work, work, work

I now live in a home with 2 employed people. Both Kara and I started work this week.

I am officially a Hospice Social Worker. I think I am really going to enjoy the work, the patients and families and the co-workers. I am not overly excited about the driving. Orientation this week, and for the next couple of weeks is primarily in the Ohio offices an hour away, although half of it is on company time. Once I start my own work load I will usually remain in Indiana, but I will cover a 6 county territory, I hope to be able to group patient visits in order to limit the driving but it will be a lot and I am not overly thrilled about driving some of these roads during the winter. I am considering trading in my car for a Subaru, an all wheel drive may be nice when ice and snow are present. Other than my driving concerns I am really excited about the work. Working with the terminally ill and their families can be so rewarding and can really help keep your priorities straight.

Kara also started work this week, she is a sandwich artist at Subway. She had 2 1/2 hours of boring video watching but seems excited to get on the job and make those sandwiches. I think it will be good for her to get out in the workforce. I think we are both excited for her to have some financial independence.

Tim is now the only unemployed at home but for now he is happy about that.

summer so far

To start our summer celebration we started the fire out back, it was quite a burn. And continued burning throughout the night. The day Tim got out of school we left for New York for a quick trip.

We enjoyed Time Square and all of the New York sites.
This street performer at Ripley's believe it or not swallowed the sword and had me pull it out.

Visited the Wax museum, Tim decided to play the part of a wax figure and actually had people take pictures with him, this lady stared for a while trying to figure out who he was.

We walked through Central Park

Here is the famed Naked Cowboy in Time Square

But the best part of the Trip was hanging out with Graham, he has grown since March and is completely cute.

Since returning from New York, I got a job, as a Hospice Social Worker, it will be a good first job and some good experience.

I also had my gall bladder removed three days ago. I feel like someone knocked me out, stabbed me multiple times in the abdomen and filled me with air. They fill the belly with air during the surgery and then squeeze as much out as they can before closing you up, but not all of the air gets out and that pain hurts like crap. I am starting to feel like I will get better but wish it would feel better faster.

End of Spring update

I guess it is time for my end of semester update. That seems to be how often I keep this thing updated, which is not often enough.

I took two breaks during this semester, one quick trip to Nebraska when my sister was married on Valentine's Day. It was a nice trip where not only did we get to witness Lori and Ryan being married, but we also got to meet my newest nephew Graham.

A couple of weeks after that we got a call that my Dad's health was not doing well and he was being admitted to Hospice. All of my siblings and I headed out to Idaho. We were there for almost a week getting to spend time with my Dad before he passed. His wife Liz, and all of his children and grandchildren where there with him when he took his last breath. He left us too soon but I am very grateful for that last week we had with him. It is difficult to no longer have living parents, even though I should be all grown up, sometimes I still want my mom and dad.

So...This past semester the last of my planned formal education, I am officially done with school. I had finished classes in December and from January to last Thursday I have been doing a full time internship at our local hospital working in Case Management. It was a great place to work with some wonderful people and I learned a lot. It was sad to have to leave. It is great to be done with school, but it will be even greater when I find a job.

Paul and Graham

Me and Graham

Lori, Doug, Paul, My Dad (Ron) and I

Grandpa and all of his Grandkids

A New Year

A little update:

The kids and I finished fall semester. Tim started his new school with some ups and downs but passed all of his classes, made some friends and seems to have adjusted well. Kara did well in school finishing the semester with all A's. I finished all of my classes and only need to do my internship before graduating in May.

We had some good times: Kara and I met my sister and niece in Iowa for a weekend and had a very nice time.

Tim turned 13. Wow! another teenager. So far so good, he is a good kid despite the fact that he likes to challenge the norms. of society (honestly, I think he gets that from me).

Kara asked me to braid her hair, boy that took a long time.

We had a nice Christmas both kids asked for and received snuggies. And we are ready to start the new year.

I have enjoyed this last Christmas break without working (hopefully I will be working next Christmas), have had some fun, gotten some things done (at this moment every room in the house is clean except Kara's room I'm not doing that one without her). And I feel almost ready to start my internship next week. Although I am very worried about 40 hours a week outside of home, haven't done that for many, many years and never as a single parent. But I think I am up for the challenge.

Yawn!!!

I am writing this at 6 in the morning. Not because I woke up this early, but rather because I am staying up this late. Tim and my sleep schedules have been so messed up this summer that I am trying the round the clock method of getting back on schedule. My goal is to stay up until at least 9am today, later if possible and by Sunday we will hopefully be back on a normal schedule. I have never tried this, I'll let you all know how it works.

So, Tim and I have been staying up, driving around town at 2am, eating at IHOP at around 3:30, and waiting for the sun to rise. It has been an interesting night.

Time Flies

I can't believe how fast this summer has gone. June was absolutely crazy, so my boring, lazy July has been very nice. I have one summer school class which forces some routine, but hasn't required too much work. I have forced myself to get back to the gym on a regular basis, which feels wonderful. Kara has been in Idaho for the past 10 days, I have missed her and look forward to picking her up tomorrow, but with only Tim home it is really quiet (no fighting) and the house isn't nearly as messy. So I have had plenty of time to just lazily enjoy life: staying up too late, reading for hours at a time, and trying to find creative ways to get Tim to take a break from the video games. But the signs indicate that summer is going to end. I have to register Tim for school next week...Just received the paperwork for Kara's registration...I have started working on lining up my internship for this next year... It is kind of sad, just as I realize how good the boring life is, it is almost time to start back to the hectic routine of school.

Summer Vacation

Summer seems to be flying by. June was an absolutely crazy month. I was taking two summer school classes, we moved, and we went on vacation.

The move was difficult, I had lived longer in that last house than any other house in my adult life, too much had been accumulated. It felt good to get rid of a lot of the junk.

We only had a very short time for a vacation, basically it was only a long weekend. But it was fun. We went to West Virginia. We did some white river rafting down the New River which included many rapids including some class V which were scary but tons of fun. No pictures of that, I don't have a water proof camera, and even those who did were not able to take pictures during the fun parts of the trip.

Kara wanted to spend a day in Charleston, we walked through town where there was a festival occurring. She also talked me into letting us all get mini massages (it wasn't difficult to convince me).

Tim wanted to do some hiking so we went to Hawk's Nest State Park, we did some hiking but it was quite hot and humid so we didn't do as much as I would have liked.

Another great thing we were able to do was hang out with my friend Libby, it was fun getting to spend some time with her.

Below are some pictures from the trip.

Lisa, Libby and her kids, Kelly, Noel and Ashlyn

Kara and Ashlyn hanging out

Noel and Tim

One of lookouts at Hawks Nest State Park





Kara, Tim and Lisa at another overlook to the canyon.



Picture of the dome of WV State Capital, very beautiful

Kara at Charleston festival

Tim waiting duing our massages. He chose to skip out on that activity.

Here is a picture of the kids goofing off at the hotel when I went out with Libby one evening. They had security come to the room because they were being too loud, they swore to me that they weren't doing anything other than watching TV and goofing on the computer, from the pictures I just found, I am not so sure I believe them.

Priceless

Fitted Sheet: $15

Trampoline: $200

Camera with high speed capability: $550

Sibings playing together for hours: Priceless

Science Fair

I enjoy science, and I think science experiments are fun. I like the idea of playing with science in order to allow students to see the fun in it. However, I hate all that they require for science fair entries these days. BUT Tim is required to do a science fair project. I still don't know if we will get him to do everything that is supposed to go along with it. I did my best to come up with an experiment that would be fun for him.

So we did an experiment with Mentos and Diet Coke, the viral video has been seen by most people on-line if you haven't seen it check out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKoB0MHVBvM

Tim's question is does this work with Mentos and other sodas as well. His hypothesis is no, if it worked with other soda why does everyone always talk about Diet Coke and Mentos.

So here are the pictures of our experiment

Regular Coke:
Diet Pepsi:

Diet Coke:

Caffine Free Diet Coke:

Coke Zero--too many of the mentos didn't fall into the bottle so this was a failed experiment

Rootbeer--Also had a number of the mentos that did not make it into the bottle.

Tim then tried to attempt one of the things mentioned on his life list. Drink Diet Coke with mentos.

He wasn't able to actually drink it, and he said it didn't really count because all we had was Diet Pepsi and not Diet Coke.

So, now we are done with the experiment portion of the science fair project, now the horrible part of making a poster and writing it up :P

Earth Hour

Earth hour this year was March 28th at 8:30. At my house we switched off the main breaker to live without electricity for one full hour. I think the kids lit every candle I had in the house including fitting as many candles as possible onto a plate. By the end of the hour it was one giant candle, and some of the middle flames were flooded out.

So what do you do for an hour with no electricity? I enjoyed the complete silence. The kids and I also sat around and made life lists. Things we want to do during our life.

Tim's list

• Learn to Kick flip
• Get pilot's license
• Go to My Chemical Romance concert
• Save a life
• Put a bad guy in jail
• Drink diet coke with Mentos in mouth
• Set a world record
• Sky dive
• Ride a roller coaster
• Build a skate park
• Visit a fortune teller
• Make a sculpture
• Learn fencing
• Get ears and nose pierced
• Go snowboarding
• Go to a skate camp
• Learn how to swallow fire
• Get a tattoo
• Learn magic
• Surf board
• Learn Japanese

Kara's list (warning she is very ambitious)

• Learn to skateboard
• Get a minister's license
• Visit different churches every Sunday for a few months
• Build houses in Haiti
• Get a pilot's license
• Backpack across Europe or S. America
• Go on a cruise
• Go to Mecca
• Work with bees
• Go to a concert
• Run a marathon
• Change a life
• Volunteer at the Red Cross
• Set a world record
• Master fast shoe tying
• Try pie
• Go on Aftershock (a roller coaster)
• Buy a banzai tree
• Visit a fortune teller
• Learn fencing
• Read the 2nd Harry Potter
• Make a sculpture
• Visit Wall Street stock market
• Get ears pierced
• Ice Skate
• Snowboard
• Go to summer camp
• Learn to cook
• Work at Renaissance fair
• Write a book
• Read all Holy Books (Bible, Koran, etc.)
• Sell Jewelry
• Get a tattoo
• Be a street performer
• Learn to juggle
• Be a storm chaser
• Learn magic
• Live in Spanish speaking country for 6 months.
• Surf board
• Go to Japan
• Donate blood
• Publish a photograph
• Ziplining
• Make own clothes
• Go to circus

My List

• Go white river rafting
• Have my fortune told
• Visit Washington DC
• Write a book
• Take kids to all 50 states
• Try surf boarding
• Finish my Master's degree
• Learn how to sail
• Live in a foreign country
• Find a hobby that I am passionate about
• Travel through Europe
• Swim in the Mediterranean Sea
• Vacation at an Ashram
• Take a belly dancing class
• Straighten Tim's hair (done--see picture below)
• Try oil painting (Bob Ross style)
• Testify as an expert in congress
• Spend an entire day at a wild meadow next to a small stream (my happy place)
• Ziplining
• Scuba dive