Whew!

Well, today was my first day of clinical for this Spring semester and I am happy to report that it went really well. MUCH better than I expected. See..I got the instructor that just about everyone reports as being super hard and unfriendly. Well, that was not the case today. Don't get me wrong...she is going to expect a lot, but we will be so much better for it in the long run. I can't wait until I can say that I had her for clinical and I made it! She is very upfront about what she expects so we all know before-hand. I am excited about it!! And what a burden was lifted today when we had such a great day....whew!
I precepted Saturday in the ER @ Highlands and had an absolutely great day there as well. My preceptor is wonderful and is another wealth of knowledge. I am looking forward to my next shift...:-)
Both my boys had birthdays this last week. Daniel turned 13 then the next day Dawson turned 6. I am fairly okay with Dawson being 6, but I am not happy at all about Daniel turning 13 and being half-way through the 7th grade. I absolutely hate it....I HATE it! And for more than one reason, more reasons than I care to blog about. I realize he IS a teenager now, and we need to give him a little room to develop his own "self," but we pretty much keep him right under our noses. I am just not ready to let him go and risk all the bad things that can happen out there. Other children his age have many more privileges than he does. He is only allowed on the computer when we are right there in the room with him. His cell phone is an open book to me...that was part of the conditions when we got it for him. He knows the rules about it and he complies without argument. He is not allowed to go anywhere that I don't know the parents and not just any parents will do. There are parents I trust implicitly and he is allowed to go with his friends of these. But, these parents are ones with the same type rules at their houses that we have at ours. Daniel still has to ask our permission to do just about anything. But there is so much going on with other children his age at school that it scares me to death!!! REALLY...you wouldn't believe it if I told you some of these things. Well, some of you may, but it seems like I learn something new every day and some of it is quite disturbing. I know I can't protect Daniel from everything, but I am going to do my best to hold on to him as long as I can without messing him up for life...lol...after all, he really is just a child. I don't care if he is 13 or not. He is still a child. I still have to remind him to pick up his laundry, I still have to nag him about homework...so there! I do think that he would make the right choices if put in certain positions, but why risk it? I really wish I could say more so everyone would understand, but i don't want to plaster everyone's business on a blog. But Lord help these children...and thank God that Daniel is just as upset as I am about some things. I think we maintain a pretty open relationship where he can talk to us about anything. Lord knows he tells us a lot. I am glad he does, but I really wish I could protect him just a little bit more!
Well, since I have written a short story here I better get myself in bed. I have so much to do tomorrow: clinical paperwork (and there's A LOT), study for upcoming cardiac test, 4 little tests for our online Nursing class, and reading for upcoming lectures. I really doubt I will get it all done tomorrow, but I am going to knock as much out as possible.
Enjoy the nicer weather!! LoVe :-)