End of semester 1, and Disn*y coutdown has officially begun!

Just a quick catch up post:
I am done with my first semester of nursing school! YAY! I survived when alot of other people did not, and I came out with a B!!! Which I am quite proud of!
I have made alot of precious friends, and am very blessed to have a group of people that are going through the same thing I am that I can talk to and vent with..Honey doesn't "get" it nor does he want to hear about any patients! I have been able to seen and do some cool, and some gross things. I come home dying to share & he's like uh....no thanks! SO I turn to my nursing school blog which I need to go update after this one. If you like cool & gross stuff check it out . There is a link on my side bar at the top.

So we will leave for Disn*yWorld sometime on Saturday...Honey will drive & wants to drive at night to avoid the majority of traffic. My parents, my niece, & my sister are also coming to DW! I will try to post pics when we come back. I may have to make several slide shows, and post them on slide*com which there is a link on my side bar to that page too!

I was chosen as room mother for EM's class & will spend some time this week getting ready for her Christmas party Thurs. afternoon, and KT is studying for her semester finals this week, & Honey is working hard as usual!
I'll check back in before we leave, hope everyone has a great week!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Headed to TX

I am thankful for so much this season. You my friend are one of those many blessings!

Satan works overtime on Sundays

Atleast that is how it feels today. I got up & went to church this morning (by myself) & went from church to the grocery store where after shopping for an hour+, I unload all of my groceries, and the lady in front of me basically throws a fit about some pharmacy coupons, so my checker left with the lady to go to the Pharmacy! About 10 minutes or so the manager comes over & I tell her what happened she clears the ladies stuff out of the register & starts with me.
After getting everyone to help me unload from the car into the house I start to put away the groceries and Honey says "hey why don't you defrost those dumplins in the freezer from last Thanksgiving" Ok...Call Cindy and get directions for the best thawing method. I need chicken broth..Ok I'll go back to the store. This whole time no one has eaten lunch & they are just sitting watching movies...meanwhile I am doing laundry & dishes & trying to figure out lunch for them. Then EM says I don't have a present for the bday party that is today at 5:00....
I head to the store get chicken broth, come home make spaghetti for lunch & start the defrost for tonight. After all that I get on the computer to finish my clinical paperwork. (All the while still doing laundry). Then take EM to get present & to the bday party it starts at 5:30 not 5:00..well atleat she's not late. Then KT & I head over to Kohl*s for Honey some socks since the socks I had to rush out & buy the night before his trip to St. Thomas "sucked" as he put it! I did however buy me & KT some sweat suits to wear to Disney! Shopping always makes me feel better!
Now we are at home eating chicken & dumplings YUM! and dressing YUM! I will leave to go get EM from the bday party about 7:10, and then head back & finish up the last load of laundry!
I just get so frustrated when it seems like I am the only one who does anything, except make messes..ya know? These people CAN clean up after themselves!
Thanks for the opportunity to vent!
I'm done, blog with ya later!

So things have kind of slowed down as far as family matters. This is probably due to school taking up the majority of my time. Which you can read about here.
Well some things have happened this week. EM started karate Tuesday & Thursday nights. This is something her & her daddy will do together, that will replace gymnastics.SHe is really enjoying it so far. KT had her first sleepover since moving to MS. She is finally making friends & I am so glad. Her Friends name is the same as her sister so that is fun! Other than school I did not have much else going on. Honey's flight from St. Thomas was delayed so his connecting flight to JXSN was delayed. Then when I got to the airport (at 12 midnight) last night I was the only car parked at the unloading/ loading row & was made to circle the airport by JPD. WHATEVER so I go park & wait about 10 minutes then go back & there are about 8 cars parked in loading & unloading so I pull up & wait. Honey comes out leaves his breifcase & goes back in to wait for the other baggage. One of the bags was "lost" so I waited some more. I end up the only car waiting, and was made to move again. This is at 1 o'clock in the morning! I was not causing any trouble ( I know hard to believe) sitting minding my own business, no other cars around, plenty of room for anybody else to pull up and load/unload if necessary but NO I had to circle some more! RIDICULOUS! That JPD officer was lucky that I was just so glad to have my Honey home. ( I know I'm so scary! LOL) I am not a middle of the night person, and it took alot for me to not tell him what I was thinking. But I wanted to come home & sleep in my bed & not have my first jail experience! Especially in this city! So we got home about 1:30!
Ok now that I have that off my chest....whew I feel better!
Today we went to pick KT up from her sleep over & then went to Sonic for a late breakfast, and then shopping for a wedding present. One of the sales girls from Honey's work got married today at 4:00. So we went to Target! Oh how I love that store! I purchased the wedding present & wrappings! I even bought Amy's Christmas present, and a paint your own mini ornament kit. Then we came home and watched The Muppet Show DVD (which we got from Blockbuster online) Honey was so excited to watch with the girls & they really could care less, and he was so exhausted he fell asleep! (Honey & EM are watching the DVD now) We then went to the wedding & are now home. I have some more paperwork to finish to turn in Monday morning. I think I'll do that tomorrow afternoon!
Hoeny will go out of town again Wed & Thurs this week & then we will head to TX for My bday & Thanksgiving.
I hope your week is a blessed one filled with love!

It's been a while..

So life is hectic here as it is with most of you! I will try to catch up on our "happenings" and be better at posting in the future!

Well maybe I should start from today & work backwards...
This morning we drove Honey to the airport so that he could travel with his work to St. Thomas. If you remember this time last year we went for a week to Curacao. This is the "sales incentive" trip for this year. I was unable to go due to clinicals this week...I'm quite sad about it but I knew going in to Nursing school that there would be sacrifices & this is one of them. I keep telling myself that one day when I'm a nurse I'll get him to take me back to St. Thomas on a vacation, and he'll know what to do & where to stay.. I can hope!
Then the girls & I came home & went back to bed. I took the girls out to lunch & then spent the afternoon looking at Disney stuff online for our Christmas trip to Orlando.
Yesterday, Saturday I watched college football ( glad I did not get to watch the Aggie game like I wanted too~ sounds like it was ugly!) I went to the grocery store & made Honey's favorite dinner & went to B&Noble to meet Karen Kingsbury! My favorite author here is the picture I took with her.
Then I had to go buy some last minute things for Honey's trip. And of course in the midst of all of this there was the normal stuff like laundry, dishes...
Last week was our first week of clinical Wed. we went to pick up our patient information & intro ourselves. Thursday & Friday 6:30 am - 3:00 pm first real days of nursing!!! I'll have to write details of these days on my nursing school blog..later!

Also Wed night was the annual Mistletoe ball, & after we got home at 10:30 I had 3 hours worth of paperwork to finish before I left for the hospital (which is 30 minutes from my house)

So basically I had p/u pt. (patient) from 1pm-5pm and then got ready for Mistletoe, then Mistletoe from 7-10pm, then paperwork 10:30-1:30am then alarm went off at 5am then clinical 6:30 - 3:00 then a nap then out for our 15th wedding anniversary home about 10 for another 2 hours of paperwork, then up at 5 again for another 6:30 - 2 day of clinical and another nap!!!

The week began with a test Monday morning, and class Monday night.

Last weekend I was suppose to stay home while the fam went to TX for Halloween weekend festivities but I decided on Thursday night to go with them! I missed my friends!! So Friday I spent the day of Halloween looking for a costume for the 2 parties we had in TX that weekend...Tip: on Halloween day there are not any good costumes left! We left about 12:30 headed to the Holmes' for trick or treating! Saturday we had an adult day at the TX renassaince festival, and to La Bodega for the Handy Halloween party!

Then 8 hour ride home after lunch on Sunday!

The week before that (10/27-10/29) Monday we practiced for check offs and went over clinical paperwork ( not fun!) then of course class that night. Tuesday class from 8-3 then Wed foley check offs ( these are pass/fail) I passed! I need to be more careful with my sterile field!!

I wish I had decided to go to TX Wed night or Thurs morning b/c I had all day Thursday off!

The weekend before this was the weekend of the state swim meet!

My MIL came to town Friday night.....I'll just leave it at that.

Saturday we left for Biloxi, we met my parents at the swim meet, KT had her fastest swim time to date and won her heat! She is ranked 4th in the state for all of the 8th grade, and 33rd in the state over all! BTW~ she swims on the high school team!

This is huge news for her! She has 4 more years of HS swimming & is well on her way to Olympic Gold don't you think? We stayed in Biloxi Saturday night & most of the day Sunday.

The weeks before this we I just had class & 1 more flu shot clinic. Everyone else it has just been normal stuff!

Honey got a promotion he is now General sales manager (which noone at work was surprised since he has been doing the job for sometime now. Not really more money but definitely the title can be used for advancement in the future!

Looking ahead: this week (while Hoeny is gone) we have class tomorrow 8-12 & 5-8 (Monday) then a health fair Tues 8-3, and Em also has her first Karate class Tues night... Wed meet new patient & the hours of paperwork... Thursday 6:30 -2:30 clinical day.... off on Friday!!!!!

Honey comes home @11pm. Saturday Honey has a sales associate that is getting married!!

Like I said life is hectic here..like I'm sure it is for all of you.

Well this enough for now!

I really will try to be better about posting in the future!

Now I'm going to check in on alll of your blogs...

Anniversary & Hershey

Today is our 2 year anniversary in MS. The girls thought we should hold a memorial dinner instead of a celebration dinner, but I made dinner for the 3rd night in a row!
We are finally settling in here in MS. We hung pictures this past weekend. ( see picture below)We are finally making friends. I have a wonderful group of people in my nursing class & we are sticking together. I think we realize that unlike our families we can empathize, with each other b/c we are all in the same boat! I can see us already becoming a tight knit family with 25 ladies and 5 men.

Tonight we worked on this project for EM's 4th grade class.

She did a report on Milton Hershey & along with that we were to make a pumpkin that looks like the person in the report. We wanted to do Michael Ph..elps but we had to have a book to refer to and there have not been any written about his life/career yet! We were going to put KT's swim cap & goggles, and make some gold medals for the pumpkin..oh well. I'm going to go to the store tomorrow & buy a bag of kisses for her to take to her classmates.

I have had a pretty easy week, and realized that my vacation from nursing school has turned into a decorate, clean and catch up on house work time. I have really enjoyed my time with my family this week too!

Student nurse Hammond..It feels real now

Now that I have actually had some "patients", and given some flu shots it feels real. It's not just learning about being a nurse or poking manequins.
I forgot to count how many flu shots I gave... but I'm guessing about 10.
I was so nervous! More than anyone else. I procrastinated getting started. Everyone else had given 3 or 4 before I got started, and my first little guy was so cute! He had parkinson's, so he requested his "non shaky" arm to receive his shot, and held his sleeve for me with this "shaky" hand so maybe it was difficult for him to tell that I was shaky too! It got much easier as I finished with each one. I asked each of them when I was done if that was ok, and all of them said "I didn't even feel it" so YAY!! I have definitely enjoyed a relaxing weekend with no studying.

Well I knew it would happen...

I knew I would neglect my blog at some point during this crazy semester.
Here is just a quick update:
You saw that KT qualified for state YAY!
Em made the honor roll for this 9 weeks YAY!
Honey...well he's the same..wonderful YAY!
Me...I have been studying ALOT! And it seems to be paying off! I have a 85 average...YAY!!!
We are down to 30 people in our program! From 65!
Monday was test 5 and we had 2 check offs this week.
I made a 84.37 on the test. Tomorrow is considered mid-term and we had to have an 80 average before mid-term or we were cut from the program. Everyone knew what they had to make on Monday's test to stay in the program...It was a TOUGH day! I think we lost 14 people Monday! Then we had asepsis/wound check offs Tues. which is what the test was on on Monday. so no problem there but Wed we had Physical assessment check offs and we hadn't even looked at that stuff for 3 weeks since we took the test on it. We've been studying for the other tests we've had. I passed both check offs!!!
Check offs are pass/fail and you only get 2 chances to pass them if you don't pass either time you are out of the program!!!
I don't think anyone failed either check off this week. Whew! I don't think my emotions could take loosing anymore people right now!
I get to go to a nursing home tomorrow and give flu shots!!! A first for me! I'm PETRIFIED!
We also had a drug calculations test 2 weeks ago and this is also pass/fail, and you get 30 minutes. The trick is it's 10 questions and you have to make a 90 to be considered passing. I made an 80! I missed 2 for very stupid mistakes. Well our make-up for that is Monday. We had "remediation" today for the drug calc. and I made a 90 only missed 1 on the "pre-test". They said if we know this test backwards and forwards we should defitiely pass and should make a 100!
So with all that said I have decided to not study this weekend. Well maybe a little SUnday night, but I won't know what to do with a whole weekend with my family, and not traveling to TX.
The MS state fair is in town so we might do that!
Well, I huess that's all for now. I'll try to post and tell you how my flu shot experience goes!

Love ya'll,

Qualified for State

KT's swim meet went very well today she qualified to swim the 50 freestyle at the state meet in Biloxi on October 25th. The state qualifying time is 31.69, and she swam it in 31.41.
She also swam the 100 freestyle and state qualifying time is 1:12.14 and her time today ( her first time swimming this in a meet in MS) was 1:14.90 so she has Regionals ( Oct 18th) to qualify for state in the 100.
On the bottom of one of her feet she wrote:
If you can read this you must be in 2nd place, & on the other foot she wrote eat my bubbles!
Here is the video I took of her swimming the 50 free:

Help!

OK so this is what I have resorted to:

How else can I get them to remember to turn the light off in the bathroom when they are done? This is posted on the back of the door since b/c of their ages they shut the door when they go potty. I am not exaggerating when I say every time I walk past their bathroom, the light is on!!!! This morning they were getting ready for school and before we left I checked over my shoulder to see if the light was off and it was on! Probably b/c they kept the door open while getting ready, and didn't see my "reminder from the management"!

Any suggestions?

A new passion

So you need to read my last post before you read this one or it will not make a whole lot of sense....
OK so you know how I mentioned the stuff about rules for being in line at the kids schools....?
Well yesterday (the morning after my post) I got into line at KT's school, a lady pulls in behind me, and then proceeds to pull out from behind me and get infront of me.....
KT and I turned and looked at each other...she knew I was about to blow a gasket! The pleading look in her eyes..the look that said please mom don't hurt that lady, and (deep down inside) the please don't humiliate me in front of my school look...that look is the only thing that kept me from getting out of my truck walking over to her car and telling this woman ~ from another country~ how we do it in Mississippi, and how we should do it in Mississippi, or any other state she were to move to! We do not cut in line, does she think this line of cars is just here for no reason..? Pull your mercedes driving BUTT around and get back at the end of the line (now all the way down the street)!
I refrained...those of you who know me know that I do have some of my dad in me, and it was TOUGH to stay in the truck!
Can you believe this happened to me, the morning after I told my bloggy friends about KT's comment? I think I have missed my calling as a crossing guard, and I hope one day when I am older, and have lived out all of the years as a nurse that I can muster, at that time I hope I still have the passion for school traffic that I have now...b/c I will be the best crossing guard I can be! I wish I had known of this passion of mine prior to nursing school! We need nurses in this country AND we need good crossing guards!! I wish I could do both, but I'm afraid the fact that I'm already in Nursing school, and that I can save lives, and make a better living for me and my family, has to out weigh my passion for CONTROLING school traffic! If there were a way I would find it but..alas I can only do one. Atleast for one more day my daughter can hold her head up high, and know she made it through another morning in line with out her mom making a total fool of her in front of her peers. There's always tomorrow!

Funny Girls

SO I thought I would update wtih some "funnies" my girls have said recently...
~ I record on my phone things that I want to remember later for instance these:

KT says " You know smart people do not always do the right thing..take for instance Einstein..what's up with that hair? That was not a good choice!"

KT says" Mom you should grow up to be a crossing guard" (I yell at people while I drive especially in lines at the girls schools..people need to follow the rules, and not try to cut in line!!!)She says "maybe after you are a nurse, when you are old"
I said "no I need to do it now when I'm mean, not when I don't have kids in school I won't care about school traffic at the nursing home!"

EM is 9 and not nearly as witty as her big sister although she tries...we are learning about comedic timing, and when things are funny, and when they are no longer funny...you know that was so 2 weeks ago...
But here is something...
background first...Honey has been having movie marathons with the girls (when he can...) you know classics like all the Indiana Jones..all the Star Wars...all the Lord of the rings..) Most of them I worry about being appropriate but he does not and when I don't participate in the movie marathons I do not get a say...ANYWAY This past weekend was Jaws...I KNOW ...they are 13 & 9 appropriate....Idk!!
so Friday night was the first Jaws and I said and I quote " I don't know if that is appropriate movie material for both girls..maybe KT.......all 3 watch the movie. at the END EM says " I don't think that movie was appropriate for me...when are we watching the next one?"
They watched Jaws 2 on Sat afternoon and Jaws 3 Saturday night and Jaws revenge Sunday afternoon..Before movie 4 EM says "I wonder what happens in this one...I know someone gets eaten by a shark"

Em was standing out beside my truck one morning and said "Mom this spinner sure is dirty" (growing up in Houston we called those hubcaps) For those of you who are wondering...no I do not have spinners I'm deifinetly not that "hip"

KT says "wakey wakey eggs & bacy..( I assume from some TV show)

KT hates the rain..she must think she's going to melt EM says "KT it's like a shower with your clothes on"

That's all for now...Laugh with ya later!!

I guess she likes to snuggle?

So this morning this is what I came upon when I went in to wake up KT: So if you can't tell what this is...it is KT surrounded by stuffed animals on both sides!! She is 13! I guess she likes to snuggle.

Cruise to nowhere

I'm so glad to be back home and blogging.
As you may know I left MS last Wed. Aug 27 after class, and headed to TX. My dad drove in and stayed with the girls, and took them to school and then drove them back to TX Sat. We got up early Thurs and headed to Galveston to get on our cruise ship. The original itenerary was leave Galveston Thurs at 4~ sail all day Fri to Cozumel Spend all dat Sat ion Cozumel, and sail all day Sun, get in to Galveston 8 am Mon morning pick up the girls in CS and drive back home MS so that I could attend class Tues & Wed to prepare for the test Thurs. morning at 8 am.

Well needless to say Gustav had other plans for our cruise.
As we boarded the ship in Galveston we were handed a letter that said we would be going to Veracrux, Mexico instead due to the hurricane Gustav.
We set sail everything is going great except... I might as well mention that on Wed I had a sinus headache, and Thurs morning woke up with a sore throat that only got worse through out the day. Friday morning we wake up, and they tell us that we will be sailing to Progreso due to a tropical depression forming over Veracruz. At this point I took a dramamine due to my uneasy stomach (BTW now I have a sore throat and my nose is stuffy) The dramammine made me so sleepy that I slept most of the afternoon while everybody played outside at the pool.
Friday night I was definitly the party pooper. I was still a little drowsy, and felt awful. How terrible is that? To be sick and sea sick on vacation....yuck! This night (Friday) I put on one of the sea sick patches. The kind that go behind your ear.
Saturday morning we get up and dock in Progreso. It was sooooo hot! We spent the day hanging out on the beach. Atleast on Saturday I wasn't sea sick, just fwlt bad from not being able to breath and my runny nose. We get back on the ship, and head back to TX. Sunday morning there was an announcement that the port of Galv. was closed due to the hurricane and would not reopen until Wed. morning. So I franticly called my teachers, to tell them what happened, finally got a hold of one, and she said not to worry we would figure something out.
I called my parents and then kids were glad they would get to stay in TX for a few more days.
So we spent the next 3 days circling the Gulf. Our Capt went south of TX into the Mexican waters b/c so many people were sick from the huge waves caused by the hurricane. Finally Monday night I got some medicine from the ship Dr. and felt much better Tuesday!
We docked in Galveston Wed morning around 9, and after getting off the ship, and going through customs, we left Galv about 12, and headed back to CS. We picked up the girls and headed back to MS. getting in about 12 midnight.
Needless to say I'm so glad to be home again.
I will be studying all weekend for the make-up test I will need to take on Monday morning.
I'll post some pics tomorrow!

Olympic Opportunity

So this was my first week of nursing school, and you can read about that here.
That has kept me pretty busy. I did have the day off on Wed. and was able to go to EM's school where a friend of EM's teacher, his name was Jeff Huffman, showed us his Olympic torch. He ran in the torch relay when it came to MS, before the Atlanta olympics. It was quite awesome to see it lit, and hear him talk about his experience. He mentioned to the kids that in 8 years if the Olympics come to Chicago they may have the opportunity to be in the olympics or to run the torch relay and that they can do anything they set their mids to, and to try hard etc... I was thrilled that I got to go. Here are some pictures:

We had parent orientation Tuesday night at EM's school, and last night I had to take KT to swim practice, and other than school that is about all we have had time for.

Honey & I are getting excited about our cruise to Cozumel which leaves next Thursday about 4pm. I will try to post before I leave and then I will definitely post some pics when we get back!

Have a good weekend,

Looking back

I found some old picture cds, and thought I would share past memeories with ya'll

Look at that baby she was about 1 & a half.

Same Christmas at Honey's grandparents house

She loved those maraccas.

Blue & Darbi's ceremony before going to Zambia

Foundation of house before concrete

A trip to Galveston. Too funny...

I wish I could remember what she was doing here.

This is one of KT's brithdays. She wanted to go to Red Lob*ter

Which EM called Hot Lobber....

This is one of the birthday bashes held at IHOP
EM's graduation from pre-K
Christmas..don't remember what year
Fun huh?

I love shopping...

even if it is for textbooks!
I have purchased all but 1 of my textbooks for this year.
13 for Nursing, and, 2 for my computer class.
I was able to buy this monster of a textbook. online for only $66. instead of the $136 it was suppose to cost. Look how thick that book is....

Then went and bought the other 12 at the bookstore for $643.
Then went back to the bkst. to buy the "bundle" for computer $40
thinking that I could find the other computer book online for less than the bkst price of $105. So I guess I will go back to the bookstore and spend another $100.

Here is what $643 will get you
(thank goodness for updated, higher limit credit card that came in the mail Friday!)The other good news is that these nursing books will last me the next 2 years, and I should only have to buy 1 or 2 each semester! So the price is not that bad when you break it up into 4 semesters! The other good news is I do not have to pay tuition due to a scholarship! That helps to afford these books! I also spent some money on some other Nursing student "help" books! I keep one in the car so I alsways have something "nursing" to read!

I also received these in the mail
What a fun day I had going through all my stuff!
I am definitely intimidated by the amount of info in all of these books!
But I am positive that I will pass and retain all that I need to, to become the best nurse I can be!
Only 5 more days!!!!!! I better get to reading!