Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Signing Time!

Clip from the next set of new Signing Time shows. Now available for pre-order.To be released December 3rd.
Series Two, Volumes 4-7 Gift Set [823860001563] $86.64 $58.99





Our newest Gift Set is perfect for the changing weather and Holidays. Includes four all-new DVDs focused on the seasons, holidays, spending time outside and sports. Made up of My Favorite Season, Going Outside, Days of the Week and My Favorite Sport, this gift set also includes a free CD of music from series two.

Pre-order now and save! Purchase the Series Two, Volumes 4-7 Gift Set and receive My Favorite Sport for free! Offer only good on gift set purchases. Hurry, offer ends December 1st. Pre-ordered items do not ship until December 3rd.

My Favorite Season: Sing and sign your way through the changing seasons with My Favorite Season. Which is your favorite season? Includes a special feature on Holiday signs.

Going Outside: Let's go outside today! In Going Outside you'll learn signs for many of the beautiful things in nature. Has a special feature including hilarious outtakes.

Days of the Week: In Days of the Week you’ll learn signs for the days of the week, and see what some families do on each day. You’ll also learn to sign first, second, third, and so on.

My Favorite Sport: In My Favorite Sport you’ll learn signs for Alex and Leah’s favorite sports. What’s your favorite sport? Includes an exclusive interview with Leah Coleman!



Thanksgiving ASL

Here is the Signing Time Thanksgiving clip. Happy Thanksgiving!

Monday, November 12, 2007

Sunday, November 11, 2007

D-PAN: Waiting on the World to Change

Waiting on the World to Change

It seems like all I have is bad news lately. I hate that. I would much rather have nice things to talk about.

Unfortunately I have more work troubles. When I was hired I was told that the staff patient ratio was 1:1 and that we would rarely be called in on our on call days. I was also told I would work the 7am-3pm shift and have every other weekend off. I told them I didn't care if I worked day or night as long as I didn't have to work evenings because that would make it hard for me to spend time with my kids. So of course I was put on the evening shift 2:45 to 11pm, I have to work every weekend, and get called in a lot. My kids get out of school at 2:45 and are in bed before I get home. I feel like I never get to see them. They are allowed to stay up late on weekends so I can see them for a few minutes after I get home. Also we are chronically short staffed so we usually have 2 patients each but the last week we have had even more staff out sick or injured so we have days when we have 3 patients each. The amount of care our kids require makes 3 very difficult. Just keeping up with the paperwork is tough. We also have some in isolation with infectious illnesses and some who are post op so they require caution. It seems ill advised to go in a bathe a child who has herpes or MRSA and then go in and care for a child who has just had spinal fusion and has 60 staples going from the base of the neck to the top of the butt. Of course we are very careful but it seems too risky that infection may spread. But what do I know?

I stick with it though because it is important work and I like these kids. Even though my husband was fired from the facility for an on the job injury, even though I have been sick myself for a week. I go in with a smile on my face because I am needed there. When I went in on Friday I had a note in my box that said the accounting dept had made a mistake and I had been over paid during the time I had been out with my injury. I am still waiting for the disability payments to be processed. So because they messed up and now want to cover themselves and get that money back before they get in trouble they are keeping all of my paychecks for the month of November. I don't understand how they can just take away my families only source of income for an entire month. I have kids I need to feed and it would be nice to pay some bills this month. I understand that if a mistake was made the money needs to be returned. Even though it was not my fault and even though I was not aware of the mistake the laws are clear that they are entitled to take the money back. However in situations like this the employer usually makes some kind of arrangement so that the money can be returned without causing undo hardship to the employee. It would make much more sense to take out some money over the next several checks.

After I got that lovely bit of news I found out that they changed my scheduled days off again without asking me. They changed my schedule last month so they wouldn't have to pay me overtime. I let it go though because it made it so that I would have Thanksgiving off. We are having Thanksgiving at our house this year so I kinda need to be there. Now they have changed it again so I will have to work for Thanksgiving.

I am not in a happy place as far as work goes. I don't feel real motivated to kill myself to get there when they don't even plan to pay me for this month. So I called in sick for Saturday, Sunday and Monday. I am staying home where I should have been for the last week. I have been in bed trying to get well and taking care of my sick kids. I am also looking for another job. I wish things were different. It is such a great place it is just run badly.

In the past I have stuck with bad jobs for much longer than I should have. I have this crazy thing called loyalty and work ethic. It gets you nowhere. In the words of the great John Lennon "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." I am tired of waiting for things to get better. So I am going to have to take some ACTION.

Monday, November 5, 2007

More ups and downs

My father in law is doing much better and is actually back home now. We never expected that after the doctors said he would not leave the hospital. He spent some time in a extended care facility after the hospital but he is back home now.

Jeff has turned in a few applications and we are waiting to see who calls.

Taylor is sick with the stomach flu. Cameron finished his last dose of antibiotic today and then spiked another fever. He is starting to cough again and he is sleepy and his head hurts.
We will be calling the doctor in the morning.

My step Dad's brother passed away unexpectedly. Possibly a hunting accident. We are waiting to hear more.

My step Dad spent the day in the hospital with a nasty kidney infection.

We have MRSA and strep throat going around at work in addition to pneumonia.

If the huge brush pile isn't removed from the yard of our old house by, well, by yesterday we are gonna get a big fine from the city.

I am ready for a few quiet uneventful weeks. I am tired and I am tired of bad things happening.

On a lighter note, here are some random kid shorts from the day.

Sister figured out how to take off her diaper and has been doing so all day. We couldn't figure out where she was hiding them. Then Taylor sat down by the computer and found what is apparently now the dirty diaper storage shelf. The sliding tray on the desk where the keyboard would go if we weren't using a laptop.

This new hobby led to some interesting surprises around the house. She left a little pile of surprise on the floor in the family room. Luckily it was firm so it was easy to clean up. Cameron said it looked like a puppy. We were all a bit disturbed by that.

When I got home from work sister woke up and Cameron was already up because he was feeling sick. I decided to stick them both in the bath to try to bring Cam's fever down. After they got out sister peed all over the floor in the hallway and of course Cam walked right through it. Fun times!

I guess if you can come home from cleaning up after sick kids at work and then clean up more fluids from your own kids and still laugh about it things will be OK. When it's not funny anymore I will start to worry. Maybe I should worry that I think it is funny. Do all Moms find humor in such things? It must be a coping mechanism.

Update:
Cause of death was internal bleeding caused by injuries from falling out of a tree stand. He broke his pelvis and back. It's very sad.

Jeff had his follow up with the doctor today on his work injury. The doctor was very upset that he was fired. He said he has had other patients from that agency that had the same thing happen. He said he is submitting the paperwork for them to pay for 6 more sessions of PT and another MRI. The doctor said Jeff can not work in his current condition. The only possibility would be a desk job with absolutely no lifting. Even then he would need lots of breaks. So they have put in him a position of not being able to work. They aren't paying workers comp any longer because they fired him and he can't collect unemployment because he didn't work there long enough. The doctor asked if we have a lawyer yet. The whole situation sucks.

Treasures in the attic


When we moved into our new old house we found lots of treasures in the attic. The people who lived here before didn't quite get all of their belongings from the recesses of the attic. The woman who lived here passed away, we are not sure what happened to the man. Their kids sold the house. Once we got up to check out the attic we found old yearbooks, pictures, wedding papers, christening records, bank records, car insurance documents, tax records, an ancient pair of ice skates, military records, war letters from WW2 and an old painting of a child in an elaborate frame. We called the daughter and left messages, we called the son and he said they would get in touch to set up a time to pick it up but never called back, we sent a letter. I guess they just don't want this stuff. I don't know what to do with it. I don't want to throw it out but I don't want to store it forever. Do I return it to the attic? Do I see if the historical society wants any of it? Do I sell it on ebay? It was fun finding treasures I just don't know what to do with them now. I guess they may become part of the history of the house and stick around.

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Butterflies 4 Kay

Kay loves butterflies. She always wants to find them on the computer so here are a few of her favorites.































Saturday, November 3, 2007

Halloween pics

Preparing to carve pumpkins. Sister is drumming on the tops.
Cameron the yellow submarine
Sister was not feeling the part of the angel

Here she is a little more angelic

Taylor the monkey grim reaper and Cam enjoying an ice cream at the mall.

We visited the mall so the kids could see some other costumes. Cam's submarine got lots of good comments and Sister got lots of "How cute!" Taylor got puzzled looks which was probably what he was going for so he seemed happy. We grabbed some dinner then went back home to hit a few houses in our neighborhood. Danielle and Russ came by to drop off some candy then we went to Grandma's for more candy. We finished the evening at Sarah's house and she gave us more candy. It was good to see everyone and the costumes were fun. People are so creative. We really liked the robot we saw at the mall. We have soooo much candy in the house it is dangerous.

Friday, November 2, 2007

We made it through another October.

I don't know why but October has always been a bad luck month in our family. This October Jeff lost his job, Cameron decided our bathroom is haunted, and was in the hospital with Pneumonia. We always have something happen during the month every year. Sometimes it is worse than others.

Some past years that I can remember are Jeff being in the hospital with his first really bad kidney stones and Cameron's first Halloween which was also spent in the hospital. Cameron actually spent most of the holidays during his first 2 years in the ER for some reason or another.

One Halloween our house caught on fire and we almost died. We went to sleep after trick or treating. The furnace malfunctioned and filled the house with carbon monoxide and smoke. The smoke detector didn't go off even though the battery had just been changed. The carpet caught on fire and was just starting to spread when I woke up. I shouldn't have been able to wake up with the amount of smoke I had been breathing. My grandma said my grandpa saw what was happening from heaven and grabbed my big toe and told me to get the hell out of that house.

I opened my eyes and all I could see was smoke. I hit Jeff and yelled FIRE! and took off for Taylor's room. He was just a baby at the time and our only child back then. Thank goodness the fire hadn't spread very far yet so I grabbed the baby and headed for the door. Jeff followed behind with the phone and called the fire department. They were great. They got there super fast and got the fire out very quickly. It didn't have time to do much damage. They put us on oxygen to help us breath better and we had to take Taylor to the doctor to have him checked out for carbon monoxide poisoning.

We were all fine but it was really scary. Taylor started having night terrors after that about the house. We moved right after the fire but the dreams continued for years. During the time that we lived there the big tree in the backyard got hit by lighting and fell on the house. Also the next door neighbors had lots of big scary dogs that would bark all night. So Taylor would have night terrors about the big dogs in the trees and the trees were gonna get him and he had to run in the dark.

So we survived the fire and we have now survived another October. You know if you have never been in a fire you might wonder: what would I take with me? If I had to get out quick but I stopped to grab a few things what would they be? I already know that answer. No things. I didn't even think about it or try to go back in. I just wanted my family out and safe. How lucky that we are all here together and safe.