Where did the last couple days go?

The weeks are flying by I swear! I can't believe it is almost October! One of mine and Chris's favorite monthes. So yeah, it makes me happy. Christmas is almost here, right around the corner. Good stuff.

Yesterday I had the day off. I had to go to meeting at work at 10 am. Nothing annoys me more that being forced to drive all the way over there on my day off, I guess it's different if I go on my own terms, which I actually do quite frequently, to visit residents, bring Niles along to see them (they love that!) or see my coworkers, whatever. But anyways, we have these mandatory meetings, but atleast we get paid for them. It's always the same old crap we are talking about though, I with they became more useful. We were informed that if people keep abusing their 15 min. breaks that we get paid for that they are going to get taken away. It's same couple of people that keep doing it, and they are ruining it for everyone else. I don't even get to take my 15 min. breaks, most of the time I am too busy. Plus I don't smoke, so people don't expect me to push it, which personally isn't fair. But I don't complain. If we have a good night and everything goes smoothly, most of the time I get everything done somewhat early, which means we hang out in the living room and work on the infamous puzzles. So yeah, I don't complain. But these meetings are still an annoying hindrance on my day off.
After that my friend Stephanie came over and did my hair, I love it!!! I always feel bad asking her to do it, because, to be completely honest, I'm somewhat of a brat about it. I just know exactly how I want it colored, and cut, and sometimes it is hard to express that to someone else, that is why a lot of times I end up coloring it myself. Especially when the whole time I know exactly what she is doing. I know I just need to have more trust in her, especially since she always does an amazing job. I will post some pictures soon. Chris is so happy, he loves it when my hair is brown, and he keeps telling me how much he loves it. =)
Steph brought her little puppy Pudge over. He is a little cutie, he is half maltese/ half shitzu, black and white, and only weighs 6 lbs. We thought him and Niles could have a litte puppy playdate. But nope, Pudge was SO afraid of him, I was kinda surprised!!! I mean, I know he is hyper and all, but Pudge wouldn't even let him sniff him, I felt so bad because she was here for like almost 6 hours and pretty much the whole time I had to keep Niles in his crate. Anyways, we didn't finish my hair until like almost 6 pm. I had such a huge mess to clean up, we seriously cut off like 7 inches of my hair probably? It was getting so long and blah, I need a change! After that I did some grocery shopping, it's amazing how much stuff I bought and spent and I still feel like we don't have any real food, I hate that.
I went to Erica's last night and hung out with her and our friend Andrea (these girls are in my house church), it was so fun!! I miss having close girlfriends that I can talk to about anything. I love hanging out with you Erica and I'm so happy I met you guys! We told some funny stories about talking and walking in your sleep, and also discussed some funny things that have happened with elderly people at our jobs (she used to work in a nursing home too). Good stuff. Anyways, I promise to be posting my list soon of and huge number of random facts about me. I could work on it right now, but, it's already have noon. And I need to get ready and I want to bake some cookies! Not to mention that I need to eat some food. Watch for my list, coming soon!

I can't wait for tomorrow. Chris and I are doing the Aids Walk downtown, and then going shopping at Macy's. When we were in Chicago we were walking to the Navy Pier. I was looking around at the ground, probably thinking about how much litter was everywhere and how people need to recycle more, and low and behold, there was this macys card on the ground, with a receipt in it that told the remaining balance. My Dad was like, you know you have to try to return it to who it belongs to, I was like yeah I know!! So when we got home I called customer service, and they said that there was no way to track who it belonged to unless you had the orginal receipt of who purchased it and it had a credit card number on it, so they told me that I got to keep it!!! There was $222.00 on it!!!!!!! I feel so lucky. I was like, Thank you God! This is such a blessing! I mean, why me?? Why did I find the giftcard? There we so many people walking around, anyone could have saw it, but I did?! So yeah, tomorrow me and Chris are going to go shopping. It is going to be our little date day, I am excited to spend some time together!

I promise I am going to start doing this more often.

Well hello everyone. I am finally almost better!! I am still coughing a little, it's finally starting to all break up. I am been so sore, but it is starting to get better. I have a lot to update about. But I was just feeling so lazy for so long. I got so much done today though! All of the laundry, some calls I needed to make....sometimes you just need to get all your ducks in a row to get un-stressed. I just got so behind with everything when I was sick, but I feel so much more energized now.

Work is going pretty well. I really enjoy the people that I work with, and the residents are so cute and funny sometimes. Old people can be pretty hilarious, and it's awesome when you create a bond with someone like that, and they depend on you. As much as I like working there, I have been really just not content lately.

I keep praying that God will help me be content in every area of my life. I am so thankful just to even have a job, and a steady income, it just isn't what I want to do for the rest of my life. But it is so easy to be jealous of what others have etc. I think I have finally come to a point where I am content. We are so blessed to have our house, our family, our friends. I am constantly reminding myself this. We are so blessed!

Me and Chris have been working on our relationship lately, and trying different things so that we can become more engaged with eachother. It's so easy just to become comfortable with doing your own thing. Sometimes we just have to force ourselves to be together and talk and do different things to keep things exciting. I think we have been doing a pretty good job the past couple days and things are going really well. He even bought me flowers and a card, they are so pretty. And the card is pretty cute, he always finds the funniest cards. There is a little dog on the front and it says: "You make my tail wag so much....." And on the inside it says: "my butt hurts..." haha! So cute.

Ok, so yeah...my sister is DEFINATELY pregnant with twins!!!!!!! AHH! This is so exciting. I am so happy for them, it's so amazing and such a miracle. A huge blessing from God. Anything you wanna call it, it's amazing! I wish they lived closer, I feel like I am missing out on everything and I hate that. I have only seen my little nephew a couple times since he was born in March and he is already getting so big!! Please just pray for my sister that everything continues to go well and she has a healthy pregnancy. I totally think she is having girls, or atleast one girl. That would be sweet if she had one girl and one boy. But definately atleast one girl, I just have a feeling about it. I had a feeling with Sam and I was right about that one!

So I have also discovered lately that I really enjoy doing puzzles. The residents at work are always doing them and they always want us to help them, I love doing it! There was this really cool one on a table in the living room there. It was this cute little fall scene with pumpkins and scarecrows, and well, it was kinda hard so the residents weren't really working on it. And since I love fall and all, I kept working on it during my breaks and when we weren't busy and then I ended up finishing the other night. I know, I am a nerd, but I was excited to finish it, I felt a sort of sense of accomplishment, haha. But it's somewhat relaxing, and so Chris came to the dollar store with me yesterday and I bought two new puzzles. I took one to work to work on it there with people and then one for at home. I guess I find it somewhat relaxing.

I just took a little break for a sec to make some lunch because I need to go to work soon. I have been craving chicken lately but I can never make it as good as Chris can so he just told me his little secret, but anyways, my point is that Chris always tells me how good our microwave makes baked potatoes so I got the idea to make one with my chicken breast. One of the awesome perks that came with our house is this cool Stainless Steel Accuwave Whirlpool Microwave that the sellers left in the kitchen. It is attached to the cupboards above the stove, so I am assuming that it would have probably been a pain to take it off, but still, it is so nice, I can't believe they left it behind. But yeah, so you put a potato in, push the baked potato button, it "senses" how long to cook it for, and voila! Amazing perfect baked potato! Same thing for popcorn. It's so cool, I love it!

goodness gracious

I promise I will update very soon. Please forgive me as I have been sick for over a month now, with which this cold came along with this wonderful cough that I have had for over two weeks and cannot seem to kick. I have not had a good nights sleep since Chicago. That was 12 days ago. I will never again take that for advantage. A good nights sleep that is. I have literally tried everything and nothing is working. If I am not better by next week I have to go and see a pulmonologist. I seriously hope this does not become necessary. I'm on a steroid right now for my lungs and still have four more days to go. Please pray for me!!!

On a much different and very jealous note.......

I feel like everyone around me is getting pregnant. Three people in the past week. I cannot help but to feel a longing for this time in my life, I get so excited!!! I want to get in on all this! I know that now is probably not the right time. I suppose whatever God has planned for us will happen. I am just so impatient and excited for the future!!!!

Despite my jealousy, I am sooo very happy and excited for you all. I love you!!! And you are all in my thoughts and prayers.
Yay for babies!! =)

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?