Thankful

I know, Thanksgiving is over, but I just wanted to blog about the past few weeks of my life, and this seemed like an appropriate title. I'm taking a break from my usual light-hearted tone of my blog, so bear with me for a few paragraphs...
The past few weeks there have been a lot of changes at work. Because our patient census in the ED has been down over the past 8 months or so, the nursing staff had to do a rebid. What's a rebid, you ask? Basically, what happened was they wiped the slate totally clean and restructered all the shifts and start times to better fit the daily patterns and census of the department. In this situation, that meant fewer day shifts and more part time positions. New shifts are awarded based on seniority, so, every 10 minutes, every nurse goes in behind closed doors and selects the shift they want based on what is left; basically, what the more senior people haven't taken before you. I was really bummed about this, seeing as how I'd only been on days since April before all these changes started happening, and I was pretty far down on the seniority list.
Blessing #1: by the time I went in, I was able to secure the last 2pm-2am slot-the next shift down was a 5p-3a. This was good for me, in that I was able to keep a full time position in the department, and it wasn't full on night shift. The bad was this: as a full time employee, I am required to work every other weekend.
As background, I knew when I went to days, this might be a problem, mostly with church, but the shift I got on days was a major blessing, in that I worked a split weekend (worked Sunday, Friday, Saturday in a week) and did not have to work any other weekend. I only had to miss church once/month (when I was on nights, I worked every other weekend, but I could get out of bed to attend church). Being able to attend church is extremely important for me, and I try to work as few Sundays as possible, but in the medical field, there is not much you can do about working Sundays-you can't tell people to not get sick just because it's the weekend. Anyway, because of the rebid, the weekends are hardlocked into the system, meaning I knew I'd be working every other Sunday. I began thinking I might need to pursue other career options, because I did not want to do this. Each shift has a group who covers the other days of the shifts: so in my group, there are 2 people that come in to work every day at 2 PM. Between the 6 of us, we had to figure out a schedule rotation that would work in our lives and cover the needs of the schedule. As my coworkers can attest to, this was a hideous task to undertake, as one of the members of my group was less than willing to be flexible in her days she would work. At one point, she was offered a shift with absolutely no weekends, and she still turned it down (what?! who does that?!)  because it didn't work with her family needs. To make an even longer story shorter, and to get to the point of my "being thankful", one of my group members who works part time actually *wanted* to work every other weekend because she is going to NP (nurse practitioner) school. She took one of my weekends and so it's worked out for me to only work 1 weekend/month with my new schedule as a FT employee. I can't tell you the gratitude and sense of peace this gives me so that I can go to church more than 50% of the time. Mostly because, this just does not happen-full time employees are expected to work every other weekend-it's just how it is. To have my shifts work out that way twice is amazing (that I was able to do it with my old shift, and now again with my new shift). I also only will be working 1 Saturday/month, so I can have some semblance of a social life. I also don't work any Mondays, so I can attend FHE every week. My heart is full, and I'm so thankful for prayer and for God's hand in my life. Although I am sad to lose the current shift I have and am bummed to be working swing shift, I can't complain because I think things have worked out as well as they can. For as difficult as it was during those few days this past week for my group to figure out a schedule we would all be OK with, I am so thankful for the way things worked out. And so, January 8th I begin my new shift and schedule. Sorry for the long story. If you didn't read it, I understand. This was mostly for me, anyway.
So, let's round out this post with a few other things to be thankful for. As always, I'm thankful for family-I'm pretty sure I have the best family around-I love ALL my siblings so much, and I'm so glad we all get along so well. They're my best friends. Love all my in-laws, too. They're all great, and glad I can get along with all of them so well, also. And my neices and nephews are awesome, and I can't wait for the 3 new ones to come and join in on the fun!
I'm thankful for friends, old and new. So glad I've been able to stay in touch with my college friends-and even though most of them are married, I still get to have fun with them when I visit! I'm also thankful for my roommate, Sarah, and my new friends in my ward. Earlier this year, I switched wards from the Bellevue ward to the Sammamish Valley ward, and I'm glad I did. I feel very much a part of the ward, and I have some great friendships I've developed-I hope we'll remain friends for a long time.
I'm thankful for the priesthood, and I'm thankful for all the May and November issues of the Ensign.
I'm thankful for my parents. They're amazing, and have been my greatest role models.

There are so many more things that I'm thankful for, but that could get boring for you all to read, so I'll stop here! Props to you if you've read this whole post. Happy Holidays!

Portland

A recap of my trip to Portland this weekend, which included some "first's" I would like to share:
1) First TV purchased. I broke down and bought a flat screen TV to replace my little 19 inch tube TV that I inherited from my Mom. No sales tax? Yes, please.
2) First time a trip to Subway was a little...different than expected. We had a "sandwich artist" just be really chatty with us...like...too much. Talking about his kids and colleges...and...what?
3) First trip to Tasty N Sons. Where else are you going to get Polenta with fried egg, roasted apple with bacon and cheddar, and a chocolate potato doughnut? (Gotta love the family style dining where you try a little bit of everything). The only thing I wouldn't recommend is the spinach with egg-it was me who failed with that choice. Sad.
4) First time watching Project Runway.
5) First cider press party-so fun, and sooo tasty. Maybe even tastier than Tasty N Sons. Is that possible? How about equally tasty in a different way...? You may have had freshly squeezed orange juice, but have you ever had...freshly pressed apple cider...? I have. Mmmm...delicioso. I only hope I'm invited to the party next year... wink, wink.
6) While at said party, I was introduced to this guy, Andy Rooney. Can't believe I've never seen this guy before. I think this was my favorite. Watch and enjoy.

For Jessi:

-The Time (Dirty Bit)-Black Eye Peas

-Swagger(a?) Like Us- T.I.

-Heart and Soul-Jonas Brothers

-Swagger Jagger-Cher Lloyd

Great trip! Thanks Jessi!



Summa' Time

It's time to catch up on my blogging for the summer, now that it's halfway through October. Whatever.

Picking up from where I left off last, which was Santa Fe, my next trip was a 3 day rafting trip on the Grande Ronde River in WA/OR. The usual crew went as the past two years (though I was on a much bigger and longer rafting trip on a huge navy ship last summer), but this year we added Spencer, Kathie and his family to the mix. It was a lot of fun! The first day the current was *extremely* fast, which didn't please Alyssa, the youngest of the crew, but after the first day, it was a lot more chill and relaxed the rest of the time.

Though still somewhat cold, the weather was MUCH better than our river trip of 2009 in Glacier National Park.

Who doesn't love a good gummy worm?

I want s'more!!!

No, I'm not having a stroke in this picture, though it may look like it with my droopy, swollen eye. I happened to have *extremely* bad allergies the moment we stepped on land at this campsite. But Charlotte is too cute in this picture to leave this one out of my blog post.

And yes, I was a little more than disconcerted when I saw this big guy hanging out in the water with us. And my niece and nephews STILL went out swimming in the water. I now know why they call it the Snake River.

Our last stop before leaving, sitting and playing the Jelly Belly game.

Next trip in July was a Church History Tour to Palmyra, Niagra Falls, Kirtland OH and Nauvoo IL with my good friends Erica and Garby with their kid Austin, and my friend from nursing school, Alicia. These pictures are just a very *tiny* snippit of an awesome and amazing trip. So much history, and so much gratitude for my faith and my Church. I'm still waiting to get most of the pictures from Kirtland and Nauvoo (cough, cough...Alicia!!...cough, cough), but if I had those pictures, this post would be forever long, so maybe it's a good thing that I don't have all the pictures anyway.

Sacred Grove

Book of Mormon printing press

The whole group!

The inner nurse in me couldn't resist taking this picture :)

Pretty sure this is Fayette, NY, where the first organized meeting of the Church met.

Palmyra, NY temple. We went to church at the Palmyra ward, and we sang Joseph Smith's First Prayer. Coincidence? I think not :).

Don't mind the hair, it was super windy. This is Niagra Falls, which is marginally cool compared to Iguazu Falls in Brazil/Argentina. Alicia and I went there during nursing school, and were told multiple times on that trip that Iguazu is way cooler than Niagra. We couldn't help but make the comparison. But both falls are awesome, and both are very beautiful.

Nauvoo, IL Temple. So. Incredibly. Beautiful. I'm glad Alicia and I were able to do Temple Baptisms while we were there.

All in all, a great trip with great company. I'm so glad I was able to finally go.

OK, next up was family reunion in McCall, ID. What can be better than warm sun, family, and water sports? Probably nothing. So there you go. Some more pictures...

Charlotte couldn't even make it through dinner, she was so tired after having so much fun!

This cute couple found out whether they were having a boy or a girl with cupcake filling. They're having a girl! Congrats Paul and RaeAnn!

Sibs.

Girls day out to the sprawling city of McCall! It's actually a very fun little town, and I enjoyed it a lot. And, FYI, I'm the only not pregnant one in this picture.

And we celebrated my birthday! Can't believe I'm so old, I won't even disclose my age on my blog :) Oh, and those fries are definitely Gregory's-those are a little greasy for my taste.

All the grandkids minus Christian, who's on his mission in Brazil.

The whole crew on a family hike! A lot of fun and beautiful scenery! Paul and RaeAnn did a fantastic job of planning this reunion!

On to September: two main things to talk about, one being going hiking up Mt. St. Helens. This was such an awesome, fun hike! Super steep, but super fun! I went with my friend, Gari. We went up early in the morning, got up there before noon and made the round trip in about 8-9 hours. Not bad. On the way up, you go through about 3 different types of terrain, first being a "normal" hike through the woods, and then you get to the rocky part, where you're bouldering much of the way, and as you get closer to the top, you're basically hiking on ash, which is like hiking through sand. Which means that each step you take, you slide back 3/4 of that step. A little maddening since it's so steep and takes so much energy out of you, but it's so worth it with the view at the top. You look around and see Mt Adams, Mt Rainier, Mt. Constitution(?), etc. Fantastic view.

We opted to slide down a little bit on the snow banks on the way back down.

At the top!

Crater from the ridge at the top. It was a little creepy. We were sitting up there and eating a "lunch" of trail mix and turkey jerky, and the ground starts rumbling, rocks start sliding into the crater, and you can see steam coming out of the vents in the crater. Gari got a little nervous and wanted to head down. I, however, assured her that even if we left right then and the mountain erupted again, we'd still die, so we might as well enjoy the view. So we stayed up there for about 30 more minutes before heading back down. Luckily, the mountain decided not to blow, which I'm grateful for. :)

Heading back down.

The next day, Jessica and David joined us to hike the Ape Caves, which is one of the longest lava tubes in the world. Fun hiking/spelunking, but we were ready to go home after that.

The most recent trip taken was down to Salt Lake City for my Uncle Howard's funeral. He's been battling prostate cancer for the past several years, and the disease finally got the best of him. I am so sad that he is gone from this mortal life, and I already miss him terribly, but I'm so grateful that he's not in pain anymore, and that he is able to enjoy his time again now with my late Aunt Artelle.

So, my Uncle has a thing for big red trucks (probably because he's a Ute fan, which is unfortunate :)), and this particular one he get only a few months before he died. So, instead of a Hearse, he opted to be taken to the cemetery in his red truck!

Arnesens with the Rigtrup crew.

The day of Uncle Howard's funeral was also the day of the Relief Society broadcast, and we were able to get some tickets to attend the conference. It was so fun to be able to go with my mom and my sisters. It was a great meeting.

My cute, cute niece Jenna.

Before my siblings drove home to make it back to WA for the work week, we went to the MoTab choir broadcast Sunday morning, and got a picture in front of the Salt Lake temple. I was able to stay a couple of extra days, thanks to my work schedule to visit friends from college, which meant I got to see new homes and meet new babies that have been born since my last trip! I can't believe how grown up we all are, it's pretty crazy. I love my Utah friends, and I miss them so much when I'm in Seattle, but I'm grateful that I've been able to keep in touch with most of them and see them on occasion. It was an excellent trip.

Since then, I've been laying low, and actually been in town to hang out with my Seattle friends, which has been great! I always look forward to new adventures, but there is definitely something to be said for staying at home and enjoying the view. I can't believe it's already fall and Halloween is only a few weeks away! And I don't have to work Halloween night for the first time since moving back to Seattle. Any costume ideas for me??

"These are a Few of My Favorite Things"

At least, I think they will be. My coworker, Sheila, has recently shown me a lot of her "to do" lists, which got me thinking...I need to create a true bucket list. So, here it is. I guess I kind of need to do this in categories. We'll start with general travel desires...

-Travel Europe: this is kind of obvious. I've never been and I would love to go. However, there are a few specifics related to this. First and foremost, I want to visit Spain. I really don't know why that specific country has always been my top travel destination, but it has been. I almost went when I was 16 with my sister, but my fiscally responsible self at the time said that I should be saving money for college. Silly me. I'm hoping we'll be able to go soon-right, Lizzie?!

Doesn't that look cool? Yeah, it's in Spain.

I also want to visit Greece. Santorini looks so amazingly beautiful. And I'd be down for some SCUBA diving there.

I would also like to visit Switzerland and Austria. More specifically, do a Sound of Music Tour. This, for sure, will happen sometime in my lifetime. I love that movie! Julie Andrews is great.

Australia and New Zealand are also on my travel list. I would love to see Sydney, see everything in New Zealand, and dive the Great Barrier Reef. I can't wait to plan this trip, either.

Jerusalem would be another big one on my list. I almost went on a semester abroad to the Jerusalem Center at BYU, but decided against it when I saw the price. I think it would have been worth it, but I had been to Argentina the previous year, so...not necessarily a regret, but if I had unlimited money, I definitely would have done it.

And last, but certainly not least, I want to travel somewhere in Africa. I'd really be OK travelling anywhere in Africa, but what I really want to do is do some health teaching and immunizations there as a nurse. And, as a side note, I'd like to do an African Safari. Tanzania might be a good place, since one of the other things on my bucket list is to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro.

OK, some SPORTING bucket list items that have not been mentioned previously with travel...

Run a marathon-I've run 2 half marathons, and I feel like I need to run one full marathon in my lifetime. I'm a little nervous about how my knees will take it, but I have a feeling I just need to lose some weight, and push through it.

Ride the Seattle to Portland bikeride-I need to find a friend to do this with! I think it's an easy enough bikeride...who's with me?! It wouldn't even necessarily need to be the official event. We could just do it one weekend. Or weekday, for that matter.

Hike Mt. St. Helens-I'm hoping to hike it this summer with some friends. Once I get back from my next trip, I'll be planning this excursion. It's a pretty intense hike, but I think it will be awesome.

Catch a fish-I guess this is a sport? But yeah, I've never caught a fish, and I feel like this is something I should do in my lifetime. I won't necessarily *eat* the fish. But. Yeah.

Climb Mt. Rainier-I've wanted to do this for some time now. For multiple reasons, but primarily because my Dad has climbed it-he was in the youngest unguided group at the time he first climbed it. He also has a first ascent on one of the routes to the summit. Within the next 2 years, I'm hoping.

So beautiful.

I also want to hike Angel's Landing in Zion's National Park, learn to surf (seriously-the next time I go to Hawaii, this is happening FOR SURE!! I say it everytime I go somewhere warm, but it never happens. It will now). I also want to be a better wakeboarder, with a goal of someday doing a flip on the wakeboard. I just need to get over my timidness jumping the wake. As well, I want to be a better dancer (and not just because I'm watching So You Think You Can Dance right now. Though it might have some influence there, haha). Also, my main SCUBA diving goal is to dive with some of these little guys...

These are Nurse Sharks. And I'm a nurse. So, really, I someday want to get a picture of me with the nurse sharks. They're found in Belize, among other places; who wants to take a SCUBA trip with me?!

Of course, some general life bucket list items include getting married and having some little mini-me's. Also, what will be great when(if) I get married is that I will be able to join on his great insurance plan so that I can work per diem, which means I can pick and choose my shifts, which means I wouldn't have to work Sundays anymore! Oh, that would be so great! Can you tell I've had a little too much time to think about that?

I want to learn to be a better photographer.

Also, I think I'd like to go back to school and get my Master's degree. In what? That's still up for discussion.

So, is this a good list? Anything you think I should add? I'm open to ideas :)

"Santa Fe...Do you Swear you Won't Forget Me?"

What? Two posts in one month? Amazing! So, the beginning of this month, I went to Santa Fe, NM to meet up with Christian Bale, AKA "Cowboy! They call him Cowboy!". OK, maybe not Christian Bale, but Newsies is a good movie. I actually went to a Wilderness Medicine conference with some coworkers. We flew into Albuquerque (which, as my friend Sheila can tell you, can be a *little* bumpy flying into and out of. There may have been some profanities (from her mouth, not mine!), and I may have lost some circulation to my fingers a time or two during the descent and ascent to and from the city, but we survived), and then we drove to Santa Fe from there in a stylin' minivan. We stayed at this AWESOME Inn and Spa that Sheila's brother hooked us up with. Some pictures of the place...



Santa Fe is a really awesome town, very artsy and eclectic, with some a-mazing restaurants. We ate extremely well this trip. I had a lot of firsts where food is concerned...I ordered duck for the first time (very good, but I now understand why people say it tastes 'gamey', and it's a little fatty, but overall, pretty amazing food). 

I had ice cream as an appetizer prior to the duck-but not just any ice cream. There were 3 flavors-tomato, basil and bacon. It was interesting and tasty, but I prefer my mint chocolate chip and cookies n' cream. For lunch one day, we had tapas style dining, and I ordered a soup and sandwich. The flavor of the soup? Watermelon and tomato soup. And the sandwich was lamb. It was pretty tasty.

Oh, and the empty plate with the knife on it in the above picture? The most amazing flavors of hummus! Oh, so delish. We ate twice at this great crepe place, once for breakfast and once for lunch. Overall, I sampled at least 4 different kinds of crepes (sugar, jambalaya, blueberry, raspberry, and egg and cheese. I guess I tried 5, then!). Yes, it was that good. We also ate at a carnita stand, and at this great frozen yogurt place. Here's a picture of our group eating at the Inn where I had the duck. It was Sheila's brothers birthday bash, so it was our group of coworkers, some family, and 5 of their closest friends they met at the bar earlier in the day...seriously, haha.

So, for as amazing as the food was, it was a good thing we were able to do some hiking to offset the caloric intake. We went to Bandalier National Park. Some pictures...

Bandalier is made up of Pueblo archeological sites.

Joanna and Andrea.

Andrea, me, Joanna and Anita, 4 of the 5 of us.

One of the Pueblo archeological sites

It was very fun, the weather was perfect, and although there were 4 nurses, not one of us had a bandaid for Andrea's blister that was forming on her heel. Pretty pathetic, considering we were at a *Wilderness Medicine* conference. Good thing we ran into some other hikers that were there for the conference, as well, and came better prepared than we did.

My favorite hike, though, was Tent Rocks, and I plan on going back there to repeat the hike. It was so much fun, and beautiful terrain. I loved it. You'll see why they call it "Tent Rocks".

Me and Joanna.

Sheila, Joanna, Andrea and me :)

I think this is the one picture of all 5 of us: Joanna, me, Sheila, Anita and Andrea.

Beautiful.

See? Don't the rocks look like tents?

The trail was really narrow at parts-if the weather turns, it's actually very susceptible to flash floods. Good thing it was sunny.

OK, now for some pictures of the sightseeing in Santa Fe...

"Downtown" Santa Fe. To the right of this picture, they were filming a movie that's coming out soon. It's based on a book, that I cannot recall the name of right now. Good story, guess you had to be there. Unfortunately, no celebrity sightings.

Mariachi band outside the Loretto Chapel. So cool, they were performing for a wedding, and they were totally awesome!

So, this is the "Miraculous Staircase". There is no support beams for the staircase, which is why it's miraculous. This is also where Sheila bought her vial of holy water and her purple Rosary. And no, she's not Catholic. She just really likes the color purple :)

Route 66!

But don't worry, it wasn't all fun and games. We actually did attend the conference for most of the time there-which was seriously AWESOME!! I loved it, and I would totally go to another one of these-I learned so much. Did you know that honey can be used as an antibiotic ointment? And some people say it even works better than neosporin or bacitracin? Also, to maintain the airway of an unconscious person, you can safety pin their tongue to their lower lip, or to their zipper? And never, I repeat, NEVER go into the wilderness without Duct tape. And no off brand silver tape, either. It HAS to be name brand duct tape. And SAM splints are helpful, too. Which I will be purchasing after I finish this blog post. We learned how to package up trauma patients and learned practical ways to splint and care for specific traumas with minimal supplies. Here is us practicing moving someone with an injury who can't walk...

Dr. Howard Donner was one of the main speakers. You should Google him...he's done some pretty amazing things in his life and is super smart. Seriously. Think Everest and NASA. It was a really fun trip, and we're making plans for our next adventure medical conference. :) Fiji or Mt. Kilamanjaro, anyone?