I was completely and totally traumatized in middle school. I came to this realization this week, when, after 7 years not opening a locker, I got my new locker at work opened on the first try AND remembered my combo after just one day.

My new job is going really well. I don't really know why I was so worried about it. It seems like our patients are usually pretty nice and anxious to go home so they try to do as much as they can by themselves. On my first day, we got to go down and pick someone up from recovery - that never happens - and that was kind of fun. I also have had a bunch of patients on contact isolation which means every time I go into their room, I have to gown up and wear a mask and everything. I worked Thursday and Friday night and they trained me on the unit clerk's job. It's pretty boring but you do get to review and complete doctor's orders which is kind of fun. You also get to put charts together including operative notes. Did you know that if you have surgery and have something removed, they take pictures of it?

Why does the headline Clogged Toilet on Space Station No Laughing Matter make me laugh?

Also, the devil invented chores.

First day at my new gig today. The girl showing me around was so nice and really didn't make me do anything. I just followed her around. Talking to the patients is pretty easy for me - I like to talk. I feel a little like I'm not exactly sure what is appropriate and what isn't. Does that make any sense? I want to joke around with everyone.
I want to tell you all about the patients that we saw today - we started out with 6 and by the end of my shift we had 9 (two from the ER and one post-op) - but I'm pretty sure it's illegal. Let me just say, it's only day one and I am seriously thanking the Big Guy for my health...

Mom asked me what I was doing for the long weekend. I didn't know it was a long weekend until she said something. I went to a couple training classes this week for my new gig. I went up to my unit and talked to my boss and guess what - I start Monday. I am excited and a little bit nervous. No long weekend for me. We didn't have plans anyway (unless you consider "lay around" a plan). We have chores to do. I'm going to try to finish all my chores this afternoon because it feels so much better to sleep in on Saturday morning when you don't have all those stupid chores hanging over your head. Anyway, Russell thinks that we need to trim the bottom branches off this tree. I don't want to! Tell him these don't need to be trimmed, will you? Look how shady and lovely it looks under that tree! Don't you just want to have a picnic under there?

I had a class to go to yesterday for my new hospital job. I practiced doing fingersticks and fecal occult blood tests (and yes it absolutely is as gross as it sounds). I have another class this morning and then I have about 25 training things to watch online. Just a couple things first:

1. I made peanut butter squares and some chocolate mint cookies last week for the book group. I told Russell he should be eating them faster, you know, to get them out of the house. He said, "these? Are not my favorite treats." Apparently, according to Russell, it is completely unnecessary to try any new recipes.

2. I had a very weird dream last night. Bride was pregnant and I went over and was trying to get the baby to move around and he pushed his face against her stomach and was talking to me. Freaky! Where the heck did that come from?

Men's Wearhouse commercial: Corsage (2008)

I love commercials. There, I said it - man, it feels good to get that off my chest! Okay, okay, I'm not talking about those dang used car dealership commercials that make you want to simultaneously gouge out your eyes with a fork and stick a q-tip so far in your ear you can't hear anymore. I'm talking about the ones that make you laugh. Russell thinks it would be a good idea to regularly post a commercial that makes me laugh so we can see if it makes you guys laugh too, you know, to see if I'm weird or not. So, here it is - edition 1: commercials that make me laugh...

It is supposed to be 92˚ tomorrow. Almost 20˚ warmer than it was yesterday. I hate it when I don't have time to adjust. It's going to feel so hot now. On the bright side, it might leave us a little better prepared for the upcoming Vegas trip. I volunteered to help do blood glucose testing and blood pressure checks at the health fair in Weiser this weekend but is it right to go to a health fair when you are sick? Give me an out, will you? I would really rather be laying out in the yard...

I am starting to get sick. Wanna know how I know? It's not the ridiculously sore throat and all the unproductive coughing. I got in bed at 5 and woke up just before 8 (pm) and asked Russell why he wasn't at work. His response? "That Benadryl messed you up." I could really use some rainbow sherbet right about now - the kind with pink and orange and green but I won't eat the green. Because I'm sick and I can. Also I'm a grown up so I can.

Sara, the girl that started the book group, called me last night. One of the other girls (one of five) doesn't want to read The Lovely Bones, my pick for next month. See, the first month I went to book group, Sara asked me if I had any book to suggest. I told her in front of the group that I was considering Lovely Bones but I wasn't sure. She gave a couple reasons why she thought it may not be a good one - she's read it before. It's been a couple months since then and it seems as though we've been reading the same type of book for a while - pretty much love stories. I'm so ready to change it up. The other girl remembered what Sara said and doesn't want to read the book. It's being totally misrepresented here! Anyway, the question(s): do I pick another book or do I stick with Lovely Bones? Do I try to talk the girl in to reading it? Should I bring it up at church today or should I just wait until the group meets up on Thursday? What do you think?

My house smells like old ketchup and maple syrup...

A bit of an interesting afternoon...

Work was awesome, even though I have to leave at 7 for an hour so Russ can get to work and "A" can get to school - it was still really good. Smooth. I like that kind of day.

I grabbed my sweatshirt and my keys and I noticed that the little ball on the end of my keychain (the one that was my grandma's) was missing along with the spare key for the neighbor's house. Crap. I didn't hear anything fall so I figured I could start looking in the car. I get out to the car and no problem, the key, the keychain all found. Sweet. I get in and turn the key. Click, click, click. Crap again. My car didn't start! A couple of guys just finishing lunch heard the clicking and came to help me push start (I love having a standard transmission). Got home fine and the car started up later no problem. Okaaay. So, I'm thinking I better call Russ to let him know about the car. Another problem. Where the heck is my phone? My cell phone. The only phone I have. Why don't I have a house phone, again? Where is it? I know I had it when I came home this morning. I looked EVERYWHERE. I'm not kidding (I'm really good at finding things, maybe because I am always losing things, whatever). I got on the computer and asked Patrick to call me - no long distance. I tried to send myself a text - maybe I would hear it ring. No luck. Finally, after I seriously almost started crying (that's a big deal for me) I went and asked our neighbor if I could use his phone. I called Russell. He took both phones to work by accident. One in his pocket, one in his hand.

All that in about an hour and a half. Do you think "A" will be into taking a nap after school? Yeah, I didn't think so.

I don't want to jinx it or anything but, man, this kid is so easy! He's one of those cannot ever break the rules kind of a kid. He sat down to do his homework last night and I have to sign off on it every day. Well, he finished and I signed, he looked and I thought he was going to have a breakdown. He said I was supposed to sign his Mom's name. Please, please, he says, just scribble that out and sign my Mom's name. We're talking head in his hands, elbows on the table - this kid was stressed! It was funny but I felt bad for him at the same time, you know? I sent a note to school today...

Just real quick...

Russell is a total pushover. Bedtime is 8:30 - "A" finishes his homework at 7:35 and asks if we can watch a movie. Russell, after checking movie length and determining that it will indeed run past bedtime, concludes movie time is a go.

Pushover.

It's (almost) official. My second semester in the nursing program at BSU is over and I would have to get zeros on my last two assignments not to get all A's. They've made some pretty big changes in the program all in an effort to ultimately get rid of the AS option but it's good news for me. They have shortened the program - only 5 semesters left! I'm thinking about doing something in Public Health, maybe rural or frontier nursing. Did you know that frontier nursing still exists?

Maybe I'm the last person to find this: Passive-Aggressive notes. Hilarious.

Today was just the worst day in Primary. There is a new boy in my class - he's not really new, this is just the first week I've seen him. I thought a couple of the other kids were bad. I was wrong. Angels, those other kids, angels. He was on the ground, back on the floor, holding his legs up so that his knees were right beside his face. I told him to get in his seat. He said no. Straight up NO. I started to get a pretty good hold on him toward the end of class (or maybe I was just getting better at ignoring him) when he started muttering "keep the commandments, keep the commandments, keep the commandments" over and over and over. What the heck am I going to do with this kid?

So, our neighbor is staying over beginning tomorrow afternoon. I think he'll be pretty low maintenance. He saw me in church today and said, "know what tomorrow is?" and his Mom said that on Friday morning he said that he wished it was Monday already. Plus he's really cute and you know I'm a sucker for the cute ones.