Robyn the RN

So I will catch up on all that has happened in our busy lives later, but right now I must share the most exciting news of the day. . . . . .


I PASSED THE NCLEX!!!!

I am an official Registered Nurse by the state of Oregon! Woo hoo!

Now on to the job hunt. . .

Dear Nursing School. . .

We've had a long run. A really long run in fact. Actually, I have been with you longer than I have been with my husband. You dragged me out of bed before the sunrise for clinicals. You kept me up late writing care plans.

We had our good times. Our first successful IV start. Placing NG tubes. Witnessing the miracle of birth. Wonderful friends. Watching surgeries. That whole being proposed to during clinicals situation.

But we also had our bad times. Exams. Suppositories. Afterbirth. Suppositories. Horny old men. Suppositories. And rectal tubes.

Oh nursing school, I have learned so much during my time with you. But you see, today I am done with you. Today my last assignment is due, and I have my last lecture. My nursing finals are all complete. It's time for me to move on in my life. And graduate next week. And take the NCLEX. And find a big girl job. And never wear white scrub tops ever again.
You were good to me. And I was pretty good with you (can you say Magna Cum Laude?!). We had our happy times and our sad times. Thank you for the wonderful times together.

Love,
Robyn, soon to be RN, BSN

Good Thing I Like Sour Lemonade

You know the saying. . . when life gives you lemons you're supposed to make lemonade. So here are the lemons we've experienced in the past week (really the past 4 days) and how we're turning them into lemonade.

Lemon #1 - The dishwasher
The handle broke. Not that big of a deal, but it is the handle that closes the dishwasher and thus makes it able to run. Tyler was able to fiddle with it, but basically our dishwasher looks ghetto and is falling apart. But we're not in the mood to fork out $500 for a new one. So we will hand wash our dishes and try to get the washer to work in the meantime.

Lemonade = Tyler took off the control panel and it we now can at least open and close the dishwasher. And we ran it, so it still works! If only someone would unload it for us. . .

Lemon #2 - The internet
It dies at 5 pm Friday night. We call comcast and they try to do their own stuff to it and discover that the problem is on our end with the cables or something. Basically, we'll need a repairman to come over to look at things. And when can he come? Oh yeah, Monday. The day after General Conference weekend. When I need the internet to watch 8 hours of prophetic counsel. Seriously Satan? You do have perfect timing.

Lemonade = My husband is a computer nerd genius. He was able to tinker with the internet and discovered what was broken and replaced the broken part for $13. Much better than paying for Comcast to come out. And I watched all 8 hours of conference. Loved Elder Scott's talk!

Lemon #3 - The accident
Yep, it was bound to happen. The first car accident in our marriage. And I'm the one who screwed up. Basically, I have guilt eating away at me for the $500 deductible we have to pay to get our Prius fixed. Yeah, we could have a new dishwasher for that price! The forms, chaos, inconvenience and stress make this one a particularly sour lemon.

Lemonade = insurance. Thank goodness for insurance! And for having another car so we don't have to pay for a rental car in the meantime! A true blessing for us right now. Inconvenient? Yes. More quality time car pooling together? Absolutely :)

Yes to the Dress

Today I purchased my graduation dress. It was actually a spur of the moment decision and I may return it if in the next week I do not like it. As a woman I am entitled to do such things.

I left the store thinking that this is a "Michelle Obama" dress (and that's not just because the model is black; I did not see the model until just now when I looked up a picture of the dress online). Classy, fun, and able to show off her ridiculously toned arms (*note: I do NOT have Michelle Obama arms, only a Michelle Obama dress. Never in my life will I likely ever achieve Obama arms. . . Obamarms?).

Tyler did not understand what a "Michelle Obama" dress meant and I had to inform him how she is the most stylish First Lady since Jackie O. Anyway, opinions please friends. Yes to the belt? White or black to cover my arms (you know, since I don't have Obamarms)?

March Madness

March Madness has always been the bane of my existence. No, I'm not one of those crazy people who insists on watching every single game. It is such people that cause me to dread March Madness.

And I happened to marry one of those people.

This year I decided to be more proactive about March Madness and filled out my own bracket, you know, amuse the hub a little bit. I spent all of 10 minutes writing names in based a little on numbers and more on how cool the name sounded/how cool the state is. Turns out however, that I'm doing fairly decent compared to the rest of the Smith family, despite my halfhearted selections. And now I realize that March Madness isn't about basketball at all.

It's about trash talking.

And let me tell you, I can be pretty good at that. Maybe this is something I can get into after all. . .

Oregon Museum of Science and Industry

Last weekend Tyler and I decided that we are lame because we still hadn't been to OMSI, Portland's super awesome science museum. So we finally went, and let me tell you it didn't disappoint! We had a blast once we got over the awkwardness we felt being twenty-somethings there instead of elementary school kids. We toured the submarine first:
That was pretty fun and surprisingly not as claustrophobia inducing as I would have imagined. Next we went into the Egypt exhibit which unfortunately did not allow cameras. So no pictures, but I did see a real mummy! It was so cool to actually see one before my eyes instead of just in textbooks. I felt like Temperance Brennan in the exhibit, trying to decipher what happened to this ancient body.

I also felt at home in the life sciences exhibit which went into detail about the human body and all the cool things it does. They had a giant ear bigger than me that shows how sound waves travel through the ear and to the brain. My camera died at this point, so no pictures either at this point.

Anyway, to all Portlanders who haven't yet been to OMSI, go! We will definitely be returning again.

Improvement #1

Thanks to everyone's fabulous advice, I'm now getting ideas to tackle the lameness that is my living room. I started off by getting rid of the La-Z Boy recliner and moving it upstairs into the office. I wasn't sure how I'd like it, but I think that it definitely opens the room up a bit and helps to not make it feel cramped. Unfortunately, now I have issues with the office that I fear is taking priority over the living room, and I am once again struck with severe decorator's block. How does one exactly decorate an office when there are stacks of paper crap everywhere? It's the one room I don't even try to organize anymore because I get overwhelmed with all that I need to do in there.

But that's beside the point.

Today we put in horizontal blinds to get rid of the awful vertical ones!
The small random corner window still has verticals but that's because they were out of the small size, so we'll have to wait to install those until later. Doesn't it look a million times better!? Up next, curtains!