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!

drama in the dugout

After the game ended last night the manager's mom, DH, and I ended up outside the door to the dugout. One of the kids' friends, ZA, was also with us as he was catching a ride home with DH. The manager, HH, hyper-extended her knee this past weekend while competing (cheerleading) at "Worlds" in Orlando, FL. The high school athletic trainer provided HH with crutches and DH wasn't sure if the trainer had instructed on proper use, so I told her I would. As we're standing there a couple of players wondered in and out of the dugout. One in particular, JB, ended up standing there with us, but not for long. It was within minutes that the coach had fervently instructed (yelled angrily) the boys to get back inside. We could here him yelling something to the effect that the boys should know better than to be standing around outside while their teammates are working to clean up the field (normal duties post-game).

Did I mention they lost 13-0?

We took that as our cue to depart and off we went. Being that the players have to tidy up the fields and then head into the locker room for further "coaching" and then to change, us parents are left waiting. For many of us this just becomes a continuation of social hour. So I went and got inside CB's car to hang out for the time being. She would be JB's mom. I, of course, took it upon myself to inform her of JB's encounter with the coach.

It doesn't help that it seems as if JB is not one of the coach's fave players. JB has seen little playing time over the past several games, although he did pitch a couple of innings in two separate, consecutive games. Oh, and he's been first base coach several innings. He hasn't really played though. He'd had a couple of rough games playing second base and making some errors, so he's basically been benched since.

This is all upsetting to a mother who has to witness and deal with a kid who's becoming jaded and bitter. What's a mom to do? This isn't Little League anymore, when you could go to the coach and ask "why" they do what they do. This is high school ball, when at the beginning of the season you attend the parents and players meeting for all of the season's sports. You're told that you have big kids. kids becoming mature individuals, now and if they have problems they should man-up and go to the coach themself. Ok, I'll agree--sometimes it isn't so easy and mamma bear instinct has you wanting to defend your precious cub.

If this isn't all bad enough, we soon learn there's more to the story. A while later up walks JB and the coach. Coach asks CB to get out of the car to talk to him. Well he doesn't so much ask as he actually signals with his finger looking straight at her within the confines of her automobile. She gets out. I take leave of the car as well, so as not to sit there and appear to be gawking. I go and talk to JB who informs me that Coach had grabbed him by the jersey and slammed him up against the wall.

Ahem. Oh boy.

Apparently Coach is letting CB know that he had grabbed JB. JB verbalizes to me that he wants a couple of the guys to tell his side of the story to his mom, fearing she wouldn't believe him. I agreed to stick around in case LB had witnessed the encounter. Another one of the players had come out by then and confirmed what JB had said was true. Within minutes LB has come out and also confirmed JB's story. So we waited for Coach and CB to finish their conversation.

We then go up to CB, whom I've asked if she was ok. At first she was, because at first it was a matter of her kid "should have known better". Then the boys told her their side of the story. After a few minutes of speculation, disbelief, and shock we depart the parking lot for our homes.

It wasn't too long after we'd gotten home, since we had stopped off at the DQ drive-thru so LB could get his nutritious (ha) after-game meal, that my phone rang and it was CB. By then she was extremely upset. She had spoken with her husband, who happens to be out-of-town and consequently has become angered, and her brother-in-law, who happens to be an opposing team's coach. He's advised her to notify our school's activity director (the person in charge of athletics) of what our coach had done. In case there's any confusion, you just don't put your hands on a kid, no matter what.

Did I mention Coach is a former police officer?

Now, that's all good and well. Of course it should be reported, but wait...we have to worry about the big "R" that being repercussions. It's not quite as simple as reporting a misdeed and then everything will be hunkydorey.

Have I mentioned the overly political nature of our school's, not to mention, county's athletic programs?

You report something like this and you could very well be messing with your kids future, at least in high school sports. Black-listed is where your kid will end up. To some this may seem incredulous that anyone would care about this when we're talking about an issue that is actually punishable by law.

Nothing's quite so black and white, not even police cars, anymore. We also have a coach who did disclose to a parent that he did put his hands on said parents kid. He could have not said anything and left it to a he said/he said scenario. No, he manned up and admitted his wrong-doing.

I told CB, after speaking with DH, to find out if she'd witnessed anymore than I had-and she hadn't, that this is something she and her husband has to decide what's best. That and to inform JB of what his uncle has advised and to put the ball in his-that being JB's-court. No pun intended. If we're expected to let our cubs make mature decisions than so be it. Of course she already had told JB and he told her not to go to the AD, that Coach was just really mad and he happened to be the one who caught hell for it. Well he didn't use those words exactly, I'm sure, but nonetheless, you get the picture.

I really can't tell her what to do. I've never been in her position. I told her to try and get some rest, that things may be clearer after a night's sleep--even if it's not the most restful.

I asked LB, and ended up calling Big B, about their thoughts. LB said the same thing his teammate did, not to go to the AD about it. Big B gave credit to Coach for admitting what he'd done and that he might let it rest with that, but it's a tough call to make. Indeed, it is.

If that's not all enough to sour a day, we had one of those family shootings right here in our own county! Now we're not talking DC or Baltimore. We're talking Podunkville. Alas, a man shot his wife and then shot himself, but spared their two children. Those poor cubs.

There's always something to make a situation you find enormous, insignificant.

otto giorni

eight days

That's all that's left until I become a second year nursing student. Of course that's all bearing on my passing my classes, which at this point isn't much of an issue.

Looking back, sometimes it seemed as if time was standing still. Other times it seemed to be rushing past like a marathon runner.

I still have a considerable amount of things to do to tie up this semester. I have to continue studying for my ATI tests. Then I take them this Friday. So far everyone is passing. Some are even getting really good scores back. Sixty-five is all that's needed to pass, and right now I'll be happy with just that. It would be nice to come away with a high score, but I'm not striving for it. That may sound bad, but it's more about the reality I am living right now. I don't have the time, haven't had the time, to study as much as would be necessary to score highly. Life happens, and let's face it I live with teen and pre-teen boys. If it's not baseball or some other activity, it's some new challenge we're facing with the need for wings to be outstretched and boundaries to be tested. I won't go into details of the latest trials and tribulations. Let's just say my skin should be as thick as an elephants by the time both my boys leave home!

I also need to finish up my careplan, and study for finals.

That mountain of mulch is still sitting on my driveway, even though I put a dent into it yesterday morning. I wont get to it this week as Big B is out of town, and I am therefore playing mom and dad. We have two home baseball games to go to, but as usual they'll be used as study relief. I also have to be the resident taxi driver from baseball practice/lacrosse games tonight.

I've been taking my antibiotics, so my sinus infection is resolved. The Prilosec isn't doing much for the suspected GERD/lump in throat feeling I have when I swallow. The referral for a barium swallow is still sitting on my desk, so I suppose I can always reschedule. I do go back for a follow-up to my PCP on the 6th, and will address the issue with her.

Our last two clinical days are this week. When I've gone to dress my resident I've always had trouble finding socks for her. Today I had to pick up a few things and bought a bunch of cute, and colorful pairs for her to keep. I meant to do her nails last week as they're pretty jagged and in desperate need of filing, so I also bought a 7-in-1 file that files, buffs, and does all sorts of good things. One of my nursing diagnoses has been social isolation r/t diminished mental capacity AEB limited social interactions, so I've been changing her brief, dressing her and assisting her into her geri-chair and then we head out into the halls. We visit others who happen to wonder by, and go and look outside or sit by the aviary and watch the birds. This week I'll do nail care, and then we'll venture out for some socialization. Thursday we'll be having a little get-together with the staff and residents to say good-bye. It'll be bittersweet since so many of us are so done with the semester, but at the same time we've grown somewhat attached to our residents.

back to work...

now that's a big pile of...

mulch. Double shredded hardwood mulch to be exact. 10 cubic yards.

Normally by now I'd have been out working in my gardens, to include adding the Spring layer of mulch. Mother Nature helped ease my yearning to be out there, what with all the cold weather we've had. I have to say I appreciate her helping a nursing student out, but the time has come to get things done. Along with studying and baseball games this coming weekend we will be working on our front and back yards. Our backyard is pretty much a blank slate. Big B has dug up two islands and will finish the planned areas alongside the back of the house and patio. We only have a four foot farm-style fence so our yard is open to the world and I need to have a little bit of seclusion, besides landscaping adds value to the house.

These are some pictures I just took for "before" landscaping.






Yes, the girls just had to be a part of the photo session. They prefer action shots. You can see how they've added to the current landscaping. They'll have to find a new potty spot, since that's where I've planned to scape out a plot that goes flush along the back of the house, and patio.