Work, "Fame" & Trains

Good morning and a happy Thanksgiving week to you! Last night was another night of little sleep and I finally gave up a while ago and got up to begin the day. Today is the final day in a 5-day stretch and the rest of the week will have a fairly relaxed pace, but I wanted to do a catch-up post today.

Last week found me working in the dementia unit every day but one as the regular afternoon girl took a couple of days off. It was actually nice to be in once place every day rather than bouncing back and forth between dementia and the rest of the nursing home. Sundowners (when the residents become highly agitated in the late afternoon and evening) was pretty bad Thursday and Friday and the staff was feeling stressed, but everyone calmed down over the weekend and did a lot of sleeping.

I heard lots over the weekend about being a "celebrity" after this picture appeared on the home's Facebook page (it will appear in a local paper this week...Hali, Jim's family, and I have all signed releases that's why I can share the photo).

As part of the ‘Give Back Project,’ the residents of the memory care wing at Bethlen Home recently donated 8 blankets to Angel Arms in Latrobe. The residents discussed babies and how to care for them as they knotted the borders of the fleece blankets. This activity provides sensory stimulation as they work with their hands. The sharing their memories and advice about taking care of babies enhances their moods. In the photo, Jim Shoup is proudly displaying two of the blankets he helped to make. (Also pictured are staff members Stacy Artis and Hali Livingston.) Bethlen Communities is a faith-based non-profit continuing care retirement community, and it is Bethlen’s mission to serve those in our care and in our community. Angel Arms is a charity to provide comfort and care to babies born in drug addiction. The organization is part of Faith Forward, a faith-based organization that provides people in the community with resources, counseling, and encouragement to overcome life’s obstacles.

Hali is currently an LPN, but she began volunteering at the home when she was just 13 or 14 and was working as a paid activities aide before she was out of school. She has worked almost exclusively in the memory care wing all those years. That's quite a commitment for someone who is only 26, but she loves the dementia residents and they love her right back. I really enjoy working with her. 

I stopped at the grocery store after work on Friday. I wanted to get a turkey before they got too picked over. There was a big promotion so I was able to get a big 22 pounder for just 38 cents per pound by spending $25...not hard to do at all! I had planned to try dry-brining it, but then yesterday I found a recipe where you inject herbed butter and slather the skin with herbed butter and pour champagne into the roaster. It sounds divine so I just might try it, instead.

Saturday evening we just hunkered down as it got very windy and rainy and the temperature dropped about 30 degrees. We woke to the rain changing into snow on Sunday morning. The front was just about through by then so we only got a bit more than a dusting and it melted as soon as it stopped.

Last night I came home to find that Tim had brought in the fall and Christmas boxes so I can get the fall decorations put away for another year and get started on the Christmas ones. I had planned to get the fall stuff put away last night, but Megan called right after I got home to ask if we'd keep the kids for a couple of hours while they did their grocery shopping. Of course we said yes!

We sure enjoy having Colton and Leah around. Colton is such a sweet, funny, little guy and he has an amazing imagination. Leah is beginning to have some personality, too. She is going to give us all a run for our money, I think. She watches EVERYTHING very closely.

Tim had gotten it into his head that he wanted to get Colton a train set for his birthday next month. The boy has a couple of toy trains, but Pappy wants him to have a REAL train. An ELECTRIC train. Not just any electric train would do, either. It had to be a Lionel train. So, last night I started looking online. Ugh. Do you know how expensive Lionel trains are? Battery operated ones can be had fairly inexpensively, but we HAVE to have an electric train. I searched and searched and comparison shopped for price, features, one scale vs. another...and finally hit pay dirt. I was about to settle for something else when I found a Lionel Disney Christmas train in O-scale (a nice larger size) at an unbelievable price. It's ordered and I like that it has a lot of accessories so we can add to it for him every year.

It's finally time for me to "get up" and get ready for work. HA! I am off tomorrow and will be doing the shopping for Thanksgiving, decorating, and in the afternoon going for that major change in hair color and style. It will be back to work for Wednesday and Thursday, then I am off Friday - Sunday. Our family Thanksgiving will be on Saturday. I will pop in a few times this week, but can't promise big posts. You'll get to see the hair, though, I promise that!

Have a blessed and beautiful day and week!