Ok, so I just heard this song for the first time today and I love it. It has got to be the sweetest, saddest song ever. You'll feel like crying....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQY4dIxY1H4

Rhema Marvanne

The more I listen to this song, the more I like it. For only being 8 years old, she certainly sings this song with a lot of feeling.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAxOxDARId4&feature=related

The first snow...

Today did not go how I wanted it to or how I thought it should go. No matter how hard I try to leave things in God's hands and pray that His will would be done, I'm always disappointed and upset when "my" plans are changed. So little faith.... My mom and siblings were planning on coming up this morning to spend the day. Mom needed to get shopping done and the kids and I were going to have some crazy fun together. I was so excited when the plans were made for them to come that I really could hardly contain myself! I had decided to make lunch for them all and so went to the store yesterday and bought everything I would need to make this day special. I worked yesterday evening and night and so when I went to bed around two everything was still a go. Tones went off at 5 and I walked out to the garage, only to open the doors and realize that God had decided a little surprise and sprinkled Columbia with snow. Ok, it was a surprise for me since I hardly ever watch weather channel and didn't know there was even the remotest chance of snow. I was thinking (and hoping) that by 9 or 10 the snow would be gone. It wasn't really that much snow, just enough to cover all the roads and make driving a slow process. The roads weren't really that slick but it was because we were the first ones to drive on most of them. By 6, the roads were worse (due to people driving them). We ran two car wrecks back to back and finally made it back to base for shift change. We got toned out less than five minutes of being there for another wreck. We ended up making it on scene only to be disregarded as patient was refusing care. About 3 minutes from the base, we got toned again. Time was 0658.  The call was for a wreck way north of Columbia. It took us 25 minutes before arriving on scene due to road conditions. It didn't take long before we had the patient in the back of the truck and headed back toward Columbia. We were transporting at 0738 and arrived at the hospital 90 minutes later. We sat in traffic for the majority of that time due to a wreck. I seriously thought we would never get to the hospital. My mom and siblings had left the house already but due to the roads mom was unsure if they should keep coming. As much as I wanted to see them, I knew I would worry about them the entire time if they tried to come. I didn't know how the roads were for the rest of S63 and so told them that they probably shouldn't try to make it. With all the wrecks in Columbia, I'm sure the other areas were just as bad. Our trucks had 17 calls for accidents between 6 and a little after 10. That doesn't include all the wrecks that University's trucks had either.
Even though this day didn't go how I wanted it to, I'm so incredibly thankful that my family is home safe and sound. I don't understand why the snow couldn't have come tomorrow or a day before, God knows though, and He had a plan the whole time. His will is always done and I can never (nor should I want to) change that.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I hope each and every one of you are having a fabulous thanksgiving! My thanksgiving would be even better if I were home, but I offered to work thanksgiving so I could have Christmas off. It's really not been so bad either. I'm on a 40 hour straight and I'm incredibly thankful for the 6 hours of sleep I had last night. A perfect way to start thanksgiving day. :) I am missing all the food that we have on Thanksgiving, but my boss (who's working today too) brought in a turkey and his wife is bringing food when she comes this afternoon. So, I don't think I'll be lacking on the food side of things. ;) 

I'm looking forward to being off work tomorrow morning and heading home. Again! :) I was home from Friday to Wednesday and only came up to Columbia to work my shifts and then head back home. Nathan is home for the whole week and it was great to see him again. He's such a grown-up, college boy. ;) I am so very thankful to have such wonderful siblings and parents! We always have such good times and it makes me wish for when we were all younger and still living at home. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy with where my life is at the moment, but I still miss those younger years. Those of you still living at home, don't be too quick to grow up. It will happen fast enough and the best thing for you to do, is to enjoy every moment and to serve your family in a way that would be glorifying to God. :) 

On a different note..... =) I finally signed up for classes! Some of you may be thinking, "It's about time!" But, it's better that I waited and I'm more excited now than I would've been if I had started at 18. I had no interest in college at 18. There was never a subject in high school that I enjoyed and so college seemed to be a waste. As I look back I realize that if I had gone to college, I would've been almost done by now. But instead, I went to EMT class, became certified, and have been working for 2 years that I would not give up. God works in different ways in different peoples lives and I don't regret anything He has done in my life. :) I will admit to being a little nervous about classes, just because I will be a full time student plus working 40 hours each week. So, I hope and pray that I will be able to stick with it and to not give up. :)

And another little bit of news.... I'm waiting to hear whether or not I got accepted to go to Africa. Unfortunately, I have to wait until January to find out. I'm so hoping I get accepted though! =) If I did go, I would be working in a medical clinic in Maasai, Kenya from May 31st to August 4th. Doesn't that  sound awesome?! =D Oh, and I was warned that it would be in the bush and so there may be times that I wouldn't have electricity and wouldn't be able to go out at night due to prowling animals. And guess what? That made me want to go even more! So you can imagine how difficult it is to wait till January to hear if I'm even going. :) Patience....I need more of it.

Well, I hope you all have had  a wonderful day so far! Between eating lunch and running calls it's taken me almost all day to write this post. ;-P

OH, and what do you think of the new look? I've not decided yet if I like it or not, so we'll see if it lasts. Adalie, I know without asking that you love the green. ;-D

Funny videos

Woah....I'm really, really dumb! Ok, so remember in my earlier post and I said I was trying to post up some videos? Well, it turns out that the videos were downloading on the blog, but because the picture wasn't clear on the video and I couldn't click on it, I just assumed it wasn't working. Turns out it was working the whole time. Sometimes I amaze myself at how completely and totally dumb I am. lol

Anyway, these three videos are of Bethany and Abigail. I'm sure you'll recognize the song their singing. They crack me up every time I watch them. So, have a good laugh! =D

More pictures :)

Walking downtown Indianapolis

This monument was pretty cool. :) I wanted a group picture with it in the background, but everyone was too cold. Maybe next time. :)

I tweaked this one a bit and I love the purple sky! =D

Inside our hotel

 The view from our window...not really that great, but still cool since we were on the 13 floor. :)

Yes, Kayla actually did take a picture of herself. ;) Kay, you need to do it more often and show your face. :)

         Kayla is very creative. :) She'll probably hate that I put this picture up, but I think it's pretty awesome.

 Such pretty girls!

While in Indy we were able to visit some good friends. :)

And I think I can honestly say, we all had a great time!

And the beautiful moms had a good time too. :)

Indianapolis Half Marathon!

Well, sorry about the delay in getting pictures up from the race. I was working on getting video's up the other day and failed so many times that I just gave up. I'll maybe work on it later today. :) Ok, well now it's evening and I haven't even gotten the pictures up. What a failure. ;-P I'm working though, so I have an excuse.

 

Walking to the start. It was really cold and dark... it was after seven when these pictures were taken. Crazy, right?

At the starting line! Races are so exciting! I was nervous the night before, but once I got started I felt good. :)

 Do we look cold?

 Adalie brought a blanket down to the race and we kinda stole it from her. It's amazing what a little blanket can do!

Standing in line for the porta-pots  ;)

I just thought this picture looked cool. I believe Kayla took all these. :)

 

Mom coming in to the finish line!

 

My mom is amazing and I love her so much! She beat me again this time, but I really don't mind.  :)

Why do I always look like I'm dying in my pictures?! Even the professional pictures that the race got, I still look awful!

Uh....I think I maybe saw the kids and I'm yelling....it could be I just always look like that. ;-P hehe

A great feeling is when you see that finish line and you know that you made it! I do a lot of praying though when I race. :) I honestly never know if I'll make it or not and He always gets me through. This race was definitely easier than the summer ones, but I still got pretty worn out and ready to be done. Mile 9 my ankles started hurting and I felt if I stopped running I would never be able to start again. 

Racing isn't easy for me and may never be. It's almost like running the race for Christ. We all have our hard times, we may hurt at times, but if we keep pressing on we will cross that finish line. And at the end we'll have a crown of glory and we'll know it was worth all that pain. You don't really get a crown of glory when you run a half marathon, but it's definitely worth all the pain. At least in my opinion. :)  Keep running the race for Christ!

Finished! I was only behind mom by 45 seconds. :) I kept her in my sights almost the whole race. I couldn't let her get too far ahead. ;)

 lol, my hair is pretty strange looking.... ;)

Taking our water belts off.

So, I bent over to set my water belt on the ground and all my muscles ached so bad that I could barely lean over! My crazy body....it hates all this running. ;)

 

I love my mom <3

Our last picture before leaving the hotel. :) I have a beautiful mom and two beautiful sisters. <3

Well folks, I'm officially exhausted! I've had maybe 3 hours of sleep in over 30 hours and it's really beating me up. I'm starting to greatly dislike these long shifts that I have.... I worked an 8 hour shift on Sunday and was up part of the night so I slept most of the morning after getting off. I then went back to work at 11 on Monday night and I'm here till tomorrow morning at 7. An hour after being at work, we got called to do a transport to Barnes. Talk about a bad dream! We left the hospital at 12:30 and finally made it back to Columbia at 4:30. The nice thing about late transports is, nobody's on the road. :) Bad thing is that you're so tired that it's hard to stay awake. I ended up getting some coffee in hopes that it would keep me awake for the drive home....it worked for the first hour. The caffeine made me sick for the rest of the morning though, so I think it's probably best if I stay away from it. :-/ I did get two hours of sleep that morning which helped quite a bit! I was able to lay down later that day and got maybe another hour of sleep. Some of you are probably wondering why I'm not sleeping now. Well, I laid down at seven in hopes of sleeping till morning and got up an hour later not having slept at all. So, guess what?! I'm wide awake!

Ok, so that was awhile ago...now I'm tired. ;) I had more to write, but that's all gonna have to wait. I may not write till next week since I have my race this weekend. :) Woohoo! I'm actually kinda worried since I don't feel ready... I'll try to write next week though and let you know if I lived! ;-) hehe

Sleep well, everyone! :)

BEWARE!

This is what happens if you work too much overtime. You pretty much end up freaking out all your patients...and yourself. I now give you permission to run screaming from your computer.

2 years....

So, I realized today that it has been two years (plus two days... I started on the 5th) since I started working at Boone. Time really flies because it doesn't seem like it's been that long. I've learned so much in the past year and I'm very grateful for my job. I remember when I first started and how nervous I was. It took me a long time to feel like I fit in with this group here. I felt like I was invading a close family. And we all know that is never fun. But that soon changed and I fit in pretty well now. At least I think. ;) I was very shy when I started and talking to my patients was really hard.  They don't exactly teach you what questions to ask in class and it's just something you learn on the job. Thankfully, I did learn it and I have no trouble talking with my patients now. :)
Two years ago, I had no idea how to get around in Columbia and had no clue what streets were what. I still get teased about the time when I couldn't find the address for a call, only to find out that it was very close to the base and on a main road so I should've known it. I felt like the biggest idiot ever! I was so upset with myself that it wasn't even funny. I don't think my boss could've punished me more than I did myself. I was upset for weeks about it! But when I'm teased about it now, I just laugh and call myself an idiot. ;) I learned from my mistake though and I now make sure I know exactly where I'm going before leaving the base.
One of the guy's from work has a party every year, and I was asked several times if I would come. So, I'm going to take my carrot cake (it was requested) and chocolate chip cookies, and have a good time. I think there's going to be a hayride, which is awesome cause I haven't been on one in forever! ;) I really have a fun time with the people I work with and so I'm sure it'll be fun. :)
Lol, I just remembered a shift I had a week or so ago where something was said and I ended up throwing ice at one of the guys. Who then decided to throw water on me but missed when I hit his hand and it went smack dab into my partner's face who was sitting looking through a magazine. I so wish we had a video tape of the expression on his face as the water is dripping from it. It was priceless! They later got me back when I was grabbed and they threw water all over me. I told them I looked totally unprofessional, but they really didn't seem to care. They happen to be two of my favorite people (I actually have lots of favorites;-) to work with....and don't worry, they're in their 40's. ;)

Well, now that I've completely bored you with work.... I'll change the subject. :) Ok, this may sound really silly, but I love listening to Disney songs. I even have a pandora station for it! My favorite (Disney song, that is) right now is "Colours of the Wind" and "Beauty and the Beast" :) If you haven't listened to them recently, you should. Oh, and listen to "Reflection" too. It's also really good. :) Tell me honestly, did you laugh when you read about the songs I like? I bet you at least smiled. =)

Anyway, that's all for now. :) I'm gonna go to bed soon since I have a long run in the morning and I need to get up early. Sleep well everyone and goodnight! :-)

It's been awhile....like almost 3 weeks! I won't say that I'll try to do better at writing in the future, cause we all know that probably won't happen. I will try to not go over a month without posting though. ;)
Work is great, as always. I still very much enjoy it. Actually, I do have days that I hate it, but the good outweigh the bad. ;) This week is the first (in a couple months) that I've not had overtime! It feels really weird to only be working 40 hours. This week has been pretty insane though. For some reason I'm only working 8 hour shifts, which isn't much fun. I've worked the past three days and I have tomorrow off. Then I'll work Friday and then a night on Saturday. So, technically I have 2 full days off. My plan tomorrow is to run and then do something profitable besides laying around. Sounds good, right? =)
Okay, so I very rarely work serious calls at work. And if I do, it's only one a shift. Today, I had two serious calls and the potential of a third one. Our first guy was breathing ineffectively and we came really close to intubating him. He woke up pretty quick when my partner was about to stick a tube down and said he didn't want us sticking anything down him. My partner told the pt that if he started breathing better we wouldn't keep trying to stick a tube down. It actually worked, because by the time we got to the hospital he was breathing on his own. Before we were having to assist his breathing with a bag....and no, that would not be a brown paper bag. ;-)
Our second pt was a 2 y/o with Epiglottitis and croup that we were transporting to another hospital nearby. She really didn't look so great when we picked her up, but she did improve on the way to the hospital. We must have amazing skills cause our pt's keep improving in our care. ;)
Our third pt, decided to blow the tips of his fingers off. Thankfully, that was all he decided to blow off. I didn't know this but Silver and Azide is very explosive and you should definitely handle with care. This call was pretty insane. It was on the MU campus and so we went to where we thought the Chemistry building was. That's where fire personnel thought it was. Unfortunately, after looking around for a little bit we all found out that we were in the Physic's building and needed to be over next door. So, we drag all our stuff over to the next building and take the elevator to the second floor. Only to find out that we need to be on the other side of the elevators and the hallway doesn't wrap around. We finally find the room after taking the elevator back down to the first floor, walking around to the other side of the building and taking that elevator up. Oh, and did I mention that they had told us when we got on scene that this was going to be a trauma alert? That had us going crazy since we couldn't find the room. For those curious, a trauma alert basically means the pt is in bad shape. So, we're thinking at this time that this guy's face must've been half blown off or something. Turns out though that it was just the tips of a few of his fingers that had been blown off. He was conscious, alert, and had no breathing trouble, so he was actually doing fairly well considering it all. He said that he knew that the chemical's could explode but didn't think they would explode that much. I'm guessing he won't be messing too much with those chemical's anymore. We never did find his finger tips, so hopefully an unsuspecting student doesn't find them and get the scare of his or her life.
After that, we did an MCA flip. Which means we took a pt from the hospital to radiation and then back to the hospital.
And our last call was a stroke pt. We had her to the hospital 24 minutes after being dispatched for the call. Not bad! =)
And in a nutshell, that was how my day went. And now it's time for me to hit the sack because otherwise I will not want to get up in the morning for my run. :)

Btw, I totally just realized that all I do in life is: work, run, bake, eat and sleep. Yes, my life is boring. ;-)

It's a purdy sight!

Well, ain't this just the purdiest sight you've ever done see! It's Hillary on this here blog of hers.... rareness! =) Well, I'm not dead. Yay! I've had a good couple weeks. Went home the last two weekends, and then filling in the other days with work. This week has gotten slightly insane and I'm not even finished with it yet. I worked a 9-5 shift on Tuesday, a 24 on Wednesday, got asked to work today at 10 and then didn't get off till 6:30, I work tomorrow 7-3, and then another 24 on Saturday. I'll end up with over 30 hours of overtime which is pretty awesome. :) Today was crazy. We went through 3 trucks today... and no, I did not wreck them. That's the first thing you all thought, right? ;) Our first truck was leaking/pouring out fuel (never a good thing), and so we switched to a new truck. It proved to be a good one, except that we did end up switching out of it after our transport. Nobody bothered to tell me why... Finally, we got into the 3rd truck and we stuck with it. It had just come from the shop and so we figured we wouldn't have any issues with it. WRONG! Guess what didn't work? The sirens! We got a call right after switching into it and our sirens wouldn't turn on at all. Thankfully, one of our other trucks jumped the call for us so we could take the truck back to the shop. But, while heading there we got another call. We obviously didn't run hot to it and after we finished we were able to get over to the shop. Turns out it was an easy fix and in less than 5 minutes we were back on the road. Of course, we got a late call and were 30 minutes late getting off work. It is somewhat annoying to never have a set time that you get off. Oh well, life really does just keep going on whether you get off work on time or not. ;)

This is what I'm listening to at the moment: The Piano Guys. If you've never heard of the Piano Guys, you're really missing out! Jon Schmidt and Steven Sharp Nelson are awesome musicians and I love pretty much all their music. Listen to them. I promise you won't be disappointed. I have a hard time picking my favorite song as all of theirs are good. :) Oh, and if you like them on Facebook they will post every time they have a new song out. It's very handy. :)

Well, I seriously need to get to bed. It's already after 11 and I have to be at work by 7. Yuck!
Night all and sleep well!

Parasailing!

I loved the boat... a lot. :) It was almost as cool as going parasailing, but not quite. ;)

Well, you all know who he is. :)

So.... if you don't hold the leg straps when you go up you'll get a wedgie. Thankfully, they told us that before it happened. ;)

I look like I'm freaking out but really I'm just very excited and probably yelling something. ;)

Man.... I so want to do that again. It was such a blast. :)

We just look like a speck.. 

And we were dunked! That was definitely cool. :)

The guy in red shorts was yelling for us to stand when we came in....

and Nate missed it.... the camera was too fascinating to him. ;)

And it's Uncle Craig and Aunt B's turn!

They had just as much fun as we did. :)

Preparing for "launch"... ;)

Uncle Craig is already taking pictures... love it! :)

Obviously, the guy said something funny... I don't even remember what it was, so I guess it wasn't that funny. ;)

I love how high you get and how peaceful it is. 

I didn't get one of them actually hitting the water.. this is as they were coming up. 

Yeah, they liked it :)

I'm so glad we got to spend time with them. They were pretty fantastic. :)

 

 I really like this picture. They're so happy! :)

Group picture with our boat driver! :)

So, after all these pictures of parasailing, you're probably thinking how fun it would be to do....AND, YOU'RE RIGHT! ;) I know I've said it before, but I'll say it again, if you're at the beach it's a must! You won't be disappointed! Well, unless you're afraid of heights...cause then you'll just be freaking out and that is never fun. ;) 

Oh, and the pictures from our water-proof camera didn't copy over to my computer so I'll post them whenever I get them again. :)