Grandparents Visit

Last weekend my grandparents came in town so they could go to the 100th anniversary of the church they were members at for 60-some years. I went to the mass with my cousin, and a couple aunts and uncles. Man I do not understand Catholic masses. There were guys with swords and fancy hats. I asked my uncle about it, he said they were the Knights of Columbus, but did not explain exactly what they were doing there. So it remains a mystery. And for such a big event they had some random guy from another church do the mass and he said it was the 50th anniversary, not the 100th. My aunt explained it was a big honor to have him do it because he was the diocese bishop or something, it just seemed like they had their own priests do mass for 100 years and then random guy comes in to steal all the thunder. At least that's how it seemed to a protestant, haha. After the mass they had a reception where my grandparents were mentioned for being some of the longest active church members. It was really neat. My grandma has been losing her memory the past couple years, and it was nice to see her talking with people who I think she remembered in that part of the old-memories brain storage. They had pictures of church member guys during the war up at the reception and one was my grandpa.

What a stud!

Otherwise...

I've been feeling so lazy lately. I don't know, maybe I'm in a funk.

I made some stuff this weekend.

Soup which was delicious. Pasta e fagoli. Recipe from Liz, this one mine actually does turn out as good as hers :)

And a fail:

Mom and I made kettlecorn a few weekends ago and it was delicious! I'm not sure what I did wrong, but I totally burned it :(

AND I lost another spoon

I can't understand these things, you'd think from looking at it I poked it into the flames of hell, but no, nope, just stirring some popcorn.

Did these spoon designers not understand the spoons intended purpose?? It couldn't have been hotter than 200*, I mean, come on!

Lastly, I was SO excited to see these back in stores:

I have 3 cranberry recipes I love: vegan cranberry crumble, cape cod cranberry cake/bread, and cranberry chocolate chip muffins. The bag says you can just throw the whole bag in the freezer and then take them out whenever later, and no need to even thaw them. I am thinking of seriously stocking up since they really are only in stores for 2 months. Hmmm, how many bags would last me a whole year... Someday Anne's future house is going to have a huge freezer in the basement and I can stockpile and hoard to my hearts delight. But for now I can probably only have a bag or two, wah wah.

Back to this these days

studying with my little study buddy! I'm already 2/3 done with OB, crazy! Everyone else already got to see a baby born already, but my mom's were just not dilating. Oh well, maybe next week!

Friday Ramblings

Today I thought 'woohoo, it's friday!!' and then I remembered I have to work tomorrow. So, wah-wah average day. After work I came home, ran, made/ate dinner. Tonight I watched this show called Undercover Boss. It was so good!! This CEO of a froyo place, Menchies, pretended he was a new hire or something and (secretly) evaluated a bunch of people that worked for him. He totally busted this snobby teen girl who was like 'pretty people shouldn't have to work' as she made him sweep the floor. Then later he was incredibly gracious and told her he wasn't going to fire her but was going to send her to this leadership training thing, and then at the end you see the 'where are they now' and she quit and wants to be a professional dancer... yeah... good luck with that. Anyway, I was so impressed with this guy. If we had a Menchies here, I would go to it!

Work is going pretty good. I like the people there and am feeling like I'm getting the hang of it. I feel like I'm being helpful to the nurses there, and some of the patients have seemed to like me. This one nurse calls me 'baby girl'. I like it :) Today I had to tell a cantankerous old man that it's not nice to call people 'polacks' but other than that I've been having good interactions at work.

Tonight's dinner, a favorite, butternut squash burritos:

I wish I could win a 'butternut squash for life' contest. I love them. I love fall when mom gives me ones from her garden, but I think that supply has dried up already. Noooo!! I also love cranberries and keep stalking the grocery store to see if they're in yet. Come on cranberry bog people!! Get farming!

Earlier this week I went to book club and met my friend's new baby girl. I had made her a frame and this onesie to go with it:

Liz hosted bookclub and sent me home with some leftover soup. It looked like mud, but it was very tasty. Some kind of butternut squash soup with herbs and molasses. Hers had donut croutons to go with it, my leftover version had tasty TJ's crackers and cheese. These crackers are really good, but I dare not get attached as everything I love from TJ's seems to get discontinued :(

Also from earlier this week, I have discovered that I am a stress baker. I had an exam coming up and what was the first thing I did when I got home from school? Hit the books? No, make cookies.

Luckily I can usually count on some of my nursing classmates to help disperse the calories. I just really like the baking part for some reason. And oh my gosh, my co-worker brought in her husband's cookies today. So good. Chocolate chocolate chip with oreos and cut-up mounds bars in them. Yum. Must recreate...

Speaking of nursing school, I saw this hilarious thing on some website:

So true, and so hilarious if I sent it to my professor from mental health last semester who gave me such a hard time about suicide!

Also earlier this week, this happened:

My robot phone decided it had better things to do than help me text while driving. So sorry to disturb you Siri!! You just let me know when you're ready to handle my 'requests'.

(otherwise loving this voice-to-text thing! it can even do emails, and hard words! I've been testing it, supercalifragilistikexpialidocious came out perfectly ;))

And finally, just when I thought I couldn't get excited about movies coming out... I saw this and it totally redeemed itself....

OH MY GOSH

YES!!!

I'VE WAITED 20 YEARS FOR THIS MOMENT!!

And it's real Lloyd and Harry this time, none of this prequel garbage. SO EXCITED!!! And how am I just hearing about this??? Anyway, date TBA in 2014. I wish I could watch it with my brother and sister together, that would just make my joy complete.

It's so funny they're bringing back old cancelled stuff. First they make a new Indiana Jones (granted it was terrible), then more Star Wars movies (meh, cgi like crazy, altho I liked young Yoda and hot Hayden Christiansen (minus his not-hot hair braid)), then a whole new season of Arrested Development (also on the fence about those too).... LOL as I'm typing this I'm realizing I've ALWAYS liked the old ones better... but maaaybe this time it will work ;) it also makes me wonder what other old faves are going to make a comeback.... Punky Brewster?... Saved by the Bell?... that show I loved where the girl had an alien dad and would put her pointer fingers together to freeze time? I wish! But for now I will remain very excited and optimistic for Dumb & Dumber To. :)

I'm an AUNT!!!

October 21, 2013 at 6:18 am MT, little miss Molina Grace came into the world tipping the scales at 6 lbs, 12 ozs and 19 inches long.

THOSE CHEEKS!!!

I don't even remember now, I had talked to Michelle on Friday night or something. Asked marathon questions, talked a bit about her upcoming labor. She was feeling fine, ready to do it. I emailed her the stuff I had just learned in class of tips to know when labor is on its way.

Sunday at some point I got a call from mom that they were going into the hospital!

Then heard nothing all day.....

In the evening called mom and she said things were moving slowly and they told her to get up and move around, so I guess she did. And I think she eventually got a little bit of Pitocin to help move things along quicker since her water had already broken.

The next morning I wake up, run to my phone, nothing! Call mom, she hadn't heard anything either! So off I go to class and when I checked my phone on break I had a new baby niece!!! Michelle's sister had texted Elizabeth and I to let us know all the details. Later my classmate was like 'who's that baby you keep looking at on your phone?' My new niece!

It's kinda fun going thru OB/GYN now in school at the same time as a new baby is coming. Already I know how to assess baby and calculate how many calories they need, and what percent is too much weight to lose. Not that any of this new found wisdom can help of course since this new baby is 1200+ miles away! :(

But I'm very excited to celebrate this blessing in my brother's life, he and Michelle will make such great parents. And I'm also very excited to go visit them over Christmas!

awww... baby girl's so tired!

yawn!

Molina and Mommy:

(I think that photo is so beautiful)

Molina and Daddy:

haha, she looks like she's squinting... is that you Dad? ...I can't see too good....

Go team!

Joel and Michelle combined their names ( ala 'Brangelina') to be Jochelle to refer to themselves, but what will they be now? Mo-jochelle? Jochellet? Jochellina?

Thank you God for this beautiful blessing of a new life, please be with Joel and Michelle as they love and care for this little girl and encourage her to someday put her heart in Your hands!

Detroit Half Marathon!!!

I have officially checked one of my 2013 goals off the list, run a half marathon!

This morning bright and early Liz and I arrived to run the Detroit half marathon. The course was cool in that you got to run across the bridge to Canada, run along the shore, run through the tunnel on the way back to the US, and then wind around Detroit (past my childhood church) and then to the finish line.

I had no idea how this race would go. I have been running sporadically this summer/early fall. I could very comfortably run 3 miles, and occasionally I would run for an hour. Recently at the end of the hour I would feel like I *could* run more, I just never wanted to and always had things to do. Up until today, I had never ran further than 6.2 miles.

Here we are pre-race!

I could not believe how much stuff people threw away along the race! Gloves, hats, mittens, nice fleeces, jackets, pants. It was crazy! My friend said later crews come around and pick all that stuff up for the shelters, but it was crazy to see so much of it. I heard there were 24k runners, wow!

Some people had some really funny signs, my mind is going blank right now, but one I liked was "you run better than our government" Haha, sad.

Other favorite moments were running through the tunnel with Liz and she was wishing for some food and what did we see a few steps later but a granola bar on the ground! She went to pick it up, brand new! Manna from heaven said Liz. It was fun running together we were laughing and joking the whole way.

Liz in the tunnel with her manna.

The halfway mark in the tunnel between Canada and the US. (excuse the bluriness I was taking a pic with the phone whilst it was strapped to my arm)

It was a beautiful day and really fun to run with Liz. She hadn't trained as much so I had a dilemma of did I want to run together, or did I want to go for time? I had mostly decided that I wanted to run just to do it, I wasn't going to win any medals or anything, so we stuck together. That did mean we took a few more walking breaks than I might have wanted to, but I still feel like I earned my 13.1 bumper sticker! At the very end Liz's knees were bothering her and she wanted to walk a lot so I ran the last mile by myself.

During the race I was actually surprised at how good I felt running. I was breathing completely normally, barely sweating, I felt like I could keep going. I had no idea how this would be with not so much training. And when I talked to my marathon runner sister-in-law the other night I told her I'd gotten up to an hour and it was like *cricket cricket* oh.... ummm... yeah you might be able to do it. Haha. So I felt great. But actually the second I crossed over the finish line and stopped running I started feeling really weird. My face felt strange and I felt disorientated. I wrapped up in my little foil blanket and just stood there for a long time. Eventually found Liz and then made our way back to the car.

I put this pic on facebook and then I think some people thought I ran a full marathon, whoops, definitely not!

Then we re-parked somewhere else and walked back another 2 miles into downtown to find this vegan food truck. After we ate and came back I couldn't find my keys in my purse, and as I walked up to the car I saw that I had locked the car and left the keys on the hood for the past 2 hours, in Detroit, whoops! Thank God they were there! I really felt like I was operating on only 80% of a brain after the race.

But it was a great experience. My knees are rocking my world right now, not in a good way, but I really had a great time. Now I keep thinking to myself, could I do the full one??? I've never had the desire to, but now mostly I'm just curious... we'll see...

things I made

Well I've started OB/GYN and these past few days have been a blur of reading 8+ chapters and doing the study guides. It takes SO LONG!! But hope some stuff is sinking in.

My friend just had a baby girl a few days ago. Normally I like making baby hats, but I haven't felt like doing that in awhile. They also take so long! And I haven't been on any road trips as a passenger in awhile, (the best time for knitting, when not taking naps :)) But while studying the other day I felt an irresistible pull to craft. So I took a break and made this (well, during an accumulation of 2 days of study breaks):

cheap craft frame from wal-mart + fabric that I think is so beautiful + decoupage glue

glued in place

cutting out letters from felt, I wished I could have done it in cursive, but I didn't know how to cut it out

all done! (but does anyone else think that "C" should be bigger??)

I wanted Psalm 139:13-16 on there, but ran out of room, whoops!

Hope she likes it. I'm going to make another little something to go with it, but I have to wash the fabric first.

With this new schedule I'm done at the lawfirm :( but for the next 8 weeks at least I have more time built into the work week to study, and will be at the hospital working on friday and saturday. So far I like it. It also frees up a little time during the day to hang out with this little guy.

Although that still means he spends a lot of time either up on his window seat while I'm studying, or on my lap while I'm studying, at least he's not always just alone in the bathroom.

Today we enjoyed the brief afternoon sun and went for a little walk.

beautiful sky! (I'm always on the quest for the perfect facebook cover shot)

he's getting fluffy :)

Although I should be more careful about talking about Becks and I as "we". My friend Brigetta once dated this guy who was so weird about his dog and was always saying stuff like 'we ate dinner' and 'we like long walks on the beach' and me & Brigetta always made fun of him like 'why don't you go marry her then!' I love Becks, but I don't want to marry him :)

Recent eats:

Scrambled eggs on toast with carrots and this new awesome TJ's chipotle hummus. I like how when Trader Joe's makes something mexican-ish they call themselves Trader Jose's :) makes me smile

"When Kroger makes you buy a bag of lemons instead of just selling them one at a time, make lemonade" .... turned out quite tasty actually

"When life makes you want to eat cookies"... jk, but made these toasted peanut butter chocolate chip ones today. Very tasty indeed. I'm at a place where I want to start making all the recipes I've printed out over the past months, if it's a good one it goes in my binder, if not it gets tossed out. This one is a keeper!

weekend

What a wonderful weekend!

I have been trying desperately to recreate the ginger molasses cookies that I had at that tea shop last weekend. Batch 2 was better than batch 1, but still not quite right... not sure what else I could tweak! :/

Last week at my clinical my classmate and I were walking in and saw a little therapy dog. She was so sweet, and when I looked closer I saw she was wearing a name tag badge. And then I looked closer and she even had her picture on it! LOL, so precious!

Saturday I worked in the morning, and then went to the cidermill with Jill, her friend, and Becks. It was a beautiful day and we got cider and donuts. Which we then had to fend off a swarm of bees to enjoy!

Later that night I had a date night, with my parents :) Mom and Dad brought over delicious pizza then we went to see Captain Phillips. It was so good!

After that we went to a dessert place downtown and got fancy mochas and split chocolate cake and listened to live music. It was a great date :)

Today was the last day of clinical, I passed!, and next up is OB/GYN. I'm excited.

I'm enjoying fall, this sweet little guy, and the beautiful changing colors!

catching up

What a long week.

But good news, I think I passed another semester!! Grade-wise I am totally good, but I've had a hard time this semester with my clinical instructor. For the long run, I think her comments will be beneficial to me, but I have been feeling excessively scrutinized and I heard 3 separate times this semester that she was warning me that she would fail me. I was getting ready to plan my own stay in the mental hospital! :( but tonight was the last exam, and I have an extra assignment due on Monday, but she told me today she is not going to fail me. Whew.

So catching up on the ol blog.

When I was downtown last week for my new job orientation I went running on Belle Isle. I love it there.

The skyline after my run

The becautiful building where I had my reception

The gorgeous view as I drove home. I love it there, and I'm happy I can go there without too many sad memories.

Last weekend I went to the wedding of my old co-worker's daughter. Here we all are, Suite 400 gals:

Me & Cristy, I miss seeing her everyday at work!! :(

I got to bring these beautiful wedding flowers home. It was such a fun wedding, it's been a few years since a wedding so fun. Such amazing food, great music, we danced all night. Good times.

Also last weekend I went to a Switchfoot concert with my friends Matt & Rachel, they got me the tix for my bday and took me out to eat at this Belgian brewery. I got this amazing steak salad with goat cheese. I am loving goat cheese, I don't know what was wrong with me avoiding it all these years??

The concert was pretty good except the first half was this film they made of them on a guys trip surfing and 'getting inspired' to write new songs. It was good, but a little long. It needed to be a higher live music to movie ratio.

This week has been so busy with work and school.

You know you're busy when you put your apple core under the car seat and notice a small collection is growing.

And you notice your car is otherwise filthy.

But work is going well. I am feeling like I already am mostly getting the hang of what I'm supposed to be doing. And I've had some good feedback from the charge nurses that I was doing a good job and being helpful. Yay! And today one of the volunteers said she observed me with a patient and I was really kind and 'professional', I think it was so funny she specifically used that word because earlier in the week my nursing instructor told me I wasn't. I should have asked if I could get that in writing ;). I felt really anxious at work today because someone came in that I knew and I don't think they recognized me, or I think we both realized who each other was at the same time and no one wanted to say anything. I wish I was better in those scenarios. No matter what they think of me, especially since I don't know what version they heard, I still want to come across as kind and compassionate and true to myself. Anyway.

After work and before my exam today I met up with mom for lunch. I talked with her and she prayed for me. I love my mom. She is such a wonderful source of wisdom and always encourages and supports me. I'm so lucky.

She gave me another bag of beets and carrots from the garden and told me to cut off the deer bite marks

Hilarious. I can do that! Get your hooves off my carrots deer!! These things are so tasty roasted.