Rants, Recipes, and Running

In spirit of St. Patrick's Day, and my husband's Irish heritage.....I decided I try tackling an "irish recipe". Ryan had guard this weekend, and ever since we started dating -- it was been my favorite thing to surprise him with delicious, warm, loving meals for him. In fact, we decided yesterday that this tradition is probably what make him want to marry me. For, isn't the path to a man's heart through his stomach? ;) (Only kidding, folks.....) So I present you with my first recipe post!! - I made modifications from the original recipes. And this one should serve 4-5 people comfortably! 1/4 cup olive oil 1pounds  chuck beef roast, cut into 1-inch pieces 5 large garlic cloves, minced (I did 4 minced, 1 whole & crushed) 4 cups beef stock or canned beef broth I cup of Guinness beer 1 cup of fine red wine 1 can tomato paste 1 tablespoon sugar 1 tablespoon dried thyme 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce 2 bay leaves 4 cups russet potatoes, peeled, ...

I must say there are many good things I have to be happy about right now! I am in my psychiatric-mental health nursing rotation right now. I originally chose nursing as my major beause from the time I was like 12 I wanted to be a psych nurse. I love it so far. The clinicals are incredible. I am finding I am more organized and ahead of things in this class than I ever have been! Now, if I could be this motived with Critical Care and my Capstone this summer......:) Ryan and I got an entire day together yesterday!!!! This is rare. My spring break kind of sucked. He would leave at about 6 a.m., and not return until 8 p.m. The poor guy is spread too thin! So I cherish a day like yesterday! Which consisted of............. Spring Training baseball!!!!!! Diamondbacks vs. Oakland Atheletics. It was nearly a close-out. 10-1. We met his bosses wife at the game and she insisted we ditch our seats & sit in the seats in front of them that they had purchased . So we were FRONT ROW BEHIND HO...

Do you have a daily routine? Structure is such a great thing to have in life. In my opinion, if you have a basic structure to each day -- you'll get more accomplished. If you have a task scheduled in for your priorities of the day, it'll get done. However, if you just say "I'll get to it if I can...." -- chances are we'll find a way to * not get to it *. ;) I'm quite talented at this when it comes to studying some times..... However, I think I've found that my life has become a little TOO "routined". I have 2 types of "days" in my week. Days where I have clinical super early in the morning lasting all day, and days where I have night classes. So depending on my day, that sets up my routine for the day. I do everything the same on these days. Down to the HOUR. However, when a Saturday comes around that I'm "free" from my routine, I would get excited. I'd say, "Oh yay! Tomorrow I am free to do anything ...

1. Of your current hobbies, which would you choose to spend more time, money, and effort on? Why? Gardening. First off: I need soil. We have all rocks & sand in the backyard. I also need more patience. And I need to go ahead and just buy a load of "gardening materials". When we get a real house, I'm determined to have a garden! Why? Because I think it's therapeutic and accomplishing, and I love to cook and would like to can! Also, as a child I wanted to grow up to be a horticulturist (sp?) 2. List the two other hobbies/habitual activies (not chores) besides the one listed above that you regularly do now and didn’t choose in question one. -run -cook 3. Why are you spending time on the above two hobbies/habitual activies at all if you really wanted to spend your time on the first one you chose? …or to put it another way, what are these two hobbies/habitual activities fullfilling that the first one doesn’t if you don’t want to put all your effort into the fir...

Living in Tucson, we have the beautiful Sonoran Desert. It is the desert straddling the US-Mexico border. It is the only North American ecology that hosts Jaguars! With all the hiking we've done; and the adventures we have encountered -- Ryan and I have come across snakes, gila monsters, many lizards, a black bear, deer, wild turkeys.....but not yet a jaguar. Let's hope that never happens.... So we get a lonnng drought during the spring-fall that makes our desert go from this:..... To this: We get a monsoon season in the late summer that gives heavy rains daily. And then our second rain season comes in late January into February-March. This year we have gotten record-rainfall; which is amazing for our ecosystem here in AZ! This is obviously a different view (it's the mountains by where Ry & I live)....but as you can see the mountains are snow-topped from all the moisture! I absolutely adore hiking in weather like this. Yesterday morning it was a foggy day; with ...

Remember as a child, there was that blanket statement of "Never talk to strangers". Well, I'm not a child any more...but I still follow that rule. I actually like that rule, and wish others would follow it. Nothing irritates me more than standing in line at the grocery store, and the man in front of me saying "I see chili peppers, meat, tortillas, and avacados....SOMEONE'S MAKIN TACOS"! I want to respond saying "No. I'm not. I just bought ingredients to make tacos. But I'm going to put these together to make lutefisk and lefse. Dumbass." But my "Real-time Response" still isn't very nice. It' would usually go, "Yep. No kiddin." And then I'd roll my eyes. When I get home from the day, and my neighbor is sitting outside smoking -- I grab my cell phone and start faking a conversation to avoid having to talk to him and hear his voice. Sometimes, on the airplane, my I-pod dies. (traumatic) But I still w...

For a long time...I really didn't like birthdays. Here's a little birthday history: High school sucked. So all my birthdays were lame and depressing. In fact, the first birthday that I spent with Ryan...the day's prior I remember him saying "What do you want to do for your birthday??!! Are you excited? It's coming up." And I remember responding saying, "I will spending digging in a cadaver in anatomy lab. It'll be a good reminder that I'm one year closer to death. Birthdays are over-rated." Yep! That was me! He changed my negativity towards birthday's though, and the past 3 years have been pretty good ones! And last Saturday, February 27, I had a wonderful birthday! Here's how it went: Thursday it began: I had 2 final tests. Ryan took me out to dinner to celebrate at my favorite Brewery. I got to have my favorite Rasberry Blonde. Friday evening we went to Ryan's Dad & Step-Mom's house for dinner. His sister is i...