I would like to deny it; but I cannot. It is, indeed, already the end of January. How did this happen? Being an adult and doing 'grown-up'-like things has taught me one very strong point--time flies quicker as time flies by. With work, cleaning, cooking, groceries, puppy time, and repeat, I'm having a hard time realizing how to stop and smell the roses. And I don't even have any children yet! Goodness. Right now, my current struggle involves keeping Carlos from eating the cardboard box Seth's books are in and yet I feel like time is hurling forward at an unimaginable speed. Any suggestions on how to make it slow down a wee bit?
In the fast times, I have been reading through the Old Testament. Currently, I am in 2 Samuel. Yesterday I read 2 Samuel 11 where the David and Bathsheba incident happen. My main conviction while reading through the Old Testament is just how terrible my sins are even when measured against the terrible sins of the figures in the Old Testament. It is so easy for me to read about the killing, worshiping of idols, adultery, and blatant disregard for God's instructions and to think "those are terrible people; why does God love them?" And I am reminded of John 8:7 "..He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." Now, in our walk with Christ, it is sometimes easy to feel like we are not Pharisees and adulterers; but we are worse. Christ died for our sins when all we deserve is death. Our Savior came down to shed His blood in our stead and yet we allow our sinful nature to get the best of us. What a wonderful Lord that we serve that he forgives us in spite of ourselves. For me, this makes the Old Testament a lot easier to read.
In the meantime, I have learned that I am in love with my job. In fact, the only thing I do not like about being a nurse is waking up at 5am and getting home only to eat supper, shower, and get in bed only to do it again the next day. I love all the in-between. Each day, I get to love on and help heal new patients; some of whom are very sick and some of whom are not. Either way, it is such a joy and a privilege to show some love to new people and to help them with all the terrible, inconceivable things things they cannot currently do for themselves. In fact, that is my favorite part. You see, a privilege of working in an ICU is that you take total care of your patients and it seems like my greatest days are those in which I get a chance to bathe my patients. It is so funny because I distinctly remember this and potty-help being my least favorite things about nursing school and yet now they have become my favorite. I think of what kind of attitude I would want to see in the face of the nurse who has to perform catheter care on me if ever I am in need of a catheter and I pray that I can always feel and emulate these emotions with my patients.
Seth has officially learned to fly! :) He passed his first check-ride today. It is basically a practical for flying. He did it all by himself! His instructor pilot didn't have to touch the controls at all! I'm so proud of him! And he is doing so well in his classes. Flight school sure takes up a lot of his time, but I am so blessed to have a wonderful husband like Seth. He makes dinner for me the days I am at work and always takes the time to listen when I'm having a bad day. God has given me way more than I ever deserve in the husband department. I only hope that all women I know could have someone as equally awesome as him.
Carlos is now a whopping 80 lbs. He turned eight months old yesterday! He has grown so much! I hope you all have been keeping up with him on Facebook. I feel sorry for all of my friends because I already post an obscene amount of things about my dog--imagine what it'll be like when we have kids!
Life is great! Busy, but great! God has blessed us far beyond measure and I cannot wait to see what he has in store for us next!
Photo by George Dean
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Already the end of the year?!?
Wow. I cannot believe 2011 is almost over. This was a big year for us! Seth and I both graduated, got married (of course we both did), became parents (to a fur child), moved away from home, and began new careers. This is by far the best year yet for us! I can't help but think of all the wonderful blessings we have in this world. We have the best families in the whole world. They have been so supportive through all of these life changes. Our friends can't be rivaled. They are so amazing. We left Texas with so many friends and yet were blessed with more amazing friends that we've made in Alabama. We both love our jobs and are passionate about what we do. We love being married & we cannot wait to spend the rest of our lives growing and changing together. And our puppy, Carlos, is pretty much the cutest, best dog ever! :)
We may start 2012 with a Christmas tree & lights still up (because I'm fighting hard that they stay up until their deaths), but this coming year will be just as great as 2011. I cannot wait to see what this year has in store for us! :)
We may start 2012 with a Christmas tree & lights still up (because I'm fighting hard that they stay up until their deaths), but this coming year will be just as great as 2011. I cannot wait to see what this year has in store for us! :)
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
My Job & Fort Rucker
I had a blog request (my only comment) to blog about my new job. So, while trying to follow the rules of the ever-glorious yet very necessary HIPPA, I will try my best to walk you through a day in the life of my job.
0445- My alarm goes off. Work is only 20 minutes away but my morning starts early to account for my devotional & breakfast eating.
0640- I arrive at work. Just enough time to walk into the building & clock in before taking the stairs up to the second floor where my unit is located.
0700- After receiving report from my night shift friends, I begin caring for my patients. They have all sorts of stuff going on. In our unit, diagnoses can range from suicide attempt, to surgery gone wrong, to heart issues requiring a cardiac drip but not a cardiologist (because we don't have one), to DKA, to respiratory issues (some requiring ventilators, to older person who had surgery and should just be watched a little more closely.
1100- Blood sugars (because EVERYONE in this world is becoming diabetic)
1300- Lunch (if I'm lucky). This consists of heating up food, sitting down, having 2 bites, being told that a patient needs something, stopping lunch, coming back in 30 minutes to find lunch cold, repeating, eating it anyways.
1700- Realizing that most of the day is gone and that I need to get my report ready for the next shift.
1845- Giving report to the night shift, then continuing the charting that I haven't yet done.
On average, 2000- Leaving work after finishing charting.
My hospital uses paper charting. I was REALLY afraid of it at first. I have learned that it is not all that bad. The problem is that there is a lot of repetition in the paperwork that could be avoided with computer charting. Someone told me a rumor that Medicaid/Medicare was going to start requiring it to be reimbursed. I just researched that rumor & it said that the physician must be switched to EHR (electronic health records) by 2011-2012 to not receive the additional 1% that will be charged if you do not have EHR. Sweet. Maybe it is coming to my hospital.
The wonderful thing that I love a lot about my unit is that the telemetry monitors for the whole hospital are in the ICU. We only have one monitor tech and he works at night, so during the day there is always an ICU RN working the monitors. Therefore, even when I have patients and I feel like I have no clue what I need to do, there is always a nurse I can ask. I love it. It is nice to have someone to ask when you feel lost or can't find something.
Every day I feel like I know more and more about what I need to do for my patients. Each day I realize that I am still learning and that I still have a long ways to go before I know most of what I need to know. And each day I am reminded of the fact that I will never know everything and I thank God for giving me lots of reference people for when I do not know.
I know that several of my blog followers are in nursing school. Do you guys have any questions about my work? I guess you could classify it is a Medical Intensive Care Unit/Step Down Unit. :)
I was just thinking about how long we will be here in Alabama so I decided to add up the weeks to figure it out. Seth begins flight school on 11/29. After he begins, we will have 43.4 weeks of pure training (if he gets Apaches, the air frame he wants. The shortest possibility is 36.4 weeks with the other air frames.) before we will leave here. That means that soonest we could be leaving here is September of next year (if he doesn't get his choice of Apaches). If he gets Apaches, the earliest we could be done here is the middle of October. However, there are a lot of "bubbles" here at Fort Rucker which means that a lot of times they are not ready for a class to move on and so they are put on "hold" for a couple of weeks. So, it is highly doubtful that we will be leaving that early next year.
0445- My alarm goes off. Work is only 20 minutes away but my morning starts early to account for my devotional & breakfast eating.
0640- I arrive at work. Just enough time to walk into the building & clock in before taking the stairs up to the second floor where my unit is located.
0700- After receiving report from my night shift friends, I begin caring for my patients. They have all sorts of stuff going on. In our unit, diagnoses can range from suicide attempt, to surgery gone wrong, to heart issues requiring a cardiac drip but not a cardiologist (because we don't have one), to DKA, to respiratory issues (some requiring ventilators, to older person who had surgery and should just be watched a little more closely.
1100- Blood sugars (because EVERYONE in this world is becoming diabetic)
1300- Lunch (if I'm lucky). This consists of heating up food, sitting down, having 2 bites, being told that a patient needs something, stopping lunch, coming back in 30 minutes to find lunch cold, repeating, eating it anyways.
1700- Realizing that most of the day is gone and that I need to get my report ready for the next shift.
1845- Giving report to the night shift, then continuing the charting that I haven't yet done.
On average, 2000- Leaving work after finishing charting.
My hospital uses paper charting. I was REALLY afraid of it at first. I have learned that it is not all that bad. The problem is that there is a lot of repetition in the paperwork that could be avoided with computer charting. Someone told me a rumor that Medicaid/Medicare was going to start requiring it to be reimbursed. I just researched that rumor & it said that the physician must be switched to EHR (electronic health records) by 2011-2012 to not receive the additional 1% that will be charged if you do not have EHR. Sweet. Maybe it is coming to my hospital.
The wonderful thing that I love a lot about my unit is that the telemetry monitors for the whole hospital are in the ICU. We only have one monitor tech and he works at night, so during the day there is always an ICU RN working the monitors. Therefore, even when I have patients and I feel like I have no clue what I need to do, there is always a nurse I can ask. I love it. It is nice to have someone to ask when you feel lost or can't find something.
Every day I feel like I know more and more about what I need to do for my patients. Each day I realize that I am still learning and that I still have a long ways to go before I know most of what I need to know. And each day I am reminded of the fact that I will never know everything and I thank God for giving me lots of reference people for when I do not know.
I know that several of my blog followers are in nursing school. Do you guys have any questions about my work? I guess you could classify it is a Medical Intensive Care Unit/Step Down Unit. :)
I was just thinking about how long we will be here in Alabama so I decided to add up the weeks to figure it out. Seth begins flight school on 11/29. After he begins, we will have 43.4 weeks of pure training (if he gets Apaches, the air frame he wants. The shortest possibility is 36.4 weeks with the other air frames.) before we will leave here. That means that soonest we could be leaving here is September of next year (if he doesn't get his choice of Apaches). If he gets Apaches, the earliest we could be done here is the middle of October. However, there are a lot of "bubbles" here at Fort Rucker which means that a lot of times they are not ready for a class to move on and so they are put on "hold" for a couple of weeks. So, it is highly doubtful that we will be leaving that early next year.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Catch-up
Wow! August 12th was the last time I wrote a blog post. That is crazy! So much has happened since then! First of all, Carlos is gigantic. He has to be 65 lbs now & is definitely 5.5 months old! He is my HUGE baby! We went for our first run with him yesterday. It was in the woods behind our house so no leash = his own pace. He basically did the same thing that he does when he is off the leash walking with us. He ran ahead, then stopped & smelled. Then ran ahead, and stopped and smelled. Two miles was quite a run for him & he was REALLY tired afterwards. Mission complete.
My job is amazing. I realize every day just how much I do not know, but I get to take care of people & make their otherwise not nice day spent in the ICU nice again. :) It is so nice to see happy people laying in bed and knowing you helped them smile.
Our house is finally looking like a home. We have wedding/engagement pictures up on our walls!! It feels like home. My parents came to visit for six days while Seth was gone for training (for three weeks! GEEZ!!). We had a blast & even saw a Civil War battle reenactment!
We are so excited that the holidays are coming up! Seth is frying a turkey for Thanksgiving & we are going home to Texas for part of Christmas! I can't wait! Hopefully I'll blog some more before then!
My job is amazing. I realize every day just how much I do not know, but I get to take care of people & make their otherwise not nice day spent in the ICU nice again. :) It is so nice to see happy people laying in bed and knowing you helped them smile.
Our house is finally looking like a home. We have wedding/engagement pictures up on our walls!! It feels like home. My parents came to visit for six days while Seth was gone for training (for three weeks! GEEZ!!). We had a blast & even saw a Civil War battle reenactment!
We are so excited that the holidays are coming up! Seth is frying a turkey for Thanksgiving & we are going home to Texas for part of Christmas! I can't wait! Hopefully I'll blog some more before then!
Friday, August 12, 2011
Employment!!
I have a job!!! I found out today that I am the newest Registered Nurse in the ICU at Medical Center Enterprise! I love the people at the hospital! They're so nice! It is a small ICU (7 beds) but I get a really great feeling that it is going to be a great place to start! I start orientation on August 22nd!
The other exciting thing about this start date: My sister & her munchkins are going to be in Destin Sunday through Thursday & I get to go stay with them! I'm a little nervous to leave my two guys alone here; but I know they will be fine! :)
The other exciting thing about this start date: My sister & her munchkins are going to be in Destin Sunday through Thursday & I get to go stay with them! I'm a little nervous to leave my two guys alone here; but I know they will be fine! :)
Monday, August 8, 2011
Praise Him
My blog today was going to be a prayer request for my dear friends Rob & Kirstin. They are in the process of adopting from Ethiopia. The rainy season marks a time when the Ethiopian government shuts down for three months and it was set to close last Friday. God went to work in Ethiopia and allowed for the courts to stay open one more week. You see, earlier this year all adoptions from their adoption agency ceased due to an investigation and thus their adoption process was already delayed quite a bit. So these dear friends gained another week to get the court to approve their adoption before the rainy season set in and all processing stopped for three months.. My post was going to be asking you to pray for these wonderful people as they patiently wait with hopes of receiving their approval before the court closed.
Today they received a call and their little boy is officially theirs! :) Praise God! This has been a really long process for them and they finally get to bring their child home. This process has taken over a year and they have been extremely patient. Please, please go read about their journey here. It will definitely make you cry and will also allow you to see the beautiful face of one of God's children who officially has an earthly home as of today. :)
Thank you all who have prayed for this family along their journey!
Today they received a call and their little boy is officially theirs! :) Praise God! This has been a really long process for them and they finally get to bring their child home. This process has taken over a year and they have been extremely patient. Please, please go read about their journey here. It will definitely make you cry and will also allow you to see the beautiful face of one of God's children who officially has an earthly home as of today. :)
Thank you all who have prayed for this family along their journey!
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Internet in Alabama!
Hello! I'm alive! It was funny to see that my last post was from May 9th! That is almost 3 months ago! Wow! So much has happened since then!
Graduation & Pinning
They were both amazing! It was so cool to actually be done with school! Pinning is such neat ritual & I'm so glad that I got to share it with my family and friends! And my mom got to put the pin on me, which made it extra special!
Wedding
Wow. It was absolutely amazing. The best part about it, for me, was the serenity that came over me the couple of hours before & during the ceremony. I was completely calm and at peace. Nothing could go wrong. I was marrying my best friend and the world was right. Several things did go wrong. For instance, a hobo tried to crash our wedding & Seth had to intervene. The video camera almost didn't make it (and I still haven't seen the video). I kissed my dress (with lipstick on) during the last minute pee session and Sabrina freaked out. I guess those are small wrong things. The ceremony was absolutely perfect. I didn't cry (I know, I was amazed, too!)! The reception was mostly perfect (I really did not enjoy our DJ). Our family and friends were there & it was an amazing day!
Honeymoon
Mexico was phenomenal! Gosh. So many great things! We stayed at Excellence Playa Mujeres. It was an all-inclusive resort 20 minutes North of Cancun. I have so many neat pictures. We went to Chichen Itza, the Mayan ruins on the Yucatan Peninsula. It is one of the 7 Wonders of the World and it was phenomenal! Other than that, we laid on the beach, drank piña coladas (ok, Seth didn't. He had beer), and ate all the food that our little hearts desired. By Day 3 we wished that people would let us do stuff for ourselves, but we enjoyed the rest of the trip.
We got back from the honeymoon, stayed in the hotel that we met in six years ago on that fabulous Youth Tour trip, went to our friends Ricky & Katlin's wedding, and then returned to as normal as it got for a month. We stayed at my parents' house for a little while. I took my NCLEX on June 23rd & passed it (most of you already know that). Therefore, I am officially a nurse! :)
Carlos
We also gained a member of our family, Carlos. He is now 10 weeks & 2 days old. He was born on May 24th of this year & we picked him up on July 4th. He is the sweetest Velociraptor anyone could ever have. Just kidding. He is a Golden Retriever. But sometimes I swear that the toilet paper and I would agree that he is a dinosaur. He is so good! He can sit, lay down, stay, and give kisses (that one is just for me). He already knows that Seth is more for playing & I am more for loving (although we do play a lot, too). He has only had 2 accidents in our house and we have been here for 3 weeks!! Up until two days ago, he whined at the door when he needed to go outside. Two days ago we hung some bells on the door handle & now he rings the bells to go outside (Thanks, Robert & Lauren!). He loves tug of war & chewing on hands. We are trying to stop the latter. He is getting really good at fetch, too.
Moving
It was really sad to move, I must admit. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be but only because I thought I wouldn't be able to drive away. It was a 13.5 hour drive and we split it up in two days; stopping in Meridian, Mississippi. I saw a lot of America that I had never seen before & the drive really wasn't that bad. Carlos slept the majority of the time (benefit of him being a tiny puppy). As soon as we got here to Fort Rucker, Alabama, we got our house & moved in! It was so simple.
Our House
I love it. I didn't know how I would feel about living on post. I thought there would be a lot of restrictions that I couldn't take; but the benefits outweigh the negative things. In about two months, Seth will have SERE training during which we have no contact for three weeks. He is a lot more ready to do that knowing that I will be safe inside the post gates during that time. Carlos will keep me safe. The lawn mowing situation kind of makes me mad since they almost didn't mow the first week because the gate was "locked" by a cinder block blocking a hole so Carlos couldn't climb out & this past week they didn't mow at all due to "excessive pet feces." Before y'all think I'm gross, it was not excessive. However, it will be in tip-top shape come Monday & there will be no complaints about my yard. We were blessed to have been given a couch, love seat, & TV by Seth's parents. Our only other furniture was an air mattress. Since then, we have gotten a table, side tables and a TV stand for the living room, and bedroom furniture. The house is amazing. We were supposed to only get a two bedroom home. They were all out of them so instead they put us in a three bedroom home so we can have a guest bedroom & an office! Seth is so excited to build a desk for our office!
It has been such a blast to set up our home together. Seth has had most of the time off with the exception of 0550 workouts every morning so we have been able to spend almost all of the three weeks together. We are still getting all the finishing touches worked out; but I am so happy to say that we are pretty much moved in!
And, I have a second interview (a call-back, if you will) for an ICU position tomorrow! I am so ready to begin working (but not ready to leave Carlos here by himself, which is why I'm going to be a stay-at-home mom when we have kids).
This has been a crazy couple of months & I am so grateful for the time off we have had but so ready to start our normal lives! :) Thank you all for the support during the crazy wedding planning & through the end of nursing school. Hopefully I'll be posting pictures of it all soon! :)
Graduation & Pinning
They were both amazing! It was so cool to actually be done with school! Pinning is such neat ritual & I'm so glad that I got to share it with my family and friends! And my mom got to put the pin on me, which made it extra special!
Wedding
Wow. It was absolutely amazing. The best part about it, for me, was the serenity that came over me the couple of hours before & during the ceremony. I was completely calm and at peace. Nothing could go wrong. I was marrying my best friend and the world was right. Several things did go wrong. For instance, a hobo tried to crash our wedding & Seth had to intervene. The video camera almost didn't make it (and I still haven't seen the video). I kissed my dress (with lipstick on) during the last minute pee session and Sabrina freaked out. I guess those are small wrong things. The ceremony was absolutely perfect. I didn't cry (I know, I was amazed, too!)! The reception was mostly perfect (I really did not enjoy our DJ). Our family and friends were there & it was an amazing day!
Honeymoon
Mexico was phenomenal! Gosh. So many great things! We stayed at Excellence Playa Mujeres. It was an all-inclusive resort 20 minutes North of Cancun. I have so many neat pictures. We went to Chichen Itza, the Mayan ruins on the Yucatan Peninsula. It is one of the 7 Wonders of the World and it was phenomenal! Other than that, we laid on the beach, drank piña coladas (ok, Seth didn't. He had beer), and ate all the food that our little hearts desired. By Day 3 we wished that people would let us do stuff for ourselves, but we enjoyed the rest of the trip.
We got back from the honeymoon, stayed in the hotel that we met in six years ago on that fabulous Youth Tour trip, went to our friends Ricky & Katlin's wedding, and then returned to as normal as it got for a month. We stayed at my parents' house for a little while. I took my NCLEX on June 23rd & passed it (most of you already know that). Therefore, I am officially a nurse! :)
Carlos
We also gained a member of our family, Carlos. He is now 10 weeks & 2 days old. He was born on May 24th of this year & we picked him up on July 4th. He is the sweetest Velociraptor anyone could ever have. Just kidding. He is a Golden Retriever. But sometimes I swear that the toilet paper and I would agree that he is a dinosaur. He is so good! He can sit, lay down, stay, and give kisses (that one is just for me). He already knows that Seth is more for playing & I am more for loving (although we do play a lot, too). He has only had 2 accidents in our house and we have been here for 3 weeks!! Up until two days ago, he whined at the door when he needed to go outside. Two days ago we hung some bells on the door handle & now he rings the bells to go outside (Thanks, Robert & Lauren!). He loves tug of war & chewing on hands. We are trying to stop the latter. He is getting really good at fetch, too.
Moving
It was really sad to move, I must admit. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be but only because I thought I wouldn't be able to drive away. It was a 13.5 hour drive and we split it up in two days; stopping in Meridian, Mississippi. I saw a lot of America that I had never seen before & the drive really wasn't that bad. Carlos slept the majority of the time (benefit of him being a tiny puppy). As soon as we got here to Fort Rucker, Alabama, we got our house & moved in! It was so simple.
Our House
I love it. I didn't know how I would feel about living on post. I thought there would be a lot of restrictions that I couldn't take; but the benefits outweigh the negative things. In about two months, Seth will have SERE training during which we have no contact for three weeks. He is a lot more ready to do that knowing that I will be safe inside the post gates during that time. Carlos will keep me safe. The lawn mowing situation kind of makes me mad since they almost didn't mow the first week because the gate was "locked" by a cinder block blocking a hole so Carlos couldn't climb out & this past week they didn't mow at all due to "excessive pet feces." Before y'all think I'm gross, it was not excessive. However, it will be in tip-top shape come Monday & there will be no complaints about my yard. We were blessed to have been given a couch, love seat, & TV by Seth's parents. Our only other furniture was an air mattress. Since then, we have gotten a table, side tables and a TV stand for the living room, and bedroom furniture. The house is amazing. We were supposed to only get a two bedroom home. They were all out of them so instead they put us in a three bedroom home so we can have a guest bedroom & an office! Seth is so excited to build a desk for our office!
It has been such a blast to set up our home together. Seth has had most of the time off with the exception of 0550 workouts every morning so we have been able to spend almost all of the three weeks together. We are still getting all the finishing touches worked out; but I am so happy to say that we are pretty much moved in!
And, I have a second interview (a call-back, if you will) for an ICU position tomorrow! I am so ready to begin working (but not ready to leave Carlos here by himself, which is why I'm going to be a stay-at-home mom when we have kids).
This has been a crazy couple of months & I am so grateful for the time off we have had but so ready to start our normal lives! :) Thank you all for the support during the crazy wedding planning & through the end of nursing school. Hopefully I'll be posting pictures of it all soon! :)
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