Why would I say that?

Me to kids:  "STOP MEOWING AT THE DOG!!"

Busy little bee

This has been a very busy month for me.  We have been busy at work delivering babies all over the place.  Its not nearly as busy as it used to be but even with the decrease in numbers we are kept running.  One thing that I've noticed is that we seem to have a lot of older first time moms lately.  By older, I mean in their late 20's and 30's.  In our hospital we see a lot of teen pregnancies.  17 years old seems to be a normal age especially for a first time mom so its a little unusual to see these older ones.  But I like it!  We've also had some sick moms lately.  I took care of one who wound up getting septic with a high fever as well as going into pulmonary edema.  Stat c-section of course.  It took all my nursing skills to keep her going and eventually they transferred her to ICU.  I saw her a week later and the difference was amazing! She had lost all that excess fluid and had been discharged home.  I don't think that she really understood just how sick she was and how happy I was to see her out and about, recovered from her ordeal.  I rarely get to see how my patients do after I'm done with them and this was just a blessing.

School is going on and on.  My nutrition course is interesting so far.  Apparently my diet of hamburgers, fries, cookies and diet pepsi is not the most healthy!!??!  Next week will start my attempt at losing weight (again!) and getting healthier.  I've committed to running the Disney half marathon in September so I will start running and working out.  Wish me luck.  The brisk walk I took on Tuesday just about killed me!  Had to recover on the sofa with a diet pepsi :)

Being so busy lately with the kids, school and work has left me little time for knitting.  I'm a little overwhelmed at the amount of UFO's I have so I can't make a decision on what to work on so I don't work on anything.  My 3-year pair of socks is almost finished so I will try to work on those in order to start on my February sock project.  So many projects, so little time!

Headed to Huntington Beach on Saturday for another volleyball tournament then its party time on Saturday night for my birthday.  Friends from work are throwing me a birthday party to celebrate my 21st birthday (for the 24th time!).  I feel so lucky to work with this group.  We are truly a family!

Its the first day of school!!  You don't how excited that makes me.  I love my kids, I really do but having them home for the last two weeks has really been a test of my patience.  Today was just blissful silence.  No one yelling or talking, no TV or video games or weird guitar music, no dozens of friends or loud music.  Just. Quiet.  At least until my husband came home.  He interrupted my nap.  Darn him.

School starts for me again, too.  I won't need to go back to Nashville this semester but I do have online courses to take.  Life-span development and Nutrition.  Nothing too difficult but I will have to be disciplined and make sure I get them done.  I've also decided to teach my Medical Terminology class again.  The college called, desperate for a replacement.  The teacher that had taken over my class can't do it now so they asked me if I could step in and teach again.  Its a lot of work but I could use the extra cash. My husband seems to think that we'll have extra money to do stuff with.  Little does he know that I've got my eye on some Signature Arts knitting needles.  They're a little pricey but oh, so pretty!

We spent yesterday at an out of town volleyball tournament for one of my daughters.  Got up at the unholy hour of 4am, traveled two hours to the L.A. area and sat on a hard gym floor (no chairs allowed - they scratch the floor!).  I'm proud of her for getting involved in this but we've got a lot of traveling ahead of us.  I took some knitting along but got absolutely nothing done.  Now I know for next time....simpler projects, more snacks.......and a butt cushion!

My Tuesday night knitting group has started a UFO club for 2012.  I made a list of some of my UFO's that I want to finish this year and posted them on Ravelry.  And this was just what I'm admitting to right now!  It appears that I may have a serious case of inability to finish things!  Right now, I'm working on the Sweater for Arwen from Interweave Knits 2006 (I have managed to misplace the magazine but I know its here somewhere!).  While at the tournament I realized that I had made a mistake at a certain point so know I will have to frog some of it.  Thats what I get when I try to rush things along.  When will I ever learn to just go slow and pay attention to the directions?

Bella says, "All this frogging talk is making me tired!"

Its a New Year!

Ok, I know I've been gone forever but time seems to just get away from me.  Between work, school, kids, knitting and sometimes sleeping it just seems to fly by!  I do plan on posting more often though.  One of the many new years resolutions that I plan on working on this year!

Work is work.  Women come in, have babies, then go home.  Our numbers are down but we are still busy since we always seem to work shortstaffed.  I like being busy and I have wonderful coworkers to keep me company.  We are really like a family and that's probably the biggest thing that keeps me at this facility.

Knitting is coming along nicely.  I finished a few small projects for Christmas and am now working on a sweater for myself.  I have started posting pics of my stash and projects I'm working on in Ravelry.  Its a little disturbing to see exactly how much yarn I have and how many projects I have planned as well as what I'm working on.  Another resolution - finish projects and use up stash!  And lose weight....and fix my finances......and......and.......

Vandy

I returned from my trip to Vanderbilt way late on Friday night.  My plan was to be back in town so that I could go to my son's football game on Saturday.  Vanderbilt is just awesome!  I love the history, the old buildings, huge oak and magnolia trees that are all around the campus.  I was afraid at first that I might not be able to keep up.  This is Vanderbilt after all!  But it seems as though I am smarter than I thought.  My classmates are a fun group and there are so many different specialties represented.  We are in our pre-specialty classes so its mostly basic stuff, theory and introduction.  But I am excited to be there and to make new friends.  I have to make one more trip back there this semester and thats it.  Hopefully, I'll actually get to see some of Nashville on the next trip!

This is the entrance to Frist Hall where most of my classes are.  I love the brick buildings and the huge trees.
I tried to get some knitting done on the plane.  I'm working on the Fadenidylle Fichu pattern.  Its a shawlette that would be perfect to just throw on my shoulders when it starts to get chilly.  Unfortunately, I made some mistakes early on, tried to save it by working around them but just made a big mess so I ripped it all back and started over.  Its really a cute little thing so I will keep going on it but it was very frustrating after all the work I had done.

Wow

Super long absence.  I apologize for not being here.  Life has turned busy and before you know it, the year has slipped away.  Lots of new projects on the needles and I promise that I will post some pictures soon.

One reason for the long absence.....I'm back in school!  I've officially decided to go for my Master's degree and become a CNM/FNP.  It will be a challenge but I think I'm up for it.  Wish me luck!

I save lives

What a crazy 2 days at work!  I worked in our triage room on Sunday and was crazy busy.  A storm front was moving through and that always brings women in with ruptured membranes or just plain in labor.  I saw 15 patients that day and admitted all of them.  Every. Single.  One.  All of them were legitimate admits too.

One patient I saw that day wasn't in actual labor but there was something about the way she was acting made me want to keep her longer even after the doctor said she could be discharged.  There was nothing obviously going on but my intuition told me that something was wrong.  After some discussion, the doctor agreed to keep her and no sooner than we moved her to L&D that the emergency happened.  Stat c-section for a 50% abruption.  Nothing on the strip indicated an abruption but there was just a feeling.  Mom and baby were saved.  It gave me pause to realize that if she had gone home, the baby would have died and maybe mom too.  All the staff worked as a team and we wound up with a good outcome.  It feels good to get it right.

Some knitting is being done.  I'm working on another hat for a friend and hope to have pictures up soon. Sometimes I get overwhelmed over all the projects I want to do but I figure that if I just take it one step at a time then they will get done.  It doesn't help that I'm going to take another class at a yarn store 2 hours away from my house.  I'll go anywhere for a yarn fix!  Maybe I'll win tonight's lottery and I can buy all the yarn I want!

Starting to think again about going back to school for my CNM (certified nurse-midwife).  Seems strange to be in college (again!) when I have kids going off to college.  Any ideas?  I need all the help I can get!