I went a little overboard at the grocery store yesterday. They say to never shop while you're hungry because you'll buy junk food you crave. They also say not to shop when you're sad because you'll look to food to fill the void.

I learned yesterday not to shop when you're sad, hungry, and planning a party, because you not only buy unnecessary food, but you buy A LOT of unnecessary food.

Yesterday I was just being a girl, waffling between loneliness and anti-socialness. I'd get motivated to clean and shop and prepare for an hour, then I'd flop on the couch and watch tv for a few hours. Joe came home and I started talking, and I swear, I started out laughing and ended up crying - FOR NO REASON. Yay hormones.

We slept in this morning and Joe made me get up because he said I had to do stuff. Yet, two hours later, we are still in our pj's and we've watched three episodes of The Tick. We are so pathetic.

It'll be good to get back to school. I'm going crazy inside my head here!

I just got back from Costco and Safeway. All I can say is, Angela and becca, try not to eat too much before the party. That is all.

Update.

Merry Belated Christmas, and Happy New Year!

I've been at my in-laws for Christmas since the 22nd, so I feel I haven't had much to post about because I haven't been home to accomplish things.  I have been doing a lot of fun stuff, yesterday I went with Justin and his parents to the Bata Shoe Museum and the Textile Museum in Toronto, something I've been wanting to do for a while now.  Also, this week, I sewed an apron!  I helped my sister-in-law make one too.  I will post pics later when I get home.  Other exciting news.....Justin and I are going to Cuba on January 3rd for a week!  We have been saving for a while to be able to take a trip sort of as a "second honeymoon" because we didn't go anywhere warm for our first honeymoon.  I'm so excited to be able to go...I miss the beach so much, and it'll be great spend so much time with Justin.

Can I also brag that I've run on the treadmill twice while being here?  Its been difficult to motivate myself while on vacation mode...and ideally I would have gone more than twice...but I never seem to reach my ideal goals when it comes to working out.

I hope you all have a great New Years!

Slightly more productive today

Hi girls! So I did watch three episodes of Psych today, but I've also almost finished with laundry, tidied the downstairs, and done almost all of my "daily" chores except for...take a shower. I know, how lazy am I? But I'm waiting for the laundry to be done!!!

Tomorrow evening is the party! I'm going to go out later today and do my shopping to avoid the party rush tomorrow. If either of you girls are pregnant you'd better tell me so I can put away the Costco sized Mike's drink selection. =P Here's what I must do before then:

• Figure out snacks and drinks
  
• Vacuum downstairs
• Mop downstairs
• Set up the heater in our bedroom so Shea doesn't freeze; turn it on tomorrow
• Clean downstairs bathroom

Here are unrelated party things I'd like to do:

• Take Safeway's nicotine test to prove that I'm not a smoker and I deserve a discount on my health insurance
• Enter in addresses from all received christmas cards for next year's Christmas card list
• Take stuff to Goodwill (or put it upstairs till I have enough to justify a trip).

Not really that much, actually. Should be doable.

I'm starting to look forward to school. I know I'm getting restless when I think, "I should start a business". That's what happens when I'm home all day looking at houses and money and bank accounts. I want to make money. But instead I just paid over $4000 in tuition.

Joe gets home in 8 hours. And then he'll be exhausted because he worked 12 hours yesterday too...in fact, he drove all the way to Olympia when they said "actually, we need you in Tacoma today". They compensated him for the extra driving time, but still. Last night I hardly heard two words from him, he just relaxed a little and went to bed. My poor hardworking husband...and here I sit and type on this blog.

Well, tonight I'll make sure I have some yummy snack waiting for him - something I've made that's not leftover Christmas candy. Oh, and we'll have lots of that tomorrow too! =P I might even share my Aplets and Cotlets.

Can you tell I'm eager for someone to talk to?! Girl time tomorrow! It's been so long!!!! Sigh.

Love you girls,

Amber

another post! And a sigh of relief!

 I am posting because I just tackled a task I have been procrastinating on doing for over a month!   Since my husband is a minister, and we are technically "self-employed" for tax reasons, we have to track all of my husbands mileage and expenses so we can write it off at the end of the year.  He doesn't have an office, which is good and bad.  It means that anywhere he pays to use (such as Starbucks) as an office space, we get to write off the travel mileage and the expense.  But this also means a lot of receipts and a lot of using Google maps to figure out distances (I've got a pretty good system down by now, though).

Anyway, I usually try to do it every 1 - 2 weeks so it doesn't all pile up and take me forever. Heh.


Before tonight, I hadn't gotten us caught up since November 7th!  Yikes.  So, an hour later, we're looking good.  And now, tomorrow (fingers crossed), I can get our taxes almost finalized for the year so we can make our last payment and have everything ready to submit early (paying quarterly taxes is kind of a pain, but I'm kind of glad now because I don't have to do as much work or worry about a big payment at the end of the year).


I'm considering scanning all of our receipts into the computer and compiling them into a PDF so I can just keep an electronic copy and don't have to hang on to all of them, but we'll see if I get around to that!


Thrilling, I know!  But I really am glad I got that done with!  PHEW!


Anyway!   Today I had a really nice day!  I have SO been enjoying sleeping in and being with Shea all day during break - I feel like a real mom again (not that moms who work are NOT moms, but you know what I mean, right?) .  Its actually very hard to believe that I am going back to work on Monday _ I nearly forgot that I have a job!  Jeremy and I were talking today about me not going back to work next year.  We're not really starving for extra income and I don't want to miss any more time with Shea.  Ok, Tangent.  Back to business. ;)

This is from the day after Christmas -
can you believe how insanely old my son looks here?
He is sitting on his chair from his Great Grandpa
(now he likes to stand on it though...he is all boy!)

We played a lot this morning, and then went out to run some errands - some fun ones involved (well, maybe not for Shea):

• we filled up the car with gas at Costco
• went to Old Navy (I saw they had 60% clearance, so I had to go in!  I got some much needed pajamas for Shea, a sweater for myself, and a hoodie for Jeremy - early b'day present)
• went to the T-Mobile store to try and get a phone fixed (they couldn't help though)
• went to Ross to check for more clothes for Shea (didn't find any good ones)
• Came home and had lunch, put Shea down for a nap
• Put away all the clean laundry and vacuumed the bedroom (which also means it was CLEAN enough to vacuum)
• Went grocery shopping
• At this point, I finally took a shower (about 3 in the afternoon)
• Made Shea dinner, gave him a bath, read a few books to him, and put him to bed.

I also got all of our Christmas stuff down and put away yesterday.  I normally leave it up until after new years, but since I have to go back to work next week and I was getting tired of having less space due to the tree, it came down.  Here is my mantel post-Christmas:

And now, here I am.  My husband went out to Starbucks to meet with a guy he's been working with, so I am home in the quiet with the heat on, and I am thinking about making myself a cup of green and white tea.

Oh, and this totally cracked me up today:

Shea is a  baby-wearing baby!  He was just walking around with this baby in his sweater giving it kisses on the back of its head! (and isn't that a cute new sweater I got at goodwill for .99 cents!?)

Did you girls get snow over there?  They said it was going to snow here, but its been clear blue skies all day - I'm sure it will get very cold tonight, though!

Stay warm!

It's been too long

How pathetic that I have had two weeks off school and haven't been posting! I'm so busy wasting time...

That's not entirely true. The week before Christmas was busy, of course - and even more so since Joe and I are deep into the house hunt. We looked at 14 houses in one day last week! Yesterday I got carried away while putting together the next batch of houses to look at, and dinner was an hour late. (That was also because I couldn't figure out my new rice cooker, which was annoying. If it keeps working like this, I'm going to take it back and stick with my old one, which still works better than my new one even if does need a new inner pot.)

I'm enjoying this Christmas break thing to the max - husband is at work, and no school, no job, and no kids. This is why I only feel a little bit guilty for playing computer games almost all morning and for still being in my pj's at 1. But...it's raining so hard outside, and I am drinking tea and it's so cozy. I wish I was tired so I would want to go back to bed.

Those of you who are still working hard are probably scoffing right now.

Angela and becca, I am sooo excited to have you and your husbands over for New Years' Eve! You have no idea!

Candice, I want to hear from you! We missed you and Justin at the Dickson Christmas!

I don't have much to report - just checking in. Love you girls!

Amber

the Christmas that never ends...

Loved your post and all your pictures, Angela!  I'm glad you guys had a nice time at Ambers - the house looked great in the pictures!  We had a great Christmas - and still have one more to go to tonight!  yikes!  I'm kind of feeling a little "christmas-ed out", but thats okay!  There have just been long days/late nights for Shea, but its kind of nice sleeping in for once, since he's so tired.  Today we have just been hanging out in our pajamas - we watched the second little mermaid with Shea while he played with some toys, then I put him down for a nap, and we took showers and I baked some cookies.  


Christmas Eve we had breakfast at my brother's house and hung out for the day.  Later in the evening we went and visited our old home church for their service, and then went to my parents until about 11PM.  We had so much fun on Christmas morning with Shea - he slept in so late though, I finally went and woke him up at 9:30!  We had fun eating locks and bagels and playing with some new toys.

Later int he day we stopped by Jeremy's Grandma's house and then went up to his parent's for Christmas dinner.  There was about half the family there (tonight we'll see everyone), so we just opened a few presents and had some dinner.

I finally got all my christmas presents finished on Thursday.  I made a diaper bag, two baby blankets (two of Jeremy's siblings are expecting), a camera strap cover, and a fun silly stocking for my sister in law that she wanted (matches her baby blanket).

I finally got my Christmas cards hung up on the wall, just in time to take them down. :P

And, I am sharing this picture because I absolutely love wrapping presents.  I had a lot of fun this year with sort of a simplistic scheme.  These are for tonight at Jeremy's brothers house:

And here we are today: Jeremy has been shelling pistachios for me to make some biscotti with while watching the Seahawks game.

And I finished baking up some leftover cookie dough for tonight:

Merry Christmas!!

I haven't blogged in so long! I miss it. :)

On Saturday Paul and I went to a Christmas party at the house of the people I used to work for, my baby is getting so big! She crawls super fast (when she didn't get caught up in her dress) and she stood up tall by pulling herself up on all the tables. She is taller, stronger, faster, I miss her.

Then on sunday we had a christmas party with the Fernandez side of the family! It was so so so fun. We had it at Ambers house. I went over to help her clean the house because she had so much school work to do before the party, and I had so much fun cleaning! Why is it that it is way more fun to clean other peoples house? Maybe because you feel like you are doing a favor instead of doing what you should be doing all the time anyway.

At 7 the party started. Nana and Grandpa came, Steve and Kathy, Amber and Joe, and Paul and I. It was so so so fun. Amber and I think we have started a new tradition. We switch houses every other year, hosting at our houses. It is so fun finally having a sister to plan fun things with! And start new traditions!

Nobody on the Fernandez side of the family likes cameras, but I managed to snap a few cute shots! :)

And here is me today, slippers, sweats, and all my new socks and tights I bought at Target with some Christmas money I got! And those slippers, Amber got a pair too, we are twinsies!

This week is going to be a crazy one, I work the next three days in a row, then go to Salem to see the family (so so so excited), then back for one day of work, then four days off! I don't know how that happened but its pretty exciting. :) In the meantime I need to figure out how to rent out our apartment (the managers have given us 4 different stories and are nottttt being cooperative) and also the logistics of the big moving day!

Have an awesome amazing Christmas girls!

To Angela and becca

Angela and becca, I told you I'd be home tomorrow, but Joe and I are going to look at houses all day tomorrow. So sorry! But you two should totally hang out without me! becca, I'm going to email Angela your phone number.

Amber

a story without love is not worth telling

I snapped a few pics today!  ...Of my son running away from me, my clean living room (my vacuum finally works, yay!), and I dressed in something other than jeans for church today (its been a while since I've dressed semi-nice for church), so I snapped a pic of myself too, hehe.  Last night, I totally cleaned our bedroom out too - it looks SO good. haha.  I didn't take a pic though.  I also:

• vacuumed and cleaned Shea's room
• vacuumed the whole house, actually
• did 3 loads of laundry (its still insane how much more I have to do)
• did most of the dishes
• swept the entry way
• learned and practiced a song for a special today at church
• took a bath

Ok, sorry if this might be a little boring, but I have to tell you girls...today is the first Sunday in the longest, longest, longest time, that I have felt joy.  Jeremy and I have both become very burnt out and jaded after our first year of full-time ministry, and it has been really a struggle to keep a good attitude about things.  I think the biggest reason it has been so hard is that we feel very isolated out here in Port Orchard. Sure, his family is up north a little ways and my family isn't far, but we haven't really found the support that we have come to realize that we really need.  We haven't met many young Christian couples or families, because we don't get much a chance to meet them - not like we can go to church on Sunday morning.  Tonight though, we are planning on checking out a young adults service at a church nearby, I hope we make some connections there.


Anyway, its funny, because we went to my sisters fundraiser thing on Friday just really to help out but I actually felt really refreshed by it!  Sure, it was all amateur musicians, but the thing was that these people were really passionate about their gifts and what God had given them to give out to others.  I loved it.  It has been so long since I've seen that...the people we're working with just don't get it.  They are so self-centered and I really don't have much hope that this body of believers will grow outside of what they are right now.  But that shouldn't change who I am and what I do!  


This morning though, someone must have been praying for me, because I feel so especially joyful!  Just to be made, just to live, just to have what I have and go where I go...and Amber - it was so fun to see you!  Its so funny, it felt just like we were at May Valley hanging out at something like we used to, I'm glad you came! :)  And I'm looking forward to spending more time with you on Tuesday!


Thanks for letting me ramble on!  Like I said, I don't get out much, haha.

Paul and I...

...bought a house! It should close January 14th. We may get the keys before then and start moving in. :) Its in Auburn near Pacific Raceways if you know where that is. We love it. It's a 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath home in amazing shape. It has a huge walk in closet in the master and the laundry room is on the top floor. I have way more to post about, but it will have to wait till tomorrow, I just had to show you girls some pictures. :)

Almost done!

I'm almost done with this semester. I turned in my essay just now and I just have a final that consists of two essay questions. I probably won't finish that today, just work on it a little bit.

Wiggle attacked Jasmine today. She got thrown into the bathroom. If she can't get along with these other cats, she's going back outside. She loves humans, but apparently not other cats.

Christmas party tonight with some of Joe's friends I haven't met yet.

It's 2 PM and I just showered and am making lunch for us! Pathetic!

Sorry my posts are short and uninteresting lately. It helps just to brag about what I've accomplished!

Amber

Today

So, last night when I said I was going to do more schoolwork, I realized I had been doing it for 8 hours and I still have three days before the assignments are due. Even though I'd rather get them done early, there's no sense in exhausting myself prematurely.

I got my blood drawn yesterday. She asked me to sit in the chair, so I did, and I said "by the way, I've fainted from a blood draw before". She was like "Oh, thanks for telling me. We're going to have you lie down then." So that was nice, because before I've had to fight to get to lay down.

We have a new addition to our family: Wiggle the cat! We are officially keeping her. She needs one more vet visit today (I'm taking her at 10:30) and some flea medicine, and she needs her claws clipped. But then we can introduce her to our other cats. It's just in time too, because they've been meowing at each other through the bathroom door, and it's getting on my nerves.

Love you girls!

Amber

somethings missing...

So last night I was cleaning out my wallet (which was so stuffed with receipts it was ridiculous), and after about 5 minutes I realized that my license was missing.  It always sits in the little clear pocket in the front, so I must have taken it out and dropped it or something...I have no idea how long its been missing.  I know I had to use it when I went and used my WIC checks, but that was last week some time...so who knows.  Anyway, I was going to renew and print out my temporary license online, and then I remembered that we're still 100% out of ink...and Jeremy has meetings this morning, and I have to run some errands today.  So, good thing we have a staples in town, guess I'll be taking a nice walk out there today with Shea.  Leave it to me, I tell ya.


Hope you girls have an awesome day! :D

sigh of relief...and some christmas cheer!

(my little tree)

I finally feel like I can just sit and relax and start enjoying christmas!  I had the most wonderful night last night and day today - even though I've been tired.  The surprise party was so lovely, even though I could only stay for a few minutes.  Then I ran off to my co-workers house for a cookie exchange with some of the moms from our preschool class.  It was SO nice to be out of the house without a child and get to just sit and enjoy other ladies.  And I brought home tons of cookies (all of which are in my freezer now, so I'm not tempted to eat any of them).  I had some very good white wine and cheese and crackers, and we had an ornament exchange.  I stayed until about 10 - which is usually later than I go to bed!  It was worth it though.

Then today I went to a Christmas breakfast and gift exchange for work.  It was also so cheery and fun!  The same co-worker who had the cookie exchange got my name, and she gave me lots of Starbucks VIA instant coffee packets (which I haven't tried before), a starbucks card, and a years subscription to Food Network magazine.  Such fun!  I got someone I didn't know very well, and gave a homemade tote bag (wish I had taken a picture, it turned out so cute!) a warm red fuzzy blanket, mug from Starbucks (I wanted to keep it for myself, ha) and a Starbucks card.  And I got a completely unexpected Christmas bonus!  Giving gifts and laughing got me in the Christmas spirit and I'm ready to finish up my shopping and sewing this week now.

Anyway!  I got a lot done today too!  I cleaned the kitchen, finally cleared off our dining room table (It was piled with shopping bags and gifts from the kids from school), vacuumed, made an enchilada casserole for a potluck we went to earlier this evening, wrote thank-you notes to all the kids in my class (I could not believe how spoiled I got!), bought stamps for our Christmas cards (still need to get toner so I can print the labels though!), decorated a little, and finally folded the laundry thats been in the dryer all week.  I still need to bake some cookies for my sisters fundraiser tomorrow, but other than that, cleaning the rest of the house can be put off until tomorrow.

Here are some pictures of our little apartment, now turned cheery and warm:

still need to make Shea's stocking...

told you it was little (its sitting on a table in the corner so Shea can't get at it)

I just took this because I cleaned off the shelf.

flowers from one of my preschoolers

a Christmas cactus from a little girl in my class - I put it in the guest bathroom.

I am so happy to be off work!  I am excited to just be home with my son and be able to keep the house clean and visit friends and family over the next couple of weeks.  

My goals today

This will be a boring post because its sole purpose is to tell you my school goals: To FINISH (almost)!

• Edit and turn in RELS 104 paper (then I'll be done with RELS!)
• Read material for ENGL 348
• Write three response posts for ENGL 348
• Write draft of ENGL 348 paper
• Do ENGL 245 Williams exercises
• Write two response posts for ENGL 245
• Take ENGL 348 final exam
  

If I do all this today, then tomorrow all I'll have to do is edit my draft paper. Yay! I'll update as this list progresses.

12:48 - I cheated and didn't edit my RELS paper before I turned it in. I already have an A++++++++ in the class so who cares. I wrote it yesterday and I know it has a few problems, but none of them big. I would give myself a B.

2:36 - Wow, I can't believe I've been reading for two hours! Crossed that off, but added ENGL 348 final exam to the list because I forgot about it.

4:38 - getting hungry. Quick dinner for us, now back to the grind.

4:59 - okay, all response posts done. Obviously I've left the hardest and most time-consuming stuff for last. Going to take an untimed open book exam; we'll see if I have to finish it tomorrow.

5:37. This is how easily distracted I am: One of my fellow students did a presentation on how the Romantic literary period is like the Matrix. Guess what I want to watch now! I've got onion dip, crackers, and MnMs out for our movie night. But I did read over the exam questions and start taking notes on how I'm going to answer them.

9:23 - We watched Matrix, and I just finished Williams exercises!

10:00 - I just did my rhetorical assignment. Just one big paper and one big exam to go - both for the same class. Combined, worth 37% of my grade for the class. YIKES!!!

My goal for tonight is just to do research and get an outline for these things - both essay questions and the paper. Once I know what I'm going to write about, it's not hard. And I really shouldn't be hardcore writing when my brain is this fried. No, I'll do what I can and finish it tomorrow.

Christmas

I am happy to announce that as of today, I am officially in the Christmas spirit! I spent the last hour working on a little Christmas project, listening to Christmas music with the tree lit. (If Relient K's Christmas counts as Christmas music).

Here's what I've been working on. These are for Sunday Christmas with Joe's side of the family! I even sewed bells on them but they're hidden in the picture. The bells are kind of superfluous and I wish I hadn't decided to do that. But I did.



Our schedule is quickly filling up!

Friday - Acoustic Cafe! (becca's sister's fundraiser) (Bring donation)
Saturday - Party with some of Joe's friends I don't know! (Bring cookies)
Sunday - Hosting party with Joe's side of the family (Clean entire downstairs, wrap gifts, make cookies, order photo prints, pickup photo prints, put in frames, wrap)

Then we have a break, then

24th - Mull relatives (my dad's side) (check list and volunteer to bring something Wrap gifts)
25th - My side of the family (wrap gifts)
26th - Dickson relatives (my mom's side) (Wrap gifts)

Wow! Four of our parties are family.

Not to mention I'm still in school so I have to finish all this stuff before I think seriously about all that!!!!! Right now the house is a total mess. I'm ashamed at how long the load of clothes has been in the washer...it's probably going moldy. But I feel like if I get my school done, then I can focus on the house, then I can focus on gifts....blah!!

I finished a draft of a paper today but have to wait for my classmate to review it before I can turn it in.

I have one more big project that I haven't started on, due Sunday.

Other than that, just a few smaller assignments. Woohoo!

And I got a 97 on my final project for my professional writing class!

Got Joe's presents today so I need to wrap them before he gets home from work!

Amber

Sad news. Happy news.

Sad news: We got one hour into our drive to Leavenworth (over the snowy pass) and found out there were going to be three extra guys at the cabin, one of which I am really not thrilled to be around, so we decided to turn around. I was sad, crying actually because I am an emotional girl, but it all turned out ok in the end. I was the most sad because I wanted to eat at the restaurant our friend works at and take pictures of Leavenworth! We thought about going and renting a hotel...but we didn't want to spend that much money, so next year we shall plan another trip I suppose. Paul and I both have today off though, so last night we got sushi and watched half of Memoirs of a Geisha (we shall finish today), go out to breakfast at our local greasy spoon, Daves of Milton, and soon we will go to the grocery store in a few to get supplies for a gingerbread house (and maybe some food to fill our fridge). Both Paul and I Have saturday off and he promised to take me to Krispy Kreme. He is spoiling me and I love it!

So that's the sad news and the happy news. Though I didn't get to go to Leavenworth, and I get a day full of fun and activities with my husband, something we have definitely been lacking lately. We are still in our pajamas, and I plan on going to safeway in mine! :)

Hope you girls are all having a fabulous day!

hello!

I shouldn't even be posting, I still have so much to do tonight!  I just finished baking and decorating 4 dozen cookies for a cookie exchange for work I kind of have to go to tomorrow night, plus I have to finish making a gift for a gift exchange early thursday morning - again for work - because I'll have no time tomorrow.  I have to go make an appearance at a surprise going away party at Forza (had to mention it just because I've never been there before) before the cookie exchange, too.


I've been sick for like a week in a half (no joke - I think my immune system was super worn down because it was just one thing after another) and feel like my energy has just been zapped out of my body (I started taking my iron supplements again yesterday, hopefully that will help...).  Anyway, just thought I'd say Hi! I am still enjoying reading your posts, and maybe when I get on christmas break and done with all the events and insane amount of homemade gift making going on this week, I'll actually post all the pictures I took (like of our tree that I put up last week!)


I really wasn't trying to complain about all this stuff either, I just wanted to post! After reading your posts about schoolwork crazy-ness and what Angela has to deal with like every work day, I really have nothing to complain about.


A few things I got done in the crazyness of this past week includes:

• getting our christmas cards done at Costco (thanks to Angela for sharing hers, what a great deal!), hopefully I'll mail those out tomorrow after work.
• completing about 95% of our gift shopping done on Saturday while my mom babysat Shea
• finishing a few homemade projects that turned out really well and being inspired to finish the rest (really trying to save money but not give lame-o or cheap-o gifts.
• Bought a new pair of jeans (this was my christmas present from Jeremy, because all my pre-pregnancy jeans are either too loose around the waist - which is another christmas miracle - or have holes in them).

Hope you are having a great night!

A day off and an adventure planned.

This describes my day yesterday at work, I just couldn't catch a break. A new resident was getting admitted, she had a fever, a cough, horrible bruising, and possible aspiration (food or water got to her lungs). But first before she got there I had to fill out a ton of paperwork, whoop whoop. Then I found out we would be running a nurse short for the evening, and I was working with a nurse who has been there for 21 years, but likes to complain about everything in the world and likes to take 7 smoke breaks a shift...she didn't have time for this yesterday so she was a bit on edge. The CNA's (aids) needed help with residents, people were trying to get out of their wheelchairs, someone found a new bruise on a resident (read: tons of new paperwork), one resident came back from the dining room with the aid saying every time she took a drink her face turned blue...her oxygen saturation was way down, I put her in her room on oxygen and she got better, and it more things kept popping up. It kept getting later and later, I hadn't eaten, was starving, and I had all my patients to chart on (takes like 5 minutes a patient plus time for the 20 interruptions I would get) and chart all their vital signs. I couldn't catch a break. Then I had discharge paperwork to fill out and so on and so forth. I thought I wouldn't get out of there till 1am...but somehow, somehow, I got out at 10:45 (that's 15 minutes early girls!). So it seemed impossible until I got finished, and I was quite proud of myself. I am finally getting a hang of my job, and the insanity that goes along with it.

As for today, I got up to drive the hubby to work, because we are leaving for LEAVENWORTH the second he calls me to come pick him up. It is just a one night excursion to see his two best friends who have a cabin up there, but it should be a blast, I have never been to Leavenworth in the winter and I hear it's beautiful! I am spending the morning eating a donut and drinking coffee, soon to read my book: Stolen Innocence ( a book about a girl who escaped a polygamous sect). It disturbed me at first (its a true story) but now that she is getting closer to escaping I find myself wanting to read more and more. I have no idea how late I was up last night reading, and I don't want to know, because it would make me more tired if I knew the little amount of sleep I got.

Before I leave I need to

1. pack clothes for Paul and I
2. find out if I need to pack pillows and blankets ( I hope not because we would have to carry them all up a big hill that we can't drive up because there is so much freaking snow)
3. do the dishes
4. pick up the living room
5. pack lunches for Paul and I
6. make the bed

But first I must read my book!

I hope all is well with your girls!

Hello Again!

I haven't posted in an extremely long time...sorry about that!  I don't even have an excuse!  Since Dec. 6, I haven't had class, and after all the busyness, I just did NOTHING for a week.  I just realized I have watched 8 movies this week!  Its been so great.  Sorry for not blogging about it though.  Now that I'm thinking about it, I guess I did accomplish some things.  I turned in a final paper on the 10th!  All I have left is a Spanish exam on the 16th, and I will be on Christmas vacation for 3 weeks. :)

Here is one thing I am very proud of accomplishing:  I dealt with my pumpkin.   I was actually reading this blog and got inspiration from you wonderful ladies to get something done!
This pumpkin was from Thanksgiving (Oct 11)! I kept forgetting about it, and then I was afraid it had rotted, and didn't want to deal with it...but finally I did, and it was still good!  I made puree from it, and used a bit of it to make a yummy loaf of pumpkin bread!  I also now have a freezer full of pumpkin puree frozen in 1 cup amounts ready to be used in holiday baking.

Here are some photos of the whole process:

This last picture made me realize that I need to clean out my freezer and organize it.  Hopefully I actually get around to it!

Sorry for my absence!

This last week has been a little crazy, but that's ok, sometimes crazy can be good. It seems like Paul and I have been on opposite schedules for over 2 weeks now, and I have been missing him tons. but he had wednesday and thursday off, so we got to spend the morning together on Wednesday before I went to work, and then ALL DAY on thursday, I was one happy camper. I shall never take hanging out for granted anymore. Then Friday Paul had to work, so I got up (at 11!), did two loads of laundry, thought about doing the dishes, and then called Amber to try and figure out our Christmas schedules, and ended up going over to hang out, such a good day. When I got home I did the dishes and was going to start dinner when Paul called and said fried chicken (so unhealthy I know) was on sale at Safeway for 5 dollars for an 8 piece meal. And they had cake on sale. So guess what our dinner was? Haha.

Yesterday I had to work, but weekends are only 8 hours shifts so I didn't have to go in till 2:30, and Paul didn't have to work at all. We slept in till 9:30, cuddled a lot, ate breakfast, watched some Man Vs. Food on Netflix and just enjoyed each others company. ( I have seriously missed him so much as we work these opposite schedules). Then I got ready for work. When I walked in the door at work that's when everything started to fall apart. I spent the first hour fighting back tears. Let me explain. In nursing homes you have to fill out excessive amounts of paperwork to cover your butt about everything. I come in to find out this lady had a huge red area on her back and we probably have to fill out an incident report...there goes 45 minutes of my day (something the previous nurse from the morning shift should have done). Then the morning shift nurse (which nobody likes because this is her second job and she is an RN and thinks she is better than everybody else- SO annoying) tells me she has bad news. The med nurse called in sick and she can't get anyone to come in. I am not a medication nurse, I have not been trained as a medication nurse, and this nurse is telling me I have to pass meds and give insulin to 20 residents as well as do all my normal charge nurse duties, and she is not staying a minute over to help. I was defintely on the verge of tears. In the end everything turned out ok, all the other nurses came together to help me pass meds and do charge nurse stuff (mainly this other nurse did charge stuff) and I left work alive. But wait, before I say I left work let me say the entire shift we thought one of our residents was going to pass away, so we check on her every half hour or so. She only breathes once every 7 seconds, she had a plural effusion which means her lungs are full of fluid and her heart is displaced, and she can't communicate. We are giving her morphine every 4 hours to let her spend her last hours, days, however long in comfort. She was one of my favorites, only in her 70's, super sassy, and awesome. She is a hopsice patient though, has so many things wrong inside her body, and it is her time to go. So sad, the worst part about my job. Then I find out that another awesome resident passed away friday...this is seriously the suckiest part of my job, death. I only hope they know the Lord and are going to a better place.

Thank you for reading my ramblings girls. I felt sick most of last night and dreamt about work the little time I did sleep, so I skipped church this morning to have a chill day in bed. I listened to a sermon, and now I am off to go deposit my first real paycheck! Then I will have lunch, clean up the apartment, and head off to work for a hopefully better day.

All the love in the universe.

Angela

More Kitty Stuff

I'll try to get pictures tomorrow, but our kitty is so adorable! We bought her a cheap mouse toy with feathers and she went CRAZY. She is totally ADHD cat. I swear, within ten seconds she was snuggling against Joe's feet, wrestling with her toy, and gobbling up her dinner.

So we're giving her some different medicine from the vet. If this doesn't work they'll have to take the eye out. And if that happens Joe said we might keep her because she might not be able to survive outside. Seven more days to see if these meds work.

Oh! And I am SUCH a pro at giving cats medicine. Eye drops? No problem. Liquid from a dropper? Cinch. And separating capsules to mix the powder with cat food? Easy.

Her name is Wiggle.

I goofed off a lot today but I also got a big project done for school. Joe works tomorrow so I won't be un-motivated because of his video games. I've arranged what I want to get done tomorrow (it's not going to be a cleaning day even though it's Friday). It's basically just school stuff and enough housework to get me back on track.

Where is everyone?

Hi girls, I hope you're all well! Joe and I spent the last two days doing absolutely nothing. It's not fun being sick, but I have concluded it's better to be sick with your husband than alone, for the following reasons:

1. You both feel sorry for the other person.
2. He appreciates the chores and the meals so much more, and helps.
3. LOTS of relaxing cuddle time.
4. You don't feel guilty for goofing off, so the pressure to accomplish things is off. This puts both of you in a pretty good mood because you can enjoy the down-time.

Yesterday was the best day because it was both of our "getting better" day. We weren't sick enough to take more than one nap, but were still achy and weak enough to just sit all day.

Today I have to be productive again. I have finals this week and next - one big project due this week, two next week. It's really hard to be productive after two days of sleeping in and goofing off....

Anyway, that was just a quick update from me. I want to know how YOU are doing!!!

Sick - it's our turn

Joe is really sick and I'm slowly getting sicker. He did four things I've never seen him do: take a nap, make a doctor's appointment, call in sick to work tomorrow, and take another nap.

I made some amazing chicken soup. But now I just feel lousy. Weak and dizzy, stomach is not pleased. I'm a little sore; Joe is more sore than I am.

Okay, I'm done complaining for now. Here's the recipe for the awesome chicken soup (I made it up!)

• Cook (fry or bake) two chicken breasts and cut into bite-sized pieces.
• Simmer two chopped carrots, five chopped celery sticks, and half a chopped onion in a carton of chicken broth until almost tender (large pot).
  
• Boil 2 cups pasta in a second carton of chicken broth until al dente.
• Add chicken, noodles, and noodle broth to veggie mix. Simmer till tender.
• Add salt, pepper, and water to reach the flavor you desire.

The way I made it uses up two pots; one for veggies and one for noodles. I think next time I'll try to boil the veggies with the noodles and then add the chicken to simmer.

Cat

Bah, so we are still having cat drama! Our sick kitty is still living in our bathroom. Oh, and she ADORES Joe now. She completely ignores me and then goes over to him and lays down on his feet and rubs against his legs. Stinker. We've been calling her "Wiggle" because she can't hold still. Here you can see her writhing on the floor in a "I am the happiest cat ever" way. Oh, and the toilet paper on the floor?




She must have gotten bored. Whatever, I don't mind because it's better than buying special cat toys for her! We don't want our cats catching anything so she can't play with their stuff.










Here you can kind of see her sad little eye. Her eyes are way better than they were, but one of them is not getting better and the eye itself is all red and clouded over.

Even if her eye isn't getting better, she is physically so good! She ate TWO cans of wet food yesterday - I'm going to start her on dry food now. She has gained so much weight that it's hard for me to pick her up with one hand anymore! Before she was just skin and bones.




I took this picture yesterday to prove that I had taken a shower despite the fact that I really didn't feel like it. You can also see how energetic I look post-shower (not).










The lack of energy required coffee and oatmeal. becca gave me the mug and it's huge! Kind of embarrassing how much coffee I drank in relation to the oatmeal.

Angela made the cookies behind. I did not have them for breakfast, I promise - I just wanted to include them. Oh, and happy day, Joe with his peculiar sense of taste did not enjoy the cookies as much as I did, so I got to eat most of the rest! YAY!



Today it is nearly noon and I am still in my PJS, but I spent the last three hours working on an assignment and I'm done with it now. We'll see how the rest of today goes! I'm about ready for my second cup of tea, but I'm trying to stagger my tea cups with cups of water to keep myself hydrated.

My husband has been so amazing lately. The last few weeks, school has been so crazy that I haven't kept up with the housework or cooking like I should. I'm embarrassed how many nights we haven't had a true dinner, or how many mornings I've told Joe he's on his own for lunch because I haven't prepared anything. =( He's so understanding though. After all that, last night he let me order pizza and he picked it up from work. It's just the thing I need to keep me focused on school the next few days.

Another change: Usually I get up with Joe at about 6:30, make him coffee, make his lunch, and keep him company while he gets ready for work. Then I go to bed when he leaves at 8 or so. I've realized this is not going to work when I am overwhelmed with school because I don't get enough uninterrupted sleep and as a result I'm tired even though I've slept in and wasted time!

So for the next two weeks I am going to try to stay in bed when my husband gets up. It was difficult this morning but I'm really glad I did it. Hopefully this will give me more time to plan meals as my schoolwork gets done on time.

long weekend and a sick day

I am home sick today.  I started feeling sick last night, but thought I'd be ok today since its just a cold.  Yeah, right.  Last night I was up half the night because I could hardly breath, then I almost threw up this morning in the shower and I'm super shaky and tired feeling.  I hate calling in sick.  But they were able to get someone to cover me, so at least the lead teacher isn't by herself with a bunch of 4 year olds and I don't have to worry about it.  So Shea and I are currently sitting around in our pajamas and I'm drinking lots of tea and cocoa.


Anyway!  I had such a busy weekend I don't know where to start!  We had to go to a Bible Quiz Meet on Friday and Saturday because they needed a quiz master last minute.  We were in room one, so we had to be there the whole time and I had to run this weird scoreboard thing on the computer.  On Friday night, we got home at about 10:30, and then were up until 2 in the morning putting questions on cards.  OH MY GOODNESS this took so long.  And we had to get up at 6 the next morning.  Talk about dead tired.  It was ok though.  Here's my cute sister (left) and two of the girls she coaches on her quiz team:

Saturday night after the meet we went out to Panera with my little brother and sister and her boyfriend, David.  That was a nice little visit.  Then when we came home it was still only like 5:30, so after Shea went to bed we watched most of "eat, pray and love".  My husband thought since it was a chick-flick I would like it, but WOW.  I'm sorry if any of you liked it, but I thought it was one of the worst movies I've seen.  I do like James Franco a lot though...


Sunday we had Chris over after church and we hung out watching dvds and the Seahawks game, then went to Applebees half price munchies for dinner.  He was really sweet telling me that he wanted to get us something for Christmas (he doesn't have much money) because we were like a second family to him.  Sometimes you just don't know how much someone really appreciates simply having a place to hang out, so it was kind of nice to hear that.  When we came home, we cuddled a lot (that is, my husband and I, we were both sick and needed large quantities of tea also), and I designed a flyer for my sister's fundraising event.  I think it turned out pretty well, but it took a few hours:

So I didn't get that much housework done because I had so many other things going on and when I didn't, I just wanted to veg!  I think today I might try to put up a few Christmas decorations (I got out the boxes a week ago and haven't put anything up yet!) and maybe clean a little bit if I feel like it...blowing my nose the whole time, I'm sure.  Even though I feel bad skipping out on work, I am so glad to be home today and am glad to be able to spend a day with my son!  I really hope he doesn't get this cold.  Speaking of which, look at this cute picture I found of him from early summer:

Happy Monday, girls!

It has been a glorious three days off

Yesterday was so so so much fun! Gabe came over and we went shopping. I had basically already finished my Christmas shopping so I was planning on just browsing the stores, but I ended up with some really cute clothes. :) We went to the scrub store and we were there forever...but I didn't get anything. Apparently the colors I want and the size I wear are very popular...they were out of everything. So I am going to go to another store on Friday and if they dont have stuff for me there I will order online.

Gabe got Dansko's and now we match! I can't talk these shoes up enough. They are quite expensive (115) but are the best nursing shoes of all time. I couldn't stand all day without these things. These along with New Balance are the only two shoes recommended by the Podiatry something or another. That's what the Nordstrom guy said. Oh and if you buy these shoes at Nordstrom they have a lifetime warranty! I'll be wearing these till I'm 90.

After shopping Paul, Gabe, and I went to Seattle for dinner in Chinatown at our favorite restaurant, Bistro 663. You always know it is a good place when you are the only white people there. All three of us ate for 26 dollars, and we had enough leftovers for the three of us to eat another entire meal. Crazy! Love it.

Here is one of the dresses I got yesterday for 8 dollars, I couldn't believe it. Even though it is a summer dress I couldn't pass up the deal. I can't wait till spring when I get to wear it!

Here is the second dress I got yesterday, it was 10 dollars. Have you girls ever head of the store Romy? Well they were having a crazy sale yesterday and everything was 50-90 percent off. Best deal ever.
And here are my new boots. They are a Christmas present from Paul but I get them early. I have been wanting boots so bad lately and today when I went to Fred Meyer to pick up a few essentials I thought I would walk through the shoe department and see if they had any cute boots I could put on my Christmas list...then I realized I had already given my list to everybody. I was like shoot, because these boots are perfect. Then I asked Paul if he had bought enough for me yet and he told me to just get the boots. I love them and can't believe they were only 35. 35 sounds like kinda a lot but I hadn't found boots under 60 that I liked before, and there is no way I would spend 60!

So all in all I ended up with a lot of new clothes for myself...oops! But to justify it all I hadn't gotten any new clothes besides scrubs since the ones I got for my birthday in August, and before that it was just a few dresses I had to buy for weddings, so I had a blast updating my wardrobe.

Becca- I loved that tutorial on how to make cardigans fit! I can't wait to go to goodwill or St. Vincent de Pauls and get some cardigans to sew!

Hope you girls all had a lovely weekend!