He did so well!!

Today was E's first day at the sitter- a.k.a. my friend H who has been awesome enough to watch him when we both have to work. I was an absolute nervous wreck over this. H is great- very sweet, a mom herself to 2 kids , one thats only a few months older than E- so really I shouldn't be worried. BUT as you probably have read from my previous posts, I somehow turned into the mom I dreaded: the crazy neurotic one :/

I try my hardest to hold my crazies in, or at least just let myself deal with them when I'm alone. And I definatly try my very best not to project my crazies on anyone who is taking care of E. As long as they know my worst fear's and things that are non-negoitable about his safety then I'm pretty lax on what they do.

Anyhow, me and DH drop E off, I giver H the rundown on how E is and then off we go. He didn't even seem to notice I left but as soon as I got in the car I burst into tears and DH just rolls his eyes at me and say's that he's fine and in good hands. We decieded to go to lunch so the whole way there I start worrying and then get a text with a cute pic of the boys playing and E all smiley.HUGE sigh of relief. I finally relaxed and we went about our day shopping and spending some adult alone time.

H got him down for a nap just fine...HUGE SHOCKER for me...and then sent the above pic when it was close to pick-up time. I am so happy and relieved that his first day went well. It makes it so much easier knowing that when the time comes for him to do a full day that he will be ok and happy there!!

Day 1 and Day 2

I'm a little late on posting this...as always lol...but it sure has been one crazy week!

I did my first "real" shift at the AFH on Wednesday and boy did I plan that poorly! I always babysit Wednesday's during the day so that I can bring E with me and he can play with the other baby. I normally don't have him stay the whole time since he doesn't seem to nap there very well and gets super fussy but DH had to go to work so I got the monkey all day. Anyways, my day started at 11a at work, then I got off at 5:30p headed home to drop off E to grandma and grandpa, inhaled dinner, gave the monkey his nighttime love, then headed to work at the AFH at 6:30p.

The first half of the night went pretty well. Gave out meds, helped everyone go to sleep, finished my chores, then Chris got off work so we texted back and forth for a bit, did a night check, and then laid down for an hour or so.  Got up, finished my last few chores, and stared getting everyone up for the AM. This is where the fun started. I had a few pts. not wanting to get up so I was basically behind almost an hour doing the rest of my AM duties :/ Not the way I planned to finish off my first day. I was lucky enough to get almost caught up by the time the shift relief came in but kinda a kill to the ego cause I was thinking I was doing so well. But after working 21 hours I was absolutely drained! I headed up, hopped in bed, E had just gotten up so Chris brought him to me for smooches and then I slept til 1p.

For some reason I CANNOT sleep longer than that on the days I work til the AM. It really sucks!

My 2nd shift went a lot smoother since I knew to get everything done before I woke the pts. up. By the time the shift change happened I was basically done and able to leave right on time :)

I *think* I am getting the hang of things pretty well and really looking forward to learning more. I do my first day shift in April and that should be a whole new can of worms to open up :)

My night has come!

Tonight will be my first night alone at the AFH (Adult Family Home)!


I'll backtrack a little....last Friday (amidst my horrific Dry Socket pain) the owner of the AFH called me to tell me they decided to let go of the other gal they trained the same time as me, and just keep me! Apparently, her and the shift managers thought that I would be better suited for the position and after my training on Monday I found out the other gal wasn’t very reliable. Now I knew from the get-go that she wasn’t too sure about her so I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised when she called. But I was  She offered me an extra night shift and said she wanted me to work my way to one day shift and one night shift- plus being on call. SCORE!

I never thought that I would like being in the AFH environment but I can honestly say I am really enjoying it :)Yes there are some “gross” parts of the job- but hey that’s nursing for you! Your bound to run into something that will gross you out at least a zillion times in your career lol. The ladies are such sweethearts and in the short time I have been there I have grown quite attached to them.

So wish my luck my dear followers and I will update after I get a few winks in tomorrow morning :P

Happy St Patty's Day!

Thought I'd spread some Irish joy from my little Leprecon :P

Pain, pain, go away...

...please don't ever come back to play!


I swear this pain will never go away. It's like one toothache goes away and then another comes...and then the vicious cycle starts all over again :(

About 2.5 weeks ago I had a tooth pulled cause the previous dentist botched it and basically the tooth was a goner :( It was a back molar so I didn't really care at that point. Then a week later the pain was still there so I went back to the dentist and they said it was just healing. The following week the tooth was still hurting when I went in for my check-up and I had them "look" and again was told it was STILL healing. That was a Tuesday, but Thursday night I wanted to take a knife to my gums and relieve the pain/pressure. I was able to see another dentist at 7am on Friday where he confirmed it was Dry Socket...something I asked about at the 1st visit!

Now it is Tuesday and my lower back molar is hurting :( It started shortly after I got some relief on Friday from the Dry Socket but we couldn't tell if it was stress from the other tooth or what. So now I will have to get my happy a** up at the crack of dawn tomorrow and go see the 2nd dentist who misdiagnosed me and hope that they don't mess this tooth up!

Oh and tomorrow will be my first night alone at my new job so I am praying they can do it right the first time!!

Feeling so MIA these days...

I have had one horrific week I tell ya! Between stressing about my jobs, Ethan dealing with his 6 month vaccines, studying for my NAR test, and then this ridiculous tooth pain I have been dealing with I feel like someone has hit me with a truck!

I promise to post more later about my interesting adventures though :)

Hope everyone else has had a fabulous weekend!

Tag it Tuesday

I am a little late in the day for this but hopefully that's ok :)

Adventures of a military family of 8 started this game that I think is pretty cool! The general idea is that you add your name to a spreadsheet and "Tag" the blogs above you and they tag you back. You can check out their blog for more details but here are the rules:

The Rules to playing "Tag, you're it" are simple:

• add your information to the spreadsheet 
• "Tag" everyone else above you on the list
• Check back regularly to "Tag" new friends below you
• "Tag" back everyone who has "Tagged" you
• One thing I do have to bring up, PLEASE be kind and do not erase or change peoples information, I occasionally have time to look & fix url's but not often lately :(

Here is the spreadsheet!

Have fun with it!!

First day on the job!

It was amazing! Corny I know, but I truly feel like I am fulfilling this longing I have been having to work as a nurse. Now I know I am not a full RN yet but to me this is a HUGE step. I have always been a nanny and worked as someone's admin assistant so being in the medical field is so new to me.


The facility I am working at is giving me one 12 hour over-night shift to start with. The kicker? I am all ALONE during the shift after my training is complete. THAT'S why I feel so psyched about it all. Normally in an Adult Family Home there is more than one nurse there, but since we are such a small facility there's no need. We have 6 wonderful ladies that are patients, and they do pretty thorough training so that you are competent in your skills.

I will be taking my state exams for my NAR (Nursing Assistant- Registered) and Nurse Delegation next week. I am very focused on getting through my schooling as quickly as possible so I am trying my hardest to push myself to the next level and go above and beyond what they are expecting of me. I am also utilizing the other nurses that are working there and picking their brains :) They have been great about telling me what schools are best, which program I should do and what not.

I am just so giddy over this opportunity and can't wait to see where it takes me!!!

I am finally making so headway!

My dream career is to be an RN. I was SO close to entering the RN program a few years back but got nervous and dropped out. Can you say STUPID?!?!?!!

Now that I have a family I know now more than ever I need to get my rear in gear and get my degree so I can provide a stable life for my child and future children. We want at least 1-2 more kids and we can't do that with the way we are living now so things NEED to change. 

I have been on a mission the last few weeks trying to get my ducks in a row for the upcoming quarter and seeing about getting a job in the medical field. Kinda hard when your not certified. But THANKFULLY a nursing home close to me posted an ad on craigslist about needing a CNA and didn't need them to be certified. There were other steps you needed to follow for the job so that they could get around the certification issue and I had almost all of them so I applied!

I interviewed with the gal last week and she had already hired someone but was still looking at her options. When I left I was kinda bummed but held on to hope since she said she could very well call me in a few weeks with an opening. 

Then today when I got off work my MIL said she called :) She offered to start me on training, let me do one 12 hour night shift a week until I finish my certification and then we would talk about adding one 12 hour day shift a week!! Although it's not much I feel like it's some kind of step in the direction I want to be in. I can get some experience that I really need, plus earn money for school, and get time to study for classes. I really hope this works for me!

Show Us Your Life: Typical Day

I'm stealing this from my internet buddy Lisa. She is an awesome lady who I had the pleasure of "meeting" on a wedding board, and have stayed in contact since then. I actually even ran into her one day at Bed, Bath and Beyond but that's a whole other story lol! She writes a wonderful blog that I encourage those who don't already follow her to take a look at!

She has taken this from Kelly's Korner, which is another blog that I started following today that looks great!

So here we go...My Typical Day:

6:45a- Ethan wakes up has a quick bottle (me and DH take turns feeding him his bottle) and is usually back down at 7am :)

9a-10a- Ethan is up for the day and gets dressed and has solids (the one who got to "sleep" in takes this one). Then we do some playing and I check my e-mail, FB, blog, and bank account while he plays in the bouncer. At some point I get dressed for the day as well, and make some coffee.

11am- On Wednesdays and Fridays I head off to work (occasionally a Tuesday or Thursday gets thrown in here too). If it's a non-work day I am probably switching between working for the Hosptial via telecommuting and playing with E.

12pm- Ethan goes down for a nap

1pm- If I am at work, I get the other baby up and feed him lunch. I try to eat something at this point as well.

2pm- Ethan wakes up and has a bottle. On my work days DH brings him to the house I am working at so he can play with the other baby.

3pm- Playtime regardless is I'm working or not lol. Baby Einstein movies usually gets played around this time. We don't really "watch" them but more so listen to the music and occasionally stare at the babies faces.

3:30pm- On work days, the other baby (Baby D) goes down for nap

4pm- Ethan goes down for a nap. I try to take this time to clean and catch up on shows if I am just worn out at the moment and need to sit. I try and have a small snack now too.

5-6pm- Ethan gets up. Baby D gets up on work days. E has a bottle and on work days I usually go home around 6. If it's a Tuesday I am heading to work at the College at 5.

6:30pm- Ethan eats dinner of solids and a sippy cup. And if a bath is needed we take one after dinner.

7:30pm-Ethan gets a big bottle, change into jammies, gives his kisses to grandma and daddy if he's home, and rocks for a few minutes with mommy before we get tucked in with a binky and his freddie.

8:30pm- I finally get to eat dinner, which has now become just a small salad. I catch up on the rest of my shows if any, play on the internet for a bit, and wait for DH to get off if he's working.

9:30pm- On Tuesdays I am getting off work.

10:30pm- DH gets home if he's working, we chat for a bit, watch any of "our shows" and then I head to bed!


Just reading about my day is exhausting lol! I know I've always been a busybody but wow!

What does YOUR day look like???

I am motivated!!

I have failed miserably at my attempts to lose weight since I came home from AZ in December :(

I hate the way I look. I feel like this fat ugly blob and am so uncomfortable in my own skin. It's quite embaressing and to be honest I am starting to get depressed about it. So I am making it a point to buckle down and lose this weight!! I am first going to start trying to lose the extra weight I gained while pregnant with E (which is about 25 lbs still) and then I will set a new set of goals for the rest.

I am going home in May (hopefully) and I can't bear the thought of looking like this still when I see everyone. So to my dear followers I am asking you for your best dieting tip! HELP ME LOOK NORMAL AGAIN :)

Right now I am cutting out as much carbs as I can ( no sweets since I gave it up for lent, and no breads or pastas), limiting my soda intake ( I am aiming for no soda but I'm only human so I'm trying to focus on one thing at a time) to 1 a day and it must be diet. I walk with E at least 30 min on the days it's nice out and have been going to the gym at least 3x/ week for an hour but that has been kinda hard since I've been working more, so hopefully that goes back to normal soon.