Work

I am just finishing up my 3rd full week of work at my new job! Time has that crazy effect of making time fly by, yet at the same time, making it feel like I’ve been working there a long time already. Any way… It’s going…well. The first week was tough. Not like case-load tough, but emotionally tough. I was more or less shadowing the owner, getting a feel for how his hospital runs/their protocols/the clients/patients.… and I have to be honest, shadowing sucks! I am such a hands on person that not getting to do things myself was torturous.
The second week I was there mostly by myself, and in 4 days I had 2 emergency Pyometra surgeries to perform (that’s when the uterus is infected and FULL of pus or necrotic and literally shredding into dead-smelling pieces). Mmmmmmm. Both those surgeries went great! I love to cut! And it was nice to have 2 HUGE surgeries to ‘show off’ some of my skills. The owner was impressed and said that he was shocked that I had 2 pyo’s, since he hasn’t seen one in more then 5 years! (I just kept waiting for the third, since things always seem to come in 3’s).
This week was pretty mellow in comparison to last week. Just steadily busy. I have had a slew of new clients come in, so that’s really nice.
I don’t feel like I’m at home when I walk in the door… as I did at the last hospital. I feel like I’m there as an employee, like I’m there to work on animals (which is still fun) and to earn a pay check. I’m sure most of you are thinking, ‘Uh, that’s what a J.O.B. is,’ but not for me. It had always been someplace that I couldn’t wait to go to and wasn’t ever in a huge hurry to leave. Oh well, so things are a little different now. That’s ok. I’m still just getting the hang of it, right?

All Grown Up

A few weeks ago we got together with Dave, Rebecca and Cody. I love, love, love this picture because Matthew and Dave have been best buddies for just about ever and when they get together they still act and talk kind of like they are in junior high school, but yet here they are as Daddies!!!! It’s kind of a mind trip. For all your Healdsburg Higher, all you have to do is think back to our senior year and giggle when you think of the things they did (or ‘didn’t’ do).
But somehow these two hoodlums turned into wonderful husbands and loving, attentive, gentle fathers. I am so proud of them both. Becca, we did well!
Speaking of Fathers…. Matthew just got to celebrate his very first Fathers Day! We all had a wonderful time! Matthew got to pick how we spent the day, and all he wanted to do was be with Mallory and me and see the dad’s. So in the morning we opened a few gifts… Mallory had to break him in right and got her Daddy the obligatory ‘ties for fathers day gift.’ We then went and hung out with my dad at the folk’s house, eating, playing horse shoes and swinging in the (new) hammock. That afternoon/evening Robert came over to out house to play. Mallory had a great time showing off in her ‘Crab Pool’ (I’ll post pictures about that soon), while we all enjoyed some frozen beverages and BBQ.
We all had such a great time. It made me realize what a blessed life I lead, having such a wonderful husband to be the father of my baby girl AND to live within minutes of both my Daddy and my Pops! I love you all.

Sorry

Sorry that I have been sooooo behind on posting... I don't know when I got so busy. It may have something to do with a new job, a toddler who is into, on top of and under EVERYTHING (all at the same time), a husband who I feel should get some of my time, animals that are seeming neglected, and a house that seems to constantly need cleaning/repairing. Besides that I have LOADS of free time.
I promise I'll get around to blogging... soon....ish.

Vacation #4

The last day of your little cruise was in Nassau (pronounced like a southerner saying N.A.S.A.). It’s the capital of the Bahamas, so one of the most populated islands in the Bahamas. Countless building were painted either pink or yellow (after the national bird the Flamingo or the national flower the Yellow Elder)… it was quite a sight. We had the entire day to spend there, so in the morning we ended up finding a cabbie to take us on a 2 hour tour of Nassau. It was super interesting. After the tour we got back on the boat, ate some lunch then headed back out for a little ‘swim’ with stingrays!!!! Cool, I know! We had swum with them in Tahiti and I LOVED it, so I jumped at the opportunity to do it again. This time it was a little different, not bad just different. Instead of cruising in a boat to the stingrays local hang-out spot (as we did in Tahiti), we were taken by boat to another little Cay (key) where they have bunch of them all corralled up (they do breeding/studying/translocation with them). So it didn’t quite feel as ‘natural’ but was neat to see the pregnant ones and to learn all about their breeding/behavior/gestation… all that ‘nerdy’ stuff that I love. Then it was back to Nassau and back on the boat. The next morning we woke up in Miami and were back in San Francisco by 10:30 that night. It was a whirlwind trip but it was wonderful! The best part was that Matthew and I got to spend some much needed US time. Its amazing how instantly (and permanently) a couple goes from their life revolving around each other/themselves to revolving around a child. Not that it’s a bad thing at all, but it was wonderful to see Matthew as someone other then just an amazing father to Mallory and remember him as my doting husband and lover. (yeah, you all can puke now).

The next day we caught the tender boats to the Norwegian Cruise Lines private island called Stirrup Cay (pronounced Key). It was… nice. Nothing AMAZING since about ¾ of the island was under construction and we couldn’t even explore it. But we spent the day snorkeling, laying out on the beach and reading so that was nice. So there we were, just relaxing on the beach while the worst things we had to think about were when to re-apply sunscreen and remembering not to miss the last tender back to the boat. Life’s tough, I know.

Vacation #2

That next morning (Monday) we woke up in the Bahamas! (Not like it’s that far from Florida). The weather was warm, humid and WONDERFUL… especially when you remember that it was still raining cats and dogs here! We were on the Grand Bahama Island. Just a little tid-bit of trivia for you all… The Bahamas are made up of 700 islands (including teny-tiny little ones) but only 23 are inhabited. WOW! Who knew.
Any way, we caught a cab who took us to meet up with our scuba guide, along the way got to hear some of the history and see a bunch of the island. The Bahamas are not all the beautiful white sand beaches that you see in the movies/tv/adds. Nope, most of it/them are sort of run-down, ram-shackle-like with multiple families living in one small house, some without running water or electricity. The largest house on this island is HUGE and owned by the guy who brought McDonalds, Burger king, KFC and some other fast food joint to the island… go figure.
I had set up the dive with some scuba man I found online… and besides a little hic-up in the timing it was WONDERFUL! Fred and his wife took us out for 2 dives both at about 70 feet deep. It was wonderful and nerve-racking to be back under the water. Sadly the fish and coral were NOTHING in comparison to our diving experience in Honduras (thank you Joel and Melissa), but it was still great. Seriously I think that I just like diving and would even be happy even diving in a pool, so I’m not complaining.
After that we headed back to land, just to drive back and get on our ship again.

Vacation Part 1

After deciding to take the job at Santa Rosa Veterinary Hospital, Matthew and I realized that for the first and (hopefully) the last time I had some time off without having to deduct it from my vacation/sick days and his work had been pushing employees to 'take vacation time' (since they have been slow). So we started talking about taking a little spur-of-the-moment vacation before I started my new job (in 10 days at that point). We first thought that maybe we could visit family in Colorado (that didn't work out). Our next thought was family in Oregon (that didn't work out either). We then were throwing around Las Vegas or something like that. It was during that search that I found an AMAZING deal of a 4 night cruise to the BAHAMAS! So I booked it on Thursday and we were set to fly to Florida (on Sunday night which ended up costing more then the cruise) and be on the ship Monday morning!!! It was kind of a mad rush of adrenalin as I tried to set up Mallory-watching shift (which was pretty much covered by my mom, dad and Joyce.... THANK YOU). And of a whirlwind next few days as we packed, printed out boarding passes, found all our travel documents, packed up Mallory’s stuff and Sonny’s stuff.
We dropped Mallory (and sonny) off at my parent’s house Sunday evening; I knew it was going to be hard to leave her... I just didn't expect it to be THAT hard. I felt like I couldn't breathe! Like a piece of me was getting ripped off. Like I wanted to cry and vomit. It was nuts. Maybe it gets easier (since that was really the first time I've been away from her for any significant period of time. Who knows?
Anyway, I was finally able to tear myself away and off Matthew and I went on our vacation. The flight to Miami was HORRIBLE. I couldn’t sleep, which meant I was wiggling to much so Matthew couldn't sleep. The other guy I was sitting next to was lounging into 'my' space. I just kept reminding myself that in 6/5/4/3/2/1 hour(s) I was going to be off the plane… And onto my ship!
We Arrived in Miami at about 9 am and couldn’t board the sip until noon, so we thought that we’d kill so time by getting a cab and going to a café for some coffee and breakfast. So we throw all our stuff in a cab and ask about a café or diner that is close (ish)…. As the cabby is driving us around we notice that despite the fact we are in downtown Miami at 9:30 there is NO cafes/restaurants/venders… Pretty sure that people in Miami don’t eat. The place the cabby dropped us off at didn’t even have one (even though he was sure that there was one… wrong).
Anyway at noon we got on the ship and our real vacation began.

Up and Running

Yipee the computer is back! No more crashing, no more black screen, no more looooooong load up time, no more running slow! I have so much to tell you all, but right now I am shoveling yogurt into Mallorys mouth, listening to Sonny whine (because he's hungry too) and I've got to head out the door for my second day of work shortly. But rest assured that I'll fill you all in on life here shortly.

Sick Computer

Stupid computers! Seriously, I can fix a sick animal, but I am at a total loss when computers are 'sick'. Yesterday, I turned on my trusty 5 year old laptop (which had been running slow for a while now) and all I got was a black screen followed by all these error warnings! Sure it was all written in English, but beats the heck out of me what they were saying! The messages could have been in Japanese, since that is about how much of it I understood! Uhhhggggg! So I found a computer guy (that that was open on the weekend and sounds as though he isn't dead set on trying to financially rip me off). But we'll see. Good thing I have a job. ;)

Just A Small Task

Ok, I feel as though I may be loosing my brain! No, really. It's leaving and I don't know how to stop it! :)

On Monday I started doing some deep cleaning... so I was scrubbing the baseboards of the house, which then lead to cleaning the walls and doors. It was then that I realized that there were quite a few nicks in the paint/small stains in the wall. So I thought why not do a little touch up painting. Suuuuuuuuure sounds easy enough. So I grabbed the living room color and touched that up, then went to grab the hallway/entryway/dining color. As I was walking out the the garage I was saying to myself 'don't grad the glossy paint, don't grab the glossy paint' (because when we bought the house it was all one color, kitchen and bathrooms were the same color but in glossy). Any way. I went about the touch-ups, happy that all this little tasks was almost done. When I was just about finished I realized that yep, I HAD grabbed the glossy paint! Grrrrrrr! So annoying, but not a big deal. I went and found the right paint and went about painting over the dried glossy paint. After I finished I realized that for some reason the new coat of paint was actually a few shades lighter then what the walls were! (Sorry the pictures not great).AHHHHHHHHHH! I don't know if it was because the paint had been siting there for 3 years or what (Yes it was TOTALLY mixed). Soooooo.... I ended up painting the entire entryway, hallway, dining area! No easy feat with a toddler that wants to help! So much for a small little task!