Ahhhhhhhh It's a girl

There are times in your life when all you can say is ahhhhhhhh and just smile. I had one of those days last week, things were busy, I was at work when a fellow nurse walked up to me and handed me her cell phone and said "here YOU talk to this person" now that in itself makes one want to do exactly the opposite, but I took the phone and said "hello". On the other end of the phone came a sweet little voice that I hadn't heard for a while saying "Hello boss". It was a nurse that I had worked with a while back.

My first thought was oh great I hope she is looking for a job, cause I could sure use a good nurse. Well the next thing I heard was Evelyn say, "hey boss guess what............I have a new baby!" And that's when the ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh moment happened. Now it's pretty normal for women to get excited about a new baby, but this was extra special.

Evelyn is from the Philippines, her husband John is a really nice guy that I have met several times. John and Evelyn have been trying to start a family for several years now. There first baby died shortly after birth (I don't know why), her second pregnancy ended with a miscarriage and her third ended when she miscarried twins. As you can imagine, they were both devastated.

I had heard that they were talking about adoption, but I hadn't seen Evelyn in about 5 or 6 months and the last time I saw her she wasn't pregnant. So this phone call was a big surprise to me.

"Ohhhhh that's wonderful Evelyn", I said in the phone. Then she went on to tell me how they had adopted this sweet baby girl that they named Mia. She told me that her and John were there when the baby was born and that they brought her home from the hospital just three days ago. She told me how much she weighed, how long she was, how loud she was when she cried and how all she did was sleep and eat and mess her diapers LOL. I said "well that's what babies do" I made her promise to send pictures and she did. What an adorable little girl and how lucky she is to be part of this loving family. And that my friends is my ahhhhhhhhh moment.

Halloween

Fall is my favorite time of the year, I think I mentioned that in my last post LOL. Halloween has always been my hubbys favorite holiday. In years gone by he used to put up pumpkin lights across the front of the house, there were decorations in all the windows and the tables all held little decorations. There was always a carved pumpkin that yours truly had spent hours carving. I love to carve pumpkins, don't know why but I get a great deal of pleasure out of it.

A few years ago a lady that my hubby worked with lost her husband very suddenly, they had adopted a young girl not long before he died. Any way my hubby told me that the little girl who's name is Angel had never gone trick or treating and never had a pumpkin. Well that is just not right, so we went to the store and bought a really nice big tall pumpkin. I stored it in the garage until a few days before Halloween when I brought it inside and started working on the design. I didn't want anything really scary, so I settled for a nice flying ghost design. I worked on the actual carving the day before Halloween and had it finished by early evening. We called to see if we could meet somewhere since we live on opposite sides of town. When Angel saw her carved pumpkin that childs face lit up and she didn't know what to say. Her Mom had told her she was getting a pumpkin, and Angel had been driving her crazy for days asking when she was going to get the pumpkin. Not only was Angel surprised but so was her mother. What we didn't know was that this was a first carved pumpkin for both Mom and Angel. My husband and I got such joy out of giving that pumpkin to Angel and her Mom. I know they enjoyed it and to this day Angel calls me the pumpkin lady .

Well this Halloween has proved to be very pleasant, and while there are no lights strung across the front of the house and the window are not decorated.......there are two pumpkins outside, one that I carved this morning of a flying witch on a broom and the other is an electric pumpkin that my husband put out. We have had about 50 trick or treaters, most of them little kids with cute costumes and lots of parents wearing costumes. All and all a nice way to spend the evening .....watching young children enjoy going door to door and having neighbors hand out candy. My only regret is I wish I had carved a pumpkin this year for Angel, oh well maybe next year. Until next time...........Happy Halloween!

This year we are both off (now how that happened I have no idea).

Fall In The Desert

Fall is here and in most parts of the country that means cooler weather, the changing of the leaves and preparing for winter. Here in the desert we don't see the changing of the leaves (cactus don't have leaves) unless we travel up to the higher elevations were there are leaves to change.

There are other changes that we notice here, the sun is setting earlier and as I drive to work in the evening I now have to turn on my headlights. The stores are full of Halloween candy and there are pumpkin stands all over town. Did you know that pumpkins grow here in the desert?

Halloween decorations are every where and the kids are all talking of what they want to be for Halloween trick or treating. Haunted houses are open and providing lots of thrills for young and old alike.

I notice people out walking and biking earlier in the day. These activities are usually reserved for later in the evening during the summer when it is cooler. Charitable organizations are holding their fun runs and walks.

My desert tortoises are eating a lot, storing up for their winter hibernation. We just recently built them a new habitat which includes a house for them to hibernate in. I am sure they will like it much better than spending the winter in a cardboard box in the garage like they did last winter.

Yes fall has started in the desert and I for one love it! I hope your enjoying the many fall activities in your area.

The Day My Heart Stood Still

My day started with a friend calling to tell me that he had "spent the night in the emergency room" this is where my heart stood still, as these were the same words that he had used to tell me that he had been in the hospital after suffering am MI (heart attack to those who are not in the medical profession). When I finally caught my breath and got the courage to ask what had happened I learned that he had been thrown from a horse and broken his arm. To him this was just something that happens, but to me it was a cause for concern.

Randy is a friend and soul mate of over 30 years. We have shared all the ups and downs with each other over the years, our marriages, birth of children, death of our parents, jobs and just every day issues. We can talk about every subject under the sun with each other or just sit quietly for longs periods of time and say nothing at all.

Randy owns a small place out in the country, we both love it there and to me it a place where I can go to renew my soul and get away from the stresses of city life. After telling me he had to go have a cast put on his arm that morning we both agreed to go out to the country place, he wanted to check on the new horse and I wanted to check on him (It's the nurse in me LOL).

Later that afternoon I headed out to the country. Randy greeted me at the door with a big glass of iced tea and asked if I wanted to go see the new horse. He was like a kid with a new bike, all excited and wanting to show her off. So we walked down to the fence line where the horses are kept. My goodness what a site she was standing there just like she had lived there all her life. The thing that struck me was her color, she is the color of a new penny out in the sun, a beatiful copper color with a small white diamond on her forehead. She was friendly and let me pet her without any problems. I looked at him and said "are you sure this is the horse that threw you? She is so friendly!" His reply was "yup".

After watching the horses for awhile we wandered back to the house and sat out on the porch and talked about what happened when he got thrown. I had lots of questions to ask about where the break was, what the Dr had to say and why they had not put the cast on as scheduled earlier that day. He told me there was still a lot of swelling in the arm and they needed that to go down before they put the cast on. As usual he had lots of medical questions for me. We laughed about all the things he was having trouble doing since it is his dominant arm that is broken. I offered a few suggestions on things he could do to make it easier.

We spent a quiet afternoon talking and enjoying each others company. As the sun started to set we both decided it was time to head back in to town. He had checked on the horses and I had checked on him and my soul was renewed.