Nala's Self Image

  This is what Nala thinks she looks like:

And this is what Nala actually looks like:

   She has a very healthy self-image; she is always shocked and angered whenever I pick her up. She's bigger than me and could eat me for an afternoon snack if she wanted to, so it always shocks her whenever I hold in just my hands. :)

Me too, cat, me too

  Perchance, do any of you have a Emmy-sized box? Granted, my problems are not that bad. They're more annoyances that my dramatic brain blows ridiculously out of proportion. Then cue the anxiety! That said, I would appreciate prayers about some work stuff. My boss has been incredible about working with what little availability I can give her, but the board may be making some changes. One of the changes would be making the 12 hour truck into a full time truck. For the district's sake, it needs to be, but it would likely be a full-time crew then. Which would stink for all of PRNers. And would likely mean that I would need to pick up a second job somewhere. Which would totally not be the end of the world, but I don't want to spend the time and hassle of looking, applying, and learning a new job, especially while in school. I'd rather procrastinate on that until I'm a RN and can procastinate no longer! It will likely be a month or two until they decide, so prayers for my sanity would be appreciated. After all, youns know just how much I just  love the unknowns of life. 😒 Oh well, life would be boring without them! 

 

    Poor Ladybug was really feeling the stress yesterday. Mom has been sick since Sunday, and Lady is very much a Marmoo's girl, and has been keeping a close eye on Mom almost 24/7. Plus, my normal state is a sliding scale of stress, and she does her best to keep me grounded. But that poor girl hit her max yesterday! She was freaked out, did not want left alone, and refused to leave my bedroom for almost all of the day. She would peek her head out of the door, get scared, and immediately run and hid in my room. I ended up turning the lights off (when I wasn't in there studying), keeping the doors closed, and turning the sounds on my alarm clock on to the river setting to get her to calm down. Approximately 30 seconds after starting that, she moved from the foot of the bed to the pillow (the brat!), and fell asleep. She stayed like that for a very, very long time and awoke her normal chill self. 

  School has been going good overall. My instructor and classmates are absolutely incredible!!!! I have made friends that I am much closer to than people that I have known for many years! :o  & :) I did fail a pharm test, which was weird, because I don't fail tests. That said, I was super stressed about work, did NOT sleep much that week, and did not study for it much at all. I did do amazing on the Peds HESI that we took that day though. The HESI is an indicator of how likely you are to pass NCLEX (the test that must be passed to become a nurse); doing well on it was nice, but I would have been given a second chance since this was our first time taking a HESI. I shoulda known that I'd choose the wrong test to fail! ;) On the upside, it was a nursing school fail, not a normal fail- for nursing school, it has to be a 75% or higher to pass; I got a 74%. So I'm just a partial idiot at least! 

  I don't really have much else to tell youns. I have no clue when I will stitch again; I am going to have to make time though, my sanity is wearing thin, and I haven't read a book for fun in a long time, so I need to decompress somehow soon. At work on Monday, we were dispatched for a male with dementia "acting crazy" that killed his dog. I really, really did not want to run on him. Fido-murderers are not my favorite. Plus, if he hit the point of killing his own dog, then there is precious little to keep him from wanting to kill me, especially since I am incredibly annoying. (I am told this frequently by patients. And other people.) Thankfully, we were cancelled while staging in the area. I do not know if Fido lived or not. Hopefully, he was not murdered, and it was all a big misunderstanding. 

  That's it, folks! I hope things are going amazing for you. Feel free to tell me all about it! 

  Happy Stitching (please stitch extra on my behalf!)!

  Emmy 

Hello, Friends!

   I truly thought that I would do a much better job of keeping in touch you, but we can see how that has gone. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that none of you are surprised; while we have never met in person that I know of, you seem to understand me better than I understand myself. I'm glad someone does at least!

  School has been busy, but good. My nursing professor is super cool, and my classmates are like a second family. When I got into EMS, everyone talked about how your coworkers are your family- they really aren't. A select few, sure, but not everyone like "they" said. But this class? Very much so. The only time I have felt so safe before is with select family, friends, and youns. Its a weird, but really nice feeling. Like being cuddled in a fuzzy blanket with a cat on your lap while watching it snow outside. I'll try to post occasional updates of random things that I have learned- that counts as studying, right?

  My house is coming along. Dad (bless his heart) has gotten almost all of the electricity ran inside the house, and the plumber finished almost all of hte inside stuff week before last. I'm hoping he shows up this week to finish tying in the water line and sewage (I really can't decide which one of those is more important). If all goes well, I can hopefully hire someone to do the insulation (I'm going with blow-in foam insulation) soon! Between you and me, I seriously hoping that I can move in over Christmas break. I have no idea if that is realistic, but that would be so amazing!!!!!!!

  On a similar note, does anyone know how to find a handyman, or whatever the proper term is nowadays? I am not really  able to help with school, and it isn't fair to ask my Dad to keep working on my house. If I can hire a handyman to take care of the necessitites, that will move up the move in date, and my Dad might actually let himself sleep more than 5 hours. 

  I'm very needy today; I have yet another question for you, my friends. A good friend from my class got married on Saturday. Does anyone know of any affordible embroidery or cross stitch kits for a newly married couple that would be a quick stitch? All suggestions would be appreciated!

  We had an interesting call a little bit ago. A young man was moving trash when he stuck his arm through an old window, resulting in a nice laceration to his R wrist. He had a makeshift tourniquet on, and the officer had placed his tourniquet on. We took the makeshift one off, and placed another one of ours. He ended up getting TXA, and brought to Springfield. A nice bit of excitement for the day!

  Whelp, I guess thats all she wrote! I hope youns have an amazing Labor Day (I forgot that was today until I got to work- time and half, woo hoo!!!!), and I look forward to hearing what you have been up to!

  Happy Stitching!

  Emmy

I'm struggle-bussing it

  I cannot seem to get my act together here lately. Normally, I have routines, so I can just do stuff on autopilot, and get it done. But all of my routines have flown out of the window with school and then dropping to PRN at work. I am in a world of confusion right now. Here are some of the more interesting examples:

  Shift before last, we went to a call with a young lady that had been abused by her boyfriend and drove several hours to get away. 3 police officers were on scene as well as the pt, my partner, and myself. We checked her VS, confirmed that she did not want to go to the hospital repeatedly (I would have felt better if she would have), and then returned to the station. After making it back to the station, I went to use the restroom, where I found out that I likely ran the entire call with a toilet paper tail. And nobody thought to tell me! My partner was adamant that he had not noticed any such thing- he is a man, so I do believe him on that one! 

  The next shift, my truck was dead-dead at the get go. In all of my company's wisdom, we continued to "run" out of it- at least once it was charged enough to start. We did go and run errands then- it was charged enough to drive, but nothing else worked. No headlights, no wee-woos, no obnoxious siren, zip, zilch, nada. Oh well, it worked out. Thankfully the air ride was working by the time we got a pt. They would have been very angry if not!

  Now onto the shift following that! I normally put my food that goes in the fridge in a bag, then put the bag in the fridge. If you feel this is unnecessasry, you are absolutely right, but some jerk kept stealing my cheese sticks, and I don't know who it was, so I never found out who to stab with my trauma shears (putting the trauma in trauma shears, one cheese stick thief at a time!). It was either stab everybody (felt a little excessive...) or try something else. Thankfully, the bag thing worked. Well, that and being very vocal that I would absolutely stab a cheese stick thief, if I ever found out who it was. Like, come on, who steals a girl's cheese stick?!? Take the yogurt or something, but not the cheese, and not my dessert!!!!  Anyway, now that I have had my little tantrum, I grabbed my bag, and headed off to work. After getting to work, I went to put it in the fridge when I realized, to my horror, that I did remember my bag, but I did not remember to put anything in it!!!!!!

  

  My last shift, we got off after 11:30... we were suppose to be off at 9. We were already on a late call when they made us go to a wreck. I felt really dumb because all of these people kept saying my name, and when I answered, they looked at me like I was really stupid. I was starting to wonder if I was having a stroke or something (my BP was absolutely high enough at that point) and just speaking gibberish. At one point, a firefighter said, "Emily is a patient, too." I'm thinking to myself, "No, I'm calm. Why is he saying that?" (We say that whenever someone gets really worked up over something. Some EMTs, Paramedics, etc have literally had heart attacks on the truck during a call from all of the cumulative stress of the job.)  Turns out, my pt and I share the same first name! She was the second one of the day with my name. Usually, I don't share a name with my patients, just classmates.

  As you can see, life has been very, very entertaining of late. Only one thing was embarassing (the TP tail) for about 30 seconds. It is now my favorite story to tell everyone! 

Only in Nursing school....

 Does someone tell you to "go look at that butt" and you rush with everyone else to do exactly that. Kinda weird, right? Exactly what our professor said, and us medic RN students feel like we are drowning with most of the assignments- looking at a rubber butt with an example of a pressure wound is absolutely easy, and something we were eager to do as a result!

 In other news, here is my house:

  It needs painted, another window, and nothing inside is done except for the stairs and the bathroom framing. Still, a ton of progress that the contractor did in a few days!!!!!!! We will be doing the rest (hopefully), so it will be awhile before there is more progress to report. 

  I am super behind on stuff for my RN bridge class, as well as my Old Testament History. For nursing, our instructor is really cool, as are my classmates. Updates will likely be sporadic, but know that I think of you often!!!! 

  Happy Stitching/Studying! 

 Emmy

I have so much to tell you!

 But this is on my phone, so I may not get it all told. First and foremost, happy belated birthday to Robin!!!! 

  Things have been absolutely ridiculous around here. Grandpa was in the hospital with confusion and an infection that sounds like sepsis. Getting updates was incredibly difficult, and Covid (I really, really hate that word anymore) restrictions kept us from going there. My uncle that was up there is not able to relay info as well, and likes to add his own twist on things. At one point, Grandpa thought that he was at morgue being embalmed. He is, praise the Lord, back home and doing much better now. There are some lasting effects, but I really thought we were going to lose him, so the deficits are not worst case scenario by any means. 

  I was sick on the 14th, so I had Friday off of work. I really think I had just wore myself down too much between work, school, and everything else, especially since last week was finals. Thankfully, I am much better now, and at work now. I also survived our mandatory training, as did several apprehensive new hires. :)

  So, the being too busy and getting sick thing just confirms the decision I’m about to tell. I spoke to my boss a week or 2 back, and I am stopping to part time in late June. It was a hard, and frankly scary decision, but I feel more of a peace about this decision than I have felt in a very, very long time. I’m working on figuring out insurance and such now. Wish my luck, and a steady supply of Tylenol for that headache!

  My house is on hold at the moment. I’m working on figuring out the finances to hire the gent that gave me a quote. If I can get that figured out, we will go on ahead. If not, I will likely wait until sometime after next May to revisit that dream. 

  Since I was sick, I slept a ton(!!), watched some movies, and squeezed some stitching in!!!

  Most of the rump is done now, but I forgot to take a picture of that. I do believe Smokey has missed me stitching as much as I have! 

  The children are well. 

  Smokey was quite thrilled to have a bow tie on, and it appears to have cured his case of the grumpies and growlies. Lady hated it when I trimmed her claws and put her new caps on. You would have thought I was cutting her paws off the way she carried on!!! But, she stuck both paws out a few minutes after we finished to show off her bling! 

  I should be starting class on June 2, Lord willing and the creeks don’t rise. I’ll be using my vacation throughout June,  so that will take some stress off. I must say, the decision to go part time has made it much easier to breath, and I don’t feel like I’m drowning as much. Concerned about finances and such, but God led me down this path, so He will provide. 

  What have youns been up to? I’ve missed our visits!!!!

 Happy Stitching!

 Emmy

Slow Driver Update

   Since I have the misfortune of being awake at this time, and new guy drives slow from Big City,  I figured it would be a good time to pop in with an update. Things have been ridiculously busy. Between my classes and how incredibly busy we’ve been at work, there hasn’t really been time for much else, including sleep. Today we arrived at work and was told that there was a transfer going to St. Louis. The transfer went well, but was, unsurprisingly, long. 

  School has been annoying, but decent. Even though I’m just at half time, I’m having to spend pretty close to the amount of time studying I spent in medic class (an 18 credit hr class per semester). For two 3 hour classes, that is a bit ridiculous, especially since one is just a refresher. Still, it is what it is. I’m not sure if it’s the way the classes are set up, or my instructor. 

  The kitties are well. Ladybug’s paw is slowly getting better. I know they are just playing, but when Smokey bites her paw, he doesn’t realize he’s biting hard enough to hurt her. Do youns have any ideas on how to get him to stop playing so rough?

  Banjo wanted me to tell youns that he got two- TWO!!!!- new squeaky toys!!!!!!! I’m pretty sure Kirst gave the second one to Sadie, but he thinks it’s his  apparently, the one I gave him is not enough. Daisy says that life is good, even if her brothers are annoying  

  I don’t have anything to report on the stitching front. On the nursing school front, I have almost everything ready. My uniforms are ordered, my school- approved shoes arrived (they’re picky), most of my vaccine stuff is turned in (apparently they just gave me a plain tetanus shot a few years ago, so I need a TDaP booster, and I can’t access my TB test results on the pt portal for some reason, so I have to get that figured out). Let’s see, what else.... I think the only other thing I’ll need is a flu shot this fall. Normally, I skip them, but it’s required for clinicals. 

  I’m looking into something for the near future. I don’t have it all sorted out yet, although I have made up my mind, so I’ll wait to tell youns about it once it’s all sorted out. That said, I would appreciate sure prayer that I make the right decisions, and that all goes smoothly with it. 

  My coworker that was going to build my house had a schedule change and isn’t able to now. The good news is, there’s a guy that will be giving me a quote soon. I’m not sure when he will be able to start it, but he was the first one that didn’t say he was too busy, and he actually came out in a few days to look over everything, so that is progress at least!!!!

  Sorry I don’t have anything interesting to report. Hopefully that will change soon. Until then, youns take care, and please tell what you have been up to! 

  Happy Stitching!

 Emmy

P. S. I’ll try to include pictures in a post soon.  Also, it’s not terrible the new guy is driving slow; he’s working in giving a smooth ride, which is good, but ambulances go much faster than fire trucks, for various reasons.  He will get the fast and the smooth combined soon, I’m sure