Cinnamon Rolls and Elf Party

Last week was my boss's birthday so I made him some cinnamon roll cupcakes with a recipe I'd been wanting to try for awhile.

rolling out the dough and spreading it with butter

covering it with brown sugar/cinnamon mixture

rolling it up

smushing it into baking tins

baking up unevenly

and frosted with cream cheese frosting

All in all, these were pretty delicious. This batch got a minute overbaked, but the next ones were ooey-gooey cinnabon-esque. Yum. But at the end of it, I threw the recipe away never to make again. They just took forever. The dough used yeast so I had to wait for it to rise, knead it, roll it out. Then the frosting used up all my cream cheese and a lot of butter.

If I was rich I would have a fridge full of butter. I love baking, but I hate using up all my butter all the time.

So this weekend we had our annual Elf party. At said party a bunch of the college friends get together and watch Elf (at least it plays in the background) while we eat and catch up and have a good time together. You are supposed to dress up like an elf as well. So this year I went to the salvation army looking for a green skirt. I found a 2x ladies shirt that I thought I could make into a skirt.

I cut the arms off and threaded the top with a ribbon to make a waist

added some snowflake earrings

a stripey scarf and almost matching stripey tall socks and I was off.

It was a fun night, lots of good food and seeing friends that I hadn't seen in awhile. We attempted a Christmas carol kareyoke but sadly youtube was a fail and the songs were mostly horrible midi files in a super high soprano key. Jill had warned me that maybe I ought to double ribbon my skirt waist and I thought 'nah, ribbon is always so hard to break through', turns out she was right. Toward the end of the night I was standing in the kitchen and looked down and my skirt was hanging down and I could see my underwear! I'm not sure anyone else saw but it was hilarious and I had to go tell the girls why I was laughing so hard. Whoops!

Meteors

Here is a pic of what I didn't see last night:

Last night was supposed to be the peak of the Perseids Meteor shower. So 11:30 pm last night, me and Becks went and sat out on the sidewalk in my pjs, coat, and boots, but I didn't see a thing. Becks was not impressed at all and used his stargazing opportunity to take a poo on the lawn.

We live just outside of downtown so maybe it was too much city lights, it would have been guaranteed awesome at my parent's house in the country, but too late to drive there on a work night, too tired.

The last time something came around I faithfully set my alarm for 3am and went out to see something, and clouds. Maybe someday I'll see something!

My top celestial dream would be to see aurora borealis, someday, someday.

Anyway, I passed all my exams! So I can continue on in my program. Now I get to enjoy almost 3 weeks of freedom and visiting with my family. I still have some reading I have to do over break, but not as crazy as it's been. Yay!

Hospital Experience

Today was my first time in the hospital, I won't start my for real clinical until January, today was just a 'taste'. I felt so awkward at first, I totally bumbled my blood pressure, but the rest of the day went by pretty good. I did vitals, gave a bed bath, changed a bed with my patient in it, and then I watched my classmate change a guy's ostomy bag and I looked at his stage 4 pressure ulcer. Ouch. His nurse came in and evaluated the wound to see how deep it was and if it was tunneling, it was, and it started to bleed. I was almost crying imagining how it hurt and just to see a giant hole missing from someone's back and to know it will probably never heal. Sad. But all in all a pretty good first day.

After that I was still able to make it to my work Christmas party. I didn't think I could make it so I called my boss and told him no one could make fun of me in my scrubs while they were all festive/business casual. But I'm glad I went. Who passes up free lunch at Andiamos?? We had appetizers, salad, I got gnocchi, and chocolate dessert. Mmmmmm. And more and more I'm really loving my co-workers. They are so fun. Over the past months we've started doing girl's dinners, baseball games, and we're planning to go dancing next week. And it was just super fun today. It totally sucked getting fired from my old job back in January, it made an already worst month of my entire life even more terrible, but besides the paycut and loss of benefits, I'm glad I don't work there. I really love my job now and am a lot happier here. I finally feel like I know what I'm doing, I'm pretty good at it, and I just love my co-workers and boss. So I am thankful. I hope God has more good things for me up His sleeve in a nursing job someday 2 years from now!

Crockpot Caroling

Last weekend was another weekend that was mainly spent studying... Well, studying and cooking.

I made chicken and cheese sliders soo good, make these if you like to sweat while you eat. I accidently put in too much chipotle peppers, but yum!

Peppers, onion and garlic in the pot

Surely some chicken fell somewhere!

So easy - just simmer for 30 minutes!

A masterpiece.

The next day I studied a lot.

It was so hard to get into it. Back up was called in.

A little help staying awake please caffeine?

Another good thing about Christmas, (no comparison to the birth of our savior of course), but seasonally delicious, mint m&ms- yum!

Then Saturday night it was time for a break. Jill had been invited to a Crockpot and Christmas Caroling party, so we made a dump cake in the crock pot and she and I and another friend headed over. It was so fun! There were like 40 people and crockpots of amazing food everywhere. A lot of us all crammed into the living room and then we sang Christmas songs together. I loved it. My family is pretty musical, and we used to go door to door Christmas caroling to the neighbors. Not that I want to do it everyday, but it was really nice. I hope someday I have a home that I can open to friends and family and have a community of people in my life like that.

Sunday was church and more studying and more food making. This time I made a tortilla pie. I used to make this all the time, but haven't made it in awhile. I think it's coming back into the rotation, it's so good.

Mix the black beans, tomatoes, and salsa

Mash your pinto beans (hard work!) and add in the garlic (press- do not chop otherwise it's too garlicky!)

Beans ready to be layered

Get mad about the cheese being wasted stuck to the foil

Hot out of the oven

Yum!

There should be a salad or something green on the side of this. Since I have been husbandless I have cared a lot less about balanced meals. But I should try and be better about this, I need vitamins too!

Well I'm happy to report all the studying paid off, I got an 'A' on my exam yesterday! And passed my one assessment class. Now all I have left is another final on Thursday and my first orientation day in the hospital tomorrow. I'm excited... and nervous.

Maybe after finals I will finally start sleeping better again. Last night I had super weird dreams I was at the house of this guy from my church and he was showing me his apartment where he had to share a bathroom with his landlord. And then he showed me this giant wall sized rack of bacon he was dehydrating, and I was going to have to hurt his feelings when he offered me a taste since I don't eat bacon. Dreams are so weird!

Compliment?

At work we're working on a strange case that is becoming more movie plot-esque by the day. A lady is pretty much being harrassed by the police and I was in my boss's office brainstorming of ways we can possibly help her more practically than by just working on her in-progress lawsuit.

My boss looked at me and said, "the thing that is so charming about you is you live in a different world; there's Anne's world and then there's reality".

I'm not sure if that was meant as a compliment or not, he was smiling, but while pretty much telling me I'm oblivious.

Anyway, I took it as a compliment. I do dream of a world where people are good and have purpose and love each other. But yeah, that world probably doesn't fully exist this side of heaven. Even if people are "good" we all still fall short.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Romans 3:23

Even so, God still calls us to do good.

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12:21

And He gives us the ability to do so.

I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Phillipians 4:13

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. Joshua 1:9

And even when it seems too hard, we can be confident God will win the battle for this world.

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. John 16:33

Yums

I made dinner the other night and took my usual few pictures. My friend/roommate Jill was like 'do you always take pictures of your food?' and I said if I'm going to write about it I did, and she said something like, 'the blogs going to be hopping tonight'... ah... well probably not, but I like writing it anyway!

I made my favorite veggie burger recipie

It kinda looks all gross when it's just sitting in the bowl. But it does cook up tasty. Ground oats, ground almonds, flaxseed, sunflower seeds, bread crumbs, onion, garlic, shredded carrot, spices, black beans, and parsley. Sometimes I'm not crazy about the parsley flavor, but overall, very tasty.

I also made some sweet potato fries, looks like I waited too long on this guy

I also made a cranberry crumble. Sometimes this blog girl's recipies are hit or miss, but this one was really good. I only had about 3/4 a bag of cranberries left from Thanksgiving so I tried to scale down the crumble part a bit, I would definitely make it again with all the cranberries, I love a good thick fruity layer. I also made this with all brown sugar instead of maple syrup. That stuff is like $6 a teeny jar, so it gets rationed.

Here are the oats,ground almonds, and spices, my blender did do a good job on this recipie, good job blender.

So here it is

I'm even eating some cranberry crumble right now layered with greek yogurt and sliced banana. Yum.

I saw some of these at Kroger for $1 each, I was excited, my new favorite wine!

Maybe I'll have to dip into that this weekend when I'm studying nonstop for next week's finals!

Early Christmas Present

The other day I came to work and this giant was on my desk

There it is all settled into the condo, taking up 4 of the 750 sq ft. Also, when I was babysitting a few weeks back for my boss I noticed he had 2 copies of Home Alone and so I casually mentioned that the extra copy could come live at my house. So also on my desk I saw this

Home Alone 1 and 2! Which was very thoughtful of my boss, but totally defeated the purpose of me recycling his extra copy.

Oh well.

This weekend was a good one except I did hardly any studying. We had out of town family visiting so I went home Friday night, and then Saturday night we went down to Detroit for Noel night, and then Sunday I went to my parent's Christmas choir concert. Which meant I was super behind and stressed all Monday. But it was a really fun weekend. One of my dad's friends was over too and we all sat at the table for hours talking and laughing. My mom told me later that she was happy to hear me laughing again.

This whole year has been super hard on my parents. I can't imagine being a parent and having your daughter call you sobbing as often as I had this year. I have both really needed, and been super blessed to have them though. One time my mom did comment that it was hard for her to have me call her so upset all the time, and I said 'well I can either call you crying, or you can find me hanging in the closet, your choice'. She did not like that comment very much and was very check-up-y for the next couple weeks. I couldn't ever do that to my family, but I understand a lot more how people can feel there is no escape. I am so lucky that I have parents who love me so much, and support me, and every time encourage me to give my hurt and pain to God and to turn to Him for healing and comfort. It has been- I was almost going to write 'amazing', which seems like such an odd word for a woman who has been abandoned by her husband- but God has been amazing. And I have been very blessed to have such wonderful parents, siblings, and friends. I really don't know how people do this without Him.

(insert segue here)

(my English teacher always did say I was bad at transitions, turns out I still am)

I did get a little studying in on saturday though.

And Friday I made dinner

Delicious seasoned salmon, and trader joe's green beanies. No carbs for me, (besides that tasty beer) because I was bad at work and ate 2 bagels!! Curse you Panera Bread for your irresistible sesame seed bagel goodness.

Jill laughed so much about how huge the poinsettia was, but then the next day I saw she had placed presents under it. Haha, our substitute Christmas tree.

And lastly I made Oreo Truffles, which I thought I would just whip up for the last women's small group, but again I was mourning the loss of my food processor because it turned into a super annoying chore. One broken spatula and a lot of time later, they were done. And super tasty.