It's Birthday Time Again...

Happy 2nd Birthday, Kamrynn! We decided to do a combine birthday party for the girls and take them to Chuck E. Cheese. They had a blast, other than Kami was not too sure of Chuck himself. Thanks for the gifts everyone!



This is one of my favorite pictures of us.

It's a Small World After All

As a few of you know I have started back to work with a nursing agency. This is my first time working in Texas and oh man is it different than Utah as for the organizational things. I truly appreciate my education and background while I worked at an IHC Hospital in Utah. They were organized and we knew our protocols. Although I had a good work experience for my first shift, I did not like the laid back nursing policies. For instance, in Utah, when I recovered a post surgical patient, I knew that I would be checking on the patient VERY often (every 15 minutes for the first hours, then every 30 minutes x 2, then every hour x 4, then every 4 x 24). So when I took a post surgical patient the other day I asked the charge nurse what their protocol was for rounding and assessing my new post surgical patient and she said, "Oh, whenever. Once a shift is good." WHAT!!! Is she honestly telling me that she would only assess her post surgical patient once a shift-Not me!!! So I figured it would be better to go "overboard" how we did it in Utah vs. adopting this nurse’s philosophy. Better safe than sorry is my philosophy.

One thing I am grateful for is how nice the nurses were to me. It kind of felt like going to nursing school clinicals again-you never knew if you were going to orient with a "nice nurse" or one that would make your day hell.

The paperwork was quite different from what I was used to. Frankly, IHC is much more organized with charting and what is required of the nurses. I guess it will just take a little getting used to the way they do it here. Aside from all the confusion, I absolutely LOVED being back to work and seeing patients again.

Another interesting fact about my first shift back was that I know I was blessed by my Heavenly Father. I know this because my first two patients were LDS and as nice as can be. How random is that? The first lady I had met before at a girls LDS dinner and the second LDS patient has an interesting story. She asked me where I moved from and I told her Utah. As we were talking she asked if I was LDS. I, of course said, yes and she said she could tell by my presence when I came into her room, (What a nice complement) and she was LDS, too. To make a long story short we played the "do you know game." She mentioned that she attended BYU around 2001 and I mentioned to her that I just missed her at BYU because I attended from 1998-2000 and cheered there. When she heard that, she asked if I knew, Katie Bills. For those of you who don't know, I was good friends and cheered with Katie at BYU. She passed away from a skiing accident in 1999. My face just lit up and I knew Katie must have had something to do with my patient assignment today. My patient actually grew up with Katie and knew her from church. Talk about a small world. Here is a picture of our squad. Katie is in the bottom row in the center, right below me.

Happy Birthday Grams

I have the best Grams in the whole world. No one shares a bond like my Grams and I. I love her so much and she has always been there for me. From when I was really little until now, she has always held a special place in my heart. I love you, Grams! XOXO

What Is a Grandma?

"A grandma is warm hugs and sweet memories. She remembers all of your accomplishments and forgets all of your mistakes. She is someone you can tell your secrets and worries to, and she hopes and prays that all your dreams come true. She always loves you, no matter what. She can see past temper tantrums and bad moods, and makes it clear that they don't affect how precious you are to her. She is an encouraging word and a tender touch. She is full of proud smiles. She is the one person in the world who loves you with all her heart, who remembers the child you were and cherishes the person you've become." ~Barbara Cage~









xoxoxo
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GRAMS!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Kennedi

July is a busy month in our family having both Kennedi and Kamrynn's birthdays. Since my family is out of town, we decided to do a combine birthday party for both the girls later this month and just have a small family party today. For Kennedi's birthday dinner she chose to make her favorite-PIZZA! Both girls helped and had tons of fun in the process. My dad also made a DVD of after she was born at the hospital and it is her favorite thing to watch herself as a baby. She watched it at least 20 times. Later, she wanted to do a photo shoot in her red hat, we went swimming, opened presents, and ate some birthday cake.















Happy 3rd Birthday, Kennedi.

4th of July Weekend

We traveled to North Padre Island, in Corpus Christi for the 4th of July weekend to have our family pictures taken by, Elizabeth. The scenery was beautiful and we are so excited to see the pictures. I will post them as soon as we get them.
After a very early morning of picture taking, we had time to play at the beach with the kids. Kennedi loved playing in the water and sand, but Kamrynn was not too sure about getting her hands and feet dirty (which surprises me with her). She has always been my messy kid. Dirty and all, they still managed to have a great time at the beach.












After we got home from visiting the beach, we were able to go see the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus! The kids loved it. Christopher said that the only thing he remembers about going to the circus when he was little was that it "was stupid" because he never got to have cotton candy; so as a joke that was the first thing my dad bought for him when we sat down.

My brother Kris and I (the clowns that we are) decided to go during intermission to have our faces painted and come back like nothing happened just to see the reactions on the kid’s faces. The younger brothers got a good laugh, but Kennedi was somewhat taken back by the whole thing and wanted me to "wash it off, mom." She also said that I was not supposed to color on my face. She doesn't miss a thing!