Easter Weekend

As you've noticed (as if there are any of "you" still around), I've been MIA in the blog-o-sphere. I've missed it, missed writing. But especially, I have missed keeping up with the many blogs that I follow and being encouraged, challenged, entertained, and informed by you them. I'm behind in the blog-o-sphere for sure. Life has been at a tempo, I'm not sure even this normal busy body is able to keep. The ability to "make it" truly has only come from one source, Christ and I find myself meditating regularly on three key verses: Isaiah 40:21-31, Philippians 4:6, and Matthew 6:25-34. He has been so faithful, and I've made it this far... 8 days to go to complete the trimester. I'm super close to saying, "one more down!"

Considering the pace of life these days, my blogging isn't the only thing that has suffered. I feel out of touch with friends, family, and at times, even my mate. I don't mean to sound like Nancy Negative - but at the same time I don't want to be fake... it's hard right now. Thankfully the Lord has blessed me with an amazing support network all throughout... lately I've been more humbled than ever by that network (husband, family, friends, church, etc) God has provided and their abundant support, encouragement, and provision.... seemingly just when I need it, right when I'm at breaking point.

Last month, Mr. McGoo and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary! It's doesn't seem like it's been that long, but at the same time it feels longer - - - I'm quickly forgetting what life was like before Mr. McGoo. And have been abundantly blessed the last 5+ years as God has blessed me with him in my life. To celebrate - I got Mr. McGoo a ring:

To celebrate our anniversary, Mr. McGoo took me to Hot Springs, Arkansas - but due to our schedule, Easter weekend was the earliest opportunity for our trip's date. So... this weekend we enjoyed Thursday night thru Sunday morning in Hot Springs and had a great opportunity to hang out with one another without distraction. It was grand! So without further adieu, here is a quick photo log of our trip.

We slept in (YAY!), read, ate a massive pizza at Rod's Pizza Cellar, went to a Secret Church simulcast, watched the races at Oaklawn Park, and ultimately just laid low. It was a perfect weekend.

We made it back to Memphis in time to worship and celebrate Easter with our church family. Following service, we headed to the rents' casa. We enjoyed some time with family, ate a delicious Easter lunch, got Mom and youngest sis signed up on Instagram (encouraging them that surely my BIL would be posting pics frequently once Baby Fisher arrived, no pressure Brent), watched some of the Master's, and headed out to bring our furbaby home.

Home now... back to the grind.

Furbaby Doing Alright

Dex is hanging in there and doing alright. Today is my first day without him bandaged up and we're giving it a go. Last night I took off the wrapping and cleaned the wound, letting it stay out in the open the rest of the evening. Today, I decided to give the entire day a try because it's looking much better and ultimately I didn't have the time, nor strength to wrestle him to get it done.

We're both ready to have daddy home tomorrow night!

Cartoon Style Dexter Doo

Furbaby Problems

When Mr. McGoo is away, apparently the cats will play furbaby problems begin. Yup - Mr. McGoo departed Memphis yesterday afternoon to go see his mom and step dad (a long overdue adventure) and therefore my adventures apparently began soon after....

Came home from class last night, let the furbaby out, he ran around lots, and when he came in - I fed him. Went about my evening for a few minutes until I noticed Dex licking his leg constantly... came over to his bed to find a small pool of blood and a nail hanging by a thread on his back leg. I clipped the remaining portion of the nail and attempted to stop the bleeding. Here is what it looked like once the bleeding ceased (ouch!):

Next I called my rents for advise - they've had dogs their entire life, so I figured, surely they'd have a story about how this once happened and their solution was..., didn't get a hold of them and Mr. McGoo was on a plane in route to Arizona, so I hollered at my middle sis (Thirty-One Gifts Consultant if you ever need anything) and brother in law who are the proud owners of Dexter's sister, Maeby and cousin, Mak. I figured they'd have some ideas or at least understand the challenge I was facing with attempting to work with a wound with my dog by myself.

My sis and bro were the perfect help and talked me through what I somewhat already knew, and gave me the encouragement I needed to attempt to tackle bandaging the foot. It took 9 tries (Dex was not having it for 8 of those 9 attempts), but I finally got it.

Dex did great throughout the night with the bandage - never pulling on it from what I saw and it was fully intact this morning. Once they opened this morning, I called the vet and got the go ahead to keep doing what I'm doing and most importantly KEEP THE FOOT CLEAN.

I made a quick trip to Walgreens with Dexter Doo in tow (he stayed in the car), walking away with $26 worth of these lovely first aid supplies.

Several minutes later, most of the time spent on an attempt to get my furbaby to lay down in the right position and not pull away... I was able to clean the wound and re-bandage Dex up. Once he got settled, he was an excellent "patient".

Finished result as follows:

 

The real test is now underway... what will the state of this bandage be when I return home this evening?

So the test was complete... it failed.
I got a call about 3pm from my friend who was nice enough to stop by and check on the furbaby this afternoon. She said that although Dexter was doing well, his bandage was off and completely in tact as if it just "fell off". I returned home to try again. With the help of my friend distracting the pup while I cleaned the wound and reapplied antibacterial ointment and the dressing, we attempted again. Thankfully, I returned home more than 4hrs later to find the dressing in place and my furbaby doing well. Check him out...

I love me some Dex!

Blessed

The Lord has been and I know He will continue to be SO faithful in this crazy journey we call nursing school. He has blessed me abundantly with study mates that help carry the load, classmates that push me to be better, coworkers that encourage me as I leave my work day to tackle another clinical rotation, family that loves me and reminds me regularly, friends that send short words of encouragement and hellos, and a mate that is nothing short of the best teammate in the world!

I don't know what I'd do without Mr. McGoo and the way he carries the load with me. The other night, I soaked up a short THE WALKING DEAD date with my main squeeze. I get so nervous during that show when it's intense that I had to do something random to distract myself while watching so I did not fret... here is what I came up with...

Study Material

So... I'm certain that Dex is not a fan of all this studying and paying attention to books that his mama does while at home... often keeping me from loving on him to his liking. He has shown me this with many of his to dos, one of which I documented here showing how he puts his head on my books and won't move.

Last night, he showed me once again his disdain for my study habits and school pursuits...

Mr. McGoo was away in Starkville, MS with some friends watching his beloved CATS take on the Dawgs in men's basketball. I walked into the house after class and knew something was up as soon as I didn't have a visual of Dexter from the doorway (meaning he was hiding).

I walked into the backroom where he's confined to find the book (on the left) looking like....

THIS on his bed! 

The entire plastic cover devoured and left for me in a nice throw-up like treat on the other side of the room (I didn't photograph that, you're welcome). In addition, he grabbed my note card filing box and when it popped open from the pressure of his mouth, he devoured the note cards I had made also (probably 10 total). Yummy!

Guess I'll have a story every time I pull out this drug reference book for the rest of my school career - never short of an adventure!

Sonic Happy

I thought I'd stop by and say hello quick enough to confirm that I'm alive. I'm well too, considering all that is going on. Hubs, Mr. McGoo takes very good care of me as we continue to travel down this crazy road we call nursing school.

Today, Mr. McGoo stopped by and gave me a little happy from Sonic - a raspberry sweet tea I had been craving for over a week - before he jumped in a car traveling to Starkville, MS to watch his beloved Kentucky CATS take on the Mississippi State Dawgs tonight!

I'm about to meet my "mid-term" moment of the trimester... it's crazy because I feel as if I've been doing this forever, but in reality it's only been 7 weeks. The silver lining, however is that I'm on a 7 week countdown until I can say I've completed another trimester of nursing school... taking it one at a time.


I'm off in a few to complete my first official HESI examination. Oddly enough, I'm not worried about it, although I know I'm not really prepared... for this time only, if we do not pass (77C is the lowest grade you can make to pass), we have an opportunity to do some remediation work and retake the exam. I think that has removed a lot of the pressure from my shoulders. I'm going to go in tonight, do my best to recall all I can remember and "know" from my Basic Skills, Health Assessment, and Essentials of Nursing courses of past - and see where we go from there.

***Update: I passed with a 79.55%. Thankful for that! Only frustrating part is that 3 of the questions I missed, I actually had right - just stupid entry errors. Lesson from the story: Take my time and make sure I follow ALL directions. Silly. I want to do better!

untapped resource

"The single largest pool of untapped resource in this world is human good intentions that never translate into action."

-Cindy Gallop