Weekend Updates & Meg's 22nd Birthday

Happy Hump Day everyone! I actually think of Wednesday as the middle of the work week because I'm working regular 5 days a week with my NEW nursing position at Advanced Dermatology of the Midlands. Today however is an unusual day because Omaha was hit with it's first big blizzard of the winter season and the clinic is closed which means I kinda feel like a teacher enjoying this snow day! I'm blessed to have a nursing job where I can learn so much about a very specific set of conditions and treatments for the skin. I really enjoy the staff I work with and it isn't a bad place for a former lifeguard that spent 6 summers in the blazing sun ;)

with monitors, cables and wires cleared out

In other news, a few weekends ago my parents came down to spend the Saturday helping with various projects around the house. My dad went right into action to clear out some space in our downstairs closet that was previously occupied by tons of random security equipment that the previous homeowner had installed in there. I was so excited to get that nonsense out of there that I forgot to take a "before" picture. 

Then we moved on to the guest bedroom closet to touch up the ceiling that was not quite completed when the house was built. Our home has a lot of character that I love but when having an older home comes areas for improvement. One of my good friends Anna will be staying with us for a few months during her Physical Therapy rotation starting in March so it is a great excuse to get the room finished off and cozy! 

Dad hard at work - looking like a Coal Minor

Finished product!

After we completed all the projects we could get to in one day, we had a delicious meal a Red Robin! Having family come into town is already a treat and luckily my sister is completing her nursing preceptorship in Omaha at my old stomping grounds, The Nebraska Medical Center. Kyle and her came down Monday night through Thursday so we Alex and I helped Meg celebrate her 22nd Birthday. Here are some pictures from that fun filled week! 

Drinks and Dinner at The Homy Inn 

Her Favorite! 

Kyle and Kobe bonding 

Dinner at The Drover

Cheesecake with Julie and Linda 

And this past Sunday was spent with Kendra, Trent, Bailey, Josh and Harper for The Super Bowl. The game wasn't excited at all but spending time with my Best Friends is never disappointing! Harper was pretty chatty and such a cute little girl in her polka dot bow headband! Kendra as always was a great hostess and I ate too many of the white chocolate chip oatmeal cookies she baked! 

Prepping for Bay's Shower

Last Thursday and Friday were designated to getting ready for Bailey's Shower that we had on Saturday. Trisha, Kendra and I emailed back and forth for over 2 months so that we could discuss all of the details of the big day. We had a lot of fun planning together and everything went off without a hitch. I will post pictures from that day soon but for now I wanted to explain how I made the cake pops and party favors. Bailey is now 37 weeks along and soon she will be the mother to little Harper Lee Johnson! We are already planning our trips to see her once the little one arrives! 

  First I started by making the Strawberry Cake mix (Pillsbury Super Moist Box Mix) and baked it in a 9x13 pan like any other cake. Then I cut the cake in cube pieces and crumbled the cake a little bit to let it cool down. 

Once the cake was completely cooled I added a couple large spoonfuls of cream 

cheese frosting. I used about half of the container of frosting. I figured cream cheese frosting would be delicious with strawberry cake. I also looked on different blogs for tips with cake pops since this was my first time making them. One of the useful tips was to not mix in too much frosting and to add it a little bit of a time so that it was a good consistency for forming balls.  

Then I rolled all 28 balls and froze them overnight. The next day I went to Kendra's to start dipping them. I used vanilla flavored pink almond bark chips from Hobby Lobby. And I ended up using the whole bag of chips. For the dipping technique I used a tall ceramic mug, dipped the sticks first about 1 inch down in the melted almond bark and then put the cake pop on it.

To let the pops dry I stabbed holes in a box lid so that the pops could be upright and not have any flat spots when they cooled. 

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Coffee and Polish Party Favors

Bailey loves coffee but hasn't been able to have any while she is pregnant. That doesn't mean her guests can't enjoy some freshly brewed coffee on the go! I got this idea from a friend at work and it was reasonably priced since. Each reusable cup was $1 and if you use it at Starbucks then you get 10 cents off your order! I also found 97 cent pink NYC nail polish at Target which I was excited about because I had to buy 16 of them and wasn't going to pay $4 a piece for nail polish. 

 I used some whole bean coffee that I already had at home and filled the bottom of the cups with some great smelling beans. I wrapped the nail polish in tissue paper, tied it with ribbon and placed it inside the cups. Then I added a little tag that said "Bailey is "Brewing" up Something Special" to finish off the party favors! 

And they were a hit with the Beautiful Momma to Be!

To see more photos from the shower this weekend follow me on Instagram
@lmd004

Moore, OK Tornado Clean-up

On Friday the 24th I left after my shift at work to head to Hastings to meet up with Bailey, Josh and Travis to start our adventure down to Oklahoma City. We ended up having to take two vehicles because we had so many donations of clothes, bedding and water! Bailey and I took the Honda Pilot and with Bailey as our Pilot we headed on the road. I fell asleep shortly after we started driving and that way the trip didn't seem so long :) We ended up getting there Friday evening and it took us about 7 hours total with the many potty stops we had to make for Bailey. We stayed with Josh's friend Thomas and his girlfriend Amanda. They have a little house in OKC that they rent and even have a hairless cat named Paisley. I was pretty excited that they had a cat and I had never seen a hairless cat so it was quite the experience. Amanda warned us about the cat before we went inside the house and after we got in Bailey said "I'm so glad you warned us about the cat" because we may have mistaken it for a large rat!



We all went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant and it was delicious! We all enjoyed some margaritas (minus Bailey of course) and had a great time. Bailey and I watched a couple moves while the guys and Amanda played drinking games. Then we got up bright at early at 7 to go start volunteering. We met up at a volunteer site that had shovels, masks and gloves for us and we waited in line for the buses that took us to the different sites that were damaged.

As we got closer and closer I kept wondering and wondering what it was going to look like in person. You see the images on the news but it was still a big shock when we finally saw all the piles of brick, wood, trees and belongings through the bus windows.

Poor Kitty that was found after being buried for 6 days! He didn't even have enough strength to drink water. The owner is holding him in this picture and had 3 other cats that were still lost. She had to take him to the vet and we wont ever know if he pulled through or not. While we continued to clean up at her house we made sure to keep an eye out for the other cats but had no luck. 

Through the destruction a symbol of how America will prevail! This picture was taken on the second day we were there in Moore. We were helping at Steve's house that was in a neighborhood that Obama had just visited hours earlier. 







People would spray paint their insurance company and address on their houses. Unfortunately we heard there was a cap on the amount of money people would receive from the insurance companies so who knows if they would get the value of their home back so they could rebuild. 

This carpeted area is where Steve's wife was during the tornado. She was in this closet with her two dogs covered up with a robe. Remarkably she did not even have a scratch! Steve was at work when the tornado passed and was worried about finding his wife when he returned home. The storm tracking in Oklahoma is so precise that they can pinpoint the street intersections that the tornadoes are crossing at that moment. 

Bailey and I with Steve, the homeowner. He wanted to take pictures of Bay's belly so he could remember who was helping him that day :)

Pretty leery finding! However the movie is based on Oklahoma tornadoes.

Spray paint reading "Love this home. Demolish per owner. we don't want it anymore!" Sad but not uncommon site in Moore. Houses could be categorized between repairable, demolish or pick up the remains. We sorted through the 2x4's and insulation to find photos, clothing or salvageable items that could still be used. Steve was excited to find a framed picture of his daughter but most of the stuff had to be set to the curb to be picked up for the junkyard. 

View of the OKC skyline as we headed from Moore to Oklahoma city. We could only stay about 3 hours each day because we would get so itchy from the insulation we were picking up. Travis got a pretty bad rash from it and Bailey and I got pretty sunburnt. We spent Sunday night putting vinegar on each other to help sooth the burns. Saturday night we went to Dave & Busters to play some arcade games and have supper and then Sunday night we ordered Papa John's Pizza (my request of course) and ate out on the deck. The weather in OKC was great and afterwards all of the girls went for a walk while the boys sat around the fire. 

The trip was quite an eye opening experience. Through the past years I have helped with major disasters including flooding, hurricanes and tornadoes now. When we helped at Katrina it was years after the hurricane had hit so they were in the rebuilding process. And as messy as flooding is, most of the houses are still salvageable but with this tornado the houses were knocked down to the foundation and only a very small percentage of Oklahoma homes have basements because of the high level of ground water. A homeowner can install a small shelter in the ground for about $2000. We also heard that they may put a new law in affect requiring all new homes to have a shelter installed. It is weird to think what you would do without a basement with winds reaching 200 mph. When we were younger we always had to go to the basement during storms and that was still scary. I can't imagine not having a place to go in that horrible storm.  You could definitely tell that the people of Moore had been through horrible tornadoes and all of the volunteering seemed to be very well organized. I'm sure the "shock factor" had already passed and everyone there was so nice and grateful for the help! I just wish we could have stayed longer!

Last minute road trip to... Moore, OK

Hi everyone! hope your week is going great!

I know the tornado victims and damage has always been in the back of my mind this week. Surprisingly I learned that Josh and Bailey are going down to Oklahoma to help volunteer and bring supplies and I figured well that seems like a perfect way to spend my 3 days off! I will miss the color run of course which I am very sad about but there will be plenty more of those races I can run in and this is a one of a kind opportunity. I am going to drive to Hastings to meet them after my shift and then sleep all the way down to Oklahoma probably. It will be devastating to see and I will have to prepare my heart for all of it. I can't imagine my home and neighbors' homes flattened! This will be Bailey and I's second misson trip together.

 

 

I made fun of her and said she is a lil crazy to go down there when she is 6 months pregnant but she replied "I'm pregnant, not a cancer patient.. I can rest when I die!" That is my attitude and I will also be able to cross off a goal on my list because I have been wanting to volunteer somewhere recently. From Hastings it is a 7 hour drive and I really wish Alex could join us but he has to stay home and make the money. We will be staying with one of Josh's friends down there so we won't have to pay for a hotel.

I will post all about it when I get back on Monday. Please pray for us and pray for the people we are helping because they need it oh so much!

She could see how every trouble is like a flood and you can either rise up on it or sink down in it – and if you lean the weight of you — of it all — on the wood of the Cross, you always still rise.