Happiness in June

Happy things in June:

. being told I was the best nurse someone had ever had .
. another year with my fabulous brother, who turned the ripe ol' age of 26 .

. rain with the sun shining .

. Dips in the pool  .
. fabulous finds for my trip .

. finding another location to take said trip .

. headbands .

. dinner with the lady friends .

. surviving my three day in a row weekend shift .

. being told that I look like Audry Hepburn .

. ice cream on hot days .

. fresh herbs that are growing on my front porch .

. our beautiful hydrangeas .

. dinner and shopping with the Eddys .

. lunch with the BF before work (makes the work day better!) .

. sweet potato fries .

. plans for my mom's 50th birthday party .

. summer meals .

.  birds chirping when I leave work at 1:00 a.m.  .

.  laying in bed laughing and talking with Mr. O late at night  .

.  summer fun at the brother's house  .

.  passing EKG class  .

.  backgammon games with Mr. O .

.  avocado dip  .

.  summer thundershowers  .

.  cool, breezy summer nights  .

.  finding the perfect diaper bag (no, I don't need it...yet)  .

.  finding the perfect quote for my collage  .

.  being told by a PA at work that I am a  "kick ass nurse!"  .

.  summer music  .

.  having dance sessions with Ava to techno music..that kid has the music in her  .

.  talking to a sweet niece on the phone  .

.  the Cooking Channel  .

.  baseball nut ice cream from Baskin Robbins  .

.  New trucks for deserving husbands  .

.  Top Chef  .

.  secure plans to Tybee Island  .

Blame it on the angry uterus

My uterus is telling me to punch people in the face.  Fortunately, I don't fall for her antics on most occasions.  Seriously though, do you know how hard it is to have to put on a happy face when your back feels like it's breaking and your uterus wants to hurt people?  It's not easy, ladies (uh, and guys, if you're still reading after seeing uterus in the title, Robert or Mr. O). 

I must say that I deserve an Oscar for my upbeat and joyous acting that I did at work on Thursday.  It helped that I walked around with my hands tied behind my back and a smile painted (a la the joker) on my face.  My patients were mostly great too, which helped too.  

Here are some things that I've pondered during the last few angry uterus days:

• Why does Ross have eight registers, if it's only going to open one?  Seriously, I've lost hours of my life in line at Ross.
• Why do people drive slowly in the left lane, especially when there are only two lanes?  It's so inconsiderate and rude.
• Why is there not a Forever 29 store?  Why do my friends and I have to dress like we are 40 or 20?  We're even better than we were in our 20's and we deserve to look like it.  I will give a shout out to JcPenney's for having a great misses section.  If you haven't checked out their clothing, you definitely should.  I'd like to thank their buyers for thinking of us.
• Why can't I find some suspenders, though I haven't tried that hard?  I want to rock a pair with a t-shirt and shorts.

There were more teeth-gritting, hands-in-my-pockets kind of moments, but enough with the angry times.  I'm feeling pretty good today.  We have plans tonight to go to downtown Franklin to walk around and eat dinner with the Eddys.  I'm incredibly excited!  I'm off this weekend too!  Word.

Bridget, the beautiful BFF, if you don't know, sent me this blog, http://www.catalogliving.tumblr.com/.  It's pretty funny.  Check it out.

Sharing the love

Things I'm loving right now.

* Times Square Tangerine Creme

* This saves overly washed and dried out hands.

* I could eat a whole box of these in one sitting.

* So cheap, but so good!

* I eat fruit at least two-three times a day.  That's probably why I spent about $60 on produce today.

* This is phenomenal in cereal!

All I know is

Things I have learned today

• It is far too hot to be outside longer than one second.  I don't know how people, like my brother and husband, who have jobs that take them out in the heat, can do it.  I would be vomiting and sick.  I can not handle this heat.
• Apparently, men can't drive and talk on their phones.  I know I can do both easily without letting my speed drop down to 20 below the speed limit.
• Kroger is busy no matter what day of the week or time of the day you go.
• Sometimes you get saved from unfortunate events for no apparent reason, like when the wasp went down the back of my shirt this morning and did not sting me.  It still gives me chills just thinking about it.
• Miley Cyrus makes some inexpensive clothing.  I bought a t-shirt for $1 today.  Yes, I bought a Miley Cyrus shirt (not a shirt with her face on it; her clothing line).  Laugh if you will, but I only spent a dollar and I know I can rock it.
• Some things should never be changed.  A big (sarcastic) thanks to the people that remodeled our Wal-Mart.  Wider isles, but less selection.  It doesn't really make sense to me.
• Husbands forget to tell wives important things.  As for instance, the home inspector is coming today. 
• Our house is deemed renovated because of the amount of work we've put into it.  Score!  Here's hoping for a good appraisal.
• Kroger will take printed coupons off the internet...at least they did today.
• Meat does not defrost unless you take it out of the freezer. 
• If you leave zucchini in the fridge for two weeks, it will go bad before you can saute it. 
• Thinning out your clothes, only to fill your closet with new clothes, defeats the purpose of cleaning it out in the first place.
• You should always give Ross a chance.  Granted, it's usually a mess and junky, but walking out with 4 pair of shoes for $40 is quite worth walking away empty handed 75% of the time.
• Herbs don't water themselves.
• Party planning is so much fun in the beginning before the stress sets in.
• We need a bigger kitchen.  I realize this every time I am in our kitchen though.
• Days off should be spent in the pool, not running errands.

Tonight is the night

Most television does not excite me.  Every year, I watch fewer and fewer shows with the exception of the Cooking Channel, Food Network, and Discovery Health, which tend to be on when I'm up late at night, sometimes just for some background noise.  One show, in particular, does excite me.  The new season happens to be starting tonight.  Tonight, Top Chef is back!

Top Chef is the MacGyver of cooking shows.  Their quick fires are insane.  They take some random ingredient and turn into the unimaginable.  Not only that, but there has been quite a bit of eye candy too.  See exhibit A, B, C, D, and E. 

If you're looking for me tonight, I'll be on the couch drooling over culinary concoctions.

I'm a survivor

Yes, I survived my three day work weekend.  I spent two of those days working my 12 hour shifts without a break.  Yes, no break at all and one day I worked over almost 30 minutes.  I lost another pound because of it.  Yea..no.  If you want to know the perfect diet, nursing is the way for you to go.  Nursing is trying to kill me.  Overall though, it wasn't that bad and really, really like the weekend crew.

I've spent most of my last two days scrambling around trying to find a new location for next month's trip, since we can't go to the oil-invested gulf.  I think I've decided on Tybee Island, which is 20 minutes outside of Savannah, in Georgia.  We have two really promising locations.  I wished we had more options, but it looks like we need to make that decision quickly.  I have sat in front of this computer far more than I would have liked to on my days off.

All I can think about is going away and laying on a beach.  It makes it really hard to be productive.  My poor house is begging for me to clean it.  I prefer running errands and daydreaming about a trip that is over a month away.

Have I mentioned how much I love my job?  Going to Hendersonville was such a good choice!!  Weight loss or not, I am so glad that I made the decision to come there.  I feel like everything has clicked into place now.  Next up, management in the next five years.  What!?   I'm on the fast track, people.  I have future children to think about. I'm sure they don't want their momma working until 1:00 A.M.

Late nights all alone

Yep, a bunch of late nights all alone.  At first, the idea of nights alone are fun.  You can do what you want and watch what you want and not have to answer to anyone.  Take for instance, now, I'm watching Julie and Julia.  Love that movie.  I would have loved to have hung out with Julia Child.  I think, if having to chose five people dead or alive to have to a dinner party, I would definitely chose Julia. I think I would even have Johnny Depp offer up his chair to her. 

So, the thing about nights alone are that you are all alone.  I get quite lonely actually.  I read all my blogs, write a blog occasionally (expect more entries), read a book, write menus, read magazines, and so on until I utterly have nothing to do.  Keep in mind that I can't do anything that really makes a lot of noise because I'm awake in a house full of sleeping people.

Now, don't get me wrong.  You can find me on occasion longingly thinking of the things that I will do in a few hours when everyone is asleep, but for the most part, when I'm not running around having lunches or doing errands, I spend much of my days off by myself too.  That's a lot of time to spend with one person. 

Now, this isn't a pity me entry.  I'm just sad about the fact that for the next three days I will work, which means I will get to see my husband for a few hours before I go to work on Sunday and then not until Monday evening, when he gets home from work.  We will be two sleeping bodies beside each other all weekend. 

I've had to come to terms with this before when I worked mostly night and mid-shifts.  Well, my mind has seemed to erase those terms.  I've had a sense of pending doom, since I realized, after my orientation, I would really have to work 1:00 P.M. to 1:00 A.M. 

My blog is a place of honesty.  After all, most of what I write flows from my head through my fingers and out without any editing at all most of the time.  You will find virtually no filter here.  Well then, to be honest I was a crying a mess when I first had to adjust to working odd hours.  I missed Aaron and quite frankly, got sick of hanging out with just me late at night.  Well, I haven't cried, yet, but as I type this, I have a lump of self-pity in my throat.

I've come to realize a few things over the past seven months.  The first being that my husband really is a huge piece of my world and I need him a lot more than he needs me.  Secondly, a nurse's schedule isn't all that it's cracked up to be.  And lastly, I hate being the new girl and readjusting to a new environment.

Okay, enough with the pity party.  Back to my movie and cuddling on the couch with myself.

Oil be gone

Yes, I would love for the oil to be gone for all those sea creatures out there, but I also, selfishly, want it to be gone before our trip to Florida next month.  Of course, the first time we schedule a trip to the beach in years, it could possibly be ruined by the idiots at BP.  I heard a quote on the radio the other day that they released saying that they now realize the magnitude of the spill.  Um, excuse me, I think us average Joe (shout out to Ms. Palin...um, no) citizens realized the magnitude the first day we found out about it.  I swear, how do some people become the ones in charge?  Oil + water = _______.  Yeah, I think most of us can answer that one.

So, I'm going to try to still look at going on the trip in a positive light and hope that it works out.  In the meantime, here's hoping for a huge cleanup and for me to find the following things to make my trip even better.

To recap, I need a beach hat, black shorts, and new gold and brown sandals (not necessarily the ones pictured).  I'll be on the hunt for these things in next few weeks.  Oh, and I also need for my husband and I to find even more patience.  I couldn't find the picture for that one.  I think, if we don't pack that with us, we may do some physical harm to my mom's boyfriend, who we were hoping was not going.  I don't think, even with all of my positive attitude, that it could even come close to putting a lid on his negativity.  I just don't understand some people.  You can find something good in every situation.  It isn't that hard.

In other news

Well, I'm officially back on my night shift (1p-1a) work schedule starting tomorrow.  I forced myself to stay up last night to try to get back into my routine.  You may have noticed all the blog entries, which were an attempt to keep my eyes open.  I made it to 1:00 a.m., which was out of sheer determination. 

Our weekend was family filled and fun.  I love a good, long weekend.  We played corn hole, watched our men act like boys with large remote control cars and an obstacle course, acted like it was not raining and stood our ground outside, played Scrabble, watched movies, worked outside in our yard and finished up the weekend at P.F. Chang's and Starbucks. 

This weekend, I work Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, so I won't really see my husband at all until Monday evening when he gets home from work, due to the fact that he is working Saturday and Sunday and will be leaving early in the morning, which I will be happily sleeping through.  I guess I should look at it from positive light.  Absence makes the heart grow fonder, right?  Yeah, that person probably didn't have a good relationship.

Well, I'm off to clean the house, get a little exercise in, and do some grocery shopping.  Such a fun day off! Yes, that was sarcasm.  I'll leave you with a look at our menu the next week and a half.  It has been a while, since I gave you all a peek.

Tuesday:  Sweet Potato and Hominy Soup
Wednesday:  I'm working, so I'm suggesting veggie burgers, but my menu says, "Fend for yo' self!"
Thursday:  Roasted tomato spaghetti, salad and bread
Friday:  Leftovers
Saturday:  Salmon with orange mustard sauce, skillet green beans, and rice for lunch, they are on their own for dinner
Sunday:  Veggie pizza for lunch, Audra is cooking dinner, since I'll be at work
Monday:  Roast chicken, carrot souffle, mashed potatoes & blueberry cake (chicken salad with the leftovers for lunch on Tuesday)
Tuesday:  Buchons Au Thon, toasted orzo with peas and parmesan, and salad
Wednesday:  Black bean burgers with mango salsa, broccoli slaw with cranberries, and chips