i'm a hero!

Today was my last day in clinicals for this semester and it was a pretty easy, relaxed day. My patient was pretty much able to do everything for himself and I just had to give him his meds and do a physical assessment on him. I was glas I assessed him, though because I caught a complication from the medication that he was on that people hadn't done anything about for three days. It felt pretty cool to be able to help him like that.

And I also talked to my nursing instructor about my comprehensive review yesterday and she thinks that I got 98% on it. The grades still aren't posted, so I'll have to see, but I guess I just overreacted a little bit with all of the doom and gloom and feeling "carpy."

Have a great weekend!

feeling carpy

So I just got done with my comprehensive review for my nursing class and I'm feeling a little "carpy" about it.

Giant Siamese Carp

I don't think I did too badly, but I know that I messed up on one thing and may not get any points for it, which would mean that 1/3 to 1/4 of my points would be a zero. Not so cool. But I guess I will see in a couple of hours how I did when the post our scores online.

mercy cast them out

I am doing a Bible study with some of my friends from a book called Courageous Love: A Bible Study on Holiness for Women by Stacy Mitch. The second chapter is on the dignity of women, and so far it has dwelt mostly in the earliest chapters of Genesis. One of the interesting questions was a reflection on Genesis 3:23-24.

-----The LORD God therefore banished him from the garden of Eden,
-----to till the ground from which he had been taken.
-----When he expelled the man, he settled him east of the garden of Eden;
-----and he stationed the cherubim and the fiery revolving sword,
-----to guard the way to the tree of life.

Genesis 3:23-24

The question after reading those versed asked something to the effect of why did God station the cherubim with the flaming sword the guard the way to the tree of life and what does that say about His mercy?

At first I was a bit taken aback by the question and thought it was implying that God is not merciful but then I thought about it more and realized the beauty behind God's actions.

So man is in the state of sin now because the rejection in the garden. And now we, as human beings, are doomed to live lives of pain and toil, full of sin and death...so God puts an angel with a flaming sword in front of the tree of life so that Adam and Eve will not be able to return to it and live forever. God is not punishing them by this but showing them His mercy. After all, who wants to live forever in this earth when Paradise awaits us in Heaven?

But had they not sinned, the tree of life would have allowed them to live forever in Paradise with God on earth, which was His plan in the beginning.

So God's mercy prevails, even in the seemingly harsh verses of the Old Testament.

Lord, thank You for Your mercy. Thank You for sending us Your Son to redeem us and allow us the enter Paradise with You!

clinical day four

So this past Friday I was back at the hospital for clinicals! It was a very good day. I felt very competent, only asking my teacher a few things throught the whole day! I did feel really slow, though. It took me about an hour to give my client a bath. But I also got to do some things that I'd never done before like give and injection, give a suppository, and empty a bedside commode.

Kinda gross, I know, but nursing is a lot about blood and poo.

The Silver Bullet

But I think that I will like being a nurse very much. It is great being able to help others by doing things that I do not find pleasurable but are necessary for them. I had to also wash her feet and it reminded me of what Jesus did for his disciples and what He calls us to do for others. So PRAISE GOD for blood and poo! And bless everyone who is sick in the hospital!

happy birthday!

So I learned a few days ago that it was the Pope's birthday last Saturday, April 16th! He turned 78! :) Then he became Pope! What a great birthday present for Jesus (both for him and for us)!

So I drew him a picture. (And by "drew," I mean "colored on top of a picture of him.")

So Happy Belated Birthday, Papa!

benedict xvi

Our new pope, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany, has chosen the name Pope Benedict XVI! This is so wonderful! I am very happy that he is ortodox! What a wonderful choice, Holy Spirit!

BREAKING NEWS
MSNBC News Services

"VATICAN CITY - Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany, a hard-line guardian of conservative doctrine, was elected the new pope Tuesday evening in the first conclave of the new millennium. He chose the name Pope Benedict XVI and called himself “a simple, humble worker.”

Ratzinger, the first German pope since the 11th century, emerged onto the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, where he waved to a wildly cheering crowd of tens of thousands and gave his first blessing as pope. Other cardinals clad in their crimson robes came out on other balconies to watch him.

“Dear brothers and sisters, after the great Pope John Paul II, the cardinals have elected me — a simple, humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord,” he said. “I entrust myself to your prayers,” the pope said.

“The fact that the Lord can work and act even with insufficient means consoles me, and above all I entrust myself to your prayers,” the new pope said. “I entrust myself to your prayers.”

The crowd responded by chanting “Benedict! Benedict!”

If the new pope was paying tribute to the last pontiff of that name, it could be interpreted as a bid to soften his image as the Vatican’s doctrinal hard-liner. Benedict XV, who reigned from 1914 to 1922, was a moderate following Pius X, who had implemented a sharp crackdown against doctrinal “modernism.”

On Monday, Ratzinger, who was the powerful dean of the College of Cardinals, used his homily at the Mass dedicated to electing the next pope to warn the faithful about tendencies that he considered dangers to the faith: sects, ideologies like Marxism, liberalism, atheism, agnosticism and relativism — the ideology that there are no absolute truths.

“Having a clear faith, based on the creed of the church, is often labeled today as a fundamentalism,” he said, speaking in Italian. “We are moving towards a dictatorship of relativism, which does not recognize anything as definitive and has as its highest value one’s own ego and one’s own desires.”

Disciplined church dissidents

Ratzinger served John Paul II since 1981 as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In that position, he has disciplined church dissidents and upheld church policy against attempts by liberals for reforms. He turned 78 on Saturday.

The new pope had gone into the conclave with the most buzz among two dozen leading candidates. He had impressed many faithful with his stirring homily at the funeral of John Paul II, who died April 2 at age 84.
Bells ringing from the Vatican earlier confirmed that cardinals had reached a decision and that, along with white smoke from the Sistine Chapel chimney, caused crowds in St. Peter's Square to chant, “Viva il Papa!” or “Long live the pope!”

The square quickly filled up as thousands of people began streaming in as word of the decision spread.
The conclave of 115 cardinals lasted for two days, and no conclave in the past century had lasted more than five days. The election that made John Paul II pope in October 1978 took eight ballots over three days.

'Powerful' moment

“It’s very powerful to be in the place where St. Peter was martyred and to pray to the Lord for a worthy successor,” said Brother Mateo Lethimonier, 30, a monk from Argentina in a light blue robe and sandals who was among those on the square before the decision was announced.

He said he was praying for the cardinals to find “the one who loves Jesus most, the one who represents the church best.”

On Monday evening, black smoke that initially looked light enough to throw even Vatican Radio analysts off-guard poured from the chimney, disappointing a crowd of 40,000 pilgrims anxious for a sign that the cardinals had settled on a successor. That first puff followed the conclave’s initial vote.

“We thought it was white. Then it went black. I had a feeling of exhilaration followed by disappointment,” said Harold Reeves, a 35-year-old theology student from Washington, D.C.

There was similar confusion following a first smoke signal on Tuesday. Even the second signal was confusing at first, looking black and white at times before the decision was confirmed by the bells.

The smoke is part of a church tradition for electing a pope. White means a decision after a round of balloting, black means no clear decision.

Challenges ahead

A quick decision in the first round of voting on Monday would have been a surprise. The cardinals have a staggering range of issues to juggle as they choose the first new pope of the 21st century — fallout from priest sex-abuse scandals, chronic shortages of priests and nuns, as well as calls for sharper activism against poverty and easing the ban on condoms to help combat AIDS.

The next pontiff also must maintain the global ministry of John Paul, who took 104 international trips in his more than 26-year papacy.

“Keep praying for the new pope,” said 82-year-old Cardinal Luis Aponte Martinez of Puerto Rico, who was too old to join the conclave, open only to cardinals under 80 years old.

It was the first time in more than a generation that crowds had stared at the chimney for the famous smoke and word of a new pope. In that time, the church has been pulled in two directions: a spiritual renaissance under John Paul, but battered by scandals and a flock pressing for less rigid teachings."

Yay for the Pope! Yay for ortodoxy! I think it's funny how the media are already complianing.

God bless the world! Enable Your servant to fight for You!

habemus papam!

This image is from EWTN.

Jesus, please bless Your servant with all of the graces that he will need to shepherd Your Church! John Paul II, pray for us! St. Peter, pray for your successor!

new pope!

We have a new pope! I am super excited! They will tell us who it is as soon as he says yes. To read more, you can click here.

White smoke!

sign here please

Do you remember the consecrated host that was sold for $2000 on EBay? Well, there is a petition now that you can (and should) sign to keep the Eucharist from being sold on EBay ever again. It would be put on their list of items prohibited to be sold on EBay.

See the advertisement

SIGN THE PETITION!!!

Please protect our Lord from this ever happening to Him again!

God bless you.

Kat

poor little birds

Today my sister informed me of the horrible news that Puffy Bird and Mrs. Puffy Bird have both died. They lived in the marine biology class at Central Academy (my sister's high school), and we had the pleasure of getting to care for them over the summer. Well, througout the year, whoever was supposed to be taking care of them was not doing a good job, so it was really sad. Then, the class went on a trip to Florida and the girl who should havebeen caring for them didn't give them any food or water for three weeks and so they dehydrated! Poor little things! They were so sweet! It made me think of poor Terry Schiavo who also died of dehydration.

God bless the person who was supposed to take care of these wonderful little animals. May they be much more responsible in the future.

what nightmares are made of

Yeah...this is what I have nightmares about.

probably not dying

So I also wanted to tell you that yesterday I didn't feel like passing out at all when I was at the hospital! It probably helped, though, that the woman I was caring for was not smelly at all.

Praise God!

creepiest thing ever invented

Today I was taking a shower and I looked at the wall above me and saw the creepiest thing that God has ever invented - the American house centipede.

American House Centipede

Ok, friends, let me explain something to you...I am DEATHLY afraid of these things. Seriously. Everytime I see one, I can't help but scream. Not only are they creepy looking, but they also run about a million miles per hour and I'm pretty sure if they got a chance, they would eat me. Yes, devour me until nothing remained but my poor beautiful skeleton. I mean, these things "prey on cockroaches," according to the above website, so that tells you just how deadly these things are.

Usually I run to find a man/parent, but seeing as I was in the shower, I knew that this would be most inappropriate. So, I decided to kill it myself. Luckily for me, the thing fell off of the wall and onto my towel, so I grabbed a box of diaper wipes and started schwacking with all of my might, screaming the whole time. I could hear my mom in the other room going, "Why are you screaming?" So eventually I triumphed and was once again saved from the venemous jaws of the American house centipede (or "silverfish" as I tend to call them).

I felt very proud of myself.

Poor little guy, though. He never even really had a chance.

So of course, I had to tell you all about it, and when I was looking for pictures of centipedes, I came across the below picutre and decided that this was actually the creepiest thing ever invented.

Spidelocapede

Luckily for us, though, it is an altered photograph of a European Cross Spider a Locust and an American House Centipede (or a Spidelocapede as the artist has named it). But can you imagine how horrifying it would be to see one of these flying at you? I would be a gonner for sure. I bet it's even a foot long. Actually, this website is pretty neat...lots of interesting pictures of new animals that are actually three things in one.

So that's my story about centipedes for the day. Please pray for my future children, as I'm sure they will be so afraid of bugs that they will need counseling.

God bless you all!

good day

I had such a good day today! Clinicals went really well. The patient I took care of was super nice and she was younger, so it was really nice having someone being able to understand what I was saying. (Apparently my voice is too high-pitched for hard of hearing old men to understand me.)

Then I got to take a NAP! :) It was pretty nice.

And now (and I mean now in a very immediate sense) I get to go babysit!

Have a lovely day, my friends!

God bless you!

Jesus for sale

This is really upsetting, so if you aren't having a good day, you might not want to read it!

My dad told me at lunch today that someone was selling a host on Ebay that had been consecrated by Pope John Paul II in the 70's or 80's. I am absolutely disgusted! How horrible! The top bid was like $2000 or something. I really hope someone bought it to take proper care of it and to take it off the market. I pray it wasn't someone wanting it for a satanic ritual or something.

Poor Jesus...will Your passion never end?

where's the love?

I just got back from the retreat in Iowa City. I will write more about it later, but it was AWESOME! The Holy Spirit was definately at work in all of the young people there. It was so wonderful to see them go from spread out in the back pews to being pressed up as close as they could get to the front, all hugging and singing together.

It made me think of how sad it is that it is so rare to be shown love these days. People at school seem indifferent to you, people on the streets at best will acknowledge that you're in their way...even friends seem reluctant to hug, hold hands, and cry together unless they know each other super well. So seeing the youth taking others under their wings and just loving them was so beautiful to me! I just sat there watching them and thanking Jesus.

The small groups seemed to go well, too, although I am not sure how mine went, but the youth seemed to enjoy themselves. Hopefully they learned and grew closer to God as well (for isn't that the point).

I have so much more to say but I will save it for a later time as I need to study for my nursing test tomorrow!

God bless you all!

maybe clinicals aren't so bad

So today was an interesting day. I was at the hospital for my second day of clinicals and let me tell you, I just got thrown right in there! But unlike last time, I did not feel horribly inept. I was able to know what to do and only had to ask my teacher about things about 20 times (which is much better than last time when I asked her how to do everything).

And I learned that one good thing about having all nurses as teachers is getting to ask them questions about your own health and getting their professional opinion.

I have been feeling really faint whenever I'm at the hospital and both times I was at clinical I almost passed out/threw up. I felt really weak all day today and felt a lot of pressure in my chest. I tried drinking juice to raise my blood sugar, which had helped the first time, but that only helped for a little bit. My teacher said it could be a few things: dehydration, diabetes (which I'm statistically too old to get type 1 and statisically too thin to get type 2), or anemia. I don't really know what it is, but I've had this problem before, especially in the summer. I think it's probably a combination of the heat, the smell, standing all day, low blood sugar, and dehydration. So I'm going to try to drink lots more water next time and see if it gets better. Otherwise I'm going to make a doctor's appointment to get tested for anemia and diabetes. (I guess having diabetes would be one way to practice injections.) ;)

But now I'm off to help with a retreat up in Iowa City! So pray for me because I'm giving two talks and have been too busy to majorly think about them.

Then on Sunday I am going out with some friends, so I'm excited about that too!

Have a great April day!

God bless you!

major oops!

So today we learned how to insert catheters and care for colostomies and about hydration and stuff. By the end of talking about "voiding," I had to go to the bathroom really badly.

So I went over to the bathrooms, but the women's bathroom is occupied, so I decided to use the unisex bathroom. (Get it? There's no men's bathroom because women's bathrooms are notorious for always having a long line.) Anyways. The bathrooms at my school are single stall bathrooms with a lock on the outside door and then a stall with a lock on the inside of that. The unisex bathroom also has a urinal without a stall. Ok...I'm getting to the point, but all of this is important for you to know.

SO...I walk into the unisex bathroom, which is unlocked, and get some paper towel ready so I don't have to touch the nob after I've washed my hands. Then I go around the corner to where the stall is and there is a MAN in there completely using the urinal and just staring at me.

I was so shocked and embarrassed that I was just like "I'm so sorry!" and left!

How humiliating for both of us!

But really...if you're going to use a urinal WITHOUT a stall in a UNISEX bathroom, please lock the outside door! And if you can't do that, at least say something when you hear someone else coming in! Don't wait 15 seconds or until the other person (who happens to be a WOMAN) has to come around the corner and see you using the restroom!

Ok...that's my story. I'm done now.

not so baywatch

This summer my aunt and uncle who live in Stafford, Virginia invited me to come and stay at their house! I am really excited about it! At first I didn't really want to go, but then I realized that all I ever do during the summer is sit at home. So this will be great!

I want to get a job as a lifeguard somewhere, which is something I've always wanted to do!

First I need to get my lifeguard training from Red Cross, which shouldn't be too hard, providing I can find a class.

Actually, I just checked, and it's a good thing I thought of this when I did, because the classes are starting VERY SOON! Acutally, most of them have already started! I'd better get on this when I get home from school tonight!

Yay!

"the ex"

so i thought i was bad a being a girlfriend.

but evidentally i'm really bad at being an ex-girlfriend.

i wish his peace with this did not make me want to vomit.

i wish i could forget and move on as he has.

i wish my thoughts were not tainted with jealousy.

i wish i could be happy that he is.

-happy for what he's found.

-happy by myself.

i wish i wanted what i know i should.

but do i?

i am very confused.

help me Jesus.

without You, only sorrow can reign.

changes afoot

Today during the Eucharistic prayer at Mass instead of saying

"Lord, remember your Church throughout the world; make us grow in love, together with John Paul our Pope, Joseph our bishop, and all the clergy."

The priest said

"Lord, remember your Church throughout the world; make us grow in love, together Joseph our bishop, and all the clergy."

And then during the part where they usually say

"Remember our brothers and sisters who have gone to their rest in the hope of rising again; bring them and all the departed into the light of your presence."

He said

"Remember especially our dear departed Holy Father, Pope John Paul II and all of our brothers and sisters who have gone to their rest in the hope of rising again; bring them and all the departed into the light of your presence."

It was so weird! I am so used to having a Pope and now he is gone. But, as Ed said, now we have a powerful new intercessor in Heaven who will be able to do much more good now than he's ever been able to do before.

Pope John Paul II, pray for us and for our Church. Jesus, guide the cardinals to elect the Pope who You desire to be Your Vicar. May he be holy and desire only Your will.

threshold of uncertainty

I step reluctantly into the darkness
-----into the terrifying beauty of the swirling
-----------black abyss
-----known only to the Three
Uncertainty consumes my heart
Had I not once been assured of where this path led?
----Yet now here I stand
-------in the threshold of an ebony somber
------------unknown
And ever so silent
-------------------never revealing its long-kept secrets
------I tremble
------------I want to run to the familiar pains
------------------of things since revealed
------of a generosity too great, too soon, too certain
Yet my feet are forced to walk forward
----------further and further
-------------------------------into the night
Why do I fear?
---------Was it not You who created the darkness?
--------------------pronouncing it good
------Have You not promised to guide my steps?
----------------never allowing me to fall
Hide my inhibitions from me
----------------------walk by my side
---Help me to embrace the night
-------I cannot face the unknown without You

Papa

Pope John Paul II in his last days

I was reading an entry on Peniten's blog that was very eloquent, much more so than I could have ever written, about our Holy Father.

To read it (which I highly recommend) click here.