Pottery Creations

This summer I started doing some pottery again. I will hopefully add more creations later. But here are some of my favorites.

These small precious desert plates were so fun to make. And so easy.

1. use dark clay and roll out a slab

2. Find a flat circular object of whatever size plate you want and cut into the slab

3. Make sure that they are not too thick or thin, just the right size for a plate

4. Find something that has a texture you like. This is where you get to be creative. Either stamp it in or use a rolling pin and (gently) roll the texture onto the clay.

5. Make sure the sides are thick enough all around the plate.

6. Let dry for a few days before heating in the kiln.

7. Color with high glosses, to fall into the textures and come out in different types of shades.

8. Kiln again, and you're done! You have these marvelous little plates! :)

Enjoy!

In regards to this serving dish and coffee cups (I did not make the cups!) My sister Jaci did.

She is far better at pottery than I, as she has been doing it far longer. But I am proud of the little tray that I use to keep the cups on right next to our coffee maker.

1. Roll out a flat slab (thicker this time)

2. Cut out the size of the tray you want.

3. Shape the edges to however you want it, flat or curvy (like mine above).

4. Take small pieces of newspapers and stick it into the curvy parts, to ensure it dries with that form/shape.

5. Glaze how you desire, i thought three different colours would look great, and i do really like it!

This plaque is made in a very similar fashion as what has been talked about before.

I saw a plaque like this hanging in Mrs. Euler's room (the pottery teacher) and wanted one for our bar as well.

It says "Everyone you meet is in a war, be kind." An amazing quote that I thought fit the philosophy i try so hard to live by.

To do this, roll out a slab

Find a circle shape and cut it out. Make sure it's thick. Atleast an inch-and-a half.

Use either stamps or an exacto knife to make letters or drawings.

Glaze letters and drawings with a separate glaze then the rest of the plaque.

I did not make anything to hang this by. instead I just bought a small wooden easel from Ikea ($1) and it sits on our mantel. Love it!

This last one is super easy! Basically the same thing as the circle plaque.

Flat slab and punch in the letters. Couldn't be easier than that.

"Don't make love by the garden gate, love may be blind, but the neighbors ain't"

but alex's aunt recently told me "Do it anyway, the neighbor's are bored!" (wow!) haha

Anyway enjoy and happy crafting!

~Rae

Welcome to our Bar!!! (Before and After Pictures!)

Marcella

So I found an old journal entry I wrote my Senior year of nursing school. After a hard day as a real graduated RN, it was so good to read this. I know I will have hard days, but I was right about it then and I'm still right about it now.

Here's the journal entry....

Today was such a beautiful day at clinical. God taught me so much. I had two patients today. I had a 62 year old man with cirrhosis of the liver due to alcohol abuse and a 68 year old woman with COPD.
In med-surg clinical we as nursing students live for what new tasks we get to do. We hope for a patient who has some sort of procedure that we haven’t done yet so we can do it and learn from it. When everyone gets home from this clinical people ask, “did you put in a catheter,” “did you irrigate a wound dressing?” “How bout NG tubes, did you get to work with those?” There are countless numbers of things to do on medical surgical units, and it becomes our goal and obsession to become exposed to every piece of it. It becomes very easy to become task-oriented instead of people-oriented.
Today God taught me a lesson about this. I was able to perform several tasks alone today. I did two full assessments, helped with physical therapy, assessed ascites in an abdomen, work with abdominal ultrasounds, perform a bladder scan, adjust SCD boots, and other things too. By task-orientated standards I had a very good day.
But that was not what made this day beautiful. But there was something that made this day beautiful. The conversations and time I spent with my patients. I had two very different patients; however both were suffering from chronic diseases that would surely end both of their lives. Talking to my patient with cirrhosis was such a blessing! He was such a goofy man, and also a major abuser of alcohol. But going into his room with a completely non-judgmental attitude was incredibly rewarding. It only took about five minutes for me to warm up to him and for him to understand that I didn’t care why he was sick, what mistakes he made, or whether or not the disease was “his fault.” And I didn’t care. He was MY patient. And more importantly, he is GOD’s child. A man with a bad attitude soon turned warm and precious when I brought up the topic of baseball. We talked about the cubs and the cardinals for a good twenty minutes. I had others things I could have been doing, more important health matters to discuss, but at the moment, I thought the smile on his face was worth denying everything else. Through this man I learned that simple conversation is sometimes the most therapeutic. Patients with cirrhosis are often treated badly because they drink excessive amounts of often still do as their disease progresses. He was one of these patients. He shared with me how much he drank, and how he had no plans to stop. Instead of preaching or throwing health statistics at him, I just listened. I nodded my head a lot and smiled until my face hurt while he talked about funny bar fights he had gotten into. He knew what was making him sick; I didn’t need to tell him that. I simply needed to be there for him and listen like a friend. And he appreciated it so much.
Then there was my sweet Marcella. This beautiful, patient, and sweet client with COPD. She had COPD for smoking excessively since she was a teenager. Multiple packs a day. I was able to walk into her room with the biggest smile on my face even though I knew her prognosis was so awful. She was able to joke and laugh with me. And I really enjoyed it. I didn’t view it as a job, but more like a privilege to be able to talk to this beautiful woman.
As my fellow student nurses rushed up and down the halls looking for new jobs to do or procedures to take part in, I stayed in Marcella’s room. I rubbed her back as she shared cooking recipes with me. I listened to her heart and lungs while she proceeded to tell me stories about her granddaughter. I sat on a chair near her bed and became completely captivated in this woman.
So, the most beautiful and wonderful part of my last day at clinical? It wasn’t an invasive procedure or inserting IVs. It wasn’t taking patients to get lab work done or thinking critically to evaluate therapeutic ranges of medications.

It was washing Marcella’s hair.

I cry as I write this, because i mean that with all my heart. After I had done all my nursing tasks on Marcella I asked her if she wanted to get cleaned up. She nodded her head and told me that she has to sit on a chair and get a sponge bath because her COPD is too bad to take a shower. She rolled her eyes and said, “I just wish I could go home so I could wash my hair, it’s been over a week and I haven’t been able to wash my hair.” Her eyes looked so sad. “It’s such a small thing, and I hate to complain about it, but it just feels awful. But don’t worry, I’ll go home soon enough, and then I can get somebody to wash it.” You see, COPD patients are difficult. They have oxygen tanks attached to them and they wear out so easily. Washing a COPD patient’s hair is not exactly difficult, but it takes time that most nurses don’t have. It isn’t saving a life, so it becomes something that is at the bottom of the list and overlooked.

“Well Marcella,” I said, “I am going to wash your hair today.” Her face glowed and her eyes lit up. She leaned toward me. “You have time for that?...you would do that for me?”

“Of course,” I said. “We will just need to be creative. But I am going to wash your hair today, and comb it and make it look beautiful.” Her smile was so big it hurt me to even look at it.

I gathered up some materials and made a basin of water and soap in the sink. I helped Marcella to the chair and set up her oxygen nearby. I grabbed a friend to hold a basin behind her head so she wouldn’t have to go into the shower or stand up. I took small drinking glasses and filled them with warm water. I covered her eyes with one hand and slowly poured the water over her hair. I touched her forehead and fought to keep water off of her face. I grabbed baby shampoo and started putting on her hair. As my fingers stroked back and forth against the oiliest hair I had every felt, I heard Marcella sigh. “I can already smell it, it smells so good.”

I rinsed her hair and dried her off. I gently combed through it and styled it in just the way she wanted. I told her how beautiful she looked, and I really, really, meant it. She looked so beautiful. As I looked into her deep grey eyes, I felt tears forming in mine. I was looking into the face of the one that Jesus loved. I didn’t see a patient, an old woman, or a task. I saw what Jesus saw. I saw the most beautiful person on the face of the planet.

I helped her back into bed and she expressed to me how grateful she was. I hugged her and held her tight, telling her it was my pleasure to serve her.

I thought about this experience. As a nurse, what is our job? Is it to save lives? Prolong life? Treat ailments? I don’t think it is. I think our job is just simply to love. Love deeply and love with humility. After three years of nursing school, washing hair doesn’t seem that exciting. But it was what she needed. It was the greatest thing I could do for her to show her love. And isn’t that my job? Whether through conversation or actions, to be continually not only assessing for disease, but being assessing for ways to show the utmost love to my patient? The act was simple. But the lesson was great. There is no job that is too small. There is always an opportunity for me to humble myself and be a servant. Sometimes the smallest of acts show the greatest of love.

Another student came in at the end of shift with me and asked Marcella how she was doing.
“This little nursing student washed my dirty disgusting hair today. Look how clean and beautiful it looks! Being with this student was like seeing a little piece of heaven.”

I smiled as I fought back the tears, knowing deep down for me, being with her was like seeing the whole thing.

LET IT OUT

I was thinking today about my old girl's group that I started a few years ago in college. It was amazing and I miss those girls soo incredibly much. I basically started this group for girls who have been hurt or abused. Going through some abuse myself, my teacher/counselor told me an effective way to help was to help others. Thus, became my tuesday night girl's group. I will never forget the first night, none of us had ever met, we all ate my burnt cookies sitting around the floor of my apt. I opened it up with these two videos. The whole idea is that we were there to listen to eachother, let it out. What ensued from then on was beautiful and getting touched by some of the most amazing souls I've ever met. I love you girls.

The Rescue Aftermath

About a year and a half ago, some friends and I joined with thousands of others across the globe to "abduct ourselves." Sleep outside, and raise awareness about the Invisible children in Africa. If you don't know about invisible children by now, please look up the documentary and watch it! It's less than hour of your time and it's amazing. I have been to several Invisible Children events throughout the years, but the Rescue was the most recent and caused the most ruckus. This is the video that was put together afterward. Because of all of us, it is now LAW to stop the war in Uganda. We did it, after several struggling years. This video makes me so emotional because American people stopped caring about themselves and joined together for these children. It's about time.

The Rescue Aftermath from INVISIBLE CHILDREN on Vimeo.

There are those who expect the unexpected
There are those who cast their vote for hope
Those who believe that good will triumph over evil
We are those people.
We are the masses.
misfits. moguls .media.

We are abducting ourselves.
To pose the question to our leaders:
Is their life as valuable as ours?

We are shaping human history
by closing the divide between
awareness and action

This is about redefining our role in the world
Putting PURPOSE before PROFIT
It's about ending the Longest running war in Africa
Setting precedent for justice, and finishing what was started.
We are here to amplify the chorus of their cries
Rescue Joseph Kony's Child soldiers

Deliver your voice, and discover how it ends.

Keep up with current events. Keep up with Invisible Children at


Remember, we were not put on earth to please ourselves, we are here with the sole purpose of helping others. It's not about me. :)

How "This American Life" Saved Talk Radio

The only talk radio I used to listen to was WGN to figure out if the Dan Ryan or Kennedy expressway I was on would ever let up and allow me to get to my destination. I mean sure I liked the occasional news story or sports update, but why would I put it on by choice for my entertainment?!

That has all changed. A couple years ago, (which wasn't soon enough) I was introduced to the radio show "This American Life" on NPR. This got me started on the talk radio obsession. This American life was just the beginning, I began searching for enjoyable shows all throughout the radio world.

But still, even now, after I am much experienced in the talk radio genre, This American life still remains in my opinion, unrivaled.

If you have NO IDEA what This american life is....

Let them explain it to you. This is from their website:

"One of our problems from the start has been that when we try to describe This American Life in a sentence or two, it just sounds awful. For instance: each week we choose a theme and put together different kinds of stories on that theme. That doesn't sound like something we'd want to listen to on the radio, and it's our show.

So usually we just say what we're not. We're not a news show or a talk show or a call-in show. We're not really formatted like other radio shows at all. Instead, we do these stories that are like movies for radio. There are people in dramatic situations. Things happen to them. There are funny moments and emotional moments and—hopefully—moments where the people in the story say interesting, surprising things about it all. It has to be surprising. It has to be fun."

And oh yes is it fun. My husband Alex and I usually scramble to Itunes every monday to update our podcast list to make sure we get the new episode quickly. We often savor the episode, saving a special time to listen to it. It's like a favorite TV show, but in my opinion, much, much better.


So now, without further ado:


MY FAVORITE EPISODES: the ones i laughed so hard i peed, teared up so much it caused stains, or smiled so long it hurt:

#203: Recordings for Someone: : The little mermaid bit is one of the best TAL moments. Period.
#407: The Bridge: Amazing story through and through.
#403: NUMMI: More tragedy than comedy, but about a car factory in CA that captures what has gone wrong with American cars. Why are they STILL not as good as foreign cars?! AWESOME AWESOME STORY!

#394: Bait and Switch: Bait cars? tricks? traps? love it!

#213: Devil on MY shoulder: The idea of a "hell house" is so repulsive to me, i can't stop listening.

#233: Classifieds: LOVE IT! love the rocket man song so much, you can't even believe it!
#317 Unconditional Love: I cry so much. So beautiful
#352: The Ghost of Bobby Dunbar: Perhaps my favorite history story on TAL
#339: Break-up. What's not to love about this episode? Phil Collins? oh yes.

I'm a new RN. This is my Life.

This is my Life, now that I'm a neurology nurse.

5:00 AM: ALARM! (oh my gosh, seriously?!) I'm exhausted! Always!
5:04: Get ready for the day, shower, scrubs, coffee, oatmeal.
5:45: Think to myself....Hmmm....dry my hair or lay back in bed??????
5:46 Lay back in bed with Alex til' about 6:13
6:13: Gather my RN things: stethoscope, pager, name badge, penlight, hemostats, etc etc etc. Fill my pockets of my scrubs.
6:30: Go wait for the bus
6:35: Get on the bus (either the 18 or 60), whichever comes first.
6:36 Try to read the paper while sipping on my coffee
6:46: Transfer to a different bus on Michigan avenue
7:00: Arrive at work! (nice short commute!) gotta love that!
7:05: Finish my coffee and organize myself for the day.
7:15: Print out medication sheets for each of my patients so I can see their medication schedule for the day. On each piece of paper I write body systems...so when I take report I can write about how each individual body system is doing:
Example: John Doe:

c/c:
hx:
neuro:
resp:
cardio:
Gastric:
G/U:
Skin:
Pain:
Plan:
Lines:

7:30: Safety Huddle. The night charge nurse comes in and tells us all about the "red alerts" Patients who are at risk for falls, skin breakdown, or something of that nature.

7:35: Go to my part of the unit that I'm assigned to that day. Today? Stepdown-ICU.
7:40: Find the night nurse who has my patients and get report on how they are doing and what they need that day. (Fill out my body system page)
Example of what it would look like filled out:

c/c: 48 YOM c/o dizziness, SOB, weakness in BUE. MR shows acute infarct in left pons.
Hx: hyperlipidemia, HTN,
Neuro: A0x3, pupils 3mm and brisk, nystagmus, BUE: 4/5 BLE: 5/5. Sensation intact.
Cardio: NSR w/ 3 PVC's. SOB/chx pain. PRN Nitro STAT EKG ordered.
Resp: diminished resp sounds. trach collar shiley 6 5L at 28%H.
G: BLM: 10/6/10. Normal sounds.
GU: Foley, amber output
SKIN: LD/ staple cranio
Pain: NORCO Q2H PRN
PLAN: TTE with bubble study, hormone labs at 8AM, Troponin levels.
LINES: 60 NS RPIV 20G inserted yesterday

So then I have to take that information for each patient and priortize my day.

8:00 I look up all the recent notes Physicans have ordered/written. I want to get a good understanding of who my patient's are, why they are here now, and what I can do to make them better. I spend from 8:00-8:45 (most days) looking through charts (all online) to get a good idea of how I want to organize my day. This is so important!!!!!!
Without organization, any new RN can FAIL!

8:45-10:00: I start visiting my patients. I write on their whiteboard, my name, the plan, etc. I do my first BIG assessment on each of them. Because this is a NEURO floor I focus on a neuro assessment. But I also assess many other things about them. Whatever is important to their care. I also give all morning meds at this time, which can take a lot of time and effort. I also look at each patient's rhythm strip and interpret it. I write down the rhythm, PR interval and QRS interval then put it in their chart.

I get on the computer and chart after I see each patient, I fill out large assessments, how they are moving around, how their IV lines look, and what sort of education I provide.

10:00 MY patient in my last room has a Lumbar drain to drain CSF from their spinal cord. I have to manually drain teh fluid every hour. 20cc's. I take vital signs and carefully monitor the patient at this time. He also a PEG tube, tube feedings, a wound vac, a prafo boot, a trachostomy, and is immobile and nonverbal. He is my big care patient for the day. I DO EVERYTHING for him. And I will be in the room every hour on the hour. No matter what. I need to drain him on the hour. I notice that his oxygen sats are falling while doing my assessment. I stop my assessment, put his HOB up and trach and oral suction him while using the ambu bag to hyperventilate. His stats go back up to 99-100. I feel great about that.

11:00: Drain. The DR's round and i try to go to with them to see what decisons they are making so I can have input too. Nice Docs will ask me for my input, mean ones don't ask but I give it anyway. I consider myself a patient advocate. I go around to all my patients again for a second neuro assessment. I turn my patient with the trach. turn him every two hours with my PCT Mary.

12:00 Drain, take vital signs, make sure the patient's get lunch. Get a transfer patient from the ICU. Call down to NICU to get report. Stay on hold for too long. A DR asks me where MRI results are. Not my job ,but i'll find them. After report I call MRI and stay on hold with them too. Meanwhile, finish some charting.

1:00: Drain, Another assessment, put in orders. Make sure patients are seen by therapies. Record I and O's. Admit my new patient. Set him up in the room with his family. Do a lot of education. Do a good initiual assessment. The DR. orders dozens of labs, all of which I will collect.

2:00 Drain. Get blood samples from my new patient, also urine specimens. Send those down to lab. Give my pager to another nurse and go in the other room to eat my lunch. I get half an hour. Just enough time to check my phone and realize Alex has been locked out of the house all morning! :( Go back to the floor, read new notes. Realize another patients glucose level is too high. Look for his insulin. Pharmacy never brought it up. Order his insulin. Call and complain they never brought it up. Steal someone else's insulin to give to him. (he needed it!)

3:00: Drain. Neuro assessments again! More tests, flushing Peg tubes, increasing tube feedings, suctioning again. call dietary for a consult for a patient with bad eating habits.

4:00: Drain. Call the patient education line and tell them I want a video shown to my patient about stroke risk factors. Get that set up and set up a question and answer session with a family about stroke. CHART.

5:00: Drain. Assessment again! Start giving evening medications. Pt complains of chest pain and doesn't have PRN meds for that. Page a resident. resident visists. Orders stat EKG and lab levels. I perform those labs, take those blood tests and assist in the EKG.

6:00 Drain. Patient has a TTE and I'm at the bedside doing the "bubble test" with the tech. Give medication if parameters allow. Finalize the report I need to write to give to the night nurse.

7:00 Last neuro assessment. VS/ recheck all orders. Update my SBARS. Tie up any loose ends.

7:30 Give report to night nurses. decide to change the draining system last minute. Realize we are all out on the floor and go down to ICU to borrow it. IT takes a while to do it.

8:30: Alex texts me, he's here to pick me up. Where am I?
8:31: Just getting done. Clean up everything, say goodnight, swipe out!
9:00 Get home, eat some delicious dinner Alex made.
9:15: We take dexter out together.

After that,,, I usually fall asleep! That's a short summary of my day, in reality we do a lot more. But I thought this would give a good idea to those who ask me what we do!

Being an RN is a lot of work, and working with life and death is stressful! But who else gets to experience mankind at their most delicate moments?

Now, I'm off to sleep. TO do it again tomorrow.
Goodnight!