A Clifford Birthday!

It has been another year for my favorite little girl! Zeyda turns four on September 3rd. Our family are all traveling to Arvada Colorado to witness our good friends Donn and Vicki's daughter Naomi's wedding on the second, so we celebrated Zeyda's birthday in grand Clifford style this past Saturday. 


Mom, Dad, Grandma Mary and Aunt Melanie worked hard with the decorations!

Her cake was a pictorial of Clifford himself. Games of pin the tail on the donkey along with a Clifford piñata made all the kids exuberant. We ate candy bones out of dog dishes, what more could we want. The weather also cooperated and was in the cool 80's. 

Candy!

The best part though were the gifts of Legos and the Daddy and Mommy gift.

HAPPY GIRL!

New, Different and Challenging!

You know after a traumatic loss of a loved one the person who is left behind often goes through what Kubler-Ross calls the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Grieving people don't always travel through these stages in progression. Many times they jump around, in and out of stages as their particular way of dealing with death becomes apparent. People respond to death differently and to tuck the emotions into neat little packages defies logic. There is no one set way we all handle our losses. Often I have a feeling of all five at the same time. Denying my need to grieve; angry that I can't control my feelings; bargaining with God, if I can only help others this hurt will leave me; sinking in to the empty feelings of loneliness of the present; then finding the acceptance of having more good days than bad. Now I don't want you all to fret, these are normal feelings of loss. It is just that I have started to reach out to my friends and I am developing new relationships and connections to the world around me and myself.

Some of the new ways I am reaching out include starting a new business and LLC with my good friend Linda Schneider. It is called Western Nebraska Consulting: LTC Nursing Solutions. The LTC stands for Long Term Care. We just finished taking the AANAC MDS 3.0 certification class in Denver and passed the exams and are awaiting our certificate of completion. There are other courses we are thinking about taking to enhance our expertise and hopefully give our new business a boost. This is quite a challenge for me at this stage in my nursing career. Hopefully, it will help make new and lasting connections to a world without Brian. I will never, ever forget him or lose that part of me. The reality is that I have to accept my new normal and live my life in a new way.

Often I feel my family thinks I am jumping off the deep end. With my recent purchase of a ATV 4-wheeler and getting a gun permit so I can purchase a handgun and take the concealed gun class this fall.  But all that this means is that I am branching out into new and different territories; to reconnect to the world around me in a whole new way. Traveling is also very high on my list to reconnect to the world and my trip to Alaska is right on the horizon.  Bon Voyage !

Tests of all sorts!

Linda

Did make it home from Denver Thursday night late. I enjoyed the change of scenery and the company of Linda my friend and business partner. What I did not enjoy was sitting in a crowded classroom from eight to five for three days straight. Listening to the drone of our instructor's voice and viewing power point slides until my eyes could not focus anymore. What is worse is now Linda and I have to take ten tests online to receive our certification as a Resident Assessment Coordinator. Yes, we have already started while the information is still fresh and have six of the ten tests accomplished. Today we will try and finish the rest and copy off that all important certificate.



It has been a busy week trying to catch up around the home front. Went to celebrate my grandson Jarret's twelfth birthday in Gordon last Friday and stayed overnight. Saturday night I attended Jim Moran's retirement party here in Alliance from the post office. He was one of Brian's supervisors that became Postmaster after Brian retired. Unfortunately, the post office is in crisis mode and many Postmasters are retiring if they are eligible.Sunday I mowed, trimmed and watered the garden and flowers. Have been getting zucchini and cucumbers and only one tomato so far. Linda keeps me supplied with green beans and extra tomatoes.Tomorrow Linda  and I are going to meet with our travel agent Laurie and get our last minute instructions for the big Alaska extravaganza in September.

Sundust

Finally, this is a picture that Jennee Brooks painted in honor of Brian from a photo she took outside our home right after Brian passed. We all felt his spirit at sunset that night. Jennee is the daughter of my good friends Dan and Holle. Thanks Jennee for the great memorial!

Jennee

Heading West

This week I am heading west to Denver. Not necessarily for pleasure, but there will be some fun to be had. Training, training and training, three days from 8 to 5 to rectify my certification as a Resident Assessment Coordinator in long term care. Fortunately I am not going by myself and Linda will be my partner, both at the training and in our new consulting business. Lo, starting a business is new territory for me and somewhat intimidating! But the old saying goes if there is no risk then there is no gain, right? Both Linda and I only want to work part time, enough to keep the RN license updated and have some traveling pocket money. Good luck is in order for a couple of older gals trying out a new direction in health care.

There will be some pleasure, though. We are going to the play Jersey Boys. It should be a fun musical. We are also going to do a little pre-Alaska clothes shopping. You know a girl has to have the right wardrobe for the elements, for meeting bears, moose, and whales. It is hard to believe the cruise is only a month away! 

You remember Doc who was Brian's horse.  I received good news from The Flying D ranch that Martin and Bree  have decided to retain Doc as an extra cow horse on their ranch. It is comforting to know that he has a good home and will be able to do the work that he was trained for. I can't thank them enough for taking him this summer while I recuperated from surgery.

Brian at a Box L branding