just a tad tired, but found a gem

Hmmph, I am so very exhausted, but need to stay awake a while longer. My mom and dad are coming in, in the wee hours of the morning. So it will probably be about 2:30-3 a.m. before we're settled back here at home and ready to head to bed. We'll leave in about 45 minutes to go pick them up from the airport.

In the meantime I am reading up on some other student nurses' or new nurses' blogs. I came across these tips from Christy at My Journey from a Student to a Nurse and just wanted to share. Christy is now a practicing RN and has been for about a year now, I believe, and these gems are from when she was deep in the thick of her schooling.

I did everything I set out to do today, and then some. As far as "straightening up" LB's room, note to self: never think walking into a teenagers room is ever going to be simple. If a tree could be reincarnated out of all the paper I found under his bed we'd have a 100 year old oak on our hands! Yikes! His room took me a couple of hours. I also cleaned the kitchen, the bathrooms, and my bedroom. My back hurts.

I baked one of the types of cookies I planned on and that would be the pumpkin chip cookies. They're scrumptious as always. I got the recipe from a friend's mom who had been visiting a while back. She's since passed on and I love that we carry her delicious recipe on as a tradition in our house during this wonderful holiday season.

Have I mentioned I'm tired?

just can't stay away!

The peppermints are glued together with hot glue. Yeah, it hurt sometimes! I love how it turned out!
I've been pretty busy the past couple of days, making up for the lost time from being slowed down with the abdominal pain. I did go Friday for my ultrasound and the tech didn't see anything remarkable, but of course deferred diagnosis to the radiologist. The pain has not come back. That evening I worked on some crafts while we watched The House Bunny. The boys played Spiderman on XBOX 360. Later we watched The Dark Knight.

Saturday we spent cleaning up our computer room. There were stacks of papers that needed to be sifted through, and my bookshelves were a wreck. It's technically Big B's room, as it's his sports themed room. He's a big fan of the Phildalphia Phillies, Eagles, and Flyers. There's memorabilia smeared all over the place. Oh, and we can't forget Nascar! There's a little section of wall dedicated to it, mostly Dale Jarrett. But yeah, I've let things go over the past few months and the place looked like a train wrecked in it. Now it's all neat, tidy, and organized! We watched Mamma Miathat evening. We had seen the Broadway version in NYC, and loved it so I couldn't wait to see it when it came out in theaters. We never got to go!

AW went over to a friends house for a sleepover, and one of LB's friends came over to our house to crash.

Yesterday I wrapped presents, organized my closet (the train had made its way upstairs), and sewed the boys a couple of stockings.

These are the stockings. The green one is LB's and the red and black one is AW's. The tree is what I worked on Saturday evening. It's a little cone with balls and buttons I hot-glued on it.

Today I need to clean the bathrooms, the kitchen and my bedroom. Oh, and I need to straighten up LB's room. My mom and dad are coming in for the week and they stay in his room. We only have a three bedroom house and LB has our old queen-sized bed. Heck, he and AW end up sleeping downstairs on weekends and during holiday break anyway!

They fly in at 12:30 a.m. Big B bought the tickets for them with some of his mileage points and that was the best time he could get, and the best route...considering the weather. They'll fly from Texas to ATL and on into VA...avoiding the Midwest. He's so smart!

Our tree. AW and I decorated it.

The star is made out of a white pipe cleaner and Borax. The photo doesn't quite capture how it sparkles.

See the little black and blue ornament? AW painted it. He has a thing for Geico. Don't ask me why!

This is our china cabinet decked out for the holidays. The snow family up top is placed there because I found them in the jaws of one of my resident Labrador Retrievers. They take that retrieving thing a little too seriously sometimes!



Minnie had to get in on the action. Sandi was undoubtedly snoozing upstairs on my bed.

Now I must go scrub toilets! Where's Cinderella when I need her!? I could never do that to a person though. We'd scrub together!

Both boys are elsewhere now. AW stayed at his friend's house again, and LB went to the friend's house who came over Saturday night. So I woke up to peace and quiet today. Of course that's how it would be anyway as the slugs sleep late on days off from school. However! I will be able to get everything done today that I need to without warding off requests from teen and pre-teen boys once they've awakened! I really do miss them when they're not here, though.

After cleaning I'll bake some cookies. I plan on baking snickerdoodles, pumpkin chip cookies and nutty spice oatmeal cookies. Yummee!