Wordless Wednesday

Servicemen Sunday

I wanted to spread the word about this!

Mommy Snark has started a wonderful idea called Servicemen Sunday, a way of thanking and honoring those who are serving in our Military. This week Mommy Snark is featuring Paul, husband of Amanda at Combat Boots & Diamond Rings. Be sure to check them out!

If you would like to honor a Serviceman (or Servicewoman!) go to Mommy Snark's blog and let her know about them!

Servicemen Sunday: Paul

Hope everyone is enjoying their Sunday!

question for the MilSpouse RN's!

Question:

Do you know if military hospitals hire new grad RN's or do they prefer someone with experience? I'm thinking about applying to a hospital at our first duty station but I wonder if I should even bother? Thankfully the area also has a lot of civilian hospitals so I can always try that, too.

Premier Jewelry!

Although it was at our apartment, my roommate hosted a Premier Jewelry party. It was a lot of fun! I didn't really buy a whole lot: -

*toggle bracelet that has black and silver beads and small metal chains...sounds weird but it's reeeeeally cute and pretty! that was $41.

* a bangle watch at 1/2 price ($34.50). I'm not a watch person unless I'm at work but this one is really nice and I liked the way it looked on my wrist!

* a free necklace that otherwise would have been $39! It kind of has a purple tint to it but also other colors and it seriously looks good with any color you wear. I don't know how to really describe it so when my order comes in in about a week I'll post pictures!

Because people bought stuff and my roommate was the host, she got $500-worth of FREE jewelry. And this stuff is NICE jewelry, too. This made me want to host a party on my own so I'm going to do that on April 2nd :) Tina had a decent turn out, there were 10 of us!

I also normally don't have people over. I was thinking of doing some finger foods. At this party we had chips & dips (queso, spinach & artichoke and a taco dip) along with salsa. We made swedish meatballs in the crockpot (but just the meatballs, no noodles) with Jack Daniel's BBQ sauce and they were deeeelish. For "dessert" we had cheesecake brownies and for beverages we had lottttts of wine and of course bottle water. I kind of want to stay away from that stuff and do something a little different. I was thinking chips 'n homemade guacamole dip and maybe a homemade black bean/corn/tomato salsa but I don't know what else! So I ask you, what are your favorite finger foods for a small little get-together party? I realize this isn't until April but I'm obsessive so this will constantly be on my mind until then (thankfully I'm not compulsive! lol)

I also can't wait for my Army charm bracelet to come in the mail from Melissa's Marvels :) I ordered it with the "Army Wife," yellow ribbon, a dog tag with a heart cut out, star, pink flip flop & combat boot charms and request to do green and pink beaded accents. I'll post pictures of that too when I receive it :)

Milspouse Friday Fill in!

Join in at Wife of a Sailor's blog!

1. Since most of the country has had nasty weather, what has your weather been like this week?

It started off with a really bad ice storm that covered the streets and cars and everything (thank goodness I park in a garage!)...some even lost power, but I was thankful enough that I didn't. The terrible weather stopped two nights ago and yesterday was a nice, sunny (but cold) day and today seems like it will be the same. Currently it's 18F (feels like 5F) and we'll have a high of 31F today.

2. What is/are your best money saving tip(s)?

Save coupons and buy things when they're on sale!

3. What is your favorite vehicle you have ever owned?

I'm still driving my "first car" which is a 2000 Honda Civic EX. Can't really say much. It's reliable and pretty decent in the snow, though!

4. What is a question you would like to see asked in a future fill-in?

Favorite recipe!

5. Fill in the blank. You might be a Milspouse if...

...you have lived on your own and by yourself more after you're married than before you were married, you think being 6 months away from your husband "isn't bad" and you think being a "dependent" is anything but!

I had to work last night, 3-11p. It's always hard to go back to work when you've had like a week off! Overall it was a decent evening. I ended up sitting the last 4 hours of my shift. Why is it that they have tiny little girls like me sit with the DT'ers? Overall the patient wasn't too bad - just a few anger episodes but thankfully he didn't get combative.

Some people that I work with at times I just don't like. One of the girls I graduated with (and I don't like her, at all, for various reasons) was sitting with the patient I sat with last night. At around 6:30pm she came up to me and said "umm, are one of you coming to relieve me at 7?" and I told her I was, then she told me "k, because I normally clock out right at 7." I told her I would be in there as soon as I could.

I started 7pm vitals because I didn't want the other nursing assistant to be on the floor by himself doing them. I got through half of one side and then hastily put the vitals in the computer. It was close to 7, and this girl pops her head out and asks,

"Melissa, can you come in now?"

"I will be there in a minute, I am putting in vitals and I only have a three more to do." (I admit, I was kind of bitchy about it haha)

"Okay well I don't want to get penalized or anything...."

"I am almost done, you can wait another minute, and I'll be there as soon as I can."

I got in, she apologized for trying not to "rush" me but she didn't want to get penalized. She told me that if you don't stay until 7:25pm, you will get penalized because you only have 5 minutes before and after to clock in/out. I told her technically by right, you are supposed to stay here until 7:25pm to cover for the oncoming shift. She told me "well my manager doesn't enforce that rule." Bullshit.

This is the same girl who told my roommate, "I can't wait to be a nurse so that I don't have to clean people up or do this shit anymore."

Another nurse, who was an LPN turned RN, kind of rubs me the wrong way, too. She's just not that nice. And what really pissed me off was around 6:45pm, a bed alarm was going off, so there was a patient somewhere trying to climb out of bed. I was talking to my roommate and we went to go investigate when we heard the alarm. This RN was standing right outside of the room on her COW (computer of wheels) and said "Oh she's probably just trying to get out of bed again" while Candice & I rush in there. Patient was already up and around, thankfully not on the floor and didn't hurt herself in any way. What ever happened to SAFETY being a priority (considering the fact that physiological needs are met)? Ugh.

I have to go back to work today, but thankfully only 3-7pm. I'm just not looking forward to driving! The roads were terrible on my way home last night - very slick, and for awhile I couldn't see shit because the moment rain hit my windshield, it froze.

Now I'm looking outside my window and it's a total white-out!!

Vent.

After having to wait about 2 weeks for my background check, I got a letter from the Texas Board of Nursing yesterday stating that the quality of my fingerprints were too low to be used. Wtf! I submitted *2* copies of fingerprints, too. So now I have to go back and get them done again, send them in and wait...again. This is prolonging me receiving my ATT. I wish I could just do electronic prints (because everyone does that now) but since I'm out of state I have to do the traditional ink fingerprints. Needless to say, I'm pretty annoyed about it.

Changing the subject to something totally different...is our carpet situation. I've lived in this apartment for almost 2 years. When I moved in, my roommate Tina had a cat named Jack and my other roommate Candice recently got a kitten named Milo. Both cats were very sweet. Candice paid money to have Milo declawed; however, Jack still had all of his claws. Jack started being very bad and started tearing up our carpet. The carpet is shredded (and coming up off the floor) by the entrance of our apartment door, entrance of our kitchen, by our bathroom door and by Tina's door. There's some wear 'n tear by my door and Candice's door. Then Jack got really bad - he started pooping and peeing all over the place. In one week, he pooped 4 times and peed on one of our couches once. I know he peed again one day because I could smell it, but we couldn't locate the area where it was coming from (probably was underneath one of the couches or something). Milo then started to pick up on it. The cats peed on both of my roommates' clothes a few times...thankfully I was always smart enough to keep my door closed so I never had to deal with that problem.

Tina works at a hospital about 40 minutes away from here, and when she works she just stays at her parents' house because they live closer to her work. Therefore, sometimes Tina would be gone for an entire week and ask us to take care of Jack and make sure he is fed and everything. That would also leave Candice & I to come home to the shit and piss and awful smells and leave US to clean up after him. It eventually got so bad that we gave Tina a reality check, and also told her that if she doesn't have time to take care of a cat, she shouldn't have one. Basically, we told her Jack had to go. We tried everything to get him to stop pooping & peeing but it didn't work, and our carpet is already destroyed. We've even got wear 'n tear on our doors because the cat would keep scratching them.

Eventually we got rid of both cats. Jack went to a shelter because we couldn't find anyone to take him, and Milo went to Candice's parents' house.

Got all that? lol good. The next step is to have someone look at our carpet to estimate the COST OF REPLACING IT. This carpet was brand new when my roommates moved in and they lived here for a year before I moved in. The carpet will definitely have to be replaced. Tina said she was going to have someone look at the carpet to see how much WE owe.

Excuse me, WE?

I'm estimating probably $1000-$1500 to replace it, but then again I know nothing about carpet lol. Anyway, I really do not think Candice & I should have to pay for this carpet. Candice paid a little extra money to have her cat declawed so that it wouldn't add to the problem and I was smart enough to not get a cat of my own lol. We consistently reminded Tina of the damage in the carpet and she just blew it off and said "oh it's fine." And now it's really bad and it's going to be really expensive and she's expecting us to pay for it.

I'm sorry, maybe it's just me, but I don't think that's fair. It was her cat and her fault for letting it get so bad.

She's got a grown-up RN job now. Candice is also an RN, but she agrees that we shouldn't have to pay, either. I'm still making TECH pay. That's $11.53/hr, + shift differential because I work primarily evenings. I probably won't even have my job much longer because my hospital's policy is once you're an RN, you can't work as a tech anymore...not to mention that I still have a WEDDING to pay for. Tina is getting married too, but her wedding won't be until summer of 2012, so she still has awhile. Mine is THIS MAY.

I don't know, am I being selfish about it?

On another side note, it's a nice (sarcasm) wintery mix here in Ohio. Missouri is also supposed to get part of the storm and Eddie told me last night that he was getting a snow day today. My college cancelled classes today. I wish healthcare workers could get snow days lol.