Critter!

Short and sweet - just like her:  I walked into the living room to find our smallest Girl... STANDING ON THE COFFEE TABLE.   And looking at me innocently... "isn't this a great place to stand?"

WHAT got into her?!?  She's never done that before, none of the girls have ever gotton up on the coffee table before!  (Unless you count the time several years ago that Paris stood on her back legs, eyed the green apple slices I'd cut up for Becca and me to snack on while watching a movie, and snitched one.)   Perhaps she witnessed the time (just recently) that Kate stormed the back door during our Second Annual Texas Thanksgiving and made a beeline straight for said coffee table, wherein a very expensive layered pesto/cheese/sundried tomato torte resided.  She dived openmouthed into that torte and ate approximately a third of it in one gulp.   Jack swiftly (for a change) foiled her and carried her through the audience right back outside.

We are dog lovers, but we're also medical people, and like things CLEAN.  I don't go around bleaching every available surface the way I did while I was taking Microbiology (sorry, kids and first husband!  I hope the fumes didn't take too many points off your developing IQs! ), but clean is still important.  

Nope, little Critter, you are NOT allowed to stand on the coffee table.  No matter how cute you are.

Back to school.

I absolutely love my job.  I went to nursing school specifically to be a L&D nurse.  (I'm not a huge fan of being around actually *sick* people.  Stop laughing, yes, I am a good nurse, in fact, I've been referred to as an excellent nurse.)  But fifteen years later, it's beginning to take it's toll on my physical body.  (And heart, and mind...as goes our bedtime prayer.)  I spent a good portion of this past summer off work due to having my left foot pretty much reconstructed.  No, it was NOT fun, Texas in the summer is waaay hot.  And now I have a hip giving me trouble...I'm a little young for this, YES, I'm speaking to you, my joints, bones and tendons!  There is nothing as thrilling as being a part of a family's welcome to a new baby.  I haven't kept track of how many births I've been a part of over the years, but it never, ever gets old.  Each delivery is amazing and exciting.  I love that part of my job.  

I used to love the fact that I spent 36 hours a week literally running most of the day.  It kept my weight down - God only knows what I would weigh if I didn't work labor and delivery!   But I ache now, when I come home at night.  I ache walking up the stairs to our bedroom.  My back aches..my feet hurt, in spite of the best shoes I can find.  My hip throbbing wakes me up at night, and I can't sleep on that particular side.  This is not cool, I'm way too young for this kind of physical difficulty.  My family lives forever, trust me, and is in great shape.  My 97 year old Grandfather is getting around better than me, at this point!   So it's time.

I always thought to myself I'd go back to school "when the baby is older."  That baby is now 22, and I THINK he can deal with it.  That is meant quite sarcastically - I hear from him maybe once every two months, unless I track him down with kidding-veering-into-threatening emails, phone messages, and MySpace messages.  Is there a reason he won't add me to his Facebook?  Gee, I wonder.  :)

So - I start in a few weeks....an online RN to BSN program that will take me a little over a year. Of course, the Overachiever Within will probably try to rush that part of the process along.  Nearly five years later after my huge cognitive thinking overhaul, she's still there.   But we get along better now, and she doesn't run the show the way she used to.  After I finish the BSN program, I am going to do some sort of graduate program, and I'm not certain in which direction yet.  I have a year to think about this.  I would love to go into clinical psychology, counseling, therapy...something along those lines.   The other direction I could go into is CRNA, (challenging! interesting! but might involve working nights for a time! which I do not ever want to do again!) but I'd have to go out of town for schooling, and I'm not crazy about that idea.   I had toyed with the idea of being a PA years ago, I'll look into programs for that that are local.  I'm hoping to find a new career that is interesting, challenging, and easier on my body.  I'm praying for guidance and - I've got a year to decide.

Things have changed, greatly.

I've put off posting for several reasons, but the two main reasons I haven't kept up with this blog are that Becca and Brandon are not living here at the moment.  It took a while to get used to, but things are good in many ways even though I miss them both.  No one wants to raise 35-year old children that still live with their parents.   Both have to finish their education and pursue the careers they dream of.   That doesn't mean they won't be here from time to time, or someday live here again.   I fully support their decisions in pursing their individual careers (Brandon,  snowboarding in a Colorado ski resort is NOT a career).    I'm sure they don't miss my motherly concerned not-quite-nagging, and I don't miss the various existential crisis that would occur weekly with one or both of them.   It was a great year, an even better summer, and now on to the next segment of life.....which also means I should change the title of this blog.