Merry Christmas

Well it's a good thing I didn't blog yesterday...because I was crying in my beer. Okay, so I can't stand beer, but if I could, I would've been filling it with salty tears. On a side note, that might improve the taste... Anyhoo, the last week was a difficult one. I met my patient for the HH (Home Health) job. She was a wonderful 5 yr old. But the problem was, was that she was 41 lbs, and unable to even support her weight, and as the nurse, I'd have to carry her up and down stairs, carry her to shower, etc. Her room is on the second floor, and unless, I planned on forever keeping her in one little room, I'd have to carry her. They have not gotten to the point of placing all the lifts and contraptions for lifting, carrying, and etc. She is just on the cusp, and I know it will not be long. But sadly, I could not do it. I knew my back would totally blow out in the first day. So I had to withdraw from that job. I was so sad, and I felt like such a loser. Then...within a few days of that disappointment, my hubby calls to let me know that we are getting ANOTHER frick'n pay cut of $400 a month! Yes, on top of the $700 previous! So, let it be known, I had a total crying jag that day. Yup, the full on heaving kind of crying. I only cry 3 or 4 times a year, so I let it go! My poor hubby got most of it on the phone. The next day, I got THE call from the job I wanted so badly...yup, I did NOT get it. They were completely wonderful and nice about it, but it was cheerleader tryouts all over again! (except that in for the cheer tryouts, I NEVER got this close!) So, needless to say, it's been a rather crappy week. I am trying to pick myself up, and learn what I need to learn, trust in Him who knows all, etc. And I love what a friend of mine said after my full on pity party (with balloons and party hats) said:
"I am all about embracing the sh*%! Enjoy it, eat chocolate, get mad and you will get to a higher place one bon-bon and a few trips to the mall at a time..." Don't you love it?! So I am embracing it, and going to God to help me, while I carb load as well!

On a happier note, we are all geared up for a simpler, gentler Christmas this year. God is good, He is in His heaven, and He loves us, sinners that we are. I mean, really, He has to, He sent His only son to help us out! So I am celebrating this holiday, and feeling His closeness, even as I struggle.

You all are the best, and I hope you have a great Christmas with loved ones. Merry Christmas!

Got a job interview!!

You know how thin, and far between those babies are!! So, I got a call on Wednesday, from Hoag hospital asking if I was STILL interested in the Stroke unit??? Since neuro, and older folks are my fave, I was totally excited! And then she asked if I could come in THAT day. So I cleared away ALLLL my other interviews I had that day *wink, wink* and went in. I'm telling you, these two women were the kindest and funnest interviewers I have EVER met! (ok, so I've only had 3 interviews so far, but still...) It went very well. I feel like I did fine on the questions, though I was a bit slow on one of the scenario questions. All in all, I walked away very hopeful. We won't be called until "before Christmas", so I've got my waiting room clothes on in the meantime. The only bad thing is that I believe.... it won't begin until Feb, because it's part of a new grad program. But I also need to take a few classes (you know...those one day certification classes...aaaaand they are darned expensive!) and tests. It does scare me that I have to take an EKG test, but at least I have time to study for it, and my friend Shruti took it, and said she would help me.

So...here I go again...back in the waiting room! Thanks for any and all prayers!

The last *sniff* JABC...

weep...openly... We met for our last Jane Austin Book Club. We lost our senior girls, as their semesters got busier, so it was just the three of us...the bestest part of our group of course! We discussed Persuasion. This had to be my least fave of the 3 we read. We met at Lupe's home, and she made us a proper tea. Scones with sour cherries, REAL clotted cream (omgosh, I want to weep, it was so amazing), some kind of amazing tea, I don't remember the name, Vinaigrette salad with Blue Stilton and roasted walnuts (sooo delish, I had to go buy some of that cheese 2 days later), diminutive sandwiches of jambon pate (ham that's been ground up), and cucumber and butter...gosh Lupe, what am I forgetting, I can't think, my mouth is dripping out of control! Okay, I know I'm blathering on about the food, but it was sooo goooood. Ummm...the discussion of course was sublime. I just wanted to use that word. We are hoping to round up a few more grown ups, so we can meet some more. It's been way too fun, to stop now. Have a good weekend.

Happy Ho Ho!

Well happy December all, and how the heck are ya? I have been up to the same ole' stuff as before. The elusive job hunt, homemakering, and painting. The job hunt hasn't been successful, the same as before. It is hard not to get totally discouraged. The homemakering...has been fun, since it is still quite novel after all these years! And the painting? Totally fun, enjoying it more and more.

I made the Thanksgiving turkey, a 22 pounder! Which I defrosted the day before! Small note: when doing a speed thaw, make sure ALL water is removed before flipping turkey (part of the speed-thawing process). Yeah, you guessed it, while flipping it, that slippery sucker dropped back into bottom of bucket, hitting a few gallons of raw turkey water...that I thought I had gotten out....splashing all that oockie stuff all over my face, down my person, ALL over the clean dishes (the bloody hand washables!), and of course covering our little kitchen floor. I just froze. Dripping with the disgusting stuff, I look at my husband who is safely 5 or so feet away tapping away on the computer. He looks at me... that's it. No jumping up to help me, no "oooh pooor baby...", no nothing. TWO hours later...after I had showered, changed my clothes, mopped floor, RE-washed all dern hand washables, washed all of the turkey clothes, and towels from under the clean clothes, disinfected everything bc it was evil turkey water, I FINALLY finished the *%^()*^@%&*~#! turkey. Luckily, the turkey did turn out well, and now it's funny. So...will I get a gigantic frozen turkey again, or speed-thaw it again??? You know I will. That gigantic turkey was only $7!!! for pity sakes! The daughter made the stuffing and sweet potatoes, and my boy made home-made mashed potatoes, so everyone helped. We had a great time, and I even made some homemade pumpkin pie (and NOT the Libby recipe). It came out pretty good, but I still like Marie Callendars more.

Eric has been doing more of the Cross-racing, and loving it. He bought a new bike that fits him much better, and sold his old one, along with a bunch of other stuff on eBay, to help pay off some of his old bike debt.

The daughter has been enjoying her Sr year, with WAY too little homework, and way too much free time on her hands. So...she's doing well. :)

The boy is doing fine, and has taken to selling chips at school to make some $. I felt bad for him, bc he can't babysit or anything to make extra cash. I don't know how long it will last, but he's having lots of fun.



I got my first NOT WHITE scrub!! Can you believe it? I got it for free, so it was a great deal. It is from mynursinguniforms.com This is the one I got. Here's a photo, but it didn't come out very well. No one was around to take a pic of me in it. But the best thing about this one, is that the sides and sleeves are stretchy. No stiff whites that I've been bloody well been wearing for THREE years! It's soft, and I can't wait to wear it to my home health job. Isn't it cute? It's made by Baby Phat, I am sooo cool!

I haven't started my job yet, but I'm supposed to have my orientation, I believe, next wk, so I can start. I hope so, my hubby is so stressed out with our smaller paycheck and Christmas. Please forgive us for not sending out many Christmas cards this year, we are trimming where we can.

That's it for now. What are you asking for Santa to bring you?? I'm asking for a big cast iron skillet! See how easy I am? Some gals would be insulted for a hubby to get something for the "house". Not me, LOVE that stuff. And after totally LOVING my cast iron dutch oven...I wanted more!

REEEALLY??

Surprisingly, I haven't received thousands of dollars towards my Paris birthday party. Whaaaat??? Hmmm...maybe Chuck E Cheese would be more in line.

I have been applying for every job I can get my greedy little hands on, which isn't much let me tell you. If you are a facebooker, you have heard all of my whining. My newest hunt has been at the smaller hospitals, but even there, pickins are slim to none. The good news? While scrapbooking one day, I was sharing with my friends the dismal job outlook, and a woman came up to me asking if I was looking for a nursing job! So...long story short, I was able to get a job at her home health company. Most of the jobs are LVN level, and do not pay what hospitals do, but it will be excellent training and experience for me, and will help me get a hospital job eventually. So I am very thankful for it, even though it is not exactly what I had been hoping for. As quite a few good friends have mentioned to me... it sounds as if it was a gift from God, and is probably right where He wants me. I have been praying to be wherever He wants me. So, at the end of the month, I will begin training. The patients are all children, most with neural issues. I hope to be a comfort and blessing to these families.

On the home front: Hubby continues to struggle with his job, but is really trying to have a better attitude. Meanwhile, we've just been told, that $200-$400 MORE will begin to be deducted from his ALREADY $700 pay cut to pay for benefits! So my little job does come at a good time.

My kids are enjoying school, the daughter is starting to gear up for the change over into college, and my boy is loving high school, and has his first girl friend. She seems very sweet, and he has been good about it so far.

We love Fall around here, and went to Oak Glen to enjoy the colors. It was too late to pick the apples, but we did buy a big bag of Honey Crisp apples, yum.

Our last Jane Austen book club meets this week. We will be discussing Persuasion. So far, my least fave. A tad slow, and what the heck, I'm 2/3 through, and NO romance! What the heck.

I think that's it for me. How are you doing? Leave a comment!

Taking donations...

So, I've decided how I want to celebrate my 50th birthday, but it will demand a large commitment on your part. Send cash now, I only have 2 yrs, 2 months to save up. Really, it will be worth it to empty your coffers for me. I mean, really wouldn't it be worth it, just to put a smile on my face? I thought so.

Art Home at Palais de Tokyo for more photo's to seal the deal.

I think I'm totally worth it, so start sending me the cash. Euro's will also be accepted. Yes, it is in my favorite place in the world...Paris. Or as us natural french speakers say...."Par-eeeeee". Okay, not so natural. My french withers year by year, which isn't saying much since I only had a 4 yr old ability to begin with. But hey, I have 2 yrs to come up to par, and found another site, Alliance Francaise which has lessons, which I WILL TAKE as soon as I get me a job!

so...welcome to my dream.

Hookers green

no, I'm not speaking about a nauseous prostitute, just a name of one of my watercolor paints. I just thought it might grab someones attention since I don't have anything life shaking going on here in my blog....

Well let's see what's new with me...

nada...nothin'....zilch etc...

I am applying still all over the place, and now I'm trying to hunt down the boutique hospitals (my term). You know the little hospitals with a couple hundred or less beds. These are wonderful little hospitals, but they are not easy to find. They usually don't have a website, a nurse recruiter, or any information you can find! So hunting is what you have to do to find them! I went to 4 of them on Friday, dropped off resume/ap, and now I wait. I took and passed the NRP class (Neonatal Resus. Program) so I can better try for those NICU jobs. CHOC finally opened their new grad jobs, so I applied there, and I'm waiting. They can take until Dec.15 to notify. I also applied for the local hospital for their new grad program, but I know they REALLY look for a BSN, so I would be surprised to hear from them. I will take an EKG class later this month, so I can better apply for all those Tele/ICU jobs.

I am still plugging away at watercolors. It is definitely more difficult now, but still just as enjoyable. My lemons came out so much better the other day. And we worked on more monochrome still-life's, but actual objects. So dang hard. But so dang fun. My homework is to make sunshiney clouds and stormy clouds. Remember when my homework was concept maps? Me too, it makes me laugh...and cry for those of you still making those horrid things.

Halloween was very fun. The daughter was Luke Skywalker, and the boy was batman. They both are regressing, because you know, nerdy is now cool. The hubby and I took turns handing out candy. Weird.... it was the first year we were both doing that. Usually one of us was with the kids. *warning, warning, sneak peak into empty next syndrome!!!*

I've started a new exercise regimen (that I am breaking at this moment...) to get up earlier, get exercise clothes on, and NOT to hit the computer until I have exercised. Well...I had a good two days before breaking it. I will still go though...really.

In home news, we found out we have a MAJOR termite infestation, Here's the mound in our backyard that we had thought was one of our kids mud pies.... All right, that wasn't in our yard, because if we did have one of those, we'd just rent a chimpanzee, give him a stick, and be done with them, right? No, we have the wood kind, in the whole bloody house! So THAT'S why our house has gotten more squeaks in the last few years! Oh good, hubby has a major pay cut, I don't have a job, and here, here's $1000 bucks! Urgh.

And yesterday, my hubby had a really stressful day, with a fellow cycler crashing, and dieing! to then be revived.... (thanks to some quick thinking CPR for over a half an hour, and Prayer!) and then he had to chase a mousy down that our sweet kitty brought in for him to cheer him up. Poor Eric, quite the day.

Well that's all the news I can think of. Have a lovely week.

a bit of a funk...

Well not much new for me these days. Just continuing on the job hunt. Last week one of my best friends from college finally got a job after ten months, so I was sooo happy for her, and then I fell into a self-pitying funk for myself. Waaagh. She tells me about her interview, and she was amazing. They actually gave her strips to look at, define, and suggest what meds would go with which heart block! And she got all of them right but one! Well they all but offered her the job that night (her interview was at 10:30pm!), but called her first thing in the a.m. to get her back to sign all papers! What I learned from this was that I was definitely not prepared like I could be when going in for an interview. So... after my pity party, I got myself back to the bloody computer to research interview questions. I will be much MORE prepared next time. So today, I will call for status updates. I also signed up for an NRP (Neonatal Resuscitation Program) certification class, so I can better prepare/apply for any NICU jobs. The prob...is that these classes are PRICEY!! And um... don't have a job... Well you get my meaning. So I will take this class on Halloween day, it was the only one I could find before Nov. 1st which is when I want to apply for a NICU residency job is. And I am still trying to get some of those flu vaccine jobs!

In other news, my watercolors class is still fun, and yes..I am not a natural! My oldest sister: drawing, brother and other sister: advanced ceramics, mother: oils, son:drawing, daughter: painting, husband: drawing, me: ummmm, I like to look at perty art. Disgusting, ain't it? Ah well. It is fun playing though. *These are what we've been doing this semester. color wheels etc, supplies, fruits (hey, the top right one was not done by me, but my teacher, but I did do the pear, dangit!), Learning shading, the orangish one was the first try, then the green.


Daughter is working, and dancing, and has a bit too much free time on her hands. Son is competing today for an FFA thingy, and is still growing taller. Hubby is cyclo-racing and enjoying it.

We all (family) went to a wonderful friends Oktoberfest party. We had so much fun, it shouldn't be legal. But it was, and we did.

That's it for now. If you are a pray-er, please remember me as I continue to look for a job, especially that I do not throw tooo many pity-parties. Have a great week!

just pluggin along...

Yes, I am, albeit sloooowly.
Still looking for jobs. I have applied to probably about 10 more jobs, though I'm really hoping to hear back from Hoag for a couple of really great jobs there.
Meanwhile, we've been celebrating my hubby's birthday. He has finally caught up to me. We get to share this age for about 2.5 months before I pass him up again! We went into L.A. to the Peterson museum, and The Grove. We had such a fun day, I LOVE L.A.! On Sunday while the kids and I went to church, Eric was in another cyclo-cross race. He is loving his new bike race hobby.
Bryce was in his first FFA competition, the Greenhand comp. Their school got 3rd place. More importantly though says he...."I'm the only guy with 5 girls, it's great". So yeah, agriculture is very verrrrry important to the boy! haaahaaaa.

Kierstin has been laying low, not her busy season yet (in the spring, she'll have her animals, and plant sales), so she's been working on her hobby which is photography, and lately...watercolor painting.

That's it for us. I hope you are all doing well, have a great week!

Happy Fall, and Halloween!

with heat & pressure...

just like with diamonds... something of value must come from pressure and heat. Well, it definitely feels like I am feeling both of those. I have had a few interviews, and MANY rejections for nursing jobs. In fact this morning I applied for a job, and about 15 minutes later, they had already rejected me! Part of the reason I've had so very many rejections is that I will apply for jobs that are not just for "New Grads". Why? Because there are sooo few jobs listed under new grad. In fact, the interviews I DID have were not listed for new grads. Anyway... it's been very depressing, and I really appreciate what all these folks have been going through after losing a job, and hunting for a new one. This last wk was particularly hard. My poor little ego. Well I am continuing to apply. Last night I applied for 3 more, this morning 2 more. I will do some more "drop-by's" since they seemed to help me the most.

In other parts of my life... I am enjoying being around home more, spending more time with kids, and relaxing in the evenings. I know! Isn't that weird? That was when I would ALWAYS be back to the books or writing those %@*# nursing maps! I feel a little giddy each and every night. I still have a hard time sitting through TV, but I find other things to do. My favorite activity EVERY day, is to make a tea, and sit in my front yard watching dusk. It's my absolute FAVORITE time of day, and I become nearly "gleeful". During these moments, I'm in shock that I don't have a heavy tome on my lap, or flashcards fluttering through my fingers. So weird after 8 years (give or take a semester here and there with no classes) of study and nursing school. I am still in total shock. My watercolor class is still absolutely delightful. I can't say I'm very good, but it's so fun to be doing something "left-brained".

My kids are doing well, and my boy has adjusted well to high school. I think he has found his niche, and is doing so much better than elementary and even Jr. High. He continues to make $ every day, getting lunches for those who don't want to battle the lunch lines. Cracks me up, what an entrepreneur, eh? He gets $1-2 from each person each day, and brings his own lunch so he loses none of it. So funny. The daughter is enjoying her last year of high school, and her first job. I think she is feeling a little melancholy too, with the changes she knows she's going through and what's to come. She has gotten back to art, which is great, because she can let some of that emotion flow through her brush/pen.

Hubby did his first cyclo-cross race, and did well. I believe he came in 20th? He may not have placed high, but he looked great out there! We all went to cheer him on, it was very fun. We celebrated with In & Out. (blaach :p) He's enjoying teaching Film and Journalism. This is the first time EVER that he's gotten to teach an elective course. It's hard work since he is making the curriculum, but he's loving the change of pace.

Well I do believe that's about it for me. How the heck are you? Thanks for stopping by, and please leave a comment when you do!