This week has been rough but fun! I'm 31 weeks and 5 days today! I've recently been chastised for not posting belly pics...here is one from 29 weeks!
Steve and I sorted through every nook and cranny of our home and had a huge yard sale! We made almost $300! We have yet to clean up all the aftermath, but I did take all the clothes to donate Monday, and his sister Laura came over and "shopped" this afternoon. I have the best husband ON EARTH. He sorted everything, priced most of it, and ran the yard sale Saturday while I worked. I helped price, clean, and set up items but he did the majority of the work. I'm so thankful to have such a wonderful man!
Sunday, we missed church so we could clean the house for my baby shower. My lovely sister in law Rachael and her amazingly talented mom gave me a beautiful shower. Steve and I got the house in order, then he weeded the garden (!!!!!) and they arrived around 1 pm to set up. It was beautiful, and my house was so crowded! I barely got to talk to anyone, but we received so many amazing gifts for Avery! It was so wonderful to see so many of my friends and family. I can't believe I am having another baby shower on the 28th! I'm so blessed!
Monday I cleaned and sorted and worked on my graduate portfolio. I turned in 2 sections instead of only 1! I was so proud that I finally got it done!
Tuesday I spent the day in TNCC at Arkansas Children's Hospital. TNCC is a class for ER and ICU nurses about taking good care of trauma patients. It was so interesting, but I don't sit for 9 hours very well! It was so hard to stay still and stay awake! I go back and learn more, and then test, on Tuesday. It will be fun! I'm not too excited to be tied onto a backboard...but we have to practice on someone and she said we would practice on each other!
Today was my LAST FIRST day of school. I had class from 9-4, so I thought, but it started at 10 and was in a different room than I thought. I got to go by and see a sweet friend from interventional radiology and then stopped by my advisors office to go over my graduate portfolio. Class started at 10 am, and so many amazing things happened. I knew for sure that I can do this, I will graduate, and the Lord loves me just by all that happened in the first few minutes of class. First thing, our instructor announced the syllabus online was wrong and she had completely revised it. This could have been very good or very bad. I'm choosing to think it is very good. She cut our write ups from 10 to 5, cut out our scholarly paper completely, changed our web assignment to a presentation (which I already knew about and it's my turn to give a power point presentation rather than a poster), and cut it from 4 tests to 3 tests. The only part that scares me is now we have only 4 hours in a window of time to take our tests, and they will all be on Wednesdays. Since I have every minute of my life planned out until September 23, and my work schedule until October 16, this disheartened me because it will take a lot of work to arrange that time to take the tests. The best news was that if we write an article for publication, it will substitute for either one test or all 5 write ups (at my instructors discretion). I'm starting on my article tonight!!! If she would accept it as my last test (more time with Avery Grace) or my write ups, I would have more time to study and do clinical instead of homework! I'm so excited! Unfortunately I still have to do 270 clinical hours, but she can't cut that because of state and national regulations. She let us leave at 1130 and I had a lovely lunch with Steve, called pediatricians, dropped off scrubs at a consignment shop, met with Steve's sister Laura, then came home and took a glorious shower! I was so hot from moving around campus today!
So the school countdown is as follows:
3 tests
1 presentation (September 29)
270 hours
5 write ups
Graduate portfolio (Due September 21)
Portfolio defense (October 5)
Article to submit for publication (which will kill one test or 5 write ups)
Class/teacher evals
Site Visit (September 23)
Goals (due with first write up)
Weekly log (every patient seen with a few tidbits of information)
All this in the next 8 weeks, or if Avery listens to her mommy, 9 weeks. If she comes a week late, I have 12 weeks of paid leave and will be off until 2011! If I don't get all my hours done, I'll have to go back as soon as I can before December and work out more time.
The best news....my mom is quitting her job. She has been very unhappy there, and now will be able to keep Avery for me if I have to go back to school after she is born (if I don't get the hours done) so I can graduate! Plus she won't have to go to day care! I can't hardly wait for my mom to keep our sweet little girl! Please pray for my mom and dad as they adjust their finances and change around some of their bills so my mom can stay home!
Please continue to pray for us. I have a very stressful time coming with all of the demands of school (though they are less than I thought!) and I hope my body and baby cooperate, because I am so close to graduation! If I can stay healthy and able to work, I know it will all work out. If anything unforseen happens, like bedrest, etc, I know God will take care of it, but I know I will struggle with the details. Please pray specifically that the times my teacher sets for testing work with my packed schedule. I asked her about it and her answer was, "if you are at work or clinical just take the test on your lunch break." I'm a very stressed test taker, so trying to take a test on my 30 minute lunch break will probably put me into labor! Please pray for Steve, I know living with me right now is NOT easy! I'm a big stressed out hormonal woman!
I'm excited for this weekend. Laura, my sweet sister in law, is moving into my old dorm at ASU on Saturday, and since I can't do any homework that day (since I won't have seen a patient yet), I'm riding up with her to help! I can't wait to buy Avery an ASU outfit!
Love,
Jen
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