Gift wrap it up

Yeah yeah... I know I've been neglecting finishing things up here. It's just that after the conference I went home and everything blew up. While explosions are very exciting, they can also be corrosive and disruptive. I saw three friends in one day and then my long awaited brother and sister-in-law arrived with Raena in tow. We got about a night of delight and the next day my sister-in-law (it's hard type sisterinlaw over and over... I will now refer to her as my sister) went to the ER. She had been seeing spots for days (never a good sign). Then began the long saga of hospital visits which pretty much swamped our less then five day vacation. My sister endured eyehooks and MRI's at 1:00am. All to find that she has a cavernous adenoma. A WHAT? Well it's a benign tumor near her pituitary gland which also is near an optic recess. So apparently it grew when she was pregnant with Raena because progesterone causes it to grow. This is not cool because it could grow again and possibly become malignant. Also, I don't think anyone ever fixed the spot problem. Though for now, she is told not to worry. While this did ruin our vacation, God saw fit that they were here (aka next to the UofM of medical wonders versus Frederick, MA where the whole thing would have been overlooked). Also, it meant I got to see a lot of my baby. I did the full: feed baby, play with baby, let baby bonk head (oops!), change baby's diaper... and finally I even got to make her fall asleep in T-2 minutes. That's a record folks.

Not one day after getting home from this disasterous vacation, my grandmother goes to the hospital. She's dehydrated, liver is acting out, and her clotting factors are way off. My grandfather becomes extremely distraught and my mom has to deal with him and all of her siblings (3 if you were wondering). This is not an easy feat. My mother has been so distressed that she asked me yesterday to spell possibly. I looked at how she had tried to spell it and it was "possibile". Not good. :) Family matters are never smooth. Everyone has their own opinion. So I've been playing old maid alone in the house, but if you thought that would give me time to write a blog post... you're WRONG! I've been studying somewhat frantically for the NCLEX which I am now scheduled to take the first day of classes (interesting I know). Also, I've been cleaning my room which hasn't seen me since the beginning of May when I threw everything into it and left for Kansas. So yes, that's my life right now. I enjoy being home although I wish I had more time. I always wish I had more time though. Such is life. I'll finish up with Jubilee thoughts later. I've got some good things for notation.

All my love,
Katie

iWin an Oscar

I never thought I'd be elected for an Oscar. I never thought I could bring down the house with an act as a ditzy girl who hitchhikes with cute boys so she can paint her nails. I guess all my SWAT (improv team) work paid off!

You find me in St. Louis, MO at a Sisters of Mercy convent. It is beeyootiful and making me slightly homesick which is ok since I will be home in three days!

We just did skits on "worst nightmares" of parish nurse educators. I laughed so hard! We had one scenario where someone did a devotional for ONE HOUR. I won't even try to explain the skit... but we laughed until there were tears in our eyes. My group's skit was on a girl who was "ditzy", giggled, and gave inappropriate comments in response to questions. Somehow we had my character hitchhike to class... (so she could paint her nails of course! And she thought the driver was pretty cute) Then she said that the case study scenario should have been printed on scented paper. I strung it out was wildly as I could. It was great! Even when we got to the serious part when we were talking about interventions for the scenario... I had to make one last joke. Our leader was stating that maybe "Sally" (my character) felt out of place in class with the other women and I shouted out in character "BECAUSE THEY'RE SO OLD"

How the women loved that! It's a longstanding joke (and sad fact) that the average age of a parish nurse is 61. I'm the baby of the group by a long shot. It is such a riot though. I'm enjoying every minute of it and learning SO MUCH. I love being surrounded by my gray headed elders (and they're really not old - I mean they're all still teaching!). They take great care of me too. After this skit they're saying they'll see me at the Oscars, I'm a great actress, and NEVER HITCHHIKE! I will share more of the wisdom later when I have access to my own computer (I'm on one of three at the center and don't want to hog it!)

Comedy act in St. Louis
Yours truly