A little late...

So, I have been notified by the Blogging-police that my account is delinquent, and will be shut down if I don't update immediately. We have been super-busy lately! I know that is no excuse! I somehow find time everyday to stalk all of you, but never take the time to update my own. Selfish, I know. So, here are some fun pictures of the last three weeks or so... Our pretty Christmas-dress that we never actually got to wear to church, because were all throwing our toe-nails up!!
Christmas morning with cousin-Payten!!

Grandpa teaching his girls to play the piano.This was adorable. I went in to check on Addi while she was napping yesterday, and all I could see were her little hands. Scared me to death until I heard her snoring :)

Play date with sister-Vivian. Look how tall Viv is!

Cousin-Payten got this fun ball-house for Christmas. Addi had so much fun throwing all the balls out onto the floor.

My favorite girl in the world!!!

Oh...guess I got tagged

Thanks Mandy! Never been tagged before, so here it goes.

8 shows I watch:
1. Survivor
2. Amazing Race
3. Criminal Minds
4. Biggest Loser
5. Desperate Housewives
6. Grey's
7. Closer
8. American Idol (Bring it on baby!!)

8 Favorite Restaurants:
1. Boulevard Steakhouse
2. The Mantel
3. 501 Cafe
4. Nikkellette's
5. Chili's
6. Ted's
7. Panera Bread
8. Texas Roadhouse

8 Things That Happened Today:
(Nothing has happened yet today, so I will tell you about my weekend)
1. Drove 7 hours with 7 people (including my 1 year old) crammed into a Minivan down to Galveston, Texas
2. Spent 3.5 hours crammed into a tiny room with thousands of other people, while the Coast Guard was doing a random inspection of the cruise ship.
3. Got totally stressed out.
4. Finally boarded the Voyager of the Seas
5. Had 25 min to help the bride get ready.
6. Ran up to the Chapel on Deck 15
7. Witnessed the fastest wedding ceremony in the history of time.
8. Got shuffled off the ship twenty minutes later. (Anyone thinking about having their wedding on board a cruise ship....I hope you are rethinking right about now!)

8 Things I look Forward To:
1. Christmas morning with Rich and Addi (although I am working until 2 am that morning!! Ugh!)
2. Getting my bonus check today!! Woo-hoo!!
3. Watching the National Championship game
4. The Biggest Loser Finale
5. Seeing my mom again in Heaven
6. Going on a vacation!!
7. Spending time with friends
8. Being pregnant

8 Things I wish for:
1. Addi to love Jesus
2. Interest rates to continue to drop
3. The economy to turn around
4. Contined good health for my family
5. My brother and new sis-in-law to have a wonderful honeymoon, despite the chaos of their wedding
6. Another baby!!
7. A raise
8. More time with Addi and Rich

Last Wednesday...

Vivian got to come over to play with Addi! They had so much fun together. The highlight of the afternoon...Viv teaching Addi how to climb up onto the fireplace. Here is the evidence of this event...

One leg...Two legs... Seriously, it took Addi about 5 min to finally get up, and Viv was on her way back down!
Victory!!
Finally a few pictures together After Viv left, Rich and I got ready to go to my annual ER physician/PA Christmas party. It was our first date-night (sans Addi) in a very long time. We went to eat at Coach House and then to an after-party at one of our physician's house. It was so much fun!

Smile!!

We recently took Addi for her one-year photos with my friend Mandy Stansberry. She did an amazing job! If you haven't had any holiday-pics taken yet this year, I would highly recommend contacting her! Thanks Mandy! Here are some of our favorites...

The Big One!!!

We had Addi's first birthday-party today! I can't believe our little tiny girl is going to be a year old next week! The party was so much fun. But just as I expected, my little neat-freak child did not want anything to do with the cake! It was a great time. Thanks to all my family and friends who helped to make this day so special! And a big "thank you" to Sada! She loves the chair!

P.S. Please do not judge me by my father/spouse's attire! I am definitely a Sooner-girl. And please don't ask why I am wearing a Princeton-shirt. I just thought it was cute. That's all.

Money well spent

Addi was playing with my cell-phone on the floor today, when I heard my text message alert. This is what my message said, "AT&T Free Message - Thank u 4 ur purchase! Go to Menu>Mystuff to find ur game." Hmmm...I'm sure that will be a useful purchase. Silly girl.

I love this girl!!!

Signs that make you drive off the road.

Seriously, is anyone else at all bothered by this??

Morning Woods??!! Are you kidding me??

This neighborhood is on the corner of Danforth and Coltraine.

Seriously, what were they thinking???

2 beers and 2 dudes...

I am always entertained by the excuses/stories that people come up with in the ER. I can't tell you how many times we here, "I've only had two beers" or "I was minding my own business when these two dudes came out of nowhere" or "I must have picked that up from a toilet-seat". We get a kick out of the stories we here. But every once in a great while, we will get a patient that actually tells the truth. This is a story about that patient...

This past weekend, I was working the early shift. About 6:30 am, EMS encodes with an "unresponsive male" in his mid-twenties. Several minutes later, they arrive with one such guy, who has obviously had way too much fun the night before. The guy reeks of alcohol, and finally starts waking up after a one-time dose of Narcan (reversal agent for Opiate medication). Anyway, the more time that goes by, the more this guy starts to reveal his antics from that night. And surprisingly, he is actually a pretty nice, and very funny guy. He admits to drinking very heavily (and in fact, his blood alcohol level was 0.34 which is more than 4x the legal limit), as well as doing several different street-drugs. Okay, fast-forward several minutes...the guy is getting rolled back from getting a CT scan of his head and sees me talking to a police officer that apparently, he knows on a first-name basis. This is how the rest of the story plays out...

Patient: "Heeey (in a super-inebriated voice), Officer Smith"
Smith turns to me and in a very confused voice says, "Who the heck is that guy?"
I assumed that Smith must have had multiple run-ins with this guy, but after explaining the situation to him, he still can not figure out who this patient is, or why he would know him.
A few minutes, the curiosity is killing Smith, so he goes into the room and says, "Hey man, did you just say 'Officer Smith' out there??"
Patient: "Yeah man....don't you remember me??"
Smith: "honestly, no."
Patient: "Duuuuude. You taught my D.A.R.E. program."
Surprised Smith: "Man! What are you doing here?!"
Patient: (laughing now) "you didn't do a good job, man. you didn't do a good job"

Q is for...Q-tip!!!

First let me say, love them! Use them EVERY SINGLE day. Don't know what I would do without this beautifully constructed piece of cotton...

Okay, there! I said it. Please don't tell any of the ENT's that I have to call on a semi-daily basis! They would be so disappointed, because doesn't EVERYONE know, that you are not supposed to put anything "smaller than your elbow" into your ear canal. Yeah, yeah, yeah, heard it a million times. But, I must admit that I have a very hard time passing on advice, that I myself cannot accept.

In the past four years, I have seen just about anything that is smaller than a marble, get stuck in the ear. Here is a short-list of some of my treasures: erasers, roaches, watch battery, pinto bean, necklace-bead, and last but not least (and definitely the prize-winner for "most-commonly-not-making-it-out-of-an-ear-canal", and thus the reason for this post) is the dreaded Q-Tip head. In the beginning, I really did start questioning my relationship with Q-Tips. I felt totally duped into believing that Q-Tips were actually there to help me. And you know what, for a little while, our friendship really did start to suffer. Until one day, I decided to do a little research on my patients coming in with "Q-Tips" in their ears. You know what I found??? They weren't really "Q-Tips" at all....no my friends, they were "cotton tipped swabs".

Seriously, I always ask now, and the answer is always, "generic Q-Tips". Hallelujah!!! It was a beautiful-reunion, and I have never questioned my Q-Tips since. So, back to the advice I now give my patients, and the advice I will pass on to you...

I love Q-Tips. I will never stop using them. If you are going to use them, they are to be used everyday. Not once a week, not every two weeks (this just causes severe wax-impaction in the back of the ear-canal). And please, please, please....do not pinch-pennies when it comes to these. Buy the real-thing.