Home again, home again, jiggity-jig!

Monday, May 21, 2012

A long 12-hour shift.  Made even longer by a co-worker not showing up for work and having to stay an extra hour. Made more embarrassing by having to give report to MY SUPERVISOR and realizing that I really gave a horrible report!  Made better by stopping and talking to the one intensivist that really still intimidates me and having him say “keep up the good work” and that he sees that I’m getting better 🙂

Eat breakfast…starving!

Sleep for 6 and 1/2 hours, shower and make dinner.

Back to work 7p-11p only (an 8-hour person needed to switch a day and since I work 12 hours I still needed to come in for the first four hours of the shift that she was covering 11p-7a).

I was in the ED again…SUPER busy…on level one where additional staff is needed to help get the people through faster.  Lots of starting IVs and giving meds.  The shift flies by and then it’s time to go home!  What a nice feeling.

So although it kind of felt like a waste to have to go in for only four hours it went by fast.

Felt SO weird to be driving home so late at night.

But felt SO good to be able to come home and go right to bed with my sweetie!

Open House

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Today Kimm had her first open house on the condo she has listed for her clients.

I went with her.

It was a QUIET open house.  Only one person showed up.

Hmmm…I guess it is true what they say, open houses DO NOT sell houses.  What sells houses is appropriate pricing and motivated buyers and sellers.

I REALLY hope for Kimm’s sake that this condo sells soon.  Unfortunately I think (and Kimm thinks) that it is not priced correctly and the sellers are DETERMINED to make money on this condo and that may prevent them from a quick sale.  It’s already been on the market for over a month and in real estate, that’s pretty much dead.

Besides that the day was spent balancing the checkbook and paying bills and relaxing before work.

I wish that the days where I first go into work felt longer!  Even though I don’t actually work until 7 pm, the getting there starts at 3:50 pm when I get in the shower, almost three hours earlier!!

Hope everyone is having a super wonderful weekend!

LOVING our new tradition :)

Saturday, May 19, 2012

So today was our second cleaning Saturday and I have to say I LOVE this new tradition!!

We got up, ate breakfast and then at 10 am, the cleaning began…

I did–the pot rack in the kitchen (so disgusting…filled with oil and dust…I’ve been wanting to clean this FOREVER, but of course it is awkward!), the dishes, the animal bowls, dusted whole house, got rid of old/dead plants and washed the pots, cleaned the downstairs bathroom, bed sheets and bedroom cleaned.

Kimm did–ALL the vacuuming–upstairs, downstairs, entryway, and furniture (!), the upstairs bath (including vacuuming the fan on the ceiling and the curtain).

Don’t be fooled by her list being shorter…I think I got the better end of the deal…vacuuming is hard work!

We took longer this week…until 12:45.  Then a quick lunch of fried egg sandwiches.

Showers and I ran to the library and picked up our iced coffee reward on the way back.

So nice to sip on iced coffee and read during the rest of the afternoon.

We decided to make our tradition even nicer by ordering out for dinner!

Pizza and fries while watching Weeds.

More reading after dinner.

A movie and popcorn planned for tonight.

I CAN’T think of a nicer day that I’ve had in a long time.

I’m beginning to LOVE my Saturdays off 🙂

Unexpected Visit

Friday, May 18, 2012

So we were supposed to go to an 80s-themed grad party and then bailed at the last minute.  Felt SORT-OF guilty, but then later, after viewing pics on Facebook, was SO glad we did not go.

It wasn’t that we didn’t like the people who invited us…it was just that we would NOT have fit in at all.

First of all, it looked like everyone was about 10 years our junior…no lie.

And everyone was wearing flourescent and tie-dyed…totally not the 80s look we were going to sport…since we were trying to save money, we were going to utilize things we had at home.  I was going to go for the “preppy” look–khaki shorts with a pink polo, an argyle sweater tied around the shoulders…Kimm was going to go for the “punk” look–rock t-shirt, spiked collar and studded bracelet.  I thought we were being fairly original since the 80s encompassed a ton of looks…but like I said, the pics at this party showed otherwise.

So instead of going, we enjoyed a nice night in…pizza and Weeds.

As soon as we finished eating, we hear a knock on the side door….turns out Kimm’s cousin and his wife were in the neighborhood after eating dinner out at Uno’s and stopped in to say “hi.”  Well, that turned into a 2 hour visit 🙂

It was unexpected, but nice.  We had just been talking about getting together with them…but in a neutral setting (i.e., NOT their house since they ALWAYS have the TV on…SO annoying).  So since it was here, it was just talking and no distraction from the TV.

The windows were open wide and the breeze was blowing…I love now that we can keep the windows open at night!  So peaceful.

Tomorrow is cleaning and coffee…actually looking forward to it!

BTW…we are planning on getting together with the grad in a more intimate setting and I’m sure it will be much less awkward on our end!

Life Lessons

Thursday, May 17, 2012

There is this really great blog you should check out…

…Marc and Angel Hack Life: Practical Tips for Productive Living

Somehow I always feel more positive about life after reading one of their posts.

Here is a good one…

101 Timeless Lessons Life Teaches.

There is bound to be at least a few that cause you to nod and say to yourself, “yup, that is so true!”

Happy Thursday!

Circle of Grace and Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

I don’t know what it is, but I’ve been feeling so up and down with my emotions and moods lately.  Happy one moment, but incredibly depressed the next.  It’s so frustrating.

Yesterday and today I was feeling more on the depressed side and slid these books out from my bookshelf.  I don’t know what it is, but these two books have always appealed to me when I was feeling a bit down.  Maybe because they show how important friends are when things are tough.  I don’t really feel like I have a strong support system of friends here so I’m not sure why this appeals to me!  But I think it is because it gives me hope that I could have a support system like it someday.

Anyways, if you are looking for two good books to read…I highly recommend both of these…have read them both multiple times and still have not tired of the story or the characters.

Circle of Grace

Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons

Happy reading…I read them both within two days…they are that good!

Survivor Finale

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

So I got to watch the rest of Survivor today…WITH sound 🙂 Much better when you can actually hear what is being said!

I know a lot of people don’t like that TV show, but somehow I have always been sucked in.  I like to watch the social interactions develop over the 39 days.  I always wonder how I would fare in a similar situation.

I wasn’t surprised about the winner…the only thing that surprised me was how she got everyone to like her so much.  Watching the show, she seemed so non-powerful, but she really had a lot of people wrapped around her little finger.  It’s always surprising to see who will take the lead.

I’m interested in going back and watching some of the old Survivor seasons.  I watched fairly consistently the first couple of years but then fell out of it.  I know what I’ll be ordering next from Netflix.

Sleeping in.

Monday, May 14, 2012

Since we had a late night yesterday (we didn’t get home until 12:30 am and into bed until 1 am and probably didn’t fall asleep until 1:30 am) it felt WONDERFUL sleeping in a little this morning.

By sleeping in, I should say that we were still up by 8:30 am.

Ahh, how times have changed…used to be 8:30 am was getting up early!

Spent the morning organizing pics on the computer.  Got a bunch done, but there’s always more to do!  I am making serious headway though and can’t wait until this project is done.

After lunch I watched the final episode of Survivor on the computer.  It was all going fine until the final ten minutes when the site I was watching from…LOST sound!!!!  What?!  I watch the whole season and get no sound for the last ten minutes!!!

I did find out who won, but I still want to know what was said at the end.  I’ll have to try again tomorrow.

Dinner was homemade pizza with homemade dough.  I’m searching for the perfect homemade pizza dough and after tonight I’m still looking.  The dough I made was much better than my last dough, which it should be considering now the flour is not past expiration 🙂  But it still lacked flavor…and wasn’t crispy enough on the outside.  My search continues!

The other big thing I did today was register for a seven part seminar to help prepare me for the CCRN test I want to take.  I checked with my supervisor at work and she said that it will be covered by our yearly education refund.

Plans for tonight include reading and finishing THE LAST season of ER.  Only two more episodes left.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Last night was one of the few nights in a while that I actually spent IN the ICU.  I’ve been floating so much it felt rare to not float.

But, even though I was in the ICU, we had no ICU patients.

I have to say I had a good night.  I took care of my patients, I studied some stuff for CCRN, and got to chat with my friends 🙂

Once home I threw in a quick batch of brownies in the oven because we were going to Kimm’s parents house later that night to celebrate Mother’s Day.

After that it was BED…so nice!

When I got up I was able to chat with my mom 🙂  She had gotten back from a nice lunch out with my brother, his wife and my dad.  After talking for a bit, I showered and then headed out with Kimm.

We had a nice grill out–veggie burgers with cheese, potato salad, veggies and dip, potato chips, and brownies for dessert.

We just sat and talked after eating and it was a nice time!

I wish I could have spent Mother’s Day with my own mom, but since I couldn’t, I’m glad Kimm’s mom treats me like another daughter.

I give kudos to all the moms out there who sacrifice so much for their children.

A benefit to working in the ER

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Yep, I was in the ER again last night…12 hours.

But one of the best benefits of working there is that I get out at 7 am … ON THE DOT!!!

One more night on…