It hasn't been the most efficient day

It hasn't been the most efficient day.

That was Taylor's answer to why he was at his little brother's school at 9:15 this morning. He was supposed to be at his own school at 8:45. It pretty much sums up the morning.

5 different people who need to be at 4 different places all within 30 minutes and 1 car that is not big enough to hold everyone equals no one getting where they need to be easily or on time.

It is amazing to me each and every day that we get through without someone getting fired or getting a visit from the truancy department. No matter how hard we try or how much we try to plan ahead we can't seem to get where we need to be on time.

Here is the timeline we had planned for this morning:

7:30 drop Cam off early at Grandma's class. School starts at 7:45

7:45 drop Jeff off at work clear across town

8:00 arrive back at the house where Kay is sleeping and Taylor is watching her

8:05 send Taylor to his bus stop so he can get to school by 8:45

9:00 wake Kay and get her ready for her PT appointment at work

11:00 PT @ JDMC

12:00-2:00 Kay nap while I try to clean the house

2:15 pick Jeff up from work

2:45 pick Cam up from school

4:00 Taylor's bus arrives

Now all the little birdies are back in the nest. I do not have to work today so it is a little less hectic than normal.



Here is the timeline how it actually played out:

7:30 we realize that they scheduled Jeff to be there at 7:30 today. Cameron goes into full blown melt down mode because his leg is broken and he doesn't know if he wants to go to school.
HMMMM. You have been walking around on your leg for the past 15 minutes and you have not had any serious injuries. Are you sure it's broken?
YES!
OK, change of plans. We will bring Dad to work first because he is supposed to be there now. Then we will take you to school. After a few more minutes of crying Cam decided he may live and off we went.

7:45 we drop Jeff off at work.

7:50 my Mom calls. Yes, we are running late. Cam says his leg is broken, we just dropped Jeff off, we will be there soon.
She says you know it's picture day today.
Sure I knew that. I knew it yesterday anyway. It may have slipped my mind this morning. I wonder if Jeff turned in the picture money?
Call Jeff -- no the picture money hasn't been turned in. The envelope is at the house because we needed to get cash. The card is with Jeff all the way across town.
So back to the house to get the envelope and the Thursday folder which should have been turned in last Friday.
Change Cam's shirt into something a little more picture worthy. When I change Cam's shirt I see he has a large abrasion to his left shoulder and a matching scrape to his left temple. How do the kids always manage to get facial injuries on picture day? So I ask him how he hurt his arm.
I don't know.
Did you fall yesterday?
I don't know.
Did you run into something?
I don't know.
So I take a moment to call Jeff. How did Cam hurt his arm?
I don't know.

So apparently Cam was playing rough yesterday while I was at work and he had been running through the house and misjudged the distance and ran into the wall. He has a bruise on his leg too which explains his claims of a broken limb. I am just piecing this together from witness accounts. No one is actually fessing up to anything.

8:00 I will have to wake Kay and take her with me to drop Cam off now so Taylor can get to the bus.
Really, the car seat isn't in the car. Well, that's fun.

8:15 take a break from wrestling with the car seat and come in to warm up. Realize Taylor is still in the house. Why are you still here?
I thought you might need me to stay and help with the kids.
OK, so now you have missed the bus and I am going to have to drive you to school too.
Yeah, I need to be there at 8:45.
Sure, OK, that is a great help.

8:25 finally get the car seat correctly fastened

8:45 finished getting Kay dressed and load everyone up. Kay has a cup of milk but she is not happy about it because it is not the cup she likes. All of her favorite type of cup are dirty because no one remembered to run the dishwasher last night. The screaming begins.

8:50 Cam gets to school. Only a little more than an hour late. Kay has been screaming since I put her in the car. I run in and get Mom's ATM card so I can get cash for Cam's pictures. Kay screams louder because Cam left. BUB! BUB! SOB! SCREAM! BUB!

8:55 we head off to find the bank. I am in the wrong lane and can't get over so we miss our turn and have to take a detour. We happen to go through the Wal- Mart parking lot so I snap a picture of the hula-hooping cross walk.

OK It is kinda hard to see but the pedestrian is hula hooping.

9:05 we finally make our way back to the bank and get money from the ATM. You can only withdraw in increments of 20 so I now have a 20 dollar bill. I need to deliver 11.00 cash to the school. Did I mention Kay is screaming?

9:10 lets stop at Wendy's and get Kay some milk in a little carton. Maybe that will make her stop screaming and it will give us the change we need for pictures. Wendy’s isn't open. A Mexican gentlemen comes out and tells us,
"At 10:00 we open."

So we go to the Circle K store. They don't have little containers of milk only gallons which cost twice as much as usual. They do have little cartons of chocolate milk. That will work. She doesn't get chocolate milk very often but she likes it as a treat. So I offer Kay a sip of chocolate milk after Taylor runs back in and gets her a straw. She takes two sips then looks at me like I am evil and starts to scream again. I guess she doesn't like chocolate milk today. At least we finally have correct change.

9:15 Taylor delivers the money to Mom at school and we start heading back across town to drop him off at school.

9:25 Jeff calls. Where are you?
Bringing Taylor to school.
He isn't at school yet? Wow.
Yes, as Taylor put it, this hasn't been the most efficient day.
I guess so. Well, I just started throwing up.
Oh good. So are they sending you home?
Maybe, but not yet. I am waiting for some one else to come in.
Well, call me when you get to leave.

9:30 finally deliver Taylor to school. Hey, only 45 minutes late. Kay screams because Taylor left. BUB! BUB! SOB! SCREAM! BUB!
Looks like the plan is to scream even louder whenever anyone gets out of the car. This is a fun game.

9:45 arrive back home and feed Kay. She is happy now because I washed her cup. I have an hour before I have to leave to bring her to PT.

10:45 Kay is finished eating and is cleaned up. Time to go. Oh boy you pooped. Kay has a talent for pooping right as we try to go somewhere. So off to clean her up.

I have noticed something when I drive. I will hit every red light possible. I will get stopped by at least 1 train. If a lane is closed for any reason I will be in it and not be able to get out. If there is a bus, tractor, garbage truck, a dude on a bike riding in the road instead of on the bike route which is 15 feet to his right, or a slow moving car I will be stuck behind it.

Looks like we will be late again. We actually managed to check in at the front desk at 11:02. Not too bad. But they needed to update all of our insurance info. Lucy, our PT, came looking for us and Kay went off to play with her at 11:10.

Good news! Lucy tested Kay today and she tested at a 28 month level for gross motor. She has been 6-9 months delayed, now she is 4 months ahead! That girl has been working hard. So no more visits for Kay at JDMC. She will continue to be monitored monthly by sooner start. She goes to see the neurologist in March and she should be getting her new AFOs any day now.

We are so excited that Kay graduated that we have to go find Aunt Sarah and visit her. She is in the cafeteria. Kay gets to see lots of friends. When Kay sees the wheels on their wheelchairs she signs bike.

I am asking around about one of my patients who was scheduled for surgery this morning. No one knows so we head off to the house to check on him. No news yet. Kay wants to play in the waiting area/playroom so we spend some time there. I tell you what I can really get sucked into that place. My one day off this week and I am hanging out at work to play with Kay.

1:00 we arrive back home from our extended visit at JDMC. Kay is sleeping in the car so off to bed with her. I guess they decided to keep Jeff. He still feels sick but he will be off at 2:15 as planned.




1:50 my work calls. My so not a team player co-worker called in “Sick” So I may need to come in. That will make 7 days this week though so they are gonna try to get some people from other houses. Seeing as how we have 6 patients including a new admit and a post op it is really not a good idea to have people who aren’t already familiar with the kids helping out.

2:20 Jeff calls I am late to pick him up because Kay is still napping. I wake her up and head out again.

2:40 arrive to get Jeff only 25 minutes late.

3:05 arrive to get Cam from Grandma's classroom only 20 minutes late. I am getting better.

3:15 back to the house, put Kay to bed again, and wait to see if I get called in. I have now been running around for 8 hours and I don't even get paid for this.

Bobby 7-19-44 1-28-08

Group picture Christmas

Moving earth

Karen and Bobby Cretificate of appreciation for work at the Murrah Building site

Karen and Bobby

Bobby

Silly face
Wedding

On Monday morning we were all starting to feel a little better so we went ahead and gave Kay her birthday cake and let her open a gift. Later that day I went back to work after being out for several days. Three hours after I got there I got the call. Bobby had passed away at home where he wanted to be. Where he had lived since he was a little boy. He wasn't suffering any more.

I was in with a patient when I got the call. So I took a moment to get it together and then got back to work. I didn't tell anyone because we are so short staffed I didn't think I would be able to go home. A bit later my Mom called and I tried to tell her but I started to cry. My co-workers saw that I was upset and asked me what was going on. Then they covered my patient for me and sent me home. I work with some really great people.

Jeff was really glad to see me. My Mom came over and watched the kids so we could go over to the house. The funeral will be February 2nd.

For the 2nd time in two weeks I got some time off. It is sad that you have to be sick and infectious or have a death in the family to get a few days away from work.

The kids and I last saw Bobby at Christmas. We are so glad we had that time and that he was able to come for Thanksgiving. On Friday the 25th he lost consciousnes and did not wake up again. We are getting ready for the funeral. I helped Jeff make a slide show of pictures and citations from the city honoring the work Bobby did. One of his accomplishments was helping at the site of the Murrah building bombing by clearing debris and prepairing the site for the memorial.

His best accomplishment was being a great guy who loved his kids, grandkids, and his wife of 22 years. They met on Friday the 13th but they didn't let that deter them. They were neighbors and Karen decided to bring over a german chocolate cake she made. He said he was on a diet but she could go ahead a leave the cake anyway. I guess the rest is history.

We will miss him but we are glad he isn't suffering anymore.

Sometimes things just don't come out like you wanted

Sometimes things just don't come out like you wanted. Here is a funny example in the form of an email I just got:

Subject: Printer problem

A worker got a pen stuck inside our printer trying to remove a piece of paper. After several times of trying to pry it out I told him to just put a note on the printer telling folks not to use it and then report it to the Help Desk. So he grabbed a piece of paper and scrawled on it. I left before he finished the note.

About 20 minutes later, one of my techs comes in laughing and says he had fixed the printer but thought I'd like to see the piece of paper that was left on the printer.

Below is what he found. Sometimes things don't always come out the way you want them to........









I really like the people in my building at work. I honestly do. They are all interesting and nice and even though we have many different personalities I think we all get along very well. I enjoy talking with everyone at the end of the day when the patients are in bed and things start to get a little quieter.



Sometimes there are those moments though. You know those moments when you try to say something and it just doesn't come out the way you intended. Most of the time everyone just laughs because they realize what you meant to say or what the intention was. Then other times it is a big misunderstanding and people get their feelings hurt.



I got my feelings hurt a few weeks ago because of a comment that was made. It probably wasn't meant to be hurtful but it really got to me. I tend to be a bit sensitive at times and it had been a long day. The patient I was working with was, well, lets just say he was being less than helpful.



One of my co-workers was watching all of this and said, "He never acts that way when I have him." I thought that was a pretty sad thing. Here I was thinking, sure this patient is not real happy at the moment and he is having a bit of a tantrum but I am handling it to the best of my abilities. I thought I was doing a good job at keeping him safe and keeping the people near us safe. Yeah, he wasn't happy but that was a bit inevitable because he does not like to be redirected from what he wants to do and when what he wants to do it hurt someone else that is not OK. You have to redirect him and take the chance that he will get upset with you.



So I said to our other co-workers"Well, I think she just volunteered to have him every shift."

I also pointed out that this particular person was a bit more lenient than I am. He may not act up as much when she is taking care of him but that may be attributed in part to her much more laid back style. I am a bit more vigilant about correcting his behaviors while she tends to let him do his own thing and not correct him much. I am not saying either style is right or wrong just different, thus producing different results.



So I was thinking about the whole phenomenon of saying what you think you mean but really conveying a message that is completely different from what you intended--if that makes any sense.



Maybe what she meant to say was, "He seems to be having a difficult day. He didn't act like this the last time I had him. I wonder if he is not feeling well. Let me know if you would like any help." Yeah, so I am going to pretend that is what the intended meaning was.



This week there is more drama in the house because of rumors. Wow, you really have to watch out for those, they are dangerous. We have like 300 employees so by the time a story gets to you it may be very different from the actual original event. You could hypothetically make a innocent comment about seeing The Rocky Horror Picture Show and end up with the reputation of being someone who has posed for pictures (now available on the Internet) dressed up like a sweet transvestite to make money.

Anyway, I hope everyone can see things for what they really are and continue to get along together.

Here is a quote from one of the best movies ever. "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

Thanksgiving 2007

Wow, it's been a long time since I last posted. It has been busy as always plus the free internet we have been "borrowing" has been acting up. (My wonderful and brillant husband got it working again today so I can catch up blogging.)

I wanted to post some Thanksgiving pics. We had a very nice day. It was our first big Thanksgiving dinner at our house. My Co-workers were kind enough to arrange for me to have the day off and come in on another day. I brought the people who had to work turkey and ham dinner to say thanks.

I think it went well and we had lots of food. I cooked enough for an army, in fact I cooked all night and didn't sleep. I really enjoyed my turkey induced coma when it was all done.

It was wonderful to have every one over and we are looking forward to doing it again this Christmas. We had Turkey - one that was 22 pounds and actually weighed more than Kaylynne and another smaller one that was about 10 pounds. We also had a huge ham, Grandma Electa's special cheesy potatoes, Grandma Vickie's special "duck puke" or green bean casserole, and Grandma Karen brought her yummy Watergate or pistachio pudding . We also had stuffing, gravy, pumpkin pie, cherry pie and chocolate pie, cranberry sauce, rolls, birthday cake for Mom, and Sarah brought wine.


Here are some lovely pictures:

Sarah, Courtney, and Amber after dinner.















Connor spent the night on Thanksgiving. Here is the whole gang the next morning.















Cameron likes pie!















Bobby and Karen enjoy dinner.















Grandma Vickie and oh so classy Taylor showing us his seafood.















Wow, that's a lot of food.















Um, me being goofy. I look like I have a pumpkin on my foot.















Our best effort at a family picture.
Happy Birthday Grandma!