A couple pictures from our trip

The 2 Bill's at an Italian Fast Food restaurant we ate at, home of the non-stop bread stick and the "thatsa lotta chocolate" brownie.

BigB showing his comedic side, enjoying the "artwork" at the museum. Kind of a dork heh?

3 A.M.

Yes, it's 3 A.m. and I have come to a decision...coming off of night shifts completely suck!!!

I am now attemting to fall asleep on the couch because the 2 attempts in my bed have failed miserably.

And that is all I have to say on that.

All in a day's work

That should actually read 'night's work' I guess, since I have been working my 12 hour nights this past week but, whatever. It has been quite a week indeed and one that has stressed me out to a point I don't think I have ever been, work related anyway.

Three o'clock in the morning the one day we had a huge fight in the lobby of the hospital; I had to call the cops, mobile crisis came and I got called an "'f'ing' whore". I am so glad I have a sense of humor. My adreneline shot through the roof that night. We have codes and alarms like you wouldn't believe and a maintenance team that wouldn't silence these codes for almost an hour. It is really enough to make you run out the door crying and wanting to never go back.

I was physically harrassed, for lack of a better word at this hour, at work the other day by a co-worker who took it upon herself to tell me I did something wrong with her finger shoved in my face. Incidentally, upon my questioning the powers that be, I had done nothing wrong.

I went to work, after having three days off in the last 3 1/2 weeks, on a workload shift. This is where they will call you in because the work is so behind they need extra help. Keep in mind that I had not seen my kids much since before we went on our trip and these women, the full-time women, are just standing around doing nothing. NOTHING!!! I was so ready to scream at them all.

To top the week off, I ended my stretch of shifts finding the words "white man power" printed on one of our phonebooks. I don't find that kind of behavior acceptable or funny; I, in fact, find it sickening, cruel and heartless and it creates an incredibly stressful environment to try to work in.

Two of my night shifts were rough because I had barely gotten any sleep before hand. My first night I had only gotten about 1 1/2 hours just because my body hadn't adjusted yet but the second was because I was up all morning fighting the little critters that Jellybean had brought home from school. They have been fighting to get rid of them at the school since October so I guess just getting them now is pretty darn good but they couldn't have shown up in our house at a worse time. The situation is under control and I am pleased to say that we have managed to prevent an out-break at our house...so far. I would hate to have to run one of those skinny little combs through my hair.

Lets hope that the stress I "allow" will begin to lessen as I have a few days, so far, without any shifts and I am hoping to spend time snuggling with my kids, relaxing with my husband and perhaps sleeping in or at least sleeping at night. My body still wants to be up right now. yuck!

Certifiably, Friggin' Nuts

In case you think I am talking about anyone else and are completely mortified that I could be possibly talking about someone in such a negative manner, I assure you, I am only talking about the one I know best...me.

I was scheduled at BP's tonight and had a 12 hour night scheduled at the hospital so I worked BP's and took a holiday for the hospital shift. I got rid of my BP's shift for tomorrow night and have 3 night shifts, ending Thursday, well, technically Friday morning at 7. Today, one of my managers desperately asked if I could work a lunch shift in the lounge at BP's on Friday as they were in a bind and had no servers due to a couple of up-coming concerts and someone's bridal shower. I said 'yes'! I know I should say 'no"; I think to myself 'say no" and I open my mouth and I hear myself say 'yes'! Yes!!! I will get 4 hours of sleep on Friday morning before going to work again however, Kristin will be telling me to go home if I am in a complete vegetated state ( I am required to know what my name is in order to work-grin) and I will only be there to take care of the lunch rush and I can go back to bed.

Someone, please, please, please teach me how to say that one little word; it would come in so handy. However, if that is impossible get me a straight jacket and gently ease me into it. Please don't make any sudden gestures or loud noises and I will probably be a willing patient.

So far, next week I am not working and I am looking forward to it. I will be practicing that 'no' word and I will exercise my right to use it.

1st Annual Family Day

The Provincial Government has given us this day as "Family Day" so we decided that we were going to definitely take advantage of it. First thing this morning we headed over to my dad's and visited with him and Judy. Judy had to go to work but we stayed and had a bite to eat for lunch with Dad. After that we decided to go to the bowling alley and asked Dad to come along to watch. He had so much fun watching the kids and teasing us as we were bowling and then he watched us take out our aggressions with 3 games of bumper cars. A word to the wise watch out for Jellybean on those bumper cars; she gets an evil look that frightened us all.

Bowling scores:

Jellybean 95
Bug 85
Rush 101
Jay 114
Me 114
BigB 228

BigB got lucky let me tell you; Pa figures it is because he is BigB's good luck charm.

We had so much fun and I will put up pictures later. I need a rest and it is off to work I go.

BDs Mongolian Barbeque aka the place where my lost 10 pounds found me

A smidge apprehensive BigB & I agreed to go to this place with the kids for lunch and boy, are we glad we did! It has now been added to the list of must-do's on a trip here.

At first glance I was reminded of the Bonanza restaurants as there are 2 buffet tables complete with sneeze guards. There is, however, a HUGE difference!

You grab a bowl from one end of the buffet, pick through your choice(s) of raw meats and seafoods, a variety of fresh vegetables, noodles, about 10 different sauces and 6 different spices. After you've piled your bowl with as muc as the above as it will hold you make your way to a corner in the back of the room. Here you will find 4-6 young men with swords who cook your meal on a circular grill in front of you. While these boys were cooking our food, stirring it up with swords, we were completely entertained as we listened to them singing some oldies tunes or while they were exchanging banter about what to get their girlfriends for Valentine's Day & completely enjoying their job.

Due to my seafood allergies I didn't get to see them cook mine but as I waited I watched them cooking and listened to and laughed at these boys as they carried on.

For $10.50 each we got unlimited trips to the create your own meal bar, salads, soups, rice and tortillas. The grill they cooked our food on was about 8 feet across.

This is what I created and what resulted in those rascally 10 pounds finding their way back to my midsection:

beef, red cabbage, noodles, garlic, baby corn, bean sprouts, sweet and sour sauce, yellow squash and zucchini.

BigB's creation (his first but his favorite):

mongolian ginger sauce, 1 tsp cayenne pepper, 1 tsp crushed red chilis, 1 tsp cajun spice, beef, pork, lamb, shrimp, crab, yellow squash, zucchini, green pepper and bean sprouts.


To be honest and to be fair, I highly doubt this place was the reason my lost poundage found me again; I was only able to eat one helping and 1 small bowl of salad. I think it was also the visit to Red Robin with its unlimited fries and Freckle Juice, the trip to Chilis, Bob Evans, Jack Stack Barbeque, Krolls or the many truck stops we took advantage of on the way there

A Cookie and A Massage

An after shopping cookie and drink at Altanta Bread Company & sitting on an incredibly comfortable leather couch by their fireplace found Nat and I wishing they would staff some people to massage our weary feet and our shoulders. What a treat that would make!

Speaking of treats, ours tasted very delicious. I had a double chocolate and toffee cookie with a strawberry, blueberry and banana smoothie and Nat had a shortbread cookie with 2 ends dipped in chocolate (with just the middle plain) and an iced coffee drink. Yum!

It was a great way to spend the day, just me and Nat. Beforehand though, Mrs.Doc treated us to a wonderful brunch. Oh it was delicious! She made us an omlette with ham, red peppers, onions, spinach, cheese and garlic. A great feast to energize our shopping excursion. Thanks, Mrs. Doc!!!

This was the trip home

Oh yeah, great Canadian weather greeted us on our way home from K.C. The second picture was in South Dakota. The first was taken in Manitoba and that semi was pretty much right on top of us before we could clearly see it. Believe it or not, Nat, it wasn't even snowing; this was just from the blowing snow from the fields to the side of the highway.

This was the great accident we narrowly missed in Winnipeg. The car you see in the middle was the initial cause of the crash as she lost control on the bridge and darn near found herself free falling over the side. For a route that was supposed to be 2 hours quicker, we took a pretty long time getting home. I think the long way was quicker than the shortcut this time.

At least we made it home without having any damage from this. I felt pretty darn safe once the semi pulled up behind us, knowing that it was going to take a lot to move him so I was pretty secure in the van. BigB was out in the midst of traffic.

Wow

I seriously thought I was going to go balistic over this darn blog. First of all, it switched me over to this new system without my wanting to switch and then I couldn't access it to post anything or comment on anyone's blogs. I was going through some serious withdrawal but, baby, I am back!!!

Work has been hectic and I am so pleased to say that I have made up for the fact that I didn't get a pay check last week as I was on vacation the entire pay period. Whew!

Poor Jellybean has been fevered and fluish for the past 2 days and the medicine she needed most was at her job. All she wanted was her mommy here and I couldn't be here. Big changes are looming at work with Level 6 opening soon and with that means there could be a full time or part time job for me. Could is the operative word and I won't get my hopes up yet but I am praying.

I have another string of doctor appointments coming up the first week of March: family doctor, opthamologist and neurologist. I guess everyone wants to make sure the noodle is doing better.

Now that I am back and blogging I will be posting some of the pictures and stories from our trip this weekend. It also sounds like we will finally be picking up the new bedroom furniture!!! Hooray!

Is it crazy in here or is it just me?

Working nights at the hospital just got interesting, for lack of a more appropriate word. Last night, or was it this morning?, we had people who figured I was registering them as the wrong person even though all their information matched up (including middle name) and people who were using courtesy phones to call outside of the hospital to threaten someone for killing them. That's right; he called someone to threaten them for killing him. I am still trying to figure that one out. In the wee hours of the morning it is kind of funny in an all-I-can-do-is-laugh kind of way. After I got off work all I kept thinking was 'will the world get even crazier?'.

I am finding that there are times you feel like you will either look at the patient and laugh or look at them and cry. Unfortunately neither option would be a good career move. Laughing would get me in trouble and crying would get me admitted downstairs.