Food. How I love it.

There is something special about food. It can usually be depended upon (with some exceptions), and you can make it what you want it: spicy, garlicky, sweet, salty, savory, cheesy, lots of veggies, lots of meat... whatever. And the more I cook, the more I find that I really enjoy cooking! I'm currently doing the Paleo diet, which means no processed food, no grains (wheat, rice, corn, etc), only occasional potato, and no sugar. But here's what I can eat: MEAT. Vegetables. Real eggs. Cheese (some people don't do the dairy because they're lactose intolerant. I am not. So I do the dairy.) and full-fat Greek yogurt (I had no idea it was so creamy and delicious!). Fruit. There's a lot of coconut usage in this diet: coconut "flour," coconut milk, etc. I can tell you now, I've never gone this long without grains and especially without fast food. But I'm so satisfied with the food I'm eating, I'm okay with not having Taco Bell! And I'm sure my body thanks me for that. Allow me to show you some recent meals: Burgundy pepper lamb tips on a bed of herb salad, served with a generous portion of guacamole.

Or a favorite breakfast, pepper jack cheese with avocado omelette, topped with a healthy sprinkling of cayenne pepper and smoked paprika, served with the rest of the avocado, sour cream, habanero salsa, and bacon. So. GOOD.

I even made a slow-cooked beef heart, served over a bed of creamed kale:

For when I just wanted veggies, I've had mushrooms and onion sauteed in butter and garlic, or this delicious broccoli salad:

I've never had so much fun on a "diet!!" I have tonight off (one night between several working nights, so I keep my night schedule), and I'm going grocery shopping. I'm getting the ingredients for a Thai-style spicy chicken soup that has coconut milk, red curry, and many other yummy treats. I've made it once already, and fell in love. It's good to be me right now.

It's September! Oh, the end of summer..

Ah, September! Bittersweet month, it is. The end of summer... the saddest thing. I adore summer, and I look forward to it every year. It's my favorite time of year. I lose weight, I get tanned, I go out on adventures. But, God has given me the gift of football to ease the pain of summer ending. And International Talk Like A Pirate Day. And my birthday. So it's not all bad. This year I went camping on the Oregon coast. I started just north of Seaside, and made my way down to Brookings. I find it enjoyable to bring my small "hiker's" tent and find a new camping spot each night. It's a special adventure at each spot. Here's a pic of me in Newport, enjoying my first cup of coffee for the day:

I brought a hammock this year, a decision that proved to be invaluable. But back to September. I'm putting last minute touches on the house... or that's the plan... I have to scrape the window frames and repaint. Ugh. This is not a fun task, I've found. I already pressure washed the house - a task I don't intend on doing again. How often is THAT supposed to be done?? It was dirty and disgusting! Oh! Speaking of dirty! I ran in the Dirty Dash this summer! What a hoot! Wanna see how dirty my friends and I got? Yes. Yes, you do:

July was definitely the best month of the whole summer... with too many amazing memories to blog. It may warrant another post later. Goodbye summer. I'll see you in about nine months...

The Dark Side

Being in nursing school has brought out my dark side. I even dyed my hair the darkest brown (in temporary dyes - I hate roots) that I could find... without actually going black. And it really feels like a good fit. I normally enjoy being blonde or red, but at this time in my life I need to be DARK.

I have started treating nursing school like the military. What ever crazy thing they have us do, I just think to myself, "It's what I have to do," and that makes it okay. For example: I usually work while I'm in school. With this crazy schedule however, I try not to schedule anything until three weeks of school has passed. This time, sure enough, I found out I was going to have to do a two-day pediatrics rotation, but not during my normal clinical rotation schedule. They wanted me to do it on my days off. Then, as a reward, they would give me two clinical days off (together) on a random week. I didn't get to choose the week or anything. It's just when it fits their schedule. Oh, and the pediatrics rotation was in the evening. Nice. It's a good thing I didn't make any plans with work and stuff.

On a good note, I think I see a small light at the end of this. I feel like I almost can't believe I'm still in the program and others aren't. I have also had some weird doubts. Why am I here - I'm not that smart... Is this the thing I want to do with my life? Am I in the right place? Of course, it's all from stress. I've talked to my friends and most of them have had or are having the same thoughts. Once in a while though, I feel the excitement. I have to get through this term, and then it's just my practicum! Wow!

I've been knitting. There are a group of us in nursing school who knit and we get together. We knit. It's... nice. It's like we don't have to think for a minute. Of course, we all talk about nursing, but it feels different. I'm knitting fingerless gloves right now - to match the hat and scarf. I looked at my ravelry account and noticed I have almost ALL hats and scarves. Crap. I need to do something new I guess. What should I knit next??

Last Day For a While!

I did it! I survived the work day and now I am OFF!!! I have a couple of doctor's appointments and then I'm off to go camping for at least four days. OOOooohhh, I'm practically giddy!!

On a totally different subject, one of my cats just made an incredible stench in the nearby litter box. I really don't think he covered it well in there.

I had a student CNA with me today at work. That's really a gamble; sometimes you get a good one, sometimes... not so much. I had a student a while back who was TERRIBLE at communicating. She ended up in tears a couple of times. I'm really not that mean! She just got frustrated very quickly. And she had absolutely zero critical thinking skills. She got hyped about a patient who had a trickle of blood that leaked from her IV site... but didn't get animated at all when another patient ripped their IV out and blood was gushing out. Weird.

Today was a good day. No poop stories though. Hm. Maybe that's just one reason why it was a good day...

Where's My Patient??

For the past week or so, I've had a patient who... wanders. This fella has a bit of dementia and really doesn't remember what you tell him a few minutes before. He knows he has a heart problem and that's why he's in the hospital, but doesn't understand why he can't leave. He's very amiable and likes to talk to anybody who will talk back. He's able to walk around safely and is not a threat to himself or others, so we can't really assign him a "sitter" or anything. The trouble is, he keeps wandering around. Usually, he sticks to our floor... but once in a while he ventures off to other floors.

Today we were a little short on staff and I was watching my team plus another person's while he was on lunch - a total of 18 rooms to watch! A few of them were empty, but it's still a long stretch of rooms with some patients who need pretty serious care.

I got a phone call while passing out lunch trays - the ward clerk told me she just got a call from the emergency department, where my patient was walking around. That's on the first floor and we're on the fifth. I had to stop what I was doing to run downstairs. When I got there, they told me he was on his way to the cafeteria. On my way to the cafeteria, I see him walking toward me. I told him I had his lunch in his room and that it was getting cold, so he was more than happy to go back with me. "Let's go!!" He ran off to the elevator.

*sigh*

Got A Gob?

Great day at work... it was a poop day. It just seemed like everybody had to poop and nobody could do it in the toilet. One lady had been enjoying lunch with her husband and daughter when she suddenly pooped. In her chair. She was embarrassed of course (while for me it's kind of an every day thing to clean up), so I told her she would be surprised at how common it is. I helped her to the bathroom where I put the "hat" in the toilet to collect her stool. We needed a stool sample, so it was perfect timing. When she was done, I got a spoon and the appropriate bowl (yes, there is such a thing), and spooned it out. I try to get a lot for the labs because I really don't want to have to do it again. I got a lot.

Another lady was on the bedside commode when she called me in. She said, "I've got a gob hanging on and I need you to knock it off or something."

Oh, poop.

So Many Stories, So Little Time

Being in nursing school has really put a crimp on my writing time! Okay, okay, not that I have been blogging much anyway. Lately I have realized that I have a lot of really fun stories and have not put them down anywhere... and people need to hear this stuff!! Realistically, most of it will be boring with the exception of hospital stuff. Just a warning.

I went to the local Scandinavian Festival recently. Some people go for the dancing and music (HAHAHAHA) and for the tradition. I go for the food. And this year, as I've been trying to exercise and lose weight, the Scandi Fest was my excuse to eat and eat badly!



Oh, sweet funnel cake!! How I love thee!!!

I got to ride

Yesterday I drove up to Salem and got to ride my dirtbike. It was a little scary, just because it's been so long since I rode. My friend Jeff gave me instructions and let me start in the small field next to his house. He worked in his barn and I saw him come out occasionally to check on me. After some time, I graduated to the next field over so I could get into 3rd gear finally. :) I had to rest for a while after that though, because my hands were so tired! I was having difficulties shifting and braking. But after the rest, Jeff got on his quad and lead the way. He got the speed up quite a bit, trying to get me comfortable with it. I went pretty dang slow on the corners, but I did get going kind of fast (or at least it was fast to me!). We even went up a huge (scary) hill and through some loose dirt with rocks (the scariest part - I was slipping and sliding all over).

All in all, I had a great time! I have to concentrate ONLY on riding when I'm riding - the dirt, the rocks, what gear, my brakes, etc. It was mind-cleansing. :) I don't have any pictures of me riding... maybe next time.

Keeping the cycle going

I appear to have a bad habit of blogging twice in semi-quick succession, then not posting at all for a few months. So here's my second post.

I was TOTALLY irresponsible financially and bought myself a new toy. I saved for a while, but it still took most of my bank account. Nontheless, I really wanted a hobby that I could do outside - something more physical than studying or sewing (or knitting - sorry Rayleen and Faythe).

So.... I bought a dirtbike!!!





It will be parked at my friend Jeff's house for a while, up in Salem. He has a farm there where I can ride, so it's pretty perfect! I. Can't. Wait!

More news: I had signed up for a bunch of classes, but then realized I was signed up for the wrong classes. I had mistakenly signed up for classes for an assoc. of arts and I'm doing an assoc. of applied science... So after a bit of research (and going to a really annoying workshop), I ended up dropping all of my classes! I'm just going to work for Spring and Summer! Rayleen and I signed up for a non-credit Spanish class and may do the sign language class as well.

So - about that annoying workshop that I mentioned earlier... There are apparently too many nursing students and not enough counsellors, so instead of counselling, they are having group workshops. You can make an appointment to see a counsellor, but they just want you to go to the workshop. I went and Rayleen went with me. There was a guy who seemed to have his stuff together, a really dumb girl and a young mother with a 18 month old (I guess) and a 6 month old.

I ended up holding the young baby because the toddler started crying when she held the baby. The little baby needed a change, but she was really cute and very quiet. She gnawed on my knuckle for a while and drooled a lot... but she was so cute! The toddler did a pretty good job, for a toddler.

The dumb girl was too much though. "Um, so like, I took anatomy and physiology a few years ago and um, didn't take it seriously, so um, I got an F?... and I took it again, and still didn't take it seriously - I guess I should have studied?... and I got a D-? So I took anatomy and physiology two and got a C-? So like, it lowered my GPA?"... etc, etc, etc. :O I wanted to tell her to get out. AND she's a CNA! She is the kind of moron that gives CNAs a bad name! AAARRRG!!! But I really don't think I have to worry about her EVER getting into the nursing program, so I suppose it's okay.

So like, I'm a worker bee now?

For Faythe

So Faythe has requested poop stories from work. She even threatened to withhold good coffee from me!...

This one is for you Faythe. And for everybody else... this is kind of gross.



One of my patients today was a gentleman who may have C. diff, which means (among other things) that I have to gown and glove before even going into his room. Another thing it means is that (since we don't know for sure yet if he has C. diff) I need to get a stool sample.

Apparently, they sent a sample down last night, but it was such a small sample, the lab didn't have enough to work with. They were nice enough to put a Depends down to catch any poop that came without warning.

He was confused and I found out later that he had been "combative" on a shift prior to mine (information that I normally find helpful before I clean them). Lucky for me, "Billy Joe" was disoriented but calm and non-combative. ("Is that a cat next to me?" "Nope, we don't have cats in the hospital, Billy Joe.")

I take my break, and right at the end of it I get a call - the nurse tells me there are some people from another floor here to pick him up for a procedure... but he had a bowel movement and needed to be changed first.

I grabbed my specimen cup and took a spoon from the kitchen (hahaha - how is that not ironic?!?... or maybe just creepy?) and headed to his room. Gowning up and gloving my hands, I got the soapy water and washcloths, hamper, trashcan... etc. And my spoon and cup of course.

Billy Joe is not a small man, and he was in some pain... making it very difficult for him to roll over. Oh, did I mention his scrotum was swollen? My blog will surely get flagged for that statement. There was a pillowcase separating it from his legs - I guess so it wouldn't get smashed. He also had a catheter ("I have to pee." "You have a catheter in, Billy Joe..." "Oh.... I have to pee."), so he had a lot going on.

I tried to do it all myself at first. Honestly though, after getting halfway done and suddenly Billy Joe says, "I'm going to go again," I had to rethink my strategy. I got another CNA to help hold him up on his side while I cleaned. When I was nearly finished (again), my friend Billy Joe said, "I'm going again I think." Sure enough, he was. Oh yes, you might say I got to see it first. And just so YOU can have a nice visual to go along with the story, his diarhhea looked a lot like Ragu. Yeah. Kind of orangey-red and chunky, yet very fluid.


After the third poo, I had to change the entire bed, including the extra pillowcase. I mean, you can't just have everything cleaned and on it's way out to the garbage and hamper, poop again, and expect it to stay in a Depends that isn't even on all the way.

Needless to say, I got a very substantial sample for the lab. With my spoon. Scoop scoop!

Gotta post (video at the end!)

I need to post something, so this might be random.

Let me think... Well, it's finals week at school. I finished yesterday and felt GREAT about it! I'm taking classes next term, but none of them are prerequisites for the nursing program, so I don't HAVE to have all As this time! The new classes are for my degree, so I just have to pass! Yay!!!

I'm still working at the hospital and loving it. I've had one of my patients die, but she was 95 years old and just plain tired. Her heart gave out and we just couldn't bring her back. But seriously, 95 is pretty good.

I've been doing the online dating thing, to try something new. All of the people at school are about 10 years younger (or more) than me and I can't really meet anybody at work... the people at church are married... you see my quandry? So just this year, I've been on 6 first dates! Much different from my normal one or two dates a YEAR. Sure, I've met a couple of crazies, but I've also met some pretty cool people.

I've changed my eating habits (very difficult!) over the past year and have lost a little over 30 pounds for my efforts! I'm trying to stay on a pretty regular exercise routine as well, which is also difficult at times. In fact, I should go work out today... But anyway, I'm feeling pretty frickin' good about it all!

I feel prettier than I have felt in a very long time. :) I'm saving up for a dirt bike (motorcycle). I have decided that I really need a physical hobby and I had one when I was about 13 years old or so. I loved it! I haven't ridden since then, but I'm eager to get going! It's very challenging to save almost $2000 as a student, but I'm pretty determined. I can't wait to start riding! And post pictures of it!!!

Oh! I went to a concert - it was so much fun! I'm going to try to upload a clip of it that I "filmed" with my camera... so please forgive the poor sound/picture quality! And watch it all the way through - there's something fun (I think) toward the end... Okay, it was taking hours to upload, so I put it on Flickr. Hopefully this link will work:
Concert - Disciple

Well, that's it for now!

Stuff I haven't posted AND something AMAZING!

Let me just say that you need to read this post in it's entirety. The first part might be boring, but it will be worth it...

Since Rayleen and Apollo moved up here, I have forgotten to post something else I did in the house. I didn't want to post it before because it was a surprise for them, but now it's safe. I refinished the oak floor in the livingroom and hallway!

I started out with the old carpet...


I guess the carpet wasn't horrible, but it wasn't great either. And I knew underneath was a beautiful oak wood floor.



Taking the carpet and carpet pad helped me realize some things... Like the fact that the people who sold the house lied when they said they had the carpets cleaned. I just don't think you would find Cheerios if they had really cleaned it.



The tack-strips, nails and staples were crazy. They were EVERYWHERE. My friends Jennifer and Theresa helped with getting them out and cleaning up.



It was worth it when it was done. The floor still had a nice color, so I didn't even have to stain it. I was pretty proud of it!







Now for the interesting part... this has nothing to do with the wood floor, I just wanted you to read that.

As most of you know, I'm a CNA2 at the nearby hospital. I get to see some amazing and crazy things. Huge needles, cute nurses (guys, of course), old-man-winkies, old-lady-tatas, a few medical procedures, occasionally blood, and always, always, always... pee and poop. I see more poop than a mother does. I had to clean a guy today THREE times because he had diarrhea in his bed - he couldn't make it to the commode by his bed. His anti-diarrhea medication finally took effect though, thankfully. And I'm not complaining - somebody has to do it. People are sick and people need help!

But today... today I got to do something... well, different. Believe it or not, I was able to... (wait for it..)

SCOOP POOP WITH A SPOON!!! Yes, it's true!!! I had to get a sample to send to the lab to see if the patient had a particular bacteria, so armed with my spoon I waited for her to make a deuce. And deuce, she did.

Today was a good day.

Another freakin' post

I thought I would show you a couple of things that I've done at the house and studio. I still need to download pics of the garden, so that will have to wait. But until then, here's what I have:

For some reason, the cupboard doors in the studio were never hung. They didn't have hinges at all and all of the door handles were in their original packages. Finding the right hinges at the hardware store proved to be a little more difficult than I thought - luckily, I grabbed the ones with the 3/8" inset, because it happened to be the ones I needed! Here are the cupboards in the studio. Yeah, all of my crap is hangin out of them. (Oh, and I don't have a phone jack in the studio, so that's why the ghetto phone cord is taped on the floor - it's going from the main house to mine.. hehehe!)



There's a little one up above the counter as well. It's kind of a weird one...



This is what I mean by weird - the door goes to the bar, and then there's a gap. No door fits there or anything. Strange, but I don't care a lot.



And the final look. Somehow it looks bigger and more spacious in person, probably just because there's not anything hanging into the pathway!



The natural gas guy came to the house because I couldn't turn the gas furnace on. I thought maybe the pilot light was out. He looked at the furnace and said it was fine and wanted to see the thermostat. When he saw it, he said, "Oh. You need a new thermostat."



Apparently this is the mercury type - the kind they don't make anymore because of the very poisonous mercury. I think it's the orignal thermostat that was installed when they built the house in the '50s. You can see the mercury capsule at the top... kind of... under the fuzz.



Anyway, he said it was very easy to replace and basically told me how to do it. So I went to the local hardware store, bought a new one and voila! I replaced the thermostat by myself, and it WORKS!



I was just glad that I didn't shock myself or blow anything up, to be honest.

Five Months Later

So it's been five months since my last post... so what?!? Let me try to remember what has happened in that time...

After months of frustration, mom bought a house near Eugene instead of Salem. I've moved into the studio (the garage was converted into a studio) and tried to get the house a little more ready for Rayleen and Apollo. The studio is nice, although it's actually smaller than the cabin (!!). I think the paperwork said it is about 400 square feet, but I'm not sure if it's that big.
I do like it though, it's very bright and clean looking, two great skylights and two entries - one through the old garage and one in the back to the backyard. I bought a small refrigerator - not the little college half sized one, but a studio sized refer. It's perfect and I got it for $300. Before it got cold and rainy, I refinished the deck outside (it was soaking in any water before) so it can at least make it through another winter before we might have to replace it. I bought some utility-type shelving for the kitchen area and a bookshelf for the "livingroom". I still need to buy hinges and make sure these boards that look like doors for the kitchen cabinets are really the doors! I need to install their handles as well.
I'm working on replacing window screen material in the main house as well as a couple of other things that I'll elaborate on when they get here. I got them a surprise for the house and don't want to spoil it. Basically, I think I've done quite a bit and I'm ready to relax a little. Mom wants everything ready for them for when they arrive, so she's keeping me... focused? Or something.
I'm still in school, at this point taking a few classes over for better grades to hopefully get into the nursing program. It's very frustrating. I'm also taking a singing class and an African dance class, the latter being VERY challenging. I'm working out at the gym as well, so I hope I lose some more weight!
That's all I've got for now.

Exciting Adventures in Oregon

Well, "exciting" might be stretching things a bit. Honestly, I've been studying so much I haven't had time to knit, quilt or even read, much less blog. Plus, the issues with my downloading pictures onto my computer (although it downloaded just fine a couple of days ago - like nothing ever went wrong!) made for a very boring blog.
But let's get on with it, shall we?... dang it! I forgot to re-size the photos! Hang on.............
....................
............ be patient....
......................................................
Okay! We're in business!

I had been having some tv issues. Basically, I lost my greens or something. Most colors were blues and pinks, as CSI will attest (btw, George Eads should NEVER have a moustache again! GARRRRR!!!)


Et tu, gecko???


Notice the great taste in style, they way I lovingly drape cords hither and thither...


So I bought a "new" used tv from a lady at church for $75. It's a lot bigger! The sound can be a little hinky, but on the whole, I'm very satisfied. Quite a difference, I'd say!


WARNING. GRAPHIC PICTURES ARE COMING. SHEEP PARTS STREWN ABOUT.



Okay. I just wanted to warn you.


Here are some sheep lungs. The instructor has an air tube hooked up to the trachea of the good one and has it blown up. The one on the right we dissected.


This is my favorite cross-cut slide of the distal end of the small intestine (human.


I had to go get my eyes checked at the VA hospital in Roseburg. Apparently, I've never had a real eye exam. I thought they were going to blow bursts of air in my eye and do weird things, so I was a little nervous. I took the pictures for
Apollo, but it came in handy for my blog too!


It was still pretty early and the hallways were empty.


I'll admit... I was pretty intimidated when I saw this. It just looks scary!


This is where the Gold Club Members hang out.


Freedom!!! Just kidding, it's really not that bad.


I just thought this was a nice area... and I could swear I saw a sign about a gift shop or something? Well, I guess every hospital needs one.


This was the one area that looked really "old school GI" to me.



Ahhhh, that will do for now... eeeexcellent...

WARNING! GRAPHIC MATERIAL!!!

I am having some sort of USB port problem or something. I can't seem to download pictures from my SD card... it's taken me about a week or two to download the following. I've bought three different readers and finally plugged my old one in, which I thought was broken. Finally, success!!! Obviously, this will be a smorgasbord of pictures and stories. I have to fit them all in, and I don't know when I'll be able to download more!

First off, my diet has been going pretty well. I need to exercise to lose more weight, but I haven't been gaining and that's good. I lost about six or seven pounds initially and have maintained that. Better than nothing. I've been eating out of a Weight Watchers cookbook. Some of the recipes are okay... some are pretty bland though. They really cut out the salt! Everything seems to be low sodium and stuff. I just throw a little sea salt in it, and I'm good to go! :) Here's a picture of the spinach chicken stuff that goes with pasta shells. It was actually pretty darn good and very low in fat.


I also made chili out of the cookbook, although I added many more spices and peppers. It was made with turkey breast burger, which does NOT fry up like regular burger by the way. It was pretty good though and very low in fat - I think about one gram of fat per serving.


School has been a little crazy. My schedule is INSANE this term, and I've been stretched to the max with work, the CNA class and my regular school load. In Spanish, we are learning about verbs and different tenses. I don't even know English tenses, much less Spanish!!! It's driving me crazy.


My Anatomy & Physiology teacher suggested a way to study by buying a dry erase board and "teaching" it aloud at home. I took his advice and I think it's really helping! Here is some of my "teaching" on the olfactory (smell) system.


Okay. This is where things start getting a little gross. Just warning you.
The other day, my face started hurting and I could feel a volcano under my skin. The next morning, sure enough, I had a hug zit. This picture does not let the viewer fully appreciate the size and pain, but it will have to do. I could see people's gazes drawn straight to it, dang it!


And a little more gross...
My cats have found the joy of catching mice, as I might have previously told you. A couple of weeks ago, I could tell they got one because they were downstairs (at night while I was trying to sleep), playing for hours. Sure enough, I got up in the morning and was greeted by this site:

Thanks Buddy and Grace. Learn to EAT THE MICE!!!! IT'S YOUR RIGHT!!!!

And now for the gross stuff. If you don't want to look any further, DON'T. I have pictures of a dissected sheep's eye. Seriously.

In my A&P class, we got to dissect a sheep's eye. At first, I felt a little sad for the sheep, but then I got too involved in the dissection process. In my group (of four girls), I am the surgeon. I have a steady hand (surprising, with all the coffee I drink), and I'm not grossed out by the... fluids and stuff. Also, I don't just start hacking - I'm delicate! Before cutting on the eye, the instructions said to cut away the adipose (fat) tissue. I asked the teacher if it was like skinning a deer (which I have helped family members do). The teacher and the three girls in my group stared at me. The teacher was at a loss for words - first time ever. Apparently, not everybody skins a deer. Hmph.
This is the cornea - the front of the eye.


After cutting it in half - front to back - this is the back, the choroid and the retina has been scraped together, leading to the optic nerve which exits through the back. Pretty, huh?


Here you can see the oval lens...


And from this view, you can see the lens (out of place now) and the pupil opening (the little slit). Cool, isn't it??


Well, that's all I have. I hope it hasn't grossed anybody out too much. I went through some crap to get these pictures - the group and the teacher thought I was a little nutty taking pictures of an eyeball. Oh well! It was worth it!