The Claytivity

Each year we get together as a family and create what I like to call a claytivity. We decide who has what characters from the navitiy and we create them out of clay. This is our fourth year doing this and this year the navity is for me and Ryan. I have to say it is the cutest one so far. I didn't get any pics of this year's claytivity, but I will post them when I have the finished product. This is what we call a catmel. It's a bread between cat and camel. Ryan made this the very first year we were doing the claytivity and let me just tell you, that is the talk of our family. We love the catmel. Even the kids can see something so special about it. Another side of the catmel. This pic you can see his adorable little face a little better.

Pies and Secrets

Every year there is a tradition with me and Alesha to make our own pies for Thanksgiving. This year I took orders from both families and ended up with 7 pie requests. That's a lot of pies to build, just so you know. Sheesh also had her family's pies to make as well. It's always a blast when we do this. We get to hang out, laugh hysterically at our mistakes (we couldn't stop talking long enough to take the crust out of the oven. It was one of our tragedies) and then look at our wonderful creations. I have to say this year the pies were my favorite! YUMMY!

Tina and I were shopping at Victoria's Secret today and Chloe was LOVING it! It was so cute. She loved carrying our bags. Don't you love that her shirt matches the bags and don't you even worry, she is bare foot in the mall! GROSS. It was very cute though. She didn't want to give those bags up. She hung on tight to them for quite a while, until she saw Santa of course.

The Death of Thomas Turkee

This is a real live dictation I got today while working. I was honestly laughing so hard I didn't know if I would make it through it, but eventually I did. I told my boss I was amazed they were actually paying me to type such a report. Happy Thanksgiving!

DISCHARGE SUMMARY


PATIENT NAME: TURKEE, THOMAS DISCHARGE DATE:
DOB:

CLINICAL SUMMARY
This patient who has been cared for in the past at the regional Veterans Administration Hospital was brought to our emergency room by a representative of the disabled veterans for alleged service-connected disability. It was subsequently learned secondary to investigation by the admitting doctor that the patient had been dishonorably discharged and was not eligible for veteran’s benefits and could not be transferred and was without coverage. However, continued hospitalization was required on an emergency basis for complaints of increasing abdominal girth. The patient was unable to give any intelligible history due to his chronically altered mental status and no information accompanied him.

PAST MEDICAL HISTORY
The past medical history is significant in that the patient has been hospitalized numerous times to psychiatric wards for complaints of aggressive behavior stemming from excessive deep-seeded hatred of pilgrims. There was a questionable hypersensitivity reaction to cranberry products.

PHYSICAL EXAMINATION ON ADMISSION
GENERAL: The patient is unusually short, moderately obese, alert male in no acute distress. There are hemiballismic contractions of the neck musculature in response to auditory and visual stimulation giving a jerking appearance of the head movement.
HEENT: Examination reveals microcephaly with no evidence of recent trauma. The patient is edentulous with a protruding keratinized maxillomandibular deformity. There is an erythematous, nontender skin fold originating from the external nares dangling off to the right. The tongue and syrinx are midline. There is no adenopathy or gizzardomegaly.
CHEST: The chest expansion is symmetrical with increased AP diameter and pectus excavatum. The grizzle was mobile and palpated to 4 cm without tenderness. The breast examination reveals adequate white meat.
ABDOMEN: The patient was extremely uncooperative for the abdominal and rectal examinations; however a stool sample is slightly gray, negative for occult blood and easily obtained.
GENITALIA: Genitalia are compatible with “Butterballs.” Chronic scaling skin changes are evidenced symmetrically in the lower extremities with no edema or phlebitis.
NEUROLOGIC: Neurologic examination is remarkable in that the patient has a global aphasia and is only able to produce guttural sounds, otherwise, there are no vocal signs.

HOSPITAL COURSE
The patient was admitted to a general medical ward for observation where continued incontinence of acholic stool was reported by the nursing staff. This was confirmed by the ward teams shoe scrapings. He was placed on an 1800 calorie regular diet with seeds p.o. p.r.n. for supplemental caloric intake and roughage. The routine screening laboratory studies included a CBC, chemistry panel, and urinalysis, all of which were normal except for the blood alcohol, which was greater than 400 mg percent. This was considered normal in this group. A serum immunoelectrophoresis reported an elevated gamma gobble. Goomboscopy was performed and a punch biopsy was attempted with a sterile stainless steel straw after local Xylocaine infiltration. Electron microscopy of the sample confirmed turkee in the straw. Culture and sensitivity studies demonstrate poor taste and a total lack of empathy.

As the aforementioned medical approach failed to disclose a definite diagnosis, the patient was transferred to the surgical service and surgical consultation obtained for exploratory laparotomy. Following routine surgical pluck, a wide paramidline incision was made with a Bird-Parker #11 blade exposing a large mass of thick amorphous material which was drained from the abdominal cavity. Giblets were observed grossly.

Laboratory analysis included: Breast crumbs 2 cups, egg 1 medium, celery 1 stalk finely chopped, salt 2 pinches, trace quantities of pepper, thyme, oregano and a subtherapeutic level of schmaltz were also present.

Postoperatively the patient was taken to the surgical expensive care unit and placed on a bird respirator for a short time. The remainder of the postoperative course was remarkable only that the patient was found dead in bed by the medical student. As fowl play is suspected, a postmortem examination will be performed by the dietician and following this, the body will be cremated. The results will be ready by the next to last Thursday in November.

DEATH DIAGNOSIS
Congenital somatic anomaly.

TP/adh Job ID: 990614 D: 11/24/2008 09:12:05 T: 11/24/2008 09:46:36




TOM PILGRIM, M.D. Date

Free Dr. Pepper!

Dr. Pepper is giving away free 20-ounce bottles of soda. All you have to do is go here, register and they will send you a coupon for a free drink! I love Dr. Pepper! Hurry fast though, this is only good on Sunday, November 23 until 10:00 p.m. Utah time.

Family Photos

We recently had our family pictures taken. We haven't had family pictures done since my wedding, almost 4 years ago! We were in much need of some new photos. There you go, Dunn family in all their glory.....

Dictatorisms...

As most of you know I am a medical transcriptionist. This morning as I was working the doctor kept saying something, so of course I get on trusty old Google and start searching. I ran across some guys blog all about how doctors make up their own words. If you also know me, you know I have a list of made up words. I'm sure all of my transcription buddies out there will appreciate this.

Here are my favs:

musculoskeleton instead of musculoskeltal
dypsnea instead of dyspnea
lympandopathy instead of lymphadenopathy
Invanez intead of Invanz
Dioplia instead of diplopia
Dialisize instead of dialyze
Instabability instead of instability
Medicationally controlled

I call these Bitterisms because of who said almost every single one of them.

Here is the guys blog:


Doctors frequently invent words based on what they think the word should be. Whether the word is supposed to be a medication or a common piece of English language (such as "overneath"), if it doesn't exist, don't try to use it. Here are some typical examples of words invented by dictating physicians:

integrinous instead of integral
O'Connell-Sullivan retractor instead of O'Connor-O'Sullivan retractor
cominent instead of concomitant
delirium tremors instead of delirium tremens
I will see the patient ongoingly instead of I will see the patient on an ongoing basis.
"The fracture was reduced with good anatomicity." instead of "The fracture was reduced with good anatomic results."
"Surgicallywise, the patient has had..."
"Unangioplastable coronary artery disease"

To all the transcriptionists out there, what are your favorite Bitterisms or dictatorisms?

Annual Dunn Halloween Party

Every year we get together and have a Halloween party. It's always so much fun to see how clever everybody gets with their costumes. Chloe was Tinkerbell. She was so adorable! Colson was Elmo. He's so adorable! He's my cousin, Brian and Shelly's baby. I was a bee and so was the dog Cam. I call him my baby bee. Ryan was a prescription bottle, Adam was a penguin with his egg and Jesse was "Black Angus." We were also joined by Thing 1 and Thing 2. Dr. Suess was also around somewhere, but I didn't get a picture of it. I love our annual Halloween party! After the party we went to Jaime and Pete's wedding reception. Jaime looked absolutely beautiful. We got to see Brooke too! We miss you Brooke!

Body Worlds: Part 2

Yesterday afternoon Ryan and I left for good old SLC in Eduardo (the car). We got stuck in some congested traffic on the way (2:48 in the afternoon mind you)! That had to be an indicator of how the night would progress. We get to The Leonardo and there is no parking. The only parking we can find is metered parking or valet parking. We decide to go with the first option of metered parking. Can I tell you how much I hate meters? I scrounge through Eduardo and my bag and find as much change as possible so I can meet the 2 hour time limit. Well, good to know, all the change in my possession only bought me about 42 minutes on the meter. FYI: Not enough time to go through the museum. We stood at the meter for about 3 minute trying to decide what to do. Finally we decided to just go and have the valet park the car. $5 for front door service. I can go for that. We park the car, go inside the museum and our actual time they give us to go into the museum is 4:00. Okay, not too long of a wait, I can do this. Some guy decides its okay for us to go in early. Thank goodness they let us in early? Oh no, we get inside the dark, stuffy, hot museum and there are CROWDS of people! You had to wait in line just to see bones and hearts and joints. It was like little kid soccer, you know how they all crowd around the ball? Just like that. You had to fight your way in to see anything which made the hotness even worse because now you were rubbing against some stranger and getting all of their body heat. I had to hang onto my bag for dear life as I didn't want some person to steal what little money I had to give to the valet. Ryan, cute Ryan, was taking FOREVER to look at everything so I ventured off on my own. I think that was a mistake too. Random people would start talking to me like they were my best friend: "Here ma'am, sit here (like they felt bad for me)," or "I feel just like you." Really? You know how I feel? Hot, irritable, mad I had to fight my way into look at anything? Okay, then you know how I feel.

After waiting for Ryan for about 45 minutes throughout the museum I was ready to go. By this point I was hungry and I just wanted to get away from all the weirdos thinking they were my friends because I was all alone.

I'd have to say it was a really cool exhibit. I would recommend you all go. Just be careful. It does sell out. I would either go really early in the morning or wait another couple of months until the newness of it wears off.

Body Worlds

About 3 years ago I saw on PBS or one of those stations this exhibit with bodies that had been plastified. Ever since then I have wanted to go see it. I'm kind of a weird anatomy freak so I love this kind of stuff. Finally, it decided to come to Utah! My mom stole tickets from her doctors for me and Ryan so we will be going tonight to see the wonderful world of bodies! I can't wait!

Swing Me Mom!

Chloe found this laundry detergent bucket and decided that she fit right in it. It's now her new favorite toy. You should have seen her face light up when my brother said, "Chloe, where's your bucket?" I think it's because she loves to get in it and have her parents swing her. Look at how adorable she is. She's such a little trouble maker.

Primary Quotes

I absolutely LOVE our primary class. They are the 4-5 year old kids. They say the most HILARIOUS things! What a crack up. Here are just a few of my favorites from this past year:

Quote #1:

Child #1: My mom's boobs are big.

Child #2: Her boots?

Child #1: No, her boobs (then he goes on to explain how his mom's boobs are big and his little sister's boobs are little).

Quote #2:

Child: (Looking at a map of the podium) What does this word say?

Me: Piano.

Child: Huh?

Me: Piano, you know the thing your mom plays?

Child: Oh! You mean PRANO?

Quote #3:

My mom puts Desitin on my bootyand it makes me feel so way better!

Quote #4:

Ryan: Where does Jesus sleep?

Child: Outside in a cage.

I love their innocence. Every week there is something new to laugh about. Oftentimes it comes in prayer form when they think they are praying for really important things such as: "Help us not to bang (hit each other)," please help us not run in the halls," "please help us keep our eyes closed," "please help so and so fold their arms." Obvious half the time during prayers they have their eyes open.

This is for your Dari! High school tag...

1. Did you date someone from your school? No, never. I was not into dating.

2. What kind of car did you drive? I drove a red convertible Volkswagen Cabriolet, Little Red Tomato Baby

3. What was the most embarrassing moment of HS? Probably when we were performing in the gym at a basketball game and my strapless bra slipped down to my belly so I had quadraboob in a tight spandex outfit. What a winner!

4. Were you a party animal? Nope, I was a good girl. We did have a lot of fun though.

5. Were you considered a flirt? Not really. I was very, very shy.

6. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? Negative. I did drill and the dance company.

8. Were you on any varsity teams? I was on the drill team, does that count?

9. Did you get suspended/expelled? Nope.

10. Can you still sing the fight song? Parts of it. Tina can sing it word for word. Don't ask me how, she's just amazing.

11. Who were your favorite teachers? I loved my dance teachers of course. M&M and Coach (Nichole Ortega). Dari and I did have our moments with Ms. Scholl too. I think we were the only students she liked. She would let us leave during her class and we would go to Big-O, get money from Ron G. and go to Micky D's and eat a wholesome breakfast.

12. Where did you sit during lunch? Usually on a bench across from the gym or we would go eat at Taco Time, Dalton's, Payson Market, Hogi Yogi...

13. School mascot? Lion

14. Did you go to homecoming, and with who? I went my sophomore and senior years. Sophomore with Andrew and senior with Zac B.

15. If you could go back and do it again, would you? I sometimes say I would like to go back and be sassy, but no, I would never go back. I hated high school.

16. What do you remember most about graduation? Not wanting to walk and also when Dari and I went to Vegas and lived it up on the strip!

17. Where did you go senior skip day? Was there one? I think we skipped at least once a week.

18. Were you in any clubs? Yes, National Honors Society (I know, big nerd).

19. Have you gained some weight since then? Probably about 20 pounds!

20. Who was your prom date? Casey Fannin.

21. Are you planning on going to your 10 year reunion? I really hope I don't have to suffer through another reunion.

22. Looking back, what advice would you give yourself? Don't be so shy!

Tag 5 people: Tina, Stephanie, Carrilyne, Andrea, and Brooke.

Most Creepy Hospital EVER

I had to go with Ryan to the VA Hospital last week so he could get some blood work done due to an incident when heworked there. He made me walk through these really creepy tunnels that run underneath the hospital. There were no doors, no windows, only a few flickering lights and random weird people walking through the hall. It was really stuffy and uncomfortable, but what an experience! Hopefully I never have to do that again. It really creeped me out. I felt like I was in a horror film.

Dunn Family Happy Birthday

So my family has a unique way of singing happy birthday to each other. It's like on Dumb on Dumber when he says "do you want to hear the most annoying sound in the world?" Yeah, just like that. The purpose of the song is to sing way off key and completely embarrass each other. The kids HATE it! They usually plug their ears, but as you can see, it just paralyzes Chloe.

Ryan has Relapsed

So, I'm a little late getting this on here, but it's true. Ryan has relapsed. He started playing the drums with his band again. It's actually kind of fun to watch him play. He's very good. They played last week at the Utah Arts Festival. Alesha and I decided to go get our faces painted while we were at the show. We are such dorks. We decided our kids are in heaven laughing at us and thinking what cools moms they will one day have.
I loved the Arts Festival! We had a lot of fun.

MOAB!

Moab was amazing. I think we often take Utah for granted. There is such beauty here that we just don't take advantage of. As we were getting ready to leave on Thursday evening, the skydiving people called us and told us the guys couldn't go skydiving because one of their planes got blown over in the wind. We were very angry. This was the whole reason we were going to Moab. Well, we decided to go and have fun anyway. We loaded up the truck and off we went. Six of us in a truck. What an experience! The first day in Moab we took the 4-wheelers to Onion Creek. What a great ride! You cross the creek 27 times. By the time we were done we were soaking wet. It was 118 degrees down there so the water felt really good.

Thank goodness the skydiving people changed their minds. The guys ended up going skydiving, just not when we had originally planned. We waited all day Saturday for the plane and jumpers to be ready and finally around 3:30 dad and Ryan got to take off. The plane was in great shape! Not ready to fall apart at all. It was very tiny and very scary. I was a little nervous for them, but they seemed just fine with a crappy old plane. I think they were so nervous at that point they didn't care what the plane looked like. After all, they were attached to a parachute. What's the worst that could happen? Well, all 3 guys made it safe to the ground after a short fall from the sky. They were like little screaming blueberries. Ryan, what a funny guy! Ryan and Josh had the same tandem jumper. That guy must have been exhausted! I watched him jump 4 or 5 times that day.

Well, we had a great time. We all lived without injury, only a few bug bites and sunburns.

Lots and Lots

So, I haven't posted anything for a while because our lives have been crazy busy! Since Memorial Day got snowed out we camped in front of my parents house in their trailer. Can we get anymore white trash?

We even did dutch oven turkey with veggies and also a cherry cobbler. My favorite! Memorial Day in Elk Ridge. What a way to spend the holiday! It actually was a lot of fun. We stayed up late and listened to scary stories.

Next came Ryan's birthday. The love of my life turned 29! Holy crap! 29 years old! I'm still in denial that we have to get older. I got him an ice cream cake from Cold Stone. He also gets to go skydiving this week for his birthday. It's a late birthday gift. Look at his hands in this picture. You can see his excitement over blowing out his candles.

Then came Ryan's high school reunion. What a fun day for me! It was really good to see all of our friends we don't get to see that often.

We went to the carnival in Springville and I entered a raffel for some salon in Springville. Look, I won! Now we won't have to buy shampoo for a really long time thanks to The Retreat Salon!

Get excited! This is the weekend for the skydive! I'm freaking out way more than the people who are actually jumping. Watch for those pictures.

The Big Jump

If you are wondering what the countdown to the big jump is, Ryan is getting to go skydiving for his birthday. I'm scared to death for him. Moab skydiving here we come!

Snowbird and Play Date

Every year Ryan and I go to Snowbird. We have a time share that I say is the plague. I absolutely love it up there, but I hate paying the fees every year, especially with only me working. We go the last week of ski season. This year it was rainy and snowy and gross, so we were pretty much stuck in the room all day.

Josh and Sindee came up and watched the Jazz game with us. Typical Josh picture. He wanted to see if he could fit the entire glass in his mouth. Apparently he can. This is the only picture I have from Snowbird.

On Tuesday this week we had Chloe over for a play date. Every couple of months I take either Josh or Chloe while Tina goes to dance to give Jesse a break from the kids and also because I love to spend time with them.

We picked Chloe up from Tina and she freaked out! She is such a momma's girl. Once Tina was out of sight, Chloe was just fine. We went to Wendy's and had "ice keem" and krabby patties. Chloe was very nice to share her frosty with me. Yum.

After Wendy's we went and fed the ducks. Chloe LOVED the ducks. I'm pretty sure she wanted to pick them up. She kept saying, "duck, quack, quack."

We just love our nieces and nephews. Isn't she adorable?

Hotel Cafe Tour

So, last Saturday Sindee and I made our way to The Avalon to partake of one of the best concerts I have ever been to. We went to see Ingrid Michaelson, who

I just love. I first heard her music on the Old Navy sweater commercial. I googled her and ever since she has been one of my favs to listen to. Anyway, this show was just amazing. Ever artist that played was breath-taking. What was funny is I love the movie Garden State and I LOVE the soundtrack. There is a song on there that I have listened to more than any other song on my Ipod. I never knew who sang the song until this night. I was so excited. It was Cary Brothers. After the show was over Sindee and I were walking back to the car and we saw their bus and a few of the guys standing behind the venue. We went and met Cary and the bass player. It was interesting.

Needless to say, it was a very fun night.

No Posts

So, many of you have complained that I never post anything. Let me explain. Usually I work in a little tiny office in the middle of medical records at Utah Valley. The temperature varies and I'm usually very uncomfortable. Quite often I get multiple phone calls a day from angry doctors or their offices screaming about something I cannot even control. It's way lots of fun. This usually results in pounding headaches, to which I will then proceed to put my hand over my face and massage my temples. (see photo) Staring at the computer screen just adds to the amounts of fun when I get these headaches. By the time I come home, I don't want to look at the computer, because I'm usually too ticked off. Hence the reason I don't ever post anything. (I'm home today without the phone ringing with angry doctors. What a breath of fresh air!)

I've Been Tagged

How long have you and your significant other been together? I believe since August 22, 2003

Who eats more? Ryan eats more, but sometimes I can out eat him depending on the day

Who said "I love you" first? Probably me

Who is taller? Duh, Ryan. I'm a short stack

Who sings better? Ryan, there is no hope for me.

Who is smarter? Who has the 4.0. Obviously Ryan, not me.

Who does the laundry? Most of the time me unless Ryan needs his scrubs or jeans that I haven't washed yet, then he'll just wash those.

Who does the dishes? Ryan.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Is there a right side of the bed?

Who pays the bills? I pay the bills. Ryan can't work because of school.

Who mows the lawn? Ryan or his mom. I was never allowed to mow the lawn growing up. Maybe because I am a clutz? I don't know.

Who cooks dinner? Me or Ryan's mom. We take turns.

Who drives when you are together? Usually me because I drive our baby car Eduardo, which is a lot nicer than Ryan's clunker Honda.

Who is more stubborn? Me for sure. Ryan is ultra laid back.

Whose parents do you see the most? Well, we live with Ryan's mom. We never see his dad and we see my parents almost every week.

Who kissed who first? Ryan kissed me first.

Who proposed? Ryan at the art museum. It was very cute.

Who is more sensitive? Me. I am very emotional and very sensitive.

Who has more friends? Ryan has lots more.

Who has more siblings? Ryan. His family is like the Brady Bunch 3 girls, 3 boys.

Who wears the pants? Depends.

I tag Andrea and Brooke.

Angel Babies

I have finally experienced something I will never forget. I had the opportunity to go to the newborn ICU last night. You know when you mom says "don't stare" because somebody is "special," well I couldn't stop staring. I think the nurses were looking at me like "this lady is crazy, get her out of here." They were very nice though and let me stare at these precious babies.

They were so delicate and tiny. I was in a room full of big machines whizzing and whirling and I would forget that right behind me, just a foot away, was a baby no bigger than a doll. It's foot was as big as my thumb and it's skin was transparant. The cool thing was I think I could feel the angles with these babies. There was such a calm feeling. It brought tears to my eyes. Everything was so peaceful. These babies are so fragile and only being kept alive by a machine 50 times their size. They have breathing tubes and feeding tubes and IVs. It was definitely a very humbling experience. I think God must be holding each and every child in there. It was a very amazing experience.

It was absolutely amazing to see 20 or 30 babies just laying there. Their diapers were so tiny and yet when on the babies, they look huge. I just wanted to pick these tiny ones up and love them. I felt just being in their presence I was going to contaminate their sheltered world. I can't even imagine being a parent to one of these babies and how hard it must be to see them like that.

Our anniversary

I have the cutest husband in the world! He has been doing his clinicals for school at the VA in SLC. We decided for our anniversary to go to the Anniversary Inn. I went to pick him up from the VA and there he was standing on the corner with a vase full of flowers. It was the cutest thing I have seen. I wish I could have taken a picture of it. We stayed in the Italian Gondola room at Anniversary Inn, which was very fun. I can't believe how time flies. We have already been married 3 years!

New job...

For the last week I have taken over as what I like to call "mini boss." My job has done a complete 180. I'm lucky if I get to type a document now. I kind of miss it sometimes. My life is very chaotic now. I have people e-mailing constantly and IM-ing me. It's making me feel very popular for a minute. I have to pretend to be smart with computers and programs. Anyway, my life is totally crazy with all of that. I should find out soon if I actually get to apply for the "big boss" position. I'm very nervous for that job. Wish me luck!

I'm self-smarted

So thanks to Stephanie I have learned how to put music on my profile. YAY!

So, Sindee and I thought we were really cool when Alvin, my parent's neighbor shot an elk and brought it home on New Year's Day and we got to go see it. Sindee was petting it and loving it (remember it is cut wide open and bloody at this point). Anyway, we were laughing so hard when we decided to "walk" like an elk with it's legs. This is really morbid and gross. This is us holding up it's head after they had skinned it. The video is of me doing the elk walk.

So yes, Sindee and I are kind of crazy. This is how we spend New Year's Day.