Well, I finally did it! After many times of pondering, I finally filled out a job application with another hospital. I'm not unhappy where I'm at. I love the people I work with and I like my job. And, I don't like change very much (at all). But, this position I applyed for is a little closer to home, has hours that work better for me and involves working with new moms and babies! So I just submitted the app and I'm so thankful for my work friends that were willing to be my references. I'm also thankful that I have a job to return to anyway. I know there's supposed to be a nursing shortage, but I also know there are nurses who have had a hard time finding jobs. It seems like no one wants new nurse, they just want one with experience. I'm hoping my critcal care experience will make me marketable.
Here's to hoping! We'll see what happens!
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Liam just wants to be like the other kids...
Liam wanted a belt like his brothers had on with their karate outfits so I found one of Andy's and put it around his waist. He was so excited. He wore this belt the rest of the evening to karate and then playing outside. The shirt he has on was the shirt that was the fundraising tshirt for VBS tshirts. Liam didn't want to take off his other VBS tshirt until I pulled this one out for him to wear. It hangs down to his knees so I got a rubberband and tied up the bottom into a tail.
Liam also likes to be like his sister. He likes to have his blanket laid out like Kella's. And, if I'm changing Kella's diaper, he will want his diaper changed too. Can we guess there's a little jealousy going on? :-)
Liam also likes to be like his sister. He likes to have his blanket laid out like Kella's. And, if I'm changing Kella's diaper, he will want his diaper changed too. Can we guess there's a little jealousy going on? :-)
Thursday, August 4, 2011
we survived VBS!
The first thing that August brought us was 4 days of vacation bible school. We started on Sunday night and ended on Wednesday evening. I think the kids all had fun, including baby Kella, who got held by many willing ladies. Our theme was "God makes me incredible" and the skits everynight starred some well-known cartoon movie stars. From a Bible story standpoint, we learned about Saul's transformation to Paul and how incredible God made him. For the 4th year, I taught (?)/babysat (?) the 2 and 3 year old class. I always hope they can remember something about the Bible story, but really, they are 2 and 3 years old. My standards are pretty low. My class had anywhere from 6-10 kids that were pretty well-behaved for 2 & 3's. This year, Liam was in my class, too. He did okay-he's a very young 2 who is also very familiar with the church building. He liked to try to wander off and do his own thing. Luckily, everyone knew who he belonged to and he always made his way back.
It was a lot of work getting everyone to church early to eat dinner and do what prep needed done. I was definitely tired when I got home each evening. It's worth it, though when I see how excited they get to go (except for Marcus the last night when he had to go up on stage, but he survived, and really, he was smiling with his classmates before they went up there, so I guess he wasn't too "scared").
Here's Liam, post Wednesday night performance. The younger kids all got capes. They were all excited and Liam wore his the rest of the night. He also was way excited about his "incredibles" shirt. He didn't want to take it off, so he wore it to bed.
I bet you can barely see this, but it is thedoor to my classroom. Every year, several teachers take great pride in decorating their doors. Every year, I stress over what to do with mine. This year, my door was an island volcano. I contracted the work to 2 high school kids. They did a great job!
My boys-post Wed night. We made it through late bedtimes and daily drives to church. Our schedules got a little altered, but we had fun. Check another thing off our to-do list for the summer.
It was a lot of work getting everyone to church early to eat dinner and do what prep needed done. I was definitely tired when I got home each evening. It's worth it, though when I see how excited they get to go (except for Marcus the last night when he had to go up on stage, but he survived, and really, he was smiling with his classmates before they went up there, so I guess he wasn't too "scared").
Here's Liam, post Wednesday night performance. The younger kids all got capes. They were all excited and Liam wore his the rest of the night. He also was way excited about his "incredibles" shirt. He didn't want to take it off, so he wore it to bed.
I bet you can barely see this, but it is thedoor to my classroom. Every year, several teachers take great pride in decorating their doors. Every year, I stress over what to do with mine. This year, my door was an island volcano. I contracted the work to 2 high school kids. They did a great job!
My boys-post Wed night. We made it through late bedtimes and daily drives to church. Our schedules got a little altered, but we had fun. Check another thing off our to-do list for the summer.
Saturday, July 30, 2011
2 month old Kella
Kella turned 2 months old yesterday (Friday)! She is so sweet! She just loves to bhee held and she's really starting to pay attention to her brothers. She's smiling now and I can see a dimple on her left cheek. Her hair is what everyone notices-probably because it's red-mostly because it sticks up in an awesome mohawk. I like to say her hair is "exciting". She gives us a good stretch of sleep at night usually after mindnight to around 5 am. I find that I am watching a lot of reruns of a show called "Numbers" while I'm feeding her in the middle of the night. Recently, she's been trying hard to keep herself awake, in the evening, getting overtired and fighting sleep. Sleep wins in the end, but she puts up a good fight. Another thing, when Kella wakes up to eat at night, she goes right back to sleep-so nice! She eats whenever she wants which accounts for her stats: 13 pounds 4.5 ounces and 23 inches long. I hate to compare my "dainty" girl to her brothers, but I pulled out their baby books and discovered that she's right in the mix for 2 month Shaffer baby size. The amazing thing (at least to me) is that she has gained 2 pounds since July 6th. Our favorite pediatrician thinks she looks terrific and is very strong with great head control (all the tummy time Daddy gives her is paying off :-) ). What a blessing she is to our family and we are so thankful for her!
with Daddy
and with Mommy
a close-up of sweet Kella
a rare eyes-open photo. Don't you love her hair?
with Daddy
and with Mommy
a close-up of sweet Kella
a rare eyes-open photo. Don't you love her hair?
Happy 2 months old!
camping boys
One of the things Andy's been wanting to do with the boys is to take them camping. Last year, they "camped" in the backyard. This year, they went a step further and went to a nearby state park. Originally, they were going to camp in loaner tents, but a friend from church lent Andy his pop-up, air-conditioned camper. Nice. They boys were super-excited. They were so excited that they actually played a board game together in the camper without arguing. It was an overnight trip-Thursday to Friday. Thursday night they had their campfire and played at the campground park. Then it was back to the campsite to have s'mores. Cale and Marcus didn't have any because their stomachs were a little upset from having too much fun on the tire swing. From what I understand, everyone was in bed by 830. The camper opened up to have a bed on either end and 2 beds in the middle. (Sorry Mom, no pictures) Grandpa Jerry went with them. I stayed home with Liam and Kella.
Everything tastes better cooked over a campfire. They had hotdogs and some type of pie-sandwich made with bread and pie filling.
In the morning, the went hiking on the trails. Mounds State Park is called that because of Indian mounds in the park. I asked if they saw any and I think the answer was that they may have seen one. They got to go swimming after that and then packed up to come home. You could tell they were worn out. But, they had fun. I think, when asked, all the boys liked the camping food the best-and the swimming pool and playground. I don't think any of them thought the hiking was the best part, but, Ewan liked looking for the number 4-keeping them on the 4 trail.
I think this will become an annual tradition!
Everything tastes better cooked over a campfire. They had hotdogs and some type of pie-sandwich made with bread and pie filling.
In the morning, the went hiking on the trails. Mounds State Park is called that because of Indian mounds in the park. I asked if they saw any and I think the answer was that they may have seen one. They got to go swimming after that and then packed up to come home. You could tell they were worn out. But, they had fun. I think, when asked, all the boys liked the camping food the best-and the swimming pool and playground. I don't think any of them thought the hiking was the best part, but, Ewan liked looking for the number 4-keeping them on the 4 trail.
I think this will become an annual tradition!
Thursday, July 28, 2011
I forgot to include this story in our Chicago trip
(I forgot to include this story when I was posted the blog about going to Lincoln Park Zoo.)
We stayed in Schaumberg overnight after the cousins' reunion. I missed the window to low-ball an offer for hotel rooms on Priceline, so I looked on hotels.com and found pretty good prices for 2 rooms. Turns out, the hotel was right across the street from IKEA and the mall. We did not get to go to either place. Bummer.
We split the fam into 2 teams. Team 1 was Andy, Marcus, Cale and Ewan. They took the room on the 5th floor. (I didn't even think to call the hotel and request adjoining rooms.) Team 2 was Liam, Kella and me in the 4th floor room. After the reunion, we came back to team 2's room, had a snack, managed to warm some milk for Ewan and Liam (giving the cups a hot water bath) and watch part of Despicable Me. After that, Andy took the bigger boys upstairs and Liam watched some more of the movie. When the battery ran out (it was our portable DVD player), I put Liam in the pack-n-play. He did great! He settled in with his blankie and pillow pet and went to sleep happily. I nursed Kella and she eventually fell asleep.
The rooms aren't soundproof, and I could here what sounded like kids playing in the next room and people running down the hallway. So, I kind of wasn't surprised when, around 1 am, the fire alarm went off. I wasn't too sure what to think, but I was a little skeptical. I had just finished feeding Kella, so I put her in her carseat and strapped her in case we needed to get out. I got my sandals on and made sure my purse and diaper bag where ready to go. I decided to let Liam sleep until I knew for sure what was going on. I looked in the hallway and didn't smell smoke and no one was running or yelling fire. Andy came down to my room with the boys. I said that I wasn't going anywhere unless it's neccessary. Andy decided to go downstairs to see what was going on and took Marcus and Cale with him. I'm sure they thought that this was a fun adventure. Ewan came into my room and fell asleep in one of the beds.
While Andy was gone, the alarms in our area shut off but I could still here them coming from another part of the hotel. I called the front desk (maybe I should have done that sooner) to ask what was going on. They said that their techinicians had isolated the problem and there was no fire. Andy came back up and collected Ewan and everyone went back to bed. Liam slept through all the noise. Maybe that's why he woke up at 530am the next morning ready to go. I can't remember why the fire alarms went off: it was either that someone broke a sprinkler head in their room or a flat iron somehow set it off.
And that is that :-)
Goodnight!
We stayed in Schaumberg overnight after the cousins' reunion. I missed the window to low-ball an offer for hotel rooms on Priceline, so I looked on hotels.com and found pretty good prices for 2 rooms. Turns out, the hotel was right across the street from IKEA and the mall. We did not get to go to either place. Bummer.
We split the fam into 2 teams. Team 1 was Andy, Marcus, Cale and Ewan. They took the room on the 5th floor. (I didn't even think to call the hotel and request adjoining rooms.) Team 2 was Liam, Kella and me in the 4th floor room. After the reunion, we came back to team 2's room, had a snack, managed to warm some milk for Ewan and Liam (giving the cups a hot water bath) and watch part of Despicable Me. After that, Andy took the bigger boys upstairs and Liam watched some more of the movie. When the battery ran out (it was our portable DVD player), I put Liam in the pack-n-play. He did great! He settled in with his blankie and pillow pet and went to sleep happily. I nursed Kella and she eventually fell asleep.
The rooms aren't soundproof, and I could here what sounded like kids playing in the next room and people running down the hallway. So, I kind of wasn't surprised when, around 1 am, the fire alarm went off. I wasn't too sure what to think, but I was a little skeptical. I had just finished feeding Kella, so I put her in her carseat and strapped her in case we needed to get out. I got my sandals on and made sure my purse and diaper bag where ready to go. I decided to let Liam sleep until I knew for sure what was going on. I looked in the hallway and didn't smell smoke and no one was running or yelling fire. Andy came down to my room with the boys. I said that I wasn't going anywhere unless it's neccessary. Andy decided to go downstairs to see what was going on and took Marcus and Cale with him. I'm sure they thought that this was a fun adventure. Ewan came into my room and fell asleep in one of the beds.
While Andy was gone, the alarms in our area shut off but I could still here them coming from another part of the hotel. I called the front desk (maybe I should have done that sooner) to ask what was going on. They said that their techinicians had isolated the problem and there was no fire. Andy came back up and collected Ewan and everyone went back to bed. Liam slept through all the noise. Maybe that's why he woke up at 530am the next morning ready to go. I can't remember why the fire alarms went off: it was either that someone broke a sprinkler head in their room or a flat iron somehow set it off.
And that is that :-)
Goodnight!
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
tummy times
Kella isn't the only one doing tummy time here. Liam, who is having a bit of jelousy, likes to do some tummy time, too. Ewan, who likes to hang all over his little sister, likes to just be right next to her. Good times. At least she's entertained.
Just sporting personalized pants :-)
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