Sunday, July 31, 2005
camping
Camping was so fun. We ended up in the site right next to James and Elissa, without planning it. It was perfect. Our site was gigantic and we used it for bocce ball and ladder golf. I don't know if thats the most common name, but you can see what I am talking about and even play a little if you click here. Our tent didn't work out quite as well as I thought it would. The biggest tent is fine, but the two tents that connect to it are a bit too low. I set up Claire's bed and there was about five inches between the top of the crib and the top of the tent. It would be nice to have a tent you can stand in, so maybe I'll keep looking. And speaking of Claire, she wasn't too excited about sleeping in a tent. I tried to put her down and it didn't work, so Mike took a shot. He ended up being lulled to sleep by her cries, but she was actually pretty quick to follow. She really seemed to love camping. She explored just about everything. On Saturday, my parents came to visit and they ended up taking Claire back home with them. We didn't really plan for that to happen, but when the option was presented, we were all for it. Claire actually kept asking for Grandma's house, and it allowed Mike and I to spend some time together. It was really nice to hang around with him the whole weekend, and see James and Elissa and their kids. You can see pictures here.
Its really nice to be home, and I am hoping that Claire missed her own bed so much that she sleeps in a little bit tomorrow. Actually, I'm pretty sure she will get up earlier than normal, but I'm still hoping for a little extra sleep!
Its really nice to be home, and I am hoping that Claire missed her own bed so much that she sleeps in a little bit tomorrow. Actually, I'm pretty sure she will get up earlier than normal, but I'm still hoping for a little extra sleep!
Trauma, wedding and camping
I am finished with my first month of fourth year (trauma surgery)! It was amazing. Looking back I would always regret not doing trauma. I never knew there was so much violence in Milwaukee. Each night I was on there were constant victims from nine at night until at least five in the morning. It really opens your eyes when an 18 year old comes in five minutes from death and the team saves him. My last night was a grand finale. I think we had seven shooting victims and five car crashes. Others were more unusual, like one girl that was car surfing and fell under the car only to be dragged for twenty feet! I thought she had a serious brain injury because she kept repeating the same sentences, but after I stitched her head laceration we took her for head scans and thankfully they were negative. In the morning I saw her and she was speaking appropriately, the doctors even thought she would go home within the week!
It is crazy reading Sheela's last post about this month being long because it was my fastest month yet. I sometimes forget how hard it must be for her to be home while I am off in the trenches. I think that's why weekends like this are so precious. We went camping and just hung out for a few days. The time away from everything was really nice, especially because there are no distractions that can pull me away. It is a real treat when I can get up with Claire and play while Sheela sleeps in. Sheela deserves the rest and Claire and I always enjoy the time alone.
Another get away is coming up soon. Jim and Monica are getting married and I can't wait. They are so happy together! It just can't come soon enough.
Mike
It is crazy reading Sheela's last post about this month being long because it was my fastest month yet. I sometimes forget how hard it must be for her to be home while I am off in the trenches. I think that's why weekends like this are so precious. We went camping and just hung out for a few days. The time away from everything was really nice, especially because there are no distractions that can pull me away. It is a real treat when I can get up with Claire and play while Sheela sleeps in. Sheela deserves the rest and Claire and I always enjoy the time alone.
Another get away is coming up soon. Jim and Monica are getting married and I can't wait. They are so happy together! It just can't come soon enough.
Mike
Friday, July 29, 2005
The Last Day of Trauma!
Today is the last day Mike is on Trauma Surgery. Hoo-Ray!!! He was on-call last night, so he'll be home later today, but this is the last shift! I was thinking about the month this morning. So far, when I look back, I can always honestly say that the month went quickly and it wasn't that bad. Not this month! It was so long. It probably didn't help that he chose to do the rotation during the summer, which is always busier than winter, and that he happened to do it during Summerfest, which only added to the number of traumas they saw. But for as long as I thought the month was, I know Mike will not agree. The real struggle for me was the time commitment involved. If Mike had hated going in, it would have been a completely different story, so it was wonderful that he enjoyed it. But I'm so thankful this isn't what he wants to do with his life.
Today we leave to go camping again. Friends of ours (James and Elissa Kinsella) have been camping all week, so we'll join them today. We'll be at J.W. Wells State Park in Michigan. Its right between Menominee and Escanaba, and my favorite campground. My family went camping a lot when I was growing up, and we probably went to Wells more times than anywhere else. One time, my mom and I went on a Guided Nature Walk with a park ranger. It was at night and in the woods, and I remember being pretty uneasy about walking around the woods in the dark. At one point someone in the group walked into a spiders web and had the expected reaction of saying "Ew, spider web" and trying to brush it off. The guide said something like "You walked into a spider web?? How lucky! The webs are so good for your skin, you should rub them in." We've joked about it ever since. But anyway, we bought a tent that has THREE rooms. Small, medium and large. Its pretty fancy. That way Claire will be able to have her own room. Its actually really nice, you can set up however many of the tents you want either separately or linked together by a little tunnel. I'm really looking forward to it.
Today we leave to go camping again. Friends of ours (James and Elissa Kinsella) have been camping all week, so we'll join them today. We'll be at J.W. Wells State Park in Michigan. Its right between Menominee and Escanaba, and my favorite campground. My family went camping a lot when I was growing up, and we probably went to Wells more times than anywhere else. One time, my mom and I went on a Guided Nature Walk with a park ranger. It was at night and in the woods, and I remember being pretty uneasy about walking around the woods in the dark. At one point someone in the group walked into a spiders web and had the expected reaction of saying "Ew, spider web" and trying to brush it off. The guide said something like "You walked into a spider web?? How lucky! The webs are so good for your skin, you should rub them in." We've joked about it ever since. But anyway, we bought a tent that has THREE rooms. Small, medium and large. Its pretty fancy. That way Claire will be able to have her own room. Its actually really nice, you can set up however many of the tents you want either separately or linked together by a little tunnel. I'm really looking forward to it.
Thursday, July 28, 2005
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Zoo
Its a beautiful day. The temperature is somewhere around 75 degrees, the humidity is gone, just a few puffy white clouds in the sky. A perfect day to be outside. A perfect day for a Brewer game! Claire even said she wanted to go, and I believe she has recovered from the two games in one weekend trauma of a few months ago. But she overheard me say the word "zoo" while on the phone with my mom, and baseball was then out of the question. The Brewers shirt came off and Claire started making animal noises: monkeys, lions, birds and especially elephants. I really wanted to go to the game, so I tried to tell her the elephants were at work. I tried to tell her they were sleeping. She didn't believe a word of it. She kept saying "Mama. Peese? (insert monkey noise) Peese? (elephant noise complete with miming of trunk) Peese?" So I gave in, and we went to the Zoo. I have been to the Milwaukee Zoo before, but I was too young to remember it. It is a really nice Zoo. We didn't get to see all of it, but we did make sure to see the monkeys (Apes of Africa) and elephants. We had a really great time walking around and checking everything out. Turns out it was a perfect day for the Zoo.
Sunday, July 24, 2005
Jim and Monnie's Shower
It was a great time. Monnie's uncle made an incredible Mexican feast. We got to meet some of Monnie's family and see some friends that we haven't in a while. Claire ran around and played. And we stayed inside. It was way too hot to be out today.
Click on the picture to get to my Flickr photostream and see more shower pictures.
Click on the picture to get to my Flickr photostream and see more shower pictures.
Mike Hula Hoopin'
Claire thought this was so funny. Okay, the rest of us did too, but Claire definitely laughed the loudest.
Struck
My parent's house was struck by lightning yesterday. It sounds like they are discovering all kinds of problems that it created. Holes in the siding all around the house ranging from very small to two foot areas, broken tv's, broken internet, broken garage door openers, broken central air, a crack in the cement where the lightning hit, broken lamps, metal pipes in the basement welded themselves together, multiple broken outlets and circuit breakers. It definitely sounds like the kind of thing that you discover more things that were zapped every day. I'm so thankful no one was hurt.
Today is Monnie and Jim's shower. I'm looking forward to it. So is Claire, she is having a very difficult time falling asleep. I keep hearing "Monnie's house". I'll give her a few more minutes. It would be really nice if she were well rested.
Today is also Mike's last weekend day of call for Trauma Surgery. He only has one more call day left, Thursday (yay!). In August he is doing Forensic Pathology, and it should be a much better month as far as time demands go. I don't know if he'll necessarily like it better, but he will be home more often, so I'll like it better.
That seems to be it for now. I'll post some pictures.
Today is Monnie and Jim's shower. I'm looking forward to it. So is Claire, she is having a very difficult time falling asleep. I keep hearing "Monnie's house". I'll give her a few more minutes. It would be really nice if she were well rested.
Today is also Mike's last weekend day of call for Trauma Surgery. He only has one more call day left, Thursday (yay!). In August he is doing Forensic Pathology, and it should be a much better month as far as time demands go. I don't know if he'll necessarily like it better, but he will be home more often, so I'll like it better.
That seems to be it for now. I'll post some pictures.
Thursday, July 21, 2005
Contents of Claire's Purse
This is still fun for me. She traveled much lighter today. As you can see some items stayed while others were tossed.
Again, clicking on the picture lets you use some cool interactive features.
Again, clicking on the picture lets you use some cool interactive features.
Big tough men
We ended up having traumas all night and then into the morning. I never feel tired until I am done and collapse! Last night we had a rash of big tough men that had evidentally all found bigger, tougher men to fight with. When a 6'6" muscle man walks in with 6 stab wounds I can't help but think, what happened to the other guy!
thehalblog
Hey, it's just after midnight and I just got out of surgery. Another nice fellow hit by a bullet in the groin. Trouble is that it continued through his bladder and into his buttock. All better now, but he was bleeding like crazy for a while.
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
staying up late
So I always do this. Mike is on call and I sit up and waste hours and hours doing nothing but surfing around online, watching tv, and eating snacks (in this case its Dove dark chocolates. Yummm). I don't really know why I do this. I am a little tired and I really should go to bed, I just can't bring myself to do it. And since there isn't anyone here to make me go to bed at a reasonable hour, I just keep staying awake.
Its like I'm getting away with something or breaking the rules. I think I may be making Mike sound like a parent or The Enforcer. He's not of course. The only reason he'd like me to go to bed and get some sleep is so he doesn't have to live with a Grumpy Goose (one of Claire's signing videos deals with emotions and the grumpy emotion is played by a goose. He is grumpy because all of his friends forgot his birthday. Then of course he is surprised when his friends jump out and yell "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!". Grumpy Goose sounds good, so it kind of sticks around.), which I can understand. Maybe its a motivation problem. After all, going to bed requires me to brush my teeth, floss, take out my contacts, wash my face. Its all such a bother, and really its much easier to sit here and continue to type. Then again how much fun is it to read me ramble? Eh, maybe I should just go to bed and get some sleep.
Its like I'm getting away with something or breaking the rules. I think I may be making Mike sound like a parent or The Enforcer. He's not of course. The only reason he'd like me to go to bed and get some sleep is so he doesn't have to live with a Grumpy Goose (one of Claire's signing videos deals with emotions and the grumpy emotion is played by a goose. He is grumpy because all of his friends forgot his birthday. Then of course he is surprised when his friends jump out and yell "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!". Grumpy Goose sounds good, so it kind of sticks around.), which I can understand. Maybe its a motivation problem. After all, going to bed requires me to brush my teeth, floss, take out my contacts, wash my face. Its all such a bother, and really its much easier to sit here and continue to type. Then again how much fun is it to read me ramble? Eh, maybe I should just go to bed and get some sleep.
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