verbs, all of them tiring

I am in the middle of Cold Mountain, and I loved the title of that chapter. That is what I feel like tonight...I have worked 79.5 hours in the last six days and am quit delirious. But for now, all of my patients are sleeping, and I am only 4 hours away from my bed. I am planning on leaving tomorrow for the beach, which is so awesome, BUT Luke is not leaving with me! He is still out on an oil rig somewhere in the middle of the great state of Texas. I am so sad he isnt going to be able to drive with me, but he will hopefully be able to come soon. He needs a vacay so much more than I would ever understand, but he is gracious enough to insist I go on without him. I am blessed in so many ways, but being married to him has been the biggest blessing thus far. That is all for now...My floor had a going away party for me tonight, so I will post pics of that soon! Holla!

Nursing in 1887

1887 Nursing Job Descriptions

The following job description was given to floor nurses by a hospital in 1887:

In addition to caring for your 50 patients, each nurse will follow these regulations: 1. Daily sweep and mop the floors of your ward, dust the patient's furniture and window sills.

2. Maintain an even temperature in your ward by bringing in a scuttle of coal for the day's business.

3. Light is important to observe the patient's condition. Therefore, each day fill kerosene lamps, clean chimneys and trim wicks. Wash the windows once a week.

4. The nurse's notes are important in aiding the physician's work. Make your pens carefully; you may whittle nibs to your individual taste.

5. Each nurse on day duty will report every day at 7 a.m. and leave at 8 p.m. except on the Sabbath on which day you will be off from 12 noon to 2 p.m.

6. Graduate nurses in good standing with the director of nurses will be given an evening off each week for courting purposes or two evenings a week if you go regularly to church.

7. Each nurse should lay aside from each pay day a goodly sum of her earnings for her benefits during her declining years so that she will not become a burden. For example, if you earn $30 a month you should set aside $15.

8. Any nurse who smokes, uses liquor in any form, gets her hair done at a beauty shop, or frequents dance halls will give the director of nurses good reason to suspect her worth, intentions and integrity.

9. The nurse who performs her labors and serves her patients and doctors without fault for five years will be given an increase of five cents a day, providing there are no hospital debts outstanding.

They posted this at the nurse's station at work. I guess I will have to quit getting my hair done and freqencing dance halls-NOT! And my debt with the cafeteria is more than outstanding! I guess I was a housewife in my former life, too!

They call me Grease Monkey...

Ok, not really, but I did just change my air filter in my car. The last three oil changes the mechanic has told me that I need to get my air filter changed. It would cost me $27.50. I knew I could get it cheaper at Walmart, because my Daddy told me to always say no to mechanics, so I paid for my oil change and marched myself over to Walmart and the auto aisle. I found the filter I needed, and when I got home, I looked it up in the manual, and just changed it! Easy as pie. My old one was really dirty (so maybe you can trust mechanics in Texas), so hopefully I will start getting better gas mileage.

Air filter change at Firestone: $27.50 Air filter at Wallyworld: $10.27 Knowing I did it, All By Myself: Very Worthwhile!

Also, I found this blog of a girl mechanic. Very Funny!

I sleep just to dream her...

I think I have mentioned that I have very vivid dreams. Luke never, ever remembers his dreams, but they must be pretty vivid as well because he talks ALOT in his sleep. The first time he did it was a few months ago and he yelled, "Bandit! NO!" So our poor dog was reprimanded for sleeping. Sometimes it is really funny and Sunday night proved no different. Luke lept out of bed at 2:30 am and ran to the freezer. He got out two pop ices, and I told him he had one more hour to sleep. He started arguing saying he was going to boil one more pot of crawfish! Hee hee...the joys of being married!

Where , oh, where could I be?

I am sure all fo my faithful readers have noticed that I havent posted in 9 days...and my last two posts were just shout-outs to Anniversaries! Where have I been, you might ask? Well, I will start with the weekend of the 8th-10th. Remember that beautiful invitation I posted about a few weeks ago? With something that extravagant, my hopes for the weekend festivities were high. Well, the wedding met my full expectations and then some. Luke and I went to New Orleans for our friends, Brad and Sara's, Wedding weekend! And what a weekend it was! The rehearsal dinner was at a place called The Palace Cafe, and I had the most delicious thing I have ever put in my mouth (well, besides Bob's famous crawfish soup). It was a crab cheesecake...now that combo might sound disgusting, but it wasnt sweet at all, and it was so good I ate mine and the guy's sitting across from me. The fish entree was also fabulous, and the creme brulee for dessert was second to none! We all enjoyed Bourbon Street that night (Luke might have had a little too much fun), and then the next day was jam pakced with wedding "stuff". The bridesmaids met for brunch in Sara's suite that overlooked the river-Beautiful! We had a lovely array of fruit, bananas foster somtehingortheother, pastries...you name it, I ate it! Sara's hairdresser arrived and did her face and hair while the rest of us got ready. We left the hotel by limo and went to a nearby park for some pics. So hot, but the lovely bride had gotten monogrammed fans for us ladies! Love it! Right before the wedding music started, Sara realized she had forgotten her crinoline slip...Now for all of my male readers, this might seem like no big deal. For those of us who have planned a wedding/are planning a wedding/ ever plan on planning a wedding, a small detail like this can cause a meltdown. Not for this Bride. She waited patiently for a friend from out of town to break in to her hotel room and arrive. As I started my descent downt the aisle, I knew to walk as SLOW as possible so that the slip could be put on under her huge dress! She pulled it off like a pro...Then the wedding ceremony, which was so sweet, and even more meaningful because it was my and Luke's 6th month anniversary! Sara was an absolutely stunning bride, and I was so honored that Luke and I were a part of their Big Day. I was also honored that she wore my veil on her trek down the aisle. Saturday night, Luke and I took Sara's "Yankee" friends out for some real Cajun cooking. They each tried a crawfish, and Justine and I split 4 pounds. I was so proud to Southernize these girls from Michigan, Boston, and a boy from England. We hit up Bourbon St. again, and were able to hang out with our Starkville friends. We ended the night with a late night run to Cafe Du Monde with Davis and Hailey Woodward. An absolutely fabulous weekend!

Since that weekend, I had not seen Luke for more than 20 minutes (and that was only twice!). I tend t exaggerate my stories, blogged and in real life, but I am not kidding! He was able to come home last night, and he is on his way now! I am getting spoiled-2 nights in a row! HAHA! This past weekend, I went home to get my job situation situated and to help throw a shower for my future cousin in law. Everything with the job went smoothly, and I am on track to start July 9. Hopefully the process wont be slowed down any! The shower was also a blast. We are so excited to be getting Cassie into our family...I just hope she can put up with Joey :) Cassie and Joey got so many wonderful gifts, and I was able to hang out with the twins-precious as always! I thought after getting married I would want kids immediately, but seeing Jennifer and her babies, I think I can wait just a little while! Dont get me wrong, she is an absolutely perfect mother, and doenst appear stressed or tired, but I cant imagine caring for myself and someone (or 2 someones) all the time! Jennifer is so good with the babies, and they are always dressed to the nines.

I think that is all that is going on in our lives right now. I have 6 more days of work, and then we are going to the Perdido Key with my family for a week! I ahve already started packing because I am so freakin excited! My dad was right, you dont truly appreciate a vacation until you are working full-time. And by full-time he wasnt talking about Happy Times Farm (my place of employment from 1995-2003). Disclaimer: I am sorry my pictures are not so good. I had to revert to my old camera b/c I mailed in my new camera to get fixed. I broke a door off of it, and b/c it is waterproof I decided to not gorilla-glue it myself, but to get Olympus to fix it. When Luke called about it and found out it was going to cost him $166.99 to fix one door, and yelled at the woman about how ridiculous that was, and she mailed my camer back unfixed :( I really love my husband, but I also really loved my waterprrof camera. He said he would rig it so I can use it at the beach next week, so I am sure you can imagine the duck tape that will be used. Ah!

More Anniversaries!

Yesterday was our good friends, Dale and Kay Dee's, anniversary! We hope that it was absolutely wonderful! They were married two years ago, and had one heck of a wedding.

Nana in the streets

Katelyn sent me a video that I know must be my Nana dancing in the streets. Enjoy!

Anniversaries Everywhere!

Two of my very best friends had Anniversaries this week. (That is Laurette on the left, and Heather on the right.)

I will start with Laurette because she has been married the longest (2 whole years). I remember waiting for her to get engaged, and then the night she did chasing her into her room at the KD house until she told us the truth! Her engagement story was so sweet and started off a semester of planning and fun. I can also distinctly remember walking into her room several weeks later and she was packing up to move out of the KD house and into a house with Travis-A BOY! Yuck! I immediately burst into tears and couldnt believe our time living together had come to an end, and our time to move on had come. Her wedding was beautiful, and I was honored to serve her as Maid-of-Honor. Look how pretty she is!

Fun at the Bacha-Laurette Partay!

The next anniversary is that of Heather and Trey. They got married June 3rd last year. The same before mentioned semester, Heather was lucky enough to be my roommmate. We both were dating our future-husbands, and would spend nights laying in bed talking about being married and future kids (of course, mine would be cool, and hers not so much.) Our room was covered of pictures of us and our sig others, and I must say I became very accustomed to waking up to Trey's scruffy face hiking in Maine. Heather happened to get engaged the day after I did, and this is what the conversation sounded like: ABC: "Hello?" (thinking, Heather must be so excited for me since I just got engaged.) HJTS:" I JUST GOT ENGAGED!!" ABC:"Yea, I know." HJTS: "WHAT?" ABC: "Yea, I know. I called you last night. Were you asleep?" HJTS: "NO! I GOT ENGAGED! TREY JUST PROPOSED. THE SAME PLACE MY DAD DID!" ABC: "OH MY GOSH! WE ARE GOING TO BE BRIDES TOGETHER! YEA YEA YEA!" Her wedding was also absolutely beautiful, and I was the Star Bridesmaid! Tea for Heather (with Katherine and Katelyn, too)I am so lucky to have such good friends who are such beautiful brides! Happy Anniversary to the Wolfes and the Skaggs! Love yall!