To get my mind off of things, I like to clean.  Cleaning has got to be one of the more therapeutic things a person can do when there isn’t a ton of money around, and when you are done, the place looks and smells great.   Tomorrow I’m going on a road trip to Grand Rapids to visit someone.  The plan is to work on laundry in the morning (including all of Rachel’s), and then if possible, washing the steps before I go.  When I get home, the plan is to tackle the upstairs bathroom and get that looking spiffy.  I have a full mattress I need to store in the garage outside.  I am planning on putting it up in the rafters and hope it won’t go to pot out there, but it needs to be moved.  I am also planning on buying the wall mount for the flat screen TV in the living room so that it can be easily tilted and swiveled for viewing while getting it up off of the top of the credenza in the living room.

I am trying very hard to find and think of things that are fun and happy.  Yesterday was just the worst for me and Rachel and the hope is that things right themselves as we go forward.

If I had one real gripe its this:  It seems that weekend duty for me is coming every 3rd weekend, not every 4th.  The first weekend I trained, I worked with S, she didn’t want to do the on-call from 4:30 to 11:00 so I took it which was fine.  Then, the next time I came in, I took her on-call again, the following weekend, I was on-call all day Sunday.  I got two weekends off in a row, then I’m back and I’ll be damned if that isn’t how it happened this time again.  The only way this can be happening is if someone or more than one person are putting 4-5 weekends in-between their weekend duty, thereby shorting someone else of their three in a row.  It’s annoying.

So, as per usual, I slept like crap.  I kept waking up and finally woke up at 3:00 and never really went back to sleep; my eyes area already dry.  I don’t know why I get so rattled to come in, it’s not that big of a deal, you know?

I am taking plenty to read and the plan is to get some of my credits from SVU online.  I never got any my first year and that may hurt me, I don’t know, but I need to get on the stick and get them obtained.

Time for a shower.

So, I ended up with six studies, not such a big deal, there was one add-on routine and two ER’s to handle.  The other three were left from the day before.  At 4:30 I took off and filled the van with gas, then drove around and talked on the phone, I got back around 7:30 and lo and behold at 8:15 I was beeped for another ER.  that was it for the night and I was very thankful there was only the one ER and nothing more after 10PM as to me that is the cut-off.  I know someday on call I am going to get something at 10:45, which will irritate me no end.  The best thing I did was leave for a few hours, it really broke things up.  I couldn’t find the mall so I’ll have to locate one that I can go to next time and spend some time outside of the hospital which helped immensely.  The drive home was weird.  It was so incredibly foggy at spots I could hardly see and I was glad it wasn’t all the way home.

I bought a couple of cool plant stands and a two-sided shepherd’s hook, but the hook does not like the heavy pots I used and wanted to lean over to the ground, so now I have to come up with something different for those hanging baskets.  I did have a neat thought though.  How about manufacturing a hook made to be put right over the top of a standard metal fence post (the kind used for farm wire fences).  The posts can be easily pounded into the ground, they are incredibly sturdy, and the hook can go right over the top of it.  Hmmmm.

So, I moved all of my sickly plants outside and pray they buck up and make it.  If not, I will used my Plan B.  I have my fingers crossed though.

Boy, i had no idea potting my plants would take so much out of me.  It must be the darned clay pots I thought I was so smart for buying  instead of plastic; they weigh a freaking ton. You see, the plastic ones I bought lasted about 3 years, then the plastic became brittle and cracked, that is just no good and they were not bargain priced, even for the cheap ones.  I cleaned up at TJ Maxx and bought some beauties and if I play it right and don’t drop them they should last a very long time.  They certainly are pretty.

I ended up giving the bulk of the coleus the heave-ho and it makes me feel bad.  I planted two planters with them, but decided that caladiums will work better.  Who knows?  Thought I’d give it a try and I hope they are as pretty as the coleus has been.  If not, next year it’ll be back to coleus.  The denim colored hybrid petunias from Burpee only yielded about 7 plants which is poor.  Even the Summer Showers ivy geraniums gave me about 9 plants, and that was from 10 seeds!  So, we’ll see, I just hope everything does well.  It is supposed to be very warm this coming week so most of these will find their way outside soon.  I am hoping that next weekend is dry and sunny so that the front door/steps can be re-painted with fresh coats for the summer.  If Saturday is supposed to be nice, this will be done and I will be at Home Depot ordering a new storm door installation as well.

Oh, and the bulbs will be planted next weekend too.  Won’t that be fun?

Then, a week after that, on a fine Sunday morning, I was standing in the kitchen and heard that haunting sound, a drip………drip………drip.  I turned around and saw that at the bathroom door jamb, coming down in-between the boards, was a drop of water.  I immediately knew it was coming from the plumbing of the bathroom up above, as this is the Achilles’ heel from the renovation done in the spring of 2008.  They never replaced any of the plumbing up there for the toilet or sink and I’ve been looking for leaks overhead since the work was done.  To this day, 2.5 weeks later, it still is not fixed.  I had to cut a hole in my brand new ceiling and found that the repair cannot be done from beneath.  So I ripped out the attic room wall to get access to the sink drain from above/behind.  The plan is to tackle this on Saturday morning.  tonight I plan on coming home and finishing out the tear-out of the attic wall and placement of boards to stand on to get to the pipe.  I am overweight and pray that this does not somehow put cracks in the kitchen ceiling below (another new ceiling).  Since that time, we’ve been without a toilet and sink in the upstairs bathroom.  The shower, which is completely separate from the other two has been fine.

So, last night, I carry my bedding upstairs and put it on the chair in the corner of my room. I look up and notice a cob web and go to brush it away and find, guess what?  A water ring.  Then I look more closely and find a second water ring closer the to the vertical wall.  Two water rings on my brand new ceiling coming from a roof that was installed in 2005.  I am telling you, this is by far the worst of the three.  What am I going to do?  Who do I call?  It is a new roof, okay, not brand new, but less than 7 years old new.  I am beside myself and had a nightmare about it last night.  There is a shallow valley close to the spot and I am just sure this is where the leak has originated.  Our house is very tall and I can hardly stand the thought of going up on a ladder to see what’s going on, but now I trust no one, no “professional” to tell me what is wrong or to even fix it.

With the bathroom, I am almost ready to call the bank, take out a loan for $3k and get all of the plumbing in the upper bathroom replaced once and for all so that the ceiling can be replaced and I won’t have to look at it again for a very long time.  Now, I have the roof too.  I feel sick.

Well here we are, Easter 2012.  Rachel is always a cross-patch it seems and I couldn’t even coax her into helping my dye eggs yesterday.  It’s like anything I suggest is offensive to her and I’m so sick and tired of it.  I realize that teenagers are hard to please, but she takes it to a level to where I just can’t stand her and wonder why I do anything nice for her.  Of course, she’s my kid and I love her, I just wish she’d lighten up.

With that said, I myself had a fun time dyeing eggs.  I got some dye called “candy apple”.  It’s a paint-on semi translucent coat that offers vibrant color and a nice shine when dry.  I liked it and realize it would be prefect for painting pictures on the eggs.  Next year, when I sit down to dye eggs all by myself, I plan on getting more than one kit so that I can blend colors.  You don’t get a lot in each packet which stank.  I did a nice job though.

Rachel also said she didn’t want  a bunch of chocolate this year, so me being the smartie that I am, ordered a bunch of cool stuff from BoingBoing.  Rachel is nuts about Asian stuff and sushi and Hello Kitty, so I got her things along those lines.  I mean, the stuff was so neat!  A sushi tray zipper case, sushi magnets, chopsticks with a cheater rubber fortune cookie to hold them together, sushi post-its, a Hello Kitty phone case, the list goes on.  It was all quite reasonable too and the best part was I ordered it on Friday the 30th and was worried it wouldn’t get here in time.   I had it 7 days later, 2 days before Easter!

I hope she likes it and appreciates what she got.  My biggest hope though is that the teen-aged angst passes soon, I grow so weary of it.

My pretty Easter egg rainbow:

I got some neat cookies at Aldi.  They are made by Benton’s and are called “cookie straws”.  What they are is delicious shortbread cookies that are extruded (long and thin), then imbued with real fruit flavor.  I got myself keylime and bought Rachel lemon since that is her favorite flavor.  They are incredible and I’m glad I only got a small box of each as I’d sit and eat the whole thing  Additional pig-out food for the day is:

spiral cut ham

potato salad (homemade of course with my very own dyed hard-boiled eggs, cucumber and sweet onion)

sweet potato casserole

dinner rolls

green beans

roasted almonds, jumbo cashews, peppered beef jerkey, and chocolate truffles, yum!

Happy Easter everyone!

One of my co-workers is working with me today, but at 4:00 she is gone, then I am on the “on call” by myself.  On call is for ER’s and STAT’s only.  I am on call until 11PM.  I plan on staying at the station until 11PM.  I have no plans to leave the hospital because I don’t want to be out somewhere and then get beeped, have to set everything back up, etc.  M, one of my other co-workers told me that I clock out at 4.  Then, if I get beeped, to clock back in, do the scan or scans, clock back out, and if per chance another 30 minutes or more should pass between beeps and I have to clock back in, I get another 4 hours of show-up time.  The deal is this:  clock in you automatically get 4 hours pay each and every time if at least 30 minutes lapses between clocking out from finishing one test and clocking in for the next.  She said you can really rack up some money that way.

I just pray all goes well and that today doesn’t give more than I can handle.  I have also signed up for April 22nd (all by myself), but I will be picking up the ‘on-call’ for one of my co-workers on the 14th.  On that day, I’ll not come in until I get beeped since I won’t already be in Lansing.  We’ll see how it goes.  If anything, this should help to build my independence and confidence.  I hope I do a good job and that I don’t miss anything important.

I have my fingers crossed.  : )

It worries me terribly.  It’s March and we’ve done nothing but break heat records.  Our fall last year was way too warm, we didn’t really have a winter, and now we don’t get spring.  While I’ll admit the warm feels good, I miss the cool ramp-up to the summer.  I have a hyacinth from last Easter that I planted outside and it’s already in bloom.  The tulip and daffodil bulbs I planted last fall are already 2″ tall and I remember last spring they came up at the end of April.  April!

I was stung by a wasp yesterday morning.  I’m deathly allergic and ended up calling 911 and going to the hospital via ambulance.  I was okay, but got a prescription for epi-pens which I plan on picking up tomorrow from Walgreens.  I missed work and this has made me feel very guilty, plus, I need the money.

Today I got busy and clipped Bubba’s fur.  It had gotten so thick, matted and overgrown that I knew he was miserable, but now my hand is killing me from holding those damned clippers.  It is quite short and I”ve heard people say you should never but their fur, but his is the worst fur I’ve ever seen.  The undercoat never stops growing and it is as thick and dense as sheeps wool; I”m not lying.

I also wiped the cobwebs from all the downstairs rooms and the front entry.  The plan is to do upstairs tomorrow.  Rachel has to wash all of the baseboards (and do a good job of it) and I will finish cleaning the ceiling fans and start in on the windows.  I like to give them a good once over at least once a year and of course the windows the dogs slobber all over get cleaned about 8 times ; )  If time allows I’ will also take apart the three box-type fans and give them a good wash for the season.

I also notice how badly the front door needs paint, it looks awful.

Seriously, yesterday was crazy we were so swamped.  The good part though was the day was over before I knew it.

I really hope we aren’t slammed as we were yesterday.

I have some good plans for the weekend.  I am going to start my seeds, plan my container arrangement, put up some LED lights in Rachels room, go to Ikea and Costco on Sunday, and hopefully order some new glasses from Gregory optical.  We’ll see.