Sunshine Award!

I was tagged in The Sunshine Award by Mrs. Y at Miles Behind Me :)

Favorite color: purple

Favorite animal: I love all animals! But I would have to say pandas. How Asian of me haha.

Favorite number: I don't really have a favorite number...but if I had to choose, I would say 8.

Favorite non-alcoholic drink: a soy hazelnut latte from Starbucks.

Facebook or Twitter: both! Come follow me on Twitter @wh0aitsmel :)

My passion: nursing

Getting or giving presents: definitely giving. 'Tis better to give than to receive. I actually sometimes feel awkward opening gifts in front of people!

Favorite pattern: paisley

Favorite day of the week: Saturday

Favorite flower: calla lilies.

I tag:

Nicole @ Flip Flops and Combat Boots

Lauren @ Killer Words From A Queen

Krista @ Life Is The Messy Bits

Kathryn @ My Life As A Reserve Army Wife

My brother is coming to visit me today! He'll be here for about 12 days and my manager gave me the entire time off which I was pleasantly surprised by! There isn't much to do around here, but I plan on taking him to San Antonio and Houston and maybe Dallas because I have never been there. Oh, and we'll probably eat out A LOT lol

what's your song?

Link up with Goodnight Moon.

Dream - Priscilla Ahn

Another Grey's Anatomy song.

Of course I had to pick it because I'm still going through my marathon :)

There is another show that I have been interested in, called The Colony, which is on Netflix. It's a controlled experiment to see if people with different sets of skills (trauma RN, an ex-convict, a handyman, an MD, an engineer, a physical fitness instructor, etc) can survive in a post-apocalyptic environment. There are no zombies, of course lol. It's very interesting and I would have never known about it if one of my coworkers hadn't said anything. I'm an end-of-days enthusiast lol, but I don't believe the world is going to end on 12.21.2012.

I'm back at work and couldn't be happier! I had a good week last week. I'm kind of nervous about going back tonight, though, because everyone has been saying how rough it has been this week :/

Yesterday morning I went to Rudy's to get breakfast tacos with some coworkers :) Actually, they were more like burritos haha. You can get your typical eggs, sausage, potatoes & cheese, or you could also put in their BBQ meats. I got eggs and their spicy chopped. It was greasy and I probably ate my day's worth of calories in that one meal but it was soooooooo good. I had a really fun time and I'm excited for more of these get-togethers in the future. There were a lot of L&D nurses + my favorite supervisor and some of my favorite nurses from my floor came as well. The L&D nurses also like to go to Las Margaritas (located by East Gate on Fort Hood St) after work at 0730 for margaritas! They also have a full breakfast menu with breakfast tacos and migas. I'm really hoping I can go to this. Of course nurses from my floor and ICU will be attending, as well.

Hubby is doing well in the sandbox. Although we don't get to talk everyday, we've Skyped a few times already. On days we can't talk, we'll send Facebook messages to each other. I sent his care package a few days ago and I'm excited for him to receive it!

what's your song? week 45!

Be sure to link up with Goodnight Moon!

You told me time never waits, well that's okay because I don't wait for time ♥

I love Jack Johnson. All of his songs just make me so calm and happy and want to kick back and relax :)

On a side note, I went to our monthly FRG meeting yesterday because I didn't have to work. I felt sooooo out of place there. The FRG leader is nice and approachable, but no one else is, I feel. There were a total of 6 of us at the meeting, not including the kids. I talked to one wife for a brief moment and when I told her my husband just went, she just kind of gave me this look and stopped talking to me. The rear D 1st sergeant briefed us on what is going on and approximate coming home dates, and what to expect when the soldiers return and when they will be able to take their block leave. I know my hubby just left but I'm so excited for him to come back lol. It sucks being by yourself :(

The meeting lasted a whole 20-25 minutes, if that. I grabbed a bite to eat and then just left, because I was literally just sitting there. Two wives (one of them I spoke to earlier) were sitting in front of me making small talk and then the rear D 1st sergeant's wife was sitting behind me with her hubby talking. The FRG leader was speaking with the commander's wife on the other side of the room...so after sitting there for a few moments, I just got up and left. It was way too awkward.

I'm going back to work tonight after having nearly 2 weeks off. It should be interesting. I'm actually preparing myself to be on-call, though, since last time I had a large break in between working I was put on-call. We'll see, though.

52 Reasons!

My project is completed :) it took me 2 days and it helped keep me busy - but now I need something else haha.

The cards were on two o-rings, but because the o-rings are so big, two looked ridiculous so I just kept it on one. I can't wait to send this to hubby :)

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Feeling funky.

Hubs is gone. I really shouldn't be complaining because this deployment is ridiculously short and he may come back even sooner than originally planned. He also left later than we originally planned. But it doesn't matter if they're gone for a few days, a few months or a year, if you miss someone, you miss them, and that hurts. I don't need anyone to pull the "oh a few months? that's NOTHING. try a whole year" card or any other snarky comments. What makes this hard for me, though, is that I do not have any friends or family here. I don't have the option to move back home...unless I want to quit my job.

I'm still off work, too. Since my manager was so kind to just take me off the schedule I ended up with nearly 2 weeks off. The break is really nice, especially since after awhile I was doing this "on, off, on off" business instead of having my three nights on and four-six days off. It was really burning me out.

But now I'm so bored! I want to go back to work lol. Granted, there are things I could be doing, and should be doing, like tidying up this apartment because hubs left is a total mess, but I've pretty much been just a couch potato lately.

I started doing pilates. I'm determined to tone and sculpt my body because it's starting to get a little flabby. I really like it and I've just been searching for free videos on You Tube to work out to. I wish Fort Hood had free pilates classes, though. I would so go to them!

I also already started working on hubs' care package. I ordered the shipping materials and they won't be here for another 7-10 days, but I went to Hobby Lobby and bought the stuff to decorate it with. I'm also doing this little project:

http://papervinenz.blogspot.com/2012/01/52-reasons-i-love-you-cards-tutorial.html

There are so many variations. Mine isn't as pretty because I don't have a fancy printer or anything, so I'm just using a deck of red cards and writing my 52 reasons on pink sticky notes and cutting them down to size. I bought little pink & red faux gemstones to stick on the front and I also bought a little mini heart paper cut-out thing so I'll be decorating the pages with hearts. I bought Valentine's Day-themed scrapbooking paper to decorate the inside of the care package along with some other stuff. I haven't bought any contents to go inside yet, but I already have ideas. I also want to attempt to ship some cookies and bake some cakes in a jar :)

Got a call from a friend today, same guy who was our best man at our wedding. It was nice to catch up. He'll be deploying soon, too. And when he comes back, him, hubs, myself, and whoever else are fucking going to Vegas. No if's, and's, or but's this time haha.

5QF!

Be sure to link up at My Little Life!

1. What have you done recently that you are proud of?
I haven't really done much lol...maybe doing somewhat okay when I sent my husband off? He said I actually held up really well. I think that made it easier on him.

2. What is your favorite way to work out? Or if you don't work out, what are you wanting to try?
I don't work out like I should. In college, my roommates had the whole P90X system. I really liked the ab ripper X. Of course now that I'm on my own, I don't have it anymore. I thought about purchasing P90X for myself or maybe getting into pilates. I also thought about getting into a spin class but honestly that seems kind of boring :/

3. If you knew your best friend was cheating on their spouse, would you tell?
I don't know, this is kind of hard...I would probably keep my nose out of it, tbh.

4. If you could afford a live-in maid or nanny, would you?
Hmm I don't know about a "live-in" one but perhaps a "live-out" one :)

5. Do you stress out about birthdays (specifically the age) or do you enjoy them?
I don't stress out about them, but I also don't have any kiddos at the moment.

Bonus: Lights on or off?
I like soft lighting. Or some candle lighting ;)

what's YOUR song? week 44!

Gosh it has been FOREVER since I have done one of these! Be sure to link up at Goodnight Moon!

This week is This Time Of Year by Blaire Reinhard. This is such a gorgeous song and it was featured on Dance Moms.

peds nurse? maybe...

For those who do not know, I work on a progressive care unit. That's basically like an intensive care step down unit. These patients are not stable enough to go to a regular medical-surgical floor, but not critical enough to go to the ICU. Not everyone progresses through these "levels." Some go straight to ICU and are discharged (though most of the time they are transferred to my unit); some come straight to my unit and are discharged...sometimes a med-surg patient will go straight to the ICU. My floor deals with a lot of chest pain/heart attack patients in addition to congestive heart failure and patients with arrhythmias. We also get a lot of patients with respiratory distress, pneumonia, COPD, asthma exacerbation, renal failure, DKA, dehydration, electrolyte imbalances...you name it. The experience is invaluable.

Our crazy director (who no longer works with us) decided to start admitting pediatric patients to our unit. The unit isn't even meant for pediatric patients - it is not a locked unit and there is no play room for the kids to go to. The "designated" pediatric rooms have Wii's in them and we have things like coloring books and some toys, but that's about it. At first I thought a mixed pediatric/adult floor would be VERY unsafe, but it turns out those units are more common than I thought.

Nurses had the option to become a pedi nurse. We still have the option, but our manager made a point that they are making sure all new nurses that they hire now have at least some pediatric experience. As I think about my career, I think about how valuable this must be. What if I end up on another mixed unit in the future? What if I end up in an ER that takes kiddos in the future? I hated peds in nursing school - not because I hate kids. I like kids, I just feel so awkward around them. Peds was just boring in nursing school because we couldn't really do much. And after that I didn't really have an interest. I sort of through all of my peds knowledge out the window after I passed my NCLEX. Now I'm regretting it.

Anyway, I think I want to start taking peds patients. It would be a good resume builder and it would make me a better nurse, I think. I bought this book to review:



And so far I really like it! Schaum's has other guides for those interested. It isn't super in-depth; more like an outline, but still has a lot of valuable information. And I'm surprised at how much all of this stuff is coming back to me after a simple review!

One of the nurses I work with told me I won't ever have to worry about taking an unstable pediatric patient. There is a children's hospital about 25 minutes away where all of the unstable pediatric patients go. Most of the kids that come to my unit are admitted for dehydration, breathing problems (such as asthma exacerbation, bronchiolitis and RSV, especially now being RSV season), appys/tonsilectomies, cellulitis and for teenagers, UTIs and pyelonephritis. One thing I find really fascinating about peds are all of the congenital heart defects, but unfortunately we do not take those kinds of patients on my floor. Maybe some day.

5QF!

Be sure to link up at My Little Life!

Questions:

1. Do you swim in the winter? Absolutely not haha. I don't even really swim all that much in the summer, either.

2. Do you love or hate winter? Hate it...I love that "first snowfall" for a few days and afterwards I want to be done with it. I hate snow, I hate how bad the salt is for your car, I hate having salt stains on my jeans/boots, I hate scraping ice off of my car, you have to drive extra caution (and slower) when the roads are crappy which is most of the time...the list goes on and on haha.

3. Do you put makeup/actual clothes on when you know you're going to be home all day with just family? If I'm not going anywhere (literally staying in the house day), I will not put on makeup and I'll just stay in sweat pants/t-shirt. If I'm going somewhere then yes I will put on makeup, but I usually stick with eyeliner, mascara and spot conceal. If I'm going somewhere with hubby (or it hubby is coming along) then I will put forth more effort lol.

4. How old were you when you had your first alcoholic beverage? 16 or 17...and I think it was a Mike's Hard Lemonade or something like that lol.

5. How many ill calls in a 12-month period do you think are acceptable? Unless it is something that will cause you to be out for awhile (emergency/major surgery, job injury that requires rehab/etc [we had a nurse who was out for 3 months because she fell and injured her knee!], FMLA...) I would say maybe 7 days at most.

D-day

Deployment has been up in the air since November. We basically knew that my husband was going to go, and he had orders to prove it, but we just didn't know when. We were supposed to find out last week but didn't, then hubs told me if they didn't ship him out by this week he wouldn't get to go at all because there really wouldn't be a point since this deployment is already much shorter than your average one.

Yesterday we found out he will be leaving very soon, and of course per OPSEC I'm not going to give out any exact dates or anything. He still doesn't have an exact date, but it's narrowed down and the shitty thing is, I have to work on all of those dates so I'm crossing my fingers and hoping someone can pick up for me or switch with me so I can work for them later in the week or something. If not, I'm hoping either my manager can pull some strings OR I can take a couple of days of FMLA since the date is so close. Only time will tell, but I need to know ASAP, dammit!

The Milspouse Quiz

The MilSpouse Quiz

1. How did you and your spouse meet? Through a mutual friend. This girl was in ROTC with hubby and one year we got a townhouse along with some other girls. My hubby (and his other ROTC buddies) just so happened to be our neighbors :)

2. How old were you when you two met? I was 19, going on 20. He was 19.

3. How long have you been together? 4 years.

4. Where are you and your spouse originally from? Ohio.

5. How did you feel about your spouse joining the military? I was so proud of him. I knew our relationship in college was serious, though, and all of the talks of deployment and things really scared the crap out of me.

6. Where did your spouse go to Basic Training? He didn't go to basic training...instead he went to BOLC, which stands for "basic officer's leadership course." Kind of like basic for officers, but very different from basic training.

7. Has your spouse ever been deployed? No, but he will be deploying very, very soon!

8. Ever been to his promotion ceremony? He hasn't been promoted yet. He should be making 1LT later this year. I went to his commissioning ceremony and his MPBOLC graduation ceremony, though :)

9. How long have you been a military wife? 8 months.

10. Did you marry him before or after he joined? After. The military has been a part of our entire relationship, even though in the beginning it was just ROTC stuff.

11. How did your husband propose? We first went for sushi at our favorite sushi joint in Fairlawn, OH, then we went for a walk along the towpath in his hometown because it was really nice outside that day. As we were walking for awhile and talking, he stopped, kissed me, and got on his knee :)

12. Where did you get married? Wadsworth, OH.

13. How old were you two when you got married? 23.

14. Did he wear his uniform on his wedding day? No he didn't. He wore a snazzy all-white tux, tho :)

15. Where are you and your spouse currently stationed? Fort Hood, Texas. So far I really like it.

16. Do you live on base? Nope. About 5 minutes from the main gate :)

17. How long were you married when you had to go through your first separation? For months lol

18. What is your favorite base so far? I have only been to Fort Leonard Wood (which I hated) and Fort Hood, so I'm going to go with Fort Hood.

19. Do you think your spouse looks good in his uniform? Oh absolutely ;)

20. Do you think military life is more advanced than civilian life? This question is dumb. So I'm ignoring it.

21. Do you like the benefits you receive as a military dependent? Indeed.

22. Do you have a lot of military wife friends? Not really. I wish I knew more spouses around here, but at the same time sometimes the spouses can be really nerve-wrecking, always all up in your business...oh, and those "rank-wearing wives." UGH!

23. What is the hardest part of the military life? Obviously the separation. Your SO going into dangerous territory. Military life definitely isn't for everyone.

24. Do you own military wife stuff? Of course :)

25. Do you support your spouse as a member of the military? 110%.

I can't believe it is 2012 already! It seems like 2011 flew by...

I'm anxious to see what 2012 will bring, even though my hubby will be gone for half of it. And speaking of that, D-day is quickly approaching but sadly, I don't know when! Hubby doesn't even know the exact date, but every time we talk about it the date becomes closer and closer.

I'm trying to maintain a sense of normalcy. Hubby said the hardest thing about this deployment will be me, because he knows I will miss him terribly and will be constantly worrying about him. How can I not, though? Especially with something he told me that happened recently. I guess that is something he cannot understand.

I made a vow to not complain to him about anything while he is deployed. Sure, I will miss him like crazy and wish he was here with me, but that's the extent of it. The last thing he needs to hear is how is how depressed his wife is, locking herself up in the apartment, lying around feeling sorry for herself. I'll probably do a lot of sitting and waiting because aside from work, it's not like I really have friends here and family is over a thousand miles away. If there is one thing I learned about military wife living, it's to never complain to your deployed spouse about anything. That will cloud his judgement, his thinking. He needs to focus on the mission at hand. So I guess I'll vent through blogging. And conversing with the other spouses at work. I swear like 90% of the nurses where I work are all military, whether prior service themselves or military dependents.

Hubs got his smallpox vaccination along with typhoid and anthrax and his TB test this past week. I have been freaking out over the smallpox lol...it's beginning to "look like" smallpox and the other night we saw a huge bubble underneath the dressing, which means it's probably starting to pus over. Can't wait to see it later today because I'm the one who redresses it...I don't trust him putting that bandage over it himself. This is a man who will touch raw meat without washing his hands and then touch other stuff, if you know what I mean (and then I freak out! I'm a germaphobe! But I work in a hospital, so that's okay!) At least I got disposable gloves I can wear hahaha.

The other night hubs and I saw The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. It's a mystery/thriller, basically about how this guy tries to solve a a mystery of a girl who disappeared 40 years ago and was thought to be murdered as well. The beginning was kind of slow but the movie had my attention the entire time. There was a pretty disturbing rape scene, too. If that stuff bothers you, I would reconsider seeing this movie. I could hear one girl sobbing behind me after that scene was over :(

When we walked out, we saw this little gem:

Last time I checked, I wasn't in Cleveland or Akron anymore haha.