Tornadoes Away!!

     Last Sunday we had a tornado warning at work and we were required to get all the patients out into the hall, turn off the lights, oxygen and pull down the blinds in each room.  Our poor sick patients sat in the halls for an hour and a half looking at each other, each one probably wondering what the other was "in for"!  The pictures above were taken by one of our nurses from his home.  There were several tornados in different towns.  These were only miles from the hospital.  The sky was dark and it was a little spooky.  Some of the tornadoes touched down and damaged houses. 

   So since I've been here in Colorado over the past three years time, I've been stuck at the hospital twice overnight for blizzards, been in hospital lock downs for tornados and our hospital had a lockdown for a questionable white substance found on the light rail.

    The blizzard shut down the highway from Denver to New Mexico.  We were legally obliged to stay at the hospital because of the highway shut down, no one could come to work and we couldn't leave. 

    Oh yeah, and I've also seen bears and there's been a mountain lion warning up in the hills of Perry Park just down the street from us here. 

 

                                             Quite the place our Colorado!!!!  

    

     Oh, just a little addendum, when I was working at LDS hospital, can't remember what year, we had a tornado up on the mountain.  I was in the endoscopy unit and getting ready to discharge my patient when her husband came in and announced there had been a tornado.  We were like, "nuh uh, tornadoes don't happen in Utah, and they definitely don't happen in the mountains".  Sure enough, we walked down to the revolving doors and they had been completely pushed inward, leaving them totally unusable. Later in the day a bunch of us went outside to scope out the neighborhood and couldn't believe what we saw.  Houses had lost their shingles, trees had been uprooted or knocked over onto houses.  Garbage was all over.  It was a mess!  We were astonished!  I still have the little tornado pin on my IHC jacket!!!

Herriman July 24th 2008

                                           My second grandbaby sweet baby James

                                              My how our family has grown. 

                                         We wouldn't have fit in Grandma and 

                                                    Grandpa's house!!

                                                      Adele and her cutie pie

                                               Clara enjoyed the toys at Janeal's house

The fun slide and squirtable wading pool.  Janeal and family went all out for us and it was loads of fun.

                                                                 Aub and James
                                                                     Claralynne

                                                                    

                                                          Janeal, Scott and Laura

                                                        Nate H., Clara and Vernal

                                                     Scott takes a break from BBQ

                                               Mo played a few tunes.  He's awesome

(L>R) James girlfriend (not sure who the little guys in the yellow are), Aub, Nate, James, Jill and Andreah.   Too many new faces to know each one's name.                                                        

                                               Adele and her cutie.  It was obvious this little one

                                                 belonged to Adele.  She was very shy too.  

                     Kateka, Aubrey (with baby Macie in the oven), Vernal, Travis and Tazia

This is so funny and kinda scary at the same time.  Nate J, Nate H, and Brandon got Mo down so they could take away his cell phone and wallet and hoped to throw him into the wading pool. It was scarey because of Brandon's accident history were afraid Brandon would hurt himself more than Mo would get hurt!

Mo got out of it...... three against one....  all the while, (I wish I'd gotten a picture to show it but..) little Claralynne was over at the wading pool squirting them all...   It was hilarious!!!

                                       What a fun wading pool.  The kids really had a ball

                                                           Travis, Tazia and Kateka

                                             Me pappy and his name-sake little James

                                                               Dad, James and Me

I had to send a card to both Janeal and Tiffany for doing such a great job at putting together this reunion.  I was so overjoyed and full of emotion because I got to see so many people I haven't seen in so long.  I only wish I'd gotten more pictures, but I was too busy talking and hugging that before you know it they were leaving and I missed them.  

Maybe there will be more reunions in the future.

Mill Creek July 23rd 2008

Heather and Jeremy (buds)

Heather hugs Claralynne. Second time in Claralynne's life Heather has seen her.

Claralynne, Aub, Nate and James

Cory

Long time no see, Aub and Jeremy

            

Dodi and Heather 

Ricco, Lorenzo and Lori (My sis and her boys)

July 23rd in Mill Creek.  We got to see Aub and her family for about 2 hours at most and this was the first time we'd seen them since James was born (two months wait).  Who knows when we'll see them again.  It really hurts when the babies crawl, stand and walk without being able to see it except on webcam. 

I wanted to load more pictures but blogger is a PITA (pain-in-the-butt!!!).  It kept kicking me out so I'll make more than one blog to get them all on. 

Parting

I can't put a bandaid on the pain like I did when you were little

Bruised hearts take time to heal

Helpless to make the pain go away

No words will console you 

Thoughts of a bright future seem weak

Next to the throbbing, worrisome ache  

No sleep

Your thoughts of

What now?

Who will I give myself to?

Where will I go with my spare time?

What do I say to my friends?

Did he ever feel for me like I do him?

Will anyone ever love me like I loved him?

How will I get through this?

Will I ever be able to love again?

My own heart aches.

For my daughter

For her companion, mate, friend and lover

It isn't just "Young Love"

It will always be a part of you

He will always be a part of you

But you are so strong

You are brave

And you will get through this... 

A Little Larkspur

My new little garden was nearly drowned by the four days of rain we had of late. 

           

      

                                        

   Caught these clouds just before the pink in them disappeared.                           

                                                        

                                         
                       

Larkspur Colorado                                                                         

   

                                                       

      These pics were taken on our hike up to Raspberry Butte. It's a beautiful view up there.  This is what we see from our back back back.... back yard.             

                                  

                                                                     PROOF!!!!  

I took these pictures of the bears paw prints in the garage on the day we had the visit.  These are the actual first pictures taken on my new Canon XSi!  Notice the strawberry jam!  The last pic is of her going out of the garage.

Fun Pics

I have so many pictures of my family and of this years party.  It really takes so long to down load through blogger.  I plan to add many many more. But these are really cute of Clara. It's fun to see the changes in the kids with time.  Even Aub has changed!               

                                                                          

                 Claralynne at the family party in Herriman on the 24th of July this year.  

                                                                Enjoying her dinner.

Aub and Claralynne. Clara is about 6-7 months old here and 22 months in the pic below. Kind of a fun comparison of growth and change. Just a small amount of time and they change so much.

                


                          Baby James and his namesake Great Grandpa James William


James at two weeks and then at two months.  He is such a little chunky-man!