First Week Down!

So I started my new job in a clinic Monday. I was so nervous & anxious about it Sunday night. I feel very comfortable in the hospital setting, but I had no idea about working in a clinic. Well, Monday came and I made it through the day very overwhelmed! After going through a very brief orientation one of the managers there gave me a tour of the whole building! (If this sounds like no big deal, let me tell you it's 4 floors of many hallways!) She also introduced me to almost all the doctors, nurses and other managers that worked in the building as well. She then showed me where my suite was going to be, but we were not able to really go in because the construction crews and such were still working on getting it all painted. Then she took me to meet Carol, my preceptor. Let me tell you Carol is one different duck! She is a very "seasoned" nurse that has a terrible attitude about everything! She is always cussing about one thing or another. Anyways, she only works until 1545 every day and I am supposed to work until 1700. So I would get a break from her every afternoon when I took a lunch (she didn't take lunch, which is why she got to leave so early), and then again after she left in the afternoon. Monday I went back up to the manager's office that I was with earlier that day. We tried to do many different things on the computer, but  none my log ins and such were ready, so instead I started working on something else and ended up having a great conversation time with her and eventually her husband. It really worked out quite well I think. Anyways, the next two afternoons Catherine and I went and worked to get everything in my suite set up and ready to go.  Catherine is the nurse in the surgery suite right next to mine. We really hit if off and I'm so excited that we will be working together. While in family practice during the  mornings I would work on trying to figure out the EMR and such, so I wouldn't be 100% lost when we started seeing patients next Thursday. I actually was able to get it down and was able to make phone calls, room patients and everything by myself! It was such a great feeling! Carol told me several times that I was doing a great job, which I learned from another one of the nurses there is saying a lot! As I said before Carol is one of those nurses your nursing instructors warn you about in school and so for her to say that I was doing great is huge! Anyways, I was finally able to meet my doctor on Thursday! Dr. Boucher is very nice! I'm so thankful to have such a friendly doctor to work with. She came up a went through the equipment and some of the supplies that we had already and then looked through the catalogs and told us what else she would need or wanted. It's so crazy to me having to start a new clinic like this. Catherine and I totaled up just part of the list of things that we had to get for her and were shocked by the amount it came to! Working 5 days a week is definitely a different thing for me. I was feeling it Friday morning. However, I completely love getting off so early in the day! I also love getting to leave at 1700 rather than having to wait for someone to come and give report and all that jazz. I love that I am home by 1730 everyday and that I have so much time to spend with Reed every night! I have no doubt that I made the right decision going from the hospital acute care setting to the clinic setting. The cut in pay is 100% worth it for me right now! This job, so far at least, is also tons less stressful than the hospital! I can't wait to start seeing patients and to have everything clean and organized. The suite that we are in for Orthopedics was last used really by a podiatrist about 2-3 years ago. He left on a whim so there are tons of supplies and such left over from him. Catherine and I have worked for the last several afternoons to get all of the supplies out of the rooms and laid out for Dr. Boucher to be able to easily look at them and tell us what she wants and doesn't want, and then tell us what she wants in each room so that we can get the rooms set up for patients. We were able to get it all laid out by noon yesterday, but Dr. Boucher was not able to make it back to the office yesterday afternoon, so when I left yesterday all the supplies were laying everywhere and the clinic is a complete disaster! I guess that is all the big news we have to offer for now! Hope everyone is having a great Saturday!

Yay!

I finally found out when I will start my new job! I start....tomorrow! I'm so excited! Sitting around the house all day while Reed was at work was great for relaxing and all, but I'm so ready to start working. I have felt so unproductive for the last month since I wasn't working and there really was no housework or anything that needed to be done. I'm very nervous about starting tomorrow though. This will be my first new job really since I became a nurse. I feel like I'm starting all over because I don't know the doctor or anything about working in a clinic. However, I'm so excited to learn. Another huge plus is that the clinic has computer charting! Finally!! I just hope I catch onto it quickly. I'm also super stoked about my new work hours! I finally work normal hours and get to spend a good amount of time every night with my husband! I'll let everyone know how it goes if not tomorrow then definitely by the end of the week.

Ideas needed...

So I have yet to hear back from my "new job" which means I have had a ton of time to think. I have had a job most of the time since 2002. I enjoy working because it helps me to feel productive and like I am contributing to society. So...my new thought of the week so that maybe I should try some sort of home business. Initially I thought about doing some kind of online work...but I'm clueless as to what that would me. The reason I would prefer online work is that I would still be able to be with Reed a lot which is incredibly important to me since he is deploying so soon. I have found myself stumped on what that new business/job of sorts would be for me. I'm open to any suggestions so feel free to comment here with your ideas! I'm just finding myself going crazy at home all day with nothing to do!

Exciting!

We have so many things to be excited about today! First of all we are still enjoying warm weather up here! Now for all you not in Alaska you are most likely going to call me crazy, but we have been between 8 and 15 degrees for the better part of this year! New Years day we hit a high of 41! No one could believe it! However, the weather forecast shows that we are going to have a huge cold snap later this week and will return to -30s for the lows. No matter though, we are all still very excited about the nice weather! Next on the list of exciting things is that all our household goods are currently in the process of being packed up by the movers in Lubbock! I would like to say a special thanks to my sister for helping me get everything organized a little more, and to my father-in-law for donating his day today to be at the storage unit with the movers all day! Reed & I are so blessed with amazing families! Although our stuff won't be here for at least 45 days it is so exciting to me that the process has all started! Hopefully in 45 days we won't have to be sleeping on an airbed and have such a bare kitchen anymore! The last big thing that we have to be excited about today is that my background check finally came back for my new job! I accepted a job at a new orthopedic surgery clinic right before the new year, but I was not told a start date because they had to wait for my background check to come back. They said after that they would review it and then call me and get me set up with orientation and such. I was emailed a copy of my background check this afternoon, so I'm very hopeful that they will call me sometime this week and hopefully get started with orientation and everything next week!

2 Years!

So this past Monday was our two year wedding anniversary! I can't believe that we have already been married for two years! I remember our wedding day like it was last week! Although it is very exciting that we have been married for two years and we should have been celebrating Monday we didn't. Monday was Reed's first full day back to work in two weeks and unfortunately for him it was well above zero that morning, which meant that he had a 5 mile run for PT! As many know, Reed is not a runner at all, so he really dreads these days. That was just the start of a bad day for us! We tried to get paperwork done that afternoon because Reed's SGT gave hime permission to get all that done rather than be with the rest of the platoon the afternoon. Well, we kept striking out on anything we tried to get done. We first tried to get our BAH (housing allowance) corrected for Alaska, not Lubbock, but they said we were missing a form. They handed the form to Reed and told him to come back when it was filled out. So next we headed to JAG to get the POA for his parents, so that they could meet the movers to get our stuff shipped up here. We figured that we could fill out the finance form while waiting at JAG. As soon as we walked into JAG we were knocked over by the smell! Their sewer was messed up in the basement and they were trying to get it fixed! Awesome! I started filling out the form for Reed from finance and was almost instantly confused! Who know forms could be so tricky?!? After we finally fumbled our way through that and got the POA, we headed over to the travel office (for the third time) to arrange to have our HHG (household goods) shipped from Lubbock to Alaska. I went in and talked to a lady and all was going great...or so I thought. She told me she would get all our info entered and to come back at 1500 (about 45 min later) and I could sign the paperwork and the stuff would be forwarded to the movers. Well, no more than 5 minutes later she comes to find me in the hallway and tells me that we don't have the right type of orders! I was ready to scream! Are you serious?!? So Reed talks to her, finds out what orders he needs and we head back to finance. This stop was an easy one! Can you believe it?!? After we finish there Reed has to report back to his company so I go to the library to wait for him because he is almost off. He grabs the papers that he needs to get the right orders and goes and talks to his SGT. Well, turns out the travel office lady was wrong! Anyone surprised....I wasn't. His orders were exactly what he needed since I was already here. So the three of us headed back over to the travel office and his SGT went back and forth with the lady proving that he was right! I am so glad that he was there! As I said we didn't have a great day! Oh well, we were just thankful to be together in Alaska at that point. Now for some good news! I went by the travel office the next morning and they got everything arranged! The movers called today and said that they will be there next Tuesday to pick up all our HHG! I'm so excited! I cannot wait to have all of our stuff here! The two things I'm most excited about are our kitchen stuff and our bed! Right now we have a very extremely bare bones kitchen and are sleeping on an airbed! I was so excited when I found that out I nearly did a happy dance! I guess that is all for now.

Good News!!!

So today I was unoffically offered a job! Finally! They can't offically offer it me until Monday, but yesterday they had me come up and fill out the paperwork and today called me with the salary quote. I'm so excited! My last day of work at Covenant was 19 November 2010. When I left there that night I never thought I would say this but I honeslty miss working! It's not that I have not had plently to do recently because I have. I have also loved being able to be home with Reed, since he was only working half days 3 days a week the last two weeks. However, I really miss feeling productive! I took at job the clinic with a new orthopedic surgeon who will be coming into town at the end of January. Although I never thought that I would work in a clinic setting I'm pretty excited about it! I love that I never have to work holidays or weekends and that the hours are 8 to 5. Although it is a bummer that I have to work 5 days a week, I love having the weekends off to spend with Reed, especially since he is deploying soon. Other news that we have to report is that our troublesome truck is back in the shop. I don't understand enough of what's wrong with it to explain to everyone. I just know that one morning we woke up and there was a bunch of gear oil by the back right tire. So, we took it in yesterday when the boys got off work and hopefully we will get it back either tomorrow night or Saturday morning, but we'll see. My hope is that this is the last time that it will have to go into the shop for a while...at least longer than a week like has been the current trend. Finally, right after Christmas Reed and I got each other Fable II (a video game we both love for x box). When we first got home with it our roommates thought we were crazy and made fun of us for how much we play. However, now they are just as bad! I'm embarrassed to admit that it's what we do after the sun goes down right now, but hey it's bonding right?!? Well, I guess that is all for now, 'night.

Blessings

After the story of our washer event last night, I felt like I should let everyone in on the many profound and amazing blessings that our family has had in the last month. The first major blessing came from Sister Mitchell in Lubbock. She is the Relief Society President back in Lubbock and has always been so kind and loving towards me. She was one of the first people to talk to us on our first day in the 3rd ward after we got married almost two years ago. She remembered my name after meeting me just once and always seemed to genuinely care about me and my family. Many Sundays while Reed was gone she would have me come sit with her so that I wouldn't be sitting through sacrament alone and always made me feel loved. Anyways, when she found out what a hard time we were having with the Army and getting my travel arranged, she took it into her own hands. She donated her frequent flier miles with Alaskan Air to me and got me a plane ticket from Dallas to Fairbanks completely free! I will be forever thankful for that! Next I had the problem of getting to Dallas for my flight. My loving dad told me that he wanted to drive me to Dallas. He donated his day off and gas and such to make sure that I got to Dallas for my flight. The next big blessing that we have had, although it was a blessing is disguise, is our apartment that we were in for the first three weeks. I say it was in disguise because it was so expensive and far away from base which really sucked down our resources. However, it was a blessing because it was right next to an automotive repair shop. One thing that we have not had a shortage of here in Alaska is car problems, which is why living next to the shop was a true blessing. We could drop it off at the shop, walk home, and then walk back when they finally fixed it. After the car didn't start one morning we noticed that the plug was broken. So, I took Reed to work and then headed to a place to get it re-winterized. That same afternoon it didn't start again and we ended up having to get new batteries. Great luck right? Anyways about two or three days later while Reed was driving home from work he heard a strange clicking and when he stopped to get gas and looked at what it was noticed that somehow the fan belt was all to pieces! He had no choice but to finish driving home, even with the risk of the fan cutting something in the engine and causing him to lose control of the car. Well, he made it home and the truck actually died right in front of the shop! What a blessing! Here in Alaska, especially when it is around -40 like it was that day, if you lose control driving down the road it is very easy for you to be killed! After spending the next day in the shop we finally got the truck back. Well, that very afternoon we noticed a new coolant leak. (They had also had to put in a new water pump because the people that winterized it had only rated the coolant to -20 and it was frozen/gelled and broke the water pump) Since that was on a Saturday we took the truck to them, but they said to bring it back Monday morning. Another important thing to note at this point is that there was a small brake leak that now was really bad. So we spent the weekend having to continuously add coolant and brake fluid to the car. Finally Monday morning rolled around. When we got in the car to take Reed to work, he noticed that the brakes felt odd, so he told me to allow extra room to stop and to go straight home and not stop anywhere or any reason. Well, I did that and when I dropped it off at the shop I asked them to take a look at the brakes. Well, when it was done the next day, the guy told Reed that when they moved the truck into the shop the front brakes blew and he nearly drove it off the lift! What a blessing! The brakes were so close to blowing while I was driving! We were saved again! Now the truck is fixed and we have moved out of our apartment. We have a beautiful house that's really close to Reed's work. We still have no official news on a job for me. I have interviewed at two places and last week one called me back. They told me that they had two positions open that I qualify for and asked which one I would prefer. They told me that they wanted to make me an offer, but I have not heard back from them. I didn't really think that I would hear back from them last week because of the holidays and such, so I'm really hoping to hear from them this week. I really miss working! Anyways, I guess that is all that I have for now! I hope everyone has a great day