Weekly business

Well, it appears that this blogging business is going to be a weekly affair vs. everyday updates. It is 10:15 on Thursday evening and both kiddoes are fast asleep in their beds (nothing shy of a miracle since the advent of the new school year)! I set out today with two goals in mind: balance the checkbook and clean out the fridge for garbage pick up tomorrow. I accomplished a lot (sort of) but the refrigerator still has some mystery sticky spots on a couple of the shelves, so I obviously didn't get around to that. The problem was that in order to clean out the fridge the sinks must be free of dirty dishes so I have somewhere to carefully wash the glass shelves before drying them and returning them to their proper spots. In order for the sink to be free of dirty dishes, pots & pans, someone has to wash them and put them away. In order for plastic containers to be put away, the cabinet containing them must be re-organized because some of the "help" just tosses containers in there any old way (without matching up the lids, mind you) when it's their turn to empty the dishwasher and there's an avalanche just waiting to happen each time I open the cabinet doors. In order for the cabinet to be rearranged, the floor really needs to be swept and mopped because God forbid some of the unstable containers fall on the nasty floor in the process of reorganizing. (In my next life the floors will be swept daily and mopped weekly or as needed!) I think you all get the picture. It's kind of like the children's book If You Give a Pig a Pancake only unlike the little pig in the book that eventually gets back to eating her tasty pancakes, I rarely get back to the original task I intended to get done. The container cabinet did get rearranged, and the checkbook reconciled but not balanced. The dishes and floors...well, not so much! I honestly cannot understand how my poor little kitchen stays so cluttered! My mom says I simply have too much "stuff" (her word choice involved 4 letters beginning with the same letter "s"). I contend that I use all of it (which is quite evident when you stop by and see all of it all over the kitchen). Anyway, my point was? I only had two major goals for the day, and I only half completed one of them. Should I consider that a good day? Of course I will because I did manage to bag up 2 garbage bags of dead weeds Mike chopped down about two weeks ago and left for dead in the backyard. While I was out there I tended the pool which practically turned green overnight when the water level was a little low and so the water didn't circulate and filter properly. I already mentioned the plastic cabinet. In addition I scrubbed the tile/grout in my shower just 'cause I couldn't take it anymore and I was already sweaty and in desperate need of a shower from being outdoors. I prepared the kids a hot breakfast and packed their lunches for them. Then, there was the checkbook business and picking kids and band instruments up from school and helping with homework and washing a few dishes. I'm half-tempted to head straight for the fridge and at least get the "old" food and meat packaging out of the way (there are still too many dishes everywhere to remove the shelves from the fridge for cleaning). The smarter half will probably just head for bed when I'm done with this. My allergies are kicking up a bit--don't know if it's from wrangling those weeds this morning or something blowing around in the air with the storm heading from Weatherford. The rest will probably do me some good. I didn't get much of a nap. By the time I finished with the checkbook and checking e-mails it was already after 1 p.m. and I had to leave just after 2 to pick up Alisa for 2:30. Mike must have come in around 1:45 and started with his incessant chatter. Has he not heard the saying, "Let sleeping dogs lie"? Not that I consider myself a dog per se, but you know what I mean! I know I certainly uphold the phrase while he's asleep.
Class went well on both Monday and Wednesday (lecture on campus). We had a substitute on Monday (for which I am thankful because my telephone started ringing shortly after she began her lecture, and guess who forgot to silence their ringer? I sit front and center -as in directly in front of the instructor. Had Mrs. Blue been there I probably would have been thrown out of class on my ear or at the very least been glared at disapprovingly!). The assignments that have to be submitted online are actually a pretty fun way to review material we cover in class to keep us on our toes and prepare us for the first exam.
Tuesday was a different matter altogether. We all met in the lobby of the women's services building at 6:20 a.m. (well, one student was late, again, but most everybody else was there on time). Mrs. Blue asked if we all had our paperwork for post conference. I almost fainted! What paperwork was she talking about? We hadn't seen any patients so I didn't know what paperwork we were supposed to have for post conference! I asked a classmate, and she responded, "She told us to to those 8 or 9 pages out of the CID (course information document, formerly known as a syllabus)." Sweet Baby Jesus, did she really just say 8 or 9 pages?!! A fuzzy recollection of Mrs. Blue going thru the CID and jumping around from one thing to another and telling us to get on the computers and watch this video or that one came back to my mind, but not "complete 8 or 9 pages and bring them to post-conference." I was in a panic mode. Many instructors will threaten to send you home if you're unprepared for clinicals, and how much more "unprepared" can you be than to not have completed 8 or 9 pages of assignments! I was all ready to 'fess up and go home ashamed and in tears, but I decided I would do what I could during our 30 minute lunch break (even if it meant no lunch) and any "down time" on my unit. I had my CID in my bag with me and my textbook was in the car. If I didn't finish a page or two I'd just say I overlooked them and take the "partial" heat. As it turned out, the assignments were pretty easy: a couple were matching and simple calculations like figuring a due date based on the LMP (last menstrual period). I had the charge nurse help me assign apgar scores to newborn infant case studies. And, I had a couple notes jotted in my spiral notebook in my bag. By postconference, I was good to go. I was so glad I hadn't crumbled and gone groveling earlier. I thought we were going to turn in the pages, but we went over them "around the table" style in postconference and then just put them back in our notebooks. One of my goals for this weekend is to get a roster typed up with everyone's name, e-mail and telephone numbers for clinicals. This way, I (and anyone else) can double check with more than one source about pending due dates, etc. I stayed up until 3 o'clock Wednesday morning finishing my care plan for the NICU I visited on Tuesday. I guess I'm going to have to break down and purchase a maternal-infant care plan book because it was difficult trying to find diagnoses, interventions and rationales for a tiny little baby who was stable but not yet ready to return home because she couldn't drink 2 ounces for milk on her own at each feeding. I did learn an interesting fact in the NICU: babies are only allowed to "nipple" or drink from a bottle/breast for 30 minute intervals because any time beyond that they're burning more calories than they are consuming. Wouldn't it be great if it worked that way for adults? We'd start burning off the calories we were consuming while eating after 30 minutes! I'll try to write a little bit more about the tiny little babies and my experience in the NICU tomorrow while kids are at school (after I clean out that fridge, of course!). Good night. Until next time...