"watcha doin?"

lucy's latest saying..."watcha doin mommy?"
...well it was a busy july...here's what i've been doin

saying good-bye to my sweet grandpa gourley. my gramps passed away on july 19th...at his home, peacefully. i'm not sure if it is ever easy to say good-bye and when i think of my grandpa, it just seems like he will always be there...because he always was there, for every important thing in my life. every one.

alot of people didn't even know that my grandpa had one artificial leg from the knee down. he lost his leg working in the steel fire pits at geneva in provo, ut. he was only off 6 months before he was back to work. that was a lesson i learned from my grandpa..."when the going gets tough, the tough gets going." tough is an understatement...his determination and drive to succeed has been an influential example in my life.

his love for my grandma speaks for itself...high school sweet hearts...60 years of marriage. he would do anything for my grandma and for his entire family. my grandfather didn't have to tell you how much he loved the Lord...he showed you his love for the gospel of Jesus Christ by showing charity, love, and understanding to everyone around him.

i was so grateful to spend the weekend with my sisters, mom & dad...time to rememeber our grandfather's influence and time spent supporting and loving my grandmother.

his legacy...4 children, 23 grandchildren, and 36 great-grandchildren. our kids refer to my grandma & grandpa as the "GREATS" because they are just that. i will miss you gramps, thank-you for your example and so much more.

*"what else ya been doin?"

*soaking up rays at the annual kesler reunion in island park, id...

here's to a week of:

*lots of swimming!

*putting swimsuits on at 8am and taking them off at 8pm!

*no 30 hour work shifts!, limited cell phone coverage, lots of hours driving in the car - quaility time together (kinda!), no tv, and a room at the lodge (thanx babe!)

*actually getting a picture of lucy with me...kinda looking at the camera!

*a little too much time on our hands (this is the very mild version)...

*playing with cousins! that's right 14 cousins under the age of 5!

*lots of games...balancing on the surf boards, family bingo, don't forget the lyrics, long runs & swimming from one side of the lake to the other, water balloon toss, s'mores, scavenger hunt, and the usual "random" kesler late night games (and they wonder why i try to sneak off to bed...jk!!!)

*lots of skiing and boating...did i say lots, i mean seriously alot.

*trying to act legit.

*taking the first ring off our paper chain...our residency countdown chain...11 months to go!

...the update. so now i'm off to check your blogs and see "whatcha been doin!"

cel-e-brate good times, come on...

lots of pics = a good time!

our freeze family reunion is always during the 4th of july and usually in provo but this year we all flew to chicago to spend the holiday with my sister amy and her family. we all crashed at her beautiful home and let's just say it was slightly wild...thanx for being a great host am, we had a blast!

..the cubbies were out of town but that didnt stop this die hard from making the trek to wrigley to purchase some gear and take in the sites. the boys did make it to a sox's game for "boys night out" and my dad even caught a foul ball, booyah!

...a day at lincoln park zoo...it's pretty amazing, it is right down town and it is free to get into the zoo so there are all these different entry's around the park, just open gates. you can take paddle boats from the zoo out to a stretch towards the city buildings, cool.

4th activities: sparklers...but even better in the mid-west liGhtENing buGs! savannah was amazed and collected a few in a jar! a great water balloon toss game, celebrating ty's 10th birthday, pizza from mancinis!, awesome park with fountains & a game of baseball...

...the oak park parade, matching outfits for the cousins (thanx nanny!), an early morning run "4 on the 4th"...some of the little guys even came at 6:30am for the fun run...can't you tell they were happy! the race was legit, a perfect way to start the day!

...a day down at the navy pier...matching outfits (again, nanny you really are the best), hotdogs at parky's, a ride on the ferris wheel - beautiful scenery of downtown, kids going on the drop ride, the children's museum (totally awesome, a must do if in chicago!), odd pirate acts...seriously a pirate was hitting on my sister emily and it was scary.

...girls night out! dinner at the grand lux, shopping, and dessert at the signature room while we watched the nightly firework show from navy pier. the signature room is located on the 95th floor of the hancock tower in downtown. it has the most amazing view of the city, we all went out to eat there the night before we left...phenomenal as cam would say.

...park & pool obviously a fam favorite and perfect weather (go amy!). one of my favorite parts of the week is when cam put together a slide show at the end of the week with all our pictures...he set it up outside on the projector and we watched it after the fireworks...it was legit babe!

savannah & ellie thought they were so funny on the airplane, they kept beggin me to take pictures of them making silly faces...they were laughing so loud, it was cute. how sweet is miss mallory, she will be ONE this week!

...i did my danskin tri the weekend before we left for chicago. lindsey & emily came in for the weekend. emily had done it before but it was mine and lindsey's first tri. it was so awesome! we had a blast...it was a bit of a bummer because they ended up shortening the swim because race officials felt the water was too cold (which we didn't think it was bad at all and we are kinda wimps when it comes to cold water!)...but it really was a perfect race day. we all decided to stay together and finish together (click), so it was pretty cool to keep a look out for each other and keep each other going!it was so freakin comical when we headed off on our bikes, lindsey comes riding up next to me a few minutes into it and her helmet was on backwards...i'm like, check it...your helmets on backwards! she was all miffed and "i know! people keep telling me!" she was too focused to stop and change it so all throughout the bike people kept saying, "do you know your helmets on backwards?" i sure luved racing though and hope i can do it more* hope you all had a great 4th, sorry for the novel.

question "tell me what you think"

*okay so i'm a nurse, blah blah blah. but lately i've been getting irRitaTeD at work by a couple things, for instance...i have a patient the other day who had severe, severe HELLP (pre-eclamptic, etc...SICK) okay and when i say sick, i mean not good...her platelets were 14 (should be 100). so then you have the husband, sitting on the lounge chair listening to his i-pod in the corner...i've just told his wife she cant have an epidural because her platlets are so low...she's crying...so while i'm sweating taking care of his wife and making sure she remains alive...he has the gaul to say to me as i'm emptying the foley catheter "guess that's probably not your favorite part of the job...gross huh?". um...did he just say that to me? okay now he is dead to me and i might kick him where it counts. additional instance, this time of the year at the hospital we get new interns (new docs fresh out of med school). gotta give em a break right...okay my little mom today was the sweetest little thing...but her labor turned into a nightmare to put it lightly. she pushed for 3 hours (epidural not working), had a forcep delivery, baby's first minute apgar was 2, and to top it off she had a 3rd degree tear. so the intern after watching the doc sew her back up and leave the room, he says, "well good, that's all over, you gotta feel better now". What, What the H did you just say...her bottom is swollen up like a hot dog bun, her baby is just now starting to turn pink, and she doesn't even realize what hit her. i'm not even going to go into the bi-polar patient i had the other day whose boyfriend ate licorice all afternoon while lounging out in tight jeans and watching jerry springer. It's like mayday-mayday to the male race...watch out or this nurse is going to start turning medieval on your butts.

...sound off my friends, anything "fun" irritating you lately :)
ps. im doing my first sprint tri this weekend "sink or swim" is my motto
pss. okay so addressing my irritability, i've been telling myself it's one of two choices: medication or a vacation so our whole family is headed to chi-town for vacation next week & the 4th, booyah
pss. my sister amy was a question on jeopardy last week, under the category "making sense"

*dont mess.