This year..................

This year, this is our Christmas journey.

Less Decorating, more living.

Less Shopping, more giving.

Less Running, more being.

Enjoying all the little gifts along the way.

Christmas is coming.

From our house to yours, may the perfect love of Christ be your light and life.

Christmas Eve Eve

Our Stephanie came home last night. I wish it were for Christmas but unfortunately she was hear because of a funeral of a friend. We were able to give her her Christmas gifts this morning before she had to return to southern Illinois to a job that I wish she did not need this holiday season.

Meg's twin brothers were here this morning as well. Drew helped them prepare for their driving permit. It appears that parallel parking is not their thing. Wasn't mine either. Still to this day I will do everything I can to prevent parallel parking. But this afternoon we received good news that they both passed.

I did some holiday baking today. Well maybe I should rephrase that to I made chocolate mint cookies. That's it so far. I hope to do more baking tomorrow. The mint cookies were so easy though. All you do is melt chocolate bark, add a little peppermint extract then dip Ritz crackers into the chocolate and set aside. Heaven! Hoping to make peanut cluster as well.

These are some pictures that I had on my computer. I think they are just precious. I really need to download the 300 plus pictures on my camera before tomorrow.

Many Blessings from our family to yours this Christmas!

Heidi

Really Good Santa!

I am not doing a very good job lately in documenting my life. I have been so busy that I am not sure what day it is. The days seem to fly by when I am going to school. Just about ready to wrap it up though. Clinical's are complete. Now just a couple more tests and I will be done.

I can not believe that Christmas is less than a week away. All gifts are bought and wrapped. Thank goodness for Meg though. I haven't had time to wrap one gift. If not for her no one would be able to open gifts this year.

I have been able to relax a bit this weekend before a big test on Tuesday. So I decided to keep my Aspen for the night. Her and Drake have been having a good time. Drake calls her Appy. Aspen is just too hard for him to say. Drake is talking a lot now. It is very cute to hear him.

Drake recently went to see Santa. He didn't cry which was really surprising. He doesn't take to strangers very well. I asked Aspen if she has seen Santa yet. She said, "No; he is sleeping a lot." HAHA she is too funny.

Well off to do some home work.

Many Blessings,

Heidi

UUMM December, REALLY!?!

The time is flying by; when did it become December!?!

My time is filled with school and clinical's. A week will go by in a flash. Not sure how that happens. I will be done with my clinical's on Monday. Yea for me. I will be hitting it hard again for three tests before the end of the year. No rest for me.

I wish I could say all is well here at the zoo but all is not well. All have colds and cough. Yuck. I wish I could say that I breezed right by it all but I got it.

Spent last weekend at the lake. We really needed a little R&R. What better way than at the lake.

Christmas shopping is 95% done. Wrapping is 100% incomplete; but have intentions on getting that done soon. Like maybe next week.

Off to bed. What a boring post.

Many Blessings,
Heidi

Beautiful Thanksgiving Week!

I have been knee deep in the Thanksgiving week. Our Stephanie came home on Monday evening. Feels so good when she is home. All seems right with the world.
Thanksgiving was wonderful; was able to see all my kids. Dinner if I do say so myself was amazing. I tried out a new mashed potato recipe. The. Best. Ever! Definitely will be a family tradition from now on.
Then there was BLACK Friday. Yes I do partake and yes I never slept Thursday night because sales started at ten and went on the entire night. The number of great deals were endless. So excited. Now I am paying for it because now I have a bad head cold. Feel like poo. I need to be decking the halls but all I can do is take halls cough drops. I have a major test Tuesday and I haven't even opened my books this Holiday weekend. I have to get to it tomorrow.
Off to bed with my new fleece pj's my box of Kleenex and my cough drops.

Many Blessings,
Heidi

Love Sundays!

I just love Sunday's. I am sitting by the fire. Listening to the football game. Smelling chicken tortilla soup simmering on the stove.
Then D called and told me he got another deer. Great another one hanging in the tree. He is ruining my Sunday tranquility because I know he is going to want me to get on a coat and take a picture of that thing. I won't share that here. Again your welcome.
I finished my first clinical shift yesterday. All I can say is I survived. I also realized that for the past thirty years I have umm lets say not had the opportunity to see some things. Well I seen enough yesterday for last me a while. I worked in a total Alzheimer's care facility. This was very hard for me. I just wanted to sit down and cry when family members would visit there loved ones. I have had several family members tell me that this nursing thing would not be for me. I disagree. At first I wasn't sure but now I know. Yes I am going to be the kind of nurse that gets too involved with her patience. I am going to feel their pain. Yes I am going to sit down and cry like a baby when I loose my first one. But that is ok. Because it is all going to be worth it.
Yesterday I took care of a patient; I will call him Eddie. Eddie was an elderly man that was a boxer in his day. Very large strong man. I would guess that Eddie is in his late seventies. The current nursing staff could not get Eddie to eat. What was my job assignment for the day? To get Eddie fed. Three square meals. I knew the challenge I had before me and got right to it with breakfast. At first Eddie was not having it. This did not surprise me. But I kept at it. I cared for him for more than ten hours.
When I walked up to Eddie with his dinner tray he looked at me and smiled. I knew for a brief moment he was there. It made it all worth it. What was really neat was his son was there to see it. I didn't know he was standing in the door way to his fathers room when I received that smile or the big hug I gave him. Once I turned around and noticed him he said, " That's my dad; and I haven't seen a reaction out of him like that in months." I left the room and allowed the father and son to have as much time as they could. I hate Alzheimer's. But I love what I do. Its all worth it.

Many Blessings,
Heidi

Happy Birthday Devin!

Happy Birthday to my first born son. I hope that you will always know how much your father and I love you. We are so proud of the man that you have become. Have a wonderful day son!

Tests Tests Tests

I have two tests this week. One tomorrow and one Thursday. Lots of studying going on here.

But the weekend was fun. D and I went on a date Saturday night. Drew said it was a date for old people but I had a great time. We went to dinner and shopping. To me that is a perfect date. I don't know what he is talking about OLD people.

Devin shot his first deer over the weekend. Yep another deer in the tree. Dang I thought I had one son that hadn't been touched by the hunting bug. I don't believe that he will become an avid hunter now. Just one of those fluke things. I would love to show you a picture of Devin with his deer; however I don't have it downloaded yet and I don't have time to do it because of all the studying I need to get done. I will tell you though it is not your average deer with hunter picture. He is standing next to the deer which is hanging in our tree while eating a bag of donuts. Only a cop. HA

Back to studying.
Many Blessings,
Heidi

Here I am

Here I am again; not posting on a daily basis. I give up. I thought my life was crazy before. Ha I have school two days a week and then I try to schedule clinicals three other days a week. Makes for a busy girl for sure. Especially for a girl that is not used to getting dressed before 2pm.
School I love. I am learning so much for which I am grateful. Clinicals? Well today was my first day and lets just say I know why all nurses have to do their clinicals at a nursing home. Because if you can't make it there then you have no business being a nurse. At one point today I wanted to just run out the front doors. Like most women feel just before they give birth. They decide that they have changed their minds about the whole birthing process and just want to go home and cover their heads and pretend they are not even pregnant. Yea; that was me today. I wasn't sure if nursing is in my blood. And today; it was just observing.
I am not giving up though. I know a hospital is where I need to be. I will give this nursing home all I have. These sweet old people at least deserve that. And the fact that I can't graduate until I complete one hundred hours their.
I may need some prayers. No I know that I do.

Many Blessings
Heidi

Great Day!

Here are pics of the grand kids trick or treating last night. They were so cute. Drake was a monkey which in the picture above it is kinda hard to tell. As you can tell Drew put a lot of thought into his costume. I think he walked out of the woods and was ready to go. Ha. Thank goodness it didn't rain and fun was had by all.

Today I spent the day with my friend H. We had fun catching up and laughing. That girl says the darnedest things. We had lunch and then a pedicure with shopping through out the day. All friends should do this at least once a week. Friend therapy is the best.

Now back to reality. Homework. Homework. Homework.

Many Blessings,

Heidi