Madre's Day

Happy Mothers Day to all the mamas out there! 

Today my mama and I went to brunch at Crema Cafe in Old Town

and had delicious lattes and croissant sandwiches. 

It was a perfect day. 

I am so thankful for my mom. 

I admire her strength and her thoughtfulness. 

I have met few women who have had to endure what my mom has...

and yet she still remains a truly good person

who really cares about others. 

I'm glad for her example and grateful I have a mom

who really accepts me and doesn't 

try to change who I am. 

My mom has always let me march to the beat of my own drum and 

always let me choose my own way while gently

guiding me in the right direction. 

Thank you Mom for encouraging me to go after what I am passionate about

and being my biggest supporter. I love you! 

After brunch the spouse and I went on a quick hike. 

We found a small hill that gave an awesome view of the Verde Valley and Mingus Mountain. 

We also found a plaque from 1903 when the geographical survey was done of the area. 

After that we took a back road to get back to town, in which the spouse

made me carsick from his driving skills. 

Happy Sunday! 

You have been Pink Flamingo'ed

I love a good and relatively harmless prank. 

This beautiful front yard belongs to Clayton. 

Clayton is a longtime friend who sometimes just makes the perfect target for shenanigans. 

My best friend Robyn had the brilliant idea of buying those 

dollar lawn flamingos from Target and putting dozens of them

in Clayton's front yard. 

Who doesn't want to be pink flamingo'ed? 

Unfortunately we chose an afternoon when Clayton was out of town... state, actually. 

Luckily the homeowners association never found out. Whoopsies. 

In other news, my dear friend Julie's son Wyatt turned 5 today... crazy! I remember 

when Julie was pregnant with the little guy. Seems like 

yesterday. His birthday party

was super cute... superhero themed. Julie is 

so creative. 

Happy Birthday Wyatt! I hope you liked your Angry Birds toy set! I was sad

too when they took the bouncy castle down.

Think we can talk your mom into getting me one for my birthday?  

Whelp... I need to clean my house. I have two shifts in a row

starting Monday, my best friend gets married this coming weekend, 

and my mama-in-law Sue is coming to town. 

I just downed a chai and two tacos from Tacobell (that's right, don't judge me), 

so maybe once this heartburn calms down I'll

sweep or clean a toilet or something. 

Already Jaded?

Today was probably as a good a day as work will ever be. It was just a steady, easygoing day. Except for one thing. 

Now, don't misunderstand me. I love my job when I can 

make a difference or bring someone comfort when they aren't feeling well. 

But there are some people that really make me question humanity nowadays. 

Today I had the misfortune of dealing with a difficult patient

that was plainly just unpleasant and rude. 

I don't mind difficult people, or even the rudeness when it's directed at me.
I'm there to do my job and make sure that person gets well, no matter their attitude.

This person was very sick and is seeing the 

results of the abuse that he has done to his body

over many years. 

That doesn't bother me... your choices are your own. 

Respect or trash your body however you please. 

What I found so hard to deal with though, was this patient

being mean to his father. 

When a parent flies from across the country to be at your 

bedside, they deserve your thanks... not curse words. 

This poor elderly gentleman (who was so kind and nice) has 

to endure his child yelling at him, being unreasonable, 

and never recieving any appreciation. 

It's true, I don't know the whole story or the complete dynamic of their relationship. 

But it was apparent to me that this father just 

wanted his son to get better and be more responsible for himself. 

All day this patient was rude to me. Everytime 

I did something for this patient, his father

said thank you, or apologized that I had to take care of his son. 

That really broke my heart. 

I cried on the way home from work for the first time... and not because

I was a stressed out new grad. It was

 because this person felt they

had to apologize for someone else's (a grown adult, mind you) behavior. 

At the time I said "That's okay, no worries" or "please don't feel you have to apologize,
I am just doing my job".
I asked if there is anything if I could

get him. All day I constantly checked with him to see if there
was anything I could do for this guy.
 I wish I had said more. I'm not sure what, but maybe something

more comforting. I don't know. 

If I ever get sick like that, I won't have a dad there to help me like this patient did. 

The whole thing just makes me really sad :( 

Anyway, I'll stop rambling. More heart rhthym training tomorrow. My head hurts. 

Praying for comfort for that father, and that I pass my quiz 

tomorrow. 

Namaste. 

Happy Nurses Week!

Happy Nurses Week!

I love my job and am glad this is the career I chose... even though I have only been an RN for a few months, I am excited to see where nursing will take me in my life! 

Being a new nurse can be stressful because I am still working 

on improving my knowledge and practice. I don't always know the answers

and I still have a lot of room for improvement. There is always

something new to learn! 

Thanks to all the nurses out there who work hard to care for their patients everyday, and thanks to 

the great nurses who have served as an example to me! 

We all rock! 

Happy Cinco de Mayo

It's Sunday. I have two days off. Instead of drinking margaritas and celebrating Cinco de Mayo

I am at home elevating my aching feet. I know, grown up problems. 

But seriously. Nursing is tough. Unless you work the job it's hard to understand, 

especially when you are a floor nurse. 

Administering meds, assessments, your stable patient who gets chest pain right at the start

of your shift, dealing with anxious people, doctors... makes the mind spin. 

I am so exhausted at the end of the day... in the hospital environment, it's always

nonstop. 24/7. All the dad-gum time. 

I did get to see Tracy from the lab who I used to work with when I was a lab rat. I miss her. 

We used to have so much fun together. 

Anyways, enough of my rambling. I have a staff meeting tomorrow (yay) so I need to go to bed early-ish and NOT sleep in. 

I love my bed (as pictured below)... it's becoming my best friend since my main activity besides working is... SLEEP! 

Buenos noches! 

Smoooooothie time!

Summertime is here... well, for me anyway. Being a recent college grad, May equals summer. 

Today I had my second day of Tele training. It's going okay. Not going to lie, heart rhythms are still a little scary. There are so many aspects of an ECG to look at when identifying the different rhythms. Like today... looking at ECG that shows a sinus rhythm with ST segment elevation with an AV block blah blah blah. 

I chose to be in med-surg as a new grad to specifically avoid all this cardiac monitoring nonsense. I think my unit going tele right after I was hired is God's way of telling me to stop being a weenie and just learn the damn rhythms. Sigh. 

Anyways... today when I got home from class and working on a case study with Don, Ellen, and Susan (my fellow RN's and study buddies for the day), I decided to make a smoothie with the frozen yoghurt discs I made the other day. I have a cute ice tray that is shaped like lemon slices from Crate and Barrel. I just spooned honey-greek yoghurt in the tray and let it freeze overnight. Then I took 8 of the disks, 1/2 a cup of raspberries, 1/2 cup of blueberries, and 2/3 cup of almond milk and blended. 

Tasted like fruit filled heaven. 

Also, the frozen yoghurt cubes are so good I just keep popping them out and stuffing one in my mouth for a cool treat. You could do that too if the smoothie maybe doesn't sound like your thing :) 

Work tomorrow... if anyone needs me I'll be the nurse on the unit wandering around with a befuddled expression on my face. Ha! 

Have an awesome weekend! 

True Love Last June...

In case you didn't know this about me, I sometimes make cakes. Like wedding cakes. 

And desserts... which to be honest I like better than making cakes. 

Cakes make me anxious. And they take foreeeeevvvvveeeeerrrr to decorate. 

I kind of hate making cakes to be honest. 

Anyway.... one of the last weddings I did was last summer. It's been almost a whole year since I've

baked for a wedding... baby-showers non-stop this year though. Something in the water I think ;)

I posted about the wedding on my old blog, but since it was such

a beautiful home-made wedding that involved one of my dear mates from nursing school, 

I thought I would repost it here. 

The desserts I made for Mr. & Mrs. Haney's beautiful wedding were cakepops (vegan and gluten free) 

mini-cheesecakes (which were also vegan), madelienes dusted with rose-flavored pink sugar, sweetie pies, and pink velvet cupcakes. 

Harmony, who has been Mrs. Haney for almost a year now, is a fellow nurse and a very lovely person. It was an honor to make some confections for her special day last year. Happy Coming-Up Anniversary in June! And best of luck to you and Jake on your journey to Portland... where I will have to come visit because it sounds like my kind of town ;) (who doesn't love a city filled with parks, food trucks, and bookstores!?)