First full day of vacation…and Friday Favorites, 2013: Week 30

Friday, July 26, 2013

Ahh…the joy of knowing that you don’t have to go to work for many days…it CAN’T be beat 🙂

I’m still remembering the super yummy pizza and fries we had last night (seriously this has become a first night on vacation tradition!)

Also spent the night finishing the first Harry Potter book and plan today to watch the movie…

Enjoy my faves from the web this week…

Favorite sneaky breakfast bite…gotta get those veggies in however we can…and it looks delicious with these Fluffy Summer Vegetable Pancakes!

~~Recipe and photo…Daily Garnish

Favorite HAPPY post…25 Excuses You Must Drop To Be Happy…which of these excuses ring true for you??  I know for me I use these A LOT — “It’s too late for me,” “It’s too much work,” “I’m too scared.”  It’s NOT too late, baby steps, and pull on your granny panties and face your fears!!!  I need to stop making excuses and start DOING. (~~Mark and Angel Hack Life)

Favorite fresh bite…always feeling like it’s the same old thing for snacks?  I certainly do.  But these Cucumber Sandwich Appetizers look so yummy…the mix of the bread with the flavored cream cheese, topped with a crisp cucumber…mmm…can’t wait to try them!

~~Recipe and photo…Mary Organizes

Favorite finance post…Teaching a Seven Year Old How To Shop for Groceries Frugally…we can all learn a lesson about savings from a child. (~~The Simple Dollar)

Favorite sweet treat…I love, love, love poppy seed quick bread but have not had it in FOREVER, so when I saw this recipe I KNEW I had to include it in my Friday Favorites…can’t wait to make and enjoy this Perfect Poppy Seed Bread!

~~Recipe and photo…Chef in Training

Favorite funny…

Favorite ice cream bite…you can NEVER have too much ice cream (imo!)…and this combo makes it all the more appealing…Brownie Bottom Ice Cream Cake…get in my mouth now 🙂

~~Recipe and photo…Cookies and Cups

Favorite truth (for a book lover!)…

Now have a great weekend!!!!

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And…I’m on vacation!

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Another slow night at work…but I made it through.

And now…I’m on vacation 🙂

Another stay-cation and I don’t have much planned, although I do want to try to get some files organized and just read and relax.  Not going to work will be vacation enough for me!

Busy/fast, not busy/slow

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Did you ever realize that when you are wicked busy, the time goes by so fast, but when you are not busy, the time can drag?

Well, isn’t that the truth!

Last night at work for the first four hours I was busy, busy, busy…the time FLEW by.

Then my patients went to sleep and I had nothing to do and the rest of the night pretty much DRAGGED on and on!

Needless to say, I was very happy to leave this morning.

Sometimes, even when I feel very stressed and busy, it’s still better than being so slow that I just can’t stand it!

Best scenario though … STEADY 🙂

One night down, one more to go until my second vacation!!

RAINY

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Wow, what a day…pouring rain when we got up and now pouring rain again.  A bit of sun in between!

STILL humid as heck.

I hope, hope, hope tonight at work is good!

I’ve done everything I wanted to today…made the bread, watched some LOST, made mac and cheese for dinner.

Now maybe a quick nap before showering.

**We have a yellow squash growing in our garden!!!!!  Never happened before so SUPER excited!!!

Grateful…

Monday, July 22nd, 2013

…our first produce from the garden (green bean!)

…to be able to grocery shop and get whatever we need

…fresh sheets!

…days off 🙂

Pinterest for the win…Banana Brownies!!

Sunday, July 21st, 2013

The inspirational pin…

The recipe (adapted from THIS RECIPE)…

Banana Brownies

Batter:

1 and 1/2 cup sugar

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 eggs

4 ripe bananas, mashed

3 tsp vanilla extract

2 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

Frosting:

1/2 cup butter

3 and 1/2 cup powdered sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

2-3 TBSP milk

To make:

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Grease 10 x 15 inch pan.

In large bowl, beat together sugar, sour cream, butter, eggs and vanilla.  Add bananas and mix well.

Add dry ingredients and blend for one minute until creamy.

Pour batter into greased pan and bake in oven for 20-25 min until golden brown.

While baking, make frosting by placing butter in large saucepan and bring to boil.  Boil butter until it turns a delicate brown and then immediately remove from heat.

Add vanilla extract, powdered sugar and milk and whisk together until smooth (should be thicker than a glaze, thinner than a cake frosting).

When brownies are done, remove from oven and immediately spread with frosting so that it will spread easier (I dropped spoonfuls of the frosting all over the cake and as it melted, spread it around).

Cool completely, then enjoy!

Seriously THE BEST banana recipe I have ever made 🙂

Grateful…

Saturday, July 20th, 2013

…air conditioning 🙂

…pizza!

…easy nights at work.

Friday Favorites, 2013: Week 29…the heat wave continues…

Friday, July 19, 2013

Here it is Friday again…

The days just run together when it is so hot…

Back to work tonight…

Enjoy my favorites from around the web…

Favorite cool treat…No-Bake Cheesecake!  No oven = happy me 🙂

~~Chef in Training

Favorite inspirational post…6 Things Happy People Never Do…(~~Marc and Angel Hack Life)

Favorite yeast treat now added to my “to make soon” list!…Easy Homemade Cinnamon Raisin Bagels…you had me at “easy” 🙂

~~Averie Cooks

Favorite funnies…I swear it’s the heat that’s making me laugh at these so much 🙂

Favorite super quick snack…Snickerdoodle Cookie in a Cup…LOVE the single serving…no extras to munch on!

~~No. 2 Pencil

Stay cool and have a great weekend!!!

Filing.

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Today I spent all of my free time filing.

Sounds like fun, huh?

I actually got a lot done.  I think I was more ruthless with paperwork today than I have ever been.  I also came up with (imo) better filing categories.  I am also going to order new hanging file folders which makes me pretty excited 🙂

These are them…

I LOVE the bright colors!

Last full day off and Kimm and I are going to watch a movie (High Crimes) and munch on popcorn (in the AC!) ~~ WHEN will this heat break???

 

 

Frustrated!

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

The day started out okay…but then I got a call from Risk Management at the hospital.  When I spoke to the woman who called, she informed me that I needed to follow-up with Work Connection at the hospital before returning to work on Friday (due to my neck).

WHAT???!!!

I had already worked the day after my neck was injured!

Turns out I was actually supposed to see someone before I went back to work that day but no one ever told me.

Ugh.  At least I could have gone yesterday after work before coming home.

But because the next time I work is Friday night I had to go up to the hospital on my day off…wasting MY TIME!!!!

That really gets my goat.

Anyways, my neck was feeling ALMOST 100% better today.  Just a little stiffness when I bent my neck backwards.  I was seen by the nurse practitioner and she cleared me.

There goes two hours of my life…

Second thing about today that was frustrating…the summer concert series held on the green in Agawam.   Kimm and I were super psyched to go since Enter the Haggis was playing and we heard them last year and really enjoyed their music.  In fact I had been listening to them in the car to and from work for the past week, familiarizing myself with their music again.

So what made the concert so frustrating??

Several things–

–the music was played very softly (I’m not sure if this was to prevent it from being too loud for the neighbors near the green, but it was so soft I could hardly hear it!)

–we were sitting by two families with FIVE kids each and these kids were LOUD and OBNOXIOUS (I really don’t have anything against kids but I really dislike it when they are running all over the place and yelling during a concert…the parents were completely oblivious…just talking with each other–don’t they know that people go to a concert to listen to the music…NOT them…I guess we should have sat back further!)

–the band’s playlist was pretty lackluster (I think for a concert they should play well-known songs that are upbeat…however they played a lot from their newest album which was pretty slow and melancholy)

We ended up leaving a tad bit early and coming home to watch House Hunters.

Here’s hoping tomorrow is less frustrating.