Happy Birthday!

Ok so over the weekend it was my baby girl's second birthday! I can't believe my baby is 2! Kacie was the first dog that Adam and I got. I had wanted a dog of my own for a long time, but was a little apprehensive about getting one because I wasn't quite sure what kind of dog I wanted. I wanted everything from a Dalmatian to Lab to a German Shorthaired Pointer. To make my decision even harder, right when I was trying to make my decision we had to put down my beloved dog Lucie who was a lab. I wasn't sure if I could handle having a Lab so soon after we had to put Lucie down. So I mulled over the idea for a while. Adam and I had already put a down payment down on his dog and were just waiting for Sadie to grace us with her presence. After much time and consideration I had decided I could get a Lab because I just loved their personalities and they are just awesome pets. My only stipulation was that it had to be Chocolate. I just couldn't do a yellow (Lucie was yellow) and I'm not a fan of black labs for some reason. I also wanted it to be a girl because I'm also not much a fan of boy dogs.
So one day I was at work and I was looking through the pet classified and I found an ad for chocolate lab puppies. I immediately called Adam and gave him all the info. This was a Wednesday, and he called and said that the lady only had 3 lab girls left. Unfortunately the puppies were almost 2 hours away and Adam nor I could go get one with work. So Adam said he would go Friday since it was supposed to rain and he doesn't work when it rains.

Friday rolled around and he got up and called the lady and she said all they had left was one girl. Adam decided he'd make the trek all the way down there and he thought little miss was cute so he decided to bring her home to us. Of course I made him stop by my work so I could meet my little princess, I immediately fell in LOVE with her! She was the cutest puppy EVER. Adam told me he was having an allergic reaction to her and kept sneezing so we might have to take her back. I said take her home and I'll bathe her because sometimes breeders don't keep the puppies very clean. Left is the picture of her first bath. Kacie was the perfect first dog to our family. She was easy to potty train and just loved any attention you would give her. She is very obedient and I have yet to meet someone who doesn't love her! She's just plain awesome!

She was such a little thing. That first weekend was so fun getting to know her and have her around. It was also the weekend my cousin moved in with her two dogs so it made things quite interesting. Either way I'm so happy to have Kacie a part of this family and I honestly don't know what I'd do with out her. She has brought so much joy to me and helped me through so many difficult nights of studying. She's my constant companion and I love her to pieces. So Happy 2nd Birthday baby girl! I LOVE YOU!

Amazing Day!

I had an amazing day! I seriously had an amazing day. When I arrived at clinicals my instructor informed us that there was a lady who was ready to have twins via c-section. I immediately got super excited but there was 3 of us that still needed to see a birth so we drew numbers and I chose the right number so I got to be the one who gets to witness this miraculous bit of life!!!

The mom was term but one of the babies had an anomaly that needed to be taken care of by the NICU. So the baby who needed the NICU came out first and then 3 minutes later came baby B.  I was able to perform baby care on the newborn baby B who was not in the NICU. I was able to give the baby their vit. K shot and measure the head circumference, make the footprints and apply the medicine to their eyes. It was such a neat experience! I loved every minute of it. Baby A is doing well and in the NICU and is going to have surgery tomorrow to fix the anomaly. Please pray that everything goes well. It should the DR said this was a case that had a very good outcome, but any extra prayers are always welcome!
Some thoughts on today are; Why ANY women would EVER elect to have a C-section is beyond me!!!! like seriously you have to be high! That's insane. As amazing as an experience that was, I could NEVER willfully put my body through that. I've seen a gallbladder removed and that was no where NEAR as bloody and gruesome as this C-section. Now I know for some people, like my lady today it just wasn't an option not to have it, but that is what a C-section was created for. But really we don't have to even remotely go into my whole view on this because I will probably make someone angry. But all in all it was an amazing experience today! I love babies and I LOVE maternity nursing! So freaking cool!!! :)

I'm In Heaven!!! :)

So yesterday was my first OB clinical. I have to start out by saying, that ever since I started this program this is what I've been most looking forward to. Next incase any one doesn't already know this, I LOVE BABIES and children. All I've EVER wanted to be was a mom. The fact that I'm now 25 and have no kids, its a something I struggle with daily. As a girlfriend of mine and I were saying, it's hard to let go of our fairytale. Especially since up until the point that I decided to go back to school my life had been everything I'd ever wanted it to be. But in the long run I know that this little 2.5 year hiatus is the best decision for my family.
SO anyways! My clinicals are at St. Vincent Women's hospital and I'm so happy that they are there. This was the hospital I most wanted them to be at because I hope to some day work there. I've given it much thought and I think I'm going to stay on my med/surg floor for a couple of years then go back to school(YES AGAIN) for my mid-wifery degree and try to get a job at Women's as a labor and delivery nurse. SO thats my new fairy tale, and hopefully a long the way there were be a couple little Adam's running around.
Yesterday was mostly orientation, going of the syllabus, what was expected of us, our care plans...blah blah blah. But then around 6 pm we got to the fun part! there were only 4 pts that were delivering or had just delivered. I got a pt. that had just delivered not more than 10 min prior. So I was put with her nurse to mostly just observe. I watched them sowe mommy back up, hand baby girl to mommy for the first time, and I got to witness mommy and daddy picking a name for their beautiful daughter(they didn't know what they were having), I watched the nurses help mom breastfeed for the first time, and watch the nurse give baby girl her very first bath. All I can say is it was amazing! I LOVED EVERY SECOND! this truly would be my dream job! (I don't think I've ever used those two words in the same sentence, dream and job?...nope those two words were never in my vocabulary together thats for sure!!)
My next clinical is today and I'm so excited! We are in the Labor and Delivery unit so HOPEFULLY I'll get to see a live birth, whether that be a c-section(don't even get me started on that monstrosity) or what I what I would prefer, a vaginal delivery! OOOOOhhhh I'm sooo excited :) Have a wonderful day!!! :)

Eat, Pray, Love

Some friends and I recently decided to start a book club. Our first meeting was last night and it was mostly a success. I think for the most part it was more just a chance to get together and watch a movie and have a fun girls night. Either way I enjoyed myself.

The book however, I was not all that impressed with. I'm not sure what planet Oprah is on, but whatever planet that is, I'm not on the same one. I think at best I would give the book 2.5 to 3 stars out of 5. I felt it was a bit out of my range of comfort with all the spirituality bull crap. I just struggle with that mindset and maybe because I'd love to live in my little Catholic bubble, I don't really know but I just struggle with our society's view on all that spiritual enlightenment garbage. I sometimes feel people are just trying to find a spiritual connection or religion that makes them feel ok about all the wrong things they do in their life, they just try to find some way to justify it. Spirituality and religion for me go hand in and hand, and my Catholic faith is CHALLENGING, especially in todays society, but I stick to it because I know it's the right path for me. So I think this is why this book was such a struggle for me.   A specific topic that drove me bonkers and almost had me put down the book and never read it again was the subject of "cherry picking" when it came to spirituality/religion. What a load of crock! I mean I can't express in words how frustrating that statement was! I also struggle with the mere fact that she just one night decided she didn't want to be married. HELLO THEY ARE VOWS TO GOD! maybe I'm abnormal in my thinking but I take my vows VERY SERIOUSLY, and to be honest this is the life I chose and there is about nothing that would ever make me feel it's ok to leave Adam(honestly I could never imagine it!)
So anyways the book was a big fat bunch of bull and I was not much a fan. However the movie was much better and I would give it about a 3 out of 5. I still struggled with the story line and I hate how they changed Bali's story completely! It was DUMB! SO for those who want to read the book, you won't get a recommendation from me. The movie was ok but I wouldn't spend my money on it, I'd wait for it to come to HBO or Red Box. Thats all for now!

Going Vegan

So I have debated for a long time about going vegan. Not just vegetarian but vegan. I have read up on and talked with several people and have decided to give it a try. For the longest time I just didn't want to do if for fear of becoming malnourished. However after further research and discussion with people who are I feel ready to take on this challenge.
I know some may be calling me crazy but honestly I'm just tired of feeling heavy and overweight and I want to be healthier. I am not doing this because I care so much about the animals and forgive me for saying this but I frankly just don't care. Me not eating meat or dairy isn't going to change anything and I think for many people they do plenty of good. However it's a well known fact that cutting this stuff out of your diet has a world of benefits that I just don't have the time to discuss.
So please don't just judge be supportive. I don't judge the decisions in your life and I'd appreciate the same respect.
I must also preface this with the fact that NO I WILL IN NO WAY be that annoying person that is a snob and won't eat what you cook for me because there is meat or dairy but I am just trying to avoid it. So no worries I won't become a pain in your butt. Plus I'm only trying it for 30 days and then we will see where I go from there. Ok so thats all for now! toodles

In case anyone else is counting

FINALS WEEK IS OVER!!! WHOOO HOO! I have to say I'm quite pleased to announce that I have officially passed my first semester of nursing school! WOW!!! and incase anyone else was counting other than myself...that's 14 semesters of college down and 3 to go! Why didn't I stick with becoming a pediatrician the first time around? Oh right because I didn't want to go to school that long...boy was I dumb!

Well either way the first semester is done, and hopefully it will get much better from here on out with only having to balance one class at a time instead of 4 at once! Classes start again on the 23rd with Maternity and I can't wait for this! I think/hope this will go really well considering I'm thinking of becoming a certified midwife. 

Well it sure is a relief to have the first semester done! Now it's just work for 3 days then I can relax for 7!!!!

:) LOVES!

It's been a heck of a Rough couple of weeks

Ok so I realize that I haven't posted anything in about 2 weeks. It has been CRAZY busy. It's of course the end of the semester and you know how teachers LOVE to wait until the last minute to pile everything on. Well of course that has been the case for me as well.
First of all the prayers that I asked for two weeks ago were amazing. I did excellent on the test that I needed to and brought my grade from below passing to an A-! whoo hooo. Of course we had two exams on the same day and the other exam grade suffered but ultimately did nothing to move my overall score so I'm ok with it!
This week was the same situation, the same two classes had exams on the same days! BLAH! and the same results ended up for the most part. I did well on the one I needed to and did poorly on the other one. Thank goodness for those curves because once again the poor grade did nothing to my overall score! I mean what do they expect when they have exams for the two most difficult classes on the same day? Something has to give!
Well on top of the 2 exams we also had a Kaplan exam which is part of this program that prepares you for the NCLEX. We also had 3 quizzes and 4 homework assignments (see what I mean about piling the stuff on? I mean honestly do they think we don't need sleep????)
Oh well I made it through! And I'm so relieved that next week is finals week and I will be done with this hellish semester. I know that nursing school is hard but from here out its pretty much just clinicals and I can focus on one class only for 6 weeks instead of trying to balance 4 at once! So the work load won't go down necessarily but my brain will be at ease from not having to balance it all!

We've also had some shake ups among our household. First of all last weekend Adam and I watched the little girl of a friend of mine. My friend had to work the weekend as well as her husband so Adam and I watched her for them (I do say Adam and I because he was a huge help while I studied!). It was fun having a baby around and I can't wait until the day where the baby is ours. (although I'm SO GLAD we are waiting while I'm in school! I can't imagine trying to do school, work AND a baby! plus I would probably miscarry from all the stress.) But either way it was fun having claire! We went to my cousin's memorial golf outing and then up to my grandpa's 75th birthday bash. It was so much fun having her and toting her around with us, everyone just loved her and how friendly she was, all my aunt/uncles/cousin got their baby fix.  I will have to post pictures later.

The other major shake up in our house was we added another roomate! A friend of mine was moving to Indy for a job and needed a place to stay. Adam and I decided to offer up our house. We both feel very fortunate to have our house and since it's not being used to it's full capacity we thought we should offer it to someone who needed it. I love being able to help out friends and family in their times of need, even more so now because honestly I feel like a bad friend as of lately so any little way I can help makes me feel better about the goings on in my life.
So she moved in between monday and tuesday. The only down side is that she has a precious cat Mya. Mya really is a precious little cat but the problem lies in that we have 3 dogs! Sadie believes that everything with 4 legs is a play toy so she has been quite intrigued. Also Luke even though he is blind as a bat can somehow make out her scent and her blob and just stares at her. Kacie was intrigued for a few hours but gave up soon after. My poor friend is having quite an adjustment going from a cat to 3 dogs. I just keep telling her wait till my mom and sister's dogs are over!!!!
Ok so thats the gist of whats been going on in our lives lately! Finals are next week and I cannot wait for my week off. I have a lot planned including painting the bathroom, living room and visiting some friends I've neglected over the last few months. Thanks again for all of your support it means everything to me. Miss you!