10 minute escape...

Sometimes, when the going gets tough, the tough (me) goes to Starbucks.

Photo a day... give or take

Ok so I have been really inspired by a cool trend in the online blogging world: something a day. Well most of the ones I have seen are a photo a day, a.k.a. Photo 365, etc. So, while I am scared to commit myself to a photo a day for a whole dang year, I figure I'll just call mine a photo a day...or so.

This way it kinda forces me to work on my photo taking skills, and I get to play in Photoshop more.

3/09/09 Here is my Photo from YESTERDAY (nothing like starting off a day late). My sweet boy fresh and ready for school on Monday morning (note the HAPPY smile!)

3/10/09 And here is todays. One of my newest time consuming things: The 7th book in the Sookie Stackhouse series. One of the most fun series I have read!

All Together Dead (Southern Vampire Mysteries, Book 7)

Now, I mentioned some other cool once a day bloggers, and here are my two favs at the moment:

If you have kids, especially boys (or a husband - they count the same for this site) you need to check out A LEGO A Day

And if you like to crockpot, this one is worth checking out too A Year of CrockPotting

Ok.. off to finish a care plan so I can finish my book, and sleep somewhere in there too. And watch American Idol.

Downhill for now...

Ok well my resolution to post regularly on here has pretty much gone down the tube so far...

But I'll fill in the blanks a little, and will tell you that the time since my last post (about the 3rd week in Jan) until about the third week in February was probably one of the hardest times I've gone through - well at least from what I haven't blocked out LOL Joking.

So anyhow here is a run down of what was going on in the course of a few weeks but note it all started at the same time.
1. I got a PT job at the hospital - while happy, I wonder what I was thinking to take this on.

2.I started semester #3 of Nursing: MedSurg/Adult I, Advanced Phamacology, and Intro to Mental Health. Not to mention I still have clinical days and the infamous care plans.

3. We thought Josh was being held hostage by a beligerant customer. No Joke. BUT thankfully the guy settled down, apologized, and bought a bigger shed. No idea what was going on is his world but the guy wasn't right.

4. Got a nice big tire blowout on the way home one day. Yeah. Lovely.

5. Myka was having a really hard time at school, more bad days than good days, and we were all frusturated, stressed, and feeling like we didn't know what to do. I was crying all the time, and it was so bad I didn't even want to send him to school....

Which leads us to the major development.....

6.In our long journey to find out what's going on in his little world, we did some testing on several IQ "categories". We discovered things he really good at and scored high on, but others he didn't. With all the mumble jumble of what it means, right brain this/left brain that, we discovered that they way he is processing the info to get it "out" is where the trouble is occuring.

The result ------> Learning Disabilities. Hmmmm, FINALLY we figured out that THIS is probably contributing to the frusturation, crying, anxiety, esteem issues, etc We even went to a neurologist in Dec because motor tics started occuring. But thanks to our fantabulous child psychologist, Dr. Pete, who has been helping us along the way - we finally got some solid answers.

Good News -------> Answers

Bad News -------> Found out that as a result, we needed to move Myka from his Christian school which we loved, to a public school that had the resources to help him. FULL panic mode because I have been scared to death of the public school system here. Not to mention we really needed to move him now, because time couldn't be wasted getting him in an environment best for him...

So this is where major stress occured - I didn't know where to begin. I was sad, mad, happy, confused, hopeful, disappointed, and everything in between. PLUS remember #1 - that new Part Time job? Yeah, well training started the week this all happened. So I had school M-W, training all day Thurs and Fri. NO time to try and make calls, go to schools, handle this & that, etc. Several crying sessions took place during this time.

But by Gods Grace everything fell into place for us. Doors opened, people reached out, prayers were answered, and we were able to get him in a top notch public school that had tons of great resources to teach him the way he learns and does best. And would you know?

HE IS SO HAPPY! He's like a different kid when I pick him up from school. He feels good about himself, so far no major anxiety or frustration, and no more motor tics and angry moods in the car on the way home. And he doesn't feel like a failure. WOW. AMEN!

Soooo.....now that this is all behind us, I feel like I can breathe again! I look back, and know there is no way we would have made it through all that without God. I look back and can't believe I didn't become a major alcoholic after that. Joking. Again. But still - I can't believe we got through it.

So that is kind of a catch up. Now I am off to bed.... I have a good book waiting. No drink. But a good book.

Timing

This is my favorite song at the moment, and it reminds me that no matter how tough things seem to be at any given moment, God always has a plan.

I haven't posted in a week, because there have been a lot of things going on, and we finally got some answers this week in our goal to helping Myka. We all had such a hard week last week, and had a big scare over the weekend, then this week I started my new job orientation/training which makes a full week on top of school. And dang it if it seems like it is one thing after the other for us lately.

So Monday night on my way home from my first day of orientation for my job, I miss a turn and have to drive WAY out of my way home. THEN about 2 miles from home "POP" - I hear that lovely sound while I am driving and the next thing I know my tire light is on so I pull over into the nearest gas station and sure enough...that sucker is flat as can be. So while I am waiting for Josh to come rescue me, I throw my head back on my seat and just cry. And then this song comes on the radio station.

Wow! This is one of my favorite songs, and I first heard it on the Christian station WayFM and everytime I hear it, I know that no matter what, even if the world is falling apart, we'll be found in Jesus and he'll be standing when nothing else is. So I truly think it wasn't just a coincidence that this song came on at that very moment....

I'll go into more detail later about the recent events, but I am so tired. I just want to go to bed! But say a prayer for us if you can. Love you all!

Cancer sucks....but I learned a lot today

Today was our first clinical day of this semester, Adult I/Med Surg I (our 2nd out of 4 semesters). I am at a different hospital this semester than I was last semester. Our assigned unit is a cancer unit but we also get general med surg patients too.

I learned today that cancer is a nasty disease. Not that I didn't already know that, but to see the effects and learn more about them was a little depressing for me. Makes me wonder why people have to get cancer. I have thought for the last six months or so about the possibility of going into pediatric oncology after school. I know it would be incredibly hard, but at the same time I like oncology because I feel like I would make a big difference in the lives of the patients. Not that a nurse doesn't make an impact in the lives of any patient, but that's where my heart tends to be tugging me at the moment. But I know that may change as I finish out school.... But I was a little bummed tonight thinking about cancer, and how any one of us can get it. Scary.

I did, on the bright side, have a great learning experience. Not only did I become more aware of the specifics of the type of cancer I was working with, but I also got to see a few procedures done. Our clinical instructor was great in getting us all to observe a PICC line insertion. Basically a IV line that goes through the upper arm into a vein and to the heart area. We all got to observe this and it was a cool experience to see a new (to me) procedure being done. Then another student and I went down to radiology and got to watch a chest tube insertion procedure. Again, it was a great learning experience, and everyone there the nurse, radiology tech, dr, etc were all great and explained a lot to us.

It made for a great day, where I really felt like I got to take good care of a patient, make a difference (even if small), and got to learn a lot and see some new stuff too. Already this semester I feel more confident in what I am doing, but still have so much to learn.

In a few weeks I get to do an OR rotation which I am totally excited about, and then in March I get to do a rotation in a specialty unit for the day. So I think this will be a good semester of learning experiences!

Not such a good fishing day...

So today we got out on the boat after months of not going fishing. Myka got a ton of fishing gear for Christmas: his own Columbia fishing shirts, his own tackle box, and lots of "stuff" to go inside the tackle box. This entire past week Josh was painting some type of rubber paint stuff on the seats of the John boat so that it isn't so hot and not as slippery. So all week we were all looking forward to going out.

We decided to try a new place, down south of Fort Myers beach, called Lover's Key. I caught a sheephead 1/2 inch too small to keep, and Josh caught a great snook (his favorite) that was 2 inches shy of the 24" keep mark, but it's not even Snook "season" until March, so we couldn't have kept him anyhow. And then.... that was it! NOT even a bite other than those two. Myka didn't catch a thing, but that also may have been related to the periodic bouts of boredom and impatience....

So kind of a bummer fishing day but the weather was awesome - 70's all day IN JANUARY! Here's a pic of Josh and the snook - the catch of the day for sure.

Body of Evidence

Body of Evidence by Patricia Cornwell

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
I am breezing right through these books. I decided to go back to the beginning of the series and read them all the way through. So I finished Body of Evidence a few nights ago (only to pick up the third book the next day). Again, another great novel from Patricia Cornwell. I don't think there is much more to say other than all of the Kay Scarpetta novels are a good read, and suspenseful. This was involved a bit more from a psychological standpoint which was interesting. So if I were to be in the field of forensics, I would want to be just like Dr. Scarpetta!


View all my reviews.