Accomplishments Galore

I feel so accomplished!!!

At work, I did two procedure preparations this week! Wooooot. On Thursday, I worked with an 8-year-old girl who has been a patient at MSTI for many years. My supervisor really wanted me to do a prep./medical play with her, so she asked the patient if it would be okay for me to do a prep while she "tested" me on how well I did. So, I did a peripheral blood draw prep while the patient watched and then asked her what grade I earned. My supervisor suggested an 80%, but the patient (who, I guess, hasn't grasped an understanding of percentages yet) disagreed, saying I deserved a 20%. It was quite funny; her foster mom vetoed the low grade by saying I deserved a 100%. Hehe. Fun stuff.

Thennn, on Friday, when I went into the Child Life office for lunch, my pediatrics supervisor asked if I'd done any IV preps yet. I said "no," and so she decided that "today [was] the day!" So, I scarfed down my pb&j (hehe), and hurried off to do the prep before our weekly intern meeting. The prep went pretty well, even though I totally forgot to mention the numbing cream and all that jazz. Fortunately, my supervisor reminded me of what I forgot and filled in the holes that I'd missed. A huge weight is lifted off of my shoulders now, though, and the idea of doing preps doesn't seem quite so daunting. Hopefully I'll get some time to refine my skills though, cuz it sure wouldn't hurt.

It was a pretty cool weekend, accomplishment-wise, too. Friday, however, we just layed around doing nothing. I actually fell asleep near the end of Gilmore Girls around 6:45 p.m. and slept until 9:15 p.m. without even realizing it. Like the big lazy bum that I was, I got up to eat a snack, shower, and talk to my mom, then went promptly back to sleep at 11:30 p.m. and slept right up until 9:30 a.m. on Saturday morning. How nice.

On Saturday, Kim and I went shopping. Now, for those of you who don't know, I absolutely hate shopping. For this reason, I brought along Pride and Prejudice, my new addiction/bus-ride-activity, knowing that Kim loves to shop, and expecting to be finished with my shopping adventure much earlier than she. Oddly enough, I didn't get too bored with the event, and did, in fact, find a decent variety of cold-weather clothing. We met up with Tessa at Savers, a massive thrift shop (similar to Goodwill?), where we each found a costume for Tessa's murder mystery party later this month. It was quite productive, if I do say so myself.

Jeff's housewarming party was fun, but we didn't get there until late (there's just something about girls taking forever to get ready...?). Joey'd had a long day of cutting firewood with his father, and so when he wanted to leave early, Kim did too...and thus Tessa and I left, as well--since she was our ride home. Tessa and I stayed up talking until 3 a.m., though, so that was pretty fun. It's always nice to have girl talk from time to time.

As with Boise Sunday tradition, we girls cheered on the boys at the Shenanigans soccer game this morning. It was such a pitiful match, though. Out of the 18 registered team members, only 9 were in attendance. Most were working and couldn't attend, but some flaked out and just didn't show up. The sad thing was that 11 players are allowed on the field, and there are typically a number of subs on the sidelines, but today's shortage meant everyone played the entire game, and they were still short two players for the field! Needless to say, we lost 4-0, but the guys made a great effort, considering. If they'd had a full team, I'm sure the Shananigans would have kicked some boo-tayy!

For more accomplisments, this afternoon I finished making some beignets that Tessa started before the game. Anddddddd, I made gumbo for the first time everrrrr!!! Yay!!! Nanna walked me through it, via written directions and multiple phone conversations. When it was all said and done, by golly, I made some real, authentic Cajun gumbo! Yummy-ness. Jeff and Joey came over to share in the glory, hehe. Man, it sure smelled like Nanna's house in here tonight...and boy did it make me miss her... In any case, I am SUPER proud of myself for this new skill. I'll have to make it again someday, and invite the entire boys' house, perhaps. Hmm.

Anyways, it's way past my bedtime, and tomorrow's another full day. The indoor soccer leagues start this week, so now the Shenanigans are playing multiple times a week. I'm hoping to make at least one of the games each week, starting tomorrow...

With that, I bid Adieu.
-Lauren