A Day At Megan's.

After work on Friday I drove up to my cousin Megan's place in Minneapolis. Our other cousin Alexandra (14) had already been dropped off there. We were embarking on a Erickson-side cousin (minus Jensen who's only 5) sleepover. First we went bowling along with Megan's soon to be sis-in-law Kate and also Megan's roomate Jenna. We also ate at B-Dubbs nearby, it was yum. Then we watched a dumb movie and then a good movie! Eventually us three found a spot to sleep on Megan's floor, well Megan slept in her bed, and we were off to sleep.

This morning we made panckes, I ruined a few, oops, and ate skittles and brownies that our Gran made us (thanks Gran!!!) and watched TV. Eventually we headed out to the Mall of America. Everyone and their mom was also there, but it was fun. However, my feet hurt so bad! I didn't buy anything, but the other two found a few things. Kate eventually joined us there too. And at about 5:30, 2 hours ago, we left and I headed back for home. It was fun to hang out with the both of them, we don't see each other enough!

Here are some pics from the trip.

Here you can see Megan in her habitat. Notice how her bedspread matches the wall, this was not planned, it just happened, sweet huh?


Cuzzin and I


Brie (24) Alex (14) Megan (24)


Me-"Try to look as ugly as you can"
Megan-"We all look 40lbs heavier in this picture"


My cousin Alexandra and I

Serious time.

That's all folks.

A New Thing

I just got home from work and felt inspired to update:

The 13th of May is my last day on 8MBB/G Ortho-Trauma Surgerical and the 14th of May is my first day on 7MBD/E Thoracic/Vascular Intensive Care Unit.

That means I got the job I interviewed for! I found out last night while I was watching Gaving throw discus, heehee. I am excited, yet it's bittersweet as well. I really love the people I work with and it's hard to leave a place you've been, kinda like the last day of high school, sorta in a way. I don't hate the work, I don't hate anything about, I just want to move on to new things and see what happens. I don't want to work ortho my whole life, so why not get started on something new now. I read a stat once that, on average, a nurse has a new job every 3 years! Obviously some people work places for a bunch of years, but I guess it's 3 on average. I feel like I'm very glad I started where I did. I don't think it gets much more tough than ortho, so I feel like I learned a ton and got SO much experience. That makes it hard to leave too, cuz I actually know what I'm doing now and can help the newer people, but I will eventually know what I'm doing on my new unit, after months of confusion and frustration I'm sure.

So yeh, I'll be in a 3mo. program consisting of mostly classes, there's a lot more to learn now, and will also include time on the floor. I'm leaving my unit so quick, because those classes start mid-May, otherwise I'd have to wait until August, so my awesome nurse manager let me go early. I think I'll be on my new unit learning a bit for a few weeks and then classes start. School all over again. The nurse educator there told me she'll have me make drug cards to memorize! Fun times. I'm excited though. One girl from ortho just moved up there and Tiffany, a friend from WSU nursing just got a job there too, so I know a few faces. I told some people at work today, I don't really like telling them, it makes me sad! But everyone's been so sweet about it. Another bonus, today we got a 2$ raise! S-core.

Welp, that's about it for now, I need to go wash 8 hours of bodily fluids off me, heehee, jk (sorta).

Waka waka.

Here I am working the weekend. It was busy up until now, 4:30p, and I have 3 hours left to go.

Yesterday, Chris and I woke up early and went to Winona and took my dear cousin Kellie out for breakfast at Perkins. Then she had class so Chris and I walked around the lake, well, just a little ways around it, so that was fun, to just be in Winona. Then we came back home and worked out. Later on, we went to Austin to take Angie out to eat for her b-day! She chose to go to Culver's, it was fun, we had lots of laughs.

Thursday I dunno what I did, I can't remember. At some point Mom and I went to a movie, so that was coolio. My fam. is hanging out today in the cities (assuming Gavin's track meet didn't get cancelled) so I 'm jealous cuz I wanna go!

Wednesday I had my shadow on 7 Mary Brigh. It's somewhat intimidating cuz I know nothing, but everyone was very nice to me and everyone highly recommended that I work there. I got to see my friend Tiffany (from nursing school) she just started working there! I haven't heard about the job yet, I guess this week sometime? I've decided that if it's offerred to me, I'll take it. I'm very nervous though!

Ugh these 12 hour shifts are ridiculous. What I hate is going home and feeling like I need to go to bed in a few hours and then it just starts all over again, dumb. I just got asked if I wanted to stay until 11:00pm, um yeh, I'd love to.......

Mass is going on right now at St. Mary's and it's telecasted onto the TV. One of my patient's is watching it and a lady is singing non-stop very high pitched. I bet it sounds better in person. La la la la!!!!!!!!

I'm not real thrilled about the coming 2 weeks, they will be such a bummer, all I do is work. Ugh.
Well, I'm out of things to say. See ya alls later.

Busy Busy Busy

It's Tuesday night, an hour before I leave for home! It's been a pretty busy past couple of nights here on 8MBB/G. I have a few days off here before I work the dreaded weekend! I work too many days in a row coming up here in the next couple weeks, so I'll try not to whine, but honestly it's gotta be harsh.

This past weekend was pretty fun. Saturday we had a little post-wedding get-together for my dad's cousin Randy and his new wife, that was nice to see them and eat at Mr. Pizza! Then I traveled over to see Kelsey at her baby shower! Her baby's due May 2nd! So soon! That was fun too! Chris worked that night so I hung out with Mom for a while and then Jill, Dora, Denise, and I watched Juno at Jill's house. Sunday Chris and I had 4 kiddies in Sunday school and ate lunch at the mall with Gramps H. and Gramps & Gran E.! Fun fun. Then we hung out with Mom and Dad and had a yummy supper there and played outside in the glorious whether.

Monday, I had Kid's Hope and Chris bought a new lap top! I won't go into great length, but his old one had big issues and it was just time. It's so necessary for him to have a working computer for his classes, so I'm glad he can work on his lap top in peace now! It makes my lap top look old! Then I worked and that was that.

Today was dull, I had by BLS (basic life support) renewal class. Even though it's the renewal class, it's still too long, from 8:30-11:15, I passed and am officially renewed and ready to recussitate, heehee. Sorry, not a laughing matter. Then I did nothing and Chris was at work/school all day. I am now at work as well. It's been busy even though I only have 2 patietnts. One is on the commode every 2 hours, not kidding, and the other is just quite complicated, but very nice. They're both nice, so that's nice, very nice, nice, nice. Ugh, I'm tired! I can't wait to go home!

Tomorrow, Chris and I have the dentist @ 9:30 then I'm shadowing a nurse on 7MB (the unit I applied for) from 3p-7:30p. I'm assuming I'll hear about the job after my shadow at some point, which I'm glad about cuz I want to do the shadow first to make sure it's not absolutely something I don't want to get myself into. Then Thursday I have a class at St. Mary's, only for an hour though, then I acutally get one day off, Friday, then I work Sat, Sun, Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri, Mon (2hr class), Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri, yeh shoot me in the head. Thats 10 days at the hospital with 3 days off during those 10, that kills me man, I'll die, ugh ugh ugh. I'm signing up every single day for an EA in hopes that I get at least one. I did not sign myself up for this mind you, they completely switched everything around that I requested, oh well, I'll live. Actually I do get several extra hours on my time card though, for all the classes and the shadowing, so that's a bonus, but honestly, not worth it.

Luckily, I get to go have a fun sleep over on the 2nd to the 3rd with Megan, Alexandra, and I think Kate too (Jamey's fiancee) It's an Erickson side girls sleepover! I'm so excited! I hope Kelsey doesn't have her baby while I'm gone!!! Then we're having a party for Grandpa H., I think it's his 75th, on the 4th! So that'll be fun too.

Well, I have a feeling within the next few minutes I'll need to go help my patient to the commode for the 7th time this shift! That's a record for sure. So, I better wrap this up. Peace out.

Tell me how you have been ethically morally stressfully difficultly challengingly communicationally coherent in the work place???

Sigh....

It's over! And was it nearly as bad as I thought it would be and did I really need to get that nervous, NO! But I can't help it and I'm sure I'll be just as nervous when the next interview rolls around some day!

Chris dropped me off for my interview and I went up and met the nurse manager who instantly gave me a tour and explained how the floor runs, so that was fun to start off with. Eventually I was in a room with him, the nurse educator, a RN on the unit. They asked me 10 questions having to do with situations and how I handled them. I was fairly quick to think of things, I few weren't as great as others and one question had to be re-phased for me and I blanked out on it, but it went pretty good. The hard question had something to do with how I coped with a difficult stressful situation all while being ethical....ummm....lemme think.......stressful, ethical, difficult....I managed to come up with something. heehee.

I got a lot of details on the difficult 13ish weeks that shall lie ahead of me if I should get the job. It involves an extensive critical care class as well as time on the unit with a preceptor. I was told it would be stressful and intimidating! Yikes, well I guess I already knew that, all jobs are! I liked the feel of the unit and the people seem nice so far. So, we'll see. However, the next set of classes start in less than a month, so in order to get in on those classes, my current nurse manager will have to let me go before the usual 30 days. Otherwise I cannot start until August, but I suppose that wouldn't be the end of the world. I get to shadow a nurse for 4 hours on the 23rd so I can get a better feel of what it's like there, which I'm really glad about! Thanks to all who sent me prayers/encouarging words, it went well.

Other than that, my dear husband and I went to Culv's for lunch and who did we see? Hut and Eric! So, Chris invited them on over to our table and we all at together. I told Hut we couldn't have planned it better if we tried! They got a new car, a Cruiser, and it's cute!

Then I had to go to work and here I am, but I only have a few minutes left! Then I shall have the weekend off. The next 3 weeks I feel like I'll have a very busy time, like a bunch of shifts in a row and classes and such, oh well, I'll live. Ideally, I would like to work NEVER and just hang out at home, hahah, but yeh, that's not realistic!

Love ya alls, Luv, Brie

Today

Today has been somewhat uneventful: Woke up at 10:00, watched ER until 11:00, worked out until 12:00, ate lunch with Chris at Erb's until about 1:00ish. Chris left for Kid's Hope, I got ready for work. Chris came home from Kid's Hope early cuz his kid was unavailable and I left for work. Now I'm at work! Wow! Facinating.

Tonight started out slow and got busy and is now a bit slow again. We got a direct admission from a patient from Arizona! They jetted themselves over here and then the crew jetted themselves back to AZ, weird huh, all in one night. Now it's almost 9, so a couple hours left. Then I'll go home and watch The Office and ER that I taped. I am so tired and sore!

Okay, I can't take it anymore, I have to tell everyone, to get the nerves out....I have an interview in the am! I didn't wanna say anything cuz there's some peeps from work that read my blog, so if you work with me, please keep this on the down low, I beg you, as I don't want the whole world to know just yet. I'm interviewing with the nurse manager of Mary Brigh 7DE, Thoracic/Vascular Intensive Care Unit. I'm excited at the prospect of a new job! However, I get myself so worked up thinking about it. I am so nervous and sick feeling right now. I know it'll be fine, no matter what happens, so I just have to keep telling myself that. Basically I think I'll be fine as long as my mind doesn't blank out on me. You see, our interviews here are always "behavioral" meaning they'll ask me a bunch of questions about specific situations that I've had and how I dealt with them. For example "Tell me about a time when you had to communicate in a difficult circumstance or tell me about a time when you had a difficultly with a patient's family member. I should be so lucky if I get those questions, cuz I have an answer, but I know they'll ask me ones I'm not ready for, cuz I don't know what they're gonna ask. And it's always nerve racking cuz there'll be not only the nurse manager, but a few others in on the interview, all staring at me! Yikes. Say a prayer for me please!

Ok, that's it. I will probably write tomorrow night while I'm at work too and at that time, I'll be done with the interview and about a million times happier! Adios.

Off With His Hand!

Just kidding. Chris is very well and all is fine.

We spent a few hours in the cast room this am and got to hang out with the PA for Shin's hand service (not that anyone cares, but yeh). He explained to Chris that his finger is like 2mm shorter now, but they're not concerned enough to operate, that that would be more risky. So, here he is with his first cast of possibly 3 that he'll have for a grand total of probably 6 wks. Poor Chris, no b-ball, but at least he don't gotta get cut into. They said they will operate in 2 wks if when they take the cast off they find that the bone has moved, but it probably won't!





Chris has a mouth-full of cookie right here, sorry Chris, I had to take the pic anyways.

In other news, I hung out with Mom today and we gotted some presents for upcoming showers/weddings and ate lunch at Culver's. It was fun, but I got so sleepy, probably just from getting up so early, that I had a 45 min nap, which I never do. I got woked up, thankfully or I would have slept all evening, by Dora, my dearest friend who came over to borrow the last 2 seasons of Gilmore from me, heehee.


Then later Chris and I played a little tennis cuz it was so darn nice out. He was able to do good despite his hand, but we didn't play too long. Then we watched Idol results at Mom and Dad's. Bye bye Kristy Lee. Gav and I ventured out and got frostys/pop for the fam and now here we are back at home for the night.


That's all folks! Have a wonderful rest of the week!

Metacarpals, Babies, and Quiznos.

Oh Let's See:

Last Wed: Chris broke his left 4th metacarpal (ring finger bone in the hand) playing basketball. We thought it was perhaps a jam or sprain, but no, it's completely broken in 2. Tomorrow morning we are scheduled 1st case in the St. Mary's cast room with Dr. Shin's service! This is funny cuz I take care of "hand" patients all the time that had a surgery done by Dr. Shin, so it hits close to home. They will take off the splint, re-x-ray and decide to either put on a hard cast for several weeks or operate by pinning the bone together. Apparently the fracture is near the joint and small hand bones, which is why surgery may be necessary. No eating after midnight for Chris! I would feel very shocked if he had to go the OR. And I don't really like the thought of it either! But I know he'll be in good hands. If he did go to the OR it would expected that he would not have general anesthesia and that he would go home right afterwards, which is good! If he has to stay overnight, guess where he'd be....my floor! heehee. I asked him if he would like me to be his nurse and he said yes, heehee, how weird/fun would that be. But let's hope he just goes home, I can take good care of him there too!

I worked Thurs and Fri which was just fine and then Friday night we had the Kid's Hope bowling party. Chris and I supervised/watched 4 girls, including Nyombia, bowl for a few hours and eat pizza too. They were pretty cute and I think they had fun.

Saturday was fun, I mostly just got to hang out with Chris. That night we went to the Newsboys concert! It was a lot of fun. We realized we basically had front row seats, as wonderful as that sounds, it's not wonderful in real life. It's too loud to function, so we moved back to an empty area and it was entirely more enjoyable! We had lots of fun singin' along with em.

Sunday we only had little Addison in Sunday school and we taught her about Jesus walking on water. It was pretty funny, she was scared of Chris' splint and stated, "I don't want to touch it" heehee. Then we ate at the mall of course and I think that was the night we played some games with Ma and Pa :)

Yesterday, Monday, oh what did I do....well I had Kid's Hope, Nyombia was especially non-focused, but it was fun anyway. Then Chris and I worked out and such. We had Dairy Queen and said a quick hello to my fam. Then I watched my fav, John and Kate plus 8. Oh shoot, I just realized I forgot to tape Idol tonight, sad day.

Today: I got to babysit a baby! A friend from work, Erin, brought her little 4mo. boy over to hang out with me for a couple hours while she did some work related things at St. Mary's. We had lots of fun playing with teething rings and a bear, changing diapers, drinking milk, and sleeping, with minimal crying. He smiles so easily and is so cute! My mom came over after a bit to hang out with us, which was fun. It made me realize I'll be very happy to have her around when I have a baby someday (hopefully). Also, Kelsey is due very very soon! 3 weeks! I hope I can be helpful to her as I am learning more and more how difficult it is as first. Luckily she'll have much help from Jeff and both their parents as well. But it's fun that she lives so close so I can go hang with her and da baby. After babysitting was over and I plesantly surprised to get to have lunch with the great Casey Bish! We went to Quiznos and hung out for an hour before I had to come to work. We officially had not seen each other in 1 mo, Hut's wedding. It was great to catch up, I missed her!

I got to work this evening and had to float to neurology for 4 hours. It's a nice unit, it's 2 years old and has the lift system like ours. The patients are a different, but somewhat alike in that they almost all need help getting out of bed in the same way that my patients do. It was nice and the nurses were friendly. Now I'm back up on my unit. I only have 2 patients, one's asleep for the night, so of course, I have 2 hours of boredom left. Bah.

Well I have tomorrow off and will be back in the Mary Brigh building at 7:15 am with Chris and then I work Thurs/Fri evening so it's a nice work week, I don't mind it. Then I think I work Mon/Tues evening and the weekend days. (someone wanted to work my overnights and I was like, um, yes, please do!) This coming weekend is Kelsey's baby shower, so that should be fun!

Welp, I wish I had more to say to pass the time, but I don't, so I'll give ya some updates on Chris when I find out! Adios dear friends.

PS: Anne, you were the inspiration for my blog, I felt the need to update after talking to you, heehee.

Cool dude.

Who watched Idol last night and was shocked and amazed by the fact that they all sang Shout to the Lord??? That was awesome :)

Snow Day! Well, the same great feeling as a snow day.

Mom said she was sick of seeing her anniversary blog, so I'm updating so she can see something new.

Today began tragically, as I had to get up for work. Here's what I do: I set my alarm for 5am, then re-set it for 5:45am. Then I'm in the bathroom until about 5:55. Then I eat and get everything ready to go, this only takes until 6:03ish. Then from 6:03 to 6:25 I sleep on the couch until my alarm (cell phone) goes off and it's time to go. Some would say....well you only use 18 minutes total of time to get ready, why don't you just set your alarm once and stay in bed until 6:07, get ready and go and 6:25? It's too painful that way, I need to get out of bed knowing I can sleep more on the couch later, hahah.

Anyhoo, so this morning, it was 6:15am and I was fast asleep on the couch when my phone goes off. My brain new it wasn't the alarm ring, but the "someone's calling me" ring. I opened it up and what number did I see? 538-1700, YES! This is the number that appears when you get any call from Mayo. And what did the say you ask "Brianna would you like a 4-hour EA?" "Yes!" I replied with much enthusiasm. And then life is once again filled with happines and a very large burden lifts off my back as I scamper back up to bed. I cannot help but giggle and squirm around until Chris notices and wakes up. I have to tell him, otherwise he'd wake up later and freak out that I overslept or something. Next, comes waiting to hear if I get the last 4 hours of my shift off. So, I got another call from the 1700 number at 9:30, "Brianna would you like to stay home for the rest of your shift?" "Why yes I would and thank you!" WHOOP! So, I got up and watched ER until 11:00! Score, I love it. And I'm getting paid to do it. I love that we can take random vacation days. This is quite rare, but I guess that's what makes it so special. I guess I was first on the list to stay home, sweet huh?

Now I have to make something of my day or I'll feel sluggy. So, Chris has left for b-ball and work, so I better go work-out.

What else is new.....Mom and Gavin are back home from their trips and they had fun and something exciting is that Chris and I bought a video camera! We've been wanting one for a long time (well I think I've been wanting it for a long time) and finally we found a good deal and felt educated enough to pick one out that works for us. Yip yip hooray! I think it's cute, it's not overly fancy or anything because we're not overly loaded with money to spare, but it'll do just fine.

Here's a pick of it.....

Ok peeps I better go work out and be productive. Adios.

Happy 26 Years Together Mom and Dad!!!

My Mommy and Daddy got married on April 3rd 1982!!! So, it's not quite the big day, but Mom's leaving for Washington D.C. on the 3rd, so I'm putting this up early! I am very proud of my parents for their long and wonderful marriage! I know they have an amazing marriage and I think they raised up 3 pretty good kids too, well, I'm questionable...
Thank you for being the bestest parents ever!!! Love you both so much and congratulations!
PS: I dunno why the pics insist on being little, oh well!

I Called It, Another Blog

I declare this the easiest shift (well there's 1 hour left of it) of my life. You may all think I never work hard because I only blog when I have time on my hands, but it's really not that often.
I have only 2 patients, we all do and they're so darn easy. The hours are dragging by. I suppose I have a bit less than an hour, but it feels like a lifettime. I dunno how many times I've checked facebook and email, too many to count.

Today was short, cuz I worked, but I woke up at 9:30. Chris pounced into the room and attacked me to wake me up. He had a ridiculous amount of energy and I did not. For some reason he gets up at like 8:30 or something. Perhaps he likes his alone time before I wake up, but then he misses me so much that he has to come wake me up. I got him to give me a back rub, heehee. Then I had some cereal while I put in my 2-cents worth on Chris' resume/cover letter as he updated them. He's applied for another job at Mayo, we'll see what happens.

I then went to work out as Chris left for b-ball. I worked out harder than usual. I ran on the tredmill for 16 mins and walked for 14 mins, alternating. Then I did a bunch of weight machines. I hope I'm sore in the am so I know I did some hard work! I got home in time to see Chris as he runs to the shower and changes into his fancy business clothes and thens runs out about 15 mins later for work. He got done at 5p, but here I sat at work, so I haven't seen him in a while. He told me he's going to my parent's tonight to get some help from daddy with his car. I love that he can just go over there and feel comfortable, that always makes me happy. There's nothing more I could hope for then my husband and parents being comfortable with eachother, yay yip yay.

Chris and I have been examining our future in depth lately and we've come to realize we just don't know what'll happen and we just have to wait and see for a lot of things. Although it's hard to not know what'll happen, it's also been good because it forces us to really rely on God and let him know we trust Him. It's very peaceful to just be able to say, ok, whatever you want God and just being able to know he'll take care of us. I feel so very blessed everyday to have God in my life and to be with my amazing husband. I also feel so blessed to have the family that I do and the friends too. To have a place to live, a job, food to eat, and to be safe and have a healthy family.

I'm excited that I have Sat, Sun, and Mon off. Tomorrow I shall work out and clean my home! Then I will hope that I can find someone to hang out with cuz my dear husband works at Culver's all night. Who wants to hang out with me??? Heehee. Sunday we'll finally be back in the 3-year old room, we've missed like a month with my weird weekend schedule lately. Monday, my baby brother leaves for Mexico with his friend Andrew and his family, along with some other friends. I'm so excited for him that he gets to fly for the first time. Then later in the week my Mom leaves with her sister Jodi and Grandma for a 4 day trip to Washington DC, just for fun.

Well, I guess I'm down to a half hour now.......hope it goes fast.

Bye friends.

I am Bubsy

I feel like I don't know what has happened in the past few weeks, so if I leave you out, I'm sorry!

Um..well tonight I'm at work. It seems I only blog on my evening shift and here I am at work in the evening. I'll be here tomorrow too, so you'll probably get another blog then as well.

It's been nice to not feel quite so cold lately! I ran outside one day, but then the next day it snowed, but we're getting there.

Oh, it's coming back to me now, I know what I did!

I was in Heather's wedding! Heather got married on the 15th, so it's almost been 2 wks! The rehersal was good and the dinner was very good, at Valentino's! On the morning of the wedding I went to pick Heather up from her parent's house and we went and got our hair done! Heather looked beautiful! Then we went to church and had some food and got dressed. Kelsey and Casey were a huge help with everything. Eventually we did pictures and it was long, but good. Then the actual wedding came and it was just lovely. Heather looked so pretty and the service was very nice. The reception was fun. I felt special sitting next to the bride. It was fun to see some highschool friends there: Elizabeth, Greg, Katie, and Meghan! Yip yip! Eventually Heather and Eric were off to the cities for a few days. Now we have them back and Chris and I got to hang out with them on Tuesday night. We played a game at their new place and then had ice cream at Culver's. It's a miracle we found a night we were all free!

Monday night was also a friend night. Jeff and Kelsey met Chris and I at Applebees and we all got a chance to catch up a bit. Kelsey brought ultrasound pics and the baby looks so cute! yay! It was mucho fun.

Oh what else....I've been working and Chris has been schooling/internshipping/working. He's got just this week of classes and then it's on to "spring" trimester which lasts until late June. Then he's got one class in late summer and three classes from Sept-Dec. and then he's DONE!

Easter seemed fun for my fam. I had to work, but did get to see the Hemmer side that night, but missed out on the Erickson side, poo. Oh well, I think they had fun without me, heehee.

It's been a good week, I've made some progress in the new job looking area, I shall update you if that progresses any furthur.

This past Tuesday and Wednesday I spent from 7a to 4p in class, called Orthopedics II. It's all filled with speakers discussing things pertinent to ortho nurses. It was actually really really good with perfect topics and good speakers. But it was long and I got sleepy a lot. I had it with 3 other nurses from my floor so that was nice!

Well, I think I'm out of things to say. I'm sure I missed a lot!

I'm sure you'll hear from me soon!

PS: my post-op patient today is hilarious, he like shouted my name when I entered the room like we were old friends. He's from the south, but he sounds Australian and he calls me "Bubsy" "Bubs" "Mum" "Hun" and so forth. I have never been called Bubsy (Bub-See) before, it's funny. He told me he's the happiest person in the hospital, I think he may be right. Wowee!

Break Blog

I'm on my break. I feel like people are sick of me blogging, hahaha. I almost feel annoying, like I'm blogging too much, haahaa. I guess I'm just sitting here on my break doing nothing, so I thought I'd write something.

Today I'm back on my floor. It's a wonderful day actually. I have one patient in the OR and the other 2 are pleasent. I had an awesome nursing student this morning who did pretty much everything for one of my patients and the other has a lot of medical issues, but with only her to really concentrate on, it's a nice day! I'm hoping my post-op doesn't come back right before I wanna go home!

Yesterday after work was fun. I made supper for Chris and I and we got to go on a walk, outside! It wasn't as frozen-tundra-ish as it usually is, so we could enjoy it. But now there are giant puddles everywhere!

Then we went to Mom and Dad's again to watch Idol, whoop! Then the 4 of us played rummy and Chris won, of course. I got dead last.

Tomorrow is Heather's rehersal and Saturday is the wedding! Then on Sunday, it's Gavin's b-day, 17 already! Wowee. I get to see the fam and amazingly enough, I do not work!

MMMkay, I better go back to work. 2.75 hours left!

Bye bye.

Stents, Angina, Stress Tests, whatev.

Here I am on Francis 4C, cardiac unit. My patients are as easy as can be, on my unit, the minutes would be flying by with great speed, but I have had nothing to do since like 9:00. All my patients walk around and are just fine for now, so yeh, I'm very bored. I'm hoping very very much that I get to go back to ortho at 11:00. I'm only supposed to be here until then, but it can change.

I just had a nice couple days off. I dunno what I did.

Well yesterday I got to have lunch with Heather! We went to Noodles. I realized this was my last time hanging out with a non-married Hut! Wowee. I got my dress back, altered and ready to wear, and Hut's wedding is in, holy crap, 3 days??? really, yeh, wow.

I watched idol last night with Mom and Dad while Chris was in school, my favs are David Cook, Brooke White, and Jason Castro.

Jeesh, this unit has so much beeping going on. The patients have heart monitors on, which I'm not qualified to read, and so I can see a computer in front of me showing all their heart rhythms and it beeps a lot.

Ugh, so slow! Oh well, I guess I'll go wander around some more.

Bye friends.

Daylight's Saving Sunday

Yep, another new blog.

It's Sunday and I'm at work. It's a super good day. I had 3 patients and am now down to 2! Better than yesterday's 4....

I went to bed an hour early last night, so I didn't loose an hour of sleep, but I still only got my 6-ish hours of sleep, so I was not very rested, haahaa.

Coming to work this am was much more pleasant, for one thing, I had less patients, and for another thing, the nurses before me got a lots of things done, which is always nice (thanks Anne!!!! PS: Anne, if you're reading this tonight, I hope your night is good and goes fast!)

I'm on the B side (as opposed to the G side) and I'm likin' it. It's much smaller and calmer, somewhat like when I worked on Alfred insted of Joseph, ok too much detail.

I'm sittin' here watching my patients and covering for another nurse while she's on break. I get to go eat in 32 minutes.

Well, I gotta go give some Potassium. Have a wonderful week!

For My Faithful Readers....

Today was a surprising day, but yesterday was fun too, as was Thursday.....

Thursday was sa-weet cuz Mom and I went to the movie Definiely, Maybe, it was better then I thought it would be, I liked it! I did not like the other 3 ladies in the theatre. They were at least 32-33ish years old and they giggled, no cackled at random moments, very very loudly. My mom said they must have had something to "drink". I would imagine so, for grown women to be so immautre.

Friday was fun, Chris and I asked Jeff and Kelsey if they wanted to have lunch with us, so we all went to Tinns. After that we went over to their place for a bit and saw the almost finished baby's room! So cute! I love it! Now I just wanna see the baby in there! Later, Chris and I decided to stay in and watch a movie at home, not something we do often. But, we borrowed "A Beautiful Mind" from Mom and Dad so Chris could see it. It's such a good movie! So that was fun just hanging out at home free of charge. We also played rummy and he keeps beating me.

Today was also sa-weet. I went to work, prepared for shift one of two 12 hour shifts, but lo and behold, I got to leave and never come back at 11:30, so that's 8 hours of paid time off I took today! Yip yip! I was very surprised. Chris and I worked out and ate out at Erbs. Later he had to go to work and I got to join Mom, Dad, Gavin, and Gran and Gramps E. at Mr. Pizza, the new one! It's very nice there. Then we all went to Mom and Dad's and I hung out with Gran and Mom, cutting cheese (literally for a noodle salad) and Dad and Grandpa fiddled/fixed the new bathroom sink. Mom and Dad are re-doing the "kid's bathroom" it's gonna be so pretty.

Now I am home and trying to focus on the fact that I will loose an hour of sleep and must plan accordingly. I am now going to read a devotion from my book, read a bit of my bible, then perhaps hop in bed and watch episodes of Gilmore that I've seen 100 times.

My little heart is crushed right now and I feel all the more desparate for new job. I have now realized that I will miss out this year on Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, therefore, I will miss out on seeing my family. I dunno what to do, yeh I can get through it, obviously, I've done it now for almost 2 years, but I just despise it! I cannot spend my life missing out on family stuff, so I gotta figure something out before I have kids of my own and have to miss their holidays too. Argh. I am grateful that I'm not a patient and grateful to work every-other holiday, but still, it's very very hard. And tomorrow I miss seeing Great Grandpa, who is now 95 yrs old!

Well, I better get going. Have a peaceful Sunday. I hope your heart if full of God's peace!!!
Love.

History in the Making

Hello earthlings.

An update you want? I thought so. Well, an upate you shall have, in chronlogical order.

Friday: worked, blah blah, don't remember what else.

Saturday: Went shopping with Mom for a bit at Target and had a fun time with her. Then Kellie, Jill, Dora, and I had an adventure. We decided to go to Newt's, a little restaurant in Rochester claiming the best burgers around. I had never been there and the girls had been there once or something. It's downtown and you have to like walk down an alley and up a creepy, rickety set of ghetto steps. The place is teeny tiny and the whole town has also come to try to eat fit in there. We were never greeted by anyone, we just stood in line with the others. The deal there, so I've heard, is that you just sit when there's an open table. So, we waited. Then, when we were almost next to sit, this hostess girl walks to the back of the line, right past us and starts taking people's names down. Finally, we were like, "um, is that a list we're supposed to be on? We've been here like 20 minutes before all these people" And she was like "um, yeh, you're supposed to be on the list" and preceded to write our name down at the BOTTOM of the list, AFTER all the people who came AFTER us. So we were like, "um, we were sorta here first, can you write our name first since no one approached us to get our names?" And, she was, of course, super confused and just said, "um um um, no, but I"ll see what I can do." W-O-W. So yeh, we probably waited like 40 minutes after all but like one family went in ahead of us. However, we decided we were not in a hurry and to just be peaceful about it. Once we finally got to sit, it was very yummy and fun. But wow, what an unorganized place! Insanity! I decided if I worked there, I would whip it into shape. After that we went to the downtown Barnes & Noble, the cool one that used to be the Chateau Theatres back in the day. It was a fun night!

Sunday: Chris and I had 6 kids in Sunday school, it was pretty fun, they didn't kill each other. Then we went up to Lake Elmo to be at the 1st couple hours of my cousins Grant (6) and Alexandra's (14) birthday party. Everyone in the fam. was there and it was a ton of fun, but hard to leave early.

Megan 24, Alex 14, Brianna 24.

The Erickson Side Girls. (Jensen, 5)

Why did we leave the party early you ask? Well, Mom, Dad, Chris, Me, Brice, Jenny, and Gavin had a Timberwolves game to catch! Mom found $12 dollar seats for us and they were really great seats! In my opinon! It was a lot of fun, I had never been to an NBA game before! The sonics beat us in overtime by 5 pts. It was great to see Brice and Jenny and all do something together like that.

Chris and I squished in the back, but it was cozy!

Da Game

Chris, Me, Dad, Jen, Brice, Gav (Mom took pic)

I can't remember what else I've done this week, Kid's Hope, had supper with Bish, watched idol with Mom and Dad, hung out with my dearest husband, worked yesterday and today, have the next 2 days off, work the weekend, and before ya know it, it's Heather's wedding on the 15th!

And that my friends has been a weekly update by Brianna M. Lewis.

An Evening

Gotta love the evening shift. Such a dramatic change from the day shift I've been having lately. Ok, on day shifts I have had four busy patients and absolutely no help, but on evenings, I've been having three easy patients and an overabundance of help to the point where there's hardly a thinig for me to do, well not quite, but I'm bored now! There's just no happy medium. Oh well.

Today was kinda cool, I got up early (9:00) and went to Mcdonalds with Chris cuz he wanted to try the McSkillet burrito, cuz it's free today and tomorrow if you buy a pop. I got a little burrito, not as yummy, but less cals, big whoop. Then we sat there for an hour-ish and chit-chatted, which I love to do with my husband. Then we worked out and I tried really hard, so that felt good. I'm gonna start trying to go to some of the classes the healthy living center offers. The 2 I'm gonna try to go to regularly, cuz they're offered more now, is cardio kickboxing and a strength class. I really loved kickboxing in college, so I'm hoping it's similar. I need to get motivated to work out harder, so I hope this helps. Then we came home and had lunch together at home, not out to eat, wow! Soon Chris had to leave for Kid's Hope and I got to hang out for a while and then go to work.

So, yeh, now I'm bored and it's about 8:00p, sigh, I wanna go home!

The end.

Tulips, Haircut, Taxes, and a Baby (not mine)

Some updates in pictures....

Keith and Amy had baby Logan! Here is Chris holding his best man's baby!
(I can't wait for Kelsey and Jeff's, they're next!)

Keith's a daddy now. So sweet.

I'm so proud of my husband, doing the taxes!

I very impulsively got my hair cut off.

Had to buy these from Wally last night, they're so pretty and spring like.

I hope you're proud of this mom, I tried very hard to use the right feature on my camera, but it may still be blurry.

It's Wednesday mornin' and I don't work until tomorrow night. I had a quite awful weekend at work, but Monday was better. I very much need a new job, but nothing's sticking out at me yet, so I'll keep looking. That is all folks. I cannot wait for warm weather! Hurry up!

Love, Brianna

I'm a Pediatrics Nurse Today

Are my patients suffering from broken hips, infected knees, or fused spinal cords you ask??? NO! They are not! Today they are little kids, with none of these problems I am used to dealing with!

I am here in the Eugenia Litta Children's Hospital, a hospital within a hospital if you will, at St. Mary's. The first half of my shift was spent with 3 peeps in their 60s, all to big to move on my own, all with infected bones of some kind. However, I come to find I'm floating to peds! I am one of the few who do not REFUSE to float here. It's hard and different, but I enjoy the learning experience and new perspective on what else and who else is out there! We kinda freak out when we have to float here, it's a different world. Insted of giving out cups of pills, the medications come in syringes that you either push into their mouths or set to slowly dispense into an IV in a crazy looking contraption. Also, where do you take a blood pressure, a simple task normally, on a baby? It's the leg, come to find. Also, do I pick up the baby? Do I leave it in the crib? I dunno? And so on and so on, many questions. I came here and was greeted by many, so I felt like I had some good help. I have 9 and 12 year old girls and one 3month baby!!! I walk in and they're like these little miniature patients! I can move their whole bodies with one arm, hahaha.

I was a tad nervous meeting these folks, but all the parents and children were very kind to me and it went well. I didn't let on that I was "new". The two girls are both from the middle east, random coincidense, and they, along with their parents speak no english. So, we do a lot of pointing and smiling and guesturing. It's funny though, you can still make a connection without language. One little girl had cute pink slippers, jammie pants, and a pink stuffed animal. I picked up her animal and pointed to her slippers and smiled and she giggled.

The baby is so darn cute and little. I tickled his toes and let him sqeeze my finger, fun fun! I had to give him medication in his mouth and he sucked it right down! I was impressed. I was expected him to put up a fight. I also found myself weighing a diaper and charting on how much milk he drank, hahah, funny.

I have a few meds left to give, but it'll be easy, but slow, I have 2 hours left, bah. But yay, 3 days off. Tomorrow I am having lunch with my 3 besty girlies friend in Roch: the Hut master, C-Dawg #2 aka Bishelhopper, and Kels Marie (sorry Kels, we don't have a fun name for you!) I think we're going to Noodles at noon. Yay!

Today, I didn't do much. I woke up at 9:30 and hung around and eventually had lunch with Christopher Lewis at Culver's! Then I pretty much had to come to work. Chris finished his EXTREMELY frustrating Microsoft Excel class today. It was a do-it-yourself at home class and he's done done done! Yay! No more crazy equations to figure out.

Well, it's closing in on 10:00pm, so I guess I can go give the couple 10:00 meds I have to give. Another squirt of stuff for the baby!

Well, have a nice day folks and a belated happy birthday to my 6 year old cousin Grant!!! He doesn't read this though, although he could if he wanted to since he reads like an adult and all.

Bye!

A Blog For the Sake of a Blog

An Update:

Saturday: Did a few things and then went to the cities to have din with Brice, Jenny, Mom and Dad. It was very very fun! I am not a complainer when it comes to food and what I order at restaurants, because there's not a whole lot I don't like, but at Old Chicago, I got a grilled chicken roll-up thing, sounds harmless right? Well it was just soaked in some kind of vinegarette sauce. I can stand that sauce in small amount, but it was overwhelming, Brice tried it and he concurred. So, I felt annoying, but I just had to ask for a new one, I couldn't eat the thing! So I asked for no sauce this time, to avoid the first problem. So my 2nd roll-up was dry as a bone and the chicken in it was ever-so-charred, creating a dry burnt taste in my mouth. I ate about half, jeesh, what a bummer. Oh well, I guess the side salad was good.

Sunday: Was an okay day. I had fun with the three year olds and then later Chris went to work. I went to a movie with Mom and Dad, that was fun. We went to The Spiderwick Chronicles, I actually really liked it. When I got home I got to just hang out with Christopher. It was good to just talk for a while and then we went to bed! He wasn't going to go to bed, but I kinda gave him a back-rub and it lulled him to sleep, so my Christopher went to sleep at 11:00pm! We never ever go to bed this early. Midnight maybe, but 11, never, haahaa. He was so sleepy. I stayed up until 12 watching Castaway on TV.

Monday: Got up at 8:45 and Chris and I got to go visit Mr. Logan Scott Byant, a new baby boy! Chris best guy friend Keith Bryant and his fiancee Amy had their baby boy 2/17 in the morning and were so gracious as to invite us to visit today in the hospital. The parents just looked so good and they were so calm! Logan was a silent little sleeper the whole time and Chris and I each held him a couple times. It was pretty sweet to see Chris holding a baby :) I'll be excited to see the little guy grow up. Then I headed home for a bit while Chris went to play b-ball. I left for Kid's Hope and 1/2 way there I realized that the kids don't have school today! So, I met Chris and Dad at Wendy's and just to sit and relax before coming here to work.

Now, I am sitting here trying to pass the time. I have a little under 2 hours left, bah, evening shifts go so slow. I have 3 patients and am covering 1 for an LPN, but they are so nice of patients, super easy and un-needy. So, I am trying to help other nurses, but they don't really need me. I work tomorrow as well, but then I have 3 days off after that before I work the weekend. So........anyhoo. I guess that's all I can think of to say.

Adios amigos.

Heather's Party!!!

Last night we had a shin-dig for Heather's upcoming wedding. We had a nice group of Heather, myself, Casey, Kelsey, Meghan Finn, Katie Sanford, and Abby (from Heather's church). We played a bunch of games and won prizes, ate food, and had fondue! Hut opened some "fun" presents and the whole theme was "pink". You'll see in the pictures below there's a lot of pink. It was fun to have that many peeps at my place and fun to see Meghan and Katie, high school friends! Well they're still friends now, but ya know, we were all together in high school, so it's fun to be around each other all at once! If that made any sense.
Casey dominated the necklace game. We weren't allowed to say Heather or Wedding and if we got caught saying them (and Casey always caught us) then we had to give up our necklace, Casey ended up with the most, by far at the end. My living room went from clean and tidy to crazy pink and back to clean and tidy in a matter of about 6 hours. Chris came home from work at 10:00p and he said he'd never seen the living room looking so crazy, haahaa. Thanks to all who helped me out with this and to all who came to celebrate, it was lots of fun honoring our dear friend Heather! Her wedding in now in LESS than one month, yikes, I better get my dress altered, haahaa. Ok, look at the pics. They're annoyingly spaced out, but whatev. Bye!

Heather's Bridal Party in Picutres!!!

The 13th is the new Valentine's Day.

Since Chris and will only see each other tomorrow, the 14th, for a matter of minutes or so, we celebrated the love holiday today, heehee.

I came home from work and what did sit on the counter you ask? Well, a dozen red roses, a box of candy, a card, and a little box! It was so cute how he had it all sitting out like that. The little box turned out to be very sweet little white gold hoops (props to anyone who thought of the movie Mean Girls when I said white gold hoops, haahaa). They are very cute and I'm wearing them now! Chris is so sweet to me and thoughtful.

After eating some chocolate, we went to Victoria's and had yum yums, it was so romantical! Then we also stopped at Walmart, haahaa. We heart Wally.

Since it's a week full of work and school it was nice to spend the afternoon/evening just with him.

I hope he knows how much I love him!!!

Here are some fun pics:

Valentine's 2006

Valentine's 2007

Valentine's 2008!!!

And that my folks, was our V-day, fun times were had by all.

Find Me a Job

Let's play a fun game.....you think up a place I could work and maybe I'll work there! I've had enough of my job and it's time for something new, so bring on the suggestions. Cashier at McDonalds, pet store owner, cosmotologist, whatev. I'll do it.

FREEEDOOOMMM!!!! (say with accent)

Sunday night and I'm NOT at work, yes I am writing from home.

I made it through Friday night with Mr. Confusion and since then I've been loving this time off! Saturday was random. I ended up buying something fun for Hut's party, so I cannot say what on here, shush if you know! Mom and I bought this together and tried it out, fun fun! Then I found myself staying at Mom and Dad all day, doing various things. Kellie and Jill came over at some point and we played some new fun games that Mom bought. Eventually we invited uncle Brad over and he, Kellie, Jill, Mom, Dad, Gavin, and I had pizza. The missing Hemmer's where in such places as Florida, St. Paul, and Missouri! They were missed. Later, us girls went to see Chris/get icecream at Culver's! We all hung out more at Mom and Dad's, it was fun!

Today, Sunday, Chris and I had the 3 years old in Sunday school. We only had 2 today, but we had fun, they're so cute. Then we went to church and then to Austin to take Katie (my sister-in-law) out for a late birthday lunch. We didn't stay there long cuz Chris had to get back to work.

I was left home alone around 4:15ish so I set out to re-clean my closet. I ended up getting rid of 2 more large garbage bags of clothes I never wear/too big. I added these bags to the other 3 from a few months ago in my trunk. They'll be taken to Good Will at some point. Then I fixed, with Mom's help over the phone, my vacuum. It was clogged to death with pine needles. Lesson learned: do not vacuum up Christmas tree needles ever again. So, now my vacuum works. Pretty sick that I haven't vacuumed since Christmas. Oh well, the floors didn't look very dirty anyway, heehee. Then I worked out, got groceries, talked to my dear Cara on the phone, made supper, and Chris arrived back home.

He's been doing homework for 2 hours while I just watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding on TV, it's a funny one. Now, he's relaxin' and I'm typing. There, the detailed happenings of my weekend.

Tomorrow, I have Kid's Hope and then nothing else. I work Tues, Wed, Thurs day shifts, ugh so cold and early!

Peace dawgs.

Tick tock tick tock

Well here I sit, evening shift 3 of 3 in a row. I'm sitting because I'm in a 1:1 room, meaning I sit next to one patient all night. He's not misbehaving because he's sound asleep and I cannot keep him awake. I even got him up to the chair and he's sleeping. He's completely confused, but sleeping away the day. It's on ly 7:15, so I'm not sure how I'll last another 4 hours in here.

I haven't really done much lately since I've been working evenings. Yesterday Chris and I worked out and today I had lunch with him at Subway. And that my friends is all I've done in the past 2 days.

I'm very excited that I have the weekend off! I work Tues, Wed, Thurs day shifts. Chris has class Thursday night, so no Valentine's Day for us, poo. How dumb to have class on that day! Then Friday is Heather's party!

Well, I'm so dull right now that's all I can think of to say. Ugh. Boring. I dunno what to do. I guess I'll just sit here and watch TV.

Bye friends.

A Blog That I Wrote

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Hello there.
I am at work with a few short minuets left. I came to work and I saw that I had no patients assigned to me....interesting. So, I approached the charge nurse and she informed me that I would be getting 2 post-ops (people coming back from surgery) and one unit transfer (someone from the intensive care unit stable enough to come to our unit. And guess what....they're all coming NOW! Um ok, well I'll try my best. But it's impossible to get 3 patients from outside the unit at the same time. Luckily they came at 3:30, 3:50 and 4:30, so I had a little bit in between to settle one patient and move on to the next. This whole debacle kept me non-stop busy from 3pm to 8pm, non-stop. So, therefore I did not eat. But I had some grahm crackers and peanut butter (the best snack Mayo has to offer on the unit).

Now my 3 lovely patients are settled and in less pain, so all is well, but it was a little intense.
I paper-cutted my finger like the worst I've ever done and it's bleeding and throbbing, ouch!

Well, quick update before I go....um....the weekend was pretty busy overnight, I barely stayed sane on Sunday night to Monday morning, but I made it and got some sleep before Kid's Hope. Monday night...hmm...I think I just hung out, watched John and Kate Plus 8. And ate left-overs for supper or something.

Tuesday, Chris had class and I watched Idol with Mom and Dad and Gavin and then Mom and I went to 27 Dresses for a late movie! I was good and fun, we giggled.

Today, I did nothing as usual when I work an evening. I stayed up until 2am last night watching season 7 Gilmore and then I woke up at 10:30 and layed on the couch watching more Gilmore until 12:30, falling in and out of sleep. Then I met Chris, Mom, and Dad at Wendy's around 1:30. We stayed there until I left for work around 2:25.

I am not proud of my laziness. Tomorrow I need to work out! I must! Maybe Chris will go with me and be my inspiration in the morning.

Some fun things are coming up in the future:

February 15th: Heather's bridal shower at my house!

March 2nd: Mom, Dad, Chris, Me, Brice, Jenny, and Gavin will go to a Timberwolves game! I'm excited! It started with Chris and I and spread to the whole fam! yay! I've never seen a professional game before!

March 15th: Heather's wedding!

April 12th: Newsboys concert in Rochester with Chris

May 2nd-ish: Kelsey has a baby and I'm auntie Brianna! yes!

Last week of June, 1st week of July: I'm takine 2 wks of vacation. Chris and I will hopefully take a short lil' vacation somewhere close, but regardless, no work, for 2 weeks!

Late August: Cuzzin Jamey gets married!

Ok, these events are getting further and further away, but yeh, I'm excited for all of them and I'm sure there's more in there too!

MMMkay, I get to go now!
Love ya all!

Writing a blog to stay awake.

Here I am on my 2nd overnight shift of the weekend. I am, of course, very tired. I only slept for 5 hours after my 1st overnight, so I'm already feeling dizzy and blurry eyed and it's only 2:30am, I got a ways to go yet.

Let's see.....My birthday was a very fun day. I got to hang out with my awesome husband all day. We had Macaroni Grill for lunch with our gift card, it was delish. Then we both had Kid's Hope, which included a Kid's Hope party, so we were there for like 3 hours, but it was a lot of fun. Then later we went to Caros O Kelleys, it was also delish. I refrained from the free icecream. Then Mom and Dad had us over for some more b-day fun. Mom had a giant birthday gift bag full of fun things for me to open. She also made me a very yummy angel food cake/strawberry dessert and I got to blow out the candle. Thanks Mom and Dad. I also got a lovely card/suckers from Gavin, heehee. Chris gave me my last two needed Gilmore Girls seasons to complete the set, yay! I love watching an episode or two before I go to bed. He also got me tickets to see the Newsboys in April! yay! Thanks babe. I also got some nice cards (2 of which were singing cards!) emails, and facebook greetings on my b-day!

The next morning, Friday, I got to see Casey, Heather, and Kelsey at Panera. We sat there a good 1.5 hours chatting and eating breakfast. Chris had to go to work and I met Brad, Julie, Kellie, and Jill at Valentino's for dinner, which they paid for! Whoop. It was lots of fun. Then later, the girls, plus Dora, and I went to Target and then to my place and watched 3 episodes of Gilmore. When Chris got home from work, he was so kind to humor us and take pictures of us. I need to put them up on here later, they're funny, at least we think so. Then we forced Chris to be in some too.

Saturday Chris and I worked out, had lunch at Culver's, and then eventually I came to work while he went to a Mayo vs Century boys basketball game with Dad and Grampa E! Fun fun, Mayo won, poo.

I woke up Saturday around 2p and went with Chris to Kelsey and Jeff's superbowel get together they always have. Kels and I played pool and darts and soon I had to leave them all for work. I stopped by to see Ma and Pa and got to relax with them and watch a bit of the game before I had to leave.

While at work tonight, I managed to watch most of the amazing 4th quarter of the superbowl, wowee, intensity! What a good game that was. Me and this IV tech were sneaky and watched for a while in the visitors lounge, don't worry, my patient's didn't need me!

Now I am sitting here, bored and tired. I have SIX patients tonight, they have a few meds here and there, but lemme tell ya, they're about the six least neediest patients ever, so their call lights rarely go off, which is nice. I was busy from like 7p to midnight, and now I'm just watching the clock until 3a, then I will go give some meds and take some vital signs.

Earlier, I answered a patient's light who wasn't mine and she told me her chest hurt and a bunch of other things, and what do ya know, her heart was in a funky rhythm and the doctors sent her off to the intensive care unit! I'm sure she'l be back tomorrow.

When I go home today, I'll only get to sleep from 8a to Noon cuz I have Kid's Hope again today at 1p, ugh, it'll be very hard to get up. I will have to set 3 alarm clocks and I asked Mom to call me around noon if she can! It's so hard to get up because it's like waking up in the middle of the night in that deep sleep! Oh well, Tuesday I can sleep in all I want to make up for the 9 hours of sleep over 48 hours that I'll get.

Whoo hoo, it's 2:54 now. Nearing the 4 hours left mark!

Well, hopefully pictures to come. There's a fun quiz below if you haven't taken it yet, you should. I made it last night at work.

Bye alls.

A quiz

Check out my Quiz at makeaquiz.net!

The Day Before My Birthday Is A Fun Day.

*******Well, I had to work and it was a mad-house, but at about 2:00pm, a man was walking down the hall and he said, "Does anyone know Brianna Lewis?" and I was like, "That's me!" And then he handed me flowers! I was so excited! I opened them up and they were from my husband with a little note that said Happy Birthday, I love you!! How fun to get flowers at work, it totally made my day! What a sweetheart Chris is :)

*******Then, Chris picked me up from work so I didn't have to ride the bus! (Thanks to Mama who picked me up the day before!) Then we went to McDonalds for a lil' treat, this is our once every week or so tradition after he picks me up, fun fun. Then I worked out and Chris did homework. We went to Applebees for din cuz we hadn't been there in a while. It was so good. I got chicken ceasar salad and Chris got the fajita roll-up. Then we split their new dessert thingies, called dessert shooters, cuz they're in little cups. We tried the strawberry cheesecake, it was so good! We had fun :) Now we're home in the warmth, both on our computers catchin' up on emails and all that good stuff.

*******Tomorrow, I'm 24! Wowee. Almost a quarter century. I can only imagine how fast the years fly by now. Life goes even faster after school's out, weird. I get to hang out with my husband in the mornin', then we both have Kid's Hope from 2-5:30, because it included a party for them (on my b-day of all days, heehee) then we're gonna have dinner at the City Cafe, cuz we never been there and Chris heard it was good! Then word has it, Mom and Dad are inviting us over! Yip yip, I'm excited!

*******Then, on Friday I get to see my bestest girl friends Kels, Casey, and Heather at Panera for breakfast! Yay!

*******I don't work until Sat. overnight, so it's a nice break after working 3 super busy day shifts in a row, yeh yeh, it's only 3 days, but lemme tell ya, it's tough :) Today we all had 4 patients, which is unheard of, not sure why that happened??? But we lived and so did out patients!

*******Some other random things*******

*Saturday night: I finally got to hang out with just Gavin, we rented Shrek 3 and ate food, it was lots of fun. Meanwhile, Chris' brother randomly came to town and they went to a movie!

* I made my first crock pot thing yesterday, roast, it was good and it cooked all day while I was at work, what a concept.

*Chris and I watched Idol and House last night with my parents and Gavin.

*I went to Lacrosse on Friday with Jill and Kellie to see a movie and watch WSU vs Lacrosse gymnastics, LaX won, bummer. But it was good gymnastics to see!

*I got my hair highlighted.

*I helped Kelsey tape the baby's room and take off hardware so they can paint it this weekend, yay!

Ok, here are some pics as of late/today. Love ya alls.

My sweet husband and me.

My hair is lighter

My flowers!

"These are for you!"

I love how there are pink tulips in it! They're in a basket, it ya couldn't tell.

And The Winner Is........

KELSEY MARIE!!!!

The actual total in the piggy is $42.50. Many of you were very close to that number, but Kelsey with the guess of $42.50 was only 6 cents away! So now Kels, you get a blog in your honor.

Let's start with a few pictures!

Here Kelsey is a freshman in collage and only 18 years old! We were roomates our first year at WSU and it was a blast. Actually, I believe this is her 19th b-day. She is liking off the frosting, not trying to to cut herself. Kelsey helped to make my 1st year at WSU a ton of fun, I dunno what I would have done without out her. We laughed a lot and stayed up too late.

Here Kelsey is trying to get the smell of burnt popcorn out of our dormroom. I had a tendancy to burn it repeatedly, oops.

Kelsey on her 20th b-day...pretty bird... Also our 2nd year of being roomates!

What a happy child, I caught her in mid-laugh.

Kelsey in 2006 looking beautiful on her wedding day!!!

Kelsey is a wonderful girl. She's fun to be with, very funny, crazy, goofy, sweet, kind, thoughtful, and a very good listener. And many other things. She is very outgoing and is always herself. She enjoys to be called Bertha and is not afraid to say "sup dawg" to anyone, including CEOs of major companies, mauahahahah. Kelsey finished nursing school and is now a nurse at Mayo, is married to a wonderful guy named Jeff, and is expecting a baby this spring. Her and Jeff also just bought their 1st house, WOW! I am very blessed and glad to have Kelsey as such a very good friend! I love that she lives close to me now! I'm glad I got to write a blog about her and I hope she's not offended by any of the pics, ahahah.

Love ya girl!!!