62 days...

Well, as long as I pass all my classes (which I think I can do), I am officially cleared for graduation. I passed the HESI on the 1st try! That made me feel a lot better, but the day got worse as it progressed, and it's only 1:20.

I had gotten an email this morning about meeting with one of my profs. I already had been sick to my stomach this morning, and an email with a "see me" just made me feel worse! We discussed one of my clinical evaluations where my preceptor thought that I lacked initiative. I'm kind of shocked by it, but there's nothing I can do about it now. I think it hurt my feelings more than anything since I really thought that my preceptor and I had kind of a buddy relationship. We joke around, she swears like a sailor, and we laugh a lot. I thought I was getting better; she apparently thinks otherwise. *shrugs* Sooooo, now I get to have a meeting with her and my clinical faculty! Woohoo.

While I was in there talking to my prof, my stomach started hurting badly. I know it was brought on by stress and by already feeling bad this morning. The prof asked if I was feeling okay, and I told her about my stomach issues, and before I realize what she's doing...she's on the phone with a nurse practitioner at the campus health center basically setting me up an appointment. I told her that regardless of health right now, that I wouldn't be able to pay for an expensive visit...the bank account is pretty low now that its close to graduation and since I've been saving for Vegas. I also told her that it was a chronic issue that i've dealt with for a while, so i'd rather just go when I have the means to do so. Well, now she thinks that if I wait the chronic condition may become acute so she's freaking out. I know my body and altho I do agree that i should get checked out, I am fairly certain that waiting 2 months isn't going to make that much of a difference.

Ugh...she just called. I guess I'm going to try and come in tomorrow and deal with this. I know I'm studying to be a nurse, but I fucking hate doctors (especially when there are going to be doctors WITH medical students). Again...woohoo.

To top it all off, the girl I was sitting next to apparently thinks I type too loud or something, cuz she moved across the room to the other side of the computer lab.

Yay for today.

63 days...

Sorry I've been a bad blogger. The semester just picked up a bit, and I've been doing night clinicals out the wazoo! Tomorrow I have my exit exam for HESI, which could keep me from graduating if not passed by May. We have 3 chances to make an 850, which I've been told is pretty difficult to do. I will admit that I'm kinda just walking in to this one, to see what knowledge I do have, and am pretty sure I'm going to fail this time. I guess I'm taking this one like a practice test, to see what the test is like and what I need to brush up on before the second one. So i'm off to study some for that, directly after blogging.

Amber has been out of town since Friday. It was her B-day on Friday, and she went to go spend time with her family. Parts of me wish I could have gone, and other parts are glad I stayed. *shrugs* I always feel more at home when I'm with her, so I most likely would've gone if I were able to. I'm jealous she got her mom's home-made buffalo wings and got to play with 9 week old puppies all weekend.

I'll post more pics of Dakota as soon as the breeder gives us more. Hope all is well out there!

67 days...

Our Fur-Baby!

His name is Dakota and he is an English Springer Spaniel. These pics were taken by the breeder when he was 3 days old. We go pick him up on May 9, 2009. We are in love!

(How fitting that they made him pose on a rainbow blanket!!!)

69 days...

We're adding a Fur-Kid to the mix! We don't know which puppy we'll be able to adopt into our family quite yet, but we know it's going to be a male. Yay! His name is probably going to be Dakota!

:)

72 days...

My baby got the J-O-B!!!

She starts in April, and has formal training in May!

Everything is lining up great so far! I'm hoping I'll hear about jobs soon too! Woohoo! We're going to call and find out about the house!

*biggest smile ever*

78 days...

Amber and I went back to get a better look at that house. We definitely still want to rent it, because we love the location, but it has some negative qualities. Like, its fence was obviously damaged in Hurricane Ike last September. The owners haven't done much about that. I think Ike might be the cause of the crappy landscaping as well. It makes me think that no one has lived in the house since last September, and I don't know how I feel about that. I'm definitely going to have to have my father come with me to check out the house. The house, as a structure, looks fine and the roof looks in decent shape. We can't see the back yard from the road, and we didn't want to look weird by getting out of the car and scoping out the property. The driveway is really narrow, and I don't think we'd both be able to park in the garage. That's fine tho; Amz doesn't like parking in the garage as is. Now that I've talked about all the negatives, there are a lot of positives too. I like the color scheme of the house, and again...did I mention that the location is awesome!? The neighborhood that the house is in puts us close to my mom and offers free Internet to all its residents. It's close to the park, so if we stay in the area for a while (which I think we would for at least a few years), it'd be great for the future babies. Also, the park has a huge field and a track; great for keeping in shape and for walking future furkids. I'm gettin' a little bit excited and I hope it all works out.

I applied to another couple of hospitals today. Altogether, that makes 4 so far. All of which I'm willing to work at, one of which I really want to work at. I still have to apply to 2 more hospitals; one is my 2nd choice and the other is just another that i'd be willing to work for. My top choice right now is Con.roe Regional Medical Center because it has a partnership with Te.xas Women's Hospital in OB and NICU. It's one of the few community hospitals in my area that has a level 3 NICU. My 2nd choice is St. Luke's Wood.lands, but they don't have a graduate nurse internship there until next December. My 3rd choice is Herm.ann Memorial Wood.lands, which does have an internship that starts in May. The others are just local hospitals that I'd work at for a couple of years and then try to transfer to one of my top choices. I know that really doesn't interest any of y'all, but I like keeping track of stuff in some written form, and this is it for me.

I stopped tracking my cycles right now; I need to focus on school. I feel behind, and the fact that I haven't done any work over my spring break just makes me feel even more like a bad student. *big sigh* I have my exit exam in 2 weeks. Yikes! Good thing we have 3 chances to take it, because I do not feel ready for this test. I know I'd forget to temp and miss days on my monitor if I were still trying to chart/test while I'm focusing on school, so I'm just going to start up in May.

I wish everyone else luck out there in TTC-land!

80 days...

Amz and I went driving around the neighborhood we want to move into, and we found a house for rent. I've been checking all the realtors online, and this house isn't listed. The sign was a "For Rent By Owner" sign. The sign wasn't well posted either; we almost missed it. The house is off the main drag, and is back behind the park, so I'm pretty sure its been vacant for a little while. Especially in this market. Would it be too much to ask for this house to still be available in a month and a half? *crosses fingers*

I've been trying to get my clinical hours out of the way early, so I have one less thing to worry about. However, my nurse preceptor is making it VERY hard for me. I keep showing up for my 12 hour shifts, and she keeps canceling all/part of my shifts. Sure, i like a day off as much as the next person, but now I have to search my schedule for another day to schedule my shift on. I'm already giving up my Spring Break. :-(

On a lighter note, for all those fans of the L Wo.rd please check out this link:
http://www.afterellen.com/blog/lword
Click on the links that say "If The L Wo.rd were on Face.book" and proceed to ROTFLOL. Just do it.

That's pretty much it...yup.

82 days...

I really enjoyed doing this! Thanks Jen.

If you would like for me to interview you, just leave a comment and I will e-mail you the questions! Here are the directions (don't forget to leave your e-mail!!)

1) leave new a comment saying, "interview me."
2) I will respond by e-mailing you 5 questions (I get to pick the questions)
3) You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4) You will include the explanation , a link back to me, and offer to interview someone else in the post
5) When others comment asking to be interviewed you will ask 5 questions.

Ok, here are the questions Jen asked me:

1) What would be your dream vacation?
A month long (at least) trip to Europe. I want to go to all the little towns as well as the big tourist centers. I went to Germany and Switzerland a couple of years ago and it was very fun, but I felt rushed and my father was directing all of our activities. The next trip I want Amber to be able to go with me. I’d like to revisit Germany, and go to France, Italy, London, Ireland, and pretty much all the countries in between!

2) What would you say is your best accomplishment thus far?
Probably being 23 and having (or will have by May) 2 Bachelor’s degrees. I’ve worked my ass off for a loooooong time.

3) How many kids do you and your partner want to have? Will one or both of you carry?
We want to have 2 kids. We have our names picked out and everything. I’d be okay if we ended up with more, but we’re shooting for 2. I have always been the one that was going to carry, but here recently Amber has mentioned things that make me think that she’d like to carry one too. I’m very supportive of that idea! In a perfect world we’d choose a donor that has enough “stuff” for us to store for a second child, so that our children have a genetic link.

4) Have you ever experienced "gay hate"? If so, how did you deal with it?
Honestly, I haven’t really had to deal with any homophobia/gay hate. I’ve been lucky. I tend to gravitate towards people who I feel I can trust to be at least tolerant if not accepting. Unfortunately, the closest thing to gay hat I’ve experienced came from Amber’s family, her father in particular. For a long time, he blamed me for turning his daughter gay. However, tensions have eased up quite a bit on that front, and her family is pretty accepting of things now after almost 6 years.

5) Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
I don’t know. I know there are certain things I would like to have accomplished in 10 years, but I don’t know exactly all the details. Well I hope that I’m a mommy to 2 beautiful babies. I would like to be living in the Austin area. I’d like to own my own home. I’d like to keep all the little promises that I’ve made to Amber about our future together. Lastly, I hope that I’m successful in my career, whatever exactly that may be. Hopefully nursing, after all the work I just put in, but after going back to teaching (subbing) here lately, it’s reminded me how much I really love that too. Maybe I can combine the 2 in some way. Perhaps there’s a school out there that needs an English /Biology teacher and School nurse all rolled up into one! I wonder if that’s even legal…

83 days...

Yay! It's SPRING BREAK!!!

Mmmkay, now that I'm over the excitement I can get on with the entry. Spring Break isn't a big deal because I'm doing 2 clinicals in ICU and trying to substitute teach on my other days off. If I were heading to some tropical locale then it would be a different situation. What Spring Break means to me, is a chance to catch up on work from school without losing any sleep. *nods* How lame...

I watched the Series Finale of the L Wo.rd last night. This season has totally sucked, so why would I expect the finale to be any different. I wont spoil it for those of you who are waiting until it comes out on DVD or have it TIVO'd, but honestly, it's not worth it.

I booked Amber's and my flight to Vegas. That was a pretty penny...or actually 61,100 pennies. Hopefully we catch a break somewhere in between now and April 17 so we can actually have a little extra cash to play the nickel slots and a round of blackjack! Hotel is another $200 and then I need to find out info about that tram thing so we don't have to worry about transportation on the strip. I think I may call my aunt, she used to live there...

Still no positive OPK. I test pretty much anytime I've held my pee for a few hours. I'm depleting my OPK supply. *shrugs* It might be for the best; if I don't worry about POAS all the time hoping for 2 damn lines, then maybe I'll concentrate more on graduating in 7 weeks. I think I'm just going to skip April's cycle.

That's about it for now...

87 days...

Just a really quick post...

School is just passing me by. I'm doing alright grade wise, but I feel way behind on the job front. 2 students in my program just got offered jobs. I have to admit, I'm a little jealous! I'm also very proud of them, but I really hope I start to hear about interviews and such soon.

Amber's manager at work told her that she got a call from the CPS job. They are checking her references! Interview + Checked Refs = Job???? I hope so!

Still no positive OPKs or a peak on the CBEFM. I even bought Answer OPKs, and I at least see the test line changing on them, but nothing that has been a TRUE positive. I can tell that the CBEFM sticks are detecting something; they look different than before...more like an OPK with a test line. However, STILL nothing. I'm starting to get even more discouraged. However, I'm going to continue to be vigilant. That's pretty much all I can do at this point...

Money is starting to be a BIG issue lately. Or lack there of. I've been trying to save so that I can go to our best friends' wedding, and I've finally got enough for plane tix to Vegas. After I get my tax return, I'll have enough for the hotel. So that is pretty much taken care of, now I'm just worried about having enough money to last until I get out of school and start working.

I've been getting sick to my stomach a lot lately. My appetite has really decreased. I know it is stressed related...I need a break. Too bad my spring break actually means working clinicals because my profs can't schedule for shit. They screwed everyone over...we ALL have to work over OUR spring break. I'm kinda pissed.

I guess this turned out more of a vent than a quick post...but...oh well. :) Thanks for reading.