Out with the old

In with the new...2009! Not to sound generic but yet another year has gone by. Where does the time go? I truly find that the older I get the faster that time is going by. 2008 treated us very well, having it's ups and downs of course. We're extremely fortunate to be able to do all the things that we want to do in life. We get to travel, have wonderful family, wonderful friends, a great home, great jobs, go new places, see new things, and are truly happy. That's all that I wish for 2009 (and one more thing) is to continue that happiness.

Tonight we'll be ringing in the new year with good music, great friends, drinks, and amazing food :) Life is good! I'll be starting the new year with a lovely big New Year's breakfast we'll be making, followed by a memorial service for my co-worker who passed on Christmas Eve. Instead of being sad about the loss of a co-worker I'm going to be positive and know she is truly no longer suffering. Let's start this year off right!

Happy New Year everyone!! I hope the year truly brings you all of your wishes :)

Holiday rewind

We had a great Christmas. It looks like we've had a present explosion upstairs, and we're very grateful. Usually on Christmas we run all over Maryland, but this year we actually cut out 4 hours of driving time and were able to stay local all day!! Woo Hoo!! Santa was very good to both Scott and I (and even the dogs).

I've also had off way more than usual too, which has been lovely. With nursing, it's kind of rare to get the schedule off that I just had. So from Christmas Eve through today has been such a nice holiday break. Back to work tomorrow though, blah. Oh well I can't complain really, because I'm off Tuesday (request) and we have no cases scheduled for New Year's Eve or New Year's Day! And then back to work on Friday. Scott has off until January 5th, I'm Jealous! We've been doing lots of fun things during our break too...Scott downloaded on our Wii the classic Mario Brothers games and we've been going to town playing the old school games! It's been a blast!! We've also hung out with friends, went to our favorite bar, hung out with family, shopped, ate like it's going out of style, and just enjoying hanging out. I love the holidays and am sad that they are soon coming close to an end. Oh well, I'm hoping for a snowey winter so that will get me back into the spirit of things.

On that note our annual summer party we've decided the theme will be "Christmas in July" fun fun!! Happy Holidays!!

In Memory

Unfortunately on this Christmas Eve I received a phone call while out to lunch with Scott that my dear co-worker Alice passed away. We went and saw her yesterday in the hospital and my heart told me it was near. I'm deeply saddened today that she lost her battle with lung cancer after fighting since August. My thoughts are with her family during this time, and it being the holidays I think makes it even worse. We'll miss you Alice :(

Ahhh

This is a sigh of relief. We are definitely off work tomorrow (Christmas Eve) which is so great! It wasn't official yet because we had to wait to see if any patients and or cases would be posted. But no, so HOORAY!!!!! Dad and I finished his shopping last night and had a really nice dinner like we do every year this time. I finished Scott officiallylast night too, as I had to buy him one last thing :) I even finished wrapping last night too! Although I have to say I am usually done all this by now, but that's ok it's done right?!

Tonight Scott and I finally had the chance to go out and get coffees and check out the Christmas lights. It was so nice, and we even took the dogs with us to make it a full family affair ;) I'm so excited to be off work tomorrow! I can't remember the last time I had off on Christmas Eve! I'm extremely grateful it's fallen this way for us, and that so many of our doctors have taken vacations this week, which means we get the time off too. Woo Hoo!

Tomorrow includes, coffee, wrapping up any loose ends or anything I may have forgotten about, a Christmas Eve lunch (Scott and I used to do annually when I wasn't a nurse) so that's cool, party @ my cousin's at night, and finish helping Scott remodel the bathroom.

For the next 5 days off (wow I can't believe I have 5 days off!!) I plan on doing some shopping, relaxing, making some new recipes, baking, doing nothing at my lovely leisure, and enjoying this lovely holiday season. Scott has off until January 5th...lucky! :) The one thing I do need to do is make my Christmas home made peanut butter cups that I make every year. Again for some reason time has slipped away from me for the first time this year ever and I didn't get them done. Oh well, I'll have them ready on Monday so at least I still fall into the holiday time frame :)

Paybacks!

Bwah ha ha...nothing put me in the Christmas spirit like getting my brother-in-law back at pranks he has pulled on me for 10 years. Let me explain, in Scott's family the siblings and in-laws all draw names of a "secret santa", and everyone buys for the kids. It works out really well, and ends up being a lot of fun, since we literally can never figure out who has us until that day. So every year for the past 3 years I have drawn my brother-in-law Henry. Now...Henry has tourmented me, bullied me (in a good way), made fun of me, ragged on me (you get the picture) for TEN YEARS at EVERY SINGLE family function, or chance that he gets. And me being me, joke back with him, but he always seems to one up me! So back to the part where I drawn his name every year pretty much. In past years Scott's family always tells me If I draw Henry I should really do something to get him back. And let's face it, I never do. The holidays come flying up on me, I get busy, and lack my creativity for a good prank (unlike him). UNTIL THIS YEAR!!!

Scott helped me figure out just what we were going to do and we came up with this. We wrapped 5 boxes inside of boxes with the last one being absolutely huge. Outside of each box was a piece of paper explaining why Henry deserved to be tortured at the family Christmas party. Mind you, he has done infinite things to me, so I picked the top 5. The final box which contained his presents was wrapped in an entire roll of duct tape, and I secretly asked all the men in Scott's family if I could borrow their pocket knives "For a quick minute" just so Henry would have none to use. That's right, I was on my game big time! Below are some pictures of how it all turned out, HILARIOUS if I say so myself :)

The boxes talk about pranks such as...Turning off our hot water and trying to blind me, Laughing at me for falling in a giant mud puddle skiing, numerous camping mis-haps, saran wrapping my toilet etc....

Paybacks are hell ;) Merry Christmas!!!!

He took the joke well, so here's my victory picture!

Saran wrapping my toilet box

The nothing but duct tape box, reminding him of why he had this coming!

The skiing and hot water mishaps box

Little Henry trying to help his father with duct tape

The shock of what he was in for!!!!

Holiday stress and craziness

I'm exhausted. I've been in charge and working pretty much 10 hour days everyday. I've had something to do every night after work and on the weekends for a couple of weeks strait now. This time of year is my absolute favorite, and the busy stuff is really a good thing, but It's just wearing me out a little bit. I'd love to just come home and relax after a long day. It's all good stress really, I'm just beat.

Last night was our work Holiday party, I would say Christmas but I work for a primarily Jewish practice ;) It was really nice as it is every year, and we got a holiday bonus too :) Always nice and always appreciated. I'm extremely grateful for my job and I absolutely love the doctors I work for as well as my co-workers. It's weird I'm actually kind of sad that our holiday party is over. My group of co-workers and I do stuff all the time, but as a huge group including the doctors, is only about twice a year. I really look forward to our holiday party and it's already gone :( Dumb to be sad I know but it's just how I feel.

Tonight is shopping with dad, tomorrow is Sabatino's in Baltimore for our small work Christmas party, Friday out w/ Scott to do some nice holiday traditional stuff that we do :), Saturday is our family Christmas party with Scott's family all day, and Sunday.....Nothing! (I hope) but coffee, wrapping, and relaxing! :)

I know I'm sounding like a complainer, but I'm not really...again it's just that lovely holiday craziness which I do love, and will actually miss when it's over. Weird huh? I feel like a hypocrite. I'm just tired

Busy Busy

The weekend has already come and gone. We had a very busy weekend too! Friday night went out with some family to go look at Christmas lights like we do every year. It's a tradition I look forward to greatly. We start off by getting coffees, then hit our favorite neighborhoods all around and check out the lights while listening to Christmas music.

Saturday was equally busy. We had a 1st birthday day party for a family member, then a holiday party at night. Both were fun and it was nice to hang out with the family and do the holiday thing. Today we went over the Thompson's for brunch, and it was great!!! We laughed, ate, and drank mimosas. Does it get any better?? LOL

My only gripe is that the Ravens lost :( Oh well.

This week is equally, if not more busy than last week! Monday, Christmas shopping with Scott, Tuesday work party in Pikesville, Wednesday shopping with Dad, Thursday another work party, Friday....well hopefully I'm still sane by then! Happy Holidays!!

Insanity

This week has been absolutely crazy as in busy! Absolute non stop running from Monday through today. The running continues now through Sunday. I'm so happy and grateful for all the parties, get togethers, Christmas shopping, and fun that is happening right now, but I think my body hates me for exhausting it so badly.

Check

Yes it's official, I am done my HUGE photo scanning project! Wow, I'm so happy to have been able to complete such a major task in my grandfathers memory. I am honored that he asked me to do this, and I am honored to have it finished as I had wanted.

Now it's time for me to reflect on the project and the many things I saw, learned, and enjoyed from watching my Pop's life from a child until shortly before his passing. Pop I know you're happy too! Here's to you and a fabulously completed project just in time for Christmas!

Productivity

We've had a great 4 day weekend together. Shopping on Thursday, painting and "midnight madness" on Friday, painted all day again Saturday, best friend hung out too, and today am finishing all my painting, laundry, and working around the house. It's been so so great having a 4 day week. We've even watched 2 Christmas movies over this mini break, "Christmas vacation" and "Home Alone." It's been awesome. Today we went to Home Depot to get some paint (go figure ;) and pick out the stuff that we want to remodel the upstairs bathroom. Nice! We'll probably do the bathroom in January, and then the BIG project of redoing the entire kitchen after that, probably around March! WOO HOO!

Tomorrow's back to work for a whole 5 day week. Man...what's that about! ;) LOL

Leisure

Scott and I took off work yesterday and today (in addition to the weekend we already have off). It's been just wonderful so far! Yesterday we ran a million and one errands and just had fun with eachother all day. Yesterday we went to:
Starbucks-latte's
Michaels-picture frames w/ ribbon which i've been looking for FOREVER!
Verizon-got the new blackberry woo hoo!
Lunch @ 5 guys-nothing like an awesome cheeseburger!
Best Buy-just browsing
Toys R Us- just browsing
Claires-got some sale jewelry
Hallmark
Target-finally got the toaster we've needed for a year, and a new coffee grinder since we killed ours last weekend accidentally by grinding whole cloves in it. oops.
Payless-got a pair of boots for Christmas, and Scott got some dress shoes
Cigar shop- got Scott a cigar cutter for Christmas.

Last night we watched "Christmas Vacation" it was awesome. I haven't seen it in years, and it was on sale at Target..bonus! I made a huge bowl of queso and chips. Yum. It was definitely a great day.

Today I've been figuring out the new blackberry, and we've been painting our last wall in the upstairs. Looks great too, I'm so excited! Wow I never realized how I NEVER take off work, unless I'm sick or something. It's absolutely awesome to take off just because!

And.......it's not even the weekend yet!! Woo hoo!! Tonight we're off to old Ellicott City for midnight madness, can't wait!

Friday Fill Ins

1. Snow rules and I hope we FINALLY get some this winter!!

2. I'm looking forward to Christmas!!

3.Scott is the best husband ever!

4. One of my favorite old tv shows is FRIENDS!

5. I'm done with Christmas shopping except for a couple small things.

6. The most enjoyable thing around the holidays is shop, listen to Christmas music, look @ lights, bake cookies, be around friends and family.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to Ellicott City's midnight madness, tomorrow my plans include finishing painting and Sunday, I want to relax and do whatever I feel like doing.

Thursday 13

Thirteen Things about My 4 days off.Scott and I took today and tomorrow off together just because we never take off work :) So here's some things I'd like to do during our 4 day weekend. 1. Get Starbucks...Pumpkin spice latte yummy :)2. Go to the verizon store and check out the blackberry since i'm due for an upgrade3. Wonder around the mall just because I'm not at work woo hoo! (Although I really do love my job it's nice to take off just because which I never do)4. Go Christmas shopping, and have Scott show me stuff he wants for Christmas5. Go to Ellicott City's midnight madness tomorrow night and walk Main St. and enjoy it's Christmas decorations and old time feeling.6. Stay up late because I don't have to get up @ 04307. Tape the wall upstairs and finish painting it8. Go to Home Depot and pick out our stuff to finish the upstairs bathroom9. Happy hour with friends tomorrow night10. RELAX and perhaps do nothing :)11. Finish my scanning/photo project, since my deadline is Christmas Day!12. Bake some more cookies and listen to Christmas music all day long 13. Work on my recipe book that I keep, i need to add a ton of recipes that i've recently made.

Ouch

So my hip and leg have been hurting on and off for a bit now. It's gone from just pain, to burning, to numbness and tingling. Oh joy. Maybe it's from being on my feet ALL the time, being on my feet so much from Thanksgiving, Cookie Day etc. Who knows but it's a pain (literally) and i'm losing my patience. So I went to the chiropractor today, looks like a pinched nerve. :( Awesome. I have to go back to the Chiro tomorrow too...we'll see, this hurts and is not fun, especially being a nurse who's on my feet all day long.....

Cookie Day

We had our 3rd annual cookie day exchange today and it went very well, I'm just so tired! Scott's family came over here around 1130 ish and we baked cookies until about 15 minutes ago. We have so many awesome varieties of cookies too! I got up this morning and made our 3 batches from scratch....Sugar cookies, Peanut butter, and Ginger snaps. We also had white chocolate macadamia nut, chocolate chip, M & M cookies, peanut butter kiss cookies, and i'm probably forgetting some :)They went over very well and turned out amazing! All in all it went very well, now it's time to unwind, eat the mound of cookies we have, and call it a night.

Back to work tomorrow...man this 4 day holiday weekend went by too quickly!

Christmas decorating

Yes it's that time of year again! Time to decorate for Christmas :) And today we did just that. We cleaned, got all the Christmas stuff out of the attic, put up the tree, and decorated the inside of the house for the holiday season! It looks beautiful and smells so festive too, thanks to my yankee candles "Christmas Cookie" and "Balsam and Cedar!" Yum! Time to call it a night though.

Tomorrow we are hosting our 3rd annual "Cookie Day" with Scott's family. The whole family comes over and we do a huge cookie exchange. This year I think Scott and I might do Gingersnaps, Sugar cookies, and Peanut butter cookies from scratch. Mostly everyone else buys a big tup of batter and does it that way. Nothing wrong with that, but I love making my own batter and giving it that home made touch!

Black Friday

Black Friday was a blast because I got to spend it with Bee :) We had so much fun together. We met up @ 0530 got Starbucks to wake us up and were off for the next 12 hours! It was a blast! We hit the usual places, plus some different stuff like, Target (3 different ones), Kohls (2 different ones), Forever 21, Body Central, Rainbow, Auntie Anne's pretzels, Chipotle, Home Goods, Marshalls, Dicks Sporting Goods, Best Buy....Our shop-a-holic journey took us from Pasadena, to Baltimore, to GB, Ellicott City.

After 12 hours we called it a day, but not before I went to Starbucks again to re-fuel ;) We got a ton done, laughed and had a great time! I absolutely love black friday and can't wait for next year!

In the mean time, I ordered our photo Christmas cards last night thanks to Snapfish! And today it's all about Decorating for Christmas, and enjoying a nice dinner with the family :)

HOORAY THE HOLIDAYS ARE HERE!!!!!!!!!!

Thanksgiving

It's that time of year again already...The Holidays!!! :) We went to mom and dad's last night for Thanksgiving. The food was amazing, my mom did a great job as always. Over all it was a nice time, however I could have done without some people in my family's negativity over everything! Some people will just never be happy I guess. Aside from that it was nice.

Today we are cooking Thanksgiving dinner here for us and 2 of our friends. The house smells like Thanksgiving, the food is coming together and I just love it! I'm extremely grateful for the wonderful people in our life, and everything we have.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

So little time

And so so much to do! I'm still working on my photo project with a fast approacing deadline for starters. Then tonight I have to make food for our Thanksgiving lunch-in tomorrow at work, yum :) I'm debating when I'm going to have time to make the food for my Mom's Thanksgiving which in on Wednesday though. The reason is, is that tomorrow I work late, and we're meeting up with visiting friends @ 5pm for dinner, which leaves little time for anything at all unfortunately. My thoughts are to make the pumpkin bread and my broccoli/cheese/rice casserole tonight for Wednesday, but is it too soon? Hmm....decisions decisions.

All I can say is, thanks goodness it's only a 3 day work week! ;)

Festivities begin

Yesterday was a lovely lazy Saturday, but it has completely flown by! The gist of my day was relaxing, cleaning, laundry, cooking, and going to the grocery store for Thanksgiving food. Wow was it crowded too. I got a turkey and all of our lovely necessities for our feast :) I made a chicken pot pie for dinner last night too. Scott was hesitant because he didn't really like them as a kid. But like always I said "well let me try" and in the words of Emeril "BAM!" It was awesome and we loved it! What a perfect meal for this time of year, and we left the table overly full :)

Today we're off to Scott's parents house for his families Thanksgiving. We always celebrate Thanksgiving with his family the Sunday beforehand. I truly can't believe that it's this time of year already but I'm loving it! I made a dessert this year and I think it's going to be awesome. I made a chocolate "Take 5" trifle....It's brownies, chocolate pudding, cool-whip, and Take 5 candy bars chopped, and topped with drizzled caramel..YUM!

We have one of our friends coming into town so we're meeting them for dinner in Ellicott City on Tuesday night at our favorite mexican restaurant. We celebrate Thanksgiving with my family on the Wednesday before, and will cook our own dinner on Thursday. I'm so happy this week is only a 3 day work week yay! And then it's time for Black Friday :)!!

And I'm absolutely loving how the stores are decorated for Christmas already! However I refuse to decorate for Christmas until after Thanksgiving. I find it unfair to rob Thanksgiving of it's holiday time :)

Mission Chicken Tortilla Soup

I had a plan in my head ALL DAY! I wanted to get out of work early, run my errands, and make a surprise dinner for Scott and have a "date night." It was a very close call...

I got out of work LATE of course, go figure. I had the recipe for the chicken tortilla printed @ my desk on my laptop, but do my dismay I get out to the truck to leave work and it's not with me, it's lost! Arg, so I have to go back into work, reprint the recipe etc, run to the grocery store, run to another store, come home and throw this dinner together as a surprise.

Luckily, Scott called me and said he had to go run an errand of his own after work. (Sigh-thank goodness)! He ended up getting stuck in traffic, blocked in a parking lot, it was a whole ordeal, and while he was stressed out, I was secretly happy for the extra time ;)

So...He got home, I was dressed up, the Chicken Tortilla soup was done and hands down was the BEST pot of soup I've ever made in my ENTIRE life!!! We absolutely loved it! So after a good dinner, and enjoying wine, it's time to relax and watch our TIVO'd Ghost Hunters YAY!

Mission: ACCOMPLISHED!

Tuesday Ten

10 Things You are Thankful for This Year

1. Always my husband, dogs, family, and amazing friends!
2. My job that I love and my coworkers
3. Our ability to travel, went to Vegas this year and loved it
4. My health despite having CF I'm very healthy
5. My sense of humor and love of laughter
6. Enjoying good wine around our fire-pit..nothing like a campfire anytime we want!
7. Wii fit :) Grateful to have it, and lucky to have found one
8. Our home and the projects we are able to do in it
9. The gatherings of friends and family, entertaining, and cooking
10. My iPOD which delivers amazing music to me on a regular basis

Fun fun

We had an awesome weekend! So much fun I'm sad it's over :( Friday as you can read previously I was all about relaxing and we did just that! Stayed in, watched one of our favorite shows Ghost Hunters and chilled out by the fireplace. It was P-E-R-F-E-C-T in every way.

Saturday morning we got up kind of early (well considering I fell asleep so early on Friday I'm not surprised). Anyway went to Starbucks got a pumpkin latte, Scott got a coffee and we headed over to Yankee Candle for a huge sale! We cleaned up and got 8 candles for the price of 4! Needless to say we were able to get some serious Christmas shopping done too. :) We headed over to Bass Pro Shop so Scott could pick up some stuff, meanwhile I felt totally lost in the store. It's so HUGE and I have no idea what the heck I'm looking at. We then headed so Scott could pick up some new shoes, I of course on the way saw a cute store with awesome dresses on sale. Again needless to say I cleaned up! Got 7 adorable dresses for winter and 2 for summer for $70! Good stuff! Next we headed to lunch in Ellicott City to LaPalapa one of our favorite places. Then we took a nice walk down Main St. in which it started to pour down rain, but we had fun. Plus we stopped and got coffees so that warmth helped :)

I had to get back home because I had a work party to go to. One of our Anesthesiologists just beat prostate cancer so he and his family were throwing a "Celebration of Life" party! IT WAS AWESOME! Hands down one of the best nights I've had in a very long time. I got to wear one of my new dresses which was nice too, and we danced ourselves silly for hours. My feet were definitely killing me yesterday and even still a little today, but it was totally worth it. It was myself and most of my co-workers and we just simply had a blast. I know I've said it a million times but I am so grateful to have co-workers that I'm so close with in work and out of work. Well here's the start of a new week....

Friday Fill Ins

#98
And...here we go!

1. Please feel free to "Ask, Believe, Receive."

2. When I eat hot steamed crabs I can't help sniffing them occasionally.

3. My favorite thing to cook is EVERYTHING!!! I love to cook! :)

4. Laughing is something I can't get enough of.

5. That's the thing I love most about my personality.

6. Rude ignorant people always makes me think to myself, what the heck?

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to relaxing and enjoying the rain, tomorrow my plans include coffee, shopping, Chipotle, and a work party, and Sunday, I want to relax and hopefully hang out with our friends.

Slacker

I've been a blog slacker...unintentionally of course, but I have. I feel like things have been so busy recently (but they are always I guess). Anyway no excuses, I've just been a blog-slacker. It's been a good week for the most part. Wednesday was tiring. Busy day at work, Scott had the guys over for cards, and I was working on my project which has a very fast approaching deadline.

This takes me into Thursday which I found myself the "blah-est" I've been a super long time. Working on this scanning project made me miss my Pop so so badly. I went into work and my co-worker asked me what was wrong and I simply burst into tears :( It was awful. So needless to say I took a break from the project last night. I was definitely able to get my mind off of things by hanging out with my best friend last night. Beth and I met up and shopped for scrubs (both nurses), went to Starbucks, Homegoods, and then went to Don Pablos for some mexican happy hour food. It was simply perfect and exactly what I needed! It was so nice and It was a great way to get my mind off of a lot of things that are going through it right now.

Today was such a pleasant day at work. Most days are honestly but Friday's are so busy for us that I'm kind of used to the chaos and lateness. I was actually able to get out early, we had Panera bread bought for us, and had some of the best patients today. I really love when our patients have a great sense of humor, it just makes the day so great!

After work today since I got out so early I headed to the mall to look for a dress for a party tomorrow night. And I hit the jackpot woo hoo!!! Found something that I loved that I don't think normally I would wear and it was a great price, so good that I treated myself to 2 dresses :)

Tonight Scott and I were going to go out and run errands, eat, and go shopping together however we've changed the plans. It's so rainy and dreary out (which I don't mind) that we're going to "veg out" tonight and go out together tomorrow. Here's to a lazy rainy night and the end of a long week.

Inlaws dinner

Tonight we had Scott's parents over for dinner. It was a really nice evening and everything turned out so nice. I was definitely not having a good day at work and ended up having to work late so I was a little worried about times. They came over at 6, so when I got home I was in "race mode" cleaned up, cooked a 3 course meal w/ appetizer and dessert, and had about 5 minutes to sit down. I didn't even have time to change out of my scrubs...oh well. We had a nice cheese tray with different mustards and cheeses, wines, lasagna rolls, garlic knots, salad, and cherry crumble (ah-hem all from scratch I proudly add). Yummy! We are full and happy. A nice night of laughing, talking, and eating with great family. We're very fortunate. Weird thing of the night though...our Christmas lists are due!!! Wow it doesn't even feel like it's that time of year already, but it is!

Sunday

We had a really nice weekend. Friday night went to Fogo de Chao and it was amsolutely amazing! There are no other words to describe it, and little Italy's Vaccaro's for dessert. Hands down it was the best pumpkin spice chai latter EVER! Saturday we hung out and relaxed. I did some cleaning and re-organizing. At night we had our benefit to go to and it was an awesome turn out! I was so happy for them and we were so happy to be part of the supporting cause. Today has been pretty nice too. We got up early and worked outside on the yard for a few hours, leaves, putting Halloween decorations away, etc. The yard looks just lovely now, but kind of bare.

We also watched the Ravens beat the pants off of the Texans! WOO-HOO!!!!! It was awesome!! So after a nice pretty much relaxing yet productive weekend I'm finding myself already thinking about work tomorrow. Blah.

Lazy Saturday :)

Ahh every now and again I really love not having any plans. For the most part today is one of those days. Scott and I were supposed to sweep/clean the chimney out today, and he was going to work on the leaves too. However....we woke up to lovely rainy thunderstorms :) Hooray! (Not because of the delay in chores) but we really love lazy rainy weekends occasionally.

The only thing that we do have to do tonight is go to a benefit for friends parents of ours who were involved in a serious motorcycle accident this summer. All proceeds go to them with helping with medical expenses, and other bills. So I am very happy to be able to attend and support their cause tonight.

Other than that I'm hoping to spend the day cleaning, doing laundry, putting away Halloween decorations, and scanning the pictures for my project. My deadline is fastly approaching! Here's to lazy Saturday :)

Friday Fill ins

#97
And...here we go!

1. My blueprint for success includes what I've already accomplished, being a R.N., happily married, but I'd love to start a family now.

2. Skittles and a Butterfinger was the last candy I ate.

3. The best facial moisturizer I've ever used is nothing I can think of, I'm not a facial moisturizer person.

4. Relaxing with a glass of wine, enjoying a campfire, sitting by the beach, talking with those you care about, etc. can be good therapy.

5. I'd like to tell you about how I just ate the best dinner in Baltimore tonight at Fogo de Chao! YUM!

6. Laughter (well friendliness) is my strongest characteristic.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to Fogo de Chao and Little Italy (we already went tonight and it was awesome!) tomorrow my plans include a benefit for friends who were involved in a serious accident to raise money for them and Sunday, I want to relax and clean the house!

Posted by Janet at 8:34 PM 125 comments Links to this post

Surprisingly early

I'm so happy with myself for starting Christmas shopping so early this year! I actually started in September I believe, but I just keep on going and I love it :) I absolutely LOVE Christmas time, the shopping, craziness, Black Friday etc, however I love the feeling of accomplishment and early is even better! Tonight after work I ran up to Kohl's since there is a brand new one just blocks away from work (I'm loving it!). I ended catching a huge unadvertised sale and got some more Christmas gifts bought! I love when something is already on sale but when you get up to the register....SURPRISE it's on sale even more! WOO HOO! Let's just say I got some awesome jewelry for a steal! (WEll not literally of course) ;)

Here's to the holiday season just about among us!!

Election Day

After an busy and tiring day at work, I went to the polls and VOTED! Now is the waiting game to see who it will be...Hopefully everyone got out there today to exercise your right.

I thought ahead last night and made Beef Burgundy in the crockpot for dinner tonight. I'm in charge at work the next couple of days and we're very busy so it was so nice to come home to dinner already done! And the soup was AMAZING! We loved it and are ready to make it again. Now it's time to just relax. It's funny how it's pretty much already dark and it's just 530pm. Here's to an early night of nothing :)

Monday Peeves

RUDE PEOPLE: (Let me explain)



My boss is an extremely selfish person. She's "negative Nancy" hates that all the co-workers get along, she lies ALL the time, mean, snappy, and just not a nice person. She IS nice to me though, I guess since she knows that I'm her right hand, and lets face it, I pretty much run the place.

Still that's no excuse. She's just such a crappy person. I know that sounds mean, but it's the truth. If you call out, she usually gives you attitude and/or hangs up on you. God forbid you want a day off! She gets mad at you because she feels that she deserves time off more than we do. And whatever ailment you may have, like a cold, sinus infection, a bruised toe-nail, she will one-up your ailment everytime. She's always the victim and I can't stand it. I don't know how people go through life so damn negatively and pathetic. I just wish she'd retire and we all (including the doctors) would be so happy.

Oh and today she decides to drop the bomb on me of "oh by the way I'm having surgery tomorrow" What!!?? Come again!? The woman actually creates ailments and will get surgery. It's been this way for 5 years so why am I surprised? So apparently the new one is, suddenly over the past week she can't see and "needs" cataract surgery. What a crock. I can't stand people like this.

So there's my Monday Pet Peeve...my boss!

Busy Fun Weekend

This weekend was great, and very very busy. Halloween was so fun, we dressed up at work, and had a pot luck lunch. When I came home we handed out candy, had friends over got carry out, and had a campfire after the trick-or-treaters.

Saturday morning I was up bright and early for NYC!! My co-workers, and friend went and we had a blast! Did tons of shopping, got purses, jewelry, etc. Ate amazing food in the city too...Gyro's and went to and Irish bar at the end of our day to unwind, have some beers, and munch on appetizers. It was great!

Sunday has been great too. We had a football "Ravens" party today. And the RAVENS BEAT THE BROWNS WOO HOO!!! We had over close friends, and my cousins today. We had sooooo much food!! I'm pretty sure we'll be eating left overs all week. We had apples and caramel dip, buffalo chicken dip, pizza dip, chili cheese dip, artichoke dip, queso dip, pizzas, sweet and sour meatballs, brownies, veggies, and all the good chips and dips too! ( You know all the good football junk food) I can barely breathe I'm so full! There is something to be said about being surrounded by your family and friends and having a wonderful time. There is nothing like it. As I always say we are extremely fortunate to have such great people in our lives. Here's to the week....

Busy busy

I feel like I've been going non-stop lately. This week is flying by and we've been super busy, only to just get busier. I'm having to do a ton early on in the week, since we have such a busy weekend. Today I came home from work, took care of the dogs, went grocery shopping to 2 different stores, grabbed some carryout, back home, eat, and now am cleaning the house for the weekend. Tomorrow is equally crazy..work, CPR re-certification, over my cousins house for a quick visit, over Mom's to help her with some stuff, come home and make food for our work/Halloween party...ah I'm beat and it's only Wednesday :/ Friday, being Halloween we're having people over to and have a campfire after the trick-or-treaters. Saturday morning I have to be up at out of here by 0430 since I'm headed to New York for the day. And that brings me to Sunday...we're having a party! Yikes, where is my time going? I'm grateful though to have this kind of busy stress...it's good stress :)

Dreams

I find it so strange how sometimes a dream can sort of haunt you all day long. Weird? I know. I had one of those dreams last night that was so INCREDIBLY REAL I can't get it off my mind. Here's how it went:

I had 2 children, both boys and boy were they SO CUTE!! Dark hair, adorable faces, it was so awsome and so real! We were headed to Ocean City (to meet Scott) apparently he was already there for some reason or another. We were getting ready at my old next door neighbor's house where my parents still live now. One of my boys was a new born and we were giving him a bath before hitting the road. He also had hip dysplasia (weird). My other boy was about 3 or 4. We were headed out to the SUV to load up the boys, and I had thoughts that again were so real. My thoughts were how to make this trip the easiest for me and the boys and what it would entail. I carried the baby out in the carrier, easy enough he was a new born so he'd be sleeping a lot. I got the 3 year old ready with a back pack full of toys and things to keep him occupied. We are loading up and getting ready to go when my "older son" says to me "Mommy don't forget my Transformers Auto-bot flip flops!!" Ahh!!!!! These really are Scott's children!! LOL. (Of course I DID have the Transformer flip flops in the bag, and when I turned around to show him, you could see the joy and relief in his little face).

I swear this dream was so incredibly real that I woke up today thinking I had 2 boys and it's been in my head all day.

Sunday Funday

Today is one of those days that's just perfect. Our best friends were over today, we went and got sushi for lunch, and now we're hanging out watching football relaxing. It doesn't get any better than great food, wine, and great friends. We're very very fortunate!

Last night was perfect too. It was a very rainy relaxing day yesterday. I took some time to FINALLY clean out my closet and get all my winter stuff down. Huge weight off my chest. We went to Ellicott city for dinner at one of our favorite mexican restaurants, enjoyed great food and Coronas ;) Usually we walk up and down Main St. but it was raining so badly so we just headed home. On our Main St. walk we usually down to a coffee shop that we love, again the rain altered our plan. So on our way home we stopped by Starbucks and enjoyed some pumpkin spice lattes.

It's been a lovely fall so far....

Saturday 9

Saturday 9: The Best of What's Around

1. What's the best new website you've found?
Facebook-just decided to join and it's been much fun reconnecting with people from the past.

2. What's the best movie you've seen?
13 going on 30...Mark Ruffalo and the 80's yum!

3. What's the best quote you know?
"What's meant to be will always find it's way"
"Things happen for a reason"

4. What's the best book you've read?
The Secret...but all my cookbooks are the best too.

5. What's the best thing someone's done for you?
Scott is the best husband to me everyday :)

6. What's the best thing about your job?
I'm usually in charge and keep it fun and positive

7. What’s the best CD you own?
Don't know If I can just pick one, I'm a music-aholic! I love my entire iPOD....but maybe I'll say The Cure "Galore"

8. What’s the best new TV show you watch?
Grey's Anatomy

9. What’s the best car you’ve owned?
Love my Xterra

Thanks so much for joining us again at Saturday: 9. As always, feel free to come back, see who has participated and comment on their posts. In fact sometimes, if you want to read & comment on everyone's responses, you might want to check back again tomorrow. But it is not a rule. We haven’t any rules here. Join us on next Saturday for another version of Saturday: 9, "Just A Silly Meme on a Saturday!" Enjoy your weekend~!

Blast from the past

So I decided to join Facebook. I have a myspace account which I do check frequently, but something made me join facebook tonight. I don't know maybe it was the emails I was getting with "aren't you on facebook?" from friends and family. LOL

So yes I officially joined Facebook tonight. It's been pretty great, with in hours of joining I've managed to re-connect with at least 20 people from years ago which was awesome! It definitely happened for a reason.

Tuesday Visit

I went down to Easton to visit my grandmother today in the nursing home/rehabilitation center. She was in good spirits, but definitely ready to get out of there. I can't say I blame her, it's so pitiful there and it makes me sad :( Luckily she's only there to recover from her surgery and do physical therapy. I drove down after work for a few hours. Despite my being tired from a long day, and an hour drive each way it was a nice visit...just her and I. We always have fun with our girly chat and talk time. I sure hope she gets to go home soon. On the way home I stopped at Panera bread which was just built by her house and I found $10 in Panera gift cards in my wallet which I forgot about, yay! It was a nice, cool, drive home with good music and good food. Now It's time for bed...0445 comes so early!

Tribute

We had a nice weekend. Renaissance festival on Saturday followed by a campfire at our house in the evening. Good times, good friends (family), food, and wine :)

Sunday would have been my Pop's 75th birthday. Unfortunately he's not here to celebrate it with us :( We had a family get together in his honor. I know he would have been so thrilled for us to be together celebrating him. That was his one wish for us was to stay together. I miss him so much every single day and think of him all the time. I was chosen to toast him last night, and I did. It went a little something like this:

Eventhough you're no longer here with us Pop I know you are watching over all of us and are in heaven with some of our family members. You are thought of, missed, talked about, and loved every single day. Here's to you Pop and what would have been your 75th birthday. We miss you.

Monday Peeves

Here's my pet peeve for today, chipped off nail polish on my fingernails. I don't care if it's anyone elses, but man do I hate it if my nails are all chipped looking. Infact it was bugging me so much today at work, that at lunch I decided to go to the local drug store and buy nail polish remover and a lovely new polish. That's right I spent my lunch painting my nails. And from it I feel so much better. I know it's nuts ;)

I'm ok with it though.

Thursday 13

Thirteen Things about MY TO DO LIST!! 1. I really need to clean out my bedroom closet from the overflowing shoes and purses, to putting away the summer clothes and getting down the winter stuff. 2. I need to clean our hallway closet. How is it that everything ends up in there? I mean how many million bottles of lotion do I need? 3. I would love to finish painting our main wall in our upstairs. It's been on my list for a while and I need to finish it. 4. I need to work on framing all my pictures and actually put them on the walls. 5. Our attic could use some attention. As soon as you walk up everything seems to be piled right there and usually it's more organized. I hate clutter. 6. I need to go visit my grandmother as she rehabilitates from surgery. I try to go each week, it's an hour away. 7. I want to book a trip to Disney World for Scott. We haven't been in 10 years and I want to take him in January. 8. I'd like to look into booking and all inclusive resort vacation for next summer. 9. I'd like to to a cruise to New England next fall or winter. 10. I need to decorate for Halloween, although I did finally get pumpkins for out front. We're supposed to do that tonight. 11. I need to stop worrying about things that I have no control over and take my own advice that what's meant to be will find it's way. 12. The truck could use a good vacuuming and armour all. Not enough time in the day. 13. I need to go visit my friends new baby too. Wow I have A LOT to do!

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Girl time

Today was a nice day at work. No patients so we were able to wear our regular clothes in and work on our inventory project. We even started the day out with Starbucks, yum! We finished around noon and then some of the girls from work and me went shopping :) Good times as always and tons of laughing. Tonight I'm headed out to dinner with Julie for some more girly talk and drink time. And my neighbor just stopped by to invite me to a Southern Living party with the neighbor hood ladies. Good times :)

Great weekend

We had a great weekend. Saturday was very relaxed and I spent most of the day cooking and getting things accomplished around the house. Saturday night we hung out and made a campfire in our back yard at our fire pit and enjoyed great wine and conversation.

Sunday was one of the best days we've had in a long time. We went to Boordy, a local winery here in MD for their autumn-fest. We went with our good friends D and S. We packed a picnic basket with different cheeses, crackers, grapes, hummus, and home made pumpkin bread I made. It was AWESOME!! We bought different wines, enjoyed the Irish band, beautiful fall weather and good friends. We couldn't have asked for a better day.

And the best part was after the wine fest we all got to talking about vacations (we all went to Hawaii together in Nov. 2007) and decided it was time to plan the next adventure. So....we've decided to plan an all inclusive resort in the caribbean! Just need to do my research and choose an island now! WOO HOO :)

Triple Play

I really felt like cooking today. So I did just that. I made 3 new recipes tonight and they turned out amazing!! I made....

Chicken Picatta
Pumpkin bread
Stuffed cheese bread

Yeah we'll be stuffed for about a week after eating all that! YUM.

Saturday 9

Saturday 9: Return to Sender

1. When was the last time you wrote a letter to someone on paper and mailed it?
Hmm.. I sent postcards from Hawaii last November they were hand written and mailed.

2. Can you change the oil on a car?
Scott does that for me in our garage, about 2 months ago.

3. Name three things you have on you at all times.
My cell phone, a pen, my purse

4. What’s your life motto?
What's meant to be will always find a way.

5. What’s a word that you say a lot?
"Hi" I see several patients a day so I'm constantly greeting and introducing myself.

6. What were you doing at midnight last night?
Sleeping, we went out to happy hour with friends and hung out for a while, so I was exhausted at midnight.

7. When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was the first thing you thought?
Wanted to wash my face since I went to bed with makeup on still.

8. Who is your worst enemy?
Don't have any enemies that's no way to go through life.

9. What does your watch look like?
Silver and gold Indiglo

Friday Fill Ins

#93


1. One of the best concerts/plays/movies I ever saw that I really didn't think I'd like was The Original Star Wars. (I'm in the processing of watching w/ my husband after years of asking me too (no interest :( they aren't that bad at all and I'm not a sci-fi person.

2.Beer Bread with cheese is a recipe I recently made that was delicious!

3. It's time for an evening at DuClaw brewery with close friends and my cousins...TGIF!

4. A glass of Riesling is quite refreshing.

5. If I never hear the word "puss" again, it'll be too soon. (Eventhough I'm a nurse that word just grosses me out!)

6. To one side of the curving road were beautiful palm/coconut trees and on the other was a cliff and waterfall with a rainbow (In Hawaii last year).

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to DuClaw brewery, tomorrow my plans include decorating the house for fall and halloween and Sunday, I want to go to Boordy winery with friends!
Posted by Janet at 8:08 PM 100 comments Links to this post

Halloween dilemma

Dilemma:

I have no clue what to be for halloween this year. Usually I know right off the bat what I want to be. This year I've had a couple of ideas but nothing has really jumped out at me. Plus, whatever costume I get needs to be cool to wear to work too.

Mission for tomorrow after work: Party city on a costume hunt!

New Dog

My niece called last night (She's 5) the conversation went something like this:

(first off she was so excited and talking so fast we could barely understand her)
Jodi: Guess what Guess what!!?? We got a PUPPY!!!

Scott: Wow!!! Where did you get it?

Jodi: My mommy found her (actually she's from a breeder) so cute.

Scott: That's so cool!! What kind of dog is she??

Jodi: A white one! ;) (she's a labradoodle we found out)

Scott: What's her name?

Jodi: Rosebud! (i thought i was going to fall over laughing at their conversation it was adorable!)
He's a girl and she has a pink collar.

Scott: He's a girl!?? ;) Don't you mean she's a girl??

Jodi: Yeah her name is Rosebud silly!


Adorable! So needless to say we were asked when could we PPPLLLEEEAAASSSEEEE come visit the new puppy. That's where we'll be tonight :)

Hit the ground running

What can I say, typical Monday oh joy. I'm in charge at work this week and was off 2 days last week so I felt like I walked into chaos incorporated this morning. One of our doctors who i'll refrain from calling names, but it rhymes with class! Anyway he was his usual ray of sunshine jerk self today. Out of all the wonderful docs I work with he's the rotten egg of the group. And today he just pushed my bottons like no other. Then on top of that we had a patient fall, she ripped open her skin wounds, poor thing and bled all over me. :( So needless to say we got off to a rocky start.

Over all it ended up not being to bad. Once doctor jerk left I came home to change scrubs etc., stopped and got a yummy lunch on my way back to work, helped Bee with a huge nursing school assignment, and am putting together a happy hour on Friday. I'm just happy that what started out as a crap-tastic day has definitely gotten better. Here's to a nice evening with Scott watching one of our favorite shows Ghost Hunters and relaxing....FINALLY!

Exhaustion

Well the wedding we were in has come and gone. It was just wonderful. It being an Indian wedding was a very different experience, but I have to say it was one of the most beautiful weddings I've ever seen. We've had ceremonies to attend since Thursday. Today I had a colon cancer walk in Baltimore. It took everything I had to get up and be functional today. We've been so busy that I'm pretty sure I'm about to hit pure exhaustion. Well better rest up, tomorrow is Monday and it's back to the grind.

Wedding Bells

Well our friends wedding is finally here! After months of planning and details it's TOMORROW. We're so excited for them. Scott and I are both in the wedding which is fun, considering of all the weddings each of us has been in, we've never been in one together (besides our own). It's also a mixed culture wedding, American and Indian. Today is a busy day for us. I'm so happy to be off work for it too! Nothing like a 4 day weekend! Today is an Indian ceremony early afternoon, then tonight is the rehersal at a beautiful beach club and rehersal dinner at one of our favorite restaurants in Annapolis. Afterwards we're going back to have henna / mehndi done. Very cool and I'm very excited. Well off to a busy day...the wedding is tomorrow can't wait!!

Is it something I'm doing?

When I got off work today I was able to go out and run some of my errands. We have a Wal-Mart right by work, so I went there first. Mind you, I'm not a Wal-Mart fan simply because the ones around here just aren't the nicest, nor have the nicest of employees but you just can't beat the prices on food etc. so I sucked it up and went today. It wasn't bad at all, infact it was quite amusing. I'm not sure what it is about me but where ever we go people just seem to talk to me. Maybe I'm wearing a sign on my forehead or something? LOL. Anyway I came in contact with SEVERAL people today who just started talking to me. Of course me being a chatter box was happy to respond.

#1 The diabetic looking for wheat pasta and since I'm in scrubs I must be a nurse (right he was) and could give some good diabetic counseling, so I helped him.

#2 The guy who couldn't believe I was buying a vat of soy sauce. Hey it's a great deal, and I love soy sauce so much so why not? So we start talking about the different uses of soy sauce, and he proceeds to tell me all the different kinds of foods he likes (minus soy sauce which he hated) too cute.

#3 The guy looking for paper towels in the wrong isle, so I tell him where I think they are in the store (I'm not there enough to know for sure) He happily starts chatting with me too.

#4 Same guy as above runs into me later to thank me for him indeed finding the paper towels where I told him they may be. He then proceeded to talk about the benefits of buying in bulk. (He must have seen my enourmously filled cart).

#5 The lady who I keep running into who is looking for Hannah Montana stuff, so I do my best to help her.

#6 The cashier who starts to talk about blood sugars (must be my scrubs....but i could be a dentist or something you know!? LOL) she starts asking me about having kids, my marriage, her boyfriend, her drama, her lovely pregnancy scares. Man I MUST BE WEARING I SIGN OR SOMETHING!!

Then I go to Chipotle for dinner. I must admit this was kind of liberating because I've never eaten by myself before and I just wanted to tonight. It was lovely and I fulfilled my craving too. Bonus! However the guy in line before me who only spoke spanish is talking away to me and I pretty much have no clue what he is saying except for the occasional word I recognized. Poor guys I just smiled and rambled about how good his food looked. Man it's even happening in foreign languages now!

I go to Target next where I am proud to say I bought 4 Christmas presents tonight! I hit the clearance rack big time and scored Hannah Montana, High School Musical, Camp Rock, etc. So needless to say my nieces are DONE!! AWESOME! :) However..in the middle of my looking through the racks this young woman approaches me to ask me about pea coats. I offer my help to her, she ends up asking me if this certain coat is cool, would fit her niece, if it's a good color etc. At this point I'm ready to just bust with laughter. Wow I sure did have a blast today, and for going out shopping by myself I sure was NOT alone. Too funny :)

T.G.M.O.

That's right. Thank God Monday's over! (well almost). I had that gut feeling all weekend that work was going to be awful today and right I was. It's ok though, I'm home now relaxed, made an awesome dinner, and enjoyed a glass of wine with Scott. Tomorrow should be a quieter day at work. It's Rosh Hashana and considering I work for a primarily Jewish practice, most doctors are off tomorrow for the holiday. That means, only one doctor and about half the patients. I'll take it!

After work tomorrow I have to get caught up on some errands I need to run. They were all supposed to be done today, but considering I worked late, forgot my credit card at home, and left my cash on my dresser...let's just say it wasn't meant to be. I'll take another shot at it tomorrow.

As for the rest of the night...It's all about the Ravens!! BEAT THE STEELERS!!!!!!!!!

Sunday Rewind

Today was a nice Sunday. Met up with Beth (and her boyfriend) this morning at Starbucks for coffee. I tried the "Pumpkin spice Latte" yum, I'll definitely be getting that one again...and again. (Well for the season anyway). Met up with Kel-vo early afternoon and we headed down to Easton together to go visit Granny in the hospital. It was a nice visit, and she was so happy to see us and spend time with us. After that we headed back over the bridge, stopped and got some lunch at good old Wendy's, and did some quick shopping at Kohl's. Good conversation, laughs, and hopefully plans for Happy Hour next Friday made for a good day.

Now off to another busy week...
Scott just made us omelettes for dinner and they were really good! I'm off to work out for a few, then it's time to relax for the night. Tomorrow is an extremely busy day at work, and we have a wedding we are in on Friday. At least it's only a 3 day work week for us! Woo hoo!

Couples

What is his name?

Scott

What is her name?

Jessica

How long have you been married?

5 years in April

How long did you date?

5 years

How old is he?

32

How old is she?

28

Who eats more?

Ha ha me with out a doubt! I love to eat!!

Who said I love you first?

Me :)

Who is taller?

Scott

Who sings better?

I think he's a great singer, but he loves it when he hears me singing in the kitchen or something and says I sing good (I don't think so though)

Who is smarter?

Bwah ha ha me ;) Just kidding we are both very smart I think, and each smarter in different areas so we balance eachother nicely. Although I have to brag and say Scott says I'm the smartest person he knows..aw.

Who does the laundry?

Me! We have an agreement that Scott isn't allowed to even breathe in the laundry room (kidding) after the incident where he threw in a brand new navy rug in with the whites and ruined everything. Granted that was years ago at the old house, but the rule still holds today ;)

Who pays the bills?

Well we both work our butts off so technically we both pay them, but he writes out the checks, sometimes I will too.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed?

me

Who mows the lawn?

Oh that's all him. Our yard is HUGE. I'm glad he doesn't mind :)

Who cooks the dinner?

Me because I absolutely love to cook!!! He's a good cook too, but doesn't cook too much.

Who drives?

Both of us take turns. We both really like to drive so it's easy. I usually offer first, I love to drive.

Who is more stubborn?

According to Scott me....According to me Scott :)

Who proposed?

He did and it was wonderful.

Who is more sensitive?

Oh that would be me!

Friday Fill-Ins

Friday Fill-Ins #91
Those of you with multiple blogs or private blogs...if you could add a link to your blog when you comment, that would be GREAT! And...here we go!

1. Fall Festivals, the cooler air, changing leaves, the smell of fall, vineyards, our friends wedding we're in, Colon cancer walk, fall recipes, and Halloween! are some of the things I'm most looking forward to in October.

2. Sometimes I get frustrated when I don't think positive and don't use "The Secret" like I should.

3. What's meant to be will always find it's way.....and that's why there is a saying, "never say never"!

4. When I'm down, I remember the quote "Before you frown make sure there is nothing to smile about."

5. Working and taking care of patients is where you'll find me most often.

6. A rainy day is good for the soul...time to relax and enjoy...

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to staying in a watching a movie tomorrow my plans include my cousins wedding and Sunday, I want to meet Beth for coffee @ Starbucks in the morning, then go to Easton to visit Granny with Kevin.

Food for thought

The recipes I made for our work lunch-in went over fabulously. I have to say myself they were really good! I made this awesome dip and this equally awesome pie. Yum Yum Yum. I definitely ate too much and my stomach hates me right now. Ugh. Tonight is a stay-in kind of night, not going to visit Granny because of the Nor'easter thats hitting us now. It's a mess out there. I just hope we don't lose power so I can watch the season premiere of Grey's Anatomy tonight!!!!

Nice Wednesday

Today was a good day. Great day at work, great patients with wonderful senses of humor and just all around goodness. Came home and quickly threw together 2 new recipes for a lunch in we're having at work tomorrow. I made a cheesy spinach bacon dip, and a no bake pumpkin cheesecake. Yummy! I'm so excited to eat all the good food tomorrow! :) I was able to put these 2 new recipes together in no time which I thought was pretty amazing considering it was my first attempt. My best friend Beth came over after work and we headed out to happy hour this evening to catch up. We went to one of our local favorites "Windows on the bay" it's just lovely and has the best appetizers (1/2 price during happy hour i might mention). It was great to just have a couple drinks and have girl time. We went shopping after that to find me the shoes I need for a wedding I'm in next week. Procrastinator I know, but they were easy to find and on clearance for $5!! Bonus! We finished the night off with a trip to Mickey D's for some hot fundge sundaes. It was a great evening. I'm so thankful for the great people in my life. Tomorrow is another busy day too. I'm going to Easton to visit granny in the hospital after her knee surgery from her fall. :( The weather here the next few days is supposed to be rainy and gross. It's ok, it just means it's good weather to relax, enjoy some down time, and make some good comfort food. I'll take it :)

Compliments are Nice

Today was kind of crazy at work. Go figure, I'm a nurse ;) Anyway we had a patient who ended up needing prophylactic antibiotics before his procedure. This process is supposed to be done an hour before hand but since it was a last minute decision, it threw a wrench in our lovely surgical plan.

I quickly drew up both antibiotics, re-did the patients IV, hung the meds....in the mean time one of the meds has to infuse pretty slowly, so I got another patient ready for procedure, assisted during that procedure, came out and my antibiotic patient was now ready for his procedure. Perfect timing! Talk about running around like a crazy woman to stay on schedule and not miss a beat.

Later the doctor pulled me aside, thanked me for my efficiency, helpfullness, how quick I was, and for doing a great job. One of my coworkers was later joking with this doctor saying he was crazy like me (in a funny/ silly way). He replied " To say I'm like Jessica is the utmost of compliments" WOW! :) That just made my day.

Tuesday Ten

10 Great Things That Happened This Summer

Summer is over....Here's reflecting on the summer you had.

You can either talk about personal things that have happened to you or great things that happened in general.

1. Vegas!! Went in August for 5 days and loved it!
2. NYC for our lovely purse shopping trip with the work girls.
3. Went of a camping trip with the family for a long weekend.
4. Went to a Baltimore Ravens pre-season game....AWESOME!
5. Got a Wii and a Wii fit
6. Went to MD wine festival which I just love
7. Had a big summer party/cookout, even had an ice luge, good times!
8. Went out to eat to some great places with friends
9. Ate lots of steamed crabs (my favorite!)
10. Worked on the house, got new appliances, and a new flat screen wall T.V.

Weekend overview

Ahh Monday you get here so fast. Could you please have a talk with your friends Saturday and Sunday and make them hang around a bit longer? Thanks.

Friday was nice. I actually got out of work before NOON! That's a miracle in itself. I had to leave though or I'd be in over-time. Twist my arm, my weekend started at 11:30am on a Friday. Came home and cleaned the house for our company on Saturday. When Scott came home from work we headed to Ellicott City to one of our favorite restaurants LaPalapa, walked around old Main St. and stopped for some coffee. It was a lovely chilly fall evening and we loved it.

Saturday was insane for me for several reasons. First, I was still cleaning up here and there while making food to prepare for the house full I was having (Scott's family) at night for a crab feast. I was getting ready for a baby shower when the gift went missing and I went bolistic. Got really frustrated with some family stuff and just lost it, I was a mess. Ran to baby shower which was beautiful and just lovely. Met my best friends new daughter, who I just fell in love with. Rushed home to finish up here at the house, and entertained all night long. It was great all in all, but I was exhausted to say the least!

Sunday was the day I was looking forward to ALL WEEK LONG! The 25th annual Maryland Wine Festival. Woo hoo! Scott, D, S, and me went and had a blast! Trying all the different wines, and we just love the food too. It's become an annual tradition, and this weekend it was a must needed one! We all came back to our house and I broke out all the left over snacks, food, dips, etc from Saturday night and we enjoyed them while watching the football games. I happily enjoyed watching my Ravens crush the Browns :) Once the sun went down, we brought out some of the wine we bought from the festival and put our awesome fire pit to good use. Sitting around a campfire in your yard on a cool fall evening while drinking wine with good friends....Does it get any better?

Friday Fill-Ins

Friday Fill-Ins #90 Those of you with multiple blogs or private blogs...if you could add a link to your blog when you comment, that would be GREAT! And...here we go!

1. There is no need to be negative all the time.

2. Where in the heck did the dust come from in this house right now! I'm a cleaning machine :)

3. So far today work and cleaned the house is all I managed to do.

4. Prospects for good health a long life, and a cure for CF works for me.

5. What's meant to be will always find it's way is the message.

6. Simplicity and tranquility are somewhere that music can usually take me.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to having date night in Ellicott City with this lovely chilly crisp weather , tomorrow my plans include baby shower for baby Alivia, and Scott's family over for a crab feast in the evening and Sunday, I want to drink wine at the wine festival until they close!! :)

Thursday 13

Thirteen Things about My Week1. I declared this week "rest week" because I've been running myself into the ground lately.2. Yesterday sucked, today was much better.3. I forgot that I have a lecture and dinner tonight on Crohn's disease in Baltimore at a fancy Hawaiian restaurant. I have no clue what I'm going to wear either.4. I've been going to McDonald's everyday for a sweet tea @ lunch. I love them!5. I feel like I never have enough time to please everyone, and some friends just don't understand that I have a busy schedule too... I hate guilt trips!6. I met one of the Doctors (I work for) wife this week, and was blown away at how opposite they are! I wondered how they are even a match...Scott said people probably think the same of us and he's probably right.7. Scott's whole family is coming here Saturday night for a crab feast. I have a baby shower in the afternoon, I have a feeling It's going to be an insanely busy day.8. Hopefully tomorrow being Friday Scott and I will be able to go out, just the 2 of us to Ellicott City....it's been a while.9. One of our Anesthesiologists called me today to tell us that he just finished his last treatment after being diagnosed with Prostate Cancer and is doing fantastic! That was great news for us.10. I'm very excited to go to a wine festival this Sunday. After this week, wine sounds just devine ;)11. I actually had to turn the heat on a little bit during the drive to work this am, it was quite chilly out and I loved it!12. When I get home from work I like to turn off my brain and not have to talk or think (just for a little while)...I have a hard time telling people that I sometimes just don't feel like talking on the phone. Especially after a l...o....n....g.... day at work.13. I'm wondering how I'm going to get the whole house cleaned and everything done before our party on Saturday. I know I worry about it too much, but I just like things a certain way if we're entertaining.

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Just one of those days

Gar! Today sucks! It's not all that often where I have a day where all aspects are just bad. But....guess what!? It has happened today. I'm not going to ramble on about every single detail, here's the summary:

Late coworkers~means you are screwed and slammed as early as 0630 in the morning
Bad news~news that your patient has died after a 2 week struggle
Family~Plans that are made, times that don't work, and I'm the bad guy when I'm trying to be the good guy.
Rudeness~One of my #1 pet peeves in life and I've dealt with it ALL DAY LONG!
Stupidity~People who have no common sense, even though I deal with this on a daily basis at work, it was on over-kill today.
Fertility~Being asked all the time when we're going to start a family, when I secretly hope that we can. I'm tired of thinking about it, worrying about it, getting scared about it, etc.
I NEED A BREAK!

Thank goodness tonight is card night for Scott and I have the house to myself. I went to the "Redbox" and rented THIS for tonight. I'm also going to make shrimp scampi and enjoy a glass of wine....or two, or three, or....

Tuesday Ten

10 Simple Things that Make You Happy:

1. A good glass of wine (I love Riesling)

2. A cool fall day (rainy is fine too)

3. Laughing until you can't breathe

4. Cooking (new recipe or an old favorite)

5. Being a Nurse

6. Listening to music

7. Taking pictures

8. Eating great food!

9. Getting my morning email from Scott :)

10. Being surrounded by my family, dogs, and friends.

Baby Girl

I'd like to start of this week by welcoming one of my best friends new daughter into the world. Alivia Hannah was born yesterday at 8 am. Everyone is doing well and baby is healthy :) She was born a month early (the baby shower is this Saturday), talk about making an early appearance. Congrats Matt!!!

Mission: Potato

I love potatoes and all carbs for that matter :) Although every time I buy a huge bag of potatoes it never fails, that before I use all the potatoes they go bad :( I hate when that happens. Yesterday Scott went to the grocery store for me since I was feeling under the weather. I asked him to pick up a bag of potatoes for me, he refused. So I made a bet with him that if he got me the bag of potatoes that I would NOT let them go bad and would find cool new things/recipes for the potatoes. So he did end up buying them for me. Now the fun begins, I need to think of different potato recipes, I always do mashed, baked, etc. It's on!!! I will not lose this bet!!!

Any ideas??

It only took 10 years

I've known my husband for almost 10 years now. He's asked me time and time again if I'd watch the original Star Wars movies with him. I have no interest to be honest. Sci-fi stuff is just not my thing and I really don't enjoy movies like that. I thought he'd be happy that I went with him when the new ones came out a few years ago, but no not good enough. So FINALLY last night he asked me again and I said "sure." So low and behold people I finally watched the 1st original Star Wars movie with him. This is a monumental day in our house ;) Of course as soon as we finish the movie he says "Ok when can we watch the next 2?" I say "In 10 more years" ha ha ha :)

Saturday 9

Saturday 9: Whistle While You WorkWe are talking about jobs today. Pick any job of your career. Tell us when and where it was. Then answer today's Saturday: 9.


1. Tell us which job your are telling us about, and when you had it.
This is my current job, been there from December 2003- present

2. Where do/did you work?
As a R.N. at an out patient Gastroenterology procedure center (Ambulatory Surgery)

3. Tell us about that boss.
She has no clue

4. Do/Did you find your work creative? If yes how?
Not really creative, but challenging. Although we do get creative sometimes and will have themed days. We've done "crazy hat day, crazy sock day, mismatch scrubs day" etc. We do have fun and our patients love it.

5. Tell us about your favorite co-worker.
She's like our work mom. I tell her everything and vice versa. She gives great advise and we vent to eachother all the time. Actually all of my co-workers and I are very close though. We hang out socially, and do frequent trips to NYC together too. We're like a small family there. :)

6. Tell us about the biggest jerk in that job.
There is no jerk, just a lazy, lying moron who has no clue what happens around her. And is extremely selfish. But everyone else is pretty great.

7. Where do/did you see yourself with this job in five years?
I see myself there still. I truly love my job and the doctors that I work for. We have a great time at work and I love my patients. I can see myelf being the Nurse Manager in 5 years. Right now I'm the charge nurse.

8. Tell us about your commute.
It's great only 14 miles away, so about 15 minutes on the highway. Very close and I'm very lucky.

9. What hours of the day do/did you work?
I get there about 0550 and work until about 1430 or 1500. Not bad at all!

Thanks so much for joining us again at Saturday: 9. As always, feel free to come back, see who has participated and comment on their posts. In fact sometimes, if you want to read & comment on everyone's responses, you might want to check back again tomorrow. But it is not a rule. We haven’t any rules here. Join us on next Saturday for another version of Saturday: 9, "Just A Silly Meme on a Saturday!" Enjoy your weekend~!

TGIF

Those of you with multiple blogs or private blogs...if you could add a link to your blog when you comment, that would be GREAT! And...here we go!

1.I enjoy cooking, shopping, being surrounded by great people, laughing, the smell of the ocean, eating steamed crabs, living life to the fullest.

2.Starting a family is something I wonder about often lately.

3. In your heart, you knew I was meant to be a nurse and I love what I do.

4. Take crisp air add a little smell of leaves and you end up with The season changing to Fall! yay.

5. Life has gifted me with a great husband, and a wonderful supportive family and friends.

6. A margarita is an instant vacation.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to Going to Linda's party tomorrow my plans include grilling out and hanging out and Sunday, I want to relax and watch football.

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Things about My week.1. Today is 9/11 and my heart goes out to those who lost their lives and their families. We will never forget. Today is also my sister in laws bday.2. I wore an American flag pin on my scrubs today in honor.3. I went to Chipotle tonight for dinner and stuffed myself silly and it was totally worth it.4. I'm looking forward to going to the chiropractor tomorrow, I'm finally getting back on track since he told me "A ton of my joints are out of allignment" ouch!5. Tomorrows work party should be a blast and much needed...I'd love to be able to definitely be able to make it to Crissy's party too but not sure...6. Hung out with my best friend Bee tonight and it was so great to catch up (even though it had only been 2 weeks) that's long for us.7. I love it that people love to come to our house and hang out. In the past 2 weeks, 2 different sets of friends/family have asked if we'd have them over, it's awesome and I love to!8. I went looking for Halloween costumes tonight...verdict NOTHING yet :(9. I'm still very bummed about my 2 patients from this week and last and broke down and got upset again today.10. I found a new nail polish that I'm in love with and the color stays on your nails for about 5 days which is great for me being a nurse and washing my hands a billion times a day.11. I had 2 co-workers tell me today that I always work my as* off. It feels good to know your work ethic is appreciated.12. I had Starbucks this morning, my favorite "white chocolate mocha" and it made me so happy :)13. We bought a fire pit this week and I'm so excited to make our lower back brick patio, a place to hang out and have a campfire....awesome!

Mittwoch

I'm being a dork, mittwoch is the German word for Wednesday. Today was one of the slowest relaxing work days I've had in a while. Patients were pretty cool too...well except for my last one. I'm always compassionate but let's face it, manic, paranoid people tend to drain me sometimes. Stopped by mommas after work to visit and chit chat. Sometimes you just need to talk to your mom, you know? The guys are here tonight to play cards. Ahh the smell of cigars, beer, and listening to the baseball game. :D I just realized It's going on 8 and I haven't even eaten yet. Time for some dinner!

Seasons Change

I'm definitely starting to notice that the seasons are changing. It's a very welcome change for me. I love the fall!! As I just looked out the window @ 7:40 pm I noticed it's already dark out. That's one of the things I love about Maryland is truly getting all 4 seasons. Come on Fall!!! :)

Tuesday=Tired

I'm so glad that I wasn't as tired as I was yesterday. I don't get it but I could barely keep my eyes open yesterday. Ugh. I got home last night and barely had the effort to let the dogs out (no worries I did). I plopped myself down on the couch and was out for the count. Apparently I needed a nap. Bigtime.

Today was better (tired wise) anyway but the emotional drainage from work has yet to settle down. I found out today that one of my patients who we saw in March died at the age of 29 of esophageal cancer. It was heartbreaking, so was the day in March when we diagnosed her. I don't know why all this is happening lately but It's definitely a wave that just doesn't seem to want to end. I just have to keep thinking to myself to live each day and learn from the events around me.

I made an AWESOME dinner tonight and it's one that I will definitely will be making again. Yum yum yum!!! My sister-in-law, niece and nephew are stopping by in a little bit. My sister-in-law got 2 awesome cigars for Scott, and they haven't seen the house and all that we've done to it for a little while. Anyway off to clean and straighten up and await the cute little faces that should be appearing at my door in about 20 minutes.

And the learning continues

Hooray for also learning how to post a video! I'm slowly but surely learning this whole blogging thing ;)

I've also learned how to hyper link. I know this is second nature for a TON of people, but I'm uber excited that I learned it today too! :D

Deep thinking

The Cure is my favorite group for those of you who don't know. Anyway I've been listening to their album "Kiss me Kiss me Kiss me" this weekend a lot (Eventhough I've had it forever and ever). I actually realized how motivating the song "Fight Fight Fight" is. Especially after last week and everything that went along with it. Here's the lyrics, pretty awesome but then again I'm definitely partial ;)

Sometimes there's nothing to feel

Sometimes there's nothing to hold

Sometimes there's no time to run away

Sometimes you just feel so old

The times it hurts when you cry

The times it hurts just to breathe

And then it all seems like there's no-one left

And all you want is to sleep

Fight fight fight

Just push it away

Fight fight fight

Just push until it breaks

Fight fight fight

Don't cry at the pain

Fight fight fight

Or watch yourself burn again

Fight fight fight

Don't howl like a dog

Fight fight fight

Just fill up the sky

Fight fight fight

Fight til you drop

Fight fight fight

And never never Never stop

Fight fight fight

Fight fight fight

So when the hurting starts

And when the nightmares begin

Remember you can fill up the sky

You don't have to give in

You don't have to give in

Never give in

Never give in

Never give in

Sunday Sunday

Well I'm happy to say that The RAVENS WON today!!! Woo Hoo!!! I watched most of the game with Scott while doing laundry etc. We have NFL Sunday Ticket which means he watches pretty much every game that's on Sunday the entire season. So from here on out I won't see Scott on a Sunday until after the SuperBowl. Ha ha :) And I've been sworn to make no plans that involve him on a Sunday until then either....I'll do my best ;)

We had a nice weekend, Hanna ripped through yesterday but luckily we experienced no damage, and just flickering power outages but no extensive ones. Friends of ours came over last night and we did sort of a Mexican theme shin-dig. We sat out on the back deck (which is screened in and covered and enjoyed the rainy windy weathery. We had Crock Pot taco soup, quesadillas, salsa and chips, chili cheese dip, corn bread, the works. It was a great time. We also played the "Friends" trivia game, and I'm happy to say the girl whooped their butts! Yay! Our friends ended up staying over (secondary to great partying ;) This morning we all had an awesome breakfast including breakfast burritos (from scratch) and great coffee.

It's been a beautiful day today. It always amazes me that the day after a hurricane or tropical storm passes through how gorgeous the next day is. Here's to the start of a nice week...I'm hoping my work week is better than last week too. Well here's to a lazy football Sunday (which I love). I'm going to go eat some steamed crabs for dinner...don't be jealous :) And then finish cleaning and doing laundry (I know there's no jealousy there) LOL.