my day 9:37 PM

I was so productive today (welcome to my exciting life):

• Hung up all the clean clothes that have resided on half of my queen size bed.
• Re-charged and re-loaded my iShuffle.
  
• Researched Mt. Kilimanjaro.
• Realized how fantastic and non-humid the weather.
  
• Walked to Tasha's house. Asked if she wanted to go on a walk. She did not.
• Helped an old lady cross the street. Seriously. It was so cliche that it was great.
• Walked home. Total = 8 mi.
  
• Froze Mike's hat. (more on that later)
• Showered.
  

Told you I was exciting. It was a good day.

baby grapes 7:57 PM

Look at these tiny little grapes. I found them at TJ's. They were so cute I could not not get them. They are like the size of my fingernail and so fun to eat. This post was brought to you by the simple pleasure of the day.

nerd 12:44 PM

In another attempt to figure out ways to avoid being pulled over my the police (because I may or may not chronically speed) I have purchased IAFF license plates. And while I could have gone with something cool like FIREFTR or MEDIC or CO509 (okay I could not have because they were all taken) I decided to go big or go home. EMS Nerd. Way funnier. I am a dork. I know. (I am hanging my head in shame right now.)

surprise visitors 11:38 PM

Bobbiejane and David.

All summer David has been saying he might come out to visit with Bobbiejane on the buddy pass (she works for an airline). They were all pipe dreams until this past week. After repeatedly trying to catch a flight the cute couple above finally made it to the Nation's Capitol.

I was babysitting on Friday, the day they came in, but David and Bobbiejane took it in stride. They played with Ella, Jane and I in the morning and went swimming with us in the afternoon. The girls loved the company and they were so cute with Jane and Ella.


That evening, when I was finally done babysitting, we went to work on the Kirby Street cake. Sure they could have stayed out late touring DC at night, but they came back and bonded over cake. I would have gone insane doing it by myself.

Saturday I had to work so David and Bobbiejane took the car and toured the city.

Sunday we went to my favorite spot for breakfast - the Eastern Market. We toured amidst the flea market stands scoping out great old school printing press letters, cool funky sunglasses, bocce balls and fresh farmers market fruit. Unfortunatley the Eastern Market does not sell breakfast on Sunday's (karma) so we did not get to taste the delectible delight that is the french toast. Another highlight of the morning was going to the crazy bookstore.


Sunday night we had a BBQ at our house with a bunch of friends. It was really fun. David instigated the Culbertson sandwich that evening. Seriously, I am impressed that his ideosyncrocies (the same ones that make us love him so much) have not made her run. She is pretty cool, and a little bit eccentric like David. Also that night we played the the spanish horse racing game with Ryan, Ashley and Steph. I was the horse R. Ted. It was the hardest I have laughed in a long time.


Monday David and Bobbiejane planned to head out. But before they did we toured the Arlington Cemetary to watch the changing of the guard, stopped by the Lincoln and Vietnam, and wandered around the U.S. Botanical Garden. Our final stop before the airport was a patch of lawn on the mall where we tested their new bocce ball set. It was a fun game with a great view and good company.


Unfortunately or fortunately all the flights were booked on Monday, so the couple stayed another day. I had to work but they did stop by and bring me lunch. We played dress up and toured around the fire apparatus. Wednesday they picked me up from work and we went to the airport. This time they did make their flight.

And now to answer the quetion you are all asking. Yes, I like Bobbiejane. I think she is nice and fun and a little bit quirky like David. Quirky in the good way, in a way that makes the couple work so well together, they just fit. So there it is, take it or leave it.

This is an awesome picture that David took.

kirby cake 3:08 PM

Tom: Did you make me a cake today?
Camille: No. Why?
T: Because it's Wednesday.
C: You wanted a Wednesday cake?
T: Yes. Have you used those cake pans I bought you? (for his wedding)
C: No.
T: Why not?
...more useless conversation...

Later that morning:
T: I'm going to 7-11 does anyone want anything?
C: A banana.
T: What do I get out of this deal?
C: Nothing.
T: A cake because it's Saturday?
C: Fine.

A couple hours later, after Tom spent a little time in the Deputy Chief's office, he came out and called to the family for a meeting. He announced that he was being transferred to B shift to take over as their Lieutenant (that shift needs some cleaning up and Tom is a good choice for the job) and their Lieutenant was being moved to our shift as a firefighter (yes, it is a demotion, a well-deserved one). I hated this news. HATED IT! Tom is my Lieutenant and my friend and he always has our back. But I will stop here and not cry on the internet. Point being when Tom's stupid Saturday cake turned into a goodbye cake I actually started contemplating his request for a cake balancing on a ball like Duff makes. The result was below. A recreation of the Kirby Street fire.




It was late late at night by the time we finally started putting it together, so the back was not as detailed as I had hoped to make it. But it still turned out cool. Thanks to David and Bobbiejane for all your help. And Erika for the idea to use fruit rollups as fire. And Tom.

Tom is a dork and decided to cut a garage out as the first piece.

babysitting 10:42 PM

For two days I played Mom. Well, fun Mom who only has to enforce rules for two days. That is much easier than being a real Mom. Yesterday it was super hot and humid outside. All Ella wanted to do all day was go to the park, so I spent the day trying to distract her from that idea. We ran around the basement, we danced to the Wiggles until my legs hurt, played games, made brownies and dropped them off at their local firehouse before we finally did go to the park. It was hot. Jane's cheeks were flushed and sweat lining her hair after being outside for 15 minutes, so the park was short lived. It was crazy hot.

Today another Jane (and David) joined us for the morning. It was impressive how quickly shy Ella warmed up to them. In 2.5 minutes she was jumping around and being the crazy Ella I know. We were originally going to head into DC to go to the Zoo or Aquarium, but Ella just wanted to swim. It was all she could think about. So with my two extra sets of hands we headed to the pool. It was fun. Ella was a spider monkey afraid of water in her face; Jane was happy as a clam. Bobbiejane and David were so great with the girls. We had a good time.

All in all I learned today that I am in no way ready to be a Mother of two kids. It made me appreciate being single. :) Also I got to know little Jane more (I have always just stuck with Ella) and see why Erika loves that little girl so much.

ps, Jon and Erika went up to NYC for their 5th Anniversary. Congrats you two!

organic 9:33 PM

I was telling Joe about a funny incident from last night in which Steph and Tasha would not let me leave the house to meet up with a group of people (including a cute boy) without first making me show them all the shirt options I have, insisting I put on a necklace, pressuring me to keep my hair down, and forcing lip gloss into my hand. They said that boys like lip gloss. I have never purchased nor worn lip gloss in my life. I sweated (is that a word?) more in the 15 minutes that they were ordering me around than the entire rest of the night.

After the entertaining re-accounting (I am just making up words all over the place) Joe told me that maybe I should not stress about that stuff. He said that I was organically pretty - that was part of my appeal. He said that when we wake up to go on a call in the middle of the night and stuff gum in our mouths, as to not let our breath kill our patients, he does not notice that I look any less pretty than I do throughout the day. He said maybe the organic look was part of what was appealing about me to the boy. He then gave me permission to dress normal the next time we meet up. Thank you Joe.

And do not read anything into this Mom.

PBPCCC 2:00 PM

I had to shorten the name. The long version is Peanut Butter Pretzel Chocolate Chunk Cookies. Whew, that was a mouth full. This is like the perfect PMS cookie. Sweet, salty and chocolate. Yum. It sounds weird but it was delicious. If you choose to make these, and you should, be careful not to add more than the suggested amount of pretzels because the powder acts like flour to make the cookies firmer. Next time I will cut the flour by 1/4 cup to make up the difference. I look forward to these next month.

view from a plane 11:44 PM

I love the view from planes.

I wonder what it would be like to be these people. Little lives on big plots of land. I wonder if they have done it all their lives, I wonder if they ever think of moving to a city or if that thought is appalling to them. I wonder if I would be happy living their lives.

I love clouds. These were so cool and fluffy. I hop out of the plane and take a nap on their fluffy mountains. Hey, if the Care Bears could do it, why couldn't I?

Sunsets above the clouds seem to go on for miles. The picture does not do it justice. The spectrum of light to dark was fantastic.

Ethan Daniel 10:30 PM

He is totally smiling at me. It's not gas. I swear.

This weekend I flew down to Fort Worth to hang out with Sarah and Chris and my new "nephew" Ethan. It was a great four days in Texas. We hung out at the hospital for the most part, and took breaks for meals and errands. It was a prefect relaxing vacation for me - hanging out with my friends, eating my favorite BBQ of all time (go here and get the Chopped Baker - you won't be sorry), holding a beautiful baby for hours, and just enjoying the company of friends who are as close as family.

Look at those little feet! His forearms are the size of my thumb.

Ethan is so little and cute. He was born 10 weeks early and will just be reaching his 4th week of life wednesday. He has gained over a pound and is off all breathing apparatus, which is awesome. It is kind of a waiting game now. Wait till he gains a little weight, wait till he can regulate his heart rate and temperature well on his own, wait till he can take all 8 feedings a day with the bottle/Sarah. He has had little set backs here and there but overall is doing really well.

Sleeping peacefully. He's good at that.

I loved sitting in the hospital room, holding the little guy, feeling his little tummy breathe against me. Every once in a while he would open his eyes, they would dart around the room and open wide to take everything in. It is going to be so fun seeing this little one grow up. Carson is such an awesome kid, I can only imagine that Ethan will be just as great. Now if only I can get Sarah, Chris, Et Al. to move back to VA...

Hi buddy. Welcome to the world.

for more photo's of Ethan click here

pledge of allegiance 4:13 PM

With all the political correctness and loud mouth Liberals crying about their rights not to have God, a cornerstone that this nation was founded on, mentioned in any public arena I was sure that the pledge of allegiance had gone out the window a long time ago. I mean if Kim cannot tell her students "Merry Christmas" in her classroom without getting in trouble then there is no way that the phrase "One nation under God" would be allowed. I am not sure if the rules in VA are different than CA, but I was heartened to see the above scene played out today.

I helped out with the City of Alexandria's kids "fire academy" (where summer school's bring their kids in to learn about fire prevention). The morning started with introductions and then one of the first things we had them do as a group was stand and say the pledge of allegiance. To see all these little kids standing with their hands on their hearts, honoring our flag and country got me choked up for a second. It made me hopeful.

recognition 9:08 PM

Today in an EMS QA meeting the Deputy Chief actually acknowledged in front of my peers what a task I had taken on with starting the BLS (Basic Life Support aka: EMT-Basic) Continuing Education Program (so we can do the re-certifications in-house and not outsource it) and noted that I did it without any compensation of rank or pay. It was nice to be recognized.

But wait. I know it is a large project, would other departments have compensated me in rank or pay? I did save the department money... and I am running a large program... wait, can I have a rank? Please?

sittin', listenin', relaxin' 4:47 PM

Mike.

Last night, as I was walking through the place where we park all of our apparatus (the bay), I noticed the subtle tune of a country song drifting in from the back of the bay. One of the bay doors was open and Mike was relaxing back in a camping chair staring off into the night. I went over to see what he was doing and I got schooled in the art of country.

Mike said he was doing what folks in the country "do": sittin', listenin' to the radio, and enjoyin' the evening. I asked him what he was watching (the view is a brick building, a water tower and some townhouses) he said "nothing really" but then noted that every once in a while the street light would turn on and off. Mike said that there did not have to be anything to entertain you when you "sit". Not for country folk. You just sit and be.

I admit that I was a little jealous of Mike. Sometimes I want to be that simple. Sometimes I think I would really like being counrty. But I am not. I am from the suburbs. I like the moderate pace. I like having fast things at my fingertips. But maybe if I practiced I could do it... Who knows, it might be good for me.