The NCLEX = Funny?

Now, I know someone is going to be offended, but that's not what I intend. Don't leave nasty comments on my blog, just stop reading it.

This is for real, a real question in my NCLEX practice book. I laughed so hard when I read it. It was a nice reprieve during my study time.

Here it is:
The nurse is caring for clients in a pediatric clinic. The mother of a 14-year old male privately tells the nurse that she is worried about her son because she unexpectedly walked into his room and discovered him masturbating. Which of the following responses by the nurse is MOST appropriate?

And here is, NO JOKE, the first option to choose:

1) "Tell your son he could go blind doing that."

Thanksgiving weekend

I was expecting to have to work on Thanksgiving this year because I didn't work it last year. But since I'm only part time, all my holiday hours are taken up New Years day. I got to enjoy a whole day of Thanksgiving!

We went to my Grandma McAllister's house and had dinner with my mom's family. It was very tasty. I forgot my camera that was charging next to the computer, so I didn't get any pictures of the festivities. I was sad too, because it would have been a good picture to get the bodies all laying around sleeping on the floors after dinner. Seriously, I'd say half the family was asleep about an hour after dinner.

We have a family tradition on both my mom and dad's side to go see a movie on Thanksgiving. We started eating pie at about 4:00 and our movie was at 4:20. We snarfed it down and ran out the door. Though, after seeing A Christmas Carol, I wouldn't have been sad to have missed most of it to enjoy more pie. Seriously, not a great movie.

After the movie, we gathered with some of my dad's family at Grandma Hibby's. We played tripoly and ate pie until it was time to go. Mikey and Brenna left earlier than everyone. When Tom went to go put his shoes on to leave, they were missing. Mikey had worn them home thinking they were his! They were fairly similar looking, and Mike obviously wasn't looking very closely. So Tom left in his stocking feet with Jana following behind with warnings of hypothermia and frostbite. It was a pretty funny scene all together.

I stayed up late that night to finish The Hunger Games because I knew I'll be needing to study for finals instead of reading freaking awesome books! I highly recommend it, and look forward to reading the next one when I get a chance.

Anyhoo... The next day we didn't get up early, but did venture out to mingle with the Black Friday shoppers. We wandered around Ikea, looking for nothing in particular, and buying only rocks for the fish tank and a cinnamon roll (yum! No sharing with cranky Ryan who says "you don't need a cinnamon roll":-P). After Ikea, we went to The District to see a movie. We had some time to kill before The Fantastic Mr. Fox so we turned into JCPenny because Ryan needs a long sleeved dress shirt as I turned the last one pink recently. We did find one, along with some other good deals. Also, If you're looking for inspiration for a really attractive outfit for the holidays, try this:Wowsah! That's one smoking hot outfit... Or something.

The movie was really fun. I liked the styling a lot, and the stop animation was really cool. I do recommend that one.

After the movie, we got some dinner, browsed a shoe store, then Ryan said to me, "Now when we go home, we're going to be tempted to go to bed. But we can't go to bed because it'll only be 7:30." He was right. So we invited one of the only people we know who likes to play Monopoly--Vince, and his wife Mary, over to play it. After a very slow start, Vince took the whole game over and killed us all. Check out Mary's blog to see our sad sad loser faces. At least Ryan and I didn't end up going to bed at 7!

Stuff We Like

Today's edition of Stuff We Like is about Lunch Breaks. Specifically Ryan's.

On days when I have work off and Ryan doesn't, we often go to lunch together during Ryan's lunch break. He has a whole hour (seriously! a whole hour! I'm lucky if I get to eat not at the nurse's station.) for lunch. We usually get done eating halfway through his break, so we do lots of random stuff with the time that's left. We do things like go to pet stores, walk on the parkway, go to Savers and True Value and other stores full of random stuff. About a week ago we went to Furniture Warehouse and Ryan drooled over the hugest tv we have ever seen in our lives!

Ryan also enjoyed some psychiatric therapy,
and I got shrunk to the size of a 4 year old.

This was the day I had my two interviews, so we had lunch between them.
Hence the MIB outfit.

So, in conclusion, we like lunch breaks together. It's especially great on days when I work nights, because then we get to see each other at least once that day.

Giardia and Miquelle go through the temple

Last night, I had the lovely experience of gathering with many of my family members at the Bountiful Temple. My lil bro and his fiance were getting their endowments. It was a lot of fun, and really nice to be with all my family in such a lovely place. I got this shot of them coming out of the temple. It's practice for the actual wedding day in 7 days! Hopefully they'll be a little better at it since this one is, well, we'll say sub-par.

After the session, we went to Robintino's for some grub. It was fun to just laugh and hangout with the fam as it always is. I'm getting so excited for the holidays coming up. First, there's thanksgiving, then Giardia's wedding, then I graduate, and then there's all the holiday parties. It's the most wonderful time of the year! hooray!

Speaking of family, my auntie Lisa is in town from California with her fam for thanksgiving and the wedding. So we got together at my uncle Tom's house (not cabin--ha!) on Sunday to see her. Add that to the list of family fun we'll be having/have had. Here's Tom and Tinkerbell in identical positions last Sunday. It was too funny not to take a picture of.


In other news: I didn't get one of the positions I applied for. I'm still holding out hope for the other one! fingers crossed.

Also, I found out from my aunt Lisa that her mother in law reads my blog. So a friendly shout out mama Trepanier! and any of you other random people whom I find out randomly that you randomly read my blog.

New Moon

Yup, I saw it. I had to--with all the hype around it, and the fact that it's the one with mostly Jacob in it, and it's also kind of tradition for me and Loufa to see these silly movies together. Don't worry, no spoilers here! oh wait... it's a book, and you've probably read it already. Anyhoo--Here's some of my thoughts on the movie:

-Holy crap, that Taylor whatever kid is freaking hot! (You've heard it before, but it's totally true.) All the scenes with him in it are the best. Although, not just because he often is not wearing a shirt, but because I think he's the most talented actor of the major characters. (I'm a team Jacob girl anyway, even before Taylor Lautner.)

-What's with the moaning and panting all the time Bella? It's like she only acts with her breathing. Oh I have to react to something? I know! I'll breathe meaningfully, and look like I'm in pain!

-Edward is poorly poorly casted. Robert Pattinson is so not attractive and is easily out shined by Taylor Lautner. He also can't act. His sad face looks like his serious face, that also looks like his upset face, that looks like his in love face, that looks like his angry face. Maybe he learned how to act by watching Keanu Reeves movies. His lovey dovey lines are more funny than sweet because he looks the same as he did five minutes ago when he was angry! And he's always gazing off into the distance. I'm sure he's supposed to look like he's just unable to look at Bella when he's breaking her heart, but he kind of just looks like he's stoned or something. He always looks like he stoned. He never seems to really be looking at anything. You're supposed to be rooting for Edward, but I can't help but hate every scene he's in.

Over all I liked this movie much more than the first one. I think it was a little bit better made, and the actors have improved. (Except Robert Pattinson) So see it if you wish!
I just realized that most of my comments were negative. But as most of you know how I feel about the Twilight saga, you shouldn't be surprised. :)

Finito!

I officially had my last precepting shift. It ended up taking longer to finish precepting than I had expected because my nurse kept getting canceled. I feel really good about the experience overall. My nurse was fabulous and really helpful. At the end I was taking the full patient load (psht--not that that's saying anything. We never had more than 2 pts ever. PCMC rocks.) and I was pretty much initiating and prioritizing everything on my own. So as long as I never have more than 2 pts I've got this thing down packed! jk. What I really mean is: if I only have two patients and they are completely stable, happy, and don't need anything--I've got this thing down packed! Too bad pts are never perfect.

Coming up I have to take the ATI exam. It's the exam that predicts how well you'll do on the NCLEX-RN and I have to pass with a 72%. Or I'll have to take it again and pay $60, and if I still don't pass I'll have to take one of those NCLEX prep courses that cost $200. Ridiculous. What's that you ask? What did I get on my practice ATI? oh, a 70%!!!! I'm screwed. Tests suck. School sucks. Stick a fork in me. I'm done.

Evasive Maneuvers

We were driving home from my parent's house when our song came on the radio. (aw...romantical.) We started singing along, and I sang a line differently than Steven Tyler.

"oops, wrong part" I said after.

"They never sing it like that." Said Ry.

"Yes they do! It's just later."

I kept a focused ear on the music so I could point out the part. It was starting to come on just as we were heading into the construction on I-15.

"It's right here!" I said, and pointed to the radio.

Suddenly, Ryan swerved and dove into the line of orange barrels lining the blocked lane next to us.
"What are you doing!" I scream.

"You told me to!" He yells back

"What?! What are you talking about? What are you doing?!"

I'm staring at the orange barrels blocking our way that are about to cut the lane off completely, when just as suddenly Ryan dives back out onto the freeway. We lived. Barely.

Ryan finds the section of I-15 under construction between Bountiful and Salt lake very stressful. It curves at weird times and whatever. So apparently when I was still thinking about the music, Ryan was busy getting more and more paranoid about traffic. So when I said "right here" Ryan made a split second decision that I was telling him he wasn't in the right place and crossed into the construction zone. It was so bizarre, and frightening, and hilarious.

To his credit, they don't have freeways in Alaska. (and we'll all just pretend Ryan hasn't been in Utah for almost 10 years.)

Now I wait...

"First you talk and then you sit,
You don't seem to give a [hint]
that you care about your fate.
Again I wait..."

Yes, that is Mr. Smith's waiting song. He wrote it apparently for Mikey's boy's choir year when they wouldn't shut up. It has something like 3 verses which he wrote in about 10 minutes while... well, waiting. By the way, he always sung the second line with "hint", but the original song had a certain expletive that rhymes better with sit.

Ah, good 'ol BHS choir days...


Anyhoo... I had my two job interviews today. First, I'd like to give a big thank you to Sara who wonderfully gave me pointers on questions to ask. I was almost the only one in my group interview (IHC does group interviews a lot), who asked questions. I think they were impressed by that. Or at least they'll remember me as the girl with the note card with a million questions on it.

I feel really good about both interviews. I think they went well. I know a billion people have applied to both positions so I'm pretty scared. I do have my capstone on my side though. There were some applicants there who had graduated in May! eek! I sure hope I get hired sooner than that! I'd feel like I'd lost all my nursing knowledge by the time I started work.

Both units said they'd get back to me by next week. They say you get a phone call if you're hired, and an email for rejections. So everyone pray my phone is busy!

The Incident of Kevin and The Plastic Bug

During my shower this morning, which I shared with a very large spider, I was reminded of a story:

A few weeks ago, we had the lovely opportunity to attend a game night at Ryan's aunt JaNel's house. (Can't tell I've been reading Pride and Prejudice after reading that sentence, can you?) While we were all gathered around to play Win, Lose, or Draw (aka pictionary), Ryan got up to get a drink. While passing by Kevin on his way back, Ryan discreetly placed a plastic insect slightly resembling a spider on Kev's shoulder. Then he asked very calmly, "hey kev, what's that on your shoulder?" Kevin looked back and then everything went into slow motion: Kevin leapt off his chair to at least 5 feet in the air while holding a cup of water. The water also jumped out of Kevin's cup and seemed to hover in perfect cup shape just above it's container before exploding over the poor stumbling kevin. Who then crumpled in a heap on the other side of the room and resumed a fetal position while half crying-half whimpering. There he stayed for a good 5 minutes while the rest of us sat astonished and laughing so hard no noise actually came out of our mouths. Oh it was so funny. Poor Kevin.

I still wish I had gotten it all on camera...

Miquelle's Bridal Shower

Saturday was Miquelle's Bridal Shower, held a her mom's house. It was a lot of fun and one of the gamiest showers I've ever been to.

Of course, a picture of the food which was provided by the Dearden women.

The people who came

and the happy couple opening all their new loot!

I think we all had a good time, and it was fun to get to know some of Miquelle's family before the actual wedding day.

Cat Pose

Whenever I get my yoga mat out, Afro takes it as an invitation.

Although it disturbs my own use of the mat, he is really good at yoga.

ha ha ha ha!

I saw this in Eliza's blog and it made me giggle. I know many of my blog readers will appreciate it. Someone please show this to my dad, he'll like it.

I have two job interviews coming up...

And I'd like your help.

• What are some interview questions you've gotten? Or if you do hiring, what do you like to ask?

• What would you say my strengths and weaknesses are? (Weaknesses I'd be willing to share with a prospective employer. Let's not tell them how spacey I am, k?)
  

• What are some good questions to ask when they ask if you have any questions? I can never think of anything. and I don't want to ask stuff like, uh, how good are your benefits?Or what is holiday scheduling like? etc. cuz that sounds like it's all about me.

• How do I sell it?

Because we're quirky like that

When Ryan has stuff on his face, I demonstrate on the same side of my face. Like if he has something in his left eye tooth--I'll point to my left eye tooth.*

When I have stuff on my face, Ryan does a mirror image of my face and points to the opposite side.

But what's really funny is that when Ryan does a mirror image, I interpret it like I give it--and go for the wrong side. Ryan does the same thing when I demonstrate.
This happens every. single. time.



So funny!


Which do you do?











*I think I do it this way because of nursing. When I look at people I have to interpret the right side of their body as the right side so I chart it correctly. If I was thinking mirror image all the time I'd get everything backwards.

Less than a month!

I graduate from nursing school on Dec. 9.

Today is Nov. 11 (happy birthday Reine!-- we got a new niece! Congrat's Lindsay and Michael!) (Pronounce it "wren". It's french.)

It is officially less than a month until I'm done and on to being a real nurse!







I'm really scared.

14 year-old girls could take over the world if they wanted to

case and point:

• Titanic
• Backstreet Boys/Nsync*
• New Kids on the Block
• Johnathan Taylor Thomas
  
• Twilight
• Jonas Brothers
• High School Musical
• at least one competitor on American Idol every season that stays on for way to long.
• Taylor Swift
• Miley Cyrus

And SOOO much more.

Seriously, if we could get them all excited about curing cancer or global warming or something, it would happen tomorrow.












*I was totally one of those 14 year old girls.

Halloween 2009

I finally found my camera! Ryan found it under my parent's couch. I even looked under there! I pulled the couch over and everything! What the heck? oh well, I got it back, that's all that matters, right? Now I can post pictures of our fun Halloween party with the fam.

First, Here's all the costumes:

Ry and I as Adam and Jamie from the Mythbusters

(everyone thought I looked like my Uncle Richard. Maybe that's why Laura thought we went as a gay couple?)


Jordan and Miquelle as White trash/red necks

Jordan was so gross, and a little too good at looking red neck.


Brenna as a duck, Mikey as a wizard trying to disguise himself as a muggle (It took us forever to figure it out), and Bridget as a pumpkin.

Mom as a witch, and Dad as a normal person (as opposed to his "salesman" work attire. hardy har har.)

Laura as Peter Pan, and Pepper as a creepy-glowing-eyes ghost dog.

We had a timed pumpkin carving contest. We started the timer, went to work and something really weird happened. It was dead quiet. I have never heard my family so quiet! Apparently if you give us all something to focus on, we'll shut up.

True to his costume character, Jordan broke out the power tools.

Here's the finished product:

Brenna was our celebrity judge.
She picked Ryan's pumpkin to win:
Apparently you add some guts and barf and Brenna will like it!
My kind of girl! :)


Laura made the food all cute and themed:
Ghost cheese

"Deviled" eggs

and vampire sucked cupcakes.

After eating, we played Taboo:

and then watched Young Frankenstein.

It was such a fun party. I'm so grateful to be such good friends with all my family members. I love them all so much. It was one of those times where I'll just sit back and watch my family laughing and enjoying each other's company and think how freaking blessed I am.

Last but not least, I give you Red Neck Dad:

He threatens to grow his own "skullet" someday when he doesn't have to look professional for work. It will be so pretty...

Yearning for some sandstone

I heart Utah for many reasons. One of which is the desert.
There's no place else in the world you can find it quite like Utah's. And it's only a few hours away!

Recently, for no real reason I can pin point, I've really been wanting to be in places like this:

I especially love the backcountry.
You can go out there and not see another person for days (except those you brought with you of course.) As soon as it thaws out a little in the spring I'm heading down to see me some red rock. I hope to go someplace more secluded. Ry and I have visited the desert recently, but mostly the busy places like Zion's and Arches.

I hope to convince my family to go on a backpacking trip to Coyote gulch (the first pic above is from there). It would be a great first time backpacking trip for Ryan. Maybe we'll go even if they all can't...

Sigh... wish I was there already.

Now that I've posted our Halloween costume pic

Wouldn't Ryan look great with a mustache and goatee?

Ryan is a very patient man

It's a really good thing I married such a patient person.
How else would I entertain myself?

He decided He wouldn't go to volleyball with it in his hair. It was fun while it lasted.

It's also good he's patient because I haven't been around for about 8 days. I've been precepting non stop for over a week. It's been crazy. I don't get home until around 8 and then I just eat and crash for a while, then go to bed in time to get up again the next day at 5:30. I've been enjoying my experience, but I feel like I haven't had a real life for the longest time. I did get to have snippets over the weekend when I went to my sister's Halloween party (pictures to come when I find my camera--probably under my mom's couch.), and I did have Sunday off of work/precepting. Although I had to teach YW, and my lesson was oober crappy since I'd thrown it together in what bits of spare time I could find.

It will be really nice to have the next 5 days (hooray) off from all work and precepting. I'll be able to get a little bit back on track again.

I am really loving this nursing stuff. I go home from precepting just feeling like I'm glowing inside. I've been incredibly happy lately (when I'm not barfing after eating sugar), and it's hit me recently how much I really love what I do. I love all the little kiddos I get to hang out with and I love trying to figure out how to just be a nurse. I have a long adjustment period ahead of me, but I'm generally feeling optimistic and positive about it all.
We had a crazy day in PICU yesterday that surely put me in my place as far as my feelings of being an ICU nurse. Our little patient was quite a challenge, then got only worse when they started deteriorating. It was a lot of fast paced, critical work. I spent a lot of time feeling like I was more of a hindrance than a help. I kind of went into tech mode like I'm used to doing during heavy ICU situations like that. But it was fun to be in the thick of it and watch my nurse and help when I could.

I applied to three positions at PCMC today for the nurse residency program. I'm hoping for float pool the most. I really like the variety, and I want to keep a wider skills set. But honestly, I'm still not set on any place. I just want to work somewhere with a small patient load. I'd like to stay in Shock/Trauma too even. There's just not been any place that really hit me, like this is where I belong. I pretty much can only say where I don't want to work (The OR and postpartum. both very boring places).

I wonder every day why I picked a career where I have to remember so many things at once. I have never been good at that. Ask my mom. She's the one that had to do all the reminding for me.

and that is all the random thoughts I have on a post that was just supposed to make you laugh at Ryan's hair.

The End