Pinning Ceremony

Well, I finally did it. I have been working on this for years.

My last few posts have been about waiting for results, they were good.

I don't know what my final grade point average is yet, but it is respectable. Nursing has a tradition of celebrating graduate candidates above and beyond the usual graduation. Ours was held Friday night.

Two of our professors light lamps to pass the flame to us and we read the oath.

"I solemnly pledge myself before god and in presence of this assembly:

To live my life responsibly and to practice my profession faithfully;

I will avoid hurtful or malicious behaviors, and will not knowingly administer any harmful drugs;

I will do all in my power to maintain and elevate the standards of my profession and will hold in confidence all personal and family matters coming to my knowledge in the practice of my calling;

I will collaborate with the fellow health care professionals to provide the highest standards of care, information, and education, and will devote myself to the welfare of those entrusted to my care."

(The Nightingale Pledge Revised-USC Aiken-School of Nursing)

The students wearing white are those who have attended Lander straight through for four years in the traditional manner. They still have to pass state boards to earn their Nursing License. Those of us in Blue "Cap and Gown" had Associate Degrees in Nursing, and have returned to complete the Bachelors Degree. We already have our Nursing Licenses and have been practicing. I am third from the right on this picture.
I was the oldest Grad, but only by two years. I think I am also the happiest.
My Sweet Husband has been right there with me all the way, I could not do it without him.
I am a very lucky girl.

My pin. (BSN stands for Bachelor of Science Nursing, the degree I just earned).
Next post, I promise, back to normal, no more school stuff.

Have a lovely Monday.

Kat

Anniversary

On May 18, 2008, I posted to this blog for the first time. The first posting did not have any photos, the next several had one or maybe up to three, but not as many as there are now. My early posts were shorter, and more frequent, sometimes 3 in a week. They have gradually grown to their current size and number of photos and these days, I usually post once a week. In honor of my one year blogaversary, here is another look at some of my favorite things and pictures.
Photoshop Elements Flower Fairies
Winter Sunset over the old Summer Kitchen

Tea

Strawberry Pancakes

Spontaneous and her new toy

Squirell

Rosie and Ruth

Polaroid Land Camera

Backyard

Houston, we have liftoff

Study Buddy

Mountain View

Shy Visitor

Old Propeller from Slide

Charleston Fountain

Home made "Challa" bread

Thanks for joining me,

What is your favorite photo?

Kat

Goofing Off

I am not sure if I have mentioned it before on this blog or not, but I have been taking a very difficult Chemistry class this last semester. YIKES. I passed, not only that, I passed with a decent grade (thanks in part to a good friend who dropped what she was doing several times to help me with the math). I have a few weeks off before I jump into my next semester and I feel like the weight of the world has been removed from my shoulders. Sure, I have other things to worry about, but having this one worry removed has made the others easier to deal with.
Have you ever seen the Disney version of "
Hunchback of Notre Dame"? There is one scene
near the beginning of the movie where a riot breaks out. (No worries, it is a Disney riot).
Anyway there is a scrawny old man in the stocks, the stocks get knocked over and they
break. He jumps up and shouts "I'm free, I'm free," takes two steps and gets trapped some other way. He gets free, shouts out "I'm free" again and again gets stuck. Well, there are times when I know exactly how he feels. Right now, I know how he feels when he really does get free, goes home and puts his feet up. (No that part isn't in the movie, but I just know that is how it works out).
He probably realizes that as soon as the riot is cleaned up, the soldiers will come looking for him to go back in the stocks, but hey, for now, he is free. I have plenty of worries and lots to do.
Next semester I will be taking Spanish and an
Economics class. For now though, I am enjoying the day.
Today I am posting some of what I have been up
to. The first picture is of course my barn. (A familiar subject) the second is someone's old fashioned bicycle that I took a photo of last time we were Downtown Charleston. Before you get too impressed, yes, I can draw and I am not bad at it, but these two little beauties were done on my computer with photoshop elements. I really like the way they turned out. I have more ideas in mind. I may frame some prints and attempt to sell them. (We will see)
The next two are digital scrapbook pages based on this blog. One is the camping entry the other is last week's "Obsession". Photoshop Elements of course. I really like digital scrapbooking. Even if I only have a few minutes to play, I can. No Mess. The background for the camping layout is one of my photos that has been altered. I experimented with different settings till I found something I liked. I will use this method again. The background for the Obsession lay out is a digital paper by Katie Pertite. It was a freebie downloaded from the http://www.scrapbooksetc.com/techniques/digital/index.html

Scrapbooks Etc website. (I have a blog over there

and several online friends who do amazing things). If you are interested in scrapbooking, have a look.

This pretty blue flower is growing next to my mail box. I have attempted to take photos of it several times but no matter what time, I never seem to be able to get the color right. O.K. I have a little extra time to play soooo, I made a copy layer, and played with filters until the flower looked like it was supposed too. That left the background looking very odd. Next I used the background eraser to erase the odd background. This left the altered flower in the front and the natural background in place where it should be. Once again, I am pleased with the result.

The photo labeled "Exotic Beauty" is just that, I have no idea what kind of flower it is. It just makes a great picture. It was also taken Downtown Charleston. If you ever get a chance to visit in the spring or early summer,

Take your camera and walk through the old

neighborhoods (The big houses and best gardens are South of Broad street)

The cat, well, it is a cat and it is being a cat and I just liked it. I think the photo came out great so I wanted to share.

I don't know what this is, I thought it was a Trillium, I looked it up, nope, it's "Not a trillium" pretty though. I looked it up on google images, great way to identify things. You can also spend a considerable amount of time getting "stuck" in the interesting things you link to that way.

The handsome man on the bench is my own sweet Hubby. He spoils me rotten. He made German Apple Pancakes for breakfast because of Mother's Day.

I don't usually blog about my children, but I will say in honor of this day, that I have the best children a Mom could wish for and I am (and always have been) quite proud of them.
Last but not least, I stepped outside the other
night to try to record the frogs serenade. When I returned to the house, Spontaneous was just
irresistible. I certainly couldn't ignore that now could I? I took the picture, she let me come in, then I picked her up for a good petting and cuddling session. That expressive little face!
Happy Mother's Day folks.

Kat

Hodge Podge

This weeks art project is another Fairy Scrapbook page for my great nieces. I am quite pleased with how it turned out. I took the mushroom and niece photo then combined them with help from Photoshop Elements 4 and wings from http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/ The frame is a shape tool included with elements.



It has been a very busy week but I do have some photos that I wanted to share.
This lovely specimen of turtlehood is a rescue. My sweet husband keeps extra paper towels in his car for just this sort of occasion. Whenever he spots a turtle in the road, he stops (if safe) and carries it out of harms way. This was a particularly beautiful creature. One of the many reasons I am still crazy about that man.
The bees are in a friends yard back in Utah. They were in an old walnut tree that had died. When he cut the tree down, he discovered the hive. He set the portion of the tree that they were occupying back up and put a cover over it to keep off excess sun, rain etc. Wild hives need to be protected wherever we can.

The tombstone is another art project. A recent trip to the bookstore and Halloween issues of various women's magazines have got me in a Halloween mood. This tombstone is a photo that I took early in the summer. I removed the name, there wasn't a date, and then used my trusty photoshop elements to change the texture and make it look more like a watercolor. I am not sure what I will do with it, but I like it. Sometimes that is all that matters.

Last, but not least, another great culinary treat provided for me by my Sweet Heart. Cherry Scones. He started with a basic recipe while we lived in England and over the years he has perfected it. The flavor and texture are perfect. This was breakfast a couple of Sunday's ago. I am not sure what sort of delights he is planning for this morning, but I hear intriguing sounds coming from the kitchen and the Tea is lovely. (PG Tips)
Have a lovely week.

By Special Request

This page is especially for my Niece Kayla and Great Niece Jillian. Jillian and Kayla love Fairies so I decided to do a page just for them. They performed suitably Fairy like poses at my Sister's house in Utah. I took them with my trusty digital. I used a photograph from my woods in South Carolina for the background. I blew up a photo of a mushroom from my drive way to three different sizes and pasted it in digitally. The wings came from http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/ I cropped the wings then selected just them and stuck them in place.

I used Photoshop Elements 4.

First Try, empty nest and how I want to fill it

This is day 7 of my empty nest preview. My children are grown and they have a summer job out of town. They will be back in the fall but for now, the nest is empty. A good bit of the last 21 years has been focused on my children. I would not trade a minute of it. However, as I am reminded from time to time, I have a tendency to over mother. They are grown and one way or another I need to deal with it. I miss them, so what.
I am trying to learn to let go. Thank goodness husbands don't grow up and leave. (At least mine won't) I have been married to my best friend for nearly 25 years. He suits me just right.
My camera and my Ipod are a lot of fun. I love music too. Hopefully my posts will become more about me and what I love to do and less about my nest.
We have a lovely old house and lots of ideas for painting and redecorating. I have curtains to make and wood to gather before it gets too hot outside. As I said in my profile, I am a University Student. I have an associates degree in Nursing, as well as one in Applied Science for Aircraft Electronics. [Fat lot of good that does me :) ] I am working on my Bachelors in Nursing by taking online classes. Photo shop elements is another great time grabber, digital scrap booking is much less messy than the old fashioned kind. I can work on it for 10 or 15 minutes whenever I want and walk away without leaving a mess on the table.
So the whole empty nest thing isn't for me at least, too much time on my hands, it is strictly emotional. If that's all it is, I should be able to handle this easy, right? Especially when my husband spoils me even more. He is making homemade pepperoni pizza for breakfast. The man is a wonderful cook. I am the luck one!
More later
Kat