Peep Doom

Every Easter Zach gets a few peeps (or at least every Easter I have been with him). I once showed him how to properly eat a peep. Now this is our After Easter Tradition: (ps Zach says the "S" word at the very end. You have been warned :P).

Yeah...my husband is weird. But I love him for it.

Carrots and mud skipping

So Zach and I decided to go to Middle Fork State Park and walk the trails. At first it was fun and then the trail became amazingly muddy...then it was REALLY fun. We mucked around and got the squishy, sandy mud in between our toes. Our shoes are pretty much ruined (but they were cheap sandles so oh well). I forgot my camera, so here's some pictures I took with our phone.

I am obsessed with running water...I love rivers, lakes, and streams. (Zach says it has nothing to do with the fact that they keep vampires at bay)

This tree has been in Middle Fork since as long as I can remember and my parents say the same thing.

Today we also discovered Shadow's love of carrots. Maybe it was just for Easter that he decided to play the role of Easter Bunny.

Just the look on his face says, "Is that for me?"

This is such a horrid picture, but he tentatively sniffed it the first time.
"OM NOM NOM" I love this picture 'cause of his lazer eyes.
"NOM NOM"

Chaos poses for pictures...He was a fashion model in another life.

HAPPY EASTER!

or as Zach and China says, "Happy Jesus is a Zombie Day!"

Short Trip - Long Drive!

Tonight I went off the deep end. I was working on homework and then I remembered I needed to go to the library and print off a shipping label for one of our phones which needs repair. I went, printed, picked up a DVD they were holding for me, and left the library. On the way home I realized the car was sluggish. Sluggish mind you. So somehow I arrived at "it will be all better if I check and fill the tires." Oh yes, that certainly (did not) solve it. After I left the gas station I got to the light where I would turn right to go home. I was in the left turn lane. It was a good 30 minutes before I asked the friend I had been talking to which way to go.

She chose right, so the next right I could take... I did. I drove north for a long time. Passed a town called Bellflower. "What a boring name" I thought. I knew this was not what I was looking for.

Next came a town called Saybrook. "Another boring name, this is no good either!" Halfway through their podunk backwater town I saw something that changed my opinion. They have an old school filling station. Repairs and gas in one place. It was shortly after making Saybrook a memory that the song First Train Home came on. 500+ songs on shuffle and this plays? I took it as a sign.

After more driving (some of which was behind a slooooow moving truck) I decided home was not coming fast enough, and also... Tardy must have some carbon build up after all those months of doing nothing ;). As soon as he was a memory I noticed something I am not sure how I missed it before: "That is the bridge for 57. I am home enough that I need to slow down."

Imogen Heap and Nightwish made the drive tolerable, I got to see something neat, and I feel a little better about my life. So, it would seem, going crazy on occassion can be good for you. :D

starting to actually look thin

I havn't lost inches around my waistline, but my face sure looks thinner! Sorry it's fuzzy :(
I've still hit a bit of a wall with losing, but since its warmer outside I'm going to try to find time to walk the dog more often. We're both in need of some fresh air and exercise. I'm trying to use different things on my bagel for breakfast like peanut butter or eating something totally different like oatmeal with flax (flax is YUCKY!). My doc has ordered some more blood tests to see what's going on but her idea is that I'm just too stressed out. I guess I need to try and mellow out some more. I cleaned our bedroom and I am going to start retreating there and listening to music if i'm feeling stressed. Maybe nap time can return to my list of things to do :p

Way to go DOE!

So the US Department of Energy has approved a HUGE rebate program to get people to buy EnergyStar rated appliances. Each state is given a bit of money (Illinois is getting around 12 million) and the state comes up with their own idea of a "cash for clunkers" rebate. I'm pretty excited about this because I agreed to buy a fridge for my grandma's house. I'll get 15% off the purchase of the fridge and if I can prove I hauled it away to get recycled I can get an extra $100 back. Yay for saving money! The only down side is you have to research "approved" vendors. I have no clue how to do that yet but I'm hoping I can figure it out.

In other news my birthday is in 6 days!!!!! I didn't realize it until today. I'll probably just relax at home and maybe make a special dinner. I've been kinda wanting fish of some sort. Ever since I started working in the Cardiology unit I've been trying to like fish more and use less salt. Pacemakers do not look good after they've been implanted into the body. So far the shared opinion of everyone I've taken care of that has one says they hurt something fierce, too.

Anywho I'm getting reaaaalllly tired...

pEaCe

Where have I been?!

So I realized I've been technologically mute for awhile. Zach doesn't like posting on the blog all that much, so our poor blog has been left alone.

The main thing on my mind at the moment is the fact that I've stopped losing weight, which is really weird. I figured for sure when I got this job I'd drop weight like crazy. I am on my feet for 12 hours a day. I'm not exaggerating in the least bit. It turns out that my hospital gets a lot the heart problem people in Central Illinois and even a little beyond that. There are a lot of people with heart problems. I never knew it was this bad...

So anyways, I'm moving for 12 hours. Lifting people (usually rather LARGE people), moving them, changing their bedding, bathing them, taking vitals, so on and so forth. I'm not sure how I'm not losing anything. My meals consist of a bagel (sometimes only a half) with whipped cream cheese for breakfast, a cup of low fat vanilla yogurt with whatever unsweetened frozen fruit happens to be in my fridge for lunch, and dinner is whatever Zach makes or leftovers (as of late it's been chicken soup). I am so exhaused when I come home I usually eat then pass out on the couch after an hour (which is kinda bad, I'm told).

I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. On my days off I'm sore like I worked out in a gym for an unnaturally long time so I can't do much in the way of exercise. I'm thinking of trying a really light yoga workout on my days off just to stretch my muscles, but just the thought is exhausting.

In other news it's looking more and more like we're going to move into "the house" as we like to call it. Dad is completely gutting the bathroom and redoing it. He's trying to get my grandma to let him fix the kitchen counters/cabinets and put in bamboo flooring. If he manages all that it would actually be a nice looking house. I'm almost excited about moving there because I'm tired of smelling my neighbors. If they smoke or cook, we get to breath in the smelly nastiness. Also, they have a HUGE dog that likes to play on the stairs so it sounds like a group of kids are running up and down them. Their dog also likes to bark at night, which makes Shadow bark and whine.

I'm hoping this is a good decision...

When I said I wanted the next one...

I did not think Amber would stop posting til I got off my lazy butt and posted a blog myself! So today I did everything but an assignment I am doing tomorrow, and my sociology homework (due the 18th). I cleaned the upstairs bathroom, and swept the whole upstairs. I also cleaned the kitchen counters/stove, watered Amber's little tree (what it is I can't think of off the top of my head), did dishes, and vaccumed the floor. Then I swept the upstairs dirt/dust/etc... down the stairs and vaccumed it and the whole downstairs up. I started the finishing of the laundry. I even put my books back upstairs. All in all I'd say work outweighed play today. Now I am off to check and see how the drying of the humidifier goes (cleaned it too) then check the mail, shovel the sidewalk (lazy maintenance jerks), and finish forging some maps in Halo3. If only I knew what Amber wanted for dinner... I'll surprise her and make a choice on my own, no?