Christmas!!!!

 Please tell me that I’m not the only one who is incredibly excited about Christmas, but struggling to decorate this year! The tree is up, but I’ve not dug out many of my decorations. I have started a new project though! 

It’s slow progress over the past few weeks, life has been hectic and there was a minor bug going around my family for a while. So far I’ve only stitched while at work- based on the minimal progress, you can tell how that’s been going! ;)

  My former project will be safely tucked away, probably until after Christmas. I can’t seem to keep from switching projects as often as Missouri changes her weather. Oh well, keeps things interesting! Here’s how Miss Autumn will be left- almost attired, but still invisible herself! 

I’m not sure if I’ve updated on my house for a while; my brain finally feels somewhat clear after the past year, so hopefully I’ll be less scatterbrained! My house is on pause while I wait to get done things figured out. The handyman I’d hired to finish most of it messed up almost all of the beadboard upstairs, as well as various areas downstairs, so he’s no longer working on the project. There was a lot of drama with that situation, but it’s hopefully settled down now. I’m hoping to find someone that can redo the messed up areas, as well as finish the rest soon. 

  The critters have all been well! I’m not sure how much longer the Christmas tree,  Pom Pom garlands, and other decorations have left on this earth though! 

Shopping with mom 🤣- I’m really hoping these guys don’t suffer the wrath of the kitties! 

They have been helping me get Mount Laundry knocked down… despite being specifically told to stay off of the clean towels…

Smokey has also been worried about my work schedule of late, and has forced me to slow down and smell the candy canes some! 

 I’ll try to share more soon. Please let me know what you have been up to!!!!!

  ~ Emmy

Rest In Peace Banjo

 Today one of my best friends died. Banjo was an amazing, albeit ornery dog, who smiled every day, truly lived life to the fullest, and loved even more than he was loved. He loved me despite my faults and chose me to be his human. I really hope I made him as happy and loved as he made me. I’ll never forget him.  I miss you Buddy, and I look forward to when we meet again. Make sure to say hi to  Grandpa and Grandma, and give them a hug for me, I’m sure they will really enjoy having you with them! 

Not a bad way

 To spend a Saturday morning!

  I’ll try to post a longer update soon, and tell youns about my friend’s Etsy shop. For now, I’m going to relax and enjoy stitching while posting in my boo boo bus :) I hope you are all well, and I have missed you! Enjoy your Saturday morning!

  Happy Stitching!

  Emmy

A New Favorite

 

This might be my new favorite picture of Smokey! I had bought flowers for Mom, but they had gotten too hot in my car. I tossed them in water real fast, and Smokey seemed to sense them, and came running. He definitely loves pretty things!!! I am absolutely positive that he thought they were for him- he kept looking at me with a smile, and would absolutely beam while staring at them for hours! 

  I am sorry for the delay for posting. Working night shift combined with all that comes with learning a new job has been kicking my behind lately! I wish I could say all was fantastic, but there are a few things causing issues. I do love the environment, as well as the patient population. So many of my coworkers are absolutely incredible! One of my preceptors tends to disapear, and they have been amazing about checking on me and helping me out when things start going south with my patient, or if I have a question! I do wish a few things with orientation were different. Honestly, one situation I am put in a lot makes me want to quit. I'm planning on talking to my educator about it soon, in order to provide the best care possible for my patients, I need to learn a lot now. A large barrier to that should be able to be resolved, so heres hoping! 

  In other news, my sister has a doctor's appointment on Wednesday. We are hoping for good news, but she is definitely scared, as is the rest of the family. We would definitely appreciate prayers!

  My schedule is weird this month; I worked Saturday night, was off Sunday, and work the next three nights. The nice thing is that I was able to attend the singing at my church Sunday evening! The down side is staying on a night shift schedule on a day off. I am hoping that next month will be better. And, honestly, as much as I love how much calmer things tend to be on night shift, as well as my night shift peeps, I am hoping that I'll get to move to days. It will be a lot different, but I think I will feel healthier again with that move. 

  How have all of you been? Anything new in your life?

  Happy Stitching!

  Emmy

FINISH(ish)!!!!!!!

 Sorry, it’s not the best picture! The cross stitching is done, but there is much left to do for this one! Also, I’m sorry for the ridiculously early morning post. I have a night shift tonight, which means I’m switching to a night schedule at the moment. Which is sad. 

  Happy Stitching, and if you’re asleep, know that I’m jealous and living vicariously through you!

  Emmy

The Case of the Disappearing Ears

 

I made Nala so mad, that her ears fell off!!!! Now I gotta figure out where they went, and how to reattach them! (All I did was pet her, but she wasn’t ready to be “caught” yet.)

  Happy Stitching!

  Emmy

P.S. I did stitch yesterday, but forgot to take photos. I’ll try to take some tomorrow! 

Happy Independence Day

 I hope you are all having an amazing day!!!! After starting to dig the trench for my electric line (and quickly giving up due to the heat), followed by finishing my PALS online stuff, I do believe it’s time to stitch!!! I don’t have any exciting new pictures or memes, so how bout a few throwback pics?

(Freedom!!!!!)

  And of course, for those that do not like the loud booms, and probably drunk people yelling, heres Baby Daisy! She also has the same look I do whenever I hear of someone drunk driving or shooting off fireworks, or anyone dumb enough to hold a lit firework in their hand (spoiler alert: it never ends well.)

 

  Have a fun, safe, and happy 4th!

  ~ Emmy

Drama Club

   So, the three kitties were laying on the living room floor, while I lazed about in my insufficient sleep fog (seriously, basically every other day was spent switching from night to day or vice versa this past week. It was brutal!). Smokey was acting like he was going to fight Lady (they are siblings after all), and as I told them to behave, Lady just briefly glanced at me before she looked at him like, you want a piece of me?!? She then, very cautiously, as she felt my eyes upon her, lifted up her paw, gave him one last chance to back out, then slapped him in slow motion. To her credit, she did barely touch him, and her paws are super fluffy (!!!!😍). Smokey, ever adept at playing his part in the show, flung his head to the side as if the sheer force imparted broke his neck, then flung himself onto his side a small distance away, feigning unconsciousness. Meanwhile, Nala started to shout "Bravo!" as she quickly clapped her paws together, and then consulted her play bill to see when Act ll would begin (she needed popcorn). It was so convincing,  I had to hold back my paramedic and RN training to keep from performing a sternal rub on the distinguished actor. Seriously, a Shakespearean play does not have anywhere near the drama these kitties have!

 In other news, I took the NCLEX on the 15th last month, and passed!!! I was set to start as a GN in the ICU on the 12th, but they allowed me to wait to actually show up until the 16th. I am still on orientation, but officially a RN now!!!!

  In sadder news, Kirstie's barn kitten, Milky Way, tiny buddy of Slinky passed away. We do not know why, but a couple of other kittens from her litter had passed away over the past few months as well, according to the family that gave her to Kirst. Slinky is incredibly lonely, and has been taking chances coming close to the dogs to inform us that he requires attention. Fortunately, a couple of kiddos from Kirstie's church are planning on giving her a kitten on Wednesday! 

  I hope you all are well, and enjoy Independence Day!!! I'll try to do a stitching update soon!

  Happy Stitching!

  Emmy

The Close of an Era

   The furry brats are helping me cook supper as I type this. Normally, I would have already eaten, but I had to run errands after clinical, and then lay on the floor in despair for a considerable time after Smokey ran away from me. But, on to the main topic! Today was my last clinical. I have mixed emotions on it; there were portions that could have gotten better, like my normal preceptor not having to call in, but I still learned a lot. As someone that was overwhelmed by a clinical with one patient not so long ago, it was almost surreal that I was bored with the four that I took today. To be fair, they were very easy patients, med-wise, and only one was truly a challenging individual, likely due to fairly recent drug use. Still, its just nuts to me that this is all coming to a close. I have a job lined out in the medical ICU, and sometimes I see people from there, and they get so excited that I am close to graduating. But then I see my classmates or instructor and feel a pang, because they have become a huge, amazing, cherished part of my life, and I do not want to go our separate ways. They are some of the most supportive and encouraging people I have ever met! There is no way I could have made it through losing my grandparents and the job issues without their encouragement and presence. This all feels incredibly surreal. I am so excited about pinning next week, and the future, but I gotta admit- I wish the fun parts and time with my peeps wouldn't have flown by so quick! That's all for now, my food is done, and as much as I love youns, we both know I have a hard time turning down food! ;)

Confused and Busy

 Hello All! I have been staying a bit confused about things of late. I think running like a crazy woman with my hair on fire almost entirely from the start of Christmas break to now (there were approximately 2-3 days of blissful, relative rest in December) has left me incredibly discombobulated. Ah, apparently talking to myself awoke the Queen- my normally docile and silent cat just sent a despaired meow my way! Now she is sitting next to the laptop purring; she like to help me type, so I'll blame any typos or oddness (excessive oddness for me) on her! OK, scapegoat established, on to what I was saying. There are many instances, but yesterday I sometimes knew it was Monday and other times thought it was Tuesday, but regardless, I believed the following day to be Wednesday. I'm not entirely certain I should be allowed to drive, function as an adult, or take care of other people, but here we are! At least I have today off to catch up on QAing, schoolwork (it never ends! 😫😧😧- Her Royal Highness wants credit for the emojis), and maybe decluttering the place. I would love to get at least my room looking more like a somewhat organized human lives here instead of a displaced troll. My hopes and wishes are excessive, I know!

  Anyway, they are calling for Snowmageddon tommorow and over the next few days. Fortunately, Snowmageddon is the much friendlier cousin of Icemageddon, our usual winter visitor. Unfortunately, Icemaggedon is tentatively planning on visiting her cousin. Apparently the two have not visited in quite some time and Icemaggedon needs a new pair of shoes for some Unknown Winter Event looming in the future. Maybe Icemaggedon will get caught in traffic? One can always hope! 

  Asides from crazy and confused, things haven't been terrible. School is school. At this point, we all appear to be very apathetic regarding it. I'm feeling less certain about being a nurse. I know I'll learn a lot, and the hours are much, much better than being a full time medic, but I don't enjoy it as much most of the time. It doesn't help that I received my assignment for the preceptor-led 120 hours of clinical, which will also extend 6 months past graduation for me (I took a position in a new program that hospital is doing; I will be paid for the 120 hours of clinical, which they will count as part of my onboarding, in exchange for 6 months of work). I was hoping for, and requested ICU (their ER stinks), but I got a Step Down Unit instead. Step Down is somewhat better than normal med-surg (God bless all med-surg nurses, clinicals have taught me that it is not compatible with my will to live, especially if done long term), but it is definitely not ICU. I'm one of those weird people that does better if trained for the position I intend to work in long term- if I move to ICU later (which I deeply hope will happen), I'll have a hard time not reverting back to the Step Down stuff on the things that differ between the two. Inconvenient, but apparently my brain was not wired for my convenience. I do have a friend that is going to talk to her supervisor to see if there is any way I could transfer to the ICU after graduation. The folks on the floor I've been assigned to were nice in the summer when my group did clinical there, but it is not work that filled me with an abundance of joy. (There was still fun and cool people- patients and employees- to meet with, but still not the type of work I love.) 

  I've also been working on boarding practice and new-hire ride time for the ambulance service I got hired at. Boarding appears to be terrifying. We get some practice, but my group is huge, so not a lot, before we actually board. If you pass, yay, you get to work! If you fail, you either get sent through again, or lose your job. So, no pressure. Ride-times have been really good though, I like the two preceptors I have had so far. Boarding practice has been very informative, but I don't have much time left for practice, and definitely am not doing things their way yet. 5 1/2 years experience is great for a lot of things, but makes it hard to change some things. 

  I'm still QAing (from home!) at my original company. I'll eventually pick up a shift, but their new schedule (48 on, 96 off) with the 3 full time trucks makes it hard, especially with my limited schedule. They do page out last minute a lot, but I can't do last minute,  my entire month is planned beforehand right now. If I mess that up, its for school or family at this point. 

  Not much stitching here lately. I received some projects for Christmas that are in my Really Want to Stitch list, but no time just yet. I did finish the heart project. I can't remember if I shared it here or not, so here is a picture. Fortunately, it hid my mistakes well! 

  Other than that, not much else to report. The furry children are mad I don't have much time for them, but they are making do, and help me study quite a bit!

Smokey looks like he scared himself telling a ghost story!

(Not suppose to be there...)

  What have all of you been up to of late?

  Happy Stitching!

  Emmy

Gorgeous Sunrise

   

The sunset was gorgeous the other morning!!!!

  So, a quick update, I did get a job at the company my boss works for. They traditionally don’t hire people PRN, but she can be very persuasive, and God gave me a miracle. I did online training for it yesterday, and online training on the 27th for a program/job at the place where I do clinicals for school. I start two weeks of academy style training for the job. I think I’ll get a bit of free time in between the academy stuff and the start of school though!!!! 

I also finished this yesterday!!!!! My fingers ended up a bit bruised from forcing the needle through on the last stitch of each hole, but it was totally worth it!!!

 I hope that youns are all doing well!

  Happy Stitching!

  Emmy