Presents!

Oh my gracious! I didn't think my news would be the shot heard 'round the world! Nevertheless, it has been quite the topic. 

As excited as I am for the big move, I have been a little worried! When one moves out, they must buy so many things to live on their own. And I'm a list person. Not an A-list person, but simply, a list person. At work, I make lists. At school, I make lists. At my other work, I make lists. At home, I make lists. Get my point? Anyways, I find myself laying in bed at night making this list in my head of things I need to buy. And every night, the list starts over again. (Don't judge me, please.) Every list starts with the same thing: a vacuum. I'm not a neat person. My room is trashed, my car is a mess, my class notes are everywhere. (But ask me to find my work shirt or my class notes from 10/11 and I'll tell you under the desk to the left of the Anthropologie bag or to the right of the laundry basket underneath my Lit binder.) But I seem to be fixated on this stupid vacuum. Maybe it's a subconscious thing... (Psych people can have a hay-day with this.) So tonight, I'm telling my mom that I am really concerned about not having a vacuum. After she laughs her bum off because, "if you don't use one now, why do you think you'll use it when you move out?!," she so kindly reminds me that us kids pooled our money for a vacuum cleaner for her birthday when we were little (12 maybe. No, her vacuum wasn't broken. We just thought we should buy her a vacuum.) And moms news? It's mine if I want it! Oh yeaa! 

A photo of my vacuum. For you. I googled this, so maybe mine's not as nice...

She also said that she has some extra fancy dishes for me! Apparently, someone bought a few sets and its spread out among the family with some still left over. So come visit me! We can have takeout pizza on fancy dishes. 

Mother Update: She told me she was going to miss me. But apparently not enough to scratch the scrapbook room.

And for a little cuteness, mom and I babysat Addy and Teagan from southern Rhode Island this weekend because their mom and dad went to Hawaii!

And they were well-behaved ladies in meeting!

I would also like to show you my lock screen on my phone right now:

Looking forward to actually living here! :)

Visiting will suffice for now.

I'm An Awful Blogger

I really am! And I'm not proud of it. School has overwhelmed my life recently and I know that only accounts for the last 2 months, but dude don't make me feel worse than I do!!! 

So I recently went to visit a few friends in Fargo, ND. It's a place I have wanted to move to for a while now. I don't know why the Midwest pulls me like it does, but I have this wicked urge to up and move when I graduate. Anyways, I went with a few New England-ers to visit a few former New England-ers and we had a great time in Hunter, a small town about an hour away from Fargo. I totally fell in love with the state of ND! I bought another round of tickets today actually! Not my moving-tickets because that's more of a road trip... But I am headed out there to check out apartments, the hospitals, and get a general lay of the land in January. When I told my mom how much the tickets were, she said, "You DO know why they are so cheap right?! NO one wants to bear that weather!!" Well, this weirdo is gonna try!

Aerial of the best state in the country!

This makes my heart flutter.

Grain bins. The tallest structures of Hunter, ND.

Reminds me of that song, "She needs wide open spaces."

How many people can you fit inside a grain bin? We crammed 153 people inside I believe, and the singin' was just amazin'!

Amber waves of grain... Or not!

The gang! What a fabulous, way-too-short weekend!

 

Looks Like Summer, But Doesn't Quite Feel Like It

Ah! Spending the beautiful day visiting beaches with a dear funky friend! I was so glad she could come and visit last weekend. It was fridgid though! The wind had no regard for our agenda. We had a blast sea-side, and then spent a day Living Free Rather Than Dying with Riley-Sue. And Austin, but sadly to say, he wasn't the main reason we visited. This time, anyway. 

Her pictures are totes fab and way better than mine. The difference? She got sandy and salty. I maintained my cotton-y, fresh-out-of-the-dryer scent and grain-less appearance. 

Anywho, the following Friday night I had planned to go to the Body Exhibit in Boston with Riley. However, I told her to take a wrong turn. Then, she corrected herself with another wrong turn. When we finally got going the same way, whoops! Repeat disaster! So we arrived to Fanueil Hall approximately 41 mins late and had to admit to being local tourists. They reassured us that they could easily switch our tickets so we could return. Fine. So we headed to dinner at a HIGHLY recommended restaurant: Park by Harvard Square. Quite yummy! Although I will also recommend not admitting up front that you won't be ordering alcohol. The cute waiter with a cute beard, cute glasses, and a cute plaid shirt doesn't show up very often after that. :'( 

But then we met up again on Sunday and, with a few less wrong turns and absolutely no illegal activity (such as backing up on an off ramp), we arrived at the Body Exhibit. And how fantastic!!!

And I babysat this cutie, Nola!

Road Maps

Always travel. Never stop.

Anywho, last semester came to a finish and I have never been more glad to see an unofficial transcript come through! Tough as nails! Psych is a killer. My grandma Parsons was a psych nurse back in her day and I felt like I should do that class justice because of her love for the area but in the end, I just wanted out. I'm super glad for all of the nurses who have the patience to do that for a living. 

This semester is a nice change. I have pediatrics, but also maternity so it's refreshing! Don't get me wrong, I went into nursing to care for the sick and I love it so far, but maternity has a cheeriness to it that I haven't seen on any other unit. I saw my first births, 1 natural and 1 CS. The natural birth was the first birth I saw, ever, and I was lucky enough for it to occur on Valentine's Day! My CS was the other day and it was quite eventful! (Disclaimer: mention of bodily fluids) Sometimes mothers become nauseous due to the epidural and they projectile vomit onto the surgeon... Everyone sits there and tells them, "Oh you're ok! It's ok..." No. It's not. Not cool at all. Thanks for that shower. And then the surgeon takes out the organ to sew it back up, rather than stitch it back up inside the mother. Well all is well and good until the mother starts gagging and hacking and coughing. Her small intestines fell out... Student nurses are sooo NOT mature enough to keep from cracking up! Neither are the surgeons. Poor lady. But all in all it was a good experience. Can't wait for the nursery next week, fingers crossed! A lot of the babies are preemies addicted to different substances. Super jittery and feisty little buggers!

    (The diaper is smaller than an iPhone)

Pedi is good too. I was in a situation where I saw a child have a few seizures. I've seen Abby have them and it wasn't unlike her episodes, but coupled with other disorders and syndromes, you really feel for the children and their parents. It's got to be a hard life and I totally give them props for doing the best they can with the miracles they've been given.

This weekend Mel is sick, so Liss and I went to visit her boyfriend! Without her! Headed to lunch soon and then we will be headed to Concord and then home. Lots of driving and lots of caffeine! Have a great Sunday everyone!

Late Summer Happenings

So, about that promise... Here goes.

The last leg of my summer has been eventful, to say the least! After I returned from North Carolina, I had to start picking up shifts at work. Not only did I have more work, but I also was busy painting the house. Yea, that still hasn't been finished! Whoops. Anyways, I tinkered with my schedule at work and begged, pleaded, and bribed so that I could get to Milford, NH a few times. Convention was very much a needed thing this year for me! After Milford, I really couldn't get out of any more work, but I really wanted the weekend of Altamont. So... after disgruntling a lot of people, I paid a girl to take my Saturday shift and I drove to Milford after work on Friday night. I stayed with my friend, Riley, and then we drove with another girl Adora out to Altamont. What an awesome weekend! After returning, I found out that a girl had been fired and, as punishment for taking off so much time, I was stuck with all of her day shifts! I pulled doubles almost every day! Ayaiaiaiaiay! Talk about a tiring week. But, when I had been given her shifts, I requested off a few days so I could head up to New York for the Annual Vaughan Pig Roast. Sneaky me got them! 

New York-bound I was! It was a great weekend full of home-made apple cider in a washing machine, one goooood pig(!), Split Rock, bonfire with a sing, volleyball, baseball, pool, face painting, sleeping in the pop-up, sleeping in the bus, 10 baby puppies, and good friends, old an new.

My apologies for how short this entry is, but my next class is looming and I mustn't miss the first day. Hence, this short and sweet overview. 

An for those who are wondering how my first 2 classes went...... Help me! It'll be a tough semester! But it's shaping up to be quite interesting:

Slacker Slacker

I am sitting here, not 20 mins away from my junior year, and all I can think about is this past summer. Sigh. Where does time go? 

So, I am going to post, for all to see, a promise to update my blog with the most recent noise from New England. AFTER I have weathered psych/mental health and adult health I. And now, I will feel very guilty if I don't!

So, coffee in one hand, backpack strap in the other, I wish you all as great of a day as I know I'm about to have!

North Carolina Fun

After my northern travels, I hopped on down to the great NC to visit family in Charlotte. It was a blast and a half!

Kaleb, otherwise known as K-boy, K's, and K1, is getting so big! He's grown so much since last summer. It really stinks that we live so far away from them. Kaleb is hitting the 2's and is showing great promise of being a little imp! His food always finds the floor and there's always a twinkle in his eye right before it leaves his little fist. A time out chair has made it's way into the house and I can't imagine how hard it is to keep a serious face while holding him into it while he's giggling away, oblivious to the fact that it's a punishment!

Kambrie, also known as K2 (I'm sure there's some other nicknames in the works) is just so darling! She's a good baby and loves to be held, which worked out well for me! We made many rounds around the downstairs while I was babysitting, just walking in circles. But when the girl wants to be heard, she let's you know she wants something! Hmm... Seems like she'll fit in perfectly with all of her other cousins on this side! 

Kambrie, A. Jules, Lydia (Kaleb's favorite babysitter), and I skipped down to the Gaffney Outlets in South Carolina for an afternoon. We carted our loads around the place and then hit up Olive Garden for supper. Our poor waitress was overloaded with tables because someone had quit on the spot. We cut her some slack and had a lot of fun with her and in return, we got double the amount of mints! Yum!

A trip down south is not complete without frozen yogurt! So U. Keith and I ran out with Kambrie to get some yummy-ness while A. Julie put Kaleb to bed. Turns out the fro-yo place had closed so we had to hunt down another place! Man was it a delicious late-night snack!

I left at 7ish on a Tuesday night and so we spent the day at some of the friends' pool. Got some sun and was able to spend some time with K1 and K2. Kaleb was so stinkin' tired but didn't want to leave the pool. He just about fell asleep sideways in his floatie! What a lil fish! And Kambrie had her first pool experience. She was so good and didn't seem to mind the water. I was laying on the chair in the shade with Kambrie on my chest and I had to make my mother jealous: 

I think I succeeded! Here's some pics:

It was an awesome trip and I can't wait until Turkey Day to see them all again!