Even Crocadiles Cry

Sit back this is going to take a while. First I will put my Christmas letter in for all those who didn’t receive a Christmas card from us. If you didn’t receive a card, it’s because I don’t have your address, so please don’t be offended.
Howdy! Three years of marriage and finally some time to send out Christmas cards and newsletters. I know some of you love to read family newsletters and others dread it. Don’t worry, there isn’t a quiz to see if you read this one or not. Just know that if you don’t we will automatically assume that you don’t love us anymore. Okay, I am kidding we know that you love us, and chances are most of this stuff you all ready know.
Let’s get down to the good stuff, how to contact us. For those who don’t know we moved out (November) of the shit hole barn that we lived in, in trade for a glorious new apartment. The new address is 24531 San Marino Apt 203 Brownstown, MI 48134. Now, for the computer savvy readers, I also have a new blog, that can be found at munkygirl23.blogspot.com (Now, would be a good time to check it out, wink, wink.) Arnie rarely checks his e-mail but when he does he checks it at the following address arnlions20@comcast.net (The yahoo address has been long ignored.) If you are trying to e-mail me at my yahoo account, I know that you don’t love me anymore, because mine has been untouched since high school. To e-mail me, please use, stephimunky23@comcast.net (Huge brownie points to anybody who can tell me what the munky stands for and why the number 23!) All right is that enough ways to get in touch with us?
This year has been very grey for us. It seemed to suck a lot of life out of us. There were a few good notes in between the uggness of the rest of the year. October is when life got happy again. I will take you on our year’s perspective as quick as possible you reading troopers. The focus will mainly be on the good. (Except for February that was the shittest month.)
January- It started out great. We had all the Nelson children over on New Year’s Eve and brought in the New Year together drinking cider and telling memories of the year past. It was a blast.
February- The Taurus began to die. My Aunt Mary sadly did pass away. The Van Houten side of the family took me (Stephi) to Vegas and it was freakin’ sweet. I wasn’t so much into the gambling, but I was into the family time. I loved spending so much time with Aunt Kathy. Nothing compares to having Aunt Kathy all to yourself at the Madame Tusso’s house of wax, where the exhibits may or may not be alive. My favorite part of Vegas was the night before we left. Grandma, Aunt Erika, Aunt Adrienne, and I sat at various machines cheering each other’s machine into giving them the bonuses. No, bonuses are as good without your biggest fan club standing behind you threatening the machine to give countless spins and leaping lemmings.
March- Arnie had a great birthday party. The Kids (Brien, Allison, and Lawson) started to become permanent fixtures in our house. We loved every minute of them being there.
April- Lots of rain. The Taurus died. Arnie had a draft party that was very successful. He wants to turn it in to an annual thing, so all you sport watching men reading this, please help him to do so.
May- More rain. Arnie completed school becoming the hottest College Graduate of all time. (He is taking bows as I type this.)
June- Arnie’s graduation party got soggy, but fun. Arnie and I took the kids camping with Ken and Nora for a couple of days. It was awesome. It turned us onto camping (well and the least the kids and I) hardcore.
July- Arnie, Chuck, Claudette, Little Troy, and I went to Cedar Point; it was a very wet, but awesome trip.
August- Arnie and I suffered a devastating blow. Margrett and the kids moved to Kentucky. A part of my soul left with them. Arnie and I took Nathan (My younger cousin on the Durtka side.) camping. We went camping for our anniversary. It’s been THREE years for anybody keeping track. We had gorgeous weather and splendid time. Also, mid-August Mel went and got married. I saw it with my own two eyes when I hitched a ride to New York with Aunt Erika and Grandma Van Houten. I had a great time with my family out there. The wedding was very nice. That baby of Mel’s is very adorable. And, that toddler of Ris’s stole my heart. The only bad part of the trip is Jackson’s favorite place of “Donald’s” has become my least favorite place in the world.
September- I am 23! For all you counting people out there that is a whole lot of singles. Mom and I went to a corn maze for my birthday. We got so lost trying to get our cards punched at the you are here marks. We had to follow a kid around to get stamped. We also, had to be rescued in the daylight and were told we could only come back to complete the mazes if we had somebody that could read a map with us.
October- We finished the corn maze with the Durtka boys, Wendi, Dad, and Arnie. Also, Arnie and I went on another end of the year camping trip taking Wendi and Nathan with us. We came home to find an eviction notice. (Ah, drama.) The landlord wanted to move his grandson in there, because he was sick of him living in his house. The joys of an illegal apartment. I also, took a class through the red cross becoming a certified Nurse Assistant. I passed the class with great stride. October also brought another wedding of Arnie’s cousin Frank to his beautiful bride Katie.
November- I took a job at the Medilodge of Taylor nursing facility. I love my job and my residents. Arnie and I moved into the gorgeous apartment. We packed, moved, and decorated for Christmas in less than two weeks. I am my mother’s child.
December- We had our annual Christmas party and it was splendid. If you missed it, you missed amazing, scrumptious food. And, you are all losers. (I am kidding, if you missed it I know you had a good reason to do so, and that you won’t let it happen next year.)
We love you all and have many well wishes for you in 2008!
Love,
Arnie and Stephi
Okay, that was our Christmas letter. Now there are more things to talk about. I got a list of three on my mind. Sit back and get ready.
Item Number Uno- My new apartment. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it. I feel safe. I feel calm. It is slightly bigger, with more closets. I have a hall closet, a coat closet, a linen closet, a massive storage closet, and a double clothes closet. I LURVE closets. The area has all sorts of things. We have two Krogers, Meijer, Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot, Ace Hardware, Borics, Fantastic Sam’s, 24- Hr Burger King and Mc Donalds, Steak ‘N Shake, Dunkin Donuts/Baskin Robins, Panera, K-Mart, and an all you can eat Chinese buffet, within a two mile drive of here. Even a few kids I went to high school with live in this same complex.
Item Number Dose- My Job. I love my job. I adore my residents. It is a high burn out situation. There is more bullshit than should be allowed. I have a few people I trust and can rely on. For the most part I am happy.
Item Number Trace- Grandma. I am worried about her. From my aspect, I know what all the machines do. I know why they are all there. I know how they work. I know how to read them and analyze them. I hate that I know how to do it. My next few statements may piss some people off so I am sorry in advance. I know what the machines are saying and it isn’t good or positive news. I pray to GOD that I have to eat those typed words. I want Grandma to pull through this and I want her here with me now, but I don’t want her to continue on like this. If this is what her future holds, than we all know what the best is and unselfish thing to happen is. Some of us are having a hard time accepting this. I am not having a hard time accepting it, because I see the agony on her face. I am having a hard time accepting what I saw. That was not MY Grandma. That was not my QUEEN of the Amazon women. I am close to my family. Grandma and I have special moments. She is the one person in the whole world I can trust with anything. She is the one person in the whole world who I have showed who I am completely am. I love her. My heart aches in ways that people don’t understand. Most people think I am being negative. I am trying to be realistic. I don’t want to be paralyzed by death the way I was with Karl. I want to be able to touch her. I want to be able to kiss her. I am going in with positive thoughts, but knowing that there is a real possibility of something traumatic happening. Please don’t think of me as callus. I am hurting in my own ways. I pray that by time this reaches your eyes Grandma is back home in her chair watching Jeopardy. That is a real possibility as well, especially since after I write it takes me a while to post.
Grandma if you are reading this or this is being read to you, please know that I love you. I think you are an amazing, and strong woman. I admire your independence and bravery. I heard MOST (wink) of what you said. I will carry your wisdom with me wherever I go. I love you. I love you. I love you.
Update- On Decemeber 29, 2007 what was left of my strength has crumbled. I got an icky feeling while at work that told me that I needed to be at the hospital. Gretchen confirmed my feelings. I left work as I could. On my way out the door I called my parents to tell them that they needed to go. We all went. We all cried. Shortly after we left her for the last time, she passed away. Arnie said I was in the shower when he told me and all I did was scream for a hour. I don’t remember showering. I don’t have a voice right now, so I am guessing he is right.
I don’t know what to do with myself. It still feels fake. I remember waking up in the middle of the night swearing at Arnie and hitting him for playing such a horrible prank on me. Man, if only it were a prank. If it were a prank maybe I wouldn’t feel as if I were being swallowed in a world of fear and anger.

Who are you calling Gatsby?

I hate (Here I go again, Grandma, one side of the fence or the other.) when people say, “When it rains it pours!” I have seen many types of rain; light, heavy, sheet like, bucket full, misty and the list goes on and on. I hate to say it, but 2007 has been a really rainy for me and now that we are nearing the end, it is friggin’ pouring.
I will update you guys in a brief year thus far synapses…
January- Brought us many bills for car trouble and such, and fewer hours at work to cover said bills.
February- Mary died. Arnold did whatever he did with or without Cassie. (I still have yet to come across the whole truth)
March- Taurus finally dies completely. Down to one vehicle and trying to find rides back and forth to work.
April- Arnie’s aunt becomes real sick. I lose even more hours at work. We are on our 7th set of neighbors since we moved in.
May- Surprise bills. I love surprises. Offer of lawsuit settling is on the table. Meijer turns it down. Yippee more litigation.
June- Lost even more hours at work because apparently Jesus isn’t cool during the summer.
July- Nothing so bad that I can remember.
August- The kids are taken to Kentucky to live. Lots of surprise bills. We get our 8th set of neighbors. (Real assholes that 8th set.) I lost my job all together. Go to Mel’s wedding and have a great time, except for my knee kept me up at night, and I was cramping something out of Lifetime movie.
September- Man, that was the worst month for me this year.
October- I am really starting to hate the neighbors. They complain about us doing laundry in the afternoon and me watching TV after 8pm and are just in general the suckiest people I have ever met. We come home for camping to find an eviction notice in our mail box. The landlord wants to move her son and his noisy family into our apartment. Good news Arnie, and I find a better apartment that is 100+ sq. feet bigger for way less money. We really like the apartment. The draw backs are how far away from my parents it is and how close to his mother it is. Also, it only includes water, and it has no in unit laundry. No big deal, we can adapt, especially for what we will be saving. The bad news is, now we have to come up with 2000 smackers so we can move in. (We have 30 days according to the notice)
November- I have been on the phone with the mayor, housing department, building inspectors all sorts’ people. They are illegal apartments. They are going to shut them down when we move out. (Thank god, I have known the mayor forever or we would be really hosed and only have a few days to get out.) I turn in the notice, it is discovered to not be signed by Fred, and are also, the notices he uses for his legal properties in New Boston. Mayor Lambert tells me to contact a lawyer so we can sue to get our rent money back. (He has out apartments listed as horse barns and even has the names of the “horses” living in out unit.)
Okay, so now we have a moving date. (We are doing whatever we need in order to get the money.) We are moving the weekend before Thanksgiving. I am willing to take volunteering helpers.

I can do anything for 3 weeks

I can do anything for 21 days!

Let’s talk about what a horrible person I am. I wrote that generalized letter in my first blog of my new blog, reminding people of who I am because it seems to be forgotten, because I disappeared. Then in that same letter I promised not to do that again, and guess what I did? I disappeared again, for three weeks, and have once again come back a different person; this person that I am now, is a certified nurse assistant.
Now, let’s take a journey through the last 21 days shall we? Starting with week one, day one, I was all ready feeling flustered and aggravated when the teacher came waltzing in at 11:40 am when class was suppose to start at 9:00 am. Anybody who knows me knows that I am a very extreme person when it comes to being on time for professional settings. When she got in the room we spent a good amount of time rearranging desk. Then we filled out some paper work. After the paper work she sent us to lunch that was supposed to be a hour long that wound up taking us to a hour before we were supposed to go home. We discussed a chapter, took a twenty minute break, discussed another chapter, and then went home. That series of events on that first day, not only pissed me off, and made me wonder WTF? It also, made me feel ripped off because there was an extreme amount of money invested in this class. The class cost approximately $10.49/hr. I don’t feel like I got my money’s worth that day for sure.
Days two and three brought more of day one’s happenings, with the teacher being a little more time contentious and coming in before 11 am, but still after 10:30 am. We just reviewed chapters and took lucrative notes. I however spent every spare moment studying, and trying to make sure I knew the material front and back through and through, which would pay off later throughout the course.
Each day that we did book work (Tue. Wed. {Week One} Mon. Tue. Wed. [Week Two]) we had core review quizzes, I got 100% on four of them and 85% on one of them.
I don’t want to spend much time talking about my classmates, because to each their own! I will just say that I am glad to be younger than a couple of them so, I won’t be in their care, but there was this one girl, who absolutely obsessed with the amounts of notes I took, and the amount of studying I did, and flabbergasted that I took the time to hand write out the definitions in the chapter a couple of times, so I could memorize them. She started to copy them and grabbing my notes while I was writing to make a spectacle of them in front of the class. Unfortunately, I am older than her, but the good news is if it ever comes to being in her care, I believe Dr. Kevorkian has a son!
Days four and five brought two new teachers, one extremely prompt one and one not so much as prompt, but, not, nearly as late as the first. The problem with this is that most of the students got use to the first teacher strolling in whenever they felt the need to do. The last two days of the first two weeks, we had lab/skills days. There are about 84 skills we had to complete in the book, and about 45 that we had to discuss. The discussion ones were the ones such as rectal temps and douches. Good stuff. That was also, bed making days, and let me say this, making an occupied bed is far easier than an unoccupied bed! More importantly if nothing else motivates me to finish nursing school the motivation to never have to make another bed for as long as I live will do it.
The second week’s first three days were more of the same, stuff regarding note taking, and discussions, as well as class mates showing up when the mood struck them. Also, we got yet another instructor, but kept one of the same. Thursday of the second week was the hard core pass or fail the class test. (I got a 100%) The teacher stressed how important it was to be in time no, matter what. The test was to be administered at 9 am sharp. The teacher handed it out at about 9:20 because one student had not showed up yet. At 9:40 I was done with my test and that student was still not there. At about 10:20 he came in. She let him take the test! I was so pissed. I was even more pissed to find out the reason he was late is because he over slept, because his girlfriend had a dinner party the night before. I don’t play that way. If I was the teacher the door would have been locked at five after nine and he would’ve been SOL. Friday was another lab day where we had to feed a groom each other.
Monday of week three was very interesting. It was peri care day! Peri care is private area care. What made it more difficult was the fact the out teacher pronounced penis and Penniss (Pen like the writing utensil and asis like as in is, “Hey Sis, how are you?” and referring to vaginas as Oprah’s vajayjay. So we washed penniss and Oprah’s vajayjays.
The rest of week three was clinical days in a nursing home. Man, those places are distressing. I got crazy attached to my two patients. I don’t know if I could do that on a regular basis. Due to Hippa laws there isn’t much I can tell you, I can just say my teacher, um wow, yeah, that is a discussion for in person, and that is was a rewarding experience.
At the end of class they did a small graduation/pinning ceremony, where I was gold pinned. The teacher told me that I will make a great CNA and I also found out I scored the highest in my class for testing scores as well as for clinical scores.
Know for some did you knows...
· It is the responsibility of the CNA to provide post mortem care?
· The CNA is responsible for all direct care with patients, residents, and clients? (Such as bathing, feeding, showering, dressing, changing, wiping, cleaning, and caring for.)
· CNA’s are in charge of monitoring all vitals, including elimination patterns, (such as color, smell, and amount) and bowel movements?
We do much more than nurses and we get paid much less. Ah, to be part of the dog eat dog world. My next step is registering my certification with the state so I can turn it into a license. That will involve taking another test and paying a few hundred more dollars. After that, starting in January I am moving on to prerequisite classes for nursing school, and then onto the nursing program. All support and advice is welcomed. (Especially the support part.)

School

School, is very crazy. It is hard and easy all at the same time. Stuff I was sweating such as TPR (Temp.,Pulse,Resperation) is actually quite easy once you learn the rhythm. Stuff I thought I could handle like making beds, is the hardest thing I think I have ever done. I am no longer making any (personal) beds for as long as I live. As, a matter of fact, I am starting a new club, that members sleep on counters, so there are no beds to be made. My mother never once told me to go make my counter. I am now moving onto complete vitals. That is a little more tricky because we have to learn to do blood pressure the old fashioned way without, the pretty convience of electric. I miss electric. So if anybody needs their vitals taken, I am am volunterring, I need all the practice I can get.
There isn't much else to report. There isn't much time to report either.

School

As most of you know I have started school on Monday. This is litteral my first time on the computer since then. It is sucking up my life from 6:30 am until 10:00 pm. Lots to read. Lots to study. Lots to do. I will blog this weekend. Saturday most likely because that is when I decided to take the afternoon free from school to have some me time.

Kid Nation

Have any of you watched Kid Nation on CBS? I love that show. I am rooting for the kids the whole way. I am the first person to stand up for children's rights, so I was weary at first when critics said that is violated child labor laws and promoted anarchy. I think the critics should be sent to a deserted town to see how well they do.
I think those kids are doing a great job for kids. I think they would be better off without Taylor the beauty queen and now, the whiney kid has gone home they should well be on their way. My major beef with the show is in the first episode is that there was some physical violence when a 15 year old little shit tried picking a fight with the ten year old council member. Age issue aside, what do you think would happen in somebody walked up to Granholm and shoved her?
I hope in this episode they establish some type of law and order. And, is it just me, or do you wonder what they do with their gold stars until they leave the show? I wouldn't trust that type of valuable around, that 15 year old heathen. I love Kid Nation!

Day Two, I Am On A Roll

Two blogs, in a row, wow you guys sure are lucky. First let me explain, why I wrote that first blog the way I did; I seem to be getting screwed over a lot by some “friends” lately and I am tired of it. I have also been at the receiving end of a lot of rejection and speculation lately and I am tired of that, too. By writing that last blog, I have made a stance and now, I am hoping that a lot of this cloudy, hazy mess will clear up.
So in my life, I am taking a class to become a Certified Nurse Aide, and after I complete the course, I will have a job at a nursing home in Taylor. This is a certification that I can take with me wherever I go. I haven’t started the class yet, that come on October 1, 2007, but I all ready have the homework stuff and it is grueling. I am really excited to do it.
In Arnie’s news, there are still offers on the table for Texas, Maryland, and some other odds and ends out there, but a few aren’t offering enough in forms or paychecks or incentives to make it worth our time and investments. The ones that are out of state are worth it, but until this lawsuit, doesn’t require us to be in court every couple of weeks, we can’t afford to move and do mass amounts of traveling.
Lawsuit news is, nothing new to really report other than this is going way too slowly and I just want it out of my life. I am sick of them digging into old Pap smear records. My knee is well this is what I get for the rest of my life, so I choose to deal with it. Many days, I don’t even notice it. I just go about my business.
What we are looking into as a real possibility is University of Toledo. They can pay Arnie enough to work in the lab, and for some of his schooling. (He wants to specialize in a certain area of lab. Research I think.) They have a good nursing program, and it isn’t too far away from where we need to be in terms of our family, lawsuit, and other things that tie us to Michigan. I haven’t applied yet, because I am waiting to get this other class done. Arnie is waiting for a position to open to apply for it.
Other than that there really isn’t anything to report. My life continues to be boring like always. More blogs to come. Oh, before I forget, just in case, my new e-mail address is StephiMunky23@comcast.net