Kaden!

 

 I finally have a nephew! Kaden Scott was born at 4:48 Monday afternoon weighing 7.5 lbs and 19 3/4 in. long. I haven't seen him yet, but I already love him to death and think he's the cutest little guy! :) I've heard he's a very good baby and he has the cutest dimple. I believe the above picture was a few hours after he was born. I'm hoping to go home next weekend and so will get a bunch of pictures of him. So be ready for it! =)

Going home from the hospital. :)

And he finds his thumb. :) Is he cute or what?! I can't wait to see him! This week can't go by quick enough. :)

Home from vacation!

Florida was fabulous! I had never been there before and enjoyed it immensely. The drive down was long and tiring, but we made it in good spirits and didn't kill each other in the process. ;) We ended up  leaving our house at 3:40 in the morning (talk about early!!) and got to my aunt and uncles house at exactly six. That's even with us missing the exit the first time. ;) I was really amazed that we made it all the way through the crazy big cities without getting lost. Makes me think maybe I'm not such a lost person when it comes to driving places. ;) Our first day we did a lot! We went to the Navel Museum and  saw a ton of planes. That place is huge! If you ever go to Florida you should definitely check it out. Oh, and they had some awesome 360 simulators that we went on. Nate and I rode together and we each shot down an enemy plane. And we did a 360, which was pretty cool. :) Below is a picture my aunt took of us when we finished. We were pretty excited, if you can't tell. ;) Oh, and apparently the simulator isn't sound proof. I guess everyone standing around heard me yelling at the bad guys.... Nate was yelling too, so it wasn't just me. :)

We also went to the lighthouse which was nearby and climbed 175 (I think) steps to reach the top. The view was great and you'll see once I put pictures up. :) I've been working since I got home and haven't had time to edit pictures.
In the afternoon we went to the beach  and went parasailing. Which was totally awesome! I want to do it again. :) Our aunt and uncle had never been so it was something new for all of us. We bought water proof camera's as they dunk you in the water while pulling you back in. Yeah, there was no way I was taking my camera on it. :) I don't know how far up we were, but it was pretty high. And it was amazing how peaceful it was up there. Not a sound... well, except for Nate and I yelling at the other people parasailing. Don't worry, we didn't say anything bad. ;) The dunking part was awesome and Nate and I were both yelling at them to do it again. Of course, we were too close to the boat at that time and so they couldn't. :)
We were at the beach all day on Saturday and got to ride the jet ski most of the day. I would definitely be getting one of those if I lived by  a  lake or ocean. :)
We went to the beach every day except Wednesday, when Nate and I went shopping. :) We enjoyed getting something for everyone, and I think they all liked their gifts. :)
We ate a lot of seafood while there and I surprised myself by trying almost everything. :) The raw oysters were pretty sickening. I chewed it up and then spit it back out. First of all I never eat things that resemble brain matter and second of all, it was gross. You'll see from the pictures  (I'll eventually get them up;-), that I had quite an audience who all laughed when I spit the oyster out. :) At least I can say I've actually tried oysters and hopefully I will  never have to eat one again. Everyone at work has been telling me I need to try them again cause I might start liking them better. Anything that you have to acquire a taste for, isn't worth eating.
We left early in the morning (3:30) again on Thursday for the long drive home. It seems like the trip takes even longer when you're driving home and you know vacation is over.  Nate and I had both picked up colds and so didn't feel good. Which made the trip even longer and not much fun. But we made it and I was able to enjoy the evening with the rest of the family before I left to head back to Columbia. Working the day after vacation is rough. Especially when it's a 24 and you haven't had much sleep the last couple days. I made it through without dying so I suppose that's good. ;)

I was able to get all moved out on Saturday morning and into my new place. That was a very exciting time for me. :) I had less than 8 hours to get all my stuff packed up and moved all the way across town to my new place. Elisabeth helped me a ton and we were able to get everything to my room and my bed up and made. I even had time to take her to lunch and just spend time talking, before I needed to be back at work. I used my day off on Sunday to unpack everything and I'm happy to say that my room looks very nice. Just a few little touches to make it more homey and personal. :)

I'm  in the midst of my longest shift that I've ever done. I'm 23 hours into my 48 hour shift. Is it just me, or is that really depressing? I guess I'm almost half way through, but it seems like the hours creep by. I got a little sleep last night and I  took a nap this afternoon, so I should do okay if the night goes wacko. Lets hope that doesn't happen though. :)

Well, I'm signing out now... Believe it or not, but I started writing this on Saturday evening and have just now been able to finish it. So, if it sounds funny, blame it on that. I'm going to bed. ;)

Quote of the day: "If I'm not back in two minutes... wait longer." :)

My life so far....which means, just in the last week. ;)

I suppose I'm not a consistent person... obviously, since I can never post regularly. ;) I have been doing a lot lately. Mostly work and going home, but I find it extremely difficult to post while at home. It takes time away that I could be spending with my family. Oh, and the base I've been working at the last few weeks doesn't have wireless internet, so unfortunately I've been unable to use my laptop.

The most exciting news is that Nate and I are leaving for Florida on Thursday. Woohoo! I'm excited! :) So, I'll try to post either during or after the trip and maybe even get some pictures up. Which would be really cool since I never do that. ;) Not sure all that we'll be doing, but I guarantee it's going to be a blast. We're planning to leave Thursday around 4 in the morning. Haha, we're gonna be so bright and cheerful! ;) I told Nate I would take the first part of the driving so he can sleep some.  I might talk too much though, and he won't be able to. ;) Just kidding, Nate! I won't do that to you. :)

Oh! Another exciting piece of news is that I'm moving out of Elisabeth and Patrick's house (right after I get home from our trip) and will be moving in with 3 other girls. =) I've only met two of the girls, but from what I know of them already it's going to  I do know that two of the girls are going to be RN's and the other one is going to be an occupational therapist.  So, we're all in the medical field, which is really cool. AND, three of us have interests in missions. I'm totally excited about moving in with these girls. I think we'll have some really great times. =)

Work has been going well. I've been trying to pick up as much overtime as possible and so August is going to be a really busy month. The week after I get home from Florida, I'll be working 80 hours. The paycheck is always nice, but I'm sure I'll feel like I've gone crazy that week. I'll make it through and hopefully still have a smile on my face. :) Might be a sleepy smile... ;)

Today, I'm on a 24 and very much looking forward to tomorrow when I get off. To be honest, we've run nothing but stupid calls all day. I really don't understand some of these people who call 911 when there's nothing we can do for them. Take this for instance (btw, this wasn't our call but I heard Joint dispatch it). You have a child choking and you're probably 5 minutes from the hospital. The child is conscious and breathing, but is complaining that something feels stuck in his throat. Instead of grabbing the child and driving him to the hospital. You decide to call 911. Dispatch gets all the information (lets say that takes a minute or two), then they dispatch the ambulance who's another minute or two getting to their truck and responding. By the time they arrive, it's probably been around 8-10 minutes. So, why exactly would you wait for us when you could be to the hospital way sooner than we could? Your child would probably love you a whole lot better too. ;)
So, my partner and I had a good laugh about this. We had brought a patient back to a hospital and the tech was going to help us move the patient from our cot to the bed. This was a larger patient and so my partner asked the tech if she would get us another hand. (Meaning, find another person to help). Tech says okay and starts looking around the room as if she were going to find an actual "hand" somewhere. My partner realized that she obviously didn't understand and so told her to find another "person" to help us. The tech understood this a lot better and went to find a real person to help. :) You may not think it funny, but my partner and I cracked up about it all the way back to the base. :)

Well, I'm going to run away now and take a nap...if possible. :)

Happy and with little sleep, this is what I come up with... :)

Epic Failure! Hillary has failed, once again, to post regularly...but you already knew that. Those of you who continue to follow my blog, you're friends indeed! :) Ok, so I have been incredibly busy with work this week, but that doesn't really explain last week and so forth. I had planned on writing last night, but we were kept busy with calls till after midnight and by then I was exhausted enough that you probably wouldn't have understood a word I said. Actually, it probably would've been no different then some of the posts I have made in the past. ;)
This week I put in 62 hours and the last two days have not been easy. Sleep is wonderful, but this job doesn't always allow that. Sometimes I wonder why I enjoy my job so much... to always have a normal night and you just work days sounds pretty awesome at the moment. :) I most likely would hate it after awhile though, so I'm content with where I'm at. :)
So, Wednesday night I had 4 hours of sleep, which was great since I was working a 9 to 5 shift later that morning and knew I could make it till evening before getting a nap. Ha! That didn't happen... Through a series of events, I ended up working all evening and then working my normal scheduled night shift. And boy was it busy! We ran dumb calls all evening, but I still had fun. I was working with a great partner and we had fun giving each other hard times :) You wouldn't believe how much I get teased at work. I'm a great source of enjoyment.... don't ask me why. It's not like I'm crazy or anything! ;)
Yesterday, my partner asked if he could come to my wedding (Don't worry! I'm not getting married yet.... it was a, "if you get married someday"), because  he wanted to approve of the guy I marry. Then he came up with a better idea and just decided that the guy would have to come to our base so they could approve of him. So yes, whoever I marry will probably have to go through a peer interview with the guys from work. ;) I thought it was sweet though just because the few guys that I really enjoy working with are old enough to be my dad and I guess feel they have to watch out for me :)
There's some things not great about my work, but overall, I feel very blessed that God has given me the privilege to work there and I can't imagine being happier at any other job. :)
I really should be sleeping as it's almost midnight and I only had 3 hours of sleep last night... I think my body is adjusting to little sleep though, and I'm not nearly as tired as I was this afternoon. lol, this afternoon I was falling asleep with Paige in my lap and she was playing games on my phone and saying: "Howie, wake up". :) We had some good times together....when I wasn't falling asleep. ;) I tried getting her to say "Hillary" and I wasn't very successful. She came up with Howiehair instead. :) lol, it's so cute when she says it and maybe I'll catch it on video one of these times and post it up. I love my nieces and the hilarious things they say :)
Tomorrow is going to be a great day! We have my sister's shower at 4 and then all of the girls are going out to Matt's Steakhouse for dinner. So exciting! :) The 3 little girls will be staying at home with Dad, Nathan, and John. lol, need to have a hidden camera for that! Hopefully, it goes smoothly for them and the girls don't drive them too insane. ;)
Well, it's late enough and I should get to bed... I didn't read back over what I wrote, so forgive any mess ups and rambling sentences :)

Enjoy your weekend everyone and have a great 4th of July! =)

The crazies that happen.....

Ok, so people are weird... and there's one in the ER that's a little odd. I was walking through and he gets all excited and starts saying 2.46 over and over again. Oh, and he was doing it with his fingers too...which made him look even weirder. I probably looked at him with the blankest stare and kept asking, "what?" It took awhile but as I was walking away, I realized he was talking about a drunk. Like I really care, dude! ;) Ok, so I've met weirder people, but he is somewhat of an odd cookie. :)
I'm almost finished with my last few hours of the week and I'm watching baseball................ wow, seriously? Actually, I just looked up and realized it was on. I'm not really a huge fan of baseball. I find it rather boring... but I find golf boring too, so maybe it's just me. ;-) lol
I worked a 24 hour shift on Wednesday and had a fairly decent day. 2 calls, 3 patients, all transported. Not bad really... During the morning part of our shift one of the cops came over to our base and asked if we would do a standby for them sometime after 9 that night. They were going to make an arrest and there was a possibility somebody could get shot. We got to our staging area at 9:30 and proceeded to wait about an hour. Talk about the most boring thing ever. So, it's probably around 10:30 that this creepy looking guy walks in front of the ambulance. And I of course thought: "Man, I wouldn't want to be out walking on the dark streets with him around." So, I'm watching him (mostly because there really wasn't anything else to watch), and see him walk into the parking lot across the street from us. Then out of nowhere 6 or so cops come pulling in. I thought for sure the creepo was actually the bad guy, but turns out he was just an undercover cop. Which is still pretty cool. He had me totally fooled. :) Anyway, their all standing around talking not seeming to pay any attention. Then you watch as the totally calm scene turns chaotic. One guy goes running down the street (he could really run...I was impressed ;), while the rest of the cops jump in the cars and go screeching to a couple houses down where a car had just pulled out of a driveway. Two people were arrested from the vehicle and another one taken from the house. It seriously was the coolest thing ever! We never see anything when we're staging for a call like that and usually just get told over the radio that we can leave. I wish I could've videotaped it as it was awesome to watch these guys work. :) That was my excitement for Wednesday. Not every day is like that though, and today's shift has been a little boring.
Well, I'm tired, my relief should be here eventually, so... I'm going to get off. :) I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

We finished!

 Before our run... it's still early in the morning. I'm not sure how awake I was then. :)

 Well, I'm still alive even though it took me over a week to post after the race. :) I had post race syndrome cause I missed it so much... it was a very emotional time for me. Lots and lots of crying...... lol! ok, so totally lied there. =D I was extremely happy and relieved to be done with the race. Talk about a difficult race! I again thought I wasn't going to make it. I did about the same time as last year, maybe even a couple seconds slower, so I was a little bummed about that. I did feel really sick after the race. I think most of it was due to my heart rate staying too high and not coming down quick enough. After I started to feel a little better we got pictures and walked back to our hotel. lol, that was a long walk... at least for me anyway. My hip was sore and I was starting to feel stiff. I called myself the 80 y/o lady. :) It was a good weekend though, and I loved just spending time with my mom, sisters, and nieces. :)

 

 

 Over 7600 people were running that day... that's a lot!

 Getting ready to cross the line! Talk about a total relief to see the finish line up ahead. :)

 And Hannah makes it too! The girls didn't see mom cross and so never got a picture of her.

 We did it and we're still able to smile! ;)

 Our medals!

 Walking back to the hotel... I can't believe Hannah was able to push the stroller with the girls. I was still feeling somewhat dead. :)

 

 Getting ready to leave the hotel! We look pretty good, wouldn't you say? ;)

There has been talk of a November race that we may do... but nothing's definite yet. No hills and cold. That's one incentive to do it. :)

Race weekend! :)

Wow, has it really been almost a month since I posted last?! What a failure, right? At least I'm posting now though :) Work has been good as always and nothing really new about that. Kayla came up to spend the week with me and we had an awesome time! I wish she could just move up to Columbia and go to school there. :) We could have fun times whenever we wanted, Kayla! :D We explored new areas, stuffed ourselves with food, tried on ridiculous dresses, laughed a  ton, and had some really good talks while walking around. I still had to work my 40 hours and it was a bummer when Kayla was unable to ride along with me. She would've really loved it and I'm sure not been grossed out by anything. :)

So, our big race is Saturday at 7 am. Starting to be a little freaked out about it, but also really excited! It'll be like a mini vacation :D Mom, Hannah, and I are all running the race and we're really hoping it's not as hot as they say it's going to be.  Kayla and Adalie are coming along too to watch Abigail and Bethany while the race is going on and so it's gonna be an awesome time! Ok, so the more I talk about it the more excited I get. lol, as long as I don't think too much about the race then I do okay. :) Last year's goal was to make it to the end. This year, it's make it to the end and try to improve my time. Pretty sure I'll just be happy to cross the finish line though. :)
Anyway, I think I'm gonna get ready for bed. :) I only had 3 hours of sleep last night and it'll be an early morning tomorrow. G'night all, and Lord willing, I'll post after  our race. :)