I'm on Thanksgiving break all week this week! Too bad it hasn't been much of a break. I've been working hard on a huge project and paper for school. The project is worth 40% of my grade in one class, so I can't screw it up. The paper is only worth 10% in another class, but that could make the difference between letter grades. I only have 2 weeks left of school (including exams) after the break, and I'm ready for Christmas break! That will be my last big break for the rest of my young adult life! Sad, but I'm ready to get into the working world! From my calculations, between mine and Dustin's salaries, we should be able to put a really nice down payment on a house within the next year and a half. So exciting! Next thing will be to get Dustin a better car. Then it'll be my turn for a car. Hopefully an SUV that is more environmentally friendly than my beloved Explorer. Woohoo!
I'm actively planning Ryan's birthday party. We invited all of his friends, which amounts to twenty 2-year-olds. Should be interesting! We're having a bouncy castle and cotton candy machine. Not to mention pizza and cake! Oh, and great party favors! Can you tell that I love birthdays? Ryan and all of my future children will always have blow-out birthday parties! I can't wait...it'll be a lot of fun!
I'm still monogramming, but I'm selectively choosing which orders I take because nursing school is my primary focus right now. I'm finally starting to get excited about being a nurse. Now that I've found an area that I like (the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit), I know where I fit into the huge field of nursing. It can get overwhelming with all the options you have as a nurse, but I guess it's nice if you need a change of pace later in life. I love the NICU because there isn't any down time. I hate down time...I like to go, go, go. Yes, it's a hard job. Yes, it's sad. Yes, it numbs you to death. But it's where I fit. I can love on sick, tiny babies all day long and help them get better. Plus, it gives me my baby fill. Not to mention it pays well since it's considered a stressful job.
Ryan continues to flourish at his school. He loves his teacher, Ya Ya. He has become best friends with a little boy he calls Saw Saw (Sawyer). We love his school so much. He is able to communicate almost all of his needs and wants to me now, which eliminates so much frustration! I can't even count how many words he can say now because he learns at least 10 new words a week. It's amazing how sponge-like a 2-year-old's mind is!
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Memphis Zoo, Halloween, and More!
I forgot to mention in my last post that Ryan and I traveled up to Memphis a few weekends ago to spend the weekend with Steven and Virginia. We went to the Memphis zoo, and Ryan loved it even more than the last time we went! It was REALLY cold, but the hot chocolate they were selling made it all good. Ryan decided that his favorite animal was the...monkey! He loved how silly they were. We had a great time!
I went to the UMC Halloween party last Friday night, and it was a blast! My friend, Lyndse, and I dressed up as Indians, and she made our outfits in less than a day! On Saturday, we went trick-or-treating in my dad's neighborhood. At the 3rd house, Ryan (Mr. Independent) walked up the brick stairs to the porch with candy, his candy bucket, and a foam ghost in his hands, and he tripped! Poor baby sliced open the top part of his nose in between his eyes. There was sooo much blood coming from his face, nose, and mouth that we couldn't figure out where the cut was at first. He was thrashing around, so blood was slinging everywhere. It was a really gory site! Luckily, Dustin, my dad, Dustin's mom, and Dustin's aunt were there with us. Also, the woman who lived out the house happened to be a nurse. They doctored Ryan up, which was good since I was in a panic! They had to send me to get the car because I literally lost it. That little boy is my life, and I can't bear for anything to happen to him. We took him to the doctor, who said stitches would make it heal the same as without, so we decided not to get them. Ryan is doing fine, but mommy is still emotionally traumatized! I think we will be going to the Halloween carnivals from now on instead of trick-or-treating! I'm very thankful he's going to be okay...he'll have a scar to remember it by, though!
Dustin moved to Dallas on Monday, and he's been taking a lot of certification exams. He finally feels my pain on how awful constant studying is! He seems to be enjoying it over there, and he's planning on coming home this weekend!
We decided to stay home for Thanksgiving because I have a huge project due the day after Thanksgiving that is worth 40% of my grade. That's a really big deal since we have to make a 76 to pass the class (nursing school is on an 8 point scale). I also have a big process paper due the following week that's worth 10% of my grade in another class. So we decided that we'll stay home and do schoolwork and maybe have a small Thanksgiving of our own. Traveling is just not going to work out this year.
Ryan will be 2 on December 11! We're having his birthday party on Saturday, December 19 from 3 to 5, and it's going to have a football theme...specifically, Ole Miss football! Of course, everyone else is welcome to wear their favorite football team's jersey! We're going to have a bouncy castle, so I know all of the kids will have fun! I'm really excited about his party. I'm planning on making his cake myself this year, and I've got some great ideas on what I'm going to do!
My birthday is also coming up in December (the 30th), but we're celebrating it on New Year's Eve. I'm not sure what we're doing yet, but my friends promised we'd do it big!
I went to the UMC Halloween party last Friday night, and it was a blast! My friend, Lyndse, and I dressed up as Indians, and she made our outfits in less than a day! On Saturday, we went trick-or-treating in my dad's neighborhood. At the 3rd house, Ryan (Mr. Independent) walked up the brick stairs to the porch with candy, his candy bucket, and a foam ghost in his hands, and he tripped! Poor baby sliced open the top part of his nose in between his eyes. There was sooo much blood coming from his face, nose, and mouth that we couldn't figure out where the cut was at first. He was thrashing around, so blood was slinging everywhere. It was a really gory site! Luckily, Dustin, my dad, Dustin's mom, and Dustin's aunt were there with us. Also, the woman who lived out the house happened to be a nurse. They doctored Ryan up, which was good since I was in a panic! They had to send me to get the car because I literally lost it. That little boy is my life, and I can't bear for anything to happen to him. We took him to the doctor, who said stitches would make it heal the same as without, so we decided not to get them. Ryan is doing fine, but mommy is still emotionally traumatized! I think we will be going to the Halloween carnivals from now on instead of trick-or-treating! I'm very thankful he's going to be okay...he'll have a scar to remember it by, though!
Dustin moved to Dallas on Monday, and he's been taking a lot of certification exams. He finally feels my pain on how awful constant studying is! He seems to be enjoying it over there, and he's planning on coming home this weekend!
We decided to stay home for Thanksgiving because I have a huge project due the day after Thanksgiving that is worth 40% of my grade. That's a really big deal since we have to make a 76 to pass the class (nursing school is on an 8 point scale). I also have a big process paper due the following week that's worth 10% of my grade in another class. So we decided that we'll stay home and do schoolwork and maybe have a small Thanksgiving of our own. Traveling is just not going to work out this year.
Ryan will be 2 on December 11! We're having his birthday party on Saturday, December 19 from 3 to 5, and it's going to have a football theme...specifically, Ole Miss football! Of course, everyone else is welcome to wear their favorite football team's jersey! We're going to have a bouncy castle, so I know all of the kids will have fun! I'm really excited about his party. I'm planning on making his cake myself this year, and I've got some great ideas on what I'm going to do!
My birthday is also coming up in December (the 30th), but we're celebrating it on New Year's Eve. I'm not sure what we're doing yet, but my friends promised we'd do it big!
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
An Update...FINALLY!
School has been keeping me really busy this semester. Even right now I should be working on my Community Project and not typing this post, but I figured that I needed to write an update since it's been over a month since I last updated my blog! So here's what's been going on...
Ryan can say over 200 words. He can name any and every animal. AND he can say 2-word sentences: "No, Mama!" "Off, Mama!" He is a ball full of energy, and I have no idea where he got all that energy from! I have never been a person who is full of energy (even when I was an athlete)! We are still working on potty training. He's got the telling me thing down but not so much the going in the potty part. So it's just a work in progress...I'm aware that boys take longer to potty train than girls, but all of the children at Ryan's school are potty trained at or shortly after age 2. Ryan continues to love food...a lot. He can easily out-eat my daily consumption with one meal! I have no idea how I'll be able to afford teenager Ryan. LOL! Ryan picked out his Halloween costume this year: a fire fighter! He loves wearing the hat EVERYWHERE, and his costume looks so cute on him!
On another note, I've decided to wait to have Ryan baptized. The church I am a member of won't baptize him because Dustin is not a member. I am not fond of that church anyway; I only maintain my membership there in order to make it easier to join another church when I find one that fits me. I do not agree with the principles that church currently follows. I have yet to find a church I am happy with in Jackson. I enjoyed visiting Galloway, but I never met anyone there, so I have stop attending. It's awkward sitting by yourself every Sunday. So instead of stressing out that Ryan is almost 2, and he isn't baptized yet...I've decided to just wait until I find a church I am happy with. That may be when Ryan is 10, but I'm okay with that. If he never gets baptized, I guess I'll have to be okay with that too. Baptism to me is simply a symbol. It is not a necessity to be "in" with God. That's just my opinion.
Dustin got a flying job in Dallas, so he will be moving there the Monday after Halloween. He's planning on being there for about 6 months or so. He seems to be excited about it, so hopefully it goes well.
I'm starting to plan Ryan's 2nd birthday party. It will be a little more low-key this year. He's going to have a truck birthday cake, a bouncy castle, and maybe some chik-fil-a catering. I'm not sure whether we are going to do it on December 12 or 19 this year. I have no idea what to get him because we are so overloaded with toys! I did get him a few Thomas the Train and Curious George DVDs. He's obsessed with Curious George and Elmo, by the way. And football. He's already a HUGE Ole Miss fan. He's great at saying "uh oh" with all of the balls our offense drops! Haha! We're working on the Hotty Toddy cheer. Yay for my little Ole Miss boy! Anyway, I got a little off track there. I'm thinking I should get him a small trampoline because he loves jumping on the bed! I also thought about getting him a little fort/playhouse for out back, but I really like the wooden ones (y'all know how environmentally friendly I am...if you don't, come check out my curb on recycling day), and they're pretty expensive. The plastic ones aren't very cute anyway. So I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
Oh, I forgot to mention that I have this whole week off! What to do, what to do...oh yeah, I have tons to do! Schoolwork, monogramming, cleaning up, etc...
Ryan can say over 200 words. He can name any and every animal. AND he can say 2-word sentences: "No, Mama!" "Off, Mama!" He is a ball full of energy, and I have no idea where he got all that energy from! I have never been a person who is full of energy (even when I was an athlete)! We are still working on potty training. He's got the telling me thing down but not so much the going in the potty part. So it's just a work in progress...I'm aware that boys take longer to potty train than girls, but all of the children at Ryan's school are potty trained at or shortly after age 2. Ryan continues to love food...a lot. He can easily out-eat my daily consumption with one meal! I have no idea how I'll be able to afford teenager Ryan. LOL! Ryan picked out his Halloween costume this year: a fire fighter! He loves wearing the hat EVERYWHERE, and his costume looks so cute on him!
On another note, I've decided to wait to have Ryan baptized. The church I am a member of won't baptize him because Dustin is not a member. I am not fond of that church anyway; I only maintain my membership there in order to make it easier to join another church when I find one that fits me. I do not agree with the principles that church currently follows. I have yet to find a church I am happy with in Jackson. I enjoyed visiting Galloway, but I never met anyone there, so I have stop attending. It's awkward sitting by yourself every Sunday. So instead of stressing out that Ryan is almost 2, and he isn't baptized yet...I've decided to just wait until I find a church I am happy with. That may be when Ryan is 10, but I'm okay with that. If he never gets baptized, I guess I'll have to be okay with that too. Baptism to me is simply a symbol. It is not a necessity to be "in" with God. That's just my opinion.
Dustin got a flying job in Dallas, so he will be moving there the Monday after Halloween. He's planning on being there for about 6 months or so. He seems to be excited about it, so hopefully it goes well.
I'm starting to plan Ryan's 2nd birthday party. It will be a little more low-key this year. He's going to have a truck birthday cake, a bouncy castle, and maybe some chik-fil-a catering. I'm not sure whether we are going to do it on December 12 or 19 this year. I have no idea what to get him because we are so overloaded with toys! I did get him a few Thomas the Train and Curious George DVDs. He's obsessed with Curious George and Elmo, by the way. And football. He's already a HUGE Ole Miss fan. He's great at saying "uh oh" with all of the balls our offense drops! Haha! We're working on the Hotty Toddy cheer. Yay for my little Ole Miss boy! Anyway, I got a little off track there. I'm thinking I should get him a small trampoline because he loves jumping on the bed! I also thought about getting him a little fort/playhouse for out back, but I really like the wooden ones (y'all know how environmentally friendly I am...if you don't, come check out my curb on recycling day), and they're pretty expensive. The plastic ones aren't very cute anyway. So I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
Oh, I forgot to mention that I have this whole week off! What to do, what to do...oh yeah, I have tons to do! Schoolwork, monogramming, cleaning up, etc...
Monday, September 14, 2009
Bad Blogger
I have been such a bad blogger lately, but my life has been terribly busy. Between Ryan, school, clinicals, football season, and tons of monogram orders, I don't have much time to do anything! Ryan and I are headed to the Ole Miss/SE Louisiana game this coming weekend...looks like Ole Miss will have a great season! I hope to update soon! I'll leave you on...HOTTY TODDY!
Friday, September 4, 2009
Update
I have been really busy with school and monogramming lately, so I haven't had much time to update my blog! I will try to make a long post this weekend about all of our happenings in the last few weeks. I updated my monogramming blog with a lot of new projects: http://polkadotsandpaisleymonogramming.blogspot.com/
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Raingutter Shelves
I spent a couple of hours today installing some raingutter shelves (which are very popular right now) in Ryan's room. I got the idea from Raising Olives, which is the blog of a Christian, home-schooling mother of nine. She has some really great ideas on cute projects and saving money! Check out their website for some more great ideas! Anyway, the shelves look really nice in his room...they actually look expensive, and I only paid about $16 for the 10 foot raingutter, 4 end caps, and 14 screws. We cut the 10 foot raingutter into two 4 foot shelves. Did I mention that I used a drill and saw for the first time in my life, and I didn't mess up?! These raingutter shelves allow children to see the covers of their books instead of the spines, so they are more apt to pick up a book and look at it. Ryan already loves the shelves, and he has been "reading" all day! I even think these shelves have added more space to Ryan's room. Check out some pictures of the new shelves in his room below: .jpg)
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Monday, August 10, 2009
End of Summer
My summer will be ending next Monday at 8 a.m.! I had a much better summer than I had anticipated. I went to Natchez, Orange Beach, Destin, Raleigh, Montevallo, Birmingham, and Alexander City! My monogramming business kept me entertained when I wasn't travelling...I have definitely found a new thing I love! Ryan can say about 20 or so words now, and he loves his Montessori school. We've started potty training, and Ryan is showing a lot of interest! It has been a busy summer!
Ryan has his first dental appointment tomorrow morning because he had a little accident this weekend. While we were visiting family in Birmingham, my cousin's dog playfully jumped up on Ryan, and one of its claws snagged Ryan's gum. His gum looks pretty bad, but I think he'll be okay. However, you know I can't let him go without a dental checkup just to be sure he doesn't need stitches or something...I'd feel horrible if I just ignored something that turned out to be serious. He needs a checkup anyway because of all those beautiful teeth he's getting. I think he's up to 10 or 12 now? I don't know because he won't let me look in his mouth! I am taking him to the dentist I have gone to since I was a child. None of the pediatric dentists could fit our semi-emergency visit in until late September or October! That's appalling to me. And of course Ryan's dental insurance isn't accepted at my dentist (I don't have any dental insurance for myself), but what can I do? He's a great dentist, and Ryan needs the check up. I guess I'll just have to suck it up! Not to mention that he has enough sense to leave appointments open just for emergency visits! So hopefully Ryan will do well tomorrow.
My EKG and ECHO went well on Friday morning. I won't know all of the results until later this week, but I definitely have mitral valve prolapse. It was really cool to see my heart on the ultrasound, and the ultrasound technician said my heart looked healthy and had a strong beat. She did pick up on some possible premature atrial contractions, which she says probably isn't serious. That would make sense with the symptoms I've been having. My heart will (seemingly) stop for a second and then have a really hard beat (hence the palpitations). The nurse who did my EKG didn't speak much to me, so I don't know if I have a sinus arrhythmia or not. I should know everything by the end of the week, so of course I will give an update!
Nursing school starts back on Monday, and I'm kind of ready to get back so I can just be done already! I'm taking Maternity and Newborn, Adult II, and Community Nursing. Wish me luck!
Ryan has his first dental appointment tomorrow morning because he had a little accident this weekend. While we were visiting family in Birmingham, my cousin's dog playfully jumped up on Ryan, and one of its claws snagged Ryan's gum. His gum looks pretty bad, but I think he'll be okay. However, you know I can't let him go without a dental checkup just to be sure he doesn't need stitches or something...I'd feel horrible if I just ignored something that turned out to be serious. He needs a checkup anyway because of all those beautiful teeth he's getting. I think he's up to 10 or 12 now? I don't know because he won't let me look in his mouth! I am taking him to the dentist I have gone to since I was a child. None of the pediatric dentists could fit our semi-emergency visit in until late September or October! That's appalling to me. And of course Ryan's dental insurance isn't accepted at my dentist (I don't have any dental insurance for myself), but what can I do? He's a great dentist, and Ryan needs the check up. I guess I'll just have to suck it up! Not to mention that he has enough sense to leave appointments open just for emergency visits! So hopefully Ryan will do well tomorrow.
My EKG and ECHO went well on Friday morning. I won't know all of the results until later this week, but I definitely have mitral valve prolapse. It was really cool to see my heart on the ultrasound, and the ultrasound technician said my heart looked healthy and had a strong beat. She did pick up on some possible premature atrial contractions, which she says probably isn't serious. That would make sense with the symptoms I've been having. My heart will (seemingly) stop for a second and then have a really hard beat (hence the palpitations). The nurse who did my EKG didn't speak much to me, so I don't know if I have a sinus arrhythmia or not. I should know everything by the end of the week, so of course I will give an update!
Nursing school starts back on Monday, and I'm kind of ready to get back so I can just be done already! I'm taking Maternity and Newborn, Adult II, and Community Nursing. Wish me luck!
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