Figure this one out...

For the past 2 years, we've been having to ride RJ about his grades. The kid does his homework but just refuses the turn it in. We've threatened, took away game systems, grounded, assigned extra chores, etc. Nothing really seemed to get through to him. At the end of last year he ended up with 3 F's on his report card (2 in English, imagine that). I called the school to see if we could get him into summer school, thinking that might make an impression on him. Imagine my surprise to find out that since he scored in the PASS + range on the ISTEP, he couldn't get into summer school unless we paid the tuition ($1200) and provided transportation down to Indianapolis for it (Mon-Fri 8-5 for the entire summer). Needless to say, we passed on that. But we did manage to find something that actually made an impression on him. We check powerschool every Friday. If there is a single 0 listed on there, he is grounded from absolutely everything for the entire week. That means the only time he is let out of the house is to go to school, can't use his phone for anything other than calling the parents when he gets home from school or for emergencies, no computer except for homework, no TV, nothing except reading a book or doing homework. After 1 weekend of that, his homework is miraculously showing up in the gradebook!

So yesterday we got the boys' ISTEP scores in for this year. RJ didn't score PASS + this time around, but he did get a PASS on all subjects. Imagine our surprise to see that Robert did not pass the English/Language Arts section. This is a child who had an 89% or higher on all of his grades on his last report card! Granted, he scored a 418 and needed a 429 on the ISTEP. There was a note included that stated we needed to call the school to set up remediation over the summer for him. So Randy called the school to see what was going on. Apparently Robert gets a "do over" this year since they are ALL retaking the ISTEP in the spring. Now if he doesn't get above the minimum PASS level, he will have to take English/Language Arts summer school. Robert will be the first one to admit that he hates that part of the test, especially the free writing part. But he does understand that he would have to give up his summer if he doesn't buckle down and do it. One thing Randy did find interesting while talking to the principal: the overall scores for Washington are significantly lower than they have been in the past.

On a good note, today is my finals for my classes. No matter how I do on any of the tests, I have an A in Med/Surg I and a B in Pharmacology. I still have to go to clinicals tomorrow to get my evaluation. But I'm pretty sure I at least have a B in there. All I have to say is that I cannot wait until I am finally finished with my degree and take my state boards. Hopefully by then the ecomony will stabilize out a little bit and there will be enough people left in Kokomo for me to get a job here. We're already starting to hear the rumors at the hospital about having patient care area terminations in order to meet budget. Since we're the only unit that has 2 secretaries and a monitor tech on day shift, I imagine we'll see the first cuts. It will be interesting to see how the docs adjust to that.

New teenager, a weird kid, and our week

Yep, today was RJ's 13th birthday. It seemed kind of fitting that I had to work today. When I walked onto the 2nd floor of the hospital, I was reminded of what I was doing 13 years ago at that time. I was up walking the halls of the birthing center that is now our new Pediatrics unit. It's kind of funny the way things come full circle :)

Robert gave me quite a scare this week. He complained Wednesday night of a sore throat. Then Thursday, he woke up with such a bad headache and sore neck that he was in tears. An hour after the ibuprofen, he still hurt so bad that he couldn't lay flat. So after I took my first test, I took him to the doctor. Basically the doctor wanted him to take ibuprofen every 6 hours around the clock, give him a Benadryl to get him to relax, and monitor him to see if he developed any other symptoms (IE: high fever, nausea, vomiting, etc). In 24 hours he only developed a low grade fever and was extra tired, but he still had some pain in his neck but not quite as bad. Last night he slept for 12 hours and woke up almost pain free and could actually move his neck without having to move his entire body. So we have come to the conclusion that he's going to get the same weird pains in the neck that Randy gets from time to time for no reason at all. And he's just going to have to deal with them for a couple days. In other words, he gets his weirdness from his father!!

On the school front, I ended up with a 96% on my med/surg test and an 88% on my pharm test... plus I got a 98% on my first care plan! Hopefully that helps to offset the lab and clinical that I missed due to me being sick and Robert being weird. LOL

My how things change in 2 years

I was looking through the pictures on my computer to see what all I needed to move off to make space. I found some pretty funny ones of the boys when they were younger. But I think they would probably hate me forever if I posted them. So I'll be nice and save them to use as leverage later!

But I did find 2 pictures that really show what a difference 2 years makes. The first one was taken in July 2006 when we went to NJ. The second one was taken in June 2008.

Robert still has a little bit of boyish look to him. But RJ has definitely lost it :(

I survived!

Today marks the end of my first full week of med/surg clinicals. Thursday was a real bugger of a day because I had 2 tests... one of which I forgot about. All the studying I did for my med/surg 1 test paid off. I got 100%!!! I spent my lunch hour going over my notes for my Pharmacology test and came out with 6 questions I wasn't really sure about. Randy predicted that I would get a 91% on it. Needless to say, I had to call him up this evening and admit to him that he was right! At least I'm consistant... out of 4 tests in Pharm, I have three 91% and one 92%.

Today was my first official day on the floor over at Waterford for my actual hands on clinical. I was really nervous about how I would do with being on the floor for that long after being away for 10 years. It was just like riding a bike! Luckily, we have some awesome staff to work with out there who were more than willing to help us out. Those gals really went out of their way to make us feel like part of the team :)

Well, time for me to head to take some time for myself. Gonna get caught up on my shows that I've missed this week!

Some pics from the summer

Figured I would post some late pics from the summer. These first 2 are from Robert's city tournament game against Norris-Neher. That was his first hit to get on base without an error. He was so happy with that hit! BTW today in practice he hit one to the lower half of the fence... in the air! Since he was using someone else's bat, it looks like Santa is going to have to save up some money to get him one!

Ok, these next pics are from late July when Randy's brother and his family came back to Indiana from Kwajalein. Timothy, their son, was a toddler the last time we saw them. Needless to say, he was pretty happy to have BOYS to wrestle around with instead of his sisters! In fact, I think he thought RJ was a jungle gym! LOL

In August, we took the boys to Gen Con down in Indy for a day. Robert was fascinated by the Storm Troopers walking through the great hall. He really wanted to get his picture taken with one of them. So I told him that he had to ask if it was ok. Well he found one who was being escorted by an officer. I told them to feel free to cart him off to the brig. So the guy picked the giggling child up! It took everything this guy had to keep from laughing while I took the pic. And the Storm Trooper was just cracking up... at least he had the helmet to hide his face!

And last but not least... I have no clue what Robert was doing in this picture. It looks like he decided to direct traffic while waiting for the ball to get down to his end of the field! Sigh... I have no clue where he gets his weirdness from... gotta be from the Martins!

One crazy day!

Yesterday was nuts! We started off the day with the 2008 Heart Walk. Rutherford Generations hit the walk path at St. Joan of Arc with me, Tony, Cherylynn, Georgann, Amber, Matt, and all the kids except Rett (he had district band competition). Believe it or not, all of the kids did great with walking the entire path without a single complaint or incident! Granted, Robert did wear his Heelys and spent quite a bit of time gliding on the path. Thanks to Georgann for taking the picture with Amber's camera and thanks to Amber for posting it!

George tried so hard to insist that she wasn't getting her picture taken. So I decided to take one of her best side! I did eventually get a couple of pics of her though :P

After the Heart Walk, we headed over to Robert's soccer game. This season he's been alternating between goalie and forward. He seems to really enjoy playing both positions and seems to become the little coach when he's at forward. They lost against a team that is really good. The only thing he was upset about was that, on one goal that was scored against him, he almost got kicked in the face because the forward didn't back off when Robert was grabbing the ball. It's a new rule this year and the ref didn't call it :( But the other goals against him were really good, well placed kicks.


Then at 6pm, RJ and I headed over to Sycamore Market Place/Brass Monkey for the Rockers for Knockers concert. This is a 1st annual concert set up by Mike Milligan with all local groups to help fund free mammograms at local hospitals. The evening started out with Side Kix, Paul Stout, and Branded Bluegrass... all country bands. RJ isn't really into country but he didn't complain one bit. He sat and listened, tapping his foot and drumming along with them.

When Branded Bluegrass cleared the stage, they started setting up for the next group. This got RJ's attentions really quickly because they brought out a double bass drum set. By the time they were done, the drum set took up the majority of the stage! Ecliptic Switch is a metal rock group made up entirely of Kokomo guys. They were actually really good... even if I had to step outside because their amps were a bit loud for that little building. Needless to say, we got their CD so we could take it home for Randy to listen to. Next up was Webster Street. They had a little more of the alternative rock sound. Those guys were great as well... plus they were hilarious! We'll be getting Webster Street CDs when they get more in stock!


After these guys finished up, it was time to hear the group we came to hear... Mike Milligan and Steamshovel!!! They are a local blues rock group that Dad had tried to get me to come out and hear many times when they played at the Ultimate a few years ago. I never got the chance to go see them while Dad was alive. Then at the 2006 Haynes Apperson, I went wandering around while Randy and the boys were watching wrestling. I came across Mike and the guys playing at the stage area. When I found out they were going to be playing at the Sycamore Market Place a couple weeks later, I decided to go and RJ ended up going with me. We enjoyed it so much that we end up going every time they are there!


So back to the Rockers for Knockers concert! Mike Milligan and Steamshovel consists of 2 brothers... Mike and Shaun Milligan and Robert "Tiny" Cook. Mike plays lead guitar and sings, Shaun plays a rocking bass, and Tiny hammers out the beat. Occasionally they are joined on stage by either Mike's son, Maceo (age 4), on vocals, Tiny's son (can't remember his name right now) on drums, or Shaun's son, Raven (age 6), on either drums or rhythm guitar. Last night, Raven joined them on stage with the rockin' red guitar. They led off the night with a song that always gets me choked up and that's Wipe These Dried Up Tears. It always reminds me that even though Dad isn't with us on earth anymore, he's still always there with us, watching over us.

Now for the funny part of the evening. RJ is used to the fact that I always run into someone that I know whenever we go someplace. Well last night there were so many people that I knew, RJ made the comment that I knew the entire town! Not only did I run into people that I work with, I also ran into some blasts from the past! Rick and Debbie Cannon (from Gospel Light) were there with their son, Jerry, his wife, and their 2 year old daughter. Eddie Beckner (he used to ride my bus back in high school and graduated 2 years ahead of me) was there and I found out that he's Rick and Debbie's nephew! Surprisingly enough, Eddie actually recognized me and we ended up talking for about 30 minutes outside. He's still the same but you can definitely tell that he burned up way too many brain cells in his youth! The biggest surprise of the night was finding out that Mike Milligan's wife, Suzanne, was the daughter of Dave Taffe from Dad's bowling team! Dave was so surprised when I walked up to him. They had just been talking about Dad earlier that day. They were cleaning out some old boxes and came across Dave's bowling stuff... including the bowling team pictures! He hadn't heard about Dad's passing because at that time he was out of town celebrating his and his wife's retirement. It really hit him hard because he is recovering from his own heart attack. We spent at least an hour talking about what all of us kids were doing. He was really pleased to see that we were all happy and doing well... and especially happy to see that Tony was following in Dad's footsteps with the electrical work.


Ok that's more than enough updates for now... your eyes are probably about ready to fall out of your head from reading all of that! Talk to ya later!

I did it!

Now to see if I can figure out how it works!