May 15th

 I committed to document a day in our lives 4 times a year on the 15th.  So here we are on May 15th.  Steve said I should just skip to June 15th since I was working on May 15th, but I thought a day in our lives is a day in our lives.  So here we go :)

The days I work start the night before, laying out school clothes on school days, instructions for babysitters who come, or packing backpacks when the kiddos go elsewhere.  This day happened to be a Saturday so there is much less work the night before, knowing our very competent Daddy would be in charge.  So all I had to get ready was me and my uniform, badge, etc.

The worst part about the days I work is the alarm going off at 5:40.  That is why I do all the getting ready the night before.  The unfortunate hour I get up really is a bummer for me who is not a morning person at all. After I am up and going I love the days I work :).  It is my hobby that I really enjoy.

This particular morning little Blake woke up just before 6 so he was my getting-ready-buddy.  He loves greeting Abby in the morning.  She sleeps in her crate in our room and doesn't make a peep as long as she can see someone.  She goes all night without going potty - crate training is good stuff.

While our little Blakey had 3 minutes without being actively supervised (although I was in the shower with a glass door, helplessly watching his every move) he managed to tear open a brand new toothpaste and squeeze it all over our white bathroom rug. That's our boy.

 Last summer I initiated Special Breakfasts on the days I worked to give the kids some stability while we lived so many places.  It stuck with my breakfast loving Trenton boy.  I make them a special breakfast the mornings I work and wake them up before I leave and have 15 minutes or so with them to say goodbye and go over the days plans.  They love it, but it always leaves me RUSHED getting out the door with lots of needs, hugs and kisses.  If they stay up too late we don't do them as they will sleep until 7:30ish and be much happier.  On those mornings I just lay out cereal and bowls.

This morning I made sausage croissants from Costco - how do you resist with those awesome coupons?! - and grapes.  They loved it and after hugs and kisses I was out the door by 6:30 listening to NPR all the way to the hospital.

I don't remember all the details about work, but I do remember I had 4 patients; one of them post-op day 2 after 4 vessel open heart surgery.  Those patients are BUSY and consume most of my day with education, pulling chest tubes and pacer wires, the first walks and showers after surgery, forcing them to eat (being on a heart-lung machine ruins appetites), etc.  But it's awesome to watch them progress.

I do remember another patient telling me he just couldn't take his cholesterol drug Zocor anymore and why.
P: "Yes, it's just awful what it did to me last night.  I was just like taking a Viagra.  I got all hot and flushed, and well..you know."
Me: "Sure, yes.  (I didn't exactly know, but I had a pretty good guess) Well, let's not take that this morning and we'll talk to your primary care doctor about getting that changed."

I also had a patient who was admitted with chest pain and it snowballed into much more.  His platelet count was extremely elevated and some of his other blood work looked suspicious, so we called in an oncologist.  This man was a CEO of some Fortune 500 Company, single and very type A.  It was apparent he was not used to slowing down at all.  No one called or came to visit - no family, no friends.  It was hard watching him face a diagnosis of cancer all alone.  I tried to be a listening ear as much as possible, and a couple times he said "I'm sorry, I know you don't have time for this."  On the contrary - that is why I do what I do.  To have time for things like this.

On Saturdays Steve is really good about bringing the kids to visit for lunch as much as possible, and he did this Saturday.  I get a discount in out cafeteria and the food is on the verge of gourmet for hospital food.  They have a salad bar we love and the kids love getting the treat of chocolate milk!

This is the kids in front of Sky Ridge (yes, it's nickname is Spa Ridge with room service and the motto "Beyond Your Expectations"...it is a very nice place to recover and heal and work.  It's the way hospitals are going.  Finally.)

The kids love to play on the playground while they wait for me to come out or when I have to back to work early.

When I went back to work after lunch a coworker stopped me and said something very interesting.  Mind you she is 55, a fabulous person with a heart of gold, single with no children. She had seen us eating lunch together in the cafeteria.  "I felt so sorry for you while your kids were here.  You didn't even get a lunch break!!"  My first instinct was to laugh out loud.  When in the world do I get a 'lunch break'?  Ever?!  Never as a stay-at-home mom.  Are you kidding?  And at work I usually am interrupted 4-5 times while I scarf down food by a doctor, patient or patient's family.  And then I started to think...hmmm.  What would an actual lunch break be like?  Maybe I should look into this novel concept.

But I explained to her that I loved having my kids come to eat lunch with me, chaotic as the scene may appear.  I love exposing them to the art and science of medicine, making them comfortable with hospitals, familiar with where mom works, making a family memory and cherishing the special time that they ADORE having lunch with mom.  Because I know all too soon it will be gone.

I headed home that night and Steve had done an amazing job as always of having the kids pick up the house and had them tucked into bed.  I usually get home around 8:30. I had asked Steve to take pictures of the things they did that day for the blog.  I asked to see the pictures and he said, "Are you kidding?  When would I have had time to take pictures?  I was so busy with the kids."  I swear he says things like that just to make me feel good :).

I wanted to drop but had a couple of things to do for church...get a YW lesson ready and make our girl's camp fund-raiser poster.  Steve was so wonderful and pitched in to help finding this awesome VW Bug for a retro car wash poster.  I wasn't sure if peace signs were allowed in the church building so I tried to trim around that.  But I loved the final product - and you couldn't miss it!!!

I finished that up and crashed into bed I have no idea what time - well after midnight.  Just another day in the life of the Allens.

True Love

My husband showed me again the truest form of love over the last couple of months and I wanted to be sure to document it.

We have talked about putting a garden in since we moved into this house. I have attempted a garden in the past at our old house without much luck, but I had high hopes to make one happen this year mainly for the kiddos. They love the thought of planting a garden and I love the thought of teaching them the law of the harvest and the miracles involved in the process.

The first obstacle was a garden plot, though. One day after I worked I went straight to a Girl's Night Out and our neighbor exclaimed, "What in the world was going on in your backyard today?! There were saws flying, wood being cut, nails being pounded. Were you putting up a swing set?" My heart jumped for joy hpoing it was a garden plot, and when I got home it was better than I could have imagined. Steve and our neighbor spent HOURS one Saturday cutting wood donated by our neighbor from his old swing set to make a great looking garden plot. Much better than I had envisioned. Steve was sun-burned and exhausted, and it was one of those times that I knew how much he loved me. All of this work wasn't for his dream! Over the following weeks he worked hard to de-sod the plot, with our help from time to time. It was a lot of work and the whole time I was trying to imagine the pioneers doing this to ACRES of land!

We removed a bunch of the sand that was below the topsoil and filled it with garden soil and compost. This is a picture of the kiddos getting in a free gymnastic lesson while we filled it with soil. It's too bad we had to put up a fence to keep Abby and the deer out. We planted a bunch of seeds and a few tomato and pepper plants from Costco I just couldn't pass up, and everything is taking well so far!

I don't have a picture of the fence we put up around it or the veggies starting to grow, but let me say it is MUCH easier than at our old house. I have yet to run into a snake and there is about 0.5% of the weeds that were in our last plot. Now we are trying to avoid a major hail storm and we should be good to go! We'll keep you updated at harvest time.

Spring Soccer

Trenton completed his first season of soccer playing. We had our ups and downs - Steve loved the comment: "I just wish I were playing basketball instead!" After a few practices and he got the hang of things really started enjoying it. He loved to play defense and when he saw the ball heading towards his goal he raced to be the first to defend the goal. They played lots of games with the kiddos and Trenton's favorite was "Cookie Monster, are you Hungry?"

He was always at the offenders side, running down the field two steps in front of him at a perfect spot to kick the ball away, but never did. I tried to teach him to kick the ball away from players heading towards his goal, but his comment was, "That is totally cheating, Mom. Are you kidding me? Now you want me to be a cheater?!" So I guess we have a few things to work on.

It was our first and our LAST outdoor spring soccer. I can't decide which practice was my favorite - the two snowstorms, the hailstorm, the 3 windstorms, or the two that got cancelled due to weather. We'll be searching for summer, fall and indoor programs from here on out.

Trenton made some good buddies and loved his Coach Kara.

But if anyone caught the soccer bug it was our little Blake. Blake is certainly obsessed with any type of ball, and the soccer ball is no exception. He wanted to play with the big kids so bad, and having to kick the ball on the sidelines was rough for my little guy. He kept saying, "I do socca pac-tice. I pay soccer-ba." Practice after practice he'd make the saddest little frown when I had to explain the game was for the big kids, and try to be content kicking the ball on the sidelines. You can imagine his elation when we found the tiniest pair of soccer cleats (see above) for 50 cents at a garage sale. The day we bought them, he put them on and wore them all day.

At the last practice the siblings were invited to play with the kids. Blake thought he had found heaven. He listened so carefully to the coaches and did exactly what they said. You can see in the above picture how seriously he took lining up with the big kids, getting ready to race to the goal (with his little hands by his sides - aww!).
When they blew the whistle, as you can see Blake smoked the 6 year-olds and was not only the first to dribble to the goal, but made a perfect shot. He turned around and triumphantly shouted, "Mama - I pay socca!" Hmmm...we'll see where that one goes :).