My House Stinks!

Hey, Everybody! I am so ready for spring.  I thought that maybe changing my blog background my help expedite the change of seasons.  We've enjoyed weather in the 70's for the past few days, but I think I heard a meteorologist saying something about rain and a cold front, so I don't think winter is quite over for good.
Anyway...I've survived three days on the unit--two days shadowing other nurses and one day taking care of a patient of my own.  My preceptor (akin to a mentor) will assign me two patients Saturday which will be a bit more of a challenge, but I'm ready!  I must follow my preceptor's schedule, and she works Sunday, Tuesday, Saturday, which suits me just fine except that I have to miss church and teaching my Sunday school class for the next 7 weeks :(.  I keep telling myself it's only temporary.  The Hubs is off on Tuesdays so we're able to get the kids to and from school without a lot of shuffling and drama.  My daughter, who feared she'd never see me ever again, is thrilled about this schedule.  Kicking the student mentality is still a challenge for me.  On my days off I feel as if I should be looking up medications, preparing paperwork for "class" or practicing putting together care plans or SOMETHING! It feels strange to just show up on the job and go from there.
On Wednesdays, we have classroom time scheduled for half a day.  This week a chaplain from Pastoral Care briefed us on where their office is and what they do for patients and staff alike.  I never thought of them being available to us (the nurses) as well as the patients and their families.  The chaplain dispersed prayer beads which I wear on my name badge.  I'll have to take a snapshot to share; they really are quite pretty.
This week's other speaker was a diabetes educator.  Diabetes is one disease that just confounds me and I'm always open to more information on the subject.  Nurse D actually made us all give ourselves an injection!  I was a little wary at first.  My hands were really shaking, but she contends that we'll be a little more sympathetic toward our diabetes patients who have to give themselves insulin injections if we've experienced it ourselves.  She said we could always demonstrate this for our patients...ummm, the verdict is still out on that one.  I guess I would if I really had to but I'm not too anxious to flush normal saline (salt water) into the flab on my belly in front of my patients.
Even though I don't have to go to work per se tomorrow, I do have an appointment with a plumber.  The carpet in my hallway is squishy wet from the hot water heater leaking (hence the title for today's blog).  Tomorrow is my first payday and guess where that check is going? *sigh* At least I can rest assured that more checks will follow and one day I'll even be caught up (with bills, anyway).
Now that I know my schedule and all, I'll try to incorporate more frequent updates and get back to visiting you all.  I feel like it's been forever since I've been blog hopping and I miss hearing what's going on with you.  I know better than to log on and get started because a few minutes quickly stretch into several hours, and I have a hard time breaking away.  Thank you all for hanging in there with me.  I look forward to visiting you all soon. Until next time...

I am Thankful

Today I am thankful that I.HAVE.BEEN.OFFERED.THE.JOB!!!  I am doing the happy dance over here (well, actually, I have two left feet, so not really, but it sounded like a good thing most people could probably relate to).  I called one of my interviewers to let them know I speak Spanish (minor detail I forgot to mention in the interview...very handy here in Texas!), and she said she was glad I called her back because she was going to call and offer me the position anyway but got busy.  So, I have officially accepted but not spoken with Human Resources and hammered out all of those details yet.  I have to drop off my Grandmother before my folks think I've kidnapped her, so I'll be back to tell everything else I'm thankful for a little later.  Thank you all for your prayers and support!  Until next time...