Labor Day Picnic

Every year my Dad's family has a picnic on Labor Day.  This has been happening all my life, and we've met at the same park for all of those years.
My Dad was one of 10 kids; one sister died as a child.  There were 5 girls and 5 boys and my Dad was the 5th child.  Each member of the family still lives within 30 minutes of each other and have remained very close.  There are 7 siblings still living.  There's lots of teasing and laughter when they get together!

Here's my Dad and step-mom getting things set up,

Here's part of the group, enjoying lunch.

 After lunch, they decided to try and get some pictures.  My Dad and his sister are probably the biggest teasers in the family.  He is 85 and she is 83.  Instead of sitting where she was told to for the picture, she sat on Dad's lap.  :)

These are the 7 living siblings.  I think they range in age from about 70-87.

The park is just beautiful.  There are springs and a pretty little stream that runs through it.

 

After lunch there was lots of talking and catching up.

We had a special guest with us this year.  This little boy is 6 years old and is from Haiti. He's in the states through 'Healing the Children'.  He has some vision issues that they thought were related to cataracts, but now think there may be some other problems as well.  He's full of energy and doesn't let much slow him down!

This is my aunt. who he's staying with.  She and my Uncle have done this quite a few times and say it's very rewarding.  This little boy will have testing and treatment here, and will most likely return to Haiti with much improved vision.

I hope you all had an enjoyable day too!

Happy Labor Day

A Day in my Life

I think the months are going by quicker all the time!  How can it be September?  I am sad to see summer ending, even though it's been so hot this year.  I think Fall is beautiful, but I hate thinking of Winter following it.
I've had quite a day today.  Here's how my day went.  I think you'll understand!

6am - I'm up and on the treadmill.  I walk for 30 minutes every morning.  Then it's off to the shower and get ready for work.  Today my start time is a little later because it's Thursday.  Every Thursday I do rounds with our doctor so I start at 8am instead of 7.  It's nice because I get to sleep till 6 instead of 5!

 7:45 - on my way to work.  It cooled off last night and is 69 degrees and cloudy, but still pretty outside.

There is a small pond I drive past and there is frequently a bunch of ducks and geese next to it, this morning was no exception.

This is my view for most of the day - my fan, water bottle, my computer and books.  Before the Dr arrives I print off recent vital signs, any recommendations from social work, pharmacy, therapy... and get the charts ready for the patients he'll be seeing.  I also get our lab book ready for the next weeks lab draws, filling out forms and figuring out what labs are scheduled.  There are often forms that patients need to have filled out and signed by the Dr, med orders that have to prepared so he can sign them...   Although most everything is on the computer, we seem to have more paperwork than ever!

Our Dr arrives around noon.  I have all the charts piled up on a cart, so we have easy access to them.  He fills out all his paperwork first, and then we start seeing patients.  Today he saw 10 people, but also changed orders for several others because of things going on with them.  He's frequently interrupted by a phone call, his pager or papers faxed to us.  He's a very nice guy, easy to talk to and has a lot of common sense which seems to be hard to find in medicine today!  He's also a very good Dr - one that I would recommend to my own family.
He told me his schedule had opened up for tomorrow, and because we have been so busy at our building, he wondered if I was available to come in on Friday to help catch up.  I was supposed to have the day off, but this needs to be done, so I'm working tomorrow.
He finished his work at our building at 4:30.  He will now go to his office and do paperwork.
I now have to call all the families of the patients we saw and update them on any new orders.  I also have to print all the new orders off onto med sheets, write a summary of his visit to the other nurses, write out charting guidelines because of med changes and put all the charts away.
In the meantime, we got another new patient, so I stayed to help put in new orders and answer questions from the family.

This is our time clock.  We have to put our hands onto a part of it to punch out.  It's now 6:40.

I stopped in the parking lot to show you how nice our new addition is looking.

As I looked at the building, I saw this plane and banner flying by.  We are very close to Grand Valley State University.  They were preparing for their first football game.  The banner said "Welcome Freshmen".

 On my way home, I stopped at the grocery story.  I had to get ingredients to make 5 pounds of sloppy joe's for a church activity on Friday.

I got home about 7:40.  Bob was still at work.  He works one evening a week, and it just happens to be the one that I get home late as well.  I thought I shouldn't sit down, or I wouldn't want to get up.  I got the sloppy joe made and cleaned up the kitchen.  At 8:15 I was done and ready for supper.

Here's my supper - a chopped tuna salad from Subway.  It may not look that great, but it's a very good salad, and perfect for a night when I need supper for just me!
Bob got home at 8:30.  We are now relaxing and will soon be heading to bed.
Hope you all had a good day!