Monday, September 28, 2015

day in the life (work day)

Every workday I wake up at 6am. Ordinarily Doug is already gone, but this last Friday he had off. Normally when I get up Doug has already given September her breakfast and she's snoozing again in her hammock. But since I was the first one up she was eager to meet me as I opened our door. She's so cute how she runs down the hall to her bowl, glancing over her shoulder to make sure you're coming to feed her. Then she politely waits by her bowls.
Every workday I eat the same thing. 1/4 c. oatmeal made with water, a spoon of chia seeds and splash of almond milk. Usually I top it with a small handful of chocolate chips and slivered almonds. But I was out of both, so I did a sprinkle of brown sugar, cranberries and pecans. It's a good breakfast and usually keeps me full for several hours.
My little family
Load up my pockets, grab my lunch and water bottle and I'm off. I'm out the door usually 6:35 and I love living so close to work!
I have to park so far in the very back of the lot, I don't even know how far, maybe a quarter mile when you count the lot, then thru the parking structure, then down the hall to my elevator. Dark sky!
quick selfie while trying to not be seen taking a selfie
I never know how my day will go, but that day I got to take my first break at 12. (we get a 45 min break so most people split into 15 breakfast and 30 lunch later). But there are other days when I am too busy for a break at all. Our managers had got stuff for 'walking tacos' for some appreciation day. And it was appreciated! Pretty much ground beef put into a bag of fritos, they had cheese, lettuce and tomatoes and then you could hypothetically walk off. I however, sat and watched a bit of HGTV :) very tasty.
I snuck away again around 3 or 4 for my other break and ate what I had packed for my breakfast break.
Everyday seems like a busy day at work.
Walking back to the car around 7:45pm. Getting dark again already!
I get home around 8 and am usually hungry, tired, and either cranky or borderline cranky unfortunately. We reheated the cheeseburger soup and made corn-on-the-cob for a quick dinner together. The next day I was only working a half day in the afternoon so we stayed up a bit.
Icecream and the Age of Adeline, it was ok/good.
While I was at work Doug went to pick up his new Jeep. Hopefully it will be a reliable ride for many years.
Without sharing any of the excitement/drama/but also tedium details at work, that's a typical day. Go-go-go for 12+ hours and then come home too tired to do much of anything. But the days at work do usually fly by.

Thursday, September 24, 2015

day in the life (a not working day)

I never get as much done as I hope to on a day off!
On a non work day I usually get up around 8am. But last night I stayed up reading (and finishing) another book. Our book club is reading The Rosie Effect (sequel to Rosie Project), I liked that Don's character was developed further, but I didn't like some of the stuff going on in their marriage. But it was another fun read. So yeah, slept in till about 9 today.
I'm usually in a rush in the mornings, so if I'm not working I like to meander around the house in the mornings. I loaded up the dishwasher, picked up Doug's shoes, and then got a batch of granola ready for the oven, then I did my exercise video. Weights yesterday, so cardio today.
I joined a Bible study, not affiliated with any church, which is good since we are still church hunting! But a couple girls in my book club and several girls from my old church also go so that's cool. It's called Bible Study Fellowship and we are studying Revelations. So I thought it would be good to do my homework while eating some breakfast.
September was enjoying the morning as well.
Right before I got in the shower the doorbell rang and my new computer arrived!
My old one is about 10 years old, still works but the hinge is broken so it always has to be propped up, and it's very slow. I need to have a webcam for school, and it's nice to have something faster anyway. I had emailed my bro for some computer advice and he offered to buy me one on CraigsList, install a bigger/faster SSD card he had an extra, and mail it to me, yay! So it is used, but it's updated and engineer approved :) and in our budget. So I'll spend a couple hours next week dragging all my stuff onto it/figuring it out and should be good to go.
On yesterday's day off I cleaned the house, did laundry, and a little homework. So today I knew had to be the big homework day. Which was too bad because Liz called and wanted me to come over and watch a movie. Old Anne would have tossed the homework to the wind; today's Anne is not as fun or carefree, and so here I remained. Wah wah, responsibilities.
I spent about 5 hours finalizing a paper, responding to my classmate's discussion posts, and taking (and re-taking) a quiz
I took a break to eat some lunch, quick bean nachos (I never know what to eat for lunch if we have no leftovers)
and re-did my toes (that bruise on my foot is where my new computer's battery fell out of the box onto my foot, ouch!)
One thing I didn't do was go to the bank which I had told Doug I would, so he wasn't too happy. The day just got sucked away and I still had to make dinner.
I've made it before, quite tasty
carrots from mom's garden
Doug's brother now works at Jimmy Johns and he gave us several gallon bags of leftover bread. And there is one thing nutritionally useless bread is good for= croutons. This is actually the 2nd batch. The first ones were burnt to a crisp. The recipe said broil for 5 minutes, the first ones were in for 4, these ones were 2, and still burnt! But tasty with the soup. Yesterday I went out for dinner with Jill and we got cupcakes, so tonight's dessert was the second half of my delicious German chocolate cupcake. Mmmm
After dinner I packed my lunch for work tomorrow and Doug washed the rest of the dishes.
We headed out to test drive a CraigsList Jeep for him
It was nice on the outside, although I swear I saw mouse poo under the seat, ew! Doug was smelling fluids and crawling under the car. He's testing another tomorrow, so we'll see how that one goes.
We came home around 8. I had wanted to take a walk, but it's already dark :( I am a fair weather walker I guess. Doug suggested driving downtown to walk but I generally try to be in bed around 10p if I work the next morning. So we're in for the night. Probably will read a little bit, one book club book to go. (these were 3 months worth and I already read 2 in one week!) Or maybe might just look up stuff on my phone since Doug is researching more Jeep stuff tonight.
This probably was a pretty accurate 'day in the life'. If I don't have plans with a friend, I usually exercise, do some house something, homework, make dinner, have some down time, and then spend time with Doug. Not too exciting, but just everyday life.

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

another step towards the bathroom

Our bathroom took another step towards being more usable this last week. We ordered tile from Menard's and Dad came over to lay the subfloor with Doug
first got up all the layers of the old linoleum
getting under the toilet
ew
Daddy-o filling in spots under the vanity
might as well put the vanity back!
So our tile has to come in to the store, then mom & dad will come back from Hawaii and help with the floor. But there is progress.
The whole bathroom project has been full of lessons. I think we decided after this just to save up money and hire the work out. It hasn't been fun for Doug, we are so slow, its frustrating to work so hard and then it's still not perfect. If it means working an extra shift or two but then having weekends free to spend actually enjoying time together that sounds worth it.
The vanity is in but the faucet is inexplicably leaking so it's not really usable yet. We ordered a new top for the sink in white, but then it is kind of 'off-white' in real life. Rrr. The mirror is now too big to fit under the new light so I have to have someone cut a couple inches off. I'm really tired of getting ready at the kitchen sink and using the window reflection to get ready in. And after all my hard work sanding and painting the cabinets, all my whites look a little off. So now I'm wondering if I do them all over again or just live with it? It seems a shame tho, all that work to not really like it.
I had been looking forward to using this new shower curtain we registered for, but when we hung it, it looked like the tub was wearing flood pants
so traded it for this one that is also 72" but looks a tad longer??
Mom also came over last week to help me with the outside paint on our bay window
it was a dark gray
but the paint was in rough shape
so first we had to scrape all the old paint off
scraping is not for the weak
Then we re-painted on white kilz primer. And I caulked all the cracks. So now that it's white I actually like it like that. But I'm not sure if you have to paint over primer?? Especially outdoors?? I had already bought a small quart of gray outdoor paint to just re-do it like the last time. (I am apparently on quite the white and gray streak) So I guess I'm just stalling, I'm not sure if I should leave it white or just repaint it gray again... hmmm....
There is a phase 2 planned for the outside of the house, but that will now have to wait for funds to be replenished. We want to put a lattice trim around the bottom of the deck, get shutters, and re-do all the crazy bushes with normal sized bushes and flowers. So I'm thinking spring, I just don't know if I should leave the window unpainted/primed-only till then.
The other big money sucker is after all my car problems in the beginning of this month, the Jeep's engine died. We thought it probably wasn't worth putting $3k in for a new engine in a 99 Jeep, so off it went on CraigsList (sold first day with no engine) and we've been sharing a car until we can find something new.
Goodbye Jeep. I wish your engine would've died before we bought you a new alternator, exhaust system, and struts.
Hopefully we will find something good soon and it will live long and prosper!
A little bit of happiness this weekend:
Reading in the hammock on a lazy sunny Sunday afternoon. (I already finished this fun read I've Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella.) I had been laying there peacefully reading when I heard my neighbor come out and start working in his yard.... and eventually Doug had to plan my rescue
haha, he came and got me and we went inside and enjoyed the rest of the evening in safety.

Friday, September 18, 2015

nursing

I thought these were funny
I'm no super skilled assessor (yet), but already I use my stethoscope to determine if my patients' might need a breathing treatment or have fluid around their lungs, I have heard heart murmurs and valve clicks, and have heard bowel sounds which tells me their digestive system is working, or not.
No one likes having their job belittled, so seeing a lot of nurses upset and posting responses, both funny and just simply providing education has been interesting.
I don't watch the View, I don't need the drivel and gossip, but I looked up Joy Behar to see if I could find out how she has never come across a nurse before. I guess she was a receptionist, a producer, comedian, and then tv host. Fair enough, that is totally a different realm than healthcare. And maybe she has been lucky enough to not be in a hospital yet, however, at 72 that will likely end at sometime, but still not to have visited someone and seen a loved one cared for? Anyway. I saw that there was a challenge for her to job shadow that Miss Colorado for a day to see what it is like in another person's shoes, I think that is a great idea, but pretty sure she won't do it. Interesting.

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

painting the bathroom

Blue tape. It can only mean one thing. Time to paint the bathroom!
So Doug's friend Thor finished the mudding/sanding of our bathroom while we were gone and started with the primer. I finished up the primer, and Doug painted the ceiling and then it was finally time to paint.
I've been listening to this really good series about the end times so my painting flew by listening to a couple of these. I painted 2 coats of a gray called 'polished silver'.
It's a really nice light gray.
So then I went to peel off the tape while the paint was still wet...
rrrrr, curse you stupid blue hawk tape!! It peeled off pieces of my new paint and also peeled off pieces of the ceiling paint. So now today instead of moving on to the next thing I am tediously painting on little bits of ceiling and the other paint again.
Also doing patching jobs around the outlets. I guess we didn't notice this while it was still in the drywall/patching phase, but it is noticeable now!
whoops
At least we are over halfway now. Pretty soon we can reinstall the light fixture, then the vanity with it's new sink. Hang up the towel bars and shower curtain rod. Then the last big thing will be the floor. We still have to find some tile we even like, and then dad will come over to help us install that, switch out the toilet, trim everything up, and then we're done. We'll see how long that all takes! Never thought we'd be into our 3rd month.
Also I'm super bummed about my garden. When we left my tomato plants were lush and green, I think Doug's friend may have overwatered because every leaf is a shriveled mess yet there was standing water in the pot :(
and then there are a couple sunflowers just about 4 feet high
but all the rest grew so tall and the heads are so heavy they are tipping over
I am growing a couple nice peppers though
I'm looking forward to trying again next year.