New pillows

 This is our new quilt that my mom made.  I just made 4 new pillows for the bed and they turned out great!

This is a washer full of sweaters for felting.....like I need another hobby!

The next post will be from SLC, UT.  Going home!

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!

 

Order Lucas Photos

If you so desire you may order photos of the wee lad HERE.

I am tired and am going to bed now.

Lucas 6 Weeks

Lucas came to visit yesterday and I still had my (stolen) photography backdrops available so guess what.....photo shoot!  He came complete with some fall outfits, and a new bib from Uncle Bry and myself.  Then he and I watched The Office 5th Season and hung out.  He has evidently been a little stinker lately about sleeping so we had a talk about that too.  He has sure plumped up a bit from where he was - there's a double chin there and everything!

Click on the Flickr! photos to the right or watch the display at the top of this blog to see more.  It's back to the grindstone for me, then dinner with some Aunts who are visiting.  And yes, there is only 3 more days until NICU starts.....don't remind me.

Day Off

Here's my Vikings Baby Hat Creation on it's first owner!

Today is a long awaited day off.  I was in the ED for the past week and while I enjoyed it not much got done around here while I was gone.  I also didn't really get to see Bry very much.  So today I slept in until 5 minutes ago and am going to clean up, do laundry and get things in order.  Friday marks my first day on the Neuro ICU and I am NOT ready for that at all!  September went by way too fast and now October is just ahead. 

The time in the ED has gone really well.  I have had some pretty sick patients this week.  I had to intubate my first patient (in residency) and it went well and the pt is doing well too.  I had a lot of serious diagnoses such as DVT, hyperkalemia, strokes, pneumonias, broken bones, it goes on and on.  I also got to do an ultrasound and show a lady her baby -moving and kicking and a beating heart.  That was pretty neat.  Of course there were some frustrating patients too and with them I practiced my "nice voice" and my "poker face".  

Hopefully I get a lot accomplished today.  Wish me luck!

New Appearance and 90 days

BTW - hope you like the new fall appearance of polzinblog. Also, I was looking back at old posts and saw the one about Bry's seizure.  That reminded me that it has been 90 days since his seizure and he is clear to drive now!  Today is his first day back in Watertown and he is more than pumped to get back to his old schedule, co-workers and job site.  If you didn't hear about his seizure you can read about it HERE.

Photos, Knitting, Visitors

Emily came to visit from Texas.  She is in Law School at Texas Wesleyan Law School in Fort Worth, TX.  She came up to meet Lucas on Thursday and stayed with us until Sunday.  We had a fun day shopping on Saturday.  Mom and Dad decided to come over to see Emily too so we had a party on Sunday afternoon.

We were joined by my friend, Alecia, and her daughter, Meredith.  Happy First Birthday, Meredith!  We took a ton of photos and got some super cute shots of this beauty.  Alecia is a ballerina and had an awesome tutu made for Meredith.  (Alecia's mom is a terrific sewer and did an awesome job on this pink amazingness!)

Here are a few favorites:

She is such a cutie and had a great time playing with my flower props.  I realized I needed to get some more props though.  Today I borrowed the backdrops from a friend - complete with this amazing set-up of poles that provided a great photo studio right in my loft.  They are called "Autopole"s and they worked really well, even with our cathedral ceilings.

Finally I got some knitting done this week.  I was able to complete a number of items:

  Vikings Baby Hat

The long-awaited Vikings hat - my own creation.

This was fun to design and I'm currently working on a duplicate for Lucas.

Teal/Brown Sweater

This is a gift for Riley Danger.  I FINALLY finished it and it will be in the mail this week.  It turned out super cute - I finished it with some handmade cloth-covered buttons.  Hope you like it, Alex!  Alecia was gracious enough to provide a model for me - and she requested one just like it too!

Pink Cotton Baby Hat

This is a pattern out of Last-Minute Knitted Gifts - I made it in just a few hours and LOVE how it turned out.  It will be a gift for a friend who is expecting a baby anytime now - he's 60% sure it's a girl so I'm also working on a boy hat.  

My Cabobble mittens are are bout 40% done.  These will be a gift for a friend for her birthday so I'm going to avoid photos until she's received them.

Tomorrow I babysit for Lucas and then head back to work for nights.  I need to get out of vacation mode and get into work/learning mode.  This will be a bit of a challenge.  I'm really enjoying all of my projects right now and having a good time being creative.  

Bry and my dad are in football mode.  They have subjected me to countless hours of football today and it doesn't look like I'll get the remote any time soon.  Oh yeah, if you want to see some more pics of my niece you should check out my Sister-in-Law's blog over at The Filzens.

Have a terrific Sunday night and a not-as-bad-as-it-could-be Monday.

Tie Dye Madness

Tie Dying went pretty well tonight - and we've got the purple hands to prove it!  We had 4 color choices of boiling hot dye in ice cream pails, garbage bag smocks and 6 eager dyers.  P remarked "I'm being a garbage can!" and didn't really get the whole thing.  M made a solid blue hat and then left the fun.  The middle girls stuck it out.  Of course, L was in the thick of it and has dye up to her elbows which I'll have to explain to the Pre-K teacher tomorrow morning.  What am I going to do on Thursday when I don't have to worry about homework and getting ready for school and changing diapers and potty training?

The rest of the day was pretty fun.  We went to the Library for Story Time in the morning.  I, of course, perused the knitting section and walked away with a lovely book, Last Minute Knitted Gifts.  I was able to knit one of the 2 hour hats already today and can't wait to take pictures of it in the morning and post them.  It turned out super cute.  The whole book looks like lots of fun and I honestly want to make everything in it.

I've been thinking about how many projects I'm dedicated to right now.  I will definately need a trip to a yarn store but first I'm going to organize my thoughts/plans.  What if I could stay home all the time and just knit?  Lovely thought.

Have a good night.  Let me know if you need some tie-dyed socks!