Back at it.

Monday, September 30, 2013

First day back at work was fine yesterday…felt like I never left.

Thankfully I remembered most of everything that I had learned!

Big task for the day: get my headlights changed…when we were over at Kimm’s parent’s the other day her mom noticed that my left headlight was out and unfortunately these headlights are way too difficult to change by ourselves.  I made it back from work last night without getting stopped (I had my “oh really?” line down to a tee if I got pulled over!).  I called today and got in this morning…$40 for the two of them to be changed…and they had to take out the battery to get to the headlights…see what I mean about hard to change 🙂

Now I’m planning the rest of my day…changing the sheets, a walk with Izzy, making enchiladas for dinner, Dancing with the Stars and then a new program…The Blacklist (we watched the pilot during lunch and it’s great!). 

A beautiful fall day 🙂

 

Vacation #3, 2013…MEMORIES

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Can I just say I absolutely LOVE taking a vacation at the end of summer/beginning of fall!  Completely gets me in the mood for the change of seasons 🙂

LOTS of great memories this vacation…

…apple picking!!

…$1 Iced Coffees from McDonald’s on the way home (probably the best iced coffee I’ve had in a long while!)

…pizza out on our first night (SUCH a tradition!)…AND our last night too!

…walking with Izzy after dinner 🙂

…popcorn while watching movies (although Snow Falling on Cedars was NOT Kimm’s favorite!…let’s just say it was slow going…also watched The Lake House and Safe Haven)

…homemade apple bread (especially good toasted, with cinnamon sugar!)

…dying my hair (Black Cherry…it’s a fall thing)

…watching Chopped (SO SAD that we are almost through all the On Demand episodes…we will have to find something else to watch)

…the very “rustic” Jack and Jill we attended (let’s just say…porta-potties…argh!  not to mention it was a PIG roast…not such a great time for these vegetarians!…luckily we escaped early and got some veggie grinders to enjoy…no pigs harmed!)

…homemade apple crisp

…clearing out my entire Kindle of all the miscellaneous free books!  (wow that took pretty much a whole day!)

…putting up our inside fall decorations! (pics to come…)

…cleaning the porch, weeding the front and putting out our mums and pumpkins!

…going to see The Butler (excellent movie!)

…watching all the season premieres of my fall TV shows (Survivor, Dancing with the Stars, Grey’s Anatomy, Elementary, Parenthood)

…ICE CREAM 🙂

…the Big E (even though we’ve determined this is THE LAST TIME we will go…too many people, too expensive, basically the same old, same old EVERY SINGLE YEAR)

…Mrs. Murphy’s donuts…SERIOUSLY the best donuts I have ever had!

…finally talking and catching up with an old friend

…driving up to The Vermont Country Store…such a beautiful ride

…going to The Olive Garden to celebrate Kimm’s parents 42nd wedding anniversary

…spending time with the one I love 🙂

Friday Favorites, 2013: Week 39

Friday, September 27, 2013

SO SAD that vacation is almost over!  It was a good one though, with great lasting memories…post to come soon 🙂

Enjoy my favorites from around the web this week…

Favorite inspirational posts…

Montreal Marathon Results…I’m SO HAPPY for my friend, colleague and fellow blogger Aimee from Amazing in Motion for her AWESOME 3rd (!!!!!) marathon finish…I can’t wait to read all about it.  As she says…”if you really want to you can!”  Congratulations Aimee!!

Body Image Booster: It’s Never Too Late…SO TRUE…It’s NEVER too late for a new and improved you! (~~Weightless)

We Are Lying To Ourselves When…When are you lying to yourself?? (~~Olivetorun)

On Owning Your Experience…All Of It…EVERYTHING in our past has made us who we are today…even the mistakes we’d like to forget…why not embrace YOU? (~~Weightless)

9 Thoughts You Need Out of Your Mind…often we can’t change US unless we change our THINKING…negative thinking is NO GOOD (~~Marc and Angel Hack Life)

10 ‘Impossible’ Things I’ve Accomplished…what’s on your list?  What did you never think you could do and you did?? (~~Roni’s Weigh)

Favorite fall treats…MORE PUMPKIN!!!  I tell ya’, I’m OBSESSED!!!  Everything just looks so amazingly good!!

Iced Pumpkin Coffee Cake

~~Recipe and photo…Sally’s Baking Addiction

Pumpkin Spice Sugar Cookies

~~Recipe and photo…No. 2 Pencil

Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

~~Recipe and photo…fANNEtastic food

Browned Butter Pumpkin Blondies

~~Recipe and photo…Cookies and Cups

Pumpkin Spice Cake Balls

~~Recipe and photo…back to her roots

Pumpkin Spice White Hot Chocolate

~~Recipe and photo…No. 2 Pencil

Favorite finance advice…(both from The Simple Dollar)

When the Moment Is Lost

It’s Not Fair!

Favorite nursing posts…(both from Nurse Eye Roll)

Top 10.5 New Grad Mistakes

Keep Calm & Nurse On

Favorite interesting reads…

Advice for the World (~~The Lean Green Bean)

I Will Remember The Little Things! (~~Mary Organizes)

13 Banned and Challenged Books for Kids (~~No Time for Flash Cards)

The ‘Busy’ Trap (~~Opinionator, The New York Times)

Favorite funny…

(How appropriate after the Big E!)

Have a great FALL weekend!!

Friday Favorites, 2013: Week 38

Friday, September 20, 2013

The FIRST OFFICIAL day of vacation…:)

My favorites from around the web this week…

Favorite happy…

Favorite inspirational posts…

Don’t Allow Your Happenings to Determine Your Happiness (~~Peanut Butter Fingers)

10 Things You Tell Friends That You Should Be Telling Yourself (~~Roni’s Weigh)

The Habits Of Supremely Happy People (~~The Huffington Post)

7 Things Fear has Stolen from You (~~Marc and Angel Hack Life)

Favorite sweet  bites…it’s a pumpkin week!  Fall is upon us along with all the yummy treats 🙂

Starbucks Pumpkin Pound Cake

~~Recipe and photo…The First Year Blog

Pumpkin Spice Latte Bark

~~Recipe and photo…The Kitchen Prep

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

~~Recipe and photo…Life in the Lofthouse

Starbucks Clone Pumpkin Scones

~~Recipe and photo…Iowa Girl Eats

Soft Glazed Pumpkin Sugar Cookies

~~Recipe and photo…Lauren’s Latest

Favorite finance advice…

Financial Independence Is Hard Work

The Hidden Holes: Revisiting Rocks and Sand

(~~both posts from The Simple Dollar)

Favorite NURSING funny post…I was nodding my head and laughing out loud while reading this one…I’m sure ALL nurses can relate!

A Day in the Life of Nurse Eye Roll (~~Nurse Eye Roll)

Favorite e-card funny…

Have a great weekend everyone!!!

Vacation starts…NOW!

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Woo hoo!

I made it through my last day 12 hour day shift and I am officially on VACATION!!!

Not that it means much right now as I’m heading to bed!

But tomorrow…can’t wait.

Initial plans:

Apple picking on Friday and getting out pizza (our tradition!)

A Jack n’ Jill Saturday where we will be able to hang out with our neighbors

Other things I want to fit in:

The Big E

Getting our fall decorations (pumpkins and mums)

The Vermont Country Store

Going to see The Butler

Talking with a good high school friend

That’s all my tired brain can think of right now!

Not much.

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

I don’t have much for this space right now!

Working 11a to 11p doesn’t leave a lot of free time to do much to blog about 🙂

My big concentration right now is just to keep learning as much as I can.   Which I’ll be doing in about 45 minutes…

(only TWO days until VACATION!!!!!)

Frustration and Fun

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

The frustrating part of today…attempting to shop for new bras…this is NEVER fun and WHY can’t I find a bra that…1) I like, 2) is comfortable, and 3) is not astronomically expensive????  No luck today even after trying on WAY TOO MANY…now I’ll have to go another day and likely be frustrated again 😦

The fun parts of today…1) grilling out (although it was awful chilly!), 2) taking Izzy on a walk, and 3) watching Changeling again (SUCH a good movie…if you have never watched, I highly recommend…based on a true story…we had watched it once before but I had completely forgotten how gripping it was!)

New shoes and DWTS

Monday, September 16, 2013

A pretty good day off I would say!

It started off with a beautiful ride to drop off the lawnmower to get fixed.  Unfortunately, our lawnmower has been acting up.  It is a “guaranteed one pull start” but the last few times Kimm went to start the mower it would take like 20 times to start.  She researched this a little and found out that this is a known problem with the model we have (the choke doesn’t work)…ugh!  The good news is that it is covered under warranty…the bad news…we needed to drop it off to get fixed and won’t get it back for over a week…not good when we generally are mowing more frequent than once a week to keep up!  I’m keeping my fingers crossed that everything works out okay with the mower…I mean, we’ve only had it since June!

After dropping it off, I mentioned to Kimm that Famous Footwear was having a Buy One Get One 1/2 Off Sale–it was on the way home so we decided to stop (even though Kimm generally has pretty poor luck with shoes…her problem…very small, wide feet…completely opposite of me).  Well the good news was…we BOTH found shoes…each of us got a pair of sneakers (thank goodness for me as I can completely tell that my sneakers for work need to be replaced…hardly any cushion any more!) AND a pair of Converse.  🙂

We both took naps during the afternoon and it was GLORIOUS!

We jumped on the opportunity to grill out for dinner since it was so beautiful out…mushroom burgers, veggie kabobs and corn.

Followed by a wonderful walk after dinner…I am LOVING the weather lately…just perfect for walking.

My evening plans consisted of watching the season premiere of Dancing with the Stars.  Even though I didn’t know very many of the stars, I still really enjoy the dancing!  Izzy and Charlie kept me company…

I’d have to say neither of them was too impressed with the show 🙂

More learning…

Sunday, September 15, 2013

It’s kind of more of the same at work now…just trying to learn as much as I can regarding this new position.

I find that there is a routine…same as nursing–but also unpredictables…SAME AS NURSING!

Routine:

Get to work.

Print out staffing sheets, count to make sure staffing is adequate, if not…figure out how to move staff around to make it work.

Start visiting floors (ICU, IMC, ED, MS, Birthing, M5)–see if there are any issues, give support to staff.

By 2 hours of the next shift (i.e., 5p for 7p, 9p for 11p, etc) look at staffing again…will it work?

Update computer with staffing changes, print out next shift of staffing sheets.

ALL THE WHILE, answering any pages that come!

That is generally where the unpredictables come…

For example…today I learned about…

…pts leaving AMA

…replacing crash carts after a code

…finding equipment in Central Sterile Supply

…canceling a surgery in the OR

There are probably so many unpredicatables that I won’t ever feel 100% like I’m always prepared, but thankfully there is usually someone I can ask advice from.  I’m just nervous for when it’s just me at night and I’ll truly have to think about whether or not I need to call someone about an issue or if I can figure it out on my own.

But for now…I’m going to enjoy my next two days off!

Getting there.

Saturday, September 14, 2013

First of all, I CAN NOT believe HOW FAST this month is flying by!  Almost the middle of September???  Whoa…slow down time.

Second, training is coming along.  Today actually felt a lot better.  I’m getting the hang of the paperwork part of it and dealing with the beeper (I don’t forget to answer it…I now recognize that that awful, loud beeping is ME!!)  I think the hardest part right now is just thinking about different situations as they come up and determining how I would handle them if I was all by myself on nights.  That’s the scariest part.  

But I know that with time everything will get better–I’ll accumulate more experiences and thus know how to handle various things.  

I’m sure one year from now I’ll have a totally different perspective.  

I’m happy too that co-workers SEEM to be accepting of my new role better now.  I don’t hear as many mean comments as I did initially from some people, but there still are some digs.  I try to just let them roll off me and realize that it is THEIR problem, not MINE.  

Back tomorrow.  Three more shifts and then some much deserved and anticipated time off…VACATION 🙂