Best Feeling Ever!

Library Thursdays

Every Thursday Maysen and I have have a date at the library at 10:00am. We start out by singing a few songs, snack time, stories, then end with craft time. However, Maysen couldn't care less about the singing or the stories. He would rather sit back and play with the toys. If you try to get him to sit and listen, all you-know-what breaks loose! But it gets him around other kids, so that's all that matters. Above I actually got him to go STAND amongst the other kids! That lasted only 30 seconds.

So, this is what we do the whole time, mostly. Can you tell we have an obsession with anything with wheels?

He loves the snacks and the crafts, though. He's eventually coming the point where he can actually use the crayons, not eat them!! The colored poop from his crayon eating was sure interesting ... RAINBOW POOP!

We then went to the mall where they have an indoor playground type thing. I watched some kid bully Maysen around while Fancy Mommy sat on the side. I'm trying to be nice like "We have to play nice..." while giving mommy on the cell phone the evil eye. So, I opted to go get balloons and construct a boys vs girls balloon fight. That was successful.

Addiction:

Here's what I'm talking about. I've recently mentioned my son's addiction to The Polar Express (as seen on the TV). Today we've watched it twice ... along with Finding Nemo twice. Normally I would never let my child watch this much TV. However, it's FREEZING outside and the roads are slick so we are not leaving the house, and if this keeps him from climbing the walls (and me) it'll have to do. I'm just tired of listening to "...When Christmas commmmesss ..... to toooowwwnnn". Kill me. Now.

PS: You will notice our cat, Birdie, warming her tootsies on the satellite receiver ... her favorite spot.

Yipee!

Today was Bean's first bowling experience. I have admit - it went better than I thought. We only got to play one game, as by the end he was unamused. The challenge was keeping him to his own ball and not running around stealing everyone else's bowling balls. We were on the end lane and he made a dead sprint along the side and toward the back where the machines are that run the pin-layer things. Yea, that was a mortifying moment!

Thanksgiving on Thursday was nice and quiet. My sister from Portland came as well as Nathan's mom and step dad. And that was it! We had ham, green bean casserole, potatoes, rolls, pea salad, cherry and chocolate pie. We had a great bottle of pinot noir and ended the night with a big game of poker ... my mother in law always kicks our butts!

Traditionally we put up our tree and Christmas decorations the weekend after Thanksgiving. Is it me, or did Christmas come WAY to early this year? I just couldn't bring myself to start decorating this weekend. We've decided we're getting a "real" tree this year, and having a 2yr old I think it's smart to wait a bit before I submit myself to a whole month of fighting him on that tree. So, the plan is to get a tree and start decorating next weekend. We'll see. Right now this sounds good to me:

Humorous fax

We routinely get faxes from nursing homes/assisted living facilities, etc in regards to patients who have fallen. This is because legally they have to inform us so that if anything became of it (ie: injury, fracture) they need it documented we were notified. It's usually:

Resident had a non-injury fall 11/22 in residence. VS Stable. ROM WNL. Will continue to monitor.

Something to that regard. Today I get a fax, and I had to laugh. This is what I get:

Today resident had an unplanned trip to the floor. Will try to plan them better next time.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TOMORROW!!!

Winner of "Not MY job!"

Paved way...

Thank goodness today was the last Friday I have to work for awhile! My doc took almost every Friday off all summer long (which was nice because our normal day off is Thursday - which makes for a nice long weekend PLUS I have Tuesdays off to stay home with Bean, so my weeks were very short) and it's been 5 weeks of working Fridays. This is because we had a medical student, J, from OHSU shadowing Dr D. He was the quiet-but-eager type and he even shadowed me to learn a thing or two (I think I screwed him up for life!). It was kind of neat thinking I was teaching a future DOCTOR how to do an electrocardiogram!

I was joking with Dr D at how hard working 3 days a week is for me (Ha!) and he confided that he's seriously thinking about cutting his hours back at the beginning of the year - he's wanting to permanently take Fridays off. That would mean that I could a) still work 3 days a week, but work M,T,W or b) I could insist on keeping my Tuesdays off and only work 2 days a week. I'm stuck. I have *THE* perfect job for where my life is right now. At the hospital you have to work crappy shifts (ie: 11pm-7am), every other weekend, every other holiday, getting time off is like pulling teeth. At my job I can get just about all the time I want off at any time, NO weekends, NO evenings, EVERY holiday off plus some. But I do miss the ER type things that would go down at the hospital and my "RN" skills aren't utilized as much as they would be in the hospital setting. But hey! That's the beauty of being an RN! I can do this for 10 more years if I wanted, then go work in the ER for 3 years ... then turn around and work in the OR. I can even look into being a school nurse when Maysen goes to school. The book is just cracked for me! So I am still waiting to see where my nursing career takes me! But for now, I'm very pleased with the path that it has taken for my slow and paced life right now.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Bean!

Saturday's birthday party was a success! You can imagine what 2hrs of kids, multiple colors of frosting, light sabers, cupcakes, helium balloons, and playdough looks like. It was a great time. I just can't believe Maysen is 2!! He can say his own name "day-den" and "dooooo" (2) when people ask his name and how old he is. It's nuts.

Bean cashed in with a ton of new toys including: new puzzles, a trumpet/saxophone, Dr Suess books, new bubble lawnmower, multitudes of trucks/cars, mondo leggos, balls, a bouncing zebra that plays music, a Thomas the Train set, and tons of other great stuff.

Sunday we took the day for just the 3 of us and went to Chuck E Cheese. That was an experience; I swear there is meth or something in the pizza - the kids are NUTS there! As if the over stimulating buzzing, whistles, strobe lights, and dancing figurines weren't enough, then there's every game machine you can possibly imagine with lines 7 kids deep. Maysen wasn't too sure about all this to begin with, but once he settled in and watched all the other kids go crazy he soon joined in. After 2hrs I was plum exhausted. I'm not sure who was more worn out - me or Maysen.

Choo Choo!

I was talking with one of my patients who is about 70yrs old. She mentioned she was going to see her daughter in Seattle and that her "train left at 5:30am". I was immediately jolted back into the past. Her "train?" Who rides trains for travel anymore? I didn't even know there was a train station in Eugene.

As quick as the "WHAT?" thought came to mind, then the "Wow, that would be neat" thought followed. Maysen is absolutely OBSESSED with trains, in particular the Polar Express, which incidentally was the last movie Nathan and I saw childless - seeing it in the movie theatre only 2 days before Maysen was born. And when I say obsessed, I mean we literally watch that movie twice a day.

But what a great idea. Boarding the train for a relaxing ride to a new place we've never been. Sitting back taking in all the fall scenery along the river ... listening to the hypnotizing sound of the train on the tracks.

Upcoming Party 11/11

Mommy and Maysen at the pumpkin patch 10/20/06

My baby will be turning TWO on Monday. I'm feeling a tad overwhelmed as his birthday party creeps closer and closer to Saturday afternoon. I hope enough kids come for him (which will only at this point be cousins) and I bought treats and have seperate tables planned. Trucks/cars for the homemade race track for the boys ... and play dough/stamps on another for the girls. Do that for a bit ... then I got some pin the hat on the fireman (sounds like a bachelorette game) .. but it involved firetrucks. We'll see how that one flies. Then of course is the decorating.... Um... how? I'm going to ask if my father in law can get balloons filled with helium so they're floating ... that'll be an attraction with my vaulted ceilings. Then a scavenger hunt for crap I found at the dollar store but fun stuff (you can find some real fun stuff there). Hopefully nice to do it in the backyard ... but if it's too rainy we'll just do it around the house. He's 2 ... so we don't need some 3hr ordeal going on. And limited space...in my 1400 sqft house. For the cake ... I'm getting just a regular sheet cake, but then I'm making cupcakes for the kids to decorate on their own. Multiple frostings, sprinkles, colors, etc. That'll be fun, I think. And call it a day. The DVD Cars is out, hope to get that and have it playing when kids show up ... as a background theme/music. His theme is plainly cars, trucks, and planes. Tomorrow I need to get the main cake ordered from a store near where I work ... pick it up Friday. Bring exam table paper home ... to draw race track. I need a to do list. I'll do that tomorrow. Rambling now.

Ta Da!

This is my new wedding ring!! I told you about this last week and this weekend was wonderful. Saturday Nathan and I took an evening just to be by ourselves and had a great time. Our babysitter, Amanda, came at 3:30pm. We picked my ring up and went to The Excelsior for dinner where he surprised me with a dozen red roses, had a bottle of 2000 pinot noir, exchanged special words to eachother, laughed, and had the giddiness we did when we first met. Nathan has a new ring, too, with 2 bands of shiny white gold surrounding a band of distressed white gold and 3 diamonds down the middle. And the Ducks won their game against Washington. What more could you ask for? (Except maybe another bottle of pinot noir? I had forgotten what just a couple of glasses can do to a girl!)

Halloween, it is.

Maysen was Yoda from Starwars this year for Halloween. Believe it or not, he actually left the ears on all night! His candy-collecting bucket was a Darth Vadar head.