99 Things

I stole this from another blog. I thought it was cute. You're supposed to bold the things you've done.

1. Started your own blog

2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightening storm
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Received flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been a passenger on a motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Kissed a stranger at midnight on New Year’s Eve
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating (ewwwwww)
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Got a tattoo
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

TGIF!

I feel as though I have accomplished literally nothing today. I am not really sure why, but I am ok with it. I have a couple of projects at work right now...all of which are waiting for something.

We have friends coming to town tonight....they are actually moving to Omaha, so they will be busy looking for a house tomorrow while Jason and I are in Lincoln for the Red & White Spring game!  It's hard to believe, but they anticipate 70,000 Husker fans to turn out for the scrimmage, making Memorial Stadium the 3rd largest city in Nebraska. I am excited. It doesn't get much better than tailgating in April!

The New House!

Just photos today....these are of our new home, still with all of the sellers stuff. We have a few weeks before closing, but I can't wait to start decorating!!!

 

The Entryway. Kitchen to the left,

Den/office to the right, Bedrooms past the closet.

Living Room. Love the open floorplan...hate the sellers curtains!

Kitchen. We will repaint...maybe a light steel gray? Light powder blue? Hmmm. We will replace counders with granite and possibly floor with laminate. The lower cabinets have pull-out drawers - yay!

Terrible picture of the Master...there are actually windows on both sides of the bed, bathroom and walk-in closet are to the right.

Den that will become my office. I like the wall color, but am thinking of adding contrasting horizontal or vertical stripes...

Lower level family room. Love the walk-out. Can't decide which furniture we will put down here.

Now, for some inspiration. I like elements of each of these rooms. My focus right now is on curtains, lighting and picture walls.

 

Slacker!

Well, it has been exactly 3 months since my last post, so I will try to keep this brief!


After interviewing in the NICU, I decided that at this point, it would be best to stick with my Clinical Implementation Manager job - building, training and installing software in ERs across the country. I will look for a clinical job too, as I fully intend on using my degree. (Did I mention that I passed boards in late January? This means that I am now an RN! 7 years later....) I am enjoying the job, LOVE traveling, and learning new things each day. I am able to work from home, so the commute rocks.


In other news, my husband has decided to accept a position with the company he worked for previously and one of his business partners will be moving his family to Omaha for another position within the same company. I am excited about this, mostly because Shannon (Jeremy - business partner's wife) is awesome. They have a 3-almost-4-year-old daughter Riley who calls Jason and I "Aunt Katie & Uncle Jason" :) The guys have some work ahead of them - they have notified their customers that they will be disolving the company and are wrapping up some existing projects and last-minute training requests. Their company was a success overall, 3 families survived off the profits for 2.5 years...but the pending sale of the software company they support and the overall crappy economy left them seeking greater stability and security of a steady income and fewer variables. He will have to go into the office every day instead of working from home, which seems to be the biggest tradeoff at this point.



Also, we have been biding our time with our current house...every time we start looking at houses, something changes...first I was a full time student, then Jason started ai, etc. Well, with both school and ai behind us, we put an offer on a 4 bed/3 bath ranch Sunday night, and accepted the seller's counter offer Monday night! We close the last week of May barring any terrible findings during the inspection next week. I am very excited about this - we are essentially doubling our SF and will have room to grow. The plan is to rent our current house, the ad will go up in a couple days.


As I said, I am traveling for work and leave next week on a 2 week trip to NJ and CO. I am not coming home in between, so I have the daunting task of packing 1 suitcase for two completely seperate trips :) Then home for 10 days, whirlwind cleaning/packing and several anticipated trips to goodwill, then back to the East Coast for 5 days, leaving about a week to finish packing, close and move.


I spent this past weekend "Eme-sitting" so that Erika could visit her new nephew, Grant, in Michigan. We had a good visit, and despite her hectic cares and an unexpected trip to the hospital to replace her feeding tube, we were able to play dollies, eat "ice cream" and "cookies" and color. She has been outpatient now for longer than ever before (over a month?!) with plans to move home (Colorado) permanently in about 2 weeks! I am excited that she is well enough to make this transistion, but will miss her and Erika. Check out Erika's blog: www.cotaforEmersonW.com/node/35









That's all for now, but I do promise to update more frequently!

Tomorrow...

...is INTERVIEW DAY! I will be interviewing with the manager of the NICU at UNMC...pretty much my dream job.

life post graduation

The weeks leading up to graduation were packed with activity...making sure that everything on the 'list' was complete, shelling out money to UNMC, the State Board, NCLEX, the cap & gown people...counting (and re-counting) preceptor hours, shopping for something to wear and generally jumping thru a bunch of hoops.

The good news: I made it! I am officially a college graduate. This is an accomplishment seeing as the road to get to this point was long and sometimes not so smooth. I am now back to the waiting game: waiting to take boards (1/25) and waiting for HR to decide to schedule interviews. Patience is not one of my strongest qualities, so it's been a challenge to refrain from calling the nurse recruiter every 5 minutes =)

This is a curious time, really. School and graduating are great, but you are not a nurse until you take & pass boards. In Nebraska, there is not 'graduate nurse' designation, so you can't work in a nursing role until you pass boards. You can't work as a tech after you pass boards. You have to provide your current department with 3 weeks (!) notice of intent to transfer or you are not considered for future employment. I don't have a nursing job (yet)...so I can't technically 'transfer' anywhere. I realize that everything will happen as it is supposed to, but I am over this in between stage!

17 days and counting

I am new to this whole blogging thing, so here goes:

With graduation from nursing school just around the corner (finally) I am finding it challenging to keep up with the assignments that we have left... I am 2 daily logs behind, have an entire QSEN (don't ask) and another research article left. It doesn't seem like a lot when I write it out, but yet, I can't motivate myself to get moving on them. Can they possibly waste my time more with this QSEN stuff (and the focus groups)??? Really? Are we done yet?

I am, however awful the paperwork seems, loving my preceptorship in the NICU, I knew that I would, but it's reassuring that its all I thought it would be. I enjoy working with the nurses on the night shift! (I am trying to stay up now so that I can sleep tomorrow before by last 7 shifts....) Now, to convince a certain nurse manager that she should hire me =)

On another note, my buddy Emerson was re-admitted to the peds floor with fever, gastric dumping and possible rejection. Anyone who knows me, knows about Eme. In her short life, she has gone thru more hell than any 3 year-old should. Born with a metabolic disorder and eventually diagnosed with pseudobstruction, she underwent her first multiple organ transplant in June of 2007. After multiple life threatening episodes of gram-negative sepsis and renal failure, she explanted emergently on New Years Eve 2007. I met her and her mom Erika earlier that fall dursing our peds rotation and instantly felt a connection to the both of them. To start, we are both 'transplant' (ha!) from Colorado. Over the last 15 months, I have been lucky enough to get to know Erika and meet the rest of her family, Jim & the boys. I have watched Erika fight for the treatment Emerson needs to survive and hearing the news that there was a second set of donor organs available. They are in my prayers each day. Erika keeps a blog of their journey here: http://www.cotaforemersonw.com/