Thursday, April 28, 2011

Easter Weekend

We headed up to Aus' parents house at Smith Mountain Lake for Easter weekend for some R&R. We had a fun and relaxing weekend and some decent weather too.  Saturday was nice and of course Sunday, the day we had to go home, was gorgeous.  We spent Saturday hanging on the dock, riding on the boat and eating our hearts out! Austin's mom always has the best food for us and this weekend was no exception.  Our Easter brunch was especially wonderful with a spiral ham, deviled eggs, cheese grits, tortellini salad (my fav) and cottage cheese. mmmm! Oh, oh, oh and Saturday night our dinner was amazing - we had a Greek meatloaf that had a feta/tzatziki type sauce on top. Sooooo good! I will post the recipe soon, it is definitely worth trying!

We drove into Danville Saturday afternoon and saw Aus sweet Grandmother at the Stratford House. All is well in her world and I hope we get back to see her soon.  I took a few pics this weekend, most of which didn't turn out too well...



Swim little doggie, swim!









a few of the yummy beers Leila brought. We started with these around 2pm...we were all in bed by 10. :)

See ya SICU

This is it!  My last night in the SICU (Surgical-Trauma Intensive Care Unit).  I've been here for 3 and a half years now and this was my first 'real' job.  It is bittersweet leaving - but mostly sweet.  On to bigger and better things, right?  I will miss the peeps I work with but I'm excited to meet new friends.  My best friends in our unit left a few months ago to go back to school so now that they're gone leaving isn't nearly as hard. (love you Kris and Court)  I've learned so much here and I'm so grateful for having the opportunity to start my nursing career here, in such a prestigious hospital and unit. 

WakeMed will be so so much different. The biggest differences - its not a teaching hospital and it's private.  No more residents, interns, fellows and med students, oh my!  No more rounds, no more hour long A-line insertions, no more "doctors" asking me what to do (well, maybe that won't change).  I will miss it all.  I have hospital orientation next week Monday-Friday 8-5. Then the following week I'll start my nursing orientation for FOUR shifts.  I'll only work beside another nurse for four shifts and then I'm totally on my own.  Since I'm coming into a casual position they pretty much expect me to hit the ground running.  I got this!  I am a bit anxious working in the cardiac units especially since WakeMed is a huge heart center.  I'll just ask tons of questions and I'll get it - I'm hoping!  After all, critical care is critical care. 

They had a little party for me on my last night. It was all sooo delicious: chicken salad croissants, Mexican dip, pork fried rice, mac and cheese, queso sausage dip, brownies, apple pie, doughnuts, buffalo chicken dip, shrimp pasta, potato wedges, chips and dips! I am sooo stuffed! Bad diet day- check!

Sayonara, Duke! I'm thinking I may shed a few tears as I'm leaving tomorrow...you've been good to me.