Being Busy Makes the Time Go Faster!

This week has been kind of crazy but at least there is never a dull moment! I entered the office Monday thinking that since it was Columbus Day and there would be no mail that surely I could catch up on a few of the things that had piled up since my time off. I also thought I would surely have time to get that darned mandatory education online education done as well. Well that proved to be quite a full day to start the week off with. There was more mail delivered on Saturday than I had bargained for and the mandatory education took longer than I had originally anticipated. All week the whole office seemed to have problem after problem. Some days the insurance filing software would be down, other days the billers were plagued by errors in the patient's admissions upon entry into our facility. I personally am struggling with home health billing and getting caught up with admissions and discharges from when I was gone. I still have a couple of problems that maybe can be figured out this week. I managed to get access for Liz to check on what's been billed and what is missing so maybe that will make life easier for us in that respect.

On Tuesday morning, Mike called me at work and told me to say a quick prayer for Gabby. It seemed she overslept as she uses her cell phone as an alarm and for some reason it was in her purse and the battery was dead so she woke up late. She had a class at 8:50 and ran out the door at 8:20. It was her favorite class, Algebra, and she was to have a quiz that day. Luckily she ended up making it in the door just as the teacher was handing out the quiz. Whew!

Wednesday brought Fr. Miller's weekly hospital visit (actually he stops in Friday mornings too if need be) but this time he asked me what I was doing on Friday. I suspiciously said, "Nothing. Why and what time?" He said he needed music for a funeral as Susie Ohern had passed away that morning and he had just finished meeting with the family. Fortunately the family had made no wacky requests and he thought that Louise Zrostlik was going to be the singer so I was free to pick whatever. Since the funeral just around the corner I picked old stand-bys -- Be Not Afraid, Amazing Grace, I Know That My Redeemer Lives and How Great Thou Art.

Thursday brought a very long day as there was a mandatory admissions staff dinner meeting from 5:30 to 6:30 which actually lasted closer 6:50. That meant I was at work for 11 hours. From work I had to rush to the church as I was meeting Louise to run through the music quickly and I also needed to change the numbers for the funeral songs. How nice is was to play for someone who does funerals all the time too!!! We ran through the music in about 20 minutes or less which was sweet as I was exhausted.

The funeral was a small one and Louise knew going into it that she and Father Miller would probably be the only ones singing -- she was pretty much right on that. I did hear someone rather enjoying singing How Great Thou Art during the refrain though. Whoever it was couldn't carry a tune in a bucket but God bless 'em they were trying! Mike ended up serving at the funeral and I volunteered Gabby for a salad. I told her that by golly she is a member of the parish now and that's part of it, so she made a Snickers salad on Thursday night and Mike got it to the funeral for the dinner (almost too late!).

Friday afternoons I close the office. I was already on overtime and of course as is my luck, that's the time people call or stop in to pay their bills. Not only do they want to pay their bills but they want to visit as well. I can't very well tell them "I can't talk now I'm already on overtime and I don't want to get in trouble!" I just decided that I would appease them and visit -- after all they paid their bills!

Saturday started off early -- met Deb Veldhouse at the church at 7:30 a.m. to get flowers arranged and out for Sunday mass. Then it was off to Casey's to get some donuts and head home to get ready to go to Des Moines with my sister. I was in desperate need of a hair cut and more importantly a hair color! Gone are the days when I color my hair for fun...now it is a necessity as I am not anywhere near ready to look 10 years older than my biological age!!!!! My sister was in need of a hair cut. Both of us have hair that grows very fast. We had a good time visiting with my niece while she did our hair. Luckily my hair didn't turn out the same color as the color looked when she put it on! I was looking kind of like a pumpkin-head for a while! After leaving the salon, Deb and I headed (with directions from Bobby!) to seek tickets to see Cher when she comes to Des Moines in June. We got to Dahl's Ticket Office and I bought four tickets for the concert. Much to my surprise, my sister loosened her purse strings and bought two tickets for her and her husband to attend. Now I need to summon a posse to head to Des Moines in June. Deb and I are marking our calendars OFF at work ASAP for that date and maybe the following day to recover!

Got through the music at mass today -- was a difficult week to select music as all the suggestions really sucked. Since Micah was home I had him sing the responsorial psalm with me and announce. For some reason the church was absolutely packed today, which is a good thing. Maybe they just missed Father Miller!

Hopefully this week will bring good news for my partner in musical crime at church. Brenda has been working at Concord Care and having to work every other weekend. This week she had a second interview for a clinic nurse position at the hospital. I am hoping and praying that she gets this as it would mean no more weekends! She would only have to work one Saturday morning about every 3 months. These hours would be ideal for her and I think she would be a real asset to the clinic with her organizational skills as well as compassion for others. Let's hope and pray that I have exciting news on this front next week!