1st Semester...check!

I did it! I survived my first semester of nursing school. Boy, what a crazy couple of months. And now I get to enjoy a nice week long break and do NOTHING! The thought of picking up a textbook right now and studying makes me feel nauseous so this is a much needed break. 

Here are some pics of my lovely study group

Happy Valentine's Day

It's Valentine's Day!

And it just so happens to be finals week and that means lots of diet coke for me!

1 down 3 to go (finals)

6 down 17 to go (diet coke)

Waffle Wednesdays

A few years ago my cousin and I started a little tradition called Waffle Wednesdays. It consists of eating Waffles on Wednesdays. Simple as that. And watching American Idol of course. So now that Idol is back on I get to look forward to Wednesdays and eating these delicious things...

So American Idol...I'm loving Steven Tyler. I actually don't mind that Simon isn't there anymore. I love Wednesdays and Thursdays!

Back to Nursing

So the reason I started this blog was so I could document my journey through nursing school. I'm not good about writing in a journal so I figured this was an easy way to do it. But I've been horrible about giving updates but I'm hoping to change that. This post might not be that interesting just FYI!

I can't believe how fast the weeks go by. I take my first semester finals in 5 weeks! Kind of crazy since I feel like I still don't know a lot. I just hope I can pass all my classes...errr. I love learning about nursing! This might sound shocking but I kind of enjoy studying. I like it cause I'm learning stuff that is going to be useful and I'm trying to retain as much information as possible. Taking all the pre-reqs for nursing wasn't my favorite. I liked learning about Anatomy and Physiology and all the other classes but I was so ready to be done with those classes and finally be learning about things that is going to be applicable to my career. Not that A/P isn't applicable but it just wasn't geared towards providing care to patients. I'm so happy that I have had my CNA experience cause it has helped me so much this semester! I would be totally lost if I wasn't familiar with hospitals and certain procedures. But I am missing my job at Primary's. I miss taking care of little babies. I loved it there. Despite all the yucky CNA stuff I had to do, I always found myself saying how much I loved my job and I knew that being a nurse is what I wanted to do. Just thinking about it makes me happy. I love taking care of people (preferably little babies and kids. I really dislike old people). I feel good about myself and feel like I'm accomplishing something when I'm helping others. Ohhhh life is good. I have no complaints right now. I'm so lucky to have a healthy body and my family is all healthy. I know that isn't always the case for some and it truly is such a blessing.

Ok back to Semester 1. I'm starting to enjoy my clinicals a little bit more and it's fun being able to deligate the yucky stuff to someone else. :) I like my classes, I don't like all of my instructors, I like my friends, I like learning new skills, I don't like all the clinical paperwork, and most importantly I like that in almost 13 months I'll be done with nursing school! Holy cow, I never realized how taxing this was going to be. I'm looking forward to having a normal life again.

Insanity

I started Insanity this week! And I've been really sore. Like I can barely walk up and down the stairs. My body isn't made to do this much jumping so I'm just hoping that I don't break my ankle doing this like my sister in law did (3 weeks after she had a baby and with a 4 and a 2 year old). Poor girl! Wish me luck.

Merry Christmas

I just love Christmas! Here's what went down at the Chatwin's this year

Christmas Eve, family and friends came over for soup and yummy treats and the kids did the nativity scene.

Christmas morning opened presents and ate a delicious breakfast.

Isn't little David such a doll?

Emma and I have matching headbands now! 

This year I decided to make the kids blankets for Christmas with matching pillows. With a little bit of guidance from Stacie and my Mom here is how they turned out. I'm pretty proud of myself.  I usually don't have a lot of patience for sewing.

This was my first big sewing project but not the last cause I also got a sewing machine from Santa! I'm so grateful for a wonderful family and good friends to spend these holidays with. 

8 weeks

I've made it through the first 2 months of nursing school!!

Here are some things that I've learned so far:
I'm not as smart as I thought I was
Nurses in Nevada aren't very nice or helpful
I don't like old people
I'm paying a lot of money to teach myself

And now for the positives:
I still want to be a nurse
14 more months
And now I get to enjoy 12 days of winter break