Grandma Ruby Tribute

Last week on Tuesday May 12th my Grandma Ruby passed away. We had her funeral on Saturday May 16th which was her birthday. She would have been 82. This has been a huge shock and completely unexpected.

My Grandma's greatest legacy to me is her love for people and willingness to serve others. She lived just 15 minutes from us my entire life. Her house was right by the middle school and we loved spending the night and walking to school. She would fix us popcorn on the stove. We always thought that was cool. She always called us on our birthdays. She loved this country and those who protected this country with their lives. When she made friends it was for a lifetime and she no longer consider you a friend you were family. So then you would get a phone call for your birthday :) She loved the gospel of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. She loved serving the in the temple. So many more memories that I can't even begin to tell them all.

Here are a few pictures:

Grandma Ruby last July

Grandma's High School picture

Everyone at the funeral helped guide Grandma to the car. We decided to do this in honor of her always serving us we now had a chance to serve her.

The pallbearers were my dad, my brother Jason, my brother John, my brother-in-law JL, family friends Casey Waughtel, Bryan Waughtel, and Nick Kohls.

My mom with Carrie's youngest Kaylynn. If you want to know what my mom looked like when she was 2 Kaylynn is a carbon copy of my mom. We found some pictures while we were going through things and no one could tell if it was Kaylynn or my mom.

My grandma holding the newest of her great grandkids 3 weeks ago.

Grandma with all of us grandkids. My grandma loved my mom and aunt but all of us knew that she adored us grandkids.

We will me you grandma!!

I'm Free

Don't grieve for me, for now I'm free; I'm following the path God laid for me.

I took His hand when I heard Him call; I turned my back and left it all.

I could not stay another day; to laugh, to love, to work, or play.

Tasks left undone must stay that way; I found that place at the close of day.

If my parting has left a void, then fill it with remembered joy.

A friendship shared, a laugh, a kiss. Ah yes, these things, I too, will miss.

Be not burdened with times of sorrow; I wish you the sunshine of tomorrow.

My life's been full, I savored much; good friends, good times, a loved one's touch.

Perhaps my time seemed all too brief; don't lengthen it now with undue grief.

Lift up your heart and share with me; God wanted me now,

He set me free.

We will miss you grandma!!

Update in my life

So I guess it is time to update everyone on what has been going on in my life. Really it has been pretty much the same. Work and trying to study plus have a social life. One of the best things is I was able to catch up with one of my favorite people that I had not seen in several years. Shanna and I hung out for several hours and it was like we had just seen each other. No weirdness just a great friendship. She has a beautiful family and a beautiful house that they are building. Each day at work I usually learn something new. It might be something about medicine, disease, drugs, or how to be a better supervisor. Of course highlights of work is the blood and guts and then helping a patient figure out why they have a rash. Lately the big allergen has been shin guards for soccer. Mainly it is the rubber backing but sometimes it is the dye of the fabric covering the backing.

So I have put a couple of pictures through out so you can see something beautiful in between my ramblings.

Now for the crappy part which has been the month of April. April fools was actually a great day at work because we were able to get Dr. Hadley who does surgery and he starts before anyone else. The girls in the back had set it up so lights were all turned off except for the waiting room and our physician assistant had called Dr. Hadley to tell him that he was sick and wasn't going to be there. They then also had the supervisor from upstairs come down and tell him that all of his staff for that day had called in sick. He was very, very worried. He didn't know what to do. Here was all these patient and yet he didn't know how to feel out any of the paperwork that needed to be done before he started. Then everyone came into clinic and said April Fools. It was great. He bought pizza for the clinic that day.

Now for April 2nd. I was in one meeting after lunch and then I get pulled out of that meeting and into another meeting where I am told that 3 out of the 6 RN have been laid off. 2 of which work in my clinic and were working in my clinic that day. Before I got pulled into this meeting each of the nurses were told and then sent home because HELLO I WOULDN'T WANT TO WORK THE REST OF THE DAY. The one thing nice is they can work for the next 30 days, so it wasn't an immediate lay off. But I had to leave that meeting and go check on my clinic because we had 3 physicians working and yet now was down 2 people and by the time I made it over to clinic most of my staff was ready to walk out. NOT A GOOD DAY or feeling. I don't think I slept for a week after that. Part of this lay off is the condition that the department can not hire a nurse for one year without offering that position to one of these 3 nurses first. So I don't know what will happen when I finally finish. I have gone back and forth from being angry, to not caring, to having faith that some how I will be hired when I get done. Mainly I have a hard time knowing that I have worked my butt off for almost 5 years for this department and yet that may not be rewarded or even cared about. That is hard to come to grips with. One thing nice is that I have Dr. Powell in my corner, meeting with people and pleading my case. That gets me over being angry to having hope.

With me losing these 2 nurses and then Amiee in May and then Kristen in July I will be down to 4 employees by July 1st. We actually finally got the okay to hire 2 people. So that will help but I will still be short staffed.
The next crappy thing is remember I told you I was in a meeting that I was pulled out of. Well that meeting was also with Human Resources because someone was doing something illegal. The problem is that we are all human and were feeling bad about having to fire this person because she is 6 months pregnant. But this situation got dragged out until just last week because she was trying to save her job by throwing everyone else under the bus which was not a very pleasant thing. I felt bad for everyone that got dragged into this mess. Jennifer, who is her immediate supervisor, was able to miss most of it because she was out of town. It is a good thing she bought me a little tiny mug that has Vegas Princess on it. So now we are friends again.
Wanting to end on a happy note is that clinic seems to be calming down and I am calming down. I had a good Easter and a good Conference weekend. Plus Stephanie Powell called me inviting me on a girls only Disneyland trip in May. So excited!!! This will be my first time :)

PART 11 THE END OF A GREAT TRIP!!

The last place we visited was Lexington, Kentucky. This has been the place that my Mom and I have wanted to visit for years and the reason for this trip. We love horses. The Kentucky Horse Park is not just about horse racing but any thing to do with horses. From horse jumping, to events in rodeos, to cutting, to carriage driving, dressage, cross country and so on. It is a huge park with the largest horse barn in the world. Another part of the Horse park is where owners have loaned their horses to the park to educate people about the different types of breeds and there is also a Hall of Champions. The very best of the best horses in there event. There hasn't been a champion add in 12 years.

We got there when the park opened and was able to see the park "wake up". Horses were getting feed, washed, brushed, and out for morning exercise.

This baby and I became friends. May be a future champion!!

This park is also full of sculptures and statues. This was my favorite.

After touring the horse park we went on a tour of the horse farms. This was very educational. I am sure most of you have heard of the Kentucky Derby Horse Race. In order for a horse to race in the Kentucky Derby the horse has to have a parent that was bred in Kentucky. So we got to see babies and yearlings. These are all bred for horse racing and most will be sold to different farms to be trained. To future Kentucky Derby winners!!

The video below is the yearling above playing around. It isn't very long because I caught just the end but We all loved the look of this yearling.

These farms are huge and everything is split up. You have the babies that have been weaned in one pasture. Then you have the girl yearlings in one and the boys in another. There is a barn for the mothers and the stallion have there own. There is also the breeding shed plus everyone who works on the farm lives on the farm. These places are huge. So the building in the first picture that looks like a house is actually the stud barn. Pretty nice.



The building below is the breding barn. I didn't get a picture of the actually owners house but to say the least it was very nice. The weird thing is that the owners are usually only in residence for 3 months out the year for the racing season. I wouldn't mind house sitting :)
We were able to see some of the studs which a lot of people do not see except those working on the farms because the stallions are actually very fragile and since their main purpose is to bred the next round of champions if they are resting the handlers will not mess with them.

The stallion above brings in $10,000 a day and the stallion below brings in $50,000 a day.

Wish I had that kind of paycheck :)

We went to one farm that had a father to a horse that won 2 out of the 3 races for the Triple Crown and brings in 1.6 million a day.

I absolutely loved my 2 weeks in October. I had a great adventure and hopefully was able to capture it on film so everyone could come along with me. Now it is time to plan the next adventure and figure out what to blog about now :)

Part 9 Kirtland & Part 10 Port Clinton

After Niagara Falls we headed to Kirtland, Ohio. The best part of Kirtland was meeting up with cousin Jan. Jan lives in Pittsburgh and was able to meet up with us so we could visit with her. It was a blast to spend the day with her. It happen to work that we spent more time visiting with her than seeing the sites because a group was holding a conference that day and they took over all the sites. So on to the pictures:

Kirtland Temple

I know that the Lord has preserved it for a reason but still entering the doors it very much seems like more of a museum than a temple.

Picture above is the Whitney's home and picture below is the Whitney store. Wished we would have had more time to look and ponder the things that happen there but we had that group behind us. I may go back and visit just for this place.

Mom & Dad & Jan

Back to pictures of bugs and colors

After Kirtland, Ohio we headed to Port Clinton, Ohio. We headed there mainly because it was on our way to the next stop. When we got there we found this African Safari. We had a good time but there was not many African animals there, but we enjoyed the elk, buffalo, and deer.

The first couple of pictures are the "African" animals.

HELLO!!! All the animals really liked DAD :)

My buffalo pictures did not turn out well but I wanted to include at least one.

Picture and Video of the elk. Here we had to travel thousands of miles to hear an elk bugle. So sad!!!

Next stop is Lexington, Kentucky. Horses, Horses, and more Horses!!!

Part 8 Niagara Falls

PART 8 NIAGARA FALLS STATE PARK:

This was maybe my favorite stop of the entire trip. I have always heard about how beautiful the falls are but people forgot to tell me how powerful they are. We stayed on the American side and rode the Maid of the Mist and did the Cave of the Winds. The Cave of the Winds was my favorite part because of the power. The falls are so powerful that at the bottom of them they create hurricane force winds. AWESOME POWER!! We were in the off season so the water coming down is about 1/2 of what it is in the peak of the summer and yet I couldn't even stand up straight without holding on to something. I can't imagine how much more powerful it would be in the summer time.

Here are just a few of the pictures I took. ENJOY!!!

Can you even picture 675,000 gallons yet imagine that many gallons every second?

Part of the Horseshoe falls

Canada and Horseshoe Falls
Mom and Dad on the Observation Deck. Dad and I are very proud of Mom. She is not a fan of boats or heights and yet she conquered both at the Falls!

American Falls, Bridal Falls, Horseshoe Falls

View from the Observation Deck

Horseshoe Falls from the bottom. Picture taken while we were on the Maid of the Mist.

It is very hard to capture a rainbow :)

Mom and Dad in the wonderful gear for the Maid of the Mist

Beginning of the Cave of the Winds. Making our way up to the Hurricane deck!

Half way up to the Hurricane Deck. This pathway takes you right to the bottom of the Falls. Very Cool!!!!

Mom was able to get a picture of me on the Hurricane Deck. The rain and the wind was awesome :) I completely got soaked. It is a good thing they provide everyone with sandals and yellow rain coat.

Next stop Kirtland, Ohio and Port Clinton, Ohio

Part 7 Palmyra, NY

So the trip continues.....

After a long but pretty drive across New York and paying toll road after toll road, we made it to Palmyra. We ended up in Palmyra the Saturday-Monday of General Conference. We were hoping that as we drove on Saturday that we would get Conference on the radio but we never could find it. So we missed it. Thank goodness for the Ensign!!!

Probably in the top five of trip was Sunday where we were the only ones in the Sacred Grove. We walked and pondered and for the most part were silent for about 2 hours. It was a perfect day. So on to the pictures :) Have I told you how beautiful the colors were!!!

Pathway in the Sacred Grove

More of the Sacred Grove

Mom and Dad on the Smith Farm

Smith Farm

From Sacred Grove looking towards Palmyra Temple

Both above and below is from the temple looking out towards the Sacred Grove.

Beautiful stain glass windows of the temple

Hill Cumorah

Color on Hill Cumorah

Fuzzy Caterpillar
The last couple of pictures is the amazing view from our hotel room.

Next stop is Niagara Falls!!