OCTOBER IS OVER!

Aaah!  I can't believe it!  I've finally made it to the end of October.  Gone are the days of 12-20 hour shifts, strokes, sad family meetings, drama and a whole lot of work.  Well, almost, seeing as I have to work this weekend as well.  I'm very bitter about working this weekend since this is the ONLY weekend that I requested off when I put in for requests over 2 months ago.  And now my parents are here and I DON'T WANT TO WORK.  As much as I loved last weekend and my amazing Date Day, I would have traded it for this weekend off. 

Done with the complaining.

So tomorrow I will be at work at 6:00 and will work until Sunday.  I HAVE to be done by Noon but am hoping to be done earlier. 

Currently I am catching up on the finale of Project Runway while working on knitting a pair of mittens.  I'm not sure I'm cut out to knit mittens, as much as I love love love the finished products. 

In other creativity we had a group project last night with re-doing a cedar chest that I recently got.  My dad brought over a very nice cedar chest that he had recently painted black for me.  The ornate woodwork on the piece scared me away from really re-finishing it.  Then my mom and I went to pick out some fabric at Joann Fabrics.  Of course, I fell in love with the ONLY fabric NOT on sale at Joann's.  I knew that I wouldn't be happy with anything else though so we went ahead and got it.  Then my mom and I cut the 4" foam that I had bought (who knew that was soooo expensive???!!) and since I lacked other tools we used my ....hmmm....bread knife!  It worked well and the pieces actually matched up perfectly.  Then my dad got out the staple gun and we all worked together to re-upholster the cushion top.  Even Bry helped with screwing the top on and pounding in the staples.

Beep.....Beep.....Beep....Beep....

That's the sound that runs through my head day and night.  Working in an ICU is filled with things that beep - ventilators, IV poles, dialysis machines, pulse oximeters....everything makes noise.  Then I go home and can still hear the beeping in my dreams!
I had a very rough first week.  My first night of call was miserable.  I had a very hard experience with the death of a younger patient, and dealing with his family broke my heart.  I don't remember crying about a patient before - I may have, but for this guy I bawled.  All day on Tuesday I was heartbroken.  A week later and I still think about his wife and kids and what they're going through.  There have been other sad happenings on my service too - but just recently I had some "miracle" outcomes - not sure what I did right!  I have learned a lot though and have had some good experience managing some really sick patients.  When I am on call I am responsible for up to 19 (hopefully less!) ICU patients.  Our census has finally slimmed down a bit and my second night of call I got to sleep for over 1 hour!  Pretty good.

This weekend Grandpa S came to visit.  A year ago he and I were in Europe - which is when this whole blog thing started.  I've gone back to look at the blogs I posted then.  Good times - wish I could go back.  I remember being in Stockholm and just how CLEAN it felt.  Then going to Germany and eating my year's worth of schnitzel, wonderful cheese, terrific pastries and desserts.....plus beer and wine!  He and I had such a great time.  He loves his trips back north and I'm glad he feels comfortable staying with us.  Bry and I were worried that we'd be too boring for this 80-year-old!  We apologized for our 9 o'clock bedtime and our simple evening of watching TV and sitting with our respective laptops.  Grandpa S joined right in and sat with his own laptop.

LIZA

Alright, back to knitting - my first forays with Susan B Anderson's pumpkin hats were a success!  Both nephew and niece got one - although there is yet to be a photo of either of them smiling in it!

LUCAS

Today Bry and I had a terrific date day.  We went to brunch, a movie, two malls and out to dinner.  It was my first day off since the 2nd!  We had a great time re-connecting and can't wait until next weekend when I have the whole weekend off.  We came super close to buying a sectional couch....which we may go and get next weekend.  We'll see. 

I'm back to the grind tomorrow.  Hopefully I will have some downtime and be able to get some knitting done too.  I'm almost done with a scarf I'm working on....then I will FOCUS on the 3 pairs of mittens that I HAVE to get finished here.

Have a great weekend!

Hats and Photo Edits

Had the first two days in the Neuro ICU.  It's going to be a looong haul this month.  And since Saturday was already my first day (of 4) off for the month I won't be getting much relief any time soon.  It's an emotional month too - strokes are so sudden and such a surprise to patients and families that it's hard to deal with.  Then there's my favorite trauma patients that I can't seem to get rid of.....  It has been kind of interesting though learning a few things to take back to my ED work.

Today we had a Packer Party for people aged 21-35 at our Church.  It was a small get together but pretty fun.  Unfortunately we ate a bunch of junk food and I'm not feeling too well.  I'll be eating a lot like a 5 year old this week since Lunchables were on sale for $1.  Combined with baby carrots and a 100 calorie snack pack and I'm just hoping no big bully steals my lunch!

This afternoon I had time to edit some photos - something I've been learning how to do.  I am not quite sure what kind of looks I'm going for - the aged, grungy, deep colors.....not sure yet.  I just realized that one of them didn't upload very crisply - ignore that. 

 

In other news I had a model at the party for a sneak peak of my Elephant Hat in action.  I've shown the hat before, but was pretty impressed with how cute it was actually on!  Addison looks great!  Can't wait to add the tuft of hair for Lucas.

 

Bry's Update

Bry would like to provide the following update:  Work is going well.  He is back to driving.  He is enjoying catching up on video games when Abi is on call.  He has been looking forward to this week's episode of Family Guy ALL WEEK long and is loving the Rush Limbaugh cameo. His other love is the start of the Fall TV season.  Big Bang Theory has been laugh-out-loud funny.  He's even managed to work "I'll have to make a virtual reality device" into conversation at least once per day.

Football has also been nice again, although the Packers are somewhat distracting from the Twins post-season.  Go Twinkies!