May Long Weekend

My family always seems to end up in SoAB during May long weekend. There's always things going on and this year my sisters and I turned it in to a May long week! It was just the sisters - we ditched our husbands - and it was so much fun.
I drove down to Welling on Wednesday and first things first, I got to meet my newest nephew!! Oliver is perfect. And is also a clone of the other two boys, just a little bit fatter. I  was so excited to finally get to see him.

We were planning on spending the weekend together anyway but when we found out that the Backstreet Boys were playing in Lethbridge, all the sisters obviously had to extend the trip a little bit to fit them in!! We also brought my mom along as our Mother's Day present. I've always loved the Backstreet Boys, thanks to my older sisters, and had so much fun! They were so great and sang all of my favorites. We screamed and sang along and had the best time. I couldn't talk by the end of it. One of the best concerts ever.

For the rest of the week, there were a lot of Diet Coke and snowbob runs, and even more kid wrangling. But it was so much fun. The weeks with my sisters are always the best. I always look forward to them.

We went on a walk at the Fishpond down to the spill gates, where Danielle relieved her very sketchy childhood.

And of course, what would a trip to SoAB be without visiting Kevin and his horses?! We all took a turn on the little horse, and most of the kids loved it! Quinn struggled a little bit, but we still got her up there. Even Ollie got in on the action.

I was also lucky enough to spend my birthday in SoAB! I was a little sad Nathan had to miss it, but it was a ton of fun to spend it with my sisters. They even made me a (gluten-free) skor cake!! It was delicious. We also went birthday swimming with all the kids, which was a blast. I even baby whispered Oliver to sleep after it.

And fun fact - I share my birthday with Tim Horton's. Free cake donuts for everyone! We went through the drive thru twice. I'm not even sorry.

After all that excitement, my mom took all the sisters out for dinner. Thank goodness we had Paul to 'supervise' the kids. After they were already asleep.

I had so much fun and I can't wait to see everyone in July again! I'm ready for another party! This time with husbands so we can ditch even easier!

Preceptoring and Four Weeks of Unemployment.

It happened.
I graduated.
I officially have a Bachelor's of Science degree in Nursing.
I don't know when I became responsible enough to take care of other people but no one's stopped me yet so I guess I just won't question it.

I did my preceptorship on 3G2 at the University of Alberta Hospital. It's adult transplants. We do everything except heart transplants - those are taken care of at the Mazankowski. I was there from February to April, full time. It was a huge learning curve. There were so many skills and experiences I'd never done or had before. It was a little overwhelming. It's a pretty small unit and sometimes people stay there for months post surgery. All the nurses were great and I had an awesome time there. The preceptorship is based on hours, not days, so I finished at the beginning of April. And my temporary permit as a Grad Nurse didn't start until after Easter. So I really should have blogged then. I did pretty much nothing for three glorious weeks.

I also learned about the kind of nurse that I am and faced a lot of ethical dilemmas. I saw people be accepted and rejected in the transplant program. Some choices I didn't agree with. It's hard to give someone a person's lungs, only to see them smoke again. Or a suicidal person get an organ they had just tried to destroy. It was hard to care for these individuals. It wasn't fair.

But you'd also get to people given a new lease on life. You saw dialysis patients who had struggled for years with mobility and health, walking confidently within days. People would go from 15L of oxygen to not even breaking a sweat walking down the hallway on room air. These people were ecstatic and had forgotten life could feel this good. They worked hard to understand their medications, made sure to be educated and asked a million questions.

And then you felt like you were doing good.
Like that organ meant something.

I really enjoyed my time in transplants and was sad to leave. There was definitely an adjustment - from working as a UNE in cardiology, this was a complete turn around. The unit was smaller, the nurses worked differently, everything was in weird spots. But I learned more than I could have imagined and enjoyed it. And I didn't have to wear my student name tag ever again!! I was stoked to say the least.

My three weeks started and I did a mean job of spring cleaning. I got rid of buckets full of junk - clothes, books, everything. I vacuumed and mopped. It was exhausting. And of course, was messy again in two days.

This is why I never clean.




I watched entire series on Netflix and started a paint by numbers.



I stalked my sister to hang out with her and played with my nieces.















I took a lot of selfies. And I'm only mildly ashamed.












I also made Nathan go with me to Galaxyland and buy me cotton candy. He wouldn't go with me on the boat and I'm starting to question our relationship over it. We also impulse went to Jungle Jim's in West ed. It was .. unique. Very themed. Medium weird. Awkwardly expensive for the food. But Nathan was clearly pumped.

Obviously I was living the dream.

But then I started getting really bored. By a week or two into it, I was getting really annoyed. I still wasn't allowed to work and could've thought of things to do but there were days I wouldn't leave the house. Nathan was still in school, or at work. So I couldn't convince him to hang out with me all the time. Unemployment is not good for me. I swear I gained 10 pounds in two weeks. By the time Easter rolled around, Nathan was ready to get me any job that would get me out of the house and not accidentally waking him up at 3 in the morning because I'm watching Netflix. 

I also had a pinning ceremony for nursing. It's really not too exciting but it was nice to have one more day with our entire nursing class. It felt like a little bit of closure. It was really fun. The speeches were really well done and it was fun to see everyone after finishing four years together.

I was so happy to see all of my lovely friends!! I had missed not seeing them all the time. It's been a struggle since too.














My pretty friend Amber even stayed and hung out with me for a few hours and reminisced about our lives for the past four years. Plus a little extra. We watched Lizzie Mcguire, ate peeps and I had so much fun!






But I'm officially a grad nurse now and can actually get paid for doing something. It's a little scary and sometimes I don't feel like I'm ready. I'm sure it will come with time though. For right now, I'm casual at both the Mazankowski and transplants. I'm sure it'll be a busy summer and I'm excited to start the next chapter of my life.

And just for a little last minute entertainment - this is who I'll be starting the next chapter with.. I hope our kids get mostly my genetics..