Hello,

Surprise! Here I am again.....

Today was a twelve hour day that seemed to last forever. I was tired and the first half of the day my shoulders hurt to the point I wanted to go home and lie down in bed. The last half of the day my stomach commenced to hurting and I finally came to the conclusion that I was drumming up excuses to go home sick. Yup. I wanted an excuse to be home.

Two more days and I am DONE with Trinity Health!! I CAN'T WAIT. I work 8 hours on both Wed and Thu, then I have the weekend off and then I am supposed to start work at Behms Truck Stop.

I know I will enjoy it much better for a number of reasons. I suppose if I tell you all the reasons you might possibly get bored and to those of you who know me, imagine me in a windowless environment with mostly babies and nurses (although THEY were great...well, the babies were too, actually they were funny most of the time and annoying a few times) with stinky management and rules out the wah-zoo. I was sure I was going to get fired for breaking rules which I did all the time, but here I am ending the job and only have two more days to try and not get fired while breaking rules

The Truck Stop will have people coming and going who can actually talk back to me rather than cry, cry, cry. Don't get me wrong, the babies were sweet and cute and funny, but they mostly cry. They don't talk.

I will have much more to do at the Truck Stop and certainly won't get bored there.

Saturday I am going to take my neighbors to the park for the 4th of July celebration. That should be fun. John has a rare form of disease that is sort of like Parkinsons and he is in a wheelchair. His wife is a bitty little thing so she sort of could use some help pushing him around. It has been a long time since he got out of the house for pleasure. Her too for that matter.

Today I found out that a baby who was in the NICU for several months before he went home died this last weekend. He was loved by all the nurses and held all the time as his mama hardly ever came to see him. We were saddened to learn of his death - supposedly SIDS, but I suspect a broken heart - but at least he is in heaven now and has a perfect family. He was such a sweet little guy.

I wish I would have counted all the books I read in the last year. I started reading more when I moved to Wichita, then while I was at Crystals last Fall, and now that Dorothy, my neighbor, gives me books all the time as she is an avid reader too.

I love reading and especially reading in bed. What could be better? It makes me feel rich and spoiled to read in bed.

Well here it is, 10:30pm and and Jeanne and Johann are talking about getting out the ice cream. Yummm. (Rob should be coming home soon. He had to work late.) Jeanne just brought the ice cream in saying she put as much chocolate syrup as she would have wanted them a couple more squirts for me. Perfect!

Time to eat...

Only two more days! Yeah!!!!!!!!

Saturday, the second day of Spring. We have all laid around today for the most part, but Rob and Jeanne got motivated enough to paint in the bathroom while I laid in the bed. The sickness Julian has had almost a week has bitten the rest of us now.

Poor little guy, he could hardly breathe, and you could tell he felt absolutely miserable. I wanted to be sick for him, not with him!

I always want to write but am never sure what all to say anymore. My brain goes dead and I am sure no one wants to know about work, or dates, or being sick. It is all so annoying sometimes.

I did rouse myself enough to "go to town" with Jeanne this morning and then again tonight to get goodies to make ones heart happy. I tried to talk Rob into going with me but ended up going alone. He is so funny and makes me laugh all the time. I think he is a great son!

Time to hit the hay, as Pop would say. Tomorrow is another day and hopefully we will feel better.

It's -8 and snowing again. Every morning I look out the window and hope to see green grass, and every morning I am assured the snow has not gone away yet.

Since I last wrote, my son, John Clayton Graham Maciag Marshall Hilty Hartman, turned 21 years old. He is such an interesting person. I only wish I could spend more time with him. I bet he is happy I am not with him all the time...lol!

My work is going well and sometimes I get to feed the babies, or do vital's on them. Sometimes I get to go on a "baby mission" and get a baby from the Mama or take one out to her. Last night we had a baby flown out (who had been flown in) as the baby has heart problems. The parents are young but seem very attentive. It is amazing, but often it is the younger moms who seem to be the best mom's. Some of the mid-twenties mom's can be ditzy and act like they don't really know whether they want to breastfeed or not and flip flop around.

I do a lot of cleaning and last night was no exception. After the baby was flown out, I cleaned the unit he was in which meant washing EVERYTHING down and taking alcohol pads and getting the sticky residue left from the tape off. I don't mind the work as long as the night goes fast like it did last night. It's when the night drags on and on that I get impatient to go home.

Julian is finding his voice in a whole new way. He has learned to scream this high pitched scream that makes me wonder how on earth someone can scream so shrill. He is my alarm clock each morning so even if I want to sleep in, I can't (for the most part)! This morning I got up and played with him for awhile. It is so much fun to be with him. One thing I love about babies is they don't care if you are old, fat, or ugly, or all three, they take you for who you are. They are so accepting. It has been a pure pleasure to be able to be here with him.

I don't get to see much of Rob since I started working at the hospital since he leaves for work while I am still in bed, and he is in bed when I get home. On the days I am off is about the only time I see him anymore. This last weekend Jeanne, Julian, and I went to watch the play Rob was in. I have to say, we thought Rob had the best part and was the best actor. It was fun to watch him in action.

Jeanne is so good to me. She makes sure I always have something to pack in my lunch, turns the porch light on for me so I can see to use the key, and makes sure the battery operated candles are lit so I don't fall down the stairs at night. If I start laundry, she finishes it and has my clothes all folded and lying on the bed for me to put away. All these things are wonderful. I can crawl into bed and read without having to do anything except brush my teeth and get a drink.

I miss being at Crystal and Darrell's house though. That's the bad thing about moving around. One gets attached and then doesn't want to be without the other's. I loved living with Darrell's last fall, and I miss being with their family. I wanted to spend more time with Carol's kids and I wanted to go see Cretora's and Doug's but never got up there. Things didn't go the way I had planned...

So here I enjoying Julian and Jeanne and Rob. It is nice being here but I do wish it weren't so far from everyone! (Why do I have to live so far away????)