Drama, drama, drama...

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!

So long, Lil *D*

February 4th was a sad day... *D* is doing so well that he no longer needs home health nursing care. His mom wants me to take him to church with me, though, on the Sundays that she has the boys (every other weekend), so I'll still get to see him some, Lord willing. Here are a few pics from the last month and 1/2 I worked with him.

Mouthful of banana

He so looks like he posed for this shot, but he really didn't!

This one cracks me up, too, because he was standing there talking to "someone" on the phone, and if you look closely, the phone cord is not even plugged in! I'm gonna miss him!

Vacuuming

You know your kid is smart when he walks around at 3 years old reading a dictionary! LOL When I asked him what he was reading, he told me something about "your toes." :-)
There is Pepsi in this little cup (his mom gave it to him, NOT me!),

and he told me that he was "drinking coffee." Too funny!

(and I'm not sure why the picture is flipped that way, but I

didn't know how to rotate it on the post.)

New Baby *A*

This is my new job at work... No more little *D*, but a new baby *A*

She fell asleep with her hand on her face like this... it was so cute. The little blue thing that you can see sticking up in a couple of the pictures is part of her ventilator tubing.

Love baby hands!!!

Look at all that hair! It's such an unusual color, too... she's precious, and I'm glad I get to care for her for a while... that is, IF the 12 hour shifts don't kill me first! :-)

Some new things Lil D is doing...

D is getting so much bigger and doing all sorts of new funny stuff. He now will pretend that he's a dog, and crawl around on his hands and knees barking, and even playing "fetch." Here are some pics of more of his "new" things:Dumping out his stuffed animals on the floor to take the basket and capture the cat. In this particular picture, he's giving his paci to the cat.
Chewing on his toes - the other day I was sitting on the couch and heard a weird sound. I looked over to find D sitting like this, sucking/chewing on his toe! The funniest thing about this was that when I went to take the picture, he said, "CHEEEESE!!!" (around the toes in his mouth!) What a goofball! :-)

Here he is playing with the new puppy, Halo... an Australian shepherd/German shepherd mix (as if the black lab & rotweiller weren't enough!)

Sharing paci's... D gets the good ones, the puppy gets the ones D doesn't like...

Lining all the cars up in a row. He did this and then came running over to me to show me what he had done! He was so proud of himself!

One more thing... Tues. morning after his mom had left to take the kids to school, D immediately starts singing "Clean up, Clean up..." and proceeded to pick up every one of his toys, and then crawl up on the couch for his breathing treatment... WITHOUT BEING TOLD! :-) It will be a sad day when I have to say good-bye to this little one (but I'll be glad not to have to deal with his temper tantrums and ugly attitudes!)

Pictures - April 2008

Some pics from this month:

D in his doctor scrubs from the Cincinnati Children's Hospital"Doctor in Training"

D with a flower spinning on his drill

D at the park (he is terrified to go down the slides, but likes to look up or crawl up!)

Here's proof that our grass (in places) REALLY was almost 2 feet long!

Hot air balloon... for the Derby Festival, they have a "Balloon Glow" on a Friday night, where all the hot air balloons are lit up, and then they have a race the next day. Here is a pic of one of the balloons we saw flying when we were headed to work on Friday morning.

Chow Wagon25 foot screen and inflatables

The Little Rascal

Face Mask (for a breathing treatment... it's easier to give when he's asleep!) :-)
WILD hair!
Camo Boy... I LOVE this outfit on him!
Feeding Pediasure to his dinosaur
Chicks Dig Me!

I can't remember if I've posted about this yet or not, but I've had a little drama with my work situation for the past couple of weeks. (Please just skip the explanation if you've heard this before!) First of all, the week before our pregnancy test, my office manager called to ask me if I was willing to switch cases. (For those of you who DON'T know, I work for a nursing staffing agency and do home health care for special needs kids.) Well, Lil' D, the boy that I've been working with on and off since I moved here, is doing really well. So - the office staff finds it much easier to put any nurse there, regardless of their skills, because his condition is so stable. Well, D's mom told me that in the 2 weeks while I was out during our IVF, she had 4 different nurses in 5 days! All that to say, since I am one of the few RN's that work there (NOT in a supervisory position), and I have skills with trachs and vents, they wanted me to take on a new baby that had just come home from the hospital with a trach and a vent. I kind of himmed and hawed about it, since I tend to become VERY attached to my kids and their families, and develop a strong loyalty to them. After all, these parents entrust their child to me 40 hours a week... and I spend all that time with them... so it lends itself to attachment! :-)

ANYWAY, the day that we found out our pregnancy test was negative, I went into the office to talk to the manager about what I had decided about the cases, and then discovered that the recruiters had not scheduled ANYWHERE for the WHOLE MONTH of March! Needless to say, I was a little shocked! The last thing I needed that day on top of learning that there was no baby was to find that I now had no work. Well, at my job, there is always SOME kind of work, but not necessarily anything stable. The guys did schedule me in for 2 days at "D's" house, then another day at another case. At the time, we didn't know if D's insurance would re-authorize him for skilled nursing care. The pediatrician was acting like D's mom just wanted free babysitting, instead of him needing skilled care. So - with all of that going on, I've ended up working the past week & 1/2 at D's house, not knowing if tomorrow he won't have nursing anymore. Yesterday, the office called D's mom, and let her know that the authorization has been approved until May 11th. Thank the Lord! I am so glad... I'd hate to have to take another case right now!

Here's some recent pictures of the Little Rascal. His mom let me give him a haircut last week, so now he looks like a handsome little man, instead of a hippy girl! :-) I love this kid!

BEFORE the hair cut... his ragamuffin hippy hair. Everyone kept thinking he was a girl!

AFTER his hair cut... he got a little hair in his eyes. He's such a handsome little man now!

At the park... CHEEEESE! (I think this is one of my fav pics of him!)

Behind bars at the park

DUCK Menagerie. D LOVES ducks! I think he has 9 of them now... some stuffed and some rubber duckies (like for the bathtub). He loves to try to carry them all at once. In the above picture, he had thrown them all up on the couch, then laid down to take a nap. He fell asleep with all of his ducks (and a horse) around him. He is so funny, he'll walk around the house saying "Duck" and then quacking!

Salesman of the Year!

I just had to take a minute to brag on God and my husband. Chris' company Christmas party was on Saturday night, and his boss announced there that Chris is SALESMAN of the YEAR! So, why do I say I'm bragging on God? Well, because God is the one who brought the customers to Chris, God is the one who blessed Chris with "the gift of gab" (as my grandma puts it), and if it weren't for God, none of us would even be here! It is only in Him that we live, move and have our being (Acts 17:28a "For in him we live, and move, and have our being;")

This is Chris' first year ever in sales. Add to that we only moved here 3 months before Chris took this job, so, unlike most of the salespeople, he didn't really have any contacts from which to network his business. He drove onto the lot every morning, stopped and asked God to help him sell one car today, and went to work. God blessed him tremendously... not only allowing him to sell cars and make money to provide for our family, but also allowing him to have many conversations with co-workers and customers alike, sharing Jesus Christ with them. He won Salesman of the Month in January, March, and April. He finished the year with 145 cars sold... 27 more cars than anyone else in the dealership. Praise the Lord for his provision!
Also, I just want to say this... I love my husband so much! :-) Though the hours are long and days sometimes frustrating, I am so thankful that I have a man that is willing to work long and hard to support our family. Many women are not blessed in that way. Thank you, Lord, for giving me Chris... You knew I needed him! :-)

Here is a caricature drawn of Chris by a guy at the Christmas party:

It's a picture of Chris catching a home run at Fenway Park... He's sitting on the Green Monster. The player is supposed to be Jonny Damon from the NY Yankees. I think the artist did a GREAT job... it looks just like him! :-)

Recent pictures

Lil D wearing my sweatshirt... he thought he was so cool! (This picture is also on here so you can see the comparison between his hair here and the haircut below.)Lil D after his first real haircut... I cut it! It's not perfect, since I did it all by myself, and he didn't sit very still. His mom asked that I leave the back longer, so that also didn't help.
Lil D having a great time on a new adventure at my house... STAIRS!
Lil D again enjoying the stairs... he did very well.

Lil D in the ER
Another ER picture

Lil D was a little pumpkin for Halloween

Lil D and his mom... D looks like a chemo patient in this picture, I think!

Cool sky

"X" marks the spot... It's kind of hard to tell in this pic, but a couple of planes had left a big X in the sky with their exhaust. I thought it looked pretty cool.