10 days til thanksgiving...

that just doesn't seem right. i'm not sure why, but it just doesn't seem like that time of year yet. maybe it's the insanely bizarre weather we have been having, maybe it's that i don't have plans for thanksgiving yet, maybe that is because i'm planning on being scrooge this holiday and not put the tree up {because of our vacation}. i don't know. but i do know that i have to get crackin because i have a boatload of stuff to do before our cruise.
so as of right now, nick and i have no plans for thanksgiving day. my grandma usually has it at her house but she is having such a rough time with uncle bob's death that she just couldn't do it. i don't blame her. it's the first big holiday without him. so she's changing up the schedule and taking us to a restaurant on the sunday after thanksgiving. totally fine by us! and nick's family. jeez, who knows. it seems like no one wants to host. okay, correction. people are willing to host but it is the same ones over and over so now they are tired. so no one will take the holiday. personally, with such a large family, i think it could be broken down. to immediate family. like mother's/father's and their children. it would solve a lot. but then again, some say the point of the holidays are to have family together. all of them. who knows. but i do know that i don't want his mother to be alone for thanksgiving. we could care less, but i know it means a lot to her. so we have decided that if no one offers to host then we might have a small gathering at our place. meaning...his mom, his sister, her husband, and us. plenty. but then how do i not invite my family. ack. i hate the holidays. too many sides to see. we haven't even discussed seeing his dad yet. 3 sides of the family in 1 day. doesn't make for fun time management. maybe that would be a perk to having children. 'hi, we're staying home to be with ludwig {that was for you colleen} if you want to stop by fine. if not, no biggie. we understand. we just don't want to lug our kid everywhere. happy holidays.'
gosh, did that sound horrible or what!? i'm really not always this grumpy. it just gets to be overwhelming!

my first dt lo!!!

holy cow, was it nervewracking. wondering if it was good enough. trying to only use kit products. feeling intimidated by the bold paper. thankful that the paper wasn't as bold in person! :)
loved working with this paper. so cool. have a few other pics pulled from my stash that i hope to get scrapped after i run to target!
if you wanna check the page out. you can go to my gallery or check out knk's design team gallery.

i've been thinking...

a lot lately. about nothing, everything and all the stuff that falls in between. i usually like that i'm such a thinker but other times that overanalyzing is a pain in the rear. i recently stumbled across a quote that i wrote down a while back and it's perfect. {yes, i write down quotes from t.v. shows. but only if they really move me at the time!}
'boundaries don't keep other people out. they fence you in. grey's anatomy'
holy cow do i love it. so true! and the timing couldn't be better. but you see, i'm a chicken. i hate getting hurt. being let down. sometimes i think it's easier to put up that fence just to protect me. but i know that is no way to live life. that all the ups and downs help us grow. learn.
so i now have a new motto. at least for the time being! and i'm gonna try to take down those boundaries and experience life; bumps, bruises, and all!

triwizard tournament...

here we come. i'm so excited. nick and i got tickets to see harry potter and the goblet of fire at the imax theatre! yippee. they were already sold out for friday and saturday....but sunday evening is all ours baby. a quick trip to navy pier and then watching my favorite of the books on screen. giant screen!
never been to an imax movie before so i'm hoping to not be disappointed. his mom is going to join us. {she too is a harry potter nerd!}
only 11 days!

careers.

no not the game! :) what i do for a living. my career. now i'm not sure how much i've talked about my job on here. i have a way short attention span so bear with me if i've been down that road before.
how the heck did i end up in nursing? i know that i never thought i would be a nurse. i always wanted to be a physical therapist or maybe even a teacher. but a nurse, the thought never entered my mind. you see a little under ten years ago a boy i liked, let's call him my husband, decided he was going to go to college in appleton, wisconsin...premed. and this crazy, stalker girlfriend, i mean wife {ahem, me} did want to be eight hours away. my plan was to go to i.u. they had the best pt program and i always thought that was where i was going to go to school. but i decided that i wanted to stay home. and i needed an excuse to justify it. so nursing school was it. purdue cal is one of the best nursing schools in the area. better than lafayette. better accreditations, better passing rates. i figured that was my out. if i could get in, everyone would understand my decision and not judge me for wanting to stay home to be closer to nick.
funny, huh. how things work. how life's little twists and turns always seem to work out. they might not always be for the best. but i figure you have to learn something from everything.... but back to this topic. it did work out for the best. although, nick isn't a m.d. he is still a doctor. a rph. i couldn't be prouder. he loves what he does and he worked his butt off to get where he is today. and through everything i ended up doing something i couldn't imagine my life without. nursing.
people always say if they won the lottery, they would quit their job. i wouldn't. okay, i would go part time but i don't think i could ever fully walk away. i am so grateful to have found a career that i love. that i can envision my self doing forever. and not just the nursing. the oncology nursing. such a challenging and rewarding area. another thing that i stumbled upon. that i almost didn't have because of a cross country move scheduled for nick's internship in pharmacy. so glad that nick and i could talk out the pros and cons. to actually make a well educated decision. to think through all of the repercussions. to be so grown up. to work as a team.
i guess all this rambling just stems from all the thinking i've been doing lately. i'm such a deep thinker. sometimes so much so that it's a bad thing. but ya never know what is in store. that the easiest thing might not be the right thing. if you don't try, you'll never know. so i guess it's worth a shot regardless of the outcome because at least you tried or did the right thing.....and who knows. it might even end up being the best thing that happened to ya.

i can't believe...

that i've actually had this blog for 6 months. that i've actually kept up with writing here. i'm amazed. i think it's great actually. that i've found a medium that i am comfortable with. i don't know why, but journals rarely stick. maybe now, since i've been pretty good with posting here. i can start forcing myself to journal as well. for the more personal, inner thoughts. those that i'm not ready to share.... i mean, i know only like 5 people read this thing but it's still the fact that it is out there. accessible to a lot of people: family, friends, strangers...

darkness falls...

i hate the end of daylight savings time. who wants to get up when it's dark and come home when it's dark. i certainly do not. i hope that indiana gets things straightened out with their decision. i guess, i don't mind. i mean, it's great to be on the same time as chicago. i would be beyond confused if we were different!
now i know i have said this before but i dispise traffic. it takes me around 30 minutes to go 10 miles to work everyday. well, nick and i drove downtown thursday for the concert and it took us 40 minutes. tell me how the heck that works. to go 45 miles it takes 40 minutes...but to go 10 miles it takes 30 minutes. did i mention that i hate traffic?!
caught a cruddy cold this past week. it was brewing as of friday. hit full force sunday...i think. i've slept most of the last three days. i did go to work yesterday. it's halloween. had to dress up and see everyone dressed up. went home early. had today off. originally, it was so nick and i could go get passports for our cruise in december. but i just couldn't get myself out of bed. slept over 16 hours just last night. oh well, i guess we will tackle that errand on a weekend. hopefully, i'm better for tomorrow. thank goodness doc's out of town, so we have a slower week. otherwise, i would probably have called off for tomorrow! i hate calling in sick....
felt bad for the poor trick or treaters yesterday. it was pouring rain. they were troopers. and nick and i were generous with the candy! i love seeing the little ones dressed up. so excited about all that candy that their parents aren't going to let them eat!
me with my ginormous witch hat at work!