Playing catchup...

As I find myself in my pajamas watching the telly (iCarly, for the record) with my children, also bathed in their pajamas, I figured I’d go grab my wee little netbook and get a nice, juicy journal entry typed out.

My sweet boy has had the flu since Tuesday night. Let’s see, the rolling daily T-max total has been 102.5, 103.5, 102.5, 101.5, and 101.9. I didn’t realize it was the flu until I was told by one of his best friend’s moms that he tested positive for the flu as did another little girl in his class. Sooooo with the respiratory crud on top of the high fevers and the fact that he’s been on the couch for almost 4 days now, I’d say if it looks like a duck and sound like a duck, it’s a duck.

Sophie had what seemed to be the GI version of this from Saturday to Tuesday. So far, all Chris and I have developed is a mild cough (no fever) for the Mrs. and nada for the Mr.

So with my youngest coughing up goo in the background, and Carly trying to figure out how to get her toe unstuck from her bathtub faucet, I shall move on…


Me – School is chugging along. In fact, I reeeeally need to be studying now, but I’ve got to journal. It’s just SOMETHING that has to be done. I feel awful that I’ve been so dedicated for so long, and it seems to have just floated off of my priority list.

Ah, school. I’m about 5-6 weeks into my 2nd semester. So far, I’ve only had one clinical due to how my other-than-clinical rotations have fallen. I had a home health rotation and a simulation rotation (which I didn’t make it to due to being up all night with a sick boy and diarrhea, fun times). The first 3 weeks were super intense – 5 days a week. Considering it’s 75 miles round trip, I’m SICK of being in my car! The lectures are a whole new level. We cover an INCREDIBLE amount of material in one lecture. Exams are every other Wednesday. We’ve had 2 exams so far – first one, I scored an 84. Highest C I could get, and it bummed me out. I’m not used to getting C’s. But as they say in the biz, “C means continue” OR “C equals RN.” In the end, even if I averaged out to a C at the end of the entire program, it won’t look any different than those with an A – it’ll simply say I passed. But I want that A again this semester! My first care plan was 24.8 out of 25, so I’m happy with that! I’m also having to take my elective this semester – Art Appreciation (online). My second exam brought a 92, so I was happy with that… However, had I gotten ONE MORE question right, I’d have that A. This next exam (in a couple of days) is crazy intense. A LOT of information was covered (cardiology, MI, CAD, CHF). A lot of it is repetitive, so I’m hoping it’ll be a manageable test.

I’m surprised I’m still chugging along considering I’m working and having to help manage the house and so forth, but I am. I couldn’t do it AT ALL without my husband. When I say he’s my rock, I mean it. He’s still working nights and getting crappy sleep. I just hope we both don’t keel over before I finally graduate!

Sophie – My big girl is growing up entirely too fast. The way she looks and talks and even her body language… it’s just so “tween” even though she’s only 8 years old. Speaking of which, I really didn’t even journal about her birthday… or Christmas. I’m just incredibly thankful we were all healthy over the holidays. And for Sophie’s birthday, we did a “Happy Feet” birthday theme and held it at a new business in the town next to ours. All of the children painted a canvas. It was my idea to do a penguin out of their footprint. “Happy Feet.” get it? Everything turned out really nice, and the kids had a great time. It always kills me to see them release those balloons at the end of their party. Such a reality for me. Sophie is still very much into drawing, sketching, and making things. If she finds a minute to herself, she’ll usually find scraps of paper or something to turn into something else. She still blows my mind with how creative she is. It wasn’t that long ago that she’d taken simple pale yellow sketch paper from her Grammy’s house and had delicately created scenes from the Lion King in 3D with this paper and some tape. She made background greenery with it and even stands so that each character and piece could stand on its own. For the foreground, the pieces were drawn at a larger scale. For the background, they were smaller. She was blessed with an eye for things like that and always works it into what she’s doing. She’s always drawing and creating things that reflect how she feels about our family. When I read the sweet things she writes about me and Chris, it makes me feel really wonderful as a parent. Amazing, that girl.


Bryce – This boy is a firecracker! He’s at a phase in his little life where he’ll get his feelings hurt and cry easily, but he’ll also sass back and come at you with gumption. It’s like a wall between little kid and almost-big-kid. I’ve watched him move from one obsession to another. Super Mario Bros to Smurfs to Lion King to Star Wars. He has so many little plush figures of the things he loves and will stuff his bed as full as he can with his friends before crawling in. He’s doing great in school and is learning to read really well. It surprises me how wonderful he’s doing still being in Kindergarten. He also loves to draw and make up games and stories and draw them out. He’s still a loud little thing, though. He can’t sit still for long, and if he’s quiet for more than 5 minutes, he must be sick. I always knew as loud as he was as a baby that he’d need to make noise the rest of his life. Of course, that’s also the mantra of most 5-year-old boys. He lost his second tooth several days ago. We tried and tried to wiggle that tooth out, and he’d get SO mad at me when I’d try to sneak in a tug. We sat down to have spaghetti one night and he walked up with it in the palm of his hand. “Well look at THAT!” I was surprised it came out so easily, but relieved, as well. His adult tooth had already been in behind it for awhile, and I was afraid that he’d have to have it pulled out. Thank goodness his body took care of it for us!

I had to recently share some sad news with Bryce. A little girl in his class died in her sleep. She had epilepsy, and apparently, her mother died from it, too. I was so worried how Bryce would react. At this age, the reality doesn’t hit them as hard, but they still know that their friend is gone. When I told him, one of the first things he said was, “So her daddy is going to be all alone now?” It broke my heart. I hope that when he returns to school and sees that she’s not there, he’ll be able to think about how she’s with her Momma. He said that, too… “So now she can be with her Momma?”

For such a firecracker, he has a heart bigger than the moon.


Chris – Once again, I feel like he’s sacrificing so much to help get us through this “hump” with nursing school. We’re scraping by, but we’re not in debt at all (except for the mortgage and the car). We save anything we get and use it in rations for the months we go over budget or when we want to buy something little. We don’t really vacation except for maybe a weekend trip once a year or so. We got our taxes done yesterday, and it broke my heart to learn we can’t claim the miles spent on me driving to school. Over 7000 miles last year with MUCH more planned this year. Throw in the cost of gas, and you can imagine what it does on our little bit of income. But, don’t get me wrong, we aren’t hurting at all… we’re not in any kind of credit debt or anything like that, and we still have some savings… it just stinks to not have the freedoms to do the things I’m really wanting to do – better/longer vacations, another car for Chris, home improvements (new floors!), and things like that. I know the time will come, though, and I’m patient. Besides, I couldn’t IMAGINE putting in new floors when I don’t have time to even sweep the ones I have. Again, Chris really steps in for me when I fall short. He is always doing dishes and laundry and taking care of the kids. It means more to me than he’ll ever know, so it’s something I just needed to put down in black and white.

We recently had plans the day before Valentine’s Day to make a spontaneous day-trip to St. Louis. I literally had ONE day to spend in my work and school schedule, and THAT was it. He’s been listening to a new band over and over lately, and when he showed them to me, I really enjoyed their music. I found out they were playing a headlining show that night, and just like we’ve done as younger, less responsible early-twenty-somethings, we were going to ditch this town, go see a late show, and then drive back. Chris and I love road trips together, and we never get to do anything like that anymore – especially spontaneously. Wouldn’t you know, a snow/ice storm hit RIGHT in the path of where we were driving AND Sophie had the sudden onset of 102+ fever and vomiting. Given we now wear the tags of responsible adults and parents, we didn’t go. BUT!!! In the next 3 days, we found out that our 2 FAVORITE singers were playing shows here in Memphis – and we got tickets! How’s that for some serious payback for being a good Mom and Dad?

Okay, my baby boy still has 102+ fever despite me giving him Advil an hour ago, and just like the Type A multitasker that I am, I’m on the phone with the doctor’s office right now AND trying to finish this… Kids are hungry and so am I… time to push fluids and make lunch and study and make some scrapbook pages for our Student Nurses Association and play games with my kids and take the clothes out of the dryer… so is the life of a gal named Nic…