Life’s Changes

A little over six years ago I started my career as a respiratory therapist at Children’s Medical Center and a week and a 1/2 ago I gave them my resignation. I learned a heck of a lot while working at CMC and worked with some of the sickest kids. I started working on the general care floors and then worked my way to the ER and Cardiac Intensive Care Unit. After about 4 years I moved to the pulmonary lab where I mainly did diagnostics and less therapeutics. I made some wonderful friends while at CMC and will never forget them.

But all good things must come to an end and while the last year or so for me at my job has brought many frustrations and anger at times, I am happy to close the door on my life at CMC. By doing so, it only starts a new chapter in my life that I am extremely excited about. I am starting my new job at the Martha Foster Lung Center at Baylor Hospital in Dallas on Monday and can’t wait. I will still be dong diagnostics but I’ll also be more involved with the whole care of the patient instead of just diagnostic testing.

Lets rewind a few months shall we. I was offered a job at El Centro college as the lab coordinator for the nursing and allied health schools back in march and I would have loved it but because of insurance reasons I couldn’t take it. Back in September I applied for this position at Baylor and was offered it. But I turned it down. But at the beginning of November I noticed that the position was still available on their website and I had thought about it more and I did regret turning it down and had rethought some things and decided that Baylor is where I should be so I called the manager and asked her if I could be reconsidered for the position. She said they were interviewing so once they were done she would let me know. Luckily, she offered it to me again!! I knew that if God had held this job open for me and it was offered to me AGAIN, then it must be where I’m supposed to be. I was a little worried because of my back and heart and my insurance not covering my past November 30 but all my worries were taken care of. I had follow up appointments with my cardiologist and neurosurgeon (along with another catscan) the last week of November and they both said I was doing ok. We have adjusted my cardiac meds and he said i’m good and don’t need to be seen again (Unless I need to) until March. My neurosurgeon said my broken vertebrae are healing, not healed completely yet, healing and I don’t need to see him again unless something comes up! So yeah, I don’t have to worry anymore. My new insurance with Baylor will kick in on Monday so just as long as I don’t get sick between now and then we’re all good.

So needless to say, God answers prayers and watches over us, even if we don’t feel it. I heard a saying once that has always stuck with me…”When God is silent, He is not still”. Even though we may not be aware He is doing things in our life, He is!

My list of thanks…

Jonathan posted his list of what he was thankful for so now it’s my turn.

I’m thankful for:
* My wonderful Husband who does more for me than he will ever know and loves me for me.
* My family who also loves me for me
* The ability to love and serve our God without having to risk my life for doing it.
* My doggy who brings me great joy, just as much as she annoys me.
* Electricity (our power just went out)
* My friends, who mean the world to me and life wouldn’t be the same without them.
* Our house that keeps us warm in the winter, cold in the summer and dry in the rain.
* Our cars that get us around wherever we want to go
* My health – even though it hasn’t been the best, it can always be worse.
* The fact that anytime I want ice cream I can just go to our freezer and get it…or the store.
* My camera, so I can keep memories that will be with me for a lifetime.
* Life!

and many, many more things!!

What are you thankful for?

Every 4 years

Every 4 years I dread the election! Especially this time around–I don’t really like either of the candidates but I did my duty and voted. I hate all the politics and how petty the candidates and their campaigns can get, oh and don’t forget all the dumb TV commercials. Then there’s the uneducated American’s who are voting for someone simply because its “the fad” right now or all their friends are voting for them, when they have no clue as to what this person stands for. I’m not saying they shouldn’t vote, they have every right to….I’m simply saying they should read up and find out what the person stands for and if they agree with them first. The only thing I like about this election are all the SNL sketches! So all this to say don’t forget to go out and VOTE!

It’s November!!

Can you believe it, the year is almost over–2 more months! That’s craziness. This year has flown by and honestly I don’t know where it went. It’s also been a while since I posted anything on here…it’s been neglected. Not a whole lot has been going on the last few weeks. Jonathan and I started our new small group on Saturday nights at our house. We’ve had a good time and are getting to know some new people, which is good for me because it’s difficult to meet new people…simply because I’m not as outgoing as say, my husband. ha. Anyway, we went camping a few weeks ago with Tim and Kara, and Izzy and Presley (that made for an interesting trip). Lets just say, a dog who shall remain nameless didn’t sleep more than about an hour the entire night. Anyway, other than that, we had a great time.
Day 34 ~ 365 Days Project
We kept Jake and Brooklyn last Friday night for my brother and sister-in-law. They are definitely growing up. Jake read most of the time (just like his dad) Jake and Brooklyn chased Presley around the house and backyard most of the time.
Brooklyn We did carve some pumpkins with them and that was fun.
the kids with their pumkins
Other than that we haven’t done a whole lot, a lot of relaxing, which I personally love! We have manged to keep ourselves busy with separate projects though. I manage to keep myself busy everyday coming up with a new photo idea for my 365 days project on Flickr. Go check them out and let me know of some good ideas because I’m starting to run out! Jonathan has joined this writing thing for national novel writing month , basically he writes a novel within the month of november–crazy! It’ll be an interesting month, that’s for sure. Well, I’m off to find an interesting photo idea…happy November peeps!

Starving artist!!!

Okay not really, but I thought that would get your attention. I have opened a gallery on imagekind where people can purchase photos I’ve taken. Not that I’m expecting people to but I thought, why not make money if I can…and maybe help us pay off some of our debt, or a new camera lens-HAHA. So if you feel obliged visit my gallery at http://lblundell.imagekind.com or just click the link to the sidebar to the right…is says “imagekind, buy my art”. Take a look around and let me know what you think.

So it’s been a while…

I just realized I hadn’t posted anything on my blog since like the end of September…so here’s a recap of what’s been going on at casa de Blundell.

The hubs and I got to go to the fair last week and had a great time. Piece of advice–don’t waste your time going to the laser show…it’s horrible. We walked around and looked at the award winning gardens, some sculptures that local artists made and then looked at the car exhibit. And, of course, we ate a Fletcher’s corney dog, nachos, rootbeer and some salt water taffy. Mmmmm, tasty!

Jonathan has started a challenge with his friend Thomas over in Scotland to see who can lose 30 pounds first….hmmmm, who will win? So Friday after dinner we decided to go for a bike ride at the hike and bike trail in Waxahachie. I just found this panoramic mode on my little point and shoot camera and decided to try it out while on the trail.
Hike & Bike Trail

Yesterday (Sunday) Jonathan and Josh gave the message yesterday at church…he did a great job and as always, I love hearing him speak! After church we went to the Chisolm Grill in downtown Waxahachie with his parents and then came back to our house to eat some apple pie and look at pictures from their trip to New England.
Day 27/365....Sunday afternoon
Side note–it was very bright, hence the squinting

Then last night we watched the Cowboys play (and I use that term loosely) and lose.

Now it’s Monday morning and time to start another week!

Fall pictures

I went with my brother, Brad, yesterday to the park with Jake and Brooklyn to get some pictures. He and my sister-in-law just wanted some updated shots of the kids to hang up so we attempted it. I have to be honest, they aren’t the easiest kids to photograph…they are just so busy and always moving and going everywhere except where you want them to. Out of about 200 shots we got some good ones though. Hopefully they will find some they can blow up and hang on the walls. These are my favorites I think:

If you want to see the rest of the pics of the kids or follow along in my project 365 (where I take a self portrait of some sort every day for a year) you can click on my flickr badge to the right (the green box with pictures in it).

Presley’s Fun Afternoon

Presley's Big Day Out

Saturday we decided– and when I say we, I really mean I–to take Presley to the dog park at White Rock Lake because she had a vet appointment around the corner from there. She pretty much just sniffed the entire perimeter of the gate instead of playing with the other dogs or even chasing a ball. Maybe she’s an S personality..hmmm…anyway, I think she had fun but then ready to leave when we left. She didn’t have as much fun at the vet but she did good. I chose the vet I take her to because one, I adopted her from there so they know her, but also because all the vets there are females and Presley doesn’t necessarily like males. But since she has been there they hired a male vet–what were they thinking…and of course the only vet there on Saturday was the male vet…so she started barking at him when he walked in the door. The barking didn’t last long though and she was fine. After the vet she got a bath! Presley doesn’t like baths and I hate giving her a bath, mainly because I don’t like having to clean the tub afterwards. After all that we came home because Presley was pretty pooped, and we were too..then had Tim and Kara and Josh and Shalyn over for dinner. It was a fun, long day!

Insomnia

It’s 2:00am as I type this, why am I still up??? I am asking the same thing. This happened last night too, I just can’t fall asleep, I’ve tried–I just lay there. I was wondering what could be keeping me up, my mind isn’t going everywhere and I’m not thinking of a bazillion things, I haven’t had any caffeine, we just recently doubled my cardiac meds, but I have been on that for a little while so my body should be used to the adjustment, so that’s not it. I don’t know! Then I remembered that I just switched to the generic instead of brand medication…and then read tonight that can cause “trouble sleeping” until your body gets used to it–NO JOKE!! I hope I get used to it pretty soon! So I’m thinking of things I could do when I should be sleeping and I only came up with two- organize all the loose papers in the office or work on my photo for the day for the project 365 on Flickr, since it is a new day already. Hmmm, well I’m off to do something, other than sleep apparently.