Jennifer Vitti

Next Tuesday (the 17th) starts my FINAL semester of nursing school. I can’t believe it! It’s been 3 long years and it’s finally coming to an end. This semester I will be taking Primary Care of the Child II, Roles and Issues of the Advanced Practice Nurse, and Management Concepts, along with 360 hours of preceptorship to make 600 hours total for the NP portion of my program. I’m actually enjoying the NP/MSN portion of my program better than the RN portion. I feel like we’re treated more like adults and I like taking the responsibility to do the work into my own hands vs. having professors give us busy work along with the important intense studying that is always required. In turn, although my grades have always been decent, they have improved the past semester and I am healthier and happier. I will also be applying very soon to be part of the Sigma Theta Tau Nursing Honors Society. Which I am very proud to even apply let alone if I get accepted

But back to my thoughts about this upcoming semester….I can’t believe it’s going to be all over!! I am finished at the end of April/early May and then I graduate mid-May with a MSN. I then will take a few months to study for my boards and hopefully at the end of June/early July I will take the PNCB to become a licensed Pediatric Nurse Practitioner followed by applying for jobs!! I went straight from my first undergraduate degree into this program (which also goes through the summers) so I literally have not been a student since I was about 4 or 5 years old (haha okay okay so the first few years of grade school aren’t that difficult, but still it’s the principle of the idea!). I can’t wait for the freedom and to start the rest of my life, but I am also nervous because I’ve known nothing else. Regardless, I know I’m ready and I know this is my passion and that feels great After this many years in school it definitely feels amazing to finally be completing what I set out for and doing what I want to be doing. I thought I would have more to say about the upcoming semester, but I am actually surprisingly emotional about it and left a little tongue-tied because of it. I’m sure I’ll reflect more as the semester goes on!

~love always~

Jen

Great to see my old roomie this weekend and spend some quality time together! We caught up (although we’ve been in touch through email quite a bit over the years), did some fun relaxing stuff like went out for food, movies, shopping–low key. But it was nice to see that although we haven’t seen each other since we graduated that things haven’t changed. We can still joke like we used to. We still give each other great advice. And we can still confide in each other like old girl pals should! It’s just really nice to know that there are friends of mine out there like that in the world I am *all smiles* closing out the weekend.

Short post tonight, but tomorrow I plan to reflect on my upcoming LAST semester of NP school.

~love always~

Jen

You may or may not hear from me for a few days because I am very excited to announce that my roommate from freshman and sophomore year of my first undergraduate degree (I graduated from Skidmore College in 2009) is coming to visit me! She was truly one of my bestfriends in college and has stayed a dear friend ever since then! I haven’t seen her since I graduated, but we’ve kept in touch through frequent emails (sometimes emailing DAILY!). We are involved in every aspect of each other’s lives and she will surely be a bridesmaid in my wedding someday. I loved my undergraduate experience and I don’t think it would’ve been the same without her. I know some people don’t get along with their roommates or are friendly but aren’t “best friends”, so I feel blessed to have been so close to her and to have someone so good to me and be there for me through all the streses, tears, and laughter of undergrad. Cheers to great roomies and even greater friends!!

~love always~

Jen

Daphne, my sweet calico kitten who I have raised from 6 weeks old, is destroying my house. She loves chewing (she’s worse than a puppy!) and she especially loves chewing foam…which happens to be what a lot of my furniture is stuffed with (some I didn’t even know until she chewed her way to the foam). This includes every single chair to our dining room set, the corners of our couch, a pair of slippers, and a pillow. It is important to note that she is NOT swallowing any of this…not even a piece. She just likes to attack it, rip off pieces, and spit them out (making a mess of course). We spray the corners with Bitter Apple spray, but she doesn’t do it every day/all the time, so she is never deterred by the spray because she usually goes after it when we haven’t sprayed in a while (and it’s a waste of spray to do it every day just in case–plus I’m not even sure it’s a real deterrent). She eats a well-balanced diet and the vet does not think she’s missing any nutrient nor does she have pica. It seems to be more of a boredom thing. However, we play with her a lot and she has a lot of toys that she can play with both by herself or with us and she does use them. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of info on the internet about specifically foam (except for people who think it’s pica). Thought I’d pose the question to you readers and see if you had even any ideas! I, myself, am hoping she’ll grow out of it soon as she gets older (she is only 1 1/2 years right now). Thoughts?!

~love always~

Jen

I am proud to be a “housegirlfriend” as well as have a nursing field career. I enjoy starting and ending my day with cleaning and/or cooking and I love a clean house. I also really love routines. I don’t remember how I came across http://flylady.net a few years ago, but I’m oh so glad I did I feel like her system was made for me. It focuses on cleaning your house, as well as takes a more holistic approach and also works on “decluttering your life”–teaching you how to “Finally Love Yourself” aka FLYing! It uses routines to accomplish the goals too, so it works well with my personality and brain organization I suppose.

As previously mentioned, I moved into my first house last spring and trust me being a housegirlfriend and cleaning and cooking is A LOT different than puttering around my parents house and helping out here and there and cooking once a night. It was so nice to finally be able to fully embrace the FLYLady system, and I have to say now that the holidays are over and I’ve been here for almost a year it has helped keep my house pretty clean, dinner on the table, and me and my relationship healthy and happy! Even while going to school full-time and working part-time! It’s very adaptable to anyone’s schedule and I highly recommend it.

My daily routine looks something like this:

Wake-up + Make Bed

Feed Daphne

Get Dressed to Shoes + Swish & Swipe Bathrooms

Eat Breakfast + Empty Dishes (either from Dishwasher or Strainer)

Make Lunch + Plan What’s for Dinner?

Check Email/Internet

Start a Load of Laundry

2 Minute HOTSPOT Cleaning + 5 Minute Room Rescue Mission

Decluttering for 15 Minutes

Kelly’s Daily Mission

2 Cleaning Missions (Depending on what day of the week it is)

Go to Work or School

Get Mail + Have a Healthy Snack

Water Plants + Check my Calendar

Fold Laundry from Dryer and Put Away + Put New Load in Ready to Start for Tomorrow

Exercise + Shower

Homework

Feed Daphne

Make Dinner/Eat Dinner

Scoop Kitty Litter

2 Cleaning Missions (Depending on the Day of the Week)

Shine Kitchen Sink

Brush Teeth + Wash Face

Put Clothes Out for Tomorrow

Go to Bed at a Decent Hour (If I get all this done on time I may treat myself to a TV show)

I also usually space some fun reading and relaxing time throughout the day as well. And of course quality time with my kitty and my boyfriend.

And if you’re worried about jumping into a large routine like mine, that may look intimidating, then relax because FLYLady starts you off on babysteps and keeps it manageable. That is also my very personal schedule. Obviously if you don’t have a cat or homework or if you have other responsibilites, your day may look very different from mine. (Also if you don’t know what all of those things in my schedule are that’s because a lot of them are very specific to the FLYLady system, like Kelly’s Mission or Room Rescues–but it’s all clearly explained once you start).

It’s a new year though! So if you’re feeling overwhelmed with your housework, your life, the clutter I think you should check out FLYLady! Give it some time and if you have good results (or bad, but I have a lot of faith in her system if you welcome it) come back and let me know!

~love always~

Jen

As previously mentioned, I haven’t blogged in a year. Although I have since deleted those posts, I left off with me about to start my last portion of the BSN program and take the dreaded NCLEX-RN examination. I took the NCLEX in February of 2011 and I passed the first time with the minimum amount of questions (toot, toot!). That was a great feeling. So I’m officially a registered nurse with a BSN degree (graduated from that portion of the program last May). I then continued on in my program to become a pediatric nurse practitioner and achieve the MSN. I will start my last semester of that program in a couple weeks and will graduate in May and then take my boards in probably June or July. I’m really enjoying my primary care pediatric preceptorships and this portion of the program overall!

I’m still working part-time as a dog walker. Nothing new there.

Last spring I bought my first house with my boyfriend, Sam, and we moved in together. That was very exciting! We’ve been living here for almost a year now and it’s going FANTASTIC! We are great together and the house is a great starter home No ring on my finger yet, but I’m hoping soon! We also live here with our 1 1/2 year old cat, Daphne (she will probably be talked about frequently as she is always getting into trouble) and we rent out one of the bedrooms, so we have a roommate. Our newest roommate moved in just last week and is an old friend of Sam’s–so far so good!

Those are the big things going on in my life. Feel free to ask me anything!

(Source: Daymaker Inspirational Gifts: You Know You’re a Nurse When…2012 Desktop Calendar): <-My nursing day-by-day calendar I received for Christmas (I like to share good ones as a tribute to my old blog that was completely devoted to nursing).

Monday, January 2:

“You Know You’re A Nurse When…You and a couple of coworkers are reading Tabor’s Medical Dictionary–for fun–and discover that Piblokto is an actual disease.”

Haha I definitely read Taber’s for fun occasionally, but never came across Piblokto before…curiosity got the best of me, so I looked it up:

“piblokto: a syndrome, apparently culturally specific for Eskimo women, in which the person screams, removes or tears off her clothes, and runs naked in the snow. The woman then has no recollection of these events”. (Taber’s Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary 21st Edition, Publisher F.A. Davis Company, Editor: Donald Venes)

Who knew!?!?

Hello, World! It’s been a long time! I have not blogged in over a year, but I am back. I was definitely in a “blog funk” before, not sure what direction I wanted to go with this blog. I used to be a nursing blogger, but I became too uncomfortable with all the walking on eggshells since I was always so careful about not breaking any confidentiality (plus I’m not anonymous) and I felt like what I wrote about wasn’t very useful to me or to the blogging community (not that my new blog will necessarily be “useful”, but I think it will be more fun for me to write). I didn’t delete my blog a year ago, however, because I did want it! I enjoy the writing! So a few weeks ago I decided to do more of a “Life Blog”…write about different topics that are interesting to me, what’s going on in my life, etc etc. I’m sure there will still be plenty of medical topics thrown in because that it is a HUGE part of my life, but it won’t be so focused on that.

1/1/2012!! Happy New Year and welcome to what hopes to be my new and improved blog! I’m keeping the layout/look of it the same for now because I like it and it took me a while to decide what I wanted when I first created it, but that’s not to say that I might not change it up throughout the year. I hope to post A LOT more than I used to as well. Now that I’m not writing about just medical aspects I think that I won’t feel so pressured to write “good” posts and can just write what’s on my mind. I deactivated my Facebook today as well and I’ve never had a Twitter, a MySpace, or a GooglePlus account nor do I want any of those, so this is more of my only social media outlet and therefore will hopefully go on it more. I plan to go without Facebook for at least one whole year (at least!). I’m upset with the direction that Facebook has gone…I consider myself fairly technologically savvy, yet Facebook seems to be the only place that I kept doing things on it that I didn’t want it to do or would embarrass myself! I was just so frustrated, so I’m deactivating it for a year. If it improves by then (and Facebook is always changing so I’m giving it the benefit of the doubt) then I will reconsider in a year, but if not then I will continue without it until it improves or some better social outlet comes along. So I’ll get less birthday wishes this year…I guess then I’ll know who really knows my birthday and cares to stay in touch with me in general anyway!

Tomorrow look forward to what I’ve been up to…basically an introduction to me if you don’t know me and a catch-up for people who used to read my old blog!

~love always~

Jen