Before the California trip was ever even in my sights, I planned a trip to go out the Cleveland to visit my sister in January. My niece, Robyn was born on November 18 and January was my trip to meet her. Even though I got to spend a week with her at Christmas, I decided to take the trip anyways since I already had the plane tickets. While we were in Cleveland Janelle, Julie, Robyn and I went to the new Cleveland Aquarium.
Julie was loving the whole thing. She was scared of the sharks on the first time around, but she got more excited and we did the shark loop 3 or 4 times. Her favorite part was the turtles!
Silly faces :)
Some other fun pictures and little videos from the week:
Long over due post. Last December I was excited to get some time off to be with my family over Christmas. At my job, I work every other Christmas and this was my year off. Three or four days before I was supposed to leave for Connecticut, I got a call from my mom that my grandmother in California was sick and in the hospital. After a fall and multiple transfusions, the blood work came back showing she had an advanced case of Leukemia. She decided to come home and be with family for the couple weeks she had left. Janelle and new baby Robyn flew to Utah, and the three of us drove out to California to be with family. There was a lot of blessings in disguise, a very bittersweet Christmas. I was able to see a lot of family that I hadn't seen in years! I was able to see my new baby niece. Unfortunately this trip meant that I didn't see my dad at all over break. I was disappointed about that, but made up for it in January (I'll tell you about that in the next post).
The road trip was sooo long on the way out the California with a 3 week old, frequent stops, diaper changes, but it was some good times with Janelle, snacks, music, and fun stories.
The last time I posted was in June of last year! A few big things have happened to me.
Work life: I have really settled into my position at work. The planner in me wants to keep planning for the future. Every other week I say to myself I'm going to go back to school, no I'm happy where I am...currently I am happy with things! I took on more responsibilities at work and joined the "Balloon Team" at the hospital. I don't carry balloons around to the patients, although sometimes I wish it was that stress-free! I am on a team of Thoracic ICU and Cardiac ICU nurses that are specialists in the function of a special pump called an "Intra-Aortic Balloon Pump" that decreases the workload of the heart after surgery or a heart attack. Part of the team responsibilities are to be a member of the LifeFlight team to transport patients to our hospital from other facilities.
Last week were my first shifts off of orientation. The team generally only does five or six transports a year. Two days back to back I did two transports! Both were ground transports, by ambulance but it was still a great learning experience. So far am really enjoying the balloon team, the people I work with, the patients I care for, and learning a TON!
Family life: Where do I start? I am a proud Aunty again! My sister Janelle had a another little girl back in November. Robyn Ruth Nutter joined the family and we all love her so much! Very close to Christmas, my family received some sad news that my Gra'ma (my mom's mother) had an advanced untreatable case of Leukemia. Part of the family gathered in California over Christmas to say goodbye. She passed away a few days after Christmas. In January, I went to Cleveland to see my favorite girls! I spent a week with Janelle, Julie and Robyn...and Ben :). Since I was so close to home I surprised my dad on his birthday and went to Connecticut for a weekend. It was a much needed trip to see the family! In other news, my brother Clayton has turned in his papers to receive his mission call! He should hear within the next 2-3 weeks! I am so excited for him and so happy that he has made the right choices in life to be able to serve a mission!
Future plans: I am going to California in March over Clayton's spring break to hang with my bro, will be so happy to get some sunshine! I am going to Florida in May to attend a HUGE national critical care nursing conference. I got a grant from the hospital to be able to attend, super pumped! Not going to lie...I really want see Harry Potter land at Universal! :) I haven't made any concrete plans yet but I have started looking into going to Peru, Machu Picchu sometime at the end of the year...we'll see!
I will make more detailed posts in the next few weeks about each of these.
I'm not sure how many people are out there that read this, and I know I've said it in the past that I need to be better about keeping up with my life, but this time I'm really going to try to stick to it! I changed the name of my blog to Cando Can Do! Cando is a nickname I've had since I was in 2nd or 3rd grade that has stuck with me through high school, college, and now at work. "Cando can do" is a phrase that a favorite teacher in high school always used to say to me. I've always liked it, so if you read this, thanks Binger! So I know the time for new year's resolutions came and went 2 months ago, but here's to fresh starts!
June has already been and it going to continue to be a great month!! I am leaving to go to home sweet home Connecticut on Saturday for nice long 2 1/2 weeks. My brother Clayton is graduating from high school next week with some pretty incredible honors! I am excited to have some quality time with my family. I went home for a short visit in May, by short it was 3 days, and my dad wasn't even there. I am going to get to spend time my super adorable niece, Julie who is 3 years old now, Janelle my sister, mom, dad, clayton, and my Grandpa Gene who is coming out for a few days for gradution also! I am really looking forward to this much needed break.
Other June happenings: I'm playing tennis again. The sun has finally come out and Michelle and I have hit the courts, every chance we get. That is usually only once or twice a week because of our crazy work schedules, but still it's something!
Two of my favorite artists come out with new albums in June: Owl City and Matt Nathanson. I have some great new music to listen to.
Work: I have made some big steps at work this month. I have finished passing off all of my skills for my first year of work and completed my Level 2 exam, a comprehensive test that all the ICU nurses in the hospital have to take. I have been an RN for a year (as of June 9th) and I have honestly learned more in this year than 4 years of school taught me. My unit has been an incredible place to learn and grow. I am settling in nicely here and and nerdy as it sounds, I love coming to work and seeing what surprise awaits me as I walk through the doors. Every shift has something new in store. I feel like I'm getting to that point that the charge nurses are trusting with some hefty assignments. The docs I work with are getting to the point that they trust that I'm not a complete idiot, or some clueless newbie too.
22 is my lucky number, it has been for a long time. I don't really know why 22. It just is. April 22nd is especially cool. It is my niece's birthday, love that little girl!! She is 3 years old today.
This picture was taken at mine and Julie's first meeting, she was 8 months. Love at first site :)
I graduated from BYU on April 22nd last year. Yep, today was my one year anniversary of graduation. I can't believe how fast it's gone! I feel like I've learned more in this one year of nursing than I did my 4 years in school. It's been an awesome experience!
I enjoyed my time at BYU but I can't say that I miss it. I have loved being out on my own in the real world!
Speaking of being a grown-up, it's my birthday week. I am now the grand old age of 23!! To be perfectly honest, I'm not a huge fan of birthdays, I've had some miserable birthdays the last few years (long sob story, you don't want to know). But this year's was good. I worked, but it was still enjoyable. Friday and Saturday my roomies and I went to Park City, which I had never been. We went to a fancy dinner at Ruth's Chris, a yummy steakhouse. We spent the night up there and got 6 inches of snow. It was so pretty in the morning, I'm one of those weird people that don't mind snow in April. :) It was a fun getaway weekend. Sunday I worked and I wasn't going to tell anyone it was my birthday, because I didn't really care. But someone found out, and ran to Costco and bought a cake. Everyone on the unit was happy it was my birthday, it was very yummy cake. I came home and my roommates had made me cake too. So as is accustomed on birthdays, I ate lots of sugar, but it was delicious!!
:::PICS:::
My steak at Ruth's Chris. Mmmmm!!!
My cake at work. I forgot to take a pic before we cut it, oh well.
I feel like I'm starting, but really only starting, to become a grown-up, with grown-up responsibilities. Every time something "adult-y" that I have to do comes up in my head I find myself singing the Huggies commercial, "I'm a big kid now!"...which is a true sign of maturity. Here's a list of my recent encounters with the real world.
1. I got in a car accident last November and had to deal with insurance companies. This debacle is still not over since the case has gone to an arbitrator to decide who was most at fault.
2. I went to the eye doctor last week because I didn't want my benefits that I'm paying for to go to waste. Learning the lingo of insurance is very grown-upy. And if you think because I went to nursing school, I know stuff about health insurance, you're wrong.
3. Paying bills. Yuck.
4. Taxes! Ok, I'm not actually doing my taxes, since I have someone who loves me a lot that does them for me, thanks Dad :). Also, it's not cool how many taxes comes out of my paycheck every pay period. Not fun.
5. Visiting the DMV to register the car and dealing with all that paperwork.
Ok fun stuff of being a grown-up:
1. I have my own paycheck, of my own money, that I can do what I want with (with what's left after taxes).
2. Since I am a single adult, I don't really have any responsibilities to anyone but myself. Meaning: I don't HAVE to stay home a cook every night. I don't have to keep my room clean. I don't have to go to bed and get up at normal times of day. But of course, I'm perfect and do all these things anyways. Anyone who knows me, knows my room is always impeccably spotless, and am definitely a morning person.
Being a grown-up isn't all that bad. It's just a lot of new information to learn. The moral of the story: Money makes the world go round.
Every time I write a post, it seems like I tell myself I need to be better at blogging....Well I'm really going to actually try, for reals. Even if it's little things. So here's something little that happened today.
This post is about contact lenses. I'm trying to take advantage of my insurance since it's coming out of my paycheck. Well, vision coverage is included and I haven't had my eyes checked in 3 years. So I went in today to update my prescription and give contacts a try. Well, it took me about 15 minutes to get them in in the office. I kept the contacts in for a few hours and them took them out at home. I can't get them back in. :( I'm not really scared of touching my eyes, but eyes are scared of being touched. I can't stop blinking!!! It's frustrating. I know I need to keep trying, but I'm debating if it's worth it.
I'm going to stick with the glasses for tonight :)
I was on call tonight, but there weren't very many patients on the unit so I was let off the hook. Michelle and I seized the evening!!!! We made schniekerpies first. We made these a few months ago and decided to name them that for no apparent reason, just because we were loopy that night. Now they are forever known as schniekerpies: deep fried tortillas with honey and cinnamon-sugar on top :). We sat down to carve pumpkins and watched the ridiculously awesome 80's movie, GHOSTBUSTERS!!!
SCHNIEKER PIES!!! yummmmm
Who you gonna call?!
THE FINAL PRODUCTS:
Michelle's masterpiece
We then proceeded to clean a very untidy apartment while having a awesome dance party :)
YAY FOR STRESS FREE NIGHTS!!!
...yep it's 4am, I'm not tired...night shifts this week, sheesh!!
The girls in this family that have blogs need to be better about updating them, Janelle and I. :) I'm sorry I haven't been better at keeping things posted here's what's happened in the last few weeks. I took a trip down to Zion's National Park with some friends. We have made this fun tradition of going down twice a year in April and August for the last couple years. Here are some pictures from this year's trip. It was a really fun group! We hiked Angel's Landing, watched a meteor shower and splashed around in the narrows :)
Michelle and Heidi and I have moved into a new apartment and it is ALMOST settled. It's going to be super awesome when it is all together and I will post pictures of it :)
My job is going well. I am still learning so much!! Sunday was my first day off of orientation, I had my own patients all by self (cue Huggies commercial, "I'm a big kid now!"). It was an interesting first day. So much happened and it was overwhelming. It brought a whole new meaning to the phrase: "throw them to the wolves" or "out of the pot and into the frying pan." Luckily I work with some super smart people that know a lot more than me and were a great help. I come into work nervous everyday, that I'm going to miss something and something will go wrong. But I work with some really good people that aren't going to leave me high and dry. I do really enjoy working right now and being out of school and on my own.
Other news, football season started!! Even though I'm not a student anymore, I still bought an All-Sports pass and am going to all the games. I'm working a lot of Friday nights so it will be sweet to always have Saturday's off so I won't miss the games. This past Saturday we has some sweet seats on the end-zone in rows 3 and 4. Here's some pics.
The half-time presentation was pretty cool. LaVell Edwards with all of his All-American QBs were there to present a new scholarship fund to BYU for their QBs. Jeffery R. Holland (not a QB but still awesome), Steve Young, Jim McMann, Ty Detmer, Robby Bosco, and a few others were all there. It was pretty neat.
I haven't updated the blog in 3 months. I don't know that anyone even reads it, but in those three months since I wrote, here's what's happened in a nutshell:
April --I finished up the end of my semester, completing my big research paper in capstone, finished my capstone hours at a grand total of 245 over the course of the semester. --I GRADUATED!!! I am now a BYU alumnus and it's totally awesome. Here is a link to pictures if you haven't already seen them on facebook, (click me). As a nursing class, we got together to have a banquet dinner and there was a fun slide show of pictures over the course of nursing school. Then we went up Provo Canyon to burn our old "student nurse" ugly white scrub tops. If you've never burned something "meaningful" before, I highly recommend it. It's very therapeutic. Homework, old scrubs, old pictures of people you would rather forget. May --I was home in Connecticut basically the whole month of May. What did I do you may ask? Sat around on my rear for 4 weeks :) It was so great to relax and just chill. My mom did have surgery while I was at home so helped a lot with that. And by help I did a lot of driving around. Which I don't mind, I like driving. --Janelle and Julie came to visit while I was home and it was so fun to see them. Julie is the funniest little girl ever! Love her :) --While I was home I also managed to land my self an awesome job. After much pestering and multiple emails a week (my mom always taught me, squeaky wheel gets the grease) I finally got the job offer for the place I did my capstone. June --I came back to Provo at the very end of May, study for the NCLEX for two weeks and PASSED!!! While I was home, my dad gave me a blessing that I would be calm and peaceful for the test and that I would pass. That blessing and lots of prayers were a huge comfort to me and I truly was calm going into the test. So much so that I surprised my self. I had no trouble sleeping the night before. I went into the testing center and just dug in. I got 75 questions, which was the minimum and it took me about an hour and half. It crazy how 4 1/2 years of education can come down to a simple 75 questions...well not so simple, but small. :) The next day after the test was really hard, and nerve racking waiting....but when I saw that Registered Nurse next to my name, it was wonderful!!! See my license here :) --I started in my new job on the Thoracic ICU. Wow. It is a crazy intense learning environment. I can feel my brain hurting at the end of the day with how much I learn, but I love it! Hearts are so cool!!!!...and I'm a total nerd but that's ok :) --Also, Wimbledon was on. And it was crazy this year. 11 hour matches, Roger losing so early, Roddick losing to #82?, Serena being the only top 20 left in the semis, Nadal sweeping the final (snore worthy)...hopefully the US Open will be more exciting :) July --I'm 4 weeks into my 12 week orientation. I am learning a ton. I am also enrolled in a Basic ICU class as part of my learning. I love this class because it's basic, but not too basic. Most of the people in the class have been nurses for 2-3 years and are only now starting in an ICU so they approach it in a way that we already know basic nursing, which is really good. Work is busy, but I am loving it. I do a lot of driving but hopefully I will be moving to the hospital sooner so that my 8 hours/week commute will get cut down.
I'm going to try to be better about updating, even though I'm not sure too many terribly exciting things are going to happen...except I am going to be getting the new iphone in a couple weeks. That's exciting :)
I am working on a big research paper right now. I have a lot of studies that I've been reading, and there is this one author that keeps popping up. He is the primary author for two of my studies and listed a couple other ones. His last name: Slaughter. "How are you doing today sir? I'm Dr. Slaughter and will be performing your heart surgery. Do you have any questions for me?" I wonder if that's why he went into research...patients couldn't handle his last name.
I can't imagine what I'm going to be like when my children play sports. I get so emotionally involved in sports games when I watch them. I lost my voice at the volleyball game tonight. Football, volleyball, tennis, soccer, the Olympics. I don't really care that much for basketball (I know, grew up in UCONN's backyard and I don't care about bball. I'm weird.) I love it! I'm not sure I'd ever be able to go to a game and sit in a nice box seat because I wouldn't be able to contain myself and be professional :)
So I've been pretty busy the last couple weeks, and I forgot I had a blog. I hadn't read any one's updates, or thought about updating my own even thought theirs lots to catch up on.
First, I'm not taking down my Olympic theme for a little more while because I'm still going through withdraws :(
Second, I have been a busy little clinical girl. I worked 6 shifts in the last 7 days, PHEW!! But I'm done with my required hours, so I don't have to worry about squeezing in hours. I got to see some pretty SWEET stuff this week at the hospital, I can't really tell you what it was because of HIPAA but it was totally awesome.
Third, I got new glasses.
Fourth, I got a job offer from my unit for after graduation!! WOOT, WOOT!!!!
Fifth, I decided this week that being a Nurse Anesthetist is a definite possibility for my future. I used to think it would boring, but after talking with my preceptor at the hospital who is going in April, I understand the appeal. Plus, I'd make bank.
Sixth, graduation is only 45 days away, oh my gosh that's totally awesome!
So yeah, I still a couple papers and tests, and an NCLEX away from living in the real world, but overall life is pretty sweet right now :)
...with the Olympics. Seriously! I can't get enough!
My favorite moments:
Evan Lysacek wins GOLD!! and beats the creeper Russian.
Stephen Colbert climbs into the fake fireplace during an interview with Bob Costas. Stephen humbly admitted that he single handedly saved the entire Vancouver Olympics by saving the US speed skating team. He also jabbed at NBC for ruining the Olympics for everyone with their delayed broadcasts (I'd have to agree).
Shen and Zhao won GOLD in pairs figure skating, the last thing they needed for their resume.
Alex Bilodeau was the first guy to win GOLD for Canada on home soil. The best part of the whole story was during the medals ceremony, the thousands of people that were there were all singing O Canada so loud and proud. I may have cried :)
Seth Wescott has won 2 GOLDS in a row in snowboard cross. But the best thing is he was in 4th the whole race, then came ahead and passed the guy in the lead in an AIR PASS!!!
LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE HIM! Shaun is pretty much my favorite person that I've never met :)
