Weekend Ramblings

This weekend was very relaxing and quiet.   Brad and I went to Chili’s on Friday to celebrate our six year anniversary.  Six years!!  I really can’t believe we have been together that long already!  We talked about that first night we went to dinner together and how crazy it is that we ended up being married. If anyone would have told my 13 year old self that I would be married to my dream crush, I would have taken it as a sick joke.  After being together six years, four years married, I still feel the need to pinch myself.   I told Brad this today and his response was "That's self abuse!  You can be committed for that. Funny guy.  

We reminisced the past years over hot wings, a steak and a couple of beers while watching the opening ceremony for the Olympic Games, and then we went home to watch a movie and soon after went to bed.  We lead exciting lives I tell ya!   Saturday and Sunday were pretty uneventful as well.  We ran over to GameStop and bought a few games, then ran back home to play them.  :o)  It was the first weekend Brad has been home in about a month.  He has been working a lot of Saturdays to help save up for the new house, so having him home was really nice.

Ready to Submit

Well, I think I am ready to submit my application for PA school. EEK!  I am a little nervous about this even though I KNOW I have a pretty good chance of NOT getting in this year, (does that even make sense?!) but I think it is because I am really hoping to get an interview.  I mean, I think my stats are competitive enough, even without the patient experience, to at least get me that far.  I have had my app ready for about a week now, but I am still hesitant to click on the submit button. Don't worry, I will be submitting it this weekend.  :o)

I will be taking my state exam for the nursing aid certification next Wed., August 1.  I need to take some time this weekend and next week and brush up on everything.  The material is pretty common sense, but there are a few things that are needed to commit to memory, such as normal blood pressure and temperature ranges. I am not too worried about it, but it would be terribly embarrassing to fail!

I am still searching for a part time job.  I have found a couple, but I am not sure if I want to work in Wichita or Hutchinson.  It all depends on the days and times I would work.  If I work on the weekend, Hutch would be ideal, but if I were to work at night during the week, I would stay in Wichita.  I have noticed that a lot of the jobs I am looking at seem to be "as needed", which may not work very well with my schedule so I am hesitant to apply for them.  I'm really not looking forward to a second job with school and all, but the extra cash will be nice.  :o) 

Last week I took the opportunity to sit in on a PA anatomy class and it was frickin' awesome!  I know, I know, I really need to get a life. :p But I really loved my undergrad anatomy class, so sitting in on an advanced class was pretty cool for me. They were going over the vascular system in abdominal area and I kept thinking, "man, there is so much we did not cover!" I really liked the professor and the way she lectured.  She was very clear on what information was important and she wasn't boring to listen to, which was refreshing. I'm sure I'll feel differently once I'm actually IN the class, but for now it just makes me want to get into the program that much more.

Compliment

With the deadline for my CASPA application approaching, I have been working and reworking my personal statement.  I wasn't sure what to think of it, so I asked our very brilliant and talented proposal writer to review it and I was pleasantly surprised at her comments:

"I read it quickly, but I’m quite certain it is better written than 90 percent of the statements the school will receive!

   You have a very warm and persuasive style that seems to speak from the heart. I did not find it repetitive.  Your detailed explanation of the first-hand experiences you had shadowing other professionals was very impressive.

   Your intro also is good: to the point, compelling and thoughtful.  I really don’t have any substantial changes to suggest. If you have addressed the areas they ask you to address, and it is the proper length, I think it’s in good shape."

I think having someone read and critique something so personal can make one feel very vulnerable.  It is very humbling to ask someone to critique such a personal document, and to have such nice compliments really puts my mind at ease.  I have heard on more than one occasion that I write really well, but I feel that my writing is still a little juvenile.  I struggle the most with grammar and punctuation, which happen to be the two areas we hardly covered in school due to our English teacher leaving and problems finding a decent substitute.  I also have a tendency to write the way I speak, which isn't exactly what you call sophisticated.  :o)     I do enjoy writing and at one point I even wanted to become a writer.  Throughout high school I would write quite a bit and even started a few chapters of a book, but once I graduated I stopped pretty much stopped.  Who knows, maybe one of these days I'll get back into it.  

The New Do

Warning – this is a total girl post.  :o)

I have had medium to long hair for a few years now, and as you can see from my profile picture, it was getting quite long.  It was down to the middle of my back for a few months, which I really loved, but it was so hot and heavy!  I had been toying with the idea of cutting it to shoulder length for quite some time, but it wasn’t until it started to get hot out that I finally had enough!  I cut off about a foot, ok maybe not a foot, but man it sure felt like it! It was at least somewhere between 4-6 inches and afterwards it felt so much lighter, cooler and healthier.  Brad wasn’t as crazy about it as I was, but I think it is a really good length because I can still put it up in a ponytail and it doesn’t take as long to fix all pretty like.  :o)  It’s been a couple weeks since I took the plunge and I am loving it!  What do you think?

 Shortly after the new cut:

A couple weeks after the cut: (I love the first picture - the flash on my phone as acting up and just about blinded me. Stupid thing.)

New Workouts

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted anything about my workouts, partly because I have been trying a new program and wanted to see how I liked it. The other reason is because I have been a little lazy and wasn’t sure if anyone really cared.  ;o) 

Anywhoo, the workouts that I have been doing are from an amazing lady named Tatianna at LovingFit.com. 

 She is from Russia, but currently lives in Florida and was a professional figure skater when she was younger.  Her workouts remind me a lot of the BodyRock workouts, but I think the workouts and her fitness advice are more beneficial.  BR used to post some fitness and nutrition advice, but they have moved away from that lately and focus only on the workouts. I have done their workouts for quite a few months, but never really saw a lot of benefits or results.  I think part of it was because I was over training and not taking enough rest days.  I would workout out consistently four times a day for two or three weeks, then I would hit a wall and feel so tired and worn out.  After reading through Tatianna’s posts, I realized that I may have been over training.  I have been doing a few of her workouts here and there, but because of my crazy C.N.A class schedule I have only been consistently doing her workouts for one week.  I am following her beginner workout routine, which is basically three days of full body workouts in a circuit, three days of rest and one active rest/light cardio day for six weeks, then rest for one week.  I think after the first six weeks I will move on to her intermediate workouts, which are split between upper body and lower body routines four times a week, with two days being interval training versus circuit, a light cardio day and two rest days, or one rest day and a light stretching day.  

So far I really like the workouts and the way they are structured.  She puts a lot of thought into the routines and how they will best benefit the body, plus she is a total form Nazi! She is more concerned with proper form versus time or number of reps. I need to start working out in front of a mirror to make sure I am using proper form because I know I have to catch myself toward the end of the workouts and slow myself down. I have a terrible tendency to want to rush through the reps when I am getting close to being finished with the workout. I also feel like I am already seeing some results, especially with my arms and stomach.  I have been adding two 30-second planks at the beginning and end of each workout and man! are they killer!  

I  just really enjoy reading through her blog and her fitness/nutrition tips and felt like I should share with everyone.  I really hope that if you are interested in fitness you will give her a try, she is amazing!  :o)

The House

I hope I am not jinxing anything by saying this, but WE ARE BUILDING A HOUSE!  AHHHHH!!! We just signed the contract and now we are awaiting the ground breaking!  I haven’t said anything mainly because I didn’t want things to go wrong and it not happen, and then have to explain everything.  I wanted to make sure it was a real possibility and that nothing would happen at the last minute, mainly because I am weird like that, and it happened with the last house we thought about buying.  :o)

Ok, now the fun part - details!

We are building a 1200sqft two bed, two bath house with an unfinished basement.  The basement will contain a third bed and bath along with an office and a big rec/family room.  The office could have been a bedroom, but there will be no egress window (mainly for cost purposes) and we wanted an office. This is the floor plan we used as a base (the basement plan is actually from another house).   

We have made some slight changes to it, however:

 

1.       The actual floor plan is 100sqft larger, this one is only 1103.

2.       The stairs are not curved and we moved them over to the right a few feet so the spare bed and bath are a little bigger (the kitchen wall is now in line with the middle of the stairs).

3.        The closet in the second bedroom is on the south wall instead of the north wall and is the full length of the wall.

4.       The laundry area is a little deeper than drawn here in this layout.  That way I’m not in the hallway when doing laundry. 

5.       The master bed doesn’t have the bay window; we loved it but removed for cost, so it is only 14x12 now.

6.       We added a sliding door to the patio from the master bed.

7.       The door to the master closet is now inside the bathroom.

8.       The garage is slightly bigger, 22x22.

9.       The basement is very similar to what we are doing, but the egress window is only on the north bedroom.

10.   The closet for the north bedroom is on the south wall, and the bathroom extends the full length.

11.   The bathroom is not as wide and is longer, which means the bedroom and office are bigger, roughly 13x11. 

12.   There is no closet in the office; the mechanical room runs the whole length. 

I think we are as close as we are going to get to making it perfect.  This isn’t our “dream home” or our “forever” home, but it is going to be a very nice first home.  We found a lot a couple of blocks from where we live now, but in a much quieter area.  We tried to buy a lot in a smaller town about 15 miles away, but they were asking waaay too much for it and wouldn’t budge on the price. It’s not the ideal location, but it will be a good location for this home.

I can’t tell you how excited I am to get things started!  I will admit though, I am also scared to death!  I mean, we are building a house!!!  We will have a MORTGAGE!  YIKES!!!  Even though we are excited to finally own a home, we are definitely not looking forward to the bigger house payment.   :o) 

Certified Nursing Aid Training

This post is long overdue, but I haven’t had a lot of time to write it, and when I did have time I didn’t feel like doing it.  :o)  I have completed my C.N.A class and a CPR class – both which were fairly easy, but very informative.  The class I took was online through We Care Online.  The people there were great and very helpful.  I did the clinical part at a nursing home about 30 miles away, and again, the staff and instructor were very helpful and friendly.  Our assignments were due each Monday and we had a week to complete them.  They consisted of reading a handful of chapters, posting answers to questions on the discussion board and then taking a unit quiz.  The clinical portion was basically the hands on training of what we read about.  We learned how to lift residents using gait belts and hydraulic lifts, how to properly bathe and clean the residents and feed them.  We spent one full shift shadowing other C.N.A’s in order to get a feel for what a day is really like.  Basically it is get the resident up for breakfast, help them change into clothes, brush teeth and hair and then make their beds and feed them if they need help.  After breakfast take them to their rooms or wherever they like to go until lunch, and then repeat for lunch and dinner.  It’s not too difficult, but it still takes a certain type of person. 

Even though the course was fairly simple, I am still nervous about actually working.  Like anything medical, the nurses and other C.N.A’s sometimes eat their own.  I am pretty sure I will get all the “scut” jobs and be treated like I should already be a pro, but once I get into the swing of things I am sure I will like it.  I think knowing that it is only a part time job and not my full time “have to have it in order to live” job will make me feel soooo much better.  I worked before at a place I hated but had to for the money, and it was awful.  Every day I had to bite my tongue so I didn’t say something that would get me fired, but oh! I wanted to tell them to shove it so badly!!   

After the class was completed, the director of the home instructed a few of us on CPR.  Normally you have to pay for this type of class, but they offered it to us free of charge and it only took a couple of hours.  Now, the only thing I have left to do is pass the state exam next month to become certified.