The Coffee Experiment

My Peds test ended up being alright. I freaked out over nothing (per usual). Our grades will be posted on Monday. I feel very good about it and I'm glad to knock another exam off the list.

On my walk on Wednesday, I noticed some fencing that they put up.

It states that it is a tree protection area. This confused me because they had chopped the trees down. 

I don't get it.

I also noticed there was a random tractor parked on the side of the road. It's still there today (Saturday).

The trees are gradually changing every single day. 

I snapped this on campus when I went up there on Friday. 

I had my clinical evaluation with my Peds CI.

I stopped by the grocery store on the way home to pick up some things.

One of those things would be coffee.

I'm starting an experiment to see if coffee makes me more productive.

I started sipping on 18 ounces worth right away.

I set up some music on Pandora....

...and got to work.

I planned on studying for my Research Midterm, but it wasn't even posted online yet. I scratched that idea and finished up the Pushed reading for my Maternity exam. After I got through that, I started reading the material out of the textbook. I was amazed at how much I got done.

I followed up my read with a 4 mile run...and a little extra walkedge. 

This is the longest I have ran continuously in quite a bit of time. Coffee seems to be doing good things so far.

Last night I ended up bowling with Stesha and I got to meet her new boy, Garrett.

My failed attempt of getting a picture of Garrett.

I really liked the bowling alley. Honestly, I expected an alley that still had you manually record your score. 

Nope. Durham is up to date with their bowling. Shocking!

We played 4 games. I am aware I suck at bowling, but I had fun.

I even won one game...I got lucky...the scores were low across the board. 

I was upset once we ran out of beer.

Once our time ran out, Garrett informed us of a place called Cookout. 

I had never heard of this place, but apparently it is the place to go for food at odd hours.

They have old fashioned stuff for pretty cheap prices. 

I got a corndog, fries, and sweet tea for less than 4 bucks.

This morning I woke up and downed 18 more ounces of coffee.

I skipped breakfast with all intentions of eating some after I drank my coffee. I started reading Maternity material right away and was amazed at how much I accomplished. This stuff is amazing! It's like I've discovered something that people have been using forever. I've been scared to jump on the coffee bandwagon for some time because I have issues falling asleep. The last thing I need is something keeping me up more.

Anyways, after the reading...I went for a run.

a little more than 3 miles were done!

I cleaned the house from top to bottom and opened the window to let fresh air in. Alley has really enjoyed it. She watches the birds and attempts to pounce on them just to run her head into the screen. 

I got some really pretty flowers from my parents for making it into the nursing honor society. 

I love them!

The rest of the evening was enjoyed with my friends.

I threw a pumpkin carving party. We ate tons of food, carved, and watched a scary movie (The Roommate).

Stesha saw a "BUG" and refused to come outside to take more pictures.

Happy Fall!

Sigma Theta Tau

My CI sent me this early this morning:

It symbolizes my mood around 18:00 on a clinical day.

The card states "I'm going home Soon".

I am proud to announce that I will be inducted into the Nursing Honor Society called Sigma Theta Tau International on December 9th. 

I found out this morning that I am one of the "outstanding" students that have earned academic achievement and leadership potential. 

Awesome.

It's one of the reasons I have strived to keep my grades up...other than becoming a great nurse and passing the NCLEX.

Tomorrow is my second Peds exam.

I am terrified. Our first exam was online...and open book. Thus, I have no idea what to expect. It's like taking the first exam all over again. I don't know how these professors test. I'll just take it as a learning experience. 

I gave up on studying around 30 minutes ago and my eyes have been glued to the first game in the World Series. It is tied 2-2 right now at the bottom of the fifth. 

We got this!

World Series Bound

The Rangers have made it to the World Series once again this year!

Hopefully we can pull it off this year.

The Series starts tomorrow.

After slacking on the exercise front for just about a week, I got back out there.

The leaves make it worth it!

Between exercising I have been studying for this week's Peds' exam.

Alley has been helping.

I had my first Honduras meeting this evening. We got a lot of general info about the trip. Some new things I've learned:

We only get one carryon bag

The showers will be cold

We will sleep in sleeping bags on the floor, all in the same room

I wish I had more to update on. This weekend has been pretty boring.

Next Saturday I am hosting a pumpkin carving party full of scary movies and a potluck dinner.

What would you do if I sang out of tune?

The major topic that we talked about in Peds on Thursday was dehydration. You need to be weighing that child. The grossest thing I learned: If a child is dumping from their colostomy (meaning...pretty much as soon as they are fed...it comes right out of the hole that was made in their stomach), they will put the crap back into the NG tube to go back through digestion. 

Um, gross. 

We also learned about Celiac disease.

With this disease you are gluten intolerant. It affects 1 in 133 people.

Gluten is in almost everything.

You basically have to avoid every kind of yummy food.

After class, I came home and took the week's maternity quiz.

I watched game 5 of the ALCS and the Rangers ended up losing =(

Lance and I talked on the phone for quite a bit of time and discussed the new iphone update and some new applications. 

One is called Find Friends.

Once you friend someone and they accept, you can see where they are on a map.

Yes, it is creepy.

and NOW we can SPY on each other.

Look how horribly far apart we are.

This is how I occupied my time while I watched some pulmonary function tests being performed. 

Stesha enjoyed it.

 Today marked my very last day in my Peds rotation. 

We had a little downtime at one point and we all went for a Starbucks break.

I had just the right amount of foam.

I'm going to miss the little things in Peds...like playing games.

Play is one of the best ways to get anything done with a child.

I really enjoyed my group this rotation.

As tired as I was, I had some errands to run.

For one, I needed gas. I've been on empty for 3 days.

I had a couple of things on my list, but they were kind of important.

For one, toothpaste.

I also needed some V-8 as a base for my chili. I bought everything...except the V-8 last week.

I really needed some ink and paper.

 The next series of photos are the pics from the new place Lance is moving into (and eventually me) over the next week. He signed the lease and got the keys today.

I love it!

I believe basketball season is starting this week.

Once I made it home this afternoon, I took to Netflix.

What did I watch?

The very first and last episode of The Wonder Years.

I missed Kevin Arnold.

My Dad and I used to watch this all the time and laugh our faces off.

A fellow student of mine was eating these in class and I tried some.

I'm addicted.

I had to pick them up at the store. I've been munching on them during the game.

The game...

Yes, it is on right now.

Game 6.

We are up 10 to 4 in the bottom of the 5th.

I'm pretty sure we are World Series bound.

ESTJ

This morning was a tuff one. I lost my morning routine groove over the fall break. I was shocked when I made it to the parking lot 43 minutes after the hour and there were still parking spots. Hurray..."I don't have to park in the overflow lot" I thought to myself. This was a very good thing considering it was raining outside.

I only left NC for 4 days and I came back to some pretty color changing leaves!

You will notice the porta potty is now back up into a vertical position. I have no idea why there is one of those things in the parking lot. It really makes the place look trashy. I do know they use this lot for game days...so maybe they are for fans who really need to go after a drink filled game.

In Maternity we have been moving on to postpartum. We had our first lecture from a different professor than normal. She talked very fast and it was hard to keep up.

We all received a copy of Healthy Mom and Baby. If someone were to come in my house and rummage through my drawers...they would think I'm crazy between the baby magazine and AA pamphlet from mental health. 

In leadership we did a personality assessment. We used the Myers Briggs test. I ended up being an ESTJ

What is that you may ask?

Please read below.

The thing is...I answered these questions mainly based on my home and personal life. I'm forceful to an extent, but this thing makes me sound like an evil pusher. 

We went up to the front of the room to get a tally of the different personalities.

 Every category had at least 2 people in it...that is, except mine. Yep, me...the only ESTJ in the room.

I came home and only had 2 things on my mind...the ALCS game and updating my iphone to ios5

The update took forever and many attempts...5 that is!

I'm happy I got that done and so so happy that the Rangers won the game after 11 innings. Only one more to win =)