Back To Reality.

The week after a vacation sucks. Really sucks. Work seems to drag on fooorrreeevvveeeerrr. My skin is so dry, and my lips are cracking. And this weather? What the heck!?! Saying goodbye at the airport was pure torture. It was almost harder than when Jodi moved to New York. Backing up, when arriving at the airport, and all of the fun we had, makes up for the sad part of leaving! My vacation to New York was so wonderful. Best. Vacation. Ever. I'm not even talking about the city, which is fabulous. It was sooooo great to spend time with Jodi and her kiddos. I sure miss them! Everything was awesome. The plane ride even went well (except on the way home I had to pee since Ohio and never went. . . let's just say I was practically running out of the plane when we landed in Utah). I could post SO MANY pictures from the trip. All of which are awesome and valuable in showing what a great time we had. Instead, I am going to put together a slide show/movie and I will post that on my blog. When I do that, I will also write up a trip report to give you all the scoop on all of the great things we did! But to give you a sneak peak for now. . .

It was just a FANTABULAR vacation. Stay tuned for the whole story and all of the great pictures!

Next Stop? The Big Apple.

I'm pretty sure that everyone in my life is sick of hearing me talk about going to New York. But I don't really care. I'm freakin' excited. Ecstatic, actually. Really, words can't even describe how happy I am. I'm so lucky!! I can't believe that it came so fast! At the time, it seemed like a long wait but now I can't believe it's actually here! We fly out tonight! WAAAHOOO! While you are all sleeping, I will be flying to NYC. Booyah! See you all when I get back! Everyone have a  fun week. . . I know that I will! HAHA! Get ready Big Apple, here we come! =D

ONE WEEEEEEK 'til NEW YORK CITAAAYY!!!!!!

ONE WEEK and I go to NEW YORK! Get me outta here! I'm sooooooo ready for this vacation. It's just time. Past time, actually. I'm need a break from my job, and from certain people. What a better way than to get out of Utah to see my sista from another mista and her children, AND get to do all of this in New York? Oh yeah, AND I get to go with my redheaded sista from another mista, Caecee. Yeaahhhhhhh, I'm so excited. As badly as I want the trip to come, I almost don't want it to! I LOVE the anticipation and I love looking forward to things. Of course after the trip is over, I'll have plenty more things to look forward to this summer. I just know that once this trip has begun, I won't want it to end. We have so many fun things planned! Wicked on Broadway, Empire State Building, Ground Zero, Statue of Liberty, etc, etc, etc! But I think I'm mostly looking forward to seeing Jodi and those black babies. True dat. I can't believe I haven't seen those kiddos since September! It's been horrible! I'm sure I will shed a few tears of joy when I see them at the airport! One week!!!   =D

I'm a redneck & I'm a little on the freaky side-SAVE Frankenstein!

So. . . I'm a freak, in case you didn't know. I'm also a redneck, courtesy of my father. And might I add, I'm a LOT crazy. You combine 'freaky', 'redneck', and 'crazy' you get this story (amongst many others). . .

Once again, I've been asked to teach the Young Women first aid and CPR in preparation for their Girl's Camp. I taught CPR and first aid to them last year as well. As hard as I tried last year to get a CPR manikin (a little anne) to teach the girls, I couldn't ever get one. They are hard to come by. I think you can rent them from the City, but it's difficult to get someone to call you back and locate one. I think I could have borrowed one from the hospital this year, but I didn't want to find out who to contact, and jump through a bunch of hoops. I also didn't want to buy a manikin, they are hundreds of dollars. Last year I taught the girls CPR without any manikin and it went just fine but it is MUCH easier and I think it makes more sense to the girls when you have a manikin so they can actually see/practice how to do CPR. I needed a manikin, BAD!

So. . . I made my own CPR manikin. I told you I was freaky.

I took these pictures off of my phone so they are a little blurry but take a look!

What do you get with a clear hose, a dogs squeaky toy, a balloon, an old shirt, lots of duct tape, cotton stuffing, and a Frankenstein mask?

You get a Frankenstein CPR manikin.

It's kind of hard to explain without actually seeing me perform CPR on the manikin but try to follow me here.. .

CPR Frankenstein is fully functional. He is life size because I stuffed him full of quilting batting from an old Halloween costume (I was a fat bumblebee). I duct taped a balloon on the end of my clear tube (which I bought brand new, in case you thought I found an old clear tube in my garage no, not the case). It's new, and clean. I taped a balloon on the end so that the manikin's chest would really rise and fall just like the "real" manikin's do. Then I duct taped a squeaky toy (which I also bought brand new) to the clear tube so that when you are doing compressions on the manikin, you know that you are pushing hard enough. On the "real" manikin's, they 'click' so you know that you are pushing hard enough on the chest. Well, mine squeaks. I put the tube inside of Frankenstein's guts (stuffing)  and buttoned his shirt up, then put the other end of the tube through the mouth on the mask. And viola! You have a CPR manikin. Obviously, it's not as great as a "real" manikin, but it turned out alright considering that I'm 'redneck, freaky, and crazy'.

It works great. Totally gets the point across and is fully functional. This way the girls can actually SEE what I am teaching them, and if they wanted to practice, all I have to do is alcohol swab the tube so it's clean. Although, I'm not sure I will actually end up using it while teaching the girls the Heimlich, rescue breathing, and CPR because, the more I think about it, the more 'redneck, freaky, and crazy' I realize that I am. I'm a little embarrassed that I'm even posting it on my blog! So I don't know if I'll end up using it to teach the girls, but hey, at least I have my own CPR manikin now ;)