Holy Strep Day!!!

Strep throat is running amok in Utah. I came home and immediately chucked my scrubs into the wash. I was coughed on by about five people today while swabbing them for strep throat. Out of those five people, three were positive for strep. Yikes!!!

I signed up for Spotify premium tonight. I already love it.

I'm tired and I know I haven't blogged for the last two nights, so I will cut to the chase and answer the questions I did not answer over the last few nights...

Tomorrow I will...only work half a day and then I have all of Wednesday off :D

What was your last major purchase? We purchased my sewing machine at Christmas time and it is a mixed blessing. I have a lot of problems with the bobbin casing and it gives me fits, but I still love it.

My house is a home because...I have two of my four children living with me and I have a husband who I adore. I love our little animals and I love how cozy our home is at night when we are sitting on the couch watching TV. I also love quiet afternoons when Robby is working at his computer at the kitchen table, I am puttering around the kitchen or working on an art project with my ipod playing classic rock in the background. That's my favorite.

Friday :D

I love Fridays. I love working on a Friday, knowing that I have two days off. Today I followed an intern, so I only had to help with 4 patients. I like that. The last patient was kind of an interesting case. On the schedule, it said his reason for coming in was that he had "questions about intercourse". That got my attention! It turns out that he has been married for 3 weeks. He brought his wife in to talk to the doctor because he is having anxiety about "performing". I blame his parents for making him fear being carnal and sensual. Someone must have told him that he is not allowed to have lustful thoughts and he can't get over that fear even after being married. The doctor and I kind of chuckled that you can't be an expert after just 3 weeks. It takes a little practice. It was still kind of embarrassing and everyone was just kind of giggling about it.

Today's question: How much did you spend the last time you went grocery shopping? $125. We go through milk like there is NO tomorrow. We do NOT take Emeli with us when we shop because she can always find something else to toss in the cart. I like to take Robby so that he can see how much food costs and then he can't complain when he sees how much I have spent.

Now I am going to bed.

Thursday

I came home from work and CRASHED!

Question of the day: Today's temperature was...36 degrees.

Crappy day and glad it is over. I struggled through work all day. Tomorrow will be better.

Wednesday

Not too hard of a day today because I was following first year residents. Very nice because I was kinda crampy and couldn't move too fast.

We went to Chef's Table for lunch. Wasatch Pain Management Clinic treated us MA's and receptionists to a lunch, which was yummy. Chef's Table is very pricey. It's about $60 a plate for each of us, PLUS, they gave us these cool little back packs with fun little gifts inside. I love free gifts from vendors.

Robby is on this stupid antibiotic that makes him nauseous. I called him today and he answered the phone in a tiny voice. He was just lying in bed resting because he felt so crappy.

Today's question: What is your favorite thing to drink?
I love chocolate milk. If I could drink chocolate milk all the time, I would. But I know it is SO fattening, so I rarely drink it. I also LOVE Diet Coke with lime. I love a huge, tall Diet Coke on ice. That is probably my real favorite thing to drink, even though it is so bad for me. Shari is always nagging me about drinking it, but I love it.

Snooki's twin came into the clinic today. She is probably about 4'10" without her high heels on. She could barely walk in them, either. I was mad at her because she was twenty minutes late and the doctor still saw her. That meant I would be coming home late, which pisses me off. She walks down the hall, barely able to walk in her stilt shoes and apologizes by saying, "Sorry I'm so slow. These shoes do not let me hurry." A part of me wanted to say, "Well, you stupid bitch, if you were able to walk in your skank high heels, you would be able to hurry. And, if you weren't late to your appointment, I wouldn't be trying to rush you to your room, either." But I can't say that, so I smile instead. Then she tells me that she has gained 65 pounds in the last year and that she has lower abdominal pain. I wanted to tell her that it's because she probably sits around getting high and has the munchies and that's why she has gained weight, but I refrain. The doctor ends up giving her a pelvic exam, which I have to be present for, so I have to see her whole pelvic area. She is obviously tanning because even her crotch is tan. I have to give her a pregnancy test because she thinks she might be pregnant and I'm thinking, "I hope, for the sake of the baby, that you are NOT!" She wasn't pregnant, thank goodness! She is only 18.

I was venting to Robby and telling him that girls like Snooki and the twit that came into the clinic today drag all womankind back about 300 or 400 years. All the hard work we women do to be respected for our minds and our hard work goes flying out the window when women like Snooki are watched on TV and are entertaining our young women. The fact that they are being imitated and glamorized just irritates the hell out of me. Okay, I'm done. Just sayin'...

blah

I had today off and it was nice. I woke up this morning with horrific cramps, so I took some Midol and ibuprofen, grabbed a slice of bed and didn't wake up until noon. Midol always makes me sleepy, but at least I don't feel the cramps.

Then Robby and I went out to lunch, the library and to buy Emeli's book she needs for school, oh, and to Walmart to buy Robby's antibiotics because he has an abscess in his mouth from this stupid tooth. He either has to have it pulled ($300) or get a root canal ($900). Grrrr...

So today's question of the day: What are you looking for from life?

Am I supposed to look for something from life? I thought we were born, we try to fulfill the measure of our creation, then we die and hope we were good enough to go to Heaven. But now that someone has asked me what I am looking for...I think I am looking to have a happy life full of wonderful memories, surrounded by the people that I love. That is what I am looking for. I wouldn't mind creating art during all of that, either.

But, right NOW, I am looking to have a cramp free day tomorrow while I am at work. That's what I am looking for. Probably won't happen, but I can hope.

cool day at work

So today I got to assist in a Flex-Sig. This is a procedure that involves a long, snake-like camera that goes up the rectum and "snakes" along the colon with a little camera so you can see the sigmoid colon. It's pretty fascinating. The patient has to "prepare" his colon by doing some serious cleansing. When we get in there with the camera, the colon is all pink and in a perfect state for the doctor to see any polyps on the colon wall. This patient today had a polyp. The medical student was shoving the scope up the patient's rectum. The doctor was steering the camera lens. The doctor had me take the wire that goes through the camera that has teeth on it. He had me open the little clamps and snap them shut and grab tissue from the polyp. I did it. I stood there silently jumping up and down inside myself at how successful I was. So that probably answers the question of the day...What made today unusual? I think that snatching a tiny biopsy of a polyp would make my day unusual.

The bummer about performing a Flex-Sig is the clean up afterward. Last time I cleaned up from a Flex-Sig, I accidentally let the snake-like camera swing across the back of my scrub pants. Since I know EXACTLY where that camera has been, I changed my scrub pants. Thank goodness we have extra scrubs at my clinic or I would be wearing my slimed scrub pants all day. Nasty.

Sunday

So today I tried a recipe from pinterest. It was for the yummy biscuits they serve at Red Lobster. They were yum.

I worked on my quilt today and it is about 2/3 finished. My sewing machine is poopy sometimes. I still haven't figured out all the things about it. I can now thread the bobbin and thread the machine without looking at the handy little guide.

Today's question: Tomorrow will be better because...

Tomorrow will not be better. I have to work all day. I don't like working all day. I know it's necessary and in order to be a responsible adult, I have to work all day. But I don't like it. There are certain doctors I do not like following. Dr Miner is an arrogant ass hole. He is probably the only doctor I despise. Thank goodness he is a third year resident and leaves in June. Yeah! Good bye, Dr Miner.

snow...

It is finally snowing the way it should be in January. I'm not liking it, but at least I feel like the shoe has finally dropped. It has kind of freaked me out to have spring weather in January. I was afraid it would make for a LONG spring.

Today's question: Today I wish I had more...

Wow. Certainly NOT snow. I wish I had more energy. I have been dragging all day. Usually I talk Robby's ears off when we are driving around on a Saturday. Today, I just sat in the car and felt drained. A couple of times I caught him looking at me strangely.

I got into a nice fight with Emeli tonight. The other day Brett went to pick her up at Francesca's house and there were boys there. One of the "couples" was laying all over each other. I was not pleased. So tonight when she asked if she could go to Francesca's house, Brett piped up and asked who would be there. Emeli had left a list of who would be there and Brett had seen that list and he wanted me to know that boys would be there. So she told me that there would be two boys and three girls. She left out a few names of the others (boys, including the Eric I DO NOT like) that would be there. So I told her she would not be going. I started talking about how she thinks she is invulnerable to boys being stupid around her. I told her she thinks she can handle boys and nothing will happen to her. Emeli said she would never allow a boy to get her alone. Brett said, "So, let's have an arm wrestle right here." She said, "NO!" Then Brett said, "Okay, I will pin you down on the floor and show you how easily you can be pinned down." She didn't appreciate that. She put up her hand as if she was saying, "Talk to the hand." I was done with her doing that to me. She always does that and tonight was the last straw. I told her to go to her room for a while because I needed space from her because I was so irritated. She looked at me like I had just slapped her, but after stealing some chips and telling me she was starving, reluctantly went into her room. A few minutes later, she peeked out and slinked out to grab more chips. I told her to not act like I can't see her. She would go back to her room and her fifteen minutes would start all over again. Just like when she was a kid and left her room before her time out was over. She was genuinely shocked that I did that. Twit. She told me I was a nagging mother. I told her that that is what mothers do. It's part of my job description and if she doesn't like it, too bad.

Later, we dropped off the Harry Potter movie. It is snowing outside like crazy. We arrived home and pulled into the parking spot. We saw these teenage boys out running in the snow with their bathing suits on. They were scooping up snow. I turned to her and said, "They are going to make huge snowballs and take them back into the pool area and throw snowballs at each other in the pool." She turned to me with shock on her face and said, "How do you know that?!" I said, "Because I know boys." Sure enough, each boy got a huge snowball and went running into the pool area with them and proceeded to throw them at each other. She was really shocked that I would know that. She didn't appreciate that I tied that into our argument just a little while before that. Oh Emeli.

I almost forgot!

So Brett got a new keyboard today. He literally hung out watching for it through the window almost all day until it finally came at 2:30pm. Now I can hear him in there pounding the keys, but with no sound. I just hear this tapping sound. It cracks me up.

So, for the question of the day: The best part of the day was:

I got on Spotify and listened to music tonight with my headphones on and found some fun songs. I love discovering new artists.

I also painted wooden hearts for my window.

Now I get to go back to work tomorrow...blah. Good thing I like my job.

surprise Tuesday

So Robby surprised me with a fun outing. He told me last night he was taking me somewhere and I kept asking for hints, which really irritates him. So I do it again :D.

He took me to the Aquarium we have in Sandy. It's kind of not a big place, but it's packed with stuff. They will have a brand spanking new one in March 2013 and that promises to be amazing. I had told him how much I love the otter exhibit at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. We just got otters at this aquarium, so he surprised me with that. Then, after, he indulged me and took me to my favorite quilting and scrap booking store. I didn't buy anything, but I just love looking. He goes next door to Maverick convenience store and buys strawberry milk and lets me browse to my heart's delight.

So for today's question: What are you grateful for?

Holy cow, this blog is not long enough for that. But I will say one thing that I am especially grateful for.

I am grateful to be a mother. I never wanted a career. I only wanted to be a mom. When my children came, they were everything to me. I would have killed for them. It was amazing when Taylor was born. Before he was born, I thought I would put him in daycare and just work and put Fred through school. As soon as he popped out, all plans for daycare went right out the window. I would never let someone else raise my baby. I wanted to be the one to protect him, see all his "firsts" and make sure he knew he was loved. Well meaning family members would tell me I held him too much. Nope. I have a strong belief that children should not have to wait in line until they are at least a year old. Before that, they don't understand why their needs are not being met. Being a mother is the best title I could ever have. I thank Heavenly Father every day that I am a mother. Not every woman gets to have that honor and I feel blessed that I can say that I am a mom. I know it was the reason for my creation and I take that job seriously. I will always be grateful that I was able to bear and raise my children. I wouldn't trade that for anything in the world.

Crazy Monday

I'm not going into detail about all the crazies we had today. Let's just say it was crazy and leave it at that. I started work at 8am and left at 6:35pm. Whew! I followed a doctor who takes forever with each patient; therefore, I am always late when I am with him.

I found a site that asks journal questions for each day of the year. Today's question is: Who are you in love with?

We all know my answer to that. I am in love with Robby. My favorite thing about him? Well, there are two. I love sleeping with him at night. Throughout the night, there is always a part of us touching. Most of the time it is our feet. In the middle of the night, if we are lying away from each other, at least our feet are touching. After being married to a man who would put pillows between us, it is refreshing to sleep lying right next to my husband. I know, it's probably awkward for my kids to read this, but it's probably my favorite thing about Robby.

The second? I love how he supports me. When I have to get up in the middle of the night for a Code R, Robby drives me and stays with me. If I work in the afternoon, Robby makes dinner and they are YUMMY dinners. I come home to a warm meal and all of us sitting around the table. He comes to visit me at lunch and always brings me a surprise.

I am lucky to have him.

Sunday

So I went on my first Code R by myself today. I was a little nervous because I was trained way back in October and have not had any pages when I was on call. Today, while I had my hair all in hair dye, the page came. OF COURSE! The victim was a 24 year old woman who had been in a fight with a woman and a man at a friend's place. She took some medication with 2 cups of vodka (very stupid decision) and was passed out at the friend's house. When she woke up this morning, she went to the bathroom and found semen in her underwear. She went to an instacare, they referred her to Orem Community Hospital and they referred her to us. I was lucky that Sue, our supervisor, was in her office catching up with her patient notes. She helped me through it again. It was very nice to have her there. Robby came with me and brought his laptop. He was able to do all the reports and crap he had to do for work today. He got everything done while I did the Code R.

I didn't go to church today because I was feeling crappy. I have felt crappy for the last few days. I have noticed that I feel awful on the weekends. It's almost like my body holds everything in until the weekend and then just lets loose.

Emeli got her hair cut yesterday and it is really cute. I do not have the face shape for that kind of cut. It's my favorite cut and I wish I could wear it. It's a bob and she looks really cute.

Brett is working on a floor set for BBW. He will be home late.

I'm kind of excited about this week's schedule because I only work a full day on Monday and Friday. I'm off on Tuesday and Wednesday and work Thursday morning. An easy schedule and I am not going to complain.

Saturday

So today, Robby and I drove around doing his visits to sales agents. Emeli used to come with us, but hates just driving around in the back seat. So she stays home most of the time. She had this idea about getting a hair cut, so she was desperately trying to find someone to take her. Brett ended up taking her and then he had to go into work. She looks really cute with her new hair cut. They cut her bangs, so you can see her eyes more, which I like. But, I am a mom. I like seeing my daughter's eyes. I don't like it when girls hide behind bangs.

We went to the pet shop where Robby bought Bandit. He is thinking about getting another ferret, I think. This little ferret in the shop was HUGE. He was a very light sable and he was twice the size of Bandit. He was also a very feisty and uncivilized ferret. He bit Robby a few times HARD. He has not been socialized at all. He has lived in pet shops for a year, poor little bugger. The owner of the pet shop was impressed with how much we knew about ferrets and kept saying we needed to take him home with us. No. He would bully Bandit and it would be a pain in the butt to try and socialize a year old ferret.

Friday the 13th.

In order to celebrate Friday the 13th, we had a dessert pot luck at work today. I found this yummy chocolate, caramel and oatmeal cookie dessert. We called it the chocolate caramel casserole. It was a huge hit. Everyone loved it and it was so popular, that people were scraping the sides to get every last bit. Jan, my supervisor, told me that it won the prize for the best dessert. That made me feel pretty good.

Today was pretty low key at work and I am glad. I am off all weekend. I was on call last night and on Sunday. Next week I don't work a lot of hours and I am glad for that. I need a break. Plus, Robby misses me when I work a lot.

feeling crappy

So I know I'm coming down with something AGAIN!!! I was warned this would happen and it is happening...grrr. I feel tired, achy, scratchy throat, my back aches (which makes me worried that it is my lungs). I think I am going to be sick. At least I only have to work tomorrow and then have the weekend off again.

Emeli has no school Friday and Monday. What the heck!

Brett cleaned out his bedroom, which is my craft room. It is the room that gets everything dumped into. Brett was slamming around, tossing things and probably threw away a bunch of my crafts without me knowing it. I will probably not even miss them, either. I'm a craft hoarder. I admit it. He was pissy and stomping around. I had to leave with Robby to run errands for his work, so I couldn't help him, which pissed him off even more. Later he texted me and apologized for being so irritated. I forgive him, I guess. :D Now he is BBW working. I will probably be in bed when he gets home.

Teddy

My little ferret, Teddy, died today. He has had diarrhea lately, but he would often get bouts of that and recover. He had a lump on the back of his neck, which is probably what killed him. I think he had cancer. Ferrets are notorious for getting cancer. He was the sweetest little thing. Every morning, he would be so excited to see Emeli and I come out to the kitchen. He would leap up and wait for us to let him out of the cage. The second he hit the ground, he would run to the food dish and start crunching his food. It was so cute.
Robby came to meet me for lunch. We were walking around the parking lot and he turned to me and quietly told me. I was shocked. I never expected that. Teddy was fine this morning when I left. He was kind of sleeping in his little hammock. That's not too unusual. But when Robby checked on him later, he was stiff. I loved little Teddy and I will miss him a lot. The one who will miss him the most, though, is Bandit. He and Bandit always snuggled together at night when they slept. It was so cute. I would get another ferret, but it is so hard to fall in love with these little guys and then watch them die.

OH MY GOSH!!!

I know I forgot to blog yesterday, but Sunday too? I swear, I'm such a dork.

So I've been on-call for Code R's Sunday and Monday until this morning at 7am. I do not sleep well when I am on-call. I keep waking up and realizing I haven't been paged. It's kind of like having a baby and waking up all night expecting the baby to wake you up. You end up sleeping just as poorly as if the baby had woken you up several times during the night.

Yesterday I went to a meeting with Code R people: detectives, Rape Crisis volunteers, lawyers, police officers and Women's Crisis volunteers. Our director, Sue, was in charge. After the meeting, I told her a little about Emeli and how I wanted to know how to help her cope better. She gave me the name of a woman who coordinates an adolescent victim's group here in Utah County. They get together and talk about how to stand up for yourself, how to work on your self esteem, and not just the gritty details of what happened to you. They also do activities. Last year they built a dollhouse for a community event sponsoring homeless children or something like that. Emeli took a little bit of convincing. Her fear is that she joins this group and she gets labeled as different. That's when Brett jumped in. He told her about how he was part of this support group called Gay Straight Alliance. He loved being with people who had the same struggles as him. He told her they didn't sit around talking about how they were gay, but they talked about how to be okay with it and how to cope with a society that doesn't always accept them. I told her that there are groups for all kinds of people: parents of twins, people who have addictions, parents of children who have been molested, people who take care of their aging parents (a group my mom belonged to), etc. She was more receptive after that. She said she would give it a try. So, on Thursday, when I have a half day at work, I will call the lady. I don't want to call her when I work all day because I wouldn't be able to talk to her. On Thursday, I will have time to chat. I'm very excited. I have been wondering how to help Emeli through this. It is usually around this age that the effects of molestation start to flair up and cause girls to really struggle with things. I feel so blessed to have found this group. I don't know if I would have found this group any other way. I see how Heavenly Father works in ways that help His children. I feel very blessed that he cares enough about Emeli to put me in this path.

Today one our patients had the last name Norris. I jokingly asked him if he was related to Chuck Norris. He said that Norris is not really Chuck Norris' last name. He said that his son has a dog named Chuck, so in a way he is related to Chuck Norris. We laughed about that one. Now I have to look up online and see what Chuck Norris' real name is.

I'm going to bed early....

Saturday

So I woke up feeling like I was coming down with something. My supervisor, Jan, was right. I feel like I keep getting sick. She warned me that I would be sick all my first year working at the clinic.

I fixed my sewing machine and did a little more quilting. I crocheted a scarf while Robby and I drove around doing his errands for his work.

Emeli and I worked on helping her memorize her songs for her play. She has such a pretty voice.

Brett is still at work and he actually cleaned my kitchen (after a lot of begging and pleading on my part).

I called Freddy and found him knee deep in babysitting Lizzie and Ralph. He was overwhelmed and I was laughing hysterically. I gave him a piece of advise even though he didn't ask for it. He had asked Lizzie what she wanted for lunch and she told him ice cream. Lizzie was mad because she couldn't have ice cream for lunch. I told him you NEVER ask a toddler what they want for lunch. You just hand them what lunch is going to be and expect them to eat it. If you ask them what they want, they will always come up with the wrong answer...like ice cream. You simply prepare lunch and present it to them. Then you let them have ice cream after. Freddy said, "I wish you were here right now, Mom." I laughed again. He was kind of snapping at her and I told him to watch his tone with her and to be more gentle. I'm proud of how well he takes care of his little siblings.

Brett just came home and sounds weary. I love it when Brett has to work a long shift. I feel like it is really good for his character.

And now Brett and Emeli are standing in my doorway being complete weirdos. Brett turned to Emeli with a very serious expression and his flaming gay voice, and said, "So, Emeli, I have one question for you. Are we humans or are we dancers?" I yelled for them to leave, take their dorkiness out of my room, and lock the door. Brett said, "That's fine. We'll just continue this conversation right outside of your door where you can hear us."in his gay voice. Weirdos.

day from hell on wheels

I will not bore you with the details of my entire work day. But I will give you the highlights of the drama that I had to endure all day today.

#1 A vomiting patient who wouldn't let her husband come back with her, who called me Mary, kept leaving her room to wander the halls to call out for her nurse (me), asked me to give her a hug as a favor to her and was finally admitted to the hospital.

#2 A very large woman who was wearing a diaper who required a catheter to collect a urine sample, who had a multitude of skin folds around her private parts that I had to peel through to reach her urethra, she smelled terrible and ended up leaving a trail of poop on the exam table when I was done giving her the catheter.

#3 An older man who cut off the tip of his pinky finger and then had the following conversation with me..."What is the first thing you notice when you see someone?"
I said, "I don't know..."
He said, "I noticed your teeth. They are beautiful. Not to mention many other things as well..."
My witty response, "My dad would be glad to hear that because he used to complain about how much money my teeth cost him..." I was creeped out by that and told the doctor who said he would make the procedure more painful for the patient.

#4 A patient who was involved in a hit and run on his way to our clinic and got pulled out of the waiting room by two police officers. He informed me that if the police needed to chat with him again, it would be okay for them to interrupt his doctor's appointment.

That was my crazy day at work and I was SO glad to go home. When I got home, I told Brett that I had a drama day on wheels and he came up and gave me a huge, long hug. Then he and Robby patiently listened to me vent about everything. I am blessed to have these wonderful people in my life. They are worth coming home to.

Then Robby and I went out to dinner at this yummy Peruvian restaurant and everything was all better.

Now I get to enjoy the weekend and take a break from drama for two days...

whoops!

It suddenly occurred to me last night (in the middle of the night) that I had forgotten to post yesterday. It's going to take me a little bit of time to get used to this blog every day goal...whoops!
I worked half day yesterday and came home and got to work immediately sitting on the couch and dinking around on my Tiny Tower game. I built floors, stocked imaginary stores and in between that I played Spider Solitaire. What a busy life I have. Then I felt guilty and dragged my butt off the couch and cleaned our bathroom, ran more laundry and cooked dinner.

I had today off and it was Brett's birthday, so I decided I needed to walk outdoors. We have had the most gorgeous weather. It scares me for what's in store. I am not stupid enough to believe we are not going to have a winter. I believe that Mother Nature has something up her sleeve and it's going to be a B%$^#. I dragged Brett with me and we walked for half an hour. When we walk, he starts to chat about science, the universe, God, homosexuality, gay rights, and religion. It is amazing to me how his mind works. When I am not thinking about anything, my mind wanders to frivolous stuff like art, what to cook for dinner, etc. Not Brett!! He tries to solve scientific questions and wrap his mind around things like space travel, the Big Bang theory and how chemicals react. It makes me feel like such a dope.

Then we went to the library to pick out quilting patterns because I have all this fabric that I am going to make into a quilt for him for his birthday. We also went to Ream's and bought him a birthday cake. He picked it out. As we were walking into the store, I started talking to him in a really nasally, obnoxious voice, "Now, don't just fall in love with the first cake you see. We're going to look around and find the best cake for you..." Meanwhile, Brett was moaning and saying, "Mom, please..." A guy standing outside of the Redbox kiosk was watching and just smiling at us.

I worked on the quilt that I bought with Brett's gift certificate. Then my sewing machine started to act poopy. Robby was sitting next to me working on his computer. Every time I growled, he would say, "What?!" and I would tell him how frustrated I was. Pretty soon HE was frustrated too. So I decided to take a break (after he recommended it!).

I went to pick Emeli up from school today after play practice. I pulled up in front of the school. She was there, leaning against one of the railings texting someone or maybe she was playing Tiny Tower. She did not see me and had her headphones on. I honked. No response. I honked again. No response. I got out of the car and yelled her name. No response. Finally, she drags her gaze up from her phone, sees me waving like an idiot and smiles. There was a girl standing a few feet away from Emeli who was smirking and kind of shaking her head. Emeli got in the car, laughing at herself. "No wonder that girl was looking at me weird." Yep, Emeli. What a dork.

3

I worked all day today. After a nice, long weekend, it is always so hard to go back to work. But I work with wonderful people and love my job, so it's not so bad. Plus, I followed interns who had very easy patients today.

The weather has been so gorgeous lately. I worry that with all this gorgeous January weather, we are going to have one heck of a storm waiting for us when it does hit. This winter reminds me of California winters and it makes me so homesick.

I remember getting bikes on Christmas. We would see a bike under the tree and be so excited and spend the entire rest of the day biking or skating. Christmas was so fun as a kid. Dad always made sure the tree was full of presents. He would look at what Mom had bought and say, "Go get more". We would all sleep in my bedroom and on Christmas morning, we would send Lori to sneak down the stairs to peek. The hardest thing would be to wait for Dad to get up. It seemed to take forever. We were allowed to open our stockings, then we would eat breakfast and then we could open presents after that. Dad would turn on Christmas music while we were eating. He wanted everything to be just right.

For Christmas, Barbi gave me a book with pictures of Dad. She had sent the pictures in to get bound. Barbi grew up with a different Dad than I had. When she was growing up, he was sick and grumpy. When I was growing up, he was not that way. I would sit and listen to him play the guitar and sing. He would sing "Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam" and I would sing along. That's the Dad I remember. I loved the book she gave me because it was pictures of that Dad. Sometimes I really miss him.

Old men come into the clinic and from behind they look like Dad. My first reaction is to yell out, "Dad!" and then I remember that Dad is not here. It always makes me sad. I can't wait to see him again.

January 2

Today was a nice day off from work. Cleaned out a ferret cage, cleaned the kitchen, did laundry, changed the sheets on the bed (my favorite thing is to go to bed at night in clean sheets!!!), did some art, started a quilt and now I am sitting.

This afternoon Emeli turned on the burner to boil some water in the tea kettle. She turned on the wrong burner. My glass Pyrex dish was on that burner and it got really hot. Emeli realized her mistake, picked up the dish with pot holders and the dish shattered in her hands and it fell on the floor. I was reading on the couch and heard her scream and a huge crash. The dish was so hot, wherever it landed, it burned the linoleum. I ran in and started helping her clean up. She was apologizing up and down. I told her to relax. It was just a dish. Worse things could have happened. A couple of hours later, she noticed that her big toe was cut and was bleeding pretty badly. She was very irritated because it had bled in her new slippers.

I feel restless. I always feel that way this time of year. I hate the after Christmas let down. January is my least favorite month. I'm just glad I don't work a lot this week. I work all day tomorrow and then half days for the rest of the week. For some reason, January just drags by.

Brett is working today and called home after he got to work. He had locked the keys in the car. Oh boy.

I am finally feeling a little better after that stupid flu. I wake up feeling crappy and after I get going, I feel better. On Friday and Saturday I was sick and working with a 100 degree temp. When I got home, I would just crash in bed. It was awful. On New Year's Eve, we were watching TV. I was lying on Robby's lap dozing. At midnight, Robby said, "Happy New Year, Sweetheart!" I just kind of mumbled back. I was feeling so crappy. What a way to spend New Year's Eve.

It's a new year...

I have made a goal that I will post on my blog every day this year. It may not be a huge blog, but it will be something.
Today I am in bed. I think I caught what Emeli had over Christmas. I feel nauseated, have a low temp and ache everywhere. I'm just glad I don't have to work for the next two days.
I have discovered Zen doodling on Pinterest. I am an addict now. I am also going to draw more this year. I find that when I draw, it soothes me and I love looking back at my work.