Done!

Yea, no more commuting. I can't say that I was sad to leave today. My DON is certain that she will be able to call me back at some point. I didn't have the heart to tell her that it was okay if it didn't work out. Thankfully, I have come to the point of accepting the fact of working night shift a couple of days a week in our ER.
It would still be wonderful IF I could go back to the nursing home for a few months after the baby. I really would prefer to not start a brand new job in February - but time will tell.

Also, the department heads and LPN's did have a wonderful shower for Matthew yesterday. We recieved a lot of really useful stuff - like those bulb thingies that suck snot out, nail clippers, blankets and such. No, I didn't bring my camera. For the "cake" - it was actually cupcakes made in the shape of a blue bootie - yummy and cute. I got to bring leftovers home for Mark.

New motivation for excerising after pregnancy.......

.....just get your pictures taken for the church directory. YIKES!!! I think I'll put the picture right in front of the elliptical machine - or maybe on the fridge.

Of lay offs and kidney stones....

Tuesday was an eventful day here!

First off, with my job - ever since I had returned in August - things had been different. The paperwork that had filled half my time (and one of the two reasons why I had been hired) had been stopped. Our new administrator thought that it was a waste of time to do. That left me with my other main job - which kept somewhat busy - but not busy enough. Also, the LPN that did my job while I was gone was kept to do office type of work instead of going back to floor work. I had made more than one comment to a dear coworker and Mark that I wasn't sure that there was much of a purpose for me there anymore.
Another key factor is that census has been down for many months - low census means no revenue - even if the acuity is high - it's all about numbers.
With that said, I was called to the administrator's office on Tuesday and told by her, with my DON sitting there, too, that I was being laid off effective November 1st.
They said that if census goes back up, I would be called - but let's be honest - I won't be holding my breath on that one. My mindset is that I will be looking for a new job after adjusting to a new baby - not exactly my ideal - but - I have no other choice.
Mark and I were planning on me looking for work here in town next summer anyway. God obviously doesn't think that I need to wait until summer to do that.
Since I am being laid off, though, there is the possibility of me drawing unemployment - since I was planning on working up through November. I will be checking into that this week.
I really am trying to look at this as a blessing from God - to not have to work this coming month. I was a little concerned about the forty five minute commute - in case I would go into labor.

About the kidney stones..........Mark had decided that I needed to stay from COPE(our ESL class) that evening and rest - even before the lay off news. We usually get home from COPE around 9 or after. So, when I heard the door unlock a little after 7, I was curious. You could tell that he wasn't feeling well. He said that he almost called me to pick him up from campus - he was having so much lower abdominal pain.
I got dressed and took him to the ER. After waiting for two hours, we finally got back to see a doctor. He had some blood in his urine; the doctor suspected kidney stones. They got an IV started and the radiology tech let me go beck with him for the CT scan. The tech told me what a kidney stone would look like - and there it was - a bright white dot. Out of the hundreds of CT scans that I've seen, I had never seen a kidney stone - that was cool for me.
They sent us home with a perscription for Mepergan and a strainer. Needless to say, Mark was exhausted. Thankfully, we were in bed by midnight.
I joked with Mark that I won't be able to hold labor over him since I've heard that kidney stones are as bad if not worse than labor pains. Also, since he's had this one kidney stone, he's more predisposed to having more. Poor guy.
Of course, knowing Mark, he went to work yesterday, he did however cancel one class.

Fall Break

Fall Break is over. It worked out this year that my mom's Fall Break and Mark's coincided with each other. Mom and Dad got here on Thursday - we went to the Honeycomb for lunch. Honeycomb is my favorite lunch place in town, it's actually a tool for the mentally disabled in the community to learn skills and earn a little money. We went to the Hamburger Barn for dinner - per Mom's request.
Friday was fun, we went to WalMart - where else - for some shopping. For lunch, we hit TaMolly's and then came back to our apt - Dad did some fix up work for us - THANKS and then Mark and I headed to our OB appt. After that we headed up to Little Rock. We went to my favorite shopping area - Pottery Barn, Williams Sonoma, J Jill, etc.... For dinner, we ate at Shorty Small's - a neat BBQ place. I also wanted to show Mom and Dad the European Bakery - yummy. After that we had to go to Target, actually we went to two Targets. Then we headed back here. They wore us out :o)
Saturday we went to McD's for breakfast and then Donut Palace for treats for their trip home.
Mom and Dad brought a bounty of food - as usual, and some produce. I made 1 big loaf and 3 small loaves of zuchini bread, we're having bruschetta for dinner from the tomatoes they brought. I'm also trying a butternut squash souffle for dinner, too. I'm trying to figure out what to do with the spaghetti squash - it's a bit of a challenge for me, since the last time that I used one - I was sick - stomach-wise - so the thought of it isn't too appealing - but Mark like it.
Well, we had a wonderful time. Thanks, Mom and Dad for you generosity - the curtains look great in Matthew's room and it's wonderful to have the hot water side of the washer working again!

A plea for pictures

Since I can't come up for weddings and showers this Fall, could someone/someones post pics or e-mail pics of Mary's and Chris's showers and weddings. I'm so bummed about missing everything. Thanks

I tried

So, I saved the shower pics to My Pictures - but when I went to upload them here - I realized that the camera used must have had few megapixels because the resolution was too poor. Bummer. I was excited for you to see our COPE friends and the cute Noah's ark cake.

Autumn has arrived!

I'm so happy today! The temps are only going to be in the 70's with low humidity. I can't tell you how long it's been! I wish that I could say that I have been patiently waiting for Fall weather - but, unfortunately, I can't.

Eeks!

Mark and I had our routine OB check yesterday - you know, the one that lasts five minutes(which is fine 'cause that means that everything is okay). When we were finishing up our doctor had us make our next appt for two weeks. Yikes - we're down to two week visits!?

A surprise baby shower!

On Tuesday nights during the semester, Mark and I teach conversational English to internationals - mainly Asian students. Well, this past Tuesday, they surprised me (Mark knew about it) with a baby shower. I had no clue!
Everything about American culture is interesting to these internationals, so an American baby shower is a great opportunity to teach more about our culture - they also used a Noah's ark theme - so that gave some biblical teaching opportunities.
I didn't have my camera - or else I would have lots of pictures to share. We did have some pictures e-mailed to us - so, if I can figure out how to upload them here, I'll share them.
Mark and I love international ministry and have been so blessed through getting to know many internationals the past year we've been here!

Recall list

For those of you interested in being notified for recalls - of any kind - you can sign up to recieve e-mail updates through a government website. The nice thing is that you can decide what type of recalls you want to be notified about - whether it's for child stuff, outdoor stuff, etc...