The Fourth of July, 2008

Okay, I promised I would write about this and it was terrifically fun, not sure why it's taken so long (probably downloading the pics!).

Heather was up here in Portland visiting that weekend, and we went out to Long Beach, WA to hang out with the Felt's for a BBQ and to watch the fireworks from their back porch. There were some funny things from that day filled with many memories... And I would venture to say that it's one of my best 4th of July's ever...so here is a random sampling:


The weekend of the 4th was HUGE at Long Beach this year! There were people everywhere and everyone brought their own fireworks to set off from the beach...




Me with 2 of my favorite girls...Morgan and Livvy

Heather with Livvy

Livvy and little Hyrum

Starley with Hyrum


Have to say that I've learned that giving a child unsupervised time with a camera is always entertaining...

We were posed for this one by Starley...

This is a picture of Morgan taking a picture of herself in the mirror...and yes, that's my camera.

Any guesses on what this is? (I will tell you at the end if I remember)...


Of course being the cool "Aunt" means bringing fireworks for the kids...



I do have to admit that I got my first EVER fireworks burn this year on my foot, which hasn't completely healed yet if that tells you just how deep it was even if it was pretty small! Okay...pause for a story.... Few people know that I've always been afraid of fireworks (and uncontrolled fire in general), in part because I had trauma as a child (okay, maybe it was in my imagination, but trauma is trauma) when my mom took me to watch fireworks from the park where they set them off. I was first put off by the loud banging shot as they set them off, I liked watching it go up, but when the strands of sparks started coming down, I remember screaming like I was SURE I was going to die by fire that night! My mom had to get us out of there because we were ruining the show for everyone around us! (Yes Karen, this is why my family always watched the fireworks from across the city!) Then again when we were setting off home fireworks one year at my grandma's in California, I realized that I was a fireworks MAGNET, as they always seemed to chase me while I ran screaming down the driveway back into the house...the only ones I would do were the sparklers because they were the safest of all. Yeah, so imagine how brilliant I feel that Sparklers are exactly what I got my fireworks burn from!!! I thought it was just me freaking out internally because there were 7 kids around us all asking for more sparklers, and waving them around everywhere (some out of fun, others out of fear), including dangerously close to other people and cars. I realized that it wasn't just me when Heather made a statement later that that's the most dangerous time she's ever spent around sparklers! (Thank you Heather for validating my internal freak-out moment.)

So what's a party at the Felt's without getting busted by the cops!


And finally, it really was something else to sit on the balcony wrapped in blankets with anyone who could fit (including the baby) literally for HOURS as we watched fireworks of all shapes, sizes and varieties going off up and down the beach, both from the City show and the fireworks everyone brought...it was AWESOME!!!




Oh, and that picture that Starley took...Bird Poop...and she was pretty darn proud of that picture too!!!

The world through the eyes of a child...

Okay, I know I have no business blogging at 3:30 in the morning when I should be sleeping, but I can't help myself tonight... Yes, I will write about my 4th of July later. Tonight I have to post some pictures that the girls took when I arrived here at the beach. First, the girls asked if Heather was coming back (she's been here twice now but they absolutely love her!).

Here's Heather with the kids last weekend...

Then when we said she might come in a few weeks, Starley (turns 5 this month) and Morgan (7 1/2) asked if they could "take a few pictures of everything for Heather". I gave up my camera and didn't even notice when they took it downstairs to their room for a while. Tonight as I looked through, I laughed so hard... I think you will see why. I have to post all of the pictures they took (which are many) and I have to leave them in the order they took them in... so here goes!

Heather, these are for you!

I was happily feeding the baby and talking on the phone when they took off with my camera...

They took a picture of Hyrum...

Then Mom...

Then it gets interesting...


































And back upstairs to Hyrum again at the end!


Now Heather, don't you feel loved and missed?!

What a night! A few random thoughts...

Okay, I know I shouldn't blog when I actually have nothing to say or stories to tell... that was evident to me after my last post. But we don't always make the best decisions when we're tired, do we? So here goes...

It was a LONG night last night at work in the ER. For some reason, the hospital was either full of patients, or did not have enough nurses to take care of patients, so we had to keep many in the ER just waiting to get rooms in the hospital. At one point, half of our ER rooms were full of patients, making the wait even longer for the few patients in the waiting room who still had to be seen by a doctor.

I had a few memorable things happen...

My 94-yr old demented patient who was unsteady on his feet and had a "sitter" because of it, fell onto the floor, under the watchful(?) eye of this "sitter". Nice...I HATE writing Incident Reports and thought I'd fly under the radar here by not having to write one in 3 months, but it was not to be! Luckily he seemed fine...the pt, not the sitter.

I took in an ambulance patient from a nursing home that had a plugged G-Tube. That is a tube that goes directly into someone's stomach through their abdominal wall, and is used to feed, water and push meds into a patient. This pt's tube was blocked...nothing would go in and nothing would come out. Our ER doctor saw the patient and caught me and said, "Use your voodoo magic ways and see if you can get that tube unplugged." So being a resourceful nurse (and an experienced one), I tried my magic and it worked! 30 minutes later, we were ready to send the patient back to the Nursing Home. The cure: Coca Cola and a little patience! How's that for "voodoo magic"?! Interestingly enough, I wasn't actually able to drink my usual Diet Coke tonight.

I also sat and listened to the story of an Iraqi veteran that absolutely broke my heart. It makes me question what our priorities are in this country... we will pay millions of dollars to the people who entertain us (movie stars, athletes, etc), but we truly don't give those who do the "real work" in this country, who create and maintain the country that we enjoy (teachers, soldiers, etc), any kind of recognition, credit or compensation to match their contributions. Then we fail them miserably sometimes when they need us the most. It broke my heart to hear his story... and that doesn't happen to me very often anymore in the ER.

And finally, I realized this morning that I've finally been accepted among the staff here when I had a conversation at 4:00 a.m. with the charge nurse that went something like this:
Charge: It's been an awful night!!! One of my worst ever!
Me: At least it's almost over.
Charge: For YOU!!! You get out of here in an hour. I've got 3 hrs left!
Me: Sucks to be you! (laughing)
At that point the charge nurse flipped me off which would be offensive to many people, but actually means "I love you" in ER language. She told me as much too...the fact that she's comfortable enough with me to even do that speaks volumes...and I might have deserved it. :-)

My favorite month of the year!!!

This is it! July...my favorite month of the entire year...is finally here again!!! As many of you know, I am truly a summer girl. I have a few things I am looking forward to this month...including a visit from my dear friend Heather over the 4th of July weekend coming up, my birthday, visits to the ocean, a niece's birthday (Starley-5 yrs), and LOTS of SUNSHINE!!!

The last week or two have been very difficult ones for me for a couple of reasons, so as the dust has finally settled in my life once again, I welcome the new beginning that this month brings and hope that it will be one of my better July's!

Even as I type this at 1:30 in the morning (approx) I hear some popping outside...I have to say that I hope it is early fireworks (like I thought when I first heard it) and not gunshots (like I thought when I heard it the second and third times). The last time I heard gunshots outside my apt window, a police officer was killed by them (WA 2003). I guess I will wait for the sirens...but I will not look out the window (again) because I know (as I knew the first time I heard them yrs ago) that you cannot be called to testify as a witness if you don't actually SEE anything! No sirens yet...we might be good...

A 30-Minute Commute...

People have often asked me why I live so far away from the places I work, and I've thought about this off and on. In Seattle, my commute was 13 miles and 25-45 minutes depending on traffic (and across a bridge!). In California, I lived 19 miles from work and the commute was 20-30 minutes. In Salt Lake, I live about 20 miles (?) and the commute is usually 25-35 minutes. I realized that I've always lived about 30 minutes away from my place of work, at least for about the last 7 1/2 years -- the entire time I've been a nurse... until now...

Here in Portland, where I'm currently working as a Travel Nurse for the summer, I have an apartment about 5 minutes from the hospital that I work in. Overall it's been great...until I got off work this morning after a LONG, 13 1/2 hour night, and was tired and frustrated, and just needed to blow off a little aggression by driving really fast in my car. Instead of turning into my parking garage, I made a last minute decision and headed to the freeway, where I proceeded to "drive it off" (slowly of course, since I AM in Oregon!) for about 13 miles out, and 13 miles back. It was exactly what I needed, and I laughed as I came to realize that 30 minutes continues to be my perfect commute.

I know it's a waste of gas, and of time, and of a lot of other things, but the benefits are amazing sometimes! It's just enough time to "come down" from a shift, process it, and "put it away" before getting home. It's not long enough to get so tired that I'm falling asleep driving. And it also means that I RARELY run into my patients at the grocery store!

Now if only they had some hard "head-banging" music on the radio on a Sunday morning...

A perfect day...

Okay, so for the first time since I left Seattle in 2003, I actually was out today running errands and got distracted by the sunshine! Yes, it was a beautiful day in Portland, 98% sunny and everyone was out and about, and I was no exception... I reverted back to my "old Northwest habits" and parked my car at some random park I found across the street from Fred Meyer, got out my "park blanket" from my trunk, and went and laid in the sun for 40 minutes!!! The funny part is that for the last few months and years in Utah and even in California, I had wondered why I even still kept a "park blanket" in the car since I never used it anymore... but today it seemed perfectly natural to have it in my trunk, because you never know when it's going to be a perfect day to lay in the park! And as I lay there soaking up the sun, I kept thinking to myself, "List of things to do? WHAT list of things to do?!" Yep...back to my Northwest Mentality!

Tagged!

1. Link your tagger and list these rules on your blog
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

7 random facts about me:

1. My two dream careers when I was a young child (under 10) were being a semi-truck driver and being a cashier...I actually was a cashier for a while and LOVED it!
2. I stay up late at night because I HATE the process of trying to go to sleep.
3. I won first place in a fashion show once that I got talked into doing with a friend.
4. I was a clogger and performed with a group at the Nevada State Fair.
5. I have had a birthday crisis every 5 years (on the 5's and 10's) since I was 25...and I have some fabulous stories about what goes into those crisis times!
6. I make some dang good home-made ice cream!
7. I can't fly a kite, and if I'm around people who are flying kites, I am a kite magnet!


I was tagged by Katherine Bronson, and I tag Ramona Brown, Teddy Elder, Michelle Black, Jessica Lamirand, Adri Nye, Alena Kesti and Karen Barres!