work, work, work...

The last several shifts at work have been money-earners. That means, when I finally come home, I say, "Boy did I earn my money today."

We had an absolutely full unit until yesterday, when the mass exodus began. 15 patients went home. That's half our unit! That's also a lot of work. I sent 4 of those patients myself...plus took care of twins, plus did baby bloodwork, plus monitored a 35-week pregnant mom, plus waded through the discharge paperwork for each mom and baby sent home (that's 8 charts), plus didn't eat lunch until about 3P...anyone feeling sorry for me yet?!!

It's days like those that leave me feeling restless for something different. My favorite way to solve the "restlessness" problem is to make a change. My favorite changes tend to be big ones. I need to learn to be satisfied with more subtle improvements. Like, why couldn't I just take up exercising? It's really good for me, I probably would have more energy to handle intense shifts and two busy kids, I might even drop those last ten "baby pounds". Or, maybe I could just pursue some additional certifications in my current specialty. If I pass a national certification exam (that the hospital would reimburse me for), I not only earn an extra $1.50/hr, but I get to sign my name: M Collazo RNC (not just RN). This is very impressive, and I'm sure I would enjoy this accomplishment. Or, I could pursue the clinical ladder in my hospital. This is a way for nurses to earn additional money by presenting proof (i.e. lots of writing) of their clinical skills and judgement. One can earn up to $4.00/hr extra. Both accomplishments and switching to night shift allow me to potentially earn up to $10.00/hr extra than my base pay. This is significant.

All I can think about, though, (and this is where the big change is) is when should I make the switch to critical care so I can start down the path toward anesthesia school? Should I apply this fall to switch specialties? Should I wait till the beginning of the new year? Maybe I should wait until we've worked through the new business for a bit. A completely new specialty would definitely consume a lot of my attention initially, and that might not be wise at this point. Lots to think about, better yet, lots to pray about. There's my answer right there. Acting on a dilemma (in this case, my recurring wanderlust/restlessness/need for change) always decreases the anxiety, so I guess prayer is a wise place to start.

Life was so much easier when I was 8...the biggest dilemma at this point in the summer was what outfit I'd be wearing on the first day of school.

happy thursday.

more work on the website today...it's really coming together. we just might make that aug 31 deadline yet. "go-live" here we come.

ian and i like to joke about those various cliche phrases used in the business world such as "go-live", "for all intents and purposes", "at the end of the day..." (as in, "at the end of the day, what really matters is blah blah blah"), and one of our most favorites "have a good one!" so, we've been teasing each other about the aug 31 go-live...maybe we should have a special celebration or something.

today was a beautiful sunny day...mia insisted on getting out the bubbles and would scream if i didn't let her dip the wand in the bottle. miss independent.

nemo spent the entire day dressed as spiderman again...we also listened to the colby's clubhouse record about 10 times.

ian and i got a little date tonight...first he went to tai chi while i drooled over scrapbook supplies in this very cool little store i discovered last week. it's called paperdoll, and they specialize in card-making supplies...lots of great patterned papers and mini-books and rub-ons...a lot of stuff i hadn't seen in some of the other stores in town. they all have their own little personalities, that's for sure. after my brief shopping stint, we met back up and ate dinner at la bonita taqueria on alberta. our favorite mexican place, for sure. i had fish tacos (yum) with the most fresh tasting pico de gallo and guacomole. ian and i both like to drink cokes when we eat mexican food...they just go together. we finished the excursion off with a frosty. cheap dessert that i never get tired of.

a good day had by all. 5 more sleeps till we leave for our trip!

entrepreneurial update...and other stuff

nemiacreative.com is coming along...keep checking on our daily-hourly, really-progress. talk about learning as you go. we are so fortunate that ian is patient and resourceful...the process of building the site, designing and redesigning each piece, the business details...it's all very tedious. and he manages to do it all in the company of a very active 5 yr old. the little boy in question is dressing as spiderman these days. he sings the spiderman theme songs constantly (the one from the 60s cartoon series and also the one from the electric company...thanks to netflix and youtube!!), climbs all over the furniture and even attempts to suspend himself in narrow spaces. he shoots webs at strangers, but then when they say "hey spiderman!!", he yells back "i'm not really spiderman, i'm just dressed like spiderman!" (i do not get this kid...he seems to want the attention, but has a hard time playing along. very literal about things.)

anyway, back to the business...the running spiderman commentary is a bit of a distraction for ian, though i think he has just learned to tune nemo out. and not that nemo is trying to engage ian (well sometimes he is), it's more that nemo is entertaining himself loudly in the background.
today we set up a couple e-mail accounts through our host site (homestead.com), and we even set up our paypal service. we will be able to accept credit cards through paypal without having to open a separate merchant account (yay....less hassle!) and our clients will be able to pay us with credit cards or their own paypal account. the cost is fairly minimal, 2.9% + 30 cents per transaction.
i worked on writing nice descriptions of each piece in the holiday collection while ian sketched out a map for the ordering process...multiple pages, multiple links...all very virtual and time-consuming to set up.

this afternoon i took a break and drove out with the kids and vivien to babies r us to look for a new stroller. up until today, we were using a $20 umbrella stroller from fred meyer, which worked well enough, but was not very enticing to go out on walks with. i still wanted something lightweight and similar to a cheapy umbrella stroller, but a little more substantial. i found a nice graco model in a trendy chocolate brown...very easy to fold and open, and the best part is the handles. they come right up to my waist...so no more bending over to push the stroller. the cheap umbrella strollers are definitely sized for short people. this one was made for people over 5'2"!
the other motivation was my upcoming travel adventure with the kiddos. this stroller is perfect for travel.

so, travel. august 28 is fast approaching, and nemo and i are getting excited. he knows the trip is a week away, and i think he gets the concept of that much time. i did a little prep shopping today, and since i have the next couple days off of work, i'm going to try to have most everything organized and ready.

we don't have much of an itinerary, except to spend lots of time with the canups and grandma and grandpa...we get to meet molly the puppy, too. nemo is excited about that for sure. i'm looking forward to going through old pictures and old stuff...would really like to visit with grandma randall....maybe even my old elementary school so nemo can see where mommy went to kindergarten. we are very much looking forward to this trip! pray for safe and peaceful travels.