She dressed herself

Skills Check offs....Please let the aliens rescue me, I mean take me away!

Well on the last day of skills check off of my second semester nursing students I was ready to scream. Trying to keep a blank face as they calculated and drew up meds for injection was difficult. Especially with the mistakes being made. I started to draw on the back of the calculation answer sheet. It started out pleasant enough. Rolling hills, a house, a tree with a swing. then added the turtle starting to cross the road (my dream of being run over at put out of misery). I added animals, Buck on a tractor. My friend Della added the kids. Somewhere around hour 6 of this torture I drew some geometric figures in the sky. I realized that was the answer...the aliens had arrived to strip the earth of trees. I ran toward them and not away and ran right into a tractor beam. In my head this song was playing by Styx.

I'm sailing away, set an open course for the virgin sea
Ive got to be free, free to face the life that's ahead of me
On board, I'm the captain, so climb aboard
Well search for tomorrow on every shore
And Ill try, oh lord, Ill try to carry on

I look to the sea, reflections in the waves spark my memory
Some happy, some sad
I think of childhood friends and the dreams we had
We live happily forever, so the story goes
But somehow we missed out on that pot of gold
But well try best that we can to carry on

A gathering of angels appeared above my head
They sang to me this song of hope, and this is what they said
They said come sail away, come sail away
Come sail away with me
Come sail away, come sail away
Come sail away with me

I thought that they were angels, but to my surprise
They climbed aboard their starship and headed for the skies
Singing come sail away, come sail away
Come sail away with me
Come sail away, come sail away
Come sail away with me

Unfortunately, they never came and when classes resume I will have 20 students for remediation on medication administration. What bothered me was that only one student was upset at the prospect of killing a patient, she became hysterical when she realized the mistake she was about to make, the others were just irritated that i failed them on the check off and that I am such a pain about correct dosage, correct medication, correct needle. Whats wrong with a SQ from a 20 gauge? They were so self righteous that they were right and I was wrong. they have been in nursing school for 16 weeks, and I have been a nurse for 20+ years. I have never had a class like this before. My rant is over, back to single parenting my kids.

Summer Condensed

Summer was busy because I worked all summer and was starting from scratch at my new job. Austin tested for his red with black stripe belt and was awarded it so he is one more belt away from his black belt. He attended improve camp with his cousin Rache, and competed in his first Tae kwon do tournament where he (still a red belt) had to battle a nationally ranked black belt. He held his ground and did not run. He also did some filming with Team America for a documentary.

Izzy is as busy as ever and had her tubes placed 2 weeks ago. Right now she has a bloody ear infection, fever, and cough. She continues to dance anyway, if there is no music she creates it herself.

Summer is over and the kids are back at school. Buck is has been gone for 1 week and will be gone next week as well. Izzy misses her Daddy. Since having her tubes placed she has picked up about 10 new words. Now she also says Bubby and Poppa loud and clear. Austin is so happy. Every time she says it she smiles the biggest smile. She loves yelling Bubby and having Austin respond.

Next up: My students made me wish aliens would come down and abduct me.

I'm late . I'm late . For a very important date. No time to say "Hello." / Goodbye. I'm late, I'm late, I'm late.

This is how I feel everyday right now. Way too much to do, and no time to do it. I wake up at 4:30 am and hit the ground running. Shower dress, feed kids, dog, bird, pack lunches. I have Austin to camp by 6:30 am, Izzy to Daycare by 6:40. I am at the office turning off the alarm between 7:15-7:25 depending on the traffic. 8am class starts for 4 hours, 12-1 I eat lunch while tutoring math, 1-5 I teach again. I leave between 5:30-6pm, head home. Arrive by 7pm. this is T-W-Th. Monday and Friday is doctor appointments for Izzy. My floor is dirty an has not been steamed mopped in 4 weeks. Clothes are clean but in baskets and not put away.

Here are pics of Monday's happening. They gave Izzy a bottle after surgery. She hasn't used a bottle since we have had her. I really need to blog all of austin's happenings. Much too tired now.

The Anniversary Party

I have tried to catch you up on pictures a little, I have much more to do, but I wanted to share the experience of Buck's parent's anniversary party with everyone. People think I am horrible for having minimal contact with his family. Here is an example why (a very mild example, there are many worse).

We had an anniversary party for Bucks parents. His sister coordinated it, his brother came down from Wisc and brought his youngest Jamie. We had a great time until the party. We got to the party and my BIL (married to Buck's sister)started to ask me about Izzy and how she has been. I thought this is nice of him, until he said well I am glad she is doing good and I hope that the flashes won't cause her to have a seizure like it has done before because there will be a lot of flashes and you will have to live with it. I explained that my cheap camera was taking great pics without a flash so we could just ask everyone to turn off the flashes, and if they don't know how I will help them. He said no it wasn't happening.

So then Gail my SIL's best friend came in with a very nice camera and sat at our table. I explained to her the problem with Izzy having seizures due to flashes, and that she almost died last year when she not only choked on food during the seizure but it would not end and we had to give the emergency Diastat. She said I am sorry to hear that but I have to leave the flash on because Cheryl wants good pictures and I would need to deal with it.

At this point I phoned Buck who was outside directing traffic. he was not happy and headed up to the fellowship hall. In the mean time it was agreed that it would e okay for me and Izzy to sit in the back facing the wall so she was not disturbed by the flash. I told Buck that me and Izzy would run to Walmart and hang out until it was over. I didn't want to take him form his family, he said no we were all staying and they would remedy this or we would all be leaving.

I don't know what he said to his sister but it was resolved. I was whispered about, people kept commenting that I wouldn't let Izzy have any meatloaf or mash potatoes which was mean of me, I explained she is very allergic to milk and egg, but they said it didn't apply to cooked things. Hmmm, who would know better? Masters in Nursing or someone with no medical training? Mother of the child or someone who had just met her?

His parents seemed happy to have us there. I still have moments of feeling bitter

Bad blogger

I am sorry for the lack of updates. this summer has been busy with the start of a new job, a sick B, and life in general. I am just going to post pics at this point. These birds are daily visitors to our yard. They have been very aggressive lately due to a neighbor feeding them. On this day they backed me into the garage and kept trying to peck my hand. Making loud noises and shooing them did not do anything. They are beautiful but I prefer they keep their beaks to themselves. In China they would be food! Teresa, have you seen anything that looks like these on a platter?