Working Memorial Day...

and very bored. This is one of the few minor holidays that veterans actually remember so it has been pretty quiet here in the ER. Easiest double time made in a 12 hr shift.

I ran 1.8 miles today because I really didn't have time to run my 3 mile route. I work tomorrow too and am so tired today that I see another short run tomorrow. I took Angels advice and bought some decent athletic socks and am very glad I did. I noticed a significant increase in my foot comfort with the new socks. It is amazing how much I sweat while running and even my feet sweat. It's a good thing I am so meticulous with my feet or I'm sure I'd have athlete's foot by now.

I am trying to increase my fluid intake but I am noticing a HUGE side effect. I feel like I am constantly on the toilet. I have drank 2 - 20oz things of water, a large diet sprite, a 12oz cup of coffee, and a juice and I have gone more times today than I did the previous 2 days. I hear it's because my body isn't used to this much and thinks it needs to get rid of it and it will eventually adapt and I won't pee as much but until then...hold that thought I have to pee now because I was thinking about it. :-)

I'm back but not like you noticed.

So anyways..Naaman is about to drive me crazy with his homework or his procrastination of doing his homework is more like it. It's not the school itself - it is the general "wait until the last minute to do something then grump at everyone and everything because he stays up all night and everyone is bothering HIM" thing that is making me nuts. Thank goodness he only has 2 weeks left. He tells me all the time he can't do stuff because he has homework but spends a lot of time trying NOT to do his homework by doing whatever else. If he spends all his time screwing around and only think it's important to do his homework when I need him - I get mad. Then he doesn't understand why I am mad. I think this makes perfect sense. He just spent an hour watching tv, wrestling with Micah, picking his nose, WHATEVER and then the INSTANT I say, "Well, since you aren't doing your homework can you (((insert small job request here)))," and then he says to me, "Well, I was just about to go back to it," which I KNOW is a crock because I am INTERRUPTING his procrastination to ask him to help me.

I am often telling him how odd it is that when he was DEPLOYED and I was basically a single mom and I had a part-time job, and was in nursing school and STILL managed to keep the house clean, spend time with the kids AND find a little time for myself every now and STILL do my homework and then YET he can't even just get his homework done or, God forbid, clean a bathroom or do something that doesn't serve HIS purposes and something I'd like done. He does do laundry but ONLY if he needs something or he does do the dishes but ONLY if he is cooking dinner while I'm working and it is in his way. He gets mad at me when I tell him all I did and then says, "I know you were the PERFECT (said very snidely) wife, mom, student, whatever and I so suck compared to you. You love to tell me this." Well, I freakin work full time and I am EXHAUSTED and he is home A LOT more than me yet it still seems like I am doing a ridiculous amount of housework, food shopping, kid shuttling, etc. This seems very unfair. What do you think?

Past Due for My Quarterly Post...

I know. I am an extremely inconsistent blogger and I make attempts to do it more often but rarely succeed. I used to be pretty good about updating but I don't know why not anymore.

Funniest work story of the quarter
I had a patient that was brought in for new onset deafness. I mean I could speak very loudly right next to his ear and he couldn't hear me at all, plus he had no practice reading lips. So both of us not knowing any sign language, I get this bright idea to write notes to him, have him read it and then verbally answer me. Well, that would've been great except the man also has macular degeneration - basically almost blind! He could read but it took him a minute to keep adjusting his head position, glasses, and the paper for him to read a single sentence and if I wrote it too sloppy or too small, FORGET IT! SO after finishing his assessment, I push him in the wheelchair to a bed but when he gets there he tells me he needs to use the toilet. I tried to shout, gesture, whatever to see if he only needed to pee because then I could just hand him a urinal and he could pee at the bedside with the curtains shut. I didn't have any paper, so I grabbed my pen and wrote "pee?" on my hand and showed it to him. After a minute of trying to read my hand, he says yeah so I hand him a urinal bottle and he looks at the bottle and says he says he can't pee behind a curtain and has to use it in the bathroom. I said okay and showed him to the bathroom. I came back and Tony says, "Ha! You have pee on your hand." I giggle a little and then go about my business. Next time I see the patient he is extending his hand out to me to give me the closed urinal with a small amount of urine in it. I grab it from the bottom and am immediately aware that the entire bottle is soaking wet and it is almost certainly PEE! He then says, "Sorry I didn't get much in the urinal. I didn't realize the lid was on and peed all over the floor and the bottle." I turn around still holding the peed on urinal to see Tony laughing his butt off and then Tony says, gasping between chuckles, "Now you really do have pee on your hands!" I am still trying to figure out HOW THE HECK you don't realize the lid is on a urinal bottle and try to pee in it - blind or not. I mean, NORMALLY men place their penis slightly inside the urinal so as not to have any pee going anywhere outside the bottle and I cannot figure out how he didn't know the lid was on. Did he think with his blindness he could AIM??

Running
I never thought it would be possible but I have become a runner. I am a beginner and SLOW but I do run and I L~O~V~E it! There is nothing like that first deep breath I take once I step outside my door in the very early morning and it's still dark out and feeling the anticipation of the run. I pop in my earbuds, turn on my ipod and just GO. It is awesome. I am not losing much weight but I know I am feeling so much healthier and I can feel less flab on me even though the scale says I weigh the same. I am up to just over 3 miles every other day now and my goal is to get to 5 miles. I am thinking of joining weight watchers again to help with the weight part.

Ellie's Run for Africa
I ran/walked my first 5k last saturday and it was the farthest I had ever gone at that time PLUS it was cross country, on hills and soggy/stinky from the floods 3 wks ago but it was still awesome! When I crossed that finish line 43.28 minutes later, friends and strangers alike were cheering for me and I thought, "I need to do this more often!" Micah and Naaman ran it too and much to our surprise Micah kicked butt and ran the entire thing in 26.28 minutes with no training prior to this other than soccer this past spring. He thinks he wants to run track in high school now.

Naaman's Almost Done
Naaman graduates June 18th. He is almost done with school. He has this possible opportunity to take over a place in Hayden, ID and it is scary. It's not that I doubt his ability to cook because DANG he is GOOD!! Nor is it that I doubt he can run a business...I am just scared that the economy is still not so great and now we are taking on this HUGE thing and he will have EMPLOYEES that we will be responsible for. Wow. With God all things are possible, so I have been praying a lot about this. I want this to work out for him. It's the perfect place for him and just what he's been wanting.


Moving and Finding a New Job
We are moving sometime this summer and it is stressing me out. I hate not knowing when, where, or what job I will have. I hate packing and saying goodbye to my friends. Naaman won't let me put the house on the market until he graduates. I think we have too much to do to this house before it will sell because there are just so many other choices!! Too many people are moving out of our neighborhood and we do not stand out enough. PLUS I have to find a new job. I already told people at work about it and they were all so sad about me leaving. I didn't expect that. I knew some people would be sad but some people had a bigger reaction than I expected and made me realize they really do like me. I guess I just don't trust people enough to think that they actually like me. How weird is that? I have some obvious issues I need to think about and work on. Anyways, I haven't set any dates yet because I haven't even applied anywhere yet. I need to get my resume done and work on getting CEN and Med-Surg certification before I leave the Nashville VA. I am excited though to be near my family and oldest friends whom everytime we get together it's as if we never were apart. I miss my sisters and nieces and nephew all the time and it will be nice to be able to see them WHENEVER!

My Church
I am seriously going to miss my church family. I love my church and what we do for the community and for each other. I love Pastor Steve and his awesome sermons. I love Pastor Elyssa and the worship service that reminds me what worship is supposed to be like. I love sunday school where Dan delves into such deep things and as a group we discuss and that teaches me and shapes my walk. I love Pastor Dwayne and Marli for what they do for the youth including my kids. I love Pastor Rachelle and her zeal and love for the kids. That woman works so hard for those kids and is SO underappreciated but she NEVER complains. I love my 2:42 group (old and new) that has now become my friends and people I can count on to help me in my daily walk. I love the preschoolers I help out with once a month. I don't want to move and start this all over again!!