Race for Red

Cardiac rocks!! I love the CPCU, Cardiac Progressive Care Unit, which is the floor I work on. Everything about it is just so great...

• Cardiac patients are the best kind to care for. We see everything from EP Studies and Ablations (cardiac rhythm stuff) to open heart surgeries.

• All the nursing staff is exceptional at caring for our patients and at being the best co-workers. There is a great unity on CPCU. Sometimes I am at work, but I feel like I am at home and it's not just because I have been there for 12 hours straight.
  

• All the cardiac surgeons and cardiologists blow everyone else out of the water at what they do. We really have an amazing Heart Services line.

As you can see, cardiac rocks! Well today, we all did something amazing. We ran a 5K to raise awareness for women and heart disease. Contrary to what some people may believe about breast cancer and other Women's issues, heart disease is the #1 killer of men AND women in the country.This is everyone from cardiac surgeon to nurse who participated in some way for Race for Red. We all had so much fun running together!
This shot is just the CPCU chicks. You wouldn't believe how many patients ask us if a requirement to work on our floor is to be a young and cute girl:) Anyways, I really do love being a cardiac nurse and never want to leave the greatest floor ever.

Race for Red was such a great cause and motivation for heart healthy living. It really is inspiring!

This is so "NEAT"!

Wikipedia says: The family Chamaeleonidae are a distinctive and highly specialized clade of lizards. They are distinguished by their parrot-like zygodactylous feet, their separately mobile and stereoscopic eyes, their very long, highly modified, and rapidly extrudable tongues, their swaying gait, and the possession by many of a prehensile tail, crests or horns on their distinctively shaped heads, and the ability of some to change color. Uniquely adapted for climbing and visual hunting, the approximately 160 species of chameleon range from Africa, Madagascar, Spain, and Portugal, across south Asia, to Sri Lanka, have been introduced to Hawaii and California, and are found in warm habitats that vary from rain forest to desert conditions. This species of sauria was first discovered by Harry H. Lethlean.

Adventures in Moab

We just love Moab. There is so much to do there and we often find ourselves taking mini vacations to Southern Utah ending up in Moab. This time around we invited my brother Robby and his wife to join us. We had a blast! We drove down on Friday morning and dropped our bikes off at the hotel in Green River. (We prefer to stay in Green River because it is so much cheaper and not far from Moab.) Then we headed out west of Moab to the San Rafael Swell. There is a GREAT hike through some slot canyons and we loved it. Here are a bunch of pictures.After the hike we went back to the hotel and soaked in the hot tub.
The next morning we loaded up our bikes and headed into Moab for some Slickrock mountain biking. We were only able to bring 2 bikes so we took turns going out onto the trails. There were some INTENSE parts, but it was the coolest bike ride I have ever done.
Here is a video from Brandon of biking out on Slickrock. There was quite a bit of steep up and down hills. Some parts were very scary and hard.

After biking we went on some unexpected off-roading in our Honda Civic in search of some great rock climbing. Here is what our car crawled through. Just kidding. It was bumpy but not that bad and we did see some real rock crawling jeeps. They looked way fun and maybe we will have to try that next time.
After a couple hours of no luck finding what we wanted and being a bit wiped out we headed home. It was an awesome vacation and a great start to the summer.

BEST HUSBAND EVER!!

I came home from work this evening to find this on my kitchen table:
My creatively, artistic and talented husband (remember this post) spent the afternoon making this for me. I always talk about the yummy fruit bouquets that my patients get and how I have to hold myself back from digging in because they look so good. Well, he made me one for Mother's Day, even though I am not a mother yet (he says that is okay and I deserve it anyways:)). Here is a close up so you can see the middle:
In case you are wondering what some of the stuff is I will explain... The colored rope thing around the bottom is a Nerd Rope because I love that candy. The blue and white snake thing circling the center is a gummi snake. The gummi snakes are always sitting at the check out counter at Macey's grocery store. Whenever we go past them I always blurt out: "I want to eat that snake." The heart is made out of fruit snacks! A part of me really wants to dig in and eat it and the other part says no because it is just SO great to look at.
Don't I have the best husband ever!/? I also have the BEST MOTHER EVER!!! Here are a few reasons why:

1) She LOVES me.
2) She sacrifices for me.
3) She rescues me.
4) She provides for me.
5) She laughs with me.
6) She raised me.
7) She teaches me everything I need to know.
8) She hugs me.
9) She comforts me.
10) She can do anything.

Happy Mother's Day Mom and BLT Mom!
We love you!!