What Will Be Will Be

Per usual, I've let this small project escape me for longer than intended. Oops! I meant to write a few days ago when I was at the dealership for a few hours getting crap done to my car...now, apparently, is the time the silver bullet decides to start falling apart. I'm not even at 100,000 miles yet...Toyotas are supposed to run forever, right?! I have to remember too pull over and snap a picture when it does haha. Anyways, I brought my computer but could not get on the internet. I am sitting down on my impromptu day off to write an entry now...I am fast approaching the maximum amount of earned time I can accumulate so our scheduler at work has been working hard to find me days off; today being one of them, last Tuesday, and now I have the week of Memorial Day off...SCORE. The weather has been so nice lately...a huge mood booster, although today was pretty chilly, someone on facebook earlier said it snowed in Grantham. Good running weather, I had a good run earlier...I'm back to where I left off last year so I am ready for the first 5K of the season...Color Vibe in Loudon on the 25th. Our OR will be well represented.

So, I left off at the end of March. The last weekend, Emilee threw a surprise 30th birthday party for Jesse at their house because his Dad and stepmom were in town from Montana. His birthday is a week before mine...actually, our birth announcements were in the same newspaper edition. The next day was Easter...my mom had us all over at her house for ham, scalloped potatoes, carrots, and something else I forget...uh okra maybe?

The following weekend was our post-baby (Mr. James Girard Tainter) weekend in Maine. I left on Saturday and came home Monday. We did our usual...hanging out, talking, eating lots of good stuff like spaghetti and meatballs, macaroni and cheese, salad, hot dogs, overnight French toast, breakfast sandwiches, fruit and yogurt, and bacon. The Tainter family is now complete.

April is really when I start to emerge from my cloud of hatred towards New England weather. From here on out is better weather, warm breezes, and sunshine. Rain, yes, I can handle that (bring it on, actually, because I bought cute rainboots). Summer is one my all time favorite things and the best half of the year begins now! Sunshine and a warm breeze on my face fixes everything. I got my first pedi last Tuesday, highlights and a cute summer haircut last Thursday. It really is the little things in life that can make a huge difference. Summer clothes, driving around with the sunroof open and sipping an iced coffee. I also have house bonfires and boating with friends to look forward to also ;). Life is good in the summer time. The livin's easy!! Alright, back to April. April went by quickly, actually. Kelly and I had a date on the 20th at the Worthy Burger then we went out for ice cream...first of the season and another summer thing I love doing. I had a fun night out on the 26th with Shley...her first since the arrival of Charlie. We went to the Common Man for drinks, appetizers, and dessert...fun! Jeff was our DD lol. We went back to her house and hung out in the basement for a lil bit...speaking of Shley, she's currently going through a back crisis. She's been in incredible pain, spasming, pretty much bedridden. She had an emergent MRI today and is waiting to hear results. She may need surgery...if she does, I hope it's done at DHMC. I've been on stand by to help out anyway I can. I feel terrible for her.

If my Dad was still alive, he would have turned 70 on April 27th. That is so strange to me. But then I realize I'm turning 30 soon and its puts it into a different perspective. I really don't care for this getting older business. I don't want my mom to get any older. Having a niece and a girl who's diapers I used to change going to college in the fall makes me feel super old. Ugh, freeze frame, now.

I kicked off the last few days of April with a little something different at work. I participated in a rapid process improvement workshop (RPIW) that took place 2200-0600 Sunday through Thursday. It concluded with a presentation to senior leadership Friday morning. Led by Dan Herrick (I ended up calling him Danimal by the end of the week; not sure how he felt about that haha), our group of 10, consisting of nurses, techs, housekeeping, PSTs, I&L, and CSR, were tasked with spending 40 hours working on improving the room set up process within our OR...our end result being a "perfect room" by 0730 on any given day. We used the Lean Six Sigma model of manufacturing (used by Toyota) and applied it the work we do in our OR by making toast (figuratively ha), process mapped and came up with several recommendations for process improvement based on our process map. We narrowed our recommendations down to our "dirty dozen" projects, writing proposals describing how it is now, how we want it to be, the benefits, and planning how to get there. Certain projects we were able to begin instituting and doing PDSAs (plan, do, I forget, assess?) Oh dear, my memory sucks. Anyways, even though the week is done, our work is not. We will still continue to meet, do PDSAs, and make sure our projects and the subsequent changes made are sustainable and improving the process of room set-ups.

Madison's 7th birthday party was May 4th so I went down to hang out for the day. It was in Merrimack at a large indoor playground, basically. Nothing But Good Times! A huge mesh-enclosed maze with jumping balls and slides. A little kids dream. Afterwards, we went to the outlets for a little bit and I went home after because I was sooo tired from my week of night shifts.

This past weekend was Betsy's bachelorette party in Boston. It kicked with us participating in the Urban Dare, basically a rat race around Boston with a series of clues you have to solve then find the locations revealed in these clues and photo document them. Some stops required you to complete a mild dare. We checked in to the Revere Hotel, ordered in pizza, started drinking and playing games.

Pause: 5.14.13 I went to the Goss home last night armed with provisions (most importantly, Ben and Jerry's) to hang out and cheer up the Shley. She started new meds and is able to get around but it is painful and bizarre looking...I named it the creepy side-stepping zombie. I couldn't help but laugh...hard. Jeff was there too...we spent some time in the basement laughing, god do I love my family and friends. Adam is off work today so I came home last night. I need to text her and see if she got her MRI results...

Ok, back to the bachelorette. So, where was I...games. We played a game called What The Fuck?! It was true to its name because we ended up saying just that several times. Had jello shots, beer (had to use the bathroom sink as an ice receptacle) and snacks. We also played a game where Betsy's knowledge of Cort was tested with random questions and she had to drink if she got them wrong. It was almost 11 by the time we were ready and headed out to the bars. I don't remember the name of the first bar but we didn't stay very long. We weren't at the second bar very long either (don't remember the name of this one either) because Betsy ended up body slamming a security guard after riding a mechanical bull hahahahaha. I totally missed it and was only half way through my drink when Connie turns to me and says quickly we are leaving. I hung back before exiting to suck down the rest of my drink. Wow. The third bar, Gypsy Bar (good times there before), we ended up finishing the night. We danced, some did some body shots, and I was wasted by the time we left at 2 to head back to the hotel. I needed some help to remain upright. Ok, enough of that.

I started reading Inferno, Dan Brown's new novel, last night on my Kindle after it downloaded after midnight. I am currently in love with Pepper radio on Pandora. Xander is having serious issues with allergies and I'm ready to take him to see another vet. He's constantly stuffed up and blowing snot rockets all over my apartment. Currently sprinkling lysine powder on his food and trying to give him pills but had to stop because he stopped eating the pill pockets, it was becoming such a struggle to shove the pill down his throat, and diarrhea. My poor fluffkin. I just want him to be normal. Maybe he never will be...