Christmas....backwards!

Christmas pictures are up! Unfortunately I posted them backwards, so we'll start with Christmas Day....

My mom had to work. Therefore, Christmas dinner rested on my shoulders (and Whitney's shoulders too!) I made brisket, scalloped potatoes, and deviled eggs while Whitney made green bean casserole, spinach artichoke dip and honey biscuits. It was all so yummy.

Our big surprise present this year...... (can you tell by our faces how excited we were?!?!?!)

My dad in his sassy new robe! Lookin good!

The surprise presents were Electra Townie Bicycles!!! Mine is pink pearl and Whitney's is a white pearl. Both bokes have baskets and my mom even made the liners for the baskets. I remember the Christmas I turned 8 years old Whitney and I got bikes and mine was pink and Whitney's was purple.

A fancy pair of Brighton earrings. These match my Brighton necklace I got for my birthday!

Christmas Eve....

Whitney and I got my parents matching OU and Nebraska garden gnomes. Since our parents love to garden, we thought we'd bring a little rivalry to the garden this year. I'm just waiting to see which gnome ends up upside down at some point.

A gift from Aunt Mimi. It's a pillow she made with our family's picture on it. So cute!

A Brighton necklace from Whitney.

Hey! Cool digital camera mom! Ironically, Santa left me a matching one. So, now we both have out own digital cameras!

Our shop just isn't complete without a Craftsman work chair.

'Twas the Night before Christmas....

...and Holly decided to post pictures from her birthday!

I should probably let you know the background story. When I was a kid I LOVED playing "tea party". Well for my 24th birthday my mom took me to a tea room for a real tea party. It was a lot of fun! She's so awesome, seriously the best mom ever. And what is a tea party without fancy hats?

The pictures are a little bright/fuzzy. Blame my camera phone.

2 more days

Only 2 more days until Christmas! Can you believe it?

I finished Day 5 at work yesterday. 60 hours. Whew! I'm so glad to have 3 days off. I've been picking up an extra shift a week for overtime which will be a really really nice paycheck.


On Sunday when I worked with Chad we were dispatched to a house fire. The woman was trapped in her house because she had burglar bars on the windows and doors. It was my first fire.

Gary and I are officially partners now. Our shifts together start on Jan 4th. Our new shift is Friday-Monday 1:15pm to 1:15am. We are SO happy.

Birthday Girl

Today I'm 24. 24! Ahh, glad to be en even number again. (Have I mentioned that even numbers are my favorties?)

I worked last night. Had a firefighter as my partner. Pretty cool guy. My friend Chad is a paramedic and was on another truck last night. He called dispatch and had a birthday page sent out for me. Everyone in the company got it. It said, "If you see Holly, wish her a happy birthday. She's over the hill and got some trauma!"

Over the hill? Who, me? Nah.

But about the trauma....

25 year old male was fighting with his wife/girlfriend in the car. Pulls over to the side of the interstate and walks into traffic. Yup, that'll show her buddy, right? Some people! Seriously. We got there and he was bleeding pretty bad. I got him naked in the truck and blood was just shooting out of his groin area (sorry, for being so graphic) my partner intubated him and off we went to the ER. They say he has a shattered pelvis and some other injuries. Hope he makes it. Oh, by the way....did I mention that he's HIV positive? Yea, no good. I'm always careful when there's blood and body fluids involved, but tonight I was EXTRA SUPER careful.

That's it my friends. I just got home and I'm going to go to bed and then wake up around 3:30 or 4:00 and go to work again.....yes.....on my birthday.

That's how I know I'm officially a grown up....I have never worked on my birthday. ever. YUCK!

3...2....1....liftoff.....

One of the cool parts of my job is definitely this. Some crews hate heli-pad transfers. I, on the other hand, love them. We park by the heli-pad and the helicopters lands. The propellers literally shake the entire truck, they are SOOOO powerful. A few minutes later they cut the engine and the blades slow down. We don't get out until they're completely stopped. Then we take our stretcher to the chopper and load the patient and the crew into our truck and drive them to the hospital. Pretty neat stuff.

Work is still great. I worked with my pal Levi last night. He's such a looney toon. We had a great night.

I'm off tonight and working with Levi again on Wednesday.

Brrr! Stay warm!

Back to Work...

Heading back to work tonight to work for my friend Shelley. She had a Dr. appointment today and they're drugging her up, so she can't drive the ambulance tonight. I'm working with her partner, Lucas. I've never met the guy before, so I hope he's cool.

Tomorrow it's back to work with Sherry, if she's there. Her boyfriend has a nasty staph infection in his leg and now has MRSA. They did surgery yesterday and hopefully he'll be able to keep his leg.

My friend Levi called me last night to see if I wanted to work with him on Wednesday becuase his partner, Morgan needed the day off. Heck yes. I did my training with Levi and Morgan and I had a blast. This is going to be great.

No time for crafting lately. Just some shopping here and there and sleeping. When you're at work for 12 hours, as soon as you come home all you want to do is sleep.

With that, I'm off to do some laundry and hop in the shower and possibly get a hair cut. Probably no time for that, but it's wishful thinking, right?

It's beginning to look a lot like.....

snowy and cold weather.

Did I mention that I used to looove snow? I'd pray each night for a snow day, maybe a thin coating of ice on the roads....just enough where the school busses couldn't get down the streets so school would be canceled. Oh yea, THOSE were the good 'ol days.

Now, I'm the person driving the 5 ton vehicle and the thought of snow or ice makes me cringe. Yesterday it rained and all hell broke loose. Luckily, I had just gotten to work and I was still checking off my truck and I could hear the calls dropping around me.....

"472. 4-7-2 out of post 17. Start Emergency for the area of Penn and Memorial...."

"289. 2-8-9 out of post 23. Start Emergency for the area of I-240 and I-35..."

"455. 4-5-5 out of post 14. Start Emergency for the 4000 block of SE 44th Street..."

The trucks get started on the way to their calls, lights flashing, sirens blaring as more information follows.

"Unit 472, your call will be at Penn and Memorial. Map page 23. Priority 2 MVA. Called in by OCPD."

"289, your call will be at I-240 and I-35 northbound, priority 1 rollover, OHP on scene. I have medi-flight standing by"

And so the night went on. I ran 4 calls. Not too bad. I was partnered with the Supervisor last night because my partner called in becuase her boyfriend has a staph infection in his leg after he broke it in October. *yuck!*

I'm off today and tomorrow. I picked up my friend Shelley's shift on Thursday because she has a doctor's appointment and can't make it in. The cool part, is that I'll go in that day at 4:15pm and I'll get off at 4:15am. I love that shift. That way, when I come home, it's still dark out. I hate coming home when the sun is beginning to come up....it's too bard for me to fall asleep like that.

Well kiddos, I'm going to start getting ready I suppose. I might run to Target. I need to get some giftwrap and a few treats for Christmas.

December - finally!

Wow. It's December! I am so pumped. I love the holidays. There's just some magical about Christmas that the other holidays don't have. Maybe it's the twinkling lights, the smell of baking, the tree, or the stockings carefully lined up on the fireplace. Personally, I think it's the twinkling lights.

I still have so much shopping to do. I absolutely hate the mall this time of year. Everything looks so.....generic. I've been a few times and nothing just screams "(insert name here) would LOVE this!" My sister asked for a toaster for her new house. Really? A toaster. Okay, whatever you want sis, off to Target I went. I came back with a pretty toaster....hope she likes it. As for what else to get her, I'm completely stumped. I'll head to the Cloverleaf this afternoon and hopefully I can find something special for her there.

For my mom, the quilter, a new set of rulers and cutting mat and an OU garden gnome. http://www.amazon.com/Oklahoma-Sooners-Lucky-Garden-Gnome/dp/B000VS41HO and for my dad..... the matching Nebraska garden gnome, of course.

I'll be heading to Sears' Craftsman section next week to pick up some toys for my dad. He's requesting a shop chair, some new box cutters, a dolly, and some other tool (I can't remember what it's called).

I'm on a really weird sleep/awake schedule right now. I work Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday from 6:30pm to 6:30am, so on those days I get home around 7:00am and I sleep until 3:00-ish. Then, I'm up all night! So, on days like today when I don't work, I can't sleep. It's bad news, really. But for some good news, my friend Sherry (who I call Sher-Bear) is working with me on Friday, Saturday, Monday and next Friday. I am SOO excited. Sherry is so great. We're going to have a great night, I just know it. Who knows, if Gary and I don't work out, then Sherry and I might shift-bid together in January. My other paramedic friend, Levi picked up 2 shifts with me too. I can't wait to work with him. He's a bucket of fun!

Well, I should get going. I'm still in my pajamas and if I'm going to do some shopping I should probably get dressed and ready to go.

Happy Thursday -new Grey's AND Survivor tonight! Whee!