A year full of thanks

Okay, so I've been behind, which is clear by my month overview that was supposed to catch me up in the blog world, but the truth is, I never did a "what I have to be thankful for" post. Now, I'm an avid fan of giving thanks on more than one day a year, so here goes my year of thanks, not on Thanksgiving, but on my own late terms.

The truth is that I have so much to be thankful for that it's almost ridiculous to me that I am this blessed. So, here goes another bullet pointed list.

• My husband was laid off from his job in the spring of this year. I am grateful for a lot of things that occurred because of this development in our lives. First off, the day it happened, we did not panic, we sat down that evening and calmly discussed what things we could live without and things we could scale back on. I am thankful that we remained calm and that I have a marriage so strong that a stressful incident of that magnitude did not come close to disrupting our happiness and did not make us once direct the stress at each other. Secondly, my husband no longer enjoyed that job. In fact, he pretty much hated it and was in a bad spot. I think a power higher stepped in because he would have never quit that job because it was financially great and his work ethic is strong. Lastly, I am thankful for a new, supposedly temporary job, that came along a month later and is still going strong and makes him happy to get out of bed and go to ever day. This situation showed me that we can handle pretty much anything, as long as we are together and money truly does not buy happiness and, if you stop and pay attention to where the money is going, you'll find that you don't need most of it. Most of us live well beyond our means and when you cut back on things, like eating out or going to Target four days a week, you won't even miss them and you'll wonder why you ever did those things.


• I'm a nurse! I am very thankful for this. It was hard and there was doubt, but I graduated, passed my boards, and am now doing something that makes my soul feel satisfied. I only wish that everyone was as lucky as I am.


• I am thankful for our ever changing house guests and for the things I have learned because of them. I am gaining parenting skills, great conservations, more appreciation of my relationship with Aaron, gratefulness for a beautiful home that is so much more than just a house, and much respect for the parents out there. It seriously is a hard job.


• Odds and Ends things: my health, always having food in our pantry and heat in the cold and air in the heat, that our families have made it through the tough recession fairly unscathed, for all the hugs, kisses, and well wishes I have received all year long (I was blessed without a lot of these), friends to make me laugh, a full calendar, though tiring, full of social events, an obscene amount of clothing and shoes in my closet, and enough love in my heart for me to share.

This has been an unbelievable year, even with the bumps along the way. I can't wait until next year to see what is in store for us, possibly the pitter-patter of little feet or at least the anticipation of hearing them. (Don't worry, B. I'll give you a heads up!) If you're reading this, then thank you for being in my life. I couldn't image my life without any of the people in it.

A day late...make that a month!

Okay, so it's harder than I thought to keep up with reading blogs, writing this blog, facebook, and basically, anything involving the computer, when I'm not sitting in front of it five days a week and prefer face-to-face contact when I'm given a few free moments. I'm trying to find a new and better juggling act because the one I have been using has left many things laying on the ground around me. When did we all become so busy? Those moments of stopping and taking a breath are few and far between. With that being said, I'm going to try to do better with the blog because I actually enjoy writing it and it is a way of stopping and taking a breath for me. So let's rewind a month and I'll fill you in on what I've been doing. I know, you've all (all five or six of you) been anxiously awaiting my return.

One Month Recap

• I started one of the jobs of my dreams (Yes, I have many dream jobs). It has been eye-opening to say the least. I spent the first week and a half, terrified and feeling as if I was only in the way, since I am a new nurse in a very, very busy atmosphere with many experienced nurses. I'm getting into the swing of things now. I actually had three rooms by myself all day on Saturday. I've learned I'm much slower than everyone else, but when I voiced my concern, I was told it would be at least six months before I had a routine down and a year before I felt really comfortable. Highlights (good and bad) on the job have included seeing a chest tube put in someone with a pneumothorax, an NG tube put into some one's stomach, getting fetal heart tones on a pregnant patient, seeing two patients code and be shocked and brought back to life, being taught by someone who could have cared less, being taught by experienced people who gave me tips that I will use to make things go more smoothly for myself in the future, numerous ivs (both successful and unsuccessful), seeing a patient being intubated, being hit on by two of my patients (this falls into the bad category), being told at least ten times that I look either 22 or 23 or 19 or 20 (this falls in the good category), having a 7 month old take a flu swab better than a grown man, and many, many other things. It's crazy how fast the day goes. It's a blur and I love that. I love how I go to one room and it could be a fractured bone, then another room with a patient with chest pain, and then to another with kidney stones. Working in the ER takes every bit of what we learned in school and then some. I thought I would be wide awake when I got home from a 12-hour shift, possibly on an adrenaline rush, but instead, I'm usually exhausted, so sleeping hasn't been an issue. I've been working 7am-7pm, but this week, I start on 12pm-12am. We'll see how that goes. All in all, it's been everything I thought it would be and I'm excited to see and do more. I'm sure there will be many posts about it in the future.
• I hosted another successful Thanksgiving for the O family, thanks to help from my wonderful husband and sister-in-law, who did a lot of prepping and cooking the day before, since I had to work. The menu consisted of apple cider brined turkey, cornbread, toasted pecan, and apple dressing, cranberry salsa, gravy, roasted carrots and parsnips, green beans with a mustard vinegar glaze, roasted brussel sprouts with apples and bacon, mashed potatoes, corn salad, spinach salad with warm dressing, toasted bread, pecan pie, carrot cake, and spicy oatmeal cookies. Now the food was delicious, but what's Thanksgiving without family drama, which was also served to us. Ugh. Can't everyone just get along on a day to be thankful for what you have? We had full bellies, good company, and a warm house to celebrate in. That's plenty to be grateful for and enough to keep most people thankful. I digress. It really was a great day.
• I also had a great Thanksgiving with my family. We ate well, played games, laughed a lot, and stayed later than I planned to, but I didn't want to leave the fun. No one should have to work the day after Thanksgiving!
• Other random things that happened, I had a sinus infection and got over it, have started putting up Christmas decorations and after the tree is up tonight, will be finished, had family pictures taken, finished over half of my Christmas shopping, went to a baby shower, savored every moment with Aaron, since we didn't get too many moments, and enjoyed many days going from pajamas to shower to clean pajamas.