Down Memory Lane, Part II

Good Sunday, everyone!

Since I got so many positive responses to my "down memory lane" photos, I thought I'd do a part 2, this time with photos that go waaaay back to my childhood.  Before I get those out, let me reflect a little bit on what I've been thinking about recently.

I've been so much more reflective about my youth since turning 40 this past June.  Almost half of my life has slipped away and I still haven't done what I set out to do.  That was to be a nurse.  Sure, I've worked as a nurse for 14 years, but that just is not long enough to justify the torture we all go through in nursing school.  I'm sure you nurses out there agree with me....nursing school was hell!  You had to be on top of your game every second or risk looking like a fool.  I remember those days of driving to clinical at the hospital in a car with no brakes with snow up to my armpits at 6am to get to a 7am shift.  I always left in plenty of time because with our junker cars, you never knew when they could finally bite the big one on ya!  My mom worked her heart out, but we did fall on very hard times in my childhood.  Money just wasn't flowing in fast enough and we did, unfortunately, go without food for a while.  I remember going by the hot dog stand at college and my stomach would let out a big grumble.  Or going to school on "empty" and having my stomach growl in a quiet classroom!  My mom got paid every week, but it just wasn't enough.  She would get paid on Thursdays, then by Sunday we would have nothing left after she paid bills.  So that would mean we'd had nothing from Monday-Wednesday.  I'm not sure the details why my dad didn't work. I know he did work and set records at where he worked at a die cast factory when I was a baby and little girl.  I remember offering to my mom that I could get a job AND go to college, but she wouldn't hear anything of it. She kept saying, "do your best in nursing school and get out of this situation."  So she continued working her little heart off. I remember one three month span when the answering service that she worked for was short of staff and she and her co-worker, Shirley, split 12 hour shifts everyday, NO day off for three months!

Anyway, graduation of nursing school was like a turning point for me.  I then took the boards and then applied at a few local hospitals, who weren't employing RN's at that time...just LPN's and nursing assistants.  :(  So my grandma told me to come on down to sunny Yuma, AZ and see if the hospital there was hiring.  So I packed up my bags and said a very tearful good bye to my mom and dad and Toby, my kitty and took the big steel bird all the way to Las Vegas, Nevada, where grandma and a friend of hers picked me up.  Grandma thought it would be fun to check out Vegas before going home to Yuma.

I worked 10 years at that small community hospital in Yuma. They taught me everything I knew.  Then something called fibromyalgia had to come and ruin it all for me.  Work just became harder and harder until finally, I could no longer do it.  That is where I'm at now.  I can barely walk across the house, let alone a busy hospital ward.  I haven't worked for two years now, and it bugs me to have my nurse's license, just freshly renewed this year at a whopping $160.00, burn a hole in my wallet from non-use.  If I am off for three more years, I'll have to take a refresher course.  God, I hope I can lose lots of weight and be back to work within that time frame.  I miss it so badly!!!

OK, now for my chuckle of the day.  Last night I had one of those very involved dreams that seemed like it took all night to have.  I even woke myself up talking....here's the funny part....my husband answered me in HIS sleep!!  I was talking about buying a notebook and he said, "how much do they cost?"  That's a sure sign you are right for your spouse...when you can sleep talk and he answers you right back in HIS sleep!!  LOL....

OK, here are some photos from my past:

                      Yep, here is me on my very first birthday...June 24th, 1970.  My mom told me that her OB doctor said her due date was June 24th and I must have been listening because that is when I was born!!

                       Here I am on my 2nd birthday (I think!) and I don't look too happy about the layout in front of me!  Maybe the camera just caught me on a "bad hair day."  From my viewpoint, the cake sure looks yummy!

               I was BIG TIME DADDY'S GIRL for sure!  Mom said that I'd always get this kind of a grin when I was near my daddy!

            Ahhhh...I much preferred Christmas at home with my mom and dad and our beloved Christmas tree!!  :0)  Even if my dad is showing my underpants for the camera!!!

       Just like Mommy!  I was wearing her shoes (barely!) and had her purse inside the stroller for one of my dolls.  I just loved playing dress up!!

         Here I am with my two great-grandpa's Paul and Earl. 

         Here is our family portrait. Notice I have NO two front teeth?  Those little buggars took forever to come in, and then when they did finally come, there was a big ole' space between them that would haunt me to this day!!  Dental care was very expensive and even with insurance, we still couldn't afford it.  I knew we weren't alone, though. Even to this day, many Americans have to go without proper dental care.  Isn't that sad?

           My ONE and ONLY favorite picture of myself...my high school senior year photo in 1989.  I thought I was so fat in it....geez, wish I could go back to being "fat" like that!!!

          Here I am, holding my high school graduation cake.  Looks yummy, doesn't it?  We had my party out at Pitcher Lake in Dowagiac, MI.  It was a pretty good turn out from both my parents' sides.  My dad, for some reason, didn't come to it.  He missed a good party!!

       And, last, but not least....my pinning ceremony from nursing school in May, 1993!  My initial class started out with 80 people and ended with 44.  Lake Michigan College School of Nursing was a tough program. I'm glad I was one that survived the cut-offs and wasn't booted to the curb like some of my unfortunate friends.

Well, that will do it for our trip down memory lane. Hope you enjoyed it. I hope you all have a great Sunday and a wonderful week ahead.

God bless you all!
Until next post,
Missy