Ilana's baptism

Ilana had her baptism this past Sunday. I had to work all weekend, but made it for that. It was a really tired day of work after that, but I wouldn't have missed it for anything.

Lately, I have been sick and working a lot. Starting tomorrow, I have basic dysrhythmia classes. I also had to go to civil court and testify for a previous patient. They moved the court date after I had requested two days off for it. NOT fun!

In one week, we go to see the Jonas Brothers in Ohio. I am excited to get away and actually do something! I will post more pics from the JoBros Concert and Jordin Sparks, who is opening for them.

Weather, gardening, cooking...

It has been an unusual summer here in Michigan. The average temperature for the last couple of weeks has been in the 60s. Everyone has been saying how it has been an odd July and mom was saying that maybe that means that winter will not be as harsh. I told her it probably means we are going to have a cold winter. Who knows?

We haven't gotten much rain to speak of, although it is raining as I type this. We have had to water the garden more often than usual. With the weather being cooler, it has stunted a lot of the growth in the garden. We have gotten one ripe tomato, a few zucchini and cucumbers, but things haven't really taken off yet. We didn't get very many beans because the critters got in the garden and ate them. Every other year, our neighbors have planted soybeans, so the critters have left our measly beans alone, but this year he planted corn. We have gotten quite a few of the dragon beans this year. They must not like those! We went to our local farm market and bought a bushel of green beans to freeze for the year. Nothing like fresh green beans!

This is a tree that we have in our yard that I frequently take pictures of. It has never had flowers before in the three plus years that I have owned my house. After some research, it was discovered that it is a basswood tree and produces the best honey. It was literally buzzing with bees. You could hear it all over the yard! It now has "fruit" on it that they said the birds like. It was very fragrant with all the flowers on it. We kind of stayed away from it for awhile because I counted four different types of bees and it was hard for me to take a picture without a bee in it.

Since we were surrounded by corn fields this year, I took some photos of my nieces and nephews "Children of the Corn" style. They were asking me about the movies and I told them that we would have to rent them sometime. I gave them some garden tools and told them that they couldn't smile. That was really hard for them!! When I finally told them to smile at the end, it was less than enthusiastic. It was fun for them though and I got some great pics!

I've been trying to do more natural cooking. I started things slowing because it takes awhile for mom to adjust to things. We used to make homemade soup and use everything canned, but I've slowly changed it and now we use everything fresh (or frozen if we cannot get it fresh). Even cutting out the canned tomatoes and dicing them ourselves. It tastes so much better this way! This week I am going to try to make chili from scratch. I have some beans that I am going to cook and cut up some tomatoes and stuff. Hopefully it will work out well. If it does, then we are going to make some for winter and can it. Nothing like canned homemade vegetable beef soup and homemade chili when it is cold out!

I am excited to do some canning this year. I want to can some tomatoes definitely, but also some apples. I am looking for a recipe to try tomato sauce. I really like it when I can then because we use 1/2 the amount of salt, so it is a bit healthier. Plus, it just gives you satisfaction knowing that you did it yourself!

I did my first IV chemo at work this week. It went pretty well. We have been floating to Cardiac Telemetry a lot lately and it has been crazy busy there. The last time I floated, I only had 5 patients (as opposed to the 7 the time before) and we were doing trivia. It ended with me trying to think of a question, but I couldn't come up with one. Did you know chickens have ears? I didn't. I also learned this week at work that battery acid does not eat through scotch tape. Okay, I don't really believe that, but for some reason, we have to tape batteries before we dispose of them. I don't know...I just smile and nod.

Deer Forest

We went with my sisters and their kids to Deer Forest today. It was a good day because it wasn't hot. It was overcast and about 65 degrees. It was fun to see the animals.

The kids had fun feeding the deer and riding the rides and train.

I have some more photos that I posted to my facebook account. There are just too many to post here! :)

Work Woes, Facebook, Jo Bros, and more

Work has been a little crazy this week. I worked Thursday and Friday. Thursday, I had a patient's family yell at me for something that was due to the stinking Vocera badges we wear. The call lights are programmed to go to the vocera that we wear around our neck. They go to the nurse aides first and then the nurses. It's nice when they work right, but a pain when they don't. The latter occurs more frequently. I have gone to a patient's room, turned the call light off, walked to the med room, back to the patient's room and to the desk before it has rung on my vocera that their light is on. The family of the patient was the one upset about it taking so long to answer the call light. The patient was sticking up for me and Angela, the nurse tech, saying that we have been right in there all night. The other nurses were like, "I heard you failed the test." It was a trying night.

Then Friday, I had a vent patient. Yep, a vent patient on the medical oncology floor. We weren't supposed to have it, but we did. Dr. Judy (the CCU doctor) only wanted him to be on it a few hours, but once we got him on, we couldn't get him off. That is not uncommon. That night, our team shined. Yes, it was very stressful for me because I was doing a one on one with this patient (and had four other patients to boot!), but the other nurses and aides stepped up and did what was needed for my other patients. I was proud to be a member of the medical oncology team that night!! They are truly an awesome bunch! (I always knew that, but it was reinforced Friday night!) Then, after transferring that patient to ICU where he belonged, I got floated to Cardiac Telemetry. Another stressful night!

Friday morning, I started feeling not well. My voice started to crack when I was giving report. I just chalked it up to being really tired after that night's events and hoped that the next night would be better. (No such luck!) Midway through Saturday morning (around 3 a.m.), I started to lose my voice. My throat didn't hurt, but I just didn't feel well. Well, my voice is almost gone and I have congestion in my head, sore throat. I just hope I feel better by Monday night because I have to work Monday and Tuesday!

We are planning on going to Deer Forest on Thursday with all my nieces and nephews. It is a local place that has animals, carnival rides, a train and some other things that would be fun for the kids. I hope I feel better and the weather holds up. :) Other than that, I have to work the holiday, so I really don't have any plans for that. We always have our family party on the 4th, (which I will miss).

I bought tickets for Alex, Ilana, Isabel, Jamie and me to go to Columbus, Ohio to see the Jonas Brothers in concert in August. I am excited about this. Jordin Sparks is supposed to be the opener and we love her too!! The tickets were relatively cheap ($35 each) which made it feasible for me to do so. They don't know it yet, so it's going to be a surprise! We are going to drive to Columbus that morning, stay in a hotel that night after the concert, then drive home the next day. I figure the drive will take 6-7 hours. Quite a drive, but I'm sure the kids will think it is worth it. They got quite a kick out of watching the 3D movie of the JoBros last year.

I must say that I love Facebook! It has allowed me to keep in touch with my relatives and friends much easier than in normal methods. On a regular basis, I can talk to my brother & sister-in-law in Orlando; my cousin in Florida; my friends in Boston; and most recently my relatives in Missouri, whom I "found" on there and haven't been able to find them any other way! My mom, sisters and I have been searching for awhile for them. It's nice to be able to see all my nieces pictures and be able to watch them grow.

I also keep up to date on what is happening with my coworkers and that is nice. We talk about gardening, flowers and things that we just don't have the time to do in passing at work. I spend more time with my coworkers than I do with my family some weeks, so it is nice to see what they are doing. I love Facebook! That is my mantra for the week!