Home Sweet Home :)

I'm finished with school FOREVER! Completely done...no more clinicals or projects...and only one more test--the NCLEX. I will probably be taking that sometime in January though. I have to wait for the school to send my transcript to the board of nursing in Montgomery, and then they have to send me an "Authorization to Test" number before I'm allowed to schedule a test date. If I get a job (fingers crossed) before I take the NCLEX, I can go ahead and start working with a temporary license as long as I take and pass the NCLEX within 90 days, I think. I took an NCLEX review course last week, and it was a good review of a lot of the material I learned in nursing school, so if I can just motivate myself to go over that before I take the test, I think I'll be ok.

On the job front, I actually had an interview yesterday for a PRN position at Huntsville Hospital Women and Children's on the 3rd floor med-surg unit. I think it went really well, and I liked the nurse manager a lot. She said that she will be interviewing a few other people for the position, and she wants to decide something by the end of next week. If that doesn't work out, I guess I'll end up working in pre-op where I worked the past 2 summers, which would be fine with me. I already know everybody there and am familiar with the way things work, so that part would be easier at least. We'll see! At least things are looking more positive than they were about a month ago. For a while there, I never thought I'd get an interview!

Right now, we're spending time with my family in Trussville. It's great to be home for more than just a day or two at a time. I've pretty much been a bum the past few days, and it's been really nice. I guess once I start working I'll wish I could be a bum again! Travis has been working really hard to help me set up my new laptop. It's got Windows 7 on it, so we're having to learn that together since my old laptop and his laptop have XP. I'm really really hoping that we can get my pictures, emails, and documents off my old hard drive, but it's not looking good. Travis tried to use an external hard drive to get everything off, and it wouldn't work, so now we're going to have to take it somewhere and pay someone to try. It'll be worth it though if I can get those pictures back....it's pretty much all of the pictures I took since I've been in college...or at least, since the last time my hard drive crashed!

We've also got a big trip to California planned for January 5th - January 8th to see the football team play in the national championship game. We're going to stay in Long Beach which is on the other side of Los Angeles from Pasadena and take the metro everywhere we need to go (hopefully). I've been having a lot of fun researching cool things to do while we're there, and I think it would be really fun to try to get in the audience of The Price is Right one afternoon. It's free, and we could end up being contestants! Even if we don't get to do that, there's plenty of other stuff to do in LA and Long Beach....so much that I'm sure we won't have time to do everything! It's going to be so much fun though....we can't wait! :)

Here's some pictures from the past few weeks:

Travis and me excited about the big win in Atlanta!

The group we went to the game with...

My closest friends in nursing school...Lauren W, Stephanie, Laura, Lauren A, and Amy

Us in the front of Bryant Denny

Graduation pictures in our apartment after lunch

:)

My new purple dress!

November 29, 2001

8 years ago today was a day that changed my life forever. It was the day that I had surgery to correct/stop the progression of my scoliosis. At the time, I don't think I really understood how serious of a surgery it was, but I definitely did after the fact. Let's just say that 8 hours in the OR is no walk in the park. I had an awesome surgeon, Dr. William Horton, and some really great nurses who took care of me while I was at Emory Hospital in Atlanta. And, despite a complication the night after surgery that almost took my life, I was able to leave the hospital after only 5 days. I guess God decided that it wasn't my time to go.

So, at age 15 I learned a lesson about appreciating life and good health while you have it. Every day is a gift, and I try to constantly remember that. I'm blessed with a wonderful family, awesome friends, the chance to get a college education, 2 warm and cozy places to live, and so much more. And, after seeing so many people that I care about get sick and struggle with illnesses like dementia and cancer, I'm reminded about how lucky I am to be in good health right now.

I guess in a way I'm lucky to have the 13 inch long scar on my back because it helps remind me to be thankful for everything I have.

Graduation is right around the corner!

So much has been happening over the past month, and I'm not doing a very job of blogging about it...sorry! We've enjoyed a lot of great Alabama football games. The LSU game was one of the best we've seen as students I think! We had a few friends over to watch the Mississippi State game, and that was a lot of fun. I made my mom's white chili and hello dollies, and they both turned out really good.

Yesterday was the last day of my preceptorship. It went by SO FAST! I really enjoyed working with Carmon, my nurse, and I definitely learned a lot. Tuesday, I finally got the chance to start an IV. I've started several IVs on adults in past semesters, but this was my first chance to try on a child, and she was 2 years old! It was a great opportunity. Last night, I worked the evening shift (3PM - 11 PM), so that was a little weird. Every other shift that I worked was 7AM to 3PM, so I was used to waking up at 5:45 A.M. I'm glad to be finished, but I'm really going to miss the nurses on the unit. They were great!

All that's left before graduation is a group presentation during dead week and an NCLEX review course during finals week. Then....it's time to walk across that stage at Coleman Coliseum! I can't decide if I'm more excited or nervous about graduating...I think it's about equally both. I'm excited to finally be finished with all of this work. Nursing school has definitely been a lot more work than I ever thought it would be. I don't even want to know how many hours I put in studying! So, it's a good feeling to almost be finished with all that work. The past 6 or 7 weeks have definitely been A LOT less stressful. I've kind of gotten a little taste of the "real world" since I've mostly been working and not done very much school work. That's one thing that I'll definitely enjoy about being finished with school....LESS STRESS! But...it's also scary to be graduating at the same time. Pretty soon, I'll be an RN with a lot of responsibility that I don't know if I'm ready for. I feel a lot more confident than I did before I started this preceptorship, but I'm still nervous. It's a good thing that most hospitals have a pretty long orientation for newly graduated nurses because I'll need it!

Speaking of hospitals, the job search is not going very well. I've applied for 6 jobs at Huntsville Hospital, and 5 of them have been filled by other applicants. I haven't been called for any interviews either. I've also applied for 2 jobs at Crestwood and haven't heard anything about those. I guess maybe I'm not being proactive enough...maybe I need to start calling and bugging people?? I've also considered trying to find a job at a doctor's office here in Tuscaloosa for the 5 months next semester that we'll still be here...but I don't know how likely it would be that anyone would want to hire me for that short amt of time. We'll see. I also have the option (I think) of working in pre-op at Huntsville where I worked the past 2 summers. Cheryl told me before I left in August that she would hire me PRN (as needed) after I graduated if I couldn't find another job. It wouldn't be a full time job, but it's definitely great hours and I already know the ropes there (for the most part). I may call or email her here shortly...

Travis is staying busy with his classes as usual. He has a big test in quantum mechanics coming up on Tuesday. He's hoping to do a lot better on this test than he did on the first one so that he can pass the class. I think he can do it :) I feel like I've barely seen him at all in the past 2 weeks because I worked the past 10 days, went to bed by 9 PM and was getting up at 5:45 AM. He, on the other hand, was staying up til 1 or 2 AM and sleeping late, so we were on totally opposite schedules! It'll be nice to be able to stay up a little bit later now that I'm done with my preceptorship.

Tonight, we are going to decorate for Christmas finally! I wanted to do it a couple of weeks ago because we won't be here for most of December to be able to enjoy it, but we were just too busy. I'm so excited!

Tomorrow is our last Alabama football game as students at Bryant Denny...and it's supposed to rain all day! I hope that it will hold off during the game, but we'll see. We survived a monsoon at the Arkansas game, so I guess we can survive another one tomorrow if we have to!

We're excited about seeing everyone at Thanksgiving next week! :)

Our busy October...

Well, a lot has happened since I last updated this blog. On October 2nd, I took the HESI and passed. Yay! It was such a relief to get that over with. I also took my final exams and did fine on those, so no more tests for the rest of the semester!!! WOOHOO! The only thing left to do this semester (besides the preceptorship, of course) is a group project that we have to present the week before finals week. I started my preceptorship a week and a half ago on the pediatric unit at DCH. I worked 8 days in a row (64 hours!) and survived, and it actually wasn't at tiring as I thought it might be. I feel like I'm learning a lot, and I really like my nurse. She even got my a birthday present! By the way, I had a great 23rd birthday on Tuesday. Thanks for all of the cards, gifts, and well wishes!

Travis is staying busy with his classes too. He's spent the last week writing a formal lab report and has been busy with homework for his other classes too. He didn't do very good on a quantum mechanics test last week, so he's worried about not passing that class. I keep telling him that he'll do just fine. He's pretty ready to be done with school and just start working.

Well, Alabama is still undefeated...BARELY. We both almost had a heart attack at the end of the game tonight! It was definitely an exciting finish! I hope we'll play better against LSU in 2 weeks though.

Here are some pictures from the past month:

This is my cap and gown picture :)

Picture from the Ole Miss game in Oxford

Our group of friends that went to the Ole Miss game

Picture with some of the girls from Northwood before the South Carolina game

Gary, Tyler, and Travis before the South Carolina game

Us before the Tennessee game today

This is me procrastinating!

I'm trying to get motivated to study for the HESI on Friday....but it's been a long day! For the past week, I've been studying and working on a group project. This morning, our group gave its presentation on ARDS (acute respiratory distress syndrome). It had to be 50 minutes long! I was really nervous about it, but it wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be. Public speaking is probably my BIGGEST fear, so anything that involves me getting up in front of the class is enough to make me want to run away! Luckily, I only had to talk for probably 7-10 minutes of the presentation since we had 9 people in our group. I'm just glad it's over now! Tomorrow, I have my last two clinical days ever!!! I can't believe it! Then, Friday I take the HESI (for hopefully the last time). It's from 9 AM to 1 PM on Friday. If I don't pass, I have two more chances to take it again, but I'm planning/hoping/praying to pass the first time! After that, I have one final next Wednesday and another final the following Monday. Then, it's time for my preceptorship! Yay!!!! I can't believe graduation is so close!

Travis has his big proposal tomorrow for his senior design class. Unfortunately, he's done pretty much all of the work on their presentation because his other group members are pretty unreliable. I'm sure he'll be glad to get that over with tomorrow afternoon!

This weekend, we may go camping at Tannehill on Friday night with some of the college kids and adults from Northwood. I don't think we'll spend the night, but we may at least go and be social for awhile (for once!). Then, Saturday, we're planning to have a few people over to watch the Alabama-Kentucky game on TV. It will be nice to actually hang out with people again....I feel like all we've done this semester so far is stay home and study!

Quick Update

Well, it's time for another week of classes! I survived midterms...and I've got finals week after next. My clinicals are going really well. I got to extubate my patient on Thursday, so that was pretty cool! Travis has been sick for almost the past week with congestion and coughing. Hopefully he'll start feeling better soon!

We had fun at the game on Saturday. It rained on us walking to the stadium, but once we got there, it stopped and didn't start raining again til we got home after the game. Perfect! I actually got sunburned pretty bad on my face...I guess I just wasn't expecting to get any sun since it was so cloudy and nasty outside. Speaking of rain, I'm ready for it to stop raining for a while. It's rained here every day for the past week and a half at least!

We had a pretty good shopping trip at Publix today. I got 3 free reusable Publix shopping bags with some coupons I had, and they had chicken breasts for $1.99/lb so we stocked up! I'm going to make an apple pie tomorrow afternoon to take to Gary and Alan's apartment tomorrow night for dinner (they're cooking for us!), so that should be fun. It's been a long time since I've made an apple pie, but I think I've found a pretty good recipe online. Well, that's about all that's been going on...hope you have a great week!

Our Fun Labor Day Weekend

This weekend was a blast, and it sure did go by fast! I had clinicals last Wednesday and Thursday at Princeton in Birmingham, so those mornings I had to wake up at 4:20 AM. Not very much fun...but at least the clinicals went well. I got to help take care of a patient on a ventilator one day, so that was pretty cool. Needless to say, I was pretty worn out by the time we left for Atlanta Friday, and we stayed up late both Friday and Saturday night at Jason's house. I finally got some good sleep Sunday night when we got back to Tuscaloosa. We had a lot of fun at the game though! I ended up sitting with Mollie, and Travis sat with Nate. We were in sections that were right next to each other though, so we could still see each other. We had a huge group that stayed at Jason's, so it was definitely an adventure trying to get showers and get ready on Sunday morning for church. Somehow we all made it on time though! :)

This week I'm back to studying like crazy...I've got a midterm this Friday and another one next Monday! How crazy is that? Seems like school just started! Travis is busy with lots of homework as usual and a group project that takes up a good bit of time. It will be nice to stay in town this weekend so we can get more done.

We're already getting busy!

Well, being able to relax in our new apartment didn't last long! We hit the ground running in my classes last week and haven't looked back. I feel like all I've done is study, do homework, type notes, and go to class since August 19th. I even study while I'm exercising on the treadmill! They weren't kidding when they said this semester was intense, that's for sure. I'm just trying to hang in there until October 2nd, which is our first time that we take the HESI this semester. We get 3 chances to pass it, but I'd really like to pass it the first time so I don't have to worry about it anymore after that. My preceptorship starts October 13th, which is the Tuesday after fall break, so by October 12th I will have already taken all my finals and everything. The preceptorship lasts until the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and after that, all I'll have to do is a group presentation the week after Thanksgiving and an optional review course. So, basically I'm just holding on for dear life and trying to take it one day at a time until things slow down a little bit.

Travis's classes have gotten off to a good start as far as I can tell. He seems to like all of his professors (minus maybe one), and they all speak pretty good English (which is a major plus!) I've been lucky not to have to worry about understanding mine...I've never had a professor here at UA who wasnt from the U.S.! He's about to start teaching the high school class at church with Tyler on Wednesday nights, so that will keep him busy on top of his schoolwork.

Next weekend, we're going to Atlanta for the first Alabama game, so that should be fun. ROLL TIDE!! :)

Well, I gotta get started studying....hope everyone has a great weekend!

Pics of our new place!

We are loving our new place! We finally got everything set up on Friday afternoon, and it is so awesome! We are especially enjoying having carpet, a dishwasher, washing machine and dryer, and extra counter space in the kitchen and bathroom! We've had people over the past two nights, and it's been really nice to have the extra room. Here are several pictures so you can all see what it looks like:

Our front door and hallway

Standing at the front door looking in

Our living room

Another angle of the living room

The entertainment center

Different angle again...

The Daniel Moore wall!

The new microwave cart we bought!

Dining room...

Another angle of the dining room...

My new canisters from Target that I love!

The lovely kitchen...

Other side

Head on shot

Our bedroom!

Looks similar to Presidential...

Travis's desk

Our closet!

Linen closet and opening to the bathroom

Inside the linen closet/extra food that won't fit in the pantry

Bathroom

Shower curtain

Other angle...

Laundry closet...

Our patio and extra storage closet

Soon to move again...

This is our last week in Huntsville for the summer. I'm really going to miss everyone here...we've got a lot of great family and friends here! Here are some pictures of a 1 bedroom, 1 bath apartment in Rivermont (the apartment complex we're going to be living in this fall and next spring in Tuscaloosa). It's not our exact apartment, but it's set up exactly the same:

One picture of the bathroom (with Travis taking the picture!) Behind the mirrored doors is the washer and dryer area...

Bathroom!

One view of the bedroom

Our bedroom (we'll have a walk-in closet...yay!!)

Our kitchen (with a lot more room than Presidential!!)

This is our dining area off of the living room...

This is the living room (the door leads out to the back patio), and there's a fireplace on the left wall!

This is the view when you walk in our front door (you're seeing part of the living room and the hallway where our bedroom and bathroom are).

My poor forgotten blog needs an update!

Today, I bought all of this stuff at CVS for $8.69!!! My receipt says I saved $51.44!!! Woo hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just had to share! Couponing is helping us save money and buy better stuff at the same time....I love it!

The summer is flying by. In another month and 2 days, we'll be moving back to Tuscaloosa for the school year. I can't believe it's going by so fast!

This weekend is the Dvorak family reunion, so we're looking forward to that. We'll actually be staying in town (well, in North Alabama) for the weekend. That's practically a first for this summer. We tried out a new homemade ice cream recipe (strawberry) last weekend with my family at the lake, and it was pretty good, but we're going to make some changes to hopefully make it over-the-top good!

Travis found out yesterday at work that he got a 6% raise, so that was really good news! I'll brag on him since he never brags on himself :) He hasn't had a whole lot to do this summer at work, so that's been kind of frustrating for him, but it's not for lack of trying to find something...I think it's just hard since he's only there for a few weeks at a time out of the year. Whenever he starts work full-time after graduation, I'm sure it will be much different!

Well, there's my quick update. Hopefully it won't be another month before I update again...but who knows, with time flying so fast! Hope everyone is having an awesome week!!