Drive Carefully

I headed out early this morning (0700) for my drive back to SLC from Phoenix. It was a beautiful day. I really enjoyed myself for the first several hours. Did you know that the farther north you get, the greener and more beautiful AZ becomes? I had no idea that AZ was so green. It was fantastic! As you get closer to Flagstaff, there are pine trees everywhere and green valleys. I really loved it.
As I got about 40 miles north of Flagstaff, in the middle of nowhere, I came across a two car rollover accident. There was no EMS on the scene yet. I got out of my car to check out if they needed help. I found that there were four other RN's on the scene who happened to be passing by. One car was on its side. There were three fatalities in that car. Let me tell you, even though I have worked in the trauma room it was a difficult thing to see. The driver was alive but was pinned under the car. The other car had five people who were all injured, but were stuck because the car doors wouldn't open. I just went to work talking to the people, and trying to keep them calm. Twenty minutes later, the first police car shows up. We still had no medical help. We had already told 911 that we needed medical helicopters, so when the cop shows up he radios in that fact as well. The helicoptors show up as the fire truck does and they go to work. They had to extricate people from their cars. The one lady was really bad. The lifeflight nurse asked me to put the IV in her. I did not have any gloves so I helped in other ways. An hour and a half later, I was back on the road. I was very thankful for my safety thus far on my trip, and prayed for continued safety. To my friends and family, please be careful on the road. I love you all and want you to be safe.
So, my car was packed to the rim with all of my stuff that I travel with. It was so stuffed, that I had to put Jack in the front seat next to me. He absolutely hated it! A few hours into the drive, he climbed back into the back seat. He was literally stuck!! I do not know how he got back there. There was literally no room, but he managed to squeeze in somewhere. So, I had to pull over and unpack the car to get him out. It was crazy.

This is seriously one of the most beautiful drives I have ever taken. I drove by Grand Canyon, Glen Canyon dam, Lake Powell, Zions, and Bryce Canyon. It was very scenic. I really enjoyed the drive. Very beautiful. But, it is nice to be home.

Last Day in AZ

It is with very mixed feelings that I write about my last day in AZ. It has been one of the funnest experiences in my life, and also one of the hardest. I guess that is where we learn the most from life, when it is hard.
I had the time of my life living near my nephews! I played with them as often as I could, and really had a blast! They are currently the loves of my life. I absolutely adore them! I have often thought if only I could meet a man like one of them I would be set. Now, where is that man?

Today we all went to one of my favorite AZ places. We went to Tempe Town Lakes and played football and just ran around! I of coarse was also busy taking tons of pictures. You wouldn't expect anything less!

Afterwards we went to The Cheesecake Factory for dinner. It was so fun and as always, delicious! Noah was being a complete ham for us. He was acting so funny. Caden was playing with the pepper and so I told him that if you accidently get some in your nose it will make you sneeze. He loved that idea! He then proceeded to get some in his hands and put it up his nose. As predicted, within minutes, he was sneezing! He thought it was hilarious!! I did too.

After dinner we went down to the mall area where there was a band playing and chilled while Spencer, Caden, and Chase went to a store. While we were waiting, Noah started dancing to the music. It was so incredibly funny. His dancing is very unique. It was so much fun to watch him dance. Then Spencer and the Boys came out of the mall looking very suspicious. As they got closer to us, they all pulled out silly string and sprayed us. It was very funny.....until the rent a cop came and told us we couldn't do silly string outside the mall......party pooper.

It was such a fun day. I am so glad that I was able to enjoy my last day with Brooke and Spencer and their family.

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse

Yes, this is what you think it is. It is my wrinkly arm with a hospital band on it. I went to the Emergency room today for the first time in my life. So the bad news is, that at this hospital that I have been working at for the last 13 weeks, I was exposed to N. meningitis. Yes, that is the one that is extremely contagious and deadly. (the kind you have to report to the health department) The even worse news is, that this hospital did not think that it was a big deal. They acted like I was crazy for wanting to be treated for my exposure. So, now after waiting 4 long days, they said we had to go to the ER and get antibiotics. I think the thing that bugs me the most about the whole situation, is that the hospital acted like it did not even care that we had been exposed. Everyone we talked to blew us off, including our manager. Honestly, it took us four days to be treated for something that we should have been treated for immediately. This disease causes death, brain damage, etc. Need I say more?
The thing that bugs me the second most, is that I had four days off this week in a row and had planned to go and see Brooke and the cute kids every single one of those days. But, in light of my meningitis exposure, I cannot go to see them. This is my last week here in AZ and I cannot even go and see my cute nephews before I take off. I am EXTREMELY bugged!! The ER doctor was really nice and even gave me some masks that I could wear when I was around the kids. Like I am going to go there with a mask on! Besides, I think they look cuter on Jack!
This is reason #68999777 that I need to find a new job. I hate germs! Especially deadly ones!

Down to Two

As a traveling nurse, there is always one constant. You are there for thirteen weeks. No matter how bad it can be, there is always an end in sight. My end is two short shifts away. Not that I have been counting down since week one or anything. I honestly cannot wait! This place is absolutely out of control!
This has been a hard assignment for me. The people at the hospital here are pretty cool for the most part. Not the most hard working nurses, but I have made some pretty good friends here. The hospital on the other hand, is not the best place to work. Some of the doctors are absolutely clueless and it has just been long and hard. There are times when I honestly think to myself that medicine in the US just can't be this bad. But then I go to work and realize that it really is that bad. But, my end is in sight. It is here! Yahoo! I am really excited to move on to the next assignment. I am not sure where that will be, but will let you know once I know.

Beautiful AZ sunset

My roommate Jessie and I took a hike to get some fun sunset shots. It was a beautiful night. There is a park by our house called Papago Park that has some rock mountains you can hike/climb (if you like to climb. Not me, that requires heights, and I don't do heights). Of course I brought Jackie Wackie along for the hike (he loves to be outside).
Living here in AZ, there are several red rock mountains right close to our house. It is really cool to see them and you can see them in our sunset shots. The scenery around here is pretty impressive. Anyways, we had a great time, and as you can tell, I got some great shots.

Cool Experiences

I met a guy here at work named John Conway. He told me he was baptized a member of the church one year ago. As we became friends here, he shared with me the story of his and his wifes conversion to the church. It has been the neatest opportunity to hear his story and his testimony. My testimony has grown becase of listening to him. He told me last week that he and his wife were being sealed in the temple and invited me to go. I had to work that day or I definitely would have gone.
I worked with him two days after they had been sealed and you could see an obvious change in him. He had a different spirit with him. It was so incredible to see. I told him that he looked different to me, and he told me he felt different. He told me that he had to prepare a talk for sunday school and decided to talk about the temple. He said he thought to himself, "the temple is a spiritual disneyland". He said that at the end of the day, or the end of what we are doing, we should say, "Lets go to the temple". It has been such a great opportunity for me to learn from him. I know that the temple is so important and needs to be an integral part of our lives. I am so thankful for good friends who help me and teach me important principles that I need to live by in my life. The pics here are pics that I took at the Mesa temple. It is such a great place to go to feel the spirit.

The Greatest Mom

Thanks mom for being the best mom ever! I want to wish you a wonderful mothers day! Thanks for being such a great example to me and for teaching me what kind of mom I want to be someday. You have always been such a great friend and I love to be able to talk to you. Your faith, patience, love, compassion, and humility have been what has made you the best mom ever!! Thanks again mom! I love you so much!

Fantastic Last Day in Mexico

What a beautiful last day here in Mexico. Honestly, when you are planning a vacation, 3 days camping seems like plenty. But now that it is over, I could stay for three more days. It has been so wonderful and relaxing. First off, when you are camping, it is hard to sleep in. The sweet little kids are up at the crack of dawn. So we were able to break camp really early and have our car packed by 0830. That gave us the whole day to do whatever we wanted.
We decided to rent go carts and play in the sand dunes. What a total blast! Everyone, (including Jack) had the time of their lives. Jack literally had a dog smile plastered on his snout from ear to ear the entire time we were on the go carts. The sand dunes were great, although the constant sand in the mouth was a little annoying. Not the funnest thing to chew on. What a fun morning so far. Surprisingly, after eating all the sand while go-carting, we were still hungry. So the whole group of us went out for ice cream. I think I could honestly live on ice cream! It was so delicious!
Then we headed back to the beach to cool off for a while. After seeing my roommates cool shots of Jack with the glasses on, I had to do a repeat with him on the beach. As you can tell, he is one cool dude. I think he really did absolutely love being on the beach near the water. Yellow labradors are made for the water and this was right up his alley. As you can tell from the other pics, we all had a great day on the beach
We then headed back to the United States. It was nice to be home after spending time in Mexico. What a completely fun trip though. I had a total blast!

Lifesaving in Rocky Point

We had another fun, eventful day today in Rocky Point. We basically spent the entire day at the beach. It was so great! The weather has been fantastic. Thank heavens for a breeze or else it would be way too hot here!! Jack has had so much fun again today. All the kids from the ward have completely fallen in love with Jack. There is not a moment that goes by that he doesn't have kids surrounding him. He has enjoyed that. He does not normally get that much attention. Jack was so funny. He would go out and swim around for awhile, and then go up to the beach and roll around in the sand and get completely dirty. It makes me wonder what is going through their heads.
It was so fun down at the beach today. It was just so relaxing and I loved it. I don't know what it is exactly, but every once in a while, it is so rejuvinating to just sit on the beach and relax. I am pretty easy to please, just a nice little beach and some delicious mangos passing by every once in a while and a cold water to drink and I am happy. It was nice because, the water was just cool enough to be very refreshing. Took the breath away at first, but felt good once I was in it.
We had a very eventful night tonight. Spencer told me that they were going to the fish market to get shrimp and fish to eat for dinner. Since that is not my favorite thing to eat, Christy, Kai and I went to the Chicken Hut for dinner again. When we got back from dinner, they were still cooking the fish and shrimp. Well as Spencer was eating the shrimp, he started getting hives all over his body. Thank heavens Christy had some childrens benadryl and I gave him some pepcid. Well, a few minutes later Spencer asked me about when should you go to the ER for breathing problems. And I said if you are having breathing problems, you go ten minutes ago. So, off to the red cross we go. Let me tell you, I felt like I was in an episode of MASH. It was so funny! Their equiptment was so incredibly old. I so wish I had my camera so that I could have documented it, but when you are worried about breathing, you don't think about things like cameras. Anyway, as he was being treated, they told him he would need a shot in the butt of steroids. So as I am trying to walk away, they pull his pants down. Not my favorite part of the day. Its not like I wanted to see my brother in laws butt. Oh well, I guess if you have seen one, you have seen them all. Thank heavens that it all ended well, but we did have a little scare there for a while. Don't you love the pic of Caden with the raw shrimp? It is actual proof of the scene of the crime. As you can tell by the sunset, it ended up being a beautiful night.

Dog Days in Mexico

My friend Christy, her son Kai, my dog Jack and I headed to Rocky Point, Mexico today with Spencer and the kids and several families from their ward. Brooke could not come because of a prior committment, and I think Spencer only came because he felt obligated to since he invited me. We took off this morning from Phoenix and got to the beach around noon. We are camping on this trip, so we immediately had to set up camp. I must admit, it was nice though because the ward helped us get our tents up and get us totally settled. It felt very hot outside, so once we had camp set up, we headed off to the beach. The beach was absolutely fantastic! It was a beautiful day and the water was great. This is Jack's first experience with the beach and he had the time of his life. Jack was enjoying the water so much. He was jumping the waves, swimming, and chasing the kids. He was loving every minute of it. The only thing I think he must have thought was weird was drinking all of the sea water and having it taste so funny, I don't think he loved that. It will be an interesting challenge to keep him hydrated this weekend with fresh water. I have to admit though, I was very proud of Jack. He was very well behaved around all the kids and was more obedient than usual. It was so great.
Another great thing about the beach, is all the people coming around selling yummy treats. My favorite was the mango guy. He would peel fresh mango's on a stick and then cut them open for you to enjoy. The best part, was that he would squeeze fresh lime over the mango. It was absolutely delicious! I never would have thought of that, but what a treat!!
Chasey boy has really learned to love Jack on this trip. It has been fun to see him go from being scared around Jack to absolutely wanting to spend every minute with him. I thought this was so cute. He wanted me to take a pic of him and Jack chillin in my tent watching Scooby Doo movies. It was so cute.
Tonight for dinner we went to a yummy place called The Chicken Hut. The food was so delicious! I mean, you can't really go wrong with charcoal grilled chicken, homemade beans, homemade tortillas, and delicious rice. I absolutely love authentic homemade mexican food. It was a really fun experience and the food was fantastic!
What an incredibly fun day! I have had a total blast so far and as you can tell, Jack has as well. I feel so lucky to have such fun experiences in my life. What a lucky person I am.