VACATION

Who doesn't love vacation?  This year I get to go visit my kids and grandkids and catch a couple sessions of conference live (if you are curious what that is see mormon.org).  I am excited.  I spent the last couple weeks working as many hours as I could get so I would have a little extra spending money.  Thankfully I was blessed with a lot of overtime and consecutive weekends, both of which have been very scarse with the crackdown on overtime lately. 

Did I mention this is a road trip?  I get to spend a couple days in the car with my husband on the way down and on the way back.  Right now I am excited, my guess is that when I come back I will be much less excited with a very sore bum.  This is the first really long road trip we have taken in a very long time, that is probably why I am looking forward to it, I have forgotten what they feel like. 

I am a little nervous about leaving my dad, It's not like he doesn't have his wife to keep an eye on him, but it is going to be tough missing his doctors appointment, I hate getting information second hand, but thanks to cellphones hopefully his doctor will give me a call and I won't have to.  Having the cell also puts my mind at ease knowing that he or his wife can call me anytime if they have questions.  I am praying  for good pain control and no complications or issues while I am gone. 

For any of you criminals out there I have people watching my dog and house for me, so don't even think of trying to steal our old junk! (although that would mean I could get new stuff that wasn't junk...)

Last, a shout out to my friend Amy that is running the St George Marathon this weekend, I am very sure she will meet her goal of qualifying for the Boston Marathon.  It makes me feel just a little guilty about not running lately, I have had a rough time getting back in to it since my pneumonia, I still get pain in my right lung when I run (which is supposedly healed)  so I am taking it easy.  I need to find a 5K on a Saturday to give me motivation because I am not one of those people that run because they love it so much (like Amy), I run because it keeps me in better shape and I like running in the races and lets face it, I like calling myself a runner.  Guess I should probably actually get a little running in while I am on vacation so I don't have to give up that label:)

I have a confession to make

I have a confession to make.  I just can't live a lie....   September 17th was a day of service at church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints).  Brown paper bags were passed out to all the members, we were to pass them out to our neighbors.  Each bag had a letter on it explaining that we were doing a drive for the Thurston County food bank.  The letter asked that people fill the bags with food and leave them on their porch on the 17th and we will pick them up.  Those bags sat on our table screaming to be delivered for 2 weeks, yet for some reason we couldn't get them passed out.  Doesn't seem like a big deal handing someone a bag and asking if they could help the needy in our area, but for some reason I just couldn't do it, either I was too tired, busy, or caught up in other areas of my life. 

Here comes the dishonest part.   Friday night, when I realized the bags hadn't been delivered, rather than bug my neighbors, I filled them with food from our cupboards. Saturday morning I delivered the bags to the church, leading people to believe I had done my part and collected food from my neighbors.  It's not exactly a BAD thing, because the people did get the food, but how much more would they have gotten if I had delivered the bags AND donated the food I did?  In the Good, better best scenaria I would say my actions were marginally good at best, but at least I did it. 

Part of repenting is confessing your sins, so that's what I am doing.  Next year I plan on doing better. 

The bright side of this is that it was pouring down rain on saturday and I got soaked just taking the bags to the car and then in to the church, so had I actually passed the bags out picking up the wet bags might have been a miserable experience.  I also ended up getting called in to work, so I was really in a hurry and having the bags already filled on my kitchen floor expideted the whole process.    I guess everything happens for a reason.  I promise, next year I will do better!

PS.  if you would like more information on the church go to Mormon.org and check it out!  My profile is http://mormon.org/me/3QD5?

Awesome and awkward Thursday

Awkward and awesome Thursday

Start with awesome....
48th birthday this week and my husband sent me beautiful roses made from what I thought was white chocolate with red velvet cake pops dipped in white chocolate.    What better birthday gift than chocolate?

after spending a long day at the hospital with a relative I came home and found my house spotless, thanks to my wonderful husband.  This was no small feat since I was canning blackberry jam the night before and in my effort to get out most of the weeds I got berry juice on just about every dish I owned and every spot of the kitchen.  

Homemade blackberry jam,   awesome, had to buy new jars and a canner (for the second batch), but it was worth it.  Even if it doesn't taste as awesome as I might like it to, just seeing those jars sitting on the kitchen counter gives me a real sense of satisfaction.  I left them there extra long, just to admire my work:)   Hopefully there will be one more batch, only not getting out all the seeds this time, too much work and mess.  Doing little stuff like that helps satisfy the part inside me that keeps nagging at me, telling me I need to be more of a Molly Mormon.  Like canning my own jam is going to get me into the Celestial Kingdom...NOT!

Kind of awkward...
Construction/working on the water system in my front yard starting bright and early at 0800.  Did you konw they start with a drill that looks and sounds a Goliath sized dentist drill?   I hate dentists.

Awkward....
Anyone that knows me knows how much I hate spiders!    I shutter just thinking about them.  I currently have a massively huge garden spider outside my window, which keeps distracting me and making me shutter.  They like the blackberries, I think I will be letting Bob pick the rest of them.....  I tried to get a picture to add to this post, but apparently all of our cameras have dead batteries and my phone has something wrong with the lense making it all blurry.  I sent the blurry picture to my facebook if you want to check it out.  I decided I didn't want a big old spider picture on my blog anyway.

Really awkward!!!!
Realizing that the nurse taking care of my family member had worked agency with me before and I am pretty sure someone had asked that she not return to our unit because she worked so slowly.    Not sure if she recognized me or remembered because she never mentioned it, but she gave my dad great care, so it all turned out ok.   

CAUTION! EXLODING CHEESEBURGER!

I know it's a lot in one day, posting 2 blog entries, but I had to share, figured someone else could use a good laugh at my husbands expense also....

I am not the best cook in the world, but not the worst either.  After watching an hour of Rachel Ray I decided I needed to put on my Molly Mormon apron today and try something special for dinner tonight.  My husband reminded me of the burgers I made once before that he referred to as Julie’s Juicy burgers (a name I am sure he stole from some show on the food network). 

Julie’s juicy burgers are not hard, the recipe isn’t that original either, you just smash out the hamburger patties really thin, put some very good cheddar cheese, Ortega green chilies, salt, pepper and garlic salt on the bottom patty,  seal it with a second patty on the top then barbecue.  Top with caramelized grilled onions and your other favorite hamburger toppings and voilla….an awesome, juicy cheeseburger.

We tried something different tonight; we fried them instead of barbecuing them.  Not a good idea…Actually,  I am not sure if it was that, or if I sealed them too well, but there was an issue tonight.  I took a small bite of my burger and there was a small explosion of hot juices on my cheek, nothing serious, but I warned Bob to be careful.  To his credit, he did let his burger sit a few minutes, but obviously not long enough.  I was concentrating on enjoying my burger and I heard him yell, I looked up and he had hamburger juice all over his glasses and his nose.  Apparently he had taken a very big bite of his hamburger and the scalding juice from the burger had exploded and shot directly up his nose.  I wasn’t much help, you would think as a nurse I would jump in to action to alleviate his pain, instead I sat there and laughed at him until tears were pouring down my face.   Thankfully there were no serious burns, but every time I looked at him the rest of the meal I started laughing again.  It’s a miracle I didn’t choke on my own food.  I haven’t laughed so hard forever.  OK, I’ll have to admit that when I signed a recent E-mail Boob and Julie instead of Bob and Julie on accident I had a pretty good laugh.  Good thing my husband doesn’t mind me laughing at his expense. 

We decided that if I wanted to open a restaurant and serve these burgers I would need to post a warning that said “Caution!  Exploding Cheeseburgers!”  

Disclaimer:   the writer of this blog is not responsible for any burns incurred when others attempt this recipe

Random thoughts

Lots of time for random thoughts this week as I sat at the hospital with my dad.  

Like when I checked my blog stats it says people have located my blog through an acidreflux site, a masters degree online site and sicknessense.com....huh?   how does that happen?

You know you are up late when regular programings stops on TV and the evangelical shows start.  I generally find myself fascinated by these things, trying to see how they compare to what I believe as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints.  The one I caught this week was on thinking positive and having faith and trusting in Jesus, that fits well.  Would have stayed up to catch more if it wasn't already 2am.....then again, at 2am I am generally so tired I could bend anything to fit with what I believe. 

I discovered I can download books free from amazon.com and watch them on the free kindle app on my droid phone....SCORE!!!   now to find books worth reading.  I already have the scriptures on my phone, but I am not quite good enough to just sit and read scriptures for hours on end, maybe someday.

My son introduced me to the Lumosity.com website, full of games designed to improve brainpower, and who doesn't want more brainpower? hmmm maybe he was trying to tell me something??? oh well,  also fun and addicting enough for me to spring for the 14.99 one month membership.  I don't know if it will really improve my brainpower but it is kind of fun to try and work through a maze using your direction buttons while the maze is spinning.  Haven't quite mastered that one yet, who am I kidding, not even close!  I am however good at locating birds and remembering the letter shown at the same time, I think that one comes from being a mom, your peripheral vision gets really good.

It's good for me to find another obsession, I have almost caught up on all of the old NCIS episodes, I could tell myself I watched it because I always wanted to be a navy detective so I find it fascinating, but that would be a lie, it's Mark Harmon and the other actors I find fascinating, they actually manage to incorporate the idea that family comes above all else into a crime solving show.   Playing lumonisity games in my spare time will give the illusion that I am working on something that will make me better, instead of just sitting in front of the TV. 

Football started, feels like fall.  I discovered I really like watching football, but I really don't like people sitting around for hours talking about other people playing football.....

Oh well, that covers a very small portion of the random thoughts I had this week, I could probably write a novel the size of war and peace if I tried to write them all down, and it would be just about as boring!

Since dads home now it's time to get back on track and start doing stuff again, instead of just thinking about or reading about doing stuff!

PS.  some of the Joel Osteen religious show must have rubbed off because I made sure my prayers were totally positive this morning so I would be starting out on the right foot this morning.  

Last bit of Summer

Bob and I decided to squeeze a little more out of this summer by taking a quick camping trip up to Sol duc Falls in t he Olympic National Forrest.  If you haven't been there you really need to check it out.  It is absolutely beautiful.  Pictures don't do it justice, especially the ones Bob and I take.  I am sure you can tell the falls are gorgeous by the wonderful picture of Bob and I we had taken by a random passerby.  LOL  Nice guy, but cameras obviously were not his thing,  I think he was actually dropping the camera when he took this one.  Thankfully not into the water:)  It was a 6 mile round trip to the falls from where we were at, and worth every step. 

My feet were getting a little sore on the way back so we left the trail and crawled down by the river so I could put my feet in the water.  That's glacier water, so I could only keep them in there a few seconds, but it was awesome, and moving incredibly fast.

Not sure what it is with my feet....but I thought the picture of them by the fire I took by accident was kind of cool too, obviously I am not much more talented with the camera than the passerby I mentioned earlier.  They pyromaniac comes out in me when I go camping, love to start those fires and now that there are no kids around I can mess with them all I want.  I made a really huge one to do foil dinners one night (my favorite camp food, would never do them at home, but for some reason they taste awesome when camping).  The fire was so big it  actually made Bob nervous, but a few of the people passing by commented on what a great fire it was ( mostly because it was so big they could see it from the road) and for some strange reason that made me happy.  Like fire building is a major talent or gift, something to be proud of?    Don't worry, I made sure my fire was totally out before I went to bed.   I have visions of smokey the bear in my head saying "remember, only you can prevent forest fires". 

By the way, those running shoes didn't get much running in this week, only the  hike, which my sore toes are telling me they aren't really made for.  Gotta hit that next week,  I had high hopes and I had my running schedule for last week all planned out, but I wasn't feeling too good over the weekend so they got scratched.  There's always next week, right? 

Time to go to bed, I work 3 12 hour shifts in the next 4 days, back to reality!  Thankfully my trip has left me well rested and ready to take on the world and whatever it has to offer me, bring it on!

Awkward and Awesome Thursday

First the Awesome...

My dad's CT showed "marked improvement"  which means the chemo is working!  Next check is 2 months.  With the recently approved treatment maybe end stage pancreatic cancer might be fightable after all, at the very least we have gained time, and hope, and those are great things!

2 Superdays this week!   Ever have those days when you feel everything went right and you did everything you should have and possibly could have done?  I had a couple of those amazing days this week, and it feels good (of course they are generally followed by a couple days watching NCIS marathons and accomplishing nothing, but hey, the days are great when they happen!)  Perhpas there are some of you that are able to have superdays everyday, but I usually am very unrealistic in my scheduling and I schedule much more for myself than is humanly possible to do, every once in a while I surprise myself and get it all done.

The weather!!! not sure where it came from, but it looks like summer is finally here!

I missed last weeks awkward and awesome so I have to add that the garden party I planned turned out great, people actually came.  A big thanks to those that help, couldn't have done it alone!

Awkward
This is a recurring awkward.  Getting used to working in daysurgery and pacu.....still don't feel comfortable, I question simple decisions that really should be no brainers because I lack confidence in those areas.  I need to get over that, cause it really is awkward.

Giving away a bunch of blackberry jam then discovering that the top part of the jar where the seeds floated to is nastier than I thought, scoop that out and it's good, but it is awkward to think about what people thought when they opened the jars:)  It truly is good at the bottom of the jar.

Doing sealings at the temple with a couple that is obviously unhappy with each other, or unhappy to be there, or both,  or maybe just plain unhappy, whatever the reason, it was written all over their face and in their attitudes. 

Gonna finish with an awesome shout out to my husband for takin me to the Portland Temple last week and following it up with a visit to Joe's crab shack, never been there because I don't like seafood, but it was good food, and the patio we sat on was nice and warm with a beautiful view.  This week he is taking me up to Solduc to go camping, gotta love summer!

Hope everyone can have a super awesome day this week like the ones I did this week!