Getting ready for fall

It's actually been a week now since I went hiking with my brother. As you can see, fall is officially here! It was nice and warm Saturday, so warm I peeled off my jacket. By the end of the day though, it snowed!

For Sunday football, I made a decent lasagna, garlic bread and salad for the boys. Spinich/ Artichoke dip for an appetizer and brownies for dessert. I actually got a few takers for seconds, so it couldn't have been all that bad. Made for a great lunch the next 2 days too!

The leaves have turned golden. Midas is running around everywhere!

With Mom and Dad coming out to visit us kids next week, we decided to get Meowsie cleaned up and ready. "This hurts me more than it hurts you." Yeah right! Made for a really amusing day!

It's good to be me cause I actually enjoy baths!

Hi Everybody!

I got a new hair cut! Like mother like daughter, I guess. The top is the after picture, the bottom one is before. She straightened my hair out, thinned it (since I guess it is too thick) and took a whole lot of length off.

Meowzee was not a happy camper with this morning's attention on the only important part of the paper, the comics. Laughter is the best medicine. So he put himself in the middle of it all.

Now we know who really is the king around here!

At work, we have students. Lots of students. The girl on the left, above is the student who accomplished her first IV start. Funny how if you leave the tounaquet on it tends to bleed more. Hence the puddle of blood! The guy on the right is one of my alltime new favorite doctors. He gets extra double bonus points for subjecting his juicy veins to the attempts of a nursing student. She got it though. Jamie, the doctor, refused to wash the blood off his hand before he had a little fun with it, claiming he was attacked by a patient, or that he TOTALLY missed doing an arterial blood stick, whatever new funny story he could think up whenever he saw a new doctor or nurse in sight. We have entirely too much fun at work sometimes. I hope his wife does not see this. She is a doctor as well, and as Jamie tells it, would be very jealous that someone else got to stick him, since he won't let her! Mind you, she doesn't want to just practice with IVs, she wants to put in central lines. (Think neck veins....) I don't blame him!

We had another birthday at work. 2 actually. 1 was the patients, and one was our staff's. So another round of birthday fun. The banner was made by the nursing student in the previous picture. The crown was my own. It just so happened that I had birthday confetti in the car (things like this happen...) so we embelished!

Here's some of the wonderful staff I work with. It is sooooo good to be me! New haircut and all.

Welcome!

Welcome to the Internet Age! My grandparents have made the courageous leap into the internet age and, with the help of my brother, have bought themselves a laptop! With internet service starting today, I wanted to wish them a wonderful, exciting internet experience, and say, CONGRATULATIONS!!!
It is good to be me, and now, it's good to share with you!
I love you guys! I miss you!

The new place

It was one of my patient's 85th birthday, so we (meaning "I") made him a Birthday Crown and then we (meaning everyone who was not too busy) got together and went into the room and sang Happy Birthday to him. It was very nice. I got teased a bit because the marker I used to write "Birthday" with had a delightful marker aroma which basically got everyone a little high. Fun! When someone asked if it was really ok to bring it into the room, I reasoned, well, he's already on oxygen and in the hospital, It'll be fine!
His picture did not do him justice, he is a delightful, always smiling and joking man and his wife is lovely too.

I just thought I'd post a few pictures of the place I've been spending all of my time lately. I really enjoy my patients and the staff is great, so it is worth it! It is good to be me.

Diapers

Sometimes my job can be so amusing. Other times, it is amusing to the people I tell my stories to, even though I did not find particular situations quite so interesting. Case in point, yesterday I had to change a diaper on a very nice 80 year old gentleman, and put some cream on a small sore on his bottom. A very routine activity in my life, nothing exciting. That is, until I tell my non-nursing friends "what I did today." Laughing hysterically, my friend finally responds, "So you had to be touching some old guys BUTT?!?! And RUBBING it? HA ha ha ha Ha!!!!!!"
Well, when you put it that way, I guess it was pretty funny.
I remember when I was first in nursing school and my friend had a baby. She was the first baby that any of my friends had, so of course, we all spoiled her and loved on the baby and were in complete awe at every little thing she did. The first time I had to, I mean got to change the baby's diaper, I was so grossed out. "She keeps wiggling! UGH! It smells!" It was quite a challenge and I made quite the big deal of it and was sooooo proud of my acomplishment.
Little did I know.....
Then we started doing our clinical rotations in the hospital. Let me tell you, changing the diaper on a 300 pound man is an entirely different experience!
The next time I changed my friend's baby's diaper a semester later, it was one of the easiest things I had ever done! I was lavishing in the fact that this activity did not take 4 people to turn the baby from side to side. I loved that a gown was not necessary for me to wear. I loved that it only took a few seconds. The best part was that I could just hold both her ankles and deftly lift her whole butt up and easily slide the diaper up under her. Piece of cake!
Oh what a difference a semester makes!
Of course, that sweet baby is now a 2nd grader, but that's not the point. She was my first baby friend. And I am sure that if I had to, it would still be a much easier task to change her diaper if she needed it than pretty much any of my patients.
I still love my job, even the diaper changing parts. It is a blessing to be able to do that for them. It's good to be me. Diapers and all....

Lately

Lately, this is what I've been up to. A lot of laying around, hanging out with the cat, keeping cool and enjoying my time off.

Meowzee has been showing me a few tricks for keeping cool in the 95 degree heat. I haven't taken all of them though. I think it's gross to hang out on the floor behind the toilet, but maybe that's just me. :-)

The two of us like to watch TV together too.

Jeff's tomato garden is doing quite well.

His marigolds have nearly taken over the garden. They are stunning though.

He has just one dalia, but it is spectacular.

With all the tomatoes, we had a branch that broke off and we ended up with a ton of green tomatoes. What's a girl to do but to make fried green tomatoes?

I lightly flour, salt and peppered them, dipped them in a mixture of buttermilk, a bit of flour, some salt, and a good amount of seasoning pepper, then coated them in corn meal and dropped them into a pan of really hot oil for a few seconds till they looked like this. I served them to Jeff and one of his friends. I had a side of ranch dressing and the boys had a bit of cajun seasoning. I got thumbs up all around as their mouths were full and thier faces were all smiles.

Last but not least, a bit of shopping. New boots! Isn't that just one of the best things, finding a perfect pair of boots for a really cheap price? Since I wear a rather large size, finding any kind of shoes can be tricky. Then there is the whole subject of heels, which tend to be quite tall. I don't so much need the extra height, so these with the kitten heel were just perfect! It is good to be me and I can't wait to wear my new boots!

The first few days.

The first few days of orientation in a new hospital are usually great, as they are this time. After sitting through a "paid commercial," we get to be on the floor and usually spend 1 day following around another nurse and just asking questions and figuring out where everything is. For me, that's all I really need. Where is stuff, and how does this particular hospital require me to do this or that. The second day on the floor, the other nurse gets to follow me around and I still ask questions and basically she is there for reference. Works well for both of us. If there is a 3rd day with another nurse, we usually just split the assignment cause by that point we are both bored, and are happy just having a really easy assignment. I still ask questions though.
It is good to be me, and I have gotten through my first shadowing day, and tomorrow she gets to shadow me. Friday, I get to be on my own!!! Woo-hoo!