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!

fiesta

This past weekend, we had some of our family at the house.  We still have some family/friends that haven't been down to see our house so this was a great excuse to get everyone together.  We still had some people who couldn't make it, but they were there in spirit! We did a yummy taco bar, my mom made enchiladas, and everyone brought a side or dessert. We had TONS of food and plenty of margaritas to go around.  Perfect party :).  Later that night, we made our way around the fire pit...but never quite made it to the hot tub.

The pictures from the party are totally random. I think it's due to the fact that my camera was sitting on the ledge and while everyone was getting their plates of food I just started snapping pictures of random things. I picked the camera up then and not again...whoops. I failed to get any pictures of my mom, grandma, or sister-in-law...but trust me they were there!  I regreted the next day not getting group pictures of eveyrone's family.  I always take advantage of having everyone together and forget to take the oppourtunity to get family shots. Next time!

Jax rocked his Purdue jersey for the party...too bad we lost :(.

Brothers :)

They are getting hitched in 2 weeks! Can't wait to celebrate!

baby in a bar

I love my work family.  I work with a fantastic group of girls who have become more than just co-workers.  We threw our friend Jenn a baby shower last month (eek! why has it taken me so long to post this?!) and we had a great time.  Our theme was "Baby in a Bar" (and yes I totally made the phone call to Marsh for the cake and had to say that's what we wanted on the cake) because we had the shower at BW3's. Jenn just wanted something comfy and low-key (I love that about her) and she loves BW3 so it was easy to decide!

I love Logan!

Mr. Miles

Oh yeah :)

Baby Paul

:)

the toy that stole his heart....a gold bracelet

LOVE these girls!

Beautiful momma-to-be

NICU girls know how to hook a momma up

We are so happy for Jenn and Daniel.  They are expecting their baby any day now and we can't wait to meet him/her!

island drinks

This blog post is a bit belated, but I'm finally getting around to posting about our cruise!

I was off the entire week of our anniversary so I had lots of  time to pack and get ready and just enjoy some time off work.  I love the way we celebrate our anniversary.  We always make it special.  Some people do it big for their birthday or celebrate all month for it but I love celebrating our anniversary more than I do my birthday.  I wonder if it's because I am so used to celebrating September 18th-it's the date we celebrated as our dating anniversary so we celebrated it for 6 years before we were even married.

On Monday of that week, Matt was at work late and my mom came down to pick Jax up to take him back to her house for the week but we managed to fit in some Cooper's Hawk wine tasting and dinner before she left.  It was great to get to spend some quality time with her.

On Tuesday (our actually anniversary), Matt got off work early and we headed downtown for our dinner reservations at Fogo De Chao.  We went there for dinner last year and hadn't been back since.  That place is amazing.  I think I was finally no longer full from the year before.  You get SO much food and it's all you can eat yummy salad and delicious steak.  Matt's heaven.  He was frustrated at me when he saw how big my salad was because he thought I was wasting my time on salad when I should be eating crazy amounts of steak.  Don't you worry, I was able to handle eating it all :).

Lovely free dessert! It was sooo good. We finished the whole darn thing too.

A dozen roses from Matt's sweet boss.  These were waiting on the doorstep when we got home.

On Wednesday, Matt was off work and we followed tradition by riding the motorcycle down to Southern Indiana.  One year we rode all the way down to French Lick, but we've done Oliver Winery for at least 3 years now.  The weather is usually beautiful-still warm in the 70's, sunny, and the leaves are just starting to turn.  It was exactly that this year.  It was what we needed to just get away after working so many hours the past couple months.

Pretty sure this lady had never used an iPhone camera before...this took like 3 tries because she kept hitting the wrong button 

Thumbs up for Matt's fab hair-braiding skills

Thursday morning came bright and early.  My friend Amber picked us up at the house at  4 am to take us to the airport.  I was a little bit sad because I didn't have time to eat breakfast before I left the house, but then I realized that an Egg McMuffin and a Fruit and Maple Oatmeal were waiting for me in the airport McDonald's so I got over it pretty quickly.  Our flight down to Orlando was non-stop.  I dedicated a solid 2 hours (give or take) to learning the new BodyPump release that I was going to be teaching when we got back from vacay.

We took a 45 min shuttle ride to Port Canaveral to our final destination...our cruise!  We got out of that shuttle and onto the boat and all of our worries and stresses from the hard-working summer were gone. We were one of the very first people on the boat and we bee-lined it straight for the lunch buffet. I was focused on food and putting my swimsuit on immediately after to soak up the sun; Matt was focused on "wow look at that boat" and "I want to see them take the rope off when we leave" and talking all machinery and technology to me.  He was sooo interested in the way the ship worked and how we were going to get out of the port etc.  Such a man.

1st island drink of the trip. The plan was to not buy toooooo many of these...but they were so yummy and Matt's Listerine bottle of whiskey was confiscated so we enjoyed us some island drinks :) 

We brought our bottle of Oliver champagne (from our anniversary trip to Oliver last year and which we saved all year to drink on our next anniversary) on the boat and popped it that first night.  It was soooo delicious.  It was a Catawba Sparkling Wine.  I could've drank the whole thing, but I felt it fair to share with my husband :).

We really enjoyed just sitting out and watching the water as we sailed.  It was so peaceful and relaxing...and a little scary that this huge cruise ship was still above water.  My paranoid side gets the best of me sometimes.

Breakfast was my very favorite meal on the ship.  I loved getting up, heading to breakfast when most people were still sleeping and watching the peaceful water and sun.  Oh and they had my beloved Cheerios!

We arrived in Nassau, Bahamas on Day 2. We woke up and the ship was docked.  We kind of lazily made our way off the boat by about 3ish.  Most people got off the boat right away in the morning so the boat was pretty empty.  We took advantage of the quiet pool and relaxed, had some lunch, and then made our way out to Nassau.

That raincloud? Yeah it unleashed right when we got off the boat 

 

This Disney boat was awesome!

Our travel back to home was a little less pleasurable than the trip down.  We got to the airport WAY too early.  Like 4 hours early.  They were going to charge us $100 to get on the earlier flight...even though there was room.  So we sat in the smallest airport ever (Melbourne, FL) for 4 long hours.  They had one "restaurant" inside the security gates, but we found out they only served pre-packaged cold sandwiches.  I was starving and that just wasn't going to cut it.  After Matt's convincing, we walked out of security and ate at a restaurant that specialized in anything fried.  After 3 days on a cruise ship of unlimited eating, we basked in a grilled chicken sandwich.

Jax had been up at my mom's all week and I was really missing him.  We didn't get back home until 9ish.  The plan really wasn't for me to get Jax until the next day or the next, but I sweet-talked my mom into meeting me in Lebanon so I could see my pup.  After traveling all darn day and then another 30 min drive I was so happy to get home and in bed with Jax at our feet.

We had such a great time and the trip was exactly what we needed.  I really did feel refreshed and ready to go back to work (well not ready to go back to work, but I didn't feel so wiped out while being there).  Not sure when our next vacation will be, but I guess I should start saving now!