It's Officially December

I can't sleep. I haven't been able to sleep like this in quite some time. Which is nice, but I wish I could sleep now. I have to leave for work at 11 so, ya, I want to sleep now!

But I'm not sleeping, so instead, I'm realizing that it's officially December now! Which is great and not great. Great because that means it's officially Christmas season!!! Not great because that means Christmas season will be over before I know it! :(

Nala loves our Christmas tree! She sits under it and looks at the lights. It's pretty cute, but I must admit I'm a little biased.

I have few goals for myself this month...
*Decorate for Christmas
*Do everything Christmas-y that I can
*Apply & interview for my unit's assistant supervisor position
*Have an awesome Christmas vacation
*Christmas, Christmas, Christmas!!!
Oh, and finish the Series of Unfortunate Events series

Now I'm hungry. I shall lay and contemplate if I should now eat something or not. Over and out.

blah

Like I said in my last post, I did really well with my October goals! Yay me!

*I've been able to enjoy reading a lot more since the living room got cleaned and it's super nice to have a clean dining table!
*I did get med tech certified but I still have to do two rounds at work to actually be able to pick up shifts at work, but I have already administered meds 3 times.
*Abby wasn't really using her dog house at first but she's been using it more since it's gotten colder, so that's good.
*I did go to free zoo day - with my kids at work
*I was doing pretty good with working out for awhile - started cycling - found it's the one thing that I don't get bored with.

So, I accomplished all my Oct goals! :) Well...I guess I didn't go to free zoo day in October, but I did in November, but whatever...not like that's a life changing goal!

Work is changing a lot right now. Amanda quit, Amie quit. Todd is the new supervisor. They're not posting the assistant supervisor spot for another two weeks or so because of some structural changes they're making. I'm frustrated with that, but what can I do... Work is definitely not going to be the same without Amie! Yesterday was Becky's last day too. Devereux will not be as good without these two ladies!

We got our first snow the other day. Pretty crazy that it's our first for out here. Last year we had 3 feet by my birthday!

I've been reading a lot lately. With my goal of having the living room cleaned, reading is pretty much all I've been doing. I need to start some cleaning again though - tackle the spare bedroom!

Off to eat some supper and watch Grey's!

I Feel Good... (well, I'm tired right now)

My mom skimmed my latest blog entry, and brought to my attention how well I'm doing with my goals this month. I am so gosh darn proud o' myself! :)

So far, I cleaned and reorganized my kitchen. It's fantastic. Much more easy to use.
I cleaned the living room. Completely. I don't think it's ever been this clean.
I enjoyed my birthday, despite working on it. My kid's at work made me a birthday card and sang happy birthday to me so that helped!
I did my med tech class this week Monday and Tuesday (today)
We got Abby a dog house.
I've been reading all the time which is very pleasant.

Yay for me!

Ok, sleep time now. I am exhausted! Oh, and I have to add, I passed my Qmap (the med-tech thing) with a 100%. Boo ya!

October is the Best month of the year.

Welp, August came and went, September has come and gone, and October here we are!

The last thing I wrote about was August goals.
All goals were accomplished other than getting med-tech certified, cooking 2 nights a week, and running 3 nights a week.

August and September were good to me overall.

I am 6 days away from turning 25. That makes me feel old.

I was sick yesterday. I hate being sick. I'm the worst sick person...I am not good at sitting around and doing nothing and just watching TV. Well, I'm not good at it when I'm sick. When I'm feeling fine, I can be a pro at sitting in front of the TV all day.

I've been reading more lately which is nice. I listened to the Kite Runner, audio book style, then watched the movie. I'm glad I did it in this order. I like the writing style. I also listened to Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything is Illuminated which was very odd, slow at times, and hard to follow for awhile, but I think I liked it. I started reading Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events. They're pretty great. I'm also done with book 3 - will probably finish it when I'm done writing this post. Oh, and I'm also currently reading Water for Elephants. I feel like it's really different than anything I've read for quite some time.

Things I'm going to do this month...
work on cleaning the house
enjoy my birthday weekend (I'm working 12 hours on my actual birthday..yuck)
start working out again
get my med-tech certification set up, not necessarily get it yet though
go to the zoo on free zoo day!
keep making time to read
get Abby a dog house

August Goals

Never made July Goals.

To much to do.

How my June goals went:

*Thoroughly enjoy my week and a half vacation even if I just stay at home (accomplished :) )*Throw a wonderful bridal shower for Laura (accomplished!)

*Shoot another awesome wedding (accomplished)

*Keep working on my website (accomplished)

*Work on the house (accomplished)

*Plant and take care of garden (accomplished...the garden is doing amazingly well!)

*Get Abby's blood work done for her hypothyroid (got that done last week, but it is done now!)

*Get all pictures from my first wedding edited (accomplished)

*Go mountain biking at least once (sort of accomplished...went biking once while in IL)

*I'd still like to do more with my little blog here, but I don't know if it will happen. Just no time. (ya...didn't do that obviously)

I made out pretty good with the June goals! If I had written July goals they would have gone pretty well too surprisingly.

Some August goals:

*Enjoy vacation at home

*Be an awesome bridesmaid for Annie

*Complete both photo projects I'm doing right now (check out http://www.kvpusa.com/ to see one of my photos...the brown dog on the first page wearing a clear cone)

*Get some work issues figured out

*Remember to say happy birthday to Annie

*Help Andrew transition back into school...for his last year!!!

*Get Nala spayed

*Follow up with Abby's last hypothyroid appointment (she lost 26 pounds in 2 months!)

*Get med-tech certified

*Work on my website

*Get the house back in order after all our vacations

*Enjoy my new work schedule of having off Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays

*Start cooking 2 nights a week as a family

*Run 3 days a week

Lots of things I should do this month!!!

I'm off to some reading

June Goals

I'm not tired. What's new.
Looks like all I do with this blog is write my monthly goals.
But ya know, whatever.
I'm fine with that.

Here's where my May goals ended up...
Done:
*Order bridesmaid dress for Annie's wedding (I actually did this in April already :) )
*Have my MHWII interview - got my HHWII last week! :)
*Collect addresses for Laura's wedding shower invitations
*Send above mentioned invites
*Remember Mother's day...and do something about it.
*Enjoy my 2 year wedding anniversay - We saw Fiddler on the roof, with the original Tevya from the movie, it was great. Plus we just got to hang out and spend time together.
*Start this obnoxious diet I've been putting off (I'll explain more later) - didn't explain, but whatev. I'm doing the diet and only have less than a week left, thank God!
*Successfully shoot my first wedding of the season on the 29th - the pics look good

Did, but need to keep working on:

*Keep working on website and figuring it out

Not done:
*Find a time that I can get med-tech certified...but I heard that my work will soon be offering classes on campus
*Get the house completely unpacked and live-in-able. (Probably won't happen again) - Ya, pathetically still not done.
*Post more pictures on my little blahg space.

Cancelled: *Have an enjoyable trip to Grand Junction - Ended up having to work Memorial Day so couldn't make it to GJ

May goals ended up pretty good I'd say

June Goals
*Thoroughly enjoy my week and a half vacation even if I just stay at home
*Throw a wonderful bridal shower for Laura
*Shoot another awesome wedding
*Keep working on my website
*Work on the house
*Plant and take care of garden
*Get Abby's blood work done for her hypothyroid
*Get all pictures from my first wedding edited
*Go mountain biking at least once
*I'd still like to do more with my little blog here, but I don't know if it will happen. Just no time.

That's all. I will try to sleep again now.

Wet dog

Abby would not stop howling tonight.
So I let her inside.
And of course it was snowing. Because it's Colorado.
So now the whole house smells like wet dog.
Great.

And I haven't been able to sleep lately.
Last night I didn't even feel tired until 1ish.
And then laid in bed for about an hour.
Just laying.
I wasn't even tired enough to keep my eyes closed.
And it's happening again.


As far as my May goals,
I've collected addresses for Laura's shower invites
I'm sending the majority of the invites out tomorrow
I remembered Mother's Day but not in enough time to do anything other than call my mom but that still counts

That's all so far for May.
I kind of feel like I'm living in chaos right now.
I've been working a ton.
My house is pretty much still a disaster.
The kids at work are stressing me out.
My work calls me on my days off asking me to come in.
It's snowing.
I need a vacation.

It's Already May

April was a blur.
We moved.
My mom visited.
We got a dog (my dog...Abby)
I was sick for over 2 weeks

I'm ready for May flowers!
And I got them actually.
When my mom was here we went flower shopping at Lowe's (she convinced me it's better than Home Depot)
Anyway, I finally actually got them all in pots today.
I love them!

Here's where my April goals ended up...

*Keep working on website and figuring it out - still need to do this

*Find a time that I can get med-tech certified - still need to do this
*Finish my MHWII stuff - done!
*Get the new house completely unpacked and live-in-able. I know this won't happen, but I want it to. So it's my goal. - done and then mom came and now not done again b/c she brought me more stuff!
*Collect addresses for Laura's wedding shower invitations - still waiting on Laura's part of this
*Build Bookshelf - done, and it looks great!

So goals didn't go so great this month, but that's OK.
A lot of unexpected and out of the ordinary happened in April.
May will be a successful month for goals though.
Mostly b/c if they don't get done, there will be a problem.
I'm organizing Laura's wedding shower in June so I have a lot to do for this.

Here's my May goals list...
*Order bridesmaid dress for Annie's wedding (I actually did this in April already :) )

*Keep working on website and figuring it out

*Find a time that I can get med-tech certified
*Have my MHWII interview
*Get the house completely unpacked and live-in-able. (Probably won't happen again)
*Collect addresses for Laura's wedding shower invitations
*Send above mentioned invites
*Remember Mother's day...and do something about it.
*Enjoy my 2 year wedding anniversay
*Start this obnoxious diet I've been putting off (I'll explain more later)
*Successfully shoot my first wedding of the season on the 29th
*Have an enjoyable trip to Grand Junction

*Post more pictures on my little blahg space.

Those are my big goals for the month.
I like to think of my daily to-do lists as goals now.
Things I am aiming to get done, and have number one priority, but still, if they don't get done....
it.will.be.o.k.

The new place

Welcome to our new house! Here's some pictures from the day we signed the lease

Our side of the duplex

Our garage/storage shed/backyard

The main upstairs living room


Master bedroom


Upstairs bathroom. The downstairs one is identical, just a little bigger


Downstairs living room area

One of the downstairs rooms. It's not Andrew's office/storage

Our nice big laundry room!

We are thoroughly enjoying our new house. I'm so glad we got it. We have both been much happier :)

Blogger Giveaway

I follow quite a few blogs, and so many of them do giveaways. I never 'enter' them because it never seems worth it for me. I finally found one worth it! V and Co is giving away some What's Your Virtue lip glosses. I found these like 6 months ago or so and never bought any. So hopefully I win. :) But she has so many followers it's like a 1 in 1000 chance!

http://vandcogiveaways.blogspot.com/2010/04/sponsored-giveaway.html

New goals for April

April has come and will be gone before I know it. Having some goals seems to slow down the coming and going of time which is nice.

So here's some new goals I have:

*Keep working on website and figuring it out
*Find a time that I can get med-tech certified
*Finish my MHWII stuff
*Get the new house completely unpacked and live-in-able. I know this won't happen, but I want it to. So it's my goal.
*Collect addresses for Laura's wedding shower invitations
*Build Bookshelf

The house is number one priority for me right now, but I feel like all I've been doing is working. Oh wait, that's because that is all I've been doing. But I am off starting at 3 pm Saturday till noon on Wednesday. So I am taking full advantage of that and unpacking and organizing!

Andrew and I decided we wanted to start wood working, so we are! With our tax refund check we bought tools and our first project is a bookshelf. We're really excited to have fun doing the actual building and then having an inexpensive, quality piece of furniture that we will use.

Off to dream land.

Jackie

Goals

One week till the end of March. Here I am with my goals...

Goals to accomplish by the end of March:
Personal:
*Finish going through filing cabinet (As done as it can be for now)
*Get living room and kitchen actually organized and clean (Done)
*Go through the box of stuff from the Jeep that has been sitting in the room since November when we suddenly had to get a new car (Done)

*Decide if we want to move in April, May, or January (Done..we're in the process of moving now!)

*Have an eye appointment (Done)
*Spend more quality time with Andrew (Done)

Professional:
Photography:
*Get website up and running (This is sadly not done...my external hard drive crashed and I lost a lot of my files. I have asked clients to get me a copy of the files but no one has gotten any to me yet! I'm really upset about all of this, but there's nothing I can do. It'll get figured out eventually)

Devereux:
*Get med-tech certified (Not done, but still want to get it sometime)
*Finish half of my MHWII stuff (Done... more like 2/3 done)


There's only 2 things I didn't get done!! I am so proud of myself :) I'll make some April goals soon. I enjoy making obtainable goals. It feels great to accomplish them!

Moving!

Yay, we're moving!!!

No more making 3 trips up 3 flights of stairs with groceries

No more listening to the roofing guys hammering away, waking me up at 8am

No more walking to the middle of the complex to get our mail

No more ice on the car in the middle of winter when I'm already running late for work

No more being cramped!

Yep, that's right...

We are moving into one side of a duplex!

We will have our own mailbox

Our own 2 car garage

Enough space for me to do all the crafting I want to do, not to mention actually have desk space to do my photography work!

We will even have a yard, so Abby will finally be joining us!

I am soo excited!

We are moving the 27th and it couldn't come any sooner

Goals Update II

I know no one really cares about this. Somehow I just feel that making my goals public means I'll be more likely to accomplish them. Probably because I know I'm giving people updates, so I want to actually get everything done. When I procrastinate and don't cross things off, usually only I see that. This way everyone would see how much of a procrastinator I am and it's like someone's holding me accountable...even though no one really is.

Goals to accomplish by the end of March:
Personal:
*Finish going through filing cabinet
*Get living room and kitchen actually organized and clean (...getting closer)
*Go through the box of stuff from the Jeep that has been sitting in the room since November when we suddenly had to get a new car

*Decide if we want to move in April, May, or January

*Have an eye appointment
*Spend more quality time with Andrew

Professional:
Photography:
*Get website up and running

Devereux:
*Get med-tech certified
*Finish half of my MHWII stuff

Jackie in the kitchen

I will always be a better baker than cooker, it's just who I am.

That said, I pretty much successfully made some potato soup tonight!

Here's the recipe:
http://sweetgrace.typepad.com/the_inadvertent_farmer/2008/12/cream-of-baked-potato-souprecipe.html

Despite the fact that I somehow managed to take exactly an hour to peel and cut the potatoes, the recipe is really easy. I didn't cut the potatoes in to small enough pieces, and the soup part didn't thicken enough. But it still all turned out pretty good, and the flavor is still very delicious!

But now on to the baking/sweet portion of the night:
http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/Valentine-Napoleons

Deeeelicciiouss!!!

Andrew loved them; he says they might be his favorite thing that I've made. Fairly high calorie, yes, but for a pastry dessert, not that bad. Seriously, they're worth skipping your normal snacks throughout the day to have one of these at the end of the night!

Oh, and if you want to see pictures of the kitty, check out my album on facebook :)

G'night!

Goals Update

Goals to accomplish by the end of March:
Personal:
*Finish going through filing cabinet
*Get living room and kitchen actually organized and clean (worked on it a lot today...getting there)
*Go through the box of stuff from the Jeep that has been sitting in the room since November when we suddenly had to get a new car

*Figure out if it's even possible for us to move in May or not

*Have an eye appointment
*Actually spend some quality time with Andrew (did this; hope to have more quality time too though!)

Professional:
Photography:
*Finish editing my January wedding shoot (Done!)
*Have another wedding scheduled (Done!)

Devereux:
*Get van certified (Got my driving records...getting certified on Wednesday)
*Get med-tech certified
*Finish half of my MHWII stuff

I just woke up half an hour ago

1) I finally finished my editing from that January wedding...now if only I can get a hold of the bride to give her the disc!!

2) It was very nice to see Curtis and Katie last week...we're excited for them to move here in April.

3) The ballet we went to was good. It was different because it wasn't one whole story, just had a theme with different pieces. One section was awesome and I almost cried...I think Andrew did cry.

Off to eat my oatmeal squares cereal and get on with my to do list!

Life...randomness...

I really wanted to post some pictures of my kitty awhile ago, but life happened.

I shot a wedding in January and since then Lightroom hasn't been working too great, I dropped my external hard drive so I don't have some of my pictures (thankfully all of the January wedding pictures are fine!)

Do you ever feel like you get nothing done, yet somehow you are totally stressed out and feel like you are constantly busy?! I hate the feeling. I'm going through one of those times. I'm hoping it ends soon!

Curtis and Katie, our friends that were in Africa, are in Denver tonight and for the next couple nights, so we get to see them tomorrow. That will be nice.

Goals to accomplish by the end of March:
Personal:
*Finish going through filing cabinet
*Get living room and kitchen actually organized and clean
*Go through the box of stuff from the Jeep that has been sitting in the room since November when we suddenly had to get a new car
*Figure out if it's even possible for us to move in May or not
*Have an eye appointment
*Actually spend some quality time with Andrew

Professional:
Photography:
*Finish editing my January wedding shoot
*Have another wedding scheduled
Devereux:
*Get van certified
*Get med-tech certified
*Finish half of my MHWII stuff

We're going to a ballet tomorrow night with our friends Hillary and Jake. That will be nice. I was planning on getting cleaning and editing done tomorrow during the day, but we'll be hanging out with Curtis and Katie...great, but will also add stress to my plate.

So goes the way of life.

I love these!

http://amyatlas.blogspot.com/2010/02/brooch-bouquets.html

Success!

My dad is here visiting for a couple days (he leaves tomorrow..sad..). My dad likes to cook and inspired us to do some more cooking this week, now that I am feeling normal again

So tonight we cooked two recipes that we found 2 weeks ago when we first decided to cook more.

These chicken enchiladas: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/chicken-enchiladas-i/detail.aspx

And this Spanish rice: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/spanish_rice/

We all liked both of them! Yay!!

We followed both recipes pretty much just how they are, but we didn't use the parsley. Also I didn't use as much onion as it calls for because I'm not a big onion fan. In my opinion the rice could have had even less onion. (I think I only used a quarter of an onion-it was a big onion though)

So if you're looking for some good enchiladas and rice, try out these recipes. If I can do it successfully, so can you!


Goodnight and farewell till next time

~Me

cute!

I think I'm in love with about 99% of the stuff here! :

http://shinzikatoh.com/shop/catalog/default.php

Sickie

*Warning* gross graphic descriptions. read at own risk.

I woke up Sunday morning around 6am with a gut wrenching stomach ache. I of course woke up Andrew and asked him to help me "get set up in the bathroom." I remember him being like "are you gonna puke or something?!" in a very not happy voice. Haha. And yes, I did puke. And have diarrhea. Multiple times.

It is now Wednesday and I am still sick. I hate being sick.

Sunday night Andrew ended up taking me to the hospital after I laid on the couch for I don't know how long straight moaning and rolling around because it felt like my intestines were tying themselves in knots and then being yanked apart all the while dogs using them like a chew toy.

At the hospital I was given a dose of nausea medicine, dose of painkillers, and they started an IV-fluid for being dehydrated since nothing was staying in me. The painkillers didn't help, so I got another dose, along with more fluid.

An hour later I got a ct scan just to check on things and threw up right after that...a lot...So I got another bag of fluids, another dose of nausea medication, and a dose of the wonderful drug vicodin. And I finally got some sleep.

They sent us off with prescriptions for a nausea medicine and my new love, yes you guessed, vicodin.

Well, we thought I would be fine through the night, but lo and behold, I was awoken again Monday morning around 7 with another intestinal death. Since we thought I would be ok through the night we didn't get the prescriptions filled when we left the hospital. So, around 7:30am, Andrew, bless his heart, went to the 24 hour pharmacy to get my drugs! I of course threw up, a lot, and had some more diarrhea...both at the same time (for the 3rd time)...before he got back to the house.

I took my drugs and passed out till noon I think!

(I think the moral of this story is ending up to be that I'm addicted to vicodin!)

I ended up without too much pain the rest of Monday.

I thought Tuesday was the last day of everything. I actually left the house - washed my car and wandered the aisles of Target (Target makes everything better, if you didn't know that).

So along comes this morning, and I wake up around 8 with another intestinal squeezing moment. But, drum roll please...I did not have diarrhea and I did not throw up!

I took my drugs (2 vicodin this time!) and I fell asleep. And then I had very vivid dreams that someone came into my house and sat on my bed. It was quite scary.

Thanks to anyone who just read about my up-chucking and diarrhea-ing. I appreciate it.

Disclaimer: I am truly not addicted to vicodin! It is great medication for my intestines that are being used as a chew toy, and that's it. :)

Signing off in hopes of not waking up tomorrow at 9am with gut problems,

Jackie

New Year's goal: Cook!

Andrew and I decided to start cooking this year...To actually have meals for at least 3 suppers a week, not just random foods that we eat till we're full.

We're doing this by picking 3 recipes for the week, doing the grocery shopping, then making 1 meal 3 different days a week.

Well, we started today with a potato and pea soup. One of the reasons we haven't ever really cooked a lot is because we don't end up liking the majority of what we make. Let's just say this recipe just proved our problem and I'm back to not wanting to cook!!!

Don't make this: http://www.delicious-low-fat-recipes.com/pea-potato-soup.html

On the Fourth, and last, week of Christmas...

...

Dec 20: Listened to Christmas music, finished making presents, my mom got here, put more ornaments on the tree that my mom brought

Dec 21: Listened to Christmas music, outlet mall shopped, watched most of "Holiday Inn", ate caramel apples from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory

Dec 22: Listened to Christmas music, drove to Grand Junction to visit Andrew's family and exchanged presents with them, rode in a limo to look at Christmas lights

Dec 23: Listened to Christmas music

Dec 24: Listened to Christmas music, spent the evening with Andrew's sister Kim and her husband, went to a church service (we were really late!), made and decorated sugar cookies, looked at Christmas lights, opened 1 present, watched a Charlie Brown Christmas

Dec 25: Opened presents, listened to Christmas music, made caramel corn, had dinner with the Eldridge's


On the 26th I still listened to Christmas music! We still have our tree and decorations up, but they will be down tomorrow. I hope everyone had as fantastic of a Christmas as I did! And I also hope that no one had to work as much as I did over New Year's! :)