Friday, March 13, 2009

DisneyWorld!

Ok, just a heads up, like many of you, I use this blog as a journal so this post is going to be lengthy. I won't be offended if you just skip ahead to the awesome pictures :)
We took advantage of Ryan's spring break and took a trip to Disney World. We were blessed with perfect weather (mid 80's), safe and on time flights, and relatively short wait times for rides :) Here's a recap...

Day 1
Ryan enjoyed ample leg room (for a change) on the flight then we checked into our hotel.We stayed at Disney's All Star Movies resort. There are huge statues of Disney characters throughout the hotel. By huge I mean 3 stories high. We stayed in the Mighty Duck building. I was worried that it would be swarming with noisy kids but I was pleasantly surprised and the room was great.
An example of the room, we of course enjoyed a king bed

After dropping our stuff off, we headed to Hollywood Studio's. We loved the Hollywood Tower of Terror but especially the Aerosmith Roller Coaster. If you have been on California Screamin, it's a lot like that but to Aerosmith classics blaring and it's all in the dark. You go from stopped to 60mph in like 2 seconds then straight into a loop. It's AWESOME, we went on it 7 times during the week :)

Day 2
We spent the day at the Magic Kingdom
enjoying some of the classics like Pirates (which now features Jack Sparrow), the Haunted Mansion, getting soaked on Splash Mountain BEFORE the drop,
and the Jungle Cruise.
It was this day that I learned of Ryan's disdain for It's a Small World which I guess is an inside joke about his dad's own dislike for the ride. So this picture is for you Robert! Another super exciting thing that hap pend on Day 2 was during our lunch we received a phone call from Ryan's brother Jason and his wife Kelli. They are expecting their first baby and after their ultrasound called to tell us that they are having TWIN BOYS!! We couldn't stop talking about how excited we are for them!

Day 3
We started the day back at Hollywood Studios for another 2 or 3 rides on the Aerosmith Coaster. The Planet Hollywood store had these cool statues of a Gremlin and the Terminator.

After a much needed few hours by the pool we went to Disney's Animal Kingdom. I was particularly excited for this one after I found out they had a petting zoo. It actually was just a bunch of goats, sheep, and two darling miniature donkeys (which I now plan to include on my farm).

I got to pet this cool little guy, I don't remember what it is specifically but basically he is a giant rodent from South AmericaRyan sizes up pretty well next to a rhino...except for the 5,000 pounds and leather thick skin the rhino has on him.

We also went on this cool safari. I had no idea but Disney invests a lot into research and preservation of endangered species. They have an expansive savannah devoted to these animals that we were able to tour. It was so much better than a zoo where they are locked in cages.

We caught this lion "sunning"
We also saw several HUGE gorillas.
This cute one is clutching a grease board which apparently is something they are trying to train him with.
We saw the Jungle Parade
then onto DisneyWorld's version of the Matterhorn. They had a Dino land where they basically took the Indiana Jones ride from Cali and made it a Dinosaur ride.

Day 4
Epcot
We both weren't sure what to expect here but enjoyed it. The future ride in the globe is cool and we did a space one where they simulate the feeling of taking off in a space shuttle. What a strange feeling, immediately tears started running down my face and the pressure in my eyes was too much for me. It left me feeling weird all morning, guess I don't have a future as an astronaut...Disney does an awesome job with their landscaping. I LOVE all of the flowers and trees!

We spent some more time by the pool then back to Magic Kingdom for Ryan's favorite Pineapple ice cream and of course we had to pick up our Christmas ordament (we try to get one from all of our trips). Then it was back to Hollywood studio's for another 2 rides on Aerosmith!

Day 5
A much too early wake up call at 4:30am to leave the resort by 5:15 and get back to the airport. We sure had a fun trip and look forward to going back once we have kids to enjoy it with.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

I love Packages!


Nothing better than getting a package full of surprises, right?! Well, we are blessed to recieve them often from our sweet families. My family sent us a fun Valentine's package and I just had to post a few pictures to say thank you!

As you can see, there is something for everyone including brownies for Ryan, imported cinnamon bears straight from the mother land for me (they don't exist in Michigan), new bones for the babies, and a cute wall hanging for our house! We feel so loved! Thank you, we miss you guys!!
(Don't let these nearly perfectly positioned dogs fool you, it did take some discipline and several tries but they were rewarded for their patience) :)

Thursday, February 19, 2009

For the Grandma's and Grandpa's...

even if you don't want to be called Grandma and Grandpa (you know who you are), that is what Norris and Baby think of you as :)
Life has been pretty monotonous lately, not much to blog about so I though I would add some pictures of our darling babies.

This is our backyard on a sunny winter day (sun being a rare commodity). Norris the snow bear keeps a close eye out for squirrels.
Baby prefers to keep an eye on things from inside
Besides keeping watch for squirrels and invading cats, Norris and Baby enjoy a good nap. Ryan restuffed their dog beds to make them bigger and better and boy do they love them!
You will notice Norris is modeling his ever so popular "spread eagle" sleeping position while Baby is sure that she requires both beds to get adequate rest.

All tucked in for the night (in mommy's robes)
These last few pictures are to remind me that after this bloody winter a wonderful spring, summer, and fall where the beautiful, lush Michigan returns!

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Just another night in the ER

So I thought I would share some highlights of one of my recent shifts at work...

11:30pm...I was walking down the hall to the break room to have my lunch when i look down another hall and see one of our regular drunks (let's call him Tom) walking towards me in nothing but his dirty t-shirt and his hands over his goods. Here's the conversation...
Me: Tom, what are you doing?
Tom: Lookin for food
Me: Well where's your pants?
Tom: I pooped em.
Me: Huh. Well you need to go back to your room.
Tom: You know there's a magic word, it's called please. Now GO get me some food!
Me: Tom you know we dont feed you here. You can have water and crackers. This is an ER, not a resturaunt or hotel.
Tom: Well f*%& you b*&#*!
Me: Ok Tom, time to go (as I quickly dart down the hall so he doesn't chase me).

Needless to say, Tom was quickly escorted out by security just to return again the next day...

2:15am...Another frequent flyer who we will call George walks up to the triage desk with his boombox in hand and mardi gras beads around his neck. Here's what follows...
Me: Hey George, what's up?
George: I need to see a doctor. (in the meantime he is mumbling a bunch on nonsense at a rapid pace).
Me: Ok (I procede to get his medical history as he continues to ramble between answers). Hey George, are you schizophrenic?
George: (his eyes get wide) Hey, you know that word?! You're pretty smart! (ramble, ramble, ramble) Nope, not schizophrenic.
Me: (smiling) Ok. Well that's a nice boombox you've got there.
George: Yeah, my buddy gave it to me, pretty sweet huh?
Me: Sure is, okay, have a seat in the waiting room (he sits down and continues his "word salad" conversation as we smile).

3:45am...An older (and somewhat crazy) gentleman walks out of the department into the waiting room after being discharged. He takes a seat in front of us and makes friendly conversation about the nice weather and his boat and whatnot. He tells us he loves East Lansing (home of MSU) and sits in the coffee shop every morning to watch the girls walk by (we're a little creeped out now). Here's the rest...
Old guy: You know I just got out of prison.
Me: Oh, what did you do? (a bit nervous for the answer)
Old guy: Killed a guy
Me: (my coworker and I are now exchanging glances, trying not to turn beet red)
Old guy: He had it comin..tried to hurt my sister...shot him right in the face.
Me: (too shocked to say anything)
Old guy: You know it's supposed to be 50 degrees tomorrow? I think I'll take the boat out fishin.

We almost fell out of our chairs between laughing and shock.
I love my job, it's things like this that make up for the crappy stuff. Plus we get cooler stuff out here in Michigan, unfortunatley because of the drugs/alcohol prevalance. Keeps things intersting, that for sure :)