FINISHED (till January anyway...)

As of Thursday I am finished with all my classes and I have passed all of them with "Bs" straight across the board. No Phi Theta Kapa, but at least I will graduate in May! I was concerned for awhile that I wouldn't pass Management, but a good grade on my presentation and final paper turned me in the passing direction. 1/3 of my class did not. Next semester the class will be significantly diminished. Sad times.

In the middle of the semester I felt like I would never finish nursing school. There was no light at the end of the tunnel. There wasn't even a faint glow, but now I can at least see a glimmer. Next semester is all about ICU and critical care. We will also be taking an NCLEX-RN review class.

The NCLEX-RN is the licensing exam I have to take after I graduate. Before I graduate, however, I have to pass the HESI exam. This exam is kind of like NCLEX-RN, but not. It is like a practice test. We took the midcurricular HESSI last week and without studying I received an 82% chance of passing the NCLEX. I think I will study before the next one and before the NCLEX.That will give me an even better chance of passing!

Last Sunday Matto directed our church choir singing Vivaldi's Gloria. It was super fun. I got to sing the duet and soprano solo. Funny - People at the church kept saying to me afterwards, "Who knew that sound was in you!"

I also heard from several people that this was the best Christmas concert in a long time. Matto hired an orchestra. Also, the Gloria was a big deal. These people don't normally sing in different languages. It was a big challenge and they came through. Matto wants to do Rutter Requiem for Easter. It is longer, but it is more homophonic so it should be a little easier.

Matto was complimented to me and my mom on Thursday after choir practice. One of the singers came up to us and said he was grateful that Matt is so versitle. He was very impressed that Matt is able to direct choral master works, but in the next hour he is able to join the "good ole boy" group and in the next hour he can lead a contemporary worship band.

I am so proud of my talented man. I hope more people in the church realize how great he is and how fortunate they are to have him.

I guess that's all.

Guess what I did around 4:30 this morning...

You never will so I'll tell you!





I got to see a.........





CESAREAN SECTION!!! So cool. You know, when a uterus is taken out of the abdominal cavity it greatly resembles an uncooked turkey! The baby was a boy. The surgery was performed by a resident so I got to hear it "narrated" in a quiet voice by the attending. There was also a new resident observing so the attending pointed out the anatomy. The scrub tech got me into the surgery. She taught me all about what she does and she let me gown and glove up so I could be right up next to the doctor while she performed the surgery. It was awesome. Here's a cool pic of a c-section. (This is not the one I was at. This morning's was a breech so his hiney came out first!)

Labor and deliver and c-sections are so cool. It is so neat to see how humans develop from two half cells into once completely, different from anybody else ever made, person. I am in awe.


This pic is on my desk top. Is it not cool?

I think that is why I love this service in the hospital so much. Every day is a miracle. Even when the baby's don't survive it is an opportunity to witness God's perfect plan. From birth I have noticed that these new little people are not only different in their DNA make up, but in personality, too. Some babies will be unwrapped, bathed, weighed, changed, and all manner of being handled and never make a sound. Others start screaming the second the first layer is unwrapped. Others are in between. Each of these little people are designed personally by God. Wow.

That is what makes it ten times sadder when I see babies like another one I saw last night, whose mothers don't think while they are pregnant and do drugs and don't take care of themselves. That baby will go home today to live with the mother that put it in this constant state of addiction and immediate drug rehab. Why should a baby have to go through detox immediately after birth? In this unit I work in I not only see the glory and wonder of God's creation, but I also see how man is able to damage and destroy it. Heaven will be so wonderful when we can see God's glory and not mess it up with our stupidity.

God be praised for his wondrous works, even if we don't understand them. God be praised for sending his own son as such a small, vulnerable baby. God be praised for sending that son to the cross so that we, who are constantly messing up, might be with him and praise him without hindrance.

careplans - urg.

I really need prayer. I am not doing well with my careplans this semester. I don't know if it is me or the teacher or what, but I have done about 5 careplans thus far and have only received 2 passing grades - 77 and 81. This is not good. I need 4 passing grades to pass that class. I would really like some "A's", but at this point I'll take anything. I am so affraid I will have to repeat the class which means that I won't graduate until August instead of May. I am really hating school right now and if it weren't for the fact that I want to be a nurse more than anything and my little family is so counting on me being a nurse I would give up. But I can't. And that's final. Please pray that my attitude will improve and that I will be able to do better with these careplans.

Communion

Christ's body broken for you; Christ's blood Shed for you.

Today I had the opportunity to hold the communion cup while people came by and dipped the bread in the grape juice. Part of this job was saying to each person, "Christ's blood shed for you." I was worried before that saying it over and over again would make it seem trite. It is such a beautiful and personal thing when someone says it to me when I take the bread and cup, but I was worried that the repetition would make it meaningless. It didn't. Instead it was much more meaningful saying it to each person and looking into their eyes. Telling each one of them that Christ's blood was indeed shed for them. I was on the verge of tears most of the time, especially when Matto and my mom came up. Of course, it probably had nothing to do with the fact that I had not yet gotten any sleep as I had worked all night the night before :).


I was touched even more when children came up. Bending over to offer the cup to little people was such a reminder of the passage, "let the little children come unto me."
A funny part was when a little girl was not sure what she was supposed to do with the bread so she just chucked it in the grape juice and left. Very cute.

Fall!!!

Every year around this time I get this funny, exciting feeling. It usually comes on when I wake one day in fall, sometimes in September and sometimes in October. It happened this afternoon when I woke up to get ready for work. It is an expectant feeling, almost like when one wakes up on Christmas morning, expecting all of the fun of spending time with family. Even when I have so much in front of me and expected of me, like work tonight or my two tests and paper coming up at the end of this month, the excitement is always there underneath the surface.

I love fall and winter. I love the crispness of the air (although that has not as yet occured in our neck of the woods - still hot and hummid, but I can feel fall beginning to appear). I love the colors. I love the overall feeling. Too much excited!

I am also excited this year about decorating my house for Christmas. I have decided upon blue icicle lights to line my house. I think thats all for now because we don't have a lot of money for decorations. I can't wait for the day after thanksgiving when I can decorate, decorate and my house can look and feel as excited as I do!

Matto does not feel my excitement. He says church musicians have too much work around Christmas to get excited about it. I pray this year that he can share in the expectant excitement that I feel!

"Called"

"'Not called!' did you say?

'Not heard the call,' I think you should say.Put your ear down to the Bible, and hear Him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of hell, and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father's house and bid their brothers and sisters and servants and masters not to come there. Then look Christ in the face -- whose mercy you have professed to obey -- and tell Him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish His mercy to the world." -- William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army

This quote was part of the sermon preached yesterday at church by our youth director. When I read this I don't see people around the world. I see in my mind a certain kind of people - women who find themselves unintentionally pregnant and not sure where to turn. For awhile now crisis pregnancy has been on my mind and I always figured I would volunteer at a center after I graduate and can give them a nurse as well as a body, but lately I have been feeling that what I really need to do is volunteer now, if only to sweep floors. This is where my heart is and has always been. Anyway. Just had to share.

God is so groovey!

I'm in the nursery tonight, which is a nice respite from last weekend where I didn't sit down until about 2:30 AM for lunch both nights. I was the only tech on the sixth floor both nights. There were about 20-22 moms and about 17-19 babies (all of which I had to bath and weigh (the babies that is)). What made the time especially special is that I had a test on Monday afternoon that I had not finished studying for. I thought (stupid, silly me) that since I usually have so much time for studying at work, I didn't need to do all that much studying on my two days off. I know everyone has heard that proverbial saying about the ratio of baby chickens to eggs and how you shouldn't really count or whatever. Anyway, I counted and my chickens were definitely not as I had hoped (is anyone following this?). To make a long story short (too late!) I did not get to finish my studying by 7AM, but I still had to get some sleep so I got to the school about 40 minutes early and just sat with my review book and didn't look up until the last minute. I was feeling very emotionally unstable going into that test, but I prayed that God would calm me down and I would happily accept a passing grade no matter how low it was.

Well...I got a......90%. I looked at my grade and said, "Huh." Okay. Um. Okay. I did the review and it was an honest grade. I really did know the answers. The ironic part was that I got all the answers right for the disease I did not get to study for. What's up with that? I'll tell you what's up with that - God bailed me out of my stupidity...again. I think this is how I am pretty sure nursing is where He wants me. Even when I tend to sabatoge myself he always helps me through. This is no excuse for not studying when I should have been studying, but it does show God's awsome mercy and grace.

This time I am going to work harder (where have I heard that before?). Therefore I am going to stop this blog and go read for Monday and Tuesday. I am determined to do well this semester, so, bye!

Whining and a day on the Brazos

Welp, I'm doing better! I now have a major "don't want to be in school anymore" attitude which is not very conducive to straight "A's." I am almost done. Only 8 more months and I graduate with an RN degree and have only the NCLEX-RN to take to be an RN, but they are stretching out before me like a long, long road that seems never to end. I am sure that once the semester gets started I will be so busy I won't have time to brood over it and the time will fly, but until then...WAAA, WAAA, WAAA (said in a big baby nasaly voice).

Week before last I went for a fun little nature hike at Brazos Bend State Park. That was fun, albeit a bit wet. Okay. A lot wet. It was raining after all. And it was humid. I got to see an alligator though. It was cool. At first I just thought it was a log (okay, cliche, but true), but then I noticed that it had fresh moss on it and then it blinked!! Very cool. I also did a bit of flash card studying for my math exam the next day (which I got a 100 on thank you very much) in the observation tower. I was going to walk all the way around the 40 Acre lake, but as I got about half way around I noticed that the lake had overflowed onto the road and they tell you to not walk in the lake or by low banks so I turned around. Bummer. It was good times, but by the time I got back in my car my hair was actually dripping like I had pored a bucket of water over it. I am not sure why. I was wearing a poncho after all. Anyway, over all good times.
It definitely made up for the fact that the woman I went to for a hair cut cut my hair way too bushy and short. I told her just above my jawline and she cut it mid ear...when its wet. Yeah.

Anyway. I gotta go. Lunch time!!!

A Jonah day (night)

So I got to work last night and was told that I was assigned to the desk. "Ah, good," thought I, " I have some reading to do and this is very handy." First thing I find out when I get to the desk is there is no floor tech until 11:00 so I am needed to do 10:00 vital signs. That's fine. No sweat. There are only 17 moms and 8 babies. No problem. Yes problem. One of the sets of parents apparently did not know how to change their baby because they had not changed him since the nurse on day shift changed him and they were waiting for the night nurse to come and change him. They didn't notice that he had soaked all the way through his diaper and both blankets. Before I could do vital signs on him I had to change his diaper (teaching the parents how to do so and how to care for his new circumcision (which was probably burning from all the urine, poor thing)) and change his bedding. This set me back a good 10 to 15 minutes (each patient is supposed to take me 1-2 minutes max). Finally, I finished vital signs and went in search for a turkey sandwich for another patient. This whole time my stomach has been feeling very funny. I finally get back to the desk with some juice hoping it will settle my stomach. After I drink the first juice my tummy is really feeling funny and I decide to go to the bathroom...just in case. Well, good decision. There goes my dinner/breakfast (whatever you want to call it). Then come the chills and hot flashes. All night long. I don't think I will go to the gym this morning, but I have to go to class. I have no choice. Please pray for me. I feel yucky.

Florida!

So I just got back from visiting my brother in Florida! Good times. I went with my mom. We stayed in a hotel. We went swimming in the beautifully shaded swimming pool. We worked out in the scantily stocked workout room. I walked out on the hotel's dock (which looks out over the bay) and got a sunburn. We went to the beach with my brother and watched him surf and watched my nephew try to surf (mostly just using the board as a floatie) and I went in for awhile. We went for dinner at the restaurant my sister-in-law manages. Picked up my nephew and went home. Definitely fun. Although it doesn't look as fun on the computer screen as it was in real life. Ah, well.

Matto went to Schlitterbahn in New Braunfel. The park itself was fun, but the bus' AC went out half way there and on the way back one of their tires blew out so that was no good, but he definitely said the park was fun. Good times.

So that was my first vacation since last summer and my last vacation till this December. Now I go into MedSurg. I am told that this will not be as difficult as Pedi, but I want to get my GPA up 3/10 of a point so that I can qualify for Phi Theta Kappa so I need to abandon the whole complacent attitude thing and get to work. Please pray for me as I jump back in on Monday.

Ah...Texas weather

So I had an experience that goes with the old saying about Houston weather: If you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes (or in this case, drive about 50 yards further). I was driving home from my mom's house Wednesday night when all of a sudden it looked kind of foggy. I had just enough time to think, "Huh. Its kinda foggy here" when the car in front of me suddenly hit their brakes! Right about the same place they hit their brakes a wall of water hit my car and I had to hit my brakes as I couldn't see a thing! I finally got my windshield wipers on and my car under control and about 50 yards into the torrential downpour it just stopped...nothing. The road was wet, but it was wet like when several cars go through a puddle on a dry day. Wild. The funny thing was that there was a car stalled in that 50 yards of rain. I felt like going back and telling them that if they push their car a little ways they could at least be stalled in dry weather. That actually happened several times coming home. What a trip.

Oh! Hurricane Dean is supposedly on its way to South Texas, but I don't think it will be stopping here. Just in case though we are at least going to be taping our windows. Me and mom are going to Florida to pick up my nephew at my brothers house and Matto is going to Schlitterbahn in New Braunfels, Tx with the youth group (unless they cancel due to the hurricane, but that's not likely seeing as how the hurricane is most likely heading to S. Tx and Northern Mexico) so really the only ones to be concerned about are the kitties. Ah, well. They have a very good hiding place under the bathtub in our bathroom so they will hopefully be okay. It is good to live somewhat inland during hurricane season. Please be praying all the same. Especally for those that it will hit.

It happens everytime!

Everytime I start thinking pretty well of myself God takes me down a notch. When I was in college the first time, everytime I started feeling proud and cocky about my singing something would happen to me. I would get up in a performance and really blow it or I would lose my voice. However, whenever I would truly seek God's will and glory I would do well and all my training and technique would be spot on.
This time I was cocky about my grades so God brought me down. I did okay on my theory final and I am going to get a "B" in that class, just as I thought I was. All semester, however, I have been thinking about how great I am in clinical and what a great student I am and how I am definitely going to get an "A" in that class - it was in the bag! I didn't put any effort into my second careplan because I thought, "I don't need to work at this. I've got it!" When I ended up with an 80% on that careplan it didn't bother me because I already had a bunch of "A's" in my other assignments. It was with this attitude that I approached my medication final. I got a...yes, I am not comfortable admitting this...60.7% on the med final. OUCH! Oy veh. Can you hear the inevitable shunk! of my ego being brought down several notches right there? So much for that "easy A." Ah, yes, life lesson after life lesson. Mercifully, God still has my GPA in mind for when I am not such an egotistical pig and He saw fit to allow me an 87% in the class so I pass with "B's" in both classes.

A prayer y'all can pray with me:

God, help me be on my toes about my complacency. Help me to remember that nursing school is for your glory, not mine. Me becoming a nurse is to be used for your work, not my ego. In all that you lead me in; being a wife, being a mom someday, being a nurse, singing, leading children in singing; help me to do it for your glory, not my own. That is the reason I do all these things. That is the reason I am here. For YOU, God. Amen

Funny Story!

Last night I went to the mailboxes to check our mail. When I turned around I heard a little meow and in the street I saw a beautiful black cat. As is my first reaction when I see any cat, I made a kissing noise to it. It actually came to me, so I petted it and decided to move on. Bartok happened to be behind me and I heard him hiss. When I looked behind me I saw that the black cat was following me. It kept going up to Bartok to sniff him, but each time Bartok rebuffed him with another hiss and sometimes with a growl. They both followed me home where we all met up with Milhaud (Mee-oh, please) where she proceeded to growl and hiss at the black cat too. The black cat followed me all the way to the front door where he proceeded to try to follow me into the house. I called Matto down to come and see him and (when his Warcraft game was over) he came down. He told me that he did not want another cat and he was very concerned I would become attatched to the cat. I kind of did, but I am not without self control and I went into the house and firmly closed the door behind me. However, I think Igor Stravinsky would have been a wonderful name for the sweet, friendly kitty. (I am sorry I don't have a picture. Our camera is at Matt's office.)

Finals week

I have my first final this evening. It is cummulative over all the material we have learned this summer. I have to say I am looking forward to ending this class. My sole thought about this class this entire summer has been, "booooorrrring!" Ugh. This evening is the last test of vague answers and then Thursday we have a test over all of the medications that nobody really knows why they work, but they all have these horrible side effects. Yay for Psych! I will let y'all know how I do on my tests!
kch

Well, here we are!

So, I have become quite disenchanted with myspace and all the lovely spam I have been receiving lately. I am going to try a blog instead. All I really used myspace for anyway was keeping people informed of my goings on and I can do that with a blog so, there it is. I probably will only blog between classes right now as I don't have a lot of time during the school year so, this will probably be a pretty boring blog, but I will try to do as much as I can. Anyway, thanks for looking!