My Week, Busier Than I Realized...

     This week in my world is an interesting week. It’s not too horribly busy by my way of thinking, but has its moments for sure I guess. I’ve already got all of my actual working out of the way for the week, since I worked Sunday, Monday & Tuesday nights, now I just have homework, helicopter training Thursday night and RN-BSN orientation at Southern on Friday. Then it’ll be the weekend, this weekend I’m going out to Finbrooke Program Center a Girl Scout camp over near Rogersville, MO where I’ve spent tons of my life so far. This weekend is one that happens out there once every year, called Leader’s Weekend where adult Girl Scouts all get together to take classes, learn from each other, network and just enjoy camp without the responsibility of our troops being out there with us. I’ve been on the planning committee for this event for years and in the past have really enjoyed it. Like all things in life Girl Scouts is changing and with it our event that has been volunteer driven and run for years is changing too. I’m thinking that due to some of the changes causing it to not be the event I remembered it and it not being as ‘fun’ as it used to be that this is my last year on the committee and maybe even my last year participating. I used to teach 2 or 3 classes plus take on tons of responsibilities with the event, I ran myself ragged. In the past couple of years I’ve cut back on all of it, in fact this year I’m not teaching at all and have really cut out a bunch of the jobs I used to do too. I know that everything has to change, I think it just bugs me that everything in my life is changing and I can’t process one change before the next one occurs. I’m working to deal with all of this and hope that this weekend is fun and relaxing. I’m hoping to go on a hike to some of the less known parts of camp to kind of say my good-byes to camp. This will also be my first year in many not being the nurse for resident camp & I’m not entirely sure I’m ready to move on, but it seems to be time.

     Sunday it’ll be back to Ozark for a night to get stuff together for the next week and a half since due to education for work and my crazy work schedule I’ll be over here for ten days before I go back. I have realized now that even if my husband and I weren’t splitting up that moving over here would in the end be the thing to do, I’m really starting to miss my kids. With my budget being tight right now I’m really not able to go back to Ozark if I just have one night off, like tonight, so I sometimes go way longer than I want to without seeing them. My daughter will be helping out in the dish room at camp this weekend, so I’ll at least get to see her J

     To top all of this off I’m taking a traditional class this summer that’s Mon-Thurs (Government) that I have to get out of the way to keep my spot in the RN-BSN program this fall, so I’ll be spending a lot of time over here this summer too. Maybe I should work on moving the kids in May instead of August, it’s a thought. 

Contempt of Court? I Do Think so...

            The idea for this blog post came from where so many others this semester have come from. While wandering the internet looking at news articles I found one that made me shake my head & start looking around to see what else I could find on the subject. The subject of interest for this week is inappropriate clothing for court appearances. I guess finding out that some people don’t understand that court is one of those places you should at least look clean and put together shouldn’t really be that much of a surprise, but I guess I just live in a bubble and that thought hadn’t crossed my mind. Any time I’ve set foot in court for an appearance I’ve done my best to wear business appropriate clothing; I mean no power suit or anything, but nice pants and a dressy type shirt for sure. So it really caught my interest while scanning random articles on MSN.com to see the title “Sagging Pants Gets Man 3 Days in Jail” so of course I had to read it and look around for more articles on the subject.

            The back story on this article and the other I found that is based on an interview with the Judge in the case John Bush from the Circuit Court in Autuaga County, Alabama referenced the instance when LaMarcus D. Ramsey was in court on charges of receiving stolen property and was wearing sagging pants that exposed his underwear. This just seems totally inappropriate to me. I mean it’s one thing if you’ve lost a lot of weight and you’re temporarily having issues keeping your pants where you belong, but it’s different if that’s the style you have chosen to adopt on a regular basis. The quote that is really sticking with me from these articles is “You are in contempt of court because you showed your butt in court, you can spend three days in jail. When you get out you can buy pants that fit, or at least get a belt to hold up your pants so your underwear doesn’t show.” This seriously and literally made me laugh out loud. My friend sitting on the other couch thought I’d lost my mind.

            On further searching I did find a couple of other articles referencing appropriate dress in the courtroom. The most comprehensive lists some not to wear items from different jurisdictions around the country which include that you should not wear flip flops in Bakersfield, California, jeans in Inkster, Michigan or short-shorts in Dover, Delaware. While some of the dress codes might seem a bit too restrictive, really they have merit in that the set rules and regulations help maintain order in the courtroom. I mean it would seem common sense to know not to wear a Chuckie T-shirt to court that says “say goodbye to the killer” or to not wear pajamas to court, but this article uses both of them as real life examples of what people have worn. I even saw mention of someone wearing a clown costume to court. Sometimes I just shake my head at the lack of common sense displayed by some of my fellow Americans. 

Thoughts of the Week.

Any of you that read my blog posts regularly or managed to get my paper this week to open to workshop it have a decent but limited view of what’s going on in my life currently. I’m not an open person by nature so can tell you that the only reason you’re all getting this much of a view into what is going on in my world is due to the anonymity of being able to just put my thoughts out there without actually interacting socially with everyone as you learn about them. No, life isn’t easy at this moment, to be honest as many of you might have guessed much of life hasn’t been easy for years. Everything in life is a result of decisions whether they’re good or bad ones that I’ve made or had made for me over the years.

            Some of the bigger decisions that have impacted my life would have to be: (and in no particular order) the decision to keep my daughter (I got pregnant at 16 and was 17 when she was born) the decision to get married a week after I graduated High School, the decision to drop out halfway through my first semester of college, the decision to go to nursing school, both the first time for my Associate’s degree and now for my Bachelor’s degree, the decision to be a Nurse at a Girl Scout Camp for years, the decision to be a School Nurse, the decision to go work in the Intensive Care Unit at Freeman in Joplin. These are all big decisions in my life. There have also been many tiny ones that have shaped where my life has gone over the years and influenced not only the things I’m going through today, but who I am as a person.

            I’ve spent many, many hours in thought in my life. Most recently contemplating where I am and where I go from here as well as who I am as a person and how I got to be who I am today. Where I am is a result of all of these decisions and experiences in my life. Do I wish things weren’t as hard as they are now? Yes. But I honestly cannot see much of anything that could have been done or happened any differently that would still make me who I am today. I couldn’t imagine not knowing my daughter, so I can never wish I hadn’t had her or hadn’t kept her. All of the other things I listed up there plus the millions of others I didn’t were experiences that shaped me into who I am today. What I have come to realize as I’ve thought is that I like who I am. I have goals in life, I’m a good Mom (I don’t always make the best/most right decisions, but I love my kids and I truly try), I’m strong, some people tell me I’m smart (sometimes I feel so very dumb though) and I know that if I take life one day at a time I can take what has already happened in my life, what is going on now & my future experiences and shape them into an awesome future. I’ve just got to hold on, I think it might be a wild ride!!!

            So thank you all for listening to my rants, I’m nowhere near finished J

Guilty Pleasure, Anyone?

            With very few exceptions I’m not a huge fan of watching movies. Seriously, I just don’t tend to have the patience or the money to go to the theater and spend two hours of my life sitting in a dark theater with a bunch of strangers in the dark with nothing to do if I get bored and knowing that if I want to get up and move around I’m going to miss something (most likely the most interesting part of the movie). I do however sometimes enjoy putting a movie in my laptop or DVD player at home, but will admit it is extremely rare that I watch an entire movie all at once without wandering off a few times, or watch one without knitting or another craft project taking up part of my attention. The biggest exception to this is I occasionally enjoy heading out to the Sunset Drive InTheater in Aurora with a big group of people. We love to get out there right when the gates open, snag a few front row spots, set up the mini grill and make a night of it with all of the kids. I think part of it is all the stuff going on and the fact that I can knit or fiddle with stuff during the movie, so it feeds my ADHD tendencies. The other big factor is you can see 2 new movies for less than what it costs to see one in a traditional theater. This also appeals to my frugal side.  J The other exception to me not liking to go see new movies would be a series that has fascinated me for years. I saw all three of the main movies in the theater and can admit to owning all the rest at one time or another. The next one comes out in theaters on Friday, and yes, I’m thinking about trying to pull together the money to go see it.

The movie I am speaking of is American Reunion. This is the latest movie in the American Pie series.  This series consists of the original American Pie movies (American Pie, American Pie 2 and American Wedding) which follow a group of teenagers through their senior year in high school, which includes a plot to lose their virginity on prom night, through the first part of college and all the embarrassment that ensued there and on to when the slightly nerdy but cute main character Jim from the first movie marries Michelle, the flute playing band girl he lost his virginity to on prom night. To be honest these movies are my guilty pleasure. The rest of my movie collection looks nothing like these and most people assume they belong to my husband when they see them on the shelf, but they’re mine. I’ve been watching the news, trailers, reviews and directors comments for American Reunion and I think it will be of the caliber of the original three movies, therefore I must see it. J

After the first three there were some spin offs of the movies that had a few of the original characters, while they were in themselves somewhat funny movies, they were nowhere near the caliber of the original three, being from the makers of American Pie, I gave them a watch and quickly let them move from my life. If I see them pop up as I’m flipping channels I’ll stop for a bit, but I don’t go out of my way to watch any of them.

So now I’ve given you all some insight into one of my guilty pleasures. J I thought a nice light linked post was in order this week, just didn’t have the mental fortitude to write a big serious deep one!

Time is Flying By!!

Where is the time going? I mean, yes sometimes it seems to drag, but I swear every time I turn around another week has passed and the things I wanted to get done remain undone. Sometimes it’s all I can do to keep my head above water between my kids, work and school, but somehow I keep swimming. I’m sure many of you feel the same from reading your blogs.

Over Spring Break I was hoping (not sure why) to get some cleaning and stuff done around my house. Of course I was discounting the fact that I still had to work my shifts and had a Trauma Nursing course last week that many people say is the hardest class to pass that they’ve taken at the hospital. I’m happy to report I only missed 2 questions on the test, and one of them was because I second guessed myself. Oops. So I now have that under my belt and am down to two more classes to take for work, yay! On top of that I’m officially and finally off of orientation so get to take care of patients by myself. That’s pretty cool, a little intimidating, but pretty cool none the less. Needless to say my week went crazy and cleaning didn’t happen. Oh well, I did my classes and got a jump on this week’s work once I realized I had four chapters of Pathophysiology due, plus one each in Economics and Lifetime Wellness… ouch. I have to admit I was tempted to wait and blog later in the week, but decided since it frustrates me when all the blogs pop up on Friday I wouldn’t join that group and I’d try to stay ahead of the game. On top of that I’ve found it’s easier to hit 500 words if I work on it earlier rather than later, if I feel rushed I get kind of blocked on what to say.

My personal life is still a bit wacky, but I’m making plans to make all of that change. I’ve laid down some rules and outlined some requests with everyone I live with as well as opened lines of communication on all fronts in an effort to promote some peace in my world, here’s hoping it works, fingers crossed!

I’m getting a bit excited about getting into the RN-BSN program for next fall, yes the mandatory orientation is on a less than ideal day for me, but I think I have a plan in place to make it all work. I’m hoping so at least J

Oh! My poor little beat up car I bought, wow has it undergone a transformation! It looks pretty different now, I finally got my new to me door on it, we beat some of the dents out of the fender (I haven’t had any luck finding a new one) and I ordered front and back seat covers for it, so it’s looking better. Plus I cleaned it inside and out which helped a ton. Now to find some new hubcaps for it since I only have two and they don’t match and I think it’ll be a pretty decent little car for me J

Money Saving Thoughts & Ideas

Okay, nose back to the grindstone, with the whole push to the end of the semester and all of that Spring Break is over kind of stuff. J

Since my budget like many others in this world seems to get tighter with each passing day and Yahoo had a bunch of articles on saving money without resorting to the typical clipping of coupons I thought that would make a great blog post for this week.

In the first article I found (the one that started this whole blog post idea) it goes over 4 Discounts You’re Earning But NotUsing. That title made me stop & look, not surprisingly I think I qualify for a couple, and am thinking of making a change or two to take advantage of at least one of the others. The article discusses checking account rewards, and how yes they’re hard to find at your brick and mortar banks, but if you choose internet banking you can cash in. I’m going to look into this since I need to open a new account to accommodate some upcoming changes in my life anyway. The second thing is club membership perks, I am a member of Sam’s Club, so am going to look and see what other ways I can use my membership to save money, other than the obvious. Social media promotions are the third thing, I’m on Facebook far more often than I should be, so I’m going to start using my presence there to save a few dollars every now and then. The last one is credit card reward malls, I probably won’t be taking advantage of this one due to the fact that I don’t have and don’t plan to get any credit cards, but it might be worth it for those who do have them.

The second article I found went over 7 Ways You’reWasting Money Without Realizing It. I’ll hit a few of the high points. Some big ones I noticed were ignoring your credit score, this hurts you anytime  you need to borrow money and can hurt you in your job hunt too since most companies will check a credit score before they offer you a job. Failing to get lower rates follows that one, if you take care of your credit you can refinance loans to take advantage of lower rates when they are available. There have been times in my life I wish I’d been able to do so. Overpaying for car insurance was made obvious to me recently, when I bought my little Prizm I shopped around and figured out I’d been paying far too much for my auto insurance. Those are the ones that stood out to me, you’re more than welcome to check all seven out and see if the others will help you save some money.

The third article fits in too in that it gives you  9 Things You Should Always Buy WithYour Credit Card. It’s food for thought, I might put it in my mental maybe I need a card again someday file and consider it. It points out perks on appliances and electronics you can utilize with a card, also cell phone replacement perks if you pay your bill with your card and that if you use your credit card to purchase things you’re going to write off on your taxes your bill can be your receipt and you don’t have to keep track of as much paper for tax time. All pretty good ideas, plus a few more.

So those are some things I’ve learned about saving money tonight. Hope they help you too!

My Thoughts For and On the Week

Okay, I’ve gotten in the habit of just relating my week to all of you for my second blog post every week. Sometimes I feel a bit guilty, but then I realize that none of you actually have to read it, so as long as I write something and it’s fairly coherent I’m probably ok.

I got AMAZING news today. (well it might have been here a day or two, but I’ve been in Joplin working and just returned to my “eastern” home.) I got accepted into the RN-BSN program for this next fall!!! I’m super excited! I was hoping I’d get in, but not being one to get my hopes too  high (hurts to much when you don’t get what you wish for) that I wasn’t counting on it. So I’ve been floating tonight. The only minor and it really is minor down side is the mandatory orientation is the same night a leadership retreat I go on every year starts, but I’m just going to show up late to my leadership retreat, school has to come before that.

In other parts of my life the other super awesome part of the day was spending part of it with my best friend. That’s a pretty rare occurrence due to work schedules and locational difficulties, so yay!

I’ve spend the last three nights in the ICU at Freeman. I had a pretty interesting and diverse set of patients. I really learned a lot, but that’s about all I can really say on work due to all of the HIPPA laws. L I could seriously write a pretty lengthy post on any of my three shifts if I could share more details.

I had my first Pathophysiology Lab Test on Monday, I’m not super confident on how I did, but have my fingers crossed. I went right after I got off of work and was tired on top of still processing a super busy night, so maybe wasn’t at the top of my game. Oops!

Onto a subject on everyone’s mind… Spring Break. I keep hearing about everything from doing fun stuff to spending the week cleaning at home, all of that sounds nice to me. I have a Trauma Nursing course for work I’ve been putting off as I’ve heard that it’s pretty intense so I’m taking it next week. I’m hoping I can at least go out for dinner with friends or spend some time relaxing or something during the week, we will see what I can manage.

Oh, and a follow up to my post about my car, I’m feeling better about it. I have some replacement parts for it and am going to get them on next week (I have a friend that can help me on Tuesday, so I’m going to fit it in) and I spent a good part of my morning today cleaning it, amazingly it looks a lot better with what I’ve done and I haven’t even broken out the heavy duty chemicals yet. 

Well, enjoy Spring Break everyone! I’m going to do my best to J