Yeah, really

It's been over a month and the folder of "Need to blog" pictures is overflowing.

On the other hand, I have a second job to pull in some money. We don't really NEED it per se, but I was feeling like I wasn't working enough. The projects at home are still there - but I felt the need to have sort of a back up plan. Working as a nurse you have your slow times and busy times and when I need money isn't necessarily when it's busy up at the U and I can get over time.

So, I applied at Jordan Valley Hospital for a position in their CVICU. Which is the only adult ICU in the hospital. I was worried about working in a small hospital and I was ready to jump in and accept the way they do things. There is always more then one way to skin a cat!! I absolutely love it! The stress factor is much lower there and I'm a newby, so no one comes to me for questions. Well, sometimes they do, but the staff is awesome and so welcoming, I just love it. It gives me a different perspective on ICU care and I slow down a little and take more time with the little stuff. It's not all LIVE or DIE any second.

My job at the U in the SICU is secure and well loved. I reassess my job constantly and I just can't imagine myself anywhere else full time. OK, I work 75% there (2 shifts one week and 3 shifts the next) and that is perfect for me. It's a high stress job and I am emotionally invested to the unit. I want the SICU to be a great unit and have the high standards that were in place when I started. I feel like I get the best of both worlds.

Needless to say, when starting a new nursing job there is lots of classes and orientation to go to, so I have been wickedly busy. I love the opportunity and are especially grateful for not just one but two fabulous jobs. Plus I get to have a little cushion for the emergency stuff!!

In the last month, lots of things have happened. First of all Corinne and Logan are engaged!!! YEAH!! I am so excited for them and they are so perfect for each other. Logan has been in our family already and love him mucho grande! We look forward to their wedding in August. It's very small family affair up at a cabin and with all the families and step-families they have to be real selective.

My cute little "pseudo" daughter had her adorable baby boy on April 15th. TAX DAY!! I will blog with pics about it, but she is doing fabulous and, oh my goodness, he is a treat! Lyndsi is Chris's daughter and as you know (well you do now) Chris is one of my great friends that has been a part of my life since my divorce. He has been there for me in so many ways and I have been around Lyndsi since she was about 7. They moved to Colorado but we were lucky to have Lyndsi come stay with us in the summer for a couple weeks for a couple of years. I love them both so much and being able to spend time with them and get to know Brent, Lyndsi's boyfriends and Hunter, Chris's 4 year old son, was so awesome. I miss them!!!

My kids are great. Daniel went on a cruise with his dad. Sami is driving up a storm in my car - she won't drive a stick shift. Matt is drooling over the boat, getting antsy to get it in the water. Austin is working on getting in the electricians union and Jake is playing in a band, that is actually pretty darn impressive.

Watch for pics and updates....I am determined, double determined to get them all blogged so I can have a book made!!

Mwah mwah and double MWAH!!

Blog on.................

A public announcement

I’d like to thank my parents for the following:

Teaching me to;

SWIM

DRIVE A STICK SHIFT

COOK

DO LAUNDRY

SEW

CHANGE A TIRE

DRIVE A MOTOR HOME THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS TO JACKSON HOLE WHEN I WAS 16

TAKE CARE OF BABIES

GARDEN

FREEZE/CAN/BOTTLE

MANAGE MY MONEY

FIX IT WITH DUCT TAPE

REPAIR ELECTRICAL WIRES – although not necessarily safely

WATER SKI

DRIVE A BOAT

SNOWMOBILE

SKI

CAMP

NOT DRINK SODA – special thanks for using coke syrup when I was nauseated.

I’m sure there is more that I missed, but for today I am especially grateful for these things.

Tragic Old Navy Mix up.

Yeah, I gave these shirts to Daniel because I thought I had bought them for him. He didn't like them and so I told him to give them to Jake. When Jake tried them on I realized my horrible error.

Blog on.......

Sifting through my past

I am rummaging through all my storage. The storage that I threw up above the garage and haven't looked at in almost 7 years. Matt and I brought it down and now I'm going through it little by little. It is a pretty tough task. The memories of having babies and young kids. My childhood and the mementos I have accumulated. I actually have a box filled with notes that me and my friends passed around in high school. I am finding things that will help me in putting together my own history. I tend to start a journal and then space out and not write for a while. I am starting to accumulate all those thoughts into one box.

Today I decided that I wanted to wash all my old doll clothes. They were in a box in the garage for probably 3 years and frankly I think there was some mouse poop in the bottom of the box. After gathering them all up, I washed them, dried them and then sat down to fold them. Every tiny piece of clothing brought back a flood of happiness. I remembered them all. All the little blankets and dresses and blankets that had matching dresses. My mother was and still is a great seamstress and I saw her touches in all those doll clothes. I couldn't believe how wonderful I felt and how much I felt like bringing up the dolls and dressing them, wrapping them in their little blankets. I also found one of my head scarves from when I was a kid. My sister, LeAnn and I had matching ones for Easter. I put it on. Matt called me Aunt Jemima. That's gonna cost him!

This experience, in some ways, is like playing an old 8mm film of my childhood in my head. How did I get so lucky? My parents really loved me and did what they thought best. The time and love my mother spent taking care of her family. Sure, she was the stay at home mom, but she did it spectacularly! I still catch myself teaching my kids things and they ask why and I tell them, that is the way grandma taught me.

I miss seeing my mom in her robe making breakfast in the morning. Something she stopped doing about the time my little sister got into high school. By then my dad was retired and she told him it was his turn to get up early!

When I go through my kids stuff, I just want to go back, just for a moment, hold those little babies and nibble on their cheeks.

I am only about 1/2 done. I still have the big project of going through school work. For some reason I kept so much of Austin and Jake's that it takes up about 15 boxes. What was I thinking?

YEAH TO MEMORIES!

Here is a few pics that I picked out of Daniels keepsake box. I love em!!

Jake holding Daniel - 1995.

This was taken at Lynne's house. It's Daniel and I can't tell who's holding him.

A look at what having 4 kids fast did to me. Bangs. Blond Hair. Big shirts. Stretch pants. Plus I dressed my oldest in a tank top and overalls. WHAT??

My little fatty baby. Daniel was a chunk and a half!! This is him at 2 months.

Now he is a tall, lean 14 year old!!

BLOG ON.............

Planets aligning over the Brimley-Rydman camp.

Shooting Wader porn at Cabella's

Things are going well this week!

Jake landed a full time job working in a group home.

Austin has a test date for the Electricians Union.

Sami is only one more step away from being able to go to the DMV and actually have a drivers license.

I have a job interview tomorrow for a PRN job in another ICU in another hospital. That basically means I continue to work my 75% at the U, which is about 10 shifts a month. Then I go work at another ICU 4 or 6 times a month and make MORE money because they don't have to give me benefits. I.E. Bringing Matt and I closer to our financial goals and more SHIT! bahahaha

Daniel is just awesome bringing total awesomeness to our family. He cut his hair. I like it, he hates it, but it was his idea.

Matt gets to hire people to help him - OK I'm reaching here - but he is just totally fantastic on a daily basis. We did go to Cabella's and score me some waders and boots. He likes it when I dress like that! I'm excited for a little more fly fishing! Especially when I have those super wonderful new lightweight boots and not Matt's old drowning cement boots!

We haven't heard much from the girls - well I haven't. As far as I can tell, things are going great. Rachelle is still looking for full time work and I know that Corinne is waiting to hear from Westminster to see if she landed a sweet scholarship that will take her back to school!!

Pud scored a new sweet life jacket from us. It has a cool collar that won't scratch his chin. It's our way of saying - you will give up your son to go boating with his grandparents!!

Have a great one!!

Blog on.................

A friend of mine asked her friends to look up what the moon phase was when they were born. I am doing anything to put off running and organizing, so I spent some time looking it up and looking up all my kids. I was born in a waxing moon and my kids were 1 waning moon, 2 waxing moons and a full moon (Daniel). Although, I wonder how accurate they are since I have never technically gone into labor and actually picked Daniel's birthday 4 months before he was born.

I know mine is accurate. According to my mom, I was 2 weeks late and it was a hot hot summer. Just like me to stay in the cool comfortable climate at the suffering of others. My dad was in a hurry because he had a meeting. That was in the days when they knocked the mother out and dad sat in the waiting room with other dads. I think my dad would go crazy if he had to actually take family leave and stick around like they tend to do these days. He probably would have thrown us in a front pack and gone to the meeting anyway. I love my dad - good work ethic!!

Anywhoo....off the subject - kind of.

So, I was interested in looking at my "Moon sign". Here is an explanation of moon sign from a great website i found.

http://www.moonsigncalendar.net/moon-sign.htm

What is a moon type?

Nearly everybody knows his "zodiac sign" or sun sign, but not that many their moon sign and their moon type. The zodiac sign of of a person it is the sign, in which the sunstood at birth. This is what you perhaps look for in the horoscope pages of the daily paper. This sun sign stands for the "male" part of the human being. But there also exists a "female" side - that is, what the moon sign stands for. The moon sign or the moon horoscope betrays a lot about our conscious and subconscious emotional world. Some things, which remain inexplicable by viewing just the zodiac sign, find their solution by taking into account the moon sign. Have fun in your exploration!
P.S. The moon sign is neither the "zodiac sign" nor the ascendant, which it has been mistaken for once in a while.

If I haven't lost you yet - the whole point was, that my moon sign is Virgo and when I read it, I thought to myself, how frickin' accurate!!!

Here it is:

Virgo - Moon type
The reasoning Virgin - moons are efficient, practical people. Not only in their household but also in their emotional word everything is put in order. All is planed in fine detail; they feel uneasy if they have to leave anything to chance. They are always helpful, even unselfish when they can help others. They are excellent in counseling and comforting and enjoy the feeling of being needed by somebody. They don't like showing their own feelings even though it would be good for them. They enjoy working "behind the scenes". Virgin - moons types perceive details and are fond of them. They can work on them with great care and perseverance. In the negative case their perfectionism obstructs their ambitions; a nagging character trait becomes visible. Frequently they are good cooks, who not only take into account the taste but also a healthy life style.

Cool eh? Although I think it's a little heavy on the "unselfish" and light on the "bitchy, loud" part of me. I guess that is the Gemini twin part of me.

I thought it quite interesting and it gave me another 30 minutes of wasted time!

I will post more pics and updates about the whole fam damily soon. Things are great and wonderful and somehow the planets are aligning for us!!

See next post, or post before this.

hahahaha

Blog on....

Anniversary getaway or The Palmolive fiasco!

Last night Matt and I went up to Park City to stay at the SUNDIAL lodge at the Canyons. Matt had arranged a nice room, breakfast and skiing passes for the next day. How romantical! He even asked for a room with a jetted tub...giggity giggity! I love my husband!

We stopped at the factory stores on the way up and he bought me some hot jeans at Lucky Brand. We also bought some cookies, shoes and a few shirts. I love going to Izod. I want to be a golfer after I leave there. Their outfits are so dang cute and i could go CRAZY!

Anywhoo...

While checking into the SUNDIAL, they had a mix up on our reservations. Then we went to our room and the inside lock was closed and we had to wait - in the hall - 45 minutes for the right maintenance man to finally show up and let us in. The good news, I got a high score on my Tetris game! YES!

That done, the room was a nice 2 room suite with a little kitchenette. That was about the time the front desk figured out their mistake and let Matt know that YES, he had already paid for the lift tickets.

Off we go to dinner, it was great, good service.

Back to our room, we decided to have a bath, together. I wanted to soak for a few minutes and so I put a itty bitty squirt of the Palmolive dish soap in the water. Palmolive that I found under the sink at the hotel.

............the bath.......... (details of which are kept secret, but there was no bruises or harm done to either participant or surrounding drywall)

I must note, the jets didn't work. We turned them on and they kinda pulsated - in a bad way - so we turned them right off.

It's nine o clock at night and there is a knock on our door. There is a leak downstairs in the rental shop, and all the water is bubbly. They check out the tub, apologize and leave. They even put a note under our door, apologizing.

ELEVEN at night - another knock at our door. The security guard and some guy in a suit. They want our statements of what happened and to put a 500.00 hold on our credit card. WHY? Well, apparently, putting dish soap in a jetted tub is using a jetted tub irresponsibly. What the???

I wouldn't fill out the form and told Matt we were leaving and getting an attorney. Actually, I went off on the little shits and stomped off! Kinda like I did years ago when the cops came to a house where some friends and I were hot tubing and told us we were being too loud. Jumped right out of the tub, buck nekkid, and stomped past the cop. So I have a history with cops and bubbly bodies of water.

Matt took over and I sat on the couch giving the evil eye. Matt is so smart and so calm, it's freakin amazing. He talked on the phone to some management guy and agreed to the deposit and then we left.

It's almost midnight and we packed up and left the SUNDIAL hotel. We will fight charges later and Matt has yet to find out if the Palmolive actually caused a massive leak in the tub in the span of a 20 minute bath. (that was their theory)

Of course we won't have to pay if something else was broken. Stay tuned....

Although our weekend plans together changed, I can't imagine having that experience with anyone else or being with anyone else. We will definitely plan another weekend getaway soon!

Just wanted all to know, if you go to the SUNDIAL lodge at the Canyons, you could be paying for their repairs.

Oh and, Happy Anniversary to us!!!

Blog on..........