Whiteout anyone?

I recently commented on a snow storm we had last week and how I wasn't going to talk much about the snow because, "how much can you really say about snow?" But today my thoughts have changed.

Right now we are in the middle of the first big storm of the year, and it's a huge one. They are predicting a total of 14-20 inches by tomorrow night. Right now we have at least 8 in our back yard. All I can think about now is how I am possibly going to get to work tomorrow morning by 6:45. Haden's planning on having a snow day.

Looking into our backyard.

Honestly, photos don't do all of this snow justice.

Birthday dinner.

Rooftop view at the hotel.

The week's end

The past several days at work I have been stuck in classrooms listening to lecture after lecture on the countless services and specialties the Children's Hospital has to offer. Some things are very interesting, others, downright boring to listen to. So when last Friday at three o'clock rolled around I couldn't have been more ready to get home. With my parents in Albuquerque, Haden and I had the house to ourselves.

Friday afternoon we braved the traffic to head to the apartment complex we were hoping to rent from, only to be disappointed when we learned the apartment we wanted was gone. Kicking ourselves for not acting faster, we moped our way to dinner and tried to enjoy some pizza. Not until the end of the meal had we talked ourselves out of our lousy moods, remembering that if God wanted us in that apartment, he would have given it to us.

At home the house was quite and I chose the movie, "The Class" from my parent's lovely On Demand list. It's a great French film, one that Haden would recommend. I couldn't give you my full opinion, the last thirty minutes I couldn't keep my eyes open. And when the film is in French you don't have the option of just "resting your eyes" and listening. Haden had dreams in French that night, not really sure how that works.

Saturday morning was spent raking leaves in the backyard. We have a huge maple--the great thing about the leaves is they are as light as feathers and very compactable. The thick layer of leaves covering most of the yard fit into six bags.

Growing up, I hated raking leaves. But I guess times have changed because Haden and I had a very enjoyable time out in the sunshine and crisp air.

We then headed back over to the apartment complex we wanted to rent from to at least put in our applications so if something else came up we wouldn't miss it. As we were in the office filling out the paperwork, someone came down and put in his notice on his one bedroom apartment. As it turns out, this apartment was bigger than the other one we wanted, and for quite a bit less each month. We couldn't pass it up. We move in early December and visitors are always welcome.

Why is it that we have such a hard time trusting the Lord's plans in our lives?

For my birthday Haden surprised me with a night in a beautiful hotel downtown complete with champagne, chocolate covered strawberries and a delicious breakfast. We also ate at one of my most favorite Denver restaurants for dinner. Haden kept the whole thing a secret from me and the time away from home was a perfect way to celebrate.

If only he could have taken the Broncos out of their bye week to make it a 7-0 season, now that would have been a real gift.

The weekend was topped off with dinner at a delicious Asian restaurant with my parents and a few presents. At the end of the weekend, I couldn't help but think about how blessed I have been now for 23 years.

Life

I'm sitting here trying to think about something "blog worthy" that happened this week. I debated reporting on the five inches of snow that have fallen this 21st day of October. Not failing to mention that it was 80 degrees just two days ago. And while we do have very interesting weather patterns here, there is only so much you can say about snow.

Life, when it comes right down to it, is pretty mundane. It's about shopping trips, chores, work, cooking, eating, sleeping, cleaning. Only through Christ do our mundane lives become something more. That's the beauty of it. I don't have to sit here racking my brain about something exciting that happened this week to write about because Christ makes my pretty normal life fulfilling, meaningful and fun.

So, here are two things that stuck out to me this week:

1. How darn cute some of the kids are at work. Who could resist a two-year-old blond when she insists on having her "chocy" (aka chocolate milk) before she would let me listen to her lungs. The little 10-day-old with wrinkly skin was just about as cute as they come...until she thought it would be fun to throw up on me.

2. This week I felt overwhelmed by the blessing that is my husband. He's my joy and best friend. I'll be driving home late after work, stomach growling, and when I walk through the door suddenly all I care about is him. He makes me laugh like no one else can. He's also my on-call personal massage therapist. It's wonderful. He cares for me better than I do myself.

God knew what he was doing in bringing us together.

A Noble Profession

Today was the first day in my new job. It was quite a change from my last one, working at Whitworth University. The dress is business casual here, which means Haden had to play swipey-swipe with the card at Banana Republic.

It was a worthy investment, one Lauren fully endorsed. I have more sweaters than underwear now. Not a ratio I’m comfortable with.

Noble is a global energy company (oil) with 1500 employees worldwide. I work in the World Trade Center towers in downtown Denver, where Noble owns 12 floors between the two buildings. Today was the HR spiel and meet and greet. I have my key card and my parking ID, both of which are RID passes. Swipe and open!

I was told I had full access to the building. However, my first attempt at opening a door brought security down. They don’t kid around here. Rubber gloves and cameras.

I set up my office, which has a nice 17th story view of downtown. I can see the 16th st. mall with the people milling around below. The view is a wonderful change.

The drive is not.

It took me 50 mins to come home tonight. It only took me 25 to get downtown. Big negative on the traffic.

It was my first day. We’ll see how it goes. There are big adjustments with working for an S&P 500 company. I’m no longer in the comfortable folds at a private Christian university. I have a new and exciting opportunity to live Christ in my job and make friends with new people.

Probably the biggest perk was the tube of vanilla mint chapstick that HR gave me.  Colorado is dry; I’ve learned to keep the paste handy otherwise you’ll be hurting.  I’ll have photos hopefully soon!

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Football

What is it about this sport that can grip the attention of 90% of the male population (and lots of females) for two whole days out of the week? We're too busy for many other things, but when it comes to football, no we can carve out two days for that. Then, when we miss the 48 football fanfare that is Saturday and Sunday, all we have to do is wait until Monday, Thursday or Friday night. If thats not enough, we also have round-the-clock football coverage on ESPN. Even if you watched the game it's still fun to catch the highlights, right?

Don't get me wrong, I love the game. I'll be a Broncos fan until the day I die. I write this post not to bash the sport but to get to the bottom of its appeal. Is it that we can't wait to see the huge hits and 60 yard passes? Sadly, for some it might be the cheerleaders. Or is there just something exhilarating about watching a late winter game with several inches of snow on the ground? And I know we all like to get a good laugh at the guy with his shirt off in zero degree weather. At Mile High Stadium his name was Barrel Man...we was practically part of the team. From personal experience, I'd say there are few things like watching a live game, especially when it comes down to the end of the fourth.

As Christians how are we to approach football, or for that matter, any sport? These athletes that we so enjoy watching are not always what I would call upstanding citizens or moral compasses. And I'm pretty sure we could all find better use of our time on the weekends than watching game after game. I'm not saying we shouldn't get caught up in the excitement, but we are called to examine our hearts in all areas of life. I'd say that football and sports in general threaten to become idols to some of us. (Good thing for me, gymnastics only makes it to TV once or twice a year).

There are my thoughts, feel free to leave yours.

The Hunt is On

For those of you who know Haden and I well, you'll recall that we weren't the biggest fans of our last apartment. Called the Gables, the complex was built in 1909 and is on the national registry of historic places. It's one of those places that people drive by and comment on how cute they are because of their "character." To put how old these places are into perspective I'll tell you that my old boss's parents lived there when they first got married.

She just turned fifty.

The carpet must have been as old as the place, frigid air seeped in through the windows in the winter, the toilet took forever to flush (until Haden fixed it a month before we left) and the hardest thing for both of us was our next-door neighbor who smoked like a chimney. Oh, and Haden had to do all of the laundry because the washer and dryer were down in a creepy room in the basement; I didn't feel safe going into it alone. When we first moved in we thought we were getting the place for a steal at 510 a month. I learned two months before we moved that some of our friends were paying 520 for great places on the South Hill. Bummer.

"Character" isn't all it's cracked up to be.

We signed the lease on our last place very quickly without looking around much. Yes, there were some great things about it, like the location and great views from the balcony. However, I don't think that we would have rushed into the lease so quickly if we had given it some thought.

All of this lends us to be more cautious and thoughtful this time around. Living in Denver we are forced to pay a bit more for rent, but we are also willing to pay more to get something we will be happy in. We want to find a place that is clean, fairly new and close-ish to both of our jobs. An open floor plan and in-unit washer/dryer are also very high on the list.

At our last place we didn't do a very good job of connecting with and reaching out to our neighbors. I was bitter towards our smoking neighbor for her habit (and her little rat-dog that pooped all over our porch) that also effected our lives and we just were so different than many of the people there. Looking back, none of these should have been excuses, but they were. At our new place we want to make a concerted effort to be friends and a light to the people around us.

We have been looking for several days now and it's amazing how exhausting it is. We have seen so many places that they all seem to jumble together in our heads except for the select few that we really like. Our search continues today, keep your fingers crossed.

For those of you wondering how we are doing at my parents, it's going pretty well. We have both had to make some adjustments.

My parents eat fairly gourmet foods, at least in our eyes. The kinds of meals my mom prepares are usually way more complicated than what I would choose. Haden has had to adjust to the time and energy it takes to make dinner around here. It's especially hard for him when I'm at work. He misses the days when we would just throw together some grilled cheese and watch a football game. On the other hand, I love the food and knowing that when I get home from work at 8pm there will be a delicious meal waiting for me. It's great.

For me the adjustment has come in learning how to balance the fact that I'm no longer in high school and living at home. I'm married and living at home. It has been hard at times, but good for both me and my parents. They are able to see how Haden and I interact and get to know us better as a couple. I'm learning to be more assertive in my interaction with the parental units. Yes, they are still my parents, but I value Haden's opinion above all else.

We are anxious to be at our own place again, but we aren't clawing our way out the door, either. If nothing else, this will be a phase of life we can look back on as a great learning and growing experience.

God is good and full of blessings, even here at 7250 S. Ivy Ct.

It's a very foggy morning in Denver today. We don't get fog here much, so as you can guess, it was all over the news this morning. Had we been in Seattle, there wouldn't even have been mention of it. Coloradans deal with snow well, but when it comes to fog and rain, it's another story. Three drops of rain on the highway and the average speed limit drops by at least 10mph. It's pretty funny.

It has been a busy, emotional and challenging week for me at work. The Children's hospital receives the most acutely ill children in the state. This means I will be in constant contact with the living proof of some very sad stories. This week I was exposed to two two-year-old boys, both victims of what we call a NAT (non-accidental trauma) or in layman's terms, shaken baby syndrome. I saw a four year old girl with stitches covering her face and a bright pink cast wrapped around her hips and both legs. She was the victim of a car crash, made worse by the fact that her parents had her in the front seat without a car seat. It took the EMT guys an hour to unpin her.

Going into this job, people would shake their heads at me wondering how I would possibly be able to emotionally deal with these kinds of stories. I would sometimes wonder, "Am I heartless because I can work with these kids with dry eyes?" I know that the answer to this question is a firm "no". I could close my eyes and ears like some people when they hear about kids brutally abused by their step-fathers, or I can do something about it.

I chose to do something about it.

I chose to look at the bruises, burns, bumps and brain injury that often comes with abuse and care for those kids the best I can, hoping and praying that someday life will be better. I wish to protect kids from abusive fathers, allergic reactions and bike accidents. Kids need protection, and from what I've seen they are failing to get it from those who should be first in providing it.

I am working on a rehab floor so I also get to see some really cool things happen. Just yesterday, 14-year-old was able to walk out of the hospital after a 10 month stay. He came down with sinusitis which lead to a brain infection and mini strokes. When he came into the hospital he was barely able to walk or talk. After a lot of work from doctors, nurses, physical therapists, speech therapists and occupational therapists he was able to walk out the hospital doors.

He will be starting high school this week.

Miracles can happen at hospitals, too.

The Top Ten List

A busy week so here comes a quick review of our ten most memorable moments (good and bad) in no particular order.

1. I finally met the nurse I will be working with very closely for the first three months of my orientation, Becky Hutchinson: nurse extraordinaire, avid outdoors woman, first time home buyer and a native of Colorado herself. To top it all off, a very kind person willing to put up with the countless questions I ask every day. She's going to be great.

2. Our first real attempt at cooking Korean. Bibimbap and mondu were both a huge success. With H-mart so close by and a trip to Peppercorn in Boulder (which claims to have the most cookbooks of any store in the world, including lots of Korean) we are planning on getting a bit more in touch with our Korean side. My parents loved it.

3. Haden's return from Greg and Kerry's wedding in Spokane was a much anticipated moment for me. It's amazing how long two and a half days can feel when your spouse is away--distance truly does make the heart grow fonder.

4. Haden got turned down from a job today, but we are trying to stay faithful. There are still a few more promising opportunities ahead. Prayers, please!!

5. On Monday we enjoyed a lovely trip up to Boulder. I've heard it described as a Patagonia Heaven...the description is not too far from the truth. You constantly see people with huge beards, dreds and surprisingly, cigarettes, clothed in some of the most expensive outdoor gear money can buy. It's like how Will and T describe people in Portland as "fake poor," it seems like they take pride in their grungy appearance and expensive clothes and cars. Anyways...we found a discount outdoors store where Haden stole a $350 ski jacket for $150. I got a much-needed new pair of ski gloves for $20. Unbeatable, especially at the start of the ski season. We came across several great coffee shops and enjoyed happy hour at a great tequila bar.

6. Highlight number six came on our way home from Boulder. We stopped at a dive of a bar near the church we attended on Sunday to join some of the young adults we had met for trivia, beer and some time of fellowship. It was great to feel like we are possibly starting to build some friendships here. P.S. Haden is a whiz at trivia.

7. While Haden was away, my dad and I enjoyed some quality time together on a beautiful hike up Herman's Gulch. There was some snow on the trail and my lungs were really hating the altitude, but our efforts were rewarded as we ate lunch on the edge of a frozen lake with steep peaks jutting up all around us. In such a beautiful setting there is no denying His name.

8. The door handle on my car broke off, and get this, a $13 piece is going to cost $220 to fix. Toyota... I hate what you do for me.

9. As I write, we are watching the Nebraska-Mizzou game (in HD I might add, it's a huge upgrade from our bunny ears) and the first Colorado snowfall. Haden is into the game; I'm more interested in watching the white snow fall on green grass. It's a strange contrast, but one that is common here--just yesterday it was 70 degrees, tomorrow a balmy 60.

10. Denver Broncos defeated the Colts to become one of four teams with a 4-0 standing. FYI...this is only the 6th time in Bronco history this has happened. Four out of the previous five times the Broncos went all the way to the Super Bowl. Let’s hope it happens again. (The Rockies are also in the playoffs, but in our minds this does not warrant a top ten moment, we have not jumped on the Rocktober wagon yet, that will only happen if they go to the Series.)

Mowwage….

What a weekend!  Our good friends Greg and Kerry married on Friday, Oct. 2nd at the Lincoln Center in Spokane.  Lauren wasn’t able to make the trip up, sadly.

Nevertheless, the party had to go one.  My fellow groomsmen and I had a job to do; to give Greg the best damn transfer into married life.  Friends, family, and Patron all played a good role in reaching that goal.  I believe I speak for the everyone when I say, “Mission Accomplished!”

 

There were a few key people not in attendance.  Will and Theresa (willandt.tumblr.com) are in Korea teaching english and Jon Pritchard, a college friend currently serving in Iraq.  Their absence was certainly felt among the friends and family there.

 

We pray for Greg and Kerry Trepus as they begin their new life together in marriage.  Visit them in Spokane if you have the chance!

-haden

Lauren Barkley, RN, BSN

Clothed in my brand new scrubs, Dansko shoes and name badge bearing the initials RN, this week I embarked on my journey as a nurse. Simply put, I was nervous.

There is a saying within the nursing world that nurses tend to "eat their young." In other words, some nurses that have been around the block a time or two aren't always the most supportive and kind to those of us who are new to the block. If you have ever been in a hospital I'd say that it's a fair bet that you have seen one of these burned out, I-shouldn't-be-here-anymore kind of nurses. It's sad really. In a profession that is continually strained by budget cuts, high patient loads and the nursing shortage, these are not the kind of people we need around. They are generally very unsupportive of co-workers and worst of all, probably don't care about their patients as much as they once did. I came across more than one in nursing school, and remember leaving the hospital feeling as small as a piece of dirt. In defense of these nurses, they have usually spent a long, long time doing a job that can be very emotionally and physically draining and over time it just seems to wear on them. In my opinion, when you get to that point in any career, it is time to move on.

But I digress; I say all of this because Denver Children's seems to be much different than any hospital I've seen. I knew before I started working that Children's is very well respected in this community as well as across the nation for its cutting edge research, great patient care and wonderful outcomes. But it wasn't until I started working that I realized there was something else: people seemed genuinely happy to be at work. Granted I have only been there for three days, but I didn't come into contact with one nurse, doctor, physical therapist, kitchen worker or dog (yep, dogs come visit the kids) that didn't seem glad to be there despite the business and fatigue that comes with working in a hospital.

It was a very busy and overwhelming first few days for me. I'm astounded by how much I have to learn. Children's has a great program for new graduate nurses. Even though we are done with nursing school and have passed the NCLEX they know that we still have a long ways to go before we are ready to function independently. For the first three months I will be working very closely with two other, more experienced nurses to show me the ropes. And for the first year I will be attending educational classes specific to the types of patients and equipment I will be working with at the hospital. Most hospitals don't offer this kind of support to new grads--its very expensive and time consuming, but studies show that it does make better, happier nurses. I'm blessed to be a part of this program. It's not uncommon at all to run into nurses that have been working at Children's for twenty years or more....lets hope those Danskos last me a long, long time!

At some point during my very busy second shift my manager let me know that they found a full time, benefited position for me. This came as such a blessing and surprise considering I have been having trouble finding health care and was worried about how many hours per week I would be working. I'll be signing the papers here in the next few weeks. This is a huge praise!

Lastly, some fun facts and the perks of working at Denver Chilren's:
-The name badge I am so proud of doubles as a free pass onto any of the public transportation systems in Denver
-It also gets me discounts at several apartment complexes and countless stores, my favorite being 15% of at Cold Stone
-Children's uses more nitrous oxide than any other hospital in the world for the treatment of lung disease. Pretty cool.
-24/7 concierge service for employees. They'll get your oil changed, do your dry cleaning, plan a party, make reservations, buy you tickets (pretty much anything you can think of) all for free while you are at work
-The only hospital in the state that does heart transplants on children
-If I participate in their wellness program they will pay $20 each month toward our premium. Think about it people...thats $240 a year
-Consistently one of the top 10 hospitals in the nation for kids