Christmas party '06!

Hey all!
So my Christmas party was last night, and loads of fun! Mum outdid herself, and made an amazing meal for everyone! I did my best to assist, but i mostly cleaned and set-up. Ryan, Dani Hampton, Andrea and Stacey all came early to help prepare, and pretty soon it was time to eat! Well, the food was all laid out, and everyone was salivating and wanted to eat, but my designated grace-sayer was delayed! So Shandell blessed the food and we dug in! I loved it because we just all crammed around my giant dining room table, around 11 of us! Most people actually came a little later, and we kept mum's awesome food warm in chafing dishes. We tried to watch the Flames game, but grew discouraged at San Jose's ability to trounce us. We tried playing Cranium, but it was soon abandoned in favor of socialization, which is really what the priority is of the party. I ran around like crazy, passing out presents and refilling drinks and melting chocolate for the gloriousness that was the chocolate fountain!! Bernard Calebeaut chocolate melts wonderfully! I never get to talk to as many people as i'd like to, and i'm thankful for those friends of mine who can entertain themselves and others.

All in all, a great party! Special thanks to Shandell, Sharon, Barbara and Ryan for sticking around after to help clean up (though i think this was motivated by the vast amounts of melting chocolate) and thanks to Stacey for helping me get ready before the party! Pictures will come later!

Dani and Carmen

Received some rough news this week. Stuff's happening to someone close to my heart, but far geographically...thus i feel pretty helpless. I'm not dumb enough to broadcast to the world what's going on, but many of you reading this will likely know to what i'm referring.

Oh, here's a nice picture i have from 2 summer's ago. My parents graciously took me and some friends camping in the trailer, then left us there overnight...YUHA!!! It was Dani and Carmen's first time in the Rocky Mountains, and even though it snowed (in May), i'd like to think they had a really good time!

Quasi-disappointing week

This week has been full of quasi-disappointments. But i define quasi-disappointments as things that happen that may seem disappointing, but that i choose to not let them bring me down in the slightest, because i know the big picture.

Q.D. #1: My Pediatrics exam. I loved pediatrics. I loved every minute in that big, beautiful hospital with my adorable patients and awesome group and terrific instructor! I'm pretty sure i found my calling. My last patient's mother asked me what kind of nurse i want to be, and i told her how i considered ICU and OR and what-have-you. She said "Hayley, you'll be a great nurse no matter where you work. But you need to stay in pediatrics. You fit here. You're so good with kids. Your patients are going to hate you, because you ask them to do things they don't want to do (like get up and move around after surgery to prevent pneumonia and DVT's), but you ask them so nicely, with the best intentions and will possible, that they wouldn't dare dissapoint you." My patients loved me. Their parents love me. it was a self-esteem boosting time, and i can honestly imagine me doing it and loving it.

Anywho, so there's how i felt about pediatrics. The practicum part is double weighted, it's like taking two courses, and it's recently changed to "Pass/Fail" instead of an actual GPA. So i "Passed", and got a really nice and uplifting evaluation from my instructor. The Theory portion is another course, and i LOVED the lectures. i STAYED AWAKE! Since i only had this one exam this semester, i studied EXTRA HARD for it. I knew my stuff. I studied Cystic Fibrosis, Asthma, Seizures, Glumerulonephritis, Acute Renal Failure, Conjestive Heart Failure, SIDS, Epiglottitis, Croup, everything! I was ridiculously confident going into this exam. And it was a terrible exam. the short answer was awful, "List 5 trends in Child Health and the importance of each", very vague and ridiculously specific questions that none of us expected to know. I felt like i had no opportunity to show her how much i knew or how hard i studied...i felt like i had studied for the wrong course! GRRRRR!!

Yet, i'm only quasi-dissapointed. It was one test. I know my stuff. I know where i want to practice. I did great in clinical. I can't wait to go back. What's one test? Who cares? I eeked out with an 80% in the course, but the experience and the knowledge i gained doesn't reflect that.

Q.D.#2: At my work Christmas party, the guy i've been interested in brought his new girlfriend. Yet i didn't have too much hope for it in the first place, and workplace relationships are messy. Again, quasi-dissapointed. And my night ended VERY well, though you'll have to ask me about it...

Q.D. #3: i got my paycheque yesterday... $7.02 ???? i got paid $1.75/hour for 4 hours...that's my shift PREMIUM, not my actual wage!! That won't even pay for parking!! ugh. I hope it's just a glitch, but i need to go fix that. But the bigger picture is, i'm not living on my own, and really, one non-existent paycheque is not going to bankrupt me. I'm thankful for that. Though now you're all getting macaroni collages for Christmas.

Overall, life here in Calgary is looking bright! people are coming home, or coming back to Calgary, and things are gearing up for my Christmas party! Exams are over, work is INCREDIBLY busy, and the health-care system is feeling the crunch. But outside of FMC, life is good!
Time to go brave the malls with Shandell!

Wake me up when Semester Ends

So i've been getting that vibe again...everyone's just pushing hard until the end of the semester. In the nursing world, this seems to end earlier than the rest of campus...I just have one exam left next monday, then some R&R for a month! Time to practice all that "self-care" we preach about. But as a gesture of empathy for my fellow university toilers, i've chosen to re-release "Wake me up when Semester Ends." Just sing it along in your head, to the Greenday song.

" Childrens have come and passed -
pediatrics was a blast! but
wake me up when semester ends

Tired, I’d come to class,
can’t believe I even passed,
wake me up when semester ends

Pain in my brain again
freezing in our cars,
clenching my jaw again,
the van is stuck in park...
some just see them as pests,
but pediatrics is the best!
wake me up when semester ends

Childrens has come and passed
why can't weekends ever last?
wake me up when semester ends

Turn on call bells again,
making up that nursing plan,
wake me up when semester ends

one exam left to pass,
overall my favorite class! still
wake me up when semester ends
wake me up when semester ends
wake me up when semester ends"

Good luck Everyone!

Whiteout and White Knuckled to Edmonsuck

So i must say, so far this week has been awesome! Well the magic began on Saturday night, at Cyler's Christmas party! Lots of cool people i don't know too well, but Shandell and Shannon were with me, and Trevor was there, and we got to play with a Wii!! hehehe, it was ridiculously fun. Then Sunday i worked h-core from 1pm to 2:30 am on 3 papers, worth 20%, 25% and 30% respectively, all due the following day. I am the Queen of Procrastination. After that academic bender, it was time for fun again! I hitched a ride with Trevor to go see Melissa and Sharon in Edmonsuck for a very brief spell! The drive up there started out beautifully, and i text-message my paranoid parents just after Red Deer: "Just left Ded Reer, Weather beautiful." About 3 minutes later, we hit snow. First it was very sticky snow, the flakes going through "precipitation puberty" and transforming into water on contact. It was very mucky, and we used LOTS of washer fluid. Then it progressed to full out whiteout conditions, and i truthfully got quite nervous. Trevor is a very good driver, and we made to Sharon and Melissa's open and loving arms, albeit slightly on edge and out of washer fluid. Melissa made us "Elk-a-getti" which consisted of ground elk, pasta sauce, salsa and spagetti, it was SO GOOD! And we played cards and ate cookies and enjoyed eachothers' presence! Then Sharon and i went for a romantic walk in the gently falling snow, up and down Whyte ave, which is beautifully lit. We came home, watched Heroes, and Melissa and Trevor took their turns walking through the winter wonderland. Then we watched a glorious amount of Scrubs! (i was honestly in heaven). Then we blew up the air mattress, strategically not all the way, so when someone got off the bed, you'd sink about 6 inches, and when they climbed back on, you were abruptly launched into the air! GOOD TIMES!!! Honestly, it was fun just goofing off and knowing my parents weren't going to come downstairs and tell us to go to bed! So me 'n Fluffy slept on the air mattress, keeping eachother warm, and sleeping in until a ridiculous time. Then there was more Scrubs, Melitrev made a McRomance run for us, and me and Trevor had to come back to Calgary!

Initially we were pleased with the sunny skies, though driving South proved bright. Then the snow started blowing across the highways at high speeds, making visibility, AGAIN an issue. I got a little nervous again, and Trevor asked if i would pray for our trip home. Shortly after we did that, the snow stopped blowing, and we were on our merry way again! Just before Lacombe, i felt the familiar shake of discontentment that a car makes when one of it's tires goes flat. So we rung for assistance, had a guy come help us replace the tire (since the traffic on the QE2 is ridiculously intimidating and unsafe), and were delayed by about an hour.

You know what was awesome about all that? How we relied on God. Prayer as a solution to problems. I remember doing that in junior high and high school... faith like a child. But i think through changes in friends and changes in ourselves, we've shyed away from it; that's not how we react to problems these days. We entered the teenage years...the developmental stage of "i'm invincible, i know it all, i don't need anyone's help" (That's exactally what Freud named this stage, trust me). Fortunately, i have less than a month left with the teen suffix, and i know that i can't rely on myself alone. I mean, i never lost my need for God in crisis situations (i mean come on, clinical), but i got used to the prayer under the breath thing. But verbalizing it, like we used to in youth group...it makes a difference.

Anywho, i need to study. Pediatrics final on Monday.

Thanks ^ 1000 to Melissa and Sharon, for their friendships and their hospitality! Thanks to Trevor for driving, and driving safely, and being awesome. And Thanks to God for bringing us "There and Back Again" safely!