Collin

My baby turned 5 today!! We are celebrating his birthday until his daddy comes home from training but I am so excited for him. Everyday for the past 2 weeks, he would wake, put both of his chubby fingers on my face and say "my birthday is today?", so when I woke him up this morning and told him today was his birthday, he was beyond himself with joy, he screamed and squeeled for a good 5 minutes!!

The cutest thing he did today was as we were sitting in church, he says with news bent down, I look like a 4 year and then he would pop his legs back to normal and say, now I"m a 5 year old... a friend suggested I should put him on a chair and say now your a 13 year old... but I don't think he would get the humor..

NCLEX

When I graduated nursing school I knew the journey was not complete yet, I knew I had to pass the state boards before I was a "real nurse". Unlike many of my friends, I didn't take the boards right away, I really wasn't in that big of a hurry to find a job, but wanted to spend the summer with the kids and Josh. We did a lot this summer, beach twice... King's Island ... and numerous trips to the movies... but one thing I consistently did all summer was study.

I felt if I had a spare minute, I should be studying. If the kids were by the pool, I should be studying. If the computer was on and I'm on facebook, I was also on a website, taking practice quizes... all ...summer... long....

The day finally arrived, I had a 2pm appointment. The minimum number of questions are 75 and the max is 265, you have up to 6 hours to take the test. And because it is computurized, the questions will get progressively get more difficult the better you do.

SO I go in, take the test and come out in 45 minutes! I got the minimum amount of questions and a lot of EKG strips and select all that apply questions. I felt there was a slim chance I actually passed... but here's the thing - this whole summer, I never would study a particular part in my books, I just couldn't get it.. I couldn't grasp the content, therefore, I skipped it... the day before the test, as I sat with a friend, I specifically said let's go over this, I feel like I really need to know it. She and I went over it but said it probably won't be on there when I couldn't get it after several times of going over it...I still felt prompted to study it, so I did that night and the day of the test...
THE TEST WAS FULL OF THAT MATERIAL! Thank heaven I listened to the still small voice prompting me to study the particular information! I would have not done as well, but I did do well and now I am a NURSE!!

Don't mess with an abscess..

Clay started complaining about his tooth on a Friday night, he had a friend over so I thought at first it was an excuse because he was overly tired. As the night progressed on later and later, I realized two things, 1. he was in pain, and 2. he had a good set of lungs... after pain meds, he finally fell to sleep. The next day, we got numbing stuff and temporary filling stuff at Kroger and I hoped I could fill the suspected lost filling and he's pain would subside until Monday.
But here's the thing... there was no lost filing... oh jeez.. it was a cavity I thought, well, he was going to have to wait until Monday with a cavity and brush better. So we had meds on Saturday every 6 hours and went to bed, around 3am Clay came into my room complaining about his mouth and it looked like this....

I kinda freaked a little bit and wondered what to do... gave him meds, and waited for a decent time to call my friend who's brother in law is a dentist. He (the dentist) saw Clay at church 1st thing on Sunday and confirmed it was an abscessed tooth... we started antibiotics and got his tooth pulled out the next day, what a mess...

Apparently when you get a cavity and then a loose tooth, that infection goes into your mouth and causes a lot of pain, it can be serious and go systemic too, scary, scary, scary....

Emerson

Both boys are at Emerson Elementary this year, and although I'm totally psyched about it, Clay needed some convincing that this was for the best. Clay has been going to his elementary from grade K and had a lot of friends. But I knew this magnet school was better academically and that the school was smaller so there is a lot of opportunity for more fun.

Cregan went to Emerson last year and I couldn't believe how much homework he had in comparison to Clay's 3rd grade. Having written that though, Cregan was reading and doing math that Clay wasn't doing until 2nd grade. Plus, my friends Sophie and Missi have there kids in school there and I love that if I need a backup, they are there for me.

Clay, met his teacher and looked at his class and still wasn't convinced, that was until the teacher said, oh and you need a flash drive for all your projects to do at home... wow, he's face lit up and he was eager from then on... plus the 1st day of school the 4th graders beat the 5th graders at football...