Sprint to the finish

Oh boy, what a month it has been.  John and I just went a 6 day stretch with only seeing each other for a total of 2 hours, funny considering we do still live in the same apartment.  I have been working a butt load of OT over these last couple weeks and John, who thought his exam was in one week instead of two, has been putting in double duty with the books.  I have to keep reminding myself that all this hard work will pay off one day but when we are in the thick of things it is hard to remember.  In the past month we have gone looking at a bunch of houses (one sounds very promising), I ran my first 5K in 6 years, working all the fun OT, John had a cardio exam, prepping for a respiratory final, tons of silly papers, Easter with both families, but there is a light at the end of a long tunnel.  In just 4 more weeks we will hopefully have a new place to live, our first anniversary, John has his respiratory final, synthesis final (no clue what that is).  But after all this craziness John will be off until June 18th!!

So I did it, I ran in my first 5k in 6 years.  There was a time, I call it before John, when I actually ran pretty regularly.  When we started dating we would frequently try to run together, what a good joke.  John, having a quality 12 inches on me was running way a head of me, frequently leaving me behind, and sometimes, running circles around me.  Fun I know.  Not to place blame on anyone, but subsequently I stopped running.  I signed up for the race with a goal to just finish but through my couple weeks of training my goal went from just to finish to running the whole thing, to running it under 30.  I am not sure what my time was yet but either way I am proud of myself.  I set a goal, pushed myself, and have a new found desire to keep challenging myself.
I was talking to my older sister about this and somehow we started talking about the awesome topic of work.  She had asked me what profession I would work in if education and money were not an issue.  We went back and forth discussing various options, event coordinating, PR, accountant, coffee shop owner.  I realized through our conversation that none of those would have any effect on who I am as a person, I would not feel any better about myself, I would not enjoy waking up for work any more.  I have always set a goal for myself of going back to school, doing something different with my life.  Part of me is afraid I would be selling myself short if I don't.  But I like my job, I feel needed when I am there and love being home when I am not.  I only work 3 days a week so even with a family it is one of the least intrusive hours you could ask for.  Yes, I hate working holiday's and weekends and I look forward to a time when I can say goodbye to night shift, but its only 3 days.  I know that if I did set a goal for myself I would accomplish it but for now I am happy and looking forward to the challenge of another race.

being a nurse

I love my job, weird to actually hear someone say that, I know, but yes, I love my job.  I only work 3 days a week, my commute isn't too bad, and I love my little cardiac babies.  I did not always like nursing, though the majority of nursing school I would frequently remind my mother (who told me to purse a career in nursing) that this is what she told me to do with my life, especially when we spent an entire day in school learning how to give a bed bath, change beds with a person in its, and make a lovely mitt out of a washcloth.  Thanks Mom! My mother, who has loved her career as a nurse and all the various challenges and variety you can find, frequently reminded me that it gets better.  My first job, in adult med/surg was miserable to say the least, there were many days that it took everything in me just to get up and go to work.  My mom was right though, it gets better. All it took for me was applying for a different position.  Although I love my job I often wonder what I would have done had it not been nursing.  I am 25 years old, I have been working as a nurse for almost 3 years.  From the time I was a freshman in college my plan in life was already set.  Yes, with my BSN I have a job that pays our bills and I still have many options still open to change from bedside nursing to education, or management before even having to go back to school.  I am sure there are a lot of people who would love to be in my position but because of my always following a plan I have taken a lot of mystery out of life.  There is a large part of me that would love to start over with college, maybe do nursing, maybe something else.  I have always had a desire to go back to school but with John in medical school it is really easy for me to just sit back forget about all my previous goals.  I know that "life happens" there is no predicting what will be right at every point in life.  For now, I am happy with my job, happy with my life, although I have a desire to do something else there is no rush right now.

Spring Break!!

Wooohoo!! Counting down the hours until John is out for spring break.  This week off is a much deserved break from all the stress of the classroom for all of the medical students.  Not that they wont still study but there will not be the same pressure that they are currently under, plus, spring break marks half way through their final semester as M1s at OUWB.  Enjoy this week, it is well deserved.  Now I need to figure out a way for nurses to get a spring break.

It really is a nice Wednesday! It has been in the 60's, although the hurricane force winds makes it feel significantly cooler but at least its sunny.  To kick of the spring that I know is truly months away I decided to take our dog to a local nature trail to get in some of that lovely spring air.  This nature walk turned into a mud bog so tack on two more things to my todo list: wash dog, wash tub.  I did manage do drag my lack of energy butt out for a job and I have been spending to rest of the day cleaning and getting caught up on all the stuff I put off last week.  I am sure there are many women out there that would appreciate a day like this, to feel caught up on the daily upkeep, spend a little time outside, peruse a magazine in the down time.  I actually have days like this a lot seeing as how I only work 3 nights a week.  I do love not working a normal m-f 9-5 job, it allows for me to be home more.  But don't be jealous because the problem is that DH is the studying...all the time.  We knew this when we sat down to discuss the potential negatives of this lifestyle, but man do they study a lot.  On good days when I am home John will get back from campus around 6, we have a quick dinner, and then he pulls out the books, bad days he stays on campus all night.  Around exam time he leaves for campus Saturday morning and comes back home Monday after the test.  With DH being away so much it gets pretty lonely, not unbearable but to the point where I spend my day talking to the dog and looking up fun things we can do together.  The biggest thing is that I need to find something to do with my time, it used to be shopping but that got to be a costly habit.

Welcome

I finally caved...  

For the past few months I have been contemplating the idea of starting a blog and inspiration finally hit.  John and I have been married for not quite a year, will be one year come May. During this first year of marriage it has been unpredictable cycle between smooth, bumpy, and sometimes muddy (more blogs to follow).  

Back story: John and I [Stephanie] met roughly 7 years ago at University of Michigan.  I was a freshman in the nursing program and John was a professional chemistry major at Eastern Michigan University. We started dating that first summer and fell in love over our shared passion for Michigan football.  I went four and out and John opted for a couple victory laps before finally finishing his degree and decided to pursue a career in medicine.  After graduating from nursing school in 09 I got at job at the University of Michigan on an adult inpatient urology/gynecology unit.  Very quickly I realized that adult care was not for me and up until this past week (more on this later) had probably the best inpatient job anyone could as for at Mott Children's Hospital. After almost 6 years of dating John popped the question.  Throughout all the excitement with planning our wedding spectacular John was patiently awaiting a call that will have lasting implications on our future.  Literally days prior to the walk down the aisle, John gets a much welcomed call for Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine (what a mouth full) inviting him to be part of their inaugural class.  Seeing as how we were planning on setting up shop in Ann Arbor, we had a 1 year lease on what was supposed to be our first home together, so as soon as we got home from our Jamaican honeymoon we promptly had to do some negotiation to get us closer to John's school.  Two months later we found ourselves in Farmington Hills (or Farmville as I call it) beginning a new and exciting life.  John started class in August and I continued my job at Mott.  Although we moved closer to school John was still driving a hefty distance to class everyday, at it became apparent that once this lease is up in the summer we will be relocating again.  As of right now we aren't exactly sure where we are going to end up but it will definitely be closer to school.  Once I realized that my already long drive to Ann Arbor is going to just get worse in a couple months I found myself a job at Children's Hospital of Michigan in Detroit.   

So here we are now, John just finished his neuro final this past Monday (he passed, thank God) and I started my new job Monday as well.  We are both excited to be onto something new!  

Oh, and we have a dog, Ginger, she's a chocolate lab...cute bug, loud sleeper. John wants me to add "and smelly"