Thoughts From a Frazzled Mind

School Update After completing one semester of the DNP (Doctor of Nursing Practice) program at Grand Canyon University, I ran into some snags with my practicum site approvals and the school made me withdraw for a few weeks in order to get things straightened out.  Needless to say, I was majorly disappointed.  First, I had momentum and didn't want to delay my progress, second that meant that Amber would be moving on leaving me behind.  However, as often happens with trials, I realized that this was a blessing in disguise.  As I pondered my options, I realized that a DNP was not the degree that I really wanted.  I love nursing and everything about it, but my heart is truly attached to the education and teaching of nursing.  A co-worker suggested that I look into a program at Liberty University and it felt right.  I decided to change my focus to education and curriculum development.  I compared the program at Grand Canyon with the one at Liberty bec...

Shandra has been living with only a concrete floor since her water heater went out and water has been leaking under the flooring.  When Kim and I were shopping for the flooring for our bathroom, we found some nice flooring that was on clearance and we bought it for Shandra's birthday.  We  (ok, Kim and Hayden) installed the floor over Memorial Day.  I had the very rough job of babysitting while Shandra helped the boys.  I know - it was a tough job, but someone had to watch the beautiful, little princess and her helpful, adorable brother.  Unfortunately, I failed to get any pictures of Shandra's new floor.  It looks wonderful!  She actually pulled out the carpet in the living room and had enough flooring to do both the kitchen and the living room. Peach Days was fun this year.  The California Olsens were here to join in the celebration.  Kalel was so cute!  Instead of spending all of his time gathering candy at th...

This post will be quite short I'm afraid because most of the week was very mundane with a lot of the same old stuff, work, more work, watching the grandkids, and visiting with my sisters and dad.  Please note that I didn't say the week was Boring , for it was a good week, but there was not a lot of "Aha!  I should blog about this" moments - nor do I have many pictures. Kim got to celebrate Labor Day by having Sunday night off of work, which was very nice.  The Parrishes dropped by for a very nice visit.  Since Kim had to work Monday night I spent most of the day working on the computer and visiting my sister, Robin. We were able to finish my bedroom door, and it looks GREAT!  I'm so excited!  Mont was a great help as he came over to supervise. I taught a class for Lisa in Murray on Tuesday because her mother passed away.  Luckily it was a class that I had taught before so it didn't require a ton of preparation. I got home from work earl...

It is quite amazing to me that I have to be creative and come up with lots of words in order to teach my students I have less and less desire to use words to record my life.  Today however, I have some forced down time so I decided to write - however I'm not sure that any of my thoughts will be creative, or even entertaining for that matter! My teaching job is unbelievably stressful.  It is mind numbing to think how much work there is to re-learn concepts and facts in order to know them better than the students.  Add to that the pressure of presenting the right information in the best way so that the students will be be prepared to pass the state boards and be good, knowledgeable caregivers.  Add to that the stress of preparing tests and quizzes that accurately assess the students' understanding.  Not to mention preparing and grading all of the assignments.  And I thought writing my master's thesis was hard! Teaching nursing is tough! I feel a huge...