Complete Randomness today....

I was just clicking some pictures today...Above my caramel machiatto from Starbucks...it was delicious because it had not one, not two but three shots of espresso in it...xtra caffiene...much needed.

My neighbors ladder....I think he was taking down his christmas lights....maybe...

A tree branch on my tree in my front yard. I wanted to see how far I could zoom in before the picture was blurry and it did a pretty good job, this tree branch was pretty far away...so yes this is pretty random today...

Cute Conversations that shouldn't be had...

As a nurse you get to interact with patients and hear stories of their lives and stories about their families. In the same way some patients like to hear about your life or comment on your life or your personality or your manner etc...Some patients don't say much, others say too much and some don't say anything at all. They just lay in their beds smiling or grinning from ear to ear and nodding their heads pretending they know what your saying to them or talking about.
Today I met Patient Susie (*not her real name). A vibrant wonderful lady who was an ex-nurse. She seemed like outside of the hospital and illness she would be a busy woman with lot's to do. Susie* was worried about being in the hospital and away from her family. I gathered she was the care giver in the family as seeing she was an ex nurse and nurses are caring, and nurturing. So with patients like Susie* I like to ensure they are comfortable, taken care of...mostly try to distract them so they don't think about things going on at home and can care for themselves to get themselves back to proper health. So I talked with Susie* tried to calm her nerves a little bit and get her settled into her room.
Our conversation went as follows:
Susie* - It's so nice to have such a bright young woman as a nurse.
Me- Why thank-you.
Susie*- Your smile is wonderful and encouraging
Me- Well we just want to ensure you have the best care possible.
Susie*- You have a glow
Me- Oh really?
Susie*- When are you due?
Me- (my jaw is wide open at this point...)
Me- (finding the words to say)
Me- I am not expecting
Susie*-your not expecting? I just thought you had such a glow, a pregnant woman glows like you are.
Me- Trust me, I am not expecting, just a little extra weight.
Susie*- Oh......
The conversation ended, another nurse walked in and I beelined it for the door. Guess my caring personality misled my patient to believe I was expecting because I am a happy nurse, I like to smile. A smile in my opinion brings warmth and forges a type of patient/nurse friendship that is trusting....guess I need to stop smiling so much so my patients don't mistake it for a "pregnancy glow" next time....
Luckily a few of us had a good chuckle out it and compared other stories from other nurses who experiences similar to mine with patients.

The elephant and the mouse.

I thought elephants were afraid of mice, but this elephant doesn't seem to mind that he is about to step on the mouse. Most pictures I found were of elephants running away or sheepishly hiding from the mice in their pictures. This picture made me smile and laugh...poor mouse...But sometimes I feel like the mouse in this picture...Ever feel as big as a mouse? Or feel like your going to be trampled by the elephants? It's an interesting analogy...the elephant and the mouse....

Totally true story....

This is a touchy subject for some...death and do you get cremated or buried...I favor the burial route. But this is not a blog about the differences between cremation or burial. It is a story about the funeral home starting on fire today...Well on my way home sometimes you can see the local funeral homes smoke stack billowing away, when their smoke stack billows you know what is going on. Cremation or they are warming up the oven, getting ready to cremate. On a normal day it looks like the above picture, just a small puff of smoke, nothing seriously billowing out of it. Just a normal chimney puff of smoke...nothing unusual or different than any neighborhood smoke stack. I was driving home today and saw some smoke in the air. I figured there was nothing serious going on, probably coming from the funeral home...but the problem was I was nearly four or five blocks away and the smoke was really thick, black and filling the air...As I neared closer and closer I could hear the sirens. I was suddenly halted on the road by a fireruck and an ambulance whizzing past me. Now I am a curious person...I knew the firetrucks were headed to the billowing cloud of black...But what could be on fire?

The funeral homes smoke stack was on fire...literally! (note:above picture is not actual photo from todays events but merely my portrayal of todays events.)( I did not have my camera handy when I saw the cloud of billowing black smoke or the firetruck.) I could not believe how tall and how thick the smoke was, it was a thick black dense cloud of smoke with flames of red and orange shooting up from the smoke stack. The firemen hustled around the funeral home running around and within twenty minutes it was all under control. (I know it was twenty minutes because I drove past it again later) But I never had seen such thick black smoke and shooting flames coming from a chimney before. It left me to wonder, How often do funeral homes catch on fire??

My day...

My day documented by my 5 year old...here is her view on it...we started at the park...she wanted to take a picture of the houses on the road...so she did.

Drove past the lake towards downtown....another picture, she had a few of the lake as we drove past it.

Ooohh...got to get a picture of her shoe in here....very important! She took a picture of her shoes a few times throughout the day. Sometimes you wonder what they think when they do that.

Our delicious starbucks beverages...caramel machiatto for me, hot chocolate for her with a straw! There were a few dozen pictures of her hot chocolate from different angles as well.

The barbies on the backseat in the car...they were along for the ride. She took a picture of them together, seperately, sipping her hot chocolate. Well they did come along for the day.

A view of the coulees as we zipped past them...

A street pole with a no parking sign...So as you can see, she took pictures...but really we did a whole more than spend time in the car or sitting in starbucks drinking coffee...interesting what kids see when you had them a camera...

Blog is still alive.

My blog is still alive, just a post will have to wait another day...too tired to post right now and I don't have anything to post about. We'll see what tomorrow has to bring, I feel like I have things to do but cannot think about them right now...honestly I don't know what I have to do tomorrow, so we shall wait and see what comes up...so you'll have to wait too until tomorrow because tomorrow is another day and I am too tired....

Its warm out....

Mmmm...I love a good starbucks drink. Doesn't it look appetizing? It's vibrant color and appeal. A Shaken Passion Iced Tea Lemonade is one of my favorite drinks in summer. It replaces the mocha's and the tea's and other warm beverages I consume in the winter from starbucks. It is so delicious, but quite honestly.....

I wish they wouldn't put so much ice into it...your left with 1/3 of the cup filled with ice. When you get it, it's pretty much filled to the top with ice. I did however solve this dilemma and realized I could order it by asking them to use a little ice instead of filling the cup full. But if you like steeped tea, iced tea and lemonade then you will like this lovely blend of all three. I look forward to more of these throughout the summer...I wish too they would revive their blended tangerine lemonade, that was a delicious one but it sadly was discontinued. That was another one of my favorites to drink in summer. Hopefully they'll come up with something new this summer.

Dear Peru,

Dear Peru, thank-you for your meals of guinea pig, a delicacy of sorts. A meal commonly served throughout Peru. It was tasty the last time I had it, tasted a lot like chicken. You'd walk through the markets and hear their tiny squeals coming from the sacks ladies were carrying home to serve as meal to their families. Some facts I have learned->they are domesticated for their meat in the Andes. It is a major part of the diet there....mostly because guinea pigs breed quickly and take up less room than traditional livestock (betcha didn't know that...) It is also high in protein and low in fat and cholesterols. Peruvians also consume close to 65 million guinea pigs each year. It does taste like the dark meat in chicken (see told you it tastes like chicken!) So when I return to Peru, I will forget that we keep them as pets in Canada and see the furry little creatures in our pet stores here and remember that guinea pig tastes like chicken.

Dear Peru, Your wonderful stir-fry. I look forward to trying you again. Somehow the frenchfries you incorporate into the stirfry make it all the more tasty...Surrounding the frenchfries with peppers and vegtables and meat...a savoury combination all served on a bed of white rice. Delicious.

Dear Peru, I have been trying to brush up on my spanish to place my order at starbucks...but so far I have failed. I do not know anymore spanish than when I picked up the phrase book in the first place. So when I enter into starbucks and cannot read the menu, hopefully the barista will not laugh at me for my poor spanish skills and my hand gestures motioning to the board what I would like to drink...Maybe I can figure it out on the plane there how to order starbucks in spanish...I do doubt it though...(p.s.-your valet parking is awesome...but I won't be using it)

Dear Peru, the children, their smiling faces and grins are enough to melt our hearts. I wish I could speak spanish to them but enjoy making them laugh at me. (yes, at me...)Spending time with them and letting them know that half way around the world we care and think about them will hopefully give them hope for a better future. I wish we could take them all home with us but visits will have to do. They have homes, they have families and I am sure they have joy.

Dear Peru, your culture and vividness amazes me. The culture is alive in the streets with dancing and marching bands and people dressed up. Its nice to see the diverse customs and traditions. Every town has traditions and customs of their own. Every country is proud of its roots and it does show.

Dear Peru, your scenery is extraordinary. The Andes are breath-taking (literally!) The mountains and the streams, the waterfalls and the towns. The history and the architecture. All amazing sights. The towns and the cities, all have different stories to tell...The statues scattered on the mountainsides. The monuments covering the mountainsides as well. They all tell a story. The storefronts and shops in the towns. The townsquares each with their own unique features. Lot's to see and photograph.

This post was a little long but it was just a few memories of my time in Peru...and a few little pictures of those memories.

Its been a few days...what to post today...

So I love to paint, acrylic paint is my favorite choice for paint. It either goes on thinly or it goes on nice and thick. It's a great paint to work with. So my kiddos see what i paint and want to paint too. Their choice is acrylic and canvas...the bigger the better...so I let them thinking that maybe a little bit of my artistic side has rubbed off on them...It definitely did...

The youngests choice was multicolored, every color (this is just a corner of her canvas)...golds, blues, greens, purples, salmon, pinks, oranges, yellows, etc...the canvas was littered with every color of acrylic imaginable plus some that was created mixing paints....a young bold artist in the making...

The other child chose green...painted the entire canvas this lovely lime green color...every square inch was green...I may have to work on the artist a bit more to not be afraid to use more color....But he prefers to doodle and draw and write stories and comic strips, so maybe painting isn't quite his thing...Everyone is artsy in their own way...but he is super talented with drawing cartoons...maybe a young comic book artist in the making....Who knows, but we will continue to paint, draw, doodle, create...

Hybrid vehicles.

Hybrid vehicles only...is my SUV considered a hybrid? I just thought I should take a picture of these ridiculous signs scattered at the entrances to our mall. No longer are the days of handicap parking or parents with small tots or expectant mother stalls...you have to be hybrid and be rewarded by parking near or next to the doors. They now have four spots next to each entrance dedicated to hybrid vehicles....so is that little car infront of me a hybrid? probably not...how about the big tall black truck that is jacked up next to me? probably not...no hybrid markings on either the car or the truck...so maybe they were, maybe they weren't. I think you should be given a hybrid tag to park in these stalls if your car has no "hybrid" markings anywhere. or they should just get rid of these signs and let the handicap or expectant mothers or mothers with their hands full park right beside the entrances and not the young drivers who are more than capable of walking "a few" extra steps to the doors....

Careers

I found this picture and laughed...If only being an architect were that simple...attach glasses and wa-lah your an architect! I was thinking the other day if I were not in my choosen profession (nursing that is) what would I be? And every time I think about it, I come back to being an architect. I love house designs, I love layouts and floorplans. I love thinking of how can you improve a house to make it more functional or more liveable. If you move this room here or this room there, slight improvements make a world of difference. I love the outside of buildings, the architecture of old cathedrals and castles. I love the lines and the symmetry, and sometimes even if a building is asymmetrical. Being unsymmetrical is unique in its own way. It is something that has always interested me but I am not good at math, and physics or calculus...so my dream of being an architect is just that, a dream. So that brings me to my next career choice...

If I were not in my choosen field (nursing that is), I would be an interior decorator. (The above house is just an example of an inside of a house). The colors you choose in a house are important, they invite people in, they reflect a bit of your personality, who you are. Are you bold like red or subtle like grey? Do you like to be comfortable like browns or creative like blues and greens? Color is one part of the whole package. You have the decorating aspect. What can be put onto a wall? What kind of furniture would accent your homes design? Do you go modern or traditional? Cottage country or futuristic? Is the space small or big? What would make a small room look bigger and vice versa. The interior of a home tells alot about the person living in the home and their tastes. I like taking a room and creating it into something. But again its just another thought...I have choosen my path in life and have options to branch out into. My other careers will have to wait and just be a thought for now.

Starbucks you have broken my heart...

This is a typical starbucks cup. I prefer the venti size. It gives you a little extra bang when you drink it or I suppose there is more caffeine in it which helps. I usually order a white chocolate mocha or a caramel machiatto but lately I have been drinking green teas...
There are three types of tea-green tea, oolong tea and black tea. I use to drink earl grey tea but found that had way too much caffeine in it and it would keep me awake for hours on end. So I switched to green tea. I have to admit I have never tried oolong tea and have really no idea what it is. But Green tea has a nice taste to it if correctly made. Well I got to starbucks, ordered my venti green tea and drove off with cup in hand. I didn't have time to stop and taste it, it was burning hot and so I waited a bit for it too cool down. Well I tasted it and it didn't taste quite right. It was not the sweet green tea taste that I was use too, instead it seemed a bit fruity and was a bit on the bitter side and it honestly did smell horrid. So I opened up the cup to see if it was a joke and I discovered this:

Some orangey-yellowish substance. The tea bags I took out were tea bags on the ends of strings. No label stating it was a green tea bag, just a tea bag on a string...weird...usually they leave the label on the tea bag giving something to grasp onto. Plus in comparision to the picture below...the above is not green tea. It did not taste like green tea or look like green tea should.

This picture is taken from the starbucks website...notice the greenish tinge? That would be green tea for you. In all my green tea drinking experiences, the green tea had this green hue to it. Mine pictured above did not. Therefore I am convinced it was not green tea. I was going to go back and argue for my three dollars back but I will bring it up next time and throughly inspect my green tea before driving off.

You may ask why I choose to drink green tea. Well it can reduce your systolic and diastolic blood pressure, reduce your fasting cholesterol, body fat and body weight. It is a more potent antioxidant that black tea or oolong tea is. The green tea is steamed, baked, or pan heated to prevent oxidation and the leaves remain green giving it an antioxidant effect. Green tea unless specified does contain caffeine but the number of times you use the leaves can reduce the caffeine found in it. Too much caffeine can cause frequent urination, nausea and insomnia.

So there, you have now learned why starbucks broke my heart today...but I will return because I love their coffee and green teas on a good day. Plus you have learned a little bit about green teas and their effects on the body.

Exploration of the world of blogs.

I have to admit, I like to search for blogs. I like to see how many links I can follow starting at one blog and going to the next and so forth. Lately I have been immersed with blogs from Philedelphia and New York and so forth. I don't have too many up to date blogs attached to my blog so I have to expand my search. Have to find blogs, most of which I came across by mistake but they are interesting.
I am curious as to whether or not other people read this blog. Are my family and friends the only ones? I know sometimes my posts are uncreative and boring. But that is what a blog is, a place to spread thoughts and ideas or just useless banter.
After a long day I like to sit and write, even if it is about some useless fact or about a sign I found in the bathroom. I like to keep people laughing or to be put into deep thought about some random fact I discovered and decided to write about.
So I was reading some blogs. I won't go into too much detail, as I am sure their blogs were intended for family connecting. But it's amazing how much information people are willing to put out onto the internet. Pictures of their homes, the cars they drive, pictures of their children. Pictures of their wedding days, or their times out as families. How much information can you put on a blog?
I guess too it depends on the purpose of your blog. Most blogs I am sure are for family connecting. Others are to babble, like mine...I like to talk...I like to write. I like to write, even if it is about something pointless.
I found it funny with the links some of them put on their side bars such as : Moms blog, Dads blog, sister in laws blog, sisters blog, nephews blog. There is a whole world of blogging families. I have yet though to find one linking to "grandma's blog". Do "grandma's blogs" exist? It seems blogs connected to bloggers mainly seem to stay within their own generation and their parents generation.
So I suggest if you have not, to find some new blogs and follow them or read them. There are some interesting bloggers out there. I have a few that are on my favorites list....mostly because they update almost everyday, but it's intersting to see other peoples lives. What is going on in family circles or what types of crafts people are into with their etsy shops. Yes I said it, etsy shop. It seems to be another common thread between bloggers. They blog about products or items they make or purchase and then sell online to make money in their etsy shops. Very interesting...but saving that topic for another day.
Well that is all I have to rant about for now, till next time....check out some blogs!

Forgotten picture...It makes me laugh!

So This picture is from the world of science (or science center)...I forgot I took it until I was looking for a picture to write about. It says How does a flush toilet work? Then it goes onto great detail to explain how exactly a flush toilet works...(yeah you probably could have guessed that from the title on the poster.) But I found this hilariously funny when I entered the stall in the bathroom. So I had to take a picture of it. It's funny because I found it in the bathroom stall on the wall...a little reading material I guess incase your trip to the bathroom takes awhile.

Wind storms.

This was from yesterday, from our adventure out at the farm. If you look just above the fence line on the left hand side and go towards the center of the picture, you can see all the dust kicking up in the background. The highways had patches where the dust was drifting across and with that dust, I did hear a few rocks hit my car. You could see the dust rolling up the coulees as it drifted across the highways. The further away from the highway, you could see the fields where the dust was drifting away from. The wind gusts on the highways too were quite strong. I was more worried about the semis tipping over than I was about me drifting off the highway.
It is so impossibly windy out here, this is day four or five of this terrible wind storm. I've had enough of the wind but it looks like when the wind goes away its going to get cold and rainy or snowy...some little mixture like that. You can live around this wind, but you never really get use to it ever.
Its April, I could handle the so called "april showers" but snow? I've had enough snow, this winter has been remarkably long and it's time to settle down and bring us some sunshine. Bring us our may flowers.
By the way- the cake tasted wonderful, I will have to bake another again soon...

We eat Cake!

Baked this lovely, delicious chocolate cake last night. Then the kiddo's help to decorate it. I tried to encourage them to use a few sprinkles...well kids like sugar and kids like sprinkles, so it got a little overloaded...We used purple icing as well...they weren't so excited to spread on white icing, so we dyed the white icing purple.

A close up of the sugar work...there is round circle confetti sprinkles, as well as butterfly confetti sprinkles, topped off with those little circles in an array of colors...sugar overloaded but it should delicious. I will let you know once we eat it for dessert...cake is good!

New boots...

So I decided to spruce up my green gum boots and make them girly pretty...I can understand solid greens, blacks and maybe blues for guys but girls like things that are personality driven. That make our feet look pretty. Pink hearts, yellow stars, strips or patterns like checkers. We like to have pretty boots, and pretty gum boots I am sure exist somewhere. So I figured until I find the perfect pair of gum boots for me on the farm, I would experiment and see what kind of gum boots I could design. I think I did quite a good job and i am sure somewhere boots like this exist.

These are some gummy bears I took a picture of at the science center. Pretty large, and realistic looking...And no i am not a gummy bear farmer, though I bet that was what you were thinking by the inclusion of this picture.

Attempt to be artsy.

A wall of crayons. I took this picture at the science center this weekend. It was my attempt to be artsy. I thought it was pretty cool. I should have gotten up closer and taken a more zoomed in shot of them. That's all I've got for my blog today.

Is this your puppy?

He sure is cute....but he doesn't belong to me.

He sat there, and sat there, and sat there, and sat there, and sat there, and sat there some more.....

Seriously he sat there, so I decided that I could take some pictures of the little fellow. And he just looked at me. No interest whatsoever, just this look of bewilderment.
I did name decide to call him Oscar...but he didn't respond to that name when I called him it. So I tried a few more names like Dixon, Wilburt, Izzie, Raphie...no success with any of the names I tried.
He had no tags, he was a stray dog. I came home from lunch with my mom to find my front step invaded by a little small puppy. I love dogs, I would love to have a dog. But at this point and time in my life, I have no time and it would not be fair to keep the little guy or any dog for that matter. I myself would prefer something tiny, little this little fellow. I have had big dogs before and they are definitely not for me. They take up too much space.
Anyways back to my story. I came home from lunch with my mom, he was wedged right next to my door jam, allowing little room for me to enter my house. I tried to shoo him away but he just squeaked and tried to growl at me. Not much came out of his mouth except a little yip and yap. He moved himself over. (next to the pillar in the picture). It was a somewhat warm day so he ploped down in the shade and watched me as i entered my house, shutting the door behind me.
I tried to go about my house doing things and all I could hear was this tiny squeaky puppy whining outside my front door. I felt bad for him. I would have to go to work soon and him being as small as he is, I could not just let him wander the neighborhood by himself. We have some neighbors with some big huge dogs (bulldogs). So I decided if he was going to take up residence on my front step, I would help him.
I called Animal control. I felt bad I couldn't keep him but something needed to be done. I went outside to see if he was still there and he was because I could hear him through the door. I grabbed my camera and snapped some pictures of him.
I went back in the house and opened the blinds in the window to keep an eye on the little dog. Animal control was prompt and the officer was friendly. I helped him wrangle the little dog to be taken somewhere safe for the time being.
So if this is your dog, I apologize but you should be more responsible with what you do with your puppy because I found him outside my door and there are quite the list of hefty fines you face...but that is another post for another day...