NCLEX in Viva! Las Vegas!

About two weeks before I graduated from school, a few of my classmates and myself were pulled into the Director of Nursing of the campus and were told that they would give us a scholarship that would reimburse us of our NCLEX registration fees if we were able to take, and pass, the NCLEX before the end of the year. Down to the meat of the story, the school's pass rates haven't been the greatest because a group of students in the previous two semesters cheated their way through school, passed all the classes with flying colors because instead of putting effort into studying, they put effort into buying the answers of the questions in the test bank from who-knows-what-website and so they went to take the NCLEX and failed, failed, failed. And rightly so. So when our semester comes up, they offered this scholarship to boost their quarterly pass rates. They bought us off and I was perfectly fine with that. $300 is $300 is $300.

Catch is, when you first register, they only show test dates that are available, cancellations excluded, so the first date was January 3 - after the end of the year.

BUT!! After you have a date to your profile, you are able to go in and look at cancellations. And so the rat race began. I found a date in Boise on Dec 28, and after checking it every hour, on the hour, for a few days, we found a date on Dec 28 in Las Vegas. Andt hen we continued to check it every hour, on the hour, to see if one opened up so I could go down with one of my friends from school. And it did, fifteen minutes after my scheduled time, and I found it at 11:00 PM. And so began my massive amounts of calls, texts and messages on Facebook so she could reschedule her time and go down with me.
I went down the day before, met up with my friend and her mom (which was also one of my teachers in school), ate dinner and then went out to see the Strip because Thomas and I were Vegas Virgins. We went to Treasure Island, went to a country bar, (gambled a little), and then hit the sack for the night because tomorrow was the big day. We ended wandering down the strip to Denny's for breakfast and lo and behold, we were only a mere block from the testing center, so we killed some time going to dinky shops until the time was here for me to go up.

I took the test, and I had heard a few things about how the NCLEX went for a few others that took it earlier in the day, and knowing that my classmates would want to know the details, I kept tally marks of the dreaded "Select All That Apply" (22 of my 75, by the way) and watched how long it took me to answer the ______ amount of questions I had before it was determined that I would fail or pass the NCLEX.

For those that don't know how the NCLEX works, you can get anywhere between 75 and 265 questions and it automatically shuts off when the computer adaptive test can easily predict whether or not you will get the next question right or wrong based off of your previous answers. Then it looks at the types of questions that you are getting correct, whether they are knowledge-based (easy) questions or critical thinking (hard) questions. If it is predicted you will get the next question wrong, you fail, the hard questions right, you pass, if you get the easy questions right, you fail, because RN's need to know how to critically think, not just recall knowledge based questions.

Well, mine shut off at 75 questions and I have never been more unsure of something in my life. Based off my school experience, I should have taken comfort in the fact that I did well in school, but honestly, I felt like vomiting and crawling into the fetal position because I was so unsure of how I did.

Good thing the Department of Professional Licensing of Utah is fast because before I knew it, I could look online on the DOPL website to see that I was an RN with an active license!

YIPPEE!!!!

The next day we went home, and so began my constant application of jobs - at least 3 a day, with the almost always immediate email saying that I am underqualified due to lack of experience.

One must ask, how does one gain said experience if NO ONE WILL HIRE BECAUSE I HAVE NO EXPERIENCE?!

In due time.. in due time.. 

Christmas with the Fallers

I have a lot of catching up to do... Or maybe I'll just pretend that I posted this on Christmas rather than over a month late.

I had to work the night before so played Santa at work, wrapping presents after the residents went to bed.

Got home, cleaned up, arranged presents, and went to bed because in a few short hours, I knew my kids were about to wake up.

Much to my surprise, I woke up before the kids. That. Never. Happens. I brought the kids into our room, and ran downstairs so I could record their faces when they came around the corner.

Christmas Eve, we had nothing under the tree. Not a single thing. Christmas morning, there was a nice array of presents under the tree and the kids were amazed when they saw everything.

Santa was the hero this Christmas.

......


Okay, in the end, Christmas was fantastic. Church was great and only an hour long (Hooray!) and then we were up to my brother's for dinner.

Aaand if I had actually posted this around Christmas-time it would have had a lot more details and pictures instead of me posting this on March 2 and just retroactively dating this to December 25 as if I were actually on top of things. Meh. Such is life, apparently.

I Really Have Some of the Cutest Kids Around

The other night, my mom took us out to celebrate after I had passed my program exit exam with flying colors. Well, naturally, the kids wanted to ride with my mom so we packed them up in my mom's Suzy and when Thomas put Aiden in the car, he told Aiden, "You be good for Grandma, okay?"

Well, we headed out - my mom back home with the kids while Thomas and I went to The Chocolate (amazing, by the way) for some dessert. Well, right as we were parting ways, we realized that we forgot someone with my mom so we flagged her down and pulled up next to her and we were talking to my mom, we see Aiden's little window roll down.

He then proceeds to poke his little head out, starts to wave his little finger and he looks right at me and says,

"Momma, you be good for Daddy, alright?!"

Kids crack me up. Especially now that Aiden is getting to the age that he knows how to act older.

Celia has also officially hit the age of being a little girl that loves to change her outfit.

17,483,903 times a day.

The Beginning of a New Chapter

Remember in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (new one with Johnny Depp) when Charlie came home with the chocolate bar and then found out that he received the last Golden Ticket? Remember Grandpa Joe's reaction?

He jumped out of bed, hopping like a maniac, yelling,

 "YIPPEE!!!!!"

Well, that was my initial reaction yesterday when I finally saw my score on my Nursing School Exit Exam. This test also gives you a "likelihood to pass the NCLEX" conversion score and apparently I have a 99% percent chance of passing my boards on the first try. BRING IT ON, BABY!!!

It has been a long awaited time in my life. The last 18 months have been beyond hard and my little family certainly has been put through the refiners fire and have come out on the other side better because of it. My family has been incredible throughout this. My husband has been patient, supportive and simply amazing. My kids have been way more understanding than I ever thought when I put on scrubs to leave - 6 days a week at least. They have been strong and stalwart and I couldn't begin to imagine what life would have been like if I didn't have them to be my buffer from the stress and emotions building up within me.

To the last 18 months of my life, I will forever appreciate the person I have become in the end

But good riddance!

There are a lot of things to which I am looking forward.

I'm ready to have the time of day to do all the steps of laundry - wash, dry, fold AND put away all in one day. That hasn't happened in 18 months at least. Generally, I have been getting dressed out of the dryer for a year and a half. At least they were clean!

I'm ready to be a nurse and I'm ready to pay off bills.

I'm ready to not worry day to day about all the incredible amounts of what if's that could arise for which I would be utterly unprepared.

I'm ready to love my job and feel a sense of accomplishment when I put on my scrubs because I am a freaking NURSE!

I'm ready to be an actual mom again in action and not just title.

I'm ready to go to church activities and not feel guilty about neglecting my family even more than I already do.

I'm ready to go out to lunch with friends just to catch up without the worry of what else I should be doing with this time, money, etc, etc, etc.

I'm ready to work for a company that is a well-oiled machine.


I'm ready to take my kids to the park and enjoy the time there without thinking about the homework I should be doing.


I'm ready decorate my house.


I'm ready to have regular date nights with my husband because we can.

I'm ready to move on.