ScrappyDoc

Sadness

We found out on Friday that my Grandma Ester died after many years of struggling with chronic illnesses. She has been in and out of nursing homes and always seemed to be uncomfortable and tired, so in many ways this is a blessing. That doesn't make it any easier, but I guess will be a comfort in the long run. Unfortunately, Nick and I won't be able to make it home for services since we are both working and we're short because it is the holidays.

Flying home to say goodbye

My grandmother Miriam died yesterday, and I am on my way home to NYC to help out with planning the services and say goodbye. As many of you know, she had lived independently until her early 90's and just recently started requiring our help to get on with her daily activities. She had several illnesses in the past 6 months, and never really got completely better. After another hospital stay about 3 weeks ago, we decided that hospice would be the best alternative for her, and that turned out to be a good thing. My dad was able to be with her yesterday when she passed, and said she seemed peaceful and asleep, as it should be. I was hoping she would be able to make it to the wedding, but I know she'll be there in spirit, watching over us, making her typical funny remarks.

Holy cow... 2 in one day!

I realized that since I haven't been blogging, no one is up to date on how awesome and cute my niece is... so I will do my due diligence and fill you in.

A couple of more recent pictures. Again, maybe sit down before you go any further in case you get weak-kneed and pass out from her sheer cuteness.

Here she is sitting in the cool purple Bumbo chair that Aunt Cari and Uncle Nick got her. If you haven't seen these and are even contemplating having kids, or know some one that is, you need to check them out at Bumbo.com. But please don't be alarmed by the pictures. For some strange reason, all of the kid's heads are either squished in or all round... I think someone had issues with picture resizing. That said, the chair is awesome, and can help your kiddo sit up without your assistance once they can hold up their head. Pretty cool for freeing up your hands while your peanut still feels like they are part of the action. You can sit them up on your desk while you're on the computer or on the counter while you cook... the possibilities are endless. (OK, you think for all that free press, maybe they'd send me one?)

Anyway, just in case you want to see Kassi in action being a big girl, Jenny posted an adorable video on YouTube. You can check it out below.

One of the 8 million reasons...

...I love my sister. The following quote is taken from the description of a toy that Jenny has on her "Things that Kassi might want for the holidays list," along with the picture-

Eggplant toy is fun and hands-on, encouraging children to develop a positive attitude towards   vegetables. Made and stuffed with 100% organic cotton."

If only more parent's spent a little time and energy encouraging their kids to develop a positive attitude towards vegetables. Heck, my job would be a hundred times easier if I could convince my patients of the same idea... maybe I need to get an eggplant and use it as a prop for my "healthy lifestyle" spiel that I give many of the folks I see in the department. I think I like the sound of that, "Eggplant as an agent of change in Emergency Departments." There might be an article there folks...

No, in all seriousness, it was pretty neat for me to peruse the list of toys that Jenny and Rob picked out for the peanut. They are so attentive and conscientious when it comes to Kasandra. She is so lucky to have such wonderful parents (not to mention an Aunt that isn't too shabby either:) I know it's a small thing, but this is the stuff I wind up thinking about at home after a long day.

Bonding

As you can see from the comment on the post below, I obviously made a good impression on my niece! SWEET! I can't wait to see her again, although I'm sure she'll probably be twice the size she is now. Oh well, we talked about trying the whole video conferencing thing too, maybe that would make it easier to be away.

Heading back to NC

What a fun trip!! That has got to be the fastest 5 days I've had in a long time. I got a ton of wedding stuff done and got to spend some real quality time with Jenny and the baby, who by the way is so freakin' adorable it's ridiculous... As far as the wedding goes, I think I've got it down to 2 photographers and 2 florists. With the photographers, Nick and I just need to decide who's style we like better and what all we want in our packages (e.g. how many albums, prints, etc). For the flowers, I'm still waiting for final proposals to come from the people that I met with, but I think it will be between 2. I'm eager to see what they come up with as far as prices and designs go. Hopefully they'll get back to me this week, which is what they all planned.

So I won't make you wait any longer for pics of the wonderful Kasandra and her magnificent Aunt Cari...

I swear I don't have an up-do in this picture, despite what it looks like...

Happy Aunt, unhappy baby!! Can't you just hear her... C'mon, can't you get that sun out of my eyes, seriously!

If you want to check out pics of her with everyone else in our family, check out the new album on Flickr at Kassi's Pics.

All in all the trip was great, although it's always hard to say goodbye. It was great to just hang out with Jenny, Rob and Kassi, and I think that they appreciated what little help I could give them. We laughed today when Rob came home from the grocery store and I was holding Kassi and walking around the house talking to her, he looked up and was a little surprised not to Jen holding her, and he said, "Nice, it's like having 2 mommies." It's got to be tough doing this all on your own without a ton of support, so I'm glad I could be there for a bit. I can't wait until they come down and visit Nick and I in NC, hopefully in the next few months or so. That will be just great.

No better reason for a post

than a picture of my super cute niece who I can't wait to meet. Jenny just sent these and I almost "fell out" they were so cute (translation, "fainted," for those of you not from the south). I can't wait to meet this little pumpkin, just a few more weeks to go.

In other news, work is still going well. I got out at 3:45 today, Holy Crap!!! I about fell out again! We've got a ton of kiddos on our team (around 30) and the other team has 3 (doesn't that sound fair), but a bunch of them are longterm folks who are just sitting, lovingly know as our "rocks" either waiting to grow, waiting for surgery or waiting for some other random thing. One of my little rocks had a birthday today, she turned 10, the sad part is that she's been in the hospital for some reason or another for her last 4 birthdays. Her mom and I have become pretty close through this month, and she's pretty darn amazing.

On a lighter note, the house in general is coming together slowly but surely. They've finally carted the old office off of the property and it looks so much better. That was one amazing site, seeing that whole building carted off on a flat bed. We're also getting ready to have our street and driveways paved. This means we will finally be able to park in our driveway/carpark. Can't wait for that, especially before the bad weather hits.

Smiling Kassi and a sick Aunt Cari

Kassi got her "Welcome Home" quilt in the mail the other day, and Jenny just sent these super cute pictures.

Look at that grin... is she a ham or what?? Pretty nifty that she just blends right in.

I think she's working on some advanced math here, using her fingers as an abacus... what a little brain!

In other news, I'm still on nights, but tonight is the last one, thank goodness! It's certainly a different kind of medicine at night, figuring out how to cope with a skeleton crew. It's usually OK, because nights can be slower (not slow by any means, just slower than days), but if a couple of traumas role in or a cardiac arrest, it really throws a wrench in things, pulling everyone's effort towards one patient.

Unfortunately, I'm also sick again. I was really feeling better there for several days, back to 100%, but last night, I woke up with a cough as I was getting ready for work, and then wound up hacking away all night. I even had to break out the albuterol inhaler a few times. Not helping whatsoever is coming home to the "This Old House" set in Cari and Nick's backyard. It's a construction jungle outside of our door, and while on one hand that is good, because that means that things are getting done, it doesn't make for much of a quite place to get some shut eye. One more day... I think I can tough it out.

Nothing like a baby picture to cheer up your day

Jenny just sent out these super cute pictures of baby Kasi. Once again, please excuse her overwhelming adorableness, she is by far the cutest baby ever!!

And yes, for those of you that remember my roommate last year, Kasi is wearing a Winney the Pooh jumper in that third picture, and I had absolutely nothing to do with that. Let's just say it's a rebirth for Winney... here's to new beginnings.

Happy... but sad

Being the far away sister just sucks, plain and simple. Of course, this is nobody's fault besides my own, since I chose to move away some 13 years ago. But when it comes time for important family things, like for example, births, engagements, weddings, graduations... (you get the idea), it really, really stinks being on the outside looking in with my family far, far away.

OK, enough self-pity... here are some super cute pictures of Baby Kasandra Estelle (yes, this is the correct spelling), who I will hopefully get to meet before she's walking ;)

Try not to fall down as you're overwhelmed by all of her adorableness (I think I just made that one up?)