A weekend full of accomplishments

At the beginning of the year I made a list of all of the home improvements that I wanted to accomplish over the next year.  I’m pretty happy with the progress that I have made.  This week I started working on Thomas’ bedroom and the two shelves that I wanted in my living room.  

Before pictures…

I forgot to take a before picture. This is one coat of blue. 

I had a crazy week at work and didn’t get to spend as much time as I would have liked working on everything but it turned out just fine in the end. I feel like I haven’t been able to sit down for more than just a few minutes all weekend but I’m happy with all of my accomplishments. Here goes…

1. Put two more coats of paint on the shelves.

 

2. Put two coats of brown paint in Thomas room.

3.  Put three coats of paint on Thomas’ letters for his room.

4.  Put three coats of paint on the shelf for Thomas’ room.

5.  Sewed (is that a real word) the curtain and 4 pillows for Thomas’ room.

6.  Took Noelle shopping for some last minute supplies

7.  Made dinner for friends on Saturday night.

8.  Cleaned the house 3x’s because Noelle is here this weekend and every time I put the toys away they have a way of making another mess.

9.  Did 5 loads of laundry and put them all away!!! Now that is an accomplishment all of it’s own!!!

10.  My Dad came over to help me trim all of the bushes in my front yard. 

As you can see they were out of control!

I have the BEST Dad ever!!  He totally helped me clean up the front yard in the poring RAIN. We worked quickly but we were drenched by the time we were done but the yard looks GREAT!!!

  

 

This picture was taken before the rain started. Once it started poring she wanted go inside. She sat nicely and watched Little Bill while we finished.

11. Gave Indy a bath.

12. Changed the sheets on my bed.

13. Hung my shelves.

14. Cleaned my kitchen AGAIN!!!

15. Had a FABLOUS Sunday dinner at Dad’s house.

16. Gave Noelle a bath and got her to bed on time.

WOW! That makes me tired just looking at it all.  If you cant tell I am doing a baseball theme for Thomas’ room.  My Mom is going to come this week and help me hang all of the baseball helmets on the wall.  I still need to make the baseball scoreboard for his wall.  I think that is going to take some time. A project for another weekend.

I’m tired.  I’m thinking I should’ve taken tomorrow off!!!

Racing for Autism

My Mom was kind enough to watch Noelle while my Dad and I went to the grand opening of the  Stockton 99 speedway.  I had only been there once before with my friend, Donna B., a couple of years ago.  I had a lot of fun then and couldn’t wait for a chance to go back.  We had great weather and great entertainment.  As many of you know I work with people with developmental disabilities and I was excited when they introduced Carlos Vieira who is donating all of his winnings this season to Autism Research. 

I looked at Carlos Vieira’s website this afternoon and I was pretty impressed.  If you want more information about Autism you can look at his website or the  Autism Speaks website. 

Hard Work…

We had another really nice day yesterday so I decided to come home after work and mow the lawns instead of going to the grocery store.  I actually thought since Noelle hadn’t slept very well the last few days and would be up at the butt crack of dawn this morning I could go to the grocery store early in the morning when people that have children that sleep would still be sleeping.  It’s a lot easier to take Noelle to the grocery store then trying to mow the lawns and keep an eye on her.  My plan was to get off a little early on Friday afternoon but that didn’t happen.  So, I stopped at McDonalds on my way home from work (I didn’t get a chance to eat lunch).  Went home, ate real quick, edged and mowed the front and back lawns, played with Indy and took a shower all before Kelly and Dave dropped off Noelle at 6:30!  I was pretty proud of myself.  Here is a little video of Indy playing with the kids ball.  I think she is totally cute when she’s running after the ball. 

What a perfect way to end the week...

As many of you read (if you haven't read the "December 8th" entry then you should before reading this one) I had a difficult day on Monday. Like I said in the entry I knew by Tuesday I would be fine. I woke up Tuesday morning feeling energized and ready to take on the world. The rest of the week went well. Thursday we were finished contract negotiations at my work, thanks to a federal mediator. Friday I got to work from home and I finally was able to return all those phone calls that came in over the week that I hadn't had time to do earlier in the week.

Then early Saturday morning I received a phone call from one of the administrators (Jan) from a care home that one of my clients lives at saying that Ashley's water broke during the night and she was admitted to the hospital. She wasn't due until December 31st so it was pretty surprising to get the call. I had given Jan my personal cell phone number when I was out visiting Ashley a couple of weeks ago because I was going to be on vacation on the 31st and wanted to be able to go and Ashley while she was in the hospital. I told Jan to keep me posted and once Ashley had the baby to call me and I would come by and see her. I was getting kind of nervous Saturday evening when I still hadn't heard anything from Jan. Then around 8:00pm I received a phone call from the hospital saying that Ashley was alone and they needed me to come and sit with her until she had the baby. I was surprised to get the call but I was also concerned and worried that there was no way that I could go and sit in and help her. I would be an emotional wreak. I told the nurse to call Jan at the care home and ask her to have one of the staff at the home go and sit with Ashley. She said that was fine and would call me back if they needed further assistance. About 10 minutes later I received a call from Jan saying that they didn't have any extra staff at the home so she couldn't go and sit with Ashley and wanted to know what to do. Immediately I said that was fine and I would go and do it and call her once Ashley had the baby. After I hung up I wondered what I had gotten myself into. Not only was I watching Noelle, I had just put her to sleep, but I had just gotten over my emotional roller coaster. I sat and thought for a minute and called my Mom and asked if I could drop Noelle off while I went to the hospital. Of course she said yes. I packed Noelle a bag and myself a bag and off we went. I said a long prayer on the way asking that I would have the strength to help Ashley and be able to support her in the ways that she needed me to. I got to the hospital at about 9:00pm. I was lucky that she was at the hospital that Kelly works at and was able to park in the emergency lot and she walked me up to the floor where Ashley was. When I got to her room she had just thrown up and the nurse was helping her get cleaned up and cleaning her bed. Again I started thinking about how I was going to handle this and questioning whether I would be more a nuisance than a help. I was getting really nervous and I became a little teary eyed and then decided to say another prayer. I sat back relaxed and got myself together and then I sat and talked with Ashley for awhile. While talking to Ashely I had an amazing feeling come over me that I could handle this and everything would be fine. We had a long evening!! Ashley didn't really understand that she was having the baby that night and she really didn't understand how it was going to work. I tried explaining the best that I could but she wasn't understanding. She didn't want the nurse to help her with anything so I helped get her up to the bathroom, turning her and get her to drink the water that she really didn't want. We got about 2 hours of sleep. Then at 2:15am the nurse came in to check Ashley's progress and low and behold she was very very close. She started to prepare the room and I asked if she was going to give Ashley any pain medication. The nurse said she didn't think Ashley needed anything. She had gotten a shot of Demerol at 9:45 and that was all she thought she needed. I didn't think that was cool but what do I know? So Ashley started pushing at 2:40am and at 2:50am a beautiful baby boy was born.

It was the most amazing thing I have ever witnessed. Ashley asked that I hold the baby because she was scared so as soon as the cut the cord they handed him to me. I thought at that point I was going to loose it but I didn't. I was very strong and new that I needed to be strong for Ashley. While the baby was getting cleaned up, I sat and talked with Ashley and explained to her what they were doing and what would happen next. Then I got to go with the nurse to take baby Justin to the nursery to get a quick bath and all the other things that they do to the new baby's.

I am a strong believer that God never gives you anything that you can't handle and this made me more of a believer. I never would have ever thought that I would be able to witness this kind of miracle and not become an emotional mess but I did and I got to help and I was just fine!!! I am so proud of Ashley. She did an amazing job. Not once while I was there did she cry, scream, or get upset. She did what nurses and I asked her to do and she was amazing.

Once again I have been blessed. I was able to go and help someone that needed me, and I was able to witness the miracle of childbirth. WOW, this was an amazing week filled with sadness and JOY!!!

**for confidentiality reasons I changed all the names of the people involved**

Anyone need a bus pass??

My life has been pretty boring this week. I haven't been feeling very well and I haven't had the kids with me so I have spent most of my time laying on the couch and being lazy. I got to thinking about what I could write about this week. I have been trying to update my blog weekly so it would become a habit. My life isn't all that interesting so I can tell that some weeks I'm going to have to really think about my entry.

Something happened last week at work that I thought some of you would think was quite funny. So I think everyone knows that I am a social worker and I work with developmentally disabled adults. I think I have one of the best jobs anyone could ask for. I love my clients and I love that I am able to help them reach their goals. They also make me laugh.

So, last week I went to see one of my clients to do his yearly meeting where we go over all of his goals for the year and see what services he is in need of this coming year. I will call him Jeff. Our appointment was in the afternoon that day. I got there a few minutes earlier so the staff that works with him hadn't gotten there yet. When I walk in Jeff has 4 brand new tires that would fit a truck with nice chrome rims. placed next to his couch. You could tell that he had polished them and had taken really good care of them. I asked him where he got them and what he was going to to do with him. He informed me that he went down to Pep Boys and bought them and then carried them home one by one. I don't know how far that would be but I do know that it's a long way from his apartment and he lives in an upstairs apartment. He also told me that he was going to put them on his classic truck downstairs. I don't think there's a truck down stairs. So by the time that story was over his staff had gotten there. We started talking about what he had been up to the last few months. Jeff told me that he had went to Reno to go gambling with some friends and he won $12,000. I asked him what he had done with the money (maybe that is how he bought the tires) worried that his social security benefits would be effected. He told me that the man took his name down and was going to mail him the money. I don't think there's any money coming. I then asked Jeff how he was doing on the bus. We discussed at our meeting last year that he wanted to take the bus by himself. Jeff said he takes the bus all the time. He schedules his own ride and takes the bus a few times a week. As I do with all my clients I asked if he had any extra bus passes. He started to look over his shoulder as if someone was spying on him. He got up and went in the kitchen and again started looking around like someone was watching him. He came back and gave me about 15 bus passes. I could tell when he was getting me them that he was going through something. So I asked him if he was sure that was all of them. Jeff then said "oh no, I plenty of passes." I asked him to bring me all of his passes. I nearly had a heart attack when he brought me a stack about 5 1/2 inches tall of passes. Now, we only send him one pass per month. In order for him to have all of these passes he couldn't have taken the bus in YEARSSSSSS!!!!! At first I was thinking what an idiot I was. I should have been asking about his passes every time I saw him. Then I remembered that I have only had Jeff on my caseload for a year, so I have only met with him few times. At that point I knew my co-workers were going to have a field day with that. Bus passes are a hot commodity. Without a doubt there is a service coordinator asking their co-workers for a bus pass everyday. They are very very hard to come by. Clients can make money buy selling them and most clients that don't use their pass each month sell them to people on the streets. Not Jeff!!! I asked him what he had been doing for transportation and he said that he does a lot of walking. He decided earlier this month he didn't want to take the bus anymore. Finally.... he said that he had been saving the bus passes for me. Another reason why I love my clients!!! They are funny, resourceful and always thinking of me!!! I didn't think that anyone would believe me so I decided to take a picture.

Now just to share with you how much money this is the golden ones at the top of the stack were worth more than $3000.00. I was honest though and took them into our Transportation Manager and gave her the passes. Together we had a good laugh. Next time I need a bus pass for a client that lost his or hers I know where to go.

Hope this gives you a laugh for the week!!! Hopefully next week I will have something more interesting to share.