Owens Endeavors

Just chilaxin

Posted on October 27, 2014 by theowenscrew

Church was good, the orchestra and choir both were present for praise and worship and the beauty of the music sank in deep. I can feel God’s hand in our lives and some kind of metamorphosis occurring in my heart. I feel so blessed and want my life to be a praise offering. In my head and heart I have been mulling over the difference between knowing what is right and doing it. As we continue on this path which we have been called how can we honor God in our daily lives, and serve those around us.

On the way out of service we stopped by the library and picked out some more videos. We had watched all of the missionary videos available so we picked out some Ken Ham ones and Hermie and friends, we are going to miss the church library.

We ate a later lunch and then took turns playing songs on the tin whistle, the kids pulled out the felt and did some sewing, trying to make a case for Hannah’s new harmonica that she bought with tracker tickets from the church store. Eve and Caleb did some sword fighting out side. We all went on a family walk and then Chad read to the kids. After bed time we watched Already Gone, A message by Ken Ham, based off of his book with the same title about why he believes record numbers of children from Christian homes are leaving the church. There are so many thoughts in my head and on my heart….

In a completely different direction, I have an aunt who has fought a long fight with cancer and will be meeting her maker soon. We would appreciate prayers for her grown kids and grandkids as well as her parents. May they find peace and be comforted in the arms of their Father God.

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Ice Age National Trail

Posted on October 25, 2014 by theowenscrew

A 1200 mile trail that zig zags around the state tracing what is believed to be the edge of a large glacier in a time when the climate was much colder (The Ice Age) all with in the state of Wisconsin. I think that we may have hiked small sections of this trail in Door County but this section was south and east of Neenah to a distance of one hours travel. Today we got to go to the visitors center, attend a presentation, and take a pretty long hike, for us at least, 3-5 mile. (All the distances were marked from different starting points and we walked a loop made up of parts of five different trails.) the sun was out, a slight breeze made the leaves trickle down on us and the tops of the trees swayed peacefully. The birds were out in full chorus, and we were kind of wishing we had put a tin whistle in our pack. It was fall weather perfection and we drank it in with all of our senses: the beautiful colors and rays of sunlight, the feel of the breeze and warmth of the direct sun with no clouds to intercept, the crunch of the ankle deep leaves with every step, the smell of earth and sweet wet leaves that laced the fresh air, and if you are Eve the taste of the leaves and acorns that she kept putting in her mouth pretending that they were pickles and catsup.

Caleb and his grappling hook

The kids did such a good job and we all had a lot of fun. Now I’m sitting. At the kitchen table listening to Chad read to the kids up stairs, and Dave Ramsey’s saying comes to mind, we are definitely better than we deserve and so thankful for the many ways God has blessed us today.

Categories: Family Time, Fun, National Park | Leave a comment

“A Plan of Conduct”

Posted on October 23, 2014 by theowenscrew

A Plan of Conduct
Posted by Benjamin Franklin on 1 January 1726, 9:47 pm
“Those who write of the art of poetry teach us that if we would write what may be worth the reading, we ought always, before we begin, to form a regular plan and design of our piece: otherwise, we shall be in danger of incongruity. I am apt to think it is the same as to life. I have never fixed a regular design in life; by which means it has been a confused variety of different scenes. I am now entering upon a new one: let me, therefore, make some resolutions, and form some scheme of action, that, henceforth, I may live in all respects like a rational creature.

1. It is necessary for me to be extremely frugal for some time, till I have paid what I owe.

2. To endeavour to speak truth in every instance; to give nobody expectations that are not likely to be answered, but aim at sincerity in every word and action — the most amiable excellence in a rational being.

3. To apply myself industriously to whatever business I take in hand, and not divert my mind from my business by any foolish project of growing suddenly rich; for industry and patience are the surest means of plenty.

4. I resolve to speak ill of no man whatever, not even in a matter of truth; but rather by some means excuse the faults I hear charged upon others, and upon proper occasions speak all the good I know of every body.”

This idea of writing a plan of conduct had my wheels turning. I have been reading about Benjamin Franklin most of the day, I feel like more reading is necessary (maybe a book from the grown up section of the library might help ;0) ). I just wanted to share this small part of my reading today that piqued my interest and convicted me all at the same time.

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Pre Civil War (Missouri Compromise)-Caleb

Posted on October 23, 2014 by theowenscrew

Before the Civil war began slaves were very cheap. They were shipped in ships that stuck as many slaves as possible in the below-decks where they put storage. Once they were at the docks of a colony they either marched across land and into a slave auction house or went to one on the harbor. There were so many slaves bought and so many slaves born into slavery, that some plantation owners thought of freeing their slaves, but all thought of that was abandoned when the cotton gin was invented. Before it had been invented it was hard, unsuccessful work that didn’t pay very well. With the invention of the cotton gin, the machine separated the tangled fibers for you! Before, the slaves had to do that themselves with their hands, it was hot sticky work, and not very fast. Slaves were suddenly in demand again. Slave merchants got back their jobs, and everybody tried to get a cotton gin and plantation. The Underground Railroad started up, and began helping slaves to the free states. Most stayed in the free states, but some went back and helped more slaves back to the free states. People had been trying to stop slavery for some time, mostly people who did not own slaves. Finally someone figured it out, Henry Clay, he negotiated the Missouri Compromise. A treaty saying that any states past Missouri’s boarder would be a free state. Soon after that two territories became states, Kansas and Nebraska. Everybody assumed that Kansas would become a slave state, but the Missouri Compromise was still in place, so they held a council about it. They decided to repeal the Missouri Compromise. The free states were furious! They elected Abraham Lincoln as president, South Carolina was so angry that they attacked Fort Sumter which marked the beginning of the Civil war. The free states had most of the advantages. The biggest battle of the war was the battle of Gettysburg. After the battle General Lee surrendered at Appomattox court house in Virginia. After Lee surrendered Lincoln was assassinated at a theater when he was making a surprise appearance.

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Hannah’s Civil War Paper

Posted on October 23, 2014 by theowenscrew

These are girls jobs: spying on Civil War and taking letters to different areas, doctors-there was a big line of doctors. The men said that is not a job for girls. Before the Civil War there were a lot of slaves. The Americas were fighting about slaves. The End.

Notice the girl spies in the tree and the slave and his owner in the lower left corner. I both love it and find it interesting that she did not use color to indicate the person who was a slave in this picture.

Categories: Family Time, hannah | Leave a comment

Music

Posted on October 22, 2014 by theowenscrew

About a week ago we ordered some music books for CC. As part of the program the kids learn to play the tin whistle. At first glance it appears to be nothing more than a kids toy. We are very quickly learning that this is not the case. After looking through the books and the complexity of some of the songs, we decided that this is going to be fun to learn more than what our CC manual has to offer. We read about the history of the tin whistle and that the Clark company, started in 1843, has been making tin whistles continuously this whole time. It is a instrument that can drive me nuts at times but also has something catching to it. Also learned that it is not solely an Irish instrument but that Americans used it for music while marching and to announce various times in the day for the army. We are very much looking forward to learning some Christmas songs to play for the family this holiday season.

~Chad

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PALS

Posted on October 21, 2014 by theowenscrew

PALS (pediatric advanced life support) Getting up at 5:00 AM was a treat, with an extra hour of sleep I did feel more rested. I hopped in the shower, dressed, then snuck out of the house. The plan was to go to Starbucks and cram, having to work nearly everyday since getting my book there had been very little quiet time to study. I climbed in the car and double checked to make sure I had the printed off copy of the pretest. I flipped through the book where I had safely tucked it in preparation and it wasn’t there, I flipped through it again, nope. Where did I tuck it? I know I tucked it in the book, but it isn’t there now. Shoot, I turned the flashlight on on the phone and searched the car, then I got out and made my way back in the house where a little one was now up and in the bathroom…I was trying not to wake everyone and searching for a paper all around the house was not helping. At this point I had looked everywhere it could possibly be besides work, it must have fallen out at work. I have to have that paper or they won’t let me in the class, it’s not like I can just print another one. We don’t even have a printer. I felt like crying, the only three hours I had to read and study were being spent looking for a paper I had so carefully tucked in a spot it could not be forgotten accidentally. I woke up Chad to help me then searched the car a second and third time. Then the kids started coming down stairs. I gave up on Starbucks and started warming up some cold oatmeal. We grabbed the laptop and checked Office Depot’s hours (or Office Max I can’t remember) they opened at 8:00AM and my class started at 9:00AM. We resubmitted the pretest to be printed and put on a pot of coffee. I crammed while Chad made a special breakfast for the kids who were now all up an hour early. Then took the laptop as precautionary incase the paper was not printed and they couldn’t find it. I crammed some more in the parking lot while waiting for the clock to strike 8:00AM. They quickly printed the paper for me and I thanked them profusely. The operator at AMC directed me to the correct room for the class and I checked in a whole 30 min. early. I kept my cramming until class started and inside I prepared myself for a day filled with potential most embarrassing moments. I feel so out of my league in these situations. I’m rusty with my rhythm strips and unfamiliar completely with all the recessitation meds other than epi. It is a good thing that that is almost always the first med given in these code situations. Luckily there were no most embarrassing moments and I wasn’t the only rusty one. You gotta just roll up both sleeves and jump in in these situations and not worry what other people think. I love learning and wish it was practical to take many more classes and tests, and it ended up being a nice breather since I’m looking at tomorrow and Wednesday being both super busy shifts. The test was good, although maybe not a true picture of my PALS knowledge since the whole class is taught to the test so if you listened you had been given all the test answers throughout the day. Now what do you think the chances are that I will remember it for two years, maybe three months for ACLS in January? Probably not. Not with out a chance to practice, and I hope to shout we have none of that in OB.
The kids greeted me at the door Eve had no accidents today and her head is looking better.

Hannah had drawn a picture of a Unicorn giving birth to Pegasus’ baby.

this mama could nurse a whole litter of little ones. And We got the new tin whistle books in the mail.

Eve proceeded to have an accident on our bed just before bedtime, it’s a good thing the dryer is quick. Good night all.

Categories: Family Time, Fun, Travel Nursing | 1 Comment

A weird sort of day

Posted on October 20, 2014 by theowenscrew

When I arrived at work and looked at my assignment, I was sure I was missing something. A vaginal delivery who would be discharged by noon and a really easy antepartum, was I supposed to have an induction coming in too? This was very uncharacteristic. So I rounded on my sleeping patients, then stayed in the nursery so the other nurses who had a baby in the nursery could get out and assess their patients. Did some baby assessments, a bottle here and a CCHD screen there. I got out and rounded again and everyone was still sleeping, so I headed back to the nursery and helped a nurse with a heavier assignment by taking her twins out and helping the mom breastfeed. About 9:00 am my patients started coming around, but it didn’t take long to get their stuff done, so soon I was back to helping hang blood and fetching a wheel chair. The assignments were seriously lop sided. Although the one nurse with the heaviest assignment got two of her three patients including the twin babies discharged by noon, I had a triage who in addition to my post partum went home by noon, the two other nurses on discharged pts too, so that we were down to very few patients on the floor. Every one got lunch. Then we admitted an SROM but she was given to someone else, I admitted another antepartum and then the pt we hung blood on was discovered to be bleeding internally so she was whisked down stairs to the main OR. A patient came in in atrial fibrillation (or Vfib, the report was unclear, I’m pretty sure it was Afib they just said Vfib on accident a few times, there is a HUGE difference between the two) either way, No, you can’t cardiovert her on an OB unit we will come to you and monitor the baby! Yikes! Then came in an ethics committee case. I am pretty sure in my 10+ years of nursing that we have never had to call the ethics committee, oh and the police (although I have had to do that a few times). The charge nurse was saying, “why me, these things always happen to me.”
Then in an effort to be helpful another nurse also named Sarah changed bed linens for the patient in the main OR and accidentally sent her new nursing bra down the laundry shoot with everything else so we wondered the halls in the basement of the hospital going up strange back stair cases and taking a freight and shipping elevator wondering if we were going to get lost or locked in somewhere looking for the room where the laundry shoot comes out so we could sort through and find the patients belonging. Security ended up helping us and they weren’t even quite sure but after a while we found it and only had to go through about 7 bags of laundry before we found the missing item. We were so glad that the birth center has different sheets and gowns than the other floors so we could easily identify bags belonging to our floor. We were careful not to let anything touch our clothes I could imagine C. Dif being our fate, so we washed and sanitized really well. The family was so glad to have the item back and we were glad to be headed home before anything else weird happened.

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I so forgot my lunch this morning

Posted on October 19, 2014 by theowenscrew

Working 15 hours yesterday with no lunch break got me home and in bed with enough time to squeeze out six hours of sleep. The alarm came early, but I was showered and down eating breakfast before usual, which gave me enough time to eat my breakfast sitting down, and believe me my stomach was thankful. I got out in good time and didn’t have to scrape my windows. I got to work in good time, and as I climbed our of the car discovered that I had forgotten to grab my lunch out of the refrigerator. I grabbed my debit card in hopes that the cafeteria would have something I could eat if the opportunity arose to eat a lunch.
Two fresh c/s patient and one antenatal, two insulin dependent one with a pump. It was steady. Very steady. I walked some serious miles today, and felt like I took good care of my patients. There was no lull where lunch was possible until after I discharged one antenatal and picked up another one two hours before the end of the shift. I made it down to the cafeteria to discover that at 3:30pm on Saturday the options were sandwiches (no GF bread) pudding, chips, fruit and bottled drinks, so I had a lunch of champions.
My usual lunch consists of a baked sweet potato, an apple, and an orange with a granola bar for dessert, which I do love, but it was so great to eat a whole meal of crappy food. Maybe I shouldn’t have enjoyed it so much. The chocolate pudding was fabulous, with two very small bags of jalapeño chips, then a banana and a bottled Starbucks coffee to follow. I don’t know if it was the chocolate, the coffee, or the jalapeños but it hit the spot and I was uninterrupted for a whole 30 minutes. I made it back up stairs, tied up all my loose ends, left all my patients with no immediate needs, taped report and got out on time. It was such a beautiful thing. One more day before we switch back to nights for a few weeks.
After dinner I headed up stairs to get ready for bed, this is at 7:40pm, when it dawned on me that I had not gone to the bathroom all day since I woke up at 4:15 am. Yep, it was busy, but good. I better drink a liter before bed. Good night.

Categories: new mexico, Travel Nursing, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Beautiful Delivery

Posted on October 18, 2014 by theowenscrew

I did not want a labor this morning, I was less excited when I found out it was a first time mommy, even less when the night shift nurse hinted at back labor.

Can I just say that was the most beautiful birth I have seen in a long time, and one rock star mommy. So refreshing.

Chad tells me that Eve did great with potty training, and made it to the bathroom for everything today. Two things to celebrate.

Categories: new mexico, Travel Nursing | Leave a comment