Time to renew that passport.

Unfortunately, it's not for me. It's for Joe. We decided last night that he's going to go on a week long medical mission trip with his nursing school and the University of Cincinnati medical school to Nicaragua. They're traveling over spring break, the last week in February into the beginning of March. He'll be done with classes by then (yeehaw!) since he only has to take one clinical that lasts 8 weeks during the spring semester.

He came home and told me that his Public Health professor did a presentation on the trip yesterday and that even though he couldn't go he wanted to figure out how he could contribute. So we were talking about what the needs were and figuring out what we could purchase (clothing, books etc) to send along to the families there. And then we just realized what an amazing opportunity this was for so many reasons. Travel to a new area, putting his nursing skills to the test in a rural environments without the normal supplies, having a chance to really help families one on one and educate them about health care. All things he is passionate about. I've jokingly nicknamed him MacGyver Nurse because he can rig medical equipment out of nothing and has developed that reputation in pretty much all of the clinical settings he's worked in. If they need a certain piece of equipment to do a job and it's either slow to come up from supply or doesn't exist, Joe can figure out a way to make it out of the supplies on hand.

So we're considering it his graduation gift. It really will be pretty inexpensive, they have to pay for their flight (about $300) and then it costs $260 to cover meals, lodging and expenses for the week. He showed me this video about the organization that they're working with on the trip. The scenery looks amazing. The last day of the trip they'll take some time to go hike a volcano. How cool is that?! Here's the video he showed me last night:



I really am so excited for him. So many good things are happening. Completing his BSN and then getting to go out and really use his skills for people in need is a great way to wrap up these last 4 years for him. Now I have to figure out how to stop being terrified about him traveling to a South American country and the possibility being kidnapped, robbed, held indefinitely by a rebel army.... :0

Seriously?

In this world of instant communication, texting, smart phones, iMessaging, FB and Twitter, when is someone going to install a direct line into my husbands brain so that I can reach him?

I spent the majority of the afternoon trying to touch base with Joe while he was on a clinical rotation at Children's Hospital. Little One needed to be picked up from school early (constipation that had taken a turn for the worst and the girl was miserable). I had 2 COULD NOT MISS meetings scheduled for the afternoon and had already gotten to work 45 minutes late and missed a critical team meeting this morning while trying to cajole her into eating prunes to help the situation along. After talking to Little Ones teacher and finding out she was miserable but it wasn't an emergency, I iMessaged Joe on his iPod, and left a back-up voicemail on his cell phone asking him to please go to her school ASAP after his rotation let out. And to call or text me and let me know he was going to get her. 2pm no response... 3pm no response... 4pm no response. Finally finished up with my meetings at 4pm and bolted from work to get her. Since he hadn't followed up I figured he was stuck with a patient. My drive from work to home is 35 minutes at best. I made 2 calls on my way home to his cell. Still no answer. Made one final call when I was 5 minutes away from her school to leave him a voice-mail to let him know to ignore all of my previous messages and that I had picked up Little One.

He answers. He is at home. He had his phone on vibrate while at the hospital, then it was shoved in his backpack for the ride home and he had headed straight to take a shower without checking it. He hadn't checked his iPod for messages. Would he like me to go pick her up now? Good freaking grief! I'm 5 minutes away now, and left work early to try to "rescue" her. ARGGGGGGG. That man is killing me.

What's Up?

2 weeks ago my family went on a vacation with some friends. We rented a home in the Adirondack Mountains in NY with 2 of my best friends from high school and their husbands. One of the couples has a little boy that is 1. We've done a group vacation twice before with these friends and it's always a blast. I love vacation with my family but vacationing with friends is a such a different vibe. We did a lot of outdoor activities, hiking, kayaking, lots of fires at night. One of my favorite evenings was when we had a HUGE bonfire going and then decided to pull the big screen tv out onto the covered patio to watch the movie The Great Outdoors. That movie is hys-ter-i-cal. The only thing that vacation was missing was sleep. Because my friend's little boy was out of his normal routine he was not a great sleeper. He is such a rambunctious kid that once he was up for the day pretty much the whole house was up. Next year I'm packing ear plugs.

Unfortunately the week of catching up with old friends means coming home to a boat load of work, a household that's a week behind on chores, and Joe diving full force back into his heavy course load.

This week coming up is a crazy one. Little One's 8th birthday is this Friday. On Wednesday I have my first afternoon volunteering in her classroom. And I'm not going to be just passing out papers or something mindless, I'm taking a group of 8 2nd graders and working on putting together a poetry performance with them to put on for all of the 2nd grade classes. Halloween means making a home-made robot costume per Little One's request. And somehow making a costume always ends up costing me more than just buying one at the store. It is fun to do together but it would be nice to at least save some money with all the work that goes into a homemade costume.

I have a new boss at work. And that's just hard because it's such a change. Nothing in my life is normal or smooth sailing right now. Every day is full of the unexpected and new challenges and I tend to be someone who likes stability and routine so it's pretty mentally taxing for me.

Then why... oh why... am I still hoping so desperately to add baby #2 into this crazy mix. At church this morning a woman in the pew ahead of me was holding the most adorable 3 or 4 month old little girl. She was great for 80% of the mass and then she had just had enough and was fairly fussy. I spent more time makes faces at her to keep her happy than listening to the priest. I want to be the one bouncing a fussy baby at church again. The only thing I really don't look forward to is the sleep deprivation. Anything else I'm ready for!

- oh and how's this for a WTF moment. My oven broke. The stove top still works but no oven. I had made dough for oatmeal/raisin cookies and popped them into what I thought was a preheated oven. No heat. Oven dead. Husband too busy (literally) to even consider fixing it. I have no time to sit around waiting on a repair man. So what was my solution. I went to Goodwill and bought a $7 toaster oven. One big problem... one cannot bake a birthday cake in a toaster oven. And I have ALWAYS baked a cake myself for little one's birthdays. And usually some kind of treat for her to share at school. I casually suggested she might like an ice-cream cake for her birthday and she went for it so that's solved. But the class treat is something I still have to figure out. There's always something!

If I make it through this week unscathed, or without the help of massive doses of caffeine, I'll be REALLY REALLY surprised.

I need caffeine.

My brain hurts a bit today. Not sure why, just feel a bit in a fog. I think I need a nap.

School is reaching a fever pitch for Joe. He finished his clinical hours for his ER rotation yesterday. So for the next 2 weeks his Tuesdays and Wednesdays will be free which is AWESOME. Well, by free I mean he'll have that much more time to work on his homework which he desperately needs. His next rotation is in pediatrics at Children's Hospital. That will start up in mid-Oct after their fall break. I love when he starts a new rotation, good stories always come home.

He was sad to end his ER rotation, I know would like to apply work in the ER after graduation next spring. Some cattiness reared it's head amongst some of the nurses he worked with though. He reported some serious sterile technique violations that he was witness to and it ruffled a lot of feathers. He also reported some poor bedside manner issues that a nurse he was working with demonstrated toward a child and their parent. That did NOT go over well and apparently his preceptor shared his concern outwardly with the nurse in question. Nice. So he's got a great reputation with the dr.'s and some of the nurses, and some of the nurses HATE him. Ugh. That's how life has always been for him. He's a super over achiever and very strict rule follower, his expectations and standards are so high that he will often call out those who aren't living up to them in work situations. And now in nursing he feels obligated to work to the highest standards because the health of the patients depend on it. I just hope it doesn't hurt his chances of working in that dept.

I have 3 days of off-site strategy meetings next week for work. Sort of looking forward to them, sort of dreading them. I'm part of a group of 10 people attending that are all much higher in position then myself. I was invited by my old boss as a way to expose me to how these meetings work and the upper mgt team as I work my way up in the company. No pressure to perform or anything. And as of this Monday I have a new boss. My old boss is still with the company they just pulled the creative portion of the business from under marketing so we're under a new supervisor. I hate change. I really really really had a great relationship with my supervisor. So I'm sad. She didn't go any where and I know her door is always open to me but it still makes me sad. She was/is my #1 supporter and cheerleader, she knew how to challenge me in ways I would never challenge myself and when I made a mistake or a flub I knew I could turn to her without any concerns and we could work through it together. She let me work completely independently and was purely there as a support. Loved that. I learned so much from her about how to be a good manager. So I'm bummed. Pity party for one... I'll bring the whine.

We're headed on vacation in two weeks. We're renting a cabin in the mountains in NY with old friends from high school. 2 of my best friends from high school and their husbands and I have been getting together over the years for a group vacation. My husband went to the same high school and was buddies with these 2 friends as well. And all 3 of the husbands get along great. It's been 2 years now since we've gotten together and one of the couples has a little boy that is 1. Yay, our Little One won't be the only kid in the group this time. She's going to LOVE having their little guy to play with so much we probably won't even need to bring toys, he's enough of a toy for her! She loves kids and babies.

Time to go get an afternoon cup of coffee and see if I can kick this headache to the curb. Gotta get some work done.

Single Parent Angst.

Ok, so I'm not really a single parent, but with Joe's work/clinical/class schedule this fall it feels like I am most of the time. I can't even attend curriculum night at Little One's school next week. It's scheduled for 6:30 and kids are not welcome. I pick her up from the after-school program at 5:45 and then I have to get a babysitter, seriously? Joe is in clinicals until 7:30 so there's no way he can be home to watch her. And I feel like after being gone ALL DAY the last thing I want to do is shuffle her off to yet another babysitter. There's only so many times you can impose on your neighbors you know? And with no family locally we're stuck. I really feel for all the single parents out there that do this with no support.

Thank God for scholarships!

So….yesterday was the official announcement of the scholarship awards from Joe's college. He walked away with almost enough to cover his senior year tuition after his discount for working at the hospital system was applied. Phew. The bread winner of the house wipes her brow. That much less in student loan debt so that when Joe is finally working his entire salary won't be going to pay off the debts! So we'll have made it through 4 years of nursing school with 17,100 in student loans. Not bad for a school that costs $19,000 in tuition each year. Now grad school… who knows if we'll come out as unscathed but we'll certainly do our best. Joe's 2nd job the last few summers has been to apply for scholarships so he's got the drill down pat.

Little One starts 2nd grade tomorrow. We went to an ice cream social at the school last night to meet the teacher and drop off her school supplies. Even though Little One didn't get the teacher she was hoping for she seemed excited after getting a chance to talk to her teacher. She's young, fairly perky and seemed really good with the kids. Got right down on their level, good eye contact, good questions. Also, a buddy of Little One's from the after school program last year is sitting at the same table as her so she was pleased as punch about that. I have an insane desire to volunteer in the classroom, I may need to be talked out of this at a later date. I haven't really been involved in Little One's classroom since she was in Pre-K. I started a new job (my current job) when Little One was in Kindergarten and I just didn't have the flexibility in my schedule to be out of the office when I was trying to learn a new job. But now that I finally feel like I know what I'm doing, and I have a staff that can handle things fairly independently, I think it's time to get involved.

I still have to finalize Little One's activities for the year, looks like she'll be doing a gymnastics class once a week and piano lessons once a week. 2 days a week is the max extra-curriculars I like to get her signed up for. With Joe's classes, clinicals and work schedule this semester he is only home one weekend night before 9pm, so I'm doing most of shuttling to activities. Plus church school on Sunday. And this year is First Communion which means more meetings and rehearsals than usual. Whew.

High Five for Scholarships and Yay to the first day of school tomorrow!

Back to School!

Today… some about my husband, we'll call him "Joe".

Joe is in his final year of completing his BSN (Bachelor's of Science, Nursing). He took a full course load this summer to get ahead and will (fingers crossed) be finished in March. Then he will work as an RN for a while before he starts the next chapter in this journey… apply to the graduate program and get a double Master's as a Nurse Practitioner and Nurse Educator. Ambitious much? Yes, Joe has some serious drive. This is a man who back in the days before he went back to college for this new career would create projects around the house to keep himself busy every moment of the day, even after working a 60hr work week. "Down Time" is a dirty word to him. I am in awe, and sometimes annoyed, as I am exactly the opposite. Oh, I should also mention he has a degree in marketing and worked for 12 years at the mgt level. He was extremely successful in the business world. The career switch was to make a change to a career that was more personally fulfilling and in line with his beliefs and desire to serve others.

For his senior year he got the coveted clinical rotation of the ER. Only 5 students out of his class of 150 or so were assigned to the ER. He definitely excels in his studies and it doesn't hurt that he has a pretty tight relationship with the Assistant Dean of the College. So in addition to his full course load and working 2 shifts a week in the hospital he is putting in 2 12-hr shifts in the ER each week for his clinical rotation. Yesterday was his first shift in the ER. He had one pretty exciting case that he assisted with (chain saw injury to the leg, ick) and he came home exhausted but I could tell he was just LOVING what he was doing. He was in the thick of trauma, making quick decisions on the fly, exactly what he was hoping for when he started this process over 3 years ago.

So, surely more interesting stories will come from his clinicals this semester. But for now it's just so great to see him excited about what he's doing. Talk to me in 6 weeks though after I've been basically a single parent for that amount of time and we'll see if the honeymoon stage we go through at the start of every semester is still there.

Little One, as I will call our daughter, starts 2nd grade next Wed., and was super irritated that Daddy got to go back to school before her. The girl LOVES school. In fact, her playroom is basically a mock classroom where she is the teacher and her stuffed animals and dolls are the students. Most Saturdays she puts on her "fancy" clothes first thing in the morning, packs her lunch (no joke) and heads off to teach school in her playroom. Little One can keep herself occupied with this for HOURS!

That's enough info overload for one post I guess! I'll get to myself eventually but honestly find the two of them way more interesting than myself. :)