Please, if you will,

I'd like to be back here, right. now.

oh. boy.

One step closer...

...to becoming an RN.

This is my last semester in nursing school and we are 

starting all the critical care. 

My greatest fear was the ol' IV push.

You use the port closest to the patient to push medications

straight into the blood stream very slowly (sometimes over 2-5 minutes). 

Reactions happen pretty quickly (if there are going to be any). 

The words "calculate correctly" and "or else death" come up a lot in this semester... :0

which is why we only give meds with our instructor or our nurse.

Yesterday I gave my first IV push!!! No reactions,

the patient tolerated it well and it helped control her pain! :D Yayyy!

whew.

It's all about (safely) facing those fears!!! 

Here's an example of what it looks like

(though this is a flush with normal saline- we do that before and after pushing a med)

Photo from this blog

I'm super excited to be in this semester. 

Because we'll be graduating soon, they really emphasize how we 

are the nurse and should be providing total patient care. 

It's good!! 

So... I might be a lil' preoccupied with this topic for a bit. 

I'll try and mix it up some ;)

Off to study hemodynamics and septic shock :D 

xx,

Nicky

We MET!!!

Bloggy meet up- take 4! 

Maybe you've already read about this on these other "lovely" ladies' blogs...

but here's our fun filled- way-to-short day through my eyes :D 

From left to right:

Anne of A Cup full of Sunshine, Me, Milla of The Girl Who Married A Bear, Amber of Violet Folklore, and the birthday girl herself- Missa of Thrift Candy  

We all got together in honor of Missa's 40th surprise birthday

all planned out by her seriously awesome husband Lucas! 

I never in a million years thought I was

ever going to form such fun and close relationships with other gals out in blog land 

 when I started my blog up a few years back! 

I'm so excited and honored to have gotten to know them

through blogging and then to meet them in person!

Anne, our hubby's and myself packed up our car and headed out for quite a turn around

road trip. The boys tooled around doing boy things that day, while Anne and I wandered 

around town with our buddies!

We hit up some thrift stores and talked a lot about how strange it was to ACTUALLY be standing in the same room with each other. I was pretty shy at first. You could tell they'd been together for a whole day already because the second we showed up, they were snapping shots! :D (It is something we do well- the whole documentation thing). These girls have painted some pretty good pictures on their blogs about what they are really like- it felt like we already knew each other!!! :D 

Shopping, photographing...shopping... photographing! I even got a picture of Missa taking a picture of me! Here she's catching thrifing in action

That sweet Heather smile is just as good in real life as it is here :D 

Beebee was such a trooper riding in the car for MANY hours- most of which she made not a peep,

 and cruising around with her Mama in the Moby wrap while us gals got to hang out!

I love this shot! We'd walk around a bit and then stop and talk and giggle about things... here at this corner we touched on the funny fact that we say "lovely" a lot on these blogs! haha- our hubby's actually pointed that out! Yeah, well!?! I WAS lovely! :D Look at this sweet shot of Amber....

Amber spied a massive bakelite (baka-lite- hehe) collection!

 My favorite shop by far was Skirt Chaser Vintage! Everywhere I turned I kept saying, "OH my gosh, look at this!!!" and then would turn and say the same dang thing again! 

I had a hard time passing this dress up- I'm such a sucker for that old 70's tapestry ribbon

Milla found herself a keepsake and put it on immediately after purchasing it- 

Crazy cute- yeah, the hat too!!

 We sadly had to say goodbye to Amber, her daughter Mycie, and Heather as they headed back home.

Anne and I met up with our dudes and cruised around Petaluma for a bit. 

 Back to the hotel for a wardrobe change and over to Missa's last surprise for the night-

a huge surprise party in a cool old barn owned by some friends of theirs!

Lucas had Amber set up a rack of vintage clothing for the taking (I scored a pretty dress), and couldn't stop there. My wacky brain thought it would be fun if we could all dork out for a bit- putting on layers of clothes and hats off the wall.

These girls are radder than I ever thought- they went for it :D

 Lucas had created all kinds of cool accessories to adorn the place including this

candle with a picture of Missa on the front and there were some framed photos of her as a child and some blog shots she's posted!

One of my favorite perks of the evening... 

"Ahhhhh (angels singing) Glorious rack of vintage clothing in a barn......"

 The guys ;)

One seriously cool homemade bike contraption that throws flames!!! 

Missa and her sisters :D Love this!

Another hair brained idea of mine... The rabbit had a saddle so I figured someone should be riding it- BINGO!! Missa SO worked it hehehehhe. someone even threw her a rope to swing as a lasso! I freakin' love this Missa!!!

More warm fuzzies! Love this

Nooooooo.... time to head home. But not til we picked up some oysters for Erick who had

been craving them madly the whole trip! Next stop- San Francisco. 

Ruben had a lil' catnap on the way there... practice for the drive home :D

are you guys sisters?? ;)

Cool little stand in the pier in San Francisco

Oysters by the bay

Clams too-

These were fun just to go back through again! I'm very excited I got to take this trip and hang with these gals- I can't wait for the next one (Jessica, you are SO there next time!). So. Cal anyone?? :D

Happy Happy Birthday again Missa- thanks for giving us a great excuse to all hang out!!!

xx,

Nicky

quotes

OH man! Anchorman is probably one our most heavily quoted movies!

I just found this rad lil cross stitch on the feeling stitchy blog

katiekutthroat (she's got some other harsh ones too, but this one's ok!

Erick and I are constantly quote movies (even the kids spout em off now) and

it just gets even funnier with Anne and Ruben around. We've been known

to actually tick off people because we just couldn't stop- we're getting better, no? ;)

In fact, a couple of years ago, I made Anne a gift for her birthday that was 

a bunch of wine tags with our most heavily quoted favorites- all of which included Will Ferrell. 

A little Anchor Man, Stepbrothers, and Blades of Glory...

Here are the quotes on the back :D

Sheesh, just looked and here's another Anchorman project I've done :D 

I finished this late last year... I'll have to show ya sometime!

BAHAHA- the more I look, the more I find....

here's a little voice quote of Ron Burgundy introducing an aquatic daredevil.

I wish I had a picture of Erick and I from Halloween one year, 

we went as anchors Ron and Veronica. 

That's what thrift stores are really made for :D 

Guess we were really into that movie!

Took my final today and have 5 days til 

the madness of 4th semester of nursing kicks in! 

"[inhale..........] POWER [inhale......] POWER...." 

That's Veronica Corningstone in Anchorman :D

Fabric Yo Yo's

My Mama introduced me to this craft.

When I was little she used to dress our christmas tree 

with her hand made yo yo garland made from different colors of gingham fabric.

I remember that, and those aluminum icicles that were a flat sheet of metal 

twisted around and hung by a string. When you would put your hand under them and

gently lift them, they twirled back and forth for a bit- I was mesmerized!  

She has recently gotten back into this craft and started stitching them together

 to make doilies out of em.

This one, below,  is available in my shop- 

the rest she's selling in her shop at an antique mall

 to add a little handmade goodness to her vintage goods :D

Here's what else folks are doing with these cool little fabric flowers

photo

photo

photo

Crafty, eh?

Ok, time to buckle down and go take my last online exam for this semester!

Final is tomorrow and one semester left!!! WHEW!

Happy Monday,

Nicky

Random Happiness!

Cute lil' travelin' girls

Laguna Beach

Random Fruit Owl for Breakfast :D 

Heart melting goodness... sent hubby on a double date with these cute gals

Father Daughter Dance

Zippies that no longer fit, but cannot be parted with

(look closely at the feet)

Olivia's Indian name is "sticks for legs" 

We get a kick outta this at home

Elsa enjoying "brain berries" for snack :D 

She painted this dish a while back... what a fun trip that was

Happy Weekend to ya. My girls just had their Valentine Party at school today and are

all sugared up- sweeet!

xx,

Nicky