I'm A Gardener!

I started a garden today. I think it will go well. I planted zinnias, chives, cilantro, oregano, peppers, sweet basil, and tomatoes. The downfall to this plan is that I have no idea how to garden or when I should plant want or how to actually make things grow. So I'm hoping that all of these will thrive with nothing but my love and some water. We'll see.

These are the peppers (left) and cilantro (right) that I will soon transfer to my garden. I just don't want to yet because they're doing so well- I fear they may die outside.

This is my garden! There aren't any drain holes in the bottom of the giant pot but there's a crack down each side so I hope that will be an effective drain. The little pot on the ground has nothing in it...yet.

Sparti sitting in the garden!

Garden close up. Behind the tiny wire fence are the zinnias.

In case you were expecting more pictures, you should know that the large pot itself is the whole garden. And the little pot will be the garden annex, whenever I figure out what to put in it.

Mom visits Biloxi

My mom came down to see me this weekend! Actually, I think she was just ready to get rid of my dogs, but I'm going to think that she really missed me. The good news is that the weather was beautiful and I didn't have to work too much. The bad news is that I came down with a fever Thursday night and by Friday it was over 101. I went to the doctor and got a prescription but I'm pretty sure tonsilitis has struck again and it's only a matter of time before I get it for the fourth, that's right, FOURTH time this year. Luckily, I feel okay if you don't count the fever or the feeling of glass being lodged in my throat every time I swallow. Here, however, are the pictures from her visit and a few other things.

This is at the picnic the previous NTP students had for the current students. I took my mom and we ate all sorts of delicious food. (She just didn't want to be in any pictures.)

This is a dead fish we saw on the beach. Most were marked with little flags, I have no idea why. This guy did not have a little flag.

This is my mom wading out to show how far you can go and still only be up to your ankles. She could have gone a good bit farther. I'm not sure why but the water doesn't get deep until you go waaaay out.

Another dead fish. My shoe is there for size comparison. Note the little flag.

Another dead fish!

A dead sea turtle. I could say it's from the oil spill but that'd be a lie since it's not here yet. I really don't know why this guy is here but it appears he's been dead for some time.

These are all the dogs that came to see me. I think they like cruising around my back yard. The house is a little crowded but it's not too bad.

This is the crock pot I bought while my mom was here. Apparently you can cook a lot of delicious meals pretty easily in these things and this one was on sale so it was a win-win situation. The chunk of meat in there is about to become pulled pork. I'll let you know how it goes.

UPDATE:

This is the s'more making fire I built in my backyard fire pit.

My mom and I making our first s'mores!

S'more making is serious business.

But it can also be fun!

S'more self-portrait.

My mom excited to be eating s'mores!

(Side-note: the words in the background were written by the former owner of the house. She was apparently a very 'free spirit' and may or may not be currently living in a renovated school bus down by the ocean. Seriously.)

This was way tastier than the look on my face implies.

My first ever homemade pulled-pork: pre-sauce.

My first ever homemade pulled-pork: post-sauce. Next to my first ever homemade pulled-pork sandwich. I couldn't taste it because of my sore throat but my mom said it was the best pulled-pork sandwich she ever ate. And I'm pretty sure that had nothing to do with the fact her daughter made it- it was just that delicious. I love my mom. Happy Mother's Day!

Getting back to the basics

So now that I'm done with training I'm in NTP (Nurse Transition Program) at Keesler. Basically it's like a residency program for 11 weeks for nurses with less than one year of experience. We went on a tour of the hospital the other day and the ICU is only six beds and at the time there was only one patient. I will only rotate through the ICU for a couple of days but it will definitely not be anything like what I was doing in Atlanta. Also, on the floors here the tech/nurse ratio is about 1:2. How amazing is that? There will actually be someone there to help me when I need it who is completely trained and qualified to be working! The techs here are comparable to LPNs, from what I'm told, so it will be very different from what I'm used to.

This is my whole NTP group- I'm on the far right. They all went to COT with me so I had met most of them before but they weren't in my flight so I didn't see them often. Now we're spending the next 11 weeks together! We'll be on different schedules once we start working on the floor but we'll still meet up pretty often. Also, we weren't sure why these pinwheels were here but we really liked them. (The guy taking the picture didn't know how to zoom- I apologize for the tiny picture on his behalf).

Our classroom was freezing so we took our lunch break outside. (I'm not in this picture, so no need to look for me).

Our first time out in Biloxi. This bar was in the lobby of a casino (of course!). It wasn't actually reserved for us, we just had to ask and they let us sit here.

I'm so excited to be out past 11! We always had to be back early when we went out at COT.

This is right before our first ever combat dining-in. These are held for various big events, though not very often. This particular one was for the departure of a general that will be moving to another base. Basically it's a dinner which opens with a water balloon fight- this one was all medical personnel. It was the only time we will probably ever be allowed to throw things at a general. We took about 200 water balloons and three super-soaker water guns. I don't have any pictures during or after because I didn't want to get my camera ruined, but I'm sure some will pop up eventually. I was pegged pretty good at point blank range by some enlisted folks- one smacked me right in the face, one hard in the back, and one that had to have been recently frozen based on how much it hurt, right in the thigh. I was soaking wet and hit more than a few dozen times but those three were the painful ones. The whole night was a lot of fun!

I move into my new house next week so I'll be putting up lots of pictures when I start to settle in. I'll have a fire pit in the backyard too! I can already taste the s'mores...

Biloxi!

These are the pictures I have of my new surroundings. Thus far, I LOVE it! I can walk to the beach, I can walk to work, I'm surrounded by good food- what's not to love?! I found a place to rent that is literally right outside the base gate so as soon as I move in feel free to come visit. The train goes by every now and then but I think I'll get used to it pretty quick.

This is where I'm staying until I move into my own place. The room I'm in is just like a regular hotel room but with a little fridge/freezer, toaster, coffee maker, and microwave. It's a pretty good setup actually.

This is a water tower on base. I just liked it.

This is my view as I'm driving off base.

This is the view at the first stop light outside of base. See how close I am to the beach?

This is the house I'm hoping to rent. I'll post more pictures if it ends up working out. It's roughly a three minute walk to the beach and a ten minute walk to work. (It's only a 30 second walk to base but the hospital is all the way at the back).

In summary, my life here is pretty hard so far.

I'll post more pictures as I get them! I should be able to move into my own place in two or three weeks, I think. Then my dogs can move down too hopefully!

Pictures and pictures. Oh did I mention pictures?

Prepare for image overload!
I have about 500 more but this sums it up nicely.

I was freezing cold during a field day so I was laying on this warm platform to warm up. The instructor told me there was no sunbathing allowed at COT- he called it my iguana rock and let it slide though.

About to do the ropes course.

The entire flight posed at the beginning with a thumb's up. I was supposed to squat for it but the platform was too small for maneuvering. The pose is probably only funny if you've been down the BOT hallway at Maxwell.

The first stretch of the ropes course. I'm about ten or twelve feet off the ground I think. Each segment got higher and higher and had different ways to cross, they weren't all like this one.

Case in point. This is coming up to the final stretch of the course. I'm on the far left waiting to cross the bridge. You had to jump from plank to plank and they didn't want you to hold on!

Climbing ropes is hard work.

Napping in the shade after a hard day of rope climbing. Technically we were only supposed to eat lunch and then head back out to the field...

Posing under the sun shade.

This was funny at the time...

Briefing my flight on an obviously engaging topic. Had I not chugged a cup of coffee immediately before this things may have gone more smoothly. I turned tomato-red towards the end of it and felt like my face was on fire. Note to self: chugging coffee and then putting on an overcoat and giving a presentation is not a great idea.

Very flattering shot of the sit-up competition. We didn't win...the winner did 107 in two minutes. I won't mention what I did but it was nowhere near 107. Therefore, I don't feel bad for talking through the first fifteen or so. Even with full concentration, breaking 100 was not an option!

Eating dinner off base for the first time.

My new personal make-up artist.

Playing a little afternoon frisbee.

Hangin' at the O-Club.

Kilo's love to dance!

This was the postal officer for the flight and when he saw how many cards I was getting he asked to be adopted into the family. So this is my adopted cousin.

Lining up for the debrief after a field exercise.

Saying Goodbye

Well folks, I made it through training and I lived to tell about it. I have roughly 1 million pictures to post so as soon as I figure out how to do it I will. (My computer died while at training so I stepped into the modern age and bought an apple.)

(That's my half-face you can see towards the back of the picture.)

During one of our final days we went out to the ropes course, which was amazing! Part of this consisted of walking out on the 'toothpick' which is a forty foot high telephone pole that is parallel to the ground and sticks off the side of a tower. You climb up a bunch of stairs, get strapped to the safety wire, and off you go. The best part was the 40 mile an hour winds so you could feel the pole wobbling under your feet. You walk out to the end, do a u-turn and walk back. Pre u-turn was the only time during all of my training where my knees were wobbling because I was so scared. But let me tell you, when I got back on solid ground I was ecstatic! When you get back to the tower you repel off the side of the building to get down, which was also amazing and only slightly terrifying! My camera was dead by this point so I only have pictures of the ropes course, but just trust me when I tell you it was really high and really scary but also really fun.

I'm in Biloxi now and looking for a place to live. The area isn't the best I've ever seen but hopefully I can find a decent place. The base is RIGHT on the beach and I can see waves hitting the shore when I drive on and off base, it's pretty awesome. I start work tomorrow so I'm a little nervous but after the first couple weeks I should be good to go. The homesickness comes in waves, but I'm not too far away so I can visit pretty often. Mostly I just want to see me dogs!

Thanks mom, Alison, and Carrie for coming to my graduation- it really meant a lot to me to see you guys there! I had a ton of fun at COT but it was also the hardest thing I've ever done in my life so having loved ones there to see me march was really special. Mom recorded it and should be posting the video soon, so if you want to watch it you can.

And I know you've all been very concerned, so this is the update on my cankles- they are almost back to normal! Apparently the MREs we were eating are made mostly of sodium so I was retaining water like there's no tomorrow. Hopefully by next week I'll be completely ok. I'm also waiting to re-weigh myself. I can't remember if I mentioned it previously but according to the scale in the gym I gained about 8 pounds while in training. Meanwhile everyone else in my flight lost about 10, but whatever. I know for a fact that some of it is muscle because I can see the difference in my arms and legs. As well as the fact that my shorts and jeans no longer fit- thanks to the extra junk in my trunk. I'm practically pure muscle now, I'm just sayin'. HA!