Sunday, May 31, 2009

TGIS!

I was thinking this was my last night as a coordinator this week but I work thurs night too. But I am off tomorrow and don't work until 3p-7p on Tues on Peds-which considering that peds is closed for no census tonight I don't think I'm going to count on definitely having to work Tues-which is fine and dandy with me! I start orientation with IV therapy this week-I'm going to work thurs am (7-11) with them and then rest some in the afternoon before working thurs night as coordinator. Then I'm on peds this weekend to cover for a friend. But for now TGIS (thank God it's Sunday) well almost mon...

Mr HVAC is supposed to come tomorrow. Do you think he'll be there? Do you think he'll finish? Stay tuned... I guess I'll start out sleeping on the couch until he gets there. Last time he arrived around 11, I had been asleep since 8:30ish and The View was watching me when I woke up (I had been watching the Today show). I also desperately need to get the laundry done and housework too. The kids and I got groceries on Sat (while Wesley stayed home waiting for Mr HVAC who - surprise - didn't show up and didn't call. ARGH!) so that is done.

I have realized this weekend why I had children. I spent some time outside this afternoon with the kids in the hamock with Mary and Robert was pushing me. BLISS :) It makes up for all the tantrums and poopy diapers! I'm begining to think he is NEVER going to potty train.

I was going to blog about last night but I don't think I want to think about it. It was horrible and I didn't want to come back but I did. And I slept really well today so that's good. And tonight so far has been fine. :) Evidently since I am blogging. And my ILs felt bad for me so they grilled steaks, I did french fries and salad and they cut a cantalope and we ate outside. It was fabulous :) Until I had to leave! I love being able to hang out outside with the kids. Mary spent a bunch of time climbing the deck stairs and then calling to be rescued. Robert rode the Buck around. Then Wes' parents got home and made his a house out of a dishwasher box so they played with that a while. Mary took a long nap-apparently she fell asleep on her way home from church (12-12:30ish) and slept until I woke her up at 4:30. Wowzers!

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Thankful Thursdays

Every night when I go to bed I turn off the christmas lights in the kids room and just exault over their sweet sleeping bodies (after making sure they are breathing of course!). I love taking that moment to be thankful for their lives and to pray protection over them through the night and the next day. The days are so hectic-when they are awake I don't appreciate them as much as I should sometimes but in those quiet moments I see the real them. And thank God that they are asleep!!!!!!!!

It's the same way with thankful Thursdays! It gives me a minute to reflect on the truly good in my life.

I am thankful for a job-and a meaningful job. My mom always prayed for "work to do and strength to do it". I get it now. I'm back on Peds this evening and it's really nice to be actually taking care of patients again, although as nursing coordinator I feel like I'm taking care of nurses and that's really special too.

For a good babysitter.

For the lunch that Wesley and I were able to have today. I went ahead and took the kids to Denee's this am and went to the gym, library, to work to work on a project, to lunch with Wesley and then back to work. We spent over an hour at Wood Grill just talking (OK a lot of eating too-I'm no where near hungry yet!)

For my garden-it's really thriving with the rain

For my kids who have keen minds and strong bodies. Maybe a little too keen and strong some days... Mary learned to climb the playset yesterday and a chair today, but I've seen enough kids with disabilities to know that I am blessed!

For my kids' Grandparents! Oh-Grammy and Grampy, Robert says you are comming tomorrow :) Did you know?

Monday, May 25, 2009

Menu Plan Monday!

tonight-supper at Clif and Hollies: I took home made choc chip cookies and a salad, they had hamburgers, potato salad, chips, pasta salad... mmm!
tomorrow-supper at Nanny's (I think she's making taco salad)
wed-pork BBQ sandwiches. I have the pork cooking right now-it takes a while-but I think it will be done tomorrow and I'll just heat it up
thurs-meatloaf
fri-tacos
sat-
L) leftovers/sandwiches
D) grilled chicken
sun-
L) pork BBQ sandwiches again
D) pizza

Grammy and Grampy!

We had a fun weekend with Grammy and Grampy (my parents) and visits from Aunt Margaret and Grandma Reinhold. The kids have played, played, played outside, upstairs, and everywhere and are worn to a frazzle today-they are pooped and in bed-and they took good naps this afternoon! We got the flower beds plus a joint garden with Roger and Peggy planted this weekend and the flower beds mulched so I feel like we are well on the way to spring. Dad also burried the drain pipes (yeah)! Wesley had found a John Deere Buck ride on thing at a 2nd hand store next to where he works a few weeks ago-it was missing the battery and only $15 and he and dad got it working this weekend and it was a HUGE hit. I wasn't sure he would like it-he's a little odd about the riding mower when it's running but he has gone everywhere on it! Mary walks along behind like a little puppy. They've also really enoyed the playset-the rockwall and slide. Mary has gone down the slide several times (with someone at the top to start her and someone at the bottom to catch her). And Robert has mastered the rock wall. I love watching them outside! This week I'm not scheduled much (I had kept it open in case we were doing Meditech stuff but it doesn't look like it) so I think I'm just going to enjoy some time off. I'm scheduled some meetings tomorrow and then 3-11 thursday on Peds and 7p-7a sat and sun as nursing coordinator. The kids are scheduled at the babysitter all day tomorrow and wed and then thurs pm-so I'll have to decide what to do with them-I can't decide whether to leave them and catch some stuff up around here or what. I'll see how long I end up at work tomorrow and then go from there!

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Want to be "here we are!"

Robert's sayings are so cute! We were about 45 min from being home from our camping trip (we got back last evening around 5:50 pm) and he all of a sudden stretched his legs and said (whined) "want to be 'here we are'". So then I made the mistake of telling him that we were almost 'here we are', so he said that the rest of the time! Our trip was fun-it certainly had its challening moments but it went well. The kids took a couple days to settle into the sleeping arrangements and Mary and I have had horrible allergies to something in the camper-poor Mary would wake up with a horrible congested cough several times each night-despite 5 mg of claritin every day. Wes' mom has been sick on and off for forever and she felt poorly on and off which made Roger's job of trying to keep up with her, their 2 dogs and my 2 kids pretty hard. (We subsidize their trip as help with childcare while Wesley is at all the seminars). We took Snoopy to the kennel so we didn't have to keep up with her too and so we could do some stuff with the group.

Sat the outing (there's always a photo op outing) was at a petting zoo-well here at infinity acres.
http://www.virginia.org/site/description.asp?AttrID=49414
http://www.alpacanation.com/farmsandbreeders/03_viewfarm.asp?name=14575

In addition to the alpacas and what I refered to as the poodle pacas (they had some groomed into poodle shapes-they were hilarious!) they had a sugar glider, some critter from venezuala called Taz, fowl, minature goats, pigs, miniture horses, a miniture cow, peacocks, more alpakas, a pond with fish that you could feed... plus kid play house! It was a perfect outing. We had a picnic lunch there and then R+P, the kids and I went back to attempt a nap. I think R+P got a nap. The kids did play quietly for an hour and then I took them to the playground at the campground. It was good just to spend time with them! When I have pics to post I'll tell more about our trip. This page has some pics of the campground including the playground.

http://www.ci.reidsville.nc.us/lakereidsville.htm
more later....

Monday, May 11, 2009

Another night....

Well, another night almost done. I've finished copying over the papers (the unit census where we write what is going on with the patient and update) and am waiting for the next coordinator to come in so I can go home! Whoot! It was a busy night-from 7p-3a it was nuts and then it quieted down and has been good since then. I stuck for lots of IV's/blood, lots of admissions, lots of just general stuff. I had a good mother's day-the best part was that the kids napped at the same time and I had some time in the hammock and curled up on the couch! Robert made me a card and bracelet in toddler church (how cool is that!?!), we had a family lunch with Wes' parents, aunt and uncle and grandma (the first Furr BBQ of the season), Wesley went to Philip's graduation party... just stuff.... if Robert had slept past 7 it would have been perfect :)

Mary is totally walking-almost running-even outside. Her little toddle is SO CUTE. We went to a mother-daughter banquet Sat eve and she was the cutest thing. I'll try to upload a pic later. She got down and was running with the big kids and then blew kisses to all the matriarch ladies and loved all over them. They looked like they wanted to eat her up with a spoon! I know I did! Sat the kids and I went shopping and while we were in Walmart and I was buying canned fruits and veggies Robert said "mmm, yummy, thank you Mommy for buying yummy food". So cute! He's such a sweetie!

Thursday, May 07, 2009

middle of the night ramblings... :)

It's been a quick week again at Lake Harrisonburg. Between rain showers we've had drizzle. My seeds must have drowned because all I see growing are weeds-not the seeds I planted. Sigh. The kids are doing OK. We've had to go back to the basics of 1-2-3 magic with Robert, I checked the VHS out of the library for a quick refresher course and I think it's helping. Mary is starting to get fiesty too. Mostly still feeding the dog but also a tendency towards the toilet and the dog water and the toilet bowl brush. I've (only) worked 32ish hours this week but I feel like its been more-I think going back and forth between night and day has killed the week-you loose a day sleeping. And the house looks like a tornado hit it but instead of cleaning it this afternoon while I was off and the kids were at the babysitter I listened to NPR and napped :) Nothing like listening to "the story" to put you to sleep-it's so soothing!

I worked this morning doing meditech tracers-we're basically following meds, blood transfusions and orders through various departments to make sure everything is documenting right and flowing right and that nurses/pharmacists are working right. It's a patient safety initiative our little meditech team for the next month. Then we go back to our reguarily scheduled jobs-whatever that is! Next week I'm straight coordinator (someone is on vacation) so I won't be doing meditech at all. Although I do have crisis intervention training one day which sounds interesting-like how to divert people who are going bersick or something. They say to dress comfy 'cause it's active.

For the next 6 week schedule I am scheduled nursing coordinator, peds and orienting to IV therapy. I figure that the schedule after that I'll work coordinator, peds, IV and orient to float pool (nurses that work on any inpatient non-specialty unit). And then maybe I can just work somewhere, somehow :) I am happy that I'm still getting scheduled on Peds some. That will be so nice to still be there.

This guy is comming tomorrow to install our new HVAC system for the upstairs (I was going to keep it a surprise mom but I just can't!). He should be done Sun :) We have a whole new unit (so we'll have 2 units) plus an air handler and vents and all that good stuff. I'm so excited! Then we're talking about getting the rest of the upstairs drywalled and starting to work on that. For now the thermostat will be in the finished room and then we'll move it out when we get the rest of the upstairs done. So no more window units or heaters for you guys! And there goes our tax refund!

Our weekend is shaping up to be busy! Everyone keep your fingers crossed that tomorrow afternoon it will a) be nice and b) my kids and Caleb will be in super fabulous moods and we can do a photo shoot of all 3 of them individually and together-you know since we left it for the last minute and all. (So mom, your present is going to be a little late...). So family over tomorrow, mother-daughter banquet at Briery Branch Sat night (it will be so fun to take Mary!), Sun it sounds like R+P and us are hosting a BBQ for lunch for Nanny and then Clif and Hollie are doing a supper thing (but I'm going to work). Plus our friend Philip graduates from his program and they're having a party for him.... and the camper needs to be gotten ready for next weekend. And our lawn is like 2 feet tall. And the weeds have taken over the flower bed.... I'm tired just thinking of all this. I MUST clean tomorrow while the kids are at Denee's!

I have made it to the gym twice this week so far. I ran 3 miles one day and 2 today (at 5.5 mph). My knees are a little sore between that and all the stairs I do at work. So I don't think I'll do more than 2-3 miles at a time at this point. I need my knees!

Friday, May 01, 2009

May!

I can't believe it's May already. Camping weather here we come! We're headed to Eden, NC (home of the friendliest people you ever want to meet) for the argus collectors group this month (Roger and Peggy will join us to help with the kids-Wesley gets sucked into Argo-land so otherwise it would just be me and the kids) and then the next weekend mom and dad will be here. Robert will be super excited to see them (as will we all!). Every few days he says "Grammy and Grampy comming soon, comming tomorrow". Not a question either, it is a factual statement! Lol. He loves his grammy and grampy! He's been carrying around the box that his air bed is in recently-he's all excited about his "Pooh bed for beach and vacations".

Tonight is my first solo night as a nursing coordinator. So far things are pretty calm. I'm keeping a close eye on the ED's census and it looks good so far. I've got my fingers crossed for a smooth night. It sounds like it was a crazy day for poor Brenda who worked the dayshift.

Mary is walking really well now-still has some trouble outside (especially when faced with an energetic pug!) . She has also really taken to her dolly. She calls it Baby and loves baby, holds baby, kisses baby, feeds baby (yes Mom I bought her a feeding set for it!). Today I was trying to get her to take a nap so I could take a nap and she started kissing me all over. It was sooo cute. She is so different from Robert. I still have never gotten a real kiss from Robert-he'll lay his cheek against mine if I ask for a kiss. Mary does the whole "mwah" kiss thing-and blows kisses too. Robert has been sweet today too-we just had a really good day. I made him a sandwich with left over pork loin and cheese with mayo and mustard for lunch and he kept going "wow, yummy sandwich-peanutbutter, meat and cheese (I don't know where he got the PB from lol). Mary had sunbutter and jelly and I had sunbutter and mayo and banana. I made bread last night so it was fresh and yummy! The kids ate and ate!

The day started out kinda cool and then warmed up in the afternoon so we were able to go out and play and "photosenthesize" as I put it. I wish the lettuce and beans I planted the Sunday would pop up and photosenthesize too-I'm begining to think I did something wrong :) I think some of the green beans may be comming up-I guess we'll see what happens.