Revenge of the Blog (Peterson Family Update#3456)

There are lots of big and little things happening in the world, and on a local level there are definitely a number of pieces that make up our home's bigger whole.  

• I'm still adjusting to the idea that I'm not just on a break between the last term and the next--I'm starting to believe it some mornings.  There's still a niggling feeling sometimes that I should be getting back to my textbook readings, but I am steadily moving away from that particular kind of "you need to be productive!" guilt.  
• Luna is, I think, heartily confused by our new schedule.  Andy is gone on weekdays for the workday.  Mike is gone for chunks at a time on multiple days.  I am gone for less days but for a long time on those days.  We're trying to work on some habits and concepts, like how alone time in the kitchen isn't a punishment.  

• One of the last major sections discussed in one of my final courses was all about sepsis.  These sections were very difficult for me to read and process, because it put me back in those memories--all of these facets felt very familiar in some ways.  I had names and patterns for flashes of moments that pieced together into a very horrific whole, blandly stated on a textbook page.  We had a guest speaker come in that voiced her own experience in septic shock, and, while I was grateful for her voice, I also felt trapped in the class, frankly tried to think about something else for parts of it, where I needed a brief gulp of free air.  It fit in with the Seeking the Edges concept, but it was more difficult in that I didn't feel I had much choice in how/when I interacted with it, meaning that it was not my favorite couple of weeks in class.
• By the way, in case folks hadn't seen:  I PASSED MY NCLEX.  It shut off after 75 questions (the minimum, meaning I either did really well or failed it wretchedly), and I tried the trick to re-sign up, got the good pop-up.  Such a relief to have that squared away.  The ball is rolling at Bromenn, to change me over from Tech to RN in the system, work through what orientation pieces I will need and which ones I already have completed.  I got my letter affirming that I had passed and sent it back with a check to the state for my license on Saturday.  Starting to feel like a big kid.  :)  

Real picture of me in the coming weeks

• We had some nursing students on the floor lately during one of my shifts, and that day they were specifically assigned to follow a tech.  I delighted in showing my two persons around and having them try some different things with me, talking about their current course load, the NCLEX, and other random questions as they had them.  
• Andy's new job at Rivian is going well--he comes home full of excitement or tired from being excited most of the day.  There's a lot moving and shaking that he cannot get into the specifics of, but there are many, many good indicators for the company culture.  I'm excited to see how it will steadily affect the area.  
• Switching jobs meant switching insurances.  Rivian's options were much better for our situation (let's be honest, I'm an outlier in most hypotheticals in this arena) than what Carle Bromenn offered, too, which meant that all of the initial pieces for myself had to go through Andy.  And, of course, I had a couple of significant things coming up in August that had specific requirements and necessary gates to go through.  Ugh.  These had to be redone, and within roughly twelve business days.  Effectively we'll be hitting our max out-of-pocket twice within six months, since it will all start over again in January.  *sigh*  
• Andy added about six trees to our yard over the summer.  This is not to mention all of the many other small plants that were also planted around the house.  I hope spring is going to be as pretty as he imagines it!
• Now that we're on the horizon of being a dual income home again, we are starting to think about what our priorities are, for housing projects, financial goals, and what kind of adventures we want in the future.  I want to travel to Iceland late next year, for example.  There are a number of things that we cannot hash out until we have some of the basic numbers sorted out, what my general paycheck range will actually math out to be instead of what I'm guessing it might, but we can at least start some of the speculation phase.  There's hope in those spaces.  
• We're on the precipice of great change in our home, just waiting for a number of things to settle.  There are logistics and emotional facets to consider that we do not yet have enough understanding to work through yet.  We just need to ride the wave for a while.  

More adventures ahead!