2008 musings

1. 
Was 2008 good for you? YES! Finally graduated.
   
2. What was your favorite moment of the year? Graduation, starting my first job, sitting in first class on my way to Hawaii,
   
3. What was your worst moment of the year? Starting my first job-- this is good and bad... pretty scary.
   
4. Where were you when 2008 began? At our friends house watching the firework going off and finishing a nice game of Cranium.
   
5. Who were you with? My husband Brian, Friends Matt and Judy, our Cousin Gene who is in Afganistan.
   
6. Where will you be when 2008 ends? Hmm... Brian, Matt and Judy... possibly a few more friends but these are the mainstays!
   
7. Did you keep your new years resolution of 2008? I think they were to walk with God daily and to lose some weight. both of which I did all year. However there were days I didn't sit down an formally spend time with God and there were days I gained back all of that weight I lost.
   
8. Do you have a new years resolution for 2009? To see the new Church plant start! To reach my goal weight which I did not do this past year.
   
9. Did you fall in love in 2008? More in love with my husband.
   
10. Are you still in love? Yup.
11. Did you breakup with anyone in 2008? Nope. I did have to part with my PA class- which almost seemed like a breakup since we spent so much time together!
    
12. Did you make any new friends in 2008? All my new co workers. Grew closer to the John family with Jim and Darla, Matthew, Erin, Jason, Kylie moving here. Met my new niece on the day she was born! Also have found new couple friends in fun and unexpected places!
    
13. Did you travel outside of the US (or your home country) in 2008? Went to Hawaii for the first time! Last week we went to Canada. I guess that counts.
    
14. How many different places did you travel to in 2008? Las Vegas, Phoenix, Hawaii, Washington
    
15. Did you miss anybody in the past year? Geez, yes.
16. How many concerts or plays did you see in 2008? Creation 2008 at the Gorge! So glad we made time for this this year! Also Amy Grant reunion tour. Wow I loved her so much when I was 10. Casting Crowns at the Puyallup Fair.
    
17. What was your favorite book in 2008? I really liked Twilight as I have mentioned before. I also finally read One Tuesday Morning- by Karen Kingsbury- gave me a new perspective on 9-11. Also Phillip Yancey's Prayer- rocked my devotional world.
    
18. What was your proudest moment of 2008? Graduating!
    
19. Where did you work in 2008? In my first job as a PA-C!
    
20. 
Favorite TV shows(s) of 2008? Grey's Anatomy, Criminal Minds.
21. Favorite Band(s) of 2008? Katy Perry, Casting Crowns, Chris Tomlin,
    
22. Favorite Place in 2008?

 Home with my husband!
    
23. Favorite person(s) to be with in 2008? My husband Brian who I am practicing growing old and grey with...
    
24. Favorite stores in 2008? Washington Square.
    

Anyways- thought it would be fun to chronical the year this way! On to 2009!

Oh Come Oh Come Emanuel!

WE made it North for the holidays! So glad that they plow major highways. We drove 7 hours north up to visit my side of the family and almost got stuck 4 blocks away! All the major highways were plowed so we did just fine the first 7.95 hours. IT was the last 4 blocks in my mom's subdivision where we weren't sure if we were going to make it. Trying to make our little sedan plow it's way through 2 feet a snow was a quite a bit to ask of it. But we made it and promptly put our chains on for the rest of the trip!

We spent Christmas with my mom, Sister and her friend Greg:

My mom is so beautiful!

And this is my sister and her friend Greg.

My sister went all out this year. She is quite fond of shopping and finding great deals. She and Greg stuffed our stockings and filled the tree with presents.

I got some MAC brushes from her- just what I asked for!
WE made cornish game hens and turkey ham for Christmas dinner.
And spent the rest of the day playing games and watching "It's a wonderful life."

The next day we broke a chain on our car and had to find a tire dealer in the middle of the snowstorm that had chains for our tires. AFter this ordeal we headed over to my dad's house for dinner and the big poker game! I bowed out after a few hours after losing all my chips.
We hadn't seen my brother in a while and got a bunch of pictures:
I really like his beard. And I am not a facial hair person!

The siblings!

Group shot- My Grandma was visiting from Texas!

The next day we visited my friend Wendell who is in the hospital with a number of ailments. Mostly due to the fact that he is in his 80's and his body is wearing out. Lots of prayers that he is back on his feet and feeling better soon.

We also went to Canada to go to see "Bedtime stories." We had to go to the space ship movie theater- Brian even got a picture! It's shaped like a space ship and you can see it from the highway. It's just fun to go Canada- just as long as they let you come home in the end!

Now for us it's back to work! The snow has melted and we are busy receiving mail and packages that were held up due to the storm. We plan to ring in the new year with out friends Matt and Judy- what are your new years resolutions??

Here we come a Caroling!

I had to work Saturday clinic this weekend which went well. On the way home I slid off the highway due to ice. I knew I shouldn't be driving my Focus without chains on it! Luckily I was only stuck for 5 minutes. Two nice trucks pulled up immediately and two guys pushed me out lickety split! It was like it had never happened.

15 minutes later we were at church set out to carol to the homebound members of our church. It was so much fun. We really shouldn't have been driving in the snow. But I ended up in the car of a retired Pastor who used to live in Alaska. He was a maniac and drove with confidence. We had 6 stops to carol at but really ended up expanding it to 11 different locations. The first stop we met a church member whose wife was in the hospital. So we went sang with him and dug out his car. Later we ended up over the hospital and sang to his wife. While we were at the hospital we saw another church member who had just had a knee replacement. And even had an encore request from a few rooms down in the hospital. It was so much fun! I don't know if I've ever had that much fun caroling in my life.

Then we went over the inlaws and spent the night! Kathy's Christmas list mostly consisted of people spending the night at her house so we decided this weekend was the weekend to do it. WE had them come pick us up with their 4 wheel drive because we couldn't make it out to their house on our own with the snow. We had so much fun being treated like kids again and watched Christmas movies till we could no longer keep our eyes open.

The next day we made it back into town and had Christmas with Jason, Kylie and Hannah! They hosted and Kylie made an awesome fondue spread. Two types of cheese fondue and chocolate. It was so yummy. She is a great cook. (Maybe because she actually seems to like cooking :) and Hannah was darling in her Christmas outfit and stocking cap!

Slushing through the snow!

So what a week! I worked half days Monday and Tuesday at the clinic this week. Monday I was the only provider in internal medicine that was able to make it clinic. We woke up in the am to 2 feet of snow! Most people were late due to having to spend an hour shoveling themselves out of their driveway but luckily my wonderful husband had put chains on our car and partially shoveled out our driveway the night before. Score one for preparedness. Other people were stuck in California, were without power, or live in the country thus had trees falling over their mile long driveways.
Luckily we live in town and slipped our way over to both our jobs the past two days! I just feel blessed that we have not lost power, had a pipe burst, or got snowed in like many of our other friends in the area.

Tonight we decided to start out on our trip up North! We both had already planned on taking Wednesday through Sunday off and making the 7 hour drive to visit my side of the family... They apparently have a foot of snow so we were pretty concerned that it might be ice the whole way.
3 PM today we set out and slushed the whole way to the mall. We hadn't finished my Christmas shopping since we have had ice and snow for 10 days- the hour to drive to Portland to finish the shopping seemed unsafe and foolhardy. Since I was with Brian we were at the mall for 15 minutes and had all the shopping done! We were on a mission. I won't say what what we got but score one for planning ahead.
By then it was 6 PM. Yes it took us two hours to make the hour drive to Portland. Can you say ice and packed snow and crazy insane drivers the whole way!

We had an hour to cross town to get to the Rose Garden to watch the Blazer's beat the Nuggets- yippee!!! I got to wear my new Brandon Roy jersey that I got from Ricky and Kathy for Christmas!

Next we set out North- once we got past Vancouver we felt confident that we had made the right choice. The ice has left up and even though it is supposed to snow another two inches here the roads are so much better than at home already! So we are sleeping in Longview tonight and will finish the drive in the AM.

Tag- you're it!

01. What are your nicknames?
My husband has many and rotates them: Fruit Cup, Trouble, Cup of soup, Banana Pancakes
My family calls me Sunni (which isn't my favorite but I let them cuz of love.) I call myself Sunnishine or Orangeshine depending on the online setting. My sister when she was little called me Bonsai.

02. How do you style your hair?
Carefully- straight most of the time- sometimes with a little curl. Right now it's a short bob with side bangs... much like my profile picture.

03. What's your favorite or least favorite Christmas song?
I love carols. Have memories of the Carol of the Bells from choir. Paul McCartney's Wonderful Christmas time since it's so happy.

04. How many colors are you wearing now?
Pink sweat pants. Blue Cashmere shirt.

05. Are you an introvert or extrovert?
Extrovert. I love people- I do tend to live in my own little world. I am serious most of the time even when I am trying to be humorous. I think I have a gift in that I get a long with many types of people and tend not to notice annoying things about people until they are pointed out to me.

06. What was the last book you read?
Just finished Breaking Dawn- the 4th book in the Twilight series.

07. What's one piece of fiction that changed your life?

Lift changing?? I love Madeline L'Engle and her thought provoking fiction. A lot of Christian fiction has made me think about deeper things and praise God more.

08. If the person you secretly like is already taken, what would you do? hmm... being married I think the secret is out...

09. Is there anything that has made you unhappy these days?
Not getting my own way. This is a good one from the blog I got this from. Luckily have gotten my own way a lot lately!

10. What's your favorite dessert?
Anything rich and bad for me. Peanut buster bar fudge ice cream dessert. Cotton Candy!

11. How long does it take you to get ready in the morning?

45 minutes if it's a shower/blowdry/devotions/straighten/makeup kind of day. Every morning I give myself 30 minutes.... this is an ongoing problem.

12. What websites do you visit daily?

Facebook, hotmail, Blogger, Perez Hilton

13. What classes are you taking right now? And if you're not in school any more, what's your job?
No classes right now. Still have to sign up for guitar lessons. I am a PA-C!

14. Do you like to clean?
I much prefer cleaning than cooking but never quite have things cleaned to perfection- just a clean enough to tolerate.... delicate balance. I had a roommate when was a student missionary in Russia that was perfect for me. She was from Zimbabwe and loved to cook. So I did all the cleaning and she did all the cooking. Perfect- until we got another roommate who didn't want to do anything! Ahh.... she would make me homemade pizza with homemade crust 3 x weekly at my request.

15. What was the last song to get stuck in your head?
A worship song I heard on my new radio! Early Christmas present from my thoughtful and loving husband!

16. What's the last movie you saw?
Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

17. Pirates or Ninjas?
Pirates- Ninjas seem to move too fast and Johnny Depp just seems fun.

18. What is your least favorite thing to do that you have to do everyday?
Cook.... but do I have to do everyday?... hmmm... mostly we get by with minimal cooking.

19. Best time of your life?
I would say a lot of it. Now is quite good. Sophomore year of high school. College.

20. What are you most looking forward to in the coming month?
Going to my hometown and seeing my family! Christmas. Katy Perry Concert with my sister.

Driving in a Winter Wonderland!

As I blog the snow is falling- ever so gently outside. We poked our head out a few minutes ago and noted that we got another couple inches. Which is nice because a lot of melted today while we are at work.

So here is our happy tree decorated and with presents underneath to boot. Not all of them mind you... I got bored with wrapping them last night. No the heat dish is not a gift this year we just have been using it a lot so it is still tucked up against the tree ready to warm our feet at a moments notice.

I saw 8 patients today so I guess my moaning yesterday paid off. A lot of orthopedic complaints. Fun fun! Knees, hips, feet, backs.... come to me and I will send you radiology for a quick picture!

Gotta go watch the rest of the Blazers game!!

A change of pace

So last week we were going going going. Party party party.
This week we have snow which has taken us for a 360... in a good way!

We drive slower, we both have been going to work but even work is slower.

I have averaged 2 to 3 patients per day this week which makes for a lot of sitting around doing CME, decorating my patient rooms and goofing off with the nurses. Would chat with the docs but alas they have patients... :) They are in talks to open up the clinic to new patients. Which I am like yeah!!! Then I can have my own patients and a little more job security. There are so many senior citizens in the this community in need of primary care providers and I'm sitting around twiddling my thumbs. I understand it's a delicate balance. The clinic has seen a drop in appointments lately which they are thinking is due to the economic times and people just hanging on to their money and not seeking care unless they really need it. So time to open up the practice.

So we have been hanging out in our wonderfully heated home where we have had food and all the other associated comforts. Happy to report no frozen pipes or broken heat pumps! There is a few inches of snow outside and slush in the streets and all the schools have been closed. Fun for a change of pace.

Today was my day off... so what did I do?
I got up and was at my holiday gift exchange breakfast for work at 7 AM. Pretty good on a day off!
Then I was going to go to Portland but since it snowed all day today I decided to try and do more Christmas shopping in town and forego the trip.

This worked out because I got to babysit a baby!!! IT was so exciting. Our new friends Matt and Nikki both had to work today and the daycares are closed so I got to babysit their 6 month old. Only for 4 hours but he was pretty cute! And a pretty easy baby to watch.

Anyways- Shout out to my brother and sister-in-law Jason and Kylie who are celebrating their 2 year anniversary today!

Time to go--got a pressing Rock Band date with Brian.

Holiday highs

So... last blog I said this post would show pics of our decorated tree. Sadly we have been so busy that our tree is up with the star on top and a tree skirt but not much else. I am sitting and blogging but don't quite have the energy to get up and decorate it. Someday when we have children we won't be able to be this lazy!!

I just snapped this picture and Brian looked over at me and asked: "Are you blogging about our undecorated tree??" Oh he knows me so well.

I has been a great week though- last weekend we got our new bedframe:

Pretty spiffy-

Monday we went on a triple date to Chinese food and played Acquire. Our friends brought their 6 month old over and he scooted everywhere. So cute but I have decided I like the 5 month stage better- lets just keep them where they can't move and all they can do us coo and smile at you...

Tuesday we went on a double date to the Blazer- Magic game. They lost right at the buzzer. Heartbreaking. We were up by 5 with 50 seconds to go. 4 seconds to go we were still up by two points. As the buzzer rang they sank a 3 pointer and we lost!! But of course it is always fun to see them live in action!

Wednesday was my great day off. I ran around on hold with the insurance as I dropped off the vacuum to be repaired. Then got hung up on by insurance company as I was in line at the post office. I had a few hours of that exhilarating thrill of trying to juggle ten things at once and seeing if you can do it. Also got to go see visit Kylie and Hannah. She was 6 months this week and sat up for the first time.

Thursday was Brian's work party where we won this interesting white elephant gift!

Unfortunately Brian got sick Friday AM. He is battling one of those nasty viruses. I had to go solo to the dinner party to see our visiting friend Rachel.

Church today was packed! There was no parking and no seats! Rachel and I sat in the back crammed up against one of the camera stands. And we got to see the school children put on the church service. So precious.

Then we had a church planting lunch! The conference gave us the go ahead to church plant and we are moving forward- praying about meeting in March.

So squeezing a blog in here after a fun filled week! I love this time of year. There is always stuff to do!

We get to leave in 45 minutes for my company Christmas party. It's at the casino... maybe we will hit the jackpot ;)

Merry Christmas

Musings at the end of the week

So... this is a Friday night blog. It means I survived the week. It was a pretty good week. I am learning so much at work. Which is good because my schedule is getting busier.

A saw my record of 13 patients on Monday. Yesterday and today I saw 11. It is starting to scare me that I may have to see double that number on a regular basis because it takes me most of the day to see 11.

I started out today by partially removing a toenail. It was way fun. I did a nice digital block (or course). Toenails take a little strength to remove so I had a little fun removing the crazy thing. WE shall see how it is doing when I recheck it on Monday.

The rest of the day I kept seeing lovely elderly patients with ears full of wax. Most came in for different reasons but each took me up on the offer of removal. Luckily my MA is still fresh and seems to enjoy earwax removal because I let her do most of the dirty work. I made sure she wasn't thinking dirty thoughts about all these requests but she still seemed up for more by the end of the day.

I keep telling myself to chart more in the rooms with my patients. We have electronic medical record so everything is on computer. I'm picking up the nasty habit of finding anything to do to put off charting. I was charting until 6 tonight. I probably could have left at 5 if I hadn't avoided charting most of the day. Staying till 6 isn't too bad. At least I don't have call... ever. I kind of like this job.

Last night we reprised game night with our friends Joe and Katie. Once again I led in Rook. Usually Brian beats me so I have to enjoy it while I'm ahead.

Our bed came today! IT looks so pretty. I will have to take a picture and post it.

We also got our Christmas tree. I felt so loved today. WE ordered our Christmas tree from our local Adventist school. Brian was going to pick it up over lunch today- I checked my messages at lunch and the first one is from the school secretary, my friend Quincy, she's like.... it's 10 AM and I have your tree... I can drive by your house... if you get this message. (Even though we were supposed to pick it up.) The next message is our good friend Matt, who is a school teacher at the school. He's like.... I have your tree in my truck... I'll deliver whenever you are home. Luckily he got a hold of Brian before Brian borrowed a truck to go pick it up himself. Then I get home tonight and I get an email from Kathy, my mother-in-law that says: I remembered you are getting your tree today. Do you need help picking it up??
So nice to have thoughtful family and friends! It is resting in our garage. Next post will be of our decorated tree!

Headaches and massages

Here you go a family thanksgiving photo:

This is 2nd Thanksgiving with Brian's immediate family

So... I have had a headache for the past 3 days. I often get low-grade headaches and just live with them but this week I'm like... ahh... stop already! My day off today- my headache just got worse. I'm like okay- I'm tired of living with this.
I got a awesome massage from my friend Clara this AM thinking it might go away. It went away for a few hours but then came back with a vengeance. Grrr!!!

I tried Topamax a few years ago for migraine prevention. I started taking it for a week and got really really bad heartburn. Heartburn isn't a side effect of Topamax so I thought it was a coincidence. I tried to restart Topamax a few months later and I got worse heartburn. So much for preventing these things.

As a child I had a lot of headaches. I saw a specialist and had to keep a headache diary. I remember putting my head up against the fridge as a child hoping for some relief. I remember trying to sit so still or not go up stairs because it would make the throbbing worse. Uggh.... so I kind of grew out of the severity of them... but days like this remind me of how bad they were when I was little.

I went to the gym today thinking maybe if I forced myself to work out it would take my mind of this headache. I drug myself through step class. The whole time was there I found myself counting down the seconds and having visions of passing out and hitting my head on the step. I made it and now I sit here- exhausted, cranky, and my head still hurts.

Anyways... just venting. Hope you guys are having better days!

Rabbit Rabbit

Happy December!

Amazing weekend. So much fun!

Friday, AKA the day after Thanksgiving AM, Brian and I got up at 4:30 AM and headed to Fred Meyer to scoop up some stuff we didn't need. It's just fun to get up that early. By 7 AM I was done and Brian was on a mission. So he and his mom headed in to PDX to hunt for more bargains and he bought us a bed frame for our bed. We are both excited because we actually have never had a bed frame. And it was marked down from 700's to 288. Sweet!

I then headed off to Rite Aid to scoop up the free with rebate specials and then was at work by 8 AM.

Sabbath I worked my first weekend shift! I really was quite slow and boring. I only saw 4 patients and two I stole from family practice. The phone in internal medicine just wasn't ringing. Was off work by noon. Sweet!
Then we headed over to Jim and Darla's for a really fun meal of quesadillas.

Sabbath evening we went out on a double date with our friends Joe and Katie and saw 4 Christmases. It was really really funny. There were some crude parts so deserves the PG-13 rating but we all enjoyed it. Then we came and played a 2 hour game of monopoly and a few hands of rook. I love game nights. I think that is one of my favorite things about the holidays.

Sunday we stumbled out of bed and headed over to Rick and Kathy's for Thanksgiving 2. The food was just was good (more turkey!) and we had just my husbands immediate family so it was nice to spend more time together. And Hannah was there.. so I got my fill. I wasn't quite filled up after having to share her so much at thanksgiving. Reprised the dutch-blitz (I won this time!) and played some Acquire.

Today- I had to go back to work. Wow. I am so liking this set up. It is so much easier than being a student. I love having control over my life and not having to jump to someone's bidding. I make some of my own decisions and also get to make the decision to ask for help when I need it. I saw my record number of patients today- it jumped from 9 to 13! My MA Laura and I were so excited. I was pretty busy but have a lots of faith I will get faster and be able to see lots more patients. I started with only 1 patient on my schedule so it was kind of a crazy day.
Sent one person to the ER (vomiting every 5 minutes post MVA 5 days ago- can you say Head CT?) and another gentleman direct admit to the hospital (nasty abscess directly over a ventral hernia- probably needs surgery and IV antibiotics).

Working on the 3rd book of the Twilight series- so addicting! Chelsea was right in telling me to read them quite a while ago. I'm just trying to pace myself. Totally recommend them if you are over the age of 18.