I don't know if I ever mentioned this...

BUT-

I am in nursing school. My last year actually (hallelujah!).

This is my excuse for being rated amongst the World's Top Ten List of negligent bloggers. OK, only my family's top ten list. OK, for real- I am the only sorta-"blogger" in my family and I still manage to be the very worst.

So anyways, the point was that right now in nursing school we are covering Pediatrics Integumentary stuff. Included in that is pediatric burns **shudder**.

Side note- here is a current picture of us tempting fate:

I was curious to re-visit our experience with pediatric burns, so I came here. To this crappy blog. And it turns out that this blog isn't all that bad after all- as long as you are willing to look back a couple years.

Dang, my kids are so cute. And they are growing so fast! Ridiculous fast! It makes me motivated enough to randomly post something.

So here's the latest rundown on us, just in case you aren't my Facebook friend. Or if you are Future Shay, looking back to see what was going on in your life circa October 2010.

I can't wait to be done with school/Kyle always deploys/Myah is a competitive gymnast/Aevyn rocks. Over the summer, there was a big oil spill that washed up on our beach and Kyle took the girls on a 3 week road trip to visit family in Maine. (Note: the oil spill and Kyle's roadtrip were somewhat simultaneous, but otherwise unrelated)

So here's some recent pictures of girls at the Zoo:

And here's some pictures of the girls in action:

Someone at our house is 6 years old and rides a two-wheeler!

Someone else at our house is still 3 years old, but quickly closing in on 4. She literally climbs the walls

Awww, everyone loves their Daddy!

Too Gory For Facebook

Because inquiring minds want to know (you sick freaks).

Here is my toe. Or more descriptively, what is left of my toenail.

Simple story: I slipped on a wet bathroom floor and jammed my toe on the floor trim. It hurt, but not as much as you'd expect. I felt blood, looked down, and saw that my toenail had been torn out from it's roots. It's still attached at the tip, but is freestyling it in the rear. Haha, I have a mullet toenail: business in the front, party in the back.

It actually doesn't look too bad after I cleaned it up last night:

Cousin Kylie had painted my toes a couple weeks ago, so you can see where the cuticle line USED to be. Everything behind that line started yesterday beneath the protective coverings of my toe flesh. What you can't see is that the skin along the sides of my nail is pretty torn too. I think that's where all the blood came from.

Like I said, that picture was from last night. It's a bit more bruised and swollen today.

A Fresh, New, Blogging Year

Happy 2010!

And welcome back to me from the longest blogging break to date. We have been super duper busy (and lazy too!) We just returned from a little vacation home to Alaska to visit the folks, and I was reminded several times by my father of how wonderful it is to be able to get update on the girls via the blog. Apparently not everyone has Facebook, huh Poppy?

I have a feeling that everyone that follows our blog already knows what we're up to. In case you need the summary:

Myah- successfully turned 5 and has started to read and write more proficiently. She also does everything else really really good.

Aevyn- recent accomplished a 3rd birthday. Loves her sister and tries to keep up with her on everything. She also has many skillz worth noting. Not that I'm going to note them right here, right now- you should just be aware that she has them.

Kyle- still in the Air Force, still deploying and coming home on a regular basis. He continues to pursue his running and recently did pretty good on his first half marathon. Not much else to report about this guy.

Shay- in nursing school now! A horrible blogger, but adequate mother and still trying to learn good gardening behaviors. 99.98% of my life is summed up in the phrase "in nursing school now..."

That is the brief summary of the past 6 or 7 months. I resolve to post pictures next time.

Shiver Me Timbers

It's a pirate invasion!











Billy Bowlegs has captured the town, and we were lucky enough to witness the old-timey skirmish

Aevyn was being camera-shy...

Myah getting ready to watch the pirate fireworks

Eating popcorn!

Pictures to prove that we really did go to the Bahamas and leave the girls behind for 4 days

We drank some Bahama alcohol. Kalik beer

And the BEST pina colada I've ever had in my life! REAL coconut and a shot of Bailey's...heavens to Betsy, the memory of that pina colada will be cherished forever

Read, in bed, with a sunburn. And no kids jumping on me!

Nassau- the most interesting stop on our trip

Lots of forts to guard against the pirates, arrrgh.

Kyle the Gunner never leaves his work far behind

At last, Kyle meets the strong hand of justice

Our accomodations

So excited that a stranger made the bed and a towel animal for us.

Our cell phones worked the whole time, but kept changing the date back to Oct 1999 (before our cell phones were even made). Kyle is certain it was the Bermuda Triangle

Stirrup Cay, the private island owned by Norwegian Cruise Lines, and our last stop on our cruise. It was either this or a "Fun Day At Sea" that is offered by other cruise lines.

Kyle found a spot with a little breathing room

Merry Christmas Mom

I've updated my blog and added some pictures.
You'll have to wait for actual Christmas pictures though
Hug hug kiss kiss

Excursion 4

Honduras!
The stop I was most looking forward to. Amy and my dad went diving, leaving us Griffins with Brian, Kylie and Bobo. The "get off the boat and hire a taxi/tourguide" thing was working for us, so we decide to do that again.

The first stop, obviously a scenic one.
I don't know that child, but he sure is cute picking flowers, huh?

Meeting the monkeys at the Iguana Farm

Getting brave and touching the iguanas- on their spikes

In the backseat of the van, Kylie and Myah made up a song. They even choreographed it for a birthday performance for Kyle (it was his birthday)

Look outside at Honduras!

Study everything that you can see

Trees!

Monkeys!

Iguanas!

Iguanas!

Iguanas!

(The only monkeys and iguanas that they saw were at the iguana farm. Monkeys aren't even native to the area, I think)

Myah's new BFF, our tour guide

Excursion 2- Cozumel

Another day, another exotic touristy adventure
Off the boat without a cruise-sanctioned booked excursion. We are prepared for anything.


The Hellmich are adventurous, fly-by-the-seat-of-their-pants kind of people too. We let them tag along with us.
Our big adventure consisted of getting a taxi/tourguide and circumnavigating the island

Punta Sur



Discovering the world of the Ancient Mayans. Cozumel was their fertility island (I sincerely pray that it's magical powers are no longer applicable to my modern lady parts. If there is any baby making magic left on that land, I choose to donate my portion to Amy)

Not only did our tourguide/taxi driver drive us and educate us, he fed us too! When it was time for lunch, the conversation went something like this: "Are you hungry? I can take you to my mom's house"
So we ate lunch in our tourguide/taxi driver's mom's living room. We enjoyed every morsel, and no one got sick from Mexican ice or anything crazy like that.

Back at the tourist village at the cruise port.

Suddenly everything is exceptionally clean and colorful. And conveniently Duty-Free

You say smoking does WHAT?!?!?!

Myah's Mexican Beauty Maker

I'm such a mean mom, I made Myah negotiate the deal herself (The lady wanted $20US, Myah offered $10...Myah got what she wanted!)

Cousin Kylie approves

A goodbye Mexico, silly-seat snuggle

First Excursion, Part II

With the kids safely tucked away in the Camp Carnival, we grown-ups were free to do what we really wanted to do- get into a hot, over crowded taxi van and go to Hell

Back on the boat, the girls were tranformed into some sort of Blue's Clues creatures.

Myah obviously loved this a whole heck of a lot more then the pirate thing

Aevyn was feeling a little shy about it