Just some more random thoughts...

I'm currently babysitting C which, not surprisingly, is not what I want to be doing with my day off! Oh well, more money I guess, which is good because I'm trying to start spending a lot less and saving more. I'm afraid my schedule in nursing school won't work out with my work schedule and I'll have to find another job, which will probably definitely pay less, since I make very good money right now as a nanny.  I'm blessed to have a whole summer to save at least!

Speaking of saving money, I tried out this place today

I had been there before about a year and a half ago when they first started popping up and I didn't like it all. This was back when I ate out for basically every meal and the only things I did eat at home were frozen pizza products (hot pockets, totinos party pizzas, and pizza rolls mostly). They don't sell brand name products for the most part, everything is Aldi brand, so of course I didn't like it back then when I only liked three brand name food options! These days we try to cook real food at home more, and I bring healthier food to work with me for lunch, so I decided to give it another try.
I am pretty impressed with my results! I bought almost everything we need for four dinners at home this week (spaghetti, tacos, hamburgers & chips, and breakfast for dinner), lunch options for myself, and lot of low calorie snacks for me to bring to work for $52! Usually we spend about $100 at Tom Thumb for all the same things. The only things I didn't get from there were bacon (which they had but M's picky), chips (picky M again), salsa (they may have had it but I forgot/didn't see any), and white bread (because I'm picky haha). That said, we won't need to spend more than $10 to pick up the rest of that stuff from Tom Thumb, so still a huge savings!
I also really love one (Aldi) brand that they have called Fit & Healthy. There were tons of different products under this brand (lunch meat, cereal bars, fruit strips, ground beef, snack crackers, deserts, etc), and they all have the calories per serving clearly visable (even the ground beef!), which is perfect since I count all my calories. I picked up so many different snack foods, I was shocked that I left spending only $52!
I imagine we will be doing most of our grocery shopping here from now on, and spending only half as much on groceries will be sure to help me with my plan to save money this summer!

On Monday I started reading this book

and I was so sad on Thursday to be finished because I LOVED it! I made M go see the movie with me Thursday night too :) I liked the movie also, but of course I liked the book infinitely more. I think that someone who hasn't read the book would still enjoy the movie, but the plot is understandably shallower. Unlike other movies made after books though, at least they didn't completely alter the plot causing me to wish I'd never bothered to see the movie (ahem, My Sister's Keeper). If you haven't read it you should!

Still working on planning our trip to Orlando! My aunt called me yesterday to remind me my cousin sells time shares for a Wyndham resort and if we wanted to stay there he could get us a huge discount. We are now staying at a $320/night resort for less than that total (for all three nights we are there)!

When I decided I definitely wanted to go to Florida, I knew it would be hard to afford everything but definitely would be worth it to get to see all my family. I am so happy and thankful God is answering my prayers and not only making it possible, but so much cheaper and easier for me to be there :)

I also bought a dress to wear to the wedding today, but they don't have a picture of it on the website, so I'll have to post about it later (I also got an amazing deal on it)!

The weekend is going by too quickly, I wish tomorrow wasn't already Sunday!

Ahh I haven't posted in way too long! I have lots of free time at work while C is napping but I've been managing to find lots of other things to do apparently (such as play games on my iPhone and online window shop haha). So here are some recaps of the last week and other random things... (I have come to realize that I ramble on about things that may not be that interesting sometimes haha, but I know I will like to look back and see what I was doing, so I apologize ahead of time if my recaps are long and boring!)

Back to last Friday when I last updated, M and I before dinner (partially to celebrate my acceptance into the nursing program, but also because we had already planned on a date night :) ).



Saturday night I was supposed to babysit and I was dreading it all day and wishing that we could go out and celebrate with friends instead and was so happy when I got a text saying they didn't need a babysitter anymore! So we got drinks with friends at Dave & Buster's instead!


M and I


Me, Cristin, and Chelsea
(both of these pictures were taken on my iPhone and looked terrible so this was my beginner attempt at improving them, keep reading for before and afters.)

Sunday morning I did tons of school work, then went to church with M's mom at 4:30, then came home to take a test! It was Palm Sunday and since we went to the afternoon mass, which is the youth mass, the high schoolers put on a play of the Passion. It was pretty cool to watch and I have a lot of respect for the young man brave enough to play Jesus. I can't imagine getting up in front of so many of my peers and even speaking, let alone playing such an important and difficult role.

Onto some randoms...

We got our tickets for Orlando in June! I am so excited and relieved the plane tickets are purchased, even though that only leaves so much more to plan and do! I ended up not even paying 1/4th as much as I thought thanks to the graciousness of M's dad. He flies for work often and accumulates lots of points on different airlines so he was able to get M's ticket for free and then also paid for half of mine! I am so thankful for M's parents they do so much for me all the time :). Now we need to book a hotel and also reserve a rental car, which stinks when you are only 22. I thought I was done with all the important/milestone birthdays but it turns out I still have 25 to look forward to when I will be able to rent a car and not pay more in fees than the rental itself! Honestly y'all, it's costing more than our hotel to rent a car (and the hotel is pretty nice haha). Unfortunately though it is definitely necessary because I'm going to try to spend time with all my different family that will be in the area so we need a way to get around! I also realized that we will be there on father's day and I'm so happy that I'll be able to spend it with my daddy :), which I don't get to do very often.
I realized I haven't talked about my family too much on here, maybe I will do a blog post about them next week :).

It's so nice having the whole summer to prepare for nursing school to start, but it is also such a long wait and is making me so anxious! I'm happy to have found a forum where I've spoken to quite a few of the other students accepted into the program for fall, as well as a couple of students already in the program who have helped us so much by letting us know what to expect. Our orientation won't be until a week or two before school starts but I want to get started collecting all the things I will need now so it's not such a huge expense at one time, so we are lucky to have them to let us know what all we will need. I purchased a pair of scrubs yesterday and I can't wait to wear them in 4 months! We will be wearing "hunter" color scrubs, which I'm excited about because I like the color a lot and it's much better than all white scrubs in the other program I planned to apply to! Here is a really lame picture of me in my new scrubs that I took in the dressing room to text to my best friend haha.

I still have lots of fun stuff I'm excited to buy and some other not so fun things to get taken care of before orientation. Maybe a pre nursing school to do list post coming soon :)

Here are the before and afters of those iPhone photos from Saturday. My photo editing is pretty beginner but right now I also only have iPhoto to use so there isn't a whole lot you can do with it. I prefer the photo editing apps on my phone actually, but I'll save those for another post too. (Perhaps I'll be inclined to post more if I have all these ideas haha). The color in both of these was terrible, so I tried to do what I could. I ended up liking the one of M and I better without the color than trying to make it look acceptable, but the other photo didn't look good in black and white and was very dark (that one was without flash, while the one of M and I had flash), so I tried to make it look funky (artistic?) while at the same time trying to lighten it enough so you could see us. When M hurries up and installs Photoshop on his PC hopefully I can start relearning how to use it and become a better photo editor :). I also need to invest in a new memory card for my point and shoot camera so I can carry it with me in my purse instead of having to take terrible pictures with my iPhone! I gave my card away when I bought a digital photo frame as a gift and lost the new one I had gotten to go with it, and I never remember I need to go buy another until I'm wishing I had it haha.






Sidenote: M hates pictures and is terrible at smiling for pictures. The one from Friday night is a good example of this haha. In the picture from Saturday night, he was actually laughing so it came out more natural. He definitely isn't thrilled at my wanting to take more pictures lately haha.

Ps. I also edited the picture from Friday night in iPhoto, and I think it looks pretty natural ;)

random

Sorry I have been MIA lately! I’ve written like three drafts this week and not been able to finish any of them, then when I get time to finish them I decide they aren’t very interesting and never post them, haha.

I don’t think I posted a weight loss update last week but I was down to 149lbs, which was my goal for the week (haven’t weighed myself yet today..)! So total that means I’ve lost 46lbs! I have been so terrible about going to the gym lately. I decided to start trying to go to spin classes because I like going to the gym much better when I’m going to an exercise class, and they are offered all the time so there are actually some I can make it to (unlike most classes that are only during the hours I work). I didn’t realize so many people like spin class though and it’s so hard to get a spot in the class! After a week and a half of failed attempts and finally learning the necessary steps to secure a spot, I went to my first class last night.
Well first, I learn the bike seats are the most uncomfortable seats EVER When I got there everyone was on their bikes warming up waiting for the instructor to start class, so I tried pedaling for a few seconds and realized it was really not that easy. I decided to just stand and wait for class to start instead because sitting is so uncomfortable and I was afraid I was going to be too tired before class even started! The instructor comes in and gets us started with a “warm up” which I think can hardly be called that seeing as it was the hardest thing I have ever done. I have been working out quite a lot in the past six months, so I’d like to think I’m in okay shape by now, but this was just impossible. I stayed for six minutes before I was sure I was going to throw up so I grabbed my stuff and left. I had been so excited for getting into spin class, now I’m not sure I’ll ever want to try it again! Perhaps it was just the instructor? Maybe if I can work up the courage I’ll try it again, and warn them that it’s my first time beforehand!

According to the calendar, the Brookhaven nursing program has until next Thursday to send out acceptance/denial letters emails. I am getting so anxious! I thought for sure it would come this week because I really can’t imagine it takes that long to decide since it is all based on a point system, basically they just line up the applicants by number of points and pick the 50 (60?) highest. At least that’s how I’d imagine that it works. I’m beginning to feel nauseous every time I check my email (common theme of this post?). I wish it would just come already. Most of my family and friends don’t know that I will be getting an answer so soon, especially since the previous semesters when I have applied to UTA’s program they’ve sent out letters like the week before school starts. I’m hoping I have a good surprise to share with everyone next week. :)
UPDATE: about 60 seconds after I posted this I checked my email and I GOT IN!! Yayyyyyy! I'm not sure I've ever been this happy before! Twenty more months until I'm an RN!!!

M and I took our second annual bluebonnet picture last weekend! I think it turned out pretty good, but the sun wasn’t in a good spot so there is a shadow on my face (and this was the best one). I think I can probably fix it on photoshop, I just haven’t gotten around to it. I did however play with the colors in iPhoto and M thinks it looks terrible haha. I agree that our jeans are a little bright, but iPhoto isn’t the best photo editing program so that’s what I got from trying to make the shadow less noticeable and the flowers brighter. (I'd post the original but my card is at home, so I had to swipe this one off my facebook.)

Other highlights from last weekend include discovering the amazingness that is Stein Mart, finding an elusive Big Buddha purse from last spring (that I have spent countless hours scouring the internet for) at Stein Mart for half price, seeing Tron which M and I liked a lot, and spending all of Sunday in the ER with M thanks to an allergic reaction to some antibiotics which the triage nurse thought was meningitis.

I have been looking everywhere trying to find the perfect white vneck tshirt that isn’t see-through. Since every store has decided rolled cut off shorts are the only kind of jean shorts they are going to sell for yet another summer, most of the shorts I’ve gotten lately are khaki material (twill?) in multiple colors and match with very few shirts. Thus, I decided if I could only find a white vneck that you couldn’t see through, it could go well with almost all my new shorts. Alas, I finally found some! Gap has about 10 different types of white vnecks for sale, and (hooray!) ONE of them is thick enough to wear alone (which made the fitting room attendant pretty annoyed with me that I didn’t want the other nine..). This might not seem like such a big deal, but I was so happy. Even happier that at the store I went to they are only $8 (they are $15 online?). I also got some crew and scoop neck ones, they are all the Gap Favorite Tee. I probably will order a couple of $15 ones because online has more color options.

That’s all the randomness I have for today. I’m SO excited that it’s Friday, C is napping (and probably will be until it’s time for me to go home), and M and I have a date tonight. :) Have a good weekend!

ps. I apologize for the pictures in this post looking all crazy. I think the blog design that I'm using has a secret code in it somewhere that doesn't allow me to change anything (the headings for example are still the same font, despite hours of effort to change that), including the width of the page. Still working on designing my own layout, but it's harder than I remembered!

fashion friday

Baseball season officially started a week ago! Here in Dallas, this is huge news this year. Last year, our Texas Rangers went to the World Series against San Francisco. Unfortunately, we didn't win, but it got everyone's attention and I learned how fun watching baseball can actually be from watching the playoff games! The Rangers are already off to a good start this year too, they swept the Red Sox in their first series this past weekend and won their game last night too! 4-0!
Update: Probably I shouldn't include current events if I'm going to type my post 4 days ahead of time! The won their games Tuesday and Wednesday also, sweeping another series, and are 6-0!! Double header this afternoon :)

I haven't been to a game in a few years, but we definitely want to go to a few this season. So, I decided to do fashion Friday on Rangers' gear!

Here are some cute shirts I'd like to be sporting at games this season...

shop.mlb.com

shop.mlb.com

Victoria's Secret

They have an adorable hoodie in the store but I couldn't find a picture anywhere. Probably won't be cold enough for one until fall though anyways!

Rally House

And I just ordered one of these today!

I'm so excited! I think they are so adorable. Someone that I went to high school with and her mom started a business making them. They are made out of tshirts (the back also has a player's name and number), and she does them for any team, though mostly people request college teams. They don't have a website but if you like the facebook page and then leave a comment, she will message you details! The facebook page can be found here. I will probably be ordering one for TX/OU weekend in the fall as well!

Can't wait to buy our tickets for an upcoming game!

weekend recap

I'm so sad the weekend is over!

Friday night I continued working on a little project I've been slowly working on the past week. I bought two of these Ikea mirrors at a thrift store for only $1.50 each.

Since they are (seemingly?) real wood and aren't stained or finished, I figured I would try to stain them a dark wood color. Well after my first attempt some parts of the wood grain came out looking not stained at all and others looked dark but not dark enough (I only tried on one, in case I messed it up). It was looking like an oak color at best, which happens to be my least favorite wood color (even though the stain I chose was only one away from black). You have to wait six hours to stain it again to make it darker, so I was trying for the second time Friday night. It came out looking almost the same, with the same spots not staining. I was guessing at this point that I was going to end up just having to paint them.
Important note: I've been doing the staining out on the balcony. Last night it was ridiculously windy and we could hear the lawn chairs blowing around like crazy. M reminded me that my mirrors were out there but I was lazy and figured they'd been out there basically all week so they would survive. At 5:30, I was woken up by a ridiculous thunderstorm (though now it's perfectly sunny), and remembering that now, I'm afraid to go look at my poor mirrors when I get home from work. Probably they are all wet and ruined :( .
Upon checking the Ikea website though, I've learned it will only cost me $3 a piece for a couple of new ones so that's not so bad. Funny, I used the option to check if these were in stock in the store closest to us. According to the website, they are "most likely" in stock today, but they can't guarantee this, considering the number they have left, they could all be sold by the time I get there. It shows 686 available. Haha, I guess Ikea is expecting a big rush of customers purchasing extremely large quantities of these mirrors!

That was a long tangent, back to Friday night. After my failed attempt at being crafty, M  and I went to dinner at his favorite restaurant, Esparza's.

It's in downtown Grapevine and it is really popular, I've never been when it wasn't packed. It is definitely not my favorite restaurant (especially Fridays during Lent, when my options are limited to chips, beans, and cheese), but M loves it so we go all the time anyways. It's actually inside what was once an old home right off of Main St. This is perhaps my least favorite thing about it because the acoustics inside are terrible and it is SO LOUD. It doesn't help that we always get seated next to huge party where everyone feels the need to talk over each other. The food is good though, and I'll take any date night with my man (even if we can't hear each other talking.... haha).

Saturday morning I went shopping with a friend for some new clothes! Since I've lost a lot of weight, nothing I own fits me. I have been acquiring a new wardrobe slowly, but at this point it consists of a lot of sweaters (since it's been winter of course) and clothes that are more dressy or for going out, since I have a habit of going and purchasing an outfit specifically for any event we get invited to. It's been hot lately and I have no casual clothes to wear in warm weather. Sadly, I didn't find a whole lot Saturday.
I did get three new pairs of shorts

American Eagle

Abercrombie

I am really disappointed that the only jean shorts that seem to be in style this year are rolled cutoffs, again. I had quite enough of those last season and would really like some classier looking jean shorts options please! I like these three pairs that I ended up with, but I have no idea what tops I can wear them with (especially since I didn't buy any!). I am on the hunt for a white vneck that isn't see through. This is an impossibility apparently. I did find some I thought I liked from Target but upon wearing them for a second time, they are fitting really awkwardly :(

Saturday evening M and I went to a friend's for a bonfire. I was thinking it was awfully warm for a bonfire, but they live wayyyy out in the country (to us at least lol) and it was much colder out there. Plus, it was really windy so sitting by the fire was actually perfect. We also got in the hot tub for a little while, and then went to Ihop at 3am (it took us a long time to get out to the country, so it made for a late night lol). We had the funniest waiter ever! I thought he was going to hate us for even being there at that hour, but he was so fun and told us lots of jokes (that were a bit off color, but still funny!).

I slept so late yesterday (not surprisingly), and then had to go babysit for a few hours in the afternoon.  The family I babysat for was having a surprise lunch for the dad, who had just completed a goal he'd set for himself 19 years ago to run 20,000 miles in 1,000 weeks! 20 miles a week for 19 years is pretty impressive! After than I worked on some school work, cleaned up a little, went to dinner with M, and savored the last bit of weekend!

This week C's mommy is out of town, and since his daddy leaves for work earlier and gets home later, that means I have to get here even earlier and leave much later than usual. I'm going to be here from just before 7:15 until 6 or 6:30 for the next four days and I can't say I'm looking forward to it, mostly just because I hate waking up early and today my alarm went off at 5:45, ugh. They are repaying me by giving me Friday off though and I am very much looking forward to my three day weekend!

Sorry for my lack of regular posts Friday, I was still writing my paper that was due yesterday! As for my weight loss update, I was down two pounds to 151lb last Friday. After weighing myself today, I think I'll be lucky to be the same weight this week (yikes!), but I'll go ahead and say my goal is 149lb. Minus two pounds is seeming like a more realistic goal these days. I need to find some willpower and get myelf to the gym again!


As of today, my letter with my admission decision for the Brookhaven nursing program can come at any time (by April 21st at the latest). The dispute period ended Friday, so basically now all they have to do is line up all the applicants based on their number of points and send out the letters! I am so anxious, I hope they get them sent out soon. At least they are coming by email, it's much easier to check my email on my phone obsessively than walk to the mailbox 100 times a day ;)

On that note, I found this blog on Saturday, and I am so happy that I did. I was so very touched by baby Cohen's story, and I've been praying for him and his family as I read their posts (Cohen was born with four different congenital heart defects and fought at Children's Hospital in Dallas for 12 days before going to be with the Lord last June). Cohen's story has only further affirmed to me that working in the NICU at Children's Hospital is where I am meant to be. God has shown me in so many different ways (including leading me to Megan's blog) that this is what I am supposed to do and how I will serve Him, and I can't wait to finish school so that I can start helping babies like Cohen as well as being there for and supporting their families.