The Garden . . . AKA strip of dirt in our 'backyard'

My latest project . . .

Transforming a neglected weed festering strip of dirt into something pleasant.

                                       before                                                                   after

Even our Turtles that we keep in the back are happier!
They don't have to bush-wack it to there little home. 

Before

After
I also planted rows of lettuce and sugar snap peas on the other side of the Phoenix Roebelenii bush by the bikes. 

It has been a long process especially cause the only time I have to work on it is on Tuesday and Wednesdays. And at that time, everyone else is working, so it has been a one woman task . . . but definitely worth the effort. I go outside everyday to enjoy it. But, now it is up in the 90's so, don't know how often I'll be going out there . . . HOT!!!

Little Bit about Life as of Late

Well.

I am home for conference. Figured I would let anyone know, just in case they wanted to play this week. I'll be here until the 6th of April.

Work is going SO Well! I love it! I have my schedule figured out and am working 4 twelve hour shifts a week. I work Thursday, Friday, Saturday from 5 pm to 5 am. And then Mondays at 10 am. Kinda hard to switch to the day shift like that, but that's the scheduling office for yah, they really didn't think that would affect me and my partner to much. The hard part of it is, my weekend is on Tuesday and Wednesday, so dates are hard to schedule (not like I get asked much anyway, but hey).

I work on ambulance AP49 with Jason, who is freaking amazing!! He knows exactly where everything is and what needs to happen. I'll turn around to ask him to set something up, and he'll already have it ready, he anticipates like crazy! He is so good! We have way to much fun! We get run ragged though. The second we clear from a hospital after taking a patient there, dispatch drops another call on us. Which is good because it makes the night go a little faster, but it is very taxing! They only have a few ambulances running at night on the weekend covering the whole valley, so you can imagine how much they run us. The craziest part of it is, we'll easily put over 200 miles on a rig a night. Poor Jason has to drive so much, and he gets so tired sometimes. I have only had to throw things at him a couple of times from the back of the rig while we've had a patient, just to make sure he's alert, yah know. At any rate, I am loving my job, loving my room mates and my house. I am in the process of planting a garden, that will probably be my next post, that backyard is very neglected, but not for long.

Anyway. Life is grand!

Transportation

Dominican Republic

Well, it has been a month since I have been in the wonderful Country of the Dominican Republic. And boy do I miss it! Don't get me wrong, I am loving Arizona, but I do miss my Familia Dominicana.

Some of my favorites . . .

What you wake up to, and watch the sun go down in. So Vast! 

For years I have tried to capture Joe doing this face!!! I finally got it! And, it is just a Great looking shot of the guys! All pretty in their blue! 

Here is the entire crew. 

Our best day so far! the total: 103. 

Roberto!! My Bachata Instructor, Dive buddy, and Body Guard. Whom he calls "Watchyman"

Cookie!! Takes care of EVERYBODY!! He is so great! And his dimples just make me smile! 

Roboco y Cookie

Some random kid in the street popping a wheelie side saddle style, and then doing donuts in that same position . . . SKill! 

And where would the boat be without the infamous all-seeing Canelo? 

He is probably going to be our future captain. He practically is already. Man, I have a lot of respect for this kid. He just knows how to have a good time to! 

Love the boat! Miss it like crazy! Excited to get back there soon. 

Well, we can start with this . . .

So Much has happened in the past month of my life! I will start with the basics.

I got HOME from the Dominican Republic on the morning of the 8th of February.


While I was still there,
             I got these pics emailed to me on February 3,
                         My courageous car tried to take on a snow-plow head on. The results . . .

Somehow Dad ALWAYS has a back-up plan.

          He arranged a new vehicle for me . . . And now, I am sporting a Dodge Ram 1500.

 Okay, so that's the car situation. 

I moved to Arizona. 

I live in a condo house thing with 4 other girls. They are so much fun! 

I have my own room. Of which I Love! When, I actually get to be in it. 

I am working as a paramedic for Southwest Ambulance. I have been with the company for 15 days and already worked a grand total of 186 hours. Mathematically, that would be the equivalent of working 12 hours every day I have been here. I have had six 24 hour shifts. 

And countless other crazy random shifts.

I WORK A LOT! 

Which, I get paid Time and a half after I work 40 hours within a pay period, which is just 2 days of working for me. for this pay period, which started Saturday, I have already acquired 50 hours. And there are still 10 more days left in the pay period! I'm pretty excited! Making Bank. 

Everything is going good. My singles ward is way funny, and HUGE!  

Welp, that's about all the time I have to update. More to come . . . sometime.

 Thanks for reading. 

After months of Searching . . .

Two Words . . . . 

   JOB HUNTING! 

Two more words . . . . 

                 MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

Job Title: Paramedic for South West Ambulance

 

I'll be running my own paramedic truck starting in February for an ambulance service down in Phoenix Arizona. I'm pretty excited. It's a little bit farther south than I would want to be right now . . . I have liked being close to the family. But, a job is a job. 

And finally after 2 months of dedicated searching, and referrals, and names and numbers and calling and searching, etc . . . I finally got the perfect job for what I need to do right now to get my foot in the door and get going with my career. 

Phoenix, here I come. (After I go to The Dominican, of course)

Now, I just need a place to live . . . 

                Anyone have any good suggestions or referrals?

                            Let me know.

Even if it's a "Hey Karli, I heard that there's this place on the south of the city that is terrible to live . . . Avoid it." Any input or help would be muchly appreciated. All I know about Phoenix is that it is hot! And the Suns play there for basketball. 

   I'm looking into the Mesa/Tempe/Gilbert side of the city if that helps. Let me know, if you know, of anyone who has friends or relatives I can chat it up with to find the best place to live. 

Winter Festivities

I LOVE THE SNOW!!

For New Year's I went up to one of my friends cabins up in Big Cotton Wood Canyon. . . THERE WAS SO MUCH SNOW!!!! It Was Great!! There was a path cleared off the tin roof for everyone to slide down, my goodness!! . . . IT was Screamin Fast! It only lasted a couple of seconds, but it was one of those drops that your heart goes into your throat and you seriously can't breathe! It was so fun! I went down about 20 times! My first run was in the dark on New Year's Eve . . . I stayed outside for about 3 hours before we dropped our own beach ball to welcome in 2011 because there was no TV.  There were ice caves built, and showtunes on the pedalling/playing/reel piano. The cabin was 47*F the entire night. The pipes froze up on us a couple of times, but it was so much fun! And totally worth it! 

Climbing to the top of the slippery slide to go flying off the roof. 

Getting some sweet powdery air! This thing is so FAST!!

TON OF SNOW!!! I LOVE IT!! 

The swing set to the left. The shed to the right. Notice that you can jump to the roof from the snow line. It is TALL! 

The ice cave he built was to sturdy, so he decided to jump up and down . . . Then it broke. 

Our New Year's group! (There were about 35 other people up at the cabin, but these were my good friends that I went up with. Lisa on the far left is the one whose relatives own the cabin. It was so much fun! And tie-dye man . . . Well, those are his mom's long-johns that he got her for a mother's day gift a while ago that she never wore . . . I think he planned that one out well for himself. 

Dont even worry . . . . 

I took full advantage of that opportunity!