Birthday!

I have the best friends! They took me out for dinner for my birthday tonight, and we had a great time! We went out for sushi - yum. I don't think I've laughed so much in a long time.

Suz enjoying her pina colada.

Me, Sasha and Amber - I love these girls!

Bob and Amy (he's so cute!).

A birthday toast with Suz.


And the best part is, Bob was so great today! He bought me flowers - orange roses, my favorite! - and chocolate and a new sweater. He's such a great brother! There's a reason birthdays only come once a year - if it was more often they wouldn't be as special! What a great day.

Mea Culpa

Has it really been 3 months since I last posted? How ridiculous! And what have I been doing with all my time, you ask? Well, it's been a nice balance of work and play, and here are a few pictures to prove the play part.

In January I switched from nights to a mid-shift (10a-10p) which is suiting me much better. I'm sleeping like a regular gal, eating better and even getting to the gym on a more regular basis. Kinda makes life more enjoyable, too!

Jessica, Justin, the boys and I went to Steamboat for a few days of rest and snow. We got about 3 feet in 4 days - lots of good powder to play in! I got to be the nanny while J and J went out for their anniversary. Philip turned 6 months while we were there, and is oh-so-cuddly. I love when he squishes his cheek against your face and just holds it there. Quite cute.


So we took some pictures of him to mark the 1/2 year occasion.


He really is quite a sweetie!

And I love those big blue eyes. I'm a little jealous of those wicked-long eyelashes, however...

Benjamin being his typical "cheesy" self. He's pretty good, too.

We took a few walks in the snow - it was so beautiful! Philip stayed warm wrapped up next to me, and even fell asleep. The picture below is one of my favorites. Love the snowflakes on his eyelashes.



Jessica bought this cool little sled for Benjamin, but he wasn't sure about it in the beginning. Ok, so he cried for the first half hour, but then liked it so much he didn't want to get out! Typical 2 year old!
A week after that trip, I flew down to Anniston, Alabama for FEMA training at the Center for Domestic Preparedness. Another nurse from the ER went with me, and even though we learned A LOT we had a great time, too! We met a lot of people who do the same jobs that we do, and were shown just how much work we have to do for the hospital!

In the suites for decon training - it was cool enough that we didn't get all sweaty and overheated. And I felt very loved when members of my team put popcorn in my boots and hair gel in my gloves. Ewww!
The facility had the coolest patient simulators - anything that you can do to a real person you can do to the dummies. They even have syringes with barcodes on them, and when you "give" them to the patient, the computer reacts accordingly. It's pretty amazing! I learned quickly that it's a lot harder to intubate and start IV's when you're in a rubber suit with 3 layers of gloves and a ventilation mask! I guess that's why we practice...

And last, but not least, we have adopted yet another pet! Jack is my friend Joy's Border Collie, and for now we're long-term babysitting him because Joy's husband is not a dog person. Inu and Jack have become siblings already - being that they're both herders they chase each other around the yard all day! It's nice to have Jack around so Inu has someone to keep her company during the day, and they're both really sweet dogs!


So that's the latest from this neck of the woods! Sorry to have taken so long; hope you liked the update!

Party!

Last week I hosted a wedding shower for my friends Joy and Dave. I'm going to their wedding in a week and a half, but we thought it would be nice to celebrate with people who couldn't make it to Wisconsin for the wedding. The funny thing is that of the 8 people who showed up, only 1 of them isn't going to be at the wedding. Oh, well!

Dave and Joy

There was lots of food, drinks and laughing - and even a little dancing! Plus it gave me a good excuse to really clean the house! We had a great time, and I can't wait to go to the wedding!

Here you go, Mom

I got a hint from Mom yesterday that I need to update the Blog. So this one's for you, Mom!


I got my hair chopped off a couple months ago, but haven't had any recent pictures to post. Until now! It's so easy to take care of and I think it's kinda cute. Although the ability to pull it back into a ponytail does have it's drawbacks! We'll see how long it goes before I grow it out...

The other new-worthy item is that I went to the doctor on Monday and was diagnosed with primary hypothyroidism. I'm relieved because it's nothing too serious, it's completely treatable and it explains a rather frustrating recent weight gain. Here's to living life better through pharmacology!

Well, that's it for the update - still working, doing the schedule for the ER and riding my bike. The next big event I'm looking forward to is my good friends Joy and Dave's wedding in Wisconsin in November. Yeah for taking a week off!

Long time...no blog...

I know, I know...it's been a while. I have no good excuses, only the lame one of being busy.

But here's a little update.

The girls and I went to a Rockies game when Michelle was in town.

Kelly and Lindy

A lot of fun, even if they're no where near as good as they were last season!

Me and April

And the latest big news, I finally got a motorcycle! I took a riding class the end of July and have been looking around since then. I put some money down on a Suzuki, but they strung me along for 4 weeks because the title wasn't cleared. And they had some pretty lousy customer service.

Then yesterday, on advice from Dad, I checked out the Harley-Davidson dealer here in Aurora. They were awesome! They sell some non-Harley motorcycles that they get on trade-ins. The sales staff was great and a couple hours later I walked out with a 2007 Yamaha V-Star 1100! Jessica dropped me off a little later and I had fun driving it home.

We went out to celebrate at Red Robin and then bought diapers at Costco - errands with Jessica is my typical Tuesday routine!

But when I get to hang out with this cutie, it makes me wish every day was Tuesday!

The Zoo!

Today Jessica and I took Benjamin to the zoo! He loves the animals and I'd forgotten what a great zoo we have here in Denver. It was kinda hot so we only stayed for a couple hours - long enough to get our fix of the wild kingdom before Benjamin got too tired!

Looking for the otters - they were hiding in the cool shade and didn't want to come out and play. But Benjamin was diligent in his search!

Zebras!

Benjamin is pretty content to find his own entertainment - mostly involving sticks and plants (such a little boy). Our entertainment came when we bought Icees - he kept switching sides of the bench to get bites from Jessica and me. It was quite cute to see him run back and forth and then get a cold/sour pucker look on his face - over and over again!

I rather enjoyed the juxtaposition of this picture - the wild giraffe up against a very urban brick wall. Kind of amusing.

Jessica is quite pregnant (37 1/2 weeks!) and very ready for their next little boy to arrive. I hung out with Benjamin some more when we got home, stayed for dinner - thanks Justin! - and helped put Benjamin to bed. I'm loving the stage that he's in right now. Very determined to tell us everything that's going on in a language we can't even begin to comprehend. Very cute. I can't wait to see how he reacts to a new baby brother!

Peru Part II: Bellavista

Welcome to Bellavista - the first village on our trip. We took a little Cessna plane out of Yurimaguas and once we were in the air I began to realize how remote we were going to be. The picture shows just how in the middle of nowhere we really were! It's pretty cool, though - being surrounded by the Amazon, miles away from cell phones, cars, tv's, work, and electricity. Kinda nice.
Here's our house. They built it 3 years ago after the first team came and they knew more would be coming. It was pretty comfy! The floor was a little uneven, so we had to arrange our sleeping bags at proper angles so we wouldn't feel like we were sliding. The elevated floor was nice, except for the roosters that lived underneath and crowed non-stop! A couple of times we were tempted to have chicken for dinner... The picture shows how foggy it was in the mornings. Cool. Quiet. Peaceful.

We had lots of room in the hut for hammocks - very relaxing! And even though we had 4 walls, we really didn't have any privacy. I now know what the animals in the zoo feel like! The kids were constantly in the house watching our every move. I guess when you haven't seen many foreigners they become quite a spectacle!

This was out typical crowd in the doorway. Very curious, but very shy. Once we learned a few words in Chaihuita they were even more shy! It seems they found it humorous that white people were speaking their language! But after a while they got accustomed to us and would actually answer when we asked them "Ma ninkenta?" (What is your name?) The answer the question was often funny as well - Nixon, Robinson, Edison - all emphasized with a Peruvian accent. My favorite was Ocea - he's the little one with the red and white shirt and the blue shorts in the front/middle. We became buddies by the end of the week.

Ah, the water source. A natural spring right out of the side of a hill. It looks really muddy, but the water was surprisingly clean. We had a 5 gallon water purification system and there wasn't much sediment in the bucket. It was pretty cold water, which felt nice to splash around in after a hot day in the jungle.

All I have to say is that I have a new appreciation for my washing machine! I never knew how tired your hands can get wringing out a load of laundry. But it was kind of a bonding experience - and we found that we wore our stinky clothes a little longer when we had to wash them ourselves!

My favorite part of Bellavista was the kids. Normally they don't play much - they're either in school or working on the chakras (farms). However, there was a national teacher's strike so we were able to play a lot! We had to think of games that we could teach through a language barrier, and duck duck goose was their favorite. The only animal names we knew were nini (dog) and mayu (turtle), so we played a lot of Nini-Mayu! They always picked us, so we got very tired and sweaty. The best part was sitting in church and having the kids whisper "nini-mayu" to us! Nice to know we made some sort of lasting impression! We also brought bubbles, frisbees, squishy balls, coloring books and face paint. They loved it!

One morning a man stopped by the house with this adorable baby jaguar. I think he was trying to sell it to us, but it was cute none-the-less. It was surprisingly soft! Not like a kitten, more like baby chick feathers. But it's claws were huge! I'd hate to meet its mother (unfortunately, I think she ended up as a rug somewhere). The little growly sounds it made was pretty cute, too.



A few of the girls wore the traditional Chiahueta dress on Sunday. The girl above is Awinda - a very sweet girl who spoke more Spanish than most of the women, so she and I got to talk and hang out. I enjoyed being able to witness to them - not about Christianity since most of them are believers, but about what women can do. I think it was good for them to see Bekah and Michelle and I in a professional view. Women in the Indian culture are very much property, and to show them that women can be educated and successful was hopefully a good example for them. The girl below is modeling the traditional necklace that she made. She sold it to Bekah, and the work was so intricate! Very beautiful.

At first these kids were rather camera-shy. It was neat having the digital camera so they could see their pictures as soon as we took them. They are such beautiful little kids, and very open to being loved. It was not hard to shower them with attention, and they gave it right back!


One afternoon a bunch of the villagers set up a market for us. Their pottery was very unique and beautiful. They use a berry called caspileche - kinda milky - as a glaze, and all their work is functional. We bought a bunch of pieces, and Bob found them quite interesting and wonderful.

And of course, Jim was a never-ending source of entertainment! We were so blessed to have him along. He is a McGyver type - can fix or make anything, and is always willing to lend a hand. I don't think we could have run the clinic without him. Here he is with the blow-guns that they made for us. Just an example of the fun we had with him.



See what I mean? We never knew what he was going to do next, and his antics kept us on our toes!

Up next: San Antonio.