A Late Graduation Posting

I thought there might be some people who have not seen pictures of my graduation. So, I am posting them!

An Andrea sandwich (whole grain Parental bread guaranteed to make you believe in yourself)

Me and my sweet sweet mother who showed me how to be patient, compassionate, kind, and unconditional. Things that I strive to practice daily at work. Mom is a natural caregiver and I inherited what would be referred to as the "art" of nursing from her. I truly feel that the art of nursing is my strong point in this profession.

Me and my Dad who taught me to be humble, straight forward, hard working, and assertive. These are all traits that I am still working on and are indeed very useful in nursing. I think Dad's example is the reason that I can make it through 12 hour shifts with only one break day after day. He has a very strong work ethic and it rubbed off on me a great deal. He taught me by example the importance of responsibility in the work place - showing up on time, not calling in sick unless on death bed, etc.

Me and my husband who helped me so much while I was in school. John helped me to study for tests and made learning seem almost intuitive rather than difficult. He made me believe in myself when I was frustrated, tired, and not sure if I could go on. He was my number one fan.


Me and Jennifer. Jennifer and her husband are neighbors to us. Jennifer helped me a great deal. She gave me a ride to school a few times, cooked me dinner and dessert on numerous occasions, helped take care of the dogs and was a good stress reliever when I was frazzled! She would bring her daughter Grace over for study breaks so that I could talk to someone who was on my level, or at least the level my brain felt after studying all day!


On a more serious note - the cake was good.

Want some? It is good...

In his element.

Above, you see a water-dwelling creature in the wild.

This face captures Chester quite completely in my opinion. He is never happier than when he is stading shoulder deep in some muddy water.

Now THAT is a puggopotamus!

Puggopotomus

In a recent weekend we took to the river with some friends and our pugs! Expecting tubing to be similar to our experience in Oregon we imagined some mild white water rapids and a countryside. We prepared for the worst by purchasing life jackets for our pugs. Yes, life jackets for our pugs. I will repeat, they indeed make life jackets for dogs - that is, they are available in extra-small, small, medium, large, and extra large. Looking back, I am not sure what possessed me to purchase them. It may have been a combination of precautionary measures and the desire to be utterly ridiculous. Whatever inspiration it was, I followed through with it. We met up at our house and I was lucky enough that my friend Sara brought me a "river rat" hat. The trip would not have been the same without it. We drove about 3 hours to a town called New Braunfels, TX. Along the way we passed an unusually large amount of Dairy Queens and learned from Sara, a native Texan, that "you are not a small town in Texas without a Dairy Queen". What does that mean for the towns that are small, in Texas, and sans Dairy Queen? These are questions you simply do not ask....

We arrived at "Texas Tubes" a booming business in the middle of New Braunfels, TX. Seeing people everywhere and having trouble finding a parking space made me question whether or not we should have brought the pugs. I had imagined something much more remote - like the Umatilla River that goes through Pendleton! Well we hit the river anyway with the dogs in their respective laps (Charlie in mine and Chester in John's). The "river" was more like a swimming pool that had a hint of a current to it. It was slow, fun, and relaxing which pleased Charlie as his fear of water is significant. Chester however, took many opportunity to jump out of the tube swim for 5 seconds and then get back in (never risking over-exertion). All was well until the "tube shoot". The "tube shoot" is a giant twisty slide in the middle of the river. Seems strange that this body of water is still referred to as a "river". Anyway, the tube shoot was fun for everyone but Charlie! Charlie was very upset that our speed had rapidly increased and his face was not getting splashed! He expressed his great disgust but turning his ears back and straightening his tail. In spite of the tube shoot Charlie recovered and was happy to find that there would be no further tube shoots to worry about! We floated for about two hours where we were transported back to our car by the Texas Tubes Shuttle. On our way home we stopped in a small town in Texas at a Dairy Queen. We each enjoyed our blizzards after our rough tubing adventure! Ha! Although it was quite different than what we were used to, it was a great deal of fun and even Charlie liked it. It was an excellent trip and we will have to do it again sometime! Maybe on a river that is a little more remote. Although, I will have everyone know that we were not even close to being the only people with dogs in life jackets!

This is my blog

Welcome to my blog that currently has no pictures. Mommy always told me "don't jump off a bridge just because everyone else is doing it", but I never thought that applied to blogging. So, here I am blogging away! Soon I will add pictures. LOOK OUT BLOGSPOT HERE I COME!

Normal Update: Yesterday, I received a package in the mail from the Texas State Board of Nurse Examiners. You guessed it. I am officially an RN! Excuse me one moment. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO - HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Okay, I am back. I also started my paid internship today at Memorial Hermann Hospital. Just so everyone knows, I will be an RN on a Telemetry Unit which is a "step down from ICU". It is a Medical Surgical Unit for patients with heart problems.

That will be all that I post for my very first blog. All is well in Houston!