So I was thinking. (It does happen occasionally.) If a baby's surname was Bell, what names could you call it. Now instead of the typical Sarah or John, I (with sisterly assistance) thought of some more amusing names.

Bar Bell
Tinker Bell
Dumb Bell
Jingle Bell
Blue Bell
Cow Bell
Door Bell
Re Bell
Snow Bell
Alexander Graham Bell
Miss La Bell
Ringa Bell
La Bell
Deci Bell
Li Bell
Rela Bell

Our favourite is the third one. I hope this helps some of you out there. It certainly amused us.

I saw this on a friend's blog.

Finish the line
If I had ...

I would...

So I can ...


If I had a life span of 200 healthy years,
I would be a nurse practitioner, missionary, health promotion worker, haematologic reasearcher, nurse educator, PhD, mother to many.
So I could fulfill all the dreams instead of picking the most important ones and trying to do them all at once.

I had a sad day today. My first ever patient this year, and one of my favourites, is about to die. She has had terminal cancer all year and has been admitted a few times this year and I always enjoy looking after her because she is such a beautiful person. But now its the end of this life for her. She was basically in a coma on my last night duty shift this morning and I don't expect her to be alive when I go back after days off. My 3 favourite patients this year have all died of cancer and I was thinking while driving home this afternoon about why these patients have meant so much to me. Mostly it is because they are exceptional people who I have great admiration for, cancer aside. These people showed great love, grace and fighting spirit. They have qualities that I admire and aspire to have. But what is the connection? Does God let the really great people get cancer so they can inspire people with their fight? Or is it that when faced with death, they realise what is important? That fighting, harsh words, ungraciousness have no worth or gain and have no place in a life that is so short of time. I suppose I have gained a lot from these women. They and their families showed me love when they were in such a difficult time. I had the opportunity to return that love to someone who was most vulnerable. And I hope i can learn from them not to let unimportant things take up space in my life. I can accept that life is short, but I also want to learn to fill my life with things that are worthy for the valuable time that I have.

I was told last night that I had to post on my blog. I offered up excuses but in short, I probably could post more. Although, if someone wants to know whats happening in my life and is standing right in front of me, they should ask me.
So it turns out that I have just enjoyed the funnest week of working that I have had. I got to go to a training course in the 'Garden City'. I stayed in a nice motel paid for by work which was a 1 minute walk to where I had to go each morning. The course was also paid for by work (so I am calling it a business trip cuz then i sound cool). And I got to listen to very knowledgable people talk about a subject that I am intensly interested in ... nursing. And I got to learn to do cool stuff like put breathing tubes down people's throats (LMAs) and needles into veins (cannulation). And I got taught how to read the bane of my existence (ECGs - which is very useful when the Dr is half an hour away at 2am and wont come in unless I can find something good enough on the ECg.) And my surprisingly favourite bit of all ... I learned how to suture. And now I only have to do 2 supervised ones on real people (as opposed to pigs trotters) and I can do them by myself. I am so excited. I can't wait. I love tying the knots.

Oh, and by the way, it turns out (not unexpectedly) that there is so much more to learn about nursing than I ever imagined and getting the chance to listen to people who know stuff that I want to know was invaluable.