MITCHELL MANIA: April 2009

Hello! Well, it was an interesting weekend at our house.

First of all, I have been going to a new chiropractor. I REALLY like him, and am so glad that I am finally getting my back taken care of. Unfortunately, I have to go through some extra pain as my muscles SCREAM at me because they are so used to being in the WRONG position, but it will all be better in a while. I'm VERY sore today... some because of the adjustments and muscle work, and some because of taking care of Dakota this weekend.

Second, I oriented at my new work case on Friday. It made me cry as g-ma of the patient explained to me that she is caregiver of the little one because the parents abused the patient so much. She was only 8 pounds on her first birthday. How could ANYONE do that to their child?!??! Anyway, she is doing much better now, and g-ma is thrilled that I am coming to work there. Another dose of encouragement that was desperately needed.

Got a phone call at 12:30am Saturday morning informing me that *J* was being admitted into the hospital. Thankfully, after a few tests, they decided that there was nothing wrong with him, but I missed a couple of hours of work, besides getting the living daylights scared out of me when the phone rang in the middle of the night! :-) I also got to sleep in a little bit, too, so that was a blessing.

Dakota's mom called Saturday afternoon, asking if I still wanted to watch Dakota, since he was sick with a low grade fever. I told her I didn't care if she didn't. I knew she really needed a break. I overheard her asking D in the background if he still wanted to go to Heather's house, and he said "YES!" Then she asked if he wanted to stay with mommy since he was sick, to which he replied, "I not sick!" That was it... I told her that she could bring him anyway. I ended up getting up with him twice in the night because he woke up and then needed medicine. We did try to go to church (I kept him with me instead of putting him in the nursery.) He fell asleep on the bus ride (we went on the bus route with Chris), and slept about 15 minutes. He woke up at church, and was VERY whiny and wouldn't be quiet in the Sunday school class, so we went home. He fell asleep at 11:45am, and slept til 2:30 or so. In spite of him being sick, we enjoyed having him here. I'm not sure that Chris slept much either after D woke up the first time. :-) He's so smart, and it is so fun to hear all the things that he is learning. He did really well!

I finally fit into a dress that I bought a while ago, and we got pictures taken for the church directory. Hopefully they turn out nice. They looked a little iffy on the camera.

After life being so mundane for a while, it seems like life is going crazy the past two weeks! Also, got an e-mail from my bro, Steve, today, and they resigned their position at the church where he was youth pastor. They are headed up to Wake Forest, NC, to go to Southeastern Seminary there. They will be moving the week of May 24. Please pray for them and the youth group as they adjust to this change. Steve has been youth pastor there since April 2005. Thanks!

That's about it for now, I believe! Hope everyone had a great weekend! Oh, yeah... we have snow forcasted for tonight here. ???? The weather has been CRAZY! At least it melts fast here! I am thinking I still didn't move far enough south! :-)

Here's a little update on my life...

This past week has been something else. Chris started to get sick on Wed. night. That is never fun, because I always feel so bad that there's nothing I can do to make him feel better. :-(

Last Thurs. morning, I'm putting my stuff in my car to go to work, and I get a phone call from Maxim (my work) saying I don't have to work that day. Jake (from work) says that it's nothing against me, that the parents and doctors decided that they only want 2 nurses working the case to cut down on risk of infection. Fine, I understand that (if that's REALLY the case)... but you can't tell me that they called you at 0600 this morning to tell you that! Work should have called me the night before when they found out about it so that I didn't have to get up and get ready! Besides, they called me a 5 min. til 0800... if I would have actually left on time for work, I would have actually been at the house when they called and that would have been extremely awkward for the other nurse and the family. So (if you couldn't tell) I was pretty mad, and in tears. I'm SO sick of dealing with this stuff from work. Chris tells me not to worry about it, that God will take care of everything, but that I have to call Nick (the office manager) so that he will get work for me (otherwise nothing gets done.) The guys always tell me that I'm one of their best nurses (blah, blah, blah) so they're doing what they can to get work for me... yeah, right! ANYWAY, Nick calls me back and tells me that the parents don't WANT ME there anymore (which is totally different than just saying they only want 2 nurses in the house!) Apparently Mom said that I "discipline" the other child and they didn't like it. The Thurs. prior to that, she told me that I was her favorite nurse, and that she only felt safe with me. How does that work? I was really hurt by that, and mad that she didn't say anything to me (about the "discipline" thing, if that was a concern. If she would have just told me that she didn't like it, I would have stopped. (Not that I disciplined the other child, I just told her a couple of times not to touch something.) Although, if a 2 year old is touching my stuff, I'm going to tell her not to touch it! (By the way, that mom told me she is bipolar, so I'm wondering if I just said something on the wrong day and set her off.) So - now I'm mad that Jake didn't tell me the truth when he called me that morning, too... then Nick proceeds to tell me that he's frustrated with me that there is now THREE families that don't want me to work for them. Two I knew about, but THREE?!?!?

Well, there was another mom that I oriented on her case, and she was mad the minute I got there b/c Maxim was trying to switch nurses on her, and she didn't like it (I don't blame her.) She totally ignored me the whole time I was there until she left for work, and only talked to the other nurse. (This was back in November). They called her (Thurs.) and asked if she wanted me to work there, and she said, "I just don't think that I would get along with her." She didn't even give me a chance! (Not that I really wanted to work for her, anyway, but still!) Then Nick tells me that the mom that "fired" me back in November told him that all I did was sit around all day, and that I didn't take care of her daughter. That is absolutely NOT true, and anybody that knows me knows that I work hard at my job! (The occupational therapist that works with J also works with that little girl, and says the mom is just trying to get a nurse in that will watch both of her kids - not just the one - while she runs around, which we are NOT supposed to do. She'll say whatever she wants to get rid of them if she can.) By this point, I was VERY hurt and angry, but didn't even try to defend myself b/c it's just not even worth it. Obviously, anyone who knows me knows that I don't just sit around and not do my job! I was also upset, too, b/c I kind of feel if they think that about me, that now I have a bad testimony of what a Christian is supposed to be. I don't want them to think - "Well, that nurse claims to be a Christian, and she was a horrible nurse!" - which makes God look bad! As a Christian, I feel that I should be the best nurse they ever have!

Well, that was all on Thursday. I was still pretty torn up about it, but J's mom (the other mom I work for now) assured me that she trusts me and that she's not going to fire me! :-)

Chris continued to get more and more sick over the weekend... lots of drainage down the back of his throat that would gag him and make him throw up. Not so bad during the day, but keeping him up coughing, gagging, throwing up all night. On Friday he started getting dizzy anytime he changed positions from lying down to sitting, sitting to standing, etc, and I KNOW he was running a fever, even though he wouldn't let me check his temp. Finally, Saturday morning, he tried to call in to work, he was feeling so awful. Well, they told him that they needed him, but he didn't have to come in til 4pm, since Todd (the other finance manager) was leaving for Indy that night. I told Chris to go to the urgent care, which he ended up doing. When he was on the way there, his boss called and asked him to come to work as soon as possible; Todd was really backed up. Chris was really feeling dizzy, so I was really concerned about him driving, but macho man thought he could do it himself, and I couldn't do anything about it, since I was at work! He did manage to get to urgent care, and (as we diagnosed before he went) he had a sinus/ear infection. The doc said his sinus cavities were so swollen it was amazing that he could even breathe through his nose! Chris got some good drugs... antibiotic, strong decongestant, and narcotic cough syrup! :-) He then went to work, but was so dizzy that he couldn't hold his head up without supporting his head with his hand! They had him do the paperwork side of things, since he was looking so bad they didn't want him having to deal with customers! He stayed home from church all day Sunday, which was our 86th Anniversary Sunday, and is feeling much better, but is still getting dizzy at times (mostly from meds, I think, and the fact that he didn't really have ANY real food for a week, since every time he ate he would gag and throw it all back up.) He was pretty lightheaded and sick to his stomach for a while yesterday, too. So - I'm praying that he gets back to his old self SOON! I feel so bad since I can't really do anything for him, and he hasn't been much fun to be around! :-( Some of you would be surprised that he hasn't hardly talked to me in a week b/c he's felt so bad (not b/c he's mad at me!) That's pretty amazing considering his affinity to talking! :-)

I mentioned our Anniversary Sunday... we had over 200 kids in teen church, 12 saved and 8 baptized! I think they said that we had over 100 people saved overall that week (they did outreaches in the community and had people saved there, so they are included in the count). We also had our 20/20 Vision service... the plan for our church to be COMPLETELY debt free by the year 2020. We had a special one-time offering, and then commitment cards for giving. The one-time offering was over $22,000, and the total with offering and commitments was over $118,000 - almost $119,000, and they are extending the time for 30 days to give people that were on vacation, etc, the chance to participate. Pretty awesome! Praise the LORD!

Lil D's mom, Tonya, called me on Monday night, and I think God knew that I needed that phone call. I was still really discouraged over the whole work thing, and thinking that maybe those people were right and I'm not a good nurse. Tonya called to ask me if I would be willing to babysit Lil D this weekend (I don't work for her anymore b/c Lil D doesn't need nursing care anymore!) She hasn't been able to go out for a long time now, and just needed to get away for a night. She wanted me to keep Lil D Saturday night and until she gets off work Sunday afternoon. She told me I was her #1 choice for babysitter (even over family) b/c she knows that I love Lil D, that he'll be safe with me, and that she won't have to worry if I take care of him. I told her what had happened at work the week before, and she told me that those moms will be wishing they had kept me when they get the horrible nurses that don't care and don't know what they are doing! That made me feel much better! :-) Tonya even said that her dad, who is an alcoholic and don't know squat about people (in her words, not mine!), told her that he could tell I was a good nurse. (I saw them at Lil D's b-day party back in Nov.) So - God knew that I needed that encouragement AND I am babysitting Lil D this weekend... overnight... here at my house... should be interesting! :-) Chris asked me if D will actually go to sleep, and I told him that D will do anything I MAKE him do! Then Chris reminded me that I'll have to get up early to get both of us ready in time... and I told him I know! I'm a little leary, but at the same time, rather excited to spend time with D again. I MISS HIM!

So - now I have a case that I'm going to be working for this month ONLY, since it is in Palmyra (which is 26 miles away). It's a job, I guess. I'm really not looking forward to the commute again, but like I said, it's work. Please pray that they can find something closer for me to do starting in May. Since my car is leased, we really can't afford to put tons of miles on it right now.

I have been consistently working out 4 times a week for almost 6 months now! That is a major accomplishment for me! I met a girl, Stacey at the gym, and we've worked out together a couple of times now. It's really hard to get our schedules together! I have been really discouraged at the whole thing, though, since I've only lost 15 lbs. I KNOW that muscle weighs more than fat, and when you gain muscle you don't necessarily lose weight right away. However, it's really nice to see the numbers going DOWN on the scale! Well, I wore a dress on Sunday that I wore a few weeks ago. It fit fine last time, but was still a little tighter across my stomach than I would have liked. Well, I noticed on Sunday that it fit more loosely than the last time I wore it. I have 2 more identical dresses in a size smaller that I bought at the same time (different patterns, of course!) They didn't fit then (the zippers wouldn't zip all the way up), but Chris told me to keep them as incentive to lose weight! Well, I dared to try them on Sunday afternoon... and would you believe it?!?!? THEY FIT! OK... they didn't exactly FIT well, but I could actually zip the zipper, and I could wear them. They are still a little tight across my stomach, but I would wear a sweater with them anyway, so maybe I could pull it off. I was so excited, though... now I have TWO new dresses to wear, and they are really cute! We're getting church directory pics done on Sunday, so maybe I'll be brave enough to wear one for that!

My workout partner, Stacey, referred me to her chiropractor (I've been looking for a new one - a GOOD one!), so I went this week. I LOVE him! I think it will really help my back. Found out that my lower spine has a curvature in it because my hips were not level, and that my neck does not have the curvature that it is supposed to have in it (it's off by 22 mm!) With the adjustments, my muscles have been really sore, but I know that it will be better soon! No pain, no gain, right?!?! Also, there is massage therapy/acupuncture available through this clinic, and my chiro suggested acupuncture to treat infertility. He said the acupuncture doc is 6 for 6 with women who were infertile having babies since they've been treated. Hmmm... another MUCH less expensive option to consider! We'll see what happens! I don't know if we'll do it or not, but it's another option.

Other than that, not too much is going on here (isn't that enough?!??!) Drama, drama, drama! :-) Thanks to all of you who are still reading! :-) I know I haven't been very consistent with my blogging, but I've really been struggling with some things over the past couple of months... not having a baby mostly... and I try to not always be complaining! :-) Actually, life is pretty good for the most part, but I have a tendency to focus on the negative, so I seem to complain much more than I should! (Anyone else have that problem?!?) I'm enjoying the time with Chris, and we've just been keeping busy with church, work, working out, and trying to get some sleep. We're also enjoying the warmer weather... would you believe that we actually laid out in the sun 3 weeks ago?!?! Yeah, for those of you who live up north, we laid out in the middle of March! Makes me SO thankful to live further south than we used to! :-) We've also been enjoying Wednesdays off together, and our dinner dates on Wed. night before church! Life is good, and God is good! I'll end this with a few more of my fav pictures from the last month!