How To Save A Life

Man did I have a busy, busy night at work. First of all it wasn't even my night to work. (Isn't that how all crazy workdays start?) Our full-time 3rd shifter is ill and in the hospital so I covered for her, as part of my part-time 3rd shifter duties. I knew that's how it would have to be when I took the job so I don't mind doing it. I also have a lot of respect for this woman and know she would bend over backwards to cover for me too. We work well that way. Now covering for some of those bitches on other shifts? Well that's a different story for another day. But I digress.

My night started out fairly uneventful. I did some work on a book I made full of all of our codes. I had been lugging around a stack of just random sheets of typed info regarding codes so I finally put them all in slickies and got them all organized. It felt good when I was done. I have the IT department to thank for it. They were doing computer updates so the Internet was down from 11pm when I got there until 12:30am. Thanks IT! Then...1am came. I felt the common pressures of my bladder. I had to go to the bathroom. Here's where it can get interesting for me. See...we only get 1 bathroom break in our department on 3rd shift. I know, right? Here's why that is:

First of all, there's only one operator at night to answer calls. We also have to be there to answer the "code phone" (cue "dun-dun-duuuuuun" music). I guess it's our equivalent to The President and his famous red phone. So, when we need to leave the office to go, uh, powder our nose, someone has to answer the phones. I typically call downstairs to the ER registration desk and if she's not busy I can transfer all calls to her. If she's busy I used to be able to call Security and they would come up to the office and answer phones, however a few weeks ago some policies were changed and let's just say they keep pretty busy in the ER now and usually aren't able to get away.

I try to wait until sometime around 3:30 to go to the bathroom. It's kinda right in the middle of my shift. If I can wait longer I can but I usually can't even make it to 3:30. I'm more of a 2:30-3:00 girl. So when I had to go at 1 I waited. 45 minutes later we got a code. A level 1 trauma alert. This is typically someone who's been hurt in an accident of some sort. Sometimes it's a gunshot victim. These used to be a bigger deal for us at switchboard when we used to have to call in the surgery team but we don't do that anymore (thank god!) so it wasn't that bad. Then, 30 minutes later I got my first ever Code Pink. Code Pink is just like Code Blue except the victim is under the age of 8. This little one was just 2 months old. After a while they decided to air-lift her to another hospital so I helped co-ordinate that. Then the ER realized they didn't have a special ventilator for the baby to have on the air flight so one had to be brought from another one of our hospitals in the next city. The problem was getting it to us. Respiratory Therapy called RT at the other hospital and they couldn't leave. Security over there couldn't leave b/c they had only one guard. This whole time I'm connecting calls for our RT dept and the other RT dept. I'm talking to security on the radio. Then I decide to try our maintenance department. I talked to them on a different radio we have for them and they said they would go. Now I'm talking to all of those other departments again to let them know we found someone to get the ventilator. Whew! Security for the other hospital told me to tell maintenance to meet them in the ER garage and they would have the vent ready. I took a few calls and by the time I got maintenance on the radio they said, "Too late, we've got the ventilator and we're on our way back." Wow! After it was all said and done they got me on the radio and said, "If the state police call, tell them you don't know anything about a white van speeding down the road. I swear it wasn't us!" Riiiiiiiiight! Who wouldn't have done the same thing when a sweet little baby's involved? Unfortunately I heard the baby wasn't doing well when it left and that mostly it was transported for the sake of the parents. If it were my baby, I would do the same. I don't think I could live with myself wondering, "what if we had gone to another hospital to try something else?" In the middle of all of that calling to get the ventilator some guy calls and says, "I've been thinking about suicide and I've decided. I think I'm gonna do it." Not on my watch you're not.

"Sir? I've got someone here you can talk to about that, ok? Can you hold on just a second?"
"Yeah."

I'm not sure what I would have done if he would have said no. Probably peed my pants. It wouldn't have taken a lot for that to happen because now it's 3:00 and guess what? I still have to go to the bathroom! I look at the ER list to see how busy registration is and they're swamped. I know my girl's not gonna be able to watch the phones for me. Dang it! I wait another 45 minutes and can't wait anymore. Now it's been almost 3 hours since I first had to go. I call:

"Hey! Can you watch the phones for a minute?"
"Yep!"
"Oh THANK GOD!!"

Relief at last. I can't even tell you how happy I was to see 7:00 come. I will say though that it made the night go by very fast. I love being busy.

Meredith Grey: [narrating] We like to think that we are rational beings; humane, conscientious, civilized, thoughtful. But when things fall apart, even just a little, it becomes clear we are not better than animals. We have opposable thumbs, we think, we walk erect, we speak, we dream, but deep down we are still routing around in the primordial ooze; biting, clawing, scratching out an existence in the cold, dark world like the rest of the tree-toads and sloths.

Guys do it all the time? Doesn't make it right, Mary.

Ah, the craziness that is Mindy McCready. She's in the news AGAIN because she's done flipped out. Apparently she went nuts after having a recent miscarriage. Apparently she got preggers by a man she's been dating for three months. Apparently she tried to do herself in AGAIN by swigging good ol' vodka and choking down a handful of Ambien. Now she's back in rehab.

Here's where the story gets ugly and makes you want to roll your eyes and shake the person next to you screaming, "why? why?" Rumor has it Dr. Phil's gonna step in and straighten this trainwreck out. Yeah, cuz it worked out so well with him and Britney. Also, someone wants to put Mindy in her own reality show. Of course they do. *slams head on desk*

Mission Accomplished

Blake has gone more than two weeks now wearing "big boy underwear" and no accidents! We have finally completed the potty-training portion of his life. Thank god! Now the only diapers in my future will be my own in about 40 years. Whooohooo!

Peter Griffin: I'm looking for some toilet training books.
Salesman: We have the popular 'everybody poops", or the less popular 'nobody
poops but you'.
Peter Griffin: Well, you see, we're catholic...
Salesman: Ah, then you'll want 'you're a naughty, naughty boy, and that's
concentrated evil coming out the back of you'.

The Storm

Somewhere around 6 o'clock this morning we got a heck of a storm. Once again I wasn't abruptly pushed from dreamland by the storm, but rather by Emily galloping into my bed, scared. When I looked over she had the covers over her head. It was right after that that I heard the wind blowing like crazy. I looked over to the deck connected to my bedroom and the sky was a scary green color. I got up and peeked outside and the trees were being whipped hard. A chair on the deck had even fallen over. I figured I better check the weather for any tornado warnings. Not sure what I was thinking when I turned on the tv and didn't have a satellite signal. Duh. Got on the computer and only seen we were under a thunderstorm warning. Ya think??

About a half-hour later my sister called to see if we had power, which we did. She didn't and neither did a large portion of the Quad Cities. Luckily for my sister they have a generator at her house. They lost a lot of trees at her house, a small fence and some of the kids (the kids=my kids) outside toys had been blown to other parts of the yard. She said a large tree fell on their road and no one could get out of their addition.

When I looked outside our larger deck off the living room I saw this:





That would be a large part of a tree from somewhere in our complex and an umbrella from the pool. In the second picture you can see that while the pool is somewhat close to our apartment, the umbrella still traveled a ways to get to where it landed. The other large body of water next to the pool would be the volleyball and tether ball courts.

A lot of the area is still without power. The hospital I work at is running on the backup generators. They say most people wont have power until Wednesday. My dad's apartment complex is also electricity-free. He's staying at my sister's for the time being.

I read today that a family was camping with their seven kids at a campgrounds near here that I used to go to almost every weekend with a friend of mine when I was in Jr. High. Her parents used to park their RV there. They didn't know there was a storm coming so when it hit the dad took the older ones (the kids ages range from 9 months to 12 years) and he put them in his truck and took them somewhere...not sure if it was a shelter on the grounds or what. When he came back a large tree had fallen on their tent and their 4 year old little boy was crushed under it and the 9 month old little girl was critically injured. Another child was hurt badly too but from what I understand she will be ok. It made me sick when I read about it and terribly sad. I hate to see the loss of anyone but even more so when it's a child. Especially one that is the same age as one of your own. Keep them in your thoughts, please.

Baby Mama Dish Drama

Last Monday night we had a bit of drama here at the ol' apartment complex. I really can't say 100% what happened, in fact I'm pretty certain that my version of the fact are not facts at all because they don't make sense. What I DO know is everyone was in our hallway screaming and it had nothing to do with anyone that even LIVES on our floor and eventually, the police had to be called. So, here's the story as told by me.

Monday night I sat down in the living room to watch a movie. Earlier in the night I had been on Expedia for quite a while looking up info for my sister and bro-in-law's LOOOOOONG overdue vacation. Just as I started to watch the movie I thought of something else I wanted to look up on Expedia so I paused the movie and hopped on the computer in the bedroom. I was on the computer anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes when I heard muffled voices. I honestly thought that somehow the TV came unpaused because that's what it sounded like. Like a TV on in another room. That went on for a minute or two then it got a little louder. I stopped but still couldn't make out actual conversation and so I still thought it was the TV, just a louder part of the movie. Then it got loud. This time I could make out voices and I KNEW it wasn't coming from my TV. I thought, "I think someones fighting out in the hall." So I crept to the front door to peek out the peephole. As I'm walking toward the door I could hear a black woman screaming about how slavery has ended and that she hates white people. "Aw lord!" I thought. I looked out the peephole and all I could see was the back of a very tall black man. He was right up against my door, but not touching it. I could hear someone say something about someone being outside and bleeding and crying and someone getting choked and just a lot of people talking over everyone. The black guy moved a little bit and I could see the woman who lives across the hall from us in the hall on the phone. Her teenage daughters watch my kids sometimes. Then I heard the guy next door out there and he asked if everyone was ok. That's when I decided it was safe enough for me to open my door.

I slowly opened the door and kinda looked around at the faces I knew with that eyebrow raised look that says, "Am I gonna get beat over the head if I step out of my apartment?" The guy next door looked at me and shrugged. He went back inside his apartment. Chicken. The woman across the hall is on the phone to the police. She's telling them the address and to send someone right away. There are about 4-5 black people in our hallway and they're all talking with raised voices at the same time. Some are going outside, some are coming inside. They're pacing. It's pandemonium. Then most of them go outside except the big black guy that once was in front of my door. He starts telling the lady across the hall and I what happened. According to him, he's the father of a baby that was just born to a girl that lives directly above us. Apparently that girl is 15, according to the lady across the hall. Baby's daddy said that baby's mama's mama choked baby's mama because she had a baby with a black guy. Baby's daddy said he told baby's mama if she couldn't handle the baby he would take it home with him. At some point drama ensued and baby's daddy came over with all of baby's aunts and uncles who were pretty mad at baby's grandma for choking baby's mama. Here's the fact of the story that makes me believe my version of the story is untrue in some way. Baby's grandma is white, but both of her kids are mixed, including baby's mama. So why would a woman choke her daughter for having a baby with a black guy when she herself has 2 mixed kids? Makes no sense. For me the drama ended after the police showed up and when the lady across the hall asked someone if the baby was ok. Someone said yes and so we both kinda looked at each other with that, "Well if the baby's ok, screw everyone else and their problems." and we both went inside our respective apartments.

Anyway, apparently someone who lives on the ground floor of our building was pretty upset at everything that went down that night and they wrote a nasty letter to our apartment office. The office started calling the tenants in the building about what happened and Adam and I were the only ones to call back. Adam, being one who wasn't even HOME that night, lol. So I gave the girl in the office my version of the events and told her why my story doesn't add up and that she should call the lady across the hall. From what I gather her daughters are BFF's with the girl with the baby so I'm sure they have a much more accurate account of what happened.

In other drama news, last Friday afternoon our Dish service went out. You'll remember that was the week I was home alone with no kids so I pretty much had the TV on one of the Sirius stations (80's music of course) the whole week. I had it on at 11:45am Friday when my boss called to see if I wanted to come in before my 2nd shift started to go to a meeting so I wouldn't have to come in the next day for it. I hopped in the shower and by the time I left the house at 12:20 the satellite was trying to "acquire signal". I turned off the tv and didn't think much about it. So I stayed after work talking to a co-worker for about a half-hour then got some food and headed home. I got home around 12:20am and the tv was still trying to "acquire signal". I called the Dish Network people and talked to a very chatty rep in Denver. After being on the phone long enough for me to eat a crunchy taco supreme and a nachos supreme he dispatched out a tech to come the following Wednesday. He also credited my account for the 6 days w/out service.

Fast forward to Wednesday. My tech was to be there between noon and 5. No one showed. My sister got to my house around 5 to do some research on her vacation. At 5:20 I called the Dish people. They say the tech WAS at my house but no one was home. B.S.! The rep says tech can come back on Monday. Nope, sorry. After talking to a supervisor she bumped up my appointment to Friday between 8am and noon and the tech was supposed to call with an ETA. She also waived the $29 repair fee.

Today was my appointment. I was up early and stayed close to the phone all day. By the time 11:10 rolled around I KNEW no one was coming. I called Dish and they said, "No, your appointment is on the 21st." Sorry Jr., my appointment is today per a supervisor. I get put on hold. He comes back and tells me to call the 3rd party repair place to get an ETA. I knew then the mgr I talked to before screwed me.

Long story made only slightly shorter, that IS what happened and a nice man named Dave came to the apartment around 2:30 to fix my dish after the 3rd party people squeezed me in. I told him I thought someone probably bumped the dish outside because it was working, then it wasn't. He agreed.

20 minutes later my dish is just about back in working order and Dave is back inside after his repair job. I said, "So, was that the problem? Did the dish get bumped?" Dave says, "Nope. It got stolen."

Ex-squeeze me? You're baking something?? He said he followed our cable out to where the dishes are for the apartments and only saw a pole. So he backtracked to make sure that was ours and sure enough...no dish. He said he's pretty sure who did it but can't prove it. He said there's a company in town that installs Direct TV and they are known to steal the dishes of Dish Network customers when they are installing Direct TV for people at apartment complexes. He said if they can do it quickly w/out anyone noticing then they'll do it. He said then when the Dish Network customers complain then they try to sell them their own service. He said now he carries special zip ties and screws that are a very odd size when he installs at apartments to prevent such things. He said the chance of a tech having a screwdriver and wrench the size of the screws would be unlikely and that they would basically really have to break the dish to get it off the pole and by then someone would notice them. Based on the time of day our service went out, Dave's story makes sense to me.

So we're back in service now. The kids can watch Noggin, The Disney Channel and whatever else their little hearts desire and I can get back to my classic TV shows like American Gladiators, Celebrity Circus and Intervention!

Zoo-riffic Sunday

Yesterday Adam and I decided to take the kids to our local zoo. We packed a picnic lunch and headed out. Last year my sister bought us a membership to the zoo and we still had a handful of free passes to get in that weren't used. Lucky for us they had no expiration date. Whoohoo! I love saving cash. So we went inside and staked out a nice table with some shade. We ate our sandwiches, string cheese and Fritos. Then a few pictures with the Niabi Gorilla were taken. Some of The Warren's like to ham it up more than others, can you tell?






After that it was off to the train for a ride around the park. I've loved riding this train since I was a kid. This year, though, Niabi has a new train. I was happy to see, however, that it looks exactly the same only, well, new! The one thing though I think that was different about the train was the engine. I don't remember what the original engine looked like but I think this one is sleeker looking. Also in front of the car Emily and I rode in was a big car with no seats and there were straps and harnesses on the floor. This one was for people in wheelchairs. I can't believe I never realized that people in wheelchairs can't ride the train! Well, we can't say that anymore because they're all over it now! I thought that was pretty cool and obviously, a long time coming.







After the train we began our trek around the place. First we saw the elephants, Babe and Sophie. This picture is of Sophie.





After that was a dinosaur and then we fed the fish, ducks, swans and geese.








Adam loves, loves, LOVES monkeys, especially the miniature marmasets. They're about 6 inches tall or so and are black with a white mohawk. Our zoo used to have them and you could find them in the aviary with all of the birds. They were so cute. You could then head over to the primate display and see lots of different types of monkeys. One of the last times we went to the zoo last year we found no mini marmosets, and no other monkeys really except two kinds, the black and white colobus, and the gibbins. We asked once on our way out what happened to all of the other monkeys and some employee, who for some reason didn't seem to notice they were missing about 52 different type of primates, said, "Well, I don't know. Sometimes we trade animals. Maybe we traded them for the giraffes." (The zoo had just aquired a few giraffes like 2 weeks before this) That seemed outrageous to me. What kind of a zoo trades a few dozen monkey for three stupid giraffes??? It still honks me off everytime I go there. The monkeys are like the only animals in the zoo you can somewhat interact with. They actually DO something as opposed to just standing there staring, sleeping or eating. They swing from vines and hang upside down and scream monkey love songs at other monkeys. Guess what the giraffes do? They stand there, and sleep and eat and one giraffe is really rude and just stares at you. Here he is after Adam started making a ruckus and yelling at Blake for some Blake-like thing he was doing.




HELLO MRS. CRAVITZ!


Anyway, after feeding the pond creatures we headed to the gibbins display. First we checked out the gibbin behind the glass because he was sitting right there next to the glass. Then we realized he was "hooting" to the other gibbin so we went around to the outside so we could hear and see them more. The noise they were making to each other was really cool and soon Adam and the kids got in on the action. Well that just made them "hoot" louder. Then one gibbin wanted to check out the Warren's to see who was hooting. This guy got right in front of Emily and looked at her like this...




...and hooted back at her. It was funny. See? Way more interaction than we got from ANY OTHER animal. Stupid zoo and their trades. Let's trade off that big bear that just lays in his cage and never, ever comes out to play in his sprawling yard and pool! Or what about those sleeping camels?


So from there we headed to the petting zoo where the kids got to take advantage of the pony ride tickets their daddy bought for them as we came in. Blake rode on a pony named Little John. I know, right? "Can I get a YEAAAAAY! OOOOO-KAAAAAY!!"




Emily rode on "Snowflake". They had fun but the stopping so the ponies could poop was pretty disgusting. Blech!




We made our way into the rest of the petting zoo so the kids could get their hands slimed by a bunch of goats. All Blake could say was, "What a good boy! What a good boy!"


After the petting zoo came the African Walkabout where you can walk around with Emus and Wallabys. Also in there is the lorikeet landing where you walk amongst a ton of lorikeets flying around and you can buy a little cup of nectar and feed it to them. This is where I literally got crapped on by a lorikeet on a branch above my head. Luckily it wasn't TOO bad and luckily I didn't take another step forward 10 seconds later or else I would have gotten it again. Grody.


Then we rounded the corner and saw those nosey giraffes...




...a bunch of birds in the aviary where Adam got friendly with a Macaw...




...and the lions.




By this time we were all pretty tired and kinda hot so we headed home. I love the zoo!

Some Open Letters:

Dear Country Music:

I won’t do it anymore. I won’t willingly listen to you anymore. You’re just too sad. The times that you’re not sad you’re just too, well, corny! I’m no longer willing to fill my empty time with your non-sense. If you’re on the radio at work when I get there, then I’ll change the station. I won’t be saddened by sick people who enjoy singing about sad things just to have something playing in the background of my work day. There’s enough sadness in the world without these crazy people in cowboy hats, pointy boots and large belts willingly singing about more. Ever hear of Debbie Downer? Your every song is her theme music. Good luck to you.




Dear local and state police departments:

Thanks for not pulling me over on my way home Friday night as part of your area-wide safety checks. I have no reason to think you would have found anything wrong. All of my lights, turn signals, etc. are working. I have a valid license, insurance and registration. I wasn’t drunk, although a little tired from being at work for 10.5 hrs. Despite all of this, with my luck, I’m sure I would have been ticketed for SOMETHING. Anyway, thanks for letting me slide on by and be on my way.

FAIL

I don't know if you've ever checked out, or even HEARD of the fail blog but it's basically a blog filled with hilarious pictures of times where things just, well, failed! One quiet night at work I went through a bunch of the pictures and I would like to share my favorite one that just really made me laugh out loud.





OMG, the look on this guy's face is a classic. Just by the look on his face you can see that his whole day has been like this and this is just about the last thing he can take. In fact, he might even cry. I think we've all been there at our own jobs. Maybe not at a restaurant but wherever you call your place of employment. That day where you get up late, there's no hot water, you poke yourself in the eye with your mascara wand, realize you left your car window down and it rained last night, get stuck in the longest line of traffic because at the last minute you moved to what you thought was a faster lane of traffic only to have three cars crash and pile up 50 feet in front of you, you get to work and remember you were supposed to pick up the receptionist's birthday cake from the bakery and everyone looks at you like you're a schmuck. Then, your computer gets infected with a virus and instead of the semi-hunky IT guy, you get stuck with Steven, the 5'3" 110 lb dweeb with a pencil thin mustache and terrible B.O. He's slow as molasses and likes to talk about the bowling league he's on with his mother. Finally it's your lunch break. You decide to blow off a little energy by taking the stairs instead of the elevator. As you're decending the final staircase that is open to the front lobby you catch your heel on your pant leg and skid down the stairs on your shins, back of your head and tops of your feet. You lay spread eagle at the bottom of the stairs and pray for a concussion that takes you to a sweet blackout for the rest of the week. When you open your eyes, there stands your boss, your cubemate who's always kissing your boss' ass and Josh, the semi-hunky IT guy. Right about now is also when you realize you've ripped a hole in the crotch of your pants...

Yep, that's the kind of day this guy has had...more or less.


Check out the fail blog at www.failblog.org

I hate you FSA

I hate the Flex Spend people. I do. I hate them. A few weeks ago I got a letter in the mail from them basically saying, "Hey, we see you spent $96.52 on your flex spend card. We're going to deny this claim unless you send us the bill proving this is a legitimate charge." It wasn't a big deal when I got it. I assumed it was a charge I incurred last year during one of my THREE trips to the ER. I knew I had used my card for somewhere between $90 and $100 for a co-pay, which it turns out, we didn't even have with our insurance. But that's another story for another day.

Well, then I kinda forgot about that letter. Then I got another one, same deal pretty much. In true Amy style I blew that one off too. Last week I got another letter that said the same thing except they also temporarily deactivated my flex spend card until I got it straighted up. That's when I decided to actually follow-up on the letter.

I called our hospital billing department and requested a copy of the ER bill from last year showing I used my flex spend card for that co-pay. When it came in the mail I noticed the amount I spent on that co-pay was different than the amount on my letter. I called the flex spend people today to see what was up.

Well...they say I used my card at our 7th Street hospital on 2-16-08 in the amount of $96.52. They have no other information about it except that my card was swiped. No department, no anything. Goody. I haven't been to the 7th Street hospital since December '07. She asked me if I could have used my card to pay off a bill from '07. I said no because all of our '07 flex spend dollars were used up in '07. (As per flex spend rules). She said, "Well if you would have used it for a bill from '08 that's why it would have been denied." I said, "I understand that. As I said, all of our '07 flex spend dollars were used up in '07. In fact the last dime we had on that card was used for that ER co-pay on 10-1-07. I know that '08 dollars cannot be used for '07 expenses." Jesus!

So I hang up with her and call our hospital billing department. They look me up and said the last payment for anything from me was in 2007. NOTHING in 2008 at all. I specifically had her look at 2-16-08 and nothing. She said there was someone else in the system with my name so she looked her up too and nothing in 2008 for her either. I was kind of hoping, actually, that she would find something under the other chick's account just so I'd have an answer as to why this was happening. She was very nice but couldn't help me out. She gave me the number to Physician's Billing to see if the doc's have anything for me.

Called them, same situation. Nothing for 2008. There are bills for 2007, but nothing billed in 2008.

Call the flex spend people back. Explained what I had just done and reiterated that I still feel this is not my bill. The woman was NOT having it. She again accused me of trying to use '08 dollars for an '07 bill. I told her I had used up my '07 dollars in '07 and that I know '08 dollars can't be used for '07 services. This is when my voice started getting raised. I said, "So you're telling me that this is it. You're just saying, well the card was swiped at this hospital and now you're just screwed???" She said, "All we show is that the card was swiped at this location, yes. We have no other information." I said, "Why? Why wouldn't you have more info? This is MY money! Credit card companies do it better than this." She said, "Are you sure you didn't use it for a previous bill?" I said, "Why would I go to the hospital to pay a bill? Why wouldn't I just mail it in? They don't have like a payment counter! It's not Best Buy! Plus the BILLING department confirmed I made no payments on that day. Pretty sure they would know. It's not like I walked into the freaking gift shop and tried to buy, what, $96.52 worth of flowers and magazines with my FLEX SPEND CARD!!!" She said, "You can dispute it." I said, "That's exactly what I want to do." She said, "You'll have to fill out paperwork." (As though that would be a deal breaker for me.) "Fine. Whatever the hell I have to do."

So I gave her my e-mail address so she could e-mail the info to me. I just got it and have found the perfect solution within the dispute packet. I can request a copy of the signed receipt. I know whenever I use my flex spend card it's just like a credit card...you have to sign a receipt. Seems to me if the card was used on 2-16-08 there should be a signed receipt somewhere out there. We'll see what that gets me. I'll keep you updated.

The long and winding road

This has been a long and quiet week for me. My sister has been on vacation this week so she came and got the kids last Sunday afternoon and she's had them at her house ever since. She did this to save me some money on a sitter. (thank you, thank you!) I was really, really looking forward to being home alone for a few days. I haven't cooked at all...well...except for some mac n' cheese last night before work. I don't count microwave bacon for BLT's. I've been staying up late and sleeping in and even watched a few movies. (Feast of Love--great! A Raisin in the Sun--meh) No one stood in front of the TV and I haven't had to yell at anyone. Yep. It's been quiet. Very, very lonely and quiet.

The kids were supposed to be back this afternoon but I have to work 2nd shift tomorrow and my sitter has to work at her real job. I also have a roundtable meeting on Saturday and Adam's working OT on Saturday too. When I talked to my sister on the phone today she volunteered to keep the kids longer and not bring them back until after my meeting. Oh, and she's also loaning us money until next week so we can by silly things--like groceries and gas. My sister rocks! Someday I'll win the lottery and buy her something silly like a car full of cash. Someday.

Last night on my way to work the weirdest thing happened. I was at a stoplight and a car pulled up next to me in the left turn lane. It was a minivan with it's passenger side window down. I could hear the music playing in the car but didn't pay it much mind at first. Until I realized, they're listening to POLKA MUSIC! Whoa! Who does that?

I'm a little irked at iTunes right now. I SOOOO found the soundtrack for mine and Jim's summer of 2008. 2007 it was the summer of Shiny Toy Guns and Rooney. Or was that '06? Anyway, this year's soundtrack is Miss TK and The Revenge's 'No Biterz'. Love it. Want it. Gotta have it. Can't get it to download from iTunes. Effen bitches. I can download their free song of the week all day long but I can't actually buy a freaking song to save my life. In their defense they've tried to help me, several times but to no avail. They were even so nice as to give me two free song credits but Miss TK and The Revenge is not to be mine. I guess I'll have to go out and actually BUY the CD from a store. I don't know if I know how to do that anymore. Do they still stock them alphabetically???

Sorry that we're not being held hostage by a group of angry clowns...

In the wee hours of the morning at work we took in a gunshot victim. This summer, ok, during all seasons, in the part of town that my hospital is in, this is pretty common but I didn't realize how common until I got a phone call from a nurse up on one of the floors:



"Switchboard"

"Yeah, we're wondering why there's so many cop cars outside"

"Oh. There's a gunshot victim down in the ER."

"Oh. (obvious disappointed tone) Is that all?"

"Yeah...sorry."



I'm not really sure what she wanted to hear. Maybe she wanted to see if I was being held captive in the switchboard office, duct taped to my chair and ready to give a list of demands such as a Hummer filled with gas, 12 cheeseburgers, a large selection of guns and $250,000 in tens and twenties--non-sequential.



On a related note, rumor has it that a new code is being developed to be called when an active shooter, or person with a gun is in the hospital. These are the times we are living in...

KISS-ing off the 4th of July

I have to tell you, I'm sad to see the holiday weekend come to a close. It was a really great weekend. Awesome weather, great fun with the family. My only complaint was my work schedule. While the 4th was not one of my holidays I had to work, it was my weekend to work. This meant instead of working my normal Friday and Saturday night, I had to work Thursday night, then Saturday night. Kind of screwed everything up for me and I didn't get to do as much with Adam and the kids as I wanted to. It would have been different if I worked say 1st or 2nd shift but one of the great gifts that comes with working 3rd shift is not only do you have to work, at some point you have to sleep during abnormal hours. So instead of playing at the pool with the fam, I was inside sleeping. Boo!

Adam came home Thursday night and we all went out to dinner before I came home and slept for a whole hour before work. Dinner was nice and you could really tell the kids had been missing Adam and just wanted a big heaping scoop of daddy-time. Adam decided not to work with our brother-in-law over the weekend so he could get in some quality time with the kids.

Friday morning we went to the parade. My favorite part about this picture? My sunglasses. I wore these the ENTIRE DAY on the 4th and never ever saw anyone else with glasses like them. I've had these things sitting on our baker's rack for over a month just WAITING to wear them. Pretty sure they're going to be a part of my ensemble every Memorial Day, Labor Day, Flag Day, Veterans Day and every other holiday that ends in "Day". Yep, I loved them that much. My least favorite part of this picture? Blake and I both have our eyes closed! What's with that??

The parade was fun. Blakey was LOVIN' the antique cars. He waved at everyone. Adam bought the kids two small bottles of bubbles to use before the parade got started. Here you can see how much fun they're having with their bubbles.

And here you can see how really mad they are when Adam made them sit down and then took said bubbles away from them because they were spilling them all over the place. OK, Emily's the only one here that looks really bummed, Blake just looks like a maniac, as usual.

I came home and slept for a few hours while Adam and the kids headed off to the pool. I got up around 5 and started getting ready to head to our town's 4th street fest and the fireworks that night. I got the kid's chairs off the deck and Blake insisted on carrying his around the house. While I was in the kitchen packing up the cooler, Blake brought his chair in the kitchen and sat it down right behind me.

"Mama, I'm just going to sit here and take a little rest, ok?"

"Whatever, buddy."

I gathered up a few more things around the house and as I headed back into the kitchen there sat my exhausted little buddy, fast asleep in his chair, snap-jerking the whole time. I got Emily from the living room and we stood there and giggled at him and then I took these pics.

Poor little peanut was so tired from all the excitement of the day and then the few hours of swimming. We let him sleep and woke him up just as we were ready to head out the door.

We got over to the fest and picked out a spot to watch the fireworks. We set up our chairs then headed over to the fest to get some food. We had yummy burgers, steak sandwiches and butterfly pork chops sandwiches. Both ends of the street had stages set up for bands. As we walked and got our food there was a country cover band just finishing up near the end of the street we were on. Not sure what was going on on the other stage. After we got our food and took our seats in the field a rock cover band took their place. They were decent and the kids enjoyed dancing around to the music. Blake entertained the families around us with his double-jointed hip action. At one point Adam took Blake to the bathroom and while they were gone the band played "Rock and Roll All Nite". When it started up Emily said, "OH! I like this song!" She then sang along during the chorus. It was pretty funny.

My sister, who had been at a family event at my aunt's house then joined us around 7:30 or so and Adam and the kids burned some sparklers and smoke bombs. Here's a lovely picture of Adam holding one of the smoke bombs that seriously went on and on for about 2 minutes straight.

While the rock cover band finished up a KISS cover band started up on the other stage. They're King's KISS. Adam was kind enough to head over there and snap some pictures for me.

Eventually a few parachuters flew in and before we knew it it was dark enough for the fireworks. I was excited to use the "fireworks" setting on my camera and snapped a few pictures of Adam and his sparklers. Then some of the fireworks.

The kids passed out on the way home and my sister, Adam and I ordered a pizza. Adam went to bed around midnight and my sister and I stayed up until around 1am talking. She left and I went to bed and passed out.

Saturday my sister came over and we all went out to lunch then to see WALL-E. We all really liked it even though Blakey fell asleep half-way through. I even made a killer comeback during a game of air hockey against my sister before the movie but still lost in the end. Oh well.

So this upcoming week Adam will head back out of town to work and my sister's on vacation so she's watching the kids for me for a few days so I don't have to pay a sitter. That means I'll be living the single girl in the city lifestyle! It will be so weird. I haven't been home alone for so many days since just before Adam and I got married and he was sent out of town to work for a week. I'm sort of looking forward to it and I'm sort of not. I think the silence is going to kill me. I'm pretty sure I'll have a tv, radio, something on 24/7. I won't miss hollering at Blake every 10 minutes, though. Maybe I'll even be able to get caught up on my soaps and all the other tv shows I love to watch but haven't got to because I've been too busy with the kids. I've had three movies from Blockbuster.com since forever, I might even get a chance to watch one or two of those too. I can hope, anyway...

A Better Wednesday

Well today my dad came over to watch the kids so I could work all day. My supervisor left at 10:30 of course to go to a "meeting" and never came back. Again, already had that one figured out before I even got there since she has tomorrow off for an "Office Day" and the next day is a holiday. I'll say it again, what comes around goes around.

The day at work was pretty busy after that since we were a man down on answering calls. Again, it worked to my advantage since I didn't get to take a lunch and got to leave a half-hour early.

When I got home my dad and I had already made plans to take the kids to Toys 'R Us and then go out to dinner. He wanted to buy Emily something for her good grades on her final 1st grade report card, and because Emily was getting something, Blake was going to get something too. Blake chose a Batman figurine and Emily got two computer games. The whole TRU experience literally lasted about 6 minutes. Done...and...done.

After that we went to Ryan's and had dinner. I had never had dinner with just me and the kids and dad. It was kind of weird, but nice. Blake was even somewhat behaved. Now THAT was really weird.

I was a little scared on the way home because Blake had eaten a lot at the restaurant and, according to my dad, a lot throughout the day at home so I was concerned about what was going on in his tummy. Sure enough my worst fears came to fruition in his pants...and underwear. For all of you new parents, or soon-to-be parents out there...if you think changing a dirty diaper is bad, try changing a shitty pair of underwear, ok?

Had a long talk with Blake about the consequences of being a "big boy" and what it entails, i.e. using a toilet, and not your underwear. The kids actually went to bed at 9:30 and Blake didn't even get up 5 or 6 times like he usually does. Stayed up late and goofed on the computer. Went to bed and passssssssssed ouuuuuuuuut.

Oh, and here are a couple pictures of that TOTALLY AWESOME birthday card I got from the kids. Notice the exclamation mark Emily wrote after her and Blake's name. Totally an Adam thing.

Buggin' Out

Well the kids and I didn't make it to the museum on Tuesday. After my long night listening to the lush next door, and the early hour I had to get up to go to a meeting at work, I opted for a nap in the afternoon. After that I did a little housework and laid Blake down for a nap. Once he fell asleep I played a few board games with Emily, which was a lot of fun. We played a few rounds of Clue Jr., which I won (yay for me!) Once Blake got up I started dinner and had a brainstorm. Let's catch lightening bugs! So I turned the oven down on my meatloaf and au gratin potatoes, loaded the kids in the car and we headed to Dollar General to buy bug houses. We got home, I cranked the oven back up to get the food going again and we ate. Well, it was mostly Emily and I eating, Blake was on a no food diet, apparently.

After dinner it was getting to be dusk so we headed outside with our bug houses, which also came with some tools to catch the bugs. Blake, unfortunately, but not suprisingly, had poked a hole in his bug house before we even got outside. (Check out Blake's Spiderman underoos in this pic!)

Both of the kids were a little afraid at first to even come near the bugs. That changed when Emily caught her first one. She was addicted after that. Blake on the other hand never really changed his feelings about the bugs. They were great to look at in the bug house, not so great when they're flying near his head, lol.

Emily was even catching some and putting them in Blake's bug house so he wouldn't feel left out. Even a neighbor kid got in on the action. At one point Blake held up his house to me and said, "Mama, look, they're getting out." I said, "Yeah, and one is on the handle crawling towards your hand." (which it was) Blake looked, screamed like a girl and threw the bug house. Who's the man now??? I guess I won't be calling on Blake anytime soon to kill spiders in the house. After that we came inside, the kids took a quick bath to wash off the bug spray and it was off to bed. A pretty fun evening.