Catching up... in a nutshell

First and foremost - let me appologize for neglecting my blogging life.  I am a bad blogger.  SORRY! 

So.... it has been a full YEAR since my last post!  It may take multiple posts, but I'm hoping to catch everyone up!

In that year:
I worked
We were showered
We graduated
We relaxed (for a second!)
We got married
We went on our honeymoon
We moved
I got a job
Job got a job

Whew!! Now for the details!!

I guess now I have to be an adult...

The last time I mentioned my job search I told you that my dream job in the Neonatal ICU had "all but fallen through". I was getting super frustrated that with a nursing license I was not getting called back for jobs, or getting disappointing calls letting me know that I should apply again "after I got some experience under my belt". How are new nurses supposed to get experience if every job requires it!? My roommates are currently job searching, so keep them in your prayers. As for me, I'm a lucky one! One day about a month ago when I was feeling particularly hopeless I e-mailed the director of the Neonatal ICU at which I had applied and interviewed with back in March. I asked what the chances were of another job opening up anywhere in the near future. She wrote back that she actually just happened to have a few positions open up since a couple of nurses had decided not to return from their maternity leave, and another was moving out of the state. She said she had no reservations to hire me, but wanted me to come in and meet with some of the other nurses to make sure it was still what I wanted. I went in for a team interview, decided it was definitely still what I wanted, and got a job offer the next day! Since then I've been super busy with orientation and school starting back this week. For example, my schedule for next week beginning tomorrow:
Sunday - Work 7A-3P, church at 5, fit in homework that's due Thursday
Monday - Work 7A-7P
Tuesday - Work 7A-7P
Wednesday - NRP (newborn resuscitation) class at the hospital 8A-4:30P
Thursday - Chapel @ 10:30, Marriage and the Family class @ 11:30, Physical Assessment class from 4-7
Friday - Pack and leave for Family Labor day Weekend at Doublehead
Saturday - Catch up with the family!
Sunday - Church, leave Doublehead, sleep all the way home, work 7P-7A
Sometime in all this I'd like to see my fiance, and maybe go out to eat for our 3 1/2 year anniversary, which was last week!

The good news is - so far I absolutely LOVE my job! It's easy to get up at 5AM and head out for a 12 hour shift when you enjoy what you do. Even after a rough experience yesterday when a baby that was doing well suddenly went VERY bad (two collapsed lungs at the same time) and ended up on a ventilator and with a chest tube (which I watched being inserted), I still love what I do. If anything I've realized what amazing people I work with, and how lucky these little babies are. If this baby had been at home or had any circumstances been different he wouldn't have had a chance. It just so happened that a nurse was standing at his bed at the time baby quit breathing, and all of the doctors had just returned from a meeting and were all there to work on him (and it took all of them!). I just love seeing all these little babies who, if they had been born just a few years ago, wouldn't have a chance of survival go home healthy babies. Knowing that I have some little part in helping that baby get well enough to go home makes my job so much better! Plus, when I come home from a long hard shift I smell like baby!

The only downside is... now I have to be an adult! I have benefits, a paycheck, and big responsibility! I don't know how many times I've called Mom and said "Help! I don't know how to do all this adult stuff!" I'm also trying to get everything done wedding-wise so I can know that's done and focus on school and work. I think we've gotten almost everything booked and I'm so excited about how everything is working out! Just a little over 9 months to go!

Engaged!

This past week I've been at camp all week. I asked John a couple of weeks ago when we would see each other again and he said "maybe next Thursday since I'm off if we can work it out." I was kind of disappointed since it had already been a couple of weeks, but I understood because I had made plans to attend a wedding reception last night and he was going to take his younger cousin fishing in a tournament today. I came in from a long week of church camp, took a nap, then got up and got cleaned up and dressed up for the wedding reception. I was sitting on the couch with Ashley waiting for Mom and Dad to get ready when a white car pulled up in the driveway and John got out with a dozen red roses! He came in and told me that he knew I would be dressed up, so he decided to come up and take me out to dinner. I was totally suprised, but I didn't expect anything! I thought he had just done that because he could tell I had been disappointed. We went out to our favorite restaurant (The Sportsman's Lodge) and had a wonderful dinner. When we got there He opened the trunk to put his backpack inside and I saw a scrapbook I'd made for him and noticed some of my decorations had fallen off of it. Instead of thinking "why is that in there?" The only thing that crossed my mind was "he broke my scrapbook!". He quickly told me he'd brought it so I could fix it, and I didn't think anything else of it. Afterward dinner I was ready to just be home. He asked if I wanted to go see The Proposal, but I told him I'd rather just go home. When we pulled in the driveway he went around to the trunk and pulled out the scrapbook and said "I want to show you something." He then pulled out a calendar and showed me that it was from the first year we dated. He had made little marks the day we began dating, the day he first kissed me and the day he loved me. He asked me if I knew what happened day 95. I told him I thought it was the day he told me he loved me and he said it was. Then he asked if knew what happened day 1,204. While I was trying to think when that was he said "That's the day I asked you to marry me" and got down on one knee and asked! My eyes teared up and the first thing out of my mouth was "really?" He said "really!" and I said "yes!" He did a wonderful job with everything, especially the ring!! Mark June 5, 2010 on your calendars, because WE'RE GETTING MARRIED!

Amanda Smith, RN

Yes, you read right - I am now an officially licensed registered nurse! You can even go on the Tennessee Board of Nursing website and validate my licensure! I took my NCLEX on June 17 and 48 hours later got my quick results, and they said "passing" (The NCLEX-RN is a pass/fail test). Then, on Wednesday I was checking the Board of Nursing site and they had my license number up, and it says that I am an "active Registered Nurse"! I'm leaving Sunday to help out at our church camp, which I'm really looking forward to. I'm in the oldest high school girl's cabin, so it should definitely be an interesting week! After that I'm hitting the job search hard!

So you may be asking, "what have you been doing with your summer since you haven't found a job?" Well, I've been STUDYING, STUDYING, STUDYING right up until I took the NCLEX! Since then John and I went to some friends' wedding in Hohenwald, and then I spent last week at home cooking, cleaning, weeding, watering, and everything else Mom does around here on a daily basis. You never truly appreciate someone until you've done their job! And this weekend John took me to Memphis to see Wicked. It was absolutely AMAZING, and I recommend everyone go see it when it comes to Nashville in September. The music and costumes were spectacular! I expected it to be twisted and scary, but it was hilarious! Go see it!

Update

The week after graduation I had a wonderful get-away with Megan, Mom, Ashley, three aunts, a cousin, one of Ashley's friends, and a second-cousin. We spent a few days in Gulf Shores, then on Memorial Day Megan, Mom, Ashley, Alena and I headed over to Pensacola to see Kaycee and Steven. It was so nice to get away from everything and just enjoy the days!

Since we got back, however, I've been stuck in the house studying while workers build a new deck and do some work in the den, upstairs bathroom, and my bedroom. I did get to see John Sunday night, so that was definitely a bonus! I got my authorization to take boards last week and I'm scheduled to take them June 17th! I should know how I did either the next Friday or Monday after that. If I pass I will officially be an RN and it will be time to REALLY job search. The hospital where I applied and interviewed for the NICU position has all but fallen through. At the moment they have no positions available since administration decided to get rid of the Baylor position, making a lot of as needed people become either part or full time in order to save money. That would be my dream job, but I'm just going to have to face the fact that I need to start looking elsewhere. It seems that the economy-proof job isn't really economy-proof at all! Right now I'm praying for God to lead me where I need to be. I've also been doing some research and discovered that after graduating with my BSN next May, I can be a nurse practitioner in only 17 months. Right now I'm looking at the cost and requirements, and then when the time comes sooner John and I will have to decide what is best for us considering he will probably need a Master's to get a good job. I'm just not sure how things will work if we both attempt graduate work at the same time. We'll just go with the flow for now!

Amanda Smith, GN

I know it's not a great picture - but it's all we've got!

Friday night was our pinning ceremony. Mom, Dad, Ashley, Grandma and John all came and joined in on the festivities. The tradition of the pinning ceremony was explained: Florence Nightingale gave her nursing students medals upon their graduation, and over time this has changed to a gold pin with the student's school on it. Each student was called on stage and was pinned by one of our nursing instructors. At the end of the ceremony we recited the nursing pledge and our instructors lit our Nightingale lamps as we left. They only told us that we'd be voting on a nursing student that we thought was a leader and had a Christian attitude. I assumed this would be the only award given out, but they gave out three others that were picked by the nursing faculty. I recieved the Nightingale award for outstanding clinical performance. This award is given to a student who has exemplary clinical skills as well as a high GPA and Christ-like attitude. It was quite a pleasant suprise to recieve such an honor! Everyone who recieved an award was given a small Bible in place of a plaque or certificate. I thought that was a wonderful idea because now my award is useful!

Saturday morning was graduation day. John's parents came up and joined us. I really appreciate that they took the time to drive up just for me. I was the last graduate to cross the stage since nursing is the last major and I'm the last in my nursing class, alphabetically. Since we only recieved Associate's degrees we had no hood, only a boring black gown and my gold magna cum laude cord. Next year we get hoods, so I'm definitely looking forward to that graduation. The gowns were hot and I ended up waiting for Mom to get to the reception forever because of a sudden downpour as they were getting ready to leave the auditorium (luckily I made it to the reception in the gym just in time!). By the time they got to me I was just ready to get that thing off and give it back! Mom said "We have to take pictures, this only happens once!" I quickly reminded her that it will all be happening again in a year, and the I'll have more decoration to show off!

I really appreciate all of the encouragement that I've recieved over these last three years. That's about the only thing that's kept me going!

I'm getting ready to head out for Gulf Shores in a little bit, but I'm going to try to get some more pictures up soon!

Counting Down

Pinning - 4 days
Graduation - 5 days
HOME - 5 days
Spend the day with Laura Beth, Diane, and baby Carson - 7 days
Gulf Shores - 10 days!!!!!

These five countdowns are keeping me going through finals!

Today I took my Professional Practice final, which is another NCLEX-RN predictor test. We were told that a score of 850 means that you have a pretty good chance of passing the NCLEX-RN, and a score of 950 is "Outstanding". Some people in my class (around seven or eight people I think) failed the first predictor test we took and were told that they must pass this one in order to graduate. Luckily, I already passed the first one, so I just had to take this one for my final grade, which I'm not too worried about. Throughout the whole test I felt as if I was doing pretty well, which usually means that I end up not doing too well... As it started to score I held my breath, hoping for an 850 - I scored a 947! That's just three points from "outstanding"! I figured everyone would do better on this one, but apparently they didn't. None of the students who needed to pass did, and even some who had passed the first predictor failed this one. One friend asked me how I did, so I told her my score, then immediately wished I hadn't told her when she told me that she failed and failed badly. The head of the School of Nursing is supposed to have a meeting tomorrow with the Dean of the School of Sciences and Mathematics to decide what to do. If these people aren't allowed to graduate, we loose almost half of the Nursing School's graduating class. Things are tense around here since the Nursing department has allowed people to move on in the program without the required grades, and now, the week of graduation they're finally going to put their foot down. I'm just praying that the right thing for everyone (whatever that may be) is done.