A-Z 1.5 years later

A - Age: 24
B - Bed Size: Queen
C - Chore you hate: a lot of them.
D - Dog's name: Kofi
E - Essential start your day item: a comb
F - Favorite color: don't have one. I love purple, yellow, orange, green, blue, white, black....
G - Gold or Silver: silver
H - Height: 5'8"
I - Instruments you play(ed): several when I was young but I did not like practicing so I quit
J - Job title: Foster Care Licensing and Adoption Specialist
K - Kid(s): are so cute as infants...oh my gosh!
L - Living arrangements: Ben, Julie, and Kofi
M - Mom's name: Arlene
N - Nicknames: Lupy, Lolly
O - Overnight hospital stay other than birth: never, not even for birth, my mom did home births
P - Pet Peeve: people standing in the middle of the aisle at the store oblivious that they are taking up the whole aisle and blocking me!
Q - Quote from a movie: "I'm just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her" - Notting Hill. Makes me cry every time! *In 2011: Still my favorite quote.
R - Right or left handed: Right
S - Siblings: 5 sisters
T - Time you wake up: 5:00 am-8:00am
U- Underwear: I don't discuss this in public...really?
V - Vegetable you dislike: tomato is the WORST, followed by mushroom. I like almost all the rest
W - Ways you run late: Car is out of gas, I stop at Starbucks, I press snooze too much, I make wrong turns, I spend too much time running, I spend too much time reading...there are A LOT of ways that I can run late!
X - X-rays you've had: teeth and stomach
Y - Yummy food you make: I think I'm best at salad dressings, anything with bbq sauce, cookies, and sorbet.
Z - Zoo favorite: I LOVE the exotic animals. Tigers might be my favorite animal to watch.

New Year

So I just finished Surrender to Love by David Benner which took me over a month to read, Drops Like Stars by Rob Bell which took me 30 minutes to read, and now am reading Life of the Beloved by Henri Nouwen. All three are pretty amazing writers. All three are very different writers. But all three are passionate about God, Christ, and life lived in Christ. I'm gleaning some pretty cool stuff from them - and am enjoying my times of resting my mind from everything around me to read word by word the stories these men have written. Quotes from these amazing men: "Jesus invites us to abandon the isolation and rigidity associated with our egocentricity." -David Benner. This totally describes a place I can go with out Jesus: isolated, rigid, and egocentric. "When we try to resolve things too quickly or pretend that everyone is there when they aren't or offer hollow, superficial explanations...it's not honest and it's not right and it's not real. It's not how life is." - Rob Bell. Seriously Rob Bell has the ability to look into my heart and pick out the words it is trying to say. He also has the ability to say words that reveal the rawness and the ugliness and then point out Jesus' power in the midst of it all. "You are free to do what you want - that is if you really want it." - Henri Nouwen. That is from the first chapter and I haven't finished Henri's book...but I think I will love it! I am wanting to dream a lot right now. Dream, plan, hope, pray, and make my dreams a reality. More writing to come on those dreams I'm sure.

Tomorrow we take down Christmas in our house. I try to leave everything up for 12 days after Christmas...that was Thursday and tomorrow is the first chance I'll have. I always get sad when I have to take it all down. But I do like putting the normal decorations back up and setting things in order again.

I have taken up running as my regular exercise. I go about 3 times a week and so far have LOVED it! I go either at 6:45am...just after the sun makes it safe for me to be out :) or I go after work right before the sun goes down. It is really fun feeling my body change and become better at running. I can go for lots longer than I could when I started about 4 months ago and I feel so good! I love that my running is dependent on nothing other than me. When I would go to the gym sometimes I wouldn't want to be around other people. When hiking was my exercise I wouldn't have time to drive to and from the mountain, hike it, and still get to work on time. When I rode my bike I would get flat tires and then be discouraged. Now, all my work out depends on is my effort to get up, there being enough light to see where I'm going, and Kofi not to eat my running stuff (which so far she has only eaten shoe laces). I think I will enjoy my life as a casual runner. I'm slow but steady for the few miles at a time I can run right now. I'm adding more time to my runs each week to see how long I can go...we'll see!

I'm starting this sorbet faze I think. I made mango sorbet on New Year's Eve and I LOVED it so much! I just got some more fruit to make into sorbet...and I might do it tomorrow. But first on my agenda is cleaning my entire house, laundry, putting Christmas away, and choosing paint for our bedroom (which hopefully we can paint SOON!)

So...I think that about wraps up for tonight. Kofi is ready for bed so I'm gonna go.

Try this again?

So after a year and a half of not blogging, I think I will start again. Our life seemed to go a little crazy the last 18 months and I could not find anything to write about. Well, nothing that I would want to share with other people. I love jotting my thoughts down, whether they are deep or not, simple or complex. God gave us hearts, minds, and souls. I feel, think, and love with those things. I think I'll use this to write about those things...feeling, thinking, and loving. Also just to give updates on life for those we love that live farther away than we'd like.

To start, I ran this morning in the 37 degree temp, I will be getting ready for work as soon as I put this cpu down, I have no idea what to wear today, I have a pretty important meeting at 11am today, I will stop at Starbucks to get a decaf, nonfat, misto with 1 pump white mocha and 1 pump gingerbread (unless I change my mind between here and there which I do often), and when I stop at Starbucks I will see my husband :) which is always nice on my way to work. After work I will try running again because I was too cold this morning and only got 1 mile in. I'd like to go another 2-3. But we'll see because Ben will be home and we have cleaning, taking down the Christmas tree, and a get together tonight at 7.

Gotta get ready for the day, and go to work. But I think I will like to be blogging again - I like processing through words, writing them down, and learning from them.

a few facts about me A-Z

A - Age: 23
B - Bed Size: Queen
C - Chore you hate: cleaning up after my doggie
D - Dog's name: Arabelle
E - Essential start your day item: alarm clock...lol...really I would say chapstick
F - Favorite color: pink, creeping up though is something I didn't expect - blue :)
G - Gold or Silver: silver
H - Height: 5'68"
I - Instruments you play(ed): several when I was young but I did not like practicing so I quit
J - Job title: PT aide and nanny
K - Kid(s): are cute but I don't have any!
L - Living arrangements: with my adoring husband, I was so thankful for him today!
M - Mom's name: Arlene
N - Nicknames: Lor, Lol, Lupy
O - Overnight hospital stay other than birth: never, not even for birth, my mom did home births
P - Pet Peeve: not planning something well when it affects me or people I love
Q - Quote from a movie: "I'm just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her" - Notting Hill. Makes me cry every time!
R - Right or left handed: Right
S - Siblings: 5 sisters total
T - Time you wake up: 6:00 am
U- Underwear: optional
V - Vegetable you dislike: egg plant
W - Ways you run late: If I forget my car's gas tank is on empty and I need to stop for gas...that happened this morning!
X - X-rays you've had: teeth and stomach
Y - Yummy food you make: I will say that I am a pretty good cook and I enjoy it so I make some good food! Best I think is fruit&marange, or salsa, or cookies
Z - Zoo favorite: I haven't been to the zoo in a long time - I remember riding a camel when I was little somewhere so I'll say that!

Hope you enjoyed this - now post it for yourself so I can read about you!

The "perks" of a hospital job

I have worked at Scottsdale Health Care for 6 weeks now. I have been able to handle the grossness of it all until today.

I have seen a lot of really gross stuff. I have had to quickly grap a bed pan and place it under a patient so he wouldn't "let some go" on his bed and on my hand; I held a bucket for a patient as she threw up the "nothing" that was in her stomach after her surgery; I have watched an elderly patient have a BM as we walked him down the hall; I have had patients faint on me and the PT in the hall; I have seen urine very unnatural colors of amber and puce; I have seen blood drains; blood stains on sheets; BM stains on sheets/gowns; stapled up incisions; very young sick people, and very elderly people in their last days. I have been able to handle all of that fairly well. Of course some teary eyes for the sad moments, but I've handled it. Until today.

Today a patient spit disgusting saliva and whatever turned it that nasty color into a bowl and I had to wash it. I gagged and dry heaved (thankfully silently and the patient's back was to me) I had to excuse myself from the room to keep from throwing up right there. I could not handle that. After working in a dentists' office I knew I didn't like saliva but I thought I was over that after going through all the above mentioned...but I discovered today that I am not. Saliva/spit will make me gag and dry heave.

So you can bleed/urinate/throw up/and even have a BM in front of me.
Just don't spit.
Thank you.

Oklahoma

I just got back from spending 6 days in Oklahoma! There is not much to that state but it is where my dad's younger brother lives and 2 of my cousins go to school in towns outside Oklahoma City. My cousin Melissa got married on Saturday in OKC so I flew out Tuesday night to help her with all the last details that come together in the days leading up to a wedding. I got in late Tuesday night to find that my poor cousin was sick with a really bad cold. She had only 3 days til her wedding! We bought echnecia drops and Emergen-C, stopped at jamba juice to load up on fruits, and she even decided to go to a clinic where they gave her antibiotics, liquid cold medicine, and to top it off: a shot of steroids. Needless to say her body kicked into high gear and fought off every ounce of sickness! She was feeling great by on her wedding day!

We spent our time together finishing the programs, doing a picture/ribbon project for the walls at her reception, talking about what photographs to do, finalizing details with the vendors, and then finally....friday we were joined by our sisters and moms for pedis, manis, luncheon, packing for the honeymoon (in Maui!), and gabbing about our lives and her WEDDING! We had so much fun! There are 7 of us girls in all - and that day will hold some of the best memories we have shared together. On the day of the wedding everything went so smoothly! There were a few things that needed extra attention or work...but Melissa never knew about those things and was able to relax and enjoy her special day. Well...she was mad when the photographer was an hour late and we couldn't hide that from her...but her sister did a great job of helping her get through that.

Ben came out for the wedding and was an amazing help getting the truffle favors finished and running back to the house when something was forgotten....We didn't get much time together because Melissa needed me to be doing lots of other things. He did however make sure we danced a few dances, held hands, and smiled at each other from across the room. He is such a perfect husband for me! He let me have my girl cousin time and didn't complain once about what I was doing for the wedding to make sure it ran smoothly.

The flight back home was comical. We needed to drop off me, Julie, and Cathy a little early (8:30 for a 12:00 flight) because we didn't want our Uncle Steve to have to leave a car at the airport and he did not have one vehicle that would fit all 5 of us in! In all there were my sisters and I, Ben, and our Grandma Ceil. The rest of the got to the airport around 10:30 only to find that the flight has been delayed an hour, set to leave at 1:00pm. BUMMER. We found things to keep us busy and our uncle Steve and Nana sat and talked with us until we needed to head through security. We got through, ate at Schlotzsky's, grabbed a deck of cards to play with, and shortly boarded the plane. We were getting nervous as 1:00 drew closer because in order for Julie, Cathy, and Grandma Ceil to make their connecting flight to Tucson we needed to be in the air at 1:05. We took off at 1:02, according to Ben's watch, and as we walked off the airplane in Denver we heard over the loudspeaker, "All remaining passengers on flight **** to Tucson please report to gate ** we are ready to take off." The three of them booked it (as quickly as Grandma Ceil could go) down corridor to their gate and thankfully they made it! They were the last ones on the plane but they made it.

Ben and I had a 2.5 hour layover and I wanted to go outside and walk around. Afterall we were in Denver and it looked like the weather was gorgeous outside. We made our way to the front of the airport - security didn't look like it would take very long to get back through so we continued past it. There were actually hundreds or people in line that we couldn't see. bummer....Ben wasn't thrilled because he didn't want to have to go back through security in the first place - sorry ben. We walked over to where they had an outside patio but they had "closed it for cleaning" we didnt want to walk too far from security because we needed to have enough time to get through. We got TCBY yogurt to make up for not being able to go outside. We then got in line for the 30 or so minute wait for security...got back on the tram that took us to our terminal. We had about 30 minutes til boarding when we got to our gate so we played cards and games on his itouch. We made it home a few hours late but were glad to be back with Arabelle. She's so fun and cute.

I can say for sure that aside from seeing Arabelle, we were not ready to go home on Monday. We loved being in OK and I love my cousins. My whole family was there and we loved all the time we spent with each other. Both Ben and I loved the weather, the scenery, and everything else about OKC. We definitely will be visiting our family in OK often.

*I will post pictures when I get them from my sister...

Pictures from March

We surprised my mom at a sports bar to watch the UofA game...they made it into the sweet 16!
She didn't even know we were coming to Cali and then we all got to go to Disneyland. It was a year of surprised for my mom!

We went to the beach the day we got there - windy and cold - but we still had fun and took some pictures.

It has been a long time since we were all together like this!

First ride of the day!

Me and Cathy :)

We took the train around the park

At Tarzan's Tree House...I had never been through it.

We LOVE this ride - no motion sickness in our family!!!

My mom's birthday dessert from a delicious restaurant in Disneyland!

Snow White's wishing well

My sisters with the cute dwarfs behind us

Last ride of the night - Dumbo!

Saying good bye to Disneyland...sigh...

And this is the video from my mom's surprise party for her 50th. Her sister Paulette who she dearly misses came in just for her party and surprised my mom - you'll see her reaction. It makes me cry.