In a nutshell, here is a summary of my break. The first weekend of break, we hosted Erin's family in our home for an early Christmas. In usual Katie and Erin fashion, we had A LOT of shopping and errands to run the day before everyone came over. It took longer than expected, so my usual late night baking, was a legit late night of baking! I was up until 3:30am the day before the family came over. Not well planned at all on my part. I made a cheesecake (mint chocolate chip), fudge, peppermint bark, Oreo truffles and Erin made the yummy pretzel, kiss and M & M treats. I knew it was a late night when I put the cheesecake in the oven at 1am and grabbed the oven rack with my bare hand. It was awful, but luckily no lasting effects!
Erin's family came over the next day and we had fun! Way too many appetizers, per usual, a delicious butternut squash dinner, and the medley of desserts. We exchanged gifts and enjoyed watching baby A play as well as all three pups that were here! When everyone left and we cleaned up, we put on a show to watch. It was about 7:45pm and we were barely able to keep our eyes open. We went to bed at eight that night and slept until nine the next day!! Whew!
On Christmas Eve, we made the drive with my sister to my brother and his girlfriend's home for dinner. They made a delicious Korean pork feast for us. Delicious. We then got up Christmas morning and made the long drive to Kentucky to spend time with our cousins as well as my mom. Sadly, my dad had to stay home to work. We spent a few days eating delicious food and treats, playing with A and E, our four and almost two year old cousins, and watching them jump on their new indoor trampoline! We also stayed up at night playing games and laughing until it hurt. We also watched way too many YouTube videos. It was great! Saturday, we got up, had breakfast and got back in our cars to drive home to Michigan to spend the remainder of our trip with my dad. So once we got to Michigan, we had already spent about 14 hours in the car. We were able to make a short visit with my gram, shop a bit with my mom and visit some friends. We were also able to visit with the family I used to nanny for, who have six kids! It was so great being able to catch up with them and to see how much the kids have grown. On new years eve, we loaded up my sister's car and headed back to Philly. In total, we spent about 1,500 miles/23 hours in the car for that trip! If I don't have to make that drive anytime soon, I am totally ok with that.
New years eve consisted of having pizza for dinner, watching Being John Malkovich and barely watching the ball drop at midnight with my Erin and my sister. Are we really that old and boring?? NO way, we were just exhausted from all the driving (we will go with that!). The next day, we decided to skip the Mummer's parade, drove to Erin's parents to get our pup Jackson, and just laid low. Erin got her school work done and was mentally preparing to head back to school on Thursday, January 2. I continued to not even think about school or work (despite the emails already coming in about the upcoming semester!!). In my mind, I wanted a full three week break! What was also frustrating, was the fact that my grades were still not posted!?!?! My friend did let me know that grades were due on Jan. 2, so hopefully soon!
January 2, Erin went to work, and I think I just did some cleaning and relaxing. It's been awhile, I don't really remember. There was word of a storm heading our way. Oh that's right, I must have blocked it out, I went to the store to get some food. We hadn't been home for about 8-9 days, so we had no food, zero fresh veggies or fruit! So, I went to the store. Big mistake. I forgot how panic ensues out here when there is the treat of a huge snow storm (about 3-6'' that is). The shelves were bare!! Apparently you need mass quantities of bread, milk and lettuce to prepare for said snow storm. People were also oblivious to anyone around them. It was so frustrating. I really get annoyed when people do not make themselves aware of those around them. It was absurd and just rude. People leaving their carts in the middle of the aisles, even when I politely said excuse me REPEATEDLY. I was about ready to start plowing my cart through and being a jerk myself, but I held back, barely.
Anyway, we had a good amount of snow fall and later that night, Erin got the call, no school for her on Friday!! We spent all of Friday in our sweats, catching up on Dexter and Scandal. It was pretty great! I made another batch of homemade bread. Maybe it will be my snow day ritual :)
The rest of the break was pretty uneventful, which is always welcomed. We went out to dinner with some friends, had a lunch date with just the two of us, I finally saw my grades (I'm officially a senior!!) and started going through the syllabus and lecture schedule for my two classes. This past week I also attended two information sessions. One was extremely helpful (and terrifying), it was all about interviewing for an RN position. I will have a lot of prep work in my future. Oh that reminds me, I also started going through practice NCLEX questions. I did better than I thought I would do! I have a lot of work in that area to do too!!
Today, the last weekday before my semester starts, I did a test drive to my clinical site. Of course it was freezing rain. I was pretty nervous on my way back. It took me a total of three hours, when in reality should have maybe been barely two hours! At least I think I know where I am going! I did miss my exit and have to back track a bit. Good thing I have GPS, because I have zero sense of direction!
My poor Erin is sick with a bad cold. I made chicken soup today, which turned out pretty good. So good, I was eating it when it was boiling lava hot and singed my tongue. Awesome. Hopefully Erin gets better quick! It is no fun being sick (or having a sick wife!).
The rest of the weekend will be me reading over more material to prep for what I hope to be my best and favorite semester: pediatrics and OB!! Watching some of the videos has me so excited and anxious to learn more. Head to toe assessment of an infant and child; check! I hope my brain is like a sponge and soaks all this info in and I ace my exams and retain EVERYTHING!!!! I can't wait! Before either clinical experience, I have a strong feeling I will love OB and really want to go that route. I mean I love babies and I will love talking about all the beautiful things about all the new babies that I could see come into the world! To be apart of that special moment with families seems surreal. I want to be that nurse that moms and dads remember! A girl can dream, right!?
I have rambled on long enough. I guess it is time to finally put away all the Christmas decorations. I need the kitchen table back for my desk!
Here is to a great semester, lots of learning, hopefully only happy tears, and good grades! Halfway done!!
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