Sunday, February 16: Sacrament was interesting today. Tyler
read his kids’ anatomy book during sacrament, unaware that he was holding it up
and everyone behind us could see him perusing the page about menstruation. Just
lovely. The doctor sitting in the pew behind us was dying laughing. Also, I was
finally sustained as an advisor in the Young Women’s program. I was extended
the calling nearly five months ago, and I was sure they had forgotten. After
sacrament, it was my first day in the program, and I (very emotionally) told the
girls how intimidated I am by this calling; it’s a crazy huge responsibility,
and I am incredibly honored/terrified to be working with them during such an
important time in their lives. After church, we had a family dinner at Kevin
and Cindy’s to celebrate their 35th anniversary. We brought a red
velvet cake made from a box mix, and I was so disappointed. I had to douse it
in cream cheese frosting to fix it! Tyler and Jamie gave Kevin his birthday present,
a cute little comic style book Darth Vader
and Son. It was very hard for the kids to let it go; they’ve grown very
fond of it J Later
in the night I correctly guessed which medication Patrick is on, based on his
symptoms and what type of drug it was. It was such a moment for me, but since I’m
committed to obeying HIPAA, you’ll just have to imagine my brilliance J
Monday, February 17: Because this was a holiday for Tyler
and Jamie, I got to spend all morning at home with them (but only after a gross
and epic bug battle in Tyler’s room). I had a short class in the afternoon
where we taped on each other’s shirts the landmarks of the lungs.
It was fun to
not just sit and listen for a change. Jamie’s school thankfully had a drop in
service for all the school age kids who had the day off for school, so Tyler
went to “the blue school” with Jamie. My dad flew into town this week, and he
came over for dinner on Tuesday night. He played baseball with Tyler and Jamie
in our backyard until it was too dark to see. We ordered Papa John’s, watched
for the “pizza taxi”, and then watched Mouse Hunt. After my dad left and the
kids were down, I watched a Season 2 episode of House of Cards on my laptop and
studied, while McKay watched an episode of Season 1 on the Apple TV. I tried
and failed to wait for McKay to finish the first season so we could watch together,
but since the second season just came out, I can’t help it. Most unfortunately,
my time is not my own and binge watching is not possible right now. I am being
able to watch one episode about every other day, and I am slowly dying because
of it.
Tuesday, February 18: Jamie was so sad when I left for
school in the morning. She said in this little resigned voice, “I’m going to
miss you, Mom.” I have to give myself a pep talk each time I leave her unhappy:
we will all be better for this! Already, Jamie and McKay have a much stronger
relationship from spending all their Tuesdays together, having adventures while
I am in school all the live long day. They went to Costco together and
restocked our bare cupboards. I had a super long day of classes, and went to an
SGA (student government) meeting. I found out they are raising our tuition next semester. In our Concepts class we are learning how to consolidate
and relate data from our assessments and interviews with patients. In writing a
care plan, it involves drawing lines from pieces of data to a nursing
diagnosis. There are so many lines going all over the page, and it makes the
whole page a giant mess. You could feel and actually hear the dismay from every
Type A, neat freak nursing student in the room.
Thursday Feb 20: I love Thursdays when I get to spend all
day with Jamie and smother her with love and attention. After I picked up my
name badge from UT Southwest for my clinical, Jamie and I went to the Dallas Zoo
with some friends from church. We had such a fun time with our friends looking
at all the animals, but Jamie’s favorite part was the carousal near the exit.
Even though we hadn’t been there for months, she remembered exactly where the
elephant was that she wanted to ride. She spent the whole ride laughing and
smiling and yelling “Giddy up, Elephant!” J
Tyler had running club after school, which
he is doing so well in. His stamina is improving, he ran six laps (the first
week, he couldn’t finish one). My dad came to visit since it was his last night
in Dallas. I wanted to show him downtown, and let the kids had fun too. We met
McKay at Uptown Station, and we rode the Mckinney Trolley down to Klyde Warren
Park over I-35. We had yummy hamburgers in the park from Relish, and ate as the
sun went down in the middle of all the city lights and skyscrapers. It was a really
fun night, and I think Tyler and Jamie are pretty smitten with their grandpa :)
Friday Feb 21: My first clinical day was so awesome, and I
can’t say a darn thing about it because of HIPAA. My patients were great, and
so was my PTC that I followed for the day. I am so excited about the rest of
the semester, and about my career.
Saturday Feb 22: I made Tyler and Jamie clean up the house, which was looking pretty gross after nearly half a semester of neglect. It was such a nice day that we threw the windows open all around the house and let the fresh air roll in. I love the weather we've had this week, but I'm worried that summer is coming early this year. I'm not ready for the Texas heat yet! After lunch, we went to Buy Buy Baby to grab a gift for Jamila and Tyler Hokansen's baby shower.
Funny Things:
- Jamie developed an 80 year old person’s vocabulary while we were at the zoo. While she was playing in the splash pad, yelling out very articulately, “Ya-hoo!’ and “Woo Hoo!”, and when I asked her if this is a fun place, she said, “It SURE is!”
- Jamie has been really into making everyone else laugh lately. She will make funny faces and say “Look at me Mom! Look at me!” over and over, and no can help laughing. She is such a sweet girl, and we love having her in our family.
- Tyler was so exhausted after running club. He heaved himself into the car when I picked him up, and said, “I’m so tired, Mom. I ran SIX miles!” (He meant laps J )
- My Concepts teacher told us that in our clinicals, we may have a boring day if we get assigned a “Walkie-Talkie patient”, which is a healthy, functioning patient who can walk and talk, and take care of themselves. I thought it was pretty funny.
- Tyler wrote a book on "How to Be A Nurse":
"How to be a Nurse"
"First you need to go to nursing school..."
"...once a day. When a kid is 8, she is done with school."
"Nurse Time!" - He also wrote another:
"By Mister Tyler: Dollars."
"A dollar can be for Hockey."
"A dollar can be for a house."
"George Washington is on a dollar."
