Series of emails with my funny students

 

Wall of Hands

 

This is my Wall of Hands in my office.  A hand for every student I have taught.  Not my high school students from back when I was at Preston and Westside High Schools, but all the students at Southwest Tech and SUU.  At first I was just doing colors, one color for each semester.  Last semester, though, I let them do their handprint the way that they wanted, and some of them are really creative and beautiful.  I like it.  I like to look at it and remember past students.  It's kind of eye catching too, a lot of people who come into my office remark on it.  Students who come in like to look for their handprint.  I guess it's kind of kindergartenish, but so am I.  

Day of Rest

 Sunday.  Day of Rest.  Ha.  Okay, I did get to sleep in.  That was nice.  Last night Ellie and I went to Tuacahn to see Brian Regan and we didn't get home until 10:30.  I slept in until past 8, I can't remember the last time I did that.  That felt good.

But the rest of the day, oh my laws.  I tried to log onto the Relief Society zoom meeting but the link wouldn't work so I couldn't do that.  Not my fault.  Then I went to a young women leadership meeting.  Then I went to sacrament meeting.  Then I went to Young Womens at the Browns house next door.  Then I came home and made dinner.  Then I did the dishes (Craig: Why are you doing the dishes?  Me: Because my friend is coming over to help me chart an admit and I want to do it at the table.  Craig:  Oh.)  Now I am typing this blog post and waiting for Mandy to come over and help me finish charting the home health admit I did yesterday.  Then I need to send an email to all the parents of the young women.  Then I want to write in my journal and read some of General Conference because I slept in this morning and skipped my scripture study.  

Actually, I feel like I am doing pretty good.  I have a paper due this Thursday but I've started it.  I have a 15 page paper due in six weeks that I am putting off because it doesn't interest me.  If I would just work on it a couple pages a week it would go much better. That is my usual MO of doing it but it's such a boring paper that I just put it off.  The whole class has been boring.  The Philosophical Underpinnings of Nursing.  Snore.  I have no interest in philosophy.  I keep thinking that these philosophers just needed the gospel and then all their problems would be solved.  

Here is a picture of Ellie while she was on a hike with Craig this week.  

Cross Country

 

When Ellie was in sixth grade, I told her that I thought she should do cross country.  I have never been all that good at running but I've always wished that I were.  Plus I think that being involved in team sports is a good way to find a tribe and fit in while you are in middle school and high school.  She, being the dutiful daughter that she is, joined the middle school team.  Those first weeks she would come home and fall asleep for hours.  She was constantly wore out.  She said that she was always the last one and could barely finish the practice run.

But then she started to get better.  She never missed practice.  Never.  She went to all the meets.  She tried and tried and tried and got better and better.  Soon she was running distances that I never dreamed that she would be able to.

Then we moved to Cedar.  One of the first things we asked about at the high school was the cross country team.  It was summer and they were in their pre-season practice routine.  The secretaries at the high school enthusiastically told me that the coach of the girls team was a retired physician who had coached for years and years and was just the best person in the world.  

Ellie was a little nervous to start going to practices.  She didn't know anyone and we had just barely moved.   Craig's cousin Mike Carpenter had a daughter who had just graduated from high school and who had ran on the team.  She offered to go with Ellie to the first couple practices.  

Pretty soon Ellie was bringing friends home from practice.  She made so many friends, really nice friends, through cross country.  She got to be good friends with Rever and Collin in the ward and it helped that they all did cross country together.

She had her regional meet yesterday at Canyon View High School here in Cedar.  She ran her heart out - and barely missed making it to state finals.  She was so disappointed and fell on the ground and cried and cried.  

I wish she could see what I see - all the wonderful things that cross country has brought into her life.  The persistence and determination.  The friends and parties.  The health and vigor.  The ability to push past pain.  

Heather texted and suggested that I take her shopping to get her mind off it.  I headed home from taking Josh to his friends house with the determination to do just that, but Rever was at our house and ended staying the whole afternoon and evening - which I'm sure was better than a shopping trip anyway.

I sure love my girl.  I'm so proud of her.  Someday I'm going to be like her.  

Tired

 Hello.  Tired.  I am tired.  I taught for four hours this morning, from 8 until 12 in Pharmacology.  Then I came home and ate a PBJ and lemon yogurt for lunch.  Then I went back and taught Community Health from 1 until 5.  Then I sped over to Josh's friends house to pick him up.  Then I sped home to try to make my 5:00 meeting with my professor and PhD cohort.  I missed the first 15 minutes because I couldn't get the audio on my phone to work and then when I got home, my laptop kept freezing.  It was driving me insane.  Now I am done.  Except I am waiting for Mandy, the other Applegate nurse, to text and see if she wants me to come over and learn how to chart an admit.  If I have to do that, it's going to take another couple hours.  I am tired.  

I'm working on the literature search for my topic.  I'm thinking that I am going to study the characteristics of effective mentors which help nurses transition to nurse faculty members.  I would type some more about it but I am tired.  

I will post a picture of Ellie sleeping during conference.  She gets tired sometimes too.

  

Boolean Logic

I learned what Boolean Logic is!  When my nursing textbooks first came, I opened one up and read something about "Boolean Logic".  That was enough for me and I slammed the text shut, completely intimidated.  

Such a weird word to explain a simple concept.  Boolean logic is the way to put terms together in a search by using AND, OR, and NOT.  If I am looking for articles in a database and I want the articles to be about nursing faculty and mentoring, I might search nurs* faculty AND mentor* - which will bring me articles about nursing faculty/nurse faculty and mentor/mentors/mentoring.  Or all of the above.  The AND is a Boolean operator.  It creates a more precise search.  

Fun fact: the word Boolean comes from George Boole, who is considered one of the founders of the field of computer science.  Except he is from the 1800s and I don't know what kind of computers they had in the 1800s.  I thought they were limited to a slide rule.  Or an abacus.  I texted Brigham and he had never heard of him.  Brigham asked if he invented Boolean algebra.  Never heard of it.    

My topic of interest

Okay so for right now, I have chose my dissertation topic. This does not mean that I won't change my mind in the future, but for right now, here it is: 

 I am interested in researching what the characteristics are of an effective mentor in assisting an individual transitioning from a nurse to a nursing faculty member.  I am personally interested in this due to my own start as a nursing faculty member.  I had trusted mentors to assist me in the difficult conversion, which was more challenging than I had supposed.  This topic is also of interest to the nursing education community due to the current shortage of needed nursing faculty.   

And for your enjoyment, here is a picture of Josh who has captured and impaled three dead fish and is using them to terrorize his family members.