Bad Little Blogger

Yes, that's what I have been...a bad little blogger. I have spent much of the last two weeks just trying to get from day to day. Working is taking up way more time than I thought it would. Then to top it all off I am still working out for an hour a day in the evenings. I try to do the workout right when I get home but sometimes I just want a break so I usually end up doing it after we put Aislynn down for bed.

For the past few days Aislynn has not been feeling well. She has had a temperature off and on since Saturday. I think she is getting two more teeth. She is waking up at least once, if not twice, during the night. She also must have some kind of stomach bug because we have been changing at least two yucky diapers a day. I hope she gets over this soon. I guess it doesn't help when I have to ship her off to day care on the days we both work.

Kambry and McKenna are just loving their time at daycare. They both love to play with the other kids and would rather go to school than stay home. I guess mommy is too boring for them. Laundry and grocery shopping just doesn't entertain them anymore..ha! I am going to get Kambry into a part day preschool program starting in the fall. I think she will really enjoy it and that will give me a little time with just Aislynn.

Work the past two days has been great. I was able to help in two deliveries, both totally different. I think if I can get past the figuring out what to do when and who to call when I need to I will be okay. I am having a great time now and learning so much. At times I feel overwhelmed with information. I think I am going to be doing more labor and nursery stuff over the next week or so and we will see how that goes.

I have not been taking many pictures lately either. My time is limited and when I do have free time I usually spend it relaxing on the couch or checking email and things like that. I am hoping to do a photo shoot with a friend on Friday. This is where I want to go. We will see if that goes through or not. I want to get back into taking more pictures but I just don't have the energy right now.

What keeps you busy these days? Is the summer going by too fast? Are you ready for winter? Does anyone else have fun trips planned in the next month? I can't wait to get back to Texas. Just another couple of weeks!!

Stellan

Stellan is on a downhill slope right now. Please pray for him and his family in this time of need! To follow what is happening click here. This sweet baby boy needs us.

Show Us Your Life- Wedding Dress

The theme of the week at Kelly's Korner is "Wedding Dresses." Since all the rooms of the house have been done, we are now on to Show Us Your Life. Here is my dress. I don't think I will ever be able to fit into it again(not that I would ever have to) but I love it. It is stored away in a box and who knows if I will ever take it out. Why do we do that anyways? We wear this beautiful dress for our special day, then we get it cleaned and put it away to possibly never see it again. Sometimes, we as women are silly. Anyways, I knew from the time I put it on that this was the one I wanted. It had a chapel length train and pretty beading on it. I was so lucky to find what I wanted so easily. I didn't have to search for months, just one day.

Now, go to Kelly's Korner to see everyone else's!!

Fix It Friday #21

Every week, I Heart Faces hosts a fix it friday edition where you take a photo and edit it in your own way. This week, we have a photo of this young boy. Here is the orginial: And here are my fixes: I decided to go with a sepia tone on the second one and then bring back some of the color. This is not my normal kind of fix but I kinda like it. Have a great weekend!

Same Old Thing/ 11 Months

Today was my second day of working on the floor. It was not a great day. Yesterday was very busy and there were not enough nurses for the patient load so we were stretched to the max. Because of that, the nurse I was with didn't have any time to teach me anything. I was as lost as if I was a visitor and didn't know where the bathroom was. I was hoping that today would be better but it wasn't. Just the same ole' thing, different day. We started off with a great assignment and got off to a good start. We had three moms and three babies to take care of. Then...a laboring patient came in and we had to take over another nurse's entire assignment so she could take care of the mom in labor. I don't want to say exactly how many patients we had but it was way more than I have ever had on my own at my last hospital. Not a great way to start off on the floor. I am really hoping that the weekend will be better. I am keeping my fingers crossed.



In other news, Aislynn is now 11 months old. Just one more month till a whole year has gone by. She has four teeth(two top, two bottom) and babbles a lot. She can definitely say dada. Sometimes I think I hear a mama too. She is crawling all over the place and loves to follow her big sisters around the house. She is started to get into everything. I caught her today dumping the kitties water bowl on the floor. She is a little handful for sure. Since she is already in bed I will have to weigh her tomorrow. She is wearing 12 month clothes and is very average size right now. I think this little girl is going to be very smart when she grows up. I can see her mind working all the time. She is very picky when it comes to eating. She always wants what we are having and sometimes she just plain refuses to eat what I have to give her. I think I give in and give her her way too much. Oh well, I am a sucker for cute little babies.
In a few weeks we will be taking a trip home to Texas to see family and friends before McKenna starts kindergarten. We are all very excited.

Working and Working Out

For the past couple of weeks my husband and I have made a huge change in our eating habits. We are on the quest to get in much better shape. I have cut some of my calories and changed the kinds of foods I eat on a daily basis. I am starting to love fish and try to eat it twice a week. We find lots of ways to make chicken also. My fruit and vegetable drawers in my fridge have been overflowing too! In addition to the change in diet, we have also started a gruesome exercise routine. 6 days a week I am doing at least an hour of high intensity exercise a day and my hubby is doing almost twice a day exercising. My goal is to lose about 15 pounds from where I started a couple of weeks ago. So far, so good. But, all this exercising along with all this working is just really wearing me out. I will keep everyone updated to how my progress is going. In the last two weeks I have already dropped 4 pounds and 1 1/2 inches in my waist. If you or anyone you know has any secrets to success please share. Have a great day!

I Heart Faces "Feet"

There has been a shift of focus this week at I Heart Faces. Maybe it should be called I Heart Feet because the theme this week is focusing on feet. I know I don't like how my feet look and my hubby doesn't really like his either so I decided to play around taking pictures of my kids feet. Here is one I took almost two months ago. I really like it because you can see Aislynn looking at me in the background even though I was just focusing on her little toes.

Now, let's go over to I Heart Faces and see some more feet photos!!

Black and White

Remember this photo??
Well here are a few more that I took that same day but I just now got around to do anything with them. I decided to go with the black and white theme this time. They seem so dramatic to me. Do you like the black and white??

My first week and a trip back in time

As many of you know, I started my new job this past Monday. I am very excited about making some money but I am equally if not more excited to grow in my nursing career.
I have worked as a nurse for about 4 years and in that time I have done a few different specialties. As a new graduate I started working on a very busy orthopedic/neurology floor in Austin, TX. I had six weeks of orientation and was thrown to the wolves. There were days that I came home and didn't want to go back..but I did. By the way, I was pregnant with Kambry at the time too. The other nurses didn't really help me out all that much, they were just as busy as me. I did meet a few other new nurses just like me and we stuck together like peanut butter and jelly (does that even make sense?) and tried our best to help each other out. After having Kambry I moved back to North Carolina and worked at a much smaller hospital on a surgical floor. The nurses I worked with were wonderful and even though I didn't LOVE the job, I never had a day when I just didn't want to go. I learned a lot and met some great people. When the hubby had to deploy I decided to move back home so I could work a little and have my mom help take care of the girls. That's when I moved to Mother/Baby nursing. It was great because I was so much closer to what I really wanted to do. The majority of my patients were spanish speaking so I had to learn what I could really quick. Once we got orders to Virginia I was very excited about my opportunites there. Again, I was able to work in a mid size hospital on a Mother/Baby unit. The girls I worked with were wonderful. I really miss them a lot. I felt like I was where I wanted to be but at the same time I was finding myself wanting to step over to the Labor and Delivery side of things. Now that I am in Florida the opportunity has presented itself and I am so excited to start.
This past week I sat through hours of classroom orientaion and learned how to chart on their computer charting system. I did so many online review courses that my eyes hurt. I did so many chest compressions on a pretend person that I think I got a workout in. I stuck a rubber vein with an IV needle so many times I could probably do it with my eyes closed. I froze my tushy off everyday because they kept the rooms so cold. But best of all, I met a couple of other nurses new to the hospital that I am going to be working with. I am ready for next week. I am ready to learn, I am ready to help a mom birth her baby. I will keep everyone updated on my new job and give you stories about my days. Of course for the privacy of my patients I may leave out certain details and will never use any names. I hope you will follow me in this journey. I am ready!

Fix It Friday #20

It's finally Friday!! Let me tell you, I can not wait for the weekend. This weeks photo at I Heart Faces to fix up is of this "Little Miss". Here is the original:
Here are my fixes:


As always I used Picnik to do all my editing. The first is a brightly colored one, the second is a little subdued, and of course I had to do a black and white. Now let's go check out what everyone else did.

Busy Girl

That's what I have been these last couple of days...a busy girl. I finally started my job on Monday and it seems like the past two days have gone by so slow. I have gotten up at 5:30 am each day, went to work, got off around 4:30pm or a little later, then drove 30 minutes home, sat down to eat, cleaned up, got the girls ready for bed, relaxed on the couch for a little bit and it was time to start all over. Wow, that was just a really long sentence I just wrote. Anyways, my days are long, slow while at work and then just fly by when I get home. I am already ready for the week to be over. This orientation stuff is killing me. If anyone knows me you know how much I hate to sit around at a table for hours and hours listening to someone talk. It's not my nature, that's one reason being a nurse is great. There is no down time to sit around, I am always running around here and there. Well, I am tired but I just wanted to let everyone know that I was still surviving and hopefully will be back in the blog world in better working order in the next few days. Hope everyone else is doing great!!

I Heart Faces "Sports in Action"

Since t-ball is over for my oldest, McKenna, and we haven't been to any baseball games around here, I just had the photos I took from t-ball season to use for my "Sports in Action" theme for this week at I Heart Faces. After looking through them I knew I wanted to use this photo:
Little Griffin, as I refer to him, was the youngest and smallest player on McKenna's t-ball team. It was so cute watching him bat. His helment almost swallowed him whole but he played with all of his heart. I hope you enjoy this photo. It brings back sweet memories of watching the little ones play.
As far as the pets category goes, I have this photo I took when I went to the zoo a little over a month ago. I just wish I could've gotten as close to all the animals as I did to this one. I guess I need a zoom lens huh?

Now go to I Heart Faces to see what some great entries for this week!!!

Baby Girl L

What a sweet little girl she is. Here are a few of my favorites from the shoot I did of her on Thursday. She has strawberry blonde hair and cubby little cheeks. It was so much fun!!

Constructive Feedback Friday

I really love Constructive Feedback Friday featured today on I Heart Faces!! I participated last time and learned a lot in the process. I would like any feedback as to how to make this photo better. Here is a picture I took of my baby girl who is 10 months old with just a diaper on and her stuffed kitty. I am not good at getting a white background to look white. All I have is a piece of felt that I draped behind her. Are my edits too warm? Does the cropping look okay? Here is the EXIF data for this image:ISO 400, Exposure 1/160, Aperture f/2.8, Focal Length 50mm
Here are my edits:



Thanks for looking, any suggestions are highly appreciated!!

Boy, have I been busy!

This week is my last week off until I start work. That's right, next Monday I will be getting up early again, trying to wake up in the shower, and driving across town to the hospital. I have to sit through a week and a half of orientation. That's the boring part. Who really likes to sit in a classroom all day? Not me! Plus it's always freezing for some reason. It's like the temperature is set on 40 degrees so we won't fall asleep. Don't worry, I will be shivering too much to pass out. I will be there bright and early, with coat in hand on a hot 90 plus degree summer day!! YUP, that's what I am doing next week.
As for this week so far, here's what I have been up to. Monday was a relaxing day. My husband was still off from the holiday weekend so we just hung around the house. It decided to rain a little too so that was good for the grass. Then Tuesday my friend, Lauren, came over so I could take some pictures of her sweet baby. That was fun but also challenging. Wednesday I had to drive to the hospital to finish up some last minute pre employment stuff. At least I am getting paid for 2 hours of it. And today, another friend from down the street came over this morning so I could photograph her 3 week old baby girl. She was a feisty little thing but so cute with her reddish tinted hair and big ole eyes. I will post a few pictures of that later. I have been playing around with photoshop a little. For those that know I don't use photoshop, it's been time consuming to try to learn it so quickly. I shot most of my photos today in RAW so I could get used to playing around with that if I need to.
Well, I am going to get back to some editing and relaxing. More from me soon....

Little One Month Old

Here again is my friend's baby girl. She came over yesterday and actually fell asleep for a bit. Here is a little preview...

Blog Hop-Favorite Photo

How can I choose just one?? I love so many photos. So, here are a few of my favorites. The first is of Kambry, my middle girl being silly with an umbrella in the backyard on a sunny day. This photo just screams her name!! The second is yet one more amazing day of my life. My third, and youngest baby was born this day, August 22, 2008. The big sisters were so excited to meet her. The last photo is of my darling McKenna. Some of you have already seen this photo but it's one of my true favorites right now.

How we celebrated

The fourth of July is such a fun holiday. It falls smack dab in the middle of the summer, making it usually a hot sunny day and equally hot evening. Here's how our weekend went:

On Friday I got up early to do some grocery shopping for the weekend, then we laid down a small patio area for our trash cans before lunch and after that went to the pool in the afternoon. All the girls had such a great time. I am thinking I will be making more appearances at the pool with the weather as hot as it is. Too bad it's not within walking distance. Can you tell that the day wore Kambry out? This is yet another episode of falling asleep at the table. She eats really slow so I am usually waiting on her to get done. When I went to check on her, this is how I found her...Saturday started with tidying up the house and relaxing around lunch time. We made some homemade ice cream in the afternoon and some friends came over in the early evening to hang out, grill, eat (of course), and do small fireworks with the girls. My friend made a cake with blueberries and strawberries and it was wonderful!!! I know I will pay for that later with some extra working out. All in all, it was a beautiful day. We did have the threat of rain as I heard thunder in the distance but we were lucky and it passed by and we stayed dry. Here are a few pictures of the day.