Hey all,

Sorry I haven't been keeping up to date with this. I have been away on holidays and it is so hard to tear myself away from the fun and excitement of being back at Avondale.

I am making a long list of everything I got up to so when that is finished expect a nice long blog from me. :)

We are getting ready to go on our Nursing Retreat this weekend. Kel and I heard an anoucement this afternoon asking who wanted to be in the choir for the Nursing Retreat. We wandered up and guess what? WE are the only people up the front singing. We have a girl on piano, three guys on gitars an that is it. Man alive. My goodness. ANd I can't even sing. I just enjoy singing. Well, God is helping to really push me out of my comfort zone. I have always wanted to do stuff up the front but have never had to confidence to do so so hopefully this weekend will help tons.

Kel, Kylie-Anne, Yolanda, Adrian and myself will be heading up to Avondale this wednesday afternoon/night for the night program of Festival of Faith. We have to mantain contact with the wonderful people of Avondale. :)

Well, I have an assignment due soon so I better go and start stressing about it. In the holiday mood a bit too much. :)

See ya later

Expect a tons long blog about my hols soonish. :):)

Well, the past 4 sunsets have gone really really fast. I haven't had time to miss Avondale. I have been so busy with class, study, clinical, labs, meetings and sleeping and eating and all that other jazz that I haven't missed Avondale much. But I am sure looking forward to my holidays. Especially at Avondale. Ah, waht a beautiful campus. You can relax and be yourself. I am looking forward to it.

Ok, well this blog is going to be real short as I may be leaving soon.

But I will write more later,

Sharona

Well, has a good day today. Bit moody but it was still good.

Had Utilising Research and Legal Issues so I had boring lecturers even though the subjects aren't too bad. :)

Kel and I figured out the menu for when the 25 special people from Avondale come to visit the san. I just realised that we need to learn how to cook and quick!!!

I have decided I am goint to get my licence. I am going to learn how to drive. The thing that sparked this idea off is my dream to be able to drive to Avondale every weekend and stay as long as possible with all my friends. Ahh!! Of course it is going to be a while before this will happen as I don't even have my Ls but I have dreams. I hope to have my Ls by next term (so least than a forenight) and my Ps by my 20th birthday (next April - 8th of April to be exact). All my Melbourne friends will be quite happy to hear this I am sure especially Lorinda, Kelly and Katrina. It is about tiem and now I am actually doing it. I am so excited. When I get my Ps I will worry about the car bit but as least I will have everything ready for when I have cash for a car. :D

I went to the prayer group tonight. It went for almost 2hrs and I am think that it will be the thing which will get me through my long days and weeks and months at the san. I may be able to pull through with a support network like this one. :D

And that is all my news. A short one today as I kinda just bumed around for awhile. Now I am going to watch Girl Interupted with Kel and Glover and see if it is actually any good.

See ya,

Sharona

Man, where to start. Avondale still rocks. And so do the people.

Got to hang out at the cafe, Watson Hall, Girls' chapel, Library, College Hall, Sharona tree (for 5mins as it was so cold) and just see everyone again. Madness.

Went to 1st church, college church, and young adults networks. They were all great and I got something out of all of them. I think it is because I have not been able to go to church much lately that I miss spiritual food so much. I think the style of worship matters so much as long as people are worshipping God.

Got to stay at Avondale 5hours longer than orginally thought as I changed drivers and then driver changed time. It was excellent.

Got to invite 25 people or so out to the san in a month's time. We are arranging transport and 2 meals as long as they pay for fuel. It should be good. Swimming, Casey and Taylor's cooking, games, showing the san off an getting tons of sympathy. Good stuff. We just wish we could invite more but I think 25 may be our limit.

Everyone seems just that little bit different after the holidays. None of it bad, just different. I really hope that we all stay in contact or at least are able to connect like we had just seen each other yesterday.

I will be up at Avondale for my holidays which are in a week's time so then I will have 10 days straight of Cooranbong. Excellent. Avondale will soon get sick of us. When i called out to everyone as we were leaving, "see you in 4 sunsets" I sure got a few raised eye brows. Poor Avondalians will be so sick of us soon.

I just want a car so much. It is crazy. I don't even have my Ls yet I want to have my licence and be able to drive right now!!! Oh well, just going to have to depend on everyone else for a ride.

Got to go and study (as I am back at the san and that is all they do here).

See ya later,

Sharona

Hey I am here!! I am back!!!

And guess what? I missed the place and the place missed me .... well the people of the place missed me anyway. It is nice to know guys. It is nice to know that I am not just coming back for me, I am coming back for you too. :)

I was ready to go so soon. Like, straight after class. :) It seemed like we couldn't get it fast enough. :)

Kel and I and Kylie Anne gave Dieter his birthday presents. Man, is he good at guessing what they all were. Man, see, they were all little things and individuallly wrapped and had a clue on each one. We got him 2 fabric softeners, 2 different types of stain remover, cutlery, a back thinging, a chocolate bar, some sparklers and the list could go on. :) We think he liked it which is good. We had fun buying and wrapping and making the card etc. we couldn't believe how quickly he guessed what everything was. He said that it was becoause he has often thought about buying those things for people himself. Great minds, huh?

Then we had tea and caught up with tons and tons of people. It was madness. I also meet Becky - my brother' girlfriend's sister. She is pretty cool. And the sisters don't look that much alike but they do share the same nose. :) Minor detail but I thought you would enjoy it. :)

Hang out with Kristin, went to 1st church and got something out of it (suprise suprise) and hang out with the musoes and then caught up on all the goss from Kristin.

Now, I am trying to sleep but my body just doesn't want to sleep so I am tryiing to get more tired by emailing. Ah, it is so nice to access my Avondale site and email (even though there isn't any but it is the fact that I can). Well, should go and sleep.

Sharona

:o :( :) :D :shock: :? 8) :lol: :cry: :oops: :P :x :evil: :twisted: :roll: :wink: :arrow: :idea: :?: :!:

Now that is out of the way :)

Ok, my day:

I slept in!!!! Yeah, you beauty!!!

Only to 9:20am but still .... it was great!!

Rang up lovely Avondale and got accommodation for this weekend. Good thing to no longer have that on my shoulders. :)

Went to Hornsby to change my laptop shoulder strap as it was broken. No problems. Did some minor shopping.

Got back, had quick lunch and went straight to labs.

I learnt about CPR (got dial double 8 double 8 and say unreponsive patient in ward ? room no. ?), how to remove a catheter from a male dummy (glad I had already had my lunch), and learnt about the open and closed drains that can be used.

I learnt in CPR that a person can have a PEA (pulseless electric action or activity - can't remember too clearly) which means that the machine is still measuring the electric pulses in the body but there actually isn't any pulse. Therefore the person is actually dead but there isn't the straight line and the continuous bbbbeeeeeeepppppp. I thought that was interesting.

Yolanda and I also found out that we can rearrange our timetable therefore meaning we can go with kel to the neurosurgeon. Good stuff.

Just on the note of Kel .... don't expect to hear from her in the next few hours as she has hidden herself in her room to work on a 50mins tutorial tomorrow with another girl. An all nighter is what looks like is coming up.

Had a nice relaxing bath (ok, Kel, that is one thing that we have here that we didnt' have at Avondale - bath tubs). They are beautiful.

Had tea and now have to study. I need to finish a tutorial before I leave for the weekend as I present it on Monday. Yucky!!!

I got to talk to great friend Bonita from Melbourne last night. Just a short chat to say hi. And she, as always, was great.

I should go and pack for the weekend but I just thought I should say hi as I leave straight after class tomorrow and I will be away for the weekend. So see ya then.

Oh, second pondering question for my father ... Why is the sky blue, the grass green and why is it that the only people who can answer this question for me (so far, anyway) are science students? I think that the first half of this question is very important and everyone should know the answer and not just the special science students. :):)

Well, I have my laptop. It is a cool Acer Travelmate. And it is awesome. I am in love with it. I think Kel's is cool but I think mine is better suited to me. And for those of you who are having a good old laugh at the smile name ... I was in a rush and in the process of installing my software the program asked for a computer name. I was going to name it George after a great client at Kristin's work but then I realised that what if I named my computer a boys' name and then I one day went out with a boy of that same name. That would be freaky as. And I just couldn't name it a girls name and I then I thought why does it have to be a name (disregarding the fact the software asked for the computer name, of course), why not just an awesome thing that has positive thoughts links to it. Why not, I say. So I came up with Smile. And guess what? Pretty of people now have another reason to smile (because they are laughing at me) so it is all good.

So anyway, off silly stuff and on to more silly stuff....

You will never believe waht my dad just said in an email .... that I should hurry up and get another boyfriend as he wants someone else to tease. Wow!!! He says taht having a son in law and his son's girlfriend and having all the family, he just doesn't have enough people to tease. My father never ceases to amaze me.

Oh, he also said that I didn't put enough deep pondering thoughts out on my blog .... So here is my first one....

Why am I blessed with such a wonderful father?

Whoever can answer that and figure out a way for me to assist my father to be released from that false thinking that he has formed about himself, it would be greatly appreciated. (Just kidding, Dad, you are the best dad I could ask for) :)

I was sitting in class the other day and the teacher asked us if we had got sunburnt at least 3 times in our life yet? Yes. Were we blonde, have fair skin and have blue eyes? Well, then it is almost 100% certain that we will have skin cancer of some kind by the time we are 40!!!! Of course, I straight away thought of skin cancer and dying and hair falling out (as people do when they think of the EXTREMES of cancer and they have just heard EXTREMLY bad news and they have a tendancy to panic easily). So you can imagine the scence: Panic panic, chaos, chaos, crying and wailing and tearing out of teeth. Well, in my mind anyway :) So far well great world - I will be leaving in 21 years.

While we are waiting ....

Yes, I am craving Avondale like you wouldn't believe. I am adjusting to the san but it is taking a very LLLllooooonnnnnggggg time. It is unbelievable. Hopefully this weekend will open my eyes to the fact taht I can't go back. Well, I can go back but I can't go back in time to the way things were. Ohhhh, :(

I went shopping with Yolanda the other day to pick up my laptop. I brought clothes. Ahhhh, unbelievable. I haven't gone clothes shopping for so long. It was great.

It is the little things in life that make it fun, don't ya think?

I also saw my good friend Jessica Duffy at the shops too. She is heading off to Italy and Europe in two weeks. Oh my!! And she got her ears pierced!! Oh my!! Good on ya, Jess. Have fun overseas.

Well, I am sorry, but that is all from me. I don't have much to say I don't have a very interesting life. There, I said it. Enough with beating around the bush... I just don't have an interesting life. I am sure that if I was at Avondale I would, though. :) Sorry, just had to put that in for Kelly.

See ya next time

Hi everybody,

Well, on my agenda for this week is to die of happiness. You know why? Because so many cool things are happening my life and in the lives of those around me. Ok, let me tell you before I burst:

Kel's laptop arrived!!! (I know she would insist it be the first thing I mention so it is the first = happy Kel). And it was so exciting. We went down the the storage place first thing this morning and picked it up and spend all morning checking out what it does etc. Kel should be thankful for such a good friend as me as she spend all her time in class playing around on her laptop and I took notes which she can copy later. But just this once, Kel! :):) But it so cool. It is an Apple and is so small and I love it. Madness!!!

I will have my laptop tomorrow. It is an Acer Travelmate and I got a really good bargain for it. THen I can have as much fun with my laptop as Kel is having with hers. :) I am so excited.

Laptop craze!!! Join in!!!

Oh, and the best thing in the world is that Kylie Anne, Kel and me are going to Avondale this weekend. Oh, I am so super excited. I can't wait!! I keep pinching Yolanda in class and saying I am going to Avondale. I am so excited. I didn't think I would be this excited but I am. I am unbelievalbly excited. We are also catching an almost free (and I mean a real almost free) ride up with one of our classmates who is a super legend. Avondale, here we come.

I also found out that there is a Bible study/prayer group that meets here. Here I was thinking that there was nothing happening in the spiritual aspect of life at the san but there is. Yeah!!! So I am gonig to that next time they meet.

And for you desperate female nursing students I got to check out the HOT HOT electrician who came by at lunch today (good timing). Oh, every other desperate female nursing student did the same but it is the little things in life that make it worthwhile. I miss Boys. ok, all together, Ahhhh!!!! :)

And that is the end of  my great list. I only have one whinge for the day: sterile!!!! My goodness! Our teacher today was drilling it into our heads about how sterile becomes unsterile or contaminated by moving the sterile object into a contaiminated area etc. etc. The truely annoying thing was the amount of times she said the word sterile. Man alive. So very annoying.

Anyway, that was my wonderthings that are happening in my life and my one whinge. Ok, that has got to be a world record or something. Ok, just a record for me but still, that is a mighty achievement. I beat myself. Go Sharona! Yeah! wait, um, oh Sharona lost. But she won, but she lost and the internal agruement could go on for years.

See ya and hoping you are having a super day :)

Ok, I am sorry. I know there are some of u who are waiting with high levels of anxiety wanting me to post another blog and i am sorry. I did try and write (honest) but then the computer mucked up on me and I lost my patience. So I decided taht I had two options: kill the computer (which was only just installed) or come back later when I stopped seeing red. I decided on the later. More safer for everyone.

Well, guess what? There is a wonderful person from Avondale coming out to the san to visit the lonely nursing students. Well, he is really coming to visit his girlfriend Kylie Anne but he will see us too and I know I speak for all of us when I say that we all appreciate him visiting us. He comes in less than three hours. So excited!!!! :)

Had my first sabbath at the san. And I have to admit that the only thing I was really impressed with was the sermon (it was on the Lord's prayer) and the free lunch (and since we are needy college students we managed to make our lunch last to tea). It was good. Got to meet some people that Kel knew so slowly making friends. It is going to be difficult but oh well. Time will make it easier.  I can't wait to actually find my church. I mean, a the moment I work on the weekends so I miss out on church a lot (which I really don't like) and when I am not working weekends I am so tired that I don't feel like traveling far to get to church. But I have a couple of options here: Wahroonga church or Fox Valley. I can rotate between the two. :)

We  are going to Avondale next weekend to visit everyone. So brace yourself Avondalians as Kel, Kylie Anne and I are coming back.

My Avondale friend Kush has been here the past week and that has been really cool (Do you get the impression that my life greatly improves when people from Avondale drop by? Well, you are right!!) Ok, some of the crazy stuff that happened while Kush was here and last week:

We have decided how to keep fit - by running from level 4 to level 13 every night. One night the others did it 4 times in a row. Man, that was impressive.

We had our very own Sex in the San episode. Very cool. Sex and relationships discussion in the san cafe. Quite different.

Had my first day on the wards. It was pretty easy. Just following this guy around and doing basically nothing. Ok, I lie. I did vital signs, a couple of showers, a feed, made tons of beds, did some transfers from beds to chairs or shower chairs and that was about it. I found it was quite easy (except for the handover in the morning where we listened to this  tape about 28 patients and all the diferent things that had to happen to them in the day and write it all down in the space of 10mins. Insanely crazy). I think I found it easy as I work in a nursing home and there are more time limits on stuff and the hospital is more run like a team.

Oh, and I am looking for a laptop, which is working out to be harder work than I first thought. I just want a laptop that works. Is taht so hard? I guess so. Kel and I are going to Horesby today to check out what they have. I hope to have a laptop befor my holidays which is coming up in a few weeks. Any ideas or help u may have up your arm?

my first tutorial is in a week. Oh boy, I should go get started.

Oh, and for those who don't know: It is Dieter Stahl's 21st birthday this Thursday so you have no excuse not to say Happy Birthday.

See ya all next time,

Sharona