Have I mentioned that I 0nly have 77 days until graduation?
Only 5 more tests,
2 more finals,
1 paper,
1 presentation,
2 case studies,
11 more days of clinical,
and it will all be over.
Would I do it again? No way!
Am I glad I did? Absolutely, it is my calling.
In 77 days I will bid farewell to many friends, instructors and textbooks.
Not too many days after that I will enter the work force for the first time (full time) in 11 years.
I finally figured out what I wanted to be when I grow up, a nurse!

Funnies from Wyatt today:

Sitting on the porch waiting on Sellers bus:

Wyatt: Mom when I grow up I want to be a fireman
Mom: That would be nice you could put out fires and save people
pause to think
Wyatt: I want to be a fireman when I grow up
Mom: When will you be grown up?
Wyatt: (pauses for a moment to think )Um, Tuesday. Is today Friday?
Mom: Today is Monday. Oh so you'll be grown up by Tuesday?
Wyatt: yeah


Out of the blue he starting saying this tonight when it starting getting dark.

Mom, is it dark enough for Christmas?

Not once, but many times he has asked this. Apparently I am not explaining well enough that Christmas is a while off.

Taking advantage of being out of town with no kiddos, John and I decided to go see this movie. I would encourage everyone to go see it. Some of the acting is not great but the message is awesome. Kirk Cameron plays a firefighter who is about to get divorced and his dad challenges him to the Love Dare to save his marriage. I won't spoil any of the movie because I hope you will go see it. And Ladies, if you had a crush on Kirk Cameron during his Growing Pains days he is still just as adorable! Go see this movie, it may just teach you how to "fireproof" your marriage!

I try hard not to buy anything for our girl. In reality we could be many years from bringing her home but sometimes I just can't help it. The other day I was at Target and they had on clearance a cabbage patch newborn doll with almond eyes. I couldn't resist. You can imagine how hard it is to find a Asian baby doll. So I went ahead and bought it, hoping I wasn't jinxing myself and brought it home. For now I keep it by my bed, one day I will put it in my closet with all her other things I couldn't resist and one day I will place it in her arms.




I have noticed lately on some of the blogs that I read that they put st*rs in place of letters, does anyone know why they do this?

Mason gradually started a ritual of putting things in his crib before he went to bed at night.
First it started with a book.
Next, a few books.
Occasionally he would throw in a toy.
Tonight he wanted to put in a box of books, a doll, and a big ball blowing toy. I had to draw the line. No big ball blowing toy. How could you possibly get a good nights rest with that thing in there? This toy is almost as big as he is!


The difference in a boy vs a girl and a doll: (well at least my boy)

Girl: cradles it, rocks it, feeds it, dresses it, loves it!
Boy: bangs its head on the floor, throws it in the tub, squeezes it to death!

Boys-

stinky feet,
stinky armpits,
stinky shoes,
stinky rooms,
stinky clothes,
stinky socks.

We are constantly battling the stinkies around here!

Setting: 8am Closet in master bedroom

Wyatt: mom, you look like a princess (with the cutest grin on his face)
Mom: I do? Well thank you Wyatt that is so sweet.
Wyatt: When you drop me off at Sunday School I want you to be the one to pick me up.
Mom: Why?
Wyatt: 'Cause you look like a princess
Mom: OK of course I'll pick you up.

Wyatt, thanks for the boost of confidence just when I needed it.

We do not have good luck with our pets. This time I really thought we had picked the right one. But tonight we discovered Luke had passed away in his cage. The tears came, then the questions why. I do not have an answer. I do not know why a guinea pig would die. We fed him. We kept clean water. We did everything they said to. We held him and played with him. My sons heart is sad tonight. He kept crying and saying "I don't even have a picture of him". I wish now I had tried harder to get a picture of him that day. Something to remind him of Luke. He has already asked me for another pet. What am I going to do?

This morning I had a long commute to clinical at 6am. It is long to me because it is 45 minutes to Providence downtown from the sticks in Lexington. Part of me dreaded it but actually it is me time. Rarely do I get to ride in the car and listen to my music or not have to listen to the boys. So this morning I drug out my old CD's, you know,the ones I haven't bothered to listen to since I got and ipod and have been too lazy to download into it. I selected an Allison Krauss CD and went on my way in the dark to clinical. I flipped through the tracks quickly looking for a song I thought was on that CD but wasn't. When I hit track 11 I let it play for some reason, I was only partly listening to the song when the lyrics caught my attention. I hit repeat and listened to it over and over until I reached the parking lot. I felt like the song was speaking to me, here are the words of the chorus...

I'd rather be in the palm of your hand
though rich or poor I may be
Faith can see right through the circumstance
sees the forest in spite of the tree
your Grace provides for me

I don't know Allison Krauss or whether this song has some secret meaning but for me it is simple. It spoke to me about things I have been hearing from God for a long time, he just keeps trying to get my attention. OK God, I am listening and will keep on praying.

It is so amusing the names children come up with to call #2. Mason has won the award for the most original. He simply call it "T". He will run to you pointing to his hiney and say "T". No idea where it came from but definitely unique. What about your child, do they have a neat name for #2?

Oh come on, my child can't be the only one....

Today I use my blog just to say Thank You. Thank You to our parents who pick our babies up three days a week and watch them until we can pick them up. We truly appreciate you and all that you have done to support our decision for me to go back to school. We love you!

Now this is something I know about, boys.
I found this wall saying at a local store, laughed and absolutely had to have it.
Now I just have to figure out where to put it.
It says:

Boy, n : a noise with dirt on it.

Today two things dominate my mind.

1. I am sick of the presidential race! (yes, already) And unfortunately I am married to an avid news watcher.I would rather not watch continuous coverage for months on end about something I have already made my mind up about.
2. Why are companies allowed to price gauge gas to increase it by $2 a gallon in mere hours? I refused to buy any and my car will stay parked right here in my driveway until it's cheaper. Unless of course it doesn't go back to normal. I don't absolutely have to go anywhere until Tues.

Oh actually three things...

3. The 2 tests, paper, case study and two data tools I have to due by September 30th.

I guess I shouldn't be wasting time blogging........

There are days I feel that my brain cannot possibly hold anymore information. There are times when I study for hours and am not sure if I can remember anything. Is there a maximum capacity for the brain? Don't they say that humans only use a very small percentage of our brain? If that is true why can't I remember this stuff. Today I had too much in my head and I can tell because when Mason asked for his gaga (yes my nearly two year old still calls it gaga and actually has got us all calling it that, so he will probably not learn to say milk until he's 5-anyway) I poured him a cup of milk, left it on the counter and proceeded to take the whole gallon of milk to the table and set it down in front of him. Of course the boys thought that was just hilarious!
Lately I am forgetting a lot of things. I write them in my calendar but guess what? I forget to look in my calendar.

One of our boys, I won't name who here has developed an interest in girls. Here is a snippet of something he said to me that I thought was funny.

Child: Mom, there's this girl that always says hey to me at carpool. She says she know me from somewhere but I don't know where.

Mom: What's her name?

Child: I don't know.

Mom: Why don't you go up to her and ask her, her name and where she knows you from.

Child: I can't do that. Mom, these days girls travel in packs. You can't just walk up to one and talk to her. She's in a pack. (that just cracked me up!).

Then he went on to tell me about how Zack Efron in High School Musical said yada, yada, yada.
I hear about these kind of movie stories frequently. Honestly I tune them out. Who cares what Zack says, right? Anyway I thought the thing about girls traveling in packs was funny.

Just a update on school. I seem to get asked about this a bunch so here's how it is going.
I've been back in for my LAST semester for about 3 weeks. I am taking a Management Class and advanced OB and Pediatrics. Right now I am in clinical at Providence on 4 Heart. My instructor is awesome, very laid back. She is great about letting us do things on our own since we are only months away from practicing as RN'S! Most of our patients are post heart cath who have had to get stents for blockages. We do a lot of discharge which is great because I need the practice. Teaching is something nurses do a lot of and when discharging a patient you have to do a lot of teaching. It is So important. In October I will do my clinicals at Richland for OB and Peds. I am so excited about seeing the new children's hospital. It is in my top three places to work when I graduate so I am excited about seeing it and having clinical there. Many people ask me what I want to do when I graduate and honestly I don't know for sure, yet. I am interested in cardiac nursing, newborn nursery, pediatrics and there is this little part of me that would like to try the ER. I love the ER because you get to see the patient in the beginning before they are stable and when the doctors are often trying to figure out what is going on. It is often like putting a puzzle together. The only thing that worries me is trauma. I am not sure if I could handle very serious trauma cases. I have seen a gunshot victim and a fall victim and they were not very serious so I don't know what it would be like to have a real serious case. It sort of scares me but at the same time interests me. I hopefully will know what to do soon because in a few short months it will be time to apply for jobs. I just pray that I will end up somewhere where I can be happy and make a difference in someone's life. On December 17th I will be pinned (nursing for graduate) and then I will have to take the Board Liscensing Exam (NCLEX) and pass in order to practice nursing. I am so excited about finishing!!!!

I will miss the day when they are too old for this........

We have reluctantly added new pets to our family. We recently experienced a traumatic death of a fish, well two actually. Noah desperately wanted a pet. John and I talked about a dog but really didn't want the added responsibility. A cat is ok but I am allergic. We have tried fish, turtles, and frogs but they aren't the cuddly type pet he wanted. He suggested a hamster. Ok, I might could deal with a hamster unless it got loose in the house. Noah researches hamsters by checking out books at the library and we decide to go get a hamster last Saturday. Of course Sellers has jumped on the bandwagon by now so we are in search of two hamsters to bring home. We go to the pet store and look at the hamsters. They are next to the cage of rats and honestly I could hardly tell the difference. I hate rats. We have had them twice and they scare me to death. I have offered people big money to get these things out of my house before and now I am paying money to bring a close relative in? I started looking at other animals and started trying to convince them to get something else. First some new frogs. No they didn't grab his attention. Well then I enlisted the help of an employee from the Pet Store. After talking with me he agreed to encourage my boys to get Guinea Pigs instead. After talking with him they seemed cool and well they looked less like a rat and more like a rabbit without the big floppy ears. Thankfully he was successful and they picked out two little critters and brought them home. It has been good. They are very happy with their choice and can be found playing with their little buddies most all the time. And I am proud to say that they have even been taking care of them by themselves. And I am happy to have a pet the doesn't look like a rat that I will even hold.

This is Max, Noah's gp. Luke was busy playing Star Wars with Sellers and was unavailable for a picture.
.

Mason does not like walking down the stairs.
He will, but many times he will stand at the top
and call my name until I come get him.

Go Gamecocks!!!!!
This is my niece Ella, rooting on the Gamecocks.

Toddler talk. I love it. The things they say. The things they think. So cute and interesting to know what's on their mind. This was a few minutes of our conversation on the way home tonight.


Wyatt: I'm a big boy momma.

Mom: yeah, you are a big boy

Wyatt: I want to grow to be 4 feet tall like daddy, he's big.

Mom: Yeah, you will grow to be like daddy. (6 feet not 4)



30 seconds later...



Wyatt: (mumbling the names of superheroes to himself) Mom, who are all the good guys?

Mom: Superman, Batman, Spiderman, Robin, the Hulk, Jesus, Daddy, Papa, Poppy. They are all good guys.

Wyatt: They kill the monsters?

Mom: They take care of the bad guys.



30 seconds later...



Wyatt: Are there monsters in my room mama?

Mom: No Wyatt. Monsters are not real. They are pretend like in stories.

Wyatt: No monsters are gonna get me?

Mom: No Wyatt there are no Monsters!



Walking in the door...



Wyatt: Are there snakes in our jungle momma? ( we have woods behind our house and he calls it the jungle-it took a lot to convince him that our jungle did not have tigers in it)

Mom: Yeah, there are probally snakes in our jungle.

Wyatt: Snakes have teeth. ( something he has just learned) I don't see no snakes in our jungle.

Mom: They are probally hiding.