Life and times of a middle aged nusing student and digi scraper

Alex's leg

2009-06-30T22:26:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to post for a week. It was a week ago today that Alex finally got the cysts removed from his tibia. It went text book perfect! The doctor was able to remove the cysts and fill the bone cavity using needle aspiration instead of cutting a window in the bone. Alex was able to walk on his leg a couple hours afterwards. He was very funny afterwards and was totally amazed that he was naked under the gown and made sure everyone in the recovery room knew it! We go back to OHSU on July 8 and then we should be able to plan to get the left ACL done. The kid should be walking on 2 good legs in the near future! Here's a couple pictures.

I have been trying to study for the NCLEX. I will be taking it July 16 at 2pm in Salam. I want to pass it soooooooooooo badly and then never take a test again!

Dress Rehearsal

2009-06-12T22:55:00.000-07:00

We had rehearsal for the pinning ceremony. It was long and it made me think.... I am not a ceremony person. It's going to take 2 hours!! I'm going to enjoy the fact that I'm done with school, but I'll be glad to get home and bbq! Zak called and said he thought he'd be able to fly up tomorrow, but he has to be back at work on Monday and the last flight out of Portland on SW is at 6:30 :( I think he and Wynter will be up this summer :) My little Alex rescued a dog from some people he knew today. They haven't been able to afford to feed it. He wanted it and I thought it might be for him to feel responsible for something. He brought her home while I was out and told Lucy to remind me to feed her..... I've been introducing her to maddie and haley and the cats hug muffin and bubbles. I wish Alex would come home and tell me her name. Luckily she's nice to cats. Speaking of cats. I love these little cartoons.

It's scheduled

2009-06-11T21:59:00.000-07:00

Wednesday I went with Alex up to OHSU. It was a good visit and he's now scheduled to have the surgery June 23. Dr. Adler is going to try a less evasive approach if he can that will lessen Alex's chances of infection and keep him off his feet only a couple of weeks hopefully. Now the fun part... getting Alex to really control his blood sugar. It is going to make all the difference in how he heals from this surgery. He claims he understands and he's going to do it. I hope so. Sometimes it sucks being the mom. I think babies should come with warning labels: Sure I'm cute and cuddly now, but I'm a lifetime of worry and stress *sigh*

On a lighter note. Lucy was asked to play on a summer volleyball league at Marist High School. She had a blast today and it's good for her. Looks like I'll be driving back and forth to Eugene some more. I also applied for a job as a NURSE! at the hospital today. I better get my butt in gear and study for my NCLEX.

Hi Dad!

2009-06-08T22:16:00.000-07:00

I have been a bad blogger :( I'm going to try and do better. Alex is back from his road trip. He seems to have survived and had quite the young man adventure. I won't go into all the details. I'll just say I have a few more grey hairs. Thank god for miss clairol. We saw the endocrinologist today and he's going to give the ok for Alex to have the surgery to remove the cysts in his tibia. I'm hoping we'll be able to get the ball rolling on this soon. He also wants to work with Alex to help him get his diabetes controlled. I'm hoping Alex will work with him. His diabetes has not been well controlled this year :(
I am done with school. I have my pinning ceremony Sunday. Now I just have to study for the NCLEX and then try to find a job! I am enjoying having some time right now and have started reading a book. I'm reading "The Darkest Evening of the Year" by Dean Koontz. I have my little garden going pretty good and some flowers and herbs going. My little Lucy will be through with school after tomorrow. We are both thrilled. DigiScrapAddicts has been having a So You Think You Can Design contest going on the last few weeks and I have picked up a bunch of great free kits! I did this page of Lucy with based on the Beattles song "Lucy in the sky with diamonds".

I don't watch a lot of tv. I tend to be a news watcher, but I have a new favorite show. It's on Showtime , Nurse Jackie. Makes me want to go to work in the ER :) You can watch the first episode free here.

Alex

2009-05-04T20:53:00.000-07:00

Well, this is week 6. I am half way done with my last quarter of nursing school :) I'm half way done with my preceptorship. It has been great working at the Cottage Grove Community Hospital. I'm starting to feel more confident about talking care of patients. Tomorrow will be my 14th day at the hospital, 11 more to go. We have our first test this Wednesday. I have actually studied for it a bit. I am a wee bit stressed though. Alex has been feeling very ... I'm trying to think of the words.... I think he feels trapped. He's 19, couldn't join the marines like he planned after high school because of his diabetes. He can't figure out what he wants to do. He's kind of lazy and has 2 surgeries coming up. So yesterday he left with a couple of friends to drive the junky old car they bought to Arizona to see another friend. They left last night at 820. Their plan as far as I know it is was to take 126 to Idaho, then go to Utah and down to Arizona. *sigh* I want him to have the big adventure he wants. I just want him to be safe. He's an insulin dependent diabetic with a leg he's been told could fracture with too much stress because of cysts. Hopefully I'll hear from him soon. So far he has his cell phone off. He doesn't have a car charger so I'm assuming it's to save the battery. Since I was thinking of him today I scrapped some pictures from when he turned 19. I used a kit called Weekend Smile by Kitty Chen.

I also scrapped a couple of pages of Zak and Wytner from when Wynter visited Zak last month. She looks like she's getting sooooooo tall! I'm hoping I'll get to see her this summer. I used a kit called Grunge Attitude by Caliméro.

Sick Days

2009-04-27T22:29:00.001-07:00

I am in my final quarter of nursing school and until last week I made it all the way through never missing a class day or clinical day because I was sick. The past 5 days I have had the worst head/chest cold ever! And I missed nursing lab last week :( I'm going to have to make it up and I missed a couple of days in the hospital, I'll have to make those up too. I did feel good enough to day to get my butt up and shower and do a bit of school work. Tomorrow I'm hoping I feel good enough to walk my dogs that haven't been walked for 5 days and do some school work. I have 3 projects that will be due in the next few weeks. I have been having a great preceptorship though. I've managed to do my first 3 IV starts on the first try :) I think I have a knack for it. I've done a blood transfusion, managed a multiline IV, cleaned and dressed several wounds. Wound care is something I'm really interested in. I am really learning a lot and enjoying my preceptorship. Tonight I took it easy after dinner and scrapped a page. This is me and the girls in March when Jodi was here. I used a great kit I downloaded tonight called So Natural by Akiloune Designs.
Lucy had her last all day tournament a week ago last Sunday. Poor thing she was really sick by the end of the day. She's such a trooper, she played in every game even though she wasn't feeling well and her team made it to the semi finals. Now she's on to open gym volleyball at the high school and we're working on her fund raisers so she can go to volleyball camp in Bend this summer.

Happy Easter

2009-04-12T08:19:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter! I didn't even realize this was Easter Sunday until Friday! And Friday was Lucy's birthday. The little darling is 16! We didn't do a big birthday party because she wanted to play club volleyball (which ends after next week) and that was a bit on the expensive side. So for her birthday (after I worked at the hospital all day) I made her cake and then Lucy, Kelsey and I went shopping at the mall and then the girls went to see the new Hannah Montana movie that came out Friday and Jeff and I went to dinner, then picked them up, came back home had birthday cake and crawled into bed. This next week I'm going to try and do 4 days at the hospital, skip class on Wednesday and get Lucy to the DMV to try and get her learners permit. Today I was going to work at the hospital but my nurse got called off so I am home. I guess I will have to make Easter dinner :) My preceptorship is going good. I'm really enjoying working one on one with my nurse. We have little quiz's every week but we can do those on line, the reading doesn't seem to be too much so far. We have 3 projects to do this term :( but I'm sure I'll get through it. I hope I'll have time to get a garden started soon though!
My little Alex has now decided he isn't sure if he's going to have the surgery on his tibia. This has me rather distressed. He's looking at a much more major surgery if he breaks that leg. He also isn't doing well managing his diabetes. Unfortunately this is par for the course with many teenagers but it's stresses me out too. It's really hard to watch him do things that I know are hurting him. I'm having to realize that I don't get to control what he does anymore. I think I enjoyed mothering better when he was little and was happy to do whatever I told him to do *sigh* Being in nursing school I see people in the hospital all the time because of the consequences of not controlling their diabetes. Alex knows, I've talked to him about it, his doctors have talked to him but so far it hasn't done any good. He also worries me because he seems to have no direction in his life. He is my child that I worry about the most and I'm sure what to do to help him. Hopefully he will be like many teenagers and get his act together here eventually.
Since I didn't have to go to the hospital this morning and I was up early anyway. I scrapped a picture from when Jodi was here. She's going to probably say I shouldn't have posted this picture but I think it shows us looking happy even if it's not our best picture. We were over at mom's making breakfast before Jodi went back to Cali. The kit I used is: ADD ON "The Walk of the Lovers" by Choubinette Design

Jodi's Visit and Alex Update

2009-03-28T08:26:00.000-07:00

My sister Jodi flew up to visit with me and went with Alex and I up to Portland last Monday to see Dr. Adler about his bone cyst. The news was pretty positive. Yes Alex should have surgery to aspirate the cyst and graft cadaver bone in to strengthen his tibia. He did give Alex the option of doing nothing. He said in about 5 years the cyst should disappear and Alex's body would rebuild bone on it's own. There is a good chance the bone would fracture before that though and then Alex would have to have a rod inserted. Alex is opting for the surgery. After he heals from this he'll have to have his ACL repaired in his left knee. Poor guy is going to be laid up for a while and is not thrilled about it. After we were done with that we all felt a lot better and Jodi and I had a great visit! We visited some of our local wineries and sampled some local wines. This is a picture of Jodi when we were at the Chaetau Lorane.

Here is the both of us! We had just come from the Kings Estate.
This is a page I did of Jodi's visit. I used Delicious Spring add on by Choukette to do this page.
Now I have to get my butt in gear and get ready for my final term as a nursing student! I have to work 25 full shifts with a nurse along with my school work. I can't wait to be done!

Final today!

2009-03-16T20:30:00.000-07:00

Today I took my final for Winter term. It was the most difficult test I've ever taken and when it was over I was panic stricken wondering if I passed or not. I did :) I can now go into my last term of nursing school! I have a week to relax ( clean house, do yard work, clean the garage, do my taxes ) and then I'll be doing my internship at the hospital her in Cottage Grove! More family news: On the 23rd I'm taking Alex up to Portland to OHSU ( the big teaching University/ hospital in Portland. A couple of months ago Alex hurt his knee while in a mosh pit at a concert. The thrill of the mosh bit is a bit beyond my understanding, but apparently it's important to the younger generation. Geez I'm getting old! Anyway, it has still been bothering him so his doctor sent him to an Orthopedist. They x-rayed both legs and informed us last Thursday that yes he has a torn ACL that needs surgery but that is not his biggest problem right now. He has bone cysts in his right Tibia that have destroyed and weakened much of the bone. He has to see a bone specialist in Portland. The standard treatment is to aspirate the cyst and graft bone in to regrow bone in the destroyed area. I'm concerned because Alex's cysts seems to be much larger then normal when found and there is a large area of dysfunctional bone. He is also an insulin dependant diabetic which makes these things more complicated. We will find out more on Monday and I will update. On the Lucy front: she is enjoying playing volleyball with the club in Springfield. I'm enjoying? driving her back and forth twice a week and getting up at 4am on the weekend for the all day tournaments. It is good for her to keep busy doing these sorts of things and it will be over the middle of April. It's good mom and Lucy time :) Here's a couple pictures of a tournament.

This is Alex on his birthday Feb 20. He's 19 now! He got a guitar for his birthday and has been learning to play.

The Trees

2009-02-22T09:21:00.001-08:00

We'll get to the trees in a minute. First even though I have my usual over abundance of school work to do, I decided to relax Saturday night and search for freebies. I found a couple of kits I really liked a lot and then scrapped a couple of pages with them. This is little Lucy's volleyball picture from last season. She is playing club volleyball out of Springfield right now and she has her first tournament next weekend. She has practice Tuesday and Thursday evening. Lot's of driving, but I take school work with me and do it while she's practicing. The sports complex in Springfield is amazing. While volleyball practice is going on there's basketball teams, special Olympics teams practicing, adult dodge ball, roller derby! It's a very cool place. I used a kit called enchanted forest for this page. You can find it here http://jennie-moosya.blogspot.com/

For this page I used another freebie I found called Black Night by Muriel1326.

Now on to the trees! My backyard is not large or deep and it had several pine trees that were too large for the yard and blocked most of the sunlight. My neighbor had a friend that removed his trees and mine and now I have sunlight! I'm going to plant at least one apple tree and I'll be able to have a bigger garden. This summer when I'm through with school I should be able to do some landscaping :) Here are some pictures. I had to get a few of my little Alex working.
Doesn't he look thrilled!
Here is one of the trees going down.

You can see why my sunlight was blocked.

Winter Formal

2009-02-11T10:17:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday was Winter Formal. Lucy went with her friend Kyle. She and Brandon are broken up (for good this time I think:). I think going and hanging out with friends was a good thing for her. I being the good mom stayed up to 11 so I could pick them up and drive them to the bowling ally for the after dance party, then I drove back at midnight and brought them home. Midnight is later then I normally stay up and I'm afraid to push my luck and turn into a pumpkin! Here are a few pictures I took of them. They are goofy!

Of course I scrapped a page too :) I used a kit from Jenni "Chaos Lounge"
I am also half way through winter quarter. I'm getting so excited to actually be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. 4 months and I'm done with school! I can actually get a job and work as a nurse! Spring quarter is our preceptorship where we spend most of our time working one on one with a nurse. I'm hoping to do mine right here in Cottage Grove. I should know in a couple weeks.

The coast

2009-01-18T19:35:00.001-08:00

After all the snow and cold weather right before Christmas, it now hasn't rained in over a week :) It's been cold and foggy in the mornings though and then the sun comes out in the afternoon. Still cold, but pretty. Last weekend Jeff took me to Yachats for the weekend. We had a great time. I find it so relaxing to sit and watch the waves break and roll in. I think I could just sit for hours and watch. The tide was out and the sun was setting when we went for a walk and got some great pictures.

I love the color of the sunset in these two pictures!

Look! Here I am on the beach :)
Here is a scrap page I did from out trip. The kit I uses is from ChaosLounge
This is a page I did of Lucy a couple months ago that I don't think I put up here. I was trying to make her look so angelic and then I realized I surrounded her with phallic symbols! Today we went shopping for her dress for Winter Formal. Luckily she understands our budget right now and found a cute dress at Ross. I think I've got her convinced she can recycle a pair of shoes too.

Blogging Again :)

2008-12-30T19:55:00.001-08:00

Well I looked at my blog the other day and saw that I hadn't blogged since November?? All I can say is that I was so burned out after finals and then getting ready for Christmas, I've been busier then a one armed paper hanger! School starts again on Jan 5th! I think I'm rested up enough to get going again. Christmas was really nice. My sister Robyn and her family came despite weather challenges and Zak and Kat managed to get here too. It's normally a 2.5 hour drive from PDX to here but with all the snow and ice it took Zak and Kat about 7 hours. Robyn and Mark left Cor A'delene at 8am and about 8pm they were stopping for the night in Oregon City! It was just totally crazy weather wise here before Christmas. I've decided I will never complain about rain again as long as we don't have snow and ice. Here are a few pictures of Christmas.

Zak, Kat and Rachel. It was really nice to have all 4 of my kids together for Christmas :)

Zak and Kat are a very cute couple!
This was a few days before Christmas. It was beautiful down at the river with the snow in all the trees and on the bank.

The cats seemed to like the snow almost as much as the dogs.
Ok, no one liked the snow as much as Haley and Maddie! We played in it alot for a couple days!
This was a lot of snow for us and it stuck around for days!

Whimsical Winter QP

2008-11-10T14:33:00.000-08:00

Jenni aka Chaos Lounge gave me permission to make a quick page with her latest kit Whimsical Winter. I used the basic page that I posted last night, but you can do a quick page with the mirror effect I had used, ( I least I don't know how ), so I put a frame in. I can't wait for winter so I can get some new winter pictures to use with this kit. You can see lot's of other LO's with this kit on Jenni's page and get the kit too. You can download the quick page here.

Week 7

2008-11-09T22:19:00.000-08:00

Well tomorrow starts week 7 and I'm still kicking! Today I spent most of the day trying to get started on my paper on schizophrenia. I had to do some reading and research first. Then it stopped raining and the dogs insisted I take them for a walk. Then I had to do laundry and Lucy's boyfriend came over ( that's a whole ball of wax I won't go into ), but I don't leave them alone much. Anyway, 4 more weeks and I get a few weeks off and it will be only 2 quarters until I'm done with school!! Oh, I also had my 2nd test Friday and managed to pull off a B. No more tests until finals, just numerous papers to write! Friday was Rachel's birthday. We went to lunch and shopping after class. Then Saturday night she came into CG and we all went to pizza for dinner. It is so hard for me to believe I have a daughter 25 and Zak will be 27 in January. Where does the time go.
I have scrapped a bit. I did this page with a picture of Haley playing in the snow last year. I had to get this kit when I saw it. It's from Chaos Lounge and you can find it along with a freebie on her blog here. I just learned to do that mirror technique :)

I did this page with the free get from digitalcandy.ca That's little Audrey at the pumpkin patch!
Here are some pictures I took of the animals a couple weeks ago when we were having warm fall weather. Lately we're having not really cold, but wet fall weather. This is little mister Bubbles after he'd been running around on the hill with the dogs.
Here he is getting ready to jump out of the ways as the dogs come running at him. He's so funny. He jumps out of the bushes at the dogs and try's to get the ball before them, but has to jump out of the way as they will run him over if he's in their way.
Here is Haley and Maddie playing on the hill. Haley tries to get the ball and Maddie tries to stop Haley from getting the ball. It works for them. They've become great friends. Maddie got fixed last Thursday but is feeling much better now.

Week 6

2008-11-02T21:15:00.001-08:00

Ok, it's week 6 of my last year of Nursing School and I'm still alive :) A little stressed ... but still kicking! I think my mistake was that I thought this year was going to be easier because no more patho or pharm. Little did I know that they would fill up Chronic Nursing with LOT's of reading and writing and adding care plans to clinical. It takes me about 3 hours to do my prep for clinical the night before.
Besides school things are good. Lucy finished volleyball and signed up for basketball. Practice starts the 10th of this month. Little Alex is doing good in school. The funny thing is he likes his algebra class better then his introduction to gaming class. He's looking at taking a drawing class this next quarter.
I have done a wee bit of scraping :) This is Wynnie and Audrey at the pumpkin patch and Wynter turned 7 last week! The kit is by the Digital Candy Sweet tart team @ digitalcandy.ca

Little Lucy dressed up a a guy for Halloween. Well at least for school she did. Halloween night she dressed up as an 80's girl. She went out with some friends and then they came over here and watched *The Strangers* Why anyone would want to watch that movie is beyond me! They were out there with the surround sound going and then I'd hear them all screaming! I used Julia Makotinsky's Spooky Town for this page.
Little Alex got dressed up as a pirate and went to a party! I think he wishes he lived in pirate times!

1 down, 2 to go!

2008-10-18T08:26:00.000-07:00

Well I made it through the first 3 weeks! On the one hand it's going by fast. On the other I'm so sick of going to school I could pull my hair out! I mean think about it, this is a 2 year program. I started this back in fall of 2003! It's a good thing I didn't realize it would take me so long or I probably wouldn't have done this and I'm soooooo glad I did! I don't think most people know that you have to have all your pre req's out of the way before you can even apply to the nursing program and then the number of people that apply is so much larger then the slots to get in the program you have to have really good grades. I will graduate June 13th, 2009 :)

We had our first test Friday. I got a B so I can relax a bit now. I will admit that once you're in the program you don't have to chase the A's anymore and I don't. That kind of stress is bad for your health! Clinical this quarter is actually much more stressful then the book work. We are expected to be able to actually do nursing care! The pressure is on. I had my OR rotation this week so I didn't do patient care. I got to observe several surgeries and follow a patient through to PACU (Post Anesthesia Care Unit). This was so intersting. I got to see an aortic valve replacement. I shadowed the circulating nurse who goes to get the patient from the SPA (Surgery Prepation Area) SPA sounds so nice :) The curculating nurse does the safety check to make sure we have the right patient, makes sure all the paper work is done, brings the patient to the OR, stays with the patient while the Anesthesiologist is preping the patient and getting them under and then prepes the patient for surgery. All open heart surgeries go to ICU after surgery, so I got to go up there too! I got to see a vaginal hysterectomy done by the doctor who did mine a year and a half ago. That was really intersting too. The most interesting part was following this patient to PACU. Being a PACU nurse seems really interesting too and if I ever have to have surgery again I'll be talking to the PACU nurses to decide what surgeon to use. They see all the patients afterward and know what surgeons have the least complications.

I haven't had time to do much scraping :( but I did this page last night of Lucy going to the Homecoming dance last month. I used a kit called Girly Doodles by Julia Makotinsky. You can find it on the Little Dreamer site.

Week 3

2008-10-12T21:39:00.001-07:00

I can't believe this is week 3 already. We oriented to the Neurology floor of the new hospital last week. I was on the neurology floor of the old hospital last year when I first started nursing school. It's a very busy and interesting floor. I think it will be even more interesting now that I can actually do more patient care. This week for clinical I am on my OR rotation. I am very excited to do this. I don't care that I have to be there at 6:30am ( which means I'm up before 5am). I am hoping to get to be in the OR for an open heart surgery. I feel like I may be very interested in OR nursing, but I don't know the logistics of it. When I'm working I'm hoping to work hours that will go along with having a daughter in high school. This Friday we have our first test of the quarter too. This is going to be a very busy week. I don't think I'll have time to scrap any pictures. Hopefully I'll be able to get out and take some. It's really looking like fall and I'm dying to get some pictures of it. I did scrap a bit last week. This is a page I did with the pictures of my little Alex on his first day of college. So far he's doing well in his classes. I used ChaosLounge Fall Leaves to do the page.

I also did this page of Wynter and Audrey. I love this picture of the girls. I used the Kickin up the Leaves kit from Gina Marie Huff of Weeds and Wildflowers. I hope everyone is enjoying the change of seasons!

I'm not the only one...

2008-10-02T23:52:00.000-07:00

School is rolling right along. I'm already stressed and notice I'm up late doing homework. Seems I was just saying that I thought this quarter would be very doable *sigh* Only 9 more weeks after this one though :) We spend this clinical week going over skills and getting signed off on dosage comp tests. I found out that I'm getting an OR rotation week 3 too! I am very excited about that. I will get to observe at least one surgery! I can't wait. I was not the only one in my household to start college this week. My little Alex is carrying 9 units this quarter too. His year of working at Mcky D's and Burger King has convinced him something better must be out there. Here's a picture of him leaving for his first day of college. I'm hoping I can find his first day of kindergarten picture so I can scrap these together. He didn't want to smile so he looked away because I was trying to get him too.

Here is a picture of Lucy and her friend Celeste after they got ready for Homecoming dance at Celestes house last week. I'm hoping I'll be able to scrap these soon.
I did scrap a page last night. This is my little Wynter Rose. She is enjoying 1st grade this year and is in the GATE program. She is such a little doll and so smart! I used Chaos Lounge's Candy Jar 24 to do this page. You can find it on her page here.
She was nice enough to let me make a quick page as a freebie too! You can download it here. I'm off to bed, school tomorrow!

A student I am again!

2008-09-28T20:58:00.000-07:00

Well tomorrow morning it's off to school for me. It seems like the summer has gone by sooooo fast! On the one hand I'm eager to get back and get this last year of nursing school finished and on the other hand I sure have enjoyed my summer with no school! June 13, 2009 I graduate! For right now I just have to get through the next 11 weeks. I have learned to take this one quarter at a time. I have reading to finish tonight for my first day tomorrow. I have to go a bit early to buy Alex's books. He's starting school tomorrow too! He's carrying 9 units and of course still flipping burgers at BK. He seems eager to go and I have hope that being on a college campus will motivate him. We went last Thursday to get our books ( I had to buy 2 more this year ), but his weren't in. I have to remind myself that he's an adult now (legally) and I'm not going to ride him about school work. I'm paying for this quarter and if he passes and wants to continue I'll pay for next quarter, but I told him if he doesn't pass I'm not going to keep shelling out the money.
Last Friday was homecoming for Lucy. I went and watched the parade. It was fun. Small town so they closed main streat down for the parade and ralley!. This is a page I did with a picture of Lucy and her friend Kyle. I used several kits by Julia Makotinsky: Happy, Cute as a Bug, All about photo's and Funky Frames. Unfortunately out football team lost the game Friday night, but everyone had fun anyway. Lucy went to the dance Saturday even though she hadn't felt well most of the day, something about a dance made her feel better later :) I'll post pictures of that later.

Here's a page I did with pictures from the previous game. I used Kim B's CU grab bag and made everything match Lucy's school colors. I'll let you know how my first day goes :)

Canning

2008-09-24T21:06:00.001-07:00

Today I spent most of the day canning tomatoes! I'll be doing more tomorrow too :) It's feeling so fall like now I had to get my decorations out and do some fall/halloween scrapping. I just got this kit called Spooky Town by Julia Makotinsky of Little Dreamers and pulled up these pictures of Lucy last Halloween when she was working as a" scarey clown" at the Haunted House. This was her first job. Unfortunately I don't think we're having a haunted house this year, they tore down the building they used and are just putting the finishing touches on a Walgreens. The leaves are from Julia's "One Fine Day" kit. You can get both kits and check all Julia's other kits at Little Dreamers here.
This is another page I did with Julia's kit. That's my little Wynter Rose in 2005 when we first moved here. I took her to the pumpking patch at Shady Oaks. I wish I could get her here again this fall and take her again.

Julia was nice enough to let me make a quick page with her kit. If you like you can download here.

Weekend Events

2008-09-22T22:54:00.001-07:00

I use to think that when my kids were teenagers I won't be as busy with them. WRONG! but it's good :) Lucy had an all day volleyball tournament on Saturday. At least this time it was here in CG at her high school. She had to be there at 8am and didn't get done until 6pm! I was back and forth between the house and school. I'd go watch her play, then back to the house to play with them dogs and make sure they weren't destroying the house! The Lady Lions did good in the their tournament. Lucy's had a cold and lost her voice. Poor thing was sound asleep on the sofa before 9! Not how she would have said she wanted to spend her Saturday night, but with 2 games a week, tournaments almost every Saturday, school work and of course Friday night football games, I was surprised she made it past 8:30 at all. This coming week is Homecoming, that means lot's of school events, parades, football and of course the DANCE! Hopefully I'll get lot's of pictures.
Today I spent the day canning pears and picking tomatoes. I'm thinking of trying to can them myself tomorrow since I have to have my car at the dealer after I drop Lucy off and they'll have it most the day. Sounds like a good day for touching up my roots :), canning and cleaning. Look, I got her to smile for this picture!

She played in every game, only sat out 1 play of one game and slide for several plays. Thank goodness for knee pads.

Lucy has lot's of school spirit and painted her face with school colors for last Fridays game. All the animals had to check her out when she got home.

I did manage to scrap a bit. This is my grandfather, grandmother(that I saw in Seattle in Aug), my dad and aunts and uncles as kids. I wanted to scrap this picture in a vintage, fall theme. I like the way it turned out. I used parts of my Oregon Fall kit and made a few new things using Kim B's CU grab bag. It's a great grab bag and so full of stuff I will be playing with it all for months to come. You can find it on her page here. I made a quick page out of this page. You can download it here.

I also uploaded the 2nd QP I made with Jenni's End of Summer kit. You can download the page here. You can also find the whole kit at Digital Candy.

2008-09-19T22:29:00.001-07:00

Well I started getting ready for school today. I printed off the syllabus for the up coming quarter. I hope I'm not speaking too soon, but it seems like a totally doable quarter! Last year for the last 2 quarters we had 3 classes plus 2 days of clinicals in the hospital. I will just have 1 class this quarter: Monday and Friday from 10am - 12pm and clinical on Tuesday and Wednesday from 7am - 1:30. There will be lot's of reading and studying of course. Clinical seems like it will be more intense, no more holding our hands through procedures, but I'm feeling pretty good about it. ( Notice I say this now, hopefully I won't be whining in a couple weeks) The worst part will be having to be at the hospital by 7am. That means I'll be up at 5am and on the road a few minutes after 6am. I was spoiled this summer getting to do my co-op at the hospital here in CG. It took me less then 10 minutes to get there.

This weekend is going to be busy. Lucy has a tournament tomorrow and my mom should be back from vacation ( her and my stepdad took a cruise to Alaska). We have TONS! of tomatoes to can! I did make a quick page today though :) Jenni (Chaoslounge) said I could give the layouts I did with her Summers End kit away as quick pages. You can find the whole kit at Digital Candy or visit her blog Chaoslounge. You can download my quick page here.

Oregon Fall PT 2

2008-09-18T21:53:00.000-07:00

I have a couple pages that I did with my little fall kit I made :) I did this kit just in time, the weather is turning here. Today it was only about 70 degrees. I love fall! I need to get my butt in gear though and get ready for school to start for me. I think this year will be very manageable. I should still have time to scrap now and again, walk the dogs, run Lucy around and even clean the house! This first page is a picture of Wynter and Audrey from their trip to California. Aren't they just the cutest! Most of this page is in part 2.

This is a page Meg did with part 1 of my kit. I think Meg is so talented and should do more pages.

I did this page with a picture of Alex chopping wood last fall, before I got the electric log splitter. Fall seems so outdoorsy to me.

Here is the preview for part 2. You can download it here. Enjoy!

Shopping

2008-09-16T15:13:00.000-07:00

School is back in full swing and Homecoming is the 27th of this month. This of course means that I had to take Lucy shopping for a homecoming dress and shoes. She was worried that maybe I had things around the house to do, so she did volunteered to just go with some friends if I gave her my credit card. Personally I think there was a better chance I'd pull my finger nails out with pliers! We went Sunday and had a good mom and Lucy outing. I'm not one who enjoys spending the whole day shopping. I got lucky and Lucy found her dress and shoe's at the same store. Notice the shoes! I can't remember the last time I walked around in heels like that! Lucy is hoping she won't fall and break her ankle at the dance. It would totally put an end to her volleyball season!

It is beginning to feel like fall here even though it's been really hot. Too hot! I'm getting eager for cool crisp morning and cooler evenings. It was pointed out to me that I didn't give Jeff credit for stacking the Oak in my previous post :). Anyone who knows me knows I didn't stack the Oak. It is stacked way to perfectly!I think it would stay up in a huricaine! You have to be a pro to stack like that! I did stack the other wood all by my little ole self! It is stack pretty darn good, but not like the oak. I did have time to scrap after stacking mine though :):) Speaking of scraping. Here is a page I did with a picture of my dad at his marina. The kit is by Trish Heffner.

I know I said I wasn't going to do much designing recently, but let's face it, it's a little addicting and apparently I'm not ready to give up yet. Soooooo.... I have started a little scrap kit for fall. It will come in a couple parts. You can get part 1 here. I'm calling it Oregon Fall, mostly because I live in Oregon and the name Fall Surprise was already taken, a couple of times!! Part 2 will be posted in a day or two. ( I do have to make myself stop playing with my PSP and wacom tablet and do more housework ).

Just a quickie

2008-09-13T22:07:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post to say I am completely done with my co-op now! I think working at the hospital here in town was a great experience. I'm thinking that I will probably try to work at both the big hospital in Eugene and here in Cottage Grove when I'm done with school. Now just to get through one more year!!! School will start for me on the 29th. In away I'm excited but I've also enjoyed my leisurely summer :) It will be great to finish school and be able to work as a nurse! Lucy had a volleyball tournament all day in Junction City (about 45 minutes from here) and I spent the morning there. Tomorrow we're going to the mall to look for homecoming dresses. I think someone needs to open up a dress swap shop for these girls. They have to have new dresses for these things, so they end up with all these dresses only worn once! Anyway I'm off to get some shut eye for the big shopping day tomorrow. Here are some frames I made the other day. There is a fall paper included too. You can get them here.

I have wood! and alittle freebie

2008-09-11T18:55:00.000-07:00

Look at all my wood! All that wood you see in the first picture I split with my wood splitter and stacked myself. Ok, one day I made Alex help me for a bit, but he's not into splitting wood like I am so I didn't make him help me the next day! That stack you see is 3 deep! It's all wood I got free too. I am in wood heaven! Hopefully I'll be able to use the wood stove for most of my heating and keep my gas bill down this winter.

This is my electric wood splitter ^. Last winter I had to stop burning because my arm hurt so badly from splitting by hand.

The wood in this picture is oak that I bought and came split already. Oak burns hotter and slower then soft wood, but both burn and heat.

This is a page I did with a picture of little Mr. Bubbles laying on the dogs new bed. It's a HUGE, soft, fluffy bed that the dogs love, but when Bubbles lays on it to sleep they lay on the floor next to him. The swirls are from Scrappy Blue Stone. The rest is from Lily Design Studio at http://liliapetkova.blogspot.com/ She has a couple of really beautiful kits there.

This is a page I did of my little Lucy and her friend Lexi with a little kit I made myself. I really don't know how much designing I'm going to do. It's very time consuming and I find myself reading how to make things and not scraping my pictures as much. There are a lot of really great designers out there who's kits I just love. I did make some frames today though that I'm going to post tomorrow :) Digital Scrapping is very addictive I've discovered. If you would like this little kit you can find it here.

Volleyball

2008-09-09T22:50:00.001-07:00

The Lions(Lucy's high schools sports team name) had their first home volleyball game this evening! You can tell she's feeling much better :) Lucy loves playing volleyball and luckily gets a lot of play time. It was so hot in the gym today though! I think we need AC or at least to open those doors!

Lucy has a great serve and is often rotated so she serves a lot!

This is my first try at uploading some video. If it goes good I'll upload more :) Here she is serving!

Doing Better

2008-09-07T09:07:00.001-07:00

Lucy is feeling much better and was able to start school on the first day (Sept 4). She also was able to return to the volleyball team. They've played 2 games so far. Unfortunately I haven't been to either. The only thing I don't care for with the school teams is that they travel so far for games sometimes. Both games have been about 2 hours away! I had to have her at the school yesterday morning by 5am so she could participate in a tournament all day yesterday. She got home a little after 6 last night and was asleep by 9 and just got up! I will get pictures Tuesday when their game is here at our school. I have been getting somethings done around here. I've been splitting and stacking wood! I will be ready for winter. I love my electric log splitter too. I need to get ready for school starting for me the 29th. I'm so excited to be starting my final year! Just think.. next year at this time I will be working and making money :):) I scrapped a couple pages. Both these pages are done with a kit called Summers End by ChaosLounge. I can't believe Sam is taller then Robyn now!

This is another picture from our coast trip! I love going to the coast. I still hope to get the dogs there to play!

I doodled a freebie!

2008-09-01T21:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday afternoon Lucy wasn't feeling good. She didn't have a fever but she was clammy and pale and slept most of the day. Today she is feeling much better. We even went to Eugene and did a little back to school shopping. I've felt so bad for her that she been ill (and that I didn't realize how ill she was) that I bought her a pair of converse that wasn't on sale! Shows you what *mother guilt* does. I never buy things that aren't on sale. I did spend time playing with my Wacom tablet while Lucy was sleeping on the sofa :) I need to take art classes now. I love doodle scrap kits, so I ended up making one! It's very simplistic but I learned a lot doing it! Mostly I learned that I have a lot to learn about making digital scrapbooking kits. I have found some great tutorials on line and I figure I'll learn more as I have time ( school will be starting for me soon). The layout above I did with MY first kit! I actually made EVERYTHING in it. The cute little girls are my friend Sok's twin daughters who will be 2 the end of October. Below is a preview of what's in my first doodle kit. I called it Playing in the Garden! It can be downloaded here. If you use it I would love to see what you did.

I also downloaded a couple of kits from Chaos Lounge, Renae and Digital Candy that I'm dying to scrap with, so tomorrow after I split a bunch of wood (about 1/2 a cord) I'm hoping to scrap some layout's with some of those kits.

MRSA

2008-08-31T08:14:00.000-07:00

Friday I had a message when I came home from the surgeon that drained Lucy's cyst. He said I was to call his answering service and tell them that they were to page him. This of course sent a little chill down my spine! Well, I did call and he called me right back. The culture on the pus from Lucy's cyst showed she had MRSA! Now being a nursing student and having had microbiology I am very familiar with MRSA. It is nasty stuff that is unfortunately being more common. It use to be considered a hospital problem but the last few years it's shown up frequently out in the community. Still, I was shocked when he said she had MRSA. He changed her antibiotic and I have been checking her wound daily. It doesn't look infected thank goodness. I can't help but wonder though, how did she pick it up? I am so careful in the hospital. I wash/gel every time I enter or leave a patients room. I glove before changing dressing. The hospital tests every patient that has a wound for MRSA. I come home and immediately change my scrubs and wash them. The doctor thinks it's more likely she just picked it up at school! They have had major outbreaks across the country the last several years in school locker rooms. Luckily Lucy is young and healthy and will recover fine. People with compromised immune systems have a more serious problem with MRSA. I think it's enough of a problem that everyone should be aware of it and take precautions. Take a microbiology class and you'll most likely become the handwashing freak that I am! You can read some info on MRSA here.

Lucy's bottom!

2008-08-27T09:54:00.000-07:00

Well I took Lucy to the surgeon yesterday. He numbed her bottom and cleaned out the cyst/abscess right there. Luckily once she was numb she didn't feel anything. She is really sore now though. He packed it and left it open, about 1.5 inchs (but covered with gauze). I have to take out the packing and repack it tomorrow. She is not going to like that, but it has to close from the inside out. I have done these before but it can be painful for the patient. I did get to watch him do it too. From a nursing perspective it was kind of cool! Lot's of pus in it that came flying out as soon as he cut and then irrigating it was neat to watch too. From mom perspective I was glad she couldn't feel anything! She goes back next Tuesday for a check up and he thinks maybe in a couple weeks she can play volleyball. Today she is determined to go get her picture taken with her team for the year book. She hasn't even sat up straight yet, so we'll see how that goes. I'll keep everyone updated.

Alana

Little Lucy is Hurting :(

2008-08-26T09:02:00.000-07:00

Poor Lucy is laying in her bed right now, luckily not in much pain because the doctor gave her vicodin. She has a Pilonidal cyst at the end of her tail bone. The doctor thinks she's had the cyst for sometime, but she fell off a balance ball last Friday morning with a 25 pd weight on her tummy and aggravated it. She didn't tell me about it until Saturday afternoon right before she went to a friends house to spend the night. She said her tail bone was hurting and told me what happened. I was a little annoyed because it seems with Lucy to get information from her sometimes is like pulling teeth! I looked at her tailbone and didn't see anything, although I felt a little pea size bump. She still wanted to go to her friends so I let her. Sunday when I picked her up she said it was still hurting so I gave her more ibprophen and didn't think too much of it. Monday morning she had to be at weight training for volleyball at 6am and she said she didn't want to go because her tail bone was hurting and I thought she was just trying to get out of going, so I made her go! Then I went to the hospital at 7am to do my co-op. At about 8:30 Alex called and asked if I knew Lucy's tail bone was bleeding! I told him to bring her into the ED. Which he did after he ate breakfast because he could feel his blood sugars going low ( this is a whole other story ). When she got there the doctor looked and said she needed to see a surgeon. That little pea sized lump was now HUGE and fluid was oozing out and very painful. I, of course felt like a horrible mother! I made her go to weight training because I thought she was making too much out of it. This is right up there with the time I tried to get Alex to walk on his broken leg when he was 4 because I didn't think it looked broken! No wonder my children look at me funny when I say I want to be a nurse so I can help people!! Anyway.... Lucy see's the surgeon at 1530 today. Since the ER doctor told me these are extremely painful cysts I'm being more generous with the vicodin then I would normally be. The ER doc doesn't think she'll be able to play volleyball this season either :( We'll see what the surgeon says and how she feels. Last night I couldn't go to sleep because of my mother guilt *sigh*, so I scrapped a page of Lucy. I did this with Renae's Mimi's House Kit. I also was playing with my new Wacom tablet last night and made some doodle flowers. I love doodles in scrapping. I'm not much of an artist but I'll try to use them in a page soon and show them to you!

And thank you to everyone who left me nice comments about my quick pages! I love making them.

The Girls and a freebie

2008-08-24T08:52:00.001-07:00

Well thank goodness the rainy weather has stopped and we've had a couple days of sunshine again. I think I'm feeling fall in the air though. Maddie is just about all recovered from being hit by the car. She has a check up with the vet in a couple weeks, but she's running much faster and isn't limping at all. I actually took both dogs for a couple walks by myself now and it's gone smoother then I imagined. Maddie is a pretty easy going dog and she's happy to do what Haley does. Haley is a HUGE ball player. She will chase the ball as long as you will throw it and I have to be careful not to over heat her. I have to be careful where I throw too because she will go into the blackberry thickets to get the ball if I accidentally throw it in there. She and Maddie are really bonding, which is what I was hoping for. They play and romp all over the house and yard now. This winter when the yard is muddy is going to be.... shall we say challenging??? Yesterday I had them up on the mountain several times to play. Haley loves to go for the ball and Maddie (who really doesn't get the whole get the ball thing) loves to try and stop Haley from getting the ball. Here are some pictures of them playing.

This is a page I did with pictures from our Cour d' Alene trip. The way Haley and Olie played is what really made me decide she needed a fur sister. I used parts of 3 Little Dreamer kits by Julia Makotinsky; French Country Elements, Cute as a Bug and On Fine Day.

I did this page with pictures I took of the girls playing on the mountain the other day. Doesn't it look like they're smiling? We were out walking a few days ago and a little girl we see sometimes on our walk said, " Look dad, here come the smiling dogs". I think they look like they're smiling often. I did this page with a kit called Mud Puppy by Nancie Rowe Janitz of ScrapArtist.

I made a quick page from my page and Nancie was nice enough to let me offer it as a freebie. She is also offering it to Scrap Artist customers as a freebie too. You can download the QP here
You can also find the whole kit here at ScrapArtist.

I am off now to help my mom pick blackberries! Tomorrow I will be up about 5am. It's always a big deal for me to get up so early. I prefer more leisurely mornings! I'm at the hospital tomorrow and Lucy, who is playing volleyball again this year has to be at the school this week at 6am for weight training! That means I have to be up early all week, even when I'm not at the hospital. It will be an interesting week for both of us :)

Quick Page Freebie and Layouts

2008-08-21T09:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a rainy lazy day. I didn't do too much. I walked Haley and Maddie (Maddie is short for Madeline) for the first time by myself in the rain. It went really well. Haley usually walks like we're on a mission with sudden stops to sniff things. I had visions of me tangled up in 2 leashes, but Maddie pretty much follows Haleys lead, so there wasn't too much trouble. It is definitely harder to talk on the cell phone while walking 2 dogs though. I also did some scrapping and decided to give making a quick page a try. I used Renae's Bold Summer kit to make this page. I know most people do their pages 12x12 inchs but I do mine 8.5x11 since I print mine off and put them in albums. That way I can use standard photo paper and I don't have to have a special printer. I also find the 12x12 albums kind of big to have out. You can download the quick page here.

You can find Bold Summer and other kits free on Renae's blog Here is the page I made the quick page from. It's from when Lucy and I were in Cour d' Alene.

I also did this page yesterday of Sam and Nate from when we were in cour d' alene. They were acting goofy because I wanted a picture of them. The paper is by Jackie Eckles of Little Dreamers and the elements are also by Jackie Eckles from a kit called The Hip Girl! That will curl Sam and Nates toes! Hopefully the sun will come out later and I can get some pictures of Haley and Maddie.

Working

2008-08-19T22:16:00.000-07:00

I've had 2 great days at the hospital. I can change out IV tubing, pass meds, give injections, set flow rates on IV's pretty comfortably now. I love the hospital setting and patient interaction. I am so tired from getting up at 0530 and being on my feet all day though. I sometimes wonder how I'll do it when I work as a RN when I'm done with school. I guess I will get use to it when I'm doing! Tomorrow I'm hoping for more time to play with my graphic tablet. I did go to my yoga class today even though I was tired. It made me feel great! Then I came home played with Haley and Maddie and made sure Lucy and Brandon weren't alone for more then 2 minutes at a time. In between all that I scrapped a page. It doesn't say on the back of the picture, but I'm sure this is my dad with my Grandpa Allen. I have great memories of him from when I was a kid. I didn't realize what a handsome man he was though. My dad was a little cutie pie as a baby too! The frame and photo overlay is from a really neat set from Something Blue Studio's. The page is parts from several kits: Blushing Blooms Page Kit Created by Kim Liddiard, Vanilla Created by Meryl Bartho

Free wood!

2008-08-17T22:18:00.000-07:00

This morning I went to help my mom in the garden. It's been hotter then heck the last few days. So I didn't shower, I just throw on some clothes and go weed, water and pick veggies. When I was ready to leave Bill asked if I wanted some FREE wood! I just got my wood stove last year but it doesn't take long to start coveting wood once you have one. You learn the difference between hard wood and soft wood. You also start planning for your wood for winter. FREE wood is like finding gold or money! My mom got her truck and we loaded up the truck and the back of my PT and made 2 trips! I have about 2/3's of a cord. Poor Alex, loved but openly lazy teenage son, doesn't understand why I have to bring home wood for him to help get out and stacked. I used my new electric log splitter to split a couple pieces. I have lot's of rounds that need splitting. I also tonight cut up and froze lot's of zucchini, crocked neck squash, peppers of a few kinds and green beans. I never did get a shower *oye fey* Tomorrow morning I'm up at 5:30am. The next 2 days I'll be at the hospital practicing my nursing skills. I'll play with the wood when I'm home :) Last night I played with my new graphic tablet a bit. I did this page with a picture of me and Jeff at the coast last week :) The paper is from Kim B and the rest is Chaos Lounge. Did I mention that we saw whales last week? I was surprised how well you could see them from the coast. I will have to try and get pictures of the whales next time.

Coast

2008-08-14T21:38:00.001-07:00

I am back from the coast. What a wonderful and relaxing couple of days. It was beautiful while we were there. The Oregon coast is not tropical but it is truly beautiful. This picture was taken from the front of our cabin as the sun set. For my birthday I got myself a graphic tablet. I haven't played with it yet but I will soon. The tablet comes with a couple of programs, one of which is Corel Painter. You can take pictures and make them look like paintings. I'm hoping to use that on a few of these pictures.

We went exploring along this stretch of coast looking for some starfish. It's a beautiful stretch of coast.

I think Jeff took this picture after I was chasing some sea birds :)

Here I am catching a Hermit crab.

Last night I was looking to see what freebies I missed while I was gone and I found the freebie from weeds and wildflowers and scrapped a page. I need to upload this to the challenge gallery too. The picture is of me, my sister Jodi and my dad. I scanned the picture and printed it to frame and hang. I'm also sending a copy to my sister for her birthday. I'm the cute one on the right!

Little Maddie is doing really good. Her and Haley are playing more. She's not limping. I had her to the vet today for a follow up visit and she said that Maddie is healing nicely. She still has a lot of road rash on the back of her hind legs, so the vet gave me some special shampoo to put in the water and soak her legs. I ended up giving her a whole bath. Boy did she need it! She is such a sweet little dog. I'll have more pictures of her soon.

Our newest family member

2008-08-09T21:21:00.001-07:00

Well today Rachel and I went to Lane County Animal Services and found a fur sister for Haley. She's a little Lab we named Maddie since no one knew her name. She'd been hit by a car on July 30th and luckily someone called animal control. She's bruised, scabbed, scraped and can't put much weight on her front right leg. She is a little sweet heart too!

If you click on the picture it enlarges and you can see how scraped up her eye is :(

Maddie is only about 2/3 the size of Haley and Haley is not a big Lab, she weights 72pds. The vet at the clinic thought Maddie was about 1 year. I'm thinking she may grow some more. Haley and her are getting along well. The cats are not so sure about Maddie but they will get use to her. It was so sad to see all the dogs and cats that need homes. I encourage everyone to adopt from a shelter if they can. Tomorrow I'm leaving to go to the coast with Jeff for a couple days. Alex and Rachel will be here with the animals though. Rachel works days and Alex works nights, so someone will be here at all times with them. I'll be home Tuesday.

Some pages

2008-08-07T21:19:00.000-07:00

I did a page with a couple pictures from our little road trip :) I have a ton more I want to do but it seems like no time yet. The paper is from Raspberry Roads Designs and the rest is by Julia Makotinsky of Little Dreamers.

Here is a page with pictures of Haley at the lake. This kit is also by Julia Makotinsky of Little Dreamers Designs. It's called One Fine Day.

This page is done with pictures of my very good friend Sok and her twin daughters Maggie and Gracie. She also has two other daughters Lily and Abby who are just as adorable! Unfortunately I'm not sure who to give credit to for the paper and elements :( I'll try to figure it out later.

I talked to Zak the other day. The doctor has put him on some medicine that will hopefully get this Crohn's flare up under control. He said he's starting to feel better. Crohn's is a really nasty disease. They don't know what cause's it so it is considered an autoimmune disease. Autoimmune disease's seem to be on the increases and sometimes I wonder if everything that the medical community can't explain is just thrown into the *autoimmune* disease category. I suspect that autoimmune disease's have a lot to do with our environment too. I'm off to watch Hopkins now! Good night :)

We're home!

2008-08-04T22:21:00.000-07:00

Well we made it home last night. We had such a good time visiting our family in Seattle and Cour D' Alene. I'm really glad we did this road trip. It was a little intimidating traveling so far to places I'd never driven before. I had my map quests with me and I had a month of navigator on my cell phone too! Verizon let me have a month free :) Lucy wasn't thrilled about doing a road trip with mom when we left but she admits to having a great time. Haley slept the whole way home. That's a little over 8 hours and over 500 miles. She was tired from playing with Robyns dogs. We got out and explored Cour d' Alene. Here we are down by the lake. It's a huge lake! Robyn said something like 128 miles of shore line. I have lot's of great pictures to scrap. Hopefully I'll have time soon. I got up this morning and walked Haley and went and worked in my mom's garden. We are getting tons of veggies and our tomato plants are 5 feet tall!

Here is Nate, Lucy and Robyn.

Same location, me in the picture too.

Here is Sam proving he's taller then his mom now! I believe Robyn is 5'10" so Sam is closing in on 6'

Oliver and Haley played and played! I am seriously debating on getting a second dog so Haley won't be so lonely when I'm gone. Her and Oli get along so well I wish I could bring him home :)

Here is my little Lucy with the waterfall we stopped to see just east of Portland.

Zak called my on my way home to let me know that he'd been so sick when he was down in San Diego that they moved his colonoscope to today. He's having a severe flare up of his Crohn's disease. He meets with his doctor tomorrow to go over the results but the doctor did say they are going to have to put him on Remicade. Hopefully that will get it back under control and he won't require surgery. I'll post updates.

Still Vacationing

2008-08-02T08:04:00.001-07:00

We are in Cour D' Alene having a great time with Robyn, Mark, Sam, Nate and the dogs Rusty and Olli. Haley has been a great traveler. This is how we went from Seattle to Cour D' Alene. Notice Haley's head between the seats so we can pet her.

Thursday we went to Silverwood. A combo water/amusement park. Lucy made me ride acouple roller coasters with her. I really am too old for those! I'm still recovering. I loved laying out by the water though.
Lucy and Nate had a great time. We're leaving tomorrow morning to go home :(

Vacation Day 1

2008-07-29T21:38:00.001-07:00

Today Lucy, Haley and I left to go on our road trip to Seattle to visit with Aunt Ginny, Amanda and Grandma Pat. We were originally going to leave on Monday, but I wanted to wait until Alex returned from his 4 days of living his mid-evil fantasy at the Renaissance Fair. He had a great time. Returned tired, dirty, smelly and sun burned/tan. He managed to snag a new sword while there too. I need to ask him what he traded for that. Anyway, once he was home we left the next morning. We made great time to Seattle. 5 hours and I don't think I was speeding and we even stop a couple times for me and Haley :)
Here are me, Lucy, Amanda, G Grandma and Aunt Ginny out at Jimmy Mac's. Dinner was good. The company was better. I think I have a really great, fun family and I love spending time with them. I hope to get up here more often.

After we got back to Aunt Ginny's Haley, Giddy Up and Tye all wrestled Aunt Ginny to the ground and made her play with them. In the morning we are heading out to Cour D'Alene.

Bohemia Mining Days

2008-07-19T23:03:00.000-07:00

There are many things I really like about living in a small town, particularly Cottage Grove. It's beautiful! , friendly, everyone knows your kids and keeps you informed on what they're doing (the kids don't like it, but too bad), no cars go by my house with boom boxes going shaking the windows, I feel safe walking down the street. One of the best things is the parade for Bohemia mining days. Very small town and the street is lined with people watching it. Even the circus coming to town next month had their floats in.

The lion was trained to lay down and not make a sound!
Elmo was there. Lucy ran out and hugged him. She remembered him from Sacramento! Notice a Walgreens is being built!

The high school marching band didn't play because they are on summer break (they're unionized). Luckily we have an old timers marching band and they are great!

Cottage Grove is a great place to retire. Rosie and several of her friends are here.
I wanted to ride in the wagon.
And you thought only San Fransisco was known for their bath houses :)

The mine actually has an interesting history. Lucy and I are hoping to go up for the pancake breakfast in the morning, but I'm not sure how to get there!
http://www.ccrh.org/comm/cottage/primary/bohemia.htm

Haley and the lake

2008-07-14T22:22:00.000-07:00

Being a lab I shouldn't be surprised Haley likes the water. She has always liked playing with the hose and the sprinkler, but she hasn't been in the water other then one time at the river. At first she was hesitant about going in the water. I threw her ball and she just looked at me like I was nuts! Then I threw it just a few feet out and she went and got it. Then I threw it a little further and she went and got. Now she loves going out to the lake and swimming out to get her ball. If she pushes it under the water she puts her face under water to try and get her mouth around it. She is truly a water dog :)

Co-op

2008-07-12T22:13:00.000-07:00

The most totally exciting thing about last week was I got my closet cleaned out! It might not sound like a big deal, but trust me, it was :) Alex cleaned out his closet too. I would like to tell you he was as excited about it as I was doing mine, but he only did it because I insisted. Lucy cleaned hers too. We are now known as the clean closet family! Good Will has several boxes of stuff coming to them too. I also did my first day of my summer co-op at the hospital here in Cottage Grove. Much smaller but I really liked it. It's only about 3 miles from my house so I don't have to leave 45 minutes early to get there!
Lucy and I went to the high school in Creswell for a fireworks show with some friends on 4th of July. Here is a page I made with some pictures. The kit is a freebie from Redju called American Kit.

The next 2 pages are pictures Lucy and her friend Lexi took with my camera when we were at concert in the park a couple weeks ago. We went this week too but I was too busy enjoying the music to take pictures :) I've noticed that teenage girls love to take pictures of themselves these days. Lucy is constantly taking pictures of herself. I found these on my camera and thought I'd do a couple pages with pictures she likes of herself. There are so many wonderful freebies out there to scrap with that I don't buy many kits. I do have my favorite designers though and Chaos Lounge is one of them. I love her stuff and thought this kit, Dear Diary, was perfect for scraping teenage girls.

Summer so far...

2008-07-03T23:05:00.000-07:00

It's still pretty hot here. I guess since we're not burning like California I shouldn't complain. I am totally loving my summer break. Today I took Lucy, her friend Lexi and Haley out to Cottage Grove lake to swim. Haley loved it! That's her swimming in the middle of the picture. I only had my phone camera so I couldn't zoom in. I'd throw the ball out there and she'd swim out and get it and make me throw it again.
Last night was concert in the park. Lot's of fun. I went with my friend Cherilyn, Lucy and Lexi. We took a picnic dinner and listened to music. There was a wine sampling too :)

Lucy ran into someone with a ferret! Mom can we get one? Geez no! They give me the willies!

Look, I got a picture of Alex and Lucy yesterday. If you don't zoom in we can pretend Alex is smiling. Why is it that teenage boys think smiling is uncool?? Tomorrow Lucy and I are going to the fireworks show at the high school in Creswell. I'll get pictures :) This page is made with all ChaosLounge stuff.

Hot Hot Hot!!

2008-06-28T21:47:00.001-07:00

OMG! It has been so HOT the last couple of days. This morning I took Haley for a walk at 9:30 and it was already too hot to be out. It is supposed to be a bit cooler tomorrow, but I'm still thinking Haley and I want to be out for our walk about 8:30. We're supposed to get some thunder storms tomorrow. I'm hoping not bad ones. I don't want to be burning like California. This picture is my nephew Nathan. He caught a Pike fishing a couple weeks ago.

I scrapped some more pictures from Raina's wedding. It really was a nice wedding and a lot of fun. This is Becky and Howard. They had a really great time at the wedding and notice how happy they are! I used W&W Spreading Cheer by Gina Marie-Huff to make this page.

One of the great things about family weddings is that you get to see family that you don't see often enough. This is my cousin Roxy and her daughter Katrina. They stayed at the same hotel as us so we got to visit and catch up down by the pool. I used cute freebie kit called Summer Garden for this page. Danielle Corbittdanielle.corbitt@gmail.com
http://atexaschickie.blogspot.com/

Summer

2008-06-26T21:30:00.000-07:00

I scrapped a couple pictures from Raina's wedding :) This is Jodi and Riley. It was done with Little Dreamers kit by Julia Makotinsky. I really like her stuff.
This is me and Lucy at Raina's wedding. I need to put more ink in my printer so I can print these. This was done with the recent freebie from Chaos Lounge.

I love summer :) I just got back from Portland. I spent a couple days with Jeff. Lucy is camping with some friends I trust her with. Alex stayed home and took care of the animals. My house was actually in descent shape when I got back. I visited my good friend Sok while I was in Portland. She has 4 of the cutest little girls in the world. I've been busy the last couple weeks cleaning and doing yard work. It might not sound exciting, but when you haven't had time to do these things it's nice to be have the time and I enjoy them. If gas doesn't go much higher I have a road trip planned the end of July for me, Lucy and Haley. We're going to Seattle to see Aunt Ginny, Amanda and Grandma Pat and then on to Idaho to visit with my sister Robyn and her family. I'm getting worried though that gas will be $5 a gallon by then though.

FINAL.....LY

2008-06-09T22:37:00.001-07:00

Today I took my Patho and Pharm final! Thank goodness those classes are over! I have my Acute Nursing final Wednesday and then I'm done for the summer! YAHOO!!! I'm so ready for a break. On May 31st my niece Raina got married. It was a really nice wedding. The bride and groom were happy. It was fun to hang out with my sisters. Here are a few pictures from the wedding.
Lucy and Raina. Raina was a beautiful bride!

Raina and Becky.
Me, Jodi, my mom, Becky and Robyn.
Raina and Adam. They were so nice with the cake :)
Jodi and Riley

Newest memeber of our family

2008-05-26T20:26:00.001-07:00

Lucy had been asking me if we could get another kitty. Apparently one of her friends had a litter that needed home and she wanted me to go look at them with her. I said NO WAY! Well... she brought one home. She said she would take it back if I didn't want it. Could you look at that face and say no you didn't want it? I couldn't either. So this is the newest member of our family. Little Bubbles! Haley and her are already great friends. Hug Muffin hates her and won't be in the same room with her. I'm hoping she'll get over that soon.

3 more weeks

2008-05-20T14:22:00.000-07:00

Three more weeks of school for me! I'm counting down the days :) I got my first paper turned in on time and I have one more due in a a week and a half. I got an A on my last patho test. I have to start studying for the final which will be on 3 new units and everything else from the whole quarter. I hope everyone had a good mother's day. I hosted a brunch for my mom and then I studied! This is me and Alex on Mother's Day. credits: French Country by Julia Makotinsky. Happy by Julia Makotinsky,Love Mom by Metalmama Designs

Here is my little Lucy. We're having a hard time lately. She seems to always be in trouble. I'm hoping this summer will bring some maturity to her so she will get to do the things she wants to do. This page is all items from ChaosLounge.
Here's a page I did from the picture of Zak and Wynter. All weedsandwildflowers, except the tall bird, it's from I love birds by Carolina Pessoa.
This page is my little Hug Muffin. She's now an only cat and seems to love it! She is a brat though. Last night I didn't sleep well because she didn't come home until 3:15am! The weather has been summer like and she wants to play on the mountain all night. Unfortunately there are critters who will eat her up there! I try to keep her in from late afternoon on but she loves it up there. The way she acts right now I think she's a teenager! Kit is Happy Garden by weedsandwildflowers.

Half way there :)

2008-05-01T22:18:00.000-07:00

Today is the end of week 5. That means we are half way through this quarter :) The time is flying by. We're back in the hospital and doing much more hands on patient care. Today I passed meds to my patient, changed out his IV tubing, assessed, charted and I passed my foley sign off. I love being in the hospital :) I also got an A on my Pharmacology test and a B on my Patho test this week. Now if the weather would just get back to spring so I can get my garden going. I have managed to scrap a few pages this week. This a picture of Audrey. I used the Happy Garden get by Gina Marie Huff @ weedsandwildflowerdesigns.

I did this page tonight with different parts of the Hullabaloo collaborative kit that was given away at Little Dreamers.
I did this page for a challenge at Weeds and Wildflowers a couple weeks ago. That's Wynnie when she was about 1 and 1/2

Spring Snow

2008-04-20T08:48:00.000-07:00

Well it's supposed to spring and this morning, a bit before 7am, Haley insisted I get up and follow her out to the living room. Seems she wanted to go out and play in the snow! So I put my boots on over my pj's and out we went :) If I study long enough today and do all my readings for tomorrow I'm going to scrap a page of pictures tonight. Last weekend it was in the 70's here. This weekend we've had a good amount of snow for us. Look at my tulips!

At first I stood on the deck and threw the ball for Haley. That is a tennis ball in her mouth, not a snowball!
After a bit we went up the hill to throw the ball. Now we're back in and I'm having coffee and Haley is pouting because she thinks we should be back out in the snow.
This week we get back in the hospital with patients! Very exciting! We are able to do much more care now. We learned Foley's and NG tubes this week. I'm good on the dummies in the lab, but I need real patients to practice on. I can't find anyone at home to let me practice on them and I've noticed even the animals are starting to sleep with one eye open! Monday I get to go over my Patho exam and see if I can make a case to get any points back. I've heard many students talking about how low their scores were on this test and the Patho teacher say this was the hardest test of the year. I heard from several people the Pharm teacher thinks that the Patho test was too hard for us and we should make a case that those questions were out of scope for 1st year students. If I can get credit for 2 questions back I'll be back in the B's and will feel better, but mostly I want to see what I missed. I really felt like I had a good handle on understanding the subject matter, most of which dealt with fluid balance and shifts.

Oye Fey!

2008-04-14T23:27:00.000-07:00

OMG! I suck! I got a C on my Patho test! Now the pressure is on to do really well on the next test, which is in only 2 weeks! I got a B on my Pharm test. It surprises me that I have consistently gotten better scores on my Pharm tests then my Patho tests. When I think about it I think Pharm seems harder then Patho, but since I score higher on Pharm I spent more time studying Patho and I still got a C. It's so annoying. We will have a test meeting next Monday and I will get to see my test and if I think my answer is correct I can make my argument. I have actually gotten points back before this way, but I don't like having to "hope" I can get some points back this way. Tomorrow I will start studying my brains out for the next test. I am so ready for summer break. I need to grow veggies! I'm upset too that one of my cats hasn't come home in almost a week. I live in such a great spot, but there is wild live foothills I live in. I've had several cats disappear and I don't know if something gets them, or sometimes I wonder if the people across the street get them. They don't like cats :(

I did this picture of me, zak when he was 6 weeks old, my mom, grandma lola and great grandma emma ( who died shortly after this picture was taken) tonight. We all look so young :)

In December the choir had their Winter Concert. Lucy loves singing in the choir and I love going to see her sing!

In the swing...

2008-04-13T09:24:00.000-07:00

Well I'm back in the swing of school. I can't believe 2 weeks have gone by already! Tomorrow is our first tests in Patho and Pharm. Notice I'm blogging instead of studying :) I'm already counting down the weeks until this quarter is over too. Spring quarter is always the hardest for me to stay focused. The weather is getting nicer and I want to do spring cleaning and play in the yard, get my garden beds ready for planting and all that fun stuff. This year I'm going to do a big garden with my mom at her house too. She has room for a HUGE garden and I want to grow lot's of veggies for fresh over the summer and freezing and canning for next year.

The last 2 weeks have been great in school. I passed my dosage comp test for IV solutions and my IV tubing start test. I can now hang IV's in the hospital. This week we'll be learning Cath and NG insertions! I find this so cool. I've noticed that some people are getting a little nervous about hanging out with me though :)

Lucy had a party for her 15th birthday friday night. I had several teenage girls playing Guitar Hero 3 and watching scary movies all night at my house. I really have to get my butt in gear and study today! I'll post pictures of her party when I get them from her.

This is a page I did with pics of Alex when he was a little guy. Long before he got speeding tickets that he will have to pay himself!!!!! He was so cute :) The kit is by KimB.

I did this page last night after I studied some. I was cruising the freebie sites and downloaded a template to make a sliced picture, but it was for a photoshop program and I couldn't get it to work with my PSP sooooo I decided to figure out how to make my own sliced photo :) I used frames by Misty Cato and the papers are from Amber Clegg Designs, flowers and splat by sunflowers at hotspotscraps and the cute little birds are from feifeistuff. The picture is me last summer on the coast.
And this is my clincial group from last quarter. We went to lunch after our last clinical day. I've had great groups and instructures this year.

Back to School I go

2008-03-30T18:08:00.000-07:00

Well it's back to school tomorrow and I didn't get much done. Darn cold made me just want to lay around and take it easy most of my break. Oh well, such is life! Tomorrow starts 11 more weeks of pathophysiology, pharmacology and acute care nursing. I am determined to be more organized this quarter. Wish me luck! Hopefully I will still be able to make some time to do some scrapping and get my garden beds ready for planting. Little Lucy will be turning 15 this month too and wants to have a slumber party with 8 girls over to eat pizza, listen to music and play Guitar Hero. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get my test schedule so we can make sure it's not on a weekend before a test! I'll never be able to study with all that going on. I did manage to scrap a a couple pages. Here is a page I did with a picture my dad sent when he and Sue were in Florida. I did this with a kit downloaded from Little Dreamers which is one of my favorite sites. They've been having an apprentice competition. One of my goals this summer is to learn to make some of my own papers and elements. Thank you to Courtney Wilson for this kit.

My sister Becky got married this month to Howard Fleischman. They are very happy as you can see! They went to Aruba for their honeymoon. I'll share some pictures when I get them.

Feeling Better

2008-03-26T19:04:00.000-07:00

I am so glad I'm starting to feel better. I hate being sick. All I can do is think of all the things I intended to get done while on spring break and I haven't done much but lay around wishing I felt better. I can actually breath through my nose this evening! We had some snow today too. Thank goodness it didn't stick. I want it to be warm and springy! Poor Haley thinks the world is coming to an end because I haven't walked her in a few days. I did manage to get my taxes done today too! Now if I hear back tomorrow that the Fed's have accepted my e-file I can relax and be glad I don't have to file for another year. Last night when I couldn't sleep I scrapped a picture of Stuart with his grandkids, Aubrianna and Jasper! They are so cute!

I used paper and elements from Scrappy Blues Stones Designs. The frames are by Scrappy Pony Designs. The pink doodle is by Designs by Helly

Spring Break

2008-03-24T22:21:00.001-07:00

I am soooooooo happy to be on spring break! I only have a week before spring term starts and I'm cleaning and I have to do my taxes and I have the worst head cold! And to top that off, did you know that in the state of Oregon you have to have a prescription to get what use to be over the counter cold medicine. Lucky me got a prescription today and ran to the pharmacy to get 20 whole Advil Cold and Sinus. I'm going to have to remember to ask any of you that come visit me to bring me some good cold medicine from your state :)

I manage to finish with an A and 2 B's. Pretty good but I was a little panicked for finals. I'm vowing to not get behind on studying this term. It will be hard as the weather gets nicer and nicer. Unfortunately it's reverted back to winter for the time being. They say we might even get a bit of snow this week!

I have managed to scrap a few pages. This seems to be my little addiction. I learned to make a quick page this week too. I did it for a challenge and my page will be given out to everyone who entered the challenge with a quick page of their own. Very fun to do!

Here are a few pages I've made recently.

Lucy and 2 of her friends!

Paper, stars and doodles are from weedsandwildflowersdesign.typepad.com Frame, hat and headbands from cinnamon-designs.com

This is a little page from when Jeff fixed the wall Lucy put her foot through :)
The paper and elements are from a kit called Bollywood by ScrappyBlueStones Designs and the frames are from Scrappy Pony Designs.

I did this page with a picture of Zak and Alex when they were kids. Weren't they just the cutest kids!
I did this page with Redju_Sunny freebie off her blog. You can find it at http://redjuscrap.blogspot.com/

Template Challenge

2008-03-06T15:06:00.001-08:00

I did my first digi scrap challenge with pictures from our walk the other day. Weeds and Wildflowers is one of my top 2 scrap sites along with Scrap Girls. It's not like I don't have enough to do but I wanted to do this template challenge. I don't normally do my pages this in a square size because I like to print them out and put them in albums but I did this one anyway.

I used Gina Huffs "Being Me" kit for this page. weedsandwildflowerdesigns.com

2008-03-03T22:49:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is an exciting day for me. We're learning SQ injections! I can't wait to give someone an injection. From what I've been told we'll be able to practice on each other. I have no idea what we'll be injecting into each other, but I'll let you know :) Yesterday was a fabulous day for a walk so Lucy and I took Haley out. We walked down behind the high school and threw the ball for Haley and then down to the river and then back home. I have tons of pictures to share!

The old Chambers Railroad bridge. The city is about to restore it. There are only 6 old railroad bridges left standing in the country and this is the only one west of the Mississippi.
Me and Haley down by the river.

Some of our local water fowl :)

Lucy and Haley looking for the Muskrat!

Lucy throwing the ball for Haley.

Haley never, ever ,ever gets enough of playing ball!!!
This is a dog we see on our walks a lot. Notice her tu tu :)

Lucy and Haley down by the river

Spring time

2008-03-01T07:59:00.000-08:00

Spring has been in the air here for the past couple of weeks. It's been raining since last night though. I'm telling myself the rain is good and will make things greener for longer, but I'm really eager for spring. I did the page below with pictures of Haley, Hug Muffin and Flower Unit for last week when we were playing on the mountain. The problem with nice weather is I will have a harder time concentrating on school work. I want to do yard work and get my garden beds ready for planting. There are 2 more weeks in the quarter and then finals :) And good news about last weeks Patho and Pharm testes. When they went back and took out the questions we had been told we wouldn't be tested on I now have an 88% for Pharm and 84% for Patho. I'm glad to have a better score. Truthfully though I don't kill myself for A's. I did that to get into the program and as one of our instructors has said, no one is going to kick us out for B's and C's.

This kit is Magic of Spring. You can find it on Lisa's blog. http://www.lisa-2006-lisa.blogspot.com/

2008-02-28T13:30:00.002-08:00

I want to share this slide show. We had so much fun in Kauai last summer. Robb and Jodi were nice enough to invite us on their honeymoon! I was trying to figure out how to post it as a page element so it would always be running on the side, but I haven't figured it out :( I get very annoyed and start to obsess over making things work right and today is much too nice to sit in here working on it for too long. I have studied this morning and Jeff is here so we're going to go out in the beautiful weather and play! Or prune the tree. I pruned most of it already but there is a bit on top to be done :) I passed my tests this week but not with great grades. A lot of people complained to the nursing coordinator so it looks like we're going to get some points back. I next quarter is going to be harder for me. I seem to be getting a horrible case of spring fever already! This week in clinical was great too. I got to do wound care! It was so cool! Next week we're learning SQ shots! School is getting really good!

Papers and Studying

2008-02-24T08:06:00.001-08:00

I am just about done with both papers :) I just have to do my citation page for one and finish my family knowledge map for the other. Today I will spend a lot of time studying. See, I am a good nursing student when push comes to shove! Last night I did my first lesson for my PSP digi scrapping. The first lessons are pretty easy for me, but I am learning things I didn't know. I have the next lesson already so I'm thinking I may concentrate better if I just get it done so it's not starring at me. The main reason I took this class is to get through the first group of about 40 lessons on page design so I can take the next 50 or so lessons on designing my own papers and elements. Then in my spare time I'll be able to make my own stuff and maybe eventually be a designer at Weeds and Wildflowers! Anyway, here's a couple pages. This first one I did Friday night so I wouldn't be distracted from studying yesterday.

This one I did last week after Rachel gave me a great card for Valentines day :) She knows she was the teenager from hell and sometimes I use to wonder if we both were going to live through it. Now I'm just glad she's my daughter.

Family Portraits

2008-02-22T16:09:00.000-08:00

Last month I had all my kids together and Wynter too! We went and had family portraits taken. Who knows when we'll get them done again?

Me with all my kids and Winnie too!

Zak and Wynter Rose

Rachel and Lucy. I have beautiful daughters!

Zak and Alex. I have handsome sons!

I have a Pathophysiology and a Pharmacology test on Monday. I also have two papers due by noon on Monday, so this weekend I may not get to scrap :( I did just sign up for an on line PSP class on digital scrapbooking. The first part of the class will teach me layout techniques and then I will get to learn to make my own papers and elements. Three more weeks and then this quarter will be over. Before you know it this school year will be over and I will be half way through nursing school :)

Alex is 18 !

2008-02-20T23:03:00.001-08:00

I can not believe that my youngest son is 18 today! It seems like just yesterday that he was running around in his diaper eating gravel. Now he is over 6 feet tall and doesn't eat gravel in public! I really can't get over how fast time goes by. He stayed home and had cake with Lucy and I, but now he's out with his friend. I'm afraid he's going to come home with a tatoo!

Another sunny day :)

2008-02-17T23:17:00.001-08:00

It was another spring like day here :) I was a good nursing student this morning and completed one of my papers that is due in a week. I meant to start on the other but I had to get out in the sun for a while so I took Haley for a walk and then one thing lead to another and I never seemed to get back to school work. I am learning that it's best for me to do as much school work as I can in the morning, before I get distracted by housework,kids. and sunshine. Tomorrow I will get a good start on the paper and do my reading for class Tuesday. I'm very excited. We're learning wound care in the nursing lab! I did scrap a page today too. This is Grandma Pat. There was no date on the picture but I'm thinking it's probably around the time she married Grandpa Allen?

I did this page last week. It's my mom as a baby and as a baby with my Grandma Lola.

Some pages

2008-02-16T16:55:00.001-08:00

You know you love your dog when you're scraping
her :)

I love my little Hug Muffin too!

I love scraping old family photos. Dad, you and
Aunt Pat were cute kids! And Grandpa Allen was
a very handsome man.

Little Lucy and the spring like day :)

2008-02-16T15:19:00.001-08:00

Look at my little miss Lucy! Last week she decided to see if she could* climb* the hall wall and put her foot through it. Luckily for her Jeff (my boyfriend) is very handy and nice enough to cut out the broken wallboard and put new wall board in. Notice Lucy doesn't look too upset about what she did! I think we will let her paint the whole hall after we get the new board textured.

Today we did a little exploring of the area just outside of town. The weather has been fabulous! I love living here. This is Dorena lake. It's about 7 or 8 miles from my house. I'm going to have to force myself to concentrate on school the rest of the weekend. I have a Patho test and a Pharmacology test coming up a week from Monday and two papers due that same day! I really like nursing school, but sometimes I am a bad student and have a hard time making myself study. I did a couple days on the Mother/Baby floor at the hospital this week. There was a time when I would have thought that is where I want to work after I get my RN. I'm sure that I don't want to work there now though. I like babys but all I could think of when I was there was that I wanted to be down on the surgical floor or back on Neuro where the real action is! I think I may want to give surgical nursing a try too, but so far the Neurology floor has been the most interesting to me.

Winter Homecoming

2008-02-14T10:57:00.000-08:00

I did these pages of my daughter Lucy, her boyfriend Brandon and her friends Celeste and Lexi when they went to Winter Homecoming a couple weeks ago. Lucy thinks I scrap her too much! She's the youngest of my 4 kids so she does seem to get scrapped more then the others but I think one day she'll be happy I have books and books for her. Her whole high school experience will be in scrap books for her. I print almost all my pages. I have been scanning and scraping old family photos also so the other kids won't be left out.

The layouts for my pages are my own. Very talented others made the papers and elements. This kit is Cherry Crushed Demin by Veronica Spriggs http://eye-on-design.com/blog/

First Post

2008-02-14T10:51:00.001-08:00

I'm supposed to be studying for a test tomorrow but I want to start this blog first. I've tried myspace. I just can't get into it. I want a place to post my digiscrap pages and the site I'm using now people vote on them. I don't want to be voted on! I want a place where I can share them with friends and family :) It's going to take me a while to get this all set up, but I'll be working on it as I can.