hello, everyone
Sorry it's been so long since I last e-mailed everyone. I finally found a church here in Denver. Thanks everyone for your prayers. Work is improving. I'm starting to like the float nurse situation. I get an opportunity to check out the different units in different hopsitals. If I decide to stay here in Denver, I know which hospitals to go to. By the way, CONGRATULATIONS Sharp Grossmont Hospital for receiving Magnet status!! As one of the nurses call it, the Academy Award accreditation of nursing. It took a lot of hard work and a lot of changes to achieve the accreditation. I wish I was there to celebrate with you, but I'm still having fun as a travel nurse.
:-D
I haven't done much sightseeing until this past week when my family came to visit me. I've been off for a week, so my parents came in mainly to see my niece Maria and her family before they continued on to Connecticut. My parents arrived on Wednesday night, then we went to Pikes Peak the next day.
There is railway called Cograil that took up the mountain to 14,100ft elevation. Beautiful views and scenery on our way up the mountain. As we went higher the tree line stopped and it was just snow on the top of the peak. I couldn't see much by the time we got up because of the windchill and snow blowing around us.
The trip has also been a revelation to me that my parents are "getting more mature"(as my mom calls it.) If you think it's a handful to care for 2 very active kids, try 2 independent adults that have the minds of teenagers in "maturing" bodies. (Love you, mom and dad) At the top of the mountain, my dad got altitude sickness. I went to get bottled waters for the 3 of us, and when I got back to the rail car, my mom was there, but my dad went into the concession building. Mind
you, it was windy and snowing on the top of this mountain, and the temp was 16 degrees with 8 degree wind chill. I went into the building to find my dad, and walked with him back to the Cog Rail. As soon as I got him seated and drinking his water, my mom wanted to go into the building to use the restroom. So, I escorted her to the restroom and back. By that time, it was time to go back down. My dad felt better by the time we were halfway down. Mom and Dad, no more traveling to elevations above 11,000ft.
My niece, Maria, and her family came in on Saturday night. We went to Downtown after church then did a Gold Mine tour in Idaho Springs, CO. On Monday my parents took us to Breckenridge, a ski town west of Denver. My great niece had fun throw snowballs at everybody, then everybody started throwing snowballs at her. Crazy girl. We couldn't keep her away from the snow at all.
On Tuesday, we went to Focus on the Family facility in Colorado Springs, where EVERYONE had fun, besides the kids. There was a fun area where the kids can play in, but there was a "super slide" there that large kids (Maria and me) could slide down on.
Of course, after everyone left, I started missing my nieces and nephews. From a quiet aparment to an apartment filled with kids laughing/screaming, then back to quiet, the silence starts to sound hollow. Of course, the great thing about being an aunt is that after you get the kids excited and loaded on sugar/caffeine, you can hand them back to the parents. j/k, Maria and Beau. I miss you guys already. It was an exciting time.
I think that's pretty much it for updates. I promise I will keep up with my posting so my blog posts will not be this lengthy all the time. I'll keep in touch.
Until then. God bless,
Leona
