Pumpkin Carving FUN!

Rusty doesn't want to stick his hand in his pumpkin.

He attempts with a puky face, and does most of it himself, but then I had to take over.

Pumpkin guts.

We had patterns, but since it was Rusty's first pumpkin since he was itty bitty, he decided to do his own design.

I kept the pumpkin seeds so I could bake them and see how they turn out.

Somehow, gutting this pumpkin reminded me of work.

I got lazy and used a design. You just poke little holes around the lines.

Here is my finished pumpkin.

And here is Rusty's.

We had a lot of fun carving the pumpkins...until it started to get cooooold outside. So we ordered cheese sticks from pizza hut, and we watched "The Omen 666". Decent movie. Kinda creepy. Now I have to watch "The Lakehouse". I'm too excited to get to that one. And then I'm going to be sad and start getting "Dawson's Creek" episodes with our netflix. Yes, I am so sad.

HALLOWEEN DECORATIONS...so far

This is me and Rusty in skeletal form (Russell's mommy got it for us last year).

Cute little bottles we bought at Michael's.

This is Helga, the witch we dropped our kitchen door on.

This is the flying guy that is hanging on our door.

Our evil bushes and bloody handprints. And this is the graves of certain people that piss me off...

This is the butler we got on sale at the paper factory last year. He serves candy treats to our guests.

This is Hubert.

And this is my new Halloween village. I will take more pics of it when I finish it (I have some stuff coming in the mail) and light it up!

I have a hole in my kitchen floor...

I had my first Maternal Concepts class today. I think I'm going to like it a lot. The stuff we're going over now is stuff I learned from my reproductive physiology course, so I'll just have to review it. Just stuff on hormones and conception and the cells changing and yada yada yada. We're going to go to a parenting class for clinical, and watch births and cecarians, and teach the mothers about breast feeding and how to care for their new baby, and stuff like that. It's going to be fun.

Russell and I are going to the mall tonight to try on some Nike Shox that we'll either buy their or get on Ebay (depending on which is cheaper). I think we'll also get some chinese food...mmm.

I put a hole in our kitchen floor. There was already a soft spot where we figured the floor was rotted from water damage or something, but I stepped on it with all my weight on my toes and where it was already weak, I snapped the linoleum. It turns out the wood was rotted and cracked (with a hole in it) also.

Not the *cough cough* sideburns!!

Rusty made me cut his hair.

Me.

Cut his hair.

With clippers that he bought at Wal-Mart.

Me?

Me!

Why couldn't he have just gotten it done by a professional? He has to be like his mommy and daddy. His mom cuts his dad's hair with clippers, but one time she gave him a bald spot. Does he want a repeat? At least his dad wears hats a lot.


Well, it was going good. I was doing such a good job. I even made the back and the sides shorter than the top. And then....it happened. He wanted me to cut the sideburns.

The sideburns?

Yes. The sideburns.


So, I cut one of the sideburns.......crooked.

I tried.

I failed.

*tear*

I managed to cut it a bit crooked to where the part beside his ear is higher than the front part. He wasn't too happy. Some lady did that to him once, and he was pissed.

*tear*

So, I refused to do the other one. He did it. He should have done that part by hisself to begin with like I told him to. His sideburn looked good. Mine? Not so good. He doesn't want two shitty sideburns, so now he has two uneven sideburns.

This is why I didn't want to cut his hair. Why me? Why now?
I feel really bad.
It doesn't look that bad.
But, I still feel really bad.
At least his sideburn looks good.
I will never do the sideburns again...EVER!


Now maybe I should cut my hair just because I messed his sideburn up.
See, I still look for excuses to do it.
So sad.

*tear*

JUST CUT IT ALREADY

I have to make confetti cupcakes today....*sad face*. I will want to eat them. Well, maybe one. Even though we pigged out this week (Cici's Pizza, IHOP), I still managed to lose 1.2 pounds. Go me! It's coming off slowly, but coming off. So, that's good. I've been thinking for over a year now about cutting my hair off and donating it. I can't believe I've been back and forth on it for a year now. It seems that every time I think I decide to do it, something happens that changes my mind (i.e. I get a compliment, Russell plays with my hair, or something else that makes me feel he likes it long). It would feel so much better to cut it, though. Less weight on my neck, easier to take care of, easier and funner to fix. Long hair is just plain annoying. This is the longest it has ever been. It's down past my waste now...sheesh! I never though it would get this long. I thought my hair stopped growing at a particular point, but I guess not. It's so long now that it's starting to break off at different points, and it at least needs trimmed anyway for split ends, but I feel that I don't want to cut it at all until I decide to actually CUT IT.

OH, did I mention that Russell's the new CSM at Wal-Mart? I think I did, so I won't go into that again. But he's been training, and learning how to run the registers, and it's cute because he'll come home and ask me questions about it. And he also talks about not wanting to learn the service desk. Hehehe. I really don't blame him. It's hard and annoying. They were going to put him there yesterday, but the woman that was over there is full of it, and she would have taught him all the wrong things. It's funny how all the other CSMs agreed...lol.

bad inspection sticker = bad tonya

Anyways, things are going good. I actually have this weekend off for a change. It's nice if I can actually get some stuff done, such as cleaning this dump. I get started, then I just get too lazy and end up doing something else. Next week is my last week of Psychosocial classes. My final is Friday. Then I get to start maternal! YAY! I'm excited, other than the fact that people tell me there isn't much to do, and you're lucky if you get a good experience since there is so many of us, and so few of them at the same time we're there. I guess I'll just have to push my way in. Who knows, it might be something I'm interested in. I always said I wanted to do neonatal, and maternal is kind of a part of that, now isn't it. You can't take care of a baby if someone doesn't pop it out first.

My car is finally scheduled to get fixed next week. This is a good thing because my inspection sticker went bad in August (shhhhh, don't tell), and no one in their right mind would pass inspection for a car that has windshield wipers that don't work and leaks out every drop of power steering fluid that you put into it. But, alas, it will all be over soon.

Rambling.

I was --><-- this close to getting my hair chopped off yesterday. I was trying to get Russell to go with me and get his hair cut, too, but he was wore out from work, so we didn't go. Then, last night I had a dream that I went to go get it cut, and when I felt them chop it off, I started to cry and hyperventilate. Why is this such a big deal to me? It's only hair, and even though it took me over 3 years to get it this long, it's going to benefit someone else more than it will me. I'm just being selfish I guess. And I'm worried that even though my hair was always short before this that I will look funny. I don't know.

Work is going good. They have me working a lot because I already work at least 32 hours, and then they ask me to stay over all the time. I just got my 45 day evaluation yesterday, and apparently I am doing a good job. She gave me superior on some things like teamwork and patient care. It feels good to know that they like it when I'm there (even if it's only because they don't have to do a bunch of extra work when I'm there). The RNs get 3 patients a piece...max. Me? I can have up to 12 patients. Yesterday I had 9, so it was a rough day.

I switch classes in a week and a half. I'm finished with psych (thank God), and I switch to maternal, and I'm really looking forward to it.

Russell and I are itching to make an awesome Halloween village. This year it's all really exciting to me. We've looked on ebay, but it's all that Dept 56 stuff that's like $100 per house or something, so we're going to go to Michael's sometime soon to look around. We're also going to go to Fright Farm on Thursday with some friends from work, so that should be fun.

Oh, and Russell got a CSM (Customer Service Manager) position at the new Wal-Mart. No more Stockman. He'll be over all the cashier's and stockman, so that will be neat. He goes from a payclass 1 to a payclass 6! Yay!! Oh, and we're crossing our fingers for something else, too.

Random pictures from the weekend.

Has anyone ever seen a donkey drink grape pop?













"WOH!"















Russell's niece Kylie took the reigns.















Who's the jackass now?















Russell's mom's face on the tree.















Rusty and his Grandma (her 90th birthday party).















In order: Laura (Russell's sister), Michael (Russell's brother), Kylie, Ross (Russell's dad), Chris (Russell's mom), and Russell.















Russell's other niece, Sydney.















What kind of a face is that?
















For now I am going to bed. I will do an actual update later, ANDREA! Maybe this will hold you until then, lol.

YAY NEW JOB!

Everything is going great. I just had my first 12 1/2 hour shift yesterday, and it actually wasn't as bad as I thought it was. Benefits are good; pay is good. The people are nice. The only thing I find as a problem is getting attached to some of my patients. I already fell in love with the cute old man, and it makes me wonder what will happen to him. He was supposed to leave today, so I had to say goodbye to him yesterday, and he wanted a hug, so I gave him one, lol.

It's come to my attention that people do die in the hospital. Two on my floor died over night before I got there. I have to do post mortum care, and I don't know how I feel about that. I haven't done it, yet, but it's obvious that I will run into death soon or later. I'm not sure if I can handle that.

It has also come to my attention that I would rather work 12 1/2 hours wiping butts (I haven't had to do that, yet, though) than to work 5 minutes again at Wal*Mart. I've helped give baths and dispose of doodie, but nothing that bad. I guess I made a good decision then. I picked up my last Wal*Mart paycheck today, and it was pretty substantial since it had all the extra hours for vacation and personal that I had accrued over my employment on it. I get my first paycheck from Ruby today.

I had my first clinical experience at Chestnut Ridge this week. I spent my first day in the adolescent unit playing Egyptian War and ping-pong with 3 adolescent boys. Not bad. They ranged from 13-16 years old. It's not like you'd think it would be. As I've been told, and I now realize, they are just people like you and me, but with some problems. I think the adolescent unit is more about anger management problems, bad family life, and some suicidal.

Doodie in a bedpan

Above you will notice a shitload of wasps that Russell found up around our front door. Now, you all know I have a huge phobia of wasps, so Russell got me safely inside, then raided the shit out of them. The only thing we cannot figure out is what there are two different kinds of wasps together. If you notice, most of them look like regular wasps, but a few of them are yellow (but yellow wasps, not yellow jackets). Strange. If you have any info on this, please let me know.

In other news, below you will find evidence of Gunther being caught in a most compromising position. Daddy (Russell) tried to put something on him while he was in the position for www.stuffonmycat.com, but Gunther is too much of an ass to sit still long enough. Apparently, he does not want to be famous.

Job is going great. They have me working a lot of hours right now, but that just means I'm making the big bucks. The ribbon cutting ceremony for the new floor is on September 12th. I haven't had to wipe any butts, yet, but I have had to dip a popsicle stick into some doodie, and flush some doodie down the toilet with the aid of a bidet. It is quite useful in rinsing shit down the commode. But, I have to keep reminding myself that I am getting good experience for nursing, so it's not so bad. I've delt with worse, and I'm the girl that pokes deer guts with a stick and cuts sheep open, so there ya go.

Today this person started pooping before we even got her on top of the bedpan, so the person I was shadowing had to just kind of catch it. Yikes! But they had a laxative, so I will forgive them.

School is also going good. Class is boring as hell. I have orientation for Chestnut Ridge early in the morning.

Wal*Mart sucks

What do you get after putting your life into a place for over 2 years?! Absolutely bubcus. The only thing I heard from the manager giving me my exit interview was "you don't work here anymore". Nice. No "hey Tonya, we're going to miss you" or no "good luck with your new job Tonya". What a bunch of shit.

Well, I say kiss my ass Wal*Mart, and good riddance. I can finally have my sigh of relief.

The Black Dahlia

I must have been pretty damn tired last night because I kept thinking of some terrible things. First off, I heard about the Black Dahlia for the first time. Apparently, they are making a movie about it. How do you make a movie about something like that?? For those of you who don't know (I didn't...I had to look it up), the Black Dahlia is a movie star (Elizabeth Short) that was brutally murdered around 60 years ago, and the murder was never solved. I'm surprised I didn't have nightmares after the pictures I saw. They are so old that you can't see a lot of detail, but you can definitely tell what it is. This woman was found naked, cut in half, skin ripped off on her face and other body parts, and she was sodomized after death (they found grass in her vagina). How do you make a movie about something like that? It's just crazy.

The second thing I was worrying over was Gunther. I know it sounds silly, but how can it be said that animals don't have souls? Gunther is more like a person than a lot of people I know. Russell even caught him having a nightmare yesterday. He was sleeping on my computer chair, and all of the sudden he sat up and hissed. It was cute and funny. If he doesn't have a soul, then how does he dream? So, after thinking about all this, of course it made me think of Gunther dying and not being here anymore, and it made me really sad. I don't know what I'd do without the little butthead. He's my baby.

And yes, I got a little sad about leaving Wal*Mart tonight. Don't judge me. Tomorrow night is my last night working there, and I garantee that I will be a little sad. I mean, this is two years of my life, gone. Two years is a long time to be somewhere and not be affected when you leave it. I will talk more about this after it actually happens.

BYE BYE WAL*MART!

Well, I guess so much is going on that I have to make a post about it...otherwise Andrea might kill me. :)

I GOT MY JOB AT RUBY. I start on August 21st. I am getting to work on a brand spanking new floor that is just now being built. 10 west is going to be a cardiac step-down and ICU floor. Until it is finished, I will be working on 10 east. I have my hospital orientation on Monday (if I don't have clinical that morning), and then the rest of the week, I will be training. I also have to get a new PPD done on Monday which is the TB test where they stick a needle under your skin and make a little bubble, and then you have to come back in 2 days to check it.

Today I had to go do a physical fitness thing at HealthWorks. It was gay and made me feel bad because the woman doing it was tall and thin, and she had to weigh me and have me do things that I could barely do without falling (i.e. squat against the wall for a minute). Stupid stuff like that I will not be doing at Ruby. When in my life am I going to have to squat up against a wall and hold it for a minute in order to take care of a patient? Then, I had to go back to Ruby and pee in a cup for a drug test. The lady wasn't very nice, and then she ordered me to leave the door cracked while I peed in the cup, then I was not aloud to flush the toilet or wash my hands until I brought the pee out for her to seal, then I was aloud to go back in and flush the toilet and wash my hands. Then she actually had to take my blood to test my blood alcohol level. Did I look drunk while I was there?? Oh well. It's done.

Thursday is officially my last day at Wal-Mart. YIPPEEEEEE!!!! Bye bye assholes!

Sloth Foot

This is my sloth foot that I received one day after my nice vacation began. Mom took us to beerun on a picnic, and we decided to walk down to the beach part one more time to jump in real quick before we left. Well, apparently holes follow me because I stepped in one, and there I went. My ankle even cracked real loud. Well, it turns out that when you're in a lot of pain, you don't think about what you say in front of your own mother. I couldn't even remember exactly what I said until Russell reminded me.

"WHO PUT THAT FUCKING HOLE THERE?!...................I'M SORRY!.................MY FOOT HURTS!"

Russell and mom made fun of me the whole way home. The first day was the worst. My foot was the size of a watermelon. The terrible picture that you are seeing is 6 days after the occurence. Imagine what it looked like before. I couldn't walk for that first day without help, and then a few days after that it was touch and go, but then I could get around with a bit of a gimp. Russell's mom called me crip...lovingly of course. His parent's have witnessed plenty of my ankle injuries over the past 7 years. Russell waited on me all week...it was very sweet and nice. Russell's dad even touched my nasty ass foot to wrap it with horse wrap, lol.

Other than that, vacation was good, but way too short. Russell and I got to spend lots of quality time together which was very nice.
We watched "Bench Warmers"...a must see if you want to pee your pants.

Interview went very well. I will update more about that when I know for sure what is going on.

I pierced my first ear! It was a one month old baby girl. It was actually kinda fun...until she woke up and started crying. :(

Beating me down down into the ground.

So, today I finally got my phone call....
I have a scheduled interview for Ruby Memorial Hospital on August 2nd at 1:00pm. Ya know, it's funny. You want something so bad, and when you get it, you wonder if it's what you really want. I guess that just shows how fickle people are. I know it's going to be good experience for me, and it pays good, good benifits, and they help pay for my schooling, but it's going to be a lot of hard work. It will be worth it, though.

I'm already going through a point where I wonder if this is what I am meant to do. Is this right for me? Maybe it has to do with something that happened that pissed me off, but I'm being shaken, and it shouldn't be that easy to shake me at this point. Although, I'm still new and learning, so maybe this is normal for what I'm going through. One more week. I can handle that, right? I've already finished my health assessment class with an A, but it seems like my clinicals is nothing by subjective grading, so I wonder if I've sucked up enough for an A? I know I've been doing well, and I'm competent, but does that deserve an A? This shit is so hard. They expect a lot out of you. Although, I do have more good news. They decided to waive my Ethics writing course since I've already had one, so now I can concentrate on my main class with clinical. Grats to me.

Is it sad that I'm excited for Fall to start? It's not that I don't love summer, but this is not a summer for me. It's miserable hot weather accompanied by class with no vacation and no fun time. We do have a vacation coming up, but who knows if we'll get to do anything fun. I'd like to rent a boat or go camping, but who knows on that one.

Oh, our electric bill was $465!! For two months!! We found the problem...hot water tank with bad thermostat that constantly ran without ever shutting off. That makes for one nasty bill. It's unfortunate that we couldn't have caught it before the bill, but you live and learn. It's fixed, and hopefully the bill will go down.

This clock never seemed so alive.

Things are going good. School is so close to being over that it's scary. There is no way that I have had enough experience in order to be competent to take my skills exam. They give us a scenario, and we have to be able to prioritize the care for our patient which is a simulation dummy that cost over $10,000. Fun.

Clinicals have been such a learning experience, though. I had this older man who was really confused. He had a bunch of dressings on his abdomen that needed changed, so I got to see what an infected wound looked like. Gross, I know, but I loved it.

We had such a good time on the 4th. Andrea, Laura, and Seese all came over, and we had some yummy food, watched some good movies, had some good conversations, and fun with snakes and sparklers. My friend Sammy and her fiancee came over sometime later for a little while. I'm having a blast spending more time with Andi and Seese. We're going to start a walking and swimming program for weight loss fun. Russell, me, and Andrea are going to the Olive Garden tomorrow and then going to watch "Pirates of the Carribean". Should be a good time. We tried to convince Seese to call off work so she could come, too, but to no avail.

Gunther is his same loving self. He's still running back and forth through the trailer. That's kitty exercise for you. He also had a good time at the party.

I get to go watch surgery in the operating room this week. I even get to pick what kind of surgery I want to see, and I may even get to do a catheter on someone while they're knocked out. Good times.

I smashed a bug on my computer screen days ago and it's still there.

Speaking of bugs, I found a big black centipede on our bathroom floor yesterday. I squished it, then I left it on top of the toilet to show Russell what I found, forgot about it, then when I came home from work, it was gone. Either I did not kill it, and it escaped, or Gunther found it and ate it for extra protein. He eats ants, so why not centipedes? We assume that is how he survived in the wild...by finding ant hills and eating them.

I will leave you with the cutest picture ever, taken by Laura.














(Gunther a.k.a. Mr. Gunphy Gunphersons)

Beach wedding pics

Oh, and I wanted to post a couple of pics of Russell's mommy and daddy's renewal of their vows. They're so cute!
This was their awesome cake that Russell's aunt Norma made.

Kissy face.

All the girls wanted to make sure that granny's dress didn't get dirty because all of them claimed it for when they get married.

This is the happy couple with all of the nieces and nephews (minus one niece) + Russell's brother Steve holding the rowdy one. Logan (the one crossing her arms) had a big crush on Russell this week although she tried to deny it. It didn't help telling her older sister who is a tattle tale...lol.

Damn dirty bees

BTW, the carpenter bees have went from making small holes the size of their body, to this.....















And this....















And those aren't the only two. There are many more just like that. Some even bigger, but I didn't feel like walking out in the grass to take the pics.

It makes me cherish the memories where we killed 60 of the bastards with our fly swatters. Mmmmemories.

Bathroom poetry

So much has been going on. I finally got to go get Russell on Saturday night. It was a nice reunion. *wink wink* I missed it so much, and it was so nice to have him sleeping next to me again. Gunther has a pretty bad cold. All he has been doing is sneezing his head off since Russell left, and once he even sneezed right in my face. Thanks Gunther. Russell finished a whole book while he was gone. You can tell he didn't have much to do...lol. He had a good time, though. The first thing his mother said to me when I saw them was "I am never taking him anywhere without you again!" Hehehe. Apparently I was missed. *insert awwws here*

I had my first patient with a partner last week. I get my very own this week. I'm kinda nervous, but very excited at the same time.

I had to miss my Ohio reunion this year because it was this past Saturday when I had to pick Russell up. I was told that my great grandma likes to make up her own poems and rhymes now. I will share one with you that I recently was told. My aunt Sharon took her to the bathroom, and while she was sitting on the toilet, she made up this one:

I stink, I stink
Alas, Alas
I smell like a skunk's ass

I think I almost pissed my pants. Yes, she is becoming a little delirious, but I still love her.

Mr. not-so-know-it-all

It's nice to know that one of your Nurse Practitioner instructors gets his information wrong...

We were learning about gastrostomy tubes (the ones that go through the skin on your tummy into your stomach) and nasogastric tubes (the ones that go through your nose down into your stomach). Well, in order to check placement of the tube before you begin feedings or right after the NG tube was placed, you have to 2 of 3 possible things: insert 30cc of air into the tube and listen for air bubbles with your stethoscope, pull out gastric juices to check color, and use a pH meter to test the gastric juices to see if it came from the stomach or small intestine. Our one instructor told us that Ruby does not use pH meters, so we were to do the bubble test and look at the color of the gastric juices even though most hospitals do not like using the bubble test due to error of checking placement when the air bubbles you're hearing could be bowel sounds. We all thought this was pretty dumb of such a great hospital. Well, it turns out, he was incredibly wrong, and Ruby does infact use pH strips now. What a way to confuse me.

Today we did our unit orientation at the hospital. I am on 7East which is a medsurg unit. A lot of the people on my floor will be older. However, I will get to see and do a good variety of things on that floor. We found out today we get to have partners for our first patient which relieves some of my anxiety. I will try to keep all of you informed of some of the experiences that I have, but it will have to be random because of HIPAA compliance and patient confidentiality.

Orientations never end

Tomorrow I have my unit orientation at the hospital. I won't have any patients, but we will be going through everything so we know what we're doing next week. I don't like the fact that my orientation day is on the devil's day 6/6/06...hmph.

Russell's leaving me next week.
Haven't decided how much of a breakdown I'm going to have, yet.
5 whole days.
And the knowledge that he will be flying on an airplane.
I think I might have a minibreakdown right now.

How is this fair that I don't get to go? I work my ass off, and no vacation for me.
Other than the fact that we're going to go to Kennywood this weekend for our 2 year anniversary. I don't think that counts, does it? One day at an amusement park? It will be mucho fun, though. I'm looking forward to it. Maybe while I'm on a rollercoaster, I will figure out what life is all about and everything that I'm supposed to know about taking care of another human being will just snap. Or maybe it will be my leg.

Arrrggghhh! My head shall explode.

Sorry. Things have been so hectic lately, so anytime I think I feel like updating, I end up just getting annoyed with it, so I don't. I learned A LOT this week. They're jamming way to much info into 3 weeks that I don't feel like I'm going to know what I'm doing when I start clinicals in a week. We learned things like folley catheters, Nasogastric tubes (that ones that go through your nose down to your stomach), blood pressure and other vital signs, ostomy bags, removing impactions (with your finger...*shiver*), enemas (yes, I said enemas, Dawn), bathing, brushing teeth, moving patients, range of motion exercises, changing the bed sheets with the patient still in the bed, and much more. That's only two days of stuff. I had another test this week. I got a 100% the first week, and an 88% this week. Not bad, but some of the questions just seemed like it could be more than one thing. I guess that's true for nursing though....there is always something you could do differently whether it's the best possible way or not. Everyone needs to come over so I can practice taking blood pressures.

Oh, birthday was good. Mom just came over yesterday and brought me a crap load of gifts for birthday, graduation, and our anniversary. She's too good to me. I don't get to see her nearly enough. But, I made her and Russell dinner, and we watched a movie, but then she had to leave. She got me a lot of scrapbooking stuff, and a mother/daughter bracelet, some stuffed piggies, earrings and a necklace that match (they have leaves on them), and she got me this awesome pitcher/glasses set that I really wanted from the ABC catalog. She's the best mommy in the world. :)

Well, I guess that's enough for now. I will update more another time when I'm not super busy.

Short update

Everything is going good. School is so hard. There are so many things to keep up with every week. This week we learned how to do vital signs and such. Next week we will be learning how to do catheters, and I am nerrrrrvous.

So, I updated a bit...lol. Now I'm going to do some more homework and clean.

Ruby...here I come!

Since you guys like to read about my life, I'm going to give you a tip on the insider secrets. I'm awaiting a phone call from Ruby Memorial Hospital today. That's right...I said Ruby. Kerri, my friend that works at Wal-Mart with me, has a boyfriend that works at Ruby, and he recently became a recruiter. So, he offered to take my resume in for me, and so he did. He talk to the lady that I couldn't get ahold of, and he told her that I was just starting as a nursing student, and she said that they had to get me in there right away! I know. It's so exciting.

But...

Even though I hate Wal-Mart so much, I will miss SOME of the people there, and I'm really going to miss working with Russell. We don't work together too often, but I like working at the same place with him, and he knows who I'm complaining about and yada yada yada. Also, I will have to work holidays like Christmas because people just don't stop getting hurt because it's a holiday.

BUT.......

This job will be so much better. I get benefits, every other weekend off (supposedly), take turns getting the holidays off, and it's what I want to do. It's the field I'm going in, and I'll have a heads up for clinicals which will be a big help! Also, it's closer to home, and my school building is connected to it! I make more money, and I've heard that I can pick when I work as long as it's in the time frame that I should be there.

I will post more info later when I get my phone call. :)

Death by school?

I am surely going to die this summer. There is no way I can hold down a job AND do this nursing program at the same time. I would like to share with all of you my supposed first week of classes.

MONDAY
NSG 361 (8:00am-12:50pm) - Read chapters 1, 3, 4, 6, and 7 (Topics: Orientation, syllabus, assessment for health and illness, interviewing patients, health history, and transcultural)

TUESDAY
NSG 255 (7:00am-1:50pm) - Read Nursing Process & Infection control: p.652-661
Sterile field: 671-682
Safety: 626-627, table 26-1
Personal Protective Equipment – p.663-667
Fire Safety: 633, 637-638
Isolation: 667-671 with Box 27-5, CDC Precautions
HOMEWORK: (Due Wed. May 24 before class starts) Delmar assignments (online tests)
-Handwashing
-Donning/Removing clean/contaminated gloves, gown, mask

WEDNESDAY
NSG 255 (7:00am-1:50pm) - Read Chapters 24 and 41
HOMEWORK: (Due Today before class starts) Delmar assignments
-Taking temperature, pulse, b/p
-Counting respirations

THURSDAY
NSG 251 (8:00am-1:50pm) - Read Wright and Leahy Chapters 1-3, Taylor Chapters 4, 18-20
HOMEWORK: Taylor Study Guide Chapters 4, 18-20 (multiple choice and multiple response questions)

FRIDAY
EXAM: (10:00am) Abbreviations test (at home on computer)


And just reminding you, this is my FIRST WEEK OF CLASS! It can only get worse. Oh, and looking forward to the week after that, I have to wear a swimsuit to class and bring my toothpaste and toothbrush? I think I'm scared because that can only mean that I will probably have to sit in water IN MY BATHING SUIT while someone learns how to bathe me, and brush my teeth of which I will gag because I have a hard time not gagging when I brush my own teeth...
What have I gotten myself into?
How am I going to be able to hold down a job and do all this while still trying to have somewhat of a life? NOT POSSIBLE! Come on Russell, get that damn high paying job so I can quit mine!

Old edition my donkey

Nursing classes start soon (May 22). I'm a little nervous. I have all my books but one that they didn't have available. They wouldn't buy back my brand new reproductive physiology book because they said it was an old version....whatever. I paid freaking $120 for that "old" book. I'm going to have to have my own book shelf just for my nursing books. There are soooo many of them! A lot to keep track of, but I am going to be very organized. I'm even getting a folder set up and ready. I uploaded pictures on walmart.com to have it printed and ready for me in the morning to cut and paste on my folder. I think it's awesome that you can do that. We're almost done with our front landscaping. Half done actually. So, I will put up a picture of that whenever it gets done. I got some unpacking done today, but not much. It's getting there though.

WE'RE MOVED!!!

Andrea really wants me to update, so this one is for you, baby.

I have so much to update. We got moved in. It rained. We got wet. I got sick. We ordered 3 pizzas because people were hungry, but Russell's dad unknowingly bought hambugers and fries for everyone so we had buttloads of food. Mommy got us a cute solar light thingy with kitties on it for a house warming gift plus another on the way. I'll take a pic of it later. It's sooo dang cute! She worked so hard to help me pack, load, unload, and unpack. So did everyone else which included Russell's mom and dad and his uncle Robey who was a life saver with his delivery truck!! Now, I have a lot of pics, so I'm going to use those to update.

First, I am going to put up some before and after photos.

BEFORE /AFTER



















BEFORE /AFTER






















Okay, that's enough before and after. Now to some more important things.

This is from my lovely Andrea and Alisha. Thank you ladies. It's very pretty, and I love it. They made it themselves. Like little elves.












This is where Russell put in metal carpet floor thingies. He also did both of those floor jobs. He's so good, and with no previous experience, I might add!















AND FOR THE BEST PART OF ALL. Remember the really crappy, smelly furniture that I was supposed to get from my great uncle's camp? Well, Russell had been playing me for weeks that he had picked it up, and it smelled so bad, and he was soooo disappointed making me feel terrible. Everyone knew BUT me. We had just gotten to the trailer, and I was just walking in the door when I noticed a new rug in front of the door that I thought was pretty. Then I looked over and saw this brown couch and thought "that couch wasn't brown....." It wasn't until I looked over and saw the chaise lounge that I put two and two together....sorta. The first thing I did was turn around and look at Russell's mom and said "What did you do??" lol It turns out that Russell's mommy and daddy bought us this couch since her parent's bought them furniture when they were first married and didn't have any, and Russell bought me the chaise lounge. She also bought us some really nice rugs. How did I get so lucky to have such a loving family who would do anything for us?
By the way, I just noticed Gunther's tail sticking up in the picture...damn cat. lol






























That thing is so damn comfortable.


Oh, and yes, we still have boxes everywhere.

And anyone who wants to come and visit can come anytime!

Oh, and Russell's mommy got us these for Easter...lol. CUTE!

Office Done

Russell and I have finished the office. All of the baseboards are up, and then floor in the closet is done and clean. This is so exciting. It looks awesome. Everything is coming together...but it's kinda nerve wrecking that it's only coming together the week that we're moving! Saturday is the big day. It's sad that this won't be our home anymore. It's going to take some getting used to, definitely. I hope it doesn't take long to feel like home.

Russell's thinking about flying down to Jekyl Island on Tuesday and driving back home with his parents on Saturday. I don't know if I can hack this. Is it really fair that I can't do anything because I'm going to school? I would be too worried about him flying, and I really want to be there, but it's just not possible. Just one of those things in life that I can't do a damn thing about. Our anniversary is the weekend before he would be leaving, too, and I would like to go camping or something, but we'll see about that. No vacation for Tonya this year.

CoNsTrUcTiOn

This is our new washer and dryer.



















Lately, we have been having a wasp problem, and here is where they have been coming in the house. Grrr. My friend Sammy came over to look at the trailer, and since she's such a good friend, she killed 4 wasps for me! WAY TO GO SAMMY!














This is the teeny bedroom that has been cleaned, and the bed they left behind. I know you're thinking that's gross, but I assure you that it was cleaned thoroughly, AND it has had a vinyl zip-up cover put on it. It's pretty dang comfy! I have indeed napped there a few times already. *blush*














This is where the roof looks like there was a fire. Hopefully, it will be cleaned tomorrow when mommy and grandma come over.














This is Russell's beloved office. That is our $150 floor. We started playing around with baseboard today, but of course we did not get it done. If you're wondering what that blue color is, it is called "stargaze".














More office with the nasty carpet in the closet.














This is the bathroom by the office that used to have carpet in it. Russell's mom and dad gave us extra flooring from their animal hospital.
















Well, as you can see, we are still not finished, BUT we're getting our butts into gear because we have officially decided to move on April 22, 2006 (Saturday). I will post up before and after pictures when things are done.

Moving Date

Okay, I think we are officially moving either on Saturday April 22 or Sunday April 23. Russell's Uncle Robey is going to use one of his moving trucks from his store to move all of our stuff for us. Yay! It has one of those lift elevator thinger majiggers (or however you spell that word).

If we still have money by then, maybe we'll throw a lil party so everyone can see the new place and have a good time.

It's almost a little sad that we're leaving our first apartment.

Attention students: you are no longer aloud to take notes.

We put the floor in the bathroom and office. The only thing left to do with the bathroom is to put in the base on the walls, then the office needs some more paint, base, and then closet floors needs done and walls need wiped down. Everything is starting to fall into place.

I got a check from financial aid for $1,457.00. It was a very nice surprise. I guess they decided to give me back the money they jipped me on at the beginning of the year since I'm going to summer school and I'm poor. Not sure.

Still been skipping class, just not the important one. I accidently missed it last week, though, because I turned off my alarm clock and accidently fell back asleep, but I got the notes off a friend. The teacher in there that also teaches my Small Ruminant Production class actually yelled at all the students in our class yesterday FOR TAKING NOTES! Yeah, I know. Can you believe that? He even cussed. He said "PUT YOUR PENCILS DOWN AND LISTEN TO ME! STOP TAKING NOTES. THAT'S WHY I GAVE YOU THE DAMN HAND-OUT! I AM JUST TELLING YOU THE CONCEPTS THAT WAS IN THE HAND-OUT. THIS IS WHY MOST OF YOU GOT THIS WRONG ON THE LAST TEST!" Yes, a teacher yelling at STUDENTS for taking NOTES! Don't they normally yell at you for not taking notes. Luckily, someone had enough guts to say something back to him. Some guy behind me said (in a really angry tone) "That is why we are taking notes, SIR, to take down the concepts you are saying. So, stop pausing and keep talking. Then he slammed his notebook on his desk...lol. The teacher seemed kind of scared. Hehehe. GOOD! Asshole. OH, and the reason why everyone did so badly on the last test was because his questions were very unfair. The class average was a 61% and the highest grade was only an 84%...what does that tell you? Hmmm.

The good, the bad, and the OBGYN.

Some things are going great lately, and some things are going terribly wrong.

The BAAAAD:

• The car is dying apparently. I've known for a while that the powering steering was leaking all the fluid out, but I haven't had the time to take it anywhere to get fixed, so now when I drive it it makes the loudest sound EVER, and the wheel has started to lock up on me while driving. Not good. Also, the windshield whipers haven't worked right for around a year or more, and I have been very lucky that I haven't got caught in a piss storm that made me wreck because of it.
• I missed a test Friday due to my damn car, so now I have to take it Monday after class, so I have to spend my whole weekend (with Sunday off) studying my ass of since I was prepared to get a 30% on it Friday seeing as though I missed the class a lot (when I said I would never miss it again), AND the only time I spent studying was an hour on Thursday.
• I hate that I'm flabby and out of shape...the walking starts soon. If you would like to join me on my walks, let me know.
• Russell's mom and dad decided to renew their vows at the beach trip that I can't go to this summer due to nursing classes. Russell's dad asked him to be the best man, so no everything is confusing. I told Russell to go, but he doesn't want to go without me. But I can't miss nursing. Hmph.
• My lower belly button piercing is on the fritz.
• I found rat poison and spider webs all the way around our hot water tank in our bedroom.
• We can't get the light kit to work on the fan in our bedroom.
• I need a new job.
• Now we can never wear jeans PERIOD at work. Not even on our regular Friday after every paycheck.

The good:

• The trailer is coming along quite nicely. We just got our washer and dryer. The dryer is really neat because it has a setting that detects moisture and will keep drying until all the moisture is gone so you don't have to keep resetting the time. Also, we've finished painting the office, bought flooring for the office (which goes on with special acrylic tape), and we're almost finished with the bathroom floor. We've glued half of it, so we need to finish the other half, put up base boards, and put the toilet back in. Oh, and we tested the portable dishwasher, and it works! Awesome.
• I'm trying to take back control of my life. It seems lately that I have been really slacking off in all departments. I've decided to make a list for every day that includes class and work times that cannot be missed, then I'm going to fill in the free times with extra things I have to do...clean, laundry, trailer, walk, READ, study, etc. This has to help because as of right now, I feel so lost when it comes to things that I have to get done, and I've been so lazy that everything keeps piling up, and I've done some things that I'm not wuite so proud of when it comes to school, so things definitely have to change...NOW!
• I've gotten my schedule for Fall already, and I will be taking Ethics in Nursing, Concepts: Maternal Child, Interventions: Maternal Child, Concepts: Psychosocial Health, Interventions: Psychosocial Health. The concept classes are just classes, but interventions are clinicals where I actually go to that place. So, I will be in OBGYN and the Psych hospital. Fun times...lol. The good news about that is I will only be in each intervention for half a semester, and I won't have as much time to go to Wal-Mart. Joy.

Welp, off to do other things.

MEOW! Translation: PUT ON SOME DAMN PANTS, NASTY!

First I have a Gunther story. When we got up this morning, Gunther kept going up to Russell meowing over and over and over, so he thought he wanted more food. So, Russell fed him. The meowing continued. Russell was sitting at the computer with only his boxer shorts on. So, we thought that maybe he wanted to be up on daddy's lap, but he knows not to be on daddy's lap when he has no pants on (due to claw siutations). So, Russell went and put pants on. After that, the meowing stopped. We figure he was tired of looking at daddy without pants on. Russell said "It's like a train wreck. He didn't want to see it, but he couldn't stop looking at it." LMAO!

Anyways, I probably need to write a shitload of an update, but I won't feel like typing that much. We went to Ohio with Russell's parents for the Ohio Beef Expo. We froze our balls off, but we had fun. Russell and I actually at some steak at the Lonestar, and if you know us, then you know that just isn't quite right. Trailer is coming along nicely. We're getting ready to buy our very own first washer and dryer. The office is almost fully painted, and Russell's parents gave us some flooring to go in the bathroom that came from the Animal Hospital. His mom thought that small of a piece of that kind of commercial flooring was probably worth like $300, but it was extra, and they didn't need it, so wala. We cleaned the carpet some, so I'm excited to go back and see what it looks like dry. The mouse probably was taken care of...at least the big one. I still have other holes to fill in just to make sure, but I also just got a light in where the hot water tank is, and someone had actually sprinkled pellets of rat poison in there...dumbasses. They're trying to kill my precious kitty. *sad face*

Oh, Chester the beta, who lived a long life of 3 1/2 human years has recently passed on. We found him dead when we arrived home from Ohio. He still has not had his burial at sea, but I have all good intentions of doing so this morning sometime. He will be missed.

More updates and hopefully pictures later. Until then, TA~TA!

Quick Home #2 Update

Quick update before I head off to what we lovingly refer to as home #2. We've gotten so much done there. We ripped up carpet in the bathroom and office (some mold damage but we can take care of that). We started painting the office which should be finished today. A lot of cleaning has been done. Mom and grandma came Thursday and whipped the place into shape as moms and grandmas are good at. Grandma had a little accident which involved falling, grabbing freezer door, falling some more, hitting head on ground, and cutting arm on cabinets. It was sad. I felt really bad.

The assholes took the living room furniture that they said would be staying, so I'm a little pissed about that.

Gotta go. Will update some more later.

OFFICIALLY OURS!

So, it is officially ours other than the fact that I have to go to the dmv to get a new title. Sooooo much work to be done. But, they took the living room furniture that they said they were going to leave. Very disappointed about that.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonyarachel/

That is where you can see more pictures of the trailer. Russell took a lot more when we were there today.

Tomorrow, I'm going to go out after class in the morning and start the cleaning process. We think we might have to replace all of the carpet because it's stained really bad, but I'm going to try to see what the carpet cleaner does for it tomorrow. If anyone wants to come clean with me tomorrow, then give me a call. lol

Other than that, I am too tired to give any more details. We had some loan difficulties, so I'll post more about that later. Toodles for now.

GOOD NEWS!!

Well, we've already made a deal to buy the trailer we saw this morning. He started off asking $11,000, but he's allowing us to have it for $10,000. He's giving us EVERYTHING in it which is a lot, and even though there are some things we'll want to get rid of, there is a lot of good things in it including nice furniture and 2 or 3 dressers. A lot of my pictures turned out crappy because I forgot to put the flash on at first, plus I don't have a lot of pictures because I felt weird taking them, but here are some.

This is the outside including a shed (shed needs painted).















This is the kitchen which they've left dishes and such out. Nice, but needs cleaned.















Blurry without flash. This will be the computer room.















YAY FOR US WE HAVE A HOME! And we'll probably have it within the next couple of weeks to start hardcore cleaning and getting rid of the crap we don't want. After we decide what we do and don't need, we'll let you guys know incase you need or want some of the stuff. Yay! Yay yay!!

Oh, then only things I REALLY despise is that there is carpet in one of the bathrooms....that is a no no. So, we will have to rip that out and redo that floor which might be a nasty job. Rusty will definitely have to take his allergy medication for that one because I bet it's moldy as hell.

More trailer fun

This morning we are going to go see trailer #3 of the pictures in the other post. It's a 1992, and he wants $11,000 for it, but I bet we can talk him down a bit. I'm so excited that I can't even sleep which is bad for me. I can never not sleep. I've been up since 7:30am, and I didn't even have to get up until 9:00am. You know I'll be napping later. I'm REALLY hoping that it's nice inside because I just want all this to be done and over with.

OHHH, I forgot to tell you what happened with the other trailer. He called and told us that her loan did go through, BUT the lot rental people didn't know if they wanted her there since they found some bankruptcies when they checked her out. So, he made us wait a whole other day to know whether we could buy it or not, and when he finally called us, he said "Unfortunately, the lady is able to rent the lot. So, it IS sold. We are sorry for the inconvenience." Selfish jackass. So, that threw that idea out of the window. So, everyone cross your fingers that this is a nice trailer.

OHHHH, I also forgot to tell you that when I called the guy about the trailer we're going to see this morning, I could hardly understand his accent, but he did say someone else might buy it. But, the next time I talked to him, he said "Well, the guy is in the hospital in critical condition. He's probably going to die. So, you can buy it." LMAO! That was real smooth. But, this guy lives in another state now, so he's having a girl friend show it to us today, and her English is worse than his. She didn't even understand what I meant when I asked her if we could bring a camera to take pictures of the rooms.....
Well, this ought to be tons-o-fun.

That's MY driveway!

Well, I forgot to mention our little mishap the other day while going to see the trailer. We were just driving around slowly looking at the trailers to see if any were for sale because we were there a little early (traffic wasn't as bad as what I had expected that night). All of the sudden, this lady in a car was riding our ass. I turned off on another road, but apparently, that was the way she was going too, and she looked pretty peeved, so I decided it was best just to pull over, put on my emergency blinkers, and let her pass. So, instead of going around, she sat in her car, waving her hands in the air, and making a scrunched face while saying nasty words that I couldn't quite make out. We couldn't figure out what the hell she was doing. We didn't understand why she didn't know that we pulled over to let her around since we were going so slow. We thought she was a total moron and just being a bitch. So, all of the sudden, she got out of her car, and I was going to have a hay day with this one. I couldn't wait for her to come up to our window so I could be a bad ass and tell her was a tard she was. But, she got to the window, I rolled it down, and she said "Umm, you're in my driveway." And she said it like we were the stupidest people known to man. Of all the places for me to pull over to let her around. In what crazy world did she think that we were supposed to know that that was HER driveway? OH my goodnes, like, I should have known all along that was where you were going...my bad. What a bitch...lol.

Bad trailer news

So, we went and looked at #2 last night. It was kinda dirty and stuff was everywhere, but that's only because they're in the process of fixing some stuff. We decided that yes, we wanted that trailer, so I called the guy today to see if we could give him some kind of deposit now in order to hold it until we can get a loan finalized, but he informed us that another woman is in the process of trying to get a loan to buy the trailer. Humph. How disappointing. The only good news about the whole thing is that he said she was having trouble getting the loan, and she was supposed to find out today if it was going through. If it doesn't go through, then the trailer is ours, so he is supposed to call us tomorrow in order to let us know whether we can have it or not. Everyone keep their fingers crossed.

Bye bye trailor

Well, someone bought our first choice for a trailor (even though we hadn't see the inside, yet). That one was the #1 picture. The lady called and left a message saying not to bother to come to look at it tonight because someone just bought it. They seemed really nice, too. The one we're seeing tonight is #2, so not bad. I just hope it has a big bathtub/bathroom like the other one did. Here in a couple of minutes, we're going to go drive around a couple of trailor parks to look for phone numbers to call. I really hope we find one soon.

I did my CPR course yesterday morning. It was fun, and I actually met someone that seems really nice who is in the same program that I am. Maybe next time I post, I will give some life-saving pointers that I learned. Now, I'm going to go get something to eat since I just woke up.