Scrub shopping with Ellie and a cat in my office

 

So until last year, whenever anyone asked Ellie what she wanted to be when she grew up, she would say a marine biologist.  Which I found ridiculous because fish are disgusting.  Last year we were at BYU for some reason.  Can't remember why.  I suggested that we sign up for a campus tour, which we did.  We were driven around campus in go carts by these lovely girls who showed us all the neat stuff to be seen.  they gave us choice between seeing the nursing lab or another campus feature, and I was surprised when Ellie said she wanted to see the nursing lab.  I was completely blown away - it didn't look like that when I was in the nursing program there!  How many millions of dollars spent on simulation labs and equipment....I was very impressed and completely jealous as a nurse educator.  

Since that time, Ellie has changed her mind and is thinking about majoring in nursing.  Which, of course, I am secretly completely thrilled about but manage to rein in my excitement and reply offhandedly "Whatever you feel is best, Sweetie....."

This semester she is taking a CNA class at Southwest Technical College, where I used to teach.  CNA students usually have to do a number of clinical hours as students in long term care facilities, but because of Covid, it doesn't look like they will have an opportunity. I got permission from the nursing director at the nursing facility where my home health patient lives to bring Ellie along on some visits.  (I didn't tell the director that Ellie was my daughter, just that she was a CNA student looking for some clinical hours.  Oops......) 

Yesterday I made a visit to my patient and brought Ellie along in her cute red scrubs.  She was so great.  She asked my patient's wife if she could practice taking her blood pressure and the wife was more than happy to allow her.  My poor patient and his wife are so lonely - they haven't been able to leave their facility in six months and aren't allowed to get visitors either.  I think if the devil arrived at their front door they would welcome him in.  Ellie had a great bedside manner and seemed confident, even though later she said that she was nervous.  I think we have a future nurse on our hands!!!

AND this is Mittens.  Mom made me a braided rug in SUU colors, which I put under my desk at work to keep my feet warm.  Another nursing professor, Shane, came in and said that it looked like it needed a cat on it.  Which offended me.  Last week I got to my office and found a cat sleeping on my rug.  It actually purrs and breathes and comes with a cat carrier and brush.  Several times that day, faculty members and colleagues would come to my door to talk to me and I would catch them staring quizzically at Mittens - and then they wouldn't say anything!  They would just assume that it was a decoration and I have a thing for cats!  I had to take it home and give it to Josh.  It was tarnishing my reputation as a serious faculty member.  Josh loved it.  

Sunday thoughts

So that is me with various kids and mothers in the past few weeks.

We get to go to church today - and we get to go every week from now on!!  Yay!  This is going to be weird, it's been six months since we were at church every week.  Sacrament meeting is at 1:00 and the whole ward goes as long as we keep it under 150 people.  Sunday School, Young Womens, Relief Society, and Priesthood is still held virtually.  No Primary yet.  A couple weeks ago we were at the Tolmans having morning devotional.  We were singing a Primary song and my boys had no clue what the words were.  That made me sad.  I'm not sure how good a job we are doing teaching the gospel to our children.  I am afraid not good enough.  And I know I am an utter failure at teaching them the Primary songs.  I came home and made a playlist of children singing Primary songs to play on Sunday.  Maybe that will help a bit.

Things are going pretty well with work and school.  People ask me how things are with school and I never know if they are talking about my work school or my school school.  I need a word to call my school school because I feel awkward calling it my doctorate program or my PhD program.  Maybe I should just call it school school.   We are going to have start writing a topic of interest statement and I am not sure.  I am pretty sure I want to do something with nursing faculty but I'm  not sure what.  Yesterday I was reading and came up with the idea to do something with the importance of mentors as an individual makes the change from a nurse to a nurse faculty.  That's been pretty important in my own life.  People had a lot of influence on me as I made that transition - for the better and worse.  

Johnny Kelly

Melissa cant remember her last name

Jodi Price

Rachel Madsen

Marijeanne Carter

April Gray

Shane Yardley

Donna Lister

Donna De Silva

SheriDawn Nielsen

Kevin Tipton

Bree Rayburn

That's a nice list.  For better - or for worse, some of them - they have all guided me through this journey.  

 

And so it begins.

 

So you would think that a nurse educator teaching nurse educators would be really careful to create a great course in Canvas.  But I guess not.  I am looking at my two courses I am starting on Monday in my PhD program, and one of them looks a little like a mess.  Plus the syllabus indicates there are a lot of assignments that do not contribute to the final grade but are only graded satisfactory/unsatisfactory.  Not to be one of THOSE students, but does that mean that I don't have to do them?  I don't think I mind being told that I am unsatisfactory, as long as I can still get an A in the course.  

Plus the syllabus says that to pass all courses, you have to get a B!  A B??!!  I thought that SUU Nursing has pretty high standards, and we say that students have to get a C!  What happened to "C's get degrees?"  

I've spend a few hours today doing some of the reading for next week and putting together my first discussion response.  It's a couple pages long, with cited references.  You can't see other students responses until you post your own, which is pretty tricky of the instructor.  I would rather see what all the other students are posting so I can get an idea of what everyone else is doing.  I'm worried that I will do way too much or not enough.  I like to stay in the middle of the pack and let the lions eat the stragglers.  

High School Registration

 

This morning Ellie and I went to register her for her junior year.  How is my little girl already a junior????  I can't think about that.  She is excited because her counselor got her signed up for CNA class first semester.  She had been told last year that she wouldn't be able to take it because she won't be 17 until December.  I got that straightened out by giving her some email addresses of higher-ups at Southwest Tech.  She emailed the nursing director and got permission.  So she is all set. Right now she is thinking that she wants to go into nursing, an idea which I am flagrantly pushing hard.  She would be a great nurse.  

Only two more years with her.  I can't think about that.  But only two more years with her.  I am going to be a basket case when she leaves.  She is so dear and good.  Such a help to me.  The house is going to be so empty when she leaves.  Plus I will be surrounded by males.  Maybe I can go with her to college.  And then to her mission.  That's a good idea!  Plus I think she would really like the companionship!  She won't have to be homesick if her mama goes with her!  Okay, this is a good plan. 

Cousins

 

The Browns came to visit this weekend!  Mikey and Sophie did the Fire Road with Craig yesterday.  I can't believe that Sophie, a 9-year-old, could ride a mountain bike 40 miles up and down the mountains.  While they did that, Tonya and I took the rest of the kids - except for  Ellie, she was working - to the St George Childrens Museum and had lunch in the park.  I like taking the kids to the museum when they have friends or cousins to play with, because it means I can sit on a bench and rest instead of being pulled from room to room.  

Last night Craig and I went out with Tonya and Mikey to Rustys for dinner and then came home and sat on the porch in the fading light.   That was nice.  Until Mom called and said that someone created a fraudulent check from her account and was able to cash it for $5000.00.  She is working with the fraud services from her bank to file a report and try to get her money back.  We are wondering if there is an employee from the retirement place where she lives who is doing this.  A year ago Craig and I sent her a check which she never received.  Someone else got hold of it and changed the amount to $800 and changed the name and was able to cash it.  I hate stuff like that.  Makes you feel like humanity is bad and can't be trusted.  AND WHAT KIND OF PERSON WOULD STEAL FROM A 69 YEAR OLD WOMAN?????

Lichen It

 

This morning Craig left early to go ride the Fire Road, a mountain biking race they have here every summer.  I slept until 7 and then got up and went mountain biking up Lichen It, my favorite mountain biking trail around here.  I made it to the top and back down again, but my butt was sure sore by the time I got home.  I don't know how Craig goes riding for hundreds of miles at a time.  

It was quiet and peaceful and nice to ride along with nothing but my thoughts.  I was talking to Janessa a couple weeks ago about how I'm starting this PhD program, working my full-time SUU teaching job, and a part time Applegate home health job all at once.  She said something that got me thinking - "You're going to need some serious hours on the bike."  

Whenever I get busy, it seems like exercise is the first to go, followed by gospel study, then sleep.  I don't want that to happen.  I hope that I can find a balance and fit important things into a busy schedule.   Ellie is a good example to me.  She likes to be busy, and juggles a lot of responsibilities, but always remembers to do what's important.  

New Journey

 I think that this new journey might be worth documenting.  I'm about to embark on it and I'm not sure I'll ever get to the end.  If I do, I will be Dr. Suzie Campbell.  The name isn't the reason I'm doing it, but it's perhaps the biggest sign that something about me is different.  I hope to be different at the end.  I can't say exactly how.  Smarter?  Better at teaching?  Not sure.  

I start in a week and a half.  I've ordered my books and they are arriving in the mail.  I open them up and flip through them and they are full of words that I don't know.  Today one came and it had a chapter on Boolean logic.  Boolean?  What kind of word is that?  I get intimidated and I close them and put them on my desk.  They are all lined up and I try not to glance at them as I walk into the kitchen.  Better to put it off as long as possible.  

I got a birthday present for Shane and it came in the mail today.  It's a motivational poster.  He likes to post motivational crap on social media.  It's a picture of a goldfish swimming in a fishbowl, staring out at a mountain lake.  It has the word DISCOURAGEMENT printed in big letters and then under it in little letters it reads "Because nothing is stopping you from your goals except a total lack of talent and a complete failure of will."  I think it's hilarious.  When it came in the mail, the company - they call themselves Despair Inc - sent me an extra poster for free.  It has a picture of a kayaker going off a waterfall with the words BELIEVE IN YOURSELF and then under it "Because the rest of us think you're an idiot."  

I am hoping that these posters do not embody this new journey.