Amber tagged me so now I guess it’s my turn to list 7 things about me. So here goes:

1. It’s no surprise–I love photography, taking it, looking at it, anything about it. I love learning new ways to improve my skills.

2. I’m in a group on Flickr where you take a self portrait of some sort every day for 365 days. It makes you think about photography techniques and you end up learning and improving your photography. It’s tough, but I’m having fun.

3. I am dying to go to the UK…London, Scotland, Ireland. Maybe one day the hubs and I will make it there…and then maybe we’ll get to visit our mates Thomas and Olly who live in Scotland.

4. I love the feel of digging my feet in the sand on the beach.

5. I have a fear of deep waters, that’s why I like the beach, not the ocean…I don’t know why, I’ve never had a traumatic experience with it, I just don’t like it. It freaks me out! Just looking at the ocean on google maps kinda makes me hyperventilate!

6. I would love to do a triathlon one day but I hate running, so maybe I’ll just do a bike race instead.

7. I love making my house feel like a home! That includes, painting it, putting up decorations or even just rearranging the furniture to make it flow. It’s my home and where I can be me, a safe place, I want it to feel like it’s mine!

Now I tag Shari…..

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas around casa de Blundell. Last weekend Jonathan and I put up the Christmas lights, the tree and all the decorations inside.

Of course I couldn’t reach the top of the tree so Jonathan had to put the star up.

I’m always afraid Jonathan will fall off the roof when he’s putting up the Christmas lights so I have to stay our there to “supervise”, and while I’m standing there, why not take pictures…

There are always some of our decorations that I love to put out and I’m always tempted to keep them out all year long, but couldn’t get away with it. This is one of my favorite decorations–it’s a candle holder, if you take the top off the candle is inside.

Then there is my favorite ornament…it says “Youngest Child (mom’s favorite)

But my favorite part of Christmas is being with family and making more memories. This year we are having Jonathan’s family over for the Blundell/Knotts family Christmas on the 23rd, we’re excited about that. Just 24 more days until Christmas, are you ready?

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!

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?

For those of you who haven’t heard, it’s been a crazy week around the Blundell household! Tuesday morning this happened:

How that happened you ask? Well, I have a history of vasovagal syncope where my blood pressure bottoms out and I drop like a fly–all within like 5 seconds. Anyway, I was getting a cortisone shot in my elbow Tuesday morning at the orthopedics office (for tendonitis) and about 5 minutes after the shot down I go. Not sure what caused me to pass out–I typically don’t get queasy or anything from shots or stuff like that so not sure what caused them to happen. Well, I was sitting on the exam table and within 5 seconds of feeling lightheaded I was on the ground. Apparently I fell head first and hit the top of my head on the floor and then proceeded to roll over a little and pull my neck under when I fell. So I strained, pulled, stretched and sprained everything in my neck and shoulders. But the orthopedic doctor wanted me to go to the emergency room because I couldn’t sit up without feeling dizzy, queasy or lightheaded. The ortho doctor did some x-rays of my spine/neck to make sure i was ok to drive to the emergency room, which they were. So my mom came and picked me up at the doctors office and took me to Baylor ER where Jonathan meet us. The ortho doc called ahead so they would get me right back, which they did. They did the typical triage stuff and an EKG. Then the trauma doctor came in and ordered an MRI of my brain/neck to look at my head/spine and nerves. I was having some pins and needles like pain which would have been nerve damage. After the MRI, which was miserable because the pain meds they gave me did not do anything, I got back to the room and the nurse said I could have another type of pain medicine…and that was the good stuff!! If anyone ever offers you Dilaudid TAKE IT! This medicine works soo well, once they shot it in my IV it took literally 3 or 4 minutes and like 80% of my pain was gone…the only thing is it only lasts like 2 hours. O’well. Well later on all the doctors and nurses switch and then the group that has no clue what’s going on comes in. FUN! To make a long story short, I had an MRI, 2 catscans and several x-rays and blood work done. It is now around 10:00pm and a neurosurgery resident came in…she said they weren’t sure what the MRI said because they hadn’t seen it–WHAT! go look at it. Anyway, they got another CT because they finally saw the MRI and it looked like there were possibly some micro fractures on my T1 and T2. They got the CT results and it looked ok so the trauma doctor talked to a neurosurgeon and he wasn’t sure about the micro fractures so we’ll never know if they were or were not there.
Well, 12 hours later the trauma doctor came in and said we were free to go and the only other thing they saw was that my white blood cell count was significantly higher than normal, which typically means an infection somewhere. So he wanted me to go see my primary physician in a couple days and then follow up with the neurosurgeon. Oh and now, 12 hours later, I can take the stupid C-Collar off that was on my neck (the thing on my neck in the picture above).
So here I am 2 days later and still in a tremendous amount of pain. I just can’t get comfortable no matter what I do. I haven’t really slept in 2 days and hopefully things will change tonight. I went to see my primary physician today and she gave me some muscle relaxers and an anti-inflammatory drug that will help and not just mask the pain I’m having. She came in and first asked what happened, with kind of a laugh in her voice…I asked her if she really wanted to know and then told her the whole story. She said it was the best story all day! Glad I could help her out! It is kinda funny but still kind of painful at the same time. Specially since I can’t laugh, talk or do anything without pain. I go see a neurosurgeon next Wednesday just to follow up and make sure everything is ok. So that’s the saga of our household…sorry it was so long!