Work...

I enjoyed a nice 4 day holiday weekend, but it's back to work tomorrow. I'll tell ya what, though, I do not like this working full-time business.  I didn't like it 10 years ago, and I don't like it now.  :(  Four more weeks of Monday through Friday.  I did, however, really like the people I was working with for the past 2 weeks.  They were all very nice and made me laugh every day.  Tomorrow, I move on to another clinic and I really hope the people there are as nice to work with!

Hmm...

While I was out walking Bella tonight, I noticed no less than a dozen houses in my neighborhood that were already decorated for Christmas.  I understand that this past weekend was a good opportunity for people to get a head start on this since the weather was nice, but at least half of these were actually on. Maybe it's just me, but I like to get through Thanksgiving before I start decorating for Christmas. In fact, I still have scarecrows in my yard.  Now, the day after Thanksgiving is a whole other story.  ;)

On another note, I am liking my new job so far.  I don't love the fact that it takes a good half hour to get to my car after waiting for and riding the shuttle  or the 45-60 minute drive home (depending on traffic), but I much prefer this job over the nursing home!  I am, however, looking forward to having a day off tomorrow!  Yay!

This was me today:

Due to lack of parking, downtown hospitals are forced to spread out their employee parking among (seemingly random) parking lots throughout the city and shuttle employees in from different lots.  My assigned parking is in a very small, gravel lot.  There is literally not enough space to back out in one smooth motion unless you happen to luck out and leave after everyone else so that there are empty spots beside and/or behind you.  Not to mention that people park horribly, taking up 1.5 spaces in the already crowded lot, but that's another rant.  This was totally how I felt today trying to get out of my parking spot.  It seriously took me a good 2-3 minutes of maneuvering...

Christmas shopping?

Yep, this weekend, I officially began my Christmas shopping.  I only purchased a couple of things, but hey, it's a start!  I am usually not one to start until the day after Thanksgiving, but I would LOVE to get done early this year.  It is always my goal to not still be wrapping on Christmas Eve, but it usually ends up that I have at least a few things left.  There has been only one year that I have been completely done shopping and wrapping by December 1st.  And, I don't see that happening this year with my upcoming work schedule, but if I can be done by mid-December, I'll be happy!

I just rechecked my schedule tonight, and looks like I have a couple of short days this week.  I think Wednesday I'll be out a couple of hours early, Thursday will be a half day since I don't need to renew my CPR for another year, and Friday, I just have a meeting at 1:30.  Not sure how long that will take, but at least I won't have to get up crazy early.  :)  Then, unless my schedule changes, I will have next Thursday off completely.  Woot!  (I will be off for Thanksgiving and the day after, as well. Yay!)

I am certainly glad to have had an extra hour of sleep last night, but it still feels an hour later than it is tonight. I am sleeeepy.  Think I'll lay down and watch some t.v. until I fall asleep and get ready for another early day tomorrow!

Er Mer Gerd...Rercer's Curps!

I braved the cold, wind, and rain for over an hour with my son for trick or treat tonight. Now, I'm sitting here pigging out on candy! I am powerless to resist the deliciousness of all this chocolate! Sigh.

Day One Done

Well, my first day of orientation for my new job went pretty well.  I got my training schedule and it looks like I will be working either 7:30 am- 4:30 pm or 8 am - 5 pm (depending which location I am at that week) Monday - Friday through the week before Christmas.  Of course all of the locations I'll be at are at least 45 minutes away. :-/  I just need to make it through the next couple of months of a full time schedule then I'll be contingent and can make my own schedule!

Random

The other day, my younger daughter and I went to the garden store near our house to pick out a couple of mums for our mumkins.

Image retrieved from: http://www.foertmeyerandsons.com/fundraising/mumkins/

Anyway, the older sister of one of my daughter's friends happens to work there and when she saw my daughter, she came over to say hello.  She was going on and on about something while looking back and forth from me to my daughter.  When she finished her story, she barely took a breath before blurting out "wow, you two look a lot alike".  I seem to hear that a lot from people about both of my girls.  I always take it as a compliment, of course.  They, perhaps, don't as much. ;-)

Last Saturday was homecoming for my oldest.  Here are a couple of pics she was able to get before the dance with some of her friends.  The second one is kind of blurry because it was taken with someone's crappy phone camera:


She is growing up way too fast for my liking!

14 miles...not too bad, I guess.

I've been pretty lazy about getting to the gym, but I've been doing a lot of walking and bike riding instead while the weather is still nice.  Today I walked 8 miles then came home and rode my bike around 6 miles.  Once the weather gets too cold I'll have to make myself get back to the Y!

Tomorrow I'm working the flu clinic again and then I may do a little shopping.  I really want a fuzzy North Face jacket!  :)

Boys will be boys, I suppose.

Yesterday morning, I had to go pick up my son from school because he hit his head on some playground equipment and got a big goose egg on his dome.  He didn't fall, which I was originally told by the school.  Apparently he and some of his friends were playing a game and they were tackling someone and his head got banged against the thing (for lack of better terminology; not sure what it's called).  Anyway, this morning, it looked much better and the swelling had gone way down.

Today I am going with him and the other third graders on their field trip to the library.  It is only about a half of a mile from his school, so we are walking there.  Should be fun.

Tomorrow is my daughter's volleyball tournament.

Monday, I am working my first event with my per diem job since last spring.  I'll be back at the big company we did a lot of events for last year that I thought we were no longer working with. Apparently I was misinformed. I think it is a flu clinic, which will mean giving flu shots for 4-5 hours. That's okay though, it's super easy money. Almost makes up for having to get up early and be there at 7:30 am.  ;)  I just got an invitation to work it again on Tuesday.  I'm still deciding if I'm going to accept that one.  Christmas is coming though, so a little extra money isn't such a bad thing!

Serving

This week is the last one for regular season volleyball.  Saturday, tournaments begin.  Last night, my girl served.  She isn't one of the team's regular servers because at the beginning of the season, she had trouble getting her serves over the net.  She has come a long way this season and I am very proud of all her hard work.  Here she is serving the last 4 points to win the first set for her team.  (The last one comes back over and hits, but the other team faulted in sending it back over, so it didn't count.)  They lost the second set, but came back and won the third, for the game.  It was definitely a good game to watch. :)

Bring on the tissues!

I seem to have a bit of a cold.  My nose is stuffy and runny at the same time and I keep sneezing. Hopefully it won't get any worse than this.

This afternoon, I have to make tacos for my oldest daughter's color guard team and then pick my younger daughter up early from volleyball practice to take her to the high school to warm up with her middle school band who will also be performing during half-time at the football game tonight.

Before that, I need to work out and go to at least three different stores.  I need a few things from the grocery store, I have to pick up special make up for my oldest daughter (for color guard), and it would be awesome if I could find a pair of jeans that fit me!

Busy day for me! :)

Not my best of days

My son missed his first day of school for the year today.  He has had redness around his eyelid for a couple of days and has been complaining that it hurts.  This morning it was looking puffy too.  So I took him to the little clinic inside of a Kroger because the doctor has, in the past, not been available to see us on the same day and I wanted it checked out today.  Well, after going down there, waiting, being seen, the nurse practitioner there said it is not pink eye, and it looks more like an injury or infection and she would suggest seeing his pediatrician...

Okay, so, I called the doctor's office, and (as I figured) he had no available appointments today, but they could get him in to see their nurse practitioner.  So, I took that appointment because I didn't want to have to keep him out of school for another day if I didn't need to.  She mentioned thinking it is a chalazion, which is similar to a stye.  From what I have read since, chalazia don't generally hurt, but I guess we will see if this treatment works.  At least it's not contagious, and he can return to school tomorrow.

Before we left Kroger, I went through the self check out and got $20 cash back.  My daughter has a game tomorrow evening (every Monday and Wednesday, actually) and I knew I would need some cash to get in.  I figured I'd get that out of the way.  Well, somehow between the time I selected to get cash back and actually getting the cash, my son distracted me and I walked off without it.  In fact, it wasn't until about two hours ago that it even clicked in my head that I had forgotten it.  I called the store and, of course, no one turned it in.  So, I'm just outta luck.  And $20.  :(

Then, just now, I went out into the garage to get something from my car and killed my knee on a bike pedal.  Sigh.  I'm ready to just go to bed and call it a day.  Hoping my daughter's team can win tomorrow.  They came sooo close at last night's game!!

I survived

I made it through another weekend at work.  Saturday afternoon, around 3 pm, the nurse that was scheduled to come in at 7 pm called and said she couldn't make it in until 11 pm.  Well, after calling around and finding no one else willing to come in for four hours, I told her I would stay until 11 pm if she would work until 11 am today.  She agreed, so I worked from 6:40 am to 11:10 pm on Saturday.  It was a long day, but at least it wasn't crazy.  It was actually nice not to have to get up crazy early again this morning.  Fortunately, the nurse that came on tonight got there on time and I was able to leave right at 7.  Today would have actually been pretty awesome if I hadn't had to do an admission, but oh well.

Next weekend, I'll be off work and spending time with lots of family that will be in from Missouri and Virginia. Looking forward to seeing an aunt and cousin I haven't seen in a couple of years. :)

Gah!

Well, I made it to the gym this morning.  I didn't stay quite as long as I wanted.  I just ran out of steam and was hungry.  So, I left and grabbed a protein bar. Now I'm home and gonna go out and ride my bike for about a half hour, shower, then get some grocery shopping done before my little man gets home from school.  Tomorrow starts my weekend-o-torture.  :(  Gah!!!

Love it!

On Sunday, I did a little shopping and used some coupons I had for Victoria's Secret.  At checkout, they gave out samples of lotion from their new "love my body" line.  I have to say...I freaking LOVE this lotion!  Not only does it smell really good (I have the scent from the link: jasmine and water lily), it makes my skin feel really soft.  I will totally be buying some of this next time I go to the mall!  Good stuff.

Back to it

So, after a long weekend of crappy eating, I'm back to trying to be healthier.  I didn't go to the gym yesterday, but I did go on a 5+ mile walk.  Part of which was in the rain, but I didn't mind.  Today, however, after spending the morning being lazy and watching reruns of Gilmore Girls and Still Standing (both great shows, btw), I forced myself to go work out at the gym.  As usual, I feel better after getting in a good workout.  Now I need to get a shower and get ready to go watch my girly play volleyball at 5:00!  :)

Chocolate and the zoo!

Bad weekend for my diet.  My girls and I made buckeyes on Saturday and with the leftover chocolate, I covered pretzels and raw almonds.  I've been pigging out on those all weekend and not counting calories. :o  But, tomorrow, I'm back at it!

Today, my little man and I went to the zoo. He generally does not like to have his picture taken, but today, he wanted me to take his picture with everything!  Here are a few:







Love that kid!

Mmmmm....

I found these at Meijer yesterday.  All I have to say is...YUM!  They are so gooood!  :)

My girls

Awww

Volleyball

Tonight was my daughter's first volleyball game of the season. Her team played really well and was up for a little while, but ended up losing the game. They are all still learning, so I was really impressed with them. In fact, the 8th grade team played after the 7th graders, and they were not nearly as good. My daughter said they have scrimmaged each other a couple of times and the 7th graders won both times. Doesn't make much sense to me since, presumably, most have them have played before. Anyway, here is a little video I was able to sneak in during the game. My girl is number 5.

Obviously not the most exciting part of the game, but it's something. :)