Day By Day & Thought By Thought

The Colossal Career Conundrum

2012-02-02T13:25:00.000-07:00

So I have this boy friend.

He's a pretty cool cat.

We've been dating for over a year, so I know a lot about him.

Oh, you want to know what he does for a living?

Ya, well so do I!

All I know is that he manages the crews that do the up keep on oil refineries all across the country.

He has tried NUMEROUS times to explain it.

He even drew me a diagram.

I'm not kidding about the diagram.

I'm tired of trying to explain to people what my boyfriend does for a living.

I have officially decided on an answer to that question.

It goes a little something like this...

My Boyfriend is an Astronaut.

He is working on creating a permanent moon colony.

His boss is Newt Gingrich.

Any questions?

Dear Mr Creeper....

2012-01-30T12:18:00.000-07:00

Dear Mr Creeper at D.I.

I do not enjoy you following me around the store.

Nor do I enjoy you asking me if I am looking things up to sell online.

Nor do I enjoy you jumping in front of me to see an out coming cart.

Please learn to be considerate and less creepy.

Love, Me

New Blog!

2012-01-10T19:22:00.000-07:00

K, so as many of you already know, I FINALLY got accepted to Nursing school! Hazzah! Well, because i'm such a nerd, I created a blog for all of you to follow all of my crazy/funny/gross nursing experiences. So, here is the link! Follow me HERE !

p.s.... I'm probably still keeping this blog, so just be sure to ADD the nursing blog to your feed as well.

I'm Back!!!

2012-01-08T22:35:00.000-07:00

It is very evident to me that I have been very much absent from the blogging world since September. My life kinda did some loops and swoops and I am just now getting my stability back! So, here I am....Back to blogging. Something stable.

I'm not even going to try to do a "catch up" blog, because quite frankly, some of the things I don't care to recap and everything else is just......A LOT. So, you will probably be confused by most of my upcoming posts, but I'm going to do it anyway.

So, the other day I had a lunch date with My mom, Aunt Celia, and Aunt LaRae. Can we just talk about how awesome these women are? I seriously wanna be just like each one of them when I grow up. We got Cafe Rio and took it back to my Aunt Celia's house because she recently had surgery on her foot. We sat and laughed for probably 4 hours! I thoroughly enjoyed every minute! Here are pictures to prove it!

Please note the ADORABLE hot pads/wash clothes my Auntie C made for me! They are already packed up!...For what you might ask...? That is yet to come, in the next post!

Round Three

2011-09-29T15:36:00.000-06:00

Ya know how I said my dad was getting better, and might possibly get to go home soon?

Ya.....that didn't happen.

About 2 weeks ago he moved out of the ICU to the 4th floor.

He was there for about a week and then moved to the 6th floor.

(The 6th floor is not technically considered part of the hospital, it is basically just rehab)

His headache got so bad that he wasn't able to walk or eat so they moved him back to the 4th floor.

He wasn't able to eat for several days so they took him to Radiology to place a feeding tube.

While in radiology he Coded.

Meaning, they had to call a code blue because he had congestive heart failure.

They did one round of CPR and drug pushes and he was back.

After that adventure he was swiftly moved back to the ICU.

He is back where he started.

Back on the Ventilator.

Back on the paralytic.

Back on the sedation.

Starting over with his healing process.

Prayers for my Dad would be so appreciated.

Love you Dad.

Happy times ahead

2011-09-14T12:15:00.000-06:00

Dad has made some serious improvements over the last 2 1/2 weeks.

He is hoping to be moved to the 6th floor (rehab)

And then shortly after to return home!

He needs to get home so he can spend more time with this pretty young thing

Quick update on Pops

2011-08-31T22:02:00.000-06:00

For those of you who are interested, here is an update on my Papa...

*He is still in the ICU*

*He is still on the ventilator*

*Still very sick*

*They did a Tracheostomy*

*He is much more comfortable with his Trach vs the regular breathing tube*

*He has another infection, but they have him on I.V. antibiotics*

*His lungs are making small improvements everyday*

*He is no longer in the medically induced coma*

*He is awake and alert about 50% of the time*

*We feel extremely blessed that he is finally moving in the right direction*

This is my baby

2011-08-20T16:16:00.000-06:00

This is Baby Brynnlee Nicole Walker

Born July 22, 2011

7lbs 2oz

She is so freaking cute.

Has the best lips I've seen on a child.

Is the biggest cuddle bug...

Mitch and Amy are seriously going to be awesome with her.

Except Brynnlee already has Mitch wrapped around her tiny little finger.

Even more than Mitch, She has her Grandpa Walker wrapped even tighter.

Even with just one small meeting.

(This picture was taken during the 16 short hours my dad was home between hospital stays; We think it was a tender mercy.)

American Indian Powwow

2011-08-17T11:42:00.000-06:00

Well if the above picture looks like it was take on an Indian reservation, that is because it was.

On Friday my family was up at the hospital, and went down to the cafeteria for a quick bite to eat. When they returned to the room, my dad's door was opened just enough for them to see a man standing next to the bed with a Long, black braid.

He was the son of a great family friend. His name is Allen King. His father worked with my dad for years and years, and were great friends. Allen's father, Bobby, passed away 6 years ago and my dad escorted the body back to Arizona from Idaho.

Allen Lives in Phoenix, Arizona. He came up to Idaho for the American Indian Dance festival at Fort Hall in Blackfoot. He decided to come up to Idaho Falls to see some of the people he worked with when he was younger and working with his dad. When he was at my dad's office and found out he was in the hospital, he immediately headed for the hospital.

When my family walked back into my fathers room, they saw Allen doing a ritual on my dad. There was such a calm feeling in the room while he was there. He then told my family that He would be dancing in the festival on Saturday and Sunday and that he would be dedicating his dances to my dad.

While we were at the festival on Saturday, we met up with Allen. We noticed that his face paint was different then the picture he showed us of his usual costume. He did special face paint for my dad. In the picture below there are 3 scares shown. These are to represent the scares that my dad, as well as the scares my family will carry from this whole experience.

In the picture below, there are 3 arrowheads shown. The arrowheads represent protection for my dad.

After Allen danced, he told us the meaning of what he was doing. While he was at the hospital on Friday, he took a breath from my dad, and carried it with him for his dance. Then while he was dancing, he took that breath and put it onto his feathers and lifted it to the sky. This was to have the dancing and chants carry it away.

This was such a spiritual experience. I don't know a whole lot about american Indian history, but I learned a lot this weekend. I am so grateful for Allen and all the has done for my family.

Life's been rough...

2011-08-09T17:48:00.000-06:00

Alright people, obviously I have been absent from the blogging world for SEVERAL months. It was completely unintentional for a while, but for a little while I just haven't known what to say, exactly. So I will try to explain a few things.

Mostly, the biggest thing I need to talk about is my Dad. You all know he has had a lot of problems for the past several years. He as struggled with stomach problems, headaches, and infections to name a few. Well this summer has been a rough one for him. At the end of June he went into the hospital because of a bad infection he developed from the his stimulater (He had a stimulater implanted under his skin above his right eye and went about to his clavical. This was used to help control his headaches.) They went in and cleared out all the infection and kept him on antibiotics just in case. Two weeks later he was admitted back to the Intensive care unit at the hospital with the thought that he had Pneumonia. After lots of tests it was believed that his lungs were filled with infection that probably came from his stimulator. His lungs were literally so full of infection that he was unable to breath on his own. He was intubated and placed on a ventilator to allow his body to heal without putting too much stress on his lungs. He was completely sedated as well as put on a paralyzing agent to keep his body from fighting the tube. Medically this is called a "Medically induced coma". After 11 days in a coma he came around and a few days after that they removed the tube. They moved him to the 4th floor where he stayed for 4 days. They then said that he could go home. He went home, but less than 24 hours later he was admitted back into the hospital with a fever, indicating more infection. He was readmitted to the ICU where they watched him closely for almost a week. He was doing pretty well for the most part. The Dr's struggled periodically with keeping his oxygen saturation levels where they needed to be. yesterday morning the Dr's felt it necessary to intubate him again. They put him back into the medically induced coma. Today he wasn't doing as well, but they needed to do a surgery to remove the stimulater. Dr's were unsure if his body would be able to handle the surgery. The surgery was completed and he is doing okay. He is still in the coma and will stay that way until his lungs heal enough for him to breath on his own. He is stable. His vitals are currently good, all things considered. Time will tell in this situation.

Please keep my dad in your prayers. I also think it wouldn't hurt to have a few prayers for my family as well. This causes quite a bit of stress as you might guess.

My first real camping experience

2011-05-31T21:15:00.000-06:00

Alrighty, for those of you who know me....

I'm not a big "outdoorsy" kinda person.

Probably not a huge surprise to everyone else either.

I should also note that i've never really been camping...for real.

I've done the like, girls camp camping....

but I don't think that actually counts.

so for memorial day weekend guess what I did?

....yup.....

I went camping!!!

We went to a place called 'The knolls"

It is about 40 miles outside of Wendover.

I went with my boy and about 30 ish of his friends.

It was a HUGE group.

Seriously.

We rode four wheelers on the sand dunes...

Can I just say....

Super fun!

I think I need that to be my new hobby.

Our weather was nice about half of the time.

I even got a sunburn!

Gotta love those!

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say...

I Like camping.

AND

I would like to do it again very very soon.

He's home!!!

2011-04-20T20:26:00.000-06:00

Well after way too long....

My boy is

HOME!!!

I know, I didn't think he was ever coming home either.

Can I just say how wonderful it is to actually have a boyfriend in the same state?

I HIGHLY recommend it ladies.

Well, as much fun as it was spending several hours with him, he is gone again....

Hopefully only for a few days this time.

He is spending some time with "the boys"

more accurately, his brothers

They headed down to St. George for some four wheeling.

This is is second life, as you can see below.

Boys will be boys.

Saturday is a special day

2011-04-17T12:00:00.000-06:00

My friend Bri started doing this wonderful post a couple weeks ago.

"Saturday is a special day"

(you can see her blog here)

I love this idea, so i'm stealing it today.

Today I will....

Clean the turtle tank
take resume's around with Rach
Buy gift for Zena's bachellorette party
Buy something for a meal for sunday
Hang out with Rach and Korv
Tell my boy how much he means to me

What I actually did today....

Bought a WHOLE BUNCH of lotion from bath and body
Went to lunch at Olive garden with Rach
Bought a gift for Zena's B-party
Watched easy A
Took a nap
Went to dinner
Spent a fun evening with Tiffany and Rach

SURPRISE!!!

2011-04-10T17:34:00.000-06:00

Okay so I know you are all

DYING

to know what my surprise was...

Cause I sure was.

Telling a girl that you have a surprise for her later...

BAD IDEA!

Well, It might be interesting, but it

WILL.DRIVE. HER. NUTS.

Which, now that I think about it...that was probably his objective...

ANYWAY...

What was my surprise you ask?

A dream vacation for two?

A diamond bracelet?

Flowers?

Tickets to a concert?

No.

All would be nice, but my surprise was even better.

What can be better?

Well, I will tell you.

HE IS COMING HOME!!!

It will be nearing 2 months since I've seen my boy.

That is a long time....

Think about it.

SHOULD

be home the 18th of April.

I am so excited to have my boy back.

I can't wait.

I'm not sure about surprises...

2011-04-08T13:28:00.000-06:00

So When I was talking to my boy today, He told me he had a "surprise" for me.

*Remember, he is still out of town...currently in Denver*

All he told me was..

Him: "I have a surprise for you later today"

Me: Okay....what does that mean...?"

Him: "It means, I have a surprise for you later today."

Me: "You are not helping me at all here are you?"

Him: "Nope, you will just have to wait and see what it is"

Okay, so now he is sleeping

(cause he works nights)

and I am up and driving myself crazy trying to think of what it could be.

I'm sure i'm making the situation bigger than it needs to be...but...

Oh well!

I can't decide whether I like surprises or if I completely hate them because of the torture that is associated with the

"Surprise"

Any guesses what it will be????

My ABC's

2011-04-05T15:53:00.000-06:00

Age: 21

Bed Size: twin... :(

Chore you hate: laundry/dishes/cleaning my bedroom

Dogs: HUSKY!!!!

Essential start of your day: pushing snooze at least 3 times...

Favorite Color: Possibly purple...possibly red...possibly hot pink...

Gold or silver: Silver all the way...more versatile.

Height: 5'1" and some random centimeters....

Instruments I play (or have played): Piano

Job Title: Activities aid

Kids: yes, please ;)

Live: Logan, UT

Mom's Name: Debbie

Nickname: Riss, Rissy, Rissa, Mom, Mama bear, Missy

Overnight hospital stays: SUCK!!!!

Pet Peeve: People putting things in my ear....YUCK! GROSS! I dont want to talk about it.

Quote from a movie: Agnus:Aw! my caterpillar never turned into a butterfly!

Margo: That's a cheeto....

Agnus: OOOOHHH......*chomp* *chomp* *chomp*

Right or left handed: Right handed...but I sometimes try to be ambidextrous and write with my left hand...not recommended.

Siblings: Blaine, Mitch, Taylor, Maddi

Time you wake up: Usually around 8:15 a.m.

Underwear: Ummm.....yes? What is this asking? Victoria's secret?

Vegetables you dislike: Tomatoes!!! I realize technically they are a fruit....but seriously? who considers them a fruit? Really.

What makes you run late: I can't EVER decide what to wear!

X-rays you've had done: Ankle, Knee, both feet, sternum, and of course, dental

Yummy food you make: LASAGNA!!! Ask anybody...

Zoo animal: Tigers!

Now it's your turn to do this!

Weekend activites

2011-04-04T12:53:00.000-06:00

Well, I finally got my ideal

"Summer weekend!"

Friday night, Rach, Brielle, Justin and I made some plans.

We decided to have a bon fire.

Now there needs to be a few explanations....

Justin is a rough and tough man's man.

He totally takes care of us.

He text us saying that we should have a bon fire.

Oh, don't worry, he rounds up all the supplies and picks us up.

Ready to go.

Now, Justin doesn't just like to go to the

"Usual fire pits"

he has to go to the TOP of the mountain.

Can you say...

MUDDIN'!!!

It's a good thing Justin has a big old truck or else we for sure would be frozen at the top of the mountain.

He made us an awesome fire and also found sticks and made the perfect marsh mellow sticks for us.

And get this...

He even brought us the cute little mini ice creams....

Dolce De Leche flavor...

YUM!

He is a thinker.

How we convinced him to hangout with the 3 of us girls....

BEYOND ME.

Then the rest of the weekend was pretty chill.

Rach, Justin and I went bowling on Saturday night.

Justin beat both of us.

Not surprised.

The point of this blog....

We love Justin

We Love summer

Summer is upon us....APRIL FOOLS!

2011-04-01T19:44:00.000-06:00

Okay, So like the rest of you, I was SUPER STOKED about the weather on this fine day.

Yes, 70 degrees people...

Could we ask for a better first day of April?

I submit that we cannot!

It saddens me that this weather is not stickin around for long...

Sunday is supposed to be 39 degrees....

39!

How does that even happen?

Ya, i'm not sure either...

Anyway, staying positive...

I want to go have a HUGE bonfire tonight

The first one of the year.

Maybe some serious star gazing tonight?

Both these activities SCREAM summer to me.

I'm going to be kicking and screaming until summer actually is here to stay.

Come to me...

Video's of the Month-March

2011-03-28T18:27:00.000-06:00

This next one is for my dad....he LOVES this video

The following video is of an event I went to this past weekend. It is a hindu ceremony.

Yes, I was COVERED in chalk....but it was sure fun!

I LOVE the movie "Despicable Me."

Ask anyone who is around me regularly....I quote it several times a day...

...seriously....

This is one of my favorite parts

We all know how much I love hip-hop dancing...

These guys are the best.

...I don't think they are human...

2011-03-15T22:29:00.000-06:00

So...i'm just gunna throw this out there....

Stefon:

And Ke$ha:

They should probably be best friends.

I think they would get each other.

There's a lid for every pot right?

Weekend is almost here!

2011-03-02T23:33:00.000-07:00

Well my weekend is going to be starting early.

Tomorrow around 5 pm to be precise.

Why is my weekend starting a day before all the rest of yours, you ask?

BETHANY IS GETTING MARRIED!!!!

Ya...I know.

I swear she just got engaged yesterday.

I'm so excited for her.

She and Clay are going to have the happiest and funnest life together.

After the wedding on Friday I'm off to Vegas on Saturday morning!

Yahooooooo!

I am in much need of a vacation...MUCH NEEDED!

A couple of days of R&R can only help me at this point.

Check out this forecast... SUN SHINE!!!

I will report back later next week bloggies!

Loves Ya's!

It's a.......

2011-02-28T20:43:00.000-07:00

My Niece is going to be ridiculously spoiled.

Yep...Aunt Riss has a great ring to it....

Past weekends events

2011-02-23T00:35:00.000-07:00

Well Life has been Super Dee Duper crazy lately.

Precisely the reason as so why I have not blogged in over a week....Ya, my bad...

What has my weekend consisted of you might ask? Well, let me just give you a brief synopsis:

Friday: Rach and I did a lot of last minute party planning for Bethany's BACHELORETTE PARTY!!!

The party went off without a hitch!

We went to dinner at Elements...which was absolutely to die for. It always is.

We laughed out guts out; i'm pretty sure everyone in the restaurant thought we were suuuupppperrrr Drunk!

But alas, we were all completely sober.

Then we went back to our apartment and opened gifts...Can I just say how excited I am to get married?!

HHHHOOOOOLLLLAAAAYYY!!!!

Seriously, awesome gifts all the way around.

We then proceeded to laugh our faces off..

yes, laugh. our. faces. off.

It was a fabulous night.

Way too many inappropriate and hilarious moments to list.

Saturday: I met up with my boy in Salt lake...

FINALLY!

He has been in Long Beach, California for the past 3 weeks.

Can you say withdrawls?!

Anyway...

He took me to a place called Trangs Cafe' and it was fan-freakin-tastic!

I knew it would be authentic when our waiter spoke like 3 words total in English.

Always a good sign...

unless you are at panda express or something.

After dinner we went to Monster Jam at the Delta center.

I refuse to call it the (energy solutions center)....it will forever be the Delta Center.

There were several things in excess...

1. Rednecks

2. Monster trucks

3. exhaust

4. screaming drunks...I.E...Rednecks

Seriously tho, it was way fun. I was super skeptical, but the boy was right, I really enjoyed it!

Must be the redneck in me ;)

Sunday: I had dinner with the boys familia.

Ya.

The family.

I was soooo nervous!

Turns out they are super awesome people.

His nieces are probably the funniest girls ever...

"You have a girl friend, girl friend, GIRLFRIEND!!!!"

That is what they chanted for a good 15 minutes when we first got there.

In the end, I'm glad I met his family and realized how awesome they are, and how dumb it was for me to be worried.

So, like I said, my life has just been a whirl wind of craziness for the past couple of days. hopefully my blog vibes get back in line. I feel unbalanced when I don't blog.

Ya, I just said that.

My boy is cute

2011-02-14T19:15:00.000-07:00

So...There's this boy...

(Finally....I know, right?!)

He makes me very happy

He has put a constant smile on my face.

Laughing so much that my face hurts by the end of the night.

He drives 12 hours home from California, and an addition hour just to see me.

He takes me on dates to amazing restaurants & dresses up without one complaining word.

Makes a huge effort to make me feel like he misses me when he is out of town...

He is out of town a lot...and by a lot I mean 7 weeks out of 2 months.

Ya....I wasn't kidding when I said a lot.

One better than that...He works nights. Crazy huh?

Well...it is okay because he makes up for it.

He calls me before he goes into work at night and I tell him about my day..

Then he calls me in the morning when I wake up and tells me about his night.

Pretty surprising for a guy, huh?

He is so fantastic and makes me ridiculously happy.

Even tho he's been in L.A for the past 2 1/2 weeks, he still managed to make sure I had something on Valentines day.

He is a sweet heart and I appreciate everything he does for me!

Vent session

2011-02-14T00:21:00.000-07:00

Here we go... be prepared to just listen to some serious venting.

Or don't listen...

Doesn't matter to me, I just need to write this one out.

Don't mind Rachael being ubber happy in this...look at my very upset face to the right...ya, that is how I feel right now

Here is a list of things that I am really tired of

Being treated like I am 5 years old

Not being supported in the biggest things in my life, by the most important people in my life

Being told I am stupid for making my own decisions

Not solidly knowing what my life will be in six months

My boyfriend being out of town

Thinking about being alone on Valentines day

People being close minded

There is my short list...

Yes, I said short.

I have a lot more things on my list, but they would all call for explanation, and frankly, I don't feel like explaining tonight.

Thank you for listening :)