Ch-ch-ch-changes

I am going to stop pretending like I'm actually going to get caught up on blogging about our summer, and I'm just going to get caught up on our October. What do you think about that?

So big changes around here. Right after I posted about my home health job, I got a couple of phone message about resumes I'd sent out earlier, both calls arriving when I was sleeping after a 12 hour night shift. One call was for an RN residency in a hospital--exactly what I was hoping for. The other was for a GI endoscopy clinic (a clinic that sends scopes "in both ends" to check out your guts--colonoscopies and upper endoscopies). I was very interested in the residency. Not so much in the GI clinic because it didn't sound interesting to me. I didn't plan to follow up on the GI position.

I mentioned both calls to my neighbor, who is a nurse, and she told me I should absolutely follow up on the GI call because as an endoscopy nurse I would be starting IVs (which nurses don't get a lot of experience with anymore because most places have IV teams), I'd be doing conscious sedation, in her opinion endoscopies are very interesting, and most important to me for maintaining some work-life balance--in a clinic setting you do not work nights, weekends, or holidays.

So I called back on both jobs on Monday morning. After the HR interview with the GI clinic, they asked me in for an in-person interview that day with the nurse manager. And then she asked me to come back the next day for a "working interview." I absolutely adored the nurse manager who interviewed me, and when I did my working interview (on the floor following a patient from admit thru the procedure, and then thru discharge) the RN I followed told me about how she had quit after her residency at the same hospital I had interviews set up for because she was "so stressed" from a high patient load and "had no life" because of the night shifts, and she said she had not regretted it one day because she is so happy here. And I could totally feel it--every nurse there seemed happy to be there. Most had been there at least 7 years, although there are two younger RNs who were hired in the last year.

A week later they offered me the job!!! Same base pay as the hospital, but no weekends!!! No nights!!! No holidays!!! Seriously, you have no idea the jail I was just released from. For the last two years, I was prepared to suck it up and miss Thanksgiving and Christmas day with my family and suffer through a year or two of night shifts because that's what new grad RNs have to do. But here I was offered early parole!

I started last week part-time while I finish up with my home health patient, and I. Am. So. Happy. It is interesting. The team is great. My manager is every bit as cool as she seemed in the interview. My preceptor for this month, who is teaching me to admit patients and start IVs, is ever patient and encouraging, and either as chill as can be, or an amazing poker player because she does not seem fazed in the least by my newbie mistakes.

It feels AMAZING to get up at 5:15 to go to work instead of being 10 hours into my 12 hour night shift at that hour. I have a life. I get weekends with my family. I'll be working 4 ten hour shifts a week, so I'll have a day mid-week to run carpool, volunteer in the school, get to the gym, and maybe, possibly, if I feel like it and they are disgusting enough, scrub the toilets. After my last shift with my home health patient tomorrow, hopefully I will be done with the night shifts forever because UGH. The night shift itself is not so bad--it's the drive home and then trying to sleep/eat/adjust the next day or two that is awful.

But it's not a perfect world. It is work. Today was kind of a crappy day--my IV starts did not go so well. I could blame it on the patients, but it was far more likely "user error." But my IVs went great yesterday. And nobody seemed concerned that I had a bad day with my IVs today. I mentioned it apologetically to my manager and she just shrugged and said, "Yeah, we all have days like that. Even after ten or fifteen years you'll have days like that."

So that's what is going on. I am now the queen of butt and fart jokes, so feel free to give me a call if you are running low.

Gabby Girl

Our sweet stinky dog had a stroke and died this morning. She got up with me this morning and laid by my feet while i drank my coffee. Then she went to the door to go potty and when she came back in a minute later she was dragging her hind quarters. I tried to get her up and she hobbled a bit, then dropped again. I ran and got Kolby and when we tried to get her to stand up she vomitted and just dropped her head. We kept trying to get her up--she didn't seem in pain--but she had no strength at all in her hind quarters and wasn't really responding to us much. Kolby scooped her up and we rushed her to the animal hospital, leaving the kids home. They hooked her up to an IV and oxygen and drew blood--she had no reflexes in her legs, no pupil reflexes, so they knew it was neurological. And then she had a seizure--which she'd had about 4 of with us this morning (two in the car) but we thought it was just panic. The whole time she was very responsive to Kolby and my voices and touch, she'd calm right down. They gave her some valium during the seizure and we stepped out--me to call the kids since we left them a mess, and Kolby for a little private sob, and a second later they came out to say that she had crashed and they were doing CPR. We went in a minute later and they were pulling the intubation tube and disconnecting the IV and she was gone.

I still can't believe it. I loved that little pain in the ass. I was so worried about her being home alone while I am at work all day because she cries when we leave.

Kolby went and got the kids while I stayed with Gabby. Then we all just cried and told stories about her and tried to wrap our brains around the fact that she's gone. It happened so quickly--she was just chasing the ball yesterday. Just following me around while i made coffee this morning. Our house feels so empty without her.

We are having her cremated and will take her ashes to Cannon Beach where we first fell in love with her eight years ago.

Modern day pen pals

Nine years ago, when I was pregnant with Amelia I met a bunch of other soon-to-be mom's on an online Babycenter parenting board. Eventually, when our babies were about 6 months old, a small group of us formed our own sub-group of "workout mamas" as we started focusing on getting back into shape and wanted some support and accountability.

I have "talked" almost daily with those 8-10 women for the last eight years. They comforted me through lay-offs and moves, they encouraged me through nursing school and training for half-marathons, they've made me laugh like crazy, given me some of my favorite recipes, and kept me eating healthy and working out all this time.

And this summer we decided it was time to meet in real life. I had already met one of these women--my friend Jennifer lives in Chelan, Washington and grew up with my good Porltand-now-Seattle friend Nancy. When we discovered this connection, we met up for the first time about six years ago in Portland and have hung out several times including our lovely visit last summer to stay with Jen at her lake house.

Due to scheduling and finances, only five of us were able to meet up, and we decided Seattle was the place to meet. It was a little bizarre to go to the airport to pick up women I've never met to come stay at my house for the weekend, but I had Jennifer there with me in case Heidi turned out to be "Heidi." (Please, for your sake, do not google "cross-dresser." I thought I'd find some innocent Halloween-ish photos to plug in here. Not so. You can't unsee what came up.)

On the drive home from the airport we were all pretty nervous. Kolby said when we got home that night he was a little worried about us. But we stayed up until 2am talking and laughing...oh my gosh the laughing...and when he came out the next morning we were all sitting around in our pajamas drinking coffee--and still laughing--and he stopped worrying. (He took our girls to Portland for the weekend. To escape the laughing.)

I think the nervousness we all felt at the beginning was reconciling the voices, accents, and mannerisms with the personalities we'd gotten to know in writing over the years. It took a little time for those pieces to fit together, but within a couple of hours, it was like I'd known these girls for years. Which I have.

We did a lot of exploring Seattle: Capitol Hill, Pike's Place, Belltown, Fremont.

I think our favorite afternoon was kayaking on Lake Union. We bought cheese, salmon, mussels, and bread from Pike's Place and I made a Pacific Northwest dinner for them at home one night.

But by far the best time we had was just sitting around and talking.

We decided this weekend was a retreat. It was so relaxing and therapeutic. I can't remember the last time I've laughed that much. And I always love cooking for people and showing off this city that I love. It went by much too quickly, but we won't let another eight years go by before we do it again. And next time it'll be the whole crew. Hopefully Annette doesn't turn out to be "Annette." (Seriously. Don't google it.)

Cognitive Dissonance

So over the last few weeks I've been to Target more than usual trying to track down school supplies, socks, underwear, etc. for the kids for back to school. Unfortunately, someone decided this was a great time to remodel both of the Targets I usually go to, and nothing has been where it belongs. Kids' clothes are intermingled with women's clothes one day, and with groceries the next time I go. (I swear.)

I am not used to frustrating Target trips. Target is my happy place. This is not the Target I know and love! Each of these trips left me with increasing levels of anxiety, especially because I was trying to navigate these unfamiliar cluttered aisles with two energetic girls. Girls with lists in their hands. Lists that were not getting checked off because nothing was where it should be and Mama had to leave because the chaos was giving her hives.

So last Tuesday, the first day of school, after running an errand on the other side of town we stopped at a different Target for a couple more items for school. You have no idea the peace and tranquility that filled my soul when I walked in to see this:

I first had to get a Starbucks latte just to celebrate, and then had to walk around the beautifully arranged store touching everything and purring.

I'm not going back to my Target until they get themselves sorted out. Life's too short for crappy Target trips.

Brilliant Ideas Pinned

So did I mention the kids are back in school?

Ideas

Source: thetidynest.com via Jami on Pinterest

I saw this idea on Pinterest recently, and decided this week as I was pulling out the various bags of frozen fruits to make smoothies that this idea is brilliant, especially on mornings when the girls needs to make their own breakfast.

Here's what I put in my freezer smoothie packs:

1 cup various fruits--mixed berries, mango, and 1/2 a ripe banana

small handful of spinach

3 cubes of greek strawberry yogurt frozen in ice cube trays

These packs took minutes to make. Now they are all looking cute in my freezer, ready to be dumped into the blender with some vanilla soy milk and blended for a quick breakfast or after school snack. I debated whether to make them big enough for two smoothies, or just one. Since the girls are on different schedules now, I opted for single packs this time around.

Utah or Bust: Blackham Style

Kolby's brother Clayton and his wife's family go to the Oakley Rodeo every year for the 4th of July. They had extra tickets this year, so we decided to join them. I went to rodeos all the time growing up, and wanted the girls to experience this for the first time.

They were a little concerned about the animals, and cheered for the bulls and broncos a little more than the cowboys, but we all had a great time.

Kolby's mom moved up to Farmington a little over a year ago and you can see the Lagoon ferris wheel from her back deck. So Lagoon is a must when we go to Utah now. The kids love all the roller coasters, and even agreed to take a break from the rides to check out the water park this time. Ana came with Aidan and baby Amare, and I had fun holding Amare while the kids played with Aidan. Although I did have to fight this one quite a bit for him.

On our way back from the cabin we stopped at Clay and Courtney's house for a barbeque. Pammy and Rex brought their big blow up water slide, and mayhem ensued.

And we snuck in a few family photos with us in our fanciest duds and a beautiful background.

All the Blackham cousins

Pammy and Rex
I did a little multi-tasking, snuggling Amare while I studied for the NCLEX.
And I love this picture of the Blackham Girls. Mia, Maddie, and Addie.

We had such a great time in Utah. Amare was born three weeks early, and was three weeks old when we arrived. I was so pleased to see that he was still just an itty bitty thing. Ana and Adrian stayed at Pammy's house when we were there, so we got in a lot of snuggle time with him. This is one of the hardest parts about living away--seeing how much the babies grow in between visits. Hopefully we'll get to Utah again soon before he gets too big!

Cast 2.0

We're so relieved! Amelia had her appointment at Seattle Children's yesterday, and when the doctor reviewed her xrays, he said everything looked good. The wrist fracture is near the growth plate but is a nice clean break and should heal very nicely without affecting growth of that bone. And the xray of the elbow looks good. They pulled her plaster splint off to get a good look at everything, and when they kept her wrist splinted she could move her elbow without pain. It is still really swollen and bruised, so she must have landed on it as well, but it's not broken. And the great thing about that? A smaller cast.
Getting that smaller cast did not feel good.
But it was worth it for an awesome small blue cast that does not require a sling. We go back next week for one more xray to make sure it's healing straight, and she'll get to pick another color of cast.

I caught her hanging from the monkey bars in our backyard last night.