It's official!

Well, it will be when I actually have the license, but I passed my boards. Thank you God!!! This morning when I looked on the VA board website by my name it said no license and I wanted to puke. I almost cried. My son was so sweet. He rubbed my back and said. "I'm sorry mom, it will be ok though." Some girl will be so lucky to have such a caring compassionate man someday. I am so blessed! Will say also that my girls were all in Richmond the last few days, but each of them checked on me yesterday and told me they were proud of me and they were sure I rocked it. Again I am SO blessed! When I was in the midst of my panic about possibly not passing I called my sister. She too had a similar moment last year when her license wasn't showing up, and she couldn't re register for the test. She was able to calm me down until I could call the board and see what was going on. When I called the recording said my license was current, but had a hold. Not sure what that was about. The live person I spoke with said there was no hold and that my license was good, and she even gave me the number. Yea!!! It is such a relief to know that this phase of my life is over. I met some truly wonderful people that are now dear friends. I had exceptional instructors that I can now call colleagues. Without them and the awesome support of my family this would not have been possible. Thank you all!
-Mikalan M. Krause, R.N.

Preparing for nursing school

This last year feels like a blur to me. I took all my pre and co requisite classes for nursing school. I applied, and was accepted. I shouldn't have been to surprised since I have a 4.0 gpa. Then the stress started. The company my husband worked for closed in Feb. We had officially known it was closing for a few months. Fortunately we had been planning for it for over a year. He was offered a lovely severance package that included company paid COBRA for 4 months. The day his final paycheck and the severance package was due to arrive in our accounts is when it started getting crazy. The final paycheck came, but not the severance. The company's initial answer was that we were confused on when it was supposed to be paid. A few days later we received a letter saying they were out of money and it wouldn't be paid and neither would the COBRA. TERRIFIC! I needed to have a nursing school physical and dental exam, and some new immunizations. That was going to be great fun with no insurance.

Fast forward a few months. My husband is still out of work. He has gone on lots of interviews and has been told more times than we would like that he was one of 4 or 5 finalist out of over 100 qualified applicants. Yet, we still don't have income or insurance. My mother is unable to find my immunization records and as a result of this I need to have titers for the MMR and chickenpox. My doctor has told me that they are very expensive. The chickenpox titer is around $300. I went to a low income clinic for the physical, which did save me some money, but they said they couldn't do/order the titers. Another friend who has used that clinic has told me they could. This is all so frustrating!!! I wish my mom could find my records, it would take some of the stress off. I keep hoping soon I will catch a break and the records will appear, or I can find someone to do the tests for free or low cost. That is probably just wishful thinking though. For now I will plug away on what I can handle and try to relax for the last few weeks before school school starts again. Wish me luck! TTFN, Miki

Catching up real quick

Whats new in our house...My husband will most likely be out of a job after the first of the year. We are stuck in a frustrating limbo as a result. If he leaves early, he forfeits the severance package, and a bonus, leaving a large sum of money "on the table". If he waits it all out, he might beat the rush of others in the same situation and get a job, but most likely at a significant pay cut. I don't think there is a right answer to this one. Right now he is looking all over the country for any employment. I don't want to move. I like the life we have created where we are, and I hate moving. I will move, although I joke with him when he tells me where he has applied, or where he has an interview that I will miss him. I just hope it doesn't have to come down to trying to sell our house and relocate once again. I am still plugging away at school. I only have a few weeks left in the semester and still have all A's. Let's keep our fingers crossed and hope it stays this way. I have having so much fun. I wish I had figured out 20 years ago this is want I wanted to do. Not only would I be done by now, but this layoff wouldn't matter as much, as I could pick up a few more hours at work. Oh well! I should be appling to nursing school in Feb., of course that is if I don't move. Moving may just throw everything off as each state/school has their own pre and co recs. Again lets keep our fingers crossed. The girls' cheer season ends today with States. We have not done as well this year, but the squad is closer this year than years past. We have practiced less which makes the parents happy, but it makes them frustrated that we aren't placing...which we might do if we practiced more. We can't win for losing. Well I am off to States, wish us luck! TTFN,Miki