Saturday, November 05, 2011

A Cliche Thanksgiving Post

A list of things I'm thankful for...

1. Jesus Christ
2. Christopher Lewis
3. Audrey Joanne
4. My parents (Rick and Jackie)
5. My grandparents (Mary, Gale, Joanne, Wayne)
6. My entire family and friends
7. A family blessed with safety and health
8. A roof over my head
9. A job for me and a job for Chris
10. America
11. My church body and MOPs
12. The assurance of Christ and his promises and therefore hope and the absolute truth.
13. PHCA
14. Movie theaters and their popcorn
15. Gilmore Girls
16. Our couch, it's so comfy
17. Lakes and sunshine
18. The gigantic bank of amazing memories stored in my brain from my whole life :)
19. Raspberries
20. Jonny Lang and David Crowder
21. The blessed, undeserved life that I've been given by Christ crucified (stolen from J.Riddle)
22. All the people that help me
23. Freedom!
24. 2 working cars (please keep working!)
25. Apple orchards and pumpkin carvning
26. My parent's house.
27. Target and Walmart
28. Two arms and two legs, as well as functioning organs. Being a nurse makes me appreciate these things. 
29. Toilet paper, hey, imagine if we didn't have it
30. The mall playland.

Happy Thanksgiving Month! Oh yeh, I'm thankful for Grandma's turkey, I can't wait...oh yum!!!

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Just Some Pictures

Some pictures as of late for those who don't have facebook! This is a lame update, but at least it's something right?
My Sweet 2yr Old

"Audrey do it!"

Playing with my "Mapletown" set that I had as a little girl!

Duluth indoor waterpark!

Seeing her 1st great lake

The slide was a hit!

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

A Wonderful Day!

 Today I was woken up by the roofers. There's probably a more official term than roofers, but it's what I keep calling them. They've been around for a week now, replacing the singles on our whole town home community here at Steven's Court. Thankfully, they're done being on top of our home and they're onto the next section, but they're still nice and loud. Audrey slept in a little longer than me, which was nice. We went to Walmart, headed straight for Audrey's free kid's cookie, and then got our groceries. I wanted to get home to go straight outside, but Audrey was asking me repeatedly to paint. So, we painted a little first and then headed outside.

After just a few minutes I realized it was extremely hot, like get your swimming suit on hot. So, I filled up Audrey's baby pool and set up her new water table. We put on her new suit and off she went to the water. She happily played for over an hour before I decided we should have a picnic outside, which she thought was fun too.

Soon it was time to get dry and take a nap. Today she slept for 2.5 hrs, which is great. I bummed out on the couch most of that time, but it was lovely. My darling husband played with Audrey while I got to have a belated Mother's Day supper with my mom at Applebees. She drove me back home, we took a walk with  Chris and Audrey and soon it was time for her to go to bed! And that was our quick and very wonderful day :)

Here's a few pictures of Audrey's fun day:





And now I'm off to our air conditioned room to go to bed. It's so humid in here! Our place just sucks in the outdoor temp and it's hard to get rid of it with just wall air conditioning! Good night!

Saturday, May 07, 2011

I Love My Mom!

 Happy Mother's Day to my beautiful Mom!
I love you so very much, thanks for all you have done and continue to do for me!
You are the best! I don't know what I'd do without you!
XOXOXO

Saturday, April 23, 2011

This weekend at work I....

*Took 15 minutes to comb a giant knot out of a lady's hair. When her doctor came around she told him how it was the best thing ever that I combed out her hair. He mustered a half-hearted fake smile and left. Then we joked about how he just "didn't get it".

*Got yelled at several times by a patient's son. I kinda had fun seeing how kindly I could respond to his degrading comments. Sometimes I'm an actor at work. Probably the rudest human I've even encountered.

*Spoke to my patient in a microphone all day due to his extreme hearing loss. To top it off, he was also confused, although pleasantly.

*Gave a billion medications by mouth, by IV, by nasogastric tube, by other such tubes, and by an orifice that shall not be named (coughcoughbuttcoughcough)

*Ran around like a chicken with my head cut off, finally caught up, and then got shipped off to another unit to meet 3 new patients, then proceeded to do the chicken with no head thing for the rest of my shift.

*Floated to Methodist's ICU, the trauma ICU, and the general medical floor. That's a lot of floating.

*Quickly got the right people in the room before so-n-so hit 'dial' on his phone to call our CEO and demand better care. *Rolls eyes, but tries to put self in their shoes*

*Only had to give one bed-bath, score.

*Ate a chocolate covered Peep and stole 2 packs of saltines and a diet Sierra Mist from the 'patient's only' food stash on 5Dom. However, this was necessary, as I was physically shaking from low blood sugar.

*Charted for 45 minutes of my 60 minute break

*Spent a good 10 minutes explaining to my patient that I am indeed trustworthy, despite his suspicions otherwise, and that I would not abandon him. Then spent another good 10 minutes listening to all the other staff members who are NOT trustworthy. *Rolls eyes for real*

*Assessed several wounds, ick!

*Listened to 7 set of lungs ranging from crackly to clear.

*Only took care of one actual ICU patient. But enjoyed my 3 floor patients.

*Was told to be left alone more times than I can count. But was also told that I was appreciated.

* Was a care taker, med giver, advocate, reassurer, care planner, dressing changer, house keeper, therapist, active listener,  family members psych issues taker-carer of, doctor conflict resolutioner, phone caller, back rubber, hair comber, IV puller-outter, colostomy emptying maniac, and much more :) teehee.

And.....I still have 12 more hours to go tomorrow! I better go to bed.....nah, not yet.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Happy 2nd Birthday Audrey Joanne!

2 years ago at just this time, Chris and I were in our hospital room waiting for Audrey to be born. We got there around 9:45 ish, so I'm sure by this time we were finally settled in. We were supposed to try to sleep. I think Chris got a little, but I couldn't really sleep, because my contractions were getting more and more uncomfortable. I think I decided to get an epidural around 2:30am and Audrey was born at 5:17am! The whole night was a blur. I remember lying there watching, ironically, the movie "Baby Mama" on TV. A short while after my epidural the pain started to get really bad. All the sudden it was time to push and about a 1/2 hr later, we had our Audrey. She was so perfect! Then it was first shots, first bath, first time seeing her family members and so on. And now here we are, 2 years later! Time seriously flies!

We had a wonderful birthday party for her yesterday. Today she keeps saying, "robot party?" And tomorrow, or in 15 minutes rather, is her actual birthday! It wasn't my turn to put Audrey to bed tonight, but Chris said, "Don't you want to be the one the puts her to bed that last time before she's 2?" And being so sentimental I said, "Oh yeh, I have to!" So I did :)

We love our sweet girl so much and are so proud of her. It's a joy to watch her grow and learn. We'll have to see what tomorrow brings. From what I've heard about tomorrow weather predictions it sounds like someday we'll be saying, "Remember how much snow we got on Audrey's 2nd birthday?" Bummer! We'll find something fun to do, but I do know it involved chocolate chip pancakes in the morning and Culver's ice-cream with Grandpa and Grandma later on :)

Here's a few pics of our sweet one....
A Few Hours Old







Our Little Family









One Year Old!



















2 Years Old! (almost)















Putting my girl to bed the night before her b-day!

Saturday, April 09, 2011

We Almost Have a 2 Year Old!

It's crazy to think that Audrey was born 2 years ago. On one hand it feels like we've had her forever and on the other hand it feels like she was born yesterday.

Her day of birth was so memorable. I had worked 12 hours and then went to a dinner for Chris' newly engaged friends. Then, while meeting someone new at the dinner, my water broke, right there at the restaurant. Now, knowing Audrey's personality, it's really not surprising that she decided to make this dramatic first sign that she was ready to enter the world.

I still remember when the nurse handed her to me. She was perfectly quiet and all her features were tiny and delicate. She stared with big, searching eyes up at Chris and I. She just stared and stared and I marveled at how perfectly made she was. I tried to hard so take in the moment so I could remember it later and I still do. We just kept saying, "Oh wow."

And now that tiny newborn is a busy, busy toddler. How it happened so fast I'll never know.
Audrey has the most active mind I've ever seen. She is constantly going from one thing to the next. She's not one to sit quietly, not even in the car (this makes traveling of any distance a challenge). She's talking more and more each day. Some things new things she says are, "Audrey do it" and "Oh goodness sakes!" She is saying lots of 3 and 4 word phrases, like, "Mama play too?" "More snacks please" "Go to Grandma's House?" and so on. She's able to communicate many many things now!

Audrey is also started to really play pretend and also to really wants Chris or myself to play with her at all times. She likes to put her babies in the baby crib that she has and tell them to "take a nap" then she moves them to the play highchair and looks them in the eye and says, "Baby eat? Ok!" I love how she pretends to talk to them. Just recently she has been saying, "No baby....sit in corner!" Then she sits them in the corner. Apparently they were disobeying. :) She still loves to color, play with her kitchen, play with playdoh, listen to music, and watch videos on the computer. She also requests several times a day to, "Go to Grandpa-Grandma's house?" If she's at her grandparent's house, she's basically in Audrey heaven.
Audrey also loves to play with her Daddy. Often during the day she'll just look at me and say, "Daddy?" Then I'll say, "Where is Daddy today?" and she'll say, "Daddy at work!" The two of them are quite the pair. They spent most of their quality time wrestling around being silly.

Mostly Audrey is a good girl and goes with the flow of her daily routine pretty well. But she can definitely be a feisty girl. She knows what she wants and she doesn't give up easily, but neither do we! She usually sits in the corner maybe once every two days when she does something naughty. She doesn't like it, but when I tell her to go, she does, and she stays there until I get her (usually!) I'm trying to teach her to say "yes mama" and "I'm sorry" I know right now it may be meaningless to her, but if she can learn the process of what to say, then soon enough she can understand why she's saying it!

I remember hearing once, maybe at our pre-natal classes, that it takes 2 years after having your 1st child to feel like being a parent is the new normal. Well it's almost 2 years and I still feel like I'm trying to get used to it. Sometimes not being free to be me and do what I want to do is really hard. Sometimes this living room feels like a prison and the weeks get long. Sometimes I go for days without being by myself (minus her 2 hr naps and being at work). Sometimes I miss sleeping until 10, then going shopping, meeting a friend, watching TV, and then being bored of all things! But all the work and all the sacrifice is completely worth it. Being a parent is the hardest and most rewarding thing I've ever done in all my 27 years. I don't think anyone can explain it to you until you've done it. I love that little girl more than anything and she bring such joy and pride to my life. I thank God everyday for blessing us with Audrey.

I'm so excited for the nice weather to come, to get out of this house and find new, fun things to do with my busy toddler girl :)

I'm also excited for next Sunday, her birthday party, and next Tuesday, her actual birthday!

I love you Audrey Joanne!

Audrey on the new slide at Grandma's house!
Audrey meeting Dora at the Mall of America last week!

Audrey likes to sit on the potty!

Playing pretend with her baby :)

Monday, March 21, 2011

10 Fun Facts (because I don't feel like studying and I need to stall...no wonder I blogged more in college)

1. I have yearly competencies tomorrow. Mostly, we just go over things in a small group, but there is a short EKG test. We need to be able to identity heart rhythms, most importantly the lethal rhythms. To practice for my test, I will now tell you all the lethal rhythms: V-tach, V-fib, Idioventricular rhythm, asystole (also ventricular standstill and agonal), 3rd degree AV block, and Torsades. They are lethal, because if you don't intervene, the patient will most likey, or rather, very likely die. I have only seen 3 of these in real life. I bet you all know what asystole looks like, it's just a flat line (this is very bad).

2. Audrey has a cold. This makes her already feisty temperament even more feisty. But it also makes her a little more prone to snuggling :)

3. I am wearing a sweatshirt right now I got in elementary school. I have been using it as a jammy shirt for, well, decades. It's a New York Laundry brand sweat shirt. It came with a matching sweat shirt material bag in a matching color: salmon pink-ish. My Grandma Hemmer got it for me one Christmas and got herself a teal set as well. I dunno why she did it, but I'm glad she did. It's ginormous on me now, so imagine how big it was on my 10 year old self.

4. I keep buying Nilla cookies for Audrey, but Chris and I have re-discovered how amazingly good they are and we keep eating them gone before Audrey even gets one. I think I need to stop buying them. (Acutally, they are the off-brand kind, 'vanilla wafers')

5. I distinctively remember when I was nine years old I thought to myself. "I am 1/2 way to being a grown-up"

6. My friend Bridget and I used to get as ugly as could get using make-up and gross clothes. Then we'd take our each other's pictures. Then we'd get as pretty as we could get and take another picture. Then we'd label them 'before' and 'after'. Haha, I miss doing stuff like that.

7. My favorite drug is propofol. It makes my patients sleep. But it also drops a blood pressure, which can be a bummer.

 8. When we were little my brother Brice and I had a knocking system between our walls. One knock was 'hi', two knocks was "hi back" three was "how are you", four was "good, how are you" then seven knocks was something like, "I'm all done talking now and I'm going to bed so don't do anymore knocks, haha"

9. One of my favorite memories with my brother Brice was when I was almost asleep one night and I heard little noises at my window. I looked outside and he was throwing little rocks at my bedroom window, motioning for me to come outside. I was probably like 16 at the time. I drug myself out there and he had my ice skates all ready for me to put on. Turns out our whole cul-de-sac was solid ice. So there we were, ice-skating on our street at midnight. It was so fun. That's my brother for ya. Did you know we did that Mom?

10. My very first impression of meeting Chris was that he was one of the friendliest people I'd ever met, especially for a teenage boy.

Ok, I need to study now. Shoot it's 12:25am.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Audrey and Her Daddy

 I love watching Chris and Audrey together. He brings out a different side in Audrey that I do not, a very silly side! Chris makes Audrey laugh and giggle more than I do and he thinks up random fun things to do with her. I'm so proud of the father that Chris is to Audrey; I'm so glad God chose him to be Audrey's Daddy. I'm so grateful that she will grow up with a strong Daddy keeping her safe and loved. She will feel secure and confident in herself, knowing who she is through Christ because of the things Chris will show and teach her. I'm so excited to raise up our kids with Chris! He is a wonderful man, husband, and Daddy!
Here are some pictures (many pictures, I even cut out several!) of these two silly ones throughout Audrey's (almost) 2 years of life.  
A few days ago...
Always wrestling around
Doin' what they do
Feeding Daddy some crackers
My personal favorite, because of how it captured the moment and because how shocked I was that Chris let himself get soaking wet!
2nd Father's Day
Always making her giggle
Love this
Silly Gooses
Daddy's turn!
Helping Audrey learn to sit!
He was wrestling her around way back then too!
I've always loved this one.
Chris really wanted Audrey to have her 1st icecream cone!
She how she loves him?!
I remember her giggles that day. So happy!
Daddy won Audrey a pig at the fair.
Nappy time.
1st Father's Day.
A natural Daddy
In their Sunday best.
1st horsey ride!
1st bath, I remember that he wanted to be the one to do it!
I always wanted to get that classic Daddy/baby sleeping picture, pretty sure this was our 1st day home from the hospital
Getting to know each other!
Audrey Joanne and Daddy meeting! Their 1st picture!







When I go get Audrey in the morning she usually says, "Daddy?" I say, "Where is Daddy?" Then she remembers and says, "At work!" When Daddy gets home, Audrey usually brightens up and either goes to see him or starts jabbering, telling him about her day. After supper, Audrey looks at Chris and says, "Belt?" This means she wants to go upstairs and 'wrestle for the belt' with Chris. It's very fun to watch them play!
Thanks for all you do Chris. I love you and Audrey does too!