Hello, is it me you're looking for?

Hey all!! It's been a while since I've posted on here so I thought I should update you all on what we've been doing recently.

First of all, I am ONE MONTH away from finishing my nursing degree! It's pretty much the best feeling in the world. No more lecture courses, no more clinical courses (except for the one month I have in my last placement) and only one more FINAL exam. So awesome!!

So I'll tell you a little about where I am right now. I am on a specialized unit right now that deals with teens with mental health illnesses. We deal with all sorts of disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, personality disorders, oppositional defiant disorder, and many more. It's really a whole different world in there. On regular general medicine and medical/surgical units, you have at least 5 patients each and are running off your feet trying to get your vital signs, assessments, medications, and other tasks done. Here, it is much different. We basically have 1:1 conversations with the youth and figure out what we need to do for them to get them stabilized and ready to get back out into the community and get the help they need. Sometimes there are escalations where we need to take actions such as give unscheduled medications and injections and sometimes restraints, however, I have yet to witness an escalation. The kids on the unit are really great, you can tell their good kids, they just have a lot of issues in their life, mostly at home. The staff on this unit is also fantastic!! They are really caring people and have great teamwork which is rare, although it shouldn't be.

This unit has a kitchen built into it so there have been several occasions where the staff have made dinner on the unit and we all sit down together for dinner. It's really strange...but so awesome. The other day, we had a dinner potluck where we had pancakes, bacon, eggs, hash-browns, sausages, cornbread, banana bread, and fresh fruit. Delish! Definitely an upside to working here.

I could DEFINITELY see myself working here when I finish my clinical placement. I love it!

As for Jared, he was recently called as a seminary teacher so he gets the pleasure of teaching early morning seminary. So far, he really enjoys this calling and likes interacting with the youth on a daily basis. On top of this, he also has school and work. Sometimes he'll be going from 6:00am until 10pm so it's pretty self-explanatory that he gets pretty exhausted. He's hard-working though and I really appreciate that.

Other than that, we just had the open house for the Calgary Alberta Temple. It was a great experience to volunteer there and go through a couple tours, once by myself, and once with Jared and his family. The temple is the most beautiful building I have ever seen. The rooms inside are gorgeous and the spirit is very strong. I can't wait to go once it's been dedicated!

That's our lives in a nutshell at the moment but hopefully I can update this thing more often. Happy October!