Numbers

Today was WI day!  I lost 1.5 pounds this week.  Someone tell me why I’m a little disappointed??  I guess after five pounds last week 1.5 doesn’t seem like a lot, but it is a healthy number to lose.  And it’s WAY better than gaining.  I guess I was just hoping for another week a little above average since it’s only my second week and I worked out quit a bit this week.  I promise to try to be happier about it!

I did get a few compliments from work last night.  People wanting to know if I had lost weight.  I think it must be a fluke or the new scrubs I was wearing, because there is no way people could tell after only two weeks right?

Yesterday I passed the 1,000 mark of hits to my blog!  Most of those have been over the past couple weeks since I started posting more regularly.  The funny thing is I’ve gotten more hits on my post about Hillary Clinton than anything else.  Maybe I should make this a political blog…NOT!  I also get a ton of hits every day from people searching about the NCLEX and HESI.  All I can say is do a million practice questions!  I used the neon green Saunders Q&A Review book.  There is nothing in it but practice questions and it comes with a CD of questions too.  It’s on sale at Amazon right now, click the picture to link to it.

I work again today, so here is my menu:

B-Cheerios (2), FF Milk (1), Banana (2)

L-Frozen Dinner (4), Broccoli (0), Pretzels (2), Pudding cup (2)

D-Not sure, maybe tacos again.  Can you tell I have left over taco meat to eat up?

To code or not to code??

Something that is surprising and interesting about nurses is how we react to our patients not being a DNR.  This was came up one day that I worked last week.  I was getting morning report on a 90 something year old patient who had been sent down to ICU three different times in the past two weeks or so because she isn’t getting enough oxygen to her body.  Her O2 stats keep steadily dropping no matter how much oxygen we pump into her lungs.  Surprisingly she was not a DNR.  I was flabbergasted.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I think everyone has the right to decide if they want to be resuscitated or not.  But, coding someone is rough.  Bones break, lungs can collapse.  Very few patients ever leave the hospital after needing CPR, at least at her age and state of health.  She was VERY sick and was going down hill.  At the time she was so out of breath she couldn’t even speak.  I would guess she weighed around 80 pounds, if that.  I’m not sure if it was her wishes to be coded, her families, or if her doctor refused to write the order.

The ironic thing was every other patient I had that day was a DNR, and all of them were in much better shape than her.  The only saving grace was that her family was always with her, and hopefully they would have told us to stop if we had started working on her.

I was very upset about her code status and was dreading getting out on the floor to start working.  It would have broken my heart if I would have had to code her and feel her ribs break under my hands while I did compressions.  Thankfully she made it through the shift with no incident.  The last I heard of her she was back down in ICU.

Food Find

Have you tried these? They are La Tortilla Factory’s Smart & Delicious tortillas. For a while I couldn’t find them at the store, but that’s because they have changed their package and the store moved them to a different aisle. I use to find them up by the deli, but now they are back in the Mexican aisle. These tortillas are so good. They are big burrito size tortillas. Here are their stats. Are you ready?!? For one big tortilla 90 calories, 3 grams of fat, and THIRTEEN grams of Fiber. Now, if you follow the new Weight Watchers system that is 1 point. But, if you follow the old school Weight Watchers were there is no limit to how much fiber you count, they are ZERO!!!

They come in different flavors, so you can get plane for your tacos, Spinach for your wraps, bake some up for some healthy tortilla chips, and so on. I’ve served them to friends with tacos and one of the guys commented that they were really good after being suspicious that they’re “healthy” food. Your family will never know the difference!

Click the picture to link to their website. They have some yummy looking recipes there too.

Happy Hump Day!

Well, Brian is at his job interview right now.  I don’t really know what to pray for except for that he does well.  It seems that every time I feel that God is leading us somewhere or I’m sure Brian has interviewed for the perfect job it ends up not working out.

Oh, and that camera I ordered??  Remember it??  Yeah, I don’t expect to ever get it.  I was stupid and didn’t read reviews on the website that I ordered it from.  I thought it was weird that I never got a confirmation e-mail or anything from them, so I started reading about their company last night and found out they have hundreds of complaints against them at the Better Business Bureau.  So far I have been lucky and they haven’t charged me for the camera either.  I’ll be watching to make sure they don’t charge me and if they do I will dispute it with our bank.  So, I’m camera shopping again.  My lens that I ordered is on its way, I just won’t have a camera to use it with yet. HA!

Soooo, now I’m of course debating back and forth about what camera I want again.  I diffidently want a Nikon.  Maybe Brian will get this job and I’ll have unlimited resources to buy whatever camera I want.  Ha! Ha!

Work just called me to see if I would pick up a four hour shift from 3-7 today.  Since I got called off on Sunday I’m going to pick it up.  So, I’m just going to do a cardio video here at home.  I had planned to make baked mac n cheese for dinner, but I guess I will just take a frozen dinner with me.

Here’s my menu for today:

B-blueberry oatmeal (2)

L-Taco salad or Tacos w/ light tortillas

D-Frozen dinner (6) , broccoli(0), pretzels (2), chocolate pudding cup(2)

Well, I better go EAT my oatmeal since it’s almost lunch time already!

In need of encouragement

I’ve had a rough two days. Between lunch and dinner I’ve had that after noon crash. I’ve been craving chocolate and CARBS! CARBS! CARBS! I don’t know if it’s hormones or what. Tomorrow is my last day before I weigh in Thursday morning, so I need to stay strong.

Yesterday I did The Firm’s ab tape. I really can tell a difference in my stomach, which is my problem area if I keep doing it for a week or two. It’s just a matter of actually doing it. Tomorrow my goal is to get in some sort of work out. Hopefully I can get myself motivated to go over to the gym at the hospital. It busted my butt the other day. Plus, I need to finish up some unpacking before I go back to work on Thursday.

And is anyone watching The Biggest Loser with me tonight?? ACK! When they were climbing that escalator I so felt the burn in their legs with them. And I don’t know what team to cheer for now. Right now I’m cheering more for the under dog black team. It’s going to suck no matter who gets sent home. With the nasty thunder storms we’re getting right now I just hope my cable holds out so I can watch the end of the show.

Well, I need to get to bed. I’ve been staying up way too late the past few weeks. That doesn’t make it easy to get up on the days that I need to get up at 5 AM to get to work.

Scottsdale, AZ

With the Super Bowl being in Scottsdale this weekend (go Patriots!)I can’t help but think back about the job that Brian interviewed for and turned down there. Brian and I flew out a little over a year ago to interview in person and he was offered the job. We loved the city and the people that we met. I still crave food from the Greek place we ate at while we were there. But, when we got back to Cincinnati and thought about it we felt that God was not ready for us to leave here. Another problem was that we felt that Brian would be set up for failure since the rest of the staff was not 100% committed to the work. They all had other part time or full time jobs that were their true passion.

I still can’t help but wonder where we would be now if Brian had taken the job. He would have moved out to Arizona while I stayed in Cincinnati for the next six months while I finished school. Yuck! We would have been making a lot of money, but considering a house in a nice neighborhood is around half a million out there, we would probably still be renting. However, the job security would have been nice. I believe God has a plan for us, and while it’s easy to look back and wonder if we would have been happier their, I still have to have faith that it is not where God wanted us.

Ahh, se la vie!

Please pray or us this week. Brian has a job interview tomorrow morning for a job that sounds awesome.

My husband sucks

Because he can eat whatever he wants and not really gain weight. He just baked a loaf of cinnamon streusal breakfast bread. It’s like 5 points for 1/14 of the loaf. So, I’ll sit here and eat my little bowl of cinnamon & sugar oatmeal and pretend I’m eating that bread and try to be happy with it.

I’m really happy with the work we got done up stairs last night. My closet is finally organized and there’s nothing on the floor. I still need to get my old twin trundle bed from my parents for that room, but at least I can walk to my closet with out stepping over stuff.

I think I’m going to have to give in and go to the grocery store for a few essential items today before we go for a big shopping day this weekend. I wish we could go for a big trip today while everyone else is at work, but I need to wait until I get paid before I spend that much at the grocery store.

I don’t really have a plan for today until I come up with a grocery list. I’m going to try to get in some sort of exercise today. Here are my thoughts so far.

B-Oatmeal (2)

L-Maybe left over taco salad or something from the store.

D-Spaghetti and meatballs??

Have I mentioned that they’re doing construction in front of our house?? They’re replacing all of the gas lines or something like that. Which equals them destroying the street and making tons of noise from 7AM to 5PM every day. Today our entire house was SHAKING from the bull dozer banging around out there. UGH! I just want to sleep in until like 8AM on my days off. Is that too much to ask? It’s bad enough that I have to park like 2 blocks away. Not that the walking isn’t good for me.

Paid to play

I ended up being called off today and just being on call. I love getting paid to sleep and spend time at home. It was a nice day here, so after lunch we took Maggie to the dog park for her to play for awhile. I’m going to try to get some work done here around the house. I have tons of laundry to put away and I need to finish getting my closet organized, because my room upstairs is still a mess. It’s getting there though.

Yesterday I went to the gym at the hospital after work. Even though I didn’t get done working until an hour and half after I was supposed to. I had the whole gym to myself, which was nice. I spent 15 minutes on the elliptical and it almost killed me. It was a lot more difficult than any other elliptical I have used. After the elliptical I lifted weights for about 15 minutes and I’m feeling it today. Here’s my menu for today.

B -I didn’t eat any, I know “Shame! Shame!” I just didn’t have time to before church.

L-We went to Skyline for lunch. I got a salad, but now looking at points online I could have gotten a 3 way for less points. So, I’ll have to be good for dinner.

D-I think I might just have some soup and crackers and hopefully that will keep me full for the night. Right now it’s 5:00 and I’m still pretty full from lunch.

I’m off for the next three days, so hopefully I can keep it up. We need to go to the grocery store soon, I’m running out of options that are good for my diet.  OH! And I did order my camera.  Did I tell you that yet??  I can’t wait for it to come!

Have a good night everyone.

Trying to find our way

So, hopefully today is the beginning of a fresh start today. It diffidently felt like God had his hand in today. Brian and I left our church, and his job at that church last summer. There are still some rough loose ends and hurt feelings left over from that. Nothing about it was anyone’s fault, just differences of personality. We loved our church and friends and really miss it. After leaving that church we had started going to another church that we really liked, but it was just too far of a drive for us to really get involved there. With me working every other weekend it has been hard to really get back into church “shopping”. Today we went to check out a new church plant near our new place. It was too funny, as soon as we walked in we ran into someone else from our old church. It was the first time both of us had been to this church and we had not spoken to each other in several months. It was good to see her after so long.

Anyway, we liked the church. I’m not sure if we’re going to look at some more churches. We’ll see what happens. But, I think getting back out there will be a part of us heeling and moving from the pst to the future.

Anyway, speaking o church, today was the Pursuit plants first service down in Miami. That is the plant our friends Alex and Erin are a part of. Their blog links are to the right. I can’t wait to hear how it went.

A quick note from work

I work from 7-3 today, but I have a feeling I might be leaving early if we don’t get some admissions.  I only have 3 patients right now and 2 of them are supposed to go home, the other will be in dialysis for most of the day.  Plus, I’m in overtime after 11:00.

 I brought clothes with me to work out when I get off.  Yesterday I did a 30 minute ab tape and did really well with points.  I was probably actually under.  I ended up not eating a snack or dessert because I was full all day.  Here is my menu for today.

B-Breakfast Sandwich (5)

L-Salad from caffeteria depending on what they have down there.

D-Marlburo Man Sandwich from Pioneer Woman Cooks.

Well, I better get back to work and make sure nobody else needs help.