find some people I really connect with.  The people I hung out with yesterday were really friendly and fun, but they were already friends and they didn't really click with me in the sense that we were going to be best buds.  Maybe after a while we will bond, but it would be nice to get to know everyone and to find some common souls.

3) Running in Baltimore is WAY different than running in DC!  When I lived in Baltimore before, I ran up in the northern part, but now I am in a completely different section of the city.  Most of the streets were ok and not too sketchy, but there weren't a lot of people out (walking around or running) and it felt way different than the streets of DC that are filled with runners, tourists, Secret Service, etc.  It was pretty though and a nice route.

4) My days are a lot more busy than they were at work.  I had more down time at work where I could take a breather, chat with my co-workers, make a phone call, etc.  Yesterday was pretty full of reading, working, and attending class.  I guess I got a run in there but it felt like everything was so much more scheduled, and it is.  I am bound by my classes and study times and I don't really make my own schedule.  However, it is exciting and fun learning new things and being in a school environment.  

5) The bus ride is much shorter!  It was so nice getting to class and home in less than an hour combined.  So much less time wasted on a long commute.  Of course,  no napping or anything, but I can deal with that without too many problems.

6) I can still drive a stick shift.  Ok, not really related to school but kind of is.  We got our new car from my co-worker and it's a stick shift.  Ivan made me take it out for a drive and I didn't die once.   I learned how to drive on a stick shift and my first car was a stick shift that I drove for about 6 or 7 years.  I didn't particularly enjoy it and I will always prefer an automatic, but it is kind of like riding a bike.  Once you learn you don't ever really forget.  I drove it home from the bus stop yesterday and am still slow going into 1st gear but I moved and didn't die.

I think those are my only comments.  I am on the bus heading back to school today.  I have some readings to skim before my 9am class and then I have an afternoon to get some more work done before heading home (my afternoon class was canceled).  So, first day was a mix of everything: excitement, stress, nervousness, interest, and everything in between.  I will be happy when I feel like I have things figured out and get into a routine!  And I miss my fun co-workers and hope I meet people as cool as they are.

And because I have no pictures of school yet (I am sure snapping candid photos around school would not help me make friends), here is a fun picture of Evan from this past weekend.

We went to the playground a bunch of times throughout the weekend and he wanted to bring his fox each time.  Mimi made it for him and he put it down the slide numerous times.  He also gave him a few kisses here and there.  It was pretty adorable.  It looks like he's picking his nose here, but he's not.  If you look closely you can tell he's just pointing to your nose - and that is because in order for me to get him to look at the camera, I asked him where his nose was.  This is him showing me his nose!

[EDIT:  It is now later because I didn't have time to post earlier and Day 2 of nursing school is a lot better.  I don't feel quite so overwhelmed.  And I met a new friend which is nice and she's in my lab group so we will be working together a lot.  ]