I recently started getting Food Network magazine, and there are so many yummy sounding recipes to try in each one. Last week Matt and I made this one and it was really yummy. I think we are going to make it again this week for Dad now that he is back, I know he will love it. I didn't take a picture (my camera is broke and didn't think about using my phone) but trust me it looked and tasted de-lish!
Pork Chops with Apples and Garlic Smashed Potatoes 1 pound small fingerling potatoes 2 cloves of garlic Kosher salt 4 1/2-inch-thick boneless pork loin chops (5 ounces each) 2 teaspoons chopped fresh sage Freshly grounded pepper 1 tablespoon EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) 1 large red onion, cut into 1/2-inch wedges 2 Granny Smith apples, cut into 1/2- inch pieces 3/4 cup apple cider 1/4 cup buttermilk
1.Put the potatoes and garlic in a saucepan, cover with cold water and season with salt. Cover and bring to a boil, then uncover and continue cooking until tender, about 15 minutes. Cover and set aside.
2. Meanwhile, rub both sides of the pork chops with the sage, and salt and pepper to taste. Heat a large cast-iron skillet over high heat, then add 1 teaspoon of olive oil and sear the chops until golden brown on both sides, about 5 minutes total. Transfer to plate. Wipe out skillet and add the remaining 2 teaspoons olive oil. Add the onion and apples and cook over medium heat until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and stir in cider.
3. Return the chops to the skillet. Cover and cook, turning once, until just cooked through, 4 to 5 minutes. Drain potatoes, reserving 1/4 cup liquid. Return the potatoes to the pan; add buttermilk and mash, adding cooking liquid as needed. Season with salt and pepper. serve with pork chops, onion and apples. Drizzle with pan juices.
Logan participated in the St. Jude Research Hospital Trike-A-Thon at this preschool last week. They were late getting the fund-raising packets so we were not able to collect donations before the event, but we are now! Logan completed 12 laps for the Trike-A-Thon and learned all about bike safety and earned his Trike License! He also learned about the incredible kids at St. Jude and how the Trike-A-Thon was going to help them get better!
If you are able to make a donation on his behalf we (and St. Jude's) would greatly appreciate it. I can't image what those parents and children go through and anything we can do to help, I am sure they will be forever grateful for.
And I love the BNAT program already! I was sitting in class thinking, yep this is were I belong!
It' s been a long time since I was actually interested in what I was learning in school.
Before I get into how class was let's do a happy dance, why you ask? Well I went to prove my in-district residency and when the nice girl was done doing that she printed out my new account balance and to my happy surprise I know only owe the college $330 and some change! Apparently the day I registered since they did ask to see my id (and I didn't know they needed it) they charged me out of district tuition (at the time I thought wow I thought this was a lot cheaper, maybe tuition went up?) So now I only have to make one more payment in instead of 3 at $600+. Which means I am so getting a new refrigerator when we get out tax return back, but I digress...
So that was an awesome way to start class off!
Anyway my teacher is nice, but strict, but I like strict and she is very detailed and has everything outlined which is also awesome for testing purposes. You should see the schedule we got, unreal it's going to be a lot of work and testing, but it will be worth it for sure. A lot of the other students are moms and dads with kids the same age as my own so that is neat, gives us stuff to talk about, I think there only two students who are right out of High School, the rest are all "older" like me, second careers for a lot of them as well.
The one bummer was finding out our clinical site is a rehab facility and not a hospital, where I hope to work. Oh well, at least it's not a long-term, nursing home setting, where I know for sure I want nothing to do with (ever since I was little I have hated nursing homes, when we use to go with church or Girl Scouts I would freak out and practically make my self sick and have a panic attack).
Today for what will eventually be out clinical day, we had lab and learned how to wash hands properly and learned how to glove, gown and mask following proper technique and isolation procedures and how to double bag bio-hazard waste. We practice this again next class, and then start bed making and then we are skill tested on all three. We have our first lecture exam the day before our lab test...yikes!
So far so good though! We all brought home gloves, gown and a mask to practice, and then we are to wash our hands properly every time we need to wash our hands so it becomes second nature, washing your hands for the health care setting, is harder than you think and it's hard to un-train the bad washing habits that I have used for well, almost 30 years LOL!
We also learned about MRSA and C-Diff today which was interesting as well.
Tomorrow night is my first night of class!! I can't believe it's finally time for this, a long time in the making for sure!I am getting all my stuff together, after an annoying misunderstanding with Barnes & Noble, I ended up getting my textbook/workbook for $11 cheaper than the book store, so that was a score! I haven't opened yet, just in case it's not the right one, but it should be. I have to stop at the book store before class tomorrow to pick up the skills book that the college prints up and the prep book for the state test.
I also just found out that I never proved my in-district residency, didn't know I had to other than the address on my application, so even though I have already been paying in-district tuition payments, I will be charged out of district prices if I don't prove by Saturday at noon. So after a small heart attack, I found out I can do that tomorrow before class as well, just have to get there a little earlier now.
Other than that I am ready to go! I still need to get white shoes for clinicals, I have two pairs of white scrub bottoms (I heard it's prudent to always have an extra pair of scrubs on you) and an extra white scrub top (we have to wear a uniform top and smock from the college which we will get fitted for probably tomorrow). I have my new watch with easy to read face for doing vitals, but I still need to get a stethoscope and blood pressure cuff.I am so excited, I am sure I will be over whelmed by tomorrow night, but right now I am excited and that says a lot since i never felt like this about school before, and definitely not about grad school (guess that should have been a red flag).
Well better finish up packing my stuff up and then off to bed, full day of being a mommy (Logan off to school, my regular Friday floor cleaning, taking care of poor Ava who has her first fever) and full night of class tomorrow!
Getting all my stuff together, loving my new water bottle and coffee mug!
I don't know what happened but my simple cold I started with on New Years Eve, turned into the head cold from hell this past week. I was going to go to the doctor today, but I did start to feel better this afternoon so I will wait it out another day or so, but I think I am on the mend finally.
My Dad is being discharged tomorrow, his doctor wanted him to stay until Monday, but the rehab place said there was no reason for him to, he is doing great, so tomorrow it is!
His doctors changed around some of his meds and added some new ones so we will have to work all that out now. He is going to stay at my Grandparents house for a day two, as I haven't been able to clean since I got sick and we want to make sure I really am on the mend before he comes back home. I don't know what we are going to do when either my Grandparents are no longer here or we move we we have sickness situations like this.
Ava had a little cold, but she seems to be better today as well so that is good. She had her 15 month check up on Friday (shocking I know!) and she is 27lbs 6oz and 30 and a quarter inches (95 percentile) and her head is 49cm (off the chart, just like Logan's. We call that the Warnock percentile) and doctor said she is doing great! She has quite the vocab for a 15 month old and is already putting two words together. She got one shot and is up to date now until she is 4, she will be happy about that when we go back for her 18 month in April, which I am totally in denial about.
Logan is doing good, he is very happy to be back to school and anxious to get back to gymnastics after two weeks off for the holidays and then missing Saturday because Matt had to work and I was too sick to take him. He has his first school pictures on the 27th, I am sure they will be cute.
School starts in 8 days...yikes! Going to try and get out there this week to get my books and then I have a few last minute things I need to get together. I am very excited but very nervous, big changes. I have been a SAHM since September 2006 so it's weird to think I will be heading back to work (part-time, nights, every other weekend) in the very near future, but I know it's for the best and if we are ever going to move so we can grow our family, mama needs to being home some bacon as well!
I leave you with my diva daughter dancing in a laundry basket eating a cracker...love her so!
Dad has steadily been getting better since I last posted. He has been out of the ICU for two days now and in a step down unit. Today he is being transferred to the rehab facility for the next 7-10 days while he finishes up his antibiotics and a couple other treatments that have to go through an IV. His breathing is sooo much better now and he is still getting those treatments as well. His kidney function number is now down to 3.2, less than a point away (2.4) from where it usually sits when he is not taxed. So no dialysis was needed, thank God! Hopefully we will see that number go back down to it usual resting place.
I haven't been able to get up to the hospital, last day I saw Dad was Sunday and he was up and out of bed, walking to the bathroom and back, which is great. I helped him eat, which he wasn't able to eat a lot then, but he is eating full meals now just two days later so that is good.
Matt and I have bad colds, which is mostly why once he became stable I haven't been going up there, the doctor told us we have to be very careful about what we expose ourselves and Dad to right now as his resistance is still down. Matt's Mom came down with the flu a couple days ago and she had been out here last week helping us so we were re-exposed, so far everyone is ok. But we won't be going anywhere or taking the kids anywhere unnecessary probably for the next month. Once Dad is actually home we have to be very careful.
So that is that, thank you all for you thoughts and prayers, they did their work and we are very grateful.
I blogged every day for a year, just as I had resolved to do last New Years. I am so glad that I was able to keep it up and now I have record of Ava's first year and all the fun and exciting things that went on during 2010!
Will I keep it up in 2o11? Probably not everyday as I will be busy with school, but I intend to blog still and I am sure with school and eventually going back to work I will have lots to blog about.
With that out of the way it's update time.
Dad is doing MUCH better today! After we left yesterday, he did start to run a fever, but it was gone by morning which was good. His blood sugars are at a much better level now and Respiratory Therapist is able to get more off of his chest now so his breathing is much improved which is making him much more comfortable. He looks so much better today and was even joking around. He is very tired as he hasn't been sleeping well (who does in a hospital) so he is hoping to get a better sleep tonight. Here is a run down of everything: *Kidney function (his normal keratin level is 2.4) went down from 5.6 to 4.125 which means no dialysis! This was a huge relief, as there was talk about kidney biopsies and long term dialysis and back on the transplant list talk yesterday if there had been serious damage to the kidney. We want to watch that number keep going down to that 2.4 and we are heading in the right direction. *Dad always struggles with anemia, he gets iron shots every two weeks to combat it. With as sick as he has been, he has become very anemic which can also cause the shortness of breath. They are giving him two units of blood tonight to help with anemia. *They are now stopping fluids, which is also contributing to the pneumonia, as he is outputting so much urine (good thing, shows kidney is working) that his potassium level (which is usually to high as a diabetic) is too low now. He is on potassium pills to combat that. *He is receiving breathing treatments and a vest therapy (a vest that goes around his chest that vibrates quite roughly) and that is getting the junk off of his chest nicely. *He is on contact precautions right now as well, so we have to gown and glove before going in the room, good practice for me, I am sure I will be tested on it in school :<).
Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers, they are working! Thank you to all our family that has visited, it helps and keeps him going!
And yesterday as I was questioning my ability to be a CNA as I had this terrible feeling like I wanted to run out of the hospital (things were bad yesterday and they were asking me questions about life saving measures and such, but I recognize today this is why they never let nurses or doctors take care of their own family in situations like this), that today I had more confirmation that I am headed in the right direction as I thought it was cool that Matt got to see a code blue go down, I would have liked to see that (I know demented right? It's just very interesting to me) I was also in the hall gowning up when they pulled a gurney out of the room next to my Dad with a body bag, a full body bag, and I wasn't the least bit grossed out as Matt fled into Dad's room. (That was also the room I passed yesterday when I needed to get some air and headed to the family room around the corner that had the Nun in there giving last rights, and pretty much sent me over the edge when Dad was so sick yesterday. I never take for granted how lucky we are to always come out of the ICU, he always pulls through.
I think in a funny way I needed this experience right before school started, some days I doubt if I will be able to handle this career, and now I couldn't be more excited to start!
Time to enjoy my last few weeks before schools starts!
Happy New Year to you all! Many blessings for a new year!
A 30 something wife and mom of two. Working as a nursing assistant part-time and back in school (yes again!) to be an RN. Life is crazy right now, but hey it could always be worse.
