Halloween

Halloween is the only good thing about summer being over. Gwen has been getting geared up for the "big day" for months. Last fall she found Grandma Buckholts' witch hat and since then has wanted to be a scary witch for Halloween. We found her a black witchy dress to wear and some striped tights to go with Grandma's witch hat. Grandma even found her a witch broom and a cauldron. It's been the perfect costume. It seems that witches are very popular this year, or at least I'm noticing them more because Gwen is one. We went to a trunk-or-treat last night at Grandma's church and it seemed like nearly every other little girl was a witch. That doesn't seem to bother Gwen at all. In fact she loves all her fellow witches and likes to point out which ones are nice and which ones are mean based on their costumes. Emily is being a cat for Halloween and despite months of coaching has yet to give us a good meow. She also hates that I painted her nose black and immediately rubbed it off.

The New Job

I started working this past month at the ICU in Jordan Valley hospital. It has been nice to get back to the old grind of working in an ICU. I had forgotten how physically and mentally hard it can be at the ICU. It's been a challenge as I try to remember the things that I haven't had to think about in the last 3 years. I've had to get used to working 12 hour shifts and this week I started working the night shift. The shift lasts from 7pm to 7am. After giving report each shift is about 12 1/2 hours long. We try to take 1/2 hour to eat lunch and sit down but usually that doesn't happen. That's a long day of being on your feet, especially since I've worked the last 3 years usually doing 6 hour shifts. The nice part of the long shifts is that I only work 3 shifts a week instead of 6 days.

I miss all my old friends at the InstaCare and KidsCare, especially the doctors that I worked with there. They are really great people. They would do anything to help someone who needed it. I'm getting to know all the new people around here. It's fun because here in the ICU most of the nurses have similar personalities. We're all a little bit type A and bossy and very particular. So far, I'm enjoying all the learning and the challenge of this new job. I really love getting to know my patients and their families.