Memorial

The legacy of heroes is the memory of a great name and the inheritance of a great example. — Benjamin Disraeli

One of my favorite places to visit is Arlington National Cemetery. The peace and reverence in there is overwhelming. I was honored last year to walk those grounds again. The graves were endless. They even had a funeral taking place. Fully decked out in all colors and guns. I don't often sit back and think what it took for America to become what it is. AP US History was one of my favorite classes in high school. I love the country I live in. Despite the conflicts and problems, I love being able to choose--the freedom to do what I want and become who I want to be. I know heroes come in many different forms--I am grateful for all of them.

How did I spend my Memorial Day? Where else? In the ER. We call it the beginning of trauma season for a reason. The weekend is always busy full of everything from head lacerations or massive car accidents. Tonight I put helped put together a girl who rolled her car and then was thrown from it. Poor thing was in pieces. she will hurt tomorrow. But I worked with an amazing team during that whole adventure. To be honest a lot of them are my heroes. They come in all forms. Today I honor the heroes in my life. Thank You.

Primary

Remember those days when you couldn't sit in your chair and some lady would stand in front of you with posters with words on them? Yeah I don't actually remember much of Jr. Primary. But today I got a taste of it again. I'm so glad I switched to a family ward. The bishop all but created a calling for me. With my crazy schedule I'm not the most reliable person in the world. I try to make it every Sunday but sometimes--depending on how crappy the night of work was--I just can't get out of bed in time. So my calling is a babysitter/substitute teacher. Today, I sat with the sunbeams. Four little ones with no attention span and dying to get up and run. I'm already in love with these kids. Their smiles just made my day. The Primary Presidency came up and introduced themselves and showed me around so I wouldn't get lost. In the mean time we played simon says until their teachers came. Now I just need to find a Primary Songbook to relearn all those songs. I can't wait to teach them--hopefully I get called to substitute!

Suckered

One of the more interesting part of the ER are the psych patients. These poor patients are starting weasel their way into my heart. Most of the time I just feel bad for them. They are sick and need help. Other times I want to kick them. Its a fun balance trust me. This weekend I wanted to kick one of them.

While charging one of the not fun things I like to see is 3 police officers and our security officers hanging out in my triage room. The patient was brought in and did not want to be there. I honestly don't blame the patient one bit. But hey we do what we need to.

One think about psych patients is you can never let your guard down. If you do, they will do whatever they can to escape--as we were all reminded. While I was sitting at the desk our lovely patient was at the bathroom with a tech. All of a sudden I hear a grunt and see the backside of a hospital gown taking off down the hallway. In less than 30 seconds we had her surrounded and stopped. I'm sure the security footage was hilarious to watch. It took all of us to get her on the bed and back into the room. I've just learned to not put up with that crap anymore. Once she was settled I noticed my tech was gone. Poor guy was in a room turning a bit green. I felt so bad. It should not have happened. We all laughed at it later. Guess I need to learn a few karate moves to counter the attacks. You just never know what's going to happen in the ER!

Tulips

Spring is here!! I came back from Maui to see tulips in full bloom and rainstorms! Both of which are my favorite part of Spring. I haven't been up to Temple Square in almost and year and decided there was no better location to get some pictures of tulips. Amber, Weston, Dani, Nicki, & Vi all humored me and drove up to Salt Lake with me. The biggest excitement of course was the train, but judging how wet they got from the reflecting pool, it was a close second. I loved every minute of it.

Maui

I love vacations. Though I've noticed my definition of vacations has changed since I've gotten older. As a kid it was all about the next activity. Running around; always being entertained. Now --its just the opposite. I've needed a break for a long time. Maui was calling. So I spent the last week in the sun reading, exploring, and do nothing that required stress. Each day ended with the gorgeous sunset on the ocean. Each day was spend doing what I wanted. I slept and even felt like a normal human being--shocking I know. Now I'm back to the real world, praying one day to see the sun again.

I had a blast with my new camera. I loved trying new things and playing with artistic ideas. My favorite highlights were reading 6 books, smelling the plumerias, eating chocolate, laying all day in the sun, and hiking through the bamboo forest to the monstrous waterfall. I wore my swimsuits basically all day playing in the water. Maui was beautiful and peaceful. The perfect place for me to sit back and rethink and reevaluate a lot of things. Its amazing what you discover when you shut out the rest of the world.