Early Thanksgiving

I did take this photo, out the back door of our house.

I took a long drive into Miles City yesterday to pick up more things that you can't find in Baker: tofu, internet router, cordless phones, chili powder, etc. It was neat to make the drive by myself. I really enjoyed the scenery, the quiet. On the way back I saw, seriously, about two dozen wild turkeys crossing the road. Like, big turkeys. Like, the ones you normally find naked at the Jewel. But these had feathers, and were slowly making their way across highway 12. I wanted to get my camera, but I knew they'd be gone by the time I got it out.

So yeah, we have turkeys here.

Stephan and I talked again about how he likes his job. He told me the great thing is the variety. He can have the spontaneaty of an emergency, then see the patient through their hospital care, and see them discharged. He said he's seen people heal from amazing things, pull through when he thought they were done. He's learning about every medical disapline, from very creative and brilliant health care practitioners.

He's tired, of course, from waking up at 4:30am three days in a row, and working until 6pm... or 9pm, whichever. There's very little sitting down now that he's the floor nurse. In fact, he often doesn't get to eat lunch (or supper as they call it here) until after 3pm. And even then, he eats standing up, or filling out paperwork. There's lots of paperwork in his job. They don't have computerized charting here (I don't know what that means really).

Check out the Flickr site for photos of the house, the ranch experience, and the dogs.

Countdown to Plevna: 4 Days

Yesterday we drove out to Miles City again, this time, to buy paint! We're really getting geared up to move into the house at the end of this week. We also bought bug bombs, and some groceries. The trip out was nice. Since Stephan worked all night Friday, he slept on the way there. We stopped for coffee on the way back, and bought a bluegrass CD.

Stephan is working nights this week- Monday night, Tuesday night and Wednesday night. He gets there at 5:45pm, and leaves at about 6:15 in the morning. During those hours the PCP (primary care practitioner, like the MD, nurse practitioner or the physician's assistant) is on-call, not actually in the building. So all the meds, ER visits, or new patients are taken care of by the RN's. They decide whether a problem warrents waking up the PCP's or not- they deal with everything they can before making that phone call.

At the end of this week, Stephan will be on his own! We've been working really hard to get his license taken care of. We have his finished application already sent to the State of Illinois, with a priority overnight envelope so hopefully they will get the license back to us promptly. Once he is issued a license number, it will appear on the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation's website. We can take that number and apply for a "verification of license" to be sent from Illinois, to Montana as rapidly as possible. Hopefully the license number will be a reality by Tuesday, then we can overnight the verification request, and that will hopefully arrive back at the State of Montana by ... let's say ... a week from Monday. They will have the Montana license number by Tuesday, giving Stephan the title of RN in Montana!

The second issue we're dealing with at the moment is the scholarship application. The US Department of Health and Human Services has a Nursing Education Loan Repayment Program that Stephan qualifies for. Their deadline for the 2007 application is March 9th. What is required for this? Well, a Montana RN license for one. A list of all of Stephan's loans for two. A two-year commitment to work at a qualifying facility for three.

Do we have all these things? Will we by March 9th?

Stay tuned to find out!

Countdown to Plevna: 9 Days

Here is a photo I took from the car last week as we were driving out to Miles City. It gets a lot more interesting the further West you drive out of town. It's 40F today, the snow is melting, and things are much less dramatic on the horizon.

Stephan is working today, and I was trying to get things done (figure out how he can get his RN legal in Montana, how I can get a license in MT, more paperwork for the house, and I baked cookies). I HATE it when I mix up baking powder with baking soda. I think I used baking soda in the cookies because they all turned out flat and crispy. I shouldn't be allowed to use ovens.

I called the Montana School of Massage Therapy and asked if they knew what the process was to get an MT license here...

Man: Uh, like, a license?
Me: Yes. A license for a Massage Therapist.
Man: Are you nationally licensed?
Me: Yes, and I'm licensed in the State of Illinois. But I want to be licensed in Montana.
Man: Wow, that's a lot more than any of us have. Good job.
Me: So how do I get a Montana license?
Man: We don't license Massage Therapists in this state. You just- uh- go to school and then do it.
Me: ... Really?!
Man: Yeah.
Me: ... Oh. Well, thanks!

I feel two ways about this. 1. Check out the State of Montana Department of Professional Licensing and look down the list of professions they regulate. "Wrestling" is listed, as well as "Euthanasia Technician." I'm seriously not going to ask. But I am glad that I don't need to pay anyone any money, or fill out annoying paperwork.

2. I feel that strict LMT requirements are a good thing- it helps define the profession as something... um... professional. I'm a little worried about how well massage is respected in this state. I suppose I'll find out soon enough. The Physical Therapist and I spoke at length today and we agreed that it would be a good thing if I rented a room out at the hospital. Cool. There's some professionalism! We'll see how things turn out with that. I'm kinda excited to have my own place.

Countdown to Plevna: 14 Days

Yesterday we spent our first Montana Valentines Day in Miles City by ourselves. We had an amazing lunch at the 600 Cafe, with the best apple pie either of us had ever tasted. I can't quite talk about the hot turkey sandwhich I had, that was covered in butter and gravy, yet. It's still too close to digestion. But we checked out the movie theater there. Every day of the week they play a movie at 6:30pm. Sometimes if it's a short movie, they will replay it at 9pm, and sometimes the movie will start at 5:30 instead of 6:30. But every day of the week they play a movie.

We also stopped in at a little bookstore. Stephan has the card with him, I'll edit this later to include the name of those nice folks. They have an open mic night every Friday at 8pm. And, as the owner said, "sometimes it's even good!" As we walked out of there, and down the one main street in Miles City, Stephan squeezed my hand and asked, "Have you ever had a Valentine's Day like this one before?" and I answered, "Baby, I've never had a Wednesday like this one before."

Before we left town we stopped at the Walmart to stock up on a few things we can't get in Baker, low-cal Apple Juice, swimming goggles, Dr. Pepper in cans, dog bones for the kids... We passed the card aisle and stopped briefly. We both picked out cute Valentine's Day cards and showed them to each other. We smiled, laughed, hugged, and put them back. It's so nice to share economic values with your partner.

AND (wow, I hope you haven't fallen asleep yet) Stephan received a package [finally] from his sister with all new scrubs! He was so excited, and so was I, and I think the other hospital staff was excited to see him in something other than the Bears Scrubs I bought him last Christmas. I think they were worried that he was a little loopy. But, Kathy, THANK YOU. Opening a box from home means a lot to Stephan, and I know it reminds him of a time when boxes and cards supplemented his once-a-month phone calls. He did get kinda quiet for a while, which I think means he misses his family. I don't want to be too much of a downer (thanks, Melanie), so I'll just say, thanks, again to everyone out there who we know is supporting us and loving us from so far away.

Baker: Day 6... 80 miles West

We spent a good amount of the day in Miles City- the closest "metropolis" with all of 8,487 people! There's a Wallmart, Albertsons, Wendy's, Taco John's (no Bell though, much to Stephan's dismay), and a few other nice amenities (a movie theatre playing second-run movies). We stopped at Pizza Hut and a coffee place, then a trip to Wallmart. The moon is out tonight, and is huge and beautiful.

In housing news, we looked at the $32,000 "fixer upper" here in Baker. Not too shabby. Actually, the first floor was amazing! Great shape, huge kitchen and living room, with a dining room AND a large windowed front porch. There's a bathroom on that floor with the washer and dryer right in it.

The catch (here, there is always a catch) is... major sewer problems in the basement. In fact, we were really glad for the cold weather, as we were slipping on frozen sewage walking through the downstairs. There are 2 bedrooms, one bathroom, and a workshop in the basement- all very good sized. BUT there is the sewage problem.

There was that moment when we looked at each other and said, "Hey, this isn't that bad." And that's how we knew it was pretty bad. We have one more to look at this week, $15,000 in Plevna. Another "fixer upper" we've been told.

Tomorrow is Stephan's first day at the Fallon Medical Center. They are letting him come home early to watch the Bears beat the Colts. We hung a Bears flag on the fence next to our car to claim that little bit of driveway for Chicago.

Go Bears!