An Old Friend, Some "Bella Notte"s, and Benjy's Big Party

  Continuing my post on last week (I'm only a week behind now, yay!), Friday was a big day for me. My dear friend from second grade, Angela, whom I hadn't seen or talked to since our family moved away from Alaska, came to visit. These are pictures that I found from when we were younger. This is my eighth birthday party- a princess pizza party with petits fours. Angela is at the bottom left and I am at the bottom right.

A picture of us playing at my house.

She was in Colorado for a cousin's graduation and took some time to visit family and friends in this area. She found me on Facebook last year and we have since been able to chat on the phone and catch up on each others' lives. It was so fun to see her and her sweet little boy, Miles, and to reconnect in person after all these years.

Friday night my singing group, Bella Notte, performed. We had three rehearsals that week to prepare for our performance, since in addition to our ensemble singing we had small group numbers and choreography added on to a couple of the songs at the last minute. We also had a solo piano performance by one of our members, who is a Master's trained piano teacher and performer.

The concert was a great success. One of the ladies that co-leads the group will be moving away next month, so we sang a tribute song at the end of the performance to her and our other choir member who is leaving.

Here we are singing one of our choreographed songs, "Chili Con Carne," which was my favorite song of the night!

I love singing with these fantastic women. Our rehearsals are certainly a highlight of my week. 

Saturday we woke up to more rain and gloomy skies, which has been the story of this whole month. Benjy's birthday party was planned for that evening at an outdoor part, but we were all hopeful that there would be a break in the rain long enough to hold the party as planned. Our backup plan was to have the party at our house, but since we had invited more people than our house can comfortably accommodate, we held off on changing the location and said a family prayer that the weather would cooperate with our plans. 

We started to really sweat it around 2 p.m. when it started hailing-- hard. But we still waited. Around 4 p.m., the skies were still cloudy but it had not rained for the past hour or so. That's when we decided to go for it. We texted all our friends and family to bring jackets because the party was still on! We arrived at the park at 4:30 to get things set up, and by the time people started coming at a little after 5, the clouds had parted and we had sunshine. We brought towels with us to wipe off the playground equipment, but much of it was miraculously dry! Everyone at the party kept saying that Benjy must have been a very good boy all year. I think that is indeed true, but I also believe our faith and prayers worked!

I had made barbecue pork in a couple crock pots that day to save the trouble of having to grill. We had pulled pork sandwiches, chips, watermelon slices, and a veggie tray, along with a cooler full of drinks. It was simple and no-fuss, so everyone (i.e. Justin and I) got to enjoy the party. :)

Months ago, Benjy requested a dragon cake for his birthday. My mom used to make our birthday cakes as kids, and that's something special that I remember and would like to carry on. I also had made a fancy robot cake for Eli for his birthday, so it was a big deal to me that I deliver on Benjy's dragon cake. However, the week leading up to the party was in-SANE (see above and previous post), so I did not have time to do a huge fancy cake for 40+ people. I looked around at grocery stores, but no one was offering a dragon-design cake that I could buy; plus, I really wanted to do the dragon myself. 

So I compromised. I ordered a plain white frosted half sheet cake from the grocery store, but I made the dragon myself to go on top. I used rice krispy treats to mold into the dragon shape and then covered it with homemade fondant. I used pieces of airhead candy for the spikes, and plain-colored fondant for the claws. I had made the fondant earlier in the week, but hadn't had time before Saturday to mold the dragon. I had been getting other things ready in the morning, so I started on the dragon in the afternoon. I was sweating it. I was worried I wouldn't have enough time before the party to get it all done. Also, the rice krispy treats turned out bumpier than I expected, so the fondant was not perfectly smooth (how come that never happens on Cake Boss?). When Benjy saw the cake though, he said, "It's exactly what I wanted!" That made every little bit of trouble worth it.

About fifteen minutes before the party ended, the sun went behind the clouds again. We were able to get everything packed up and everybody said goodbye. About an hour later, another torrential downpour began. I'm so grateful we had enough of a break in the rain to enjoy celebrating this special boy. Justin reminded me of how, on the day Benjy was born, there was a storm and tornado near Topeka. Shortly after we arrived home after having Benjy, the tornado sirens went off and we had to go down into the basement. There was a break in the weather then, too, to accommodate our cosmic little guy. We're so grateful for Benjy and are so happy to have him in our family!

Organizing, Mummified Tomato, Benjy's Birthday

Last week was a ca-RA-zy week between Benjy's birthday, my Bella Notte concert, and just normal life with the kids... It started out fairly calm though, with rain and cold weather keeping us indoors on Monday and Tuesday. The kids caught a "beetle bug" and Benjy found a home for it in the hole of one of our blocks. If you look really closely you can see it inside of the red block at the base of the "house." 

I decided staying indoors was a good opportunity to inventory my food pantry downstairs. I had lost track of what I had in there and what I needed to replenish. I turned on PBS kids and gave Benjy and Emmie some popcorn to occupy them during that boring task.

I was able to do some much-needed organizing and bucket refilling as well. We are working on getting our full year's worth of food storage this year, so I am constantly trying to figure out how to make room for what's coming next.

Eli had been learning about Ancient Egypt in school and last week he brought home a tomato he had "mummified." They learned all about the process of mummification and then got to practice it on a tomato. He said that they poked holes in the tomato and emptied it of its seeds and pulp ("organs") and then immersed it in "natron" (baking soda and salt, I think) and let it sit for a few weeks. When it was all done, the tomato shell was hard and withered and the baking soda mixture had dried around the tomato. He had to split open the baking soda "mold" to get the tomato out.

Justin snapped this picture of Emmeline while she was eating dinner, and I thought it was cute.

The kids helped me make some chocolate chip cookie dough and we froze it into balls to have ready for urgent cookie needs. Cook-E-mergencies happen.

Benjy's birthday was May 21st, which was Thursday. We celebrated his birthday as a family that day. The day started out "lucky" for him; as his birthday breakfast, we let him eat Lucky Charms. Usually sugar cereals are just to be eaten as dessert, so it was a special treat. This is the birthday boy at about 9 a.m. I let him wear his pajamas extra long since it was his special day. 

That morning I had a rehearsal at a fellow choir member's house to prepare for our concert Friday night, so the kids got to have a little playdate. I took cupcakes that I had made from scratch using a recipe a friend had given me. The recipe did not turn out as well as I had hoped, but the kids ate them without complaint.

After our rehearsal, I took Benjy to Chick-fil-A for a special birthday lunch.

Justin got home early that afternoon so he could take Benjy on a special daddy date. They went to Jump City while I took Eli and Emmeline to Eli's violin lesson. Just not having to go with us to violin was a special occasion in itself! He had a super awesome time jumping with Dad. 

Benjy opened his presents from us that night. He got some fun gifts, including a Spider-man puzzle, some hot wheels track, a marble run, a container of goo with a spider in it (which he had really wanted), and a birdhouse to paint (which he had also really wanted). 

Painting his birdhouse.

For dinner he wanted Rice-a-Roni. Only Rice-a-Roni. I thought a side of roast would complement it well so we had that along with some carrots. He had also requested a dragon cake months before, but we decided to do the cake on Saturday for his extended family/friends party. We had a fun day celebrating our sweet Benjy bear. It was a special day for a very special 4-year-old.

A Nature Walk, Spanish Presentation, Museum Trip and More

We had a break in the rain right after Mother's Day. The kids were dying to go on a walk so we went exploring. We went down to the pond in the open space across from our neighborhood. The water level was high from all the recent rain and there was a little stream running past that the kids enjoyed watching.

Benjy was set on hiking up the hill to look at the lake. He and our friend's dog Lucy led the way.

Made it to the top!

Benjy was helping me fold laundry and he got a kick out of wearing Justin's socks around.

On Wednesday, Eli had a special Spanish presentation. The kids in his class showed the parents what they have been learning all year. They did a great job singing their songs and demonstrating their knowledge of vocabulary and Spanish phrases. 

Here is a picture of Eli with Mrs. Zerr and his friend Henry.

We also got to look through Eli's portfolio, which is a binder holding examples of good work he's done this year. I love how Benjy struck a pose for this one!

After the Spanish presentation, I took Benjy and Emmie to the Museum of Nature and Science. As we walked in, Emmie saw the bust of the sabertooth tiger and yelled, "Kitty!" It inspired me to create the following exhibit, which is entitled, "Kitties of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science."

"Kitty!"

Justin met us for lunch and we had fun in the kids' area afterward.

Benjy's magnet statues.

They had a full-body peg thing that we took turns making impressions of our faces in. See if you can guess who is who.

Here is a picture of Lucy, who stayed with us for about a week and a half. Her owner is one of the people Justin home teaches, and he asked if we would watch her while he went on vacation. She was a sweet dog and the kids had fun having her around. She liked to hop up on the couch when we weren't looking.

On Friday, Eli had his Let's Play Music recital. This is Eli's second year of the program, and this year they have been learning notes and chords on the piano. He got to sing and play some group numbers with his fellow second years and he also got to perform a solo piece. Here is a video of him playing "Oh When the Saints Go Marching In:"

He also got to accompany his class singing the Musical Alphabet song on his violin:

After Eli's recital, I drove him out to meet up with Justin and Benjy for a father/son campout. They had headed out earlier to set up the tent before dark. There were other dads and sons there from our church and the boys had been looking forward to going, so we made it work even though it was a crazy busy night!

Here is Emmie in her Sunday dress. This is the face she makes when I tell her to smile:

I love this picture of this sweet girl.

Emmie is saying so many words now that I've kind of stopped keeping track. She will just repeat almost anything now so the list is endless. I got a video of her saying muffin for the first time. She's smart as a whip, that one.

Reflections on my "Dream Job"

I haven't posted a whole lot about my job, but it is a significant element of my life, and has been particularly in the last couple months. I love being a nurse-- I love helping people, I love having medical knowledge and skill, and I love being able to contribute to the financial stability of our family while still being essentially a "stay-at-home mom." Recently there have been a lot of changes in my "professional life," and I thought it would be a good idea to record the events and my changing perceptions of the role of my career right now in this stage of my life and my family's.

About two and a half months ago, I noticed a job opening for a part time position on Mom/baby. Ever since I started having kids, I thought that I would love to work in a perinatal area of nursing. In fact, I began to see it almost as a calling to pursue that career direction, either in labor and delivery or postpartum. So, when I saw the part time position on the postpartum unit, I applied. Shortly after I applied, I interviewed. The interview went very well, and shortly thereafter I was offered the part time position. I immediately accepted and Justin and I arranged for Teresa and Charlene to come and watch the kids during the day shifts I would be required to work in order to train to the new unit. But there was a nagging voice in the back of my mind that I just couldn’t silence. When I decided to be realistic with myself, I realized that working two nights every week was just not right for my family right now. I quickly informed my prospective manager, Marcia, of my decision to decline the part time offer. I cried tears of disappointment, but in my heart I knew that making the decision to be with my family more was the right decision to make.

 About a week later, I got a call from Marcia. She said she had talked the situation over with my current manager, Shawna, and that they had agreed upon an arrangement where I would keep my current position on the float pool, which only required me to work one shift per week, but I would cross-train to mom/baby so that I could float to that unit as well as the other units on the hospital. It was a dream come true! I accepted the position and plans went forward to orient me to mom/baby. 

A week or so passed, and my orientation period was fast approaching. I got another phone call from Marcia. She said that the clinical educator had concerns about me being able to maintain my competency on the unit with only working sporadically after orientation. She then asked if I would accept a per diem position on the mom/baby unit. The difference would be that I would be required to be available to work two shifts a week, just as with the part time position, but that there was a possibility of being cancelled for shifts. It was not the ideal situation anymore, but I felt Marcia had made all the concessions she could make in order to help me (since they didn’t normally hire per diem nurses with no prior mom/baby experience), and I felt somewhat obliged to be cooperative. Besides, with my orientation practically upon me, I felt it was difficult to change directions.

I began my orientation, which would consist of five to six weeks of 24 hours per week. I worked three eight-hour-long day shifts, which was different from my typical one 12-hour night shift a week. Those eight-hour days felt infinitely longer than my 12-hour nights. I only had a few hours with the kids, and I was mentally exhausted after work and found it difficult to be fully present. Eli’s school projects and music practice suffered during those weeks. There was stress about who was going to take Eli to school and who was going to pick up, since I left too early to drop him off and got off too late to pick him up. I felt like too much of my time and mental energy were being dedicated to work, but I thought that once I was off days and back to nights, things would start to feel balanced again, since I wouldn’t be away from the kids so many waking hours.

My weeks of days passed, and I started my last week of orientation, which was on night shift. After I had worked my first night shift, I went home and slept for a few hours while my sister watched the kids. I got up around lunchtime, kissed the kids, and put them down for a nap with the intention of going to sleep again, since I was scheduled to work that night as well. Emmeline didn’t nap well; I felt my mind racing over all the things I had to do; I felt anxious about sleeping through pickup time since I had to get Eli from school; I felt panicked because I needed to fall asleep so that I could stay awake all night again, and all the anxiety I felt about needing to sleep made it impossible for me to actually sleep. 

I found myself wondering, “Why am I doing this???” It was not for the money. We didn’t need the extra income in order to get by. It was because I had felt it was my calling and my dream job to work in mom/baby. But I had found something unexpected over the course of my orientation. While I liked working with the moms and babies, it didn’t feel like a calling. It didn’t even feel like my dream job anymore. 

I realized I already had my dream job. 

Being a mostly stay-at-home mom to my three precious kids was the best and most important calling I could ever hope for. While being a mom/baby nurse was not an unworthy goal, it was not worth what I had to sacrifice in order to achieve it: being able to pack Eli’s lunch in the morning and take him to school; being able to pick him up and hear about his day; being able to play games with Benjy and listen to him tell stories; being able to hold Emmeline instead of having her carry one of my shirts around as a reminder of me; and being awake and rested enough to be patient and present for my children. 

Coming to that realization was difficult, because it meant making a difficult decision. I hated to back out of the arrangement Marcia and I had come to, but I knew I needed to be true to the impressions I was so clearly having that I needed to work less. After much thought and prayer, I wrote an email to my manager explaining why I was not going to be able to continue to work per diem on the mom/baby unit. I didn't know what the implications or next step would be.  It was a very difficult thing for me to do.

Fortunately, Marcia was incredibly understanding. She asked me what I wanted to do next-- if I wanted to go back to my position on the float pool or if I wanted to quit entirely. After thinking it over for a couple days, I realized I valued my job too much to want to quit entirely, so I told her I would like to go back to the float pool. I was put in touch with the new manager of the float pool, Fred, since my previous manager Shawna had left around the same time I went to mom/baby to take a job at another hospital. He interviewed me and told me I could have my old position back. The only change would be that since I have oriented to mom/baby, I will be able to float to that unit in addition to all the other units I have previously floated to. So, although by a very circuitous path and not by my own design, I have ended up with my ideal arrangement.

I am so grateful for the hand of God in my life. I am grateful to Him for guiding me to the profession of nursing many years ago when I had never even considered going down that path. I am grateful to Him for my family. And I am grateful to Him for giving me the ability to be both a nurse and a mother, to bless the lives of His children and to bless me and my children.

Since this is a nursing-related post, I thought it would be approriate to share some nursing humor. This is my favorite humorous nursing photograph, which is displayed on the surgical unit at Lutheran:

"After six hours on her feet, seven belligerent patients, and three spilled bedpans, all Nurse Beth wanted was the chicken kebab."

Mother's Day

On with the catching up! For Mother's Day last Sunday, Justin and the kids did a great job of making me feel special. When Benjy woke up, Justin got up with him and closed our bedroom door so I got some extra sleep until Emmeline woke up. Justin was making waffles, but before he could finish, Eli brought in a big bowl of cereal that he had poured himself. It was absolutely brimming with cereal and milk! I ate my breakfast in bed, being super careful not to spill all over everywhere. 

By the time I had almost finished the cereal, I was too full for waffles, but I had some later. :) The kids brought me their cards and gifts right away. Eli had made some cute things at school, including a card, envelope/folder, and canvas bag he had decorated. Justin had put together a treat basket with some of my favorite treats and snacks, which the kids were very excited to break into give me. :)

The kids, Justin, and I got to talk to Teresa that morning and wish her a happy Mother's Day. It was great to hear her voice again and tell her how much we love her. Her picture pops up on my phone when we're talking, and Emmie was getting really excited and saying "Gummy." It was extremely cute!

After breakfast, the kids got dressed to go outside and play in the snow which had fallen the night before. There is a reason why conventional wisdom around here says not to plant anything outside before Mother's Day. 

Justin didn't have meetings until noon that day in honor of Mother's Day, so it was a treat to have him home for that extra time. 

Emmie and I matched in burgundy and purple. I didn't get a very good shot of our outfits but I couldn't resist snapping a pic of her adorable face.

After church, we went over to my grandparents' for dinner to celebrate Mother's Day. It was great to be able to spend time with my mom and grandma. I am so grateful for all the wonderful mothers and grandmothers in our lives, and for all the hard work and sacrifice they give to their families and others.