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!!!

Money in Da Bank

This is the lil' piggy that Chris (and occasionally me) put change into. It has been accumulating change since October 2006. Here is what the piggy spilled out....

Now we have a challenge for you, if you choose to accept it. We have counted the money up and whooever guesses the closet wins! If you win, you get a special blog written by me in your honor, good prize eh? So, look at the money and take a guess, it's fun!

Cara Kjersti Dietzman is 22!!!!!!

My bestest friend Cara turns 22 on the 21st, but I thought I'd put this up a day early. I have known Cara since 1992 I think, so I was 8 and she was 6! That's about 16 years! I am very honored and blessed to have such a wonderful friend! I know we will always be friends and I wish her the very best day!!!!!!!!!! Cara, I hope you don't have clinicals on your birthday! Maybe you get the day off cuz it's MLK? Love ya lots and I miss you!!!!!!!!! xoxoxoxox


I think this was when we were 6 and 8!!!!



My special and dear friend Cara Marie....





Love ya Cara!

A chocolate flower

Christopher gotted me a flower!

Chris was at Kwik Trip a few nights ago and he saw this chocolate flower and he thouht that I thought it would be cute, so he brought it to me! I was very excited and I do think it's very cute. I haven't had the heart to eat it, becuase I like the looks of it. It's even dark chocolate! Yum! So, anyhoo, thought you all should know about my thoughtful husband :)

A non-work related blog

Well, I'll start out with one lil-bitty work thing......Sunday was awesome, cuz at around noon I found out I was going to get 4 hours off and get to go home at 3:30 instead of 7:30. My joy and elation cannot be described with words, it was like my soul came alive and 100 white doves flew in the room and rainbows were arching through the skies and and and it was wonderful. heehee.

So, that night I got to go to Olive Garden with my parents, it was so fun a yummy. Chris had to work :(

Then, I got Monday off, what did I do....hmmm, mostly just relaxed and hung out. I had Kid's Hope, it was good, and later Heather brought over my dress for her wedding, it's beautiful. Then later Mom and I went to The Bucket List, it was good and we were the only ones in theatre! We got super hyper, heehee. Mom stood up and danced once, ha! And we shouted things out like obnoxious kids do at movies, heehee.

Today, I first went to WW and lost 3.6 lbs, nice huh? Then I worked out and ate out with Chris! Then Casey and Kelsey came over and we planned Hut's party, oops, Hut reads this, oops, oops, now she'll know, oh well, hahaha sneaky sneaky. We did some other stuff but I'll keep it on the down low, so Hut doesn't know! MUAHAHHAHAH.

Then, Chris left for la class de sign language and I ate din din and went to watch Idol with Mom and Dad. Ate some point Gavin drove me and him to Kwik Trip in his new car. I was sitting there thinking wow, I remember when he was born and now he's driving me around, it's crazy. He let me pick the music on his ipod, so of course, I picked MMMBop, duh.

Now Chris and I are safely at home, away from the frozen tundra of doom that is our great outdoors. Luckily it's warm in here.

Chris is sitting at his computer. Every so often he mumbles something under his breath like, "ugh" or "unbelieveable". I keep looking over at him, like "what's wrong?" but then I remember he's playing chess online, heehee. It's pretty intense :) I love him lots :)

Tomorrow, in place of a day of work, I have an 8 hour class, this is tortorous, but at least it's not work. And, bonus, Mom and Kelsey are in it too. Then I work Thurs and Fri day shifts, brrrr, walking in the cold! Oh well.

Welp, that's it folks, thanks for reading. Goodnight and Good day.

And, here's a few parting gifts....

Middle School Bangs, HAHAHAHAHAHAHH

Chris in his new jammies I got him, he's a lil' special, he's doesn't know what to do with his hands in pictures, akward!

This pic was a year ago, but today we were on the same couch and we generally look the same, so here ya go, Casey, Kelsey, and Brie

A change in the pace

Well, it's my weekend to work and it's 6:30pm. I've been working since about 7:30am and this is the 1st moment I've had to sit and take a breath! It's been insane! You know how last week I was completely bored, well today has been the exact opposite, just non-stop-ness! Wow, I am dizzy and light headed and hungry and headachy and sleepy! Me need supper. Well, I guess I did sit down for lunch today, but other than that, it's been running running running.

Okay, I better go help some peeps. Bye!

Look Ma!

Last night Mom taught me how to crochet. Below is my first attempt. I realized when I was done that I was missing the last loop of every row and making a few other mistakes which led to this "triangle" shape which was supposed to be a sqaure, oops....


Then, last night when I got home I found my needle and some thread and I started a new one to show mom my skillz. I ran outta thread, but here's as far as I got. It's still a bit misshapen, but it's better! Look ma!


So, now I'm kinda addicted. I wanna figure out if I'm doing something wrong to make the edges all uneven, but maybe soon I'll get good at it! Fun fun.

3 for 3

Well it's night #3.

I have completely new patients tonight, only 2 of them, and guess what......they're easy! What is going on around here? I'm used to running around with my head cut off. It's become quite clear to me that I do not want a slow job. I'd rather be somewhat busy. I have the sweetest patients tonight and I have done a lot with them, but nothing takes too much time and they're hardly ever calling for help.

So, I've been trying to answer as many other patient's call lights as I can. But no one is overly busy tonight. We just have a nice group of patients right now I think. It's 21:18 right now, can you figure out what time that is??? Okay, I'll tell you, it's 9:21. I remember when I had no clue about military time and now I don't even have to think about it, it just comes to me. What a handy skill huh?

Last night I woke up in the middle of the night to find myself with quite the overwhelming feeling of nausea, random. Sorry to gross you out, but yeh, I threw up. For those of you who are instantly thinking, "oh she must be pregnant" I can guarantee you, this is not the case. As sick and twisted as this is, I was actually thinking, "Yes, now I'm sick and I can have the day off!" But no, I woke up feeling just perfectly fine, of course. So yeh, I have no idea what that was all about.

Chris left for b-ball today with Dad and Brice while I went and worked out. I then met my dear mother at Subway for lunch! We went to Target next where she got a few things and I got toilet paper, fun huh? Then of course it was off to work, again. After tonight I'll get 2 days off, then I work the weekend, which are 2 twelve hour shifts. At least they'll be in the day and more busy.

I wish I had something more interesting to say so I can waste more time. I have a few pills to give at 10:00 and then I'll be bored again. I'm trying to be as helpful as possible. I organized the kitchen, it was already kinda messy after only 2 weeks here. I cleaned out the fridge and straightened the cupboards. I also straightened up all the desk areas, hahaha.

I cannot think of a single thing to do now. I found out I need to change my nursing lisence so it doesn't say Brianna Hemmer. I need to copy our marriage license and send it all out tomorrow or else! Yikes.

Let's see what else could I write about.....

Ok, I'm done. I think I'll go give pills or something.........bye all!

I really don't expect you all to read all these blogs I've been writing like crazy...

Wow, could this night be any more boring. Imagine having 8 hours to play on the computer, yeh, you run outta things to do and your eyes get all stingy. I think in this 8 hour shift I have probably done 1.5 hours of actual real work. I have maybe spent about 10 mintues helping other nurses (and trust me, I've been offering my help!). I have spent the other several hours on the computer writing blogs, checking my email repeatedly, checking facebook every 2 seconds for any updates of any kind from anyone, and last but not least, I filled out my schedule for the next set of hours, which is from mid Feb to mid April. Easter is not technically a "holiday" here at Mayo, I dunno why, but our unit chooses to recognize it at one and flip-flops our weekends around accordinly so that some people don't have to keep working Easter year after year. This year, my weekend is working Easter, I just found this out, not a big deal, but kinda sad. Oh well. I've discovered being a nurse means missing out on the best of days, not always, but often enough for it to be quite a sad thing for me!

Again, I have around an hour left. I was going to get an admission from the ER, a car crash, but they sent the patient home I guess, so yeh, it's just me and the 2 easiest patients on earth. I'm certainly not complaining that they're easy, it just results in me being so lethargic and bored.

To waste my time and yours, I shall copy Cheri, Mom, and Cara and do this:

20 Random Facts About Yours Truly or Things I like/love:

1. My baby blanket in still under my pillow, it's see through and torn, but I love it. Chris doesn't love it, hahaha. But he doesn't give me a hard time about it very often :)

2. I have no desire to leave my home: Rochester that is. I love it here. I love that my family and friends are here.

3. I adore my brothers, they mean the world me to. They are alike, yet different in their own way. I loved growing up with them and love spending time with them. I miss Brice and even wish I could hang out with Gavin even more. They both are such good listeners and can always make me laugh and feel better. I secretly like that they're both so much taller than me. I'm so proud of both of them. I love that we are so close.

4. I love to eat, for no good reason, I could make a sport out of it. This is a curse.

5. Gymastics is hands down my favorite sport. I miss it so much. I loved to do it, love to watch it, love to try to teach it to others, etc. I feel like it's one of the most beautiful, difficult, and unappreciated sports.

6. I love to travel/vacation. Especially anywhere warm! I love reading on the beach, playing in the waves, seeing new things (like other countries), and even skiing down the mountains (yikes I almost died) This includes camping as well. Camping to me is so many awesome memories with my family growing up, it's such a simple vacation, but they're always some of the best ones.

7. I love popcorn, movie theatre's the best. Yes, I would go to a movie just for the popcorn.

8. Pine Haven Christian Assembly is my favorite place on earth. But it's not just the place, it's the people you spend time with there and the things you spend time doing. I hope this place can always be a part of my life as time goes on. If someone said to me, "Pine Haven will fail to exist unless you agree to run the camp yourself" I would do it!

9. My cousins: Jamey, Megan, Ryan, Kellie, Jill, Alex, Sam, Grant, and Jensen are so awesome, I just love them and the memories I have with each of them and will continue to have. I'm thankful that they're so close.

10. I stopped biting my nails.

11. I hate to ride bike for exercise, only for fun!

12. I fall asleep almost every night to picturing myself doing an amazing bar routine, I guess the smoothness of it sends to off to sleep.

13. My husband is my bestest friend. I feel so blessed that he picked me and that I get to spend each day with him. I love him so much and I'm so glad to be his wife.

14. My 2nd toe on my right foot is stupid and deformed, I dunno why.

15. I do not want to work at any job.

16. The furthest back memory I have is -running around in circles in my front yard in Kasson with cuzzin Megan, pretending lions were chasing us- we were three years old.

17. My parents are my heros!

18. I love having my feet rubbed and tickled, heehee.

19. My ideal schedule would be stay up until 2am, get up at 10:30am. But this doesn't work well with a productive life, and I wanna be productive.

20. I try to be more like God and less like me. I fail a lot, but I keep trying.

Yes, Again.........

Well, here I am again at work, except now, I have about 5 hours left. I'm on my break and I'm bored actually. There's nothing on TV and yeh, nothing to do. This has been a strangely dull week at work.

I have 2 patients and they're both very pleasant and don't need me very much. Hopefully I don't get a post-op later or something!

Today was just dandy. I got myself up and out to weight watchers, I somehow managed to take a month break from that, oh well, so now I have to make up for lost time. I had lost 21 lbs and now after that month break, I've lost 17 lbs, so you do the math on the damage I did over break.

After that Chris and I hung out for a while and went to Culver's for lunch, at which I ate quite sensibly. We were there for a while and then I pretty much had to come back home to get ready for work. And, here I am.

Chris had a ton of fun at the x-mas party last night, he got to dress up in a huge sumo suit and wrestle people. He also did some karokee. His voice is hoarse today and he'll all sore, sounds like he had a lotta fun, heehee.

Tomorrow, I work again, but I hope to work out before hand and get back into the swing of things with that. I'm on a mad search tonight to try and find someone to work for me on March 15th, my friend Heather's wedding (I'm in it!). I asked for it off and I didn't get it for whatever reason and the nurse manager's gone today and tomorrow and I'm getting paranoid, so I am calling someone later on and she can hopefully do it for me! Yikes. Well, I'm pretty much gonna have to call in and say I can't come if I don't end up getting it off, cuz obviously I need and want to be there!!!

Well, I think I'll find something to do for the rest of my break. Have a lovely evening. I'll probably write more later, when I'm bored.

peace out.

PS: there are a few new blogs below if you haven't read them yet, make sure you do, they're thrilling.

I'm drinking Lime Diet Coke

Well here I am at work again, this seems to be the trend now, chart at work....

This past weekend was just fabulous. On Friday night, I got to hang out with Kellie, Jill, Dora, and Whitney. We first met at Tinns, a good sandwhich place by my parents house. We made a quick stop at the dollar store to get some 4 for $1 giant blow pops before going to Chateau to see the movie Juno. It was super good and funny. Then my cousins and Dora come over to my place to hang out. When Chris got home from work we all played Cranium. I think Chris and I won this time. Last time Kellie and Jill beat us bad. I love having people over at our place, it doesn't happen enough. I feel like having people there just fills the place up with cheer, not that Chris and I are not cheery, but ya know, there are more voices, more laughter, I like it.

Then, on Saturday, I got to hang out with 2 wonderful friends Heather and Kelsey. We met to eat at Noodles, it's kinda our place now. We had fun despite the missing link, Casey! She had to work and we really missed her! We were there 2 hours! Hut had to go so Kelsey and I went to the mall and I went in the maternity store with her. I felt funny at first, like people would assume I was pregnant, heehee.

Soon I was home to have a date with Chris, yay! I love love love when Chris and I can just hang out together for a huge chunk of time, I just have so much fun with him :) We went out to eat at Carlos, his idea! It was good as always. Then we rushed off to Chateau to see National Treasure. They wouldn't take our movie discount tickets, grrrrr, apparently it's too new and spectacular of a movie. So, we left cuz we didn't wanna pay and didn't wanna see anything else. We drove to Cinemagic too see what they had playing. The only movie there that we wanted to see was also Nat'l Treasure. So, we just tried it out and whatta ya know, they didn't even question our discount tickets! SCORE! It was actually a really good movie, I liked it a lot, much more than the first one. Chris liked it a lot too!!! Yay! Then I think we went to Target? We go to Walmart or Target almost everyday I think, heehee. We had the rest of the night to just hang out!

Sunday morning I drug myself outta bed to go teach the 3 years old a thing or two at church. Chris and I only ended up having one kid this week, last time it was like 6. I missed the ones that weren't there. We had fun playing one-on-one, well 2-on-1 actually with the little girl that came. We build houses, did a craft, read a story, learned the lesson about Jesus as a boy, and let Chris chase us around, heehee.

Chris had to go to work and I went to church. Then the Hemmer unit as a whole went over to Brad and Julie's to celebrate Brad and Ryan's b-days. Ryan's isnt' until Feb. but he's going back to college soon. Great Grandpa Hemmer was also there. I really only see him about once a year. His name is Neil Chandler Hemmer and he'll be 95 years old in March. Wowee! He lives alone and my great aunt and uncle live near him to help him out when he needs it. I think it's pretty sweet that he's able to do that. His wife, my great grandma, Mildred died when I was a sophomore in high school, so about 2001. It was pretty much expected and we got to say goodbye to her and she died a few days later at home. The last time I talked to her, she was very lucid, she knew me and everyone else in the room and her and great grandpa were still teasing each other. I miss her, she was a sweet lady, I can still hear what her voice sounds like.

Then......today, Chris and I got up earlier than I would care to to go work out. We got there around 9:15ish and of course, there was no parking, as seems to be the trend as of late at the healthy living center. We circled the 3 different lots several times and had no luck. So, we went to McDonalds and had orange juice (Chris) and pop (Me). Then we tried the lots one more time and found a good spot. We had to do a quick work out by this time cuz Chris had to work at 11:00.

I had Kid's Hope at 1:00, it was fun and we accomplished some things and got to color as well, which she really likes to do. We giggled a lot today :)

I had to miss the Culver's Christmas party tonight, cuz of work. I haven't missed one of those in I dunno how long, because I myself worked there for so long and then I go with Chris now, so yeh, I like going and I was sad to miss it. Word has it, there will be sumo wrestling........

Well, work's about over now, finally, it was a dull night, but that's ok.

Bye all, have a wonderful week! I work Tues & Wed nights and the weekend days, so I'm sure there'll be more blogs to come!

25 questions....

Choose 5 people then answer the questions, no looking ahead until you've chosen!

1. Heather
2. Kelsey
3. Christopher
4. Jackie
5. Gavin

1. How did you meet 3? We met at Culver's where we both worked, but we got to know each other really well on AOL when I moved to Winona.

2. What would you do if 3 and 5 were going out? I'd be jealous cuz I only want Chris to date me, but it would be awful, because #5 is my brother and that's just wrong

3. How long have you known number 2? We grew up in the same church and I always knew who she was, but we did not become good friends until we were roomates in Winona in 2003.

4. How do u know 5? He's my baby brother

5.What would you do if 4 confessed they loved you? I'd be honored, she's my mom!

6. A fact about number 1: She used to make chicken kiev a lot in college and I never knew what that was until her! She saves all her lotions and candles she's ever gotten, but just threw them away finally. She's also incredibly "special" and hilarious.

7. Who is 3 going out with? Me, his wife! yay!

8. What does 5 do for a living? Nothing, he's an 11th grader

9. Would you live with 3? Yes I would, in fact I do, and I love it!

10. Do you truely love any of the 5? Oh yes, I love them all.

11. What do you like about number 1? She loves God like I do, she's funny, fun, kind, loving, smart, and understands my special brain.

12. Do you miss number 3? Yes I do, he's at the Culver's Christmas party, and here I sit at work, I miss him!

13. What do you like about #5? Gavin is just the coolest, I love him to death. He's funny, talanted, and so sweet. When I am down, he always knows it and asks me what's wrong and tries to make me feel better. He's my baby brother, I like everything about him!

14. What is your opinion of 3? He's a-ight. JK, he's the love of my life! He's the most honest person I know. He's hilarious, out-going, fun to be with, smart, great talker and listener, bold, brave, all those great things. He's amazing! I love him! I also think he's very cute, heehee.

15. Would you ever go out with number 1? Sure, gladly, any day :) We're just friends though, heehee.

16. Would you ever go party with number 2? yes, a nice clean party would suit Kelsey and I just fine. In fact I was at the all boys party Jeff had with her a few weeks ago, heehee.

17. Would you ever get really personal with number 4? Um, no, sh'es my mom, that would be incredibly awkward, jk, of course!

18. Have you ever slept over at 5's house? Yeh, everyday for 15 years

19. Is anyone on the list your best friend? Yep

20.What do you like about number 2? She's just an awesome friend, I feel so blessed to spend time with her. She's great to talk to and is one of the best listeners. I also think she's hilarious and she makes me laugh and she laughs at my jokes too, heehee. I also like that she's nice, fun, honest, and neato.

21. What do you like about #4? She's my mommy, I like everything. Shes fun, funny, sweet, so caring and self-sacrificing. She always makes sure I'm ok, no matter how old I am. She's got the kindest heart ever and is SO giving and thougtful!

22. Have you ever seen number 1 naked? LOL, um no. I saw her in her pajamas a lot though, ahahah, scandalous!

23. What's number 3's favorite drink? Diet Coke from the can and Diet Mountain Dew from the fountain.

24. Are any of the 5 in love with you? Yeh, #3 is in love with me, heehee.

25. Are you in love with any of the 5? Yeh, my husband!

Welcome 2008

The last I wrote was the 27th, so a few things have happened since then...

On the 29th we had our "Christmas Eve" celebration with the Hemmer side at Grandpa and Grandma's house. It was wonderful to be there with everyone, it's so homey and nice to be with everyone. It's amazing to see the "kids in front of the tree" picture now, we're all adult sized and no more little kids! It was once just little baby me in front of that tree! Gran had a wonderful meal of ham for us and we had fun hanging out and doing present time.

Kellie and Jill and I had a good idea of having a sleepover! Chris was so kind as to be just fine with this idea. Us girls watched about 3 episodes off my season 4 Gilmore Girls and I fell asleep around 2:30, yikes.

I worked New Year's Eve Day, Keith, the best man, came over and helped us dispose of our tree, he has a truck, then we took him out for lunch and had fun chit-chatting. His fiance Amy is due to have a baby in February, they just moved to Rochester, and they're getting married in May, so they are very busy people!

I worked that night but got to my parents at 11:50pm, just in time to say, "Happy New Year!"
Mom had yummy food and there were a bunch of peeps there, it was neato.

Today, Chris worked early so I had lunch with Mom. It was lots of fun, we went to Panera (cuz Noodles was closed!) and then to Target, where I bought many things, such as hangers and swiffers. Soon it was time to come here, to work.
Now I have about an hour left of my shift. All my peeps are snuggled in bed ready to sleep. I hope this hour goes fast. Goodnight all!!!

Some Holiday Pictures... (the ones from Mom's camera are little, I dunno why)

Chris and I during the first mintue of 2008!


Christmas morning


Mom and Dad on 2008


The Lewis Side



Our sleepover! Notice the matching jammies, it was their gift to me!

The Hemmer Side

The Erickson Side

Chris and I on Christmas Day!

I said, "Pick me up!"

Alex, Megan, and I

Welcome to Mary Brigh 8BG

Well, my life on Alfred/Joseph is no more. Today is the official beginning of ortho trauma on 8MBBG. I came at 3:30 and I could tell the day crew had quite the day, pretty stressful and chaotic. Some nurses had moved 1/2 their patients up here, but still had some downstairs, don't ask me how that works. Things are semi-organized. Over the period of the 6 hours I've been here I've tried to memorize where things are, but honestly I'm very slow and confused at finding what I need. Hopefully the patients are not to bothered by the fact that I cannot find anything promptly. The unit is HUGE! My very first room is one of our 5 double rooms, 8-574A and B. It's in a corner and I have this giant computer and desk all to myself. There is sooooo much space, it's huge, the hallway is so huge! It's awesome. The rooms are huge and beautiful. We have a view of Rochester out our windows which is pretty sweet, there are vital sign machines in each room, there's room to move in any direction, the bathrooms are huge I can use the lift to lift people myself, there are like 10X more drawer/storage spaces everywhere, and so on and so on. But I do feel far from everyone, usually we're all charting by each other, but I cannot see anyone right now!!! Pod B was closed and we filled up pod G, but now there are 4 people in pod B. I believe we have 32 beds total. Which is pretty close to what we had before. I think there are 22 patients right now, so we're not full. Pod G is bigger because it's got a little extra chunk to it. Each pod is shaped like a horseshoe, so wherever you sit, you can pretty much see everyroom, which is such an improvement. The lockerroom/breakrooms are nice and there are so many more bathrooms for us and for families. The family lounge is awesome too! One thing I love is that the family members have their own couch in each room, so they're out of the way and they can sleep there too! Things are a little confusing up here, especially for the charge nurses, but everyone's doing pretty good. I already feel more aquainted then I did 6 hours ago. There are so many storage rooms, it'll take a while to remember what is in what. I'm sure they'll get around to labeling them eventually. It's fun to see people come up here and be like "wow, it's huge" We had an IV tech come up here and she was like, "why have I never been up here before" and I was like, well it's our first day, and she starting laughing and said, "oh that explains it".

Well, I think I'll go do a couple last things. I'll update about Christmas later.
But the feeling is is that I love our new unit, love it! And cannot wait for it to get all in order and organized, it'll be even better!

Worst night shift of my life and a runner up for the worst shift EVER

Hello all. I have a hypothetical 1/2 break, although I'm sure a call light will go on any second.

I have SIX patients since 11:00 last night. 3 are sleeping well for the most part. 2 are peeing on the hour every hour, I kid you not. And the remaining 1 is trying to jump out of his bed and pull out every tube and cord he has. Someone is sitting in with him, but it's no use, I'm in there constantly. I've given him many drugs designed to calm him, none work. We have restraints ready to go if he must be tied down.

My head is a fog and it's throbbing. I am nauseous and quite miserable feeling. The miserable feeling started at about 4:30. It's 5:30 and I just ate my first thing since 6:00 last night, wow, that's like 12 hours with no food, I guess that's not that impressive, but I've been active those 12 hours, so yeh, that explains the nausea.

2 hours left and many many pills left to give. I cannot give any until 6. The next nurse should relieve me around 7:15-30ish. That will be the happiest moment ever. Then I will go home and my bed will be like heaven and it will be the best feeling ever. Chris will be there and it'll be warm and cozy cozy cozy. Make it come sooner! In 3 hours, I'll be there.

Oh, there goes one of my lights, it's one of the pee-ers, jeesh, it's only been 45 mintues. Shoot me.

BYE!!!!! Sorry, I don't hate my job, I'm just so tired........

Whatnot and Such

I have pictures to put up, but I'm at work, so I cannot, but will later.

This past weekend was super super super fun. Here's why it was fun....Mom and I went on a lil' trip Fri-Sat.

First of all. Friday morning my dear friend Kelsey and I went to see our dear friends Heather and Casey graduate from WSU. The four of us are now all officially WSU Alumni!!!! It's been pretty neat to know these girls and be their roomates and see them go from freshman to graduated!!! I'm so proud! The ceremony was less exciting then starting at a wall, but it was worth it to see my girls walk up and get their diploma (or the holder for it) and to see them afterwards.

Friday night my mom and I left for a just-for-fun jaunt to the cities and surrounding area. We drove up to Burnsville and stayed at a lovely hotel. We went to the mall there and then to a super yummy restaurant called Old Chicago, so good! Then we went to a late movie in Lakeville of "I am Legend" with Will Smith, who knew it would be absolutely terrifying?! We didn't! But we were watching it through our fingers and shreaking. Ugh, so scary, but good. We enjoyed our cozy and fluffy beds and the continental breakfast. We then made our way to the Southdale mall in Edina. Here I spent all the x-mas $$$ people have given me to spend. I spent it all at my fav store: New York and Co. The total was $280.00, but due to coupons and discounts, it came to $118!!!! $100 of that was paid for my the grandparents and $15 of it by mom, leaving me with only $3.00 to pay out of $280.00, YES! I love it. PS: I would NEVER spend $280.00 on clothes, this was only made possible by the discounts. heehee.
Then we got to have lunchy lunch with Bricey Brice at a place called Bonfires, also very yummy. Then we checked out one more small mall, but we think we got the directions wrong and went to the wrong place, oh well. I also got some 50% off cozy things from Old Navy. Fun fun. It was fun to hang out just Mom and I and be all goofy and such. Mom was scaring me all night pretending to be the creepy aliens from the movie, heehee. Eventually we had to come home....

But, home was good too. I got to hang out with my husband, who forced me to work out with him, well he didn't force me, he's just a really good influence. We fianlly got to go to church together. I was wondering if people think we split up, cuz we're always there seperately, heehee. We taught our 2-3 year old about the shepards getting the message from the angel that Jesus was born. They are so cute. After I tell them the bible story, I quiz them.

This is me "The shepards visited baby Jesus!!" Then I ask them, "Who visiited baby Jesus?"
They all reply with a loud shout "God!" heehee, God is their answer to every question, I think that they think they'll just get the answers right if they say God. One of the kids gave us a gift card to Hollywood, fun huh? Afterwards we went to the mall and ate lunch with all the Hemmers and then some. Gavin and I watched the home movie of the day he was born, it's so cute. I remember it like it was yesterday, so it's fun to watch, because I remember what I was thinking. It shows me holding him for the first time, hard to believe he was so little.

Today, I slept in and decided to be a slug, it was very very fun. I had Kid's Hope @ 1:00-2:00, which was fun. And then I've been at work since.
I'm just waiting for the next nurse to take over for me in about 10-15 mins. I taped the finale of Little People and the new John&Kate + 8, so I'm excited to get cozy in bed and watch them!!!

I work tomorrow and Wed and then the overnight weekend, and then it's Christmas!!! I have the 24th, 25th, and 26th off. Then on the 27th I work an evening shift and it's our first day in the NEW UNIT!!! YESSSSSS. I had orientation there last week and I got to practice with the overhead lift system. They used me as a patient so I got to fly through the room and yell out, "I'm Peter Pan!" heehee, it'll be awesome, I can't wait. Today I slammed my hip into a chair and knocked over someone's water cuz our rooms are too small. \

Well, I better get going. Adios!

Nothing

Hello, I haven't update in a while. Not sure why I am right now, lack of something better to do I guess.

Hmmm..not much has happened. I go to work and such. I feel like November flew by, I don't even know what happened. One neat thing is that we got a Christmas tree, a real one, so I like that. It was pretty easy picking one out and setting it up. Chris carried it and put it in the holder and of course I got pictures of it. We decorated it and put lights up too.


I've been buying lots of Christmas presents. Last year I was feeling kinda stressed at the end cuz I saved it all to a few days before Christmas, but this year I started early and there's only a few people I can't think of what to get for.

I don't see my friends much and that has kinda been bummin me out lately, but luckily, I got to see Casey on Friday. I went to her house and hung out a bit, then we went to Chipotle and to the mall to shop around. Chris has been busy with school, he's got 2 papers left and a class on Tuesday, then he's done for the semester, nice huh.

Honestly this year I am hating winter. It's driving me nuts. It's so incredibly cold and I can't stand it. Yes, the snow is pretty, but it's in my shoes and all over my car and I feel like a Strooge about it, but I can't help it, it's miserable. I wanna go do something tonight, but I can't bear the thought of being so blasted cold again and again. I cannot wait for Spring, I just cannot wait. Chris keeps saying when we're old we should have a winter place in Florida, sounds like a good idea right now, hhahahah.


I am bored out of my brains tonight and all I can think of is the next 4 days of torture. I have a 8 hour class tomorrow, unpaid, which I need to re-new my license. Then I work the next four days, ugh. so tired of it. I was watching a show today about people who win the lottery and don't have to work anymore, I was thinking that would be fun, heehee.


Welp, I dunno what to do next, maybe I'll put up some tree pictures. Hopefully tomorrow will be a happier day, cuz this one is one for the birds. Bye.


Chris bringing in the tree



Me hanging up the crayon box


Us and our pretty tree :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAMA!!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful mom.
Mom, I hope you have a wonderful day cuz you deserve it!
You are just amazing and I hope you have an amazing year too :)
I love you!!!!!!!

Night 2 of 2, yes!

Well, it's 4:08am and we have been busy! Time has flown by and now I am finally sitting down to relax and I only have about 3 hours left. I have a bunch of things to do starting around 6:00am, so I have a couple hours to hang out.

I started with 3 patients and I now have 5. I got one admission at like 8:00p last night and one admission at 2:00am, a few hours ago. A sweet little lady. The nurse working with me tonight also got an early morning admission, so we've been busy! Everybody's falling and breakin' things tonight!

Things start to get a little harder to keep track of and organize once you get up to 5 patients. It's do-able at night while they mostly sleep, but I'm starting to forget their names and which is in which room, hahaha. Don't worry though, we have our cheat sheets in our pockets.

My patients are all pretty good. One lady is a bit confused and is being quite illogical, but she's not bad. I really couldn't ask for better, they're all sleeping pretty well.

I'm very excited to go home and sleep. However, I'll need to wake up after 5 hours of sleep to go see my child at Ben Franklin for Kid's Hope. This week we're doing homework and playing a game I think and maybe drawing with the new markers my mom bought for me to use with her, thanks Mom!

Yesterday, when I got home from work, I slept from 8a until 1:45 ish. I just woke up wide awake and went to hang out with my sweet husband who was doing homework all day. I went and worked out and then Chris and I went to Applebees! It's fun to go out to eat right before I come do an overnight. And that's all and here I am. I'm excited for way later today when I'm done with everything and I can just hang out! I have Tues off, but it's back here for Wed, Thurs, and Fri day shifts. I haven't had a day shift in almost a month! I'm kinda glad though; I had enough evenings for a while!

Well, my pinkie is hurting for some reason, so I'll say bye. Thanks for reading my blog!

Love you all!
~Brianna Marie Lewis