Just Because...

Pin It Now! Because it's the last day of August...

Because I feel like sharing...

Because you have nothing better to do...

Ask me a question!

I haven't done one of these in quite some time, so I thought now was a good a time as ever.  Anything you're just dying to know about me?  I am an open book, ask me anything.*

Answers will be posted Friday!

*unless the question is crude, distasteful, or mean, in which case, go away!

A Sad Story

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Occasionally at work, there is free food.  On Fridays there is popcorn.  Once in a while, there is birthday cake that a resident's family has brought in so that we can help celebrate.

Yesterday was a birthday cake day.  

A resident turned 200 or something [okay, so in reality it was more like 85] yesterday and there was a cake in the activities room.  It was near the end of my shift when we found out it was up there.

Another CNA and I made our way to the middle of the building to get a slice around 2:40.  The doors to the activities room was closed, so we headed toward the break room to see if it had been moved in there.

It had not.

On our way back by activities, we could see the cake on the counter through the glass.  Because church services began at 2:30, activities was locked for the time being.

We could not get a slice of cake.

I'd Make a Terrible Burglar

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The other day while my husband was out of town, I went out to the garage to leave for work.  I punched in the code for the keypad.

Nothing happened.

Uh-oh.

This was a big problem for several reasons.  

1. My husband was out of town and I didn't know why they keypad wasn't working.

2. The garage is unattached and the door is the only way in and out.

3. I had to get to work.

I tried for ten minutes or so before giving up on the keypad.  At that point I turned my attention to a window on the side of the garage.  I managed to get the window open and got myself up on the ledge.  Once I got up there, I had to get back down.  It was dark in the garage because it was 6:15AM and there weren't any lights on.

So I hopped down.

And then I fell down.

The window ledge is at least 4 1/2 feet off of the ground.  It wasn't even the problem.  The problem was the huge area of broken concrete underneath the window.  I didn't have a flat area to land.  When my feet hit the uneven part, I immediately began to fall forward.  Unable to catch myself, I hit the ground.  Both knees hit the floor.  Don't worry, my head didn't hit the ground.

It was stopped by the car door.

Yes, I managed to smack my face on the side of my car. 

I ended up with a fat, bloody lip from smacking my face, a big strawberry burn and bruise on my left knee, and a big bruise on the right knee.  

I laid on the garage floor for a few seconds wondering if I had really just fallen from a window ledge.  After I sat up, I realized that my scrubs were filthy and that I needed to change my pants.  Once I got in the house I cried.  

Convinced that the universe wanted me to return to bed, I changed my clothes and headed to work, where my morning continued as it had started -- residents were cranky and crazy like they always are.

My afternoon was much better, though.  The same crazy people say the funniest stuff.  I was able to end my day listening to stories of one woman's French husband and just how great the sex was.

I love my job.

Making Progress

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Baby dresses aren't the only things I've been making lately.  I began this quilt earlier this year and posted an update back in May.  Thanks to school and work, the top took a bit of time to complete.  I am happy to report now, though, that the quilt top is finished!

Looking good, right?  I can't decide what I love more, the brightly-colored hearts or the ric-rac crossing the quilt.

I haven't made any decisions regarding the material for the back or the binding.  I feel really accomplished for having finished the top, though.  It's one step closer to being finished!

Dirt

Pin It Now! I learned a valuable lesson about dirt this summer.

Quality matters.

This can be applied to all sorts of situations in one's life -- the quality of food you put in your body, the quality of the shoes you put on your feet, the quality of the vehicle that shuttles you and your loved ones down the highway at break-neck speeds.... The list goes on.

Soul-searching aside, for the purposes of this post, we'll go with potting soil quality.

My father-in-law does gutter work on the weekends.  For mother's day, he built my mother-in-law a couple of planter boxes made out of gutter.  I thought it was a cute idea, so Michael had him build me a couple one weekend when he was home visiting.

I wasted no time filling them with beautiful Wave Petunias.  After I planted the box on the left, I ran out of potting soil and it was a week before I purchased more and planted the box on the right.  At that point they were still roughly the same size.

It quickly became apparent that the first bag of potting soil I used was of significantly lower quality than the second box.  The photo above was taken a couple of weeks ago, more than two months after the petunias were planted.  The difference is so staggering that I had a difficult time convincing someone that they were the same type of plant.

These petunias were planted in the generic potting soil from Lowe's.  It never got any larger than this.  I definitely won't be purchasing this brand of potting soil again.

These petunias were planted in basic Miracle Grow potting soil that I picked up at Wal-Mart for $8.  The plants thrived in this soil, making it the obvious choice for future planting.

On another note, if you fail to water your plants, regardless of the potting soil type, it's likely that they will croak.

Product Rave: Nail Polish

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The other day I took a trip down to my local Sally Beauty Supply to have a look around.  Just inside the front door I was greeted by a beautiful wall of nail polish in every shade imaginable. 

After 15 minutes of pouring over the individual colors, I managed to pick out one to purchase.

The color I chose was Caribbean Temptation by China Glaze.  It's a lovely iridescent dark pink.

The difference between this nail polish and the bottle you get for $1 at the local big box store are noticeable the moment you take the lid off.  Whereas cheaper nail polishes are thick and gooey, China Glaze has a smooth viscosity.  It goes on evenly and each coat dries in just a couple of minutes.  Two coats were more than plenty with this polish.

With one quick swipe of topcoat, I was ready to walk out the door.  Even now, two days later, I notice very little wear to my nails.  I'm certain that I can get several more days out of this with very little touch up.

For $4.99 a bottle, I give China Glaze an A+!

My Latest Project

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One of my friends at work is having a baby in a couple of months [everyone at work seems to be pregnant these days].  She invited me to her baby shower a couple of weeks ago.  I wasn't able to attend, but I still wanted to make her a cute gift.

I think homemade gifts are great.  They take time and effort, which I think really shows how much the gift-giver cares.  I mean, if you didn't care a whole lot, you'd just go and buy something off of the registry, right?

Anyway, back to the gift.  I wanted to sew something up, but didn't want to do a quilt.  That's all I sew, so that seems like a strange statement, right?  I found a cute pattern while shopping a few weeks ago and decided I wanted to try my hand and sewing baby clothes.  The pattern said it was easy, so how hard could it be?

I think I talked it up in my mind so much that I made it more difficult than it really should have been.  There were a few times that I had to just walk away for a couple of hours or read the pattern 87 times and flip my fabric over and around before figuring out which direction it was supposed to go.  Of course, after I finished, I couldn't understand why I thought it was so hard in the first place.

I dropped the gift off this afternoon at work since I wasn't able to attend the shower.  I had a deadline, too.  The girl is going PRN at the end of the week and doesn't live in town, so I had to get it to her quickly.  The dress turned out well.  I'm crossing my fingers that it doesn't fall apart in her washing machine six months down the road, especially since my name is on the tag!

What do you think?  Future Etsy store merchandise?

High Score

Pin It Now! How cute is this Gmail theme?

Seriously.

This is the theme I currently have my Gmail set to and it's called High Score.  I was born in the mid-80's, so I am familiar with the original Nintendo gaming system.  I love all things Mario, so this theme is right up my alley.

What games did you enjoy the most from your childhood?

Happy Monday

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Have a wonderful week!

Saying Good-Bye

Pin It Now! I said good-bye to one of my favorite nurses today.

I started on Station 4 back in January, which is when I met Cyn. She was the RN working the night shift on that hall. She always came in early, so I had a chance to get to know her. She's very good at her job and cares about her residents.

A few weeks ago, I found out she had been seeking employment elsewhere. When I came back from vacation, I learned that she had accepted a job at another nursing home working as their Director of Nursing. I know she will do an amazing job, but I will definitely miss her.

This morning was the last time I'll see her before she leaves for her new job (she refuses to get Facebook). As she left I gave her a big hug and told her if I ever found myself looking for a job, I'd give her a call. :)

Best of luck, Cyn!!!

Day Shift

Pin It Now! Greetings from first shift!

I'm on my lunch break and wanted to say HELLO!

It wasn't as difficult as I thought getting up early. The fact that it was still dark outside when my alarm went off freaked me out a bit. Even Penelope didn't want to get out of bed!

Where in the Midwest Are We?

Pin It Now! 37,894 brownie points to the person who can tell me where we are today!

Bittersweet

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At 11PM tonight, I will clock out for my vacation.  I will have nine, wonderful days away from the stress of [sometimes] crazy residents, people calling off, and wearing tennis shoes [I live in flip flops in the summer].

At 11PM tonight, I will clock out for vacation.  When I return, I will no longer be working second shift.  I finally moved to the top of the list [a list I've been on since March 4th] to be moved to day shift.

At 11PM tonight, I will clock out for my vacation.  When I return, I will no long have the same group of residents that I have had since January.  I will no longer go into the same four rooms that I have been going in for the last seven months.  I will no longer be tucking the same people in at the end of each shift.

Station 4 has been my home since the end of January.  The staff and residents have been my "family" while at work.  They've seen me on my good days and they've seen me on my bad days.  They have enjoyed my baking and we've eaten our share of Mexican food.

I am very excited about moving to day shift.  It means that my wonderful husband and I will finally be working the same shift.  It means eating dinner together in the evening.  It means going to sleep at the same time.  It means being able to communicate face-to-face rather than saying goodnight through text messages.

At the same time, part of me is going to miss my 2nd shift family.  So tonight, when I tuck in my residents, there will be lots of good-bye hugs and reminiscing about all of the fun we've had and all of the crazy people we've taken care of over the last few months.

Yard Sale!

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A few weeks ago, a friend approached me about having a yard sale.

In July.

In my driveway.

I seized the opportunity to get rid of some junk that we had stored in our basement and hastily agreed.  It wasn't until later that I began to consider the likelihood of blazing hot weather occurring the morning of our sale.

Fortunately, the weather gods smiled down upon us and we were blessed with temperatures around 80F, clouds, and a light breeze.  It was enough that we didn't roast or flee to the interior of my house.

I made a decent amount of money.  I didn't make a lot by any means, but I did okay.  Now all I have to do is decide what to do with the money.

Here's what I should do with the money:

Put it into savings

Here's a list of things I'd like to do with it:

Get my hair done [it needs it!]

Spending money for vacation

Buy the adorable desk accessories I've been eying from the Container Store

Decisions, decisions...

Time Flies!

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Can you believe the date today?

IT'S AUGUST.

Seriously?  When did that happen?

I didn't see it coming.  Really, I didn't.

Okay, so I did have a vague inkling that it was coming, especially considering that my husband celebrated his 26th birthday just last week.... but still.  August.

Christmas will be here before we know it.  I fully plan on addressing our holiday cards this month.  I know it seems a bit early, but I want to have them in the mail the day after Thanksgiving.  Judging from the way this year feels like it's flying by, that's next Wednesday.

A lot has been going on lately that has kept me away from my little slice of the blogosphere.  Don't worry, though, I'm back.  I apologize for only posting four times last month, but I was a little busy and wasn't managing my time well.  I'm working on it.  In the meantime, I have lots of things I want to do and share with you over the next few weeks.