Addendum

I forgot a few items on my desk on my blog yesterday. Mary Kate came by my office and told me that I had forgotten a few items and I should add those to my list.

stapler
scotch tape
cup filled with pens and highlighters
rolodex
three-hole punch
speakers for computer
pile of pictures from trip West this summer

The charts are now fewer and I hope to clear it off more tomorrow.

My Desk

My desk at work has become progressively covered with stuff. I know that I need more space in my office to store stuff and to actually store stuff so that it is accessible to me all day.
I thought that I would describe my desk to you or more accurately, tell you all the things that are on my desk.

Two large computer monitors
one keyboard
a mousepad with a mouse
those little pads to cushion your wrists while typing and mousing
one RN magazine
two small photo albums filled with pictures of the staff at PG hospital Labor and Delivery
a large black telephone
my cell phone
my car key
parts for a spirometer
box containing a drug education program
two Bibles-one Message and one TNiV
Two framed pictures of Ava
a pear that I brought this morning
a 33 oz. styrofoam cup with ice water in it
more charts than I can count quickly
several post-it notes with things on them that I need to do
a bill from a medical supply company
a plastic lab bag
a large bottle of expired ibuprofen
3 sample packets of aspirin
a tourniquet for blood draws
a birthday card from a student worker
a very large basket filled with amazing fruit and flowers from Ann for my birthday

I know, I know....there is too much on my desk.
One day I had been piled high with charts and got to the bottom and there was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich that had been smushed. It was in the ziplock baggie and so, I still ate it. It was pretty good.

Oh, and an update from boot camp...I did all our pushups while on my toes and not my knees. I think that we did 40 but it may have been more. We probably did 100 situps. Yoga is getting easier but my favorite is Tai Chi.

Weekend

This has been an interesting weekend.
Thursday brought a fun new person into my life. We are related and so we share an ancestor, Mordecai McKinney Cox. He was ggg grandfather and her gg grandfather. I told you about him before. She had googled him and came to my blog. She lives in Scotland. She said that she had some unidentified pictures and she would send them to me. The very first picture she sent was of three girls standing in front of what appears to be an adobe brick house. The girl in the middle is holding a baby. They are not smiling but do look content. A very old woman is standing in the background watching them get their picture taken. My newfound family member in Scotland said that the woman in the middle looks like her cousins. As soon as I saw the picture I knew that the one standing in the middle was my grandmother, Nellie Anna Champion Bailey. My mother identified the rest of them. This has been so fun. Also found out that the great grandfather or possibly grandfather of Mordecai's wife, Nancy Emmaline Dodd, fought in the Revolutionary War. His name was Jesse Dodd. Can't wait to find out more.

Went to the ACU musical last night. This year they did Aida. I loved it! Jasmine, Johnathon and Jenavene were incredible! The audience was so into it and that made it even more fun.
At intermission I started talking to the girls and mentioned to them that I wished I had a mint. Just a few seconds later the man in front of me offered me a mint. I just wished and there it was. It was a fun moment. Thanks to whoever you are.
I had free tickets to the musical and they were great seats. Thanks to Donna Hester.

Tonight I walked out onto my front porch and quickly stepped back in. There was a snake on my front porch. Not a tiny snake or a huge one....but enough of a snake to startle me.

Gillian Welch

Orphan Girl by Gillian Welch

I am an orphan on God's highway
But I'll share my troubles if you go my way
I have no mother no father
No sister no brother
I am an orphan girl

I have had friendships pure and golden
But the ties of kinship I have not known them
I know no mother no father
No sister no brother
I am an orphan girl

But when He calls me I will be able
To meet my family at God's table
I'll meet my mother my father
My sister my brother
No more orphan girl

Blessed Savior make me willing
And walk beside me until I'm with them
Be my mother my father
My sister my brother
I am an orphan girl


You really have to hear her sing this to truly appreciate it. Drew gave me this CD and I am loving it. I will post lyrics to another favorite tomorrow. Go to her website and listen.

Lifehouse's Everything Skit

They showed this at Zoe. I couldn't stop crying.

Update

I haven't shared with you lately about boot camp. I am loving this class and believe that it is a tremendous stress reliever. I love being outside in all kinds of weather and I can feel it transforming my body. But I also believe that it is transforming the inside also. It is still challenging but fun. I have only missed one class since I started and I was in Nashville at the time. Thursday night there were only 3 of us and 2 instructors. It felt like we had personal trainers. I am determined to keep going....even in the cold....I will just wear lots of layers.

Ava

These are pictures from Idaho that Stacie Danley Tatum took. Stacie is so precious to me and I love that she captured something else so precious to me in her photos.

Fresh Faces

I was in a deep funk when I came home from work this afternoon. Long story that I won't go into here but let me just say that I didn't think that I would be home this afternoon.
I told you before that life has been hard lately and again, I am not going into all the reasons that it is hard right now. I was driving home from work and fighting back tears. I didn't get to eat lunch and I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in my bag and I ate my sandwich as I was fighting back the tears. Grabbed my sunglasses so that no one could see that I was crying while I was eating my sandwich.
I pulled up in front of my house and my neighbors were sitting out on their front porch. They are a vital older couple who can make me laugh. I hadn't talked with them in a long time. I crossed the street and they immediately offered me a seat and a cup of coffee. I didn't take them up on the coffee but I did on the seat. I just wanted to spend some time in their presence. They told me some stories that I have heard them tell before but this afternoon it was heart lightening to hear those words again. They talked about our street before it was paved. And how if you wanted your street paved by the city your block had to come up with the money and if one person didn't want or couldn't pay then the little section right in front of their house wouldn't be paved...just to the middle of the street. What a funny picture. They had an 11x14 black and white photo of all the children in the neighborhood. A group shot taken in a break from play, probably around 1959 or 1960...teenagers down to toddlers. They said the kids played football all the time in the yard of the house next door to ours. The little kids would stand on the sidelines and when the big kids would run for a touchdown they had to tuck a little kid under their arm and run for the end zone. I would have loved to have watched those kind of games.
Bill and Doris gave me such joy today. I needed to hear stories about yesterday and not think about today so much.
Bill and Doris and all those kids will be stuck in my head for the rest of the day....those fresh faces from 1960...the year that I was born.

Long Pause

Sorry that there has been such a long pause in my blogging. Too much to talk about right not but life has not been going my way and I am trying to deal with that with optimism. Work has been very busy. Life is hard.