life lately

What's been going down at the Dunn household lately?

-Matt is loving his new supervisor position at UPS (and I am loving his new hours).  He has moved into a different department than he was in and is learning a lot.  Like usual, he has worked in this position for a week or two and then his partner is out of town this week so he has to man the ship alone.  He has done this two other times in other departments.  I guess they trust the guy :).

-I am still madly deeply in love with my new car.  She is great.  I get so excited when I get to drive her somewhere.  It's still so new to me and I get excited to show her off.  I hope that new car/new leather smell never goes away!

-Our trees and shrubs get delivered this week!  We went back to the nursery last week and made our final decision...

1. A "Brandywine" Maple tree for the front left of the house

2. An "Ace of Hearts" Redbud tree for the front right of the house- I didn't realize how much I loved redbud trees until this Spring when almost every house in our neighborhood had one in full bloom. They are beautiful!

3. A "Limelight" Hydrangea plant for the back corner- I love hydrangeas.  We weren't planning on getting one, but when we changed our mind on putting a tree up by the entrance we had a little left over in the budget and I ran straight for the hydrangeas.  This one will get pretty big (5-7 ft tall and 4 ft wide) so we are putting her in the back yard in a corner where Matt ripped out some old weedy trees a couple months ago.  We are going to let her grow wild (well while still-looking good of course).  The flowers' blooms will start out green and then fade to a light pink at the end of summer.  I am so excited for this one!

4. 5 Boxwoods for the outline of our walkway to the house.  We ended up getting the 2 gallon tubs so they'd be a bit more mature since they grow slowly.

We are planning on having a landscape party this weekend.  I am calling it a party because to be honest, I am not that excited about digging really big holes all day. It makes me feel better if it's a "party".  

-I am almost to the end of the 12 weeks I have been orienting a new RN on the floor. She is wonderful.  It is SO cool to precept someone.  I am the one shaping her.  Yes, she will go and do as her own style is once she's on her own, but I took a lot of my ways of doing things from my preceptor and I have noticed my orientee doing the same.  It can be exhausting, but I know it is all for her and for our unit.  I feel good about teaching her the basics, the right way to do things (follow the policy), and ways to get on people's good side as far as being helpful in your downtime etc.  She is getting so much better at talking to docs and catching little things (which usually turn out to be the most important thing) on assessment.  Everything she needed to work on in the beginning is now coming full-circle and she is great.  Other RN's have been coming up to me saying how my orientee reminds them of me and how awesome of a job she is doing and will do.  Warms my heart :).

-I planted some tomato plants last week.  My favorite thing ever is a fresh garden tomato.  This is my first time ever planting my own tomato plants.  Cross your green thumbs they survive!

-We went to visit my Dad's side of the family a couple weekends ago.  We went to see my Nana Sue and to spend time with the family. I was finally able to meet my baby twins cousins! They are 8 months old and the sweetest babies ever.  I can't imagine having twins, but my cousins make it look easy.  I love those babies!

And just because he's cute...