Qualifications

I am a Registered Nurse.
Have been for about 15 years.
I did my nurse training in England, back in the early 90's. I trained to be a nurse because the careers lady said she thought I had people skills and that this would be a good qualification to have when working with people. I never actually planned to go to work in a hospital, but once my training had finished, it seemed the most logical place to get work, plus having just spent 3 years in a hospital training you really could only see jobs in one place and that was, of course, the hospital.

Now degrees were not that important back then, nursing was just a qualification that you gained and then went to work.
Over the years they have now started deciding that nursing needed to be recognised and made into a profession. So that meant that they have started making nurse training into degree courses so it is recognised through education facilities like Universities/ College.

Over the last 10 years or so I have watched a lot of colleagues (including Steve, who completed his a couple of months before we got together) convert their training into a Bachelors of Nursing but have never felt the urge to do it.

Finally my time has come!
I have decided to convert my training into something that will be easily recognised and allow me to carry on to do other things easily.

I actually want to give up nursing and train to be a Primary School Teacher.

Even though I am thoroughly enjoying my new job at the hospital, I am sadly bored with nursing.
I still love caring for people and helping them through their frightening experience they may have with us. I still love speaking up for people when they are unable to and fighting to ensure they get the best possible outcome.
I still love being there for people and knowing that I made their experience whilst unwell in the hospital a better experience and let them know that someone really was looking out for them and cares.

But I now want something else. And in this day and age that ability to retrain and do something else is just at our finger tips if we are prepared to work and fight for it. In days gone by, you trained as one thing and that was what you stayed as for the rest of your working life. Nowadays people are spending 20 years in one profession and then suddenly deciding to have a total change, retrain, and then spend the last 20 years working at something totally different...and loving it!

Unfortunately here in New Zealand they do not have a nursing course like I originally did, so nothing to compare it to. I know I do not have a degree, and know that my training was not the equivilent to a degree, so have had to go through the process of finding out exactly where I sit and how much more work I have to do to obtain a degree.
I finally found that information out today with the help of a lovely lady at the local College that does the Bachelor of Nursing Course.
She thinks I can get prior learning recognition and therefore all the nursing papers I have done since my training can go towards it. Which generally means that according to her I need to do 1, yes that is right, 1 more paper/module and I will have enough credits to be recognised as having studied to a degree level and be awarded my Degree in Nursing.
Shame that once I have it I will use it to go on and do something other than nursing!

So I am now in the process of completing the required paperwork to register at the local College on the Bachelors of Nursing Course and will then wait for them to let me know officially what they wish me to complete to obtain my degree.
She spoke of the module I need to complete and it starts in July and finishes in November. It will have a few contact lessons, but not many, and then the rest is done through assessment and assignment, which I think I can manage.
So it looks like, with a bit of luck, that I will finish the year with turning 40 and succeeding in having a degree. Just like my mum did. If she can get a qualification at 40ish then why can't I 20 years later?

Quite an achievement really, one to be very proud of.

My ABC's

My mum got this off of a blog she follows.
Here are my A B C's

A. Age: 39......only 8 months to go!

B. Bed size: Super King. Makes fitting 4 in the bed easier

C. Chore you hate: Ironing, although will happily do anyones elses ironing?!

D. Dogs' Names: Nope, Cat "Barney" yes, she was named after the purple one!

E. Essential food item: bananas

F. Favorite color: pink, brown, blue, red.....

G. Gold or Silver: GOLD

H. Height: 5'4" (163cm)

I. I am: thinking about retraining as a primary school teacher

J. Job: Nurse at local hospital

K. Kids: 2 boys, 5 & 7 yrs old

L. Living Arrangements: 1900's house that needs lots of work doing on it!

M. Mom's Name: Laurie, short for Lauretta

N. Nickname: From my childhood in the family, 'Katy Loo', to my dad now...'Floss'

O. Overnight hospital stay(s): Having my children

P. Pet peeve: People who just expect life to hand them everything without actually doing anything for themselves, feeling like they just deserve it!

Q. Quilt Block: 9 patch

R. Right or Left handed: Right.....

S. Siblings: 1 baby brother, although he is about to turn 38

T. Time you wake up: as late as possible, I hate mornings

U. Unique thing about your car: It fits everything in it when we go away

V. Vegetable you hate: mushrooms and carrots, although my mum will say 'anything green'

W. Ways you run late: Never use to, until I had children!

X. X-rays you've had: Pelvis, foot, neck

Y. Yummy food you make: Cakes and Biscuits

Z. Zoo animal favorite: Red Pandas


And now - will YOU share your ABC's?

Green Gables

I do not remember when I first got into Anne of Green Gables.

In fact, like all other wonderful literature, I probably saw it first on the screen before I realised it was from a book!
I do have the book and I am currently reading it.
I love the writing and the fact that Anne can be "in the depths of despair", it is such fun to actually read the paragraphs where she manages to just talk and switch subjects after everyother word, typical Anne fashion.

But however, I still love AGG and the sequel. There is however the Continuing story, but as I read on another blog the other day, it is a little far fetched and really not in with the books, however it is watch able.

I have the DVD set of the 3 movies, all something like 9 hours of it, and I have just managed to spend a couple of days watching the whole thing again.
Yes I fell in love with Gilbert Blythe all over again.

I would love to visit Prince Edward Island some day, I do know that not a lot of the films were actually filmed there, but still I have heard it is a beautiful place

Up, Up and Away

It is that time of year again for the wonderful festival of 'Balloons over Waikato'
For 4 full days there are hot air balloon activities.
The boys love watching the balloons and seeing the different novelty ones that come here each year.
We managed to attend some of the displays and as usual it consists of balloons and more balloons.
So here is my picture story of what we have seen......

Take one balloon, lots of people and some hot air

A Shroom with a view

Hello, is there anyone out there??

Boo, it's me Jack

Jack N D Box

Ben even got to have a little lift off in a balloon. The balloon stayed tethered the whole time, just lifted off the ground 10 metres.

Today we didn't manage to get to the common where it is all held, but we did get to stand at the top of our stairs at home and watch 15 balloons sail over Hamilton at 8am in the sunny blue sky with the mist and fog just lifting, it loked beautiful.

New Toy

I finally got my new tv for the bedroom.
Nice little flat screen thing that I can finally watch DVD's on.

The world is once again a lovely place

Cricket

During the summer months Ben playes cricket through school.
He is really enjoying it and has played for the last 2 years almost.

So a couple of weeks ago I heard on the radio about getting free tickets to a 20/20 match that was being played in Hamilton.
I went online and registered and was successful in getting a free family pass to the cricket game.

So we pack out picnic dinner and trotted off to show the boys what a game of cricket should be like.
They loved it, we had a wonderful free night out as a family and they would happily go again.

Wow, there are people out there!

And just to confuse them, our local team were supporting Breast Cancer for the season so were dress and playing in Pink!

Calendar

Every year in December, I go along to the local shopping mall and purchase next years calendar.
I like a specific one, so like to get it whilst they have them in stock.
All the other calendars we have in the house come from the 40% off sale they have in the New Year.

Now I have not needed a Family Organiser Calendar yet, nothing to write on it and in fact the boys haven't had that much to do that needs noting.
Unfortunately that all turned to crap last month!
Suddenly Ben had heaps of things going on at school and guess who forgot most of them?
Yea that's right....me!

They were things that didn't involve the whole family and how I managed to not note them I do not know.
He never took swim stuff for Swim Sports Day! I forgot to pay for a trip and a show!

Despite looking, of course getting a new calendar in March is impossible, so we are going to have to be very vigilent throughout the rest of the year (all 9 months of it) and then I will ceremonously purchase a Family Organiser Calendar for 2011.

Cooking

Alex loves cooking.

He always wants to help in the kitchen, always trying to think about what he can cook.
As part of his getting ready for school stuff, they encourage you to take them along to the library and get them their own card.
Now Alex has been to the library loads of times but never had his own card, so we happily trotted off last week and did all the official stuff.
He happily signed his name on the back of his card, but got annoyed when the lady wouldn't let him keep it (it had to go off to be officially printed)
Despite telling him it would appear in the post in a few days he was not happy.

So I tried to grab his attention back by suggesting we look for cook books.
This worked.
We happily left the library with a childrens cook book and Alex spent the rest of the day going through it establishing which recipes he was going to make.

We have since made:

• Smoothies
• Chocolate Zucchine Cake
• Sesame Soy Chicken

Shame with his funny tummy at present he is not all that into eating the food, but we are encouraging him to cook when ever he wants.

Police Building

Last week someone decided it would be fun, in their angry state, to drive into the reception area of the local Police station.
Unfortunately there were 2 sliding glass doors to go through when entering from the street, obviously this did not stop the car.

Today I noticed that the work men were installing 4 metal bollards outside the station, so that next time when someone fancies visiting they will have to park their car outside instead.

Wishing

The other morning there was a lovely huge rainbow in the sky.
I called Ben out to look at it.

He asked me if he could make a wish on it?
Didn't see why not, so said yes.
Here is his wish (he said it out loud)

I wish
I wish
I wish we had a rocket booster on our car

Nothing like plain thinking from a 6 yr old.

My wish would be.......

That I manage to get another 100 posts done so I reach my 1000th, as this post is my 900th.
Yea for me on reaching a milestone and I look forward to reaching the next one soon, maybe in about 3 months time if I write 1 post a day.

Autumn

It has suddenly gone cold in the evenings, the days are still quite warm but suddenly the curtains need closing at night.
The blankets are making a slow appearance in the living room and I am even considering finding my slippers!
I will resist putting the heater on until after Easter (April)

March 1 was of course the start of Autumn for New Zealand so I shouldn't be too surprised that the temperature is dropping, the days are getting shorter and the mornings are dark.
The clocks do not change for another 3 weeks, Easter Weekend, but by the time it all changes we are going to be ready for it.
Good Friday will be light and Easter Monday will be dark.

So I have updated the blog to get that lovely warm feeling that we all need in Autumn time. Hopefully this will also warm all you guys that are hanging out for heat with your spring just arriving, wait patiently as it will arrive soon.

Attitude

Yep, that is right, attitude and I mean a child with attitude.
Alex has attitude and I even have the picture to prove it....

He is almost 5, note the almost, not sure if he will actually make it the last 2 1/2 months!
Ok at the moment he is not feeling the greatest, had some sort of tummy bug that has been giving him cramps and yucky poos, so not feeling like eating much, but still has his spirit, especially all the fiesty parts!
Have been keeping him home from Daycare because they will not want him spreading germs, but man it makes for a very long day of attitude from him.

He even just spent 5 minutes in timeout in the middle of the supermarket. Got a lot of looks from people but I stood my ground.
Man, school are going to love having Alex!

Productive Weekend

This weekend has been very productive!
Over at my mum's place she has had 3 burly firemen fixing up her deck for her.
Over here I have been mowing the lawn so my husband could get productive, ok so he thought my style of mowing was a little odd

But hey, it was midday and stinking hot, so the umbrella was very useful.
This was all so my husband could get his stuff done........like our bathroom?

April last year we had a new bathroom installed, got rid of the old bath and shower unit and installed new ones.
We even went so far as to choose new tiles for the wall decoration, all that was left was for the painting to be done.
Thus the problem, Steve said he would do it all. Well I had no problem with that apart from the fact I didn't realise that it would take a year for it to get finished!

So this weekend I cleared the calendar, oh and next weekend just in case, and told him we had nothing to do and he was to be painting. Well it worked.

I have a painted bathroom, only problem is, it will probably take another year before it is totally finished though because we still need the tiles up around the vanity and shower and Steve has never tiled before!

Maybe he will learn fast for next weekend.

Now on searching back through my pictures I can find ones of the bathroom during renovations and ones from today with it all painted, I do not seem to be able to find any middle time pictures, so here are the best I could get.....!

Now I just have to wait for the tiling to be done before I finally have a mirror in my bathroom and lights to go over the top of it!

At least all the light sockets are finally screwed on flush to the wall and not hanging out waiting for the paint to go on behind them!

The boys of course wanted to get in and help today, so we sectioned off a little piece in the hallway and allowed Alex to have a go. It was a little bit of a test as well because Steve wanted to see if it was possible to paint over the pink wallpaper and get a good result?

It looks ok but I still think we will have to take the paper off the wall and then paint.

This has proved that maybe I will get some of the little sections of the kitchen that need painting done. Steve liked the suggestions I made, even discussed whether we wanted to put some of the colour from the bathroom into the kitchen? Would go very nicely with the bench top, so may get some little areas of the wall made colour and the rest a cream.
Will keep you posted, but at least Steve can now get a bottle of wine from my dad seeing as that is what he said yesterday if Steve did actually manage to get the room painted today.

Life

Life is whizzing past so fast these days.
My new job has settled well and I am enjoying it. I am now working 4 days a week and man am I noticing it!
Nothing is getting done, although it is getting done, but it has to wait until the weekend.
I have one day a week off with Alex, which is great fun, but always made up with a huge list of errands for us to get sorted, things that can't be done on a weekend due to shops not being open or offices being closed.
So the week is flying past, the washing is getting done in the evenings and when I fall in bed at night I am already counting the hours until I can get something else done after work!

I have 19 posts to blog about, but never seem to have more than 5 minutes on the computer. I have enough time to check emails and check what you have all been up to on your blogs! I may not be adding too many comments but I am visiting and catching up on what you have been up to. Man some of you lead such fun lives. I am glad you are all having such fun in the winter months in the US and enjoying the last of the summer sun down under. I can't actually believe that Daylight Savings is so close, only 3 weeks to go and we will officially be in Autumn. Man summer has gone by so fast!

We have 3 months until Alex starts school, and it is going by very very fast now, not long till Easter, then school starts again and then it will be time for him to begin.
He had his hair cut today and I suddenly noticed how grown up he was looking, almost like he shot up over night, sure he looked so young and babyish yesterday and all grown up today. Maybe I can stop him sleeping and then he won't grow so fast at night! On second thoughts, maybe not such a good idea so I will let him sleep in peace for now, although I found him upside down on our bed at 3am last night.
Never heard him come in or climb on the bed until I discovered a foot in my face!

Well that fast life has to go on and my time is now up, have to go and get Ben from school, race to the supermarket and then get him to his swimming lesson.
When that finishes I then have to race to get Steve and then home for dinner. Oh well at least the 4 loads of washing are drying in the afternoon sun......just wonder who will have the happy task of folding it all so it can be put away.....?

Nobody has answered me, so guess, as usual, it will be me...!