Glad Tidings « anyways…

Wishes

August 18, 2008 at 10:27 pm | In Glad Tidings, Lundi, Nursing | No Comments

It’s been a while since I’ve written. Lots has happened since I’ve been away. Work and Savannah’s death to name a few. I have had a lot to do and so little time to do it. It seems like whenever I had time off, I was off to somewhere else to do something. Sheesh.
Lundi went to camp at Camp Natarswi, a Girl Scout Camp at Baxter State Park. She had a wonderful experience! You see, what happened is that she went to LL Bean with the family one day. There was a kid’s adventure day there and there were contests to enter. One of the contests, she had to fill out a form and her name was drawn later. The prize was summer camp at one of 5 locations up to $500. Then in addition to that, she received a $200 gift certificate to LL Bean so she could get stocked up to go. She had a wonderful time! The camp was 3.5 hours away and when we went to pick her up and she saw us, she turned the other way and said, “Bye!” She didn’t want to come home, she had so much fun. Lundi got her wish to go to a summer camp.
The olympic story of Michael Phelps is amazing! I was inspired by a recent quote by him that I saw in a newspaper…it goes like this - “With so many people saying it couldn’t be done, all it takes is an imagination,” Michael Phelps. I felt that truth because a lot of people told me of the impossibility of becoming a nurse. He’s right. It takes imagination. Nursing has been absolutely wonderful! I’ve had a few of my own patients. There have been overwhelming moments, rewarding moments and learning moments. Emergency nursing is something I never thought possible right out of nursing school. I got my wish, though…and I think I fit right in. I had to work on Sunday. I looked over my training materials and found a few things to focus on for the day. One of the things was blood transfusions. So I told them…“please let me know if you have a patient who needs blood, because I need to get the experience.” I got my wish, but it was with my own patient. I gave a blood transfusion on my own real sick patient. He had many problems in the past that seemed to be culminating on this one episode. He was a busy patient.
Yesterday afternoon, I was listening to music, and one of the songs that came up was Savannah’s song. She had a song made for her. It’s so cute! I have it because I made a DVD of her life that included that song. You see, she died this month before her 8th birthday. I had the honor of making 2 DVD’s with about 1,000 pictures in a slideshow set to music. One of the DVD’s was of her 2 visits to Disney - one of which was on the tab of the Make A Wish Foundation. She wished to go to Disney and she got her wish. Then the cancer came back and she wanted to go back again. This time, the WHOLE family went - grandparents and all. These DVD’s were filled with her smiles and fun times. It was a tribute to her life. I had a hard time containing my emotions while putting it together. Savannah is such a gift. The wonderful stories of her life were amazing. Here’s one more - it happened after her funeral. I shared her story with so many of the nurses at the hospital. One of the nurses, my preceptor, recently lost her husband a year ago yesterday. I showed her the program from Savannah’s funeral and it had a poem with author unknown. She loved it so much that she photocopied it and published it yesterday in a local paper to memorialize his passing. Savannah has given in so many ways - intentional and intentional - known and unknown. I wish that I will never forget - and that I can witness many more of her gifts - even after she’s gone.

A man walks into a bank…

June 28, 2008 at 10:43 pm | In Extra! Extra!, Glad Tidings | No Comments

A man walks into a bank after about 24 hours of attempting to get a loan to buy an automobile. Actually, it’s a credit union - a federal credit union. Are there any credit unions, not federal credit unions? Are there any banks or credit unions NOT FDIC insured? I have never seen an ad for a bank or credit union that goes without the FDIC logo - or better yet, “we aren’t FDIC insured.” Hmmm…anyways, this federal credit union was no ordinary lender - it was the lender to offer a loan to the man at the going interest rate (respectable), and additionally, within 24 hours of applying. The man has some issues with credit - like just starting a job after a few years of school, a fair credit history, but with items that lenders might take issue with. However, the man just raced from the seller’s car lot an hour away to secure the credit, and there’s 10 minutes to closing time. All paperwork was done previous to the meeting, so it went smooth and quick. The man walks out of the credit union with a check in hand for the seller - to buy an AWESOME MINIVAN!
You guessed it, I just bought a new minivan. My old Grand Caravan was having transmission problems. It had 160K+ miles and the tranny was gonna blow. Scotty told me urgently, “She cant hold out much longer captain!” I listened and although I would have rather bought a new vehicle for myself (work, small, economic and safe for winter), the family vehicle had to take priority. The new toy is a Honda Odyssey. I’ve never had a Honda. Kim and I reminisced, though. The first time Kim realized she was in love with me was when we were test-driving a honda civic together. We were “dating” or was it just friends? I already knew I loved her (from day one), but she realized she loved me in a Honda Accord. Too bad the used car dealer was in the passenger seat and Kim was in the back while I was driving. He was just in the way. I didn’t buy the car. What a gushy story, but it’s true. So today we brought it up. We felt romantic while the kids screamed and fought in the back seat of our new HONDA van. Man, what the back seat can do.
anyways…Now on to other matters…I will start my new job on Monday! YEAH! I am looking forward to it. I will actually be a nurse. This is a new job, a new career. MAN. This is so cool!
I saw Mona today. We all went with the new van so we could pick up some stuff she was giving away. We have had a new van AND a new wardrobe - all in one day with less than $25 in our pockets. Thanks Mona and HAPPY federal credit union.

Amber, R.N.

June 27, 2008 at 9:40 am | In Extra! Extra!, Family, Glad Tidings | No Comments

$Amber\'s son - they were there at graduation. Unfortunately, I don\'t have a picture of Amber.$ My cousin’s wife just e-mailed me today. She announced that she passed the NCLEX-RN and she is now a registered nurse! CONGRATULATIONS Amber! That makes two in the family. If you were there at my graduation party, she was the pregnant one. Becoming a registered professional nurse is such a great moment. It accentuates the pinnacle of your educational achievements, which were very hard, emotional and expensive. All the family put their best effort into the whole thing. Again, Amber - GREAT JOB!

Frugality

June 25, 2008 at 9:59 pm | In Enjoin, Glad Tidings | 1 Comment

In looking at our new budget, I’ve found a problem…now that I am actually making money of my own, I have to make ends meet. And somewhere along the way…they may not be able to. So now, I am exploring ways to save money in everything we do. This will be hard as much of this effort will find me stranded on an island. I think my family will often look at me in disgust or with a roll in their eye. So I will have to do this work myself (pregnant wife = person not able to take on new and magnificent things, to the power of 5 kids) and if this is the cause of my anxiety, it is because I will probably lose speed fast. How’s that for pessimism? Besides having a new job that I am anxious for (new job and new career - nursing), I will be trying this while my spouse will have a hard time just waking up each day. Bad timing, but money doesn’t wait for timing. I must find a way to maximize my income AND expenses. A daunting challenge for sure. PS - I don’t want to paint my wife and family in a negative light - just telling it like it is. We are who we are.
In trawling the internet, I found this Maine-based blog. It’s called The Frugal Family Kitchen - and it’s wonderful. I am looking forward to exploring it’s down-to-earth no-nonsense money matters. Enjoy it at http://thefrugalfamilykitchen.blogspot.com - I have put the link permanently in my Blogroll.
ADDITIONALLY: Feel free to post your frugal tips, ideas or cool savings ideas as comments to this post.

Inspiration - follow-up.

April 11, 2008 at 11:36 pm | In Credo, Glad Tidings, Nursing School | No Comments

I have so much to say and so little awake time to type it all. I am so tired ’cause I got up after 5.5 hours of sleep at 5am this morning. I went to clinical - which was good and I think I might be interested in substance abuse nursing. Then I came home and I’ve been on my duff writing a paper ever since.
But before my duff became a flattened pancake, I checked my mail. I received a surprise. You see, I had helped someone out through inspiration a few weeks ago. My action was seemingly simple and nearly insignificant. This person later told me that it meant more than she could express in gratitude. It helped my testimony of the Holy Ghost and inspiration…and how these things can bless the lives of others.
Well, today it came full-circle in the mail. That’s all I want to say about that. Just know that what she did for our family is beyond words in gratitude. Please…when you’re inspired to do something, don’t just brush it under a rug and forget about it. DO IT! Just follow inspiration. It will be a blessing to others if you do - and maybe to yourself. It was obvious that this person knew just what our family needed - she was close to the Spirit to really heed the promptings. I was brought to tears when I saw that parcel in the mail - it was a perfect way to remind me of all the blessings I have in my life. It helped with my bad attitude.
My attitude was better today. I learned about how attitude is everything today. I’ll have to blog about that later.
Bryce: thank you for your words today. I will reply when sleep is more abundant.
I finished my paper tonight.
Off to Stake Conference tomorrow…and a new Stake Presidency.

Thank you Winston Churchill, Mother Theresa

April 10, 2008 at 11:14 pm | In Glad Tidings | No Comments

If you’re going through hell, keep going. ~ Winston Churchill

I know God will not give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish He didn’t trust me so much. ~ Mother Theresa

If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere. ~ Frank A. Clark

Thank you Kim.

Upper

April 10, 2008 at 5:09 pm | In Credo, Family, Glad Tidings, Nursing School | No Comments

I was feeling down today. More on that later. I came home from clinical and all I had the energy of mind, body and spirit to do was sleep. I went to sleep. Before that, I told kim of my woes. An hour later the whole family came up here and sang me three songs, How Gentle God’s Commands, I Stand All Amazed and Be Still My Soul. Thank you family! You’re great! I love you and now I feel much better.

Press On

April 9, 2008 at 12:01 am | In Credo, Fuss, Glad Tidings, Nursing School | No Comments

This morning I realized that I needed to work on my nursing process paper, right? So I was looking for my paperwork for the patient (I’m really tired, so bear with me…I just need to get this out of my head so I will remember it forever). In looking for my paperwork in my records, I came across paperwork I handed into a previous clinical instructor. I didn’t really like her. This paperwork was something she required each week. It was your responsibility to write a DARP note on a patient. I typed mine out, but forgot to type my name. In a hurry, I handwrote my name…”Mike Smith”. She, of course, bled all over the page in her red ink with all the little things she wanted me to improve on. One thing she bled on was my name. She said, “Is this how you sign your name for official documents? What is your title? Do you know?” I saw that today and I thought, “shut up. That’s not what this exercise is for!” Well I still think that note was excessively negative. We know our name and title. The exercise was not to demonstrate our ability to sign our name and declare our title. It was about writing in DARP format. It just fell in line with her style of teaching…find everything negative and then point it out to the student. Next, let’s see if we can make him feel about 2″ tall. Finally, I’ll show off my knowledge and really give it to him by teaching him a thing or two while I’m at it. That’s how I felt what she commented on with my name.
Well, I often have feelings like that. Negative. Like when I started this paper (today, I know) I felt, “Oh no, another paper to write. Boy that’s a lot of work. I hate sitting for that long. It’s so tedious.” Then I turned it around and thought about what Donna said: “Success is in the Journey, not in the destination.” I wanted to make this day a success by seeing the journey and loving it. Instead of complaining and murmuring, I decided to make it a happy day. I decided to love learning about gallstone pancreatitis. You know what? It worked! I spent all day on the paper. It’s not done. I did, however, learn a lot about the subject and how to care for the patient. I spent twelve hours so far and I’m now working on nursing diagnoses. It’s a wonderful thing to critically think like this and learn so much. I wish I had time to learn like this. I called Kim and told her about these thoughts. She pointed out that Heavenly Father was the one who blessed me with this neat jewel. The Lord made my burdens seem light today. I made it this far…we’ll work together to make it the rest of the way! So I was listening to conference talks on my way home and was reminded about a few things. 1) I need to work on learning how the atonement helps me through things even if it is not sin-related. 2) The Lord blesses us when we are in His service. 3) “This is not my season” for many things…but my season is coming soon…graduation! 4) Our traditions need to be Heaven Focused.

Oh - I am done nursing process paper writing for the day. I am not done writing the whole paper.

A Blast from the Past…”Blue Veil”

January 22, 2008 at 9:44 pm | In Glad Tidings | No Comments

This essay was submitted and earned an “A+” for my College Writing Class back in 1997. Titled, “Blue Veil,” this prose was intended to be a description writing which ended up personifying the sterile field in the operating room of Kim’s C-Section birth of our firstborn son. Is this about the firstborn or about the veil? Here’s my Blast from the Past essay, for anyways…

“Scalpel,” hurried the voice. “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Scalpel.”
“Scalpel.”
The blue veil uttered; the blue veil shuddered. A head on the table and a blue veil climbing from her neck. The head moved and scarcely spoke, but the veil–the veil shrieked and howled. Sounds not customary to the commoner, yet assuring, familiar and safe. Annunciating, speaking, conversing and ordering; the blue veil mumbles silence and clatter as though at once. It seems to know what it’s doing and doing it well. The curious fellow might investigate its doings–for its job is to hide. Human nature urges, forcefully, to peek and to study; yes, even to ask, “What are you doing?” No reply would come–no answer, just dance, and voices stumbling one over the other. Of what is it made? What controls it? Why is it there? The blue veil–clandestine. Hidden is its work — unknown.
Without warning, this seemingly overwhelming and enigmatic cloak began to give up its secrets. The head on the table expressed excitement, and she moved a little more. This giant and queer veil began to yield to its environment. Smaller and smaller, clearer and clearer. Less and less puzzling. Back to reality it came, crashing down on itself.
Really now, what is this blue veil? Or what was it? Images blurred, relocated and shifted; they were transferred into and out of the veil–disappearing and reappearing. Glasses; enlarged, blue heads focused on one point . . . beyond the veil. Rubber hands, controlling flashing objects never seen before.
The veil was still. Silence and then crumpling. Movement and rush. The veil jerked and tugged. A voice, “I have the head and a shoulder here!” Excitement built. The head’s eyes beneath the veil grew larger and spoke, “Whhhat was that?”
From that point on, the blue veil was not seen. Now it didn’t get up and leave the room, nor was it moved. It stayed there. Its mission now complete, the veil’s effectiveness wore off. Behind it, some fifteen people. The head on the table wasn’t just a head — it had a body. Arms secured to the left and to the right. Blue veils had overtaken the body; all but one spot. All of the fifteen people had their focus on this one spot — oblivious to the blue veil.
Things were clear for a moment. Then, the blue veil ascended once more. The blue veil stood again, taking its rightful place. Time mounted. Authority. Silence. Waiting.
A cry from behind the veil. And another, gurgling and loud. Wet and sharp. New.
For the last time, the blue veil shrunk; for the first time everything was undeniably distinct. Now, some of the people were no longer interested in the body under the veil — they were working with another body. Tiny, slippery, fresh and pure.
He shouted his glorious announcement, “I’m here! I AM HERE!”
Having heard this, the blue veil left, having fought the good fight in defending its throne. Not defeated, but victorious. As it left our view, another was extended. White, thin, clean and pure. He is here.

Adventures Galore!

January 5, 2008 at 10:36 am | In Family, Glad Tidings, Natter | 2 Comments

Adventure #1: We went out for dinner. It was wonderful! We went to The Granary Pub and Restaurant. It is a Farmington restaurant mainstay. You can always count on the Granary to serve a good plate. That makes it predictable. Tasty, but predictable. That’s good, but it Farmington where there are few worthy restaurants, predicable equates with a big sigh. “The Granary again?” That means I really have to be in the mood for the Granary. Last night, I was in the mood for the Granary, but when I actually got there, I remembered how predictable they are. Even their specials menu wasn’t a surprise. I was a bit shocked at the, ahem, decor…valentines…appropriate, but I would rather not have seen the ribbons. One visit and you’ll know. So it took three times the server checking on us to see if I finally decided. By then, I was tired of flip-flopping between tastes I already knew and the rather un-adventerous. So I settled on Shrimp and Scallop Alfredo. Desperate to dig up any hope of new and exciting, I checked their pasta selecction. Rigatoni. Hmmmm. So in mid-order, I said, “I’ll take the Shrimp and Scallop Alfredo. But wait, can you tell the cook to do something unexpected to it. Add something to it. Surprise me.” I got the curiously silly and wacky smirk that shouted, “I don’t have a button for that, sir.” Then after a long pause, she giggled and asked, “OK. What do you mean? What do you have in mind? Um. I just think they’ll ask me what you mean.” I just said, surprise me and assured her to just do it and I’ll go with it. I could tell she was unaccustomed to such a challenge. So in comes the plate. It sported the predictable edible flower - a sort-of Granary signature. Under the flower was filled with unexpected. The sauce was slightly reddened, there were filled pastas and green streaks. I thought at first that the red food in the sauce was bacon, but later found it wasn’t. Kim jumped the gun and asked the server, “Is that portabella filled ravioli?” She responded, “Well, they didn’t even tell me what it was. They told me that you can tell them after the dinner is done to see if you get it right.” And so we ate. Kim got a french dip sandwich. She didn’t like it so we shared my plate. It was wonderful! What a fun dinner this was! It turned out that we were right. Portabella filled ravioli, spinach and sun-dried tomatoes. Just look at their menu on the website listed above. You’ll see that the meal is definately not this adventurous. It was a pleasant and fun discussion point for dinner at a restaurant that would be otherwise predictable. It would have really helped our neighbors at the restaurant. They ordered dinner and didn’t talk at all except to discuss the wine. They were virtually silent through every bite and stare. They avoided each other’s eyes. This sort of fun food adventure evening would have really sparked a hot night for them! What a memory it was for us! They only charged us $1 more for the plate. What a deal! Try ordering something off-menu. Watch them squirm and find an adventure worth digging up. Want an adventure every time you eat in Farmington - without even asking? Go to the Homestead.

Adventure #2: We went to see National Treasure: Book of Secrets. As with any sequel, this movie followed the original in speed, tactics and actors. Nicolas Cage was predictable and Justin Bartha has those girl-thrill eyes and innocence lost personality. Predictable…but we loved it! Thank you Disney for giving us a PG-rated evening of fun adventure movie! There was a mixed bag flavor of patriotism, far-fetched and “c-mon” that made acctually ended up grounding the movie. But just like a good train, it had to start out slow and gradually speed up until it eventually was un-stoppable. It kept us guessing and wanting more! Another winner!

Adventure #3: We got home and found the kids had an adventure of their own. Our usual babysitter is awesome. Last babysitting adventure yielded toast under the chair and pancakes smooshed on top of the chair - with a dash or two of disaster in the kitchen, livingroom and wait - the whole house. This time, the bird got a shower and was completely drenched. I don’t know exactly what happened, but the adventure had Lauren and Harrrison written all over it.