Nurse Joc, Not Jackie

Nurses are actually pretty easy to shop for... I think.  Regardless of your budget, too! 

Let's start off with small gifts:

• Pens. Black pens for day and evening shift workers, red pens for night shifters. They don't have to be expensive pens at all; just having a pen that works is good. We're always losing pens. 
• Watches. Make sure there is a second hand that is easily readable for when we have to count pulses or respirations.
• Travel coffee or tea mug.
• Foot pampering products... Lotions, foot soaks, cooling sprays, pedicure gift certificates. 

Medium gifts:

• Compression stockings. They help prevent varicose veins, sore muscles, and so forth. They're awesome to have, but are a bit expensive to shell out for, ergo they are a perfect gift. 
• Scrub jackets. 

Big gifts:

• Foot spa... Tread carefully here. I'll be blunt, if it's under one hundred bucks, it's probably a bad foot spa. If it says "heated water," it's probably lying unless it is a Helen of Try foot spa. I shelled out a pretty penny (a little less than $200 after S&H) for this foot spa, but it was so worth it! 
• Shoes. Obviously!  Do not get crocs as they are a sure way to lose any worker's compensation battles should you hurt yourself while on the job wearing these shoes. Runners that are closed (i.e. no mesh parts or open areas) and white are generally accepted in most work places in BC. 
• Portable DVD player for a night shift worker :P  
• Sleep Tracker watch. These are a little expensive, but are certainly worth it, especially if your nurse is a shift worker that works days, evenings, and/or nights. 

That's just a quick brain storm for you to start with! :D

I woke up feeling a little sick today... boo! Of course, it happens the day after our house guest leaves and we get the house back to ourselves. If you get uncomfortable reading personal stories, don't read this entry - we went through a loss (two losses, actually) and this is the story... 

I'm still on tilt a bit with whacky hormones and mental exhaustion. Now that I've told all our loved ones and what-not, I guess I can go into more detail as to why I've been MIA. We had planned another baby and got pregnant in August. We were excited as heck and told our parents early... We also told a few other people, mostly just because I really hate lying about things ("Why aren't you drinking?" "Why can't you go in the hottub?") Anyway, we lost the pregnancy in the beginning of this month. Sucked enough as it were, but then we found out it wasn't just one baby, it was two! So amongst dealing with that, I ended up hemorrhaging and being admitted to the hospital. That isn't a normal part of a miscarriage if you were wondering! So that sucked. Ended up having to take time off work and scared the crap out of myself and my husband. 

My daughter was pretty awesome, though! While we were waiting for the ambulance while I hemorrhaged, my daughter asked me why I was crying. I told her I was scared. She said something along the lines of "Mommy, you don't have to be scared. See? I'll turn on the light and then you won't have to be scared anymore!"  Kids make almost everything more bearable. I love that girl. 

So, that's my story. Among that, we had a cancer scare, multiple CT scans and hospital trips for hubby, a wedding to plan, and random bills that I'm pretty sure the universe just kind of pulled out of its butt just to test us. October has always been a month shadowed by terrible news and terrible occurrences. 

I've been so unbelievably busy the past few weeks. I'm having a hard time understanding what day it is. I have one more shift this evening at a residential care home, then I am off for a week as I prepare the final touches for my wedding on Wednesday. I also have to go back and forth to the hospital tomorrow and Monday for my hubby-to-be as he is getting a CT scan of his femur and a bone scan. Fingers crossed for good news... Those that know us well know that we have been having a very bad month thus far -- started off with a loss, me being in and out of the hospital, unexpected government bills, bed rest, loss of income due to needing to take a block of shifts off, and unexpected news in regards to hubby's health. Uhg! 

I'm so glad I have the wedding to focus on and the fact that my amazing friend in Victoria managed to help me get a Maggie S. dress for a reasonable price. I'll have to give her website/bridal shop a nice link in my nav bar. Her shop is amazing! 

Pictures will certainly accompany the post wedding update :) 

I have been picking up extra shifts like made and have been so overly busy, I am behind on many things. House work, knitting, and this poor, poor website all included. Our daycare has been closed for a week now, prior to that, my daughter was sick, and the daycare is closed all next week as well. That said, I have spent a lot of time with my daughter, which is awesome. She's always noticeably happier when I'm home, which makes me feel like crap when I have to go into work. Especially when she busts out with the "But mommy, I don't want you to go to work, I want you to stay here with me!" 

Pull at my heart strings, why don't ya?

Anyway, I will get to work on posting Vancouver Island Races for August (the remaining ones, woops...) And September. Stay posted :P 

PS. Congratulations, Wayne and Katherine on your beautiful wedding yesterday! Just have to edit those pictures and send them your way :)

Alright... I thought I said before that if you are approaching a dog with fear aggression, particularly towards strangers, that you ignore the dog. That means not even sticking your hand out when the dog approaches you. Pretend you are a tree. Do not respond, do not react. The dog is not there. The dog is not there. Don't look at it. Don't talk to it. Don't bend over. Don't stick your hand out... 

That said, the obvious happened while I was at work. The significant other had company over, and one of the rather tall, strange men, put his hand out to our dog when our dog approached him. He got a warning nip and our doggy ended up going into a freak out of barking. 

That said, the dog has been returned to its previous owner (my sister). My sister, also an LPN, has tracked down an amazing trainer in the area (I'll post the trainer's info later if I can get my hands on it), and is looking into anti-anxiety medications for the dog.  Poor pup. He's a really good dog, but since he is half-Bernese and was not socialized properly as a puppy, he has a bad case of stranger fear, hence his behavior. 

Unfortunately, my significant other is not experienced with dogs, so training a behavior such as aggression out of him wasn't an option for him. Understandable. That dog is scary as hell when he's being aggressive. 

No one wags their tail to greet me anymore when I come home from my evening shift. I told my SO he has to thump the wall for me so I can pretend it's the dog greeting me. Thus far, he is no dog. Even if I call him one at times!

Boo-urns. 

Summer is supposed to start on Monday, officially. With the way things are going with the weather, who knows? It's been fall-esque weather here in central Vancouver Island for all of spring with a few days that could be considered summer-like. I hope that we get a nice summer... We have so much work to do in the yard that it would be nice to have some encouragement in the form of sun. 

So I've been a little behind on things lately. I recently picked up a casual position at another retirement home to supplement my near-part time job. On top of that, I've been sick off and on for a while. I'm thinking my whole family might be getting sick more frequently and staying sick longer because of allergies... Now, the only thing that is different this year compared to last year is that we have a dog. Uh oh! 

My dog. Uhg. He is a snuggly, cute shedding machine in the house. As soon as you put a stranger into the mix, he turns into a fear aggressor. I've been trying many methods to help train the behavior out of him. Around the house, he is a submissive member of the pack, but outside, I'm not sure what happens. I've tried getting out house visitors in on the training, but none of them actually listen and follow through with what I've asked of them. 

For example, if a dog is barking at you... Don't bend over to the dog. It's seen as threatening. If he's barking at you, don't say he's a good dog. One, you're reinforcing the behavior, two he's not going to stop barking because you're saying that. If If I ask you not to acknowledge the dog while he's barking, please DON'T ACKNOWLEDGE THE DOG. I don't get mad at people (outside of my family :P) easily, but this one thing does make me very angry. Don't look at a(n aggressively) barking dog. Just don't. Ignore the heck out of him and he will calm down, realizing that he has no power over you. 

So essentially, if you're coming to my house, ignore my dog until he stops barking.  Why is that so hard for people to do? 

So we have returned from our (pre) honeymoon in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. I have to say... It's a darn shame how terribly the USA and Canada promote Mexico as a terrible place with lots of crime. Sure, there is definitely crime in Mexico City, but come on... How many millions of people are crammed into that small space? Anyway, Cabo is a very relaxed place to go if you know what you're doin before you get there. By this, I mean it's important to know about the time shares, the taxi drivers, bartering, the venders, where to eat, and so forth. And for the love of... I couldn't believe my ears when I heard a tourist complaining about them not speaking enough English down there. It's Mexico. They speak Spanish, not English, you dolt... Sorry. That just really ticked me off.

Anyway! I will be going through my written journals and writing up an entry for each day I was there, filled with tips on handling yourself while down there, which activities you must try, and other things of such. If this doesn't interest you, just avoid the entries that will be titled "Mexico: Day x."

Some bad news: my laptop decided to be a butthole before we left. It no longer sees my battery (or the battery of my partner's same model battery) and it enjoys dying every once in  while with no warning. I now have to use it while it is plugged into the wall. If it becomes unplugged, it instantly shuts off. D'oh! I don't want to shell out for a new laptop just yet, though. How did it die? Oh... Probably had something to do with the coffee I spilled on it... Maybe I'll try taking it apart and cleaning off the internal connections and mobo.

I have been amazingly busy this past week. I intended to do a lot of things, but only managed to get a hundred projects half done. Such as it is!

My original business, which has been on the back burner ever since I transitioned from a stay-at-home-mom to working outside of the home, Loving Baby Ventures is in the midst of a giant overhaul as I prepare it for a relaunch. June 1st, 2010, I intend for it to be relaunched in all its glory. I have the store almost completely ready for launching, but I still need to tweak the design which I originally stopped working on half-way-through. The design on the page right now is... Questionable...

Other than that, we've spent a lot of time packing this week as we prepare for our Mexico getaway, which I originally booked back in December as a surprise for my partner in crime. This is our pre-honeymoon. We may or may not have set a date for a wedding this year... ;)

We also did some gardening and cleaning out of the garage. We've been doing molding in the living room, recycling items we had piled up for months, filling out a few applications, and... Wow. Lots of stuff, actually. I'm surprised we aren't burnt out at this point.

Happy Mother's Day, mommies!  I got woken up to a bowl of mini wheats my daughter poured for me, and a coffee she brewed for me (Tassimo makes that pretty easy for a 3-year-old!) I love this little girl and I have such a hard time imagining that there was once a world where she didn't yet exist.  She is so perfect, so wonderful, so sweet, and kind. Mother's day in this household isn't about me, it's about this wonderful little girl. <3  There are not enough words in the English language for me to explain how much love exudes from such a tiny little girl.

I'm in shock over it being May already! My goodness... April just zoomed by without much warning.

Being May, that means it's a new month, which means I have some updates to get started on. For this week, please watch for the Vancouver Island Running Races for June 2010 posting, a new knitting pattern selection for Kozy Kaps 4 Kids, and the May 2010 BeautiControl news update.

I'm working day shifts this weekend, then switching back to evening shifts. I'm pretty sure I can say goodbye to all day shifts for a while since our senior LPN will be on summer break from her nursing school -- going for her RN! I don't mind evening shifts too much, so it's not a big loss :P

I worked all through Fire and Ice today, so no walking around the beautiful town of Qualicum Beach for me. I miss that town sometimes!