Game of Tag

Wow. I haven't played tag in a while. Thanks to my friend Merritt I am asked to play this game.

So, I have to give 6 quirky things about myself. Here goes:
1. I spent the past 3 months taping Sabrina, the Teenage Witch so that I could watch the entire series.
2. I have only watched 2 episodes of American Idol...and I don't like it.
3. I like to hit the snooze bar at least 3 times in the morning (or now get Kevin to hit it for me).
4. I drive between 300-500 miles a week.
5. I like to melt peanut butter and chocolate in a bowl and eat it with a spoon.
6. I don't like peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches.

I have tagged:
Ashley, Jenny, Katie, Nena (mama), Ronnica, & Stephanie. Enjoy!

Work Week

This has been an extremely busy work week for me. I'm always ready for Friday, but this week I'm actually praising God that it's Friday!!! It's been so busy that I'm glad I keep a calender so that I can remember when I do my time sheet on Monday what I've done. I was trying to remember yesterday as I was driving home what I had done on Monday and for a few minutes couldn't remember because Monday seemed so long ago. Here's a run down of what I did this week.
Monday: Drove an hour to the office. Spent 4 hours there. Then I drove 45 minutes to meet a coworker so that we could drive an hour to a patient's house to meet the new patient. Spent an hour with the new patient, drove back an hour to get my coworker's car and drove 45 minutes home.
Tuesday: Drove an hour to work. Spent an hour and a half in the office and then drove an hour to the VA nursing home. Met with a family who decided to sign with Hospice but then found out they aren't eligible at this time. Then visited a few other patients. Drove an hour back to the office. Spent an hour there. Drove an hour home.
Wednesday: Drove an hour to work. Did some paperwork for the first 1 1/2 hours there. Then had a Performance Improvement meeting. This is where our staff gets together and looks at what's been going on with our patients and seeing if there are any trends with one patient or with several and puts together a plan on how to improve their care. Or if there is anything that's not particularly working in the office we can put together a plan on how to make our jobs run smoother. Then we met with one of our VP's at the coporate level for an hour. We then spent the rest of the day reviewing our care plans for our patients to make sure they are current and that they are working for the patient. I was at the office until 5:30. Then drove an hour home.
Thursday: Drove an hour to the office to pick up some paperwork. Drove an hour to meet with a potential new patient in his home. He signed papers for Hospice. Then drove 45 minutes to be with a patient's family because the patient is dying. Spent an hour and half with them. Drove an hour and a half to be with another patient. Spent 30 minutes with her and then drove an hour home.
Friday: Today is Friday. I'm working on trying to get in touch with 2 families to see if I can come visit them. If so, I will drive an hour to visit the one, then 10 minutes to visit the second one and then drive an hour home. If I don't go visit them, I will be staying home to work on paperwork and probably nap. :) Gotta love being on salary!!! :)

Needless to say again, I'm so glad it's Friday. I'm going to take every advantage of this weekend and soak it all up because they go by so incredibly fast. Kevin has a few projects that I've got him working on. :) I've got a baby shower to go to tomorrow and then I'm going to try to finish cleaning up Kayden Grace's room so that when we get her furniture there is room for it.
Hope everyone has a restful weekend this weekend!

Update

We had our monthly appointment yesterday with the doctor. Everything seems to be still going well. My blood pressure is perfect. I am most excited about that. High blood pressure runs on both sides of my family and so I get nervous every time someone has to check my blood pressure. My sugars are still doing well. The doctor said that I am measuring right on schedule and Kayden's little heart is beating perfectly. He also commended me on my weight gain. I haven't gained much weight since getting pregnant.
The most exciting part of the doctor's appointment happened before the doctor came in the room. I was sitting on the table and Kayden was kicking around so I decided to lay back so that I could be more comfortable. Kevin was laughing at me because I was talking about her kicking. He turned around and looked at me kind of funny. I asked him what was wrong and he said that he thought he SAW her kick. He watched for another minute and she kicked me hard. I told him that he had to have seen that kick because I thought she was coming through my belly. :) It's the neatest feeling, but it sometimes gets on my nerves. However, I can't be satisfied because when I don't feel her I get nervous. Now if I could only move her off my bladder...but I guess that's just something I'm going to have to deal with. :)

Dead Sea Scrolls

Kevin and I have been talking about going to the NC Museum of Natural Science to see the Dead Sea Scrolls for about a month. Thursday afternoon we decided that we were going to go this weekend. We have also been talking for a while about getting together with our friends Bob and Mary. So, Thursday evening we called them to see if they were interested in coming down here to go with us. They joyfully accepted the invitation.
So, this morning about 11 Bob and Mary arrived at our apartment. We had lunch and then left to go to the Museum. After a slight detour (Kevin put the wrong address into Mary's GPS), we arrived at the Museum.
This was such an interesting exhibit. We learned a lot about the Dead Sea Scrolls and when they were written and how they were found. The best part was that we actually got to see 6 fragments of 6 scrolls that were found. Some of them were biblical writings in our canon, some of them were apocryphil and some of them were other writings that were found.
If you live in NC, or are planning to visit this area soon, or want to see history go to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Science and see the Dead Sea Scrolls. They are well worth the trip and the money it costs to see them. ENJOY!

Hancock

Tonight Kevin and I went to the movies. We were going to see The Dark Knight--the new Batman movie. When we got to the theater I would have sworn that everyone in Raleigh decided to go to the movie at the exact same time. We had 10 minutes to buy tickets and get into the movie. Well, after standing in line for more than 10 minutes, we found out that they were not able to accept plastic tonight because their system was down. So, we had to go to the bank to get money out. Obviously by the time we got back it would have been too late to get into The Dark Knight so we decided to see Hancock instead.

The movie was really good. It is about a man who is a super hero, but is also a real jerk. Will Smith does an excellent job--as usual. Jason Bateman plays a guy (Ray) who is a Public Relations guy and wants to help Hancock improve his image. Ray's wife (Mary) looks at Hancock like she doesn't like him from the beginning. I was extremely confused as to what was going on with her, but as with most good movies, it was explained about mid-way through.

My only problem with the movie was that there is a little too much bad language and there is one scene that was hard to watch because of the gun shots and blood. However, most of the movie was rather tame. I laughed through the movie and even almost cried. I would recommend this to audiences over the age of 13.

Let me know if you watch(ed) it and what you think about it.

What do you do?

This seems to be a common question when getting to know someone. There seem to be standard questions that we ask when meeting someone new.
1. Where are you from?
2. Who is your family?
3. Where do you go to church/school?
4. What do you do?

My answer to the last question always gets several different responses.
1. Oh, so you're like a priest or something?
2. Oh, that must be hard working around death all the time.
3. I could never do your job.

No, I am not a priest or a preacher. I have never felt called to preach, and maybe one day I'll blog about my reasons for that. But for now, know that that is not my calling. That is my husband's calling. :) However, I do feel like my ministry calling is to sit with patients and families as they ponder what it means to move from this life to the afterlife. This is a sacred journey--one that I do not take lightly.

Which leads me to the second statement. Yes, my job is hard...but if you can show me an absolutely easy job, then let me know. I love what I do. Yes, I do work with people who are dying, but not everyday. In fact, it's been a while since someone has died on my patient list. However, I have come to realize that death is as much a part of life as birth is. The Bible even tells us that "And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment" Hebrews 9:27. Now, the hard part of what I do does come in that last part of this verse. I do meet people who when I hear their story (either through them or their family) and hear that they "were a good person" or they "grew up in church but haven't been in many many years" and I know that they are not going to be going to heaven, but unless they ask me I cannot say that to them. But for the most part, I get to have amazing conversations with people.

The last statement is my absolutely favorite response. I love it when people tell me that they could never do my job. The RN's at the hospital used to tell me that when I was doing my residency. My response was always, "well, I can't do your job either." Isn't it great that we don't all have the same gifts, talents and callings? If everyone could do my job then why would I be needed? I'm glad that I am called to do what I do for this season in life. I say that because I hope that once Kevin graduates and gets into active duty that I can then do my ultimate calling and raise my children at home. :)

So, what do you do?