Merry Christmas

I just want to wish you and your family a Merry Christmas.  May your day be fulled with love, family and friends.  Be safe and take a moment to remember the precious gift we were given on this day.

Thank you for being faithful followers.

Something Fun, Just for Giggles

This morning I was looking at My Heritage just to see what was there.  Of course the first thing I see is something that is fun.  So since I am on vacation I decided to do the fun thing first.  So I try the look alike meter.  When I was growing up my Mother who died when I was age 1, so all I ever heard was you look like your Dad.  Which is fine.  When I hit 40 and I was given a large photo of my Mother on her wedding day I thought I look more like her, I have her eyes.

So here is my first meter with my baby photo. 

 
MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

 And here is my second with a photo of me taken about three years ago.  Needless to say I am way older than my parents at the time of the photos.  Yup I am a good blend of both parents.


MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Roots - Old photographs

Blog Caroling

Do you hear what I hear? Yes, it is that time of year again – time for Footnote Maven’s Blog Caroling extravaganza. 
This is my second year to join in the fun.

This year I have chosen another carol from the Forgotten Carols.  What can I say the words to the songs in that play are just so meaningful.  I highlighted the words that mean the most to me. 

I wish you a Merry & Blessed Christmas



Let Him In

I am the man who got you,
No one recalls my name,
Thousands of years will fade too,
Fully erase my shame,

But I turned a profit nicely that day,
But I turned a couple away,
I turned them away,
I didn't sleep that evening,

Though I'd sold out my place,
Somehow I've felt uneasy,
Something about her face,
Why did I wish that I'd let them stay,

I don't think they could have paid,
Or could they have paid,
Restless I left my bedroom,
I walked the streets all night,

Lost in the world I lived in,
Bound by a Heavenly Light,
Sparing of one's rights,
Are in the sky,

I heard a baby cry,
And I knew where that cry had come from,
Cause I told them where they could go,
But I didn't think I could face them,

So I walked slowly home,
Missing my chance to share in their joy,
I never saw the boy,
He never would condemn me,

I did that all on my own,
He offered His forgiveness,
And ever since then I've known,
He let's us choose each hour of each day,

If we'll let Him in to stay,
Let Him in, Let Him in,
Let the joy and the hope begin,
Let Him in, Let Him in,

Let the peace on earth begin,
And whether be in your world today,
Or a crowded Bethlehem Inn,
Find a way, make Him room,

Let Him in, Let Him in,
Let the peace on earth begin,
Let Him in, Let Him in,
Let the joy and hope begin,

Let Him in, Let Him in,
Let Him in, Let Him in.

52 Weeks of Peraonal Genealogy & History My Career

While writing a Series of Grateful post on Facebook I had one day were I was grateful for my career in nursing.  I realized this one was one worth of a post on my blog.  I am placing it in Personal Genealogy and History. 

I am grateful for my career choice and the path that I travel to get where I am today.  Nursing has been good to me.  The doors in my life opened just right for me to be a nurse with a degree.  It was a long road but well worth it. 

I have always wanted to be a nurse.  Of course I played nurse when I was a young girl.  After I watched the movie, The Nun Story I wanted to be a Nun Nurse in Africa.  My mother didn’t want me to be a nurse.  She would tell me it is hard work that I would not like it and not to do it.  I even thought of enlisting to be an Army Nurse, my Mom really didn’t like that idea at all.  She was an Army Nurse during WWII.  I did listen to her on that but I followed my heart and became a nurse.  She never saw me graduate because she died before I graduated from high school.  She was right it is hard work but it is honest and satisfying. 

My high school principle told me I was and I quote, “too stupid to be a nurse, compassionate enough but too stupid.”   Well I guess you can’t say that to me. 

After high school I went to a vocational school and received my LPN.  I went there because two different, three year hospital schools of nursing turned me down because my high school grades weren’t high enough.  It looks like a closed door doesn’t it, but waits and watch it was just a detour to a better path.  I graduated top of my class and as the Student of the Year for my class.  I even went to the national nursing convention as the Student of the Year.  Not stupid just a late bloomer.

Mary 1966 As LPN Student of the Year

I worked for a couple years as a LPN. I was able to get an apartment with a friend and live my own life.  I worked hard and even had an RN say to me once when are you going to become a Real Nurse.  So I decided to attend the Community College to earn my ASN (Associated Degree in Nursing).  During my interview with the Dean of Nursing when I applied to the School of Nursing, she was very dismissive.  She didn’t think I had the high school grades to enter the program.  I mentioned that I had done well in LPN school and her reply was, “That doesn’t count, vocational schools are only equivalent to a 11 grade education you have to give us a semester of college level work with a grade average of C.” Back in the days of A, B, C, D & F grades not grade point average.  I guess she shouldn’t have said that to me either.

So I started with my pre-requisite classes and handed her straight A’s.  Now here is the door marked entered.  The year I went back they changed the sciences for nurses and respiratory therapist to Integrated Sciences.  The same sciences classes but at a more practical level and user friendly level.  Just perfect for me, I like science but those higher levels would have been very hard for me to complete.  These more practical levels of classes allowed me to graduate with all A’s.  So two and a half years after entering Broward Community College I passed my Florida State Board of Nursing Exam and became an RN.  I had accomplished this while working as an LPN to support myself.  Mostly I worked part time but I also worked as a private duty nurse taking care of one patient for eight hours and finishing my homework.

Mary Feb 1971 RN Student

After working as an RN for a while several of my co-workers decided to go on and get their BSNs (Bachelors of Science in Nursing) I started with them but I was the only one who finished.  A new University had just opened and they were accepting all Community College credits across the board.  The other university I thought of attending wanted me to retake all the nursing 101 courses over again.  That was not a hard decision to make on which university I was going to go to.  Two and a half years later I graduated with my BSN, and I had worked 24 to 32 hours a week during those years.

1979 Nursing Instructor

Many a day I felt like I was eating, drinking, sleeping and working nursing 24 hours a day.  Between work, schoolwork and homework there was little time for anything else.  But it was worth it. 

Chemo Nurse

September of this year I celebrated my 45 anniversary as a nurse.  That is a lot of years of nursing.  I won’t say I loved every day of being a nurse, I didn’t.  There were many hard days of feeling there wasn’t enough time to do all that needed to be done for patients.  But on a whole I loved my life as a nurse.  He best part is nursing is versatile enough I did a lot of different things. 

Chemo Nurse

·        Med/Surg nurse that means I worked on Medical or Surgical patient floors for both adults and children
·        NICU
·        PICU = Pediatrics Intensive Care
·        Clinical Instructor at a Community College for an LPN transitional program to RN (part time because I didn’t have a Master’s Degree)
·        Home Health Care Nurse or Visiting Nurse, I went from home to home to visit patients after they are discharged from the hospital (this was a real fun job, I was the only American who spoke Spanish and I saw many Spanish speaking patients.)
·        Oncology floor nurse
·        Home Health IV team, I started and maintained IV’s at home to give antibiotics and chemotherapy
·        Outpatient Chemotherapy nurse at private office groups, giving chemotherapy, supporting, educating and symptom management of chemo patients, I did this the longest, over twenty years
·        Case Manager helped instruct patients over the phone on how to manage their chronic disease such as diabetes, Congestive Heart Failure for an insurance company
·        Clinical Informatics train and support physicians and nurses on the Electronic Medical Record, my current job

Happy Thanksgiving & Memories of Thanksgiving Past

This morning while I was making my stuffing I remembered how my Dad would buy day old bread, cut it into cubes and lay it out on the kitchen table for it to dry out even more.  I don't remember him placing it on cookie sheets to dry it in the oven but he might have dried the bread that way.  He would add his own spices to it and of course saute the onions and celery to add to the stuffing.  I have never made mine from scratch. I think he started using the bag stuffing after we moved to Florida, it was probably too humid there to dry out the bread. 

Wishing all of you and yours a wonderful safe day.  This little video really says all I think of during this special season of Thanksgiving.  May we have an attitude of gratitude all year long.

1940 Census

Family Search Indexing of the 1940 Federal Census, here is where you can volunteer to index the census.
I volunteered to do New York, my home state.

132 million people were living in the 48 Continental United States in 1940.

Picture from http://www.advertisingarchives.co.uk/assets/thumbnails/39/3/5486ee4548054c849a8326f9729c06de.jpg

Arizona Family History Expo

The 4th annual Family History Expo is coming and will be here in 76 days.  And I just did my Early Bird registration!
I am so looking forward to the expo and all I will learn.  I'll be able to see new and old friends.  The best part is getting excited about learning new tricks and going home and trying them out to break down some brick walls.  I am excited!

I know two animated countdown clocks might push the look of m blog over the top, but ask me if I care.  I at least separated them so you don't go dizzy.






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Census Idea

I was thinking the other day about what year I would find myself on the census and what year it would be released. And it gave me an idea if any of my future generations wanted to find me on census would they know where to look? I am a transplant to two different areas of the country from my home state where I was born. So I thought I would make a list of census years and where I lived so I could at least get them pointed in the right direction. I was a little surprised when I started working on this that I will be on only one census in my home state of New York. Then I realized that I missed one whole census because I was out of the country severing a church mission. So instead of leaving everyone wondering I thought I would leave a record of this with my genealogy. I will probably place more detail on that record then the list I have year.



Mary’s Census Years:


1950: New York, with parents

1960: Florida, with parents & 3 siblings

1970: Florida, single

1980: In Bolivia on Mission

1990: Arizona, single

2000: Arizona with spouse & children

2010: Arizona with spouse children & daughter in law

I have to admit I don't remember doing the census in 1970 & 1990.


Some interesting links: 1940 Census & Here





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