Friday Night Ramblings

I made it through another work week. The hospital is still ridiculously busy, but the days sure do fly by when it's busy. Now the weekend is here and I really have no plans for once. That is other than cleaning the house, doing the laundry, and actually cooking some meals. We have eaten out the last three nights, so I'm ready for some home cooked food. I need to see my grandkids this weekend, it's been two weeks--which is a really LONG time for me to go without seeing them. Brad, Chely, & Patrick (Emily was at school) stopped by today, but I was at work. Doyle got to visit with them, I'm so jealous. He said Patrick was in rare form, he's such a little character. We are suppose to have some weather tonight, rain turning to snow, possibly 1" to 3". Maybe it will miss us, at least I don't have to worry about getting out in it if I don't want to. For the people living up north (MN/SD) I know I whine a lot about the weather, but not all of us enjoy the winter months like you people MUST to live where you do. Hope you all know I'm kidding!!

On a side note for those of you wondering--yes I'm still refraining from the alcohol. I must admit that I have felt so good since I quit drinking, I should have done it a long time ago. I'm more content and have been sleeping soooo much better, even lost a few pounds. And the best thing is I don't even miss it.

Comet Lulin

Why am I the only person I know that has looked for the comet and not been able to see it?? I've been out every night with the trusty binoculars and still I can't find it. I blamed last night on the cloudy skies, but what is my excuse Saturday, Sunday, & Monday nights? I've even had Doyle out there, and no luck. So I am determined that tonight WILL be the night, hopefully the clouds will stay away. My coworkers are convinced that I'm looking in the wrong direction, but I've been looking where the internet has said to. I guess I'm astronomy challenged. I'll add that to my list of challenges, LOL!

Made it through the first round!

So I promised to fill everyone in on Doyle's work a few posts back, and I hate people who don't keep their promises. A little background for those who don't know: Doyle has worked for this company for about 16 years, the first 5 years or so he worked on second shift (which is a total bitch and will totally ruin your family life), finally he was able to transfer to first shift and have a life again. With the housing market in the toilet and the downturn in the economy (who can afford to remodel?) the flooring market sucks. They had been working 4 day weeks, then 3 day weeks, then when we had the ice storm they closed the plant (which they have NEVER done before for weather) for the rest of that week. Then word came that they would be dropping an entire shift. Everyone figured it would be third shift, but they surprised us by laying off second shift. Now comes the twist--people with seniority would be able to "bump" those on the other two shifts with less seniority. The domino's began to fall. And true to this companies past rep they let the rules change when they need to to accommodate certain workers. Long story short, Doyle still has his job and is safe for now, although they are still working 3 & 4 day weeks. Some people still have jobs but not the same job, if that makes any sense. If you get "bumped" you can go down in pay grade and "bump" someone else with less seniority. It's a crazy system, and I have a hard time understanding it, it just makes my head hurt too much!!!

This is the last day of my four day weekend, I've enjoyed everyday of it. Today I must get some things done around the house and get myself ready for my work week. Well, now I've said it, so I better get to it.

Shopping, anyone?

This post comes from Kurt & Holly's house in Springfield. I finally made it up here for a little shopping venture. Doyle stayed at home this time (wanted to work on the new shop). I think that was his excuse--why are men so allergic to malls??? We had a great time last night, I went to the gym and worked out w/Kurt & Holly when I got here. Actually they worked out, I just pretended to, HA HA. Then we went out to eat, and did a little shopping--my fav Target and Barnes & Noble. Today we will really get serious, the MALL. I think the girls (twins, 14 and Miss Zoe, 4) will be going with us so hopefully the twins will be on their "best" behavior. Something about the mall makes me happy, it's like my own little anti-depressant, even if I don't buy anything the sights, sounds, smells just make me giddy. The only thing that could dampened my mood is the dusting of snow and the cold weather that came in last night. Nah, we'll be inside!!!

A Quickie!

This week is whizzing by--work is still busier than I like, but it makes the days go by fast. I'm not sure where all the sick people came from this month. I'm half-way through my week and I'm ready for the weekend. I have a four day weekend so I'm REALLY looking forward to that. I've been trying to think of something funny or insightful to post these last few days, but nothing has struck me yet. Maybe I'm in a blogging rut or maybe my life is just that boring? Sad but true!

Weekend Warriors

This weekend has flown by--guess I've been too busy! Friday night we had supper with Kurt & Holly and visited for awhile. Saturday Holly put us to work again at the Abbey house. We finished painting Steve's bathroom and attempted to peel the wallpaper border off. Actually Holly did most of the trying. So we gave up on that idea and decided to just cover it with another border. Holly & I will go shopping for it next weekend when I go to Springfield. Then we went to the "dreaded" upstairs and tackled one of the bedrooms. One of Steve's nephews had been staying with them and left the room a total mess. Clothes, bedding, paper, etc.. everywhere. We filled the pickup with trash and hauled it off. So the next "project" will be to redo that bedroom. When we get it done it will be where Kurt & Holly stay when they come home for the weekends. Little by little we get more accomplished down there. What I will never get is why 4 people that don't own it and don't live in it, are always the 4 people down there doing the work. Doyle & I do it to help out Kurt & Holly (they are always doing something for us) and because we know if we don't help, no one else will. Also Brad spends a lot of time down on the Abbey farm hunting, fishing, and just wandering around. Don't get me wrong, we have roped others into it at different times, but usually if they know we are going to be there, they tend to have other things to do. Funny how that works!! And it's to the benefit of the ones living there that we get it done, but they don't always see it that way. I can relate somewhat, I was a teenager at one time, long ago, and I wouldn't want to spend my weekends cleaning, painting, etc... One of these days it will all be done and we can look back and say, we did a lot of that. I'm not much of a handy person so I have learned a lot from helping Holly down there. Before I met her, I had never even painted a single wall. Now I can paint, stain, etc.... Mostly I help clean. I will give the guys credit down there tho--it's a totally different place now from when we first started. They tend to keep it much cleaner since it we got rid of a lot of the clutter. So kudos to them!

Plans gone awry

I had planned to drive to Springfield this morning and meet Holly & Zoe and go to Branson for a day of shopping--but to be quite honest, I am just wore out!! The hospital has been filled to almost capacity (for a time yesterday there were only 2 empty beds) for the last couple of weeks and we have been hopping in the Pharmacy. So on top of a lot of sick people add a survey team, and on Tuesday add the State Pharmacy Inspector. We have a new Director (he started Dec 1), and he's almost to a breaking point. We keep telling him to just hang on, it will all be over this week and then things will settle down. Everything is checking out okay, it's just the stress of it all at once. Anyway, I hadn't planned for this post to be about work again. HA Since I decided to stay at home today, I'm going to get some laundry done and just veg-out!! I think the Duel races are on TV, so I'll check that out also. I feel really bad about missing a day out and about with Holly, I miss her company a lot. But she will be down here this weekend (her Dad's birthday is on Saturday), so we plan on going to a matinee on Saturday and probably lunch. We hope to see "Confessions of a Shopaholic" but we'll have to wait and see if it's playing. We can both relate to that topic!! LOL Someday I will tell the story of how Holly and I became friends, people often wonder since she is young enough to be my daughter--although I would have been "very" young when I had her if that were the case.

Monday Blues

Monday came too soon! I wasn't looking forward to going back to work this morning, not sure why, just wasn't. Then when I get to work I find out that the Organization that accredits our hospital is doing their survey this week. YUCK!!! This means a lot of extra "suits" hanging around and a lot of "stupid" questions. Questions that have been answered hundreds of times, and always the same answer. I guess everyone needs checks and balances, but even when you are doing your job correctly it just puts a higher level of stress on everyone when people are poking around. The good thing is it only happens every two years. Not much else going on around here, there is some news from Doyle's work, but I will save that for a later time, when more is known. Boy I think this is the shortest post I have ever done--just goes to show how boring my life really is!! LOL

Weekend Ramblings

We've had a nice weekend so far here at the Kruse house. Chely and the kids stopped by on Friday evening and ended up having supper with us and helping me finish a jigsaw puzzle I had started. Well actually Chely helped, Emily & Patrick thought they were helping! On Saturday Chely had to work so we watched the kids for awhile when Brad went to the "farm" to shoot trap with his cousin, Marcus. So today I am trying to undo all the messing that Tornado Emily and Patrick created yesterday. I need to go through all the toys and get rid of some of them that they no longer play with. I don't know why they have to get them out even when they're not going to play with them, but they do.

I was going off on the "no sports to watch" rant after the Super Bowl and then I find out that Nascar started last night--who knew? I did get to watch the Shoot-out, although my guy didn't win, he did at least finish without getting into a big pileup. I generally root for Jeff Gordon, but I also like Dale Jr, so if Gordon can't win I want Jr to. Today they will qualify for the Daytona 500, so I'll be watching that.

I also got my Valentine's Day cards made yesterday before the kids got here. Now I need to finish wrapping their little gifts. I haven't decided what to get Doyle--he's so hard to buy for! I'm suppose to go to Springfield on Thursday and meet up with Holly, then go to Branson for the day. We like to shop the Outlet Mall and they have a great scrapbooking store there also. (Although I'm not suppose to buy anymore scrapping supplies, remember the 2009 goals, Jessie!!) Maybe I'll stop by the Godiva Chocolate store and get Doyle some good chocolates. They are his favorite. Enough rambling for now, I better get back to something productive.

Does everyone have a co-worker like this???

So today was my Friday--three days off--I'm looking forward to that. I have a co-worker that absolutely drives my batty. She's one of these people that run 90 to nothing but get NOTHING done. She works hard at getting out of work instead of just getting in there, getting it done, and being done with it. So I've had to work with her everyday this week and I was at my wits end come today. To top it off, she's been out of power since last Monday (Jan 26th) evening, which I feel really bad about! But, she just went on and on about how she was going to be the last person to get her power back, it was always like this, it was never gonna change, etc.... I wanted to shake her. She's been leaving early everyday this week to check on things at home before it gets dark, so I'm thinking she'll do that again today, NO, she stayed the full 10 hours. Even after we practically begged her to leave!!! I thought the Pharmacist was gonna go postal on her a couple of times. I was so glad to get away from her. Then I'm driving home and my cell phone rings--wait--I know what you're thinking........no it's not her, it's Doyle. He never calls me, that's probably my biggest complaint about him (what's wrong with calling just to chat?). He asked me out for supper, how sweet!!! We went to the little Mexican place here in town and enjoyed a nice meal, just the two of us. Between the 30 minute drive and supper out I think I have gotten Carolyn out of my system, it was actually therapeutic for me to rant on this topic. Course I just checked the schedule for next week and you guessed it, I work with her 3 out of the 4 days--I hope her electric is back on before Monday!!!!

Half-way point!

My work week is already half over, yeah!!! That's the great thing about 10 hour days, only 4 a week!! Monday went by really fast, I was busy doing my monthly unit inspections. Each tech is responsible for certain nursing areas of the hospital. Mine are OB and the Cath Lab. We have to physically check each med for out dates. Having these areas means I have 4 Pyxis machines to check. The Pyxis is an automated dispensing unit for the meds. A day of checking out dates slams me. I usually end up with a monster headache, probably because I should get my eyes checked. Along with the Pyxis we have to check the crash carts and floor stock. It's a bitch, that's why I try to get mine done early in the month and have it over with. I was really proud of myself to get all my area's done on the 2nd. Today was much better, I had a little more downtime. Tomorrow I will be the IV tech, which means making all the IV's plus mixing chemo. I always say, this is my day to play with needles. Hey, it could be worse, I could still be working at Wal-Mart. But I will give credit where it's due--if I hadn't worked at Wal-Mart Pharmacy then I wouldn't have had the experience to get the great job that I have now. So kudos to Wal-Mart for the training. LOL

The highlight of today had to be the little visitor I had at work. Chely and Patrick stopped by to drop off a movie they had borrowed (one of the "pirated" ones, so it needed to go to the next person on the list). Patrick is just so sweet--he didn't want to leave his Nana and gave me lots of hugs. Leave it to one of my grandkids to make my day!!

Who are you rooting for?

If you're a sports fan like I am today is both a good day and a bad day. Why? Well, it's good because we have the Super Bowl to watch. Bad because after this game all that's left to watch is basketball. I can't stand the NBA and I only get into college basketball at tournament time. So today's game is bitter sweet. Who are you rooting for? I don't really have a favorite pro football team, so I tend to go with the underdog. I will be rooting for the Cardinals today. (That seems weird to even type because as a kid watching football with my Dad, the Steelers were my team) Course that could change during the game, it all depends on how the game goes. If one team gets up by a bunch then I switch hoping the other team can come back. Call me wishy washy, I don't care.