nothin'

I got nothin' to blog about. Still trying to survive work with my asshole boss, I did make it through the two office holiday parties (one for residents and families and one for employees). I still want to find a new job, the DON had my good friend Kristin relieved from her position as Rehab Director. I miss her, her replacement is not very friendly. I just keep looking forward to the few days I have off for Christmas. My youngest cousin graduated from A&M this past Saturday so I had a small dose of family this weekend, I can't wait for Tuesday! It will probably be a difficult Christmas since it's the first one without Granddaddy but I know we will get through it. My grandmother had a small break down at the lunch table Saturday during the graduation celebration lunch. I can't imagine how hard this holiday must be without Granddaddy to help her put up decorations and shop for gifts for everyone. I guess the big giant wreath won't be on the front porch this year. It covers the entire porch, when I say giant I mean you actually have to walk through it to get to the door. Come to think of it, I wonder where it is kept all year.

Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!

interesting times..

There have been many changes at my job the last year, mostly with staff members coming and going. I've heard a lot of gossip the past few weeks and have been trying to lay low. Well today, one piece of gossip came true. The Director of Nurses who I can't stand, he seems shady and completely unethical has talked our boss into letting him be my supervisor from now on. I am thoroughly pissed and will be looking for a new job. They pulled me into his office for a long discussion this afternoon and I just sat there calmly and took in the information. Somehow this dirty man has roped my executive director into his dirty little mind. He is like a salesman, all talk with no rhyme or reason for the talk. He can talk himself around in circles but I don't buy into any of that kind of bullshit and I'm really upset my boss(I guess former boss) has. I will be speaking with her tomorrow at length without him there. She tried to tell me that every other community is set up where the social services director is under the DON but I am not stupid enough to believe without seeing in writing.

Other news.. my dad and I had to put our old lady dog down yesterday. Sandy was the greatest dog but it was time for her to go on. She would have been 17 in January so she was old. We made her wear diapers because she had become incontinent off and on so the diapers were to protect our floors. She had a good day yesterday hyper and running around but there had been too many bad days, so my dad finally decided it was time to let her go. It's been a long time coming with several illnesses but my dad wasn't ready to let go. I picked her out at the animal shelter when I was 10 years old. She will definitely not be forgotten!

it's been a while..

I have not had much happening that has been blog worthy lately. Same old work and home. I spent last weekend in Alice with my grandmother and great-grandmother. It was an interesting weekend. My great-grandmother's 98th birthday was Thursday so I took Friday off for my Veteran's Day holiday to spend a long weekend with her and my grandmother.

So it's November and Thanksgiving is next week and it was 89 degrees outside today. That's just nuts. My family is having Thanksgiving in Houston this year for the first time ever. Since it's the first big holiday without our grandfather, we decided we need a change of scenery, we don't need to have it in Alice, it would be too sad. So in Houston, we can celebrate with the new baby around, hopefully it will be a good time!

great weekend

My grandmother came to town to surprise my cousin. She told him she wouldn't make it to see the baby this weekend, but how could she miss the first day her first great-grandbaby came into the world?? The baby is adorable, and although a month early, both mom and baby are doing just fine. Babies are amazing, they heal so quickly! She had to have help from the forceps to come out and was left with black eyes all day Saturday. The black eyes were completely gone on Sunday though. Here are a few pics from the weekend:

You can see the black eyes here.
The proud parents Nathan and Leah.

Four of the five generations.

a new family member is coming!

My oldest cousin is having a baby, tomorrow!! His wife was taken to the hospital today, and she will be induced tomorrow. So exciting! My grandmother is driving herself up from Alice tomorrow morning and will stay with us. It is her first great-grandbaby and everyone is so excited. :) The baby's name will be Alana Grace. I will post some pics after we get to meet her this weekend!

i need new sheets :(

So several years ago while attending SWT, I had a job at a linen store in the outlet mall. I got some wonderful sheets. Wamsutta, red, 250 thread count 100% cotton. That was back before the 800 thread count sheets you can find today. I got them very cheap, I think $15. I have loved them for hmm.. 5 years I guess. Well, they died in my sleep last night. I woke up this morning with a huge rip in my fitted sheet right where my hips hit. I guess I toss and turn too much to keep sheets for this long! But, buyine new sheets will open up a whole new can of worms for me. I have been changing my bedroom colors at least once a year since I started college. Finally I have a stable color scheme and now I need new sheets. What if the new sheets I find don't go with the red duvet cover I have, and what if I see a duvet cover I really want to get? Do I have the self control or not, we shall see!

yay!

I had a fantastic weekend! My friend Lindsey from Houston went to San Antonio with me for the weekend. I saw my friend Patrick from Southwest Texas State University on Friday night, we had dinner then walked around the Riverwalk for a while. Patrick and I used to hang out a lot during our last year of school. Then I moved back to Houston and he got married!

Lindsey, Patrick, Me.
Saturday, Lindsey and I went shopping for a good part of the day, we had lunch in the food court at NorthStar Mall in SA which normally isn't a big deal. But the pizza place there sold beer! Score! Pizza and beer for lunch in a mall, it doesn't get much better than that! After the mall, was Calli's daughter's birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. I must say I had a bit of an anxiety attack when driving into the parking lot, but it turned out to be more fun than I expected. Zoie is a beautiful little girl. Here are a few pics:Chuck E. Cheese car with Zoie driving.

Opening presents was a new concept for Zoie.

Cal and I wearing our Thomas the Tank Engine party hats. :)

exciting times :)

I went to a baby shower this past Saturday for my cousin who is 32 weeks pregnant with the first of the next generation for our family, a little baby girl named Alana Grace Klemcke. It was so much fun shopping for little baby clothes and items. (This does not mean I want kids of my own anytime soon.) It was fun watching her open everything and seeing the baby's room all decorated. There was a scare up until last week with the umbilical cord wrapped around the baby's neck, but it is now unwrapped, Thank God.

I also met up with some high school friends Saturday night for dinner which was a blast as well!

The best is yet to come... I am going to San Antonio next weekend to spend some time with Calli and her baby girl who turns TWO Oct 6th. I had so much fun shopping for toys and books for her too! My favorite books were always Clifford the Big Red Dog so of course I had to get several of those, a few Curious George books and the best of all.. some of the Froggy series. Froggy Bakes a Cake, Froggy Gets Dressed, Froggy Plays Soccer, Froggy Eats Out, and Froggy Plays in the Band. I only got these because of the longstanding inside joke about Calli and frogs. Should be a fun weekend!

so glad i'm back home right now...

I had so many viruses on my computer it was insane! It took a good 24 hours to get rid of all of them using three different virus/spyware detection programs! The virus had gotten to my McAfee virus scan software and it wouldn't work. What a perfect time to be living with my parents, with my dad the computer man.

I also had a flat tire yesterday when I left for work. Thank goodness it was just outside my house and I was really lucky that my dad was off from work. He let me take his car to work and he took mine to get the nail hole fixed in my tire. What a great dad! :) And how lucky I am that he likes doing things for me still!

preparing for the storm

So this 'low system' appeared in the Gulf of Mexico over night. This morning when I left for work it was still a low, by the time I got to work it was a tropical depression. Now it's Tropical Storm Humberto, just sitting about to hit land any time now. This means I may be living up at work if people get flooded in and can't make their shifts. Boy I hope I won't have to be changing people's diapers, I guess if I have to I can do it, but I'd sure rather not! Babies are tiny, old people are grown up folk with grown up craps. It could be an interesting night for me...

dogs are expensive

I love my dog, an ex-boyfriend who is now in prison gave him to me. But holy crap was I surprised when I left the vet's office today. I took him for his annual exam today (I thought it was only fair that we both get them on the same day.) $194.20 later I left. After he snapped at the vet, she was a new vet, the one we saw before is no longer there. Seriously, almost $200 just for his exam, heartworm test, fecal test, and rabies shot! I'm glad I only have one.

finished

I finished the puzzle early this morning but can't find the book now! I took my car to get inspected this morning and I guess I must have left the book on the counter after I checked out. Boo!

new sudoku book

I got a new book of easy 'n' fun sudoku puzzles. I like to do them when I'm about to go to sleep. A few puzzles into this book is a puzzle for a "WORDOKU" contest. It's hard. The number puzzles are easy because you know the sequence of numbers that needs to be in the holes. This "word" puzzle is more like a "LETTER" puzzle. The "word" is not a word at all. They give you the letters E N R H S U D I O. Um, yeah, hard to make a distinguished sequence out of that. It's hard to know which letters you're missing in each grouping. This is where I got stuck, in case any of you enjoy sudoku. I will pick it back up tomorrow perhaps.

exhausted

Fridays are worse than Mondays for me. Today though I think I was the busiest I've ever been on a Friday which says a lot! I've done two jobs on a Friday before and wasn't as busy as I was today. It seems like we had meeting after meeting after meeting today. First, it was meeting after meeting. Then, it was phone call after phone call. Then it was meeting after meeting after meeting after meeting. We gave a resident's family a 30 day notice to find somewhere else for their mother to live, we can't meet their needs. Then I met with a hospice company. Then I met with a family. Then I met with my ED and DON to help write a coworker up. Then I met with the family that was meeting with the hospice company. I finally left the building at 6:00. 8-6 without clocking out for lunch and they pay me hourly instead of salary. Their mistake!

"Bean" stomach

Remember this term we used to use at ACU? I thought about it today I think for the first time since I left ACU. Only because I had "Bean" stomach for the first time since then, although it was from a little italian restaurant and not from The Bean. My stomach has been upset all afternoon, I even left work early to get home and lie down. Boo.

dementia...

...is a strange disease. It is different in each person. Today I met a new resident for the first time, we were talking, well really she did most of the talking and I was trying to make sense of what she was saying to me. She asked me how many kids I have, I said none. Then she made sure I was married, I said no, I'm not married. Then she assumed I was sleeping with my boyfriend and started scolding me for that and also for not going to church. (all her own assumptions at this point, i had said nothing to say yes or no) Then she started talking about my boobs and how I was showing my boobs too much, the shirt I wore today was one of my more conservative! She proceeded to name several animals until she got to the pig and she said the pig is the only animal that ever shows it's boobs, you shouldn't show your boobs!! At this point I'm trying to leave her room, I was very annoyed to get scolded by this lady who is clearly not in her right mind. She seems to have an obsession with boobs! She had the same boob conversation with my director of rehab (who was very a not revealing at all polo shirt) before she had it with me! Just another day with the old folks with dementia!

not so exciting..

Since I work in a nursing home, and the one that the bus blew up during the evacuation from Hurricane Rita two years ago, I will have to live at work if Hurricane Dean comes this way next week. Either live at work or evacuate with my residents, which is scary. Guess I'll pack a suitcase and some water this week in case it actually happens. I'm hoping the storm will go more south into Mexico than come this way. My dad has to go to Arizona for work on Sunday and my mom was planning to stay home with me, but I have to be at work which leaves her home alone with the dogs if a storm comes. If worst comes to worst, I can take both dogs to work with me and my dad's company will fly my mom to Arizona to be with him. Let's hope for the best!

things are looking up!

The crazy DON I hated resigned last Friday, without returning to work from "being sick" last week. And today, my office-mate, the admissions coordinator that I don't like turned in her resignation! I'm so excited, hopefully the new staff will be easier to get along with!! It's going to be kind of sketchy, I know my boss is hiring all of her friends to work there.. so we'll see what happens. Just knowing I won't have to work with this strange lady much longer is amazing!!

wouldn't it be nice..

.. if the weekends were longer? Perhaps it's just because I don't like going to work anymore, or perhaps it's the lack of trips I am able to take on a two day weekend, but life would be so much nicer with a 4 day work week and a 3 day weekend every week! I tried to have a respectful conversation with my boss one day last week about how I'm not very happy right now at work.. she said to me "well if you're thinking about leaving, let me know, I met a couple of people looking (social workers looking for jobs) today." Hmm.. makes me feel pretty good about working for her... I will definitely be on the hunt for a new job and soon.

ahh.. the sun

Yesterday, after running a few errands, I decided to take advantage of my day off on a bright, beautiful, breezy, sunny day. I sat out by the pool, floated around the pool of course as well. It was amazing for my being. I have been so stressed out at my job lately, it was so nice to be able to lay under the sun and enjoy being by myself. I think that was amazingly critical for me. I spoke to my boss before I left this evening about what happened on Friday, she assured me the DON will be gone shortly and the problem will be fixed two weeks from Thursday. If it's not, I will be looking for a new job elsewhere for sure. The DON is not my only problem with my job, my boss is a big problem too, hiring all her friends to work there. I hate to leave my small 45 bed community when most other communities have 120 to 160 beds (another reason to stay where I am).

i only thought i was mad...

With all of the new staff changes around my "office building" I have been quite unhappy. It seems that the staff is getting older and older and they have more chips on their shoulders. I've seen articles about how the twenty-somethings sometimes have the wrong approach in the work place, expecting hand outs and such, or seem full of themselves after getting into the workplace. I am the complete opposite of full of myself, and I have to make an effort to speak my mind sometimes. Well, today, with our new Director of Nurses, I got quite ANGRY! Our Doctor was physically assaulted by a resident's husband. When I found this out, I was quite shocked. Um, hello! Assault is a crime. The last case of assault we had, we asked the lady to leave our building. This time, I asked the DON why we couldn't escort him out of the building. She turned to me and said "This is a NURSING Issue and I am taking care of it, so leave it alone!" Um, what the bleeping crap?! As a Licensed Social Worker, my concern is my residents' well being, as hers should be as a nurse. To yell at me in front of colleagues saying I need to stay out of this issue, oh man, I am still PISSED. I may be young, but I'm pretty sure I am able to do my job, that what my schooling is in, it's what I have been trained to do. For this woman, who I do not care for in the first place, to yell at me like that when my primary concern is for my residents and the rest of our staff, that sent me right over the edge. I stayed out of my office the rest of the day trying to avoid this bitch. I am honestly on the verge of turning in my resignation after the way she treated me. My job has been pretty hellish the last few weeks and this is just the tip of the iceberg. I have been talking about looking for a new job, now I definitely will be looking for a new one. I have not been this angry in a long time.

yay

I went to The Methodist Hospital here in Houston today. That place is so confusing! I made my way to my resident's room and visited with her and her son (he happened to be there at the same time) for a while, and miraculously, I made it back out of the hospital! I learned something very valuable today, whenever you get on an elevator, make sure you know which floor you're on before you get in. My resident is doing fairly well, I was pleasantly surprised, I was scared, very scared that she was close to death, but for now, she's hanging in.

bittersweet...

... is my job. I love my residents. Some of them I am sad to see leave to go home, even though it's a good thing, I miss them when they're not there. Others I could take or leave. One of my favorite residents, a long term resident, is in the hospital. She went in Friday the 20th, the day I was off, and has been in there since. I have heard bits and pieces of how she is doing, but I miss her terribly. It's been a week and a half and I haven't been able to tell her about my trip to my grandmother's house. I haven't been able to get her ice, or jello, or anything else. You see, her room is next door to my office, anytime her call light was on and I was walking by, I'd stop to see what she needed. Most of the time it was something I could do for her, a lot of the times it was for a pain pill. My job is so hard when I get attached to these elderly and then they get sick and the inevitable happens. I'm so scared that this lady won't return to us, that she is too sick to return. I will miss her terribly, and her gay son who visited her every day at lunch time to fix her hair and do her make-up. Sometimes it's very easy to detach myself from these feelings, but other times the sadness overwhelms me. I'm supposed to help comfort my residents and their families, but I'm so afraid when I go visit this lady in the hospital tomorrow, I won't be able to keep the tears out of my eyes. I guess I wouldn't be in the right field if I didn't care so much about these folks I take care of! Man, my posts have been depressing lately.

a little sad..

I finished the very last Harry Potter book last night. I'm actually a bit sad that it was the last book, the books are so much fun to read. I was a little upset I couldn't spend the whole weekend reading my book, but I ordered it online so it was being shipped to my house and I was in Alice this weekend. I spent a long weekend at my grandmother's house last weekend with her and my great-grandmother. My Grammie thought she needed to try taking my Mamaw home with her, I wanted to see how the situation was going. Mamaw is so mean to Grammie, it makes my heart hurt. I guess being 97 years old should give you the right to do and say whatever you want, however, she's been like that her whole life and now she has absolutely nothing nice to say. I suppose she's a bit lonely and depressed but man, she depresses the rest of our family whenever she's around us. I really hope my Grammie doesn't keep her at her house for very long, she is so draining. All weekend it was I wish I were dead, out of 13 siblings I'm the only one still alive, the only one who lived to be this old. Do you miss Shorty(my grandfather)? Like we need someone to remind us three times a day that he's gone... Non-stop talking and questions. After that weekend, I need to say a huge thanks to J.K. Rowling for the alternate universe of Harry Potter I was able to be in for the last three evenings!

waste of time

This morning, answering my jury summons, was a complete waste of my morning. I had to go into work after I was released at noon from my jury duty. Boy do I wish I had just gone home instead! I think I sat down at my desk for a total of 10 minutes for the almost 6 hours I was at work this afternoon. I haven't had a day so busy in quite some time. After being bored senseless all morning, running around at work was not what I was expecting. It was a little hard to switch gears! Oh well, I put in my time for the courts this morning and shouldn't get called back for at least a couple years they said, even though I wasn't chosen for a jury (wahoo).

jury summons

The inevitable has happened. I have been summoned for jury duty. I was supposed to have jury duty back on March 20th but my grandfather passed away the day before so I called to reschedule my date. Of course, I chose the furthest date away which happens to be for tomorrow, July 10th. In March it seemed like so far away, but alas it has come upon me quicker than expected! I am just glad I live in small Fort Bend county instead of huge Harris County (Houston). I hope I am not selected for the jury, perhaps I shall play up my 'social work' job. In Texas, they prefer people who are conservative to be on the jury, social workers are known to be more liberal.. we shall see how it goes...

Happy 4th of July!

Yay for a holiday in the middle of the week! Just what I needed for a little peace of mind! Hope everyone had a great one.

someone please put me out of my misery

I'm so tired of being stressed out. I think I may start looking for a new job soon, as this one does not seem to be getting any better. I'll be very sad on Friday when I have to say goodbye to the most wonderful director of nurses anyone could ask for. My boss has made some terrible decisions which have caused the DON to be unhappy for no reason. I don't blame her for leaving, but I'll miss her for sure. On a side note, Yay for a holiday tomorrow in the middle of the week!! I think I'll go sit on the back patio by the pool and drink me some alcohol until I'm sleepy.

all in a day's work...

Lately, I have been very stressed with co-workers out of town and others just gone for good. Today I was going to try to get some of my 'social work' done since most other days are focused on 'admissions.' We got a new admission in today, her daughter was bringing her to our nursing community from home. I understand it's a hard transition for some people, but today was over the top!! The daughter seemed neurotic from the moment I met her briefly last week, then again on Saturday when I had to spend a little time with her. Today, when the admitting nurse was in talking with her, she mentioned her very unrealistic expectations of our staff. She was expecting her mother to get one-on-one attention while staying in our community. Unfortunately, nursing homes do not provide staff for that. We try to check our residents every two to two and a half hours. My Director of Nurses (DON) had me to go in the room with her to talk to this daughter about perhaps hiring a sitter to be with her mother 24/7 since our staff is unable to meet her expectations. The daughter was not listening to anything the DON or myself were saying to her. She repeatedly interrupted us, especially the DON. The daughter started raising her voice, the DON asked her to stop yelling. The DON turned to ask me a question and BAM, the lady THREW HER PURSE at my DON. I could not believe it!! I still can't believe it!! My DON was so, so angry. Her face turned purple it was so red, I've seen it red before but not to this degree. I mean, I could have expected behavior like that at the psych. facility I used to work at, but in a nursing home?? I mean.. wow! The lady is about 60ish, and she was acting like a two year old child throwing her purse at someone. I just never know what to expect whenever I go into work. Today takes the cake though for sure.

work stress

I'm so tired. I am doing two jobs at work. Both take a lot of time, and the admissions job trumps my social work job which is getting me so far behind. I am so stressed out and I will be getting reprimanded by our corporate billing person on Friday, but I can't do two jobs and keep them both current!! I wasn't supposed to do admissions today but I did all day anyway! I hate to think about leaving my job, I have it pretty good when we are fully staffed but we have four positions open at the moment and everyone is so stressed out. Please say prayers that we fill the open positions soon!

exhausting week..

So, last Thursday my office mate left around 2:00 in the afternoon and did not return to work. She called in sick last Friday as well. Well guess what, she did the same freakin thing this week! She had given her two weeks notice two weeks ago and today would have been her last day anyway, but she left me hanging. There were about 10 pending admissions that I had no clue what she had said to all the discharge planners at the hospitals! I was behind from last week when she left me high and dry and had a super busy week myself this week and now after yesterday and today of doing admissions I hadn't planned on, I'm screwed. She talked the only good candidate we had for her position out of the job yesterday which really f***ed me over. I'm so exhausted and extremely behind with my social work. I'm not sure I want to continue on with my job if this is how it will be until we have someone to replace her.

But hey, we went to the Astros game tonight and they finally won!!

forgot to mention

The guy I'm speaking of below.. gave me my dog. He went and adopted Duncan from a shelter and surprised me with him at a friend's house. Um yeah, way creeped out by the link below! And definitely glad I kept Duncan when he offered to take him!

shocking, disturbing, gross!

I got the most shocking message on my facebook account this morning. It was from a friend of mine from SWT, we had a bit of a falling out when I found out she was dating my ex. She sent me this link, it's an article about our ex. It is disturbing and shocking, and also explains a lot about our relationship. He and I never so much as kissed, but he always referred to our future together. I kept wondering for quite some time why our relationship went the way it did. From the moment I met him, I thought maybe he was gay, but as I got to know him and talked with a friend of his decided he wasn't. We spent three weeks together in Monterrey, Mexico where we took a social work elective. It was after I returned to San Marcos and he stayed in Mexico for four more weeks taking a Spanish class that we developed more than a friendship. We both missed each other terribly. Now, I think back upon that time in Mexico and how great it was, how much fun I had, and I get a little creeped out after reading this about him: http://www.oag.state.tx.us/cj_fugitives/cj_fugitive_detail_arrested.php?id=753 Seriously creepy. Amazing what you find when you "google" somebody you haven't heard from in a while. He called me last summer and said he was moving to the Houston area and suggested we meet up some time. I never heard from him again after that, I guess he was busy getting arrested.

disappointing

I am so upset. I had been trying to get one of my former co-workers a job at my current place of employment. How terrific it would be to work with him again. Of course instead of choosing him, the better qualified for the position, she chose the pregnant(or not so much anymore, she had her twins last thursday) lady who won't be able to work again until July 30th. The position has been open since May 16th, they were looking for someone to fill it about two weeks before it was open. My boss is super stressed out and the tension around the workplace is insane. None of the other managers wanted to have this lady in the position. We really could have used the testosterone Cedric would have brought to our team, and man would it have been great to be able to see him every day again. He is the silliest man I've ever met, we get along so well it's great. My office mate has since resigned from her position and people keep asking if Cedric could do that job. Unfortunately, he would hate every part of it, not to mention the two of us don't need to share an office! I'm mostly upset that they made him come in for FOUR different interviews and then didn't offer him the job.


That's Cedric, myself, and another former coworker Nikita. What a great time we all had together at that job before we all started leaving! That was our workChristmas party 2005.

Another picture, ah reminiscing... Cedric's wife, Cedric, myself, Jeralyn and Nikita. The nasty hair in the lower left corner is my old boss.

road trip

My sister and I are going to my favorite place to visit this weekend. My grandmother's house. It's hard to adjust to saying grandmother's instead of grandparents'. This is my first trip to visit since the funeral, it will be kind of strange I think. It will be weird to walk in the house and not see Granddaddy sitting at the counter in the kitchen watching tv, or walking into the living room and not seeing him laying in his spot on the couch. Hopefully it will be a nice relaxing weekend with my Grammie and Mamaw too I guess..

hairless dog!

I finally got around to shaving my dog's hair off. It isn't the greatest job but it'll look a little better in a week when it starts growing out a little. I'm so proud of him though, when I first got him, groomers would not groom him unless he was under sedation. The very first groomer I took him to did not even finish the job! I was pissed at that, I mean it was PetSmart for goodness sake, they should be used to dogs not wanting to be groomed!! The past couple of years my parents and I have been grooming him ourselves and he is doing so much better. Although it takes almost two hours and at some points it has taken the three of us holding him to finish the job, it has been done with no scars (which I can't say of the first year I had him). Today, I took him out to the garage by myself and shaved about half of him with no help at all. He fights when you get to his feet, and fights hard. I gave up on the last one and it looks about twice as wide as the other three right now. Maybe in a day or so I'll take some scissors after it!

Here's an after picture, him sitting in his papasan chair cuddling with his orange blanket:

my Mamaw...

My Mamaw is my great-grandmother. My mom's mother's mother. My grandmother who just lost her husband's mother. Mamaw is a character. To family, she's a rude cranky old to put it bluntly.. bitch. To everyone outside of the family, she is a sweet, funny, caring woman who happens to be 97 years old. She frustrates me to no end sometimes because she treats my grandmother worse than she treats the rest of us. Something that my grandmother does not need in this time period when she is still grieving the loss of her husband. Back on February 9th, Mamaw fell and broke her hip. She has been in a skilled nursing facility in Alice, Texas since February 16th. Since I work in a skilled nursing facility myself, I know she cannot stay forever with Medicare paying but has the nursing home met with my grandmother to discuss options? NO! I spent more time at work yesterday trying to deal with family stuff than I did doing my own work. I called and spoke with two different people at the nursing home in Alice, then spoke with my grandmother. Unfortunately, there is no social worker at the nursing home there which means the job I do every day is not getting done for Mamaw. I convinced my grandmother that Mamaw would be better off staying in the nursing home than going home, as she would need 24 hour care at home which would cost more. My poor grandmother had to go and break this news to Mamaw. Apparently it went over fairly well all things considered. I would be pissed myself if I were 97 and was living at home alone for the past 35 years, since my Papaw passed, and all of a sudden I broke my hip and couldn't take care of myself ever again. I know there is a huge sense of loss that goes along with losing your independence, I have to help my residents deal with it every day. I guess I'll see how Mamaw is coping when I go down to visit June 1 for the weekend. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I'd like to share some tips for planning for your futures if some of these options are still available when we get to retirement age or for any of you with grandparents or parents you may need to help deal with a situation such as skilled nursing. 1. have Medicare as your primary insurance. 2. have a good secondary insurance such as AARP, BCBC, UnitedHealthCare. 3. when looking for a long term care insurance policy, make sure the plan includes staying in Assisted Living as well as a long term nursing care facility. 4. have legal documents filled out, Living Will, Durable and Medical Power of Attorney documents, out of hospital DNR forms if that's your wish. 5. put your house under a child's name early in life if you think you may ever need Medicaid 6. don't be too far away from your family members who will be taking care of you when you're old. 7. make sure you have children so they CAN take care of you when you're old! (that will be my main motivation for ever having kids myself!!) that's all i can think of for now.

really annoyed

I have gotten FOUR phone calls from the same phone number from an Arizona area code in the past 5 hours. I do not know anyone in AZ who would not leave me a message so I'm pissed! Clearly it's a telemarketer since they're not leaving messages but 4 calls in 5 hours is way too excessive. The first two calls I ignored seeing the area code I did not recognize, the third call I figured maybe I need to answer it. What was on the other end, nothing but the echo of my own voice! The fourth call I missed, my phone was downstairs and I was upstairs. There will be some hell to pay if I get another call tonight, it is way too late for phone calls now.

hope for a better week

So, last week for me was busy and stressful and disturbing. I hope and pray that this week will be better. I know it will be busier but I hope it's a good one. As for today, I will spend the rest of the morning making oatmeal raisin cookies for my grandpa that I will take to him after lunch. After that, I think I will read or wash my car or give my dog a haircut with the rest of my time. I don't know what I would do if I had to work 7 days a week, I love my weekend time for decompressing.

disturbing

Yesterday I heard some disturbing news about one of my residents. Her daughter inspects every inch of her body every single day. When I say every inch I mean, she takes her mother's diapers off and searches every nook and cranny of her mother, poking and prodding. Shoving her fingers where they should never be shoved in your own mother!! I am so disturbed by this news. **Don't read any further if you don't like hearing R rated information.** The director of nursing told me this lady's daughter came up to her one day saying her mom had a pimple on her labia. What the freakin crap?!?! Who the crap looks at that part of their mother or would want their daughter looking at that area on them? I knew this lady was weird and difficult but I had no idea she was so f***ing crazy! She has got to have some mental disorders going on. The embarrassment her mother must go through every single day, twice a day because the nurses look her over every day also. Unfortunately she suffered a stroke and is unable to communicate as well as she would like to. Seriously disturbing.

shock

I found out today that the mother of one of my friends from high school died in her sleep last night. They have no idea what caused it, she was feeling sick the last couple of days like stomach virus sick and this morning was dead when her husband tried to wake her up. Wow.

weird people

I am a Social Worker. I should be open and understanding of all people, as there are many different types of people in this world. I will admit however that I don't like stupid or innapropriate people. There is a crazy lady who came to have her mother admitted to our facility last week, the same evening they came to tour she wanted her admitted to the facility. Only hospital ERs and psychiatric facilities work like that, our skilled nursing facility does not! We finally talked her into coming in today, Monday but today we mutually changed, or so we thought, the move in to tomorrow morning. At 4:20 this crazy ass lady brings her mother to be admitted to our facility right then and there! This lady HIT ON my coworker last Thursday evening and made me feel uncomfortable today talking about how beautiful my hair is and so on... This lady needs to be in a mental institution! Not to mention the fact that she has some very innapropriate demonstrations of sexual feelings. My current job has exposed me to some strange individuals but I think this one takes the cake! I thought nothing could be as weird as my last job, working at a counseling center for the mentally ill, but I guess I was wrong! I would really like to take a long vacation at this point, my Costa Rica trip was way too short.



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Good family news though.. I found out this weekend that my oldest cousin and his wife are expecting their first baby. This will be the first of our next generation, I'm sure my grandmother is very excited, I know my aunt is excited to be a grandmother!!

odd

So my second mom (my neighbor across the street when I was growing up) is talking about getting a tattoo, her first tattoo. Her daughter has one on her back, where everyone gets them and her son has one on his shoulder and is now talking about getting one on his wrist. Now my second mom is talking about getting one also on her wrist. How strange this sounds to me. I got a little tattoo on my foot several years ago and have always wanted a second one. I think I am too chicken to get a different one, this one only took like 2 seconds and did not hurt at all. I just think it's odd that my second mom who is in her mid fifties is wanting her first tattoo, a little dragonfly on her wrist. Hmm, maybe I'll go with her and get the second one I've been wanting for almost 5 years now.

politics in the work place

There is an open position at my facility. There have been three inside applicants and one outside. Of the three inside, one is more qualified, one is pregnant and out on maternity leave until July 30th, and one is not qualified at all. The one who is pregnant has been accused of being treated with favoritism by our boss. Our boss is so angry about the gossip that has been going around but honestly I think it is semi-fair. She seemed to be putting off the interviewing process and now the hiring process which shortens the time between now and July 30th when prego lady will no longer be prego and will be back at work. Hmm.. interesting. The outside candidate went over VERY well in his interview on Thursday. This excites me very much because I had him apply for the job, he is one of my best friends from my old job. I think he would be perfect in the position that has opened up and I really hope they will strongly consider him for the position. Our company is one though that likes to "promote from within" so I'm not sure what will happen. He does have several things going for him though, everyone loved him in the interview, he's a man, he's black, and he is an outsider which will alleviate the politics that have been involved with filling this position from the inside. Let us hope and pray corporate will make the best decision, as my boss has turned it over to them so she doesn't have to be the brunt of the gossip anymore. Let us also hope and pray that the outsider is chosen as I want to see my pal Cedric again every day!

home again..

... home again, jiggity jig. That's right folks, moved back home for the third time since I left for college. It's weird now though because my parents moved, in 2002 I think, from the house I lived in for 21 years to a bigger house further south in Sugar Land. It is becoming 'home' to me but I had a hard time considering it home since the old house was the only home I ever knew before. It's hard to adjust to being with my parents and being on their schedule. I know I can take care of myself but like right this minute for example, I just got home and they are ready to eat dinner. It's 6:12 in the evening, I'm not ready for dinner yet. I guess I'll go talk with them at least while they eat. Sheesh. I am thankful that I don't have to cook for myself right now!

all moved in

I got all moved on Saturday morning before 10:00. Am I all unpacked? Of course not!! I have the essentials unpacked, all the rest makes an obstacle course out of my room. Something odd.. I put my computer back together and have a cord that seems to not belong to anything I own. Everything is plugged in so I cannot figure out where this plug came from. The box it came out of was empty before I started putting computer stuff into it so clearly it came from something, but what? Also, my dog is a hairy beast. I may have to give him a good grooming next weekend.

Peace out.

failure :)

I failed to pack anything tonight. I had a semi good excuse though, I ran out of packing tape and my boxes are all collapsed so I have to tape them together before I can put stuff in them. Better luck for me tomorrow. Now I get to go to sleep in the thunderstorm, my favorite. :)

yay!

I actually completed the task I wanted to last night, I packed my entire kitchen. With the exception of edible items. Tonight will be the rest of my bedroom, bathroom and desk area. I am hoping that typing my goals out where other people read them will motivate me to actually complete them! It worked last night, we'll see if it works tonight too.


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On a side note, what is it about apartment complexes and stray cats? There are probably a dozen or so stray cats around my apartment building, and soon to be more as I caught two of them making babies two evenings in a row a couple of months back. That cat definitely got pregnant, I saw her last week with a swollen belly. I guess I should mention that I am NOT a cat person, I am a dog lover and cat hater. These stray cats are so disgusting to me, I'm sure they are dirty and full of bugs which by the way I do not want my dog to catch while I'm walking him. Take your cat to a shelter if you don't want it anymore, don't just let it be an "outside" cat and depend on other people to take care of it. Last night there was a 'teenage' cat sitting on my porch looking up through the blinds at me with the most pitiful look on its face. It looked sad enough I almost felt guilty enough to feed it. I say almost because every evening I see huge piles of cat food out in the flower beds so I know someone feeds them. I'm glad I move out this week so I won't have to see the new litter of kittens when it joins the world.

packing is the worst

It doesn't matter what I have to pack for, I hate doing it. Packing for trips whether long or short, I never know what to take. Long sleeves, short sleeves, the weather is so unpredictable everywhere you really need both most of the time. I hate packing to move most of all. That is what I have been doing for the past week-ish. I do a little each night so I'm not having to do it all at once, and because I love procrastinating. My goal is to get my whole kitchen packed up tonight, but who am I kidding? I know it will take me at least today and tomorrow because I am sitting here typing a blog entry and watching The Simpsons instead of packing. I suppose since I only have a few hours left in the evening I should go start on some of that putting into boxes. I love my parents and and grateful to them, I am not sure though how it will be to move back in with them, again. This will be my third trip back home and honestly I'm not sure I'm prepared for it. It will be nice to have a yard for my dog again but I would love for it to be my own yard. What I dread the most (besides the packing and unpacking) is the drive. It will take me at least 30 minutes longer to get to work and back, perhaps even 45 minutes. That will amount to between 2 and 3 hours on the road every day, BOO! But I will be saving me some mad cash to pay off my debts with and save up for a down payment on some sort of abode for myself and my dog. Peace out, hope everyone has a great week!

i made it through the week

I'm so happy the week is finally over. It was a super long one. Super long. I'm so tired and so grateful for alcohol. My margarita with dinner did wonders for me. My job is starting to get more stressful because I have to pick up my office-mate's job whenever she's out. But who picks up my slack when I'm out, NO ONE!! She is supposed to be out every Tuesday for marketing but this next week she works on Saturday so she will be out Monday as well as Tuesday morning for marketing. I dread next week because I am already behind this week which means I will be even more behind next week. My weekend will be full of packing.. I move next Saturday back in with the parents.. should be interesting for the third time. Packing is my least favorite thing to do so I hope I spend my weekend wisely and don't wait until the last minute to finish all of my packing!

today

Today marks the anniversaries of two different things. 1. It's been one month today since my Granddaddy passed away. 2. It's been 6 years today since my dad's mother, my Nana passed away. It's been a day of remembering for me, when I've had the time to think about it.

This week has been crazy busy at work and I don't see it letting up any tomorrow. All I have to say right now is, SUPERNATURAL is back with a new episode this evening. Can't wait to see it!

Does anyone else watch Lost? I seem to get more and more lost, pun intended, with each episode, they throw way too many things at you at once.

Most of the time I love my job...

I love working with the elderly, they are full of knowledge, wisdom, and often are sources of hilarity for me. It's funny to me when old men look me up and down, and when the ladies tell me my pants are too long (which is often, I have never been to a tailor and can't wear heels because of a hip problem.) I learn a lot reading medical records, and yesterday had a few good laughs over a rectal bag. (Something I had never heard of before.) I hate my job though when we lose a resident. Today we found out we are losing one of everyone's favorite residents very soon. When I say very soon, he may have actually passed since I left work this evening. My boss has been very attached to this man, he always thought she was his daughter so she would act along with him. She spent some time with him this afternoon and after she left his room she had to stop in my office to sit down and cry. She apologized for crying which seemed strange to me. If she didn't show any emotion I would be questioning the reason why she is an Executive Director at an Assisted Living/Nursing Facility. Her crying just proves that she cares about the residents and is doing the job she needs to be doing. The time will approach sooner than I want I'm sure that I get upset over the loss of a favorite resident. As I have learned recently, life doesn't stop just because you lose someone you love and the loss doesn't get easier, it may however seem more tolerable as time passes.

premonitions?

So I have a friend, former co-worker who at times I find odd, but she's still a friend so I can look past it... most of the time. Yesterday evening as I was driving home from work, I was talking on the phone to her, it had been a while since we'd talked. (I haven't been trying to talk or see any of my friends since my grandfather died, but this week figured it's time again.) So we were talking about a bunch of things, one of our good friends just found out that he and his wife are expecting a baby, they're about 8 weeks along right now. Exciting news. :) Then she starts saying that she thinks my sister is pregnant. I say, WHAT? I think you're mistaken, if she's pregnant she doesn't know it yet, as I spent the whole day with her on Monday. My friend went further into detail about 'premonitions' she has had in the past that have come true. What?! I don't know what to make of that. She gets feelings about people and 99% of the time they come out to be true. Again I say, WHAT?! I'm not ready for my sister to be pregnant, she just had her 1 year anniversary March 18th. She and her husband are not ready for a baby right now. If she turns out pregnant in the next two weeks like my friend's premonition says, I will be in a state of shock. Will definitely keep you posted.

cold

It's too late in the year for such cold weather in Texas. This weekend made me wish I were back in Costa Rica looking at this:

I need to find me someone to marry who makes good money and has to travel for his job, just so I could travel with him!

working = no holidays :(

Why is it that only some jobs offer Easter and Good Friday as holidays? My current job does not, that's for sure. I work Friday and Saturday this week. Boo! I wish I could be on my way to Alice to visit my Grammie for the weekend but I have to work. I do get more holidays than the rest of the employees at my office because I'm a manager but Easter is not included. You know what's even worse than having to work this weekend?? I have to work on Thanksgiving this year. Boo for working.

ahhhh...

It was so terrific to have a nice relaxing weekend at home for the first time in 8 weeks. I slept a whole lot and did a whole lot of laundry. I even did a bit of shopping andgot my hair cut. I cut my hair all off, I was a little shocked and it's actually shorter than I wanted it, but it's cute. It had gotten so long I couldn't take it anymore, since it's so thick it gets hot on my neck when it's long like it was. Peace out.
Here's another link to my webshots albums.
http://community.webshots.com/user/melaniegrove

Duncan's home!

I hadn't seen my dog in 12 days. That is the most I've ever gone without seeing him in 4 years. He was so excited to see me he peed a huge puddle when I bent down to pet him at the vet's office. :) The vet is about a mile from my parents' house so they invited me for dinner this evening. Duncan is so hilarious when he is at their house with me. It's like he knows the minute I'm finished doing whatever it is I'm doing over there and he is ready to go. No joke, he starts whining and looking for his leash. Hilarious. I can't say I blamed him though this evening, after 12 days of being away from home I would have been ready to get back too.

webshots

I created a webshots account to post my Costa Rica photos and maybe others. Hope this link works!

http://family.webshots.com/album/558361385oKZGBg

i'm home.

Finally, I'm back home to stay for a while. I have been in Houston only one weekend in the last 7. That one weekend I was home, I had to work on Saturday so it wasn't much of a weekend. I appreciate all of the prayers for my family. My Grammie amazes me! We had a visitation at the mortuary for my Granddaddy Thursday evening then the funeral was Friday morning. Saturday we had a reception planned in Rockport for my cousin who got married in Costa Rica, for the rest of her family and friends who did not make it all the way to Costa Rica. About halfway through the reception, my Grammie walked in! She had let us all say goodbye to her Friday night and some of us Saturday morning knowing she was going to surprise us all at the reception. Apparently, she had made up her mind Friday night that Granddaddy would have wanted her to go to the reception, they hadn't been able to support Elizabeth in any of her wedding so far so she felt she needed to go. Again I will say, my Grammie is amazing. It has been a rollercoaster ride for my family lately. March will never be the same. March 17th my cousin got married, March 18th was my sister and her husband's first anniversary, March 19th our Granddaddy passed away. I just pray that my Grammie will continue to find her strength to go on without him. He was a wonderful man, I cannot count the number of times I heard that from friends and coworkers and neighbors and church members and employees of my Granddaddy this week.

This is a picture of the boquet my mom and aunts wanted done for my Granddaddy. They went out to the ranch, got some cactus, barbed wire, hay, a horse saddle strap, a horseshoe, and a board they branded with his cow brand, took them all to the florist and said please make us a boquet with these items. This is the end result, better than we could have imagined, and fully represents everything my Granddaddy loved.

no more waiting

Well, my grandfather passed away today at 2:30 PM. Death is such an interesting part of life. It is really hard to lose someone I love and have always admired so much. Someone who I want my future husband to be like, so loving and able to fix anything that needs fixing around the house or in my heart. My faith in God tells me Granddaddy is in a beautiful place where he doesn't hurt anymore, but my heart hurts with the ache of knowing he will not be with us on Earth anymore. I pray that my Grammie will have the strength to continue on with life without him, hard as it will be for her. I can't imagine how it must be for her, her husband died before her mother. The love of her life for the past 55 years will no longer be sharing her bed, laughing with her, teasing her, rejoicing with her. We have been preparing ourselves for this for the past two plus weeks but that doesn't make the loss any easier.


On a side note, my cousin's wedding in Costa Rica was BEAUTIFUL! I will post pictures later.

still waiting..

I spent Tuesday night through Sunday afternoon in Corpus at the hospital with my Grandddaddy, my Grammie, and various other family members who came and went. My Granddaddy is knocking on the gates of Heaven but the gates haven't opened yet, or better yet, he has not allowed them to open yet. The nurse who was on duty this weekend also works with a hospice company, she is puzzled as to why my grandfather is still alive. His breathing pattern changes frequently, he drifts in and out of it, most of the time is is sleeping. His left eye will not stay closed anymore and he only eats one meal every two days or so. My cousin Elizabeth is getting married this Saturday, St. Patrick's day in Costa Rica. I have a feeling my grandfather is hanging on as long as he can before the wedding. It was really hard to say goodbye when I came back to Houston on Sunday, but I had to come back to work and I leave for Costa Rica on Thursday morning. It will be a bittersweet vacation, bitter because we're leaving my grandfather on his deathbed and sweet because we are vacationing and celebrating my cousin's marriage. It will be a nice break from the reality of life, but we know we may come back to an upcoming funeral.

On a side note, holy crap! I just got my Passport in the mail yesterday, they put back my receiving date from 2/26 to 3/6 to 3/14. I was so thankful it came before our trip, I almost wasn't able to go!! I put in my application 1/19, it took way more than 6 weeks for me to get it thanks to the new rules for traveling to Mexico and Canada.

This is our entire family at Christmas 2006. The last family photo including my grandfather. :(

waiting..

Waiting is the worst. It doesn't matter where you are, at the grocery store, doctor's office, bank, post office, and especially the hospital. I have spent the last 4 days waiting. Three days at the hospital waiting, today back at work and home waiting. Tomorrow after work I will be driving back to Corpus Christi to wait at the hospital some more. We are waiting for death, it seems like a strange thing to wait for, but I can't think of any other way to describe the way it feels right now. We know my Granddaddy is not long for this world, but we have no idea when God will take him. I feel like I can't spend enough time with him this week and it's killing me to have to be here in Houston back at work when I could be spending my time with him. This weekend was a weekend full of family, tears, and most of all, love. My grandparents are my role models, they have only had one fight ever in their marriage and it wasn't a big fight. 55 years and they still cuddle and hold hands. It was devastating to watch my grandmother collapse on the bed on top of my grandfather just sobbing, after they had sat looking at each other for several minutes until a tear ran down my grandfather's cheek. It's so hard waiting for the inevitable to happen and trusting that it will happen when it's supposed to happen.

appreciate your blessings

Next month will mark 6 years since the first of my grandparents' passed away. My dad's mother was cursed with diabetes which led to the strokes that led to her eventual death. Her death we were expecting when it happened, she was sick for months and unable to care for herself anymore. The time has come for one more impending death, my mom's father was diagnosed with lung cancer about 1 year ago, he went through lung surgery and radiation and was okay for a while but in the last few months his "radiation cough" had gotten worse, not better. Turns out he has another mass in his lung that is putting pressure on his lung and heart. This death my family was not expecting, it's going to be a difficult time, however long it is. I see this every day at work but it's not my family, now that it's my family work is going to be hard. My cousin is actually rethinking her wedding in Costa Rica that is scheduled in two weeks. I have been very blessed to have such wonderful grandparents, many people did not know all of their grandparents and I know I'm lucky to have had 5 now 4 for so long, soon it will be 3 perhaps even 2, I'm not sure how much longer my 97 year old great-grandmother will be on this earth, especially when she finds out about how sick my grandfather is. She has loved him like her own son all these years and he has been so good to her. My Granddaddy has always been the strongest, kindest, funnest man I have ever known. He has always been a hard worker, first with his pipeline company, then with both that and his cattle and the ranch, then just the ranch. He could fix anything that needed fixing, I guess that's what mechanical engineers do. Our family will not be the same without him and I hate that the day is coming sooner than any of us want it to or were expecting it to. Hopefully I can make it through at least half a day of work tomorrow before I leave for Alice to spend time with him. I don't know what my Grammie will do without him. It's going to be a long, full of tears, weekend. :(

what the...

So it's been stressful times for me lately. I need to find a new place to live but something has come up every single day I have planned to do so! This Saturday I had to work, which means I can take off another day of the week to make up for it. I planned to take Monday off so that I could at least have Sunday and Monday two days together off. Monday morning I got a call from work, you need to get here as soon as you can. My response: I wasn't even coming in today, their response: State is here, you need to get here ASAP. Nice.. woken up on my day off with the bad news that the State Surveyors were at the office and I had to be there. Holy crap State Surveyors are not very nice! I'm tired, I don't know how people can work seven days a week, sometimes more than one job a day. My goal is to take Thursday off so I can do my apartment hunting.. we'll see if I get to. Aside from work, my grandfather was taken to the ER this past Saturday, is hopefully going home tomorrow and will be on oxygen at home until he is able to come to Houston to see his Oncologist. All while my great-grandmother is still in the nursing home. And guess what else, my father had to have sort of emergency day surgery today after having a check-up at his doctor yesterday. Fun times. Do I stay in town and relax this weekend or do I go to Alice to give my grandmother a break?

Friday night..

I left work at noon on Friday so I could drive down to Alice to spend the night with my great-grandmother who was moved from the hospital in Corpus to a nursing home in Alice for her rehab. That was the longest night of my life! The lady doesn't sleep! She slept from about 9:45 to 10:45 then was up until 1:00AM when I made the nurse give her a sleeping pill and a pain pill. To my surprise, 2:30AM comes and she's awake again! She only slept an hour and a half with the Ambien and Darvocet she took!?! At 3:30 I made the nurse give her another pain pill and she finally slept off and on until about 6. She would seriously wake up like every 20 minutes and ask me questions like who's going to take her church money to church for her? She has her $5 bills in the envelopes already ready to go, but someone needs to get them from her house. How's Shorty, I worry about him (my grandfather who has been feeling sick lately with cancer treatment remnants). Are you going to the wedding (my cousin is getting married in Costa Rica next month). What about the shower next weekend? Seriously question after question after question in between the times when she was snoring.. definitely a long night. Every time she woke up, what time is it? 10:30 Mamaw, no, only 10:30 it seems much later. What time is it? 12:00 Mamaw, that's all? What time is it? 1:00 Mamaw, followed by more questions and sleeping pill. 1:05 she was sound asleep again. 2:30 What time is it? (holy crap an hour and a half of sleep!) More questions, pain complaints and bowel movement complaints. This is when the nurse tried to "help" her have a BM I'll leave the rest to your imagination, something I never want to experience again. 3:30Am we finally got another pain pill and slept a while longer waking only a few times for a few minutes each time.

my weekend..

So I expected to have a nice and relaxing weekend in Alice, Texas this weekend. We were throwing a shower for my cousin who is getting married next month, should be a fun little Saturday activity. Yeah, I got to my mom's house Friday afternoon to find out that my great-grandmother who is 97 years old fell at her house that morning. It ended up being a stressful weekend of planning/having shower and seeing Mamaw in Corpus an hour away at the hospital. She had surgery Sunday morning and was still pretty out of it from the anesthesia when I saw her around 11:30 Sun morning. She didn't go into ICU after the surgery which most elderly have to so that was good to hear. She will need to go to a skilled nursing facility when she leaves the hospital and it's sort of my job to find one for her since I work in one for a living. It was an exhausting weekend, I think mentally as well as the physical lack of sleep. 97 years old and she can no longer live by herself, I honestly wouldn't be surprised if she doesn't live too much longer after this. The lady is on NO medications, that's almost unheard of! She takes a baby aspirin every day but that is all, and not because she needs to! The next step is to figure out where she goes next.

wahoo!

I'm three for three! Three days of working out! I never said the real reason I have started working out all of the sudden. I was watching a movie Friday night with the new boy, he had his arms around me and started poking my belly fat.. yeah time to get rid of it! He thought it was fun, I thought it was humiliating. :) Tomorrow night I have a mystery dinner theater thing to go to for work so won't be able to work out then this weekend I'll be visiting my grandparents and probably won't work out, so hopefully I'll be able to get back into it on Monday! I'm out of commission on facebook until probably Sunday. Peace out.

Day 2

I'm on two days straight of working out! It feels good to say I am actually going to the gym. After last night's workout though I came home and fell asleep but then woke up several times throughout the night. I'm hoping tonight will be different, I need a full night's sleep tonight! Perhaps my next purchase will be an MP3 player, there's a TV in the small facility I'm calling a gym at my apartment complex but today it was on ESPN and I couldn't figure out how to change the channel. I wanted my next electronics purchase to be a Nintendo Wii but I think an MP3 player is much more important at this point! Peace out.

i did it

I finally went to the gym. I started out on the stair stepping machine, got bored after 5 minutes then moved to the bike where I lasted 30 minutes. Tomorrow I think I will work on some upper body workouts. I'm proud of myself! They always say that working out energizes you but I have to say, energizing it was not. I came back, ate a little something, sat down to watch a little tv, then fell asleep. I feel really lazy now.

surprise

So in the last few weeks my addiction to facebook.com has led to talking with an old friend. We met up for dinner last Thursday, had a really good, fun time. This Thursday we met for dinner again, he came back to my place, we were drinking and looking at old pictures and talking, definitely more than a friend vibe. Friday night I went to his place and we watched a movie, definitely cuddling on the couch. Surprising for me, I didn't realize meeting up with an old friend might lead to something more. It'll be interesting to see where things go from here.

crazy busy day.

So I work at a nursing home. Who would have thought it would be a really busy job? Not me! First thing this morning, we had a resident THROW his oatmeal bowl at one of the aides. Being the social worker, I had to go in and speak with him. I went in the room (having a good rapport with the man) and said, What's going on? He told me he didn't want oatmeal, he eats raisin bran but every morning on the tray is a bowl of oatmeal. He said he told the aide to take it back and when she didn't and just walked out of the room he threw it at her. He proceeded to explain various situations that have happened while he's been staying there with us and said they just treat me like shit, that's no way to treat someone. I replied saying, and it's okay to throw a bowl of oatmeal at someone? He said you're damn right! Yeah, our director of nurses kicked him and his wife out of our facility. They have been there several weeks and not once has the man let housekeeping come in to clean the room, change the sheets. Nasty. The man pees on the freakin floor and would not let the staff clean the room, it smelled so terrible! That was within the first 30 minutes of my work day today. Unfortunately that was just a precursor to the rest of my day. I don't think I've had a more stressful day.

Just to reminisce, here's a picture from the past.

random thoughts

I think it is so cool when you can meet up with people you were friends with in high school but haven't seen since then and still get along like no time has passed. Last Thursday I met up with a friend that I hadn't seen since my hair was short and spiky, the summer after our freshman year of college. It was so much fun talking to him again, we met for dinner and neither of us wanted dinner to end. I always feel guilty staying out later than my normal work hours because that means my dog is at home extra long by himself, holding his bladder and bowels. It's not just that I feel guilty, sometimes he gets mad at me when I'm gone longer than usual and I come home to find feces somewhere in the house. That's how cool my dog is. Also, he won't eat or drink a bit when I'm gone thanks to his separation anxiety, but am I going to spend money to give my dog Prozac? HELL NO!! Pills for people are expensive enough, my dog can suffer with his anxiety!

new addictions!

I have been completely addicted lately to Facebook.com. I joined MySpace to find out from my sister the next day about Facebook. It's amazing, you can find old school mates from anywhere, I love it! Sorry that I've been neglecting my blog, I always knew I would neglect it anyway. I am so bad about any kind of journal and always have been. I still read others' but it's hard to take the time to write my own. On another note, why is it always hard to find a new place to live? Apartments are way more expensive than I'd ever like to pay on my own, however a house would be even more terrible by myself! I want to move into Houston instead of staying on the outskirts again but man I'll be lucky to find a one bedroom for under $1,000 a month! I'm half contemplating taking my parents up on their offer to move back in with them again. This would be the third time and I really just want to be on my own, but saving money is always a temptation for me. We'll see how life pans out for me in the next few months. Peace out.

frogs

HaHa. I remember a time long ago when my dear friend Calli said to her roommate, in a very excited tone of voice, "Do you like frogs?! Come with me!!" HAHA :) That still makes me laugh every time I see something to do with frogs. Santa, a.ka. my mom, gives me a calendar every year for Christmas. This year, my calendar is twelve different frogs, how odd! The first thing I thought was that I should send it to Calli. When I graduated college Cal gave me a gift of a little Swarovski crystal frog with green crystal eyes, I love the little tiny thing and I think of Calli and her baby Zoie every time I see it. Sometimes I really miss all my friends from ACU and I'm sad I had to leave early. Then again, I wouldn't be who and where I am today if I hadn't left!

Happy New Year!

It seems, since I work full time and do not yet have vacation time, that the holidays just kind of fly by. It's sad to say, but I've put them behind me almost like they never even happened. Last week was a busy one and I'm afraid this week will be just as busy, which is really going to suck because I have to work next Saturday. I joined both myspace and facebook this week so look me up! I don't have a lot of friends yet and I haven't personalized my profiles much.

Peace out.