this is an angry curious piece of ranting about a few things I would like see answered reasonably

what makes a person choose to work in a nursing home? I don't know of anyone getting rich at that profession, so just what is it that makes a person choose to take classes and get licensed to work with the elderly?
oh I almost forgot, in Ohio, when I asked this of a service that hires out home health aides, the woman in charge says that the people who are sent out as home health aides do not necessarily even have to be able to read!! Did you know that some of the people working with our grandparents, aunts, uncles, moms & dads cannot even read. How can this be possible? there is an oral test for those applicants who are illiterate. Seriously?!?!?!?
Okay, so knowing that some of these care providers can't read should be bad enough to want everything revamped, but what about a nurse who is just plain mean and disrespectful.
When we got to the nursing home we were heading for my aunts room, and found her sitting in the hallway, lost... and she was glad to see us because she could get to the bathroom now that we were there. when we got her back to her room, I helped her get on the toilet, which means helping her stand, get her pants down and seated on the commode... there is an alarm on her wheelchair which goes off when she stands since she has fallen in the past, this lets the staff know that someone is standing that has fallen before. so the nurse came in and helped her get her pants back up and back into her chair, and all is well for the moment. I ignored hearing my aunt saying "hey! you're hurting me"...but I DID hear it. I have made enough transfers to know what I was doing, but i also know sometimes things happen, so maybe she did accidently hurt her. After a few minutes, my aunt wanted to use the facilities again and again i was helping her when that same nurse appeared (thank you seat alarm).This time my aunt was in the bathroom, all she needed was pants down and to be seated and the nurse says to me, "it isn't appropriate for you to do be doing this"shooing me out of the bathroom... and to my aunt says "you just went a few minutes ago, you need to visit with your family now" the entire time my aunt insisting she needs to go and yelling lots of 4-letter words at that nurse. I have done 1000's of transfers, & know how to do it safely, that wasn't the issue in my mind, the lady needed help and I gave it*-till that nurse came in. I wanted to tell her I have done 100's, maybe 1000's. so I get shooed away, and that nurse argued with my aunt all the while attempting to get her to leave the bathroom when she knows she has to go... probably a 5-7 minute bunch of words with the nurse telling her why she can't go to the bathroom (that moment) on the commode she is standing in front of...with my aunt yelling but I HAVE TO GO!!
I had walked out of the room to keep myself from knocking some sense into that damned nurse!! but i heard her from just outside the room... On a normal day, had I been alone instead of with another elderly aunt I would have spent the time to go to the administration about this nurse & the bathroom incident, but my other aunt was upset because her sister was cursing at this nurse and she was shocked by her behaviour more than how that nurse had treated her sister. this is a woman who wouldn't say 'Shit' if she was standing knee-deep in it!! what do you think provoked her to this point?? She knew she needed to go, and was told go ahead, you're wearing a diaper... In the time this nurse spent arguing with my aunt-she could have helped her with her pants and been done with it... a couple of times over!!!!!!!
The dilemma is: When something like this happens what should ya do?
I didn't drive there, so no control over when the chariot left for home....I live 90 miles away so I can't be there all the time to keep watch over her... so, at the point we have to leave, I am angry___with this nurse, with being the only one angry with the nurse, confused anyone would see this being my aunts' fault... she was right there, all the nurse had to do was HELP THE PATIENT with her slacks & she chose to tell her she didn't need to go again so soon and that she is wearing a diaper - to go ahead and go... what the hell? WTF!??? I felt if had I conveyed this to other staff or administration prior to leaving... my concern was that she would be treated even worse, if that nurse dared do this with family around... I believe this nurse has no business working with patients. the last time we went, I did speak to the duty nurse, but I don't know the name of the nurse involved in hurting my aunt... I have my eyes peeled for her since that visit, & when I find out who she is, she will be reported INCLUDING her name!!
I realize we all have bad days, things happen, but this nurse was wrong no matter how anyone tries to justify it, she was WRONG!!
Consider this fair warning! If, in the future, I see or hear you treating an elderly patient badly when you are supposed to be there helping, I WILL REPORT YOU!

Dad would have been 90 today

Today is my Dad's birthday. I can't picture in my head what he would look like at 90. probably much the same as he did the last time I saw him, except maybe with totally white hair... I still kind of envision him in a particular shirt and pants and him holding me up on his shoulder...
Since I am now 52, you can imagine what a site that is in my head.

don't faint, it's just an update/Happy St. Patrick's Day!

The mail yesterday included a great little package from my daughter in California. a lanyard from Disneyland which is done in shades of green and has Mickey and Goofy all over it... and a great pin of the slinky dog! What Fun EH??!!
Decided late lastnight my hair was just too long and so I hacked some of it off... still not finished...need to figure out how to do the back a bit better. I think I need a comb to do a 60's rat job on it...hmmmmmm

My Nephew, Infant Self-Rescue Swim Instructor

Rec department offers children self-rescue lessons. this article appeared in the Sunday May 10th 2009 Edition of "The Independent" news paper, Massilon Ohio
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The Independent
Rich Thompson, of Massillon, a certified ISR instructor, works with Caden Lill, 11 months old, of Massillon, teaching him to roll over and float on his back after falling into the water face down. This is Caden’s fourth week of lessons at the Massillon Recreation Center.
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MASSILLON, OH — .It only takes seconds for the water to turn deadly.
Massillon resident Quanae Hewitt, a pool owner, wants to make sure her 101⁄2-month-old son has the skills to survive.
“We have an above ground pool and we enjoy being around water. It took one less worry away from us,” Hewitt said.
Hewitt’s son is enrolled in the Massillon Recreation Department’s new Aquatic Self-Rescue for Infants class, which features the Infant Swimming Resource, a swimming and self-rescue instruction method for children between six months and 6 years old.
“I wanted him to take a class and not only to teach him to enjoy the water but also so that he respects it. I wanted to give him a time where he could go out and have fun and use his skills to save his life,” Hewitt said.
The idea for Infant Swimming Resource was hatched in 1966 by Dr. Harvey Barnett. As an 18-year-old lifeguard, Barnett witnessed the tragic death of a neighbor’s child and vowed to do something about it. To date, there have been 788 documented cases of children using the technique to save themselves.
Hewitt said her son has progressed rapidly over the last several weeks.
“It was kind of hard on me at first, seeing him immersed in water and he was crying,” Hewitt said. “It’s amazing how much they learn in 10 minutes.”
The self-rescue method teaches infants to hold their breath under water, turn onto their backs and float unassisted. Children over a year old are taught the swim-float-swim sequence in which they learn how to hold their breath underwater, swim with their head down, roll onto their back to float, breathe and roll back over to continue swimming.

Children learn the self-rescue technique when they are fully clothed because most water accidents happen when children are clothed.
“These are not swim lessons. We are teaching kids how to rescue themselves,” class instructor Rich Thompson said. “I taught my daughter at 8 months old how to float on her back and she has been taught how to roll over and back and float indefinitely. ... We are teaching kids that the water is a fun place to be but we need to be giving them the skills to make them safe.”
To become a certified instructor, Thompson completed an intensive, five-week training program last year. Nationally, there are more than 180,000 instructors trained in the Infant Swimming Resource technique.
“I got interested because I have a 3 year old and a 16 month old and I have two pools on either side of me and that made me nervous,” Thompson said. “It’s something that I do that I think is important for the community.”
Appointments for the 15-minute classes are available from 7 to 10 a.m. and 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday at the recreation center. Classes run three to four weeks for children under 1 and four to six weeks for children over 1.
There is a $105 registration fee, plus $65 for Massillon Recreation Center members, $70 for Massillon residents and taxpayers and $75 for non-residents. To sign-up, contact Thompson at 330-834-1596 or infantswimteacher@yahoo.com. For more information on Infant Swimming Resource, visit www.infantswim.com.
Hewitt added she would recommended the class to anyone who has small children.
“It’s a great class. It’s an investment, but you can’t put a price on your child,” she said

The Orchid Vase

I am not very good at daily writing, but I wanted to show everyone a vase I made. But I suppose starting at the beginning is a good idea.... Sometimes when working with the clay, I don't always know where it is going to lead me, and I could make anything from a baby to an elf, or fairy, or a piece of jewelry... this time I had a vase in mind, for a wedding gift. So I had to find out just what color orchids the bride carried in her bouquet, and then I mixed those colors in polymer clay. I searched for really good photos of orchids on the internet, so I could get the details just as I had in mind.

These photos give you a fair idea how it all started. I think the largest of the orchids was no more than an inch across. the "white" parts are actually premo pearl and fimo white mixed together, and I don't measure anything so I don't know what proportion to what. I like the way premo pearl and white look together so I use that pretty often in other things, so it's okay to have some left over. the pink also has pearl in it, to give it that cymbidium sparkle. After I finished making the orchids, I mixed up a bunch of different colors of green; using green premo, premo pearly green, some yellow, some gold fimo, some black, some brown, and I am sure I am forgetting something, but since I have CRS it doesn't matter to me right now. so here are a couple pictures that show the greens laid out and ready to become leaves.

I got busy making leaves and applying them to an extremely plain glass vase, & sticking in a crystal or pearl here & there. CRS in full swing now, because I forgot to take pictures of any of the leaves or the application of them while I worked from that point to nearly the end! I baked it in my tiny toaster size clay oven, burnt two petals, because it just barely fit in that small oven at all! so it was a tad bit too close to the heating element. no worries, I took off the burnies, and put fresh clay in place, and used my heat gun to "bake" that repair work in place. If I hadn't mentioned it, no one would have ever known!! LOL!! I really had a good time making this vase, and I only spilled crystals into my laptop keyboard once!! Since my last blog about fixing my laptop screen, I did order and replace the keyboard on here too, so spilling is no small problem. I don't want to take this thing apart ever again!! In a couple of these photos, you can see my laptop thru the acrylic sheet I use as a work surface... anyway, no harm came this time, so I have moved the beads and crystals off the laptop so I don't have more problems. I really enjoy having a computer that works!! and now for the last pictures of the finished orchid vase.

these show the many shades of green & you can spot a crystal or a pearl here or there. I enjoyed making this and hope that you enjoy seeing it too. As of Friday April 3rd 2009, it belongs to my nephew Ryan and his bride Heather, May they use it in good health!

Life Intervened

This isn't what I had planned when I signed up to make a blog, but life intervened, and the screen on my laptop went black!!! AAAAAAAAaaaaa!! What to do? what to do?? There is no money for a new computer, and I really didn't want to lose all my files & photographs of my kids and my creations, so it was initially diagnosed as the inverter cable(???) being bad, so I was prepared to pay 185 bucks to have some guy in a little cubby-like store "conveniently located" in the front lobby part of walmart. Once he got the part in, I took this in, and when I went back to pick up what I thought would be repaired, he told me the bad news that it was not just the inverter cable, but the entire screen needed to be replaced!!! at the small cost of $287 for the screen and another $75per hour+ to install it!!! AAAAAAAaaaaa!! I have had this laptop since April 2005, and although I have tried really hard to be careful with it, it has been a desk and a craft table as well as my connection to the outside world. After over two months without my laptop or access to my photo programs, old files etc, I was going a little crazy... SO, I FINALLY DID IT!! I replaced the screen in my laptop last evening, unscrewing and screwing took the most of the time to do it! I did it all by myself!! and now that I can see what's on my screen again, (whoever you are) you get to see into my little world.

Some of you know me, & know that I make things with polymer clay... Fimo & Premo...primarily elves and fairies and such... I use a lot of beads, stones and crystals and many beads, stones and crystals have been (accidentally) dumped into this keyboard. Keyboards do not like having seed beads or crystals or stones dumped into them, and mine has revolted, or is revolting, however you want to look at it... the number *8 is missing completely, so I have to touch the little dot where the key used to be! the left shift key is also missing and I had to retrain myself to use the right shift key, and often times I skip using it altogether, typing only in lowercase. The space bar works when it wants to, as do the U-I-O keys. The U is actually super-glued in place. I used a white pen today to repaint the letters on some of the worn keys... lovely eh?

Anyway, since I was able to replace the screen myself, I saved over $150 bucks buying a new screen off of Ebay and being brave enough to install it myself. So, I have been brave again & ordered a new keyboard for this poor abused Inspiron! Hopefully by next Monday, I will have all the keys I need to type a little better than I do currently. Even with new keys, better typing isn't likely, LOL!!
Taking the bottom off to replace the keyboard will involve a lot more things no one is supposed to touch, but I think it will also allow me to get to the beads that went down inside the holes where the lid latches shut...LOL!! and I can get all the dust out too! And it won't cost me big $$$ parts + 75$ per hour (or any portion thereof ) to have the PC Doctor do it. It took me about one minute to install the screen, seriously! Turning those teeny tiny screws is what took the longest time (about 25-30 minutes total), but this time next week I will be turning screws again and fixing this messed up keyboard and it will be almost like having a brand new laptop. I am thrilled I braved the screen!! and I encourage anyone whose laptop screen 'goes black' to try it!

I can get to my photos now, so I can show you all some of the things I have made lately. I have been claying away in an effort to keep from going completely insane... I am only partially there! (I will save the insanity stories for another day) I know there are some pictures from way back in December, but it has been that long since I could access the photo program files! So, I hope you enjoy! Let me know if you see anything you like! UHMmmm, if I can figure out how to post more pictures... let me know if you see anything you like!! eventually I will figure out how to put a link to flckr on here too.