Goodbye, 5200! You can keep your snot.

Have I mentioned that I loved my job in Tennessee? It was awesome. Not the butt wiping, snot sucking, drug dealing, and restraint charting parts. But the people I worked with. They made it great. And I will always love them. (Oh, I didn't always hate the patients either. Just sometimes.) On my last day they threw a little going-away shin dig for me and another coworker who is moving to North Carolina, Cecile. It was pretty sweet.

Pizza par-tay!

The cake: super awesome. Thanks Stacey!

Cecile and I. There may or may not have been tears involved.

Tammy and I. I know you were the party instigator. I love this woman.

Loved my coworkers! Niki, you look amazing. Something was obviously hilarious.

5200 (and 5300) you will be sorely missed! You guys really are the best!

How to cook an Easter ham in a hospital

Well, really you could cook this ham anywhere. But I cooked it in a hospital. And to be completely honest with you, it was insanely delish.

What you need for your Easter Ham (Adapted from All Recipes):

- a spiral cut ham (mine was about 9 lbs, bone in)

- approximately 2 cups brown sugar

- a crock pot

-a *60cc syringe (or a for-real baster)

- tin foil

*a cc is a now unapproved abbreviation for ml. Just fyi.

My crock pot was small than my ham. So the lid didn't fit well. But a little jimmy-rigging fixed it right up. I put most of the brown sugar in the bottom of the crock pot, jammed the ham in there, patted the rest of the brown sugar on the ham, and covered it tightly with foil.

I cooked it on high for about an hour, than turned it down to low. After a total of almost 4 hours, I uncovered it to see this. Mmmm. (I did NOT uncover it for the first several hours, this is important when using a crock pot.)

I stole borrowed a (clean) 60cc syringe and basted my ham with the amazing brown sugar liquid from the bottom of the crock pot. In case you haven't seen me for awhile, you can see that I now have 20 chins. And no hair.

But don't worry, I still have high cheek bones. I basted it about every half hour for the next hour, still covering tightly with foil in between.

It smelled insanely good. Insane.

After a total of about 5 hours cook and basting time, I finagled it onto this awesome Crate and Barrel serving platter that I got for my wedding. (That I have used a total of three times now.) I syringed approximately 180cc of brown sugary liquid onto the ham. I also may have drooled on it at this point. (I kid, coworkers.)

It was basically falling off the bone. Ah-mazing. It served about 15 people with leftovers to be had.

And we ate basically for the rest of the day. All the good things you should eat with an Easter ham: deviled eggs, hash brown casserole, green bean casserole, coleslaw, rolls, and chess bars. I felt slightly ill in my workout this morning. So worth it.

My favorite quote from the weekend, after dead-lifting a man off the floor with my coworker: "You girls should do wrestling- you could tag team it."


Yep, I'm that awesome. And yes, I did fill out a full fall report. Second favorite quote? The next day, the same patient says, "I thought about getting out of bed by myself, but then I remembered what happened yesterday." Thank you, kind sir. I appreciate your thoughtfulness.

As much as I hate spending my holidays in the hospital, I know that I am right where I'm supposed to be.
I am so blessed to cook a ham for coworkers, pick people up off the floor, and serve a risen Savior.

"He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come and see the place where he lay." Matthew 28: 6

Happy Easter!

Celebrations

I love celebrating things. It makes daily living more fun to have something to look forward to and enjoy. And we've had plenty of things to celebrate the past few weeks. 

At work we had a Valentine's themed baby shower for my sweet co-workers, Ashley and Brittany. I made a big batch of taco soup, everyone else brought sides, and it was delicious and fun. Was this event after Valentine's Day? Yes. But it was in the month of February, and Valentine's Day generally encourages baby-making, so I felt like the theme was appropriate. Ha.

We like chips, ok?

 Ashley is getting ready to pop! And Brittany actually had her baby several weeks early. She finally got to take him home last week!

I celebrated being able to walk like a normal person and wear normal clothes again (after my burn incident), by going to Biltmore with some Kiewit girls. 

Me, Tess, Mary, and Cassie

We celebrated Caleb's 24th birthday with a dinner out at the Chop House. And this amazing Nutella cheesecake. Nutella is from the Lord.

My crusting skills could use some work. But it doesn't make it any less delicious. 

We celebrated our seven year dating anniversary with a yummy dinner of salmon in a strawberry balsamic sauce, mashed taters, and asparagus. Serious yum.

 And I got these beautiful pink roses. Amazing. My man is good to me.

It was National Pancake Day on Tuesday. I'm telling you friends, it's the little things.

Caleb celebrating getting a receipt with a total ending in a 4 by tipping in pi.

And finally, I celebrated making it through 52 hours of work this week by laying around until 2pm today. In a pair of green surgical scrubs. They are insanely comfortable. And free from my work if you encounter an...accident. But then you can accidentally on purpose keep them forever.

Happy Friday friends! As I looked back through this post I realized that we obviously celebrate life events with food. I'm going to go celebrate hating on some fat with a visit to the elliptical. Right now.

Celebrate something this weekend, ok?

Giving Thanks

So I am finally getting around to my Thanksgiving post...I almost skipped it, but I love Thanksgiving and honestly can't afford to NOT reflect on what I'm thankful for. So here is my list, with a few pics of recent happenings.

1. I am so thankful for my j.o.b. I have worked a whole freaking lot this year and I am so grateful for the opportunity to do that. I love my coworkers and my patients (ok, most of them). Sometimes I hate the hours, the poop, and the crazy people. But I love getting to help people through some of the toughest times in their lives.

B-12 is my favorite shot to give. Because its pink. Duh.

2. I am so so thankful for all the awesome friends we have. We have so many great friends here in Tennessee and actually spread all over the place. We spent Thanksgiving evening with Logan and Stephanie and our favorite nerd game, Settlers of Catan. Logan cooked a killer turkey. It was amazing.

3. Both of our families pretty much rock. So thankful for supportive, loving families! We met up with Caleb's fam in Nashville for Thanksgiving weekend. We shopped till we dropped, people. It was real.

And we saw my sweet cousin, Nicole while we were there. Tessa, Nic, and I got our shop on. L.o.v.e. this pic.

4. My darling husband. He is my favorite person on this earth. I got him a Thanksgiving card since I had to work all day. (Don't worry, he was fine with shooting guns with his buddies all day.)

5.  The little things that make my days good...coffee, Kathie Lee and Hoda, convos on the way home from work with my momma, laughing at silly tv shows with my hub, going out for lunch with Stephanie,  emails from my Grandma, a good butt kicking at the gym, Michael Buble's Christmas album, Instagram, and a tiny glass of wine at the end of the day.

6. And of course, the amazing fact that God send his Son to die for me. Wonderful, amazing, and the huge truth that gets forgotten in the little happenings of daily life.

That's my list! I would like to share that I am officially a Tennessean as of today. I switched my driver's license over. Caleb is switching his too. Why? So that we can legally buy a gun in the state of Tennessee. Oh Tennessee, what have you done to us?

(Oh, I really heart Instagram. Can you tell?)

Gettin' down on Friday: crafting nonsense, pink party, and more randomness

I just got done with two days of pulmonary symposium goodness, where I collected lots of free pens and drank like ten Diet Dr. Peppers to attempt to pay attention. I'm gearing up to work all weekend and all week next week, including Thanksgiving. And then participate in the Black Friday madness, because I'm not a hater. I love me some Black Friday.

Randomness:

1. I was making some yummy corn chowder last night and throwing in a bunch of seasoned salt. Which I love. (Seasoned salt, that is.) I looked on the back to see what the ingredients are in seasoned salt and one of the top ones is MSG. What?!? For reals? McDonald's doesn't use this anymore. Chinese restaurants don't even use this anymore! Does all seasoned salt have MSG? Or is it just my cheap Valutime stuff? I am dismayed. And disappointed. And saddened. Not that I'm all hippie about my food, but I do have a few standards for goodness sake!

2. Caleb and I worked out at the gym together last night for the first time since...before we got married? It was magical. Then we came home and ate the MSG soup.

3. I viciously killed a spider in my sleep last night. As evidenced by spider legs all over my side of the bed this morning. Take that, spider.

4. I am the worst crafter ever. We had a Housewives craft night last month and I was like all taking pictures of things. This is how far I got into my craft:

Do you like how I can't even focus the camera? That is literally how far the craft went. It involved cutting twine and hot gluing it to fake gourds. Everyone else's looked adorable. Mine looked awful. It's in a plastic bag somewhere, with all the other fake gourds that are not covered in twine.

5. We had a pink party at work last month in honor of the breast cancer survivors that we work with.
We had lots of pink treats and it was yummy and fun.

Left to right: Megan, me, Lauren, and Lynn (breast cancer survivor extraordinaire!)

The Baconator (Kim Bacon, also a beautiful breast cancer survivor!)

And now friends, I go to the gym with my husband. Because that is what we do now. Maybe we won't eat MSG soup tonight...

Award-Winning Caramel Apple Cake (Possibly my spiritual gift)

I think my spiritual gift might be baking and cooking. Just throwing that out there. It's certainly not keeping a clean house, being skinny, or distinguishing tongues (Dear people of Tennessee, sometimes I still do not understand a word you are saying). But baking, I can win awards for.

I took this cake to work this week to enter in a contest. And it won me some movie tickets. Possibly by default since there weren't many entries. But this cake is award-winning none the less! And delicious and full of everything that is fall.

I inherited a huge bag of apples from my sweet friend Emily, since they were ridding their fridge of everything before their big move to Canada. (Ca-razy!) I was trying to figure out what to do with them and I remembered this cake. I got this apple cake recipe from one of my teachers in nursing school. She brought the cake to a meeting and it was divine. When I got married, I registered for a bundt pan just so I could make this specific cake. (But you don't have to have a bundt to make it!) And two years later, this is the first time I've made it. I made one last week for my hub and he ate like half of it in one night. So for the contest I made it again and decided to top it with a caramel glaze. Yummy. The cake by itself is super delicious, but the caramel glaze just kicks it up a notch. And makes it so pretty!

The best part about this cake is that the ingredient list is short and the cake comes together quick. I actually had everything already in my pantry.

Fresh Apple Cake
2 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
3 cups diced apples (I didn't peel the apples for the first cake and it was delish, but I did peel them for the second cake and it was a little better, the apples kind of just melt into the cake)
2 eggs (well beaten)
3 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. vanilla

Stir together sugar, oil, eggs, and apples. Separately stir together all other ingredients. Mix everything together. Bake in a greased 9x13 pan or bundt pan at 350 degrees for 40-50 minutes. (I think the bundt takes the longer time, it took me about 55 minutes with the bundt.)

Caramel Glaze (from The Runaway Spoon, found on Food Gawker)

1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup light brown sugar, tightly packed
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted

In a saucepan, melt together butter, brown sugar, salt, and cream. After everything is melted, bring to a rolling boil. Let the mixture boil for one minute. Remove from heat and let sit for 5 minutes. Then vigorously beat in powdered sugar. (You should definitely sift first, I didn't and had to very vigorously beat and still ended up with some lumps)

Make sure the cake is completely cool or the glaze will slide right off.  Also make sure that as soon as the glaze is done, you pour it over the cake. (It firms up pretty quickly.) Put some foil under the cake or you will make a big mess!

Then you can eat the drops. Like I obviously did.

Daylight was gone when I took the above pics, so I snapped one at work.

There you have it. A delicious apple cake to make for your man, your mom, or yourself this weekend. A few more quickies for your Friday:

1. Hoda and Kathie Lee were in Harry Potter World at Universal Studios this morning. Two of my favorite things combined!

2. I am in love with this nail polish. Glamour Purse by Essie. I got tons of compliments on it this week at work, plus this pic is from this morning. Which means that I made it through a week of wiping butts, opening pill packages, and doing intense hand hygiene without a chip. Don't judge my cuticles.

3. The winner of the Mary Kay giveaway is Kerry! Probably because her and my mom are the only ones that read this blog. Which is ok with me! (Let me know what color you want!)

4. Thank goodness being skinny and keeping your house clean are not real spiritual gifts.

Happy 11/11/11!

Rocky Top Tennessee

Before I start the real post, I just want to say that a patient told me I was "too hardcore" yesterday. It was amazing. If making someone take their medicine that they would die without, then I am happy to be hardcore. I'm pretty sure I've never been accused of being too hardcore before, but I am excited about my new identity. Ha.

We headed out to Knoxville on Saturday to tailgate with all the Kiewit folks and watch Tennessee get beat by Georgia. (Coach Dooley, I don't know anything about football but I did note that your team cannot run the ball. At all. Maybe try something else?)  I hate to say this, but UT is just so much more hardcore about football than KU and their stadium is so massive, the games just have a different feel than KU. Also not sitting in the student section just isn't as fun. Ha. But we had a great time since we don't really care. And what's not to love about a great tailgate?

I do feel like a serious traitor wearing an orange shirt.

Just hanging out with some Housewives...

Caleb showing off his corn hole skills.

Neyland Stadium is huge. For reals.

But honestly, my favorite part was the halftime show. The band did this Wizard of Oz theme, complete with Dorothy and all the characters. (And the Wicked Witch of Georgia, hardee har har.) Since I get called Dorothy on a daily basis, I felt like it was just for me.

The weather was perfect, as compared to last year.  It did make us miss KU and college and being poor and not working 12 hour days and feeling like 9pm was the beginning of the night instead of bedtime. We feel old.

All the words to the Rocky Top song. Tshirt of the guy in front of us.

Last minute pic as we were leaving the stadium after the third quarter. I like it.

I just wanna say: Rock Chalk Jayhawks, Go KU!

I'm heading to my personal trainer session (fancy, I know). My last session was Thursday and on Friday I couldn't walk right. Don't kill me today, Chris!

Happy Monday!

The Happy List

Happy Friday! I'm just glad that I have a three day weekend. Work was less than awesome this week. I had my very first day as charge nurse yesterday. Someone coded. Code blue. Flat line. Not good. I'm so insanely happy that this week is over. I needed a little encouragement and I know that a lot of my friends and family are also in need of encouragement. Actually, when could we not use a little encouragement? Anytime, people, anytime! So I decided to make a happy list. Things that give me a little boost and hopefully will give you one too!

My Friday Happy List

1. A good breakfast

2. Coffee from Einstein Bagels at the hospital. Vanilla Hazelnut and Autumn Roast get me through the morning.

3. A double rainbow. All the way across the sky. I saw this last week and was reminded of God's amazing love and promises for us. (Ok, I was also reminded of the hilarious YouTube video.)

4. June Beatrice Baker. Born on Tuesday, September 27th to Zach and Audrey Baker. I haven't met her yet, but I know she is going to be amazing! 

5. This verse, that I used to carry in my pocket back when I was a brand new CNA and super freaked out all the time. I was reminded of it so many times this week. 

"For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and self control. " 2 Timothy 1:7

6. Friday Flower Club

7. Looking forward to a vacation. (Celebrating 2 years of marriage in Charleston, SC in a couple weeks!)

8. The Today Show and Kathie Lee and Hoda. If I get to watch it, it means I'm probably not at work. And I just love those ladies. They make me laugh.

9. Cajun Chicken Pasta from The Pioneer Woman. I made it earlier this week and it was fantastic. Also it fed both of us for lunch for the rest of the week.

10. Pay Day Friday. Holla!

I hope you are having a great Friday and have time to think up your own happy list. (Thanks for the idea, Rockstar Diaries!)