Before I go to work...

I had an amazing day yesterday that consisted of waking up at 10am, seeing a voicemail from Amber saying Joe got called into work early, hopping out of bed, eating breakfast, taking a shower, and heading over to Ambers! We hung out, went to Kafka, and I did my laundry! When I came home wondering what to make for dinner I got a text from the hubby saying he had dinner taken care of, just to make some sort of side. I went the easy route with Butter and Garlic Pasta Roni. He brought home scallops and crab and we had a feast. :)

I didn't want to do any work last night so I saved it all for this morning. I got up at 7 with the hubby, made his lunch and mine, got his clothes and breakfast out and then attempted to go back to sleep, no such luck. I pulled myself out of bed again at 8:30, showered, did the dishes, ate breakfast, made the bed, all the while wearing scrubs. I seriously don't wear real clothes these days, it's either scrubs or sweat pants, it's quite comfy! I also cleaned mold off the windowsills and the bathroom ceiling, ew. Then I cut up the pineapple that was getting overripe, put the dishes away, cleaned out the fridge, made dinner for the hubby since I won't be home and am now relaxing in my bedroom listening to Christmas music and prepping myself to get up to do my hair and put on make-up. I had gotten into a habit where I never really did my hair or put on make-up but since working and wearing scrubs all the time you have to look cute somehow! :)

Oh and the picture of the rims, yeah those have been sitting there for a few days waiting for snow tires to arrive. They get here tomorrow so I will have my living room back! :) It's my reminder that I live with a boy, cause surely he wouldn't have the house decorated like I do if I wasn't around. :)

Oh and I watered the plants today! I will keep them alive through the winter if it's the last thing I do.

This is random but I have grown to love books again. It gives me something to do besides be on the computer. Reading is the best way to make my eyes tired before bedtime so I can fall right asleep. I finished The Glass Castle yesterday when Amber I and were hanging out, it was a really good book, a memoir. I really need to make a stop by the library to pick up another book because it was sad not to have something to read before bed last night.

Have a wonderful Tuesday girls!

Good days!

Okay, it's time for me to brag:

I basically did schoolwork for the last three days straight. At the same time, I've mostly been keeping up with the housework and still allowing some social interaction with awesome people like my sister in law who doesn't mind spending an entire afternoon at Forza with me while I do homework (thanks Angela!).

Today I feel:

• Confident! I know that today I actually have the time to get my to-do list done. Unlike last week where every day I ran out of time.
• Excited. We're getting a tree today! We bought a "starter set" of cheap ornaments and plan to add to our each year with buying just a few nice ornaments, especially as the cheap ones break because I drop them.
• Relaxed. For once, the homework I will do today is not due today. (hah! do today, due today. I love words!) So I have the luxury of actually taking the time to learn instead of just trying to get a passing grade with the assignment, which is what I've been doing this last week and hating myself for it.

Do any of you have a good idea for mulled wine? Joe and I don't particularly like wine, but I know at least becca and Candice do, and maybe Angela a little more than me. We want to give a mulled wine kit to some of our relatives at christmas (on the Mull side, ahahaha). The kit will just be a bottle of wine, some spices in a cloth bag, and instructions. I need to know:

• Do you like mulled wine? Is it something that people generally like?
• Have you ever made it? How did it turn out? What recipe did you use?
• What is a good kind of wine to use?

Thank you! You ladies are so much more cultured than I am!

Amber

a festive surprise

Just thought I'd share what my husband surprised me with yesterday afternoon:

I don't normally like Poinsettias, but he knew how much I wanted a tree and thought it would make the place look more festive.  Once I put them in my big vase and got out my silver plate, I liked it much better.  Since he was off for the rest of the day, we went up and ran my errands together in Silverdale (but still have not gotten any Christmas shopping done for his secret santa).  He also had brought home some Riesling (although the brand was a little sweet for us) which we had with dinner (which he made).  We then cuddled up and watched a movie before bed.  It turned into such a nice Saturday!  I even finished my library book and started on a new book we just bought this past week, which after the first few chapters seems very worth reading.

Currently, we're sitting at home relaxinga festri with a fire after a long morning at church.  I made tacos and homemade hummus (it turned out SO good) for lunch, and I finally bought some milk so I made lattes as well.

Hope you are enjoying your Sunday!!

sleeping in is so nice.

happy saturday!  I got to sleep in until 8:30 today, aaah.  Shea is currently eating some french toast for breakfast (and so am I) as I type this.  We'll see how long this lasts...ha.


We had a nice Thanksgiving, too!  It was different than previous years, but nice enough.  I got a lot done in the morning around the house, like vacuuming, 3 loads of laundry,  and dishes.  Here are some other things that happened:

This may seem random and not really that clean looking, but I finally organized our kitchen linens/bibs drawer so I could find stuff easier!

I cleaned the guest bathroom

Made a bunch of mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving dinner

Fixed a sweater (I'm going to write a post on my blog after this...maybe. 

UPDATE: I DID.).

And tried to get our Christmas picture taken!  It is REALLY hard to use a timer on your camera with a crazy toddler though!  We're thinking about just sending out this filmstrip because I think its pretty funny.

Then we went and had Thanksgiving dinner with our church family (Pastor's wife and son, a single guy we know, and another small older family), it was a nice time of food and chasing my son up the stairs so he wouldn't fall.

After that, we went out to Bremerton and stopped at Jeremy's Grandparent's house.  That was nice and quiet - his Grandpa just had a stroke and seemed to be doing ok, but you could definitely see the effects of it.  Shea was running around playing with the dogs and didn't even care when they nipped and growled at him, so funny.

Yesterday we went out to Renton to visit my parents.  We stopped at the Supermall and went to the Christian bookstore outlet to get some books and let Shea play in the play area. My sister Kaitie's boyfriend and Matt's friend were over when we got to their house, so I got out my Cello and we all played music (Kaitie's boyfriend is very musical) it was so much fun.  Then I put Shea down for a nap and Jeremy and I went out to see Inception at the 3 dollar theater.  It was so good!!  We haven't been to a movie together in over a year too, so it was really fun.

Then my older brother came over with his kids and wife.  Shea was SO happy to play with his cousins!  The cousins haven't been together for a while, so we snapped a few pictures of them playing together:  

Oh, and these are my pretty Thanksgiving flowers one of the moms from my preschool class gave me:

Today I'm planning on returning a few things and working on some more Christmas presents I'm putting together.  And I'm hoping we can find a little tree to put up here soon...Hope you girls enjoy your Saturday (whether you're working or not) :).

Thank you snow for melting.

So I have had the past two days off and it has been amazing! A lot has happened! Here are some pictures I took before heading over to thanksgiving at my in-laws. Kinda snowy for thanksgiving...and the fountain in the back of our apartment has now turned into an ice skating rink. I may need to be the first one to go test it out.

So it seems kinda random to take pictures of a chair, but there is a reason I promise. This chair usually sits where our christmas tree is right now, but since a christmas tree is necessary this chair had to find a new home for a month. I put it in the corner of our bedroom and love it there! I can sit, read, and look out the window, its awesome!

And the wedding pictures...this is what I look at every morning when I wake up and I love it! The excitingness of being a newly wed is starting to die down and it feels so normal and natural to be married. It feels like it has been way longer than 4 months, I can't believe it.

Here are some pictures of our Thanksgiving. Nana and Grandpa were able to make it so that was awesome! Joe and Paul played video games while the girls hung out in the kitchen. :) Bob, the cat, has been a part of the family for about 18 years, can you believe it?! Yesterday though he started not being able to move his back legs. It is so sad :(. My in-laws are taking him to the vet today to see if anything can be done and if not they are going to put him down. :(

Amber and I did a lot of laying around on our hubby's and it was quite pleasant. :) Amber showed the family her wedding pictures. And we both watched the boys play video games.

And here are some pictures from today! I got up, ate breakfast, showered, went and signed loan paperwork at the bank, then went and signed papers with our Realtor because we are making an offer on a house!! I am so so excited, it is in Lakeland hills, its 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 2100 sq feet, and in a nice neighborhood. We are hoping for the best! After signing papers I went to Target to get a birthday present for my grandma and then Ross to get a present for a friend. Then I stopped by the post office to mail our christmas cards ( I couldn't wait any longer!), and then came home to eat a quesidilla with rice, beans, cheese, and taco meat in it for lunch. So yummy! Then I cleaned the bathroom, vacuumed, and picked up the house. See the sleeping bag on the couch? Yeah that's how Paul and I watch tv these days so we don't have to crank the heater. Speaking of heat I should probably heat the whole place because Amber is coming over in a few minutes and then friends are coming over at 6 tonight for dinner! I am so excited. :)

I hope everybody had a fabulous Thankgiving!

Good morning! I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving - I know I did! Angela took some pictures of our day yesterday (I'm just saying that so she'll post them). She also played fantastically at cribbage on our mom-in-law's team, though Paul and I won the last of three games with my killer 24 point hand. 7789 with an 8 cut!!!! If you care. Total luck of course, but still!

Well! Today I have been productive as my mornings usually are (it's the afternoons where I get lazy). I've been doing laundry and dishes, showered, made the bed, done some schoolwork, and worked on organizing the "pantry" some more. I say "pantry" because it's really just two shelves designated to food in the storage room behind the washer and dryer.

I notice I've been double-buying canned goods lately because I think I've run out when really I can't find them because my food stuff isn't organized. It's slowly getting better! I'm spending 10 minutes on it a day.

Yesterday we had a Thanksgiving kitty emergency. One of the feral cats had been acting really sick so we put it in our shed with a heater. The next day, the kitty's eyes were sealed shut with infection, she could hardly breathe because her nose was caked over with snot, and she was so skinny because she hadn't been eating! A wonderful lady who's been helping us with the cats let us come to her house. She gave us some medicine and gave the cat an IV.

This morning Joe and I woke up extra early to give the cat another IV before Joe went to work, but she was sooo wiggly and cuddly and vocal, she was impossible! Sure sign she's getting better and she probably doesn't need the fluids anymore. Also, I was feeding her from a syringe and she was licking the syringe but didn't seem the realize the food was coming from a bowl - much easier to eat out of. This morning she finally realized she could eat food out of a bowl and gobbled it up! So she's going to be fine.

She's in our bathroom right now, building up her strength. I don't think we can keep her because Joe is convinced she doesn't like him. He said she hisses at him, and he was annoyed when she was so wiggly this morning. But we'll let her back outside soon! =)

Sorry for all the cat stuff!

I get to see Angela sometime today...I'm about to call her, in fact.

Have a great weekend!

Amber

Life has been kinda crazy.

My outfit in the picture above, that's what I wear about 80 hours a week these days. When I come home from work I don't feel like changing at all! I wear my scrubs, my jacket, and my scarf till I get into pajamas at like 9. It's awesome. And my bed? Well I leave every morning before the hubby so it rarely gets made, but when I get home a rumpled bed is the most inviting thing ever! I love crawling into bed, cuddling up under the sheets and just relaxing!

Work has been going quite well, I have thursday, friday off, I train again on saturday and sunday (training means I work with another nurse who basically makes me do all the work but answers the 2000 questions I have every day).

I need to write my stories down on this blog the second I get home, or else I forget them, but I get to work with some of the most amazing residents, its amazing.

There is this one lady, we will call her Jane. She has alzheimers, dementia, and some psych problems but she is one of my favorites. Lately she hates wearing her dentures. She was sitting behind the nursing station with me one day (in her wheelchair of course) and when I looked over she had cookies crumbled all over her lap and her dentures were missing. I asked her where they were, she just stared at me. Then I noticed a piece of paper in her hand, yep, she had wrapped her dentures up like a present, how sweet. Haha. Later in the day she started crying (not real crying more like crying out, confused stuff like that) We told her "Jane, this is a no crying zone, why are you crying?" She shouts, "Because you think its funny" we dont respond but are silently giggling and she says "Well dont you!!!". I can't contain myself with these residents, you wouldn't believe what I deal with every day! Haha.

I talked to a lady today who said she had 11 children. 5 lived. 5 died at birth and one died at 2.5 months. She had 4 sisters, only one is still living. I talked to her quite a bit, as she was sad and just needed someone to chat with. She thought she was going to have to spend thanksgiving "alone in her chair". Just 10 mintues after I talked to her I was able to tell her that her grandkids were picking her up and taking her out for 3 hours on thanksgiving! She was so exciting. Said thank you so many times, and thought I was the best nurse ever. She asked if she was going to get to see me again, I told her I was coming back saturday and she got so excited. It's things like this that make me want to go back to work day after day after day. :)

One more story. There is a resident who has chronic shoulder pain, and she gets a steroidal creme rubbed on it every day. Today the treatment nurse had me do this cream. You know what she does when when you put it on "she moans Oh, oh that feels sooooo good. Oh ooooh, oooh" Now please, repeat this in your head. You can hear this all the way down the hall. We laugh. She says, I know what you guys are thinking, its not that, it just feels sooooo gooood. Haha. :)

I love my job. :)

aaaah...heat.

Well, ladies!  How did you fair in the weather?  I loved your snow picture, Amber!  I wish had been able to let Shea play in the snow, but we tried to go for a walk at about 3:30 today and it was just too cold!

I went to work yesterday morning, and by 12:30 when I left, a car was already in the ditch vertically and people were crawling on the freeway at 2 miles an hour.  It took me a while to get home, but I love the snow so much!  I do not love losing the power so much, though.  We lost the power at about 6PM last night (just after we finished making dinner, thankfully!), and didn't get it back until late this morning.  I'm thankful though, because some people we know who don't live far from us are still without power tonight.

So I basically had nothing to do but cuddle up, light some candles, and crochet!  

I made a hat for Shea:

Its a tad bit too big (the pattern I went off of was not sized for a baby, and I double checked my gauge), but it was a fun quick project and I think I might make a couple more for the new babies on the way.  You can't really tell from the picture, but I did a green and rusty orange (looks sort of red here).  Shea even got a compliment when we went out to the grocery store :)  yay for me (this is a place for bragging, right?) or maybe it was just Shea's cuteness and had nothing to do with the hat.

Anyway, my dad ended up spending the night last night, because he got stuck in Bremerton and power was out everywhere.  I couldn't believe the wind and how many people were skidding down the hill by our apartment. It was so cold that Shea was waking up all night, because either he was too cold, or too mad that hthe blankets were on top of him.  In the end, he slept in our bed most of the night, but BOY is he a bed hog.  I slept in the strangest positions I ever have just to avoid waking him up and staying on the bed.

I am VERY happy to have the power back on, but we had fun out in Silverdale getting breakfast and playing at the mall (Shea had the entire play area to himself).  I enjoyed not having to go into work today, and Jeremy just did a little bit of work from home.

 This is me happy to have my espresso machine working (eggnog latte, anyone? mmm).

What are you girls doing for your first married Thanksgiving?

Snow!

My contribution to the snow! I wanted to make a snowman but the snow was too dry.

Joe's at work so I don't think my art will still be here tonight at 8 when he gets home, hence the photo.

I'll be honest, I'm kind of hoping it all melts before he drives home from Olympia. I don't want him to get in an accident or get stuck somewhere for hours!!



Today I have been pretty productive, but now that I've had lunch I'm feeling the urge to socialize. I wish I had friends that lived really really close...like a mile away like becca used to!

In other news, Jasmine has thrown up six times today, once on my open English lit book (ewwwww). Poor kitty.

Post your snow pictures!!! And also whether you got to enjoy the day with your husbands at all!

snow day!

It has been one of these kind of days:

My camera is dead, so I'm just going to put a few pictures of the internet in this post :)


Is it snowing by you girls?  It started snowing right as we were leaving church today, and it has been a cozy day in!  And, it looks like I won't have to work tomorrow, because the schools are going to be closed in Gig Harbor.  Yay for getting to stay home and snuggle and do housework, but boo for not making quite as much money.  Oh well!


Here is my past few days:


Friday was a really busy day!  I got stuck at work a little late, came home, changed out of my preschool/daycare snot/dirt/paint covered clothes, took Shea to his 1 year check up to get shots (not fun, but he did really well), came home, ate a bowl of cereal for dinner, and then left to go back to work, and I was there until 9.  But it was nice to make some extra cash.


Saturday was a fun relaxing day.  We went up to start getting Christmas gift ideas for our secret santa person (now that we know who they are), I got a lot of Christmas gift sewing done (I'm making a lot of totes and clothes for nieces this year), and then we got a movie and snuggled while eating soup.  The movie was a little gory (it was "Centurion") for me, so I broke out my crocheting stuff (which I only do at this time of year) to distract me a little and keep the movie just in my peripheral vision.


I think I will be making one of these for Shea (seriously, how cute is that??):

On our way home from church, we grabbed a Papa Murphy's pizza and I splurged and got cookie dough and cheesy bread, and we hung out with Chris (the teenager who hangs out with us on Sundays).  The boys watched the movie again and I crocheted some more while Shea slept.


So anyway, I haven't accomplished a TON, but here are a few things I got done around the house:

• Hung up all of our clothes (we were kind of getting a pile in the corner)
• Cleaned the kitchen
• Ran two loads of wash (and actually folded and put everything away)
• Finished some mending (this pile is getting out of control...I decided I need to fix the stuff or get rid of it at this point)

Hope you girls stay warm and had a good weekend!  

Oh and maybe I'll come back later and add that lentil soup recipe to my post if I get a chance! And Amber, I might take you up on your offer sometime.

Yesterday

Okay, here's what I did yesterday:

• Vacuumed the whole house (except the stairs...I think I'll only do that once a month since I really hate it)
  
• Replaced the cat litter
• Cleaned the toaster oven
• Cleaned the microwave
• Replaced the outside garbage bag (yuck)
• Washed makeup brushes
• Washed bathroom rugs
• Washed mattress cover
• Swept porch
• Washed my purse
• Cleaned the downstairs bathroom
• Put up a new shower liner

Wow! I was beating myself up because I didn't get everything done I had planned to, but this is awesome!!!!! I love lists!

I'll let you in on a secret. Last week I started a new "system" for keeping track of house cleaning using index cards. I had read about it a long time ago in the book Sidetracked Home Executives, and recently my reception coordinator offered to help me set up my own card system.

So far, here's what it does for me:

• Helps me focus on what I am planning to do today, without worrying about stuff that's not on my list because I'll get to that another day.
• Gives me perspective on how much work taking care of a house is.
• Helps me prioritize, knowing how much time I will have to spend cleaning that day in order to get my list done
• Lets me skip things if I don't get them done and re-file them (can skip up to two times).
  
• Gives me control - I decide if I want things done weekly or monthly or every other day or whatever.
• Helps me plan my week. I have an "errands" day, a "planning" day, two "heavy cleaning" days, one "free" day, and one "family/rest/God" day. And one "baking/yard/car" day. This gives me freedom to relax on my free days in return for focusing on my busy days.
  

Anyway, I have a love-hate relationship with it. I love that it holds me accountable and I hate that it holds me accountable. =P I do love that it's like a job where I set my hours. This probably isn't helpful though because two of you ladies already work!

If any of you girls want to do this I'd love to help!!! The most annoying thing to me was buying supplies, so if you seriously want to do this I'd love to provide you with supplies and a tea date for a Christmas present!

becca: We drove by Home Depot in Southcenter the other day and I was reminded of when we surprised your parents by buying a Christmas tree! That was so fun and spontaneous and it was so pretty!!! PS - I'm still waiting for your lentil soup recipe!

Angela: I miss you a lot. We must get together soon. Joe is very patient with my girl-talk, but he responds like a guy and not like a girl (imagine that!)

Candice: Did you ever get your teapot fixed? Did you find out if you can get reimbursed for shipping damage? Have you and Justin talked about when next you might visit our side of the country? If so we HAVE to schedule a tea date for the Bragger Bloggers!

I miss taking pictures every day...So today I went crazy. :)

Paul and I have both been working early lately (I start at 6:30 and he at 8 and we each leave the house a half hour before that) so today even though we didn't have to wake up for anything we were ready to go at about 8:30. We started our day by eating breakfast and watching the office! Then we put up our christmas tree. It looks like a charlie brown christmas tree because 1. its fake, 2. it has no ornaments 3. it was cheap. I told Paul after Christmas next year, when we have a house, I want to buy a nice fake tree. (I totally know I should have real trees, but they make such a mess, and I would never remember to water it!) So here is our tree! (Oh and before this year I have thought people who put Christmas tree's up before thanksgiving were crazy...but with work these days I do things on my days off, and I don't have very many of those coming up, so we did it today!)

Paul had to work at 4 so I had a to-do list to get done. It's so easy to find stuff to do when he is gone these days since I am hardly home when he isn't. :) I cleaned the fridge, it was getting crazy messy and bothering me.

The door doesn't look much different but let me tell you it is way easier to get the bottles in and out now!

I didn't end up eating lunch today, my schedule is so messed up now because of work. On a work day I eat breakfast at 5:45am, lunch at 12:30 and dinner at 6:30. Since I ate breakfast at like 10 today I never became hungry for lunch...odd how that works. Anyway, tonight I had a toasted bagel with ham, cheese, lettuce, and garlic and herb mayonnaise, with banana and a satsuma orange on the side. It was super yummy!

Our living room hasn't been picked up all week! It was such a relief to have to time to make it look all pretty. As much as I like a perfectly clean house I would way rather have a job and not have time to have a house as clean as I like it.

Here is my to-do list. I started it last Sunday. I plan on finishing the rest tomorrow. Well maybe tonight depending on how tired I am after my bath and shower tonight. (I seriously haven't showered today and it is after 8, this is ridiculous. This is what happens when you don't go anywhere and you have no one to impress...haha)

I finished the Christmas Cards after I took a picture of the list! I just need to buy like 30 more stamps at the post office, and it needs to become December and then I can send them out! :) My desk is almost totally cleared off now and that is pretty exciting if I do say so myself. Haha.

Paul and I are looking at like 11 houses tomorrow with our Realtor so that should be exciting!

Now off to my shower and bath. :) (the reason I say both is because I have to wash my hair in the shower and then take a bath or vice versa. Is that weird or normal...I dont really know.)

Hope you all are having a fantastic start to your weekends!

Eye of the Storm

Hi all!

It has been awhile..life has been hectic, but actually this week has not.  Why no post?  not sure, but here I am now!  I realized today that I have 2 weeks left of classes...2 WEEKS! yikes.  I have an exam and a paper due after classes are over, so I'll be glad to be done with class, but still have work to do.

Today I...

-slept in! (till 9:30)  I'm starting to get a cold, so rest is a necessity.
-made scrambled eggs and toast for Justin and I for breakfast
-went to the gym and worked out
-went to class
-took my dog for a walk
-did dishes (haven't seen my kitchen counter in 3 days)
-put laundry away

I would post pictures, but I didn't take any. also I need to find my camera cord.

Long time no blog!

Life has been crazy busy since I started working full time. Wednesday and Thursday last week were awesome. The nurses at my facility are so amazing, willing to teach, and are so good at making me feel comfortable. They answer all my questions, even if I ask them more than once, and alwasy explain things more than once. Its great.

On Friday Paul and I looked at tons of houses. We looked at quite a few we liked and one we loved. Unfortunately the one we wanted to make an offer on already had a full price offer and many over full price back up offers. It was seriously that awesome.

Saturday Paul and I hardly left the house. Actually I don't know if we left the house at all. It was fabulous! We had the air mattress blown up in the living room. I dozed in and out of sleep, watched the office, cuddled with the hubby, and just had a great day!

On Sunday my hubby had to work so I got up and went to church, came home, took a bath, and then went shopping. I was out for so many hours me feet were killing me and my knees were dying. I went to the bank, to target to buy some christmas presents for my cousins (hence the nerf gun), Ross to buy presents for the aunts and uncles (the two baskets I put together) and also some essentials like ziploc bags and contact solution. Then I went to Victoria's Secret to pick up some free underwear (I love that!). Then I went to the Asian grocery store to get ingredients for the Yakisoba I was going to make for dinner. Then I went to costco to get lettuce, our christmas cards, and some bananas. Then I stopped by lowes to get a Christmas present, and then went home to cook dinner! I made Yakisoba and also cooked the Quince Paul had bought last time we went to the Asian grocery store. We didn't know you had to cook the dang fruit in sugar, water, and vanilla. It turned out ok...but not my favorite.

That brings us to Monday thru wednesday. What have I done? I worked 6:30am-5pm. Come home, cooked dinner, finished dinner at around 6ish. Picked up the house, done the dishes, cuddled with the hubby and fall asleep on the couch at like 8:30. Seriously. I forgot how to work 40 hours a week. And all the sudden I can actually sleep super well through the night because I am actually working, it is so fantastic!

I have gotten my schedule through December...and I have to work Christmas. So does Paul. :( He works 8am-3pm. I work 1pm-11pm. This is going to be the suckiest christmas ever, but at least I get overtime right? I will try and make the residents super happy...cause it would suck to be in a extended care facility on Christmas!

I've missed blogging, I am going to try and keep up better with this!

the cold has come

Hi girls!  Finally found a little time to post!  I still have stuff I need to do though, but I thought I deserved a little break!  I feel like I accomplished a lot tonight, that merits a post, right?  And I have the hiccups and they're driving me craazy!


Anyway!  This week has been kinda crazy and busy.  Shea has been waking up a lot, been kinda sick, and I've had a few  long days hours at work, plus Shea has two checkups this week.


Here are a couple highlights from the past week:

• Shea started walking!  He still crawls if he can't find anything to pull himself up with, but he is walking without holding onto anything for a long time...usually he only falls down because he tries to run and can't keep his balance that well.
• I FINALLY bought new sneakers.  I have been needing some for over a year after I ruined them on a youth missions trip.  But I refuse to spend over $12 on a pair of sneakers.  Yes, I am cheap.
• I was given a bean cookbook at my WIC appointment.  Now that it is FREEZING and I have to turn on Shea's heat in his room or his poor hands get frigid, I am trying to stretch out our groceries to compensate for the higher utility bill.  This means lots of soups and less meat, so I'm excited to learn more recipes to combine beans and whole grains.  The soup I made this evening rocked and I still have plenty of it!

I made a list for myself today, and I almost did everything on it, plus some! 

• Put gas in the car (not on my list, but definitely needed)
• Called about our car payment (my checks ran out and the bank messed up my order, so I was double-checking it wasn't going to mess us up at all if it was late.)
• Paid other bills
• Took Shea to his 1 year WIC appointment
• Called Shea's primary doctor to double check his appointment this week
• Went grocery shopping for a few staples
• Put a load of laundry in
• Made AMAZING Lentil soup from scratch for the first time and some corn bread to go with it.
• Cleaned the Kitchen floor and vacuumed (I spell this word wrong the first time every time) the living room/entrance
• Cooking up a pot of white beans to freeze for quick soups later on.

Ah, that list makes me happy.  The only things I haven't gotten to (and probably won't today)

are updating our budget (I haven't done this since I started working and we paid off one car), and cleaning the guest bathroom.  Actually, I should probably clean the bathroom because my mom is coming tomorrow to watch Shea.

And now, for some pictures.

My big pot of soup and Shea and my bowls (it really was delicious):

Shea ate a bowl and a half and totally LOVED it!

Making crazy faces for the camera!

My new shoes!  $9 brand new at Target.  Yay.

OK!  Have a great week, ladies!  I am off to do a quick work out and then cuddle with my hubby and read some of my library books.

Ladies!

I'm tired of checking this blog and seeing "I am mad" at the top. I want to be encouraged when I visit, not reminded of stupid people!

Like the rest of you I'm sure, I have been busy. Saturday I cleaned and did schoolwork. Sunday I cleaned and did schoolwork and taught children's church and did child care at church. Yesterday we kind of relaxed.

We finally saw Inception! It's at the $3 theater so we've been waiting - for months, it seems - for it come. It was good! Despicable Me is also out so we'll see that next...

Joe still hasn't heard whether he got the job he interviewed for last week. I really hope they call today! He has had the last four days off in a row (amazing!) but was sick for two of them. And today, just when he was going to get a bunch of stuff done, he hit his head really hard. He's outside painting now - what a guy!

French dip sandwiches are for dinner.

Cats: They're all fixed except gray kitty, and all home except for Mama cat, whose kittens (I hear) are sucking from a foster mom because our Mama was too sick to nurse. Mama will get fixed in a few days and then come back to us.

All the cats got sick with colds, which apparently is common after they get fixed. One particularly sick one we took into the shed - it was sooooo sad! A cat expert came and told us since the sick cats wouldn't eat and we couldn't catch most of them, they would probably die, but now they're all getting better!

Little Sleepy is our shed kitty right now. She is living the life! She has no interest in going back outside to join her friends and she is so cuddly. I'm trying to convince Joe that we need a third cat. She would be a great addition to our family!

School: Almost halfway done with this session - five more weeks! Then Christmas break, and then guess what - I only have to take four classes each semester instead of six until I graduate because not all the classes are available right away! Slightly annoying since I wanted to graduate by summer, but I'm also excited about not getting burned out on school.

Let me in on your lives! =)

Amber

I am mad.

My school started offering a Professional Writing class this semester. I am in it because I need it for my English electives.

I love the textbooks. Well, I love one of them. One is kind of dense but has some good stuff in it. I'm also finding the assignments challenging but very helpful.

Two things I don't like. The first doesn't apply to me, but I feel for the other students. This class is 245, meaning a lot of people are taking it who are not English majors and don't have a background in English. If I'm a senior and I find this class challenging, it should be a senior level class. I am doing fairly well in the class, but I know a lot of the students are not. It's not because they're stupid or lazy. It's because this class is far too advanced for anyone who does not already have a background in English.

The second is this: the professor has an absolutely rude, disrespectful, sarcastic attitude to the students' assignments. Sure, he punctuates his feedback with "good job"s, but both his individual and group feedback is overall negative and harsh. He asks rhetorical questions to make students look dumb ("Some of you didn't format your assignment in MLA. Did you even read the instructions? If you don't read instructions from your boss you'll get fired..."). After claiming one of my papers was very unprofessional, he referenced something at the end and said "Ahh. So this is what is supposed to make this seem 'professional'." I burst into tears.

And he uses capital letters to make his points, so it's like he's yelling at the students that they're stupid.

I got a B on the assignment. That's fine. I just can't believe someone teaching professional writing would be so unprofessional. He might be trying to simulate a work environment - but when you turn in something that needs revising, your boss does not make patronizing, sarcastic remarks about it. He says "you need to change these things" and hands it back.

I've left several messages with the school. Each answer machine states their office hours. Well, clearly they are not in their offices during office hours.

I am SO FED UP. I'm tired of school. I'm tired of this school that doesn't have a student advocate who is on top of the phone. I'm tired of getting either really awesome or really horrible professors. Why can't I homeschool myself through college? Haha.

Thanks for listening to the rant. I'm off to call the school again.

Amber

EEK!

Where did THIS come from???

OK, this has actually been on the wall for like 2 days, but I didn't look at it until now and realize that it was some kind of lizard or salamander thing!  There was a bag for goodwill by the door, and my husband took it out yesterday, and this was left behind.  From the distance, I thought it was just like a leaf or a string or something, so I haven't paid any attention to it thinking I would clean it up later.

Is it worse that after I discovered it (pretty sure its dead) it's STILL sitting there?  I am most definitely being a little girl and waiting for my husband to come home and get rid of it.  Shea hasn't tried eating it yet, so hopefully he won't discover it before then...

Anyway.

Well, I had an awesome day at work!  I had to sub as the lead teacher for my 4's class, and a different teacher I usually assist was my assistant.  So, I thought I was going to be totally nervous and mess everything up, but it actually went really well (God blessed me with no major breakdowns on the kids parts)!  I wasn't nervous at all, I was just filled with joy that I got the opportunity to teach these great kids!  Thanks, God!


Then when I got home, even though I was majorly tired (not sure why, I went to bed at 8:30 last night!), I got done most of what I wanted to:

• Scheduled Shea's one year appointment
• Ordered new checks
• paid our PSE bill

I also got to spend time cuddling with my cranky son and vacummed the living room/kitchen/front entrance (so many pine needles get in these days!)

And now I need to go make dinner for my hubby and son!

The new job and the new clothes.

Today was my first day of work, it made me kinda tired. The nurse I was following talked constantly all day telling me new information. I felt like I was back in school, 9 hours of school and my brain was on overload. I think the job is going to be awesome though. I love all the staff, and the job seems like it will get way easier once I know how to do everything. I am excited. :)

When I got off I texted Paul and and asked if we could go to dinner at Red Robin and then watch Devil wears Prada. He agreed. I am so excited! He gets off in half an hour.

Hope you guys had an amazing day!

Last day with my pumpkin

Here are a couple pictures I took during my last day with my little one. For some reason her parents never put her down for naps, so when I got there at 10:30 she was so sleepy. The family didn't leave till 11 (they were having a family day), so the second they walked out the door I grabbed a bottle, took her upstairs, put her in her beanbag and she was asleep in about 2 minutes. She slept for 2.5 hours! Crazy girl.

When I got home I actually accomplished everything I wanted to. Here are the presents I wrapped.

I also:

• cleaned the bathroom
• vacuumed and resolved the carpet
• made lunches and got breakfast stuff ready
• started cooking dinner (the hubby gets off at 7 so we are eating late)
• set out my clothes for tomorrow
• found my social security card and finished filing.
• uploaded pictures to the computer, emailed some to Kaliah's mom, and am now chillin on the bed till I have to do more for dinner.

All in all a good day. :)

babies, babies, everywhere!

Wow, I had a tiring and eventful past couple of days!


First off - on sunday I heard three baby announcements!  Our Pastor's wife and Jeremy's youngest sister and older brother are having babies!  Thats the last of the couples to have kids in the Ellis family, and that will make 10 grandkids for his parents.  Thats CRAZY.  There are going to be so many kids in a few years, because I'm sure now we'll just be having them left and right. haha.


Boy, if I had the baby fever before, do I have it now!  However, after my sleepless nights the last two nights, I'm  not ready to rush into newborn mode right now...


Shea has two molars coming in and got a fever and cold, so we were both up Sunday night and I think I got only 4 hours of sleep.  He stayed home from Daycare.  Then we had company over last night for dinner (again!), so I had to clean like a mad lady when I got home from work.


I've done laundry, cleaned the house too many times to count, made dinner for people, laid around doing nothing, watched a movie, sewed some, and put a lot of kids to sleep at Daycare (apparently, I'm the nap lady now).




So instead of writing a list, I'll just share a few pics from the last couple of days:

Flowers my preschool class gave me:

my sick boy:

tired mommy and baby cuddling (we did a lot of this on Monday):

Homemade marshmallow brownies I made for youth group on sunday:

The many faces of a crabby Shea:

I am definitely looking forward to my day off on Thursday!  And tomorrow, I am lead teaching for the first time to sub for the teacher I normally assist.  Pray it goes well! 

Exciting news!!

So I started applying at Nursing and Rehabilitation Centers last week. I had an interview on Wednesday, and was supposed to find out about the job today. I had an interview yesterday, and they offered me the job immediately, I start tomorrow! For the first month I will be working 6:30am-3pm for training and then I will work 1-11pm 4 days a week.

This is the cake I made the other day to celebrate my friend Gabe getting a job, the picture of me was taken the very next morning after I had just had my interview and received my job offer. God is good.

The cake, don't judge how absolutely hideous the cake is, I had so many problems. I wanted to cut the edges of the cake like they do on the cake shows to make everything even...well frosting doesn't stick to cut cake, so I heated it up in the microwave so I could just pour it on. Then there wasn't enough frosting for the whole cake. I was like whatever, I will just put some vanilla frosting on too (the first stuff was cream cheese frosting). So I did that. Then I decided I wanted to write on it with blue frosting...it got all messed up so I smeared the blue everywhere, added sprinkles and a sign to distract from the cake that was hideous and falling apart. And voila, this is the cake in the end.

Last week Paul came for the last couple hours I had to babysit. He was so good with Kaliah, it was so fun to watch him play with her! I am going to miss her so much now that I have a real job. I felt so bad telling her parents I would be quitting in 2 days...though they did have fair warning about this way before hand, so it was expected. They hired me on the condition I would leave the second I got a nursing job. And I warned them last week I was applying at Nursing and Rehab centers and they usually hire to start just days later. Now the momma is scrambling to find someone else for my precious little pumpkin.

So this is my life. I start work tomorrow and will let you know how it goes! (Oh, I bought super awesome scrubs last night, they are plain but so comfy and well made..and expensive, oh well, haha) Disclaimer: I tried on cheap unisex scrubs and the crotch of the pants hung to my knees. So not sexy, so therefore I needed expensive scrubs. :)

These are the things I need to get done before tomorrow:

1. vacuum
2. resolve a couple of dirt spots out of the floor
3. clean the bathroom
4. pack lunches for Paul and I for tomorrow. (and a breakfast for me)

Things I would like to do:

1. mail out another car part
2. finish up filing
3. lots and lots of cuddling. :)

Hope you girls are having fabulous days!