Thursday, July 29, 2010

Wednesday Weigh-In

Oops!  I am a day late.  Sorry ladies.  But good news is that I lost 2 pounds this week!  I know, I know not burning up the scale or anything, but slow and steady is what they say is best!

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Featured Family Member

So here is the deal on this post.  I have been imagining this "feature" for a while.  Here is my idea - every week introduce my faithful followers to a new member of my family.  And by family I mean kinda extended family - you know - yours, mine and ours kinda thing. 

My Featured Family Member this week is . . . . . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  David

David is my husband Scott's older brother.  The reason I picked him first is because he is also a prayer request of sorts as well.  You see David is a member of the Navy Reserves and has been deployed to Afghanistan for a year.  He isn't quite there yet, but should be getting there sometime in the next few weeks.  He is married and has two great kids, Kaitlyn and Justin.  So if my faithful followers would please keep David and his family in their prayers I would appreciate it. 

Below are some pictures from the Fourth of July, we also celebrated David's birthday early since he would be gone on his actual birthday.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Congrats Cake

I mentioned in my earlier post that my husband and kids made me a dinner and cake the day I got my results and wanted to share a few pictures from that day. Enjoy!

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Weigh-In Wednesday

I am very excited to announce that today I start a new Weight Loss Challenge. The hospital is hosting a contest for employees. There is a $5 entry fee, the competition last 12 weeks, and I could win $250! Wouldn't that be nice in October for Christmas! There are also weekly prizes. An added bonus is that for every pound lost by employees the hospital is going to donate $5 to the backpack program in Salem. I am not 100% sure but I believe this program helps put food in backpacks so that needy kids have healthy snacks at home over the weekend. Pretty cool huh!

The contest starts this week so I don't have any loss to report yet, but I wanted to share my plan of action. I am going to be counting points again and I am going to be walking on my 4 days off each week. I have downloaded a Couch to 5K program that I am going to try. I plan on taking the kids with me, they can ride their bikes in town while I take advantage of the great bike/walking trail we have in St. James.

I am super excited about this. I have struggled with weight gain ever since I went back to school and have tried to shed the pounds but between school work and family it just never happened.

BTW this is my first "scheduled post". I have never taken advantage of that before but since it is Weigh-In Wednesday I figured I would!

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Stay at Home Parents? Seriously?

So let me start this post out telling you guys how much I love my job! Seriously! Yes there are days when I want to shake all the people that seem to come into the ER for pain medicine, but my heart instantly softens because a member of my family is dealing with drug issues. So I even use those patients to learn from. Anyway, I love my job! I love all the people I work with, and I have only cried on the way home once! My boss is great, she is very family oriented, she has three boys herself so I am sure she understands. Anyway, after we got home from Florida and I got my first "real" paycheck we started sitting down with the budget. I knew we were paying a ridiculous amount for daycare (to the tune of $170 a week), but wasn't sure how the schedule would work with my job so I wanted to wait before I made any major changes. Naturally, because I love my children, if I was off they stayed home with me. After all I have missed so much with them the last three years. And suprisingly Scott has started keeping them home with him when I am at work (answered prayer her folks!). I think he enjoys having his little fishing buddy around.

So this issue of daycare was weighing very heavily on my heart. I knew it was insane, I knew our money could be much better spent elsewhere, and who else is better to raise their own kids than their own parents - duh! So I approached my niece about watching the kids. I think for the month of July and first part of August there were 6 days when Scott and I would both be at work. She agreed and this is how I we became "Stay at Home Parents".

Now there have been challenges. Remember when you were a teenager, life was so carefree. No biggie if I call off a day, right? Huge panic set in for me because I could not find anyone. I actually was able to switch the days I worked (here's that good boss). And I twisted Miss Cheryl's arm and she is gonna keep the kids every once in a while for a few hours (occasionally I have to go into work and Scott is heading home from work so there is a small gap).

The kids are so funny, every once in a while they will look at me and I can see it in their little eyes, they are thinking why is Mom here. I am having a hard time not being an absolute bum now, but I am working on that too.

God is good ladies!

The Results are in!

So, I know you all remember that I just recently graduated from RN school. Yeah me! Did you all remember that I had that one last test to take - my nursing boards test?

Well I took those boards, on July 7th. I kept telling everyone 7/7 had to be a lucky day! So I went up the night before and stayed at my dad's house, I had to be there bright and early at 7:30 am. The test is a computer adaptive test which basically means that if you get questions right they give you harder and harder questions until they feel you have passed a certain number of hard questions. The minimum number of questions is 75, the maximum is 265. Big range here huh? Prior to my test date, 4 others from my class had taken the test, all of them got 75 questions and they all passed. So I am feeling pretty good about my odds, but they all took a $400 review course that I did not take, I went to the beach instead. Priorities right?

Anywho, I got there, had to do fingerprints, palmprints, give a DNA sample (ok not) and got situated at my computer. I remember looking at the clock on my computer and it read 7:45. I remember a brief prayer of a clear head and calm. And so I began. The first question wasn't so bad, I felt pretty confident, I must have gotten it right because they kept getting harder. I remember I got lots of OB/Newborn which was a huge blessing for me! I recall seeing question #68 and then quit paying attention to what question I was on because I knew I would get myself all worked up if I got to #75 and had to keep going. The next thing I remember is a big blue screen, I had a brief moment of panic thinking oh no the computer froze I have to start over blah blah blah. Then I realized I was done.

I left there (practically running) feeling so confident that I had passed. But 48 hours is a long to wait to get results and of course by Friday morning I had myself convinced I had failed.

Friday morning I had to work. At Salem they are super strict about what websites you can and can't access. Luckily I was able to get onto the website for my results. Of course I had about 10 people standing around me as I was looking them up. But guess what? I passed!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I printed out that paper, highlighted the part that said passed and showed it to anyone and everyone that would look. When I got home that night my family had me a wonderful cake made, dinner cooked, Hannah made me a certificate that said #1 Nurse! It was one of the most memorable days ever! I still sometimes tell my husband - "Do you realize you are married to an RN?" He just laughs. I love it! And I am so glad this phase of my life has come to an end!

Monday, July 19, 2010

Thinking about it. . .

So I have been strongly thinking about restarting my blog. But I definitely want it to have a new focus, so you guys tell me. What do you want me to write about? I have a few posts brewing in my mind such as. . .

The day I got my results
We are sorda stay at home parents now
New routines
Featured Family Members
Did you know we have a dog?
What's your favorite Staycation Location
Bedroom vs Playroom

I might tackle a few tough topics just for fun like - becoming "members" of a church, To vaccinate or not to vaccinate, Birth control vs Natural Family Planning vs God's Will, and Divorce to name a few.

and of course lots of posts with pics of our fun, amazing, relaxing, reconnecting summer.

Oh and a few little surprise posts that might give you all some insight into my crazy, mixed up mind.

Hope everyone is having a great summer!

Jaimee