I have worked 3 night shifts in a row. I am off tonight. I will work 2 more night shifts in a row.
I...might...die.

House tour

This is a much overdo tour of our new home. We moved in the last week in June and love being in a house. We both got so tired of hearing people through every wall of our apartment. It is also so nice to just let Vic our into the backyard. And we finally have space to breath. Our closets aren't packed to the brim and we each have our own space. The house was totally gutted by the owner and we are the first to rent it. Which also means we are first ones to use the toilet. Everything is new, flooring, appliances, bathtub, windows. Its so clean...I love it!

The living room...

 Working on finding a rug.

 A recent craigslist find. The plan is to paint it a gray/blue.

 The dining room....the china cabinet was found on craigslist also just before we moved. I think we are officially grown-ups now that our china is on display.

 The kitchen...

 The laundry room/pantry... Thanks Mom and Dad Browning for the shelving. The garage was converted to a laundry room, 4th bedroom (just around the corner on the right) and storage closet that opens from the front of the house.

 The bathroom...sans mushrooms.

Danny's office with sophisticated filing "system." Do not turn on the fan or it all goes to hell. 

 My studio...:)

 We are responsible for the lawn so this was yet another craigslist purchase. It was being sold for parts for $25 and my resourceful husband fixed it up and got it running. 

 The yard...

 Our new composter...really just a trashcan in the ground, but it's working great. We put out our trash about every third week because we are recycling and composting most of our trash.

The front yard...

And our neighbors are great too. One is a nurse that bakes and shares her goodies!

Camera dump

My Mom, Grandmother, Kristine, Katie, my niece Abi, and I all went to get pedicures on my visit home this weekend.

Grandma LOVED talking politics to her captive audience.

She obviously enjoyed herself.

Katie and Abi's first pedicures!

Isaac is getting so big!

So is Kaleb!

We celebrated my parent's 40th wedding anniversary April 15th. There was a nice ceremony at church then we arranged to have family pictures taken ( a complete surprise for my mom), then dinner and cake at The Great Outdoors Restaurant. I'll have the get copies of the family pics up here later. They turned out so nice.

For my birthday way back in May Danny baked me a yummy cake...

...and we went to Islands of Adventure. We got passes for the year as my gift and we have really loved having them. We go at least once a month. It's nice having the passes because we don't have to rush and can just ride a few rides then go home.

This is Julie Rose Tillson. Ben and Bonnie welcomed here back in March.

I went home this weekend to visit family, but mostly to attend Jenna's bridal shower. I'm a bridesmaid in her wedding in October. It was an afternoon tea with lots of food, family and games. Above is the bride in the middle with (left to right) Bonnie, Detra, Chrissy, and me. All bridesmaids along with her soon-to-be sister-in-laws not pictured.  Two weekends from now her bachelorette party will be at a beach house in St. Augustine...can't wait for that one!

The reason I started my trip home to Gainesville early...Welcome Elise Maegan Bennett! Taven and Colby welcomed her into the world 8/9/12 at 1:19am. 7lbs 19in.

The move. It happened the last week of June. I hate moving.

I came home to this one morning after work. The thing around Vic's neck is the cone he had to wear for 2 weeks after his eye surgery.

We had a nice visit from Mom and Dad Browning when we first moved into our new place. They brought these beautiful flowers from their garden and brought some much needed help unpacking and getting things organized in our new place.

Goodbye Kerry :( Our good friend Kerry is moving back to South Africa. We'll miss him and his crass humor.

Last weekend we took dinner and the dog to Flagler beach and enjoyed the afternoon. On the drive back home we noticed people setting up for a movie on the lawn at the Casements on the Halifax River.

It was a beautiful evening watching the movie, eating popcorn, and wrangling the dog.

Just an update. We got crabs.

 Joe's Crabs just opened up on the renovated Daytona Pier. We had time to spare so we walked on the beach and decided to have lunch and try it out. We were being adventurous. Neither one of us has ever eaten crabs from the shell. I thought it was fun and delicious. Danny thought he had to work too hard for such little meat and that the bill was ridiculous.

Also, Vic would like to say Hello to everyone.

What?! It's on General Doolittle Rd?! I'm sold!

We will be moving from our tiny, mushroom growing apartment where lesbian domestic violence fills the air and we are known as "white folk" (that's another story later), to....21 General Doolittle Rd.
It has been nice Wood Forest, getting to experience the doppler effect first hand with the raceway just minutes from our windows and you were able to give Danny even more fuel for his argument for gun ownership, but we now must go...to General Doolittle Rd. You have been a class act "fixing" our leaking roof by painting over the stains with Kilz, and practically letting our "lake view" run dry because the pump broke for over a week, and charging us more for water than it costs us in electricity each month, but General Doolittle is calling our name. I'm so glad I got to experience with you our roof being replaced and our porch railing being ripped out and then hammered back together. And your timing couldn't have been any better, the 2nd month of me working night shift! Oh, and thanks for that special amenity, our fireplace, which we never used because we live in DAYTONA BEACH.

Beginning June 25th Danny and Karen Browning will be residing at 21 General Doolittle Rd. Daytona Beach, FL 32114.

3 month orientation, check

May 13th was my first official shift off of orientation. All on my own. No nurse double checking my work or there to be my unlimited resource person. I put my big girl panties on, took a deep breath, and said a little prayer. The shift was uneventful, thank you Jesus.

My orientation lasted 3 months and I was ready to be done with it around week 6. It was nice having something of a security blanket, but sometimes it was more stressful because it was kind of disorganized with lots of miscommunications happening and lots of stupid hoops to jump through. I was assigned a Preceptor, a nurse with many years of experience. Her name was Analee. She was perfect. Very laid back, trusted me to do many things completely independently, and was so knowledgeable about oncology. The problem was when she was scheduled as charge nurse or called off or changed her schedule without letting me know I would be put with any nurse who would have me. Precepting someone is honestly a huge pain. The main RN is still liable for the patients I am taking care of and it takes more time to explain things and do things slower. I must have been with more than 7 different nurses in the span of 4 weeks. One had just gotten off of orientation one month ago herself, she got very overwhelmed at one point and cried. One was a travel nurse who had only been on the unit for 3 months himself. One was so type A she would only let me take one patient when I had been taking four. One was very "old school" and even after I showed him the hospitals policy that I followed on drawing blood, insisted I had done it the wrong way (because it wasn't his way) and made me redraw them. But all that is over with and I get to do things my way now. They have been kind to me so far and given me very stable patients, but I am very comfortable and ready for some challenges on my own.  Just last night I was able to start an IV on a very dehydrated black man. That is a very hard thing to do and I did it completely on my own.

Here are a few orientation superlatives:

• Funniest thing a patient said: Me: "Are you passing gas?" 84 yr old woman: "Oh honey, like fireworks!"
• Most insulting thing a patient's family member said: "You don't care" This comment was outnumbered by praise and compliments from many other patients, and the husband was a complete jerk verified by other staff members, but it stuck and it hurt.
• Most disgusting (I would be a very happy nurse if I never had to do it again): Manual fecal disimpaction, if you can't figure it out google it. 
• Coolest new skill I have learned: How to access an implanted port. Again, google it.Closely followed by becoming ACLS (Advanced Care Life Support) certified (how to revive a person who has coded with CPR, drugs, and shocking them)
• Night that took me the longest to recover from, mentally and physically: transferred 1 patient to ICU because her calcium was so high she was paralyzed and having trouble breathing, received a patient that died within 20 minutes of being in my care (it was expected and the family was prepared), got yelled at by a doctor for not notifying him sooner of a patients decreasing urine output. Got orders to transfuse platelets, bolus 1L of saline, draw labs and give a few new medications, all done within the last hour of my shift. 
• Best piece of advice from Analee: "Whatever happens, morning will still come."

Karen turns 29

My birthday celebration started Friday the 11th. Danny baked me a strawberry cake with cream cheese icing and got some awesome authentic Italian pizza from this great place we found nearby. We caught up on our TV shows online and had a yummy date night in.
Saturday we met Kristine and Joe at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure. This was my gift from Danny, year round passes to the park. On the way we got McDonald's for breakfast, the crepe master got to sleep in. The McD's was the greasiest I have ever had and the coffee was soooo strong. My stomach was not happy, oh, and I had been fighting a bad cold the past couple of days and didn't sleep the night before either from the non drowsy sudafed Danny bought me or maybe it was my messed up sleeping schedule from work. Anyway, after we raced from the gates and rode the first roller coaster I was ready to puke. I was starting to feel like an old fart who was loosing her edge at 29! We took some time looking in gift shops and doing some less jarring rides (ie Dr. Suess land), and I semi recovered. I pushed through and was not about to admit I just wanted to curl up and take a nap. Overall the day was so much fun. It was nice being able to take our time because we can come back all year. Favorite ride: the Rip Ride and Rocket?...or something, you get to pick the song that is played in your headset during the ride. Favorite game played: see how many disney things/apparel you can spot on people. Points were given for each item, Danny was the winner. Favorite Island: Harry Potter. It is amazing how much it looks like the movies.
Danny and I left the park around 4, then had to turn around after I realized I had left my phone in Kristine's car. Sorry again Kristine for making you walk to the parking lot for that. We got my phone and were on our way home. I fell asleep and then we were home, amazing how that happens. Danny had stopped on the way to get me some drowsy cold medicine. I showered, popped some pills then turned in for a 22hour nyquil induced coma. I'm not kidding. I went to bed around 6pm and didn't wake up until 4pm Sunday. I would rouse every 6 or so hours still feel like crap, pop some more pills, then curl back into bed. I had to work Sunday night. My first night off orientation and on my own, and with a head cold no less. Happy birthday to me! The shift went well, my preceptor was the charge nurse so I think she rigged my assignment so it would be easy. I'm off now until Thursday so maybe I will finally kick this cold.
Thank you for all the happy birthday messages left on my voicemail, they were nice to listen to on my way to work. Love you guys!

Side note:
Danny's computer is fixed! So hopefully there will be more posts to come.