The Search is Over!!!

I finally landed my first job as a Registered Nurse!!!! Yea!!! I start next Thursday at Progressive Hospital! It's an acute long term care facility. They're a small hospital with only 24 beds, but the hospital is so nice!! Their is critical and non-critical patients. So I will be trained for both!! I am excited to start, but also a little nervous. Everyone there has been so good to me, so I'm sure I'll have a lot of support! Can't believe the day has come!!!

Emilee Haslam RN!!!

I know Daniel is usually the one to blog, but I felt it was appropriate for me to have a turn. I have had a long journey and it has finally come to an end!! My experience in Nursing school was probably the most difficult thing I have ever been through! I waited so long to get into a nursing program. I had to transfer my credits to three different schools and I took so many classes that I didn't need to take. I wanted to give up so many times. The stress was almost unbearable sometimes! Poor Daniel had to deal with all my shenanigans!! I am so glad that he didn't let me give up!!! I never thought I would make it to this day! I may have given up a long time ago if I didn't have him behind me pushing me the whole way! He has been my biggest cheerleader!

The last step in getting my license was to pass the NCLEX (nursing boards). During my last semester of school we were promised a review session for the test, but seeing as how my school was a brand new school, things were still a little unorganized and the review session never happened. So, after I graduated in July, I did my best to review on my own.

Once I got to the test I was so nervous and unable to focus, so I failed the first time. It was so depressing to get this far and then to see the word "fail"! Once again I was discouraged. I took a little time to pick my self up again and dust my self off, then I got back to studying.

I later found out that my class had only a 64% passing rate!! So I guess I wasn't alone. My school decided to finally provide us a good review session! I went to the review and It helped me so much! I studied so hard for the second time around, locking myself in a room everyday to study. I couldn't bare to see that word "fail" one more time!!!

When the day came to take the test I was so nervous! I almost felt sick! I got to the testing center and sat down to take the test, and just my luck, my computer froze after starting my test. Luckily I hadn't gotten to any of the actual questions yet and they were able to fix it!
It took me 3 hours to do 75 questions. I took my time on every question and really thought about the answers. Then my test was done.

The NCLEX is anywhere from 75 to 265 questions. You have a total of 6 hours to test. If you get only 75 questions, you either did really really bad, or really really good. When I only got 75 questions I was so sure I failed! I didn't think that there was any way I did that good.

Unfortunately you don't find out right away and it takes several days to get your results!! The Waite was killing me!!!!! Finally my results were in. I had to pay to see them, so as I was putting in the credit card information I was so nervous! I just wanted to see PASS!!! Daniel was standing behind me and I was shaking! Then I saw it, PASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I immediately jumped out of my chair and into Daniel's arms and cried!! He wasn't sure if they were good tears or bad tears, and I think I made him nervous!! Once he figured they were good tears I could see how proud he was!!!!!!! It was a moment I will never forget!!! The journey was hard but it was soooooo worth it!!!! I love my husband and I am happy he was there to support me through this journey!!
Now to get a job!! ;)

A little about my work

Well, it has been over a month since i have blogged anything and i spend a lot of time working so i figured i would start posting bit my work. Frankly, i get tired of it but maybe someone may find it interesting. I would if it wasnt my problem to fix everyday. I have been doing this type of work for about a 9 months now as a Project Manager and wow have i learned a lot in less than a year. I never know what i am going to run across! Here are some shots of one of my very interesting jobs. I have been working on for the last three months while running multiple other ones. It was a 7 million dollar home only 90 days old when a outdoor fireplace caused a fire that burned inside the patio cover / balcony. I never imagined it would end in a complete gut of nearly 2 million dollars in electrical, hvac, cabinets, etc. Odly, a proper thermal envelope , fireblocking and draftstopping would have eliminated 90% of this smoke damage. Nearly evertyhing had to be removed form the home as I combated the heavy smoke odors with a variety of methods such as removal, ice and sand blasting, odor masking and smoke sealing. I am very proud of the work we have performed on this project. More projects will follow, but dont worry i will try to squeeze some fun stuff in too. I have over 1000 pictures of this job.

Getting the contents out that can be saved is the first step.

Picture of the initial damage...almost nothing visible from a fire in the corner column fireplace. The smoke went through all the interior walls and eventually led to the entire interior being gutted and sealed.

Evidence of pressurized smoke blowing through walls and out of baseboards.

Nothing showin g on the interior except smoke around baseboards and outlets.

A speaker pulled from the lid in the room above showeed the problem is much worse that it appears.

Same spot about two months later. Dry ice blasting in progress to scrub as much soot as possible from framing. (Lots and Lots of Demo labor later!)

Same spot after complete gut of all roughs, dry ice blasting and smoke sealing.

Can start to see fire damage. Patio framing damaged and needs complete rebuild.

Busting up some inch think italian travertine.

Was a lot of work getting that deck down...all while keeping the pool clean mind you!

After a bit of sandblasting and sealing.

Before...it looks ok right?

But this is what it looks like behind! Smoke can get everywhere.

Unusual Images!

Had to post some of these photos from our little snow event a couple weeks ago. Defiantly not your typical Strip photos.

Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving we stayed home and hosted. Mom and Dad came down, Heather was here and CJ and Diane brought their family as well. Emilee and Mom did all the cooking and it was delicious. It was nice to see everyone!

Our Cooks

The pool table worked out nice with a little handy work!

The Smith's.......

Don't forget the new guy. Roman

My Entourage! I pushed that wheelchair all the over the State! CJ was off fixin a doo-dee!

What a difference a month makes!!

Backyard on November 16th. About 80 degrees!

Flowers still in Bloom!

Except this one...Emilee HATES this plant! She yells at it for not growing or changing all summer. It was supposed to be a birds of paradise :(

Today...December 15th. This Stinks!!!

Not your typical Vegas Skyline View!

I refuse to give up my lifestyle...Lets BBQ!!!

November was awesome with highs in the 80's for half the month but look what happened. Cant imagine what the rest of you are going through living in Siberia USA.

Wah Wahh (Thats a cry) Summer is winding down.

A couple weeks ago Em and I decided to get in the truck and head for the far reaches of Lake Mead. We have explored the nearer side of the lake for years now but wanted to explore the inlet end of the lake and took a weekend in late October and decided to go check it out and say we have seen it it all. There is a little, remote marina about 80 miles from Las Vegas called Temple Bar that we headed out for and stayed the night in their little motel. It was so nice and peaceful out there and the lake is awesome in the fall. NO wind all weekend. We went as far as we could go towards the Grand Canyon but got stopped about 40miles short due to the low water. It is really cool where the cold water form the Colorado and Grand Canyon meet the warm lake water...it swirls and dives down causing a weird ripple of chop where they collide. It was neat to watch the water as it swirled and moved down beneath the warm lake water. It looked like clouds. You could really feel the difference between the two water temperatures. The lake was still at 70 degrees and the brown water felt much cooler. It always amazes me how places like this are only a little drive from Vegas and 19 out of 20 people here will know nothing about it if you asked them. We love exploring around Vegas! We covered a good 150 miles of lake that weekend and burned at least 50 gallons of fuel, (ouch, ya you do the math) but it was a good send off for summer. This is the Vegas Lifestyle!


50+ miles of crowded highways!

Luxury Accomadations!

Crowded Valet Only Parking!.... ok, ya get it? Its sarcasm.

The two waters meet here. If the water was higher we could go another 60+ miles.

Cool ehh!

Definatly camping next time. Probably 20 miles from anyone!

Chasin Ducks! They look funny when they run on water.

The Temple of Temple Bar

The Stats. Although I didn't see even a 2mph gust!

Emilee is my good trailer backer girl now!!! It took some practice :) but she learned from the best!

The morning water was a bit rough...

And stayed rough throughout the day! (about 50 miles from last shot)

Echo Bay Marina for Gas and Grub...somebody is excited! Yes, the water is that low...where we are walking should be under water, that's the ramp!

That's right, we are braking the law! (no 3rd person spotter) but how can you resist water like this?

Someone is getting better!

Ahhh.. may camp here next time!



Scenery.

I love these weekends...we're gonna miss summer!