YEEEHAW!

Wow! Talk about a DAY!

This morning I’m awakened to the phone ringing. It’s not quite 6 am. ANY ONE who knows me knows that to call my house before 10 am is risking their lives. Someone better be dying OR they WILL be! (heheheh)

So I answer the phone and hear my son saying “We’re leaving Mom.”
Me: “Uh huh. Great….Where are you going?”
DS: (*snorts derisively*) “Where are you going? Hospital? You know? Baby?”
Me: “It’s Monday?”
DS: “Mom? WAKE UP! ITS TIME!”
Me: *jumps up in shock* “What? OOO Ok I’ll be right there. I’ll sit with Alyx while you guys go to hospital.”
I wake up DH and begin running like a chicken sans head and rush out the door. I arrive at the house to find DS, DIL and Alyx in car ready to take off. “What’s going on? I thought I’d keep Alyx here?”
DS: *visibly shaking* “I dunno–Just follow us down.

We all arrive at hospital. Baby is raring to arrive. They take DIL and DS away, I take Alyx to waiting room. (While sitting and waiting Alyx demonstrates the newest word added to her growing vocabulary–BOOBIES. Everything had or was a boobie. So we found a book to distract her. She added yet ANOTHER word to her vocabulary: Anemone. Alyx pronounces it PERFECTLY

Finally at 10:46 Sterling Wayne Gordan arrived weighing in at 8 pounds 1 oz and 19 and 3/4 inches long. He is absolutely PERFECT! Completely adorable, and I’m totally in love with him!
His big sister kept prancing by the nursery window, pointing in at him shouting “MY baby! MY baby! MY baby!” hehehehe I love the way she says his name. “Gerling.”

This means that for a little while I’m going to be difficult to catch via Internet, IM or phone. At least until we get everyone through the aquaintance period. Plus with Easter coming up, it’s going to be a busy rest of the week.

I hope to see y’all soon and as soon as there’s pictures available, I’m going to be bugging y’all to DEATH with them!

Hugz til later!
JJ

Talk about a FREAKY DEAKY DEAL!

So last week I had some restless nights. I dreamed some pretty awesome dreams but there was one that DEEPLY disturbed me.

Thursday night I was having my usual sleeping issues, finally went to sleep and dreamed of one of my dearest friends. She's going through a rough patch--starting her life over while going througha divorce. I dreamed of her. Her and a strange new man in her life. In the dream we were sitting in her house and this man came in. She introduced us and I HATED him on the spot! He made my flesh crawl, he made my stomach ache and basically I just couldn't tolerate being in the same room with him.

I begged her to listen to me--that there was something not right about this man, there was something she couldnt trust and I pleaded with her to leave him. She grew angry that I was interferring in her life and she asked me to leave. In the dream i was phoned to let me know she had died. She had been murdered--violently and bloodily--by this man.

When we were at her place Friday night I'd been sullen and silent, unsure how to speak or what to say. Finally I bit the bullet and I told her about the dream. She was slightly tense because she knows my dreams usually mean something...when I've dreamed of people dying they have passed on.

She showed me a photograph and asked me if it was the same man. I said no. I described the man to her. She got real funny. Seems as if she had gone out with a man who fit the exact descrioption of Nightmare Nathan to a T. She had gone out with him THAT THURSDAY NIGHT!

I got all goosefleshed and slightly freaked out. I told her that just because I dreamed this DIDNT mean anything. But that if she could just BE CAREFUL then it would be all right. She assured me she'd be careful and had no intention of ever seeing the man again.

We all know dreams are subjective. If all mine came true...well, lets just say that my money worries would be over, all the normal married people issues would NEVER arise and I'd be too exhausted to sit and write 90% of my life--hehehehe! It could be that the stress of my life colored my dream. It could also be as simple as I was dreaming that her divorce wouldn't be a simple and smooth meeting but end up being a heated, decidedly unpleasant battle.

Death doesnt always mean a physical thing--it can equate change. The end of her old life and the beginning of a new.

However, knowing that she went out with the man who matched the one iIN MY DREAM the NIGHT OF THE DREAM is still QUITE unsettling...

Well off to work! HAPPY READING!
JJ

Hello Miss me????

Any one else remember this show? When I was a kid my dad watched it every week. As a matter of fact I watch it on the Retro Television Channel. I LOVE this show. It was the reason I became an EMT and joined the Fire Department. The opening sequence is the ring tone on my phone!

When I was living with my grandmother, one of my aunts came to stay the night and she watched it with me. We had been discussing how many people who go into a local hospital for surgical procedures come out with massive staff infections. When Nurse Dixie McCall came on the screen my aunt says "That's it!"

Confusion reigned as I looked at her. "That's what?"

How many nurses wear hospital whites? NONE!!! When nurses wore whites they used BLEACH to clean their uniforms. Hospitals are NOT as sanitary as they once were.

While her words rang true--they were only to a point. I know of a couple of people who have nearly died from having surgery at this particular local hospital so I don't know that I believe its ALL nurses/hospital staff wearing white as it is the hospital itself. I wouldn't take a cat there for help and we ALL know how I feel about those nasty creatures....

ANYWAY...I watch this show now because I like seeing what advances were made from the time it came out to the days when I worked the ambulance crew. EKGs no longer have to be interpreted at the hospital--the medics could read them and interpret them ourselves. The invention of better splints, easier to move oxygen tanks, better cots, more education for those in the field.

The one thing I FAILED to pick up on until recently was the BIGGEST change of all---WOMEN in the fire house...WOMEN on the ambulances....WOMEN as officers. (This last one shouldn't have taken me so long to connect being as while on the department I was one of only 5 women to reach the rank of Lt.)

We have moved into so many male dominated jobs and I am ashamed it took me so long to actually SEE what advances were made for me. Bear in mind that Emergency was a television show from the late 60s and early 70s--that's been a little less that 40 years ago! In that 40s years women have made several advances: We're doctors, lawyers AND Indian Chiefs! We're mechanics, pilots, police officers, federal agents. We have our place fighting beside men in the Army, the Navy, the Coast Guard, the Air Force.

When I was in college the Army recruiter came to campus to talk to us. I was between boyfriends--had just dump the Jar Head and was dating an Army ROTC--and I thought about how exciting life in the military would be. This recruiter and I talked for hours. I finally told him that I wanted to be a Paratrooper. He smiled a condescending smile, "That's for men. You can still be all you can be in the Army. Medical units, support units," and he continued, ad nauseum, of all the places I could fit.

"I want to be a paratrooper," I stated again. "Women are welcome in all these other areas, why not paratroopers."

He patted my hand. "Women just aren't cut out to be paratroopers."

I sarcastically patted his back. "Then I'm not cut out for the Army. Thanks for your time." I walked away.

One year later the first woman paratrooper hit the skies! I look back on that conversation and feel as if I failed. Had I just pushed a little harder I'd have been able to jump out of planes and serve my country. I didn't fight. I didn't have the back bone to stick to it. (Of course if I had I wouldn't be where I am today. My son, my daughter, my Alyx--none of them would exist so I am not going to complain!)

My daughter's dream is to be a mechanic. She takes shop with boys--she loves to work on cars. She had wanted to be in the Army--she isn't able due to health issues which upsets her deeply but she DID have the opportunity. She had an interview with one of the local colleges and the woman was impressed that my Dd wanted to be a mechanic-to work in such a male dominated field. (Of course DD also wants to be a psychologist...a UN Interpreter...a pilot....LOL--The kid has HUGE dreams! She graduated this year and those are the ones she was able to settle on. Time will tell) But thanks to the cultural shift in gears she CAN do any one of those things if she desires.

Where has all this rambling led? Look around you. Look at yourself are you in a place where you might not have been even as recently as 40 years ago? These shifts are not just for women you know! Men who had the desire can now be nurses and not looked at with disdain--Oh well...he just didn't have the guts to go on to being a doctor--The shifts have been advantageous for BOTH sexes.

Just something to think about--yes?

Hugz!

JJ

Hello again

We're still dealing with the aftermath of my grandmother's accident but I am home for a few hours and I wanted to pop in and say thanks to all my freinds--authors and readers alike--for the emials I've received with words of encouragement, support and smiles during this rather stressful time.

I got an email today that DID make me laugh and I wanted to share some of it with you.

The men and women of our military are AWESOME! They face each day with strength, courage, and even in the most horrible situations have an amazing sense of humor to help cope with the trying times.

"I can't hear you over the engines! What'd you say??"

Umm...yeah

YEEHAW!!!!

Tammy Faye's got NOTHING on ME!

Is that a puppy in your pocket or are you just glade to see me?

Oh...that's what I thought!

And finally...

Gotta run! hugz y'all!

JJ