Ah, the wonderful world of facebook! (AKA another fabulous vacation)

Last weekend was a long weekend here in Canada, and I was fortunate enough to scoop up the 4 days following the long weekend as vacation time at the last minute. My plan was to spend this time off working around the house. On the Saturday I worked in the yard and made it all neat and tidy and presentable again. I probably spent a good 5 hours outdoors. Then I went out for supper with my friend Sari whom I haven't had a chance to spend time with in about a year and a half. We stayed until the closing of the restaurant catching up & munching on appetizers.

In the middle of the night, I got so sick, I thought I was going to die! I had such a headache I couldn't think straight, had such a stiff neck I could barely roll over in bed, and then get violently sick. I kept waiting for a rash to appear telling me I had meningitis! I suffered through by blaring my TV as loud as it could go and watched about 5 back-to-back Law & Order episodes to distract myself from the pain. By Sunday afternoon, I was pretty much over it, other than the headache, so to keep myself occupied I played around on facebook for awhile.

I perused my cousin Donna's facebook page, and her status line stated that her and her family had gone to Neys Provincial Park. I LOVE it there, and it is my favourite park to visit. It has a beautiful beach several miles long, with one mile alone dedicated to people with dogs! I wanted to camp there this year, but it is so far to go, and I had no one to go with. As soon as I read that my cousins were at Neys, I decided I was going to join them. Thankfully by Monday I was feeling better, and I threw all my camping equipment into my SUV and headed off to Neys! (As a side note, I am the most non-spontaneous person you could ever meet. I am a fanatical planner, and like to know plans days, preferably weeks in advance before I will agree to do something new. This was very new for me!)

So, off I trekked to Neys and met up with my cousins. I had not seen my cousins for over 9 years! The last I saw them, I visited the hospital when the twins were born, and they are now 9. Sadly, they only live 2 hours away! This turned out to be an excellent opportunity to catch up and get to know the family a bit better. It was a wonderful way to spend time together, doing many of my favourite activities. We went hiking and swimming during the day, and later sat around and played cards and did shooters into the wee hours of the morning. One night, we were giggling away about who-knows-what, and just as she was slamming back a shooter, my cousin Donna laughed and ended up inhaling the entire shooter into her lung! Talk about sobering everyone up in a hurry! She ended up being ok, and we continued on with our evening. Thankfully she had a paramedic, a nursing student, and 2 CPR trained men at the table with her ;-) She couldn't have been in safer hands!

To see some of the pictures of my trip, go to: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=44012&l=ca68a&id=808450018

More pictures will follow as I get more energetic. I am so sunburnt right now it hurts to move! I have a second degree sunburn on my face, chest and back, and third degree burns on my scalp! (Not very smart, I know, but day 1 I was having so much time swimming, I lost track of time and was sunscreen-less in the lake for 6 hours straight!) I'm paying for that now!

I was supposed to go camping again this coming week, but I cancelled my reservation. I think I will be staying out of the sun for awhile, and am happy to be in my own bed again. This week off, I plan to finally get back to working on my house (Yes I have been saying that for 2 weeks now, but I think this time it is for real.) I have to work tomorrow, and then I am off for a week. My cousins are headed to my parents next weekend so there is a CHANCE I may head down there, but I will see.

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To my faithful nursing readers: I realize now that I have missed 2 weeks of Change of Shift, and I apologize for not having the links ready. I will either try to set up an entry linking you to the two Change of Shift carnivals soon, otherwise, will just await the next one.

Also, I will try and get back to a more medical focus again soon, instead of it being all about me ;-)
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Schooling update: Well, my leave of absence from work this year fell through (long, miserable story), so I will be continuing as I have in the past, working full-time, continuing in nursing part-time. One change though; I am now enrolled in the advanced standing fast track program, and as long as I keep my grades up this year, this will allow me to chop an entire year off the program. So my plan now is to finish this last year of working full-time, and then go back to school full-time to finish my last 2 years. So that's the lastest.....

Hope all is well with the rest of you :-)

Cheers!