Spring in Iowa

       Last week we had some beautiful weather.  My flowers are starting to come up, the crocus had bloomed.   Then this week happened.   Snow again.  Actually first rain, then ice, then snow for the last 3 days.  I had put my winter coat away,  put my spring blankets on my bed.  Got my spring clothes out and put away my winter clothes.  darn.  Snow

      We have branches broke and all over the ground to clean up.  We were starting to see green on the ground, now back to white.  And Mud!  Trying to take Hoss out without getting mud all over.  I try to walk him on the white stuff.

   Oh well, it won't last long.   At least now you know the end is right around the corner.   I am so ready.

   We had a thunderstorm the other day.  Hoss was scared and climbed on Ricks lap, shaking and panting.  80 pounds of terrified dog.  Poor thing.  I suppose he spent many a night out in that type of weather.   We decided the next thunderstorm I am going to bring out a new toy I will be getting him today and let him play with it plus get him some treats.  Hopefully he will start thinking of thunderstorms as something fun instead of something fearful.

    Work has gone well.  It is so different then what I had been doing.   8 hours seem so much easier.  I will be working lots of extra because for now our staff is small since it is a new unit and we have to grow our practice so if someone is on vacation or ill we have to cover their needs.  But we can do that because we aren't working as physically as I was on the old floor.  The lifting is minimal, the charting is minimal.  The patients aren't as sick.

   I do miss my old floor.  I loved cardiac patients and actually loved the really sick ones you could work you tush off on getting better.  But, time to think about taking care of myself.

   Well, time to rush to the store and get things ready for work.  

I love my new job

   My first night went great.  What a difference it was.  The charting was so much nicer.   The pace was manageable and I work with some great nurses that I knew already.   I didn't have to take a tylenol half way through my shift and I got off work on time.  ON TIME.  This is one happy old nurse.  I may survive to retirement after all.  HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY.

Starting new job tonight

 I worked my last 12 hour shift and last overnight this weekend.   We were so busy but I had some great patients.

  One of my patients had been very critical on one of the nights I took care of her and kept me busy checking her vitals, hanging meds and trying to pull her back from the brink.  Right before I left for the last time on my last night she took my hand and thanked me.  She said she knows she would not be here today if not for me.  She told me I was a great nurse.  I got all teary eyed and told her that was the best gift I could have gotten on my last night on my floor.

   Today at 3 I start a new chapter in my life.  I suppose I won't have the critical patients I had on the heart floor and they will be a lot more stable.  I will miss it, I loved taking care of cardiac patients.  But,  I will still get to take care of patients who need care, and I will have time to visit with them.   Not lifting as much is going to be great.  Instead of getting off work and reaching for the motrin I am hoping I won't be in as much pain.  It is always nerve wracking to start a new job but I know all the people I will be working with and like them all.  It will be a good change for me.  You're never to old to learn new tricks.g

  A new Chapter in my book of nursing care.

What will be great about my new job

  
 

    I am so excited about my new job.   It will still be at my hospital so that is great.   I won't have to do near as much heavy lifting, so that is great.  I will be working 3 to 11 so no more trying to sleep in the daytime, so that is great.  No more cardboard on my windows to keep my room dark, so that is great.  No more getting pulled, so that is great.  Less bedpan patrol, so that is great.  I like everyone I will be working with, so that is great.  My body may actually not be completely destroyed by the time I retire, so that is great.

  I loved taking care of heart patients.  I loved my old job.  But staffing kept changing.  Many of the patients were very heavy, thus the bad hearts, so there was so much lifting.  It was getting so hard on my body.  I was living on motrin and actually damaged my kidneys taking so much, I know, I should have known better.  

   I got so I was only averaging 5 to 6 hours of sleep and it would take me a couple of days to recover working my long shift.  Plus we were being mandated to work extra.  16 hours of work on 5 hours of sleep is not good.   So I am excited.  I will only be working 8 hours instead of 12.  I will miss my long stretch off but it was really wearing me down.  I will miss my co-workers who made working so hard at least fun because they were great to work with.  But 2 of my co-workers are going with me.

  So I am so excited!

    The 2 buds.   They play together,  sleep together and Xena tries to eat Hoss's food but he is too fast for her.   Great pals.  Xena drives me nuts, she is always scratching on the furniture and knocking things off the shelves but Hoss would be lost without her.

    Spring is here, in name only though.  But I can tell it will only be a matter of time before the ground shows it.  My crocus and daffodils are peaking up through the ground and the Robins are back.  Even though it hasn't been a terrible winter it seems like it was soooooo long.  I want the warm weather back.

   I applied for different job and it sounds like I have a good chance of getting it.   It will be much easier on this old body as the lifting will be way less.  It is exciting but nerve wracking at the same time.  I love my cardiac patients.  But the lifting was a lot more then I expected.  My left wrist never fully recovered from breaking it and my neck is out right now so this move will be for the best.  No more 12 hours shifts.  The bad news is no more 6 days off in a row.  But I can live with that.

   My granddaughter is coming today.  I am so excited.  I haven't seen her since last summer.   Yesterday my youngest granddaughter spent the day.  Since I am messed up with my neck at the moment and have bronchitis we didn't do much except for go to the doctors but it was fun just hanging out.  She is a delightful child.  Sunday was her birthday and she turned 8.  Time just flies.

  Here she is with her older brother Connor who is also a wonderful kid.   Grandchildren are wonderful things.   

    We have decided to hold off getting another dog for now.   The economy is hitting us hard right now,  I need to make sure we will be able to afford the dog.  Hoss is bossy enough for us at this point.  I think he gets enough play in chasing the cat and we can always do doggy day care.

   I have a great recipe I got off All Recipes.  Serve warm with ice cream.

 

Country Apple Dumplings 

These are so easy to make and taste great.  You have to use the Granny Smith green apples.  I am going to make it using fresh peaches when they are in season also.  Yummy.   I didn't want to actually print the recipe here since is copy righted so click on the link to be taken to it.

  Well, I didn't sleep very well last night.  The medication the doc put me made me restless.  So I will probably just take it easy and try to do light house work.  What fun.  Hopefully my neck will get sorted out soon.  And hopefully next time I post it will be to tell you about my new job. 

I just found out I got my new job.  Yeah.  I will be working 3 to 11 again.  wow, to sleep at night again.  Joy Joy.

   
   It has been 5 months today since we adopted Hoss.  Can't imagine life without him now.   He has come a long way.

   As you can see he is now the picture of health.  He has filled out and is full of fun and vigor.   From being used to living outside Hoss now really loves the indoor life.

   His training has come a long way.   He has all the basic commands down and is getting recall down also.   He loves riding in the car,  going for long walks and stealing my bed when I get up.   And in the 5 months we have had him we have never found anyone he doesn't like.   He is a people person for sure.   At first he used to jump up and try licking their face but now, although he wiggles all over, he sits and lets you pet him.

  He loves going to the pet stores and everyone knows Hoss.  He just loves the attention.   He knows is he sits nice we will let people pet him and he lives for that.   His coat is so soft.

    Hoss and Xena get along really well.   They spend hours a day playing and napping together.   Course Hoss insists on hogging every picture.   It was going to take a very special dog to get after living with Zoey.   Although he can never replace her he has stolen both of our hearts and Hoss and Rick are walking all the trails he used to walk with Zoey.   They are both very close.

   Hoss wasn't used to anything when we first got him.  He didn't know how to play with toys, didn't beg table scraps,  didn't know about chasing a ball or all the wonderful area's to walk.  Riding in a car always meant he was going to a new temporary home.    Now he will start whining the minute he knows we are going for a walk, he has gone through a ton of toys and he has begging down pat.  And he knows a car ride means he gets a walk and then home, his home.  He is a happy dog.

    We also starting wondering about Hoss.  We were pretty sure now that he had a lot of boxer in him.   He acted like a boxer,  looked like he had a lot of boxer in him so we decided to find out.   We bought a Wisdom mixed breed DNA test kit and tested him.  And as suspected he is mostly a bulldog/ boxer with a few other dogs way back in his ancestory such as a Mastiff and a Chinese crested, LOL.

  As for Rick and I.   I am happy to be celebrating going over a year without breaking anything or needing surgery.   Wow, that is big for me.   Isn't it funny the things that take importance as you get older, good health, no broken bones, it is the simple things for me.   My wrist and hand are still pretty messed up from breaking it but nothing I can't handle.

  My granddaughter turned 12.  Wow. seems like yesterday she was born.   She now has a I phone so we get to text and talk to each other a lot more.   

  Well, not much to say.  I am off for a week and it is cold outside so we are staying in and taking a lazy day today.   Sometimes not having any place to be or anything to do is a good thing.

Hello to all

   It has been a long time since I blogged anything.   Obviously the outcome of the election really saddened me.   Watching my stocks crash to practically nothing saddened me.  Hearing about how they now want to dip into our 403's saddened me.  Remember when they wanted to borrow from our Social security?  Now we have none!  If they had left it alone everyone would have been able to retire and take care of yourself without having to depend on the government to help you.   Oh well.   On and on but I am not going to post about this anymore.  The people apparently have made their choice.  Not my choice but I will have to live with the consequences.  So, I will blog about my dog and cat instead.

  Hoss, what a big old goofy dog he has been.   Hoss is officially an obedience school drop out.   I didn't care for the methods they were using and it was making Hoss a cranky dog.  So we have been finishing out his training ourselves and it has gone well.   He still has him moments of not listening to a thing we say but usually when he has something going on more important then listening to us.  Like a big ole buck going through the yard.

   He has been fixated with the deer lately.  I think it has something to do with rutting season as he didn't pay much attention to them before.   Now he wants to pull us into the woods all the time and has taken to snacking on deer droppings.  Oh yick.  Sloppy dog kisses flavored with deer poo.  Not my favorite.  Plus the bucks are skittish this time of year.  I really don't want to take off trailing one and have it turn on us.  So we have been doing most of our walks by the river.

  The weather has turned cold.  I am so not ready for it.   Immediately I came down with bronchitis.  I have been coughing non stop for a week.   Yesterday I finally went to see the doc and got some meds to curb the cough and help with my breathing.  And I slept a couple of hours by sleeping on the couch.  

  The downside of the cold weather is much shorter walks with Hoss.   Hoss is a great dog, especially if he gets a lot of exercise.   We have been walking miles with him and hiking all the old trails that Zoey loved.  Hoss loves them also.  A couple of long walks a day and Hoss is a contented dog.  Cut the walks short though.  Hoss gets stir crazy and naughty.   Poor Xena,  there she was happily sleeping on her kitty bed.

  Hoss all of a sudden ran over, grabbed the bed by a foot and flung it across the room.   With the poor kitty sleeping inside.  Course she landed on her feet but she was not amused.


Xena has gotten big.  I think she is almost a year now.  She is a pretty cat and gets along with Hoss pretty good.  Hoss tends to get a little rougher with her then I like.  But the cat does egg Hoss on to a game of chase me.  Xena has her escape routes all planned out and will get under the dresser where Hoss can't get her.  Then she sits under there and bats at him with her paw.

  They seem to be pretty good friends.  We do stop Hoss if he seems to rough.  
  
   Chester our guinea pig died.   It was pretty sad and sudden but he was an old piggy and he had a pretty good life with us.  Xena walked around howling for days but now seems to be better.  She did start clawing all my furniture so we put her soft claws on her again.  Isn't she styling?  Blue is her color for sure.

   We are in the process of getting approved to adopt another Boxer.  Yup, everyone agrees Hoss is a boxer.

  We are going through Northern Plains Boxer Rescue.   We like the idea of rescuing and this place is great.  They check all your references and then they match the boxer with your lifestyle and Hoss's for the best fit.  Right now they care checking our references but I know that will be good.  We are responsible and loving pet owners.   So hopefully if everything works out we will be a 2 dog family, and one cat soon.  We are excited.