I may never come back...

We are having such a good time- The weather is awesome, the beaches are great, the food is fantastic. Reminds me why I love Hawaii so much! The kiddos seem to be having a good time as well.

Ahhh.....Kaua'i

So glad that we could meet again :-)

wish I looked this good with curlers in!

I think she liked that first cupcake...

a birthday party

I can't believe it...4 and 1. Really?!

Sweet Torture

Sometimes, it feels like working a 0.9 (37.5 hour per week) night shift is a really bizzare form of torture- I'm tired, groggy, my sleep cycle is totally messed up on my days off, and making it through the night sans-sleep and being a fully functioning and capable nurse seems like a joke. 
Which is not to say I am not grateful.
Having just switched jobs in an effort to be closer to home and have more time with my family, I am well aware that I am Low Gal on the Totem Pole. In fact, since labor is a "desirable/popular" specialty, and is hard to get into, most people who get a job here seem to be internal transfers, meaning, people who worked in another department in the hospital and were able to get in here finally. Sooo I have the least seniority, since that is based not on how long you've been with the department but rather the organization as a whole. According to stats I found, so far this year there have been 4,617 applications for RN jobs, and so far just over 100 actual hires. I feel grateful and blessed to be able to be here and help people.
A few weeks after I started, emails started circulating warning us of lay-offs, and now it is confirmed that 150-175 jobs will be lost. Bummer. I just came here from a place where I had a good amount of seniority. I hope I did not make the wrong decision. I think we can all say that we are well and sick of the current economic climate; it's getting to the point where it is like Washington in the summertime: How often do you have to say 'this year is especially bad' before you can say that it is just the "new normal??" It seems like our country is no longer just in a slump, but rather this is just the way it is. This isn't meant to be a "political" post...I'm just so tired of things being so down. It's so sad that so many have lost their livelihood and are struggling. As I work hard to make it through these next few challenging months, I hope I can remember this. Even though I'm working more hours than I want to. Even though I think it would be "better" for my family if I was a part-time working mom (isn't it funny how they won't let me do this, even though they are implementing lay-offs? Maybe I should double check on that...) Even though I hate the fact that I have to work with very little sleep. I hope I am helping people. Ultimately, that is why I am doing this, and that is what gets me up and gets me to work for these lovely 12.5 hour night shifts :-) Here's to hoping I don't get laid off before this all pays off and becomes worth it! 

Reason # 100,0000,000 Why I Got Married

There are the obvious reasons: love, compatibility, friendship, family, and common interests. And then there is the Division of Labor, or, the ways in which we complement one another. For example: I can cook and put a room together, and I do research on child development so we don't mess up our kiddos too badly (There has got to be more than that I an good at right?!) Jeff is good at so many stinkin' things, one of them being putting things together like furniture and wood working. I mean, I barely know the difference between a washer a nut, and the only 'hammering' I have done with any regularity is knocking back jello shots (and that doesn't happen often either). Well, my first solo furniture project was these chairs. I was so so proud of myself too. Jeff laughed at mr when I told him it was the first thing I'd put together myself, like, EVER. And he was afraid to sit in it. Rightly so, I messed it up. I wound up with extra screws and washers. How I managed to do that is beyond me, I picked the easiest possible thing to put together outside of the legoes in the toddler aisle. I did finally figure it out, although did you know it can be very difficult to get screws lined up perfectly so they go in right? Ugh. I worked on it until 2AM last night and then finally called it quits with 1 chair left (just 2 screws on that one I could not for the life of me get to go in) it is almost 11pm now here's Hoping I finish before 2. Jeff obviously offered to do it but I WILL get this done. Wish me luck! ( sorry about the typos by the way. I am on my phone and way too lazy to go back and fix them!)

A Princess Starbuckista

She picked out the outfit obviously. And who was I to argue? Naturally a princess needs a coffee and cake pop too. More funny things my child says: Stephanie took her to meet up with me after she had watched her the night before and Aili requested a 'coffee' Aka kids steamed drink from Starbucks. Steph obliged (is my child spoiled??)
The lady at the counter asked how she was doing that morning and this was Aili's response:
"(yawn) I'm tired I need my coffee!"
Funny child. Clearly, she is my daughter.

The Lioness

Sometimes, I think my little human baby is really a lion cub. Her newest thing is to growl like a lion. Doesn't she just look so scary? We growl at her, and she growls back. It's a fun game. Next week: ABC's and other human utterances.

A Little Preschooler

Can't hardly believe it. Do I really have a Preschooler?! Lucky for me her birthday is right after the Washington state school cut-off of August 27, so I have 2 years of preschool before I have to adjust to the idea of kindergarden! So even though she turned 4 before school started she is in the 3 year old class. Funny how these things work! Better to be older than younger though right?

4

4 years ago, I looked like THIS:

 On my due date and miggghhhtyy uncomfortable. Sorry, I don't have any photos from the day I went into labor/gave birth since it happened so darn quick. (Annnddd....no matter what you say, unless you have experienced a less than 3 hour birth with tetanic contractions, consider yourself not qualified to say that superquick births are 'easy.' It is like running a hard, painful marathon with no warm-up. My longer labor- 3.5 hours- was easier, which leads me to think that a 4-5 hour labor is perfect. But I digress)

Just 3 days after this photo my life was changed forever. I got the chance to be a MOM, and to the most wonderful, beautiful, sweet girl anyone could ask for. I KNOW she is going to make this world a better place. She is just a happy, funny, sassy, sweet girl who already cares about other people. They say kids her age are egocentric and not capable of being empathetic, well...SHE IS. She can be difficult and tiring but her heart is in the right place, and she truly enjoys life. 

A Wee One!

Aili, you are so so special to me. I know you are gonna be my best bud when you are older. (Right now I am your MOM first, let's be sure to clarify that! ;-))
I wish you the happiest birthday (I know it was the 11th...sorry, I worked that night!) You have brought so much love to so many people's lives, you make me know for sure that someone above knew what he was doing when he gave me an oopsie pregnancy while I was still in nursing school. I sure do love you!

Such a happy girl!

When it Rains...it POURS

This is a hard week.
I really just feel like a dump truck released it's load on me...I'm not sure if I want to cry, get anxious, or spend a lot more time at church praying for everything in my life to sort itself out. Nothing is going so terribly "wrong," I have healthy kids, a roof over our heads, and food to eat, but there has been a constant parade through my life of various other stressors that have been testing me.
Really, I should just have more faith. It seems as though most things in my life thus far have happened for a reason...I don't always know why at the time, but later it reveals itself to me. Isn't it this way for most people? You pray for something to happen (or NOT happen) and it doesn't work out the way you wanted, and you are angry, anxious, or depressed. Only later, you realize that things worked out exactly how they were supposed to.  Now don't get me wrong, I do not have all the answers. I am still waiting for the reasons for certain things in my past to be revealed to me: painful experiences, lost loved ones, missed opportunities, major screw-ups. And I don't believe everyone always gets the answers they were looking for. I think that it is possible that sometimes, things just happen. And this is what scares me.
I just hope that this time, for this period in my life, things work out they way they are supposed to. Whatever that might be.

How 'Medical Nerds' Get Their Kicks in the Middle of the Night...

That's my co-workers arm, what a lucky lady :-)
When I heard she was a hard stick I naturally had to stick her, right? Got that in by having her hold her hand down (gravity is our friend here)
and I got it in with her arm dangling finally. She was NOT easy! Don't you
just wish you were a nurse too? Because then you could come play with us at
3am. As you can see we are lots of fun.(yeah I know that is a messy stick. After my victory I took a picture before cleaning it up. What can I say, I didn't start it on a table or anything and it bled like stink, it takes longer to hook up the line when you're starting
it in the air!)

We Call Him Juan Pablo (yes I know I spelled that wrong...what IS the traditional spelling?!)

What's going on at Chez Sluys:

Pickled beans from the garden and pickled asparagus with jalepenos, garlic, and red pepper flakes

Who says you can't get something for nothing? Blackberry jam/pie filling from berries growing in the wild by our house. No effort on my part to keep 'em alive.

A new recipe, Chunky Chipotle-Peach Spread. So unbelievably delish. Like, I actually licked the leftovers out of the pan, for real. 

That there pickling cucumber should make some good pickles

I'm gonna throw some beauty bark in there. I finally planted husband planted the area above the rock wall: Lavender, landscape roses, azaela and rhodie, rose of sharon, boxwood, and mini-spruce thing. Who was I kidding? I laid out all the plants where I wanted them, and husband dug some holes. A LOT of holes. I still owe him "wifely duties" for that one

The garden looks much better with grass in it

Still can't believe husband moved all those rocks (and a lot more in back too) by hand. Whatta stud.

Who says you can't make a gingerbread house in August?

A lot of canning has been going on. 'Tis the season after all. You can share the goodness with me, 'cuz if you know me, you probably will be getting a lot of my canned goodies to share. I like to spread the love. My ladies are laying fairly consistently now, usually 2 eggs per day, but then they went on a strike and laid only 1 per day for a couple of days (1 egg for the 4 hens). Such slackers. I fed them some popcorn and weeds, and they showed their appreciation by laying 4 eggs the last 2 days. My hens don't have a name- I can't tell them apart- but I did finally name my rooster: Juan Pablo. 'Cuz he is Spanish (Araucana). Miss Aili is starting preschool next week, can you believe it? Sigh. My big girl. Welllll husband's not home, so on that note, I think I'll go grab my iphone and do a little booty-shakin.' Because when husband is away, the Sluys girls like to dance. That's just how we roll ;-)