My New Key Ring

OK, another moment of geekiness...

The truth is, every day I am stunned by the power of the little phone in my purse. When I first heard about computers it seems they were these giant things that filled up a room. They spit out papers with gobbledy-gook as far as I could tell. Now, I have one I can hold in my hand. I use it every day and I realize I will likely never really comprehend the knowledge available to me. It really blows my mind.

This past week-end I went to PetCo for dog food. The girl at check-out asked, as they always do, if I had a PetCo Card. I did not. I reached my limit of those little cards! I hate having to carry them around then scramble through my purse to find the one I need.

The girl told me how much money I would've saved if I'd had the card.  Rats. I love saving money. She then told me about a phone app called Key Ring. It changed my life! OK, that is a bit dramatic. It did make me kind of happy, though.

I went online and learned about it, then started setting it up with the cards I already had. That went pretty well. I even signed up for a few more rewards programs!

Once you've got it all set up, you can easily scroll through them and see if any have special offers or coupons available.

When you click on the name of the store where you currently are shopping, it brings up your barcode. You can then have it scanned to get your savings. If they can't scan it, they can just type in the barcode number.

I don't think I've explained it too well but if you are interested, here's a little video to help explain it.

OK, that's it. That's all I have for you today. Anyone else have a great app we should all know about? Anyone tired of me talking about phone apps?

A Relaxing Float Despite a Bully Cloud

Yesterday Mike and I both had the day off, a rare event, so we decided to go out on the river again. This time we chose to go a bit out of town and float back in. We love it most when we are out in the country rather going through town. I checked the weather report and it looked to be good until after we were set to be back, so off we went!

I was enjoying watching this big pretty cloud follow us.

It was peaceful and relaxing.

We saw a big eagle in a tree.

I scrambled to get my phone out of the double

zip-lock bags, wrapped in a plastic grocery bag,

zipped into our lunch bag.

I was too late so I

went back to watching clouds.

I was also on the look-out for a moose as I'd

heard there was one spotted in the area last week.

At one point we heard a lot of trampling

in the brush and I got kind of excited when I saw a big dark

something breaking through to get a drink.

I said, "Oh look!" with maybe a bit too much excitement in

my voice as the big dark something turned out to be a cow.

Mooing followed.

So, more floating....

More relaxing....

Then, that pretty cloud turned darker and started chasing us!

I started to feel a little bit worried.

See my worried face?

It made rumbley sounds.

We could see rain.

We did NOT see any lightning but we did talk about

plans to get out of the water to wait it out, just in case.

We were still about 2 hours from our car but thankfully 

the big bully cloud passed over the river 

behind us and swerved around us. 

We were grateful.

Softer, gentler clouds came over us.

And sunshine warmed us once again.

Oddly, that was when we got rained on.

It was just sprinkles, really.

I turned my camera straight up toward the sky.

The drops appeared to begin high up in the clear sky.

We could see them falling toward us but

they just look like a couple of white ghost drops in the photo.

It was cool.

I tried to capture it to show you,

but you get the idea.

It was a good day.

Almost Like Star Trek

 I am soooooo excited! As I've mentioned, I have been trying to learn Spanish to help me better serve our Spanish-speaking patients. Last Fall I enjoyed a Spanish for Nurses class. Since then I have been working, rather off and on, with this...

It is called Instant Immersion and I really enjoy it. I actually find it rather relaxing. That is part of the problem, I suppose. I would try to work on it after a long work day and I often dozed off! 

Still, I felt I was learning a lot of words. However, I have not put enough time into it to be able to count on remembering what I've learned. My occasions to use it have been too few and far in between. I do plan to keep working at it. It's fun! If you are interested in learning a language on your own, they offer it for many other languages as well. It is rather inexpensive and definitely worth the money.

However, if you are like me and need something a bit easier sometimes, here's some news!

I just found another really, really useful tool! It is called iTranslate and it is for smart phones, both Android and iPhones. There are several others like it, such as Google Translate. I can't speak to which one is best but they all remind me of Star Trek!

Remember, they could use that device and understand all languages? It seemed like an impossibility at the time... just Sci Fi.  Well, I have almost that same power in my little phone now. I can speak a sentence and have it translated into other languages. It shows up in print, both in English and the chosen language for translation. I can check to make sure it heard me right before I show it to the person to read in their own language.  For many languages I can also click to have it speak the translation. That is wonderful in case the other person does not read well, is too young to read or maybe can't see well. Below is an example in Korean.

This is just a few more of the choices.

I was just so excited, I wanted to share my new fun with all of you! You are welcome.

Now, I have a little side note for Allen, who is having his 10 year check-up after his heart transplant:

  Best wishes, Allen! 

I won't be surprised if they make you 

the poster child for heart transplants!

Just Say Jesus

Sung by 7th Time Down
Pictures in Video by Donna Wallace

Time With Jennifer

Last night we all went for a picnic near the river. It was Jennifer's last evening in Wyoming and we wanted to spend a bit more time with her.

We watched a kayaker playing in the river.

It made me rather nervous when he purposefully flipped upside down.

Elise wasn't interested in our picnic but she

loved being outside.

She was happiest when we were walking and exploring.

Grandpa let her get her toes wet.

Sam got some text messages...lots of them I think.

I'm not certain he even knew we were on a walk.

Cordelia got to get her feet wet as well.

Jennifer may have been thinking about the 30 hours of travel 

she had ahead of her. Australia is a long way from Wyoming.

Eric told her tales of the Old West.

Sam did more texting.

I love seeing these two together...

It makes me remember a sweet 

time in our lives, just starting our family

and enjoying the gift of friendship.

Jennifer and her parents were our guests for Maria's

first birthday, over 31 years ago.

We had some really fun times together.

But look at these girls, friends from birth!

Here they are at age one.

They absolutely loved being together!

I think this photo was taken by Jennifer's Dad, Jim.

They formed a bond that withstood 

both years and distance.

This photo was for sure taken by Jim.

Safe travels, Jennifer!

Simple Joys

First of all, please click here to read Maria's blog from yesterday. She tells about the special visitor from Australia that we are all enjoying.

Technically Jennifer is not a relative, but she feels like one. We love her and we love when she visits here! We are enjoying her easy going, sweet self. When I look at her, especially her eyes, I also think of her beautiful mother, one of the most gentle people I ever knew. It enjoy remembering her. We hope sometime her parents can come here as well..or maybe we will make a trip to Australia! That would be a dream come true!

But for now...

Wednesday night we were all at an outdoor concert. Almost immediately Cordelia saw a couple of little girls up front. She did not hesitate to go up and introduce herself. There is nothing shy about that little girl anymore! She didn't mind that it was in front of good crowd. In fact, I think she rather enjoyed performing.

We all enjoyed the beauty of watching little girls just dance for the joy of dancing. I am still trying to learn how to use my new camera so my photos aren't great. Still, I think you can feel a bit of their fun little spirits as they whirled and twirled to the music. Please enjoy.

Maria said she noticed Cordy kind of pause the first time the crowd starting clapping for the musicians, wondering if maybe they were clapping for the dancers.  She did, however, graciously turn and also clap for the musicians.

And not to be left out, little Miss Elise had a few moves of her own.

It was a simple evening, loaded with simple pleasures.

Last Evening

A storm blew through...

...but it was mostly just a bluff.

Behind the storm came a beautiful evening.

Confessions of a Nurse

As I've said, I work at a surgical center. It is an outpatient facility, meaning patients usually go home after they recover a bit from their surgery. There are two phases of their recovery.

After patients have surgery they are taken immediately to the recovery room, now referred to as PACU (post anesthesia care unit). They remain there until they are awake, breathing safely on their own and stable enough to be moved to the post-recovery area. 

A lot of our patients are children who've had their tonsils out, ear tubes installed, hernias repaired, dental work requiring anesthesia and a variety of other surgeries. We also have many adult patients having their gallbladders removed, kidney stones resolved, plastic surgery, lap band placements, nasal surgeries, etc. 

I was assigned to the post recovery area yesterday and I did have a mixture of adults and children to recover. Usually patients are in a medical type of recliner while in post recovery. Most often when children are brought out from PACU we have one of the parents sit in the recliner and we place the child in their lap. Isn't that just the best place for a child to be when they are scared and/or hurting?

Anyway, that was rather a long build up to tell you about the dumb thing I did yesterday. 

I entered the room where a young boy was recovering in his mother's arms. I was preparing to take the boy's temperature and to go through the discharge paperwork. The boy's grandmother was in the room and I was talking with her while I was doing all this. Without even thinking, I used the temporal thermometer and swiped it across the forehead to take the temperature. The only problem was, I TOOK THE MOTHER'S TEMPERATURE! As I said to the mother, "That really gives you confidence in my highly professional assessment skills!" 

Then guess what happened!? Yep, I went over the edge. I laughed and laughed. It's not my fault, really. Remember, I suffer from the Genetic Laughter Seizure Syndrome. 

Eventually I pulled myself together, kind of. I still needed to go through the discharge instructions. I admit I had a couple more giggles slip out even then. Thank goodness both the mother and the grandmother were people who also enjoyed a good laugh.

Anyone else want to make any confessions of dumb mistakes they've made at work?

The Power of Words

When our son, Ben, was a 6th grader, he became known for his love words. In fact, his teacher told us that he went to a big dictionary in their classroom and taught the other kids a word-a-day or something like that.  Yes, he was a quirky kid but what a good idea!

I like words. They have a lot of power. For example, say the word "lemon" a couple of times. Are you now thinking about a lemon, the sourness of it maybe? Are you remembering what it is like to suck on a lemon wedge? Is your mouth starting to get all slobbery wet? See! Words are powerful!

Some of the best words get overused and they tend to lose their power. "Awesome" is the one that comes to my mind. That was a great word and should have been used only when viewing the Teton Mountains or when talking about God. It kind of lost its power when it started being thrown about frivolously. OOoooh... frivolous is a good word! It refers to something of little importance, but it is a big word with strong letters.  Hmm.... interesting.

One of my favorite words in "integrity". It isn't particularly cool sounding but I like the meaning of it...

Definition of INTEGRITY (from Merriam-Webster online)

1

: firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values : incorruptibility

2

: an unimpaired condition : soundness

3

: the quality or state of being complete or undivided :completeness

................................................................................................

Recently I heard a man say that he may not be the smartest guy but if anything, he was a man of integrity. It caught my attention because it is a word I don't hear much, but one I'd used on our boys. I told them both I wished for them to be men of integrity.  Although I don't remember using exactly that word, we expected the same from our daughter. One of my great joys is to see them all develop into adults with integrity.

If "awesome" is an overused word/concept, I'm thinking maybe "integrity" is an underused one in our world today. I'm not going to blab on about all the people we see on television who seem to be lacking integrity. You all know many examples, I'm sure. It is kind of depressing, isn't it?

Here's a challenge, though. Try to think of people you know who do have integrity. When I did that I realized that I do indeed know a lot of people who do the right thing, even when it is hard, people I know to speak truthfully, people who can admit when they've messed up. It made me feel good to realized that I am surrounded by people of integrity.

Isn't that awesome?!