Where have I been?

Well, not here obviously. I have been stitching, stitching, stitching. I've been stitching in class. Two of my classes, to be exact. I stitch and take notes and overall, it works pretty well. I'm an audio-visual type learner so as long as I'm hearing what I'm seeing (and both of these instructors use power-point), I do pretty well. So it goes, a couple stitches, a couple notes, a couple stitches, a couple notes...and so on. Makes me happy and it's working well so far. I've also been stitching at work when it gets slow in the middle of the night. Since I have to be sitting at the desk and there's not much else to do, I might as well be productive in some fashion, right?

You can see on my other blog all of the recent finishes...all of them smalls. Here's the address so please have a look: http://smstitchinjournal.blogspot.com/. I haven't been in the mood to really pick up any of my bigger WIPs. I do plan to do so tonight, when I'm done posting here, though. I'll work on Celtic Spring and watch an older version of The Other Boleyn Girl. I watched The Visitor the other night and found that to be a pretty good movie.

I've updated my Wishes and Trades blog and you'll find that link to the side.

To keep this post from being entirely pictureless, I've taken a couple shots of some recent starts. I've been suffering from start-itis like you would not believe. I'm limited only by the number of Q-snaps that I own, which are not near enough to what I would like. So here are Immortal Bloom by Midsummer Night Designs, Dragonfly by CCN, Maidens of the Sea by With My Needle and a progress pic of Mirabilia's Halloween Fairy.

I have also finished all of the stitching for my PIFs and plan to sit and do the finishing this week. It will be wonderful to get them out to the ladies after waiting a whole year to get them completed. I am obviously an ADD procrastinating stitcher. I got my Patriotic F&S doen and mailed out last week, so hopefully will be able to show those squares next week sometime.

School is going well this semester. I just completed my Med-surg I clinicals. I was on a neurology floor at a local hospital and I enjoyed it very much. I love talking to the patients and getting to spend some time with them. It was exhausting work, though. I find that the biggest paradox in nursing is the expectation that the nurse should meet all of the patient's needs but the reality that s/he simply can't meet all of every patient's needs in one shift when she is taking care of multiple patients. It is a neverending balancing act and it is emotionally, mentally, and physically exhausting. But...I LOVE IT! Now I am in my mental health rotation and I find that fascinating as well, although a little slower paced because all we do is talk to the patients. No real hands-on skills. I enjoy it, though.

The coursework is a little easier this term because there is a lot of review for me. We are taking Pathophysiology, Physiological Nursing and Mental Health Nursing. It's nice not to have to kill myself studying all of the time because I'm drawing on the last 7 years of continuing education. Also, there are not that many papers and projects this term.

Well that pretty much updates you on my school and stitching. I pick up a stash package at the post office tomorrow, so I'll plan to give you a pic of that later this week. Thanks for coming by and hope your stitching is fruitful this week!