Christmas

Christmas was celebrated a little different this year.  I had to work Christmas Eve and Christmas Day this year so we had to change it around a bit.  Christmas Eve is usually the day that Matt's family celebrates Christmas so we had to move that to the Saturday before.  It still felt like Christmas!  We had been in Ohio that day/night before for my Grandmother's service so we got to my mother-in-law's house around 11 am.  We snacked and then started with the gift opening.  All of us kids were really excited because we had a big surprise gift for Janet that we were going to wait until the end to show her.  Next year we will have another Dunn at Christmas! No no not us :) My sister-in-law, Brenda, is due with another baby in July!

The crew

Firetruck blanket I made him!

And now for the surprise...

YAY! A new TV for Janet :) She was so shocked and loved it.  We were all so happy to be able to get her something like that. She goes all out for us for Christmas, so we wanted to go all out for her.

The next day (Sunday), we headed over to my mom's house.  Matt and I, my mom, brother, and niece and nephew all had our Christmas with each other before the rest of the family came over.  Mom had a turkey and potato soup and everyone brought a little something for us to eat.  It was great to have everyone together.  Later, we had a Yankee Swap gift exchange which is always hilarious.  

Playing the Xbox Kinect

Jax's new toy that he had torn apart in 45 seconds

Love them

Trying out the new Skip-It

Tre' kept bugging me to put his hat on so he could take a picture. I finally gave in.

Jax was worn out!

Yankee Swap

I got the biggest surprise on Christmas Day.  It was 7:45 am-I was TL at work and was in the middle of checking the defibrillator when the unit secretary came up to say I had a visitor.  I immediately thought it might be Matt, but when I looked to see what time it was I knew he wouldn't be up yet on Christmas Day.  To my complete surprise, my friend Tiffany was at the window! I let her in to the unit and she was holding two sacks from Hardee's.  "I brought breakfast for you and 19 of your closest friends, I knew you had to work on Christmas Day."  I can honestly say I think that was the most thoughtful and most unexpected thing anyone has ever done for me.  I started tearing up a bit! Tiffany is the sweetest person I have ever met and the fact that she thought of me to bring us in breakfast was just amazing.  I walked around the unit to let the other nurses know there was breakfast up front and the story about how she brought them, and a couple started tearing up and gave me a hug!  We really appreciated it and it made working Christmas Day that much better :)

breakfast sandwiches!

blizzard 2012 :)

I am a little bit behind on posting pictures.  I decided to go from most recent to least so we shall start with our first big snow of the year! 

The news loves a good headline so they had a hay-day with the snow.  Blizzard 2012!

 I was at work on Christmas Day and everyone was freaking about the big snow storm we were going to get.  The management staff were offering for us to all stay overnight at the hospital if we worked the next day since it would probably be hard for us to get back there the next morning.  The day started with us expecting to get 3-5 inches and ended with us expecting to get 8-12 inches.  They predicted right because Indianapolis got around 8 inches when all was said and done!

I had Wednesday off and the only thing on my plan for the day was to teach BodyPump at 9:30 am.  We got a text from Laura saying that Kiwi was cancelling all classes for the day because the building we have them in was closing too.  So that left me with a wide open day. Then the best thing ever happened. Matt got a call right after saying that they were closing for the day and that he didn't need to come in.  YEAH! Snow day with my husband! This was the best news ever, especially since I had just worked Christmas Eve and Christmas Day while he was off work and then had to work the next weekend too.

We had a great, relaxing snow day.  It's kind of fun when you get so much snow/the driving conditions aren't the greatest where they urge you to not leave your house.  What did we do? We ventured out to take the Murano for a spin to see how she'd do in the snow :).  Well first we slept in as late as we possibly could and then layed in bed watching TV until noon.  The roads weren't horrible, but we wouldn't have been able to make it out of the driveway if we were driving Matt's car.  I love the Murano! We drove to Costco which is only really 3 miles or so from our house if you take the back roads.  I had never seen Costco so empty!  We grabbed some food since I had not had a chance to get any groceries before the storm hit and walked around for a little bit.  We made it home and didn't leave the house at all the rest of the day.

Matt made a really yummy shrimp lunch and we opened up a bottle of wine.  We peer-pressured our friends to come over and be lazy with us.  The rest of the day was popcorn, wine, a movie, and euchre. It was lovely!  Having that day off with Matt made me not even mind working the holiday.

Mom, quit taking pictures! I'm cold!!

Attempting to make him like snow.  Throwing him in was probably not the best idea...

On their way walking out, Matt decided to tackle Rob into the snow.  Boys!

back to my old stomping ground

This past summer I was asked by my former nursing clinical professor at Purdue if I would like to give the lecture on NICU in the Maternal/Child Health class.  I, of course, said yes.

Today was the day for me to finally present my powerpoint!  The more I thought about it I realized that this was going to be their last lecture of the semester-dead week-so really how many people would even come? The class ended up being full (I mean come on it's nursing students so why'd I even doubt it?) and they were SO into it!

I started getting my presentation ready a couple months ago, but really started cracking down on it the past couple weeks.  I didn't really get nervous until last night I got home from work and Matt asked me, "So what's your intro?" and then kept going with the questions..."What are you going to say if she introduces you like this?" "Or like this?" "How are you going to move into your presentation after that video?" "Have you practiced?" "You should practice." "You're right, you'll be fine!" Holy moly.

It was fun because I kind of just made a day out of the whole thing! My friend, Amber, who works in the NICU with me (and also is a Purdue nursing grad) came up with me.  We met my mom and my grandmother at Maru for some pre-lecture sushi! It was amazing. I didn't get nervous until I started getting full because then I knew the lecture was coming soon.  My mom and Amber came with me to the lecture and looked all cute camped out in the front row corner.  My little entourage :). We got there pretty early.  I don't think I had ever gotten to a class that early.  

I was so nervous, but I just kept telling myself how interested I thought the NICU lecture was when I was in school so I was hoping they'd feel the same way.  When I asked them to raise their hands if they were interested in working in the NICU quite a lot of students did so I felt a little better.

I am so passionate about the NICU and all that's involved with it that I probably could've talked about it for hours on end.  Luckily, I got done with my presentation with 5 minutes to spare! I had no idea how long my lecture would be because I never once practiced it.  Rebel! I loved it because almost every single student was looking up at me or the powerpoint the entire time so I felt like they were really interested. I loved watching their faces when I was telling certain stories or when they were looking through the little bags I brought with tiny baby items (small diaper, smallest blood pressure cuff, tiny paci, etc). They asked some really good questions at the end too. I also had a couple students come up to me afterwards and ask about the NICU and how to get jobs there.  The two professors told me afterwards that I did a great job and asked me to come back to give the NICU lecture every semester! They said they actually learned a lot from my presentation and loved it. Yay!

After the lecture, Amber and I went to good ole' Harry's for a celebratory drink and some food (hello buffalo chicken pasta salad!).  My friend Ashley actually met up with us on her way home from work.  It worked out perfectly! I am so glad she was able to stop by so we could catch up.  I love her.  After Harry's we had to make a pit stop on the way back to the car...I mean how can you not when there is an Orange Leaf across the street? Sushi, Purdue, Harry's, and Orange Leaf. Could it get any better?

We will see how I did when Matt gets home and wants to watch the recording :)

full Fall

Seeing as how I've managed to post 0 blog entries in November and only 3 in October, I'd say you can officially call me a blogging slacker.  Not a whole lot is new with the Dunn's.  Here we go with a random update (which always seems to be my fav):

*We finally watched The Hunger Games movie...and then I finally started the first book...and then I forgot I was reading it until I just now saw it on the coffee table. Whoops.  I really liked the movie and liked the book too, but I must have just forgotten about it.  I need to get back on reading that.

*We have had a busy Fall with weddings.  Two weekends ago we traveled with some other family to Gatlinburg, TN for my uncle's (step-uncle's?) wedding.  It was an amazing weekend.  There were 8 of us (Matt&I, mom, Grandpa Jerry & Mary, Jim & Janice, Tracey) that shared a big, beautiful cabin in the mountains of Tennessee. The cabin was in the same complex that the wedding/reception were.  It was absolutely beautiful down there.  The views from the porch were incredible.  Being in a cabin with these 7 other people was a blast! We had SO much fun just being with each other.  Matt, my mom, and I drove down Friday night after Matt got off work so we didn't even arrive to the cabin until 1230 am.  Everyone was still waiting up for us and playing cards.  We all ended up staying up until 5 am that night! Cards, cocktails, and catching up was the theme and it was perfect.  There was also a little karaoke thrown into the mix. We all slept in on Saturday and then made our way to Cracker Barrel.  After an awesome and much needed breakfast the boys split off to go to the store and the girls gathered to stop by a huge Christmas store. That evening we celebrated Brian and Erica's wedding at the outdoor ceremony (weather was perfect) and the after-party in their cabin.  Fun had by all :).

Welcome to the family :)

Cabin!

all the girls love Matt

*This past weekend was Lauren and J Dan's wedding! We had all been waiting for this since last Fall.  What an awesome weekend! We started off Friday by having all the bridesmaids get together for lunch and a nail appointment (at which I smudged my nails,,,I bet they get so annoyed with that!) and then we had the rehearsal that night.  The wedding day started off bright and early with Panera bagels, fruit salad, and hair appointments.  It was such a relaxing and peaceful day.  We were never rushing (until we got too used to relaxing and then realized we all had 7 minutes to change before the limo got there!) and got to take our time getting ready and hanging out.  Then, we took the limo to the church where the girls got our pictures taken.  After the ceremony the whole bridal party took the limo to Harry's where the bride and groom dropped us off to go finish their pictures.  Hi Harry's, don't mind if I do!  After a group picture behind the bar, we made our way to the reception.  We had a blast with the photo booth and dancing.  Perfect weekend! So happy for the newlyweds :).

Hi beautiful bride! 

handsome hubby

Abby! She came back from CA for the wedding and I am SO glad she did.  We had a ball....like always :).

momma

hilarious!

*I worked this weekend and then Thanksgiving is this week! I ended up trading out of working Thanksgiving Day (and into Christmas Day and Eve...bleh) so I could be with family at my Grandma Claudette's.  This will be the first time since our wedding 2 years ago that all the uncles and their families will be together, including my Uncle Jay who was diagnosed with colon cancer this past Spring.  I am so happy to be able to be with everyone.  This whole working holidays thing stinks...but somebody's gotta do it!

*I am in a struggle with when to put up Christmas decor.  I really really really want to put lights up out in front of the house, but I don't know if we will get around to doing it. Someday. 

* I have started being TL (team leader) at work.  TL is basically the assistant to the charge nurse and keeps control of the 3rd floor of the NICU.  It has been an awesome learning experience and has opened my eyes to more than being a bedside nurse.  It's interesting to see the flow of the unit and how to make everything run smoothly.  I love being able to help nurses when they are busy with their assignments or need an assistant with IV start, labs needing drawn, etc.  You are the one everyone comes to with questions, issues, and catastrophes so you have to be on your game. 

 *I also decided to join the PICC team (central line care team).  There are a small group of nurses at work who are on this team.  They are the ones who change the PICC line dressings on the babies according to our policy and under sterile conditions.  It's nerve-wrecking because one wrong move and you can mess up the PICC line, cause an infection, or even worse- pull it out.  That would make for a very angry Nurse Practitioner who would have to come and spend hours to reinsert one. I pray that never ever happens to me! There is a long list of steps to change the dressing and you have to be very meticulous so that line stays germ/infection free. The more you open that line up to air, the higher chance it has of becoming invaded with an organism and the last thing our babies need is a blood-stream infection. The team is also who gets called when someone has a question about their PICC line or the dressing itself whether it looks ok or needs to be changed. It will take awhile to become fully trained but I am excited to get started! 

Happy Thanksgiving!