Obsessed/bored/lazy/whatever-you-want-to-call-it

Want to know how many times I checked my email today?


Do you really?


Please be prepared to gasp/shake your head/sigh/whatever.


31 times.


Yes, I know it's pathetic.

Christmas

We've had such a great Christmas week. 3 Christmas's down, 3 to go.
Luke was very surprised by the tool set I got him. I'll have to post the video sometime.
He also "surprised" me with getting me a camera. I was kinda surprised that I got it, but I had suspected something, because he was way too eager to go look at cameras, but never wanted to buy any.
It has lots of cool features that'll take me years to learn and remember how to use them, but I'm very excited.
I also got a cookbook with over 1400 crock pot recipes.
Guess what we're going to be having a lot? :)

This "vacation" of sorts also had us acting like young people again.
Last night we went to Walmart at 1am.
Yes, us.
And it'll probably take us a week to recover.

Wrapping presents

Don't really have much interesting lately. I finished my review course. I survived driving to Bloomington and back every day, even though we had the worst winter we've had all winter.

This weekend's highlights were camera perusing, and wrapping gifts. I can't lie, I like cameras a lot. And I like the expensive cameras. Although the one with the amazing zoom was pretty great too. Anyway, I'm excited for a new camera.

It's seriously great to have an engineer husband when it comes to gift wrapping. We had fun, and took as much time as we needed to do it. :) Here are some of our gifts...sorry about the bad lighting.

Graduated

Yep, that's me!

It was all good. I didn't trip walking up the stairs to get my diploma, I stood at all the right times, and my diploma was the right one.

My husband got me an ipod for graduation. I was (and am) still so excited. I've wanted one fore years! It's blue, and shiny, and holds like 4000 songs, and I have cool ear buds, and an fm transmitter so I can play the music in my car. Yeah, I'm sure most of you probably had all that years ago, but I'm catching up! (boy, do I sound old with that statement or what?!)

Sorry there are no pictures of graduation. My camera is dying quickly, so none of them turned out. Good thing about it is, my husband has now realized how bad my camera really is, and is excited about getting a new one. I've been drooling over cameras everywhere we go. I'm still not quite sure exactly what kind I want, but there are certain features I won't buy a camera without. And of course, all those cameras are the nice (aka, expensive) ones.

My Christmas shopping is almost done. Just one more.....

Online Shopping

I love it.
I'm totally addicted.
Yesterday morning I told myself I had to go Christmas shopping. I hadn't done any at all.
Now, I generally love shopping, but it was cold, and I just really didn't want to get dressed up...sweatpants sounded so much better.

I got online to research prices before I headed out into the cold, and low and behold, I could get free shipping.
Free.
As the hours ticked by, I continued to shop online, and ended up with 4 gifts.
All with free shipping.
All without ever leaving my house.

Finished

It's so surreal.
I'm done.
I passed.

It was such a special moment when all 24 of us bowed our head together before our last final and prayed God's help on the test, and his blessing on our lives and careers.
And we all passed.
We're all going to be nurses.

It's such an amazing reminder of God's help, His sovereignty, and His blessing on my life.
It's been a hard 4 years, but I've come in contact with some amazing people I would have never met otherwise; people that I'll never forget. I've been stretched more than I ever would have, and I've learned so much about perseverance, patience, forgiveness, and putting my trust in God.

Praise HIM!

I'm doing what?!

Yeah, I'm organizing my house and keeping it clean! Yep, I am. Please pick your jaw up off the floor.....Thank you. My house is usually one or other...rarely both. But I'm looking ahead to the months I will have until I start work, and I get this overwhelming urge to start now. I can't WAIT to go buy things to organize my tiny closets with!! Which brings me to my random story.

Right after we got married, I got this little basket at Walmart. It's about 5inches wide, 7 inches long, and 7 inches deep...not real big. It was getting too full, and I wanted to use it for all those beautiful Christmas pictures and letters we've been getting, so I bought a new one that's a little bigger.

I figured out why it was so full. It held:
22 pens, in various colors like pink, purple, blue, green, black, and orange
3 markers, in pink, blue, and black
3 rubber bands
4 paper clips
1 zipper pull
1 key chain
4 pads of sticky notes
3 rolls of tape
1 calculator
2 lighters
1 screwdriver
1 broken screw
2 extra buttons
3 sheets of address labels
and TONS of old food coupons.

If you need any pens, just stop by our house.

I'm hoping oh so much..

...that 2 feet of snow will dump,

or the roads will become a solid sheet of ice,

or every road will be drifted shut...

anything so I don't have to go to clinical tomorrow.

Adjustments

You know, I never thought I'd have a hard time not being a student anymore. But I think it's going to be harder than I thought. I realized last night that I have no hobbies anymore. I can't even really remember what I like to do with "free time."

Just a while ago, I was bored, so I started working on some school stuff! It's break! What am I doing?!

The problem is I don't know what else to do.

I'm starting to think I might miss school for a while.

For your viewing pleasure

In case you're wondering what in the world is going on here, I'll explain.
We had a Schick cousins karaoke night last Saturday. There was lots of singing, dancing, and general noise, as I'm sure you can tell. But it was lots of fun (apparently Evan [2nd picture] didn't really agree). As you can see for yourself is video # 2, Jake has some sweet dance moves.

Thanksgiving break is here, so no school until Monday. It's definitely the thing I'm most thankful for this year! Luke's gone until later tonight, so I'm celebrating this break by going shopping. It's been ages, and I'm so excited!!

A New "Accomplishment"

I've accomplished a lot in my years, but today was something new.

At the ripe old age of 21, I've become a great aunt.
For the third time.

Anna Ruth Wyss was born about 4:30 this morning, weighing in at 7lbs, 1oz, and measuring 20 inches.

Just a few more days..

29 days to be exact.
Then I'm done with college for forever, or at least for a very long time.
I'm so tired, so ready to be done. It's been the longest and hardest four years of my life. So long in fact, that I didn't go to school today, because I simply couldn't stand the thought of another class.

29 days.
I can do it...I think.

It's Piling Up

The garbage that is. I'd love to take it out, but I can't. Or maybe I should I won't.
See, there's a mouse in our garbage bin, and I'm sure it's still alive.
Even if it's not, I still don't want to see it.

A couple weeks ago, we got home and opened the garage door just in time to see a mouse run across the garage. Yes, I know there's almost always mice in garages, but if I don't see them, I can forget they're there.
Anyway, Luke bought some traps and some sticky traps, and we caught a mouse in the sticky trap on Saturday night. It wasn't stuck very good though, cause it was scooting the trap around the garage. We weren't sure what to do with it, so Luke threw it in the garbage bin.

Hence the reason I'm not taking out the trash until Thursday.

Those weeks

I love to cook, don't usually have too much trouble with making things. I can usually have whatever I make turn out just fine. But it's one of those weeks, and everything I make flops.
Everything.
Even the things I make all the time with no problem.
*sigh*
And this would be the week I'm taking supper to 2 families from church.
Sorry Nancy and Wendy!

I hab a coud

Translation: I have a cold.

These are the recent updates in my life: I have cold, we have a new president, and I have new slippers.

I'm pretty excited about the new slippers part. I love slippers. One of my old ones developed a hole in the bottom, so it was time for new ones. I stopped after school today and got some. I like them a lot!

Oh, I also graduate in 37 days, 21 hours, 59 minutes, and 30 seconds
Yay!!

Again?

Yes I know...two post in one day? Don't I have anything better to do? Well, yes, but this post is for a very good reason.....

I GOT A JOB!!

Granted, it's not totally my "dream job" of working in labor and delivery, but it's the next closest thing to it.

I will be working 11pm-7am four nights a week at Methodist Medical Center on the Postpartum/Nursery unit. I am totally thrilled to be able to take care of those brand new mamma's and babies!!

Waffles for breakfast, lunch, and dinner

Last night Luke came home with a huge box. Surprise! He had boughten me a waffle iron! We did register for one before we got married, but took it back. I wanted one with little squares, not the Belgian waffle irons. We never did find one, so we just kinda gave up. Anyway, he found one on the internet and ordered it for me! I am so excited to make waffles!

Thanks babe!

I love you baby!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I wish...

That I was a "cheap" person. See, I have this character flaw:
I love food,
clothes,
eating out,
vacations,
weekend trips
and pretty much anything else that costs money.

I try to be frugal, I really do, but I fail marvelously every time!
Especially when at the grocery store or Walmart.
When we were engaged, I asked a married friend how much she budgeted for groceries each week.
"$50" she replied.
$50? I can do that. In fact, I could probably do better than that.
Yeah right.

I've read the books, done the coupon clipping, even tried just carrying cash. None of it has worked.
So now I am asking my faithful readers to give me their hints on cheaper vacations, shopping trips, eating out, and grocery store tips. Is it just a mindset? self-discipline? only going to the grocery store on a very full stomach? Seriously, I'd like some help with this one.

Cake

Elise came over last night (since our husbands were out gallivanting around-just kidding, they went to guys Bible study). We needed a pre-movie snack (not to be confused with the intra-movie and post-movie snacks), and I immediately thought of Amy's chocolate mug cake. We whipped up 2 mugs of it.

It was...interesting. Tasted good, but had the texture of a sponge. Not joking. Needed extra sugar, frosting, or whipped cream, and hardened to a point to hard to eat within half an hour. On the positive side though, you got the chocolate cake craving fulfilled, and it only takes 5 minutes! It's definitely something I will be experimenting with in the future. Here's the recipe in case you are in the mood.

Chocolate Mug Cake:
4 tbl flour 4 tbl sugar
2 tbl baking cocoa 1 egg
3 tbl milk 3 tbl oil
3 tbl chocolate chips (optional)
teeny tiny bit of vanilla
Mix dry ingredients, mix in egg, add milk, oil and vanilla, and choc chips if you so choose. Microwave for 3 minutes. The cake will rise over the top of the cup, but that's normal. Take out, dump on a plate, and enjoy right away for best results

As a side note: My dear husband brought home stuffed crust pizza last night for dinner...just because. I was excited to eat it then, and I'm excited to eat it again for lunch. Thanks baby!!

A Party

I'm a girl, and everyone knows that most girls like to dress up. Which is why I came up with the brilliant idea of having a costume part on Halloween (hey, I had 5 hours in cardiac cath yesterday to come up with all the details).

We could have fun, scary looking food. I could even grab some gloves from the hospital and put water in them and freeze them for icy hands. :)

And of course, everyone would have to dress up in fun, creative costumes and during the party, we'd all guess who was what.

I even came up with most brilliant of brilliants costume idea (please keep in mind that I was in cardiac for the day): Luke can be a cop, I could be a heart (like inside the body heart), and together we could be.....(drum roll please)....
Cardiac Arrest

I thought it was brilliant. Luke said I had too much time on my hands. I guess there will be no costume party.

Still Waiting

I know patience isn't one of my strong points, and it's definitely being tested right now.

I'm done interviewing at my two top hospitals, and now I'm waiting for a phone call either offering me a job, or saying "sorry, you weren't chosen for this position."

I'm hoping and praying to find something out this week. My future is on the line!!

Trip Down Memory Lane

I had a flash back while I was at my mom's yesterday doing applesauce (6 bushels of apples, 6 hours, 5 adults, 7 kids, 115 containers...also see Wendi's blog). Anyway, in the midst of all that, Wendi made cookies, and I had to think back to that one very memorable cookie baking experience...

It was May 2006 (or possibly June) and school was out for the summer. It was beautiful summer evening, but I (along with my siblings) was bored. Jenny was also bored, so she came over. Sometime during the evening, we decided to make cookies to take over to my future husband because he had just purchased our future first home (yes, it's kind of weird to think about now).

We pre-heated the oven, and happily mixed everything up. When I placed the cookies in the oven, it was smoking a lot, which wasn't uncommon for oven to do. What I didn't realize was that that day, my mom had baked a cheesecake, and some of the butter had dripped out of the spring form pan.

While baking, a burnt smell, and smoke began to come roll from the oven. I opened the oven door, only to discover that the butter on the bottom of the oven was on fire. The smoke detectors started going off, and everyone was shouting something at once. Jenny asked for a fire extinguisher. I thought we had one, but nobody knew where. So I grabbed a cup of water, and threw it in the oven. The fire was extinguished.

The cookies were a little burnt on the bottom, and tasted a little smoky, but weren't too bad for all they'd been through. We weren't able to turn the smoke detectors off because they were too high up.

My parents arrived home 15 minutes after the drama to find 5 sheepish looking people, a house filled with smoke, all the windows open, and the smoke detectors screeching.

Tagged

Well, Abby tagged me. Personally, this reminds of email forwards. Everybody jumps on at first, and then it slowly dies out and becomes totally uncool to do. But since it's the "cool" thing to do for know, I'm playing along. Here are my 7 random and/or weird facts.

1. I am in love with strawberry toaster strudels. I eat them pretty much every morning for breakfast.
2. When I pluck my eyebrows, I like to sit on the bathroom counter with my feet in the sink and my face like 2 inches from the mirror. (and yes, I do get teased about this)
3. I am NOT...let me repeat, NOT a morning person. Which doesn't go too well with nursing school since everything starts by 6:45am. I think I'll be just fine working nights. If you do ever have to wake me up early, I suggest doing it very gently (right hon?)
4. I have a love-hate relationship with shopping. I love it, and at the same time hate it, because I can never find just what I want, and I spend way too much money.
5. I love kids and my perfect number is 7- 4 boys and 3 girls (and yes, I do know I can't pick things like my children's gender). I still have to convince my husband that 7 kids would be blast.
6. I love to cook. I sometimes spend hours making dinner. At the same time, I also love to feed people. I am definetly one of those people who tries to shove food down your throat. "Would you like more potatoes? We have plenty of them. Here, I'll dish some up for you."
7. I love nursing, and everything about nursing. My dream job is work on labor and delivery, but nursery or postpartum would work too. I've gone through 4 years of school to work on OB. It's the only thing I've ever wanted to do. (and I'll still holding out for an OB job offer, I'll let you know how that goes).

So there are my 7 things. I'm now tagging Jenny, Marcy, Kaitlyn, Wendi, and Nancy

The Why's of Walmart

-Why is there never a close parking space when I come into Walmart, but when I leave, they're all open?

- Why is it usually raining on the day I need to go to the store?

- Why do I always have to suddenly pee really bad as soon as I walk in the store?

- Why is the Subway always baking fresh bread when I walk in (or out)?

- Why is the line I'm in always the one that goes the slowest?

- Why do I never look at my receipt and think "Yeah, that's about the right amount for the groceries I bought." Why is it always so much more?!

- Why is my cart almost always the squeaky one, the one who's wheels don't work quite right, or the one that shocks me at random intervals (long story)?

Just wondering.

It's going to be a long winter

It's 67.8 degrees in our house right now, and I'm freezing. How will I ever survive the days of a 62 degree home??!!

Last winter, my husband came up with a brilliant solution to getting me out of bed on time, since I usually refused to get up because it was too cold. We got a little space heater and a timer, and timed the heater to begin running about 1/2 hour before I had to get up. Tada! A nice toasty bathroom to greet me in the mornings.

I love that man and the random things he thinks up to keep me warm. :)

A lovely time

Heidi S. and I just finished dancing to the entire "Drop it with Dance" dvd.
A 45 minutes fat blasting workout
(or so it claims).

Whew...it blasted something!
Thanks for coming over, Heidi!

So Nervous

The "event" is finally here.

It's the event that every graduating MCON senior dreads the entire two years.

It's Senior Scenarios, and mine is in half and hour.

I feel fairly well prepared. Then again, maybe I don't.

When something is worth half your grade in a six credit hour class,

it doesn't matter how much time you've spent on it,

you're never prepared enough.

I am shaking. Literally. My knees feel weak,

and I think I might be sick.

Dramatic, yes, but it's truely how I feel.

Marsha and Heather made me eat some food,

which is now sitting heavily in my stomach.

My sympathetic nervous system

(fight or flight)

has kicked in and stopped digestion.

True story.

15 more minutes.

Panic plays no part in the training of a nurse. ~Elizabeth Kenny

Yeah right.

Paranoid?

You know, maybe nursing wasn't quite the career for me. I love everything about, except for having to learn about all the things that can go wrong with a person.

The first paranoia episodes came during mental health class, during which I was positive I had a personality disorder or schizophrenia or bipolar....or something terrible.

Then there was med-surg, and all those everyday things like eczema (I diagnosed myself, thank you very much), UTI's, etc.

Next there was complex med-surg and critical care and a new paranoia of strep throat. Did you know it can cause kidney failure and endocarditis if not taken care of?!!! Yeah, me neither. To further my paranoia, my teacher informed us that unless you are already being monitored for some heart problem, you don't usually discover that you have endocarditis. Until you die, that it, since it can kill you within hours.

Anybody else paranoid with me yet?

To worsen the matter, someday I hope to have children, and I will be just like the mothers whose children I don't like to take care of. You know, the ones who have just a little too much medical knowledge for their own good.

My husband has already been strictly instructed that if one of our future children hit their head (even just a minor bump), and they throw up or act sleepy, that he is to take them to the emergency room immediately.
He didn't seem to deem the information necessary at that moment, but I figure there's nothing like planning for the future.

The wedding

At 5:30am the alarm went off, I jumped out of bed, showered, did hair and make-up,
donned the fancy dress and uncomfortable shoes,
and was out the door for wedding pictures.
We had a wonderful, beautiful day for
Mark and Kate's wedding.
I did just fine all weekend, until I had to watch Kate walk down the aisle.
I was pretty sure I was going to lose it, but I managed to keep calm.
We all did a good job, and stood up when we were supposed to be standing and
stayed sitting when we were supposed to be sitting.
Anyway, here are some pictures for you to enjoy.
(and yes, I do know they are in the wrong order)

Decorarting the car

Leaving!

Kristen "caught" the bouquet. In actuality, Kate through it
right over everyone's heads and it landed on the car,
right in the middle of a pile of shaving cream.

Kate and Amanda- nursing buddies

Me and Amanda- also nursing buddies

Aren't they just darling?

Cutting the cake

Red eyes, white nose :)

Linda with her new son

Bridesmaids in front of the amazing cake

Bridesmaids and Kate

Bridesmaids with Mark and Kate

We got dirty dresses and shoes during pictures, so before the wedding, we frantically
cleaned and ironed our dresses, and scrubbed our shoes.
Jodie is being a good bridesmaid and drying Kate's dress with a blow dryer

Emily blow drying our shoes. We pretty much stuck them in a sink of water to scrub them off

The amazing and beautiful cake

Jodie, me, and Emily

Luke and I

Shoe scrubbing

The was the least muddiest shoe.

Kristen being a good bridesmaid and cleaning Kate's shoes

Kate and Emily scrubbing Kate's dress
(I don't know why it showed up sideways, and I can't get it right!)

Kate and I at the rehearsal dinner

And now that it's all over, I have boatloads of school work to do before tomorrow morning.
What a terrible way to end a wonderful weekend!


Congratulations Mark and Kate!!

I had WAY too much fun with this!

You guys should seriously check out yearbookyourself.com.
I was laughing SO hard!
Take a look at some of these pictures!



1982

1966

1962

1954

1972

1984

1986

1990

1994

Water

And lots of it!

We got home from Jeff and Janel's tonight, and Luke and I figured we should check out basement for water...just in case.

Sure enough.

There was lots of water, not because it came from the sides of the house, but because the two drains in the basement backed up.

So right now my husband is sucking it all up, and I'm not helping cause there really isn't anything I can do but sit and watch.

This is REALLY not what you want to find at 10:20 at night.

Thursdays are NOT my days

It probably has something to do with my having to get up at 5am.

The first brilliant moment of my day occured while I was packing my lunch. I grabed the ziploc bag with 2 pieces of pizza in it, put both pieces in a new ziploc bag, and threw the first one away. Sigh.

My second brilliant moment was while driving to my clinical site. Instead of going where I was supposed to be, I went to the hospital. As I got out of my car, it occured to me that I was supposed to be on the other side of Peoria.....in 5 minutes. So I headed over there. I was already on empty and my car was letting me know. Ding...ding...ding...ding...ding. So as I stresfully drove to my actual clincial site, my gas tank continued to empty. Ding...ding...ding...ding...YES, I KNOW I'M ALMOST OUT OF GAS!!!

And when I arrived at my clincial site, my preceptor informed me she had to leave at 7:30am. I listed to report, and then left. Now I'm stuck at school until 12.

This day really couldn't end too soon.

Pure goodness

After a long day of school and scenario practice, I needed a pick-me-up, and nothing works as a pick-me-up quite like:

YUM. Seriously pure goodness in a cup with ice.

Back to reality

Today I've been wishing I was back in Michigan, playing volleyball at the beach, having a care-free, good time, and not studying.

But I'm at home, doing laundry, scrubbing floors, and feeling guilty for not studying.

Labor Day Weekend

For the holiday weekend, we headed up to Caladonia, Michigan to visit our very much missed friends, Jake and Meika. There was much fun to be had by all, and there was plenty of sand, sun, water, and volleyball.
(And sore muscles and sunburns)
We all ate way to much junk food, and had way too little sleep, but it made everything all the funnier.
("Burn the chair!", and "Ife-Arted!")
I apparently missed out on a convicting topic about having children, and learning that Jake is
NEVER
going to change his kid's diapers.
Jake, we all pray you change your mind.


Thanks for the amazing weekend, Jake and Meika!

Interview

I survived it. Barely.

Let it be known that St. Francis screens their potential nurses VERY well. VERY, VERY, VERY well.


I guess that's a good thing, but an hour and half interview is a very long time. And the guy never smiled, never even changed expression once. Talk about intimidating. Oh well, it's over now, and boy am I glad!

Oh Happy Day!

I just filled out my Application for Graduation.

*big, enormous huge grin*

Nothing to Say

There really isn't.
School is school. It's hard, but there's only 3 1/2 months left.
I've applied for a couple jobs.
I really hope they don't give me scenarios like Ashley says they do.
I'll never get a job that way!

It's SO nice outside, but I can't go out or open the windows because I'll be sneezing all night long.


The main reason for this post is that I don't want to do laundry.

This is telling

Yeah, this is a story that perfectly illustrates how things go at my nursing school.

First semester, during orientation, we had to fill out a bunch of paperwork and were told that we would get stickers for our cars (so we could park in the parking lots) by the next week. That was early January 2007.

Bring yourself to the present. Today, on August 20th, 2008, we were issued our stickers. One year and seven months later than promised.

Oh, and we have to turn them in in four months when graduate.

They should have saved their money.

Illinois's Newest Driver!

Happy 16th Birthday Wendi Jo!!

The pollen count must be high today

I took a walk, and could just about feel my eyes swell. I came home and took another 24 hour Clariton, my second in the past 12 hours.

What to do

It's 10:47pm, and (obviously) I'm still up. Usually I'm in bed long before this, but since this is my last week of no school, I declared it "lazy week" and slept late every day. Sleeping late then results in staying up late, which causes yet another day of sleeping in late...and well, the cycle continues.

Anyway, my husband is sound asleep in bed, and I'm on the computer, just searching for new posts to read, or new pictures to look at on facebook. Sadly, I have 1/2 an hour before I will have been up for 12 hours. I have no books to read, and I really can't clean the house at this time of night (seriously...I'm pretty sure there is a rule that says you can't clean or do laundry after like 8pm).

In short, I'm bored, and I'm also seriously considering raiding the pan of brownies on the kitchen table......

The garage needs airing out

For the past two days I've been cleaning out our garage.
Really good.
Like washing down walls and floors and such.
But there were still a lot of bugs, and then I met my new friend:

We got a little happy together, and I used the whole can on just two walls.
Now the garage smells like bug killer, and the garage door has to stay open.
Otherwise you about die when you go in there.


But there are two dead crickets!!!