August  9, 2007

                                              I live with a bunch of freaks

I walk into my living room to catch Emily rubbing the curtains. She swears she is just moving them. I hear this same crap from my husband who is constantly busted rubbing them. His stems from a stupid blanket he had as a baby (up until 4 when his sister was born) and he use to rub the silky edges. Up until a year or so ago I had white curtains so it was really annoying. I had to move his chair away from them because washing them was a bitch. They were balloon shades and if you don’t know what they are NEVER get a set. They were nice to look at but a bitch to wash. So now I have dark brown curtains which look pretty cool IF I could keep the freaks I live with from touching them. Oh and Allyson loves to catch her dad rubbing them and then comes and tells me. He pretends to get all mad and tell her to mind her own business. It’s kind of cute in a freakish sort of way!!

 

August 9, 2007

The end of a long strange journey

Well I’ll start out by saying I voted today around 4pm. They said my name like 4 times and 2 of the girls I called crackheads were in the room and they now know what I look like. I couldn’t decide if they were glaring at me or if it was just their regular nasty disposition!
Well 2 1/2 years ago if anyone had told me things would turn out this way I would have accused them of actually smoking crack. The hospital acts like the strike was the worst time of the nurses life. nothing is farther from the truth for me. I was out on that freezing cold picket line 24 hours a week. I didn’t always know a single person I was with but I got to know them. I learned all about care coordination, surgery and other areas of the hospital. I fired off crazy emails almost every day and was obessed with my computer. There are people I have never met that know me from my emails. Somehow I became a leader which still cracks me up. HELLO people I am a follower. Well I must have scared the hell out of the hospital because upon returning from strike I had to have an hour long meeting with my manager and CC from HR to assess my level of anger. I am not lying when I say that I said a prayer right as I got off the elevator that God would let me say the right thing. My dad was so funny he told me he would have told them to F@@@ off and quit on the spot. My dad never uses such language unlike me. Within 2 weeks I was in trouble again for writing “spare me” on the dry erase board and recieved a minor counseling that stayed in my file for a year. After that I hung low but did become a shop steward. Around April of 2006 ND came to me with a folder full of info about value care value nurses and assured me it was NOT a union that nurses would be happy and not afraid to sign on. I should have seen the big fat RED flag when within 2 weeks someone called demanding to know how many of my co-workers I had signed up. Luckily I had bronchitis or something and couldn’t stop coughing so the person hung up. It would be the begining of numerous phone calls from SEIU/NA. It was also during this time that I went to CS house to hear about CNA from TC. Now TC said that CNA would only be on the ballot if they had enough support. KP went nuts and left. GH was a spy and brought up all kinds of weird stuff. Well then KM got let go from the hospital because she couldn’t do her job right. She had been talking to me a lot and almost had me on board with the crackheads except my soon to be boyfriend BG came to town and asked me to meet him out front by the flag poles. Well he must be some sort of freaking cult leader because within 15 minutes he had me totally won over and SEIU was just a fleeting thought! So for the next year I spent my time campaigning for CNA and did all sorts of cool things like go to Chicago for a Rally against the Kentucky River Decision (which passed so at any time the hospital could say all RN’s are supervisors and therfore inelgible to belong to a union), went to Texas for patient/nurse ratio rally, handed out flyers at the surgery center exit and got busted by CC again. Of course he couldn’t do anything. I also got kicked out of another hospital for handing out CNA information and gave them my real name. (probably never work in St. Louis again) I also gave a statement to the NLRB as to why I felt SEIU and UFCW were working together and the hand off was illegal. Even though CNA did not win that arguement it was a very intense experience. So true to TC’s word CNA only had about 10% known support and they refused to be on the ballot. Too bad too because I signed the card that they would have turned in. So it came down to a vote between UFCW/SEIU/NEITHER. I voted in a way I never imagined possible. During the last month of so I have been busy sucking up to CC for job security. I even went up to him and re-introduced myself. He emailed me later to tell me he didn’t recognize me because my hair was much shorter. (Ok has to be gay or a bigger suck up than me) So I was thinking if BG (my boyfriend) had told me that day when I first met him on the bench that I would turn anti-union, email, talk to and hand CC really bad union info about SEIU I would have told him he was smoking something much stronger than camels. But all this happened and it is over now. I am closing this chapter in my life. (I am sure everyone is cheering) No matter how the vote turns out I will accept it. If the union wins, I will pay my dues and ignore all the people. I am finished with the whole scene! I am also finished with the longest note ever. If you are still reading I hope you smiled at least once!!

 

August 10, 2007

Baby Fever

So I get off work early tonight and go and visit TS to see baby Jack. OMG he was so freaking cute that I almost broke my own rule and held him! Yes kids you read that right and I am dead serious. He has the begining of curly hair like his sisters. He was busy being all awake and looking around all cute like! He did a big big poopie but LM was there and she changed his diaper. I got nervous just watching her but since she floats to the nursery she was a pro. She wrapped him all up like a little papoose. (however that word is spelt) So I came home and told my husband I thought he should get his vasectomy reversed and he just looked at me like I had spouted a new head. Of course I was kidding but I did call my sister to ask her when she is suppose to start. Next week she said and so far no symptoms. Hopefully all that surgery and estrogen patches and crap worked. Although I am not sure why she wants to start all over when her daughter will be 8 on 8/18 which just happened to be Jacks orginal due date. So I end where I begin Jack was so freaking cute I could hardly stand it

 

August 10, 2007

Gutter Guys SUCK

Last night I came home from work and was way too wound up to consider sleeping. So I stayed up till 2 knowing it is still summer vacation and my night owl girls would sleep until 9 am. So I am unconscious when I hear someone knocking at the door. I figure it is the neighbor girls so I ignore it. Then the damn doorbell rings. I come slightly out of the coma I am in to see that it is 7:30 am so I figure it must be something important. I throw some shorts on and stumble blindly to the door to be awoken by the sun. I open the door and the gutter guy says just wanted you to know we are doing your gutters now. Thanks I say and shut the door and mumble freaks I would have known that as soon as you started stomping around on my roof. So I return to my room and of course they start on the side where my room is. So for the next two hours I dream that I am awake when I am really sleeping. So I finally drag my sorry self out of bed around 10 am with the worst headache ever. I feel like I slept 5 hours instead of 8.
On a positive note the gutters look great and so do the roof. As soon as we cut the grass and I trim up my wildly out of control rosebuses I will take a couple pcitures and post them. My house looks totally different now since I changed the roof color. Of course the trim still is and will always be burnt orange. After all it is Brian’s and mine favorite color and it goes oh so well with our bricks. Plus we can only handle so many changes at once. After all our bedroom has looked the same since we moved in!

 

August 11, 2007

A new stove FINALLY!!

I have lived in my house now for 17 years! We built it way back then and have had the original cheap stove. For at least the past year every time we attempt to light the oven (gas stove) it clicks and clicks and clicks and we have to open and shut the oven door several times before it will light. 10 years in the burn unit has caused very much paranoia over this, as I can see the thing blowing up on me or Emily or Kayla. Of course my tightwad husband kept on insisting the thing was fine. Well today his parents came over so Brian could change the brakes on his car and off to Sears his mom and I went. Well the stove I liked was already 50.00 off and then 10% off on top of that plus free delivery and hauling away of the old stove. So I bought the thing and it is being delivered tomorrow. Called my husband and said get the old stove out. Oh he is so mad and keeps saying we are getting rid of a perfectly good stove. His dad attempted to tell him the thing is a fire hazard but he keeps insisting. I think now he is just doing it to aggrevate me. I finally have sealed burners so no more food falling down and landing underneath the stove top. I also have a self cleaning oven. I can’t wait till tomorrow. Of course our fridge (freebie from my mom’s x-husband) is on it’s last leg too, every time you shut the fridge the freezer opens. But then again that is a fight for another day!

 

August 14, 2007

Perhaps a new job!

So yesterday my SIL calls me and asks me about the Gensis prjoect. She heard about a job fair for people to train others on the project. She loves to teach so I emailed MB about it. MB tells me these people will have 6 months of training on the software before they start teaching! What kind of programs are we headed for if the people who teach us how to use it need 6 months to learn it. God help me, I might have to go work in a cave somewhere! So maybe my SIL will get a new job as it is part time. She is tired of driving to mastercard which is somewhere way out in the sticks and they keep pressuring her to work full time which she doesn’t want to do. At least not till Tyler is in 1st grade (they only have 1/2 day kindergarten in her school district) which is 4 years from now since he has such a late birthday.
Well today is my first day back to work since the union got voted out. Wonder if I still have a job. I plan to email CC today and ask him if dues will be taken out of the check we are getting on Friday. I sure hope not, I plan to donate them to the prune belly syndrome network. That way I don’t have to raise money as I would rather have my skin peeled off but that is another story for another day!

 

August 15, 2007

Kids for sale-Dirt cheap

You know I remember when I first had Emily and my mom said just to stick with one because more than that was too much. Then I had Kayla and Allyson and I thought this is not bad, maybe my mom is senile or something.
Except now I know what she was talking about. People think the under 5 stage is rough cause you have to feed them, give them a bath, make sure they are safe and stuff. Ok that is a piece of cake compared to having a 6 11 and 15 year old. First of all they are expensive as hell and they are going to run me ragged. Allyson has decided she wants to take gymnastics which is a good idea since she ditched bowling and I think one activity is plenty. So that is on Monday nights. Kayla is obsessed with dancing and will be doing that 4 nights a week again. I don’t have the energy to type that schedule from hell on this note. But the cost for that is 200 a month not counting costumes, shoes and all that other crap. (it started off with one tap class 3 years ago and has turned into 7 this year, I never would have started dance with my kids but my babysitter talked me into putting Emily into Hip Hop and it has been downhill ever since.) Then I have Emily the cheerleader (everyone knows cheerleaders are dancers gone retarded!) whose schedule is far worse than the other 2. If it is not practice it is games and plus she has to take a cheer gymnastics class cause if she doesn’t get her back handspring she can’t make varsity cheerleading and that will be the end of her life. Of course she couldn’t get into a class at the same time as Allyson or any of Kayla’s dance classes (the gym and the dance studio are within walking distance of each other thank God). Her class is on Tuesdays from 8:30 till 9:30. Well holy hell if I tell my husband he has to pick her up at 9:30 on a work night he will have a stroke so that means I either have to get Tracy to schedule me on Tuesdays from 11a to 7p or take Tuesdays off altogether! If I have Tuesdays off then I will have to work Mondays which means someone will have to come take the kids to dance and gymnastics because my husband has golf till dark until daylight savings time is over. Of course I left him a message 30 minutes ago to call me and tell me when it is over so I can have this discussion with Tracy and he has not bothered to return my call. I don’t even know why he has a cell phone. With my luck the new schedule will be out today and I will be on every Tuesday and screwed anyway.
So if any of you want these three expensive, drag all over town goobers, I will give them to you for free. I might come and visit once a week on Friday or Sunday because it is the only 2 free days. Ok that is a lie cause Emily is also in band and they have marching band performances on football game nights which are of course on Fridays and then Sundays we do church. Oh holy hell just shoot me now. I would pray for next summer but it really wasn’t any better with the scheduling from hell!

 

August 15, 2007

My job

Well I still have a job but perhaps because St. Johns is still under contract with UFCW until October 25. Of course UFCW could decide to pull out at any minute. Well to get out of paying dues, I had to fill out a form. So far 13 people of the 400 that were still paying dues to our open shop have filled out the form. I will have to email CC to see what the count is up to.
SEIU has until Monday to file an unfair election charge and then they will be out of the picture. It is rumored that SEIU has spent about 5 million dollars on the organizing campaign. That means all the poor janitors making 15 bucks and hour just wasted massive dues on St. Louis. The other rumor is that SEIU will leave town for nursing because if St. Johns had a union and they voted this one down, why would any hospital without a union want to take them on?
Off to work for another exciting evening in charge. Oh what fun that brings. Last night I had all moms (not their new babies) which is beyond BORING. Give me a sick patient ready to code at any time, way more fun and brain stimulating!

 

August 17, 2007

No money in the world was worth tonight

Whoever thinks nurses make too much money should follow me around for a shift or two. Tonight being the nice person I am not I decide to take a third patient while being in charge. It was a simple c-section or so I thought. Turned out to be family dynamics from hell and the grandfather gave me the creeps. Can you say “carnie”? It turned me into an evil mean spirited person who will end up in hell! Two nights ago I say out loud wow we haven’t had any heartprint patients lately. When I am going to learn not to say this. Tonight we had a 36 week loss, a miscarriage and an ectopic. Of course the charge nurse before me did not think to assign me to any of these patients. I guess I will have to save my gift (curse) for the next loss mom that comes in.
On a good note I got a funny email tonight from one of my CNA buddies. She ended it by saying Chris Carter was down in her area today talking to one of the doctors. He was trying to figure out how to deal with Stalker 40. That is my nickname that my husband gave me a long time ago when I use to bug the heck out of Pastor Kevin, then it was Jimmy, then Bill and finally Chris. I was going to email Chris to find out how many people had dropped union dues but I never got around to it. Maybe next week.
I did turn my papers in to possibly win a 600 shopping spree to the mall. Only 50 nurses had turned the quizzes in so maybe I will win something. Now that would really send the crackheads over the edge if I won something related to decertifying the union. Life takes many strange turns!

 

August 17, 2007

Will this union crap ever end

Ok why did CS think it was necessary to write KO a note blaming CNA for the crackheads losing the election. Because CNA filed those charges and delayed the election by 3 weeks that is how management intimidated everyone and caused them to lose by over 300 votes. Gee that makes a lot of sense.
Why can’t I let this go? Why does this bother me so much? Maybe because I spent the last 2 years since the strike on fire and passionate about the stuff. I do not know. Who cares if CS and all the other crackheads think it was me and my “20 CNA supporters” that caused them to lose. I know in my head that any one with a brain will know they lost because of the way they ran the election. This is suppose to be over! How many times am I going to type this crap before I get over it? 100? 1000? NEVER?
I put up new pictures from Sierra’s birthday party. I can’t believe she is 8 already. The time really flies. It was a nice small party and uneventful too!

 

August 20, 2007

So much for a fun lunch

After a week of figuring out when all my friends could get together for a lunch to celebrate SEIU loss (I know I am not suppose to be talking about union stuff anymore but things won’t stop happening) we finally are all available yesterday afternoon. I was hoping BG could come in to town since he was our cult leader/organizer for the past year but he is on vacation so TC decided to come instead. Well I don’t know what I was thinking in that I could be up near the hospital by 12:30. Church ran late till almost 12:00 (probably because the sermon included clips from the passion of the Christ so I could really be emotional) so I didn’t get there until 1. Well the other organizer was there that they replaced BG with. Instead of being a fun lets share stories, laugh at the crackheads etc she turned it into an organizing meeting. Call me stupid but no one at the hospital (especially ME) wants to even think about another union at this point. I was so mad and then to top it off we had to pay for our own lunch. Now don’t get me wrong, if it had been the lunch I envisioned I would not have minded it at all but since it was turned into a business meeting then it should have been free! FFB gave us all a gift at the end, it was a box of macaroni and cheese which was priceless. I guess I should explain-on the hospitals get rid of the union web site they had listed out what we could do with 3 years worth of union dues we would be saving and the last thing stated how many boxes of macaroni and cheese we could buy. I found that really insulting which is why I emailed CC in the first place. Maybe I should buy him a case of the stuff now that I am “rich” from no union dues. Anyway the mac and cheese made the lunch end on a fun note.
So then I am at work and KO calls me to tell me the latest email she got from the number 1 crackhead. Now it is all CNA’s fault the union lost. This makes me so freaking mad I could scream. Why do I care when I know what the real reason is? I get myself worked up into a headache from HELL. I took 1200 of motrin and it didn’t even touch it. I tell JH (charge nurse) I want to leave early. She then tells me I have to be pulled instead. I act like a 2 year old and stomp off in a huff. That really helped my head let me tell you. Well she re-thinks her position since no one else said they wanted off and let me off instead of sending me to antepartum. I ended up going to bed at 9:30 because of the headache!
So today is a new day and I don’t work again until Wednesday. I did email CC to ask him how many people have dropped dues (we are still under contract with the food workers till October) and to tell him the crackheads are blaming CNA for their loss! I need shock treatments or something. I need a new hobby actually. If I could just get interested in cross stitching or scrapbooking again!

 

August 24, 2007

It’s going to be a long school year

It’s 7:20 in the morning and the bus stop groupies show up to take Kayla and Allyson to the bus stop. Allyson has no idea where her shoes are. Now she just had the things on as late as 7:45 last night. I am trying to cook dinner. (a feat in itself). She can’t find them, I can’t find them. I can’t find her other crocks, her other pair of sketchers or her freaking tennis shoes. I am getting close to going over the edge. I send Kayla and the groupies on their way and say I will drive her to school. She then throws her book bag down on the ground and lays on the couch refusing to look for her shoes. She tells me she is not looking for them or going to school for that matter. I immediately in my fit of rage ground her for the rest of the day. She then tells me to turn the TV back on. I am seeing red red rage. I finally found a match to a shoe and drive her to the bus stop. I tell her to get out of the car and I leave her with the other moms and go to the gas station to get a diet Dr. Pepper. So I now have a weekend project. I must locate all of her shoes and we are going to buy her a new pair of tennis shoes.
Kayla is also grounded because she was told to go to her room at 8:30 last night and she mouthed off to Brian. We don’t care if they go to sleep till later but they have to be out of the living room. It is a new rule this year and it is going to be a nightmare till the figure out it isn’t changing. We as parents have to have some down time and considering Brian is in bed by 9 most nights they have to leave us alone.
I am working until 7:30 tonight so at least I don’t have to be the you are grounded enforcer as I tend to forget about it. However Nazi czar is here tonight and will pound the whole incident in their heads until they are ready to risk prison and kill him.
Monday will be a new day!

 

August 27, 2007

Dinner with the in-laws

Finally Brian and I were able to coordinate our schedules with his parents and we went out for the annual “celebration of the kidney transplant” dinner. It is hard to believe it has already been 4 years since Brian gave his kidney to his dad! His dad is doing great, minimal rejection meds, creatine 1.1 and BUN 26. They say he and Brian were almost a perfect match!
They took us to Lombardo’s downtown which was way expensive. See Brian and I think Steak N Shake is expensive so when we are at a place that the tip is like 30 bucks it is way over the top. Brian was having a fit and I had to remind him that he basically saved his dad’s life so a 200 dinner is nothing compared to that. When I first met Brian back in 1985 his dad was already having minor kidney problems (had strep throat when he was 19 and waited too long to go to doctor and ended up in hospital) and was told one day he would need dialysis. I remember his dad saying he would die first before he went on dialysis. I was then working at Deaconess and we did talk a little bit about peritoneal dialysis which is a little more tolerable. However, if his dad was on dialysis 3 times a week they wouldn’t be able to go anywhere or do much of anything.
The food was great, they had these raviolis as an appetizer that was 7.00 for 5 of them. I was thinking what the hell kind of rip off is that till they brought these things out. OMG they were monstrous. 1 was plenty and almost a meal in itself. I had some sort of tuna cut like a steak that was rather tasty and the other 3 bozos all got the same exact dinner. I had to force Brian not to order either pizza or lasagna because he always gets that anytime we go anywhere new.
Oh well looking forward to next years dinner, maybe we can convince them McDonalds is a good place. BAHAHAHAHA

 

August 29, 2007

Missed the bus

So last night my dog starts in at 2 am howling from the basement thinking it is time to eat. Do dogs get Alzheimer’s? And then at 4:30 am this weird music starts playing and I ask Brian what is that and he jumps up because he has a message on his work cell phone. He returns to bed and said it was junk text messaging. Someone looking for mover and shakers. Has anyone heard of junk test messaging. Good god what will they think of next? Never mind I don’t want to know. So my alarm goes off at 10 to 7 and I hit the snooze button or so I think…..
The next thing I know the doorbell is ringing and the walking carpool to the bus is at the door. I am barely awake and I tell them crap we overslept so go on without us I will have to drive the kids to school. Both of them were sound asleep so I got them up. Missing the bus is always fun for them because we run through burger king which is on the way to school and get food. Allyson gets her usual hash browns and Kayla swears she is not hungry so I let her drink a Dr. Pepper.
Who wants to nominate me for mother of the year?

 

August 29, 2007

My 6 year old is planning overnight dates with a boy

Yes you all read the title correctly. I get home tonight and I am nosing through caller ID and I ask Brian what the P’s want. He was like oh get this LP from Allyson’s class called her and they were attempting to arrange a spend the night at one of their houses. Where do these kids get this from?
On a positive note, at least Allyson knows her phone number because that is the only way the kid could have gotten it.

 

August 30, 2007

Bring it on!

Ok if you haven’t seen this movie 100 times like me this note may not make a lot of sense. I think I could quote the whole movie
Anyhoo my oldest Emily comes home and starts talking about her major crush (name annoymous since almost all of SHS is on this crazy site) and tells me tomorrow night at the football game she plans to lock eyes with him and have “cheer sex”. Only problem is she is not cheering tomorrow night praise the lord.
I guess cheer sex is better than the real thing or at least a hell of a lot safer. I am not so sure i am going to survive the teenage years and just as she finishes Kayla will be joing the ranks and as she leaves Allyson will be one. What the hell was I thinking during family planning?

 

August 31, 2007

I am having flashbacks!

I guess this week has been the week to have flashbacks to my past. Ok so really it is because I am turning into an old person that talks about things long long ago. I am blaming this on Jennifer as she was talking about microbiology which caused me to remember nursing school. My micro class was a nightmare especially the lab teacher. What a fruitcake.
So yesterday when I get to work I pick up a patient that is having severe itching problems. See we use a new medication at work. It is like an epidural that they use for childbirth except they inject sustained release morphine into the epidural space and leave no catheter behind. So for the next 48 hours this morphine things (not exactly sure how it all works) pop open and provide pain relief for 2 days. In the year or two we have been using this I have noticed 3 major reactions 1. It works great and the patient is ready to jump up and walk around the room the minute they hit the floor from the recovery room after having an abdominal hysterectomy. 2. It doesn’t really work at all and the patient begs for more pain medication till the pain service people have had enough and give them a PCA pump so the patient can push the button and give themselves medicine or 3. It causes itching sometimes to the point the patient wants to claw all the skin off their body .Unfortunately my patient has the worst case of itchies I have ever seen to the point she is screaming bloody murder. So I go in and tell her that I am getting her itch medicine on a schedule and giving her something every 2 hours to get this under control. I then got to use my favorite line I use to work in the burn unit (I manage to use this at least once a night when I work on my co-workers who tell me to shut up that I worked there a million years ago but I say it anyway just to be annoying) and once the people started healing some of them would say the itching was worse than the burns. We would give them benadryl and atarax (by mouth) around the clock! After I look at her chart I notice the pain service guy ordered zofran for itching as well. Now that is an anti nausea drug so I ask our pharmacist Nazi about it. Well if we can give benadryl for nausea why not try zofran for itching. So I dosed her up on everything and when I was leaving she told me it was the best she had felt and the itching was under control. I must say she had no screaming episodes while I was there.
Now if you are thinking wow I want this girl as my nurse as she is a drug pushing freak of nature, not afraid of pain medicine and itch medicine let me tell you what happened the night before. A hospital personal person was wandering the hallways asking nurses if they had the patient in room x. She asked me and I was like no I don’t have her but Jennifer has a list of who has who. So Jennifer looks at her list and says “uh Rachel that is your patient.” I was like what and look at my sheet and sure enough I had that patient. I had even been in to see her twice already. So IF I can remember you are my patient you will be pain and itch free, if not you are on your own.
I really do love my job! That is when I remember what it is. BAHAHAHAHA!

 

September 8, 2007

Room X is haunting me

First of all work was total chaos and I ran my butt off. Won’t get into specifics because of that wonderful Hippa crap. Let’s just say I had a patient in room X (the exact same room from last week). Her IV went bad and we couldn’t get a new one is so I called the IV team. The gal comes up and looks right at me and says do you have the patient in room X. I say no, wait a minute let me look at my sheet. Damn I have to say yes I have that room and we discuss what her IV is needed for. To make the whole thing even better Jennifer is standing there again and starts laughing. It is all good though cause Erin and I corner her and grill her about her love life. Oh life is so much fun when my head isn’t going to explode!
Otherwise things have been boring. I have been out of sorts all week with nothing to talk about. It kind of sucks
The cake turned out great especially when Jennifer came in all suspcious. It was just a happy day cake cause yesterday at work sucked too! I worked with 2 regular nurses and the rest travel nurses. The cake was almost gone by the time I left at 11:30 pm.

 

September 8, 2007

Passports=BIGGEST scam of all

OMG this whole passport thing has been such a nightmare. It started last year when Brian applied for one just in case he went to Canada this summer even though he didn’t need it just yet. The good old Arnold post office was having a passport fair one Saturday from 10-2. Well he goes at 9 because he is awake and wants to beat the crowd. He is the only person in the post office and they refuse to do it because it is not 10 yet. He pleads his case basically tells them they are stupid before finally giving up. He then heads over to Imperial post office to be told they don’t do them at all he has to go to Arnold. So he ends up going in the middle of the week and it took about 2 minutes. But that is only the beginning. His passport comes while he was working out of town for 6 weeks, I busily make fun of the mug shot picture not noticing anything else. Well he gets back in town and notice they have his name as Briar. WTF? Who ever heard of a name like that. Well of course it has been over a month since it was issued so we have to get new pictures taken for another 8 bucks. We have then decided to go on a cruise in March which means the whole family needs them so I put off worrying about his for a while.
Well since it is 7 months till the ship sails and who knows what will happen I decide it is time to apply. Kids under 14 have to have both parents present. Well with our schedules and my evening shifts we never seem to be able to do this. So I get online and see that the post office at south county mall is open on Saturday and Sunday and does them all day. So first we go to Walgreen’s and get the photos done. We have to come back 30 minutes later and my picture is so freaking funny. I should have never laughed at Brian’s. I then have to drop Emily off at the library (since she only needs one parent I decide I will risk my life at the Arnold post office on Monday) and head up to the mall. It is now 2:45. The guy yells at me from across the room I hope you aren’t here for passports we stop accepting them at 2 pm on Saturdays. Ok I am seeing red by now because my kids are on my nerves non stop about when are we going home, why do we have do this blah blah blah, still freaked about work the night before etc. I must have given him my evil eye because he then breaks into a routine and tells me Crestwood Mall post office will do them until 6 pm. Of course the kids start in can’t we do this another day and I tell them no get in the car. So we go up there and the post office lady has diarrhea of the mouth and isn’t paying full attention to what she is doing. I can’t wait to see how mine Kayla and Allyson’s turn out. If they are right it will be a miracle. The cost for these are OUTRAGEOUS! Adults are like 92 and kids are 70 and then 8 bucks a piece for the stupid pictures. So now I am broke and all my birth certificates are gone because they take those and return them to you with your passport.
Oh the joy of traveling!

 

September 9, 2007

The eating healthy program

I have been back on weight watchers for almost a week now. I ate within my point range every day except today. I went to Bush Stadium and had some of the free food. I went ahead and tracked it and it was only 26 points so I had 19 points left over for the week. Not too bad. I swear once I lose this weight for the third freaking time I am not gaining it back. Oh how I wish I could eat whatever I wanted and be super thin. However there are way too many fattening foods with giant portions for that to ever work. I know this and I must not forget it once I hit goal again!

 

September 10, 2007

The never ending passport HELL!

I just can’t believe the latest with this. So today I get Emily from the bus and am trying to keep it together about the dog till we get out of the post office. So the lady looks at her picture and states her eyes are not open far enough and it is not possible to tell her eye color so she highly recommends having them redone. For a hilarious outtake on this story see photo and picuture attached with this message
Anyway I almost burst into tears and I really want to kill someone over this whole issue. But I tell the lady thanks and I would rather retake the pictures now than wait 3 months to be told to do it again. Well by this time Emily is kind of figuring things out so I tell her we will go another day for the damn picture and passport. I mailed Briar’s reject passport today and the lady did suggest I send it certified so they have to sign for it. I told her that was an excellent idea and well worth 3 bucks. I could see them losing the thing and telling me they never received it. Now that would send me over the edge and you all know I am so close already!

Emily Moehlmann (Seckman High School) wrote at 7:15pm You need to redo this picture, i don’t think you’ll be able to tell my eye color. I’m not trying to pick on your or anything, but they can’t tell my eye color. I”m really not picking on you.

 

 

 

 

 

September 12, 2007

The never ending passport BS

So today I pick Emily up from school early so we can do the passport thing. We go to Walgreen’s and they gladly retake the picture free of charge. I tell her to jack her eyes open and they are much better. Not quite as bad as the Don Knotts look I have going on but close. So we go back to the post office and a couple is ahead of us that needs them back in two weeks. They take forever. So Emily and I get up there and she remembers us (how could you forget puffy marshmallow eyes and teary eyed girl). She says the pictures are fine blah blah blah. Just as we are wrapping up my cell phone rings and I make Emily answer it even though we don’t recognize the number. It turns out to be the school nurse so I say I will call her back. I get out to the car and call her and she says I know exactly where you are at you are at the Arnold post office, I can recognize that lady’s voice anywhere. This gal has worked at the post office for as long as I can remember. Anyway she said Allyson was in her office with a headache and fever of 99.6 so she gave her some Tylenol. Allyson doesn’t have a fever right now but still a headache and telling me she needs medicine. She says she needs to go to the doctor. I can’t help but wonder if she is getting strep throat again…

September 16, 2007

Kid Stuf

So today was the second week of kid stuf. Against my advice they take the summer off every year and it seems to get longer and longer. I live for this section of church. You know it must be amazing when the teenagers want to get up at 8 so they can be there at 9:30
The only way to explain what it is like to say it is like vacation bible school except it is every week and not just one week out of the summer. VBS rocked when I was a kid so pretty much Kid Stuf super rocks. Of course I am by far the most embarrassing parent there. See we sing and do motions to the song. I am right there in the 5 or 6th row singing at the top of my lungs and doing all the motions. Allyson (the only one that goes that is appropriate age K-5th grade) wasn’t even there this morning, she spent the night with my sister. They put on plays every week with reoccurring characters. Well the church that writes the program must have my sense of humor because I find myself laughing (or screaming if you ask the kids) out loud the entire time. I can’t sing either but I do anyway at the top of my lungs. I tell everyone God is tone deaf so I sound like a superstar. Told you I was the biggest nut. I use to be one of the actors till the girl came back from maternity leave, now I just annoy everyone in the audience! The kids in front of me kept turning around looking at me. For some strange reason my kids still sit next to me! It is so much fun!

As you can see not much has been happening lately so I don’t have anything really bizarre to talk about. Well maybe meeting Jennifer’s man Terry and being so embarrassed I turned beet red and could barely talk to him. I try to tell people I am shy and they just don’t believe me!

 

September 17, 2007

Love is in the air at the Moehlmann house

Friday night Allyson spent the night with my mom (aka smoking grandma) and had a great time. Sierra was there as well. Come to find out Allyson informs my mom that Luke is her boyfriend and they are going steady. OMG it is like living with my sister all over again. This is first grade, what the heck. Allyson did go over to his house to play about a week ago and he cleaned his room up all on his own. Isn’t that cute? Made me think back to my dating days when if a guy washed his car before the date it meant he really liked you. Heck yah Brian washed his car before our first date (after the blind date).
So Emily just might have a date for homecoming. OMG how scary for me! I should say her because if it happens neither one of them can drive which means I get to play chauffer. (What a scary thought)! Who knows maybe this year I won’t have to write in the scrapbook Emily went stag. Of course when she saw that word (you know Stag) she had no clue what it meant. The younger generation is just too much.
So we are having fun over here in the house of love. I think I feel a cake baking frenzy coming on!

 

September 19, 2007

The latest crises

So Emily and I have a few words about Kayla and her activities. She gets understandably upset and goes to her room. I went down to the basement and she is in tears and says mom we have a crises. I ask her what is going on and she says George (her rabbit) was behind the couch and he has lost a ton of hair. So I go do you want me to go look it up on the internet. I am about in tears because even though George is the meanest rabbit I have ever met, I can’t lose another pet this soon. So I type pet rabbit losing hair into the search engine. Well guess what George’s problem is? He is really a Georgia as female rabbits sometimes think they are pregnant when in fact they are not and pull hair off their chests to make a nest. The little freak will not get back in his cage and has been hopping around with a sock in his mouth for the past 15 minutes trying to dig a hole in the couch. Only a Moehlmann pet would behave this crazy. I am freely admitting I live in a nuthouse!

 

September 24, 2007

I used my gift (curse) tonight at work

Well I hardly ever work weekends anymore and if I do it is the occasional Sunday. Well today was one of those days and I really wanted to be off but as usual God had bigger plans.
I came into staffing nightmare! So much for the 5 to 1 ratio. Everyone had 6 patients and the charge nurse had 4 which really blows. I wonder if the post get rid of the union honeymoon is over or if the weekend supervisor was just trying to exert some power.
So if that wasn’t bad enough at 7 someone needed to go over to the undelivered floor. I could have lied and said I was pulled in August but I got one of those messages from God. (No he doesn’t talk to me in a audible voice I am not quite that crazy) And I knew I had to go. Well I knew they had a loss mom over there because I had helped get her twins ready for her to see so I had the charge nurse call over there and ask them to give her to me. It just makes things easier when the mom is my patient. I ended up with a doosy of an assignment. It was only hard emotionally as I had two moms that had already delivered. The one mom’s baby wasn’t even suppose to survive birth and was still alive 2 days later. It is only a matter of time for that little one which was depressing. The other mom’s baby was also in NICU with something genetically wrong and they didn’t look for it to live either. I checked on the baby I had last week (the mom had triplets and baby 1 lived an hour and baby 3 was stillborn.) and that baby was doing bad too. Brain bleeds in all 4 ventricles so I was depressed as hell to start with. Anyway I go in to talk to twin mom and she decided she wanted to meet the funeral home at 10 that evening when they were going to pick up the babies. That is unusual because usually the babies don’t leave until after the mom is discharged just in case they want to see their baby again. So I was like is this ok and I decided hell yes if that is what the mom needs for grieving, healing or whatever I will do it. So at 10:30 at night I load her and the babies in a wheelchair and her husband and mom follows along. The morgue is a hell of a trip in the bowels of the hospital. Well standing outside the morgue trying to do this just wasn’t right. First of all it is right by the door where all the trash comes in and out. So we decide to go into the morgue and I carefully face her away from the freezer. The funeral lady was awesome, I give those people special places in Heaven for sure. It was heart wrenching to watch this mom kiss her babies good bye and be reassured her boys would be together. Seeing the dad place them in the box and tuck them in and kiss them and cry was beyond any words I can use. I thought the tough security guard was going to lose it. We then had to go outside and watch the funeral lady put them in the car. She put them in the front seat and seatbelted the box to the seat. I don’t encourage this sort of stuff but it was really what this mom needed and I had no problem with it. I mean it did tear me up emotionally and caused me to flash back to my nephews memorial service in which my brother in law had to peel my sister in law off of Andrew’s casket but I survived.
Because there isn’t much I can do in a situation like this I had taken the babies for a short period of time and put their footprints and names and weights on a pillow and I gave it to the mom before we went to the floor. Nothing is harder than leaving a hospital empty handed so hopefully the pillow will give her something to hold on to. Although babies would be so much better. I also did the memory books that Maggie usually does because the babies were leaving and their would be no way to get the foot and hand prints.
How do I do this you might be thinking? Well a lot of it is so that Andrew’s memory lives on. I never held him or anything either while he was alive or afterwards. If I could go back in time I would have asked to see him just once to hold him. I know this is so morbid and I don’t expect anyone to understand. This whole thing is a gift from God and I know I worked tonight because that mom needed me!
Well I am going to write some email and try to wind down so I can sleep some tonight. Tomorrow will be a new day and I am off work!

 

September 24, 2007

What ashes look like

I am such a disturbed individual. On Friday the vet called and said Annie’s ashes were in so I jumped in the car and drove up there. While waiting in line I get a lecture from another person there about the safe way to approach a dog. I smiled at her politely while thinking F you I picking up my dead dogs remains and if this cute little dog bit me well I might just feel alive. Of course I can’t say stuff like this cause then the whole world would know I am nuts and not just the people who read these notes.
So anyway I get the ashes and they put them in a bag. I look in the bag after I get out to the car and they are in a box. I am thinking wow Annie is so much lighter this way and easier to move around! Ha. So I am not in my house five seconds before I have to open the box to see what these ashes look like. I was rather disappointed cause I always thought they would be black like cigarette ashes but actually they were white. They almost look like sand so my pinhead husband says “that is not Annie, that is just some sand from the meramac river.” The kids have decided they don’t want to bury them or I should say Emily so for now they are sitting in the box on top of the book shelf in the computer room. I will add some pictures of her in her younger years before she chewed off the end of her tail and also the last one I ever took of her which was back in February when I was watching my God child Tyler.

 

September 29, 2007

                                                         Said incident with the resident

If you don’t work with me this note won’t mean much but I am only writing it to satisfy the curious minds I work with.Thursday evening I was at work and I got a new patient around 10 pm. One of these days I am going to learn not to take new patients when I am in charge. Anyway this gal had a baby about a week ago and is in with elevated blood pressure. The ER sent her up with no orders which is another incident altogether. I asked Erin to page the resident (initials M.M.) as she was the first year and needed to see her for H&P and orders. Well said resident had an attitude that she was paged to see this patient right away. Well she wasn’t and she had all these excuses and told me she would be up when she could but did give me an order for pain medicine. Ok I am already crabby and the moon is full and I am like I am sick of these residents and their attitudes about our patients. A long time ago I got my butt chewed for not calling a resident soon enough and they saw the patient in the middle of the night. Well it is already 10:30 so I say who is fourth year I have had enough of this. Since it was N.R. I thought he is cool I am calling to talk to him. Basically I wanted some information about how long it should take for a patient to be seen, can they be seen in the middle of the night. We had a nice chat and I did tell him that I should have called said resident earlier to give her a heads up. I usually do this but like I said full moon, crabby, nutty floor didn’t think about it. I got my answer and I thought that would be the end of it. So next thing I know Erin answers the phone and says Uh Rachel it is said resident and she wants to talk to the nurse who called NR. I was like just great I hate confrontation. I get on the phone and said resident just starts going off on me, I cannot get a word in edgewise. I can’t even get her to shut up long enough to explain why I called him. She was convinced it was to get her in trouble. I tell her no it wasn’t I wanted to know about the after midnight rule. She tries to tell me I should have asked her. I tell her point blank no I shouldn’t have and I didn’t do anything wrong. It would be like me asking any of the nurses I work with how to run Levophed. If you have never worked in the unit you would not know it is a major drug calculation and is run in mcg/kg/min. If you aren’t a nurse that probably looks like Chinese. So she again tells me I am wrong and I tell her no I am not so she asks me if she needs to talk to the charge nurse. I say “um that would be me.” That pretty much shut her up. Prior to this she was giving me all this justification and how she always returns pages, comes up promptly blah blah blah. She must have been feeling guilty or something. I felt like saying look if my intention was to get you in trouble I would have called Dr. V. at home instead. I am thinking back off bitch Dr. V. and I are tight and he must respect me because he has never yelled at me the way he has others. I probably just screwed myself by typing this and he will go nuts on me on Tuesday. So I stuck around till midnight waiting for the traveler to return from 5N and then left. I guess said resident came up after that and gave Ashley an ear full. Ashley has not told me what happened so make her type out that side of the story.
So that is my story and I still say I was right to call NR. If I am wrong don’t tell me cause I don’t want to hear it. Ha Ha. I never heard from Tracy so I guess all is well. Of course old softie me by the time I am driving home I think maybe I should give said resident a card saying I know how hard the first year is, how they have to do everything and are pulled in a million directions. Of course both Theresa and Marybeth told me no way and I should have just hung up on her. Now if I really wanted to get her in trouble I would have called NR back and told him how she had just went off on me. But I hate confrontation and it just wasn’t worth it.

 

September 30, 2007

The Edge

Tonight was the monthly youth service for my church. A couple of weeks ago one of the leaders asked me if I could help out. I said yes before I realized I was scheduled to work. Well Theresa kindly agreed to work for me so I could go. I had a blast.
The theme tonight was to be somebody you don’t have to do anything. Everyone is a chosen child of the most high God so all you have to do is be yourself. It started with all the parents lined up and down the red carpet runway and as the kids came in we were screaming and yelling, asking for their autographs and taking pictures. I of course chose to be a picture taker which was a lot of fun. I was also grabbing the kids saying can I touch you and tried to take a kids necklace, another’s ponytail holder and another’s wrist band. It is great to have an excuse to act gay! The kids were a little overwhelmed by the whole scene but did enjoy the attention.
Then we had free food and the youth band played. They are really good! Then one of the youth leaders gave the message, we sang some more and then it was over. I was banned from sitting near Kim or Emily because I am so ridiculous in church they said they needed some peace. It was probably a good thing cause I was singing at the top of my lungs-remember God is tone deaf so I am an awesome singer to him, as for everyone else I really suck but the music was so loud no one could really hear me.
I can’t even explain how awesome it is to be in a room full of teenagers and both the boys and the girls are singing Christian songs and having a great time. No alcohol nor drugs was involved and everyone is looking forward to next months already. I must say this cult I go to does something right!

 

October 2, 2007

Some people never learn or are just plain stupid!

Ok so I learned tonight that said resident MM got called to see a new patient on Sunday at 7pm. She never came up to see the patient till 7am the next morning. This is so unacceptable. I guess she does not realize Dr. V. will never tolerate this sort of behavior. What happened to her 10 minute rampage on me about how she always comes to see patients in a timely fashion. Oh well I suppose you reap what you sow and her time will come! Great Christian attitude I have going here. I guess I need to spend more time at the cult!

 

October 7, 2007

the ho story, the mf tv and the passports!

About a month ago Emily, Kayla and I went to Target to get some stuff. While standing in the check out line out of the clear blue sky Allyson says “Emily I am calling you a ho!” in this really sweet voice. I thought the lady checking us out was going to lose it. So I say to her “do you know what a ho is?” She says no so I tell her “it is a girl that has lots of boyfriends and Emily has none so she is not a ho.” Well Emily was ready to smack me because there was a cute guy in line behind me. I guess you are all figuring out I am really super obnoxious. So that was the end of that or so I thought. Well last week she calls Emily a ho again and Emily says “Cody is not my boyfriend, I am not a ho.” Well at homecoming Cody asked her the big question and Allyson found out. So today she walks up to Emily and says real softly “ho” and runs off. If she wasn’t so darn cute, I’d have to beat her butt but I can’t stop laughing!
That was a fun story, now on to the TV. Brian and I have always had the worst luck with every single TV we have ever purchased. It is the only thing we ever get the extended warranty on. Every TV we have ever owned has been replaced so why should I be surprised with the latest scandal. Last November we got one of those big TV’s that take the expensive light bulbs. So we get home from homecoming last night and the light bulb is burned out. Since the TV is not a year old it will be replaced for free. However, the number only works M-F and who knows how long it will take. So I am thinking that’s ok we can watch the TV in the basement! Yeah right. I can’t get the satellite to come on down there and I can’t call the satellite company because all the stuff they do to fix things is on TV 1 which happens to be the TV with the burned out light bulb! So TV 2 can get a picture but no satellite so all we can watch is movies or play game cube. Oh what a fun life!
To end on a positive note, all of our passports have finally arrived and although we all looked like bugged eye freaks are names are correct. So cruise in March here we come!! Yahoo!!

 

October 9, 2007

Being without a TV really sucks, caused South Africa memories!

Well the title says it all. I had no idea how much I miss the noise of a TV, not to mention my favorite show was on tonight but thank God it is set to record every week regardless. I love DVR. So anyway the new light bulb won’t be here until Wednesday and I had to fax paperwork to the TV place. My sister says lets go to my work. Of course she works at the credit union which was closed today for Columbus day but since she is a manager she has a key and a code to the alarm system. I was so paranoid the code wouldn’t work and we would be arrested for robbing the bank but it all worked out just fine. No Arnold cops showed up.
So for what I was doing tonight, I will have to give a little background info because I don’t know who all reads my crazy notes and if any of you know the South Africa story. Back in 1982 a band of boys came from Johannesburg South Africa to Arnold. My mom agreed to keep one of them and his name is Gary. He now lives in the US and we have visited each other a few times over the years. He currently lives in TX. However there was this boy named Anton whom I fell in love with. Do not be laughing about this as I was 15 at the time. All the boys were white for those of you who were wondering. (Don’t worry when I read the note the band director sent home I couldn’t even finish it before my own mother was asking me if they were black or white. I remember asking her does it matter and she said no she was just curious.) It was an intense 2 weeks to say the least and then my mom and some of the other parents that hosted the boys got together and decided to take the Fox High School band over to South Africa the following summer. OMG I never fundraised so much in my life which is why I will barely do it for my kids. To give you some idea, those Katherine Bach candy bars were 50 cents and I made 25 cents profit off of them. I raised 400.00 in candy bars alone and carried those things every where I went for 6 months straight. I ate more than I care to remember as well. The trip was 1500 a person and I raised 1400 and my sister raised 1300 as she went too! My mom also went as a chaperone but she paid her own way. I have no idea how we afforded it but somehow we did. So we went to SA in August of 1983 and stayed for 3 weeks. The plane trip was hell to say the least and is a reason why I rarely fly. On the way home I threw up for 16 hours straight. It took almost 24 hours to get there between lay overs and all the flying. So anyway Anton and I stayed together until February of 1984 when he met another girl who he eventually married. So tonight since I have no TV to watch I decide to get out all the letters he wrote me and read them for the first time since 1984. Actually I probably read them because I am an old person of 40 and Emily has her first boyfriend. the first five or so he wrote me after I returned from SA were intense and I started crying a bit. Kayla actually made fun of me. She wanted to read one so I let her read the one he gave me at the St. Louis airport before he left. She read it and called him a dork just as Brian was walking by. Well Brian started laughing as he has always given me hell about the relationship. So I dig out the 3 letters Brian wrote me while I was in nursing school and Kayla reads them and tells him he is as big a dork as Anton. He pretends to be all offended while I try to keep from cracking up!
Since my work buddies have been bugging me to post pictures of my younger years I will post 3 of Anton and I. I was 15 in two of them and 16 in one. What is so funny is I thought I was so fat, if I weighed 120 again I would most likely look anorexic!

 

October 14, 2007

Respect whoever’s in charge even when you don’t feel like it

So the title of my note was today’s bottom line in Kid Stuf. Yeah remember Kid Stuf is my favorite part of church. If you don’t believe me let me tell you that today only Emily, Kim and I went while Kayla and Allyson were away on their own activities. Kid Stuf is geared for K-5 but since I am really 10 years old in my head it takes something major to make me miss it.
So while I was watching the drama and all the other junk that goes into kid stuf I was thinking we adults need to follow this as well. I know my job as charge nurse would be a lot easier if people would just do what I ask without giving me a bunch of freaking excuses about how busy they are. If it wasn’t the same people every single time that are “too busy” to take a patient or “too busy” to help someone waste narcotics I might not be so insistent. Very rarely have I ever told a charge nurse that I won’t take a patient. Actually I think I have said please don’t give me anyone for an hour till I am caught up but to flat out refuse NEVER! Everyone says I am flexible and easy going which is a major crack up since I have the mentality my way or the high way! But at work yes I will take 7 patients if need be without complaining and acting like I am super nurse. (which I am of course Ha Ha Ha)
Last week was really rough at work. I was ready to quit and I am not joking. I know I say it a lot but I was close to being dead on serious! I was in charge with 4 patients which is almost unheard of especially since I did not have 4 easy new moms. I had 2 surgeries, a brand new surgery and a patient coming from the unit. So when some bozo that has 4 moms tells me they are too busy to take a patient I just wanted to smack them down. Not the right attitude at all. So at Kid Stuf we sang one of my favorites “I get down and he lifts me up” all with motions and everything. Wish I would have listened to it on Thursday, might have helped me for Friday which wasn’t quite as bad. Then we get this nice letter in our mailbox stating we have to sit down and have conversations with our patients and even suggest sitting on the bed. I about go ballistic because I do not touch people and I don’t like people in my personal space. I am ready to quit over this as well but after I talk to my manager and hear from our nurse educator I realize this is a ploy to get rid of the huffer and puffer nurses we have working on our unit. The one’s who act like giving a patient pain medicine in a timely fashion is worse than a root canal. I wish we could just fire them! Oh it would make things so much easier. And we have this new girl and I have tried repeatedly to get to know her and like her and nothing works. I just want to ram my fist down her throat and tell her to go back to ICU. I only hope I have never once been that annoying when I speak of my burn unit days! Usually I joke about the way we did things because I know on a normal floor their is no way we would do any of it. Like run blood in wide open. (much easier than setting up the IV pump, I must admit but I do it the way the floor does it). Now I do push medicine in way too fast but that is why I don’t orientate new nurses. We could talk about my “doorway assessments” that everyone makes fun of me for. But hey I don’t think I have missed anything important in the past 7 years and if I do need to get the old stethoscope out, it is handy in my mailbox. Ha Ha Ha. I bet you all are glad I am not your nurse!
Hopefully this week will be better. I looked at the staffing board and I don’t think I am in charge as much but who knows I might be on both Wednesday and Thursday. Tuesday I go in at 11 so I will either take over for the crazy nurse that only works 7am till 11am or I will be taking new surgeries. Although last week they pulled a fast one on me and put crazy nurse in charge (who had never done it before) and I followed and was in charge. I guess I will find out on Tuesday what the week holds for me.
Not that it matters because this weekend my husband and I are going out of town ALONE. Very rarely do we ever go without the kids. (I think it has been 4 years since the last time. We went to Vegas for the 13th wedding anniversary.) Well this year is number 17 and we are going to a bed and breakfast on Tablerock Lake. I think the two younger kids are staying with my sister in law and brother in law. Emily has made plans to stay at her friends house. This is just as well as it is major marching band weekend. We won’t be gone long just Friday evening till Sunday evening but it will be a good thing to have alone time. Who knows when we will do it again.
Well peace out and hoping for a much better week!

 

November 5, 2007

 A short note

Well I finally put up my Halloween pictures but I didn’t take a whole lot this year. I am going through a rough time right now with rougher waters in the future. Probably won’t be writing a lot of notes unless something totally funny happens. Oh I could talk about my gigantic puffy face from an unkown allergy that is finally looking better but itching really bad. I cracked and took claritin today because benadryl just makes me sleep and I have to get some stuff done around here.
I have started a journal too (counselor’s suggestion) so most of what I write will be in that and not to annoy anyone reading these notes. Plus my kid is my friend so I just can’t post random mean things on here! Ha!
So if you don’t see any notes you know why!

November 9, 2007

where do people come up with this stuff?

Tonight I was told by a patient that morphine does not work for her. She doesn’t have any morphine receptors in her body. That it must be genetic because none of her family has them either! So I switched her PCA pump out for fentanyl and all was good. At least this crazy nut was not a drug seeking fool! I swear I am going to have to stop taking Dr. V. surgeries the day of surgery because they go nutty on me. Ha Ha!

November 20, 2007

Puzzles suck!

Well it has really been a crazy few weeks around my house. Oh but that is nothing new.
I thought I had solved the problem to the missing 3 coke puzzle pieces. I got one just like it off eBay but it seems as though the damn pieces are cut different in that puzzle than the one we have put together. Cursed I tell you I am cursed. So I can’t decide if we either somehow find the flipping pieces and make them fit, re do the whole puzzle so it is correct or give the thing to smoking grandma for Christmas with 3 pieces missing. Oh what a dilemma. In the meantime this 2000 piece zebra puzzle is beyond a nightmare. I look at all those stripes and just get a headache thinking about it. I have all the blue sky pieces pulled out and still can’t that part of the border together. Maybe I should put all the pieces in a pile and burn the hell out of them!!
My sister is pregnant and instead of going number 1 50 times a day she seems to have to go number 2. She came over to my house for lunch today and it is a good thing I went to the store or she would have had nothing to wipe her butt with. She is due 7/18 which is the day I leave for Big Stuf camp with Emily and Kayla. I already told her she better have the kid a week before because I am not canceling my trip this year!! That is a suck ass month to be due as all us St. John’s folks know it is new resident time so I will have to be around to keep all the first years out of the room and certain 2nd and 3rd and 4th years as well. Oh the power I think I wield. Ha Ha.
Well I better get off to work for an exciting 4 hour shift in charge. They didn’t need me at 11 which was really nice. I goofed off and did nothing productive!!

December 1, 2007

The TV from HELL

Ok I hate TV’s. Brian and I have had the worst luck with them since we have known each other. Every single TV we have had we have bought the extended warranty on and have had two replaced for free. Well last year we finally cracked and bought the big HUMONGOUS tv with digital light projection. Well the light bulb burned out 2 months ago and that was replaced free cause the light is guaranteed for a year. Before that it kept saying TV is over heating and will shut down. Well when the guy came to fix it, he said it was a common problem, rewired it and said all was fine. Well today the TV won’t even come on and we kept getting the message about overheating. Now if we hadn’t bought the extended warranty we would have been screwed because the TV was a year old 3 days ago. I wonder if they will have to replace the bastard! Oh and get this the guy can’t come out until Thursday which means we will all be in the basement fighting over the TV. Thank God all the shows I record are either not on this week or repeats since they normally record to the downstairs TV. I guess there really is a God after all. HAHAHAHA

December 11, 2007

The Moehlmann Freak Show

Ok I just don’t understand why I can’t live in a normal family. Oh maybe because it doesn’t exist. All 3 of my girls are crazy. I can’t discuss Emily because she is a friend and she would kill me. However if you work with me ask me and I will tell you. Now on to the other two freaks.
Kayla has selective mutism which is 100 times better than when she was little. When she was little she talked to hardly anyone. If someone asked her a question she would just look at them and not be able to answer. Her fingernails could have been ripped off one at a time and she wouldn’t have spoken a word. When she would get mad at us she would shut down and not talk for up to two or three hours at a time. She was tested for the gifted program in second grade and that is when the counselor who did the testing said she thought that was what she had. When I looked it up on the internet she fit all of it so it has been an unofficial diagnosis. Like I said she is much better now.
However now it’s Allyson’s turn I suppose. She has been to the principals office like 4 times this semester for her behavior. Either she gets upset and starts crying to the point of disturbing the whole class or she flat out refuses to do her work. Yesterday I got a note home from the teacher saying after lunch she refused to do anything and started hitting the teachers desk. The teacher moved Allyson’s desk so Allyson moved her desk right back and started hitting the teachers desk. Can you believe this 30 pound kid? So she spent the rest of the day in the principals office. Kayla finally gets it out of her that she doesn’t understand how to do things so she starts grunting and it just goes from there. So I write the teacher a note and tell her I am not sure if this is the problem or not. So I tell Allyson that if she starts grunting and the teacher asks her if she understands she needs to shake her head no or say the word. She buries her head in the couch and starts freaking out. What is it with these kids? I really hope this is the issue because having your first grader be best friends with the principal is pretty embarrassing. Ha Ha!

December 31, 2007

The Ipods
So after going to the wrong mall last week (don’t even ask) I finally made it up to West County to have mine and Emily’s Ipod looked at. They were both fried, go figure. Mine was under warrently so they will be calling me in 2 days to go get my replacement. Emily’s wasn’t so she got the new mint green 8 GB video one. See before Christmas I had decided who I wanted to Christmas angel (that is a program where you pick a family and for the 12 days before Christmas leave a gift each day. The first day you leave one of something, the second 2 of something etc.) After i had all the stuff bought Emily informs me we really need to do this girl whom she hates because the girls father died this summer. Well I tell her we really can’t afford it but then later I got this nice prompting from God saying we needed to do this family too. So I come up with this brillant idea and ask Emily if she is willing to forgo some of her Christmas gifts and put that money towards the Christmas Angel gifts. She said yes without even thinking so this Christmas she has way less money spent on her. So when her Ipod crashed it was very easy for me to fork out that huge sum of money for her. The only sad thing is we turned in her old Ipod which was red and was engraved Merry Christmas Emily Love, Santa Clause. However I must admit the green one is way cooler. We did take a couple of pictures of the old one on my cell phone so that we could always remember. I am such a geek!
I hope everyone had a nice holiday!