We're back in business...

Today, at 7am, Columbus Regional Hospital will open it's doors again for business. After being shut down just shy of 5 months, we are looking forwards to "going home!"

This has been a summer to remember for many CRH employees. My summer was going along quite smoothly and I was working at CRH on June 7th, the day our lives were forever changed. Those memories will be forever etched in my mind as we evacuated patients and waded through muddy water. I'll never forget walking out of the building that night with Dr Davis as we looked over the balcony, down into the lobby at the muddy water, and he said, "Awwwwh, we'll be back in here by Wednesday!" :)

If you look closely, you can see me in my blue scrub dress and white shoes standing by a lady in a wheel chair. I was on the news and didn't even know it! :)

I was sent to St Francis to work in their Labor and Delivery department. I am not one that likes "change" but found out that I really could do it after all! I never dreamed I would ever work in a big hospital in Indianapolis, but when forced to change, I was able to survive! I learned a lot from the nurses there, but was glad to bid my farewell to them last Thursday evening!

Not every assignment was always a bed of roses this summer. I'll always remember the day we were assigned to cook food for flood victims. Making Salisbury steaks and gravy for 400 people with one stove was not an easy task. We made some memories that day though and had some good laughs.

The day I spent sorting clothes at a local store where people drop off donations was another memorable experience. I along with another nurse from the birthing center were sorting through clothes. Some were pretty dirty and had to just be tossed. A guy came up and dumped a box of stuff out for us to sort through and I started to scream and run! There were live baby rats in that box of items! (I have a HUGE fear of mice and would not go near that bin for the rest of the day.)

I spent a day playing at the Kidscommons here in town too. That was one of the better assignments!! We sat and talked and cut pictures out of old encyclopedia's, played in the toilet, etc!

There were numerous days that I spent cleaning the hospital also. When I would get cancelled from St Francis, I would report for duty at CRH! We wiped down walls so many times we were afraid we were going to remove the paint!

The birthing center got completely remodeled during the summer and I am excited about going back to our new environment! I am looking forward to working with my co-workers again, being 5 minutes from home, and just getting back into a normal routine!

I am grateful to be employed by CRH. They have treated their employees so well this summer when they really didn't have to do so. I've seen our CEO more this summer than I ever had in all my years at the hospital. He has gained so much respect from the employees at CRH and can hardly get through his speeches due to the thundering applause!

There has been a lot of change already and more to come I am sure, but we will survive! After all "We're more than a building, we are Columbus Regional Hospital!"

You can also visit our local newspaper, the Republic, and watch a press conference recorded this past Friday.

"roughing it..."

Ready to pull out on Friday morning...

(Special thanks to Mom and Dad Walden for letting us use their truck and trailer!)

Our kids were So excited...
Finally sitting down to supper at almost 8pm!!!

Thank goodness Montie brought a lantern!

Yummy steak and fried potatoes...
Pagie thought this decoration was scary!!!Ready to roast marshmallows and make smores...

(Peyton was not thrilled to say the least...)

We are having fun "roughing it!" This is about as rough as I care to get!!! :) Thank goodness there's Wi-fi here and we have great signal on our cell phones! The kids are getting filthy and I just cringe every time they throw sand on each other!

Last night had to be the longest night of our lives. The kids slept well until about 1am. They all ended up coming into our bedroom to sleep! Jonathan ended up on the hide-a-bed with Parker and later came in to beg me to trade him! I ended up out there the rest of the night. We had good intentions of sleeping in today but Parker and Paige were wide awake at 7am!!!

Montie has been quite the chef and it is amazing to see what all he can cook outdoors! I'm impressed! Sure is nice to not have that mess in Mom Walden's kitchen!

The campground is having a hayride tonight at dark and we are all signed up and ready to go!

Hope you have a great weekend! The leaves are beautiful in this part of the country!!!

Fall Festivities...

At our Christian School's Fall Festival last Friday night...Enjoying Marvin's hayride...

Junior Church fall party on Saturday evening...
Kevin, Aaron, Parker and Tyler...
Paige and Hannah...
Shane and Peyton... Jr. Church hayride...
I'm pretty sure I see Jenny Grissom's mouth wide open in this picture!! :)
Amy Shearer posted on her blog about this party and said that she was sure it wasn't Jenny that we heard all the way around the church property! (Now are you so sure Amy???)

I think she was the one screaming out....Jesus love is a bubbling over...

It was a fun weekend full of lots of fall festivities and the kids had so much fun!

Apple Works excursion...

Yesterday, Mom and I took the kids to the Apple Works in Trafalgar, In. for what we thought would be a fun afternoon! We had heard lots of good things about this place and I was dying for some cold apple cider and those yummy apple cider donuts.

After a quick lunch we got in the car and tried to set Mom's navigation system but for some reason, it wouldn't recognize the address. "Oh well" we thought, ..."we'll find it no problem!" We had both read the directions on the Internet and thought we were pretty sure we could find it.

We were driving along, enjoying the beautiful scenery and colorful leaves and the road began to get quite narrow. We also began to notice that there were some very steep hills on this narrow road. The kids were in the back asking, "Are we almost there?" and then would say, "Whoa" when we climbed the hills or turned a sharp curve! After driving several miles like this, we decided we better pull off and call the place and ask for directions. Mom tried to explain where we were at that moment and the lady was able to figure it out and tell us how to find our way back to them!

Shortly after our arrival at the Apple Works, a tour bus pulled in loaded with retired people anxious to buy some apples! We walked around on the grounds for a while and took several pictures. The kids had fun throwing rocks in the water and got filthy quickly. Obviously, they are easily entertained... There were no activities going on yesterday and there wasn't much for the kids to do. So...they decided to get on my nerves!!!

Once the line had gone down inside the store, Mom went in to "shop!" She quickly came back out empty handed. They told her that they were pretty much sold out of everything from having such a busy weekend! No Apple Cider, only one pastry, and no Apple Cider donuts, (they only make them on weekends I found out!) They did have plenty of fresh apples and Mom did end up buying a bag of them to make fresh apple butter!

Parker always has to check out the bathrooms, wherever we go! He got his first experience with outdoor plumbing and thought it was pretty cool! I was trying not to gag at the thought of him sitting in that outhouse and probably touching everything in sight!!!

A short time later, we loaded up the kids, took off their filthy shoes before getting into Gpa's car and headed home! They were worn out and we were hoping for a quiet ride home. Parker was making sure we were taking a different route home! (We did!!!) After traveling a mile or two down the road, Peyton starts hollering for his match box car that he had been playing with at the Apple Works place! I told him to look in his pockets for I did not have it! Much to our dismay, he did not have that little car and said, "I left it back there!" I just told him that it was gone and that broke his heart. It's a good thing Grandma was driving because Mommy wouldn't have turned around! We went back to look for this silly .79 cent car... The entire time I was trying to remember where I had last seen him playing with it. I went down the hill looking for it in the rocks and was praying on my way down that I would find it. I know it's a silly car, but he was devastated! As soon as I got to the spot, there was that little car, sticking up out of the rocks!!!!! I came walking back up the hill and Peyton was looking out the window for me. Mom said as soon as he saw it in my hands he said, "Yipee!"

All three kids fell asleep on the way home and it was a peaceful drive back to our town! It was a fun afternoon, but I can't say that I intend to go back anytime soon! If I do, it'll definitely be on a weekend so I can get some of those yummy donuts!

Parade...

We met Darin & Amy Shearer and their girls downtown at the parade on Saturday!

Darin kept telling us that the people across the street would be in the sun "in about 5 minutes!"

They ended up being in the shade the entire time!!! :(

Our Mayor...Fred Armstrong
China was the feature this year in our Ethnic Expo...
The kids loved the dragon...
Showing his patriotism...
Groucho Marx...Little Groucho...

(Monkey see...monkey do...)

One of the floats was about "Laughter" stating that a laugh is the same in any language. They were passing out these plastic glasses/noses and also had cans of silly string. They were walking along and spraying the silly string at people trying to make them laugh! Well..........Peyton was standing on the curb, watching the parade, when all of a sudden, a little boy walked up to him and squirted him right in the face with silly string! Jonathan about came out of his lawn chair!!! Peyton did NOT like it and because he was standing in front of me, I quickly became covered with the nasty stuff as well! (Jonathan thought about throwing candy at the boy but decided that wasn't too Christ-like!)