2 weeks

Tomorrow starts my official last two weeks of work as a nurse in Washington. I don't know if I've ever had more conflicting feelings in my heart than I do now.

I love my job. And by love I mean LOVE! In the almost 2 years that I have been there I have not once woke up and dreaded going to work. Sure I've wanted to stay in bed a few times, but I truely love my job. I have really met some wonderful people. If it weren't for my two Mary's, I would have never gotten the hang of life in the OR. I have created my own hodgepodge of a family out here and I will miss them for a long, long time.

But the happy part of my heart, oh how happy it is! My real family!! With all of the sweet children that are growing before my eyes in pictures. I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to being in their lives. I am more excited about soccer games or school plays than I am Thanksgiving and Christmas. And don't get me started on all of the food I've been missing!!!
So heart, I'm sorry you're sad and happy you're happy. Don't give out on me for a long time because I see a lot more happy to come!

Parenting

Ok. So while I was thinking about getting a mastiff, I thought long and hard about rescuing one. I found one I really liked, I went and filled out the several page long application for him and...never heard anything else. apparently I wasn't going to give him a good enough home. You know what would have been easier to get. A baby. Seriously it is easier to have a child than it is to rescue/adopt a pet. Hence my argument. Some people shouldn't be allowed to have children.

Today one of my patient's was a 12 year old who needed to have her hip pinned bc essentially she was getting too fat for her bones. When I went back to the waiting area to interview the family and bring my patient back a light went off in my head. This is a person who shouldn't be responsible for molding another human being.

After introducing myself and my role in her daughter's care, the mother proceded to ask me if I was like another nurse or something. Ok seriously. Then I noticed that my patient still had earrings on. A big no no for having surgery is having anything metal on your body. If your surgeon is going to use something called an electro surgical unit (ESU) then you are putting yourself at risk of getting an electrical burn if you have something metal on. I told this to the patient and mother and said we'd need to take the earrings out (which the patient had just had pierced) The mother's response was "Can't we just take the risk" OH MY WORD. Are you serious. It's really hard to keep yourself composed and your face from giving your thoughts away. My response was I'd prefer not to take the risk. The patient was almost in tears telling her mother that she didn't want to get burned. Her mother then grabbed her by the arm (in front of me) and jerked her towards her so she could take them out. I even offered to put them back in before she woke up, but it was no good.

We're finally about to leave and the mother is trying to comfort the daughter she just basically abused in front of me. "Don't worry honey, you'll be fine, rember we'll go to McDonalds when you're done" Wow what a nice treat. Your daughter is already 97 kilos and you want to feed her McDonalds. I think someone should have denied your application for parenthood.
....a day in the life of an OR nurse.....

Sizzling

Ok...I'm confused.. Did I go to sleep and wake up in Texas??? For the last few days it has been smoldering hot here.. Today on my drive home, my car said it was 99 degrees outside. The lovely thing about Washington is that it hardly ever gets hot here so no one has air. I walked into my living room after work to find that it was much cooler inside than out. Currently it's 89 degrees IN MY HOUSE.. I'm roasting. We have every fan we own going full blast. Yesterday we had to hose the dogs down to cool them off. And actually Matt and I just got done running through the sprinkler. It's terrible! I know Cody has poison oak and all, but at least he isnt roasting to death.

On a happier note, Matt and I found a place to live!! Matt's dad flies to Washington sept 29 to help me drive down! Thanks Mike :) ( I think we should treat him to some Joe T's, we're trying to get them to move down)

I hope everyone had a good day! I've got to go get ready for the movies (they have air)

Life

Hello world...... Well it's been a long time since I've written anything..
Lets see.. The last time I wrote on here the plan for Matt and I went a little something like this.

October-Matt goes out to sea with his boat and gets to leave it early coming back early December. During that time I'd be working and looking for jobs and a place to live. In Jan Matt would get out of the navy and we'd move to Texas.
A few days ago (on our way home from vacation in fact) Matt gets a phone call from someone in the navy saying basically "Hey Matt we know you've worked hard these last 5 years and you and your family are planning on you leaving in Jan but we don't care... You can either extend your stay in the navy until feb going out to sea from October through mid Jan, or you can go out to sea with a different sub in 2 weeks for 2 1/2 months, come back for 2 weeks and then go out again until Jan.
Can I tell you how disguisted I am with the navy right now??? I mean he was on his vacation.. Couldn't this at least wait until he got back?? So Matt decided to extend :( My heart was sad at first but I don't think it was ready for him to leave in 2 weeks either.
After talking about things, we think it will be best for me to move back to texas when he leaves, that way at least one of us will have a job/place to live and we wouldn't both be looking for work at the same time. I think this is a blessing in disguise.
Now I have to find a job and a place to live. And leave a job that I absolutely love. But Thanksgiving and Christmas with family!!! Yes please!!
I wonder when I should let my work know I'm looking/leaving??
So thats whats going on with us at the moment.. We had a great vacation with Matt's family and are excited about the last few months of summer!
PS, don't write anything on facebook about me leaving yet, I'd rather them find out via person :)

Dear Nuclear Protestors

Dear Nuclear Protestors gathered outside of the gate to my home waving the American flag, a flag you are able to hold because of people that live on this base and every other one across our nation,
Yesterday I told my husband goodbye. He is going out to sea, not for long, but still gone, still not safe until hes home again. He and everyone else on his nuclear submarine have left their families so people like you can stand there and say whatever you want with no fear. Stand up and fight for something that needs it, child abuse, poverty, animal abuse, anything else.. You are cowards and you sadden my heart.

Worth the wait......and weight

So as you've all come to realize, food in the pacific northwest is HORRIBLE.. Maybe not so much horrible as not what i'm use to. Last monday they finally opened a Sonic in a town about an hour away from where I live. Now Sonic is not by any means my favorite restaurant, but I LOVE their cherry limeaides and you can't get them anywhere around here. yesterday Matt and I were about 30 miles away and decided to find it. We did and you wouldn't have believed your eyes. Traffic was being directed around a couple of buildings into a lot that had lanes of traffic fenced off. We waited in our car for 2 yes TWO hours to order. And oh my was it ever worth it. This is what I ordered (Matt ate some)
Route 44 Cherry Lime (with extra ice bc nowhere up here has good ice)
Route 44 Ocean Water
Regular order of tator tots
Regular order of tator tots with cheese
Regular order of onion rings
Sonic Cheeseburger X2
Chocolate Milkshake
I forgot to order cheddar peppers and was kind of sad.
I remember in college I could get a large cherry lime for $1.50. Here $1.50 would get you a small coke.. Crazy...
Can you imagine being the owner of that sonic?? They said the day they opened people were waiting 4 hours. I think this man found a money tree in the shape of a drive through restaurant.
After we got home, we crashed on the couch. We both felt like we'd been at a concert or something all day. I think this means we're getting old!

Dogs

Figured I'd post a couple of pictures of the dogs since Leo is practically unrecognizable from when he was a tiny puppy. Hes 5 months old tomorrow. Today I got home from work and it was a beautiful 54 out so I took them for a walk. We got stopped by several kids and even one adult that wanted to pet them. Then we came home and Mona decided to stalk the kids that were playing outside. The last two pictures are from today, the first one is a little older. See if you can see the big line of drool coming from Leos mouth!

Food

So i'll be coming home in less than a month!!! Aside from the obvious reason of coming to see everyone, a large part of my visit is going to be based on food. I've been living without flavor for too long. Here in no particular order are places I plan on stopping while I'm home. Please feel free to add if you think I've forgotten something.

1. Joe T Garcias
2. Sonic
3. Jason's Deli
4. Chick Fil A
5. Rosa's
6. Braums
7. Whataburger
8. Anything else Mexican related

Sadly I won't be able to eat at
Allsups
Taco Villa
The Burger
The Plaza
Ruby Tequila's
Huds
Hills
Can't say the panhandle has nothing to offer

I also plan on staying outside in the sun soaking it up for as long as possible.

Random

I guess it's been a while since I've posted anything. It's so hard working 4 days a week to find the time to keep this updated :)
This is going to be a hodgepodge of things I've wanted to blog about, but have managed to squander my time doing something else.

I LOVE shopping at the comissary (grocery store on base). As long as you don't shop there on payday (to avoid everyone that lives literally paycheck to paycheck) it's normally not terribly crowded and the prices are awesome. I mean I can get 2 new york strip steaks for about $6. Totally worth weaving through navy wives in sweatpants and sweatshirts. When you go to check out though, you'll notice signs that say their baggers only work for tips. Seriously you want me to tip you for bagging my food?? Something that I'm going to assume is your main job responsibility. At home, they even take the bags to your car, no tip required. So when you're checking out, if you don't speak up fast enough, they'll put all of your bags into a cart that can only be taken outside by a worker. I've had to have them remove them before and put them in my own basket so I could take them outside. I NEVER have cash on me, ever. So I can't really let them take the bags out for free... The other day Matt and I went to buy a few groceries and before we knew it, they were bagged and in the mans cart ready to go outside. I didn't feel like having him move them to our cart so I hoped matt had a couple of dollars on him.. He didn't and I didn't... So I had to find something cheap to buy with my debit card so I could get cash back... Gum, no just bought some, chapstick, no.. I wasted probably 2 minutes looking for something cheap to buy so I could tip the bagger for pushing my bags 20ft to my car. I finally decided on altoids... So frustrating.. I don't get tipped for giving my patients extra warm blankets, or doing a timeout to make sure we're operating on the correct limb/location....

Another thing I'm getting tired of..... Smokers.. I can't stand walking behind or close by someone pulling their last drag before they go into a store. Lately I've become very irritated. I'll hold my nose the whole time until I'm free and clear of cigarette smoke. The other day I even said out loud so the man could hear me how much I hated walking through cigarette smoke and how you weren't supposed to even smoke 50 feet of buildings. ( I'm not exactly sure of the distance) I'm afraid I'm going to get beat up one day, but I don't care. Why should I or my children (whenever I have them) be exposed to something like that by the choice of a stranger???

My last gripe.
I'm getting really tired of getting up everyday at 5:15, putting on a face, and then climbing into my car at 3:30 when I'm done working to realize it's long gone. Really I look like a smurf in my blue scrubs and without hair at work, your face is really all you have. It's very frustrating.

On a happier note, I get to come home!!!! Matt will be out to sea so he won't be able to come :(
but I'm coming home for Sean's graduation. Where does the time go??? I'm so excited. I can't wait to see everybody and give baby Myka a real hug! I hear someone was a baby hog over Easter, surely she'll let me hold her more than a few minutes!

Happy Thursday!!

Growing Like a Weed

I don't think I've posted any new pictures of Leo since we got him. I was looking back at old ones today and I can't believe how much hes grown. He'll be 15 weeks old this week and he already weighs 42lbs!!

Leo at 12 weeks old

Leo at 12 weeks with the red stool

Leo today, 15 weeks with the red stool

Mona my love and Leo. This was today, it's hard trying to get them to pose without taking a finger off to get the treat.

My little family minus Matt, the picture taker!!

Tex-Mex

Whats worse than going through coke withdrawl??? Tex-Mex withdrawl. While living here I've tried no less than 5 restaurants where people have SWORN they have good mexican food. Sadly it's a disappointment everytime. I could get something that tastes better at Taco Bell. How do these people live without flavor?? For Valentine's Day I had pizza fedexed from Pennsylvania for Matt, I'm thinking it's time to do the same for me. I emailed Joe T Garcia's and Abuelos seeing if they could do something for me. Keep your fingers crossed.
Tasteless in Seattle.........

8 Days Sober

Thats right. I'm 8 days sober. Free from coke and I don't mean powder, I mean coca-cola. I don't remember when my addiction started, but boy what a tasty one it was. It's not like I drank a ton of coke a day, but I always had to have 1.
I'll miss you coke. Your delicious, golden, bubbly burn on the back of my throat.

Snowboarding

Matt is a really good snowboarder.. I've wanted to try it for a couple of years, esp since some of the family goes on snowboarding trips and has a great time. So yesterday Matt and I got up at 5:20 and headed out to Crystal Mountain. It's about 2 1/2 hours away from where we live. Matt checked their website and it said conditions were a 9 out of 10! How exciting. We get there, get my board and boots rented and we're on our way. Let me remind you I've never even been skiing. We get in line to catch the ski lift, I'm suppressing my fear of heights and prepare to catch the lift. The first one hits me on the side and knocks me out of the way. Matt catches it along with some other guy. Ok, no time to recover here comes the next one, hits me again. Finally I get on the next one, throw the bar down, pray I don't fall out and laugh out loud because that could only happen to me. I'm too sore to remember most of the day. It went a little something like this. Up down up down up down up down up down up down. Sometimes I'd finally stand up only to fall right back down. Matt was such a gentleman, trying to teach me. The funniest part I think was after Matt wiped snot off my face. I wasn't aware it was there and he said something like he didn't know he was taking his 6 year old snowboarding! haha I only made it down twice. That took about 3 1/2 hours. I should have kept going, but my body was so beat up and it was getting colder. I don't know if Matt will ever take me again, but I hope so- the times I was able to go about 4 seconds without falling were really fun!

Insurance.....For pets

So I probably have officially been in the Pacific Northwest for too long now because I am contemplating getting pet insurance for Mona and Leo. To me it seems like a really good concept. For about $50 a month, Mona and Leo would be covered for emergencies, routine vaccinations, flea and tick medication, and heart worm meds. Just the flea/tick/heartworm meds alone a month would be about $50. It also covers microchipping and spay/neuter/teeth cleaning.. Matt thinks its ludacris, but I think it would be worth having if something ever happened. Here is the company I'm thinking about going with www.petinsurance.com
What do y'all think???

Hair

I have no idea how I've gone 25 years and gotten a college degree and still have no clue how to fix my "natural" hair.
2 genes from the Whitehorn strand skipped me. The first gene being tall, skinny, and shapeless. I've finally come to terms with my hips and mom butt (sans children).
The 2nd gene and most annoying at the moment that seems to have skipped me is straight as a board hair. I have curly hair. Would you have known it??? Probably not since I've only just realized in the last few years and straighten the heck out of it everytime I wash it....Problem is I have no idea how to fix curly hair. I've tried all kinds of products even gone to a salon to have them show me how to do it. The ladies idea was hot rollers. Ok, tard is what I wanted to say.
If it were Taylor Swift curly it might be easier, I would say it's more of a mix between wavy and curly with the super curly being the bottom layers and the hideous on the top. ugh I'm ready to perm it only I'm not really sure I even like curly hair.
I use to think the Chi was the greatest invention, now I'm just tired of being a slave to it.

On a happier note- Leo knows how to sit now!!! If only he could take his treat for sitting without taking off skin from my hand.

Earthquake

So there was a 4.5 earthquake this morning in Western Washington. They keep saying the "center" of it was in Kitsap county-which is the county Matt and I live in. We didn't feel it. Praise the Lord. I don't know what I would have done. I could probably shelter myself from a tornado with my eyes closed.. But earthquake???? I don't even know what you do. Stand on a table??? I think this is just another reason to buy a home and get me out of here!!!!

House

Would it really be such a bad idea to buy a house and not live in it for like 8 months?? Matt seems to think so.. But I REALLY love this house. Minus the fact that it's in Burleson, it's pretty awesome with it's 4300 square feet and 5 bedrooms. I can see good and bad reasons for buying a house while still living in Washington. But mostly I can just see what an awesome Christmas tree I could do.

Giant

So Leo has his own crate now........ I think our loveseat would fit in there!

Introducing....

Introducing the newest member to the Kammerdiener family.. Leonidas the mastiff, but we mostly have been calling him Leo. We chose the name because Leonidas was a king of Sparta and in Greek it means "Lion-like" which is pretty accurate to the mastiff!

Mona loves him! His favorite thing to do with her is either try and hump her, or nurse her!

I got up at like 1:30 with him last night and then early around 5. I was thinking "whats the big deal with a new born, this is easy I have tons of energy." Around 9am I was wiped out and have been ever since!!

Enjoy some pics of Leo and look forward to having him at a place near you in the near future!!

Are you serious???

I don't know if you all remember or not, but less than a month ago Matt and I were almost swept out to sea while kayaking.................
Today Matt came home and asked if I'd like to go kayaking to the San Juan islands and look for killer whales... hahahahahahah
Really Matt, that had to be a joke! I nearly passed out just thinking about it.

Dirt Bag

Today I had a 1 day old patient with practically non-working intestines. His mother was/is a meth addict. I didn't meet the woman. It's a good thing, I'm not sure I could have been very civil. Poor little baby. Not much of a chance. I just don't see how a mother could do that. I think she should be "fixed" and thrown in jail. Freaking dirt bag

Mona

Last night Matt and I took Mona to the vet to have a few lumps on her checked out. The boxer breed is the most likely of all dog breeds to develop cancer so I have been pretty worried about her. We took Mo in last night- sans painted toes (ashamed I know) and found out that her lumps were just oil glands that got too full. Thank goodness! I know I would love to add another dog to our family, but it will be a really tough day when God takes away my 4-legged best friend.
Here are some of my favorite memories of Mona Lisa the pig-dolphin-dog.

1. The first time I saw Mona. The trip mom and I took to get her was an adventure in itself, but the first time I saw this white pile of fur barreling past me, I knew it was love.

2. When I realized Mona was a lot like me. We would be down at the pond throwing sticks in for Mona and Mable to get. Mona would wait till Mable would swim all the way out, bring the stick half way back, and then steal it from her before she got back on land.

3. Driving to Granbury from Canyon for Easter or Thanksgiving I can't remember. Mona and I finally made it with only one stop. It was late, but everyone had stayed up. Mona ran around like a crazy for a minute or two and then pooped in the floor.

4. Coming home from clinicals and realizing Mona had put a hole in my mattress by trying to bury a bagel.

5. Coming home from clinicals and realizing Mona had put a hole in the couch by buring a bone.

6. After one Thanksgiving, I brought a ton of frozen left overs home. They made the 6hr trip just fine. I set them on the counter to thaw and went to run an errand. When I returned, Mona ate them all...frozen....even my twice baked potatoes.

7. It was Matts last day when he came to visit me, we had all of his things packed and I was about to take him to the airport. As we started to walk down the stairs, I realized Mona had left a pile of poop at the bottom.

I was going to do 10, but I just have too many and I'm tired! I love you Mo and hope I have many many more years and memories left with you.