Rants, Recipes, and Running

Now by the title of this blog, you may get this mental picture in your mind of our house all packed up and empty. Boxes neatly stacked. Bookshelves, cupboards, & pantry empty Ha! Not quite.In fact the only real progress that has been made was my husband taking all the pictures & curtains off the wall on Saturday morning. I just don't do well packing without someone there to keep me "on task". I'm too easily distracted. today I stopped, counted, and realized that I was attempting to do 5 things at once. Not efficient. But in my attempts to pack up our house today, I made a few discoveries. Some random, some meaningful. I never throw away a pair of Mizunos. I have running shoes from years ago. I have running shoes with holes in them. I have a pair "camping/gardening shoes covered in burs & dirt.  I have like 70+ cooking magazines. Bon Appetit, Simple & Delicious, Martha Stewart, the list goes on. I can't seem to throw them away. Ther...

This post gets a little more personal and "touchy feely" than I normally like to get. So bare with me. Or you can just not continue reading ;) Lately, I've been pretty hard on myself. I constantly hear myself making negative comments about my performance at work, my body, and my role as a wife. I strive for perfection at my job and never cut myself slack. I think I have to stay the same weight from now until I'm 70 (where at age 70 I will become that prized LOL ). I still think that although I sometimes work 60 hours/week...I must do ALL the laundry, cleaning, cooking, dishes, etc. While wearing an apron, smile, & grace. (Ha!) Unrealistic. I've finally let go on perfection at work. There is no such thing as the "totally in-control nurse". No matter how organized you are....things go array. (Or as I tell the new grads I've precepted "Shit Happens in Hospitals. Deal with it"). This new attitude (aka flexibility) has helped me immen...

Fall is my favorite season. Always has been... Actually, since we've moved to the southwest ..... winter (being the months December- March) has become my favorite season. But our "winter" in Tucson  is like the "fall" in the midwest . Cool, crispy, and gorgeous! But I have to get excited. It's not supposed to hit 100 degrees at all this week! In fact, today is a nippy 87 degrees! Time to get out my underarmour! So here are a few favorites about my favorite season............ Sweaters Blue jeans Football (not that I'm a big football fan...but I must say I enjoy the idea of it) Back-to-School shopping (I don't partake in this either, obviously...but it brings back good memories of shopping with my Mom to picking out new notebooks, pencils, and gym shoes for the school year) Squash Butternut squash soup Leaves changing (we won't see this until November-December...and cacti don't change color really :-) ) Coffeemate releases the ...

I've having an affair..........................................With a crock pot. Sorry stove, and grill. I'll use you more when we move to our new house. Or when life gets less crazy. :) And here's why I love the crockpot.... 1) The belt is being tightened financially. We are trying to cut unneccessary expenses as much as possible. Every time we think about going out to eat, the words out of my mouth are as follows.... "That plate of sushi and saki bombs could buy us some really nice sconces in the entry way...." I am the fun nazi. Crock pot meals are pretty cheap and delicious. 2) We are both working more than normal in order to bank up some $. I also feel like if I work a lot right now, and make my manager & co-workers happy.....they'll be more flexible with my schedule when we're closing/moving in! 3) Less spending of money + More time @ work = Less energy to cook after a long day at work 4) I'm cleaning out our excess of "sto...

Good evening, all! Whenever I set up my blog to automatically post at a set time, it doens't work. So instead of writing this Monday night, setting up it up for Tuesday -- I'm just going to post it now. Sorry. Hope you all had a good weekend! Our home inspection went considerably well. Nothing too major. Homeowning is a lot of work, as I've learned! But we're okay with that. The termite inspector had a mullet. That was entertaining.... Here is my 10 on Tuesday this week! I have little creative things to talk about these days... A. Age: 23 B. Bed Size: King C. Chore that you hate: emptying the dishwasher. I'd rather just wash the dishes. D. Dogs: Dislike. There's a place in this world for dog lovers, and then there's me ;) Sorry. E. Essential start to your day: Coffee. I prefer a workout, too... F. Favorite Color: Green G. Gold or Silver: Definitely silver! H. Height: 5'4''. Okay...it's more like 5'3'' somet...

36 house showings. 1 year. Probably 1,000 different homes viewed on Zillow, Trulia, and TARMLS 3 different realtors. 4 offers. Hours of looking through home magazines, perusing around Home Depot, touring model homes, watching HGTV to really pinpoint what we value in a home. And we have a winner, folks!!! As you may know, we've been in the process of a brutal house hunt for a few weeks. I kind of quit talking about it, since so much was changing. Everyone calls this a "buyers market". And yes, it is throughout the country. But I will say in the area we are looking it is a sellers market. Every house we placed an offer on, had at LEAST 4 other offers we were competing against. When I felt like giving up.... Our realtor called. A house we had wanted to look at back in July we chose NOT to look at because it was under CAPA. (it's a short sale). So we said "Let's not waste our time" Well, those buyers got antsy, and cancelled their co...

Some of the questions I ponder. Some of these questions have direct answers. Other's don't. 1) Why does my husband insist that in order to watch football.....it has to be accompanied by "football food". (meaning guacamole, chips, wings, beer). Is it not okay to watch a football game while having Tilapia and grilled veggies? 2) Who even invented "football food"? Next tailgating party, I'm showing up with a tofu and steamed broccoli. 3) Why does the "self check out" at the grocery store only have room 2 bags? What if I have an entire cart I'd like to "self check out". You shouldn't discriminate just because I'm anti-social and don't want to make small talk with a cashier.... 4) Why do plane tickets have to be so expensive? It would be so nice to just quick make a trip to Chicago to meet my niece/nephew who will be born today! (Okay...I kind of know the answer to this since I've seen the breakdown of a plane...