Ramblings

What have I been doing lately? The usual...working (and when I say working, I don't just mean the six twelve-hour shifts every two weeks. In fact, I mean those six shifts plus committee work, writing exam/cross-exam/opening and closing arguments for the short stint as a make-believe lawyer for a conference we're holding soon, conjuring up something creative to say for a powerpoint that will be presented to our nursing leadership team, developing a talk on professionalism and accountability to present to the PICU staff...you know...working.), CARES team duties (our last event was CHOCtoberfest and was a COMPLETE success...keep reading for more details on that), not training for our half-marathon (yet not giving up just yet...keep reading for those details, too!), attending Aggie football games, having fun and well...I guess that's it.

So yes, our last CARES events were both successful. We had a breakfast early in October and probably set a new record for attendance. Brad and I have been praying that we could get different people to attend and the Lord heard us! I mean, we LOVE our regulars and wouldn't want them to stop coming for anything, but we were trying to think of ways to get different people to start coming. Out of the 60+ residents that came, probably half of those were brand new faces for us! This last week, we held CHOCtoberfest in honor of Halloween. We didn't want to have a Halloween party, per se, so we served all things chocolate and stole the creative name from some dear friends (and another CARES team) of ours. I made much of the treats, but then also let some local eateries and chocolate stores do some of the work for me :) Again, we had a big crowd (40 or so), especially for a week night and pretty much ran out within about 45 minutes. [Note to self: these people love chocolate!]

Brad and I decided about a month and a half ago to conquer the White Rock Half Marathon again. Of course, with our schedule as loaded as it is, training has been difficult. According to the schedule we're using, we should be running 11 miles this weekend...I've only gotten up to 4. Oops. We're not giving up. In fact, we're re-writing the schedule ourselves and are going to hit the ground running (literally) to prepare ourselves for the race, which is just 4.5 weeks away! Speaking of hitting the ground running...I did just that last night during our jog. See? Isn't it pretty?

See the goose egg? Well, more like a small bird's egg...

I'd turned around to Brad to tell him how good I was feeling and the next thing I knew, BAM!!! Face, meet concrete. Concrete, meet face. I tried to catch myself with my hand (as it's torn up pretty bad) but my chin and cheekbone took the brunt of the hit. Naturally, we were on the feeder road of the Beltway during rush-hour traffic so I'm sure I was the source of laughter for some commuters during their drive home. I sat there for a minute processing what had just happened, got up, walked about 20 yards then finished the run. I have to admit, I'm a little proud of myself. Brad thought I should turn around, go home and perhaps visit the Doc in the Box (urgent care clinic) to get checked out. Eh, I'm a nurse. I'm good. Let's finish up this run. The adrenaline help me out, I must say. All without ONE tear shed! Woke up this morning with a splitting headache and a [more] swollen eye. Trying to decide if that trip to the clinic is worth it. Kind of want to check out my cheekbone, but don't necessarily want to pay a bunch of money for x-rays that will 1) show nothing or, 2) show fractures, for which nothing can be done. Think I'll apply ice, take some ibuprofen and suck it up.


It's been a busy semester and the season is FLYING by! I can't believe Thanksgiving is just 3 weeks away. I need to drag out my fall decorations and get them up before it's Christmas :) I love the Holidays...especially this cooler weather we're experiencing. I think I was meant to live in a colder climate, because I eat. This. Up.


Until next time...I'll try to stay away from Mr. Concrete as much as possible!