Resting

So I go away for 1 week and suddenly I have so many posts to read on the blogs I follow!
Either I follow too many blogs or the ones I love catching up with are super good at posting lots of posts!

However seeing as I am resting up for the next week or so following surgery then I have all the time in the world to read the 63 unread posts that are showing on Bloglovin.
Yes I ventured out and joined Bloglovin.
Even by following Abi's little demonstration video I was able to set up little groups for the different types of blogs I follow and suddenly I can see what I want to read now and what I want to read when I have more time etc.

And time is something I suddenly have plenty of.
Believe me when you sit down and wish you could stay there and not do anything it is a lovely thought, until such time as you do actually have to sit there and do nothing, and I mean nothing......

No washing
No cooking
No cleaning

Ok so I am happy to not have to do any of that for a week but it is difficult to sit knowing the vacuuming needs doing, that the table needs wiping etc.
You also don't want to sound too nagging from your place in the chair with the blanket wrapped round you as you try so hard to point out that said jobs need completing.

But I really can't complain. All the washing has been done and is dry. The house has been vacuumed and the bathroom cleaned, well sort of. And last night we had roast chicken for dinner and it was so nice that I didn't cook it.
Now I remember that my husband is a great cook and I think there will be some turning of tables when I am back up and running, maybe like he can be in charge of dinner every Sunday or something like that?

Everyday......

Life goes on.....
everyday and on each and every one of those days I think about blogging and what I can write and then the day slips on by and I have sadly got nowhere near the computer!
Ok I lie a little, I have got real close to the computer but there has been so much else to achieve that blogging has not been on the agenda! Even my Face Book posts have dwindled done to bare essentials.

Work takes over
my life at present, even though 1 of my days during the week has now become a volunteer day, suddenly I am now out of the house 5 days a week.
Last year it was 4 and man do I miss that 1 day! Please come back day, all is forgiven, I will use you wisely....well to an extent I am using you wisely now so maybe I shouldn't complain so!

My 2 jobs
are calling me daily and I am finally, after 3 weeks (reason why I have not been around!) I have managed to get into some sort of pattern working at 2 different jobs, however as they are both based at the hopsital I am finding that there is a little cross over in the roles, mainly from one direction rather than both.

2 days a week I am a nurse in a fixed department. I have to be there at a set time, I finish at a set time and people rely on me to be there. We work as a team and I am scheduled to be in a certain place on the days I am rostered, I have 3 days that I am available to them and they get to choose which 2 days of the 3 they want me to work.

My 2nd role is as a tutor to the student nurses on clinical placement at the hospital. I have 5 wards that I cover and when I have a student on placement on one of my wards then it is my responsibility to meet with these students weekly to ensure they are getting everything out of their time in the clinical setting.
They do work shifts so getting to meet with them can sometimes be a small problem. I have 1 set day a week when I am free to go and find them and I have 1 other day a week that changes depending on which day my other role has chosen to give me off.

This is where the challenge can enter life as at present I have 7 students to see each week and even though I have Mondays, they are not always rostered to work on a Monday so then I have to fit all 7 1 hour meetings into 1 day!

Believe me
this does not work sometimes, (due to their rosters) and so there are times when I will finish my nurse role at 5pm and then switch hats to my tutor role and go and find a student who is working a late shift and meet with them then.
All meetings are pre planned with the student weekly according to their roster but sometimes it takes a little juggling on my part, especially if they are on night shift!!

So the first rotation of students is just coming to an end next week, I will have been through the complete cycle once and I will have a greater understanding of what is required from each meeting and how they can be fine tuned. Which given the fact that at some stage for a 2 week period when there is a cross over of rotations of students going out on placement I will end up with 12 to see in 1 week.

But despite everything
I am loving my life so far this year. It is keeping me on my toes, it is offering challenges daily and I am excited to be going to work, which given the last 5 months of last year is something I am grateful for.

This Is Me

It has been great fun catching up with new friends via Vicki's (2 Bags Full) blog party she held the other week.
I have been to visit some great blogs and found many interesting things and people along the way.
If you are looking for some more blogs to follow and catch up with...then please don't hesitate to go visit Vicki and visit some of the blogs on her site.

I wrote a nice little speal about me and who I am, why I blogged etc etc and what I blog about.
Looking back on that post however it made me realize that I didn't actually put up a picture of me. I put one up of the boys but forgot myself.

So here are the latest pictures I can find. These were taken on Christmas Day.

This is me with all the members of my family. There now you know what I look like!

Falling Into Place

Life is falling into place for me and it feels great.

After 6+ months of unemployment and the frustrations that come with that I really feel that everything is going where I want it to go.
I have a job, got offered it more or less on Christmas Eve. 3 days a week in a department at the hospital.
Then when we returned from a wonderful 3 weeks away at the beach (more to come on this later) there was a message from a company that I had an interview with 5 months ago!
Am I still interested in their position!?
I was shocked to say the least as they had never ever got back to me at all, nada, zero, silence!

So after meeting with them during the week and then having to meet with a manager at the hospital to renegotiate things, which was surprisingly simple and all just fell into place, I have reshuffled all my hours and have the ability to do both jobs, nicely and fitting into my life how I want it to fit.

So as of Monday I start my new life, my life that I want, doing what I want, when I want to do it and believe me......it feels great.

Now I just have to work out who is doing all the cooking and cleaning around here now that I am out of the house full time again!

Planning Ahead

Now that I have finished my Degree I need to move on forward with my plans.
You know the ones....about becoming a teacher.

A few weeks ago I happened to see the application form for the course and realised that I am not ready for the course just yet.

I have no experince and my references would be weak.

So I decided that I need to plan for this course and get active in gaining the experience I require to stand me in good stead to get through the acceptance process when I finally go for it.

The application spoke about getting references from people who know you and have history with you in experience around children etc. Despite having my own 2 little people, this is an area that I do lack.

1 of my references will be my old manager, she has evidence of my education skills within nursing and would happily support me with a personal reference.

However my contact with school experince is limited, so I decided that maybe I need to spend sometime at school, maybe as a parent helper in a class room.

This would allow me to be in a class room setting and work along side a teacher who would hopefully be prepared to support my application at such time as I am prepared to submit it.

Today I approached our Principle to tell him of my plans and see how this fits in with the school.

Now luckily I know him on a personal basis as well so he was all open arms to my suggestion.

He is happy for me to spend 1 day a week in the class rooms next year, maybe even spending time in different age groups to gain experince in all areas of the school.

He also has ideas for some extra curriculum activites he wants to start within school time and thinks I would be super to support these with him, thus allowing me to also add to my experience the ability to coordinate and run a small class activity.

I really liked his thinking and feel this is going to be great for my plans. I love the idea of spending 2 terms in one area maybe Yr 5&6 (10/11 yr olds), then 1 term in another area, Yr 7&8, (12/13 yr olds) and splitting the 4th term between the remaining areas Yr 0-2 ( 5-7 yr olds) and Yr 3&4 (8/9 yr olds). This would allow me to spend a decent amount of time with the age group I would really like to be involved with but also get a small feel for the other areas involved in this type of teaching, cause you never know....I may have an area in mind but actually like a different age group once I have been involved with them!

So I am moving forward with my plans and feel great about them too.

Roll on next year, I am actually excited about it and can't wait for the summer holidays to get here so school can start again next year, with me there too!

Can't Be That Hard...Can It??

I am currently unemployed, have been now since the beginning of July.
Most people are shocked to hear that and then start questioning me as to how a nurse has not managed to get a job? Aren't they crying out for nurses they say? Isn't there a shortage of nurses at present?

Well yes there is but unfortunately there is also a thing called a budget and the hospitals are trying their hardest to stay within theirs. So this means that when someone leaves they are really scruntinising the position to see if it is really required or can they manage without replacing the person.
So to an extent there is a shortage of jobs at present.
Add to this that when you do find a job worth applying for then you are in line with up to 30-50 other interested people.

1 job I applied for a few weeks ago, I got to discover that 60 of us had applied for it!!
This means that the employers can afford to be picky about who they hire.
Where once upon a time someone with my experience would have got the job and with a little training in the new area I would be great in the position, they now have so many people apply that they can afford to choose the person who already has experience that they want and not take on someone who needs to be trained in anyway.
So for someone like myself, who has no ward experience because I am a theatre nurse by trade, then I really don't stand a chance at being successful against 20 others who have many years experience on the wards when I have none!

At present, it is a real privilege to just even gain an interview.
I have been successful in about 75% of the jobs I have applied for in that I have gained an interview, unfortunately I have not secured a position from this (well one I did, but I had to withdraw as it wasn't going to work with the family at all), however when they call and talk to me it is always the same feedback...
"You interviewed so well, we were impressed however unfortunately there was someone else with more experience at this time. Thank you for your time."

So I feel like I am hitting my head against a brick wall.
Once upon a time I would see a job advertised, think to myself "what a cool interesting job" apply for it, interview for it and always be successful in  obtaining the job. So it is a little disheartening to have applied for so many jobs in the last few months only to still have nothing, although there isn't a great deal out there to apply for either.

They can choose to be very picky at present with who they give the job too so I don't even stand a chance at working in a restaurant/office/shop till something comes along at present because I have no experience and there are 10 others who have been spilling coffee over people/typing faster for longer in another position and they are more suited.

It is very frustrating to say the least.

Weighing In

I am still slowly plodding my weigh (ha ha) through this weight lose.
I have chipped at it week by week and am still enjoying it.

I don't get too much out of the meetings each week but still enjoy going. Only once have I not felt like going to weigh in but at the last minute I decided against not going and rushed in to weigh. I find I feel guilty if I don't weigh, which means that so far I have attended and weighed in every week I have been on the programme. Very proud of myself for that.

I am actually doing really well and thought I would share some stats with you:

• I have lost 6.2kg (13.67 lbs) to date
• I have achieved my 5% goal. This is loosing 5% of your starting weight.
• I have 100g (0.2 lb) to lose to achieve my stone (6.3kg or 14 lb approx.)
• I have 1.3kg (2.86 lb) to loose to achieve my 10% goal
• I have only 2.8kg (6.17 lb) to loose to achieve WW Goal.
• Then I have to maintain for 6 weeks to achieve Life Membership
• Personally I then still have 2.5kg (5.51 lb) to loose to achieve my personal goal

So life is ticking along at present and all is good.

I am still eating the crap some days but it is not the main thing to eat.

The biggest thing I have learnt from all this:

• Drink plenty of fluids
• Watch your portion sizes, this alone can screw up an otherwise great week
• Listen to your body when eating. If it says it is full then stop eating!
• Get enough sensible sleep
• Get moving......I wear a pedometer everyday now and this is helping me to move more as I must achieve my 10,000 steps per day (ok I am not achieving them but I am getting closer)

I have 5 more weeks of this cycle before I have to start paying to attend, up until now this has been an at work programme that they have paid for. So I have to work hard to achieve goal in that time then I only have to do 6 weeks of maintaining to be a life member and not have to pay anything. Yea me.

Dislike...?

I am not sure on the title of this post as dislike is too easy a word but I can't use anything stronger as I am not sure on the word to use?

I am grateful for the qualification that I have. I know I worked hard for my nursing and I have used it to my advantage quite nicely, however having this qualification can also be a pain and I dislike having it sometimes!

It is extremely hard to get out of nursing as the pay, although everyone goes on about the lack of it, is extremely difficult to shake.
People just can't seem to understand that yes I do know the job I am applying for is less than I was on but to do something other than nursing will always incur me to drop maybe a 1/3 to 1/2 of what I am on now.
Although that is where it is also difficult.
If I stay in nursing I know what my pay will be, if I move to something else and take less money then that is my decision but also our outgoings will remain the same and that is where I have a huge fight with myself!
How can I justify taking a job that is 1/2-1/3 less than what I was on when we still have the same bills to pay for me to be able to do the job? We still have to pay childcare so I can do the job?
1 solution is that I find a position that allows me to start early and finish in time to collect the boys.
Another is that I find a part time job that they are happy with me starting at 8.30 and finishing at 3pm.
(Yea right like that is available, doesn't every mother want that job!)

So now I get to continue checking the job vacancies everyday waiting for that great position to become available that will suit our family perfectly...or with a little adaption made!

Confidence

I have confidence in sunshine

I have confidence in rain

I have confidence that spring will come again

Besides which you see I have confidence in me

I have confidence in confidence alone

Besides which you see I have confidence in me!

Just as Maria sang in the Sound of Music, confidence gets you everywhere.

I have confidence, I know I do as I am a strong, stubborn independent woman.
However over the last few weeks my confidence has been shot to pieces and I have managed to question my ability to do my work!

I have resigned from the current position I am working in. I am being brave and do not have a position to go to. Not for lack of trying either.
I am currently, till Friday anyway, working at a desk job looking at the business side of the hospital. It has been interesting, I have learnt some stuff but it is not me.
I do not have the business knowledge to do the job and that has become apparent.
It was a little kick in the head to have them acknowledge this as well and they have been very nice in letting me take time to find another position before kicking me out on the street.
However it is very obvious that they don't have much confidence in me and I am therefore loosing confidence in myself. I know I don't know how to format a document in the way they require. I know I don't know how to word certain things how they would like it to be worded so it sounds and looks great. I don't have that business knowledge.
I am grateful for the time they have given me to secure another position but I can't keep sitting in an office where they seem perfectly happy for me to sit doing just about nothing, everyday.
It is knocking my confidence. It is knocking my confidence in my ability to achieve anything, to obtain anything to even have the ability to do my old job.


So I am out of there. I have walked. I have given them the paper required and taken my leave.


I currently have 3 job applications that I am waiting to hear on. All 3 jobs have closed and I am waiting to hear if I will be interviewed.
The waiting game is sometimes the hardest part.


So life is a little slow at present. My enthusiasms is a little low. Doesn't help that it is currently winter here and that can make you feel low and lifeless anyway. At the end of the day snuggling in bed and reading a book is great fun, but I can't keep doing that, there is more to achieve.


I am still here, I am still reading blogs and commenting, I just don't have anything to write about at present, although I do, I have an award to write about that I received. I have a post about the Fieldays that we attended last week. I have a swap that I took part in that I wanted to write up and several other things. But I just don't seem to want to at present!
Is that bad?

Go Away Pain....!

I have ear ache, have had for 3 days now. It is not totally unbearable but I know it is there.
I wandered all around the Fieldays yesterday with it (more on our visit to this later in another post)

Finally yesterday I could take no more and took myself off to the emergency doctor.
For the grand total of $73 they took my pulse, blood pressure and temp (all normal) asked me a few questions, felt the glands in my neck, looked in both ears and proclaimed that they could see nothing, no build up or pressure or even infection.

They laughed when they saw I was allergic to Codeine and Ibuprofen and said oh well Paracetamol or Tramadol is all you can take.
Oh and to feel free to come back to them if I feel it has got worse or I develop a temperature.

I knew it was a waste of time going, I felt fine apart from the pain, but unfortunately looking inside someone's ear is not something that anyone else can do except a doctor. And seeing as how I was really sick over Easter with an inner ear problem I was not tempting fate by leaving an infection to brew to cause more hassle than I currently needed.

Oh and on a even sadder note.......I resigned from my job today and do not have anything to go on to.

Isn't life exciting when you want it to be!

Goals + 5%

I actually achieved my 5% weight lose goal last week, but due to an issue I didn't want to mention it until I had been to weigh in this week. Just to clarify that it was correct.

It seems that people have got into the habit of wearing the same clothes each week for weigh in, this is because it is amazing how much certain items can weigh.
I was lucky enough to be wearing a pair of jeans the first week I weighed in, so I decided to continue wearing them, especially as winter was coming our way and I knew I would be wearing them most Fridays for the next few months.
I have also managed to wear the same pair of shoes each week so have been happy to weigh in wearing them. However last week my ankle was playing up so I wore my running shoes, now these are known to weigh about 500g-1kg so I took them off. Then I had a wonderful weight lose of 500g which took me right down and under my 5% goal, but if I had been wearing the correct shoes would it have happened?
Who knows, so this week I made sure I was wearing the exact same things and yes I definitely got my 5% goal and also lost another 500g this week (that is 1kg in 2 weeks).

So now that I am well aware that I did achieve my goal then I can celebrate and let all know what I have achieved. Oh and also what else I achieved this week.......

The other goal I have achieved this week is the completion of my 2nd essay for the paper I am currently studying.

First essay was due in Apr 17 and I succeeded in passing this paper with 78%. Yea me.
2nd essay got sent off today and on completion of marking, which I know I will pass (positive thinking here guys!) then I will have achieved my 3rd paper and only have 1 left to complete this year.
Although on completion of the next paper I will have successfully completed my Bachelors Degree in Nursing.

So by the end of this year I will have achieved my degree and lost weight, what better way to end a year.

Studying

As many of you know, I am currently achieving my Bachelors Degree in Nursing.
Whilst this sounds amazing and you think I am well organised to be able to work, run a family and live and also get this, let me tell you a little secret, it is all by correspondence and I have been working as a nurse for the last 16 years, so these are not topics I am unfamiliar too. Also due to when I completed my training depended on how many papers I needed to complete. In my case that is 4, so by doing 1 paper a semester, it is taking me 2 years to complete. I am coming to the end of paper 3 so almost there.
In fact ask me again by about end of October and you will find me partying and praying that my last essay is a pass and then I have a degree.

Anyway, this course has been very easy but then to an extent I think they have made it very easy and sometimes this bugs me!
Shut up and go with it I can hear you all say but how can I not wonder when things are just too easy. Bear with me on this.

For starters I don't have to attend any lectures at all. I can find out sufficient information by reading some books and writing the essay. Good job I am not trying to learn too much from this.

Each paper has 2 essays, that is all you have to do to complete the paper. However the marking is way off. In order to pass the paper you have to get an overall mark of 50%. Now that is not 50% per essay that is 50% in total from both essays.
So if you pass the first essay with 60% and pass the next essay with 80% then overall you pass the paper with 70%. Well done you.
However if you fail the first essay with 40% but pass the 2nd essay with 60% then overall you have a score of 50% so you have passed the paper! Meaning that you can fail 1 of the 2 essays as long as you make up the marks on the other essay!
To me that is not right? If you fail part of the course how can you actually pass the course?

I am now on paper 3, essay 1 has been handed in and we are desperately waiting for the results, which are taking a long time in being available.
However whilst we are waiting we do currently have essay 2 to complete.
The essay was due May 17, but a week after the first essay was handed in we gained an extension. Yippee for us so now it is due in May 24.
Last week they distributed a template to assist you in writing your essay. Yes rather than getting you to write the essay from just reading the question they have actually given you a template which more or less gives you ideas and suggestions on how to write the essay.
Then a few days later they gave you a table that showed you how to distribute the words for each section so you get the correct word count for the essay!
Are you telling me that anyone writing a 2500 word essay at Degree level is unable to correctly distribute that amount of words over 5-6 sections? Come on people this is degree level 7 here, not 1st grade English essay writing!

Then today, after they have had a lecture about the essay this morning, we have suddenly gained another extension! Now ok this extension is only from 9am Thursday morning to 4pm Friday afternoon but why do I get the feeling that yet again they feel the students can't cope so lets give them more, much more.

Last year was a little of the same. I actually attended a lecture and at the end the tutor said she would be answering questions on the essay due if anyone wanted to stay behind. Well she went further than that she more or less explained what to write.
She stood at the front and went through each part of the essay step by step. More or less saying 'well in the first section they want you to define xyz, so you need to look up a definition of the words and write what it means....start the sentence something like "the definition of ........ is ......... which means ......." Oh and don't forget to reference where you got the information from.

I knew something was going wrong when she had to explain to the class one time how to reference in an essay. You are meant to integrate the references whilst writing the paragraph.

For example - The world is round (Smith 2010) although many have challenged this theory and often wonder if the world has extra parts on the side (Bates 2009).

Most of the students on the course were doing the following:
The world is round although many have challenged this theory and often wonder if the world has extra parts on the side. Smith 2010 (always just writing a full paragraph and putting a single reference at the end!)

I am not sure how I managed to drive home that day without driving off the road from shock!

Now I just keep joking that by Wednesday I wouldn't be surprised if there isn't an example essay available online for the students to use where they just have to insert words at appropriate places that are relevant to their chosen topic!

Y is for Young

I am young, well my head thinks I am young, my body has unfortunately reached that stage that they call 'Middle Age' although occording to most magazines nowadays this age is now the new '30's' so I should be jumping around the world having so much fun!!

But just to keep me feeling young here are some pictures of when I really was young....

about 6-8months maybe

2 years old

10 1/2 yrs

about 6-7 yrs old

about 9-10 yrs old

today at 41 years old

I is for Information about I

Yes this post is going to be all about me.
Here is some useless information that I am sure you were just dying to know about.
And seeing as 'I' is the 9th letter of the alphabet then I will post 9 things about me only......

1. I love finding spelling and grammer mistakes in books. Makes me wonder what the Proof Reader was getting paid for if they managed to miss it?
2. I love going to the movies and wish I had more time and money to be able to go and watch all the ones I want to see.
3. I have only ever found 2 nail polish colours that look good on my fingernails, so I prefer them natural instead. My toes however are always painted and am happy with blue, black, purple, red or pink. In fact any colour of the rainbow as long as it is on my toe nails!
4. I always wanted 4 children. In fact I would have happily gone for 6 but I accept the reasons why I only have 2 but that still doesn't make the want of more go away.
5. I wish I was able to throw food together like my brother and husband. They have the nack with flavour and know just what to add to make it taste just yum. They can turn mince beef and potatoes into something gourmet!
6. I love socialising but am no good at small talk, I never know what to talk about.
7. I don't drink alcohol, tea or coffee.
8. I love sugar, well as long as it is in the form of cakes, puddings etc
9. If you brought me the biggest bar of choclate you could find, it would still be there a year later, unless my husband found it then it would be gone in a week! Same with Easter Eggs. I don't like solid thick chocolate!

Information about me.

Tears at Easter

My 2 gorgeous little boys woke up this morning at the caravan.
Apparently they were very lucky in that the bunny left them some chocolate on their beds.

Grandma also gave them some chocolate but they had to work for this by doing a treasure hunt, more on that tomorrow.
However when the hunt had finished they proudly showed me what they had got this morning from the bunny, then they raced upstairs to my bed.
I followed questionably as I had no idea what they were going up to find?
They were pulling my bed to pieces apparently wanting to know where my egg was that the bunny had left me this morning?

It broke my heart to have to stand there and tell them "The Easter Bunny didn't leave mummy an egg this morning!"
Ben was quite shocked "But mummy he left ours at the end of our bed and daddy's too, didn't he leave you one too?"
"No I answered"

Then I came downstairs and tried to explain to Steve that they were upstairs trying to find my easter egg from the bunny, that had not arrived!

It broke my heart them having to realise that I didn't receive anything this year from the Bunny.
Such a shame they didn't realise that I didn't get an egg last year either or the year before that either!

So nice of them to think about me anyway?

Update Post

If you have missed it I am currently taking part in a blogging challenge....A to Z Challenge where you blog from A to Z throughout the month of April. It is such fun and I am enjoying it, have met some super great blogs along the way and made some wonderful new friends.

It is just what I need actually because I have been sick and we are not just talking a few days in bed or on the couch we are talking that I am on day 10 now and things are about 60% better.
As mentioned here and then again here I thought I was getting dizzy due to my blood pressure being low, turns out that was maybe just a little cover for the real problem.
I saw the doctor and my bloods were all back and good, no worries there. However he did not like the extra fluid in my ears so decided that I had a balance problem due to too much fluid so put me on decongestants to help dry up the fluid. These did nothing, with the exception of making me realise that I was allergic to the drug!
So 2 days later, when I finally succuumbed to the illness and gave in and lay on the couch and just didn't move, I went back to the doctor. Saw a different one this time, just coincidence, but he decided that I had Vestibular Neuritis, a viral infection that effects the inner ear and makes your balance go totally out of whack.

I have no energy, I can't concentrate, things keep swimming in my peripheral vision and the rooms spins regularly.

My father has told me that he too has suffered from this in his time and so has his sister, my aunt. So is it hereditory? Or just chance?
At the moment I hope it is just chance because another attack of this, that could knock me out of action for 4-5 days, would be my worst nightmare come true.
All websites I read talk about recovery being anything from 1-3 weeks!
Good job, to an extent, that I am on holiday next week with the boys due to school holidays, but not so good a job because this is not how I wanted to spend my week off, sitting on a couch half the day resting!

So thank you to all my new blogging friends I have made over the last week. It is fun to read what you are writing about. I have laughed, I have learnt and I have agreed with you on many things.
I look forward to catching up more during the month of April and then on throughout 2012.

Blood Pressure

Do you have problems with your blood pressure?
It is a common enough problem.

As parents I am sure our pressure has risen higher than it should on occassions, but then they always do something to make it come back down again, got to love them!

Steve's is high, I mean way high....got to take medication high!
However in the last 2 days if he could give me some of his high blood pressure then it would assist me with my rather too low blood pressure! The doctor laughed at this and said 'if only'

Yesterday morning my blood pressure decided that I had to have a close encounter with the wardrobe! I am fine I am not hurt, luckily the wardrobe made me sit back down on the bed where I was able to close my eyes until the room had stood still.
Once I was up and going I was fine for the rest of the day.
This morning when I lifted my head off the pillow the room was swirling not nicely, so I put it back down again.
This time I got Steve to check my BP before I even got out of bed.
He had trouble finding it at 90/60. It is usually 120/70 which is good by the way the other is too low.
So Alex kindly got mummy a drink and I decided that I would stay home, but half hour later I decided that I was fine for work and off we went.

I was however a good girl and made an appointment at the doctor.
He sent me for a whole heap of blood tests as when I saw him it was only just 102/65.

I feel sort of fine, a little light headed but able to carry on. I am tired so am resting when I feel like it.
When we got home from work it was 90/68 and I have a feeling that if I checked it again now it would be pretty much the same, I can tell by how wishy washy my head feels. Seems there is a reason to have a decent blood pressure....it keeps you on your feet! Although the boys loved listening to my BP as because it was quite low it didn't get uncomfortable when Steve blew the cuff up each time so the boys could listen to my BP through the stethoscope.

What is funny is I found this next picture in Google images whilst searching for the above picture....

I am not exercising as much as 30 mins a day but I am loosing weight however if that is making my blood pressure go down then maybe I will love the weight I have and not complain!

Study Time

So once again my study has commenced!


I am bound by deadlines and essays, research and commitments.
I am heaving my brain into an area it doesn't like to go too often but in fact once it gets there it actually enjoys what it is doing.

I had my first trip to Rotorua which consisted of being there by 9am for a 2 hour lecture and then turning round and driving straight back again so I could finish my day at work!
It was a busy morning, but not one I will have to repeat too often as I feel that I do not need to attend all of the tutorials available and in fact I am not expected to either, so any I do attend are a bonus.

But I do know the goal at the end and that is that come November I will have a Degree in Nursing and that in itself will be one of the biggest things for me to have achieved presently. I will attend my graduation ceremony with much pride and celebration next year, so watch this space.

Downfall of New Clothes

By having a new job it means I need new clothes, well not exactly new clothes, I just need to think more about what I wear to work each day.
Previously I just rocked on up in jeans and a shirt because as soon as I got there I got changed into scrubs.

I have quite a decent wardrobe of clothes at home but it has taken me a few months to get use to having to think each morning about exactly what I am going to wear.
My shoes have all been fine and as summer is now upon us I have been able to utilise all my pretty sandels.
All my pretty dresses are also getting a nice airing out in the world.

However that is where the problem lies, I am wearing stuff that I am not use to wearing. I am not use to wearing skirts and dresses all day. I am not use to wearing shoes with any type of heel on them all day.
And the heels have been my down fall. I don't wear high heels, just little ones, enough to give me a little lift and look really nice.

Yesterday I wore a pretty dress with a nice pair of sandels that had a heel, I got compliments all day about how great I looked.

Today I am wearing trainers on my right foot and a moonboot on my left foot and downing painkillers and anti-inflamatories and getting compliments / questions about "what did you do?"

"Yes what did I do?"
I wore heels all day, walked a lot and managed to roll my ankle a little at some stage during the day. It didn't hurt at the time, but by last night it was a little tender. I decided that rest was all I needed and so did none of the Rest. Ice. Compress. Elevate treatment as I didn't feel I had done anything.
This morning it was uncomfortable so brought a tubigrip bandage on my way to work and wore that. However by mid morning I decided that it was too painful to totally ignore and got an appointment at the Physiotherapists.
I have strained a ligament in my ankle and they are painful. She wants me to get my foot in a neutral position, so leg and foot in a 90 degree angle, however mine won't go there, so she has placed me in a moonboot for 4 days to keep it in a good position and allow it to rest!

Rest with your foot in a fixed position? Hum yea how? It is more uncomfortable in this than it was previously, however this moonboot is of course keeping it in the right position while it fixes, heals and recovers. Previously I was letting it rest, painfree in the wrong position, thereby doing more damage.
So now I am hobbling round ever so elegantly with this black monstrosity on my foot.

My pretty dresses will look lovely on Monday at work with one foot strapped up!
Maybe I need to fight to wear jeans to work everyday?

Happy Birthday

To me