it all started with a doorbell ringing

So I've mentioned before that I am back at the hospital working night shift, which leads me to being awake practically all night even when im not work and relishing in the daytime napping hours. I love naps.

Friday I was taking one of my infamous glorious naps. I was very cozy in my shabby chic comforter and blankets, about to enter my second REM cycle when I hear the doorbell. My first thought was damn mark probably forgot his keys again, so i reluctantly exit my bed and make my way downstairs (now, i should have known this wasnt mark, because Mark rings the doorbell like 50 times in a row out of the sheer pleasure of annoying me, but alas i digress.)

Im looking hott to, let me tell you...totally rocking the comfy clothes and messy bun and im sure my makeup from earlier is smeared all over my face now that ive been napping...but i open the door, intending it to be mark ....

and surprise its not mark...


who is it you ask???



THESE GUYS:


yes backpack and all, i can tell they are taken back by my obvious stunning good looks as they start their schpeal about the church they are from and then they ask me...."do you know Jesus Christ"........


and as bad as i want to just slamm the door, i feel bad..because isnt that kind of like slamming the door in Jesus's face....

so instead i calmly reply yes i am in fact down with G - O -D and Im catholic....and i expect the man to say okay thank you for your time, but oh no, mr backpack (which has to be empty because what could he possibly need in that thing that isnt in his hand/pocket already) starts to explain the difference in churches to me....like dude, seriously? its like 80 degrees and your wearing a button up long sleeve, long black pants, and a tie....im sure you feel you are doing the right thing but my God that i pray to...he doesnt punish.

somehow he gets the picture as im slowly closing the door ...and he leaves....

after he leaves I start laughing to myself thinking of the halloween my jr year of college when my friends and i ran into someone dressed as a door to door religion salesman at a party...my best friend in her drunken stupor began to swing her gold shovel (she was a gold digger) at this man in defense as he chased us around the party with his books (he took the role a little too seriously) ....I like to think God has a sense of humour too!


But now really dudes, i mean come on...how many people do they seriously convert harrassing people from their sleep like that?? and even if it did work...dont they know the mass quantities of people that make fun of them? its aweful! but how come NO OTHER RELIGION besides the mormons and jehovahs do this??? i mean really...of the hundreds and thousands of religions we know of, who else does this? when is the last time someone came to your house and asked you if you accepted Buddha into your life???


moral of the story is...yes i love Jesus, but if you interrupt my precious and rare sleep I will bring out the swinging gold shovel.

How to Become a Southern Belle

Yankee is a term I often hear when people are referring to me. I did move from the northern most point of Ohio to the south. Now I never would have even imagined that Kentucky was considered "southern" except on a grouping of a map. But the pearl earrings and sorority massiveness is definitely widespread in the Lexington area among girls. Now I am in a sorority so I do have that going for me, but where our campus had sororities here in the south its a little bit more exclusive and a lot more prestigious. Anyone at my college could join a sorority and it didn't have the classic stereotype that it has here. Being involved with the UK chapter has me living vicariously through this women getting the experience I dreamed sorority life was.


I think its time that I start learning the ways of a Southern Belle.

My blog definitely needs some new direction, Im not in nursing school anymore, and Im not doing much interesting things other than getting married and working...but how many times can you read about that! But one interesting thing I have going for me is that I moved from one state to the next and although I have now lived here for almost 2 years (WOW) I havent exactly assimilated into the culture. I still refer to cleveland as my home and bluejeans and a hoodie are my everyday wear in the winter...not acceptable here. When I meet new girls I feel completely boring and out of place. Im not blonde, I dont have pearl earrings (in fact i rarely ever even wear jewlery) my makeup is simple, i dont fake and bake, i do not have a twang, and I do not own a lilly pulitzer dress....


So for my first lesson in being a southern belle......ENTER the LILLY PULITZER DRESS.



Here we go girls. Now I have heard of "a Lilly" before, but I have never had much interest. But now I want one with a burning fire. It is the most essential item right now. A 20 something girl in Lexington Ky must own a Lilly and wear it to Keeneland every april/october for the races.
Are these dresses cheap? Hell no. But they last. and they are adorable! The Lilly print is now EVERYWHERE. It is now a brand for furniture, accessories, shoes, kids wears and ....sorority prints! There are currently 4 lines of sorority prints out and soon to be a few more *after a huge facebook vote to be the next printed sorority*...I heard a rumor that my sorority (chi o) was going to be a new up and coming print and I am anxiously awaiting this proof. Until then I will be signing up for an extra shift at the hospital this summer in order to afford one of these beaut's.

I plan on going to Keenland this October for the first time (cant believe I haven't gone yet!) and I will be wearing a Lilly. Also, for school next year I will be decked out with the finest lilly accessories... if you are going to fall for something, fall hard :)


So lesson one in fashion of a Southern Belle is the lilly pulitzer!





and here is a link to the website, feel free to send me something :) http://www.lillypulitzer.com

All my love!

It is 5 am and im definitly awake! ive been out of school for one week and returned to hospital night shift and my circadium rhythm is already off course! I hope i go to bed soon, luckily i can sleep all day today because im starting my next 3 night stretch.

Returning to the hospital was not the smooth transition that I had hoped! generally in summer it can be a little bit quieter in the hospital, and this was indeed the case....for every floor but the one i work on.

and i dont know if the moon was off its course or what but these patients were definitely acting as though it was full....of the 8 patients we consistently had on the floor, 4 were confused and 2 of those were climbers (people who attempt to get out of bed and risk falling due to weakness) and 1 of those 2 was combative...needless to say i injured my back constantly moving this people around in bed to keep them situation and safe.

when you work several days in a row you tend to get the same load. I had one patient that I had each night. he was married, in his 60's and his wife never left his bedside. he had a lengthy unfortuante health history but his wife was supportive and you could tell that they truly loved each other after all the years of marriage between them. In fact their aniverary was coming up that weekend. i got really close to this couple and it was the one thing i actually looked forward to when coming to work. The patient gave me a hard time, joking around that I was a pain in his ass, but he was fun and I liked to joke with him. Both were sweet. unfortunatly after this patients surgery on my last day, he did not survive the night. He unexpectadle went into respirtory distress and passed away shortly before morning shift change. I was heartbroken.

now death is certainly part of my job. I have seen several people take there last breathe, some with family by their side, others alone. Ive seen people go through code situations where they have been shoked, and pumped for a while and not response. and ive seen people go peacefully with pain medication as we anticipate the end.

This is part of the job, and it sucks. any experienced nurse will tell you "it gets easier" and to that nurse i say that bull shit. why should it get easier to see someone die....we did not become nurses to watch people die, we became nurses to help these people live.

I took this particular loss the hardest than any other, partially because i got so attached, and i think also because it was unexpected. but mostly i think it is because i am a newly wed looking forward to years and years of happiness with my husband and i cannot for the life of me imagine or dream of the day that one of us will be taken from the other and i cannot imagine the heartache that comes with this.

i went home from work that morning, after running the dealth certificate and calling his family to inform them of the loss ...and i balled with mark and masons arms around me. and then i spend the entire day/night/ and next day in bed. when i wasnt sleeping i was running this patients labs through my head, thinking of the meds i gave him, his blood pressure, his lung sounds...was there any indication that i hadnt noticed...was this somehow my fault? did i fail as a nurse. after my rest i felt better, and I realize that while im a nurse whose job it is to keep these people alive and well...i am not God and he is the one who decides when life begins and ends. This man woke up at 3 am and told his wife he was dying, he didnt go into distress until 5 am...he somehow knew. he was ready. but i wasnt. but its not my job to be.

now i can move on from this . its not something that ill carry with me daily and be upset about but im not a machine and im human and have emotions and needed to deal with it in my own little way.

my prayers are with the wife, that she may heal in her own little way as well. may God shine on her now more than ever.


i know im meant to be a nurse but hospital nursing isnt necessarily for me, truly evident after last week, as much as i love the thrill , im happier in the prevention setting. my manager offered me a prn position in home health which gives me the chance to leave the hospital, im considering it but unsure how happy id be in home health. im planning on doing a day where i run with someone and see what i think.
God will take me where I need to go.

My husband is in st louis with his guy friends tonight for a comedy tour from a tv show he likes, i miss him terribly. i miss my mason too who is off in myrtle beach with his mom, coincidentely the same week as my dad and stepmom. everyone is off having fun without little ol me! hehe. God bless them all and bring them safe back to me !

Weekend with Bestest friend

ok, so wedding was amazing and honeymoon too!

Today my Nana called me and put my on speaker phone for family to get the weekly update and I realized I really need to start blogging all of this again because I know they loved to read it.

This past weekend we were married for 2 weeks! Greer (MOH) came down to visit to see kentucky! She is the first friend to come visit me down here! (not including julia who only lives an hour away so thats not a large feat for her to visit)

Friday night, Greer got in around 630pm. The Alexanders, Greer, and Joey (marks best man) ate at the hibachi grill, Mason loves to go there because they play with him and throw food at everyone, and of course he loves the big fire on the grill when they cook in front of you. After dinner we went back to my apartment where we watched a movie (KICKASS) and all went to bed around 4 am! Crazy I know but we were having so much fun hanging out and catching up! Unfortunately Mason woke us up at 8 am and i arose to see that Greer had folded all of laundry and separated it into piles on my kitchen table. You see, Mark and I have not yet purchased a dresser for ourselves so our kitchen table is our dresser.

Apparently Greer couldnt sleep so she just did some household chores for me....Mark said she was making me look bad as a wife :)

we had breakfast and Greer and I worked on a puzzle that I had lying around but hadnt gotten to, it was very very difficult and often caused both greer and I to become frusterated but we managed to complete the puzzle!




Mark thinks it is a picture in italy, i think cape cod/new england...i thinking we will never know.

We went to the city pool for about 2 hours and layed in the sun and talked about life, why Greer cant sleep, and relationships. We had so much to discuss, even though I had just seen her at the wedding it was so hard to get good quality time in with each person with everything going on. so it was nice to relax and just catch up.

After the pool (which mason loved and made some new friends in the baby pool) we went back home, took a nap, and then headed to the Expo!

the Expo is a big event for Frankfort, ky every june. Its almost like the official beginning of summer here. I had not been until this year! Basically its a fair in the middle of downtown frankfort. We had been hyping mason up all week for this telling him he was going to eat an elephant ear. At first he didnt want to, because he thought it would be are a real elephant...im not even sure hes officialy accepted that its not a real elephant but he thought it was really yummy nethertheless! greer and I have a history of consuming large amounts of fair food and funnel cakes at cedar point so we definitely had a good time here. I enjoyed showing her some of kentucky finest! (sarcasm intended)
Mason had a great time, he actually went on some of the rides. to start he went on the merry go round and i rode with him. he went on a horse that went up and down and when it started he had the biggest smile on his face, he thought it was too cool! It was a big improvement over our attempt a year ago at rides in which he just cried the entire time, but now he is a big boy. after the merry go round he wanted to go on the dinosaur roller coaster, it looked a little rough and he was tall enough to ride alone so we werent allowed to go with him. he braved it though, didnt cry at all but he wasnt smilling he just sat there with a serious look on his face the entire time. I was so nervous for him, i was scared he would stand up and fall out of the thing !!! Mark wasnt so nervous although a few days prior he told me he wouldnt let mason ride anything that was screwed together with only two screws and behold how the dad changes his mind in the face of a begging son!
the boy that was riding next to mason was screaming his head of...but mason didnt cry...
and our last ride was the ferris wheel, all three of us were in one cart together and it was nice ....we finally had a breeze on that ride after our 98 degree weathered day!


you cant see mason in this picture but he is between us!! he liked being up high on this ride too!

we won some prizes (a dog, toy gun, and large blowup alien) and watched fireworks to finish off the night while digesting the bad food , mason loved his elephant ear!

came home, put mason to bed at 11 (LATE!) and watched paranormal activity (SCARRY!) then all went to bed, but still very late! so today was definitely a lazy sunday but with the sad goodbye of Greer.

I miss her already but she is safe back in cleveland as i write this! Forunately I will be seeing her again in only 3 weeks for cedar point! may the funnel cake consuming fun continue!!!

needless to say it was an amazing weekend with my best friend, husband, stepson, and friends! I wish every weekend was as magical!

now tomorrow i go back to the hospital for night shift for 3 in a row since school is out...yuck. i have a feeling ill be missing the school year real quick althogh i know my kids arent missing it...i ran into a few of them at the expo and one actually told me i wasnt allowed to talk to him because school was out!!! (this is the same kid that left miss you notes all over my desks with his friends when i was gone getting married and going on my honeymoon) hehe
today we just stayed mellow and hung out