Snow!

Oh man tonight marks a very important event that occurs ONCE.....ONCE a year!

The First snow storm!!!!!

I felt it this morning on my way to work....

There is a new crispness in the air, a serene calm that hasn't emerged lately

Storm clouds hug the mountain

And then as I walked out of work tonight, the air shifted again

This time it's the smell of burnt wood, the wind is excited by its new surprise

And then.....at 9pm.....SNOW

Big, fatty flakes!

It was amazing!

I will never tire of that moment that happens every year

It's my favorite

Jenni and I went to Sundance to buy our ski passes....we wimped because I'm debating to go to Snowbird again, and Jen is debating the Canyons.

I think we'll end up at Sundance

Either way, we win, and SKI!

Oh the ambiance and nostalgia that the dabbles of the coming winter bring to my mind!

A Lesson in Sacrifice

Okay this is me right this very moment....I'm playing the waiting game and so I thought I'd blog about this little experience I get to have once a month or so. If I work a night shift from 6pm to 6am on a saturday/sunday, I've discovered I have to stay awake until 930 for church. If I even think about going to sleep before church, there is no hope of getting up. It's game over. But the waiting game from 6am to 930 is just grueling. No other words to describe it. My eyes burn, my body aches, and I know I need to go to church and come back to get as much sleep as I can before another night shift. Thank goodness life usually comes at you slow, because I see the moms who do this schedule and I stand in amazement that they can do this with kids. I had a chat last night with Dr. Madsen and he told me he goes home from his night shift to get his 7 children ready for church. Talk about a lesson in sacrifice. I can't remember whose talk it was in general conference about faith. Faith is not motivated by circumstance otherwise the natural man would continually give in. Some of the people I work with amaze me that they are pressing full speed ahead despite a difficult work schedule. I'm glad for right now I just have to think about keeping my eyes from shutting...maybe one day I'll add little people to this equation, and I'll have fought this battle against tiredness for so long, I won't even blink....and that'll be a good thing because blinking for me usually equals sleep:).

Thoughts on NP school: I had my mind made up to go....and now I'm wavering again....do I really want it? More education means even more added responsibility. I'm feeling pretty happy with the level of responsibility I have right now, and sometimes I wonder if I'm ready for that much more. Can I really do two more years of school? I think I just sign up for the GRE and take it....if I hit too many roadblocks on the way then I know maybe I'm not supposed to apply

Latest growing up/adult moment: I got approved for a $5,000 car loan. Hello junk car!!! I'm thinking maybe a toyota camry, honda, or a subaru??

Upcoming growing up/adult moment: I am signing up for health insurance. Yikes!

The clock is ebbing ever closer to 930. It is approximately 830. I'm dying. How do my eyelids know so well what they want to do?! Funny how war can be waged on such a micro level!

Life moment: My water got shut off by Provo city....do you know how important water is?? I couldn't wash my hands after the bathroom (gross). I couldn't take a shower. Couldn't do my dishes. Couldn't brush my teeth....you need water more than just to drink it

I'm grateful for water!

Being Home!

Our favorite pizza place...Jack's! This is where Lexy works

Me and the Brudders

Ned....he's my baby:)

This picture cracks us up....Ned looks like a little child in the backseat

Have you ever seen a dog any happier in your lifetime?

Loving Cache Valley air

My finished fall-scape! I think it turned out quite nicely

The Saga of the hospital bed

One of the simple tasks I do in the ER is transfer patients who are admitted into the hospital up to either the Med/Surg floor or the ICU floor. I load up the patient belongings onto the bed along with the patient and wheel the patient/bed up to the floor. Once in their new room, I slide the ER bed next to the floor bed to shift the patient to the bigger and better floor bed. I then chat with the floor nurse for a few minutes to make sure she is up to date on the patient before taking the ER bed back down to the ER. It is a simple process really....

However, an incident occurred two weeks ago...

It was like any other Med/Surg admit patient.

I got the patient belongings together, charting, disconnected tubing, got oxygen hooked up to the bed....ready to go.

Steered the bed/patient onto the elevator, up to the 4th floor, moved the bed into the room, shimmied it next to the floor bed, transferred patient.

Gave info to floor nurse....

And i walked out of the room and took...the STAIRS.

Didn't have another thought about the transfer until an hour later I hear a nurse say, "Hey, where's our ER bed?" Oh no! I instantly realized what I had done.

"I forgot the bed upstairs!" I confessed.

Laughter erupts in the ER. So an ER tech went up to the floor and asked where our bed had gone. The floor nurse says, "What bed?" "You know, our ER bed....it was left up here."

The floor nurse says, "Oh, you mean the gurney?" "Yeah, stretcher, gurney, bed....whatever."

Haha laughter deferred from me to the floor nurse until.....

A week later, I did the same thing!! I transferred the pt to the floor bed and walked straight out of the room without the bed. Awesome! And so.....I was given two addenda to my badge:).

Just another day....

The morning has been quiet at the hospital....



Got here at 6am, took care of three patients, and then all has been quiet since 7.



I love this kind of a morning at work. There is something very peaceful about a quiet hospital, when all the lights are still dimmed, no beeping monitors, still dark outside.



I ate a naughty biscuit with gravy....Dr. Z was talking about Amy Winehouse this morning, he loves her music, but we were saying how she eats, smokes, drinks whatever she wants...stays skinny, but she has a flabby bod. I got to thinking....I don't smoke or drink, but I eat whatever I want...what if that is my downfall to staying tone? Oh the woes of woman. So....I'm thinking I'll try again to keep up on my veggies.

My favorite breakfast at the hospital: $0.75 blueberry oatmeal with granola. It's delicious!

This morning, though, I loved cuddling up in a blanket from the blanket warmer, sipping a diet coke to shock me out of my 5 hours of sleep, listening to a little She and Him on pandora, chatting with Natalie about Prudhoe Bay. A great work morning, filled with...mmm, no work. But every once in a while it's nice. Cute little love moment, nurse Natalie is dating a man that works in Prudhoe Bay....he has to travel outside of his complex in 3 degree weather in zero sunlight to find cell reception once a day just to call her. That's sacrifice.

Yesterday Luke called me and played his new song. "What if" by Coldplay. He's a genius

And just another little tidbit to add to this completely random rambling of a blog post....
Words of wisdom from Dr. Barlow yesterday, "Whit, what you need to learn is to realize that you are just like everybody else. Once you get over yourself and relax, things will work out for you." Man, the truth....it's always just a little painful, isn't it?

Happenings to add to the travel log

This is the piece of wood I found at Home Depot today for $5. Tomorrow....it will be a fall-scape painted masterpiece:). So excited!
Getting ready for a date! So excited to go out on the town!

So at institute this week the teacher was talking about the atonement of Jesus Christ. The atonement is something I want to increase my understanding of, but he said something that really hit me. He said that one of Satan's greatest tricks is to make us believe that there is a max to how many times we can be forgiven. If we fail so many times then there is no coming back. He wants us to think that if we try a few times and don't succeed, then we will never succeed. I have fallen guilty to this thought pattern in my life at times. It only leads to feelings of guilt and pain. I don't believe the Lord wants us to live with these feelings, and hence there is an infinite atonement, meaning we are to try and try and try again, with feelings of joy and happiness in our heart.

We then read a scripture that I LOVE

"Yea, and as often as my people repent will I forgive them their trespasses against me." Mosiah 26:30. This is so cool to me that the Lord is that merciful that we would let us repent every day and begin every day new. There is so much hope in this that I often forget to realize.

Three things I'm grateful for today:

Today was the first day it smelled like fall...only means winter is coming!

I got to hear musicians from Africa play the drums/guitar/harmonica and feel their SOUL power

I felt peace in my heart:).

Rain!!!!

I went running up the canyon yesterday afternoon. My friend Liz Marble came along on her road bike. It looked stormy overhead, and we were thinking....maybe a run/bike through a light shower.

The plan was I was going to start running up the river trail in Provo canyon while Liz pumped up her bike tire, then we were going to meet somewhere along the trail.

A half mile into my run a torrential thunderstorm hit. I was soaked through within a minute. Lightning cracked right over head. So exhilarating! But I started having visions of myself being hit by lightning and showing up in the ER as just another patient doing something stupid! It was stupid. I decided to keep running up the canyon til Liz passed me, then I would turn around. Three lightning bolts struck overhead and I thought....that's it! This REALLy is stupid.

I turned around and started flying as fast as my legs would carry me. Leaves flying everywhere. The rain falling in sheets. Water starting to pool on the trail. The rain was stinging my skin it was coming down so hard. But I felt so alive feeling the power of nature! Amazing! But I was definitely praying the whole way down for a safe return.

I saw Liz biking up the trail and shouted, "NO GO, NO GO, WE GOTTA TURN AROUND!" She agreed. This was crazy! We were taking on the mountains that we most definitely were no match for.

We made it safely back to the car....both drenched to the bone and freezing! We jumped in the car and blasted the heat laughing at our amazing adventure. And then "Life is a Highway" starts playing in the car. Liz finds her phone and tries to stop the music, but alas the rain had frozen her phone.....and it wouldn't stop playing the song. We pulled out the battery. Plugged it back in. Still.... "Life is a Highway" begins playing again. Hilarious. A day later....her phone still won't stop playing the song. Maybe it was symbolic of the moment?? Never know what life is going to throw at you, like a good thunderstorm!

Things I'm grateful for today:

The snow dusting on the top of Timpanogos after the storm, the clouds clinging to the mountain, the mountain seeming to be magnified in size.

The smell of rain today, the trees looked a little greener

Yoga session with Liz.....today I tried to master my headstand, I feel my body getting stronger

A healthy body in great shape

Good food I can afford

Slab pizza, thai chicken to be specific....I'm on a first name basis with the owner Eric

A good job that helps me live a very comfortable life

An amazing family with parents who have an amazing capacity for unconditional love

Thoughts on my mind:

Should I go to nurse practitioner school?

Should I move to south Provo or stay in the Avenues?