in all my 11 years of being an oncology nurse, today was the first time i walked in the Relay for Life. i brought along katie, nina and her friend hayley. it was a pretty cool thing to see all the supporters and survivors there. made me proud to be a part of it.

stumbled upon this...really needed a laugh after the past two days i've had at work.

A Graduate Nurse throws up when the patient does.
An experienced nurse calls housekeeping when a patient throws up

A Graduate Nurse wears so many pins on their name badge you can't read it.
An experienced nurse doesn't wear a name badge for liability reasons

A Graduate Nurse charts too much.
An experienced nurse doesn't chart enough.

A Graduate Nurse loves to run to codes.
An experienced nurse makes graduate nurses run to codes.

A Graduate Nurse wants everyone to know they are a nurse.
An experienced nurse doesn't want anyone to know they are a nurse.

A Graduate Nurse keeps detailed notes on a pad.
An experienced nurse writes on the back of their hand, paper scraps, napkins, etc.

A Graduate Nurse will spend all day trying to reorient a patient.
An experienced nurse will chart the patient is disoriented and restrain them.

A Graduate Nurse can hear a beeping IV at 50 yards.
An experienced nurse can't hear any alarms at any distance.

A Graduate Nurse loves to hear abnormal heart and breath sounds.
An experienced nurse doesn't want to know about them unless the patient is symptomatic.

A Graduate Nurse spends 2 hours giving a patient a bath.
An experienced nurse lets the CNA give the patient a bath.

A Graduate Nurse thinks people respect Nurses.
An experienced nurse knows everybody blames everything on the nurse.

A Graduate Nurse looks for blood on a bandage hoping they will get to change it.
An experienced nurse knows a little blood never hurt anybody.

A Graduate Nurse looks for a chance "to work with the family."
An experienced nurse avoids the family.

A Graduate Nurse expects meds and supplies to be delivered on time.
An experienced nurse expects them to never be delivered at all.

A Graduate Nurse will spend days bladder training an incontinent patient.
An experienced nurse will insert a Foley catheter.

A Graduate Nurse always answers their phone.
An experienced nurse checks their caller ID before answering the phone.

A Graduate Nurse thinks psych patients are interesting.
An experienced nurse thinks psych patients are crazy.

A Graduate Nurse carries reference books in their bag.
An experienced nurse carries magazines, lunch, and some "cough syrup" in their bag.

A Graduate Nurse doesn't find this funny.
An experienced nurse does.

jinxed myself. @#$%! oh, well. time and 1/2 aint so bad. plus, the sun has gone away. i should have taken that as a sign.

i'm on-call today. please, oh please, do not call me in. so many things to do today while the big yellow thing in the sky is out! something about the sun that motivates me.

i asked mickey if we could move to hawaii. he said we could IF i agreed to be his sugar mama. ooh it's tempting....

thank God for the sunshine. well, and a bunch of other stuff too. but today i am extra thankful for the sun. guess it's going to be beautiful all weekend. although i'll be at work, some of my favorite people in the world will be there too, so it won't be so bad.

everything has been peachy here in the kellogg household. school's winding down for the girls, while nina and dance are gearing up for the recital.  katie comes home for the summer next friday. kelsie's finals are done; sophomore year at UWT is in the books.

i have high hopes for an awesome summer.

let's just see about that....

i'm not sure how people can keep up their blogs with something interesting to say e v e r y day. or every week, for that matter.

i just wanted to post something so that my SEVEN followers knew that i was still blogging. :)

suuuper productive weekend. actually worked in the yard.

surprised myself because 1. i hate yard work, and 2. my back was cooperating.

for those unaware of the saga that is my back - i have degenerating, protruding, and extruding disks.

weeks of physical therapy without any progression.

first of three epidural steroid injections in the books. second is coming this friday.

it sucks, but i'm getting by.

anyway, got a low census day today. so i'm trying to get some stuff done that i didn't get to this weekend.

looking for some chicken recipes. got any ideas?

beautiful day outside...why am i inside then?

because i feel like it. the house is empty and all is quiet. enjoying the solitude for the moment. took a long time for me to learn that it's ok to not do anything. (thanks, honey)

maybe i'll figure out something to do later. maybe not.



nina and i drove to ellensburg yesterday to surprise katie at school. what college kid doesn't love a drop-in by her mother and little sister? well, i couldn't NOT see all of my children on mother's day. call me selfish. i don't curr.

it was great to see her as always. walked around campus, tried spending the rest of her food money in the student convenience store (it doesn't roll over into next year, and the leftovers aren't refunded WTH), then walked to the building she will be living next year. right next to the student union center. which makes me happy. still not ok with her walking around campus in the dark. ugh.

she'll be home in a month for the summer. super stoked about that.

got a new pair of toms (i feel another obsession coming on...) and a summer dress from kelsie. a hanging basket from nina that she picked out from the windmill in sumner. soo pretty.

katie got me a CWU hoodie. love me some hoodies.

and, breakfast made by my honey. he even got my coffee right! which he never attempts because he thinks he can't do it right, or claims he doesn't know how. whatev. now i know the truth...

needless to say, it was a great day.

happy mother's day!

it's my girls and me in maui.

i've been doing my job for a long time now. and, almost everyday i shake my head and think to myself, "i can't make this stuff up". here's an excerpt of a conversation that i had yesterday.

Me:  ok, here are your pills you need to take with your breakfast.

Confused Old Person:  i need a banana.

Me:  well, you ate all of your banana. would you like me to get you another banana, or do you want to take your pills with some pudding?

COP:  just get me 2 bites of banana.

Me:  alright, hang on. i'll be right back.

I go looking for an extra banana, don't find one, grab a pudding from the fridge, go back to the room.

Me:  i couldn't find a banana, but i found some pudding.

I look at COP who is scraping the bottom of the butter cup with a spoon.

Me:  what are you doing?

COP:  huh?

Me:  what are you doing with the butter?

COP:  i'm getting the last bite.

Me:  but, that's butter. are you eating the butter?

COP:  huh?

Me:  the butter. are you eating that?

COP:  are you calling me fat? when you get my age, you don't worry about eating butter. ooh, is that pudding? i was saving that for later!

why? just because they're so stinkin cute...

otis, otasha, mr.adventure.

he's been missing since saturday. hoping he's found a wife or joined the circus, because i'm too sad to think that anything terrible could have happened.

driving home from nina's dance studio, i saw a squished, bloody, grey, furry mass on the side of the road. nearly slammed on the brakes, whipped the car around. heart in my throat.

got close, only to find a gross opossum.

 i'm hoping he finds his way back.

lovely spring morning, i think, it's going to be a great drive to ellensburg.

i got the TO part right, it was the FROM part that blew.

a supposed (say that because we never passed any wreckage) semi collision on I-90 took up all westbound and east bound lanes. 25 mile back up. no detour nor turn around.

traffic totally stopped. so i get out to take a couple of pics.

 lots of people out of their vehicles. even saw a guy in a lawn chair in the grassy median with his laptop.

5 hours later we are home. thank the jesus.

i need a nap.

added the follower button, again. totally bummed me out to login and see "you have no followers" boo! so, i'm putting us out there - don't let me down people! please?

on a side note - mickey stayed home with me today. going to see the neurosurgeon for a consult re: my back. hopefully he will have a brilliant plan for me because this sucks. bad. living life the way you want to is kinda hard when you can't sit/stand/walk/sleep without hurting and/or looking like a 138 year old woman.

i took katie back to ellensburg today (only to pick her up again on friday, but whatev). and look what i found while driving through snoqualmie pass. are you kidding me? it was full-on snowing. SNOWING.  thought this was supposed to be spring. but, on a positive note - UPS delivered my summer shoes today. TOMS in chocolate brown. soo comfy! i feel a new obsession coming on. kinda like the 68 scrub tops, 24 long sleeve tshirts, 7 pairs of danskos... hey, i like what i like.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KAITYLN RENEE!

ok, people. feeling like i'm going to be talking to myself because we have no friends don't have any followers yet. but i remain hopeful.

katie is home for the weekend. it's her 19th birthday tomorrow. it's crazy to think about how much time has gone by. seems to me to be flying. plan for today is to get stuff to make pies for her. i'll post pics if 1. the pies turn out well, 2. if i can figure out how to post 'em.

since we never answer the phone (because no one likes to talk on it) and rarely see our friends and family (because we're too busy, working, too tired, whatev), i'm going to try this blog thing to share with you what it is we are up to.  don't expect a daily report because, well, who wants to hear "...went to school/work, made/ate dinner, then went to bed" every day? but, i will post a little sumpin-sumpin every couple o' days so that y'all don't think we've fallen off the face of the earth.