Summertime!

At the Harpoon Brewery

WOW! I just realized I haven't posted anything in almost 2 months!! It's definitely time for some updates:

VISITORS - 2 of our groomsmen, Ed & Eddie, visited us for a week in August. Unfortunately I had to work almost every day, but Brian was able to go out exploring and touring with them. On my day off, we drove down to Newport, RI to see the Newport Mansions there, which were quite amazing. Here is a little slide show of their visit:

Then, the weekend after the guys left, our good friend Joe stopped by to visit. He was on his way to Bermuda for work, so he stopped here for the night and met us for dinner. We went to the North End for some amazing Italian food. :)

OUT & ABOUT: We went to the Harpoon Brewery with some friends a few weekends ago. That was my first brewery experience (Brian has been to the Sam Adams brewery twice now) - neither of us are big beer people, but it was still fun to sample and learn about/see the process. My favorite was probably the raspberry beer or cider, but they also had pumpkin and several other beers.

After the brewery we went to watch a cliff diving competition that was being held in the harbor. They were jumping off of a high building (the Institute of Contemporary Art) and landing in the harbor. It was very impressive! Here are a few pics from that event:

WORK - things are going very well at the VA and it is looking like they are going to be hiring us all (new grads) on full time! That's wonderful!! I have been working independently for about 2 months now and it has been such a wonderful, challenging experience. I am still working my per diem mental health jobs whenever possible, but that isn't too often. I usually work 5 8-hour (evening) shifts a week at the VA, which keeps me busy enough.

SCHOOL - Brian took German this summer - he has to learn how to read German and French (the latter will be next summer's course). He is anxiously awaiting for the semester to start after Labor day...such a good student. I love that he loves school/learning so much. :)

1 month left!

Wow - I can hardly believe that one month from today I will be getting married! Brian and I couldn't even be more excited, although I am feeling the stress now. I haven't had much time to breathe since school has been out. I have been working my 2 part time jobs a lot while working on wedding stuff, writing thank you cards, and starting to pack. Busy busy as usual!!

Bridal Shower Pictures

Wow! Only 50 more days to go till the wedding!!! I soooo can't even wait!!! In less than a week I will be officially done with school forever! (unless I am crazy enough to go back later on, which would not surprise me). And Brian graduates this SUNDAY! Very exciting!!!

Here are some pictures from my bridal shower that was at Pam's house on April 24. It was such a beautiful shower!!!

(PS - let me know if you want the original of any picture(s) -
I will happily email them to you). :)

Nursing Honors Society Induction

On Saturday, I (along with many of my classmates) was inducted into the Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honors Society! Very exciting!! I got the nice purple and white cord that I will wear at graduation in a few weeks.

It was so great seeing many of my friends from nursing school, several of which I haven't seen in a long time so it was a mini reunion! So much fun. :)

Several of my nursing buddies

(minus the girl on the far right - we have no idea who she is)

Another group shot

The ceremony was at the Nixon Library right down the street from me and my guest was my lovely mother! (Brian was speaking at a conference for LMU that same afternoon). After the ceremony, we were able to tour the grounds, so my mom and I walked around a bit. Here are some more photos:

My mom and me outside in the garden

The house where Richard Nixon was born

The bed where Nixon was born

The bathtub!!

The view of the garden - beautiful!!

My weekend

I had to work night shift on Sat night - how horrible is that?! You basically lose your entire weekend due to sleep! I feel like I wouldn't mind it so much if that (work) was my life, but when I have a bunch of other things going on, it is really hard to lose my weekends. Anyway, one nice thing that came from working was that I was able to watch the sunrise on Sunday! I was in my patients room and saw the sun rise behind the fog, creating a pinkish purple sky. It was lovely!! I was really excited, but I don't think my patient was as excited as I was. Lol.

Also on Saturday was a baby shower I hosted for Julie, my close friend from nursing school. Here are a couple pics:

Julie & Me

Della, Julie, Stephanie & Me

The weather was amazing this past weekend - it was just too bad that I had to sleep through most of it! I was driving to the hospital and looking at all the people out walking and I was wishing I was doing the same. Oh well. Anyway, that was pretty much my weekend! I hope you had a great weekend though!!

Manuscript

I found out today that my manuscript will need (major) revisions before being completely accepted, so I will be getting back to work on it now. I just had to share the news with you and will update you once things are finalized.

Work last night

Yesterday was a weird day for me, trying to figure out when to go to church, when to sleep, what to eat, etc all in preparation for my night shift that night. I ended up going to church at my usual time, 5 pm, and then just headed straight over to St. Jude's. I was not really looking forward to working last night, but I really want the experience so I went. It was a good night and I did almost all the charting on all 4 of our patients, so that was good. Around 3 am or so, I was getting REALLY tired and couldn't think of anything else but my bed. I just wanted to be home sleeping! Anyway, the night was pretty uneventful except for right before my shift ended.

I gave report to the day shift nurse and then saw one of my patient's was calling in on the call light. I answered it since no one else was and it was the nursing assistant asking for the nurse. I let the day nurse know and next thing I know it the Medical Emergency Team is being paged on the overhead for this patient! This was my first experience with anything like this, so I immediately ran over to the room (along with almost all the other staff on the unit). My heart was pounding. It was of course a learning experience - one of the nurses was walking me through everything, letting me know what goes on and what I would do as the nurse. It was very helpful. I am thankful that I was able to stand back and watch before actually having to be the nurse during it all.

So, looking back, I am very glad that I went in last night; although I could hardly fall asleep by the time I got home because I was so full of adrenaline!

Back to School

Well, last Monday was the beginning of another semester at CSUF. Excitingly, this is the LAST ONE!!! YAY! I can't even believe it (but at the same time, I can). My time off went by so quickly that I am still not ready for school to start (even a week after it already has). I am majorly procrastinating on doing anything for school...that's definitely not a good start. Some brief updates:

• I am still working 1 night shift a week in 5N at St. Jude's this semester with the same preceptor, Kelly.
• I will be at St. Jude shadowing another nurse during the day once a week (while also working on a leadership project). As of right now, I will be with the manager of perinatal! That's pretty exciting!! I'll keep you posted about that.
• I still haven't heard if my manuscript has been accepted or not for the journal we submitted it to (the 2nd submission, since the 1st one was turned down). So, in the meantime, I decided to help my thesis advisor, Dr. Rutledge, with her new study on Fibromyalgia and falls. I am working with another student, Alex, and last week we started recruiting participants. I have keys to an office on campus where I will put in approx 10 hrs a week. If the grant goes through, I will be paid for my time, so I am really hoping for that little extra money!! I know it just started, but it has been really fun! It is very similar to what I did in my undergrad internship at CSULB and there is a lot of stuff similar to what I did at SAYM.

I think that's all the school updates for now. It is going to be a really crazy semester with wedding stuff on top, but I know I will make it through. :) I just might be hibernating for most of the weeks, as usual...

Re: Manuscript Submitted!

Well, I found out last night that Women's Health Issues Journal will not even review my manuscript. Dr. Rutledge said that she has never heard or experienced this. She has had manuscripts need revisions in order to be accepted, but apparently they wouldn't even review our, perhaps due to the type of study we did. So, now we are looking at other journals to submit to and then revise the manuscript as needed. I will keep you updated!

Manuscript Submitted!

I just got home from meeting with my teacher, Dr. Rutledge. Today we submitted my/our manuscript to Women's Health Issues Journal and so now we wait to see whether it is approved or not or if it needs revising. I am guessing it will be a few months, especially with the holidays, but I will be keeping you posted. It's so very exciting to have this done!

So, the question is: Do I want my current name or my soon-to-be married name on the article? It would be nice to have something under the Kengen name, but it would also be nice to have Traska in case I publish in the future (then everything will be under the same name). Any suggestions? :)

Oh by the way, in case you don't know what my manuscript is on - I worked with some faculty at CSUF on a qualitative descriptive study on Fibromyalgia symptom management. We conducted an interview with 8 women with FM and they shared the various ways that they cope with their condition. It was very interesting and I learned a lot!!

Graduation Countdown

Now that we know when graduation day is, I had to add another countdown because this is definitely a huge event. Brian will be graduating on May 9 (Mother's Day) with his Master's in Theology and I graduate on May 23. SOOOO Exciting! :)


MySpace-Countdowns

Update

Wow! I cannot even believe it is November already! Where has the time gone? I am sorry it has been so long since my last post, but here is an update for you:

• School is good - things have calmed down a little, but it is still keeping me busy. I registered yesterday for my last semester!! I can't even believe I only have one more to go! Sooooo exciting! I am really glad that I stayed full time in our program - out of the 65 students who started with me in August of 2007, only about 15 are due to graduate in May!! Crazy! A lot of people started working in January and some are still taking classes part time. I just know it is going to be one heck of a celebration when this is all over in May (hoping I pass all my classes, of course). :) Oh, and my externship is going great! I really love my nurse, Kelly, and I am learning so much! I feel this is such a great transition for me and it is really helping to prepare me for when I get my first official RN job. I am getting used to the nights as much as possible, although some weeks I get very little sleep (mostly from all the assignments and other things going on) - that plus the constant stress do seem to be taking a toll on my body sometimes.
  
• Brian is also due to graduate with his master's from LMU in May and right now he is working on his applications for PhD programs. As many of you probably know, he is looking at schools in Chicago, Boston, New York, ...and other East Coast schools. So, we are preparing ourselves to move around August of next year, but we won't really know until probably March or so. He is applying to very competitive schools, so we will see where he gets accepted and who has the best offers. I am getting excited about moving - some days I wish I was moving now!! I need a break from OC I think...
  
• As for wedding planning, we have most of the big stuff done. We decided on a caterer at the end of September and we are excited about who we went with. We also finally met with our florist and are still deciding on bridesmaid dresses. We feel really good about everything and where we are at now. :) Oh, and the honeymoon is pretty much booked - flights, hotels, etc. We are flying into Barcelona, then going to Lourdes, France, and then to Italy! We are SO excited!!
• As for my family, everyone is doing really well. October events:
  --We celebrated my mom's birthday by having a picnic at Irvine park. We had sandwiches, played games, went to the zoo, and had a potato sack race. It was a lot of fun - brought back some childhood memories!
  --My sister and her family moved into a condo right around the corner from her old apartment and it is really cute. By the time I went to check it out (about 2 weeks later), it looked as though they had been living there for months...or even years! They (Luis) had painted the entire house (many different colors) and everything was in place. I was impressed!! Here is a pic of me and my sis:
  --My dad's birthday is on Halloween, but we celebrated a week early at my sister's new place. We had dinner (Luis' yummy enchiladas) and played some Wii together, which was fun!!
• Over summer, I signed up for a little side job - it was mostly in case my externship didn't work out, but I decided to try and do it even with my current school load (of 16 grad units!). I am doing obesity assessments in kids. I work with registered dieticians and we go to preschools, elementary, middle and high schools to assess kids for obesity. We measure height, weight, blood pressure, waist circumference, and sometimes there is a doctor there to do physical assessments. The doctor may decide they need a referral to their primary care physician or they will be referred if they are overweight or have a high BMI. I wasn't scheduled much for September and October, but I really enjoyed the experience doing it! I never went to a high school - I think the oldest class I did was 6th grade - most of the kids I assessed were preschoolers. This program is through St. Joseph's and during Nov-Dec, the RDs go and teach the kids about healthy foods and habits and then we go back in Jan-Feb to assess the kids again. Then the next couple months I think they do kickboxing or some fun activity and then in May-June we go and do our final assessments. I just got my first paycheck yesterday, which was so exciting. Although it wasn't much (especially since taxes weren't taken out and they don't pay for gas), I still am happy to have a little job...something I can add to my resume!
• Since I am not busy enough (haha!!!), I am a volunteer for the Orange County Medical Reserve Corps and I have been signing up to give flu shots/nasal sprays (seasonal and H1N1) at schools and clinics...but I haven't done any yet, since the shipments haven't come in. But this Saturday I will be giving them. More experience!
• In addition, I have been taking any other side jobs that I can. I have had the opportunity to watch an elderly woman and help prepare her meals. She is so sweet! It is nice because I am able to get some schoolwork done when I am there too. I am still babysitting whenever I can and of course housesitting as much as possible. These little jobs help me pay my tuition (which went up a lot recently) :( , so I am thankful to still be able to do these!

I know this was a long update...and long overdue, but I am glad that I finally had time to post something. I hope you are all doing well!

Re: 1st Night Shift

Well, I think I have finally recovered from my 1st night shift, but it did take a few days. I wanted to let you know that it went very well and I had a great experience - this whole externship will be a wonderful experience! I really like my preceptor, Kelly; she is really nice and always willing to teach. I told her at the beginning of my shift that I wanted to just observe to just get the feel for things again, but before I knew it, I was giving meds, charting, taking vital signs, etc. So, I think my instinct just took over and I jumped right in, which was good and I am glad I did! Being there and doing so much really helped regain my confidence in myself. I actually like the night shift a lot since it is so calm (without a lot of family, doctors, therapists, etc constantly in the room), but I just need to work on figuring out my sleeping schedule a little more. Anyway, it was a good night and I am looking forward to the next shift on Tuesday. :)

1st Night Shift

Sorry it has been so long since my last post! Since then, I finished summer session and started my fall semester and I turned 26 (and got a new camera!). Other than that, not much is new. I am doing an internship (we call it an externship) this semester at St. Jude in the oncology unit. Tonight is my first night shift ever and I am looking forward to it (although my body is a little thrown off). It is a class that we get credit for and it is an unpaid position (I will be working with a nurse), but I am just excited to get back in the hospital since I haven't had clinical since early December! I will let you all know how tonight goes!! :)

Where did July go!?

Wow, I can't believe today is July 22! I noticed that I haven't posted much in a while, so I thought I would write a short update.

• School is school and it is crazy busy as usual. I cannot even wait for this semester to end, but after registering for the fall semester, I am not looking forward to starting that. I am looking forward to my externship in the fall though, which will be at St. Jude's. :)
  
• I went to Vegas over the weekend with a few girlfriends which was loads of fun. (Kimi turned 21 earlier this month). It was soooo nice to get away for the weekend and relax and have a good time. I'm not a big gambler, but I played some slots and won a whopping $7! :) Hey, it's better than losing, right?
  
• I'm currently housesitting 2 puppies in Anaheim Hills (till tomorrow). The family has only had them for about 2 weeks, so I have found myself spending much of my time training and cleaning up after them. It is not fun to come home to some nice "puppy presents" everytime I leave and I sware the 2 of them team up on me on purpose. Anyway, they are really cute dogs and I have enjoyed having my own place for the week. :) I will try to attach a picture soon.
  
• My dad was in the hospital for a few days for a bowel obstruction, but he went home this afternoon. I visited him a couple times and realized how much I would probably hate to have him as a patient! He actually told the student nurse that she could not take out his NG tube and that he had seen a little too much of her! Poor girl! I probably would have cried. :P Glad he is home though.
  
• Lastly, my grandfather was diagnosed with stage 1 prostate cancer. He is turning 81 on Sunday and as of right now, he will not be getting any surgery or treatments because of his age. Please keep him and my grandmother in your prayers.

I think that is really all that's new. Also, please keep my friend Tiffany in your prayers - she lost her husband today.

Help Fight Hunger

About a year ago, a friend of mine from school told me about this site. It's a fun way to help fight hunger around the world!! Check it out...and have fun! (Warning - it can easily become addicting) :)

Housesitting in Ladera Ranch

I just realized that I haven't really posted anything for a month! Sorry about that, although there really isn't much to update you on.

I'm in week 4 of summer school and it is keeping me busy, as usual. We are starting our "thesis project" this semester and I will be doing mine on Fibromyalgia symptom management. I am looking forward to it, but I know it is going to be a lot of work. However, it will all pay off in the end right? Less than a year until I graduate...and almost a year until our wedding!

Speaking of wedding...we are in the process of finding our reception site. It has already been fun checking out a few places with Brian, but we have several more to go. Other than that, not much else is going on. We start our marriage classes in July (every Tues night for 4 weeks). We are looking forward to going.

Right now I am housesitting for my sister in Ladera Ranch. Lily, my sister's dog, is one of Sade's puppies from her 2nd litter and she is very close to me. She is so cute and such a sweetheart (minus the 3 am wake up barking and potty trip this morning). Also living in my sister's apartment is her cat Shadow, hamster Lionel, and fish. Brian has been hanging out with me here and it has been sort of a little vacation for us (obviously not really since we are working on school stuff constantly). We watched "Taken" Monday night and last night watched "Doubt" - both were great movies. Oh, today and yesterday I took care of my other Ladera pet buddies. I walked from my sister's to the house where Max and Rose are and hung out, walked, and fed them. It is so nice being able to walk somewhere! I also walked to the grocery store and probably will run to the gym sometime soon too. Everything is pretty close by. I will be here until Sunday morning and I am looking forward to having my "own place" for a few more days.

Another Semester DONE!

Well, I took my last final last night...it was pretty hard, but I am glad it is over. I am just so glad that I survived my first semester of grad school - it was looking a little scary at the beginning. It feels soooo nice to have a few days off!! Summer school doesn't look like it will be any easier though. :( I start summer session the week of June 1, so I am planning on catching up with friends and relaxing a lot over the next week and a half. :) I think I will try to work on a cross-stitch and catch up on my magazine reading. haha. :)

A huge thank you to all those people that helped me get through the semester - for proof reading, offering words of encouragement, and being there when I needed to vent. :)

Health Promotion

I came across this website and just had to share it because I thought it was really cool. Since we have been studying, performing, and teaching breast exams this semester, I thought it was very fitting to mention it here as well. So, make sure you are feeling your boobies!!!

Relaxin'

Well, it's spring break for me right now and I am thoroughly enjoying the extra time! I am still housesitting in Ladera, so I have been making good use of their Wii while I am still here. :) I love that thing and am actually thankful I don't own one because I would spend WAY too much time on it. :P I am in love with Wii Fit and this Endless Ocean game. (It's a diving game and is basically so realistic that I never need to go diving...I actually get scared in this game (so silly, I know), especially when there are sharks in front of me or nothing but black deep waters - lol). Anyway, I can't believe spring break is half over now, but it has been so nice catching up on some zzzzz's and lounging around watching TV and movies (like The Little Mermaid or Must Love Dogs). Well, that's all for now...better go do some more relaxin'.