Cell Phones and Such

This is my cell phone.  I like my cell phone, but I certainly don't love it.  In fact, there are times when I kind of hate it (like when St. Luke's calls at 6:00 in the morning, asking me if I want to work some extra hours.)  I also wonder if, as a society, we've made much progress at all by having cell phones.  I'm frustrated when I see people using them at church, at work, and even in social situations.  I've watched people text in sacrament meeting, browse the web in Sunday School, check their e-mail while taking care of a patient, and, most mystifying to me, text someone else when they are already at a party, on a date, or talking with friends.  This is progress?! 

The irony of the situation is quite amusing but also a little troubling to me.  Cell phones certainly do allow us to connect with each other more easily and are invaluable in the case of an emergency.  However, are we really more connected?  I fear that we may be forgetting some important social graces--giving someone your full attention when you are with them, learning how to carry on a meaningful conversation, giving the speakers and teachers at church the attention they deserve, and focusing fully on the task at hand (i.e., work and driving.)  

I also think the immediacy of being able to get in contact with someone can make us lazy planners (or non-planners).  In the olden days, when I was a teenager and when dinosaurs roamed the earth, one actually had to plan ahead to get together with a date or with friends, rather than just calling or texting and trying to get together on the fly.  Anyway, I don't want to trash cell phones completely.  I just want to make sure I use mine to my benefit and teach my children to do the same.  It reminds me of the internet in that its use can make life so much easier but that it isn't perfect and can have some bad outcomes if we're not careful.  Just some food for thought. . .

I've been thinking about other technological advances lately.  I've had occasion to go the NICU quite frequently at work recently, and I've been amazed at the work that is done there to help preemies and micro-preemies grow strong and healthy.  Wow!  Sometimes when I'm with a patient as they visit their baby for the first time, I just stand and look at everything that's been invented and developed to preserve and improve lives, and I feel awed and grateful.  (Disclaimer:  The above picture was pulled from the web and doesn't represent our hospital or any baby I've helped to deliver.)

On a completely different note, I've enjoyed what few parts I've been able to watch of March Madness.  (Next year, I will try to plan ahead and ask to work on days when games are not being played.  I just missed out on way too much fun this year.)  As usual, I am rooting for Duke, and I'm happy that they actually made it a little farther into the tournament than they have in recent years.  Unfortunately, I didn't get to see either of their games. 

I read in the paper this morning that cheering for Duke is kind of like rooting for IBM.  While I agree that it's easy to pull for a team that is usually quite successful, there are some specific reasons I root for Duke.  First, their team always has such solid fundamentals.  I love to watch basketball played like I think it's supposed to be played.  I've just never been a big fan of the most athletic, run-and-gun teams, which may explain my distaste for the NBA.  Second, Duke players seem to go on and do good things with their lives.  Some play in the NBA, some coach, and some leave basketball altogether.  However, it's rare that you hear of a Duke player being arrested or doing some other heinous act.  Coach K must be teaching them something about living right.

I was also pleased to read in the paper about ten days ago the following statistic:  Of the number one seeds in this year's tournament, Duke's graduation rate was highest at 92 percent.  Kansas was at 73 percent, Syracuse was at 55 percent, and Kentucky was at 31 percent.  (I have to give a shout out to BYU whose graduation rate was highest of all 65 teams--hooray for the Cougars!!)  Maryland's was lowest at 8 percent--OUCH!  Anyway, even though I get made fun of sometimes for cheering for the Blue Devils, I'll keep doing it. . . and hoping that they can make it back to the Final Four. 

Spring and Stuff

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  We're not celebrating the green day here (mainly because I forgot), but we are exulting in the apparent arrival of spring.  The new season doesn't officially arrive until this weekend, but there are signs of renewal here in the Treasure Valley.  Sweet, sweet, sweet relief! 

It actually hasn't been too cold and snowy this winter, but I annually find myself feeling cranky and irritable this time of year and antsy just to be through with the grey, cold days.  I had to work on Saturday, and when my alarm clock went off at 5:00 a.m. and I was in that weird state between sleep and wakefulness, I thought to myself, "Why is it so bright in here?"  I assumed that one of the boys had left a light on downstairs and that it was illuminating the backyard.  Wrong!  It was the nice layer of SNOW that Mother Nature had left us as (hopefully) a parting shot of winter.  "Are you kidding me?!"  It was one of the Saturdays I was actually kind of glad to be going to work.

Alas and luckily, Idaho has rather fickle late winter/early spring days, and we have had absolutely gorgeous weather this week.  Seriously, I just feel lighter and more optimistic and happy to be outside, soaking up some vitamin D.  I went out into the yard today and saw the following:

Not all of my daffodils are blooming, and not all of my trees and bushes have buds and tiny green leaves on them yet.  But there's enough new vegetation to let me know that spring has nearly sprung.

Another sign of spring is the announcement of the March Madness tournament pairings and the excitement that creates.  Adam has all of us filling out brackets and participating in a friendly family competition on ESPN.com.  I filled out my bracket in about five minutes one night, but Mike and the boys have filled out multiple brackets and are all convinced that they have made the right picks.  Apparently, even Adam's Young Men's leader from church knows about his obsession because he printed out and brought by a 2-ft. by 3-ft. bracket that he can fill out as the tournament progresses.  He is in heaven, but he has also informed us that only he can fill in the winners. I'll keep my hands off.

I felt so energetic this morning that I decided to make myself "run" a little farther than usual.  ("Run" is a rather generous verb, given my age and present physical shape.)  Lately I've been going a few times a week and walk/run/jog about four or five miles.  I told myself I was going to jog all five miles this morning.  So I did. . . except for when I had to pick myself up off of the pavement and brush off my dignity.  I was in my fourth mile, huffing and puffing and wishing I had been a more diligent exerciser this winter, when I noticed that the sidewalk was pretty uneven because of underlying roots and such.  I told myself to be careful, but it was probably less than 20 seconds later when I was stumbling and bumbling and splatting to the ground.  No major injuries--just a bruised ego.  The guy who was riding towards me in the bike lane did not stop to see if I was okay, but to his credit, he did not laugh uproariously either. . . at least in front of me. 

I've also been craving homemade bread lately.  I kept on waiting for a big burst of energy to propel me to make the stuff.  Well, today that extra spurt arrived, and I made the following:

Oh, my word, it was good!  Mike and the boys were in heaven, and I was wishing my girls and Andrew could be home to share it with us.  Maybe I'll find the energy to do it again when we run out.  Maybe.

Wonderful Weekend

I love weekends. . . at least the ones when I don't have to work and can actually spend some relaxing time with the family.  Rachel called a week ago Thursday and asked if she could come home the following weekend.  "Is this a rhetorical question ?" I thought.  "Of course you can come home.  We would LOVE to have you!"  Then I remembered that I was scheduled to work on Saturday.  Sad!

Miracle of miracles, I remembered a favor I had done for a co-worker (taking the last part of her shift the Wednesday before Thanksgiving so that she could get away earlier on her holiday), and I called in that favor.  When I phoned and asked her if she'd be willing to switch her Friday for my Saturday, she graciously complied.  Hooray!!

It's such a joy to spend time with adult children.  They are appreciative, interesting, gracious, and just plain fun to be around.  We slept in on Saturday, went to the driving range, listened to Adam play in Festival, shopped, went to a birthday party for a friend's one-year-old, watched a movie, and got to see a really awesome basketball game. Adam also participated in National History Days.  Truthfully, after having four kids do multiple projects for this event, I'm kind of happy to see it end.  Adam and Tanner did a good job on their project and learned a lot about prosthetic limbs.

Back to the basketball game.  Adam and I are diehard Duke fans--Matt and Mike kind of go along for the ride--and we sadly watched the Blue Devils get mowed down by Maryland on Wednesday night.  (The good part about whenever Duke loses is that my brother usually calls me to rub it in.  He is a Terps fan.  Sad but true.)  Adam and I still had Saturday's game against the Tar Heels to look forward to, and the Dookies delivered.  Man, it was fun to watch the Blue Devils dominate, particularly since the Tar Heels have owned them the past few years.  I wanted to get the above shirt for Adam for Christmas, but they didn't make it in his size.  This is Matt's shirt, but Adam is happy to model it.  He MAY even grow up to be a more avid fan than I am. . . maybe.

Mike and I are both a little stressed out by work right now.  He is working way too many hours and has lots of demands being placed upon him and deadlines to meet.  We've talked a lot lately about trying to find a better work-life balance, and we haven't come up with any definitve answers yet.  After going to the driving range yesterday, however, we sensed that hitting the links together every week or two may help.  I have gotten better at telling the hospital "no" when they call and are "desperate" for help.  Lo and behold, they've managed to find other nurses to come in and bail them out.  I still haven't solved the dilemma of the unit being run so tightly staffed that it's simply exhausting to be there, but I have realized that that's not my problem to solve.  Anyway, my hubby sure gets tired sometimes.  This is how I usually find him on Sunday nights.

I wish that I had gotten a few pictures of Rachel while she was home, but she likes to get her picture taken about as much as I do.  Didn't want to spoil her weekend, but it was great to have her home. . . even if it went WAY TOO FAST.  At least I'll get to see her again when Karen and Andrew graduate next month.

The Eagle Has Landed

Hooray for Matt!  The long Boy Scout journey was completed last Wednesday night when he was awarded his Eagle Scout.  Oh, happy day!  Doesn't seem so very long ago that he was but an over-eager little Cub Scout,  excited about everything.  Now he has achieved that last milestone, and I am proud and relieved.  (I've told him that if he wants to earn some palms, he can knock himself out, but there will be no pressure from this camp.)

The Court of Honor was especially awesome because Mike's parents got to be here.  Mike's dad is presently serving as the Hermosillo Temple president, but they have the option/opportunity of heading home for a couple of weeks twice a year when the temple closes for maintenance and cleaning.  I don't think they were planning on coming to Boise this time, but Mike invited them to drive over for  the event.  They graciously consented and played a big part on the program.  Mike's dad gave a typically wonderful talk about the Eagle award being a good jumping off point for even greater things.  Mike's mom played the piano and, of course, did a wonderful job.

Adam also got his Life Scout award, and it was fun to take some pictures of my two boys together.  As I looked at the two of them standing side by side, I wondered if Adam would have the same type of growth--physical, social, mental, and spirtiual--from age 13 to 17 as Matt has.  I suspect he will.  Those are fun years.  I also hoped that Adam would just put the pedal to the metal and get his Eagle scout in six months.  If everything fell into place perfectly, he could get it in August.  We shall see.


10-0, Baby

We also got lucky enough to have Mom and Dad Young here for Adam's last basketball game of the season.  (It's amazing what two people can accomplish in 15 hours when they put their mind to it.)  He's been on the "B" team this year, and he and his team had a very successful year.  There was just one kid smaller than Adam on the team (with most of the boys being A LOT bigger), but Adam is scrappy and held his own. 

I'll have to admit that I was a bit pessimistic about their last game of the season.  Unfortunately, they had some boys who had academic struggles during the year, and by the last game, they had just eight academically eligible players.  That was good for Adam and all the other boys who got a lot of playing time, but I was worried that we simply wouldn't have enough bodies to keep up with Eagle, who seemed to have about 15 players on their squad.  I shouldn't have worried.  Lewis and Clark beat them easily.

The funnest part of the game is that Adam put in the final bucket of the season.  There was about 8 seconds left on the clock, and he took a couple of dribbles and let loose a floating shot that ripped through the net.  I think I was almost as excited as Grandma and Grandpa.  What a fun way to end an undefeated season!

P.S.  I got the first of the two quilts done and turned in today.  As impulsive as it was to take two more quilt kits, I enjoyed the opportunity and feel like it was good timing with the earthquakes in both Chile and Haiti.  I'm sure the Church is sending as much relief as possible.  Will this quilt go to Haiti?  Chile?  Maybe neither, but having the quilt stay in the Treasure Valley would make me feel just as good.