Blackthumb

For anyone who knows me, I have a bit of a rocky past when it comes to plants. At BYU I took a class called "Living With Plants 100" thinking it would teach me basics on how to keep plants alive. I was sorely mistaken when the class was more of a biology lesson in how plants grow. Anyway, for this class, I had an assignment to grow something or tend to a plant. My grade depended on keeping a plant alive. So I did what any typical blackthumb would do. I went to Wal Mart and got a Chia (yes, ch-ch-ch-chia) Herb Garden. Pots, soil, seeds, everything was included in this kit, so I thought I had an automatic A in this class. After all, who can screw up a chia herb garden?! Well friends, I can. Case in point:

The chives were semi successful. . . until they started wilting. They were my most successful crop.

I was really excited for the basil, but it too had the same fate as the chives.



The parsley didn't even sprout at all.


But perhaps the cilantro was the most disastrous. It looks so incredibly pathetic.

Anyway, I'm going through a phase right now where I really want to grow a vegetable garden, and if I feel brave enough, maybe throw a few herbs in there too. Given my history though, I'm more than a little apprehensive. I ordered this book and I'm spending all of my time reading about gardening. I don't think my backyard has enough sunlight for me to successfully grow anything, so I'm contemplating a plot at the community garden. Does anyone have gardening advice or tips or suggestions? I'm in need of all the help I can get. Some days I get so excited planning a garden, other days I look back on these pictures and wonder why I even bother trying to grow anything.

I may have a hard time keeping plants alive, but my dog is still alive and kicking! That gives me hope. :)

RN vs. RT

This weekend I learned something very important about myself: I hate phlegm. I find it revolting. My gag reflex starts to act up when someone starts coughing and I can just hear all of the mucus in their lungs prepare for a journey to the world.

Ugh.

Nasty.

Grossness to the extreme.

I was telling my preceptor about how I need to get over this problem (in the ICU half of the patients are on ventilators and need to be suctioned. Ewwww, suctioning out phlegm) and he told me this story.

Way back in heaven, there was a group of people who were going to become Respiratory Therapists and Nurses when they came to earth. They were standing together in a room talking, when the room slowly starts to fill up with poop (never mind about the weirdness of poop existing in heaven). Eventually the room starts to fill up with poop so that it is up to their necks. Into the room walks a patient on a ventilator who coughs up a huge loogie. All of the nurses duck to avoid it, while the RTs keep their heads above the poop and get a face full of snot.

Yes, I'm definitely a nurse. I'd rather clean up poop any day than deal with loogies.

And I'm so grateful there are plentiful RTs on the ICU to clean up all that crap. (Maybe a pun was intended. . . . .)

15 for 15

15 random facts for January 15th:

1- We purchased an obscene amount of candy canes with the after Christmas sales.

2 - Dinner needs to be cooked tonight, any ideas?

3 - Chloe's 3 tennis balls for Christmas have now diminished to 0.75. She has chewed through two of them just this week and is starting to attack the last one.

4 - I'm sick of cleaning up slobbery tennis ball fuzz.

5 - Due to random fact number 3, we purchased a bone that measures from my elbow to just past my fingertips. And it's about as wide as my forearm too. We'll see how long it lasts.

6 - 105 days until I graduate. Excited? Yes. Plans after that? . . . . . . .

7 - I love the ICU! Or maybe I just love not writing care plans every day, walking up to a patient and completely poking him without feeling like a jerk, or having daily post conference.

8 - From my extensive experience in the ICU (not), I've concluded about half of the patients end up there by some freak accident that is completely not their fault.

9 - My time in the ICU has taught me that I never want to leave my house again.

10 - Then I look at how dirty my house is and I want to be anywhere but home.

11 - Pink lady apples and blueberries are my favorite fruits right now. But that may just be because they were on sale.

12 - There is always room in my freezer for tater tots.

13 - I'm in charge of New Beginnings for the YW in a few weeks. I should probably get started on that.

14 - I've lived through 2 winters in Oregon and still don't own a pair of rain boots.

15 - Tyler and I are addicted to farkle.

Daily Dose of Conference

General Conference is over. Boo. I love conference and hate the wait between the first weekend in October to when the November Ensign is sent to my home. I hate that wait. But this time it will be bearable. Why you may ask? Because I stumbled across podcasts. 1 hour after a session, the podcast is available. Why have I never known this before?! I feel like a whole new world is available to me because of podcasts!

Each day I have a 30 minute drive to school. And another 30 minutes back. Plus traffic delays. I spend over an hour each day in my car commuting to school. And what do I normally do during that time? Listen to music that I already know all of the lyrics to. Skip half of the songs on my ipod's playlist because I'm tired of hearing the same ones over and over again. But this week, I've listened to General Conference on my way to and from school. And you know what? It's so much better than music! I really can't believe how much of Conference I've listened to already in just one week. I'm a much nicer driver too, because lets face it, how can you cut someone off when President Monson is talking to you?

Anyway, I've noticed a huge difference in my attitude this week and my stress levels by listening to Conference talks as I commute. In case you are like me and had no idea this was available to you, I urge you to download the free podcasts from Conference and experience the difference for yourself.

Superwoman

Yesterday I was superwoman.

I had class from 8:30-3:00 (and I paid attention during both lectures with a little munchy help from pretzels). During my break between classes, I worked on medication flashcards that need to be completed by Monday. Yes, Monday. That's nearly an entire week away and I started working on them now. Can you say "ahead of schedule"?

After class, I went shopping at Costco. During the 15 minutes I was inside, Mother Nature managed to wreak havoc on the Portland area creating massive puddles that neither my shoes nor clothing were equipped to handle. I was drenched. So much for doing my hair that morning.

I came home and wiped down the groceries and put them away. Next I proceeded to do laundry since the clothes I was wearing were begging for some soap. Yes, I did laundry. Willingly. On the spur of the moment.

But my superwoman-ness does not end there. After doing laundry, I proceeded to make a lovely dinner, and a healthy one at that! I mean, seriously, who does that? I made grilled tilapia with wild rice and a fruit salad on the side. I should have taken a picture as evidence that I prepared a healthy well rounded meal that Bob and Jillian would be proud of. (Nevermind the 3 chocolate chip cookies I ate after dinner)

The rest of the evening was spent doing my nursing reading in between folding laundry. I actually finished all of the reading before class! This is a rare occasion that needs to be documented. I'm trying harder this semester to stay on top of my reading and homework without completely foregoing my wifely duties. Hopefully I can keep this up!

P.S. Shout out to Tyler's awesomeness too: he cleaned up dinner, loaded the dishwasher, helped fold laundry, and balanced the checkbook while I did homework. I'm so lucky to have him!

The Bathroom: Part 2

So a while back we redid our master bathroom. Well, we replaced the vanity and redid the flooring. Over my break I had the opportunity to paint the bathroom to finish our work. I have spent countless hours brainstorming wall-towel color combinations that compliment the vanity and the floor. After finally settling on a color, I set to work! Here is the final result:

I am in love with the blue walls (which pick up some of the blue in the flooring) with the cream towels! I feel like I'm stepping out of a Better Homes and Gardens bathroom when I come out of the shower! Now, any suggestions for a shower curtain color?

Home Improvement

I am quite impressed by the home improvement projects Tyler and I have taken on in our only 4 months of living in this house. I will confess however, that because of these home improvement projects, our home is a mess and I have not been able to take pictures because it is embarrassingly messy in pretty much every room. But these are a few of the projects we have taken on.

The TV Shelf
Father's Day weekend we saw some amazing deals on TVs and we ended up getting this huge honker + Blu Ray/DVD player + surround sound system all for less than the price of the TV. We had a hard time passing up such a great deal. However, we don't have room for an entertainment center in our living room, so Tyler came up with this lovely shelf. He did all of the work, I can't take any credit for it. I just helped hold the shelf while he mounted it to the wall. Tyler built a little tray that falls under the shelf that holds all of the cords so they aren't sticking out all over the place.

The Ceiling Fan

We bought this over the weekend because it was on a fabulous sale and we have discussed buying a ceiling fan for quite a while. I opened the box and removed the packaging, and Tyler assembled it/did the electrical work. It is in our bedroom upstairs which is very nice because we do not have AC and it gets pretty hot at night. Oh, and it worked on the first try! Way to go Tyler.


Backyard Draining System
So our backyard has a bit of a downgrade that causes water to collect near the base of the house. That isn't good, especially in Oregon where it rains pretty much everyday for 10 months of the year. We just started this project over the weekend. Eventually we'll pour more concrete where the grass has been removed and we'll dig draining tile under the lawn where the water will dump out onto the street. Honestly, I don't really know the details of this project. This is Tyler's big thing and I'm just going along with it.

Oh, and this picture proves that the sun does occasionally come out in Oregon. There's shadows and everything.

Bathroom Conversion to a Pantry
We are fed up with the lack of a pantry in our kitchen. So we are converting the downstairs bathroom into a pantry to help with the lack of storage in our kitchen. So far we have removed the sink (shown outside being cleaned) and the mirror/towel rack. All we have left is the toilet to remove, which hopefully shouldn't be too hard. We've got shelves ready to put in the bathroom, and voila! Instant pantry.

Note: Chloe is quite the helper with the renovations. Maybe too much of a helper.