Hospital

I got a request from my Uncle Mark to post some pictures of the hospital, I asked a CNA (certified nurses assistant) that I work with if she would mind taking some pictures while on her break, she agreed, so here ya go! Turns out, Saturday 4/24 was my last day orienting on day shift with Judy, my preceptor. Beginning this Thursday I will be precepting on night shift with another nurse for 2 weeks. After these next 2 weeks I will be on my own as a nurse! Scary but exciting at the same time! I will then be working as a per diem night nurse, this basically means that I don't have a set schedule and work whenever they don't have enough staffing. It just so happens that for the month of May I was able to still get full time hours, and should continue to get full time due to the fact that many nurses take vacation time during the summer months! This works out perfect because I need/want full time hours, but there are currently no full time positions available to apply for. However, it will be quite an adjustment learning to work from 7pm-730am. Caffeine may just become my best friend!

Here is a picture of the main entrance to the hospital, through the doors is a friendly volunteer staff that direct people to the department in which they wish to go.

Bench across the drive-up from the front doors.

Fireplace in the main entrance, very cozy!

Lobby for the Med/Surg and ICU units.

Children's area in the lobby of Med/Surg and ICU. The fish tank is set up like the movie Finding Nemo, all the same fish and many of the same structures and plants! There is also a video gaming station!

Lobby to Med/Surg and ICU on right. Entrance to Med/Surg (through doors and to the left), and ICU (through doors and straight ahead).

Hallway to Med/Surg nurses station, here there are 4 patient rooms including 1 of 2 isolation rooms and 1 seclusion room, administrator's office, break room/lockers, and 1 of 2 medication rooms.

Nurses station and Doctors dictation room.

1 of 38 patient rooms on Med/Surg. Each room has it's own bathroom and fold out cot for family. Throughout the hospital and in each patient room is beautiful local framed photographs.

This is a really cool fountain that spans 3 levels and the main staircase. It makes a very soothing fountain sound.

This is the main chapel. The stained glass was donated by a local artist, and is actually 3d, it is very pretty! Every wednesday at 3pm, there is a meditation/guided imagery time that takes place in here, anyone is welcome and it is very relaxing!

Cafeteria.

There food is actually very good, and not too expensive.

A few of the girls I have been working with on days. Starting from left is Jenipher (CNA currently in nursing school), Liz (unit secretary), Judy (RN, my preceptor), and Leah (CNA who took these photos for me.

Judy and I. She was a wonderful teacher, and a great resource!

Adam's Journey

So I decided to post a few pics that Adam took on his journey from Vancouver to Kenai. Adam, Brian and Butch have been here now for 2 weeks, and have caught up on the much needed sleep from the drive. Brian (Adam's brother) has started a job this week as a front end manager at Wal-mart, and Adam is continuing to work full time on the cabin we will be living in. I will be finishing my preceptorship at the hospital in 3 weeks, and then I am on my own as a nurse! I will be working mostly nights, which will be hard to get used too, but worth the extra money! Butch is enjoying daily walks on the property, going to the beach, and loves to find sticks for us to throw for him.

I am not sure where the pictures were taken, but they saw some beautiful scenery! While in the Yukon Territory they saw the northern lights multiple times. Adam said there were green lights dancing all around sky, but his camera wasn't able to take a good picture.

He said they saw a lot of buffalo driving through British Columbia.

Time to stretch!

Butch

Glacier field a few hours before Anchorage

As you can see Butch really does love going for walks!

They've Arrived!!

Adam, Brian (Adam's brother) and Butch (our dog) finally arrived in Kenai last night around 930. As many know, Adam flew back down to Vancouver to drive up our two vehicles with Brian, and get Butch who had been staying with my uncle in Vancouver (thank you!). Adam spent 4 days visiting family and friends in Vancouver and then hit the road last Saturday for the long haul to Kenai. They ran into car trouble in Bellingham Wa saturday evening, our wheel bearing had gone out and could not be repaired until Monday morning. The boys stayed in a ghetto hotel in Bellingham Saturday and Sunday night, while Butch bunked in the trunk. The boys took turns sleeping as they were afraid someone would steal our stuff out of the bed of our truck. Come Monday morning the car is repaired and they head off on the road again!

After 2.5 days of driving and a total of 6 hours of sleep they arrived safe and sound. Let's just say, (despite the beautiful drive) they are not planning on taking another road trip any time soon!

Today we went for a nice walk on the property.

Butch is very photogenic! We are so happy to have him here with us!

Reuniting!

Below is a video of our reuniting, as you can see Butch was very happy to see me!

Our Moose Friends

I accompanied Adam this morning to the property on which the cabin will go. He has been using a chain saw to clear many trees for a road and cabin placement. To our surprise as we arrived on the property and looked to our left after passing by some thick trees was a moose about 10 yards away from us! We thought for sure that when Adam began to use the chainsaw, the moose would be frightened and run away. Not at all, the moose could have cared less for the loud noise and trees falling. After about 5 minutes of chain sawing, the moose made its way into the trees about 10 yards from where it had been standing to lay down and take a nap. As we continued sawing, we noticed another moose lying about 20 feet from the first moose. And as you will see in the video there is a third moose that had also been taking a nap not to far from where we were. The moose continued to hang out on the property the entire day and evening. Adam said he threw a few sticks at one moose to try and get it to move because it was in the way of where he needed to saw.

This first picture is the first moose we encountered .

We discovered this moose about an hour after we arrived.

They are soooo tall! They are at least 6' at the withers, probably more like 6'6"!

Keeping a close eye on us!

They were enjoying eating the buds off the freshly fallen trees.

Adam working hard.

Enjoy the video, I hope it works.

Homer Anniversary

Our 3rd anniversary was Wednesday March 17th. We decided it would be fun to take an overnight trip to Homer AK since we had both heard it was so beautiful. Homer is located about 1.5 hours South of Kenai on the peninsula. Since we both worked during the week we rented a car and left Saturday late morning and returned Sunday afternoon. I was able to get a employee discount at the Land's End Resort which is located at the end of the Homer Spit, in the Kachemak Bay. I know what you are thinking, what is a spit? It is a landform that is connected to land at one end and the far end exists in open water. The Homer spit is very narrow, just wide enough for a road and some small beaches, the far end is wider and contains the resort, some condos, shops and boat launches. The town contains many art galleries and a few small boutiques and home shops. The view is absolutely unbeatable, the pictures I have taken don't do it justice, the only way to experience these majestic mountain views is to come to visit us here! Hint-hint! Homer was a great way to celebrate our anniversary, we had a wonderful time! Enjoy the pictures :)

This is a lighthouse I caught a picture of on the drive to Homer.

This is our drive into Homer, if you look close enough you can see the Homer Spit extending into the water. At the very end of the spit is where the resort is located. The resort has a panoramic view of the entire mountain range you see here. It is a little cloudy in this picture, just imagine what it would look like on a perfectly clear day!

Here we are on the spit, there are many charters and different shops that open up during the summertime.

Sorry for the vulgarity of this picture, but we couldn't resist! This particular gift shop had many funny moose poop gifts. The little character on the end of the bill is an actual lacquered moose terd! They also had moose poop shish-cabobs, moose poops in a jar, moose poop jewelry etc.

Adam has been here too long, he is starting to turn into a moose.

The visitors center in Homer was like a museum, it had many interactive displays to learn from. A lot like Omsi on a much smaller scale, and all about Alaska.

Here we are on the Homer spit beach on our way to the resort.

We had dinner Saturday night in the Chart Room, the resort's restaurant. A little expensive but we had a beautiful view of the water and mountain range in the background.

The next morning (Sunday) on the resort's deck as the sun was coming up. Beautiful!

The sky started to clear up Sunday morning giving us a better view of the mountains.

As we were loading up our car to head home Sunday morning, Adam pointed out all of the bald eagles. They were everywhere, kind of like seagulls at the beach, or pigeons in New York! Everywhere you looked you would see one, here is one in the parking lot.

One on top of a light pole.

On the rooftops.

We stopped at the Homer spit beach on our way out of town to snap a few more pictures of the majestic mountains.

Mountains everywhere.

At the beach, Adam caught glimpse of two eagles roosting on a driftwood log. He got some really amazing pictures, and was able to get really close, about 15 feet away. Here are just a few of them.

Don't these look like postcard pictures?

I love this one!

Such beautiful birds!

Adam was making friends with the local fishermen!

I love my Eskimo Kiss salt and pepper shakers that I bought at the gift shop, they have magnets at there foreheads. Aren't they cute!?

Since I wrote a blog about rocks, I figured I would include the rocks we picked up in Homer. Notice the cool shell, it is broken on one end, but has a cool plant growing on it!