Samarah Turns 16!

Can you believe it? Baby girl is 16 years old! I just had her yesterday. Plus, she is now a junior in high school. So, we had a party. Samarah wanted a mud fight. Dad went along with it, which stunned everyone. Coco, Kyle, and Talmadge came to help chaparone. It took us a week to get rid of the mud.

I haven't posted in about a month. Dad and Samarah went back to Pennsylvania to visit Jess, Savannah, and the kids. I couldn't go because I have been held hostage on the mountain by the hospital. We have been 3 nurses short, moving to another floor, and all sorts of craziness at work. I told my boss that I am tired of having my schedule messed up and of this hostage situation! Things are STARTING to improve. I have a few new nurses to help train, one of them being my friend, Cheryl, who just got her LPN license. She is still in nursing school for another year, and I will also be her preceptor for her capstone.

Haven't heard anything definitive from SLU yet. When I called to check up on it, I was told that they were behind and finishing up processing the fall enrollments. I should hear something in a couple of weeks.

Mark, Samarah, Meredith, and I are meeting up in California to visit Jake for a couple of days. I can't wait to see him.

I have not been feeling well the past month or so due to a change in medication. I am starting to get over it, but have a doctor appointment this coming week to check this out.

Mark and I have been talking about places where we would like to live after Samarah graduates. We are thinking either Pennsylvania or Colorado. There would be more for us to do in PA with genealogy, Steelers, etc.

I have been continuing to write my letters to my congresspeople, emailing them and calling them as well. I keep up on the politics and am busy trying to save our country from those who would want to take our freedom away.

That's all for now!

Scary Step

I don't know if this logo is going through. Anyway, it is for St. Louis University. I have chosen this school to apply to. I started the application process last night, and have to gather stuff for approval. I am working on getting the information together.

If this all works out, I will do this on line, with a few visits to St. Louis, MO. I am applying for the Psych Nurse Practitioner tract. This is a master's program. I can stay there and complete a doctorate if I so wish. I would like to do this. That way I can say that I am Dr. Houser, Doogie's mom. LOL!

Anyway, I have some different options to look at. I would like to work with the Veterans Administration to help military personnel with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), perhaps some forensics, and especially managing meds for Meredith's patients.

The beauty of this university is that I can live anywhere I want, it doesn't matter. We will see how this goes. I am really excited. I don't know how long my body will hold out for bedside nursing, as much as I love it.

Colorado Trip

Last week, we were able to take a few days and go to Colorado to see JT, Meredith, and their boys. It was a nice escape from the stupid move. We really needed to get away. We listened to a book on tape during the trip, and that really helped the time go by nicely. Samarah & I were able to do some shopping, as in the White Mountains, we are store deprived.

The kids were so cute. They made me laugh. We played quite a few games together. Ryan and Jordan beat me at "Sorry." Mark helped them tile their bathroom floor. All in all, it was very difficult to leave.

Thank you Meredith, JT, and boys for your hospitality.

Savannah's Painting

Savannah did this painting of Jesus and Mary using her sister, Meredith, and little Ezekiel as the models. I love this.

No More India

We got rid of our internet provider for the past 3 weeks, Hughes Net. Everytime you call in, they route you to India. Then these people with heavy accents that you can't understand give you an American name. Like that is going to fool us into thinking that we are talking to an American. Nice try, Bhanu, we weren't fooled. Anyway, we went back to our old provider, and it is so much better. A friend of mine sent me the above pictures from India to explain why we were having so much trouble.

Renée At War With India

We moved into a rental house in Snowflake. Trying to squeeze 2500 sq ft of stuff into a 1400 sq ft house has been daunting, but we are not done yet. You all know that I was not blessed with spatial relation skills.

On top of the aforementioned, we switched internet providers. They were supposed to be faster than our old one through the phone company. Plus, we didn't have to get a land line. Well, it was slower than dial up in the 90s! After 3 days of this, and not being able to get on the net, I call the company. I get transferred to their "customer service" department in INDIA! I explain the problem to them. I go round and round with them. It turns out that they gave us a bad modem. They will only ship a new one via slow boat from China. I go after them about 10 times. They keep getting off the phone to talk to their supervisor. I ask to talk to the supervisor, who doesn't want to talk to me. I tell the guy to inform the supervisor that he is a "pantywaisted wuss." The reply was, "Pantywaisted wuss? We do not know what the meaning of that is." LOL!

So, we got the modem yesterday. I have removed the nuclear warheads that I had aimed at them. They were so frustrating. I hate outsourcing.

Thanks for listening to my rant.

Alex's Fishing Derby

Over Memorial Day Weekend, they put on a fishing derby for the military. Alex caught 3 halibut, the largest being 29 pounds. He was really excited about meeting Sarah Palin. She was there and he got to shake her hand. He said that "she was hotter than Miss Alaska." He also said that she was very nice.