Happy Thanksgiving! I will spend mine working! I guess someone has to be working, people don't stop being sick. It is a bummer knowing my family will be enjoying the Macy's parade, baking turkey and ham, making pies and cranberry sauce, all the while listening to Christmas music. It all sounds so good, although I know in reality it never is as good as you remember. I put high expectations, especially around the holidays. And they always seem to leave me with a less than satisfied feeling. Oh well. I think I work again on Sunday, if I have my dates right. Really a bummer, 2nd Sunday in a row, plus a holiday Sunday?? I want to be home!!

This week I went and saw my first movie all by myself! I saw Disney's A Christmas Carol in IMAX 3D theater. So, not only by myself but also my first 3D movie. I watched it with about thirty-five 6 year olds. I liked the movie, it was great animation and great music. Same old plot of course. But, it was scary!! I don't remember Mickey's Christmas Carol being so frightening! I would have been scared if I was a little kid. Maybe I was thinking it would be similar to The Polar Express.

Today I cleaned my house, and it was good!! My bathroom is fully scrubbed and bleached, all the carpets are vacuumed, and the kitchen counters wiped down and floor mopped! So good to have a clean house! Next to conquer will be my room, the endless abyss of chaos it is. I partially cleaned it after I spilled an entire cup of coffee all over the carpet. That included some books, CD's, and my camera. Don't know if my camera will work again. If not, Black Friday here I come!

Well, no more of my thoughts or deeds to blog about. I feel this blog is pretty boring sometimes. All I talk about is what I'm doing. Hm, oh well I guess! I will have to spice it up!

Disney Day!

Today I went to Disney with my parents for my Mom's birthday! It was a great day. The lines were good and the weather was so pleasant!! I lost my phone right at the beginning. It fell out of my pocket on Thunder Mtn. Oh well, its just a phone. I'll be phoneless until Tuesday and actually, it is freeing. I am not worrying about checking it, because there is nothing to check!

Ferry Ride over

Splash Mountain

Our Splash Mtn picture turned out funny. That's my dad covered in a poncho in the second row. My mom and I had a poncho to cover at certain times. I think its a funny picture!

Happy Birthday, Mom! I love you!

Another couponing excursion this evening. I saved $57.00 at Publix, spending only $31. Coupons and BOGOs! Good ones this week too. I stocked up on olive oil and nuts which will last me months and months!! Had a coupon for CVS, plus free $50 in gift cards for filling prescriptions. Stocked up on toothpaste, laundry detergent, and cereal, saving $35 and using my gift card. So, I spent no money there. I love coupons!! I have a whole shelf in my closet dedicated to my stock pile of coupon deals! I have hair dye, toothpaste, laundry detergent, medicine, shampoo, body wash, and toothbrushes for the next 6 months at least. Now, if I could start stockpiling my canned goods for that just in case.

Work is hard, CHALLENGING!! I leave every day feeling wiped out mentally, emotionally, physically. I feel inadequate most times, learning all the while. Friday was spent titrating drips every 5-10 minutes to get an adequate blood pressure, sedation, heart rate, and pain control. But, I was able to help with a new trach insertion and what my role would be. Thought for a moment there we were going to have to do CPR on the patient while riding in the elevator, then later on when the heart rate went from 50 to 180!! Wow, what a roller coaster day for this guy and me!!

The holiday season is fast approaching! Sadly I work Thanksgiving Day, so no parade or Thanksgiving feast with family. I will really miss that. Last year I was fortunate to get off work early and drive home in time for dinner. I also am working Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve, and New Year's Day. New Year's is not such a big bummer for me, but Christmas is. Christmas is a big family holiday for my family. A lot of people don't understand how working around Christmas is that bad for me, but I am missing out on A LOT of family festivities. Christmas lasts about 10 days for us and I will miss everything this year. It saddens me to see my grandparents age and not know when our last celebration as a family will be our last celebration. I really am blessed with an awesome family, and I will miss this year's celebration!

This week I purchased The Polar Express 3D. I thought that it would be pretty neat to try it out. It was a huge fail!!! I can't figure it out and it is a blurry version of the real movie. Fortunately I also got the regular movie with it, and it was on sale so I did not spend a lot of money on it. Should have done my research!! I still love it!

Lots of time off this week, not sure what to do. My parents are coming this Saturday to go to Disney, so I'm looking forward to that!! It has been a long time since I have had one on one with my parents.

I went shopping today and did my first big couponing trip to Publix!! I took Kristi with me to help boost my confidence. I bought:

• Produce: 3 lb carrots, bananas, broccoli, bagged Spinach, and acorn squash
• 3 packages of pork loin chops
• 2 boxes of Graham crackers, 2 boxes of Special K
• Spaghetti and macaroni noodles
• 6 Yoplait yogurt cups
• 2 boxes of Ziploc bags
• 1lb of Newman's coffee
• Extra Strength Tylenol and Tylenol Multisymptom
• 1 carton of Egg Beaters

I spent $30.18, saving $48.17 with coupons and BOGOs. I love couponing! Thanks to Kelly, I am hooked! It is like a game, where you win by saving. How great is that?

I think I can do this. Yesterday went very well. It was a lot of work and I was pretty busy. I think I had maybe 30 minutes of downtime where I got to go and see a couple of procedures in different rooms. There are some pretty intense things that go on in ICU! I just need to keep my head above the water and be easy on myself in terms of getting used to the unit and the acuity of the patients. I think I will love working there. It may take me 3 months, 6 months, a year, or even 2, but I think I will love it. Another plus is the doctors do not seem to treat the nurses like junk as they did on my other floor. I have yet to meet all the docs tho.

I am off for the next 3 days! I love this schedule!! My goal for today is to get my room cleaned out and to go work out. The past month has been crazy schedule with class every day. I was too tired to go to the gym or try to do anything. Time to get back on the horse and back in the saddle!

Thanksgiving is in 3 weeks, can you believe it? Sadly, I am working on Thanksgiving so I will be enjoying my turkey in between patient care. I believe I have the next day off, so I hope to go home for some Black Friday bonding with the girls!!!

Observation Day

Yesterday was my full on observation day of the ICU. I followed the nurse, trying to understand why she was doing what, what she was doing, what was going on with the patient, what are we doing next. I was losing track of time, losing track of where we were. It is crazy business in there!! I went home last night and had to look up many a thing that had slipped my mind since nursing school. When did my brain go to mush? I know, if you don't use it, you lose it. And I have. What a challenging next 2 months this will be!! What a challenging next year and more! I get very disappointed when I am behind, slow, not up to par as I should. But on my first day, I know I will not have the assessment skills, interventional and critical thinking as my preceptor who has been there 1.5 years.

Lots of prayer, clinging to Jesus, and studying will help me through it! What am I thinking?

Halloween was fun! I was going to be Octo-Mom and it would've been a great costume, but I could only find 3 babies. How can you be Octo-Mom with 3 kids? So, that did not work out. I had already bought a witch wig, so I continued and was a witch. I went to a fun Halloween party and had reunion with old roommates!! I love these girls!!

I passed my last checkpoint for continuing through my CCNIP classes!! I had to do a hands on code today for ACLS and it went really well. I passed on my practice round, so I did not have to do the "real" test. So nice. I studied that junk all weekend. When I'm studying I get so discouraged that I won't get the material or that my friends are doing other things that are so much more appealing than studying. Afterwards: so worth it! I am not worrying about finding a new job because I am heading on.

I have started BSF again! On a whim, I decided I would go to the intro class last minute. I am so glad that I did! I love BSF, it gets me in the Word, I learn from the ladies, the lecture, and the questions. So good. The only thing I don't like is that it is so time oriented (which is good), there is little room to build relationships with the ladies in the class. There is room for it for monthly socials, but not the same as a small group Bible study. But, excellent, none the less!