Family Letter from Jean Marie

Dear Family,

Hello, this is Jean (the cousin). I haven't bothered to do much with family letters since it went to a blog but I want to support the continuing family letters so here's an update on my life:

I still live in Provo, Utah, surprise, surprise, and I still work three nights a week in a hospital. I still work with children and post-surgical patients. One thing that has changed at work is that now I occasionally have the pleasure of working with my lovely cousin Brittany. I don't know her schedule so it's always a pleasant surprise when I show up to work and see her smiling face. Brittany and I work in the same department and are occasionally on the same unit for the night. Even when we're not on the same unit it's fun to say hello and hear an update on what's been going on in life. Just the other night Brittany helped me start an IV in one of our patients. It's neat to interact with one my cousins in a work environment in our field of common interest

I've had the opportunity to do a little bit of traveling in the past month, which has been a nice change of pace.  In the middle of October I went out to Washington D.C. to visit friends who had recently moved out there. One of these is my good friend and previous roommate Evon (she's just out there for the semester). Evon got an internship in downtown D.C. working for a company that trains government employees. That's about all I understand of it. I stayed in the house she was renting in Crystal City and we dutifully hopped on the metro each day as we attempted to pack everything we could of the D.C. experience in about 2 or 3 days.

We got our fill of memorials-- the Washington, Lincoln, WWII, the Korean War, Jefferson, George Mason, Roosevelt, and the new Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial. In fact, the Sunday I was out there was the day President Obama dedicated the MLK memorial. We decided to skip the dedication to avoid the crowds instead but foolishly attempted take a Sunday stroll around some of the other memorials since we had some time before church. It turned out we just got tangled in all the foot traffic as the dedication let out and we couldn't get to any of our memorial destinations because of security restrictions and road blocks. After getting yelled at by a few soldiers and policemen for trying to go "restricted" places we gave up and went with the flow. We might as well have gone to the dedication. Anyway, during the other days I was there we also got a chance to visit the National Air and Space Museum, the Museum of American History, the Library of Congress, the National Archives, the White House (just outside), Chinatown, and Georgetown. I was hoping to hit a lot of the things I didn't get a chance to see the last time I was in D.C. but this time I still came away with a sense of "there's so much more to see".  I just cemented my idea that I could spend weeks in D.C. and there'd still be more to do.  As someone who grew up in the suburbs and has spent the last 7 years in Provo it was quite an experience to be right in "the big city" and see what it would be like to be a resident. I was delighted to be able to zing in and out of the metro like someone who knew what they were doing and was thrilled to take my first taxi ride. It was wild to depend so much on walking and public transportation and to be around so many people all the time, including the ones on the corner with the bullhorns :). I was facinated but the thrill had worn off a little for Evon and she confided that she missed fresh air. But anyway, after the wide-eyed wonder and oodles of national institutions I hopped on a plane (or 3) and travelled all day back to Provo just in time for the night shift.  It was a great weekend.

Then, this past weekend, I took another little trip, this time with Reid in tow, up to Boise, Idaho to visit Spencer and Heather. They moved there about 2 months ago and bought a home just outside the city. Reid and I got the delux tour of their beautiful house and also were taken around to various points of interest in Boise, a place neither of us had been before. We had a great time enjoying a leisurely weekend together that included carving pumpkins, wacking balls on the local golf course driving range, movies, board games, and a video game tournament (I admit it, I stink- got last place). We were sad to leave but now we know the way back up there! :)

So, two days ago we had Halloween. Once I was too old to trick-or-treat the holiday kind of lost its appeal for me as I don't enjoy scary movies and I don't get that much of a kick out of dressing up. So it didn't really bug me that I was working the holiday this year. I started thinking about how it would really stink for a kid to be stuck in the hospital on Halloween, so a couple of hours before my shift I called in to see if our pediatric unit was open. I found out there was a patient who was six years old but due to their condition could only have liquids. I started getting excited and enlisted my roommate to think of liquid Halloween treats. I dragged her all over Provo to pick up Halloween supplies and goodies. (Note: don't try to buy Halloween stuff on Halloween. It's already gone and they're putting up Christmas decorations!). At the risk of almost being late to work I rushed in that evening dragging an extra bag and a styrofoam cooler full of dry ice, only to find out that I had been misinformed and our only pediatric patient was not six years old, but quite a bit older than that. Not to be deterred, and encouraged by the report that said patient was still somewhat disappointed to be hospitalized on Halloween (okay, everyone's disappointed to be hospitalized, period, but never mind), I donned my newly purchased witch's hat and went to introduce myself. The patient informed me they weren't really up to trick-or-treating around to the various units, but were still game for some Halloween treats despite a reduced appetite. So I went to work in our unit nutrition room concocting my goodies. A while later I entered with a tray sporting a pumpkin "cauldron" full of foaming and bubbling punch complete with gummy snakes slithering over the side, jello cups topped with "ghosts" (sprayed whip cream blobs with chocolate chip eyes), a pudding hand (plastic glove full of pudding) complete with ring pop on the finger, some yogurt, and Little Peeps marshmallow pumpkins sprinkled tastefully around the tray (Okay, so I have might have cheated on the liquid diet thing with the snakes and the marshmallows, but there were ample family member visitors to claim those). It may have been a bit childish but I think maybe it made the evening a little more interesting for our patient. I at least had fun on Halloween this year. Later in the night when things were very quiet I decided to use up my second block of dry ice and made another bowl of bubbling punch to take around and share with the various unit staff. Apparently it was a hit so I am now an accomplished bubbling punch maker. :)

Well, I should probably wrap this up especially as I am sure I have exhausted the attention of any reader who's made it this far, so I'll just express my love of all of you and this wonderful family. Thank you to those who are maintaining this blog and thank you for your continued interest in the lives of every member of this family.

Love,
Jean