Wednesday's Hodgepodge - First One in a Long Time!

I am joining in with Joyce today for Wednesday's Hodgepodge! I am super excited as I have not done one of these for soooo long!!!

1. What do you wish you'd done more of last year? exercise! That will happen this year as clinicals are much more frequent! Less of? I wish I had eaten less - way too much stress eating in Nursing school!! HA! 

2. What's the tallest building you've ever been in? I am not sure. I guess it would be the CN tower in Onatrio?? It is 1915 feet tall and there is a restaurant you can eat in that slowly spins around to see the city. Also they have a skywalk. The evening we had dinner there the Skywalker’s closed because it was too windy. Pictures below…  Do you have a fear of heights? I never did before I turned 50 but now at 50 my knees get a little shaky high up. 

3. Do you have a word for the year? I do not. Elaborate if you'd like to elaborate. 

 4. January 11th is National Milk Day...are you a milk drinker? Not really at all. What kind? If I use any at all is coconut or almond and I put it in a smoothie. I don’t drink cows milk ever.

5. What excites you most about the future? Graduating from nursing school at the end of the year and becoming a real nurse!!! Whoop! What do you miss about the past? My Grandmothers and Great-grandmothers. Mainly, family members that have passed on. Her they are …this

Picture happened to be sitting here on the table next to me. My mom took it out of her scrapbook because she thought I would like to have it.

On the left in the green dress is my Great-grandmother and on the right in the floral dress is my Grandmother. Two of my very very very favorite people! They’ve both passed and I am sure they are resting in peace!

6. Insert your own random thought here. I’m saying lots and lots of prayers for my dosage Calc test tomorrow. I just need to go slow and make my conversions carefully. That’s about all the time my mind for now. I was going to make a run to BJ’s for paper towels tonight but I think I ran out of time.

I’m off to go read everyone’s blog entries for the day and catch up with everyone.  Thank you again Joyce for hosting this… I’ve really missed participating!

 So many hugs to everyone and stay safe out there!

Dosage Calculation Rocks

Soooo….this happened! Lol! We have a really hard water in my Condo so the cartridges for water Fossetts go bad really quickly it seems. Thank goodness I watched my dad the first time he changed one so I don’t have to call him any more for it. I know how to do them myself. This time I was unable to get the tub to shut off. When you have to push really hard to shut your faucet off, you need a new cartridge. So I ran to Home Depot bought a cartridge and switched it out. The whole process now only takes me about 20 minutes since I do it so often. Ha ha! Most important thing is to remember to turn off your water. From there it’s super easy. One of these times I will document the entire process but I know I mentioned it in this blog post …

HERE

yesterday was fun getting ready for our dosage Calc test. We have to take this every semester in nursing school. Here is the prep work they send us to work through to practice the problems we will get on our test. You have to pass your dosage Calc test with at least a 95% or you cannot even complete the semester. I’m in my third semester and if you don’t get a 95% on this test then your classes are cancelled and you have to wait until next semester to take these classes again. It makes total sense considering a nurse has a patient’s life in their hands with medication dosages.


Here’s my scribble paper… Lol! My scratch paper is definitely scratchy!!


Here’s a sample question… The doctor orders propofol 350 mcg/min. The dose you have on hand is propofol 50 mg in 100 mL of D5W.  How many mL/hr does the nurse administer the propofol? Fun question right?!?!?

Last semester I got 100%. I’m seriously hoping I can re-create that test score!

I’ve been feeling super sniffling congested. I’ve been taking Mucinex and bear aspirin I went to buy soup at the store yesterday. I’m super happy to report I ran into this! My mother used to buy this when we were kids! Has anyone else tried this? I remember when I was little it had this little clear egg in it that had oil and bullion. We used all fight over who got to put the egg in the pan. I’m sad to say there is no clear egg anymore it’s just a packet of powder. I bought some anyway because I need a little comfort feeling!


Have you ever tried this soup before? Do you remember the egg? What did you get for the answer to the question above? 

I’m now off to read your blogs and see how everyone’s doing before I study some more.

Hugs and stay safe out there!!!!

Happy 15th Birthday Kyleigh

I don’t even know how it’s possible but my adorable niece and godchild turns 15 today. I love her with all my heart and cannot imagine not being her aunt! I cherish every second of the time we get to spend together.

Our little entertainer…


Had the pleasure of attending her first concert (Harry Styles) with her, her friend and her mother (my sister)…


Love her even when we are dangling over the ocean…ha ha!!! Thanks for riding with me (the chicken)…


Such a cutie…


She sure loves her aunt/dog Gracie…


I got to be her confirmation sponsor…#blessed


Entertainment at the campfire….ahhhhh…


She has so much love for her first second-cousin!! Cuteness overload…


I love you sooo many bunches with all my heart!!!! 

If you have a second, please send my sweet and kind niece a Happy birthday wish below!!! I promise I will be sending all comments to her!! Have a phenomenal day Kyleigh!!!!

XOXOXO

Happy Monday

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you all had a fantastic weekend. I sent the weekend relaxing and watching stand-up comedy on Netflix. I feel the need to laugh lately so I’ve been getting back into watching stand-up comedy. If you have Netflix, you can go on there and there’s a plethora of specials to choose from. I watched Jerry Seinfeld a lot this weekend. He’s so funny and he’s not really trashy. He doesn’t feel the need to cuss every other sentence.

I also spent enough time on my painting that I finished it. This is the paint by numbers that I just completed.

I got the little wooden hanging thing from Amazon and it was perfect. It’s magnetic and it the from and back just connects to itself through the fabric. I was surprised at how well it worked. I’m not getting paid for this but just in case you want to check it out here’s the link…
Here

I went to Michael’s and I found another paint by numbers. They’re actually on sale at Michael’s for half off. This one was so cheap I had to get it.

Got a little done while watching TV…


Close up so you can see the numbers…


Also, in case you have not heard, the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Baltimore Ravens today to cinch a spot in the playoffs!!! Whoop!!! We here in Pittsburgh are soo super excited!!

That’s all I got for now. How was your weekend?? Did you do something fun or did you simply relax and rest?  Has anyone else tried these paint by numbers? Can you recommend a brand?

I hope you have a great week!!!!  Enjoy your Monday!

Vaccinations Explained

I feel like I really need to write this post. I see all of our social media people asking the question ”Why get vaccinated if I can still get Covid?” or “Why get vaccinated if I can still get sick?”.

I am here to give you the explanation behind why we need vaccinations.

I learned the following explanation from the subject matter expert that taught my microbiology class last semester. She has a masters degree in microbiology (bacteria, fungi, viruses, etc.). She made it so simple to understand.

If you get Covid and you are vaccinated… The virus may or may not make you sick but when it leaves you to infect the next person it will be the same strength it was when it entered your body. 

If you get Covid virus and you are NOT vaccinated; the virus is able to replicate itself thousands of times in the cells of your body.  Every time the virus is able to replicate itself, it has the opportunity to morph into something much stronger. This way when the virus leaves you to infect the next person it’s much stronger than when it entered your body. That is why we get vaccinated. 

Vaccinations allow us to limit the strength of the virus so it does not get stronger. When it gets stronger we end up having the different variants like  Delta, etc.

I never understood this and it never made sense until she explained it this way to me. Now it makes total sense!

Please share this with anyone that needs to know this information. I feel like if people really understood the purpose of the vaccination then it would make total sense why everyone should be vaccinated.

Update added:  I have heard from many bloggers  that they are sharing this information. I want to make it clear that this is from a reputable source. The person who gave me this explanation is Maureen Lyons. She is a professor at my school with a Master of Science. She also has worked for close to 20 years as a researcher at the University of Pittsburgh. She’s currently working in CRISPR technology (gene splitting, etc.). I just wanted to make sure I added this information so you understand that she is a very reputable source. I think she would be very happy to know that her explanation is helping people understand why they need to be vaccinated.  Please share!

Have you heard this explanation before? Does it make sense to you? Are you vaccinated? Everyone stay healthy out there!! Sending so many hugs! 

Still On Break

Happy happy Friday! I cannot believe it’s Friday already. I also cannot believe that school prep starts next week. It’s been a wonderful and relaxing break. I’ve spent a whole Lotta time catching up on new Netflix shows and also a whole lot of time painting.

Here is a cute paint by numbers that I got in one of my subscription boxes… I think it was from the fab fit fun subscription box - but don’t quote me on that. Ha!

Here’s a close-up so you can see how tiny the numbers are…


And here is the picture zoomed out. I’m almost done and it was so much fun! I wanted to read a few books for fun but I thought it was best if I give my reading eyes a break.


Here’s all the things the kids come with. A bunch of different colored paints that obviously are numbered and also multiple brushes to use depending on the size of the area you’re painting.

The paint by number said it would take 12 hours. Mine took way longer than that… This could be one of the reasons. Every time I’m doing something at the kitchen table one by one all the cats come to visit. The last thing I need is a cat paw in my paint and then have them running all over my house. Lol!

Thanks again for all the supportive comments on my post on Nermal. He’s doing really great with the shots and he’s eating the food he supposed to so fingers crossed I think we’re on the upswing. In the picture above is Trouble. 

Have y’all ever done a paint by number? How did it turn out? What other arts and crafts do you enjoy? Do your pets have to get involved in everything you’re doing also?

Have a happy happy Friday! Love you all - hugs!!

Big Bens Final Home Game

So guys… I got to tell you Monday night was pretty exciting for me and a whole lot of other people here in Pittsburgh. We’ve had the same quarterback Ben Roethlisberger for over 15 years now. He’s pretty amazing and he’s went a whole lot of games for us. Well Monday night was to be his last game here in Pittsburgh at the stadium. Fingers crossed we will make the playoffs at all but even if we do he will never play another home game here in Pittsburgh. Needless to say we were pretty psyched for the game. I went down with my sister my brother-in-law and my nephew. 

The entire crowd was so fired up! I honestly have never seen the stadium so for this entire year. There’s always empty seats but this game there was very few. The crowd was also so so electric! Here’s a picture of the guy that was sitting in front of us… He was a riot! He said he owns a Restaurant in Braddock, PA. But I’m not sure if that’s true or if that was the beer talking. Lol! Ben Roethlisberger is number seven… As you can see he shaved a tribute to the quarterback in his chest hair… Lol! I have to add… It was 20° out that night… Super cold!


Here’s a little selfie of my sister and I. Together we really get into the games and have such a blast screaming and yelling during the game! We probably get into it way more than we should ha ha!


We won the game and kicked the Browns butts. (No disrespect to the Browns fans out there) This was a picture I stole from the news. This is after the game. I’ve never seen a football game where the crowd stuck around after it was over. We won the game and the crowd stayed for at least 20 minutes and watched Ben walk around and highfive the crowd in the stadium. His eyes were full of tears… It had to be super emotional for him.


There he is… The amazing quarterback that he has been for the past 15 years. I hope he enjoys his retirement as I’m sure they will give him some kind of announcing role in the Steelers establishment. He really is a great guy and all I can say is thank you Ben!


Thank you Ben!!!