Friday

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

My first week of school ended up better than it had started! I have finally mastered the Blackboard, which is where my online classes are held, and I am even a little ahead on assignments. One thing I was surprised at was that I am not just attending class with other neonatal nurse practitioner students but with a whole bunch of different master's students, and one CRNA getting her doctorate...crazy! It should be a nice variation, though. Emilia has had a fun week, also. Tuesday we met my sister and her kiddos at the park for an afternoon picnic and Chris showed up and suprised us, which was fun. She went to preschool twice so I would have time for homework, and then yesterday we had a play date with one of my coworkers and her kiddos, Ryan and Lila. Today we have pretty much centered our day around mastering using the big girl potty, and I think she has it figured out. She has not yet had an accident today, of course I do use mini M&Ms as rewards for staying dry! I may have a chocolate addict by the end, but she will be potty trained!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

School

Today was Emilia's and my official first days of school. Mine started pretty crummy when I realized I am missing the book I need for my 1st assignment. I guess it is not missing, but in route... it is my only book that has not arrived from the online orders I placed. Go figure! So I was a little frazzled to say the least and Emilia sensed that and did not want me to leave her preschool, which made my day suck even more. Things SHOULD only go up from here! Chris is planning on picking up my book I need from UMKC this afternoon, so then when my online order arrives I will have 2! yea! I just had really high hopes for what I would accomplish today while she was at preschool today, and instead I have spent the morning at Starbucks catching up on emails and downloading music onto my new laptop... productive I know! I was so excited to run into an old friend today, though. It was actually one of the girls I worked with a couple years ago at Starbucks, Keri. She is now managing her own store, and it was so awesome to see her! It had probably been 3 years since I had seen her because she had changed from the store we had worked at together. Almost every memory I have of Starbucks includes her. She is probably one of the funniest people I have ever met, and always made the work so much fun, which is difficult to do at 5am! I am sure she is awesome to work for as a store manager and I am so proud of her! Life continues to move so quickly that I find myself loosing friends due to nothing but time. Between making time for family, work, church, and now school, I find myself falling into the rut of obsessing more in the cleanliness of my home than maintaining friendships with all these people who have played such important roles in my life. It is very sad, but hopefully I will learn how to equally balance these roles... oh and make it to the gym! One thing at a time I guess! I had a wonderful weekend at work and got to take care of one of my favorite little boys, which was nice. He has the sweetest parents and I have enjoyed getting to know them through their little guy's NICU stay. He is quickly approaching his 100 day mark, and his parents are getting quite anxious to take their baby home, deservedly so! People always ask how I can do what I do... taking care of such sick babies. The day these parents take their little one home makes every bad and stressful day worth it. Not only do I get to take care of the babies, but I get to help teach their parents how to take care of their baby. Then we have the yearly NICU reunions where I get to see the little ones I have previously cared for, which is great! Anyway, that's why I love it! Now I am off to be productive!

A look back on Emilia's 2nd year

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Happy Birthday Emilia!

Emilia is officially a biggie girl! She turned two on Thursday and had her big birthday bash was on Friday. I thought her first year went really fast, but this year seams to have passed even more quickly! Last week Chris was able to take off work Thursday and Friday, which was great so he was able to spend her birthday with her all day! We didn't have too much planned on her birthday except to finish getting ready for her party. I had decided instead of ordering her cake this year I wanted to make it which was a great idea in theory, but much more work than I had planned! My parents came over for birthday dinner and cup cakes... my dad's 60th birthday was Friday, so we celebrated a little early. Chris's brother, Danny, stopped by to help move the swing set, and Emilia had also decorated a cupcake for him since his birthday was Saturday. By decorating, I mean she licked the jelly beans before she put them on the cupcakes! Friday I spent the day decorating the cakes and blowing up helium balloons, and Chris spent the day occupying Emilia and keeping her from seeing the decorations. We kept telling her that her party was that night, but we wanted everything else to be a surprise. It was so cute how excited she was when she saw the back yard! Everything went great and the weather was absolutely beautiful! My dad and I made an ice cream stand that the kids would actually be able to reach, and I kept catching Emilia at the stand shoveling ice cream toppings into her mouth... so cute! She received so many awesome gifts and has been so preoccupied with them all weekend. My mom actually sowed her and her baby doll matching dresses, which she used to do for my sisters and I when we were little, so that was really neat to see Emilia so excited about it. It was such a good time though because she was so excited about EVERYTHING! She even pretended to read the cards before she opened her gifts. It was very sweet. Since Friday was also my dad's birthday, we surprised him with a strawberry rhubarb pie... his fav, and a new watch. This weekend at work flew by, but luckily things have slowed down a bit... we only have 34 babies now. Nothing exciting went on, which was nice for a change since things have been so crazy the last few weekends with deliveries and transports. Anyway, here's a few photos from the party.

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raining babies

The NICU was a hopping place this weekend... apparently THE Place to hang out for premature babies, because we now have 45 of them, and we only have 42 rooms!! It was almost comical because the babies kept coming, regardless of the fact that we didn't have enough nurses. I say comical now, but did not think it was comical when I wasn't able to leave work until after 9pm last night, and had to return at 645 this morning for my REQUIRED call shift! oh well, what can you do? Looks like the rest of this week will be spent trying to get ready for Emilia's party on Friday... the big 2 years! We are having an ice cream party, so it should be fun as long as it's not 100 degrees outside.

Empty Nest

Is it possible to get empty nest when they are only going to be gone temporarily... like for the day? Today was Emilia's 1st full day at preschool, and I have only called twice so far! She is doing excellent, and is sleeping for them right now. I have missed her a lot today, but was able to get a lot accomplished for her party next week, like buying wood to build her ice cream stand... doesn't every ice cream party need an ice cream stand? Actually her Papa is building it for her, and I am painting the sign for it! Home Depot trips are very difficult with a 23 month old, so it was nice to just zip in and out, but then of course when school begins, this time will being used for study time! Today's drop off went much easier than Wednesdays, partially because I got my crying done before I left the house. There was something very sad about packing her toothbrush today for before nap time, partially because she doesn't usually sleep anywhere but home, and I was worried that she might be scared or wonder where I was. So I sent all her favorite things, blankets, babies, and family photo book. A little ridiculous, I know, but I think I needed to do it just as much as she might need those securities. Anyway, hopefully it gets easier! Now I am off to shower without needing to have a baby monitor on, or having a two year old in there with me! Ah... it's the little things!