Sunday School Get Together

This past Sunday we had a get together with two other couples from our sunday school class. We have a great sunday school class. It is for young married couples and we have a great time. We have recently done small groups within our class. We drew two other couples names and once a month we get together with them. It has been awesome. The two other couples have small children close to Makenna's age so it is great. One time we got together it was just adults but the last two times we have had kids. This past weekend we had a get together at our house. DJ grilled out steak and chicken and the other couples brought side dishes. DJ did an awesome job!!! The steak and chicken were the best I've ever had, hands down. The older girls played in the pool and we all just hung out. We had a wonderful time. I hope we can do it again soon.

Pool Is Up

DJ got our pool up around Memorial Day Weekend. He had some trouble draining the left over water from last year but he did an awesome job and got it up and filled. I'm so excited. I love the pool. We are having a problem now though. The pool is green. DJ has shocked it several times and put several chlorine tabs in it but it is still green. Hopefully we will be able to get it back to clear soon. He dose such a great job on everything outside. He is a great at that kind of stuff. I look forward to swimming this summer! It is so refreshing when it is so hot outside.

No Sleep

Wednesday night was a rough night. I had worked at Children's that day and I had to work at Baptist on Thursday. So Makenna and I went to bed early. She woke up about 12:30 screaming and crying. DJ brought her to me and I nursed her but when he tried to lay her back down she went crazy. She cried and cried so he brought her back to me. I laid her in bed with me and she wiggled around but then almost fell asleep. So I asked DJ if he could take her back to bed. As soon as he laid her down she started to cry again. So we let her cry for a little while but then she just got more hysterical so DJ brought her to bed and laid her down with him. She laid that way for a while and then made her way to the middle of the bed. She wiggled and wiggled and wiggled. DJ can sleep through this kind of thing but I can't. So, needless to say I wasn't getting any sleep. After a few hours she finally fell asleep, just in time for me to get up to get ready for work. So needless to say I was a walking zombie on Thursday. Of course when I left for work at 6:00 DJ and Makenna were sound asleep in the bed together. Figures!! Well, thankfully I had wonderful patients on Thursday and had a good day at work. I'm still tired today. It has been a while since I have had to go on a few hours sleep. I forgot how hard it can be!

Mamaw In The Hospital

My grandmother, the one who lives in Arkansas, is in the hospital. She has had Alzheimer's Disease for the past few years. Well, the past few weeks she has passed out several times. Aunt Bev said she went over on Sunday and Mamaw was out cold on the floor. She had a very hard time waking her up. So she took Mamaw to the cardiologist to see if there was anything wrong with her heart. While they were there they did some orthostatic blood presssures which is where they take your blood pressure lying, sitting, and standing and see if there is a major drop in your pressure between the different positions. Well when Mamaw stood up for her blood pressure she passed cold out. So, they sent her to the Heart Hospital. They did some tests and found out her carotid artery is 80% blocked. I think they were supposed to put in a stint yesterday. I haven't called to check on her today yet but I will keep up updated. Aunt Bev is sleeping at the hospital so she is exhausted. Please keep Mamaw in your prayers but also Aunt Bev because this is very hard on her trying to juggle a sick parent and the rest of her life.

Good Bye Arkansas Children's Hospital

Well, after 4 years of being a pediatric nurse at Arkansas Children's Hospital, I am saying good bye. As most of you know I started a new job at Baptist Hospital in Little Rock at the first of the year. I still kept my job at Children's but only worked about 16 hours a month in the ER. I am VERY tired of the ER, just burned out. So I decided to transfer to the PACU (recovery room). I thought this environment would be less stressful and would be an easy transition from the ER, because much of the work is very similar to what I do in the ER. So, I interviewed and excepted the position. The position was for ZB which means you work 16 hours a month, whenever you want, you can work more if you want to. It is meant to be very flexible. When I interviewed I told them that I already had another full time job and that I had to have something that was very flexible and would work around my other job. They said no problem. I knew I would have to work more in the beginning because I would have to do training so I could learn the job and get oriented to the unit. But in the interview they said it is a very easy transition from the ER and made it sound like my orientation time would be relatively short. I emailed them my schedule at Baptist, and they emailed me back an orientation schedule. Well, it was not what I had expected. They wanted me to work 2-3 12 hour shifts for the next 6 weeks. That was on top of my 2 12 hour shifts I already work at Baptist. I just wasn't willing to do that. The whole point of this second job was just to make a little extra money, not to work so much that I would never see Makenna. So, I called my boss at Baptist to see if it would be possible to work one extra shift a week there. Long story short she said she couldn't guarantee it but for the most part I should be able to get one extra shift a week at Baptist. So, after some thought and counsel from my husband I decided to quit Children's all together and just work some extra at Baptist. It was a hard decision because Children's is where I learned to be a nurse and where I grew up as a nurse. It is an amazing place and I was very proud to be a part of what they do. But it is time to move on. I gained invaluable experience when I was there and learned an amazing amount. I have one shift let next week and then that's it. I guess that is life. One chapter ends and another one starts. I really enjoy my job at Baptist and am learning to be a good post partum nurse. I still have a lot to learn there but I really enjoy the work. So, in a bitterweet moment I say good bye Arkansas Children's Hopsital.

Mamaw In Town

My grandmother is in town visiting from Florida. She flew into Memphis almost 2 weeks ago. She has family there. Then she went another part of Arkansas to visit some more family. She got here on Monday night. She leaves tomorrow sometime. I have to work tomorrow so tonight is the last night I will see her. I wish she could have stayed longer but she is a busy grandmother. She has a lot of family in the Arkansas area and is leaving tomorrow to go to Searcy for several family reunions. She is definitely a traveling grandmother. She is always on the go. We have had a very good time together. Not doing anything particularly special, just going to lunch, WalMart, and hanging out. All the usual stuff. Last night she made fried fish and fried potatoes and they were to die for!!!! She is an amazing cook. For those of you who have never eaten any of her food, I feel sorry for you. It is one of the great pleasures of life to eat her food ( now you know where my mom gets it from). Between my grandmother and mom visiting several times a year, is it any wonder I can't keep weight off very long? I'm so glad she was able to visit and hope she has a great rest of the trip. Our little garden is doing great and we are getting closer and closer to having ripe tomatoes. I will post some pictures soon. I would take some right now but it is storming and pouring down rain.

First Trip to The Zoo

The Saturday of Memorial Day weekend DJ and I took Makenna to the zoo for the first time. She loved it! Her favorite were the camels. She went crazy over them. She kept saying uhh, uhhh, if you know her then you know her noises. She doesn't say words yet but she makes a lot of sounds and she can definitely tell you what she wants and communicate with you. She made noises at the camels for like 10 minutes. We finally just had to move on and when we did she was looking back at them and yelling. She was so cute the whole day. We had a great time!! She yelled at all of the animals. She was so excited to see all of them. It was a great day.


She pointed and yelled at all the animals we came to the whole day. It was so cute!





DJ favorite, the tigers.



Makenna's favorite.

That eagle only had one wing. It was very sad.

This animal was crazy looking.


I don't know if you can tell but these are little bitty deer. They were tiny. And they pooped a lot!!


When she first saw this bear she ran up to it. But then when she actually got close to it she was scared of it.

She was getting very sleepy.

They had several cut out where you could put your head in and take a picture so I held Makenna and DJ took a picture. I think it is too cute!







She was scared of this one too.


They had a lorikeet exhibit where you could feed the birds. Some nice guys gave us some so Makenna could feed the birds. She thought it was hilarious.


Look at the bird on this guys head!


This is a pavilion type thing to sit under. I thought the art work was really cool.