Thanksgiving Feast and Bath time

Today was A's "Thanksgiving Feast" at preschool and the parents got to come and participate. She was so proud of her little place mat she made.

Sporting her Indian hat with the feather in the back. How cute!

"Mom, I am too busy socializing to look at the camera!"

She was so funny tonight during bath time. She kept cracking herself up by putting this silly bucket on her head.

I love this age! 2 1/2 year olds have so much fun!

The Pioneer Woman

I ran across this sight a few weeks ago and I have noticed several friends already have the link on their blog roll...but I am hooked and wanted to share! Its called The Pioneer Woman...this chick is SUPERWOMAN and I want to be just like her!...she is a city girl that lives on a working ranch with her 4 kids and cowboy husband she calls Marlboro Man. She's an inventive cook, she's an amazing photographer, she does neat-o home and garden projects, and she writes hilarious stories, serious stories, and love stories...You have to check her out! You will want to be just like her too (unless you are a boy!!)

Cheers to Us!

November 2 marked 6 years of marriage for us....To celebrate, R took me to Hotel ZaZa in Dallas for a little in town get-a-way.

Excuse the cheesiness of the self-portrait below

ZaZa doesn't miss a detail. Even though we booked our room on hotels.com and saved over 50% on the room rate, we were still treated like royalty. This is what we found when we came back to our room after dinner.
How sweet it is!! The candles and candy around the room were such a special touch! So CHEERS to us and to many more years of happiness.

Like I have the time...

..to read books for fun that don't have to do with nursing, I picked up TWILIGHT the other day to read. Great. Just what I needed. Now I can't put it down. I was really sceptical of this series because I am a big Harry Potter fan. I know this may sound crazy/obsessive, but I didn't (and don't) want any other series to replace my love for Potter. A good friend of mine said she wouldn't let herself compare. I agree. They may be *almost* as good...but different...so since we talked about The Shack last time, I want to know who has read this series. I admit it. I'm hooked!

Book Review

Have you heard of this book?? Russell picked up a copy a month or so ago after it came highly recommend by several friends. I immediately became interested and started reading it. I have to tell you, this is one of the best books I have read in a long time. It reads like a prayer and gives you a beautiful perspective into the nature of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit and brings together in a digestible nature how they are One. I loved how it showed that our spiritual growth and understanding is a continual process and that while we may not understand why things happen the way they do initially, eventually we will unravel it if we stick with the Father. The Shack is a work of fiction, but I firmly believe that God uses all kinds of avenues to reveal Himself to us. I challenge you to pick up a copy and read it for yourself. If you have read it, tell me what you think. I would love to hear other opinions!

No matter who you voted for...

I think it's amazing an African American is our president. Our children will never second guess if someone who has a different colored skin as them can achieve the same goals.

Happy Halloween!!!

We had a very happy Halloween. This was A before we left to go to a party at our friends house and trick or treating. Her asthma has been acting up so we had to make sure she was prepared for a wild night. Notice the costume change from the Fall Festival and Costume Parade from my last post?? Well, this afternoon she informed me she wanted to be a princess for the party. Luckily, I remembered the ballet/princess dress Aunt Suzanna gave her for Christmas last year and we had an instant princess!We went to the Blake's party where the adults dress up too...Russell wasn't too excited at first, but then he thought of us being Jessica Simpson and Tony Romo...Brilliant!Do I look good as a blond? I think we look better than the real Jess and Toni!

Olivia and Annaleigh were ready to do some trick-or-treating.

So was this Super-Hero Family

The kiddos had a fabulous time running from house to house...

More cheesy pictures...these two are such camera hogs!

Poor Tony! He really needs to get that pinkie healthy again!

After trick-or-treating, we tried to get the kids together for a group shot.

...but they were WAY too hopped up on sugar by that point!

Then they started attacking poor Skip (you can't see him because the kids had him completely covered!) Talk about savages=)

Amy Winehouse and Blake Incarcerated even made it to the party

More dancing and foolishness....

These are the new princess pj's A got as her Halloween present from mommy and daddy! She was so excited....

...then she insisted on taking my picture. Not too bad of a job for a 2 year old!

Hope everyone had a very Happy Halloween. I can't wait to see the cute pictures of your kiddos dressed in their costumes.

Fall Fun!

We had our Fall Festival at church on Saturday. A asked to be a kitty-cat this year and is sooooo excited about it. She walks around saying "Meooww, Meooww."One Cool Cat! Decorating Pumpkin cookies (or rather eating the icing) at the Fall FestHanging out with LadyBug and friend, Katie. Playing games for prizes! She wouldn't go near the bounce houses, so no pictures of that this year!

This was at lunch on Sunday. A loves her new Candy Corn Dress Mammie made for her and was hamming it up!

A PRICELESS face!

Lovin' on Daddy

The preschool had their costume parade this morning and I went to go help the office staff pass out candy.


This Kitty Cat and Princess are ready to go Trick or Treat!!!

Like Father, Like Daughter

I snapped these pictures on Sunday afternoon while these two were watching the Cowboys game!
Maybe they won't be so stressed if Romo can come back from his *pinkie* injury this week.

Fun facts about Parkland

So, my bff Suzanna commented on my last post and told me that Northside Hospital in Atlanta had the highest number of births per year in the country. It got me curious, so I decided to do a little research of my own. This is your useless information for the day:

***Disclaimer: This info came from Wikipedia, which I know doesn't merit TOTAL authenticity, but I figure if it's good enough for Michael Scott from The Office, then it's good enough for me.***

Parkland has the distinction of delivering more infants under one roof than any other hospital in the nation, averaging 15-16,000 deliveries per year. Parkland created one of the first high-risk antenatal units in the nation, and had the first neonatal intensive care unit in North Texas.

Maybe this is why:

A patient survey indicated 70% of the women who gave birth at Parkland in the first three months of 2006 were illegal immigrants.[3]. The yearly tally for 2005 was "at least 56%".[4]

Because:

Since Parkland is a public hospital, it must accept patients from Dallas County regardless of their ability to pay. As such, poorer residents from surrounding counties that do not have public hospitals of their own (and which are not subject to the special property tax used for Parkland operations) regularly seek treatment at Parkland. These surrounding counties will actually transport indigent and uninsured patients to Parkland in county owned ambulances and drop them off. This has caused financial turmoil for the hospital in recent years, as the surrounding counties are not required by law to reimburse Parkland for services provided to their residents (though some of them have on rare occasions done so). Also, Parkland does not request information on a patient's legal status.

Also another note:

Parkland is best-known as the hospital where three individuals associated with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy died: Kennedy, his alleged assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, and Jack Ruby, the killer of Oswald

In Conclusion:

At 968 licensed beds, Parkland ranks among the largest teaching hospitals in the nation.
Parkland serves as both a primary care center for Dallas County residents, and (along with UT Southwestern) as a medical and surgical referral center for North Texas and parts of Southern Oklahoma. Thus, virtually all medical and surgical subspecialties are represented—which makes Parkland a destination for post-graduate medical training. (and Nursing)

Obligatory Punkin' Patch Pictures

Whew! The last few weeks have been crazy...and I mean LITERALLY crazy. I have been doing my clinical rotation in the Psych. ward at Parkland hospital! If you don't know anything about Parkland, it is the county hospital for Dallas....and it is WILD!!! I have to tell you, I never knew crazy until I started this rotation. Most of our patients have Schizophrenia and/or Bipolar disorder. In two weeks I will be in the OB unit..a fun fact about the OB unit is they deliver more babies than ANY other hospital in the United States. They told us to get ready to deliver babies in the hallway. Awesome.

So...today our playgroup went to the Pumpkin Patch. I drug daddy along too but he was a great sport!!

Family Photo Op (ps: Annaleigh took that little pumpkin she is holding home with her!)

It was really bright so excuse the squinty eyes!

Annaleigh and her two buddies in the hay house

A loved riding around in the wagon!

My little punkin'

Riding the tractor (in her frilly smocked dress;) down on the farm.

Trying to get a group shot...

We tried.

A gettin' sleeeeepy!

Hollee's 3 little punkins! Have you seen anything cuter??

Being silly with Daddy

The final pick...i have a feeling she will be sleeping with this pumpkin tonight!