Winter weather watch!

The weather here is FRIGID! I'm not complaining, I'd much rather be cold than hot anyway! Liberty and I are spending a delightful night under a blanket watching Hairspray for the third time this week! I am SO addicted to this movie! I've ordered it and the soundtrack from Amazon, but it's not here yet. Sadness! I am a sucker for a good musical and can't believe I didn't see this one in the theater!

I'm SO glad the week is over! Of course, I started back on call today, and don't worry...I've ALREADY gotten called with heart offers! My surgeon isn't even in town! If we end up transplanting, she'll fly back, but it makes for some excitement.

This weekend, I'm not planning on much! I've got a surprise birthday party tomorrow night in the absolute Dallas GHETTO. It's for a wonderful friend, so I don't mind that the location is a TAD shady. Other than that, Liberty and I have to deliver a birthday present to my sister-in-law tomorrow.

I really REALLY wanted it to ice over this morning. I even turned on the news before I even got out of bed to see if there were delays so I could spend my day in bed! Sadly, there was no ice to be had. There really wasn't even any traffic! So much for some early morning drama!

Hope your weekend is warm and wonderful!

Peace and quiet

Well, it was almost all peaceful and quiet, this beautiful off-call weekend of mine! I did wake up on Saturday morning to the annoying noise of my pager...apparently a doctor paged me at 4:40 that morning and I never even heard it! Now, when I'm not on call, I don't sleep with ANYTHING in my bedroom. No phone, no pager, no Treo. It's not surprising I didn't hear it...what's suprising is that the pager actually kept going off! Thankfully, I know the surgeon who called me was able to reach the actual person on call.

Yesterday, I went shopping and to the movies! 27 dresses is such a great chick flick, if anyone is in the mood to just smile! I've pretty much had a perfectly wonderful weekend! It's been relaxing and not stressful, which is exactly what I needed. Liberty is being annoyingly clingy...perhaps she senses that in less than 3 weeks, I'll leave her for 2 weeks! I don't think I've been away from her that long before. Oh well, she's a dog...and she'll no doubt handle it much better than I.

I'm watching Runaway Bride right now. Every time I watch this movie, I feel the absolute craving to eat eggs! Perhaps it's because eggs are talked about! Thankfully, it's not making me think of weddings or anything serious like that! I always loved that Richard Gere's cat is named Italics. What a great name! When I am finished with patriotic dog names, I'll have to move on to punctuation names....

I'm on outpatient this week, which means I get to see a few of my sweet babies tomorrow when they come for their biopsies! I do love seeing when they come in and they are healthy!

I think I have a Honduras planning meeting this week. Hooray! Especially since I am leaving in less than three weeks, I'd like to be more prepared...but that's apparently not going to be the case.

Well, I'd probably better get to bed. My staying up late on the weekends is always harmful when I start getting back into my week day schedule. Oh well, that's going to be a complication I'm willing to take.

The stupid Giants won the NFC championship. The ONE time I was rooting for the Packers...and they lost. Now I have to cheer for the Patriots, which Kris will LOVE, but I will loathe. I mean, really, the only good thing about the Patriots is Tom Brady's physical appearance. He's vapid, but still a beautiful man! Now I have to cheer FOR them because I can NOT in good conscience cheer for the Giants. It's a conundrum.

I hope your week is absolutely fabulous!

My blog's reading level....

Hmmm...interesting.

Online Payday Loans

Wow!

Just when I think I can't keep going in my job, something small like a performance review hits me when I need it. I had a mini review last month, but all the people who were supposed to evaluate me hadn't gotten their feedback in yet. Today, I got the official results. At Children's, we're rated 1-5 and our pay raise is linked to how good we do. My boss told me today that he's never had an employee who was "outstanding" in every category in their first year of working in that department. WOW! He had go through special permission to get me my raise since it was the most allowed. I was given a copy and am still in shock at the last phrase, coined by the transplant surgeon..."Stephanie is a true pleasure to work with and if technology someday permits should be cloned."

God has truly blessed me!

Cowboys Vs Giants.....17-21

ARG. That's all I have to say. Personally, I blame Jessica Simpson. I hate her.

Surviving the new year

A weekend off call when you have had a really horrible week at work is like a GIANT piece of chocolate cake. It's enticing, fabulous, and you just can't get enough! I don't really wish to blog about work right now, mostly because I'm trying to pretend it doesn't exist. Weeks where I have more than one occasion of bursting into tears are not common, but I still hate each and every one of them. When the medical director for transplant tells me I need to "go out and party this weekend so you don't think about work", I start to wonder what kind of image people are seeing on my face. When I walk into the surgical director's office and she says "oh GOOD, you still work here!", I really start to wonder! But ENOUGH about work. I'm tired of it and I don't wanna talk about it any more!

Let's instead discuss my fabulous weekend off! I have been extremely productive today! I actually CLEANED the bathroom, which is something I've been saying I was going to do for the last three weeks and have never done. I did a few loads of laundry, did the dishes, cleaned the kitchen, and still played with the puppies enough to tire them both out. They are both passed out on the chaise lounge with me. I also got the opportunity to play with a friend from LeTourneau! I haven't had a chance to see her since her wedding in 2001! That's WAY too long! We roamed around Firewheel mall for several hours today! I had so much fun! (And I got to shop!)

In less than a month, I'll be in Honduras! I'm getting more and more excited about this trip! I still have absolutely no idea what to pack, but I'm sure I'll get told at some point. I know I'm leaving on February 8, but that's about all I know. One would hope I'd be given some information soon, but we'll just have to see. Once we get there, I'm just planning on being a post-op nurse...taking care of those sweet cardiac Honduran kiddos!

Hope your weekend is as relaxing as mine!

Happy New Year!

Wow! Can it really be 2008 already? I am absolutely convinced that the years go by much faster the older I get. It really seems like just yesterday I was ringing in 2007 and now it's already over. It's about to be one year since I started the quest for a new job....a job I don't regret taking most of the time. I've grown so much as both a person and a nurse through this job. I feel that I am smarter and every day I get to learn something new! I've developed friendships with surgeons and cardiologists....people I never would have had the opportunity to get to know before. I'm a lot busier than before, taking call, being at the hospital on weekends that I'm supposed to be off....but it's all worth it to have developed relationships with these precious families. I've seen nine hearts come out of ice and be restarted in their new owners and NINE times have I had the priviledge to go tell family "We have a beating heart!".

As far as the rest of my life goes, it's stayed pretty much the same. I guess that's good, right? It's best not to change everything at once! I'm looking forward to some changes in 2008, although not quite sure what they are yet. I'm not planning on moving, not changing jobs or puppies, and hopefully will just make even more friends!

I'm still on call for new transplants, but thankfully have switched off call for our kiddos who have already had them. Not that I don't love those kids, but being on all call at the same time gets really old and tiring! I'm starting to count down the days until I go to Honduras, and I can't WAIT! It will be one month from Tuesday! Thanks to my wonderful family and friends, I've already raised the money needed to go! I'll post more details about the trip when I get them.

I hope 2008 is an amazing year for all of us! HAPPY NEW YEAR!