WCC

WCC = white chicken chili.  A FAVE in our house.  Probably 3 years ago or so, my office had a chili cook-off themed beer cart.  One of my co-workers at the time brought this white chicken chili in, and I have been in love ever since.  It is SO good.  Very cream based and super rich, with so much flavor, but not spicy.  My mouth is actually watering right now thinking about it.  It's one of our go to recipes for a fall pitch-in or dinner.  It doesn't require TOO many ingredients, and after you've made it a few times, it's a pretty quick process.

But, back to the most recent WCC consumption.  Every fall we have our "first fire" where we light the first fire of the year in our fireplace.  We always buy a large, cheap bottle of wine, drink, eat dinner, and hang out by the fire all night.  Fire nights are some of my absolute favorites, because Dave and I just catch up, talk and enjoy being with each other.  Definitely necessary every once in a while and much better than bad TV reruns.

So, because I heart all of you and fires and WCC make me feel warm and fuzzy, I want share the love.  Get excited.  It is seriously SO good.  Hope it brings you warm, cozy evenings and schmoopy, wonderful memories.

WHITE CHICKEN CHILI

16 oz (1 can) of canned white beans
1 Large Onion, chopped
1 Stick unsalted butter
1/4 c All-purpose flour
3/4 c Chicken broth
2 cups Half and Half
1 tsp Tabasco (or more, if you like spicy)
1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder (or more, if you like spicy)
1 tsp ground cumin (I usually put in more)
1/2 teaspoon salt (I usually put in more)
1/2 teaspoon pepper
Two 4-oz cans whole mild green chilies, drained and chopped
5 Boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 2 pounds)
Some extra butter and oil to cook them in
1 1/2 c grated Monterey Jack
1/2 c sour cream

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Heat a large skillet over moderately high heat and put in some butter and oil. Meanwhile, coat your chicken with salt and pepper and some chili powder. Throw them in the skillet. Leave them for five to seven minutes, or until nicely browned, then flip them. Leave it there until browned and then flip them every few minutes until they are done.

2. Remove the chicken from the pan. When the chicken is cool enough to handle, shred it with your fingers (or slice it up if you want to save some time) and set aside.

3. While waiting for chicken to cool, cook the onion in the same pan with 2 Tbs of butter until softened.

4. In a heavy pot, large enough to hold the whole batch, melt remaining 6 Tbs of butter over moderately low heat and whisk in flour. Cook the roux, whisking constantly, for three minutes. 

Stir in the onion and gradually add the broth and half and half, whisking the whole time. Bring mixture to a boil and simmer, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes, or until thickened. (It will be nicely and obviously thick.) 

Stir in Tabasco, chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper. Add beans, chilies, chicken and cheese, and cook over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally for 20 minutes. Add sour cream. May be served immediately.

5. Serve with the usual chili garnishes--cilantro, cheese, jalapenos, tomatoes, etc. Noodles are great too.

Recipe credit goes to the fabulous Jeff Watson.  Just in case you ever read this JNeighb, you know I gave you props.

Also, as a warning, you may look like this after consuming too much chili.  Be prepared.

Friday Funday

Since my last post title featured the day of the week it was written, I figured I may as well keep the theme going for the rest of the week.  Today is Friday.  Finally.  Minus a fun little $200 charge at the car dealership for new brake pads, it has been a great day.

Blessed to have the money to pay the $200 charge at the car dealership.  Chance to study for my test while my car was getting fixed.  Busy, but not too busy at work.  Beer cart day.  GORGEOUS weather.  Sold our Colts tickets for this weekend's game (we'll get to one eventually).  Wine and white chicken chilli tomorrow with Deej.  Wine and white chicken chilli tonight with the girls.  Dexter snuggle time.  Church on Sunday.  Visiting a great friend and her little one. 

So many good things about today.  Hope you all have lovely Fridays as well. 

Tuesday...Two Day

Anyone know that great quote from Friends?  "Monday, one day.  Tuesday, two day.  Wednesday, what day?  Thursday...it's the third day!"

That quote popped into my head this afternoon when I was thinking about how much I like Tuesdays.  Not sure why it was associated with my Tuesday thought, since it is really about Thursdays, but whatev.  

Back to Tuesdays.  Neither of us have class on Tuesdays, and always make sure we get home from work on time.  We get to cook dinner before 9 p.m., catch up on our inevitably HUGE piles of laundry, and maybe have a glass of wine or two (while watching Glee...and other thought provoking television programming).

Since today happened to be not only a Tuesday, but also the most beautiful fall day of all time, I decided to take my camera on my walk with Dex.  As a side note, I only got a FEW creeped out looks from people who thought I was trying to take pictures of them walking their dogs. Always a positive. 

So for your viewing pleasure, here's a little snapshot of this GORGEOUS Tuesday, two day.

I should have had this fabulous idea yesterday, before they turned off our neighborhood fountains.  One of  my favorite parts about where we live.

Dexter taking it all in.  He is not a huge fan of photo walks, they cramp his style (i.e. he can't pull and drag me all over the place while I'm stopped taking a picture).

LOVE the new Eagle Creek Trail.  No one would ever know its 6 feet from 71st Street.

Bathroom = DONE

So, one of the reasons we bought our house was because there was not much we had to do to it.  New carpet, fresh neutral paint, ceramic tile in the kitchen and bathrooms.  We're both super busy and did not want our first house to be a fixer-upper.  However, after one of my husband's infamous Rock Band nights I came home to a giant hole in the plaster of our downstairs bathroom and a towel rack on the floor.

Six months and Dave's first drywall job later, we had new fixtures (towel rack, toilet paper holder etc.) but still no fresh paint.  We were hosting a get together for Dave's sister and her friends (because she lives out of state) on the Monday of a long weekend, and on Friday night we decided it DEFINITELY had to be painted by the time they all came over.

We hurriedly went to Lowes, got all the painting supplies we needed and picked out a color we thought would be just a BIT brighter than the very neutral yellow it was currently.  Were we ever wrong.  It turned out to be crayon/mustard/AWFUL yellow - and with the harsh lights in there, it was blinding.  See below.

YIKES.  Also, for reference, this quick paint job took place in the summer of 2010.  We swore to each other we would re-paint the room as soon as we could, and apparently that was not until October of 2011.  Whatev.

Once my Pinterest obsession began, one of the first things I looked for was color palettes for the bathroom that would go with our bronze fixtures (see above) so we didn't need to replace those...again.  I found my inspiration a few weeks ago (image below from here)

And so the process began.  This time, I went to Lowe's for color swatches to put up on the wall BEFORE making a color selection.  I was NOT going to make the same mistake and have to paint the bathroom yet AGAIN.

So, I made a fun swatch wall and Dave and I picked out our faves.  Out of all of those, I ended up getting 4 small color samples, two were blue-ish shades and two were more grey.  Then we painted those on the wall to see what we thought.

I liked the two that were more grey, Dave liked the light blue.  Go figure.  But then, we thought, is this really even close to what these colors are going to look like??? Clearly the base color they were painted on MAY have had an effect on their final color.  

So we went ahead and primed the walls before making our final color choice.  Just so we could make SURE we were not making a color mistake (we were a little scarred from the first time).  Also, after I primed, I changed the light bulbs to a "soft white" version so that any remaining blinding effect would be gone and we could see the colors under the new, final light.

We went with the top left option - the darker of the grey shades we tried.  I thought it would go great with the bronze fixtures (below) and still allow us to use our light blue towels/rug.

However, like I said before, nothing ever comes out exactly like I think it's going to.  Once the room was painted and dry, the paint was much lighter and bluer than expected (even after ALL the testing we did), and the towels we were too close to the wall shade.

Oh well, we like it, and it's MUCH better than the yellow.   

So, here is everything, all painted.  This is before I took the tape off (obviously) which was a whole other fiasco.  Let me add in here that I am the MOST impatient person in the entire world and doing the touch-up painting (after the tape removal) just about killed me.

After the painting came the decorations (my fave part of the project).  My mom is "de-cluttering" to try and put her house on the market, so I came into a few wood shelves, one of which I thought work perfectly over the toilet.  We needed something to fill the space of the huge painting we had in there before.  

It was a light wood color, so to make is usable in the bathroom I just sanded and primed the shelf, and then sanded it again to give it a nice used look.  I LOVE the whole antique white wood thing and I think it came out pretty well. I had Dave help me anchor it into the drywall and then set it up with some mirrors I got at Goodwill ($3...YES) and some frames from T.J. Maxx.  I LOVE how it came out.

I also replaced the candles on the sink with some white roses I had in another room of the house.

I'm not quite happy with the candle side yet, but I'll keep working on that.  

Since our blue towels ended up being too close to the wall color we used a tan rug and towel we had from one of Dave's old apartments (for the time being) but those will be replaced eventually with something a bit nicer, and a bit lighter.

So there you have it!  Much better downstairs bathroom.  My first true completed Pinterest inspired project.  Next projects are closet organization (on my side - Dave happens to be very organized) and built-ins around the fireplace.  

Get excited!  Dexter tried, but he just can't handle it.  All the work on the bathroom really wore him out.

Puppy Love

There is nothing better than a sweet, loving little puppy to make you feel better after a rough day.  Or even a good day for that matter (except maybe a baby, but clearly I don't have one of those).  Although our loveable Dexter-bub (as we like to call him) is no longer really a puppy, he is still the BEST guy to come home to every day.

He is so loving, laid back and wonderful.  No matter how long he's been home alone, he is still unbelievably excited to see us when we get back.  Every time.  It's awesome. 

Sorry for the puppy schmoopiness.  Just feeling a little Dexter love today.  Have a great Thursday!

101 Things In 1001 Days. Part II.

I removed a couple of numbers in this section (don't worry, I do know how to count to 50).  Not to cheat and make my list shorter; they just didn’t really make much sense and are really not worth your time reading about.  Again, side effect of the wine when writing these.

26. Visit wine country.  Visited Santa Barbara for a wedding, but no wine country yet!

27. Dress up/do my hair every day for a week.  Clearly not.

28. Buy a "Y" for my entry way.  I looked for an appropriate sized Y that would look good in our large entry space for MONTHS.  I gave up and framed an 11 x 14 print from our wedding day in that space.  Looks great!

29. Buy a fabulous way too expensive pair of shoes.  Nope.

30. Take another trip to a beach with my husband.  Santa Barbara could count for this! 

31. Have a great girl’s weekend get away.  Not yet…

32. Write thank you notes to my family for their help with our wedding - and the 24.5 years before.  I did this for my family last Christmas, but need to make sure Dave’s family gets theirs as well.

33. Buy a real Christmas tree for our living room.  THIS year.  For sure.

34. Send out family Christmas cards to our family and friends.  Did it.  It was so much fun taking the picture for it and writing notes for everyone.  Doing it again this year for sure.

35. Buy a REALLY nice bra - if you saw mine you would understand.  Bought one.  Loved it.  Wore it out.  Need another new one.

38. Be a role model to my little brothers - in some small way.  Always trying.

39. Complete a creative project around my house (i.e. paint the kitchen chairs)  AHH thank you Pinterest for so many new ideas!  Bathroom will be finished tonight.  Pictures to come!

40. Go skydiving.  Not yet!

41. Finish the YarMac :)  Blah.  No way.

42. Pass a Rockband song on hard.  Totally did it.  Singing Mr. Brightside.  Drunk Kara has a much better voice than sober Kara.

43. Go to Vegas and enjoy it now that I am well over 21.  Planned and cancelled for this fall.  Long story.  We’ll keep trying!

45. Get on the board of a charitable organization.  At this point, I at least volunteer for one!  Getting closer.

46. Take some sort of college class (marketing, photography, whatever).  I have taken six college classes.  All my nursing school pre-reqs.  AND a photography class. 

47. Make a smoothie at home.  Yes!  With our new blender.  Very delish.  Need to make more of them.

48. Go to a metal concert with Dave, and enjoy it :)  Went to one, drank a little too much.  I’ll have to have a redo on that one.

49. Donate to my mom's nonprofit.  Yes!

50. Go to a black tie event.  Not quite.  Been to some very fabulous weddings over the past few years though.

Fall = Favorite

So, fall is my FAVORITE time of the year. I love everything about it. I love the gorgeous light...all day. I love the colors of the leaves, and the cooler (but not cold) weather. I love sweatshirts, scarves, bonfires, and chili. I also love anything pumpkin. Pumpkin cookies, seeds, candles, the list goes on.

Once fall rolls around every year, I start to feel all festive and cozy. When I feel festive and cozy I love to decorate and bake (same phenomenon happens at Christmas). And clearly, for fall, pumpkin recipes are king. A few days ago, I tried a new to me recipe, cream cheese stuffed spiced pumpkin muffins (grab the recipe here).

HELLO. So delish. We got the recipe from Annie's Eats, a blog that Dave of all people introduced me to. She is amazing, has great recipes and easy to follow directions with each of them (key for me)! Also, she is a Doctor, mom and blogger extrodinare. I'm sorry - that's amazing. Who has time for all of that? I'm majorly impressed.

 She has great photos of her food too, makes you want to try the recipe...immediately.

 Here is a pic of Dave and I's first muffin attempt. Not too bad, if I do say so myself. Happy Fall everyone!

 

101 Things in 1001 Days: Not Totally Forgotten. Part I.

So this great list of ambitious things I set out to do by the spring of 2013 has been sorely neglected for much too long.  Here is a partial update and explanation of everything I have done to date.  Since this blog is public now, some of them deserve an explanation, really for self-preservation reasons, so I don’t seem like a huge creep/bitch/etc.  I’m going to post updates on 25 at a time, because let’s be honest, no one wants to read about 101 things I’m doing all at once.

1. Get better at photography. Have some work worthy to post on this blog.  This is a good one.  I am loving taking pics and learning about my camera but I have a LONG way to go.  I really want to keep working with some of the manual settings and master those.  On auto though, I like to think I’m pretty good. However, with the onset of fall classes, my spare time has seriously dwindled.  So it’s a goal of mine to pick up the camera more often this fall.

2. Buy a Coach purse.  Have not done this yet, and honestly, probably won’t.  Ha.  How’s that for commitment?  With our financial situation right now, I really would just spend my money on other things.  But we’ll see.

3. Take my husband out for a fabulous date.  Hmmm.  Well he’s taken me out for lots of fabulous dates.  Does that count?  Probably not.  I’ll work on that.

4. Learn how to grill.  Totally rocked this one.  Due to Dave’s foot injury this summer, if we wanted to enjoy grilled food – it was up to me.  Now, I’m not going to lie and say that there were not a few pieces of charred chicken in there, but I did find some great marinades and cook pork, burgers and chicken.

5. Cook paella - the full recipe. Including crazy seafood like mussels.  I have not done this one yet – maybe over my Christmas break.  Paella takes FOREVER to create, but would be fun on a day off!

6. Do something unexpectedly nice for each of my fabulous friends.  Uh.  Need to work on this one too.  All I know is when I get a card out of the blue, or a nice phone call from a friend, it totally makes my day.  And I want to do that for my fab friends.  So I’ll get on that.

7. Blog - about everything and nothing. Clearly I have done this one, not to the extent that I would have liked, but hopefully my Pinterest inspired revival will take it where I want it to go.

8. Print out and frame my wedding pictures.  Definitely done.  Dave makes fun of me when I say we don’t have very many wedding pictures up in our house, but I always feel like I could have more.  We got two canvases done in for above our bed as well, LOVE those.

9. Read 5 books that enhance my knowledge of meaningful subjects. Hmm.  Well I would say over the past year or so, there are a couple of good (aka not beach read) books that I have read.  I LOVED The Help, such a great book.  I’m also reading Obama’s book – Dreams from My Father which is a good one as well.  I think that’s it.  Any recommendations are welcome!

10. Run a full marathon.  Does a 5k count?  No?  Ok I’ll get on that.  I think I’d need a training partner for that one. Any volunteers?

11. Go skiing. Not yet.

12. Make a cool martini recipe for friends.  Also not yet – have a very cool recipe book though. 

13. Do everything I can so Dave can buy a new car. Well, not sure how much I have done on that one, but it looks like with all of his new job stuff panning out that he will get one!

14. Get a new king bedroom suite. Done and done. It's amazing.

15. Plant a garden in my back yard.  No garden yet.  We did organize our firewood though.  I know it’s not really related, but it also is in our backyard.

16. Buy nice running clothes to run my marathon in.  See above.

17. Set definite career/life goals for the next 5 years. I thought this would be my hardest one, but once I took the plunge, it was not too bad.  Don’t get me wrong it’s been a lot of work and struggle and time and money spent, but I totally think going back to nursing school will be a great thing for me and my family.

 
18. Print out and frame the rest of Robby's pictures on our living room wall. 2 more down (Yosemite and Grand Canyon).  We have one more pano of LA, but I’m not sure where to put the frame, so I haven’t done it yet.

19. Finish our travel wall in the dining room.  I’m making progress on this!! But, I really nee d to start adding in more interesting frames, with some dimension to really make it look the way I want.  A full wall of $3 Walmart frames just isn’t going to cut it.

20. Start and finish the following scrapbooks: high school, college, europe in 2005, europe with the fam/dave, wedding and honeymoon.  Not sure how this is ever going to get done.  I did start my most recent Europe trip book as Dave’s Birthday gift, so that now leaves me at 4 half done books.  Awesome.

21. Go camping. Legit camping. We went in the summer of 2010 to the Smokey Mountains in Tennessee with Marcus and Julie. SO much fun.  We definitely want to go again now that we have Dexter though.  He would LOVE it.

22. Get patio furniture.  Thank you Jan Yar for moving!

23. Send 10 random cards to family and friends.  Nope.

24. Go snowmobiling.  Nope.

25. Label the wine/campagne corks we have saved. YES.  We’ve also continued to add many more to the collection. And, I just found a fun idea to spice up the container I have them in.  I’ll try and do it and post a photo soon!

So this ended up being much longer than I thought.  Props to you if you made it all the way though.  Parts II – IV  and a photo post to come soon!

INSPIRED

HOLY COW.

Yes, in case you were wondering, I am very aware that “holy cow” is a 1990’s, grade-school teacher saying, Full House style phrase, but TOTALLY what popped into my head when I joined Pinterest today.

WHY has it taken me so long to do this? WHERE was this when I was planning my wedding? HOW can I make pinning my full time job!!?? Needless to say, I am in love.

What a great idea. Whoever started Pinterest is a genius.

So, enough with the gushing. I’ll move on to the inspired portion of this post, which requires a little bit of backstory. So here goes. Lately I have been a blog reading fool. I have a few blogs I read regularly, and then I link from those blogs to all sorts of other blogs. I love food blogs, family blogs, my husband’s music blog (of course), photography blogs and the list goes on. I always read those blogs and wish that I could be interesting enough for people to read, at least while they’re bored at work.

Well get ready people. I’m going to be interesting. Pinterest pushed me over the edge today. I have all sorts of renewed motivation to make this blog a fun place to spend some time during the middle of your 8 - 5 grind (or 7 to 7 if you're one of my nurse friends). Random for sure, but fun. If you know me, you know my life is all over the place. I work full-time, I go to school part-time, I go to a wedding like every 4 days, I play with my pup, I take pictures, I go to church, I pretend that I am a fabulous chef/baker and try all sorts of recipes that I have no business cooking, I hang out with my super fun husband, I clean, I try to make my house cute on a limited budget, I run (LOVE to run, but, not going to lie, it’s generally the first thing to go with all of the above going on) , I drink lots of wine and volunteer with little kiddos (not at the same time of course).

So don’t expect a totally clear mission from this revival of my blog, it will inevitably be just like my life, busy, slightly disorganized, and totally random. I’ll talk about puppies, and God, my new favorite cocktail, and everything in between. But I hope you’ll enjoy reading about the craziness that is my life, as much as I enjoy writing about it.

Burdens To Bear

So I had an amazing, clarifying, eye opening experience a few weeks ago. It happened, and instantly, after my initial surprise had passed, my first thought was “I need to write a blog about this”. But then I got to work and had a ridiculous number of emails waiting for me, and so it goes. My day was gone. And then the next and the next and the next.

However, this experience has been with me for a few weeks now, and I still want to share, so here goes. At the time, I had just had a job interview a few days prior, for a job I was REALLY excited about, that pays a LOT more than my current job (which subsequently would make things a LOT easier on Dave and I). I felt like I had done well, but then as time passed I started to over analyze, and rethink and wonder what I could have done better. By this point, I had talked myself into thinking it had gone terribly (which it didn’t). But, it was unbelievably stressing me out.

I was driving to work (and stressing, clearly) when I remembered the old phrase “give it to God”. So I just started praying (well, really just talking to God/myself). I think I said something along the lines of “Oh my God, I cannot handle this anymore. I do NOT need anymore stress in my life right now. I can’t do anything about that interview, WHY is it driving me insane??” Or something similar, but probably more crazy and rambling. And then literally, in that instant, I was filled with this HUGE sense of calm and peace. Seriously unbelievable. It was like all the stress I had (about that, and many other things) was just GONE. Totally gone. I remember thinking, holy shit – I should have done that a LONG time ago! I know there is a lot of scripture, and verses and even poetry about God bearing the weight of our problems, and getting us through seemingly impossible times, but I have NEVER experienced anything like that before. Ask and you shall receive I guess!

But then, my mind starts working and thinks, “WOW that feeling was SO amazing, could I ever, myself, give that feeling to someone else? Could I ever bear their burdens with that much grace and unending love? If I could ever in my life provide even a fraction of that sort of peace to someone else, how great would that be?” So, as it turns out, as most of you know, there are just a few people in my life right now who have some pretty heavy stuff going on. So, I have a few potential burdens to choose from. Kidding. Clearly if we could all do that so powerfully, we would all be God.

But, this experience has certainly opened my eyes to what the simple act of providing kindness, and grace and peace to others can do. I have challenged myself to become more gracious, and giving, and if I can, in anyway possible, make anothers burden easier to bear, then I will do just that.

This summer has been really, really challenging for me, but I honestly think a lot of the problem is the way I have been approaching the hurdles that keep popping up. Rather than feeling put out, or unappreciated or forgotten, I am starting to look at this time as an opportunity to use the God-given gifts, and health, and time that I have to serve those in my life with patience and love.

So, if you are ever really struggling or hurting or wondering, do NOT underestimate the power of a little, desperate, very ineloquent, rush hour prayer. It can do HUGE things in your life if you let it.

If you can't say anything nice, then don't say anything at all

I love this little gem of a quote from Bambi (I believe?). Lately, it feels like there is negativity EVERYWHERE. From comments on Facebook, emails at work and even conversations at home there is a lot of "blah" flying around out there. So in celebration of this beautiful Friday, I wanted to post a few happy things that I am wonderfully grateful for!

1. Sunshine
2. Finding out that the exact outfit I wanted to wear today was clean and folded (rare occurrence in our house)
3. Awesome, supportive friends
4. Sushi lunches with my dad
5. Going to see my cousins tomorrow
6. Dave's ankle finally feeling better
7. A good night's sleep
8. Dexter
9. Really nice love Facebook messages :)
10. Low stress work days
11. Meeting Lillian Marie this weekend
12. Friday nights at home

Happy Friday Everyone!

Babies, Babies, Babies!

No - not my babies, just to clarify.

It seems to be baby season among my close friends, co-workers, and neighbors. So many tiny ones expected in the next few months!

I wanted to say welcome to the world to the first of those tiny ones, one special little girl, Miss Lillian Marie Weigle. She was born on Wednesday, June 1 at 10:38 a.m. weighing 5 pounds and 14 ounces. Already tall and skinny like her mom Lauren!

Lauren is one of my best friends and I am so excited to watch her, Kris and Lillian as they start their little family!! I remember almost crying when Lauren told me she was pregnant last November - it's weird how you react when you find out a friend is pregnant (and by you, I mean me, clearly :). It's such a huge thing! And of course I remember us talking about babies and weddings all through college, it's hard to believe all of that is here.

Congratulations Lauren and Kris! Much love to this new little family!

Going Public.

Ok - so about a month ago I posted the link to this blog on my facebook page. BIG STEP for me, who, like Dave said - had been using this blog as an online journal for the past year.

I don't know what made me do it, finally make all these ramblings public, but I did, and there's no going back now (not that anyone has read this except Dave and my friend Erica :).

I will not lie, the mere fact that the link to the blog is out there has made me hesitant to post anything for fear that it wouldn't be good enough or everyone would think I was boring. Hence, the lack of postings for the last month or so.

But today - I finally have something POSITIVE and a little bit of note to post. Like most people close to me know, I have been BEYOND stressed out lately to the point of near emotional breakdown. Which again - if you know me, you know that is not all that common. School and work have been dragging me up, down, all over the place for the past month and a half. BUT, today I took my last test in my first nursing school pre-req and finished the class with an A. HUGE sign of relief here.

This whole decision to go back to school has already been a crazy journey and I'm not even close to finishing - but today helped reinforce that it will be worth it!

So all you people out there (or Dave and Erica) welcome to my world.

Hopefully I'll have some more deep worldy insight for you soon!

The Almost Spring Blues

Today has hit me hard with the almost spring blues. It's gray out - almost sunny, but not quite. It's cool - almost warm, but not quite. Almost spring, but not quite. The excessive research I have been doing on financial stability/planning/budgeting for the job has NOT helped with lifting the gray cloud. Blah.

And as a direct reflection of the blah's - that's all I got for this post. Back with some inspiration tomorrow.

It's a Dog's Life

Man - how nice would it be to live the life of a pup? Huh? Look at this! Not bad at all my friends. Sleep, play, eat and sleep some more.

Our lives are crazy right now. With the house, jobs, school, family, friends, pup and volunteer work it seems like there's not always enough time in the day to get everything done, let alone done well.

How can you be the best wife at the same time as being the best employee, best friend, best daughter, best furry pup mother, best student and best volunteer? It is overwhelming and scary. I had a minor freak out on Monday when I felt all of the above crashing down around me. What a way to spend a day off huh?

After some wine and some deep breaths - I realized that I am lucky to be blessed with all of the above opportunities that are causing this little "problem", and that maybe I need to shift some priorities, get a little less sleep, suck it up and get it done.

There doesn't seem to be a sweet loving way around it - it's all about bucking it up, being a bad ass, and making every minute of the day count. Today is my day 1 of being a bad ass. We'll see how it goes.

Good look everyone in being the best everything that you are, all the time. Let me know how it goes :)

Valentine's Day

Now, I know there are a lot of differing opinions out there on Valentine's Day. A lot of people LOVE the holiday. They love finding the perfect card and gift for the one they love, having a candlelit romantic dinner, and sending flowers.

Then, there are those on the complete opposite end of the spectrum. They hate the holiday and its forced romanticism, the overpriced gifts and the focus on the all too superficial aspects of love.

There's also the Singles Awareness Day folks - who hate the one day every year when they are most aware that they are alone (at least in a romantic sense).

I am shockingly one of the Valentine's day lovers. I know, I know. Very unexpected. However, I never had a chance to really show that (due to all the nonexistent and/or terrible relationships I was in) until 5 years ago, when I met the boy who would eventually become my husband.

On our 5th Valentine's (well technically fourth, it's a long story - you all know it) Day together I just wanted to make sure that he knew how thankful I am to finally have my Valentine in the most wonderful, caring and loving person I have ever met.

It brings tears to my eyes every time I think about how lucky I am to have him in my life. I have never felt so loved and supported and cherished, and I thank God everyday for blessing my life with that kind of love. I cannot believe I am so lucky.

Happy Valentine's Day, Dave. Thank you for loving me.

Friday, Friday, Friday

The older I get, the more my Fridays seem to change. If I look back over the Fridays of my life - they are maybe the single clearest indicator of how I have lived and changed and grown over the past 26 years. But no matter what age or stage in life, Fridays have always been exciting; a beacon leading to the upcoming break from the daily grind.

As a kid - my Fridays were spent begging my parents if I could spend the night at Andrea's, or Jessie's or Katie's or Amanda's. We loved to have late night Michael Meyers movie watching fests with way too much candy and ice cream, and stay up late talking about our futures.

In high school, Fridays meant football or basketball games - a chance to see and be seen at Roncalli events. Fridays meant glittery makeup and ribbons in your hair and late night Steak n' Shake runs. Or on the lucky weekends we got to play - it meant basketball games and team dinners and bus rides.

In college for the first two years, Fridays in the off-season meant taking advantage of every party and late night that you could. During season, Fridays meant getting out of class early for shoot arounds and meals and game night if we were home. If we were on the road it meant tests on the bus, and late nights watching film, followed by a game and then travel to wherever our next match-up was.

The second two years, Fridays meant relief when class was done, afternoon cocktails with my roomates, dinners together and late nights hanging out and visiting the Greencastle bars. And, sometimes even a trip to, or a visitor from Terre Haute.

After college, my Fridays were remarkably similar to the Fridays in college, for a year or so. However, the strain of real life budgeting and paying the bills started to put a damper on that.

The next stage of Fridays involved lots of vacation and wedding planning and house searching and nights with our moms. And nice dinners out and post-dinner drinks with friends.

Now, my Fridays are Fridays my 21 year old self would be ashamed of :)

They are spent with Dave and Dexter - usually at home, and usually with a bedtime of 11 or so. Lots of Netflix and DVR'd show watching and homemade, money-saving dinners. But they are wonderful in their own grown up sort of way.

So wherever you are in life, and however you celebrate your Fridays - I hope today is a great one!

Scary

School is scary. After being out for four years - I fear that I have forgotten how to go to school. And study. And retain that type of educational information.

I had to take my first online quiz last week, and was terrified (I did well, don't worry). It's the weirdest feeling. For such a huge part of your life you are conditioned to just learn and learn and learn. You know how to do it, and it becomes easy. And, it's all your expected to do.

Being thrown back into that environment is crazy, and a bit overwhelming. What and how you learn in the real world is different. It's on the go, fast-paced and trial and error. That's not how school is. You have to know it. And you have to know it now (or by the assigned test date).

My nights this week are going to be spent reading, reading, more reading, and making flash cards. Goodness. Been a while since I have had to do any of that.

I'm almost looking forward to the first tests in these classes so that I can reassure myself that I still know how to learn. And the additional pressure is on, since I basically have to get A's in all of my pre-req classes if I have any chance of getting into nursing school. Geeze.

What did I get myself into?? Nothing that I can't handle. I know that. Just takes a shift back to the good old days when structured learning was all I knew how to do!

Limbo and Dreams

Limbo. That frustrating, all-encompassing place that is in-between starting and finishing, and not close enough to either to make quitting whatever you are doing ok.

Dreams. What are you able to have once you are out of that state of limbo.

I have been through a mini personal journey over the past week from the current and comfortable, through a state of limbo, and out on the other end, to a place of dreams. Is limbo fun? No. Is working hard and jumping through ridiculous and tedious hoops fun? Not always. Is finally figuring something out and getting where you wanted to be fun? YES.

On my last day of holiday vacation from work (yes, of course I waited until the last day) I began really looking into nursing school. Have I talked about it forever? Yes. Had I filled out the initial application at IUPUI to start the process? Yes. Had I really looked into the details and/or made a commitment to do it? No.

So on this last day of break that I spent googling class pre-requisites and application requirements, and calling IUPUI, Ivy Tech, and IU School of Nursing - I took the plunge. From safety and security into limbo land. Which I may add, is not a place I have been for a long time.

As I began to research which classes I needed to take and where, I began to realize that if I do want to go back to nursing school - this is the time to do it! It was almost as everything was arranged perfectly to get my pre-reqs done quickly, while still working - and in the order they needed to be taken. As far as I can tell - if I had not jumped into the process now - it would take me several more years to get everything completed - just to apply to school. Who says there is no such thing as divine intervention?

However, my perfectly arranged schedule was not quite as easy to get to. Because it was so late in the game to sign up for classes - it took me days, two campus visits, dozens of phone calls, filling out multiple forms, learning how to use two university webistes, and sending several not pleasant emails to get anywhere.

But look at me! A week later, I am enrolled in 2 of the 3 classes I need to apply for nursing school, have my books ordered and am back in school for the first time in 4 years. And it feels really good.

I never really knew if I had it in me to make a big life change. Are there still lots of obstacles and problems I am going to have to solve over the next few years? Yes.

But this little exercise in making a tough choice, and working hard to get from point a to point b been fabulous for me. And proof that I really can do anything if I put my mind too it and trust in God to get me there.

So I did it. I officially started the next chapter in my life. And from a place where I let all my doubts and challenges discourage me and keep me where I was, to a place where I can dream about what my future might be like and have hope for something better, I can tell you - it's much better over here.

2011

I haven't taken much time to stop and reflect on the turning of the new year. What with the holidays, social engagements and family in from out of town, time kind of slipped by me this year.

I have complained a bit to people close to me this year that I wasn't as into the Christmas season as I usually am - and I think that's because there were a few things missing from my life this holiday season. Most importantly - God. Dave and I always talk about how religion is very important to the both of us and how it is something that will always be a priority - but right now, we are not acting that way both as individuals and as a family. So that is the first, and pretty obvious.

The second is running. I love to run, it is how I focus, think through things, and pray. But, I have not made it a priority to continue to challenge myself to run daily and keep the body God has given me in good shape.

So, 2011 is the beginning of my 27th year of life. The 25 and 26th years sure were eventful - trips to Europe, engagements, home purchases, weddings (LOTS of them), a new puppy and a new last name.

So in looking forward to the new year - I resolve to make it a year less about the physical and superficial, and more about continuing to grow in my life spiritually, physically and in all those other ways that I have struggled with recently.

I have spent a lot of time the past couple of years worrying about other people, events and things - and this year, I vow to challenge myself in new ways to ensure that I become who God is calling me to be in this life.

Cheers to 2011!