| "There is no light other than happiness" אֵין אוֹרֳה אֶלֳּא שִׁמְחֳה |
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Simcha Orah, RN שִׂמְחָה אוֹרָה אמן
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| I have a cold |
[10 Nov 2008|01:29am] |
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Darn it, I caught a cold. Hope to see the doctor this morning. It's been dragging me down and I've been off work for the last 3 days. Thank goodness for sick leave pay :-)
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| I think I'll become a vegetarian.... |
[07 Nov 2008|01:16am] |
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Large Iowa Meatpacker in Illegal Immigrant Raid Files for Bankruptcy Published: November 5, 2008 The kosher meatpacking company in Iowa that has been struggling with criminal charges and huge fines for labor violations, a dwindling work force and declining demand among Jewish consumers since an immigration raid at its main plant, has filed for bankruptcy.  Liz Martin/Cedar Rapids Gazette, via Associated Press Agriprocessors, a large meatpacker in Iowa, filed for bankruptcy six months after 389 immigrant workers were arrested. The filing late Tuesday by Agriprocessors Inc. signaled the demise of a company that has been operated by a single family: the owner, Aaron Rubashkin, and his son Sholom, who built the company into the country’s dominant supplier of kosher meat. The company began to founder after 389 illegal immigrants, about half its work force, were arrested on May 12 in a raid at its plant in Postville, Iowa. The immigrants reported under-age employees and what they said were abusive work conditions to the authorities. Although demand for Agriprocessors’ products declined after the raid, supermarkets and butcher shops nationwide supplying Jews who observe strict dietary laws reported shortages of kosher meat this week, after the plant stopped slaughtering cattle a week ago. Agriprocessors sells meat under the Rubashkin’s, Aaron’s Best and Shor Harbor labels, among others. “It’s chaos out there; the shortage is all over the country,” said Menachem Lubinsky, the editor of koshertoday.com, which monitors kosher food markets. “Everybody has begun to scramble.” In documents filed in bankruptcy court in the Eastern District of New York, Agriprocessors, whose headquarters is in Brooklyn, reported annual earnings of $300 million before the raid, the first revenue figures made public for the privately owned company. It reported debt of $50 million to $100 million. Blaming “difficult circumstances involving a raid” for its financial woes, Agriprocessors, which filed under Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code, said it was seeking new financing to restructure its business. It opted to declare bankruptcy after its major creditor, First Bank Business Capital of Missouri, foreclosed last week on a $35 million loan. The foreclosure is suspended while the bankruptcy proceeds. “We are filing this to reinvigorate the company,” said Agriprocessors’s lawyer in the bankruptcy, Kevin J. Nash. In Postville, a town of 2,200 in northeastern Iowa, residents said there was an unfamiliar calm on Wednesday as activity at the big plant at the edge of town fell to a low. Long before the raid, the Rubashkins had clashed with residents in Postville, where low pay, unpaid overtime and safety violations at the plant were a frequent subject of local gossip. But residents were deeply worried at the prospect that their largest employer by far would close. “I think that people would prefer a different owner,” said the Rev. Paul Ouderkirk, the priest at St. Bridget’s Catholic Church in Postville, which has been supporting the families of dozens of immigrants arrested in the raid. “But it would be very, very tragic if the plant shut down.” While Agriprocessors blamed the raid for its bankruptcy filing, Iowa labor experts said the company created many of its own troubles by hiring large numbers of illegal immigrants and paying them wages far below the industry standard, and by maintaining contentious relations with state labor authorities and fiercely resisting unions. “They left themselves exposed by their utter refusal to play by the rules,” said Mark Grey, a sociology professor at the University of Northern Iowa who studies recent immigration to Iowa. Union officials said the Postville plant stood out from other Iowa packinghouses for the frequency of its labor violations. “If there was a hall of shame for employers in this industry, Agriprocessors would have its own wing,” said Mark Lauritsen, international vice president of the United Food and Commercial Workers, a union that has long tried to gain a foothold at the plant. Demand for Agriprocessors’s brands began to decline after the company’s labor practices were criticized by a movement of Conservative and Reform Jews, who are seeking to add a new seal, known as Hekhsher Tzedek, to kosher-certified food. It would signify it was produced according to Jewish ethics. Religious authorities at the Orthodox Union, the country’s major certifier of kosher food, said they were working with the top manager at Agriprocessors, Bernard S. Feldman, to find new owners or managers for the company. Mr. Feldman took charge of the company in late September. If the Postville plant closes, it would leave “a significant void in the market that cannot easily be reproduced,” said Rabbi Menachem Genack, the chief executive of the kosher-certifying arm of the Orthodox Union. Sholom Rubashkin, the former chief executive of Agriprocessors, was arrested last week by federal authorities on charges of conspiracy to harbor illegal immigrants. Sholom and Aaron Rubashkin were also facing state criminal charges in Iowa for employing more than 30 under-age workers at the plant, and Iowa labor authorities have levied $10 million in fines for wage violations. In Postville, residents were dismayed by a report posted on a Jewish Web site, FailedMessiah.com, saying that Sholom Rubashkin held a celebration in Postville last week after he was released from detention on $1 million bail. About 300 illegal immigrant workers, most of them from Guatemala, were convicted on federal charges after the raid. Most served five months in prison and were deported. |
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| I got this from Introducingyael's blog |
[06 Nov 2008|11:50pm] |
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Support Jewish Girls! go here - http://memelabs.com/somedaystories/ And click on "Evelyn from Sharon, Mass." It's a video contest. Evelyn's daughter is Leah, she is the 17 year old publisher of "Yalda" magazine for Jewish girls. Leah started the magazine when she was 13 and runs the whole thing herself! If she wins this contest, she gets $100k to help with getting this magazine on to Barnes and Noble shelves all over the country. How amazing would it be to have a high quality, tsnius magazine in the mainstream, just as readily available to young girls as CosmoGirl or YM? I voted for her and I hope all of you do too!
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| Finally, the Mayor resigned! |
[04 Sep 2008|01:12pm] |
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http://www.wxyz.com/news/story.aspx?content_id=c3b744a1-f623-4efb-955a-a586c06a1edf
The now former Mayor of Detroit has pled guilty and is done. It looks like he will go to jail for 4 months, be on probation for 5 years, give up his law license, pay back $1 million (yeah, right), give up his pension, and vacate the Manoogian Mansion. The Chief of Police, Ella Bully-Cummings, has officially retired on the spot, and there will be lots more resignations or removals to follow. Anyone who was closely tied to our Mayor is probably out of a job before the year is over.
Next, at least one member of the Detroit City Council and others in the city's administration will be in trouble for some improprieties with the Synagro Technologies sludge hauling contract.
I'm happy the worst is over. Now maybe we can get down to some real business and healing in the Metro Detroit area.
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[03 Sep 2008|03:34pm] |
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Darn it! I'm getting soooo anoyed with political stuff the last few days. Now my local airwaves are filled with the removal hearings for our Detroit ;Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. It just goes on and on, with everybody droning on about a whole lot of nothing. Boring. The Governor is trying to keep the proceedings running smoothly but it's not happening. I believe he needs to be removed from that position so the city can heal and move forward. This is such an embarrassment to us in the entire state of Michigan, especially to those of us who live in the immediate suburbs around the city. I'm beginning to dislike all of the players in this drama regardless of which side they are on. I can't begin to fathom the total expense of this to the taxpayers. It's money that the City of Detroit doesn't have and can't come up with. So why can't I switch channels or turn off the TV? I'm glued to this horrible mess, like I'm afraid I might miss out on some enlightening moment or actually see progress being made.
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[28 Aug 2008|11:30am] |
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It 's been an amazing four months. I graduated from nursing school at the end of April, celebrated my 5th year of being a Jewish convert in May, got hired at a local hospital in a Jewish community in June, passed my nursing boards in early July to earn my RN license, and just celebrated my 5th wedding anniversary on the 17th of this month. That's a whole lot of stuff to celebrate in a short time! There may never be so much going on at once in my life again, I think, so I am enjoying this to the fullest. My family came over Sunday to celebrate with me and my husband, and we all had a great time.
I'm really enjoying my new career. I've learned a ton about nursing and life in general. I am learning to appreciate things in my life much more after the experiences I've had taking care of so many who are terribly sick.
My veggie garden is coming along, slowly and steadily. I've gotten plenty of zucchini and finally the tomatoes are ready, but the green peppers and other squash aren't producing as much as I'd hoped. I'll try those again next year.
I think there is a chipmunk burrowing through the cement slab in my dining area. Those little creatures are cute but totally destructive. I can hear it scratching against the metal furnace vents that were placed in the slab. I'm about to buy a humane small animal trap and try to catch it. I'm worried it will dig upward through the cement and eventually get into my kitchen, not a good thing!
The new roof and gutters are fabulous. No more leaks (so far!) and the water is draining away very well through the gutters, no more spilling over. They are at the appropriate slant now too.
Midnight shift is getting better. I'm more used to the sleep/eat schedule and like the reduced levels of noise during those hours. There aren't nearly as many doctors milling around, less phones ringing, less patients pressing call lights. But it's still plenty busy, and we get more patients to care for on nights than day shift does.
Gotta run for now, hope to post again in the near future.
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| Happy Wednesday |
[16 Jul 2008|12:13pm] |
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I passed my nursing boards!!! I officially have the title of RN. It's been pretty crazy getting used to working midnights. I worked two in a row, and then basically passed out for almost 24 hours. I hope I can adjust to this soon. I've also lost 7 lbs since starting my nursing job a month ago, and I noticed that I have almost no appetite while on midnights. That's a good thing because I won't be eating junk food. Also, I'm on my feet so much that I'm burning loads of calories. Even midnights keeps me on my feet constantly. People don't really sleep well in the hospital, and those who need "comfort" meds are on the call lights regularly. I had seven patients on Monday night so things were hopping! It took forever to do my night shift paperwork. I hope to get my diploma soon. I got my nursing license in the mail this past week and I was thrilled to finally have it! I immediately laminated the pocket-size one and put it in my wallet. I better get out and water my veggie garden today. It's going to be a scorcher the next few days. I'm sad to see the destruction of old Tiger Stadium. I have lots of great childhood memories from that ball park...and yes, I've been a Bleacher Creature a few times. Miss those days! We're going to have a new roof and gutters in two weeks. Can't wait! It's long overdue. Our home will look so much better when it's all done, and hopefully the leaks into the breezeway and sun porch will stop. OK, back to the chores and house cleaning I've gotten behind on.
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[12 Jun 2008|11:23pm] |
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No more flooding/leaking in the homestead. Please let it stay that way.
Got the garden planted. Still have about 12 plants to put in the ground (cucumbers, zucchini, acorn squash, spaghetti squash) but I got all the tomatoes and sweet peppers planted along with some of the cukes and squash plants. I'm amazed I got so much done. It's a little bit late in the season to start my garden, but I bought plants instead of starting them from seed like I had originally wanted. The plants are nice and healthy, and have already grown to a good starter size. So really I'm not that far behind. I'll be very glad when I see flowers blooming on them. I'm hoping for a huge tomato crop so I can make sauces, soups, chili and to have plenty to eat right off the vine. Love those tomato sandwiches! Sometimes I eat them like apples, or slice them into wedges with just a teeny pinch of salt.
I can already tell I'm getting a huge raspberry crop this year too. Nice!
Tomorrow is my last day of tutoring. Monday I begin my new nursing career at a local hospital. This fall I'm starting work on my BSN and maybe even a MSN, we'll see.
Today I had to get my clearance from the hospital's employee health care department. I had a drug test and titers drawn along with a TB test on Tuesday and had to go back for my paperwork and results this afternoon. Cleared the drug screen, and my prior Hepatitis B shots showed up in my titers along with everything else that's required. If I didn't show the resistance in my bloodstream I would simply have to be administered the required vaccinations. I'm fit for duty!
Time for bed. I'm quite sore from all the yard work and gardening. Have to be up by 7 am. I'm hungry, but that's just too bad, I'll wait until breakfast. So I'll just down a big glass of water with my multivitamins and call it a day.
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| Homestead update |
[09 Jun 2008|11:00pm] |
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Finally got the sump pump back from the repair shop and I re-installed it myself. Seems to be working just fine! But we have the back-up pump now just in case anything else goes wrong.
Beshert took a turn and climbed out on the roof today instead of me, and caulked up anything he and I could see that might be causing our roof leak. Of course I was hanging out the bathroom window helping him with the caulk gun. I Can't resist! We had a short thunderstorm a few hours later, and no leak. But not much rain with it so we have no idea if the roof is actually fixed yet or not. The weather is supposed to be rainy again tomorrow. Maybe we'll find out for sure then.
I have my physical tomorrow morning for the new job. I'm assuming there will also be a drug test included, so I've avoided poppyseeds because I believe in the "urban myth" that those can make someone test positive for opiates. I'm not taking any chances! The poppyseed bagels can wait another day.
I better crawl off to bed. My physical is at 7:30 am so I need to be up plenty before that. I'll be studying for my nursing boards for the rest of the day afterward.
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| Crazy weekend |
[08 Jun 2008|09:16pm] |
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I have had quite the fun weekend so far -- NOT! First, our sump pump failed on Thursday night. It began running nonstop and pumping nothing out. I called the installing company (won’t mention names) who wasn’t very happy about coming out to remove it. They asked us to do it and just drop it off at their shop in Redford . So I went ahead and unscrewed everything, unhooked it from the drainage pipe, pulled out that very long section that is submerged in the water, wrapped it in old towels and a huge trash bag, and then hauled it off to the shop. They said it would be ready sometime Monday, for me to pick up from their shop and re-install myself. This is annoying but nothing we can't overcome. Oh, but wait, read on! In case you all don't know, my Beshert isn't Mr. Fix-It. I'm what he now affectionately calls "Nurse Wrench-It" because I do the majority of home repairs and improvements myself. I figure everything out and get it organized. He helps out with the physical stuff. Next, we had a water leak from the roof into our breezeway from a downpour we had on Friday night.. I climbed out onto the roof on Saturday evening through my tiny bathroom window…no easy feat, believe me…onto a steep section. I scraped off some old caulk I had used to fill an old leak spot and filled that with roofing tar. It was blistering hot on those shingles because it had been 90 + degrees outside all day, and I literally could wring out my clothes afterward. Plus I hate heights, the tar smelled something terrible, I was concerned about how steep the roof was and of course worried that I might slide off and land 1 story down onto the deck. Our stormy Saturday night was the true test of my patch work, and there was no more water leak to be found in the breezeway. I’m hoping that the wood will dry and not rot where the water came down through the ceiling. So, with that joyous news, my husband went downstairs today because of concern about having no sump pump, and discovered that we had a drain in the basement that was backing up and oozing water all over our basement floor. So at 5:30 am, we both threw on some junky clothes, went downstairs and began our work. Sigh….I had about a dozen storage boxes that were on the floor in the danger zone so we quickly moved all of those to higher ground. Next, we took a push broom and window squeegee and began pushing the rising water toward another drain on the floor to see if that one would actually accept the water. Thankfully it did. We pushed the rising water toward the other drain about 10 ft away for over an hour. I decided to run to Home Depot as soon as they opened this morning at 8 am to buy a multi-purpose pump with an extra garden hose. The pump cost $82.00 and the squeegee was $15.00. When I got home, I set the whole thing up, put a long hose into the sump pump hole, and got the pump started. It worked like a charm! The floor drain stopped flooding, and the water was pumped into the laundry drain with no problems. We ran the pump so far for about a ½ hour and everything still seems great. So, what else can go wrong today?? Anything? It’s only 10:30 am. Was hoping to be outside doing gardening and now I’m not sure about that. It’s supposed to get very hot and stormy outside again.
OK, so now it's around 5pm and storming severely. Guess what, my roof is leaking in again! Rats! I have no idea where the leak is coming from now, but it's dripping from the same exact area in the ceiling. I put tar on everything up there. The rain must be coming in from a much higher location that I haven't seen yet. We need a new roof and gutters anyway and it's time to get that all taken care of. Great, that should run us about 8-10 grand. Ouch.
We are supposed to have more storms tonight, tomorrow and Tuesday. I'm hoping that the actual sump pump will be fixed Monday so I can get it hooked back up and running. I have no idea how many gallons of water we pumped out with the mini pump I bought this morning throughout the day....but it was a great many. Good thing the water flooding through the drain and pumped out of the sump pump area was all clear. Straight rainwater, no sewage. Hooray! Nothing was ruined downstairs. The carpeted and finished half of the basement was completely unaffected. Relief!!
On a much happier note, I've been officially hired as a new Graduate Nurse. Finally! It's at one of the hospitals I had a clinical assignment at so I'm already familiar with paperwork and protocols. Midnight shifts, 7pm-7:30 am, 3 days a week. I'm sure I'll offer to work more days. This week I take my physical, drug test and TB test for the job, plus turn in a boatload of paperwork to personnel. I'll be working with patients of all ages, on a family medicine floor, who had unsuccessful outpatient treatments at other facilities and come to this floor for additional medical help. I'm going to learn a lot while working with this patient population. Can't wait to get started! And one of my classmates will be working on that floor with me, so that's extra nice. She and I were lab partners in nursing school.
I made lots of cheese blintzes for Shavuot. Didn't have any cheesecake. And was not in any kind of mood to try fixing one after the weekend we'd been having. The blintzes were quite teh good!
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| Vegan pizza! |
[02 Jun 2008|12:14am] |
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OMG the Vegan pizza turned out amazing! Got rave reviews from everyone who tried it! My husband has asked me to make that again just for him soon. My vegan dessert went over big too. Bananas are the perfect food in so many ways. I think they are simply amazing when added to a dessert batter instead of eggs.
Beshert's birthday party went over very well. Everyone had fun, especially him when he was opening up the gifts. He got lots of great U of M stuff and gift cards to go shopping and is really happy about getting the Saturday Night Live's first 3 seasons. I can't wait to watch them with him.
The weather was perfect, sunny and breezy in the 70's F all day.
After everyone left I swept up the house and cleaned everything. It doesn't look like we even had a party. I love waking up to a nice clean house the day after hosting a family gathering. I can totally relax and enjoy my day. I will, after I'm done with my tutoring job on Monday morning and get back home in the early afternoon. I'll stretch out with my coffee and continue with my practice quizzes for the boards. And thoroughly enjoy having no housework to do.
I'm soooo far behind in my gardens. Maybe I should get outside and work on them for a while over the next few days. We'll see.
I heard on the news that gas might hit $6 bucks a gallon because of a tropical storm. Give me a stinking break!!! Liars, cheats and thieves running the oil companies. I'm sick of it.
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| My Beshert's birthday |
[31 May 2008|10:01pm] |
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His birthday is in a few days, but we're having family over on Sunday. I've been baking like a fiend ever since Shabbos ended. Made vegan brownies, vegetarian-style banana bread, and of course a fattening kosher chocolate birthday cake. I had excellent results with adding pureed bananas to the desserts to substitute for the required eggs. They make an awesome and flavorful substitution. I also used Agave nectar instead of sugar in the banana bread and was extremely happy with the outcome. Absolutely deliciousl. Will be experimenting with those again soon!
We're going to have an all dairy and vegetable dinner tomorrow for company. I also whipped up a spinach dip with Manischewitz veggie soup mix. It's always a big hit with my family. I picked fresh chives from my garden and chopped them up for the dip instead of onions. Love fresh chives! If anyone wants any chive seeds, please let me know. I have many dozens of plants and they pop up everywhere in the yard now instead of just growing in my large chive garden. I can easily collect hundreds of seeds. I think chives are teh awesome when added to a stir fry, soups, stews, potato salad, cole slaw, hommous, tuna salad, and mashed potatoes. They also taste good added to a pizza
Beshert is getting the first 3 years of Saturday Night Live DVD sets for his present. I know he'll like it because he talks about those seasons frequently. I was not allowed to stay up that late and watch TV when it first started so I'll enjoy watching them as much as he will. Yes, he is a little bit older than me, like a decade.
My friend will be over with her two kids, and my little nephew will be visiting too. Can't wait to see them all! It will be fun.
Watching the Red Wings game now. I sure hope they win. 2-1 Wings winning right now.
I'll be taking my RN boards in early July. Must study many hours for that. I have excellent practice quizzes on disks to help me prepare.
Wish me luck. I also have job interviews with two local huge hospital networks in the coming weeks, as well as DaVita dialysis. Lots of great things to look forward to! I haven't had my graduation party yet, I'll wait until after I pass my boards. Probably no party until early August by the looks of things.
Yay, the Wings just won!!!!!
Well, better go. Beshert wants my attention. I'll try to post again before the weekend is over.
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| Sunday |
[25 May 2008|11:48pm] |
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What a nice day. Perfect temps in the 70's, light breeze, quality time with my beshert. Made french toast for breakfast, and then had his mom and brothers over for a barbecue. Lots of compliments on the food, and everyone went for seconds. That's always a clue that things were good.
I made a pretty yummy pumpkin cake later in the evening. Took a spice cake mix, one large (29 oz) can of pureed pumpkin, two eggs, and a Passover muffin mix that I hadn't used. I also put in 1/2 cup of brown sugar and several tbsp of molasses, several tsp of vanilla flavoring. Mixed them all together, put them in a 9x13 baking pan, and baked it for 1/2 hour at 350 F. Made a very light, fluffy cake that tastes great! No frosting needed, but if I were to use something, it would probably be a cream cheese icing or vanilla frosting. I found this recipe online, but not using such a large can of pumpkin (15 oz instead) and obviously not including the muffin mix. I just wanted to use up the mix and it was the perfect way. I also had this huge can of pumpkin and decided to use all of it up. I often make up concoctions like those and am rarely disappointed. I've also been putting mashed bananas into cake mixes and reducing the amount of oil and water required. Makes an unbelievably light and flaky cake. Another experiment that went extremely well. Husband makes short work of everything I create and looks forward to more.
One of my former classmates called this afternoon and gave me some great contact information about getting a job at Beaumont Hospital. I am soooo grateful to her!
I worked on the garden this afternoon. Got a lot of the soil turned. Still have more to do, but at least I got a great start on things. I want to get a huge crop this summer and try to save some $$ on my food bill.
I'm almost at the point where I might not be able to afford kosher meats. The price just jumped up $2.00 overnight per package of ground beef and also on packaged chicken. It's so darn frustrating. We might have to go mostly vegetarian. How is everyone coping with their skyrocketing grocery bills?
Monday is supposed to be rainy/stormy/crappy but warm. Guess we're not doing any more yard work for a few days.
I'm getting hooked on a show called Mystery Diagnosis. It's very interesting.
Feeling a bit tired now. Maybe I'll write again on Monday afternoon.
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| What's new |
[23 May 2008|10:05am] |
Right this minute I'm having a nice cup of coffee, sitting here at my tutoring job with no students...and still getting paid. It's strange to have no one come in for help. But it's also nice, because I can get some good net surfing done and study for my NCLEX board exam. Fridays are typically less busy. Even the school parking lot looks empty. I think people avoid taking Friday classes and just want to get started early with their weekends.
The weather here in Michigan has been very fall-like, strange for this time of year. I want to plant my garden but I'm concerned about frost. We've had several nights with frost warnings lately. I may chance it this weekend.
I've been studying with my friend Tracy as much as we can get together. I'm hoping to take my boards with her on the same day/time.
I feel like I'm ready and I'd just like to get it over with.
Still hunting for a nursing job. The nursing field in my area has been supersaturated by new grads at the moment. Meanwhile I continue to tutor, apply online for jobs, look for nursing job openings & job fairs in the classifieds, and enjoy spending time with my family.
I've resumed babysitting my little nephew who's now almost 3. I go over to my brother's house once a week and watch the little guy over there. I have big plans to take him out to my friend's house later this summer on some days. She has a huge backyard, a cute new puppy who loves everyone, and young children who already know my nephew and like him. I want him to have a ton of fun. I'm also hoping to do finger paints and other arts/crafts with all the kids. I loved visiting my grandparents when I was little, and they always did arts & crafts with me every time. It was so much fun! What great memories.
I just had a student come in for tutoring, and she is major league stressed out. I hope I was able to calm her down. She's working on her first paper that's due in the nursing program, regarding elderly patient falls. It's making her crazy. None of the students have had the APA format seminar yet and she is worrying about how to do it. Boy do I remember the stress! My very first semester of nursing school caused my heart to beat irregularly and race sometimes. The unknown and unexpected takes its toll on the mind and body. I'll be right back in it by this coming fall when I work on my Bachelors of Science in Nursing. Thankfully no more patient care plan reports to turn in, but I'll be doing loads of papers and other homework.
I've also done a lot of catching up with my mother-in-law . There are lots of doctor's appointments to schedule, test results to get, medications that need to be organised, light housework in her apartment that always needs to be done, and trips to the grocery store for her supplies. I got lots of that done yesterday. Her health is better and we're trying to keep it that way. Her heart is still beating irregularly, but it's become the norm to have it this way and it's well controlled with her medications. I'm hopeful that we can keep her in this same mode so she can retain a lot of her independence for many more years.
My surviving grandmother is now bedridden, cannot see, but can still hear and talk. I visit her as much as I can. She had several more strokes in recent months which took her eyesight and made her more confused. She just turned 93.
Just refilled my coffee cup, and it seems extra good today. Takes the chill off me from the coolness outside.
Sunday I intend to turn the soil in the garden and start my planting. Determined to grow tomatoes, several kinds of squash, cucumbers, sweet peppers, green beans and snow peas. I have a whole lot of raspberry bushes which I hope to get a nice crop from this year....if the robins and blackbirds don't pilfer first. Lots of good plans for Sunday/Monday. I also hope to throw some good eats on the grill outside and spend some good quality time with my beshert.
Happy Memorial Day to all my US friends! Please take some time at 3pm Monday afternoon to observe a moment of silence to honor all of our fallen soldiers.
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| I graduated from nursing school |
[05 May 2008|12:22am] |
I did it, I graduated from nursing school! We just had our pinning ceremony on Sunday afternoon.
I have a job interview at a local hospital on Monday afternoon and I'm geeked up about it.
Hopefully I will be able to take my licensure exam within the next six weeks. Have to get that scheduled ASAP.
I'll try to be around and post more often. Sorry I've been away for such long stretches!
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| Beatles in Yiddish |
[20 Mar 2008|01:32pm] |
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Hard Day's Night |
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vAMgbGEDTY
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