All this working though means I’m not at home with my sweet pea, she gets the honor of spending lots of time with her Daddy now.  So if you want more photos and updates on the little rascal then you better leave  a comment to show your vote for more photos.

As the semesters went by each one was tougher than the next in more ways than one.  Semester two was the hardest in terms of course content and workload, then semester three I was pregnant with Poppy.  I didn’t have nausea and vomiting during my pregnancy but I did have fainting, which wouldn’t be an issue if I had an office job but during clinicals I was on my feet alot.  I remember my clinical in the newborn nursery, they kept the nursery so warm!  I tried really hard to hold it together until the room started closing in on me and I looked at my instructor with panic in my eyes and said, “I need to sit down.”  She grabbed me and steadied me out of the room.  There were a couple of close calls during that semester but thankfully I never actually went down.  Then for my last and final semester I had a newborn baby.  Poppy was around 6 weeks when I started back, my sister had come over to ease the transition and I was so thankful.  My emotions were all over the place and the smallest set back or bad comment I received on my work felt like my nursing career was over.  It was horrible.  But I was determined, so determined to finish what I had started.  I kept saying to myself that I’d gotten this far and I was going to keep going until they asked me to leave.  When I think back to that semester it really was a miracle that Drew and I got through that and both graduated on schedule.  And I’m so thankful that Poppy was so young, she would just sleep while I studied and it was perfect, at her age now it would be extremely hard to get in enough study time.

Well we finally graduated and it was a sweet time for both of us and both sets of parents.  We were all together for Christmas and it was just a magical time.

The final step was to take the state board of nursing exam and officially become a Registered Nurse.  Christmas had been hectic so I booked my date  with about a month in between to really get prepared because this was an exam I REALLY needed to pass on the first try, one for my own dignity and two because I already had a job waiting.  I went in feeling pretty good, I knew it was going to be hard but I felt ready to give it my best shot.  All I can say is there are no words to describe that exam, or my experience.  But I can joyfully say that I passed am now Emily Maust, RN.

The journey has ended and I have never felt more relieved.  We celebrated by going out to eat at Texas Road House and then coming home and making a bonfire   The photos will tell that story, heehee.  My in-laws also sent me flowers which arrived in the late afternoon, what a wonderful surprise!  Today was a very good day.

I just have to say that this book had fallen apart, no one would want to use it, the pages had come unstuck to the binding.

Congratulations Marla!!!

More pictures are available in the the photo gallery for your viewing pleasure.

Please say this prayer with me:

The Lord is my Shepherd

I shall not flunk

He keepeth me from lying down when I should be studying

He leadeth me beside the water cooler for a study break

He restores my faith in study guides

He leads me to better study habits

For my grades’ sake

Yea tho’ I walk through the valley of borderline grades

I will not have a nervous breakdown

For thou art with me

My prayers and my friends they comfort me

Thou givest me the answers in moments of blankness

Thou anointest my head with understanding

My test paper runneth over with questions I recognize

Surely passing grades and flying colors shall follow me all the days of my examinations

And I shall not have to dwell in this school forever!

Amen

Watts School of Nursing honors the nursing students’ completion of their first year with a special ceremony called a Black Banding. Originally the Watts nurses wore caps to which could be added a colored band to desiginate their levels of seniority while still doing their clinicals, the primary way the students gain hospital experience.

Though their uniforms no longer include a cap, the same tradition of honoring and designating the student nurses continues. Today black banding is done with the pinning of a Watts pin to the students’ uniforms by a Registered Nurse (RN) whom the student has asked. Emily honored my mother as a nurse by asking her to participate in this special ceremony by pinning her.

Click on over to our videos page to see Emily’s introduction and exit from Mount Sylvan Methodist Church where the ceremony was hosted. There’s also bunches of pictures in our photo gallery.

Congratulations, Peanut, on the completion of your first year of nursing school! I am so proud of you! You’re half-way there!

So we rushed into their house and I jump into full Nurse Maust mode!  “Let me take a look….ah I see, is that your skin? (holding the gasp in)…….hmm, its wide open you should definitely go and get stitches or at least let them sterilize it and dress it properly to stop any risk of infection”.   Poor Beth, she was coping as well as you would expect someone would after seeing their bone through an open wound. “Here lets put some gauze and tape on it in case you faint again”.  So Drew and Josh were all flustered, Drew was getting off the phone to urgent care “Are you open on Sundays?” haha I thought that was the funniest question, but maybe that’s just me.  And Josh was concerned with Bethany and making sure she didn’t look at the wound again.  SO Drew suggests to drive them, before they could say “don’t worry about it” Drew’s grabbed the car keys and jumped in the drivers seat.  I’m waving them goodbye not even thinking about the fact that Drew has our house keys!!!!!!!!!!

I walk back over to our house arms wrapped around my body cuz its windy and rainy and I didn’t have a chance to grab a coat cuz Drew was all in a rush.  I go to open our front door and ITS LOCKED!!!!  AHHHHH, “they just left to sit in a waiting room for 6 hours” I thought, what was I gonna do!  I had nothing on me, no phone, no car keys, no coat!  I had literally grabbed the gauze and run out the door!  So I tried the window cuz sometimes we leave it unlocked…nope!  I walked around the back hoping for some kind of miracle….I knew it was locked cuz we had just been away and locked up everything.  So I went back over to Josh and Bethany’s and tried their front door, nope, it was locked (which I later found out it wasn’t, its just a bit stiff!!!!!!  LOL).

Then I tried their car door!!!  and it was open!!!  So i got in there and tried to occupy myself for a while by snooping around the car…..those guys have more pairs of sunglasses in their car than I own pairs of earrings!  Well after about 3 minutes of looking around their car for magazines or books, or a portable DVD player I decided that I may as well have my Sunday afternoon nap while I wait!  I was just really frustrated that I went home early (and didn’t stick around to socialize) so that I could study, and there I was locked out of the house, sitting in a car with no textbook, no recorder, no notes, nothing!!!  But there was nothing I could do about it, the others could be gone for hours….so I may as well get some sleep.  It was getting a bit nippy so I used the cushions in the back seat as some kind of warmth, believe it or not they actually made a difference.  Then I found a jacket of Bethany’s on the backseat and put that over me.  I kept listening for cars and listening for voices in case they did come back but nothing.

THEN just as I was nodding off someone knocked on the window and it was Josh!  Josh and Drew had come back, Beth was going to have to wait to get stitches so Drew was coming back to get dropped off at home and Josh was picking some books up to go back and wait with Bethany.  I hadn’t even heard them get back!  Embarrasing!!!!!!!  LOL.  I could tell Josh felt bad, haha.  Thats when he told me his house was unlocked!  Great, now I know!  lol.   Oh well, thankfully they had only been gone about half an hour, can you imagine if Drew had said he would stick around and wait with them.  I think Drew was more annoyed by the situation than I was, he really didn’t like that I had accidentally gotten locked out without even my phone, but I finally made him laugh about it!!!  lol.   So in the end I only missed about half an hours worth of study time and I have a little Sunday afternoon story to tell on Monday morning.  Hope you liked this one Ally.  See you soon.  Note to self * always unlock the front door when rushing out to practise nursing skills!

After completing her first semester of nursing school on her way to becoming an RN, Emily could take the test to become a CNA and this is what she did this past Saturday. Passing this test will enable her to be able to work in a nurse-like environment in a hospital or a nursing home until she fully graduates nursing school. She was stressing out about the test, but apparently for no reason because she passed with no problems after absolutely spanking the test. Good work, baby!