No Smoking

I work at Children's Hospital in Aurora and our entire campus is smoke and tobacco free.  There is no smoking anywhere on campus and signs are posted ALL over.  I love it.

So when I smell smoke anywhere on campus, I know it's a rare thing and that someone nearby is breaking the rules--and I'm not above letting them know that.  It's easy to tell them that they can't smoke on campus and why: we have babies and kiddos that are being treated for many different illnesses, many of which are respiratory, and it is especially harmful for those patients to be exposed to smoke and tobacco.  It even states in our employee handbook that it is a violation of policy for employees to smell of smoke while working.

We don't have designated smoking areas.  You just can't smoke on campus.  Did I mention that I love it!?

So this morning when I took the shuttle over to the main hospital from our administrative building across the street (where we watch people from our windows who walk almost to the limit of the property to smoke but usually stop right in front of the "no smoking" sign to light up), I was shocked to see someone standing right outside the parking garage smoking.  As the van pulled up, I looked at the man and shook my head.  When the van stopped and I opened my door, he started walking away.  And I chased him--belly and all!

I said, "excuse me, sir?" (Nothing).  I kept going, "sir? excuse me!"  He turned to me and I said, "I'm sorry, but you can't smoke here."  He looked me right in the face and through some thick accent (English is not his first language) he said, "I'm not smoking."  Umm, what?! I pointed to the burning cigarette butt in his hand and said, "What?!" I repeated myself, "you can't smoke here."  He gestured to me as if to offer me a cigarette, "You?" he offered, looking right at my pregnant belly.  I laughed and said, "No! You need to go across the street," and I pointed, waving to the end of the hospital's property.  He turned and started walking, and I did the same.

Now, I'm sure he had no intention of going all the way to the end, his butt was almost completely burned down, but it just makes me laugh at the ignorance and selfishness of people. 

I approached another guy once who was on the phone outside the main entrance of the hospital.  I had no problem interrupting his conversation to inform him of the rules of our smoke-free campus.  He tried to hide the butt behind him and told me that "it was out."  NO, it wasn't.  So I stared him down, and when he went back to his phone conversation telling the other person on the end of the line that this (beep)ing person was telling him that he couldn't (beep)ing smoke, I held my stance and stared some more.  He turned to me and yelled, "what?! It's out!"  It wasn't, but I shook my head and walked away.

It's just not worth it for the sake of the kiddos inside that building.  I'm sure that last guy was the dad or relative of a sick kid, and I feel for him.  And maybe that's his way of dealing with the stress of why they're here in the first place.  But we have rules, and for many reasons, those rules need to be followed. 

As an employee of the hospital, while I may not be clinical and actually treat the patients, I feel like it's the least I can do for them to keep them from smelling the cigarette smoke.  I'd want the same for my kids.

My Easter Story

Easter season always excites me, as it is my "re-birthday."  In other words, I was born again in Christ on Easter 19 years ago.  This morning, I found myself wanting to get up and cheer in church as the pastor told the story of Christ's resurrection.  He conquered death!!

But back up to when I was 10 years old.  My family went to church on Easter Sunday (this was not a regular occurrence for us before this, we went on Easter and Christmas usually...)  We attended Cherry Hills Community Church's service at Fiddler's Green--oh the crowd that shows up every year!  I knew many faces from school, but I still felt like a visitor.  However, during his sermon, Pastor Jim Dixon prayed a prayer for those in the congregation that would make the decision to follow Jesus.  I had probably heard it before, and I've heard many times since, but it always starts, "Come into my heart, Lord Jesus..."  I can hear Pastor Dixon's voice with those words.  Something in me changed this time when I heard him speak that phrase.  But after service, our Easter progressed just as it had before: we went home, dove back into our Easter baskets that we had received that morning (stuffed bunnies and all), got ready for family to come over, may have done an egg hunt in the back yard, played with our cousins, ate way too much yummy food, and went to bed. 

Except 19 years ago, I couldn't go to sleep (and not because of the sugar rush).  I remember laying in my bed, the rest of my family had gone to sleep too, lights were out, and I just could not focus on anything but that phrase I'd heard earlier that morning: "come into my heart, Lord Jesus."  Yes!  I wanted that!  I needed to say that prayer and be changed!!

So I got out of bed, crept into my parents' room, woke up my Dad and climbed in between my parents.  I told them that I had really heard what the pastor said that morning and I wanted to pray that prayer.  My memory serves that my Mom started crying, and my Dad got up to go get my sisters out of their bed (or maybe I was sent for them)... Either way, all five of us crammed onto the bed and in our sleepiness, we prayed as a family.  It was a defining moment for me, and I can still picture it.

My Dad helped me with the words to say to Jesus to invite him into my heart and into my life.  We prayed together as I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, recognizing that he had died for me and now lives in my heart.  My sisters had already made this commitment and each have their own stories, so it meant a lot that they were present for my moment.

Then, as a family we decided to make a commitment together to regularly attend church. And we did! The next Sunday I remember my parents walking me into the fourth grade Sunday school class where I met two girls: Amanda and Danielle.  I don't know where they are now, but they were my Sunday school friends for many years after that.  In fact, later that summer, my family chose to be baptized--all of us together--and my friend Danielle's family did it at the same time.  I remember feeling so special and so proud that our family would all do that together "in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit" (DUNK!) 

On the way home from church this morning, I heard a song on the radio (by Casting Crowns, adapted from the hymn "One Day") that has become my Easter song, and you don't find many of those.  Christmas carols? Too many to count! Easter songs?  Ummm... But the chorus has really touched my heart and excites me every time I hear it and picture the transition from God's life, to death, to life again:

Living He loved me.

Dying He saved me.

Buried He carried my sins far away.

Rising He justified reigning forever.

And one day He's coming, oh glorious day!

Oh glorious day!!



Happy Easter, everyone.  He is RISEN!!!

Oxymoron: Financial Peace

On March 2, 2011, John and I began our journey with Dave Ramsey in Financial Peace University.

 

 

We are just over halfway done (13 lessons in all) and have made GREAT progress!! We are learning A TON and it has spurred very healthy and fruitful--and honest--conversation between us.  For the first time in our marriage (maybe our lives, but I won't speak for John), we are living by a budget.  In the past, we put together more of what I call a "recap" of our monthly earnings.  But that didn't really do a whole lot for us besides depress us, and we didn't take every category down to pennies. Our recap was more of a 1,000 foot snapshot of what we "thought" we were spending.  But, there was no hard structure to it, nor was there any consequence if the total at the bottom was negative and the next month looked totally different.  I guess it was more of an exercise in futility.

Also in this class, we have learned the importance of when and how often we talk about the budget.  John has a mind for numbers and with his school and studies right now, he's on the computer all the time... so it's safe to say that he thinks, analyzes and sees the dollar signs much more often than I do.  And that's still okay  and it works for us (and him!)  We have a family budget meeting about once a week to keep a handle on our budget for April since it's the first time we've really had to challenge ourselves to live by it. 

And you know what?  So far, it's working!!  We were even able to go out to dinner (and dessert!) with my whole family last night to celebrate my birthday, and we came in under budget for that outing! That's great!!  It's really makes us think about where our money is going, how far we can stretch that dollar, and ask ourselves, "do we really need this or that?"  Our new and freeing answer: NO.

This morning, after breakfast, we underwent a little plastectomy (a Dave Ramsey term), and it looked something like this:

OUCH!!  Two of those are John's.  The other one--the red one--has been paid off and closed... and yes, it hurt a little.  That pretty red card has been my safety net for almost six years.  Okay, that's disgusting.  We have a new safety net now, and it feels MUCH safer and MUCH better.

When we fulfilled the first Baby Step in the class (set up an Emergency Fund), we went to our nearest credit union and opened a mutual fund.  In doing so, we received a copy of our credit report and scores (ewwww).  John and I have studied our reports, and in the last few days, we have CLOSED 5 credit accounts between us that were either sitting idle or were just paid off.  There are still a few left, but we're working on those with the lesson we learned about the "Debt Snowball."  Again great progress made there.

In the debt lesson, we saw a video of a cheetah chasing a gazelle:



Dave pointed out that in that situation, we are the gazelles and our creditors are the cheetahs.  Or (if you've been through FPU): CHEEEEEEEEEETTAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   And right now, we are killing our cheetahs.  One by one.  And are thrilled about it. 

Now, every time a new credit card offer hits our mailbox, we raise it up in the air and yell "CHEETAH!!!" then quickly drop it in the shred box.    That feels good! Actually, it feels more like this:



See?  No more cheetah!! 

I can't wait to post with the title: WE'RE DEBT FREE!!!  Stay tuned for that momentous day!!

The Artist in Me

Last night, I went out with a group of ladies from work to Canvas & Cocktails.  It was so much fun!!  We went to their website, chose a painting we wanted to do and when we noticed that the night was a fundraiser for the March of Dimes, we signed up!

Here is the painting we chose, "Red Trees":

Tree, flowers... call 'em what you like.  I love decorating with red in my home, so I loved it!!

At C&C, you start with a blank canvas (all paints and supplies are provided), and the instructor stands at the front and walks you through the painting STEP-BY-STEP.  Really, it's dummy-proof.  A couple gals from work were very nervous about it, stating that they had zero artistic ability.  Well, the great thing about C&C is that you don't have to! Everyone's turns out completed different, and it's a blast to do!  The instructor will give you instructions, then crank up the music and let you paint.  Oh, and don't forget the "cocktails" part of the evening, the flowing wine helps some with their paintings immensely.

Now, I will warn you, if you're a Type A person (like me), or a little OCD (as I admittedly am), this is more a challenge for you because you want your painting to look exactly like the instructors.  And mine usually do.  Haha!!  I mean, when she said to start with yellow 3/4 of the way down the canvas, I wanted to pull my ruler out--until she said "Type A's: don't worry about a ruler or perfection, just eyeball it."  Oh man!  And when my neighbors were doing their own thing and painting something other than what was instructed, I came unglued.  Later on in the evening, the instructor was making her rounds and stopped at my table; one of my friends pointed out that I'm one of her Type A pupils, and she urged me to have a glass of wine, not just the water I was sipping on.  In unison, my co-workers exclaimed, "But she's pregnant!!!"  :)

So we all worked and painted and perfected and touched up and (they) refilled thier wine glasses, and here is the finished product (see the ones who didn't follow the rules?):

And here's a close-up on mine:

It has replaced a monochromatic picture of John's and now hangs proudly in our bedroom. 

I love the decorating tip to have one color repeated throughout every room in your home, and my color is RED.  Until this painting was created and hung up, we didn't have any red in our bedroom (it's beige and brown and blue).  And this is so much happier!!

I had previously painted "Whimsical Tree" at C&C (look it up, it's bright!) and it didn't go with our decor at all, so it's sitting at my desk at work.  My next painting will be a challenge for me, because I've chosen what I want to do, but I actually--believe it or not--want to alter the colors so that it fits the color scheme of the nursery.

So if you're reading this and you want to go to C&C with me, let's do it!!  I can't wait to go again!!

Thinking about preganancy photos...

I'm contemplating the idea of pregnancy photos... I think I really want to do them, but I also want to do them right.  I've seen some that are really beautiful, and I've seen some that are hideous.  I won't call you out in the latter category, rather I'll send you here: http://pregnantchicken.squarespace.com/pregnant-chicken-blog/2010/12/10/awkward-pregnancy-photos.html.  Viewer discretion is advised!  LOL.

My sister took her daughter, who turned 4 just two weeks before becoming a big sister, and did adorable pictures together at Portrait Innovations.  I love the way hers turned out!  But I wanted to do outdoor shots (seeing that Spring is right around the corner and we're expecting a Summer baby.) 

So here are my questions:

• Where to take the pictures?
• WHEN to do them (how soon before delivery?)  I still want to look pretty, not just HUGE.
• How much is a reasonable amount to spend?  On the sitting fee?  On purchasing the photos?
• What if I don't like them??????

If anyone has recommendations, I'm all ears.  I have friends and  friends of friends that have their own photography business, but I just don't know THE person to go to.  HELP!!