Days like Today

It is days like today (frustrating, exhausting, troublesome, long) when getting a hug from your 93 year old little old lady patient who is sad that I won't be there tomorrow to take care of her make it worthwhile. It is days like today when I thank God for giving me the strength to make it through and for giving me what I need to be a nurse and take care for others when they are sick. It is days like today when I have a patient who tells me to keep my wonderful attitude and not become a grumpy old nurse that make me smile when all I want to do is cry. It is days like today when a patient I am taking care of actually knows where Orange City, Iowa is and has been there allows me to form a trusting relationship with this patient and is worthwhile!

At the end of this frustrating, exhausting, troublesome and long day - I still can remember why I decided to be a nurse - and that is all I need at the end of the day.

Where the green grass grows

The past week has mostly been spent at work and Brett at school and watching our grass grow. It really is coming along, with the bluegrass parts just starting to come up now. We gave also started the landscaping on the front of the house. We are using the same red paver bricks. The other ugly square looking blocks are what used to be around the house. We are just about finished with that part. Then we have to do around the tree in the front and the "flower garden" in the back. I think I might use some of the old bricks to go around my compost pile in the back. While working on the bricks yesterday, I was noticing the basement windows looked really ugly as well. I asked Brett, "what would it take to put new basement windows in?" He replies, "take the old ones out and find new ones that fit in that space and put them in." Well of course that also takes money. Mostly the windows are ugly because someone was priming and painting the wood parts and got it all over the window part. Stupid. Anyway....I got out a razor blade and started scraping off all the paint. Boy that was a lot of work for just one window. A few more windows to go and that part will be finished. Then I'll wash them all, clean the inside, make new curtains for the basement, and voila....new windows! It already looks 10 times better with the paint scraped off! A few more plants around the outside and it will start to look pretty good!

On a side note - if you are reading this and have cats, DO NOT feed them human food. We are never feeding our cats human food ever again. They both puked it back up today. Disgusting. At least we have wood floors and not carpet. Don't worry, I did not include a picture of the cat puke.

This next week I start my orientation on the ortho side of the floor - mostly dealing with hip and knee surgeries. Then, after September 26, I will be on my own. I found out the other day that I am not working 3, 12 hour 7pm-7am shifts per week. I am working 11p-7a, 4 days a week, with the possibility of maybe more. I'm disappointed about this new information but told my charge nurses I am willing to work whatever basically...so hopefully now that they know that I am willing - the opportunity for more hours will arise. My holiday is Christmas this year. So I go to work at 11 Christmas Eve and get off at 7:00 Christmas Day morning. Not sure what my schedule is like around the holidays besides that though. After 4 long days of work this past week, having 3 days off is nice. I really have been having a hard time getting motivated to clean or organize though. Maybe tomorrow will be better. It must be because I have been reading a really good book from the library. I've been sitting outside of the deck next to our pond enjoying the breeze. On tomorrow's agenda - find a chiropractor so I can stop being in pain and make my headaches go away and buy stamps so I can pay bills!

Normal Adventures

One new exciting adventure to us here in Normal happened tonight! Brett starts graduate school tomorrow and we decided he needed a haircut. We borrowed Josh's clippers and I gave it a shot. We've been married for 3 years and I have never wanted to cut his hair. Either he has gone somewhere to have it cut or his sister Cindy has cut it. I've just been too afraid that I would mess it up. Brett gave me confidence though and said that if all else fails - we'll just shave it all off! Turns out I didn't do too bad of a job.



The last 2 pictures are the after shower pictures. Doesn't look to shabby if I say so myself! In other news - big cat has begun to chase around the little cat which is quite a sight. He'll try to hide around the couch and then pounce a little. I think this is good for fat cat because it gives him some activity and will help him loose a little weight. :)

Brett had his orientation day for graduate chemistry students on Friday. It went really well and he met some nice people. He has class Monday, Wednesday, Friday and then will teach lower level labs a couple days of the week. It will be interesting to see what our schedules will look like once I start working nights. Good thing I can just about sleep anywhere or anytime, even if it is light out. At any rate, I am excited for him to start school and start doing something he enjoys! Until next time!

Yardwork!

Here is what we have done yesterday and today. We started out yesterday by using this machine to tear up the yard. It was in really bad shape and there was no way we were just going to dig up the whole thing with a shovel and a rake. This took Brett about 3 hours to do the whole backyard. Then I raked up all the leftover junk and grass. Then, we watered it a bit to settle the dust. Then, we planted grass seed and fertilizer. Then, I raked the whole thing again. After that, we set up the sprinklers to water and watch it grow!!! We also had some edging bricks and put them around the trees in the backyard and around our pond. Also, in the back corner where I am going to plant some things eventually. We are going to put more around the front of the house later and replace the ugly things that are there now! The pictures are out of order, but you get the general idea. It is too much work for me to put them in the right order. I'm tired out :) Hopefully the grass comes in and we have a beautiful lawn! It already looks much better to have it evened out and not huge holes and then patches of grass and patches of dirt. Yay for homeowners!

Niece Natalie!

2 posts in one night! I was reminded that I had written earlier about having a new niece but did not post any details...so here they are!!

Natalie Jean was born at 3:27pm on August 8, 2010. She weighed 8lbs 9oz and was 21 inches long. Beautiful baby!! I tried to put pictures up, but they are in the wrong format - need to get some other ones from Rebecca to post! Until next time.

Thoughts & More

Today was another day at work for me. It was a good, busy day for me, and also provided me with some thoughts. So far in my life I have never had a patient die that I was taking care of (even while working as a CNA). Honestly, I am not looking forward to the day that happens to me. Today I had a patient that was not doing as well later in the day. I was provided with the opportunity to use my critical thinking skills and do some assessments and call the doctor and tell him what I thought was going on. The initial response I got from the doctor was that the patient was just a mess. My thought: "I DIDN'T ASK FOR YOUR PERSONAL OPINION - YOU ARE THE DOCTOR, LET'S DO SOMETHING!" It made me upset. I've always thought of my patients as human beings created by God for his purpose. They are not just "things" we are "figuring out" as health care professionals. It may have been true that the patient had a lot going on - but that doesn't mean we need to throw our hands up in the air and do nothing. Anyway - the doctor eventually gave me orders and we worked on getting the patient back on track. I could definitely tell the difference between the doctor coming in for a few minutes to just look at the patient and taking the time to talk to the patient and family.

This also provided me with thoughts about how I will handle patients dying while I am taking care of them. It is not just the fact that a person is dying - it is the fact that I have formed a relationship with this patient and the family members and have gotten to know them. I wonder if I care too much as a nurse and get too involved? I know it is good for my patients, it lets them know I care and helps them trust me, but it may not be good for myself emotionally. I guess I will just have to take that situation as it comes to me. I truly enjoy caring for others and it frustrates me when I cannot make their hurt go away or things are not going as planned. Part of that is probably my organized personality, wanting to make everything right and part of that is my caring attitude and not wanting my patients to hurt. I enjoy what I do, but I am learning it is not always easy.

I've been reading 1st Peter lately several times over. One verse that I have been reading over and over again is 1st Peter 1:7, "These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold - though your faith is far more precious than pure gold. So when your faith remains strong though many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world." For me these trials lately are represented by difficult things I go through at work, either dealing with patients, a diagnosis, doctors, or coworkers. Through these trials, my faith is made stronger as I daily rely on God for all my needs and turn to Him with everything. I hope to bring honor to God at work, even if I am going through trials.

Lots of deep thoughts for today. I had more, but now I don't remember. Hah. One lighthearted thing to end before I go eat my chocolate banana cream pie. :)

Brett and I have been married for a little over 3 years and it was just today that we found out that all this time Brett thought I did not like Sunny D, when in fact, I really like it! We had a "I can't believe this!" moment tonight in the grocery store. He's never bought it before because he thought I didn't like it and thought it was bad for us (which it probably is, but it still tastes good!) And I really do like it! We're looking forward to the future of learning more about each other and our likes and dislikes!



A blog post wouldn't be complete with out a picture of Marshmellow and Parker! Enjoy!

Saturday...

I just got home from work and I am exhausted. I was there at 6:40 this morning and it literally wasn't until 1:00 that I stopped and sat down. I only had 3 patients and one of them went home around noon, but I was super busy for some reason! I did a lot of new things today including giving blood to a patient. I just felt kind of unorganized and not on top of everything. I had doctors giving me orders and patients telling me they wanted to go home, NOW, and so on and so forth...the life of a nurse. :) I am sure I will get used to it, but today - I am tired.

Later tonight when it is not so hot, I plan on getting started on my couch potato to 5K run plan. Time to go run for a minute! Hope I don't pass out...wish me luck. Short post for today - time for a nap or something.

Cats & Projects

It seems like the only thing I can think to write about lately is our cats. They just provide so much entertainment for us. One of their morning routines is to "fight" with each other. I have a video that Brett taped which is hilarious.
You can see that occasionally they will stop for a minute and just lick each other. Or Parker will kind of back away a little and then pounce. I tried to upload the video to here, but it did not work. I'll have to figure that out and try again later.

Work is going really well for me and I still love my job. Getting up at 5:20 in the morning is a little difficult and after 3 days in a row I am pretty exhausted. I didn't do a whole lot today and took a nap too. Since moving into our house we have done a few projects. Brett built a little shelf in the laundry room from some wood that was left in the basement and garage. He fixed the gate to the fence and put a new lock on it. Now it actually swings shut and is level. We also had quite the project redoing our tub/shower in the upstairs bathroom.
Brett actually did all of the work on the demo of the bathroom. I worked everyday for those 2 weeks. When his parents came, Bob helped put up the walls and caulk around the edges. It is all finished now except for all the edging around everything. So now we have a working shower and tub and no water in the basement!

This is how Brett got the tub home from the store. I still can't believe he did that!

Our current project is working on the lawn/landscaping. The previous owners had 2 large dogs. The last picture is where their big dog fence used to be. There is just a bunch of junk and dirt there that we are working on leveling out and are going to plant grass there. The other two pictures are right by the deck. Since the gutter was a little saggy, the water just poured out the side and would wash away the dirt on the inside of the fence. So, now that the gutter is fixed (thanks Brett!) we can work on the lawn. We basically are digging up spots where there is just dirt and leveling stuff out to put down mulch or grass. We also took out some stupidly placed bricks and are going to put them other places. This morning when Brett went out to work at 10:00, it was just about 90 degrees!!

That is about the sum of our projects so far! Oh, we also took off the door and frame to the basement. It was kind of annoying and all beat up by the previous owner's dogs. Okay, enough for tonight!

Home Sweet Home

After a long weekend of driving 1400 miles, we are home! We went to Kansas this past weekend for a wedding of one of my Spare cousins. It was great to see family and catch up with people we had not seen in awhile. Our cats are just as adorable as they were when we left and were excited to see us when we came home. Or maybe they were just excited to get food.

The wedding was good and sweet. I broke my sunglasses while in Kansas, so I had to get new ones. I have really sensitive eyes and need to protect them from the sun. The sunglasses I had before were old and scratched and I always thought they were a little crooked. However, when I tried on some new sunglasses they too were all crooked on my face! Turns out, I have a crooked face!!!! It was quite a hilarious moment. Anyhoo - I got a new pair of sunglasses that are snazzy and I like them.

Also - I am an aunt again!!! Rebecca had her baby today. I will wait to share the name and other details until she has a chance to let more family members know. I'm so excited!!!!!!

Tomorrow is Monday and another day at work. Bring it on.

Nothing New

Nothing new has really happened since I last blogged. The kitties have been getting along wonderfully and provide many laughs for us. We went to Petco to get some more cat food and I picked up a book about training your cat. As I was skimming through the book I came across a section that said if your cat is doing something wrong, yelling, charging, swearing, etc, at them does not do any good. Whoops....there goes that for me! Instead, they said you are supposed to hiss at them and spray water at them because that is what cats do to eachother when they are mad. They hiss and spit. So, the next time the cat tried to get on the table while we were eating, I hissed, and the cat ran away. Hmm...turns out the authors of this book might have known a few things. So if you need a laugh today, picture me hissing like a cat - good times! Today when I got home from work after another successful day I took a little nap with Parker. He cuddled up right next to me! He has not done this before and does not really like to be next to you if you aren't scratching him and such. We have taken a TON of pictures of these cats!!! I could fill a whole creative memories album with just cat pictures probably :)
Marshmellow cleaning Parker and Parker pawing him like a little kitten paws his mom when he is nursing. I think they really are friends!Taking a nap together.


Napping with Parker after a long day at work.

I realized the other day that ever since we moved to Bloomington-Normal about a month ago we have not left. I'm used to driving 30 minutes to work and driving 15 minutes to Walmart, or going to Sioux City or Sioux Falls to go shopping or out to eat. Now we have all that right here. It seems strange though to think we have not left the same city in a month. Tomorrow however we are leaving for Kansas to go to a wedding. It will be fun to drive and get out of town for awhile. It will be a short trip because we are leaving Friday and coming home on Sunday. I have to work Monday. Time to get packing and get ready to leave!

Introducing.......

Life sure has changed around here for us lately! We have added 2 new members to our family. 2 cats. That's right, cats. I wanted a little puppy, but the shelter we were adopting them from only had larger dogs. So, we settled for 2 cats. I wanted a kitten and Brett wanted an older more mellow cat. We adopted a 22 pound cat named Marshmellow, and a little orange kitten named Parker. They are so much fun! We have taken a ton of pictures of them so far and we have only had them since yesterday (Saturday). They are our "children." Brett went and got them while I was at work on Saturday and when I got home they were both scared and hiding under the bed and the table. Today however, they are out playing in the living room and being friends and "fighting" with us. They have provided many laughs for us! I have some pictures of them too!This is Marshmellow (and yes it is really spelled that way)

This is Parker. He is about 4 months old, and it is difficult to get a good picture of him because he is constantly on the go! It is hilarious to watch him go flying around the house and then slip as he goes around the corner.

At first I was concerned that the 2 cats would not get along well. However, we have proved that they seem to get along just fine. Except when Parker gets a little too excited for Marshmellow, then Marshmellow gets grumpy at him. They are our new entertainment!


They are friends though! And they both know how to use the litter box. We will see what we have gotten ourselves into!!