Foolish

Lately I've been a blanket making fool... with plenty more to come. I have several friends that are expecting babies in the next 9 months, so I've got plenty of little blankies to make. The first, though, is my sweet friend Kasi who has been trying to get pregnant for almost a decade. She is expecting little Ashton Allen in November. We threw a shower for her and this is the blanket I opted for.The quilt top

The finished project

I backed it in soft brown minky and put a sailboat in the middle to match the nautical-theme nursery.

My second blanket is actually for us. I bought this fabric around the start of football season and have been meaning to make a tie-edge blanket for awhile. Today I finally laid down the fabric, cut, and tied the edges. The whole project took me about 2 hours, but I think it turned out great. Plus it'll keep us warm at the games until the end of the season!

The front

Back in Black. (Ha! I'm funny!)

More projects to come!

Stolen Ideas

So, I'm stealing the following idea from my friend Tara. She recently did a blog series on some of her favorite people. I decided that I'm going to borrow her questions and do the same. So, without further ado I bring you my favorite person #1: My bff, Ally.

The wonderful Mrs. Allyson Lundberg Bracken and I have been friends for a long time. We met in the 7th grade (chapstick soccer, anyone?) but didn't really get close until our sophomore year of high school. We've been together through thick and thin, and seen lots of good and bad times together. From living 300 miles away, to weddings 6 weeks apart, we've seen it all. Not only is she amazingly smart and dedicated, she's wonderfully talented as well. She plays the guitar and sings in a band, she loves craft hour, and she is a decorator extraordinaire. And now, a little about Ally from the woman herself.(All comments in a different color have been inserted by me at my late-night-influenced discretion)

Where are you from?
Murray, Utah (Heck yeah! Represent!)

What do you do for a living?
I’m a process engineer for Kimberly-Clark.

What is your favorite comfort food?
Mashed potatoes! It makes my day when I walk into the cafeteria at work and see they made mashed potatoes. (Amen.)

What color is your bedspread?
Right now it’s a dark orange but soon to be white with green, orange and blue stripes on it. I can’t wait to redo the bedroom while Shad’s out of town in a few weeks. Don’t tell him – it’s a secret! (It sounds delightful. I just hope Shad doesn't read my blog...)

What book/movie has had a major impact on you?
The Pastures of Heaven by Steinbeck. It’s not only one of my favorites but it’s how I knew my husband was the one. I brought it up on our first date for some reason and not only had he read it, but he loved it and we had an amazing conversation about it.

What is your favorite word?
Ideal. I blame Ashlee. I even have Shad saying it now.

What is your best color?
I love the color Lime green but it doesn’t do much for me to wear. I’d have to say light blue or red.

What is your favorite restaurant?
Faustina in SLC. Do you think if I beg the owners, they’ll open one in Ogden? (It's possible, just don't offend the waitress by calling the baked cheese fried. She doesn't like that.)

What is one material possession you couldn't live without?
My Iphone. I seriously don’t know how I did anything without it before. So many random questions answered, to do lists organized, email anywhere, all my favorite pictures, movies and music.

Which cartoon character do you resemble the most?
I’m going to say Josie from Josie and the Pussycats. (Meow)

Why do you think I like you so much?
Because we’ve always been there for each other regardless of the ridiculous situations we’ve gotten in. We help each other laugh through problems and even though we don’t see each other often, when we do, it’s like we just saw each other the day before. (True. We should make more of an effort to get together, however.)

What is the best compliment you could receive?
When someone tells me I made their day – got them to laugh or smile or something like that.

What is your favorite memory we have shared?
I don’t have a favorite. All the time we spent together is my favorite. Reading magazines, riding in Blanche, going to shows, laughing all the time, speaking without words, visiting you in the George, hating Las Vegas but always going, Butch!, awful New Years (Too many to count, really), harmonizing in the car, hating ----- (was that too true?)(Just a little, I edited out her name to protect how others see us. Selfish? Yes. But it's my blog, so I get to decide that.), our World History project (The 80's, when the mullett was created.), watching each other have goals and dreams and then attaining them. I’m going to start tearing up so I’m going to stop but I love you! (Don't worry, I teared up too.)

What 3 words would best describe you?
Quirky, energetic and sarcastic

Seriously, does anyone doubt why we've stayed friends so long? She is my soul-sister, no question.

Shout Out

Just wanted to send a few shout outs...

The first is to Lena, who is getting ready to have her last round of chemo.

The second is to Paris, who just had her first round of chemo.

You are both awesome women and such an example of strength and perseverance! Love you both!

And lastly, one for my little brother, Elder Hatch. He hit his one year mark last week. Way to go Zig!

I'm Getting Too Old For This

So, as many of you know Steve and I (along with close to 25 of my family members and close friends) have season tickets to U of U football. Well, a few weeks ago we were all sitting around discussing this year's schedule and someone (I think it was Maddie) said, "Hey, why don't we drive down to Vegas for the UNLV game?" We all thought for a collective 3 seconds or so and said, "That sounds like a great idea! We're in!" So a plan was set into motion for a trip to Las Vegas.

As we all got looking at our schedules it looked like Steve, Kellen, and myself wouldn't be able to leave until Saturday, a day later than everyone else. So, after working all night Friday night Steve and I headed over to meet Kel and head down. 4 hours, lots of hunter-orange-clad rednecks, and one lunch break later we were in St. George. After a quick stop off at Grandma's house to watch the puppies play for a few minutes we were back on the road headed for Las Vegas.

Let me just pause for a moment to remind you all how much I loathe and detest Las Vegas. I was reminded why on this trip. We met up with everyone for a lovely dinner at the Sunshine Station buffet. I opted for salad and prime rib, followed with cannoli and lemon sorbet. Delightful! After dinner we made our way a few blocks over to the stadium to find our seats.

Luckily for us, we were right inside the stadium doors. I'm not sure I'd want to venture much further around that particular arena. May I just say, I love the fact that beer is not served at Rice-Eccles Stadium. Granted, some people have thoroughly partaken before a game even begins, but you don't have to worry about the smell, people driving home after drinking too much, getting someone else's beverage spilled in your lap, etc. This is not the case in Las Vegas. The people sitting in front of us were a testament to alcohol sales.

One woman, we will call her Mrs. X (because I'm convinced she had some in her system), was particularly smashed. Apparently this is the norm for her, since her mom said that last week she was passed out before kickoff even occurred. Awesome. The healthcare professional in me kept a close eye on her throughout the game, but she managed to stay breathing and keep her dinner down for the entirety of the game. There are some CLASSY football fans out there.

Well, we had a great time at the game, despite the Utes' best efforts to give the game away. We ended up winning, which is a good thing. If we'd lost to UNLV I'd have been teased mercilessly at work for some time to come. Maybe next time it'll be a prettier win.

Needless to say, we had a lovely time (as you can see from the pictures) but I'm glad to be back in the safe haven of my Salt Lake City bubble. These 2 day trips are hard on me, it might take me awhile to recover. And next time I head in a Southerly direction I'm staying longer than overnight.

Relationship Status

I have a love/hate relationship with the "next blog" button you find at the top of many blogs. On a good day, it can be a veritable goldmine of new places to lurk, people to stalk, and interesting and/or funny things to read. On a bad day, everything is in Japanese.

I would say that one in every 15-20 blogs is either a Utahn or a Mormon Mommy in some other state. Apparently, I'm following a very popular trend among women in my age group and comparable social situation. Does this mean I'm going to stop? In the words of TAMN, "H-no!" Does it mean I'm going to be a little more discerning about what I post? Probably.

Now, on an average blog-jumping day I'll run across any number of blogs in different languages. No problem, hit the "next" button and carry on. Unless... there is no next button. Enter one of my blog pet peeves: When your blog is so fancified (yeah, I made it up, so what?) that you no longer have the blogger navigation bar at the top. Kind of annoying. So, I trek my mouse back on up to the "back" button at the top of the browser window, and suffer through letting a blog I've already passed reload so I can hit the "next" button again. *Insert long dramatic sigh here*

Another peeve: When the magical button proceeds to bounce me back and forth between two blogs that I've either already read, can't read because I don't speak the language, or don't care to read. It leads to major e-frustration.

Alas, there is a silver lining, which I would like to share with you now... Some of the fun things I found today:
Teddy Loves Lu Loves Teddy
Rockstar Diaries
Emersonmade
Dollop
Coloring Our World
Langua Vert

So, for now I'll take the bad with the good since the Wonderful World of Blogging has provided me with a few reasons to continue taking my chances.

Perfect Primary Programs

It's the holy grail of primary presidents and choristers everywhere...but I'm still convinced it doesn't exist. It's like Sasquatch (ok, sometimes he exists at Sunday dinner), Atlantis, The Perfect Husband, etc. There's just no such thing. This mystery of life is: the perfect primary program.

We had our primary program today and man, was it an adventure! I seriously admire Elizabeth (our fearless leader) for all the work, time, effort, and everything else she put into this years program. As for me, I'm just glad it's over! We have what could be called a "difficult primary". There are generally 10-15 kids on a weekly basis, and probably 75% of them are under the age of eight. Yikes. Needless to say, if you write a kid into the program (and make sure Mom and Dad know they need to be there) you get a good turn out! We had over twenty kids. Halle-freakin'-lujah! That, in and of itself, is a miracle for our ward.

Now, call me crazy, but I feel like if you've been learning a song for 6 months or more you'd probably know it pretty well. Uh, not so much. The song we started learning in January was probably our worst one of the day. Oh well, they were so dang cute to look at that it doesn't really matter. Except, maybe, the song they forgot to sing. That's right, they forgot to sing it. Ah well, the not-yet-eight year old girls did a lovely impromptu solo.

The crowning jewel of the day, however, was during the closing hymn (I Am a Child of God) when the Sunbeams had pretty much had it with the whole program idea. One little girl, we'll call her Mary, decided that it was dance time. That's right, she danced her way through the song. Yeah, we'd lost all control at that point.

Anyway, I'd say the day, while not perfect, was quite a success. Now, I'll take a nap and start getting ready for next year.

Nurses Are People Too

Sometimes I feel like people expect perfection of nurses. They want us to be precise, perfect, and work with an almost robotic efficiency. I understand that we are dealing with peoples' lives, health, and general well being. However (and I may only be speaking for myself, here), I'm only one human person. I am not a robot. I am not perfect. I do make mistakes.

For example:
I have cared for a patient recently who came into the hospital for routine knee replacement surgery. This patient opted to have both knees done at the same time, which is quite common. She and her family were informed of the risks, signed the consents, and the process began. After surgery she had a few clotting issues and ended up with a clot in either side of her brain, essentially a stroke on both sides. Now, clots are one of the known risks of any joint replacement surgery. The patient, and her family, were well aware of this when they signed the surgery consent forms. Unfortunately, they feel that they were wronged in some way and are taking legal action against the surgeon, and consequently, the hospital. They are very closely monitoring the care of the patient while she does her course on rehab. They watch the nurses and doctors like hawks, ask completely unanswerable questions, and essentially expect perfection. Can I just say, it is very difficult to deliver good care, much less perfect, with an angry family breathing down your neck.

Now, don't get me wrong, I understand that this is someone's loved one. I understand that they feel wronged, uncared for, etc. What they are forgetting, though, is that nurses and doctors are only human. We're not mind readers. We're not robots. We're not perfect. A lot of the time I am one person trying to do a job that requires more than 2 hands. I do the best I can in the situation I am placed in.

I read on a lot of blogs people complaining about less-than-perfect performance from some healthcare professional or another: an iv stick hurt, the nurse was too slow getting to you, someone wasn't able to answer your question right away but had to research an answer. I also see people blaming all nurses for the deficiencies of one. We are not all the same. We are individuals with personalities, senses of humor, and different priorities. What is important to one of us may not be important to another. The one thing we all have in common, though, is this: We are all human beings with feelings that can be hurt. Please remember this next time you deal with a nurse.