It was probably a month ago that I got an email from a good friend asking me if she could stay over a my house for a night or two. I answered with a definite 'YES!' So on Friday night Jolene and Mary pulled into my driveway, tired and worn, from a 12 hour journey from Smithers. It never ceases to amaze me how seamlessly our friendship takes off, even after 2 years of just emails and texts. So for the next 2 days or so we talked, went for walks, watched a movie (Well one of us did anyways...) and basically caught up on everything we had been missing. And so, I leave you with the only picture proof that Jolene was here (sorry its not a particularly attractive picture but.. meh.. it will do :-P ). I hope to see you again soon (two years is waaaaaaayyyy to long).

PS. I approve of Ben :-P

Psalm 100

His Steadfast Love Endures Forever
A Psalm for giving thanks.


Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth!
Serve the LORD with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!


Know that the LORD, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.


Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!


For the LORD is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.

1. I think the worst moment in the world is when I suddenly realize that I am wrong in an argument.

2.I totally regret all the times I refused to nap as a child.

3. I think somebody needs to invent an sarcastic font.

4. I think cursive is a lost art.. I tend to practice when I am on phone talking with someone.

5. Google Maps needs to start there directions on number 5 because I'm pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighbourhood.

6. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told the reader how the person had died.

7. Bad decisions make the best stories.

8. I wish everyone in the world would agree to stop upgrading after blue ray.. I'm sick of always having to upgrade...

9. It always scares me when I close a 10 page report, that I worked super hard on, and it asks me if I want to save any changes.. and I haven't touched anything.

10. When the label says "Do not machine wash or tumble dry" it means it will never get washed.. Ever.

11. I hate it when you are running through the house to answer the phone and just miss the phone call by milliseconds and when you call back it rings 10 times and goes to voicemail.. What did the person do when I didn't answer.. drop the phone and run away as fast as they could??

12. I hate when I put a lot of effort into doing my hair and makeup for the day and then I don't run into anyone I know.. What a waste..

13. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

14. I keeps some peoples phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer that phone call.

15. I would rather carry 10 over sized, overloaded grocery bags into the house into the house than take 2 lighter loads.

16. Sometimes I look forwards to red lights so I can finish a text.

17. I have a hard time deciphering the line between hunger and boredom.

18. How many times is in appropriate to say 'WHAT?' before just smiling and nodding because you could not understand a person.

19. I love the feeling of unity when a group of cars work together to prevent some on from cutting to the beginning of the line up.

20. Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pant? Pants stay clean forever.

21. There is no worse feeling than the millisecond you think you are going to die when you tip you chair back just a little to far.

22. As a driver I hate pedestrians. As a pedestrian I hate drivers. But no matter what I hate bicyclists.

23. Sometimes I can look at my watch 3 times in a row and still not know what the time is..

24. Even under ideal circumstances I have trouble finding my cell phone, my keys or even pinning a tail on the donkey but every morning when I am half asleep, with my eyes closed, I can leap across the room and hit my snooze button on the first time.



Now I am just going leave you with a picture of my favorite niece.. Katie Jolene.

Today my sister is due.

I have a boys outfit and a girls outfit for the baby and can't wait to receive the phone call telling us that she is labour. I am so excited and can't wait to meet baby Michard!

At school I have 2 nicknames. Diaper Rash and Poop Flinger. Both are a little embarrassing but I will share the stories with you. First of all, my clinical instructor made us wear Depends for a whole clinical shift. It was an awesome learning experience because you can't tell a client they are comfortable until you have worn them. I pulled them on over my underwear and then pulled up my scrubs, only to look into the mirror and to see i had diaper bum. Mine were a little bit big, so even when they were pulled up to my bra line I still had a lot of sag in the back! Needless to say, after a couple of hours, I had a constant wedgie and the rubbing began. By the end of the shift all seven of us were walking like we had just rode a horse for the first time and we all were rubbed raw. The next day all of us waddled into class and when we explained what our instructor made us do the rest of the class burst into laughter and we got nicknamed diaper rash. Dang. The second story you have to ask about in person. It is definitely a story that needs to be told with actions!

These past couple of weeks have been hectic. The instructors have been trying to cramp everything we need to know into just a couple of weeks and between school, clinical, and work it was has been a crazy couple of weeks. But I only need to get through the next couple of days and then i am home free. Here are a couple things I have been up to. 1) I experienced my first patient death. It was sad and horrible but yet such an amazing experience. We saw the signs and syptoms of death and did our best to keep her as comfortable as possible. 2) I gave my first IM and S/cut injections! It was so cool. It was crazy how easy it was. I was nervous the first time but my clinical instructor told me 'I don't know why students are so nervous about givinf injections, if heronine addicts can inject themselves so can you" 3) We used the robot to stimulate situations that might occur in the hospital. The technology of this robot is unbelievable. This robot could talk to us and respond to questions and can even give birth! Weird! 4) I got a transfer to SOF in St.Albert because I am going to come home for the summer. I am kind of excited about coming home and seeing everyone but I think I am going to miss my friends down here. Most of them are from school or work and I am going to be sad about leaving them! But I will be back soon. 5) When I get come back to lethbridge I am going to have to find a new place to live because my landlord is going to sell my house. :-( boo. So that is pretty much my life right now. Not super exciting but super busy!

Tomorrow I have to practice my nursing skills on a robot.

I am so excited. This robot breathes oxygen, bleeds and has a pulse. It responds to the treatments that we provide, just like a human would. This way we can hone our nursing skills without putting patients lives in danger. This way we can practice and if our 'patient' dies it doesn't matter. We can just press a button and it will come back to life!

Its amazing how technology works!

On that note.. I just thought I would let everybody know I only have 20 more days of school! Yay!

Last evening my friends and I were discussing what seemed to be the new trend around the college: people dying a streak of their hair a bright and wacky colour. After some discussion and in the heat of the moment it was decided that we should dye someones hair, nobody wanted to do it permanently but in my moment of brilliance I remember seeing a pack of Koolaid in our pantry so I suggested we dye our hair with that because it would wash out right away. So my friend and I sat down and the others proceeded to dye our hair. And wow.

The streak in the back was bright blue.

So after joking about it for a while I went to wash my hair to remove the colour. Then I wash it again. And then once again.

Turns out it doesn't just wash out.

Now not only am I walking around with blue in my hair...

.. I also smell like raspberry lemonade.

Sorry Jolene my camera isn't working right and will not take pictures. Hahaha.. Not that I need documented proof of my idiocy! Then I tried with my phone so I could send you a picture but it was too dark to see it. Dang.

I've got a mormon vibe.

The first time I was confronted about it was early in the school year when my classmates made a joke about Mormons and then hastily apologized to Jessica and I. We looked at each other puzzled and told them they didn't need to say sorry before it sank in that it was probably because they thought we were Mormons. We both then burst into laughter and quickly set the record straight.

The next time it dawned on me that people thought I was mormon was at work. The managers would go on coffee runs and would get everyone coffees except for me. Every single time I was handed a hot chocolate, finally I asked about it and the manager gave me a strange look 'Ummm.. because you aren't allowed to drink coffee." Again I just laughed it off and set the record straight.

The last time was today. It was my first day of clinical and I was wearing a white shirt underneath my scrubs (because my scrubs are a little to big and when I bend over I give everybody quite the view). My clinical instructor told everyone that they couldn't wear shirts under there scrubs unless they did it for religious reason and she looked at me and winked. So I put up my hand slightly confused and asked what kind of religions required the wearing of white shirt under their clothes. She looked very surprised and replied.. 'why the mormons do dear..'

I think the reason I have this 'vibe' is because I am very open about my faith, I dress conservatively, and I am a firm believer in Sundays as a day of rest. Now I don't think these are a bad thing. It makes me happy to see that people can tell a difference in the way I act comparison to the world. What makes me sad is the fact they see these qualities and attribute it to Mormonism and not Christianity.

My sisters and I were shopping on Family Day, when my mom turned to me and asked me about my car.

Mom - "So Rebecca, how is your car doing? Is it running okay? Giving you any problems?"

I shoke my head. " My car is doing really good. Its amazing that I haven't have issues with it."

Mom - "What a relief! It only has to last one more year then you can buy a new one!"

Michelle laughs. "You just jinxed it. Somethings going to happen to your car."

An hour later my roommate called me.

Dang.

Last Thursday I took an practical exam on my sterile technique. I practiced so hard on learning it to perfection and the girls from school and I spent many hours at each others houses role playing and going over this checklist over and over and over again and I thought I knew the skill inside and out.

I was the last tester of the day and I was so extremely nervous. I performed the skill and let out a huge sigh of relief - I was finally finished. I headed to my sisters house and their a surprise awaited me. My mom and sister came down for the night. So after visiting for a couple hours I headed home and ran straight for the computer. I turned it on, checked my email and to my horror there was an email in my inbox. It read ' Rebecca we regret to inform you that you have failed your exam and need to retest next Tuesday." I burst into tears and could not stop crying. I can't remember the last time I failed an exam.

Over the next weekend, I relived the test over and over and over again. Where did I mess up? What did I forget? I sat for hours staring at the list trying to find the spot were I made the fatal error, but I could not see an obvious error.

Today, I went to my intermediate nursing skills class and I checked the schedule for my retest time and I didn't see my name. So I asked my instructor when I was to retest. She opened her book and started flipping through the pages looking slightly confused.

'Oh dear' she said "It seems we made a mistake... you weren't suppose to get an email.. you passed the exam on the first try."

Say What?!?!

I am so happy I don't have to rewrite but I am a little upset that I wasted a weekend worrying and studying for a rewrite that isn't necessary.

Oh well..

A pass.

After rewriting that math test after a dissapointing 89%, I am happy to announce that all my future patients can breath a sigh of relief. I scored 97%. Now only 3 patients out of every hundred will get the wrong meds.

Its been a while since I last posted but not too much has been going on in my life. School is back in full swing and when I am not in classes, I am working, when I am not working I am studying and when I am not studying I am sleeping. It seems to be all I do. Oh well. I guess that is the life of a college student.

Last semester I thought we had a full course but it is nothing in comparison to this semester and the instructors have all warned us that it is NOT recommended that you have a job for this semester. I am not to worried about it though. I have always had a part time job. During high school I worked at McDonald's for 15-20 hours a week. In the summertime I would work on the Nagtegaals farm during the day and mcdonalds in the evening. Even after I started working at elves I would work there during the day and 25 hours a week a Save On, so I don't think I would know what to do with myself in the evenings. Bahahaha.. I am actually one of those people that just can't still in the evenings I need to have something to do. So I guess I will see. This is the first week that I have noticed the stress of a job and school though. Two and half weeks in and we already have 2 midterms, a quiz and one more midterm next week. Sigh. Nursing is all about the exams.

In other good news, I got my clinical placement and will be working in an old folks home this semester for 6 weeks. I am excited about that, exceptionally since we have actually learned how to take vital signs and other 'real' nursing skills :-P

I have an confession to make.

Sometimes I browse a little to often back at my Uganda pictures.

But every once in a while I stumble onto a picture like the one above and I just have to wonder..

What in the world is going on?

Today started like every other Saturday. I slept in a little, I hung out around the house, and then I headed into the blizzard like weather and headed to work. Slowly.

The wind was so strong, and the snow was so thick it was hard to see anything past the hood of my car and it just got worse and worse. Needless to say, I made it to work alive and well, to according to my predictions SOF was empty. For my whole shift only several people came through. It was nice in a way though, because this was I was able to talk to my managers and get to know them a little better, and boy did I learn alot.

Several weeks ago I got an review. I did decent on it but not super good but not horrible. On this review on of the first questions asked was "Do you aspire to be an SOF manager someday?" To which I answered "no". The manager interviewing me got this angry look in his eyes and demanded " Then why are you even here?" Ummm.. because I am putting myself through nursing school so I can become a nurse.... He kind of grunted and went on with the review.

Today I learned the reason he was stunned I said no was because he thought I would make a great SOF manager someday! I was so surprised. I didn't even think this manager liked me! It was good to hear though.

I think I am still going to stick to the nursing thing though. Sorry.