Life Goes On.....and on......and on

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! It's been a couple of weeks, so I figure I better update! A few weeks ago, I received a couple of missed calls on my cell while I was at work. They were from Rob because the night had been particularly rough. Quentin kept waking up every hour crying and in pain because he could not breathe. His crying would wake up Haedyn, and she would start crying. Rob would get Quentin re-settled and then Haedyn, and then Quentin would wake up again, and the cycle would start all over - poor Rob. I finished my shift at the hospital, took a nap in the back of my van, went to perform a puppet show, and came home. I could hear Quentin before I saw him, he sounded horrible, and I knew he would require a trip to the doctor's office...ugh...I was so tired, I just wanted to go to bed! But I knew I would just get woken up by a sad and tired little boy, so I called the doctor, and they were able to get him right in. By the time I got him there, he was in pretty bad shape. They gave him a breathing treatment, but he didn't improve much. It was then decided that he needed an epinephrine nebulizer treatment. Normally, this would require a trip to the ER, but we were in luck, it could now be done in the doctor's office - it only required a 4 hour observation......WHAT? I had only gotten about 2 hours of sleep in the last 36 hours or so, and I was exhausted, but he wasn't improving, and I wanted to avoid a hospitalization, so I agreed. Poor little man slept through most of the treatment and was just an irritable little creature through most of our stay. I wasn't able to sleep either, as there was really no place to lay down in a pediatrician's exam room, so it was pretty miserable all the way around. Eventually we were able to go home, but the doctor really thought we were going to be back in the ER again that night because Quentin really wasn't showing much improvement after 5 and a half hours of treatment. I took him home and put him to bed and put the cool mist humidifier in his room on full blast, it wasn't long before he was sleeping comfortably. I went down to fix dinner and then Rob had to leave for class. The night didn't end there either...oh no...I had gone and signed up for a Zumba class for a relief society girl's night out. Glutton for punishment that I am, I went. It was a lot of fun even if I was beyond the point of exhaustion. I guess it was good that I was so tired, because I could see that I was the fattest woman in the room, but I didn't really care. I worked really hard during that class and I figured that I would not be able to move the next day. Amazingly enough, I wasn't the least bit sore the next morning!

I have been working a lot of hours lately as well. December is traditionally a slow month in the health care business. No one wants to be in a hospital during the holidays, and so I get cancelled a lot. So I have been putting in 40 hour weeks to hopefully lessen the blow when the shift famine starts. I actually got to put in a shift at the new Riverton hospital this last Wednesday, and I really enjoyed it. I was talking to the night nursing supervisor while I was there, he was someone that I knew from the 8th floor at Intermountain Medical Center, I told him about my dilemma with the Labor and Delivery floor there, and he suggested that I just show up on the floor in the next few days and reconnect with the nurse manager, and see if she will give me an answer. He then mentioned that if they didn't want me, that their unit could definitely use me. The charge nurse was also in on this conversation, and told me that she had already emailed her boss about hiring me out of the float pool. Just a side note, her boss used to be our Education Director in the float pool, and she knows me quite well. So, there might be an opportunity there - we'll see...

My adventure doesn't end there however, as I had to return to Riverton this morning with Haedyn. It seems that croup has visited us again. Haedyn wasn't in as bad of shape as Quentin had been, but I wasn't going to wait for it to get to that point. I had put the cool mist humidifier on her for the past two nights, and she was starting to get worse. When I got to the ER, I was the only one there and was immediately taken back. Treatment was started immediately with a cool mist nebulizer which was followed by a decadron syrup dose which we hid in apple juice. By the end of two hours time, she was hardly wheezing and had stopped coughing. The doctor warned me that she might get worse tonight and that we should bring her back if that did happen. I am working a 12 hour shift right now, and my phone has been quiet, so I think she is probably fine for now. At this point, I am just hoping to remain awake for the next hour or so, so that I can return home, crawl into my bed, and sleep for a few hours. There is a plan that includes my mother in law, sister in law, my daughter, and myself going to see New Moon later on today. I saw Twilight with Brenna when it first came out, and was really disappointed along with a lot of other book fans. I have been promised that this movie is a much better representation of the book....we shall see.....

Yep...I'm bragging...

I just finished with yet another round of parent-teacher conferences. The boys did okay. Jaron got told that he just needed to relax and not stress so much, that he was doing fine. He has made huge strides in his reading levels. Cade is his usual rambunctious self, he has a need to touch everything, it's harmless, but people outside of his everyday life just freak out. His classmates like to use it to set him off. They tattle on him everytime he starts checking something out and then he gets in trouble, and then he gets mad. He hates being singled out, always has. I think if everyone concerned would just quit freaking out over nothing, then he would be just fine. He has also greatly improved in his reading levels and mathematics just seems to come naturally to him, but he hates to write. He seems to be struggling a bit this year, but I am sure that once we straighten things out, things should get better for him.
Brenna, on the other hand, is a whole different story. This child has gone and gotten A's in just about every academic area, especially in language arts. She got B's in Math and Science. She says that since she has gotten her glasses, math has been a lot easier - since she can now see the numbers and problems up on the board! She went and entered into the yearly Reflections contest this year. She created 4 separate entries for this contest, one in 3-d art, one in photography, one in music composition, and one in general fine arts. She ended up placing 1st, 2nd, and 3rd and received a participation award. She basically placed for every entry, it was amazing! None of the projects have been returned to her, so we are guessing that they go on to the state level competition. She did every last project on her own, granted, she waited until the day before they were due for a couple of them (can you say stressed out mommy?) but she got them all done and turned in! During her parent teacher conference,her teacher showed me her results from last years state end of year tests....she beat the STATE'S top score by a clean 20 points, I was - once again - completely amazed! Yeah...I was proud too...just a little...

I Can't Believe He's Four!

Quentin Joel Fox turned four today! When did that happen? It's almost as if he went from baby to big boy overnight, kind of sobering.

We started the day with the traditional birthday pancake. Quentin wasn't all too thrilled with this at first. He covered up his face when we started to sing to him and wanted us to stop. But after he blew out his candle, he was just fine, and happily plowed his way through two of them. After breakfast, his older siblings went off to school, and Quentin was ready to go to the toy store - NOW. He slapped on a pair of sandals and headed outside to get in the car. We were able to lure him back in the house, where Rob read him a Seuss Birthday Book, then he took a bath, and then we were ready to go! I had a puppet show to go do, so he came with me, and he actually watched it! After that, we hit Toys r Us, and he was in heaven. He of course wanted just about everything in the store that was transportation related. He found the battery powered ride on toys and decided that the kiddie Cadillac Escalade was the ride for him. He kept telling me, "but I wuv it mommy, I wuv it!" I then told him he already had something similar at home, to which he replied, "I pwomise, but I pwomise!" Not sure exactly what he was promising, but we eventually left with a nice wooden train set. He fell asleep on the way home, and I woke him up trying to get him into the house (that kid is heavy!) He wasn't ready to wake up and was pretty ornery for about 15 minutes, until we opened his new train set. Then he was once again his jolly little self. We then took him out for a late lunch at
Wendy's, where he downed an entire kids meal, then we went to the local library where he checked out an entire pile of Bob the Builder DVD's. Then we returned home again, where he continued to play with his train set for hours, and was still going strong when I left for work. We will be having a party for him this Saturday, where we will do the cake and ice cream thing - the kids were rather disappointed about the no cake thing tonight stating that it was his birthday today, and he just HAD to have a cake! But there was no cake tonight, and Quentin really didn't seem to mind. He knows he is having a birthday party in a couple of days and he is excited for all his friends to come and celebrate with him.
Love you birthday boy! Thanks for choosing our family! I hope you had fun today!

Still waiting....

and waiting, and waiting. Anyone who knows me well, knows how much I HATE waiting! IHC Riverton is opening in just a few short hours and I am still, as of yet, not on their payroll. Labor and Delivery called me back for a third interview, it has all been kind of strange. I got a call from the recruiter stating that the nurse manager had some additional questions for me and how soon could I meet with them. I of course said whenever, name the time, I'm there! She told me to go to the hospital that Thursday at noon. Thursday came, noon arrived, and I was at the hospital, in the brand spanking new Labor and Delivery unit. I wandered around a bit, there were tons of people there, all staff doing training modules and pass-offs (lucky ducks!) I was finally able to locate the nurse manager, and she looked slightly confused to see me standing in front of her. I told her who had sent me and why as well as who I was. She told me that she remembered who I was and was happy to see me, but that she had not been told I was coming for another interview. My heart started hammering at this point and I was starting to feel kind of stupid. But she countered all that with an "I wanted to talk to you again anyway, so there is no better time than now!" Thank you! Panic attack averted.....
She took me to her office and we sat down and started to chat. She relayed to me that the recruiter had told her that I had additional questions for her. Ummmmm, welllllll, not really, the recruiter had told me that the nurse manager had additional questions for me. Things were really starting to not add up, but I refused to be swayed. We continued talking and she asked me if I had any Scrub Tech experience to which I replied that I did not. She asked me if I had any HUC experience to which I replied that I had plenty of administrative assistant experience, just not in a Health Unit Coordinator position. She asked if I could use the company computer system, to which I answered yes, and I also added that I had helped HUC's on other units assemble patient charts. That was a plus that pleased. She of course asked about my puppet shows and I told her that these were entirely negotiable - they could be rescheduled, cancelled, or performed by someone else...not an obstacle at all. She then started ruminating about how soon she could work me into a scrub tech class, and told me that of course I knew that I would start out in the HUC position and then once I was done with the scrub class that I would move into Scrub Tech (this means I would be assisting with cesarean sections) very interesting work, and a decent pay scale bump as well. Then she asked if I had any questions for her. I asked about the class and how long it would take, she never really answered me. She was thinking out loud at this point, trying to figure how she was going to fit me in for all this, and then I asked her when I might be contacted for start dates and such. Then the bombshell dropped....she looked at me with a rather pained expression and said,"I interviewed someone yesterday and offered her the position." I remained cool, calm, and collected, although I wanted nothing more than to run out of her office, screaming like a banshee, "NOT AGAIN!" then she said, "but....." my ears perked up, hope started to bubble from the depths...."the other candidate has another job on the weekends and doesn't want to work them. She has until Monday to accept or decline the offer." My eyes nearly bugged out of my head. She offered this person a job when they flat out said they would not work weekends.....WHAT THE.....and I got turned down after the first round because they 'thought' I might not be as available as I claimed to be???? HUH????? So, as all this contradiction is swirling in my brain, I look at her and ask her to clarify the position, after all, she did say 'techs'. She then informs me that that is the ONLY position she has available at this time and that if I don't make it in this time, that I will be at the top for next time in December/January. Oh heaven help me, does it never end???????? I feel like the proverbial horse with a carrot dangling in front of my nose. I feel seriously toyed with.
All of this occurred on the 22nd of October. I have still heard absolutely nothing. I am quite positive that if the other candidate had declined the offer, that I would have been offered the job already. So I really have no other choice than to accept the inevitable rejection. I have called the recruiter, I have called the interviewing nurse manager, and I have spoken with my current nurse manager. The first and latter of the above mentioned group know nothing and have heard nothing. The nurse manager I spoke with hasn't returned any of my calls. I don't feel I can continue to call her without making a complete pest of myself. So now I pull back, and wait...and wait..and wait.......and wait some more. Serious Frustration Inflicted....need I say more?