Happy New Year!!

Yikes, I always seem to forget to post on here!!!

 

New Years Images @ Bopmyspace.com

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year!!:)

From our house to yours....

Merry Christmas! 

Merry Christmas Slide Show:)

Enjoy!

Big news,Busy,busy,busy! and frustration,LOL

Yikes,I never seem to post to this blog as much, sorry!

Of course, it's mainly for 'family and friend' news updates...maybe nothing ever happens in our family here? LOL

My biggest update is that Dustin joined the Army, was sworn in yesterday and leaves in Jan!!

And my second bit of news is that Kyle decided not to wait until Jan or Feb to move to his cousin's apt, and has moved out this week to live with some friends here in town.

I received the things that the man who served with my Grandfather sent, you can read more about that on my other blog here  

Click here: Grandad, A Christmas Hippo :) and Web Surfing Again

 

and you can also read about what I'll be doing this coming Thursday here 

Click here: What are You Doing on Dec.14th ?

 

the behind the scene story that I Didn't post about on the other blog is that I have been heavily involved in making the Patriot Guard Riders portion of this ceremony happen. Originally, one of the state Road Captains tried to make ME the "Ride Captain",lol...but I deferred to a biker. I still attended a meeting with the owner of the area Harley shop and the man who is going to be Ride Captain last Friday though, and I have also spent a lot of time emailing and phoning with the Civil Air Patrol guy who is arranging that end of it.

 

Yesterday, the Civil Air Patrol guy offered me the opportunity to read the speaking portions of the ceremony...I was like Yikes! but said to him that although I appreciated the honor, that the script clearly says that the Civil Air Patrol rep is supposed to do that part.

 

This whole thing is sort of mushrooming,lol...the Harley guy was going to email our state reps from the area, to let them know the ceremony is taking place.  This has been so awesome, to be involved in planning all this! because I really think it is going to be very cool, to attend the ceremony on Thursday (before I go to work! nice that the cemetary is located in the town where I work.)

 

Emma is gone right now getting Aiden's Christmas pics taken,and she and he will leave Friday for Arkansas to visit her mother, and be gone till the 22nd. It will be very weird, to not have Aiden here.

 

This past weekend at work was horrible!! because we have a resident who has gone into a major decline, and yet keeps trying to walk, so is frequently falling down. Essentially, my coworker and I on the unit of 14 spent the weekend taking turns with one of us sitting with the woman to prevent a fall, while the other one tried to do the work we needed to get done for the other residents. But if anyone else needed help while the other worker was giving care? we of course had to go take care of them...and be on pins and needles that the woman we were trying to keep safe would attempt to get up. (and yes...she DID, several times over the weekend, and so had several more falls.)

 

We are an assisted living facility, not a nursing home...so we are not set up at all for this level of care, nor can we on a unit of 14 Alzheimer's residents have one staff member out of the two sit 24/7 with just one resident.It was the most nerve-wracking weekend I have ever had since I started working there last May!! (that resident will be moved elsewhere as soon as the family can find a nursing home placement)

 

In other work-related news,LOL, how many of you can say that a 103 year old put you in a headlock and beat the snot out of you? :) We are getting a 103 year old lady on the empty bed in our unit, essentially because we are a locked unit and she has taken to wandering in her wheelchair.(like last week....out the front door of the facility, with her legs held out in front of her and going 90 miles an hour down the walkway into the parking lot!!)   We had her up on our unit last night,even though she hasn't moved there yet, because she kept trying to exit the building downstairs....so she combined with our other problem resident made for a fun evening.

 

Anyway, she proceeded while we were tied up with our problem resident to put herself to bed in someone else's bed! and we just let her sleep there until her aide from downstairs came to get her...and then I went to assist the aide to get her out of the bed, which is when she started swinging,lol, and then got me in a headlock while punching the aide and myself! This woman is only like 90 pounds, but she packs a mean punch...and I also had a heck of a time extricating myself from the headlock!! Pretty darn strong for 103!! But how can you NOT love someone who can still be that feisty when they are over 100 years old? :)

 

And I guess that''s it for now:)

My life is so interesting,LOL

Hmm...where to start :)  Well, remember that Wreaths Across America thing I  posted about awhile back ?  www.wreathsacrossamerica.com   

The Patriot Guard Riders  www.patriotguard.org  ,which I signed up for in July but have never made it on a mission, have joined in on this to provide an honor guard and participate in the Wreath Laying coming up on Dec. 14th.

So the other day I emailed someone, because the National Cemetary in Staunton was one of the places listed where they were going to lay wreaths, and asked who I would contact about participating in this?  The PGR guy who emails me back decides that the person who is going to be coordinating this is....ME,rofl.

I located the Civil Air Patrol guy who is going to be in charge of the ceremony, and then I have spent the last few days talking to folks like the owner of the Shenandoah Harley Davidson place in Staunton, emailing another PGR member who like myself has never gone on a mission before, emailing and talking with the Civil Air Patrol guy who found out he was in charge of this about 10 minutes before he got my first email,LOL......emailing the first PGR guy I contacted to say "Yikes! You are putting Me in charge of this, and I've never BEEN on a PGR mission before....and I don't even have a bike!!" (I have visions of me ticking off large groups of bikers,lol, by showing up out of the blue and saying a la Casper Weinberger "I'M in charge here!" rofl.)

And I have apparently become the 'go to' gal here :) because in talking with all these various folks, they were all unaware of Each Other....so I was like, hey, y'all all need to know that the Harley Dealership owner is talking to the VFW and some active duty service members, the Civil Air Patrol guy is talking to the American Legion...and that some fellow named 'Dewey' and I, who have never even ridden on a Patriot Guard mission before, are handling That end of it,rofl.

In the middle of all This, April wakes up last night and starts the scene from the Exorcist (think vomiting) at about 2 a.m. So she stays home from school and misses the first practice for the musical.

I missed the phone call from the gentleman who served on the USS Pamanset with Grandad in WW II, but he is calling me back tomorrow(says he has a picture of Grandad,very cool)

And I have been working all week during all of this,lol.

So, that is my life to date...how is Your week going so far?? :)

Way to Go, April Dawn!! :)

CONGRATULATIONS! to April, on getting a part as an 'orphan' in the upcoming production at her high school of  Oliver! 

(the picture is from last month...horrible picture of me,LOL, but good one of April and her favorite nephew:)

Pumpkin Pie

I wanted to share a little about what my work is like, on the Alzheimer's wing.

Lots of families came in to either take their loved one out to dinner on Thanksgiving, or to bring them Thanksgiving goodies.  In the case of one particular lady, they brought her a very large piece of pumpkin pie.

Well...I wish they wouldn't have. This piece of pie worried that patient (and my coworker and I) for the next 3 hours after they brought it! I have no idea WHY it was such a distressing piece of pie for the patient?  But her family carried it to the dining room as they were leaving, and set it on the table with her.

This caused her to be unable to eat any dinner. She attempted over and over to give the pie away to her tablemates, and every time I went by her table, she'd say to me "I wonder where this came from?" and I'd reply "Your son and daughter in law brought it for you." and she'd say "Oh, they were here?"  I often hear from soldiers in Iraq that they feel like they are in the movie 'Groundhog day", as the same thing seems to happen day after day. All during dinner, I could empathize with that feeling,lol, as I believe this woman and I had that same conversation roughly 207 times:) (note...posssible overexaggeration on the author's part here?lol)

The woman ate only two bites of the pie during dinner, and was still attempting to give it to either one of the staff, or her tablemates, as I wheeled her wheelchair out of the dining room.  I took the pie back to her room, thinking that perhaps she might want to eat it once she got back there?

But instead, over the next few hours as I entered and exited her room...we CONTINUED to have the 'wonder where this came from?your son and daughter in law brought it,oh they were here?" conversation....and she CONTINUED to try and give either my coworker or I the pie.

I finally figured that there is NO way this woman is going to eat this piece of pie, I am tired of it disturbing her AND my coworker and I...and I just threw the piece of pie out. I would never have guessed a piece of pie could be so upsetting? and while I remain curious as to why it bothered her so much.....was it too large? (it was a giant piece of pie)did she have a previous unfortunate association with pumpkin pie in the past, and the memory is gone but the anti-pie feeling remains?  I'll never know the answer.

But...I was so upset by the whole thing,lol, that I couldn't bring MYSELFto eat a piece of pumpkin pie later that evening...I ate a piece of chocolate pie instead!!

 

Pics,etc.

Had a heck of a time getting a blog post on here...I think it was just a fluke that I managed to get one yesterday on Mail Call!  because before and since then, AOL has been a bite in the shorts to use.

But I did want to get these pics up from Kyle's grad. (and,as I said over on the other blog....I was TRYING for light auburn hair,lol, and seem to have ended up with dark pumpkinhead :)  (altho some one did very nicely say they liked my hair! :)

I am getting ready to go in and work 11 pm to 7 am tonight....will be working that for the next week, and then I think back to 3 pm to 11 pm.  I actually would rather work 11 to 7, seems like 3 -11 shift you miss everything, when you miss those evening hours at home!

Emma starts back to finish her CNA classes (that got interrupted when Aiden was at UVA) next week.

Other than that, not a whole lot going on. Whatever I was going to write two days ago,lol, when I was first trying to post these pics, has faded into the wind by now. I hope AOL gets their glitches ironed out, whatever the problem is.

And I think I am off to take a nap before work :)

(I remember now..I DID wnat to mention my sis' post here

Click here: A Red Thread to China: The Godmother  )

 

Congratulations,Kyle!!

Congratulations! to my middle son, who completed 7 weeks of Basic Jail Officers Training and graduates today! :)

Way to go,Kyle!

Love,Mom

With a baby in the house....

I find we are all remembering songs, and all kinds of things we haven't thought of in a long time :)

Like, I started doing that thing "How big is Aiden? Sooooo big!" (and lift up his arms) Emma asked "is that something standard? Because my Mom did the same thing while she was here."  I said "Yes, I believe it is...dating back to prehistoric times" LOL (which would be when I had MY babies :)

So yesterday, I had the beginning of a song stuck in my head, largely because Emma did one of our bathrooms in a 'Ducky" theme :) When Ben came home, I asked him "do you remember that song with the line...."put down the ducky?"  He asked if I meant Rubber Ducky, and I said no, that's not it.

You know me,lol, this morning I Googled it. The line goes ...."Put down the ducky, if you want to play the saxophone.." ROFL...and there's actually an international training agency that has it as their Theme song!!! 

Click here: Village Training

 

(the things you find out when you Google :)

 

One things my children will tell you, is that even though I can't carry a tune, there was a lot of music and singing when they were little...I got that from My Mom.  And with Ben and Kyle being 6 and 8 years older than their sister, they were exposed to all kinds of baby/kids songs and videos.

 

Like Veggie Tales   lol, in my family, all you have to do is start out "oh, where is my hairbrush?..." and everyone knows the words to the song :) We also used to always sing the song from the Elephant Show ("Skinnama rinka dinky dink, skinnamarinky do...I love you.") And we all recall when Blues Clues came out :) "we are looking for blues clues,we are looking for blues clues..."

 

I know from some of my pediatric patients when I was doing home health that there are all kinds of new children's shows, which I'm sure we'll get exposed to now that we have a little one around again :)

 

But for now...there's suddenly a lot more singing of nonsense songs going on in my house :)

I am still around :)  Totally out of the loop, and still unpacking boxes,lol,but just flying by for a quick 'hey'.

The above picture is of a local mountain called 'Massanutten', and it was taken by one of the 'kids' (19 years old,lol) just snapping pics out of the car window with a disposable camera trying to use the film up on the way to get the pics developed :)

Just thought I'd share peek at our corner of the world here, and say I hope to get back to the 'regularly boring blogging' sometime next week.

We're Moving :)

Blogging will be light the next week or so. Ben and Emma and Kyle and I are all going together on renting a townhouse, and we will be moving this coming week.

My Dorky Life

If your arm was swollen, and had a reddened area with red streaks radiating outwards from it, most people would go to a doctor. This is what they taught me in nursing school (100 years ago,lol:) but when it happened to me, I decided the best course of action was "ignore it, and wait to see what happens. It doesn't hurt, and other than the itching, doesn't really bother me." (NOT what they taught me in nursing school, but ask any nurse....we are not good patients!:)

 

However, my son's fiancee convinced me to get it checked out. So I was given THREE prescriptions...because the ER doc wanted to treat it as both a possible infection, and/or an allergic reaction.  Out of the three prescriptions? the doctor wrote conflicting instructions on TWO of them, and I could not get the prescriptions filled until they were clarified. THAT makes me feel SO much better about getting it checked out...I lucked into a doc who can apparently 'get it right' ONE out of THREE times. Gotta love those odds!

 

When the redness and swelling subsided...it looks like it was possibly a cat scratch.  Can't recall that particular incident? but since we seem to specialize in raising 'attack kittens' ("Look, there's a leg...get it!  Try the arms!":) I can believe that could have happened. So kudos to Emma, for convincing me the 'Denial' method of treatment wasn't the best course of action!

 

For the 'rest of the story" (that I didn't post on my 3,000 other blogs,lol) yesterday when the above occurred, we also had Aiden cry non-stop for 3 hrs after getting his two month shots, and his leg was very red. So, after we got home from my ER visit, we went back to take him in per her Doctor's instructions.

 

Where the ER said "nothing is wrong" and sent us home.

 

Hope today is a better day for everyone!:) The swelling and redness in my arm has subsided, and Aiden is still a little fussy, but seems OK. Our main concern yesterday was he had 5 of his 'episodes' in quick succession after getting the shot.....I know, they aren't officially called 'petit mal seizures', but they sure as heck LOOK like that. And seizures are a possible side effect of the DPT shots.

 

The one good thing about the ER visit was that the woman in line in front of us (drawn to Aiden's cuteness:) started talking to Emma and said her own son was diagnosed finally at 18 months with epilepsy after much the same journey through neurology at UVA that Aiden has started on. She imparted a GREAT deal of advice,etc. to Emma.

 

Aiden Baptized Today! Oct.21,2006

Little Aiden got baptized today (and didn't even cry!!)

 

Oct.18,2006 Happy Birthday to...Me :) and a video

As a birthday gift to myself,lol, I made another 'corny' video (someone actually posted that comment on one of my videos..."corny,but good.":)

I can't 'embed' so here's the link...I call it a 'love letter' to my family..title 'We are Family"

http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=d4b7c48fafd2a073222689f91608e10b.998500&fr=yvmtf

"Book Tag"

I actually got 'book-tagged' over on Yahoo 360, by my friend Missy

but I thought it would be fun to pass it on.

Here's the 'rules:

1. Grab the nearest book. If you are currently reading something, that'll be fine too.

2. Open the book to page 123.

3. Find the fifth sentence.

4. Post the text of the next 4 sentences on your Blog along with these  instructions.

5. Don't you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet  I know that is what you were thinking!

6. Tag 5 people

"Nine Months at Ground Zero" The Story of the Brotherhood of Workers Who Took on a Job like No Other by Glenn Stout,Charles Vitchers, and Robert Gray

"Before then,people would be in positions where they would hamper somebody else. For instance, when we were using the man basket to pick steel out of the South Tower, it was being handled from a crane with a 350-foot boom on Liberty Street. Con Edison and the Bureau of Water and Sewer Operations needed to get at the watermain that ran up Liberty Street and the gasmain, and shut them off. But the matting for the crane was in the wrong spot."

--------------------------------------------------

I just started reading this, so I wasn't even up to page 123 yet.  How did I come across this book? Well, I always check out the New Non-Fiction section when we go to the library,lol. (can you say 'uber-geek'?)

For a summary:  From Booklist
Although the attacks on the Twin Towers on 9/11 are etched into our consciousness, few of us understand the enormity of the task of the subsequent search and rescue and protracted debris removal. The shots of the site with the coming and going of trucks is the most any of us remember about the grueling cleanup project. As the men who originally built the towers, coauthors Charles Vitchers and Robert Gray were uniquely qualified to help. Unasked, they devoted nine months of their lives, not to mention the stress, sleep deprivation, and loss of family life that went along with it. The scale and complexity is nearly unfathomable: 400 million pounds of twisted steel; 600,000 square feet of thick shattered glass; and mountains of the trappings of office life, including chairs, desks, and other furnishings; all mixed with the scattered remains of almost 3,000 victims. Through this account of their heroic effort, beginning at the moment of first impact, we can begin to get a sense of what the men and women went through who dealt with the tragedy firsthand. David Siegfried
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

And now I need to 'book tag' 5 others.

I'll try

Proud Army Wife

Unhappily Ever After

Leslie's Universal/CAtholic Thoughts

A Red Thread to China

and Terry's Timeout

(and you don't have to participate,lol, I just thought it would be interesting. I'm going to cross post this on the Mail Call! blog, since this is a 'private' blog...so you can link back to that one if you decide to play:)

UPDATE   Thanks! for playing along

Leslie

Mandy

and ProudArmy Wife put this in the comments over on Mail Call!

"my book next to me only has 63 pages...lol  I'd like to share what it say's "Realize that it's never too late.  Do ordinary things in an extraordinary way.  Have health and hope and happiness.  Take the time to wish upon a star.  And don't every forget---for even a day--- how very special you are."

Life goes full circle

Life goes full circle

Hottest 2007 Calendar

There are some ways to support the troops that are...mmm..just easy on the eyes!

From the website 

HOTTEST 2007 CALENDAR
 

You may have heard about it or seen it in the media, now you can order the 2007 America's Heroes Reconnaissance Marines Calendar for yourself and/or all your friends. 100% of the proceeds go to our wounded heroes and their families as directed by those who have been awarded the Purple Heart.

 

http://www.freedomisnotfree.com/

 

 

Pics of Aiden in the hospital

Here's pics of our little guy....can you believe he is up to 13+ pounds??

Yay! Aiden on the Way Home:)

Hurray! Aiden was discharged this evening, and is on the way home!!

Thanks to everyone, for all the love and prayers and encouragement!

And, if you'd like to see what half my family is up to,LOL, roll on over to youngest sis's blog and check out the Hong Kong pics.

http://emanoff-china.blogspot.com/

Top Ten Reasons Halloween is Better than Marriage

Too cute...found this on MySpace:)

10. You are guaranteed to get at least a little something in the sack, candy never has a headache or any other excuse.

9. If you get tired, you can wait 10 minutes and go at it again.

8. The uglier you look, the easier it is to get some.

7. You don't have to compliment the person who gives you some.

6. It's OK when the person you're with fantasizes you're someone else, because you are.

5. Forty years from now you'll still enjoy candy.

4. If you don't like what you get, you can always go next door.

3. It doesn't matter if the kids hear you moaning and groaning.

2. Less guilt the morning after when you tried others.

AND THE #1 REASON IS. . . . . .

1. You can do the whole neighborhood.

Tuesday Aiden Update

Aiden stayed overnight at the hospital again last night, as they were running a 24 EEG test, with video, so that if any more episodes occurred they would have both an EEG reading and video of how he looked during and after the episode. (the 24 hour Aiden show?)

They are also keeping him tonight, as they decided to extend the test. He had an episode yesterday just prior to them placing the electrodes to start the test, he actually had it in the hall on the way down to the EEG room, so all the doctors witnessed one of these episodes for the first time.

Essentially, he seems to go completely unresponsive for anywhere from 15 to 60 seconds, and then is extremely hard to rouse afterwards. (although he still keeps breathing during the unresponsive part.) So it does seem to be some kind of 'absence' type of seizure activity.  He had two small episodes last night, and then the doctors witnessed the tail end of an episode this morning and they decided to extend the test another 24 hours.

So, we have a little 'elf' with electrodes glued all over his head, and a long stocking cap over that to keep all the wires together.He was very funny yesterday when they were gluing the electrodes on...he was of course screaming while they were gluing the stuff to his head (and holding him still to do it) but then every time the tech would use the compressed air to quick dry the glue, he would go instantly quiet and get this look on his face like 'oh, I like THIS". Even the tech and the nurse started laughing, as he did it every single time:) He just already has such a quirky personality,even at 6 weeks!

I am choosing not to speculate at all on what any of this could possibly be, as the doctors have not really given us any tenative diagnosis or ideas, and although I have suspicions, I figure why research something that it might turn out not to be?

Again, I appreciate all the words of encouragement, and the prayers!! Thank you very much!!

Update on Aiden

He's still over at UVA Medical Center...they are planning on running some tests today, am getting ready to head over the mountain back to the hospital.

(at least, thank goodness, it's not raining and foggy....I HATE driving over the mountain to Charlottesville on a Good day...let alone at night,in the fog, in the rain!! Saturday night in pea soup fog at the top of the mountain coming and going, was...interesting. And not the best time to think of all the pileups over the years on that road in those conditions!!)

We're hopeful that after these tests he may be discharged, and we can do outpatient follow up. Will let everyone know.

Thanks so much! for all the prayers, and emails/words of encouragement!!

Aiden in University of Virginia hospital

Aiden had what appeared to be some seizure-like activity yesterday and his mom of course took him to the hospital. The CAT scan he had there was, they said,"fine" .....but they decided to send him on to University of Virginia Medical Center over in Charlottesville because he had some more activity in the ER at our local hospital. (They appeared to be more of an 'absence' type of activity, with a fixed stare and non responsive for 15 to 30 seconds.)

The neurologist who saw him over there said the CAT scan didn't show any tumors (thank you, God) and Aiden didn't show any symptoms of meningitis...but he had had 5 episodes in all, the last one being at 8:30 pm Sat night in the UVA pediatric ER....so the neurologist wanted to admit him overnight for observation. If he had any more activity, they would do an EEG....if he is without activity for tonight and tomorrow,they will most likely discharge him and schedule the EEG for sometime in the near future.

So I'd greatly appreciate any prayers, and I will keep y'all posted.

Thanks,Kathi

Not much going on

The above is my brother and his wife, and their TWO year old daughter, who I have yet to meet, as they live in Hong Kong.  I put up a pic of them because Mom and Dad are leaving today to go visit them, and my youngest sis will fly over the second week they are there to visit also.I hope to meet my youngest niece before she graduates from high school,lol.

I am watching Aiden a lot this week, which is fun. His dad took him for a shot yesterday, and I had been going to go with him, but April woke up vomiting the night before so I stayed home with her. It seems to be a virus we've been passing back and forth, and I would just as soon it passes me by, as I have never really gotten over my sinus infection/cold yet...I was getting better, and then seem to have gotten worse again. So I'm already sick and tired of being sick and tired:)

Emma decided this past weekend that she wanted to join Soldiers Angels to actually 'adopt' a soldier, as long as I would 'co-adopt' one with her.So I saw she got her name today, and I'm looking forward to us going shopping for his first 'care package':)that should be fun. 

Other than that, there's not a whole lot going on...just popping in to say we're still here!

And the grandbaby pics keep coming:)

Just another installment of 'Grandma's Gone Wild',lol. (with pictures,that is, heavens...what were You thinking?:)

The sis and bro-in-law have good news posted on their blog

Click here: A Red Thread to China: Good times on the horizon

 

(and how did families and friends keep up before blogging?lol)

 

Emma has news also, but since new motherhood seems to have halted her blogging in it's tracks (gee,wonder why?) I will pass it on. She was accepted into a class for Certified Nursing Assistant training starting next week...3 week class.  Very proud of her!  Looks like Grandma will be doing some babysitting,lol, like that would be a hardship? NOT!

 

Big Ben continues to sell cars:) always knew he'd find his niche. And Kyle ALSO starts jailer class next week...seven week class,everyone seems to be going to school at once here:)

 

Can't believe Oct.1 is tomorrow (which, of course, means only 17 'shopping days',lol, till my Oct. 18 birthday!:) Can't believe I will be 46,either? as Kyle puts it...darn near 50!! Where does the time go?

 

Well, that's it for the updates. Love to all!

Saturday was nice:)

Emma and Aiden came over while Ben was working, to watch movies. I think I forgot to mention that Emma and Ben gave me a subscription to NetFlix, and are paying for it for awhile as a gift. THANK YOU BEN AND EMMA!!

Kyle and April are disgusted with me,lol, because I ordered some DOCUMENTARIES that I have been wanting to see for awhile....Kyle said "don't you have any REAL movies on your list????"

Emma had gotten Flight 93, because I hadn't seen it yet.  If you haven't? I urge you to consider it.  It was profoundly moving, and of course we cried. I don't think I could ever watch it again, same as with Black Hawk Down...I saw that once, and don't think I could ever watch it again. (and yet I can watch Band of Brothers over and over, and also have watched 'We Were Soldiers.." several times....go figure???)

Anyway, my first Netflix I had ordered was the 9/11 documentary by the two French brothers. April and I had watched it 6 months after 9/11 on television, and Emma said she had watched it then,also.  But I wanted to get it because they said they had updated interviews and stuff.  It seemed appropriate to watch it after Flight 93. I still think it is the best thing to watch about the WTC because the guy was actually filming inside when the building came down.

But it did start me thinking, after we watched it. Is there any movie or documentary about what happened at the Pentagon that day? I haven't seemed to come across one.

My other Netflix documentary was Occupation Dreamtime, which was filmed in 2004 with the soldiers of the 82nd Airborne. It was OK, I guess on a par with Gunner Palace, which I already had, but I had thought it would be different or better.

Some other Neftflix stuff I have pending is Baghdad ER, since I don't have HBO. I DID actually put some movies on my Queu list, and invited April and Kyle to do the same. I have never seen 'Lost in Translation'. Can't think of the others, but darn April ordered like 2 million episodes of CSI...since they come two at a time, we should be able to start ordering movies again next year,lol.

And all during our 'movie marathon', I also got to cuddle and play with the cutest grandbaby in the world:)

And that was our Saturday:)

New baby pics:) and random ramblings

Just had to share 'em:) The little guy is finally starting to feel better...so of course now Emma is finally coming down with it! (and he ain't so 'little',lol, he's up to TEN POUNDS!!)

I stopped by there on Thurs morning on my way home from work,because Emma had been taking him back by the hospital Weds night as his temp was going up again and he was vomiting again. And no one had ever called me at work that night to say what happened!!

So Ben answers the door,and I say 'what's up?" Ben is running around getting ready to leave for work, and he tells me the doc said to give him only Pedia Lite overnight, and call their pediatrician for an appt on Thursday morning. I can hear Aiden crying thru the baby moniter,and Ben says 'that's him right now." (rofl. did he think I wouldn't recognize the sound?:)

I go back to their room and Emma is lying in bed looking like she is exhausted, so I get Aiden from the bassinet and say "I can give him Pedia Lite" and go fix him a bottle. I sat down on the couch to give it to him, and I was rolling laughing, he has this look on his face......'who is this holding me?what the heck is in this bottle? who cares,I'm hungry...but I'm going to keep my eye on this situation!"   And it was a sweet,sweet moment...Mom, bet YOU know what I'm talking about:) Holding this little guy who's gulping the stuff down and making happy,hungry baby noises. Life doesn't get any better than this....this grandmothering stuff ROCKS!

So while Aiden and I are in this quiet,happy moment....Ben is racing around saying "Emma,where is your purse,my keys are in it" and Emma is calling out from the back "it's in the living room" and Ben  is flinging things all over and saying "I can't find it!" Emma comes down the hall saying "I thought I set it down right when we came in..."

and Ben stops still and looks over at me and says"Wait a minute...I found it.........it's under my Mom's a#*!...  NOT a place I would've thought to look!!!"I am shifting sideways and saying "Gee, I WONDERED what I was sitting on?!" and that's just another Hallmark moment in our chaotic,dorky lives that I know y'all were just waiting for me to share:)

Thursday evening, April and I went over to Ken and Lynn's (my aunt and uncle's) to pick up her bag...they had nicely let her stay there overnight Weds while I was at work, when Emma had to go to the hospital with Aiden at the last minute. (Kyle was working nights, and April had been going over to stay at Ben and Emma's.)

While we were there, I said to Lynn, "I have been meaning to ask you for quite awhile.....I do all this troop support stuff, and when that Vietnam vet emailed me awhile back, in talking to him I asked him what unit he had served with, and it ocurred to me later...I don't have any idea what unit YOU served with."

Which led to a really cool 45 minute discussion, and I was really glad April was there. I grew up knowing Lynn had served as nurse in the Army in Vietnam,but I don't think April had ever really heard that much about it. She was really interested, and kept asking Lynn questions, and that's probably one of the longer conversations I've had with her about her service in my life.

She was 22 when she deployed, and a Captain in the Army Nurse Corps. She was 'over there' in 1967-68,and turned 23 shortly after she got there. She was with the 91rst Evac, at a little hospital base near a place called Tuy Hoa (pronounced 'Two Whee') and she said the little place where they were based was called Phu Hip 3 (no one knows the spelling,lol)

April asked her what an evac was? and Lynn explained that it was where the guys who weren't injured enough to get evac'd out of country could recuperate.Innocent April says "like a broken finger or something?" and Lynn started laughing and said 'no,for a broken finger they could go right back out. More serious injuries, but not serious enough to get sent to Japan or Hawaii."

She went on to share quite a lot of memories that I had never heard, like her R & R trip to Japan, and her other week where she met Uncle Ken in Hawaii...and the tale of trying to fly back 'in-country' after R & R, the Army at the time made no provisions to get them in or out for R & R,but they'd get court martialed if they didn't turn back up on time! and she refused to get on the return flight to Cam Rahn Bay,because they were bombing there at the time and had no provision for quarters for nurses....said she got threatened with court martial! but she said "I am NOT flying into where they are bombing, with no place to stay when I get there!!" And so one of the other nurses with her managed to find a pilot who was making a flight in to somewhere else in Nam, and agreed to take them.

I was just astounded to hear this,lol..."by the book" Lynn risking court martial?? But it was a rare privilege to hear all these memories of hers. She is one of my inspirations for supporting the troops today. And I still don't think women like her were ever honored as they should have been (and still should be) for their service to our country.

And I'm so grateful my daughter got to hear about this part of her life, that she'd never really known about before. (wish I could get Lynn to write it all down! This is a living part of our family history that shouldn't be lost.)

And I guess that's enough rambling. I am up so late(or early) because my sleep schedule is just ruined...I stayed up too long after getting home from work yesterday, because I didn't have to work last night...and then when I crashed, FINALLY slept for longer than 4 hours:) but woke up just as everyone else was going to bed!!

Just checking in...

to say I'm still alive.(feels like barely,lol.) This late in the game, I have now finally lost my voice. (which some might say is a GOOD thing:)

There's just not a whole lot going on here(or at least that's interesting to write about!) I'm behind on my letter/card writing for soldiers, what else is new? April is going to school, Kyle starts at the  Police Academy   on Oct. 2, and baby Aiden is on the mend.

So, I guess I'm just stopping in to say 'everything is status quo', and let y'all know we're still here.:)

Yay, Aiden already discharged Sat

Emma came by about 11 am, and they had discharged him with an ear infection/upper respiratory infection. He's on antibiotics, and goes back Tues for check up.

Thanks, for all the kind words and prayers:)

Baby Aiden in hospital

Aiden got admitted last night with what is apparently an ear infection,poor little guy. And was also a little  dehydrated. So he's at least an overnight stay, possibly till Sunday,depending on how he does tonight and tomorrow.

And he's only 3 weeks old!!

The new parents are doing as good as brand new parents with a baby in the hospital would be expected to be doing. Not the 'welcome to the world of parenting' I would've wished for them,but they are hanging in there.

I was at work when Emma took him to the ER,so I 'm sitting here doing a little praying, a little grandmotherly fretting, and wishing I could go hug all of them.

The GOOD news is that at first the docs scared the heck out of all of us by saying they thought it was RSV  ,so we are now grateful that it's NOT. (Thank you,God:)

And the other good news is that I know there's lots of family and friends that will be sending up some prayers, which is humbly and gratefully appreciated.

If you want to send an encouraging word to Emma and Ben? I'll be sure to pass that along.

Thanks for letting Grandma share her worries, and I'll keep y'all updated.

"TheSeismic Pirate"

Came across this guy from a comment he left on someone's blog.....he is a riot! (some language)

http://www.seismicpirate.blogspot.com/

 

 

I've BEEN to the Copper Country where he lives...if you want to talk about "the middle of nowhere"? I'm sure the address is near there,lol. And then he gets a job that takes him to even MORE remote places? Got to be nuts:)

That and This:) and pics

Well, I got tired of saying "this and that",lol,so turned it around. Emma emailed a few more pics. I have no clue why Ben put a washcloth on Aiden's head!

I've been off and on all day surfing the other 2,996 tributes.Everyone so far has done a great job, but there's some guy in a lot of comments sections who keeps 'pimping' his website for something totally non-related and I'd like to smack him. That is totally inappropriate.

And then on someone's MySpace blog tribute, some girl went spouting off about how we just all need to 'put this all behind us" and she totally disagreed with the memorials, and other people had lost loved ones,what made the people who were lost on 9/11 so deserving of tributes. A lot of anger there,yikes.

I ended up not going to work at the 'old' job tonight, I am instead running a fever and have Ben's stuff that he had last week,apparently. My throat feels like someone has scrubbed it with a Brillo pad, and I just generally feel like a truck ran over me...yee ha.

Friday, I woke up and didn't feel like cooking ,so I called Emma and said 'what were y'all doing for dinner? because I think I'll buy dinner,I don't feel like cooking."  And then there was a clap of thunder and a flash of lightning and the power went out! (I'm serious,we were in the middle of a thunderstorm,lol) The power came back on, and disregarding any possibility that perhaps God might WANT me to cook supper ...we poceeded with our plans.

Emma and April went to Subways in the pouring rain,one of the perks of being a grandmother,ha ha...I got to stay at their place and hold the baby. THEY have digital cable,and we don't,so I was 'surfing' the channels and came across an HBO special....have any of you heard of the documentary called "Paperclips" ? It was very cool, I missed the first part,but we all ended up watching the rest of it together (April and Emma and I) and getting teary eyed. Very moving. Here's more about it.  

Click here: Paper Clips Movie

 

 

And in an ironic comment on our world today, I had to go by my sister's blog this evening to find out that she's going to Hong Kong!   

Click here: A Red Thread to China: City of Blinding Light

 

Gosh,doesn't anyone ever email anymore? :)

Gosh,it's been almost a week

I have been busy at work, and mostly trying to catch up on sleep,lol. I hate night shift.

I was also working on my post for the 2,996 tribute.It's up over at the Mail Call blog now.

I was extraordinarily fortunate in that I had sent out numerous emails to email addresses for the family and friends of the name I received to honor, and Jonathan Cappello's girlfriend,Dana, replied to me yesterday.

It was really important to me that someone who actually knew him be given the opportunity to say something about him. What she sent me made me cry and smile at the same time, you'll see what I mean.  I got an email from her today, and she is going to also send me some stories she put together about him. I'll post them underneath the first post. (KNEW there was a reason I did that 'test post' thing,lol.)

It's hard for me to convey, what doing the research on 'Jono' did to me. It struck a chord in me from the beginning, that when he died he was only a year older than Ben. And over and over, reading the postings from all his family and friends on all the many websites to honor his name....I just got a sense that here was a young man who was really special, who touched the hearts and lives of so many, and is still so mourned and missed. Yes, I know he is just one of the far too many lost on that day, and I know there were those in our family who knew Tom Burnett,Jr and peripherally knew some of the others on Flight 93....so there were already some folks we perhaps more 'personally' mourn for on Sept. 11.

But added to the list for me now is also Jono. The email I got today from Dana said in part "this is always such a hard time of year for his family and I".  I know we have all prayed in general for victim's families, and specifically for some.....and now every year I plan on including a family I never met in my prayers as my remembrance. Who still mourn a son,brother, and future husband who in all my research came across as 'larger than life' and someone who just embraced life and lived it to the fullest.

And it meant a great deal to me that it was Dana who did respond to my emails. Everywhere I went in my research...she was there. Five years later, she still does web searches of his name,looking to see if anyone has anything posted about him somewhere that she has missed. You might say that is morbid? but I get the sense that she wants to make sure he is never forgotten, and also that she wants to make sure that he knows he will, as she says "always have a part of her heart."  A love like that made me,again, cry and smile at the same time. Cry because his life was cut short far too soon, and smile because his spirit still lives on.

Who knew? that researching a complete stranger could make you feel so much?

Well, I must go. April is going on a hiking trip with the church youth group, and I am dreadfully far behind on my letter writing for Soldiers Angels!

Heard from one of 'my' troops this morning,lol, the sailor who just got back from his second deployment is home,yay! and gave me a holler on instant messenger. Nice way to start the morning:)

Life in the Nursing Lane,and a Video

More than once, my brother and my uncle have said "why don't you write a book?' to me.

I replied to my brother today,Ha! If I wrote a book, it would be about the insanity and chaos that is long term care nursing!

Last night at work, I happened upon a very young (41) year old stroke patient who is slightly MR (mentally retarded) who was drinking water, even though she is supposed to be NOTHING by mouth....they are trying to retrain her how to swallow,she currently has a tube feeding in.    I confiscated the drinking cup, and reiterated the reminder she had been given on the previous shift, when they caught her EATING, that she is to have nothing by mouth.

 

Why is it the 'problem children' are always the ones that are so resourceful,lol.  Later in the night, she had somehow procured ANOTHER water pitcher, and we again caught her drinking water and again confiscated the pitcher,etc.etc. (keep in mind that she is hooked up to her tube feeding at night, and it had not alarmed....so I don't know how she gets around to do all this!!!)

 

Determined, it seems, to do what she wants regardless of the health problems it can cause her (aspiration pneumonia,choking) she very resourcefully in the morning decided to drink her BATHWATER from the wash basin set up on her table!! This didn't go as well as she had apparently hoped....she dumped the water from the wash basin all over the floor in the process,sort of to be expected as have you ever tried to drink from a square basin full of water without spilling it? Her roommate rang to mention that their entire room was covered in water!

 

When I left this morning, she was wheezing like a train engine and stomping around trying to see if she could get someone eating breakfast to slip her some food...and also glaring at ME, because I am, of course, the 'bad guy' who kept taking away her drinking glasses all night and lecturing her.I had checked her 'code status' and she IS a full code, which means  we would have to administer CPR should her heart stop or she goes into respiratory distress....a pretty likely scenario,the respiratory distress, in my opinion,lol.

 

On my way out, I poked my head into the room where the day nurse was giving a pill, as my recalcitrant patient"s breathing was audible from three rooms away, and said brightly to my coworker "Let's review the basics of CPR,shall we?" She rolled her eyes and laughed, and we both shook our heads. This is a patient who's a train wreck that's going to derail on one of us, and I sure hope it;s NOT me!!

 

I am feeling much better, it's amazing what getting almost 6 whole hours worth of sleep FINALLY (thanks in part to Tylenol PM..taken in the morning,though, is that allowed?) will do for a person:)

 

In other news,April and I are contemplating going to Northern Virginia Mon evening, as there is a Patriot Guard Rider mission to provide a 'corridor of flags' for the body of a Marine recently killed in Iraq whose body is being transported to a funeral home for burial in Arlington on Tues. That sounds rather morbid, I guess, but I joined the Patriot Guard Riders back end of July, and have yet to ride with them on a 'mission.' All we'd basically do is hold some flags and stand with all the others as they escort the body in...April actually seemed like she really wanted to go!   But all that is dependent on how the rest of the day goes, and whether I am ever able to get any sleep.

 

And I may need to give Emma a ride to take Aiden to the pediatrician, his left eye is matted shut a lot (most likely a clogged tear duct) and she is going to call them Mon to see if they want her to bring him in early. Otherwise,baby Aiden is doing wonderfully, and is,of course, the most beautiful baby in the world!:)

 

Since those of my readers who aren't family may possibly be wondering about my recent adjustments to the pictures of my family, and editing out of mention of 'my guy', I suppose I should mention that Tony and I came to a parting of the ways. This was something that I had seen coming for awhile, and I think is the right decision for everyone involved.

 

I'm not as upset over this as some people seem to think I might be, because I really beleive this is the best course for me to take,for both April and myself.

 

Well, I must run....it appears that due to a tractor trailer wreck earlier in the day that has shut down the interstate for HOURS, I will have to leave for work earlier and take the back roads.  (So I'll be dodging deer, and rednecks in pickup trucks, rather than tractor trailers,lol.)Since all the other interstate traffic will also have rerouted to the back roads, I anticipate having plenty of time for prayer! due to traffic halts from the overload.

 

Well, the interstate is open now. And I couldn't seem to upload this video to AOL, but I did get it on Yahoo...so here's the link below, it's just a video I made using pics of my grandson and the kittens.

 

http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=d4b7c48fafd2a073222689f91608e10b.803214&fr=yvmtf

 

 

Just 'Our Dorky Life' and miscellaneous stuff

I don't know if y'all have been following the blog of the teacher from our area who has been with the group riding cross country that I mentioned awhile back?  http://cferek.learnerblogs.org/

but they are nearing the end of their ride.They plan on stopping here in our area  next Saturday and spending the night at Station 4  prior to ending their memorial ride at the Pentagon on Sept. 11.

I am SO glad this week is over! I seem to have become part of a sleep deprivation exercise,lol, in that no matter what I did...all week, each day I only seemed able for one reason or another to get only 4 hours of sleep per day (I work nights.) So I look about 107 years old by now,lol. I had a lot of overtime at work, for one thing, and then events each day just seemed to conspire that I would wake up after 4 hours....I have the cell phone in my room,in case there is an emergency with April at school,but I'm thinking perhaps I need to text everyone before I go to sleep and say "only call in case of an emergency!"  I started taking it in there after the day that I DIDN'T have it in there, and April along with 10 other kids, missed the school bus.

And, in the irony dept. I had actually woken up after the 4 hours, and saw that it was pouring down rain and driven to the bus stop, to pick her up!!I had the cell THERE ,lol, but SHE had forgotten HERS that day (do you see a pattern here? ) The reason they all missed the bus is because  it was raining so hard, the high school had the students stay inside and called out when the busses were loading...but April said it was so noisy in there that she and 10 other kids missed hearing the announcement. So I'm not too sure their 'rain system' has worked out all the bugs.

In hindsight, it is just another example of 'our dorky life' .....April apparently doesn't know my cell number, since it's in her phone that she didn't have...so while I am sitting at the bus stop watching bus after bus roll in without discharging my child...she made 12 phone calls to the house saying "where are you?"  She's resourceful though, and she finally ended up calling her cousin, who then called a family friend,Lois, who picked April up and brought her home. And we started the new method of me taking the cell phone in the room when I sleep...so that, as near as I can tell, everyone ELSE in the world can call while I am sleeping,LOL (Like the reason I am up so early now is that Ben called the cell at 4:30 a.m., thinking that I was at WORK, and I couldn't get back to sleep....although I did finally sleep longer than 4 hours!Yay!)

The new parents seem to be experiencing some sleep deprivation themselves,lol, like THAT'S a surprise to any of us parents! But otherwise the little family is doing all right, except that the reason Ben had called me is that he seems to be getting a terrible sore throat....he said his tonsils felt  swollen, he never had them taken out, now would NOT be the time for THAT to be needing to be done!!(Let's hope we don't have to cross that bridge.)

Well, enough I guess about our oh-so-interesting "watching paint dry" kind of life.  Hope everyone has a great weekend! And Happy Labor Day, I will be working this weekend, so I guess that's appropriate (but I do have Monday off,so maybe after my 4 hours of sleep, April and I can find something to do. LOL, we'll probably just 'veg' at home.)

 

Here's My OTHER 'Babies' :)

Finally got the kitten pictures back, Tony forgot to get the first ones on disc so I could upload them.They are getting bigger now! The other day Princess got her claws caught on the curtain and it was swinging back and forth while she was trying to get unstuck...Piper had been lying in the sun in the window, so she turned around and started jumping at the inside of the curtain every time it swung towards her. I probably should have gone to help, but I was laughing too hard:)

 

Motivational Posters

From AOL Journal Editor Jeff came this link to Ishkur  for 'motivational posters'. LMAO at the ones that poke fun at the Internet and bloggers. These posters look like something "Matt Foley" would've promoted,LOL.

(And for those of you who don't know..."I live in a van down by the river" and "Holy Shnykees" are both recurring phrases in my family....tells you a lot about us, doesn't it?:)

Told you there'd be more pics!

1.Aiden

2.Aiden and his dad,my son Ben (wow,that's freaky to say,lol)

3.Ben,Emma, and Aiden

4.April and her new nephew

5.The happy new Grandma and baby

6.Emma and Aiden

7. Three generations...Ben's dad,Ben, and Aiden

Welcome to the World,Aiden!

Yikes, I knew I didn't copy this announcement someplace before I went to bed,LOL.

MY FIRST GRANDSON IS HERE!!:)

Little Aiden arrived at 9:09 a.m this morning:) He is, of course, completely beautiful!  He weighed 7 lbs. 13 oz, and has a big thatch of black hair.

My son, his father, is awed and estatic. Aiden's mother was glowing, and all the assorted grandparents and great-grandparents on both sides of the family were  overjoyed!

I am heading off to catch a few hours of sleep, as I have to work again the night shift, and will be going back to the hospital this evening so I can hold him for the first time. So far, this grandparenting stuff seems way cool to me!!!!

Back awake--4:56 p.m.

Obviously, I slept about 4 whole hours, and now April is agitating for us to leave for the hospital as soon as possible!!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

And I didn't know this was going to happen today, but it's very nice 'icing on the cake' for such a special day for me. I had submitted one of my blog posts to CarnivAOL and it got accepted for this week,wow!

Click here: CarnivAOL 2.0 (I mean 20)

 

---------------------------------------

Update   Finally got some pics uploaded...expect more,LOL.

Tomorrow(the 24th) you can call me Grandma:)

Tomorrow little Aiden Benjamin is scheduled to arrive into the world!!:) I'll be a Grandma, and Tracy and Adam will be Godparents:)

 

This...is a 'Woo Hoo' (I hope:)

I have been wanting to try to make a 'Woo Hoo' since I first saw one,LOL. (You have to have an AIM pages profile, and add pics to it, to be able to make one.)

So,here goes.....hope this works!!:)

 

Wow....Just...Wow. Awesome story.

 

These are 3 You-Tube videos that a fellow Soldiers Angel member shared today, about a father and 'disabled' (you decide) son. What an awesome story of power and love.

 

Update  Well, the first one seems to have disappered, but the other two are still up.

 

 

The second is an interview with them

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuRPxDgzU58

 

 

The third is of their triumphs together

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D52rJd9GX10

 

You're going to need a tissue box handy. What an incredible story of love!

Happy Anniversary to AOL Journals:)

Well, I did a post on my 'public' AOL journal, Mail Call! Supporting the Troops about the 3rd Anniversary for AOL Journals 

and then I played around after I got home from work this morning with my 'Favorite Sites' and 'Other Journals' links on THIS journal, so if you want to go check them out, I put up some friend's sites and some journals that I don't have linked on the other one....and I also put all the pages of recovering soldiers I've featured on the other journal over here, so I can keep track of them.

And under the 'geek excitement' heading,lol, isn't the Flickr badge on the left totally cool!!  I have wanted one for so long....do I have a really sad life,rofl,or what!

I've also put the links to all my other places on the web,lol, so you can say "Kathi is too many darn places on the Internet" or alternatively, "Kathi needs to get a life!":)

FOUR MORE DAYS TILL GRANDBABY AIDEN ARRIVES!!!

Hope everyone has a great week...April starts school tomorrow, and I am off this evening,yay!

UPDATE  Added the pic that Sepintx (the blogger who told how to add the Flickr badge) created, out of the 3 I sent him, for the AOL Anniversary album.......had no idea he'd put them together like that, just thought it was 'neat'.:)  And I also added his regular photoblog to the sidebar.

The week in review:)

Sorry it took me so long to post again, been a busy week. Just got home from working 6 days straight between the two jobs and I am OFF WORK TONIGHT,Yay!!! (and then work the weekend:(

Let's see....the job has been going OK, my manager is a little bit snarky. I've only had two days of orientation to a 52 bed unit that has currently 47 patients, and have been getting done everything that I've been shown to do. And yet, she always comes in in the morning and says "oh, you didn't do THIS? Weren't you ever shown to also do THIS?" Definitely a "glass half-empty" type personality.

However, the feedback I'm getting from the nurse's aides who work with me every night, and from some other nurse's, is that I am doing a bang up job, so I just let her comments roll off my back.

Had a humorous evening,I think Monday or Tuesday night (11 pm to 7 am shift)...my days have kind of begun to run together,lol,(but I know for sure that it's FRIDAY today!!!)

Picture me in a room with a patient who is deaf, half blind, cadaver-thin, and in the middle of throwing a 'snit fit' while she's also having a nosebleed at the same time. She refuses to use her 'communication board", so this entire episode took place in pantomime(on her part, I kept talking to her, which was silly,being as she was deaf:)

While our(the aides and I) main concern was getting the nose bleed stopped, HER main concern was that she also wanted to use the bedpan at the same time....and she was repeatedly pointing to her stomach, and then grunting, and balling her hands into fists and punching them together.

I realized how good I had become at charades,lol, when a light dawned and I said "OH! You're CONSTIPATED!" and then, remembering she was deaf....ran down the hall and grabbed a bottle of milk of magnesia and ran back and held it very close to her face and pointed at it....and she NODDED:)

THAT problem being solved, and the nosebleed being finally stopped...I started back down the hall and went past the room of a man where we had earlier left a urinal because we needed to attempt to get a specimen from him later.

He is generally very confused,but now he is BEAMING at me, and pointing to the urinal and saying "I did it." And I am clapping my hands and smiling and saying "Wow, you DID do it....Good for you!!" And one of my aides is coming up the hall and I am smiling at her and saying "Wow, we got the specimen" and she is beaming and congratulatinghim also....so here we all are in a giant lovefest over a body function,lol, and between that and my successful interpretation of the little lady's charade, I am wondering somewhere in the back of my head "How on earth do I ever explain to people exactly what my job consists of sometimes?"LOL.

Wednesday night, Tony and April and I went to the fair.  http://www.rockinghamcountyfair.com/  April took off to ride the rides, and Tony and I spent an inordinate amount of time in lines trying to get food:) because the one line we were in for 20 minutes, then they announced that they were temporarily out of pork bbq sandwiches, so we had to go get in ANOTHER line. And then we walked around and looked at sheep, and pigs (I really like pigs:) and cattle and miniature horses.....and then Tony broke out in a cold sweat and turned extremely pale and realized he was getting sick...so we ended up leaving an hour earlier than we intended. (but April had already gotten her free tetanus shot, which proves I guess that you can do just about ANYTHING at the fair:) Except I never got a  funnel cake !

Somewhere in the week, April and Tony also went to pick up a kitten for Dustin from a friend of April's,since he decided that he wanted some kittens after all...and none of us were willing to give up one of our 3 kittens.(and yes, pictures are coming sometime,but....ahem...since some of us are still waiting for my MOM to post pictures from their trip to Hong Kong a YEAR ago!!!!...I don't want to hear any complaints over how long it's taking me to get them posted,LOL.)And April had 9th grade orientation at the high school yesterday, as school starts on Aug.22.

But, the BIG NEWS (and I hope I'm not letting the cat out of the bag here, I think they've had time to phone everyone in the family) is that Ben and Emma called yesterday and MY GRANDSON SHOULD BE ARRIVING NEXT THURSDAY!!!!!!! via C-section.

So then, after we finally are able to welcome little Aiden Benjamin (who actually, I think, is going to be quite a large baby:) to the world, then the next big event in our family needs to be for Tracy and Adam  to get to China and get THEIR baby!!! 

And that, I believe, is my round-up of our exciting life for now. I'm getting sleepy, so I want to go nap a little bit. :)

 

 

Adventures in Sleeplessness

What a weekend! I had gotten my schedule for the new job(the 11 pm to 7 am job) changed and covered an 11 pm to 7 am shift Sat night/Sun morning. Naturally, Murphy's law came into play, and I had a resident end up on the floor(no injury, but of course that generated tons of paperwork,lol).....so I got out of work late that morning, and was already committed to working 3 pm to 11 pm at the 'old' job (which I'm keeping for awhile on a 'PRN' or "as needed" basis.) Since my drive is a half hour (on a good day, whenI can run with the truckers,lol)by the time I got home I got about 3 1/2 hrs of sleep and then was getting up and hitting the road again.

My coworker last evening was cracking up laughing at me, I just KEPT MOVING..she finally said "Are you afraid if you sit down, you'll fall asleep?" and I replied "Yes!"and went to find something else to do so I could keep moving. I liked that job a lot, it was just that the shift didn't work at all with my family life.  11 pm to 7 am isn't optimal either, but at least I'm home in the evenings...very important! with a daughter entering high school. (I think:)   I had to laugh Sat evening, one of my coworkers made the comment (prior to the fall) "Nurses on 11 to 7  shift don't work that hard...I guess that's why you took it?"  ROFL....is that another way of telling me I look like a lazy slug?? or did you just not think that sentence out completely before you started talking?  I just smiled and told her "No, I took it because there wasn't any day shift available, and I think it's important for me to be home in the evenings."

So then,of course, when I got home I COULDN'T sleep....too keyed up (and had ingested too much coffee.)  Finally crashed about 4 am, and slept until 3 pm today!!! Maybe someday my sleep pattern will get adjusted,LOL.

Found lots of cool things to do for troop support on the 'net, at least, as always, you can swing by  Mail Call!  to check it out.

School starts for April on the 22nd of August,so that's fast approaching, as is my impending 'grandmotherhood' 

Tony is in 'Hog heaven'(pun intended) as football season gears up, and his beloved Redskins begin their play. Good thing he also likes soccer! as the World Cup tided him over through the 'football withdrawel' months.

Well, that's enough of my 'oh so interesting' life, I guess. PTI is on ESPN, that's a 'must see' in our house(although it's never as good without Kornhiser and Wilbon together,I think.)

Hope everyone has a good week!

30 Years Later...a Tribute to an Angel

I had the honor tonight of receiving an email from a Vietnam Veteran. I answered his email,and we "talked" back and forth for awhile.

To my surprise and awe, later in the evening he sent this email.

Dear Kathi....

 

After talking with you and getting to know a little about you, your family and your involvement in such a very special group as the Soldier's Angels I decided to share my own personal story with you about my "special angel".  Please feel free to forwarded this to your group if you like......

 

  Her name was Sister George Bernard, I first met her as a sassy and brash senior in high school, the year 1967.  Sister Bernard knew that all the boys in her typing class at the senior year was there for only one reason, an easy class, well maybe two...girls !!  She was, even back then, a tough member of the Sisters of Notre Dame order, maybe 5ft 2, deaf, and mean as a rattle snake stuck on a barb wire fence !  At least that was our description of her from a senior in high schools view point.  She ruled her class with a wooden ruler and demanded strict attention and disclipine in her classes, some how we all survived and I graduated high school in 1968.

  Soon after graduation I found myself in the military and headed across that big pond to a little country called Viet Nam.  I was in country only about a month when I received my first letter from Sister Bernard or Sister George as I would soon come to call her and for the next 22 months not once did a day go by that I did not receive a letter from this feisty lil woman.  She shared her hopes and faith with me in ways that religion never could impress upon me and always she ended her letters with a simple quote.  I came to share with her my life in those days in many ways that I could or would not share with my own family, she was my guardian angel during many moments of terror, she was my comforter in faith and healing during a hospital stay due to my wounds.  Literally the woman did not miss one day for 22 months.......

  My story of the horrors of war and my experience's are not any different than the thousands of others there, but even upon my return to civilian life, Sister George helped me thru 15 yrs of PTSD....only we didn't know that what is was called back then, night mares and alcoholism.

  I'll make this story short and say that in 1988 at the age of 92, Sister George Bernard died in the country of Africa doing missionary work.

  Some 30 years later I am even more grateful for this Soldier's Angel and the smiles and tears the telling of this story has brought to my heart and eyes tonight.

Please pass this on to your group my thanks and prayers for your cause from an eternally grateful vet for his Soldier's Angel.....

oh..by the way, the simple quote she aways wrote at the end of her letters was.

"To thy own self be true, it then follows, as the nite the day, thy cannot be false to another.." 

 On July 13Th of this month I celebrated 20 yrs of sobriety.....thanks to the seeds planted by one very special woman.

With deepest gratitude

----------------------------------------------------------

 

I got permission to post this here, and am also passing this on to my fellow Angels, as this veteran asked. This tribute brought tears to my eyes,and also renewed my commitment to continuing to write to our troops. 30 years ago, a very special woman decided to do the same, and I feel honored to humbly attempt to follow in her footsteps.

 

I know this veteran's Angel is now resting from her work in the arms of her Lord. God bless the soul of "Sister George" and God bless "her" veteran, and all of those who have served our country in the past!

---------------------------------------------------------------

 

I posted this over on Mail Call!  I also had just finished posting a 'Weekend Surfing' when I got Jody's email,if you want to go check that out 

Click here: Weekend 'Surfing'

The HAPPY BIRTHDAY HERO email project:)

ONLY ONE DAY LEFT...to help out with the HAPPY BIRTHDAY,HERO! email project over at Yikes!

All you need to do is send an email What a simple way to say 'thanks' to a recently returned veteran!

(and after that,my sis has a new post up! 

http://emanoff-china.blogspot.com/

"Angels Work"

Something I wrote on My Mail Call! blog

Click here: "Angels Work"

Sharing a Sunday Smile:)

"And now,for something completely different"(to quote Monty Python's Flying Circus:)

From my friend  Missy  , comes a link to this video...just thought I'd share a Sunday smile!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5628733099857233320&sourceid=top100newfeed

"Radio Disney,Crazy Frog".

Teacher is blogging "A Ride to Remember"

Teacher blogging "A Ride to Remember"

This is the blog of a teacher who is riding cross country in the "Ride to Remember" 

http://cferek.learnerblogs.org/

Our local paper wrote about her blog today,so I checked it out. and then found this about the "Ride to Remember"

http://dynamic.firehouse.com/calendar/index.jsp?eID=169

which led me to this, where the schedule is listed

http://www.thechristianfirefighters.com/events.html

so just wanted to pass that on!!

And in the 'personal news' dept.....I still may possibly have a small blood clot in a vein. So am off till Monday....geez, doesn't everyone start a job and then say "hey, this is your new employee and I'm calling off for the first 4 days I'm scheduled!!!"

Didn't get to start the new job yet,and a Wounded Soldier

OK, I DIDN'T get to start the new job this evening. I came home from work last night ( and I'm going to hang around there awhile on a PRN..."as needed"...basis) and my left calf was really aching. I couldn't remember bumping into anything, but figured I might have (being a 'dork' and all.)

So this afternoon, when it was still pretty bad pain...thought,hmm,maybe I should check this out. Then the doc told me that it was POSSIBLY a blood clot(which had occurred to me, being a nurse and all,lol, but so had DENIAL,as this was a very uncool time for this to be happening.)So I went to the ER, and THANK GOD it was NOT a blood clot....but they did tell me to keep it elevated,stay off it tonight, yatta yatta yatta. (possibly a muscle strain.)  So, thus went my first night at the new job...I had to call off.  Love making that all important first impression like this,but they were very nice about it.(and yes,Mom,my leg is elevated while I'm here on the computer!)

I HAVE  to be there tomorrow night, as I will be by myself on Sat. night...I think a one night orientation is pretty important prior to being by myself!!(File that under 'how to make your job more challenging and interesting right from the start')I've been an agency nurse off and on for years, and gone into places with no orientation, and both myself and my patients for that shift have survived...but it's not my first pick for how to start my new full time job.

And that's enough about 'my dorky life'....I'm going to post this on Mail Call ,but also wanted to mention it here.......this is a wounded soldier whose family could use some encouragement,via Andi's World

Click here: Welcome To Andi's World: A Hero and His Family Need Your Help

and his CaringBridge page is here     Ethan Biggers

Please consider going by and leaving a word of encouragement for the family on the page.

Tuesday 'Surfing'

I realize it might be redundant to post this here and also on Mail Call! (my AOL journal) but what the heck, I guess it saves y'all time from clicking over there,lol.

Starting off with yet another gratuitous pic from our 2003 Hawaii vacation (which is the whole reason I started the 'surfing' post idea anywayjust because I love sharing the pics!) I'm going to try and squeeze a post in before I make supper (for everyone else in the house) before I leave for work. Only two more days at this job! and then I switch to a better shift,yay!

First up, the BearCreekLedger has an update on the Camp Pendleton 8.

Click here: Bear Creek Ledger » Update - Camp Pendleton 8

 

And you'll be able to tell I had some time yesterday to visit a lot of blogs,lol. T.F.Boggs has a very thoughtful post about folks who say they "support the troops but not the war",please check it out 

Click here: t.f. boggs: Supporting The Troops…Or Not

 

I wanted to post that Kat at Yikes! is posting updates on some friends of hers who are at Walter Reed for surgery,here's one of the latest updates 

Click here: Yikes!: SFC NORRIS GALATAS UPDATE 7-30-06

 

and you can go through her other posts to find out more. And I'd like to ask that you please keep both Norris and Janis, and also my uncle, in your prayers on Thursday, as they are both having surgery that day. Thank you!

 

Bruce has his new weekly post up, I just love reading his weekly updates,but most of all the pictures!

Click here: Bruce's Deployment to Afghanistan

 

And it's that time of year again....after reading milblogs for the past two years, this seems like deja vu, but we have some bloggers already home, like  Afghani Dan  (Welcome home!)

and some who are on their way home.

 

Charles from Destination Iraq is heading home, and had a Year in Review post back on July 15 which was a fascinating read.

 

Midnight in Iraq is also getting ready to head home (but I found someone in his comments who is heading over )

Click here: Far From Perfect-The Journal of a Combat Medic

 

The thing about these guys heading home , while we are so glad they ARE coming home! is that a lot of them only blogged because they were there. So, as Just Another Thunderhorse Roughneck says in his post, they won't be continuing blogging after they return. After spending a year reading their blogs, I'm going to miss their 'voices'. But, I'm grateful for all they shared while they were deployed.

 

I'll just have to make changes to my blogroll, I suppose! One blogger who IS still there had both joy and sorrow recently.

Click here: Chris's Blog

 

And there is one group who ISN'T coming home, which I suppose many of you know about by now

Click here: Army Times - 172nd Stryker Brigade tour extended

 

This was a great blow to these men, and their families. I went by Anysoldier.com last night, and if you click on the Where To Send page, there's an email that suggests sending some extra support to these men. You can click on the "Click Here to Search Anysoldier.com Contacts' bar, and do a search for "Alaska" and scroll through the listings to find some of the addresses. And please continue to keep the men and their families in your prayers!

 

For 'new' blogs? JP over at Milblogging.com has the latest

 'Milblogger ofthe Week' up, and I highly recommend checking the blog out. 

Click here: Afghanistan Blog

 

Via Contact Right I clicked on the homepage of someone in his comments, and found another troop supporter.

Click here: Trying my best to support our troops

 

Gazing at the Flag has some great posts up about her troop support journey.

 

And via a blogger I haven't mentioned before, Yankeemom , but have come across many times, comes a link to a video ( Update) that I found time to watch after work tonight that is a MUST SEE.(Warning Graphic Images of Violence) I agree with what Yankeemom said, this is absolutely and utterly chilling....but should be seen! It's an hour long,but MAKE TIME to watch it!

 

Click here: Obsession: What The War on Terror Is Really About - Google Video

 

 

 

Well, I believe that's more than enough places for y'all to 'surf' by and check out!

 

I would like to add that even though the boyfriend and I have not yetgone on a 'mission' with the Patriot Guard Riders , we have received many,many wonderful and warm words of welcome from other members. (And PLENTY of assurances that you DON'T have to have a bike to 'ride' with them!) So, if you're considering joining? Go ahead and do it!!

 

That's all for today! God bless our Troops!

2,996

Just came across this tonight and wanted to pass it along.

 Hat tip to Katey's Kafe.

 (and also attempted to sign up myself, but their site seems to be experiencing some technical difficulties.)

After 9/11, my youngest sister said,

"We should remember and celebrate all of the innocent lives taken away on that day. "

There is a blogger who has started a project to do just that.

The 2,996 Project

"The idea is simple, but powerful: have a special tribute for each victim of 9/11, with each tribute being created by a different blogger.

2,996 stories…

2,996 voices…

2,996 remembered…

2,996 is a tribute to the victims of 9/11.

On September 11, 2006, 2,996 volunteer bloggers will join together for a tribute to the victims of 9/11. Each person will pay tribute to a single victim.

We will honor them by remembering their lives, and not by remembering their murderers."

The blog is here 

Click here: 2,996

and the project page to sign up is here

Click here: 2,996: A Tribute to the Victims of 9/11

Five years after that awful day, this seems like a beautiful way to "remember and celebrate".

'Surfing' and New Kittens:)

I have a recurring feature on my Mail Call! blog, that I call ,(whatever day of the week it is)>"Surfing. It came about largely because my family got tired of me saying "hey, go check out THIS website! and THIS one!" LOL. And also as a gratuitous way for me to use some of my pictures from the 2003 Hawaii vacation:)

Anyway, if you want to go check it out?

http://journals.aol.com/kasee267/SupportingtheTroops/entries/559

And in other news, today we ended up getting THREE new kittens!!  Which was nice, after putting Boots to sleep last week, and taking Spice to the SPCA the week before that knowing that she would also be put to sleep, as who would want to adopt a psychotic cat who attacks you without provocation?(Yes, you are probably wondering..."why did you have a cat like that in the first place?"...but I'm not really sure! She just sort of got like that, and yet we still loved her.But finally came to see "what's the point of having a pet that you are A. afraid of and B. have to avoid?")

Anyway, we spent an inordinate amount of time selecting some less than profound names,lol, so welcome to...Princess,Piper, and Tiger!

In other news, April was invited this week to help out with the music (singing) at Camp Kaleidoscope  and so she is having a fun filled week! Good thing, because I found out today school starts Aug.22,LOL!

Happy Birthday to Dustin, My Sis , and Ben!!!

Happy Birthday!!!

Goodbye now to "Boots" the cat,and Where I am on the Web

After taking Tony's cat,Boots, to the vet last week....he was told at the follow up appt. yesterday that Boots had a tumor behind her left eye, and she was put to sleep.

I always seem to overlook this journal to update,sorry! but I guess that's because I feel like I'm repeating myself from the Yahoo blog (which non-Yahoo folks can't access,only my top page  http://360.yahoo.com/kasee102 

or repeating myself from the Mail Call! blog

http://journals.aol.com/kasee267/SupportingtheTroops/

 

And, like I am not already ENOUGH places on the web,LOL, Ben and Emma talked me into starting a MySpace page

http://www.myspace.com/kathisoldiersangel

 

and did y'all know I have a Frappr map?  http://www.frappr.com/kasee102/map

 

and I am ALSO on the Care2 network  http://my.care2.com/kasee267

 

I also have a blog friend who keeps urging me to get a 'real' blog,LOL, (like on the 'Blogger' network) but I think I am already having trouble keeping up with myself!!

Goodbye to 'Spice'the cat, and listening to Hooah radio!!

Sadly, had to get rid of our cat yesterday. She has always been psychotic and mean, only seemed to like ME,lol(is that significant?)But, she started attacking us without provocation, and with a new baby coming along soon I just felt like she had to go.I still boo-hooed yesterday when I took her to the SPCA

 

I have a posting up about 'Surfing' and listening to Hooah radio WHILE surfing:)at

Click here: Speaking of 'Surfing',Help a Soldier,and Listen to HOOAH radio!:)

Got to Feel My Grandbaby Kick Yesterday!:)and pic of Dustin's Grad

Emma came by and while she was visiting little Aiden was apparently playing soccer,lol...anyway, both April and I got to feel him kick,first time we have! very awesome!

She also had a copy of Ben's business card, which I thought was really cool, that my son has a business card,rofl, but I get excited about the quirkiest things.

Since I'm mentioning the 'kids', guess I'll say here that Kyle is still loving his job at the jail!(yes, they'll be 60 and 61 years old, and I'll still be saying the "boys":)

My house these days seems like Grand Central Station sometimes .(Hmm,actually, it's ALWAYS seemed like that, that's what having 3 kids and Tony's son around does!!)It's just that everyone's schedule is so different...Tony is working days, and then staying here with April the evenings I work.I am working evenings, love the job but hate that shift! Kyle works 12 hour 'swing' shifts.He's on 'days' this week, so here I am sitting on the computer after work and he will be getting up in just a few hours. Then Tony will be getting up and I'll be sort of sleeping in,and then I'll be cooking 'supper' at 11 a.m. so that I can eat before I leave and then leave the rest for everyone as they roll in and out the door.

I hardly get to see Ben,even though they live next door,lol,since he leaves for work shortly before I get up usually, and then he's home later in the evenings.

Well, I know y'all were breathlessly awaiting all these mundane updates.  Looks like Tony's son will be starting work the day after his/Ben's/one of my sister's birthdays,lol.(Yes, they all share the same birthday.Very easy to remember!)He'll be working for a temp. company that staffs a local company, and then if he does a good job, after 90 days they generally get hired by the company itself.

Of course, his long-range plans are to do the same thing Kyle is doing...work as a guard at the jail, and then becomea police officer. At least they are now...he's only 18!

And looks like Emma will be returning part time to WalMart.I think it will be much less stressful for her than the other job!

April is just "chilling" and enjoying the summer. She had a busy June, with church camp and then a photography class right after school let out, and now.....Nothing,lol. That's what being a kid is all about,right?She's still a riot, the other day she went to the store with me and coming back I turned up the radio for a song I liked and she said"That's too loud!" and turned it down. I said "The mom is playing the radio too loud, and the daughter is turning it down.....what's wrong with This picture?" and with out missing a beat she said "I'm not driving!" ROFL, gotta love her,she's quick!

By now, I'm sure many of you are thinking....gee,Kathi, yesterday you said something about "Operation Virus Removal",how's that working out?(OR, you're thinking...oh my gosh, this blog post is ENDLESS,lol)But whichever it is that you're thinking...Operation Virus Removal is on 'hold' for now, till I have time to go out to Tony's and physically beat the computer with a hammer!!Not really, but after spending another hour and a half on the phone with him this morning and still not being able to solve the problem,looks like I'll have the opportunity to 'grow spiritually'. Yes, you heard correctly, I actually found an article tonight that makes an argument for the spirituality of computer viruses.LOL. Click here: Arutz Sheva - Israel National News  Who knew?Just goes to show that you never know WHAT you'll find on the Internet!

(Note: I mentioned yesterday on the blog on my Yahoo page that Tony went home yesterday since I had the evening off, and found out he had a computer virus....is the reference to "Operation Virus Removal" above. We spent over TWO hours on the phone last night, and another hour and a half this morning!!)

And now the ENDLESS BLOG POST ABOUT MY MUNDANE LIFE is done!

And P.S. Sgt.Kevin Downs is Home!