Happy Halloween

My children finally decided earlier this week what they would be for Halloween. Hannah chose to be a cowgirl, Elias picked the Davy Crockett costume and Maya decided on being a witch. We borrowed Elias and Hannah's costumes from my parents. Both of those costumes were my mom's when she was young. Maya borrowed a witch hat from my parents and then we made a trip to Goodwill to find a dress.

While I was perusing the racks of dresses at Goodwill today I noticed a group of college age boys standing near one end of the rack. They were chuckling and pointing and looking around nervously. A couple of them looked my way to see if I was watching. They then quickly left the area. A few minutes later though as I was looking through shirts the boys were back by the dresses. One of them pulled a red flowery dress off the rack and sheepishly put it on over his clothes. The other boys busted out laughing though they too were soon picking dresses off the rack and trying them on over their clothes. I guess they were going to a costume party tonight and needed a last minute costume. Goodwill was a great idea by the way, the dresses were only about $7 each; way cheaper than anything you could buy in a costume shop, plus Maya will wear the dress again. I also bought her a very cute pair of barely-worn dress shoes.

Tis the Season

Apparently the respiratory/flu season is here, it is going to be a long 6 months. This week every single child I cared for, except one, was in the hospital for respiratory reasons. They were having difficulty breathing for one reason or another. Those children with asthma were having a particullary difficult time earlier in the week when it was dry and windy outside. We are already seeing a lot of pneumonia and of course H1N1. It's not that every child that is having respiratory symptoms actually has H1N1 but the doctors are testing for it anyway. The test takes several days to be confirmed. In the meantime every child tested for H1N1 is put under isolation precautions. This means that any time I want or need to enter their room I need to put on the following -
1. Isolation gown - it covers me from neck to calf.
2. Gloves - they need to overlap the cuffs on the gown.
3. Mask - covers the nose and mouth and makes everything I say sound quite muffled.
4. Eye protection - this year the hospital has sprung for reusable "glasses" we each have a pair to use until we loose them or they break. They fog up easily as your breath escapes out of the top of the mask making it that much more difficult to see things in the dark.
No more running into a room when an alarm is going off. In the least I need to throw on a pair of gloves and a mask. This is going to last until at least April. Yay me!

Instant Gratification

Hannah and Elias reminded me today that we live in a culture that is used to instant gratification. We went to an apple orchard to pick apples. The orchard itself was about 35 minutes away from home. Not terribly long but long enough for Elias to start complaining that it was taking too long when we were still 10 minutes from our destination. Later in the day after waiting in line for a few minutes to buy food Hannah started whining that we were waiting too long and that she didn't want to stand in line anymore. Shortly after getting the food Elias showed up in the building to complain that we were taking too long. (He had been left to guard the table and our apples).

In the afternoon as we got out of the car to go into Ikea Hannah began complaining that she was thirsty. I ignored the whining until she directed it at me, "Moooommm I said I am thirsty!" I reminded her that I am not a drinking fountain so she would have to wait until we git inside where they do have a drinking fountain.

These incidences didn't seem like much at the time that they were happening but then I began to think of how many of our wishes and expectations are met instantly on a daily basis. We can walk into a fast food restaurant and walk out with a hot meal in five minutes. If I want to know the weather forecast I don't need to wait for the news to come on at 10pm I can just log-on the Internet and find out. Most grocery stores and large stores like Target and Walmart have express lines for people with a small amount of purchases. I can pay my bills online, no waiting in line at the post office to buy stamp, no waiting for the check to get to the biller and clear with the bank. If I want to send a message to a family member I just need to access my e-mail and presto they get the message minutes later. My daughter needs to get home from school, I just jump in the car and drive there to pick her up. Sure she has to wait but not as long as she would if she had to walk or rely on public transportation.

How different would my world be if we had to grow all of our fruits and vegetables then can them so they would be available all year. What if we didn't have a car, or computer or TV. Would we be better people or bitter people? I'm not ready to make any of these changes but I think I would like to get back to a simpler and somewhat slower way of life. Elias and Hannah lived in a village in Ethiopia that didn't have running water, no electricity, no one had a car, they lived off the land. Their family worked hard to care for each other and their neighbors. Tow years later that village hasn't changed but my children have. I need for them to stop always thinking of themselves first. Maybe that will change their attitudes about what they are owed instantly.

First Day of School

Elias, first day of 2nd grade

Earlier this week Maya and Elias had their first day of school of the new school year. Elias is in 2nd grade this year. This year he has a new teacher and different students in his class than he had the last two years. He was nervous for the last week leading up to the first day. He was really worried that he wouldn't know anyone in his class and he was worried that 2nd grade would be too hard. His nervousness led to some angry, rude and inappropriate behavior. All of that has disappeared since the first day. He knows a number of other kids in the class and has found that the school work is right at the level where he left off a month ago. He has also started running in the mornings to wear off some of his energy. One time around our block is a half mile. He can run around it in 5 minutes. I told him if he practices every day he will be one of the best runners by the time he gets to high school (only 7 more years).

Elias getting off the bus

Maya, First day of 5th grade

Maya is in 5th grade this year. She is now in middle school. Maya, too, was nervous for her fist day because this year she is in a new school, an all-girl charter school. Her classes start at 8:30 and I have to drive her there every day so our mornings are becoming pretty streamlined. One hour between getting up and walking out the door. Four other girls in 5th grade transferred from her elementary school, a few 6th graders are from her elementary school as well. Though she was worried about meeting new people she already made a friend in her violin class. Her friend has a brother and sister who were adopted from Ethiopia two years ago! Sounds familiar.

Maya getting off the bus

Hannah continues at her same day care. She has been working on recognizing letters and numbers. She surprised me earlier this summer by knowing so many letters. She loves to do work book pages of copying letters, finding matches, opposites, dot-to-dots and other preschool activities. One more year for her until she starts school.

I am continuing to co-lead Maya's Girl Scout troop. We split our troop over the summer since only some of the girls would be at the new school. We have 4 girls so far and hope to have more from the school join us soon. In addition I'm spending a lot of time in the car driving to soccer practice and games, Cub Scouts and swimming lessons. Not to mention all the driving to school and back each day as well as back and forth to work. I need to make some more CDs to listen to in the car.

Camping 2009 edition

A couple of weeks ago we went camping at a nice campground on a nice big lake. We eplored the trails, threw rocks in the water, made campfires, cooked hot dogs, made s'mores, held races through fields and around the campground. We played card games and board games, games of catch and beach ball soccer. All was great. Then it started raining during our second night and rained all day the next day. It was a light rain so we drove to another state park to explore their wooded trails. We stayed pretty dry. We returned to our campsite for lunch, ate it in the tent then played games and read books in the tent to waiting for the rain to stop. The tent started to leak after 14 continuous hours of rain so I decided to just pack up and go home. As soon as I made that decision it started to pour. All the kids help to get packed as quickly as we could, however, Maya really helped a lot. She stood out in the rain helping me to pull down the tent, gathered our camp chairs and other supplies left out in the rain that still needed to be packed in the car. She didn't complain once even though our clothes we were completely soaked through. I rewarded them with a stop at DQ on the way home. By the time we arrived home a couple hours later it was sunny. At the campground was rained on for another 24hours after we arrived home so it turned out to be a wise decision to leave.

Even though the trip ended on a wet note my kids still want to go camping again. I am glad they like camping because I love it. Next year I am hoping to go on a longer trip. Maybe a trip to the Black Hills of SD to see Mount Rushmore.

Last Night

Today I have been thinking a lot about God. I don't consider myself to be deeply religious but I did grow up attending church and believing in and loving God. There have been many times that I have felt His presence or influence in my life and accepted it as normal. There are times that I am taken aback by His work though and realize that He really does work miracles. Case in point; last night.
I am a nurse at a busy children's hospital that is connected to an equally busy adult hospital in fact the ERs are just a short hallway away from each other. Last night I was helping out in the ER early in my shift. It was fairly busy and getting close to midnight. A team of doctors and nurses had just finished performing a procedure on a teenage boy. The boy's father left the room to go to the restroom and he collapsed either in or near the bathroom. A nurse quickly helped him get up and into an empty exam room and alerted other staff about what was happening. The father was complaining of chest pain, was diaphoretic (sweaty) and clammy. A team made of nurses, doctors, respiratory therapists and a nursing assistant went into action. Within minutes of his fall he had an IV started with blood work drawn, he was hooked up to monitors and had oxygen applied via nasal cannula and an EKG was performed. The doctor looked at the EKG for 5 seconds and announced that we needed to get this man to the adult ER NOW. He was having a heart attack. They rolled him out and down the hall to the adult ER. His wife accompanied him there after being assured that her son, who was stable, would be well taken care of and would not be left alone in the room. From the time of the man's collapse to the time he was wheeled into the adult ER about 10 minutes. He likely was taken to the cardiac cath lab within the half hour. I was able to follow up with the nursing staff later that night and found that the man was doing well.
At first I looked at the event as a tragedy. Here is this 50 something year old man suffering a heart attack, his son is in the hospital, his wife is torn about who to be more concerned about. But what if he hadn't been in the hospital when it happened, what if he had been at home? Would the paramedics have arrived and get him to a hospital in time? Would he have just died in his sleep? Maybe there was a reason his son was suffering last night. Maybe he was suffering so his father could be saved. It wasn't his father's time to go, he needs to be here still. He needed to be saved. I am in awe of His work. I am confused by the way He does his work but it saved a life last night and for that there are many who are thankful.

I heart Facebook

I just had a friend from Kenya contact me through facebook. He moved back to Kenya about 5 years ago. We kept in contact for awhile through e-mail. But he didn't always have internet access, then I lost his e-mail address when I changed service providers. The last time I had heard from him was almost two years ago. Apparently Facebook has made it's way to Kenya, he created a profile, looked me up and added me as one of his first FB friends. I love Facebook!

Mini vacation

We took a mini vacation last weekend to see Lake Superior. Oh we met up with friends too but the main attraction, in my perspective, was the lake. Growing up I lived 5 blocks from Lake Superior, our lives revolved around the lake even without trying. We spent many days at the sandy beach torturing our bodies "swimming" in the 60 degree water then building sand castles and eating food that was just a little sandy. We also visited the rocky beaches often, throwing rocks, eating more picnic meals and collecting the beach glass. My favorite place is a rather secluded rocky beach that we had to walk through yards to get to. I took my kids there last weekend.

Our hotel room had a view of the lake. That's an understatement, we were a mere 200 feet from the lake. Maya and I watched a ship come in with lights on around 10pm while the other kids slept. In the morning we raced to the canal to watch a ship go through and under the lift bridge, a first for Hannah and Elias.

I hadn't realized how much I missed the lake as an every day occurrence until a recently. One day I was driving around running errands, it was 55 degrees and windy, a typical spring day near the lake. Suddenly all I wanted was to go to the lake to sit and lose my thoughts in the water. Of course the lake was 2.5 hours from home and I had children coming home from daycare and school in about an hour. I did the next best thing. I went home, booked a hotel room and called a friend to let her know we were coming to visit. I'm glad I did.