I am woman and I am EXHAUSTED and in need of a new phone!

I just finished off 4 straight 12-hr shifts yesterday and have cleaned my house to a shiny sparkle today because Naomi is coming tomorrow. Excuse me while I collapse in exhaustion. No, wait...I still have to go food shopping today! Hmm, maybe I'll just do that tomorrow morning before she gets here. I hate going to the grocery store. It amazes me how much money we literally flush down the toilet (after having enjoyed the taste of things for maybe 30 minutes).

4 days and Abriel is home and I can't wait to see her. I missed her SO much!

5 days and Micah will be 13.

6 days and Naaman will be 33.

11 days and the new school year starts.

30 days and we will have been married 14 years.

Which reminds me...yesterday I was doing triage and I had just brought a patient to the ER and walked back to triage and Naaman is standing in the hallway. My initial thought was, "Man, Naaman is so cute in his chef uniform." My second thought was, "What the heck is he doing here and not at school?"

I say hi and start to lean in to give him a quick kiss and he says frantically, "Why haven't you answered your phone and where did you park the car?" I say, "My phone has not rang all morning and I love you too!" Apparently, Naaman left his school stuff in the back of the van, which he normally drives. You see, the night before, I told Naaman the Focus kept overheating and that I was driving the van so he could figure out what the heck was wrong with the car and then collapsed into bed. I told him because he normally leaves stuff in whatever car he drives. Did he take that as a cue to get his crap? NO! And he was then yelling at me in the hallway where I WORK that I was ignoring his calls and he was late for school and where is the car. I told him it's in the same place I always park and he knows where that is. He swears it's not there. I said, "Unless a Ford Freestar appealed to a car thief out of hundreds of much sportier cars, YES it is still in my usual spot." He groans and runs out the door with me waving and grinning saying Buh-bye!

My phone had no missed calls, no voicemails, no texts - because it froze up for about the thousandth time. I took the battery out, booted it back up and then Naaman calls me telling me he found the car (in it's usual spot) and I need a new phone and would be buying one soon. I don't think I could have planned that better if I tried. I have been telling him for the last year I needed a new phone. He kept telling me it was fine. NOW I have his blessing to get a new phone. Anyone know where I can get a nice used i-phone?

Been a while...

I have just felt very lazy lately and not felt like blogging. I have been working as much OT as possible too so it isn't all laziness.

Let me think. What to blog, what to blog...

Abriel is in Virginia visiting her BFF and my second daughter, Amber. She left me on July 12 and will not be back until the 31st. She has been all over VA and even went to NC. I miss her very much and will post pics of her trip when she gets back. She is having such a good time I thought there was no way she could miss me. She tells me she misses me a lot, but I thought she was just saying it to make me feel good. What 15 yr old girl wouldn't love 3 weeks away from their 2 little brothers and parents? Well, I was looking at her myspace and she had her status set to: Having fun but really just want to go home to be with my family. It made me a little teary eyed to see she sincerely misses us!

Naomi is coming to visit us next Wednesday, the 29th, and will be here until August 9th. I am very happy to have her coming. Too bad my vacation time is AFTER she leaves but I just won't work any OT while she's here, so I won't be gone too much.

Naaman is back in school after his 1 month summer break. He is such a good student (his GPA is 4.0) and never misses class that he got a Presidential Scholarship and a Institutional Grant to make up for what the Pell Grants are lacking this year. I am so proud of him. He is still working at Papa John's as a delivery driver on the weekends too.

Micah will be 13 in 8 days and then it will be official that I have 2 teens in my house. I can't believe how old I am getting to have 2 teenage children. What the heck happened?

I owe, I owe, So back to work I go...

We had a guy come give an estimate on cabinet refacing and new counters. I knew it wouldn't be cheap but didn't expect $12,000! I am not asking for all new cabinets, just new fronts! I think it would be cheaper to get all new cabinets and install them myself for that much! I told him we'd have to think about it. I know if we did get the cabinets refaced, it would be a big selling point for our house. I just don't know if I want to invest THAT much. We first need new floors in the kitchen and bathrooms and to finish the room above the garage.

Starting today! So off I go to the store to price crap.

ER Creedo

I don't know if anyone has noticed my new little sidebar thing - The ER Creedo.

We the willing, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful.
We have done so much for so long with so little - we are now qualified to do anything with nothing.

I feel this every day of my life at work. I think this also applies to anything related to the military. I think the quote is meant to be humorous but to me it just makes me sad to think this can be so true - it's supposed to be a joke!

Real emergencies

Recently, our ER was an actual ER. We are not a trauma ER. Mostly we see sick people or people who THINK they are sick with the occasional mix of actual emergencies. I would say 35% of our patients are some sort of chest pain or COPD related problem that they just need reassurance for. 35% of our patients are sick with various other small to serious illnesses but nothing that a prescription or short hospital stay won't fix. Another 10% is "my neck/back/arm/head/leg and/or a combination of these hurts and has for months and TODAY it is an emergency." 10% are straight up ridiculous and should just go home. The other 10% are true "I need help now" emergencies.

I think we got the 10% quota for the month on this one particular day. We sent a bunch of people to intensive care, one to the cath lab, we had people bleeding in a few rooms, and one guy sliced an artery. He came in COVERED in blood and when we took off his make shift bandage to see the damage, blood just FLEW across the room. Another nurse squeaked in horror and the nurse that took the bandage off went, "Well, let's not do that again!" and grabbed the gauze slapped it on and held tight. I have never seen a pumper before in real life and I have to admit inside my head I was like that kid at the end of Incredibles "THAT WAS TOTALLY WICKED!!"

We also had 2 other patients needing stitches of some sort, a very bad nosebleed, a psych patient or two, and someone that was going to the OR fairly soon. I couldn't catch a minute to myself and then ended up staying an extra 2 hrs to help the night shift keep up until they got some more staff in.


It started me thinking - what if our ER was like this all the time? I wonder if I worked in a trauma ER how scared would I be that I would screw something up? I'm pretty sure ALL THE TIME.