Thou Shalt Not Lie...

Man. What a day.

It was mostly good, and overall, even now, still mostly good. I have a child who is quiet and calm, well mannered, and just generally laid back. He is responsible, makes good grades, plays sports, and is very active in 4H with the engineering and snap robotics.

Then I have the child that gives me gray hair. She is the polar opposite of my son, and she is wearing me out. The sad part is she is so freaking smart, but she knows it...and therefore only puts forth the bare minimum of effort.  The biggest thing lately has been the lying. I suppose that part if it has been distraction on my part, and a lack of time to focus on her behaviour. As I told her last week, a new sheriff is in town!

So anyway, I found out that she not only lied to her Nana, but got caught. Nana let it go, and I can't exactly do anything about it a few weeks later. But she lied to me tonight too, over something really silly. This on top of her trying to sneak her Nintendo DS to school in her backpack this week too. And I guess I realized that I've got to step up my game and make her understand that this type of stuff will not be tolerated. Not by us, not by her boss when she gets a job, and not by people as a whole.

So here I sit, with chips, salsa & cheese, and a margarita. Yes I know it's a weeknight, but damn, I'm tired. Parenting is  enough to drive one to drinking. No saltwater to sit by, so I just have to settle for salt on the rim of my glass.

Too much coffee, or maybe not enough?

Good morning = Kitchen cleaned, finally found the table (maybe we can eat together again?) and swept the floors. Relatively healthy breakfast. Managed to avoid the toast that I desperately wanted. LOL
Bad night = Had a run in with a handful of starburst. Definitely not sugar free. I forgot that in order to stick with healthy choices, it helps to have been to the store and have healthy options on hand already. Ah well. Today is a new day.

Plenty of coffee. Mostly motivated. Should get started on the living room. Really don't want to. Really, in fact, would rather go crawl in the bed with my husband. It's a cold, drizzly day. But he only has about 90 minutes left to sleep though, and I'm pretty sure if I go in there now I'll wake him up for good, which sort of defeats the purpose of napping with him.

Got my son's Christmas shopping done. Yay. One person, finally done. Need to pick up a few other things for my daughter. And something for my husband. Very slim shopping this year. I miss having an unlimited budget. I've come to terms with the fact that we will probably never make the amount of money we used to, but I would like to at least not have to count every single penny we spend. I probably still will, just because that's how I am, but it will be nice to not stress over money all the time. :S

Graduation!

Here it is, finally, graduation! Well, ok, it was last week, but I've been busy celebrating with my friends and fellow graduates this weekend. My husband is still on night shift, at least until the lay offs starts. I have gotten up in the mornings, got my kiddos ready for school, and promptly went back to bed with my honey. Has been nice to just spend time together and relax. He had finals last week, so not quite as relaxing for him, but this week is off to a great start!!
I should really be up and about. I need to clean my house (for reasons I can't post on the internet, just yet anyways!!) and I need to go get the cashier's checks so I can send off my application to test to the state boards and the Federation. Fingers crossed! I need to test prior to Feb,or else I'm going to get trapped in the new rules that take place which only allow testing 3 times per year. I'm not overly excited about taking the licensure test, but I'm sure not planning to wait until April to test either!
Things have been crazy nuts, but I can at least see a little bit of down time in my future. With US Foods closing down their Paducah division, I have *got* to find something full time to provide us with insurance, and that's a stressful thought. I had been in school all this time just planning to work PRN (because that's where the $$ is) and could work around my kids and their sports schedules. I'm really not looking forward to working full time and having to carry the insurance and benefits because I know the hours are going to be crazy long. Anything in the medical field is. But... I'm hoping that this will at least give my husband a rest, who's worked like a dog the last 3 years to put me through school. He's worked 80+ hrs a week at his "night job" and picked up a couple odd jobs here and there as needed to help make ends meet. He's a true treasure!
Hoping and praying something will open up!
In the meantime, it's a cleaning frenzy around here! 2 years worth of deep cleaning to be done.  :)

With the good...

comes the bad.

I read the obits today before I went in for my shift and found that one of my patients passed away this weekend. He was doing so well last week, but had to have a port put in for his dialysis. He was so concerned about the anesthesia, and how he did not want to be put under. The next day he wasn't doing so well, and then I found that he had been moved back into the critical care unit after his surgery. Just proof that the one who holds us in His hand has a plan for everything.

That said, I got my first week review done, and I'm doing really well. That makes me happy. I'm a people pleaser so it's hard for me to be a student...I want to do a good job!! Of course, today I forgot to put the socks on my CABG patient which is a huge safety issue but we made it safely back to the room, so phew!!! Live and learn...a little more every day. :)

Time flies...

when you eat, sleep, and breathe physical therapy. I have finished up my last semester, and started clinicals this week.

I was placed in ICU/CCU units at a local hospital. It's terrifying and amazing all at the same time. Amazing at what science has discovered about the human body, and unbelievable  at the same time...we are fearfully and wonderfully made.

I have seen people survive some pretty amazing things this week, and had a patient that was doing so well take an unbelievable turn for the worse. It has just confirmed my thoughts that God has a time and place or everything.

I read somewhere once that the more educated a person was, the less likely they are to believe in God. I think the more I learn, the more amazed I become by His power.

SO EXCITED!!!

I am so stoked!!

First of all it is finals week (no, that's NOT what I'm stoked about!). I'm home alone studying while the rest of my family has gone to church. That part sort of sucks. I needed a break and thought, well I wonder if we checked the mail yesterday. So I got up and trotted out to the mailbox to find a HUGE envelope from the college. I got TWO scholarships!!!! Thank you God!!! I'm so flipping excited! They weren't huge, 25% tuition paid each, but together that will pay half of my tuition for my last semester. That means I will get a bigger refund back, and considering that I only have 6 weeks of class in the fall, and the other 10 weeks are clinicals...that will be useful money for buying scrubs and gas back and forth. Oh, and let's not forget that $500 licensure test I will have to take after Christmas.  The two scholarships together, plus the additional grant I received will equal out to about what I would have made if I worked those 6 weeks. I'll have to go over it with Chad, but hoping this will be enough that I won't have to work in the fall. I can just focus on studying and getting this last semester done and over with!!!

Ok, no more time to cheer. I have to go finish studying so I can pass all these tests, so I can START my final semester in the fall.

what a week!!

Spring break, my @ss!! No breaks here and no rest for the weary!

Monday I admit, I worked an 8 hour shift, came home, and sat on the couch watching tv. However the rest of the week has been nonstop action.

Tuesday I worked, then did my first 5 mile (8K). I'm still paying for it today, my left hamstring has been giving me fits for a few days. Not fun, not fun at all!

Wednesday, it was wound care observations and then spent about 5 hours when I got home doing research for my case study project. I have to say, after 3 years of this, I've found one area of physical therapy that is *not* for me. I told Chad last night that if the only job I got offered was doing wound care, it was a deal breaker. I'd work at McDonalds. Interesting, but ewww.

Thursday was back to work and research,  except that I finally got the research done and started on my outline.

Friday, worked 8 hours and came home. The darned chicken I put out to thaw was still totally frozen so we ended up going out to eat at one of the local restaurants. I haven't eaten at Smokey D's since it moved from Bandana to LaCenter but it was wonderful!! I had forgotten how much I love their catfish...and I'm really not a catfish fan. That's sort of like saying "I don't like Basketball" ... around these parts, that makes you a pariah. However, in my case, both are true.

I worked on my outline until about 11. Honestly I should be working on it now...but I'm here, blogging instead! LOL I need to finish it up because I have to provide copies of my outline to my classmates, to the first year students, and to my instructors. I had *planned* on being done, taking it to work yesterday and running copies there. Free. LOL But  I didn't get done so looks like sometime this weekend I'll be making a trip to Office Depot and having copies done there.

I still have to write out my home exercise plan to discharge my patient with, write up my SOAP note for one of my treatments, find pictures and set up my display. Not to mention the regular homework and reading I need to do. I'm so ready for school to be over!!!

Today they are tearing down old house that I grew up in. I just couldn't go watch. It would be different if my dad were still alive and he wanted it gone. But he loved that house, and even after we moved into the new house right next door...he kept the old house as a workshop. It was a one room school house, someone moved it to our property and then my parents purchased the property a little while later. It was a fun old house to grow up in, lots of history...good and bad. I wonder how many kids ran thru those front and back doors. I wonder about the family of the man that killed himself there. I will never forget freezing half to death in the winter because we heated with wood and my room was at the back of the house. I think that's probably why I sleep with a ton of blankets...even though we have central heat! I remember Mom hanging our clothes on the backs of chairs by the stove so when I got up, I would race up to the front of the house and jump in warm clothes. The floors were always freezing!! In my older child days, we bought a new wood burning stove that had a fan built it. It's a wonder I didn't burn my feet off, I would race up there, and then stick my feet up under the stove, inside the fan area to warm them.
Summers were hot...all that linoleum on the floors. We'd be sitting on the floor watching tv and try to get up and be stuck to the floor. The floors still looked great though, after all these years. Even a few weeks ago when we were in there cleaning them out they looked dirty, but good. Floors now days sure don't last that long!
There was a spot on the ceiling with footprints. My mom was gone to work one night, and my dad (probably having had too much to drink!) got to laughing and kidding with us, and for whatever reason (I don't remember??) he pulled out the ash pan under the stove, dipped our feet in, flipped us upside down and had us walk across the ceiling. I remember my mom coming home and being pissed, pissed, pissed! Oh she was mad! If the feet had still shown up after all these years I probably would have pulled the panel down and kept it.

Let's not forget the time I fell out of the top of the closet and snagged my lip on the 16 penny roofing nail that stuck out for me to hang my backpack and coat on. That babysitter never came back.

Or the time that Jason and I were swinging from the closet door to the bed, bouncing off the bed, and landing on top of the cast iron table in his room. Except he missed just once and knocked his front tooth out. Or the time a few weeks later he was riding his tricycle and slammed into the front porch steps and knocked the other tooth out.  I yell at my kids to this day for slamming their bikes into the porch...I'm still traumatized by that! LOL

The old barn door I had for a bedroom door, that would open on the top, or you could open both halves. Super fun for a kid growing up. We had that crazy dog so half the time I just crawled over the top of the door instead of opening the bottom half.

Time marches on....