Happy New Year!!!

2009 has come, and I am so excited! I am ready for change, and to embrace all I have! I am one of those people that make new year's resolutions. I usually don't keep them, but I figured if I publicly announce them then maybe I would be more likely to keep them.

1. Blog more often! I think it's fun to look back on old blogs, and remember what things were like at different times in my life, and blogging is a great way to do that.
2. Pay more attention to my outward appearance. I feel like I have kinda been in a rut, and not really taken care of myself. I want to make a point to spend more time on this area because if I look better then I am more confident.
3. Go to church more often! Clay and I have really failed in this area, and we both want to do better. Clay works on Saturdays pretty often, and it's hard to get up early on his only day off.
4. Use my gym membership. I have already paid for it, so why not use it??? My goal, for now anyway, is to go to the gym twice/week.
5. Cut down on the soda. I have let it get out of hand. I drink a LOT of soda, and have in turn gained weight because of it. 1 soda /day from now on.
6. Keep my house cleaner. I am not a good house keeper. Even when I was a kid, I couldn't keep my room clean. I promise to try and do better.
7. Wear my glasses. Should be common sense, but I rarely wear my glasses or contacts. I feel like my eyesight keeps getting worse, so I need to start wearing them. I'm not getting any younger, so I need to keep what eyesight I have.
8. Be wise with my finances. Previously Clay has been in charge of our finances, and things haven't gone so well. Starting in January, we are doing it together, and I am directing the show.
9. Be a better student. Nuff said.
10. Get better organized. this goes along with the clean house part kinda. but I mean in other ways too, like using my planner and the calender on my blackberry.

Fun Stuff!

So my mother-in-law and I started our Christmas shopping together this weekend. I saw these, and I fell in LOVE with them! When I have a baby girl, I want them in every style! I bought a black pair for my new little cousin Jolee for Christmas. because every girl needs black stillettos! You can find them here!

























This I just thought was clever. It's a ceramic vase that looks remarkably just like a paper bag! I think it could be a versatile decorating piece, and I want the small one. You can find it here.

















I was smitten with this gift... It's a smitten, a mitten for two. There are two normal mittens, and a mitten to share, so you can hold hands and keep warm. You can find it here. Happy Christmas shopping everyone!

Cleaning my bathroom in heels... thats how I roll!

Let me preface this blog by saying that Thursday was absolutely terrible. One of my professors does not like me, and with my luck I happen to have her as a clinical instructor too. I let her know one of my weaknesses, and instead of helping me, she used it against me. Thank goodness this semester is almost over.

Today was better. Praise God for that. Christmas is coming, and that is my favorite time of year. I think we might attempt to put up some decorations this weekend.

Rumor has it that sales are starting, and I headed out to look today. Linens and Things is having a going out of business sale, but I didn't find anything. I bought a couple of tank tops at Old Navy for $5 each, and these shoes at Target. They are red patent loafers with a heel, and best of all they are comfortable. I think they look festive, right!?!

New product Review: Srubbing Bubbles Action Scrubber

I liked this product a lot! It worked great on my tiled shower walls, and on the tub. And this may make me sound weird, but I used it on the floor too. My bathroom is really small, and even though the floor looked clean, I went ahead and cleaned a small secion with this, and boy was I shocked. My floor literally shined. So obviously I cleaned the rest of it too:) Use this link to print a coupon for $2.75 off your Action Scrubber purchase!

Dinner tonight

I did NOT get a good nights sleep last night. I felt fine when I went to bed, but sometime in the night my stomach started hurting. It hurt so bad that I kept dreaming about it, and it would wake me up. The thing was that it was a weird kind of hurt in a weird spot. It was my upper abdomen that hurt, it was a dull achy new sort of pain, and my stomach was kinda swollen. Really weird. Needless to say, I didn't sleep very much, and I skipped the one class that I have on Tuesdays.

On a different note, I tried something new for dinner tonight. Since I didn't, and don't for that matter, feel so hot I threw together one of the new Bertolli frozen dinners. We had the cheese ravioli one. They sell in the grocery store for about $8, and I don't think it was worth that much. The only reason we had it was that it was on sale, and that I had a coupon. So for about $4 it was an easy quick dinner.

Link for the coupon: http://www.bertollinightsin.com/coupon.aspx

Fall update

I so would like to blog every day, but it just doesn't seem to happen....

Updates:

The semester is almost over. That is amazing because it means that I am 1/4 of the way finished with nursing school. Bad because I only have a few weeks to make sure my grades are up to par.

Married life is phenomenal. Clay is my best friend. We get each other. Really, really get each other, like nobody else can.

Admitedly I have the baby fever. Instead of eyeing Jimmy Choo's, I eye Pottery Barn baby furniture. Clay says he thinks we will have at least one baby before I graduate.....

Church has been a real blessing lately. We have been going to the Young Married/Parents of Pre-Schoolers Sunday School class, and I have been going to a women's class on Wednesdays called Keepers of the Home. LOVE<>

Another blessing lately has been Mitzi. She teaches my Keepers of the Home class, and I think she is great! I babysat for her one day last week, and got to know her a little better too. She is a really great godly wife and mother, and a great example for a newlywed such as myself.

Kaitlyn! Kaitlyn is my lab partner, and so much more, She is the reason I haven't given up on school this semester. She reminds me of what I need t do, and helps me every step of the way. She even made me promise her that if I get pregnant that I won't drop out and leave her alone. How is that for accountability!?!

Life is rockin lately. Sorry for the lack of pics in my post. I will try and do better. Promise:)

My Sassy Bella Girl

So my friends have kids, and I have.... Bella. I decided I wanted a dog when I was about to move into my first apartment. I had lived with my parents, with a boyfriend, and in the college dorms, but never all alone. My parents had owned dachshunds and I knew I liked them, and one of my favorite patients had just bought one, so I went to her breeder. I called her and told her that I was about to live by myself for the first time, and that I was looking for a new best friend. When I arrived at her house, I had a pen full of about 10 puppies to choose from. The boys were quickly eliminated leaving the baby girls. I limited them down to two- a fat little red one that looked like my mom's Ladybug, and a tiny dapple, the runt of all runts, that seemed so sweet. When I told the breeder my decision, she told me that I was the only person that she had offered the tiny dapple to, and that she had planned on keeping her and breeding her because of her coloring and her small size. She only offered her to me because she was a loner, and didn't play with the other puppies too often, so she thought she might be good for a young, single girl in college. So that is the story... of how I got my girl. These are the most recent Bella pics!




Her favorite toy is a squeaky soccer ball. That makes my soccer-player husband happy!

I tried to show her different-colored eyes.

I feel like she looks puppyish here.

Sleepy little girl is just waking up from a nap.

Huh? What?

Thinking back 1 or 2 years ago, I was a completely different person. I was independent, debt-free, organized, confident, pretty, thinner, .... I worked full-time for hospice, I went to school (barely studied and still got good grades), on-again off-again with a guy that I didn't really care about, and I spent time with all my friends all the time. My house was on of our hangouts, and it wouldn't be crazy to walk in and find 5 or six people playing video games in my living room and 3 or 4 in my kitchen cooking. I was a part of all these different groups. There were the sorority friends, the frat guy friends, the church friends, the school friends, the work friends, and the hometown group. I fit in with every single group, and I had my place in each one.

Now I feel lonely, kinda. Don't get me wrong, Clay is amazing! I just need more. All I do is go to school, and stay home with Clay. We go out occasionally with Shae and Tyler, but that's pretty much it.

I don't have groups anymore. I am taking a class at church, and I thought that I would might make friends there, but that hasn't worked. There are a few people in Clay's family that could possibly be friends one day, but they are only there right now when it's convenient for them or when they need me. I tried hanging out with the video game crowd, and it wasn't for me either. I have friends at school, but they are just friends at school, and not outside.

I just feel like I have to find my place in this new life I have.