Chris's Birthday and an update

So yeah, today was Chris's birthday and he turned 27....crazy! I have known him since he was 23, I met him right before his 24th birthday, It's weird because at the time I was only 19, and he seemed so much older than me, and now I am almost 23!!! It's insane! He was actually at my house in Lansing hanging out so I was with him on that 24th birthday...we had gone to Warp Tour at the Silverdome the day before, and we got home late that night...then midnight came and it was his birthday, but then he had to go back to Muskegon obviously. It is just cool thinking back on it.
I had the day off today which happened to work out well, and Chris had to work this morning. His parents and his Aunt Barb, who's birthday was also on tuesday, came to town tonight and we went out to eat at Louis Benton Steakhouse downtown. We have always talked about going there but there are so many places to go in GR that we just finally got the chance. It was pretty good, my salad and steak were amazing! I feel bad though because our night went so fast...it was like Chris didn't even get a chance to enjoy himself. He finally got a carrying case for the laptop, and also Frasier, Season 9 which he has been wanting for forever! I bought the cutest card in the shape of a boxer for him. I was so creative, hahaha.....I dipped Niles little paw in some mud and stamped it on the inside of the card and wrote "Happy Birthday Daddy! I love you!! Niles" It was so freakin cute.....I guess you'd have to see it. I thought it was a good idea anyways... =)

Things have been a lot better at work lately, a lot calmer too. The resident that I wrote about previously, the one who upset me so badly...well he is gone for good. A lot of crazy things happened last week...he just went off the deep end. I knew he had his bad days here and there but a day turned into four and before we knew it he became unmanagable. He was refusing to eat (for days on end) and eventually was freaking out so bad that he was threatening to hurt himself, which then turned into threatening the staff, so yep, he is gone. Which is OK by me anyways. We could not help him in the ways he needed. He needs psychiatric help, and we are not trained to provide that. It is still beyond me how they could have ever possibly thought that it would be in his best interest to let him live there when there was no way we could have given him the mental and emotional stability that he needs. Well enough about that.....

I went to Target today. I am totally hating their photo department right now. I spent a good half hour editing and cropping prints and then walked around the store for another 45 mintues while I was waiting for them to print. When I finally went to pick them up they told me that the printer had broke down and wouldn't be fixed for who knows how long. I couldn't wait any longer b/c I had to come home and get ready. I waited almost 3 hours, called there, and the repair guy still hadn't even called to come to fix it. So Chris's aunt didn't get half of her bday present, I was so mad! In a hurry I drove to the Meijer in Grandville to quick print off the two picks that I needed just for her, and their machine was broke too, and the print them off normally I would have to wait another hour, well I didn't have time so yeah that didn't work either and I made a trip for nothing. But anyways, when Target gets their crap together we are gonna have some sweet pics from the wedding. I should have had some put up way before now but I guess I was just procrastinating digging through them all, choosing the ones that I wanted and editing them all, it's such a pain!!

We are going to Chicago over Labor Day weekend with Chris's parents and my parents. We are getting on the train here in GR and taking it over there, I am so excited!! I didn't think that we were going to go there this year...we didn't go last year b\c we went on our honeymoon....for those of you who don't know Chicago is like "our litle place that we like to go." Chris loves it there, and he took me there for the first time ever once we started dating, that was also where he first told me that he loved me. =) We went there again for our one year anniversary, so we haven't been there since Oct. of 2005. Then he also surprised me last week and was like, Hey I think we should go again for our anniversay, which is in October so we would be going twice within 6 weeks!! We found a really cheap hotel downtown and one of his coworkers told him how you can drive down to Michigan City, IN and take the train there to Chi-town and it's only $12 round trip! So cheap! So yeah, we booked the hotel but we are deciding if we are going to keep it or cancel. Since we are going there over Labor Day...I kinda want to do something different. We have always wanted to stay at the Amway Grand downtown, and if we booked it now...you can get a room for $150 which isn't much more than what we were paying for our room in Chicago....we will see I guess!

Christmas is going to be here before we know it!!! I can't wait!
For all you who don't know....I LOVE Christmas!
I am totally that person who has their radio station on Star 105.7 24/7 during the Holidays. I know like every word to every Christmas song. People begin to hate me...haha!
I can't wait to put our tree up in one of our big windows, it's going to look amazing! I keep thinking about it already, pathetic huh? I wonder how Niles will do...he will probably knock it over and break everything, I would be so mad......haha. Anyways! Enough about Christmas, summer isn't even over yet! =P

p.s. I am lovin me some Mary Kay right now!!!!

Well I guess that is about all for now. I will post some new pics soon.

Happy Birthday Chris

I love you so much, and you are an amazing husband.
I am blessed and lucky to be your wife.
Thank you for loving me.

Kisses in the Car.

My name is Niles. I am 9 weeks old now and I am getting so big.

I have learned how to sit, shake, and I'm working on laying down and still potty-training.

I am a very mischievous trouble maker.

But I am so dang cute, my Mom and Dad can't help but love me.

Hee hee... =P

work

I love my thursdays lately. Mostly because it is almost always my day off lately. Today I am meeting up with my friend and we are going to do eachothers hair. I'm excited because I have been doing it myself lately and haven't had a haircut since February. I think I deserve it! My boss keeps scheduling me like 6 days in a row and by the last night I am usually so stressed out I want to quit. Things have been so hard there lately, we have so many residents to take care of now and not enough people, almost every day is a struggle. We have this one resident, he is so young, only 38. I feel so bad for him, he has lived in homes his whole life. He is extremely paranoid and very OCD. He doesn't understand that there is only 3 of us and 19 other people to take care of. When we have to go into his room, which is several times throughout the evening, he is so OCD that it takes a looong time to help him with his care. If we don't get to his room right way, which happens sometimes because we are taking care of another person, he gets so angry at us and throws accusations like we are putting him on the back-burner, he knows we are always talking about him, we don't want him there, we don't care about him, we never pay any attention to him because we are always with everyone else etc. Last night he made me so upset I started to cry. He had no idea what was going on, no comprehension of what else we do there. I tried to get to his room as fast as I could, as my other two girls I was working with were helping another lady in the bathroom (some people are so big, or can't move well, that it takes two people to transfer them from their wheelchair, to a commode, or their bed, chair et.). On my way to his room, one of our new resident's daughters stopped me and was asking me tons of questions, I had to give her her breathing treatment and when I got into her room the machine was apart and I had to figure out how to put it back together.....it was just one thing after another.
In my job almost everything is an emergency to people. They want things done right away and they want it done right, especially the residents family, otherwise they feel that their loved ones are being neglected etc.
You never know when something will come up spur of the moment...she ran into me at a bad time, but you cannot tell them to hang on or that you'll be right back...so by the time I finished up with her and got to our other resident he was just so angry with me. I definately took the mean things he was saying to me personal at first, even though I know that he doesn't understand. He has mental and psychological problems, and I just wish I could get into his head and understand him more. Thank God for people like my wonderful loving husband who care enough about people to become a Social worker, or Mental Health doctor or Nurse, or psych doctor.
Sometimes we just need a break, a rest. Mentally, emotionally, physically. Work will wear you down, and it's so hard to love what you do sometimes when you don't get that rest. You just begin to hate it. I cannot imagine being someone with a disorder like that, never getting any rest at all because it is constantly in your mind, it's who you are, your state of being. He says he hates himself, he hates his life. His mood is a constant rollercoaster, up and down.
I do my best by showing him I love him for who he is everyday by trying to be as patient as possible, and take the best care of him as I possibly can. My question to myself lately is how can I show him that God loves him? Just the way he is?