October

Well, not much has been happening here in the past couple weeks. Jordan has begun his anatomy course and is working with a small group on a fresh cadaver, dissecting it and learning all the different parts of the body. He enjoys it, but complains that the fat that they have to cut out is very greasy and slimy. Yum. :)

I've gotten my official work schedule and I work 40 hours a week, 5 days a week. It's been a good learning experience. I had 5 days of orientation and now I'm working by myself. To be totally honest...I am not truly enjoying working at this place. The patients see me as a "pill-pusher," which is really sad. As a nurse, you do SO much more than give medications. The problem with working with over 20 patients is that half of your shift, literally, is spent giving medications. Then you have to complete tons and tons of paperwork for everyone. It's very frustrating and really a lesson in time management and multi-tasking. I hate multi-tasking, because I always feel like I'm missing something. In addition to all the paperwork and medication passing, I need to keep track of the work of 5 CNA's, and they don't really communicate what's going on. A few are decent, but below standard work is so frustrating. I can't stop dreaming about work and Jordan has witnessed me sleep-walking and sleep-talking about stuff I've forgotten to do at work. It's exhausting! This is really why I haven't written a post for a couple weeks, because I don't really have anything good to say about work.

I've committed myself to work there for at least a year, and then I'll start looking for a job in a hospital environment. They'll for sure hire me after I've worked somewhere for a year.

We haven't decorated for Halloween, but I'm going to decorate for Thanksgiving. Our finances have been extremely tight. Imagine two poor college students living on nothing anyway, moving across the country, and living on meager savings for 2 months while paying exorbitant amounts of college tuition and trying to find a job. Not a pretty picture. Things will be tight for a couple more months, but then we'll be ok.

Since Jordan is going to school in the mornings, and I'm working in the evenings, we don't really see each other except for the days I have off. And even then, Jordan sometimes has school in the afternoons. Jordan suggested that we have "Family Home Afternoon" instead of FHE :) He also suggested that we have our meals Brazilian style, where the biggest meal is lunch, not dinner. On the days he gets out of class early, we'll have a big lunch and then I'll go to school. I loved his suggestions!

We've been trying to find a way to come out to Utah for a weekend in December. We'll keep you posted, but since the only weekend both of us have off is the weekend of Christmas, it may not happen. I might be able to switch weekends with the previous week though. We're crossing our fingers, because we want to see everyone. We miss you all so much and love you!