random in december

I was foolin' around with my Canon Powershot the other day and took a bunch of random photos.

This is the half moon window in my great room. Loved the view of the clouds.
Here we have DC. He's 14 y/o now and has hyperthyroidism. He doesn't let it get him down.



I thought this was interesting. It's just some decorative swirly stuff I have in a vase. Makes for an interesting, and abstract photo. Just the way I like them!

These are just a few of the close-ups I took of Irwin. I love how crisp they are.

rocked my world

Yesterday I ended up experiencing firsthand what it must feel like to be raped. OK, that may be a little dramatic, so maybe we'll downgrade the melodrama to a claim of emotional assault.

Our bank account was drained by a little over $300 without my consent. The assailant was my 12 year old music fiend. Originally I thought it was both the boys, but no it was just AW. BZ was cleared after checking his ITunes account.

AW racked up around $345 in charges for songs, videos, games and movies on ITunes.

I can see where this would not be hard to do.

He did redeem himself with the visible remorse you could see on his sweet face, and the attention he paid to doing things normally against his usual repertoire. For example he usually has to be begged to put his dinner dishes into the dishwasher. Not last night!

There wasn't much the poor boy could do, but hand over what he had left of his Christmas money. That was about $50.

It didn't look like ITunes was going to do anything to help the matter, until today when I checked and apparently they're refunding $295 of the charges!!

Now I feel a little better. And the boy may live. We were going to let him anyway. This just makes it easier.

have you ever been so angry???

Imagine my rage when I signed on to my bank account this morning only to find the balance far lower than I had expected. The real rage ensued upon seeing exactly why this was so. There are 8+ pending debit card purchases, at about $42 a piece to ITunes. Well, two of them were less than $10....but who gives a crap!?

I stormed into Satan's room, at approximately 8 a.m. to awaken him from his deep slumber, demanding his account information, and for him to descend the stairs to enter it in and explain himself. I feel slightly bad, because I also had to go wake Lucifer up for the same reason. I don't feel bad because of that, but because of the fact that only one of the purchases was made by Satan, the rest were made by 12 y/o Lucifer.

Yes, at times like this they are referred to by their devil names.

It doesn't help that there is no phone call support for billing/purchase disputes at ITunes. You have to email them. Either that, or you can go in and opt for the "report a problem" choice. You then click on "report a problem" that shows up next to the item in question, and fill out the form.

So, we're talking over $300 in purchases. The average purchase was $42. That would be great if that was for one item. Each order, at about $42, had about 20 or so songs, and then some videos, or movies to go along with them...at least.

The average purchase on ITunes would be the songs at 99 cents a piece....$42 equals 40 or so songs...if songs are all that a very bad boy purchases!!!

You try and fill in reports for each song, video, or movie!!! I did it for several and then got wise and decided to opt for emailing customer service. I had to make a list on MSWord of the order numbers. You can't cut and paste from ITunes because they wont let you select for copying and pasting!

Hopefully they'll resolve this matter via these methods, otherwise I'll have to wait until the "pending debit card purchases" are no longer pending and have the bank dispute them.

Happy Frickin' Holidays!

Well, up until this morning the holidays were quite nice.

Mom and Dad were here for the week and I took them to the airport yesterday. I bawled half the way home. It takes about an hour and I knew I had to stop to pick up a few essentials for dinner, so I got myself under control as quickly as possible.

Have you ever been to a Wegman's grocery store? I had never been and it was very cathartic, to say the least. It's like a food mall! You could literally spend hours upon hours in there! There's even a seafood bar, to go along with the huge bakery, deli, and wine store.

I don't frequent these elite grocery stores often, and would never do full-on food shopping at one, but they are fun to go into for the infrequent purchases.

The pane Italiano was quite yummy. It was warm still, when I picked it up out of the bin. It went along nicely with the stroganoff type dinner I made out of left over roast beast for dinner last night. My father-in-law and his lady friend are here for a visit and I had to throw something together.

Christmas morning


The following two pictures are of the boys opening up the boxes I wrapped their Ipod Touches in. Darn those Ipod Touches!

just a tad tired, but found a gem

Hmmph, I am so very exhausted, but need to stay awake a while longer. My mom and dad are coming in, in the wee hours of the morning. So it will probably be about 2:30-3 a.m. before we're settled back here at home and ready to head to bed. We'll leave in about 45 minutes to go pick them up from the airport.

In the meantime I am reading up on some other student nurses' or new nurses' blogs. I came across these tips from Christy at My Journey from a Student to a Nurse and just wanted to share. Christy is now a practicing RN and has been for about a year now, I believe, and these gems are from when she was deep in the thick of her schooling.

I did everything I set out to do today, and then some. As far as "straightening up" LB's room, note to self: never think walking into a teenagers room is ever going to be simple. If a tree could be reincarnated out of all the paper I found under his bed we'd have a 100 year old oak on our hands! Yikes! His room took me a couple of hours. I also cleaned the kitchen, the bathrooms, and my bedroom. My back hurts.

I baked one of the types of cookies I planned on and that would be the pumpkin chip cookies. They're scrumptious as always. I got the recipe from a friend's mom who had been visiting a while back. She's since passed on and I love that we carry her delicious recipe on as a tradition in our house during this wonderful holiday season.

Have I mentioned I'm tired?

just can't stay away!

The peppermints are glued together with hot glue. Yeah, it hurt sometimes! I love how it turned out!
I've been pretty busy the past couple of days, making up for the lost time from being slowed down with the abdominal pain. I did go Friday for my ultrasound and the tech didn't see anything remarkable, but of course deferred diagnosis to the radiologist. The pain has not come back. That evening I worked on some crafts while we watched The House Bunny. The boys played Spiderman on XBOX 360. Later we watched The Dark Knight.

Saturday we spent cleaning up our computer room. There were stacks of papers that needed to be sifted through, and my bookshelves were a wreck. It's technically Big B's room, as it's his sports themed room. He's a big fan of the Phildalphia Phillies, Eagles, and Flyers. There's memorabilia smeared all over the place. Oh, and we can't forget Nascar! There's a little section of wall dedicated to it, mostly Dale Jarrett. But yeah, I've let things go over the past few months and the place looked like a train wrecked in it. Now it's all neat, tidy, and organized! We watched Mamma Miathat evening. We had seen the Broadway version in NYC, and loved it so I couldn't wait to see it when it came out in theaters. We never got to go!

AW went over to a friends house for a sleepover, and one of LB's friends came over to our house to crash.

Yesterday I wrapped presents, organized my closet (the train had made its way upstairs), and sewed the boys a couple of stockings.

These are the stockings. The green one is LB's and the red and black one is AW's. The tree is what I worked on Saturday evening. It's a little cone with balls and buttons I hot-glued on it.

Today I need to clean the bathrooms, the kitchen and my bedroom. Oh, and I need to straighten up LB's room. My mom and dad are coming in for the week and they stay in his room. We only have a three bedroom house and LB has our old queen-sized bed. Heck, he and AW end up sleeping downstairs on weekends and during holiday break anyway!

They fly in at 12:30 a.m. Big B bought the tickets for them with some of his mileage points and that was the best time he could get, and the best route...considering the weather. They'll fly from Texas to ATL and on into VA...avoiding the Midwest. He's so smart!

Our tree. AW and I decorated it.

The star is made out of a white pipe cleaner and Borax. The photo doesn't quite capture how it sparkles.

See the little black and blue ornament? AW painted it. He has a thing for Geico. Don't ask me why!

This is our china cabinet decked out for the holidays. The snow family up top is placed there because I found them in the jaws of one of my resident Labrador Retrievers. They take that retrieving thing a little too seriously sometimes!



Minnie had to get in on the action. Sandi was undoubtedly snoozing upstairs on my bed.

Now I must go scrub toilets! Where's Cinderella when I need her!? I could never do that to a person though. We'd scrub together!

Both boys are elsewhere now. AW stayed at his friend's house again, and LB went to the friend's house who came over Saturday night. So I woke up to peace and quiet today. Of course that's how it would be anyway as the slugs sleep late on days off from school. However! I will be able to get everything done today that I need to without warding off requests from teen and pre-teen boys once they've awakened! I really do miss them when they're not here, though.

After cleaning I'll bake some cookies. I plan on baking snickerdoodles, pumpkin chip cookies and nutty spice oatmeal cookies. Yummee!

christmas week

Just wanted to wish everyone a happy holidays! Probably wont be posting much this week.

happy anniversary girls!

Last year on this very day I had a reduction mammoplasty done. It was one of the best decisions I've ever made!

Here is a before and after.

ever feel like an alien?

I feel so much better as of yesterday afternoon, after taking my first dose of Nexium. Interestingly enough and this is going into TMI territory, and hopefully I'm not repeating something I've already said, but anyway-somewhat coincidentally, I accidentally started my quarterly (I take Quasense, a generic of Seasonale) on Monday, the same day the abd pain had started. I say accidentally because I somehow (maybe amidst the stress of studying for finals???) forgot to take 4 of my BCPs last week! Oopsy!

Along with yesterday's first dose of Nexium I also stopped menstruating. Back in 1992 I was diagnosed as having had endometriosis, post exploratory laparoscopy. I ended up pregnant with my now 15 y/o soon after and haven't suffered from endometriosis since.

I have my ultrasound this morning. I don't think it's likely that they'll find anything. I think it's either acid/nerves related...or maybe endometriosis sneaking back up on me. I did start my pills right back up from where I left off and my actual menses is supposed to be this coming week. If it is endometriosis then in theory I would most likely go through this pain again, next week. Merry Christmas to me.

Let's just hope it's acid/nerves related.

Nonetheless I am feeling tons better, like my normal self and now I can finally enjoy this holiday season.

out of africa

Does nobody in Africa own a computer?

I'm just wondering because I was looking at my Clustermap, found down on the right side of my blog, and there are NO hits from Africa. Hmmpph.

I'm in a bit of a pissy mood and should probably not even blog, but what the hell...this is my place to let loose if I feel like it.

My abd pain is still present and accounted for. I woke up at 3 am about ready to head to the ED, but what would they be able to do for me?! Well for starters they could do imaging that I wouldn't have to drive all over God's country to attain. It didn't help that I was stuffed up and my sinuses felt like they were going to implode. WTF?

Is everything falling apart on me this week? The week I should be enjoying so much...and am unable to!!!

I'd put this in all caps, but find that rather annoying, so just know I'm yelling in my brain.

We just had to go and have a family meltdown yesterday evening. It wasn't pretty. I wont get into it. Let's just chalk it up to stress, and the need to have a good sit down family discussion on how we treat each other.

You'd think things would get easier as the kids get older, but no they have to go and have opinions of their own and are no longer able to be thoroughly controlled by mom and dad. Ever lived with a 12 year old and a 15 year old? One is trying to spread his wings and is testing every boundary possible, the other knows EVERYTHING!

So I'm headed out here in a bit to spread the almighty $$$ as thin as I possibly can. Darn tuition. Why do they have to make it due BEFORE Christmas!? And I still need my textbooks.

If it weren't for my mom and dad coming in next week I would be saying that I wish this holiday season would just hurry up and be over with!!

Maybe tomorrow my ultrasound will let me know that nothing is wrong and my pain is psychosomatic r/t being a nursing student/mom/wife/etc. We'll have that good ole family discussion tonight. I'm hoping upon hope that things will just get better over the next 24 hours and we can enjoy my parents' stay and I can enjoy this break...finally!

Thanks for listening.

hmmm...at a loss

I went to the the local urgent care today and saw a FNP. She did the usual assessment, ran some labwork, and I left with no idea why I'm having my abdominal pain. Of course the pain was worse since my abdomen had been palpated. She did write a Rx for a free 7-day supply of Nexium, suspecting it may be acid related. She also referred me out for an abdominal ultrasound. This means I get to drive all over God's country to go get poked and prodded some more. When I first called they told me it had to be a bladder full procedure. I had to call back because my order had yet to be faxed over and at that point I was told it is to be a fasting procedure. I'll take empty stomach over full bladder anyday!

drum roll...peas and carrots

lice and laisins. My Grandma Goldie used to say that when I'd say "please" by saying "peas and carrots". Ahh, memories!

The results are in, and I get to move onto next semester's edition of Nursing Student. This is being thought to the voice of Ryan Seacrest, as he announces results on American Idol.

Yep, the self-diagnosed adult-onset ADHD is in full swing. Too bad I still, in all actuality, feel crummy. This time it's not my head...it's mah belly! What was that guys name on Austin Powers? Oh, yeah "Fat Bastard." Anyway!

I woke up with abdominal pain on Monday, and by that evening it felt better. It hasn't totally gone away, so today I'm headed over to the urgent care center to find out what is standing in my way of being fully energetic and getting some things done 'round this joint!



Oh, yes! I almost forgot to tell you my grades! I got an A in my Nur100-Intro class and a B in Nur105-Basic Nursing Skills! Not a bad way to end the semester considering I would've been happy with Cs! I do have to say the 105 grade is slightly perturbing. An A in my program is a 92 or above. I got a 91.4. Grimmace.

I also must add we're losing two of our classmates. One we knew about. She's preggers and will be having her baby in the next couple of weeks. So she'll take the year off and then start up next Spring. The other is being hit by the almighty $$$...or lack thereof I suppose. If I had a million dollars...

first semester of nursing school=O-V-E-R!

Ok, so maybe the sun didn't literally come out today, more like drizzly, cold rain.

And maybe I didn't get to revel in my accomplishment of finishing my first semester of nursing school, right after finals were finished, because maybe I was suffering from yet another migraine.

We even went out to lunch after the finals, but by the time we finished I felt like an ice pick was twisting into my brain above my left eye. It was all I could do to arrive home safe and climb into my bed with a cold, damp washcloth on my forehead, after taking my pain reliever.

Now I am feeling much more like celebrating, but am opting for a more sedate type of celebration.

The rest of the evening will be spent relaxing with my family and then tomorrow I will set off my plans in motion...cleaning, shopping, baking, organizing, etc.

Never thought I'd be so happy to be able to clean with no other worries!

the sun'll come out t'morrow...bet your bottom dollar!

Final exams tomorrow.....first semester of nursing school will be o-v-e-r!!!!!!!!!!!

normally I refer to it as being a P.I.T.A.

(Pain in the Ass)

The curiosity was peaked when I saw the blog headline, Warning!!! WAYYYYY TOO MUCH INFORMATION!!. Then I had to find out more about the subject matter at hand .

I so am going to tell either of my sons, whomever causes stress first, that they are the biggest proctalgia fugax.

Ok, now back to studying. I hope I don't end up with a severe final-exam-stress-induced case of PF!

Hope you got a good laugh too!

in need of total down time

And it won't come soon enough.

My nursing class finals are both this coming Tuesday.

Here I am awake at 2 something a.m. My head hurts, my tummy aches, whine, whine, whine...

My ultimate Christmas gift would be some pampering...like the spa type...even just a massage. The ole salivary glands go into excessive salivating mode just thinking about it!

TINTINTS Thursday

"[LB] get your butt off your brother!"

Why are teenage boys so bad?

And yeah, that is definitely someThing I Never Thought I'd Need To Say!

to transfer, or not to transfer

I've been asked about why I feel the need to transfer nursing programs.

Here we go:

*current program is not privately accredited, although it is state approved

*current program is on the July '08 State Board of Nursing report as being one of the programs in the state with a less than 80% NCLEX pass rate

*current program in a state of transition due to previous instructors leaving just prior to classes starting this August

*One of the replacement instructors walked out after being forced to by the second year students because they didn't like her teaching style(yeah, that speaks volumes about so much, but it is not what is at issue here).

*The dean of nursing, who has been teaching our intro class, has not been able to answer questions from us students, that a dean should be able to answer. Examples of such a question include general information about ATI testing, or information about classes of the upcoming semester.

*The instructor who came back is actually an awesome teacher, but it's not certain she will remain past the spring semester.

*When we've been taught skills we're taught one day, tested the following week, and that's it. Those skills are not re-visited, at all, the rest of the semester. There is no skills final. Because of my previous medical training (Air Force medic, and Medical Assistant) I am ok with this, so far. What about later when we're learning other skills that are new even to me? I can't imagine being one of the students in this program who have no experience. Some of them have voiced their concerns over not being sure about their vital signs skills.

*This semester we were in lecture a total of three hours(two for intro and one for basic skills), and lab 5-6 hours, during the "on" weeks. Our intro class was a "hybrid" class and the off weeks were spent online answering some sort of nursing related question:
The nursing process is defined as being composed of five phases: assess, diagnose, plan, implement, and evaluate. Which of these phases do you believe is most important to the delivery of high quality nursing care, and to the achievement of positive client outcomes? Do not respond that all of the phases are equally important – that evades the question. Demonstrate critical thinking in the argument you present to support one phase over the others.

*one hour a week dedicated to basic skills?

*next semester we have two hours for Nursing Principles and Concepts I, six hours for its lab, 1 hour for Principles of Pharmacology, and two hours for Mental Health Nursing. Supposedly this semester they were extending the latter two to span the whole semester, whereas in the past they've been eight week courses, first pharm, and then mental health. I've heard they'll be changing it back?

*We start our first clinicals this spring, after which we will no longer be in lab. So we'll go from 6 hours of lab a week, to only clinicals Wednesdays and Thursdays 6:30a-12:30p.

*there is no availability for open lab to practice

That's about it for now, because now I'm getting madder.

I know no program is perfect, but when you're paying for an education that is supposed to provide you with the knowledge and skills to pass a state board that determines your career you want to have the best chance possible.

i did it, finally!

Yep, yesterday I headed over to the other community college to seek advisement about applying to their program as a transfer. I'm going ahead with the application, due by May 15, for Fall '09 start. This next semester will be spent in my current program only because it is the best move as hopefully it will keep me on track with the new program.

Now, having said all that, I am still on the fence. As I was driving away I thought to myself, "K, why not stay with the current program? You're doing well enough. You could be one of the ones who helps raise the pass rate[not to sound arrogant, but I am doing way better than I ever thought, and hope to not eat these words as time goes on], and you could be helping your classmates who are struggling as you've already been."

You might be wondering how I could possibly event think to set out to accomplish this while studying for finals. I had to. Tuition is due soon and if I had to make some sort of schedule/school changes I would need to do so now.

Now that I have gone and checked out the other program I have the need to do so lifted off my shoulders, which helps as far as studying goes. Now I can set this on the back burner, and do some serious thinking while on break. It's a tough decision to make, and I probably wont set it into stone until later in the spring semester. It all hinges on acceptance into the other program anyway.

Yikes!!!

I forgot another needs-to-get-done-and-make-me-insane on my to-do list from my earlier posting, just before this one:

Finish buying Christmas presents...they're just going to have to wait. That sounds so horrible in this season of giving.

Hey, if you're in need of a little cheer, head over to The Fourth Strike and check out the latest post "Joy".

7 days and a wake up

I probably wont be posting much, other than to complain about studying, because finals for nursing classes are next week.

In the meantime I am also supposed to decorate the house for Christmas...because I had the hubby bring down the stuff from the attic and out from the shed, wrap presents for nieces and nephews and mail off their packages, take care of the normal family schtuff, go see about transferring to a different program (yes, that saga continues-more on it later, possibly), and stay sane? HA!

I'm going to need to drink some hot toddies with Santa by the time Christmas day rolls around!
Some recipes call for Brandy, but since I'm a Whiskey Sour kinda girl (when I choose to have a cocktail), I thought this one sounded yummy!

simple saturday

Not much to report.

One of my study buddies and I got together today and did the pratice ATI Fundamentals test online. We didn't do that great, but in actuality not so bad when you consider the information on it that we have not had this semester, such as pharm and fluids & electrolytes. It was a helpful study aid nonetheless.

Our finals are scheduled for the 16th, so the next week will be spent breathing, eating and sleeping nursing-which is fine with me considering it is all I have to study for now!



It snowed a little bit today, not enough to stick though. It's supposed to snow a little bit more tonight. Hmmm...Not that crazy about the white stuff, except I do like it on Christmas day.

OK, so now I'm talking about the weather and that is my cue to go spend some time with AW.

movies and popcorn it is...

until tomorrow when the studying resumes it's normal hold on my life!

100th post and a reason to celebrate!!!!!!!

Drum roll please!

I did it! My FINAL final exam with UMUC is over and done with. Sadly, I didn't do as well on it as I would have liked, but I just couldn't focus!

no longer pissin', more like achin'

Yeah, so little studying has been done today for tonight's exam.

The family and I had to go to the nearest Air Force base to attain our retired-military IDs...hubby retired way back in August. So it only took 4 months!

I felt it coming on as we were sitting there, while I'm trying to read my study stuff. This is not to mention the ruckus Satan and Lucifer (LB and AW in fight naughty mode) are causing a ruckus, the hubby is choosing to be the less mature parent and chimes in on the antics, The View ia playing on the set in the waiting area.

satan, taking self-photo for his myspace
Luckily it didn't get really bad until just before we arrived home...3 hours later.

lucifer, aka "emo-kid", just imagine the hair stick-straight
Migraines suck. I tried lying down for a bit. The hubby went down south to the Hampton Roads area to spend time with a friend who is leaving for Iraq on Tuesday, for a year. This left Satan, Lucifer, and mom-with-migraine. They really weren't bad, just not as considerate as people are as, say, when they're in the next state.

The front door opened and shut multiple times, the dogs jumped on and off my bed, the phone rang, and the boys spoke, moved around, and well, um, breathed.

Did I mention the times they intruded upon my resting spot?

My head feels better now...somewhat. I dread the drive. See, I have to drive about an hour to a community college where my exam is proctored. This is because to get to any campus for my university it takes longer than an hour, so I opt for the proctored, closer choice.

I suppose I better go fix the mutants some dinner and read up a bit on the ole psychology!

pissin' in my britches!

Tonight at 7 p.m. I take my last final exam with my university for my B.S. in Psychology! That's all I can say for now...too excited for anything else!

TINTINTS Thursday

Happened to find a new thang to do in blogworld, and it's called "TINTINTS Thursday". You can read more about it at Mom-in-Scrubs.

A few weeks ago my 15 year old, LB, BZ, whatever I may be calling him...sometimes even "Satan", texted me from school (which in and of itself is a travesty) to ask if he could stay after to try out for "shockput".

One day soon after when we had first brought Irwin, our beloved bearded dragon, home LB asked if we should set him in the sun to bask. Only he didn't say it like basket bask. He said it like base-k. So now Irwin baskes in the sun.


When LB was about 5 or 6 we were traveling. We had stopped to stay overnight in a hotel, and were just hanging out in our room after a long day's drive. LB opens up the drawer of the nightstand and pulls out THE BOOK and says, "Oh! The holy bible". His pronunciation was bib-lee.

Yes, we're heathens. Although we believe in God, we don't go to mass, or church, or whatever. Burn or stone us at will.


When we lived in North Dakota you could see the "fallobu" roam.

So at about 2-3 we could see the fallobu, known to most as buffalo, roam; at 7 he read the Holy Bib-lee; at 12 he would put Irwin in the sun to baske; and at 15 LB is in track and does the shockput.

Yer damn skippy this is the way we say those words to this day. Never thought we'd have our own vocabulary.

How could we let him live it all down? Fortunately, he's good natured.

If that's not all enough...

Recently I heard myself utter these words I never thought I'd hear my self say:

"I flat-ironed my son's hair today." This would be my 12 year old, AW, I'm referring to now.

As in straightened with a curling iron type object, that doesn't curl; it flat-irons. My son is a BOY...as so many sons are! He's into the emo thing, and many of the musicians he likes have super, stick straight hair. Yippee.

Update on the whole shockput thing...he decided to crap out on it...teenagers.

sparking creativity

One of the things I plan to do during my upcoming break is scrapbooking.

I was just paying a visit to one of my dear blogfriends, Nursapalooza, and she was talking about making a December daily-album. Check it out! Check out Nursapalooza's blog too! She's a fellow student nurse.

This website has tons to offer to the scrapbooking enthusiast! Tons of links for other sites as well!

two weeks from today

Two weeks from today I'll be taking my final exams for NUR100 and Nur105, and my first semester of nursing school will be O-V-E-R!

Just this morning I had myself quitting and going to work as a medical assistant. I did graduate from a MA program in 1998, and all I'd need to do is re-up my credentials. Why do I have to be so wishy washy?

For one I'd like to be bringing home a paycheck...right now!

This isn't the first time I've swayed against my current career/college path.

So what's the problem? Fear? Fatigue? Sheer laziness? Self-doubt? Who knows? The things that keep me going are the possibilities that are out there. I also don't want May 2010 to come around and I reflect on what could have been.

I don't want the next year and a half to go by too fast-because I want to see my kids grow. Then I just want it to be over with.

That's enough whining for now. I suppose I'll go watch House and then study for my skills assessment tomorrow.

where do you work?

I was reading this article on non-traditional nursing, since this aspect of nursing intrigues me. If I do start out my career in a hospital I do not foresee it lasting forever there.

I'd like to hear from everyone, about where you work, or where you have worked. Any nurses out there in blogworld who do non-traditional nursing?

what now?

Wow, I'm sort of speechless.

I was just on my psychology classroom website, going over what's expected of us from here on out. I finished all of my assignments, so really all that is left is my final exam. That's it.

I've been going to this school for oh, about 7 years now. Graduation is something I have yearned for and never thought would happen. In 29 days I will officially graduate and be finished. I will walk at commencement in May, because our school only holds one commencement ceremony.

What next? That's actually a pretty dumb question considering nursing school and all! But that's how I felt after looking over my grades. Three things still need to be graded, two of which are solely for extra credit.

I have an A in the class, and have contemplated not taking the final. Of course, that is totally out of my character-but it's tempting to go out with a bang! No, I will take it because in some sort of weird way it will provide closure.

The real test will be containing my excitement long enough to walk out of the room, so as not to disturb the other test takers!

brains and feet

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You're on your own.
And you know what you know.
And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go.
-Dr. Seuss

I must get busy!

Today I must use my feet to step out and do some Christmas shopping. I've done none up until last night, when I bought my sons their first gift...it's the big one for the year, and I can't share what it is just in case they happen to read this. WHich is a fat chance...an ice cube's chance in hell...wildebeest's chance in a lion's lair on the Kalahari...

I also must replenish our supply of edibles and family staples. This means a trip to the commissary, which I hate, but the prices are the best, especially now that gas has dropped in price (it takes me about 45 minutes to get there, because of distance).

After I've arrived home, and put everything away it is time to get busy using my brain!!! I must study, study, study!