Estes Park Vacation

We went to Estes Park, Colorado for four days! We hiked and shopped and just hung out at our cabin. This is a picture from the front door of our cabin. (I might use it as a Christmas Card!) Becky and Perry ate supper with us Saturday evening and we drove to Fort Collins Sunday evening and had supper with them. We really enjoy them! We already want to go back to Estes Park again! We love it there!

Georgia's Cat "Ashe"

This is Georgia's cat- "Ashe". Georgia is Levi's girlfriend and we are "babysitting" Ashe until Georgia can find a place to live that accepts cats. I figure we are going to have Ashe a long, long, time. We also have two other cats (Chubby and Blacky) and a dog (Joe Cocker). It is a zoo at our house! Ashe has the loudest meow!! She catches crickets and meows really loud when they quit moving. She's kind of fun...but she's also a pain! She sheds alot! And Chubby and Blacky don't like her. Joe Cocker just stays away from her, but she would love to play with him! She has pretty eyes!

Sing sing sing - Country Joe And The Fish

Why would I suddenly think of this song after about 40 years? I don't know...but I'm glad I did!

September 2010

Kansas State Football



Den and I at the football game in Manhattan-- KState vs. University of Central Florida. The game was delayed by over an hour due to the weather. We heard that the sirens went off and the clouds swirled above us but we never saw a tornado (thank God!) And we didn't hear the sirens. The game was a sell out-- over 50 thousand people there! Can you imagine 50 thousand people trying to run from a tornado?!? I don't normally go to the games but it was called Family Day at KState so I went with Den to see Levi (who is loving college life!). I took these pics with my Blackberry.





Oh, yeah, Kansas State won the ballgame! Yay!

And A Beautiful Florida Sunset!

This beautiful sunset was a Green Key Beach in Florida. Relena and I took Mom there to visit Ernie and we happpened to go to the beach at the perfect time! We were only in Florida for the weekend (got there Friday around noon and came home Monday around noon).

Sisters

When I was a little girl I used to play outside in the yard and I'd wait everyday for the newspaper photographer guy to come by and take my picture. He took Relena's picture when she was about 5; she was outside holding her puppy. (I think that was when we lived in Dodge City). And then he took her picture when she was about 8 or 9; she was riding on a sled in the winter and she was on the front page of the Salina Journal and the big heading read "Acres of Snow for an Acre!" Yes, I played outside alot, but for some reason he never came. Isn't that funny!?

Ernie, Relena and I

I just love this picture of Ernie, Relena and I with our animals! Weren't we cute?!?

KSTATE

My boy will soon be heading to K STATE! Where
have the years gone? He can't wait to go! He's
going to love it!

Kale Is 1 Year Old Today!

This is Terri's Grandson Kale. He turned 1 today! He was born 3 months early and has had 2 major surgeries in his young life. He is such a doll! HAPPY BIRTHDAY KALE!!!!

My Tornado Story

The Grand Opening of our hospital will be in March and our Hospital Administrator is putting together a booklet and asked us to write a few words about the night of the tornado. Here's a brief synopsis of my night... I worked the evening of the tornado. I walked up and down the basement hallway about 500 times I think. People were coming and going all night looking for loved ones. Alot of towns people came and went, looking for loved ones. Some people brought their dogs for shelter, some brought their children, and some brought their spouses. My family came and brought my 87 year old mother. One young lady came and was worried about her mother and almost hysterical-- I kind of had to "get in her face" and tell her to calm down because we had all of our patients (including the BHU patients) and several other people from the community there and I didn't want to get them upset and scared. I hope I wasn't too stern with her and I think it was for her own good and ours that I was firm with her. She calmed down anyway. A man came and brought his big wet dog and he didn't have a leash for him and the man was crying saying he hurt and that got the young lady going again and I was really worried they were going to get everybody upset but eventually they both calmed down. Someone made a leash out of an oxygen tube for the dog. The man wanted to stay in the bathroom and keep the dog with him there but I told him other people would need the bathroom and I helped him move the dog to another room where the physical therapy department had their whirlpool. Later I found out that other people had their dogs in that room and they weren't happy about having the big black dog brought there! Someone's dog pooped in the hallway-- the hot, crowded, trafficked hallway! Then a couple of the BHU patients decided they were getting out of there! Their nurses did well with them but somehow amidst all the congestion a man and a lady both tried to leave-- so I elicited the help of one of the men who had came for shelter and he assisted getting them back to the BHU nurse. She went upstairs and got mattresses off the beds for them to lie on which was a really great idea because people were getting tired of sitting in hard chairs and it was way past their bedtime! I assisted my mother to the physical therapy room and she laid down on one of their "tables" to rest. My sister was in a room next door taking care of a lady that had a head injury. My husband had carried a young man downstairs who had an injured back. Several people who had came for shelter lined the halls and all they could do was wait to be rescued. The rescuers came and took them all first in ambulances, I believe, to surrounding hospitals. I told the rescuers we were all OK and they said they would come back later for us. Dr. Kibar came to the hospital when he got to town that night (it's my understanding he was out of town) and he went to each of our hospital patients and asked them if they were OK and if there was anything they needed. Dr. Maalouf worked at the triage areas at Dillon's parking lot. Chris Gardiner was our "on call" Provider for the night and he had came to hospital and went to work immediately even though his house had just been blown away by the tornado and he and his family had climbed out of the debris. And, it is my understanding that Nancy Kisner and Jonell Sirois worked all night at the triage area also. All of our hospital patients were transferred by ambulances to other hospitals. Chris wanted a nurse to go with all the patients and we (Chris and I) thought they were all going to one place but it turned out they took everyone to different places and my patient, my mother and I ended up in Coldwater. At 4am I realized I was stuck in Coldwater with no phone, no money, no pills for my elderly mother and no bed for my mother (since she wasn't a patient they didn't have a bed for her because they needed to save the beds for the sick and injured). I called my son's mother-in-law and awakened her to get his phone number and fortunately he was in Pratt (headed back to Wichita after assisting around town where he could) and answered his phone and then I lost it and cried, "Joe, I'm in Coldwater with Mom and I don't know what to do!" to which he replied "I'll be right there!" and he rescued us! Joe was my Hero that night!

Den and I

I like this picture of Dennis and I in our winter sweaters. I've been watching news shows about the Haiti earthquake. I'm just so thankful for all I have! I'm so thankful I was born and live in America.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving Everybody! I have to work Thanksgiving Day but that's OK! I leave at 2pm and go to my sister's and eat leftovers! No worries! Friday is Joe's birthday...he will be 36!
Mom leaves to go spend some time with Ernie in Florida on Friday...which is nice...'cause now I will have an excuse (again) to go to Florida to bring her home in the Spring!
I miss our big Thanksgivings that we had at Grandma's house every year-- Grandma and Mom cooking a turkey all night, lots of pies and salads, playing with my cousin Barbara Ann, Uncle Virgil making castles and moats and whole scenic land sculptures out of his meal on his plate before eating it (trying to impress us kids...I was impressed!). I guess I just thought Grandma and Mom would be around forever to make Thanksgiving Dinner. Boy, was I ever shocked first time I had the dinner at my house! Believe me, I scolded myself many times for not helping more in the kitchen while growing up! I always had more important things to do-- like watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade! I still like to watch it-- it's tradition! And speaking of tradition-- tomorrow at 8pm Levi will put Christmas music on the stereo and we will all listen to our first Christmas music of the year-- because it is tradition. Then Friday, we will go to St. John, Ks and get a Christmas Tree at Delp's Christmas Tree Farm...tradition! Tradition, tradition, tradition!

Kiowa County Wind Turbines

These are pictures I took last evening of the wind turbines they are putting up south of town.

Roses

Dennis met me at the airport in Wichita Monday and gave me these roses! They're so pretty! I had a good trip to Terri's. It was so fun to see Kale and my, how he has grown! He is a good baby and has such a sweet smile. Quinn is a good mommy. And I got to meet Kale's daddy. His name is Brad and he loves his baby. Now I need to stay home for a while and get some work done in my house-- you think that will happen?!?

Quinn, Kale, Terri and Me

Kale and his momma Quinn

Guess where I'm gonna go? Yup, to Roscoe, Illinois to see Terri and her little baby grandson Kale! I haven't got to see Kale since he was a little tiny preemie in the hospital! Now he doesn't even look like a preemie! See you later!

Halloween 09

Here's a scarey picture of Levi and I. Greensburg had a trunk-or-treat for the kids and Den and I dressed up (Den sqeezed into an old baseball uniform) and walked around. Levi and his friend Tim went as The Blues Brothers. This is not a good picture of Levi. I had told him not to squint because he squinted in the first picture! (I usually say Levi can't take a bad picture, but this one just isn't very good!)

I have to show off my pretty little great-neice Camille and her little brother Taden. Aren't they cute?!

Old pics of Mom and Dad

These are pictures of my mom and dad when they were in their early 20's. Dad always wore long sleeve shirts because he was a "tube bender" and worked over hot flames (he made neon signs). He also always wore a shirt with a pocket-- always. He carried pens and pencils and a pack of cigarettes in that pocket. He smoked like a train until Levi was a baby then he quit cold turkey. Never smoked again. Thank God! It was a answer to prayer! I hated taking Levi to their house when Dad smoked 'cause he would wreek of smoke (and so would we of course) . Dad also use to drink and quit that when Joe was a small child. We use to find liquor bottles in the tank of the toilet or in-between the towels in the bathroom when we were kids. I was so suprised when I got older to find out people kept alcohol in plain sight in cabinets in their homes! It's sad that none of us ever learned the tube bending technique. Dad could make anything out of glass. He made two beautiful doves for our church-- they had been broken by hail before the tornado and were waiting to be repaired but you know the rest of the story. I don't have anything neon that Dad made but I think Relena has a neon cactus. I miss my Dad-- he was a good guy and had a good sense of humor and would do anything for anyone if they needed help. He had alot of common sense. My Mom used to complain about his smoking (everyday) and when he quit I told the people at our church there had been a miracle and a wonder with Mom and Dad-- the miracle was Dad quit smoking and the wonder was it took Mom three days to notice! Dad was a WW2 Vet. He is buried here in Greensburg.

Karen

I lost a friend last night. She was a nurse at our hospital and her Mother is a nurse here too.

She was such a sweet girl, and such a good little nurse. I will miss her. Goodbye, Karen.

Ernie, Relena and Me

Weren't we just the cutist little kids? Ernie and his dog, Relena and her goose, and I and my cat! I think the picture with just me is from kindergarten. Isn't it odd to just look at a picture of yourself of when you were young and think back to what you thought of yourself and about what you'd been taught? I was usually a happy child.

Here are some pictures of Relena and Jake and their family. This is Laura and 3 of her children (she has 5).

This is Darline and Relena.

This is Ashley and Taden (her sweet little boy!). She also has Camille (her beautiful little girl!) and is married to Trent.

Ashley, Relena and Camille and Grandma (Mom).

Relena and Shawn.

Of course, Rocky was mentioned on another blog and I'll show his new house and a picture of him later!