NYE- 2011

Jess and I are pretty low key when it comes to celebrating. We enjoy quiet evenings at home and like to avoid the craziness of it all. I wasnt feeling very well new years eve and had someone cover my shift. I stayed in bed most of the day and then watched the ball drop with Jess when she got home.

2011 has been a pretty good year for us.

- Jess finished her last year of college basketball.

-She got her first job!

- I graduated from my 2 year school.

- I went full time at work, only to have to go back part time in January 2012..

- We moved into a 3 bedroom apartment (which was a lot of drama that I never found time to blog about! =/)

- I got into Nursing School! <<---- Best News Ever!

-We threw our first baby shower!

And some more incredibly exciting events, Im sure!

We are grateful for all that we have and look forward to a year for of changes for us!

Happy New Years Eve!

Goodbye 2011!

Christmas 2011

 We had a wonderful Christmas. On Christmas eve, we closed so we didnt get off work until 8pm. Well, I got off at 8, Jess got off at 7. It was a Saturday night so I had extra stuff to do to close out for the night, as well as for the week. But I was done on time. :)

Jess rushed home to finish packing and walk the furbabies. She loaded the car and got everything ready so that when I got home, we could get on the road. I have the best wifey :)

We got to my mom's around 10pm and of course we opened all of our gifts. Why you ask? Because I have always opened presents on Christmas eve.. not all of them, but most of them. Seriously, I always had Christmas as soon as I woke up whether it was 4am or 9am.... lets be honest, it was rarely 9am ;) Santa must have woken me every year on his way out!! Ha Ha.

Well, Santa mom did not disappoint!!

drumroll please....

Oh yea... I got a Kindle Fire baby!

I also got these... ok let me explain...

1.  Anyone remember the Pizza Hut glasses with the Flintsones Kids on them from 1980s?? Well, me either. I think maybe my Aunt Kathy had some, but thats the extent of any kind of memory. One day, the family (me, mom, Aunt Kathy, and Jess) were hitting up the antique stores they love, oh so much, we I spotted a Freddy glass for $2. It was too cute to pass up... plus it was 50% off. SCORE. Fast foward a year, and I found the Barney glass at antique store but it was $18. Uh no thank you! I was crushed. I wanted it sooo bad. Well, Mom found a good deal on one... so I got it for Christmas. :)

2. OK.... I may have had a bit of an obsession with Blue's Clues. Ya know, the toddler show on Nick... Well, maybe not the show so much... but the little dog is just so dang cute! One year, Mom found a plush Blue's Clues blanket and pillow for $40. I still have it... and it traveled to New York with me on a high school chorus trip. No Shame! Anyways... I have had the plate/bowl set for years!!! And last time mom was down to see us we noticed it had a crack in it. So sad. I decided not to use it anymore... and actually threw it away about a week ago. Guess what else mom found for a good deal??? Yep. A brand new Blue's Clues plate. :) Awesome.

Along with all our antique store finds, Mom found a gumball machine a while back. Jess loves it! She eats so much gum every time we visit. So mom found her one too. She also got my niece and uncle one too! It was the Year of the Gumball! Ha Ha.

She also got Jess some new Paula Deen dishes, not the cook set she got that last year, but some baking dishes. And some new PD utencils. Mom gave us an awesome canvas picture that she actually made! Lots of other cool stuff.

The babies had Christmas when we got back to our apartment on Monday. They were excited... although Kiwi appears a bit stuck up in the pics but really she found a chewy bone on the floor!

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!!

Banks suck.

Ugh. Our bank charged us another $17 fee this month, just like last month. Yes, I should have called before but I just dont have the time. Well, this morning I made the time. Basically, they changed their account types & if we dont keep at least $3000/month in our account they charge a fee. Seriously?! They claim they sent out letters to explain the upcoming changes, but of course, I never got one.

"So let me get this straight, other banks were very public about their $5 debit card fee, and you all proudly hung signs stating you wouldnt be charging a debit card fee, but then secretively change your account so that you can charge higher fees?!"

"uh uh uh.. Ms. (insert last name here) let me see what we can do to help you."

Thats how the conversation went this morning. The first man kindly refunded my fee for December, but had to transfer me to another dept for November. And that man was extra rude, stating he didnt know why the first man even refunded it for me, since I was clearly notified.

And me being the hot head that I am said "Ya know what?!? Dont refund it. I will close both accounts on Monday."

Thats exactly what I planned to do on Monday. Until I realized what a hassle that would be. Spend time closing one account, then opening another, then setting up our direct deposits for work (which we are required to have =/), waiting for debit cards to arrive, blah blah blah. In the end, it's just not worth it.

So the bank wins. Of course now it looks like an empty threat, which I hate more than anything. >=/

Nothing I can do now, without causing me more headache and stress.

Damn.

Christmas Wishlist

This year, Jess and I are not exchanging gifts. I know I know its sad.. thats what we keep hearing. But, really.. we dont need or want anything. Well... I need a lot of stuff for nursing school.. so we are focusing on that. The orginal plan was to buy a new 46" flat screen tv for our living room, but when I was accepted to school, our plans were thrown off track. The only other 2 things Jess wanted was

this

and this

But we got them both on Black Friday!

So back to my list...

I need these

[caption id="attachment_704" align="aligncenter" width="367" caption="Nursing Books"][/caption]

And these

And seriously think I need one of these



Or one of these

Ya know because every serious nursing student needs an iPad or Kindle.. strickly for educational purposes, of course ;)

Dear Santa,

Please read my blog and get me the things I need for school.

K thanks!

 

A few of my favorite things! ~Christmas~

I can't believe Christmas is just around the corner. And shortly after that I will be starting nursing school (WARNING: You may get sick of hearing about nursing school.. BUT I don't care, I worked very, very, VERY hard to get it in ;) )... wow... time flies.

After weeks of studying and working... we finally have a break. At least from school.

So these are a few of my favorite *Christmas* things!

We finally found time to put up our Christmas tree the other night. As we were dragging out all of our Christmas decorations, I started thinking about how long we have been together. I mean we had 4-5 boxes of Christmas stuff, plus our tree. I also realized how many traditions of our own we have. We always watch one (if not, all) of The Santa Clause Trilogy. I bought them for Jess last year.

 The best part about getting out all our decorations is 1. reminiscing about our childhood since we have most of our childhood ornaments. :) 2. Remembering what I bought last year at craft stores at 75% off!! Love after holiday sales! Plus I found the personalized ornaments I bought last year but didn't get to put up!



 

[caption id="attachment_684" align="aligncenter" width="224" caption="Our family 2010"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_682" align="aligncenter" width="224" caption="The ornament we bought our first Christmas 2008"][/caption]

A couple of years ago, we found the cutest chihuahua ornaments and they fit Kiwi & Mango perfectly!!
 Moving on down the list...

My Christmas playlist!

1. Christmas in Dixie -Alabama (it's a family thing!)

2. All I want for Christmas is you -Mariah Carey (an obvious choice)

3. Christmas (Baby please come home) -Mariah Carey

4. All I want for Christmas is a real good tan -Kenny Chesney (because its fun!)

5. This Christmas -Chris Brown (because he though I hate Chris Brown and wish he would never release another album again.... I love that movie!!)

6. My only wish -Britney Spears (reminds me of being 15 :) )

7. Christmas in Dixie -Kenny Chesney & Alabama (love it so much it has to be mentioned twice! plus its with Kenny!!)

8. Hard Candy Christmas -Dolly Parton (I just like it!)

9. Hanson's entire Christmas album (dont judge.. makes me 10 years old again!)

10. NSYNC's entire Chrismas album (again dont judge... 1. its good. 2. makes me feel 12.)

I will spare you the others, but I assure you there are more. Yes, I listen to this playlist EVERY year!! Almost everyday ;)

Continuing with the list...

Hallmark Movies. I love the holidays when they air new movies almost every week, with almost the same story line... sad girl meets handsome man in some small town :)

Last thing.. I love going home for the holidays. Every year, (except when I wasnt working) I have closed on Christmas Eve. I usually offer too because I dont have kids. After work, I drive home to help mom cook... (usually I just taste test! :) ) It doesnt matter what time I get home, she wakes up and we talk for hours! Even if she has to work early on Christmas day. We try not to wake her up but we use her bathroom (its bigger) so it just sort of happens. This year, when we got there for Thanksgiving we sat on her bed talking till almost 5am! AND she had to get up at 630 haha. Good times!



 

 

Nursing Orientation Pt 1 & 2

Today, was my second orientation for the nursing program. I closed last night and got in bed around 2am?? ... then I got up at 530am and drove an hour and half. :/ The meeting didn't start to 9am but I was nervous about being late and knew I was have to stop for breakfast! :) When I got there, I had an hour to kill so I watch Netflix on my iPhone (caught up on my new fav show Hot in Cleveland haha) in the car. Man, I love this phone!

So the first hour of this meeting was letting us know just how much our lives were about to change. AND more importantly how much our "significant other's" lives were about to change as well. People have been telling me lately to kiss my life goodbye... because for the next two years, nursing school would own me. Well that seems to be the truth. They explained to us how to make sure our families and friends understand everything that is about to happen. They informed us that we made it to our goal of getting in the program and everything we all had worked for was here. And now everything else must come second. They showed us a full PowerPoint on how to help our families understand and adapt to these changes. They addressed a few "support" people in the room that came with students, husbands/parents. I wished Jess had been there to hear all this first hand, so she will understand why she has to pick up all the slack and clean the house more. (Our biggest issue is cleaning! ;) ) I keep asking her if she is ready for this because this will affect her too... A LOT! She says yes and they we will be fine. I'm sure we will be, I just wanted to make sure to have the conversations that the instructors told us to have with our families.

The second hour we discussed nursing professionalism including we have to wear at clinical and standards to abide by. We discussed jewelry we can wear, and found out my earrings, my cartilage that I have had since I was 13 :( and my tragus which I love. :(   Im super sad about this but I guess I will deal. Small price to pay.

I planned to my Christmas break enjoying life and being very lazy. I wanted to watch all my new dvds from (Black Friday!) and play our new Wii and Wii games.. (More on that later!) BUT... we have 8 chapters of reading to do before classes start in January. That sucks! I wanted to enjoy doing nothing for a few weeks before I give my life to nursing school.

The instructors kept asking us "Are you sure you still wanna be a nurse?!"

Yep. I'm sure! :)

[caption id="attachment_667" align="aligncenter" width="224" caption="Excited to get my scrubs in!"][/caption]