Has it really been all month since I have posted anything on my blog? I just can't seem to post anything worthwhile to me. Although this blog is really for me to remember things that have gone on since we moved to Illinois and to remember our life as we are really "on our own". With no parents or siblings close by to help us out. Sure, they are a phone call or a text away - but it just is not the same. For example - I have a pile of clothes I have been collecting that need mending. Just waiting for my mother to come visit so she can fix them. :) She's great like that.
Our newest thing around here is playing our Wii. We bowl, we race, we play Mario. It's fun.
Our cats are preparing us to have children someday. They wake us up in the morning to play. They whine for food, and then whine some more after we feed them anyway. When I close the bathroom door for privacy - they scratch at the door and stick their paws under (hilarious). They scratch and bite at my nice furniture. Parker got his claws clipped this morning for that reason. Oh - and they are also cute :)
And so, the month of January has consisted of me going to work, Brett spending most of his time at school with research/teaching labs/studying/grading and then us sleeping! So, all in all not much has changed around here for us.
So much has happened in this past year! I feel like I am in a completely different place right now then I was a year ago. Last year at this time I was just about ready to start my last semester of nursing school, looking at homes to buy in Illinois, scooping piles of snow, and studying like crazy for my nursing boards. Well, the snow melted last year (and this year too!), I graduated from nursing school, took my boards, turned 23 years old, found out I passed my boards and bought a house. It really is quite amazing how I was able to keep my cool during that crazy time in my life. I'm thankful for Brett and all he did to help me through nursing school and allowing me to constantly study and not care if the house was clean. :)
Now, we live in Illinois and have lived here for nearly 6 months. Brett and I were having a discussion yesterday about how we feel about living here and whether or not we would move "back home" someday. Our thoughts are as follows: we like it here, but don't LOVE it. I miss the grocery store in Orange City where everyone is super friendly and your groceries get carried to your car for you. :) (lame, I know). We miss our small group friends from Dover! We like living in a bigger city where basically everything we need is right here. The amount of money we spend on gas is much better since moving here! We hardly use Brett's car since he walks to school and I only drive maybe a mile to work. Most days, I like my job - and I have met some great nurses on the night shift on my floor. We love our home and our yard. :)
So we really don't have a conclusion. I have a stable job, so we'll have to see what kind of a job Brett will get after graduate school.
In the meantime - 2011 will bring Brett's second semester of grad school and I will continue to work nights. My schedule might change to working 3, 12 hour night shifts instead of 4, 8 hour shifts. We hope to finish up our yard work this spring and get some plants planted. This year I also hope to finish my quilt I started many moons ago. Building a 2 car garage would also be nice - we'll see how that turns out!
Happy New Year!
Yes I am writing this pot at 2:15am. Yes I am at work while writing it. and Yes I am tired! I can justify writing a blog post now because all 5 of my patients are sleeping comfortably and all my charting is done and I am all caught up on everything. I wish time would go faster though. All I can think about right now is how nice my bed feels and how I wish I could be in it right now in my pajamas next to Brett! Oh, for the simple things in life. Instead, I am at work. I really don't mind working nights for the most part. I am lucky I can sleep at just about any time. I'm going to write a story just because it is something I want to remember and this blog is part of my life so therefore I warn you now if you don't want to read an odd story, just skip the rest of this paragraph. Brett and I were driving in the car on the way home from somewhere the other night (I think we were at Walmart getting groceries) and SOMEHOW we got started talking about bowels and suppositories and enemas and what not. And we actually had an entire conversation surrounding these topics! Toward the end of it we were just busting a gut laughing at the stupidity of our conversation. What other married couple (for 3 and a 1/2 years) talks about this kind of stuff in detail?! Only someone who is married to a nurse I guess.With his birthday money Brett bought a Nerf gun and has thoroughly enjoyed playing with that with Marshmellow. Marshmellow has enjoyed it too! He chases after the darts and then shoves them under the couch and then tries to go under the couch to get them back out (unsuccessfully). We have a video of it, but since I am at work I can't upload it. Maybe when I get home after I sleep. And I can put up more pictures of the cats too since that is the only thing we take pictures of lately. This coming week we are going back home to Iowa! It will be good to get away from work for awhile and spend some time with family. It has been a few months since we have seen people. Sure would be nice to take a vacation somewhere warm though. Better get back to work - even though everyone is still sound asleep!
It is a well known fact in this household that I do not like snow or the cold. I mention it several times a day, including the fact that it is cold in our house. I am bundled up in a bunch of clothes and a blanket and Brett has on a t-shirt and shorts. Craziness. Today it is supposed to be a high of 38 degrees, and tomorrow a high of 16 degrees and the snow is supposed to come tomorrow. I'm waiting for a phone call asking if I can come into work because someone who lives further away cannot make it in. I should decide ahead of time if I am going to say yes or no.
This week has been VERY UNPRODUCTIVE for me. I worked Monday-Thursday night 11-7. When I came home, I would go to sleep and sleep till 9:00 that night, waking up occasionally to get something to drink or go to the bathroom. Talk about feeling like a pile. Work has just been so busy that I am exhausted when I get home. The entire hospital has been full for the past few weeks. Every time we discharge someone the room gets cleaned right away and then a new patient comes up. The floor I work on is the surgical/ortho floor so I think people are trying to get their surgeries in before the end of the year. I had a patient the other night who had surgery on her birthday! She wanted to eat real food (ribs) but we always start them out on a clear liquid diet after surgery - sorry!
Brett has 2 finals left for the semester. Hard to believe he has gone through 1 full semester of graduate school, and I have been working as a nurse for 5 months. It has gone by so fast. Sure wish I could have a full week off of work that we could spend back in Iowa with family. I just don't have enough PTO accrued to take that time off! We are going to be home for a few days at the end of the month though. Hopefully the weather is decent and we can make it there.
I think today will be spent wrapping Christmas presents, grocery shopping, picking up the house, playing with kitties and maybe a nap :)
On another note - someone is the BIRTHDAY BOY TOMORROW! Brett will be 26 years old!
Happy Birthday tomorrow to my wonderful husband of 3 and a half years! In this picture he is digging the trench from the house to the garage to see why we don't have electricity in the garage. Turns out, when the previous owners built the fence they chopped right through the wire. So we put a new wire down and hooked it up and now have electricity in the garage! What a fix-it guy I have. And as most of you know he cooks too. :) The other night he made chili soup and cinnamon rolls. The chili was from scratch and the rolls were frozen, but it was all yummy! People around here don't eat chili soup with cinnamon rolls - they think it sounds strange. Must be a Northwest Iowa thing. Except now for us, it is a Central Illinois thing :)
Yes, I know I have not blogged in quite some time. It's this thing called work and life and sleep that get in the way. I'm always thinking about stuff to blog about - but seldom get around to it. Last week I worked more than 40 hours. Seems like everyone at working is calling in sick or kids are sick so they need someone to work. 2 days down this week, 2 more to go. But now, it is 30 degrees outside, the house is 62 degrees and it is time for me to crawl under the covers and sleep. I'll try to blog more later! And at the request of Laura, add more pictures. I swear I am trying to get my house clean so I can take more pictures of it to post - but it just will NOT stay clean!! Can't imagine why.
Adios.
It is a well known fact in my family that I do not cook much. Not exactly sure why that is. Laziness? Maybe. Fear of failure? Maybe. Lack of time? eh...probably not. :) Well tonight I was home and Brett had lab until about 6:20 or so, so I decided I would actually attempt to cook something for supper. We had some ground beef thawed in the fridge so I decided to make something with that. I didn't want to do anything taco related because we had just had taco salad a few days ago. I wasn't in the mood for spaghetti either. I started browsing the cupboards and cookbooks (the few I have!) for something to make where I didn't have to go to the store. I came across this recipe for pizza casserole and thought, hey, that sounds good and easy! I'll make that! Thank goodness I know how to brown ground beef and onion so that part was easy. As I got that started I went in the cupboard to get my macaroni noodles out and found that I didn't have any so I thought hey, noodles are noodles, I'll just use the egg noodles I have. Well the recipe called for 4 cups of macaroni noodles. I didn't have 4 cups of the other noodles but thought they were bigger so it was okay.
So I start cooking the noodles. I then look in the fridge for my pepperoni. Pepperoni, pepperoni where are you???? ARGH - I have none. I'm scrambling to think what else I could use and since you all know I am wonderful at this cooking thing - I came up with nothing. I know you are all on the edge of your seats just wondering what I did with this dilemma. I locked the cats in the porch so they wouldn't eat my food that was cooking. Then I turned the pans off and quick ran to the store to get some pepperoni. All the while my dryer was running. Smart? heh.
THEN - I get home and find my meat to be dried out and my noodles to be turned to some kind of mush. Apparently leaving them in water isn't a good idea. Who knew? Well, I put it all together in a pan anyway. Mushy noodles and all. It wasn't bad, but I wouldn't say it was wonderful either. Brett ate it, and even had seconds.
I guess if I ever decide to make food again, I'll know what to do different with this recipe! How did I draw the short stick in my family when it comes to cooking? My mom is a wonderful cook and so are my 2 sisters. Brett said practice makes perfect, so I guess this means I need to cook more huh? One meal at a time.
Happy Birthday tomorrow to my wonderful husband of 3 and a half years! In this picture he is digging the trench from the house to the garage to see why we don't have electricity in the garage. Turns out, when the previous owners built the fence they chopped right through the wire. So we put a new wire down and hooked it up and now have electricity in the garage! What a fix-it guy I have. And as most of you know he cooks too. :) The other night he made chili soup and cinnamon rolls. The chili was from scratch and the rolls were frozen, but it was all yummy! People around here don't eat chili soup with cinnamon rolls - they think it sounds strange. Must be a Northwest Iowa thing. Except now for us, it is a Central Illinois thing :) 
