The end of January already???

I can't believe it is the end of January already. How time flies.

It is great, being able to stay home. I have been emptying file cabinets and teaching stuff. I think I have filled a recycle dumpster single-handed. With that and shredding anything that might give anyone a chance to identity theft, I have really cleaned out a lot. Unfortunately, on the outside, it does not look like I have accomplished much, but I am really making a lot of dent in the files.

Jennie leaves Hayden with me 1 or 2 days a week, depending on Jeff's work schedule. I can't believe he will be a year old in 6 weeks. He is growing like a weed. He walks around furniture, and even stands alone if he has something in his hands. He has not been brave enough to stand emptyhanded for me.

Kambree turned 5 on the 13th. She thinks that now she is 5, she should be able to go to kindergarten, and not pre-school. It is hard for her to understand. Her daddy had a business trip to China, He sent pictures of him on the Great Wall of China, and in the Forbidden City in Bejing. They sure brought back memories of my trip in 2000. He was gone for 10 days, and is back home now. He has done a lot of traveling over the past couple of years. He is seeing the world, and being able to go do some sight-seeing when in different countries.

Here are Jackson and Maclay putting together puzzles. Maclay is very accomplished at the task. Jackson is more interested in emptying the pieces onto the floor.

Kambree and Kylie, playing with the poster book that Marian and the boys gave her for her birthday.
Ryan and Jackson watching TV and snacking.

Hayden, Ryan and Jackson on my couch.

We have had several snow storms this month. The past couple of weeks we have had above freezing temperatures, so it melts quickly. There is quite a bit on the north side of the house, where the sun does not get to it, but the front lawn is clear.
I have finished the top to my heritage quilt. There are pictures of it posted on our Dorinda blog spot, at dreamworthyquilt.blogspot.com

I am working on a denim quilt for Austin's graduation. It has been fun cutting up old jeans to use for the blocks. It also emptied a big stack of jeans out of my closet.

Oops

Sorry Maclay, I did not check for spelling errors. I am on the lap-top and the keys are too close together.

Happy New Year

We had a wonderful Christmas. We had our family party on the 23rd and all the Utah based family came. Santa stopped by and checked to make sure the kids were behaving.

Kelsey and Santa
Kambree and Kylie shared the visit

Mackat would have nothing to do with Santa. He spent most of the evening on Grandpa's lap. After he ate, he took a little nap, then lost his dinner. The next morning he had a fever and Dora took him to the Urgent Care, where they found both ears to be infected. He was put on antibiotics for ten days, but a week into that Rx, he broke out in hives. He is finally done with the course, and is back to his normal self again,

Ryan and Jackson thought Santa was OK!

Hayden was not so sure.

Christmas morning with new sweat shirts

and new trucks.

Hayden's 1st Christmas.

He has a mouthful of teeth!

He got right into opening the presents!

We stayed home for New Year's Eve, and let Marian go to a party with her friends. Paul had a root canal on Wednesday and was 3 hours in the dentist chair, and I woke up with bronchitis, so staying home was no problem for either of us. The boys went to bed early, and so did we.

Paul and Marian worked on New Year's Day. Paul opened the store and Marian took the 2nd shift. It was a pretty quiet day for them both.

Today was Ryan's first day in Sunbeams. He did pretty well, but had a hard time sitting in his chair in the Primary Room. He was curious about everything on the stand. He was very excited to see Jackson when we went to get him from Nursery. They hugged each other like it had been days since they had seen each other. It was very cute!

We are all feeling much better today. My cough has settled down and Paul's mouth is feeling better. He goes back in another 10 days to have it finished. He is still on antibiotics for a couple more days. The tooth was pretty bad and the endodontist wants to make sure it has cleared up before he seals it. He will end up getting a crown in a few weeks.

Happy New Year to you all

I Did It!!!

I turned 65 last week and retired from the hospital. It was a pretty hard decision to make, but once I made it, it was really hard to go to work. The last two weeks were busy with meetings and training my replacement. The corporation has re-structured the educator model, and all of the reports I was doing will still be the responsibility of the new educator, but other people will be doing them. The corporation also changed our "leveling" advancement, so some big changes came with that. Those level 15 (the highest level) will be responsible for many of the reports and meetings I used to attend. The educator will focus more on individual nurses and their needs, as well as the education for the department. She will have a specialist from the region who will help with the department education, which will be a good thing. All of the EDs in the region will have the same training. That will be a really good thing, but really different. You see, it was the perfect time to move out.On Dec. 3, the hospital sponsored an open house for me. It was scheduled for an hour, but we had folks coming in for another 45 minutes. I am posting a few of the pictures to show some of those who came.

Marian, Dora with Maclay, Evan with Jackson, Jaime, Kylie, Ryan, Jennie, Tamara (my niece) and Susan, my sister-in-law. All of my Utah children and grandchildren were there.
Evan and Jaime brought balloons, but the boys wanted to play with them.

The boys get the balloons. Grandpa is a pushover

Marla Frampton, ER Nurse and Bonnie Bateman, Financial Counselor

Dr Dean Shelton, ED MD. We have worked together since I started in the ED 25 years ago.

Left to right: Randi Abraham, risk management, Lori Bertelsen, Hospital Chief Nursing officer, former manager, and good Friend. Then Margaret and Kirk Mittelman. Dr Dean Shelton.

Jeannette and Jean, from UVRMC ED Margaret and Kirk Mittelman. (They teach EMT and Paramedic classes. He works as a Paramedic for Eagle Mountain FD and she is an RN. I have known them for many years also. ) In the middle is Daphne Thomas, my manager. Chief Marc Sanderson and Deputy Chief Dave Thomas (no relationship) from Pleasant Grove FD

Pat Roberts. She has retired, but continues to work 1 shift a week and covers for others frequently. She and I go back to the beginning of the ED. She was my manager several years ago. In fact, she gets called Ann and I get called Pat on a regular basis.

Stan Andreason, from Pleasant Grove Fire Department, Gary and Shirlee Best, former neighbors, as well as running ambulance with Shirlee for several years and in the ED for a few years. Dr. Lenard Brunsdale, ED physician. We have worked closely with ED and Scout activities.

Kristi Leaver, from Intermountain University. She is over all of the American Heart BLS and ACLS programs. I will continue to teach for her a few times in the next year (longer if she has her way!)

Wayne Watson adn Kathleen Merkley. They are from the corporate office, but I have known them and worked with them for many years.

My friend Ruth Caldwell. We went through nursing school together and worked together for several years. She is now the manager of the ED at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray.

The Hospital Administrator, Mike Olsen & Tami McDaniel from the business office. In the background is my replacement, Wynel Newman.

Here it is, the end of November already. The month has flown by, and not without some fun and some not so fun stuff.
The not-so-fun: besides injuring my knee, two of our sons-in-law have lost family members. Jeff's uncle died from the H1N1 virus (aka Swine Flu), and Paul's aunt died unexpectedly also. Both funerals were the same week. It has been a really hard year for the Skeens. First the loss of Paul's Grandfather, then his dad's stroke, which ended eventually in his death, now the aunt. They did not come for Thanksgiving. They spent the holiday with the Skeen family (a needed time alone to heal and move on). Besides that, Dora has been sick with strept throat and Maclay has had an ear infection. All are doing much better now.
The Fun Stuff: Kelsey has been practicing and now has had 3 performances with Ballet West in the Nutcracker. She is a soldier, and for those of you who have seen the Nutcracker - she is the soldier that lights the cannon. She is enjoying it, and has 3 more performances this weekend. They will be performing Friday night, Saturday afternoon, and Saturday night at the Capital Theater in Salt Lake. (We could not take pictures, but hopefully will get a professional copy).
Jennie and Jeff and Evan and Jaime came for Thanksgiving. We all ate too much and enjoyed the afternoon together.
We are working on potty training the boys. Yesterday they were both dry after nursery at church and went to the bathroom between nursery and Sacrament meeting. Yay for them!!! Both say "Good Job" and we do High 5s and put stickers on their potty charts.
December, as always, looks to be a very busy month. We start with our ward party tomorrow night, then Thursday is my retirement openhouse. Tomorrow and Wednesday I teach my last ACLS class as the coordinator (I may help some next year, but won't be leading). Next week I have meetings nearly every day, it's my birthday, then Friday (11) will be my last day at work. I will take the rest of the month to use up vacation time and be on call for my manager, who is having surgery. I hope to get some house cleaning done and finish my quilt top before the end of the year. We will see how that goes. With Christmas in there, my quilt may not quite make it.
Well, it is time to go to work, and I am training my replacement today, so I better be on time.

Don't Mess with the Wheelbarrow or Big Rocks.

A couple of weeks ago I was trying to move a big rock for my flower bed. I had dug up all the grass and thinned the iris and day lily plants. I wanted to move around some rocks, so I got the rock into the wheelbarrow and as I went to move it, the rock rolled and tipped over the wheelbarrow. In the process, I twisted my knee, fell down, and hit my head on another rock. Up I got, hoping no one had seen me, and replaced the rock into the wheelbarrow. Again, it rolled and flipped me back to the ground. So the rock stays where it was. My next door neighbor actually saw it happen and came to help me put the rock back in it's original spot and we left it alone.
I ended up in the ER with an injury to my knee. I was on crutches for a couple of days, but the swelling caused more pain when I wore the brace, so I gave that up for an ace wrap. On Saturday I spent too much time on my feet, and the swelling and brusing followed gravity and my foot and ankle swelled up, and the bruising showed up there too. (A normal phenomenon). I can't get the computer to post my pictures. But the bruising is pretty well healed.
I am now walking without ace or crutches, but I am wearing support knee-high stockings. The place that hurt the most was the puncture wound on my head. It was too small to staple or stitch, but it did bruise. I now feel more pain where my muscles attach, both above and below the knee. Probably from trying to protect the injury.
Jennie's babysitter has sick kids, so we have had Hayden at our house for a couple of days. He is getting so big. Yesterday Grandpa took all 3 boys out for a ride in the wagon. They loved it.
Will try later to post pictures. Weird how that works sometimes.

Peek-a-Boo

A note from Jennie:
We've been playing "Peek a Boo" with Hayden quite a bit lately. He usually laughs, and some times gets a look of anticipation on his face just before we cover his face or hide from him. But other than that, he's pretty passive about it.This morning at about 5:45 I heard him fussing just a little in his crib. I couldn't tell if he was awake or not. He doesn't normally wake up quite that early, even with the time change, but he went to sleep earlier than usual last night. So, I walked in his room as quiet as I could and peeked over the crib. He was super still, and the way he was laying there was a shadow over his eyes, so I couldn't tell if they were open or not. Just about the time I decided he was still asleep, he said "Ba!" And grinned his little two tooth grin! He was so proud of himself. He is just SO CUTE!! I LOVE HIM SO MUCH!!!