My Nursing Family

On Tuesday night, the nursing department here at Luther College hosted a banquet for all of the professors and students. I LOVE get-togethers will my fellow nurses! They are always so much fun and this one was no exception.

We started off the night with a social hour with yummy punch and got to know some of the freshman who were applying to the program. A couple of other girls and I were so hungry so we thought if we meandered over to the tables and sat down, we could get everyone else to follow. It didn't happen, but we had fun talking to each other across the room since none of our seats were next to each other.

Dinner was a buffet of string beans, seasoned potato wedges, salad, dinner rolls, brown sugar pork roast, and stuffed vegetarian portabello mushrooms. The mushrooms were DELICIOUS! Best banquet food I've had. For dessert was red velvet cake and apple pie. You know I love me some red velvet cake.

Our keynote speaker was Wendy Stevens, the Nutrition and Human Anatomy instructor. She's retiring this year and has taught every single nursing class at Luther, which is amazing. She is such a funny lady and a wonderful instructor. We shared some funny quotes from her classes that we remembered, including:

One thing to combat exhaustion in class is by doing jumping jacks.

Avoid eating more than 1 hot dog per year.

"You know when you see those tour buses going around with all the little old ladies on them? Where are their husbands? They aren't at home watching the football game; they're DEAD!"

"I don't see why guys are so interested in boobs. They're just big fat pads. Honestly, that's all they are!"

She then started her speech by having everyone write down a story about either the best gift they've been given that isn't tangible or about a time someone has advocated for you. We then shared our story with our table and some of us went up and told it to everyone. I'll save my story for another post. Practically everyone who went up to tell their story, including Wendy, were tearing up and/or crying during it. Pretty sure most people in the room got teary-eyed.

The winners of our "Penny Wars" were revealed and the professors pulled ahead at the last moment to win and, of course, the freshman lost. They had to go up to the front and dance to Gangham Style - too funny! I wish I would have gotten a video!

We ended the night with a photoshoot. Many of us were goofy and delirious at that point.

I love these crazies....

And just for kicks, here's a candid taken in early October from our senior class picture...nice...