You can't prove anything.

Grunk Prevention

Can you feel the calm? I can. I cleaned out both girls' rooms today. I swore I wouldn't do that anymore, that the girls should manage their own creative space and yadda yadda yadda, but the trash and crafts and clothes and stuffed animals were driving me to the point of hysteria. So a couple of big garbage bags later, there is peace in my life.

And now the Grunk will have to find a new house to visit.

Pet Therapy

I don't care what you think. I love my cats. Call me the Cat Lady. I don't even care. You know why? Because cat's rule.

If there was an Olympic event for sleeping (and I think there should be) cats would win the gold every time. Doesn't this just inspire you to go take a nap?

Also, it's a known fact that cats improve your guitar picking.
And they're good study buddies.

But if you ever get an email or IM from me that says something along the lines of: iiiiiii33333gg444444pppppppppp. It's actually from Mango. Don't open it.

We think she might have an addiction to kitty porn.

Mama said there'd be days like this

How's your day going? I spilled a bag of pee all over a carpeted floor before 7:00 am. The rest of the day decided to follow suit. I'm going to climb back in bed until the girls get home and hope Friday afternoon is a little less humiliating.

Adrenaline Rush

I'm in the middle of my third week of clinicals, which for this quarter is in adult rehab. This means we're working with a lot of elderly clients recovering from surgery or other health problems--they have been discharged from the hospital, but aren't quite ready to return home. Things have been pretty mellow in the "neighborhood." (That's what we call it. They do everything they can to keep it from feeling like a hospital). Mellow has been a good pace for learning the fundamentals, so I've really enjoyed it.

But today I was assigned a new client. She had some serious wounds and I got to observe the nurse doing dressing changes. Seriously fascinating stuff. And then unexpectedly, she had some complications related to other health issues, and things went from mellow to hopping pretty quickly. My "shift" passed in a flash. Now I cannot wait to get back tomorrow, and I'm really looking forward to clinicals next quarter which will be in a more acute setting. As much as I've enjoyed school so far, this was the first time in school that I've experienced the rush of adrenaline that I used to feel when I volunteered in the ER many moons ago--the rush that initially attracted me to nursing.

And that little rush is going to make the 10 hours of "care-planning" I will be doing for the rest of today worth it.

Halloween

I feel a little sad writing about this, because I don't want it to be over. Not so much because I love Halloween, but mostly because I'd been looking forward to it for weeks.

Last week got pretty hairy for me at school between studying for exams and doing my first complete "nursing care plan" which I'm certain will be the bane of my existence for the next two years. I missed Madeline's pumpkin carving party on Thursday night because I was knee deep in trying to finish it for my 6 am clinical. Then the next day I missed both girls' class parties because of that clinical. Luckily, Kolby took them to the pumpkin carving party, and then made up for my absence at the school with pounds and pounds of candy when he took them trick-or-treating at Microsoft after school.

Kolby and I went to a neighborhood Halloween party Friday night. It was a little lame. I mean I was a little lame. Snuggies were the best we could come up with for costumes. And they were so comfortable that I decided it was time to go home and go to bed at 9:30.

However, I was really just catching up on sleep for the part of the weekend I was looking forward to. Jeff and Sara, friends from Portland, came up to visit so they could trick or treat with us. Milo and Robin came up from Tacoma to join in as well. This was the first weekend since I started school that I completely ignored school obligations and relaxed. And it was heavenly. I made soup and bread for pre-trick or treating, and breakfast casseroles for in the morning. We sat around and talked, read gossip magazines, and played games. The kids created animal shows and counted their candy.

These are the only pictures I took of the girls in their costumes. I don't know how that happened. You can't even see the cute tights and glittery shoes they dragged Kolby to Target to buy for them so their outfits could be complete. (i.e. just like the ones in the picture on the packaging).

Milo and Robin win for the best costumes.

And Lily brought her furry friend Zoe to keep the kids entertained all night and take the pressure off the kittens.

It really was a perfect weekend. I need another one on the schedule to look forward to.

Real friends don't google.

In early October Kolby spent a week in LA shooting a couple of Bing ads. If you haven't seen them already, here's a glimpse at his latest campaign.