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 ;-)

My State is Drowning!!!

I don't keep it a secret that I am Rhode Island Born, and I am very proud to call that little state home. My parents have been off handedly mentioning that it has been raining like crazy there lately; but I honestly didn't think much of it because we usually have really wet winters there.

This morning, however, when I was sitting in the break-room of the ER about to punch in for the day I almost spit out my coffee when I saw this on the news.



My Little State made National News! I guess now i'm really glad that my parent's home is built on a hill, so all the water just rushes past them.

Thanks for keeping me informed Mom & Dad. =)

Cool Runnings

My running has been going GREAT!

I ran on the treadmill today, completing week 7 day 2 of The Couch to 5-k

When I was finished I had ran 3.4 miles, and burned almost 400 calories.

Please believe me when I tell you that THIS PROGRAM WORKS!!!! When I started this I couldn't even jog from my apartment to our leasing office (about 3 min) without keeling over; today, a short 7 weeks later I ran (RAN) for 25 minutes!

I was sort of sad when I realized that I will be done with this in two more weeks, but then I realized that the lovely people that developed my app came out with the Bridge to 10K...awesome...

Buying a Home

I'm still here! Kyle and I have been going back and forth about his next tour, should we try to stay here? Should we move? Where should we try and go? After about a million years a month or so we have decided to try and stay in San Diego. I do like my job here (even though I am starting a plan to move to Labor and Delivery sometime after my year of ED is up in September) and we have good friends here, and if you can't be home in Little Rhody, Southern California is a damn good place to kill some time =). Now if we do get to stay here ::fingers crossed:: we want to buy a house. Now I do love our wonderful luxury apartment complex with it's 50 pools and bikini clad SDSU students who never seem to actually go to class ever, but I am sick of paying all this $$ in rent and seeing no return. Ok, so we're gonna look to buy a house.

That's where it ends..we WANT to buy a house. Doesn't mean we know a freaking thing about ANYTHING about buying a house, I know you call a Realtor, they show you some places, then at some point a large sum of money is exchanged while people sit at a big table saying big words like "escrow" and "APR Fixed mortgage." Other than that you got me.

"Your dream home, light open floor plan"

This is how I feel. My future home feels like it's just a dream, just an outline. I feel that the home for me, complete with walls I paint whatever color I want and a kitchen big enough to hold all of my cooking stuff, where we don't have to have the cat's litter box in the spare bathroom, seems so far away. I need help.

Thankfully I have a friend that recently bought a condo in the same area of San Diego that I am looking at so I e-mailed the Realtor she used tonight. Hopefully he will give us some insight into what the hell we are supposed to do.

I know some of you guys are homeowners, any tips for us as we start this process?

Motorcycle?

I am thinking about learning to ride a motorcycle,

some people are surprised by this considering I am TERRIFIED of crashing in a motorcycle.

I have been tossing around this idea for quite some time and after talking about it with a fellow friend I have decided to take the steps to get my M licence this summer, starting with a beginner course offered through the California DMV.

I will probably be the most conservative rider you will ever meet, you will never see me poppin' wheelies going 100mph on the highway (and I have seen that while driving, and it scares the sh*t out of me) I will ALWAYS wear my armored leather jacket that I WILL buy before ever going on the road (and even then it will probably take me quite sometime to get on the highway.) But I want to try it. You only live once, and if you're smart, I think it's entirely possible to have a safe time riding a motorcycle (notice that I didn't say "no crashing in a motorcycle"...I'm not stupid)

But you better believe that when I do crash I will be wearing this...awesome

Once I take the class this summer (the girl I want to take the class with is in school until May so I'm gonna have to wait for June) and I get more practice I will probably invest in a used bike to practice on. I'm kind of glad I have to wait a few months, it will give me more time to decide if I really want to pursue this as a hobby (and set aside $$ for riding protection and gear) I have herd good things about the Kawasaki Ninja 250; it's a bike designed for beginners. Here it is...




awesome......so yeah I have found 08' or 07' models online for a fair price, so we'll see what happens


any of you ride? have any tips for a beginner beginner like myself?

Updates

So I have been somewhat anti-social over the last two weeks. I don't know if you guys have ever felt in a similar mood but over the last several days I have had little desire to talk to other people. I have been screening like crazy, so sorry to all of the people I haven't talked to.

On the upswing I have decided to blog about all the stuff I have been up to over the last two weeks.

• C25K - I have been utterly STUCK on week 7 of the couch to 5-k. Partly my lack of consistency is to blame for that. The other part is my brain playing tricks on me. I know that I am capable of doing the entire 25 min run without stopping; lately I have been getting through the first 10 min no problem, but once I hit 15 min the little voice in my head says "why don't you just walk, just for a minute, what can it hurt?" Today I listened to that stupid voice for two minutes before I gave in. It's all a mind game....and it's making me very mad.
  

• Cooking - I have been doing a lot of cooking and baking lately but unfortunately I have been way too lazy to post (and I haven't remembered to take pictures of my meals). Over the past week I have made:

1. Slow Cooker Pork
2. Cuban Sandwiches
3. Teriyaki Noodle Bowls
4. Spaghetti and Meatballs
5. Meatball Grinders
6. Salads!!

• Some Self Reflection - I have been thinking a lot about where I want my career in nursing to go, mainly - where I want to end up. This usually throws my mind in a flurry of advanced degrees, certifications and specialties, all of which are completely overwhelming to me. Now I do like the job I have now, working in the ER is so challenging and satisfying. I work with a wonderful group of people and I get to see some really cool stuff, but I just don't think ER nursing is where I see myself in 5 years (or even in 1 year). I have such an unexplainable draw/interest in OB nursing that I want to get into that field ASAP to figure out if that's where my true passion lies. I got the contact information for the Nurse Educator on the OB floor at my hospital and hopefully next week I can meet up with her and pick her brain about what she does. If I really like Labor and Delivery Nursing I could definitely see myself as a Nursing Educator for a L&D floor someday.

So anyway that a little about what's been going on with me lately. Hope everyone is having a good week so far! Only three more days till Friday!!!

Completely Random Post

So I'm sure most of you were thinking that I was peac'ing out with last nights post. "Well we're never gonna hear from her again huh?" Well I guess what I really wanted was just to give myself the wiggle room I really wanted; to post when I wanted to, and to give myself a break when I needed to.

I had the day off today which was nice. Tonight I'm going with a good group of friends to The Stone Brewery for dinner. You know stone right?



Yes, yes you do (you arrogant bastard! if you are still lost, just google it & you'll figure it out) Anyway should be a good time.

In other news I was standing in line at Vons today buying some last minute groceries for tomorrow's yummy dinner (slow cooked pork.....delicious!) and I see this on the magazine rack...


Are you serious? Can't she leave well enough alone? Am I the only one whose outraged by this? I just about stopped obsessively following forgot about her and now this? Who is watching her children? I hope she's not leaving them with her D-Bag ex-husband. Ugh....