Pictures of VBS!

We had an absolutely fantastic VBS week with Gene and Angie Davis! We started out with 57 kids on the first night and ended up on Friday with 70! Early in the week Gene had told the kids if they reached 85, they could make him into a human smore! He got to feeling sorry for them and changed it to 70! On Friday night, they reached their goal!!! They had so much fun covering him with chocolate, marshmallows and graham crackers! What a nasty mess he was though when they were finished! What a great motivator for the kids! Thanks Gene for being so willing!!! (Next year Randy says we need to make you into a bean burrito!!!)
Our niece, Jacinda Edwards is coming today to spend the week with us...so I must go and get the dust rags out! We leave for vacation on Sunday with Randy and Missy Dunn and their boys and are counting the hours! It is going to be an extremely busy week with working, changing the Jr Church theme, 4th of July, Grandma's 80th birthday and packing for our trip! Posting may be limited...again! I am sure Angie will be FULL of updates all week though! We gave her plenty of material last week to blog about!!!

VBS June 2008

Where we've been this week...

Special thanks to Marvin Truex for a great job on our church sign!
"Camp WannaPraiseHim" Notice the "skunk" to the right of the tent...
Angie talking with the children on the first night...
Anxious for VBS to begin...

This has been an extremely busy week with VBS in the evenings and me going "back to work" this week as well! We were so thrilled on our first night of VBS to have 57 children!!! Our goal was to try to get 50 kids at some point during that week and we were so excited to reach our goal on the very first night! I got a call on Monday evening saying that both vans were full and they needed me to run and pick up a few more kids in my vehicle. Tears came to my eyes on my way to pick up these children as I was thanking God for blessing us with such a great turnout! Last night we had 50 kids and hope to keep at or above our goal all week long!!!

Gene and Angie are doing a great job at "Camp WannaPraiseHim" this week. They are excellent camp counselors and the kids are really enjoying them. They think Gene is hilarious and are loving the songs about bugs, thunder, praising Jesus, etc. Last night they got to throw marshmallows into a fishing net and the boys won! Imagine that!

Our goal this week is that more children will come to know Jesus and that they will take something they've learned from VBS home to their families! Please pray for us the rest of the week!

Now...my job is another situation that needs prayer!!! I started at St Francis Indianapolis Campus on Monday and after my first day on the floor, I am feeling completely over whelmed. I can take care of the patient, but charting it, finding my way around, and knowing the docs, finding equipment, etc are another story! I was lucky to find my way to my car last night!!! :) It is quite stressful and rumor is out that it will be much longer than 3-4 months! Probably just about the time we get "comfortable" up there...CRH will be back in business! I am not one that likes "change" so this is quite a challenge for this girl who likes her normal routine!

I need to try and find time this week to schedule my boys for haircuts! If not, I will have to borrow some of Paige's hair bows to keep their hair out of their eyes! It's Jonathan's fault that they look like this though as he completely forgot their appointment and now the lady has been on vacation. I was tempted to try to trim them up myself but decided the hair bows wouldn't do nearly as much damage as I would!

Angie is probably suffering from withdrawal being without a computer this week! I'll have to invite her over to get her "fix!" I am sure she will come back next week with a list of things to blog about though!

Also...a Happy Birthday to my Sister-in-Laws... April Thompson and Cammie Walden today! April is a big #30 today and I won't tell on Cammie! Hope you ladies have a great day celebrating!

Have a great rest of the week!!

Family Fun in our back yard...

Jonathan had to umpire tonight and it was a beautiful night so I surprised the kids and went outside to play with them! I rarely take the time to do that! I know I should do it more often. I pitched about 30 balls to Parker and he ended up telling me I wasn't a very good pitcher! HA! We played on the swing set and Peyton got over his fear of swinging. He even learned to climb the rock wall without the rope! Oh dear... Parker taught the twins how to slide down the slide on their belly's and they all came crashing down together! My thought was, "Someone is going to get hurt and we don't have a hospital!!!" :( Peyton quickly got hot and was ready to come in so we called it a night! It was a fun Friday evening in the Walden backyard!

Have a great weekend!
It's going to be busy around here!!!

Pictures from Father's day...

Our kids with Papaw Bob
With Daddy...Father's Day 2008
We could not get them all to look at the same time!
Best Buddies...
He's as mean as he looks!!

A wee bit embarrassed...

Last night, the kids and I went to Jonathan's baseball game. I hadn't been all year and decided to try it with the twins. We didn't take their stroller so it was a challenge keeping up with them all night. Thank goodness there were several people there from church to help out.

About halfway through the game, Paige announced "Mommy...I need to go potty!" Of course she did, she has to try out every bathroom now. I asked someone to keep an eye on Peyton while we ran to the bathroom. On our way over, we met Amy Shearer and her girls who were just coming out of the ladies bathroom. We said "Hey" and then I darted into the first door on the right. I went into the same stall like I have used before, but as I did, I noticed two boys about 12 years of age in the bathroom. My first thoughts were, "Man...they are kind of old to be using the women's bathroom." Paige and I went on in the stall and Paige continued to talk to me while we were in there. I kept saying "Good girl..." I heard someone next to us using the bathroom as well and let's just say, it didn't sound like a woman! Still, I had no idea where I was...

Paige and I came out of the stall and went right for the sink, that looked just like one I had used before. We washed our hands and then proceeded to use the hand dryer. I turned to look at the door and about this time, a grown man came walking in to the bathroom! The blood rushed out of my head and I knew at that moment where I was!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Luckily, he was text messaging on his cell phone so I hoped he didn't see me. He was probably sending someone a text message saying "There's a lady in the bathroom!!!" I said, "Go Paige" and we ran out of the bathroom. As I got back over to the bleachers, I was dying laughing. Jonathan took one look at me and very seriously said, "Did you just go into the men's bathroom?" As I replied yes, everyone began to laugh. I am afraid, after 12 years of marriage, he knows me all too well.

Angie thinks Jonathan should supervise me better when we are out in public, and Jonathan is afraid we might get abandoned from the ball park! Chuck was amazed that I don't even have blonde roots... Guess next time I will be more observant and read the signs before entering!!!

Baseball Photos...

Happy Father's Day...

Happy Father's Day to my husband and father of our children!!!

Thanks for being a wonderful Daddy to our three P's in a pod...

They all love you very much and think the world of you!

Thanks for everything you do to provide for us!

We love you very much!

Love,

Karen, Parker, Peyton and Paige

Jonathan singing (I wanna be just like you...)
Daddy's little girl...

They love to tease and argue together!

Daddy with his two favorite boys!

Happy Father's Day to my Dad!!!

Thanks so much for being the best dad in the world to Jeff and I.

Thanks for your strong Christian example to us over the years and for raising us in a solid Christian home.

Thanks for providing for us so well during our years at home.

(We hated to move out!) :)

Thanks for helping us by building us our home! We never could've done it without you!

Thanks for being a wonderful Grandpa to our children. They all adore you!

Love,

Karen, Jonathan, Parker, Peyton and Paige

Happy Father's Day to my father-in-law, Rev. Don Walden.

Thanks for being a wonderful, Godly man.

You are a wonderful preacher and have been a fine Christian example to your family.

Thanks for raising a wonderful son for me to marry.

We love and appreciate you for all you do for us.

Thanks for being a wonderful Grandpa to our children.

They love to come to your house and play in the back yard with you.

We hope you had a nice Father's Day in Michigan.

Love,

Jonathan, Karen, Parker, Peyton and Paige

"Best Place to Work..."

Yesterday morning I attended our all employee meeting and found out once again why Columbus Regional Hospital was recently named #4 in the "Best Places to work in Indiana." The auditorium at Columbus North high-school was packed with CRH employees and everyone was so excited to see each other. Our CEO stated his name at the beginning of the presentation and applause broke out for several minutes as he received a standing ovation. It was a very emotional presentation as he showed us photos of what CRH looked like during and after the flood.

The highlight of the day was when our CEO, Jim Bickel, announced that CRH was dedicated to it's employees and that they were committing to paying their employees salaries plus benefits for 3 months!!!!!! Applause broke out again as you can imagine... He made a statement saying "At CRH our employees come first, bricks and mortar come second!" Now we know why CRH was voted in the top 5 as one of the "Best Places to Work in Indiana..."

Now...just so you know, we aren't on a 3 month vacation! We are to report for duty beginning the week of June 23rd and are required to fulfill our regularly scheduled hours to work. We may be helping with clean up at the hospital, helping with clean up in the community, working on lean sigma projects or working in surrounding hospitals. Everyone was just so relieved that we aren't getting laid off, don't have to draw unemployment, etc.

Congressmen, Mike Pence, came to our meeting to address the CRH employees. It was neat to hear him speak to us and talk about when he lived in this same town. He shook hands with employees as he walked down the aisle and then back up after speaking to us.

So...our fears were laid to rest yesterday and we can truly say that we work for one of the best hospitals in America!! Now...lets put on our gloves and boots and get to work everyone!!!!!!!

Memories of evacuating CRH...

(First of all, this will be an extremely LONG post, but I wanted to jot down my thoughts before I forget what all happened during this tragic day that I experienced last Saturday!)

Saturday, June 7th, 2008 began as any other normal work day for me. I was up at 5:45am getting ready for a long day at work. I could hear the rain coming down on our sky-light in our bathroom and was dreading the trip across the parking lot into work. I grabbed my umbrella and headed out the door.
When I arrived at work, the rain had actually slowed down some and it was a nice steady rain. We made comments to the night shift as they were leaving about it being "good sleeping weather" and started our day.

Jonathan was home with the kids but had plans to take Parker to his ballgame at 10:30am and then had a golf tournament scheduled in Indianapolis at 1pm Saturday afternoon.
The nurses all kept watching it rain outside and several different times that morning we were commenting on how hard it was raining and that you could hardly see.

Jonathan called to say that the baseball game and golf tournament had been cancelled and that water was getting close to getting into our church again. (Our church was flooded in July of 1997 and had to be completely "gutted.") We were so afraid it was going to happen again.

Later that morning, Jonathan called me at work saying that Franklin, Indiana was flooded and he was going to rescue our friends, Montie and Elaine Dunn from their home. At work we were also hearing rumors of Franklin Hospital's ER being under water. None of us thought to turn on the T.V. in an empty room and we went about caring for our patients. It was a busy Saturday.

The rain had stopped by noon and we thought all was well in our little world of the Birthing Center! I didn't stop to think about if Franklin was flooded that it would soon be heading our way. I kept looking out my patient's window's at Hawcreek that runs in front of the hospital. Earlier in the day I could see the park bench by the creek, by afternoon, that bench was no where to be seen. A short time later, the operator came across the intercom in a panicked voice asking all visitors to exit the hospital immediately. Rumors were flying that the hospital basement had been flooded below us. All housekeeping staff went running off our unit. Again the operator came across and announced that if you were parked in the front or side lots to please move your vehicles. I ran to look out the window and was completely shocked to find muddy water, rushing towards us. The back employee lot where my vehicle was parked was starting to be flooded as well. I called Jonathan to tell him that the parking lots were flooding and we were being asked to move our vehicles. The water wasn't at my vehicle so I stayed on the unit while several nurses ran to their cars. When they got back they were telling how fast the water was coming so I literally ran across the lot to my SUV. There was only one exit at this point and that was to drive up the ramp between the hospital buildings. I got my car moved around to the front of the hospital and went walking back to the back lot where I had just come from a few minutes earlier. The entire lot was now under water and had I not moved my vehicle when I did, it would've been flooded. There were several cars in the lot that were now under water. I waded through water to get back into the hospital. The back lot was beginning to look like a muddy ocean. I had been talking to Jonathan at this time and it was now 4:51pm. He said he would come get my vehicle and pick me up from work later that evening when I clocked out...

I got back on the unit and went into a patient's room to check on her and it got extremely quiet while I was in the room. By that I mean, no air moving, no computer's humming, no lights on, etc. I checked to see if the buttons on her bed worked and they did. I said, "Did we just lose power?" Some didn't think so because stuff was working. We didn't realize we were running on generators. A very short time later, the generators blew and CRH had lost all power. (Those red outlets that are to always have power, didn't....) My very first thought through my mind was, "Oh no...what about the patient's in ICU on ventilators!!!!" I calmly walked out of my patient's room to a very dark hallway. Nurses and Techs were all standing around not knowing exactly what to do. About that time, the operator came across and announced in a very panicky voice, "Attention...we have a Code 10 Emergency!" (That meant a disaster!) We found flash lights and grabbed our disaster manuals in hopes to find out what to do next. Unfortunately, there was nothing in the manual to tell us what to do in case of a flood! We went around and explained to our patients that the basement was flooded and we had lost power. We quickly found out that we also had no phone lines so no access to the outside world. A few nurses had cell phones with them but we had very limited access due to over crowded phone lines during this time. We tried to call our boss and charge nurses for help. One of the OB doctor's was there with us and thankfully was a huge help. We heard that water was now flooding the first floor which meant the entire basement, with 8-12 feet walls,was full and rising. Now we were being told that we were evacuating the entire hospital immediately. We passed out prescriptions, car seats, formula, diapers, etc. and grabbed all available wheelchairs and down the hallways we went. By now it was mid-evening and quite dark in certain areas of the hospital where there were no windows. Dr. Davis and I had a particular patient that had just been out of surgery for approx 1 hour. She was our first to get off the unit. He took off with her and I quickly followed behind them carrying the baby. Up to this point, all had been fairly calm on our unit. As we got to the only possible exit of the hospital, there were crowds of people. This is when it hit me that we were in a true life, disaster! God helped our patient to be able to stand and walk down the stairs with our assistance, and we put her in a wheel chair at the bottom of the steps and waded through water mid-shin deep. Outside there were hundreds of employees running around, people with clipboards, code carts, gurneys with dressing supplies, oxygen tanks, ambulances, helicopters, police cars, fire trucks, loud fire alarms that were going off non-stop inside the hospital, a laptop computer set up as they were trying to track pt's, etc. The part that sticks out in my mind the most were those poor, critically ill patients, scared to death and being wheeled through water or carried down 6-7 flights of stairs to safety. The National Guard had come to help and I passed several of them dressed in their camouflage outfits, carrying out our sick, helpless patients. Many of these patients were sitting outside in the smothering heat, wearing oxygen, some were having trouble breathing, many had IV's hanging, some were shaking from fear, and at this point in time, I felt helpless. I stood there with my patient while our OB doctor was making arrangements for her to be transferred. Some time later, I helped get her on a cart and into an ambulance. I then took the baby and helped the father strap her in the car seat, gave him some formula and told him when to feed the baby again, and sent him on his way.
Back to the unit to do this all over again. The next time I went outside, the water was up higher, my hose and shoes were filled with muddy water and my dress was getting wet above my knees. We were able to safely get all of our patient's to their own personal cars or on ambulances as well as 2 of our NICU babies into a helicopter. After making sure everyone was rescued, we put tape across the doors making a statement that all rooms had been evacuated. Charts were thrown all over the nurses station, half eaten supper trays were left in the rooms, trash wasn't emptied but everyone was safe. We walked out out of our unit together, not knowing the extent of the damage beneath us and thinking that we would be back in just a few short days. As we were walking out of the hospital, we paused to look at our beautiful front lobby, covered in muddy water. Dr Davis mentioned that "We forgot to rescue the birds!" (I see in this picture from the local newspaper website that the birds have evidently been rescued since then!) We waded out of the hospital in muddy water and it was now about 9:15pm. I hadn't talked to Jonathan for hours and he had no idea what was going on in my world nor I in his. He had come to get my car earlier that evening so I was riding home with a co-worker. She had to drive through water to the bottom of her car door to get out of the parking lot. I was able to locate Jonathan via cell phone and met up with him in the Target parking lot. After I got away from the hospital that night, I began to feel shaky and began to cry while describing it to Jonathan and my Mom over the phone. That day will forever be etched in my memory. I felt like I was in a movie and it wouldn't stop. It is something that I don't ever want to live through again, but am glad that I was working that day also.

We don't know what our future holds with our jobs at CRH. We have an all-employee meeting in the morning and that should answer many questions. As you can imagine, rumors are flying but I am leaving it in God's hands.

(Some of these pictures were taken directly from our local newspaper website at www.therepublic.com Check out the website for a video clipping of inside CRH after the flooding occurred.)

Columbus, Indiana Flood: June 7th, 2008

Be sure to check out my mom's blog at www.sheilassentimentaljourney.blogspot.com for some great pictures of Hwy 46 from her neighbor.