St Patrick's Day

See, I TOLD ya'll I missed posting about a whole bunch of stuff!!! WAAAAYYYY, back in March, I went to my BFF's house for the weekend (she lives in the Quad Cities, I made the mistake of introducting her to her husband and his job has a stinkin' residency requirement!) I'm able to make it down to stay for a weekend a few times a year, and one of them happened to be over the big Irish holiday weekend. Davenport/Rock Island host a big parade every year, it starts in Illinois, crosses a bridge over the Mississippi river and ends in Iowa (it's the only parade in the nation to utilize an Interstate!) Well, this year it was UNSEASONABLY warm. Like 80 degrees warm. In March. In Iowa. Needless to say the turnout was incredible. Most of the parade entries have beads (think mardi gras) to hand out and the people lining the street to get neck-ful's of beads were in the tens of thousands. Patti's hubby is a firefighter in Davenport and we walked with their entry and passed out beads. I don't even know how many thousands of strands we had to hand out, but we got rid of them all---and that was just the one entry! The sight that greeted us when we crested over the bridge was unbelievable: people as far as you could see. They were on rooftops, parking garages, vehicles--anything to make themselves a little higher. Beads were hanging from tree brances (no leaves on the trees yet!), street signs, power poles and lots on the necks of little kids =) We had a wonderful time (and yes, the celebrations continued in an adult fashion afterwards). I think it'll be a LONG time before the stars align again to allow for such a gorgeous day.

All Dressed Up

Yesterday Kurt and I had the pleasure of seeing two super sweet people get married =) Nathan was a college kid here who joined EMS when Kurt and I were active there. He met Megan who was an Xray tech at our local hospital and those two crazy kids fell in love and got married yesterday =)
He went and graduated, got a "real" job and moved a couple of hours away. They got married "here" though so we got to spend their special day with them without the hassle of travel--HA!
It meant we "got" (Kurt never LOVES wearing a tie!) to dress up and spend an evening without our adorable moppets--and yes, we enjoyed it...

Zombie Prom 2027

I spent a couple of days at my girlfriends house and while I was there, they had an invitation to a Halloween costume party with a "Zombie Prom" theme to it. I have not dressed up for Halloween since I really don't know when. We just don't get that into it here, coupled with the fact that chance are Kurt will be working for any such event, means that I have no reason to get dressed up, HA!
BUT, Zombie Prom awaited us. Off my GF's hubby and I went to Goodwill to score appropriate clothing and even he had to admit, the shopping trip was pretty darn painless! We were in and out in 20 minutes, each of us with what we needed. (I went back later with my GF and we got her a dress too!)
Lots of white makeup, some scar "tattoos", and lots of baby powder in my hair--boy did I smell like a baby's heiney--and we were pretty much set. Beckett did NOT like how I looked in these pictures, but we had a fun time at the event =)

BFF time =)

On Tuesday, I headed down to see my BFF for a couple of days =) That morning while I was getting ready to go and packing, I was on the phone with her and she got rear-ended while sitting at a light! That meant we had to spend a little time getting an estimate for a new bumper =( I shopped for a while on Tuesday since she had to work: TJ Maxx, Gordman's, ya know, stores not right in my neighborhood! I ate at Chick-fil-a (can't get here!) and bought a couple more NCLEX review guides (yikes!).
She grilled yummy shrimp for dinner and had twice-baked potatoes the size of a newborn, HA!
Wednesday we hit some cute boutiques (home decorating, not clothes!) and ate lunch at a deli that served very generous sammies! Then we took in a movie---Bridesmaids!! Cute, definately worth seeing =)
In between all of that was lots of girl talk and perhaps a little bit of alcohol consumption, but not in excess! LOVE the time I get to spend with Patti!!!!

Truthful Thursday

Because you're dying to know!
School is actually crawling to an end!! My final clinical has started, 4 out of 10 are behind me, as well as 2 out of 3 math tests (batting 100% on those!). On Friday though, instead of going to the hospital we went to school and did case studies---not nearly as fun as it sounds, HA!
Since I have a camera in my purse at all times (like it or not family and friends!), we took a group shot of us part-timers. Four years ago when we started, there were 22 of us in that first Saturday morning skills group. Between transfers, failing classes, sliding into the FT group, stopping at the halfway point, etc, there are only FOUR of us from that original group left. We picked up a few girls at the halfway point that were already LPN's and decided to return to school to finish out their RN degree, so that's why you see more than 4 people in the picture =)
The group of us have been through lots together and can't believe it's almost over!!!

Mental Health Break

So this is a very demanding semester in regards to nursing school =( It's only 2 classes, a 15 week clinical (for which I miss an 8 hour day of work per week for!) and a 3 hour theory class on Thursday nights. In the theory class, we have a test every week and then move right into the information for the following weeks test. This semester's clinical includes the standard 3 math tests--which scare me stiff, AND a huge Grand Rounds paper, for which I do not yet have my client. It involves a detailed pathophysiology paper, nursing diagnoses and everything related to those, addressing all the medications and lab values that are available and presenting a very involved teaching plan---the presentation when all is done will last about an hour.

Needless to say, with all of this PLUS the usual responsibilities of being a wife, Momma to 4, full time job, home and all that comes with THOSE things, when the opportunity came up to buzz down and spend an evening/day with my BFF, I was all over it--HA!!

Just a little jaunt down to see her, she lives about 1 hour, 15 minutes away and she has a busy life as well, so we don't get to see each other nearly often enough =( We did a little shopping, lots of talking and a TON of laughing, all the things I needed!!! Can't wait to do it again soon, but it won't be soon enough for THIS hectic nursing student!! I lurve you, Patti!!!

Flashback Friday!

When I was finding a few pictures to use for Parker's FBF last week, I came across this one of my beloved hubby and my close girlfriend. It was taken at a mass casualty drill probably about 10 years ago. He hasn't seen this one in awhile, I don't believe. He will though. He reads here =)

Flashback Friday!

Since I spent the entire weekend with my BFF last weekend and did not get a single photo of the two of us, this weeks FF has to be an oldie of us, HA!
This was taken at an EMS conference that we used to attend every single year. She hates this picture because of the black eye (she bonked into the water heater in her house before we left--try turning on a light, Girlfriend! but it made for interesting stories all weekend long and that part makes me laugh =)

A weekend with my BFF!!

About 12 years ago, my very best friend was introduced to a man, by HER BFF (I introduced Patti to Doug). Well, THIS backfired, they fell in love, got married and she had to move away since he job has a residency requirement =( She only moved a little over an hours drive away, but with raising our families and a million other committments, we don't get to see each other nearly enough.
This weekend though Kurt was off and I was able to pack up and go see her! I took along my laptop so I could blog as the days progressed, but I wasn't able to get an internet connection--very odd. So now ya'll get bombarded with posts all at once when it was supposed to be spaced out.

Friday: I got to her area before she was done with work, so I continued into Davenport and did a little shopping. Mainly TJ Maxx and Target, but a found some fun things in each place, so I was happy!! I met Patti at home and we had a YUMMY dinner of bacon-wrapped shrimp and scallops and HUGE twice-baked potatoes--I wish they were sitting before me right now--HA!! Then we just mixed some very summer-y cocktails of UV Blue and lemonade and TALKED until 2:45am!! I cannot tell you the last time I stayed up that late!!!
Some random shots of my BFF and said cocktail appear above =)