Kohn-Barber Wedding

I have posted some pictures of their wedding. It was very beautiful and we had a great time. I think Nick had more fun than I did. By the way I don't like our little camera. The red eye reduction is horrible with at least 3 sec delay. I need a new little camera!!!!!

Oh What ta do

Well I have been in my new position for a week now and loving it but there are quite the snags that has surfaced that makes me question the change in position. When I was hired for the position back in December it was a mon-fri 8-5 schedule. Perfect for Nick and I. Well, since this last week many changes are coming. There is a new manager who was not hired before I agreed to take the position who now wants to change things. The company is wanting to grow and in order to do that we need to be very flexible. I am to a point, but I am not going to sacrifice my weekends or evenings with Nick for my job. My family will always come first. So, they are proposing instead of working mon-fri 8-5 they want us to work mon-fri 9-6 with rotating weekends. And depending on how busy the week is I may work the weekend but not be able to flex my hours due to the week before. I don't want to work 6 days a week. That is the beauty with salary. The only time I have with Nick is a couple hours in the evening and our saturdays. So, after some talking with Nick, friends and family I decided to leave that position and go back to the case management position. It won't be my same patients or same team so it will be a change. The area won't be far and new change in pace. I was afraid that I would agree to the change and down the road decide it won't work for me there wouldn't be a position for me to demote.

I really wished I had known these changes were coming and I would have never applied for the position. The SW and I proposed working (4) 10hr shifts a week and hire just a nurse for the weekend and she wouldn't do that. So, because I wasn't willing to budge my schedule I decided for the company it would be best for me to step down. They can hire someone who is willing to have more flexibility and work rotating weekends. If I wanted rotated weekends I would be working somewhere else.

I know there is something in store for me and I am just being patient. I hope they find someone as flexbible, but in the mean time I have to deal with this position until they find someone else to fill it. We will see. I am hoping upper management catches wind of it and they can do something else. We will see.

Living with coyotes

I would have to say I am exhausted after last night. See, a couple friends and I are taking a yoga class on wednesday nights and last night was my first night. It is an intense yoga with the heater up to 85-90 degrees and it is a fast paced yoga. Anyways, I came home very tired after my yoga class. I ate dinner and got ready for bed. I went to bed early because of how tired I was. I was sleeping so soundly until about 0200 I was woken up to Bruno's barking. He would not stop. I tried ignoring it for a half hour and had enough. I decided to look outside to see what was out there. The dog was barking at a shadow. There was a shadow of a pole hitting the fence that looked like a dog. I thought it was a dog at first and then I put my glasses on to see it was shadow. Well, there isn't anything I can do if my dog sees a shadow because I cannot remove a 30ft pole because my dog is paranoid. So, I finally fell back to sleep but Bruno kept barking about every half hour and by 0600 my patience was gone. The sun was starting to come up and Bruno was still barking. The shadow should be gone by now. So, I went running down stairs and I could see him pacing and barking. I slammed my hand on the glass of sun room. And right when I did that I saw a coyote curled up on the ground on the outside of our chainlink fence. That was what he was barking at. No wonder he was going nuts in our sun room. I felt bad for scaring the dog because he was barking to protect his turf. I tried yelling at the coyote to leave, but he just looked at me and kept doing what he was doing. Within a minute he got up and walked away. The coyote was pretty big because he was the size of Bruno. I appreciate Bruno being the protector but I wished we could teach him different barks so I know what he is barking at.

One More Week

Back in December I applied for a management position within my company. At first when I applied I really thought it was the job for me. I interviewed for the position but as time went on part of me knew I really didn't want the job. I think I was applying for the position because of the encouragement from coworkers not necessarily my heart. I knew God had something else for me. I was getting burned out from case management but I didn't want to leave Agape. My desires to become a photographer has become stronger and knew that is the direction I wanted to take my career. So while waiting to hear whether or not I got the job a new position had opened within my company that was perfect. It was the admission nurse position. I would be responsible to admit new people to our services. I wouldn't have a case load, no more on call and maybe 1 holiday. It would be a salary position and a more flexible work schedule. I knew that is where God was leading me. So I removed myself from the group applying for the managment position and applied for the admissions nurse. Luckily no one else applied so it was mine. Now it is February and the nurse who is taking my caseload is working and next week is the last week I work with these patients. There is a few that I will dearly miss but I know they are in good hands and I am still with the company so I can help the nurse with any questions. I praise God for opening these doors and that I listened and went with my feelings. When I removed myself people were very surprised but thought it was the healthiest thing I could do. Even if I had gotten the position I would burn out alot sooner and then end up quitting. Why not save the company money and time when I know I really didn't want the position. I will start my new position on Feb 11 and I can't wait.

I need sleep

Well I thought maybe the Nightquil would help me sleep and I would start getting better, but no such luck. Last night the Nightquil didn't help me and I coughed most of the night. Everytime I moved I coughed and I finally fell asleep after 1am. When I woke up this am I was feeling ok, exhausted but had this naggy cough that wouldn't go away and I sounded horrible not to mention a sore throat. I just worked from home and went to the doctors. And what do you know, I have bronchitis. So, now I am on antibiotics and on a cough suppressant. Hopefully this cough will go away soon and I can feel better.

Sickness and Love/Hate Career

I have been sick for almost one week with this annoying cold that just won't go away. Nick and I went out Friday night with friends and that night I started losing my voice. My voice never returned Saturday and Sunday the cold finally hit. I spent most of the day in bed. I couldn't go to work Monday or Tuesday because who wants a sick person seeing very fragile people. I would be mad if someone who was visiting my loved one was coughing and obviously had an active illness. I was finally feeling ok to work yesterday. It was more boredom than anything. I worked all day yesterday and was to be on call that night. My coughing is the worst at night and the only thing that works is Nightquil to help my cough and help me sleep. I couldn't take it that night so I decided I would probably be up all night coughing. Instead I was up all night working. Here is the saga of my night.

We were planning an admission on Thursday of a man dying from cancer. Him and his wife had gone to California on a business trip and he ended up in the hospital due to complications related to his cancer. He was declining so fast that the family did not want him to die in California, but in Colorado. So, the family was paying for this man to be life flighted from California to Centennial Airport and transported to his mother's home in Littleton to die. Suddenly plans changed and this man was coming that night (wednesday). He was to arrive at the home at 600pm. My job was to admit him and make sure he was tucked in. We had all the equipment there and important medications were there. We thought everything had gone so smoothly and little did we know the mother had completely different plans that what we thought. She thought she was getting an RN at bedside 24hours a day not a nursing assistant. She wanted IV fluids which we didn't order and she wanted everything done right then and there. These tasks are very hard to coordinate at 7pm. I was so frustrated that the lack of communication was putting alot of stress on the mother. To make a long story short I spent over 5 hours with this family getting medications, IV fluids, getting help etc. It was so frustrating and so exhausting for me because all of this could have been done before 5pm if we had known. I finally got home around 1145pm. I spent 2 hours coughing and not sleeping. Then I got the call at 200am that this man had died. And suddenly all my frustrations and feelings had changed. I realized that my company had helped this family and this man get his wish to die in Colorado not California. The family was so stunned that he had died so quickly but you would be amazed at people's will to live to achieve a certain goal. All that stress with coordination, getting meds, making sure certain people would be there tomorrow all went away because of fullfilling someone's wish. This is why I love my job.

I ended up getting home at 445am and only sleeping a couple hours the rest of the night and needless to say... MY COLD IS BACK!!!!! I am not feeling as good as I did wednesday and had to stay home from work today because I was first exhausted, and second I am coughing like a chronic smoker. I was able to get some sleep today and plan to take 2 Nightquil tonight and hope to be well enough to work. Those nights rarely happen and having cold did not help my siuation at all.

To have a day off together

Nick and I finally have one day off together. He switched to working sun, mon, tues, and wed. We now have saturdays off together. It has been over 8 months since we have had this schedule. Yesterday was fun running errands, going out to breakfast and being with friends. I love this work schedule. Nick loves this schedule too. He loves his new team and just seeing me more. Can't wait for the rest of this year.