Snowmagedon Strikes Again!

Well, Snowmagedon part 1 was all just fun and games. I sat in the comfort of my living room sipping on coffee and watching that yucky white stuff fall from the sky like it was going out of style. Sure, we had a little bump in the road with Patrick and his clinical and the whole getting stuck thing but this is different.

This is Snowmagedon part 2.

Price Chopper early Monday morning.

Rosalyn's face when I told her I was leaving for probably a few days.

Monday 10:00 PM
I got to the hospital about an hour ago. I looked like a total dummy walking into my place of employment with duffel bags and a pillow and blanket but oh well. I was happy to see that I was not the only one who made the wise decision to stay the night. After chatting with my manager and finishing an episode of the Bachelor (guilty pleasure) I hung out in one of the rooms with another nurse and two nurse techs (also known as CNAs). We kinda joked about being adults and having sleepovers and stuff which made me feel a little better... and by better, I mean just less stressed about the whole situation.

My manager so kindly hooked me up with an ICU suite... so this is probably bigger than the hotel room I thought about getting! And she gave me a meal voucher. This is far from ideal but wow. So thankful for a safe place to sleep tonight and for a thoughtful manager!

It is technically passed my "work" bedtime but my mind is still running a million miles a minute so I think I will watch a couple episodes of Friends and see if I can make my mind relax enough to get some sleep.

Tuesday Throughout the day - view from the 10th floor

Tuesday 8:30 PM
I have now been at the hospital for 24 hours and counting. I would love to tell you at has been so eventful and it was so dramatic around here like Grey's Anatomy but actually it was pretty lame. I was orienting a nurse to our unit and we were technically understaffed and therefore had more patients than we should have but somehow the day just felt.... slow. And therefore... it dragged on and on.

Tonight there are far less people staying at the hospital and I feel a little bit silly for staying because some people said the roads were pretty clear. I'm not too worried about making it home... it's getting back for work in the morning that is concerning. The snow let up for several hours today but has started up again. Hopefully, I made the right decision.

So tired of eating at the hospital.

Say some prayers that I actually sleep tonight. Last night the ICU was LOUD! I doubt if I slept more than 45 minutes straight last night without an interruption. The mattress was nothing like my temperpedic either FYI. At least tonight I am in a room that doesn't have big glass windows with bright lights shining in. I'm planning on it being pitch dark. AND I plan on waking up refreshed with a full 7+ hours of sleep. Too bad I don't have any ambien...

Wednesday 6:00 AM

Thank you to whoever wrote this message in the snow on top of the parking garage. It made my day. "Be Happy."

Thursday 8:00 AM
I made it home last night. As it turned out it was a good idea that I stayed both night because there were wrecks in the early morning on monday and a lot of my co-workers said they were slipping and sliding on the highways... which would have scared the living you know what out of me. And I crashed which is why I am just now writing an update. I got to sleep in my own bed and I was not awakened by alarm or nurses doing their job. It was like my own personal heaven. Even though I slept soundly last night I am still exhausted. I don't know how doctors do it... being on call, I mean. No wonder they get grumpy about people calling them about moderately high blood pressure haha. Some things just need to wait until morning.

I have a pretty busy morning (which is part of my big secret that I am not yet revealing) but after that I plan on doing a little cleaning, making real food (as in not hospital food), and spending time with my man... and going to bed early... grandma style.

Pride can be a good thing

Pride is bad. That's what everyone says. Be humble and if you aren't a humble person pray for humility and God take care of that one real quick!

Well what if you take pride IN something? What if you take pride in your marriage or raising your children or your profession? I just cannot imagine taking pride in important things such as these could ever be a negative thing.

As I have said before I am a big fan of the "little things" in life. But one big thing that I take pride in that may not be entirely popular is my job. Ever since I was a young girl I knew that whatever I did with my life I would help others. I remember watching a documentary on Mother Teresa when I was in third grade. I was not like a lot of kids. She died about a month before my birthday that year and even though I had heard about her I felt a sense of loss that I would not ever really know about the things she did to change the world... at least not in real time.

The more I learned about her the more I was amazed. There was nothing that could stand in her way. No disease or weather conditions or nay-sayers would stop her work. She said that "the biggest disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis, but rather the feeling of being unwanted." She said that "each of them is Jesus in disguise." I would love to say that I have the same saintly qualities of Mother Teresa but I am not there. Not even close. But if I can emulate a fraction of that love to the people that I serve in MY work then by God...

Today and tomorrow we are expecting a foot of snow and ice on top of the foot of snow that we just got a few days ago. Yeah, some melted yesterday but now all that water will be ice. It makes driving conditions less than ideal but I will make it to work. I am needed.

I mean no disrespect to people of other professions because every job is important but to be a nurse or doctor or firefighter or paramedic in this situation gives you pride... the good kind. I am proud of the fact that I am part of a group of people that loves strangers so much that they will take the risk of driving in treacherous conditions to be there for them. Because if we aren't there to take care of them... who do they have?

I love my patients. My job is far from glamorous but I deal with with the blood and other body fluids and needles just so I can offer a smile or hold some one's hand when they tell me how scared they are. I guess you could say that the work that nurses do is humbling. I feel like that a lot. Because it was Mother Teresa that also said "We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do."

I hope I make it to work tomorrow.

This is what Love looks like.

If you want to read a beautiful sad story about a very holy family read this. And I am not kidding when I tell you you will NEED a box of tissues. One or two isn't going to cut it. I hope that one day when I am a parent that I will be as brave as Kemi and Corinna. This is the story of Baby Celeste and the perfect love of her family.

7QT #5... Snowmagedon

1. I have been M.I.A. in the blogging world recently because I have a secret that I really want to tell! I am really excited and I just want to tell the world but it is not public knowledge QUITE yet. I know it's mean to tell people you have a secret and then leave them hanging but I promise I will be shouting it from the roof tops in the very near future! And no, I'm not pregnant. I know that was your first thought!

2. Snowmagedon was this week in case there is anybody out there that is not infinitely aware of it yet. I always thought I had the snow thing down since I have lived in Kansas for 6 years now. Boy, was I wrong. I realize that there are a LOT of people that have seen a LOT more snow than this but this was quite frankly like nothing I had ever seen before.

3. It really did feel like the end of my world when Patrick called me from his clinical site around 9:30 AM and said that he wasn't going to be able to make it home. Dramatic? Yes. I hated that I couldn't just go pick him up but the roads were horrendous.

4. A very Good Samaritan in a jacked-up Chevy Silverado 4X4 offered to give my dear husband a lift home so he wouldn't have to stay the night there. Thank the Lord! And let me tell you... there were a LOT of Good Samaritans out there helping others.

5. Patrick and I both had the day off today so we decided to spend it together instead of doing our own thing (which is why I am not typing up my quick takes until late in the evening haha). We started our day with a cup of coffee and then headed out to buy a snow shovel. Everyone else had the same idea though so we had no luck there. Then, we drove over to Patrick's clinical site to get his truck which was completely buried in snow... too, bad we didn't have a snow shovel.

6. When we got home we ate a very boring meatless lunch and popped Skyfall, the Bond movie, into the Blueray player. Oh my, that was a phenomenal movie. If you haven't seen it you need to. It was not something I would have probably picked out if I hadn't been with Patrick but seriously... amazing.

7. Rosalyn has mixed feeling on Snowmagedon. Sometimes she acts like she likes all the snow and sometimes she looks at me like, "yeah, I'm not going out in that." I think she had enough after she jumped in the snow and she realized she was literally in over her head. Sucks to be short, huh, Rozzy girl!? So she came back into the warm apartment and hovered by my feet in the kitchen while I baked desserts hoping I would drop some chocolate... her fave.

This is potentially the most boring QT ever. My apologies. For way better quick takes go here.

*?!#$%

I realize this might be a controversial post but I'm typing it up anyways. There was a post on Facebook and Twitter a week or so ago by popular author Patrick Madrid:

 "hate to mention it, but what's with this recent disconcerting trend of Catholic women bloggers who think it's cool & somehow "smart" to use 4-letter swear words in their blog posts? #ugh #inane"

Put aside any initial thoughts you may have about the "sexism" in his statement. I wanna talk about his point: cursing. I have my own personal opinions on cursing and that's the thing... they are my opinions. I am twenty-something and using cursing in day to day language is fairly common among my age group. I don't think it is inherently evil to use said "4-letter swear words" but though I occasionally use them it will agree is far less classy. I really think it is all about context though. 

For example (and pardon my language):
"Damn it, I lost my car keys" and "Damn you for hiding my car keys" give off two very different vibes. As do "What the hell happened?" and "Go to hell." See what I mean? Some are harmless. Really they are just words. Not very creative, sure, but harmless nonetheless. The others are cursing AT someone. Big difference.

Really this post by Patrick Madrid made me think about the way I use these four letter words and I realized that I curse more casually than out of anger. I honestly can't tell you the last time I cursed because I was angry. Then I thought... people say horrible things all the time that may not be considered curse words! Think of the British! Bloody rubbish? I think you can translate that one on your own. They might as well use a 4-letter word  but it just sounds a little classier. 

I am by no means encouraging cursing here. I think the goal as Christians is to be charitable to everyone. If you are a little hot headed like me maybe we need to be praying for patience. If we are truly trying to better ourselves and get closer to heaven these are the kinds of things we should be thinking about. If you use cursing on a regular basis without even thinking about it (guilty over here!) then maybe we need to train ourselves to be more polite and I don't know... broaden our vocabulary a little! Goodness!

I had discussions over this with my "go-to people,"one of which is my husband, Patrick. He really agreed with Patrick Madrid's statement not because he is a fan of his books (though he is!) but because Madrid was right. My husband and I even agreed somewhat with a later statement about how it seems to be even more shocking to hear cursing come out of a woman's mouth. This doesn't mean we think it's more acceptable for men to curse than women but look... women like Mary the Mother of God are fair and beautiful and gentle. I would bet a lot of money Mary never cursed. Guys have holy people to look up to also but Holy Men have a tendency to be less fair and beautiful. It doesn't make one better than the other. God made us differently and He said that was a good thing, remember!? 

Patrick (my husband, not the famous one) also mentioned that there is a reason we teach children not to cuss and/or try not to cuss in front of them. I am by no means any kind of Church authority but I'm thinking that if we are teaching the most innocent among us that it is wrong than maybe it is wrong for everyone. I started thinking about one day when we have kids... I don't want my children talking the way I often do. Even if it is not a mortal sin I think that in some contexts it is probably a venial sin. And I think that even if you are only cursing in your regular day-to-day conversations and not cursing AT someone... even if that is not a sin... I think it is safe to say that it is not virtuous. Again, I am no authority but this just makes sense!

With Lent coming up rather quickly I think we ought to take an honest look at ourselves. Is it enough to just say "oh, it's not a sin" and move on? Do we honestly believe that we are virtuous people? Are our lives pleasing to God? These are tough questions but now is the time to be asking them. I want to be clear here that I am not pointing fingers at people. I curse REGULARLY, remember!? I obviously have some things to work on!

I am so ready for Lent.

7 Quick Takes #4

1. Earlier this week I wrote this post about how Patrick hit some black ice in his truck and spun off the road into a ditch and hit a light pole. The post was mostly about the memories that the accident brought back actually, but anyways... Patrick calling me to tell me what happened was awful and quite frankly threw off our entire week. I was initially distraught over it but as bad as it was I cannot help but just be thankful that he is OK with just a little soreness and the truck is still drivable.

2. I ran for the first time since before Christmas yesterday. I knew it was going to be rough but OH MY GOODNESS! I seriously was struggling to run more than 4 or 5 minutes without taking a break. I felt weak and I was having trouble with the whole breathing part.... which is pretty important ya know. So I think I have a long road ahead of me to get back to where I was.

3. I saw this on Pinterest this morning and just in case the sun being out didn't brighten my day enough... this did it! What a beautiful thought.

4. I am getting a little better at the guitar but like I said in #1, my week has been thrown off a little so I haven't played as much as I would have liked. I think my next song I will try to learn will be "Skinny Love" by Bon Iver. It is slow and only a few chords so I think it will be pretty easy... but we'll see...

5. I don't know if any of you were fans of the TV show "Friends," but I was not a big TV watcher when it was actually on TV. Plus I had a little brother and sister and only one TV in the house so if I was watching TV it was usually cartoons. Well, there is this website called cokeandpopcorn and it has all kinds of shows on there so I decided to watch it.... I had no idea what I had been missing. It is so funny! So now I am trying to catch up on my 90s sitcom. I'm so up on the times!

6. I talked to my little sister on the phone last night and I think it was the highlight of my week. She just had an MRI because she fell down the stairs at school. Thankfully nothing is broken and nothing is so bad that she would need surgery but she is on crutches and has a knee brace and an ankle brace... I think I will just start calling her Grace. We started talking about how excited we are for all the things to come in 2013. She will only be an hour and a half away from me and we are both equally excited about that! She also says that she plans on being the coolest Aunt ever when we start having kids... she also said she doesn't know what is taking us so long because she really thought she would be an Aunt by now! ha ha Love her!

Little sister, Rachel, on the right. This was taken last summer.

7. I know this isn't a new song but I am in love with it! And it always makes me think of my little sister now! My little Texas girl said, "This is our song because you are making this place my home!" This place= Kansas :)

HAPPY FRIDAY, Y'ALL!!!!!

For more Quick Takes head on over to Conversion Diary!!!