Time Marches On

It has been FOREVER since my last blog - I feel like I am going to confession, but much has changed since my last post.

I returned to college to obtain my BSN from University of Texas at Arlington (Go Mavericks!) in January of 2013 and a short 18 months later have graduated with my Magna Cum Laude BSN. I applied for and was promoted to RN III. I am still busy with work, ONS and Church. 
While I was in school some things had to fall by the wayside and this was one of those things. 

My spouse left his job at the Houston Aquarium and went to work full time at Hempstead ISD teaching math in 2013 and is still there waiting for at least one college tuition to be completed so he can refocus his energy to a area of his choosing and passion.

Amy is still a student at University of St. Thomas, now a Junior, studying biology and is working towards her entrance to Vet School in fall of 2015. She continues to volunteer at the SPCA and work part-time in addition to her schooling and social life with Phillip and her other friends.

Colt graduated high school in 2014 and is now a freshman at UH. He is dealing with some health issues that prevent him from driving but he has managed to make living on campus work for him. He has a supportive group of friends that make campus living a breeze.

The time in school left me smarter but heavier and I am working to lose that weight plus get healthier since I turned 50 this year. I was able to get off some medications - fewer medications is always a good thing.  God has blessed me with the ability to go back to school with time and financial support from my employer. I can also now precept a nursing student and earn a $500 credit for one semester to apply to my children's tuition. One credit for each nursing student I precept. I love that ability to reduce the tuition burden we look at each month. 

I am looking to go and get my masters degree but I want to stay at the bedside and share my knowledge with my patients and new nurses. The program for that focus is the Clinical Nurse Leader program. So far there is not one with a online program yet. Most are requiring hybrid online and in class presence. That is hard when the closest classroom is in Galveston. Maybe when one of the kids is off my dime th finances will also look better,

It has been a long 2 years and I hope to get Christmas cards out this year to all of our family and friends who have been a joy and blessing in our lives. I look at my life and see so many blessings that it is hard to count them all. I hope to keep up with this blog on maybe a monthly or weekly post. Let me know if you all want to hear about our life.

Mr. Butterfly

I am happy for him. He is engaged and involved in a way I don't think I was in high school. But is it bad of me to complain that my son's social calendar seems way too busy?

Colt is involved in Orchestra - great but weekly sectionals seems a bit much.

Colt is in Key Club this year, they meet every other Wednesday after school and we don't know the volunteer events yet. I am sure there is something monthly, after all what is Key Club for?

Colt is in the Latin Club and in a position for an office - run-off are this week. The Latin Club meets every other Thursday.

Then we have tutoring, either before or after school, for those persons who need a little extra assistance or validation or social connections. I think it is a bit of all of those for Colt.

We have things at church he is active in; Altar Servers, Called By Name and now Wayfarers on the third Tuesday of each month, and Word on Wednesday, every Wednesday starting later this month.

We had to get on him last night for being a good citizen. Made me feel terrible. But he spends a lot, and I mean A LOT, of time helping other people with their homework. It is good but it puts him behind on doing his own homework and then he is up until 11pm trying to finish his stuff.  Not cool. So we set a rule, no helping other people until your homework is finished.

Now what is bad is that his mother is usually asleep at the time he is finished at school. I think I really need to work on changing my sleeping time so that I can pick him up in the afternoon. Why did I not get him in driver's ed before he was a junior?

Last night we had to sit down with all of our schedules and plot out who can get the boy from school each day. I never had to do that with Amy. Or maybe I knew that Amy would take the initiative and get home from school and then take my car to go pick up her brother from his social events at school. I miss Amy:-(

Either way, I need to get him in driver's ed and then get him driving. And then Mr. Butterfly needs a vehicle.
*sigh* if only he had wings and could really fly.

Passionate and Loving It

I was nominated for the Good Samaritan Award. I ended up being chosen as a bronze medalist.Those of us there were chosen out of hundreds of nominees for being passionate about nursing and leaders in our field. I was so surprised that I was the only only chosen from my hospital and Northwest Houston. I got a certificate of the award and a pin to wear to designate my bronze medal. I would love to see my nomination to see what got me this award. It really was a big deal, my manager and the Assistant Chief Nursing officer were there with Vernon and me at lunch.

Every year the nursing leaders in Houston review and select from these nominations to select the best nurses out there who go above and beyond to represent the soul of nursing. they award Bronze medals to the runners-up and then a Silver medal and a Gold medal in each category. I was thrilled to see one of the professors from St. Thomas University won the Gold medal for her work as a Nursing Educator. Her statement touched in that she feels her whole life has been moving to the point where she could work at St Thomas to reestablish their Nursing Program. She started as an ADN, like me, and moved on to her BSN, MSN and then Doctorate in Nursing. What an amazing woman!

On that note, let me tell everyone that I have applied for enrollment to University of Texas Arlington to pursue my BSN. I have learned that I need to complete another college math, one Government, two US History and one Technical Writing  before I get into the Nursing portion of the degree plan. It will all be online and should take about 1-2 years with working full time.

As nursing is the most trusted profession in the United States, please take a moment to go to the Good Samaritan Foundation site and donate to support such an honorable profession for other passionate nurses out there. Who knows, you might be helping me to get my BSN!

Grocery Shopping

Have you heard of the services offered in some cities that allow you to do your grocery shopping online?

I want it here is Houston.

I would love to be able to click on my favorite grocery store and indicate what I want. After all, I am pretty darn predictable with my weekly shopping. I have used the same grocery list for the past 5-6 years with very little change in the items I purchase.

We know what we like and we stick with it. It is not boring as we have a lot of variety in our diet for meals. I must say that my children and my husband eat the SAME thing for breakfast and lunch EVERY DAY. Creatures of habit here without a question.

As I type this I am procrastinating walking out the door to my local Kroger to stock up on some badly needed food for the house. Seems like I just went shopping, but alas, that was a week ago.

At least I have Colt to go with me today!!

Dreary London

From left to right: Cristina, Amy, Aaron, Phillip, and Melissa.
Cristina and Aaron don't look to happy and Philip - well, let's just say a smile is an "amazazing" happening!
It would appear that it is rainy and chilly in Jolly Old England. But Amy still has a smile on her face - they are off to Paris next.
BFND stands for the high school motto - "Bobcat Fight Never Dies"

Oh My, Oh My, I Might Cry!

18 years ago we were hoping for a miracle. Amy was in the hospital still. And we were trying to get her built up for surgery. She had her PICC line in and her feeding tube up her right nostril. She loved to rub her face against your shoulder to get the feeding tube out. She was cross-eyed from being intubated and looking up at the tube from her mouth over the top of her head. She lived basically naked except for a diaper. She had had a bath by this time, as well as the bald spot on the left side of her head was in place from a gentamycin infiltration.

Now, I prepare for her graduation from high school. She gets her acedemic awards tonight. She has had her Prom, her last Orchestra concert and her last orchestra banquet. A time of lasts and firsts and major expenses. So many decisions and so little time. In two weeks she'll be headed to Europe for a tour of London, Paris and Rome.

She is of an age to vote and to move out and to live on her own.

I only have one question - When did all that growing up happen??

Nurses Week

Thank you to my dearest sister, Theresa, who surprised and thrilled me with a note thanking me and recognizing me as a nurse. It was such a fantastic way to start Nurses Week.

We have had celebrations at the hospital and needless to say, it has been filled with food and fun. The diet is really taking a hit this week. Seems like food is a common way to say thank you.

I have been receiving links that show how great nurses are and what we do for our patients. The video is one example of how we inspire our cancer patients and how they inspire us. Truly, it is a wonderful relationship. These nurses LOVE what they do. And as you will see, the patients love their nurses.

Thank you to all those who help us nurses be who we are and inspire us to keep on being nurses!!