Friday, December 18, 2009

It's winter

Ok its officially winter. That first snow/ice/rain storm didn't really count. I can see my breath when I walk outside at noon. No more 60 and 70 degree days. And SNOW!!!!!! Yippie. I really like snow. Both Russell and I have to work on Saturday when it is supposed to hit us hard, but that is ok. It is going to snow. And stick too. Cause the ground has had time to freeze. Completely rock solid hard. =)

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Back to business

Gonna try and make it back to the gym today. After 4 months of not going. Goal: 5 mile (yes, MILE) run on Thanksgiving day with my extended family. Russell is coming too. He claims he is going to run with me, but I run slow and even my mom is faster than me at the end. Oh well.

PS. Baby Paulie is now crawling and walking holding on to things. The boy is almost a year. YAY!

Monday, September 21, 2009

South Carolina

So I just got back from a road trip to SC with my friend Nicole. We saw many crazy sights on the way down. We ate garbage from fast food places and drank lots of caffinated sodas to stay awake. I just bought a new car and thats what we took down, so I drove the whole time. My back hurts. We got in around 9pm that night. In the rain. We slept in the next day them went visiting. Nicole's family owns a slaughter house and meat packing plant. We drove over there to visit. Upon arriving there, I proceeded to slam the middle and ring finger of my right hand in my car door. It hurt. Nicole said she knew it was back when I had to open my door with the handle to pull my fingers out. I knew it was bad when my middle finger was bent the wrong way. With ice the numbness finally left, though my finger was very swollen and looked nasty. We drove to the grocery store for food and first aid supplies. I bought cloth tape, neosporin and band-aids. At home, I discovered that my neosporin box was empty. That's right. There was nothing in it. I don't remember thinking the box felt light or that I didn't hear the tube rattling around in it. So no neo for my finger. It was all good. We went visiting some more. We came home to help make dinner. Fresh steaks. I was cooking on the stove and my pot was done. I burnt a finger on my left hand trying to move the pot. Ouch! We had an early wake -up the next morning. We had to drive 3+ hours to Clemson University for the football game. It was ok. Tailgating and drinking at 9am is hard to get your mind around. So I ate some food. But didn't drink. It was too early. We made it through the first half before the game got lightening delayed. The warning siren sounded like an air-raid call. It was LOUD! So we went home early, stopping at Outback for some dinner. Once home we lazed about and went to bed early. By 10:30 the next morning, Nicole and I were on the road, headed home. We kept a good pace, stopping for food in NC and then stopping at Mile 97 in NC on I-95 for gas and the bathroom. Just FYI, don't go to the Shell station at this exit!! Nicole had to ask for the toilet paper in the girls bathroom, it smelled like a port-a-potty and you couldn't buy tampons from the machine in the bathroom. Because it sold condoms. How classy. We proceeded quite nicely around Richmond and DC, finally gettting back to Rt 50. Back across the bridge and home to Gransonville. Nicole still had to drive up to Henderson, but it wasn't that far. We had a great adventure. Next time, Russell is driving! PS. There are now over 1,550 miles on the car I bought on Monday.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Heading out for a visit.

So a quick note before I head out to visit my momma. It's been a while since I posted. It's a new month. My little (maybe not little any more, but younger) brother went off to start freshman year at V. Tech. We went out for a nice dinner. And a few days after to lift our sagging spirits, my mom and I went shopping. For a wedding present. The first store (Bed, Bath, and Beyond) allowed for purchasing some kitchen items for under MY sink and little things for a car package for Kit. No ideas for a wedding present though. The next store (Target) had a lot more options. The present began with a box. Not just any box but a beautiful box with old fashioned printing and corners on it. Almost like a square hat box. I didn't take any pictures, but it ended up filled with a set of plates and serving dishes with a fall theme. =) I added some tissue paper and a bottle of flavored dipping oil and a jar of tomato bruschetta. Oh and some crackers. It looked very nice. Also during this shopping trip, my mom and I walked between Target and Bed, Bath, and Beyond at least 3 times. We found some stuff at Target we liked better than BBB so we took it back. And of course forgot about the coupon!!!!! Oh well. There is always room for more kitchen stuff.


The best thing that has happened is I learned to make bread. Yes. Bread. It was delicous. I've had the bread flour since I got fired.... oh over a year ago... ick. But it was never opened and still good. So I found a recipe for Rosemary Herb bread and made it. It yielded 2 round loaves. We ate one plain and turned to second one into garlic bread. I had also made lasagna for Russell's family. It was probably the best garlic bread I've ever eaten. Russell is the grand tester though. If he won't eat it, it isn't good. So I count this endevor as success. Yay!!! It motivated me to search for more bread recipes. The shame of it all is that everyone who makes bread now had a bread machine. Boo. But there are some good hand-made bread recipes out there. I just have to find them. I also am searching for a good Cinnamon Raisin bread recipe. Most of the one's I've come across use all-purpose flour. Maybe it is because it is a sweet bread?

And speaking of food, Russell and I went to see Julie and Julia on Sunday. It was a good movie. I mean how can a movie about food and cooks be bad? It was cute and Meryl Streep as Julia Childs was well cast. I suggest it as a good date night movie. Even Russell laughed. So there we have it. A short little post about really nothing. And I am off to visit my momma. =)

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Post # 8 (I think)

So I am sitting at work again. Eating some microwave egg rolls and wishing I had brought some better food with me. But really, I had expected to be working at a different location today. Oh well. Anyway, just a post to say I am still alive and well, working a lot and playing alot too. And also baby Paulie and my sister came down over the weekend. For photos. Here is the link: www.mandysrokaphotography.com Click on Portraits and then Big Boy, Paul. These were taken in the back yard of my mom's house and we had a great time trying to get Paulie to laugh. He has my mood swings and was extremely serious. Until Daddy came out. And then the smiles and talking began. It was quite fun. Enjoy.

Monday, August 3, 2009

Today

PNT = Paramedic nap time. AKA - Do Not Disturb. Gotta love working 24 hours and getting off for 72. Gonna try the horizontal position now. Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. And didn't get rained on too much. =)

Friday, July 31, 2009

Babysitting Paulie

So I got told that I need to blog more. "Enough of THAT bush!" I believe that is the direct quote. Hahaha. So anyway. Last weekend I got the chance to babysit my nephew Paul while his parents went to a wedding and got to have a nice night away. According to the father, Gina wished to come home within an hour of leaving, but all in all I believe they had a nice time. Me on the other hand had a good time until Paulie decided that he missed his mom and was going to cry. A Lot! This picture breaks my heart! He is so cute but at the same time he wants momma and I'm just not her. We eventually got the baby happy again. With a piano. =) After this came feeding and bathing. We then went to bed. And slept fitfully. For all of us. Russell didn't get any sleep because I was waking up every 5 minutes when Paulie would make a noise. Paulie was making noises because I had forgotten to give him some Tylenol before bed. And his diper was wet. Oops. =( We successfully made it through the night with some amount of sleep. We made it through the 3 am feeding at 3:40. And then at 6:15 am, we were up. All 3 of us. Until Paulie decided that he wanted more sleep. So with a little bit of milk and a lot of snuggling, we all got to take a nap. For 15 minutes. Then Paul wanted to be awake. Cause he was still hungry. And had to burp. So more snuggling and feeding. 9am comes around and it's nap time take 2. Gina has already been informed, but has decided to come home a bit early anyway. She misses her son. So at 9:15 am, she calls to say she is on her way home. Naptime take 3. Russell gets a phone call from a co-worker wondering who the heck is letting him take care of their child?! And that he needs to get rid of the baby. Needless to say I wasn't amused. I gave up on napping. Russell left to go get ready for work and Paulie woke up. Dippering and feeding and playing ensused. Till mommy came home. And there were lots of smiles!
The End.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Me vs Bush. I win!

I haven't been on here is a few days. More like a week or two. I have been busy living. =) Nothing too exciting, just work and chilling with friends. This post illustrates my fight with a bush that just didn't go with the rest of the garden.


Before: The BUSH.


Step 1: Trim off all possible branches. Watch out of bees and bugs and such




Step 2: Dig and yank on the darn thing till you can get it mostly out of the ground.
Be sure to use your shovel to knock off most of the dirt from the roots.
For future plants and such.


Step 3: Be proud that you don't need a man to do your heave work.

The Finished Product. The hope is to put a rose bush in.
One that DOES belong.


And so that was my fight. Obviously I won. The bush is now composting behind the fence in the back. I think it is funny that all the things I consider accomplishments now are yard and house improvements. I must be getting old. =)





Tuesday, April 28, 2009

A non-work update.

Yes this is an update NOT about work. Because, amazingly enough, I do have adventures outside of my job. I will keep it simple. I have a tree. Yes a tree. A lovely little cherry tree that Russell planted for me at the end of last week. I also have some flowers at the base.








Here is a picture of the whole house. It all looks very nice. I shall post again about my battle with the stubborn weed/bush/thingy that was growing on the right side of the house later.




Tuesday, April 21, 2009

OK soooo... attempt # 2

Well about 20 minutes ago I sat down to try and update everyone on my life over the past few days and what happened? I got a call. Of course. AHahahahahha. Anyway. Last shift started with a bang. Literally. A girl got run over by a car. So I flew her to Shock Trauma. I can't remember what else happened that day. It didn't matter much anyway after the intenseness of the fly-out. On saturday I got to visit a high school friend who lives in the county. I saw her farm and her puppy and the cows. Oh how I wish I had taken my camera or phone during the tour. Spent the day sunday at a LODD in Sudlersville. That was sad. Sunburnt my chest while standing outside waiting for the funeral procession. We then had a bonfire and cooked steak and chicken on the grill. The bonfire was pretty cool. It took a little while but we DEF had better luck on Sunday then when we tried a few months ago. Monday was a chill day. That brings us to today. Which again had one outstanding moment. When Steven and I got dispatched for an unconsious subject. Turns out the girl could have been drunk. And 2 months pregnant. Yeah. Not so good for her or the baby. Before that was a call where the lady wanted us to call her son to move her around in bed, but didn't want us to move her. So we left. And this last call was for an unknown medical. That I got cancelled on. So I got to come back to the office. But it meant that I missed the back half of Deadliest catch. A boat sank in the Bering Sea. And I missed it. Ph well. There is always next week. And now it is bed time. Because I get to come back to work tomorrow night and do this all over again. Oh joy.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Post number 2

YAY! I didn't think I would actually make it long enough to post a second blog, but I did. Horray for me. As I sit here at work again eating my bowl of now cold oatmeal (yes I eat oatmeal every day I work for breakfast.) I realize that my huge and faithful group of followers might actually want to know how work went the other day. WELL, let me tell you! It was terrible! To begin the day, my partner down in central/south county medi-vaced out a stroke patient around 11 am to noonish. I was only half listening to the radio traffic at the time. Not two hours later I was sent for an "injured person." Turned out to be a decent call for a traumatic injury of face vs. swing for a young boy. While I was discussing the situation with a trained medical doctor up at John's Hopkins over the med radio, I hear over my pager a call get dispatched right up the road. Now. Let me tell you. I am in Millington. They have one ambulance. I am in it. I am not leaving it. The next closest paramedic is in Lynch. Maybe 20 minutes away. Ha or so I thought. My boss shows up. Climbs into the one ambulance that I am in. Asks if everything is ok. Then leaves. He is going to take the second call. Just a little background. The system I run in is a chase car system. That means I drive a vehicle separately from the ambulance. And we meet at the scene. My boss drives the same way. So there he is, driving away to the second call while I am in the only ambulance in town. Needless to say, Queen Anne's county was kind enough to send over one of their paramedic transport units to help us out. I am still trying to get a helicopter and calm a young boy who is done with the whole business of ambulances and wants to go home. So I am sitting and waiting. And what do my ears here? A third call dispatched. Lucky for me, it was down in Chestertown. My partner is sent on it. Then there is a fourth call dispatched. More background. We have 2, count them 2, fully staffed paramedic chase vehicles on 24/7. My boss is also a trained paramedic but since he is the boss, he only is counted when we have 2 or more calls going at once. And if you all are paying attention you will notice we have more than 2. We have 4. That's right 4 calls. One call is going horribly bad, due to the fact that some providers may have gone to the wrong address. But I got that info secondhand so I can not be sure. But to top it all off, one of the 3rd or 4th calls is requesting a helicoper at the same time I am. Needless to say, my total time spent from the time I arrived to the time I was finished was 56 minutes. Way too long for that kind of call. But the flight paramedics were very nice and once they arrived everything went very quickly. To round out my day half in Galena, I ran a chest pains call. Lucky me the ambulance showed up with a great team. A local volunteer paramedic and her husband. They are very funny together. Later in the evening I was called back to Millington. This time I was in Lynch. So it took me a few minutes to get there. The patient refused and I went back to the office. Easy night so far. The final call of my shift came in a 0235. That is 2:35 am. A large amount of tones were being paged out. I popped out of bed and began getting ready to go somewhere for something. Being the jumpy paramedic that I am, I figured someone had died and an engine was being dispatched to help. Ha was I wrong. The dispatch is finally started and I realize I am not going to a medical call, but a structure fire. In Golts. Golts is the far top and to the right, end of the county. I believe it meets up with the Delaware line. I get on the road and head in the right direction. Dispatch gives additional information to the unit responding. "Be advised, stage prior to the scene. The caller advises that some one broke into the church and is setting in on fire. The caller believes they have torches and are torching the place." As I continue driving, I chuckle to myself. It's been raining since 7pm. And (insert 2.5 hours for a call and restock and travel time) the ground is very wet. I laughed because it was too wet for anything to catch on fire. Turns out I was right. There was no fire. But I was cancelled before I got on-scene so I am going by what someone who WAS on-scene told me. The rest of my shift was uneventful. Yay.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Here goes.

To begin. Anyone who knows me, knows my name. Introductions are then covered and out of the way. Recently, being just this past Saturday, I attented a bridal shower for a good friend. I was advised that I should begin blogging. So I begin again. I had a blog as a Freshman in college, but stopped because MySpace and Facebook took over my attention. So here follows the grand adventures of SuperP. A name I was given in honor of my 2007 Halloween costume. I was Super Girl. And am a Paramedic. Use your deductive detective skills and figure out the name on your own. Anyway. Today begins day one of my adventures. They consist of getting up before the sun, driving to work in KENT, checking my unit, talking to co-workers (the only time I get to see anyone really is between 6:30-7:30 am and 6:30-7:30 am the next day (unless I am running calls)), beginning the drive to Galena, taking a detour to discover a friend who lives on a cow farm ( I like the cows, by the way), and in a few moments, a rather uncomfortable yellow-brown recliner. There I will stay until I hear the call of duty, well, calling me. In other words, until someone out there in the wide world needs my help. Then it's off to save the day. Also included in the day's adventure will be a trip to the grocery store, then back to the office so the poor helpless boy I call my boyfriend can have a bonafide home cooked meal. Not pizza. From the local mom and pop place less then 50 feet from his house. I feel rather productive after all of this and it wears me out. I hear the recliner calling.