21 posts tagged “things on tuesday”

Pro: Finding SweeTarts for $.25/roll at Walmart.
Con: Eating them when I'm in the midst of realizing that I'm gaining weight.

Pro: Beatles Rockband, and that my kids now sing Beatles songs.
Con: Uh, can't really think of one here, except for maybe that I suck at guitar.

Pro: Being done with school. (Have I mentioned that?)
Con: Having to wait until December to find out what my board exam score was and get my diploma.

Pro: That the snow only lasted a day.
Con: That there's lots more where that came from.

Pro: Buying new jeans from my favorite online store with a sale price, $10 off, and free shipping.
Con: They changed the cut!! Buggers.

Pro: The Bruegger's salt bagel I had this morning with cream cheese and cucumber slices.
Con: I don't even want to know the sodium content, but sometimes you just gotta do it.

Pro: Less than two weeks until the girls' shopping weekend at the Mall of America!
Con: Being too poor to enjoy it.

Happy Tuesday! (What's left of it anyway.)

The only thing I loathe today is that I'm having a hard time concentrating enough to study for my board exam. I'll absolutely die of embarrassment if I don't pass....which to a normal person would be impetus to buckle down & study. Me, I got as far as coming upstairs to get the laptop for the CD-ROM that came with the study guide. Now I'm blogging.

What do I love today? Lots of things.

1. I love that Bailey starts at her new school tomorrow and is very excited. (And a little nervous.)  We had Meet the Teacher last week and Miss Williams (soon to be Mrs. Douglas - she's getting married a week into the school year!) seems very nice. I think Bailey's in good hands. Now to make sure we can manage the tuition payments every month. We've got a decent little tuition nest egg stashed away should we need it, but we're hoping we can absorb it. (Which means no more shopping for me - waaah!)  When Joey starts, it's going to be a little more challenging. But it'll work out.
2. I love my Minnesota Twins! Seriously, when did I get to be such a baseball fan? I've kind of slowly gotten into it over the past few years but this year has been my dive off the deep end. We have the best back-to-back hitters in the AL (if not all of MLB) and the best catcher and first baseman in the AL, and possibly some of the best right fielders and second basemen as well. What we really need now is some good pitching. Watch out, Detroit!
3. I love Joe Mauer. He's dreeeeamy and so awesome. Well, ok, I don't love him, but I do like him. A lot.
4. I love that I finally found the wherewithall to go back onto South Beach. I wasn't going to, but I spent most of last week hating myself for having gained 10 lbs back over the past 6 months, and I finally decided to quit whining and do something about it. What a concept. It's only the second day of Phase 1, and I'm not as motivated as I was last time, but maybe after the scale moves I'll get more excited.
5. I love that my house has been painted (exterior) and partially relandscaped, and that a new sidewalk is on the docket for sometime this month. It's a mess right now - all buckled and crazy. I'm surprised no one has taken a face plant on it yet.
6. I love that, after a first week of saying he hated it, that Joey has finally decided that he likes being on his football team. He's going to be a defensive end and possibly a tight end as well - I think it helped to know where he's going to be. He was kind of hoping for something a little more glamorous (who doesn't want to be th QB or RB or WR?) but now he's convinced that every position is important or else they wouldn't be out there.  He was so excited last night after practice that one of the coaches had watched him hit and told him "That's the way to make a hit, Joey!" I guess the coach even told a couple of the other guys later that they need to hit like Joey had.  And? He's totally adorable in his pads & helmet. :)

Alright, time to study. I was tempted to study blood bank today because I knew I'd know 99.9% of the answers, but I actually found that boring. How weird and sad to find it more interesting to realize how much you don't know.

My poor blog, it's become so neglected. I promise one of these days I'll actually have something worthwhile to say. In the meantime, I'll try to scrape together a TonT.

Loathe:

• Being tired all the time.
• Watching my poor boy and his friends get crushed in three baseball games over the weekend. This was his second (and last) tournament of the season. We got to the point where we were just hoping for them to make some plays because there was no hope for them winning.
• Having to hear my little boy say, "I stink at baseball!" and try hard to fight back tears even though he was around his friends. :(  (For the record, he doesn't stink. He has some things he needs to work on, but I maintain that he's got potential to be a solid player, even if he never becomes a star.)
• Knowing that Joey's team that's been practicing for 5 weeks on a team we paid $60 for him to be on got crushed by a team of kids mostly a year older than them, that's been together since March, whose parents paid $500 for them to be on. Seriously! In third grade!
• Not losing weight like I've wanted to since we restarted South Beach a couple of weeks ago. I've lost 2 lbs. I started closer to my ideal weight this time so knew the weight loss would be less dramatic, but still I was hoping to see some better results. Oh well. Plug away, I guess.

Love:

• Watching my kids when they don't know I'm watching.
• Watching a project at work that I've been leading for almost a year finally come to fruition. We're working on getting everyone trained and will implement on July 21. The new process isn't perfect, but what process ever is? It's WAAY better than what we currently have. I feel such a sense of accomplishment, and I daresay I'm looking pretty good to the higher-ups! I had a great team, though...which goes a LONG way. I'm proud of them.
• Cuddle Time: a ritual in our house where all 4 of us pile onto Brian's & my bed and just watch something on TV. And cuddle. :) The kids are always asking, "Can we have Cuddle Time?" I love that they want to do it, even when we have to say no.
• The unpredictability and variety of midwestern weather. Last week it was pushing 100; today it's not even 70. As they say, if you don't like the weather in Minnesota, just wait a few minutes. Gorgeous weather is always nice, but I need it to change now & then. I could do without snow, though.
• Even though the games were not so great, at Joey's tournament last weekend I got to meet all of the parents. It was so much fun. In particular I spent a lot of time talking to the mom of a boy that Joey has gotten to be good friends with over the last half of the school year. Now they're on the same team for both tournament and house league baseball. I like her a lot. And the really cool thing is that they're thinking of switching their son to Schaeffer Academy after he finishes elementary school, just like we plan to do with Joey! Crazy. She said she's been praying for a good friend for her son, and to think that my guy might be the answer to her prayers just about makes me want to cry. In a good way.
• Holidays! Because they equal days off work!
• That Brian checked out the X-Files movie from the Bookmobile today. I'm finally going to see it, Kelly!

Are you bored yet? LOL

As aforementioned, I fully plan to give this blog some attention once I actually start having coherent thoughts again. :)

I haven't done this in forever! 

Today I loathe:

• My inability to finish this semester strong. I'm really struggling. It's not that I've lost interest in the subject matter, but I have lost interest in spending all my time on this. I'm fantasizing too much about actually having free time. :)
• Thinking about American Idol tonight, I will be very upset if Danny goes home. He's way better than Kris. Everyone knows Adam's going to win, so in a way I think tonight is the finale, Kris vs. Danny.
• That I heard this song on the radio today coming home from work and I can't figure out what it is! I didn't get a good enough grip on the lyrics to google them, the radio station doesn't post the songs they've played, and of course the DJ was no help. The song had kind of a Maroon 5-ish feel to it (but I know it wasn't M5), and there was a very simple but catch bass line at the beginning and throughout that had a very string-ish sound. (Does that make sense, it was the type of sound you'd hear in a band room, not on the radio.) Any ideas on what it might be? I'm streaming Maroon 5 on Pandora to see if it comes up (which I think it did sometime over the weekend).

Today I like:

• Awards night at AWANA. Not only that it's the end of year for the kids (which means we get our Tuesday nights back until fall), but they both finished their workbooks this year - which is no small feat! My kids make me proud. :)
• Brach's Milk Maid caramels. Yum.
• As aforementioned, American Idol. And speaking of reality TV, I'm happy that my team won on The Amazing Race.
• My students. We are on week 5 of 6 so I think we're all tired (and this is their last rotation before graduation so they've got to be so ready to be done!), but they're so good - smart, positive, cooperative, always have their stuff done, let me know if they're going to be late/absent. I got lucky but now I'm going to be spoiled for next year!
• That I borrowed an immunology book from a coworker that is actually helping me understand this stuff!
• This necklace & bracelet, part of what I got for hosting a Silpada party. I love how colorful & pretty they are.

Silpada

OK, gotta go. Happy Tuesday!

Loathe:

- That I can't make myself study.  I wish I had even a shred of self-discipline.

- That my city doesn't clear the six inches of snow we got off the streets but yet they can spray water on the hockey rink across from my house over & over again so that kids can play hockey at all hours of the day & night.

Love:

- Mint Truffle Hershey's Kisses. Yum.

- The Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack.

- The clearance rack at Target.

- My new avatar. Isn't she cute? I actually like my Facebook one better but this one is a little more relaxed.  I made them both on one of Bailey's favorite websites, The Doll Palace. (If you do it w/your kids though, you might want to look it over first so that you know which parts of it you don't want them to go to. Some of the doll options are a little weird and/or sexy.)

- That I'm almost done Christmas shopping.  I think all I need to get is teacher gifts & I'll be set.

- Only one more day of my clinical chemistry lab rotation.  It's been fairly enjoyable, but I'm ready to get back to regular work hours.

I'm Thankful For:

- Awesome friends.

- A warm house.

- The safe arrival of my cousin's baby this morning.  Yay!

- Seeing God at work in people's lives, especially at this time of year.

I loathe:

• That there's always cleaning to be done.  It just never ends.

I love:

• Having taken today off work because the window guy needs one more day where he needs to get into the house.  I'm working toward getting motivated to do lots of homework today.  (And I wonder why I'm always behind...)  I'm buring through my PTO like crazy, but I do love me a day alone here & there.
• That I only have two tests left for school, and the chemistry one is open book!  I'm hoping to get the closed book one (on instrumentation & QA, bleh) done next week and then the open book one shortly thereafter.  I plan to prepare as little as possible for that one.  I already can't get any better than a B overall in chem (b/c I didn't do as well as I thought I might've on the last test), which is what I have now, and if I can't get a B on an open-book test, then I'm a moron.
• Getting to go down to my parents' house TWICE this month.  I like my family - and I'm lucky because not everyone can say that.
• The Swedish Christmas dinner I'm going to make for Brian's family.  I hope they like it. 
• There will be Swedish meatballs to fall back on if there's absolutely nothing else they can eat.  Which reminds me - I should make the limpa (rye bread) today as long as I'm home. 
• There will also be potiskorv (potato sausage, which we will make because the bought stuff is never very good),
• Rice pudding w/lingonberries (again, I'll make the rice pudding b/c the bought stuff is disgusting),
• And some kind of potatoes.  I haven't decided yet whether I'll do something like boiled red potatoes, rotmos (pronounced "root-moose"), which is mashed potatoes & rutabaga; often you boil this in the same water as the potatiskorv), or au gratin potatoes which are not Swedish but I associate them w/Swedish food since my grandma always made them as part of the smorgasbord she used to make every Christmas. 
• I'm also planning to make some spritz cookies (again, homemade are way better than bought) and pepparkokkar (those really thin ginger snaps - I think I'll buy those b/c they're a pain to roll out and the bought ones really are just as good as the made ones). 
• And finally, some cardamom coffee bread for them to have when they first get to our house. 
• I bought some Swedish Christmas decorations & paperware at IKEA a while ago so it should be fun!

All right, onward & upward.  Gotta get some homework done.  I was waiting for the window guy to show up so I didn't have to stop my lecture to go let him in, but it's almost 10:30 and he's not here yet.  I can't wait any longer or I will get nothing done.

How convenient that on a day where I have not much to say and not much time to say it, it just happens to be a Tuesday! :)  I'm only going to do one of each.

I like love:

  The meal I had tonight at Timber Lodge.  Parmesan-encrusted chicken breast, garlic mashed potatoes, and wild rice soup.  Definitely not SBD friendly, but MAN, was it an awesome treat.

I don't like:

  Studying.  But I'm taking my test on Thursday, ready or not!  I think I have acid-base balance down (which is amazing in and of itself), now I just have to learn about vitamins, electrolytes, & trace minerals.  I so can't wait until I'm done w/school.

And that's it.  Short, sweet, & to the point!  :)

Real quick, since I have stuff to do:

I do not like:

• Green eggs and ham.  (Just kidding.  I've actually never had them.)
• Homework that never ends.
• Being cold!
• Having to watch my weight.
• Being bored at work.
• This nasty cold that everyone around here seems to have.

I do like:

• People who take the time to be encouraging.  Too many people don't give a crap about others.
• Getting 2 shirts & a skirt for me, and a shirt for Bailey, all for $21 at Kohl's.  Yay for new clothes!
• Cheese.  Mmmmmmm.......
• Have I mentioned that Joey gets to skip ahead a grade in math?  I have?  :) 
• Thinking about future job possibilities and realizing that maybe this dog isn't too old for some new tricks.
• Glenn Beck moving to FOXNews!  Sounds like in addition to having his own show he'll be a regular on O'Reilly.  Good times!

Short & to the point.  I have to go read about competency testing now. 

Loathe:

1. Car repairs.  We had to have the van worked on today.  The fuel pressure regulator (or something like that) needed replacing, as did the fuel filter, rear shocks, oil, and battery.  Yikes!
2. Broken dishwashers.  Boy, when it rains it pours.
3. Having a closet full of clothes that don't fit and no money to replace them (see items #1 and 2).  Someone please nominate me for What Not to Wear!!!
4. Having to sell my vacation time to pay for Numbers 1 and 2.
5. That I have to do my phlebotomy rotation tomorrow morning.  I guess this isn't really loathesome, but it is rather terrifying.  I've never in my life stuck another human being with a needle.

Like:

1. Car repairs that aren't as expensive as they could be.  We thought maybe the van's problem was with the fuel pump.  Thankfully it wasn't - that would have cost about twice as much as what we actually did get done.  So it's not all bad.
2. Having people at work who are fun & interesting.  Makes the day go a lot faster!!  Although less productive....but I can consider it "networking," right?
3. Hot tubs on crisp, cold fall evenings.
4. Bedtime.  I'm tired!
5. I'm sure there's more good but I'm too tired to think of them right now!

Loathe:

• Politics.  A month ago I loved them, now I just have a sick feeling about it.
• Ditto the sick feeling on this whole bailout thing.  Let me tell you, I'm going to be pretty ticked off if I have to pay for someone else's irresponsibility.  Especially on this grand of a scale.
• That I'm still up & wide awake when I should be in bed.  I'm going to feel this tomorrow!

Love:

• The good kind of visibility at work.
• Buying 5 dozen eggs at Sam's.  And we will eat them all!  We love eggs, and they're perfect for our diet.
• That yesterday we went back to Phase I of SBD (because our eating had gotten slightly out of control) and I feel GREAT!  I haven't had carbs in 2 days and I feel great?  It's true.  I guess my body likes me eating like this.
• Not being crabby now that my eating is under control.  Seriously - look at the size of my love list vs. my loathe list.  It's a physiological (not psychological) thing - less wavering of my blood sugar, I guess.  I feel more like my real self (except the sarcasm; that will probably never go away).  And I had a good run this morning.  I just really feel good about myself today - who I am, what I look like, and what I can accomplish.
• The big bag of red peppers I just bought.  I plan to eat at least some of them with cottage cheese (the best thing ever in the world - try them together if you never have), and will also dip some of them into the spicy hummus I made the other night.
• My heated mattress pad.  Way better than an electric blanket.  And perfect now that the 40-degree overnights are settling in.
• Eclipse mints and Orbit gum.  I'm infatuated with all of the Orbit flavors (many of which aren't featured on their website, strangely).
• This wine we had on Sunday night.  Only ours was from 2002.  This was from one of the places we visited when we were in Sonoma last year.  I never keep track of price, but I'd have guessed it was way more than a $15 bottle as the website suggests.
• Discovery Health Channel.