Last post of 2007

As I sit here and reflect back on the last year, it amazes me all that has happened. I successfully completed nursing school, I found a new job which has led to the job I will be doing as a nurse, and so many things in between that I can't remember them all right. I worked a lot, I studied a lot, I cried a lot, I laughed a lot. But I am so looking forward to 2008. I have needed a positive change in my life for a long time. It's taken me a long time to get to this point in my life. A lot of rough roads took me through nursing school. I'm a stronger person because of them, but I'm ready for some easy roads. I know my transition to nursing won't be all roses, but it's a new change that is going to help me in many untold ways. Thank you for joining me on this journey. I hope everyone has a safe and happy new year's eve. I'll be back in full force next year! cjb

A link to share

I just wanted to share this with you. It's a link to the site to check out all of the pictures of my pinning ceremony. They turned out really good. I'll also be getting more from the rest of my family pretty soon, so I'll be able to post some more here.

I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas. Mine was very low key. I worked yesterday and it was basically madness. I figured it would be because that's how it was the day after Thanksgiving. My only saving grace was that we didn't have any fresh heart surgeries. As each day passes, I'm more and more ready to get started as a nurse. I find myself going into patient's rooms to help out more and more.

I've spent the day finishing taking down Christmas decorations and cleaning up the rest of the house. I've also done some NCLEX questions, just so I don't get out of practice. So, that's all I've been up to. I'll post more later in the week. Let me know what you think about the pinning photos, cjb

Merry Christmas to all!

I haven't posted in a few days. Sorry about that. I worked this weekend and had a horrible head cold to boot!

I hope everyone has a wonderful, wonderful Christmas. I have already had mine, but will be spending today with friends as I did yesterday. I have to work again tomorrow, but will have to get back to my NCLEX studying in full swing on Thursday. I have managed not to get any done at all this week.

I also need to wish my wonderful brother, Danny, a very happy Birthday. This is a very busy time of year for my family. You noticed mom and dad's anniversary on the 22nd. I didn't post on my birthday, but I have managed to turn another year older since last posting. My birthday is the 23rd. We always did Christmas on the 24th. Then Danny's birthday the 25th. Things didn't slow down for awhile around our place! It was always a fun time though!

Have a happy day everyone, cjb

Happy Anniversary to

the most wonderful parents in the world. I most surely wouldn't be here without you! Thank you for everything you've done for me and everything you continue to do for me. I hope you have a wonderful day together today. I'm so glad I got to see you both last weekend (even if it was hurried and crazy and chaotic). I love you both more than you will ever know. Happy 33rd Anniversary!! I love you, cjb!!

Something else news worthy . . .

According to the Texas Board of Nursing, I am officially a Graduate Nurse and can practice in the state of Texas!! How cool is that! I knew it would show up pretty soon, but this made my day.

I'm off to do more NCLEX questions and hang my new shower curtain. I'll post pictures of the shower curtain when I get it up! cjb

This just in . . .

My ATT finally arrived in my "inbox" around 1400 this afternoon. I called Pearson Vue as soon as I got my authorization number. I have my NCLEX scheduled for January 17th in Dallas. I could've taken it on January 3rd in Texarkana, but I didn't want to be the only one driving up there by myself and have to fork out the money for a hotel and gas, etc. Anyway, that's all I know, just wanted to let you know, cjb

What's a girl to do?

So I've spent the last three days working on my self-study review course. It went well. I feel like I'm a little more prepared for THE exam. Now I just have to wait for my ATT. This is killing me. I've never watched my email inbox so insanely in my life. My review course (and several other reputable sources recommend doing questions for 2 hours a day and then studying on the topics where you are weak for an hour or so. I can make that work, but I just want to get my NCLEX scheduled already.

Even if I do the recommended amount of studying a day, that still leaves a lot of hours in a day. I'm struggling with what to do with myself. I've turned into a homebody while I was in school (and during the hectic Christmas shopping season), but I really don't feel like starting any major sorting and dumping projects at home. I think I'm going to make a trip to Half Priced Books today and then maybe go see a movie. There's not a lot out that I want to see, but I'm sure I can find one or two that look okay. If that fails, I can always hit up Blockbuster for DVD's to rent.

So needless to say, I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place on what to do. I obviously have to study for the NCLEX and that's my priority. This getting to know myself stuff is harder to do that I thought it would be! :) I'll let you know when I have my ATT and my NCLEX date. Until then, I have to figure out what I'm going to do with myself, cjb

Picture time

Let me preface this by saying thank you to my secret pal, Susan over at Susan Knits. She has been my secret pal for the last few months. She has done a wonderful job of sending me sweet gifts and keeping my spirits up during my last semester of nursing school. I also want to thank Janet over at Pixel One, Purl Two for coming up with the secret pal idea! I think it was a wonderful idea and I hope to be involved again! Thanks, Janet! Without any further ado, I will share my pictures with you. I'll try to caption them for you.

This is the lovely package Susan sent to me for the revealing! Thank you for everything, Susan!! I will enjoy trying to teach myself to knit! The crochet hook gadget looks neat. I'll have to let you know how it works out!


Here's the gingerbread house that Devon, Carla and I had so much fun making. At first Carla and I were talking about why we didn't do these growing up, but the further we got into it, the more we understood! :)

This cake was at the brunch we had Thursday after pinning practice. The icing was as thick as the cake and was butter cream. We split a piece and still couldn't finish it because it was so rich! I had to take a picture of it though because it was so pretty!

This is me and one of my instrumental instructors. I actually ended up having her for three semesters. She really helped me out a lot this semester as my sounding board. I love her dearly and will miss seeing her on a regular basis!

This one was taken as we were walking out after pinning. My family didn't get any good pictures on my camera of me being pinned, so this one will have to do for now. As I get the pictures from the rest of the family, I'll share them with you.

This is a typical picture of Devon! He is such a character! He is always posing and being a boy!! We can hardly get him to smile for the camera!!

This is me with my mom's parents. They drove in from Kansas and are now on their way to California to celebrate Christmas with the rest of the family. They are so much fun to be around and I love them dearly!!


This is me with Carla and Devon before pinning. Devon wanted to be on the stage so bad it was killing him. He is such a sweet kid.

This is me with my mom. She had matching shirts made for us. You can't really see it, but it's an angel nurse. Hers says "Proud mom". It was so much fun to have everyone here!!


I don't have any pictures of the entire crew on my camera. As I already mentioned as I get more pictures from the other digital cameras, I'll be sure to share them. I hope you enjoyed my photo journal of the weekend!! I'm sure I'll come up with something to post soon! cjb

A whirlwind of a weekend

I know I haven't posted recently. I've been kinda occupied this weekend. It all started Wednesday night with my sister and nephew coming into town. We had a blast making a gingerbread house! (FYI, I have a TON of pictures, but it's going to take me awhile to sort through them and make sure I get them all from the rest of my family as well).

Thursday was spent at pinning practice and then a lovely brunch put on by one of my classmates and her husband. We had a nice time being able to sit around and visit for one last time before everything got insanely busy. Carla, Devon and I all ran errands the rest of the morning before mom and dad and Mary Ann got into town around 4:00. We met up with the rest of the family around 4:30 or so and were able to visit. Then we all headed over to eat dinner at On The Border. It was nice. After dinner, I headed home because I knew I needed to be able to get a good night's sleep before the next day's activities.

Friday morning started off early for me. I headed off to a hair appointment because I really didn't want to have to mess with my hair. It was a cold, humid day and I knew my hair would only frizz if I started messing with it. That was probably the best thing I did for myself all day!! After I finished up there, I came home and finished taking my time getting ready and then headed down to the hotel where the family was staying. I got there around 11:30 and then we headed out to lunch around 12. We ate a quick lunch at Chick-fil-A and then headed to the conference center. We probably got there a little bit early, but at least my family had really good seats! :) I was also able to talk to some of my instructors and meet a few of my classmates families. It worked out well. The actual pinning ceremony went off without a hitch. I got a little teary eyed walking in and then almost lost it completely when I was pinned, but I was able to maintain my composure until I saw my family afterwards. Hugging my parents always seems to make me loose it. We still had to take a ton of pictures, so I had to pull myself back together. Then we went to the reception and had cookies and coffee and mingled for a little while. We headed back to the hotel around 3:30 or so and then left for dinner at 4:30. We had reservations at 5:00. I'm really glad we were able to move our reservations up. They were originally for 6:00 and that would have been too late. As it stood, I was already exhausted and probably could have come home and been content. I got some really neat gifts and will share pics of them later.

Saturday was our family Christmas. We managed to squeeze 9 adults and a 6 year old into my living room. It was nice to be able to do that with everyone here. I almost feel like I could take my Christmas tree down now! :) We had fun and everyone left after lunch. Mary Ann and I were the only ones left. We still had things to do!! Mary Ann is from Illinois and needed to get some t-shirts for her kids, so we headed to the mall. We didn't do much there other than try to find shirts, it was too crowded. Then I took her to tour my hospital. That was fun for her. She is a scrub tech. We ran a few more errands and then we drove into downtown Dallas and back, just so she could say she had been to Dallas! After getting back to McKinney, we ate dinner then came home and collapsed. We were both exhausted. We watched a movie and went to bed.

I took Mary Ann back to the airport today. After dropping her off, I headed to Waco to see my other grandparents. Everyone headed down there yesterday, so I met everyone for lunch at the house. It was really nice. I got to see my dad's parents and my aunt Carol and uncle Dave and his wife Jeanie. We had a nice lunch and a good visit. I headed home around 3.

I really didn't know what to expect this weekend. I knew it would be busy and crazy. But the emotions have been almost too much for me to bear. I am part of an extremely emotional family anyway, so I really should have expected it, but this are emotions that can't be explained until you experience them. It is a sense of amazing relief coupled with some sadness for the losing the familiar. After all, I'm leaving a part of my life behind that I have worked for 3.5 years to attain. I'm incredibly happy. I don't start my nursing job until January 8. Until then, I only work on the weekends. I will be studying for the NCLEX and taking some time to get to know myself again. You will probably be noticing some changes on my blog over the next few days or weeks. I have to take some of my fellow grads off the student list and move them to the nurses list (YAY HOOSIER AND PRISCA!!! WE DID IT!!!!) You may have already noticed some changes. My sister helped me with some of it. She suggested the new title. What do you think?

I'm sure you'll be hearing from me a lot over the next few weeks. There are so many things that I still have to process. After all, I have made the transition from student to nurse overnight and there is really no way to understand that until it really happens. After all this time, I AM A NURSE. Until next time, cjb

Am I Really Ready?

Kim over at Emergiblog posted an inquiry about clinical hours in various programs and the readiness of graduates upon exiting the programs. Since I just finished I figured I'd go ahead and post something about this. I know I haven't started my job yet and my view on this may completely change the day I step foot into a patient's room at "THE NURSE", but we'll see where this post takes me. Thanks for the challenge, Kim. I'm looking forward to reading everyone else's views!!

When I first started nursing school I don't know exactly what I thought would happen regarding my clinical time. I knew I would have some clinical time and some class time, I just didn't know how it would all pan it. It turned out that my first semester worked out to having six hours of lecture on Monday; approximately six to eight hours of clinicals on Tuesday and Wednesday; and skills lab on Thursday. Of course, all these courses required additional study time and clinicals required A TON of paperwork. I spent many a late night up trying to figure out exactly what a care plan was and what lab work correlated to the diagnosis and why. My second semester was very similar to my first except that we rounded through psych and surgery. It was a little more chaotic and I felt more comfortable with the paperwork. I spent two days in surgery and three weeks in psych. Third semester we dropped the skills lab and only had class and clinicals. This semester we had half of the semester as an OB rotation and half of the semester as a Children's rotation. The paperwork changed again, so it was back to the drawing board. Of course, the labs hadn't fundamentally changed, so I didn't have to learn them over, but ranges had changed and why they were different had changed. I felt like I was learning a new language again. My final semester (which I just finished!) was probably the most unique. We started out the same on a med-surg telemetry floor and rotated through ICU but towards the end of October/beginning of November we had to do our "transition to nursing". This involved 5-12 hour shifts with a nurse chosen for us. We basically did everything he/she did for the entire shift. I was very blessed in this case. I had a wonderful preceptor who felt very comfortable with me. I was able to take her full patient load most of my days. I got to admit and discharge patients and really see how it's going to be.

Overall, I feel like we had adequate time in the hospital. If I could go back and change the way our program was done I would like to see the program go to 12 hour shifts once a week. I think it would help from the beginning to understand the entire patient process.

This just in . . .

WOW!! They didn't waste any time getting grades posted and updated to the official school site!! I particularly like the part that says "CORE CURRICULUM COMPLETED"!!!! And I managed to do it with a 3.6 while working. I don't think that's too shabby.

I'm afraid ya'll are going to get tired of me over the next few days. I'm sitting here and can hardly stand it. I don't know what to do with myself. I really finished nursing school and I have almost a month before I start my job. A lot of things NEED to happen in my apartment, but mostly I want to be lazy. Is that a bad thing? I want to stay cuddled up in my nice warm bed and relax for a little bit. Sip on hot chocolate and watch TV. Surf the internet and look for interesting articles and fun stuff to do around here. I want to start living life as a person instead of a student. I need to start doing that. Since the summer of 2004, I've done nothing but work full-time and go to school. Since January of 2006 I've been in nursing school. A lot of changes have come through my life since then. I've moved once. I've bought a car. So many things I can't remember ~ little things. Holidays have come and gone. I want to start enjoying life again. I haven't been able to enjoy for a REALLY long time. I need to be able to do that.

I'm looking forward to having my family come into town. The last time we were all together was last Christmas. They are all coming to help me celebrate my accomplishment and I'm glad for that. I promise to get pictures. I know I haven't been the best at that. Time hasn't exactly been my friend lately. I've had priorities other than my blog. So with all that being said . . . I'm off. Two posts in one day is . . . well . . . speaks for itself.

Hoosier and Prisca, I'm proud of all of us! We did it! Both of you hang in there through your last exam. It will be okay! Just a few more days and we can have that cyber party! :) cjb

I'm finished! :)

So I am OFFICIALLY through with nursing school! It feels so good. I don't know if I have a B or a C, but I really don't care! I'm finished. I'm off to lunch with my friends. I'll post more later. La la la, cjb

Baby it's cold outside . . .

Maybe we'll finally have a winter. The temp on my weather bug is reading 35 right now. And it's supposed to be rainy and icky for the next few days. Hopefully it will clear up by Thursday when everyone is going to fly in. We're not supposed to get any major winter weather, just cold temps and rain.

I have my final in just a few hours. I reviewed as much as I could. I get most of the questions right. I can't tolerate any more studying right now. I'm going to call it any early night in my nice cozy bed. I'll get a good night's sleep and go knock out my exam. I already have a lunch date with several of my class mates to celebrate our accomplishment! Then the rest of the day is going to be spent relaxing. I'll finish up cleaning on Tuesday and a tiny bit on Wednesday and then the troops start arriving! :)

I hope you all have a good week. I'll post as much as I can. More later, cjb

One week away :)

A week from now I'll officially be a graduate nurse. I'm to the point now that I'm so anxious I can hardly stand it. Nerves won't kick in until I go to take the NCLEX and then start my job. As soon as I finish that final on Monday, I consider myself finished. It's so hard to believe on so many levels. As I think back over the past two years some of the things that have happened seem like they were a lifetime ago and some of them seem like they happened just yesterday.

John, I saw your comment and will get to that meme, just not today. I have to work all weekend and continue to prep for my final. Watch for it sometime early next week! :)

I need to get back to studying for that final. I'll post more later, cjb

LOL!

I had to call my sister tonight to talk to her about some things about next week. She put my nephew on the phone for just a second. He is just a riot! I had to post this because it was too good not to. He started off by telling me that he was getting ready for bed and that he just wanted to tell me hi and that he loved me. I told him that I was excited that I was going to get to see him in a week and I asked him if he knew why I was going to see him. He said, "Of course, it's for your graduation, your KINDERGARTEN graduation!" Ha ha ha! I have such a comedian for a nephew. And to think that the little stinker is only 6 years old. I really don't know what we are going to do with him when he's older. He's so smart it's scary!

I really can't believe that this time next week he'll be here and I'll be prepping for everyone else to get here as well. I've made great strides in getting my apartment ready. I decided not to be a Scrooge and put up my tree. It's really pretty. I'll post pictures after I get them uploaded. I still have a few more things to make the house ready for guests but I'm feeling a lot more comfortable about the whole situation. I'll post more later, cjb

I finally have a date! :)

No, not that kind of date, silly! I have a start date for my job! I have to go through nursing orientation at the hospital and the first orientation of the year starts on January 7. I won't have to go through the full week because I've done a lot of it already, but I have to do all of the nursing stuff. It's getting kinda scary, ya know. I've worked so hard for this and now it's finally happening.

Anyway, I need to get back to cleaning. I've made quite a bit of headway and don't want to loose my momentum. I'll write more later, cjb

What I need is M-O-T-I-V-A-T-I-O-N . . .

So I finished my last day of lecture was TODAY!!! I can't believe I don't have to sit through another ADN lecture again. I just have to take my exam on Monday and then I am finished with nursing school. WOW! It's insane. Everything is quickly coming to an end, but I'm so lacking in motivation.

What do I need motivation for you ask? Well let me tell you. I have an exam in a week that I still need to study for even though I only have to get a 35 on it to pass. I have an apartment that desperately needs to be cleaned. I can't seem to get it done. I don't have the energy. All I want to do when I'm off is sit on the couch and randomly surf the net and watch tv. (Things that have also been massively ignored over the past two years). I need to continue my NCLEX study course. I'm on to the 3rd of 12 CD's, so I'm making some progress. I need to decide if I should decorate for Christmas or not. I'm really torn. I do have a lot of family coming into town who will be seeing my apartment for the first time. I don't want to seem like a bah-hum bug, but I just don't seem to be in the Christmas spirit this year.

That's just a tiny look at the tings I need to do. As I start to clean, I need to do deep cleaning, so it's taking me a really long time to do it. If any one has some good suggestions for motivation, I'm all ears! I am going to sign off for now, and start sorting all my papers. More later, cjb