this was a good thanksgiving weekend. i loved seeing my family and friends.

also when we came home we (by that I mean I) decorated the house for Christmas and for the first time we have a Christmas tree! A real one that is not less than a foot tall, it is near 6 feet tall!

It was in my gramma's barn, their old artificial tree. Yay it is super cute and i put lights on it so it is even more super cute.

I also put up the other Christmas knick knack crap around the house so it looks very festive. I do not think I have ever bought anything for Christmas except for a string of twinkle lights for the outside. All of this stuff people gave to me. I guess it is only one box of stuff but still it seems like a lot when it is spread out in the living room.

at home

at home

josh justin katie tyler in the living room watching stargate season 4

me and beth at the kitchen table nanowrimo'ing

satsuma oranges on the table

happy scented candles in the house

gluten free spaghetti in my tummy

/happy

also of note

also of note,
i will be back to blogging more often,
and generally live a happier,
more content life,
no longer depressed,
wish i could quit my job,
but i can't,
so i will keep working,
but at night i will write,
and take photos,
and cook good food,
and love my husband,
and read the Bible and pray,
and love my church,
and teach the kids on the weekend,
and life will be peaceful,
and restful,
for the following reasons:

- there is no more sun until probably April or May 2010 which cuts down on outside distractions and projects and travel.

- it's rainy out a lot and the drizzle is comforting

- it's friggin cold outside (boo!!!)

+ i'm cutting back on my commitments/activities because of BURNOUT!

+ my 365 photo project will be done at the end of October (so tired of looking at my face. srsly.)

+ i get to start on my annual NanoWrimo project in November! I have enjoyed this so much the past 3 years.

+ i pulled out all my tea and coffee and cocoa set and it sits out all the time now for everyone to enjoy a nice hot beverage

+ i like halloween and fall

+ soon it will be thanksgiving and good food

+ soon it will be Christmas which will be full of decorations and lights and celebrations and Happy

+ i'm going to take Josh out on dates because he has done that for me the past couple of months and it was really fun ^_^

+ i may actually paint the living room.... nahhh.

+ maybe i will finally find a cheap sewing machine. still looking. that would open up a whole new world of good home/house stuff to do that i've wanted to do for a long time.

lappy2000

lappy 2000's diagnoses:

severe osteoporosis
lateral screen-keyboard joint fracture and multiple hairline fractures
diffuse LCD melanomas
rapidly progressing hard drive dementia
complete pacemaker battery failure

nursing plan of care recommendations:

hospice/end of life care
24-hour power supply
excision of memory-eating malignant programs
splint to joint fracture
plan trip to nearest Apple store

craiglist

oh i almost forgot, i had like some crazy craiglist madness - like, we had all this stuff in our garage, that goodwill doesnt really want, and other stuff that's a little too nice to give away to goodwill but not enough of it to have a garage sale, so it's been sitting and sitting.

well i did a little more spring cleaning, and we rearranged our bedroom too, so that it's more like, a bedroom, and not a crazy inconvenient room that holds clothes for us. josh thought up the sweet design. basically the bed can now be more accessible and have two sides open because we blocked the useless door that was in our bedroom. someone cut a whole in the wall and stuck a door right in the middle. and an ugly door at that. so now that is just being used as a window above our bed. it's pretty sweet, and opens up all this room to i don't know - walk - access the closet - put in a dresser. yes please!

i posted the stuff on craigslist and within a few days it was all sold - side table, full size bed, dvd player, two bookshelves, other random stuff. it was pretty sweet. i used the cash to pay doctors bills, but whatever still cool.

PEELING

Once a upon a time about a year ago I got a new cell phone:


Once upon a time about six months ago Josh got a new lappytop:


I was going to peel these off today, but then I decided not to and the sticky things are still on them.


BWA HA HA!!!



c & p

scheduled event

i like days where my to-do list is:

-sleep in and wake up to the sunshine, not the alarm
-water the tomato plants and seedlings and watch them grow
-eat auntie anne's pretzel/cinnabon for breafkast with a friend
-shop for a fuzzy blue cardigan and cute blue ballet flats
-poke around the plants outside
-cuddle with hubby and watch movies
-learn to photoshop more


i do not like it when -cleaning the house is added to my to-do list.

manly man

Josh is outside banging on things and being manly. Electrical things and what not. Home improving.

I mopped the kitchen floor (that happens like four times a year) and I'm in this crazy organizing mood... so much so that I even finally organized my key chain, so now all those keys fit on there.

Spring must be close by...

behind

I feel so behind on things. Studying for the CV boards, returning a thinkgeek item, cleaning up the kitchen, putting away clothes, uploading pictures... it's a weird feeling. It's a bunch of little things, a combination of things I HAVE to do and things that can be done later, thing I really want to do and things I don't want to, but altogether it seems overwhelming for some reason. Doesn't help that I feel fuzzy-headed and fatigued - fighting off another winter virus. Ugh.

It's like sometimes I get stuck - I don't know where to start, and begin to feel disorganized and unfocused. It seems like I am still the hyperactive unfocused 12-year old that can't sit still and yet can't focus that energy any one particular place.

But I can do it. I already started on the kitchen. Next is clothes. After that, maybe even some vacuuming. Then I'll start on studying. It's going to be a good day.

sunday

Saturday was pretty eventful for me. I tripped over something in the garage, which led to a full-fledged cleaning spree of the garage, which was definitely premature weather-wise. Garage cleaning and rearranging should be reserved for spring-like weather, not 18 degrees and icy sidewalks. But in any event, the cleaning bug got to me and I shuffled things into the shed and rearranged and threw out and what not. It felt good, damn good, something tough guys do, cleaning out garages, moving ladders, hanging up weedwackers, throwing things into dumpsters... HOO AAH. Okay, anyhoo...

I also did laundry. Not something tough guys do.

Later in the evening was a surprise birthday party for our friend, which was held at a local sports bar & grill that has a giant projector screen for playing Wii. That was FUN. And a birthday party with pizza, Wii, easy access to margaritas and cake - well, you can't go wrong there.

This morning at Sunday School we invented a new game that involved shooting at each other with Nerf guns. When that resulted in chaos and hurt pride we put up hula hoops and shot through those for points. I tried Sunday school without ending in some sort of game but it just wasn't as much fun. It gives them (and me) something to look forward to after sitting through Bible lessons and things, and I'm also not a crafter. I mean crafts now and again are OK, but I don't like them, not when I could be perfecting the art of Nerf gun wars. I've also perfected that certain breaking point to stop a game just before the 4th grade boys start crying over how they just can't seem to get as many points as those mean 5th grade girls.

post storm

Well the storm turned out to be not so bad afterall. We have power, we have seven inches of new snow and still falling, but no trees fell on our house, no shingles off the roof... it's great!

Church was cancelled again due to the fact that we're not going to make people drive in snow flurries, and I doubt they could get into the church driveway anyway. This really sucks for my hubby, I think his heart aches to cancel church, especially at this time of year, Christmas is when everyone wants to come to church, and we will not have a Christmas Eve service... which is very sad for me, because all past and recent memories of my happiest memories include Christmas Eve service at a church - the beautiful music and nothing lighting the hall but hundreds of tiny white candles held in the hands of the people while they sing "Silent Night" or something peaceful like that. Sigh. Oh well. Christmas Eve at home has always been very special too, so that will do.

However, the weather came at a good time for my hubby, too. He has a horrible, awful cold bug, that has really put him down and out, which rarely happens to him (well, compared to me anyway, I get a cold like every two weeks). So I've been making him comfort food. It may not be vitamin C tablets, but I think it's much more beneficial for his overall recovery. And I'm a medical expert, don't forget that.

I'm listening to Feliz Navidad play on the radio while I cook in the kitchen and write a little bit on the lappy - it's a happy day.

saturday sleep in

Today was wonderful. I finally got a good night's sleep, and I even took a nap. I feel like all the sleep I lost in November finally caught up with me. That and I have a cold.

So today so far hasn't been oh so productive practically speaking. I made fudge which made me feel Christmas-y. I'm planning the rest of the Sunday School lesson for tomorrow.

Mostly all of the errands were put on hold today. It's stormy outside and all the cold canadian weather is hitting us. I'm hoping for snow, lots and lots of snow. Josh is not so excited about the whole thing, he is in the church driveway right now spreading snow and ice melt. :-( Tomorrow we have to see how much snow and ice there really is, and warn the older church members to stay at home. (Our church driveway is wicked steep!)

So, nothing left to do except watch the snow fall, sip on tea, eat fudge and watch a good Christmas movie with my hubby.

christmas decorations

I decorated for Christmas for the first time in this house. It's really fun, especially 'cause we have a mantle over a fireplace! It has five hooks already in there for hanging stockings - so, that means I can add at least three more people to this house, right? ;-)

I also set up our 8 inch tall christmas tree, ha. It has multicolored lights. I hung up our ornaments on the tack board becuase I think just two ornaments would be as big as our tree.

Set up the cheesy 1970s painted plastic nativity scene, with the star trek enterprise (original and new generation), also a few other ships, suspended overhead. They light up. One day somebody is going to walk into our house and yell "abomination!!" Also, my spanish catholic grandmother is turning over in her grave. Most of our friends are nerds as well, and appreciate trekkie things and temporal time travel or whatever.

The best surprise was when I came home to see our house lit up with Christmas lights on the OUTSIDE. Josh knows how I will drive around for hours looking at the pretty lights on other people's houses - so he put up a few strands on the front of our house. It's amazing. I love it. I could probably go without any other gifts this year (ahem, PROBABLY but not recommended), because I get so much enjoyment out of that.

I guess that's all the decorating I did, a few twinkle lights here and there.

Hubby is awesome because he helped me go through all the clothes and whatnots that had accumulated in our bedroom (all mine of course 'cause I'm a mess and don't constantly organize and hang things in the closet with care) - he moved in a dresser for me, and wah-lah, I have a place to put all those scrubs and jeans and whatever. I always forget how many scrubs I have, it's ridiculous, and yet never seems enough, probably because I hate doing laundry just to clean scrubs, but I never can wear scrubs twice cuz god knows what is on those things. I mean, yuck.

Someday I'll be like, staying at home retired, wishing I was wearing scrubs yet again... but I'll have an extra drawer to put in like comfy socks and sweatpants. Isn't that what you wear when you're retired and lounging around all day, sweatpants?

home

i love hooooome!!!!

homesick

I think I will just start taking pictures of my house and then post them on Flickr so I can look at them when I'm at work so I don't miss my house so much. Seriously, I'm like, never home.

Goal this winter:

Be home a lot.

Be not at work a lot.

Have church people over to my house instead. (I think maybe they think we don't have food or have a nice house that fits more than two people inside... skiddish church people..."Oh we don't want to be a bother... oh we don't want you to make us the food... aoohhhhaoahoheroaihdf." blah.)

bbqbbqbbq

bbq! bbq! bbq!

i like barbecues.

we're having one tomorroooooow. at my houuuuse. i don't care if i won't know half the people there!! it's just gonna be nice to have a summer barbecue!*

I just have to make it through work tomorrow.

What I'm hoping for at work:

-no chest pain
-no atrial fib
-no vtach
-no fevers
-no abnormal lung sounds
-no pitting edema
-no ICD discharges
-no stroking out
-no grumpy surgeons
-no grumpy doctors
-no admissions
-no numerous ridiculous IV starts in dehyrdated 95 year olds
-no dying. you can die just not during the hours of my shift tomorrow.


Now is that too much to ask, really!!


*not knowing half the people there - long story short my friend invited people to my house for a bbq. lol. like 19 people.

CLEANINGFRENZY!!

Know what time it is?

CLEANING FRENZY TIME!!!

I'm off vacation and it's a disaster with this clothing SO CRANK UP THE FIVE IRON AND ROCK OUT TO LAUNDRY! And new sheets for the bed that I bought half off at the box store! And put away the laundry! And get into a crazy frenzy that leads to reorganizing the closet and cleaning all the bedding and sheets and pillows in the house! Ahhh!


And that's only round ONE.



I'm coming for you, living room carpet.

little things

I have noticed God taking care of us in the little things all week.



Just a little example, I ripped the flour bag for like the - hm, 24th time since me and Josh have been married. Everytime I try to get flour or sugar out, I always end up spilling it out of the bag or whatever it is in, always. So, I thought about going out and finally buying those jars to hold them like I always say I will. I looked at the store the next day but they were all expensive and whatnot. So I thought to myself, oh well, maybe some other day when money is growing on trees.

Then the next morning at work these three jars were sitting on our free table, with a big yellow "new and free!" sign.

Neat eh?

laundryy

Beth and her working functional dryer, God bless her.
God bless her and that dryer. GOD BLESS AMERICA.


I have washed and dried clothes. Clothes that are detergent free!

Did I tell you about my detergent incident? Our dryer broke, uhm like, when we first bought it, and they "repaired it" and then "repaired it again" and then it broke again, and we've been waiting for a part, so anyway, I went to our friend Keith's house, and washed allll my clothes, with this new detergent, well turns out I was allergic to it and everytime my skin touched the clothes that had been in with this detergent I got a huge rash and welts and yucky, so now those clothes had to be re-washed...

so anyway they are re-washed now. And I'm oh so happy to wear them again.

I get a three day weekend 'cause of Fourth of July!

my bike

I rode around on my new bike this weekend - it's awesome. I'm so horrible out of shape, lol.

I also went on a cleaning frenzy on Saturday that lasted into today. It was like a full on craziness spree - moving couches and vacuuming behind them, mopping the kitchen floor, dusting, throwing out the old, organizing the in-between, unwrapping the new. I set up a table that reminds me of a grandma's house (it was a gift). I'm not really sure what to do with it, so I put a grandma type lamp on it, and a grandma type vase, and a grandma type candy dish. I refuse to put that weird dollar store hard-candy on it, however.