I had a lovely day today finishing up another stretch of a little work and a little clinical. I feel so uplifted today that even though I only have one week left of clinical and then I'm on my own a few of the doctors today paid me VERY nice compliments.... and doctors are not too quick to compliment a student so I feel quite good at the moment. I'm really nervous about being an actual nurse as being a student is a nice safety net and I feel really comfortable in this role. But even though I"ll be done I still don't have a job. Please pray for Jeff and I as we await news of a new job for Jeff. Pray for patience and also for me as I can't really apply for jobs until I know where we are moving. This is giving me a lot of anxiety as I'm a week away from finishing practicum and a month and one week away from being able to work as a grad nurse. I'm really frustrated and just wish I knew where to apply. I'm sure that life will work out but hey, I'm a type A personality that likes to have my life organized and planned out and living day by day drives me nuts!! What I would give for a personality change right now!

Oh life, why must you torture me?

What a day yesterday was. I've just worked 6 12 hour night shifts and I got 4 hours of sleep this morning to go to the eye doctor. And yes I need glasses... again... . Right now I could cry at everything and anything. I suddenly become extremely emotional with no sleep and I feel crazy. Then Jeff gets screwed over by the dentist and I cried... actually I bawled. Oh well life has just been a little rough lately and I'm tired of it. I don't understand why God always seems to tell Jeff and I to wait. And then on top of it He seems to throw us curve balls. I would just like some answers sometimes so that we could carry on with life and be content. Maybe that's why he tells me to wait all the time and just be content with the waiting. Anyways this doesn't make sense.

The day did look up as I took a nice nap to clear my mind and try to feel normal again. I awoke with a kiss and my wonderful husband bringing me supper in bed! Yes supper in bed... it was delightful... everyone should try it! And then to top it off we took a stroll to 7-11 for a candy run. My man sure does know the way to my heart! Finally we returned home to watch Prison Break which is always fantastic while curling up with my honey on the couch. I guess the moral of the story is that life is always better with my husband by my side even if the rest of our life isn't going as planned.

Exciting News

So just in case people didn't know Jeff and I are going to be an uncle and aunt!! Yes, we are very excited that Jeff's brother Nick and his wife Denea are expecting in July! We've been waiting far too long to spoil a niece or nephew and can't wait to teach them naughty things that will make their parents mad!! It will be great.

Sleep

It's reading week... sleeping in feels so good!

No time for play.

Hey all,

Though I should actually update you all with the happenings of our lives! It has been a while. So I am finally in the ICU and loving it. Each day is a new adventure and I have learnt so much. Who would have thought that after 8 shifts in the ICU I would know so much about medications, cardiac rhythms, trachs, ventilators, CPR, doctor- nurse relationships and have met so many cool people. I origionally thought I would hate doing 12 hour shifts and at first the learning curve was so huge that by hr10 my brain was about to explode and at 3 pm I was so tired (that's usually when I go home and take a nap when I work 8 hours). But now I'm coming around and really enjoy it. Usually you only work 3 days a week then have a few off and it's nice. But my preceptor picked up a few so I've worked 10 shifts in 2 weeks. That comes to about 60 hours of work a week, which is tons period but then put high stress into the mix and it's a little too much. I guess I could handle it if i was getting paid for this but I'm paying to work insane hours. How does that work??!! Anyways I really do love it and could see myself in this area in the future.

Needless to say my house remains a mess as I'm never home ( I might as well live at the hospital) and Jeff is busy getting ready for job interviews. But in 3 more days I start reading week. Jeff and I will be gone for part of it but the rest will involve me doing homework, cleaning, baking, doing more homework and figuring out how to become a nurse in BC, job interviews and also working shifts for my real job that I get paid for!! It will be busy but I'm thankful for the bit of time I will have to accomplish things!

Jeff and I finally got to have a date night and saw Blood Diamond. Wow, what an eye opener. I kind of feel guilty for wearing my wedding rings! good show, go see it!

Bad Wife

I've been noticing how many people are talking about thier wifely duties and how busy it gets. Yes, this is true...if you actually do the cooking and the cleaning and the laundry. I have come to realize that I'm a bad wife. Full time school work and cleaning do not go together. Since we have moved in our house (almost 2 years ago) I have neglected many household chores. My mother would be ashamed of me as I do not spend my entire saturday cleaning bathrooms, dusting, washing floors, doing the dishes, vacuuming or doing the laundry as she taught me to do. I invite company over so I actually clean my bathrooms. Mostly I'm so exhausted from going to class, doing daily assignments and writing papers that any little bit of time that I have left in the day are devoted to curling up on the couch with Jeff to relax.
Honestly, i haven't bought groceries in about two weeks and have been surviving off a few odds and ends that I froze over the summer! I know, I'm a pathetic wife but I suppose that's all I can be for now. 4 more days of class and then 10 weeks of clinical till I graduate!!

Christmas time

Merry Christmas everyone! I can't believe that Christmas has come and gone already and I guess so has the new year! Jeff and I had a great Christmas and finally had a little bit of time to relax and have some fun!

Here is our Christmas tree! Yes it is real and yes I have lots of pine needles on my floor. I greatly debated getting a fake tree... They are just so much more full and actually are shaped properly. But Jeff would not hear of it. My family has always gone to the mountains and chopped down our own Christmas tree and Jeff said that we must continue the tradition and so we did. I don't think that we did all that bad considering that we spent an hour pushing the truck up a hill after it got stuck on shear ice! What an experience. I love my tree, with all the miss matched ornaments and the not quite proper shape with a few gaps here and there! Each ornament has special meaning to me and was given to Jeff or I by someone very special in our lives!

No Christmas is complete without taking advantage of the snow and going for a good ole tobogan ride! Jeff and I took a few of the youth out to the suger bowl for a good time!

My crazy siblings. Instead of gifts the Moermans put their money towards a few "Living Gifts" at Ten Thousand Villages or through World Vision and we took a trip to Calgary for some good food, a movie and ZOOLIGHTS!!

Here we are at the zoo! It was cold but absolutely beautiful... there were millions of lights.

They even had an ice sculptor... can you guess what he is making?

Janessa and I out in the cold at the zoo!

My mom and dad are awesome... and yes my dad is pretty much wearing a beaver on his head! Beaver...Beaver!

Well this is getting pretty long so I'll catch everyone up on New Years later! We hope you all had a very merry Christmas!

ICU

So I just found out where my final placement is going to be... ICU in Lethbridge! I super freaking out but at the same time so excited. Part of me wanted this experience and the other part of my just wanted general medicine or surgery to gain good organizational skills but this experience will allow me to nurse in critical situations that I would never be able to experience otherwise. I'm sure that I will learn so much and get my butt whipped into shape. I'll be studying my brains out so that I'm somewhat prepared for what I'm about to see and do. Wow! This will be one wild ride!

My last paper ... of this semester.

I have a love hate relationship with this time of the year. I love getting ready for Christmas, preparing for our yearly Christmas tree hunt, playing my christmas music and decorating the house. I hate this time of year because the semester is winding down and I'm trying to get my last assignments finished. I have one paper left and it is causing me excruciating pain trying to finish it. I have to create incentives for myself to get even the slightest bit done. I'm close, have to just edit but frankly my paper sucks. I've never written a good paper and honestly I didn't go into nursing to write papers but alas I must in order to get my degree.
On a brighter note I've taken today off work to spend the evening with Jeff.I've been working evenings at the hospital the last three evenings and it leaves no time for us to spend together. Plus I just couldn't bring myself to pick up a shift tonight. The last ones were CRAZY. Its so frustrating to know what kind of care you want to provide to patients but you know that it is just physically impossible. I would have to clone myself three times in order to do so. Despite the insanely fast pace and the frustrations that come along I do enjoy my job and the people I work with. I get to work with some amazing nurses and until you've been a nurse you have no idea what they do and how hard they work. I love being a nurse!

Christmas Treats

Thanks Auntie Emily for the early Christmas treats!! I was very excited and it made it feel a lot more like Christmas with the snow and everything! I know your reading this even though you never comment so I just thought you know I appreciate it!

Love Bethany

PS Your my favorite. And if my other aunts are reading this you have some ground to make up if you want to be my favorite!

Stroopies

So today was the old ICHS bazaar. I'm just a little nostalgic and just had to go. I guess I remember being there all day, playing games, eating dutch food (YUM) watching movies and hanging out with your friends from school. Well Janessa and I went and I realized it isn't all that much fun. We quickly walked past all the tables and didn't buy anything. I did have to have a bit of lunch with stompot and sausage and croquettes (they are to die for!). And of course we had to stop by the "dutch" store for chocolate sprinkles and stroopies ( you know those dutch cookies with the syrup inside). It's funny because I can go to the store and buy these anytime but I just don't because you only buy them at the school bazaar. So our trip took us a whole 45 minutes and there was no one from my graduating class there. I guess they are just too cool for school and I'm a loser still wanting to have so much fun at the bazaar. We JJ and I did have lots of fun anyways and ate too many stroopies!

Grandpa

So my grandpa's surgery went as well as could be expected. Thank you to everyone who was praying! He was only in ICU for about 24 hours post-op and is now on the regular surgical floor. His pain is well controlled and he sat up in the chair today. It's hard because he can't eat or drink anything until they know if the reconnection of the esophagus to the stomach has begun to heal properly. So he has a long way to go but God has been good.

Everyday Hero!

I've realized that I am such a lucky girl. My husband in so domestic and I LOVE it. On Saturdays I generally do a few hours of homework while Jeff plays his X-box and then for an hour we go nuts and clean the house. Well this saturday was a real treat because while I was doing homework Jeff did all the dishes (there was a large stack from the week), tidied the whole kitchen and dining area (where we throw all kinds of crap like mail, homework, dishes, etc), put in a few loads of laundry ( which I later folded but I have forbid Jeff to fold laundry, not one of his many talents), and he took away a car load of recycling (I'm trying to save the earth!). Well, let me brag further by saying Jeff can also cook! Yesterday, we had steak with pasta (I've never heard of that) with garlic toast, veggies and raspberries with ice cream for dessert. I don't know but a meal always tastes better when someone else has cooked it! I have the greatest man ever! He's my everyday hero!

My dirty house

Well, today I feel so great because I finally did some house work. Jeff is so great and helped me out so much as well. Since school has started I haven't even cleaned my bathroom...gross! But we got to it and did bathrooms, dusted, vacuumed, I did laundry, dishes and I've even done some homework today! I love to feel like I've accomplished something and now my house is clean!! Well, at least for a few days but it was worth it!

Who ever reads this I just also want to ask for you guys to pray for my grandpa, he's just been diagnosed with esophageal cancer. His CT scan came back saying that it hasn't spread yet which is wonderful new... meaning he can go for surgery to remove the cancer and his esophagus. It's really a serious surgery. Pray for both my grandpa and grandma.

Weekends

Finally, the weekend has arrived. During the week I feel so crazy and exhausted that I don't get any of my homework done. Wed, Thur, Fri I just want to come home, eat and watch whatever addicting TV show that there is on that night, but I ususally end up dozing off anyways. Why do I get so tired when all I really do all day is drive and visit clients in their homes. I don't understand but my only guess is that I hate driving and I do it for at least 2 hours a day and then for the majority of my clinical day. It is crazy how far the Cardston home care nurses drive. On Thursday, we were only 10 minutes away from Pincher Creek and we went to a bunch of different Hutterite colonies. It was pretty cool but still too much driving!
But, it's the weekend, time for homework, relaxing and soccer! I guess I also need to deal with work calling every hour too but right now I'm just hanging on to sanity without having to go to work at the moment.
Okay, I need to get back to some paper writing. This year will go on forever, it feels like! Have a good one!

Bethany

Home Care

Wow, has this week ever been crazy. I have no idea how I'm going to finish this semester. I finally had a full week of clinical well Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. I'm out in Cardston doing Home Care and I really enjoy it. In a rural town we get to do a lot more hands on and actually seeing clients rather than just paperwork. but i'm not enjoying the getting up at 5am to get there on time! I'm feeling super sleep deprived. Plus I have all my stinking homework to do and haven't even started my one paper! Then of course work wants me to come in all weekend...no way am I doing that! Well, I just want to ask everyone one reading this to pray for Jeff and I and our future. There will be lots of changes coming up again this year with jobs and where in the world we end up. Pray that Jeff finds the right job in the right place. Have a great weekend!!

Wedding Bells

This vase tipped over just as Denea was given away, and got the paper all wet! Amanda was sad that all her hard work got blown away.
The boys and Sheldon posing.
Amanda and Ryan were able to come from the island. We had lots of fun together. Amanda and I got a little lost driving back to our hotel the one night but still had a good time!
Me and my sexy honey!
The wedding was beautiful, especially the bride and the flowers (Amanda, Mom, Grandma, Paula and I did them!) I had to do the bouquets and was stressed out, but I think they looked nice. I think my new calling in life is a florist! Forget nursing!

Now we are happy to be home and need some time to recover...and catch up on homework. But of course now I'm procrastinating and blogging my homework day away!

Happy Birthday

Well, my birthday isn't for another 3+ weeks but my wonderful husband Jeff surprised me early with my gift. Since we've been married I told Jeff that for his gift to me when we have babies I really want a rocking chair because all moms should have one. Well, I didn't really think he was listening but he got me a rocking chair for my birthday and it's not just any rocking chair...he made it himself! Right now he's working at a furniture manufacturing factory and he found the design and got one of the guys to help him make it. So now I have this gorgeous, solid oak rocking chair that my husband made for me. Now all we need is babies! Well, we're not working on it yet but maybe when I'm done school.

Speaking of school, I'm already tired of it even thought it's been going well so far. I'm in a regular nursing class learning about management isues, I have an addictions class which is so interesting and I'll learn a lot and then clinical will start on October 4 and I'll be in cardston with home care. I haven't really had a community rotation so I'm sure I'll learn tons.

Me tired of doing homework.

Dumb, dumb, dumb

So, I'm dumb. This past weekend and you all know we took the youth group camping to Sylvan Lake and I was trying to hard to not forget any of the food or camping stuff that i totally forgot my camera. So if anyone is reading this and has pictures of the weekend...please send them to me! But we had an awesome time playing volleyball, sitting on the beach, swimming in the freezing water, playing cards, go carts, hiking and sitting around the camp fire.

Of course there are always things that go unexpectedly on youth trips. First of all we were stuck in traffic for 2 hours in calgary because of a huge accident on deerfoot but thank goodness we were quite far behind it. Plus we had a pretty fun time anyways and our drivers were so amazing... I would have been freaking out... well I probably was anyways. then we went to the sylvan lake waterslide on the Saturday and they were closed! There website said they were open until the end of September but it was wrong!! We still had a great time and in true CDCC fashion... it rained on Sunday morning. We haven't had one trip yet where it hasn't rained! Luckily it was only for the one morning!

Finally a weekend.

Since I worked the entire long weekend, I decided to take yesterday and today off as a replacement even though I felt really guilty about it. I think that people will think I'm lazy because I didn't work today or yesterday because after all we DID just have a long weekend but in reality I didn't. I worked a few nights and felt like I was goin to die afterwards... I didn't eat when I got home or wake up to eat at lunch and felt so nauseated for the rest of the day! Yuck! So I've learnt my lesson and should pull my act together. I'm also very excited because this weekend we start youth with our campout weekend. Jeff and I did the grocery shopping tonight and packed up the trailer a bit. I'm so excited because I haven't been camping since the May long weekend (because I work every weekend) and I wanted to go camping lots the year, which didn't happen. But at least I can relax this weekend and have so much fun with the youth. I love those guys so much and they are absolutely great. This trip is going to be sweet. We are going to Sylan Lake and doing all kinds of fun stuff there. I'll post pictures when we get back.