13 posts tagged “amber”

I know it's been an obnoxiously long time. Very sorry. Lots has happened! Last Friday I made the decision to have Lasik surgery. My appointment is for tomorrow morning at 9am. I'm utterly terrified and totally excited all at the same time. I think I just need to mentally get through the two or so hours that I'm going to be there. Everyone that I've talked to that's had it says it's the best decision they've made and that they wouldn't go back. I can't wait to open my eyes Saturday morning and not need to put glasses on or contacts in! More details later this weekend, but think happy thoughts for me tomorrow!

Last weekend was pretty insane. On Saturday night Kati, Brigitte, Amber, Kristine and I went to see Britney Spears. I was pretty disappointed in the show. The Pussycat Dolls opened for her and were pretty good (I've seen them before). In between, they had circus performers come out and do their thing, which was pretty cool (the title of Britney's latest CD is "Circus"). I was really disappointed in her actual performance - she was clearly lipsynching, which I had expected. But if she was gonna lipsynch, I wanted to see some serious dancing and all of her moves were halfhearted. I honestly don't know if she'll be able to pull off another tour.

We got up bright and early Sunday morning to head to the Bay Area for Easter and to celebrate Oma's 80th birthday. On the way there, we saw a terrible car accident happen... a lady clipped the car in front of her while changing lanes and they went spinning and flipping off the road. Mom pulled over and her, Kati and I went over to help. The lady's car had landed on it's side in a ditch with the other car on top. We were able to get the couple in the top car out but the lady and her passenger were stuck in the sideways car. I could tell that the passenger wasn't breathing, but couldn't safely get to her. It was beyond frustrating. All I could do was talk to the driver, tell her help was coming and try to keep her calm. She told me that the passenger was her sister. When we got home, we found out that the passenger had died.

The rest of Easter was fun - we spent time with the whole family at Oma's house, including the much loved "throw eggs over the house" tradition. I have some great pictures posted on Facebook (I'm too lazy to upload them here today).

Ok, I know it's a few days late, but apparently I've been really bad at blogging lately! Here's the 2008 recap:

January

• January 1st: Shadow breaks my nose. Happy New Years!
• January 13th: I get smacked in the nose again at a CERT drill and realize that my nose really is broken.
• January 17th: I started EMT school - so exciting!

February

• February 28th: My first of many encounters with the neighborhood turkies.

March

• March 8th: Houseboat weekend with Brigitte and Amber!
• March 15th: Mather Air Show Day One: lots of patients to practice on!
• March 16th: Mather Air Show Day Two: more patients!
• March 26th: My hospital rotation - a life changing experience!

April

• April 18th: Rivercats baseball game with Dad, Brigitte and Amber
• April 19-20th: CERT Mobex - disaster drill in Clovis

May

• May 10th: Kati graduates from UGA - Mom, Dad and I flew back for a fantastic weekend in Georgia!
• May 13th: NREMT exam - I passed and am officially an EMT!
• May 24th: EMT party - absolutely hilarious - everyone came dressed as some sort of victim... it was great!

June

• June 10th: Metro's CERT team is called up to help out with the local grass fires
• June 21st: Saved my first patient at a CERT event

July

• July 14th: Visited my customer in Houston. Hot and sticky. Ate more steak than a girl should!
• July 20th: Kati moves home from Georgia!

August

• August 8th: Joanna and Chris come to visit!
• The rest of August - Kati and I go to Germany, France, Italy and Greece... it's the trip of a lifetime!

September

• September 14th: Met Mike! :)
• September 24th: Had a close encounter with a tomato hornworm. Had to call Julie in for backup.
• September 26th: Went to the Neil Diamond concert with Kati!

October

• October 9th: Went to the New Kids On The Block concert with Julie, Mindy, Amanda and Chris.
• October 16th: Selected for the Sarah Weeden jury - little did I know it would last two months!
• October 31st: Halloween party!

November

• November 1st: Went to the Madonna concert with Adam and Eva!
• November 4th: Barak Obama is elected president
• November 26th: Thanksgiving vacation at Lake Almanor
• November 15th: Second Annual Friends Thanksgiving!

December

• December 11th: Sarah Weeden trial ends
• December 30th: Kings game with Mike
• December 31st: Mike's New Years Eve Party - LOTS of pig!

All in all, I'd say it was a fantastic year! Who can complain?!

Hope everyone had a wonderful New Year! Mike's party was a blast - they roasted 120 pounds of pig! It took four of them just a few minutes to cut it all up (lots of practice apparently!). Here's a picture of the pig on the spit:

It was insanely delicious! The party was a blast!

As you probably know, today is my birthday. It's been fantastic... it's 2:30pm and I'm still in my jammies! I've watched a bunch of episodes of "ER" (thanks Mike!) and some "Friends" reruns. It's been wonderfully relaxing!

That's the scientific name for my new TV. That's right, I finally caved in and upgrade from the 19 inch TV/VCR combo that got me through college. I got this fantastic 42 inch flat screen that has changed my life in the last two day. First of all, I never thought that HD would make much difference. Let's just put it this way, I may skip the live Kings games this year and watch it on TV - I think the picture might be better! :) And it's amazing to have a big screen to look at - I love it!

Last night I had Julie, Lindsay, Anthony, Brig, Amber, Kris and Luke over for Personal Pizza Thursday. It was such a blast! We made delicious pizzas with all sorts of fun toppings and watched TV (surprise surprise). Shadow did really well with Luke (he's only 3 years old) except for when Brigitte tried to pick him up. Apparently Shadow doesn't undestand that big people pick little people up sometimes. When Brig picked him up, Shadow grabbed Luke's little shorts with his two front teeth so that Brigitte would put him down. He was super gentle, but it was really cute!

This morning I had the carpets cleaned which was a small miracle. They managed to get all of the Shadow stains out and they look almost like new again! Worth every penny!

Once again, another super busy weekend.

On Friday night Brig, Amber and I went to see "Hancock". Absolutely hilarious movie. I love Will Smith - and he did not disappoint as a reluctant superhero. There was a pretty cool twist in the movie - I won't give it away, but I think they did a good job with it.

On Saturday I did some work with CERT - we taught a basic first aid class to the Sacramento Young Marines. They were all between the ages of 8-12 and were a lot of fun. I taught the airway management, choking and how/when to dial 911 sections. I worked with some of the younger kids and we had a blast splinting each other and learning head tilt/chin lifts (sounds a whole lot like my EMT skills class!).

Today I worked a 2am to 10am shift with CERT at the Citrus Heights Community Campout. My little body definitely doesn't like getting up that early (1am came way too soon!), but it was a lot of fun. I got to work with some new people and met a really cute little boy. His name was Bubba and he's 2 years old. I gave him a fire badge and as I got up to leave he yelled for me to come back for kisses... he gave me a great big wet kiss on the cheek followed by a high five. A little later in the morning he burned his little hand on the grill, so he came back over and I got to put some ice on him:

 

Moments after this picture was taken he leaned over, practically pulled my shirt off and asked where my badge was. Not awkward at all. :)

It was a great weekend, but I'm definitely ready for bed! I spent the afternoon taking a short nap and then heading to the gym so that I'm nice and tired for bed tonight as I have to leave early for Houston tomorrow. Hooray!

This weekend was spectacular! I decided to have a little party to celebrate becoming an EMT (can you tell I'm freaking excited about it?). Adam and Eva came down for the weekend, so you know it was a blast!

Saturday morning we hung out at the parent's house. We watched movies, sat in the yard and just enjoyed the beautiful weather. After a brief nap, the EMT festivities began. I asked everyone to dress a some sort of victim that I would come across in my time as an EMT. As usual, my friends and family did not disappoint! Here are some pictures:

Adam was attacked by a shark and Eva had a really cool looking jellyfish sting on her leg (sorry I didn't get a good picture of that one!).

Poor Mom actually had a real injury (darn ribs and a couple of bruises) and Dad had a nice eye accident.

I was the EMT who didn't pay attention to scene safety (that's rule number one people!), Brigitte was a suicide attempt, Kris was a victim of domestic violence (those finger prints on her neck really made the costume) and Amber had an injured ankle.

Marilyse (a fellow new EMT) had a little problem with a pencil that caused a breast implant to deflate.

Melissa had road rage and slit her wrists. Tony was the responding EMT (also a new EMT) who got disoriented at the scene and wandered into traffic. For those of you who don't know - that was one of the answers on a test that was meant to throw us off.

Laura was a car accident victim and McClain (spelling?) was stabbed.

 

The party was fantastic - we BBQ'd, played games and roasted marshmellows - what more could you ask for?! I'm so glad that everyone was able to make it - my neighbors must have wondered what the heck was going on! Of course, Shadow was the life of the party... he got a lot of hot dogs (someone told me around 4) as well as various other food. He loves to have people over! Here he is in the middle of a conversation:

Sunday we hung out at Mom and Dad's again - this time we let the dogs play together and swim... this weekend was all about Marley! That little guy managed to poop out both Darcy and Tucker (Shadow's not quite ready to play with the little guys yet). He did get some time to swim and play with Tucker and trust me, he slept well last night!

Today was filled with more of the same... just enjoying the beautiful weather by the pool. We could not have asked for a more beautiful weekend!

Last night Dad, Brigitte, Amber and I went to see the Rivercats (our local AAA league baseball team) play. I won tickets (and food and beer!) at work. It was such a blast! The Rivercats actually played really well and we had pretty cool seats!

Here are some pictures:

Yes, that's a MASSIVE hot dog. It's called the Dinger Dog (Dinger is the Rivercats mascot) and is about the size of two hot dogs... HUGE!

 

In other exciting news, I actually entered the 21st century today - I now officially have DVR and over 100 channels of digital cable! I'm so excited... tonight on TNT I'm watching a zillion versions of Law and Order and then Jurassic Park! Woo hoo!

Yesterday was what I've now dubbed "Blissfully Lazy Saturday". I slept until 8:30am. For those of you who know me, I haven't really slept that late in probably the last year and a half. It was fantastic. I got up, read for school and then made lunch. After lunch, Shadow and I decided to be lazy some more and took a 4 hour nap. I guess last week finally caught up to me! I woke up feeling refreshed and energized enough to go for a run and mow my lawn. Then it was time for the festivities... Brigitte's birthday is tomorrow and we decided to go out to dinner on Saturday night to celebrate. After all, "you only turn 26 once!" (that was her quote of the night). We started with dinner at this great little Italian place and then headed over to our new favorite karaoke bar. Here's a picture of the gang (Megan was taking the picture):

Here's Brig and I goofing around:

This was after this REALLY terrible guy got up to sing. We laughed so hard... he was totally drunk, slurring and thinking that he was a member of the band Chicago. For some reason we always only get half of Amber's head...

Today was EMT Skills Sunday. We have four weekend classes throughout the semester where we get to learn new interventions and practice them on each other. Today we learned about setting up endotrachial tubes and IVs for our paramedics, using the AED (refresher since this was covered in CPR), basic splints and traction splits (for when you break your femur... trust me, don't do it). That was all this morning. We spent the afternoon working on patient assessments. That's really the stuff I like - playing super sleuth to figure out what's wrong with someone and what kind of treatment you're going to use. There are a bunch of steps you have to take to pass the National EMT Registry test, and remembering them in order is sometimes hard, but I generally hit them all.

Tonight I plan on vegging on the sofa and reading some more for school (Next week's lesson is on childbirth. Goody.). Fortunately, this week is actually pretty quiet by my standards, so I'm going to try to catch up on my sleep and get some extra running in!

Busy, but productive. That's the story of my life lately.

First things first, I took a much needed mini-vacation last weekend. Brigitte, Amber and I went up to the houseboat for some R&R. Mom and Dad were kind enough to watch Shadow and so, for the first time in about a year, I slept in until 8:30am. That's right, 8:30am is LATE. It was blissful. The weather was beautiful (hooray for sun!) and even though the water was too cold to ski/board, we took the ski boat out for a little spin. We also played a ton of Rock Band. For those of you who don't know what Rock Band is, it's a game (for Playstation I think?) that comes with a guitar, a mini drum set and a microphone. You choose a song and sing/play/drum along and the game rates you. Our band's name is Buttstone (don't ask... our friend Ryan came up with that name a while ago while us girls were in the other room cooking... it sort of stuck because it was funny at the time) and we rock "Wanted Dead or Alive".

EMT school is going well. I just had my midterm (I think I did well) as well as my skills test (I know I did well on that). I just wish I could get my hands on real patients... I feel like a lot of this is stuff you just have to do a thousand times so that it becomes second nature. My hospital rotation was moved... instead of a Friday night, it's been moved to a Tuesday. I'm not gonna lie when I say that I'm less than thrilled at the prospect of working all day, going to the hospital for ten hours, getting five hours of sleep and then going back to work, but it's what I've got to do. Fortunately, I only have to do it once - if I do decide to do part time work, I'll probably take a weekend shift every now and then.

Finally, I have to post the cutest picture of my dog. Last night I fired the BBQ up and popped open a Corona because the weather was nice. Shadow was playing in the yard and I tried to get him to sit down next to me for a picture. This is the end result:

 

How can you not love that?!

I'm officially addicted to gardening. I stopped by Lowe's this morning after church to get some drip system stuff and walked out with a lilac bush:

A Carolina jasmine bush:

And a weeping cherry tree:

While they might not look impressive now (ok, the lilac bush sort of is), they are going to be magnificent down the road. I plan on training the lilac and jasmine along the fences (that's why they're placed behind the maple trees) and the weeping cherry will one day look like this. Honestly, I think I'm addicted to gardening. I can't get over that feeling of planting something and then watching it grow... as it turns out, I have quite the green thumb! I can't wait for spring when everything starts to bloom again - I already have new growth and buds on my trees and roses! Just to give you an idea how far my yard has come, here's a before and after picture:

 

 

Well, that's all... I'm headed over to Brigitte and Amber's for a night of Wii fun... it's sweatpants and monkey bread night! Woo hoo!

Things my dog has eaten in the last week:

* six "twice the blueberries" blueberry muffins, wrappers and all

* five whole apples (that's right, the core, the seeds, the stem, even the stickers)

And the latest addition:

* about 2 dozen various cookies, most of them containing chocolate chips

I can't wait to see what happens tonight. To put it mildly, there's definitely some action in his gastrointestinal area. Hopefully that stops. Stat.

In other dog news, we took Shadow out to the lake several times this week. He was amazing - he swam, he boated and he played with other dogs! I'm so proud of him - I have quite the little swimmer on my hands! Here he is:

 

My housewarming party was last night - TOTALLY fun. I went with the tropical theme and Kati was awesome in helping me decorate. Most people came decked out in their best Hawaiian duds and we had a blast barbecuing and playing drinking games with the best rum concoction I've ever had! My aunt and grandma made it out from the Bay Area, which was really cool. Here's a few pics:

 

There was much food, much alcohol and a lot of fun drinking games. Thanks to everyone who came out and for the great presents!