Heading to Dayton, OH with the Eller's.

IHC 2008

IHC 2

A group of us @ IHC - mainly Heather's family, other relatives and friends ate at......

for 2 different meals. We took advantage of their wednesday evening $5.95 spaghetti, salad, huge dinner rolls and a drink special and then stopped back for thursday lunch. What a unique place that was and they had VERY good food!

*******

Wednesday afternoon, Ange, Sarah, Heather and I decided to travel across the city to see what else we could find for food. We originally wanted to try something different, but in the end - we had probelms deciding.. and ended up landing as some little pizza place. =-/ I had been craving pizza all week, but once we had this pizza, my appetite for anymore was GONE! We walked into the restaurant, looking over a menu and inquried about how many slices were in each pizza. The lady, stampered and studdered around, then shrugging her shoulders a little bit..and said she didnt know.. but that they were cut in small pieces. We hadnt know what small pieces were like until we got our pizza. MINIATURE pieces.. max size 2 x 2... closer to 1 x 1's. I had never seen anything like it. Thought it was very creative at first and we all decided to see how many pieces we could eat. Our count didnt last for very long... especially after we bit into a piece. ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING !! We were so hungry though, so tried to force a couple more down. Never will we go there again.

We're all on the stairs of the Crown Plaza Motel.

Heather, Ange and Sarah

Heather, Aimee, Anger

Crew Tower

At the end of the week, I was out to Cincinnati where there had been a lot going on! VIP, for students that were interested in potentially going there to school was being held that weekend. Many poeple were there and activities were going on. For the most part, I stayed clear of these events... by choice! Ange was required to be a part of some of the events, and for some of those I was around, too! Afterwards, we'd always seem to hightale it off campus.=) We had several shopping trips to Florence and took Vita and Meridith along. Friday afternoon, we did check some stores out....

then stopped at Coldstone, which both Vita & I love....
...... and stopped at Crew Tower to see the city before heading back to the school...

WHAT A VIEW!!!!!!

Aimee, Vita & Ange

Ange, Meridith, Vita
The sisters peering out there.....

Cincinnati Music Hall - Collingsworth Concert

The Collingsworth Family was hosting a concert to produce a video shortly in Cincinnati. I had never attended one of their concerts and was so excited to be a part of it. It was a bit different from other concerts because of the fact they were taping, cutting, editing, redoing, etc.. but it was still well worth it.

*******

I was a bit bummed when they made an announcement that there were to be NO cameras with or without flash during the taping. These are just a few pics from 2 different cameras. The Music Hall was absolutely beautiful.

******

****

I LOVE this chandelier.

****

As you walk up the stairs, this was facing us on the wall. My pics from outdoors didnt turn out very well, so I thought I would use this.

*****

The Cousins

*****

Sarah & Ange peering over the railing outside after the concert.
****

The Famous Red Bus

******

THANK YOU so much Ange for such a wonderful time out there !!!!!!

Miss you....

Redo.

Hopefully these posts are viewable now that I broke them up.. sorry about that guys. '

Thanks Beka!=)

Ange and I had planned a surprise trip home for dad's belated birthday, which worked out great! While she was here, she had all of her wisdom teeth out. For the first 24 hours... life for her was around the clock pain meds, replenishing ice packs and in bed resting.
*******
Dad had surgery a couple days later..... yeah! Needless to say, I was miss nurse here at home throughout those days. No complaints...for it was nice to have everyone home. What I mean by everyone was... that my surprise with Ange didn't stop there. I had planned for Ash to arrive home friday evening after classes. Both surprises pulled off successfully. =)
*******
Here are just a few pictures of relaxing things we did. Most of the time, I just didnt use a camera, so there arent a large variety of pics.
********
Ange & I with some long sessions of scrapbooking. It's so involved to lug everything out and set up on the dining room table, so when I do, I try to make it worthwhile. Everything was set up for the week... while mom asked me every day to clean it up.=)

****

This is what happens when you're struggling with an idea for a page layout.

****

What is seen on this table isn't everything I own. Lack of space became the issue real quick.

The little men;)

Matthew and Christopher are 2 little boys that Ange and I have babysat for on multiple occassions while they lived 5 minutes from here. The end of last year, they decided to move to Latham to be closer to their family for permanent babysitters and to limit travel time when family helped out.

*********
Matthew with Ange

*****

Christopher

*****

Matthew and Christina
She was our backup when we couldn't watch them.

Breakfast

While we were all home, dad wanted to go to breakfast with the family.

***

I don't know what the big deal was, other that it being because it was Saturday morning, but I guess everyone had the same idea as us to go here for breakfast. There was such a LONG line waiting to be seated. People crammed inside and others clear out the door waiting.

Airport

Well, the time came for Ange to head back to Cincinatti. Here we are before Ange went to get in the LONG line to wait to go through security. Time is short when you're having fun! It was so nice to have everyone together again=)

See you Soon Ange!!

My worst nightmare...

**********

Have you ever dreaded walking to the mailbox to see a jury summons with different family members names on them, and wonder if one of them was for you? Ever since I have been of age to serve, that has been my fear. Up until recently, I have been off the hook. About a month ago, my first summons came in the mail for March 10th - 14th along with one for dad. My world came closing in pretty quickly stressing about what it would be like (seeing I had never stepped foot in a court room before), praying I didn't get picked, etc. Family tried very hard to relieve me of worrying, saying... there's so many poeple that show up, that it's very unlikely you'd get picked anyways. Then your duty would be done for 5 years! I finally gave in and took faith in some of their talk, trying to stay strong and get it over with.

*******

Monday the 10th came. I made my way to the court room, waiting for a period of time before they could even start picking numbers for potential jurors. I sat in the back waiting. After every number called, I took a deep breath. All 8 jurors had finally been called up for their questioning. I felt like.. wow.. I made it through! After much time, the judge, attorneys, etc. went out of session to determine who they wanted to stay on for this trial. 7 out of 8 poeple were chosen, so they had to go through this process all over again to pick 1 MORE. This one was for an alternate! My number happened to be the 3rd one called out of 8, and my heart sank! I kept telling myself, Im 1 out of 8. I still have a good chance to get out of this. After another session of questioning, they went out to decide. "Miss Myers, you will be our final pick for the day." I was sick. What did they see in me? Others called up, had experience. Surely someone else could have been more equipt to fill this last spot. So, I watched everyone else be released for the day, while I stayed. My worst nightmare had come true.....A few brief instructions on what to expect these next several days, an address on where to meet and at what time was given. I wrote this stuff down, not knowing how to get anywhere in downtown schenectady.

******

Tuesday, the 11th came. I had been out that morning with my best friend, rushing home in time to get ready for the first day of trial. In my mind, I had a specific place that I just thought I knew was the place I needed to be, estimating my time to get there and all. I thought there was no need to plug this address in to my navigator on my phone and just grabbed the pamphlet they gave as I walked out of the house. Parking is always a nightmare in downtown. I finally found a parking meter, ran across this several lane road to this jail (which I forgot was a jail and thought it was a police station), because I was suppost to be at "Police Court". Out of breath, I ran inside just in time for my 2pm trial to start. I learned very quickly by an officer that this was NOT where I was suppose to be. They pointed down the road to another building. I went running, of course in a skirt and shoes that hardly allowed this. At my next stop, the people had no idea what I as talking about. After a couple more stops at other buildings running down the streets, an officer was soo kind to take me outdoors and point to a FAR off gold dome high up in the sky.. and tell me that was where I was suppose to be. I was sick. At this point, it's well after 2 pm. I had never done this before, and feared they were all waiting on me. I thought about where my car was located and where I was now after running. It was too far away.. so I kept runnning, crossing intersections and down other streets, trying not to get lost. I FINALLY called dad (even though I had wanted to keep him out of this), giving names of streets etc. He made it plain and clear.. I was absolutely no where near where I was suppose to be. He had assumed I really knew where I was going..so he didnt bother to take me on a trip to show me the night before. =) At this point, I decided that I needed to try contacting someone to tell them I'd be late, but who knows how late exactly. Then it finally dawned on my that I had that pamphlet with a contact number on it. Calling.. I was transfered 4 different times, before I had gotten to the one I needed to talk to. Some lady, graciously stayed on the line until I ran all the way back to my car.. and sent me in the direction I needed to be. What an embarrassing moment of my life. I finally got there about 2:30pm as they all were still waiting to go into session. Somehow I concluded that it wasnt because of me though.

*****

Sparing anymore of the details because there are a LOT, this was quite an experience for me! At least the rest of the week wasn't filled with as much drama. I then knew where I was going and made up for lost time by getting there VERY early. One of the jurors told me later, "I knew something was wrong.... a nurse wouldn't be late. I think she's lost somewhere! " I've concluded that I'm glad Im not the ultimate judge of humanity. People percieve us cetrain ways because of something they hear or see, when it may not be that way at all. God ultimately knows the intent of our hearts, and it shouldnt matter much what others think.

Life

Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books written in a foreign language. Do not look for the answers now. They cannot be given to you now because you could not live them. It is a question of experiencing everything. At present you need to live the question. Perhaps you will gradually, without even noticing it, find yourself experiencing the answer, some distant day.

-Rainer Maria Rilke

*******

*******

I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next. -Gilda Radner

*******

******

I think we all hit these stages in life and sometimes multiple of times! Life is a journey, a mystery and an adventure. It's up to us to make the best of what comes our way.=)

Determination & Sacrifice

Exercising on a regular basis requires true determination & sacrifice on one's part. Sometimes it's been hard coordinating this into my daily schedule, but when I do, I'm reminded of how important this is for every person. When Ashley comes home on visits from college, we buddy up and go together, while a family friend, Donna & I, have set our own gym schedules to go together throughout the week.

**********************

As addicting as it may be, this is the worst thing anyone can do!

Keep chocolate away from me.

Sometimes it is depressing to do this, but as the figures come down, it should give anyone more of an incentive to keep working hard.

...........................

=)..... if this is what it takes...... I'll do it.

Valentines...& working.

Since I've started working as a nurse, I've found every day to be a challenge! A challenge to do my very best, to learn something new, help make an impact on someone's life, and the list goes on. Throughout my hospital experience at Albany Med and now at Sunyview, I have found my time well spent and very rewarding. Oh, not always at first, but as time goes on, definitely.

There is a very big difference between Albany Med and Sunnyview hospital, and that difference is the length of stay. The rehabilitational hospital is for weeks to sometimes months. It is here that I find the opportunity to build closer, trusting relatonships between the familes and patients. You get to the point where you feel like you are a part of them, their life history, and there are no problems carrying on conversations. We all learn how to pick & tease as if we're a family. That's pretty awesome I'd say.

*********

Anyways, there are moments where we as a staff are given such wonderful gifts that you hate to even accept them. They're given to us out of thankfulness and love for caring and helping to make such a difference/impact on someone's physical condition.

********

Last night, Valentines day... we had very few patients(compared to normal) to nurses. The supervisors have been cutting a lot of us because it wouldnt be cost effective otherwise. Being fairly new to the facility, I had never been left alone on my unit to keep things in order. Everything you can think of, I was to do... but didnt feel like I had anyone to lean on in time of need. The RN for the unit was being split between 2 units and so most times I was holding the fort ALONE. A bit frazzled I was at times... but the patients were so good! I couldn't have asked for better patients to care for last night. Their families helped make Valentines Day special for us there.

How sweet & thoughtful.

*********

Now, back to work this weekend..and hope we have a few more patients than we had, or else Im afraid I'll be floated. Now that wouldn't be very sweet and thoughtful.