Or not . . .

Ok, so today wasn't near as productive as the last day that I posted. Part of the reason is the fact that I worked a 16 hour shift yesterday. I got home around 11:20 last night and relaxed in a nice hot bath and then collasped into bed. Today, I just kinda lounged around the house and did nothing major. I sorted through a few things and got a few more things organized on my laptop, but other than that, it was uneventful.

I guess the biggest news of today comes from my brother. He is gearing up for a big move to Portland, Oregon. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers as he will be moving the first week of August with his job. My sister is starting LPN school a week from Monday, and my nephew starts kindergarten the middle of the month. We have a busy August planned. I can't wait for Christmas, as the whole family will be together. It will be wonderful to have us all under the same roof again. I'll get to see mom and dad on the 15th or 16th (I can't remember which right now ~ it's almost time for bed).

Everything else is the same. Derby is still eating carrots and driving me crazy if I don't get to him as soon as I walk through the door. I hope that you all have a great evening. I'll touch base soon. Until then, cj

Being Productive

Have you ever had one of those days where you have all the energy in the world and you can't seem to do enough? Well, today turned into one of those days. It started fairly early taking a friend to drop their car off at the shop and from there it just kept getting better. I finally got in my kitchen and reorganized it (or if you prefer - finally correctly unpacked it!), scrubbed the floor (after sweeping, of course), and then moved into the bathroom. Now I do weekly cleaning, but today, I scrubbed harder and deeper than I normally do. I don't own a mop because I have a mostly carpeted apartment. It was insane, I just kept going. Then I finished up drug cards that I have been working on for school for about a month. That's been my day. Who knows what the mood will strike me to do next, we'll just have to wait and see. Until then, cj

Nothing new to report

Yesterday was insane. There was hardly enough help to go around at the hospital. We made it through, and I came home and collapsed. I was able to rest last night and have gotten off to a lzy start this morning. I have a few things to do today, but nothing major. I have the next few days off and don't have to go back to work until Tuesday. I just wanted to touch base with everyone and say hello. Have a safe and happy weekend. Until later, cj

Ahhh, the joys of working PRN!

For those of you who have no idea what PRN means, it means "as needed". Most of the time, I can work without a problem. However, today, there were 6 people with my position scheduled, so I got the glorious wake-up call between 4:30 and 5:00 telling me that I would be on-call for today. In other words, I wouldn't be working! This is quite a change from the last schedule, as you may remember. I would work 3 days, be off one, then back for 3 more. Well, now I have had 3 off, work one, and then be off for 3 more. I guess they are trying to get me back into the school habit. I enjoyed having today off. I spent part of the day lounging around the house, and then I went over to my friend, Jen's house and we watched a movie. It is entirely too hot for us to do anything else, especially since she has a 4 year old!

We are now into 11 days straight of 100+ heat. They say a "cold" front is coming this weekend, which should cool us off into the mid-to-upper 90's. Oh well, that's summer in Texas for you. I hope you have all had a great day! Talk to you soon! Until then, cj

Errand day

Today was my second day off in a row. I was much kinder to myself this schedule and have two or three days off in a row. I got lots of things done on my to-do list between yesterday and today. It feels good to be able to accomplish things that I actually need to do instead of just being able to barely catch up on my sleep.

I do have some great news about school. On Saturday, I got a letter in the mail that I have been selected to receive a scholarship for next school year. This will help out greatly with my daily costs and the stress of not being able to work so much. The one downfall of getting this scholarship is that I have to attend an awards ceremony and banquet and of course that happens to fall on the day I was supposed to leave for mom and dad's. We are all ok with me not going to see them, considering the amount of money I am getting that I don't have to pay back, but I am disappointed that I don't get to go see them and relax. They will be down here the next week, so I will at least get to hug them before school starts! I'm still taking the days off, since they are already scheduled that way. I'm sure I can find something to do!

I am getting my laptop configured to my liking and am slowly getting ready for school to start. I think I have gotten my supplies and everything ready. I know I still have over a month, but for me, I can never be too ready.

As always, thanks for checking in with me. I look forward to hearing from any of you. Until next time, cj

Hot, Humid, and Just Plain Icky.

Ok, so that tells you about the weather here in north Texas. I don't even watch the news for the weather reports because I know what it is going to say. It's mid-July and it's hot. We will probably be at or over 100 degrees for the rest of the summer. I try to coordinate all my errands at one time. I don't like the heat. I don't like to sweat. I'm a wimp. Oh well, that's my rant about the weather. There's nothing I can do about that, except stay inside as much as possible.

On the other side of life, it's one of those blah days. I'm in between two sets of shifts. Kinda just don't want to do anything, but have to do a lot, you know. So while I was running my errands today, I was at Albertson's picking up my prescription and some groceries for the next few days and saw the prettiest flowers. Now, I'm not the type that will normally go and buy flowers for myself, but these were beautifully arranged in a vase and were under $10. Since I'm the only one I have to spend my money on, I decided to buy them. I needed something to kinda brighten up my day (besides coming home to cleaning the bathroom and doing laundry)!

We'll see how the rest of the weekend goes. I have a three day stretch at work starting tomorrow. Things have been absolutely insane. Too much construction, too much insanity. Not enough communication. They tried to get me to work today, but that would have had me working like 6 days straight and I'd be STUPID to do that, not to mention dead tired.

Everything seems to be coming together nicely for school. I'm getting a good start on some of the small things I can accomplish so I won't have to be so stressed when classes start. I know it may seem silly to many of you, but it helps me! That's the only thing that matters, right? ;-)

I'm including pictures of my flowers and Derby. He is growing fatter and fatter every day. I hope you enjoy seeing them. Let me know what you think!

I hope you all have a great weekend. I'm looking forward to my days off after this weekend. I don't think I'll ever have a traditional work schedule again. Oh well, that's the choice of my career path! Until next time, cj

Getting ready

What am I getting ready for you may ask? Well, only the 2nd semester of nursing school. I know that I still have about 6 weeks left of summer, but our syllabi CD came out today. Since I was off, I took full advantage of the time and got everything printed up, my calendar revised the way I want it and even got my reading list typed up for the semester. All of this is subject to change, but for now, I have a decent start on my semester. I also have all of my books for the semester. Now if I can just get the rest of my clutter taken care of, I'll be good to go. I get spurts of energy that don't seem to stay for long. So, if anyone has a few free hours, I'm more than willing to let you help me get the rest of my life organized. Have a great evening. I'll touch base soon. Until then, cj

Another day has come and gone.

Well, June has quickly escaped us. I know that at times it seems like this summer is dragging on, but July is now well underway. It is hot and humid in North Texas and it will stay that way for quite awhile. Work is still taking precedence in my life. I do, however, have a new toy that will go with me to school and back. I'm working diligently to get it up and running. I'm enjoying learning the ins and outs of a new computer and am anxious to get my wireless router and other stuff going. Not much else is going on besides trying to keep my sanity at work. Some days are better than others, but I always manage to survive. Thanks for checking in on me and I'll try to update you again soon. Until then, cj

Happy 4th of July!

I hope everyone has had a safe and happy 4th of July. Mine was spent working, but then, most of my days are. It was a fairly laid back day, tho it did have it's stressful moments. We got some much needed rain today! I hope it continues as the forecasters say it will. We need all we can get.

I don't have much else going on besides work. I am planning a trip to see mom and dad the first part of August, but that's about it. I'm hoping that with this next schedule, I can go see my grandparents and some of my other friends and family that are within driving distance before school starts. We'll have to wait and see what happens. It's time for me to collapse, but I just wanted to actually let everyone know that I'm still alive! Take care, cj