So Proud

Last night my beautiful niece, Katie, was awarded Police Officer of the year in her precinct.   She's a wonderful young woman who is dedicated to her job but is also a wife, mom, sister, daughter, granddaughter, niece and good friend to many.  She is the first recipient of this award in the Oak Brook Police Department. (suburb of Chicago).  She's a detective who puts herself in danger every day to help keep her community safe.  I worry and pray for her safety as this world is increasingly becoming more scary....especially when people have such hate in their hearts for the police.  Well, last night was her time to shine and we're all so proud!

Her official portrait.

Her award!

How wonderful to be honored by your peers.

I know her mom (my sister Midge) and my Mom were so happy for her last night. In this picture from lft to rt is my brother Jim, Mom, Midge, Parker, Ella, Brooke next to Midge (Katie's oldest), Mason, her son, Katie, Blake her hubby, Amy, her sister, who's holding her son Conner.  As a side note, and strange coincidence, yesterday was the 13th anniversary of the passing of Katie's brother, Jono.  He was in college studying criminal justice to be a police officer like his big sister when he was tragically killed in a car accident.  Katie was on patrol that night and came to the accident scene.  I can't imagine how that would feel to be in that position and yet still be professional as the officer on duty.  She's an amazing woman.

I know he was smiling down on her last night.  Congrats Katie! We love you!

I Love Ohio In The Spring!

That's been the go to phrase this whole weekend.  Our temps have been around 60de and this is January! Yes, we know it's not Spring but when the weather gods choose to warm us up we love it!  I worked outside yesterday and cleaned up some flower beds and picked up sticks that a previous storm had left.  While making the rounds of the yard I found this:

So I'm thinking the ground might believe it's Spring! This afternoon Phil, Lexi and Addy stopped over and the kiddos found a way to play outdoors like it was Spring:

They found the pool had water floating above the ice block in there so out came the squirt guns.

Yep, they still work like they did last Summer!

After a few rounds of up in the air shots they began shooting each other.  They were a bit soggy when they left!  As I said before, we know it's still Winter because the other Grandkiddos are playing Basketball.  We stopped by and watched Cameron play last weekend.

He's the one with the ball...he's a good player and made the winning baskets for his team.

There's a winning smile for you! Good job Cam!  I hate to see this lovely weekend come to an end.  It's like a gift was handed to us and I'm glad we were able to enjoy the outdoors for a bit.

The sunsets haven't been too bad either!  Now on to Monday....sob, sob.

The Goodbyes

I've worked at the hospital in Ashland since 1978 with a year break in '84 after having my last kiddo. I returned in July of '85.  Over those years many physicians have come and gone. Most of the ones that were here when I started are now retired, moved, or passed away.  Some of the ones that replaced those have also left for different reasons.  We're in transition with the merging of our hospital to University Hospitals of Cleveland.   Lots of changes, some good, some not so good.  That's life, comings and goings.  In my final post of 2016 I said I hoped for more hellos than goodbyes.  I hate the goodbyes.  A meeting was called on Monday after our cases were done.  We had all sorts of speculation as to the announcement that was to be made.  Who was being promoted..demoted...schedule changes..all kind of chit chat about what was coming.  Never in a million years did we think it would be about one of our Docs leaving.  He's an OB/GYN that has been my Doc these many years.  He's a wonderful surgeon with really good laparoscopic skills.  A great guy to work with.   I might add that he's around 70yrs. old.   I know that sounds old, but you'd never know it to look at him or watch him work.  In December he decided to quit delivering babies and only do surgery for about 6 more months.  However, life often hands us surprises and when we were told he was retiring immediately, we were very surprised.  When they said it was because he has cancer...lung cancer that has spread to his spine...we were stunned.  I just worked with him last Friday and although he knew his diagnosis, he worked as usual.  Joking as usual, laughing and smiling.  He has a wonderful laugh!  I'm grateful I was able to be there for his final surgeries but sad I wasn't able to say goodbye.  He'll be concentrating on his treatments and being with his family.   Prayers and hope go with him from all of us, his surgery family.   He will be missed.

Friday The What??

I overheard a few conversations today that had folks asking the date and when it was revealed to be Friday the 13th...well, you know how the reaction to this date usually goes. Where you afraid? Superstitious?  Thinking it was the reason behind every bad thing that happened to you today?  It's the first one of the new year.  Heck, it might even be the only one this year! If so then it's good to get it over with early!  However, I am not afraid or worried about the date....nor do I change my routine in any way.  I always walk carefully, drive cautiously, avoid ladders, black cats, and old wives tales.  Besides, I won the coin from the lucky bread...remember?!  However, I have great respect/fear for a full moon. That has been known to  be a bad omen.  The surgery and OB department would all agree with me on that!  Wait, is today also a full moon and Friday the 13th????  No matter, I'm not on call! Ha!  So I'll just continue to hang out at home tonight because it's been a crazy, very tiring week,  Even Chubbs is worn out:

To show how lucky today actually is, I received my blog book in the mail.  It wasn't due to arrive until next week so it was my lucky day today!

Love the cover this year! To prove even more how unafraid I am of Friday the 13th, I had a hair appointment scheduled for today.

Yep, I ain't afraid of the number 13!

A Little This And That

This has been one week since the last time I blogged, and that's because it's just been a busy, not so exciting, didn't do anything blog worthy week.  Usually January is a bit slow in surgery because everyone is dealing with deductibles and having to shell out those first payments.  However, we seem to busy. Especially the call part of the job.  The anesthetic machine in the OB department's operating room wasn't working and had to be sent out for repair.  The c-sections have to be done in our operating rooms which means we have to do them.  It wouldn't be so bad but as many folks know babies just like to born whenever and usually that means middle of the night.  Thursday was not a pretty weather day.  Cold, snow, icy conditions on the road.  Of course that was my call night.  Got through it and even worked Friday with only 4hrs of sleep. I'm getting too old for this stuff!  The bitter cold hit our area but I think it's been that way across the country and down south too.  Jack's been keeping the wood burner going and the house has stayed warm.  However, he threw his back out cutting and splitting wood.  Ironic for a Chiropractor and totally not fun.  He soldiered threw it and Jordan came over on Saturday and helped get the wood in and split for us.  Thanks so much Jord!! I made him some chocolate chip cookies and he did his laundry here while he worked...so it was a small win-win for him I guess!  So "that's" the skinny on "this" past week.  A warm up is in the forecast for next week and hopefully all those having bad weather issues will also get cleared up.  Since it was a good weekend to make soup I tried a new recipe.

Meatball, tortellini soup.  I also put some orzo in it and then garnished it with parsley and Parmesan cheese.

This is a recipe I'll make again.

Good night!

2017 And The Magic Food

Happy New Year! Along with this greeting usually comes the question of what did you do for New Year's Eve.  Then sometimes the topic of traditional food or rituals that are suppose to ward off  "Bad Luck" comes up in conversation.  I even wrote about ours yesterday.  Along with the coin bread we always have pork and sauerkraut and black eyed peas.  That's something I did after marriage.  Somehow I lived my life before without the magic of pork.  Let's be honest here, it's not that lucky for the pig!  Anyway. we do it every year.  Do we really believe it will bring good luck?  Welllllll.....I'm afraid to find out.  So I make the food, eat just one black eyed pea, cut the bread with the coin and take a deep breath because somehow I just feel better afterwards.  Oh, and to make it even sweeter, guess who found the coin?

 Drum roll please....dddddddddddddddrrrrrrrrrr.......me!  First time ever! I'm on a roll so maybe I need to go get a  lottery ticket and enter a few contests.  I don't know about you, but I believe in magic food!!