Scrapbooking...without the mess.....

I don't even know what it is called....online scrapbooking??? Digital scrapbooking??? I just know that I am interested in starting to scrapbook my pictures on the computer using some type of website or program that will also print my pages for me (and send them) so I can stop the guilt about my lack of scrapbooking. I have figured out that I really like the creative side but am getting bogged down with all the supplies, paper, mess, plus hauling it around is just really difficult. I do have a lot of scrapbooking supplies so I'm not sure I want to give it up completely but I just get discouraged when I'm so far behind and not feeling that creative energy. I don't know if doing it on the computer will be any easier but I think that it will be for me. I know I've heard of sites that you can get free kits and I supposed you need photoshop or something to help put the pages together, then they will print it and send it to you for a fee. Has to be cheaper than buying all the supples to make a page.

I am a member of snapfish and I know they have books you can make but I'm thinking something with a few more options and layouts.

Can anyone help me get started? What are the basics I need?? I am just lost as to where to begin.....

Real Life RN

It is so weird to be a real RN now. I think back to all the years of classes. The General Biology, the General Psych, then finally entering nursing school. The nervous anxiety of clinical days, the first time I took someone's vital signs. I remember the transition from first year to second year student. How I felt more confident but still "just" a student nurse. I felt as though I would never be one of those "real" nurses, who had the RN behind their name. Who could make decisions and take care of patients on their own. Well, I have arrived. I am a real nurse now. I am responsible for my patients and have my own license on the line now. I am able to take out medications on my own and give them without an instructor or preceptor with me. No one checks to make sure I have the right medication or that I am verifying the right patient. I am all on my own (I still have a preceptor but she lets me do things independently a LOT). It is nervewracking and cool all at once. I check things a million times because the last thing I want is an error. I question myself and I ask questions. I sometimes have to tell myself I can do this, I earned this, I know what I am supposed to do and I just have to DO it. I am smart enough and I am a good critical thinker. I don't know if I'll ever get past the fact that I have people's lives in my hands. Being an emergency room nurse has it's own set of challenges and obstacles. As a new RN it is a scary place. It forces me to think fast, and to make decisions. It forces me to use all of my skills and learn what I need to know to be a safe nurse. It is a very steep learning curve but I think I'm up to the task.

Filler

A. Attached or single? Married
B. Best friend? My husband and my 6 best girlfriends who I have known forever.
C. Cake or pie? Pie
D. Day of choice? Friday
E. Essential items? computer, car, makeup, cute purse, comfy shoes
F. Favorite color? Red
G. Gummy bears or worms? Neither
H. Hometown? Larger size suburb of Minneapolis, MN
I. Favorite indulgence? Chocolate, pizza, restaurant food, french fries
J. January or July? July
K. Kids? 2
L. Life Isn't Complete Without? my family and home
M. Marriage date? October 24 (10 years this year!)
N. Number of brothers or sisters? 2 brothers
O. Oranges or apples? Apples, honeycrisp are my favorite for the few months they are available
P. Phobias? Clausterphobia
Q. Quotes? not really
R. Reasons to smile? Watching my kids
S. Season of Choice? fall
T. Tag 5 people. Anyone who reads this blog (all 3 people!)
U. Unknown fact about me. I don't have any secrets! Can't think of anything unknown.
V. Vacation of choice? Anywhere tropical, with an ocean
W. Worst habit? I bite my nails
X. X-ray or Ultrasound? what kind of questions is this???
Y. Your favorite food? PF Changs orange chicken, california rolls, anything with chocolate
Z. Zodiac sign? Aries

List of random thoughts

I am so tired and just can't get everything done in time for work tomorrow early in the morning.

• I have to get the kids up by 6:30 to get them to daycare by 7:15
• DH is gone, this is why I am doing daycare drop off early the next few days
• My kids don't like to get up that early
• Luckily they like going to daycare!
• I have to work 4 days this week, more than I typically will work and more than I want to
• I have EKG class mon, and welcome days on the floor Tues-Thur
• I had a great girls weekend
• The kids behaved for grandma and uncle/aunt
• However, J (as usual) started acting up for me almost imediately
• Luckily, I handled it in stride and the night ended well with both kids sound asleep in minutes
• It cost $70 to have the dog in the kennel from fri-sun. This seems excessive.
• I did not finish my EKG homework for tomorrow
• I have not put away the laundry from friday
• I have not unpacked
• I have spent too much time checking email and facebook
• I need to get to get my clothes ready for tomorrow
• I think I will eat in the cafeteria rather than pack a lunch
• I am feeling very lazy
• I did not do anything all weekend except watch movies, drink cocktails, go boating, lay in the sun, read magazines, and make jewelry and cards
• I'm off to bed, 'night!

yes, still alive

I have been a working woman since July 28, and wow have I been busy. It doesn't help that I'm not used to getting up in the early hours of the morning (why I took an evening position!) and all this training is quite early. I had to be up around 5am 2 days this week due to a long commute to a training center and having to be there at 7am. I'm beat.
I am heading out for girls weekend tomorrow. It hasn't been easy to arrange as my husband got called out of town yesterday for work unexpectedly, so I had to find childcare last minute. Luckily my mom is taking them 1 night and my brother the next. I go away one weekend every summer with my 6 best friends. I have known them since I was a kid and we still are the best of friends. It is great. So, having worked all week, I am busy today getting myself and the kids ready for the weekend. I really need to get some rest tonight.
Sorry so short but things are going well. Work is good, kids are good, I am good.

Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1067950299

I joined facebook a few weeks back (or months?) and just recently started playing around. It is kind of fun. I have found a few old faces, which is always neat.

Our summer is so busy right now. Baseball playoffs, VBS, football camp, birthdays, my job, DH traveling for work, and fitting in millions of playdates. My kids LOVE playdates with a passion. It is hard to find one every day though. They just love their friends.

I am about to deep clean my house, it is a mess.

I'm back...!!!!

My computer has been on the fritz and I had not had the motivation to log on to another computer but I figured I better update my blog. Not much is going on around here. Summer is slip sliding away as it always does. We have spent lots of time at our camper, on the boat, tubing, having lots of fun. I've spent lots of time with the kids and in a week I will be a working mom once again. I am excited, nervous, terrified, and happy about my new job. Some days I can't wait, and some days I don't want my start date to come! I know all will work out just fine.

The kids are doing great. We had Jenna's birthday party last Friday. I have to post all about my big 6 year old. We had a small party at the house, it went great. Bret is finishing up baseball season and they both go to VBS next week.

Sorry to be so brief but have lots to do today. I will post again soon!

forgetful

I seriously forget about blogging. I check other people's blogs but never think to update mine. What is my problem? I actually have time to blog now, and I am blogging less than ever. I am listening to my newly uploaded itunes right now, the kiddos are asleep, DH is on his way to a work meeting out of town, and I'm soon going to be in the shower and then sleeping soundly for at least 7 hours. We were at the camper this weekend and it was a nice time. We spent some time at the beach and I went tubing with my 2 kids and their cousin who is 10. We have a big 4 person tube and they just loved it, wanting to go faster and faster while I was wantin!g to go slower and slower! The weather was awesome. Sunny and warm and my tan is coming along nicely (yes I do wear sunscreen but still my skin just tans anyway!) This week we have t-ball and baseball on Mon and Wed and I am getting together with a friend and her 2 girls wed afternoon. I also am going to be spending time planning the wrestling float for the parade this sat. I kind of am in charge of that and I have never done anything like it ever in my life. Help me! We are just mainly trying to promote the wrestling club so we are doing flyers and candy. We have a trailer and an ATV to pull it but do not have any idea how to decorate it. I have balloons and crepe streamers in our colors and that is it. We are looking for the old banner to carry and my neighbor has a die cut machine to make big letters so we may make some cool signs to put on the float. I am trying to round up kids to hand out candy and be on the float. It really is going to be a lot of busy work this week. Hoping for a nice day saturday for the parade and carnival. Tooth fairy has to make an appearance tonight. B lost another baby tooth. She is out of cash so she had to find some gold dollar coins and make a coupon for a free book. She is also leaving a cute letter. J has yet to lose a tooth but B didn't lose any until 1st grade so she is sticking to that schedule I think. Anyway, I'm dead tired. Good night!

Time

For the first time in a LONG time, I have TIME. Time to just sit back, relax, and enjoy my life. I have to admit I feel a little lost. I am ok with that and am learning to adjust to having nothing pressing to do. I also feel a little nervous to start working next month as that will just upset all this relaxing and simplicity I have going on. However, change is good and I'm sure we will thrive on the new working schedule. The kids already understand that I'm done with school and that I will start working soon. They know I'm working to help our family and so that we can do fun things like travel more and save up for things around the house and college. Ok, the college saving doesn't really excite the kids but I try to explain it all to them. I'm a little disappointed because my job starts the same week as vacation bible school. I always volunteer at VBS and won't be able to this year. I know I'm scheduled to work M-W, and not sure about Th and Fri. I hope to be able to be there for the friday sing along to wrap up the VBS week. My kids just love VBS, and I have always loved volunteering. I will really miss it. Hopefully next year I can take that week off (or if I'm still on evenings I will have mornings off anyway).

I'm home alone this week for a few days. I am up late as I usually am when I'm alone. I am always tired the next day but I have trouble sleeping at night when hubby is gone.

We found out last week that B needs glasses again. The ones he picked out are so cute. Jenna told him "Bret, you look really handsome with glasses" (when he was trying them on). He picked out some copper/red glasses that are a little "bold" but he is excited. I really really hope that all the kids think they are as cool as him. Is 3rd grade too young to think glasses aren't cool?

J had T-ball today, and she thinks she is really cool stuff. She has been waiting and waiting. I hope it is all she hoped it would be. It probably isn't as exciting as she was thinking but hopefully she will have fun. She really want to have real games like B, but this is more informal. I do think that they have a little game at the end and we will make a big deal about that for her. She really needs more of her own things. She just has not wanted to play sports like her brother until now. We tried dance and that totally flopped. She likes gymnastics and claims she is going to play basketball next year.

I'm off to bed!

RN

I passed! I passed!! I PASSED!!!!!!!!
Now I can really start my summer vacation. Talk about relief!

NCLEX on the brain

I am a studying maniac this week. I scheduled my NCLEX (date and time is a secret but I'll post once I pass!) and I am studying daily. I hate it. I have done over 1000 questions and am doing at least 200 every day. I have a schedule of what to do each day and I try to stay ahead. I do at least 2 hr a day off and on. It is so hard to do because hey, I am done with school. I am supposed to be relaxing and drinking margaritas and going for long walks and cleaning my house. Instead, every free minute is studying STILL!!! The kids have school today so I did do a little cleaning and the past 2 hours I have studied. I plan to go on a 3 mile jog/walk and then come home and shower. I may study some more tonight but this afternoon I'm taking off. B has a baseball game tonight and DH is heading out of town soon for a night. I am a single mom tonight. We will go to baseball and then maybe pick up fast food or something. I am up to jogging about 1.5 miles until I walk. Then I jog/walk the final 1.5 miles. So, I bet I jog almost 2 of those 3 miles. I don't ever remembering getting quite this far. I know, for many 2 miles is nothing but for a NON runner like myself it isn't too shabby. I did my 3 miles a little over 30 minutes yesterday.
I'm off to get some stuff done, and wish me luck!

The Power of Ten

The Power of Ten
Ten Years Ago I was 24 years old and planning my wedding. I was recently engaged and planned a wedding in less than 6 months. I was so very young and optimistic. I was working in Iowa and interviewing for jobs back here at home. I started a new job in Aug of 1998 and we moved here.

Ten Months Ago It was mid summer and I was working as a nursing student intern. I was working 32 hr a week for the first time after being a stay at home mom for many years.

Ten Weeks Ago I was still in the midst of my last semester of school. I was going out to dinner with friends at a really expensive restaurant (so not worth it) and trying to just fit it all in.

Ten Days Ago I was walking 5 miles and both kids were in school. I was packing for a trip to Iowa.

Ten Hours Ago I was playing with my kids in the basement. We were trying to figure out my new WII Fit.

Ten Minutes Ago I was tickling J on the living room floor telling her how much I love her

Ten Minutes From Now I will be helping J get ready for bed. We are home alone, B and DH are at a wrestling party and we left early.

Ten Hours From Now I will hopefully be sleeping soundly in my cozy bed!

Ten Days From Now it will be a Wed and I will be studying for my boards, playing with J while B is in school, and going to B's baseball game in the evening.

Ten Weeks From Now I will be completing my first week of work. I will be very overwhelmed and exhausted but hopefully in a good way!

Ten Months From Now I will be feeling more comfortable in my job and hoepfully looking into some grad schools to start part time in the fall. I will hopefully love my job.

Ten Years From Now i will have a 18 and an almost 16 year old!!! I will have been a nurse for 10 years and will have found my dream job and area of nursing that I am meant for. I will have my masters in some area of nursing and have a great job that I love with flexibility to do things I love outside of work as well. I will spend lots of time with my hubby and hopefully travel often.

Part of me kind of hopes that I might even have a 3rd child by this time but time will tell on that one. If we do have a 3rd it will not be for another year (not trying until I have been working a year) so that I get established in my work and decide if it is in the cards. I would not go back to being a stay at home mom so it would have to feel right and work out that I can work and not use a lot of child care. It depends on many things: my job, DH job, finances, how we all handle me working etc. I am almost to the point of saying 100% I am done having kids. I love my 2 with all my heart and would be 100% content forever. I do not think I would ever regret not having a 3rd but part of me would love a 3rd. I think either way I'm ok. DH is very fine with the 2 we have and at this point is not ready for a 3rd. It would take a lot of discussion for him to agree to it. If I do have a 3rd, in 10 years he/she would probably be 7-8 yr old. Part of me can't fathom starting the whole baby thing over. Choices!!!!!!

secret date

I have scheduled my NCLEX test and am keeping the date a secret. I got my authorization to test (ATT) number yesterday so I scheduled online today. Let's say I don't have a ton of time to prepare. I really want to get it over with and have it behind me so I can enjoy the part of my summer that I am not working or studying!

I am off to bed but a couple things from this week to jot down:

• J's field trip today to the farm. Beautiful 70 degree weather and lots of fun things to see.
• B's baseball game this Wed, he got 2 singles and did great. Says he likes baseball now!
• We had a garage sale this week. I got rid of lots of stuff!!! YAY!
• My WII Fit arrived and just tried it out today. My BMI is supposedly 21, and I am having fun getting to know my new little gadget. Hoping it will help me gain some strength and better posture/balance. The kids also had fun doing the balance games.
• Looked at bearded dragons today. Thinking of getting one for a pet, the kids are really hoping for this!
• Spring finally here. Sun has been out, and no longer wearing heavy jackets. Spring jackets still needed in the mornings and some days but much improvement in the weather.
• Opened up the camper last weekend. Looking forward to spending lots of time there.
• Our weekend is actually pretty open. Hoping to relax, study, read, and spend time together as a family without running all over.

Evening/Weekend Graduating Nursing Class of 2008

I am now a "graduate nurse"!! I am in the 2nd row, 5th person over from the left (2nd over from the right). Pinning was great. I am glad I did it. I will miss some of the friends I have made but I know we will stay in touch. I was really happy my favorite instructor was there (she is on sabatical this year and not teaching) and she was able to pin me. It meant a lot to me to have someone who really taught me a lot and encouraged me to pin me. I will try to post a picture of my pin (I have 2 actually) later. One is the school nursing pin and one is designed by a classmate.

On a side note (because grades are not the most important thing!) I did end up getting an A by just a few points so I graduate from nursing school with a 4.0. I am proud of that, even though it doesn't really affect getting a job. It may help later if I want to get into a masters program. But, really it was just a goal I had for myself and I almost didn't make it. My grade was actually listed as a B and I emailed the instructor to check the calculations and there was an error. I had to get 92% to get an A and I got 92.95%!! Talk about cutting it close.

DONE! And misc.

Yippee!!!!!

I am now a graduate nurse.

After 4 years of going to school every week I am done.

Pinning tomorrow night. I am going to relax the rest of the week. Then I will start NCLEX studying. I plan to do at least 100 questions a day until the test. That won't be too hard as I can do them here and there and after the kids are in bed do at least half of them each day. I can also do them while they are at school.

It still is not spring here. I wish for sun tomorrow.

I walked/jogged about 4-5 miles today. I have to see how far it was tomorrow in the car. It felt great. I actually jog now. I usually jog the first 1.5 miles then walk and then try to do some jogginb spurts the rest of the way. I still can't imagine going for 4 mile runs but maybe someday. I have been drinking lots of fluids (water and hot green and black tea) and feel like my body is getting cleansed. I feel great!

I also have tried to sign up for Blog Bots to get updates. I have not gotten any email updates yet, and have no idea why as the blogs I put in there have updated. When I changed my blog appearance I lost my blog list so I searched for them all and pasted the links in blogbots and still nothing. Not sure what I did wrong. Anyone know?

4 Hour Countdown

At 6pm I will be starting my final nursing school test ever!! I am nervous, excited, scared, happy, and grateful all at once. It doesn't feel like it is really over, I really don't know when it will hit me. I just am going to feel so weird when I am done. In some ways I will feel empty, but I have to learn to feel full with the things in my life that I do have, my kids and my husband, my friends, my home. I have to re-arrange my life and I'm so excited to spend more time with all of my loved ones.

I also am going to spend more time with myself, taking care of myself. Exercising and pampering myself every so often. Enjoying the small things in life. I am so excited about that. I will do all the things I love to do that I had to put off. Scrapbooking, crafting, changing things in my home, re-arranging furniture and rooms, painting walls, cleaning, cooking, and anything else I can think of!!

Wish me luck tonight!

Surreal

It really is crazy to me that in 4 days I will be done with nursing school. How is that possible. I have been working and working for this for almost 4 years. I have been in school for that long, studying, balancing, stressing, and hoping for it all to be over. Now it is. I can't believe it. I am not sure what I will feel like when it is done. It has been such a huge part of my life. I will no longer have to stay up late and study. I will no longer have to do care plans or write papers or do group projects or take notes and read them over and over. I will no longer have to drive to class every Mon and Wed night. I will not see the people that I have seen 2 or more times a week every week for 2 years anymore. Some parts will be sad. I met a wonderful friend in my very first class that I took towards being a nurse. It was sociology. We then had every single class together from then on. I have known her almost 4 years and I have talked with her every week for almost all of those. I have seen her at least 2 times a week. I now will not see her anymore (well hopefully some but not 2 times a week!) and that is sad. I also met so many other amazing people in nursing school. All types, all ages, everyone is so different yet we all were headed down the same path. We all wanted that RN behind our name. Some of us made it, and we lost some along the way. Some really great people did not make it through nursing school, and they had to put their dream on hold and try again next year. We may even lose more people come monday (our last test). I really hope everyone that has made it this far makes it all the way. They deserve it.

FIESTAWARE

For some reason, lately I have been obsessed with Fiestaware dishes. I do not own any of these dishes but have always loved the idea of having various colors to mix and match and can picture them in my one set of glass doored cupboards. I can't bring myself to buy any, just because I don't need them. I packed up our old dishes that we never used and put them in the garage for the sale I am having next month. They were cheap, white, and boring. Plus, very heavy. We tend to use our plastic plates a lot, and that is so not right. I have my good china but don't want to use that as our everyday dinnerware. I also have an 8 place setting of 2 other sets of dishes but I really do not like either. One is a hand me down from my parents. They had it as newlyweds and I don't have the heart to get rid of it. It is dark brown and green. The other set is dollar store dishes, and they are actually kind fo nice. They are sturdy and kind of remind me of fiestaware. However, the only colors they had were an olive green and pumpkin orange. I was hoping for a mix of colors and my friend who told me about them had a nice burnt red color she had found but they were out. So, I have about 4 of each green and orange in plates, bowls, and mugs. They are "ok" but not my fiestaware. I am 34 yr old and have been married almost 10 years and I really want those dishes!!! I have gone to Kohl's a few times lately to look at the place settings. They are about $20 each and I'd want at least 4 settings to start out with so that is about $80. My plan is to have my garage sale in May and see how much I make and then use that money and wait for a good coupon to come (one time I got 30%!) and possibly make my purchase. I seem to be buying a lot of stuff lately, or wanting to change things. I don't know if it is because I am starting a new chapter in my life or that I know I'll be making money soon, or just that I'm getting bored with things that I have had for years. I just don't know. I really am not a big shopper or spender (even though it sounds like it a lot on this blog lately!) I never, ever go to malls. I pretty much buy everything we have either on sale or clearance. I do not buy name brand things for any of us. I buy almost everything at Target or Kohls. Does anyone out there have fiestaware? Tell me about it!! I've been searching online and the cheapest I've seen is $20 for a place setting of 4 or 5. I'd prefer the 4 piece but Kohls only has the 5. I don't think I need saucers. I also want a variety of colors and then add more as I can. I would even buy secondhand but ebay seems even more expensive. Until I actually buy it, I will just picture it in my cupboard and dream! HA!

Changes ahead

I can't believe the end of April is just around the corner. I have my final exam May 12 and pinning May 14. Then I'm done with school. I will be trying to get an early June NCLEX date so I will spend the rest of May studying. I will then hopefully take the NCLEX first week of June and have a month off from everything until I start my job July 28. I am eager to transition from student to RN. I am so looking forward to a break from school. I do plan to go back for my masters in time, but not sure when I will do that. I may take classes here and there to take advantage of my tuition reimbursement and get some generals done for the masters program. I do want to work at least a year before doing any school. I need a break!! And working will be plenty to keep me busy!

I am starting my outside walking again, now that it is above freezing. It still is not "spring" around here. We still need to dress warm, but hopefully in the next couple weeks things will warm up. I am walking in the MS Walk again May 4, and we never know what the weather will be. It has varied from sunny and warm to snow and sleet. It is 8 miles so I need to do some regular walking until then to prepare my body so it isn't in pain that day!! I did 3 miles yesterday and typically do about 3 miles at least a few times a week.

The kids are done with school the first week in June. Then we will be busy doing fun summer stuff. Can't wait!

Snow Day

The kids happened to have the day off school, due to parent/teacher conferences so we are all home. There is quite a bit of snow outside and there is more coming. I sure hope spring/summer comes quickly!! I just cleaned the hardwood floors, by hand this time (usually I use the swiffer mop). I have to put everything back then I'm not going to do too much housework. I already did all my laundry yesterday. The kids are playing nicely as of now. I think I'll help them make a fort in the basement. They would love that. Not much else going on today. Nice to have a day with no plans. Tomorrow B has 2 birthday parties back to back. I plan to take the kids to the yearly library used book sale. Most books are $1 or less. Usually they find some treasures and I love good deals on books. DH and I plan to have a night out tomorrow night for my birthday. My parents volunteered to babysit so we will think of something fun to do. There are a lot of movies out I'd like to see. Anyway, that is what is going on around here!!