A New Job

Tomorrow is my first day at my new job. I am transferring to a hospital that is just down the road from our house. I am so excited. I have been really unhappy at my last job for awhile now, even to the point that I was starting to wonder if nursing was where I should be. I am hoping that this change is what I need.

I will be working in the recovery room with patients that have just come out of surgery. This is a great job for me because I will be using my critical care skills and I will be back in the operating room environment, which is where I started my medical career. I really do think that nursing is where I am supposed to be, but just not working on the floor. It really isn't the place where I can use the skills that are my strengths. Thank God that there are nurses out there who enjoy the floor because it can be a tough and thankless job.

I will still be working prn since right now my priority is taking care of my girls. I will be working about 6-8 hour a week. Not much, but enough to get out of the house, make a few dollars and keep up my nursing skills. I will have to take a 24 hour weekend call shift once a month, but we don't usually have to much going on during the weekend since the girls are still young.

I am nervous about all of this change, but sometimes you have to take a risk in life and be willing to embrace change in order to find happiness. For the first 6-8 weeks I will be working part time until I get oriented. This is going to be tough, especially on Jai, but it has to be done so we will make it happen.

I am also going back to school this fall! I have always said that I was going to go back, but I was really just saying what I thought other people wanted to hear. It is so easy to just get caught up in life, but deep down I have felt that something is lacking. Sometimes I am even embarrassed that I don't have my bachelor's degree. So after years of talking about it, but deep down not really meaning it, I decided that it was time to to "shut up or put up" so I started looking for an online nursing program and surprise surprise...Boise State now has an online RN to BSN program. I took this as a sign and applied and now I am a student again!!! I start this fall and will only be taking one class until I see how it is all going to go, but hopefully as I get back into student mode I will be able to take a few more each semester. I have 6 nursing classes and 3 or 4 core classes to take and at the rate I am going it could be 2, 3 or even four years before I am finished, but better late than never!

Raspberry Lemonade Sweater

I know, strange name, but I was drinking raspberry lemonade as I was working on this sweater and they were the exact same color!!

I made this for a friend of mine who is having a baby girl next week. I found the pattern on ravelry for free, which is always a plus. The only problem is that the pattern is for a sweater, bonnet and booties and was very old fashioned so I did a few changes. It called for fingering weight yarn, but there are not a lot of fun color choices at my LYS so I used a sport DK instead. This did make the sweater much bigger than I had hoped, but as hot as it is here right now there is no need for it to be newborn size. I was hoping for 6-12 months, but considering that I tried it on Diya, who is 22 months old, and it fit makes me think that it will be awhile before the baby gets to wear it.
The body ended up being kind of short so I decided to make it a short sleeved sweater and it can either be a spring/fall sweater or she can wear it in the winter with a long sleeved shirt underneath. I hadn't crocheted anything in awhile so it was nice to have a nice quick project and to refresh my crocheting skills. That is one of the things I like about crochet, it is super fast, plus it is also a easy on the pocket book. All I had to pay for for this sweater was one skein of yarn and a $1.99 crochet hook. I love knitting but as I have stated before in previous posts, getting all the needles for a project can add up fast.

I love this yarn so much that I think I am going to get some more of it to make matching knitted sweaters for Isha and Diya for this winter. I am thinking about knitting them both at the same time so that they are finished at the same time so that the girls can wear them this winter, but that does mean doubling up on the needles.

Isha's Lavender Sweater

A friend of mine was looking for a knitting project so she made a sweater for Diya. I loved it so much that I decided to make a matching one for Isha and here it is.

It was fun to try out cables. One thing I have learned about knitting is that most of the stuff that looks really hard is actually pretty easy. This knitted up very quickly and was fun to do. I made it a little big which is a good thing since it is already getting warm here. Now Isha can wear this in the fall and into the winter with a long sleeved shirt underneath.

Here is the back with cute little matching lavender lady bug buttons. I have already found another cute sweater that I want to make for the girls. My only problem is I need more knitting needles. I borrowed all the ones for this sweater from my friend, otherwise it would have cost me over 30 dollars just for needles and the cables. Let me know if you have any good ideas of where I can get some needles cheaply and if I buy set, what is the best sizes to buy so that I can get the most use out of them.

Born To Run

Wow, it has been awhile since I have written about a book on this blog. Actually I haven't written much of anything here lately thanks to two little girls who keep me incredibly busy!!
I had put this on my "to read" list and a few days later at book club we all started talking and this book came up and since we were all runners we decided to read it. I loved this book!!! I really enjoy reading non-fiction so this was perfect for me. The book goes back and forth between "the greatest race the world has never seen" and the science of running. The chapter on how humans evolved into distance runners was really interesting. After reading this book I was even more inspired to keep running. Heck, I was even ready to cut some of the meat out of my diet because of what I read in this book and then "it" happened. I got injured. I guess it was bound to happen, but it was really discouraging. So now I am stuck in a walking cast for the next six weeks. At least I will have more time to read and knit.

Grey Sweater

Another free pattern that I found on ravelry turned in to this cute grey sweater. It was super easy and I enjoyed getting a finished product so quickly.

I am having a hard time getting my pretty turquoise button to stay put. I am going to have to do a better job of sewing it on. Other than that I love this project.

Meet Cupcake

I used my left over yarn from my sweater to make this knitted bear. Since the yarn was called Chocolate Cupcake, I decided to name the bear Cupcake. The knitting part of this project was fun, but putting it together was a whole other story. Getting everything even and sewn on was a real pain, plus I had no idea how to embroider the eyes and nose, but I did my best and she is done. I had bought some more yarn to make another one, but I think I will be taking that back and trading it in for some yarn for another sweater.

Isha is already attached to this little bear so I think her new home will be with Isha. I don't trust Diya with her. I think she would be missing limbs if she got a hold of her.

My First Sweater For Me!

Here is my sweater that I started back in September!! It was so warm this fall that it was hard to be motivated to work on a sweater and then once we got closer to the holidays life got crazy, but I finally finished it. I really liked the way it turned out. Of course it is not perfect, but the things that aren't right about it will get better with each sweater I make (hopefully). It was supposed to be shorter, but I took Meg's advice and added on a few inches to the length, which was a good decision because there is no point in spend time on something if you don't like it when you are done and you won't wear it. I love the yarn that I picked, how can you go wrong when the name of the yarn is Chocolate Cupcake!

I found the pattern on Ravlery for free!! So now I will be trolling Ravelry again to find a new project.

I need to work on a better smile so that I don't get that darn double chin every time I have my picture taken!!!