Rants, Recipes, and Running

Green My favorite color ever! I have to control myself to not purchase too many green things. If I had no control, my house would be green. My kitchen would be lime-themed. With greenery everywhere. My bathrooms would be green. My bedroom would be green. You would all feel nauseated-green after entering my home. (So I don't have a green-themed home) Many things I love are green, such as: Spinach (I eat it a minimum twice a day usually) My weding color was green. (clover green) Limes (I have at least one time a day) Grass. I love the feel of grass, especially since I see it so rarely in AZ (except in my neighborhood that has amazing landscapers with grass-galore) Palm trees. Any tree. Christmas trees. I love Christmas Green Beer. I think the green beer on St. Patty's Day tastes better. My favorite color of eyes. When I was in 9th grade, I so badly wanted to get green contacts. But they made me keep my brown eyes. Diet Mountain Dew (my guilty pleasure) Granny Smith...

"Do you have any questions?" *smile* It's almost beome a common law that at the end of any presentation, lecture, or speech to end your prose in the statement, "Do you have any questions?" I don't know where, when, and how I became trained to react to this question. I think it may be a combo year of 5-6 hour long lectures of nursing school, the 300-person lecture-bowls at UND, or my monotony and hatred of high school. Whenever I hear that question, I have been absolutely trained to responed with an assuring "head-nod". This "assuring head nod" is almost me saying "No. I don't have any questions. I think we are ready for cessation of this lecture, for you were such an incredible teacher of this subject. Forget *teacher*, You are an expert. Thank you. Now let us go home!!!!!" But let me know you, my friends, it hasn't always been this way! Oh no. I almost forgot that it hasn't always been that way until...........

1. What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? Mint Chocolate Chip 2. What is your earliest memory? I have this bold memory being really young, sitting on the beach at Sunset Beach Resort, Battle Lake in my Mom's lap. I remember it being a sunny, hot day. I was playing in the sand, and she was cracking open sunflower seeds and giving them to me as a snack. Kind of random..but I remember it! 3. What is your earliest memory of a dessert? My 3rd (?) birthday cake, made by my dear Grandma McDougall! She was incredibly talented!!! The funny thing about this cake is..... that it was a Dog cake! We all know how much Abby despises dogs! 4. Do you have any recurring dreams? Yes. I have such odd dreams. I have the "teeth falling out" dream every once in awhile. I also have a panic-stricken, doom-impending nightmare about a high school teacher I had that I don't have the greatest history with. I always have nightmares about her being my new boss at a job, attending my...

So this week is going to be a whirlwind. It is the completion of this 8 week course of Community/Home Health. Thank the Lord! Although I enventually see myself working in some realm of community health (school nursing, public clinics, etc....) to get the nice M-F, 8-5 stretch of a job..... The educational content of this community health stuff makes me sleep with my eyes open. I could care less about disaster prevention. Why does Arizona have to have a "Disaster Mitigation Plan" in case of a hurricane?! So I could go on -- but I won't. I am really excited to move on to Mental Health--I love Psych!!!! But after I complete this giant 30-plus-page Community Assessment paper, an ATI (NCLEX-mock) test, and my final exam I will: -celebrate at a happy hour for my husband's job for him to do networking -See my sister-in-law Friday who will be in town for the weekend! -Spend my BIRTHDAY (Saturday, the 27) with my sister Lisa, who will be in the area!! But after TH...

This is going to be a short one. (This may be a first). But I thought I would share news that I had my first epiphany of truly being a nerdy, un-hip person. ....While attempted to be funny. I was checking out a sprained ankle of a kid at the high school the other day. And when she took off her socks -- she had a BRIGHT teal and HOT pink sock on. So to be "funny", I said "Oh jeez! Your socks aren't matching! Must be laundry day today??" (har...har...) While her eyeballs were completely rolled to the back of her socket.... she looked at me and said: "You sound like my Dad." Ouch, zing!! Abby is taken DOWN by the 15 year old girl. I am offically "that weird lady". Next thing you know....I will be carrying my life around in a fanny pack (purses are just too much hassle to carry around!). God help me.

Another Community-Health 13 hour-day of clincal, class, running around like a beheaded chicken day DONE! Hurray! And it's time for some Ten on Tuesday! 1. If you could open any type of store/place of business (money is no obstacle), what would you open? -A fitness center. -Not just your average fitness center. It would be big, beautiful, state of the art. Each person would have the ability to come to the gym and get whatever type of work out you want. Either private and absent of annoying meat-heads OR you can have your "group" environment. -People would look forward to their work out and would feel excited to get into shape. 2. If all jobs paid equally, what occupation would you want? Why? My first choice, since this is the realistic one -- would be a Family Practice Nurse Practitioner. Maybe Monday through Thursday, 8-5. But my DREAM job description would go like this: "Opening for house wife in the Ryan Nastase household. Must wake at 5:30 am to cook...

It's been rainy, cloudy, sleety in my neck of the woods. Snowing to the ends of the earth on the East coast. And I'm sure it's cold and miserable up in the Midwest. So I figured I'd take a much-needed study break & enlighten y'all with a cheerful story. This actually happened a few weeks ago....but I was reminiscing on it today. - And decided it might be blog-worthy. Unfortunately, typing it out doesn't give the safe effect as being told in person. But here we go. Remember how I once said I am terrible at talking on the phone? Here is a little flash to really represent this truth! Background Info : Ryan used to have a "work phone", but now that he has switched departments/buildings/programs -- I don't have his new number. I never once called his work phone, so am not really sure why it was in my phonebook. But anyways--back to the story. We live in a decently populated city of the Southwest. Where it isn't reallly common to ju...