Things I have done

Things I have done:

For anyone that knows Ashley Dawn Pearson Talbot; I saw this on her blog and liked the idea, so here it is...
The things in BOLD are things I have done. The things that are NOT in bold I have not done.

1. Started my own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band...at school (ok, it was orchestra)
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can to a charity
7. Been to Disneyland/World
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea (love cruises)
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top Statue of Liberty (Been there, didn't walk it)
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you're not ill :(
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a marathon
28. Been snowmobiling
    
29. Seen a total eclipse
    
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset (Sand Hollow)
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community (Dover, Delaware)
36. Taught yourself a new language (I'm trying to: sign language)
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Been skydiving (totally addicted now)
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
    
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach in the moonlight (Biloxi, Mississippi)
46. Been transported in an ambulance :)
47. Had you portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive in movie
55. Been in a movie (a Disney movie)
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, plasma, or platelets (received blood also)
65. Gone over 100 mph
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter (both as a civilian and as a patient)
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Time Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job (wanted to be fired)
76. Seen the Changing of the Guard in Arlington Cemetery
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car (I know, I'm spoiled)
83. Had your picture in the newspaper
84. Read the entire Bible
85. Visited the White House
86. Killed and prepared and animal for eating (does a fish count)
87. Had chickenpox
88. Saved someones life (I helped, someone with a higher power saved them)
    
89. Sat on a jury
90. Met someone famous
91. Joined a book club
92. Lost a loved one
93. Had a baby
94. Seen the Alamo in person
95. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
96. Been involved in a law suit
97. Owned a cell phone
98. Been stung by a bee
99. Read an entire book in one day
    

Christmas....NOT too far from home

For the last 8 years, I haven't had Christmas Eve AND Christmas Day off (with the exception of the year that I had a collapsed lung and was in the hospital until the day before Christmas Eve, but who can count that, it wasn't like I was having the time of my life!!). This year is no different. The only thing that is different, is the fact that I can't take the ambulance or the ladder truck home on Christmas Day to chill with my family and my crew.

I moved to St. George back in January of this year to go to school. I took a leave of absence from the fire station to come to Southern Utah to get my paramedic. Things haven't turned out ANYTHING like I had hoped they would. However, I do start a class in January. But this blog has nothing to do with school. This is about someone that has been and done so much for me since we started work together back in March of this year. Her name is April Evans. For those of you that know my friend Kayce Lowry from Layton, April is what I call my "Southern Utah Kayce", which means we have so much in common it's scary.

April is the mother of 3 of the cutes little boys, and an incredible wife to her husband Mike. This year for Thanksgiving, April and I both were scheduled to work dispatch, but Mike wasn't quite aware that meant she wouldn't be home for the normal Thanksgiving dinner like they were used to. Instead, April and Mike planned to have it the day before on Wednesday night. April was so sweet and asked if I would come over to their house and have dinner with her and her family. We had a blast. We laughed a ton. It meant so much to me that I could spend time with "family". The 2 older boys and April and Mike call me "Aunt Lyndsay". They will never know what it has meant to me!

Well, for Christmas we have both been dealt the same hand; we both work on Christmas Day. April and Mike have again asked me to come over for Christmas Eve and spend it with their family since mine is up North spending time together at our parents house in Kaysville.

In the mean time, as I sit here in dispatch on this Christmas Eve Day, me and some of the girls are having a little Christmas party of out own. It started at about 0810 when I opened the bag of what I have named "happy apples". They are small, sweet delicious little apples that are small in stature, but HUGE on taste. Then came our center manager who brought in a cheese ball and crackers, so we then decided....heck, why wait for the 7-layer bean dip, it's already 0930...we began our holiday by binge eating for the next 7 hours...at lunch I ran home and threw in a huge dish of "chili Chicken" and brought it back to work...why stop at the bean dip??