Late Night

It's been a while since I blogged. I signed on so I could comment on a couple of other blogs. It's late at night. Everyone else is asleep. I got home from work around midnight and was checking my email and blogs. My daughter wrote a very nice blog about gaining strength through reading words of our Prophets. I am the secretary in our Relief Society and we had a very good meeting today. We have a new Presidency and they are wonderful people. They really love our members and friends in the ward. I hope I can keep up with this great group of women. They are really inspiring. Then I had to go to work. What a downer that was. You don't get any respect or appreciation from the people you work for. I feel I am a good worker but was told I got written up for one little thing that was late. What about all the hundreds of things I did right and on time. I was a little discouraged. I enjoy my co-workers though. They are good people. We all try to help each other out. I am also reading a really good book called"The Poisonwood Bible". It is a novel but based on facts about real people. It is a really well written book. I'm sure it will get sad though but right now it is great. I guess I will go read a little more before I fall asleep.

Lights Out

We had a very powerful storm come through tonight. Our power went out for over an hour. What do you do when you have no electricity??? Not much. We did have several flashlights ready so we could see. Then I had to set all the clocks when the power came back on. The storm was crazy. It got very dark, then we had hail, pretty big chunks of ice, then the wind started and pouring rain. After the storm went past the power went out. Not sure why.
I broke down Friday and bought the book Twilight. I just finished it tonight. It was really good and a quick read. I didn't think I would like it but I did. Carol also read it.

Day off from Work

I had today off from work and I think I worked harder. I planted many flowers around my house. It was a beautiful day. The sun was out with a little breeze blowing. I got really tired though after planting for many hours. I also went to an emergency preparedness meeting at church. It was very good. We learned about what we should do if there is an epidemic like the bird flu. It's always good to get together with other LDS women and talk. Ian and are going to the Washington Temple tomorrow. He just finished his calculus class today and has tomorrow off. Marvin Goldstein is going to perform at night. We are going in the morning and going into the Temple for a while, then eat, and then got to the performance in the visitors center. It should be a good day.
I really got a good laugh from Carrie's blog tonight. Gwen is very funny.

Frustration with computer

Well my computer got attacked by a nasty virus about 3 weeks ago. I couldn't fix it so I took it to a computer professional??? Well he couldn't fix it either so he reformated my hard drive. Now it turns on but I can't connect to the internet. I have to find all kinds of cd's and information to get it up and running again. I wish he hadn't reformated the hard drive. I could have done that myself. I couldn't even find a comcast bill to get my account number or their phone number. I've wasted a lot of time just gathering disks and information. I have to work today so I can't spend more time on it today. I have tomorrow off so guess what I will be doing!
On a brighter note. I had a really good day Monday. I went to buy some white impatients to plant with some red ones I had bought on Sat. Well I found a great sale on flats of flowers and ended up buying 3 flats and a few other plants. I went to my Mom's and planted some at her house. Then I wanted to plant some at Aunt Doreen's so I told my Mom that we could go there and plant them probably without her knowing. So we went up to her house and she was asleep in a chair right by the window where I was going to plant the flowers. I started planting them and had them all planted but one when she started to wake up. I hid by her garage. She was just sitting there so I had my Mom call her on the cell phone so she would move from the window. That worked and I got the other flower planted. My Mom told her we were coming up so we hid for a few more minutes and then knocked on her door. We visited for a while and when we left she noticed the flowers. She was surprised and laughed. It was fun. I like to do things that aren't expected of me for other people.
Another great thing happened on Sunday. The Washington DC Temple district is getting ready to use a new family search program that will let us search all the church records and print our family names and take them to the Temple. Then the information gets put right on the program so we will know right away what work has been done and by whom. It really is a great way to get Temple work done. But the best thing I have a trial version I am suppose to use and get used to. So Sunday I put in my Mother in-laws Father's name and found a whole line of information. It goes back to the 1600's in Switzerland. I haven't had time to tell my Mother in-law yet. I think she will be thrilled because her parents died when she was young. She didn't know much about her family. Now we have tons of information, thanks to Family Search and the Church.

A Really Hard Sunday

Even though it was Seminary Graduation day in Church it was a hard day. When I first got there I heard the news that Jane Marino's Husband had passed away suddenly on Sat. Frank Marino was not a member of the church but was a very good man. I felt really bad for Jane because just a week ago her daughter Vicki Cook had major surgery and we were all praying and worrying for Vicki. And my friend Tammi Torpey had just gone throught surgery for a serious infection in her ear. Then her mother Diane Browne just found out she has Thyroid Cancer and will be getting surgery this week. Another young man at church is recovering from intestinal surgery, he has serious Crohn's disease. There is so much suffering going on right now and the way the economy is and the weather with all the tornados it get's pretty overwhelming at times. I started reading the Book of Mormon again hoping that will easy my discomfort. On the brighter side I do have my health. I have an interesting job. A very comfortable house and plenty of food so I really can't complain.
I marvel every day at the birds, squirrels, chipmunks and other animals that live around my house. They are always busy and seem happy. I don't have the hummingbirds any more. I don't know what happened to them. They don't come to the feeder any more. I really liked to watch them.
I tried to make Puerto Rican Rice and Beans the other day. Ian really likes Spanish food. I bought this stuff called Sofrito and it gave everything a good taste but he said it wasn't quite right. So I asked my friend Iris if she would give me her recipe. We are hopefully going to get together on Tuesday. We are both off from work that day.

The End of May

Now May is almost over. May is a great month in New Jersey. The weather is pretty much a perfect temp. No coats needed and not real hot. Today it is threatening to rain with thunder showers. I don't work today. I worked 3 days this week and that was plenty. Being short of people it seems I work twice as much. I guess I really do because the same amount of work has to get done without enough people to do it. It's kind of scary since I work in a hospital and accuracy is very important but everybody just wants speed. They want everything done yesterday. And most people are so rude. They think their test is the only thing I have to do. Ha!
Today I have to go grocery shopping and can't seem to get in the mood. I guess I just need to go. Once I'm out I'm glad I'm out it's just so hard to get out. Maybe I'll look at some fish. I started an aquarium and have one fish so far. It is a beautiful betta fish. I think I might get him a female maybe he will be happier then. I went to the movies Wed. night with my Mom. We saw Indiana Jones. We both liked it. Lots of action and a good escape from reality.

Middle of May Already

Time really fly's whether your having fun or not. Today I did my first Skype call over the internet. I got to talk to Carrie and her girls. It was really fun. She couldn't see me though but I figured out what I was doing wrong. I have an external video cam and it is microsoft. It works with windows live so I can't have that one on when I am on skype. I hope to try it again tomorrow.
I worked tonight. It was busy as usual. I bought 2 pairs of earings from a guy at work that makes them. They are made of silver and very pretty. I am giving one pair to a friend of mine who is moving away. We are very short of people at work. We have 2 people out on long term sick leave and one just moved. So I signed up to work and extra night this week. I bought my dinner in the hospital cafeteria. It was pretty good. I had a chicken gyro and zucinni fries.
I have been reading about geocaching lately. I think it would be fun. It's like treasure hunting. I get a yearly cash back from my credit card and I have to use it at costco. So I want to go there and see if they have the hand held gps units that they use for geocaching. I hope to go this week while Ian is off from school so he can go with me. I have to go to Delaware to shop at Costco. He starts a summer class next week. It will be everyday for a month. Then he is taking another class after that one for another month. He wants to finish up next year.

March 2008

I have been enjoying reading other peoples blogs and thought I should post another. I'm glad spring is coming because I want to play golf more. There's a lot more to golf than I ever thought. It's a game that you play against yourself. You want to do better than you did the last time. There are many different course's to play and each one is a challenge. I went out Monday with Ian and we had a nice day. Ian is getting really good and kind of obsessed with it also. Ian beat me but what I want to do is just beat my score next time.
Another thing I do is work in a hospital lab. I really enjoy my work but nobody really knows what I do. I don't draw the blood even though I have been taught how to do that, my main job is testing specimens that are brought into the lab. The blood that is drawn can be tested for many things. Chemistry tests tell the doctors how most of the organs are functioning. Hematology tests give the doctors the cell count in your blood. A CBC tells how many red cells,white cells,platelets, and the percentage of the various white cells you have. If there is a problem we make a slide and look at the cells to see what is going on. An increase in white cells can indicate and infection. We can also tell if a person is anemic or has certain types of cancer. Urinalysis tests the urine. We can see if there is bacteria,yeast,blood,protein,or crystals in the urine. We also do pregnancy tests and other tests on urine. Another area I work in is microbiology. This is where we streak agar plates with various specimens to see if there is any bacteria or fungus in your system. We use about 7 different types of plates to look for many different types of bacteria and fungus. The other area of the lab is blood bank. This is where we test a persons blood to find out their blood type, Rh, and look for any antibodies a person might have. We also crossmatch units of blood to be given to a person that needs blood to make sure it is compatible. This area of the lab has the most paperwork and the most strict quality control. We not only give out packed red blood cells but also fresh frozen plasma, platelets, and Cryo(contains mostly clotting factors for hemophiliacs). The job is very demanding and you are expected to work fast and accurate. Clinical Lab Scientist or Medical Technologist seem to be the most under appreciated person in the hospital. To be certified you need a bachelors degree. You also need mechanical ability to run and fix the many different instruments we use. I hope anyone who reads this finds it interesting. I have always been interested in medicine but didn't want to be a nurse or a doctor so working in the lab is just right for me.
Another of my interests is Homeopathic medicine. I really want to learn more about it so I can apply it in my life and others that need it. It is different than just natural medicine, or vitamins and minerals. It is a whole different system of medicine. It is based on the fact that like heals like. There are many remedies that are used to cure most of the illness's that we get. It doesn't have the side effects of regular medicine and seems to work fast so you know if you have the correct remedy or not. If you don't get a positive result fast you know to try something else. I wish there were more homeopathic doctors around.
That's all for now.