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Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Errant Thoughts from an ICU Waiting Room

Our family has spent an unusual amount of time in the ICU waiting room/s of St. Joseph's Hospital the last three months. My grandpa is having lots of different medical issues so we try to make sure someone is here most of the time so he doesn't feel lonely. Here are some random thoughts I've had over the last few visits.

-always bring snacks. bring something salty, sweet, crunchy, healthy etc...bring enough to share (i packed cottage cheese, string cheese, veggie straws, cucumber, carrots and almonds on monday.) there is a cafeteria downstairs but it closes kind of early and can get expensive

- don't bother bringing your cell phone, no service, EVER. unless you have verizon.

-speaking of cell phones, please be kind and courteous and take your cell conversations outside if you happen to be one of the lucky ones who has verizon. cell phone etiquette classes Tues. at 7pm

-wear deodorant- please

-bring books/quiet games/activities etc. to occupy your time. they do provide 1000 piece puzzles but after 8 hours of working on them, you realize about 8 key pieces are missing.

-don't use that pillow sitting next to you, no telling who used it first...

-wear socks.

-it looks like this hospital's ICU staff keeps the Croc's company in business

-wear layers. one minute it could be cold, the next boiling.

-try playing medical term bingo- one unit of blood, code blue, 20 cc's of saline etc...

-bring a tooth brush. for some reason you get an urge to brush your teeth while sitting around waiting.

-there are these signs that say ask me if i gel between patients. i REALLY want to work up the nerve to ask someone if they do, in fact, gel between patients

-the cafeteria has the best ice. always get an extra cup and just fill it up with ice.

-once you find the "hidden" waiting room inside the actual ICU don't tell the 30 people waiting in the other room it's here. hahaha i'm a jerk.

-don't walk in to the waiting room and change things. ex: lights. if they are off when you walk in the room, chances are whoever was in there first wants them off

-probably shouldn't listen to our conversations and you really shouldn't offer your opinion. thanks.

-get here early, best seats go first

-that's a coffee maker, not a hot chocolate maker. FYI

-knock on bathroom door BEFORE turning the nob

-if you burst into tears (which is to be expected) chances are we will look for one quick second, then get quiet for a few minutes.

-don't look into other people's rooms as you pass, you never know what you might see and you will probably regret what you see

-the lamps are nailed to the tables

-probably should keep perfume/cologne to a minimum

-talking to yourself will insure you get the whole couch to yourself

-and last but not least, i might go buy some scrubs and walk around with a clipboard just for fun, who knows maybe i'll become the next doogie howser ;).

let me end by saying, i hope you never have to be in the ICU for any length of time but if you do, some of these suggestions might come in handy.

stay tuned, next week:
Costco Parking Lot Etiquette

kind of kidding....

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Everything but the Kitchen Sink

Please enjoy this photo blog with limited 1-2 sentence descriptions. I will call it, my life the last week or so.

some of the ingredients to make the best potato soup. recipe to follow?

2 ikea blankets for my photography. the white one is heavenly!

i started making this hat last night. it will be amazing.

buy one get one $.88 shirts at Penny's. Also new doors down the hallway.

big tub of girls camp stuff. it's coming up quick!
40% off fabric for this book.

the HUGE pile of clothes i got rid of. if it didn't fit, i got rid of it, heeeheeehoooo
one remodel pic, it's ALMOST done we are sooooo close i can taste it.

and just for the heck of it, the kitchen sink ;)

Thursday, April 15, 2010

I Love to See the Temple....

this is the LDS Vancouver Temple. The month of April they are having free tours for anyone who would like to see the inside of it. I would suggest that everyone who is in the area stop by. It's about a 30 minute drive from my driveway to it's parking lot (if the border wait isn't bad). I just got back from taking my 2nd tour of it. It was a neat experience to see all the rooms that you don't see unless you're a worthy LDS member with a recommend. If you have ever wondered what our temples are all about this would be the time to find out! They also have free cookies :), if you're into that sorta thing ;) haha I sometimes wish I ate cookies but I'm enjoying my sugar free chocolate mousse with fresh strawberries yummmm. Anyways just thought I'd invite anyone who was interested. You can go here to get directions and read a little more about it.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

How I Do.

i keep getting asked how i'm losing weight. well i'll tell you a (hopefully) condensed version. it's called the Prism diet. you have to buy books and go to meetings usually but i have two aunts who have done it so they just gave me their books and i do it on my own.
the basics:
first 6 weeks:
weigh and measure yourself first day write it all down no weighing until 6 weeks is up go ahead and measure though
NO SUGAR (not even splenda)

NO FLOUR (even whole wheat)(basically nothing good)

NO POTATOeS (even though they are a veggie)

write everything down that you eat, measure it, weigh it, write down how many calories in everything you eat. i chose to eat 1000cals/day it's probably more for men but women should probably do between 1000-1500 depending on if you work out or not.
drink at least 8 8oz. glasses of water a day. you will pee like a camel so don't say, drive to vancouver to see U2 in concert and get stuck in traffic for 4 hours...no bueno.

the book says to drink an extra 8oz of water per day for every 10 lbs you are overweight...false...drinking the minimum was hard enough. also crystal lite counts as water you just need to write the calories down i think it's 5 cals per serving.
you're not supposed to have diet soda but everyone else does but it doesn't count for your 8 glasses. i stopped drinking pop 3ish years ago, nasty stuff.

p.s. hopefully you like rice cakes----plain rice cakes. nasty things you can have all those you want bleh let's say i tried it several times and i would rather not eat than eat those cardboard discs.

you'll probably eat lots of salads so you can find sugar free salad dressing in the diabetic section of the grocery stores. you have to check the label on everything. the only sugar that's allowed is natural sugars found in fruit and blue agave (liquid stuff you can get at costco) and stevia (powder, i haven't tried it)

any sort of protein is OK i have lots of tuna and salmon in the cans from costco mixed with either pesto or lite mayo. also bun less burgers are gooood. just get a huge hunk of lettuce and wrap it up. i always use ground turkey. for one 6oz turkey burger it's 170 cals. for 1 6oz beef burger it's something like 380 cals. YIKES.

after 6 weeks you can add in 2 slices of whole wheat bread a day and 4oz potato 3x's a week. you can also add sugar free frozen desserts 3x's a week. hellllo fudgecicles!
then after another 6 weeks you can add whole wheat pasta.
veggies will become your BFF. hardly any calories for quite a bit of food.


which would you rather have?! candy doesn't interest me one bit anymore, i'm craving things like crossants and no bake cookies ;-).
hopefully this answers some questions but if you have any other ?'s feel free to ask.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

36x4+9/3-6=total weight lost
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so far

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Conference Tradition.

tomorrow is my church's general conference. we are lucky and have the BYU channel at home so we don't have to actually go to church to watch it, we can watch it from home, in our PJ's if we so choose (i always so choose). usually we all pick a couch or chair and bring out some blankets and watch it but since our living room is currently empty except for a saw and stack of wood flooring, we will be watching conference downstairs. with a lot more blankets than usual.
another tradition we always partake in is this,


cinnamon rolls that i generally make

and chocolate milk, which i generally pass on (gag me).
however things are different this time around, no cinnamon rolls for me :(. instead i'll be enjoying some of these:
that's a carrot. ask me how i feel about that. i just have to keep telling myself that gross nasty cinnamon roll would only be delicious for about 5 minutes then it would be gone, well not really gone, it would be on my thighs for the next 24 years. i have to keep chanting, "a moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips."
that is my life folks. i'm actually not as bitter as i'm portraying right now. i'll be healthy while everyone else stuffs themselves.
tomorrow is also Easter so i will be partaking in some company potatoes and honey glazed ham, that's right, i said honey glazed. whatareyougoingtodoaboutit? that will be my little pseudo cheat then monday it's back to phase 1 to get this thing working faster! well maybe phase two, i do enjoy a slice of whole wheat bread once a day.
my lunch the last few days has been a handful of carrots and a string cheese, i'll be opening my restaurant in June, i'm trying to train myself to eat out of necessity, not out of habit or want. it's hard. but i am determined.

p.s. that picture is for my aunt jeanie, there ya go!
p.s.s. please don't see the movie, The Box, dumbest movie EVER.
p.s.s.s. i haven't gotten out of my yoga pants all day
p.s.s.s.s. boston rob was cheated! cheated i tell you!!!!!!! let's not talk about it.
p.s.s.s.s.s. i totally dyed easter eggs today and i plan on hunting for them tomorrow ;)
p.s.s.s.s.s.s. i realllllly don't want to eat this starburst sitting next to me...right?!

Thursday, April 1, 2010

On top of spaghetti.........

Happy April Fool's Day! would you like some spaghetti and meatballs? muhahaha jk. it's cupcakes and chocolate dipped in jelly. siiiiick. that's about as good as i'm going to get for AFD this year sorry.

i spent the day yesterday cooking and baking for a few families who have just had babies and i got to take some pics of baby Ember. here are a few but there are more on my photo blog.

sweet sisters

i love her flower, it's almost as big as her head!

p.s. emily i hope that bread pudding turned out...i'm probably going to owe you guys another dessert! haha

p.p.s. painting all day today. yippy be jealous.


edit:

in honor of April Fool's day, here is a text conversation i had with one michelle chapin tonight. sometimes i don't know when to stop haha:

me: oh my gosh like michelle i'm like pregnant! like totally

michelle:oh my gosh! that's crazy! i'm engaged!

me: whoa! awesome. i'm also moving to mumbai and becoming a British monk with all the world's top skydivers. how cool is that?

michelle: way cool! i just won the lottery and won the Nobel peace prize! crazy huh?

me: congrats! i just discovered the fountain of youth...it's in istanbul and it's guarded by 12, 3 headed dogs. i used my amazing kung fu skillz to show them whats up.

...i'm like 4 now.

michelle: wow dang. i found this magic plant and lost 75 pounds in 1 day!

me: way to go!!! i signed a recording contract with justin timberlake and shaved my name in my hair. i made plans to visit mars with gloria estafan

michelle: dang! that's amazing! Pres Obama just named me world's smartest cosmetologist!

me: sweeeeet. me and shell obama are taking a diving class next week so we can discover the titanic then harry connick jr. and i are going to make a guest appearance on dancing with the stars. i heard there will be a shirly temple impersonator there too

michelle: oh wow. you totally win! dancing with the starts! say hi to kate for me.

me: we are BFF's. ok i'll be done. APRIL FOOLS i got you gooood. best prank ever. i had you believing every word. i'm awesome (and humble)

michelle: man you got me so good....

the end.

sorry to anyone who actually read through that. we're special.

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