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.)