meme away

Since Tiffany said I'd do it, I figure I'll go ahead and tackle this meme now...since I am procrastinating...

1. Do you like blue cheese? bleck!!!
2. Have you ever smoked? yeah, when I was about 12 I gave it a try, and then in my twenties when I drank I'd play-smoke.
3. Do you own a gun? nope
4. What flavor of Kool Aid is your favorite? I don't do Kool AId, more of a Crystal Light kinda girl. Ya know, it's the calorie thang!
5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? generally no, as long as it's routine. I HATE the dentist!
6. What do you think of hot dogs? I don't eat them regularly, but when I do I prefer them off the grill, slightly burned.
7. Favorite Christmas movie? the animated version of The Grinch
8. Favorite thing to drink in the morning? caffe latte
9. Can you do push ups? hahahahahahha
10. What's your favorite piece of jewelry? the emerald and diamond ring Biug B had given his mom long ago, and then after she passed away he gave it to me
11. Favorite hobby? scrapbooking
12. Do you have A.D.D.? maybe a tad ADHD
13. What's one trait you hate about yourself? indecisiveness
14. Middle name? Lyn
15. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment.
A) I need an income
B) I hope AW feels better. He has a tummy ache.
C) LB goes off to college in 2 1/2 years...how will we pay???
16. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink? water, trea, Crystal Light lemonade
17. Current worry? my sons
18. Current hate right now? feeling unsure of things
19. Favorite place to be? anywhere with my guys
20. How did you bring in the new year? with my guys
21. Where would you like to go? Colorado to visit family
22. Name three people who will complete this:
A) Am
B) not
C) sure
23. Do you own slippers? Just bought a new pair, after one of the dogs chewed up the old ones!
24. What shirt are you wearing? U of Colorado Buffalo sweatshirt that is about 17 years old, and in awesome condition
25. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? nope
26. Can you whistle? yes, but not in the conventional way
27. Favorite color? purple
28. Would you be a pirate? arrr....no
29. What songs do you sing in the shower? I dont typically sing in the shower
30. Favorite Girl's Name: Calista
31. Favorite boy's name: Garrett
32. What's in your pocket right now? not a darn thing
33. Last thing that made you laugh? LB talking to himself while playing Wii
34. What vehicle do you drive? Chevy Equinox
35. Worst injury you've ever had? toothpick driven into the bottom of my foot as I stepped on it
36. Do you love where you live? the area, yes
37. How many TVs do you have in your house? 4
38. Who is your loudest friend? me, myself and I
39. Do you have any pets? 2 dogs, 2 cats, lizard, and hamster
40. Does someone have a crush on you? oh, of course! who doesn't!
41. Your favorite book? House of Sand and Fog
42. Do you collect anything? Shoes
43. Favorite Sports Team? Phillies
44. What song do you want played at your funeral? Angel by Sarah McLachlan

oh bother

As all good things must come to and end, as Pooh's honey pot empties, so must my winter break come to it's last day.

It's been a great break though! The holidays were very special, having been able to visit with my mom and dad, and my father-in-law and his lady friend. Spending time with my guys was priceless.

I didn't do everything I'd set out to do. Most of the home organizing was accomplished, but I didn't scrapbook at all...for shame!

Overall, I am pleased with the past month and how it has been spent.

Tomorrow begins a new leg of my trek to becoming a nurse.

How bittersweet I feel.

I perused the syllabi for my three classes and one lab, and became very excited about the material we'll be covering. I have a feeling the fun has barely just begun this past semester, as we'll be diving into a more thorough and in-depth mountain of all things nursing.

Bottom line, although I'm excited, I'm extremely nervous.

the end

I finished the Twilight series just now and am so happy to have jumped on the Twilight bandwagon!

dum duh dum dum dummm

I started reading Breaking Dawn yesterday and only got half-way through it. I decided to bake some cookies for the boys knowing both would be coming home off the bus. Normally LB has baseball conditioning after school, so he doesn't ride the bus home. He did yesterday because he didn't go to conditioning.

The big rival basketball game was last night and he'd made other plans for the afternoon with his friends, for prior to the game.

Back to baking...

I found a recipe for chocolate chip cookies that I've come to like. In the past when I've baked CC cookies they either turn out too flat, or just flop altogether. Long ago I had a cookbook, that has since been lost, probably in one of many military moves, where I had found the best CC cookie recipe. I like mine a little more on the cakier side, with more substance.

Low and behold, right there on the back of the Gold Medal flour bag is the Extraordinary Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe that has answered my baking prayers!

I made it a few months ago and loved it. This time I knew I wanted to vamp it up (no pun intended from my latest obsession with Twilight) so I added 2 tsp of baking powder, thinking it would make them more substatial than they already are, and voila! I also added Reeses Peanut Butter chips for some extra added zing.



They turned out scrumptiously! They're definitely substantial, with a crunch when you bite into one. Then they're also chewy.

The dough was very stiff since it might have had more than the 4 cups the recipe called for. I was originally going to double it until I figured out I only had a single batch worth of margarine. I'm not a very precise baker (hence chaos), and just used my 8 cup measuring cup to scoop out the extra 4 cups. Chaos did not erupt with this marvelous baking experience!

My nerves are feeling pretty chaotic, knowing classes start back up this coming Monday!

This is how my schedule will go:
Mondays 9-12 Nur 108 Nursing Concepts and Principles I
Tuesdays 9-11 Nur 136 Principles of Pharmacology, 1-3 Nur 203 Mental Health Nursing
Wednesdays 9-3 Nur 108 Lab

This schedule will go until March 11th, when Wednesdays will change to clinicals at the nursing home from 6:30-12:30, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

One goal I have for this semester is to better use my time during the day for studying, and section my time out at other times to make sure my family is not neglected...or at least I don't hear "Mom, you're always studying!" from AW too often.

I need to read my two chapters for Monday tomorrow, and therefore I need to finish up Breaking Dawn today. I have to admit, aside from the technical errors in writing (Meyer went to Brigham Young University??? and was an English major???)I am loving these books, this one especially!

running ragged

Thankfully the sun came out today!!!!!!! Hip hip hurray! We did have a five minute blizzard earlier though. Freaky weather...

I went to the dentist this morning, and no cavities! I only have 2-3 anyway. Then I proceeded to drive to Quantico to do my grocery shopping. I took some photos along the way. I have this thing for old farms...and cows, but no photos of cows today.

the morning after

We ended up with NO SNOW, or ice for that matter, yesterday. I'm sure it iced up overnight in spots, and that led to the two hour delay for schools this morning. That's the way this area rolls....we do have tons of rural back roads that wind around heavily forested areas, so there is danger aplenty for when it is icey...or snowy.

You might be able to surmise that I'm not a big fan of either. I spent my high school years in Colorado and by the time I left for the Air Force I was sure it would wait to snow until after I left. Sure enough, that year I left December 4th, and it didn't snow until December 5th. That's some luck!

My first duty station was Iraklion Air Station, Crete, Greece. The worst weather we had there was the rainy winters. It did get hot during the summers, but with a beach at our disposal it was great!

It's there I met my husband. Soon after becoming engaged we both received orders for other assignments. I got Bergstrom AFB in Austin, TX, and he received orders to Minot AFB, ND. Well, we certainly couldn't let the width of the continent from North to South keep us apart. I set out to swap orders with another airman.

It took some strings being pulled. Thankfully we were on a small base where everyone knew us, and loved us so the plans pulled through.

No one could believe I actually wanted to go to Minot though. They had a good time teasing us about it!

Love is blind and it makes us do some crazy things.

I left a month ahead of Big B, so I was the first to arrive in the frozen tundra, in March. Some areas might be experiencing spring-like weather at that time of year, since it was the latter part of the month, soon to be April. That's not the case for North Dakota, no way, nuh uh! (Think Sarah Palin's accent, because it's the same in ND). Ever seen Fargo? Yah?

You get the picture.

Those ten foot high snow drifts that I spoke of yesterday are no joke in ND! We were snowed in many a Christmas while being stationed there.

In fact when Big B made is maiden journey out to the great white North he did in fact experience the great white blizzard...in April '92.

To think when I arrived, they handed me a parka and muckaluks I didn't think I'd be needing them! HA!

The best thing that came out of our torturous stay there was our firstborn puppy, kitten (DC) and child. Yep! ND is the state listed on LB's birth certificate!

Jack was our puppy, our first baby. He was a big, dark, Golden Retriever. He lived with us for nine glorious years. He's the reason I bawled during Marley and Me. If Marley was "the worst dog ever" than Jack had to have been the best dog ever. Everybody loved him. Although he was protective when strangers came to the house he was otherwise the sweetest, most gentle dog. He let the boys crawl over him, and would just lie there.

This would have been taken a short time after bringing him home.


Our first Christmas with our first baby




Brothers


Nature calls?


Our last picture with our brother~Jack O' Lantern (He first came home with us in October) August 1992-November 2001


Now that I'm depressed I'll move on...since I did steer off course a little!

I took AW and his girlfriend to see Twilight yesterday and I loved it! Can't wait for New Moon to come out as a movie!

It was too cute taking Alec's girlfriend along with us. He tends to be the child who becomes extremely embarrassed by his father or myself, so I was surprised that he wanted her to go along. She's a very nice girl, and cute too! They seem to be a perfect fit in their little emo way!

With her along I ended up solo. Oh well, I had a fun anyway!

Today I'm go to spend reading Eclipse. It's still raining out so it's the perfect thing to do, curl up by the fire with a good book!

later that same morning

Well...it's nearly 11 a.m. and still NO SNOW!

So I've decided to make lemonade out my lemons and take the boy(s) to go see Twilight. I've heard it follows the book pretty closely.

While on Facebook earlier I came across a friend who is also one of the boys' teachers and she was utterly disgusted with the closure. She lives at a bit of a distance from the school and has small children of her own. She has to get up early and get her kids ready to go, all to make it to work on time. Imagine her, and others like her, frustration.

Like I said earlier it was around 6:05 a.m. when I received the call. We live relatively close to the high school and the middle school, and my kids board their buses at around 6:50. Luckily for them one was still in bed, awaiting his turn in the shower (they're boys and they don't take very long to get ready) and the other was just about to step into the shower! Caught him just in time and told him he could go back to bed.

He was thrilled. Lucky kids.

what did you say? you MUST be kidding!?

Just received a phone call, at about 6:05 a.m. notifying me that our school system would be closed today.

Someone please tell me where the inclement weather is???

I looked at the radar, and sure there is a huge pink splotch acrosss the area....but you look outside and ya get drizzly, cold rain.

It's not even freezing...

So, being the doubter that I am, in this case, of my hearing, I called the info line for the schools and sure enough...the recording says the schools are closed!



Do these people not understand that there are nursing students in the local area who cherish days of solitude, days where we don't have to do a darn thing at all, if we so choose???

If said nursing students have school aged children who are forced upon them, because of a "snow day" there better darn well be snow!

ten foot high drifts outside my window!

Well, I'll just have to go back to bed myself, and curl up with New Moon. I'm normally a fast reader, but it's taking me a little longer to read this book, as it did Twilight. The wording is sometimes very...off, shall we say? And there are sentence fragments. I find myself rereading certain sentences because they're awkward. I don't proclaim to be even a good writer, but I'm writing for fun...not profit, and you're not finding me on the New York Times #1 Bestseller List, now are ya?

I do find the subject material interesting, if not addicting. That's the only reason I'm sticking with it. A good friend is letting me borrow the last two books of the series. Thanks L!

Then later I guess I'll get up and make the boys french toast...

last week of freedom...

...at least for a few months!

The boys went back to school today and I go back next week. I'm actually kind of excited to get back into the swing of things! I was talking to one of my classmates and she said the same thing. Are we gluttons for punishment?

I have plenty to keep me busy over the next few days.

*grocery shop- This ends up being an all day event since I go to Quantico, and usually make stops along the way.
*I still need to get into AW's closet and pull out all of the clothes he will no longer wear. Basically if it's a shirt and not black, with some band or macabre scene on it, he wont wear it. Jeans have to be black. So all of the wonderful American Eagle, Aeropostale, etc. clothing that LB wore and could be handed down, can't be.Lovely.
*I'd like to do some scrapbooking.
*I'd like to finish the Twilight books. Just on New Moon and at the rate I'm going it's going to tak eme forever. Once I start reading I can't stop, it's stopping long enough to read that's a problem!
*Supposed to do lunch with a couple of friends.
*Big B and I are looking at having our current laminate countertops replaced with granite, or something similar. So we'll be searching for the best place to purchase it.
*I need to start exercising, like I said I would.




I've ordered my textbooks and all but one have come in. I'll probably start reading some of them, if they would ever post the syllabi online! Have I mentioned how much my current program irritates me?

Ahh well, I suppose it's time to start doing something constructive. Next week I don't want to end up wishing I had done something and didn't!

help...anybody?

I worked hard to come up with the design of both the background and the header, thanks to tips from The Cutest Blog on the Block.

As you can see the header is not centered. I've tried everything! I went to "edit html" and played with the margins and everything I could think of. I'm wondering if it may be my background, but I even tried messing around with it.

Does anybody have any suggestions?

Please.

I'd leave it, but it's the whole "order"...anal retentive need to have things just so.