fun, fun friday

Just came in from working outside. I wanted to amend the soil in my flower pots so I dumped the contents of each into my wheelbarrow, along with a humus/manure mixture, and got to mixing. I planted some crimson colored Morning Glory seeds and some purple Petunia seeds. We'll see how well they do. That's one area of gardening I haven't mastered, but it usually has to do with the whole instant gratification thing. We don't have anywhere in our house to start seeds indoors, so that leaves it to be done straight outside.



I had to replace some cacti I had planted, last year, as they died over the winter.






Here you can see the lovely Dwarf Maple that is the focal point of this part of the garden.








The demise of my Rosemary bush left a large open space, now filled with Lavendar, Salvia, and a few other plants. More pictures to come as the gardens fill up and different flowers bloom.







Some of the more established plants coming up. We've had buckets upon buckets of rain here lately and all the vegetation is thriving wildly. Centered in the foreground you may see one of my Azalea bushes, trying hard to come back from last year when I added too much fertilizer. Brown thumb moments happen to me just like blonde moments do!






The slender, conical evergreen in the bottom right of the photo needs to be pruned. It's supposed to have a spiral shape. This intimidates me. Eventually I will get my pruners out and give it the old college try!





Speaking of college, tonight I'm headed out to celebrate with some of my classmates. We're convening at a local Mexican restaurant. It seems to be a popular place around here, and it is pretty good. After living in Texas and Colorado a good bit of my life it pales in comparison to some of the Mexican food I've had in the past. That being said I'm not really going for the food, I'm going for the company and some drinks. Many of us have gone to lunch together, amidst classes, but we've never, as a large group hit the town. Now that our first year is over we have some celebrating to do! Somehow I think I'll be able to write another post after tonight's events! There will be about 12 of my classmates who are women, and the one guy in the class is coming. He's bringing his wife. I can't say as if I blame him!! Can you imagine if he was out, solo amongst us women, and friends of his saw him!?

Until later!

Cheers!

early mudder's day surprise

This came for me yesterday....remember a few posts ago when I admitted to my oopsy, after confronting Big B about a Proflowers.com entry on our bank accunt??? Voila!!! Ain't it sweet!?

sunshine, bloom and purr

from my gardens





jasper, my garden helper

couldn't have planned it better!

Today is Nurses Day, the beginning of Nurses Week. Every year Nurses Week starts on the 6th of May and ends on the 12th of May, Florence Nightingale's birthday. Today is my first official day as a Second Year nursing student. It's just coincindental that it fell on Nurses Day, but it feels very appropriate. Other than that, a follow-up with my FNP and a pedicure the day's been pretty uneventful. Exhaustion has caught up with me, and left me with little motivation to do much else today. I did weed through the basket we keep in our office where mail and other paperwork piles up. Most of the paper in it went straight into the recycle pile that will be taken to the local high school to support their recycling efforts.

The drippy, drizzly, grayness of the outside world left little to be desired other than curling up on the couch catching up on TV shows we DVRed. A nap soon followed. We were supposed to have LB's double header this afternoon, but once again Mother Nature thwarted the game schedule. Next week we'll have so many baseball games to go to, to play catch up, that we'll be at some field, somewhere nearly every afternoon/evening. For the love of the game....and the family ball player...

I did witness another very weird occurence today as I was leaving the town I live in to take the highway north. I followed a pick-up truck pulling a trailer, and in front of him was a van/truck kind of thing that was piled high with all sorts of crap. Seriously, the crap was piled on the roof of the vehicle. Along with the crap was a dog kennel. It wasn't empty. Inside a frantic German Shepherd twisted and turned, probably in fear of plummeting to serious injury, if not death.

We all ended up at a stop sign and waited for a clump of traffic to pass. Wouldn't you know a police officer rolls up behind me. We're sitting there waiting and the car that was in front of the van/truck thing pulled out and entered traffic, leaving us to sit and wait. Then the guy in the van/truck thing, still sitting where he was puts it into park, gets out and walks back to talk to the guy pulling the trailer, in front of me. Um, hello. We have things to do here!!! He gets back in and it's about that same time I think to take a picture of the horrifying spectacle of the dog, in the kennel, on the roof of the van/truck thing. Once he got going he was out of there, and my small window of opportunity sped by quicker than the flash of a camera. Bummer.

We all get to pull out by this time though. I pull out using my turn signal into the close lane, as I'm supposed to, especially when a police officer is tailing you. I signal and get into the left lane. Mr. Policeman speeds by me and turns onto the same road to follow the weirdos driving the van/truck thing, and the truck pulling the trailer. If I wasn't pressed for time I probably would have followed to see if he was in fact going after them. Alas, I had to get to town and sit for my pedi, which actually made me a wee bit late for my appointment. Thank goodness for 15 minutes of free time before being declared late! As it was I had to have the girl give me the speedy version of a pedicure.

it's official!

I am a second year nursing student!!!! Too elated to say much more! Good luck to everyone else finishing up their first, second, final year(s) of nursing school!

The boys and I are on the road north to meet Big B at The Cheesecake Factory. The MH exam was better than I thought it would be; received a 97 on my care plan, and a 98 for my LTC clinical rotation grade!

the end of mental health

Today I take my Mental Health exam and therefore I am thrilled to say that the class will be over. Big grins! I did pretty well on the final yesterday in Nur108 Nursing Principles and Concepts, coming away with a 93. The MH exam will most certainly give me a bigger run for my money. I may be crazy toward the end of it. With all the studying I did for ATIs it's been hard to not be burned out for finals. Sad, sad, sad...

The celebrations are plentiful today, not just being Cinco de Mayo, it's Big B's 40th birthday. We're supposed to have LB's double-header this afternoon, but the weather hasn't been very cooperative as of late. Go figure. It seems to be the norm this Spring. Winter in April, April showers in May. If the weather doesn't hold up I'm grabbing LB from practice (they have practice when games are cancelled) and he, AW and I are going to head up to Northern VA to take Daddy out to dinner. I suggested Cheesecake Factory, as I've never been, but of course it's up to the old guy!

Tomorrow's the big day of freedom and the day I, and many others, get to wake up and say we're second year nursing students. One down, one to go! I have a follow-up appointment with my FNP, and will take advantage of the location and go for a mani/pedi. I also need to get my hair's trimmed, but that'll wait for some other day. I haven't been to the commissary in eons and we're way overdue for some serious grocery shopping. That'll take up part of my day on Thursday. We also have landscaping to finish up, so I'm hoping the weather will give way to some sunshine....or at least dryness, for the weekend.

Next week I get to make the horrid trip to Maryland to pick up my cap and gown. I walk at commencement for my university degree on the 16th. They don't mail our regalia to us, so it's up to me to make two trips to the other side of the area, one for the pick up and one for the walk. It's no fun! I still have announcements sitting on my dining room table to be addressed and sent out. I'm not expecting anyone to be there except for my guys, so they truly are just announcements, not invites anyway.

Eh well...I better go grab a bite to eat and skim over the MH material once more. Wish me luck! I need it!

a peace of morning

This morning I awakened to a house filled with mostly silence, with close to nothing making any noise. This is remarkable because, right now, as I type, there are 5 boys lying within my humble abode, ranging in age from twelve to sixteen. We can't forget the furry creatures. Minnie is sitting on the ottoman by the window, not three feet away from me, just looking out the window. DC is slinking around as only cats can. Sandi is taking one of many morning snoozes on the living room couch. As usual Jasper's outside. Now that the weather's warmed up a bit he can oftentimes be found sleeping on the porch swing out front. Viva, our nocturnal, little hamster is very likely also asleep. Our scaley friend Irwin? Good question. I should check on him and turn his light on for the day.

Big B is in Richmond for the day for the CROWN ROYAL Presents The Russ Friedman 400 at the Richmond International Raceway. Later on two of the twelve year olds will depart, and even later than that I will put on my hat as family taxi-driver and take the two 16 year olds to a friend's house to crash. I'll be left with AW and will somehow have to find a way to entertain him.

Right now, at this early hour, I should really be outside throwing around somemore mulch, and probably will head out there in a few. The rest of the weekend will be spent studying. For several days now I've been posting a countdown on my Facebook status, counting down to the end of my first year of nursing school. Oh, what a feeling that is to know it's now just down to three days!


I just wanted to take a few minutes and breathe, and to acknowledge my peaceful surroundings. From outside I can hear a bird screeching off in the distance, the breeze as it blows softly and the foliage swaying against its slight force, the wind chimes tinkling every so often as the breeze catches them just right, and the dogs scurrying around once something peaks their curiosity. Mostly it's quiet.



My reverie has been halted as the girls have decided now is the time for Deathmatch 200. Time to get busy, it's only three more days until I become a second year nursing student!

yipppeeee!!!!!!

I took my very first ATI tests today and passed both.

for pete's sake

Could this week have been anymore stressful...or weird...or just plain tiring???

First off, just now I was checking our bank account and sometimes it's no fun being the family miser. I see an entry for proflowers.com and immediately searched my brain for something I'd sent recently. Nope, nada. I called Big B and asked him and got this response, "oh geez...yeah, maybe". oops. The light bulb clicked on instantaneously. Duh!!! How sweet is that!? He's sending me flowers!! I am so gushy mushy right now! I love getting flowers. I don't care that they wilt and don't last. It's more than that. It's romantic.

This past Sunday we had something happen in our family, soon after Big B left for a business trip (being a military wife I'm accustomed to the military version of Murphy's Law--when the hubby leaves, things will go wrong!). I alluded to it in a previous post. Sorry, I can't share. Just know it was something that would freak out any parent...even the most strong, solid, level-headed. The point is it happened, and started off this wacky week.

As far as Monday goes I'm drawing a blank. Tuesday we had Drama in the Dugout. To update, CB did call the AD on Wednesday. He couldn't do much for her as of the phone call, as I'm sure he had to confer with other administrators. He was supposed to have gotten back to her later that afternoon. As of last night he still hadn't done so. I tried reassuring her, telling her that it will probably take some time. Yes, it would be nice for him to just give a courtesy call to tell her it's being handled, or whatever.

Wednesday and Thursday were the last days of clinical at the LTC facility, for this semester. Wednesday went pretty smoothly, if I remember correctly. (I feel like I'm in the first stage of dementia.) Yesterday, ahem...I had to go and get a little oversensitive. Let me preface this by reminding all that my class only has 19 people in it. So we're sitting in the lobby waiting to get started with our day, and I'm sitting on the couch with two other classmates. One of them asks me to take a picture of her and the other one we are sharing the couch with. OK, no problem. They're long-time friends. Then classmate #1 proceeds to take pictures of everyone else, it seems, but me. Not that I want to be in any photos, but it's nice to be included. Speaking of inclusion. I go and talk to one of the classmates with whom I've become close and she informs me that Classmate #1 is having some sort of jewelry party this weekend, but did not invite her as she had everyone else, by way of snail mail. My friend had been handed an invite in person, as kind of an after-thought. Apparently several other classmates have been invited, and one of the nurses we worked with at the nursing home. Everyone, but me. I really did get very upset by this yesterday. I suppose it is the fact that I am sensitive, and it was sort of an emotional day anyway since it was our last, first clinical, and we had to say good-byes. Whatever. I don't expect to be best friends with everyone, but in my eyes if you're going to invite a good portion of a small class, why not be nice and invite everyone. Not everyone is going to go. I know this because several have plans for the weekend. I wouldn't even be attending, as we do have finals Monday and Tuesday and quite frankly that's what I'll be doing this weekend, besides throwing more mulch, weather permitting. It was so sad saying good-bye to my resident yesterday. She really made an impression on me. We did have a bit of a party/activities session for our residents, and a few of the other residents who wanted to join in. We did some sittercizing, balloon volleyball, one of our classmates plays piano and guitar and put on a small show, and we ended with the bunch of us students doing the Hokey Pokey. It was a blast!

We have the "swine" flu that is rampaging it's way across the globe. Evidently it's even hit Virginia, as of just yesterday. One of my friends knows of a Mexican family who just came back from a trip home, and one of their family members attends the local schools. It's kind of scarey to think of this child, this family, being carriers, or maybe they're infected. I've instructed both of my boys on how important it is to wash their hands, which usually isn't a big problem for LB, but AW isn't the best at it. I've also told them, knowing kids share lots of things, to not share anything...like sodas, etc.

Big B returned home safely yesterday with more of the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory apples. This time he brought back two caramel/chopped nut, one Oreo, and one with mini white & milk chocolate chips, one white chocolate coating. The boys are home from school today. Our county is celebrating its 250th anniversary. I will be heading out here in a few hours to take my Fundamentals and Mental Health ATI tests. I'm a bit nervous, but everyone has been passing, if not doing very well. Those who actually studied have been pulling the higher scores, and those who didn't, well they're happy to have passed. Go figure. For now I'll go finish up studying for it. Tonight we're supposed to have one of LB's baseball games, but it's also supposed to rain. We've had several games rained out, and so next week we're looking forward to a week full of baseball.

Tuesday, after I've taken my last final of the semester, we'll have a double-header, and it's Big B's 40th birthday. He's doing his annual May trip to Richmond for the Nascar race, this weekend. It's how he usually spends his birthday. We'll probably take him out to dinner some other night. I feel bad because I would have liked to have planned a party for him, but can you imagine? I'd truly have lost my last marble!