New snow!

We've had at least 8 inches of new snow in the last few days! I splurged on new snowshoes on Boxing Day and can't wait to try them but now it's way too cold outside. I'm not into outdoor sports when it's -15C.
Travis is out on a fire call, saving lives and breaking hearts as usual. You can now read all about his adventures on his blog http://fireboytrav.blogger.com. Now that he's got a blog and doing posts all the time I have to keep up with him. So anyways, I'm having a lazy morning home alone. I slept in till noon which I obviously needed after only sleeping 4hrs after getting off nights yesterday. I cleaned the house a bit cause Travis is having the boys over for poker tonight.
Back in a minute...Travis is on his way home and starving from being out in the cold all morning...I'd better get some lunch ready for him....be right back.......
We had a great Christmas at my mom's. It was nice to get away for a few days and see my mom and Grandma. We took mom's snowmobile out on a field and I gave cross country skiing a try. Apparently I'm not going to be in the Olympics anytime soon. Travis got out on his snowshoes and attempted to take the crazy carpet for a ride but the snow was too deep. Christmas Day was quiet, as it usually is for us. Sue woke us up at 6:45am to open presents. At least it wasn't 4:30am like it was when we were kids. We made a big breakfast, snacked all day while working on the puzzle and playing games (I kicked butt at Scrabble) and then made a huge dinner feast and crashed on the couch for the rest of the evening. It was a perfect, typical Christmas Day. We had to come home on Boxing Day cause both Sue and I had to work. Travis drove and Sue and I both slept the whole way home.
Yesterday we went to Costco to load up on healthy food since we've been eating nothing but junk the last few weeks. We got lots of good stuff. I love Costco. Today is likely going to be a lazy day. We have to take out the recycling and a coffee at Starbucks is high on my list. We'll probably take down the Christmas tree tomorrow :0( so sad, I hate taking it down. I'm working nights over the weekend so Travis is on his own for New Years Eve :0(

Happy Christmas!

We're heading to Sicamous in the morning!!! I'm spending today packing and trying to get everything ready as much as I can. I'm working nights tonight so Travis is going to pick me up from work and we're leaving town. I'm so excited. Hobo is coming with us so I hope that he's going to be ok in the truck and at my mom's with Cocoa and Paddy. He might be a little traumatized at first but Cocoa and Paddy are used to having other cats around. I have to finish wrapping all my Christmas gifts and do a ton of laundry today so I'd better get cracking! Happy Christmas everyone!

Christmas Party

Pictures from the Town of Canmore christmas party last Saturday night.

My birthday lillies

Travis got me the most beautiful lillies for my birthday.

Introducing.....

The newest member of our little family.....Hobo! We got him on Saturday from the vet clinic. He's 5 months old and the cutest kitty ever! He was brought into the vet clinic after someone found him in a box on the side of the street with another cat so we rescued him and brought him home. He's totally black which for us is good luck considering we met on Friday the 13th it only makes sense to have a black cat. We named him Hobo because he was found in a cardboard box on the side of the street so he was kind of a hobo. He purrs constantly and is super cuddly, it's awesome. So far all he does is sit and watch the birds. He hasn't made any attempt to kill them yet.

Our Tree!

Christmas countdown

Only 10 more days till Christmas Eve! I am now off work for a week! Although I might take the opportunity to pick up a shift or two in Calgary since I havn't worked there in 6 weeks. But then again I might just take the week off! I go back to work for one shift and then I'm off again for 4 days over Christmas. We leave for Sicamous on Friday morning when I get off work and I'm soooo excited. I havn't had Christmas off work in the entire 4 years I've been nursing. Oh and by the way, I passed my 4 year nursing anniversary on the 12th! Time flies cause it sure doesn't feel like I've been working 4 years. Anyways, I've finished my Christmas shopping already, I've never finished this early and the problem with finishing early is that I now have more time to find all sorts of things that I wish I had bought instead so now I buy them too! Being organized isn't really helping my bank account so I think next year I'll go back to the 'last minute scramble' My problem now is that I bought gifts weeks ago that needed to be sent away and of course they're still sitting at home waiting to be mailed and now it's getting crunch time to get them in the mail so they'll be there in time for Christmas, even though I bought them and could have mailed them weeks ago!! I guess I'm not all that organized afterall. This weekend is going to be another busy one for us. We have the big Town of Canmore Christmas Party on Saturday night. I even got to buy a new dress for it!! Although every woman needs to have a little black dress and I didn't have one so it's an investment rather than an extravagant purchase on myself when I'm supposed to be buying for other people! Oh well, it promises to be a fun party and at least I have a pretty dress to wear. Happy weekend everyone!

Christmas Tree Adventures

We got a Christmas tree last weekend! It's the first ever real Christmas tree for Travis and so far it's been an adventure. We got it from Sobeys and the guy selling them subjected us to 'high pressure Christmas tree sales." He picked out the best one for us and it's a good thing he did cause they were all tied up so we had no idea what we were looking for. Apparently when they're all tied you have to pick a tree according to it's height and weight, heavy trees are fuller than light trees. So we got home to realize that my tree stand wasn't in the box with the decorations so instead of going back to my storage space to search for the stand we went to Home Hardware and bought a new one. The guy who sold us the tree cut off the end for us so all we had to do now was get it into the stand and decorated....easier said than done. Well actually we did get it into the stand and cut off the ties and decorated without incident...the trouble came afterwards. We had just finished decorating it and getting dressed up to go out for dinner and were sitting on the couch admiring how perfect it was, well Travis had his computer in his lap and I was sitting on the couch beside him admiring the tree and it's obvious lean.....when 30 seconds later it started to fall towards us! Travis jumped up, threw the computer in my lap and in his dress shirt and tie, caught the tree before it fell. Nevertheless water was spilled all over the floor and all our perfectly placed decorations were now not so perfect. So I'm holding the tree and Travis is up on a stool, 10 minutes before we were supposed to be at dinner, in his shirt and tie hammering a nail into the windowsill and tying the tree to the nail with fishing line. Thank goodness it was still standing when we got home. I've been getting the speech about keeping it well watered since before we got it. I guess that's the 'advantage' of dating a firefighter (just kidding honey!). I've been forgetting to check the tree anyways, good thing I'm dating a firefighter. It's drinking an unbelievable amount of water but it seems to have slowed down over the last two days. I'll post pictures when I remember to get my camera out of the car. Remember how Travis was aka Scrooge last week? Well on Sunday we went to the Christmas store in Banff and he was the one buying ornaments for the tree. Aha! So much for Scrooge!!

Yummy recipe

My mom got me a gift card at Chapter for my birthday and I put it to good use and bought a new cookbook. It's by Rachael Ray and it's called 365:No Repeats. I think she has a show on the Food Network too but you should really check out this cookbook it's great. We tried our first recipe last night and it was soooo good I have to pass it on.

Smokey Chipotle Mac-N-Cheddar

1 lb elbow macaroni or cavatappi
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 small onion (of course I omitted that, ew onions!)
3 tbsp all purpose flour
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp paprika
3 cups whole milk
1 cup chicken stock
3 cups smoked cheddar cheese
1 tbsp dijon mustard
2 chipotle peppers in adobo, chopped or 1 tbsp ground chipotle powder (that's what I used)
3/4 to 1 lb chorizo, diced
1 15oz can fire roasted tomatoes

Cook noodles. While the noodles cook, heat in a medium sauce pot over medium low heat. Add the EVOO and heat with the butter until it melts. Add the onions and chipotle and cook for 3 to 5 minutes to sweat them out and turn the juices sweet. Raise the heat a bit, then whisk in the flour, cayenne, and paprika. Whisk together until the roux bubbles up, then cook for one minute more. Whisk in the milk and stock and raise the heat a bit higher to bring the sauce to a quick boil. Once it bubbles, drop the heat back to a simmer and cook until the sauce thickens, 3 to 5 minutes. While the sauce cooks in a nonstick skillet over medium high heat brown the chorizo. Then add the tomatoes and cook briefly, just to heat them through. Add the cheese to the thickened sauce and stir to melt it. Stir in the mustard and season with salt and pepper. Pour the sauce over the noodles, add the chorizo and tomatoes and mix!
Serves 4 (with leftovers!)

Enjoy! and let me know if you try it!

Happy birthday to ME!

Thanks everyone for your birthday wishes. I survived the day although it wasn't pretty. Travis and I stayed home and ordered birthday pizza and I got to spend the day in my pj's!
I've been working far too much lately but now I have the next 4 days off!! It's going to be a busy 4 days though. We have two parties to go to this weekend. Birthday party on Friday and then the nurses Christmas party on Saturday night. We're getting a tree this weekend too!!!!! I convinced Scrooge (aka Travis) to get a real tree. He wanted to take out his fake tree but I said no way, fake trees are totally unacceptable. I love Christmas and everything about it but I have some work to do in convincing Travis that Christmas is the best time of year. Wish me luck!

Happy Belated Birthday!

Happy belated bithday wishes to Niki, Liz and Candace! I'm only one day late, well two days for Niki, not too bad. I really need to work on punctuality when it comes to birthdays. Maybe it will be my New Years resolution. Be better with birthdays.
I hope you all had great birthdays!!!

Freaking COLD!!!

Holy cow it's cold here! Its' been -20 to -30 for the past three days! I've had to start plugging my car in at work overnight. Good thing I have Travis around cause he had to look for my heater cord. I'm sure I would have found it eventually but it's so much nicer to have him do it for me ;0)
We had a great weekend. Weekends have never been very significant because I do shift work but now that Travis has weekends off it really sucks when I have to work especially going back to work on Mondays! On Friday night we went to Banff for a movie and Saltlik martinis with another couple who work with EMS. We went to see the new James Bond movie, Casino Royale. My first James Bond movie acutally. I enjoyed it but apparently it wasn't as 'gadgety' as most James Bond movies. Saturday was supposed to be my 'surprise' birthday treat. Travis had planned a helicopter tour as my birthday present. How great is he eh?! It didn't happen though cause the weather wouldn't co-operate and it was too foggy :0( We went up to Kananaskis in the afternoon to the grand opening of Dave and Michelle's rental shop. It looked great, I'm sure they will be very successful. Travis and I bought matching down mittens even though it was my idea to buy them first ;0) and a crazy carpet!! We went out and had a very nice dinner with his parents then went to Dave and Michelle's for celebratory drinks. We had planned to crazy carpet home, I wonder if that counts as drinking and driving though, but ended up forgetting it at home...darn! next time. Then Sunday was a lazy day of grocery shopping for this week's dinners and then I had to go to work. This is the last of my night shifts and then I finally switch to days on Friday for the month of December.

December is going to be a busy month. My birthday is coming up next week and I'm going to try and completely forget about it. Turning 26 just means I'm getting a whole lot closer to 30. Oh well. Maybe the botox they want to give me for my neck can be used on some of my multipying wrinkles. Then we've got Christmas parties galore for the rest of the month and then it's Christmas! We're spending it at my mom's this year and I'm super excited because it will be our first christmas in her new house. We're leaving on the 22nd and coming home on the 26th. I'm so excited that I'm not working Christmas again this year but not so happy that I have to work New Years Eve. Oh well, I guess I can't have everything I want.
Better get back to work. It was a hellish evening but seems to have settled down, all except for the screaming baby out here at the desk but she's adorable so it's ok.

Busy, busy, busy

I've been working nights for the last two weeks, two nights on and two nights off, two on, two off. The hospital has been really busy lately with some really acutely sick patients. I've been working in emerg, in charge of the acute care ward and "float" which means that I'm in charge of the long term care unit from 2300-0700, relieve the emerg nurse for breaks, help out on acute care and go to the labor and delivery room should a maternity patient come in. I was the float nurse last night and thank goodness no maternity patients came in cause I had my hands full in emerg helping out the nurse down there. The RCMP brought in a patient who was found wandering down the TransCanada in the middle of the night. It was a very strange case cause we couldn't put our finger on what was specifically wrong with him. We definately suspected mental health instability because he was covered in lesions that looked like he'd been picking at his skin, was disoriented to place and time and was fixated on specific events. It ended up being an interesting night calling the RCMP to come in 3 times to deal with him as he's yelling, swearing and threatening us. They ended up arresting him for mischief at the end of it all just to get him out of the ER. The doc I was working with came up to me at the end of the shift and said she'd give me the silver star and purple heart for how well I handled the patient and the situation! Yea me! She said she's be glad to work with me anytime and she was very impressed with me. The docs out here in Camore are so much more personable that the docs at the Foothills. If a doc at the Foothills said that to me I'd be ordering a psych consult after I'd regained consciousness from the shock of it all. I love working out here. It's challenging at times but we're allowed to use our brains and the docs give us so much more freedom to make our own judgements and they trust us! The docs at the Foothills barely let you make the judgement to take an extra blood pressure without them ordering it. I've learned so much in the 3 months that I've been working here and I feel so much more like a 'real' nurse now. I've been selected to take a labor and delivery room course, fully paid for and so once I'm done that I'll be a 'real' labor and delivery nurse. It's a lot of self study but I get paid to take the course, the couse itself is paid for and I get paid for 40hrs of self study. Can't pass up a deal like that!
Alright, I just got reamed out by the realtor who is showing our house. I'm so sick of having to deal with them. She's being totally unreasonable and rude. She's not a nice person. She just told me that Sue and I should look into moving because we're not cooperating with the realtors schedule for showings. ARAGH!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can't think anymore. I hope you're all having a better evening that I am :o(

Perfect Saturday morning

I used to think that the best Saturday morning was spent sleeping in till noon, waking up, making a coffee and having a lazy morning at home. I was wrong. Now the best way to spend a Saturday morning is being woken up with a Starbucks gingerbread latte and having breakfast made for me and all I have to do is "sit there and look pretty" Done! I did manage to stay in bed till noon though which is good since I have to work tonight.
Work has been crazy busy lately. Last weekend I worked in emerg and it was busy all night. Usually the place clears out by midnight then you might get the odd straggler in the middle of the night but last weekend it was constant all night long, all my beds were full and there were people in the waiting room. Then again last night I worked in emerg from 3-10pm and I was running from the minute I walked in the door till the minute I left. I got home and realized that with all the rushing around at the end of my shift I forgot to leave behind the keys to the narcotic cupboard so I had to go back to the hospital. I was on-call last night after my shift and I'm really surprised that they didn't call me cause it was so busy when I left and it was a Friday night.
I think today is going to be a lazy day. My chef is almost finished cooking my breakfast so I'd better go. Have a good weekend!!

Have to mark the date

I have to mark the 13th as a forver special day rather than a bad luck day. It's been a month today since I met the most amazing man who makes me happier than I could ever imagine I'd be. I think I've probably told everyone about him but I have to make it 'official' by doing a blog post. We met in emerg at the hospital (see I knew the job change would be good for me!) and a few weeks later we met at the bar and the rest is history. It's only been a month but it already feels like we've been together a lifetime. The past month has been amazing and I can hardly wait to see what happens in the months to come!

Las Vegas tomorrow!

Oh my god I can't believe I leave for Las Vegas tomorrow. This has been a trip I've been waiting to go on for the last 18 months. Freaky coincidence I realized yesterday....last time I was planning on going to Vegas we were leaving on the 27th and I broke my neck on the 22nd and this time we're also booked to leave on the 27th! At least this time I survived the 22nd with no major accidents. I almost feel like I'm holding my breath just waiting to actually get there this time. Ever since we booked the trip my friend Allison (who I'm going with) has been asking me if I'm ok and if it bothers me at all that we're going on the trip that never happened before and I've always just brushed it off and said "of course, it doesn't bother me at all!" Although I admit, it does make me feel kind of anxious and scared although excited to go on the trip that I never made it on before. I think I'll be holding my breath until I acutally set foot in Las Vegas and then again until I make it home. Going on this trip is going to be one more milestone in the neverending journey of getting over my accident and come hell or high water I'm going to make it! I'm still a little scared though. *Deep breath* it's going to be ok.
I'm still soooooooo excited! I've been packed for the last 3 days and I just have a few more things to do today like go to the bank and get some American money and pack a few final things and then I'm all ready to go. I'm leaving the house at 8am tomorrow, meeting Allison at her house and we're taking a cab to the airport where we're meeting Andrea and then our flight leaves at 12:22pm and we arrive in Las Vegas at 8:22pm! Our flights are retarded. We go from Calgary to Edmonton, to Denver to Las Vegas. We're flying all over the country before we eventually get there! At least on the way home we have a direct flight. We leave on the 30th at 11:59pm and arrive home on the 31st at 4am. Not to worry, I'm going to sleep at Allison's for a bit before I drive home. Send me safe, healthy vibes this weekend and pray that I make it home ok.

Funny pics!

My Mac is soooo cool! Check out the funny pics that the webcam can take!

The Night Shift Turn Around

I've finally got this 'night shift turn around' thing down pat. I think so anyways, ask me how I'm feeling in a few hours and it might be a different story. Work called at 6am this morning and woke me up asking if I wanted to do a day shift and of course I screened the call and didn't answer as soon as I saw "Private" come up on the call display. It can only be one person calling if "Private" comes up, Monique from scheduling. We're on a first name basis and I know all about her kids and we've never even met, that's how often Monique from scheduling calls me. Anyways, so my cell phone wakes me up after an awesome 6hrs of sleep and I can't go back to sleep so I figured what the hell might as well go to work but I cheated and told them I couldn't be there till 11am cause I had an appointment, total lie but they're desperate for staff so I'm going to take advantage and have a lazy morning. I really should have taken the day off today since I rarely get days off anymore but hey...all in the name of Vegas baby! After working today I'll have made an extra $234.29 to spend at Victoria Secret. We leave in 14 days! 2 weeks!!!! Oh crap, know what I just realized?? Today is Friday the 13th and I'm leaving the house. The most accident prone, looking for a place to happen girl, is leaving the house on Friday the 13th. Oh well, I've already broken my neck once so I guess I can't do it again and really it can't get much worse than that, other than actually dying of course but I've proved that I have at least 9 lives, nevermind that I've probably used 5 of them. Speaking of my broken neck my massage therapist (yep I have my own massage therapist who I see once a week) says that we're making great progress. Yesterday she worked on breaking up the scar tissue around the plate and screws. Holy cow, let me tell you, what a weird feeling that was. Only slightly painful depending on where she pressed but before I started with the weekly massages my entire neck, from the base of my skull down into my shoulders felt like it was one solid piece. So yesterday I was lying on my back and she had my neck in her hands pressing on each of my vertabrae and I could actually feel them move! It was so weird. It was like bend, bend, not bending, not bending, not bending then bend. I could totally feel where the plate was when my neck wouldn't bend. It was only slightly painful but apparently that's a good thing although this morning it feels like I've had a major workout at the gym, which we all know hasn't happened in months and months, but she says it's good to be sore the next day cause that means the scar tissue is breaking up. So now all my pseudo muscle definition in my back and shoulders is going away cause she's working out all the scar tissue that was keeping my muscles so tight! Now I look like the unfit blob that I am! I guess that's the price I have to pay to be able to move my neck :) I'm going to see a neurologist next month too which is pretty exciting. He's going to do some nerve pathway studies (sounds kinda scary) to try and figure out where the numbness and tingling is coming from. I'm hoping that it's just from the tight muscles compressing the nerves and not from the actual fusion site. If it's from the actual fusion site I'm facing the choice of having decompression surgery on the nerves or living with it but because of the lawsuit I'll likely have to have surgery to prove that I've done everything I possibly can to get better. Cross your fingers for me that it's just from the muscles cause I don't think I can go through another sugery. Although decompression surgery isn't nearly as involved as the one I've already had. Any surgery from this point on would be a walk in the park. I'd better have some breakfast and get ready to go to work. Have a good weekend!

Extended Turkey Weekend

Since Sue and I both worked all weekend we're extending the holiday to Saturday when we'll finally get a chance to cook our turkey. They were 99 cents a pound at Safeway! I almost feel like I should have stocked up! If only I had more freezer space I would have! Turkey dinner is my absolute favorite! Especially our 'special' mashed potatoes that only mom, sue and I know about ;) Shhhh.....don't tell the family secret! Sue's friends Jake and Kim are also going to be here from Kamloops this weekend so we'll even have company for our turkey dinner.
Holy cow! I'm watching the news and a teenager in Quebec threw a house party this weekend while his mom was out of town and totally trashed the house. Almost $40,000 in damages and the mother pressed charges against him and rightfully so in my opinion. They have no furniture and basically only a frame of a house to live in. That must have been some house party! What's wrong with kids these days?!?!
I'm leaving for Las Vegas in 16 days! I'm sooooo excited. It's going to be warm and I plan on spending a lot of time soaking up the sun by the pool. We're going to take in all the sights, all the free shows, check out all the hotels and of course all the shops during the day and all the bars at night. It's going to be so much fun.
Mom, I know you're dying to hear about the weather and guess what?.....it's just like autumn here and no, we don't have any snow. It's chilly in the mornings but warms up by afternoon. Although the snow line is coming further and further down the mountains towards town so it's coming soon. It's really quite pretty here this time of year. The mountains are all snow covered the air is crisp and the sky is clear blue.

Is it really true??

am I really coming to the end of all my computer problems?? Not quite...almost...but not quite. Here's the problem. I finally have both my laptops at home and now I'm trying to set up the wireless router. It seems to be working on the HP but I can't seem to log into it on the Mac. It gives me the option of logging into it but then asks for my password and I enter what I think should be my password but it says it's incorrect. I don't get it. I'm positive that I'm using the right password but I guess not and I don't know how to change it. Anyone know how to change a password to a wireless internet connection?? I can't figure it out and when it comes to computers my brain turns into knots and I want to throw things I get so frustrated. Help me!

Love this time of year!

This is my favorite time of year. The leaves are either completely yellow or fallen off the trees, the mountains have snow but the sky is blue. I love Canmore!

Almost there....

I'm getting closer and closer to feeling comfortable calling myself an ER nurse. I'm LOVING it. I passed the ACLS (Advanced Cardiac Life Support) course this weekend. That was a HUGE stress and weight off my shoulders. It was a hard course and even at the end I wasn't all that confident that I'd pass but I did! I scored 88% and 85% on the written tests and a 'pass' on the 'mega code' That's all I needed. Now I'm certified to care for all cardiac patients and run a code (cardiac arrest) when a doctor isn't there, I'm in charge...ordering drugs, defibrillating...just like on ER. The only thing that I'm not certified to do is intubate adults which is silly cause I'm certified to intubate babies which is WAY harder than adults but that's ok cause I'm not all that eager to do it anyways. I worked the last 2 days in emerg, still orientating but pretty much doing everything on my own and just having someone else there to ask questions when I need to. I have two more evening shifts orientating and then I'm on my own in the ER next Tuesday night!
So far our condo hasn't sold yet. They've showed it to a few people but in my opinion it's overpriced. We talked to our landlord about it though and he assured us that if and when it does sell they'll do their best to find us a new place and likely even in the same building so we're ok with that.
I have the next two days off and I'm so excited. I have no idea what I'm going to do but hopefully I'm going to sleep in tomorrow!

Much improved

After a rocky start to my week, I'm happy to say that it has only improved. I'm heading into my last weekend of night shifts at the Foothills and I couldn't be more excited. Any shifts I book there now will be on my own accord. Even though I absolutely love, love, love my job at the Foothills I'm really looking forward to the new learning opportunities that the Canmore hospital is offering. I'm currently preparing for the ACLS (Advanced Cardiac Life Support) course at the end of the month. It's proving to be more challenging than I had expected. I don't know if it's the course material that's so challenging or the fact that my study skills aren't what they used to be. I still have 2 more weeks to prepare so that's what I'm going to be doing in most of my spare time. It's a $450 course, that the hospital will reimburse me but only if I pass so I can't afford to fail this one! I start my orientation in the ER on Tuesday. I'm so excited about it. I've always wanted to give the ER a try and no better place than a rural hospital where you're resources are limited so you have to be that much more on the ball with your assessments. It's going to be great, I can't wait!

What a day.....

What a day I'm having...and it's only 9am. I'm starting to think that I should have stayed in bed this morning. I got up at 7am prepared to go to the classroom orientation session at the Canmore hospital. The educator, that I've been trying to reach for a week, finally calls me at 7:50am, as I'm on my way out the door to tell me that I don't need to attend today. That's when I should have gone back to bed but since I was up I figured I should get some studying done for the ACLS course I'm taking in a few weeks. So I head off to Starbucks to get in some quality study time. When I was in university the only place I could actually study without being distracted was Starbucks. So I get there and I order my usual triple shot vanilla latte and settle into a table in the corner. Oh I forgot, before I went to Starbucks I went to the bank and decided to actually go into the bank rather than go through the drive-thru. I go to all the work of parking and walking into the bank only to find that that one machine they have is out of order. I walk all the way back to my car, get in and go through the drive thru where someone has ripped all the envelopes out of the envelope thingy so I have to actually get out of the car and find a suitable envelope off the ground to be able to deposit my cheque. Then I find out that the bank took out my car payment for my Civic by mistake so now I still have to deal with that today. Ok, now back to Starbucks. Since I was staying I asked for my latte in a mug, well what did I get, a to-go cup. Not a big deal but one more thing to add to my list of "things gone wrong" today. Then my latte tasted funny. Not sure what was wrong with it, either too much vanilla or they had previously used the milk container for soy or whole milk and then added skim, it tasted weird, and trust me, I've had enough of them to know what they should taste like, I can tell when there's something off about it! Don't mess with me and my latte!! So I've been in Starbucks for an hour tediously going over the ACLS textbook trying to stay awake and interested when I'm accosted by a group of about 10 mothers celebrating their kids return to school. The all piled into the table next to mine, even though there were other available tables and not only did they pile around the table, they completely blocked me into mine. There was no escape! I can usually concentrate really well at Starbucks but when you're surrounded by 10 mothers shouting at eachother about which class little Johnny was in and which teacher little Jane got stuck with this year and who was with their friends and who wasn't and who got stuck in a split class and who had male teachers who never take the effort to plan social activities so now the mothers would have to volunteer and if they want their children to have social activities then they'll just have to plan everything themselves....it went on and on and on.....and I'm blocked into my table with a little boy on the other side of me swinging his feet off his chair and inevitably kicking mine....I had to leave....but I was stuck! I packed up my stuff and no one even noticed that I was trying to get out until I loudly pushed my chair back, stood up and excused myself from their group. How rude! They were probably thinking the same thing of me but whatever. I was there first and they totally took over my space, not to mention that they blocked me into my space, when I was obvioulsy trying to study. I understand that Starbucks is a public place but come on people, have some respect for other people's space. I didn't want to go home because the house is a mess and that would only aggravate me further so here I am at the internet cafe which is blissfully quiet except for the girl across from me who keeps staring at me, what's that all about, is my hair sticking up? i don't think so...what's her problem? ARAGH. So even though I have internet at home now, here I am spending money on internet and getting stared at by a creepy girl just to stay away from my messy house, where's the logic in that? I think I'll go to Beamers, my other favorite coffee spot, get a matcha latte, some breakfast and try to do some more studying. I can't believe it's only 9am. What will the rest of the day have in store for me if this is the way it's started? I shudder at the thought. Wish me luck I think I'll need it.

Still Offline

I took the HP into Future Shop yesterday to see what they could do to fix it and it's going to take at least 2-3 weeks! The good news is that it is still covered under warranty if there's anyting wrong with the hardware. I think it's just a virus but who knows how much damage it's done. I feel so disconnected without my computer at home!

Nothing new happening lately....I bought 500 thread count bed sheets and it's like sleeping in a cloud of softness. When you have the bed of champions you have to have the sheets to match. It's tough getting out of bed now. God, that can't be the most exciting thing happening in my life lately! That's pretty pathetic. Ummm...there's gotta be something else...I worked overtime yesterday and we had 18 empty beds. I don't think I've ever seen that happen. It was the easiest overtime shift I've ever had. I hope it's like that next week cause I've got 3 shifts scheduled. Sue and I watched Texas Chainsaw Massacre tonight. It was gross, disturbing and too graphic and the fact that it's based on true events just creeps me out. I'm supposed to be studying for my ACLS (Advanced Cardiac Life Support) class that I'm taking in Sept but I'm procrastinating. It's just like I'm back at school. I used to be the master procrastinator and it's all coming back to me full force. It's going to be a tough course I should really be studying. Instead today I went to Banff, have been here twice today to check my email, went grocery shopping, cooked a casserole for my lunches next week which I havn't done in months and months, watched a movie, went out for a candy run, did laundry, had a bath and I think I might have read 5 pages of my textbook. Aragh....I guess I better go home.

Computer problems

The seemingly neverending computer battle rages on.... The PC now has a virus, for sure, and isn't working and the Mac is still being fixed in Toronto. I have two computers and neither one is working...what are the odds? It would only happen to me. So I'm going to be offline for a bit. I'm at an internet cafe right now and will try to get here as much as I can to keep you all posted on my life but no guarantees how often that will be. I can still check my email at work but likely won't have time to write too many so keep em coming but don't hold your breath for a quick response ;)

Let's see...what's new lately...

My friend Liz and her family were here for a short visit last week. It was great to see Liz, Justin and Hunter again. They introduced me to Bohnanza (I think that's what it's called??) It's a great game! I really enjoyed it, not to mention that I won! Yep, that's right Jen! I won! I think they took it easy on me though. It's too bad we couldn't spend more time together but unfortunately I had to work the next day. Work always gets in the way of having a real life! Gotta do something about that. Better start buying lottery tickets I guess.

Work is great though. I'm really lucky to be one of those few people who can genuinely say that they love their job. I hate having to get up at 4:30am when I work days and I hate having to stay awake all night when I work nights but when I'm there I really love what I do. It helps that I've had some really cool patients lately too, they make the days fun. I'm finishing out my last few weeks in Calgary and then I start my job in Canmore on Sept 19 (Sue's birthday!). I've completed my orientation to the Acute Care ward at the Canmore hospital and so far it's really great. They have a very knowledgeable staff and a lot of them are around my age so it's fun. They've been really good about offering education opportunities and I'm already registered for the Advanced Cardiac Life Support course and there's a few more coming up this fall/winter that I'll be able to take. There's lots of courses for pediatric emerg and trauma nursing so I'm excited about that.

My new car is still AWESOME! I'm really, really enjoying it. I think I made the right choice between the Vibe and the Matrix cause now I see the Matrix's on the street and I really like the look of the Vibe a lot better. It's an awesome car. I'm so happy with it. I'll post a pic somtime. Just gotta take on first!

Sue and I spent the day in Calgary today trying to get some stuff done but nothing seemed to work out the way it should have. Although, Sue was successful in getting new tires for her car and we got a water cooler that we've been needing for a really long time so I guess it wasn't all a loss. We were going to go to Ikea to get some shelves to hold our DVD collection but were too tired to drive to the other end of the city and decided to just come home and deal with that another day. Our DVD collection is way over 100 now and we desperately need better storage for them. Or stop buying DVD's, one or the other. There's a movie store in town that sells previously viewed DVD's for super cheap, 5 for $25. Not to mention that we're still addicted to eBay and buy movies there too. I recently bought Hotel Rwanda, my favorite movie of all time, on eBay for $1.99!

That's all for now....

Major Update!

Alright, back by popular demand.....my old blog! People didn't like that you couldn't comment on the other one so I'm back to posting here. I'll try to keep this short but there have been some major developments in my life the last month or so since I've posted here.

First of all, my new computer, the Mac, crashed not even a month after I bought it. Unbelievable eh? Actually it didn't crash the backlight died on the screen so it would turn on but I couldn't see anything. Luckily it's under warranty so it's off being fixed as we speak. What's even more unbelievable is that my old PC laptop that I thought had crashed, hence the reason why I bought the Mac, is now working again as though nothing was wrong with it! So now I have two laptops! I must say though that I do prefer the Mac to the PC so I'm eager to get it back up and running.

I got a job at the Canmore hospital! My temporary position at the Foothills in Calgary is ending in a few weeks so the timing couldn't be better. I started orientation last Thursday and so far I'm really enjoying it. It's a small hospital so I'll be working in all areas, acute care, emergency and labor and delivery. I'm feeling much more confident in my skills and knowledge than I had expected to feel. I was nervous because I've become so specialized in postpartum and now I'm back to medical, surgical, cardiac, psychiatric, palliative, everything patients. I havn't started my ER orientation yet and that's the area where I'll need the most orientation since I've never done it before. I'm really excited about being in the delivery room again. It's been a long time since I've been in a delivery but I seem to know more about it than some of the people orientating me! I guess my postpartum/antepartum knowledge does transfer over somewhat. So I know own a permanent 0.70 part time position. I've never, in my almost 4 years of nursing, had a permanent job in the hospital. Just another reason why I should stay in Canmore forever! I love it here and now that I have this job, I have no reason to leave.

I bought a new car! I traded in my 2002 Honda Civic for a brand new 2006 Pontiac Vibe. I pick it up tomorrow. There were a lot of factors contributing to the decision to trade in and it was a tough one but I'm happy now that it's all over. I tried to sell it privately but didn't get any interest so I relented and traded it at the dealership. I know I didn't get what it was worth but I didn't do too bad either considering all the km's I put on it commuting all these years. So now in 5 years, if I'm unable to work at least I'll have a 4 door, practical vehicle paid off so it will be one less payment that I have to work for.

I've started physiotherapy for my neck. It's going to be a very, very, very long process and after a few weeks I havn't felt much improvement but I'm still optimistic. I had an x-ray done and it was "normal" well except for the metal plate and screws in there but at least there's no degeneration of my vertabrae below the fusion. That's the risk in the future, having the rest of my neck degenerate because it's compensating for the loss of motion in the upper half of my neck. So we're working on loosening my mid/upper back so that it's compensating for the fusion rather than my neck. It's tough and I have a lot of stretching exercises to do. I've lost pretty much all deep muscle function in my neck so my jaw, traps, shoulders and accessory muscles are all compensating for that loss which is why I'm so sore all the time. I need to build up as much of that deep muscle as I can as well as learn how to fit my limitations into my natural environment. Right now we're still in the very basic stages of loosening my muscles that seem to be tense from my head to my butt and getting more range of motion out of my lower vertabrae. So I'm doing physio 3 days a week and massage therapy once a week. For $800/month in rehab expenses it had better work but really, at this point, I'd pay anything to get my active lifestyle back.

Let's see what else is new with me....that's pretty much the highlights, life is good.

New computer!

My computer crashed on Tuesday :( So I bought a new one! I was thinking of getting a new one anyways and I ended up getting the Mac that I had been looking at. You can check it out at futureshop.ca or on a post I made a few weeks ago. So far I'm really liking it. It is a lot different than operating Windows so I went to the library and got Mac for Dummies. The guy at Future Shop says that it takes a few months to really get used to operating a Mac. The multimedia options are awesome! I even have a built in WebCam. I bought Microsoft Office for Mac so it's compatible with microsoft documents. Pretty cool eh? The only downside is that I had to buy the display model because it was the only one left in the entire province. The techs were supposed to reprogram it for me but something went wrong and now everything I try to do asks for a password that I don't have. They don't know what happened and can't fix it with me over the phone so I have to take it back in tomorrow to have it fixed properly. As long as they can slove the problem, I'm happy.

Happy Canada Day!

Happy Canada Day! Ok, I realize that I'm a day late but I've been working nights and when I work nights everything in my life other than work seems to happen a day later than it should. It's the "Night Shift Syndrome" Other symptoms include extreme mood swings, nausea, feeling as though you're on another planet, a level of fatigue that is unexplainable, complete loss of the english language and vocabulary, low self esteem (why the hell do I do this to myself, I'm a complete idiot), hate your job, hate yourself, hate everyone you work with (part of the extreme mood swings), complete loss of social/home/family life, extreme cravings for anything deep fried and unhealthy and when those symptoms become too much to handle there's always....career change. Fortunately I'm not there yet. I'd like to pay off the student loans for this career before starting another which means more student loans and more night shifts to pay them off. It's a never ending cycle, black hole, abyss of night shifts.
Anyways, back to Canada Day! I hope you all had fun celebrating the birth of our country. I was at work, of course, but we all gathered in the kitchen to watch the fireworks which were actually pretty good this year. It's a good thing the people I work with are like family to me otherwise I'd be a lot more upset having to be at work on a holiday. Actually, it's not a good thing that they feel like family because that means I'm spending too much time at work! Speaking of which, I have to get ready to go!

Everybody wants me....

I think I made the right choice when I decided to be a nurse. I'll never be short of work, ever. I worked 12hr nights all weekend and got home this morning feeling like a zombie, barely took my shoes off before falling into bed and when I woke up 6hrs later I had three messages from the staffing office asking me to come in for overtime. Days, nights, evenings, 8hrs, 12hrs, whatever I wanted for the rest of today and tomorrow. My 0.5 position is perfect cause extra shifts are double time so I'm making full time wages but not working full time. Why didn't I figure this out sooner? I've been busting my butt for the last 3 1/2 years working full time when I could have been less than full time but still getting paid as though I were. There's a few of us 'young ones' at work who have dropped to part time over the last few months and we're all kicking ourselves for not doing it sooner. It makes much more sense So I'm working 3pm-7pm on overtime tomorrow and told them that if they needed me to extend to 11pm I could do that too. A four hour shift really counts as 8hrs but it's only 4! This is so exciting and I got a raise too, well sort of $0.68 a hour or something like that for my third year of service! Yippee. Only 6 more years and I'm at the top of the payscale, halfway there! It's been a good day for me It's a good thing I can get so much overtime to combat my eBay addiction. I need to go to work so I'm not on eBay bidding on things that I'd never normally buy Stupid eBay!

Thinking of buying an Apple

I'm thinking of buying an Apple laptop. Anyone know anything about them? I like the features it offers for photos and such. This is the one I'm thinking of:

http://www.futureshop.ca/prodlink.asp?P=0665000FS10075463&L=EN

Check it out. Feedback would be greatly appreciated as I know next to nothing about computers.

Quick trip home

I finally got to go home this weekend! I havn't been to Kamloops since last October and even though this was a really quick trip I'm so glad that I went. I left Canmore on Thursday morning at 7am, drove to Sicamous and met my mom and Sue at mom's house, changed cars and drove to Kamloops just in time to see Steffie and Maureen graduate from university. I was so neat to be able to be there. Steffie and Maureen have been close family friends for the last 17 years. Steffie is like another little sister to me and Maureen is the strongest, most inspirational woman I know. It was so great to see them walk across that stage and accept their degrees that they have worked so hard for and how cool is it that mother and daughter are in the same university graduating class! After the ceremony we met up with Niki who I don't get to see nearly enough of so it was great that she was able to come see us. Then we headed back to the Rothman's house for a celebratory BBQ and then back to Sicamous that night. It was an exhausting day having spent 8hrs in the car but well worth it. It's always a blast from the past going back to Kamloops. It feels like a lifetime ago since I actually lived there even though technically it's my 'hometown' So much has changed and yet so much has stayed the same. We drove by the house I grew up in and they painted the garage doors that used to be dark red, white. It looks terrible! It doesn't even look like my house anymore. The front door is still dark red though and Sue and I realized that we used to be the girls who lived behind the red door! (All you One Tree Hill fans know what I mean). Yesterday mom and I spent the day cleaning out my car. Holy crap! I filled her entire garbage can with stuff that I didn't even know I had in there. It was gross. It looks so good now all washed and waxed and clean. Let's see how long that lasts! Today mom made me go to garage sales with her and I managed to buy the ugliest coffee table ever to be made but it was only $10 and we needed a coffee table. Sue's pretty creative maybe she can fix it up. I better go deal with laundry since I have to be up for work at 5am tomorrow. Can't complain too much though, it's 12hrs of overtime tomorrow!

I quit my job today

I quit my job at the clinic today. I'd hit a brick wall and I just couldn't cope with the verbal and emotional abuse anymore. I am feeling so relieved right now. On Thursday I was dreading having to go to work on Monday. That's not right. I have been so stressed and worn out the last month or so because of this job, it was time for me to quit. I left letters of resignation for all the docs explaining why I just couldn't take it anymore and apologizing for leaving everyone in the lurch. I spoke with occupational health and wellness at the hospital yesterday and realized that the clinic is within the health region so their "zero tolerance" policy with regards to abuse does apply to me. They were appalled and told me that I have every right to up and quit to get out of the situation and if they give me hassle about not giving notice OH&S will back me up. Good to know because I had to get out of there, I don't think I could have handled another day. I didn't realize just how down I was feeling until today when I decided to quit and felt a million times better. Now the plan is to pick up more shifts at the hospital which won't be a problem since they've called me for overtime 3 times just this week! I might apply at the hospital and public health here as well. I'm just going to play it by ear for the next few weeks and see how it goes.

Lazy Monday Morning

I don't remember the last time I had a monday off work. This is great! I'm so much happier with my new and much improved work schedule. This week I work Tues and Wed at the clinic, Fri in Calgary and Saturday at the clinic. Only 4 days of work and still full time hours! Fantastic. Much better than trying to fit in shifts at the hospital and working 6 days a week or 10 days straight like I did earlier this month. I think I mentioned that I picked up a 0.5 part time position on my unit at the Foothills?? Anyways, I did, and I start on Friday! It's a temporary position until September, 12 hr shifts, day and nights so it works out to anywhere between 1-3 shifts a week. Then I'll fill in the rest at the clinic to make up full time hours. It's perfect for me cause I qualify for full benefits for my much needed massages and it's only until September so I can do it over the summer, see how it goes and then decide what I want to do over the winter. I'm filling in for someone who's been off with a back injury for the last year so the position could likely be extended beyond September if I want. I think she'll retire before ever coming back to her job. The commute is going to be easy this summer. It's only 50 mins, less than some people have in the city, no snow and the sun will be up when I go to work and when I come home. In the winter it sucks because it's snowy and dark both ways. I'm really excited. I miss being at the hospital with my friends, the babies, the patients.....everything. I think I'll be much happier now.

Sesame Street Presonality Quiz

You Are Cookie Monster

Misunderstood as a primal monster, you're a true hedonist with a huge sweet tooth. You are usually feeling: Hungry. Cookies are preferred, but you'll eat anything if cookies aren't around. You are famous for: Your slightly crazy eyes and usual way of speaking How you life your life: In the moment. "Me want COOKIE!"

The Sesame Street Personality Quiz

No kidding eh? I could have figured that out myself. I love cookies! I'm a natural Cookie Monster.

Trip to the Cape

I had a great 6 days visiting my Dad in Cape Cod. It was long overdue and I'm really glad I was able to get out there one last time before Dad and Candace relocate to California next week. We had a great day in Boston at the New England Aquarium and the IMAX. The aquarium was amazing. They have a huge tank in the middle, 26ft deep and 40 some odd ft across with 600 types of sea creatures. My favorite was Myrtle the 600lb sea turtle. They had 2 sharks in the tank too! Scuba divers go in 5 times a day and feed the fish. The penguins were pretty cool too. I love aquariums!


We went on a 3D African Safari at the IMAX. There were elephants, lions, rinos and leopards and it looked like they were coming right out of the screen at you. The little kids in the row ahead of us kept reaching out trying to touch them. On Sunday we went to Provincetown and had lunch and then to see the Da Vinci Code. I saw the strangest think in Provincetown. A 70 some odd year old man? woman? not sure,sitting on a chair, wearing nothing but a leopard print bikini, singing. It was quite a sight. I was disappointed with the movie. I think it was because I had just finished reading the book and of course, it was way better. They took out a lot of the history in the book and made it more for Hollywood entertainment. On Monday and Tuesday Dad had to work during the day so I spent the days at the mall and the beach. On Tuesday night Dad's co-workers at the college had a really nice going away party for him. Wednesday was a llllooooonnnnnggg day! Long flights and long hours spent in airports, it was good to be home at the end of the day. Overall, it was a great trip! Thanks Dad!

eBay Addiction

I never really understood what all the hype was about with eBay. I have friends who have bought and sold items on eBay and listened to them rave about how much money they made and how easy it was but I was never tempted to try it. Then Laura told me that she cleaned out her closet and sold all her old clothes on eBay and made $250. Well, if you've ever seen my closet you know that it's jam packed full of clothes and I only wear about half of them. It's pretty bad although I know some people, not mentioning any names Fiona, who have way more clothes than me! So I figured that I'd clean out my closet and see what I could get. Well I found 14 pairs of jeans that I no longer wear so I thought I'd start with them. So far I've only sold 6 pairs and ended up breaking even at the end of it all but it's all about creating more room in my closet so I can go out and buy more! All the jeans looked like they were brand new so I couldn't justify giving them away. Some of them I'd only worn a few times and decided I didn't like them anymore. So now I'm constantly looking around the house for more things that I can sell! Hmmm...how much do you think I'd get for Susan?! just kidding

So now that I've figured out selling I thought I'd see what I could buy. Well, never take me to a real auction cause it totally sucks me in and I can't stop. It's not even about if I want the item anymore it's about beating the other person betting against me! I do have my limits though. I'll never bid higher than what I could buy it for in the store. That would just be stupid. Currently I'm bidding on 3 really cute summer dresses and a hoodie. They're all brand new, tags still on, and super cheap! This eBay thing is great. Two of the auctions are ending tonight and I'm going to be at work so I'm a little concerned about people out bidding me in the last few minutes when there's nothing I can do about it! I have to win them! Since when did I get to be so competitive? it's so not like me! eBay is bringing out a whole other side of my personality

Wish me luck!

Bittersweet news....

It's been a bittersweet day for me. I spoke with my lawyer this morning and he's decided that it's finally time to file a claim against Melissa's restaurant for my accident. He had been waiting to hear from my docs that my neck isn't going to improve from what it is now and we have a pretty good idea what my future will look like. On the up side the ball is finally rolling on getting some compensation for my injuries, on the down side I'm not going to improve and need to get compensation because in the not to distant future I'm not going to be able to work full time anymore. I think I probably have about a year of full time work left in me. I'm working more than full time right now and I'm in pain everyday. I'm cutting back to 3 shifts a week at the clinic and I've applied for 6 part-time jobs in the Calgary Health Region (4 in Calgary and 2 in Canmore). So when it's time for me to go part-time at least I have a job within the health region with full benefit coverage. It is a little upsetting for me but I feel better knowing that something is being done about it.

It's been a month since I've had coffee! Actually, that's a lie, I had a coffee last weekend but poured half of it down the drain cause I couldn't finish it. I LOVE my matcha lattes now. I even bought some matcha so I can make them at home now! And they're healthy too! Yea me, no more coffee

I ran 5km yesterday and today. It's getting easier and easier every time I go. I think I need new shoes though cause my ankles get really sore, not to mention my knees. I love it though. Canmore has tons of trials all over town. I can go somewhere new each day. Gotta watch out for bears though. There's been warnings all over town. Cougars are what really scare me though cause you don't know they're there until they're on top of you. I havn't seen any wildlife yet. I'm taking my bike in tomorrow to get fixed up and my friend Laura and I are going to start biking home from work (Banff to Canmore) a few times a week.

Gotta go to bed. I'm addicted to the Da Vinci Code, again! I've read it once before and wanted to read it again before seeing the movie and once again, I can't put it down!

Running update...

I finally hit my stride today! It felt so good, I could have kept running forever but my calves started to cramp so I had to stop. I started at the top of the Three Sisters (the housing area, not the mountains) and followed the trails back down to the river, around the houses down there and then back UP the mountain. It was a brutal climb back up, my legs were BURNING! It was great. Hopefully I'll be able to walk tomorrow. I think I definately went over 5km but maybe not quite 10km. Ok, so I'm watching the news right now and they just did a story on how they're warning Canmore hikers about the increasing number of grizzly bears on the trails right now! YIKES! Apparently there's more grizzlys this year than last! Maybe I shouldn't have been out on the trials by myself today expecially with my IPod blaring. Hmmm. At least it was a fairly well populated area.

It's official...

I've decided to become a runner again. I used to be pretty good, back in the day, when I was 12, but my glorious running career was cut short by bad knees and too many other things to do. So I decided to give it another try. When I was a kid my Dad and I used to do 5km "fun runs" all the time and my mom would give me a dollar for every minute that I beat him. Well now my Dad is a marathon runner and oh how the tables have turned! So I went running twice last week and could barely walk after each time but getting started is the hardest part and the first 5 runs are bound to be brutal. I had good intentions to go more than twice last week but ended up going on a hike last Friday and then with my ear infection this week...I kind of fell off the running wagon. It was a gorgeous day today, not a single cloud in the sky, warm and sunny and it inspired me to go running. My knees were screaming at me for the first 5 mins but once they warmed up it was all good. I was only out for about 30 mins today but that was enough. I'm hoping that after the first 5 runs I won't feel like puking and having a heart attack after 30 mins. Haha. I can already feel my calves tightening up and my knees aching and I probably won't be able to walk tomorrow but I'm determined to keep at it until it stops hurting...here's hoping that one day it will!

Hedley Concert!

The Hedley concert at Wild Bills last weekend was AWESOME! Maybe even better than the Barenaked Ladies. It was the Coors Light party that night so that explains why the Hedley dude is dressed as a Coors Light Girl. I was impressed, he wore fishnet tights, booty shorts and boots for the entire concert. Sue had her picture taken with him.

My new obsession....

The Matcha Latte. Never heard of it? Well I hadn't either until this past weekend. Beamers Cafe in Canmore introduced me to Matcha Lattes. Basically it's a green tea latte but it's special because it's made with matcha green tea powder. Here's a link to a website all about it:

http://www.teacentre.ca/matcha.htm

This is why I like it the most, it's healthy. Check out the nutritional value:

• Vitamins A,B6, B-complex, C, E, K, niacin, folate, riboflavin, thiamin
• Trace minerals calcium, magnesium, copper, iron, zinc, potassium, phosphorus, sodium
• Rich source of L-theanine & amino acids which improve calmness, mental alertness
• Strong blood detoxifer and alkalyzer due to high chlorophyll content
• 70 times the antioxidants of orange juice,
• nine times the beta carotene of spinach and 4 times the beta carotene of carrots
• Extremely rich in polyphenols (antioxidants) and catechins, especially epigallocatechin gallate ( EGCG )
• Boosts metabolic rate by 35-40% in regular drinkers, thus assisting in weight loss

You have to try it!

You've got to be kidding me!

Ok, remember how I said, snow is ok as long as it's not here for Easter Weekend?
Well, it's freakin' snowing! Unbelievable! It's not sticking to the ground at least but it's still snowing!

If your favorite NHL team was a movie, what would it be??

I thought this was kind of fun especially now that the regular season is coming to an end and playoffs are going to be starting soon. Go Flames Go! #1 in the Western conference. I'm not really a flames fan but you have to cheer for the "local" team and Jerome who used to be a Blazer! So I picked a few teams who I know are some favorites for the people who read my blog.

Vancouver
Movie: Failure To Launch
Summary: A big-ticket, big-name team panders to its ego and meanders through the second half of the year, more than likely resulting in the Canucks missing the playoffs.
Real Review: "How, exactly, did an idea with this much star power...manage to misfire?" -- Peter Howell, TORONTO STAR

Toronto
Movie: Sliding Down
Summary: A documentary whose subjects begin the film on an icy peak, only to see things go downhill from there.
Real Review: "I have a sneaking suspicion that [this] is a huge put-on, the latest jape from Christopher Guest and his merry band of mockumentary tricksters." -- MaryAnn Johanson, FLICK FILOSOPHER

Ottawa
Movie: Take The Lead
Summary: A suave and debonair teacher (er, Bryan Murray) shows a group of youngsters how to set the stage on fire with slick moves and various combinations of "jazz hands".
Real Review: "An unabashed crowd pleaser that gets the job done." -- Steve Schneider, ORLANDO WEEKLY

Colorado
Movie: Rocky Road
Summary: The Avs' season was cruising along swimmingly until GM Pierre Lacroix rolled the dice in a big way, acquiring highly paid underachiever Jose Theodore from Montreal. Now there's no assurance the team will even make the playoffs.
Real Review: "May have been created out of good intentions, but then again, there's that old adage about a certain road being paved with such intentions." -- Ted Murphy, BASELINE.HOLLYWOOD.COM

Calgary
Movie: Blood Work
Summary: Flames coach-GM Darryl Sutter demands two things from his players, both of which can be found in the title of the movie.
Real Review: "Populated by hard-edged characters who brighten up a somewhat mechanical plot." -- Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter

I don't know what happened to Colorado this year. Disappointing. Alex Tanguay, let me down :0( All the years I supported him as an unsung hero....
And Vancouver! So much talent gone to waste. My two favorite teams....
At least Ottawa is doing well but then you can always count on Ottawa to do well.

SNOW??!!

I always sleep with my bedroom window open a little and I woke up this morning thinking "it's freaking freezing in here!" So I open my blind to close the window and everything was white! I thought it was spring! It's been warm and sunny for the last week and then all of a sudden we get winter again! I guess that's what happens when you live in the mountians. I'd forgotten that winter can come and go until June. The snow was gone by the end of the day and it had warmed up but is still kind of raining on and off. It's supposed to warm up by the weekend again. As long as we don't have snow for Easter Weekend!

My Coffee

Look at how cool my coffee looked this morning! Coffee...amazing in so many ways!

I'm off to Calgary today to do a little essential shopping and then I'm working at the hospital for 4hrs this afternoon. I figured since I had to go to Calgary anyways I might as well work a few hours and make some money! I'm planning a trip to Ireland and Italy this fall and this time I'm really going to do it so everything extra I make at the hospital is going into a separate account designated for my trip! I'm super excited.

Yummy Yogurt Pops!

These have been a favorite of mine since my mom used to make them for me as a kid. They're soooo goood.

You need:

1 box of Jello powder
1 cup boiling water
1 cup plain or vanilla yogurt

Add the water to the Jello and stir to dissolve then add the yogurt and mix thoroughly. Pour into popsicle mold and freeze. Run popscicle under hot water to remove from mold.

Enjoy!

Thimerosal and the Influenza Vaccination

Questions & Answers: Thimerosal-Containing Influenza Vaccine

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/qa/thimerosal.htm

What is thimerosal?
Thimerosal is a very effective preservative that has been used since the 1930s to prevent contamination in some multi-dose vials of vaccines (preservatives are not required for vaccines in single dose vials). Thimerosal contains approximately 49% ethylmercury. There is no convincing evidence of harm caused by the low doses of thimerosal in vaccines, except for minor reactions like redness and swelling at the injection site. However, in July 1999 the Public Health Service (PHS) agencies, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and vaccine manufacturers agreed that thimerosal should be reduced or eliminated in vaccines as a precautionary measure.
Today, all routinely recommended licensed pediatric vaccines that are currently being manufactured for the U.S. market, with the exception of influenza vaccine, contain no thimerosal or only trace amounts. Thimerosal preservative-free influenza vaccines are available, but in limited quantities. The total amount of inactivated influenza vaccine available without thimerosal as a preservative will continue to increase as manufacturing capabilities are expanded.

Does the influenza vaccine contain thimerosal?
Yes, the majority of influenza vaccines distributed in the United States currently contain thimerosal as a preservative. However, some contain only trace amounts of thimerosal and are considered by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to be preservative-free. Manufacturers of preservative-free flu vaccine use thimerosal early in the manufacturing process. The thimerosal gets diluted as the vaccine goes through the steps in processing. By the end of the manufacturing process there is not enough thimerosal left in the vaccine to act as a preservative and the vaccine is labeled ‘preservative-free'.

Is influenza vaccine that does not contain thimerosal as a preservative available this flu season (2005-2006)?
For the 2005-06 flu season, a limited amount of influenza vaccine that does not contain thimerosal as a preservative is available. Sanofi pasteur estimates that they will produce 6-8 million doses of thimerosal-free vaccine this year. GlaxoSmithKline projects that they will produce 8 million doses of preservative-free vaccine for use in people 18 years of age and over. A minimal number of preservative-free vaccine may be available from Chiron late in the influenza season. Also, the nasal-spray influenza vaccine (sold commercially as FluMist®) does not contain any thimerosal and can be given to healthy people 5 to 49 years of age who are not pregnant.

Is it safe for children to receive an influenza vaccine that contains thimerosal?
Yes. There is no convincing evidence of harm caused by the small amount of thimerosal in vaccines, except for minor effects like swelling and redness at the injection site due to sensitivity to thimerosal. Most importantly, since 1999, newly formulated thimerosal preservative-free childhood vaccines (Hepatitis B, Hib, and DTaP) have been licensed. With the newly formulated childhood vaccines, the maximum total exposure during the first six months of life will now be less than three micrograms of mercury. Based on guidelines established by the FDA, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), no child will receive excessive mercury from childhood vaccines regardless of whether or not their flu shot contains thimerosal as a preservative.

Recent research suggests that healthy children under the age of 2 are more likely than older children and as likely as people over the age of 65 to be hospitalized with flu complications. Therefore, vaccination with reduced or standard thimerosal-content flu vaccine is encouraged when feasible in children, including those that are 6-23 months of age.

Is it safe for pregnant women to receive an influenza vaccine that contains thimerosal?
Yes. A study of influenza vaccination examining over 2,000 pregnant women demonstrated no adverse fetal effects associated with influenza vaccine. Case reports and limited studies indicate that pregnancy can increase the risk for serious medical complications of influenza. One study found that out of every 10,000 women in their third trimester of pregnancy during an average flu season, 25 will be hospitalized for flu related complications.

Additionally, influenza-associated excess deaths among pregnant women have been documented during influenza pandemics. Because pregnant women are at increased risk for influenza-related complications and because a substantial safety margin has been incorporated into the health guidance values for organic mercury exposure, the benefits of influenza vaccine with reduced or standard thimerosal content outweighs the theoretical risk, if any, of thimerosal.

References

Ball LK, Ball R, Pratt RD. An assessment of thimerosal use in childhood vaccines. Pediatrics 2001;107(5):1147-54.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Prevention and control of influenza; recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). MMWR 2002; 51(RR03):1-31.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Recommendations regarding the use of vaccines that contain thimerosal as a preservative. MMWR 1999;48(43):996-8.

Heinonen OP, Shapiro S, Monson RR, Hartz SC, Rosenberg L, Slone D. Immunization during pregnancy against poliomyelitis and influenza in relation to childhood malignancy. Int J Epidemiol 1973;2:229–35.

Izurieta HS, Thompson WW, Kramarz P, et al. Influenza and the rates of hospitalization for respiratory disease among infants and young children. New Engl J Med 2000;342:232–9.

Kirshon B, Faro S, Zurawin RK, Samo TC, Carpenter RJ. Favorable outcome after treatment with amantadine and ribavirin in a pregnancy complicated by influenza pneumonia: a case report. J Reprod Med 1988;33:399–401.

Neuzil KM, Wright PF, Mitchel EF, Griffin MR. Burden of influenza illness in children with asthma and other chronic medical conditions. J Pediatr 2000;137:856–64.

Neuzil KM, Reed GW, Mitchel EF, Simonsen L, Griffin MR. Impact of influenza on acute cardiopulmonary hospitalizations in pregnant women. Am J of Epidemiol 1998;148(11):1094-102.

Shahab SZ, Glezen WP. Influenza virus. In: Gonik B, ed. Viral diseases in pregnancy. New York, NY: Springer-Verlag, 1994:215–23.

More flu shot info...

Influenza is a very contagious disease caused only by the influenza virus. Other illnesses often have the same symptoms and are often mistaken for influenza. But, only an illness caused by the influenza virus is truly influenza. This is taken from the Canadian Communicable Disease Report on the 2004-2005 flu season. "Between 22 August, 2004 and 12 March, 2005, a total of 68,849 laboratory tests for influenza were reported, of which 10,319 (14.9%) were positive." Only 14.9% of people who suspected they had the flu were actually infected with the influenza virus. I get people in the clinic everyday telling me "I got a flu shot this year and I'm still sick?!" You're likely not infected with the influenza virus, you likely have a different virus or you have a different strain of the influenza virus that the immunization does not protect you from.

Influenza can lead to other illness such as pneumonia which is especially deadly in the elderly population or people with compromised immune systems, heart or breathing problems. Does that mean that if you're not living with elderly people or anyone who is immunocompromised, that you don't need the flu shot?? The decision is always yours to make but think about the people who you come into contact with everyday. Your elderly neighbor, maybe your co-worker who hasn't confided in you that he has a congenital heart defect, the 8 year old child across the street who was born prematurly and now has asthma... How do you know that you're not giving the virus to people who are at risk?

These are the recommendations that the Canadian Communicable Disease Centre made for the 2005-2006 Influenza Vaccine based on the previous years' statistics:

"The antigenic characteristics of current and emerging influenza virus strains provide the basis for selecting the strains included in each year's vaccine. NACI (National Advisory Committee on Immunization) recommends that the trivalent vaccine for the 2005-2006 season in Canada contain A/New Caledonia/20/99 (H1N1)-like, an A/California/7/2004 (H3N2)-like, and a B/Shanghai/361/2002-like virus strains. Vaccine producers may use antigenically equivalent strains because of their growth properties. The A/New York/55/2004 is antigenically equivalent to the A/California/7/2004 (H3N2) virus strain; B/Jiangsu/10/2003 is antigenically equivalent to Influenza B/Shanghai/361/2002 virus strain. The vaccines to be marketed in Canada for the 2005-2006 flu season contains A/New Caledonia/20/99 (H1N1), A/New York/55/2004 (H3N2), and B/Jiangsu/10/2003 virus antigens. Continual antigenic drift of the influenza virus means that a new vaccine, updated yearly with the most current circulating strains, is needed to protect against new infections."

We find out how correct the CCDC was in estimating the components of the influenza vaccination when the 2005-2006 report is released next fall. It is not just a "guess" as to which strains to include in the vaccine. The vaccination is created based on statistics from past flu seasons. The strains that were prevalent not just last year but years before that as well. Some strains that may have been dormant in the past, come back to haunt us again, and this time they've mutated and become more virulent. That's the problem, strains mutate and change and become more deadly each year. It's impossible to keep up with all the different mutations, it's even more impossible to vaccinate against each one. The best we can do is choose the most prevalent strains, the most deadly, the ones who are the most antigenically equivalent to other strains and protect ourselves against them. We are long overdue for another influenza pandemic and it will come but that is another topic entirely. All I'll say about that is that each year there are more and more protocols and procedures in place to guide health care professionals in identifying and coping with a global influenza outbreak. It is going to make the SARS outbreak look minor.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Yumm! I stole this recipe from one of the links on Elizabeth's blog but it's sooo good that it would be a shame not to share it with more people!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

2 eggs
1 c. brown sugar
3/4 c. oil
1 1/2 c. pumpkin
1 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 c. chocolate chips
1/2 c. walnuts, optional

Beat eggs; add sugar, oil and pumpkin. Beat well. Sift together and add dry ingredients, chocolate chips and nuts. Bake at 350 for 20 to 25 mins. Yields 16 to 18 muffins. Freezes well.

OC Update

So, for those of you who don't know, I LOVE the OC! This week's episode was sooo good that I have to tell you all about it. If you've never seen the show, first of all, your completely crazy, second of all start watching! This week Julie Cooper and Dr. Roberts (Summer dad) announced that they are engaged! Crazy! Now Summer and Marissa are going to be sisters but it's not all happy days for the Cooper-Roberts. Summer and Marissa aren't speaking because Marissa is together with Volchuk who is BAD NEWS! But she's lonely and understandably so because her and Ryan seem to have finally called it quits and now Ryan is together with Sadie. I'm not sure how much I like her yet. So everyone is concerned about Marissa hanging out with Volchuk because of her drinking problem (from last season). Ryan goes to meet Volchuk under the pier to tell him that he's not looking out for Marissa anymore and he tells Volchuk about Marissa's drinking problem and that she's drinking at school again and that if he really likes Marissa then he'll treat her right. I don't think that Volchuck has ever done anything honerable in his life though so Ryan's pleas are pretty much on deaf ears. Kirsten trapped Seth into going to an AA meeting with her where she got an award and credited her sobriety to her son, Seth. It was all very touching. At the end of the episode Marissa and Volchuk are on the beach and Volchuk offers Marissa cocaine! See I told you he was bad news. Marissa says no and storms off, only to run into Ryan at the lifeguard station who's brooding cause Sadie left town without saying goodbye. So Marissa goes off to find Sadie at the bus station and tell her that she needs to stay because she makes Ryan happy. Marissa is heart broken and upset and finds herself back at the beach with Volchuk and his friends and this time she takes the cocaine from him. Oh Marissa, you've got issues! Her parents divorced in the first season and her dad was almost thrown in jail for stealing money from his clients and this drove her to drink. Then she overdosed in Tiajuana and almost died. Then she got tangled up with Oliver and that drove her to drink more...now Volchuk and cocaine! She's a mess. Seth Cohen is still my favorite.

The harsh winter air

Winter is an especially hard time of year for our skin and we need to take extra special care to protect it from the elements. Our skin is our natural barrier from the environment. It protects our bodies from invading organisms and we need to keep it healthy. Anywhere that the integrity of your skin is compromised you are increasing your risk of infection and possibly allowing life threatening organisms to enter your body. I'm sure we've all heard stories about people dying from paper cuts, or spliters. It can happen. Although it is not the paper cut or splinter that is responsible, it is the organism that was allowed to invade the body and the paper cut or spliter simply provided a point of entry for the organism. Infection can also occur from skin rashes (dermatitis). There doesn't necessarily need to be a specific injury, such as a paper cut, to introduce an infection. Eczema is a common, winter skin problem. Here is some information on what it is and how to treat it.

Eczema

Eczema is a form of dermatitis, a skin irritation characterized by red, flaky skin, sometimes with cracks or tiny blisters. It is extremely itchy, but scratching damages the fragile skin and exacerbates the problem so it is important for people with eczema to try to leave the area alone.

There are several different types of eczema divided into two separate categories: allergenic and non-allergenic. The most common types of eczema are related to allergies. Atopic eczema is the most prevalent and it is caused by a general systemic allergic reaction as opposed to direct contact with an allergen or irritant. Allergic contact dermatitis is the result of direct contact with a contact allergen. One of the most common causes of this form are buttons and rivets in jeans, which contain the metal salt, nickel. Allergic contact dermatitis is considered a delayed-response immune reaction, because elicitation of an allergic reaction typically takes 48 to 72 hours to occur. Irritant contact dermatitis is similar, but is caused by a reaction to some chemical substance, often unrinsed detergents left on clothing or various household chemicals being handled. Often, the inflammation occurs mainly on the hands and feet.

Several other forms appear unrelated to the main allergic causes.
Infantile seborrhoeic eczema, also known as Cradle Cap, forms on the head and quickly spreads. It looks like normal dermatitis, but apparently doesn't itch and eventually goes away on its own. Adult seborrhoeic dermatitis typically affects those between 20 and 40 years old. It affects the scalp, face, and upper body. Varicose eczema occurs later in life, the result of poor circulation in the legs. Finally discoid eczema suddenly appears as small disk shaped spots of severe dermatitis, but disappear on their own. Stress and anxiety can make otherwise minor outbreaks spread in some people. The winter air because of it's low humidity is also thought to exacerbate dermatitis.

Treatments for eczema vary depending on the cause of the inflammation. Moisturization is very important as dermatitis severely dries out the skin. With irritant contact dermatitis sometimes it's as easy as changing your laundry soap or wearing gloves when using household cleaners. Antihistamines such as diphenhydramine (also known as Benadryl) can help to reduce the itchiness associated with eczema. In some cases your doctor will prescribe a corticosteroid cream such as Hydrocortisone or a topical immunodilator such as Elidel to treat eczema.

For more information on Eczema and treatments available go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eczema#Types

But remember only your doctor can properly diagnose eczema and it is important to seek a professional medical opinion.