Wow, i havent written in here for eons!

Wow! I havent written in here for so long! And so much has happened!

I loved my charge nurse job. It was a GREAT learning experience. Kept me plenty busy though! But as time went on I got more comfortable with the job and responsibilties, and developed a good working relationship with the staff and residents. I had my share of "excitement" from time to time, which ranged from people dying to people falling down and splitting their heads open. Unfortunately due to the understaffing and the need to work many hours overtime I have had to take a leave of asbsense to be able to go back to school. I tried to keep up working and going to school at the same time, but it just wasnt working out---had to get some sleep in there sometime!

My nursing classes have been going great. . I have been doing my clinicals on a surgical floor which has been interesting... pretty easy. I have been able to take up to 4 patients at once now. There have been some super busy days though, mind you! This year is TONS harder than last year as far as classroom stuff is concerned, but that is kinda to be expectected being a second year nursing studentUnfortunately many people arent passing the class, which is sad. But I have somehow managed to keep up my 4.0GPA... so far...lol

I added on another class this term: sociology. I thought it would probably be a pretty easy class. Boy was i wrong! I guess i got an unusually hard teacher. We have 3 tests, essays, assigments for each week, etc that need to be done. The good thing about the class though is that it is just once a week: Tuesday nights from 6-9pm.

In my "spare" time i have been helping a friend who is taking his batchelors in nursing online. That has been pretty challenging as i have been sometimes putting more hours into his classes than mine. But it has been beneficial to me as i have learned a lot of stuff myself from helping him. I just finished spending 8.5 hours researching stuff for a paper for him. It was one mighty hard paper! I was like, boy i am glad all i am going to do is research this stuff ,and not write the paper! :P

My sister is seriously dating a guy, Jeff at this point. She just spent 8 days with him during Thanksgiving time. He is a great guy, and i hope that all goes well for them. He is a sociology/theology double major at Walla Walla College and will be graduating with his batchelors degree this June. They met online and have been writing to each other for about a year now. This was their second time seeing each other.

On Oct22, my sister, dad and I went to the Grants Pass SDA church to meet some friends that Sharon and i had made online on an adventist dating website that we are on. (Adventistsinglesconnection.com) The guy, Les is from Canada, and is dating Melissa who lives in Grants Pass. It was soooooooo cool to actually get to meet them , as i have spent hour chatting with Les in particular online. I figured i would probably never get to meet him in person, so when i learned that he was coming my way, i jumped at the chance to meet him. Melissa is a real sweetheart, and we hit it right off. Being the only single person in the group, Melissa did a lot of coniving, and scheming....lol, and had told me about a guy that went to their church who works with the kids a lot. I just kinda ignored her, and went my way. But... i did meet him, and we did hit it off... and we have been writing regularly to each other since then. I went down to Grants Pass last Sabbath again to spend time with him and friends. He is a real hoot, and is full of life and energy. (Which I like btw!) So, we will see what happens. We plan on seeing each other two more times in December. Needless to say, i have really enjoyed getting to know him. I am trying to not rush things... especially since it hasnt been all that long since Matthew and I broke up.... and want to make sure that this is really something that God has in mind for me. The cool thing is that he believes in putting God first in relationships as well... so that is great. Been praying about it all tons, and so far my parents really like him (a huge plus!).

Ok.. me thinks i got everyone caught up on the big stuff that has been happening around here...

Boo!

Hi all... summer seems to have flown by and left me behind! I have been incredibly busy!

I got a job as a charge nurse at a nursing home this summer and have been absolutely loving working there! I care for anywhere between 51-32 residents at a time and supervise upwards of 5 people and sometimes as many as 20. The people i work with are so great and the residents are a lot of fun. Of course we have the not so fun ones too.. but each person is unique and i love my job. I of course have tons to learn and sometimes it seems like i will never learn it all, but I am sure i will. :)

Hope all is going well with you all.. let me know how it is going...

Waaa hooo!

Here are some more pics! :)

Gemini Rose  

Sharon yacking on the phone :P 

I took this pic of this sunset from my front yard :) 

My sister 

Mom and Dad at Brice Creek Park 

Moonlite night over Cottage Grove Lake 

howdy from HOT Oregon!

Hi all! Time for an update! I have been super busy but things couldnt be going better!!! First of all, I have been doing a training with my school at the hospital. I signed up for 108 hours (14 days) and what i do is go to the hospital and work with a nurse for the length of her shift. I am working on the neurology floor, which is so interesting. We have all the back surgeries, strokes, cerebral brain bleeds, broken backs, and most interesting, the head traumas, and back trauma patients. I absolutely love it! When i started i was taking care of one patient, now i am taking care of up to 6 patients at a time. I have worked with some really awesome nurses as well. The good thing is that they really like me, so i hope that if a job opening comes where i can work the shift (would have to be part time, evening shift) they will offer it to me. :)

In the meantime, I received a job offer at Creswell Care Center for part time LPN position. I accepted the offer. I will be starting work on August 1.

I started taking a history class this week. It is a 4 week intensive class, so it is pretty fast paced. But my instructor is really intersting, so that makes it easier. :) I am really enjoying it.


It has been rather hot here... around 100 degrees. I keep making the mistake of studying outside... (get tired of being couped up all the time inside....lol) and so i seem to keep a perpetual sunburn. I should know better with all the skin cancer lectures that i have received... haha

Life is so interesting!

So much has been happening!

It has been a long time since i updated this thing...lol And so much has happened. To start off with I managed to survive the last 2 weeks of spring term. We had over 2000 pages to read in one (yes only one) of our textbooks in 2 weeks, plus get ready for the comprehensive final exam. It was rather "intensive" studying. But i survived and i got my A. :)

After that, i spent a week in CA helping Matthew and Jay move from their apt. I cleaned their apt for them. I shall never clean a batchelors apt again! lol Just kidding. It was fun getting to see CA again. The last time i was down there i was 7 years old and i dont remember it at all. I also made a new friend when i was down there. Her name is Dee Dee and she was helping Matthew move. We hit it right off and talked like crazy when we were together. We have been keeping in touch since I came back. She is a really sweet lady and I am glad that we met. :)

So, once I got back, I had 10 days to study for my state board nursing exam. In those 10 days i managed to read over 1210 pages in 3 prep books! I took the exam last Thursday. It was HARD! I got the minimum number of questions (85) which was nice. I did the test in just about an hour when i had up to 5 hours to do it. I walked out thinking i had flunked but on Sabbath i got the notice that i has passed!! I was soooooooooooo happy! Last night i got my license in the mail. So now i am a licensed and regulated LPN nurse! Waa hoo!

I am now job hunting. I have a job possibility available to me currently, but i am going to look a bit more to see what else is out there before deciding that i want the job.

Besides that, i have been jogging up to 5 miles a day down by the lake. I am trying to get back into shape after being so sedentary all school year. I really love running and it is a great way to work out. I have also been brushing up on my piano playing some too, which has been fun

Ok, i better go eat my breakfast here. :)

Yikes!!! Finals

The last 2 weeks have been insane. I think that the nursing program is designed so that by the time you graduate with your LPN you are dead! Last weekend i had an entire online course to do (in 3 days! :O) and then i had a poster project to do as well that weekend. Now i am trying to study for my finals and it seems that one thing and then another keeps coming up to keep me from studying. I dont know when i have been so busy in my entire school time. But by the end of monday... i will have completed my first year of nursing school!!! yay!!

This summer i am taking a total of 12 credits... i know...crazy me. But i am working on stuff for my batchelors so that i can transfer to southwestern adventist university and get my BSN in a year there.

Pray that i do well on my finals.... i am really running it close for an A this term. :S

whew!!!

Whew!!! What a week! :) At clinicals this week, on tuesday i had to do 2 pick- up patients, which was rather stressful. At the end of the day, my instructor asked me to do clinical conference, and sooooooooo..... i had to do prep once i got home AND prepare my presentation for clinical conference. I worked on it until 3am and then laid down on my bed for an hour before starting up again. I didnt get quite all done, but it turned out ok! The amazing thing is that i didnt feel tired for most of the next day. In the late afternoon i talked to matthew on the phone and got really relaxed and then i got sooooooooo sleepy! I rode the bus home and crashed on my bed for half an hour before doing anything else. I also went to bed "early" at 11pm. Sleep is such an awesome thing! hehe

Yesterday we finally got some sun! It was so nice that i went and studied outside for 4 hours. I have a huge test on Monday and i had about 500 pages left to read ( i have had been reading all week too.. this test had about 1000 pages to read for it in 2 weeks! yikes!) and i was rather intent on my studying. After i got done, i came inside, and my friends were like, oh my goodness, look at your arms! Ooops.. i got a bad sunburn. :( Oh well... it felt so good to be outside!

I have really enjoyed riding the bus these days to and from the hospital and to and from LCC to Cottage Grove now that gas is so expensive. Usually i sleep. People cant believe that i can walk on a bus, sit down, and be asleep in 2 minutes and not wake up until my stop. It doenst matter whether i am the only one or if there are 100 people on it. I think some people worry that i wont wake up because lately some people have awakened me when i am within 4 miles of my stop. I always tell them that they dont need to, that i always wake up just as my bus is pulling up to my stop. haha Sometimes i have friends on the bus, or i make new friends, so that is fun too. I have made a new friend recently on there. He was in my math95 class, and i had never talked to him. But he is riding the bus sometimes and so we got to talk this week. That was cool.

Ok, i better go study and all that jazz....i should post more pics on here sometime...

Hey!

I havent written in here for a bit. This past Monday i had one of the hardest nursing tests any of us had ever seen. When i got done i thought i had bombed it, but i managed to get an A somehow... not sure how though. lol Then the same day i got a sore throat. The next day i had clinicals. I havent had any real clinicals yet this term so it was a bit stressful remembering how to do all the charting and stuff on the computer system. By evening my fever was 101 degrees. I went to bed and by 4am i had no fever, so i was able to go to the hospital again the next day. I had a really nice patient to care for, so that was nice. The rest of this week i just have been taking it easy and trying to get over being sick. Hard to study when you dont feel so good. Grrrr!

I have so much that i need to be doing that it is crazy. I did manage to get all my stuff sent into the Oregon State Board of Nursing for my NCLEX-PN exam. That is, after shelling out over $300. Now all i need to do is study for the test! The exam is up to 5 hours long. Anyone wanna take it for me? :P Plus, i need to get my resume written soon, so i can start applying for jobs as an LPN. How come there are only 24 hours in a day instead of 36? hehe Sleep is way over rated anyway. At least for college students. I remember when going to bed at 11pm was late. Now i think that going to bed at .... hmm....2am and getting back up at 4:30am is called "a little too little amount of sleep". haha

Ok, off to hit da books again!

Some thoughts

God sees the beginning to the end and i see only the here and now. God is in control of everything as long as i let Him be in control. Sometimes though it is so hard to trust Him with everything. I think i know what is best. But if i try to do my own thing, it wont work out well because once again i only see the here and now. I may think that my plans are what is best for me but i dont see what is going to happen 10 years from now. But God does. And He takes all that into account when He controls my life. So God's plans may not go with my plans. God has promised that He will never give me more than i can bare and He will never leave or forsake me. Currently i think i can hardly handle all that i have right now. But if the Lord allows something else to happen then i will know that He knows that i can handle it with Him helping me. He is in in the process of refining my character and making me into His likeness.

Sometimes i try to tell God what to do, and then i am so disappointed when it doesnt work out. But that isnt totally surrendering to God. That is my telling God that i know better than He does and He better mind me or else! Mark 14:36 says: "And He said, "Abba father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what i will but what You will" I have really struggled with that this week. That is total surrender. That is totally trusting God with everything. That is giving it all to God and letting Him control everything. It was a real struggle to get to that point and tell God that I want only what He wants in my life. He knows what is best and i am going to trust Him to work it out. I have to pray that prayer often though because i keep taking things out of Gods hands and saying: "Look ye here God, i know what is best in this matter.... you didnt do this when you were on this earth and so you dont know how to deal with this. So now, i shall tell you how it should work out. " Sigh... doesnt work out too hot when you tell God what to do. The cool thing about God is that He doesnt argue with me, He just says " fine... you try that and see what happens." Ooops... it doesnt go so well... You would think that i would learn eventually... but i keep taking things out of God's hands and trying to do stuff on my own. Hence things dont always go so well for me and i end up with a lot of heartbreak and disappointment that i could avoid just by trusting that God is working things out for me. I seem to learn in the school of hard knocks a lot. rofl But hey...if it takes hard knocks to make me learn... then i will take whatever it takes to help me learn!

All the stress of trying to move out in 10 weeks and stuff with relationships have really driven me to realize that God is really the only one i can trust and that He truly is always there for me to talk to. When everything else is taken away from you and you realize that God is the only one there for you.... it really drives you to Him and deepens your relationship with Him.

When you spend time getting to know someone and sharing with them and getting into a relationship with them, you grow to love and care for that person. The same is true with God. The more time i spend with God talking to Him, sharing my thoughts and feelings, letting Him talk to me, the more close i will get to Him and the more He will mean to me.

Sheesh... i better quit blabbing here.

Stress!

I am so stressed out right now with everything that has been going on. But God has promised that all things will work together for the good of those that love Him. I know that God is in the process of refining my character into the person He wants me to become! I just pray that i will always totally surrender everything to God so that He can accomplish what He needs to do in order to get me ready for His kingdom!

My future and all my plans and dreams and goals are in God's hands. He will guide me and show me in the way that i should go. I just have to trust Him.

Posting your comments

I updated my blog so that anyone can post comments. Before, only blogspot members could post comments. Now anyone out there can. So, tell me what ya think! :)

It is raining again...:(

Update on my spring break!

My week of spring break is going to be over by the end of today. :( I have really enjoyed being able to relax and not think about tests and the like for a week. I got a lot done too on my break. I went to two physical therapy appts, and cleaned up my pig pen. I actually washed my bed... and wonder of wonders... of all shocking things... i even made my bed too! I cleaned up my room, which had suffered the trauma of having hurricane student go through it all term. I found a lot of stuff that i had lost when i looked under the bed. rofl It rained my entire break except for Friday. I spent most of Friday outside. First i planted a bunch of pansies and then washed the cars. My grandma's car was really bad. ( I shall never buy a Buick if i can help it!) After Sharon and i had washed the Honda and Gram's Buick, Sharon suggested that we tackle the truck. Now, warning, the truck hasn't been washed for over 5 years. Sheesh... the mold and lichen, and dirt! It was amazing... i thought that the sides of the truck were grey. But after we had scrubbed it, we found it to be white. :O It was rather hard to wash. Sharon joked that we needed to get scratch pads and scrape the dirt off. Any way... we had a lot of fun. Sharon also worked on weeding all the flower beds. They look MUCH better now. Now all i need to do is plant some flowers in the flower beds so that there is some color in my yard.

Sharon and i went to a couple of vespers programs at church. One was a concert by Lee Larson. It was really great... i love his style of singing. Oh, how i love country music! lol Last night we went to the final meeting of Doug Batchelors meetings, The prophecy Code. It was really good.... all about the place that God is preparing for us in heaven. I can hardly wait to go there!

Even though i have enjoyed my break, i look forward to going back to school and working at the hospital!

weren't we cute little girls??  

ooo...babies! Two of them too! 

me at the lake 

Nurse nurse!