Changes

Hi Everyone! Fall is coming up fast! Football is here and I'll soon be making chili and pumpkin bars and bread weekly! With fall, we officially have a Kindergartener. Olivia has adjusted well to the new Big K scene, as we like to call it, I'm still adjusting. She loves it there and has made a cute little friend or two. She is also involved in a kid's fitness class where they walk each morning in the gym. The older kids record their laps but the K's just walk. She's learning to do lots of things on her own, from putting on shoes to buttoning hard buttons. She's doing great. She's even ridden the bus! The big bus! Ugh. I was informed by the neighbor boys that the back of the bus is reserved for the 5th graders. Oooh. Apparently, Olivia is the last stop on the bus route so there weren't any seats and the 5th graders had to move over per bus driver request and let her sit down with them. Drama! I bet Olivia was in heaven.

Each Kindergarten day is gauged on a stop light poster of behavior in their room. Each kid has a clip and if they have to move their clip from blue (the outside of the poster) to green, they need to adjust their behavior. Yellow is worse and red is big time trouble. At the end of the day, if their clip was not moved, they get a hand stamp saying they had an untouchable awesome day. Olivia has returned home without a stamp twice so far. Once for yelling in the hallway and once for "shoving the line". We had a long talk about thinking about our actions before we act on them. Saying to ourselves, "Will this hurt someone? Will this make someone upset?" If the answer is yes or maybe, we shouldn't do it. Unless it's CPR of course. A couple of broken ribs and some upset people is worth saving a life. But let's not get too technical.

Speaking of getting technical, I've been taking A LOT of online assessments (a nice word for exams), to prepare for boards. I'm so frustrated today. I used to do really well and now I seem to be in a rut. They seem to pick some obscure drug that no one has heard of and ask about a obscure side effect or interaction with another drug I've never heard of. It's so frustrating. Just when I start getting comfy. Plus, I've initiated a general rule in my practice to look up every drug that I don't know and know it before I hand it over to the patient. So, can't there be an option E? Look it up in the drug book? That's my answer.

My goal is to not stress too much about boards, to trust that God will give me the tools I need to succeed. After all, it does say so in the Bible somewhere. Anyone remember it? So, that is my quest. I'll let you know how it all turns out.

I started my job last week on W3CC. Steve loves that I'm finally making money. He even made me dinner one night after a long shift. What could be better? It is nice to be able to contribute too. My first week was a nice little wake up call for me to get into the game and take over some nursing responsibility. The nurses around me do a good job of giving me a little shove into what might be over my head or a little scary for me. It was "sink or swim" when I found myself admitting my first patient and no one showed up to help me or tell me what to do. I swam I think... a few gulps of water but nothing too terrible. I went back out to the nurse's station flustered and red faced and sweating and everyone was sitting there smiling expectingly, "Well...how did it go?" Jerks. Times like these, we see what we are made of, even if we don't care to see it. It wasn't SO bad. I did lots of things I haven't done before, things that they wouldn't let us do as students. Pull arterial lines, hold pressure, hang blood, call report to people. And I've learned that comfortable is not the place of learning. I need to be very uncomfortable in order for me to learn my most valued lessons. I guess that I should see this current rut in my test taking as perfect timing. I guess I need to learn some more before boards, and they're coming up VERY soon, although the exact date will not be disclosed. I don't know if I could civilly handle repeating "how it went" more than once without sobbing. I've heard sobbing is standard. Two days of it actually.

Back to family...I've been enjoying this new schedule of Kindergarten and work, no nursing school! I get two whole weekdays off with just Sophie. We have a good time. She calls them our "special days" when its just us. Turns out its pretty easy hanging out with just one. We miss our little Livy Lu though and look forward to 3:15 pm. :)

Well, there's a little update on us, mostly me, sorry. I'll get over myself as soon as I can.

Here's some pics of the girls and their little friend Chloe who spent the night with us the other night. They were helping Steve put together a shelf for our bathroom decked out in full princess attire, holding screwdrivers. I thought it was funny. There's also pics from graduation and Liv's first day of Kindergarten. Take care and let me know how YOU are doing!

Love,

Mel