Last week of October! My favorite day of fall is coming...Halloween! I love all the cute Halloween decorations everywhere (especially the cats) and dressing up! What will be even more fun this year are that my sister and nephew are coming to visit  starting Wednesday so we can all dress up together! Here's a Halloween picture of myself from the past:

7 Months Left!

7 months from today I will be graduating from nursing school! I have been dreaming about that day for awhile now and I know it will be here soon! I'm trying not to wish my life away, especially since I'm really enjoying what we're studying this year and all that I get to be involved with during clinicals. Wednesday I got to go back to the OR and see a cystoscopy (they were looking at the patient's ureter and kidney with a camera to find kidney stones which they didn't find) and a stint placed in the ureter to make it bigger(ureters are the tubes that connect the kidneys to the bladder). Thursday I went back to OB and saw another baby be born. Wednesday I also got to start my first IV and was successful!

Yesterday I went to Sinkland Farms with a friend, ate some delicious pumpkin ice cream, and got 3 very cute little pumpkins!

This week I have fall break (Wednesday-Friday) and since I don't normally have class on Tuesday all I have for this week was class today! I did no studying this weekend which was fun to do whatever I wanted and feel like a normal person for once! I do have 2 tests when I get back so I will definitely be studying for those this week!

Still Summer

Everyone has been complaining like crazy about the heat but I'm still enjoying it! Until about a week ago, I hadn't even realized that hey, I'm not usually still wearing shorts near the end of September. Too bad I haven't been able to enjoy it too much since I'm usually inside doing school stuff but it's great to still be able to drive around with my windows rolled down and exercise with the sun shining so warmly. I have no idea what this warm weather means for the coming winter...hopefully nothing too terrible!

This past week has been pretty good. I'm a third of the way through this semester which seems really crazy! I've been pretty busy with studying and clinicals so these 5 weeks have gone by fast!
Monday, my first friend from college had a baby; a beautiful girl named Emma.

I had a couple of tests on Monday that went well. I was a little bummed last weekend that I couldn't do anything fun like go to my friend's wedding in Richmond or watch the game Saturday but all of my studying definitely paid off on Monday.
Wednesday night at the hospital was ok, nothing too exciting there. Thursday instead of going to the hospital at night I went to SimLab earlier. Simlab is Radford's simulation center for nurses where we have different scenarios that involve all the skills we've learned so far and then some. Usually there's myself plus one or two other students and a patient who is a dummy. The dummy talks so it's not like you can just do your stuff; you have to interact with it as if it were a real patient. We are also videotaped during the scenario and then the instructor goes over it afterwards (usually to tell us what we did wrong). We don't really like it, but we always learn a lot. Since I didn't have to go to the hospital Thursday night, I got to go the homegroup. That was nice since I hadn't been able to go since school started.
I'm looking forward to watching the game against BC tomorrow on TV so hopefully tonight I'll get lots of reading in! Another test Wednesday!

Week Two

Most of this week, until today, was pretty crazy. First of all I was really nervous about my two tests Wednesday. I wasn't sure if I would have enough time to study and really understand all of the material. One of the chapters was on fluids and electrolytes which can be a pretty heavy concept- what causes it to be out of balance, what are the symptoms, what fixes it, normal ranges, etc. This was the chapter that was most heavily focused on the test and the one our teachers warned us about. So I read, made charts, wrote and rewrote until I started to have a grasp on it Tuesday night. I even memorized about 10 normal ranges for various things which I normally have a really hard time doing (I love math but for some reason I have a really difficult time memorizing numbers). I then had a really hard time falling asleep because I was so nervous and then I dreamed a "scenario" about everything I had been studying. (all I remember now is something about a guy having an embolism and me trying to figure this out) Anyways, the tests went well Wednesday and that made me feel really good about the rest of the semester since this first test was supposed to be the hardest. We'll see about that since I have the worst time remembering drugs, especially the funky names.

Clincials went pretty well this week; I got to give a lot of meds, which is one of my favorite things to do and I had a good discussion with my clinical teacher about me sometimes being afraid of patients and patient-interaction. I think she's going to help me work through some of that so I'm not floundering around patients the whole year.

Today was fun since I got to spend the whole afternoon with college friend and former roommate Niki. I hadn't seen her since last July since she lives in CA now. We had a nice time strolling around campus and Target :)

It has Begun

Let me just start out by saying that in all my years of school I have never ever ever ever started reading on the first day of class. In high school and at Tech, I wasn't so good about reading (this is why I majored in math) and last year, I think I probably waited a week to do any reading. Well let me tell you, I was reading on the first day of class. Partly because I want better grades this year, partly since my teachers were like, "oh yeah, this year is much worse because we know you can handle it," and partlysince my first tests are next week so I have no time to waste! I guess we shall see just how long I can remain in high gear.

So Monday I"m reading my books after class, I'm like I think I can do this part. But I'm scared to death to go to clinicals because let's just say I had some interesting experiences last semester. But new year, new instructors so maybe it will be okay. At least I don't have to be at the hosptial at 6:45am. So I go to clincials Wednesday and meet my new clinical instructor. Let me just say, love her! When I came hope Wednesday night, I was actually happy. My past experiences not so much, more like wanting to go to sleep because I was so depressed. Even though my clincal time wasn't exactly what I wanted (in terms of missing any evening activities on Wednesdays and Thursday like homegroup), I think God really knew what he was doing when he put me there. I know I will definitely learn a lot from her and her teaching style plus I don't feel scared around her like I have with other instructors. She already had us getting involved in some really cool experiences. For example Wednesday we all let her know that we were pretty terrified to communicate with doctors so on Thursday she had one of her surgeon friends talk to us about nurse-Dr interaction and what he expects from nurses and what to say when we have to call one. So I definitely felt better about that piece. And then while I followed her around collecting expired drugs for us to play with, I got to go into the pharmacy which was cool because I had never been in one before. There is still a lot of work associated with clinicals since we have lots to look up about our patient like labs and drugs but hopefully it will also be really fun.

To sum up, this week has been a mental and emotional whirlwind, but not in a bad way like my year started out last year. I don't forsee my workload calming down anytime in the near future, so for those who are used to seeing me various times throughout the week, hopefully I will continue to blog every so often to keep ya'll updated (and please do the same on yours so I don't feel out of the loop)!

Back to School Eeek!

So Monday I go back to school. I've been dreading this day for the past 4 weeks not only because it's another year filled with work, but because it means that my favorite season is coming to an end. I've had a change in attitude the past couple of days about going to school. I think I'm ready to do some more learning and I'm excited to go back to finally having a job soon. I guess summer being over is what makes me the most sad. As I watched my neighbor take his window air conditioning unit out of his house today I was like, no, it's going to be cold again soon! No more fun summer trips, reading by the pool, or just enjoying being outside in shorts and a tank top.

I did a lot of walking this summer for my exercise routine and hopefully I can stick it out outside as it gets colder. Maybe I can learn to enjoy the beauty of the outdoors even though it won't warm. Let me know if any of you runners ever want to do some cross training by walking with me!

Summer's End

I guess I need to catch up on what we've been doing in August. The first week of August, Justin and I joined my parents, sister, and nephew at the Outer Banks of NC for a week of beach time. We had a cute little house that seemed to fit everyone. We were sad that my brother and brother-in-law couldnt join us, but my brother was working and Aaron is in bootcamp for the Navy. My newphew is now one and a half so he is up and around and learning new words. He loved the pool, the waves at the beach, and eating whatever anyone else was eating! He didn't so much like the sand though and I would have to agree with him on saying that it's "icky." Justin and I did lots of puzzles, read, and swam at the beach and pool. Justin even read a whole book! It was nice for all of us to be together since my sister lives so far away so we don't get to be together very often.

This past weekend, I went to one of my friend and roomates from college's baby shower in Virginia Beach. She's the first of my close college friends to have a baby so it is really exciting for all of us. We had a great time catching up and giving her cute baby clothes!