EMS Banquet

Our last class ended at 5 p.m. today, and the awards banquet started at 6:30 p.m. Since we were staying at another hotel, we skipped our last class. This gave us plenty of time to get ready for the banquet.

I wish that I had gotten Jim or someone to get a picture of my whole dress (and red high heels), but I didn't ask anyone.

We found seats at a table with one of Jim's old coworkers. The tables were set and the desserts were already at the table. The menu was a Caeser salad, steak (medium rare), grilled chicken breast, broccoli, mashed potatoes, dinner rolls, and cheese cake.

I have found that as I've been getting older, I try foods that I would have never eaten in the past. For example, two years ago I said I would never eat sushi. I have since eaten sushi many times and really like it (as an appetizer). Tonight, I ate the medium rare steak. I never liked my steak to have any pink before because it tasted like blood to me. But, I found that I really liked the steak tonight. I didn't even put any steak sauce on it. So, I am expanding my horizons

and my love of food.

I was excited about the guest speaker tonight and was looking forward to seeing him. It was John C. McGinley who plays Dr. Perry Cox on "Scrubs". That is my favorite character on that show. He was also in "Platoon", "Sweet Liberty", "Wall Street", "Talk Radio", and "Wild Hogs" to name a few.

He started out with a funny story that involved Alan Alda and the movie "Sweet Liberty". I enjoyed that story, but it was downhill from there. He would start a story and would ramble. Then he was pretty much pushing a book that he wrote about listening the rest of the time. He didn't say we should buy it, but he kept mentioning the title, and it got old after a while. After his speech, he did take questions from the audience. Just a handful of questions were asked and then he hightailed it out of the building. I had hoped he would hang around for a while.

I did hear that the previous evening he hung out in the lobby of the hotel for some time.

Usually when there is a speaker at these banquets, they try to mention the EMS providers that they came to honor, or they try to relate in some way. The only time that he mentioned EMS was when someone specifically asked him if he had any experience with EMS providers. Even when he was asked directly, he didn't give a direct answer.

But, all in all I enjoyed the evening. I had decent food and good company. Jim and I didn't stay for the dance afterwards. He is not much of a dancer. That's okay, I saved my feet from a lot of pain from dancing in heels!

I is educated

We arrived at our hotel last night, which was about seven miles from the hotel where the EMS symposium is held. I liked our room because it was a suite. We had a seperate living room and a mini kitchen. There were two televisions in our room which was great since Jim and I watch different shows. I picked that hotel because they served a full breakfast that was included.

This morning, Jim and I had two classes together. But, those are the only classes we will have together. Each of my classes are 1 1/2 hours long. There is a half hour break between each class and a 1 1/2 hour lunch break.

After lunch, I had an IV class. There were several instructors at different stations. I got the instructor that had all of the problems. First, she had problems hooking up the fake blood to the mannequin's fake veins. She made a huge mess.

Then, the poor baby mannequin lost an arm, a leg, and finally its head. We were able to get some practice in, but I noticed the instructors at the other stations were a lot more informative than mine was. It figures.

Dress up

Every November, Jim and I go to Norfolk, VA to the annual EMS Symposium. It is the second week of November and lasts from Wednesday through Sunday. We spend every day from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. in classes earning continuing education hours. When we get the required amount of credits, we can recertify our EMT-I and Paramedic.

On Saturday, they always hold an awards banquet. Most of the people dress up for the banquet. I went shopping yesterday for a black cocktail dress to wear to the banquet.

This evening, I modeled the dress for Morgan, along with some shoes I bought. When Morgan saw me dressed up, she decided that she wanted to dress up as well. She told me that I looked like a dancer and she wanted to wear a dancer dress too.

I went into her closet and dug out last year's Christmas dress, which probably fits her better this year than last. She twirled around and danced.

Then she wanted to try on a pair of my shoes. I let her try on the low heels. The funny thing is, it was not very long ago that Morgan did not want to wear dresses. We had to tell her a dress was a "long shirt" in order to get her to wear it. I am thrilled that she wants to wear dresses now!

We had a fun evening, dressing up and dancing. But, then it was time for Jim and I to leave for Norfolk. Morgan was staying at our home with her Godparents.

I think I can

Tonight, when it was time to get ready for bed, Morgan decided that she wanted to button her pajamas all by herself.

She tried
and tried

and tried

Finally, she let her Daddy help her.

Poor girl, she looks defeated, doesn't she? She did manage to get two buttons done by herself!

Morgan's First Time at the Movies

Morgan came to me this morning, held out her arm, then said, "Smell me. I'm stinky." She always tells me she is stinky when she wants to take a bath. Of course, she smelled just fine. But, I agreed with her and said, "Phew! You ARE stinky! You need to take a bath!

After her long bubble bath with her tub toys (that number about 30), she wanted her hair in a towel like Mommy does her hair after a shower.
After she got dressed, she wanted to paint. I was thinking, "Oh great! She should have painted before she took a bath!" But, she did not get one drop of paint on her. She painted six pictures because she has six colors of paint and only paints one color per page.

You'll notice she now has two temporary tattoos on. One with Dora the Explorer, and one with a toothbrush and a dentist ad. Morgan's Daddy hates temporary tattoos, but hey, they are only temporary!

By the time she was done painting, Jim woke up. He had worked overtime last night. We had planned on taking Morgan to see a movie at a theater for the first time. "Madagascar Escape 2 Africa" opened yesterday. Morgan has the first movie that came out in 2005 and loves it, so I figured the sequel would be the perfect movie to take her to.

Morgan wanted to bring Bert and Ernie with her. On the way out, she pointed out that the moon was out.

We went to McDonald's first. We didn't have time before the movie to go to a regular restaurant. I wanted to see if McDonald's had the Madagascar toys in the Happy Meals yet anyway. They did and Morgan got the giraffe character (Melman).

After a quick dinner, we headed to the movie theater. I had purchased the tickets in advance so we didn't have to wait in line, but, there was a long line for the snack bar. Morgan and I went and got seats while Jim bought the popcorn.

I thought that when Morgan saw the huge movie screen that she would be in awe. But, she just looked at it and asked when Madagascar was coming. You would have thought that she had been to the movies before. She was pretty nonchalant about everything, except sitting next to another girl about her age.

When we sat down, she told me she wanted to say hi to the little girl next to her. She said, "Hi!" and the girl just looked at her. She looked kind of shy. So, Morgan said hi to her again. After that, the girl switched seats and sat on the other side of her Mom. I don't know if she was just shy or if Morgan gave her the creeps (like a stalker would). I am hoping she was just shy. I didn't think that Morgan was acting creepy.

Anyway, we all liked the movie. I haven't decided if I like it more than the first one yet. But, I did like it. When it was over, Morgan looked at me and asked, "Can we see it again?" I explained that the movie was over, but we will more than likely take her again. Jim was pleasantly surprised that Morgan (and the rest of the audience) was well behaved.

Hide and Go Seek

I never fail to get a kick out of Morgan! Tonight, her Daddy was outside burning some tree branches that had fallen. Morgan wanted to go outside with him. She sat by the fire some and then she played.

I came outside to make sure she wasn't cold. I was about to go inside when she asked me to play hide and go seek with her. We've never played it before, so I imagine she has either played with friends, or seen it on the television.

I told her that I would play and she told me that I had to count to ten, and she would hide. So, I turned my back to her and counted. Then I said, "Ready or not, here I come!"

When I turned around, she hadn't gone far. She was a few feet away, hugging a tree.

I asked, "Where's Morgan?" She replied, "HERE I am!"

I told her that she wasn't supposed to answer me! That I was supposed to find her! She never got it. Every time she told me where she was! That was just too cute. She always puts a smile on my face.

Fall fun and a late Octoberfest

Wow! We had another beautiful fall day. Morgan, Jim, and I went outside. Jim was tending to the garden while Morgan played. Here she is wearing a pair of sunglasses that she received at the party yesterday. She is also sporting a Dora tattoo on her left arm. She told me I could have one of her other tattoos, so I had a Dora tattoo on my arm as well!



I keep telling Morgan that this pear tree is not a climbing tree, but she keeps trying!



Morgan and I sat on the porch with spoons of peanut butter. We love peanut butter.




So does Dee Dee! She tried her best to sneak some!





Morgan played on her "playground" for a while. She took one of the dogs' balls away from them and wouldn't give it back. She played with it instead of throwing it back to the dogs.




Then her and Cocoa played in a pile of leaves. Morgan played in the sand after that and we went inside to rest.

At 5 p.m., Jim, Morgan, and I went over to Sandy's house for a late Octoberfest.



Sandy outdid herself as usual. She made everything from scratch and it was a fantastic feast! I love German food. Sandy made schnitzel, gravy, spatzel, brotchen, farmer's bread, red cabbage, German potato salad, rouladen, apple strudel, stollen, and black forest cake. I ate and ate and then I ate some more. I took a lot of leftovers home! We also had some German wine and Octoberfest beer.






Morgan only tried the cake. I knew she wouldn't eat anything else, so I fed her before we left for Sandy's.



But, Morgan had fun playing with Sandy's dog and cats. She also colored and played with dolls while we ate.

Jim and I enjoyed Sandy and John's company as well as another couple that was there. It was nice for all of us to enjoy the evening together for a change.