My Family

My wonderful brother Adam, took this picture ( I actually photographed it) and another picture which I can't seem to find, to make this picture.......

I am just amazed at not only the technology that allows this type of work, but at my brother's amazing artistic ability.  He truely is very talented.  If you don't believe me visit his blog. Adamscreation.blogspot.com

Anyway Thanks ADAM!!!

Speaking of my family, life is moving too fast and I seem to not have time to write down and capture our moments.  Most of you may find me several times a day posting "status updates" via Facebook, and find my poor blog neglected to say the least.  I was looking at my sidebar, feel free to do so, but I went from like 350 posts my first year, to 90 the second year and this year is slowly falling behind. 

Not that I am sad that my commenters and followers have forgotten about me, and don't read me anymore, because well there isn't much to read, but because I am not capturing those daily funny moments that make me laugh, if they aren't making me cry! 

Crying has come easy to me lately, time of year? time of life?  Not sure, just a little over emotional, and no I am not pregnant, since that seems to be a common question for me lately....maybe I need a full length mirror..is my belly bulging? 

Maybe my tumor is just growing....not funny really but "ITs not a tumor"  actually it is but who wants to go there, not me!

How about T-Rex!  Oh my goodness this little boy, if left stranded in the woods for weeks, would survive!  Well if the woods had a freezer and a microwave!  The other night all the other kids were asleep and I was reading  facebook a good book, he came stomping into the front room. 

"Hungry. I hungry. Need to eat."

"time for bed T!"

He walks away, grant it I was in the middle of "something important" and assumed he listened to his mother, like every good two year old, and walked himself back to bed.  Well a few seconds later, I hear the microwave going, and low and behold he found one of my "tv dinners" for work and microwaved it.  He brought it to the table and fed himself some "dinner." He ate most of it so he must of been hungry. 

And now a story to scare my mom, maybe you should plug your ears, or just stop reading...here.....Eric had dropped Two off at preschool and came back home with T-Rex.  Dad and T do their bonding stuff, I don't know watch a little tv, unload the dishwasher...then T starts playing and Eric starts applying for jobs, paying bills, looking over "dad stuff."  When Eric notices our friend pull into the driveway, get out of her car and bring T to the front door.  The little guy had decided that he wanted to go for a walk to G's school!  I am so grateful and lucky that our friend happened to be where she was when she was!  Because as much as this little guy (who is stacking cups and hanging out with me right now) can drive me gray, I just can't imagine not having him with us. 

Mom you can uncover your ears (eyes), T is safe!  The day after this incident I had off from my slave labor job, and it made me realize how much I really want to be home with him, with all of them!  Its been so hard to be away so much, not because I don't trust them in the care of my husband (most days anyway) I just really miss being a stay at home mom!  I miss pulling out my hair because they have unrolled all the toilet papter, dumped a whole bag of flour on the floor, skinned a knew, fought with a sibling, yelled at me that I am the meanest mom!  I miss it all!  It brings tears to my eyes everyday to walk out the door to head to work.

Working isn't hard, I actually enjoy the "break" and on my days off, being with the kids sometimes makes me look forward to going back to cleaning hospital rooms.  But thats not where I want to be.  Anyone who says being a stay at home mom is easy and mindless work, has never done it.  It is by far the hardest thing I have done, but been the thing I have enjoyed more than anything else. 

I am being faced now with the opportunity to possibly work in a different place, with the opportunity to take my kids with me, losing any benefits--that I still haven't received from IHC, and lose a few hours, but I'd be with my kids more and wouldn't have to work Sundays!

Working Sundays has been an adjustment for sure! Heck just working weekends, and working forty hours a week outside the home and then coming home to hug and kiss my husband goodbye and parent alone for the next hours, is wearing on me. 

I am worn out!  I think stressed is more like it. Or rather the stress is wearing me out.  I feel tired! I am sore! I have lumps in places I shouldn't have lumps, I like to call them my little stress bubbles, hoping they go away with the stress that is going to leave soon I am sure. 

Though one thing I know for sure, is I love my family! And appreciate the time I get to spend with them.

G-Man tonight had a square dance at school and I just loved seeing his shyish grin as he danced around in circles....shouldn't it be circle dancing? anyway, he is growing up and so big!  He has a great way of making us laugh too and so protective of his siblings.

Though the other day, I got a call from Eric while I was cleaning the staff bathroom, telling me he had to take Bee to the ER because she split her head open on her scooter.  I quickly put away my cart and headed to the doctors.  To have G tell me what happened. 

"We were riding our bikes and Bee was on the scooter. You should of seen her, she was all riding and hit a rock and she did this flip right over the top of her scooter and landed all funny and I was laughing. Then she stood up and I saw her bleeding and she was crying. I felt so bad. I ran in to tell dad she was hurt. I was so sad for her after I saw how hurt she was, but it was kind of funny to watch her flip." 

And you know the story of what he told her when she was getting the stitches out.

I just really enjoy seeing them get along and interacting....even though some days they don't get along so well.

Bee is having issues though being able to "last" her sister and sharing a bed.  Every night I tuck the two into their double bed they share. And almost every night Bee says "I can't last TWO anymore!"  Whether it is because she is kicking her, singing, or just breathing too loud, she just doesn't want to sleep with her and really wants a bunk bed.  She'd actually like a bunk room, because she'd like her brothers in her room.  I'm not sure how long she would be able to "last" that!  But the girls seem to "last" eachother enough to play dolls, laugh and read books together, so I'm sure its not all bad.   

Then Two, oh sweet Two, its so hard to believe she will be five next month!  I'm just not sure she really is that old!  Every day she crawls into my bed and just hugs me and tells me how much she loves me and how she doesn't want me to leave and go to work. She doesn't want to leave my side.  She makes me smile. I have a hard time leaving her..except when she has gone and hidden in a corner and comes out and says "I just did something bad, and you are going to be very mad."  Is she trying me? Is she tempting me to get mad?   Do kids really think that?

Today we went to a cousins birthday party, and left with little treat bags, which I gave to the kids for the hour drive home, thinking it was harmless....we were driving, not more than ten minutes into the trip when her sweet little voice calls from the back "Mom look in the mirror! Look what I did!" 

I peeked through the rear view mirror and saw chocolate brownie covered hands and face! The little stinker smooshed a brownie all over herself and pants and car seat!  She wanted me to pull over somewhere so she could wash them off, I guess not wanting to stay dirty,  knowing she had almost an hour drive, and all I wanted to do was pullover and leave her on the side of the road...but I used self control. I told her to just wipe her hands on her pants and to lick her fingers until we got home or it was mostly off! Oh the little stinker!  She loves to test my patience!  And I love her!

But in the end, its just our little life moments that bring us together as a family, whether its a little bike accident or a runaway or a brownie car smearing moment, life has a way of photoshopping a family together building our own family history. 

Odds and Ends!

Odds and Ends of my recent life! 

G-Man turned 9!  Its hard to believe that not too long ago I was sitting in a hospital bed, holding a screaming bundle of boy, unsure of what lay ahead of me, yet thinking I knew all that was to come.  Life is funny though it likes to throw things at you unexpectantly!  But I wouldn't change much, not most of it anyway. 

G-Man is our little talker, caregiver, gaurdian, (his real name means man of the watchtower--or something like that..) and he is really always watching out for others especially his siblings...and sometimes others at school, monitoring what they are doing and not always what he is doing...but he is none the less always concerned about others.

Well the other day, Bee took a head dive off of her scooter, and her forhead hit the uncovered handlebar, leaving a hole requiring seven stitches...OUCH!  Major ouch when the doctor mentioned he should of done more....Anyway we were on our way to get the stitches out and G-Man, doing what he does best, tried to comfort Bee, he said "Bee dont' worry about getting your stitches.  It doesn't hurt.  It feels like picking a booger, that is kind of stuck and as you pull it is a little stringy." 

After being a little grossed out, I realized he was so right and new exactly what he was talking about...yes admitting I've picked my nose.

But I am grateful for him and all his wisdom, and the joy he truly has brought to our home!!! Happy Birthday buddy!

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Work!  I probably post a lot about work, well the fact that I am working now in houskeeping and the fact that it has been more than humbling for me.  In all actuality I like it, most days!  Okay maybe I don't like the work, the clean up people's toilets, crumb spills, but I enjoy the people. 

I was in the nursery, grabbing their trash, and had to stop and gock (sp???? totally not the right spelling..or is it??) at a new baby and talk to one of my CNA friends.  I mentioned something about the baby, and his name and how his older sister (all of 5 years as of January) who had talked to me the whole time I was cleaning, then when she saw me in the hall all surprised and excited and said "You were just in there?!"  

And I was, I feel like I pop in and out of rooms all day, I guess that is what I do :)...But anyway the CNA said "you sure remember a lot!"  To which I replied "I could tell you something about every single one of the patients on this side."

"You talk to the patients while you clean?"

"I do!"  

I even had a patient tell me I should write a book, today.  But the thought came to me, I really do like talking to people, and should be working somewhere where I can talk to people....but then it occured to me, that I get to meet new people almost every day!  And I do get to talk to them....for a few minutes, if they are awake.  Some are more talkative than others, but really what kind of job could I do talking to others?? 

Councilor...no don't want to get advice...
Social worker....no don't want to deal with problems....
Biographer....yeah that would be cool, talk to people about their stories and write it down for them....Any takers????


Anyway after that thought provoking conversation in the nursery it just made me realize how much I do like my job and the gals (I say gals because about 90% of them are) I work with. 

I have made some great friends and really have laughed a lot. 

Like today.   A normal patient room cleaning, typically starts with me knocking on the door, coming in, pulling trash, asking how they are doing, cleaning the bathroom, sweeping the floor, mopping the floor then asking if there is anything else I can do for them.  Well I follow my normal protocol and enter a patients room. Pull the trash, wipe the front sink, ask how they are doing, enter the bathroom, and notice some toilet paper in the toilet, so I flush it so I can clean it.   Well it doesn't go down....thinking to myself, don't want to keep flushing to maybe embarrass them, I pull the trash, I don't know hoping the TP will go down itself or something...but it doesn't.  So I flush again, the tp looks like it is going to make an exit, but then pops itself back up.  Blasted TP.  So I hold the flusher down longer, tp gone, yeah.....no....pops back up.   I look out the bathroom door at the patient on the phone and mouth "sorry.."  as I begin to giggle.

Those who know me, know that once I start giggling, I kind of can't stop.  So then I try again, and sure enough it pops its head back out. I apologize to the family, and mention how stubborn it is being, all the while trying to keep my laughter to a professional level.  The dad says "no I should be the one excusing myself." 

After that and what the sixth? flush, down it went.  Man it took me a long time to get that bathroom clean! 

But that isn't the only time I have laughed....at this time it was at someone else's expense...and to this day, all I have to say is "It was me!!!" cheerfully and proudly and I start to laugh.

Curoius now!? 

Sometimes bathrooms get what is called "dry pipes", yes the system dries out and the solution to this is pouring water down the pipes, the symptom of this is the smell of  rotten eggs mixed with other potty smells.  Anyway on the 4th floor as you walk through the double locked doors, there are public bathrooms to the right. 

After lunch my coworker and I walked through these doors, to bit hit by the dry pipe smell! One of the nurses happened to be there, and we started talking about how bad it smelled.  We were going on about horrible it was, when my friend says "I can only smell the Scentsy candles."  (the other direction from the bathrooms is a little store and the gal there always has sweet smelling Scentsys going, however this day it wasn't fixing the scents in the hallway..." 

So as we went on about the smell, and how we couldn't smell the candle....when out of the store door pops the gal, and she waves her hand in the air, smiles big and says "it is me! It is me!" 

Are you really claiming this smell causing us to be sick to our stomaches??  We looked at her surprisingly and asked "Are you sure you want to claim this stink??" 

She quickly turned red and said "I thought you meant my candle!" 

We laughed!  And when she walks by we do our best Parade Princess wave and say "it was me!"

Who says it can't be fun to work...me a few weeks ago.  But I do enjoy it, wish it weren't that we were depending on my hourly pay.  Because it isn't much pay, and sometimes hard to be humble enough to do this job but at least I get to laugh! 

One more story while I am writing.  As housekeepers we are responsible to clean rooms, almost immediately after a patient leaves, and the only way we know they are gone, other than looking in the rooms and watching them leave, is receiving a page, with the room number telling us to go to that room.  Each morning, we log into our pager so we can receive those pages, we log out for breaks, and log in and out of rooms, and so on.  We also have 30 minutes from the time we log into a room to clean it and log back out. 

The other day I had a meeting to attend, which I was suppose to logout of my pager, 15 minutes before so I could unload my cart and head to the meeting.  Well I received a page five minutes before I was suppose to log out, not enough time to clean a room.  So I call my supervisor, to whom I will refer to as "Micro", has nothing to do with the way he supervises (said sarcastically.)

I grab my Vocera (our walkie talkies basically) and tell it to call Micro.

"This is Micro."

"Yes, this is Corrine.  I just got a page to clean room 4444 and I have a meeting at 3 that I am suppose to log out for." 

As if the world depended on my logging out, he said "log out, LOG OUT!  Log OUTTTTT!"

"Ok!"

I was in the chute room, throwing trash down, with one of my coworker friend, and she heard it all, because the vocera is around our necks and basically on speaker.  She starts laughing, as I frantically fumble through my scrubs to find my phone to log out.  Not sure what the panic was but I felt a sudden urgency to LOG OUT!!!!

Thanks for the laughs housekeeping! 

To Be a Kid Again!

I am writing to avoid "beating" my children!  And write down the things that are driving me crazy that would one day I am sure bring laughter and smiles to my face....at least that is what they say....

Lets start with Two...

The other day, after the family movie night at school, we sat in the car waiting for G-Man and Bee to come out with their winning raffel ticket...they came out later, but no winnings. Anyway so Two and T-Rex sat in the car.  Well Two didn't she rolled down the window, stood on the seat and started to wave to passer byers....Then she noticed a group of adult men playing soccer, as she waved she proudly yelled "Hello Spanish People!"  I kind of nudged her and said "Two."  and then she cleared her throat and said very cheerfully "Hello not Spanish people."  I'm not sure if she was correcting herself to be more political correct or making sure the "non Spanish people" felt greeted.

Then today I was sitting on the computer doing my math homework...ok I don't go to school nor do I have homework, I was playing bejeweled blitz and chatting with a friend, when Two calls from the bathroom "Please come wipe my butt!"  I am sure it was several times as I was actively engaged in other things and totally ignoring her.  All of a sudden I notice the calls getting louder, and there standing next to me was Two with her pants around her knees, yelling at me to "come wipe my butt, please!" 

And not too sure if that triggered a thought in T-Rex because all of a sudden he was pantless, holding up a dirty diaper chanting to me "Change me! Change me!" So I got a two for one moment...if you could call it that.

Then my kids as they ran around the house being robots, I quietly...ok probably not quietly, encouraged them to go outside and play.  Two stayed inside, and watched them through her open bedroom window....when all of a sudden I hear a bang, like the sound of a golf ball hitting hardwood floor.  I run to the room to find my older two playing golf through the bedroom window!  Fun game I guess but HELLLOOO! 

Now as I type they are sliding down the stairs using all the pillows in the house....and G-Man said "We put all the pillows against the wall so when we hit our heads it doesn't hurt so much and it makes it sound proof!"  Oh my goodness! 

They are so creative and energetic and at least they entertain themselves....but why isn't it fun to wash all the dishes in the sink??? 

There is more, I know it, but for some reason I am drawing a blank...I guess it is good to put it in the past and have it be forgotten, but whatkind of stories will I have to tell them.....Oh I hear crying....hurt crying??? laughing crying??? Oh my children! 

Oh T-Rex striked again, and submerged my new blackberry into a pitcher of water!  Thanks for the phone bath, at least it was water and twenty four hours later it was good as new.  Eric thinks I go through more phones than anyone he knows, probably true...I don't think three phones since November is that many...Do you???


G-Man has kindly talked our neighbor into giving him some scrap plywood.  Large pieces.  Every day he builds a ramp, mostly covering the front steps.  I love coming home to my front porch looking like a half pipe!  Seriously he is going to break his leg soon! 


Laughter!  Lots of laughter from the stairs, good thing!  Though usually this much laughter is followed by tears....we shall see. 

So I rented and watched Precious last night.  Made me feel better about my parenting, and made me think I am not doing such a bad job.....until I got home from work today and G-Man says to me "Precious isn't a kids movie."

"No its not.  You didn't watch it did you."

"Yeah there was a lot of swearing in it!" 

"Babysitter let you watch the whole thing?"

"Yes."

"It isn't for kids and you weren't suppose to watch it."

"I know they swore a lot in the beginning.  And Bee said 'good thing mom's not like that."

So at least they confirmed that I am not that horrible of a mother but still can't believe someone let my kids watch it, but hopefully  most of it went over their head....but the thing I don't get is how they would of sat through the whole thing........Maybe that is why they have so much energy right now! 

Is it bed time yet?

Who is going to come and do my dishes???