Mystery Dinner Party

So for those of you who haven't heard of a Mystery Dinner Party, it is actually a game you buy with a murder mystery plot weaved into it. You send out invitations, assign each guest a character/suspect to play (which the guest dresses up as), and make a nice dinner (recipes included in the game) and try to figure out who the "killer" is during the evening. Each guest has a character booklet which tells them about their character, and what they can disclose to the other "suspects". It really is a lot of fun. Getting ready for it was not the smoothest experience though...

I cooked all day in preparation for the game. Cornish game hens, herb seasoned orzo, parmesan and montery jack cheese crackers, chocolate biscotti, salad and bread. We had the table set nicely, and had set the cornish game hens around when my husband started to build a fire in the fireplace. We thought it would add a nice ambiance to the evening. Well, he lit the fire, and the apartment started filling with smoke soon after. He tried to reposition the handle that opens and closes the vent to the fireplace, but nothing was working, and the smoke was getting worse. Then, the fire grew and covered the handle so we couldn't even try a different potition to open it if we wanted to. I got the fire extinguisher from under the sink, and Alan was able to extinguish about half the fire before the thing went dry. So we started filling up water bottles to extinguish the rest of the fire. The smoke was so bad by this point that it hurt to breathe inside, and we had to open the door to get any air. (which took me about 30 seconds to open, because it had just been painted, and the door was stuck closed). We finally got put the fire out, and we set up fans and opened the windows and kept the door open to vent out the smoke. By this time it was 8:00, which was the time everyone was supposed to be there. That's when we notied our entire living room was covered with a layer of soot. (including the plates and wine glasses that were already set up!).  My brother and sister-in-law were th efirst to show up, and they helped us rinse off the dishes. The smoke smell gradually diminished throughout the evening, and we still managed to enjoy the game. It was definitely a memorable experience!

Top Row: Daniel as Otto Von Schnapps, Jeremy as Papa Vito, Alan as Ralph Rottingrape

Bottom Row: Virginia as Marilyn Merlot, Sherry as  Hedy Shablee”, Krystal (me) as Tiny Bubbles

You can see the charred fireplace in the background.
Jeremy & Sherry's daughter Sophia trying out her hand at Papa Vito.

Off Orientation

So after about 4 1/2 months working in the NICU (during which I have been working under a Preceptor for guidance/asking questions/help) I am officially on my own, as of last week. I am both excited and nervous about it!! So far, the babies I have taken care of on my own have been feeder/grower babies, which are the more stable babies who have resolved most of their medical issues and are learning how to eat before they go home. I am hoping they give me some more critical babies too, to challenge me. Below is a picture that my mother in law sent me in an email. It's a good example of a more critical baby that we would take care of. It really is amazing working with these infants and their families, and I feel like I will be learning the rest of my career about the best ways to take care of them.  

New Camera!

I ordered a Canon PowerShot SD1100IS off of Amazon last week. I haven't had a camera since mine broke October of last year, and we are going to Jamaica in few weeks, so what better time to buy a camera?? Considering my last camera was 3.2MP and this one is 8MP (with image stabilization)... I love it! Here is us playing around with our new toy:

Neonatal Nursing

I love working in the NICU, it's been my dream since before starting Nursing School. The premature/sick babies are so dependent on the doctors/nurses/respiratory therapists/developmental therapists to take care of them, and they are so precious!! And working with the families of these babies can be very rewarding (and challenging). One of the websites that made me start thinking about this career was http://www.allnurses.com/... which is where I found this great post about being a NICU Nurse:

You know you're a NICU nurse when...

1. You've eaten hamburger patties bigger than most of your patients.

2. You define colors by the color of stool you've seen - ex. baby poop green/yellow.

3. You don't understand why talking about sticking a needle in a baby's head is making other people at the dinner table ill.

4. At one time or another you've had breast milk, poop, or urine on your work clothes.

5. You have affectionately called a patient Cletus the fetus, wimpy white boy, troll, or FLK (funnylooking kid) in report.

6. You can change your patient's bed linens with one hand while holding your patient in the other.

7. You can make an IV arm board out of some 4x4 gauze and tape.

8. You've almost caught your hair on fire on your patient's radiant warmer bed.

9. You've used a sock or a piece of tape for a restraint.

10. You check out the scalp veins, cap refill, and fontanels on a friend's new baby.

11. You use a cotton ball to obtain urine samples.

12. You use Saran Wrap to keep your food fresh and your patients warm.

13. You think all crying babies need Benadryl, Versed, or intubation.

14. You think the pulse oximeter, CPAP, and those crappy no sticking leads were created by the devil.

15. You have ever shown a doctor a green residual while they were eating.

16. You have obtained a 10cc residual when the patient only gets 1cc.

17. You have put an intensive care patient in a swing.

18. You don't get excited if your patient has a heartrate of 180.

19. You do chest compressions with two fingers.

20. Most of your meds come in TB or 1cc syringes.

21. You prepare your patient's bath water in a Dixiecup.

22. You draw blood from your patient's heel.

23. You use a rubber band for a tourniquet.

24. You've seen two complexes on the EKG screen and not been excited - you merely pat your patient on the butt and it's all good.

25. Newborn babies look like preschoolers to you.

26. You tell people what you do and they think you sit around and rock babies all day.

27. When you tell people what you REALLY do they start to cry and/or vomit.

28. You have assisted with surgery on your patient in their bed and on the unit.

29. You have considered using duct tape to hold a pacifier in a screaming baby's mouth.

30. You have met your patient's father, mother's boyfriend, and mother's husband all in one day.

31. You have made a mental note that no matter how stupid people are, they still know how to get their groove on.

32. And lastly, you know you're a NICU nurse if you've read 1-31 and have laughed your fanny off!

(Photos from http://www.kodak.com/US/images/en/corp/1000words/lauren_640x480.jpg & http://www.jillstanek.com/pree.jpg)

Our Engagement - November 8, 2007

The night of our engagement was perfect, and I wouldn't change anything <3. We have a unique story that I feel is very much 'Alan' and everything I love about him.

Alan and I had been talking about getting married since June, 2007 where we only half-jokingly were taking about eloping while on our trip to Galveston. (Galveston was still intact then). We pretty much knew we would end up married, we just clicked.

Later that year I sent Alan the design of the engagement ring I wanted from bluenile.com (I was pretty specific) ;). The weekend before he proposed, he asked both of my parents permission to marry me. My parents both appreciated that.. and I thought it was so sweet for Alan to do that; I know how hard that must have been.

Alan bought the engagement ring in secret, but didn't keep it secret for long. I got it out of him that the ring was arriving on November 8, and that that was the date he planned on proposing.

I (very) impatiently waited for November 8th to arrive. Since I already knew he would be proposing that night, Alan made the engagement night special in a different way:

Alan picked me up and gave me flowers & a list of possible locations the engagement could take place. Alan instructed that I had to pick a locations, which we would go to. And I would continue picking locations until I picked the one where he planned on proposing. The locations were: Cliff Nelson, Lake Arlington, Target, UTA & Martin - all places that we went on our first few dates/had significance)

Cliff Nelson was closest, so we went there first. We had often gone to Cliff Nelson just to walk or jog. The first time we jogged together was at Cliff Nelson (where it also started raining on us :p). We were walking around the pathway, and Alan suddenly got on one knee. I thought, "he's already proposing? What about the other locations??" He pulled out a box from his pocket, opened it, and inside was a Ring Pop. He thought he was pretty clever :)

The next location I picked was Target:

We went to Target on our second date. He said he was going shopping for shirts and I really wanted to see him, so I invited myself along.

On our second date after we shopped, we went to UTA to study (we were both still in school). I had left my car in the Target parking lot, so he dropped me back off at Target. He kissed me on the forehead (our first kiss). So we reinacted that kiss on our engagement night before going inside.

Alan told me to look at some shirts inside. He had hidden a note. It said "Krystal, are you having fun?" This was also the wrong location though.

Next we went to Chili's. It wasn't on the list, but we were both hungry, and Chili's was where Alan took me on our first date.

At Chili's Alan gave me a bracelet. I wore this on my wedding day :)

We ordered the same food we had both gotten on our first date. No engagement ring at this location either. At this point, I suspected Lake Arlington was the location Alan had in mind, but I didn't want the evening to end too quickly. So I chose to go to UTA next.

At UTA we went bowling, which is where we bowled on our first date after we went to Chili's.

This was also the wrong location, and I got another Ring Pop.

But I got to see my sexy (then) boyfriend bowl <3.

This is where we "studied" on our second date.

Now I was ready for the ring, so I decided to skip going to Martin, and go straight to Lake Arlington. I couldn't imagine how he would have proposed at Martin.

Us at Lake Arlington. When we got out of the car, he asked me to wait, and I could hear him putting a ring pop in his pocket. I thought, "I guess he won't propose here; how could I have been wrong about the location?"

I could hear the Ring Pop in his pocket as we walked around Lake Arlington.

It turned out that he was just tricking me with the Ring Pop, which is completely Alan's personality. He got to one knee, took out the Ring Pop, threw it away, and then got out the real ring and proposed :) It was so sweet. Here is me with the ring.

The Lake is behind us.

It was a great night :) More to come on the wedding later.

Our Babies

I was never one to consider an animal part of the family. The only pets I've had before we got our kittens were hamsters, fish, and one dog that stayed outside.

But I really am starting to see our kittens as our little babies.



The two of them are getting along better every day too, which we are excited about. Having Lucy around has made a huge difference in the amount of attention Hobbes needs from us, and he almost never bites us anymore (See 9/3 post). :)


Alan giving his daughter a head massage:
Awww. Sleeping on the couch together.

Saturday Morning Breakfast

When I was growing up, my parents always fixed us/we helped them fix a nice Saturday morning breakfeast every week. It always made Saturday special, and gave us a nice meal to anticipate.

I wanted to do the same thing for Alan when we got married, so every Saturday I've been cooking a nice-ish breakfast. (It's the only day that I fix anything for breakfast actually.)

This morning it was an alvocado & cheese omelet, turkey-o-sausages (Alan's personal favorite), oranges and waffles.


Alan pretending he doesn't like it:

Still not quite a smile, but he said he liked it :)

Baby Girl

Congrats to Sherry & Jeremy for having their baby girl Sophia this morning!! We can't wait to see her :)

My Day "Off"

Since I am an RN working as a staff nurse, I work 3, 12 hour shifts a week. I get weekends off, which I spend with my husband, with friends, and at church. That leaves me 2 days off during the week, which is really really nice!

I had yesterday off. Today I had mostly off, except I had to take a test with the rest of the NICU/Newborn interns. I didn't really know what to expect from the test, but our educator seemed pretty laid back about it, so I didn't spend too much time studying.

This morning I planned to study until the test at 1:00, but for some reason when I plan to study, cleaning the apartment seems much more appealing than usual. Does that happen to anyone else?? So after some studying, I started cleaning. I got more done today than I would have if I didn't have to go into work. The test lasted about an hour, and it wasn't too bad.But I was most proud of my work on the apartment! Take a look: (I have been working on being a good wife and cleaning more often)

Also, the kittens are getting along a lot better today :) Hobbes is still attacking, but not nearly as often. And Lucy actually chased Hobbes a little bit, haha.

Kittens

Kittens are adorable and bring a lot of joy. They can also bring some stress. We adopted an Orange Tabby male kitten at 5 weeks old (who had been rescued from a local shelter) about 2 months ago. He is such a cute kitten:

We discovered over the next few days that he not only was adorable and playful, but he never got tired of playing. He has endless energy, and he likes to bite. And he has sharp teeth (which became sharper as he got older). We discipline him when he bites, but we decided for the boundless energy, he needed a new kitty friend to play with. Well, I think I was a little more for the new kitten idea than Alan, but he agreed Hobbes needed something to calm him down, and I thought we couldn't give him as much play time as he needed since we both work.

So we adopted Lucy this weekend (When Hobbes was 12 weeks old). We chose Lucy by her good looks and her calm personality. She is 9 weeks old, but she was the runt of her litter, so she is the same size Hobbes was at 5 weeks. She melted in our arms when we held her:

Well Lucy has been a great kitten so far. She loves to cuddle with us when we watch TV and knead her paws in our clothes. We tried to introduce Hobbes and Lucy to each other slowly by letting the sniff each other through our carrier, and then supervising them while they "played" together.

Well, Hobbes has turned out to be a bully and has been attacking little Lucy :(

Hobbes the Bully: Innocent Lucy is inside:

So we aren't exactly sure how to handle the situation. We are trying to give them some time together without allowing Hobbes to hurt Lucy. Since I didn't have to work today, they've been together almost all day, and I am trying to spray Hobbes with water when he starts a fight. In a perfect world, they will become best friends any day now ;)

New Blog

Welcome to my new blog. I've been going through a lot of changes in the last few months. I graduated from Nursing School, got married, took my licensing test (the worst experience of my life, but I passed!) and started a new job as an RN in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Married life is better than I had even hoped it would be (and I had high expectations :p). I love being married to Alan, and I plan on posting blogs about our engagement and our wedding day. He is the perfect man for me <3 We have two little kittens that we've adopted since we've been married. Hobbes, the crazy one -12 weeks old, and Lucy, the innocent & sweet one - 9 weeks old. I would like to post a blog on those two characters too.

More to come later..