Spring Break

This year's Spring Break had the potential to be a nice week, but I don't think it really lived up to the expectations I had for it. I had pictured a warm, sunny, fun-filled week, and the kids and I going and doing and having a ball. Well, we tried the going and doing, but the weather was pretty uncooperative, and the kids didn't have as much fun on our excursions as I had thought they would.

Spring Break week got started early when I got cancelled at work last Saturday night. Too many nurses, not enough patients. This is the exact opposite of how we usually roll these days--normally we are woefully understaffed, leading to borderline unsafe patient-care situations. The most unfortunate part is that the hospital administration doesn't understand how NOT okay this is, and they continue to cut us back to the bare bones. We have been declining toward this situation for some time now, and my supervisor has tried until he is blue in the face to explain how bad it is and why patients in Intensive Care deserve more attention from their nurse, and how impossible it is to adequately care for a sick person when the nurse's attention is divided amongst three patients. Our patients who are sick enough to deserve one to one care are often paired with another patient, and often the nurse has three patients to care for rather than just two. I am personally of the opinion that NO patient in Intensive Care should be tripled. The whole point of ICU is that whether or not the patient is currently in trouble, they all have the potential to be in that situation at any time. The ICU nurse's job is to try to head off those situations before they occur, but it is next to impossible to do that when your attention is so divided, and you are expected to head off those situations for three patients. I am truly disgusted with the turn my career path has taken and the lack of support from administration. Welcome to the Nursing Shortage.

Anyway, I stayed home Saturday night, which is good as far as spending time with my family, but not so good for the checkbook! We had a movie night and watched Transformers (Nate's choice). Sunday we went to church, then to lunch, and then came home and worked in the yard. When we laid the sod out back we had left an area for a flower bed under our bedroom window. We planted six azalea bushes and I also cleaned up my roses for the spring. The weather was nice and sunny, but the rest of the week was predicted to be kind of iffy.

Monday ended up being pretty nice, and was supposed to be the nicest day of the week, so I loaded up the kids and a picnic lunch and we headed to the zoo. Along with everyone else in central Arkansas. I have never seen the parking lot so crowded! We had to park pretty far from the entrance, and also pretty far from the picnic area, so we ended up eating our picnic lunch in the back of the Acadia. Now, I should say that I had off-handedly mentioned to Nathan something about maybe going to the zoo about a week before this, and it had been all he could talk about since. When are we going to the zoo? Are we going to the zoo tomorrow? Are me and Amy going to the zoo? So, here we are a the zoo. We get inside and head off to see some apes, Nate takes one glance at them, and says he is ready to go see something else. That continued for quite a while, despite me telling him that the animals weren't going anywhere and we had all afternoon and didn't need to be in such a hurry. He finally stopped wanting to move on to the next animal about halfway through, when we were as far from the entrance as we could get, and he started whining about wanting to go home. Are you KIDDING me??? So, we meandered back towards the entrance, glancing at a few animals on the way, stopping every so often because Amy had fallen down (she fell down a LOT that day--I think her shoes were a tad too big), and finally made it back to the car. Amy was asleep before we were out of the parking lot, and Nate never fell asleep on the way home, but he was really quiet. Zoo Trip: Fail.

Tuesday, it was supposed to be really stormy, so Mom and I decided we would take the kids to Chuck E. Cheese for pizza and games. Along with the rest of central Arkansas. For this, Nate was super-excited, and he had a great time playing games and getting tickets. For Amy, it was a bit overwhelming. Most of the people there were taller than she is, there were so many lights and noises, and really not much for her to do, so I don't think she had a very good time. After that we went over to Barnes and Noble and looked at books and played with the train table, and she had a better time with that. Also, she got a Sleeping Beauty book, so her day was made. We went home after that, and crashed. Chuck E. Cheese/Barnes and Noble trip: Pass (marginally).

After going and doing both Monday and Tuesday, I decided we needed a day off on Wednesday. I got the house cleaned and the laundry done, and then Mom and Dad came over that evening for some ribs. We all had a nice time and stuffed ourselves. Day In: Pass ( except for all the cleaning).

Yesterday was bad. I couldn't think of anything to do, and the few things I did think of didn't motivate me enough to get out of my pajamas and actually go do them. The thought of taking the kids anywhere exhausted me, and then that exhaustion was made worse because the kids weren't happy to be stuck at home for the second day in a row. Phil had gone to the horse races with everyone from work and wasn't going to be home until later. I managed to get dressed (but not showered) at about 5:00 and I took the kids to McDonald's and Wal-Mart to pick up a few things. We came home and I got back on the couch until bedtime. Thursday: Fail.

Today, Amy went to school so I could sleep late. Nathan and I have worked out a system in which he comes in my room in the morning after stopping off in the kitchen to pick up his cup of juice and a granola bar. He watches TV for a while, and I doze until 10:00 or so, so that I can make it through the night. We hang out and relax until about 3:00 when we go get Amy. Today, he has been dying to play outside, so I let him go out there for a while, even though it rained a lot last night and it's pretty wet still. A little while ago, he came inside, naked except for his socks (which were dripping wet), and I put him directly in the bath. That ditch out there holds some sort of magnetic power over him that I don't completely understand. He cannot stay out of it, even if he is only outside for five minutes. I do more laundry on account of that boy playing in the ditch. And if it's not him creating laundry, it's Amy. We are going full-force with the potty-training now, and she does pretty well, but is far from accident free. She is doing great with #1, but doesn't really do well with #2. I have thrown away several pairs of panties over the last couple of days, because rinsing them out is more grossness than I can handle. Practice makes perfect, and it really took Nate quite a while to get the #2 situation too. We'll press on!

So that sums up the week. Overall, not great, but it could have been worse. I don't think I'll be planning any more zoo trips anytime soon. That really disappointed me, because I thought that was a sure thing for a good time. Better luck next time. I'll be glad to get the kids back to school next week, and back in a routine, but (call me crazy) I am also looking forward to Summer Break!