Playing with Bella

     Bella is the youngest of the Brady family.  Bella was born February 22, 2012 at the UAB Hospital.  She is almost 7 months old and is a joy to be around.  Bella can roll around on the floor but she can't crawl yet and is close to sitting on her own.  Bella enjoys it when you play with her.

     Flat Stella likes to play with Bella.  Today, she was watching Bella and was able to make her laugh.  Flat Stella played with Bella in her jungle gym and in her walker.  Flat Stella had Flat Stanley come and help her make Bella smile.  The video below shows Flat Stella and Flat Stanley playing with Bella.  Simply click the play button to view the video.

 

 

Nuclear Medicine Lab

     Flat Stanley and Flat Stella were able to visit the nuclear medicine lab today.  The nuclear medicine lab is in the School of Health Professions at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and is used to train students wanting to become nuclear medicine technologists.  A nuclear medicine technologist performs diagnostic tests and therapies on patients using radioactive drugs.  Some of the tests include stress tests, bone scans, lung scans, thyroid uptakes, and many more.  A nuclear medicine technologist has to be board certified and usually works at the hospital or at an outpatient facility.

     In the lab, everyone must wear a lab coat, whole body badge, and a finger ring.  The lab coat protects a person from a radiation spill.  The whole body badge and finger ring is used to detect personal radiation exposure.  Flat Stanley and Flat Stella put on their lab coats, badges, and rings and participated in the radiation safety lab.  They learned about using time, distance, and shielding as a means to lower their radiation exposure.  Flat Stanley learned the basics of using a single channel analyzer and Flat Stella learned to operate a Geiger-Müller detector.  Both of these pieces of equipment detect radiation.  Flat Stanley and Flat Stella got to ride on the gamma camera.  Patients in nuclear medicine are usually scanned using a gamma camera like the one seen in the picture below.

     After learning about radiation safety in the lab, Flat Stanley and Flat Stella went out for pizza with the students.  Unfortunately it was raining outside so they had to use an umbrella.  After pizza, they got to sit in a class with the nuclear medicine students and learned about reading 12-lead EKG.  Except for the rain, Flat Stanley and Flat Stella had a great time learning about what a nuclear medicine technologist is all about.

Golden Flake

    
     Flat Stanley and Flat Stella went to visit the snack food company known as Golden Flake. Golden Flake is located in Birmingham, Alabama and started back in 1923. Golden Flake makes a variety of items but is most famous for their chips.

 
     Golden Flake offers free tours of their manufacturing plant Monday thru Wednesday. The tour is under an hour in length. Flat Stanley and Flat Stella took the entire tour. While inside the plant, they had to both wear hairnets, closed-toed shoes, and were not allowed to take pictures. At the beginning of the tour, a video of the history of Golden Flake was shown. Next, a walking tour of the plant was taken. Flat Stanley and Flat Stella both got to eat samples of cheese curls and hot potato chips. After the tour, Flat Stanley and Flat Stella went outside of the plant with some friends. The weather was nice and hot outside and was perfect for playing in the Golden Flake truck.

 

Church

     The Brady family attends church on a regular basis.  They go to Gardendale First Baptist Church.  Worship services for this church are on Sundays and Wednesdays.  The music at this church is incredible.  They have a huge choir and an orchestra each Sunday.  There are so many people at the services that the police have to direct traffic in and out of the church. There are many activities to participate in the church. Ethan participates in the children's choir and the baseball team.  

     Flat Stanley and Flat Stella went with Ethan to a special bible study.  After the bible study, they were able to fellowship with friends and got to eat pizza.  Flat Stanley really liked the pizza.  After the pizza, Flat Stanley, Flat Stella, and Ethan went outside to walk around the church because it was such a nice evening.  There was a cool breeze in the air. 

     For more information regarding the church, please use the following link that will take you to the church's website: http://gfbconline.com/.

Grocery Store

    

The Brady family usually goes to the grocery store at least once a week.  During the week, the family has a list that is posted to the refrigerator of items that are needed.  They try to have a dinner menu for the week so that they can plan ahead for the items that will be needed at the store.  There are several grocery stores they go to but today they went to Foodland in Gardendale.  It was perfect timing for the trip because it was in the evening around 7:30pm when most families were at home.  Therefore, the store was not very crowded.  Also, the weather was perfect with no clouds in sight and the temperature was around 70°F. 

     At the store, Flat Stanley and Flat Stella got to ride in the shopping cart.  They also picked out their favorite cereals which included Fruit Loops and Kellogg Corn Flakes.  Ethan got to get some snacks for the week and decided on bananas and apples which were healthy choices.  It took about an hour for us to complete the shopping.  After shopping, we had to pay at the register for all of the items.  The whole family, except for Bella, helped put the groceries up when we got home.

 

Trip to the Beach

Flat Stanley and Flat Stella headed to the beach in Gulf Shores, Alabama.   They went to the beach with the Brady family which included Jason, Amy, Ethan, Bella, Grandma Brady, and Papa Brady.  The trip to the beach took about five hours.  It was a difficult trip for little Bella Grace who was only six months old because she did not enjoy being in a car seat for so long.  After arriving to the beach, the Brady family checked-in to the nice condo.  The beach was so beautiful with the white sand and emerald water.  The weather was perfect with sunshine and clear skies.

At the beach, the family attended a wedding.  The wedding took place in the evening just as the sun was setting.  After the wedding, the family went to eat at a seafood restaurant.  The food was incredible!  The next day, the family stayed at the beach and the pool for most of the day.  Ethan enjoyed digging a hole in the sand.  Little Bella Grace got to swim in the pool.  She really likes splashing in the water.  Flat Stanley and Flat Stella enjoyed hanging out on the beach but had to go back to the condo after an hour so that they didn't get sunburned.  Overall, the trip to the beach was really fun!