First Day of School

Today was the first day of school for my district. It was pretty busy - my mentor nurse and I took five trips between schools in order to get everything accomplished. I was able to get a decent idea of the kinds of things school nurses deal with, and though I see that it will be very busy, I don't feel overwhelmed. Each school has a skilled and experienced health aide. I'm told they will be my lifeline, and I don't doubt it at all. The people in the school system work very well together and frequently call each other to ask questions, so I know that my questions will be welcome and everyone will be patient.

I am so incredibly humbled to have this job. I hope that I will never take it for granted. It was such a sweet feeling to see my name outside the health office door at one school today. I wanted to take a picture, but my better judgment told me I'd better wait awhile before I expose my freakishly picture-obsessed self to them ;)

I know that there will probably be days when I will want to cry (or probably actually cry) and pull all of my hair out. But I love my job so far and my mentor nurse randomly told me that she loves this job as well. Yay!

In other good news, Yemma is responding very well to her treatment. When she was diagnosed, her tumor marker was around 360. It is now all the way down to 58. What a blessing! And she's only had half of her chemo treatments! She is in the hospital right now for round number four. We're all looking forward to when this is all behind us. Thanks so much for thinking of, supporting, and praying for us.

The Past Few Days...

...have been awesome!! Honestly, being out of work and broke for a few weeks was starting to take its toll on my spirits. I don't like feeling like I'm not contributing to the world at all, and frankly - besides laundry and other housework - there's just not much to do that doesn't somehow require money (even if it's gas money to drive somewhere). However, within the last week, I have:

1) Started my new job - I've met the other elementary school nurses and spent some time with them. They are all nice and incredibly helpful. I got to meet a few of the people I'll work with at my three elementary schools, and everyone was overwhelmingly gracious and excited to have me aboard. I found out that for the first couple of weeks of school, I'll be shadowing another school nurse to learn the ropes. I'm very grateful for this time, as I've been told that it used to be that the new nurses got no orientation! The lady I'll be shadowing told me that her mom, who had been a school nurse, had to come help her organize files and show her what to do! Anyway, I am SO happy about my new job.

2) Spent some time with good friends - David and K came to town from Georgia and stayed with us for a few days. We ate out, got sno cones three times, shopped, saw a steel drum band in concert, and relaxed. It was so, so great.

3) Made THIS!

Isn't it fun? Of course, it's not to scale....I'm afraid my cats would be scary mutants if their heads were half the size of ours. And now my mantle is starting to reflect the "fresh yellow and green" theme I'm hoping to have throughout the living room!(Kindly ignore the wire dangling from the ceiling. We had the house wired for surround sound but haven't actually installed a system yet.)

Anyway, with school starting on Wednesday, I'm going to be very busy during the days from here on out, but hopefully I won't be so tired in the evenings that I won't be able to bring myself to blog ;) Thanks for hanging in there!

Vintage Indie!

The Vintage Indie feature on Kristena with my pictures is up! Please click here to see it! Thanks!