hello friends...

how on earth is it the last day of august??? september starts tomorrow which means nugg's bday is only 7 weeks away! how is my baby going to be one year old? zip your lips now all you who like to remind me that i'm totally neurotic - i get it, i know this about myself... BUT, i'm stressing over her 1st party. do i have a pink flower party? do i have a tutu cute birthday party? my cousin sent me a little article about a "tutu cute" party and everything was ballerina themed. LOVED it! and then we got a care package from pita and it had a little pink tutu and ballerina leotard in it. how perfect is that?!?  i know she won't remember her first party, but oh goodness - i want it to be wonderful!

school is moving along. and that's an understatement. we're like shooting through at warp speed. we have our first exams next week. first tests are always nerve wracking. you don't know what to expect, what to focus your study time on and since we must get a 78% overall in the class, there is little room for major errors. oh Lord give my brain the ability to retain a whole lot of info!

the garden is doing well... no little sprouts or anything yet. we're watering it plenty and watching each day for a change :-) i'm afraid this dumb heat is going to fry the little greenies. why on earth is it in the upper 90's still?!? i so need to be running again, we have the warrior dash in like 17 days, but when it's so so hot i can't bring myself to run, especially now that i only have time to go in the evenings.

and in an effort to save some $$$ we switched cable providers. long story short, completely canceling the cable is not an option for us right now, so we found a great deal with AT&T. and whatever, i'll admit it, i love me some tv. i do. nuggie and i are home alone alot and it's nice to have it on. we're totally spoiled with the new package - we have ... DVR!!! holy flat screens! this is going to be amazing when my fav shows start up again next month. i can DVR, study and watch later! and no more forcing bub to watch 19 kids and counting with me. i can record it and watch the jumbo family madness all alone if i like!

** random side note ** i googled "crazy august" just to see if i could find a fun pic for this blog and THIS pic of michele bachmann came up. seems pretty appropriate? look at those crazy eyes :-p

garden time!

my sweet pita (aka momma) knew how badly i wanted to plant a little garden and she ordered for a us a little raised bed garden kit!!! and it finally arrived on saturday! here it is as it arrived right off the fed ex truck. the delivery guy looked at me like i was nuts when he dropped it off. i think he thought i bought a box of bricks or something. that thing was HEAVY!

 bub was busy doing his own saturday project - ghetto rigging the corolla so it would have an auxillary port - which i am most impressed to say he did it! we can now listen to our ipods in the car anytime we like! but back to garden business... nuggie and i set about assembling the garden bed. she supervised like a champ :-)

i used a drill for the first time in my life to put this bad boy together!

after i got it assembled... oh wait, wait - i must also give a shout out to miss k for her help! she strolled over and was most useful in the construction and especially the mallet swinging. thanks lady!!!

ok so yes, after i/we/all of us got it put together, bub, nugg, gramps and i loaded in to our two tiny cars and hit up home depot for soil. we purchased 48 bags of soil and a bag of sand. then we dumped and poured and filled the bed with dirt!

i watered it to a soak twice yesterday and again this morning and then this afternoon i planted! a few of my starts from inside survived, so i planted those. the two wire cages have peas planted all around them so they can have something to crawl up. the corners have herbs - rosemary, oregano, parsley and sage. i also planted chives, green onions, swiss chard, mustard greens, broccoli, cauliflower,cabbage, two types of lettuce and carrots. i'm a little concerned that this awful hot weather we're still having may fry them, but i'll be sure to water them well every morning and night. 

and there you have it! my first attempt at a garden. it is so much fun to play in the dirt. it also felt very peaceful and relaxing, a much needed respite from the stress of school i am sure!

100th post... PANTS!!!

holy moley, me oh my! it's the 100th post on my new and improved blog. hey hey, ho ho, that other blog had to go.

so what does one write about on her 100th blog post??? well, you guys know me - i'm gonna lament my fat patootie. so in 6 weeks we start clinicals at school, which means one day a week we must travel to our clinical site to get our patient info and whatnot. we also must dress professionally. back in the day i had a grown up, fancy pants (ha ha, i said pants again :-) job that required me to dress nicely. meaning i wore something other than yoga pants. i know, it's hard to believe, but i DID at one point dress like a nice young lass. anyhow, i need to fit back into those pants. we gots no monies to be buying new pants. and so in the next 6 weeks i need to drop down a solid pant size so i can fit back in to them. can i do it??? i think so! i need to just write REALLY big all over the house "PANTS". that way when i'm tempted to eat something i shouldn't or to sleep in and not go running, i'll be reminded - don't be a fatty. be a fitty! get back into those pants!

quick and to the point...

oh. my. goodness. this week has been nuts and i've only had two days of class so far. oh what an adjustment it is! i've been so spoiled the last month to just sleep till the babes awakes and do little things around the house when she napped. now i'm up much earlier than i'm used to, zooming around to get myself and little bit ready to go, scoot off to class, zoom home, hang out with her, do a few little chores, cook dinner, feed bub and nugg, bath nuggie, bed for nuggie, STUDY, sleep. repeat. repeat. repeat. i see the next two years of my life laid out before me! but it's so exciting! we've not really gotten in to too much just yet in class, to know what i'll be learning in the near future is overwhelming but also so awesome. i've got my super organized school bag, joined a study group and plan to stay on top of my assignments. i think i can do this as long as i don't get behind! we also got our official ID badges, ordered our super sexy white scrubs (think super hot and attractive elastic... oh yea, that's right!) and i've got a lab coat with my name right on it coming too!

what else??? it's been a minute since i updated. izzy the dog is gone. it was a tough decision, but we had real concerns she might be aggressive to nuggie and that's a chance i will not take. she's gone on to a better situation and i know we did what was best for her and for us.

so did anyone feel that east coast earthquake? i am terrified of them. i mean, out of my brain, put me in a padded cell sort of freak about them. we lived in northern CA for about six years and during that time we experienced a number of them as well as one really, REALLY big one. ever since then i have feared them like no other. i know it's unlikely we'll have one here in the south, but yesterday didn't make me feel a lot better!

well, that's about it for now. i promise to blog more, just trying to get into my new groove :-)

a little slice of heaven

this week has been amazing :-) i wish all weeks were this wonderful. it's my last week before school starts - i can NOT believe that on tuesday i'll officially be a real nursing student - who would have ever seen that one coming???

so this week... it has been so busy, but full of good things. last weekend we had two birthday parties, the 5k and our first day of volunteering in our church's learning center - AKA the nursery! monday i had the pleasure of visiting with a sweet friend that i rarely get to see. her hubby is overseas serving our country and so nuggie and i took her and her sweet kiddos dinner. wednesday i party planned with the lovely miss kaila while our bambinos played together. nuggie is really getting "grabby" like wanting to pinch your lips or pull another baby's hair or, uhhh, rip the fur off an innocent little puppy. i worried she'd attack baby h - how do you teach a 10 month old the word GENTLE?? the rest of week has been full of errands, chores and lots of playing! nuggie is growing by leaps and bounds and while i know she didn't really get it, we had our first tea party yesterday :-) this week has been so much fun! we've taken walks and pulled every toy out of her toy boxes. nuggie learned how to open her bottom dresser drawer and had a ball pulling all the clothes out of it. she's such a little ham. we took a trip shopping to get a few school supplies and she had a blast riding around in the cart as usual. she'll be going to a babysitter regularly once classes start, so we also stocked up on a little stash of snacks, sippy cups, diapers and formula to go with her.

as excited as i am about this week, i mean, it's been so stress-free and full of joy spending all this time with my sweet baby girl, i'm starting to get sad about leaving her so much. she'll be in the very best of care when i'm gone. she'll be close to home and playing with other little girls. and her sitter couldn't be a sweeter woman, BUT there's still a little twinge of sadness about leaving her. i've had the great privilege of being with her almost full-time since the day she was born. classes so far have just been part-time, but now i'll be gone four days a week. i'm afraid i'm going to miss something. what if she takes her first step and i'm not there? what if she says her first word and i'm sitting in a lecture? how do working mama's do this? 

today we're going to lunch with bub. we've got a going away party saturday night for our amazing friends who are starting a new adventure. they will be dearly missed, but we'll be celebrating them!! grandpa is visiting - we haven't seen him in month - he won't believe how big nuggie has gotten! and i'm making home made fish sticks - that's right, i'm just that cool :-P i've tried to tackle a few organization projects around the house that i've put off, but wanted to get done before life gets crazy. one of them was creating a recipe binder. i've got so many recipes scribbled on scratch paper or torn out of magazines. i totally and completely stole this idea from the amazing miss k (shout out to her, what, what!) but i took an old 3 ring binder i had and found a box of sheet protectors when i was cleaning out the desk and got all the recipes put away. some i need to type out - so i'm still working on that - but it allowed me to toss a huge pile of unused recipe cards and cooking magazines that were piling up around the kitchen. all that to say - i found a recipe for HEALTHY, home made fish sticks. i am a sucker for uh, comfort foods i guess you could say? mac n' cheese, hot dogs, fish sticks, tater tots - i love them all. but i do not love what they do to my rear end - so we'll give these healthy options a whirl :-)

ok, i've rambled enough. happy friday friends!

hoosier daddy

so last night i blogged about the good and bad and love and hate i have for my current home. i wanted to share the love and brag on my real home tonight.

my fam moved back and forth a number of times between northern indiana and northern california. i was born in indiana though and went to school from grades 6-12 there, so it's where i'm from if you ask me. the majority of our family is still up there and so we find ourselves up that way at least a couple of times a year.

i adore our little corner of the midwest. you may say it's flat - i say you can see more of the sunsets and sunrises. i love that there's such a small town feel. it's the sort of place you could sleep with your doors unlocked. i love the lakes and the dark night skies that let you see millions of stars. i miss real big snow storms and also with that, the fact that life goes on even if 4 inches of snow has fallen.

home is where i learned to drive, took the SAT, had my first crush, spent so many summers laying in the sun, discovered the Lord, took piano lessons (and guitar and saxophone), stalked Jars of Clay, got my first buzz on a pack of Mike's Hard Lemon aid, enjoyed the holidays snuggled up with family, voted in my first presidential election, adopted my sweet tilly dog, joined 4H, became class president, and a cheerleader, and an office aid, and a baseball/basketball manager, and yearbook, and worship team manager, and band geek, and choir geek (yeah, i was a little overly involved back then)...

someday i want to move back and have a little house on a lake and landscape the place like none other. i want to take nuggie to the festival of the trees. i want her to go to a real county fair, i want her to see amish buggies traveling along with cars, i want her to be able to go to the public pool with her friends and be safe as can be.

i will always have a soft spot in my heart for my little patch of indiana. this is the first summer we've not made it up for a visit and it makes me very sad. i'll always be a hoosier :-)

how things change...

it was this week TEN years ago that i made the move from IN to TN. how can it be? how has it been that long already? i've never lived anywhere for ten years. not ever. but if someone asks, i still say i'm from indiana. that's where i was born and where most of my family lives. but maybe it's time to start owning nashville as my "home"? i don't know. it's home. but it won't ever be where i'm "from".

nashville and i have a love/hate relationship. there are some days that i swear i'm leaving this town the first chance we get. it's a dirty, occasionally dangerous, icky city. i hate that nashville has some very backwards thinking people running the government. i can't stand the lack of recycling and the amount of litter and gross trash and dumping of LARGE items that seems to be tolerated. and it really bugs me that you can't find good public transportation, a clean dairy queen or sidewalks ANYWHERE!

but.... it's home. we have zero family in town. no one wanted to join us here. so we made our own. we have a circle of absolutely amazing friends. and while we don't get to see each other as often as i hope or like, we are all here for each other no matter what. over the years they've helped us move into apartments and our house, they were there for us when my dad was sick, when i was pregnant, when i lost my job, when we were low on money. for birthdays, bachelorette parties, graduations, births, weddings and 5ks - our sweet friends have been there. we've settled into a great church and while it's HUGE and a little overwhelming at times, we've created an amazing church family. there are times over the last 5 years i know we wouldn't have made it through without their love and support.

i also love that though nashville is a big city, it's really small. you can't go anywhere without running into someone you know. and there's one degree of seperation from you and anyone else you run in to - really. for instance at a friend's bday dinner a couple of weeks ago we ran in to my sweet college roomie's little brother. we chatted and then he went on his way. birthday girl leaned in and said how do you know him? and i told her and turns out that they will often play trivia together. who knew? and this sorta thing happens all the time. it makes a big city feel a little smaller. and at times more akward. b/c for real - you WILL run in to everyone at some point.

some other little things i love - we're smack in the middle of everything. in less than a days drive you can be at the ocean or mountains or at a major league baseball game. i love the seasons. we for sure have all four of them. i love that so many places around town have special memories or silly ones or even sad ones - but the last ten years have carried me all over this city.

ten years ago i was a 19 year old girl. i moved to nashville to go to college and it ended up i met my husband, bought our first home, lost a parent, stayed cancer free, became a mommy, served jury duty, went to countless shows, ran a race, marched for dimes, voiced a few commercials for the radio, witnessed flugtag, watched the city recover from floods and tornadoes, made life-long friends, bought a car, stood behind nicole kidman and keith urban in a bookstore, endured the great locust invasion of 2011, watched the events of 9/11 in a tiny dorm room, loved sweet bub when he lost his brother and learned to lay ceramic tiles.

we don't know if we'll stay here forever. nashville i hate you some times - but i love you more.

run, run, run

guys - i did it! i ran my first official race! i survived and i finished it and i can't wait to do another! it was slow - it took me just under 38 min to complete - but i DID it! now we're trying to find another one to do maybe in november or late october? i need something to work towards. for now i'm setting my sights on the warrior dash next month. it's a 5k as well, but has you running through fire and climbing things and going through mud.

after our tomato run this morning we hauled booty home, showered and headed down to church to do our nursery worker orientation. since we're taking a break from being part of a community group this year, we still wanted to serve and stay involved, so we are volunteering with the kiddos. i have to admit, i'm not looking forward to having to be at the church by 7:45 every sunday morning - but, it will be awesome to serve and we're hanging out with the newly walking age group. that'll be fun :-)

then tonight i had a little 30th bday shindig for the sweetest sweet miss ELM. it's crazy to think that we'll be attending many 30th parties this year. you go through life phases - wedding showers, baby showers, graduations, births... this year will be the year of the 30th birthday celebration. bub and i both turn 30 this winter within just a few weeks of each other. i really want to plan something fabulous, but well, cheap... i'm having a hard time with this. any ideas??? 30 is such a milestone. you're finally done being a 20-something. it's like you're finally a for real adult. you need to have a memorable celebration!

it's been a busy day, so i'm gonna snuggle up in the bed. goodnight lovelies!

florida - the not so sunny state

well we're back from vacation. not sure we'll be taking another family vaycay any time soon and i'm not sure we'll ever head back to florida.

"up, up and away we go - flying on an airplane!" this was our little ditty we sang to nuggie. she did amazing. we had an easy, direct flight from nashville to ft. lauderdale and an empty seat b/t her papa and me and our little baby was a perfect travel buddy :-)

our first morning we got up and hit the beach. our hotel was sandwiched right between to very nice hotels who had private beach access. ours had a scrawny little patch of sand that was open to the public. it was dirty and littered and not alot of fun. it was also so humid that several times i tried to take pics the camera lens just fogged up. but i'm not fussing about that - it IS august in the south.

i think our beach trip was a little premature for the nugg. she didn't get that you can't drink salt water. the poor little thing snorted it several times and had red eyes and a runny nose :-( so i sat with her on the beach while daddy did some ocean exploring. she then proceeded to try to eat the sand. try keeping a very mobile 10 month old out of the sand... yeah, not so much. so we headed back to the hotel room. and it started to rain.

and rain.

and rain.

it rained the whole time we were there.

no sunny florida tan for me. not even a hint of color. nada. nothing.

so we went out to eat. alot. what else do you do? my favorite meal of the whole trip? the last one we had in the ft. lauderdale airport. i'm not even kidding. you want yummy sea food? you're in florida, right? that would be a no go. every place we went to stunk.  we tried a funky sports bar sorta place - icky bar food. middle eastern food - sounded fun and different... ick too. though they did have THE BEST hummus i've ever had. cuban food that was all the rave, supposedly - lukewarm, fried and the place was filled with flies. not to mention we were the only ones there, soooo the crazy owner talked our ears off about his wife loosing cheese. funny, but not worth the $$$ we spent on it. we wanted the best seafood. we asked several people and the concierge and went where they sent us. we got so-so meals and a HUGE tab.

this was our bar food night. ick. but we did get to sit on a nice patio and nuggie really enjoyed people watching.

these sounded so yummy - fried s'mores! diets aren't allowed to be packed when on vacation! so i left mine at home. these were not as good as they looked. i'd take fair food any day over this. ick.

our hotel was pretty nice. not at all what their website implied. i'm being very careful to not snap a pic of the huge, noisy highway that went right by our "quiet balcony" nugg loved being able to climb all around a big space without baby gates though. and the bed was heavenly! she also loved our huge floor to ceiling windows. and since we had a sleeping baby in our room we were all in bed by about 8pm every night. we DID get alot of sleep and that was a huge blessing!

eating. again. bub tried a huge bowl of seafood. i think the bowl looked more like a metal helmet. 

my little dinner buddy :-) that girl thinks straws are gifts from heaven!

we managed to dodge the rain drops for about 20 minutes and took sweet pea down to the pool. she LOVED it! they had a fabulous little shallow area that she could sit in and splash. she also loved going all around the pool with her papa. too bad we didn't get to go more.

not the best pic - but she was so tickled to be in that water!

we tried to go down to the keys one day - to sorta re-visit our honeymoon destination. florida drivers are worse then nashville drivers in the rain. after two hours of driving south and still not getting through miami (they had EVERY road torn up) we were all tired, frustrated and hungry - so we turned around and went back to the hotel. everywhere we went was so dirty and littered. and our flight home was a nightmare. our flight got canceled b/c of a storm. so we ended up stuck at the airport for 7 hours. then when we finally got home we found out our luggage was MIA. they couldn't tell us where our pack n play, CAR SEAT or three suitcases were. thankfully they had a car seat we could borrow. and really, we were at least heading home. but nuggie didn't have any of her night night lovies, we didn't have our toothbrushes or cell phone chargers. i mean, minor inconveniences really, but just the shriveled cherry on the top of a very sour trip.

sorry to be a grump - but i had to vent. this trip was awful! nuggie was a bright spot. she was such a trooper. she slept pretty well and was so happy. she's such a sweet pea :-)

now we're home - woot! our 5k is on saturday and we have orientation for nursery duty at church too. we're so excited to start that new adventure!

picture, picture...

COUSINS!!!  

 on monday we had a little visit with bub's nieces and nephews. they were passing through town on their way home and  so nuggie got to meet all SIX of them at once! nuggie and her little cousin aiden are just over a week apart in age - it was so fun to see them together! i wish i had thought to get a pic of all the kiddos together. we're hoping to visit them in savannah sometime soon, so i'll be sure to get some good ones then. oh it was a short visit, but so sweet!

whew - have we had a DAY! this morning i had an appt with my endocrinologist and while we got to see her very quickly (hurray!), we had to wait for an HOUR to get in to the lab (boo). sweet nuggie was such a trooper, but when the nurse in the lab kept us waiting another twenty minutes b/c she couldn't find my vein, nugg had had enough and let her know. i don't blame her. if it was acceptable for an adult to throw a temper tantrum, i would have at that point as well. while in the waiting room i also had a crotchety old women exclaim in the most sour and nasty of tones - "THAT child is fat!" to my sweet nugg. i wanted to punch her. then another man said, oh you have her ears pierced already? and i said no, looking at nugg sort of questioningly, quickly realizing he meant her skin tag. what?!? i want to keep her in a bubble and never, ever let her out. people are mean.

after that we headed home for a bit. nugg took a short nap and it was seriously 105 degrees today, so we went to walmart to walk up and down the air conditioned aisles. then we headed home... only to discover i had left my phone somewhere.

oh holy mother of all electronics!!! i rushed over to our sweet neighbor's house and asked to use her phone - called bub - told him what had happened and then hauled booty over to wally world. and low and behold - there it was - sitting all alone in the shopping cart i had used 30 minutes before. i am one lucky lady. bub had reported it lost, just in case, so it wouldn't work when i did get my hands on it. so i tried to use a pay phone - A PAY PHONE! i didn't even have change to use the dumb thing, so i went old school and tried to make a collect call to bub to let him know i'd found it and could he turn it back on. did. you. know... it now costs $9.95 to make a freakin' collect call?!? i yelled into the phone - DON'T ACCEPT! and hung it up. who knew???

 

after the phone nonsense i went with our super sweet neighbor (as mentioned above :-) to buy seeds!!! i'm planting a winter garden - holy moley! i am so so so excited. and would you believe i got all these seeds for $1.20???? well, sweet heather treated me to them - BUT - that's all they cost! so i stocked up on seeds for my spring garden too. we're putting in a raised bed next to the house and i'm gonna go all green thumbs on it! 

so now the nugg is tucked in for the night - wearing her big girl jammies by the way. my baby is growing too fast :-( and i'm sitting here quietly, enjoying a nice iced peach tea. what a day - but what a day full of blessings! i can't believe no one took my phone, i can't believe that i'll be able to plant a whole giant garden for pretty much nothing, i can't believe my once colicky, screamy baby is now such a joy to travel around with - i love that little girl so much!  

lose ends...

everything is coming together for school in the fall. i FINALLY got the last titer results i needed today (only took almost 2 months of fighting with the doctor's office!) my financial aid officially went through. i've got all the books i need and i passed micro (just in case you hadn't heard yet :-) yesterday i took my CPR class and passed that too. now it's just to enjoy the next couple of weeks till classes start. i'm so excited i can hardly stand it! after we get back from vacation i'll stock up on school supplies :-) i don't really need much, but there's nothing like starting a new semester with a few new pens and folders.

speaking of vacation - not too much longer till we leave! we're keeping our fingers crossed that tropical storm emily will avoid southern florida in the near future. it's so hot here right now, it's sort of funny to be heading to another hot place. but we'll be near the ocean - we can dip our toes in the water!

i am so ready for autumn. it is my absolute favorite season. i love everything about it. cooler temps, snuggly cardigans and sweaters, picking apples, naps while bub watches football, yummy soups. i'm watching barefoot contessa right now and she's making a butternut squash soup - ooh, i want to make it! but who wants to eat a fall soup like that when it's 103 degrees outside? oh fall - hurry up and get here!

here are a couple of pics from nuggie's 9 month photos we took last weekend. it was so miserably hot. we were all crabby and sweaty - bleck! our sweet photographer, allison, is pregnant and she didn't complain once. she's amazing!! seriously guys, you know you need some pics taken - she's your lady!