My new flip camera

I got a new flip camera and I love it. It's so convient to just take video and then plug the camera into my computer and the video uploads. Check out the first video I took, of Chloe eating her birthday cake!

Party time!!!

Today was Chloe's first birthday party. She's not actually one until Monday, but the party was this weekend at my parents house.

Ride 'em cowboy

We went to Arizona this weekend to watch my little cousins rodeo. Trey just does calf riding, but Hailey and Tatum do it all...team roping, pole bending, goat tying, and barrel racing.

little cowboy

Tatum goat tying

Hailey goat tying

Hailey pole bending

Hailey and Todd team roping

team roping

Tatum barrel racing

Love this little girl!

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Tales from the ER....

Last night I had a patient who was 34 years old and a quadripalegic. He had been in an accident and broke his neck a few years ago. At the time he was married with small kids. He is now living in a nursing home. He breaths thru a tracheostomy (a hole in his neck) and requires a ventilator to breathe. He is in diapers and totally dependant on others. He cannot speak, but communicates by mouthing words. I had never had him as a patient before, but apparently he frequents our hospital often. He was just there the end of last year for over a month with pneumonia.
When I saw him, I thought to myself, if I was like that, I'd rather be dead. I would not want to live like that. However, he had a different perspective. The ICU nurse that I gave report to told me that he was her absolute favorite patient. She said that he is always happy, he never complains. She said that he told her, he thanks God every day that he is alive. He said he is truly blessed because he gets to live to see his kids grow up!
That really put me in my place. Next time I complain that my life sucks, I'll remember him, and remember that it's all about perspective.

Obsessed

I love to read, I mean really love to read. My books are special friends, and when I get into a good book, I really get into it. I'm right there with the characters, feeling what they feel, living what they are living. So I had decided recently to start the Twilight series. Yes, I know I'm late jumping on that bandwagon, but I just hadn't had time to read them. So anyway, I started book one, late Tuesday night and oh my goodness! I couldn't put it down. I read all 500 pages, in just about 4 and a half hours. And I totally get it now, I get what all those 14 year old girls were swooning over. Edward Cullen...wow, just wow!!! So in typical fashion, I'm officially obsessed. (This is why I cannot ever try drugs, I have a very addictive personality, I find something I like and I surround myself with it, every minute I can.) I went out and bought the movie, and the rest of the books. I haven't started New Moon yet, I'm not sure if I wanna read it right away, or wait until the happy glow from the first one subsides. Anyway, I'm gonna watch the movie tonight, I've heard it's not that great, but I'm sure it will be my new favorite movie for now. Or at least until New Moon comes out on DVD. Which by the way is March 20th. I already checked. And Eclipse comes out the day after my birthday, so guess who will be standing in line at midnight. :)

Las Vegas & Utah

We went to Vegas this past weekend to see Garth Brooks. We left Thursday morning and met my aunt and cousins from Arizona there. Thursday night we went to see Carrot Top, who turned out to be surprisingly very funny. I'd go see him again. Friday, Jay drove from Utah with Chloe to hang out with us during the day. We went to Bass Pro Shops and looked at all the animals. Then we met up with my cousins and walked around Caesar's Palace. We saw that Pete Rose was doing a signing, and there was no one in line, so we asked if we could take a picture with him. He said yes, but didn't even stand up or anything like that. He should be a little nicer since we were there for 15 minutes and no one else even came up to him. He's old news, and should realize it. Anyway, after that we headed over to the Wynn to get out tix for Garth Brooks! The concert was at 8, so we wandered that casino for a bit. It's very fancy shmancy.
The Garth concert was AMAZING!!! It was a very small venue and just him and his guitar. He interacted with the audience throughout the show, even taking requests. He just played whatever he felt like playing. Then Trisha Yearwood came out and they did their song together, and then she sang some of her songs while he accompanied her on the guitar. Then because it was a Friday night and there was no second show, he played an extra 45 minutes for us. All in all, it was one of the best concerts I've been too.
Saturday morning we left Vegas, and headed to Utah. We went to this little town near Zion Canyon and walked around and did a litte shopping. On the way back to my brother's, we stopped at this abandoned ghost town. It was a mile or two down this dirt road, in the middle of nowhere, and it was almost dark so it was a little creepy. We checked out the cemetary, which was a little strange since there were mounds were the bodies were, like they weren't buried deep enough or something. Then we climbed over the fence and checked out the inside of the houses. They were dark, and a little scary.
Sunday, we just played at my brother's house and then went and got Coldstones. Monday morning we headed home.
Here's some pics....

checking out the lions at Bass Pro Shops

meeting Pete Rose

the old cemetary, most of the graves are from the 1860's

one of the spooky houses

inside one of the houses

playing with her toys

LOVE this little face!

playing peek a boo in the car

she loved the coldstones!

playing with Grammie