Audrey's Blog

Changing blog addresses

2010-01-28T03:53:00.000-08:00

I've decided to split my blog into two different pieces - one for my cooking ventures and the other to be used as a personal family blog.

To find out what's been happening with the Simon family, please visit us at our new location The Simon Family Times.

To find out what I've been cooking in the kitchen, feel free to check out my food blog Kitchen Confections.

Hope to see you soon!

Fun Times

2010-01-25T23:09:00.000-08:00

Brian and I have been having a lot of fun dates lately. A couple of weekends ago we went down to Pike Place Market.

We had a yummy brunch at Cafe Campagne to start. I had brioche french toast, Brian had a delicious Croque Madame. I'm definitely getting that next time. What a tasty and full flavored dish! Service was slow, but the food made up for it.

The inside of the resaurant was cozy, and snazzy french bistro music was a lovely background to our meal. We'll be back for sure.

We then stopped by Delaurenti's and bought a good quality olive oil for cooking, then wandered around the produce booths and bought some nice veggies for dinner.

We also grabbed some fresh doughnuts at the Daily Dozen. Oh my gosh, those doughnuts are addicting!

On our way out we bought some sashimi-grade black cod from the Pike Place Fish Market to complete our dinner menu. It was a gorgeous piece of fish, and I'm glad to say that my first adventure with cooking the delicate white meat was successful - we had moist and perfectly cooked cod when I was finished. I missed a couple of pin bones though because I had crappy needlenose pliars. Boo! Since then I've purchased some pin bone tweezers, I'll report on their utility the next time I cook fish.

More recently we've seen several movies and had brunch at Lola Restaurant in Seattle. Sadly, our food experience was not good and we won't be returning. The chef didn't cook the whites of my fried eggs completely, they were still runny/goopy. Talk about gross! To top it off, the eggs were so bland it was as if they hadn't even been seasoned at all! It is said that the true test of a chef's ability is to find out if they can cook an egg properly. I sent my plate back and the eggs returned cooked to my liking, but still underseasoned. If it was only the egg thing, I might have cut them some slack but unfortunately there were other things wrong with our meal that dissapointed us. I'm bummed about the experience, because the ambiance and the waitstaff were great.

Nevertheless, we've really enjoyed having the time to explore the city and we look forward to trying new restaurants and going on new adventures now that school is over.

Removing Myself from a Rut

2010-01-05T00:01:00.000-08:00

2009 was a tumultuous year. Don't get me wrong, good times were had but as the year progressed I found myself falling deeper and deeper into a rut. I guess Brian's diagnosis (and all that came with it) hit me harder than I was willing to admit. Add to that the full year that it took my back to return to a semblance of normalcy and the uncertain job climate...it was all just too much for me and I kind of gave up. I retreated within myself into a state of mourning and slowly lost my sense of spirit and passion. I was vaguely aware of this loss, but didn't have enough energy to care - I was in basic emotional survival mode and taking things one day at a time. I was stuck in a place of constant worry, vacillating between a state of patient advocate, nurse, caregiver, and wife.

Fortunately, things have started to look up. At long last Brian's major symptoms have been successfully addressed, allowing him to forget on occasion that he has multiple sclerosis. What a blessing it has been that he has started to feel like his old self again. He received a promotion at work, and January saw him starting his new position as interim team lead. My lingering back issues have pretty much resolved and I've been fortunate to obtain employment as a level II NICU nurse in Seattle. 2010 ushers in a feeling of renewed energy. I am ready to dip my toes in the water once again and participate in the things that fuel my spirit.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

2009-12-25T02:48:00.000-08:00

Yay! Sarah Buxton is still around.

2009-08-18T10:19:00.000-07:00

Cute but corny tongue in cheek video. Great tune. I'm glad to see Sarah Buxton in the limelight again.

Sarah Buxton

More CMT Music

More CMT Music Videos

Another great song by Brad Paisley

2009-08-18T10:10:00.000-07:00

Brad Paisley

More CMT Music

More CMT Music Videos

2009-07-10T22:56:00.001-07:00

This story cracks me up. Way to go Dave Carroll on getting your voice heard when United Airlines administration refused to listen! I've posted the video below.

The following was taken from msnbc's website

updated 6:55 a.m. PT, Fri., July 10, 2009
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia - A Canadian musician has become an Internet sensation after posting a song on YouTube about United Airlines breaking his guitar.

Dave Carroll's video for the song "United Breaks Guitars" was posted on site earlier this week and has received more than 600,000 hits by Thursday evening.

"I was thinking I'd definitely get some action on (YouTube) because the song has been resonating so well with audiences as I've been performing it, but I didn't know it would take off like this," Carroll said.

Carroll, a guitarist for the pop-rock group "Sons of Maxwell", has since been fielding calls for appearances around the world, including a call from the Oprah Winfrey show Thursday.

The song recounts Carroll's yearlong struggle to get compensation for what he calls "a vicious act of malice" at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago last year.

Carroll was flying between Halifax and Nebraska when he switched planes in Chicago. The passenger next to him noticed baggage handlers tossing guitar cases outside the plane.

Carroll's Taylor guitar required 1,400 Canadian dollars (U.S. $1,200) in repairs. He said it still doesn't play the way it used to but he keeps it for sentimental reasons.

The 41-year-old songwriter spent the past year trying to get compensation from United Airlines. When the airline refused to take responsibility, the songwriter made the humorous music video and posted it online.

Taylor Guitars in California has said they'd be happy to see if they could repair the damaged guitar. They also promised a big discount on his next purchase.

United also called to say it wants to discuss the situation. Carroll said officials for the airline said they liked the video and want to use it as a textbook case on how to handle customer complaints in the future.

The video shows friends dressing up as flight attendants and musicians. Volunteer firefighters played the baggage handlers who are shown playing catch with the guitar case and tossing it like a hammer throw.

Carroll initially told United he would write three songs about his broken guitar. He plans to debut the second song soon but hasn't written the third one yet.

Regina Spektor

2009-06-27T01:03:00.001-07:00

Regina Spektor is a singer-songwriter/pianist who's music has often been featured on one of my favorite TV shows, Grey's Anatomy. "Laughing with" is a song off of her new album Far. I had to post it because it really resonated with me when I heard her sing it tonight on the Late Show with David Letterman.

My interpretation of the song is that many people in society today mock God and the idea of religion. It is as if they view God as some sort of mythical joke...until they are faced with their own mortality.

I love Great Performances!

2009-06-18T12:32:00.000-07:00

I've seen two of the PBS Great Performances shows this season and I've got to say I'm hooked. The first episode I watched featured the new musical "In the Heights." The documentary had me enthralled - I was transported into the world of theatre for a short period of time and was sad when it came to an end. Great theatre does that to me, but usually not when it's on TV. That's what is so incredible about the Great Performances series. It is produced in such a way that you feel as if you are a part of the audience. I'd like to personally send a HUGE Thank You to PBS for their support of the arts!

Here is a small clip from the Great Performances show "In The Heights - Chasing Broadway Dreams"

The second Great Performances show I watched was "Hitman: David Foster and Friends." It was another amazing show. So many remarkably talented people performed, it really was incredible to see so much talent in such a short period of time. I've attached one of Brian's favorite moments from the show below.

Michael Johns of American Idol fame singing "Man in Motion"

I'm looking forward to watching the next Great Performances episode, whatever it might be!

When I grow up I want to be a NICU nurse.

2009-05-28T11:16:00.000-07:00

My senior practicum in the neonatal-intensive care unit (NICU) at Swedish Medical Center is coming to a close on June 3rd, 2009. I'll have been there for nine weeks and put in a total of 240 hours as a senior nursing student in my last quarter at the University of Washington. I've loved every single minute of it and I'm extremely grateful for the chance that I have had to learn and grow in such a supportive environment.

My preceptor Synthia has continually challenged me and given me opportunities that as a nursing student I never expected were within my reach. Her belief in my skills and knowledge have allowed me to work with the sickest infants on the unit and to independently take on a full patient load of three preemies at a time.

This experience has definitely cemented my belief that when I grow up, I want to be a NICU nurse. I'll be forever grateful to the Swedish NICU and to Synthia for this amazing opportunity. Words truly cannot express how blessed I feel to have had this experience.

I've attached two short videos so that you can get a small glimpse of why NICU nursing is so awesome!

Concert Season Has Begun

2009-05-16T15:33:00.000-07:00

Last night Brian and I went to see our first concert of the season: Taylor Swift at the Key Arena. It took us FOREVER to get downtown, but it was totally worth it - we had such a fun time! We'd planned on eating at a restaurant before the concert, but traffic was so bad (there was a Mariner's game that night as well) that by the time we got down there all we had time for was a quick bite at Dick's Drive-In.

Traffic going to Seattle on SR 520

Getting my cowgirl on :)

I married such a handsome man!

Kelly Pickler, one of the opening acts.

Taylor Swift. Not the best picture, but oh well.

Stuffed Shells with Arrabbiata Sauce

2009-04-30T09:42:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been craving lasagna like crazy but didn't want to make it because of the high calorie count that goes along with it. When the hankering persisted I decided to make a more waist-friendly pasta that would satisfy the desire for cheesy goodness.

Enter Stuffed Shells with Arrabbiata Sauce, one of my go-to pasta recipes thanks to Giada De Laurentiis. Giada is an Italian-born chef with her own show on food network, Everyday Italian. When I made it this time I wanted to cut down on the calories, so I substituted part-skim ricotta for the whole milk version. I was pleased to discover that the finished version was just as delicious as when I make it with the full-fat ricotta. The best thing about this wonderful recipe is that it is so simple to make that it practically involves assembling ingredients. From start to finish it is a fairly lengthy process, but well worth the time - I always get rave reviews when I make it.

The Arrabbiata Sauce

The Stuffed Shells (they look so cute all snuggled up together!)

Served with homemade bread and green beans - yum!

Mmmmmmn. Bread.

2009-04-25T15:32:00.000-07:00

I've been on a bread making binge the past couple of weeks. At Easter I made rolls and two loafs of bread that I baked in loaf pans. This was my first foray into making a more rustic, artisan type loaf. I'm very pleased with the results!

My cute ball of dough bench-proofing on my pizza peel

After it bench-proofed I washed it with a cornstarch/water mix and made some cuts

The result after it baked (I should have put foil over it the last 10 minutes to keep it from getting so dark, but I now I know for next time)

After it has cooled. Notice a lot of the loaf is gone - it went great with the delicious black bean veggie soup I made. Talk about yummy!

Adventures in Pizza Making

2009-04-03T19:04:00.000-07:00

I FINALLY had the opportunity to try out the pizza stone and awesome pizza peel that I got for Christmas. The adventure started out yesterday afternoon when I decided to surprise Brian with home made pizza for dinner (Brian's favorite food of all time is pizza). Earlier in the day I'd made a ball of dough from an online recipe adapted for a bread machine. After our much-needed shopping trip to Costco, the dough was ready to go and I started to shape it. The dough was wetter than I'd expected and I struggled to make a pizza shape without tearing a hole in the dough. I ended up forming more of a rough rectangular shape and patched the holes with excess dough.

Unfortunately, my frustration with shaping the pizza was just the beginning of my foray into pizza making. I was still inexperienced with using my super peel, as evidenced by the fact that as I slid the pizza in the oven and onto the stone I didn't place the pizza far enough back into the oven. The result of this mistake was that I ended up with about a 3" overhang of dough that wasn't supported by the stone, causing it to droop and spill its toppings onto the floor of the oven. My quick fix for this conundrum: Cut the drooping dough and arrange the blob onto the side of the pizza stone to bake. Let me tell you, it was not a pretty sight. When all was said and done the crust turned out to be a big disappointment and for some reason had a bitter aftertaste.

Despite my horrendous first attempt I was adamant that I would not be defeated by homemade pizza dough. So this afternoon I used a different recipe using a simple one bowl method and crossed my fingers for a better result. This time around the dough had a lovely feel, was easy to form, and I even managed to place it on the stone correctly. To top it all off it even tasted good! Success! While I was waiting for the oven to preheat I even created a tasty homemade sauce to top the pizza with. I was so proud of myself I took pictures to show everyone. :)

The formed pizza on the pizza peel before sliding it into the oven

My homemade pizza sauce

The baked pizza in all it's thin crusted goodness

Birthday Dinner at Ray's Boathouse

2009-03-27T20:43:00.001-07:00

To celebrate the birthday of myself and my mother-in-law Barb, we met up with Brian's family at Ray's Boathouse Cafe for dinner tonight. I was in a seafood mood, and I was happy that the family was willing to accommodate my craving. I'm super bummed to report that their food was a complete disappointment! My halibut with mashed potatoes, fig demiglace, balsamic reduction, and asparagus(their special of the night) had great potential, but fell flat on its face. The fish was overcooked in some places, undercooked in others. The best part of the meal was my room temp potatoes and the sourdough rolls.

Brian's steak Oscar was also a huge misstep. The flavors didn't blend well, and they overcooked his steak. He agreed that the rolls were the best part of the meal. We could have sent our food back, but sadly, if they did such a poor job of cooking our food to the right temperature in the first place they didn't have much luck at succeeding the second time around. The only person that really enjoyed their food was my brother-in-law Nick - he ordered hot wings.

After plopping down $57 for our meals, Brian and I left feeling like we would have had a tastier dinner if we'd stopped at Dick's Drive-In and had a cheeseburger and fries. In fact, the food was so bad that we declined dessert and got ice cream sundaes at Dick's instead. So needless to say we won't be back to Ray's. Please take heed to my warning - Don't eat at Ray's Boathouse!!! Instead, save a few more of your pennies and eat at Matt's in the Market. Their food is equal to the best I've tasted in Seattle (including Canlis). If you want your tummy to smile, eat at Matt's.

Hello, San Francisco

2009-03-24T09:49:00.000-07:00

My fabulous sweetheart of a hubby decided to send me into my 30's in style by taking me on a trip to San Francisco! We enjoyed three wonderful days and nights trekking all over the city.

DAY 1
On Friday morning we flew into Oakland, took a shuttle to the coliseum and then jumped on the BART (Bay Area Regional Transit - the regional subway system) to downtown San Francisco. The trip was so easy peasy that I was impressed with how simple it was to get to our destination. As we emerged from the BART station we were introduced to the crazy steep hills that make up San Francisco as we walked up the 8 blocks to our hotel. Along our hike we stopped off at Walgreens to pick up our Muni passes.

I did a bunch of research before our trip and found out that using public transportation is super easy in Frisco, and that the city offers a three day Muni passport for only $15. This pass is such a DEAL! It allows unlimited passage on the train (local underground subway), city buses, and cable cars. Without this pass, riding on a cable car costs $5 each way. And since we used the cable cars as our primary mode of transportation, our passes paid for themselves in less than two trips!

We arrived at our hotel slightly winded and grateful that our hill climb had come to an end. I had booked our stay at The Orchard, a 'green' boutique hotel through Hotels.com so I wasn't really sure what to expect. We were pleasantly surprised that our room was ready for the early check-in that I'd requested and that the staff was extremely accommodating and gracious. To top it off, our room was lovely, the bathroom nice and spacious, and our bed super comfy. We couldn't have asked for a more ideal location - we were central to everything, yet away from the noise and only steps away from a cable car stop.

After we had unpacked and got settled into our room we set off on a jaunt to Nob Hill Grille for a late lunch. Brian had an omelet with goat cheese that he absolutely fell in love with! Following lunch our lack of sleep from the night before (we stayed up late packing) finally caught up with us, so we cozied up in our amazingly comfy bed and took a nice long nap. Our mini vacation had officially begun!

For dinner we took the train down to Chow, a funky and popular restaurant near the Mission district. We shared tasty lasagna that needed more filling (some of the sections were just stacks of noodles). Brian had raspberry lemonade, the second-best drink he's ever had in his life. I agree, it was delicious. For dessert, I had a ginger cake with pumpkin ice cream - oh my goodness. It had the right combination of everything: spice, texture, and flavor. Wow. Brian enjoyed his dessert of butterscotch banana cream pie, despite the fact that it tasted like regular banana cream pie.

DAY 2
The next morning began with an early wake-up so that we could get ready for our eight hour tour of the city.

Brian and I on the cable car down to the Ferry Building, where we were meeting our tour group.

We drove all over the place in our shuttle tour. Below are a few pics from the tour.

Lombard Street, the "crookedest street in the world".

The MTV Real World - San Francisco house

China Town

Grace Cathedral

Ghiberti’s Doors of Paradise - Made from the same mold as the doors used for the Duomo in Milan, Italy. The mold was made before the 15th century and tells the story of the Old and the New Testaments.

Close up of some door panels

Better, professional pics can be seen here.

We went inside this house, one of the historic "7 Sisters" in Alamo Square
(Also seen in the intro to the TV show Full House)

Inside the gorgeous lobby of the de Young Museum. This place is covered in fresh flowers.

The Palace of Fine Arts. Originally built for the Panama Pacific Exposition of 1915. It was framed with wood and covered with "staff" - a mixture of plaster and burlap. This material was only supposed to last for one year, so it was duplicated in lasting materials. Unfortunately, we couldn't walk around inside because it's currently closed for construction.

The weeping women at the top of the columns symbolize the sadness of a world without art.

The park adjacent to the Palace of Fine Arts, also created for the Panama Pacific Exposition of 1915.

The Golden Gate bridge (rain started sprinkling on us here)

The weather turned on us, and the sprinkling rain became a downpour. Our next visit was to Muir woods National Monument, so we had to buy ponchos to keep dry! Brian's trying to make the best of the situation.

Brian inside a HUGE redwood tree. This forest was gorgeous! The youngest trees here are 800 years, most are around 1500 years old.

Here's a pic of Brian acting really cold inside a tree trunk.

This is at Muir Beach Overlook. The view is supposed to be spectacular, but the fog limited our view. I wanted a pic anyways to show how foggy, windy, and rainy it was. Brrrrr, it was FREEZING!!!

We also went to Sausalito, but didn't get any pictures because it was just a little shopping town, and it was raining on us.

Following the tour, B and I had dinner at The Slanted Door. Talk about a fun experience! The food was AMAZING, and the service was the BEST I've ever had. It was a perfect way to end a long day of sightseeing.

DAY 3
Our last full day began with breakfast at Canteen. The food was OK, but I was really disappointed because I'd heard a lot of rave reviews from patrons of this tiny little restaurant. After brunch we headed down to the Wharf.

See the dark blue truck to the right of the picture? This truck cut our cable car off. Because the cable car operators had to slam on the breaks so hard and so suddenly, they had to call for a big city truck to come and give us a push to get us going again.

This was the truck that got us going back up the hill again from our violent stop.

Me and my sweetheart at the wharf cable car stop.

This is specialty bread made at the famous Boudin bakery. They have been using the same sourdough starter since 1849.

Cute lobster

Crabby bread

Alligator. Or is it a crocodile? Hmmm.

Brian with some living statues at the wharf

At Alcatraz Landing we had about 20 minutes to kill before we boarded the ferry to "the rock." We were hungry by then (it was 1pm) so we went the "restaurant" next door that the company operates to grab a bite to eat. Once we got in we realized that even though on their awning they say they're a restaurant, inside all they really are is a souvenir shop with a snack bar offering premade sandwiches and pastries. We got our food and sat down at one of the tables.

Oh. My. Gosh. Our food was D-I-S-G-U-S-T-I-N-G! One might ask, "how can you mess up a rice krispy treat and an almond pastry?" I myself would ask this same question, but somehow they managed to screw it up. The food tasted like it had been there for 4 days or more. Bleh! Brian and I had a couple of bites before we had to throw it away. We took a pic of Brian demonstrating our feelings of the food before we chucked it.

ALCATRAZ

This was our approaching view of Alcatraz from the ferry

I insisted that we sit at the helm of the boat, despite the super cold wind blowing in our faces. Brian wasn't too pleased, but I think he secretly enjoyed the primo view.

On the island, before we docked.

Taken just off the ferry dock

Officers’ social hall (Alcatraz was originally built military fort)

This was the power plant building for the island

Water tower

Brian doing a jig because we're about to go on the audio tour. What a ham!

Picture at the beginning of the self-guided tour

Typical cell in Alcatraz

Picture of recreation yard

Door to recreation yard

Recreation yard

View of Golden Gate bridge from the rec yard

Prison library

Pic of the library

Picture talking about one of the escape attempts

Bar spreader used in the escape attempt

Pock marks on the floor from when the prisoners tried to escape. Marks are from when the officers dropped tear gas and shot down at the prisoners from the upper galleries.

Visitation area

Visitation rules

View of upper cells from the main cell floor

Pic of me acting like a crazy inmate.

The prisoners could see the city of San Francisco from their cells. This was a constant reminder of everything that they were missing out on.

The prisoners made dummy heads as a part of their escape attempt. They fooled the guards into thinking that they were still sleeping. Notice the hole they bored through the wall and into the utility closet.

Skylights in the cell block

Brian and I were thrown in "the hole." It was pitch black in there, except for pinpoints of light around the door. Prisoners could be thrown in there for up to 19 days. To keep from going insane prisoners would rip off a button, toss it into the air and then try and find where it landed on the ground based on where they heard it land. They repeated this all day long.

Prison cafeteria

Prison kitchen

Tear gas canisters were placed in many areas throughout the cafeteria. They were never used.

Utensils from the prison. Brian and I got replica mugs as a souvenir - Only available for purchase on the island! :)

Walking up the slopes of Alcatraz island is equivalent to walking up a 35 story building. At the end of the day, we were tired! Our souvenirs are in the bag.

The forecast had called for a 65% chance of rain on the day we visited Alcatraz, so we brought our ponchos with us from the day before. Luckily we didn't need them. After we came back to S.F. from the ferry, Brian through them away in disgust. He hated toting those ponchos around!

So that was our mini vacation. It was tons of fun and I'm so grateful that Brian thought of taking this trip as a special way to celebrate my 30th birthday. Thanks babe!

Back to the Neurologist

2009-02-05T19:34:00.000-08:00

Brian's chronic daily headaches are just not going away. :( He's been on neurontin for about a month now and other than a few days interspersed here and there the poor guy hasn't had much relief at all. So I emailed his neurologist (Dr. Kita) today to find out if we can possibly put him on something else. Have I mentioned how much I love Dr. Kita? Within about 15 minutes she responded to my email. How awesome is it to have speedy correspondence directly with the doctor? And not less than 10 minutes after I'd received her response she had her medical assistant Eric call Brian at work to set up an appointment to meet with her on Monday, and a headache specialist on Thursday. Wow. Talk about taking action!

We've also had a hiccup with getting Brian started on Rebif, the drug we chose to treat his multiple Sclerosis (MS). We got a welcome packet in the mail a few weeks ago but no one ever called us to set up an appointment to get the actual drug. Well Dr. Kita had her staff take care of that lickety-split too! When I got home from clinical this evening we had a voicemail from the company trying to set something up. I am eternally grateful that we were directed to go see Dr. Kita - she truly cares about her patients and makes sure that they are well taken care of.

So for now we'll start tapering Brian off the neurontin and hopefully come up with a better option to treat his headaches. It's the only remnant left from his MS flare, everything else has pretty much gone back to normal. Now if we can only get rid of this nasty daily headache, Brian can start to feel like his old self again!

On the health front our calorie counting is going swimmingly. I am totally loving it and I know that Brian has enjoyed having online access with instant feedback. What a wonderful resource to have! I feel so much better physically already. I've had to hold off on the exercise portion of our health plan because my back has decided to act up a little bit (I think it's because I've started to study at a desk again and sitting=bad for my bulging disc), but I'm sure once I drop some weight that will help a great deal.

One of the things I love the most about this site is the nutritional breakdown telling me the percentage of my daily value of calories, fat, protein, sodium, cholesterol, carbs, and sugar that I've eaten. I find it very satisfying when I look at my stats at the end of the day and find that I've eaten a low percentage of fat, sugar, or sodium! It also helps to have this info because on the rare day when I meet or slightly exceed my daily allotment of sodium, my weight goes up the next day - having the sodium stats helps me to correlate the weight gain with the excessive sodium intake.

Song stuck in my head

2009-02-01T13:09:00.000-08:00

I got Jason Mraz's CD a few weeks ago and I've been listening to this song A LOT. It reminds me of my sweetheart. I couldn't get it out of my head today, so maybe it will help if I post it on my blog!

Watch more MTVM videos on AOL Video

Bath Day and Another Recipe to Share

2009-01-31T18:36:00.000-08:00

Today Brian and I gave all three dogs a bath. Whew! What a process! But now they're clean a fluffy and are on their way to looking super cute again. In the next few days I'll be trimming their faces and finishing off their makeovers. Right now they are so scruffy they look like muppets (think animal). Once I get them all prettied up I'll post some pics of the cute little puppers.

For dinner I made pasta with butternut squash and sage, a recipe from Cooks Illustrated one of my favorite sites to find yummy dishes. Even though I swapped out regular pasta for a healthier whole-grain pasta, it still turned out to be quite a tasty little dinner! I was pleased with how it came out, and I was even happier when Brian said that he loved it.

The butternut squash lends a nice sweet and earthy flavor to the dish while the sage and bacon round it all out and add that extra oomph. The flavor profile is probably amazing when the dish is made with regular pasta, but the health benefits and caloric value of my version of the finished dish outweighed my desire for a tastier dinner. The recipe makes 6 servings. When made with whole grain pasta, the almonds are omitted, and each portion is served with 1 Tb of grated parmesano-reggiano it works out to around 402 calories per serving.

Back to Healthy Habits - The Journey Begins

2009-01-30T13:08:00.000-08:00

Thankfully my back has recovered enough that I am now able to consistently prepare home cooked meals again! I put on quite a bit of weight during the past 4 1/2 months because I wasn't able to do anything but literally lay down on the couch when I was home. Adding to the horror of decreasing my metabolism to that of a comatose patient, because Brian doesn't really know how to cook our diet pretty much consisted of fast food and convenience type foods (like Papa Murphy's pizza).

Now that I'm physically able to cook, I'm reclaiming my role as the household nutritionista. Brian and I have embarked on a journey to get back to our old healthy eating and exercise habits. For anyone interested in monitoring their caloric intake, a great free site out there is the Daily Plate. Once you get to the site, click on the link for the Daily Plate on the far right hand side. You can sign up to get a free account and can enter your weight, height, age, and weight loss goals (ex. 1 lb to lose per week) and it will calculate your daily caloric intake goal. Then you just search for the foods you ate/will eat that day and it acts like a food journal, telling you how many calories you have left for the day. There is a ton of neat info on it too, such as telling you the percentage of fat, carbs, and protein that you're eating. There is also a tab on it where you can enter exercise that you've accomplished and it will adjust your calories accordingly.

Several days ago I made a delicious chicken and veggie chowder for dinner. It made a huge potful, enough to serve us for many nights. Talk about yummo! For anyone interested in trying it, here's the recipe.

In honor of my awesome veggie soup, I've posted a musical number from Captain Vegetable, my favorite super hero:

I modified the recipe as follows:

First of all, I added chicken. But I was short on time, and only had frozen boneless skinless chikcen breasts on hand so I took advantage of my slow cooker. I subbed out the 3 C of chicken broth and replaced it with an entire box of Swanson Organic chicken broth (which is equivalent to 4 cups) and poured it in the cooker. I then added 5 frozen chicken breasts (about 6 oz each) to the crock pot and sprinkled in a whole packet of Lipton Onion Soup mix. I cooked it on HIGH for about 3 1/2 hours. (If you do this, make sure the chicken is fully cooked by inserting a meat thermometer into the chicken breast. The temperature at the biggest part of the breast needs to register at least 160 degrees Fahrenheit before it is considered cooked and is OK to eat.) After the chicken was cooked I pulled out the breasts, shredded them, and returned them to the broth in the slow cooker.

Secondly I used butter. I never use margarine. That's just me though. I think next time I make this recipe I'll try it with 2 tablespoons of olive oil instead of the butter because it is a healthier fat.

I didn't measure out my veggies. For the potatoes I only had fingerling potatoes in the kitchen, so I used about 15 of those instead. For the rest of the veggies I used three big carrots, two stalks of celery, one big onion, and at the end of the cooking time I added about one cup of frozen peas. Oh, I also added 2-3 cloves of diced garlic (cooked it with the onions and carrots).

I did use all three cups of the milk that the recipe lists. We only have nonfat milk at home and it worked out great. My soup didn't really taste creamy though, but I'm fine with that because I wanted more of a veggie soup than a creamy chowder.

The soup when it is prepared in this way is super low fat and very tasty. When prepared according to the original recipe it is equivalent to 218 calories per serving. My guesstimate for the version that I made with the addition of the chicken and the peas that it is probably around 320 calories per serving. I served it with two slices of buttered and toasted Asiago cheese bread from Panera Bread company. The buttered toast adds approximately 350 additional calories,but it is SO worth it. It adds just the right amount of fat and flavor to the dish so that you feel completely satisfied. I'll know more about the exact calorie count of my version of the soup later...I have a piece of recipe software that I'm trying to get to work with Vista. Once I get that running I'll be able to give exact numbers. My version of the soup also yielded a lot more than the 7 servings that the website states - but that makes sense since I added extra things. I got about 9-10 large servings out of the pot. If anyone makes it, I'd love to get a report back about what they thought of it!

Enjoy!

CPR Class and Family Get-Together

2009-01-20T17:24:00.000-08:00

Saturday morning I headed over to Evergreen Hospital to take a refresher course on CPR for the Healthcare Provider. After taking the three hour class I walked away with a new CPR card that will last for the next two years. The most interesting thing that I learned was that when 2010 hits, the American Heart Association will be instructing people differently on how to give CPR. I guess they update their format every 5 years to keep what they teach up-to-date and based on what the research shows. As of next year they'll be teaching people NOT to give any breaths at all - just push on the chest. I've heard rumblings of this info from fellow nursing students, but it's interesting to hear the rationale behind it.

The reason they're changing how to administer CPR is because research has shown that the air given to a victim during CPR isn't utilized in the way that it had been thought. Only about 25% of the air given to a victim is actually being used, not enough to make a difference in the outcome. Not only that, but it is REALLY hard to get a good, open airway and many people waste valuable time just trying to get the chest to rise. Since people that are found down still have oxygen in their system, the most important thing is to circulate that oxygen so that it can reach the brain and keep the victim alive until the medical team arrives. So if you find someone down that isn't breathing and has no pulse - all you have to do is chest compressions!

Later that night Brian and I went to a family gathering at his Aunt Jana and Uncle Daurell's place. It was nice to sit down and have dinner with our extended family. We don't get to see any of them often enough, so it was great to spend an evening with them. It was fun meeting some new additions to the family as well - from cute little babies to fun new spouses. There was lots of catching up and reminiscing to do, and the time flew by all too fast. Hopefully there will be several more get-togethers like it this year!

Our Day at the Hospital

2009-01-16T15:31:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Brian and I spent pretty much the whole day over at Virginia Mason in downtown Seattle (we got there at 10:00 am, left at 3:30 pm). We were there to meet with his neurologist (Dr. Kita) and get a few more tests done. Our day started out by meeting Dr. Kita's nurse to look at the treatment plans currently available to Multiple Sclerosis patients, then later on in the day we met with Dr. Kita herself to talk with her a little more about the treatments and give her our decision so that the drug could be ordered. In-between our meetings with the neurology team Brian had an additional MRI (this time of his spine), he donated blood to a MS research study, and he also had a VEP (visual evoked potential) test. For an explanation of what a VEP test is, click here for a laypersons basic understanding, or click here for a more medicalized explanation.

The VEP test came out fine. The meeting with the nurse was helpful. We found out during the drug consultation that all of the currently available MS drugs are given by injection. After weighing our options, we decided on Rebif, a thrice weekly injection. Brian is not a fan of needles by any means, so he has asked me to administer his injection for him. Thankfully technology has progressed so that for the few times that Brian might have to give himself an injection he can use an auto-injector. The auto-injector is a pen-like cartridge where the syringe gets loaded in, and all he'll have to do is hold it against his skin and press a button to deliver the injection! Below is an image of what it looks like.

We are expecting to receive the drug/meet with the Rebif nurse within the next two weeks. Brian will be starting off with a low dose (8 mcg per injection) and the doctor will taper up the dose as Brian adjusts to the meds (the maximum dosage he'll get at this stage of his disease will be 22 mcg per injection). Hopefully the side effects he feels will be little to none (flu-like symptoms are common: fever, fatigue, achy muscles, etc.) and we won't need to do any dosage adjustments.

The blood donation went fine too. If the researchers find a particular genetic marker in Brian's DNA (about 50% of people without MS also have this marker) they'll probably be calling him back and asking for another blood draw for further studies. If they call him back he'll even get paid for his donation! $50 per blood draw. Who knew that having MS could be lucrative? ;)

The MRI went well too, but unfortunately they did find an additional lesion on Brian's spinal cord. Our meeting with Dr. Kita went great and she was able to answer some lingering questions that we had been accruing since our last appointment. Also after discussing the fact that Brian is now plagued with daily chronic headaches (these started about the same time as his blurred vision) Dr. Kita decided to put Brian on an additional medication to try and stop that nastiness from continuing.

I had a seminar meeting with my community health clinical group at school today and told them why I was unable to attend clinical on Thursday. I guess Brian's diagnosis is still a little fresh for me. I think that yesterdays visit was kind of like tearing off a scab that had been healing and exposing a fresh wound. I had planned on telling my classmates in a very matter of fact, cut and dry way that Brian was diagnosed with MS, but instead I started tearing up and broke down in front of 9 other classmates and my instructor. Fortunately, nurses tend to be the empathetic-type so I received a lot of tissues, support, hugs, and encouragement after choking through the story. I guess I'm not as OK as I've been telling myself.

Despite Brian's diagnosis of MS we feel incredibly blessed. We feel fortunate that the type of MS that Brian has is the relapsing-remitting kind instead of the primary progressive type. We are grateful to have a great MS-focused neurologist like Dr. Kita. We are so thankful for the comprehensive medical insurance that is provided through Brian's job. His emergency room visit alone (when Brian was first diagnosed) cost over $7,000 but because of insurance we only had to pay $50. And we are eternally grateful for the love and support of our friends, family, and classmates.

Date night at the Pomegranate Bistro

2009-01-11T10:54:00.000-08:00

Brian had class on Saturday (yuck!) so we decided to have a date night after he got off to make up for his being stuck in a classroom all day. We started our night off with dinner at a new local restaurant, the Pomegranate Bistro in Redmond, WA. The Pom is run by Lisa Dupar, a well-known caterer. The restaurant actually looks into the kitchen of the catering portion of her business. Its quirky, but it works.

The bistro offers both small and large plates. Brian and I wanted to try a variety of foods, so we ordered three small plates to share. Our favorite dish was the pulled bourbon braised beef sliders on mini blue cheese biscuits. Oh my gosh, those little sliders were so moist and flavorful. My mouth is watering just thinking about them. So delicious! The second plate we ordered was red snapper fish tacos. A yummy dish, but you couldn't really taste the red snapper because of all of the other flavor components. We really enjoyed them though, they were very tasty. For our third dish we ordered sharper mac and cheese gratin. This was not so good. In fact, we sent it back because it was nothing like what a gratin is supposed to look or taste like. It was watery, had very little flavor, and the noodles were so overcooked that they instantly dissolved in the mouth. Talk about gross!

For dessert Brian ordered the lemon souffle and I had the fried apple pie with spiced pecan ice cream. Both of us thought dessert was excellent. Despite the hiccup with the gratin, it was a really fun experience and we'll definitely be back!

After dinner we saw the movie Bride Wars. Brian rated it as a 6/10, which I would agree with. It was a corny movie, but had some pretty cute scenes. our favorite quote from the movie was "You don't alter Vera Wang to fit you, you alter yourself to fit Vera" (speaking of a couture wedding dress designed by Vera Wang.)

Overall it was an awesome night. We've gotten out of the habit of having regular date nights, but last night reminded us that it's important to take time out for ourselves as a couple. Hopefully this will be the first of many fun dates this year!

Meet Penelope

2009-01-10T13:42:00.000-08:00

Near the end of December (right before the snowstorm hit) Brian and I purchased my new car. Her name is Penelope, and she is a 2006 Acura TL. Her exterior color is anthracite gray, with a gorgeous ebony leather interior. I absolutely love this vehicle! It's taken me a while to get comfortable driving her because there are so many features and buttons on this car. It's almost like learning a new language! LOL Prior to this I was driving a 15 year old baseline Honda Accord with manual windows and no A/C. Penelope is also extremely responsive to the brake pedal and any changes in the steering wheel position, something that I never even had to think about with good old Bubba! The snowstorm kept me from driving for at least a week, but now that I've had a couple of weeks to get used to the Acura I'm really enjoying her.

Some of the things that I appreciate the most about my new car are:

1. The Navigation system. I get lost practically everytime I drive somewhere new. Having the assistance of step-by-step satellite guidance has already been invaluable to me twice in the same week! Yay!

2. HandsFree Link. My cell phone links up with my car so that I can talk to people through my car speakers. How cool is that?!?

3. The hands-free technology: I can give my car a command (like to turn on the defrost, change the temperature to 70 degrees, change to a particular radio station, skip a CD track etc.) and it will take care of it for me. A very convenient feature that allows me to keep my eyes on the road while I'm driving.

I feel very blessed that we were able to get me such a nice, safe, reliable car. I am extremely grateful to my hubby Brian for his support and assistance in buying Penelope. She will be a great car for us and when the time comes to add children to our little family Penelope will provide the safe enviornment needed to transport our precious cargo. :)

Happy New Year!

2009-01-04T12:48:00.000-08:00

Happy new year everyone! A lot has happened since my last post. Because of the multiple snow storms that hit our region we had to cancel our cabin plans and postpone Christmas with both my family and Brian's family. It was definitely a bummer. Fortunately though the weather had warmed up enough by December 26th that we could attend my sister in-laws surprise baby shower. Later that night Brian, his parents, and I all drove to downtown Seattle and had a delicious dinner at the Palace Kitchen followed by a performance of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers at the 5th Avenue theatre. It was the best performance I've ever seen on stage and an experience that I'll never forget!

When we did finally celebrate Christmas with my family I was responsible for making the stuffing and pies for our traditional style dinner. The pies didn't turn out like I had hoped they would, but at least they looked pretty.

Lemon Meringue Pie (for some reason the filling turned out watery?!?)

Pumpkin Pie (the flavor of the crust I used didn't taste very good with the filling on this one)

Apple Pie (Oops - I burnt the crust on this one!) It tasted OK though - even better the next day. Although I wouldn't suggest using an all butter crust like I did here.

Coconut Cream Pie (I think I misread the directions on the whip cream and made it too sweet. Plus I added a layer of white chocolate to the crust that added to the too-sweet flavor. This was supposed to be the piece de resistance of the night, but it turned out to be my biggest dissapointment!)

On December 30th Brian and I flew to Las Vegas to visit Brian's brother Chad and his family. We really enjoyed our visit with them, even though we were only able to stay three days. Neither Brian nor I had been to Vegas before, so it was definitely an interesting experience! On new years eve Chad and his wife Jenny treated us to a buffet dinner at the Paris hotel - a tasty and fun experience. There were so many people there!

Unfortunately, my brief time on the strip confirmed my suspicions that Las Vegas is NOT the town for me! If people weren't smoking in front of me, they had just finished smoking and were brushing by me! The smell of smoke was disgusting and was way too much for me to handle.

As we were driving down the strip we saw this street sign

During our visit we took a tour of the Univeristy of Nevada Las Vegas, where Brian's brother Chad is a professor. He teaches accounting.

We also took a trip to see the Hoover dam. It was an awe-inspiring sight. Photos don't even come close to translating the enormity of the structure.

This photo is taken while facing away from the Hoover dam. They are building a bridge from each side of hillside and will connect it in the middle.

Me and my sweetheart (I can't believe that I've gained so much weight! Now that my back injury is pretty much healed I don't have to be on bedrest anymore and I can start to work out again! Yay!)

The boys
(from L to R: Brian, Collin, Grant, Chad)

Our fabulous hosts - aren't they so cute together?!

We also watched our nephew Collin at basketball practice

To put the cherry on the sundae of the awesome trip we had with our family, Brian and Chad went to ESPN Zone on new years day to watch the Georgia game (Chad earned his PhD from the University of Georgia).

Some Michigan State fans that Brian and Chad sat next to and had fun ribbing. Of course Michigan State lost! ;)

When Brian was a child he played with these toys - At ESPN Zone they've blown them up into life-sized statues!

We had so much fun with Chad and Jenny on our visit - they treated us like royalty! We already miss them and the kids and hope to see them again sometime soon.

Today Brian and I have been busy preparing ourselves for winter quarter. School starts back up again tomorrow. I think it will be my busiest quarter yet - I'm taking 18 credits because I need an extra 5 credits in order to graduate. Yuck! To top it off I have two clinical sites this quarter through my nursing program, so I'm going to have a lot of long days away from home. It was nice that we were able to do so many fun things before starting another hectic quarter!

Merry Christmas From Our Home to Yours!

2008-12-23T12:09:00.000-08:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Snow Day!

2008-12-18T13:35:00.001-08:00

The puget sound area has been hit by a blast of wintery weather. At our house here in Bellevue we have accumulated over six inches of gloriously fluffy snow. Brian tried to drive to work this morning but after sliding through a stoplight due to icy road conditions he decided to turn around and come back home.

Our plan is to stay inside and enjoy the view through our french doors. :) As I am typing this I have bread dough rising in the oven and we are about to start watching the new Muppet Christmas movie. It should be a nice cozy day.

Life Just Threw Us a Curve Ball

2008-12-16T10:22:00.001-08:00

One day during the last week of November Brian woke up with blurry vision. At first he assumed it would go away within a few minutes after waking, thinking that it was a product of sleep deprivation. But when it didn't go away he got a little worried. He found that if he concentrated on something (like his computer screen at work) that it would temporarily make his vision a little better. Several days passed and his vision problems did not resolve. He started to notice changes in his peripheral vision and in his balance.

Concerned, we made an appointment to see an ophthalmologist to get his vision evaluated. The ophthalmologist noticed some irregularities and told us that Brian should get an MRI to see if anything would show up in the brain scan. Brian was scheduled to get an MRI a couple of days later on Thursday, December 4th.

On Wednesday, December 3rd Brian turned 33 years old. That afternoon I spoke with him on the phone to see how his day was going. He said his vision was unchanged and that a friend at work told him that when he smiled, the right side of his face only moved up about half as much as the left side of his face. I was extremely worried at that point and called the ophthalmologist to find out if I should take Brian to the emergency department (ED) due to this recent change in his neurological status. She said that if it were a family member of hers that she would definitely go to the ED just to get things checked out. Before we hung up she gave me her cell phone number so that the emergency department doctor could call and speak with her about her assessment of Brian. So off we went to the ED.

At the emergency department Brian had an EKG as the doctor was doing his assessment. Everything was fine on the EKG readout. The doctor spoke with our ophthalmologist and agreed that Brian should have an MRI. Before the MRI Brian got to choose what type of music he wanted to listen to while getting the scan. He chose pearl jam. After the MRI we were wheeled back to our room in the ED to await the results.

By this time Brian's parents had shown up. As parents should be, they were really worried about him. Brian had originally asked them not to come because he thought that the doctors wouldn't be able to find anything wrong with him, that we'd be discharged in a few hours, and they would have driven from Maple Valley for no reason. But they were insistent on being with him, so he gave in to their wishes.

About forty-five minutes after the MRI our ED doctor came back into the room and said that they had found some abnormalities in Brian's brain scan. The on-call neurologist that evaluated the MRI films had found 8 lesions on Brian's brain. Brian was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. On his birthday.

We were in shock. Neither of us had expected this. The doctor hadn't even expected this. My darling, robustly healthy, never-has-to-go-to-the-doctor husband was just diagnosed with a potentially crippling neurological disease. It was unreal. The next step was for Brian to get a spinal tap to get more information on Brian's multiple sclerosis (MS)and to get a definitive diagnosis. The emergency room doctor was going to refer Brian to get it done the next day, but we decided just to get it done that night. Both Brian and I are the type of people that would rather know sooner than later. They attempted the spinal tap, but for multiple reasons they were unable to get a sample of his cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).

They started Brian on an IV drip of high-dose steroids to suppress his immune system (MS is an autoimmune disease where your own natural immune system antibodies attack the nerves in your brain and spinal cord). By suppressing the immune system, the attack on the central nervous system (CNS) is decreased with the aim of lessening Brian's symptoms of vertigo, blurred/double vision, and peripheral vision problems. Following the completion of the IV drip we were discharged with instructions to follow up with an outpatient center to get Brian's spinal tap and also instructions to follow up with a neurologist to get a treatment plan set up for Brian's MS. He was also sent home with a pack of oral steriods to take over the next week (to continue the suppression of Brian's autoimmune attack).

We got home around 11:30pm that night. We were mentally and physically exhausted and still trying to come to grips with the diagnosis. He mentioned that this was definitely the worst birthday he's ever had. We tried to go to bed around 1:30 am, but we slept fitfully and didn't really get more than 3 hours of sleep in total. The next day (Thursday) Brian got a spinal tap with guided fluoroscopy at an outpatient radiology center. Basically they use an x-ray type of machine to make sure that the spinal tap needle went where they needed it to go in order to obtain a sample of Brian's cerebrospinal fluid.

The next week was a blur of heart-wrenching and life-evaluating emotions. Unbelievably Brian and I had finals the next week that we were supposed to be preparing for. Studying went down the drain as we clung to each other in love and support. Our families have been incredibly supportive and helped to lift us up during this difficult time.

We made it through finals week and met with the neurologist. Brian's MS neurologist is Dr. Kita at Virginia Mason. We chose Dr. Kita because she was highly recommended to us by 4 people with multiple sclerosis. We couldn't be more pleased with her. She gave us a lot more insight into Brian's disease, and we now have hope that with drug treatment Brian can live many many years without a flare up of his disease.

In a month Brian will be getting another MRI of his spine to evaluate for possible lesions (and in order to get a snapshot of his current status). This scan will be used as a base to compare against his yearly MRI scans to evaluate for changes. The same day as his MRI we'll be meeting with Dr. Kita's nurse to go over the pleathora of treatment options available to MS patients and choose the best plan for Brian.

Life has definitely thrown us a curve ball, but Brian and I are stepping up to the plate. We have faith in our Heavenly Father's plan for us and know that we have the strength to handle this disease. We have a great support system and have been blessed with an outpouring of love and support from our friends and family. MS may have made the road to our destination a little more bumpy, but we still have a lot of exciting plans for our future and our family.

For information on multiple sclerosis, visit the National MS Society, The Mayo Clinic, or the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

'Tis the Season

2008-11-29T22:11:00.000-08:00

The Christmas season is my favorite time of the year. One of Brian's and my favorite Christmas traditions is to watch the classic film White Christmas starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Vera-Ellen. This film was based off of another favorite of mine, Holiday Inn in which the talented Bing Crosby and Marjorie Reynolds sing "White Christmas".

WHITE CHRISTMAS

HOLIDAY INN

The end is near for Bubba

2008-11-28T12:39:00.001-08:00

When Brian and I were newlyweds we bought a four year old Honda Accord that we named Bubba. Bubba has served us well over the past 10 years of marriage, and I have been extremely grateful to have had such a reliable vehicle. Unfortunately, age (15 years old), high mileage (over 200k), and wear and tear have taken its toll on my dark blue companion. The time has come for us to part ways.

Brian and I are currently researching our options and will be purchasing a replacement vehicle within the next month or so. Having a newer automobile has many benefits, but the thing that I'm most excited about is that I'll FINALLY have a car with air conditioning! Bubba was a baseline model (DX) so he never had AC installed. In the spring and summer months I've sweltered in the heat, even with my window down. We plan on getting a vehicle that will provide as much reliability as Bubba did, but that will also be a good family car for our future kiddos as well as our three dogs. If all goes as planned we won't have to get me another car for at least another 10 years.

And the world's best husband award goes to....Brian Simon

2008-11-24T13:14:00.000-08:00

A week ago Brian and I had dinner with Brian's brother Nick and his wife Jen. It was my first social event since I hurt my back. I considered it to be trial run #2 for my back since a previous date night had turned out so well. I sat pretty much the whole time we were there (maybe three and a half hours) and I was feeling great. I was so happy that my back was able to handle sitting down for so long without so much as a pinch of pain. But I guess I counted my ducks before they hatched: the following days were full of pain and misery and my recovery took quite a few steps backward. It was a huge bummer.

Anyways, house tasks started to slide again since I couldn't really move without pain. Poor Brian couldn't really do anything either because he was hit with take-home midterms for his masters program. So you get the picture: the house was a mess.

Fast forward to Sunday. Yesterday was a long day for me because I was emailed a take-home exam for one of my classes (due in 48 hours). After completing that I had to meet with my group from another class in order to put together our presentation for ethics class. We were at the library from 3pm-9pm last night working on it. Needless to say it was a very long day. When I walked in the door at 9:30 pm I was shocked to be greeted by three newly washed (and still damp) cocker spaniels. I'd been wanting to bathe the dogs for over a month but couldn't because of my back pain. So my sweet husband took it upon himself to wash the dogs for me. I was so happy. Not only that, but he washed several loads of laundry and did the dishes to boot!

I feel so blessed to be married to Brian. Not only is he my best friend, but he is an amazing husband. His amazingness needs to be recognized. That being said, it is my honor to award him the World's Best Husband award. :)

Getting over the ick

2008-11-15T15:11:00.001-08:00

Brian and I have been put through the ringer this week! He brought home some kind of icky flu virus and we were knocked on our butt when it decided to set up housekeeping. Luckily we are now starting to feel somewhat normal again, but it has really set us both back with our schoolwork. With everything that has happened this quarter we were already burnt out with school, so now we're basically counting down the days until we get a little break and can recharge.

In other school related news, next quarter I'll be taking 17 credits instead of my planned 12 credits. Why you might ask? Because I received an email from the school of nursing (SON) saying that I'm 5 VLPA (visual, literary, and performing arts) credits short of graduating in June. I thought that I had taken all of the classes that I needed, but apparently I was a little short. Unfortunately with my winter quarter SON classes being held at different times on different days, it doesn't really faciliate taking a traditional brick and morter class. I've looked online and if all goes as planned I'll be taking an online introduction to drama course through Bellevue Community College to make up for the deficiency. I just hope that by the time I register the class still has an opening (this class is the only online VLPA class that I'm interested in). Since I am a returning student I have to register with new students - a week later than continuing students.

Trial run

2008-11-10T11:19:00.000-08:00

My back has been s-l-o-w-l-y but surely getting better. It's been two months since I injured it and I am finally able to extend my sitting time to 15-30 minutes (or even longer sometimes) before it starts to get painful. Best of all, I haven't had any episodes of muscle spasms in about a week (this is HUGE for me). Lack of muscle spasms means that not only am I able to walk without that pesky problem, but also that I am able to transition from a sitting to standing position without fear of my muscles locking up in a painful grip. Yay! In fact, unless I've been at one of my 12 hour clinicals I've only had to rely on prescription strength Aleve for pain relief. And now I'm not even taking that because it's given me a stomach ulcer.

This back thing has totally affected both Brian's and my day to day life. If I'm at home, I've literally been laying on the couch the entire time. I haven't been able to do ANYTHING around the house: Cleaning, dishes, making meals, feeding the dogs, etc. Basically if it involves lifting of anything more than one pound or bending of any sort, (or even pushing a vacuum) it aggravates my back. It has been very frustrating. I even study and websurf on my laptop while lying down. Poor Brian has been dealing with trying to keep up with the house as best he can in addition to working nonstop between work (he's had to put in a ton of afterhours work from home) and school.

Since my back has started to make some obvious progress I wanted to take it on a trial run and see how things went. We've been cooped up in the house from the time of my injury so I set up a date night for my experiment. We both needed a break from the rut we've been in. After Brian got out of class on Saturday evening we drove into the U-District and ate at Piatti, an Italian restaurant. The food was just ok (except for their bread - that was delicious) but I didn't even care that the food wasn't great - I was just happy to be out of the house and not in pain.
Our table was by the fireplace and the restaurant had a nice atmosphere. It felt so nice to be out on a date with my sweetheart!

After dinner we went to an improv show at Jet City. The nice thing about Jet City is that their shows are all-ages so we didn't have to worry about foul language or anything raunchy happening. The show had some pretty funny moments. I think the skit that I enjoyed the most was when they had the players silently act out a scene from Westside Story while another player narrated for them. It was a good night. At the conclusion of our evening my back was stiff and painful from all of that sitting, so I had to take a muscle relaxant, but all-in-all I was extremely pleased at the outcome. I even did a load of dishes the next day. My back was sore afterwards, but it didn't spasm on me or knock me out for the rest of the day.

So I'm taking every little bit of progress that I can and continue to test my limits. Its nice to know that I'm well enough now that we can acutally drive places other than the grocery store. Yay!

I'm a sucker for romance

2008-11-06T19:37:00.000-08:00

What can I say, I'm a sucker for romance. :) This new music video from Taylor swift is awesome, and the costumes make it even better. Her ballgown is gorgeous!!!

A dog owner's life is never boring.

2008-10-30T10:09:00.000-07:00

As the owner of three cocker spaniels my life is never boring. A perfect example of this presented itself to me yesterday morning as I was getting ready to go to class. I was in the middle of my morning routine when I heard the rustling of a plastic bag. Then I heard the metal dog food storage bin make a *clink* noise followed by the sound of paws hitting the floor. I thought Oh great, Oliver somehow got into the dog food container. I went into the dog's room, turned on the light, and Oliver instantly froze in place because he knew he'd been caught being mischievous. He was standing next to the dog food bin but nothing was out of place so I turned the light back off and left the room.

As I came out of the dog's room I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Charlie was sitting unusually still in the hallway. Curious, I glanced over at him. I could not believe my eyes. Charlie had somehow gotten himself wound up in an empty Charmin toilet paper bag! To give you a little background: we buy our toilet paper in bulk from Costco. I guess Brian had taken the last few rolls out of the huge bulk bag and placed the wrapping up on a dresser where it had subsequently fallen onto the floor. I have no idea how or why this happened, but Charlie used this 'opportunity' to somehow get himself in quite a bind - literally!

As the laughter was bubbling out of me I quickly grabbed the camera and took some photos to document the extent of his sad predicament. I realize that this could have been a dangerous situation, but he looked so darned cute and ashamed of himself for ending up in the situation that I couldn't help but take a few snapshots. I guess he didn't like me poking fun at him because as I was taking the photos he was actually able to disentangle himself.

I can't even imagine how crazy my life will be once kids are added to the mix!

What a sad boy!

Side view.

Are you gonna help me out?

Working its way off.

Almost got it!

Free at last! Let's play!

Hilarious video of Dennis Quaid on the Ellen Degeneres show

2008-10-20T10:36:00.000-07:00

My sweet hubby forwarded this awesome video to me, and I couldn't stop laughing when I saw it. So I thought I would spread the joy and post it here on my blog. When Dennis Quaid was a recent guest on the Ellen Degeneres show she had him go over to the Starbucks on the Universal Studios lot with a hidden camera. He wore an earpiece and was only allowed to say what she told him to. The result was too funny! Enjoy!

The clinicals I have been waiting all year for!

2008-10-06T10:26:00.000-07:00

On Friday I had my first clinical at Swedish hospital. This quarter our studies focus on labor and delivery - my favorite subject! Since I work as a nurse tech on the mother-baby floor at Evergreen Hospital, I had a little bit of an idea as to what a labor nurse's day was like, but it wasn't really that clear. At work, the patients that I help have already gone through their 4 hour recovery period post childbirth, so most if not all of the behind the scenes stuff (with the infant) has already been done. So my clinical on Friday was my first chance to see up close and personal what a labor nurse does.

The first two cases that I helped with were patients that had had c-sections previously, so by default they were giving birth via c-section again. During the first c-section I was positioned in the operating room to get a direct view of the operation, and the second one I was off to the side with the labor nurse so that I could help wipe the baby off, get the baby's vitals, weigh the baby, etc after it was born. I really enjoyed having both perspectives. For the second baby that was born I got to give the baby it's vitamin K and hepatitis B shots, put ointment in its eyes, as well as give the baby its first bath.

The third and final patient that I worked with gave birth vaginally. I saw her both before she got her epidural and after it was placed. Um, yeah. Let's just say that I think I might be changing my mind about going natural. LOL She went from being in complete agony/moaning to being relaxed and chatting. I don't know if I can handle being in that much pain for an extended period of time. Anyways, her birth went very well and I got to help with a lot of the aftercare of the baby as well.

During all of this my back was still really messed up and I ended up having to take vicodin and muscle relaxants so that I could function. It was a very long day (for my back) but a very rewarding day. I really like the way that Swedish handles the labor process for the labor nurses. Instead of a four hour recovery (like at Evergreen), the recovery is only two hours. That gives the nurse just enough time to get the baby all taken care of and started on nursing, and then the nurse goes off to another labor. I also like that Swedish keeps their nursing roles so compartmentalized - Labor nurses only work with labor patients, postpartum nurses only work with postpartum patients. If I can get my back in shape (keep the prayers coming) I think I would find working as a labor and delivery nurse extremely rewarding. The bad news is that I think I'd want to work at Swedish - and that either means a longer commute (via bus) or having to pay $12 a day as an employee to park. Yuck!

Good News.

2008-09-29T17:31:00.000-07:00

Well, the good news is that my lumbar disc hasn't changed since the last MRI about two years ago. The bad news is that I'm still in a lot of pain and having to rely on pain meds. To add to the good news I contacted the school of nursing today to find out what can be done to accomodate my need to stand while attending class (sitting is painful and irritates the bulging disc.) The nursing program leaders have been awesome and already have it all set up for class tomorrow so that I can type my notes on my laptop as usual, but from a standing position from the back of the class. I'm extremely grateful that they were so prompt in accomodating my requests.

In other news I made dinner (stuffed shells) last night for the first time in about three weeks. I was able to get the meal completed and placed in the oven to bake, but I was gasping in pain near the end and my hunched walk was akin to the hunchback of Notre Dame. :( All that pain for a little grating, stirring, chopping and a few looks into the fridge. Ridiculous! I had to have Brian pull it out for me when the shells were done baking. My first physical therapy appointment is on Wednesday, so hopefully we can get my back on the road to recovery. Not being able to cook is killing me!

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

2008-09-26T22:48:00.000-07:00

It has been two weeks since I hurt my back and the pain hasn't gotten any better. I have been taking vicodin every four hours - without it I cannot walk upright or function without being in extreme pain. I've been through this routine enough now that I am familiar with how my body should be feeling at this point, and it should be getting better (not staying the same). Also in the past when my back problem has flared up I have been able to get by with only taking 10 or 15 out of 30 vicodin. I am now on vicodin pill #40 and just got a refill for another 20 pills.

Having refilled my prescription of vicodin once already, my doctor wanted to see me again before he wrote another script. So I called my doctors office on Wednesday to make an appointment but he was booked that day and out of the office until Monday. I was going to run out of vicodin before Monday, so I had to make an appointment with an associate of his for Thursday. At the appointment I explained the situation to the doctor and insisted on getting a new MRI to see if my disc had further degenerated since I was experiencing pain in more than the usual areas, and because my healing wasn't progressing at all.

The doctor complied with my request for the MRI order but was hesitant about giving me another script for vicodin. She asked me in an accusatory voice "do you know this is addictive?" I was flabbergasted. She was basically telling me that I was addicted to vicodin. I replied to her that I understood that long-term use of vicodin (greater than 3 weeks) carried a risk for addiction, but I also let her know that since it was the only thing that would relieve the pain and allow me to function I had no other choice. I was so insulted! I asked her what signs I should be on the lookout for that would indicate to me that I was getting addicted. She looked me straight in the eyes and said "if you feel pain when you don't take it". My eyes widened when she said this and she reacted by saying "I'm not saying you're addicted but..." Yeah, right. Give me a break! That is a load of crap. First of all, there is a difference between addiction and physical dependence (I learned that in nursing school). Secondly, the pain I feel when I am not on the narcotic is radiating/shooting/aching/stabbing pain and severe muscle spasms in my back. These are not the symptoms of addiction or physical dependence. This doctor needs to take a refresher course in pain management and addiction. I was so angry and hurt. The last thing I want to do is take the stupid meds in the first place and for her to accuse me of abusing them was too much for me to handle. I've tried spacing the vicodin out, but it just doesn't work. I can feel the vicodin starting to wear off in the third hour, so by the fourth it becomes a necessity if I want to keep my pain managed and under a rating of 8-9/10. She wrote me a script for the narcotic, but gave me a paper prescription that was not valid until today (Saturday) because that was when I was going to run out. I am absolutely positive that she did this because of her suspicion that I'm addicted. She had stepped out of the exam room to write the script and was gone for a LONG time. I think she was calling my pharmacy to see how often I've had a script for narcotics filled. What an idiot. She also wrote me a script for steroids, and more muscle relaxant since I'm almost out. When I got to the car I called Brian at work and cried when I was explaining what had just happened. I felt completely helpless and pissed off at the same time.

I was able to schedule my MRI appointment for the next day (Friday). I actually scheduled the imaging appointment while I was still in the exam room - the doctor was gone so long (checking up on me) that I was able to call from my cell phone and set everything up. This time the MRI went much better than last time. The first time I had one done (about two years ago) the imaging technician had placed some aromatherapy stuff on a tissue and put it under the eye pillow before I went into the tube. I hadn't eaten anything before the appointment that afternoon, so between that and the smelly stuff I got really nauseated. This time I made sure to eat before the appointment and ask that we skip the aromatherapy part. The MRI session went really well. I have a follow-up appointment on Monday with my regular physician to find out the results.

Trip to the Zoo

2008-09-20T18:23:00.000-07:00

Brian and I took our four year old niece Taylor to the zoo today. It was bad timing with my back and the weather, but we promised a few weeks ago that we'd take her today and she'd really been looking forward to it. Other than a few unfortunate moments my back handled the trip quite well. Too bad the weather wasn't nicer - it rained the whole time! The rain also meant that many of the animals were in hiding to stay dry.

The first thing she wanted to do was to ride the carousel. Of course she chose a horse that had PINK on it (her favorite color!

Just outside the indoor carousel we saw this cute bear statue.

To escape from some of the rain for a while we went to an indoor play area. This was a huge egg shell so that kids could pretend to hatch out of it. Taylor really liked it.

Curling up into a ball in preparation for the eggshell to be placed around her.

She's in there somewhere!

There she is!

Hatching out!

Taylor insisted that we see the flamingos because they are pink.

Taylor getting a closer look at some birds in the aviary.

Brian and Taylor as spiders in trouble with the law.

Taylor milking a cow statue in a farm exhibit.

The end of a long day. Wet and tired and ready to go home!

Back Woes

2008-09-18T11:10:00.000-07:00

I have a bulging disc in my back (diagnosed in December 2006) that's been giving me grief for about a month and a half now, but fortunately I've been able to function normally on a daily basis. Until now that is. The drive to the Oregon coast (about 5 hours) aggravated my already irritated disc and surrounding nerves. I was in pain while we were on vacation, but it ebbed and flowed and the long walks on the beach seemed to help loosen things up a little. The pain was tolerable. But I guess the long drive home was the last straw for my ailing back.

I've been on self-prescribed bed/couch rest since we got home on Saturday and my back pain and level of functioning was only getting worse despite the 800 mg of ibuprofen that I was taking every 6 hours. Brian convinced me to go see the doctor, so on Wednesday I bit the bullet and saw a physician. I was pretty messed up at that point so when the doctor had me put my body through range of motion exercises I started to bawl. I felt really stupid, but I was in so much pain at that point that I couldn't stop. My doctor prescribed me the usual cocktail: Vicodin, muscle relaxants (to stop the muscle spasms), and an anti-inflammatory (basically prescription-strength Aleve.) I normally dislike taking vicodin because it knocks me out and I sleep all day when I'm on it, but it is the only thing that stops the pain when it gets out of control like this.

I am on my second day now of physician prescribed bed rest and meds and I'm only slightly drowsy! I'm still in shock that I'm not knocked out, but I guess that shows how bad the pain is! My doctor says that in two weeks I should expect to feel about 50% better. The thing that totally sucks is that school starts on Wednesday, and I hate starting out on such shaky ground.

I called Olympic Physical Therapy and have my first appointment on Wednesday October 1st. I'm bound and determined this time to follow through with physical therapy. First of all, I've chosen a PT that is the clinical education coordinator for all of their offices and specializes in back problems, so my confidence level is high in the therapist. Also, Brian's insurance is better than the one I had last time around, so I won't feel guilty about the money spent on the therapy - I'll only have to pay a $10 copay for each visit. PT also has a personal meaning to me this time around. I will be graduating in June and starting my new career as a registered nurse. It is imperative that I get my back as strong as possible before this happens so that I'm not limiting my job choices because of a weak and unpredictable back.

Thanks to the meds and the rest I'm doing much better now. I'm not supposed to sit because that irritates the nerves around my disc, a bummer since I'd love to spend all this free time making jewelry! I guess watching TV, reading, and surfing the internet on my laptop will have to do. Brian and I had promised to take our 4 year old niece Taylor to the zoo on Saturday, so I'm hoping that Brian won't have to take her all by himself. I'm thinking that because the vicodin isn't knocking me out we'll just have Brian drive so that I can still take my pain meds. Walking is good for my back anyways, so I should be able to come along for the trip. I'll just have to be super careful so that I don't make things worse. Hopefully by my next post (Saturday) I will be feeling much better and will have some fun stories to share from the zoo trip.

Day 6: Farewell to the Oregon Coast!

2008-09-14T11:15:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning we went for one last morning walk before checking out of our little chalet and driving home to Washington. The weather in Otter Rock was warm and beautiful - a perfect send off! The pups enjoyed their last run immensely.

Surfers heading out.

I really like this one of Oliver and his shadow.Happy pups.

Farewell beautiful ocean! Farewell amazing scenery! We miss you already!

Vacation Day 5: Our Last Night in Otter Rock Oregon

2008-09-14T10:24:00.001-07:00

The morning routine seemed old hat by day 5. We woke up sometime before 10 am and were on the beach around 11 am. Friday morning was a little chilly, but not too much so. Even with the winds whipping around I was still comfortable wearing just a tee shirt. Then again, I really enjoy the feel of the gusty ocean breeze - I find it extremely invigorating. After we returned to the cabin we read and futzed around with whatever pleased us. Our evening walk was later than usual, so I had to keep messing around with my camera settings to get a decent photo.

Here is a pic of Miranda hunched over a seagull carcass, readying herself for the de-feathering process.Since Miranda made this a regular habit after the first seagull episode, Brian and I decided to bring her ball as a backup plan. There is NOTHING in the world that Miranda loves more than her ball. So the next time she went after carrion we were prepared. All we had to do was get her attention (that part was kind of hard) and throw her ball. She instantly forgot about her little seagull friend and took off like speeding a bullet after her beloved ball.

Charlie running with the ball with Miranda hot on his tail.These two are great buddies. Here is a pic that is obviously very blurry, but it captured their in-sync movement so well I couldn't resist posting it. It almost appears to be the same dog! They are chasing a ball in this photo.Another pic of the best buds.Lastly, here is one where they are all chasing after a seagull.

Another look at the surrounding bluff.

After our evening walk Brian and I cuddled up on the couch and enjoyed some root beer floats while watching a movie. It was a wonderful day.

Day 4: Homebodies

2008-09-12T10:24:00.000-07:00

Thursday Brian decided that he wanted stay at the chalet and chill rather than go out anywhere, so that's what we did. During our mid-morning beach walk there were more people on the beach than we were used to, we passed about about 5 couples in total (most of them with dogs). After noshing on quesadillas for lunch the rest of the afternoon was spent with me fiddling around with my jewelry stuff while Brian read and gamed. We also took a leisurly nap that felt really good. Our nightly stroll on the beach was filled with a little more excitement than I would have anticipated. Miranda has become much more comfortable than I would like with the ocean. She has taken to chasing seagulls into the ocean and following them into the water to the point that she has to hop the waves like a bunny. I get worried that she'll get sucked into the ocean, but she runs so far away that she can't hear us calling her over the crashing waves.

Another thing that I could have done without was also related to Miranda's escapades on the beach. She has taken a liking to carrion - dead sagulls to be exact. There are at least three along our walk that are partially covered with sand. On this last walk Miranda sought them out and started to de-feather them like an expert. Each time this happened we had to run up and physically remove her from the bird because she was so intent on her prize she refused to listen to us. I even kicked more sand over them to cover them up but on the walk back to the chalet the little snot found them with her excellent doggie sense of smell and dug them up.

Cool knot of sea kelp.

Sweet Charlie boy.

The evening was filled with the last episodes of season 3 of Prison Break, and the movie No Reservations. I made a yummy dinner of ribs and french green beans for dinner. Brian wanted me to post a photo of the ribs because he said that was one of his favorite things of the day.

Vacation Day 3: Books and Beads

2008-09-11T09:02:00.000-07:00

We have an alarm clock in the bedroom of our cabin, but it's set to the wrong time and we've never bothered to fix it. We kind of like waking up and not knowing what time it is - we have all the time in the world while we're here, so why stress about what time it is? If we want to sleep more, then we do. If we want to get up - great. Because of this our meals are kind of thrown off though. LOL We've really only been eating two meals each day - brunch and dinner with snacking in-between. Wednesday morning Brian made cinnamon rolls for brunch (Pillsbury brand). After breakfast we went on our walk. The morning walk on the beach was beautiful - the sun was high in the sky and the temperature outside was perfect. Brian brought the tennis ball along with us on the walk and Miranda was once again transformed into a ball-obsessed cocker spaniel. She stopped interacting with her doggie friends and all she cared about in the world was her ball. Oops. We won't make that mistake again. Balls are now only for boring parks, not beaches with millions of nooks and crannies to explore. Here is a pic of Miranda (in the background with the ball) and Charlie. Miranda runs with such force when she's chasing the ball that she leaves a very clear footprint in the sand. She means business!She runs herself to the point of exhaustion. Luckily she'll give herself little breaks to catch her breath and cool down.A pic of Charlie giving a rasberry.We came across a jellyfish washed ashore by the waves. After the walk we hung around the chalet for a few hours and then drove into town. I wanted to buy a book to read when I wasn't making jewelry. The bookshop we went to was super tiny and had a pretty limited selection. The only other patron that came in knew the bookshop owner. It was neat to experience the small town atmosphere, it felt very Gilmore Girlish. LOL

After I found my book we were off to the local beadstore so I could get a few more supplies for jewelry making. The bead shop was very cute and had a bigger selection than I would have expected. I found some pretty pearls and some super thin sterling silver headpins (26 gauge) to fit some small peridot beads for earrings that I wanted to make. Lucky for Brian the shop had a large comfy chair with a basket placed next to it with a local newspaper inside. He announced to the shop "Ahh - husband friendly" and then sat himself firmly down and started to read the news. LOL The women that were in the shop looked over at him and giggled. It was cute.

We had worked up an appetite by then and headed across the street to eat at Panini, a place that had been recommended to me. Unfortunately, since it was Wednesday they closed at noon! No big deal, I had a back up restaurant planned - Cafe Stephanie - also on the same street. But since they are a small town cafe, they apparently only stay open until 3 pm! Too funny! My last option, (one that was also highly recommended to me) was Cafe Mundo, a restaurant firmly grounded in the local arts scene. This place is MUCH cooler than the pics makes it appear. We sat at the table below the hanging flowers. I forgot to grab my camera before we left, so I had to use the photos from the cafe's website. They've added more artowrk and decor since this photo was taken. Hung from the rafters are lovely silk fabrics with beading that flow with each breeze. Everything is unique in the cafe - table tops are painted by local artists (friends of the owners), and artwork covers the walls. Our table had an awesome painting of crows on it - painted in oranges, yellows, and blues. It was gorgeous. The cafe has a stage downstairs where they have open mic nights, visiting artists, and belly dancers even come sometimes and dance around the diners. We came too early for any of that (around 4pm) but we really liked the artsy vibe. No chair is alike, and the cafe even offers games to play while you wait for your food (like apples to apples, cards, etc.) Brian and I played a game of war while we waited for our food (I won). I ordered a delicious smoked gouda penne pasta with prosciutto and asparagus and Brian had a "cheeses of the world" grilled cheese sandwich (it had 4 different cheeses in it). Both of our meals came with a salad served with their famous poppyseed dressing. It was fabulous and we were so glad we ended up eating there!

After dinner we came back to our little chalet on the beach and watched some Prison Break before taking the dogs on their evening walk. We brought the boxed set of the third season televison show to watch on our vacation so that we'd be all caught up by the time the 4th season starts. :)

The sun was setting during our walk that night filling the sky with lovely hues of pink and purple. It was very romantic. Off in the distance we could see surfers riding the waves. What an enchanting way to end our day!

Beachcombing: Vacation Day 2

2008-09-10T09:37:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday morning Brian and I took the dogs down to the beach for a nice walk. The pups love it so much that we've decided to take them on a long walk each morning and evening. It is a very relaxing place to be - the sound and sight of the rhythmical waves crashing melts away any remaining tension. Since the cabin is on a bluff, in order to access the beach we have to walk down a path that winds through the trees.
These pics are looking back at the bluff.
Here is a pic of Miranda looking quite happy at her current situation.Here are some pics of the ocean and the beach that we take our walks on.I thought this profile pic of Oliver and Miranda was pretty cool.
I don't think its possible for dogs to be happier than this.

This wave caught Oliver and Miranda by surprise!A dog running in each direction.Oliver lifted his leg right as I took this picture.
Here are some of the more artistic shots I took on the walk.This picture doesn't look like much from the top, but look at the photo following this one.These are the same three rocks, but seen from a different angle. The beach was scattered with rocks that had been tumbled by the sea. It was beautiful.An upside down crab shell that was filled with sand by the tide.A forlorn sandal.A beautiful crab shell.

After our morning walk I made brunch - chocolate chip pancakes with homemade whipped cream and pancetta. It was super yummy. After we ate Brian read a book and played WOW while I practiced making jewelry out of sterling silver wire. I recently took a class and I really enjoyed it. I'll post some of my creations at a later date. I have one set of earrings completed so far and one prototype earring. I love making jewelry because I get to problem solve and create something beautiful at the same time. Talk about fun!

For dinner B and I went to Mo's - a local seafood institution.I had delicious fish and chips and Brian had their famous clam chowder in a breadbowl. This is the view of the ocean from the Pacific Coast Highway on our way to dinner. The photos don't do it justice, partially because we were driving so fast it was hard to get a good picture.

After dinner we got home with just enough time to take the dogs on another walk before the tide came in. It was a wonderful day!

Ocean Escape: Day 1

2008-09-09T06:28:00.000-07:00

Brian and I got off to a later start than we had hoped, but we finally set out for the coast just before noon. As we approached our destination I found myself in awe when I caught sight of the ocean. Having grown up in the Seattle area I must have seen the ocean a million times and yet I’d never been overly impressed. But at long last I understand the sense of marvel and reverence that the ocean inspires. This was a different type of ocean than I was used to. This ocean was untouched by ferry docks and rows of buildings lining its coastline. This ocean had sandy beaches that seemed to extend indefinitely and highlighted the power of the crashing waves. I found myself getting giddy with excitement as we inched closer to our destination and I realized that our cabin was going to be right next to this marvelous body of water. We arrived at our little bluff chalet around 5 pm, tired from the long drive but happy to have officially started our vacation.

We couldn't be more pleased with our cabin - it suits our needs to a "T". The kitchen is much more spacious than I had expected from the photos, and there is plenty of furniture for man and dog alike to stretch out and relax. After unpacking some of our things we went for a stroll on the beach before dinner. Since the dogs had never seen the ocean or been to a beach before, I didn't know what their reaction would be. Unfortunately, in my haste to get down to the beach I forgot to grab the camera to memorialize their momentous "first beach" experience. The cabin is set on a private 2-acre stretch of beach, so Brian and I were able to let them run off-leash. Little Oliver was transformed. Normally the slow-poke of the bunch, Oliver was leading the way and forcing Miranda to keep up with him. The waves were crashing loudly in all of their glory, and the dogs were running around as fast as they could filled with joy! They had the cutest expressions on their faces, totally blissed out. It was awesome! On our beach walk we saw numerous crab shells and muscles that had washed onto the beach, and even came up on a seal that had passed away and washed up on the shore. The seal was almost perfectly intact - he had the cutest whiskers and little face. It was incredible to be so close to nature at every turn.

Do the Puyallup!

2008-09-07T20:52:00.000-07:00

On Friday Brian and I attended the Puyallup fair with my family. It is an annual event that we always look forward to. We had an awesome time! We arrived later than usual this year (around 11:30 am) and left around the usual time (11:30 pm). One of the highlights of the day was seeing the Travis Fox show. Travis Fox is a hypnotist that gets people to do some hilarious things. Despite the fact that we watch his show every year, something always comes up that makes us crack up with sidesplitting laughter.

As usual we ate too much fair food, but I guess that is part of the fair tradition. Both Brian and I skipped Pete's BBQ this year, and I wasn't up for the caramel apple tower either. But I did have some yummy strawberry rhubarb pie as well as some super tasty fish and chips.

My favorite purchase of the day was a fabulous cowboy hat. I've been looking FOREVER for a cowboy hat that I look cute in and I finally found one! I totally love it! I can't wait to wear it to a country concert. :) It had a Corona beer patch sewn onto it, but it fit so great that I had to get it. Lucky for me the patch was just stitched onto the hat and it was really easy to take off!

Keeping Busy.

2008-08-29T10:56:00.000-07:00

I've been busy working at the hospital 36 hours a week. It took me about a month to get used to working so much. On my days off I was so exhausted for that first while that I was worried I got mono. LOL Turns out I'm just a wimp and not used to working so much. But of course now that I've become accustomed to the schedule I only have a few days left to work! Per Brian's advice I'm taking the month of September off to have some real down time before school starts again (school starts 9/22). I had my annual review the other day and it went really well. It sounds like if I decide to become a labor and delivery nurse at Evergreen I'll be welcomed with open arms. I'm pretty excited about that possibility.

Brian is in the middle of finals right now, poor guy. I feel his pain. Fortunately by this time next week he'll be finished and finally able to relax. On the renovation front we've decided against putting crown molding up this summer. Brian was entirely too generous with my anniversary present, so that kind of ate up our budget for molding. I need reconsider the changes I'd planned for the house anyways.

If everything goes as planned it looks like we'll be selling the house in the next two years or so. Our current house is just too small for our needs. That means that I need to make changes to the house that will be profitable, and not make changes just to suit my expensive tastes. LOL I think we'll still end up installing molding, but much more cost-effective than I would normally choose. We would like to stay in Bellevue, but the neighborhood and quality of the house is really important to us, so we will most likely be moving to the Mill Creek or Lynnwood area.

An Amazing Anniversary

2008-08-17T19:31:00.000-07:00

Brian and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary on August 14th. Since Brian had a review session for class that night we celebrated with a late dinner at Crush, a restaurant in Seattle. During dinner Brian gave me some amazingly beautiful earrings that I haven't taken off since he gave them to me!

With Brian's work and school schedule we couldn't plan a huge getaway trip to celebrate, so I decided to be sneaky and surprise him with an overnight stay at the Salish Lodge in Snoqualmie, WA. I wanted to have a 10 year anniversary to remember! My cover story was that I wanted to take a historic train ride in Snoqualmie, see the falls, and then eat dinner at the Salish Lodge. My sneakiness paid off and Brian was SHOCKED when we checked in. Dinner at the lodge was fabulous, and the room was spectacular. Our stay was made even sweeter with spa treatments (deep tissue massage)and a yummy breakfast the next morning.

I couldn't have asked for a more romantic and relaxing trip! I am beyond thrilled with how everything worked out. Brian enjoyed the stay so much that he mentioned that it should become a yearly tradition!

A Much-Needed Reminder

2008-07-28T12:46:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in my last post, I am very self-critical. Often I get down on myself because I am not in the place I want to be with so many things: Personally I am not at the weight I want to be at, house-wise I wish I was further along with so many aspects of home organization and renovation, occupation-wise I am struggling with the type of nursing that I want to go into when I graduate/pass the state boards, etc. I often feel overwhelmed because I am usually working on aspects of all of these goals simultaneously. It is easy for me to focus on one goal (such as doing well in nursing school) and really excel at it, but then the other goals kind of get pushed to the wayside and progress with them occurs in spurts.

Fortunately, I got a much-needed reminder (AKA a kick in the pants) that it is ok to be happy with who I am TODAY. The jolt to my system came this afternoon when I listened to this excerpt from the children's book "I Knew You Could!" by Craig Dorfman and Christina Ong (based on the “Little Engine that Could”):

Sometimes you’ll look up and see planes in the sky
And you’ll think to yourself “I wish I could fly”
The cars on the road will seem quick and free
You’ll feel stuck on the track and think “I wish that was me”
But the plane might wish he could get out of the air
Saying “I wish I could travel like that train down there”
And the cars will watch you as you speed right along
And they’ll say to each other “look how fast, and how strong!”
Don’t worry about not being a car or a plane,
Just enjoy the trip you’ll take as a train.

It reminded me that despite my flaws and lack of progress being made on some of my goals I should be happy simply being me. Rather than being hard on myself for the time it takes me to get to a goal I should accept the fact that it is the journey that counts. So now I have another, hopefully more Audrey-friendly goal: I'm going to try to hunker down and enjoy the ride!

I've been tagged!

2008-07-25T10:50:00.000-07:00

Jen quirky tagged me!
Here are the rules: 1. Link the person who tagged you. 2. Post these rules 3. Tell about 6 quirks of yours 4. Tag fellow bloggers by linking them.

Here goes...

1. I HAVE to listen to music when I get ready in the morning. I have a small radio in the bathroom and a cd player/radio mounted under my kitchen cabinets so that I can sing along to songs as I prepare for the rest of my day.

2. When I get nervous, bored, or anxious I have a tendency to pick at my fingers. I'm really trying to work on this, but it's hard to break this nasty habit!

3. When I'm at home I make up silly songs in my head (usually involving the dogs or Brian) and I sing their song to them! LOL

4. I am very competitive. I am almost always trying to do the best I can at whatever I am working on (whether it has to do with my personal life, school, or whatever.) Because of this I am extremely critical of myself. For example, I am usually dissapointed if I get a grade of less than 3.9 (95%) in a class even though I should be happy with the fact that I am blessed to be in a nursing program.

5. I am a MAJOR procrastinator when it comes to school!!! This trait has gotten worse since I started the nursing program at UW. I realize that this is counterproductive to quirk #4, but I never claimed to be completely rational. :) I think part of the problem is that I'm getting burned out from having been in school for over 4 straight years now (including summer quarters). I've been pushing myself for so long that I'm just about worn out! Procrastination inevitabley leads to additional stress since after I start working on something that I have procrastinated on quirk # 4 kicks in. :(

6. I always have to have at least two goals that I am working towards. I get bored when I don't have stuff going on and it allows me to focus my energy on trying to better myself and/or my surroundings. I love being able to look forward to the results of my efforts.

I am tagging Michelle and Pat and Carl.

Happy Independence Day!!!

2008-07-03T16:31:00.000-07:00

After 6 years Brian and I finally have our 4th of July routine down: We stop by the video store and get two or three crazy action-packed movies (that contain as many explosives and special effects noises as possible), get takeout for dinner, and we come home and snuggle up on the couch, eating our dinner and cranking the sound up to movie theatre levels.

The reason we do this? Miss Miranda Jane, my little female cocker spaniel.

She gets so terrified of the fireworks that get set off in our neighborhood that the veteranarian-prescribed sedatives we give her aren't enough. If she hears the fireworks she'll somehow wake herself up out of her medication-induced stupor to shake like a quaking aspen.

So we pre-medicate the dogs (Oliver's medication is by default because he will bark at the fireworks, which in turns wakes Miranda up) and we watch movies that have explosions in them to drown out the noise of the fireworks. Can you tell he needs a haircut? Ugh! I hurt my back about two weeks ago so I haven't been able to give him his summer cut yet.

Last year at this time Charlie was a fairly new addition to the Simon household, so he was medicated due to his "unknown reaction" status. But now that we've had him almost two years we know how he reacts when scared. When that knowledge is added to his fabulously calm demeanor over the past two days when we experienced house-shaking thunder and lightening episodes I've decided there is no reason to medicate him.

Wishing everyone a safe and happy fourth of July!

What I've been up to lately

2008-06-30T15:17:00.000-07:00

Spring quarter ended on a positive note with a 3.8 GPA. I had about a week and a half off before summer quarter started. During my break from school I worked as a nurse tech at Evergreen, worked on some long-neglected house chores, and bought a new Bernhardt dining table and six chairs!

I totally love the new dining room furniture. The table is a little longer than I would have liked, but it's still awesome. We got it from Continental Furniture in Seattle, the same place we got a lot of our other pieces. They were having a blow out sale so I dragged Brian in to see if they had anything we liked. Sure enough, they had just what we were looking for - a two tone cherry and black look. The dining table is a cherry trestle style and the chairs are black and oh so comfy to sit in! The table even has arms that pull out on each end to support a leaf - so I can sit 12 comfortably if I need to. We've already broken it in by hosting a birthday party for my sister Emily and brother in-law Scot and then again last night for a dinner party for Brian's family.

On the school front summer school is going to be tough for the first 5 weeks or so because I'll be in school for 8 hours one day and 3.5 hours the next. Luckily after 5weeks it will drop down to one class 3.5 hours twice a week. In fact, I should get my hiney in gear and start working on my two papers that are due tomorrow! So I'll end the blog with a song by sugarland. This song has been in my head ever since summer school started. I guess my state of mind is on fun and relaxation and not on school. LOL

Adventures in gymland

2008-04-28T18:12:00.000-07:00

The resources are available, the husband is willing, and I've continued to wander off the beaten path to who knows where. I guess the stars have aligned and it's time to join a gym. Friday night is the beginning of what I hope to be a new journey towards becoming the buff babe I used to be. ;)

I am going to do my best during the first few weeks to take my new exercise routine at a reasonable pace - slow and steady. The last thing I want to do is to aggravate my little friend (bulging disc) because, once that happens it can be weeks before my pain is under control enough to walk upright without feeling stabbing pain constantly radiating down my leg. In addition to working out on the gym equipment, there are several classes I'm going to try out.

Group cycling peaks my interest because I've always wanted to try a spinning class, and I think that it will be a challenging workout. My leg muscles are very weak - if my poor knee can handle it, then I'm game - bring on the pain (I apologize in advance to my thighs and glutes.)

Step class also seems appropriate to kick the cardio into high gear.

I've always wanted to try Pilates, and my gym offers a mat Pilates class. Perfect for the core conditioning that my back needs to keep my little friend from popping his little bulging self out to remind me of his presence.

Cardio Kickboxing - If my back can handle this one, this is the class that I'm most excited about.

If I can force myself to do it, I'll start out gradually and add classes as I feel that my back is able to handle them. If my low back is sore, I'm going to do my best to listen to the warning signs and skip the class workout to prevent injury. I am very much a go-getter when I set my mind to do something, so it's hard for me to back down despite knowing the consequences. Somehow I always think I can push myself beyond my limitations and "THIS TIME will be different". LOL

So that's the deal. I'll be super sore and super tired for the next few weeks as I adjust to the new lifestyle. If you see me around, try not to bump into me too hard. :P

Ding dong! the bells are gonna chime

2008-04-27T20:16:00.000-07:00

Travis and Lindsay are married! Lindsay is a wonderful addition to the Simon clan; we are so excited to welcome her as the newest member of our family! Travis is Brian's youngest brother and the last of the Simon boys to tie the knot.

Brian and I rode down to Idaho Falls with Brian's brother Nick on Thursday night April 10th. It was a long trip down, but we made it in one piece. Unfortunately for all involved we couldn't leave any earlier than 8:30 pm because I had my usual 12hour clinical that day at Children's Hospital in Seattle (7am-7:30 pm), and Brian had a review session for his MBA program that went until 8:00 pm. After feeling the strain on our bodies from the grueling drive down, Brian and I decided that we are NOT going to be driving long distances like that again - we'll be flying from now on!

We really didn't get much chance to do much socializing with the family because the trip was so short and we had a ton of studying and homework to do. It didn't help that both Brian and I were both severely sleep deprived with less than 5 hours of sleep per night leading up to Thursday. so when we got to the hotel Friday morning we slept for five hours or so, visited my Uncle Ted and Aunt Elvira for a few hours, and worked on homework. In addition to school stress (I was really freaking out about school because I had two tests the next week) I was stressing about some health issues that had popped up. I really felt out of sorts even before we got in the car to drive down to Idaho.

Even though the forecast had predicted otherwise, Saturday turned out to be perfect wedding weather. It was a lovely day - the sun was shining, the temperature was around 60 degrees fahrenheit, and Brian and I were so happy to be celebrating Travis and Lindsay's special day. The ceremony was beautiful and I felt incredibly close to Brian's family as we were all gathered together to witness the union of two people that we love so dearly.

Following the wedding we went to a restaurant called Johnny Carino's for the wedding luncheon. The food was great, the company was great, and it was so much fun to meet Lindsay's family and friends.

Cooking craziness

2008-04-06T19:02:00.000-07:00

Wow, something is seriously wrong with me. LOL Ever since the week before winter quarter ended I've been cooking and baking like crazy! I wish I could say that I was being creative and coming up with healthy new ideas for meals, but no. Instead I've been making delicious and fattening foods. Luckily the majority of the madness has been associated with having people over at the house, but I still need to nip it in the bud before I let it become a habit. I've been eating way too much of my creations and I can feel my waistline taking the brunt of it! It's really too bad because I love being in the kitchen. I'll just have to try and divert my desire to cook fatty foods back into making yummy healthy meals with lots of veggies and low fat protein.

Since I started with the cooking madness I've made: rice pudding (twice), a brined turkey, dinner rolls, a six layer chocolate cake (see picture above), focaccia (twice), the best lasagna I've ever made, apple pie (twice - once for a get-together and the other time was for Brian to take to work for an apple pie contest [My pie took first place out of 11 other pies]). Today I continued the obsession by inviting my family over to watch the afternoon session of General Conference with me and Brian. I decided to make lunch for everyone, so I made a quick cheddar bread and fettuccini alfredo (making the pasta from scratch) and served it with a butter/parmesan sauce, followed by decadent dark chocolate cupcakes with a vanilla bean buttercream. Crazy!

In other news, I finally bit the bullet and bought a rug for the living room. I wasn't sure what to think about it at first after it was installed. For some reason it makes the room seem more mature...more grown up. LOL I'm beginning to realize that I have issues with growing up and that I resist changes that makes me feel older. :P I wanted a rug because I think that it delineates the area as the living room, it makes the room seem more finished, and it just makes it more cozy overall. The rug is really plush and feels great under my feet. I'm really starting to like the rug and I've already received compliments on it so I'm pleased.

I worked on Friday. It was a really busy day, but I enjoyed it. One of the dads asked me to give him a refresher on burping, dressing, and diaper changes since their last child was born 5 years ago. He was so nervous and hesitant, it was really cute. Later in the day I gave a car seat test to a twin that had failed the test the day before, and unfortunately the baby failed again. We do the car seat test for babies that weigh less than 2500 grams or that were born at under 35 weeks gestational age. Babies that fall in this category can have weak neck muscles and often can't support the weight of their heads. This can lead to a compromised airway when they ride in the car, so we have the parents bring in their car seat with the base, we hook the baby up to an O2 sensor and EKG leads and we monitor them in the car seat for a minimum of one hour. I felt really bad for the mom. She is a first-time mom and both of her twin girls were losing more weight than normal. She was having a really difficult time emotionally. To make things worse, the same baby girl that failed the car seat test had a heart rate of 92-100 (minimum rate for newborns is around 108), so she had to be admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) for monitoring. At the end of my shift I walked a mom that we had discharged over to the NICU(where I hope to work as an RN) to visit her little son before she went home without him. It was my first time seeing such a tiny baby. He was born at 31 weeks and weighed 2 pounds 10 ounces. He had CPAP machine, a feeding tube, and was on a bili bed to help him break down the levels of bilirubin in his body. His poor little body was painfully thin and I could see all of his ribs as he struggled to take each breath.

School started on Monday 3/31. I think it is going to be a great quarter. One of my classes is an interactive writing class, so I'll be able to explore my creative side and enjoy some thought provoking debates. I'm excited to have an easier quarter and can't wait to start clinicals at Children's Hospital.

I'm dropping under the radar for the next week and a half

2008-03-11T15:56:00.000-07:00

Finals have once again reared their ugly heads and as a result I'll be holing myself up from now until Friday March 21st so that I can focus on my studies. Oh what fun! :( It may sound ridiculous, but all I want to have accomplished two weeks from now is to have studied enough to have passed all of my nursing courses for the quarter. Apparently over 9 students from the class of 2008 failed their finals during Spring quarter last year (thereby failing the quarter), so the school of nursing made them drop down to part-time status and wait an entire year to retake the classes again. I REALLY do not want that to happen to me!!! So I'm not going to be responding much (if any) to emails, and phone calls will only be returned if they are urgent. Any prayers and positive energy that you would like to send my way are very much welcomed during this time.

In other news, the weather was beautiful today! When I got home I tried to study outside at the patio table, but even though the sun was out it was too chilly. :( Despite the chill though the sun was a lovely change and brightened up my day. It was especially nice on my drive home as I was rocking out to the Sound of Music soundtrack.

Making things even better is the fact that for the past few days my commute has been much easier than I've become accustomed. Instead of commuting two and a half hours to school and back my trips have been shortened to less than one hour! Woohoo! Gotta love it. This lovely discovery is courtesy of a classmate that told me about a bus that goes from UW campus to the South Kirkland park and ride (right off of Northup Way.) It only takes 15 minutes to get to UW campus on this bus. Yay!

See you on the flip side of finals!

Introspection

2008-02-25T16:53:00.000-08:00

When I worked on Saturday I was talking with another nursing assistant. She saw my engagement/wedding ring and asked with curiosity (like everyone else does) how long I've been married. I can always tell when people think that I'm a little young to be married. I usually get asked this question at least twice a month. So to keep things fresh and interesting on my part lately I've switched my answer to "forever". LOL That usually makes the person that asked me widen their eyes with surprise and they then proceed to ask "how old are you?". When I tell them that I am turning 29 in March they always exclaim with surprise something to the effect that they thought I was ___ years old. Their guesses at my age tend to vary between 18-24 years old. The girl at work thought I was 20 years old, and today I studied with some nursing students in my class that I hadn't met before, and they thought I was 23 years old. This makes me both happy, and sad. Happy because I love that they think I am young (especially because whomever is doing the guessing tends to think that I am their age counterpart. If they are 20, they think I'm 20. If they are 22-23, then they think that I am their age.) But it also makes me sad because they act like my real age of 28 is really old. RFLOL. Don't get me wrong, I totally understand their perspective - but I'm still saddened by it. I mean, I can remember finding out that someone was 29 (when I was 21) and thinking "wow, I had no idea she was that old". It just makes me sad that I am now 'that' person - I am at an age that is no longer considered youthful.

To tell you the truth, I normally never really think about my age. I still feel young and like I am 18 years old until confronted with situations like these. I guess that this is just having more of an impact on me with my birthday coming up in two weeks. The funniest thing of all is that when this happens I start to feel like I look older. So I felt sorry for myself today and took some head shots of myself to analyze. Do I look old? I can't tell. Apparently friends and strangers don't think so. But even so, I definitely don't look as youthful as I did when I was 16-19 years old, and I can see lines around my eyes when I smile that didn't used to be there. I'm already yearning for my lost youth and I'm still in college working towards my first bachelors degree. LOL Oh well. Time to end my pity party and get back to my studies.

The weekend

2008-02-24T10:57:00.000-08:00

I worked on Saturday. It was great. I worked on the antepartum floor (women that are pregnant but that are having complications/contractions and it is too early in their pregnancy to deliver). The antepartum floor often also has a mix of postpartum patients, so I still got to work with some adorable twins - 3 sets of them! One of the patients that delivered is married to a professional football player - I felt microscopic standing next to him. I think his biceps were bigger than my head. RFLOL

Another cool thing about working this weekend was that I got to take two patients down to get their ultrasounds. I'd never seen one before and it was awesome. The doctor performing the ultrasound knew that I was a student, so she took extra time to do some things that normally cost extra to have done, but she did it for free just so that I could learn. It was amazing to be able to see the anatomy of the heart, and to watch the valves open and close. She also got some amazing ultrasound images of the face of one of the babies- it looked 3-D! (evergreen doesn't have the new 3-D ultrasounds yet).

My clinical on Friday turned out to be an interesting day as well. When I got to the floor, my patient was gone, as I suspected might be the case. So I chose a patient that was going to have surgery on a skin flap that wasn't healing. I was hoping that I would be able to go into the OR to watch. Well, I found out from my instructor that RN students aren't allowed in the Harborview OR anymore, but she pulled some strings and was able to get me in. I changed into OR scrubs, put on a cute scrub hat that had flowers on it, and away I went! The funny thing is that I was lead into the OR and a man was already on the gurney and intubated. I thought that perhaps they had just finished his surgery and that they were going to wheel my patient in afterwards. Well it turns out they took me to the wrong patient! LOL They had just started to prep him for foot exploration of viable tissue with possible amputation. I thought that maybe they were going to wheel my patient in after they were done with him, so I didn't say anything. It was really a wonderful experience to be able to see the anatomical structures first-hand in a live patient (veins, arteries, muscles, the achilles tendon, the bones of the tibia and fibula, etc.) They ended up having to amputate. After his wound heals he'll have to go back in for a revision surgery so that he can have a prosthetic fitted. This amputation was just to save his life. The doctors and nurses were amazingly nice, and didn't mind my bazillion questions. It made me even more interested in surgical nursing (specifically at Harborview), so I am torn now between whether I want to work as a mother-baby/NICU nurse or a surgical nurse. After the patient was done with his surgery, that OR had no more surgeries scheduled. So I never got to see my patient in surgery, but I'm glad because this foot amputation was awesome to watch.

I plan on taking an optional clinical with my Harborview clinical instructor over the summer so she is going to see if I can spend most of my time at the OR. I really hope that she is able to place me there!

Not exactly the day I was expecting

2008-02-21T19:42:00.000-08:00

I woke up around 8:30 am this morning with the plan of having a leisure-filled day of studying in my pajamas. Normally on Thursdays I have to go to Harborview to pick out my patient for clinical on Fridays, but today is an exception to that rule because this Friday will be my rotation in the ED (emergency department). Or so I thought. You see, for the past two or three weeks I've developed a frustrating habit of thinking a week ahead of when things are actually going to occur in reality. This newly formed annoying habity really bit me in the butt last week when I went to work on Saturday (I have to wake up at 5:00 am on the days I work, and I HATE waking up early) only to find out that I don't work until this coming Saturday.

Well, today I was frustrated once again when I went to double check that my rotation in the ED is tomorrow, and it turns out that it isn't until next week. Grrrr. So I left the house at 12:30 pm, wishing that I hadn't left the house so late and headed down 520 westbound towards Seattle. As I approach the last curve before the interstate turns into the bridge, I start to smell a faint whiff of burning rubber. I think, huh - that's wierd, and keep singing along with the radio. Then as I round the curve towards Evergreen point, my car starts to vibrate in a really weird way and I hear "thud, thud, thud". I pull off (just in time) at the bus turn off - which serendipitously happens to be one of the only places you can actually pull off on 520. I get out of the car, and sure enough - I have a flat tire. I think, ok, no big deal. I'll call roadside assistance. I call them, they get my info and call me back 10 minutes later saying that no one is close by, so I'll have to pay an overage fee for someone from way down in downtown Seattle to come and change my flat for the donut.

I was going to try and do it myself for the first time ever, but I looked in my trunk and couldn't find a jack. :( I was feeling ripped off at the thought of someone charging over $100 to simply change the flat tire to my spare, not to mention knowing that I would have to wait for at least another hour for them to get there, so I refused the service and called my mom to see if she could come over with her jack. She arrived within 20 minutes, right at the same time as two men working for the department of transporation. LOL

The guys were really nice and one of them showed me the spot on the side of my trunk where you turn a plastic knob and inside the hard plastic housing is my jack. :( I felt really bad that my mom had come all that way and I had had a jack the entire time. But they men were wonderful and even changed my tire for me! So mom and I got to watch them change my tire. I thanked them and went off on my somewhat merry way to Harborview to pick my patient.

Well, Harborview was frustrating too. It was my first time on the new floor, so it took me a while to figure out how things were set up (regarding patient information, where to use the computers, etc.) I kept finding a patient that I liked, looked up their info, read their chart notes, and then for one reason or another it wasn't going to work out afterall. I did this a total of three times before I settled on my last patient. I gathered all of the necessary info, stopped by to ask his permission to treat him tomorrow, and ask some questions. As I was leaving the patient's room after interviewing him he asked me if I was aware that he was going to be transferred to another floor. Um, no. I didn't know that. By this time it is 3:30 pm. The patient mentioned that the transfer may not be happening afterall, but that there was still a good possibility. After my day thusfar, I decided that I was willing to take the chance on him not being there tomorrow. I FINALLY get out of Harborview and I'm shaky at this point because all day long I've only had cereal, a banana, two pieces of bread, and a baby bell cheese.

I head to Costco in Seattle to get their tire shop to fix my tire, and I'm told up on my arrival that it will be at least an hour and a half wait. So I suck it up, and wander around Costco for over an hour. I'm exhausted at this point and soo needing to get home to start my write up. Ugh. They finally fix my tire, and I arrive home at 7:15 pm. Luckily I'd started one of my favorite crock pot meals before I left, so dinner was all ready for me. All I had to do was cook the greenbeans. :)

This was definitely not the day that I had planned. No pajamas, NO studying, and I still have my write up to do. I guess I'll be a pretty tired girl tomorrow, and I'll probably have to pick a new patient to boot. LOL Oh well. I just hope I can get my write up done by midnight so that I can get at least four hours of sleep.

Valentine's Day with the girls

2008-02-15T10:51:00.000-08:00

I went out with some of the girls (and their friends) from nursing school to Vertigo Lounge and Grill in Bellevue for Valentine's Day. Vertigo is Bellevue's first nightclub. It's very upscale and modern, with the majority of the area dedicated to the restaurant portion. The back of the restaurant has the lounge and dance floor. Vertigo has live jazz music from 6pm-9pm and then a DJ from 10pm-?? Brian had a review session on V-day, so we couldn't celebrate it together. :( Lucky for me it turned out that the girls wanted to have a night out! :)
Nursing school chicas: Alice, Cam, Bonnie, and me

Trinh, Cam, and Sandy.

Pretty Wallpaper.

We had a lot of fun. The music was AMAZING and the food was good too.

I thought the angle of this pic of me was really cool, so that's why I included it. :) Too bad I'm pursing my lips so funny. LOL Oh well.
Alice brought some candy.

I ordered the salmon.
We all shared molten lava cake for dessert.
Ooey gooey delicious!

In honor of Valentine's Day

2008-02-11T18:42:00.000-08:00

This is one of the most romantic movie scenes of all time! It makes my heart melt every time. Wishing you and your sweetie a happy Valentine's Day!
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Update on life

2008-02-04T20:10:00.000-08:00

I've been super busy, but that isn't a good excuse for my lack of blog posts. I'll definitely be posting more often from this point forward. A lot has happened since the new year began.

The course load for winter quarter started off at a marathon pace. I found out later on that this quarter is supposed to be just as hard (if not harder) than fall. LOL I'd been hoping that things would get easier, but apparently that comes later. My clinical site is at Harborview again this quarter. I'm really blessed to have Harborview as my clinical site - most of the nursing students in my class aren't fortunate to get it ONCE, let alone twice. There are so many amazing learning experiences there!

Brian started his Technology Management MBA program in January, he's been doing an awesome job! He continues to impress me with his dedication and time management. I'm so proud of him. :)

You know the phrase "the gift that keeps on giving"? Well, I got one of those for Christmas! My roomba! Let me tell you, this little guy has been a champ - I love him. Yes, I said HIM. In honor of Brian's fondness of the Harry Potter movies I've named my roomba Dobby (after the house elf in the HP films). Dobby does such a good job vacuuming for me every day, he has HUGELY decreased my allergic response to the dogs. Thanks go out to my mom who got him for me!!! I'm thinking about decorating him in some way to make him even cuter than he already is. I'll post his before/after pics if and when that happens. :)

Now that I've completed my first quarter of nursing school I'm eligible to become a Nurse Technician at work. Nurse Technicians are basically Nursing Assistants that are allowed to perform nursing duties/skills that have been taught in nursing school (under the watchful eye of a supervising nurse of course!) Just tonight I've received the green light from my manager at work to apply for the open Nurse Tech position on my floor. The State application fee isn't cheap ($130), but it's great to be practicing skills that I'll be using as an RN so it will be worth it in the end.

I've decided to apply for one of the study abroad programs that is offered through the school of nursing. I really hope that I am accepted! It will take place fall quarter of my senior year (September 2008) and I will be gone the entire quarter in Chiang Mei THAILAND! I've heard that it is an amazing learning experience. Fall quarter covers the psych rotation. UW school of nursing instructors are down there with the students the entire time (the testing and material covered is the same as what is covered on UW campus.) So there is really nothing to lose. Psych holds no interest for me, so I'm not missing out on learning what the rotation is like in the States.

My poor car (Bubba) has had quite the time lately. But two trips to the mechanic and $1600 later I'm hoping he'll continue to be the rock solid dependable car that I've known him to be. :) He just needs to hang in there for another two years or so. LOL

I worked for the first time in nine months over this past weekend! I decided that if I didn't work that I might get fired (I'm supposed to work at least 3 times a month, but they are very lenient with the requirements for nursing students.) Well, I figured that 9 months was probably more generous than they normally are, so I preemptively signed up for a shift before they talked to me about it. Now that I'm getting the Nurse Tech position I plan on working a minimum of one time per month, hopefully two if I can handle it with my course load. It felt wonderful to be back on the floor and working with the moms and babies. I forgot just how much I love those little babies! *sigh* Too cute and sweet for words. :)

Thats about all the updating that I can handle for now. I'm exhausted. Brian and I tried to watch a movie (Evan Almighty) last night before bed and I fell asleep about half way through. LOL

By the way, some friends of mine convinced me to start a facebook account. If any of you are on facebook, feel free to add me as a friend!

Date night and a new favorite restaurant.

2007-12-30T18:07:00.000-08:00

Brian and I took advantage of our last few "free" days together before we both start school again by going on a few fun dates. Friday night we went to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and shared a cuban sandwich. I'd never had a cuban sandwich before, just seen them on TV. I'm so glad that we got it, it was quite tasty! We also got a slice to go of Chris' outrageous chocolate cake. Wow! If you are a chocolate/coconut lover, this cake is for you! It even has a layer of coconut flavored cheesecake in it. We took the cake home and munched on it a la mode while we watched Harry Potter on Brian's new HD DVD player and surround sound that he got for Christmas. It was a great night.

On Saturday we went to a Lebanese restaurant in Bellevue that I'd heard really great things about on one of my foodie sites. I am still blown away by this place. Talk about AMAZING flavor and AMAZING food! Wow. Wow. Wow. Seriously. I think this might be my new favorite restaurant. It is a tiny little place, they probably only have 15 total tables in the restaurant, but it is cozy, not fussy, and lit with candlelight. We got there just in time too - tables for 2 are first-come-first-served and we got the last open table. About 15 minutes after we were seated the line started forming of people waiting for a table.

Standard service at the Mediterranean Kitchen includes warmed pita bread served with a zesty garlic/lemon/olive oil sauce and a bowl of tomato lentil soup full of robust flavors like lemon, garlic, cinnamon, and cardamom. We ordered lamb kibbe as an appetizer to share. It was absolutely delicious! It was full of flavor, and came with an amazing yogurt sauce. For dinner we shared lamb shawarma with tahini sauce and accompanied by saffron rice- again, it was an AMAZING taste experience. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. LOL We had the leftovers today (their entree portions are huge) and it was still delicious. We took one order of baklava to go (we were too full to eat anymore) and went to the Bellevue Galleria to see the movie August Rush. I liked it. It was an unusual movie, but nice to see something that was made outside of the cookie cutter style and format that I've become accustomed to. The night was fabulous, and made that much sweeter by the baklava. :) It was the perfect ending to our date night.

Christmas with our families was super fun. Both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were held at our home. It gave me a chance to cook up a storm and play hostess. I even tried my hand at Wii bowling - and scored 134! LOL Not bad.

My new years resolutions for 2008 are:
1. To stay on campus after classes to get some dedicated study time in before the bus ride home
2. To find time in my school schedule to work out at the IMA (Intramural Activities Building - basically a fitness club located on UW campus)
2. To get back into the cooking groove and cook at least 4 meals per week (with enough leftovers for the other days)
3. To refrain from getting too stressed from school responsabilities, and to support Brian in his studies.

Wishing you all a happy, healthy, and safe year for 2008!

Oh. My. Gosh.

2007-12-12T16:58:00.000-08:00

Oh. My. Gosh. This quarter has been the most challenging time of my scholastic life. I’ve struggled more, prayed more, freaked out more, and cried more than I thought was humanly possible. Comparing this journey to a roller coaster ride is an understatement. This morning I completed my last final and I feel on top of the world, a 180 degree change from how I was feeling late last night as I was cramming for my Pathophysiology exam. The euphoria I am experiencing must be similar to the ‘runners high’ that long distance runners experience. Endorphins are awesome. LOL

To top it off, I just checked my final grades for the quarter. In Pathophysiology I earned a 3.9, and my final grade in Pharmacology was a 4.0! My other two classes (clinicals at Harborview and the associated lab) were pass/fail, so my 'pass' grades for those were no surprise. I am beyond thrilled that I was able to earn such high grades in my first quarter of nursing school.

I’m filled with thankfulness to my Heavenly Father for helping me during this trying time of my life. Without him I would not be in nursing school let alone be successful in a program as rigorous as the BSN program at UW. I think that he must be as glad as I am that the quarter is over, because that means that he gets a break from my tearful pleas. LOL I’m also incredibly thankful for Brian’s love and support. I've had a few meltdowns and times of despair along the way and he has been my rock - supportive, kind and loving when I needed it the most. Brian’s quiet strength was integral to my success. He boosted me up and believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself.

Wow. I just completed my first official quarter of nursing school!!! That’s crazy. It's still hard for me to believe that this nursing thing is actually happening. I'm completely exhausted, my sleep tonight will probably be the best I've had since I started school in September. RFLOL

Time to plan for Christmas!

2007-11-23T09:07:00.001-08:00

You'll notice that my music player has changed from contemporary music to the fabulousness that is Christmas music! I've spent quite some time over the past two weeks searching out the best Christmas music for my blog. I'll be adding to it between now and Christmas when I get the chance. If you haven't heard a song called "Christmas in the trenches", you should skip forward to this song on the blog player. It's a true story and reminds me that the freedom I have was earned from the loss of others lives. May the soldiers be protected and blessed this holiday season!

Thanksgiving #2 was awesome and yummy. The abundance of food was amazing, and the company was fabulous. Brian and I were able to spend some time with his cousin Cody and his girlfriend Kim, as well as Brian's aunt Sharon and uncle Richard. It was great catching up. I also had a chance to talk to Brian's cousin Robin. She is just starting her prerequisites for nursing school and I was able to answer some questions for her. Robin also made a mean apple crumble that I enjoyed immensely :)

Brian got up early with his dad and brother Nick to do some black Friday shopping. Brian scored a $50 Sports Authority giftcard just from being one of the first 100 people in the door! So he bought some cool new balance shoes. You can't score a better deal than someone handing you a $50 giftcard! LOL

It's been so nice having some time off from school and studying, but I guess it's back to the grindstone for me. I have a ton of studying to do between now and next week. :( TTYL!

Thanksgiving is almost up on us!

2007-11-20T09:31:00.000-08:00

A lot has happened since I posted last. Brian and I had dinner with his parents and Nick's family out in Maple Valley a week and a half ago. It was great to just relax and enjoy their company. I learned how to knit a few days prior to the dinner, so I brought my scarf-in-progress along with me to try and get some rows completed. I got pretty far, but later on I found some large imperfections and decided to unravel the whole thing. LOL Being a perfectionist can be such a pain in the butt, but if I left it as-is it would always be the first thing that I saw. Since then I've unraveled it several more times, so my 'scarf' is currently only two rows deep. RFLOL Between my unraveling and limited knitting time, I'm guessing that the scarf will not be completed before winter is over. :P Oh well.

Last Thursday night Brian had a welcome reception for the MBA program he is starting at the University of Washington in January. The program split the entering class into teams of 7 members, where they stay the entirety of the MBA program. The teams work together on projects, presentations, and leadership tasks. The welcome event was catered and held at the Burke Museum in Seattle. It was nice to meet the people that Brian will be working so closely with, and I even got to meet two of the wives. One of the wives is finishing up her masters degree in psychology, and the other is working on the last steps needed to obtain her flight instructor license. Pretty cool.

Last Friday afternoon I had my third of four cadaver labs. I made the mistake of not eating anything before hand (other than breakfast) and I had even forgot to bring my nalgene water bottle with me to campus. So I went into lab on an empty stomach and dehydrated (normally at this point I have had at least 2 L of water). BIG mistake. The cadaver labs are approximately 2 hours, and after about an hour and a half the smell of formaldehyde starts to get to me. At the hour and a half mark this time (as I am looking at the sensitive subject of male and female reproductive tract cross-sections) I started feeling weak, dizzy, and a veil of blackness began closing over my vision! Now, I have never fainted before, but I am positive that that is what it feels like right before one hits the ground. LOL Somehow I managed to pull myself out of it (it felt like jerking myself out of falling asleep at the last second) and I mumbled to my lab partners "I don't feel so good, I need to get some fresh air" and started wobbling towards the door. On my way out I hear one of my friends say "You look green! Are you ok?" Even after going out into the hallway I felt woozy and like I still might faint so I had to sit on the floor with my back against the wall, fanning myself with my lab paper. That is an experience I hope to never repeat!

On Sunday the 18th Brian and I had Thanksgiving #1 with my family. It was held out at Shannon and Scot's place in Issaquah, and four of their friends attended as well. I made my pumpkin cheesecake thinking that we would need more dessert with the addition of Shannon's friends. Boy was I wrong! There was an overabundence of delicous food and we all stuffed ourselves to the point that all we could do was stretch out on the couches and talk about how sick we felt. LOL Then after we had digested enough that we no longer felt as if we would vomit, we had dessert! Of course the dessert pushed us all back to the previous stage of borderline emesis. But who could stop with just one night, when the scrumptious leftovers could provide a second night of bliss? Not I, that's for sure! :) Brian and I took home enough food for a repeat of the nights feast, and we ate it for dinner last night (it was oh so yummy!)

Thanksgiving #2 with Brians family is being held out in Maple Valley, and I will be making my pumpkin cheesecake again to take along. This time I am NOT going to stuff myself. LOL One night of feeling that way per year is about all that I can handle. It will be a great family affair, with about 20 people in attendence. Two sets of aunts and uncles that we haven't seen in a long time will be there, so it will be great to catch up with them.

Since thanksgiving is almost here I'd like to outwardly express my grattitude to Heavenly Father for the many blessings that I have been fortunate to receive. I feel extremely humbled to be at this point in my life. I have a wonderful and loving husband that teaches me on a daily basis the meaning of unconditional love. I have loving and supportive family that encourages and uplifts me. I have a home of my own that provides shelter, running water, and heat. I am greeted by three crazy cocker spaniels that are thrilled to see me when I walk in the door and provide priceless moments of hilarity. I have a car that enables me to get easily from one place to another. I am fortunate to have medical and dental insurance. I have been blessed with the opportunity to obtain a degree in higher education, and to have a husband that supports me financially so that I don't have to work while I'm in school. I've been blessed with wonderful classmates and friends that support my efforts in school. I am very thankful for all of this and so much more.

Wishing you and yours a warm and happy thanksgiving!

Bleberiffic!

2007-11-05T19:54:00.001-08:00

We had our injection lab today. We performed three different types of injections on each other using sterile saline solution. Our instructor decided that I should be the first one to start us off by having me inject one of my classmates. I was so scared that I would hurt her by doing it too slow or to hard that I kept chickening out. Everyone in my lab group was watching, they were totally cracking up. LOL The instructor kept saying "ok, on the count of three" and I would get to three and wouldn't be able to do it. I would take a deep breath, try to focus, and muster up the courage to do it but in the end it felt like I was about to jump off a cliff or something. It really was hilarious. By the time I finally did it about three minutes had passed and my thumb was slightly quivering (from becoming so worked up) and it was hard to depress the saline into her arm. RFLOL After I got the first one under my belt I decided that giving injections was fun. :) The last type of injection we learned was intradermal (the kind that nurses do when they test for TB or for allergies). A small amount of fluid is injected just under the skin and makes a bump appear. This bump is called a 'bleb'. By that time I'd done two other injections, so it was easy peasy. My bleb was perfect and so easy to do! Woohoo!

It's already November!!!

2007-11-03T16:13:00.000-07:00

I know I keep saying this, but time is just zooming right by. It's already November!!! At this rate I'll be done with school in no time. That's if I survive nursing school. LOL I find that if I even miss a few hours of studying on one night that I get behind and everything is even more stressful than usual. This weekend is especially rough. I have a take-home test, an infexious disease paper (5 pages) to write, evaluation forms to complete, a pretest, and readings for my lab, pathology, and pharmacology. Ugh. So far I've only completed the test, the evaluation forms, and the pretest. Usually I can put off pharmacology because it's been pretty easy for me to understand the concepts, but the stuff we're covering now is the most difficult of the quarter (according to the teacher.) So that really means that I need to kick my butt into gear. Why am I blogging then, you ask? RFLOL To de-stress, of course!

After I'm done blogging I'm heading out to make the usual shopping trip to get groceries for the week. I'm getting really good at planning meals a week in advance so that I can do all of my shopping once a week. The hard part is getting back into the studying groove after shopping: I've smelled the fresh air and tasted freedom. But I do my best to drag myself back to prison (the office) and bury my head in my books for the rest of the night.

Mondays lab should be pretty cool. We're learning how to do injections (and practicing on each other.) I'm not too keen on other people practicing on me, but if that means that I get to practice on someone else I'm cool with it. LOL Then on clinical on Wednesday we get to give our first injections to actual patients. Up to this point ar our clinical sites all that we've done (that real nurses do) is blood glucose testing, and passing medications.

I made some baked fries with butternut squash two nights in a row this week. I was really unsure how they would turn out (I don't know if I've ever eaten butternut squash before), but I was pleasantly surprised. They were super yummy! They had a little sweetness (kind of like a sweet potato), some earthiness, and lots of yummy spices. I learned how to make butternut squash into fries from one of my food websites, and I made up the spice mixture to go on them. Seriously, they are yummy! Brian said that he didn't know squash tasted like that and it is now his favorite vegetable (as long as I cook them like that). RFLOL The only thing that makes me a little sad is that they don't really crisp up that much.

I talked to Amber in the UK today. I've decided to skype her once a week to see how she's doing and catch her up on my boring life. She found out that she can go ahead and get a job over there without any additional paperwork, great news. But because she doesn't have a degree she is limited to retail or call center work. There are a couple of places that she is looking into, it will be neat to hear what she thinks about working in the UK!

Well, my day is just going to get longer if I keep typing, so I guess I better go. TTFN!

Another busy week.

2007-10-25T22:28:00.000-07:00

Things are going good at school. Classes and clinicals are keeping me busier than I've ever been. Time has flown by, it's hard to believe that we're already in our fifth week of classes! I decided to be selfish tonight and spend some time picking out some of my favorite songs for my blog instead of studying. I'm sure I'll regret it later, but it sure felt good to just chill and listen to some great tunes. :) There is a fast-forward button on the player, so feel free to pick and choose the songs you want to listen to.

Brian hurt his back last weekend and has been in a lot of pain since then. He went to the doctors on Monday and was told to go home and stay off of his feet for a couple of days. Brian took that to mean that he should play World of Warcraft. LOL Whatever works. He went back to work today, but he still can't make it through the day without at least one vicodin. I sure hope that his back starts to feel better soon, I know firsthand how painful back pain can be.

Oliver is doing so much better since he started his thyroid medication. It's only been a week and a half but his attitude is really changing. He is starting to run around the house again, ask for cuddles, and he is even getting playful again! It does my heart good to see him feeling so much better.

I've been making a lot of crock pot meals for dinner since school started and have been really pleased with the results. I found a low fat recipe for chicken in cream sauce that pretty much replicates one of my favorite mexican dishes, pollo a la crema. It is soo yummy, and satisfies my Azteca cravings! The funny thing is that it has the fastest and easiest prep of any crock pot meal I've ever cooked. LOL

My laptop is a thing of beauty.

2007-10-18T20:11:00.001-07:00

I'm typing this from my new HP laptop. I totally love it. I chose one with a 14" screen so that it would fit into my backpack easily. Its the perfect size, and pretty darned cute if I say so myself. LOL Brian and I picked it up from the FedEx warehouse last night (the delivery required a signature and they tried to deliver it when I was in clinicals). I'm amazed at how quickly I received it. They sent it via FedEx from China on 10/16 and it was delivered on 10/17. Now that's fast! I'm just now getting to play around with it (last night I had my usual two Thursday quizzes that I had to study for), so I thought that I might as well blog with it tonight to break it in. :) Watch out! Now I can do mobile blogging. RFLOL Oh, and coolest of all is that it has a built-in webcam (I normally hate the things) so that I can use SKYPE service to talk to Amber in the UK! Woohoo!

Today was a good day, but draining. Because of the windstorm and a stalled car on the bridge, my usual bus ride from school to the park and ride took two hours instead of one. Yuck! At least I got one of the last available seats, and there were some cool sights along the way (the water spraying onto Hwy 520 was an amazing sight to behold, and I saw a tree-sized limb fall down while the bus was on the onramp to the bridge). Plus my fellow passengers were pretty friendly so there was good conversation during the long ride.

Oliver is doing great on his thyroid medication. He is already a much happier pup (he wags his tail a lot more now) and he has even started to move around more than usual. I'm shocked that he is already feeling the effects of the meds, but it just goes to show you the amazing and important role that hormones play in one's body.

Well, I'm off to try and customize this sweet piece of laptop goodness. Number one on the list: I still need to find a good image for my wallpaper!

Poor Oliver.

2007-10-14T15:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we took Oliver to the veteranarian. He's been acting a lot more sluggish the past few months (he's a pretty lazy dog normally, but its been worse than normal) and recently areas of his skin has changed. To top it off, he is on a limited diet, but is still a very chunky dog for his height. So I decided that he probably had hypothyroidism, and I wanted to get him checked out.

When we got to the clinic the vet wasn't exactly sold on my amateur diagnosis since Oliver is still so young. Apparently thyroid problems don't usually start to occur until a dog is older, and Oliver is 3 and a half years old. But she took his blood and sent if off to the lab for diagnosis. We walked out $250 poorer for the office visit, bloodwork, and some medicated shampoo for his skin.

The vet called with the lab results today and it turns out that I was right! Oliver's levels of TSH (thyroid-stimulating hormone) were two times the normal level. TSH does exactly what it sounds like it should do - it stimulates the thyroid to produce adequate levels of thyroid hormone. His TH (thyroid hormone) levels were on the extremely low range of normal (at a level of one.) The range of normal is from 1-4, and with his TSH being two times the normal production, his thyroid hormone should have been much higher.

So unfortunately that means that his little thyroid gland isn't working the way that it should, and he has to be put on medication the rest of his life. Luckily the meds don't usually cost that much. He will have bloodwork done again in about four weeks to assess the levels of thyroid hormone in his body to see if we need to alter his dosage. The hope is that after being on his meds Oliver will perk up a little bit, lose some weight, his skin will start doing better, and he'll start feeling better in no time.

Birthdays abound in October.

2007-10-13T22:25:00.000-07:00

Between my family and Brian's family, there are 7 birthdays in October. Don't get me wrong, I love celebrating birthdays. Next to Christmas, and Thanksgiving, birthdays are my favorite time to celebrate. It just gets expensive having so many so close together!

Ambers birthday was the 3rd and we had a little birthday party for her at my house. It was fun to be together as a family, and I got to make some yummy food, so that made me happy. LOL

Tonight we celebrated Nick and Jen's birthdays with the Simons. We went out to a mexican place in Issaquah (we were originally going to go somewhere else, but no one remembered to make reservations). It was great to be out and spend time with the family. Unfortunately we don't get together as often as we'd like to. The food was good, and the companionship was a nice break from all of the studying I've been doing (I just counted my assigned reading pages for ONE class: I have 62 pages to read this week. That isn't even counting any of my other classes!)

Has it really been 10 days?!?!?

2007-10-11T20:12:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that its been 10 days since I posted last. Time has been a blur since school started. Up until last night I've pretty much been sprinting the whole time and feeling like I'm playing catch-up. I'm not used to taking so many hard-core classes at once. Over the past two and half years at community college I took two classes per quarter, and one was almost always an 'easy' class. But now I have five classes and four of them are very hard. *gulp* I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO glad that I took the Nursing Assessment class over the summer. If I hadn't done that, I'd have and additional class this quarter!!!

Tuesdays are my prep days for clinicals. My first prep (going to Harborview to get pts permission to treat him/getting pts medical history/meds list/diagnosis and treatment info/etc; and filling out a detailed prep sheet) took me over 8 hours to complete and left me with two hours of sleep for my actual clinical day on Wednesday. Clinicals went well, but I was exhausted at the end of the day to say the least. But there was no rest for the weary, because I had to finish studying/cramming for two quizzes that I had the following day (today.)

Last night as I was cramming I got frazzled to the point that I decided to write out a detailed daily schedule for each day of the week(including commuting time, study time, time allotted to eat, and the most precious of all: free time.) I've been feeling so out of control since school started that I realized that I needed something that would ground me, something physical that I could refer to so where I could see the tasks that I needed to accomplish each day. I guess I needed to be able to check things off so that I felt like I was moving forward instead of backward. Up to that point I knew that I'd been busy but I hadn't really processed how busy I'd been until I wrote it all out.

Basically on weekdays I have an hour and a half each night to cook dinner and spend with Brian. The rest of my day is involved in one way or another with school from the time I wake up until the time I go to sleep again. Saturdays I have from about 3pm onwards free, but several hours of that will be taken up with essentials: house chores, shopping, cooking prep for the following week. And that free time is subject to change according to class load too, I'm sure there will be Saturdays where I will have NO free time. When that happens I have no idea what we'll be eating the following week! LOL Sundays are full of study too, and with church being 3 hours long I am once again left with an hour and a half of free time. To make things worse, I haven't been working out in over a month and a half. Luckily my back has been feeling great since school started, I've been very blessed in that aspect. Despite the good back, I'm still trying to figure out how to fit workouts into my schedule (to keep my back healthy) and still somehow get enough sleep. LOL

Needless to say I have no life right now and I am not expecting to get one anytime soon. At least I'm learning some pretty cool stuff in school. I didn't allot myself free time for blogging, so I guess I'll have to do that right before bed. I'm suposed to be studying right now, but I'm currently running on 8 hours of sleep over two days and I am fighting off getting sick. My brain got to the point that it just wouldn't let me concentrate on anything. Tomorrow its back to the grind!

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

2007-10-01T20:16:00.000-07:00

Saturday night Brian and I went to a Mariners game with the Simon clan. Travis, my brother in-law drove up from Rexburg for the weekend with his girlfriend Lindsay. It was nice to meet her and (as always) it was great to see Trav. I was pretty grumpy at the game though, it was F-R-E-E-Z-I-N-G. Seriously. I had a fleece blanket over my lap and I was wearing a wool coat, a terry hoodie, a waffle hoodie, and a t-shirt and I was still turning into a popsicle. We ended up leaving the game around the 6th inning because it was just too cold to enjoy the game. After the game we all drove down to Snoqualmie to the restaurant where Jen, my sister in-law works. She served me up a nice cup of hot chocolate with whipped cream that warmed me right up. :) It was great seeing where she works. It was a fun place with a great vibe. Just like Jen.

Completely exhausted.

2007-09-28T19:17:00.000-07:00

I feel guilty that I haven't updated my blog, but I've been too busy to do much of anything since school started on Monday. My nursing education started off with two full days of orientation at the school (8:30 am to 5:00 pm) followed by a full day of orientation at my clinical site for the quarter (I am at Harborview), then Thursday and Friday comprised of two full days of lecture classes (8:30 am to 2:30 pm without a lunch break). Books cost a bundle too - $700 for this quarter alone. Let the financial stress begin! I hate being/feeling poor. :( Busing to school is sucking a lot of my time and energy too. My commute is an hour and 15 minutes each way. Its been insane week to say the least.

I finally had to give myself a break from all of the craziness and allow myself some 'me time' on Wednesday night. One of Brian's coworkers gave him a pass to see a premiere of the new movie "The Game Plan." I was too wiped out to go, so he invited his brother Nick to go with him. While Brian was gone I allowed myself to collapse on the couch and just veg. I felt like if I didn't devote some time to myself that I might start crying. How sad is that? It was only Wednesday! I was planning on watching a few TV shows on the DVR since I hadn't watched any TV all week, but I only got through one show before I fell asleep on the couch. For some reason I feel completely exhausted, both mentally and physically.

I know it will get better, I'm just stressed - It's a lot to take in.

To end my blog on a positive note, I'd like to share an awesome quote that I read yesterday "A mind stretched to a new idea never goes back to its original dimension." - Oliver Wendell Holmes

Tomorrow is the big day!

2007-09-23T21:04:00.000-07:00

Nursing school officially starts tomorrow. I'm not sure what my day will consist of, but there is an orientation in the morning where they will give us a detailed schedule for the rest of the day. I'm nervous, excited, and scared all rolled into one. Brian keeps telling me that I've already completed a nursing class so I shouldn't have anything to be worried about. I think that it's just first day school jitters - afterall, I'll be in this program with the same people for the next two years. This isn't like the other college classes I've taken where I would rarely take more than one class with the same people. Not only that, but this is serious stuff. If I don't meet certain grade requirements I could be kicked out of the program! I hope I get some sleep tonight, tomorrow is going to be a long day.

Crappy day.

2007-09-22T22:39:00.000-07:00

Have you ever looked forward to doing something or going somewhere and then when the time comes, the day just turns into one you would rather have skipped altogether? That was my day today. The only good news about my crappy day is that I looked cute. LOL I curled my hair before going out and it looked really cute, a nice change from my straight hair. It held up great too, lasting the entire day (with the help of hairspray.)

Other than that, I wish that I had just stayed home with Brian and enjoyed his company rather than the 6 hours I spent downtown today. I need to realize that no matter how badly I may want something, not everything can be fixed, and that it is ok to move on - leaving the broken pieces behind. It's a very difficult thing for me to realize though. I feel so great about all other aspects of my life. I feel successful, secure and confident in who I am, I'm in a fabulous place in my marriage, to make it short - I am loving my life. I guess I just want every aspect of my life to be so wonderful, but I am realizing now that can only happen in a perfect world.

So I am reinforcing this message to myself "It is ok to move on." Unless I allow myself to move beyond the stuff that I have been trying to mend, it will continue to drag me down. Forgive and forget.

I think I might like cleaning.

2007-09-21T21:06:00.000-07:00

As I was cleaning the house today I realized that I was really enjoying myself. It gave me time away from the husband, the dogs, and the TV, and allowed me to be all by myself in a way. It allowed me a nice chunk of time where I could ponder things that had been on my mind of late. My reaction to this event gets me to thinking that after a long day at school, cleaning might just be the next great study tool to help me remember the things that I learned that day. We'll have to see if it works (and if I can make myself clean the house that often.) LOL

One of the things that I was thinking about as I was cleaning was how grateful I am to my mom for teaching me so many things in life. Of course I am thankful for the cleaning tips and tricks - because of her generosity and the knowledge she passed down to me, it was a fairly easy task to clean my wood floors tonight. But I'm also extremely thankful for the example that she was to me as I was growing up. If she hadn't been such a strong example in my life, I have no doubt that I would not be the tenacious individual that I am today. My strong faith in and reliance on Heavenly Father would not be present, and I would have long ago given up on my quest to become a nurse. She modeled resourcefulness, a love for learning, intelligence and the value of hard work. I feel incredibly honored to be her daughter and to be a part of her life.

I learned how to curl my hair!!!

2007-09-20T19:34:00.000-07:00

I know this probably sounds dumb to everyone, but I finally learned how to curl my hair!!! My mother is not an overly feminine woman, so growing up I never learned how to style my hair, put on makeup or anything else like that from her. Everything I've learned about femininity I've had to teach myself. Well tonight on one of the online forums that I frequent, one of the ladies posted a youtube link on how to curl one's hair into ringlets using a flat iron. It looked to good to be true, but I wanted to try it. So after watching the youtube video I ran into the bathroom and started curling away.

I am soo excited, it actually worked! I can stop being envious of all of the ladies with flowing hair that has been curled to perfection and finally curl my own hair! Woohoo!!! I can't believe that it turned out as good as it did the FIRST time. I already learned a lot by the time I finished, so I know it will just get better and better as I get more experience. Again, I know this is probably sounding totally ridiculous to everyone, but I am seriously excited here. :) For anyone that is interested, here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca3k1syt2G4

Wedding photos

2007-09-20T10:32:00.001-07:00

We finally got the pictures back from Ambers wedding. I'll only post a few, but it was a beautiful ceremony and very special night.

Please ignore the cow skull on the wall. Shannon forgot to take it off. LOL

I finally got another crockpot.

2007-09-19T20:46:00.000-07:00

I'm typing this after taking a muscle relaxant and a vicodin (my back decided to flare up today and I'm having terrible muscle spasms/back pain). The vicodin has just kicked in, so I am feeling quite delayed in my ability to think, and pretty fuzzy/floaty. So I hope my blog tonight makes sense.

The reason that I had to get a new crockpot was that in May Brian took my slow cooker to a work potluck in Seattle (when he still worked for the architecture firm). On the bus ride in to work he placed the bag of food to be cooked and the crockpot on the seat next to him. Unfortunately, the busdriver took a sharp turn and everything went flying off the seat. The result of the tumble was that the ceramic liner of my crockpot broke in half. Since that time I've been thinking about getting a new one, but even more so the closer it got to fall quarter. You see, once I start nursing school I'm going to be busier than I have ever been and it will pretty much impossible for me to cook dinner every night. But with a slow cooker I can just plop the food in, hit start and come home to a cooked meal. :)

I have an ingrained habit of researching practically everything before I buy it (to make sure I am buying the best), so I did some research and found out that the best crockpots on the market are made by All-Clad and Kitchen Aid. I was going to get a Kitchen Aid one, but at the last moment decided to check the Cooks Illustrated website to see if they had reviewed slow cookers. (Cooks Illustrated is an awesome resource for recipes, but they are also like the Consumer Reports of Kitchen Appliances.) Lucky for me, they had recently tested them and published their findings in August. The All-Clad one came out on top. Apparently the Kitchen Aid crockpot had an evaporation rate (of liquid contents) between 4-9%, whearas the All-Clad only had an evaporation rate of 2%. So between that, and knowing that All-Clad makes amazing products, I had to get it. So I did! Brian and I went to Williams-Sonoma this evening and we got it. Inside the box were several yummy sounding recipies, so I'm really excited to try it out.

As we were walking from the parking lot towards the entrance of Bellevue Square (to buy the slow cooker) there was this sweet old lady that approached us and asked if we could help her find her car. She didn't remember exactly where she parked, and because of her hearing-aid when she pushed the alarm on her car, the noise resounded too much for her to identify its location. Of course we were more than happy to help.

Walking with her toward the elevator to go up to the next level, it turned out that she had an elderly friend waiting for her that was wearing a neck brace. As we got near, we overheard her asking a man (that had young children with him) if he would help. His reply to her request was "I'm sure you'll find your car" and walked away, into the mall. I couldn't believe it! What lesson is he teaching his kids? A little old lady in need, WITH A NECK BRACE is asking for help (a simple favor) and he says no?! What a jerk! Anways, it turned out their car was close by, just located on the third level. They had only looked around on the first and second levels. They were really sweet little old ladies. They'd driven from Issaquah to JCPenneys to buy a replacement blanket for one that had become too tattered. Apparently there is a 50% off sale going on. I was just glad that we were able to get them to their car, they were very grateful. So it turned out to be a great day. We were able to help some people in need, and get an awesome slow cooker to boot! :)

Another awesome day at work.

2007-09-18T22:43:00.000-07:00

I just had another awesome day at work. There were lots of super cute babies again. It was a crazy busy day, but those are always the best kinds to have at work. I was assigned to four moms, three of which had had c-sections (c-sections involve longer stays at the hospital and more care from the nursing staff.)

Two of the four moms were Spanish-speaking only, so that involved a lot more time spent with them trying to get the message across in my limited Spanish - luckily the nurse I was working with was proficient at basic Spanish.

One of the babies I was caring for ended up having to go to the level 2 nursery because he was getting so jaundiced. The hospital has special high-powered phototherapy beds that helps to stimulate the production of Vitamin D in the skin (thereby stimulating the liver to kick into gear and breakdown the bilirubin that causes jaundice.) He'll be fine, but it is always scary for the parents when their baby has to leave them to go up to the special care nursery.

Adding to my crazy day was my assignment to train a new nursing assistant during my shift. It's the first time I've been assigned to train anyone, but it turned out great. I found out that the person I was training was starting her second year of nursing school at BCC. It was great to talk with her and get some insight on what I am about to get myself into at the UW. LOL

This summer just flew by. I can't believe that school starts on Monday. Wow. I'm scared, nervous and excited all at the same time. I'm sad that I wasn't able to get the baseboard and crown moulding put up like I had hoped. :( I guess that will have to wait until my next school break.

Awesome new artist

2007-09-17T20:04:00.001-07:00

I love it when I find awesome new female artists. I heard a song called Bubbly by Colbie Caillat (rhymes with ballet) when I was packing up the food for our Leavenworth trip (Brian was at work). The song is very sweet with a soulful edge to the artists voice. I think the part that I love most about this song is that it reminds me of how Brian's love makes me feel. :) I'm definitely buying this CD ASAP. (I was going to buy it for the drive to Leavenworth, but I thought the CD player in my car was broken. I was wrong though (turns out it was a bad burn on a CD) so I'm sad that I don't have it now.) LOL

Enjoy!

Fun in the Sun

2007-09-16T21:26:00.000-07:00

Brian planned a getaway trip for us - our only vacation for the year (someday school won't interfere with vacations!) He did all of the planning and it was a complete secret (that is until he accidentally let it slip the day before we left as we were grocery shopping.) LOL He booked us a cute little cabin with a fully equipped kitchen up in Leavenworth. We left on Friday and came back on Sunday night.

On our drive to Leavenworth on Friday we made our required Simon family pit stop at MacaBee's in Cle Elum. They make my favorite fudge of all time! It is called Praline Pecan and tastes like heaven. LOL We were only going to get 1/4 lb, but then we gave into temptation and bought 1/2 lb to share. Oh my, was it delicious!

Our cabin was right on the Wenatchee river, what a pretty view! The sound of it was very relaxing. The weather was beautiful during our entire stay - it was in the 80's with a gentle breeze. I couldn't have asked for more. I owe a huge thank you to Brian for planning the trip, what a sweetheart!

Last year we hiked in several places around Leavenworth and came across a neat trail called the Old Pipeline. Oliver and Miranda LOVED it, so we made sure to take them on it again this year. This was Charlie's first trip with us since we adopted him in December, so everything was new to him. It was fun to see him enjoy himself so much.

Here are some pics from the hike:

The beginning of the trail (The Old Pipeline follows the path of the citys old water system. This bridge is one of the water pipes cut in half!)

The view of the Wenatchee river from the bridge.

Tall trees along our trail.

View of the river from the trail.

Miranda's happy hiking face!

Charlie likes vacations!

We spent most of our hiking trip just chillin' at this sandy beach area off of the beaten trail. :)

Miranda and Charlie ran back and forth over along the water line and over again going as fast as they could. It was so cute!

Oliver, my little wading dog. (He would only go in the water this deep, and only with the front half of his body! LOL

I really liked this shot because of their reflections in the water.

Oliver was happy as a clam at the end of the day.

We loved our time at the cabin. It was wonderful to be able to relax and not worry about what time it was. I was so relaxed that the only time I took pictures was on the hike! Oops. I'll try not to relax that much next time. :)

Brian and I also took the time to go shopping in Leavenworth. It was fun to stroll around and look in the little boutiques. There was even a pet store where we got the dogs some treats that looked like cannolis. Our favorite place (we will definitely be returning) was the cheesemongers store. Oh. My. Gosh. For those of you that love cheese, this is your place! Super yummy. They have cheeses from around the world and have a ton of samples to taste. We originally weren't going to get anything, but after tasting the hickory smoked cheddar from England we were hooked. The smoke flavor was incredible. We bought a packet of crackers and 1/4 lb of the cheese on the spot. That's how they hook you into buying things - the samples. ;) We ended up eating it on Sunday night after we got home from the trip (while dinner was cooking in the oven). It was scrumdidiliumptious!

I have a trunk again!

2007-09-13T22:49:00.000-07:00

Several months ago I was transporting a dead car battery in my trunk and unbeknownst to me, it tipped over and leaked battery acid everywhere. I rarely use my trunk, so at least two weeks went by before I remembered that I had a battery in my trunk. I opened the trunk and found that all of the contents had melted into goo (my scriptures, a roll of paper towels, a few CD cases, and my beloved windshield protector (my mom gave it to me for Christmas several years ago - it keeps ice and snow from building up on my windshield.) I disposed of the evil car battery and felt disheartened and overwhelmed. So I did what I usually do when I feel overwhelmed - I ignored it. :( I had no idea what to do. Well, that was a very bad idea, because over time the battery acid ate away at both the fabric and the wood fiberboard that covered my spare tire. The good news about my procrastination is that during the time that I ignore things that overwhelm me, I formulate ideas and plans to tackle the darn problem that is pestering me. After much ignoring (and pondering!) I decided today was the day to tackle the problem.

First off I identified the type of board that was used to cover my spare tire. It looked like a kind of fiberboard. So after a little research, I found out that it was called hardboard. I called Home Depot, and they had tempered hardboard in stock, in the 1/8" width that I would need (to recreate the perfect pre-battery acid appearance and function.) So I researched the difference between tempered hardboard and regular hardboard. Turns out that tempered is better, because it resists warping and breaking. Great news.

Next, I pondered what type of fabric I would need to cover the hardboard. I couldn't drive around with the hardboard showing, that would look tacky. So I studied the small spot of the fabric that didn't get battery acid on it, and it seemed like a really thick felt. I called Jo-Ann fabrics to see if they carried felt by the yard. They did! Not only that, but they had a dark gray, and it was on sale for $2.99 a yard! Yay! When I got there, I found out that the felt wasn't super thick (as thick as the one that came with my car) so I just doubled the amount I bought so that I could make two layers (turning it into one thick layer) using spray adhesive.

I came home with hardboard and felt in hand and got to work. Donning gloves, I ripped off the battery acid eaten felt and used the original hardboard as a template for my new creation. I traced the outline, and used my handy dandy Dremel and Dewalt drill to recreate the new spare tire cover. It worked like a charm! After I was done cutting out the shapes, I used spray adhesive to attach the felt and voila! I have a trunk again! Even though I did my best to match the shade of gray, there is a slight difference in shade/color from that of the original fabric/surrounding walls. But unless you look close, you can't tell a difference. I am so proud of myself for making it, and I feel so good that I finally have a trunk again!!! LOL I should have taken a pic so that everyone could have seen how yucky it was, but it was too embarrassing. So you'll have to imagine the yucky part.

Here is the final product installed:

Sorry about the dead leaves at the top of the pic, since I park under a plum tree leaves fall in that crevice all the time.

While I was at Home Depot I saw some pretty hanging baskets and decided that while I was at it, today should also be the day for me to assemble the hanging basket holder that I bought a while ago. So I bought the flowers and after making over my trunk, I did a mini-makeover on the front of my house. :) Here are the reults of that effort:

Do the Puyallup!

2007-09-12T19:39:00.000-07:00

Brian

Mom and Emily

Amber

James

I think that everyone should take the time to "Do the Puyallup." The fair was awesome! The family and I went on our usual 12 hour day trip and we loved every minute of it. This was Brian's 10th year doing the Puyallup! Time sure flies by when you are having fun! I finally got to see a 4-H dog show this year, and the fam was nice enough to come and watch it with me. Brian introduced us all to a yodeler (new to the fair this year), it was really cool listening to him and his wife (she played the drums - she was amazingly talented).

We had several memorable moments that we'll joke about for years to come. :) Poor Amber got sunscreen in her eye mid-afternoon and Brian recalled seeing a first-aid station nearby. So he dutifully took them to the station (Amber was being led by James because she was blinded) and it turns out that the 'first-aid station' was a "THIRST-aid station." RFLOL Even Amber who was in incredible pain at the time started cracking up when she realized where he had lead them. The thirst-aid drink place even had a red cross in their name, so it is easy to see how Brian could have been misled. Too funny, it'll be hard to live that one down!

Another funny thing that happened was when we decided to go on a ride together as a family and piled into the ferris wheel gondola (all 7 of us filled it to capacity.) After we all got in the gondola, the ferris wheel didn't move to let more passengers on/off. Hmmm. We looked around to see the ferris wheel attendants talking about how it suddenly wasn't working. Some members of our party started to wonder if we broke it. We sat there for over 5 minutes! The maintenence person finally arrived - only to tell the ferris wheel workers that they had left the break on! LOL So here are some pictures that I took of the family, showing the joy that was felt since we were able to go on our ride afterall!

Emily

Shannon and Amber

Other cute ferris wheel pics:

Amber and James

Mom, Emily, Brian

Emily (as usual) went on a bazillion rides. I didn't know that we had a camera with us until late in the day, so other than the ferris wheel, the only pics I got of Emily on rides was when she went on the carousel. Emily LOVES the carousel. Her little spirit fills with joy and it beams out of her. It makes me smile every time I think about it.

Emily

Another ride that everyone in the family went on was the giant slide! It was really fun. We decided to hold hands and go down together. The picture is blurry, but none of the slide ones came out due to the super fast action! LOL

Amber, Shannon, Emily, Me, Mom, Brian

I didn't eat as much as I had expected (or as much as I had wanted) during my day at the fair. The food was just too filling. For anyone going to the Puyallup fair I would highly recommend eating at BBQ Pete's. Their BBQ is delicious!!! They were my favorite, hands-down! (It was Brian's favorite as well!) Both Brian and I had the BBQ pork ribs and they were super yummy. I am a cornbread freak, but their cornbread was only so-so. But since I haven't had cornbread since this time last year, it was still nice to have it, and when I added honey it changed the cornbread from tasting just OK to yummo! It was only our second year eating at their establishment, and it has already become a Simon family tradition. Another food place that I would recommend is the Young Life pie stand. They have great pies. Shannon and I shared, so I got to taste two pies (1/2 of a lemon meringue and 1/2 of a pumpkin pie.) Both were wonderful!

The art and photography exhibits were outstanding this year as well. I found an artpiece that I would LOVE to have, but I don't have an extra $1,600 to spend on artwork for my bathroom. LOL It was a beautiful painting of coy fish on silk. Totally gorgeous!!!

Great day at work.

2007-09-10T20:20:00.001-07:00

I worked at the hospital today. The day started out pretty slow, but picked up a little in the middle of the day (I work 12 hour shifts). All of my patients had super cute babies. :) Normally newborns aren't really that aware of their surroundings, but these babies kept looking around wide-eyed at everything - so cute! And to top it off, all of my patients babies had a ton of hair, one of the traits that I love in newborns. Unfortunately, I found out some bummer news for my future at Evergreen - I was under the impression that as a new nurse on the unit I would have to work one year on night shift before I would be allowed to transfer to days. But apparently the wait can be as long as 3 years. Wow. Three years is a loooooooong time to work nights. At least it would be three years at an awesome job instead of something that totally sucked. LOL

I got some really nice compliments at work today. One nurse that was working on my wing told me that I have a beautiful face. Isn't that a nice thing to tell someone? Compliments like that are great, because they are so unexpected. It really made me feel good. Then later near the end of the shift another nurse told me that she loved my hair! I guess my head was looking MY-TEE-FINE today. RFLOL

Yay!!! The painting has finally been completed!

2007-09-09T20:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday DH and I put the last coat of paint in both the kitchen and in the living room! I am so happy!!! The colors never completely got to the shade that I was aiming for (on the paintchips), but I really like how everything turned out anyway. The walls really bring out the coloring in our cherry floors (so pretty!) and everything just looks so much more homey now. I love it!!! We still have the bathroom, both bedrooms, the office, and the man-room left to paint, but they will have to wait. I hope to tackle the bathroom during my next school break.

After we finished painting, DH and I went to Home Depot to scope out their base and crown moulding options. My DBIL was kind enough to get us some base moulding from his jobsite (leftovers from a new home being built), but we don't have enough for the whole house. I was hoping that we would find the same baseboard at Home Depot, but no luck. So it looks like we'll have to buy everything we need, darn it. Oh well. I'll be measuring the house to determine how many linear feet we need and hope to have time to install both the base and the crown within the next week.

This week is also the annual family Puyallup fair trip! I can't wait! DH and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE going to the fair every year. It's always a ton of fun. We go with my mother and my sisters and their husbands. The Puyallup fair is also one of the few days of the year that DH and I 'let ourselves go' completely and we eat as much fair food as we want. I'll report back later and let you know what our favorite foods were this year. :) I already know that the caramel apple tower will be one of them. LOL

Give me a McD's cone over DQ anyday.

2007-09-07T17:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had my first ever DQ chocolate dipped vanilla cone. It was good, but not as good as I thought it would be. :) I found myself wishing that the soft-serve had a little bit more solidity to it. Rather than taste like ice cream (because of the consistancy) it reminded me of eating cold marshmallow fluff. It wasn't bad, but I prefer the taste and texture of McD's soft-serve.

On the painting front not much has changed. I put one more coat on the kitchen walls last night and I was going to put the last coat on this morning, but I ended up picking up my eldest sister and running some errands with her instead. Then later on in the afternoon I started feeling unwell, so I decided to wait until tomorrow. I think that I've been pushing myself too much to try and get things done. I just really want to get this paint situation (and hopefully crown/base moulding) taken care of ASAP so that I can still have time to relax and have fun before nursing school starts up again in two weeks. :( I don't know if that is going to happen, but I'll be giving it my darndest effort.

I went shopping for dining room chandeliers today. Now that we have nice paint on the walls, it is starting to make other things in the house look a little shabby. LOL I found a few that were worth considering, but nothing that jumped out at me. I'd like to find one with an oil-rubbed bronze finish and fabric shades, but so far all the ones that I like have had glass shades. So the search will continue...

What a lovely ceremony!

2007-09-05T13:11:00.000-07:00

From start to finish, the wedding ceremony and little reception afterwards was amazing! My eldest DS put so much time and effort into fixing up her home for the event - it was elegant, beautifully appointed, and overflowing with candlelight. My mother also did a lot with helping to prepare the location for the wedding. It was more perfect than I could have imagined. The location of the ceremony was also wonderful, right next to the creek on the property. The sound of the rushing creek was a lovely background to the officiants words as she married them.

After the reception everyone went to a fun Afgahni/Pakistani restaurant in Gilman Village. It was the perfect location to celebrate, and a fun time was had by all. I'd never eaten this kind of food before, and found out that I really liked it. DS and her new DH seemed to enjoy the food and the company, and looked very much in love and happy. Today they are off on their mini honeymoon in the SanJuans. I'm very happy for them and so pleased that everything turned out so perfect on their special day!

Wow, what a weekend.

2007-09-04T14:47:00.000-07:00

Lets just say that my first blog about painting gave me a small taste of the weekend that I had to come. LOL I pretty much worked 12 hours a day and stayed up until around 3-4 am working on the house. After the first two days of painting I learned A LOT about the ins and outs of painting and by the third day I had an efficient routine and a great groove going on. Two very important lessons I learned:

1. Buy a hand-held paint can for cutting-in/trim work.
2. If you are painting for an extended period of time over several days, wear shoes!

I found out about #2 because I didn't want to ruin any of my shoes by getting paint drips on them. So I went barefoot. By the end of day 1 my feet were aching. The night of day 2 my feet were aching really really bad - they throbbed. The morning of day 3 I got out of bed and couldn't take more than a few steps without my calves cramping so bad that I couldn't walk. I thought that maybe my calves were in bad shape due to the arches of my feet not being supported. So I put on shoes and socks, and presto! My feet and calves instantly felt 95% better.

DH got home from Georgia around 1 am. I was incredibly happy to see him. I'd really missed him while he was gone. He is always so sweet and thoughtful, while he was in GA he went shopping. While he was out he took the time to pick out some things for me. He did a great job and got me some really cute things including a Ralph Lauren Polo zip hoodie that I will get a lot of use out of. :) I am so blessed to have such a loving husband. Of course the dogs went crazy when he walked in, overjoyed that they had him back. I think they'd started to worry that he wouldn't be coming home. They had just given up their diligent duty of looking out the window awaiting his return.

A LOT has happened over the weekend, including my DS and her DBF telling us that they had recently become engaged (they wanted to tell us in person, not over the phone) and that they wanted to get married while they were over here. So the family sprang into action to plan her small family wedding. My eldest DS lives in Issaquah, with the back of her home bordering on protected forest lands. My DS wanted to be married next to the creek on her property. So we are having the wedding there tonight (I hope it doesn't rain!!!). Yesterday DS and I went shopping for her wedding dress and jewelry and found the perfect outfit for her. She looks stunning in it! Her DBF was going to wear a suit, but DS looks so fancy and amazing (we're talking red carpet glamour here) that she decided that he should get a tux. So after getting her dress we went and got her DBF fitted for a tux. The wedding should be very intimate and special, I can't wait for everyone to see how lovely she looks in her dress, such a beautiful bride! Everyone in my family has put a lot of time and effort into this event, so it will really be a great evening. Afterward we plan on going out to eat to celebrate (I'm not sure where we're going).

Oh, before I leave, I almost forgot. BCC called to let me know that my AA degree posted today. So I am officially a college graduate (even if it is only an AA degree, I'm happy I have something to show after all this time.) My transcript states that I graduated with "highest honors." Not bad. :)

So that's about it. I'm off to get ready for the evening. I have to meet DS in an hour to do her makeup. I hope she likes her hair, she just had it done at Gene Juarez. I can't wait to see how it turned out!

I think I am the worlds slowest painter.

2007-08-31T03:27:00.001-07:00

I must be the slowest painter EVER! LOL I officially started to prep the living room and the hallway around 11:00 a.m. this morning. Granted, I was taking my sweet time and trying to figure out how I wanted to approach the whole paint situation. At one point I started to feel overwhelmed by the imensity of the project and had almost talked myself out of painting at all, but then I found a great site online that gives step-by-step instructions on how to prep and paint. Since this is really my first time painting (the only other time I've painted on a large-scale was when DH and I painted our ceilings following the removal of the popcorn from our ceiling) the step-by-step instructions helped guide me through the things I needed to do and I felt much better about the whole thing.

But now here I am, 3:30 a.m. and FINALLY done with Step#1 (of painting). RFLOL You don't believe it you say? Well, unfortunately it's true. I worked my butt off too, once I started with washing the walls, I was working at full speed the entire time. Here is what I have done today:
1. Removed curtain rod, washed curtains and sheers.
2. Removed outlet covers and forced air heat vents.
3. Thoroughly washed walls.
4. Spackled walls.
5. Sanded all the little spackle spots I insisted on making (to try and make my walls look perfect - didn't happen.) LOL
6. Wiped all the walls down with a damp cloth to remove dust from sanding.
7. Taped off moulding and ceiling.
8. Went to Home Depot (it is now 9:00 p.m.) and bought paint stuff - my first break (other than lunch) that I had today.
9. Got home at 10:00 p.m. and started priming both the accent wall (fireplace) and all of the other walls.
10. Finished priming at 3:30 a.m. :(

I really felt like I should put primer over all of the walls because my house was built in 1960 and in all honesty that was probably the last time that these walls have had primer put on them. LOL I just wanted to give my paint a great start and help it to last longer. With the accent wall I actually had to put primer down though, because the paint I chose is so dark. So I ended up putting tinted primer in that area.

I feel completely wiped out right now, but up until around 2ish I was feeling great. I'd been rocking out to country songs all day, and I felt great to be doing something somewhat creative. And I'm really excited for the new look that the paint will give our little home.

It was really fun to do this completely on my own, working on my own timeframe and choosing to do whatever I wanted. I felt very carefree and happy strangely enough. That shows you how little I allow myself to explore my creative side. I should start drawing again.

Anyways, I had planned on being completely finished with the rooms tonight with the plan of moving on to the kitchen tomorrow. But obviously that is most likely not going to happen. I'm thinking (hoping) that the kitchen area goes more quickly because it is a much smaller space, but I haven't even started the prep work in that area. That's why I made myself bust out the primer tonight, I want those walls ready for paint when I wake up. :) If all goes well, I'll be able to at least start on some of the prep work in the kitchen tomorrow.

I didn't work out today, but believe me - I got an awesome workout with all of my painting.
Buenos Noches.

Lesson learned (again.)

2007-08-29T20:12:00.000-07:00

Here is a lesson that was reinforced to me today: if a customer service agent tells you that they aren't able to help you, ask to speak with their supervisor! No matter how often this happens, it never fails to surprise me that my situation is usually remedied by said supervisor/manager. This happened to me today when I was waiting for my paint fan deck from Behr to arrive via FedEx today. I used online tracking to track my package this afternoon at 1:40 pm. The tracking said that my package had been delivered at 1:35 pm and left on the doorstep. Curious that I hadn't heard the FedEx man, I opened my front door and looked around. Nothing. Hmmm.

I called FedEx customer service to let them know that the tracking system said that my package was delivered, but I hadn't received it. They looked into the situation, and it turns out that at some point the communication between Behr and FedEx broke down, and one digit of the avenue was left off of my shipping address. FedEx put the blame on Behr. Apparently the FedEx man had supposedly delivered it to a house (left it on a doorstep) with my same address on a different numbered avenue. The agent told me that there was nothing that they could do, and that without Behr calling them directly (to tell them where to send my package), they wouldn't pick up the mislabeled and misdelivered package. Hmmmm. At this point I am starting to get very irritated.

I called Behr and the customer service agent there verified that they had my correct address, and put the blame on FedEx. She said she would email the person that handles this type of situation, and that I would get a call back later on. When questioned as to the timeliness of the call, she had no idea. Her best guess was within the next few days. The problem with that was that I had planned on making my final paint choices with the aid of the paint fan deck and then planned to start painting the next day. I requested the direct phone number of this person, but when I called it I got voicemail. I left a message, but at that point I was fed up. I thought "I'll just google the address and go pick it up from the house myself!" However, when I googled the address I learned to my dismay that the address on the shipping label did not exist! How can a FedEx man deliver a package, let alone 'leave it on a doorstep' when the address did not exist!!! Grrrrrrrrrr.

I called FedEx back again, this time not willing to take any crap. I had to go through the whole spiel again with the new agent. She repeated the mantra of agent #1, there was nothing that she could do. I asked to speak with her supervisor. The supervisor actually sounded dismayed that the FedEx delivery man delivered my package to a nonexistant address, and was intelligent enough to realize that if I could verify the tracking # of the package, the name of the sender, and the address it was shipped to (minus one digit of course) that the package DID indeed belong to me and that something should be done to remedy the situation. She immediately called the manager of the shipping facility, who in turn got a hold of the driver, who in turn retrieved my package and delivered it personally into my hands (all within one half hour!) So next time someone tries to blow you off, telling you there is nothing that they can do, ASK TO SPEAK TO THEIR SUPERVISOR! :)

OK. Now that my rant is over I can talk about other things. LOL My DS and her DBF arrived safe and sound from England today. DS has been living for the past 8 months or so with her DBF in the United Kingdom. I picked them up from the airport this afternoon. It was great to see her looking so happy and healthy, and it is always nice to see her DBF as well. After picking them up we ran a few errands and then I deposited them at my mothers place. They've technically been up for over 24 hours - they are quite exhausted, poor dears. I hope they get good rest tonight.

My ab exercises were abililicious (as usual) today. LOL It's amazing how much stronger my core muscles are getting in such a short period of time. I am really loving the strength and support that my back is now giving to my poor little bulging disc. Maybe someday I'll be like one of my favorite sayings from a Brad Paisley song "I got a set of six pack abs that would blow your mind." LOL Probably not though, but a girl can hope. :) Speaking of which, I think I'll attach the music video to this song so that everyone can enjoy it. It's called "Online" and is on Brad's newest CD 5th Gear. FYI, DH and I were at the actual concert that portions of the video were shot. It was an amazing night, and so much fun to watch Brad, Taylor Swift, Kellie Pickler, and Jason Alexander during the filming process.

Time for a haircut!

2007-08-28T19:16:00.001-07:00

I went to an allergy specialist in July and found out that I am allergic to dogs! One of the things that the allergist suggested to lessen my allergic response was to bathe the dogs once a week. With all three of the dogs having long hair, I knew that I would need to shave them down completely and from that point on keep them in what is referred to as a "puppy cut" (short hair on the legs and skirt, about 2-3" long).

I finally got around to shaving Oliver a few weeks ago, and today it was Charlie's turn! Poor boy really got a hack job. :( I didn't really put finishing touches on him because it took a long time, and he is still fairly new to the whole grooming thing (we've had him since December.) So he still has stray hairs around his face and legs that should have been shaved or trimmed in a much more attractive way. Oh well. I can fix the rest in the next few days.

The swiss ball exercises worked much better today on my new ball. I'm finally feeling like I am getting the hang of it! Next week I'll probably move up from the beginner/intro phase into the second phase of the workout routine (if I can handle it). The sticky yoga mat was definitely a good buy, it also made a huge difference with the workout.

DH is looking forward to his Georgia trip on Thursday. He's doing some packing tonight and making sure that he will have everything that he needs. He should have a lot of fun, he's going with his dad and three brothers (one of the brothers actually lives in GA, he is getting his PhD in accounting at the University of Georgia.) They have a packed itinerary that includes seeing a U of Geogria vs. Oaklahoma State game. From what I understand, the southerners really get into their football...LOL I'm sure it will be a fun and interesting experience. It's peach season in Georgia right now, so I think the guys plan on tasting some down home southern peach cobbler when they're down there. LOL

Costco trip!

2007-08-27T20:36:00.000-07:00

Today DH and I went on a Costco run. I've recently become addicted to having rasberries in my cereal, so we had no choice but to go to Costco and buy two flats of them - their price is unbeatable, $10.99 for a flat of 8 cartons. I'll be so sad when it isn't rasberry season anymore. The simple addition of rasberries [to my regular breakfast of cereal with bananas] fills me with a childish glee and I savor every bite. Yummo-yummo! :) We also bought a carton of strawberries and a small flat of peaches. I can't wait to taste the peaches when they ripen - delish!

President Bush came to Bellevue today, the arrival of his motorcade made for an interesting drive on my way to pick up DH from work. Someone did a LOT of meticulous planning to figure out the road closures without impacting local traffic too bad. By the time I had driven a block, they had opened one road and closed another (the one I was heading toward) LOL. Luckily the wait was less than 5 minutes before they opened it back up again. I was pretty impressed with the efficiency with which everything was handled.

I performed my last abdominal exercises on my GoFit exercise ball today - THANK HEAVEN! The ball was way to big for my height, and much to squishy. I bought a more appropriate exercise ball this afternoon, so I am all set for my exercises tomorrow. While I was at it, I also purchased a yoga 'sticky' mat. My hardwood floors are too slippery to exercise on (even with bare feet). I was sliding all over the place, so to try and eliminate the problem I had temporarily fashioned my own 'sticky mat' out of rug liner. LOL You know, that sticky mat that you put under a rug so it doesn't move? I think the yoga mat will work much better, and I won't have to move it around as I switch sides doing my swiss ball exercise DVD.

I am LOVING my swiss ball exercises by the way! This is only my second week of doing them, but I have already felt a huge difference in my back, it feels stronger and doesn't ache all the time (the norm since I reinjured it in January.) The beginner exercises that I am doing have awakened abdominal muscles that I didn't even know existed - to give you an example, last week it hurt to sneeze!

Dinner with the in-laws

2007-08-26T21:22:00.000-07:00

Tonight dear husband and I went over to my in-laws for dinner. It was nice to see them, it has been a long time since we did anything with them, probably at least a month! DMIL is always a gracious hostess and makes us feel at home. My Brother and sister in-law stopped by with my (soon-to-be) 3 year old niece Taylor (Her B-Day is September 1st.) We had a birthday present that we wanted to give her before DH leaves for Georgia on Thursday. It was a disney princess pink dress-up ball gown. She loved it! She was soo cute twirling around in it, I'm so glad that we got it for her!

Softball anyone?

2007-08-25T21:45:00.000-07:00

DH had his City of Bellevue employee softball tournament today. We arrived at 10 am and didn't leave until 8 pm. There were 5 teams: Police, Fire, Utilities, IT Deptartment, and PCD.

There were some scrapes along the way - one member of the IT department broke his pinky finger, and on another team a guy busted his head on someone's knee during a slide and ended up getting eight external stitches and two internal. To top it off, one of the wives' sons took a tumble off of a picnic bench and she had to take him to the ER to make sure that he didn't break a finger as well (it turned out that he was fine). So let's just say that the city of Bellevue employee's did well keeping the local ER busy. LOL In the end, Fire stole the show and won the tournament.

I didn't even think to put on sunscreen (of course!) so my fair skinned face got pretty sunburned. I haven't seen my nose that red since I was a freshman in highschool! LOL Also, because I wore sunglasses a good part of the day I'm rockin' a racoon face! But it was a lot of fun to see him out there, and to chat with some of the other wives.

Its been a long time since I posted last!

2007-08-24T22:17:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since my last post! Well, the great news is that I got into the UW nursing program. All of my fears about having to take organic chemistry were unfounded. The class was much easier than I had expected it to be (it wasn't an easy class - don't get me wrong, but it wasn't impossible like I had assumed it would be) and I ended up getting an "A" in it.

I told BCC that I wouldn't be attending their nursing program, and I enrolled at UW for two summer school classes. One was a women's studies class (a social studies class to finish off my Associates degree) and the other class was a nursing assessment class. Summer quarter went by really quickly, and I did really well in both classes. I have about a month off from school now, fall quarter doesn't start until the end of September.

More great news - DH changed jobs in May and is now working for the City of Bellevue IT department. His commute is great, it only takes 15 minutes by bus or 10 minutes by car. I've been picking him up a lot after work too, so he definitely has it a lot easier than he used to! (He used to have to ride the bus for an hour each way when he worked in Seattle.) The new title came with a pay raise at the right time too, so I've only had to work the minimum shifts for my position at work (2-3 shifts per month). I can actually enjoy my summer now before school starts!

In addition to his job change, DH has also been accepted into the University of Washington's Technology Management MBA program. I am so proud of him! He has really worked hard to get to this point. He is already looking forward to the program ending though (it starts in January). RFLOL Typical. :P The program is located in Kirkland, so his commute will still be easy-breezy. The nice thing is that they provide catered dinners before class starts (they meet one day a week and every other Saturday.) So he won't have to worry about packing enough food for both lunch AND dinner on those nights. We'll be going to the MBA orientation up at the Semiahmoo resort soon http://www.semiahmoo.com/hotel.asp. Bad news is that the orientation takes place the weekend before finals, but I am going to take my stuff up with me and study in the hotel room.