A busy week

Okay, I've got a very busy week going leading up to our vacation that starts on Saturday. I worked Monday for a coworker on vacation. I am going into work today to finish up a chart review that I started last week and need to get done today. Wednesday I work my usual day in Grants Pass (the other hospital that our diabetes education team serves). Then Thursday and Friday I have two more days of a conference on performance improvement measures (part two of 4 two-day events). That will mean early drives to Grants Pass those two days.

Amidst all that work-related stuff, I have to do my part of getting us prepped for the vacation. Today I ran a bunch of random errands. Sunday I ran a bunch of laundry, but I'm sure we'll need to do a last minute batch just before we pack. Sunday I also went to the mall and bought some new summer clothes that will be very versatile to make the packing easier. Ugghh... but it will all be worth it when we drive out of town on Saturday for a two week adventure.

So, what are we going to do in Montana, anyway? I have been thinking perhaps we will stay one night in Bozeman, which is ranch country, with mountains to the west. It looks like there is a lot to do in that area. Then one night in Missoula, which is a university town and should have some fun activities. The whole area is a maze of scenic drives on my maps. Actually, we just looked it up, both Bozeman and Missoula are university towns.

It would be really fun to go on a guided fishing trip, but that is so spendy... I found a bed and breakfast that is also a wolf sanctuary. So maybe tonight D and I can decide on where to stay and make our reservations.

Upcoming Vacation

I had a pedicure last week in preparation for our vacation. (well, not really for the vacation, I just wanted an excuse to post that picture.) I never did give any details about our plans this time so here it is:

Sat, June 30 - leave home and drive to Boise, ID
Sun, July 1 - spend the day with a college friend of mine who I have not seen in years. He plays guitar in a band, so we are hoping maybe they will have a gig or at least he will play for us.
Mon, July 2 - drive to Jackson, WY
Tues-Thurs, July 3-5 - adventures around Jackson with Denis' family who are all rondevousing to meet us. Sis-in-law plays violin in an annual summer orchestra, so she and family are there from Tulsa, OK. Parents coming from IA and sister, nephew and family coming from NE.
Fri-Sun, July 6-9 - leave Jackson heading for Montana. No particular plans for these days. We will play it by ear. Wind up in Northern ID Sunday PM.
Mon-Tues, July 9&10 - Visit family friends on Courdelaine Lake. Will probably include some lake boating and fishing!
Wed, July 11 - drive to Yakima, WA stopping in Moses Lake to visit a family friend.
Thurs-Fri, July 12&13 - visit family friends in Yakima. These folks have been like Aunt and Uncle to me since my childhood. And their daughter also lives in town who I rarely get to see.
Sat, July 14 - drive home sweet home.

It seems like it has been a while since I have gone on a nice road trip vacation. It's going to be really fun to connect with family and old friends but also have our own transportation and some time on our own. Has anyone been to Western Montana and have suggestions of what we should do or see on our three days there?

Pictures!

Sowing...



































And sprouting...

Howdy folks!

Hey there. Sorry I've been incommunicado for a while. I actually just got a new computer and have been trying to get all my programs loaded on and functioning properly. I have lots of pictures on my camera, but they have to wait until my Creative Memories picture software can get registered on line. (stymied by the fact that the same serial number is registered on another computer - my old one, but it has been erased and is not in use. ) I emailed the customer service today, so hopefully I will find out what to do tomorrow and can restore all my pictures from the back up CDs that I made.

I got the new computer, BTW, because my mom's computer died and she wasn't ready to buy a new computer yet. She got my old one. She is having more problems than I am now because the online games that she likes to play are not loading for her on my old computer. Must be a fixable problem, but she is getting discouraged about it. So anyway, we are over here working on computer woes in the evenings. Hopefully we will get it all sorted out soon.

Other than that, I'm just working and looking forward to our vacation which is just around the corner! The veggies are growing like crazy - that's what some of the pictures are of. It's very exciting.

Working

Today was my first day of working more hours each week. One of my coworkers resigned recently and it gave the rest of us the opportunity to reassign hours between us. I elected to add 4 hours a week to my schedule, so I will be working full days on Fridays now instead of half days. This really isn't that big of a change anyway, since I rarely actually was able to leave at noon on my "half days". It's better for my attitude and mentality to just know from the get-go that I will be there until 4 or 5.

The other big deal at work is that I am finally going to teach my first patient how to use an insulin pump. Remember when I wore one way back when? It's taken all this time for me to finally have a person ready to start one on my watch. We get so few pump starts that us nurses kind of wind up fighting over them... Not really, but we all want to do them and they don't come along often. So I'm very excited. Our appointment is in two weeks.

I went shopping this evening for work clothes and did find some, but it was exhausting. I don't like clothes shopping any more than I like ironing the clothes that I wind up with... I hope you are all having a great weekend.

Fragrant

Well, if you had scent-o-vision installed on your computer, you would be able to smell the heady fragrance of the sweet peas that I have on my kitchen windowsill. I love it, mmmmm... This vase was given to me by a coworker after her visit to Japan.








And here are some cut roses that I brought in. They are from two of the rose plants that we have. The third may have a fungus of some sort and the blooms have a brown discoloration on some of the edges. So I didn't bring any of them indoors.

100 things

1. I am right-handed.
2. I have 20/20 vision in each eye still.
3. I can see 20/15 with both eyes together.
4. I was the only person in my family who didn't need glasses.
5. I really wanted glasses when I was younger.
6. I have heard that most people need glasses soon after turning 40.
7. I look pretty good in glass frames when I try them on.
8. I tend to lose my sunglasses so I'm afraid that I will lose real glasses once I need them.
9. I have very sensitive eyes and wear sunglasses most of the time when I drive during the day.
10. My eyes are green (or hazel, cause they change depending on what I'm wearing).
11. My hair is getting very gray. (it's shocking)
12. I started coloring my hair regularly just before my wedding.
13. I once swore I would never permanently color my hair.
14. I didn't want to suddenly go gray with a severe root grow out line.
15. I color my hair partly because Denis prefers it colored.
16. I prefer to live in either a major city or in a small town.
17. Medford is an in-between size. Kind of like living in the suburbs of a city.
18. I moved here because my mom was here and my brother was moving away.
19. I built my house before I was planning to marry Denis.
20. I found my floor plan in one of those books that you can buy in the store.
21. I had it modified so that I could have a real pantry and laundry room.
22. The master bedroom is smaller than average because of that.
23. Denis and I love our little house.
24. My parents were divorced when I was 11 years old.
25. My father was an alcoholic.
26. I didn't know he was until after the divorce.
27. He tended to drink away all our money, leading to the divorce.
28. My mom protected my brother and I by taking us to a friend's house when my dad came home drunk.
29. My dad was a happy drunk as far as I can remember (he would joke around and wasn't mean).
30. I attended some Alanon meetings with my mom after the divorce.
31. I still remember some of the Alanon principles from those meetings.
32. My dad quit drinking 2 years too late.
33. He was court ordered to take Anatabuse after a DUI conviction. (it makes you sick if you drink)
34. My mom had custody of my brother and I.
35. I'm really glad that she did.
36. I'm really grateful to my mom for the way that she parented me.
37. My dad lived on the other side of Portland.
38. It was a 45 minute drive to his house.
39. We only saw him about 2 times a year.
40. I felt kind of guilty about that until I was in college.
41. Then I realized that it was his fault that we didn't see him since he was the dad.
42. My father died when I was in college during spring break.
43. It was really awkward to go back to school after spring break.
44. People would ask me how my vacation was without realizing what the answer was going to be.
45. I became a Christian at a church camp at about age 10.
46. I went with my best friend.
47. They gave an invitation to pray with a counselor and Lisa got up and walked away.
48. I hadn't been paying attention much, so I didn't know where Lisa had gone and followed her.
49. I prayed with a counselor to accept Jesus into my heart.
50. God's love was very real and important to me in the years following my parents divorce.
51. I was considered a goody-two-shoes in school.
52. I have never done any recreational drugs.
53. But I have been drunk.
54. But I've never had a hang-over.
55. I learned a lot more about the Bible and my faith while I was in college.
56. The main thing that changed in my faith in college was that I realized the Bible was more than just a nice ideology, but was supposed to be lived out.
57. I also realized that Jesus didn't just die for the sins of the whole world, but He died for my sins.
58. These were really surprising things to me at the time.
59. I graduated from nursing school in 4 years.
60. That is hard to do because you need to get a lot of credits.
61. I got 15 credits that I needed by going on a geography field trip around the US and some of Canada the summer before my senior year.
62. The US seemed much smaller to me after the trip. (Not in a bad way but in a sense that it is accessible. You really can just hop in a car and drive across the country!)
63. I love to travel!
64. I wish I could take a month off work and travel around Europe, or just about anywhere, really.
65. I have been to Canada, Mexico, Bolivia, Peru, Argentina (only for 3 hours), Brazil (1 hour), Paraguay, India, and England (1 day layover in London).
66. I save coins from countries that I have visited.
67. I'm really bummed I didn't make it to Europe before they implemented the Euro.
68. I have a bunch of frequent flyer miles, but haven't gotten around to using them yet.
69. I am a pretty open person.
70. I will give an honest answer to just about any question someone asks me.
71. I don't always offer up my opinion or my personal experiences unless I am asked.
72. I like to think and talk about social and/or political issues.
73. I don't generally feel like I have enough information to form a solid opinion about social issues or politics.
74. I think that's why I really enjoy documentaries.
75. I value learning from other people's experience.
76. I am taking an online defensive driving course because of my speeding ticket last month.
77. I am learning that I am not as safe a driver as I thought I was.
78. I still think some of the defensive driving suggestions are unrealistic.
79. I am a slob.
80. I have stacks of papers on the floor of my side of our office.
81. I have a system for putting very important papers and items in specific places so that they will not get lost.
82. I am pretty disciplined about following through with that.
83. It's the semi-important stuff that stacks up and gets forgotten about.
84. I am amazed at Denis' patience with my mess.
85. I had a Siamese cat before i got Phoebe and Monica
86. Ginger was a stray from the apartment complex I was living in at the time.
87. I let her come in during a snow storm.
88. She was definitely a stray cat!
89. She bit me 5 times during the first month I had her.
90. Each time was less intentional, or I would have taken her to the humane society.
91. It was an amazing feeling to realize that I had won her over.
92. She died only a year later of kidney failure.
93. I was terribly sad when she died.
94. I'm so glad that I got two cats together the next time.
95. I asked for a "bonded pair" so that they wouldn't be alone while I was at work or away overnight.
96. Denis is not really a cat person. (oops, this is supposed to be about me...)
97. Denis loves ME, so he accepted my cats. (he is quite fond of Phoebe and puts up with Monica)
98. My clothing is always covered in cat hair.
99. Denis sometimes lint-rollers me before we go out in public.
100. I hope you enjoyed my list.