It's Monday again! And I realize I have not posted in a long time (almost 2 weeks!) Many reasons exist, from school (two words: Nursing Research) to crazy schedules to extra nannying to grieving the loss of my fiance. But nevertheless, I thought I'd spice things up a bit and show you what I've been up to this past week. (Courtesy of the iPhone...)
Last week, we started the week by celebrating Bryce's seventh(!!!) birthday at Applebees. He and his brother both are practically my size! I told him I remember the day he was born. Talk about feeling old. He was so excited to get lots of outfits and lots of Nintendo DS games. :)
Tuesday, we went to Ikea. The closest Ikea is in Pittsburgh, and I usually only go there with Jonathan, but this time I went with my mom and sister. I bought a Malm 3-drawer dresser to replace my cheapy Wal-Mart 3-drawer piece of junk that is losing the bottoms of 2 of the drawers. I then assembled the Malm 3-drawer dresser all by myself, complete with screwdrivers, nails, cam locks, and lots of other fun tools and stuff. I was quite impressed with my efforts, especially after my mom didn't think I could do it. (And Mom thinks I can do anything! In fact, yesterday I asked her if she'd be proud if I won the National Juggling Competition - long story, saw it on the news... - and she said, "Well I'm your mom, so of course I would be! Moms are proud of everything their kids do." Right, ha!) I also put together a new chair for my desk since my chair now is the most uncomfortable thing you could ever sit in. This one is pretty much the same, only more expensive (hopefully better quality!), is a lot comfier, and has a bright pink seat on it! Fun!
After the break-up, I changed a lot of things in my life. I started parting my hair on the opposite side of my head, I cleaned out my closet, I started doing things differently... lots of other things I can't think of at the moment. One of such changes was re-painting my bathroom. It was a nice almost-lime green (not quite that bright, but pretty and cheery) and I decided to paint it a medium, light-milk-chocolate brown. The last time I painted anything, it ended up in a disaster, so my mom is paying my unemployed aunt to do it since she is a good painter. To make a long story short, today will be the 4th day that my bathroom's contents are between my bedroom, the hallway, and my Dad's side of my parents' bathroom. My bathroom could have easily been sanded, primed, and painted in two days max, but yeah... Lots of long stories involved here. Not to mention Haylie's discovery of her Nicorette gum which almost landed us in the emergency vet all night Saturday. (Apparently, nicotine poisoning is a huge deal with dogs, and seeing that my mischievous girl is a mere 12 lbs...) Anyways, I am babysitting this morning, but when I get home, I'm hoping I'll be able to move the contents of my bathroom back into my bathroom. I've been working on finding new wall art for my new bathroom, too. The last things I had on the wall no longer match, and change is good, so I have been shopping for the perfect signs, photos, plaques, whatever. I have a few things in mind, so we'll see.
Babysitting has been keeping me very, very busy lately ... my 2 nanny girlies and then my little guy quite a few nights lately (and then this AM at 6!)...
Oh, and not only am I building things (chair, dresser...), but I also successfully moved my broken external hard drive into a new case all by myself. The Ex was so sweet to "diagnose" the problem and told me what to buy, and using the instructions, I moved my real hard drive out of the broken casing into the new casing. I snapped things and screwed in the pieces, and the hard drive actually works now! I'm so proud of myself for that, too. :)
Just in time for me to get my new Ugg boots, the snow is melting and after a month of record snowfall here in NEOhio, it is supposed to be in the 40's and 50's all week long. Of course, I'd rather have nice weather than snow, but I'd also like to wear my $180 boots more than twice before the season is over!
Back to last week, I finally went to the LifeBanc training course so I can participate in organ-donation-awareness events. I have been with them since summer and even was on my way to an event (but had to go home since I was sick... another long story), and I was scheduled to take the course back in November but couldn't due to it being two days before Thanksgiving... so finally, I got it done this week. It was fun, and I learned a lot. I'm now "officially" allowed to volunteer when before, I think they were only letting me because of my own personal organ-donation awareness and my heart-wrenching I-need-a-liver personal story. ;-) April is Organ Donation Awareness Month, so there will be another post coming soon, I'm sure.
My cousin took today off and is coming over later to hang out. We're going to see Alice in Wonderland tonight. Honestly, it looks a little freaky to me. We'll see...
This week, I start clinicals again - Geriatrics/Rehab - after taking the first half of the semester off (as far as clinical courses go), and Wednesday is our first lecture. Then we go to 2-day/week lectures and Tuesday clinicals at a nursing home. Honestly, I'm not looking forward to this rotation, but I wasn't looking forward to obstetric nursing either, and I really ended up enjoying it. We'll see!
Found this in a magazine, quoting Vera Wang... Love it.
Mom and Nikki are December girls! A few special pictures...
Mom's birthday lunch at Bravo:
Jonathan & I
Dad & Mom
Nikki & Ben
And then Nikki's birthday party at our house:
Nikki & her friend Colleen
And because December is not busy enough.... Jon & I went to see Wicked with his family:
Are we not so adorable together? :)
Oh, and we tried to give a "fresh" approach to the annual Christmas card photo by adding Santa Claus. Since Haylie has to be in the picture, the best we could do was PetSmart. Santa was either hungover, high, or just an interesting individual. We found it funny, so yes, this got sent out to 100 of our friends and family:
But this one is my favorite:
All I need, right there. I love our little family. <3
Oh, and a picture of Baby Bug. Just because she's so stinking cute!
We all need to be held tight, reassured, and watched over. Life isn't easy, but we absolutely cannot be fatalities. That's why it's nice to be safe in someone's arms. Well, more than nice... more like imperative, essential. Everyone needs someone to hold their hand sometimes, and Often, someone to hold us for an hour or two as we cry. Praying for us and never judging. Go find that person and be safe in their arms. Or if you're doing okay, thank the Lord and Then go find someone and let them be safe in yours.
"Your baby blues So full of wonder Your curly que's Your contagious smile And as I watch You start to grow up All I can do is hold you tight Knowing
Clouds will rage in Storms will race in But you will be safe in my arms Rains will pour down Waves will crash all around But you will be safe in my arms
Story books Are full of fairy tales Of kings and queens And the bluest skies My heart is torn just in knowing You'll someday see The truth for lies
Clouds will rage in Storms will race in But you will be safe in my arms Rains will pour down Waves will crash all around But you will be safe in my arms
Castles they might crumble Dreams may not come true Cause you are never all alone Cause I will always Always love you
Clouds will rage in Storms will race in But you will be safe in my arms Rains will pour down Waves will crash all around But you will be safe in my arms
Ahh... tonight, my boy Mo Williams couldn't even save the Cavs. I knowingly got ripped off in a desperate attempt to attend the Cavs season opener game (lol) but I donned my new Mo Williams jersey and went to Cleveland with the fiance to see the Cavs take on the Boston Celtics only to LOSE 89, 95. Come onnnn. We have LeBron, Shaq, and of course, my boy Mo Williams! No excuses, guys. Absolutely pathetic. We started out the game completely on fire and then it got pretty intense... until we lost. :( Well, at least my hot dog was delish, I had a night with my fiance, and it was free t-shirt night! Ohhh, and I looked pretty schhhweet in my new Mo Williams #2 jersey!! :)
Here's a few movies from the night, mostly the beginning like intros, tip-off, etc.
I have lots of pictures, too, but I'm having issues with my new camera... they will be up soon. :)
I absolutely splurged and bought floor tickets to Taylor Swift's 10/3 concert at the Q for my little sister's 20th birthday. (Man, doesn't 20 sound so old?? She used to be 2 you know...)
The concert was much better than I thought it'd be, and the seats were way better than I had ever imagined.
Gloriana opened for Taylor, and they were really great. We knew them from their single, "Wild at Heart." Here they are...
Then came Kellie Pickler who seems like so much fun in real life! She was wearing super-high-heels absolutely covered in glitter and had a matching microphone. So fun!
When she sang "Red High Heels," someone actually held a red high heel on stage, which she of course autographed. It was so cute.
Then, among a screaming, cheering crowd and posters of Kanye West with his head crossed off and saying things like "Why'd you have to be so heartless?" Taylor came out to to begin her show.
Completely amazing...
I have a string of YouTubes, too, but this one, you absolutely must see. Taylor is even more humble than she looks to be on TV, and Cleveland, well, we obviously love Taylor! Check out this video!! (Oh, and keep it on because White Horse is afterwards - one of my faves!)
Here's a playlist of all my my YouTube concert videos... scroll down for the set of Taylor. I have Kellie Pickler and Gloriana on there, too. They were great!
I hope my little sister enjoyed herself at my wallet-breaking concert! ;-) She seemed to have a great time which was all that matters.
I've been so busy lately, but so much fun (and drama...) has been going on!
Nannying, as usual. Little M has stolen my heart - as I knew she would. The girl who would throw tantrums and scream at me now tells her mommy I'm her favorite babysitter ever. On Sunday I found out that I wasn't the only one sad about her going back to preschool in August. Mom told me she couldn't take me away from Little M and asked if I could keep her one afternoon/week. I think you know how the rest of the story goes. The list of kids who have stolen my heart is getting pretty long. Logical? Probably not. Predictable? Most definitely.
No new breaking medical news to report. Surprising, right? Just working on some big, tedious projects and lawsuits that involve record sifting and brain cramming and all kinds of fun like that. My insurance company owes me money, my car wreck has to be taken to court in less than 2 months (or otherwise it's too late to claim), my specialist and I are fighting my insurance company to appeal their denial of my transplant, and I have a few other similar things going on. Oh and there was yesterday. It started innocently enough... some lady on eBay decided she was going to go a little insane with the packing tape. Good packing isn't bad, I guess. BUT In my efforts to get through the tape and into the box with a big pair of scissors, I somehow managed to slice them into and across my left thumb. [Sidenote: Keep in the back of your mind that with my liver disease, I have an extremely low platelet (the stuff in blood that helps it clot) count, meaning when I bleed, it doesn't easily stop. Also because of the platelets, when I get a cut of any sort, it takes many weeks to heal. Because I have a very low amount of white blood cells, I'm at high risk for infection.] I hate to sound all exaggerating, but this cut was most literally just pumping out blood. Of course I applied pressure, and after a few minutes when it wasn't stopping, I called my mom. I was able to get a look at it through the blood, and it was a big half-oval kind of thing meaning there was a deeper gash underneath the flap of skin. I didn't get the impression it was going to stop without putting on a fight, but I didn't want to go to the ER over a tiny cut, so we called my primary care doctors office. They said they couldn't get me in for just over an hour. (Seriously.) They also said they didn't know if they did stitches there or not. (Seriously again.) So we called my insurance to see where we could go since they changed all the urgent care rules. After a disconnection and about a half dozen transfers, we finally reached a lady who gave us the name of an urgent care facility 10 minutes from my house. To make a long story short, we finally got the bleeding to stop (and with no extraordinary measures! yay!) and the doctor cleaned out my cut with betadine and then put Dermabond (a "Super Glue" for skin) all across the cut to seal it closed. He bandaged it up and I was good to go! I've never had real stitches in my life, and I'm thankful that there are so many stitches-alternatives for minor lacerations these days. Right now, my thumb is quietly throbbing a nice aching pain, but it's bandaged well, and I'm relieved I have Dermabond on it because my skin doesn't just heal on its own. Gotta love happy endings. :)
I've spent the last couple of weeks getting in touch with my great-uncle who has been hooking me up with all kinds of genealogy goodies, and last week, my grandma revealed her basement-full of albums that I'm scanning for her. I'm so excited about all of this since I've been meddling in genealogy since Nanna passed away. Plus I just love pictures! :) I must say... my dad was a pretty handsome looking young boy... (snicker snicker)
I'm SO missing my Nana. I think my mom is too because she's been talking about her constantly lately. Poppop comes over for dinner a few nights a week, and without fail, Nana comes up each night. Not that I mind - she has a beautiful legacy - but it still hurts so badly to even say her name. I especially hate when they talk about her last days on earth because I wasn't there. I had a flight all ready to go but my dad wouldn't pay for it thinking Nana would be gone before I got there. Well, Nana lived a few days after that and I never got down. If I had the money, I would have paid it anyways just for a chance to talk to her one more time. To see her face one more time. To touch the lines on her hands one more time. To tell her I loved her (and not on the phone), to tell her that her Mandy Mine was there with her.... one more time. Each day is getting harder, too, because her birthday is 5 days after mine... August 7th. My mom is wanting to make birthday plans for me, but every time I even think of my birthday, my mind instantly goes to Nana. When I see flowers, I think of her. When I go to Macy's and see an outfit she would have worn, I think of her, want to buy it, and then remember she's not here to wear it. Poppop was hoping her headstone would come in by her birthday, and I hope so too. We spent so much time making sure it was the perfect one for her, and as inappropriate as this sounds, I really am excited to see it. Nana deserves to be dignified in that cold ground with a lovely headstone on her birthday. It's really all we can give her, other than flowers. But trust me, there will be flowers. Lots of tear-stained flowers.
On a happier note, last Saturday I threw a graduation luau party for my bestie, Jen! I was trying to make it a surprise, but well, that didn't go over so well so I let her know at the last minute. It all worked out though and was so much fun. I am thrilled that she earned just enough gift money to cover her NCLEX fees! I was hesitant to throw her a party because of my health but all I could think of was how extra hard she worked for this degree, how huge an accomplishment this is for anyone, but moreso for her. She sacrificed everything to get to here, and she did it in 4 years and didn't give up once. I walked the journey with her and knew full well that she, of all people, needed to be honored. Plus, money was an issue with taking her NCLEX, and I wasn't about to let that happen. I figured if all of her friends gave a few bucks, she'd be well on her way to taking the licensure exam. And lastly, parties are just fun. Of course, the biggest reason here was honoring for her for her amazing drive and commitment and sacrifice though, so I talked with my mom and she agreed to help. She said we'd get catering and buy a cake, and my cousin Heather offered to help. A nurse at our church who knows Jen well offered to make food as well, and a few other friends pitched in. For the location, we were able to use (free of charge) the wonderful "clubhouse" at my Poppop's condo facility. Before long, we had a wonderful event coming together, and all of the pieces just fell into place. The party was a hit - everyone who came had fun, and I know for a fact that Jen was shocked and grateful and touched by what we were able to do for her. All of us are blessed to have amazing friends, and I love how we're always there for each other ... even when "being there" just means coming to have fun at a parrrr-tay! :)
On Tuesday, Jonathan and I went to the movies. 3rd time in a month or something, which is beyond a record for us. Before this run, we hardly ever went to movies! Anyways, I scored some advance passes to see "Orphan," and well, neither Jonathan nor I recommend it. It was slow and boring, predictable, and more of a thriller than a horror film. Oh well, screeners are always fun anyways, and who turns down a free movie?
You know what we did on Wednesday? Cleaned out his closet! We fought over a few things and had to do some item trades but overall, it went well and a lot of his out-of-style, have-way-too-many, and too-worn clothes are now being donated to our church yard sale. The Abercrombie & Fitch shirt from like 8 years ago is finally going away!! Fiancee is very excited about all of this. Here's the pile... And the run-down? 15 pairs of pants, 26 sweaters, 20 dress shirts, 15 tshirt, and 1 polo! Hooray!!
School started in full force on Monday. I'm in 3 online classes which are ending up being more like "busy-work classes." Since nursing isn't working out for me at the moment (but it will be... just not at this time), I'm working on Integrated Health Studies, and there's a few dumb classes I have to take to fulfill that - like Health, for example. It's my 5th year in college, Nursing major, and I have to take Health? Give me a break. Then the other 2 are Human Sexuality (it's actually more of a sociology class than anything) and Medical Sociology - 2 upper level classes. You have to have a certain number of "upper level classes" to graduate, and those were the only 2 that were online and applied to my major, so there you go. It's going to be a long 5 weeks!
Today I had Little M and the finger-cutting ordeal. I did have my first-ever chiropractor appointment, but I had to reschedule as I spent my appointment time going to the ER. It might have been a good thing I missed it though because my massotherapist did some intense fascial release on Tuesday and I'm still extremely sore from it. Tonight I have Baby L... my colicky screamer. Then Sunday I can breathe and Little M is going on vacation and my new nanny family (that I have yet to start with) is on vacation too, so Nanny gets a break!! (Aka, a few extra hours to do homework) Hooray! :)
Next week, lots of appointments, helping out at Shannon's VBC, a possible baseball game, then loads of babysitting over the weekend. Oh and school. Forgot about that. Blah.
But it's SATURDAY! No worries on Saturday! Happy Weekend & here's some funneh kittehs....
Jonathan sent me this next video... I told him the answer was NO!!
I am 22 & currently spend my days nannying my itty bitties + going to college (working on my nursing degree, goal: pediatric oncology) & am honored to be a published writer in a nursing anthology & a contributor to many scrapbooking publications. i love hanging with my amazing friends, sister & family. i love my baby puppy haylie brooke and our silly doggie ri-ri. in my rare spare time, i read & get crafty. i thrive on organization, my mac repertoire, learning & absolute fabulosity. my favorite place in the world is paris. my favorite color is pink. i love being a nurse & i believe each one of my patients is precious. i'm a night owl & wish my lifestyle promoted such habits. i like lazy jammie days. i believe in god and am thankful for his hand on my life. i believe that life is too short to be anything but happy, & i’m thankful that a chronic liver disease + the effects of a car accident have taught me important values that most people learn far too late. i hope that the world will find hope, and my idea of a good day is one in which i made someone smile :)
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Last week, we started the week by celebrating Bryce's seventh(!!!) birthday at Applebees. He and his brother both are practically my size! I told him I remember the day he was born. Talk about feeling old. He was so excited to get lots of outfits and lots of Nintendo DS games. :)
