In the middle of the night...

So, I work nights at a hospital. And sometimes I don't get very much sleep. That particular combination can leave me very...well... slap happy. And sometimes we have very strange conversations. Like the one with the conclusion: "So, if you feed a duck a pigeon.... it will explode??" Yep. Good times. Sometimes we make bets. Like 'if one of those 10 units types little c big E negative (transfusion jargon), then I will buy you dinner. If not, then you'll buy me dinner'. That was a dumb bet (which I didn't think through very well), but it was fun. And we do always have fun. Here's what we just did:

Yup, good times. And in case you didn't catch Bryant's comment, there was a candy bar on the line for the winner. We thought it was reason enough at the time. Bryant may be regretting that decision.

Into the wild blue yonder...

Hey everyone! Let me introduce you to a dear friend of mine, Mark West.

It's his birthday on the 8th, so I am dedicating this post to him!

Mark and I have been friends for nearly half of my life! (for those of you who don't like math, that's about 14 years)

Mark has essentially been adopted into my family-- even my extended family knows and loves him, which is a pretty rare occurrence. Mark is a Second Lieutenant and a pilot in the US Air Force. He has a Bachelors degree in Aviation, AND an MBA in Marketing from West Minster. He's so smart! Unfortunately, he moved all the way to middle-of-nowhere-ville Oklahoma, so I don't see him nearly as often as I once did. :( 

I recently had the pleasure of his company for a shake date at Iceberg while he was in town for the Hill Air Force Base Air Show. He wore his "fire proof pajamas", while I put on real clothes (I figured he deserved to see me in real clothes rather than scrubs). It's mighty impressive to see 6'4" of flight suit with all those military emblems and his name on the pocket! I suppose I didn't think about it too hard until I witnessed something I don't see very often: While we were sitting outside, eating our shakes, a young man (looked to be in his 20s), a complete stranger, approached Mark, extended his hand, and said "Thank you for serving and defending the country I love." I was truly touched. And impressed with this young man's gratitude and the sentiments it evoked in my heart as well. It was a very special Memorial Day Weekend moment for me. And Mark, I am proud of you and grateful for the choice and sacrifice you've made to serve our beloved nation.

Mark also brought his helmet for me to try on. I think he really just wanted a picture of me wearing it as future blackmail material or something. ;) Let me tell you though, I'm not claustrophobic by any means, but wearing that helmet made me feel very confined. Most likely because there was no oxygen flowing through the face mask though.

I think I'd make a pretty good looking storm trooper, since I doubt I'd make it as a fighter pilot. 

What do you think?

Oh, and Mark-- I'm still waiting for my F-16 ride! ;) (heck any military jet would do!)

Diagnosis?

So, last night I had an epiphany at work. Everyone these days seems to be self-diagnosing themselves as being "(insert substance here) intolerant". Lately I feel like the spotlight has been on dietary intolerances, but that's beside the point. Then, after reading yet another non-diagnostic "admit diagnosis" on an order, it occurred to me that it would be highly entertaining to be the one who got to come up with the "admit diagnosis"-- and I would just start classifying all medical problems as "intolerances". Here are some of the examples we came up with lats night:

~You're not in labor, you're just pregnancy intolerant.
~What?? Your shoulder hurts because you got shot? No, I think you're just bullet intolerant.
~You think you have insomnia, but it's really just sleep intolerance.
~You don't have an infection, you have a bacteria intolerance.
~You're not anemic silly, you're just red blood cell intolerant.

Oh, and best for last:

Nope, that patient isn't dead, they're just life intolerant!

Yup, I'm pretty much the best diagnostician there ever was!

Two simple words

Some of you may already know that I work a very interesting schedule at work, but for those of you who don't, I work something we call a 7 on/7 off shift. That means I get the pleasure of working 7 days in a row followed by a 7 day "recovery period" as I call it. Well, this last 7 on has been particularly interesting and intense. We started the week off with a staff meeting where management presented a power-point explaining the Gallup Poll, what the questions mean, and the criteria by which we should judge our answers. Does anyone else's company use the Gallup Poll? If so, do you dislike it as much as I do? Ugh. It was interesting to hear the explanation behind the questions though. I was super tired during staff meeting, so I'm not sure I absorbed all that much of it. One thing really stuck in my mind though: there's a question about whether or not we had been complimented or told we were doing a good job by someone within the last 7 days. That really got me thinking. How often do we really notice when someone says "thank you"? How often do we say "thank you" and truly mean it? And, how often should we say "thank you" but don't? These thoughts triggered a curiosity about the origin of the phrase "thank you"/ the word "thank". From what I could find, essentially the roots of the word are gratitude and thought. This means, when we say "thank you" we are having grateful thoughts about that person. I don't know about the rest of you, but I have decided I don't express my thoughts of gratitude to others nearly enough. This is why I have decided to focus on showing and sharing my appreciation of others kindness, good deeds, and hard work more often. For instance, this weekend at work was... well, to put it lightly INSANE! Because of some of the difficult degree of work, we had to send some cases out to a reference lab, which is not terribly unusual if you know labs. However, the reference lab we use doesn't actually stay open on the weekends and nights, but they do have someone on call for emergencies and urgent cases. Which this weekend was full of, pretty much nonstop. On Sunday evening, one of the reference technologists called to discuss some of the results on one of our cases that she had been working on. I know she had been at least the second technologist that had been called in on our account. And the remarkable part is I could actually hear her smiling through the phone. She had every right to be grumpy about being called in on her day off, which just so happened to also be Mother's Day, but she wasn't. Or if she was, it wasn't apparent to me. I made sure to take an extra moment to express my gratitude for her hard work and her sacrifice, even though I felt mere words were not sufficient in this case-- though I am working on a thank you card this week off. What did those extra moments to express a grateful thought cost me? Nothing. But I know it made me feel better just knowing that she had heard my sincere gratitude. I don't know if she appreciated it, but I sure hope so. I know I would if I were in her place! 

Okay, so that's the end of my story, but not the end of the lesson I've learned (or re-learned as it may be). I'm pledging to be more appreciative of those around me-- whether they are the stranger telling me I have a beautiful smile, the coworker or family member who does something thoughtful, the friend or acquaintance who takes the time to read my blog and comment or appreciate it, or the stranger who lets me merge in front of them in a high traffic situation. For all of you I have two words:

Thank you!!

Crafts of the last little while....

So, I really ought to be studying for the GRE, but what am I doing instead? Looking for new ideas and reviewing old ideas. Mainly craft ideas. So, in no particular order, here are some of the crafts I've worked on in the last little while. Obviously not all of them, since I've been bad about taking pictures, but some of my favs. 

I made these mittens for my nephew after having seen something similar by Kate Spade, I thought they were so smart and witty, and my nephew certainly doesn't mind modeling my creations... most of the time. The words "Hi 5" actually are on the palms of the hands, so you can read it when you hold your hands up for a high-five. I thought they were kinda fun. They reminded me that I really need to get better on color blocking and intarsia though. I'll put that on my "to-do" list.

This is my little "A". She sure loves Elmo. She also really likes to wear hooded towels and capes. So, Aunt Emily decided to combine these things and made a hooded Elmo blanket. It's made out of furry fleece with a polar fleece lining, so it's soft and warm. The face was the hard part, but that will have to be my secret trick. She loved it.... I think...

Please excuse the poor picture quality. I have a better picture somewhere, but not sure where at the moment. This was the gift I made for the Transfusion White Elephant Christmas Exchange Extravaganza. See, you don't even have to do your hair, you can just put on a hat and make it look like you either a) actually have hair (Roland!) or b) intend on doing your hair at some point. I pretty much love seeing Roland put it on, and I hope he enjoys it during his impending retirement.

I call this one Santa Beardo. Unfortunately, you have to put up with me modeling it. I had a coworker offer to pay me $5 to wear this when I went up on a trauma 1. I told her if we had a trauma 1 on Christmas or Christmas Eve, I would do it. Unfortunately we didn't. But I sure thought it was a fun/funny idea. This one was my own creation.... aside from the pattern for the beardo. My own beard pattern ended up being too big. Darn.

This wasn't so much something I made entirely myself as much as it was an idea I came up with for my darling mother. She had to do leadership training for the ward YW presidencies, and had come up with a tool centered theme but needed to come up with an invitation to match. After finding the plastic toy tools in the dollar section at Target (best spot ever!), I came up with the idea of making a Home Depot-esque apron  with pockets for the tools and info about the leadership training meeting. The apron was actually made out of cardstock, and the ties were made of double fold bias tape, all sewed together on the sewing machine with plain old white thread. All I did besides the idea was a little computer work to print out the logo and slogan. I thought they looked wonderful! My mom is so talented! 

I made these little booties with a pattern I found on Ravelry. If any of you want the link, I'm sure I can find it for you. It was my first attempt at the Turkish knitting method, and I think they turned out pretty well (after I figured out some gauge issues). I also think the friend I made them for loved them even more because she knew I had made them just for her little girl. 

I made these slippers for my momma for Christmas. It was my first attempt at hand felting wool that has been crocheted. I think it turned out pretty well. This is also one of my favorite patterns and it's super easy to teach people how to crochet this, just ask my cute coworker/friend Nancy (mi Nancita). She's done really well at learning and putting up with my meager teaching skills.

Mothers day flowers that are edible? Pretty good idea, right? I know my mom and step-grandma sure liked them. And cake pops are always easy and delicious. 

These are our lovely little lab mascots from Lab Week 2012. They may end up living in the lab forever though. From left to right they were named Tellie the platelet, Princess Clotty the FFP/cryo, and Packer the red blood cell. I had so much fun making them and thinking of fun things to do for our lab week olympics, I'm just so glad my coworkers were all such good sports and indulged me. Now to get to work on the RBCs that everyone wants.....

This was a baby shower present for a coworker and friend who is a big fan of "Despicable Me". It's her own little minion for her darling baby girl. It has a little squeaker inside too. She said her husband got pretty attached to it before the baby came, and she had to keep reminding him that it was the baby's toy and not his. Sorry Tyson. ;)

The above two photos are of one of my favorite knitting projects to date. These are what I call the "monster bum pants". I thought they were pretty cute even before I saw them on, but seeing them in action as my niece and nephew ran around in them was probably one of my favorite moments of all time. My nephew was so excited about them (he loves monsters) that he asked "Where the shirt?" I couldn't help but laugh. I also can't take any credit for this brilliant pattern. It was the brain child of a Norwegian knitter-- Smoochie. (I linked the English version for you though.)

Okay, I better get back to being more productive. Or something. Hope you're all having a wonderful May!

Modest is hottest, right?

It hasn't even been a week, and I'm posting again, aren't you proud of me? Well, you should be! ;)

So I've decided to post about something that has been on my mind a lot as of late:

MODESTY

My dear sweet mother is the Stake Young Womens president, and she just finished putting on a fashion show and question panel for Standards night for all the young women of her stake. The young women were invited to submit anonymous questions to be answered by a panel of the Stake Young Women Presidency and a member of the Stake Presidency. In an effort to give members of the panel as much time as possible to research, pray about, and formulate their answers, my mom divided up the questions on the preceding sunday, and I was her "special consultant". I was quite surprised by how many of the questions submitted were about dress standards. I mean, was this not a topic that had been clearly outlined in the "For the Strength of Youth" pamphlet published by the church? I attributed many of the questions to the lack of clarity in some aspects, or confusion generated by the outside media. We decided that perhaps my mom would read what had been written in the "For the Strength of Youth" directly to the young women, that way there would be no ambiguity. 

Moving on... I was just in BYU territory this evening, and was a little shocked at how many of the young women wear clothing that is so obviously contradictory to the honor code -- which they all signed so they could attend BYU! Maybe their thoughts were "Well, I'm not on campus, so I don't have to dress that way, right?" Ummm... wrong. That may sound a bit harsh of me, but I remember very clearly the day I read through and signed the honor code for the first time all those years ago. Let me show you what I saw:

"By accepting appointment on the faculty, continuing in employment, or continuing class enrollment, individuals evidence their commitment to observe the Honor Code standards approved by the Board of Trustees "at all times and . . . in all places" (Mosiah 18:9)."

That certainly doesn't leave any room for ambiguity in my mind. So, why do these young women feel the honor code only applies to them on campus? Maybe they didn't read through the honor code before signing it? I realize it may be a big adjustment for some, and I don't want to seem overly strict or anything, but I am honestly curious. If you have any ideas, please share! I know my commitment to abide by that standard made it so much easier for me once I went through the temple. I really didn't have to modify my wardrobe. In fact, I don't think I really needed to get rid of any of my clothing, although I am sure I did... I'm not very good at de-cluttering my "clothing collection". (Anybody have any good suggestions at how to be better?)

Also, those of you who have been in public locations with me may have noticed my intrigue with what different people consider appropriate attire in various settings. For example, the other day I was at the mall looking for an outfit for family pictures (which I will post as soon as I get a copy), and I noticed  a few different groups of girls that looked as though they had literally just rolled out of bed (e.g. messy hair in sloppy buns that looked as though they hadn't brushed it, and sweats or pjs). The best part? They were shopping for clothing. Perhaps they didn't have any real clothes to wear, or they didn't have access to laundry facilities so they had to buy new clothes to wear but only had sweats to wear to the mall to buy those new clothes. I suppose that's always a possibility. I guess I just feel like people should want to look good when they go out in public. Especially when you know you will be seen by others. That being said, I'm also a major violator myself! I will openly admit to having worn my scrubs to the store or the mall etc. I have also worn my pjs in public on a very rare occasion. Again, why do we do this? I wish I understood the mentality behind it all. Have we really become that relaxed to be so lazy as to not get dressed to go out in public? What on earth would our ancestors think of us? Now that would be a terribly amusing encounter to observe. Having admitted this, I am going to challenge myself and all of you out there to make a little more effort to make ourselves more presentable when going out in public.... well, at least maybe doing my hair or wearing makeup would be a start, right? ;)

Okay, no more rant. I promise fun and pictures next time!

Taking chances....

Ok, I know, I failed horribly at being better about updating my blog. I really am trying to be better at so many things. Well, here are a few things that have been on my mind lately...

This last week was the 3 year anniversary of my daddy's "new birthday" as my mom calls it.  He really was the best dad and the best man I've ever met. And I'm not the only one who thinks that. I've been told by many people how truly smart, kind, loving, humble, patient, talented, hard working, etc. he was. I am so lucky to have that in my heritage. I am so blessed to know that I will one day be reunited with him and my entire family!

I sure do miss him!

On another note, I've been particularly introspective as of late. I'm sure there are multiple reasons for this, but I'm only going to share one with you. Come with me on a slight detour...

The Mormon Bachelor/Bachelorette -- Maybe you follow it already, but if you don't you should. It's a great way to keep yourself entertained in the lulls at work. Recently they announced the bachelor for season 4, Kent Tuttle, and they are currently getting season 4 all set up. You're probably wondering why I am telling you this.... well, I felt prompted to apply to be one of the 12 girls they are choosing to go on a date with him. I know, kind of a crazy thought, but I felt so strongly about it, that I knew I had to give it a shot. While I am beyond nervous about having people watch a YouTube video of me, I am grateful for the opportunity I had to really think about and voice some of my thoughts on love, life, and the gospel. It just reminded me how truly blessed I am. While I know my chances of being chosen aren't all that great, I'm feeling really hopeful that good things will come of my taking this risk (and I do mean risk) and putting myself out there. I mean, what is better than taking a chance and having something good come of it? I feel so completely vulnerable right now though, so if any of you have any encouraging words or positive feedback (even if you think I'm insane or don't think I should have applied), I'd be so glad to hear it!  Here's hoping good things are on the way!

Oh, and I really will post again soon with an update about some of the many fun adventures and crafts from the last few months. I even put it on my schedule this time! :)