Look who came to visit????

Murphy and I aren't sure why, but his parents and little sister went to the beach and forgot to take us! We'll teach them to leave us behind. He loves to be close to whoever he's with and stays underfoot constantly. I told him that I love him, but if he causes me to break a leg we're gonna have some issues. Looking forward to enjoying a big doggie for a few days!

My first Bootie!

Today I made my first baby bootie! Well it was maybe 1/3 done and after studying today I went by my yarn store so they could help me at the part where I had to pick up stitches. It was easy and worked up so fast.
Tomorrow is my pediatrics exam. Man this has been a long, hard, and time consuming class. But I do feel like I've learned SO much! Back to the books.

Yesturday I went to my final shower of the month! My sweet friend Meredith is due September 8th with her first child, a yet to be named boy. It was held at a cute restaurant nearby and we enjoyed a yummy lunch and cupcakes. Although Meredith went to UNC she is a Duke fan. Both she and Tara! It's hard to be their friend in March...esp last year. I'm a UNC fan. With life being so crazy (and Kelli's baby blanket still not finished), I had to go a different route with my gift other than knitting. I think it turned out so cute! I had purchased some Duke fabric a while back and I was going to do a onesie outfit for Tara's daughter Norah, but nursing school happened and the outfit did not (yes I see that this is becoming a theme with my projects...). Norah, I will get you one ready for basketball season this year I promise! So I dug out the Duke fabric and created this little cutie, perfect for a boy! I just cut out the Duke logo and stitched it on, bordering it with blue ribbon. I also made the two burp cloths. The soccer ribbon is for Meredith's husband Jay and the monkey fabric and polka dot cloth because it was just so sweet! I really enjoyed doing the onesie. That is definitely on the baby gift rotation now. Seems like I have some panthers fabric that never got made into anything left over from last year....

Tara's Bridal Shower

Last Saturday I helped host my friend Tara's wedding shower along with her other bridesmaids. We had it at a super cute and swanky little restaurant. It had a great balcony with a view of uptown and the park where Jimmy and Tara met playing kickball. Thats right. Team Okra brought them together. We're so glad! Tara and Jimmy are a great couple and I can't wait to be a part of their big day in early August. I was in charge of the cake so of course I made cupcakes. A few summers ago I got this cupcake stand at crate and barrell and I have used it so much. Also it's one of those things that you only need one of in a group of friends so it's always on the rotation for parties, showers, etc. I saw these little cupcake wrappers on a blog and copied them. You bake your cupcakes in regular store bought cupcake papers and then use a template to cut out your own decorative wrappers out of colored or patterned paper. I used scrapbooking paper bought by the sheet at Michaels. Then I used double sided tape to secure them around the cupcake. It was easy and looked so cute with the green icing. As always Becky (who has a newborn, as in days old at the point of this shower) made the cute decorations, and another bridesmaid did the flowers. It looked great!

reviving the old blog? well....maybe

Yes I know the blog is nearly dead. I would like to have more time to update it, but I never seem too. Or I do and then I stress out about what I should say or if anyone out there cares about this or that. : ) So I'm going to commit to updating every week for the next six weeks. I'll even put it on my calendar/list of things to do, because if I write it down then I'm going to do it. And if I don't then I scribble it out (not cross it out or check it off as if I did it) and seeing the scribbles in my calendar reminds me that I didn't get everything done. Yeah I'm not anal or anything. I get separation anxiety if I'm away from my day planner too long. Bad.

So what have I been up too??? LOTS! Nursing school is great, but I feel like I've been going non stop since December. I was getting things ready for school, then quitting my job, then the holidays, and then school started. I had a week off for spring break and then a week between spring semester ending and summer session starting. During spring semester I went to school (obviously), babysat regularly for my boys, trained for a triathlon (failed to take notice that a tri entailed swimming, running, AND biking), did not do the tri due to failed bike training (road biking is scary!), but was glad I started swimming regularly. Fear of the pool is long gone. One weekend in April I went to three baby showers (one of which I was a hostess) and gave all girls homemade sewn or knitted gifts. I also went on three different girls weekends. The beach with the high school girls, the lake with the college girls, and the mountains with the church girls. Also during this entire time I had no couch. Long story. But I felt like I was 20 not 29, with a bike (collecting dust) and a chair in my den. No couch, just one big empty wall and me and the pug fighting over the tiniest little upholstered chair that was my great grandmothers and has been with me since my days in college. It's hard to knit with a pug on your lap. We had more than a few issues with her jumping off my lap and pulling out stitches. Oh and I went to one baby shower with the blanket only a fourth of the way knitted. Yep I wrapped it up still on the needles. The mommie to be was pretty relieved when she found out she wasn't the one required to finish it. ha! Of course she understood my craziness but I was mortified (even more so that it's still not done and the baby will be here in two weeks!) But I've made it. 101 is behind me and I learned more than I ever imagined, but most days still feel like I know nothing. I have learned to quit taking on so much. SLOW DOWN MERE! I'm listening to myself...sort of.

This summer I am in my 7 week pediatrics rotation. It's going great and is a nice change from being in the "regular" hospital. I'm on the pediatrics hematology/oncology floor. It's kids with cancer and sickle cell disease. The first week in clinical was tough. Yes, there have been tears because of this class. I wish I could say it was just because the patients, but the math is really hard too! Lots of IV meds and calculations for little people! You can't mess it up. Follow the rounding rules (believe me after some mistakes on test one I sure won't forget!) Don't worry we have to do medication math sheets for every patient with every med they get. There are multiple checks and balances. This isn't just for students. People make mistakes. Pharmacy makes mistakes, nurses, doctors, etc. I'm seeing how important it is to CYA (cover your a**). My schedule is crazy with that class and my psychology, human growth and development class, but the Peds class will be over July 8th and the Psy class July 29th. The class that takes up so much time is Peds. We have clinicals Tues/Wed from 6:30-3:30. LONG day! On those days I get up at 5:15. Geesh! Also we have lecture two days a week. Luckily I am really enjoying the material, the kids in my clinical group, and the instructors. It's almost night and day compared to 101. I didn't love 101 but now I see how much more I like the detailed information and more 1:1 time with the instructors. Hopefully this trend continues in my other intermediates.

Things coming up....There are four saturdays in June....I have some sort of shower 3 of the 4. Two wedding, one baby. I am only a hostess for one of the wedding ones (I'm a bridesmaid in August!). Luckily they are all here in town. Also expecting a visit from the brother as he is coming to one of said showers. Honestly I love showers. I guess thats a good thing since I go to so many. My nursing school friends jokingly ask when my next girls weekend or shower is coming up. Typically I can throw out a few dates at them. : ) But honestly I've been putting on a dress and going to showers with my mom since I was 2 or 3. Cake, presents, punch, what's not to like????

The pictures below are from my friend Becky's shower that I helped host. I knitted the blanket for her baby girl Samantha who got here just over a week ago. Also pics of the new couch. With and without pug.

Someone has a boyfriend....

Paisley and Buster
Pais says she's in love. His name is Buster and he's several years younger than her. She however is much smarter and mature. All I can say is the only thing cuter than one pug is two. : )

Besides following my dog's love affair.....I took my 4th test Friday. Only one more! Friday night I had a much needed catch up with some good friends and their husbands. One is 18 or so weeks pregnant (sorry Mere I can't remember!). She and her husband are having a boy in September. VERY exciting. Jimmy and Tara came out as well with cutie pie Norah. She managed to chill and doze throughout dinner commotion and loud cars and motorcycles passing the patio. Such a good baby. What a difference a year makes! I played on the same kickball team with all of them about a year and a half ago. Very random. In case you didn't know there is a World Adult Kickball Association....WAKA. We had games every wed night. Good times. Mom and Dad came for the day yesturday to do a little shopping. Always glad to see them. And now I'm having the most relaxing Sunday that I've had in a while. This morning I ran about 4 miles with Tara and Becky. Tara had Norah 5 months ago and Becky is 33 weeks pregnant. Impressive to say the least. At one point I was struggling up a hill a bit and I thought "seriously Meredith you are the only one that isn't post pardom or with child, step it up!". I can only imagine us in a few months when baby girl and Norah are both big enough for running strollers. Three girls, two babies, and two dogs! Oh my!

Blog threats

I got an email today from a friend threatening to take me off her blog list if I didn't start updating more regularly. I know I have totally fallen off the wagon. It sort of feels like the blog is like that friend that you need to call and want to call, but it's been so long since you caught up you know it's gonna be a long conversation so you need to plan to have enough time to talk. So you don't call and you put it off and then it sort of snowballs on you. So thats where I am...under the snow. : ) But yes I'm still here and kickin. Only 3 more full weeks in this semester! I have learned so much. I feel like I know another language. And you wouldn't believe the stuff they let me do! All supervised of course. Basically during my two days a week in clinical I provide almost 100% of care for my patient. This includes vitals signs every few hours, giving scheduled and as needed medications, monitoring their i's and o's (ins and outs..yeah the outs are less fun), pulling out catheters, changing dressings, bed baths, changing sheets, all kinds of fun stuff! When you are a nursing student you can't have the nursing assistants do things like bed baths and sheet changes. It all falls to you, but typically you don't have to do that all the time when you are a nurse. But it's far from glamerous thats for sure. Luckily it takes A LOT to gross me out. Being on the Ortho floor has been fun, but I'm looking forward to my pediatrics class and clinical this summer. Along with that I'll be taking a psych class, human growth and development. It looks like in the fall I'll have behavoiral health for 7 weeks, then maternity. Basically all 65+students all start out in 101 and then we rotate through the 7 week long intermediates at various times. It's sad because friends I have now in 101 I may not have another class with until 202, our senior level course. I think in the spring i'll have adult health 1 and then adult health 2. Then just 202 and I'll be done! Sounds simple right? You do get to "track" with someone. That means you'll go through all of your intermediates together. My friend Kristie and I are tracking together. We sat beside each other at orientation and then ended up being in the same clinical group. At times this semester I felt like we have shared a brain. It's only going to get worse from here!
Ok blog, it was nice to catch up. I'm beat now and heading to bed. This weekend I went to three babyshowers in 24 hours, one of which I helped host. I'll post about that soon. Below are some recent pictures. Two are from my 29th bday celebration and the other is just the pug doing what pugs do best...finding down comforters to snuggle up on. ; )