16 posts tagged “home”

I'm working on preparing the house for Christmas decorations. I took today off of work - because in the morning I actually did feel a little crummy, but quickly felt better. Partly due to the coffee, and partly because I made my family a great breakfast, at least by weekday standards. Pillsbury Grands cinnamon rolls, strawberry-banana smoothies, and - for the first time ever - Ziploc omelets. Those were kind of fun - I got the recipe from someone at work a long time ago and had never made them until today. They'd be fun for the morning after a sleepover.

I get a daily newsletter from Better Homes & Gardens. The other day they had some really great ideas for Christmas decorations using cranberries, and also some cool ideas for a mantle. Of course I'm always looking for new ideas - the thought of doing my Christmas decorations the same year after year bores me to death - so I was happy to see some concepts that I thought I could actually do (I'm not especially crafty). Today when I was at the store, I bought the stuff to make my own version of a candy-cane-themed mantle.

Mantle

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It may not be designer-quality, but I thought it turned out pretty cool, for my feeble attempts at doing anything. And it was cheap, too. The candle in the middle smells like Cocoa Mint. Yummy. I can't quite decide if it's done or if it needs something more - height, a string of white lights, etc. I kind of like it the way it is.

Another thing I did was to go through the Christmas cards I still had from last year. I took another look at pictures and noted how much older the kids that I see on a regular basis look now, one year later. I re-read all of the Christmas letters. More than once I thought how interesting it was to read them with a knowledge of what had happened in 2009. More than one lost or changed a job. One of Brian's uncles passed away - in January, probably two months after the picture had been taken. It felt strangely ironic to think of all the pain of loss that family has endured this year - and they had no idea at the time that it was so imminent. It felt strangely ironic, and yet once again reminded me of the frailty of life on this earth. You just never know what's going to happen tomorrow. I don't want to sound depressing, but it's true.

I'm getting ready to go to bed but thought I'd hop on Vox for a second. It's a lot of work catching up on blogs!

If you are my Facebook friend then you might have seen that somehow I've actually managed to get A's in four of the five study guide courses I've taken this semester. Which is a shocker when you consider I've been averaging somewhere around an 80% for most of them. I guess that's considered good for these study guides, though, as they're meant to prepare us for the board exam and according to the coordinator, if we get a 70-80% then we're doing well. I can't help but hope that the boards aren't as tough as the study guides. Oh well, whatever. As long as I pass.

Oh yeah, I say "four of the five" because I'm still not done with Immunology. I was supposed to be done the 15th. I'm such a slacker. I'm getting there. Problem is, though, that the summer semester has already begun, in which I'm taking Hematology, with a lab that starts June 1. I think the assumption is that I've at least STARTED the lecture material before the lab. Yikes. I'm using Monday and also taking Tuesday and Friday of next week to get caught up, i.e. get done with Immunology. I've pretty much lost interest in it.

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Moving from the "being a student" to the "being a teacher" front, my CLS students finished their blood bank rotation today. They've completely spoiled me for any future classes I will ever have because they were so fun and all did so well. I will miss them but I'm happy to be able to focus on other things at work for a while, such as the huge project I've been leading for the last 11 months - I'm ready to wrap it up! And I know the students were ready to be done, as this is their last course before graduation.

Sheesh, what in the world am I going to do with myself with no school, no students, and the competency assessment procedure off my back? Maybe I'll get my personality back and will blog more!

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Tonight for supper I attempted to recreate the hamburger with cheese, bacon, & fried egg that I had for lunch the other day. They were pretty good, although not quite as good as Newt's. (Completely irrelevant side note: on that webpage for Newt's, the two blondes at the top of the page are my coworker's daughters.) Brian and the kids loved them, though. (The hamburgers, not the blondes.) I was going to take a picture to put up here but I didn't know where the camera was and I was hungry. Trust me when I say my hamburger looked stunning.

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Brian's going to run the Med-City Marathon on Sunday, his first ever. Tomorrow, Bailey and Joey are running the kids' marathon, where they had to run 25 miles in 1/2 mile increments. Tomorrow they will run 1.2 miles and then will get a medal. They'll get to cross the same finish line as the big people when they run the grown-up race. I'm hoping to get some pictures. Tell me why it is that my kids can run a mile without hardly trying, and for me to run a mile I have to train up to it and even then I can barely do it. I think my lack of endurance can only be explained by a mitochondrial disorder. (OK, not really.)

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We got a new roof this week thanks to some hail a few weeks ago. Insurance paid for it, minus the deductible. The guys who did the shingles did a nice job, but in the process wreaked plenty of havoc. Apparently they were thowing stuff down from the garage roof & somehow chipped the paint on the garage door. So they decided to go into the garage and look for some spray paint to "fix" it. (I know, right?) Well, in doing so they tripped the security system (we had been told they wouldn't need to get into the house so we'd set it when leaving for the day) and with no one around to disarm it, the police were dispatched. Then the dumb thing started going haywire and had gone off two additional times by the time Brian got home from work. I sure hope we don't get a fee from the police department. A guy came today and fixed that, so I guess we're good on the alarm system.

The roofers also messed up our DirecTV antenna while they were working, so we were without that for a day or so. (Thank goodness we could get the American Idol finale over the antenna!) When the guy came to fix it yesterday, we had figured all that was needed was a slight adjustment. Nope - we needed a whole new dish because whatever those crazy roofers did, they bent up the actual dish. How one would do that I have no idea, unless they dropped it. Anyway, that's all fixed and I think between the two repair calls the cost won't be too bad.

But the roof does look nice.

Man, it's been a long time since I've written on here!  It's been a couple of those "stop-the-world-I-want-to-get-off" type of weeks.  One thing after another.  I'm not complaining because I hate it when people complain about how busy they are.  I feel like some people "wear their busyness as a badge of pride" (to quote a friend).  I haven't been doing anything that I haven't chosen to do.

Anyway.

School's out for a couple of weeks, except my phlebotomy rotation, which will be in October.  It was supposed to take place while I was actually taking phlebotomy class but didn't due to the instructor's schedule.  No problem.  One less thing I have to deal with right now.  This week the kids have VBS.  I was asked to be the preschool director, which didn't end up entailing much.  Our theme this year is Power Lab, so I did a couple of experiments during the closing on Sunday and Tuesday.  The kids loved it.  (Did you know that a 6-lb bowling ball floats?  Did you also know that if you put the straw of a can of that compressed air you buy to clean your electronics under warm water, it smokes?)

My big - and I mean really big - project right now is trying to get my house ready for company.  Heather and another friend, Le-Ann, are coming to Minnesota for the weekend!  I'm pretty excited.  However, my house is anything but company-ready at the moment.  I already know that I'm going to be at least a little bit embarrassed because there are some things I want to do that I'm just not going to get to.  Of course, they're completely gracious and say that I don't have to worry about it, but unless my house is spotless I'm going to feel embarrassed.  It's just the way I am.  I just kind of assume that everyone else lives in immaculate houses and I'm the only one with dust & cobwebs.  Stupid high standards I set for myself.  I cleaned the window wells today.  Now that was a dirty job.  You can about imagine where a task like that would normally fall on my priority list.  Needless to say, it hadn't been done in a while.  I got so much dirt & crud out of them....I don't even want to know how much of it was alive.  But my windows look great.  I told Brian that it was probably in my head, but the breeze blowing in smelled a little fresher.  He agreed that it was probably in my head.

The bathroom's coming along.  The cabinets are installed except for the built-in linen closet.  Those doors were ordered later and aren't in yet.  The shower is done except we have no door on it.  Finding a shower door has been a saga in itself.  I have the floorboards and crown moulding (I know!  Crown moulding in the loo!) stained & finished & ready to be installed tomorrow.  The electrician came & hooked up the outlets, lights, and exhaust fan today.  So we are definitely on the home stretch.  I think the vanity top will be here in another week or so.  I really wanted this all to be done by the time Heather & Le-Ann came, but what are you gonna do?

OK, off to check up on some blogs.  I still have lots to do around here.

I just wrote a long post about my week and now it's gone.  Internet Explorer just completely flaked out.

Short version:

1. I'm exhausted.  It's been a long week.  Not in a bad way, just a lot going on.
2. Charter sucks.  Fortunately it will soon be gone from our lives.  I don't care if they offer it free, after next week we will never be Charter customers again.
3. My Norwex party went well.  I'm getting free stuff!  If none of my guests end up booking a party, I might book a second one so I can get a free mop.  (I can't talk about having a mop without thinking about Michael Richards' character in UHF.  Yep, the Weird Al movie.  Rent it if you want a mindless laugh.)
4. For the first time in a month I'm feeling semi-caught up on school.  I think it's because I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.  Just a couple more weeks, hopefully, until I get a break.
5. Bailey came home from camp yesterday.  She had fun.
6. The bathroom remodel is going well.  Brian had the place gutted as of last week and Monday-Wednesday, the plumber, electrician, and ductwork guy came & went.  Yesterday Dale Earnhardt, Jr. came and hung the sheetrock.  Who knew that was what he did during the week?  I wouldn't think he'd need a second job, but whatever.  :)  Some pictures:
   

   Kind of a before shot

Who knew ten-year-old girls liked demo?

Gutted

Shower on the left, ridiculously big built-in linen closet on the right

Sheetrock'd

Pinned up on one of my partition walls is the following quote:

Those proud of keeping an orderly desk never know the thrill of finding something that they thought irretreivably lost.

   --Helen Exley

Ah, so true.  But yesterday I finally couldn't take the clutter anymore so I cleaned off my desk.  I think it's actually a reaction to the clutter at home that's starting to give me that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, to the point where I'm avoiding the entire first floor of my home.  I can't stand it.  And since I'm either at work or doing homework these days, the house is being neglected.  And since I spend the better part of my life at this job, I thought I could at least get rid of the clutter at my desk and try to recapture little peace of mind that way.

I threw away (recycled, rather) a lot of stuff.  I organized some stuff and relocated some stuff.  I moved a cord from atop my desk to underneath my desk.  I dusted.

But I didn't find anything that I thought was irretrievebly lost.

Maybe I'm more organized than I thought.

Nah.

All right, it's probably not the best ever, but anytime I finish a room I'm pretty proud of myself.

For a couple of weeks I've been working on painting and redecorating Joey's room.  Why would I do this when I have so many other things to do?  Because I'm crazy is why.  No, actually, it was his birthday present.  His birthday was almost a month ago so that tells you how not-on-the-ball I am these days.  Well anyway, it's done and I like it!

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Forgive me for the bad focus - I can't hold my hand steady.

As you can see, there are two frames that are still empty.  Eventually those will be filled with a Twins jersey and a Vikings jersey, as soon as Joey outgrows them.  There's also a rainbow Jeff Gordon firesuit framed on the other side of the window. 

He'd decided a while back that his two-shades-of-light-blue room was babyish so we did this for him.  He likes it a lot.  He didn't get his room done when we moved in like Bailey did.  (Hers had space aliens painted on the walls....cute for the boy who lived there previously, not so much for a 5-year-old girl.  Joey's was a cute stripe that went with the Thomas the Tank Engine stuff he already had.)  The cream paint brightens the room so much, and I love how the bottom turned out, even though in retrospect I would have made the numbers bigger.  At any rate, it's very befitting an 8-year-old boy.

New Shoes

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I got these for $6.60 in the shoe room at Herberger's.  How much does that rock?

They hurt a little bit on Monday when I wore them for the first time, but whaddya gonna do?  They'll stretch.  I'm going to need surgery someday because I will have destroyed my feet from wearing high heels all the time.  The problem is, though, that most "comfortable" shoes look like they should be worn by my grandma.

New TV

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Brian surprised me with this on Tuesday night, after telling me we weren't going to get one, after telling me for months that we'd get one with our tax return.  He claims he did that on purpose; I think he changed his mind when I got mad at him.

It's a 46" LCD HDTV.  We don't have HD yet, maybe later.  Just for now it's fun to have it be big.  This TV replaces one that's about 30", and that one was taken upstairs to our bedroom to replace the 19" one that died (which is how this all started).  The new/old one looks pretty ginormous in our bedroom:

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New Number on the Scale

I'm happy to report that after 8 days on SBD, I've lost six pounds.  Brian's lost 11.  I have yet to see the weight loss in the mirror, but for now the number on the scale helps keep me motivated. 

It's below zero outside and we're at the tail end of a blizzard warning.  I just don't feel like driving yet.  I don't really have anything to say today, not even an interesting answer to any of the many QotDs.  So here's my version of a meme that's going around.

What kind of soap is in your shower right now?
I think it's Zest.  Usually it's whatever's cheapest that we can buy en masse at Sam's Club.

Is there watermelon in your refrigerator right now?
No, but I do have some amazing grapefruit.  I think it's from Texas.

I decided to take the day off work today because I'm not feeling well.  I'm very tired, almost feverish, almost nauseous, almost achy.  Almost sick, apparently.  I just feel kind of weird.  If I had anything going on at work today I would have sucked it up and gone in, but there was literally nothing on my Outlook calendar for today.  I could've been a martyr and gone in to work and sat there at my desk feeling crummy, but why?

I have homework, of course, that I can do, and later on I might be able to do some work from home (what I would have been working on had I gone into work, minus the interruptions).  I'm just not ready to do anything requiring my brain quite yet.  Brian made me a fire before he left for work, so I think I'll go downstairs and soak up the warmth while watching the last hour of Fox & Friends.  Maybe I'll make some tea and find myself something to eat.  I'm hungry, but I'm not - so I'll have to see what fits that bill.  I'm feeling kind of aimless right now.  I think it's going to be that kind of a day.

Today was sandwich day.  Sandwich day is awesome when you actually have the stuff to make good sandwiches.  I had a turkey & swiss on toasted whole wheat bread.  Joey was more adventurous in making his.  He told me it was called a "Hidden Sandwich" which meant that he took two slices of cheddar cheese and folded them in half.  Inside one fold he put grape jelly, and inside the other he put this chocolate-banana spread stuff.

The kids like it

Looks normal from this angle

Hidden non-surprise