Topics to cover:

1. Sack Lunches and other learned appreciation for my mom
2. Work so far...
3. Weekend at Jenns (27-29 of May)
4. First fall at work
5. Fishing weekend
6. Awesomeness from Garage Sales
7. Woot.com and Midnightbox.com and purchases made from both.

Wow. Ok, lets see if we can make it through all of this, shall we? Get ready for a monster post...

1. Sack Lunches and other learned appreciation for my mom

My mother has been making me sack lunches (or rather "cooler-lunches" - as they have been placed inside a smallish cooler) every day that I go to work. Its like High School all over again, except this time - after a couple years at college - I appreciate it a good deal more. Let me tell you, she's not tossing together some crap sandwhich and throwing in a little bottle of water. No way. I'm getting snapple iced tea every day (lemon or peach), big sandwhiches, a fruit item (usually bananas or grapes or strawberries) and some other snack, be it chocolates or peanuts. Mmmmmmm... Thanks mom!

Now on to the "other learned appreciation for my mom" section. Working as a NAC covers some (I don't know if I dare say "many") of the tasks a parent must go through daily. Basically, NACs assist resident/patients in ADLs (activities of daily living) such as getting up in the morning, dressing, brushing teeth, feeding, transportation (help walking or getting around in a wheel chair) help in the bathroom, transfers, and much much more. While I was putting residents clothes away, a thought entered my mind that has stuck - I really, really appreciate my mom and all the work she has done like that for me. All the laundry, folding / putting away of clothes, feeding when I was young, diaper changing (we call them "attends" in the nursing home) etc. Mom - you're the best. Seriously.

2. Work so far...

Wow. Well there has been quite a bit now. I basically feel comfortable doing any task required of my position - which is very nice. The only thing I feel slow at is getting people up. I've found that I am not the best at matching clothes for some of the residents. Most of them don't care - and I am grateful for each and every one of them :D

I have worked 2 days in the A-wing (long term care), and enjoyed my work there, but didn't have as much fun as I did in the 2 weeks I spend in D-wing (medicare). Thats where people go after surgeries and hospital visits... I had a blast in that wing and made many friends with coworkers and residents. I was also offered a private job by one of the residents for when he gets out of the facility - and he's willing to pay me more than double what I'm earning currently. We'll see if anything comes of that. Currently I am in C-wing, which is 1/2 long-term care and 1/2 medicare. Its a good balance. And moving around keeps things interesting and provides more learning opportunities. Hurray!

3. Weekend at Jenns (27-29 of May)

Uh oh. I forget exactly how this went. But it was awesome... Hmmmmmmmm. Basically, before this weekend I was working on a day-to-day basis, not having a set schedule (they had yet to work me into the system). When I found out I had the 3-day weekend off, I decided to go and visit Jenn. YAY! I went over Friday night around 8 and arrived around 10:30. I think we just hung out and went to bed at a somewhat reasonable hour. It was afterall way past my usual bedtime =)

Saturday... We went and saw X-Men 3. Which was awesome. Somewhat of a bittersweet movie, but well worth seeing. Then Jenn had to go to (or got to... meh) a wedding shower for one of her close friends. Yay... I stayed at her house with her mom, and I had a lot of fun. I played with Gracie (her 1/2 retriever 1/2 german short haired pointer?) for an hour, and then spent the rest of the time talking with her mom. I think we both enjoyed each others company. Jenn came home and... Then I think we went over to her friends house and hung out before retiring to bed.

Sunday we went to church, and then Mr. Johnson got called out to help a semi up in Blaine, so I went with him. I got to wear some overalls that had the name "Randy" on them, and I must say I looked very official. The drive up was fun, and Mr. Johson and I had good talks about a bunch of different stuff, and he taught me some of the mechanical aspects of semis =) After we finished in Blaine he took me out to lunch at a burger place, and we had some there - especially with my overly-messy burger. That night Jenn and I went out and rented a couple of movies, and we watched them with her parents.

Monday we went out clam-digging. It was my first time, and I enjoyed it greatly. I'd love to go out and do it again. It was really cool because a ton of her extended family came out with us, and we were all digging up tons of clams. We went over to her grandmas house afterward and cooked them all up and visited for a few hours before I had to go home. It was a great weekend =)

Well... I think I have tired slightly of typing. Perhaps I will cover the remaining topics tomorrow?