The Magic of an Ordinary Day

Ordinary Days

Just some quick snapshots into our life this week:

I made these fabulous, and I mean fabulous pumpkin waffles from the amazing smitten kitchen blog.  They were just wonderful--spicy but not too sweet so the bananas and maple syrup on top were perfect!  If you get time poke around on that food blog--it will not disappoint! 

Hannah helped me with the waffles this morning, and I showed her how to whip egg whites into soft peaks (or rather watch while the Kitchen Aid did it) and how to fold them into the batter rather than just stir them in.  She seemed unimpressed, and actually informed me that she was going to be a veterinarian, and therefore her husband would be doing all the cooking and watching her child since she couldn't do it all.  I kid you not.

Veteran's day was on Wednesday and Hannah and I had the day together after I had some appointments. One of my appointments was a cut and color, and it was bye bye Blondie!  I'm back to my natural color and decided to go short in the hopes of managing the helmet head that comes with my new job.  As a friend of mine who used to be a firefighter says, "there's nothing pretty about EMS" and she is so right.

So here's the new (old) me:

So anyway, on Veteran's Day Hannah got a little spa treatment, too in the form of a pedicure.  She wanted blue nail polish, so I stopped on my way home and got this little number for her, along with butterfly bling...

 

Well, I'm off for a nap then a 12 hour night shift.  Since the weather is kind of crappy chances are good that the helicopter is down and the airplane is up so I'll be flying!

 

  

Pretty Kitty

Some belated pictures of Hannah on Halloween She was a kitty cat.

Before school... it was really cold out and so I had to put a sweater on her.  Spoiled the line of her outfit but oh, well..

Then later that night we went to the community center for trick-or-treat.  Since we live in the boonies, there is no door-to-door here. 

 
 
 
 
 

Pumpkin time

Here's some photos of my lil pumpkin and our pumpkin-carving day.  She got to draw on the face.

There was some serious discussion regarding how exactly I was to carve the face.  Good thing I take direction well.

When we got to taking out the guts, I ended up doing most of the dirty work, but she gave it a try.

And the finished product:

And we're all roasted pumpkin seeds now!  A couple of fun things to do on the "short day' from school.

 
 
 
 
 

Remember me?

Yes, I still am among the living.  Working my butt off at the new job, studying after work, spending time with my family in between and spending time on the biggest time-sucker in history, facebook. 

So what's new?  The training portion of the job is demanding, and I'm almost through it and can start being a third rider on the fixed-wing next week.  That will be cool, as I've done fixed-wing before and I can get the groove of the new company down without the stress of scene calls.  Can't wait to get up in that helicopter, though, I gotta tell you!

Other than that, I've been hanging at home.

The apples are ripe.  I've made a pie.

And of course, green chile chicken enchiladas.  Fall in New Mexico wouldn't be the same without a big ole bag of green chile.

When I got home from Phoenix I was so glad to see moisture!  The mountain weather is perfect this time of year: warm and sunny in the day, chilly at night. 

So what's up with the world's most adorable 5 year old you ask??

She's doing great!  She's at the cusp of learning to read, and it's just wonderful to watch her go through the house.. "how do you spell camera?"  (she writes it down)  "how do you spell  I am a scientist of teeth? " (I kid you not on that one--she writes it down).  She will go to her books and copy down the letters on note cards to read later.  She is so motivated to learn this, it is just amazing!! 

She can also do addition and subtraction in her head, and used her fingers usually if we give her a two step problem (2+4-1=?)  She took to her numbers before her letters, anyway. 

Needless to say, she loves school and has had no trouble adjusting to her new school, new classmates and bus ride.  She is extremely verbal and quite dramatic.  She and Conga, our foster dog (who now will be residing with us permanently it seems) are inseparable and sleeps in Hannah's room at night. 

So life marches on, as it does. 
 
 
  
 
 

a new era

Hannah's first day of kindergarten!  She's in school for real, riding the bus, gone all day... all that brand new, nerve-wracking stuff (for us anyway).  Hannah could care less.  She just wanted to ride the bus.

The day started beautifully.  This greeted us when we opened our bedroom blinds...

The light was incredible.  The whole front yard was bathed in this fabulous orange-y light.  Stunning.

So on to getting Hannah ready for Kindergarten, which I am soooooo grateful to be able to do fully, rather than a rush job before work (which it would have been a week ago).  So she was all fed, packed and ready early and we headed down to the bus stop.

When the bus came, Hannah immediately scrambled on it without a backwards glance.  Papa had a harder time, but was glad to see her enthusiasm for things. 

then she settles in...

big smile and she was gone!!!

I hope she has a great day.  Our visit to the kindergarten last week went well, and her teacher seemed great and the school is highly rated.   I'm sure she'll do well.

I'm going to have fresh cookies for her when she gets home, though.  Just because I can. 

 

Backyard Campout

Hannah and I had a backyard camp-out yesterday.  It was a beautiful late-summer day out: not too hot, clear, slightly breezy.  So we set up one of our tents and had a Mama-daughter overnighter. It was fun.

So I got out the yellow tent, which I like because there are doors one two sides, therefore no climbing over each other to get out.  Hannah is holding the tent stake bag as I'm pushing the stakes into the ground when she says, "Mama, you need a mallet."  Huh?  Where did she get that?  Turns out she was exactly right and one rubber mallet later she was pounding in tent stakes like a pro.

It's exhausting work...

She is really a natural at tent-pitching, my girl.

So here we are with our tent and two of the four "guard" dogs we have.  And I use that term loosely since we have labs.

So we headed out with a big bag of popcorn and some beverages and had some hammock time before tent time.

(this one is courtesy of the auto-timer on my camera)

She had to have her entourage of animals and books and we spent time reading, telling stories, eating popcorn and looking at stars before going to sleep.  What a great night. 

Randomness

I think the smashed toe (courtesy of the dresser I was moving) was God's way of telling me to stop my manic cleaning and take a break, so I thought I would visit the old blog. I was shocked and appalled to discover that posts have not been made in my absence.  I'll have to speak to my people.

So what's been going on?  A lot, but not much of anything.

• Dwayne's been flying every week this month, which is fun for him.  He's now comfortable with high-risk OB and the fetal heart monitor.  And pediatrics.  Let's face it, he's a stud-nurse and can do anything.
• I often wonder if what's normal in our household is normal in other people's households.  Dwayne was flying a 7 year old girl to Iowa where she needed a special pediatric electrophysiologist. He called in to say goodnight to Hannah after he dropped his patient off, and when Hannah got on the phone --before saying hello-- said in a perfectly clinical tone "so how did she do?" 
• Hannah was in the office when Dwayne got activated for the pediatric flight and had happily donated some of her movies for the in-flight entertainment.  She's such a giving and generous child.
• We will all be glad when the summer is over.  We've been working opposite shifts to cover child care and we are ready for some family time.
• We are planning another camping/fly-fishing trip for August, for Dwayne's birthday.
• Speaking of camping/fishing trips, I added a photo album of our trip to the Jemez mountains to the sidebar on the left.  Check it out.  
• We might be adding another dog to our pack.  A friend's daughter had a horrible car accident that left her badly hurt, and she's currently in rehab.  She's had a brain injury and Zan isn't sure if her daughter will ever be able to care for the dog again... and definitely in the meantime the poor thing isn't getting the attention it deserves.  So we will be taking Conga for the week to see how she gets on with Hannah and our dogs, knowing it might not be a good fit, Rachel might recover and be able to take her back, whatever.  I just hope we can ease some of Zan's burden during this difficult time.
• The monsoon season has arrived and it is wonderful!  I love the thunderstorms, and the smell of rain and pine trees is the best thing in the world.
• Hannah is starting kindergarten on August 20th.  Kindy is all day here and she will be taking the bus.  And as Dwayne says, by about December he will stop following the bus to school with his truck to make sure she's okay.  She's going to a new school, a public school, and it's a highly-rated school.  Several of her friends from Prince of Peace will be attending as well as some neighbor kids.  It will be a good move.
• It's been nice not paying that private school tuition.  I just thought of that.
• Work continues to be challenging but good.  I'm getting used to being a businesswoman as well as a nurse. 

Th-th-that's all folks!  Have a great weekend!

   

my two sweethearts

They sure do love each other.  They had so much fun together at Fenton Lake.

They played in the water...

 

 

They did "up downs"...

 

 

They wrestled...

 

They watched  that dumb deer wander around our campsite...

  

They played Hannah's parachute game...

  

 

I don't know how he managed it but he found a Princess playset at the baitshop where he bought our fishing licenses.  Only Dwayne would find that...

 

What a great time!

 

Father's Day

It's a busy day here at Casa Frijole.

I am finishing up details on a NICU flight that's going wheels up at 0630 Monday.  I'd just as soon have all my ducks in a row so there are no early morning surprises for anyone.  This kid is pretty sick, and I want to make sure everything is smooth for the transfer.  Since I'm on call until I get to work tomorrow morning I'd like to do the work now and hopefully sleep tonight.

I'm packing/organizing/cleaning in preparation for our trip to Fenton Lake tomorrow. I'm going into work in the morning, then will hopefully leave a bit early and meet our friend Don out there.  Can't wait.  Hannah, meanwhile, has decided she likes my sleeping bag better than hers and has been holed up in it for awhile.

 

 

We had a mini-fathers day celebration this morning when Dwayne got home from work.  He was home late after he needed to go down to the cath lab at change of shift to help with a critical patient.  It was the whole enchilada: arrhythmias, defibrillation, intubation, pulmonary edema, plummeting blood pressures, going pulseless, etc.  Dwayne came home and said "yeah, that patient was bad ass but I did all that stuff last week in the back of an ambulance.  This guy didn't scare me."  Flight nursing has a way of making you more confident in your skills even when you are at the bedside.

I gave him a margarita with his breakfast burrito.  He deserved it.

Pre-K graduation

Hannah graduated from pre-K yesterday, and before work I was treated to their farewell program and a rousing version of Noah's Ark.  Hannah was the cheetah.  It was quite cute. 

Here she is walking up to the altar... she couldn't help but sneak a peek at Mom and Dad. 

 

Each of the kids made a hat to represent a different animal on the ark.

 

Always paying attention, my girl.  Just like her Mama.

 

Here she is getting her diploma from the Principal. 

 

Then it was off to a small party and some playing with her BFF's

 

What a great experience Prince of Peace was.  I'm so glad we decided to have her spend time there before kindergarten.  She was able to mature in so many ways and come out of her shell socially.  Her teachers were absolutely wonderful, patient and kind women. 

She's going to public school next year, to a highly-rated school a few miles up the road.  She's already gotten registered and is excited to ride the bus.  But I'm going to miss this place.