GeoCaching

Yesterday, my youngest son and I went Geocaching around our town. I never realized until I visited the geocaching website how many there were in our area! We found 4 yesterday in about an hour's time. The caches ranged in size from a small film canister (think 35mm size) to a metal ammo bin about the size of a shoe box.

I really enjoyed the one called "Toubled bridge over water". It took us down an abandoned road in the middle of the day. It was beautiful out and we saw hawks/kites flying overhead and numerous birds calling back and forth in the woods. I never thought to take pictures of the areas, but have decided to go back tomorrow and get some. I'm planning on being off from work tomorrow to get ready for Nursing Exam #2. Wish me luck!

Nursing School 2009

I'm somewhere I never thought I would be - in the Associate Degree in Nursing Program at McLennan Community College

I am blessed that the company I work for has allowed me to flex my schedule to attend afternoon and evening classes and clinicals. It's been a long 5 weeks already but I am determined to just take one week, one class at a time. If I worry too much about the next 2 years of classes and clinicals, I'll never finish.

So, in addition to being a single mom of two teenage boys, advancement coordinator for my son's Boy Scout Troop, Volunteer Firefighter/NREMT-I and full time Associate at Mars, Snackfood, US - now, I'm a student Nurse!

I bet my mom and dad are rolling over in their graves! The nature girl that always wanted to be a forest ranger and live in the woods in now becoming a nurse.

Wish me Luck!

Starburst Jr. Golf Classic

Well, it's finally here folks!

I am volunteering my time again this year at our annual golf tournament. The Starburst Jr Golf tournament is the 2nd largest jr golf tournament in the country. We have kids from all over the US come and play here. I think one year we had something like 17 states and 4 countries represented! (South Africa, Philipines, Mexico, US).

The tournament opened with registration yesterday at Cottonwood golf course and continues until Wednesday at 7 area golf courses. Five of the courses are here in Waco, TX and two are located a bit further south in Temple, TX. The particpating courses are: Connally, Cottonwood, The Lake, Ridgewood, Twin Rivers, Sammons Temple) and Wildflower (Temple).

Follow this link to the Starburst Jr Golf Classic webpage for the complete round up of information and photos from the event!

Shattered Dreams

The Accident
(Thursday, May 8, 2008) On Thursday, May 8, 2008, a 911 call went out over the Public Address System at Robinson High School. There had been a wreck involving two cars on Tate Drive in front of the school. Students were dismissed from class and observed the mock drama called "Shattered Dreams".

I am the 2nd from left in bunker gear starting an I.V. on my patient. My fellow firefighters work to free another crash victim.

The event, organized by Officer Brent Ewing, and assisted by his wife, Jennifer, was an attempt to cause the students to be safe during the prom and graduation season. Robinson ISD, Robinson FCAS (Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Students), Robinson SADD (Students Against Destructive, Robinson Police Department, Robinson Fire Department, Hillcrest Hospital, and Providence Hospital joined forces to present the event, “Shattered Dreams” at Robinson High School on May the 8th and 9th.

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More teenagers and young adults die in traffic crashes than from any other cause. Alcohol and seat belt non-use are major factors. In the 15-24 age group, nearly half of all fatalities are alcohol related. In attempt to raise awareness of the negative consequences of impaired driving, the Shattered Dreams drama was presented to the students of Robinson H.S.

The Robinson VFD was fortunate to be included in this event which has a huge impact on both the students and the community. Also included were the folks from PHI which provided the helicopter to transport one of the patients to the local trauma hospital. We had a total of 6 patients; one went by 'bird', two went by ground ambulance, two were 'arrested' at the scene for DUI and MIP - minor in possession and the last patient went in a body bag to the hearse.

The complete slide show (about 8 mins long) can be viewed on the school's website by clicking here.

Texas Wildflower Parade - Continued

So, first we had the Bluebonnets in our previous post and now we move on to the other colorful participants in this annual event.

Usually after the Bluebonnets, the Indian Paint Brushes are the next to appear. These get their names because they literally look like brush tips that have been dipped in paint especially in large groupings.

Then, shortly after the Wild Primroses bloom. These delicate flowers range from a pale pink in color to a deep vibrant pink. I have heard they come in shades of yellow as well, but I haven't seen any of these where I live yet. A friend of mine calls them buttercups, but they aren't like the buttercups I grew up with back East. You know the little, bright yellow weeds we used to pick and put under each other's chins to see if we liked butter? Ahh h~ memories!

Here's a close up of the same bunch so you can see the little yellow stamens inside the centers:

About the same time as the Primroses bloom, these delicate little Daisies start popping up. Does anyone remember the line from the movie "You've Got Mail" with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan where she's home sick and he brings her daisies?? She says something about how she likes daisies because they are such a friendly flower...remember??

The last (main) member of the Texas Wildflower Parade is the Indian Blanket. Not to be confused with the Indian Paintbrush, this flower has a two-tone vibrant color of the kinds seen in woven Indian Blankets - hence the name!

Here's a stunning close-up of the Indian Blanket so you can get a good look at the colors of the petals. It almost looks like a painted daisy, doesn't it?

All of these pictures were taken with my new Olympus FE-210 digital camera. It's a step up from my old Minolta camera which was 5 mega pixels. The Olympus is 7 mega pixels and takes great video too!! I used it in a low light situation at Church last month to record the Mime Stations of the Cross that my younger son K was participating in. I even burned the video to a disc for the CCE teacher of the entire event and he was very please with the results. He told me he hadn't ever gotten a copy of the event from a parent and a recording his wife had done was from a previous Mime event 8 years ago!

I think I will loan my old camera to my son K to use on Boy Scout Events. It's a nice camera, but I really like the features on this Olympus as well as it's compact size.

All of these pictures were taken while Max and I were out walking over a period of several weeks. I tried to wait until the flowers were at their peak and I had some good light. You can tell many of the pictures were taken late in the afternoon, as that's when Max and I usually walk. The few I took in the morning were probably from our morning walks on the weekends.

Enjoy the pictures and I can't wait to see what Summer brings in the way of things to photograph!!

Texas Wildflower Parade

Well, Spring has sprung here in Central Texas and the wildflower parade is in full bloom. There is an actual order to the way the flowers blossom, believe it or not! Usually the Bluebonnets are first and they are, by the way, the State Flower of Texas!!

Here's a close up view of these gorgeous flowers:

Here is my favorite walking partner, my mini Schnauzer Max!

Max loves to lay in the flowers and rub all over them. I guess if they smell good to my nose, it must be almost overwhelming to Max's super sensitive nose.

Frequent Fliers

Every business has regular customers and EMS is no different. In our line of work, patients we see on a regular or even semi-regular basis (once a month or so) are known as Frequent Fliers. They don't collect any mileage points from us for their trips to the hospital in the back of the ambulance...they just call us frequently and they are driven (flown) to the hospital.

We had one a while back that - for whatever reason - always had problems in the wee hours of the morning. It got to the point that as soon as we heard the address, we knew (for the most part) what the nature of the call was and who the patient would be when we arrived. Obviously, we never knew for sure until we actually got to the house...and you never want to ASSUME in this business...gets you in trouble! So, you answer every call as if it's your first time to be there and try to treat each call individually.

Because the patient's condition and address were so well known, I got to where I had memorized some of the patient's personal information..date of birth, medicines, allergies, etc. Almost better than my own family's!!! Sometimes, this scenario plays out in the end stages of some one's life and eventually they pass away.

There is another address we have been to about 4 times in the last year or so and it looks like it is shaping up to be another frequent flyer for us. The challenge is that sometimes people don't have health insurance or transportation to the hospital and the ambulance crew becomes their first line of defense and the Emergency Room Doctors become their primary care physicians. This is a shame because you never know if a call like this is taking away from another call that could be a TRUE emergency situation. Someone should do a research project on this for a Doctorate dissertation!! As long as we have unaffordable health care in this country, we will continue to see this problem escalate.

I know this sounds morbid, but EMS people often read the obituaries. It allows us to keep up with the population in our town, especially those people that have been former patients of ours. We don't get a lot of feedback on patients once we load them into the ambulance, so this helps close the loop for us. I think I may have mentioned this before and I bet this won't be the last time it is mentioned!!