I think I might just never sleep again because time just goes by way too fast!!!!! And let's face it, I don't sleep at night anyway. December brings some exciting things though. Brett turns 27 this year on the 12th. I joke with him that he is old and almost 30. :) I work that night and he has to study for finals then, so I think we'll have friends over on Sunday for supper and cake and all that jazz. So far there is no snow here, and I am COMPLETELY okay with that. Not really the snow type person. Although it has gotten colder. Saturday I think it got up to 55 degrees though which was beautiful! December also brings the end of the semester for Brett. He has been working hard at studying and research this semester. (although not as hard as I worked in nursing school...hehehe). It is because he is just way smarter than I am and does not require the type of studying I had to do in school.
The month of December also means that we will be traveling to Iowa. We will leave December 22nd when I get off work and return December 28th. Excited to see family and friends again! December means that the year is coming to a close and 2012 is right around the corner. I am looking forward to the start of a new year. Not reminiscing about all the things I should or could have done in 2011.
Well this is going to be a boring blog post without pictures because I can't find my camera battery charger so I can upload pictures to my computer to put on here. Later!
So I really need to get better at posting here more often. I just think people would get sick of reading the same old same old thing and looking at more pictures of the cats :) We don't have any children to take pictures of - so the cats will have to do. Sunday nights seem to be the nights when we have friends over for food and games. It just works well with all of our schedules. Josh and Anna both work days, and Josh is on call some weekends for work. I work nights and usually don't work on the weekends so I am free. Sunday is good for Brett if he doesn't have homework to do because he doesn't have class until 9 on Monday. We finally were able to get together with Sarah this weekend as well, and met her new boyfriend Randy. I should have taken pictures of all of us together - we had a good time tonight! (or rather...I guess it is last night since I am writing this at 1:00 in the morning on Monday). Brett made chicken pasta and we had salad and garlic bread with cookies for desert. We played "The Game of Things" - hilarious and provided lots of laughs for us all.
Last Sunday Josh and Anna came over too and we ate pizza and played the Wii. So thankful we have friends like them here to hang out with! Anna and I are going to get together after Thanksgiving to do some holiday decorating and crafts and make our own decorations and things. Time to be crafty! I might take a trip to the fabric store and see if there is anything there I can use to make some crafty things. Even though I don't really know how to sew....very much....
I work Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday night this week. It will be interesting to see how our census is this week if people get sick before Thanksgiving! We will have our own Thanksgiving here this year again. Last year Brett cooked the ham on the grill and we had cheesy potatoes and green bean casserole and other yummy things. Looking forward to some good food. We might start our own Christmas tradition this year - since last year we really did not do anything. I'll keep ya posted on what we decide to do and how the house ends up being decorated.
So remember when I said I was doing to do more menu planning and shop for everything I needed for the week to cook? Yeah, that lasted one week.....but we made it through the week! Maybe I'll try it again some other time.
Lately I have been spending a lot of time at the gym. I took a few days off after 5 days in a row - need to get back into a better routine this week. I've been making some progress in several areas - just wish it was a little more noticeable that I've lost a good chunk of weight. Oh well! A shout out to Kelly Clarkson for getting me through my workouts with her music. :)
Okay so now that this post contains a bunch of random things - it is time for a picture of the kitties.
It has been awhile since I have posted. Since then, many leaves have fallen off the trees, the weather has gotten cooler, blankets have been added to the bed, a football has been bought, chapstick and lotion are a staple for me and the hot chocolate has been broken out. Have I mentioned that fall is my favorite season? A while back I was able to be in the hammock and read on a Saturday afternoon - perfect weather.
Brett spent yesterday raking all the leaves on the lawn, front and back. Since then the front yard is covered in leaves again....:) All we have to do is rake them to the curb. Then this machine comes and vacuums them up. It is quite convenient. While Brett was raking leaves yesterday we let Marshy out in the backyard. We let Parker out too but he was too scared to stay out. We left the back door open so he could go in and out when he wanted. He opted to just sit on the rug right inside the door.
As you can see, Marshy was truly enjoying himself. Rolling in the grass and everything. He even chased after a squirrel once. Too bad I was too slow to get that on video. Would have been hilarious to see him running. :) And so, life continues to go on around here - not much has changed except the color of the leaves. Two houses down from us and across the street, people were moving in today. I think I will bake cookies (or rather, have Brett make cookies...) and bring them over. I have no idea if they are young or old or anything, but maybe they can be new friends or something. We are going to Josh and Anna's house tonight for supper and to just hang out. Thankful for friends!Also - a big shout out to my little sister Laura, who turns 22 today!! Wish we were closer to celebrate with you Laura! Miss you and love you. 
This is what I feel like today on this Monday. Some days I am jealous of my cats. They can sleep all day and sleep all night and no one is worse for the wear. They look so comfortable just curled up on the couch that it makes me just want to do the same. However, on this Monday I have too much to do, but it is 2:30 in the afternoon and I have not accomplished much. I was going to mow the lawn this morning but everything is still pretty wet. I picked up a bunch of sticks in the back yard though. It is currently 58 degrees outside and I turned the heat on in here and set the temp to 68. It was just too cold! That is another reason I just wanted to curl up on the couch with my book and a blanket today. Call me crazy for turning the heat on in September but I would rather be comfortable and pay the money for the heat. I'll pinch my pennies in other areas of my life. Like my meal planning! Brett helped me plan some meals for this week, and as it turns out I only have to buy 5 things at the store for the next 7 suppers we are going to eat. The rest of the things we already have here. Now, if I could make my own spaghetti noodles then I would only have to buy 4 things :) I work Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights this week. Tuesday is an extra 8 hour shift, we will see if they need me.
Well, back to my boring Monday and laundry here. See this is why I don't post very often because this is usually all my days consist of. Nothing exciting going on here! Except for my new blog design! I got tired of the red and wanted something a little lighter and fresher. Let me know what you think!
So last night ISU football played SDSU at home. Brett and I got all decked out in our ISU gear (actually just put on our sweatshirts because it was chilly) packed a blanket and an extra coat and walked a few blocks to the field. How nice it is that we live so close to be able to just walk. We talked about driving just because there was a chance it would rain - but when we got to the field we saw that it was $10 to park! Yikes. We walked over to the the big home stand side and waited in line for a minute to buy tickets - then we find out that even if Brett is a student there are no discounted tickets on that side. We decided to just walk back over to the other side, the general admission side, where a ticket for Brett as a student would be $5 instead of $19 on the other side! Alas, even though I might be able to pass as a student, we decided to be honest and say I wasn't. Especially since I didn't have a student ID to prove that I was anyway.
Not really sure what I was expecting, but we actually had a really good view of the field and felt really close. Later I realized there was no track around the field so that put us just that much closer. I could actually see the ball and figure out what was going on! After half time it started to rain a little more. We stuck it out and put the blanket over our heads and my rain coat on our laps. We managed to stay half way dry during that time and the rain did not last that long. The end score was 20-13, ISU won! I even took a long the camera so I could grab a few pictures to put on my blog :) Here we are after getting a little wet from the rain and then a picture of the marching band during half time. Brought back memories from high school marching band...hah.
Just relaxing this afternoon, paying bills, cleaning a little, hanging out, doing homework, watching a little football on TV.
So last night while I was at work I had an orientee with me and it was her last night on orientation. She took all 6 patients by herself which did not leave a whole lot for me to do. She is a great new nurse and besides checking her charting and so forth - she handled everything on her own! Therefore I had hours to think about life and things (all while my patients were still alive and breathing, don't worry!). I've told Brett this lately several times - I am just not happy with where I am in life right now. And it is not that I don't like living where we live or living in our house, or my job or anything like that. I think it is more feeling so unorganized and just like life does whatever it wants around me and I am not doing anything about it. Does that make sense? For instance one thing that has really bothered me lately is my lack of caring about food around here. Part of that is because I've had stomach issues for the last few months and have to be careful about what I eat or I feel sick (but that is a WHOLE 'NOTHER story people). So I wouldn't care if there was nothing to eat for supper. We had cereal, or just mac and cheese or a Jimmy Johns sandwich (my new favorite thing I think!) or Brett and I would have totally different things to eat, or I would eat before he got home from school and then he would find something else at home here. I was thinking while at work last night how my mom ALWAYS had a home cooked meal on the table - even if it was leftovers, the leftovers were home cooked. Even if she was at work that evening, she made sure we had food to eat. We always sat and ate supper together as a family. Meal time was together time. I think that is part of the reason it has bugged me so much lately. I feel like Brett and I have no together time and I partly blame that on not sitting down together and sharing a meal together. I associate meal time with together time.
So last night at work I looked up a bunch of recipes for things that sounded good and looked fairly simple to make. I'll be honest - some of the recipes I saw scared me because they had so many ingredients and steps. I tend to stay away from those and stick to the real simple ones. Maybe once I get better at this whole food/cooking thing I can venture out more. I also made a list of meals we already typically have at home (taco salad, soup, chicken pasta, etc. etc.) I came up with many different options.
My goal for this weekend: figure out what meals I am going to make next week, and buy the groceries for those meals - and then stick to the plan. Even if that means getting up at 4:00 instead of 5:00 to cook before I have to go to work, I think I can do that.
Well this is a long enough post about this topic! I'll let ya know how this ends up working for me. For some people this would seem like a no brain-er but for me it truly will be a challenge I think. I want to make our house feel more like a home and I think working with our meal times is a good starting point for me.
Happy Fall everyone!!
Lately I have REALLY been struggling with keeping the house clean. And I don't mean just picking stuff up so it looks clean, I mean I've been ignoring the cobwebs growing in the corners and under furniture, the rust stuff on the shower curtain, the cat hair in the bedroom carpet, the cricket parts chewed up by Parker on the laundry room floor, the clean and dirty laundry that NEVER ends.....you get the idea right? I decided to just focus on one room at a time. Last weekend was the living room/dining room. I dusted everything, moved furniture, washed the inside of windows, cleaned floors, and pitched things. Today, my focus was on the bedroom. I have been wanting new dressers for quite some time. Brett made the other furniture for our bedroom (headboard, and nightstands) but never had time to make the matching dressers. Today we went to this furniture store called Rooms Direct, associated with Ashley Furniture I think, but almost more like a warehouse type place. I found 2 matching dressers that were pretty much exactly what I was looking for, the right color, deep drawers, and 2 that matched! Eventually we will probably sand them, and stain them to even better match the rest of the furniture in the bedroom. Well the price was a little more than I wanted to spend - so while we were standing there discussing options, etc, the owner comes up to us and asks us if we were still debating. I said the price was more than I wanted to pay for both of them together, so he knocks $100 off. Well then I was sold. We took them home on the pickup right then. :) I then spent the rest of the evening cleaning the bedroom and sorting clothes and putting them away in the new dressers. Finally our bedroom felt clean and organized and more like a bedroom than a pig pen. Of course, I took pictures.
You can also see the finished product of my quilt. I have started a new one as well, but don't have pictures of that. I had several strips all pinned together ready to sew and then a few days later Brett tells me that Parker has found a new toy....my pins. He plays with them until they come out of the fabric. UGH. I'll take pictures of this one as soon as I am a little further in the process.
There hasn't been much to blog about lately. Our lives have consisted of me working overtime, and Brett spending most of his time at school. Seriously. I think we both need a vacation to a warm sunny place. Might be awhile before that happens though.
We also have a guest room - so come visit! I promise I will clean that room before you come :) Tomorrow I might tackle the fridge. It is in desperate need of some TLC. Or the weeds growing in the front sidewalk - that looks pretty pathetic at the moment too. As for the rest of the night, I'm going to curl up with my Kindle and read :) Adios!
Not sure where to really start on this, so I'll just start at the end. Last night at work I officially had the worst night I have ever had. It ended up with me crying as I walked onto the elevators leaving the floor, wiping my tears away while a sympathetic visitor looked on and asked for directions to the ER. Bawling as I drove home, crying to Brett when I got home, and crying on the phone to a coworker as she reassured me I did everything right and I am not a horrible nurse. I've cried enough tears now and Marshy is consoling me by licking my tear stained hands and purring next to me. All the while Parker is in the closet curled up in the corner contemplating attacking the strings from my clothes hanging down at his level.
At 7:00 this morning I transferred one of my patients down to the ICU. After several stat labs and tests it was determined she was in metabolic acidosis, (not going to explain that - look it up if you care to) among other problems. All night I had been in and out of this patient's room watching her closely. Watching her vitals, her urine output, her NG output, her pain, her dressing, her pulses, breathing - everything. I had a hard time right after surgery keeping her oxygen levels up. We had her on a nonrebreather mask and eventually put her just on normal oxygen. Later in the morning her oxygen dropped again but I was thinking it was because she just wouldn't take deep breaths or cough and was really drowsy. I put her back on the mask (should have just called the physician then, but hindsight is always 20/20 right? ) I ended up waiting since her oxygen came back up after I put the mask back on and called respiratory later. Long story short, ended up calling the physician and got orders for stat labs and such and transferring her to ICU,and there we are at the end, or rather beginning...since I started there....
She is still alive and I think she will be okay - and I no longer feel like a 100% horrible nurse, just 95% now. Maybe when I go to sleep and then wake up that number will be lower.
What a week at work it has been for me. Nothing says "I am a nurse" like getting your shoes, socks, and pants peed on (that happened Tuesday night) and feeling like you failed a patient.
So after not blogging for over a month, I write about a really happy topic! If nothing else, know that I feel a tiny little bit better after writing this all out. I guess I won't quit my job after this past night - it will only make me a better, stronger nurse. And now I can't think of anything coherent to say and I am tired and I am going to go to sleep. If you read this and you know nothing about medical terms, my apologies :)
Tomorrow morning Brett leaves for the Regional American Chemistry Society meeting in Indiana. He is presenting his research work and poster at the meeting as well as sitting at an ISU booth to recruit students and graduate students. He is leaving around 6:30 tomorrow morning, so I will be home alone all day until I have to go to work. Then when I come home from work in the morning Brett will still be gone and I will sleep at home alone all day on Thursday. Then I will wake up Thursday and go to work all night and when I get home Friday morning Brett will still be gone and I will sleep all day by myself. And how is this different than any other day when he is gone at school and I am sleeping at home all day by myself, or at work at night you might ask? BECAUSE HE WILL BE IN A DIFFERENT STATE, not just down the street at school. Ever since we spent 10 weeks apart when I was in Illinois as an intern, I have dreaded being apart again. I mean, what if something breaks on my car and I don't know how to fix it, or if something starts leaking in the house and I don't know what to do, or what if it storms, or what if I don't have hot water because something went wrong or the AC stops working.....I mean think of all the things that could possibly go wrong!!
And so, if you read this, think of me as I am home alone sleeping with my 2 cats, as my wonderful husband is away being all smart. I think I will survive.
This last month has just FLOWN by, and in some ways, not much has happened, but in other ways, a lot has happened. Pardon if that makes no sense at all. The month of May: Brett finished his first year of grad school with all A's and a paper accepted for publishing with some research he was working on in the journal, Nanotechnology. It hasn't actually been published yet, and he is not the only author. He also started taking a summer class which isn't all that exciting thus far, and is doing research things the rest of the time. I am still working, and the hospital still has really low census everywhere, with some units closing at times because they have no patients. On the 26th we celebrated our 4 year anniversary. I worked the night before, so I slept all day while Brett was at school. That night we went out to eat and then relaxed at home the rest of the night. Brett got me these beautiful peruvian lilies. They are still blooming and are gorgeous!
The month of May also brought on more bathroom renovations. We (and by we, I mean Brett) were trying to finish what we started in the bathroom last July.
We tore out the whole floor and wall paneling. To make the floor actually level, Brett used shim type things to level it from wall to door. Then put a new floor in, and then what is shown in the last picture is glueless linoleum. It is so weird to walk on that floor and not have it squeak! Currently the bathroom has a sink/vanity, mirror, toilet and cupboard in, and the existing shower - I just don't have a picture of that yet. There are a few wall pieces that are not in yet, but we ran out of time to finish before our company came Memorial Day weekend. It needs those wall pieces and trim left and then I think that it is! Brett is kind of waiting until it is not 90 degrees outside because to glue the wall paneling on we need to have the windows open so we don't get high/pass out :) I'm so glad to have a handy husband like Brett. He also put in an exhaust fan, switched the outlets, moved the toilet back about 3 inches (to remove the silly little thing that was behind the toilet which served no purpose), and moved the sink plumbing just a tad to work with the new vanity. Who knew I married a chemist AND a plumber and electrician. When it is all finished, I'll be sure to take more pictures. I also planted a few flowers in the backyard. 
I WAY underestimated the amount of space I had for plants/flowers. I only used about 1/4 of the space in my little "flower garden". But what is there looks nice so far! Next year I suppose I will expand it a little more. Dan and Kiki Jongewaard and baby Gabriel came to visit over Memorial Day weekend and I only have one picture to prove they were here! It was a lovely visit. We spent time snuggling and playing with Gabe, showing them around Normal, just visiting, relaxing and playing games. So thankful they took the time to visit us all the way in Illinois!
Since this post has gotten entirely too long, I will have another post about our Starved Rock State Park adventure next!
