Voluntourism

Have you ever heard of Voluntourism? This is an opportunity where you get to travel and volunteer at the same time! Kind of like a split vacation. :) One of the ladies I work with started her own voluntourism company in Ecuador. (Click on the picture for more info.)

It sounds like so much fun! She said that while for this part of Ecuador Spanish is the predominate language...you can get by just fine with English. (A plus for me...but I'm still going to take sister!!!)

Ewwww.....

So I get up this morning...and grab the hummus in the fridge before I head out the door. I got this when my mom was in town...but we forgot to eat it. So I grabbed it this morning thinking...this will make a great lunch/snack.
Then...today, right in the middle of my insane hunger I grab this quick snap only to open it up and find this:

Ummm. EWWWW!

SO disappointing. And I'm still hungry.

Some people I know (no names given) would scrape this mold, etc. off and eat it anyhow. NOT me. In the trash for me. YUCK!

Do you eat food with mold on it after scraping it off?

Tada!

Well...the trucks have left. My mom (and sisters) have gone....and the house is unpacked.
I thought that it would be much more fun to have a video the new place than just some photos.
Hope it doesn't make you sea sick!
Enjoy!!!

Where do you go....

....Green scrubie?---No Mercy.
(actual words are "my lovely" but if you've ever worked in a Chick-fil-A you know what a green scrubie is, and the song is that much more fun!)
Me on the other hand? I've been around. After the move, the anniversary, the guests, school and work...I'm just now re-emerging from the piles that have over taken my home. In fact...funny story. The other night our internet system completely crashed at 11:45pm and I had a school project due at 11:59pm...via internet. **Utter crisis.** I rebooted. And rebooted. And unplugged. And re-configured to no avail. No internet.
Project still due.
.......
Being the good healthcare provider I am. I know that most (if not all) hospitals have free wi-fi. So I hopped in my little car at midnight...drove to the local ED (emergency department) and sat outside in my car, very near to the building and uploaded my project. Mission accomplished. I'm either resourceful...or insane. You pick.
But the project was turned in nonetheless. (And no, mom,----I did not get offered drugs or get shot.)
Until next time,

nothing quite like them....

There is nothing quite like having your family in town and for me...especially the girls. We seem to get in trouble when we are all together. :) My mom was in town for 6 fabulous days to help us settle into the new place. Then my two sisters came to visit as well. What fun!

Here we are experimenting with a new dessert called Mochi. We DO NOT recommend. It taste like gooey nothingness.

This is all of the sisters out to eat. Yummy!

Here we are enjoying a Lollypop roll. Mmmm mmm!

Yep! It's official...I LOVE having my mom and sisters in town. I will be so sad after Amber leaves tomorrow. (I can feel the tears starting already.) It's a good thing that family summer vacation is coming up soon!

great datexperiment #2

If you will remember from my previous post...we are distance participating in the Great Datexperiement. We had so much fun on the first one that we did the second one a week later. (Not really the point...but we were already 3 behind...and I wanted to catch up!)

So here we are out for great date number 2. :) The exclamation points are part of the date....

First stop: Chick-fil-A for dinner. We had to let the worker order our meal for it. He did great! (and oddly enough didn't even flinch when we asked him to order...weird!)

 

Then it was off to "communicating with an activity"...haha! This is supposed to help engage the boys, but I'm not so sure. Destin was having me run routes and testing out his newly healed Achilles. 

Final stop was dessert from the grocery store. The "rules" states that you had to pick out a dessert for your spouse that reminded you of them...AND it had to be something that you had never tried before. (I also had to scream that "my husband was hot" in a public area. This is where that occurred...and then we quickly jumped in the car and left!!!) It was so much fun!

unpacking....

So with a move...comes unpacking, and like packing...it is usually a disaster. So here we are unpacking the new place. My mom came into town to help with the mess. She has been a wonderful help. (See below). It's slow progress.


Then, about halfway through the day yesterday all three of us were at home unpacking--Destin, mom, and me--we were working hard and making progress. To me, when you are unpacking the paper, the cardboard boxes, the old towels, etc. can kind of have a different smell. So I lit a candle. (See picture above.) I had a candle lit in previous days too...just to ward off the stale smell of an un-lived in apartment. Well, as my wonderful mother was unpacking she laid a piece of packing paper a little bit to close to the candle. ENTER large flames. Within seconds there was a huge fire on the island in the kitchen. Other things were rapidly catching on fire too! DISASTER!!! Destin ran over and was trying to move the papers--this only caught more things on fire. Mom grabbed the sink spout and sprayed it towards the flames--but somehow missed the button for the "spray" effect and the water was just dropping straight to the floor. So I was catching the water as it came out of the spout and threw it towards the fire. Destin came to our rescue and got an additonal cup of water and threw it on the flames also. The fire finally ceased. (See end product below.) We then remember that we are living in a high rise apartment and there are sprinklers everywhere...and smoke is now abundant in our home. We all rushed around and turned on fans and opened doors and windows so that we did not cause further damage. Crisis #2 averted.


Maybe next time the movers can unpack too?

the move

Part of the "excitement" of our "staycation" was the move across town. We had to say goodbye to our old place (enter the crying)....pack all of our stuff (enter the wailing)....and move it across town to the new place (at this point picture the thrashing on the floor kind of crying/wailing). None of the crying was related to the love of the old place or dislike of the new place...but instead the fact that we had to pack everything that we own and move it. NOT FUN.
Here are some of the pictures from that "adventure"....

The wonderful Megan who packed our entire kitchen.

Destin attacking the guest closet.

Tyson taking a break and probably checking fantasy sports.

The first load...in trailers.

Our lives....on trucks.

You can see the sheer elation on their faces. Tyson says that he knows already that we will be busy and unavailable in June 2010. :)

Here's to hiring movers!!!

puppy love

Where have I (we) been?
Oh...you know. Guests, work, move across town, 6 year anniversary, more work, school...just regular ol' life.
I have so much to catch you up on. But first I wanted to share with you why I love my sister. She called me yesterday and said "Hey! I bought some new pillows for my couch, want to see?" Of course I said yes...and she also always shares pictures of her puppies when she sends me anything. I reminded her that I was at work and did not need larger than life images of her crazy dogs filling my work computer screen.
Being a good sister...she didn't listen. So I got this terrifying picture while I was at work.

The original picture (that she eventually scaled down to an APPROPRIATE size) can be seen below.

I love my sister. :) Everyone should have a sister. Actually...mine is for sale if you really need one........

ford every stream.....

Ok, there was no "fording of streams"....come on, it's the desert! But it's the next line in the song. (2 points if you can name the movie.)
The sunsets here in the desert are so amazing, we want to make sure that everyone experiences one. Part of that experience usually involves hiking. So we were back at it again...

They didn't mean to dress like twinsies....but aren't they cute?

Looking back over the city.

Boys will be boys...and when brothers get together, adventures ensue.

Group shot near the top!

Pictures never do it justice...but it's amazing. Come see for yourself!

hail, hail...the gang's all here...

For a brief period of 24 hours...we had both "little" brothers and their girls here. We love to have a house full of guests...especially family! :) Here's a picture of us before we headed out for dinner. (It took us about 22 shots to get this good photo.) But I'll have to say, we are one good looking group. :)

Here we are getting mexican, yummy! A fun time was had by all. But we were sad to send Andrew and Macy back home yesterday. :(
More to come...

cupcake anyone?

No trip is complete without plenty to eat! :) And cupcakes are a definite must. Here we are enjoying a key lime cupcake and a dark chocolate cupcake. Both are fabulous...but the key lime was the best. Yummy!


More to come...

Climb every mountain....

My little brother and his girl, Macy, came out to visit us this week. :) We have been counting down the days to their arrival....and they are finally here! We hiked one of our favorite mountains with them the other night. It has amazing sunsets....and a beautiful view of the city.

Taking a break from the "dry heat"...

This chuckwalla tried to attack us...for real, we were all scared.

Pressing forward...

Time for a group shot. Cheese!

Finally made it to the top!

Enjoying the view of the sunset and the city....life is good. (And the hike down is easier!)

Non voyage!

Yes...the actual goal of this post is to use as many cheesy expressions as possible. :)

For the next week we will be "stay"cationing here in the desert. BUT...we will be joined by our brothers and their girlfriends for a week full of fun, adventures, and laughter. Yippee!! We are so excited about having some much needed time off together and for family coming in town.
This is our first "stay"cation and I think it will be tons of fun.
Do you?

By definition, a desert is an area with an average annual precipitation of less than 10 inches. That's not a lot of rain. I actually love it this way. I'm not a big fan of rain. (Frizzy hair, wet jeans, dirty car....) The only thing I like about the rain is taking a nap. Thus the desert is a GREAT place for me to live.
However...when the rain starts. I'm out. The nap has begun. :)

But, yesterday I walked outside and smelled the rain. I don't know what it is about that smell, but it makes me happy on the inside and I had forgotten all about it. You see when it doesn't rain much you forget that smell. The smell of new...clean...fresh, and a lit bit of spice.
You know...if "starting over" had a smell, it would smell like rain. I like that smell, and that thought.
Here's to rain!

But the sun better be back tomorrow. :)

what do you say?

Today we had a code. For a two year old. 

You know....I see a lot of dead people. It's just the nature of my job. Quite honestly, it doesn't bother me. (Because I don't know the dead people...nor really anything about them...and most of the time they are "mostly dead" before they ever get to the hospital.) However, when it's a kid. It's different. There is never a good peds code. Ever. The child today had an accident. Accidents happen, that's life. But this one resulted in death.

The patient wasn't mine. The doctor that I am working with was running the code. All the nurses were assisting in care...chest compressions, IVs, medications, etc. Everyone was doing their job. But what about the dad? There was no one to be with the dad. 

Enter me. 

I am good at what I do, but that's just it. There was nothing for me to do. So I stood in the room next door with the dad, and I had NO idea what to say. I asked him if he had any questions or needed me to call anyone. He didn't. I put my hand on his shoulder. He moved away. He was very tearful and upset. But what did I have to offer? I had no words. I was performing no actions (even though one room over was a flurry of action). And in the end, I had no good news.

What do you say?