Father's Day

So this year was Patrick's 1st fathers day. Riley and I did these pictures with DAD above and framed it so that Patrick had some pictures to put on his new desk at work! We had a very good morning but unfortunately I had to work at 1 PM so I couldn't hang out all day. I did take him to Mr. Eds in the morning for breakfast because that is his favorite place to eat in the mornings. We then went home and his mom came over and we took a walk down the street to see Grandpa Bill, this was very bitter sweet because he just moved to a nursing home but we ended up having a nice visit. I then had to go to work but Patrick ended up going over to my parents house and they BBQ'd burgers and sounds like Riley had a wonderful time playing and being silly all day.

Visiting Grandpa Bill

Work ended up being slammed. We had two patients that got shipped out by helicopter which is basically unheard of in our small ER. We had very interesting patients and it was busy all day long so I was very happy to get a hamburger delivered to me later in the night. This week in general was very busy, I also had 3 codes which is unheard of as well. Lets just put it this way when I first started working there I didn't get my first code until almost 6 months in and then all of a sudden I got 3 in one week! Yikes, I was very thankful for my 2 days off of work!

The day before Father's day was when Patrick and I went to the Sweets game but earlier that day our little family took a walk to the park and played on the swings and watched the water and even went down the slide! It was so much fun and we took so many photos that we kept saying the paparazzi was following Riley because she was so darn cute! Also this week Riley officially crawled and is getting much better at that and she is basically an expert overnight on going from laying to pushing herself to the sitting position. It is so scary for us because now we can't procrastinate on baby proofing the house, we just need to get a day off together and buckle down and do it!

My friend Julie

As I have started to come to the realization that my friend Julie is not coming back I have decided that I want to remember her in a positive light, not in the dark place she was in when tragedy struck. So I am here to remember some of the wonderful memories. For those of you who knew her you may laugh along, for those of you who don't, lets just say you missed out on one of the most wonderful woman I have ever met. Tears are streaming down my face as I write this but I have to have some way to remember and I welcome any other memories anyone else wants to share on here. RIP Julie 5/30/12.

Bunco party at Jodi's house, all the ER girls

When I walked into work the first time that Julie was working in the ER at General Hospital I can still hear in my head the first thing she said to me. "Your Greg's daughter? Wow you are a lot prettier than I thought you would be...hahaha (picture Julie laughing here and you will know she was completely serious, you may also be laughing because her laugh was completely contagious)! She took me under her wing after this comment and taught me all I could learn in the short amount of time that I worked with her. I looked up to her as someone I strived to be in life. I just loved how smart she was and how successful she was and I was inspired by the fact that she believed  in me as much as she did. She would always tell me that I was smarter than her at my age and that if I wanted to be a nurse practitioner than I should just do it now and get school out of the way. She supported me in everything I did and encouraged me to better myself.

I will never forget the first code blue that was called overhead while I was working with her, and just remember I was only a nurse for about a week at this time. It was called to the CT room and she literally had to push me through the doors, shuffling her feet behind me. First off I didn't know where the CT room was yet and second off she made everything such an adventure, I couldn't get over her enthusiasm for all things challenging. Thankfully it was a false alarm and we laughed the rest of the day about me really running around aimlessly frightened!

Kill and Grill at Underhill's house, playing with Brad's bird!

I will never forget the time that she showed up at my house when I was so sick with strep throat. Of course I was totally stubborn so I wasn't going to go see a doctor and my temperature was so high. Her and Jeff just made me take some Tylenol and she made me come in to pediatrics (where she was working with Kay Henderson doing her Masters and I worked with Kay as her nurse) and get a strep screen and antibiotics. She really took care of me when she knew that I was miserable. I also loved working as her nurse when she was working with Kay in pediatrics. She just had confidence in me and didn't treat me any differently than she normally did, it felt like she respected me and that was refreshing to experience. The 3 of us had fun that day working together.


We had the best times outside of work also. Boating with most of the girls from the ER and their husbands. It was one of the best days I can remember with her. We tubed and drank and laughed all day long. We had fun teasing Jeff that none of the life jackets fit over his belly and we laughed at some inappropriate humor (although Gregg missed it every time, everyone who was there knows what I mean!) We always talked about doing that again but as time went by and life got in the way it never happened again. If we every go out to the river as a group again I'm sure it will not be the same.I remember Jeff's 50th birthday party at their house. It was so much fun just hanging out and opening funny presents, of course talking about stories from the ER.

I will never forget one of my bachelorette parties, in particular the one that my co-workers took me too. Yep ChipNDales in the Tri Cities. We carpooled up and had a blast, basically laughing at the men onstage. Needless to say we didn't think that they were sexy, we treated it as a comedy more than anything. So much fun. And then she also came to my Walla Walla bachelorette party. I can honestly say she was one of the friends that truly tried to show up to everything that she could to support me and what I was doing even if she knew that she wouldn't know anyone there. It meant the world to me. The same thing happened when she came to my work baby shower. She made me the most snugly blanket for Riley and made time between her two jobs even though she didn't work there anymore to come see and support me.

I have to force myself to remember the good times and how much fun we had together because if I go the other direction it is too painful to think about. I am devastated that I won't ever see her again, I am devastated for her family and friends and I really can't imagine knowing that she isn't there anymore. I feel as though I didn't take enough advantage of the time that I had with her but I am grateful for every moment that I did spend with her. As time goes by and hopefully while my memory of her is still strong I will try to revisit this post and post more stories of our time together, I just don't want to forget anything and I know that is impossible.

Patrick and Julie at our wedding!

Out dancing with all the girls

Work Week Craziness

So it has been another busy week in the works at our house. Aside from working the last three days before that I took a day trip to Tri-Cities to see my best friend and her fiancee and help a little with wedding stuff. Of course I had to go on a little shopping spree at Hobby Lobby and Target as well, OK lets face it I spent more than Andrea did! All in all it was fun though and Riley did excellent!

However Riley hasn't been feeling well lately, yep turns out she is constipated. All those foods finally caught up to her and we are currently trying to resolve the problem, sorry in advance for sharing this Riley! This morning though we got to try squash, and like usual she loved it. I have yet to find a food that she does not like at this point.

Playing with Uncle Tanner

Work has been slammed again this week. Probably the most interesting case was a finger amputation. Interestingly enough we just got a plastic surgeon in that specializes in hands and ever since he moved here we have kept him quite busy. I feel like I never saw a hand problem before but just in the last 2 weeks I have seen two finger amputations. It made me a bit queasy but I managed to get through it without barfing! My last day was the worst. I had a cold which I feel like slowed me down a bit and then we were so busy that I couldn't get a lunch or a break so thankfully after a very hard week I have my evaluation today and will hopefully be getting a raise!

Peas!!!

So this week has been a pretty long and hectic week for me. Work was very busy. Not only did I work with a doctor I had never worked with before, who at least was a great doctor, but we had some pretty critical patients. I am very thankful that I work with wonderful people that share my sense of humor, if they didn't that would surely make for a long day.

I also had to get a new phone this week. Somehow my phone took a bath, don't ask how. Riley was in the sink in the bathtub then the towel next to her and then my phone. Somehow my phone was in a puddle of water but the towel was completely dry....hmmm. So now that Riley has discovered phones she has decided this one is hers but I think she gets the broken water logged phone...much safer on the wallet!

Also Riley ate peas for the first time today and she LOVED them! Probably her favorite so far. I have a video of her eating them so that you can all see how much she truly loved them. She told me about it in between each bite! The funny look on her face was probably realizing that she was sitting in a pile of poo, which she tends to do at the start of eating every time: ) She is still working on the crawling thing as she has only figured out how to go backwards, not forward but I have a feeling it will be coming very shortly. As I'm watching her now on the floor she just pivoted in a complete circle with her hands, her legs stayed in the same place haha silly girl!

I have started quilting officially yesterday, I am doing the zig zag quilt which I will post as soon as it is done. My husband says he doesn't mind this crafting hobby because it isn't that expensive...haha oh Patrick he must not look at the bills. At least I am in the house and hanging out with the family and it gives me something productive to do while Riley is sleeping!

Patrick's 30th Birthday

So yesterday was my wonderful husbands 30th birthday! Despite his anxiety over "being old" he lived and I think had a pretty good day. We did have to do some yard work at both houses but his mom came for a visit and took up to lunch and then we drove out to show her our land. Then my parents called and wanted to watch Riley for the night so we went to dinner with them at the Brik, where Riley got to sit in a high chair for the first time, and then they watched Riley while we went to a movie...the whole movie, first one in over 5 months! All in all I would call it a pretty relaxing and fun day.

1st time in a high chair



Work was weird this week. I worked Friday and it was busy with some interesting patients and one code. Surprisingly enough the code survived and I heard is recovering well, not something that we get to see too often when someone comes in with CPR in progress and no pulse. I was actually supposed to work all weekend but somehow my schedule got messed up and all of the overtime hours I was supposed to work wasn't put on the revised schedule so surprise I get the whole weekend off with my family! I, to say the least, was not disappointed, especially since I got this picture of Riley ready a book from Grandma Kay, made me want to go home so bad.

Riley also started eating apples 3 days ago and...she LOVES them! Thank goodness, she wasn't too fond of the rice cereal after the first time. So one day we went to Andy's and picked up some fresh fruit and we went home and made some applesauce for Riley to have the next morning. The first time I fed it to her I was running a bit late for work and didn't realize until over half of it was gone that she was eating it cold. Oops! But she didn't seem to mind. The next day I heated it up and she ended up eating more of it so that was good. And this morning I added cinnamon and she seemed to like that also! We are going to go get some more fruit today and make some more so that we can freeze it for later. Riley loves to help in the kitchen so that will keep her occupied for some of the day.
Riley also started sitting up by herself with very little help. We sat in the yard and played with her taggies ball for almost an hour and for about 30 minutes of that she was sitting up by herself. It scares me how big she is getting and how fast the time is going by. She is such a big girl and so full of life, it just makes me so happy to be around her!



Days off

I had two days total off of work last week and I was very thankful that the weather was wonderfully sunny and warm outside. Riley, Abby and I spent all of our free time outside taking walks and playing in the yard! Riley loves her walks, she babbles most of the time and when she gets really excited she screams out. It can be pretty entertaining when it is really quite, people are probably wondering what is going on when they hear her but it just makes me laugh! Abby on the other hand does not make me laugh on our walks. She is getting better with

them but the other day she really embarrassed me. She usually has to poop on her walks and she had been doing so well not pooping until we got home, I mean we only go a little over a mile at a time, she can hold it! We got to within a block of our house and she stopped in the middle of the road, coincidentally enough in front of the city workers driving by, and took a large poop. I couldn't believe it, just one block away! So I have discovered if we go for a walk to play fetch for a couple minutes to prevent us from having this problem again, then she goes before

the walk! Riley also got a new chair from Grandma Kay for Easter this year. She loved sitting in it in the front yard while she watched me playing fetch with Abby! It was adorable but Riley loves sitting up like a big girl!    

Another big adventure that we had was going to see Riley's friend McKenna. This was the first time that they got to meet but it was adorable to watch them. Riley is a month older than McKenna so McKenna's mom Courtney and I were pregnant at the same time! I can't wait to see these girls grow up together!

The two days off weren't all fun and games. I also had a work meeting to go to and Riley went too! She has been a regular at these meetings and she has been in attendance more than most of the nurses. It was pretty entertaining to listen to Riley talking and playing during the meeting, she was loving being there and I think that she felt like everyone was talking to her, so adorable! Jodi and Lori of course got their snuggles and playing in!

I like your face

I had a pretty good week at work this last week. Sometimes you come home and there are just those stories about people that stick with you. This week in the ER was the week of old people. By old people I mean over 90. We don't have a large ER but at one time we had 8 people (which is full for us) and out of those 8 people 5 of them were over the age of 90! Crazy huh. Well the one that stood out in my mind was a 97 year old who was in for altered level of consciousness (crazy I know) and as I went in to start his IV I was trying to talk to him and explain that I was going to start an IV and draw blood but he just seemed to stare at me with a blank look on his face. I started the IV and he didn't move but low and behold when I went to tape down the IV I accidentally pulled one of his arm hairs and he said "ow that hurt." He looked over at me, and this is what made my day, and said "I like your eyes, no wait, I like your face." The elderly say the funniest things!

It was also my seesters birthday, I say sister but we are really just friends. Yay Lori, she is exactly 10 years and 10 days older than me, I think I get extra excited about her birthday because I know it is so close to mine! Anyways her wonderful husband threw her a surprise party at El Sombrero, so disappointed I didn't get a picture of Riley in her party dress but that is how it goes I guess. Happy Birthday Lori!

Weekend with daddy!

So this past weekend was the first weekend that Patrick had to watch Riley the whole day while I went to work. I have to admit, I was a bit worried that I would be getting calls wondering what to do but wouldn't you know it I didn't get one call. I did however receive several text messages with pictures that made it extremely hard to be away from my baby. Isn't this adorable!

The best thing about having Patrick watch her this weekend was that he had some things to do. I think he may have a little bit more of an appreciation for what I do while he is at work. He had to take her out to our land to talk to a farmer, to our other house to fill the for sale fliers. He also took her to Nana and Papa's house for a visit and got a couple of visits from grandparents. To say the least it was a very eventful weekend for the two of them.

As for myself, not too eventful in the hospital this weekend. I don't think that I had one interesting case, it was pretty busy but with just the cough and cold virus going around. Hopefully we have something interesting happen this week otherwise I may go crazy. We did have a lot of laughs however. Working with Cory, Lori and Underhill was so much fun, we couldn't stop cracking jokes and it definately helped the day go by quicker

First Blog

As soon as I found out I was pregnant about a year ago I started looking at blogs. Blogs about motherhood, families, crafts, nursing, etc. I have a favorites page a mile long that I continually check and add to. I do this to get great ideas that I rarely implement and remember things that I may use in the future.

This is my beautiful daughter Riley. She is only 2 months old in this picture but is 4 months now and so much bigger...isn't she cute?!?! I decided it might not be a bad idea for her to be able to read more about her life growing up and her family. I don't have anything like that from my parents and I am continually fascinated by the stories I learn from my grandparents. So this is my attempt to keep a type of journal so that my children will be able to look back on how their life was in the beginning.

Wedding photo courtesy of Markseye.com

My husband and I are constantly laughing. In fact every time we are around my mom she says we could have our own TV show because we are so funny. Interestingly enough we have several ideas for TV shows. I guess I think that some things that we do in our every day life are interesting or funny enough to share, not to mention I think I can learn from a lot of our experiences and grow as a family.

I also come home with many interesting/crazy/inspirational stories from my job as an Emergency Room Nurse that I would love to share with people, of course while minding HIPPA! I have always dreamed of one day compiling all of these stories and writing a book, although writer is not one of my goals in life I just think that it is interesting for people to read about. Not to mention some of my very best friends work there and we tend to get a little goofy at the end of a 12 hour shift where things like this end up happening. This is my friend Lori!





And last but not least I will be posting whatever I attempt to craft along the way. I never thought I was a crafty person but low and behold when I had my daughter I decided this was a great idea. My husband tells me I am not the woman he married because I was complete opposite of this when I married him. Back then I was all about work and fun and I didn't spend time at Joann's or cooking and I certainly didn't own a sewing machine. Now I am domestic, or at least attempting to be! I grew up with a very crafty mother, she owned a ceramic shop, she did toll carving and painting, made elaborate cakes and she crocheted baby blankets like crazy so I always wondered why I didn't get the crafting gene but apparently it just took a while to show up. This is my mom making our Christmas stocking this year, so crafty!

So on top of all of these subjects I also would love to review books whenever possible so any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. I will also be blogging about house stuff because we are working on building a house and I'm sure we will have many trial and tribulations to talk about!
So these are the things I will be blogging about, hopefully you find it informational, helpful and most of all entertaining!