Wow! I can't believe I had the surgery a year ago today. So many things have changed in my life since that time. If you've been reading this blog (yes, it's been awhile) you will note that we moved to Arkansas in late June of last year. Because of the move we had to cancel our annual trip to Playa Del Carmen. Additionally, I pretty much suspended blogging after the move because we did not have internet service. It was pretty difficult to find time and justify blogging due to the numerous boxes that needed to be unpacked and my need to find a job. Nevertheless, I will give you a brief (or maybe not so brief)synopsis of things that have occurred since my last post so we can start anew.
I unpacked tons of boxes as we attempted to settle into our little slice of heaven. Sure enough, just as I was almost finished unpacking as much as I could, I found a job. I started work at Arkansas Hospice as a Medical Social Worker. I was so excited about doing something different. I had worked with children and their families for the past 14 years and was energized about the change and new challenges it brought forth. Sadly, the money to be made in this job was a lot less than what I was making in Texas. I know, I know, money isn't everything. I was glad to have a job and be out of the house with adults again.
Hospice work was a breath of fresh air and I really enjoyed it. I loved my new boss, Susan Reed. She was fantastic and very supportive. The families I worked with were also great. It was nice to be able to minister to them and provide support at a time in their lives when they needed support the most. I worked with two other social workers in our area, Courtney and Halee, and we all got along well. However, shortly after I began to get my feet wet, Halee left and went to work for another social service agency.
Needless to say, I had to step it up and begin taking on-call. I didn't mind the on-call that much in the beginning. I have been on-call before and knew what to expect. Besides, it allowed me to make additional money.
As December neared, my fantastic boss became frustrated with the administration of our agency and was recruited by another agency. Her last days with Arkansas Hospice were around the new year. Although I didn't know it at the time, this change signaled the end for my employment as well. Many things began to change in the agency. They did, however, finally find another social worker, Becky, to replace Halee. She had hospice experience and needed to brush up on her hospice skills but should be able to jump in pretty quickly.
The other social worker in my area, Courtney, was enjoying a nice trip to Disney World when Susan announced she was leaving. She was shocked to learn the news when she returned. About a week or two into the new year, the agency decided to let Courtney go. That decision began a huge spiral downward for me. Not only was I the only social worker serving the majority of the patients in the home-based part of our area but I was also covering the 8 beds in the inpatient center and on-call until Becky could get up to speed.
By February, I had been on-call all but one weekend since Christmas. That meant I had no time to myself or with my family. I was not able to go out of town and could not really make any plans beyond working. Not only that, I found I was often working 50 and upwards to 60+ hours each week just to try to keep up with the documentation and on-call associated with the job. After one particularly horrific week of working almost 75 hours and operating on less than 4 hours of sleep each night, I decided enough was enough! I went to Little Rock for a meeting with the rest of the social workers across the state and had lunch with my old boss, Susan. We discussed my challenges within the job and how disenchanted I was with the whole process. I decided that afternoon to turn in my notice and gave them three weeks notice.
At the end of my three weeks, I was relieved to quit working but still had no leads on other jobs. I placed my resume at the local hospital and continue to search for new social work jobs. I know I could get work in another hospice agency in the area but don't really feel this is in my best interest at this time. Right now I am content with working at the house and caring for the kids and Big Daddy. I feel like the extended hours I put in with hospice really took a toll on my relationship within our home.
Whew! That was a lot of boring stuff about my job. Now let's talk about the changes we've made at the house.
At some point before the Thanksgiving holidays, I decided I had had enough with the way the kitchen looked (think border and paint) and wanted a change. One one of Jeff's weekends off, I enlisted the help of Big Daddy and Madi and we set forth to tear down wallpaper border and begin to prime the walls. We painted the room in one day. Boy, it made a huge difference! Although it made a difference, it was an ambitious project and I wasn't sure I wanted to tackle any more for awhile. However after seeing the progress and wonderful change it made, decided I liked it and pondered our lofty plan of taking out one of the windows in the kitchen and building a deck onto the back of the house. During this time, Jeff also decided he hated the tile in the entry hall and ripped it out. Thankfully, we have a friend who is a pro at laying tile and he helped Jeff finish the entry hall. There is a very funny story attached to this project. Ask him about it sometime! BTW, if you're laying tile, make sure you read the instructions on what to mix with the grout or you may end up with a *bunch* of sand between your tiles (and toes)! The first picture is of the kitchen before we bought the house. The second picture is after our remodel. The third picture is of the new tile in the entry way.
Around the first of the year we started another project at the house. We hired a company to come in and tear out the double window from the kitchen and add a deck onto the back of the house. It took several weeks to complete but we are thrilled with the results! ~Not to mention the fact that an added bonus was the hot tub we added to it!
Our most recent project was the painting of the upstairs. I decided I'd had enough of the yellow paint and was a lady on a mission. I painted one accent wall in the living room a green color. Big Daddy wasn't sure he liked it at first, but it kind of grows on you! Week before last, I hired someone to come in and finish the living room and entry hall (big, tall walls). We painted it "Cattail" which is a taupe color. Man, it looks great! While my painter was finishing his area, I began painting the office/workout room. It has 3 "Wicker" colored walls and one "Kitetail" colored wall. ~That translates into 3 sand walls and one turquoise wall. It kind of reminds me of the color of the beach and ocean in Playa! I need to take pictures of the painting and add them to the blog.
Last week we finally bought a bedroom suite. It will be delivered tomorrow. This will actually be the first *bed* (headboard and footboard)we have owned since we married 16 and a half years ago. I still need to paint our bedroom but the weather has been so bad around here I'm afraid it will never dry. I intended to do it yesterday but we had some bad storms roll through and the dogs were invading the territory. Today Christian has been sick so I've been monitoring him all day.
Tomorrow I plan to finalize our plans for replacement of the flooring in the upstairs portion of the house. We are adding engineered hardwood to the living area, hall, and stairs. The upstairs bedrooms will receive new carpet! I think that will finalize most of our improvements to the upstairs of the home. Oh yeah, I also replaced all of the window treatments in the kitchen and living room. we added lovely wood blinds to the living room and will also be adding new blinds to the bedrooms upstairs. It really updates the look of the house.
In case you're wondering about the pond, fishing, and our animals, here is the update on them. We added a new baby to our family in August. His name is Gabe and he's a 4 yr old Great Pyrneese. He is so sweet and funny. He gives hugs and obeys simple commands (when he wants to). The fishing is hit and miss on the pond. We haven't fished near as much as I thought we would but have a great time out there and catch something nearly every time we go out. In October, we lost our beloved Abbygirl (our doxie). Sadly she swallowed a fish hook. Despite many heroic and surgical efforts, God needed her to sit in his lap in Heaven. We decided we would try to wait until the kid's birthdays to buy another doxie but after a day I couldn't stand it. Abby fought a good fight for 2 weeks and we mourned her during those weeks. The afternoon she died, I began to search for another doxie to try to take the pain away. We found Bridgie (short for Bridget)down the road from our house. She has lovely parents with great personalities. Bridgie is a small standard red doxie. I knew right then and there that she would fit right in our family. She is hilarious and very sweet. Sure, we miss Abbygirl a bunch and Bridgie could never take her place but she is definitely a great addition to our home. As far as bunnies go, when we moved to Arkansas, we gave up the last of our bunnies. AJ, the dutchie, went to live with a friend of ours from 4-H in Helotes. Until last weekend, we did not have any bunnies and have been missing them. You see, we've been having bad weather in the area and received more than 7 inches of rain on Thursday night. The rain caused localized flooding and consequently cancelled school for the kids. Because they were out of school on Monday, too, Mom asked us to come to Dallas. Well, we've been thinking about what our plans are for the fair this year. Their county fair is in the Fall. Last year we noticed there were no market rabbits so we decided we would try to get some Satins and raise them for breeding and market rabbits. I searched the internet and contacted folks in the area and in Texas all day on Thursday. We found some wonderful breeders in the Fort Worth area and agreed to do business with them. On Saturday afternoon, Mom, the kids and I loaded up and headed to Weatherford to pick up two does and a buck. Although I don't think the younger buck will be able to breed with our older doe before the show, we do know someone around here who may be able to help us out with breeding a litter to try to get some babies in time for the show. That being said, the names of the new rabbits are Bucky, Ami, and Dee. Guess we are officially back in the rabbit business again!
As far as weight loss goes, I have kind of hit a stalemate and am a little disgruntled with myself. I would like to lose 50 more pounds. I think they must be the hardest to lose. I have long since passed the honeymoon stage of my weight loss. However, I know I only have myself to blame. I have given myself permission to not exercise like I was before. Starting today, I am going to get back on the elliptical daily and work out. I need to do this for myself and my family. I am a much happier and more productive person when I am working out regularly. Besides, I don't have any more excuses...the office is organized and I'm not working right now! The good news is I have lost more than 120 pounds since I first began this journey. I just need to reflect on where I was before and not get so down on myself that I get discouraged and give up completely.
I think that about sums up everything that has happened around here since July. Hope I didn't bore y'all too much! We are loving Arkansas and the new people we have met. However, we truly miss our friends in Texas! Please call us to schedule a vacation up here. We have a lovely decorated guest bedroom and don't forget that hot tub or pond for fishing. Soon we will be able to get the boat out on the lake. We plan to do some camping at Lake Ouichita this summer. There are tons of islands on the lake and you can dock at an island and set up your tent and camp for as long as you want. It is so cool! Also, the water is crystal clear in most places. Speaking of crystal clear, there are crystal mines all around this lake and often you can find crystals on the shore or in the waters surrounding the islands. It is cool! We've also heard that divers find crystals on the floor of the lake, as well.
Well, it's taken me all day to update this blog. I'll let this be a lesson to me to not let this get this out of hand again! There are other things that have been going on and changes that have occurred but I have run out of steam. Keep watching this site. I'll try to update it at least weekly if not more. Look on the side for more pictures...newer pictures. I'll update them tomorrow.
Y'all plan on coming to see us at the Circle Star Ranchette, soon! Boss Lady signing off now! Bye!
