You definitely have a full plate. Take care of yourself! See you back soon! Not much to report here. 1 month post-op appointment tomorrow and hoping to put the nail into the cancer coffin. No new trips to report yet - but some unofficial plans are being tossed to and fro.
This is such fabulous news, GB! Truly, I am so happy that this was caught in time, no doubt Providentially. I know you've been on the recovery track and are just now pulling out of it. Just tickled that it looks like all is well again and you can rest a little easier. Pretty much the best Christmas gift ever- one that can't be put under any tree.
Interesting. I never would have guessed at that, but it does make a weird sort of sense.
A lot of course, isn't elective (who wants a kidney stone hanging around for the Holidays?!) but for those who want to cash in on the year end stuff, now's the time.
That doesn't sound like much fun. I'm sure the job can be very sobering.
While I'm not scared to death to walk in the door every morning anymore, I do always have the "What could possibly go wrong?" thoughts all day long. The other day, we did actually have a code with an emergency re-intubation which is our worst nightmare with a best outcome. (I wasn't there, but heard all about it, and we've run several mock codes since.)
This sounds like Christmas Vacation: "Sure, we have plenty of room!"
So, kinda like most days around here. I never know WHO'S gonna be here. We have an open door policy and reputation, so it's People Potluck all the time.
I know the feeling, it's a busy time of year! Although it sounds like you have quite a bit going on at home. I've been reading along with your updates when I've had time, but I've not had much of a chance for comments.
That's ok. I haven't commented on a ton of the threads I'm subbed into for weeks really. December is just... hard. Glad you are here as you can be.
I've been enjoying my time off at home (you may remember I work a rotation overseas and I got home earlier this month, to spend time with my family until after Christmas). Since I got back my youngest DD had a school concert, oldest DD had a Christmas voice recital, plus general holiday shopping, baking (yes, I enjoy making cookies), and of course decorating.
How long is your home rotation? More than a week, I trust?
Of course I remember that. My turn to tell you some stories/memories. I think you know we lived in Kazakhstan for years. The ONLY other English speakers for HUGE chunks of that time (literally the only ones for 800 miles) were the Canadian oil workers. They were with Hurricane. ( I think they may have been bought out by now?) Anyway, they had a very nice compound of several apartments a dining hall and a small med clinic. We had early on met a few of the guys from the company and we established a good relationship with them. They made sure to let us know that if we had any medical needs, especially emergent ones, to give them a call as they always had an EMT, and paramedic, available. Well, if they weren't in the field.
One day, not too long after we arrived, when Zach was just shy of 2, he was running around with a glass tea bowl and fell slicing his wrist and hand open down pretty deep. He clearly needed stitches. We called up our buddies at Hurricane and they said to bring him on over. The guy on duty wasn't comfortable doing stitching after all, so patched him up and hooked us up with a local x-ray to check for tendon damage. Since there wasn't any, we didn't need to fly him out for hand surgery. After that, I had my dad (he was still practicing medicine at the time) send us some suturing packs over so I could just it myself should another need arise. Of course, being equipped, we didn't need them. But we did use the HUGE amounts of strep throat culture kits that he sent. If you're interested I'll tell you about the time my 6 year old literally gave herself a tonsillectomy with a PVC pipe marshmallow shooter. We almost lost her that day.
So, long story is that we LOVED having the Canadian Oil Workers around. We'd go out for a beer and chuckle at the accent and "eh."
My daughters have volunteered to do all the baking this year, so I'm off the hook this year. It's the decorating that kills me. Being a Type A perfectionist, it's hard to limit myself and put the brakes on. You sound equally as busy. Not in a stressful or bad way, but less time for DISsing and other stuff. Enjoy the Season, Jeff!
I did one project that I was pretty proud of the way it turned out. I got the idea from another DisDad to make a Mickey Christmas wreath. So after buying three plain wreaths, I spent a few days connecting them together with floral wire, attaching lights and Christmas ornaments (after I glued the tops on, hopefully they will survive our Canadian winter!). And, why yes, I think I will toot my own horn just a little and share a picture
And it looks fabulous! Are they fresh wreaths?
You know what? You can toot your own horn any time you like here! I love how it turned out, and you can be pretty darned proud of it!
On my last trip, not this one, 2010, I made a similar wreath out of grapevine wreaths that I hung in my resort window and added white lights. I then hung my wishes for my trip on them as I completed each one.
Just lovely!!!
You'll see from the picture that we've also had a nasty week of weather and I've been shoveling snow nearly every day this week (the picture was taken after the first of the storms, so Mickey is looking a bit frostier now).
Ugh, we've had snow for the week, and more is expected again tomorrow. Not NEARLY as brutal as you guys get, but still a pain. Not enough here to shovel by any means, but since we do get it so infrequently, our infrastructure just isn't set up to deal with it very well. Traffic becomes a freaking nightmare. The other day, they didn't plan well at all, and some kids in the Beaverton District didn't get home on their buses until 11:00 PM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nevertheless, I feel sorry for y'all; you must love it an awful lot to stay!.
Well, except for packing, because next week at this time, we will be having dinner at Disneyland!
I have no idea how anyone could be bored right now! So much to do!! And yes, I'm sure coding is fascinating and all, but seriously, find a hobby! 
Makes it all worth it, no?
You picked the right costume, apparently.
