life updates

Day Shift
I am working day shift at the hospital now. 7am-7pm. I've been on this more regular schedule since May. I enjoy having a more normal schedule, but day shift is definitely busier! I didn't realize how much extra time I sometimes had on nightshift that I used for doing various things...paying bills, blogging, answering House of Shep emails, etc. When that time was gone, I really missed it!

House of Shep
Wow, where do I even start?! The shop became much much busier around August last year.  I did about 400+ total orders in 2012. 300+ of those orders were between August and December! It has been such a blessing making pretty things for people! I love to think how a hobby turned in to a side job. The extra income helps, but it's not taking the place of any other "real" jobs right now.

Church
Chris and I are still hosting our young married small group two nights a month. We are also co-leading/hosting the college group every Thursday. We love having people in our home and using what God has blessed us with to bless others. There's not much better than having 26 college students in our small living room all worshiping together. Such a great thing. Chris is also working part time at the church doing some AV stuff, editing, etc and I'm starting back in helping with the children's ministry a few Sundays a month.

Small Business Owners
We bought a small business over the summer last year and what a ride it has been! The opportunity came for us to purchase the newspaper that Chris had worked for off and on over the past 4 years. We have learned a LOT and still have even more to learn about being business owners. Chris is his own boss, which has its benefits, but writing your own checks (or not..) is not one of them! Ha. I was even named "Business Manager." Still figuring out what that means!

Scout
Happy to report things are the same in Scout's world. No ear infections in about a year. He is such a goof ball. His latest thing is (when we aren't looking) pulling the towel down off of the towel bar and rolling around on it! I get annoyed when I find the towel on the ground, but I can't help but laugh because he looks so goofy doing it!

Blogging
I love reading back over our adventures that have been written on this blog. I'm sad to look back over the last year and have almost nothing recorded for the majority of the year. I am unapologetic about blogging infrequently, because ultimately this blog is for us. BUT, I want to make a goal to blog more, so that I can look back later and read about our lives now.

both of us watching Passion live via Chris' iPad last week

we were visiting my family the first week in January and Chris was loving on Brooklynn

one of my favorites we made for a Christmas order!

all things night shift - part two

I'm back for Part Two of Q&A of working night shift...

Check in for Part One if you missed it.

When do you and your husband see each other?
The first 2 years of being married, Chris was into the heavy coursework of his Master's degree along with being a TA. There were many times I would get home from work AFTER he had left for school and wouldn't get home until AFTER I had left for work that evening. So many times we would go 2-3 days with seeing each other for maybe 15 minutes/day or none at all.
That was hard. But we knew it was a season and now we rarely don't see each other when I work.

His schedule is much more flexible now, so that hasn't really been an issue since last May.
Since I only work 3 days/week, even if we don't see each other in those days, I know we will have time together in the other 4 days.

How do you stay awake at night?
Some nights it is tough to stay awake. But it's weird how my body just knows {usually} that I'm supposed to be stay awake. Surprisingly, I do not drink coffee. I don't really drink caffeine at all actually. Occasionally I'll have a cream soda, but not usually at work. It helps that we have some lights on and I have other coworkers to help keep me awake when I'm feeling extra sleepy.

The night before my first night shift, I stayed up until 4am in the morning. I thought this would allow me to sleep into the afternoon and be rested up for the all-nighter. Well, my body wasn't tricked. I woke around 10am the next morning. So my first shift was tough because I was reeeally tired, but I slept really good the next day! :)

What do you eat? And when?
The only difference in my diet when I work is that I usually want cereal or some other breakfast food when I wake up in the afternoon. I know some night-shifters will eat "dinner" food in the morning after work, but I can not do that! If I don't eat "dinner" by about 3am, I usually don't eat or maybe eat a bowl of cereal. So when I'm working consecutively....
I eat "breakfast" when I wake up around 4pm. 
Snack around 10pm. 
"Lunch/Dinner" around 1am. 
And typically I don't eat anything when I get off work.

What's the atmosphere of the hospital like at night?
Quiet. Usually.
We don't use that word on the job though, because as soon as you say that, it gets chaotic or we have a kid get really sick, something happens! We don't usually say the S word either. {slow}
There aren't a lot of visitors at night. We will have some, but usually just before 10pm or so. Since I work on Pediatrics, there are always parents/family members.
It varies from night to night on how busy we are. Typically speaking, the weekends are the slowest. Monday-Wednesday are the busiest. And Thursday and Friday and somewhere in between. This can change at any point, but usually [again] this is true.

A few other things...
--I hate having to call doctors and waking them up in the middle of the night. It's easier than when I first started, because I'm more confident in what I'm doing/saying, but it's still hard sometimes!
--I do get shift differential for working night shift. I get an extra amount for working 7-11pm, and an additional amount for working 11pm-7am. It's nice, but I would give that up to be on a normal schedule.
--Having a "Do not ring doorbell." sign on our front door has been a lifesaver! Some people still don't read before they ring, but most do..and I'm grateful!
--My husband has been the best with me working night shift. He is so thoughtful and always stays quiet and lets me sleep as long as I need/want to. He is very understanding of me needing to sleep during the day since I was up all night. I'm one blessed wife. :)

Did I answer all your questions? 
Any of my readers also fellow night-shifters??

ps. My Etsy store, House of Shep, is hosting a giveaway on Heather's blog, Blonde...Undercover Blonde today! 

Go check it out!

all things night shift - part one

I've worked night shift since I started my nursing career. 

Over the past 2 years I've been asked many of the same questions and thought I'd answer them on the blog in case you have the same questions AND so someday I can look back on this and remember life working night shift.

Here is the good, the bad and the ugly of working night shift!

Do you rotate shifts?
No, not usually. Before this week, I had worked one day shift in the time since I've been off orientation and that was to help another nurse out that needed off. This month, day shift is short staffed, so I am scheduled 8 of my 12 shifts for day shift. But that is not normal for the scheduling on our unit.

Do you prefer nights over days?
When I started working, night shift was the only position available. I hope to move to dayshift permanently sometime this year. After working 3 day shifts last week, I would love that even more! They posted two positions this past week, but they are flex 7a-7p AND 7p-7a based on the unit patient load/staffing. They would alternate my shift as they need me. Chris and I haven't decided if this is something that we are willing to do.

When do you sleep?
I'm working when you sleep, so I'm sleeping when you work! :)
If it's my first night on, sometimes I take a nap before work, sometimes I don't. {which means sometimes when I'm getting off, I've been up for 22-24 hours straight!}
When I'm working consecutive nights (which is MUCH preferred) I usually come home and go to bed within 30 minutes. I am blessed that I have never had problems getting to sleep after working. I joke about falling asleep so fast I am sometimes in the middle of setting my alarm.
When I do not work the next night, I come home and go to bed like normal, but usually I'll get up around 1 or 2...or 3. ;) Then I'll go to bed with Chris that night and have a "normal" schedule until I work again.

Is it hard to sleep during the day?
Sometimes yes, sometimes no.
Thankfully we live in a very quiet subdivision, so neighbors/dogs/traffic/etc have not been a consistent problem. There have only been 2 or 3 days where something was going on outside (ex. neighbor's roof getting repaired) that woke me up and kept me awake.

One thing we've found that really helps our schedule is me sleeping in the guest bedroom when I sleep during the day. We've done this since we moved into our house. Chris isn't always ready to wake up/get up when I come home from work at 7:30am, so it allows him to sleep until his alarm and then get ready and not have to worry about waking me up. Then he also has access to the bedroom/bathroom during the day if needed.

I always wake up at least once during the day, usually about noon, to pee. Always. No exceptions.
And I usually have no problems going back to sleep until my alarm goes off around 3:30-4.

I'll be back tomorrow with Part Two!

our week in review

Life has been fast the past few weeks. Since returning from Uganda, we have been going going going. In the 31 days of July, we were home for 15 of them and I worked 12 of those!

I got a new phone for my birthday from the hubs and I've been messing with it trying to get it set up with way I want it. I LOVE it. It is a huge upgrade from my PalmPre.

Chris has been doing Insanity with Hayden and has already seen results from it! He says it's definitely a beatdown but feels good to work out.

Here is our sweet (2 year old) puppy, Scout

Saturday night we went bowling with our friends Hayden, Olivia and Ella. Olivia is someone we met at church and she and I really clicked. Unfortunately, she and her husband, Chris, moved to west Texas this week. Olivia and their baby girl, Ella, came bowling with us. 

Right before we left the bowling alley turned on the black lights. Here is Ella glowing! I wish I had taken one of her in the light too so you could see her precious face!

On Sunday afternoon we took some time to relax. Love this picture :)

The rest of the week went by quickly because I worked Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights. 


When I woke up Thursday afternoon I got my hair cut and then my parents were in. My youngest sister, Becca, moved back to College Station for school this weekend, so they came in to do that and spend some time with us. THEN, Thursday night I went and picked up our nephews!! We are keeping them this weekend while Jenn and Paul celebrate their anniversary. 


We had a FULL day today with lots of fun. But my goodness, I am tired!
I will post about all of our fun after we send them back home.

busy bees

Well, I'm sad that summer is really OVER. I know it has been for a few weeks, but it's time for me to accept it.

I so enjoyed spending the summer with Chris. It was his first summer in the states in 6 years! He taught a class the first summer session and a long summer session. But even with those, I got to see him a lot and have him home more than during school. Here is our calendar during July. You can compare in a minute to September.

Since school has started again...Chris is taking 9 hours of grad courses. He is TA'ing 9 hours (i think that's right) of undergrad courses. He is the editor of the Maroon Weekly. When fall softball starts he'll be the PA announcer for those games. And the list goes on. I am very proud of him how he juggles everything. On top of all that, he is a wonderful husband and is always there for me when I need him.

The past few weeks have been NUTS. School starting and getting the paper running again have been enough to keep Chris busy. I've been working 50+ hrs/wk the past few week also. I haven't picked up any overtime this week and it's the first week in a few that I haven't felt like I'm always at work. I know as we get into the swing of things the semester will smooth out and fly by. I know we are so very blessed to both have great jobs and each other. :)

Here is a glimpse at our September calendar...