When I grow up. In June.

I've really enjoyed the last 18 months in nursing school, but it hasn't been until this quarter that I've really been giddy with excitement about what I am learning and doing. This quarter is mother/baby and pediatrics. I knew I would enjoy it, but I didn't really think I wanted to go into either area of nursing. (Don't ask me why--I thought I had my reasons but it took about a week of lectures to realize those reasons were ridiculous.) My clinical rotation at Seattle Children's hospital has been my favorite rotation so far, and it only partly has to do with the 3 week-old patient I had my first week. I enjoyed caring for the 17 year-old every bit as much as the newborn. Kids are fun. They are much cooler patients than grumpy adults. And they'll agree to just about anything for the right color of popsicle.

I still have my labor and delivery/NICU/mother-baby rotation to do, but I am feeling happy to know that I want to go into either pediatrics or maternal health when I graduate in June.

But here's the kicker: if I want to do pediatrics, I'm going to have to keep going to school. And as much as I loved pediatrics, every time I've tried to get myself to fill out the application for University of Washington's RN to BSN program, I feel like barfing. I cannot bear the thought of another five quarters of school right now. Ugh. See I just barfed a little typing that up.

Anyway, that's what's been going on around here. I've had a very crazy schedule this month, and I'm looking forward to a much calmer February. I hope I can be nicer in February, because guess what? I'm not very much fun to be around when I'm busy and stressed out. I don't even like my company. Date night tomorrow night, so maybe Nice Jami will show up. (And I just need to reread this paragraph to know that another 18 months of school should not be up for consideration right now!)

When inspirational posters go wrong

Have you seen this poster? Isn't it motivating? What an amazing story of bravery and survival, right?

That poster hangs in the gymnasium where my daughters have PE and lunch every day. So when I said, "Hey, I'm signing us all up for surfing lessons!" while we were in Maui, can you guess what ran through Amelia's mind? "I'm a fan of both of my arms, thank you very much. Surfing is not for me." And she could not be convinced otherwise. Since snorkeling occurs in the same ocean where surfing occurs, she looked at us with the same "you must be crazy" expression when Kolby suggested snorkeling. She was okay with anything in the ocean that allowed her to keep her feet on the ground (wave jumping, sand castle building, boogie boarding) but not anything that required a swim that would surely also involve sharks. You could just use your own damn arms for shark bait if you were so inclined.

Despite that, we had a great time with surfing lessons and our snorkeling trip out to Molokini Crater and Turtle Town. Amelia was a trooper and tried getting in the water at Molikini to snorkel, but you know when you were a kid and your mom asked you to get a can of corn from food storage in the basement and you'd be okay at first, but on the way back up the stairs you'd get that arched-back-racing-heart-can't-get-up-the-stairs-fast-enough-because-the-boogey-man-is-after-you feeling? That's about how her first, and only, trip into the water for snorkeling went. It might have lasted 1.2 seconds.

But then she sat on the deck and flirted with the completely adorable blond surfer boy who worked on the boat, winning t-shirts for herself and Madeline for saying Humuhumunukunukuapua'a.

The girls got an early Christmas gift from us--a waterproof video camera. They had a lot of fun playing with it in the pool and ocean (until I broke it surfing...luckily it was under warranty).

Learning to surf has long been on my list of things to do before I die. I can't say I learned to surf, but I did learn to catch a wave and stay upright on the board for a period of time.

But given enough tropical vacations, maybe I'll start looking as cool as Maddie on the surfboard?