3 days to go

3 days until the fair that is. There's still a fair amount of stuff to do.

1.) Still have to finish making a list of things that help and don't help during a crisis
2.) Make copies of the previously mentioned items and 2 other things. One of which is a packet of information and will take a while to copy.
3.) Make a sign explaining that orange is the color recognizing Self Injury and telling people that they can take ribbons.
4.) Put pins in said ribbons. We're talking about putting pint in about 300 ribbons.
5.) Make a sign in sheet and copy it
6.) Find a container for the ribbons
7.) Finish knitting the 2nd cup cozy.
8.) Attach business cards to 2 of the door prizes
9.) Lastly remember to bring all of this to the fair along with master copies in case more copies are needed.

Oh and I have 2 meeting to attend Wednesday evening (night before the fair) and my regular 2 appointments on Tuesday. Plus I usually go to the shop on Tuesday night.

Fair Update

My friends and I have a handle on the fair. It may be a small handle, but it's a handle. We're a week away and we still have to:

1.) Make a list of things that help and don't help during a crisis
2.) Print out 1 more information sheet
3.) Make copies of the 2 previously mentioned items and 1 other thing which is a packet of information and will take a while to copy.
4.) My friend has to make 6 candles
5.) I have to make a stained glass box and turn it into a Zen Garden
6.) Locate a basket
7.) Make a sign explaining that certian items are for display only
8.) Make a sign explaining that orange is the color recognizing Self Injury and telling people that they can take ribbons.
9.) Put pins in said ribbons
10.) Make a sign giving credit to stores that we bought items at for raffle
11.) Make a sign in sheet and copy it
12.) Lastly remember to bring all of this to the fair along with master copies in case more copies are needed

Does anyone have some extra sanity they can spare. Oh and to make it all a little more interesting, one friend and I have a board meeting the night before.

P.S. Throw in knit 2 cup cozies.

Apone's Here

Yay!!! The puppy has arrived. She's so adorable. That's it.

No Incentive To Buy A House ...

...at least after last week. Words can't tell you how happy I was when my landlord and lady walked back into the house yesterday evening. While they were away:1.) the furnace died. consequently "J" had to have repair men come out and fix it.2.) the furnace apparently died again, but my landlord was able to get it running again.3.) a breaker blew and no matter what we tried we couldn't get it to come back on.4.) a winter storm came through.5.) we had no salt for the sidewalk and barely enough sand for here.6.) the shovel for here was missing in action.7.) i was getting called from another property that the person that shovels dovn there hadn't shoveld and it was icing.8.) i got another call that the person finally shoveled, but only the front, not the back, and didn't put sand down.After all that I had just had it and was ready to go into hiding. Like I said, words can't tell you how happy I was to see them return.

When it comes to me and kids, I can handle the serious stuff. Give me: you need stitches (I can handle minor cuts and scrapes too). Give me you're in respriatory or cardiac arrest. I can handle you're choking too. I can take sprained ankles and broken bones. Give me anything along that kind of stuff and I'm perfectly fine. I can swing right into motion without thinking twice. Give me you don't feel good ...your sick. What am I going to do? I'm going to look at you like you have 3 heads while I shush the adrenaline and figure out what to do. I haven't raised kids. I live vicariously through others in this department. I don't know off the top of my head what to do for a 10 year that's got an upset stomach besides hold the asprin.
Last week I got 2 crash courses in parenting. Previous posts have covered 1 of them a bit. Looking back at them it's rather scketchy and behind the cut covers both of them with a little humor. I can laugh now.
So Monday night's Crash Course: What to do for a 10 year old that had an upset stomach in the middle of the night.

Scenario: You are going upstairs into your apartment on the 3rd floor. The 13 and 10 year olds that you are taking care of are asleep in the main part of the house 1 floor below you on the second floor. You told them when they went to bed that if they needed anything during the night and the downstairs lights were off you would be right upstairs. As you open the door to your apartment to go from the 2nd to the 3rd floor you hear the 10 year old "C" call you from the bathroom and say that they don't feel good. You go in and discovet that they have thrown up (thankfuly in the toilet so no cleanup). What do you do? Remember you have not had experience with this before (at least with children and thankfully the sight of emesis doesn't make you sick)
In my world I sat down with her and felt her forehead. Not warm. Good.
Asked if she wanted any Pepto {Bismol}. Refused. Me thinking ok, what next...

Asked her what mommy usually does. She's doesn't remember. Me thinking ok...

I look up and see a washcloth...Score. Wet it and put it on her forehead. She feels a little better. Good.
Ask if she wants to lay in the living room. No, she wants to go back to bed. Ok.

Get her back to bed with another washcloth (other one used to wipe mouth), told to make sure she stays on side, and given a bowl just in case.

Then leave her mom a voicemail and call a friend to make sure I did right. Think My crash course is over yet...Nope. I ended up staying up with "C" for another 4 hours with her getting up sick 2-3 times an hour. Couldn't come up with anything else to do for her. She kept refusing pepto, figured if her mom wanted her to have it then her mom can make her take it when she gets home. Finally her mom came home didn't get message till shift was over and took over. Thus ending my crash course in parenting till 2 days later and another incident which I could handle.2 days later...It's mid afternoon and "N" and "C" want to go downstairs and say hi to the downstairs tenant. "N" wants to hang out. I say ok and as for the hanging out as long as it's ok with them. Next thing know there's yelling and crying. I walk into the other room. They are yelling at each other"C" through tears and is holding her arm. What to do? Noone to call in this case and it's storming out (everything is icing).

Starters...get them to stop. I'm not even going to try and sort out who did what to who. I just tell them their mom can sort it out when she gets home. Since "C" was in the room first she gets to stay in that room to watch tv. "N" can either go upstairs in the grandparents room to watch tv or in the other room where I am and do the same. hey they both wated to watch tv and there's nothing else to do.

now that they are separated swing into evaluation mode. What hurts? Arm/Wrist. Apparently "N" twisted it. Can you move it? "C" does. Can you move your fingers? good. I check for swelling and there's none nor any bruising. BY now I'm sinlently cursing the sibling out. Go make ice pack and give it to "C" with instructions to keep it on. I'll chek on her, but if anything changes let me know. So we all survived intact, sane, and ready to go another day. Do I want to keep watching the kids??

So I ended up staying up till 4:30 this morning. Carlie's mom got home from work around 3. Felt so bad for the kid. She was feeling better this afternoon.

I feel so bad for Carlie. She's still sick and wants her mom. What do I do?

Gotta Laugh At Yourself

And tonight was one of those nights that I did. So I ended up sitting Nicky and Carlie. THere was a little issue of the sitter calling Julie 45 min before she was supposed to be here saying she needed a ride. That was also the time Julie was getting ready for work so her going to get the sitter was not an option. It was me to the rescue. Hey I was on standby for things like this anyways.

The kids were great all night. Dodn't have to ask them to take chowers. No problems with them going to bed. Actually one went to bed early of their own accord. I shoud have known things were going too smoothly.

It was, and the hitch came about an 75 min ago when I went to come upstairs to my own place (I was watching them downstairs). I heard a little voice out of the bathroom saying that they didn't feel good. Turns out that Carlie had thrown up and their stomach was bothering them. Ok. I can deal with this, but my mind just blanked out. Give me a crisis. I can handle blood; cuts, even a deep ones. I can handle choking, cardiac and respriatory arrest. Basically Give me emergencies and I'm good. It's from my being a CNA and nursing student. Also, naturally I can handle the female end of life. Give me run of the mill things and I tend to blank out for a second. I can handle myself, but to figure out how to care for someone else in this aspect...I'm a tad bit rusty. I ended up doing a few things (try to make her laugh, cool washcloth, offer pepto, give her a bowl) and then once I got her resting again called a friend to double check that I didn't forget anything. Oh yeah left a voice mail on her mom's cell. Hey I haven't raised any kids of my own yet. I just do it vicariously through others. It made my friend laugh though, me calling about wether or not I left anything out.

Survived weekend

Well, survived the weekend. Jon and Pam left Friday night for the hotel to fly out Saturday morning to Puerto Rico. So Julie and the kids are staying here to dog sit. Well it was Julie till today when the kids returned from their aunts. I dog sat at night the past few nights. Tonight Rhonda started sitting the kids. Julie started a new job last week. All this goin on in such a short amount of time and some things were up in the air. That's why I was saying that I survived the weekend. So many things going on, things to keep straight plus a new sitter on board. Gaaaahhhh.

Plus it was my Dad's birthday yesterday so that meant no knitting group. :'( Oh well. I got knitting time in anyways.

As for the fair, still plugging away and we have money for it now.

That fall saturday really was a doozy. My nurse figures I bruised the bone, but I may have done even more damage in my bad knee. It's feeling just as bad if not worse than it did in the end of 05 whenI was having problems with a cyst and tilted kneecap. Mind you the bruise I have goes all the way around the knee except where i hit it the hardest. It even kept me in for a few days. A week later it's still bothering me. For something to be bothering me that much later...gotta be a doozy.

Bruised & Swelling

Well, the swelling under my eye has gone down big time. Thankfully it never really bruised like I thought it would. I only have a slight bruise just above my lower jaw. Also the abrasion on my face has pretty much healed. My knees though....talk about bruised. THe bruising is like when I sprained my ankle. It seems like I brusied the bone in my knees. Yes there is such a thing as bruising the bone. I learned it yesterday when i had my medication evaluation. Talking about that I got one of my meds lowered! All I asked for is to shuffle the dosage around so i holy had to take meds 2 times a day. I got a dosage lowering in exchange. Even better.As for the fair, we got funding for it so my friends and i don't have to pay for things. Still putting in mega hours on it.

Adventures

Things were a little scary yesterday. If there were no Epi-Pens and 911 who knows where I'd be right now.

I ended up going into anaphalytic shock yesterday afternoon. Balloons set the latex allergy off. All that were blown up were 5 but just the powder in the air of a small area set me off. I thankfully had an epipen at the shop and used that, then called 911 and waited outside. I'm fine. at the er they monitored me for a few hours and gave me pepcid and benadryl (to take for a few days too). The epi-pen worked, the tightness returned for a while but did go away. Once I was feeling better I started knitting. The nurses (90% of which knew me from my frequent flyer days) all got a kick out of it. Though it was par for the course with me.

On the way home though I bought my self 2 bruised knees (good size as well as swelling) and a nice shiner under the left eye. Tripped on the sidewalk.

Close One

I'm ok and not involved,"For those of you that know I spend a fair amunt of time at SMHA I wanted to let you know I am ok and not involved at all in last night's incident. I wasn't there & thankfully. Otherwise it would have been a late night. Also everyone involved is ok What happened was SMHA was locked down last night Actually for over 12 hours.