Tom's day.

Yesterday had to be one of the best days, ever. 

I got to take Tom from the home fishing with Bonnie, Lekelsi, and Devan.

It was so fun to see him SO happy and excited to have his day.

He had been talking about this trip for weeks and he waited patiently by the door in his hat and wranglers all day.

Everyday he told everyone, "Guess where I'm goin?! Fishin! On the lake!"

This couldn't have made me more excited to take him.

We finally got him in the car and got to the hamburger place (we had been promising him a hamburger too), and got him his  long awaited hamburger and hot fudge sundae. He downed it! And with chocolate all over his face, glasses, fingers, and shirt he laughed at what a mess he was making and how good it tasted.

Of course, when we got there, the wind blew hard, the road was bumpy on his poor back, bugs everywhere, and I forgot the most important of the bait bags.

It didn't matter to Tom. He laughed and sang to the fishes "Pearly Shells" and any other Hawaiian song he could think of in honor of me being a pineapple

 (Devan told him to call me that).

The wind calmed and blew a perfect breeze with a beautiful sunset. 

Watching the smile on his face and having him tell me how 

fun it was made my eyes water a little.

After a few hours on the lake it got too dark and it was hard to leave.

I asked him, "are you tired?"

he replied, "I'm never tired when I'm fishin'! Not in pain either!"

We drove home and listened to hymns while he sang to each and every one of them.

It was so dear.

I don't know that I have had that much fun and been that happy in a while...

Mosquitos cramp my style.

Seriously. I have bites EVERYWHERE from docking the boat with these crazy lunatics:

It was such a fun boating trip full of chip eating, MJ listening, tube and wakeboard riding, Denny's run, laughter, and good memories.

But the mosquitos are killin me.

Tomorrow I am taking Tom fishing.


He is so excited and so am I. Pictures to come.
As for now I will keep from trying to Itch from the Snitches.

Oldies but goodies.

Man! I have been meaning to write forever, and also meaning to call/text back the billion people who have been trying to get ahold of me...

but it has been so busy!

Like always, one day I think I will get a breather.

Anyway, loving the old folks as usual.....

so after talking about the snitches I love, I finally got some good pics. SO CUTE.

This is little Virginia. I just loved her SO much, however she passed away this week.

I am so glad she is with her husband and all the sweet people she did temple work for.

Anyway, here is the cute b-b-q we had for them. Most of them were thrilled! Some not so much because it was out of the ordinary. It is going to be so hard to leave them next week. But too bad the George of Saint calls, and I have to go back and hit the books. Moving on! Here are the darling pictures:

Ok I do have to tell this story (with her permission). 

This is Imogene: 

She is the one that is sure there is a "half man, half ET under her bed and she is 'completely serious'".

Anyway, she is crazy and loves to tell us she is. She told me that "it takes one to know one" and I am just as much as a "loony" as she is.

Well, I asked her to describe this half man, half ET to me and Dev and Jasmine. This is what we got (imagine a southern accent):

"Well, he's got red yarn hair about down to the end of his ear lobes and a face like that commercial ET that got all that hype. He lives right there under the end of my bed and if I put my leg down there I am sure he is going to gnaw it off. I usually put my crumbs underneath so that it can ward him off."

Sure enough, there was stack of cookies right underneath the bed to ward off the crazy.

I could tell hundreds of stories to go with each of those pictures.

Funny, sad, inspiring, happy, and just plain crazy.

If you wanna make your day, visit an old folks home.

You will love it just as much as they need it.

It sure made Devan's day!

She (meaning Imo) told Devan that she didn't want to "get fresh with him" but he needed

to see her "A double S!"

HA!

Mom.

The modge comes home today after a lengthy stay at the hospital

with the hysterectomy. Excited to have her home and doing better.

Oh ya, Happy Birthday P. Diddy (the dad)!

2 weeks.

Dude, 2 weeks til Tyface comes home.

I am so psyched!

I know what you are all thinking, because I get the same questions every. time.

"Are you nervous?!" "Are you gonna date right away?!" "Are you getting married?"

"What do think will happen?"

Whew. Calm down all.

No plans. No expectations. It's a clean slate here, and we are the best of friends before

anything right now.

I'm excited to see him.

And yes, I am slightly nervous.

It's a fun adventure!

My lump, my lump, my lump.

Ok so these last few days have been fun ones.

The mother got the hysterectomy and got all of her innards out. 

Poor thing. They had to cut her clear across because of how bad it was in there.

That's where I get all of my random female issues...I just know it. 

I slept at the hospital with her last night and she seems to be doing pretty good.

She definitely does well on morphine which I, on the other hand, revert back to child-hood.

Also, a week ago I started seeing a lump in my breast.

I didn't really think anything of it, but  it was still there.

As soon as I felt it I knew I should get it checked out because of how hard and deep it was.

I went to the doctor and he said that because of my interesting medical history 

and the family medical history of breast cancer that I was going to need an ultra sound.

Kind of wigged out I spent the last week wondering what was going to happen.

I had my ultra-sound today (which is pretty interesting on the boob) and they found 

another lump. 

So weird.

After having the whole crew come and look at the boobies, it was decided 

that we need to wait a few months to see if it grows, then a biopsy.

I am not too worried about it, pretty sure it is fibroid cysts or something like that.

I just don't want nothin' cut off...and I don't want to deal with dumb stuff again.

Anyway,  I feel better having that done now.

Let's hope they don't get any bigger.

The lump that is.

Ha!

I love you.

As I have been working with all of these patients, it is crazy to me how it doesn't matter how old, how out of it, how senile, distraught, hurt, or unable to communicate....if you tell them 'I love you', or give them a hug or a kiss 

on the forehead they are always able to say I love you back.

It's so sweet and dear.

I can't believe how attached to all of them I have become.

The only bad thing is that you never know if they will be there tomorrow.

Another one passed on me the other day.

On a lighter note, here is a good quality story:

One lady pushed her call light...so I go in and in a thick southern-slurred accent she says, 

"OH good, good, good, good, good! Come in, come in, come in, come in, 

come in! I need you to get down

on your hands and knees and look underneath the bed.

There is a half man, half ET under there and I am being completely serious."

I get down there and reply:

"I think you're in check! I don't see one!"

"Oh good, good, good, good, good, good, good!

You are so kind. Thank ya so much."

Love it.

A bad, bad, blogger.

Alright, so obviously it has been a freaking long time since I have blogged....or at least it seems like it. A lot has happened since the last post! Here is a list.

-Computer went out in my car

-Had a guy pass away on me at work while I was holding his hand

-Saw some REALLY great movies (UP!, My Sister's Keeper, and The Proposal)

-Had a few health scares for myself

-Had all the Gould cousin's and family here

-Worked A LOT

-Lost 11 pounds :)

-Went to St. George to catch up with all the kids

Here is the story of the week though.

This is the Virgin River in St. George

which we decided to float.

I had an hour and a half until my meeting for service council (which was the reason I even went down there aside from seeing all the friends) and we thought that that would be the

PERFECT amount of time to float it. A good hour MAX to float it.

So we started going, parking our cars about three miles apart thinking that it would run really fast and we would have just a great time.

So off we went on our 2 dollar vibrantly colored inner tubes down the river. What we thought would be swift and deep was actually about 4-6 inches in about 90 percent of the river and the speed... about .48973 mph. Once we got about half way 

we realized that we were in some deep yogurt.

 No phones, no car, no way out of the river, no people in sight.....and I knew I was going to be EXTREMELY late to the meeting I was supposed to hold. 

In desperation Ashley starts yelling for help. Scraped up, bruised, and bug bit we plugged along. 2 and a half hours we finally made it to the underpass and OUT of the river.

Still with no phone or cars, we decided to hitchhike in our swimsuits and innertubes. To no avail. We got a lot of laughs and a lot of honks, but not a single person to pick us up. So we walked to the apartment to where my phone was with 18 missed alerts and a missed meeting. Oops. 

We later found out we were supposed to END where we started and START about 2 miles above that. NO WONDER. 

I will never forget it.

And I will never try to float it again.