New Car!

This isn't exactly "new" news but about a month ago now we got a new used car! I was driving on a major road here in Tucson when the Rio died on me and I had to be pushed into a parking lot! A few days later we found out that the engine was completely done and it was going to cost more to fix it than the car was worth!!! I said NO WAY...not for a freaking Kia! It just wasn't going to be worth it and so the hunt began for a used car that was going to last us a very long time. After a few days we came across an ad on Craig's list for a 2004 Civic Coupe with only 26,000 miles on it! We thought it may be too good to be true but went to check it out anyways. In the end it turned out that the guy owned a very nice art gallery on 4th ave, had art work from people in Architecture in there, and even had his house built by Brant's new firm! Talk about a small world! Brant's dad was very kind to offer to help us with it and we were able to get it! It is only a VP (value package) meaning it came bare bones and is a stick shift with manual locks and windows but it is 1,000 times better than the Rio so I couldn't complain, LOL! We ended up putting an alarm on it, made the locks power, and tinted the windows. I now want to keep it forever! I was going to get a new car after graduation but I love this one so I hope it lasts for many years:-)! The pic isn't our exact car but you get the idea...hopefully ours will soon have a spoiler too;-)...but I have to get Brant and Mark to agree to put it on! Brant keeps making fun of me and telling me it doesn't do anything...but I always tell him that it makes the car so CUTE:-)!

Meg's Bachelorette Party!

So this weekend we had Meg's bachelorette party...it was AMAZING! So relaxing and best of all Meg was happy:-)! We went to Sundrops Nail Spot in Scottsdale, Paradise Bakery for lunch, checked into the Intercontinental Montelucia Resort & Spa, and then went to dinner at the Yard House and a few clubs all on Saturday! On Sunday we slept in a little and then hung out by the pool the rest of the day. It was perfect!

Trash the Dress!

So I was finally able to do my Trash the Dress session with Shelly Ivy! It was SO much fun and I am so glad that even two years later I was able to do it! I only have two pictures now that she gave me print copies of my I just wanted to put them up:-)!

*IVY STUDIOS PHOTOGRAPHY*

*IVY STUDIOS PHOTOGRAPY*

Life

Sometimes you just never know how things are going to work out. I have realized in the last few days that yeah maybe along the way some bad things will happen but when you are least expecting it something wonderful can happen to you. Lately I have truly been trying to strengthen my relationship with God and feel it has helped me in so many ways. I am still not a perfect Christian nor do I know the Bible front to back but God has truly been working in my life. Trusting him fully can finally allow things that you may have never thought would happen. You realize that you really do deserve these wonderful aspects of your life and that trying (while not always succeeding) to be a good person will pay off.

I am just so grateful!

~Heather~

Too Many Options!

VS

For a while now I have had this idea of exactly what I was going to do after graduation and where I was going to go. I always thought my only real option for grad school was ASU...not my first choice by the way, LOL! And I was fine with that...I just wanted to get my DNP. Jenny showed me this website the other day, though, on grad schools all over the US. I now have about 30 choices!!! NOT that I could get into some of these but the idea of Columbia, Duke, or Vanderbilt...sounds AMAZING! Not only would we be able to explore but I could possibly get the chance to go to a wonderful school that would have never been an option for my undergrad! I was most definitely turned off by the $65,000 price tag that comes along with a school such as Columbia, but IT'S Columbia, LOL! Jenny and I were trying to also find schools that had both of our programs (she wants a dual women's health and midwifery nurse practitioner degree), which many of them do have. It would be so exciting to continue school with her...she's one of the main reasons I've made it this far:-).
I spoke to Brant about these options and of course he said that he would follow me wherever and that he actually wouldn't mind being somewhere else for a little while. But then he told me the horrible news...we wouldn't be able to have kids until after we moved back to AZ!!! Well, I don't graduate with my BSN until I'm 23 then I have to wait 1-3 years before I can even apply which makes me 26 plus 3 years of going to school....I'm now about 29!!! I DON'T think so, LOL! I'm sorry if "I want it all" but I don't think I should have to choose :-(. I don't want to say we HAVE to have kids then, but I would like the option.
Anyways...that's my dilemma. I know it would just be so much easier, not to mention cheaper, to stay here and just go on with my plan of ASU, but I don't want to regret anything. I know it seems like I am thinking about this a little early but unfortunately with a choice this big you can't just wait until it hits you in the face:-). No matter what, though, I know we'll figure it out eventually!

Just another day in critical care...

So I just wanted to share with everyone how adorably cute I looked today when I went with my patient to the cath lab! You have to wear a lead vest while procedures are going on HAHA! Mine of course was bright blue with a big heart embroidered on the left side:-)!

Critical Care Rotation So Far...

I have been in my critical care rotation only two weeks now but I have seen and done so much! I was really looking forward to this rotation...the care plans not so much:-(. Our theory teacher this semester is huge on going all the way down to the cellular level on all of our patient's labs that are abnormal and how their meds work...it takes a million years but it really makes you learn the stuff! I feel like a real nurse now and that I can actually help save some one's life! So anyways here is a breakdown of all the fun stuff I've seen/done:

*Five IVs just in the ED (ER...apparently it's no longer cool to call it an emergency "room" because it is not a single room but an entire emergency "department", LOL!)

*Foley catheter

*Push fast acting heart meds to pull someone out of SVTs (supraventricular tachycardia)

*Seeing many patients on vents

*Patients with trachs (hole cut into their throat with a tube inserted)

*Watching a patient, who had major neurosurgery, intubated

*Helping (and by helping I mean holding fat out of the way so the Dr could see :-) ) the Dr put in an A-line or arterial line (kind of like an IV but it's much bigger and goes into the artery)...he tried a few times in the radial artery and again in the femoral with no luck

*Central line dressing change (sterile procedure where you clean and re-dress a large IV like line that was going into the jugular vein)

*Going to MRI with patient who had softball size tumor removed...softball size hole now left

*Watching a patient try to wake up after having neurosurgery....cough reflex comes back while still on the vent, rapid eye movement, moving arms and legs...and best of all the family getting so excited!

I am hoping I will get to see/help with a code this semester (not that I want any one to go into cardiac arrest) but...I think that would really prepare me for anything that comes my way. I have noticed that I am less and less nervous went it comes to my skills...something I could have never imagined four semesters ago! Well anyways...that's what I've been up to the last couple of weeks! The pick above is what an ICU patient can look like...not all are hooked up to every machine made but it's possible.