Currently Reading
Valley of Fear
By Arthur Conan, Sir Doyle
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15-Jan-2007
12-Jan-2007
Medic IV practice
Brian bravely goes first to show Amy how it’s done. “Wow, this dude is a rank beginner. Mmm, that hurts!”
Amy gets quite an audience – “honest, watching the girl….it’s instructional”. (Don’t worry, the guy had on gloves so there was no physical contact.) Ben seemed confident in his needle skills and takes Amy on – even though girls are a little harder due to smaller veins. Little did the poor guy know, but Amy had it in for him; as soon as he touches her with the needle she lets out a little scream – shook him up pretty bad.
Shook him up so bad in fact that he didn’t make it on that Brian thought that was pretty funny.
first attempt and had to try Amy’s other hand.
While Ben works away on Amy, Brian lets several Even Bekah joins in on the fun. 
more guys take a shot at his arm 
seven tries in all!
Back to Amy…..Ben still has yet to draw blood (notice the double tourniquet) in fact, both he and the instructor are wondering if I have any blood at all! Guess it’s bad news for the blood drive we signed up for on Monday.
12-Jan-2007
Yes, I ended up joining Brian for one full day of mutual pain and suffering 
(okay, so it wasn’t quite that bad). We both ended up on the couch but no pictures were taken as all motivation to move had long since left the both of us. In retrospect I said I should have somehow snapped a shot and posted it with the caption “pray harder”. Fortunately Brian was on the mend and made lunch for us that day – grilled cheese and pretty good if I do say so myself. 
Next day Brian went back to work while I tried to rest up and decontaminate the whole house because Bekah was coming over. We had fun just talking that afternoon, then cooked up two frozen pizza’s (homemade of course 
) and invited one of the guys over to make an even number for a night of game playing.
Next day I’m feeling a lot better except for a bad sore throat. Bekah and I plan out two weeks menu then try to go shopping. I got lost on the way to Walmart, being distracted with trying to remember what was on the shopping list I had left at home 
. We called Brian to get us out of our predicament and he made some comment about two blondes trying to do anything. The evening again included inviting another single guy over for brownies and games. (I think Bekah suspects that we are trying to set her up). 
After crashing into bed after yet another late night, Brian wakes up this morning with the exclamation of “oh no, it’s 8:00! He quickly gets ready while I make him a breakfast on the run. Next on our agenda is volunteering our arms to the medic class for IV practice… 
9-Jan-2007
Poor Brian is sick – isn’t he pitiful?
All I got when I took this picture was a mumbled “hey” in protest.
He started out with a headache and fever on Sat. evening. He recouped well yesterday and thought he’d be back at work this morning, even to the point of getting into part of his uniform. But after breakfast he was back down and by 9:30 moved from the recliner to the bedroom.
I woke up at 3:00am with a bad sore throat but later got up at 5:30 and ran three miles, hoping it would make me feel better. It worked for a while but I’m steadily feeling worse….I think I might go creep into bed with Brian. We would appreciate it if you would lift us up in prayer.
7-Jan-2007
We had our first overnight guests this week – my sisters and brother! Besides cooking, playing games, scrapbooking, playing carpetball and shelling pecans we also spent an afternoon on the low ropes course.
Here’s everyone on the tire swing challenge – you had to make it from one tire to the next.
Stacie and Lori demonstrate how to pass each other on a log while Amy crosses the “perilous” footbridge.
Amy prepares for a trust fall – would you trust this bunch to catch you?
Brian and Brian make a death defying leap across the alligator pit, grabbing the rope and swinging to safety.
To finish off the afternoon we added Kevin to our group and went into Tyler to play frisbee golf.
We split into three teams and played a very fun 18 hole course. Kevin and Lori ended up winning but Brian and I followed with a close second. I’m pretty good at the short shots but was very thankful to have Brian for anything over 30 feet. In all it was a wonderful visit and I had a blast talking, laughing and reliving old times.
