Good Morning, Mom.

So, I'm on vacation this week. Well, my doc is on vacation - which defaults me to being on vacation. So, I'm thinking "Ahhhh this is nice" as I'm sleeping in .. until I get my rude awakening: "POOOOOPY..... MAMA .... POOPY!" I roll over just as I get a diaper thrown in my face. Maysen's got a great aim already! My bed is a tall bed. If I stand right up against it, it comes to my waist and I'm 5'4". I see his arm flailing in the air as I am bopped in the face with a diaper. Good morning, mama!

Gotcha!

My sister and I share the same passion. Photography. We think alike on it - her and I need to take a trip somewhere ... to just veg and shoot pictures all day. Mexico and the Mayan ruins would be awesome!

So, I'm sure most of you have heard about the horrid weather that swept through here on Thursday .... leaving over a million people without power in Washington and Oregon. Nathan's flight home from Denver was right in the middle of that storm. Initially they thought they were going to have to re-route the plane, but at the last minute decided to try and land. After 3 attempts, they landed succesfully. Oregon very rarely has "WIND", so to have 70-1oomph wind gusts left everyone in shock. Luckily my house kept power, with the exception of a few spits here and there of it shutting off. With the wind came freezing temperatures, so those without power were also without heat. I believe most of it has been restored now.

Oregon hasn't been having the best reputation lately. Storms, the death of Mr. Kim during Thanksgiving, and the most recent event of the missing hikers on Mt Hood have brought Oregon into the spotlight nationally, although I'm not sure we like this type of publicity!

I have this coming week off. My plan is to get my Christmas cards mailed and one package mailed. I made one batch of cookies this weekend and I need to make fudge and chocolate covered pretzels this week for trays for fellow employees. I was going to clean - but my H-factor got on a cleaning kick this morning, so we cleaned for 4hrs. Even got all the crushed chips/crackers from the couch cushions! And now I have crock pot chili cooking.

So, thanks EJ for mentioning Sephora. While visiting my sister in Chicago over a year ago I had my first Sephora experience and found the perfect fragrance. Fleur de Sephora - peony. So, reading EJ's post reminded me to add it to my favorites so my husband could get me more ... hehe. Turns out - they don't make it any more! I'm devastated!!! It was so yummy!

Can you believe Christmas is in a week? Geesh ....

Here Comes Santa Clause ... Here Comes-

So here was our first Santa Clause experience. Can't you just see the terror in his eyes! I know he was saying "Hurry up and take the DA-- picture mom!" He used to shout out "CHANTA!" so we thought we'd take him - and he just wasn't too sure about it. He sat long enough for this pic and that was it. At least he didn't pee on him... (Maysen, not Santa).

So, Nate left yesterday morning (early) for his business trip in Denver. This was the first time he's been away like this since the Army days. He used to be gone weeks - even MONTHS on end. I thought I'd never hear myself say that having some space is nice ... but it is. Don't get me wrong, I love my husband. But when you're either mommy, nurse, or wife ALL DAY AND EVERYDAY ... having some alone time is nice. He'll be back Friday and I'm already wondering what to do with myself until then. Long work day tomorrow with taking/picking up Maysen plus my 12hr work day ... then off on Thursday. I need to finish wrapping xmas presents.

It's amazing when your child starts putting words/phrases together for the first time and you go "Where'd he get that?" Nate was getting his hair cut, and as the lady washed her hair out, he patted his arm and said "Wha-do-doinge?" ... it was so precious. Monster!

The Scovils' 2006

I'm not sure why this picture was so hard to take....wait! Yes I do; Nate kept saying he just couldn't fake a smile that didn't look ridiculous. Then Maysen kept trying to look and run away (Mr No-Nap) and 30min later we still had no successful picture. So, this is the best you're going to get. Don't you love the rash Maysen broked out with under his chin from eating fresh tomatoes? And Nate looks like about ready to shove this camera up someone's you know what! Merry Christmas .... Ba Humbug!

Holiday Party 1

Well, at least I can say the ice picks have stopped stabbing me in the chest. I'm just hacking up all sorts of fun stuff now. I called in sick today and let Maysen go to Aunt Bonnie's for the day like planned. OH MAN ... was that the best medicine! I dozed in and out of sleep until about 11am, and I don't think I got out of bed until after noon, in which case I ran a bath and just laid there for an hour. After a snooze, I felt like a whole new woman and decided I'd load myself up on drugs, and go with Nathan to his holiday party this evening. It was held at his office supervisor's house, and it was a blast. They had a white elephant gift exchange, and last minute I threw together the BEST present. Everyone in Nate's office has a great/sick sense of humor. About 2 years ago (still immature and irresponsible) Nate got drunk at our apartment complex and while everyone else was in the hottub, he decided he'd "dive" into the pool. Although he got the deep and shallow ends mixed up. Thank GOD he didn't break his neck, but he did manage to scrape up his face pretty good - which postalcohol was pretty funny. I snapped a not-so-impressed photo of Nate and decided this would be a GREAT white elephant gift. He was game, and actually SIGNED it, I found an old frame and there it was. It was the hit of the party - of course the story of Shallow End Diving Nate was even more hysterical telling. Scott, the office supervisor, plays in a band so after the good food (they catered Thai food in!), laughing, and gift exchanges we all went to their little studio, played pool, and listened to the guys play. Maysen even got out some instruments and played/danced right along with them.

After about 3hrs I was pooped and starting to sniffle again, so we came home. I'm not so sure Nate would appreciate me posting his embarrassing photo for the world to see ... so I'll refrain. But trust me, it's a great one.

Luckily I have the rest of the week off to continue to get well. I know, shouldn't have gone to the party when I called in sick. But I needed fresh air and good laughs, and 3hrs won't kill me. I'm now back in my PJs, sipping hot tea, and ready to crawl into bed. Why is it my 2yr old is only down and out for 2 days and I'm out for a week? There's a conspiracy there somewhere, I'm sure!

Ice Picks...

Yes. It's currently 3:21am. This whole "family is sick but me" crap is now out the window. Sunday night ... tad sore throat. Yesterday at work ... sort of congested. Last night ... tight chest. Now, at 3:22am my body is rejecting any and all bacteria from my body - in the form of ice-picks-being-stabbed-in-my-throat-and-chest. Fun thing is, that although I have tomorrow (today) off, I have to take Maysen to his 2yr physical appointment, followed by an internal medicine meeting for an hour. Uhhh, if Mr Ice Pick is still stabbing me I'm going to say the hell with it. Yes, I realize people at my clinic are already sick - however with 5 nurses calling in sick yesterday (and I should have been one of them), I don't need to infect the rest of the staff who ARE healthy. I got quite a few looks when I let my SARS-like cough rip toward the end of the day. Before I left, my doc said "Ummm, why don't you go home and get better?" ... "So, Mr Smith *HACK HACK*, why are we here *SNEEZE* today? Are you running *SNIFFLE* a fever or having *HANG ON I'M ABOUT TO SNEEZE* the chills?" Yea. Way to go, Leslie. I'm currently waiting for drugs to kick in and to brush my teeth as I've been mouth-breathing all night so you can only imagine how pleasant that feels/smel- well, you get the picture. Nighty-night.... (hopefully). 'Tis the Season!

O Christmas Tree ...

The holiday spirit grabbed hold of us this weekend. Friday we hung our lights outside, which included my software developer/computer geek husband to map out and configure the best way to string the lights on the roof to maximize extension cord usage. We only had to start over ... three times. It was freeeezing here this weekend. Sunny .. but freezing!

Today we picked out our Christmas tree. We were going to go to a nearby Christmas tree farm and do the whole ride-the-tractor-to-the-field-and-saw-your-own-down. However, my family is on the sick side. All except me, which will probably be hitting me any day now. All last week Nate had a cold, and yesterday during my late Thanksgiving with the in-laws, Maysen started getting sick. Maysen had a fun time running around saying "Eeeeee!" at all the trees. Poor guy kept trying to smell them, but his sniffer isn't working.

Then we had to put up the Christmas tree stand, which was more difficult than it looked. Maysen was all about trying to help! He's into knowing just what dad is doing and how he can help or do it himself!

And it officially only took us THREE hours to put up all the decorations and tree. I think half the time was spent keeping Maysen from throwing all the "a-balls" (baseball = ornaments), eating the tinsel, stomping on all the boxes, pulling the needles off the tree, running around with the figurines from our Christmas village, and trying to hang his train on the tree for an ornament. He did figure out to be "nice" to the tree, and helped us hang the rest of the ornaments.

I found myself humming "O Holy Night" as I drove to the store ... is it hitting me? ... and today we've only watched Finding Nemo ... three times.

Best Feeling Ever!

Library Thursdays

Every Thursday Maysen and I have have a date at the library at 10:00am. We start out by singing a few songs, snack time, stories, then end with craft time. However, Maysen couldn't care less about the singing or the stories. He would rather sit back and play with the toys. If you try to get him to sit and listen, all you-know-what breaks loose! But it gets him around other kids, so that's all that matters. Above I actually got him to go STAND amongst the other kids! That lasted only 30 seconds.

So, this is what we do the whole time, mostly. Can you tell we have an obsession with anything with wheels?

He loves the snacks and the crafts, though. He's eventually coming the point where he can actually use the crayons, not eat them!! The colored poop from his crayon eating was sure interesting ... RAINBOW POOP!

We then went to the mall where they have an indoor playground type thing. I watched some kid bully Maysen around while Fancy Mommy sat on the side. I'm trying to be nice like "We have to play nice..." while giving mommy on the cell phone the evil eye. So, I opted to go get balloons and construct a boys vs girls balloon fight. That was successful.

Addiction:

Here's what I'm talking about. I've recently mentioned my son's addiction to The Polar Express (as seen on the TV). Today we've watched it twice ... along with Finding Nemo twice. Normally I would never let my child watch this much TV. However, it's FREEZING outside and the roads are slick so we are not leaving the house, and if this keeps him from climbing the walls (and me) it'll have to do. I'm just tired of listening to "...When Christmas commmmesss ..... to toooowwwnnn". Kill me. Now.

PS: You will notice our cat, Birdie, warming her tootsies on the satellite receiver ... her favorite spot.

Yipee!

Today was Bean's first bowling experience. I have admit - it went better than I thought. We only got to play one game, as by the end he was unamused. The challenge was keeping him to his own ball and not running around stealing everyone else's bowling balls. We were on the end lane and he made a dead sprint along the side and toward the back where the machines are that run the pin-layer things. Yea, that was a mortifying moment!

Thanksgiving on Thursday was nice and quiet. My sister from Portland came as well as Nathan's mom and step dad. And that was it! We had ham, green bean casserole, potatoes, rolls, pea salad, cherry and chocolate pie. We had a great bottle of pinot noir and ended the night with a big game of poker ... my mother in law always kicks our butts!

Traditionally we put up our tree and Christmas decorations the weekend after Thanksgiving. Is it me, or did Christmas come WAY to early this year? I just couldn't bring myself to start decorating this weekend. We've decided we're getting a "real" tree this year, and having a 2yr old I think it's smart to wait a bit before I submit myself to a whole month of fighting him on that tree. So, the plan is to get a tree and start decorating next weekend. We'll see. Right now this sounds good to me:

Humorous fax

We routinely get faxes from nursing homes/assisted living facilities, etc in regards to patients who have fallen. This is because legally they have to inform us so that if anything became of it (ie: injury, fracture) they need it documented we were notified. It's usually:

Resident had a non-injury fall 11/22 in residence. VS Stable. ROM WNL. Will continue to monitor.

Something to that regard. Today I get a fax, and I had to laugh. This is what I get:

Today resident had an unplanned trip to the floor. Will try to plan them better next time.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TOMORROW!!!

Winner of "Not MY job!"

Paved way...

Thank goodness today was the last Friday I have to work for awhile! My doc took almost every Friday off all summer long (which was nice because our normal day off is Thursday - which makes for a nice long weekend PLUS I have Tuesdays off to stay home with Bean, so my weeks were very short) and it's been 5 weeks of working Fridays. This is because we had a medical student, J, from OHSU shadowing Dr D. He was the quiet-but-eager type and he even shadowed me to learn a thing or two (I think I screwed him up for life!). It was kind of neat thinking I was teaching a future DOCTOR how to do an electrocardiogram!

I was joking with Dr D at how hard working 3 days a week is for me (Ha!) and he confided that he's seriously thinking about cutting his hours back at the beginning of the year - he's wanting to permanently take Fridays off. That would mean that I could a) still work 3 days a week, but work M,T,W or b) I could insist on keeping my Tuesdays off and only work 2 days a week. I'm stuck. I have *THE* perfect job for where my life is right now. At the hospital you have to work crappy shifts (ie: 11pm-7am), every other weekend, every other holiday, getting time off is like pulling teeth. At my job I can get just about all the time I want off at any time, NO weekends, NO evenings, EVERY holiday off plus some. But I do miss the ER type things that would go down at the hospital and my "RN" skills aren't utilized as much as they would be in the hospital setting. But hey! That's the beauty of being an RN! I can do this for 10 more years if I wanted, then go work in the ER for 3 years ... then turn around and work in the OR. I can even look into being a school nurse when Maysen goes to school. The book is just cracked for me! So I am still waiting to see where my nursing career takes me! But for now, I'm very pleased with the path that it has taken for my slow and paced life right now.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Bean!

Saturday's birthday party was a success! You can imagine what 2hrs of kids, multiple colors of frosting, light sabers, cupcakes, helium balloons, and playdough looks like. It was a great time. I just can't believe Maysen is 2!! He can say his own name "day-den" and "dooooo" (2) when people ask his name and how old he is. It's nuts.

Bean cashed in with a ton of new toys including: new puzzles, a trumpet/saxophone, Dr Suess books, new bubble lawnmower, multitudes of trucks/cars, mondo leggos, balls, a bouncing zebra that plays music, a Thomas the Train set, and tons of other great stuff.

Sunday we took the day for just the 3 of us and went to Chuck E Cheese. That was an experience; I swear there is meth or something in the pizza - the kids are NUTS there! As if the over stimulating buzzing, whistles, strobe lights, and dancing figurines weren't enough, then there's every game machine you can possibly imagine with lines 7 kids deep. Maysen wasn't too sure about all this to begin with, but once he settled in and watched all the other kids go crazy he soon joined in. After 2hrs I was plum exhausted. I'm not sure who was more worn out - me or Maysen.

Choo Choo!

I was talking with one of my patients who is about 70yrs old. She mentioned she was going to see her daughter in Seattle and that her "train left at 5:30am". I was immediately jolted back into the past. Her "train?" Who rides trains for travel anymore? I didn't even know there was a train station in Eugene.

As quick as the "WHAT?" thought came to mind, then the "Wow, that would be neat" thought followed. Maysen is absolutely OBSESSED with trains, in particular the Polar Express, which incidentally was the last movie Nathan and I saw childless - seeing it in the movie theatre only 2 days before Maysen was born. And when I say obsessed, I mean we literally watch that movie twice a day.

But what a great idea. Boarding the train for a relaxing ride to a new place we've never been. Sitting back taking in all the fall scenery along the river ... listening to the hypnotizing sound of the train on the tracks.

Upcoming Party 11/11

Mommy and Maysen at the pumpkin patch 10/20/06

My baby will be turning TWO on Monday. I'm feeling a tad overwhelmed as his birthday party creeps closer and closer to Saturday afternoon. I hope enough kids come for him (which will only at this point be cousins) and I bought treats and have seperate tables planned. Trucks/cars for the homemade race track for the boys ... and play dough/stamps on another for the girls. Do that for a bit ... then I got some pin the hat on the fireman (sounds like a bachelorette game) .. but it involved firetrucks. We'll see how that one flies. Then of course is the decorating.... Um... how? I'm going to ask if my father in law can get balloons filled with helium so they're floating ... that'll be an attraction with my vaulted ceilings. Then a scavenger hunt for crap I found at the dollar store but fun stuff (you can find some real fun stuff there). Hopefully nice to do it in the backyard ... but if it's too rainy we'll just do it around the house. He's 2 ... so we don't need some 3hr ordeal going on. And limited space...in my 1400 sqft house. For the cake ... I'm getting just a regular sheet cake, but then I'm making cupcakes for the kids to decorate on their own. Multiple frostings, sprinkles, colors, etc. That'll be fun, I think. And call it a day. The DVD Cars is out, hope to get that and have it playing when kids show up ... as a background theme/music. His theme is plainly cars, trucks, and planes. Tomorrow I need to get the main cake ordered from a store near where I work ... pick it up Friday. Bring exam table paper home ... to draw race track. I need a to do list. I'll do that tomorrow. Rambling now.

Ta Da!

This is my new wedding ring!! I told you about this last week and this weekend was wonderful. Saturday Nathan and I took an evening just to be by ourselves and had a great time. Our babysitter, Amanda, came at 3:30pm. We picked my ring up and went to The Excelsior for dinner where he surprised me with a dozen red roses, had a bottle of 2000 pinot noir, exchanged special words to eachother, laughed, and had the giddiness we did when we first met. Nathan has a new ring, too, with 2 bands of shiny white gold surrounding a band of distressed white gold and 3 diamonds down the middle. And the Ducks won their game against Washington. What more could you ask for? (Except maybe another bottle of pinot noir? I had forgotten what just a couple of glasses can do to a girl!)

Halloween, it is.

Maysen was Yoda from Starwars this year for Halloween. Believe it or not, he actually left the ears on all night! His candy-collecting bucket was a Darth Vadar head.