Snow again!

We have been above 70 for most of the week. It has been great. I enjoyed wearing sandals, capris, and short sleeved T-shirts. Well, all that changed today. Today was the high of 45 which we hit at 0900, and we are suppose to get anywhere from 1-3 inches of snow and some areas possibly 5-10 inches. I decided I was going to enjoy the snow and practice taking snow pictures. After I got home from work I bundled up and made my way through a couple parks. Actually a couple shots I didn't even get out of my car. I thought that was pretty creative. I truly loved walking through the snow and finding cool areas to photograph. I think everyone who saw me thought I was crazy, but I certainly didn't notice or care. I was going to find a way to enjoy the weather, and I found my way. You won't find me skiing or playing in the stuff, but I will certainly photograph it.

Nick at his finest

I am writing this with the man of my dreams sitting next to me and pondering how do I quote his finest words and love he has for me. Well, people who know me know I love photography and Nick of coarse loves his motorcycle.

I have been very unhappy with my small point and shoot camera. The red eye reduction doesn't work and the flash is so slow. I went to Wolf Camera because I had some down time between meetings and found the camera that I love. It is the Nikon Coolpix S600 and it retails $300. Now I know I can find it cheaper elsewhere but I wanted to share my excitement with my wonderful and loving husband.

Well, Nick has also been looking at a new motorcycle. It is a Harley and retails new at $14,000. Nick likes his bike now but wants to upgrade. He always likes to mention how he is saving us money because his current bike gets good gas mileage.

So, now that you have the background to our conversation. Here it goes.

Camie- Honey, guess what I found a new point and shoot that I like
Nick- What is it?
Camie- The Nikon Coolpix S600. I found it at Wolf Camera today
Nick- How much is it?
Camie- (becomes very quiet) $300 but i can find it cheaper elsewhere
Nick- That is too expensive and you know you can find a very nice point and shoot for $100-$150.
Camie- I know but I really like this camera
Nick- Well, you know what.
Camie-What?
Nick- If you get the Nikon then I get my new motorcycle next spring?
Camie- What? How can you compare the two?
Nick- My bike pays for itself.

Implying that his bike brings us money and is more important than my happiness and desires.

(This is Nick defending myself) Camie likes to make me sound like the bad guy to make her stories more interesting. I simply gave a compelling argument for my motorcycle and asked her to give one for the camera.

Aghh, the dog hair!!!!

Well, everyone we meet at the dog park mention they loved growing up with german shephards but hated the dog hair and I have to concur. Bruno's shedding is horrible. A couple of nick's friends who are K-9 officers recommended the Ferminator. I also had a friend recommend this to me too so we decided to try it. We found it on Amazon for half the price of Petsmart and decided to try it. I would have to say it is the best invention. It gets rid of dog hair so well and when nick brushed Bruno for the first time he said there were tumble weed size hair balls blowing in the wind outside. The only problem is Bruno won't let us brush him for very long before he gets upset so we have to do it daily. I can't wait for all this hair to be gone. We are keeping the dogs in the sunroom and outside more due to the shedding and my sanity. I hope this invention will get rid of the hair sooner so the dogs can spend more time inside. I have never had this much dog hair in my house since getting Bruno.

Accomplished

I have been a hospice nurse for about a total of 2.5 years. I love doing hospice work and I know most give me, "I don't know how you do it". Well I don't know how a nurse can work in labor and delivery so hah. Anyways, my company is wanting all nurses to be nationally certified as hospice and palliative nurses. It means we know alot about hospice and being certified helps the company show that many of their employees know what they are doing. It consists of taking a long and hard test. I am in the first group to take the test. I have been studying for the past couple months and took the test today and passed it with flying colors. It was a very hard test and brought back many memories of nursing school. There was always 2 right answers it just was which one was the most correct. So now I can sign CCarr, RN, BSN, CHPN. I don't think I will ever sign like that, but at least I can now. Just studying for the test showed I had many more things to learn and glad I took the test. They say the pass rate is very low so I feel very accomplished to have passed. Just another load off my shoulder. My company paid for me to take the test so there was alot of pressure to pass. Hopefully my cohorts will do equally as well.

First Attempt

I had this monday off and I met with my friend Amy and her little boy Eli. I have wanted to try posed pictures with a newborn and thought that day would be great. It was so fun to take pictures. It was hard but I learned more about lighting and posing. Eli was a trooper but he towards the end he did get real tired of it.

Lare the Bear

Today I was just itching to get out and take some pictures. Nick ofcoarse gets too bored when I comes with me, so I took Rusty. He did such a good job. I let him off his leash and he would explore but stay close while I take pictures. I have loaded a group of them that I took at Lare the Bear Open Space and areas along the road on the way back. It was so nice to get out and just relax. Taking pictures is so relaxing for me and I absolutely love it.

Work update

Well here is the latest update on my job dilemma. After pitching a fit for long enough we kindof got our way. When upper management heard we were leaving our positions there were some uphappy people and then for them to find out it was due to scheduling reasons we were able to negotiate and compromise some. So, now the sw and I are working rotating weeks were one week we work mon-fri and the next is tue-sat. So, every other weekend I get 3 days off in a row (sat, sun, mon). Not bad. We did agree to work 9-6. Our manager really wanted us to work 10-7 but we were not budging on that. We have things in the evenings we want to do like me hang out with my husband before he goes to work. So, right now this is where we stand. She wanted to move us to hourly not salary which is not good at all. We were afraid if there were no admissions on Saturday and no visits to be done, then we don't get paid. So, we negotiated that we take 6 months and look at the "data" based on our time sheets and see if we were worked over 40 or less than 40 on average. She was good with that. Both the sw and I really didn't want to go back to the field. They wanted to start giving me new admissions to transition into the new position and my heart sank. I knew moving was not right for me. I am glad we waited things out and were able to negotiate some things. I love working in admissions, it is a different pace and different type of nursing that I love.