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Once again my goal to update the blog more frequently has failed. Oh well... I'm over it.

My word of the day: dogs.  Dogs are great. Dogs are nuts. Dogs are.... well.... Dogs. Many of you know Scott and I recently added another husky to our family. She will be number three in a long line of sad experiences losing huskies. We just keep telling ourselves "third time's the charm".... And we paid twice as much for her, which in some psychotic way makes us think she will be more healthy and not die in a freak rabies accident or suffer from a probable brain tumor causing an abnormally awful epileptic disease.

Let me introduce Vixen Tennessee... The newest member of the Biggs clan.

She has been an adventure from day one. We actually decided to pick her up from the breeder earlier than anticipated because she had been attacked by a bigger dog and the breeder was not sure she would even make it. This terrified us and kind of threw us (ok, just me) into a frenzy of feeling like we needed to rescue her. The first day home she started pooping out piles of round worms... They looked like mounds of angel hair pasta. yummy. (I still have a hard time eating anything in the pasta family without thinking about that.....) We immediately got her an appointment with my uncle James- the world's greatest vet. He took a look at her stool sample and informed us that she had more parasites than any dog he had seen since vet school and that if we had not brought her in, she would have died in a couple of weeks. Soooooo..... needless to say, we were grateful we took her in. And even more grateful that we picked her up from the breeder early- otherwise she really would have been in trouble.

Since then, she has grown INCREDIBLY fast and has more energy than any dog I've ever seen. She is way more active than Bono and definitely more crafty. It only took her a day to figure out how to climb our incredibly steep staircase and two days to figure out how to go back down them. We absolutely love her.... even though she likes to chew up my squash and eat our grape vines. She also has an immense fascination with our bunny Blue.... And he with her.  She sneaks into his cage at every opportunity and sits there nibbling on his ears. Still not entirely sure about that.....

Anyway... enough about the dog.

Next subject: Nursing school.

I am practically DONE. I just have one more 4 hour shift to go. It has definitely been a learning experience, and one I am very grateful for. For those of you that are unfamiliar with the nursing profession, before being licensed, you are required to complete what is called a "preceptorship". It is essentially a 135 hour internship at a hospital designated by the school. Originally, my hope was to be placed on either a pediatric or labor and delivery floor. My VERY last choice was surgical. Well... guess where they placed me. Yep, you guessed it. Surgical. And not only that, but they moved me from McKay Dee, where I had done all of my previous clinical hours and placed me at a completely new and different hospital- Ogden Regional. I knew NOTHING about their charting system or facility. This definitely made me nervous and took me far outside of my comfort zone. But of course, as Scott reminded me on numerous occasions, there is always a reason for everything.

Looking back, it is clear that this preceptorship has been a major blessing for me. It has taken my confidence to a whole new level and made me realize that I can do it. I can be a successful RN. The nurse I was placed with has been an RN for 9 years. She is a charge nurse on the unit and has taught me many important things. She trusted me from the very beginning and pretty much threw me head first into the fire. She has allowed me to take control of all of the patients and pretty much run the show in the way I felt was best. Two days ago she had to write my final evaluation and she spoke with my instructor, telling her that I have been the best student she has ever had. I think that statement alone gave me the confidence boost I needed to finish out my experience. As silly as it sounds, I don't think starting a successful IV will NEVER get old. Makes me feel AWESOME.

One more item of business.... Everyone needs to VOTE! No excuses. Get out there and make a stand. VOTE people... VOTE.

Peace.