Here's The Rules

The babysitting rules.  Rules for the parents.

Parents can do some crazy things when they hire a babysitter.  And since I've babysat thousand of dollars worth of time, I think I am qualified to set some ground rules.

1. You hired a babysitter.  That means you pay the babysitter.  
• If you don't have money, don't hire a babysitter.  
• Don't pay your babysitter with change you find in the couch (or any change, that's just rude).  
• Checks are fine, just don't post-date them, I have things I need to buy too.
• Agree on a price per hour before babysitting.
• Asking how many hours I've been there is fine.  Asking me to multiply the hours by the price per hour is not fine, it is hard to do in my head, and I don't like to see your face when I tell you how much it costs.  Just figure it out yourself, and don't whine.
• Don't try and talk me down from how much it costs, you are the one how birthed four kids and still wants to go to the movies, not me.
• If for some reason you cannot pay me the night I babysit, you should give a little extra for being late.
• Don't tell me you want to pay in clothes that don't fit you anymore.
• If your kids were bad, its nice to tip, not just for me, but for you too.  You want me to come back to babysit someday right?
2. Don't hire a babysitter for an hour.  It probably took me 15 minutes to get to your house and 15 minutes to get home (at least), parent's don't seem to realize this, and it costs money to drive to your house, and its not worth the $6 for the hour.  Or at least cough up $15 for my time and gas.
3. Realize that your kids aren't going to listen to me if they don't listen to you.
4. Know that if you don't ask me how they were, I'm probably not going to tell you unless it was really bad.
5. If you don't want your kids to watch t.v. or movies, don't also tell us not to do crafts or coloring, because what do you expect us to do?
6. Don't tell me the kids to go bed at 8:30 if you can't get them to bed at 8:30.  Tell me what actually happens, not what the goal is.  It stress me out when they are late getting into bed.
7. If I'm going to feed your kids dinner, feed me dinner too.
8. Know that your kids are going to lie to me.  Some kids have told me they don't have to wash their hands after going to the bathroom.  Some have told me later bed times.  Sometimes they just tell me that you read them 3 chapter books before bed.
9. Tell me your rules, or I'm going to have to make some up.
10. Remember that you didn't just hire some babysitter off the internet, you hired someone you will see again. Put your underwear away if you don't want me to see it.
11. Know that I try to enforce Christian principles when I go over to your house, I'm not a heathen, but I also don't know all the nitty-gritty of how you parent.
12. Since I'm not going to spank your kids, I have to use time-out.
13. If you care what pair of pajamas they wear, set them out.  If not, I'm going to look in the dresser, and put whatever I find on them.
14. Tell me if you want me to answer the phone.  I don't usually unless you tell me.
15. If I babysat for you, while you went to something I could have gone to also, i.e. we're church friends and you went to a church event or something, please tell me how it went.
16. Warn me if your dog eats shoes.
17. Leave me your cell phone number.  I rarely call parents, but sometimes its necessary.
18. Call me if you are going to be more than 5 minutes late.  If you are going to be 6 minutes late, call me.  I might have somewhere to go after.
19. Tell me if your kid is sick before hiring me to babysit.
20. I'm not a maid, I'm the babysitter.
21. I'm not watching your cat/dog/fish, I'm watching your kid.
22. And don't take me for granted.

There are probably some more, I'll post them later if I can think of them.

"Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right." Ephesians 6:1

Hit The Play Button

Sometimes I feel like life hasn't started.


I feel like I'm in a holding pattern, or like life is on pause.  But really I guess I'm in training.  I'm in school learning what I am going to do the rest of my life.


But sometimes I don't like it.


Everyone is getting married and having babies.  Not that I want to get married and have babies right now.  But I don't know, its just weird for me.


I guess I'll be fine.


School starts on the 10th.


"A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps." Proverbs 16:9

From The Beginning

I just saw this scripture again.


"While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8


What? What!


Jesus knew that I would need Him so He provided for me even before I needed Him.

He was thinking of me and had a plan for me from the beginning.

Jesus is love.

Pet Peeve #1

People who hold other people's babies while they are sick.


If you are sick, STAY HOME!!!


Nobody wants your germs.


Nobody wants your cold.


Don't touch, hold, or even ask to hold other people babies/kids when you are sick/sneezing/coughing/nauseous.


Don't shake people's hands either.  That's gross.


If you must, for some odd reason, go out when you are sick, warn people.  Look sick, so people can avoid you (like the plague).


Oh, and wash your hands frequently.


"Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed." 1 Peter 2:24

I Just Learned Something About Myself

I'm very competitive.

I'm not kidding.  I just learned this.

Well, like five weeks ago my eyes started to be opened.

In my Skills class, we had to pair up and take a practice ATI test.  And the teacher gave us a "carrot."  I'm not kidding, she said carrot.  Apparently I'm a horse now.  Well, it worked.  I had to have this carrot.

I paired up with a girl just as competitive as me.  I told her before we started that I wanted this carrot, no matter what.

To get the carrot, you had to get an 85% on the practice test.

Twas hard, but we got a 90%!!!  The teacher said it was one of the highest grades she has ever seen on this practice test.  I was sooooooo happy.  As was my partner.

We got a $10 ITunes card as our carrot!  Haven't spent it yet, because I don't know how to, but I'm happy.

The second reason I know I am competitive is because of the game Snake on Facebook.  I must defend my high score.  And I must defend my weekly high score.  It is almost an obsession.  I only started playing games of Facebook since school let out this semester, so this developed very quickly.  There are other games too.

I just like to be #1.

"And the LORD shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the LORD thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them." Deuteronomy 28:13

Sarah, Sarah, Sarah

I love Sarah Palin.


I knew about her before she was "famous" or running for Vice President.  I knew about her because she was in the Pro-life news for not aborting her Down Syndrome son.  Did you know that 84 to 91% of fetuses diagnosed with Down Syndrome are aborted?  http://www.physiciansforlife.org/content/view/1301/26/ 


I've been watching Sarah Palin's Alaska when I get the chance.  She amuses me.  I wish I could shoot a gun like she can.  I guess I just need practice.  And a gun.


Although I love her, I don't think she should run for President.  I do think that a Governor is better suited to run the country than a Senator, but nonetheless, I hope she doesn't run.  She is too right winged to win.  And although I agree with her almost 100% I don't think she could win the election.  Which is what happened this last Presidential election.


"Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God." Romans 13:1

You! Get the AED!

Ever since I took CPR last December, I look around for people to have heart attacks and fall over.


At church, at restaurants, at Walmart, everywhere, I look around at people and try to determine which person is the most likely to have a heart attack.  Overweight, old men are usually my pick for potential MI patients. Little kids chewing gum also scare me.


They must be glad to have me in their presence, because I could help save them.


"The fool hath said in his heart, [There is] no God." Psalm 14:1

Mary Did You Know?

One of my favorite persons in the Bible is Mary the mother of Jesus.  

I think it would have been sooooooo amazingly awesome to carry Jesus in your body.  I already think that birth is an amazing thing, but to give birth to God!  To feed the Son of God at your breast, to carry Him around with you, to make or buy Him clothes, to clean His scraped knees, or teach Him how to read would be an awesome responsibly.  I do wonder if Mary did know that she raised the King of Kings.  Did she really know?

She knew something: "But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart." Luke 2:19.

I think that Protestants sometimes don't give Mary the credit that they give other women in the Bible because they are scared of the way Catholics praise her.  The Bible says: "And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women." Luke 1:28.  Highly favoured!  Blessed among women!  Wow!  She was praised!

I just think we should give credit where credit is due.  Repeating "Hail Mary"'s over and over?  Maybe not, but a study on Mary would be in order.  I wonder what kind of character this woman had that made her the object of Father God's favor?  I wonder what she did differently than the thousands of other young women on the planet that made her stand out?  Purity was one of the characteristics.

The other day, I was at a church where they changed the words to this Christmas Carol:
Christ by highest heav'n adored
Christ the everlasting Lord!
Late in time behold Him come
Offspring of a Virgin's womb
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see
Hail the incarnate Deity
Pleased as man with man to dwell
Jesus, our Emmanuel
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"

This is the correct, in my opinion, version.  I can't remember, and haven't been able to Google, the word for word change I heard the other day, but they changed the line that sings, Offspring of a Virgin's womb, to something about Offspring of Father God.  I think Charles Wesley wouldn't appreciate changing the words to his song. 


Oh and fyi, the "immaculate conception" is Mary's being without original sin, like Jesus being without sin.  Umm, this wasn't in the Bible, so I don't believe it.  If it were true, God would have written it in the Bible.  I know that this scripture is slightly out of context, but I think it works here: "if it were not so, I would have told you," John 14:2.  So, if it were true, He would have told us.

"Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." Isaiah 7:14

Time

Now that school is out for Christmas, I have free time to blog.  But I don't have anything going on to blog about.


Any ideas??


"Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts." Psalms 139:23

Stay On Target

I love to shop the clearance racks at stores, especially Target.


I take a friend and look though all the clothes and shoes and makeup and household goods and food.


Kaywa and I went last week and spent like two hours there (not because there was so much great stuff there, but because we were avoiding cleaning our apartment).


I think its the hunter/gatherer in me.  I love getting a deal, and I love it when someone compliments me on shirt that I got for $3.24.  I like tell them how much it cost, so that they will be impressed.  I just figure that if a regular priced shirt cost $12 or $15 dollars, if I can get it on clearance I can get 2 or 3 or 4 shirts for that much and then I can expand my wardrobe for less money.


When I moved into my apartment, I had forgotten to bring hangers.  So Mom bought me some at Walmart.  Since then, I've had to go back to Walmart and get more hangers because I keep getting new $4 shirts at Target.  And they have to be the blue Walmart hangers.


Just call me Katie the hunter.


"He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD." Genesis 10:9

Predestined?

Does God predestine people to get into Heaven or not?  Or, does God pick and choose who goes to Heaven and who goes to Hell?  And if you are picked to go to Heaven, then can you choose to reject God, if you can't choose then you wouldn't have free will, or vice versa.


Here is the scripture verse that makes me blog about this:


"For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified." Romans 8:29-30


I'm going to lay it out for you.  God predestinates/chooses everyone to go to Heaven.


Yep, I said it, everyone is destined for Heaven.


But not everyone is going to go to Heaven.


"God is love." 1 John 4:8


But He has a problem, not that it crept up on Him or anything, God knew this was going to be a problem and he had a plan.  His problem is between Him loving us and His needing to punish sin.  When Adam and Eve sinned we were separated from God's love.  To get back into God's love He sent his only Son, Jesus, to earth to pay for our sins so we could go to Heaven.


Okay, so, everyone is destined for Heaven, all they have to do is accept Jesus as Savior.


But I know, you're thinking, "Katie, you said all you have to do is accept Jesus to go to Heaven, but you really didn't explain how you know all people are predestined to go to Heaven."


Here is how I know.  Ready?  Let's go.


"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end." Jeremiah 29:11


Bam! *in my best Emeril Lagasse voice*

So, in conclusion, God destines everyone to go to Heaven, but we, has humans, have free choice and we can reject or accept God.

Hoodies

So, I don't know how to wear a hoodie apparently.


Yesterday, Kaywa and I were feeling lazy but wanted to go to Chic-fil-a and Target, but didn't want to get dressed up.  I asked her what she was going to wear and she said a hoodie.


This is what is going through my head:


"A hoodie?  Really?  Won't you get hot in a hoodie?"


Apparently not.


I thought hoodies were outerwear, but not so, says Kaywa.


So I went along with this a-hoodie-is-for-whenever-wear idea and wore a Redskins hoodie I "borrowed" from Brother.


Let me backtrack a little and tell you why I don't know how to wear hoodies.  Its because I get hot.  I'm so hot that I don't usually wear sweaters either.  I don't like being committed to wearing a sweatshirt or a sweater all day, because I don't like being hot.  Hot like when you are shopping at Target for two hours.  I like to be able to take off my sweater or hoodie when I get hot.


But apparently (I need a new word other then apparently because <<<< that was the fourth time I used it in this blog already) that's not how the cool kids do it.


So I tried something new, I wore a tank (that would ensure that I kept the hoodie on) and a hoodie (obviously, because that is what this blog is about).


(Are there enough parenthesis yet?)


I got hot.  I'm probably not going to do that again.  I'd rather carry my hoodie around with me, or tie it  around my waist like a mom, than wear a hoodie that I can't take off while I'm out.


"Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher's coat unto him, for he was naked, and did cast himself into the sea." John 21:7

That's Epic

I love how people use the word Epic.


"That movie was soooo epic."


"That macaroni and cheese was epic."


Actual mattress commercial: "back pain in epic proportions."


"The Civil War was epic."


Really, people, really.


I figure the Civil War was probably epic, but do you really know what epic means?


Dictionary.com defines Epic as "1. noting or pertaining to a long poetic composition, usually centered upon a hero, in which a series of great achievements or events is narrated in elevated style: Homer's Iliad is an epic poem. 2. resembling or suggesting such poetry: an epic novel on the founding of the country. 3. heroic; majestic; impressively great: the epic events of the war. 4. of unusually great size or extent: a crime wave of epic proportions."


Use it correctly.  Or else.


"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16


Now that's epic.

IT Issues

Last weekend my computer got a virus.  I really should teach him how to wash his hands better.  


Monday morning I took him to the IT people on main campus.  The lady came out to help me.  She asked me if I needed to save any data before she fixed the virus and she wiped my computer clean and made it like new.  I did.  I saved my work to the J drive, the drive that is on the schools server.  I may not be a computer genius but I do know that you don't have to take everything off the computer to get rid of a virus.  She came back and asked me if I was done.  I said yes, but asked her if it was really necessary to take everything off the computer to remove the virus.  


Yes, she said.


Ohhh, that's annoying.  I'm going to have to download Skype and Google Chrome and whatever again.


So, I had to do that last week, it only took me like four hours.


Ugh, really?


Fine, I'll save your data.




Wow, that's IT for you.  It was ready in like two hours, and had all my documents, but not Google Chrome or Skype.


"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." Matthew 7:7

President Hart, please stand up.

So, I'm the 2011 President of the Student Nurses' Association.


Today I did my first thing as President.  I went to the Pinning and Hooding Ceremony for the new nursing school graduates.  I basically just handed out programs and tore tickets.  But I got to sit in the second row of the auditorium with the rest of the SNA and the faculty.  I liked it.  I mean, I really enjoyed it.


I met the new Treasurer of the SNA, she is really nice.  Haven't really got to talk too much to the Vice President and the Secretary, but all in good time.


Treasurer and I sat next to each other during the ceremony, and I told her before it started that I was probably going to cry through the ceremony.  (I wanted to say that my emotions are basically always on their period, and could cry at a moments notice, but I didn't.)  She laughed at me, because the prospect of me, a chick she met an hour earlier crying over a graduation ceremony where I know zero of the graduates was funny to her apparently. So I held my tears in.  Not that they didn't try to come.


I don't know, there is just something about graduations and weddings and ceremonies in general that make me emotional.


I recently figured out that I am currently done with 40% of nursing school.  40%!!!  Can you believe that??  And no, I'm not a math magician, I'm a nurse, who must do math in her head.  I'm done with 2 semesters out of 5 semesters.  Or 4 out of 10.  Which is 40%.  Easy.


40%.


I'm really excited about that.


I felt comfortable at school the other day.  Let me try and explain it.  A couple of us were doing this review for Skills class and the teacher was hosting it.  But in this class, I was comfortable.  The teacher was nice and saying funny things, and knew everyone's name, and it was comfortable.  The hallways are familiar.  The mailbox is always in the same place.  I don't have to hunt down the bathrooms because I know where they are.  When I see my class schedule, I don't have to take a dry run of the building the day before because I know what number the rooms are.  I was comfortable.  It was like an epiphany.  I like it there.  I like school.  I like being a nurse.  I like being in a place where all the teachers are women.  Smart, educated, strong - women.


I'm excited to come home for Christmas break and see everyone, especially all the new little babies that were born.


I'm going to be cleaning my apartment this week/end.  Its a mess.


"But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." Isaiah 40:31

I went bowling the other day

But that's not important right now.


This girl was telling that she had just finished nursing school, the day before this conversation we had.  She was telling how relieved she was feeling, and how she was excited to be a nurse.  Someone piped in and said they were looking forward to being a nurse and going to the hospital, and not having to bring nursing home with them.  Just doing the amazing job they do, and not have to study hours on end when they get home.  Just do the 36 hours a week; instead of 12 hours of lecture, 9 to 12 hours of clinical, and studying endlessly.


Then the girl said the something that makes me blog about our conversation.  She said she the previous night's sleep was the best sleep she has had in years.  In YEARS.


I came home and told Kaywa that and she almost cried.  I'm a bit jealous, of her SLEEP.


The anticipation of exams and papers and clinicals are a lot to handle, and its hard to turn your brain off at night when it is time for bed.


Tuesday night before my Pharmacology test, I dreamt that I got to school and was ready to take the test, and I had forgotten my computer at home, and I had to drive back home to get it.  I really wasn't a dream, it was  nightmare.  I checked my bag like 10 times before I left for school Wednesday morning.


The other night I laid down in bed, and had turned the lights off and everything, when I had to get up and check what the therapeutic serum level of lithium was.  Its 0.8 to 1.2 mEq/L.  You're thinking, "Really Katie, you had to know right now what the therapeutic level of lithium was?"  Yes, I did.  It was a feeling akin to having to check and see if the door is locked or the oven is off.


Oh, by the way, I super dislike waiting for grades!  The test was taken on the computer, the computer grades it, the computer suggests what questions you should drop, just post the grades!  I must makes plans for future studying, or crying, or eating pounds of chocolate, or partying (whichever the grade demands).


"Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." Philippians 4:6-8

Not again.

We're studying on main campus.  We've been here since like 7:30pm.


Remember the creeper I told you about a while back who ended up being married?


Well, his friend, "The Keeper," is in the library.  The Keeper goes no where without "The Creeper".


So that must mean that The Creeper is here somewhere.


But today this story is not about The Creeper, it's about The Keeper.


I HAD to go to the bathroom, as I rounded the corner, there The Keeper was, talking on the phone.  My heart skipped a beat remembering the trauma I'd been though before.  Before my brain could communicate to my body to turn around, he spotted me.  I headed straight for the bathroom, even though I had to walk through his bubble to get there, and pulled on the door.  BUT THE BATHROOM WAS OCCUPIED!!!  I turn around.


The Keeper: "Hey, beautiful."


Me: *Scowl.*


The Keeper turned into The Creeper²


Let me back up a bit, to the reason I was going to the bathroom.  It was not only because nature was calling, but because of something Kaywa said to me.


Me: *capped pen touching my face*.


Kaywa: Do you have pen on your face?!


Me: Ugh, I hope not.


Kaywa: Oh, ummmmm, never mind, maybe it's not pen?!


Me: What? *realization that I have a dark pen-mark-like hair on my chin*.


Kaywa: *face palm*.


Me: Give me your gosh darn tweezers!


"Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence." Psalm 91:3

So last year

My Mother was looking for a car to send to school with me.  She had decided that she wanted  to get me a CRV, or something like it.  My parents were discussing whether or not to get a standard transmission or an automatic transmission, apparently the standard was cheaper.

I didn't know how to drive a standard.

My Mother didn't think I could learn how to drive a standard.

Father said, "She needs to learn to to drive a standard in case she ever needs to drive a Russian tank!"

Mother, "Why would she ever need to drive a Russian tank!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?"

Father, "I don't know, because."

I drive a standard now.

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord." Isaiah 55:8

The teacher said the funniest thing

There was a review for one of my classes today.  I thought the review was going to be the teacher going over what we learned this semester and pointing out important things to remember.

It wasn't

We played Jeopardy.  Well, we played Jeopardy the way the teacher wanted to play Jeopardy.  The ten of us split up into two teams and questions were asked and prizes were handed out.

Some of the questions were hard, or confusing.  Really confusing.  For a lot of the questions she gave the answer and we had to give the questions.  Understand?  Me neither.

The review was loud and fun, people were talking and getting prizes, and answering questions, and questioning answers.  And one of the girls said, I don't know that at all!!

And the teacher responded, "Days like today make me question what I have been doing for the last 30 years."

OMG, lol, wow.  Super funny.

She said it funny.  She was kidding, but it made me laugh.