Saturday, January 10, 2009

Snow and Snow and Snow and STOP ALREADY!!!

Okay – so I think my friend Grace at work has jinxed our winter season. Yes people, I know I live in the north. However, Grace assured me that “we don't get much snow anymore” and “mostly we just get rain, so don't be disappointed” Well, I think this is our 3rd snowstorm in about 1 month?? (or 4th or 12th – I have lost count). I do like the white stuff – it looks so pretty on the ground, and watching it fall is amazing. But, it just isn't a little white. It is 8-15 inches of white. And then ice. And then rain. And then more ice. AND, we were the geniuses that bought a house on a hill. So, since that first snow at the beginning of December, our driveway has never been truly free of snow or ice. It has been so cold that the last big snow from before Christmas didn't even melt and then while we were gone on vacation it snowed. Again. So, today, after a very crazy week of school closings and school delays, we are watching for another storm. They are saying around 8 inches again. Wonderful. The kids are going to be in heaven. But our driveway is CURSED. Mat went to the store today to invest in a few more 100 gallons of salt/ice. And a new shovel since we kind of cracked ours. Oops.

Anyway, I am done whining about it. Like I said, snow has its good points. It makes the kids happy. It is pretty. It causes school delays where we can sleep in.....

This week finished out on a good note. Even though Friday was a full moon (and can I tell you, it was just as predictable as the last one – the kids at school were nuts) Friday was my best day of the week. Let me rewind a little

Tuesday and Friday were our only full days of work this week. Tuesday was the day of the 911 call incident at my school. What happened (I will shorten it the best I can, but that may not make the post shorter) was that a little girl fainted in our cafeteria. She kind of started hyperventilating because she is kind of a hypochondriac and kind of crumpled to the ground. Lucky the kids at my school are short, and they don't have far to fall. She didn't hit anything and didn't hurt herself. But, I was not in my office at the time (yes, I DO get to occasionally unglue myself from my chair and see what is going on in the rest of the school). I was giving a child a breathing treatment in a classroom. I carry an amazing walkie talkie with me where ever I go. This thing works everywhere. I was given it so that they could get ahold of me when needed (emergency or not) and I wasn't in the office. I am diligent about carrying it because my school is, well...sort of....hyper. It is a big task to be the only calm one in a building. Anyway, things went wrong different than I wish they would have, and 911 was called before I had a chance to even see the kid. A teacher came into the main office, said that I wasn't in my office and they needed to page me – a little girl had fainted. My principal, unfortunately, the most hyper of all of them in tense situations, said “call 911”. Huh???? Without even seeing the kid??? The teacher just said she fainted. The time it would take her to run from the office to the cafeteria would have been exactly 15 seconds. By then, she would have seen that the little girl was awake and doing fine. But I digress. To my principal's benefit, she felt that she was doing what was right for that situation. I am totally okay with that. BUT – they hired me to be their medical person and to make these kinds of decisions. I have been a pediatric nurse for 11 years. I have been held hostage, done CPR, been in countless emergencies. THIS (to me) was nothing. But, I didn't even get to see her first.

Anyway, anyway – I get paged by phone to “come upstairs immediately”. No idea where I am supposed to go. I go to the office and find out I am needed in the cafeteria. When I get there, one of my frequent fliers is lying on the ground crying. More embarrassed than anything. I do all my “nurse” stuff to make sure she is okay. She isn't hurt anywhere. I set her up – she is good. We sit together on the ground for a few minutes. I ask if anyone called her mom. No answer. Everyone just shrugged. I was about to get up and get her info (because there were 12 – yes 12 staff members in the room, and the little girl was in no medical danger) when in comes.....yep.......the ambulance personnel. I was taken aback only because 1) they weren't needed and 2)who the heck called them? So I said “who called 911?” The librarian pointed to the principal. My principal said - “I thought we needed it”. I kept silent and just nodded my head. Again- whatever. But, at this point, little to my principal's knowledge – once EMT shows up, we lose control of the situation and they take over. EMT thought she was fine and they WALKED her to the ambulance. REALLY?????? Maybe a hint she didn't have to GO??? So I talk to mom on the phone, and convince the principal that this little girl is 9 and she can't go on the ambulance alone. (Yes, the principal was going to send her alone. Goodness) So her teacher volunteers to go with her, and my principal – still ramped up – decided to ambulance chase follow the ambulance to the hospital as well. Good – get her out of the building. Just kidding. I love my principal, I really do.

So I talk to mom and mom says, “yes, she has done this before. I was pinning a dress to hem for her, and she got nervous and passed out.” Awesome. THAT would have been good to know. So mom was calm and went to the hospital to meet her daughter, who was released within about ½ hour. THE END.

Well sort of.

Remember my boss who made my principal cry??? That conversation was about to come.

After the ambulance went, I called my nursing supervisor to ask her what all paperwork needed to be filled out for a child sent 911. She wanted the whole story, and boy was she crazy about how it went down. She is very protective of me as a new person, and so she was coming over to talk to my principal about the days events. She had called our directors of what is called “pupil services “(head of our crisis teams) and they told her that if she didn't talk to my principal, they would. Again......awesome. (or not). So Linda (my boss) came over and tried to talk to my principal (who is a woman, by the way. And went to Dartmouth. And is about 6'2) She started to cry. And she said “I can't deal with this right now” and walked out of our meeting before two words were said. Great.

So she didn't return and Linda and I went home and the next day was.......a SNOW day. Yeah. Big surprise. No snow, but the school kind of panicked about it and canceled school. Bummer. But good probably for my school for a day to “cool down”. Thursday was a 2 hour delay, so school didn't start until 10:30. It was a crazy 5 hour day, and nothing got done. My principal and I did speak a little this day, and I repeated about 15 times, when she tried to give me all the reasons it went "well" on Tuesday, that they gave me this wonderful walkie talkie (which a LOT of people have in the school to use to get to me – we have A LOT), yet she kept saying “we don't do it that way here”. Very productive. So I sighed, and smiled, and left it. A lot of staff have found it humorous because they have been through this with the principal in the past and they think it is just how it is.

Time for CHANGE. I am a change FANATIC.

I called my supervisor, and told her about the “we don't do it that way here” stuff, and that made her SO happy. Not. She in turn told pupil services and they said “we will handle it”.

And they did.

Friday they showed up (there are two of them) and took the reigns and set the principal straight. Friday after noon – around 3pm – we had a crisis team meeting, everyone got their feelings out on the table how Tuesday went down. I got to tell them that it was fine and I was not upset, but I want to help them fix it for the future. And we put a policy in place. MY policy. The way I would like to see things go. Will it work every time? Of course not. BUT- we have a policy.
Like I always tell my boss “my school will come over to my sunny side of the street. I will get them to see it my way”. And I did. (Hardy har)

Friday was also my little Chinese inservice for all the grades. It was a lot of fun. The kids were really into it, and picked up on the Chinese Phrases really quickly. I taught them Ni Hao (hello) Xai Jian (Goodbye), and Shi Shi ni min lai (Thank you for coming). Thank you to my brother-in-law Frank for teaching me how to say them (the best I could!). I couldn't have done it without him.

My kids are doing really great. Everyone is healthy, and that is the best news. Finley is learning her letters a little more each day. We got her little letter books for Christmas, and she has been recognizing them from there. Cainan's color recognition is getting better and better. Arlington's writing skills and word recognition have taken off. Although, potty training - Boo. Finley is so stubborn. I need like a whole month off from work to work with her and get her straight. Cainan is waiting patiently for his turn. Ha! He just likes to shut the potty lid. I can't wait to see how much money we save where we don't have to buy loads of diapers any more.

Okay – so this blog was WAY to much about me, and not enough about the kids you love to hear about. The week was just crazy. I did get all of my Christmas stuff put away, and the house clean on my day off Wednesday. That left less for the weekend, which was nice. Arlington had basketball this morning and that was a lot of fun. I had a chance to catch up with my neighbor Michelle, my friend Kelly and made a new friend. I LOVE this town – people just see someone sitting alone, and before long, they come over and join you to keep you company and strike up a conversation. It never ceases to amaze me. After basketball, Arlington and I went to the library to get a few movies for her to watch this weekend. No books this time. Arlington got about 10 books for Christmas and another 7 at the book fair. So she has to catch up first! But we always have fun. She sits and reads some books and I browse.

Then this afternoon Mat took Arlington on errands. She LOVES to run errands – thinks it makes her a big girl. They got the salt and the shovel and some lunch. Yum. We are a sucker for fast food. It is a problem. But not a big enough one that I want to quit cold turkey!!! Hey, at least it was Subw@y.

Have a great rest of the weekend, and I will see you Tuesday!!! Sorry there are only a couple of pictures of the kids in some of their new clothes. I can't find my charger, so I will do better next time!!

Oh, and of COURSE you have noticed my new blog! Thanks to my wonderful hubby - I have a new look and a new title. But my blog address has not changed, so not to worry. I just wanted a little change. I hope you like it because it took my husband forever to do it, and he tells me he won't be changing it any time soon!

3 comments:

Carrie said...

Ok, that's hilarious about your principal. She sounds kind of, um, crazy? :) Sounds like an eventful week at best. I like the new blog layout! Very cute!

Danielle said...

Love the new look! That was a crazy story-and I am glad it was resolved! We have gotten some snow but not like you.

Anonymous said...

Whoa... did you say that you were taken hostage once???