A Busy Sunday

Sunday was a busy day. We went to the early service so that we could get to tubing down the Truckee River. The water was high and fast, we had a good time! It was 98degrees!!!! I remembered sunscreen on my back and shoulders, but forgot my belly and ended up getting burnt! And Adam didn't put any on at all (which was my fault) and got burnt too.

Then we had a BBQ at Kaylee's

Then Adam had a Softball game. He hit 2 Homeruns! It's a church league so its not like it's competitive at all, but our friend Jaun plays on the team and he use to play major league, he actually played with Micheal Jordan, so thats the Whitesox's or something right? Anyway, he hits homers all the time.

Mom got stuck in a bag again. Adam said that if she had to go to the bathroom at least she'd be covered!

The latest

*I started a daily bible study. Our pastor really recommended this. It's something you know you need to do, but just can't ever figure out where to start. Our church hands out "Daily Bread" which is a little daily Bible Study guide with an attached story or statment. This has helped a lot. That time in the morning has already become hugly important in my day.

*We started Dave Ramsey awhile back, thanks to Bryan and Allison. So soon we will be financially free, wealthy and have an abundance of savings!!! Right?

*Adam wants a tattoo. Oh geez. Most people think this occassionally and then get over it. I think he might be serious. I told him I will tattoo him in Sharpie and he has to keep it on him for 1month and if he still likes it we'll consider talking about it. He wants a cross on his calf or the bible verse "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" on his inner bicep. Okay, cheesy yes, but what tattoo isnt and its better than a basketball or something. I think I will have him do a report on why that verse means so much to him before we can discuss tattoos again. Afterall, I should have some say in what he does to his body.

*Adam has come across some work that does not interfere with GBA and that brings in some extra $$$. We are so grateful! Now I just pray that I will learn to adjust to not having dinner made for me every night! Hes such a good husband!

*I learned I have an enormous amt of vacation time at work, just waiting to be used! Some people take a whole month off and do nothing! That sounds great, but my supervisor told me to save it for maternity leave if I plan on having kids within a few years. But I could still use a couple.....I have like over 200hrs!

*My good friend Melissa is having a baby-anyday now. Technically shes due on the 22nd I think, but shes already like 44inches around!

*Our basil plant died :(

*Smith family reunion in UT being planned! Very exciting. I really hope my family can make it. Jenny and I might be sharing a hotel room- how fun!

Kali's Wedding

My good friend Kali got married this last weekend in Hayden Lake ID. (the one i made the green, and blue shoefly quilt for) Her family and family friends have cabins on the Lake, so this is where we stayed. The first night we saw this outside our window.

I've never seen a rainbow so clearly!

We went for a kayak ride across the lake to the boy's cabin to intrude on their "pre-wedding man time". The ride over and back was fun, guided by the moon light.
Kali and I bond over our obsession for running, need for daily workouts and smelliness. So it was nice to go running and biking with her again. She took me on a tough 14 mile bike ride.

The day of the wedding. The weather was amazing. This is at the Country Club where the wedding was.

The groom and one of the bridesmaids examining the layout.

All of us wedding party had a cabana on the club grounds to get ready in. Kali needed help shaving, I dont know why, but I was happy to help!

The first look, oooooh!

Kali and Ben: Driving around the golf course to take beautiful pictures!

Yay! The dresses she picked out were a very pretty green. She looked absolutley beautiful! She wore my wedding earrings which I was very excited to share.

The first dance overlooking Hayden Lake

Her dad gives these crazy speeches with lots of props. It was a medium sized wedding with lots of fancy people. A few times I was in a conversation with the plentiful amts of lawyers, doctors and dentists that led to a kind of "ahohoho" fake laugh, turn your head to the side and take a sip of wine while thinking "wait, are these people for real?". Very fun wedding though, the dancing was fantastic and I was very happy to see Kali so happy.

After this was only dancing of course and as you know me, that's what the rest of the night consisted of.

Even the next day was beautiful. We lounged around and layed on the beach at her parents place. I was happy though to go back home to Adam, weddings without him always make me a bit sad :(

RTO Relay

The 6th annual Reno Tahoe Odyssey Relay Race!! It's a 178mile relay around Reno and Lake Tahoe area (Just like HTC). 12 people per team, 3legs per person, usually over about 24hrs (depending on how fast your team is), our team placed 23rd out of 153.

Heres a map, the yellow line is the course...very cool course!

Our team: Perfect Strangers. Most of us did not know eachother, a few are from Sacramento. Shawna and I were the only girls. Kevin and I (the one in the red shirt, white hat) were the captains. I was the only one however who had ever ran the RTO, or even any (true)relay race. This was my 8th relay race! The guy on the end by me had a 6way cardiac bypass surgery in Dec.! Whats more amazing is that I ran the California International Marathon-Relay with him and Kevin three weeks before he had the bypass. He was the first leg and decided to run the whole marathon and finished in better time than our whole team! The guys insane....awesome runner even when his coronary arteries are 90% occluded- True Story!

And were off (our first man is in the black shirt....Go Michael!)

We started in downtown Reno

Chattin it up at the Boca exchange

We've now made it to Tahoe, heres my van-mates.

Luxury sleeping in the Walmart Parking lot in Carson City. We got about 1.5hrs of sleep- and then its up to run again


Outside Carson...beautiful morning! This was about 5am.


Micheal apparently still needed some ZZZZ's- what a weenie, 1.5hrs isn't enough! haha

Coming up the backside of Virginia City


Go Neighbor Dave go!! This leg was killer, whole way up hill a 15% grade!



Great weekend!

Yay for being recognized

Rarely do us ICU RN's get appreciated, because:

1. Our pt's our knocked out for various reasons

2. Our pt's are "frequent flyers" and have no regard for others or themselves

3. Our pt's have no family

4. Our pt's are mad that they are alive

5. If our patients and families are appropriate to appreciate us, they forget about us after they transer to the floor and we never get recognized on a hospital-wide scale (surveys they send out)

But.......All in one week I got 2 Starbucks teas, a Starbucks mug, a dish of fresh strawberries and 2 family members tell me that they were writting me up for being so great!

As an addendum, I discovered that I am a Nazi nurse. When my pt's are past the point of "pure death" we'll call it and are on there way out of the ICU, I like to tell them that they are at bootcamp. And in most seriousness treat them like so. They have been laying in a crumy hospital bed for sometimes weeks and I'm the mean nurse that tells them that they have to start doing there own work, which includes sitting up in a chair for longer than they want, scooting themselves up in bed, and so on. This sounds minor but these were once very sick people so to have them do little things like these are huge for them. They complain and sometimes cry, but I tell them that my job is to help them get home and if that means putting them through a little pain, than thats what I will do. Pain is enevitable, misery is an option. We really do have to talk to most of these people like children, since most people revert to a child-like state when ill. Strangely enough one of the ladies I made cry is one of the ones above who got me a gift and thanked me! Yesterday my pt kept talking and she recently had the breathing tube pulled out of her throat which can cause swelling especially if you talk a lot after. She kept failing her swallow evaluation and wasn't able to eat or drink because of this swelling(and on top of it has a disease where she doesn't secrete saliva) so she was miserable, but kept talking and was confused so would ramble about nonsense. Finally I told her that I didn't want to hear her talk unless she was dying. And if she started to say something I interrupted her and said "are you dying?". Walking in on it it sounds horrible but I kept telling her to keep her flapper shut if she wanted to eat or drink anytime soon. You will not catch me wearing looney tune or care bear scrubs- I like care bears but do not agree with there position in life- Caring is not always a big fluffly hug its a kick in the pants! My favorite advice I ever got was from a good friend/roommate- I told her about my oh so dreadful problem where someone had offended me and she looked at me for a second and said plainly "maybe this isn't about you". Thats tough love. I feel bad for the children I will have one day