We should have gone to LA

Clear your calendars for the next hour, this is going to be a long one.

We have had a great week of relaxng around the house. We have not been very productive at all, but that is not what I want to write about. Today we felt like we should get out of the house, but didn't want to spend a lot of money. We were going to drive to LA and see the movie "Children of Men." For various reasons, we decided not to.

One of the things we've been doing this week is watching the first season of the tv show "Arrested Development." We wanted to watch the second season and instead of buying it, we decided to rent just the first disk. We went to Blockbuster, discovered that our account hasn't been used in so long that it doesn't exist. So, the worker led us over to the counter where you can apply for a Blockbuster card, we fill out the form, go back over to the cash register to turn in the form. He takes us back over to the "application registration" counter, enters our information in to the computer, then he says we can go over to the register to rent the movie. We go over there and 10 seconds later, the same guy appears behind the counter and helps us. Nathan and I gave eachother a look and tried to hide our smiles because it reminded us of something you would see in an episode of Seinfeld.

Later in the afternoon, we decided to go see the moive "Blood Diamond" We parked our car and are walk through the parking lot. A man riding his bike turns toward us and no joke, spits right at us!! (He apologized on his way by) But still...nasty!!

Maybe we should have gone to LA afterall.

Look what the wind blew in

You are not going to believe this. We have had some extremely gusty winds all day. Here's proof. The pictures speak for themselves. One of them is of our neighbor's wooden fence that blew down. That wasn't too unbelievable. The other one is the wall on the side of our yard that the construction down below put up. Supposedly there wasn't any cement in the wall.

Christmas Dinner

I heard a joke from one of my patients the other day. "Why did the teddy bear not eat any Christmas dinner?" .... ready? "Because he was already stuffed!"

That is me today. We went over to someone's for Christmas dinner. It was just 4 of us, but judging by the food you would have thought it was one of my famly reunions. (actually, not even those have this much food!) When we first got there, she gave us sweet potato pie (to tie us over 'til dinner) Then, when we were done with that, we had a pecan/walnut pie. Then, she gave us a piece of peach cobbler. Then a huge glass of sparkling apple cider filled up mutliple times.

Then came dinner. We started with a shirmp cocktail. The dinner consisted of ham, turkey, twice baked potatoes, macaroni and cheese, green bean casserole, stuffing, cranberries, rolls and a lemon soup with rice.

I am afraid I will still be stuffed for our Christmas Eve dinner tomorrow.

U.S. Geography lesson

How well do you know the states? I think I scored 84% Although in my defense, I was always pretty close, usually only 1 or two states away. Good luck! Just click on the title, it's a link.

New Blogger

I finally updated to the new blogger which makes it a ton easier to change various settings. Bear with me as I figure out what I like and don't like. I kept changing it and I now need to leave it and come back to it with a fresh look. Suggestions are welcome:)

We had a great weekend. We had a Christmas party last night with various friends. I ate way too much. People brought some aweseome food. Papa Murphey's pizza, tomales, and many sweet things. Nathan baked 3D gingerbread cookes that were pretty good. I was excited because I love cheeseball and it is a tradition in my family to have it for Christmas. I made a cheeseball look like a snowman with three balls and then using black peppercorns for his eyes and buttons. Then I cut the very tip of a baby carrot for his nose. It was seriously adorable. I also added some cayenne pepper to the recipe which I have never done before and I liked it.

Then, today...
Our unit sponsors a patient's family every Christmas. Everone signs up to buy various gifts for the family. I went with a few other people from our unit to deliver the presents to the family this morning. It was fun to see our little patient in his house, in his environment instead of ours. For about a year he was in all the time. Now he is 3 years old and he barely recognized us. (I think this is a good thing) He even has a head of hair!! I hardly recognized him when I walked into the house.

Then Nathan and I went over to his new office and cleaned like crazy. There are 4 offices in one area that are all his. They are full of tons of junk that has accumulated over years. We only finished one office and I will hopefully be able to help him clean up the rest of them over Christmas break.

Teary eye problem solved

I am super excited! My SCUBA goggles got some use today for the first time since our certification. I had a ton of onions that needed to get used. So...I decided to make french onion soup. I was not looking forward to cutting 6-7 onions and I didn't feel like pulling out the food processor because I had to use the knife to cut the skins anyway. So...I went into the closet, pulled out the goggles and wore them the entire time I cut the onions. It worked beautifully! Not a single tear.

The Holiday

We just saw the movie The Holiday. I liked it and it was entertaining. I even got a little teary-eyed. I just read something saying that it was this year's Love Actually, but I don't agree. I loved Love Actually. The flow of the movie was perfect, the multiple characters all intertwined was fantastic, the music made the movie drive forward and gain enthusiasm.

The Holiday was a nice story and the acting was good. However, I felt like the movie was unbalanced. There were basically 2 story lines and the movie focused on one more than the other. There wasn't really a climax and the only "twist" was kind of a minor one.

It sounds like I'm tearing it apart, but I'm not. I enjoyed it, but it was no Love Actually.

High School Never Ends

When I first heard this song, I loved it! I was reminded of it today as I was waiting at the pharmacy for a pain patch for Dolores. On the table were three magazines. All of them were the entertainment gossip magazines, not a Readers' Digest, Good Housekeeping or Time, so this song popped into my head and I have been humming it all evening.

This song has a strange way of putting my priorities in order.

by Bowling for Soup

Four years you think for sure
ThatÂ’s all you've got to endure
All the total dicks
All the stuck up chicks
So superficial, so immature
Then when you graduate
You take a look around and you say HEY WAIT
This is the same as where I just came from
I thought it was over
Aw thatÂ’s just great

The whole d*** world is just as obsessed
With who‘s the best dressed and who‘s having s**,
Who‘s got the money, who gets the hunnie's,
Who‘s kinda cute and who‘s just a mess
And you still donÂ’t have the right look
And you donÂ’t have the right friends
Nothing changes but the faces, the names, and the trends
High school never ends

Check out the popular kids
YouÂ’ll never guess what Jessica did
How did Mary Kate lose all that weight
And Katie had a baby so I guess TomÂ’s straight
And the only thing that matters
Is climbing up that social ladder
Still care about your hair and the car you drive
DoesnÂ’t matter if youÂ’re sixteen or thirty-five

Reese Witherspoon,
SheÂ’s the prom queen
Bill Gates,
Captain of the chess team
Jack Black, the clown
Brad Pitt, the quarterback
Seen it all before
I want my money back

The whole d*** world is just as obsessed
With whoÂ’s the best dressed and whoÂ’s having s**,
WhoÂ’s in the clubs and whoÂ’s on the drugs,
WhoÂ’s throwing up before they digest
And you still donÂ’t have the right look
And you donÂ’t have the right friends
And you still listen to the same s*** you did back then
High school never ends

High school never ends

The whole d*** world is just as obsessed
With who‘s the best dressed and who‘s having s**,
Who‘s got the money, who gets the hotties,
Who‘s kinda cute and who‘s just a mess
And I still donÂ’t have the right look
And I still have the same three friends
And IÂ’m pretty much the same as I was back then
High school never ends

High school never ends

High school never ends

Here we go again

ELLEN

I love watching Ellen. Nathan surprised me by getting 2 tickets to a taping. That taping was today. I had invited my friend, Rachel, to go with me. We've been excited about it ever since. Today was the day. We left about 6:15am and drove to Burbank. Of course with morning traffic we didn't get there until 8:30am, which we thought would be fine since the gate where the line begins wasn't supposed to open until 8:30. Well, I should have known better, but there was already a line by the time we got there. We were hopeful and continued to wait until 11:00 when they started handing out the tickets. (its first come first served and they overbook) We were told all the tickets for the audience were gone and we were still hopeful for the Riff Raff room. We were about 20-30 people away when they announced that even the Riff Raff room was full. Oh, well. Maybe next time.

We still had a great day hanging out. We went to lunch, did a little shopping and I got a lot done around the house after being gone for 2 weeks.

Small world

I have been on many planes in the last two weeks. One trip to MD was planned to visit my sister. The other trip was unplanned to attend my grandma's funeral in MN. JetBlue to MD was a positive experience. (as always) They told me I was their favorite customer and that I look good in leather. They even gave us a little kit since we were on the Redeye flight with lip balm, lotion, earplugs and an eye mask (that eye mask came in extremely handy later in my trip) My trip to MN was uneventful. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in MN. My flight from MN to Denver again uneventful. However, snow in Denver caused my flight to be delayed. I used the restroom (Denver's restrooms are nice and clean and actually smell good, by the way) I passed someone I recognized by sink. As I was walking away, I figured out it was one of the neurosurgeons from my hospital. I walk to my gate, discover my flight is delayed, and notice that one of the few chairs available was next to this neurosurgeon. So, I go over and introduce myself and we had a nice conversation while waiting for our plane. It's a small, small world.

PACMAN

What is the big deal about Videogames.

I can't seem to get into playing video games. Give me a game of Sorry, Egyptian War or Go fish and I'm there. Every now and then I might get in the mood to play Mario brothers, but even that isn't very often. One of my other favorite games is PACMAN. I just added it to my personalized Google page and I could only play it for 10 minutes and now I'm bored of it. I just don't get it.

Chocolate

When I was growing up, we often had chocolate miniatures around the house. My dad always played a game with them called "The Game" It was a game teaching about choices and how there are consequences for those choices. He would hold out his hands, both hands containing a chocolate miniature. We had to choose which hand we wanted. Whichever hand we chose, that's the piece we would be required to eat. I always hoped it would be a special dark. Those were my favorite.

In order to ensure that I had plenty of chocolate for myself. I would always choose a krackel or a Mr. Goodbar if there was one in the bowl because my other siblings didn't like the special dark. So the special dark would be the last eaten and since they didn't like it, it was all for me (and my mom)

I realized today as it's Halloween and there was an article about how chocolate is better for the teeth than sticky candy. I have concluded, that it is ok for me to eat my dark chocolate. In fact, I should be encouraged to eat it. Not only is it good for my heart, it's good for my teeth. Well, it's better than starburst anyway.

Writing produces writing

I am home sick today and what a better excuse to sit at the computer and pass the time writing. I also have some books I picked up the other day and now I can feel good about sitting around and reading as well. Without feeling like I should be doing something else. Here is how I like to treat myself when I'm sick. I'm not sick for very long, so this usually works.

1. I always make a glass of hot tea. The first sip is usually pretty quick, I practically inhale the tea bypassing my tongue and the roof of my mouth and swallow it down my throat burning most anything that might be lingering in there.

2. I repeat with chicken noodle soup.

3. I try to take it easy. But I still make myself get off the couch periodically to move the mucous around. So, right now, there is laundry going. I will type, read or rest in between the loads. The bed sheets, towels and everything will be cleaned.

4. It helps to have a cute box of Kleenex nearby. I just bought a brown box with pink, blue and green flowers. The girl that bagged my groceries even commented on how cute the box was. I love brown.

5. This one is new for this round of sickness, I think Bruschetta is the new chicken noodle soup. Our neighbor gave me a ton of tomatoes so of course I made Bruschetta. I think all the vit C, antioxidants, etc in the tomatoes and the garlic are great for the immune system. I'm sure the basil and olive oil have some kind of affect as well.

And now...updates

1. We are officially SCUBA certified and had a great time spending a few extra days on Catalina Island after our last dive. (oooh, first load is done, I'll be back) I'm supposed to be getting a CD of our pictures from the SCUBA instructor some time.

2. The mason started putting stone on the wall out front. Only a small section is done, but it looks great already.

3. We will be visiting my sister on the east coast the week of Thanksgiving. Our friend from Scotland will be in Washington DC at the same time, so the timing is perfect.

4. The local country station is having a radio-a-thon for my unit at the hospital. I will be answering phones tomorrow afternoon to collect pledges.

OK. Enough time on the computer, I need to finish a book and then heat up some homemade chicken noodle soup. # of sneezes while typing this: 8. I guess I should go wash my hands and wipe down the keyboard. Later.

Lessons learned from SCUBA (so far)

1. Clearing a mask of water (while under water) can be done, just don't forget to exhale with your nose, tilt your head back and close the mask again.

2. Do not swallow air. It comes up a lot bigger than when it went down.

3. Urinating in a pool while wearing a wet suit for 3 hours is a necessity (to all the swimmers that used the pool when we were finished...sorry)

4. Equipment selection is all about comfort.

5. Keep the regulator in your mouth at all times, except when performing skills that you pray you won't need to use when you SCUBA in the ocean for real.

6. Exhaling under water is possible, just don't breath in without your regulator.

7. I am thankful for the nose God gave me that warms and humidifies the air I breathe.

8. Diving computer is totally worth it.

9. Replace the dust cap every time or Wiley will not be happy.

10. Relax.

Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus

My husband has always wanted to get scuba certified. He has loved the ocean ever since spending a lot of his summers as a kid on Catalina Island (where we will do our 6 required dives by the way) at his grandparents' hotel. Nathan has been wanting me to get certified with him ever since we started dating. I have always laughed saying "I could NEVER scuba dive" For his birthday this year, I am not only giving him a Scuba certification class, I'm doing it with him! Yikes! His patience will be rewarded.

The following is my own acronym for the word SCUBA.

Scary: This is the word that has caused me to say "no" to my husband all these years. It's a totally different world under there. Definitely not my comfort zone. I was always taught to breathe with my nose, not my mouth. Something very basic and natural will now take concentration and thought...breathing through my mouth. It will be mind over body to not feel claustrophobic going down 70 feet. That's a long way. It's kind of the opposite of being scared of heights, being scared of depths.

Costly: This won't surprise any of you that know my husband. He's been all over southern California from San Diego to LA checking out all the scuba shops, spending hours on the internet researching the best equipment, and talking about the places he wants to scuba dive. The only things we are required to purchase for the class (other than the class itself) are gloves, booties and a hood for the wetsuit. I did purchase some goggles, a snorkel and fins so that we could go snorkeling. But just like any new activity, it usually takes some money upfront.

Ugly: No one looks good decked out in Scuba attire. Enough said.

Babysteps: I think the secret to succeeding in scuba diving (or anything that is scary and a challenge) is baby steps. 1st baby step was deciding that I could succeed at trying to get certified. Admitting that it's ok if I don't get certified, as long as I tried. The next babystep was snorkeling. Realizing that it's ok to swim under the water with the fish. I had a good time, but I wasn't able to really dive down. The last baby step is using the gear in a swimming pool and eventually the ocean.

Anticipation: While there is most definitely anxiety within me at the thought of scuba diving, I am also excited. Doing something I didn't think I could ever do and then coming to the realization that I can (with lots of prayer and determination)...is exhilarating. And so it is with great anticipation that I look forward to doing something that started out as a sacrifice and something to please my husband, has turned into an opportunity for personal growth.

It helps me to think that God created the things under the sea as much as he created the things on land. What a privilege it is to be able to see these creations up close with my husband.

A much needed break

God knows our needs before we do. We had a few rough months at work with lots of very sick children passing away. We had the largest number of deaths in a 2 month time frame than anyone could remember. Being that we work on a pediatric hematology/oncology unit, you would think that we would "get used to it" and it would just be a "part of what we do" That is not the case at all. All these deaths were making nurses rethink their choice of career and people were getting burned out.

Today I was talking with someone about what a stark contrast it has been on our unit the last few weeks. Our census is so low, so many empty beds, that we are calling off nurses each shift, we are floating to other units, and our assignments are nice, cushy, 2-3 easy patient lists. It's not even like this around Christmas when we try to get as many children home as possible. This last Christmas, there wasn't any empty bed to be seen. I mentioned that I think God knew we needed a break and this was His gift to us. And for it, I am forever grateful.

The other side of work

Praise God! The boy mentioned a few posts ago is doing great and is scheduled to go home this week!

House Update

Here is an update of the house. We still need to put stone on the wall and on the columns in front of the house. But its getting there.

Because You Have To

Parents just might know a thing or two.

When a child is growing up, they often hear "because you have to" as a reason for why something must be done. Nobody really likes the reason, but sometimes there is no better explanation.

I took care of a very sick little boy today. The only good thing he had going for him was #1: he wasn't burning up with fevers like he was yesterday and #2: dedicated, committed, caring, strong, smart parents.

I had a rough day, but those parents had an even rougher day. I felt like nothing was going MY way, but come on, nothing was going THEIR way. Their little boy is in the hospital, with 7 IV pumps on his pole and continual medications/blood products going through his body. 7 days ago, he was riding his little tricycle around the unit. One medication given, in hopes that it would help an ailment of course causes even more side effects.

I once said casually to his mom, as we were changing the umpteenth diaper of the day. "I don't know how you parents do it" She turned to me and said in the most loving voice "Because you have to"

At least I had a better ending to my day (despite leaving an hour late). I had a nurse come on and relieve me of the mess. And she will have another nurse there tomorrow morning to relieve her of hers. But as far as those parents go, they will continue to trade off with rare, yet precious, breaks. No one to relieve them, but each other. All because they have to.

Who'd Have Thought

I just purchased a ticket to Minnesota to visit family for the summer. It makes sense that a ticket to Australia would be one of the most expensive tickets because it's probably the furthest you can go from the west coast. But please explain to me why a ticket to Minnesota is more expensive than a ticket to London, Rome, and probably a number of other places over seas.