And my arsenal of stories has grown.
In fact one of the MDs I work with has been writing books and let me read them. I'm honored and inspired. Not to become an OB as much as to write about my experiences. I know, Mom and Dad that you've told me FOREVER that I should write. I just might. I'd start online here but well.. I still hesitate about the whole patient privacy thing. In fact I heard about a patient suing a dr for writing a story that was about her even without any identifying information.
To which I ask...... if there wasn't any identifying information:
a. how did you know it was you
b. why did the dr admit it was you when you said it was you?
c. why did the Dr use his (or her, but I think it was a his) real name in authoring the book?
Because as I see it, if I write a book under an assumed name in a fictitious town with identifying information changed about my identifying information lacking patient there wouldn't be a problem, right? Because if SuzyQ patient in Podunk imaginary town Georgia written by fictional person who has never lived in Georgia is going to be hard to prove by Juanita in Southern CA that the story is about her. Right?
However... Since this blog wouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure out where I was, who I was and where I work... I'll just maintain OPSEC or whatever that stupid acronmym is the military uses for internet silence on all things important. So nothing to read here, move along now.
In other worlds, the kids have been surviving the standardized test month of school. And when the rest of the testing is done it's pretty much party til the end of the school year as far as the kids (and parents) are concerned. Of course we have one teacher this year who I'm pretty sure will be still assigning and grading homework on the second to last day of school, but I'm really hoping the aliens will return the human and take the robot they left in her place back to space. oh dear. I just wrote that. whelp... It's not a patient and violating patient confidentialty and I'd say that all identifying informaiton is removed, but who am I kidding? I only have 1 kid who has a teacher who could possibly be mistaken for robot barbie teacher. So, yes, Miss S, I am talking about you. Can you please check your back and turn the switch back to "human" from "busy homework monseter" thanks.
Kayla's egg hatching project went well, although day 3 into the chicks being in the room her teacher decided the smell was just too much so we took them home. They live under an open window right now til they get moved out to the shed. Although in her class we promised the kids they could take one home if their parents approved. So we might not have too many to keep. Although we're going to try to keep the recessive gene ones if possible.
And since things went so well with Kayla's class, Sonia's class now has the full incubator in her room. This of course is genius because a.) we're not paying the electric bill b.) the kids all get to see life and c.) the teachers think we're crazy but a little cool. Probably alot crazy. But we have at least a little coolness factor. In fact all I need to do is walk around school campus with a cat carrier or hampster case full of quail and I'm the pied piper of elementary school. I bet if I showed up with a bus I could take a few dozen kids with me. Of course I would also get arrested. So I'm rethinking that plan. That and the fact that it's darn near impossible for me to manuver the excursion around the parking lot at school I could imagine what an actual yellow bus might be like.
As it is I got myself stuck in the parking garage at work today. Well, not REALLY stuck but just couldn't get it into one parking space. 2 and 1/2 the drive area, yes. Parking garages in Southern CA are not meant for anything larger than a Camry. Seriously. But if it wasn't so crowded here, we wouldn't need parking garages. That is my biggest annoyance with living here- sharing it with something like 6 million people. (documented, the actual number is higher than it appears) Working in the spanish speaking community clinic has tilted my perspective so it might not be 19 million undocumented, but it certainly feels that way somedays.
Larry and I are back to 2 cars, one of them being the truck. So which ever of us is driving the least is the one who drives the truck. Most days that would be me. This is because Larry's car has decided it's had enough of this reliable running thing and had enjoyed not 1, not 2 but now 3 visits to a mechanic this month. When Larry was gone to the field (military speak for he went camping in one of the desert locations with a bunch of Marines to play war or practice shooting stuff like at war) he took my car so I could take his ot the mechanic. We're lucky enough to live close to the bus line so droping a car of and taking the bus home isn't a huge issue. Time consuming, sure, but it does make you appreciate having your own reliable transportation. JM of course thinks it's a blast to take the train and bus home. So after dropping his car off I'd had the truck to drive last week and since it decided it missed it's good buddies there it threw a fit and a hose and is back there again.
We offered to lend a car to friends moving overseas who had to have their car shipped, so we were planning on being down to 2 cars anyway, but thankfully our friends haven't needed it but we're still practicing. It wouldn't be a problem at all if I wasn't working. It's this working stuff that kills me. Well.. Actually it's not even the working as much as it is the driving JM to his babysitter on the way to work. So next yr it'd be fine to walk the kids to school and the bus to work. I really love being close enough to use public transit. Just enough country to have chickens and just enough suburbs to be on a bus line. Best of both worlds. And no winter to boot. What's not to love?!
Speaking of chickens. Chicks are now off the heat and I'm faced with the fact athat we might have too many chickens. Like 4x the Official San diego city limits, although being county it's a bit harder to interpret the actual regulations and who might enforce what. the 2 we hatched are just the funniest looking things ever (go look on facebook) but we have a sinking suspecion that one might be a rooster, so sadly we might be saying goodbye sooner than later.
Still no goat, dog or outdoor cat. Or cow or horse. Although Sonia's birthday present horse back riding lesson is Friday, so we'll see. I hear horse manure is great for gardens.
Monday, May 21, 2012
Thursday, May 10, 2012
MUST. NOT. DO, IT
Oh but I want to write about work stuff. Of course I can't share 99% of the stuff I want to narrate about. Hippa and all that.
However. I can share a few bits of helpful advice for those who work in the medical field.
1. If a 80 year old woman calls up saying she's having terrible stomach pains like labor pains she does not need to be seen by the obstetrics clinic. Shy of Abraham and Sarah I'm pretty sure she's not actually pregnant. Especially when she's had a hysterectomy.
2. Similarly if someone calls up saying they passed out, hit their head and are bleeding and want to schedule their pap while they're on the phone with the clinic, the head injury is the more pressing issue. Really.
3. Universally to do a pap smear, the patient cannot remain fully clothed. At least not from the waist down.
4. When talking to patients who get care across the border, it's helpful to include details such as "they had surgery last week" And what said surgery was. Especially major surgery.
5. The "I had a rash last month and what to know what it was" visit - It's kinda hard to reverse time to see said rash, especially when the only description is "it was itchy" was it pink or red? no, it was itchy. Was it bumpy? no it was itchy. When you looked at your skin, could you see anything? no it was only itchy. How long did you have it? I dunno, a day? Did it go away? yes. Has it ever come back? no.
They why are you here, again?
Dear schedulers- we can't travel in time, please don't give apts to evaluate resolved problems. It confuses those of us who think there is actually something to see or fix. And it's kinda hard to code for a "there could have been something but now it's gone" diagnosis. I haven't found the ICD9 code for that one, yet.
6. "El Aire" and it's sister "inflammada" - it's the Pandora box that in involved with many ailments. There is no xray, test or drug you can use to rid one of these demons. In fact I'm thinking of marketing holy water capsules for it. Actually Holy Water/Miralax capsules might do the trick???
To be continued..............
However. I can share a few bits of helpful advice for those who work in the medical field.
1. If a 80 year old woman calls up saying she's having terrible stomach pains like labor pains she does not need to be seen by the obstetrics clinic. Shy of Abraham and Sarah I'm pretty sure she's not actually pregnant. Especially when she's had a hysterectomy.
2. Similarly if someone calls up saying they passed out, hit their head and are bleeding and want to schedule their pap while they're on the phone with the clinic, the head injury is the more pressing issue. Really.
3. Universally to do a pap smear, the patient cannot remain fully clothed. At least not from the waist down.
4. When talking to patients who get care across the border, it's helpful to include details such as "they had surgery last week" And what said surgery was. Especially major surgery.
5. The "I had a rash last month and what to know what it was" visit - It's kinda hard to reverse time to see said rash, especially when the only description is "it was itchy" was it pink or red? no, it was itchy. Was it bumpy? no it was itchy. When you looked at your skin, could you see anything? no it was only itchy. How long did you have it? I dunno, a day? Did it go away? yes. Has it ever come back? no.
They why are you here, again?
Dear schedulers- we can't travel in time, please don't give apts to evaluate resolved problems. It confuses those of us who think there is actually something to see or fix. And it's kinda hard to code for a "there could have been something but now it's gone" diagnosis. I haven't found the ICD9 code for that one, yet.
6. "El Aire" and it's sister "inflammada" - it's the Pandora box that in involved with many ailments. There is no xray, test or drug you can use to rid one of these demons. In fact I'm thinking of marketing holy water capsules for it. Actually Holy Water/Miralax capsules might do the trick???
To be continued..............
Friday, April 27, 2012
Dear Internet: I hate you
Really. Don't get me wrong, I use you. Alot. But really I can't stand what you've turned people into.
You go from someone complaining about something at home to blogging about it, perhaps as a guest blog somewhere and suddenly there are 400 comments saying "you're right, that's terrible" when really.. it wasn't. I mean seriously does it REALLY make that big a deal if your shade of red wasn't the one you wanted sort of thing? Did that "friend" really do such a terrible thing that it needed to be posted online and be validated that that person is indeed a terrible person in their eyes?
As you might be able to tell, I'm in a mood. And no, it isn't that time of the month. I had gotten online to look something up, some "article" caught my eye and I realize there are entire sites dedicated to cattiness. Cattiness of all sorts of varieties. There are the cats that complain about those with too many kids, the cats that complain about single people, the cats that nit pick everything with a pulse around them... and we seem drawn in to it. We rally around this crap.
It's just nauseating to see these dens of malcontent spurring each other on to more malcontent. Seriously. Pick a topic. Anything. Google (Bing or whatever search engine you want) it and find a forum, blog or article complaining about it. Better yet. Pick a public persona or TV show. If you're not picking anything find something that has to do with moms, mommies or pregnant people.
Suddenly I see how people have blog "giveaways" and reviews. As a business owner I'd gotten hundreds of requests for giveaway items and a promise of a review. So if I wanted to make sure I had good blog posts out there, you essentially have to put it out there with that sort of bribe. Frankly I didn't get it at the time. I mean really anyone with a blog (and as you can tell from this blog ANYONE can start one on anything) can say "hey, I have a blog called Swirley Smiles and Giggles and I love your product and want to do a review. Can you donate an item to review and one to giveaway? A link to my blog is here"
Oh. great Idea. I think I'll do that.
"Dear Volkswagon, I really love your TDI's. I'd love to do a review of them on my blog "Everything Sunshine and Roses". Would you be willing to donate a new 2012 TDI, in white, with seating for 6 or more, for me to review and one for a giveaway for my 6 million readers? Thank you!"
Seriously. Some of the requests were extremely specific. But, hey, can't fault them for trying. Well. I did. But, anyhow.......
I'll let you know if I get my new TDI for a giveaway. But I wouldn't give away your current mode of transportation.
You go from someone complaining about something at home to blogging about it, perhaps as a guest blog somewhere and suddenly there are 400 comments saying "you're right, that's terrible" when really.. it wasn't. I mean seriously does it REALLY make that big a deal if your shade of red wasn't the one you wanted sort of thing? Did that "friend" really do such a terrible thing that it needed to be posted online and be validated that that person is indeed a terrible person in their eyes?
As you might be able to tell, I'm in a mood. And no, it isn't that time of the month. I had gotten online to look something up, some "article" caught my eye and I realize there are entire sites dedicated to cattiness. Cattiness of all sorts of varieties. There are the cats that complain about those with too many kids, the cats that complain about single people, the cats that nit pick everything with a pulse around them... and we seem drawn in to it. We rally around this crap.
It's just nauseating to see these dens of malcontent spurring each other on to more malcontent. Seriously. Pick a topic. Anything. Google (Bing or whatever search engine you want) it and find a forum, blog or article complaining about it. Better yet. Pick a public persona or TV show. If you're not picking anything find something that has to do with moms, mommies or pregnant people.
Suddenly I see how people have blog "giveaways" and reviews. As a business owner I'd gotten hundreds of requests for giveaway items and a promise of a review. So if I wanted to make sure I had good blog posts out there, you essentially have to put it out there with that sort of bribe. Frankly I didn't get it at the time. I mean really anyone with a blog (and as you can tell from this blog ANYONE can start one on anything) can say "hey, I have a blog called Swirley Smiles and Giggles and I love your product and want to do a review. Can you donate an item to review and one to giveaway? A link to my blog is here"
Oh. great Idea. I think I'll do that.
"Dear Volkswagon, I really love your TDI's. I'd love to do a review of them on my blog "Everything Sunshine and Roses". Would you be willing to donate a new 2012 TDI, in white, with seating for 6 or more, for me to review and one for a giveaway for my 6 million readers? Thank you!"
Seriously. Some of the requests were extremely specific. But, hey, can't fault them for trying. Well. I did. But, anyhow.......
I'll let you know if I get my new TDI for a giveaway. But I wouldn't give away your current mode of transportation.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Not everything is sunshine and roses
Lest you get that impression from my absence here online that it is. We've skirted a few disasters and have stumbled through life the past few weeks.
Work is just... well... there are alot of mixed feelings there and I'm just not sure about it. Frankly, if it was just about the money I think I could make more with the diaper thing if I was willing to do it full time. But the lag time between ordering and making money is pretty much a year so that's kinda out of the question. That and I swore I would NEVER EVER do another move with inventory from behemoth of a business again.
Not that I see a move in our immediate future. But you never can tell with us. In fact at the rate we're acquiring farm animals and their accessories you'd swear we weren't ever going to move. As it is, the duck needs to move on to his new home now that he can walk. I should be listing him on Craigslist now. Instead I'm here. The problem with him being able to walk now is that he's going to be that much harder to catch, put in a box and give him away. With the broken leg and injured wing he wasn't going anywhere fast when we picked him up and brought him here.
Not that he could fly, even if he wanted to. He's the non flying kind of duck. Yeah. you read that right- does.not.fly. Although when I brought him home, I was thinking "well, when he's healed, he'll just fly off to some happy place with a lake or something" but once we did our research on him, we know know that domestic Pekin ducks can't fly. They're too fat and been breed to be raised on farms, not in the wild. The reality is the duck is going because he's a boy and really not all that useful other than entertainment/ambiance and pooping on the patio.
And this duck is getting fatter by the day he's here. Because the boy loves bread and bread crusts and I have 3 kids who have gone on strike from eating said bread crusts.. so he eats them. Usually out of someone's hand. Although not mine today since I tried to catch him yesterday- he hasn't forgiven me for that yet, apparently.
On the rest of the farm front area, we managed to hatch 2 chicks from the fertile eggs we got. Unfortunately our broody hen decided to die 1/2 way through the incubation period so we didn't get the hatch rate we were hoping for. Broody is when the hen decides she's going to sit on eggs to hatch them. Our hens usually could care less about their eggs once they announce to the world that they just laid one.
But of course running a brooder for only 2 chick isn't great use of our resources so we have 4 more under there now. I think we might have an illness here. 2 of them are supposed to be show chickens that Sonia can show for the 4H this year- if I can find out how to sign her up.
And because.. well.. just because...Kayla shares ALL our craziness with her teacher, we'd talked to Kayla's teacher about the eggs hatching thing and said "hey, wanna hatch them in your room?" and so they are. Potentially 25 of them. Quail that is. Of course I mixed up the hatch/incubation times so there's a chance that they'll hatch over the weekend and no one will see it happen (argh. figures)
So the grand total thus far is 5 laying hens, 12 quail, 6 chicks, 1 duck, 25 cooking eggs, 1 duck and a partridge in a pear tree. Humm.. actually I wonder where I can get a partridge and what you'd do with it.
Oh dear. I should not have googled that. They're like quail. I *could* raise them. And that is how we end up with a petting zoo of feathered animals. I'm ready for things with fur. I think.
On the kid front, we had back to school night this week. I'm still not sure what back to school night is supposed to be, but it's an open house of sorts where the kids and their parents go into the student's room and see the artwork on the walls, etc. In Kayla's room the theme on their theme wall was eggs. As in hatching them. I'm holding my breath that the kids haven't asked for a detailed description from Kayla about the difference between fertile and non-fertile eggs but she's use those words alot in her trying to educate her class on the egg thing. I'm not sure she even understands it more than "you need a rooster to have baby chicks."
Joey's classroom has the over achieving teacher who had a clip board and check list for the student to review with their parents. And the room was decorated ALOT like hours of work. She had the kids bring in a change of clothes and shoes and stuffed them with crumpled paper and put them in their seats, too. I'm not sure where the paper came from because among the newspaper in "Joey's" pants was someone's mortgage paperwork. I'm guessing a paper recycling bin and part of me wanted to mail the paperwork back to the address listed and say "you really want this stuff out for others to see?" but then decided "heck, they recycled it, so can I" and just tossed it into our recycling bin.
Soina. Well. Sonia's bright. She tests well. IF she can concentrate on the test long enough to finish it. I forsee looming bigger issues and probably Ritalin in her future. She's testing off the charts, still, but she's dropping points. For the third quarter in a row, now, I think. He teacher is nice and been very patient with her, and he's been teaching a while so I'm hoping he's being so laid back about her "forgetting" her homework all the time and completing nothing in class is from his experience and not from his lack of wanting to try to tackle the elephant in the room. She's not disruptive, she just scribbles instead of writing answers until time runs out. I had been thinking she just didn't know the answers, so we'd been working on her math facts alot but in reality it's just that the squirrels in her head can't seem to stop long enough for her brain to communicate to her fingers that the answer to 5x5 is 25 and write the number 25 on the paper.
Of course her father and I have our own squirrel issues, so it's not like we don't know what's going on.
Speaking of squirrels, we are once again loosing the ground squirrel (which his bushy tail and all) war. Dang things dug up and ate my seed potatoes this year, ate through my basket with other seed potatoes in it and keep picking my strawberries. Larry has been out with the bb gun but it seems to do nothing to them and dreams of using something with a .22 caliber bullet on them. This of course is illegal here so we won't. But I'm kinda wondering how many cats I would need to liberate in the back woods to take care of the squirrel problem and at what rate would I need to replace them because the coyotes ate them? And would they put a big dent in the rabbits back there, because I kinda like the rabbits. And then I can't let the quail run free in the yard, either. Of course the last time I tried that he decided he liked the shed better, afterall. And the time a baby quail got loose he sat on the patio peeping til I found and caught him. Oh, yeah. They can't fly, either. They take big jumps flapping their wings, but they are also flightless birds and I don't think they can get more than 3 feet off the ground.
Well, it's getting late here in crazy game bird land. Feel free to visit. We'll leave the light on for you and all.
Work is just... well... there are alot of mixed feelings there and I'm just not sure about it. Frankly, if it was just about the money I think I could make more with the diaper thing if I was willing to do it full time. But the lag time between ordering and making money is pretty much a year so that's kinda out of the question. That and I swore I would NEVER EVER do another move with inventory from behemoth of a business again.
Not that I see a move in our immediate future. But you never can tell with us. In fact at the rate we're acquiring farm animals and their accessories you'd swear we weren't ever going to move. As it is, the duck needs to move on to his new home now that he can walk. I should be listing him on Craigslist now. Instead I'm here. The problem with him being able to walk now is that he's going to be that much harder to catch, put in a box and give him away. With the broken leg and injured wing he wasn't going anywhere fast when we picked him up and brought him here.
Not that he could fly, even if he wanted to. He's the non flying kind of duck. Yeah. you read that right- does.not.fly. Although when I brought him home, I was thinking "well, when he's healed, he'll just fly off to some happy place with a lake or something" but once we did our research on him, we know know that domestic Pekin ducks can't fly. They're too fat and been breed to be raised on farms, not in the wild. The reality is the duck is going because he's a boy and really not all that useful other than entertainment/ambiance and pooping on the patio.
And this duck is getting fatter by the day he's here. Because the boy loves bread and bread crusts and I have 3 kids who have gone on strike from eating said bread crusts.. so he eats them. Usually out of someone's hand. Although not mine today since I tried to catch him yesterday- he hasn't forgiven me for that yet, apparently.
On the rest of the farm front area, we managed to hatch 2 chicks from the fertile eggs we got. Unfortunately our broody hen decided to die 1/2 way through the incubation period so we didn't get the hatch rate we were hoping for. Broody is when the hen decides she's going to sit on eggs to hatch them. Our hens usually could care less about their eggs once they announce to the world that they just laid one.
But of course running a brooder for only 2 chick isn't great use of our resources so we have 4 more under there now. I think we might have an illness here. 2 of them are supposed to be show chickens that Sonia can show for the 4H this year- if I can find out how to sign her up.
And because.. well.. just because...Kayla shares ALL our craziness with her teacher, we'd talked to Kayla's teacher about the eggs hatching thing and said "hey, wanna hatch them in your room?" and so they are. Potentially 25 of them. Quail that is. Of course I mixed up the hatch/incubation times so there's a chance that they'll hatch over the weekend and no one will see it happen (argh. figures)
So the grand total thus far is 5 laying hens, 12 quail, 6 chicks, 1 duck, 25 cooking eggs, 1 duck and a partridge in a pear tree. Humm.. actually I wonder where I can get a partridge and what you'd do with it.
Oh dear. I should not have googled that. They're like quail. I *could* raise them. And that is how we end up with a petting zoo of feathered animals. I'm ready for things with fur. I think.
On the kid front, we had back to school night this week. I'm still not sure what back to school night is supposed to be, but it's an open house of sorts where the kids and their parents go into the student's room and see the artwork on the walls, etc. In Kayla's room the theme on their theme wall was eggs. As in hatching them. I'm holding my breath that the kids haven't asked for a detailed description from Kayla about the difference between fertile and non-fertile eggs but she's use those words alot in her trying to educate her class on the egg thing. I'm not sure she even understands it more than "you need a rooster to have baby chicks."
Joey's classroom has the over achieving teacher who had a clip board and check list for the student to review with their parents. And the room was decorated ALOT like hours of work. She had the kids bring in a change of clothes and shoes and stuffed them with crumpled paper and put them in their seats, too. I'm not sure where the paper came from because among the newspaper in "Joey's" pants was someone's mortgage paperwork. I'm guessing a paper recycling bin and part of me wanted to mail the paperwork back to the address listed and say "you really want this stuff out for others to see?" but then decided "heck, they recycled it, so can I" and just tossed it into our recycling bin.
Soina. Well. Sonia's bright. She tests well. IF she can concentrate on the test long enough to finish it. I forsee looming bigger issues and probably Ritalin in her future. She's testing off the charts, still, but she's dropping points. For the third quarter in a row, now, I think. He teacher is nice and been very patient with her, and he's been teaching a while so I'm hoping he's being so laid back about her "forgetting" her homework all the time and completing nothing in class is from his experience and not from his lack of wanting to try to tackle the elephant in the room. She's not disruptive, she just scribbles instead of writing answers until time runs out. I had been thinking she just didn't know the answers, so we'd been working on her math facts alot but in reality it's just that the squirrels in her head can't seem to stop long enough for her brain to communicate to her fingers that the answer to 5x5 is 25 and write the number 25 on the paper.
Of course her father and I have our own squirrel issues, so it's not like we don't know what's going on.
Speaking of squirrels, we are once again loosing the ground squirrel (which his bushy tail and all) war. Dang things dug up and ate my seed potatoes this year, ate through my basket with other seed potatoes in it and keep picking my strawberries. Larry has been out with the bb gun but it seems to do nothing to them and dreams of using something with a .22 caliber bullet on them. This of course is illegal here so we won't. But I'm kinda wondering how many cats I would need to liberate in the back woods to take care of the squirrel problem and at what rate would I need to replace them because the coyotes ate them? And would they put a big dent in the rabbits back there, because I kinda like the rabbits. And then I can't let the quail run free in the yard, either. Of course the last time I tried that he decided he liked the shed better, afterall. And the time a baby quail got loose he sat on the patio peeping til I found and caught him. Oh, yeah. They can't fly, either. They take big jumps flapping their wings, but they are also flightless birds and I don't think they can get more than 3 feet off the ground.
Well, it's getting late here in crazy game bird land. Feel free to visit. We'll leave the light on for you and all.
Friday, April 20, 2012
Pictures!!
Or lack thereof has been on my mind this month.
You see.. wayy back when we lived in VA I had a computer without enough memory to put my picture on it. And left them on my SD card.
And now that I'm looking for said pictures I realize that SD card was taken with my stolen camera. And the few pictures I had on my computer really aren't quite enough to fill a scrap book. And sure, I put a few up here, but alot of those weren't scrap book sorts of picture, I think.
And to top it off.. we had a home server. That's past tense. It died. Larry resurrected it enough to transfer the pictures to a new home server. And this week that one died. He's been kinda busy this week and hasn't tried to resurrect it enough to save my beloved pictures.
So right now I have... uh. the twins early pictures on CD and 2011 and up.
I'm taking deep breaths and trying not to freak out about this.
And I had a little voice in my head say "hey, you should back this stuff up on CD" and had started that process but that's when the server died.
ARGH!
So.. if you (ahem, mom and dad) have pictures of us I'd greatly appreciate a CD of them at some point. Otherwise I guess I'll just have to find some random pictures online and tell the kids that's what they looked like when they were little. Think it'll work?
You see.. wayy back when we lived in VA I had a computer without enough memory to put my picture on it. And left them on my SD card.
And now that I'm looking for said pictures I realize that SD card was taken with my stolen camera. And the few pictures I had on my computer really aren't quite enough to fill a scrap book. And sure, I put a few up here, but alot of those weren't scrap book sorts of picture, I think.
And to top it off.. we had a home server. That's past tense. It died. Larry resurrected it enough to transfer the pictures to a new home server. And this week that one died. He's been kinda busy this week and hasn't tried to resurrect it enough to save my beloved pictures.
So right now I have... uh. the twins early pictures on CD and 2011 and up.
I'm taking deep breaths and trying not to freak out about this.
And I had a little voice in my head say "hey, you should back this stuff up on CD" and had started that process but that's when the server died.
ARGH!
So.. if you (ahem, mom and dad) have pictures of us I'd greatly appreciate a CD of them at some point. Otherwise I guess I'll just have to find some random pictures online and tell the kids that's what they looked like when they were little. Think it'll work?
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Yep it's been forever.
Again.
A quick summary if you're not on Facebook (which despite my privacy and big brother government reservations... I still use. Because it has an app) we took a vacation. A real live vacation. And while we did technically visit family on this vacation, the purpose of it was just to travel and see stuff. And touch it.
One of the cool things about traveling with little to no plans is that there isn't a hotel reservation to get to or an objective to arrive at by x day.. so when we to got Las Vegas to rent a trailer and decided that wasn't in our best interest after all.. instead of heading north as originally planned, we headed south west to see the Grand Canyon.
The other cool thing was when we wanted to get off the road and explore and touch the cool rocks and stuff.. we did. It took alot of the monotony of travel out of long travel that first 2 days.
And Larry and I (more emphasis on the Larry part) are pros at driving at all hours, and infact have pulled a few overnight trips since having kids, so with pillows, blankets and enough snacks to feel a village in Mexico we can travel as long as we can stand it. That also helped with the flexibility.
The not so great stuff... because we didn't have the trailer, we did end up having to find hotels along the way. And there are some places of this great big country that the next hotel is 9o miles away... but having "smart" phone, a AAA guide with hotels listed and an atlas helped. Alot. Of course we got the Atlas 4 states into our trip when we realized that
a. yes. in 12 years roads to change. Particularly the one that used to go over the Hoover dam.
b. Cell service is not a right and in most of utah and idaho it's not even a privilege
c. Dance moms. Google it. Apparently it's a big phenomenom which books up hotels in the middle of no where. We hit 3 towns with big dance things going on, thus limited vacancy and not the affordable sort of vacancy.
But overall it was a once in a lifetime trip.
In other news. Easter came and went, we had company. It was fun and I think we should do it more often. In fact I'm thinking monthly or twice monthly. Maybe not AS many people but a few would be great.
Our petting zoo is now hatching chickens, fancy 4-h kinds, apparently. I went to work and came home to Larry and the kids with fertile eggs they got from Craigslist. We tried liberating one of our quail who decided the wild was just too wild for him and found his way back into the shed hanging out under the cages. Goats keep getting mentioned but I'm just not there yet. And considering we live on 1/10 of an acre our animal menagerie is going to be somewhat limited by space. Actually 1/10 might be an exaggeration, it's probably less.
Work's been going ok. Most days I think it's ok, but some days I think "And I thought I missed THIS?!!???!!!" But, hey... I'm back at work, I'm working towards that stupid furnishing number hours and will be able to re-qualify for board certification.. So what could be bad about that?
And as much as I have stories I want to share about the horrors I've seen at work... I've been reading about blogs and such getting people in trouble when they share stuff about their patients.. HIPPA and all that.. so you'll just have to guess at all the fun I've been having. And then some because at least 1/2 my day is in Spanish. HA. And my parents thought Latin was the better language to take in high school. But I guess their crystal ball of my future did not include my working in a free clinic in the area of US that could pass for parts of Mexico. Viva la Vida!!
A quick summary if you're not on Facebook (which despite my privacy and big brother government reservations... I still use. Because it has an app) we took a vacation. A real live vacation. And while we did technically visit family on this vacation, the purpose of it was just to travel and see stuff. And touch it.
One of the cool things about traveling with little to no plans is that there isn't a hotel reservation to get to or an objective to arrive at by x day.. so when we to got Las Vegas to rent a trailer and decided that wasn't in our best interest after all.. instead of heading north as originally planned, we headed south west to see the Grand Canyon.
The other cool thing was when we wanted to get off the road and explore and touch the cool rocks and stuff.. we did. It took alot of the monotony of travel out of long travel that first 2 days.
And Larry and I (more emphasis on the Larry part) are pros at driving at all hours, and infact have pulled a few overnight trips since having kids, so with pillows, blankets and enough snacks to feel a village in Mexico we can travel as long as we can stand it. That also helped with the flexibility.
The not so great stuff... because we didn't have the trailer, we did end up having to find hotels along the way. And there are some places of this great big country that the next hotel is 9o miles away... but having "smart" phone, a AAA guide with hotels listed and an atlas helped. Alot. Of course we got the Atlas 4 states into our trip when we realized that
a. yes. in 12 years roads to change. Particularly the one that used to go over the Hoover dam.
b. Cell service is not a right and in most of utah and idaho it's not even a privilege
c. Dance moms. Google it. Apparently it's a big phenomenom which books up hotels in the middle of no where. We hit 3 towns with big dance things going on, thus limited vacancy and not the affordable sort of vacancy.
But overall it was a once in a lifetime trip.
In other news. Easter came and went, we had company. It was fun and I think we should do it more often. In fact I'm thinking monthly or twice monthly. Maybe not AS many people but a few would be great.
Our petting zoo is now hatching chickens, fancy 4-h kinds, apparently. I went to work and came home to Larry and the kids with fertile eggs they got from Craigslist. We tried liberating one of our quail who decided the wild was just too wild for him and found his way back into the shed hanging out under the cages. Goats keep getting mentioned but I'm just not there yet. And considering we live on 1/10 of an acre our animal menagerie is going to be somewhat limited by space. Actually 1/10 might be an exaggeration, it's probably less.
Work's been going ok. Most days I think it's ok, but some days I think "And I thought I missed THIS?!!???!!!" But, hey... I'm back at work, I'm working towards that stupid furnishing number hours and will be able to re-qualify for board certification.. So what could be bad about that?
And as much as I have stories I want to share about the horrors I've seen at work... I've been reading about blogs and such getting people in trouble when they share stuff about their patients.. HIPPA and all that.. so you'll just have to guess at all the fun I've been having. And then some because at least 1/2 my day is in Spanish. HA. And my parents thought Latin was the better language to take in high school. But I guess their crystal ball of my future did not include my working in a free clinic in the area of US that could pass for parts of Mexico. Viva la Vida!!
Sunday, March 11, 2012
So to catch you up on this week's fun
This week we hatched quail. So far 2 have hatched and there have been some other rolling of other eggs but nothing has popped out so far.
In fact Saturday AM I wandered into the kitchen and heard a squeeking and though "oh, great, we have a mouse stuck in here?!" and followed the sound until I saw this tiny little ball of fuzz in the egg warmer.
I have pictures on facebook- wander over there if you haven't seen them.
A few hours later while the boys and I were at baseball chick #2 popped out. Sonia got to witness it, which in itself is pretty cool, I think. I still haven't seen anything pop out of an egg in real life.
This of course wasn't great timing on our part because we're hoping to get out of town on Wednesday. We have a house/animal sitter who'll care for them but we'll be away for it if more hatch after Wed. Do these things are about twice the size of a large grape, fuzzy and just oh so cute.
But we're planning on temporarily obtaining a camping trailer and using it as we make our way on our completely not planned vacation. Which is pretty much the opposite of any family vacation memory I had as a kid. In fact I'm pretty sure my dad even had each potty break/pit stop planned. About all I've planned for is to go buy a map, so we'll have one and to go to AAA and make sure our member card in my wallet refects the current number of my policy. Because I've learned along the road of life, if you're prepared for the problems, they're not as likely to happen. And besides if you're bringing a trailer finding a place to sleep isn't as big a problem. Larry and my trip from VA to CA went rather well with the sleeping in the back of the truck method of traveling so we're going to attempt it with a camping trailer and kids.
We've started baseball. It's only taken 5 seasons of playing here to find out that after the season starts that you can go to youth sports and ask for a team change so that your kids practice on the same night. That would have been handy info to have before. But since I have it now, I had JM's team changed so that we're only at baseball 4 times a week instead of 5. I aimed for 3 times but apparently there's only so much magic to go around.
In fact Saturday AM I wandered into the kitchen and heard a squeeking and though "oh, great, we have a mouse stuck in here?!" and followed the sound until I saw this tiny little ball of fuzz in the egg warmer.
I have pictures on facebook- wander over there if you haven't seen them.
A few hours later while the boys and I were at baseball chick #2 popped out. Sonia got to witness it, which in itself is pretty cool, I think. I still haven't seen anything pop out of an egg in real life.
This of course wasn't great timing on our part because we're hoping to get out of town on Wednesday. We have a house/animal sitter who'll care for them but we'll be away for it if more hatch after Wed. Do these things are about twice the size of a large grape, fuzzy and just oh so cute.
But we're planning on temporarily obtaining a camping trailer and using it as we make our way on our completely not planned vacation. Which is pretty much the opposite of any family vacation memory I had as a kid. In fact I'm pretty sure my dad even had each potty break/pit stop planned. About all I've planned for is to go buy a map, so we'll have one and to go to AAA and make sure our member card in my wallet refects the current number of my policy. Because I've learned along the road of life, if you're prepared for the problems, they're not as likely to happen. And besides if you're bringing a trailer finding a place to sleep isn't as big a problem. Larry and my trip from VA to CA went rather well with the sleeping in the back of the truck method of traveling so we're going to attempt it with a camping trailer and kids.
We've started baseball. It's only taken 5 seasons of playing here to find out that after the season starts that you can go to youth sports and ask for a team change so that your kids practice on the same night. That would have been handy info to have before. But since I have it now, I had JM's team changed so that we're only at baseball 4 times a week instead of 5. I aimed for 3 times but apparently there's only so much magic to go around.
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