First Things First

My SIL totally rocks!! She is such a wonderful, sweet, and talented person. And she always has a way of bringing ya up, even when you aren't down. Thank you!

From her comment, I feel that maybe I should expand a little further about my patient from Thursday. She was 5'4" and 390 lbs. The layers of fat are indescribable. At one point, while doing her bath, I was trying to clean between (or under or whatever) one of the folds and my hand was in this fold all the way up to my wrist. And that wasn't all the way...I didn't want to go any further because it was kinda creepy. She had a catheter in her but I never saw where it entered the body...I just hope I cleaned enough of it to matter. I was told that it took 6 people just to insert the catheter...and I don't think that was because she was trying to fight it. Okay, enough on her. It's time to move on and pray that I don't have another patient like that for a long time.

My adorable little boy had me laughing my butt off this morning. Apparently, he got warm at some point last night and decided to take off his jammy top. I don't know what went wrong but I couldn't resist the opportunity to take pictures. At first, I thought that he just had the top across his back. But, once he woke up, I saw that this wasn't the case. His right arm was coming out from the bottom of the shirt. His left arm was coming out through the neck. It was too cute.

This is before he

woke up, when I

thought that his

shirt was just

across his back.

Being difficult, not wanting to wake up. This is also when I figured out that his shirt was really on weird.

This face is just absolutely too cute.

He's about to take off his shirt the rest of the way.

~Just some things I have really been wanting to share but keep forgetting.~

Jimmy talks alot. All of a sudden, he has just opened up. He went from saying "ball" and "momma" to saying phrases like "ya know what" and "love you". He also has gotten the head nod and shake down pat. Ask him a question and you will get one or the other. And he's accurate.

"Did you make poo-poo?" Head nods. Butt stinks.

"Do you want to go to time-out?" Head shakes. He stops doing whatever it was that was going to have him in time-out.

He also loves to read. Well, actually, he loves to be read to. He will pick out a book or two (or 5), bring them over to you, say "read me" and promptly plop into your lap. He will do this repeatedly until he has gone through all of his usual books, then he moves on to his next victim.

The boy can climb. He climbs onto the couch. He climbs into the dining chairs. He climbs into your lap. If given the chance, he will climb onto the table. And, if you grab his hands, he will literally scale you like a mountain face. I think he gets that from me. He hasn't yet climbed out of his crib (well, pack-n-play), but it won't be long before he is in my room at 6:30 telling me that it's time to get up.

Did I mention that Jimmy loves Disney cartoons? Well, let me elaborate...he is really really partial to Lady and the Tramp. Especially when Tramp saves the day. He growls when Tramp growls. He makes an ugly face at the bad rat. He applauds when Tramp wins. He barks with the dogs, he whines with the dogs. He loves those dogs. We have had to pull the changing table out in the morning so that he can watch his dogs without falling off the table while we are getting him ready.

Intently watching Tramp save the day for like the 100th millionth time.

The ugly face he makes

when he sees the rat.

Too cute!

We are going to be planting my trees tomorrow. I ordered 2 Jonathan apples, a nectarine, a peach, a plum, and a cherry tree. All of them are dwarves so they will only grow to be about 4'-6' but will produce full size fruit, supposedly. I am already ticked off with this company (who will remain nameless until they really tick me off) because my trees came in a plastic bag (heave duty but plastic nonetheless) and the bag was damaged, either before DHL picked it up or after (by the way, I really don't like DHL...never get plants sent through them...Tom had ordered me some roses [not coming from a florist but from a wholesaler warehouse type place] and DHL delivered and they left the box on the porch on a hot day with only a knock on the door...they were supposed to actually hand them to a person) and my cherry tree was broken. I am still going to try to plant the rooted end and I took cuttings off the top portion to try to root them (if anyone has any ideas on that, please share!), but I am still going to let the nursery know (I took pictures of the bag and the tree). We'll see what happens. If anything, Lowes has some semi-dwarf bing cherry trees for $27 so I could always get one of those. Besides, the trees at Lowes are a little more established than the trees I got (sticks with roots). But, it will probably be about 2 years or so before we get any fruit off of these trees.

Anyways, off to bed.

I worked my butt off today!

Well, not really...unfortunately, it is still there.

Clinical was very trying today. My teacher (who I thought really liked me but obviously doesn't) assigned me to the largest patient on the floor. I'm talking "Maury Povich is going to take out a wall to get you some help" big. Well, she didn't exactly need a wall taken down to get her to the hospital, but I think you get my drift. It didn't start off bad. Her husband was in there and he fed her breakfast. Vital signs were also fairly easy to take. The day got challenging at 10 am when I was getting ready to start her bed bath. My friend Abby was in there helping me but then she had to take care of her patient. Another nurse came in and helped me turn the patient on her side. That is where the fun started. I have never seen that much butt ever in my life (I think I will leave all the gory details out so as not to gross anybody out). It really made me self-conscious about my weight and further encouraged me to lose weight so that I will never look like that. Oh, and as if that wasn't bad enough, she was on contact precautions so I had to do my entire bed bath (which took me about an hour and a half) in a plastic gown. I think I lost at least 5 lbs just from sweating under that gown!

BTW, my teacher does like me. She just likes to challenge me whenever she can. She told me today that she doesn't ever want me to be less than excellent because she knows I have it in me to be excellent. My teachers rock!

Jimmy is a funny little boy. Mom picked him up from daycare this afternoon and I met them at Walmart to get our weekly shopping done. After getting him all situated in the shopping cart, I gave him a box of raisins to eat. After eating a few raisins, he decided that he wanted the cookies that he saw in my purse. He ate them (about 10 of them) then wanted his raisins back. He finished them off and seemed like he was still hungry so I got him a bag of Ruffles Cheddar and Sour cream potato chips from Subway. That took him from the back of the store to the produce department (and this was a good size bag of chips, not one of those little one serving bags but not a full size bag). Of course, Grandma and I were helping him eat those. Then I gave him a small coloring book and a crayon to occupy him the rest of the way. Once we got him home and got all the groceries in, he decided that he would help us put the groceries away. He is such a big helper. We sat down to eat supper around 8 but he decided that he didn't want to eat. He actually wanted to go to bed (I've learned that when he is ready for bed, he will let you know and don't even think about trying to keep him up any later). It is so funny the way he is.

Yesterday, he helped get the trash from his bedroom and the bathroom. Then he put the trashcans back and got my shoes so that I could take the trash out. I love the fact that he wants to help out and do so many things. I can't wait until he can do the dishes and his laundry.

Well, got some paperwork to do for class tomorrow. Until later!

Another quickie

to comment on a comment.

It is so funny that my sil Chrissy thought that I might be pregnant when I said that I went to the doctor. As I was typing about it earlier, I thought "I better put something in right away that I am no where near pregnant because everybody is going to think that is what it is." I think it is even more ironic because the doctor that I saw was my gynocologist.

Jimmy had another interesting dinner tonight. I sat him down around 6:30 to a wonderful and easy dinner of Kid Cuisine fish sticks, corn, and mac-n-cheese (he really likes corn but I don't understand why...I don't think he really tastes it since I usually see it whole the next day). He ate most of everything and got down and played until the pizza and stuff that we ordered for dinner arrived. Then he wanted some pizza, which he ate all of the topping off a good sized slice. It was like the fish sticks were his appetizer. But, at least he is eating really well and eating a variety.

Well, gotta go to bed so that I can get up really early in the morning to go to clinical.

Just a quickie...

with plans for a longer posting later.

Just wanted to share some news with y'all. I had a doctor's appointment today (and NO I'm not pregnant) and thought that family would like to know that I am in great health except for one little thing...my cholesterol is a little elevated (229), but my HDL (the good cholesterol) is great (84). My LDL (the bad cholesterol) is a little elevated (125), but the doctors thinks that with diet and exercise, I can lower my cholesterol and weight. So no new meds for me just yet! Yeah!

Other than that, everything is great. Had clinical yesterday...it was kinda boring because everybody was getting discharged. My patient that I had picked out Monday afternoon decided that she was going to get some air Monday evening and never came back. They got in touch with her around 10pm and she said that she had to feed her cat but that she would be back shortly. That didn't happen. Would it surprise anyone to know that she had a little illegal drug problem?? So, I was just wandering around trying to find something to do to no avail. Maybe tomorrow will be better. Of course, my teacher told me that I needed to do something before we are gone a week (no clinicals next week due to other school things), so she is probably going to make sure that I get a wonderful, total care patient with a stomach bug.

Well, that's all for now. I need to go pick up Munchkin from daycare. I hope he is in a better mood than he was when I dropped him off this morning.

I am finally back!

I know that it has been some time since I have posted. I have been insanely busy.

Spring Break was fun...sorta. It really started out great. The girls night out totally rocked! We had a great time and I met some new friends. The rest of my spring break was crazy. I decided that I would paint my room during the week, thinking that it would only take maybe two days. It took three days but it looks great. The white walls were really starting to bug me. Now I have this beautiful desert look going on that really warms up the room.

The rest of my spring break I spent nursing a very sore stiff knee, resting a little, and getting my school stuff together. I still have a box of stuff to go through and I need to clean out my filing cabinet.

Getting back to school kinda sucked. It is always tough when you have more than an extra day off. Especially when you have a test the first day back. And then another test two days later. I did well on both, but it still sucked having two so close together.

Tuesday was my last day at the nursing home. Hallelujah!! I really don't care for the nursing homes. I make my time fun and stay busy, but there is something about the nursing home that eats at me inside. It's probably all the sick old people that reminds you that death and dying and getting old really sucks.

Thursday was my first day back at the hospital. It started off great because we didn't have to be there until 9 am (instead of 6:30 am), and it just got better as the day progressed. I helped move a very obese patient down to ultrasound and when I came back up, my teacher asked for volunteers. I figured "why not" and volunteered. So glad that I did. I got to go to the cath lab and watch a heart cathertization. That was so totally cool!! It was absolutely the neatest thing I have ever seen (so far). After that, I got to go down to radiology to observe but there really wasn't much going on. All I got to see was another large woman being shoved (literally) into the MRI. That was a little humorous but also kinda boring. Then it was time for lunch and we were done for the day.

Some things I really want to remember (and share) about Jimmy:

~Jimmy has been going through this phase where it seems like he is a bottomless pit. He comes home from daycare, eats some raisins, maybe some cookies, then dinner, then by 8 pm gets his night-night bottle. I have no idea where he is putting it all. But, it is so cute to see his belly all round and his belly button poking out. It makes me giggle so much.

~On the topic of food, the boy loves his raisins. It's the first thing he gets when we go to Walmart (I bring a little box with me)...it calms him down and gets him sitting still in the cart. Then the rest of the trip is a breeze.

~He also loves the produce department. Last week, I took him through and was picking up different fruits and veggies, telling him what it was, and letting him touch it. He tried to bite into the eggplant, zucchini, orange pepper, papaya, and mango. It was so funny. Today, he got so excited when he saw the orange peppers again I just had to giggle at him.

~Still on the topic of food...the other night I made beef stroganoff (it was really good). I gave him some noodles and some of the beef and sauce along with his veggies (he loves his veggies). He was trying to eat the beef strips but they were a little tough since he only has the four premolars. But he was bound and determined to eat it. He would keep putting a piece in his mouth, chew it a little, take it out, try another piece, and then eventually go back to the prechewed piece. He would keep chewing the meat, spit it out, and put it back in his mouth. I got a good laugh out of that.

~Yet another tidbit about food...tonight I fixed him the Kid's Cuisine taco dippers. It has three taco rolls, some chips, and some nacho cheese. He loved the nacho cheese! He was using the chips like a spoon, dipping one into the cheese and eating the cheese off of it over and over again until the chip would fall apart in his mouth. He didn't care too much for the actual taco dippers. Then he ate some of what we had for supper. This was after eating half of a big box of raisins and a little bag of cookies at Walmart!

~And now something that is not about food...bath time is so much fun! Jimmy really enjoys playing in the water with his little duckies. He also gets on his tummy and tries to swim. It is too cute watching him! The only issue I have is trying to get him to keep the water in the tub.

~My baby is definitely a Disney baby! I have just joined the Disney Movie Club (shameless plug) and have really been able to expand on our collection. He absolutely loves Lady and the Tramp, Valiant, and The Little Mermaid. He really likes The Little Mermaid. I put a movie in his DVD player when he goes to bed and let it run all night (if it is a Fastplay...otherwise I have to restart it if he wakes up). That way, if he wakes up in the middle of the night, he will watch a little more of the movie and fall back to sleep. Most times, he doesn't even wake me up (thank God!).

~And just one more thing before I go to bed...Jimmy loves to be outside! He has a biggest fit when it's time to come in. It's kinda funny because he isn't doing much when he's outside. He just runs around, kicking his soccor ball. I can only imagine the fits he throws at daycare.

Trying to take his jacket off.

Playing with his soccer ball.

Trying to figure out what to do.

My little artist at work. Note the serious look on his face. And the fact that all of his crayons are in a very straight line. He did that all on his own. I have seen him do this with grapes as well.

So, I think that should cover me for a few days. Plans for the weekend are that Jimmy and I are going to Summerville to see Tom and Ellen. Then I start another jam packed week all over again.

Just a few more pictures of The Boy

I just can't help myself. I must post more pictures of the adorable little angel that I get to call my son.

This is one that I have done a poster effect on through Digital Image (I absolutely love this program!!). I really love the way that it looks like a painting.

I really love this picture because it captures his innocent "What do you mean?" look. You can almost hear the word "Huh?" coming out of his angelic little mouth.

I'm so excited!

And I just can't hide it...well, actually I can. I am finally having a girls night out tonight! I really have no idea what we are doing or where we are going, but I am the Designated Driver (by choice) and I know that we are going to have fun.
Jimmy is doing well. He actually slept from 7 pm last night until 1020 am this morning. I actually had to wake him up. Then he went down for a nap around 1 pm and just got up a little bit ago. There are days when he really surprises me.
Reading about Felix thinking that he is so tall, really made me think about Jimmy. He has the opposite problem. He thinks he is still shorter than he is. So, when he is trying to do something and there is a table overhead, he keeps on walking, right into the table. Then he just looks at me and rubs his head, ducks down and continues on with whatever he was doing. He doesn't even cry. It's like he knows that it was something silly stupid and feels more embarrassed than hurt. So funny!
Well, the boy is making sure that I know he is up and is ready to play some more. Until tomorrow.

Another day

has passed. I am now officially on spring break. Hopefully I will be able to get everything done that I want to get done.
Jimmy is getting so big. Lately, he has started eating like a big boy. It seems that he can't get enough. Last night, I made beans and rice and he loved it! He was eating some of Grandpa's beans, then his own, and then some of Grandma's beans. Then he had some cookies. Then he sucked down an 8 oz bottle. His little belly was so full before that bottle, I have no idea where he put it.
Reading on my sil blog, I see that my adorable little nephew has just found his belly button. Jimmy has known about his for a while (daycare has been really good for him). It is so funny reading about Felix because I remember when Jimmy was at that stage. He would (and still does) show off his belly button, then look for mine, Grandma's, Grandpa's, and Daddy's. It is so cute. Even cuter when he is wearing a onesie and can't pull it up to show his off. He gets so ticked off that I just have to laugh.
Here are a few of the pictures that were taken at daycare before Christmas. I absolutely love them!

Well

it definitely has been a while since I have blogged. I totally forgot how to get into my account and really haven't had time to do anything with it anyways. Not that I really have the time right now, either. So many other things that I should be doing right now...
I made it through the whole first semester of nursing, and now the first half of the second semester. I just took my final exam for that class on Friday...don't know what I made on the test (the teachers will not tell us), but I made a 90 (B) for the class. Today we started the fourth class. Not much further to go.
I have decided that I am seriously going to look into what I need to do to start at MUSC in the spring. I really want to get my BSN while I am still able to go to school.
Well, I am going to move along and get the 20 million other things done that need to get done.