Hospital at home.

This is a scary big spider near Rocket's workshop. Needed a picture again.

Daniel, he's our neighbour from two doors down and is Marko's current best friend. They spend every moment of time together when they are not at any football training. He's a lovely Sudanese boy, so polite.

Anyway today he and Mark were playing out the front and he tripped and fell onto our brick fence injuring his knee. Mark came inside screaming.. he just stood there looking terrified, he thought his bone had come through through skin. It didn't bleed though, just pushed the skin back, like a superficial graze. But on his super black skin his knee looked white like the bone was poking through.

I cleaned him up - not that it needed much cleaning. Jamie got some padding and a bandage from his fishing kit (hmmm must raid work for some supplies for a real first aid kit) and off he hobbled home with a bandage around his knee. Poor kid he was so brave.

Must remember to check out my emergency nursing technique and investigate his knee tomorrow or Wednesday.

Not sure what to title this one!

Thought I'd just say hello again.

Suffering from insomnia again - only 12.30 - but its annoying.

I had some funny stories about Mark but I can't remember them.

Something bizarre that happened yesterday. After work I was SOOO exhausted that I went straight to bed. It was 3.30pm. That is just wrong really. Poor Mark had no idea what was going on. Jamie was watching the footy - his beloved Kangaroos got smashed, despite winning early in the game. After I woke up we decided to go to the beach as Marko wanted a swim, we went to Horseshoe Beach alternatively known as *The Dog Beach* and the puppies had a swim. Charlie loves the ocean, she tears in after the ball and swims out to bring them back. Marky was swimming with them. Skye just barks like as crazy man. My thought is he is protecting Charlie or Mark when they are in the water and wants them to come in. When Charlie swims out, Skye follows him despite his better judgment just to protect her.
Anyway after the swim we went back to the car and Charlie got diarrhoea (arrgggh just like work). Now a dog with the squirts is a really weird thing to see. Anyone have any idea what would cause that???

Ahh the Magic Bullet infomercial. That reminds me of a time Mark and I went to Centrelink - he yelled at the top of his voice "This is my favourite ad" he found a chair and sat and watched it. Well surprise surprise we now own a Magic Bullet and it sits in the cupboard gathering dust. HMMM why do I succumb to infomercials.

Got to try and get some sleep. Hopefully tomorrow I will get some batteries and upload some new photos. Got some great ones from easter.

Bye
PS. Is that better Kathryn??

Happy Easter

Hello and Happy Easter.

Resting comfortably.

Hello and welcome to Tuesday evening.

I've been sleeping so well - its confusing.

Afternoon nap on my days off.

My rubella level is low, so I need a booster shot.

We had a beautiful dinner tonight. Got it from Good Taste Magazine. Pork chop, coleslaw (with apple) and steamed beans. All plates were empty.

Jamie won at Indoor Cricket.

Back to work tomorrow arvo.

A Victim

Sunday at 11.30am Mark and his friend from two doors down Daniel decided that they wanted a hamburger for lunch. They asked if they could scooter up to the fish and chip shop and buy it themselves. They travel all over together, so going up the street to the chippie shop wasn't a big deal. On their way home near the pipeline (those familiar with my house understand the significance of the *pipeline* its the local hangout), a group of boys, about 8 of them on bikes all around 10-12 years old started to circle Mark and Daniel saying they were gonna bash them up.
My boys replied that "no they weren't" and I think Daniel said "Why would I fight you pussy's" (not too helpful Daniel). The gang also made a cutthroat signal. There were more words about wanting to fight and the boys ran home, Mark to our place and Dan to his place.

Mark came inside and said he had a lovely hamburger and.... "Mum, can you come here please??" This is the bane of my life, he always wants me to come to him, but I reckon he should come to me if he wants to say something, but I digress.
When I finally relented, he told me the whole story.

We went to Jamie and told him... in Jamie's usual style he said "What did you do Mark? The kids wouldn't want to fight you if you did nothing" Sometimes Jamie is so naive, there are generally bad people in the world, people who succumb to the gang mentality.

I worried about him, went to work, talked to my friend Brad who has two kids of a similar age to Mark, just to gauge his opinion of him as a parent and a man.

This morning I talked to mum (again) and she suggested I call the school, the police and talk to Daniel's mum as well. Two out of three ain't bad. Mrs Skillen was very helpful and she talked to Mark today in a discreet way.

The police station, I must admit, was fun. The police women were so beautiful I really felt like I was in an episode of "The Bill". I was invited into an interview room and she took my statement. Mark now has his name on the NSW police computer as a Victim of Crime. My little baby not yet 10.

When I collected Mark today from OOSH, he said to me "Mum, you remember what happened yesterday, it was actually VERY serious, Mrs Skillen talked to me and said it was really serious". She talked to the boy who goes to his school who was part of the gang and Mark thought that Jarrod had confessed to Mrs Skillen (as if). He wasn't mad at me for calling the school or the police.

Well all in all, it was an interesting day. The boys went for a scooter ride this arvo, and didn't run into any trouble.

If you got to the end of this post - I congratulate you.

Survived it.

Don't you hate it when work consumes you?
That has been my week.

When I started as a nurse about 5 years ago now, I considered my pay good compared with other jobs I had worked. I knew in comparison to other jobs its pretty well paid. I know that compared to admin jobs, the pay is crap. But I'm not too interested in sitting at a computer doing goodness knows what. I'm happy to be in a job that people understand (to a point) and respect.
Now I'm a little bit further in my career. I'm considered a *senior staff* member and as I'm not a kid, I have that in age as well. I am now responsible for teaching junior or newer staff, I think I'm doing a pretty good job. But now I'm thinking that nurses are just not paid enough. It really takes over your life when work gets tough.

Oh well not really sure where this is going. Maybe I want more pay. Maybe I need to quit again (no I've never quit this job). Nah I'll just calm down a bit.