TORCH!

Eighteen miles long and 2.5 miles wide of beautiful deep blue, turquoise, and green crystal clear water. Yes. Please. Plus an unusually warm summer = unusually warm water. This was a bomb awesome year at Torch Lake. The weather was unbelievable. Usually being that far north in Michigan we get a few days of clouds and possibly some rain and in general chillier weather at night. Not this year. It was fantastic!

 I hadn't been to Torch Lake since summer of 2009, right after Chase and I got engaged. He came along too. Stephanie also brought Spencer (then boyfriend, now husband). Along with Tim and Patrick plus of course my parents, it was a great time, particularly watching Spencer flip his wakeboard over a skiier. Confused? See pic below:

Patrick being super chill

Flash forward to Torch Lake 2012. While it was just me and Patrick that could make the trip this year, it was worth it. Let's talk about how different it was for this second child in the line-up (out of 5) to have a week of individualized time just with my parents (plus one brother). Patrick is super easy going, so whenever my parents asked us what we wanted to do for the day, he said he'd do whatever I wanted to do. At first, I just played that back on him, saying I'll do whatever he wants to do. But then I made a suggestion...and (omg) that's what we ended up doing! What is this? I am used to 5 kids haggling and attempting to compromise, and then either majority rules or my parents have to step in and mediate. This is weird. Not in a bad way, just different. So I soaked up as much special time with my mom and dad and even just Patrick and me (soccer tennis, scrabble, boardwalks, tubing, swimming) as I could!

Hanging in the bow of our boat

The view from our porch

Yea...my mom can still slalom ski extremely well. 

My dad can still ski...well, he can just still ski.

Patrick being a skiing fiend

Gorgeous lake. Gorgeous sky.

The view from the kitchen, through the living room, over the porch. 

At the sandbar

At the dockside with mom and dad

From AZ to CA

We have arrived! Actually, we arrived 2 weeks ago. But I am just now getting around to posting. Why? Because I was at Torch Lake for a week! (more on that later)

Chase and I made the drive from Phoenix to San Jose at the end of June. It was absolutely exhausting to pack up our entire apartment, partly because we underestimated the time it would take, and partly because, ahem, my husband, whom I love dearly, decided to work a FULL work week. I told him he was crazy, but didn't push it. Well, when the week of the move came around and it was just me, who just happened to schedule my last day of work a week before the move, I was packing like crazy by myself. I have to give Chase way more credit though. He worked full days and then came home and packed until 11-midnight almost every night. Which was probably way harder than what I did.

Chase and his long lost friend

Luckily we were 97% packed when the movers arrived at noon on Friday. These young men did all the heavy lifting for us! And you know it wasn't easy carrying all those boxes and furniture down 3 flights of stairs in 110 degree heat.

Our empty apt at the Desert Club

Chase drove the U-Haul with the attached car carrier and I drove chase's car. I definitely got the better end of the deal. We drove separately because he had to drive much slower. He gave himself a 2.5 hour head start as we left Palm Springs. Also, I stopped way more than him - I was drinking lots of fluids, ok!?

Here we go!

Last gorgeous Arizona sunset

Welcome to California farmland?

We arrived at the U-Haul in San Jose at the exact same time. Actually, I won. I was behind Chase the entire time until I saw him attempting to make a left turn into U-Haul and I was coming from the opposite direction and swooped in with a right hand turn for the win. Literally a photo finish. He was NOT happy that he lost so unexpectedly at the last second.

Look at the clouds overtaking the mountains! They hang so low, it was gorgeous. 

One thing we love, although we have yet to take advantage of, is the herbs that grow in the courtyard of our building. There is rosemary, oregano, basil, mint, parsley, thyme, and cilantro. You can see the rosemary is dominating the picture...I think I see some rosemary and garlic chicken in our future!

The courtyard at the Elements

Our apartment is great. We were a wee bit nervous because this was the first time we were seeing the place if you remember here. And we were not disappointed. Huge windows from floor to ceiling that let in an incredible amount of light, tons of space with an enormous living room and bathroom (like the bathroom is a little too big). Yes, we are paying double what we were in Phoenix (really it was Scottsdale), BUT the typical apartment for what we are paying in a 20 mile radius is about 200 sq. ft smaller, not near as new appliances, worse apt. layouts, less convenient location, and in general, just way way less nice. The staff at the Elements Apartments enjoys reiterating to us just how fantastic of a deal we got. Like when we moved in. He just kept telling us. OK...we get it. Thank you Jesus.

A special shot of our lovely new (HUGE) couch!

Leaving more than just a city.

Tomorrow is my last day on 6east at Scottsdale Osborn. Or Ozy, as I sometimes affectionately refer to it.

And I am dreading it.

It was a rough start for me in December of 2010. I had been out of nursing for 6 months. And before that I had only been a nurse for 5 months. So I was essentially a clueless new grad with a lot of learned protocols and policies from another hospital that needed to be unlearned. Let's just say I had a long orientation.

But after my orientation I hit the ground running. I was so excited to be free to practice by myself again. I allowed other nurses and doctors to pour knowledge into me. I bought books to study and then apply in my practice.

More than just loving nursing and our patient population on 6east, I grew to love my co-workers and the culture of our floor. We work hard and laugh harder. The stress from the acuity of our patients is off-set by the ease of our demeanor. We talk, we joke, and yes, we even play pranks on each other. Usually involving saline. Sometimes involving stool softeners. But more importantly, we push each other in our practices to provide the best care to our patients while pursing knowledge and education.

So with a pit in my stomach, I have to say goodbye tomorrow, to never return. In my heart, I feel this floor is irreplaceable. The logic in my head slaps that notion in the face. I'll never work on another floor like this one, but I will find one with it's own personality, and I'll inevitably adapt.

Please bear with me as I take a stroll down memory lane.

contact + droplet isolation

A vodka a day to keep the DTs away!

Dust storm. There is a mountain behind that building.

Veil bed. Kind of like a fort.

Ok who did this to my apple? And is the chocolate safe to eat? who cares!

That one time my mean and delirious patient incredible hulked his CTO brace off. This was his 2nd one. And he has an unstable low cervical fracture. This is my life.

You can bring your dirty bibbed kitty to the hospital. But I might want a novelty pic with it.

Thank you dietary for sending water to this patient who clearly has a dysphagia diet with specific instructions not to send water. That does not mean cross it out and send a bottle of water. Luckily the RN confiscated it before this patient aspirated the entire thing.

All the charts in the rack...whoa!

Leech therapy, baby. Time to face the fear.

Remember that one time I threw a torilla chip at you and you lost jenga? Oops.

Creepy but sweet birthday flowers from Aaron, even though he was just trying to one-up the candy that Henna bought me for my birthday.

Best RN case manager. EVER.

Dare you to try a shot of Mag Citrate.

Love coming back to my desk.

The boys let me chart at "Man Island" for my birthday.

Crazy social workers.

My goodbye night out!

Mike would only allow his picture to be taken like this.

Surgical cap gifted to me from the scary trauma surgeon. I knew I would win him over!