Happy New Year

First post of 2011. We are getting back into routine. Rachel, thankfully, started back at school this week. She was getting bored at home and I was getting tired of playing Barbies all day. There is just not enough to do up here, especially when the weather is chilly. I started investigating which little friends might be able to come over for a parent-free playdate. I like parent-free, because Rachel is occupied and I can still go about my usual stuff (house cleaning, homework, or just picking up a book with a cup of coffee, things I can't do when Rachel is home and needs attention)

We have started her back at dance on Saturday mornings, and soccer on Sunday. Swimming lessons start next Saturday. And STILL she is constantly clamouring for attention. The plight of the only child, I guess. Weekends can be long. We took a drive to Prelude Territorial Park yesterday, just to get out of the house, and it was a bright sunny day. Rachel napped in the car, which was SO nice! I forgot how much I missed her afternoon naps.

I went out for a girls' night last night, just hanging out at a friend's house with a few of the girls in the class I have become very close to. We are all starting to realize that our four years together is coming to an end. Of my group, only a small number are staying in Yellowknife to hopefully find nursing jobs. Others are going to Inuvik, Fort Simpson, and BC. I think I will miss these girls a lot. They helped me get through the last four years, which could be really challenging at times, and often made me question why exactly I was doing this.

I'm not done yet though. I start the countdown for my 600 required hours of practice. This week and next we are in orientation at the school, and I start my first rotation on January 18. I have chosen not to work in the hospital for the first segment, a decision I am still struggling with. Instead I am working for the Department of Health and Social Services. My preceptor sounds fabulous and is in a high management position, so I will learn lots about policy and change. But this term is meant to be for consolidation of skills. So for the second semester (approximately April and May), I will be working in Obstetrics, on shift work. I think because of my personal situation (family, being an older student), I was less willing to do 12-hour day and night shifts for the next 5 months. Even in September, when we were choosing our placements, I was looking for one rotation that had hours similar to Rachel's daycare. But I will experience the night shift stuff before graduation, which is important.

Anyway, I have had several chats with my preceptor, and there are lots of opportunities for leadership projects, and maybe even some travel to smaller communities. I will also be working independently here and there, which suits me just fine, as I am "self-directed" according to my instructors.

So that will take me to probably the end of May. We will have a "pinning ceremony" in May, which signifies the graduation from Aurora College. My commencement will be in Victoria, BC in November. I have started studying for the Canadian Registered Nurses Exam in June, which will give me the lovely "R.N." initials after my name.

But first I need to successfully complete the semester, which is a PASS/NO PASS. Despite this, I still have a number of assignments to complete, and of course lots of reading and prep. Being in clinical practice is very exhausting because we are working, but also learning. It's not like a job that just ends when the shift is over. I remember this from my time in Inuvik. My instructor warned me that I would get very tired. When you are on shift, you are trying to do your job, but also trying to remember everything you learned in class. In addition, you are trying to integrate yourself into the team. Unfortunately, many experienced nurses can be resentful or downright mean to the students, so we flounder around trying to get up to speed, fit in socially, and pass our course.

All this to say my class and I are rather anxious. I can see it in the wide-eyed looks we are giving each other as we go over the course curriculum. So for me, it becomes doubly important to have friends in the group that I can share these anxieties with. It helps me hugely to know that I am not alone in the way I feel. Our instructors have been great, they have a lot of confidence in us, and are starting to treat us like equals. It's actually kind of fun to be a senior!

Hmmm, yes, I seem to notice that I am talking quite a bit about myself in this post. So what else is new, you ask? Shane found a way to print our entire blog (over 250 entries) into a book format.  It could be pretty pricey, but there are a number of companies out there that will do this service for you. As we are coming to the end of my schooling here, and Rachel comes up to her 5th birthday (well, soonish), I think we may decide to bring the blog to a close. I will still have a number of posts over the next few months of course, but sometimes I have been remiss in posting regularly, and that may be a sign that it is time to wrap things up here. Not wrap up blogging completely! But maybe wrap up "Living in Yellowknife". I could start a new one: "Living in ..." who knows?

I haven't posted many photos lately, but I have a few of Rachel's drawings I wanted to share.

This first one is mixed media. She used flower stickers to enhance her drawing. 

Next is a picture of Rachel on stage (see the stage lights across the top). She is dancing in front of an audience, who are all sitting on chairs.

I like this one for several reasons. She has written her name very neatly,  the couple on the left are holding hands, and there are two mermaids on the right (notice their green tails). Her women all have dresses now, and her men have straight-across eyebrows.

Rachel is learning reading and math at Montessori now, and I am amazed at her ability and interest to learn. She will stop me when we are reading and say, "You just said "six". Where is it on the page? Oh, there it is!" She writes "cat" and "mat", and is using lowercase printing. She loves to play games with numbers, like starting with "one plus one" and moving up to "ten plus ten".  We are really impressed with Montessori and her teachers, who are kind and give Rachel lots of attention. There are quite a few younger kids in her class, so I think Montessori suits her well, as it is independent learning (with guidance of course). So the class doesn't learn all the same things. We have to register Rachel for kindergarten in February, and we were considering several "normal" kindergartens, but recently we have begun to wonder if she will do better to continue in the Montessori stream for a few more years. She loves going, and often wants us to pick her up at the very end of the day, so she can play with her friends during free time after 3:30pm.

I'll collect some of our recent photos and get them on the blog. Because of Facebook, I find I don't tend to post too many. But we have some nice ones from Christmas, etc.