Autumnal Bliss!

My most favorite time of year has arrived ... AUTUMN!!!  

Here's to cooler weather, cozy sweaters, apple picking, fall foliage and much, much more.

#‎NursesShareYourStethoscopes‬

I'm not one for standing on a soap box, but in light of comments made on The View about Miss Colorado's recent monologue I couldn't help myself.

As a nursing student one professor told us that while medicine treats the disease, nursing treats the human reaction to the disease.

I, like so many other colleagues, have had to defend myself and explain I am more than 'just a nurse' and while I was smart enough to cut it in medical school it was not my calling. We do more than clean up poop and give bed baths; there is nothing sexy about the scrubs we wear or being covered in someone else's bodily fluids. Day in and day out, nurses (and PCT's) monitor you or your loved ones for minor changes in vital signs and mental status. We double and triple check to make sure your orders and medications are correct. We chart, we analyze your lab results and we spend MUCH more time with you than the doctors (nothing against many of the hard working, compassionate doctors I have met over the last two years, that is just how it goes).

Over the last few years I have experienced the joy of parents meeting their child for the first time, reviewed diagnoses and medications with patients until they fully understand their discharge instructions and held the hands of family members as a loved one took their last breaths.

So tomorrow I will put on my scrubs, don my 'doctor's stethoscope' and head to work with nearly 4 million other registered nurses. The job is truly a calling and I for one could not be prouder to be part of the most honorable profession in U.S.

'The mountains are calling and I must go.'

This weekend the BF and I decided to head out to Sugarloaf Mountain to enjoy some of the last moments of summer.  We wanted to get an early start to the day to avoid the Labor Day hikers so thankfully a friend of a friend let us camp in their yard. 

The morning started off a little misty, but as we made our way around the trail the sun was shining and the crowds started to descend.  This is what I get when I ask for a "ponder life shot."

After several trips to the Frederick area, we made out way to Flying Dog Brewery.
Sadly the tour was sold out, but that didn't stop us from trying a few beers. 

After a morning of hiking and an afternoon of tootling around DC we definitely got out steps in for the day!