Sometimes I question my sanity.

Today was the first day of my first official semester in nursing school.  I was excited when I went to bed and my tummy was all a-flutter in ways I haven't experienced since high school.

At least that's what I thought it was.  About an hour later I was in the bathroom praying to God to "please let me die now, it would just be easier that way." Apparently God was not interested in granting that wish because I am here typing this for you to read.

I spent the remainder of the night in and out of bed that way and come morning I was exhausted.  Now, I am nervous AND wiped out and still feeling a little queasy.  I'd like to come face to face with the little virus who held court over my innards last night because he was a mighty foe. 

Fast forward to 9:30 am today and I am sitting in a room with 32 other bright shiny new nursing students and we are about to get the rude awakening of our lives.  A 6 hour orientation to what felt like the entire nursing course but what was actually only one of our 5 classes.  Holy. Cow. I kept saying to the girls around me, "How can this be only one class???  WHAT IS YET TO COME THIS WEEK???  They kept looking back at me in fear, the same look I am sure I was giving them. All the while the evil virus was lurking about making his presence known with occasional waves of nausea. 



I should be thankful.  I AM thankful.  I will be thankful.  Tomorrow.  After I have had a good nights sleep and...oh wait. Tomorrow I start my Military physical fitness class.  Maybe I will be thankful on Thursday...

Repeat after me: May 13, 2012.  May 13, 2012.  May 13, 2012.  I will graduate with honors thankyouverymuch.


I can do this.  I can. I will. I must.


 

I always tell my oldest that she was the best thing I ever did.

My oldest daughter Hannah has grown up to be the most incredible woman, wife and mother.  When she was younger I used to tell her all the time that she was the best thing I ever did. And here is living proof of that.  Check out her latest blog posting.  She amazes me.  Every.Single.Day.

http://thenotsosimplelife2.blogspot.com/2010/08/happy-little-moments.html

I love you Hannah!!

Migraines are a bummer

I have been doing pretty well the past few weeks with my migraines, I don't know if it is the exercise or the lack of stress or both.  But just now, getting ready for bed the world went sideways and all the lovely aura stuff started that signals a WHOPPER of a migraine.  Yay me.

Come to think of it, I did drink a bunch of red wine last night with my friend who was visiting from out of town, I am surprised it took this long to hit me.

I, am seriously a dork sometimes.  Self induced pain.  I guess I will take this head of mine to bed and hope when I wake up to run at 5 am I am feeling human again. 

*le sigh*

Friends are the most amazing thing.

I am pretty lucky I guess.  I have had a close set of friends since I was 12 years old.  This group of people, six of us, have been through countless crushes, a few dates and a marriage and divorce amongst us in the past 30 years and yet we remain friends.  This past weekend we got together and hung out, played golf, poker, dice games, and sat by the fire.  We laughed, we told stories, looked at old pictures, we drank way too much and we stayed up way too late.  When all was said and done, we were all pretty amazed at how resilient our friendships have remained to this day.  I wish I lived closer to these people so that I could see them more than once a year.  This past weekend has made me more homesick than ever. 

Tammy, Billy, Jim (Fuzz), Chris and Kylene, (and little sis Lori) you guys wrote the pages of my story and I love you all so very much.  I hope we are meeting at the Gate Ranch when we are 80 and playing Ronna Rules golf and I am killing you all at poker.  Every.Time.

Tammy loves her side ponytail :)  It helps her to play poker better.  NAWT.

Three little monkeys sitting in a tree (left to right, Lori, Tammy and Ronna)

Chris (in the blue hat)  passing out the chips for MY poker game, he should have just given them all to me.

Because I ended up with them all anyway :D (Yes, these are MY chips)

I said SMILE! Fuzz and his son Jackson were the only ones paying attention lol.  (Left to right, Lori (in the ponytail), Chris(blue cap) Billy, Fuzzy, Jackson, Tammy's arm and Jim Senior.  Standing in back is Tad)

Fuzzy getting ready to show us how it's done.  Or not.

Kylene with her awesome form, :P

Tammy putting like a champ.  All those hours of putt putt golf paid off :D

The motley crew.

Chris channeling Happy Gilmore :)

Kylene  wearing Chris' sweatshirt.  It was HUGE so I climbed inside with her to get warm lol

Fuzz wearing his "bluetooth"

A better look at the apparatus...hmm looks like a hair clippy to me....

Billy showing us how it is done.  Nice form WCF!!

Honorary member of the crew, "li'l sis" Lori giving Chris some tips.  Hmmm. Maybe she is actually saying "Um, I think my ball is waaaaayyyyy over there...."

What trip to Western Washington is complete without a visit from a friendly slug??   Ewwww...

Thanks for loving me as I am my friends.  My world is a better place because of all of you. 

~R

Books. Books will be the death of my savings account.

Welcome to the first semester of Nursing School.  Kiss your money goodbye.

How does the smallest book in this pile cost the most money? Used? HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?

I'm in the wrong business.  I need to start publishing books.

Naps are underrated

Today I took a three hour nap.  It was WONDERFUL. Of course this morning I woke up at 6 am and went for a run and did sit ups and push ups...but that's for another blog.  No wonder I needed a nap.

Again I will say it, NAPS ARE WONDERFUL!  I think there should be a national nap day at least once a week.  Heck, once a day.  National Nap Hour.  I like it.  Except maybe it should be 2 hours.  *sigh*  Why can't 2 year olds understand this concept?

No Compromise

I went for a walk this morning and about 2 miles into it I saw a lady walking and apparently talking to herself.  When I got up to her it became clear that she was praying.  It suddenly dawned on me that I could be doing this as well.  Or maybe more to the point, I should be doing this more often.

I have been a professing Christian for most of my life.  What does that mean?  I guess it means that if you asked me I would tell you that I believed that Christ died for me and that I had accepted him as my Savior as a young child.  Does this mean that I have always walked my life in such a way that if the average stranger saw me they would know this from watching my actions?  No way.  But do I think I should live my life this way? Yes, very much.  It's a matter of self discipline, something I am sorely lacking.

Back to my walk this morning, I decided to have my own chat with God.  I won't bore you with the details because 1) they are personal and 2) they are personal.  But as I was nearing my house I was reminded of a song from my younger years that still rings true for me today.  The man who sang this song was an incredible man of God but he would have been the first to tell you he failed everyday.  He is gone now but his music still moves me so I thought I would share it with you. I think my favorite line from this song is "I want to thank you now for being patient with me.  It's so hard to see, when my eyes are on me." That kind of says it all for me.





I want to live a life of No Compromise.  I know that I will fail often.  But the beauty of it is I worship a forgiving God who will always allow me to start over anew every day, heck every minute.  How cool is that? 

I know it's in there somewhere...

My will to study for these exams.  I know it is.  It's just temporarily left my head.  Tomorrow I will be in a panic because it will be the last day I have before THE day and I will be left sitting here wondering how I am ever supposed to remember all this crap (yes I said it, crap) that was blown at me from a fire hose the past 6 weeks. 

I looked at the study guide for my philosophy final and literally drew a total blank.  Did I actually read these books?  Because this stuff does not even ring a smidgen of a bell.  How is this possible?  I know I wrote a paper each week on these things, how can I not recall the basic concepts of the authors? 

Oy.  Vey.

Thankfully the final tests are not a huge part of my grade so if I fail miserably I will still pass the classes.  I think. 

Oh how the mighty have fallen...