Family- Thanksgiving Day '09

My side of the family on Thanksgiving Day '09
Mom and Dad in the middle.
The "Girls" (My sisters and I) with our families, from oldest to youngest.
14 grandkids in all

A different kind of busy

It's almost Turkey day. Today feels quite strange. It's a day that I would normally be working. We try to get all the patients done the day before a holiday. That way whoever is on call, only has to worry about emergencies and not routine patients. Typically, this makes for a very long day with a lot of patients who need treatments.

Instead, I am home making banana breads, monkey breads, oatmeal raspberry oatmeal bars, pumpkin bread, and stuffing. If I have time I may make some pretzel turtles. My dad loves those. Plus, I have to shop for a couple of birthday gifts for my nieces and nephews who will be here from out of state.

So it is a different kind of busy for me today. It definitely feels strange. My thoughts often go to the hospital and wonder if they are getting slammed or having a good day. I know they are severely understaffed. I guess long time habits are hard to break overnight.

But I am grateful not to be on call and to be home with my family, that is for sure!!

Bittersweet

Yesterday was a bittersweet kind of day. It was my last "official" day that I worked at the hospital. Today, I am on call for emergencies only. Hopefully I will not get called in.

I have been at this particular hospital for 12 years (working on call for 16 years). I have met so many new friends, kind people, friendly helpers, smiling faces, and genuinely great people. The floor I worked on, the people treated us just like an extension of them, even though we were contracted employees and not actual hospital employees. We were like family. I will definitely miss them. They gave us a sweet farewell party with more food than anyone could imagine. I think it could have fed all the employees for the entire hosptial. What a unfortgettable, kind and thoughtful gesture. Yes, I left with tears in my eyes.

What I won't miss, and am looking forward to is, NOT getting called in during; the middle of the night, one of my kids sporting events, a family outing, holidays, just a lazy day at home, a blizzard and having the national guard come pick me up to make sure I get in to work, a neighbor driving me in his 4 wheel vehicle, a funeral of a friends family member, ladies events at church, the middle of a church service, a birthday party, superbowl, when my kids are sick and needing mommy but having to have daddy......So many times over the last 16 years, I have been called in to someone in need, and had to leave whatever I was doing, and rush to the hospital. So much family life has been missed, yet so many lives I have saved by doing what I do. They would not have lived, had I not gone in.

A worthy job, yet a costly job.

A new season will be beginning for me. A new job. I won't necessarily be saving lives in the emergency of the moment. I will be educating new patients on new life choices they will need to make. Teaching patients to be able to care for themselves at home instead of a clinic. I will be giving them a sense of freedom in the midst of a new lifestyle due to their disease. Much like I will be starting a new lifestyle with my new job, a new freedom.

Taking a deep breathe, & praying like crazy, cause here I go.....

A time to Remember

Last friday I had the chance to go away overnight with a bunch of girlfriends. It was a time for our small group girls to get away and bond with one another, to get to know each other deeper. To be away from our responsibilties so we could laugh, cry, sit in silence, and of course eat.

Whenever there is a good time of fellowship.... food is involved. Funny, but for the most part true. Even Jesus fellowshipped around food, take the last supper for example. Food was definitely there.

It was definitely a time to relax, and a time to remember.

When I came home, babygirl came running to me with her high pitched shrill "Mommmmmmmy's home". Wow. That little girl can get to an octave high enough to break windows. It is just amazing.

After rehashing her night and day she asks me..
"Mommy lets pretend we are getting you ready for a Ball."

I ask.."Am I a princess and you are my fairy godmother?"
Her reply "Yes, Yes Yes!!!!!"

I ask her "Do you want me to go get the make up that goes on my eyes? And the blush that goes on my cheeks?"

Her eyes lit up the room and became as big as saucers. She says "For real? Oh, yes, yes, yes."
As she is jumping up and down.

So for the next hour and a half she begins to transform my plain, no make up face to her masterpiece. Wow! She kept saying "Oh mommy, you are so gorgeous. You are beautiful." She was cooing all these little "oh's, and ah's" and any other little noise antic that communicated her delight in what she was creating on my face.

Periodically she would hold up a mirror so I could view her masterpiece in progress. Wow!

I can honestly say I was speechless.

If you did not know that a five year old did my make up, you would of thought I had been beaten and battered. I was quite the sight. Widget did not know babygirl was doing my make up and he was concerned and said " Mom, what happened?"

After the make up babygirl progessed on to my hair. She had a certain style in her mind that she wanted to do. She just couldn't quite make it happen. So I ended up in a ponytail with a ribbon around it. That's when she changed her mind and said

"Mom, let's pretend we are going to cheerleading practice instead, and you make my hair just like yours.....and can I have make up too?"

Awwww. She always wants to be twins. So I am delighted to oblige to this request since we weren't going anywhere. I did her hair like mine, but I didn't give her the black eye beaten look. I made her beautiful and she felt like the cheerleader that she wanted to be.

Such simple things, but important times to connect with my daughter. Building that relationship. Building those memories. I hope one day she will have a daughter and do these same things and to be able to say. "I did this with my mom, and I loved it."

Trick or Treating....Not

In my last post, I mentioned how my 2 youngest kids had the H1N1 flu. The kids were recovering, they were fever free, but not out of the contagious period (fever free for 24 hours). So we needed to cancel trick or treating for them.
Oh did the tears come......
But they really did understand......
And so they accepted it, although they didn't like it.......

I had mentioned how I had 2 sad little kids who would not be able to trick or treat.
A few hours later we hear a knock at our door. A dear friend from church had trick or treated to my kids. Since they couldn't go out, she came to them. She had brought them each a pumpkin bucket filled to the top with candy, and activity books, and toys.
Their eyes lit up, their mouths turned into huge smiles with the surprise. As my friend left and I closed the door, the kids tore up the stairs squealing to show their daddy what they just received. What a blessing to see my kids blessed by my friend. To see them smiling and giddy after being so sick brought tears to my eyes. Thank you Debbie.
The story goes on. Our neighbor across the street, always calls us the night before to make sure we are stopping by to trick or treat. We told her they were not trick or treating due to their sickness. She gave them each another huge bag of candy. So very kind of you Julie. Grandma gave them each a bag of candy too. The giving didn't stop Halloween either. Their Aunt stopped by a bag full of trick and treat candy today for them as well. Thank you Robin. These 2 little kids who did not trick or treat, got more candy than the older 2 who did. How blessed we are to have such loving friends and family. God is good. All the time.

Most of that all happened Halloween afternoon. Later that evening, I needed to take the older 2 kids to a halloween party where they would do their trick or treating. As I left, my creative little boy was stilled bothered that his sister did not get to trick or treat. He was ok that he didn't, he had the candy. But he thought babygirl should not be neglected to dress up and enjoy that time. When I returned, I found the most precious sight.

Little man had taken the candy that they had received and put it at different places in the house. They had dressed up in costumes and were taking their new pumpkin buckets and trick or treating to these designated spots. HOW CUTE IS THAT!!!!!! He created their own little make believe neighborhood. They stopped at daddy's office, brothers bedroom, their own bedrooms, bathrooms, closets, etc. Anyplace that had a door that they could knock on and say trick or treat and then take some candy. I don't think babygirl can appreciate what a special boy her brother is, and how much he adores her. I pray she will know one day.

Difficult weeks

It's been a difficult time around here this past few weeks.

Hubby's grandmom fell and broke her hip, which led to a hip replacement, which led to her getting pneumonia, which led to being put on a ventilator. Then to be taken off the ventilator have a great day and decline later that night. The decision was made not to put her back on the breathing machine as those were her wishes. So a morophine drip was started to make her comfortable and no longer in pain, and eventually she breathed her last breath on earth. She passed away last wednesday and the funeral was today. That all took place over about 2 weeks.

Heaven received a great prayer warrior. We will be sad to not have her here, but happy for her to finally be home in heaven with her Lord.

We also had 2 sick little kids. My youngest 2 contracted the H1N1 flu. They were quite sick and the doctor was worried about babygirl. She didn't want to cough because it hurt too much. If she didn't cough, she could end up with pneumonia. The pneumonia is what alot of the kids are dying from, not the flu itself. Thankfully, both kids were given Tamiflu, and were able to recover much quicker. They were still sick for 5 days, though. That's a LONG time.

It has made me a germaphobe. I should have bought stock in clorox. LOL. I have done more disinfecting, bleaching, lysoling, washing sheets, and pillows, and clothes, and anything that might have been contaminated. Not to mention being a pest about everyone washing their hands, coughing into a tissue, quarentining (is that a word?) the older 2 kids, and using hand sanitzer.

Needless to say, that is why the blog has been quiet. Hopefully, life will get back to some sort of normal routine.

To give or not to give

The H1N1 vaccine.......

The question being...... to give or not to give??????

So much controversy around this subject, even within families not everyone agrees.

Hubby theory is...." side effects are better than death"

Hospital says...."you are an RN with direct patient care, therefore it is mandatory for you to get."

School says....."make an informed decision."

It's hard to make an informed decision with so much controversy and because it is new no one has seen what happens long term. But it is just a flu shot essentially, and we have had flu shots around for a long time.

Hmmmm.......

A chance to breathe

This year our schedule is so complicated by having to run kids here and their. Mostly just getting the to and from school. Whew! It has kind of taken me by surprise. I thought having all the kids in school would make things easier. With having babygirl half day, it feels like I am running all the time. I would love to think that I was handling it all by myself, and being that superwoman I strive to be. That just isn"t the case. I rely a ton on my husband to help with practices, pick-ups, dinners, you name it. He is such a HUGE help, with such a willing heart.

So when he tells me he has to go away on business for 5 days, my heart just sank.
How am I going to do all this running around by myself? I express my concern to hubby to which he says... "Come with me. We were going to go away in September, but that fell through so come with me now". After not much contemplating, I decided I WAS GOING!!!!

We were off to Oregon, the complete opposite side of the country. All the kids were situated with everyone having the master list to who goes where, when, and why, and who would be taking them. It was quite the logistic challenge to get 4 kids placed where it wouldn't be too much trouble for any one family. I think I did it.

All the way to Oregon, hubby kept saying you don't seem excited about going. In my defense, I just had a hard time letting go, and realizing we were actually going away without the kids for an extended amount of time. Hubby's meetings were during the week. We decided to go out a few days early to have some quality time, sight seeing, etc. before his meetings. We were celebrating 16 years of marriage. Wow!!

It was a great time to relax, catch my breath, and get refocused about the rest of the year. I think I may need another get away to make it through this year though. WHEW!!!

Melting my heart

Have you ever had one of those mornings that start out with.....

A sweet kiss from an 8 year old little boy, dressed to the nines, and him saying " Mommy. It's time to wake up."

Bleary eyed, and groggy I am thinking "Who is saying something and what are they saying and why are they talking to me in the middle of the night?"

Again, youngest son says "Mommy, we are going to be late for church." while he is hugging me this time.

WHAT????!!!!!! CHURCH????!!!! What time is it and more importantly, what day is it? Is it sunday?

I progress to look at the clock, and indeed, if we all didn't get up NOW, we would be late for church.

As I start waking up and getting around, I come to realize....My precious son has gone around to everyone's room to wake them up. He of course is already dressed and ready to go. Not so for the rest of us. We are rushing around getting showers and doing hair etc.

A short time later, my dear little boy proceeds up the stairs with 8 bagels that he has cooked and buttered for everyone. He said "I wanted to make sure everyone had something to eat. I figured they might not have enough time to get something, so, I brought it to you!"

What a servants heart. Not a word was mentioned about not getting breakfast, but little man saw what was sure to happen. Leaving for church without breakfast. He didn't want anyone to go hungry.

Talk about melting a mothers heart!! How grateful I am for him and who God is molding him to be.

Babygirl and Daddy's date

Friday I had to work an extra day, and had noone to be able to pick up babygirl from half day kindergarten. Daddy decided to take the day off from work and the 2 of them could have a date in the afternoon. It has been a long time since they had a date.

Daddy picks her up at school in jeans and a t-shirt, he's comfy it is his day off.

Daddy asks babygirl "Do you want to change out of your uniform or do you want to just go right now?"
She looks at him and says "Let's go home and change. I want you to dress up. (It has already started, she wants her man to look gooooood). I want you to wear that tie I gave you for christmas."

LOL. Daddy was not prepared for this and was completely shocked. But it was a date right? He should look good. So he complies and dressed up in a shirt, tie (the one she gave him), sports coat, dress pants and shoes and.....cologne (he had to smell good too. LOL).

After he is all changed he goes to babygirl's room to help her change. He picks out a pretty dress.
To which she replies "No thank you Daddy. That dress is itchy, I will just wear play clothes."

ROTFLMBO (rolling on the floor laughing my butt off)!!!!!!!!!!

Again, Daddy was not expecting that.

Off they go to their special spot to get chocolate milkshakes and french fries, with Daddy dressed to the nines and babygirl in play clothes.

Priceless!