New Obsessions...

My new obsessions:

1. Craft blogs, specifically sewing/quilting blogs!

Check out just a few of my new favorites:

• i have to say...
• Tallgrass Prairie Studio
  Etsy
• The Moda Bakeshop
• Handmade by Alissa
• crazy mom quilts

2. My sewing machine. I love it! Now only if I were a little better at it!

3. Fabric, it is like scrapbooking paper....so many choices...so little time!

4. Making bags, seriously fun!

5. Finding new projects so I can spend more time with my new lovely sewing machine.

Fall, my favorite time of year!

I love fall! It is my favorite time of year. I love the leaves changing colors. I love the golden fields of crops ready to harvest. I love pumpkin chocolate chip cookies that we only make in the fall. I love the sound of the grain dryer at night. And I LOVE driving the graincart in circles!

Happiness Challenge

Do you ever think that sometimes when we are sad about not truly being happy, we are just not looking at the happiness & joy that we already truly have? And that sometimes it is frustrating to not be able to appreciate this already owned happiness?

So my challenge to myself today is to see my owned happiness because I hate to be sad! And I challenge you to do the same next time your cloud is a little grey.

Dear Nightshift,

Dear Night shift,

I would appreciate if you would stop making me feel old and sick all the time. Really, it is not a pleasant thing to stay up all hours with you when my body wants to sleep and you are a real party animal. Not that I don't enjoy your company, but my body is queen and she is starting to rebel. You are starting to feel like a drinking binge that is never going to end, the exhausted intoxication, nausea, fatigue, and lack of ability to think correctly set in when I am up working all night long with you.

So don't take it personally Night shift but I would really like to part ways, I will come back and visit on my own choosing. And I am sure that we will reacquaint quickly like old friends....things are great at first when we get together, then at 0100 you decide to drag me through the ringer and you make me so nauseated it is all I can do to not puke and keep my eyes open. Then by 0600 I am so excited you are almost over I start to wake up & get excited. But until then could you please be just a little nicer...I promise I will be in a much better mood if you don't make me feel so terrible.

Sincerely,

The weary night shift nurse

Goodbye Blahs

Goodbye Blahs you have over stayed your welcome. The sun is out more, the days are nice and therefore it is officially time for the winter time blahs to go on their merry way! No more blahs, no more lack of motivation. The sun is out and spring is here. Now if I could just send the night shift work with the blahs life would be golden. No more of this having to sleep on the nice sunny spring days!

Random thoughts from the last couple weeks

1. I had an amazing time with my sister when she was here. Ya for sisters!

2. And ya for the retail therapy Michelle & I did...you could say we did our part to stimulate the economy.

3. Tony & I planted a tree in our back yard and put rock down around it...it was fun until we had to pull it up to fix the leak from the sprinklers.

4. We also planted a little veggie garden...I feel old being so excited for my little garden.

5. I love that spring is making an appearance.

6. I am excited to go to the critical care conference next week. I am looking forward to being excited & motivated about my job again.

7. My conference is in Vegas and I am flying in on Easter night....Sin City on Easter, something is just wrong about that.

8. I have a hard time dealing with stupid...and my patience level has not been the highest this week.

9. I found an Acute Care Nursing Program at Creighton and got really excited about it this week....now if Tony could just suck up an office job for a few years :)

10. Tonight is my last of the week and I would be lying if I said I wasn't the least bit excited!!

Photo from here

Friday the 13th...Off to a good start!

The crazy patients are out in full gear tonight and it is only 3 hours in! AH!

So as I sit at the nursing station, talking to the supervisor, explaining why I don't want to take another patient because two of the three are a hand full I look up to see my nutty patient crawling out the end of the bed.

He stops...probably because I yelled at him to hold still...and as I running towards his room I see that he is standing there on one leg. And I am thinking good he is just standing there one leg in bed still....Good!

NO! Not quite. So as I get into his room, as I ask him "What are you doing?"

He looks at me, laughs...never a good sign from a nutty patient. And stays (while smiling) "I wouldn't stand there if I were you!" And continues to giggle. "Because I am peeing on the floor!"

Be glad that you were not standing in my shoes tonight, be very glad!

Meanwhile nut number two next door, asked if there could be a 'pooping festival' because he thought that he could win....enough said!

Aw yes, the reasons I love nursing...Friday the 13th, Loony patients, & elimination-festivals!

Random Facts

Random Facts Generated from a Slow night!

1. I love my food processor
2. I made some really really good shrimp the other day
3. And some really really good zesty orange dipping sauce to go with it.
4. We are going to the coast this weekend and I am excited.
5. I need to work out today...
6. However that is probably not going to happen because once I get home I will probably get into bed and never want to get out of it.
7. I am in a chocolate mood right now and chocolate cake sounds amazing!

8. I read a whole scrapbooking magazine tonight and when I say read I actually read every last word in the whole thing.
9. My pants that I am wearing are high-water-ish...but I wear them anyways because they are comfortable.
10. I am out of Honey Nut cheerios...and that is what I want for breakfast when I go home :(

Be Brave

You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right.

-Rosa Parks

Embrace Change.

Growth means change and change involves risk, stepping from the known to the unknown.

-George Shinn

An Amazing Force

Why is it so hard to get things done? I had a million & one things that I needed to do during my 5 day stretch off but somehow the couch had this amazing force over me. So I think that for my next stretch of days off I am going to add 'NAP' to my list so I can cross it off everyday and feel like I accomplish something!

Life isn't about finding yourself. It's about creating yourself. - George Benard

Breath of Fresh Air

I am on the end of a 7 out of 8 night stretch and it feels like a breath of fresh air right now.

And not just fresh air but the fresh air like on the top of a mountain on a perfect day of skiing, or after a perfect run or on a cool fall morning when the sun is just peaking over the horizon.

I have had a pretty great stretch of nights which followed my 'Christmas on crack' (as Em called it), which was quite surprising. It always seems as if chaos breaks loose after a vacation stretch for me but I am taking this calm as an indication of what lays ahead in 2009...and I think I like this breath of fresh air.

Chirstmas Finally Came

Christmas finally came in January when we went home. Christmas may physically be December 25th but I decided that nothing feels like Christmas until you are with family & friends!

It was great to be home and hard to leave (like always). We managed to squeeze 6 Christmas celebrations into 5.5 days, and we have learned our lesson that that is really not enough time! And this year we really got to feel like Santa...and decided that he has a tough job delivering every one's gifts in one day. Our UPS packages that we had shipped home before the holidays didn't arrive until our last day there and with a lot of scurrying we managed to deliver every last gift to everyone. By the time we were done we had 10 minutes to finish packing and head to the airport -- what would a vacation home be feeling well rested by the end right?? It is only our style to fit everything in humanly possible. We are grateful to have been able to see our family & friends...even if we only had a small amount of time with everyone.

2009 is already flying by. January 12th? Really?...I guess that means resolutions were suppose to start, however I decided to put them on hold until I am over this cold. Who wants to start something when they don't feel good, honestly?? ....Maybe I should add stop procrastinating to my list of resolutions this year?