School - Tests and Boards

Hi everyone,

You're probably wondering what am I talking about?

My sister Cheryl, has gone back to school to get her nursing degree. First she completed the LPN portion of her education. (Cheryl, I hope you don't mind me bragging about you) She had graduated from her LPN class with a 3.95 GPA, and has just passed her LPN boards. Now she is going to get her RN degree. In another 18 months we'll have another RN in the family.

Many of you know that I have gone back to school to get my BSN in online RN - BSN program at Jacksonville University - and am currently taking my first nursing class. Last weekend we had a 8 essay question test that took the full 3 hrs allotted. Glad that's over! Today I got my score and was glad to see I got 100%. I really happy that my hard work has payed off. Now it's time to start working on my Philosophy of Nursing Paper which is due a week from Sunday.

Thanks for letting me share my joy with you.

Lorraine

Ice Boating on Lake Pymatuning

Yesterday, Phil learned from the iceboating club he belongs to that there was 7" of ice on Lake Pymatuning. They were expecting 10 - 17 knots of wind - and as I was mostly caught up on my school work except for my essay test, I decided to go with him. Phil was kind enough to buy me a DN (Detroit News) iceboat from a friend of a friend. It was to be 40F and why not give it another try. Usually you're iceboating when it's 10F outside. You can see that my boat is painted pink magenta and almost a turquoise blue color. - Hey! Isn't pink for girls?? Do you like my sexy pose? hah. We were happy that we had all the parts to put it together as this boat is about 50 years old and Ben a fellow ice boater was kind enough to lend us a main sheet. Notice the sail number - 1020. The sails for DN's now number over 6000. I guess I have a classic.

Well, I was lucky enough to have a 2-3 min ride. But most of the time was spent pushing the boat, jumping inside, hitting my shins and waiting for the boat to stop moving, getting out and trying all over again.. The ice was a little soft on top - and when I jumped on, it sank about 1" into the ice. Well, I sure did get get exercise - as my thighs are telling me today. Oh and did I tell about how many times I hit my shin on the runner plank? Here is a link to a news report on iceboating and Phil said that I was pretty similar to this guy.

Phil and I had lunch at the Lil Bit Restaurant in Epsyville, PA just across the causeway. We had great beef noodle soup and Phil had a pizza burger - for about $10. Then we went back to the ice boat and decided to pack it in. We were lucky, Neal and Dix went down to the dam and Neal had to push his boat back about one mile, as the wind had died. Dix was smart to have slush runners

Today we went to Shade Tree Sports in Middlefield, and bought a red helmet (have to match Changes, right?) with a clear shield as even though it was in the upper 40's today and raining, it's expect starting Tuesday to be below freezing and if we don't get too much snow this week, Lake Pymatuning should be great for ice next Saturday. Phil was given some more pictures taken by Dix which you can see on elklakeiceboating.com under January 24, 2010 on the home page.

All I can say is it's a good thing that when I went iceboating the first time more than 5 years ago on Buckeye Lake, that I really had a good time, because it turned out to be not a good time by the end of the day. But it was sunny outside, and we were able to enjoy the sun and being together.

Done with Nursing Roles Essay Test

What a relief!!! Ugh! Done with the 8 question essay test. We had 3 hours to take the test, and I was pushing the "done" button with 25 sec left and counting. I don't know how long it will take to get the results, but I'm thinking in a week. We needed to do a role that would required me to have a BSN in order to do it. - so I picked a NP with Palliative Care focus. I appreciate very much the NP's that let me interview them. One from University Hospitals and the other from Hospice of the Western Reserve. It would have been much harder without the resources I have available.

Now Phil and I are going to Middlefield to have me try on snowmobile helmets so that if the ice is right, we can try ice boating again next weekend. Right now, I need to get up and stretch and walk about to get rid of the stiffness - boy it's tough to get older - notice that I didn't say old? Sitting 3 hours the day after pushing an ice boat around is a recipe for being stiff.

Lorraine

Update house and school

Hi, Since we weren't able to go sailing this fall, I'll start updating on what we are doing currently. I've started back to school - taking an online RN-BSN program at Jacksonville University in - you guessed it - Jacksonville, FL. I had registered for 2 online nursing classes - but decided after spazzing last Tuesday, to drop the Nursing Assessment class - lets me get use to taking an Online Course. So now Phil is cooking supper during the weekdays which enables me to get to studying most evenings by 630pm. He calls me with questions during the afternoon- and then cooks the food. It's good and I appreciate his support very much. I took the first 2 exams (10 pts each) and averaged 85%. Ok to start. So I have 2 more exams this week and next week the big Nurses Role exam. I'm focusing on the NP (Nurse Practitioner) role, since that's what I want to do. I'm lucky that I have some NP's I interact with at work an have scheduled a meeting with one on Friday to interview her. Also due in the course is my Philosophy of Professional Nursing paper and a teaching plan.

We had an open house on Sunday - and were happy that 3 groups of people came. It seems that it's not right for them, but there is another couple that's waiting for the bank to give them a loan, and so I'm hopeful that will work out. We were lucky that it didn't snow and everyone was able to get up the driveway. :) The hits of people viewing our house went up on the web site has increased since the start of 2010, so that's good too.

Phil started building a J-14 ice boat this past fall. So when I am studying in the evenings, he is working on his ice boat. It is so cold here that he has started bringing few parts in the house so the epoxy can harden. Also seems that he needs to paint some parts - so will check out doing it in the attic. My theory is that warm air rises, and if he paints on the 3rd floor, that the fumes won't have to rise through the whole house, so I'm hoping that will keep the air quality good. That's my theory and I'm sticking to it.

Let me know if you want to see any pictures of the ice boat. He takes many to document his progress and also to let other ice boat makers see his progress.

I hope everyone is staying warm. Until next time.