NICU

I've mentioned before that my preceptorship for this semester ended up being in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, which was my dream come true! I have now worked with my nurse for 7 days and thought I should give an update!

It is absolutely wonderful being in the NICU. I love it and I think I'll really like it if I get a job there. It doesn't scare me and I actually look forward to going. I miss the babies when I'm home, or I wonder about them. That doesn't happen as much as it did when I first started but every now and then I'll just want to call and make sure they're ok. Don't worry--no attachment problems. After my first day, I did fall in love with one of the babies but it's been long enough to where I've gotten over that and I've realized I can't do that with all of them! This particular baby is still in the NICU and we've taken care of her/him (not supposed to say, HIPPA and all that jazz) every day I've been there. Hopefully this little one will be going home soon, and until then we get to love on it!

Everyone asks me what will I do if one of the babies dies. You would think with them being so small that would be a thought always going through your mind, but it's not. You're very much aware of the ones who will be ok and the ones who are really, really sick. We've just had intermediate babies so no worries unless something just came up which I pray does not. The more common thought is, "What will the baby's life be like?" Some of them will have developmental delays and developmental problems and their quality of life will be undeterminable, but the parents still want everything done. And can you blame them? Technology is so marvelous now-a-days that we can save a baby born at 22 weeks old. They may not be able to function on their own, but they are alive. Some of me wonders if what we do to them is beneficial or just making them suffer through life.

Ultimately, it is God's will. God is sovereign and His word shows it. My life shows that God is sovereign. I go in every day and pray that God will use my hands to show the baby and their family Jesus. I love on the babies hoping that one day Jesus will be their Lord. I hold them and swaddle them hoping that when they have a bad day when they're older or when their family goes through a hard time or even if they fail a test at school, that they will remember they are a child of God, and there is a better Kingdom coming than this earth we live on.

I have learned so much more than skills and knowledge about tiny babies than I ever thought. The hours may be long and it may exhaust me, but for right now I think the NICU is where I'm supposed to be. Thanks be to God!

Valentine's Day

I have to brag...I made a sweet dinner for Alex last Friday night when we celebrated Valentine's Day. I have yet to cook this big since we've been married and I'm still pumped about it.

I grilled steaks on our George Foreman, made honey balsamic green beans, garlic mashed potatoes, and chocolate covered strawberries. I had some cocktail shrimp out because we both love it so much. It turned out really well. We were both impressed!

The past two years (this year makes 3) we've gone to the Big Band Fever that the Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra does every year for Valentine's Day. They create a "big band" from members of the symphony orchestra and they play big band hits, while you dance on the stage. It is a blast and we love going! I'm really glad we got to go this year, and there weren't any conflicts with the SMB. If you live in Chattanooga, you should check it out next year.

We were treated by our newly engaged friends, Drew and Addie! Drew proposed prior to coming to Big Band Fever and since that was the night we were going (by coincidence) we got to see them. Lucky us! That time after you get proposed is so precious and we're special to have been able to see them while they were floating on Cloud 9! Too cute!

Procrastination through Disney!

So I found my ultimate procrastination tool on Disney's Weddings Blog!

"Wall-E" wedding cake!!!

Pirate-themed wedding.

Glad Alex and I jumped on this trend's band wagon. :)

"Under the Sea" Wedding Cake

This cake is modeled after a bridal store! It's gorgeous.

If you want even more cute-ness, check out this blog post! "Top 10 Proposal Ideas at Disney" --gah!! So adorable.

Coupon-ing!

I have started coupon-ing. Although it may sound self-explanatory, they have workshops about coupon-ing! My bff Katie Newsome and I went to one, after our other bff Molly White gushed about how much she loved it and how much money they had saved in just a few months. Katie found a workshop that we could both go to, so we went!

It was quite an adventure. If you really interested in one, check out their website. I learned a few things about coupons that I didn't know before, but more about how to use them in a polite way. For instance, instead of shouting at the cashier because your expired coupon won't scan, go through your coupons and send your expired ones to military families overseas. Instead of taking every single box of Kraft Mac and Cheese, call ahead and tell them you're going to buy a case of it...things like that. I've gotten into printable coupons, which you can print from the internet. They change every month and I can choose which ones I want to print, that way I don't waste paper and ink on ones we'll never use. Right now my coupons vary from "$1 off assorted Valentine's Candy" to "$1 off Pilot Precise V5/V7 capped and retractable pens." Internet printables can be used anywhere, and FYI Bilo doubles coupons every day! So if I can find those pens at Bilo, it'll be for $2 off! Woo hoo! Every nurse needs tons of clicky pens...

Our first grocery store trip with coupons, we saved $45.46 at Bilo and $19.43 at Publix. The coupons weren't the bulk of that though since we're just starting out. It was maily Bilo Bonus Card, Buy One Get One Free deals (Bilo and Publix), 10 for $10 deals (Bilo), and Meal Deals (Bilo). I'll keep updating as we get more into it. Coupon-ing takes a lot of planning.

Awesome deal I'll pass on! Restaurant.com is having a deal--$25 restaurant certificates for $3! **Type in "MEAL" as a promotion code and click 'Apply.'** You can only use them on select restaurants in Chattanooga. My favorites are: The Station House, The Melting Pot, Blue Orleans, and Foodworks. Those are pretty pricy places (alliteration! woo!), BUT if you get four (like we did) $25 certificates, that's a $100 meal for only $12!! And they don't expire!

Lexington, TN

School has started off with a bang. The snow pushed school back a week, and some people (not me, thankfully) have exams on Saturday. Yuck! The good news is that May graduation did not change. Thank you, UTC! We had some intense make-up class time last week. This semester I'm only at school one day a week, but last week I had to go three days, from 9 to 4! After not having been in class, those long days wore me out. I found out great news though! I will be completing my preceptorship in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit!! There were slim chances of finding a preceptor, but I have one. God must have heard my many pleas during all the previous semesters' clinicals. Before I was even in nursing school, I shadowed a nurse in both the well-baby nursery and in the NICU. I fell in love with the atmosphere, patients and the nurses. We spent one day in the NICU during third semester and that was my shot to see if I thought it was still for me since I had gotten into the thick of nursing school. I still loved it! So since the beginning, I've known I want to be in the NICU and I'm so excited. I know that some days will be really bad. But God has a purpose for this intense passion of mine for the NICU, and no matter what happens He is with me and guiding me through it all. I will hopefully start my preceptorship next week with three 12 hour days in a row! Certainly starting off with a bang as well!

After three long days of classes, I got to drive to Lexington, TN with Molly. **Thank you for waiting on me to get out of class so I wouldn't be all by myself!** It was a fabulous drive, believe it or not, until we got off at the Natchez Trace exit. It eventually got us there but we found out later we could have gotten off the interstate and not been so creeped out. We drove through the curvy roads of the Natchez Trace State Park at night, in the dark, and could not help but start talking about scary movies. We were pretty freaked out! But we still made great time, and got there just in time for worship.

It was the first church this year that the band helped teach Bible studies and my first time being a Bible study leader, so the guys each had a Bible study and stayed in their respective host home. I did not know it was going to be this much fun! Molly and I co-lead the 8th grade girls. I love middle schoolers, especially girls, and this group was incredible! They knew a lot of deep concepts in Scripture and I was blown away. I kept thinking, "I didn't know this stuff 'til last year!" Molly helped me out a lot since I had never taught at a Disciple Now, which is different than the way I lead my Bible study with the middle school girls. It was an awesome experience.

I learned a lot this weekend:

-When Seth, Steve, Drew and Alex are really, really, really tired, they are goofy and so much more fun than the usual tired, where they're just grumpy. They're always fun, but when they're past the point of no return on fatigue, you'll know!
-GPS's don't always tell you the best way to go.
-Someone playing with the sanctuary lights is extremely distracting during worship.
-When I'm asleep, I apparently like to snuggle with whoever may be sharing the bed. *Not on purpose*
-Your body may be exhausted but praising God restores energy!

Kaylyn, this is for you!

I found The Sound of Music trailer.

Found out Mary Poppins came out before The Sound of Music. We were wondering that when we watched it. Also, this won the 38th Oscar for Best Picture (this is from the title of the video)!

South Carolina, Snow and The Sound of Music

I finally got to travel with the Seth Medley Band last weekend to Lancaster, South Carolina, pronounce "Lank-aster" not "Lan-caster." Since I'm know a wife of a member, I get to travel if there's a place for me to stay that's not an inconvenience to the band (like in a host home, or if we pay for the hotel ourselves). Molly and I stayed with an awesome chic named Catherine (sp?) which was great. Surprisingly, it was nice to have a bed away from the noisy boys! We got plenty of time with them during the day and on the trip! **We had a return to the war conversation prompted by me mentioning how much I liked Irresistible Revolution, that included raised voices and lots of repetition...it was not fruitful, except that we learned to maybe never discuss politics in a car.** It was great to watch Alex, my hubby, praise God and lead worship as a part of the SMB outside of our church. It was great to be with the guys in fellowship and on the road. I was very much looking forward to it and had so much fun!

Sunday night is started snowing......I've never NOT wanted snow so much! It never snowed this much in Chattanooga during my childhood when I didn't have to drive in it. Monday was fun, waking up to everything white and getting a text saying that work was closed. However, after many episodes of 30 Rock and finding things to do around the apartment, I was restless. It would have been much better had one of our friends (cough cough) let us get snowed in at their house, but no, that did not happen so we were all bored. Tuesday I did more chores then we headed to my parent's house to sled!

After 2 times down the hill we were done. Playing games and watching movies with my family was a lot of fun. Thursday we finally ventured out because of work. Now I just hope that UTC won't have to push graduation back since we missed the first week of spring semester. :-/ This has been the longest week! I'm looking forward to more of a routine this coming week.

The Seth Medley Band headed out again yesterday for Nashville to play at First Baptist. I had prior commitments today so I stayed home which wasn't terrible. First night at the apartment by myself and I survived! Pretty proud of that, especially since we don't have any animals yet. :) I spent some much needed time with Jon and Lizzy last night and after some delicious taco fun and a few crazy rounds of Bananagrams we watched "The Sound of Music" which is such a great movie. I'm pretty sure I said, "I love this movie," about 2500 times during the movie! It's been stuck in my head since then too.

In other news, Alex (my husband--I love saying that!) is starting a blog! It will be way better than mine because he's an excellent writer and it'll pertain to more than just the thoughts floating around in his head, like my blog is! Check it out.

Also, wedding pictures are done!!! They are so beautiful. Check them out here.