both a wonderful day and an awful day....

 the sunset yesterday at the university dog park was absolutely stunning!  this is my favorite shot from that day.

 i realize my christmas lights are really just leftover halloween lights.  i just get white lights, once it's all dark and snowy who can really tell.  this way i can put them up in early october as it gets dark and they stay up through the winter.  lots of lights in this town.  i think mentally it's one thing we do to counter the darkness.

 after our snow i went out to do rovers run.  the snow was a bit too deep for walking easily and not deep enough for snowshoeing.  my legs get tired more after the stretch of days.  just aren't elevated enough.  can't wait to get that procedure done.  i really hope ablating that vein makes life better.  i ended up cutting it short and returning home.

 luckily blossom doesn't care how long or where we go, she just wants to be out chasing her frisbee and we did enough of that without doing the distance.

 nothing for me to complain about really, especially today.  another seemingly average person took guns to an elementary school and killed over 25 people before killing himself.  sadly, at least 20 of those deaths were young children.  it's heartbreaking...can't even fathom the pain that the families and friends of these children must be feeling.  my heart goes out to them.  there is no explanation, no rational, no making sense of events such as these.  it's just horrible and sad and leaves a hole in each of our hearts.  if we can't protect our children from madmen such as this what hope have we got.  how can the remaining students ever return to that school and feel safe again.  how will parents be able to drop their kids off at school on monday and not feel a panic inside them.

 more will come out in the days to come, but like other incidences such as this, we never really will understand what makes people do this.  is it the over prevalence of violent video games, is it a matter of gun control, is it an issue of lack of appropriate mental health care?  are some people just numb to others suffering, completely callous?  selfish?  wanting to perish, but with some big horrible splash that makes them somehow infamous in their minds?

 blossom is thankfully unaware of all news and can just be blissful at all times. she does it well.  love when she taco's her frisbee.

 last 2 nights of work done.  tomorrow i know i need to walk the pups, do some shopping and fill the tank with gas.  have a few more packages about ready to go, just have to do the final packing and then hit the post office again.  will try to get some rest with the leg up tonight and hope it feels better. otherwise i will make an appointment and see if i can get a clot ruled out.  my brain keeps going there and i'd really rather not have this morph into something worse and not have checked that out.

 tonight was a lovely night.  the o'conners and friend, sandra came over and maddie and i decorated the tree.  i made some cheese filled shells kinda impomptu.  we all had fun though!  the tree is decorated and it's all pretty!!  maddie selected a movie post decorating. she chose the classic, "the christmas story".  tanya had actually never seen it or really heard of it so i think she was shocked that all the rest of us seemed to have the entire movie memorized.  i think she liked it though.  we all laughed and laughed, which on a day like today it was good!  always nice to get around a healthy, happy kid!! (and actually like the parents, haha)

 was on the peds floor my first night, which never really slowed down.  it's getting crazy there and seems like we will be nuts for the holidays.  the respiratory bugs are coming in a bit early. pertussis is supposed to be bad this year in addition to our usual rsv and influenza.  happy i got that shot now!

 the kid with the annoying mother was transferred back to the unit the next night so i followed that one.  she is a person who was a bit hit and miss.  she'd be all nice and then she'd flip a bit.  peds is always a place where one must worry about someone going nuts and bringing a gun in.  people have sick kids, they are stressed.  they tend to take out their frustration on the staff.  you get used to it.  there is still that element of the unknown.  i mean we have OCS in there enough and our security really isn't very tight at all.

 parents seemed to love me this week at least.  the parent from sunday night that i had was bummed that i didn't have her baby again and the mom who seemed like she could flip, told me how happy she was that i was her kids nurse and seemed thankful for my care.  some weeks are good some weeks...well, you just never know.  honestly, i would expect a gun rampage more at my work than in any elementary school.  how could someone shoot a child really.  what sick bastard can do that without a thought.  even in war times when young kids are given guns and are shooting and people have to shoot them to protect others...you know it haunts them just knowing that they have taken the life of a child.

 leashing blossom up near the open creek still.  i just don't feel i can trust her.  would hate to have something bad happen to her.

 seems like every year someone decorates out at university lake. it's so pretty really.  there is a tree lit up with lights...apparently the extension cord goes a long ways to someone's house.  too funny.

 we are still planning our decorations for next  mondays walk.  trying to get idea's for critter friendly ornaments.

 this says, "merry christmas to all my puppy friends" aww...so sweet!

 sitting on my leg actually feels the most comfy.  i think i shall take a nice swig of nyquil and force a long nights sleep.

 the bridge...such a serene sight.

 got quite a bit accomplished between shifts yesterday.  today, i slept in and then had fun with my friends tonight.  totally worth it!!

 usually the pediatic/picu has a tree decorating contest between day shift and night shift.  night shift usually won.  this year we decided to combine day and night shifts and team up against the nicu(neonate icu).  it's all handmade ornaments and the peds opted for a dr suesse theme.  i think it came out lovely.  i was tired so just took a few pictures, most of the ones i took didn't come out well.  this guy is from the grinch.  there were many cute ornaments and music as well.  i don't think nicu had any idea how competitive we get about the tree up here.  i'm sure next year they will amp up their entry.  it was okay....just weak by comparison.  so peds/picu won the contest pretty handily!  yeah peds/picu!!

 today seemed like a good day to attempt to build a little igloo on the back deck.  figured the dogs could use it.  well, blossom anyway. i suspect rio will topple it over in her blind meanderings in the back yard.

 i found a little snow block maker at the toy section a few back and it was cheap and seemed like a fun idea to try.  today also seemed like a good idea to be childish and remember those kids that had their ability to be totally unfettered in play ruined by that maniac.

 am having fun but am a bit clueless.  not sure how it will all come together in the end, but i got pretty far today.  kept spraying the seams with water in hopes it will freeze up today and be more stable.  the snow is from what i shoveled off the deck the other day.  this is either ironic or brilliant. haha.  i'll have more space to shovel snow in future snow storms, less deck to shovel and the already shoveled snow is already a bit more packed up for the building.  on the down side i did all the work to shovel the snow off the deck only to put it back on the deck in another form.  hm...

 bob keeps rio entertained.  she gets a bit confused as most of her evenings are spend relaxing on the couch and when people are over they are on the couch.  she keeps trying to work her way onto the couch and my job is to not let the blind dog leap on guests in her quest to be on couch.

 blossom gets jealous of rio's attention from bob and works her way in for some.

 sandra regales us with tales and everyone seemed to have a good time.

 my tree got all decked out!!  maddie has been my official tree decorator for several years...just always more fun with a kid !!

 bob and tanya are headed out of town for christmas so they brought my gift.  i'm still working on stuff i ship so i am behind on the local stuff.  they found this sasquatch tree ornament.  haha!!  love it!!  my tree is almost all animals...big surprise there i guess.  have got tons of fun ornaments.

 there she is all decked out. my fear that 30 needles would fall off the tree with every one decoration we put on didn't come true, whew!!  they do dry out fast here.

 they also bought me this sasquatch magnet dress up kit.  hysterical!! he looks all pimped out here!!

after everyone left my brother texted me to see if i'd opened my gift. i had wanted to wait til the tree was decorated and the place looked festive so i decided to open the gift while texting him.  i figured there must be an ornament in there and that was why he wanted me to open it before christmas...no ornament...that sweet pair bought me an ipad!!  OMG!!  so totally fun and unexpected!!  big gifts like this just don't happen to single girls like myself unless we buy them for ourselves...or we have super generous and sweet older  brothers i guess!!  thanks to jeff, wils, ella and ian...you guys are awesome!!