Hard at work?

Yesterday while I was hard at work on a Saturday (and yes, I really was hard at work yesterday), this is what the rest of my apartment was doing.

Worldy updates

Well, maybe not "worldly" updates...but Shan updates!!!

I took my CRT (certified Respiratory Therapy) exam last Monday and passed! Very exciting because then I was able to officially start work this week. Yay for being paid!

I still need to take both parts of the RRT (registered RT) exam. I'm signed up to take the written registry portion on Friday, June 13th in the a.m. Then I'll take the clinical simulations on Wednesday, June 18th. The clinical simulations are when they give you a situation and you have to pick answers based on decision making and information gathering. I think there's 10 of them and it's very long!

So I started working this week at Clarian's Indiana University Hospital in downtown Indianapolis. It's where I've worked for the last year as a student RT. I even got my one year anniversary key chain the other day! Tuesday was rather exhausting, it was Clarian orientation. The same EXACT seminar I had to sit through last summer. But, I got paid well AND I signed up for my health insurance and all of that. It will all go into affect on June 1st. Yay!

I had yesterday off and then today I went in the morning for some computer training. While working as a student I wasn't able to check off meds on the computer or write orders so I had to learn how to do that stuff. Tomorrow I go in for 8 hours for department and general care orientation. Next week I'll get into the 12 hour shifts I need to get accustomed to!

I went and looked at some houses with Mom today. There are a lot of cute ones out there but that might be making it a harder decision. Tomorrow night we're going over to Lyndsay's to play (or in my case, try to play) poker. Nothing but yoga planned for Saturday and Sunday is church and a bridal show.

Off to bed. I do have to work tomorrow!

Studying is for pansies

I have an exam tomorrow. At least I've opened the notebook, right? :-) I'll get to it, I swear. I wanted to upload the pictures from this weekend first!
Saturday JM and I slept in and went to Bob Evans for breakfast. We had an awesome server who hooked us up with free pumpkin and banana nut bread, then sent us home with some free biscuits. Low carb diets are something we obviously aren't trying.
We were going to head down to Oliver Winery and maybe Nashville (Indiana) but it was SUCH a beautiful day that we made some adjustments. It was seventy-something degrees out, not a cloud in the perfectly blue sky, and the leaves were changing. We picked up Kodi and threw him in the car (ok, we walked him to the car, didn't throw him) and headed down to Brown County State Park. Neither of us had been there so it was quite the experience.
If you want to see all the pictures from the weekend, I've posted a bunch of new ones at http://picasaweb.google.com/shannonmoliver

This is my favorite picture. We took trail 7, which went around Ogle Lake. Everything was gorgeous and I took 500 pictures. Wow, I exaggerate a lot.

This is Ogle Lake at the start of the trail. We were just amazed, it was so beautiful. There was a wedding going on just to the left. That couple totally lucked out with the great weather and scenery. Any other day this month has been rainy or hot as Haites!

Kodi, JM and I off the trail. I'm obviously slipping on the leaves.

Another gorgeous view of the lake from the trail.

Our last stop, Hesitation Point. Kodi was as exhausted as he looks!

We did stop at the Oliver Winery on our way back but were only able to stay for a few minutes because we got stuck in stupid IU football traffic. Then we rushed home and my parents took us to dinner at Harry and Izzy's downtown. It was sooo good. I had filet and lobster...woo hoo! Then we went to Nicky Blaine's, the martini and cigar bar downtown. I had a few more excellent martinis before we had to leave because the stupid mall parking garage closed at midnight!

JM left for Georgia today for two weeks for Army stuff. I took Kodi to my parents because I have really long days and without JM here, Kodi may go insane. We had birthday cake, the traditional Taylor's with fall flowers. It's the same one I've had every year -- I believe since we moved here about 18 years ago.

Mom and Dad got me some great presents as well. They got me the Dansko's I've been wanting. I swear everyone at the hospital has them and says they're the best thing for your feet. They also got me a "Life is Good" t-shirt with a turtle on it -- I love sea turtles. I also got a frame/memory box since I'm all into trying to decorate the apartment with pictures.

Aunt Judy and Uncle Dave sent me a giftcard to Barnes and Noble...my favorite store. I can't decide which book to get. I have a huge list of to-reads!

Ok, Wedding Date is on so I should get going. Wait, what I meant to say is that I need to study a bit before I go to bed!

4 days and counting...

That's right...in about 2 hours there will only be 4 days left of this semester! I'm starting to feel so relieved, which probably isn't good because I still need to study for finals!

Studying is what I did most of the weekend. Friday we had class in the morning, came home and slept, then studied intermittently throughout the afternoon and evening. Saturday was Mom's birthday, so we went to the Orchard in Bloom which is this really cool garden show basically. There's some exhibits of landscapers and then booths galore with plants and all different decorating things. Mom got some flowers for the yard and I got a dwarf euonymus which I love. It reminds me of my old Bonsai tree...in a cute little pot and it looks like a mini tree. Hopefully I'll do better with this one though, Greg used to joke that my Bonsai tree had lived 70 years and then met me. In my defense, I left it in my dorm over Christmas break with the dry heaters going.

Let's see, got home, did some studying with breaks here and there, then went to dinner at Villagio for Mom's birthday and ate wayyyy too much. It's this little Italian restaurant in downtown Zionsville that has a real 'homemade' feel to it. I had the lasanga which was incredible. Then we came home, had some cake and I did a little more studying before just basically passing out.

I've gotten a little more in the groove of studying today. I'm still only working on disease which isn't probably the best idea. I have to work for Jill tomorrow till noon, so I think I'm going to have my stuff already packed and leave straight after work for school and stick myself in the library for a good few hours. My goal is to stay at least till 7 or 8. That's long for me :-) My finals schedule is:

Tuesday -- Cardiopulmonary Diseases

Wednesday -- Pediatrics and Neonates

Thursday -- Life Support Lecture (basically ventilators) and then the Lab Practical

Friday -- Pharmacology

The only two I'm really concerned about are Tuesday and Thursday. Tuesday just because there's a lot of info and his exams are hard enough as it is without being cumulative. Thursday is worrying me because it's the instructor that I always seem to have a hard time with and I'm never as prepared for her exams as I think I should be.

Ok, off to bed. Try to get a good night's sleep so I don't have any excuses not to study hard tomorrow!!!

Adventures in Babysitting

Besides that, my weekend was great. JM snuck away and came up on Friday which was excellent because I thought I wouldn't see him till next weekend. It's been a few weeks since we last saw each other so getting to see him was much needed. We looked at some apartments, found a couple we like, went to Lyndsay's nephew's 3rd birthday party, went to dinner, then looked at some more apartments. So far, these two are the ones we're liking...
http://www.homeisoaklake.com/
and
http://www.aimco.com/Communities/default.aspx?PropertyID=039613

The first one is a better price and has things we like in the apartment. One bad thing is that our bedroom window is on (and I literally mean on) the walk into the other apartments. Another bad thing is the area, it's not as nice as I'd like. Inside the complex is nice, but outside the complex leaves some things to be desired. The second one is a higher price, and more utilities, and no washer/dryer hookup. But, it's a great area. And it has 2 80-acre stocked lakes and the community is huge. For those of you who remember, Kodi and I lived there when I first moved back to Indy and I loved it. But, it has to be what's best for both of us (JM and I, not Kodi and I!). JM's coming back up next weekend so we'll get to look again and hopefully get it narrowed down. Just looking this weekend really helped out weed out quite a few. We drove through some neighborhoods and were able to cross some out due to the quality of people walking around and a busted car window. JM's taking his grandfather to a Cubs game on Friday so we'll have Saturday and Sunday. Speaking of which, if anyone's interested in some Cubs tickets for Friday let me know...JM has extra!!!

Hope you had a good weekend!!!