Fail

So I think it is safe to say that I fail the 30 day challenge. I mean I'm still on day 6 and pretty sure I should be up to day 14 or around there somewhere. Oh well, who was I kidding when I started it anyways I barely have time to get dressed at the beginning of the day like I really thought I would have time to do a blog post everyday. Ha! However as I am sitting here typing this I should and really need to be typing my paper that is due in 2 days and I have ohhhh 2 paragraphs out of the 5 pages that are required. This isn't just a regular boring school paper either. It is a BEYOND boring, drive me crazy scholarly nursing paper. Question? If you have been in the hospital have you ever wondered to yourself "hmmmm I wonder how my nurses writing skills are." NO! NO you have not thought that! I am much more concerned about "hmmm I wonder if my nurse is confident in what she is doing and has the skills to effectively care for me or my loved ones. Does she have the ability to notice when something is not right and able to take the right actions to correct it. I have NEVER once thought if she could write a paper. I am not a fan of nursing papers can you tell??? To top it off it's a horrible subject as well. Well not horrible just not anything I am really all that interested in. My topic is...wait for it...geriatric social interaction within an assisted living facility! Yep! Just shoot me now please : )
and speaking of failing, I have been doing that a lot. Well not failing but not doing nearly as good as I would like to be doing. I have made such stupid mistakes on my tests and I was telling myself that as long as I pass thats all that I'm worried about. I don't want to stress myself out over getting all A's. Well let me just tell you that my obsessiveness definitely came out when I got my first exam grade back. By no means am I saying that I am super smart or anything like that but I have always gotten good grades and take pride in that fact, so for me to not be doing well is driving me crazy!
Okay now that I have driven you to start pulling your hair out I am going to stop and attempt to get this paper flowing. Wish me luck!

link up! Getting to know me thru my bag

Fun idea to get to know me by what's in my bag. Most of the ladies that linked up showed what's in their diaper bag. I am beyond the diaper bag days so I chose to do something a little different. This post was meant to be posted on Friday but lord knows what happened and here it is Sunday and I am just now posting.
I had clinical on Friday so I was carrying my Lourdes tote bag. I thought it would be kind of funny, and fitting for my life, to show what was in it.

Mommy + Nursing Student =

~Lunch bag

~2 stethoscopes-one of the girls called me the night before and asked if she could use my extra one

~pens

~Malina's cinderella chapstick that she tricked Jeremy into letting her take to preschool with her

~drivers license 

~checkbook-had to pay @ preschool

~Malina's school paperwork

~LRC-was in my car from girls night so I just threw it in my bag

~Nursing ID

~notebook

~pocket organizer to hold my pens, light pen, and scissors

~clipboard with all my clinical notes from the day

~folder from hospital containing the millions of papers that we fill out

~tampon

So there it is! All the fun and exciting, random, things that I was carrying on Friday : )

Day 6

This is a tough one! Post a picture of someone you would love to trade places with for a day.
I really have no idea who that would be
hmmmm.....

OK so I LOVE Ellen! I think it would be awesome to be in the position she is in. I would love love love to be able to help the less fortunate, and not even just the less fortunate just people who deserve it and Ellen does this all the time. I DVR Ellen and watch it whenever I need a pick me up. She seems like such a nice genuine down to earth lady and I think it would be fun to absolutely love the job you have, help people in a time of need, and who wouldn't want to walk out to hundreds of people screaming going crazy over you!
(I know this is kind of lame but hey what can I say. Maybe I'm just lame ;)

Day 5

Post a picture of a favorite memory.

Malina Denis has finally arrived!

Please ignore how incredibly disgusting I look. I was definitely not one of those moms that had that glow unless you consider nasty sweaty gross a glow. I will take this time to tell you my amazing little birth story : )
On a Tuesday night I started having contractions. Nothing too crazy and I never really had braxton-hicks during my pregnancy so I assumed that I was finally experiencing them, I was 37 weeks at this point. So I pull out my handy What to Expect when Expecting book and started reading about what contractions are supposed to be like and when to call the doctor and blah blah blah all things that I have already read a million times. I eventually fall asleep, wake up the next morning while Jeremy is getting ready for work and before he left I told him to not be surprised if I ended up calling him. I was still having contractions, nothing significant but I just had a feeling. So after convincing Jeremy that he was okay to go to work I got ready for the day and probably double checked my hospital bag a million times all while looking at the clock everytime I felt the slightest contraction. They were starting to get a little stronger and coming closer together but still no regularity. I eventually called Jeremy and told him I thought he should come home. He got home in lightning speed! We walked around are neighborhood and while walking the contractions were definitely getting stronger and eventually to the point that I had to stop everytime I had one. Jeremy pretty much carried me the rest of the way home and again drove with lightning speed to the hospital.
One of my first memories of being in the hospital was when I heard a lady in the next room screaming. It was one of the most horrifying screams I have ever heard and I looked at Jeremy and told him to take me home that I wasn't in labor. However within 5 minutes of that I was checked and had significant "bloody show" so I was admitted and all the fun began! They wanted me to walk around some more to try to strengthen my contractions and again I was horrified by hearing all the screaming women but then something amazing happened. We passed a room again and heard the sound of a baby's first cry. I just stopped and started crying. Jeremy probably thought I was crazy but I was ready to hear my baby's cry. At midnight they came in and broke my water. At 2a.m. Jeremy convinced me to get nubain for the pain, I wanted to be able to get out of bed if I wanted to so I didn't want the drugs. I ended up having two doses of nubain but it didn't really do a whole lot. The spot on the wall that I was fixated on seemed to do more than the drugs. Hours and hours went by and nothing was happening. I requested a birthing ball, which is just a big exercise ball, and that thing was a life saver! It helped SO much with my contractions, I loved it, but eventually the babies heartbeat started to drop and I had to be confined to the bed : ( I was stuck at 5cm forEVER. They had a massage therapist come in to try to help me along and she was absolutely amazing but still no progression. By this time my actual doctor was on the floor and she came in and talked to me about going ahead with a c-section. At this point I was beyond exhausted and just ready to be done. A nurse came in shortly after and asked if I would like an epidural to allow myself to relax a little and maybe that would help my progress and at the very least allow me some kind of rest. I agreed and let me tell you I could have kissed the anesthesiologist! It was instant relief and all I wanted to do was close my eyes and relax, however the doctor came in told me I had been through enough and it was time to have my baby! I don't really remember a whole lot from the surgery room other than feeling like I was freezing to death and I was shaking like a leaf. Jeremy watched the procedure and I will never forget his face when he saw Malina for the first time. Absolutely Amazing!  So after 38 hours, yes you read that right, 38 hours miss Malina Denise Aldrich arrived. My best memory ever!

I really am quite ridiculous

Ok here's the thing...I occasionally, well more than occasionally but I like to make it sound less than what it really is so we will stick with occasionally I like to have a nice glass (sometimes bottle) of wine. I love me some wine actually : ) I don't really have a favorite although I've never had a bad glass of white zin, and yes I realize that you real wine drinkers may argue that white zin is not a "real wine" but nonetheless I like it! So when picking my bottle of wine I tend to choose by the attractiveness of the bottle. I have a wine bottle collection that I display in my kitchen so it has to be cute! Well while driving home from family ice skating last night I decided that we should get a bottle. I run in scan the designs and pick a fairly interesting looking bottle of chardonnay. Got home, ate dinner (pot roast that had been in the crock all day, DElish!), cleaned up kitchen and ahhh got out the corkscrew. and this is where the story takes a turn for the worse...as I pull up the corkscrew it is just coming right out of the cork NOT pulling the cork up at all. So I attempt a second time and again the screw just pulls out, no cork movement. Naturally Jeremy comes over and says "here let me do it" tada! same thing for him. He gets the idea to get a screw driver and used a hammer to try to push the cork through the bottle. Fail! He takes a break and I open my utensil drawer see a beater for my mixer and for whatever reason thought that I could somehow get that to pull the cork out. Again FAIL! However I did manage to chip the bottle. I tried scissors. FAIL! Jeremy came walking out with his drill, tried once and nothing. Got a bigger drill bit and again nothing. At this point there was a decent size hole in the cork so we attempted to just pour the wine into a pitcher through the hole and what do ya know? FAIL! Finally Jeremy drilled into it one more time and pop! out came the cork. It was a mini celebration. and as if all that was not ridiculous enough the following event definitely puts it over the edge. We used a coffee filter to trap all the cork pieces that dropped into the wine as we poured it into a pitcher. Absolutely Ridiculous! I really don't even know why I would admit to all this but none the less this is me. Ridiculous and all.
p.s. I promise I do not have a drinking problem, haha!

Day 4

So I've been slacking and missed a few days. Life happens : ) So the 4th day that I am going with is; Post a picture of somewhere you would like to visit!

 

Ireland

I think it would be amazing to just sit and enjoy the pure natural beauty. Pretty sure I could spend the entire day just sitting on an Irish hill doing nothing!

Day 3

I've noticed that people are beginning to post different things regarding the days so I'm just going to pick the one that I happen to like or think is more interesting. So far I have seen Post a picture that makes you happy and post a picture of the cast from your favorite show. I happen to have a very difficult time picking my favorite show so I'm going with a picture that makes me happy : ) Who doesn't like to be happy? (unfortunately I know a lot of people who fall under this category but that is a whole nother post)

 

I absolutely LOVE this picture. The smiles on their faces are amazing and show true happiness. Over the summer we went to Silver Lake Michigan and stayed at a Yogi Bear campground (AWESOME). Silver Lake is known for their incredible sand dunes, we had such an amazing time. This was taken on Lake Michigan during our dune ride tour. Malina was having the time of her life and clearly so was Jeremy so naturally so was I. This was one of the best days ever as a family : ) 

Malina started the day off with meeting Yogi and BooBoo

We went on a dune ride tour

We walked, or ran, on the beach

 

I braved walking up the lighthouse(never again)

 

We went to the state park and Malina built her first sand castle

We went back to the tent and took a nap

We walked the pedestrian portion of the dunes 

Finished the day watching the sunset on the beach

It was such a fun family vacation : ) If you are in the area I highly recommend visiting Silver Lake Michigan.