Growing pains

Last weekend I indulged my inner child by running the color me rad race (where you become completely covered in colored corn starch and paint as you run a 5k), buying a hula hoop for my work's talent show, jump roping, and playing airplane with friends (ya know where you fly on people's feet). I guess eventually you have to grow up a little bit from the Toys R'us kid mentality and tell the lovely cashier that you probably shouldn't get a rewards card for the store. (even though I was tempted to because there are a lot of cool toys there!)

    Unfortunately sometimes growing can be a bit challenging. Not being in school has been a really hard adjustment for me. I really do miss studying because I miss learning. I miss the structure of school, the atmosphere, and all of my friends. My heart yearns to be back on campus and I am always excited when I can find an excuse to go back. Which is becoming less and less as I find out the city versions of everything I use to find there. I have learned a lot though from this change and there have been some fun changes. Or at least they seem fun because they are new to me. I got my first completely my own credit card that I have to be in charge of now. I pay for my own vaccinations, get my car registered, oh and I have a job.

THE OFFICIAL RN LICENSE

   Yes somehow I landed a job at Provo Care Center. It is a home for people with developmental disabilities.  A lot of them are older too so it is somewhat like a nursing home. The crazy thing is I am the Health Services Director, which I didn't even know I was going to be that when they hired me. Sadly the fancy title just means a lot of paperwork, administrative work, and people passing the buck to you for everything that goes wrong. I love the people I work with and the residents are great. I am the most happy when I get to be on the floor working with them.What is interesting about it is the fact that it is an active treatment facility. Meaning we have to run all these programs to help them maintain and learn new skills. This principle helped open my eyes in nursing because it is so stressed that we need to teach our patients how to care for themselves but sometimes we rarely actually do that. I think as a student too I was always extremely eager to do things on my own and for the patient. Effective teaching really means having the person do it themselves even if it may be slow or not as perfect as we would like it to be either. The whole teach a man how to fish and he will eat everyday sort of principle, something I am still trying to master for sure.

This is where I work.

The fancy plaque outside of my office. I'm official :)

The most exciting news I have though is that I will be leaving in ...oh my goodness 18 days till I leave on USNS mercy navy ship with the  Latter Day-Saint Charities group!!!!! Basically I will be going as a nurse on this giant hospital/navy ship to Southeast Asian countries(Indonesia and the Philippines) where they bring people on to the ship for surgeries, exams, etc. or we go out and set up clinics in the country or go into their homes to visit them. The church is just one of the NGOs that will be helping the navy with this special project. 

      Yes after years of wanting to go I am actually going on this project. It is hard to believe and I feel so privileged to be going. It was interesting how it all happened because I had kind of written it off as a possibility and I wasn't sure if I would be around in provo still for me to go. In my one of my desperate moments during unemployment I emailed the lady in charge of setting of the group to go to see if they needed anyone. She said no, but would let me know if anything changed.  Just a little bit later when I got a couple job offers she also asked if I could come in for an interview for the ship. When I met with her I just knew I was suppose to go and she told me that even though the Navy and herself were in charge of picking who goes on the ship that ultimately it was the Lord's team. I am so glad she was in tune with the spirit to be willing to interview more people she thought needed to go. I ended up being able to take my current job and still go on the ship!!! (well that is if my boss hasn't forgotten about our little deal yet) Don't worry my vaccinations, malaria pills, mosquito repellant, and flight itinerary are all set for me to get on the ship! I am really getting excited and a little stressed too. I hope that I will be able to really help the people in these countries and to learn from them as well. I hope because of my lack of skills as a nurse that I will actually be helpful and not a hinderance. I know it will be a huge learning curve but I am very eager to take on that challenge. I will be posting and updating on the trip as much as I can. 

    Even though some of these experiences are great opportunities they have definitely challenged me, but I keep on reminding myself of a few things to get me through.

 One is 

"Fear thou not; for I am with thee; be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea I will help thee; yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness." Isaiah 41:10 I know He has been with me and supported me even during the times I may have ignored Him. Somehow He still blesses me so much and I know I need to live up to and be more deserving of those blessings.

The other one is something a friend told me once to repeat when I was feeling weak,

"I am strong, how strong? TOO STRONG!" 

DARCY MY ROOMIE HAD ACL SURGERY AND HAS BEEN SUCH A TROOPER, TOO STRONG! 

APRIL AND PJ CAME TO SLC TO VISIT! STILL NOT TOO GROWN UP TO BE SILLY WITH HER AND WEAR CHEETAH ROBES AT THEIR HOTEL

ALWAYS HAVE TIME TO PULL SOME FRIENDLY PRANKS ON ROOMIES

MY BOUNTIFUL BASKET, BEST THING EVER. CHECK IT OUT I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT!

https://contributions10.bountifulbaskets.org/index.php

NEVER TOO OLD TO BE CREATIVE AT COLOR ME MINE