The exciting and the lame...

I'm starving... for some reason I just realized that. Maybe I'll eat and then start writing. :) That way I don't just talk about food or something like that. ;-) Ok, so an hour later I'm back. No, it did not take me that long to eat, we ended up getting a call about the time I had finished. :) So... we've already ran a couple calls today and so far nothing that was anything close to being life-threatening. What a day this is turning out to be... wonder what the next 10 hours will have in store. :)

This week should be an awesome week. :) I work Monday and Tuesday, and after work on Tuesday I'm hoping to head home for a couple days. It's been May since I've been home to see my whole family... how sad is that?! I've already decided that we need to spend the afternoons at the pool.... hopefully everyone else will want to too. :) I don't get off 'til late on Tuesday, so I'm really hoping I'll be wide awake for the trip home. :) I miss spending time with my family, so I'm very excited. :-) It'll be the last time I see Naters for awhile since he'll be leaving for CofO and who knows when he'll make it home... My little brother is growing up and going to college before me. Actually, that doesn't bother me at all. :) It'll be sad when I come home though and he's not there. :'( He always plays the piano for me so I can hear all the new and cool songs he's learning. And of course, it's fun to be the annoying older sister that he doesn't really like. :) I'm only like that though when he needs it. ;-) I'll miss you, Naters!! You're one of my favorite brothers ever! <3

Oh, and some other very exciting news.... I get to go on vacation! =) I'm so excited! One of the girls from church has asked me to go with her to New Jersey when she visits her aunt. :) I'll finally get to go to the beach! We're leaving in August and will be gone a week. I requested off for that week so hopefully all that works out... So, that is my latest exciting news. :-)

Those of you following my blog, probably remember me talking about the half marathon that I was planning on doing in October. Well, I've had to back out of it due to some heart issues. Seriously, it seems like with my body it's one thing after another. I think the leg pain is finally solved. The last two times I've ran the pain was gone which was totally awesome. So, hopefully we can get some answers to why my heart dislikes me, and hopefully we can find a doctor that actually cares. I really don't understand these doctors that go to school for 8 years and yet seem to know absolutely nothing. They do the basics, everything comes back normal, they tell you that they will see you next appointment, and that is their way of helping you. Apparently, if you have a problem it doesn't matter to the doctor... either that or they have absolutely no idea what's wrong with you and so don't do anything. Mind you, I don't think all doctors are like this... it just seems like the majority are.

Well, that's all for now... maybe I'll post up some pictures later today. :)

A fabulous time with friends. :)

Well, I've just finished a pretty crazy, couple weeks of working. I'm so glad it's over even though the overtime pay is always good. :)
This last weekend, we had our wonderful friends, the Noah's, down for a couple days and had a blast with them! :) They came Friday afternoon and we had pizza, played hero band (I think that's what it's called), walked downtown, ate lots of candy and brownies, and stayed up very late. :) Saturday we got up, went to Rock Bridge Park and hiked down to the devil's icebox (it's a cave, for those of you who didn't know). We went at the perfect time and actually got a tour to the back of the cave... it was very dark, the water was cold, but the AC worked like awesome down there! ;-) It was terrible to come back out into the heat and humidity.This was taken right after we came out of the cave... and yes, I am the shortest in the group... and also the oldest. Strange how the always seems to be the case. :)

Emily and Daniel looking very cool. :-)

Stopping for a picture in front of the big green rock.

This wasn't the cave we went in, but it's still cool looking. And I absolutely love it in black and white! :)

Down the stairs to the entrance of the cave. We didn't end up getting any pictures of the entrance or while we were in the cave, which is sad, but I guess when we start to forget what it looked like we'll just have to go back. ;-)

After we made it alive out of the cave, we went on a 2-1/2 mile hike... which ended up taking longer than we thought. ;) We didn't know that it was supposed to storm that afternoon and so we got completely soaked, but boy was it a blast! :) It was so awesome to feel the wind blowing through the trees and then having the rain gushing down on us.... it was incredibly, my friends, simply incredible. :) I wouldn't trade it for anything, especially with the good company we had. :)
Of course, they had to leave Sunday afternoon and so I was left with a quiet house... well, besides the dog, who breathes so loud it's simply amazing. Well, maybe all dogs breathe that loud and I'm just not around very many to notice. :) Here's a few of the pictures we took after church...

And that was my wonderful weekend. :)

Do you believe in ghosts?

Ok, so I'm working yesterday evening and (shockingly enough) both crews were sitting around watching tv... and it stayed like that till shift change at 11. That's pretty amazing... but that's not too important. Anyway, we were watching Ghost Hunters, (which in my opinion is a stupid show) and one of the guys started telling a story of why he is now a believer in ghosts. :) And no, he's not a crazy guy. I won't bother to tell you the whole story since it's rather long, but the shortened version of it was that during college (he's probably mid to later thirties now), he (we'll call him J) was in bed and someone came in his room dancing and being loud. J thought at first it was his roommate and kept telling it to leave.... the "mysterious person" did finally leave. Next, J told us the second part to the story that made him think the first part was a ghost. Are you all still following me, bloggers? Cause this next part is even crazier.... So one day, J and his friends play on the Ouija board and after a few questions they find out that there's a mysterious person who's been in contact with one of them. A few more questions... and they find out it's J who has seen this person and it gave the date of the encounter. After asking the question as to whether the "mysterious person" is there with them.... a book falls off the shelf and.... they all go racing down the stairs scared half to death. End of story.
Well, my little followers... what did you think of that? Quite the little story, right? I'm inclined to believe that the first part of the story was someone playing a joke on J and he just never found out who. The second part is that, Ouija boards are wicked and are something we should not base anything off of. Check out this interesting site I found: http://www.allabouttheoccult.org/ouija-board.htm. Seems like a good explanation to me of a Ouija board. Anyway, let me know what you all think of it. Could be interesting to see what everyone else thinks of it. :)

For those wondering, we didn't spend the entire evening talking about ghosts. We did watch a couple episodes of Mythbusters. And if you haven't seen it, it's pretty awesome. Did you know, that if two cars (traveling about 60 mph), towards each other, and a guy in one car threw a styrofoam cup filled with a slushy, that it could crack the windshield enough (of the opposite car) that the driver would end up crashing? Isn't that insane! I guess I'm stupid cause I would've guessed that one as busted. :)
Oh well... I think I should take my stupid brain to bed so it can rest and maybe be more intelligent in the morning. Strange how it never seems to be though.... ;-)

Half marathon completed!

Showing off our awesome medals. :)

I crossed the finish line: tired, hot, sick, hurting, but glad I had stuck with it. :) Our race started at 7 and it was already so warm that we were sweating on mile one. And if that wasn't bad enough, the hills were little devils! The first half seemed like you were going up-hill the entire time and than the second half was a little bit better....except you had a killer hill at mile 12. Very steep, but not as long. Anyway, it was about the worst run I had ever done. I'm not sure if it was because I didn't have as much energy to start with, or because of the heat; whatever it was, I felt like dying around mile 11. I didn't have as much trouble with my legs while running, but my back was really bothering me once I crossed the finish line. I think all of us were feeling rather sick to our stomachs after we finished because of not being able to stay hydrated in the heat. I'm sure it was hilarious to watch us walk back to our room, we were so stiff and sore that we felt like we were 80 years old. :) I know I looked like a decrepit old lady trying to hobble up the stairs. ;-)

The above picture was taken after we had showered and were leaving the hotel. Don't we look great!? :-)

Oh, and now that I've complained about how bad the marathon was... let me tell you something else. :) I've signed up for another half marathon in October. Yes, I know... you're wondering why I did something so stupid. ;) Well, I've joined a group called Team In Training (TNT) which is an awesome group that help raise money to stop leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma. My fund raising page is: http://pages.teamintraining.org/gat/nikesf10/hbrownus4g; for those who wish to donate. Elisabeth and I are both doing it, so we'll be doing bake sales and anything we can come up with to reach our goal. :) If you get on and read about TNT it's great to see how much money they end up raising. This last weekend, between two endurance events and 5300 participants they raised $18M. Isn't that awesome!? So, be sure to send my link to all your friends so that together we can help wipe out blood cancer! :-)

Race and work. :)

Oh dear... I'm getting nervous about Saturday! Not a good thing. I'm also excited, so it's kind of a mixture. Too bad it wasn't going to be about 50 or 60's in the morning... that would make me feel a little better.. Just a little though. :) It's been over a month since I've done my long run and then the hills may be killers. I was supposed to run 14 miles a couple weeks ago, but didn't because of my legs. Scary! My runs this week have been pretty good and I've not had bad pain like the last couple weeks. I just really want to finish. I think that my competitiveness will come out and I'll finish unless something terrible happens. I want to cross that finish line! =)

I just realized that it's been over a week since I last posted... I know that's terrible. I'll try to get pictures up this next week or so. For those wondering, I did have a blast with Kayla. :) We shopped, went to dinner, took walks, and enjoyed ourselves. I took her home on Monday where we enjoyed an awesome dinner of hamburgers and homemade ice cream. :) I think I made myself sick on the ice cream. It's soo good and than you eat too much! Terrible, but I loved it at the time. :-) I was able to stay till Wednesday morning and than had to leave to be at work a little before 9. It was nice to be home though and I got to see Hannah and the girls as they came down for the day on Tuesday. I love those little girls! They get cuter every time I see them! I can't wait to see them again tomorrow. :)

I'm almost finished with my 16 hour shift. We have ran a total of 11 calls in the last 13 hours. It was crazy for awhile and now it seems to have settled down some... not sure how long it'll last though. We had a cardiac arrest (he didn't make it), a bunch of routine transports, a childbirth (we were able to make it to the hospital in time though :-) ), a couple breathing problems, dry runs, and our last one was a 5 day old baby girl. Who was adorable. So, our day hasn't been a very lazy one, because in the times that we weren't running calls we were trying to catch up on our reports. And it was rather rotten when the network decided to crash this afternoon and we were unable to do anything. Thankfully, it was up and running when we got back from a call. You really never know what your day will be like when you work on an ambulance. :) Sometimes there's never a dull moment. :) Especially, when you have a good crew working. Right now, most of them are watching something on tv and getting a big kick out of it when I'm pretty sure it's not even that funny. :) I haven't really been paying attention though, so maybe it is.

Well, I have an hour left before shift change, so I'll wish you all goodnight. Have a wonderful weekend everyone! =)