Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Guess what else I have been spending my money on?


Monday, May 28, 2007

and the work goes on........

Ok, so this is a midway point, where the ties were in and the weedstop was being laid down
here is the side yard, dirted and ready to be grassy
A view of the front yard, all done except for the sod that will come in two weeks
And my rock garden, there is a dry creekbed in the midddle of it



Sunday, May 27, 2007

One of our Peace roses, with a bee in the middle
and a close up of another one on the same bush
one of the deep purple rhodie

what I have been spending my time and money on....

Our side yard that will be lawn, terraced on the hillside, and will put the chiminea and seating for a nice quiet secluded corner to sip coffee and enjoy the peace. Note the tiki torches, PCDoc loves tiki torches.
This is the hugest lemon balm you have ever seen, and it smells so good!
One of my rhodies.
One of two dogwoods we put in our front yard
my hens and chicks
one of our four beautiful rose bushes
the railroad ties that will border our lawn, retain the yard somewhat
and the is the yard itself, which will be lawn
the corner rock and rhodie garden
this are will be filled in with rocks to make it a real rock garden. I will also plant thyme or some creeper to cover some of the rock
our patio, note the chiminea; PCDoc also loves chiminea. My favorite is the table, it has tile inset, it's like an ourdoor coffee table, 39.97 at Bimart!
And the grill, do you see the shaft of light hitting it? PCDoc has been mourning ever since our grill bought last year grew legs and walked away, we finally replaced it. It has three burners, a side burner and end tables. He loves to burn meat.
And another one of my roses, close up. These guys grow 7 + feet tall by the end of summer. mostly I just try to keep them under control.
One of the 6 inch across blooms
And, our 10 cubic yard pile of dirt. This will cover the yard which will first be mowed and covered in fabric, and eventually sodded.

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Sunday, May 06, 2007

What I am learning

I have read some books on death and dying and on hospice nursing, since this is a new arena for me, and many of them say that we are constantly learning from our patients, that we need to remember that and be aware of what this person is trying to teach us.
I am learning that I should never assume that something is attributed to something else just because it seems to be, don't make assumptions, consider other possibilities. One lady I cared for had a change in her medicine and shortly after began choking and being unable to swallow. We thought it was the medicine, or I did, the Dr told me don't assume. She died shortly after presumably from a stroke, so it quite possibly was not the medicine, but indeed some kind of neurological event. However, sometimes things are exactly what they seem, you never know.
I am learning that if there is anyway possible, help a dying person with their dying wish. Someone I was caring for dies yesterday, and she had had to move from her home of many years as she was increasingly unsafe in her home, and no one could stay there to care for her. She looked like she was dying earlier this week, and probably was, but Friday she began to get agitated, even getting up and walking around trying to get her shoes on, begging us to take her to her home. She said, "I could sleep, if I could just get into my own bed". We couldn't do it and she was wearing out her caregiver, her family her friends, no one could go sit with her. We sent her to the hospital to get her meds changed and calm her down enough to return to the foster home, but as soon as her head hit the sheets there, she died. I know we have no idea how long someone has, but if we knew that this was her dying wish, could we have found a way to get her home for the night? Probably.
I am learning that when people are getting close, they really do see loved ones who have died before them. I asked one family if their dying family member had seen any people who had died, and the mom said her son was talking to a family member who had died. People go on, and when they are close to dying, they seem to have one foot here and one foot there. It doesn't seem to be scary, what they see seems benign or loving. One mom got upset when I asked if her son was hallucinating, she said "he isn't crazy you know". I said, hallucination is just a word we use for something one person can see that another person can't. I am not making judgements, but if someone is perceiving something we aren't, medical science can't explain that, they have to call it something.
I am learning that death is inevitable. It will happen. Sometimes people don't want it and other times people long for it, it doesn't happen fast enough. Either way, peoples lives wind down as they should and as they will. I used to worry about doing something that would kill someone, making a mistake. That makes it hard to be a nurse, and it always haunted me. I feel better about that, I have realized that people are pretty durable, (but I still hate central lines, they seem so invasive, so direct, like sending an arrow to the heart). Yuck. Anyway, I see people endure amazing amounts of abuse and keep ticking. Other people slip away for no apperant reason. I think we as medical professionals have the power to help, but in the end, we aren't as powerful as we think. We can't keep a person alive whose time has come to go or who simply has lost the will to go on. We might delay it by a few hours or days, but we don't really change the outcome by much. People seem to know what they need, and what they want, and you have to let them direct the process. We might think a certain thing is best but it doesn't matter at all if the patient disagrees, they will do what they want, we have to respect that.
That's a lot in a couple of months.

Thursday, May 03, 2007

girls

What is it about teen girls that makes them spend hours in the bathroom? It isn't make up, she doesn't wear much. I can understand with boys, but what can she be doing in there? She comes home from school, goes immediately in the throne room, and locks the door. There she stays, hour after hour. Her butt must be hambuger. Her brother has to run around looing for a vacant room when he has to go. He goes in, does his business, and exits. Not her. Nope, tick, tock, count the minutes that turn into hours. Maybe it is just my kid that does that, but it sure is annoying.

Maybe it's just me

Maybe it's just me but, the ad on TV about the kid who has to bring 5 dozen cupcakes to school the next day, mom says "oh,no, what will we do?" (as if), and the kid chimes in "I'll help!" (as if x infinity). They proceed to make said treats, using Bounty Paper Towels to clean up as they go, because, they are, after all, the quicker picker upper (not to be confused with coffee and doghnuts or redbull and kahlua. It is, as ads go, pretty innocuous, but there is one thing that bugs me, enough to write to P&G and tell them, because someone on their ad staff is either asleep at the wheel or has not had kids in school for, say, 20 + years; everyone knows that you can't bring homemade treats to school. If you attempt to you will be tackled at the door, hogtied, said treats will be surrounded by a negative pressure, bombproof, germ proof, leak proof, hazmat enclosure and FEMA/DEA/ATF/CDC/FDA and the NIH will be brought in to contain the menace. Really. They must be store bought, mass produced, safety packaged, appropriately supervised. You never know when a stray peanut or perhaps a hair might get into a treat and cause the school to be sued for everything their worth, seeing as how they are so strapped as it is, what with the parents buying $100-$200 worth of school supplies every year, our measly contributions not amounting to a hill o'beans, could be completely gutted by one bad brownie. Of course, I see down the road, where due to the dietary Nazi's who are banning transfats at an unprecedented rate, because, you know we just can't be allowed to ruin our health as we see fit, we must be HELPED, we can't be trusted you know, store bought goodies are going to be just as verbooten. It'sa coming, just you wait and see. Pretty soon, the poor little boogers will only be able to snack on carrot sticks and apple slices, after they have been xrayed, decontaminated, checked for ecoli, salmonella and nits. *sigh*.
Anyway, I needed to let them know that, because, well, it just bugs me.