The Holidays

The circus left town a few days ago, and I can finally breathe. Actually, it was a fantastic Christmas this year and everything went very smoothly. I was spoiled rotten by everyone, it was like being a kid again. I got a red Blackberry Pearl and I'm really loving it! Imagine...first with a memory stick, and now with a Crackberry! I'm becoming quite the electronics junkie, if I do say so myself.

Christmas eve was spent with my mom, brother, BIL, Greg and I and at the last minute I invited Sal, her hubby and baby Liam. It was really nice having a baby around at Christmas time and he was a doll. Thankfully, Buddy is really good around little kids.

I'm starting to think that my mom is on medication as she has also been on her best behaviour. She genuinely seemed to have a great time, and there were no arguments whatsoever. A first on Christmas eve, although it helps that my brother has been sober for over a year now. (I'll have to take a few lessons from him in the new year.) A big thanks goes out to Pez who sent me a lovely purple lunch bag so I won't have to use liquor bags anymore :)

Christmas Eve dinner was very good. I had won a free turkey at Zellers because I had spent over $300 (one stop shopping AND a free bird!) There was a drumstick left and that was basically it. Perfect. No leftovers!

Christmas Day we went to Greg's dads' place for dinner and more gifts were opened. I got The Joy of Cooking (2006) to replace my 1953 version that I picked up at a rummage sale. The 2006 version has omitted the picture of how to skin a squirrel, if anyone was wondering. The cookbook is very impressive with 4500 recipes for the Way We Cook Now. I am absolutely going to try some out, especially since another New Year's resolution is to start cooking again. (And stop eating pizza...a guilty pleasure of mine.) Dinner was fabulous and quiet which is unusual because the last time we were invited for dinner there were 25 people at the table. It's not unusual for the whole neighbourhood to be at the in-laws house every night. I don't know how they put up with it. I'd move. Anyway, dinner was quiet, but shortly after we finished eating, 18 people showed up for dessert. We had brought Buddy with us, and although MIL2's mother initially was pissed off, at the end of the night she told me we could bring him back any time. I think she was worried that Buddy might jump up on her and pull off her artificial leg (!)

Boxing Day we had our annual Open House which started back in the days of the Condo. 30 people came and stayed for hours! Kids came and were banging away on Greg's drums. My brother showed up with a lovely woman who turned out to be a dental hygienist from the dentist we go to. My mom (of course) hung around so she could check her out. Two-Four was on her best behaviour and did not offer to 'Do' any of Greg's cute friends. (The first year we had the Open House she got S#!&Faced and every guy that walked through the door she'd jump on his lap at the first opportunity and proclaim 'you're cute! I'd Do ya!' She's had to live that one down, but it was kind of funny!) 10 people crashed at our place that night, and the bar was pretty much emptied, but everyone had fun.

I'd like to say that Boxing Day was the end of our festivities, but we had an other gathering to go to on the 27th at Greg's sisters' place so we could spend some time with the grandparents. I had packed up Greg's brothers gifts before we left so we could drop him off at his apartment on our way home at the end of the night. He'd already spent 3 nights at our place, received gifts from me, and food and booze but in the end I was 'Greg's Bitch-wife who was making him go home." Gee...thanks.

The next morning, Greg woke me up, told me to get dressed that we were going to drive Two-Four, SIL and her Useless Tool of a BF home. We took the opportunity to head by the trailer, and although there is at least a foot of snow on the roof, it does not appear to be leaking.

We have spent the last two days not answering the phone, or door and we didn't go to our neighbour's open house, even though they came to ours. Just couldn't do it. Last night we watched The Sound of Music which is only about the 25th time I've watched it. Love that movie!

That's Christmas in a nutshell.

And today is last day of the year.

All in all it's been a great year. We got a new puppy and he's a darling. Greg and I both got new jobs and we're loving them. We've spent a full year in the house and are very happy here. The kitties are also happy here, although they would probably be happier without Buddy trying to play with them. I managed to lose 15 pounds this year. Not as much as I had wanted to, but better than nothing. Next year, I'll lose another 15. How's that for a doable Resolution?

Most importantly, Greg and I are still going strong and this makes me the most happiest.

Wishing you all a Wonderful, Happy and Healthy 2008!

Merry Christmas!

Wishing all my blogfriends out there a very Festive Holiday Season. Eid Mubarek, Happy Hannukah, Merry Christmas!

We are in the midst of a huge snowstorm! We have already been outside twice to shovel snow, and no sooner are we done than we need to shovel again! It's quite fun right now, as I can't recall a time when it's snowed like this since I was a kid. Buddy is bouncing around like a jack rabbit in the snow and if I can figure it out, I'll post a video which is quite cute. Buddy is loving his new snowsuit which Santa brought a little early because of the storm!

I am really enjoying my new job, and in the past month have learned so much and seen the old stuff with new eyes. I've learned about other areas in the hospital that I had no idea how they functioned and met so many people, all of whom have been very supportive.

I've surprisingly had a few issues with some of my old colleagues in terms of them (one in particular) challenging me and trying to tell me that 'that's not how we do it', or 'we aren't certified to take care of those kinds of patients here.' Last week she challenged me over a particular type of Intercranial monitoring device that she said she was told in her orientation, that "we don't do in the Recovery Room." Well, I was pretty certain that we did, and could not think of a reason why we wouldn't take a pt with this kind of device, but truthfully, I didn't know the policy either. So, I looked up the policy and photocopied it, and also found the information in a learning package that was in our orientation binder which I again photocopied and brought the information to her. She said that she hadn't been taught how to monitor these types of patients because she hadn't been allowed to take the second part of the critical care course, and didn't feel confident in the skill. Well, my response was that I felt perfectly comfortable in holding an inservice for those interested in Intercranial Pressure monitoring, as I had been the one running the class during the Critical Care Course. Surely she would be interested to take advantage of a free learning opportunity! She then dismissed me and said she really wasn't interested in learning another skill that it was more advantageous to put the OR on hold so the Recovery Room wouldn't have to deal with head injured patients. So, really her issues were that a) she wasn't up to par with her skills, b) had no interest in learning c) is disruptive with the flow of the patients d) is giving false information to new employees and e) is lazy and thinks she is a princess. OK, 'e' is my opinion but she pissed me off! Anyway, the good thing is, is that the rest of the staff is very supportive and keen to learn new things, or brush up on skills they already know. So that's work. And other than a few little run-ins, things are very good. I've been going to workshops on conflict management, and teaching adult learners so I'm sure that these will all be very helpful.

Today was a great research day, and the only major problem was the undergarments I was wearing. See, I had it in my head that with the shade of pants I was wearing that you could see the cellulite on my ass. So, I decided to wear a body-shaper under my pants. The one I chose really was not sexy at all, it was a heavy duty bandage that looked like this:

It seemed to be okay when I was getting ready for work, I looked nice and slim (for me) no lumps and bumps. I realized when I got into the car that I had made an error in judgement as my thighs were kind of strangulating, and I was having a little trouble breathing. I rolled the top of the garment down to my waist but then I was cut in the middle and still couldn't breathe very well. And, it felt more like an elastic band and my roll just popped up higher.

When I got to work, I pulled the top part up again, but put little slits in the leg parts thinking it might be more comfortable around my thighs. It seemed to work and I kind of got used to being all sucked in around the middle.

By lunch time I was starving and got some Thai food to eat at my desk. I rolled the torso band down again as I was having a hard time eating being all sucked in, but that was worse so I cut a little slice in that band. But then everything popped out in front and I was stuck with a 3 inch stiff piece of fabric that circumferenced my waist and was quite noticeable under my sweater. So, I cut the whole band off. Then I made deeper slits in the leg parts. Then I got called out so I had to walk through the hospital halls. Let me tell you. Body shaping under garments are put together by highly qualified engineers and when you mess with their plans, you really get into trouble. The waist band had nowhere to go so had turned itself into a bikini-sized elastic which pushed ALL of my rolls upwards so that when I walked I was just one big jiggle from the front and in the thighs, yet I still had a smooth bottom!

At that point I would easily have sacrificed the smooth bottom to get rid of the front jiggle that I could not even hide with my file folder. And of course I ran into every single hospital employee that I could possibly know.

I finally made it back to my office, pulled down the blind, took off my undergarment (what was left of it) and breathed comfortably for the first time all day.

I think I will forever nix the Body-shapers, which really is just a politically correct term for an old fashioned GIRDLE!!!

Last week was quite busy as Two-Four and my SIL stayed with us. SIL had her molars out and did quite well despite her mother's insistence that she was absolutely petrified and her panic/anxiety was out of control.
The Two-Four complained about how exhausted she was putting ice compresses on and off every 15 minutes. After about the fourth time of her complaining about it I responded 'welcome to nursing.' I didn't say it meanly, but she did stop complaining. Then, SIL wanted her BF to come to Toronto for the weekend, which wasn't a problem with me, but ended up being such a drama I wished I had just said that I didn't think it would be a good idea. Anyway, the BF came and watched football all weekend. He was well behaved, but Two-Four had stuff to talk about him behind his back at every opportunity. 5 nights was enough. I even took Kross-eyed Kitty off of my Favourites list in case someone accessed it. I didn't have a whole lot of computer time, and certainly no time without someone looking over my shoulder.

Geez, it sounds like I'm complaining! I am, but in truth, it wasn't such a bad week. SIL cleaned my house as a thank-you for letting her BF come, and Two-Four did a fantastic job of reupholstering my dining room chairs. I just have to finish sanding them and then they will be ready for another 40 years of wear and tear! I should have sanded them outside during the summer because I now have a fine layer of dust covering everything. I am having a dinner party next Saturday night, so I'm hoping I'll be able to get rid of the dust by then.

We had our first snow storm this past weekend, and Buddykins LOVED playing in the snow! He loves chasing snowballs, and digging his nose (see how long it is?!) in the snow drifts. He also really loves wearing his new hockey jacket! I can't believe that I am dressing up my dog, but to be honest, he is not a big dog, and has short fur so I think he appreciates the warmth. At first, Greg was adamant that his dog was not going to wear clothes, but when he saw his favourite hockey team jacket, he relented. Here's a pic of the first snowfall of the season. See the four foot snowdrift that was up against our front door?Speaking of hockey, I went to a game last week, which was a lot of fun. The Leafs almost won, but lost in the shoot-out. It was a really good game, and my brother got us amazing seats. This is my and my bro:

The new job is fantastic, I am absolutely loving it and so far feel like I am doing a good job. The staff seem to be very supportive of me for which I am truly grateful. I did my first inservice last Friday which was rather impromptu as the booked speaker did not show up. Thankfully, my first power point presentation worked out very well, and I really impressed myself!

I realized with Napoblomo that I really don't have the inclination to blog every day, it is a lot harder that I thought it would be. So, kudos to all you regular bloggers out there!