Baby George: mad version

Happy Memorial Day! I am finally off today after working all weekend. We celebrated with some Pal's this morning. (Delicious Tennessee fast food)

Caleb took this video of baby George last weekend. Aunt Audrey is taking away his snacks and he is getting super pissed. We laughed forever last night. We miss you, George!

PS. Go down to the bottom of the blog and hit pause on the music!

I love Kansas City

We road tripped it up to Kansas City this past weekend for Caleb's brother, Jordan's high school graduation. It has been four long months since I have been HOME and it was beautiful! We left Thursday night and drove all the way through with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone on cd to keep us company and we rocked it all night. We got there at 6am and since no one was up yet we decorated Jordan's car.

The rain washed it off later that day. But it's the thought that counts!

We hung out with my parents for the day and saw their rehab house project. I told them to make a blog about it. They looked at me like I was a little crazy.

Then we crashed around 3pm. That staying up all night eventually gets to you! Then we headed over to Zach and Audrey's to find out if their bun in the oven is a boy or girl. (It's a girl! So excited to buy girl stuff!) But mostly we went to see George. Sorry Zach and Aud, we love your spawn. That boy is like twice as big as he was four months ago (not an exaggeration) and totally knows how to ham it up for the camera. Love him.  And we met Audrey's sister Jami's new peanut, Penelope (and by new I mean, less than one week old!). Not gonna lie, holding babies makes my womb ache a little. Just a tiny tiny itty bitty bit.

Tell me that isn't the cutest face you've ever seen.

Saturday was the graduation extravaganza. Chipotle catering your grad party=genius. I love Chipotle. (But not as much as baby George.) We got to see tons of relatives that we hadn't seen since our wedding and had a blast.

Caleb and Grandma Baker

Caleb and Uncle Mike, who said he wanted a different pic if it was going on my blog.

I think George loved Grandma Baker, they hung out for awhile.

Baker fam.

Caleb and I are really bad influences. 

Haha.

I forgot to take pics of my fam or of my bff because I'm crazy. But I love them and loved seeing them! I finished up the trip by waking up on Monday with awful back pain. I dislike hard mattresses. Very very much. Thanks to some muscle relaxers from my father-in-law, I'm good to go. Because as a nurse, I encourage people to share their prescription meds. (Oh wait...)

We rolled in at 3am, crashed for awhile, and now it's back to real life! I love Kansas City, family, and home.

Keep calm and carry on

Whew! Finally done with 6 straight days of work. Not going to lie, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Mostly because my patients were awesome. Mostly. Also because I got to teach at a skills fair one day instead of taking patients. That was probably the saving grace. So the only thing I have to blog about is work. And my sickness. I got a horrible terrible cold last week that smacked me in the face. It was awful. I am kind of a baby about being sick, probably because I never get sick. I'm pretty sure I haven't gotten sick since nursing school (darn those kids in the PICU that gave me all their germs). Caleb likes to say I have the immune system of a cockroach. Seriously, a whole winter of taking care of people with flu, pneumonia, and other horrid diseases and I was fine. And now the beautiful month of May hits and I'm down. Our apartment was filled with glasses of salt water (for gargling), half drank mugs of tea, and tissues all over the floor. Caleb was not sick at all, which was super funny to him since he is usually the sick one. ("Maybe all those fruits and veggies you eat are giving you diseases...you should try more processed food like me.")
Ha. But he was sweet and took an afternoon off work and bought me a gorgeous stargazer lily that is still blooming a week later.

I also redid the blog while I was sick. And somehow all the awesome changes I made did not get saved. I blame it on the blogger shutdown that happened a few days ago. Seriously blogger??

We had a comfort food potluck on Sunday at work. Meatloaf and carbs. Yum.

And we had a going away party for one of the charge nurses...she wears a name tag holder with the slogan "Keep calm and carry on" on it and always says it to us when we get crazy. So we had this cake made.

And it tasted good.

And this is how the kitchen looked after 6 days of working.

At least I cooked even if I didn't clean!

We are KC bound this afternoon as soon as the hub gets off work! Yay! Its been over 4 months since I've been home and I can't wait! More pics and blog posts ahead...and no more overtime for the next few weeks! I have lots of projects and fun planned. I'm a nerd, I know. But it's nice to be back in the real world instead of the sick world.

Have a wonderful weekend! Hope to see lots of friends and family this weekend!!! So excited!

And whatever is going on in your life...keep calm and carry on. It really will be ok.

Weekend Happenings: go-karts, bbq, reading, and muffins

We had a beautiful, relaxing weekend. It started with Chick-fil-a and Starbucks, the way every weekend should start. Because those are the finer things of life. Then after I conquered the farmer's market and the skinny jeans, we headed to Pigeon Forge to meet up with some of Caleb's coworkers. Pigeon Forge is like the place where everyone goes. Everyone and their whole entire family and everyone they know. It doesn't matter when you go, the traffic is always horrible and everything is packed. But people keep coming back. Because it's just good wholesome Tennessee fun. (Haha)

We raced go-karts all afternoon. I got lapped on the first round and after that I smoked all those boys. (Kind of.) I have no pictures of us racing because I was racing the whole time everyone else does. This is why I'm not a good photographer. But here is a lovely picture of the neon sign.

My arms are still sore. Because I'm a woman and I have weak arms.

Afterwards, we went to Bennett's Bar-b-que Pit and it was amazing. I love bbq and this was no let down. I do miss some good Jack Stack and Oklahoma Joe's though...

So good!

Yesterday, I wore my cowboy boots and my skinny jeans. A winning combo, people. And no, you do not get evidence of this. I felt very Tennessee and Caleb made fun of me the whole time. We went to his coworker's house and they installed new speakers in Caleb's Civic while I sat in the shade and read. I started and finished Water for Elephants this weekend and loved it.

Today is my last day off before an insane amount of working. So it still counts as the weekend. I was walking with Stephanie and we saw a strawberry stand and bought the most magical strawberries ever. Seriously, so freaking good. My fridge was bursting with strawberries (I just can't stop buying them!) so I made these little babies.

You too, can have this deliciousness.

Here is the link for Strawberry Cream Cheese Muffins. I even subbed half whole wheat flour and low fat cream cheese and they are still perfection.

I'm finishing 6 loads of laundry, cleaning, cooking dinner, and fighting off a cold...but I still have time to make a blog post. Happy Monday!

Cinco de Mayo!

First, I'm going to list all the reasons this week was awesome:

1. I saw a huge, hardback KitchenAid cookbook in a patient's trash can. I asked why it was in there. His mom said because it didn't have any good recipes and she didn't want it. She said I could have it, or else the trash could have it, either one. I took it. It is great. (Disclaimer: it was not an isolation room and there was nothing gross in the trash can.)

2. Another patient I had found out I am from Kansas. He was very excited and said that when he used to drive truck, he would go pick up loads from the tobacco farms in the mountains of Kansas. I laughed. In front of him. I couldn't tell if he was joking or not.

3. Yesterday I picked up an extra shift and it was the best Friday I have ever worked. The patients were angels.

4. Two people told me it looked like I lost weight.

5. We discovered a place to play pool and drink beer within walking distance of our loft. And the burgers are amazing.

6. The farmers' market opened today and it was beautiful. Just beautiful.

7. I bought my first pair of skinny jeans at Target. And they fit. Now that the trend is on the way out, they decide to start making skinny jeans for girls with butts.

8. Cinco de Mayo! Full of Mexican goodness.

I made a fruit pizza. Except I made it in a rectangle shape to  look like the Mexico flag.

Check it out. And its yummy!

Fruit pizza= a tube of sugar cookie dough baked in a pizza pan or cookie sheet, cream cheese frosting (cream cheese+sugar+vanilla), and whatever fruit you want. In this case, strawberries and kiwis. It is so darn good.

We got together with some of Caleb's friends from work and enjoyed all our favorite Mexican things: margaritas and tacos.

Also, I wore my new boots. And I love them.

Really, my favorite thing about Mexico is Croc and going on mission trips there in high school. Here is a lovely pic of me, Christie Deaver, Laura Weatherford, and Rachel Williams in Mexico many years ago.

I like this. You are welcome.

My boss loves to celebrate all holidays, no matter how mundane. She makes us dress up and takes pictures of us and posts them places. Enjoy this goodness.

As my husband said, "Muy guapo!"

Cinco de Mayo was successful. As is this whole weekend since I am NOT working! Enjoy your weekend, Mother's Day, and spring!

State of the House: May. And how I am not giving up on my resolution.

The title of this post was going to be "State of the House: April" and then I realized that April is over. Wowza.

So my house is kind of a mess. (And by house, I always mean apartment. Or loft. Because that sounds cooler.) Surprise surprise. I just got done with a long run at work and I picked up tomorrow so its a long week that didn't involve much cleaning. I did have a good breakfast this morning. Which included week-old breakfast casserole (it was still delicious), strawberries, and coffee. Mmmm.

I love you, morning off.

And this is what my coffee table looked like without the close up.

Yep, its true. And this is the best part of the apartment.

I decided I need to make a plan to keep my house clean and neat. Because my New Year's resolution is not going awesome. I know this is super basic to some people (read: almost everyone) but I need an outline! So here it is folks. Written down for me to refer to.

Daily: (especially on work days)
-clear dining table and coffee table
-put dishes in dishwasher (as in: not the sink)
-wipe down kitchen counters
-place dirty clothes in hamper (this is ground breaking stuff, I know)
-make bed before leaving for work

Whew. And I made a real cleaning schedule for days off. I usually work four days a week and am off for three. Sometimes I only work three days. So this schedule would give me at least one day off from any cleaning (except daily chores).

Day off #1:
- Dusting in living room, dining room, kitchen, and office (really those are all connected so its like one big room)
-Vacuum all of the above
- Mop all of the above
- Organize office space
- Clear out fridge

Day off #2:
- Dusting, vacuuming, moping in bedroom (and spare bedroom if needed)
- Pick up closet
- Clean both bathrooms:
        -clean shower
        -clean toilets
        -clean sink, mirror
        -clean floors

So there you have it. The more I look at this list, the more simple it seems. *Sigh*

Does anyone else out there have a schedule for cleaning? Am I crazy?

Ok, I'm off to a Cinco de Mayo par-tay. Because Cinco de Mayo is a real holiday in which Americans partake off Mexican food and Mexicans don't celebrate at all.

olé!