Thursday...

Today




work...




eat...





sleep...






tomorrow




rinse and repeat......

Michael Buble Tour this SUMMER!

Michael Buble is coming to San Diego this summer!!

I ::puffy heart:: love Michael Buble and have loved him since my friend Becca brought me to one of his concerts WAY back during my freshmen year of college. IT WAS AMAZING! There were people literally dancing in the aisles. I don't think he will disappoint this time either.

Unfortunately I was tantalized by a pre-sale e-mail that won't allow me to order more than one ticket. So I will have to get up early Friday and remember to buy my tickets before I go to work.

YAY!!!!!!!
-can you tell I'm excited?-

Time for a new routine

So since I have finished with the couch to 5k running plan I have decided that I need to start to incorporate more strength training into my workout routine. I want to keep up with the running but I need to start lifting weights again too.

The thing is I actually LIKE to lift weights. I mean free weights, dumbbells and barbells. This comes from my dad and my brother (both heavy weight lifters) I am usually one of the few (if not the only) woman over there when I used to lift in the gym. But when I started the couch to 5k it became all consuming and I stopped weight lifting entirely.

I got this book to help get me going again


This book has been really useful for me to help do my weekly workout planning (I have in my young adulthood become a very type-A listy type. I meal plan I plan my workouts I have lists for everything!). Cindy has about 20 different workouts divided by muscle groups that are designed for muscle toning that is specific to a woman's body. She also has included nifty sections on diet and determine your individual body type. I saw her other book on Amazon used for a good price so I picked that up too.

Today's workout

30 min run (treadmill. with 5 min warm-up and cool down)

*Legs* 15 reps of each exercise From 101 Ways to work out with weights
Bullet Squats - Quads
Bridge and Scoop - Hamstrings
Donkey Kicks - Glutes
Inner Thigh raises - thighs
Side plank raises - outer thighs

Monday....

Hey all, It's Monday; and Little Rhody Girl is on call until 7 tonight.

I HATE being on call, basically work can call me anytime today until 7 and I have to drop everything and get to work. I hate the feeling of waiting all day for the phone to ring, and jump every time it does! So far nothing yet but that doesn't mean squat, I'm not safe until around 4pm, because by then it doesn't benefit them at all to call me in and pay me time and a half for 2ish hours.

At least I get paid to be on call, so if they don't call me I still make 60 bucks to be at home!

So today I have a boring day planned inside/running errands (with a pair of scrubs in the car of course!) I need to get some craft time in today (making something for someone who may or may not be graduating from High school in a few months....)

in other news....

I FINISHED THE C25K YESTERDAY!!!!!!! I ran with my hubs for the first time and it was really enjoyable. I might even say fun? yes I can say fun. I was a little worried because I am REALLY competitive and since Kyle has been running for years compared to my 4 months I knew he could wipe the floor with me! But he let me set the pace and ran with me the whole time; how motivating! I can now run 3 miles at a 10 min mile pace. YES!!!!!!

Favorite App Friday

I have an iphone, and I don't pretend to hide the fact that I think the invention of the iphone ranks up there with the wheel. I serisously DO NOT know how I got along without it. It was a good day in my life after I got married and combined phone lines with my husband and he bought one for me!

I am constantly on the look out for new apps to add to the MANY that I have. So I have decided to start a weekly discussion of the apps I already have, then maybe I might be able to get you guys talking and recommending other apps that would be useful for me (and other Little Rhody Girl followers).

So here it is! The First EVER favorite app Friday!

Today's edition is on my most recent Purchase, MLB At Bat 2010.

This app was an answered prayer when I was wondering how I was going to follow my Boston Red Sox this season. Last year I tried (and failed) to get on the computer for each game that I could and caught I think 2 or 3 games on ESPN. NOT O.K.

enter At Bat 2010.

This app is a direct link to MLB.com's gameday network, allowing you to follow ANY and ALL of the games currently in play and the schedule for upcomming games. It streams live commentary for the games while they happen and MLB.tv subscribers can watch the games as they happen (people like me can watch highlights but all I need is the radio feed). And I am talking about ALL of the MLB team from both Leagues. It also has streaming news, stats, and team rosters.

Here's a screenshot

as you can see the person who took this screen shot is also a red sox fan (haha). So this is the main page showing you all of the games in the schedule for that day and all of these games are currently in play, selecting a game brings up gameplay(TM) where you can watch play by play action and connect to the streaming feeds of talk radio and streaming video.

At 14.99 this is the most expensive app I have ever purchased (well I had an iTunes gift card so I guess I didn't really pay for it); but in my opinion what you get for the $$ is well worth it. It gives my a much desired connection to my home team, and it makes me smile to hear commercials for New England companies during game breaks =)

Any baseball fan with an iphone should consider taking the plunge for this app. they do have a free version but it is quite limited. If anyone tries that let me know how it is!

GO SOX!!!!!!

Glee

Do you guys watch Glee Tuesday nights on fox? Well I do AND I LOVE IT!!!!!

I saw previews for it over the summer on TV and at first I wrote it off as another High School Musical type thing (don't get me wrong I liked the HSM movies but they were just so....pre-teen I guess. I'm about 10 years too old for that :-). But I decided to TiVO it anyway to check it out and I have been hooked ever since.

It's basically the story of a Glee club that originally is filled with all of the typical High School misfits and outcasts (I mean every stereotype that can exist people, it's in there) but then a member of the football team joins, then some of his buddies join, then some cheerleaders join! (ah if only High School really operated that way.....) There is a VERY healthy rivalry between the Glee Club coach and the Cheerleading coach, (the banter between them is always funny!) and the singing is phenomenal! I mean exceptional, they sing show choir covers of a lot of fantastic songs.

This is one of my favorite songs from last fall (of course I DO LOVE queen anyway...)

Viddler.com - Glee - Somebody to Love (Video) - Uploaded by GummyBearMob
- Watch more Videos at Vodpod.

It's a really fun show to watch, not quite guilty pleasure level (like something you don't tell your friends you actually watch 16 and pregnant); I'd love to talk to you ladies that do watch it and hear what your favorite songs are from the show and who your favorite character is.

I like to look at Matthew Morrison, who plays do gooder Spanish Teacher/Glee Coach Will Shuester

Gotta love a Man who can sing!

Book Review: Baby Catcher, Chronicles of a Modern Midwife

My Latest read was Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife by Peggy Vincent. This autobiography recounts dozens of the births that Peggy attended throughout her career as a Midwife in Berkley California during the 1980's. She practiced as an OB-RN on a mother baby unit at Alta Bates Hospital in Berkley for 15 years before she decided to go to Midwifery school. Once she graduated and became a Certified Nurse Midwife she started a private practice specializing in home births. She also was instrumental in opening one of the first hospital sponsored birth centers in the Berkley area.

The book is separated into three basic parts; her beginning career as a RN, her midwifery career, and her journey afterward. The many birth stories occupy individual chapters throughout the bulk of the book. Each chapter is a different family, a different pregnancy, and a different labor journey filled with support, love, a little calamity and always good laughter. It was a book recommended to me by several of the OB Nurses on a nursing message board I frequent online; and I would recommend it to any woman who is looking for a good read.

It was especially interesting for me to learn more about the popularity of home births during that time. She went to Midwifery school in the late 70s during the height of the "hippy" movement in Berkley, and home birth was on the rise. People wanted to have the freedom to labor in their own homes at their own pace, seems reasonable right? Today that option is really risky; since liability has pretty much obliterated the ability for Midwives to get insured for home birthing. So laboring at home has become dangerous because there is a lack of skilled personnel that can be present. It's frustrating to me how much of a monopoly OB-GYNs have on the "market" so to speak. With cesearans on the rise more than ever before the need for CNM's is even greater, we need to get back to the basics, after all, women were giving birth long before there were OB-GYNs, or hospitals, or anything medical for that matter.

I feel that any woman who is thinking about having kids should read this book, or something like it to open your eyes to the different options you have available to you. I know for sure that I will have a Midwife deliver me when I decide to start having children, and I think I'm going to try my damnest to have a natural childbirth as well.

Bing! You are now free to move about the country

I just booked three airline flights this morning! The first was my flight home in June; I'm happy because the timing worked that I will be able to be there to be a bridesmaid in a wedding AND see my brother graduate from high school during the same trip! YES!! Mainly I am just stoked to get home and spend some time with my family. The other flights I booked were for me and the hubs to get to Iowa over the 4th of July for another wedding (one of my good friends from high school). I was also supposed to be a bridesmaid in her wedding but I wasn't sure I would be able to get there so I decided to tell her no way back in November. Now it works out that I can go and I am excited about it!

All the flights were booked on Southwest; man airfare has gotten EXPENSIVE over the last year. I still love me some southwest though because my rapid reward paid for my entire ticked for RI (a savings of roughly $500). But our flights to Iowa were over $200 each way eeek!

anyway enough of my rambling. It's just seems like that 4 week span will be filled with many hours of TSA employees, long lines, and airport food......yay......

Self Proclaimed Lazy Fashionista

I NEED FASHION HELP!!!!

It's not that I don't know what I like, it's that what I DO like is

• jeans
• fitted t-shirts
• colored converse

I need a fashion overhaul. I need Stacy London to come and throw away all my fitted t's and make me buy

Weekend..

Book Review: The Red Tent

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant is a story based on a book of Genesis in the bible which tells the story of Dinah-The Fallen Woman (click here to read the bible chapter.) The story is historical fiction based on the story of Dinah and her family, centering around her 5 mothers (her birth mother Leah, and her 4 "aunties" Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilah.) If you know your old testament (which I don't so don't worry about it) these are the 5 wives of Jacob, son of Issac, son of Abraham. (yes that Abraham!)

The author here does such a wonderful job of engrossing you into the lives of women who lived in that time. What they did, what they cooked, who they believed in, what they sang and laughed about, how they had children and raised them. The passing of time in their home was marked by the menstrual cycle of the women, who at the new moon would gather together in a "Red Tent" specific for celebrating the cleansing of the womb and the preparation of possibly taking a new life in the next month. During those few days they talked and laughed together and praised the goddess' responsible for blessing their lives.

This was my second time reading this book; I first read it during my freshmen year of college, quite by accident while working in the URI Theater Department costume shop as a seamstress. The head of the shop was named Sally, and she was quite the "granola" type of woman. She was Bohemian in every essence of the word, and I liked here a great deal. Anyway I digress. She always had books on tape playing in the shop that we would listen to while we worked. I became quite interested in a particular one and when she told me the title which was this book I went out and read it cover to cover in one weekend. It sucked me in completely. I love when books do that.

One thing this book really makes me reflect on is how women treat other women. I really think today's women have relationships to one another all backwards. We are way too catty with one another (she's fat, that outfit is horrible, she's a b*tch) and we are missing out on the bonding experience we uniquely can have as women. I love my friendships with my girlfriends but honestly the women I consider as "sisters/kindred spirits" are a very small number indeed. As women of today we have so much more than these women who lived thousands of years ago, but they loved their children just as we do (will do), and they loved each other, just as we should.

Who are your sisters? your kindred spirits?

Impluse Buy?

Hey any of you seen the commercials for these?



The Goody Simple Styles Collection is available online for 14.99 for the bundle of 4 clips and a style guide. I have been looking for a way to style my hair that is EASY and is more than just a ponytail that I wear EVERYDAY to work. Do you think these are worth the expense? They will be in stores next month but they will be around 6.50 each, making online purchase more affordable.

What do you guys think? Should I get 'em?

Movin' and Shakin'

This morning I was sleeping in my bed minding my own business when my Mother called me in a frenzy at 6 am.

"I JUST HERD ABOUT THE EARTHQUAKE!!! ARE YOU OK?"

haha yeah I am fine (as well as everyone else that I know in San Diego). The epicenter of the Earthquake Sunday happened in Baja, which is a few hundred miles away from us. The fact that we did feel it just tells you how major this earthquake was.

Better yet, I was at work when it happened.

I was leaning against the nurse's station talking with another nurse when I felt my arm slip, no wait, the whole counter was slipping!! Commence freak out among the patients; I'm thinking "holy sh*t what am I going to do with all of these sick people! How can I keep them/me safe?" By that time I was taking a few steps and I felt the same way I did when I was on Kyle's battleship last month when it was going full speed ahead, the whole floor was shaking like waves! It lasted almost a full minute. CRAZY! But everyone is fine, nothing even fell off the open supply carts. No biggie. =) One of the ER MD's (whom I LOVE) calmed us down a lot "Don't worry....calm down you're O.K. It's no big deal. If you're worried just brace yourself against a counter. (By the way if YOU are ever in an earthquake DO NOT go into a door frame, BAD idea. You should crouch next to something taller than you ex. a bed or a couch. That way if the ceiling above you collapses it will hit the couch (or bed) and angle out, keeping you safe by forming The triangle of survival.)

It was kinda fun (when it was OVER). It was the first earthquake I ever felt. I guess I can officially call myself a Californian now!

I hear the call of pregnant women....

No no, it's not what you think. I am (again) thinking about Transferring to Labor and Delivery Nursing. I know I know what you're saying "didn't you just transfer to ED? Aren't you happy there? Well you would be right on both accounts but let me tell you this; I have been thinking about trying OB-GYN nursing ever since my rotation there back in nursing school. I have talked about it several times on this blog here and here; and it made me smile when I remembered that I wanted this as badly now again as I did last summer.

Last spring I tried over and over to get hired on an L&D unit and I never got as much as a call back, so I decided to set my sights on ED just to get out of med/surge and to gain more experience. I have really loved my last 8 months in the department and I honestly would be happy staying there for another year, but I have decided to start looking for L&D jobs, just in case one decided to pop it's head at me. You never know right? In the meantime this summer I plan on taking an Online Fetal Heart Monitoring Course and I'm considering joining the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses. When that L&D job comes along..I'll be there to catch it!!

Happy Easter

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,
that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but to save the world through him."

John 3: 16-17


Happy Easter

Easter Revisited.

I am working this weekend; and unfortunately Easter for me this year hasn't been at the fore-front of the table. I have no small kids and have no desire to eat chocolate bunnies or dig through plastic grass. I'm not going to dye eggs and I don't even have the ability to cook an Easter ham. It's even more difficult because for the past year Kyle and I have had a lot of difficulty settling into a church family here in San Diego. As two people who have grown up in very strong Christian houses, it's really a foreign concept for me to admit that even if I wasn't working this Sunday, we really wouldn't have anywhere to go for service that really feel like home. But this is a topic for another post.

Part of me is sad that I won't have the opportunity to take part in some of these Easter traditions, but another part of me is really thankful for this time to avoid the distraction of all of the "stuff" that really has nothing to do with what Easter really means. The mourning of Christ's death and the celebration of his Resurrection. He died so we could live, that's incredible stuff.

Much better than a cadebury egg in my opinion (and I'm a girl that LOVES my cadebury eggs)

So when you are searching through your plastic eggs and tearing though your Easter basket, take pause and remember what this holiday really represents; the greatest gift that was ever given happened this weekend; Christ's death on the cross, for US.

I don't live near a Hobby Lobby (DAMN) but this store not only is Ah-mazing (according to my buddies that live near one); but they are also a company that is deeply rooted in Christian faith. Each year for Christmas and Easter they take out a full page ad in each newspaper in which they advertise. Here is the one for this year.




Something to meditate on....

I think someone turned on my biological clock

I have been dreaming a lot about babies lately...

Specifically....my babies...babies that I don't have yet, nor want to have yet. So whats with all the day dreaming and such?

I was discussing this with Kyle tonight over dinner after he almost spit out his wine and I told him that I really don't feel that I am ready to have a baby yet, mostly for one hundred reasons

1) When I have a child, I want to be able to be home with them when they are small. I am very anti-daycare if I can swing being home with my child instead.

The funny thing is is that I used to be completely the other way around. I used to judge stay at home moms endlessly for their apparent "laziness" or "lack of motivation" to work, wow, how wrong I was.... Now I really want to have that opportunity to be home with my child (at least most of the time, thankfully my job is such that I can work 2-3 days a month fairly easy, when I am ready)

I want more time at work. I want to figure out where my niche is in nursing before I put my career on the back burner for mommy-hood. But still the dreams come....

It appears that someone has turned on my biological clock without asking me ;-)