Enough With The Dog Already!

Too bad for you - my blog, my pictures, my dog - mine mine mine. Pearl is my respite after a hard day - she's such a pest and so amazingly wierd it's hard not to get sucked into her Universe Of Bizarre Behavior. The pool is great fun of course, lately I've been training her to keep away while I swim. I don't mind her in while I'm swimming but I do mind her attempts at rescue, and very poor attempts at that. They tend to involve her swimming right at me, a look of Determined Insanity as she barrels right over me and pushes me under. Somedays I think she might have an insurance policy on me - but she's improved and I actually got to enjoy the pool without having to avoid my Rescuer.. Work has been as you might have guessed very stressful lately. Our part time nurse is quitting in two weeks which leaves me holding the bag again. And worst of all - our business has picked up, we're getting patients all over the place and more coming. We've been getting more peds and cancer patients, both of which need extra time and phone calling - and then there's the oncology peds - they're a job in themselves!! Thank goodness I decided to go ahead and do my Monday visits or we would've been really stuck. The weather has been getting pretty hot, it was in the 80's today so I turned on the air as soon as I got home. We had a little bit of rain but not the thunderstorms they've predicted and then after that it was sun sun sun! I hope we continue the trend as I'm off for real this coming weekend!

Rainy Days and Monday. Eew.

Just to be clear about the pictures from yesterday with Pearl and the vacuum cleaner - she is NOT being attacked, she is the attacker. She's obsessed with the vacuum and leaf blower and it's impossible to get either done with her around. The leaf blower is worse, she positions herself directly in front of it and all you end up doing is blowing the dog's cheeks out. It's hard to make her stop as it's one of the funniest things I've ever seen in my whole life and you end up just standing there laughing (I'm including some pictures from last year). She loves to wrestle with Jackson and comes flying straight at him to get the game started - he gets annoyed with it sometimes ,but she's pretty persistant and he ends up participating whether he likes it or not. I heard from Adam this morning, he'll be flying into Washington on the 8th and then will be flying into NY around the 19th - just a little warning Grandma Connie. I finally did get in the pool yesterday - it was GREAT. And this year I think we'll get more use out of it because last year it was halfway through July before we could use it because we had to have the liner redone. I've been scrubbing down the furniture and leaf blowing when I can sneak it by Ghengis Pearl. I'm off to work this morning, but at least I'm not missing the weather.

A Day Off.

I saw a great sign at a church around here - most of the churches like to put puns and thoughts on thier signs - some of them are hilarious and some are very thought provoking. This one said "He who angers you, controls you!" - that one had me thinking for a few miles, because the more I thought about it, the more I realized it was very true. I spent a few hours in the office yesterday, I had a couple of visits and yoga so I figured I would spend some time catching up on paperwork. It worked out well, I did paperwork and made phone calls, did a visit, went to yoga and then made my next visit which was much further. Jackson went swimming for a little while yesterday so he got to be first in the pool - he said the water was pretty nice. By the time I got home it was too late to go in, so perhaps today. I've got to work pretty much all day tomorrow which stinks but there's nothing I can do about it. We're doing the shopping today, not much else going on. I need to get more strawberries to make short cake of course. Here's how to make it sugar and fat free - Walmart is where I get the sugar free angel food cake - 60 calories per serving I might add! I use about 4 packets of Splenda per pint of strawberries - but what you have to do after you cut them up and add the Splenda is shake them very hard - and a lot to get the juice to come out as artificial sweeteners don't macerate the berries like sugar does. Then you add sugar and fat free Cool Whip - it doesn't taste exactly the same but it's pretty darn close. The weather was supposed to be rain and thunderstorms all weekend - as per the Crack Weather team. Hmm. As far as I could see it was in the 80's and very sunny, but what do I know?

Mow Mow Mow Your Yard

Lately, if you're outside at my house, you're obligated to grab a mower and participate. I have a small one and in the mornings while I have Pearl outside I do all the edges and around the trees. I try to get her out for at least 45 minutes before work and it gives me something to do, other than clean the pool which is ongoing. I am finally getting my solar cover, after asking the The Person That Hangs Out At Lowes a million times I asked Susan who's dad owns the home supply store in Mannington - he's going to order it and then I'll pay him - he can even have it shipped right to my house which is very nice. We've been getting letters from Adam, he's having a good time and getting ready to come back, he's been saving his money too which I'm glad for. Hopefully by the time he gets here the pool will be swimable - although it should be as it's almost the mid 70's now. Work is getting a bit better, we've been discharging some patients and the rest are being organized. The only bad thing is there's no way for me to take Monday off - as it is there are 10 patients that have to be seen that day so I'll be working on through. The LPN will be working too so we should have it covered.We are still working on Ray coming out, his window is being fixed so hopefully he'll be making a guest star appearance in the near future. David is continuing work on his project in Blacksville which is moving right along. We are a busy bunch, arent' we?

Ship Ahoy!

We've been getting emails from Adam tracking his progress in his Escape From The Navy - after 5 years he is done. He's off the ship officially and is now residing in the barracks, he has to do community service while waiting for his debriefing and back to real life classes to begin in Washington but he sounds good and very happy. He'll be flying to NY after that and at some point will be in WV. It'll make for a busy June, Jackson will be finishing up with 11th grade and starting summer school - he'll be working with David for the summer too. David could use the help and driving wise it makes sense, David will pick him up at 12:30 and take him straight to the job site. I'm a little bit down this morning, apparently our charts at work suck and are all wrong,  I suppose the Nurse Of The Year honeymoon is over. It was  discouraging but after spending 3 days with Diana from the main office I have a much clearer idea of what the charts should be looking like and have something to work with. I already have a plan and Susan and I will be working on further organization. I'm on call this weekend so there's no breaks for me which is stinky. The weather is calling for rain, rain and more rain - I'm hoping they're wrong as the pool is heading toward the mid 70's and that's warm enough for me to swim!

On The Mend

Well, it wasn't the food. David and Jackson have both been home for the past two days completely laid up in bed. I think they had a virus or something - whatever it was it involved fevers and diarherra, both agree neither of them had a good time. But they were feeling better today and tonight they're both up and about and ready to get back to work and school. Jackson even hit me up for the $20 I'd forgotten for last week's allowance - I told him I wanted to see if he was going to make it before giving it to him. I've been feeling quite spanky so I seem to have dodged that bullet which is good as I don't have time to be sick. It's been a crazy week at work, I've been spending time with the person from corporate who did take me and the boss to lunch - other than that we've been going over charts and paperwork to improve our performance and reimbursement schedule with medicare and medicaid. Doesn't that sound totally smart and stuff? We got no response on our last ad for a visit nurse so I've been tweaking that too. And all along we've been getting hit right and left with admissions, we just run and run! We've got everyone but the janitor seeing patients and they just keep coming. Pearl has been a bit bored after spending time performing her Hostess With The Mostest Duties - she needs another guest to hostess! I have tried to impart upon her that guests do NOT like the hostess to stand on them, but she seems to feel they don't mind and thinks it adds a dimesion to thier visit that they wouldn't get elsewhere. We're working on getting Ray out here, his window project is FINALLY underway so hopefully we'll see him before the end of spring.

Visit's End

Yesterday was shopping day - we went to Bob Evans for breakfast after a late start -but it was Sunday and we were lollygagging. There's no reason to hurry around here anyhow, most stores don't open til 11 or so anyhow. We got to the restaurant around 10:30 and were seated right away, we loitered a bit and when we left we were glad we got there before the crowd started coming in - they were lined up all the way to the door! I had gotten Maryann a gift certificate for Gabriel Brothers and I had to get clothes for work - I've discovered recently I have 3 types of clothes - Big Events, Loitering Around The House and Scrubs. So I'm having to increase my office wear which isn't easy - I get sidetracked by the Loitering At Home wear and Funky Clearance and I come home with everything but what I really need. We were there for quite awhile with Dad complaining loudly, I toyed with the idea of calling security but figured he would probably get into it with them and put up a fight,etc so I just ignored him. We did a brief stop at Barnes and Nobles and then back home. I got to pick the restaruant, Golden Corral Buffet which I LOVE - total fun. I took way too much dessert and ended up not even eating half of it, I think I overdid the eating thing this weekend and will be paying for it for awhile. This morning David, Jackson and Maryann are not feeling well - we thought it might have been something they ate but they didn't eat the same things so we'll have to see. Dad and Maryann left a little while ago and I have a couple of hours of personal time this morning so I don't have to be to work until 10:30 or so. The person coming to see me from the office in Pittsburgh isn't coming from Pittsburgh as I thought - she's coming from the Corporate Office in FLORIDA - double Eeekk!! Way big deal I think. Good thing I have new clothes, isn't it?