What Keeps Me Sane

I had the most insanely busy day today. I thought about writing out a timeline of the day but just the thought of that made me utterly exhausted. I was just talking to another nurse the other day about what "bad days at work" really mean for nurses. They are not the typical bad day at work. They make me feel like I'm holding my breath for 8 hours. Running around with a million tasks to complete, a handful of people who need to speak with me, patients calling. I think around 10:30 I realized I had to pee and it wasn't until 2pm when I actually had the opportunity. I know you are supposed to take care of yourself so you can take care of others, but when you have patients who also need help peeing, getting up, need their meds, Drs who are impatiently waiting to speak with you peeing is the last thing on your mind.

So, what keeps me sane when my days are a blur of running around, meeting everyone's urgent demands, keeping patients happy/safe, and keeping their sometimes overbearing family members happy? My boys. They are my heart and soul. They keep me happy and give me the loves that I need to keep on chugging. This is a pic I took last night with our new camera! Homer is getting so big and Bryan and I have so much fun with him. At night, we often go watch tv in bed before going to sleep. Homer snuggles under the covers and falls asleep in the warm cave of our bed. We love it. Life is precious when I think of these moments. I love you Booger and Punky!xxxxxoooooo

The ridiculousness of $300 haircuts...sorry if I offend anyone

(I chose this picture cause it was just too gosh darn cute to pass up!)

I’ve been meaning to put up a new posting for awhile. Life has finally begun to slow down for the first time in almost 3 years. Since October, the holidays came and went without much excitement, I passed my comp exam on the 2nd try (after some crying and cursing), I graduated and received my masters of science in nursing (woohoo!) and I graduated from Clinical Nurse I to Clinical Nurse II at work! That pretty much brings us to present day, Jan 3 2010.

So the reason it’s taken me so long to post is because I couldn’t think of anything cool to write. My life is boring now. But not boring in a negative way, boring in that I have no more extraordinary stresses in my life, no drama. I have a normal work schedule as does Bryan, and when we’re not at work we are enjoying spending time cooking dinners together, taking Homer to the park, and the like.

In the months since I started to have an income again, we’ve rearranged our priorities A LOT. We don’t spend exorbitant amounts of money on entertainment, we rarely go on vacations (we did just got to Cabo but that was a carefully planned trip to celebrate all of my hard work in nursing school) and we save every penny we can. Our reasons for this shift in lifestyle are to: pay off school loans, save for our own home and a family. And, although this wasn’t the intention, the things that used to please and excite me (ie; going shopping, getting my hair and nails done, going out for an expensive dinner) no longer have the same appeal. When I lived in the city I used to get my hair cut and colored every 8 wks at a swanky hair salon which ended up costing me almost $300! And for what? Blonder highlights in my already blonde hair? I now get my hair cut for $40. No joke, just $40 and I don’t do highlights anymore because I already have blonde hair and it looks great the way it is. Our choice to lead a simpler life has not only been easy but it has allowed me to enjoy my life MORE. I spend more time with my husband and our beloved puppy, my apartment is cleaner and not cluttered with more crap that we don’t need. I appreciate the things we do splurge on much more because they are things we really want or need, not just things for the sake of acquiring more stuff.

What began out of necessity in order to pay off bills and save money, has become a new lifestyle that I really enjoy.