On the home stretch - or is it the downward spiral?

With only 7 days till I start work I am getting both nervous and excited. It seems like forever since uni finished and even longer since I did any work in the hospitals. I have been catching up with all my friends this week and we all seem to be saying the same things and having the same feelings about starting and feeling unsure whether we are up to the challenge.

I guess it is normal to second guess yourself especially when you have got so much time on your hands. I keep telling myself, get started, be safe, be positive and it will all come back to you!!!

Well off to get the school supplies for the kids today as they start their new school the same day I start work.

Facelift for my website - tell me what you think!!

I finally got my but into gear and gave my Student Nurse Web site a facelift. It has been a fair few months now since I have spent time updating the site, so I thought I would make use of the abundance of spare time I have at the moment as once I start work it will probably be a long way down on the "to do" list.

Anywho I would love some input into the content and layout. Tell me what you think, what is good, what isnt so good, do you have any suggestions or links to resources that you are willing to share with your fellow nurses and students? Here is the link http://home.iprimus.com.au/theboss6675/

Anyway my days have been consumed with making playdoh ( I have a great recipe which is below) taking the kids swimming (it has been a long hot summer), watching kids movies, organising school supplies and uniforms and trying to do a little reading before hitting the workforce with gusto!


Playdough

1 cup plain flour
1 cup salt
2 tbs cream of tartar
1 cup water
1 tbs oil
Colouring

Mix to thick paste in saucepan and cook until dough forms a large mass (3-5mins) stirring constantly. Cool and add colouring to desired effect while kneading through. Store in an airtight container.

Christmas, New years and getting ready to start work

Christmas and New years was awesome, and I was especially appreciative that I wasn't working (maybe for the last time in a couple of years) and that I could relax and enjoy my family. We moved house 2 weeks before Christmas which made this a particularly busy time of year for me, but looking back I am so happy to be settled and ready for new schools (for the kids) and close to my new work. We have spent the last 7 years in townhouses - due mainly to budgetary constraints, and now we are living in a fabulous 4 bedroom house with a separate family area for the children and we have adjusted beautifully.

Christmas was lovely - for the first time since moving to Brisbane we have had enough room to host Christmas for our family, and although some of my husbands siblings were out of town we had a lovely day, we did Breakfast (a fav of mine) then had a swim and a quiet afternoon. New years was very pleasant, we joined our family for a celebration and everyone (including the kids) lasted till midnight (just) and we had a quiet recovery day.

Monday this week (just about up to date now!) I went to work and picked up my uniforms (look remarkably like a tampon packet yuk!) got my payroll number and staff ID, and got my roster for the first couple of weeks, it is getting very exciting now, it is so close I can almost taste it!! Anyway just a few more weeks, time to get the kids ready for school, looking foward to covering all those books (NOT) and get into some sort of routine.

Graduation Ceremony

The week before Christmas we had our graduation ceremony. In previous years our Uni has held these ceremonies in the April of the following year (would have been 2007) but someone actually thought that it would be nice for us to all "graduate" when we actually finish uni instead of 6 months later!!! So we were lucky enough to have our ceremony early last month.

The ceremony and proceedings were amazing. Typically it was a hot day and we were sweltering under the cap and gown but even so the feeling of triumph and achievement was overwhelming. I got enough tickets for my husband, 2 kids, best friend and parents to all attend and I have to say this was one of the best days of my life. I was so utterly proud to have finished. To top it off I was awarded the Nursing Medal for the highest academic achievement in a bachelors degree - which was a total surprise and I didn't know about it until one of my classmates pointed it out to me. Anyway the whole night was stunning and I am so grateful to have been able to share it with the people I love the most.

Grad Ball - Retrospective

It has been a pretty hectic couple of months, so much so that I only just realised how long it has been since I blogged! We had our amazing Grad ball in early November which was awesome. This is a picture of all the "girls" with their partners ( I am 2nd from the left with my hubby). We had an absolutely fantastic time and consumed alltogether too much alcohol - exactly the point of the night I think! We all celebrated our victorious completion of our bachelors degrees and patted ourselves on the back many times. It was really nice for our partners to join in the festivities and someone even had a slide show detailing our journey over the last 3/4 years. Yeah for us!!!