All. Done.

Yay!! Today was my last day of general nursing orientation!!! Getting up at 5am each day was really kicking my butt! I got home at 4pm yesterday and was seriously considering going to bed then! Of course, I wasn't able to, but I hopped in as soon as I got the kiddos tucked in! I didn't even make it through the first 10 minutes of Deadliest Catch! I tried, but no luck! Thank goodness Discovery and Bravo rerun their shows constantly!! I've got to catch up on Sheer Genius from last week too, I couldn't stay awake for that! Anywhoo . . .

I got my results back for that horrible 6 hour skills assessment scenario test and I did very well! It stated that I needed minimal orientation! What a relief! I challenged the arrhythmia course today too and passed that! Go me!! Not too bad for being out for 5 1/2 years! I've got one certification course to get through yet, in September, since that expired 5 years ago. Then, I should be good!

We got some yummy calzone, pizza and calamari for supper tonight as a little "yay, mommy is done orientation" thing. We all went for a bike ride down to the lake this evening too. It's so nice to have family time again!!

Project Runway starts again tonight!! Woohoo!!! Can't wait!!!

I'll leave you with this layout. I swapped pictures with my buddy, Tracy, for last month's issue of Scrapbook News and Review. This is her daughter, Frannie!


Have a great rest of the week!

5 down, 3 to go!!!

Work days, that is!!

I started my general orientation last Monday and worked an entire 40 hour week this past week. I've got a bad cold on top of it and have pretty much been miserable!

I have 3 more days of full time hours, then I will go on my per diem schedule! I've really missed my kids and Chris this past week! By the time I got home and we had supper, there was only like 2 hours left to have "family time". That's rough!! I really admire those who juggle full time jobs and family, I don't think I could do it all the time!

I haven't really done anything exciting this week, this part of orientation is all the "fluff" stuff. I had to take a 6 hour test on Wednesday! It was a performance based evaluation used to evaluate what kind of things you need to work on in orientation. Let me just tell you how horrible that was!! For one, I had to take the medical surgical version of the test, I guess because I've been out for so long. Thing is, I've never worked a day of med surg in my life and was very unfamiliar with the types of patients they showed! I think I would've done SO much better had I taken the critical care version!! I was so happy when a cardiac scenario popped up on the video!! Heart and lung - yes. Orthopedics - no! I should get my results mid week and I'm not looking forward to it!! LOL

It is really neat to see the changes that have taken place since I worked there last in February 2003! Most of the paperwork is the same, except there is about an additional 20 sheets to fill out! LOL I've ran into so many people that I used to work with and they have welcomed me with open arms. That is such a GREAT feeling!! It feels good to be back and I know 2 days a week there will do me good!!

Not much else going on, I haven't had time to do anything else. We're all looking forward to our vacation coming up soon! We bought an air conditioner for our camper. Chris and a friend are going to install that today.

I'll leave you with a few layouts.
This one is in the July/August issue of Memory Makers.


This one is in the August issue of Simple Scrapbooks.


Thanks for reading!! Have a great week!

Cherry Picking!!

We went cherry picking with Andrea and her kids on Friday. We've only ever been strawberry picking, so we were a little scared when we saw "please don't climb on our ladders, but feel free to use your own" signs going into the cherry tents!

Ummmm, ladders? I guess that would make sense since cherries grow on trees!

Luckily, there were plenty of ripe cherry clusters that all 6 of us could reach!!

We all enjoyed it, but I think we enjoyed the ice cream and milkshakes afterwards more!! It was H. O. T.!!!!







Okay, off to the pool!!! It's a beautiful day today, 83 degrees, it'll probably be too cold for me to get in! I think I'll watch from the sidelines!!

Have a great day!! Thanks for reading!

I guess it's safe to post!

Since I am nearing the completion of my Memory Makers Masters 2009 entry, I guess it's safe to post last years entry now!! Last year was my first year entering and I really enjoyed the process even though you do get that little feeling of rejection when you are not chosen! But, I was happy with my entry and had fun doing it!!

It's funny to look back on last year and then look at what I've put together for this year! While my style is basically the same, it is also very different! I am MUCH happier with this years layouts!!

So, here is last years entry, with the exception of the "I Wish" layout, I don't have that on my computer anymore. That was my least favorite layout too!






Thanks for looking, have a great weekend!!

Lots of pictures!

The kids are at VBS, the hubby is at work, time for me to catch up on my blog!!!

So, we went to Knoebel's (an awesome family amusement park) over Father's Day weekend. We went with a good friend of mine, Andrea (her blog link is to the right), and her family. We had a wonderful time!!! Lots of giggles, food, drink! It's always so much fun camping with friends!!

Knoebel's is camping that we've never done before! We've always gone out in the wooded campsites before. Knoebel's is wooded, but it is also tight! The place is always packed! They don't give you much room for maneuvering, but luckily Chris can maneuver the camper and truck like a pro!! See, he had to back in between those two trees there. Yes, it is as tight as it looks!


The kids had such a great time!! Aren't they the cutest things ever??



I want to send a big thanks out to Mr. Ron!!! He went on any ride that the kids wanted to go on that required an adult!!! I love amusement parks but my motion sickness is so bad that I can't do anything with circles, except the Whip!! Roller coasters I can do, but not all those circular rides that Jack wanted to go on!! That kid has no fear!! Chris is not big into rides at all. So, thank you, Mr. Ron, for making my kids' dreams come true!!!


Last week was chilly here, only in the low 70's, making it not so great for the pool. Yes, mommy was secretly cheering!!!

We made the most of it and had a lot of fun strawberry picking and going to the Lehigh Valley Zoo!! Such beautiful weather for both!!

We picked 4.97 pounds of strawberries. We made strawberry shortcake, strawberry pie and just ate the rest plain!! YUM!!


This was our first time to Lehigh Valley Zoo! I didn't even know it existed until my scrapping buddies brought it up!! It is a nice quaint zoo, not very big at all! We're used to going to the Philly Zoo, so this was a big difference!! We loved it though! The kids, of course, enjoyed themselves! Our favorite was the river otter! He was so cute!!! My favorite animal has always been the zebra, so it was nice to see one there!!


Thanks for reading!! Hope everyone is having a great week!

New layouts

Finally, I'll share some layouts!! I haven't blogged about scrap stuff in a long time!!

I did these in the last 2 months or so for Scrapbook News & Review.






Thanks for reading!!! :)

Some fun news!!

We just returned from a wonderful fun packed weekend camping at Knoebel's!! I hope to go through my many pictures later and hopefully post within the next few days!

Our exciting news that I talked about in my last post is that I got a job!! When Macy was born, I was working full time as a critical care nurse in one of our local hospitals. She came along at just the right time, I needed some change! So, I backed my status down to per diem (or casual as some call it) and then just totally resigned. I have been a full stay at home mom for almost 5 1/2 years and now I need some change from this!!

I've been thinking about going back per diem for a good 6-9 months, moreso over the last 3. I was just so worried that being out of the clinical setting for over 5 years would make me very unattractive to hospitals. I was convinced that I'd have to work my way up from the bottom and get a job [gulp] in a nursing home. Nursing home work is not for me! I was an open heart nurse, that is my passion, I just cannot see myself in a nursing home!! A week and a half ago, I was looking online at the job opportunities at the hospital I worked at before becoming a SAHM. There was a per diem position posted for the progressive care unit, which was the first unit I worked in when I started there back in 1997. I got a little spur of the moment going on and I sent my resume! I got an email back from the nurse manager almost immediately and was called for an interview the next day - an interview was scheduled for last Wednesday. Talk about things going fast - phew!!

I pulled up in front of the HR office and my legs immediately went to Jello! What was I doing??? I thought about leaving! I slowly walked in, praying that I wouldn't fall over because I couldn't feel my legs!!! I talked with the nurse recruiter and things sounded great. I then went over to the hospital and met with the nurse manager. By this time, I was starting to get feeling back in my legs and glad I didn't leave!!

Everything went wonderful!! I met up with her in the lobby, we went up to the floor and she started showing me around. I walked onto the patient care area of the floor, looked to the right and saw a good friend that I used to work with. She asked me if I was interviewing, started walking over and said "hire her" to the manager!! I then continued to look to my left and saw 2 other RN's that I worked with, they immediately came over and hugged me!! What a great feeling!!!! I think that suddenly became my professional reference, since I only had character ones from not being in the workplace for so long!

We went into the managers office and talked, she told me how things work, which is pretty much the same as when I left, which is great!! They are not all the way to computerized documentation yet, so one less thing I'll have to learn, plus, the paperwork is the exact same!! Woohoo!!

I left her office feeling extremely good! I knew I had made the right decision! The following day, I came home to a message of a job offer! I accepted, my start date is July 7th!

It's all working out perfectly!! Chris only works 3 days a week at his full time flight nurse job but has kept up part time (2 days a week) with his nurse educator job, so he would get his full retirement benefits. As of July 1st, he will be vested there, so that will be his last day!

I will pick up two 8 hour shifts a week, so we will still be a 5 day work week family, it will just be split between us. I am so excited for this, he is excited for this!! He gets more at home time with the kids, I get more adult interaction time! Both of our schedules are very flexible so that will make more family time and more fun time for all 4 of us! Not to mention my job will be paying more, which is a huge plus! Of course, with the way gas prices and just everything in general is going up, I'm sure that will even out soon!

Chris also just took the base manager job, so that's a little promotion for him! Everything just fell perfectly into place! We couldn't be happier!!

I promise to post some layouts for my next post! I haven't been scrapping lately, but I do have several that I did for Scrapbook News and Review, that I can now share!!