Licensed!

I am FINALLY a Registered Nurse! 4 years, one killer exam and so much stupid paper to become a a fully functioning RN in Manitoba!! Woot!

Just wanted to share that, document so when I look back at this blog, this moment that seems like it's been such a long time coming, I realize that it is monumental! So I just ordered a pizza and now I'm waiting for Marc-Andre to get home so I can tell him! And Nuvuya is standing on her dog house glaring at me... haha.

Tomorrow is my first day as a nurse.

A New Day

Hi All!

I'm trying a new thing where I write shorter less story like posts. I know I haven't told you all about our trip up here yet, so I will give you the highlights, with a slight peppering of what life is like in Churchill after almost a month here!

I'm watching Julie and Julia right now, which is the inspiration for this post. Soo the best parts of our 3 day trip to Thompson, in which we packed our two doggies and our worldly possessions into the back of our Ranger, began with our first night that the 4 of us slept together in our little 2 man tent. This was following the first day on the road, all in all it was pretty quiet, the dogs did great, and I only got dog poop on my hands once! (that was grosse of course, but hilarious). There was a lot of poop scooping along our trip, including the second day when we were at Fort William in Thunder Bay. All this before breakfast! Which made me very cranky, unfortunately... then it started to rain and we were on the road again and I continued to be very grumpy... Until we saw this skinny little american man hitch-hiking outside of Thunderbay. We drove right past him and Marc-Andre turned to me with a little puppy face and asked if we could please pick him up. I had said no to two hitch-hikers the day before, and because it was raining and I felt bad for being so grumpy in the morning, i said OK. So we pulled over and moved all our stuff around and turned around. Just before we pulled to the side of the road I said to Marc-Andre, if something terrible happens I will not forgive you by the way," haha. The first think our hitch-hiker said was "Hi, I'm Anthony Salvatori," he seemed very kind and friendly. He squeezed himself into the back seat and we were off to Winnipeg.

It was lots of fun driving to Winnipeg with Anthony, he took lots of pictures of us and we arrived in Winnipeg, after almost running out of gas, and it was very exciting to finally arrive. We dropped off our new friend downtown and went to meet up with Richard Laurin's cousin Jon. Jon so kindly agreed to let us sleep in his trailer for the night, which was awesome. So after a delicious burger and the dog's run we got a good night's sleep.

The next day we set off to explore Winnipeg, take some pictures and get some supplies before setting off to Thompson. That was another quiet and really long ride. Hwy 6 was flat and straight north to Thompson, with a gas station every 200km. There is literally nothing on this highway until you reach Thompson...and that was a sight for sore eyes. Poor Marc-Andre was sooo tired after driving for 16 hours a day for 2 days, so we attempted to find a hotel. I had been told it would be difficult to find a room, but I was optimistic, so after 3 different hotels, we got the last room (which happened to be the Jacuzzi Suite) at the Burntwood Hotel. It was an awesome treat after our long trip.

Our next day was very very long, we dropped Nuvuya off at the vet to get fixed, and they offered to babysit Riel for the day too. So then we could drop the truck off at the shop and do some shopping. We didn't get the dogs back until 5 and the truck until 6, such a long day! We were sitting on the floor of the mechanics with one drugged little pup and one super excited pup. We got the car and there was another series of crazy events, but we all got to the hotel where Nunu projectile vomited twice. After that we all had a great night sleep.

The next day we through our truck on the train, and the 4 of us took a cab to the airport. Like two nervous parents we put our babies on the plane, they asked if we wanted to keep them with us until take off and we said yes, without a second thought, but then the lady said that no they had to go right away... As they started taking them away we both started rambling to the cargo guys about how you had to be careful about Nuvuya's box handle. I think we both wanted to leap over the counter and carry them to the plane ourselves, but of course we didn't, we were brave and let them go.

Our plane ride was uneventful thank goodness. It was a lovely short ride over marshy tundra to our new home in Churchill, where my new good friend Allison was waiting for us!

So haha, I knew that I would not be able to just write a short little post. Maybe after this one! haha.

Take care everyone!

By the way, its like 2 degrees and blowing like crazy outside today! lol, loving it!

Next steps

Again, it has been far too long since my last posting, so I have a lot to update and I think I'm still processing it all! The first couple months of the summer were spent studying for the CRNE at my home in Penetang. This was quite the challenge because it had been 4 years since the last time I had had to study my butt off in Penetang, something that used to be so easy and methodical, now felt pretty chaotic. Of course after actually having passed all my courses and knowing that I had my BScN I just wanted to get the exam over with, so trying to be disciplined about my studying kind of sucked. But knowing that all my classmates were in the same boat helped me focus and I am happy to say that on June 2nd I wrote and passed the CRNE! I didn't find out that I passed until we were on Hwy 6 to Thompson MB. My mom called to tell me the good news, and it really felt like a huge relief. I mean I knew that I was going to be a competent nurse, but for some reason I had to pass this 200 question multiple choice exam before that could legally be the case, and it made me very nervous. Now that is over and done with and I am about to start working at the Churchill Regional Health Authority hospital!

That all came to be the week before the exam, talk about pressure. I was offered basically my dream job 4 days before I wrote the exam, so now I'm thinking, "this is such an awesome opportunity, and if I don't do well on this exam I could lose it!" Luckily I didn't psyche myself out!

It was decided that Marc-Andre, the dogs and myself would drive up to Thompson MB in 3 days, then from there the 4 of us would fly to Churchill, at the end of July.

In the meantime, I worked as a health care aide and helped Marc-Andre prepare for Festival du Loup. Which was a great way to say goodbye to our area, as it took place the weekend before we left. During this time I also was blessed to get to spend lots of time with my family, and even get to meet my new aunt and cousin. Uncle Ken, Aunt Michelle and cousin Eamon came all the way from Hungary to visit family in Canada and luckily I was still around when they came to visit us! Eamon is my first cousin on my mom's side of the family and I was very grateful to get to meet the special little guy, and can't wait to see him grow up!

All this family time was fantastic, especially since I haven't been around all that much in the last 4 years, with travelling and school. Mine and Marc-Andre's parents were so generous to allow our doggies to share their backyard (Ok, they actually kind of took it over). I don't know what we would have done without all their help!

I of course have tons more to share, but it's a beautiful day outside so we're going to head to the beach with Nuvuya and Riel, and will write another post about our trip here soon!