This Thing Called Life

     My cna testing date FINALLY arrived in the mail! My test will be on August 24 starting at 8 a.m. This is so exciting for a couple of reasons. One, being that most of the girls in my class also test on this day, and two, it means that my time is winding down at my desk job. I'm feeling pretty confident that I will pass on the first try (skills part) but you never know. I could start my skills and then immediately start drawing blanks and making an ass of myself. The main thing is that I've made this far and I don't want to fail. Plus I paid $94 for this test and if I fail the skills portion, it is like 60 some dollars to re-test. My wallet hurts enough paying for general classes and then this class on top of them. The countdown is officially on! I have 26 days until my career is either started or pushed back. I'm praying I pass because I want to stop working this desk job so badly and start helping people!

     Besides waiting anxiously for my state test date and wanting to work as a cna, I have nothing to complain about shockingly. I'm back on track to lose weight and be healthy. It will take time but I feel like I'm more committed this go around. My boyfriend and I have started going hiking on Saturdays at our state park. I love it. I love moving around and getting exercise instead of standing in one place like riding an elliptical. I have been debating about buying a treadmill to work on my jogging skills. I eventually want to be be able to jog on the hiking trails. I still have some bad habits like eating when I'm sad, stressed, or depressed and drinking Pepsi whenever I crave one. I'm trying my best to stay away from that crap. I just have to stay strong and keep telling myself that I can do this. Work is work. We all know my feelings about that.      Tuition for the fall semester is due at the beginning of August. Thankfully, I already have enough for the one class

     So I was sitting here at work thinking about everything and this idea popped into my head. Since I'm not putting as much money into my Pensacola Beach vacation fund, I thought of the phrase "pennies for Pensacola". Yea I know, weird that that just popped into my head but whatever. I'm going to start saving my pennies separate from my other spare change so that I know at least some money will be in my vacation fund. It may take longer to save up with pennies but I'll throw other change into the jar when I remember or feel like it. I want to go there so bad. The pictures I see and the stories I read make me wish I would have started saving a long time ago. I've never been that far south, plus I'll be driving since I don't like planes. It will be a long car ride but at least I could take my time coming back and stop at places that look interesting. Let the penny savings begin!

     I love going to clinical for the nurse aide program. Helping people and making them smile makes me happy. I'm pretty hopeful and confident that I will pass state and become certified to work as an aide. The one thing I'm concerned about now is nursing school and becoming a nurse. That is the only career I've thought about but what if I don't make it? What if nursing school is too hard or too much for me to handle? Yea, being an aide is great but I won't be able to make a decent living off it. I wouldn't be able to expand my choices and career paths in just that field as you would as a registered nurse. They say if you want something bad enough you'll get it or achieve it but some of the stories I hear about nursing school worry me. I'm terrible at math and if I can't grasp any concepts, I'll fail then be pushed back another semester to re-take classes and stuff. This is so nerve racking.      There are many career choices out there but what

     After tonights clinical we only have 4 clinical days left until we can send in our stuff for state. Holy canolies, Time has really flown by. I'm kind of nervous about state only because we never know what skills we will get. I want to reward myself if I pass state on the first try but I don't know what to do. Should I have a party or go on a shopping spree? Go out to dinner or take a vacation? I don't know. I do know that I deserve SOMETHING for all of my hard work and dedication while working full time and taking care of my grandma. It's so awesome helping these people with daily tasks. It's even more awesome when they thank you and act so grateful for what you've done. I've realized that I'm kind of thankful for not being friends with some of the people I hung out with in high school because of where they are at in life compared to me. I got my life together pretty quickly after high school and some people just act like the world owes them somethi

     Having four days off seemed nice. It would have been nice if I actually got to do nothing but lay on the beach and relax (which I did for a couple of hours). My grandma came home Thursday. I helped my mom get her into the house and situated. I left after to meet my dad and other relatives at the beach. An hour later, my mom calls and says my grandma went back to the hospital because she was having breathing issues and turning grey/blue. So I ended up leaving the beach because that was all I could think about. She came home again and was fine until Saturday. Saturday morning I did my usual routine of draining her catheter bag, making her coffee, giving her medicine, and helping her get up. She did pretty good. Then later that evening, my gut instinct told me to check on her. I'm glad I did. Somehow, her catheter tube came out. Not the entire catheter because there wasn't blood everywhere, so I knew that the balloon was still inside. But she freaked out when I told her what

     There are tons of survey sites out there and choosing a good one can be tricky. The only site I use is Cashcrate. You get $1 just for signing up and there are many other bonuses too. If you check in every day you get 3 cents and if you check in everyday for a whole month, you will earn 50 cents. That may not sound like much but depending on how many surveys or offers you complete, you could make a killing. This is perfect for people who have down time at work or someone looking to earn extra money for something they are saving towards. If you love shopping like I do, sign up with Cashcrate and under the "shopping" tab, select stores you shop at like Walmart or iTunes and earn a percentage of your purchases back. It's that easy. I signed up to make some extra money to put towards community college. Here is the link to sign up! http://www.cashcrate.com/4652172

     Last night was great. We took a tour of the wing that we would be doing our clinical in. We met tons of clients and we even jumped right in with helping the nurse aides complete tasks. Everyone in class was divided up and partnered with a different nurse aide to shadow. I helped with two peri cares, made a bed, and helped a lady move into her new room with a roommate. She was very nice. I think everyone there was nice. It made me kind of nervous at first but after the first half hour I got more comfortable and I was ready to do work. It was nice being able to watch and apply skills we had learned previously before coming to clinical. One thing I did learn fairly quickly was how demanding older people are. When they want their ice cream, they want it. If they ask for an extra pillow or blanket, get it or else you will see a side of them you don't want to see.      I know I talk about this program a lot but I can't help it. I'm so proud to be doing this and I'm prou

     Looking at my savings account and seeing the small amount of money that is in it, only tells me that I'm nowhere near where I need to be financially for school. Originally when I first started community college, I told myself I wanted to pay completely out of pocket for all of my pre-requisites, nursing school, and my Bachelors degree.  That probably could of happened if I had been saving like I should have been. My account is down some because I paid for this nurse aide course but it is also low because I had to pay $300 for some car repairs. I always get mad at myself for not saving as soon as I started working when I was 16. I would be set financially right now if I had. Instead, I scramble every semester to pay for my credits, books, and other supplies. Just because I go to community college and not a university doesn't mean it's not expensive. Each semester I pay over $1000 by the time I pay for everything. That ads up. Thankfully, I don't have any student loa